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erdogan-nevra · 27 days

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Left Behind

Date: March 16th and beyond

Locations: London, Porto

Medea was silent in the chair next to her. Or as next to her as she could be as they were in separate pods across the aisle. She doubted the woman wanted to talk but even if she did, it would have been drowned out by the constant thrum of the airplane.

Nevra had never demanded anything from the Rutherfords in the entirety of her employment. They likely would have given her whatever she asked for, within reason, but she had never taken advantage of that. Advantage of their generosity and what giving it to people meant. Most would mistake it for loyalty or comradeship. A chance to tell the people who worked for them that they cared when really it was a chance to show the rest of the world how much fucking money they had.

Fine, let them throw it around. The eleven hour flight would be more bearable in first class.

“Wait, I’m coming. Wait, wait!” The knock had been soft at first but grew the longer she took to disentangle herself from her blanket cocoon on the couch. The hallways of her little cottage was already narrow and when Sabir zigged the same time she did, Nevra found her knees slamming to the carpet. She shook her head and nudged the dog away, talking loudly before she even opened the door.

“I didn’t think you’d come thi-”

Ayaz. Not who she’d expected to see but Nevra smiled nonetheless. Maybe he’d remembered her birthday as well and was bored enough to come wish her so in person. She crossed her arms and put on a small pout.

“I hope my present is hiding somewhere in your coat because I don’t see one and I’ll be honest, if you didn’t get me anything, I might just cry.”

It took her three more beats to understand that he wasn’t there to wish her a happy birthday.

What was that look on his face?

“Ayaz?”

“Nev, let’s go inside.”

She didn’t know why but her heart started racing as he put a hand on her back and shut the door behind them.

We will be landing in Porto Velho in twenty minutes. Please have your arrival card and any items to declare ready and in hand.

She could feel Medea’s side eye and decided to ignore it. Neither were traveling as their namesake and both had only a carry on. A few changes of clothes was all that was needed for this trip.

The plane rolled into port with a soft bump. Nevra was on her feet in seconds.

“Easy there.” Medea’s voice snaked through her consciousness, squeezing uncomfortably, suffocating her with its very presence.

Ayaz had suggested the woman come with her and when Nevra had told him she didn’t need a babysitter, he shrugged. Yet her arrival at Heathrow and the sight of his ex-wife told Nevra enough. They didn’t trust her, not right now. Not with-

Nevra smiled at the customs worker. When they’d gotten off the plane and ended up here was beyond her. Everything blurred together now. “No, nothing to declare. Just here for a business trip.” Her face remained calm and inviting. Learning to play different parts had been one of the main skills she’d learned as an assassin. She’d never imagined she’d be using it in her daily life just to reassure people she wasn’t going to throw herself off a bridge.

Medea was next to her again. The Turk could feel her resisting the urge to take her elbow and guide her to the car that was waiting outside. Both women knew what would happen if she touched Nevra. She’d practically bit her head off at Heathrow to prove it. So unlike her. Then again, none of her actions had been like her the past few days.

What would he think of it all?

“Nevra, did you hear what I said?”

Dead.

The snap of fingers echoed in the air.

The person she’d chosen to love was dead.

The person who had chosen to love her was dead.

He was dead.

Fingers wrapped around her wrists, pressure building each moment she kept silent.

She had always been the one to leave when things came down to it. Her community, her friends, her fiancé. Nevra always made the choice. It never made it any easier but she had always been in control of who entered and left her life. That way she always knew who to blame when those horrible days eventually showed their faces.

Who could she blame for this?

Not herself.

The drug dealer? Absolutely.

The women and men who joined him for god knows how long until he’d been the unfortunate victim of a bad batch? Sure.

Kerem and his anger, his unfuckingreasonable anger toward their situation? If she tried hard enough.

Not herself though.

But Berat…

“Nevra, come back.”

No, she would never, could never blame him. She had chosen him and she wouldn’t blame that person. Even if-

So now she was the one left behind and god did it fucking suck. A harsh laugh escaped her lips. She finally noticed Ayaz and saw the look of concern at her outburst.

Blood splattered her face as the assassin pulled the trigger of the gun resting at the base of the man’s skull. It was messier than normal but he hadn’t come quietly and she was pissed off enough not to care. Medea on the other hand looked less than pleased. Blood also splattered the toes of her shoes. She took one look at Nevra’s blood covered face and audibly exhaled through her nose.

“At least you used a silencer.” She could barely hear the words over the roaring in her head and the sounds of passing cars on the street at the end of the alley.

A burner phone appeared in the older woman’s hand. A quick picture and a moment before confirmation before she tossed it into a barrel, followed by a lit match. A tiny part of Nevra wanted to burn the dead man as well but that wasn’t the job. This job was finished.

She took out her own phone and pressed the name at the top. Three rings before it picked up. Time difference, right. He wouldn’t care though, not really.

“Another one.”

Ayaz sighed on the other line and he kept silent for a moment, no doubt debating how long he should indulge her desire to lose herself.

“There’s a woman in Launceston…”

“You’re sure? No possibility you’re wrong?” Her throat felt like she’d eaten a handful of gravel. She felt her hands begin to shake in Ayaz’s grip. A shake of his head and a slight bow but he never averted her eyes. Never severed that last tether of support she needed.

Nevra looked toward the front door and slowly allowed the realization that Berat would never walk through it again to wash over her. How was she supposed to get through everything without him?

They’d talked for hours and nights on end of how it had been so simple to choose each other. How, once they’d said screw it and thrown caution to the wind, life had been so much happier. Their happiness had been a choice, her choice.

This was not her choice.

This is what it felt like to be left behind.

If he was going to leave her behind, then she was going to leave everyone else behind too.

“Give me a job.”

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t said in anger or sadness or despair. It wasn’t a want but a need.

It looked like he was going to refuse her so she shook her head. No, don’t stop me.

“Give me a job.”

The second plane was just as comfortable as the first had been. First class again, only this time Medea had done something unexpected. She’d bought out the entire first class. Nevra knew she was standing at the back of the area talking to the hostesses. She didn’t care what she was telling them. No one bothered her though.

As the woman settled in the back, the Turk settled in the front. Maybe her babysitter had gone through what Nevra was going through. Maybe she expected her to use the privacy to break down and cry or throw a tantrum or let all hell loose. Nevra intended on refraining from each one of those things.

If she was going to cry it would be on her own terms. Her grief would be her choice. Everything from here on out would be controlled by her because fuck this feeling. A better person would have taken the opportunity to understand, this was how she’d made other people in her life feel. Before, she would have been that better person.

Now she wasn’t and didn’t care to be.

Berat Yalaz would be the last person who would make a choice for her and the last person to leave her behind.

The thought made her sigh.

#self para #the reason she's not at the awards #berat #ayaz #medea #I cried a bit

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otomes-and-tears · 1 year

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hello! may I request a nevra x mc (she/her) scenario where they just cuddle after a long day and one thing leads to another? it doesn’t have to be smut, I genuinely just wanna see his flirty, playful and teasing side more because beemoov is keeping it away from us

thank you for your time! if you don’t want to write it that’s okay, still thank you for all the beautiful scenarios/headcanons you have on your blog!

♦ Nevra teasing the MC ♦

► tags/warnings: mild spice

► words: 1286

► a/n: today is NOT the day you guys get some smut out of me. I cannot for the life of me write anything remotely close to sexy, for the disappointment of my lovely readers. I do, however, like writing Nevra endlessly teasing the MC and love my readers enough to try my hand at a mildly spicy fic. I apologise for the quality. Most of this was written at three AM as I was kept awake by a howling puppy.

► Masterlist

“I need a day off.”

The guardian throws herself onto her bed, sighing contentedly at the feeling of finally settling down after an entire day on her feet.

She hears the sounds of cloth rustling and doesn’t need to open her eyes to know that Nevra is getting ready to bed himself.

It’s a little hard to tell when he started spending most nights in her room instead of his own. It’s just a new part of their routine that they settled into, so natural that her bed has started to feel too big and too cold if she ever spends a night alone.

Her closet now has a space filled with clothes too big for her to wear, and her desk has filled with documents that she doesn’t dare touch. It’s just a part of it. Pure domesticity, even if they’re living through interesting times.

“You and everyone, I believe.” Nevra says, and she hums in agreement “You shouldn’t lay in bed with your shoes on.”

She looks up at him from her place in the bed, grinning as she noticed he was undoing the laces in her boots to take them off for her.

Even seven years later, when he became a more serious and reserved person he still took care of her.

“I was going to get up… Eventually.” The faelian explained “It’s just that….My legs feel like jelly. I can’t even sit up.”

“I’m guessing Karenn tired you out.”

“I feel so old. I don’t think I can keep up with her anymore.”

Patrolling was bad normally, but it got worse today when they needed to survey an area bigger than usual. And being paired with Karenn usually meant being a victim to one of her pranks once she got bored of working, and being subjected to her unending teasing.

It didn’t help that her friend heard a strange sound in the distance and simply disappeared into the shadows to check it out, which meant that Mc had to spend at least an hour trying desperately to look for her through the woods, but it was not like she would ever tell this part to Nevra.

The vampire took off her shoes and placed them by the wall, near her bed. Exactly where she’d place them herself.

She reached her arms out, dramatically asking for cuddles. Nevra rolled his eyes, but still indulged her, as always, by laying beside her and pulling her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her to get her even closer.

Mc doesn’t miss the tiny differences from before. How he seems to hold her tighter now, how he breathes in her scent and kisses the top of her head absentmindedly.

He’s always quieter when he gets to hold her for the first time after a long day. They don’t talk about it, but there’s this nagging feeling in Mc’s mind that it’s a result of her sacrifice.

Being together feels natural, but it isn’t as if nothing has changed. He knows the pain of losing her. Even now that she’s back, the dark shadow of her years of absence still looms large over them.

Mc is lost in her thoughts when he starts playing with her hair, twirling her curls on his fingers and feeling its texture, and later moving to massage her scalp.

“Are you tired already?”

He asks, and their closeness makes it so Mc can feel his voice as he speaks.

“I’m tired.” She looks up at him “But not sleepy.”

“Aren’t you going to change into something more comfortable?”

“Nooo, I’m too tired to move.” Mc whines “If you’re so bothered by it, you can take them off yourself.”

She says, playfully. It is an attempt at teasing as much as an invitation.

“You’re getting bold, aren’t you?”

He brushes away her hair, tracing her neck with her fingers, going down from underneath her chin to the hollow of her neck to her collar bones, fascinated with their shape and the way her breath hitched in her throat as she felt his touch.

He was above her now, laying on his side, propped up on his elbows as his hand idly traced shapes in her upper chest, never venturing lower without her permission.

There was this hunger in his eyes, a dangerous glimmer that was so unmistakably Nevra. It made her heartbeat quicken in anticipation, a familiar heat pooling in her lower stomach as she shifted her legs in an attempt to get more comfortable, looking away for a moment due to how overwhelming it all felt.

“What, you’re getting shy now?” Nevra taunts and seems annoyingly pleased with her reaction. “I’m just obeying your orders.”

“Oh, just shut up!”

She reached out to him, lowering him enough so she could properly kiss him.

He indulged her, gently shifting their position so he’d be able to kiss her deeply. A reprieve from an entire, stressful day apart.

Nevra parted from her, kissing her nose, cheeks and then moving onto her jaw and the small junction between her neck and jaw, which he dragged his sharp teeth against, making her eyes flutter closed and an embarrassing squeak escape her lips.

She could feel his stare, the self-satisfied, knowing smirk that he proudly wore when he turned her from a functioning adult to a blushing mess with little to no effort on his part.

His hand started venturing lower, slowly unbuttoning her shirt, teasing her by doing it as slowly and methodically as he possibly could.

If she ever tried to lower him to kiss her again, he’d kiss the corner of her mouth instead, just shy of what she wanted.

“You’re having way too much fun with this.”

She gets up just enough to help him take off her shirt, which gets her a brief kiss as a reward. He starts working to undo her belts instead— Ugh, why did she wear so many? She would need to have a conversation with Purriry about practicality soon.

“I’m just doing what you wanted, my love.” There’s that smirk again, the teasing tone that drove her insane. “I can’t bring myself to deny your requests. You’re my weakness. So if you want something, just ask.”

He pretended to struggle with the last belt, and she impatiently undid them herself.

Nevra bit back a comment about her eagerness and helped her out of her pants, throwing the item on the floor roughly in the same direction as the rest of her clothing.

“Are you really going to make me beg?”

Mc asks, and despite intending to sound annoyed, the question doesn’t have as much bite as she wanted it to.

Nevra takes advantage of the exposed skin, taking the time to take in her form and fully appreciating her beauty. He traces the faint outline of her scars with his fingers, and the small action doesn’t make her feel exposed and self-conscious as it makes her feel adored.

“I don’t think ‘make’ you is the right term.” He adds, and his heated gaze is a sign that their little game won’t last much longer. “Although, I can make you beg for it if that’s what you desire.”

She thought about it for a second, looking up at him as Nevra patiently awaited her next move. She could put an end to all of this right now or she could flip him over and deal with his teasing as he jokingly scolded her for being so impatient.

There were endless possibilities, and it filled her with excitement.

“I’m not tired anymore,” Mc says, finally. “I won’t make things easy for you.”

Nevra, for one, seems delighted by her response.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

#bee’s writing #eldarya #eldarya nevra #eldarya headcanons #eldarya hc

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heyseihai · 1 day

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Not sure whether I'll manage to finish BoS someday, so let me spill the beans about the plot of future chapters, before my writing block and lack of discipline (and hope) run me over lol Some details I've already talked about, some I have not.

-Huang Hua was the responsible for bringing Seihai back.

-How? Seihai turned herself to stone, but after her 'death' we notice how Huang Hua still thinks about her, and even sees her sometimes. The thing is: when dragon-Lance breaks free from the crystal, HH medidates, then collects the fragments scattered around the room and no one knows that she's been charging them again with her own energy.

-It's not enough though, she also needs the energy of an aengel/daemon (she uses Leiftan's in secret, in order to avoid using Erika's, but well... he flees), and of a dragon. Lance's somewhere unknown, Alajea, Colaia, and Enthraa are dead, her only choice is Seihai, after all her body is still intact and because of the petrified state she wasn't not even given a fenghuang burial, she only needs to bring Seihai's soul back and guide it back to her body. Those images that Seihai saw during her petrified state were result of HH's ritual.

-In short terms, HH's sacrificed her title by disrespecting the lines between life and death (a parallel to the kitsunes who aren't appreciated for doing that either) in order to create a replica of the crystal for Eldarya's sake, that's why she's enforcing the Phoenix title to her sister, somewhat projecting into her. HH herself didn't think she would be capable of doing such ritual, but well, let's remember the weird feeling Erika had while visiting HH's mind in TO. The "omg I'm suuuuuch a good person" people are more often than not, the most dangerous and that's the idea with HH in BoS, good people are more easily corrupted in comparison to who is already labelled as a piece of crap, precisely because of how good people see themselves as better than the others. They easily fall from grace because of their pride and arrogance.

-Problem is that HH didn't realize the risks of messing with dragons. With the ritual, she'd also open some sort of portal to the souls of other dead serpents. Till now, we see two serpents in action: Corra the celtic serpent goddess (in Seihai's dream), and Coatlicue, the aztec mother goddess (when she intercedes for Leiftan). There's also, ofc, Tiamat, she appears the first time briefly when the Advisors test Seihai. Corra was more the "quiet observant" type of goddess, but Coatlicue was Leiftan-biased thanks to her own story with aengels/daemons.

-Erika however ends up corrupted because of HH's lack of trust in her and her "I won't tell you things, even if you're my friend" behavior, without realizing HH was actually trying to protect Erika. It was better to use Leiftan's energy than Erika's. That was an important part of the reason for why Leiftan didn't access his powers: his attachment to Erika, but also HH's ritual draining him.

-Tenjin kicks Erika out of the north the moment she transforms and proceeds to fight Seihai. It's part of his development here, he could have gone after Erika and dragon-Lance, but he stayed with Seihai and took care of the wounds caused by the fight. Actually his character journey could fill a post too.

-At the end, with her failure of a replica, Huang Hua tries to make up for her actions and uses her life force to keep the portal open. She remains there near the mushroom circle completely still, her aura shining brightly to give time for other faerys to come and cross the portal with them. Erika goes first to guide them on the other side and Nevra is the last one to cross. When he turns to her and ask her to come, the portal is already closing and he can't reach her anymore (it will be one of his traumas on earth btw, he will never forgive himself for not being quick enough to pull her, iho he could have saved her) and her last thought is Ewelein. From the start, HH had nothing more to lose, giving her life for Eldarya was the least of her problems.

-That's the ending I imagine for them and the same happens with seiten, they die in the north after forcing the kitsunes to cross with the royal family. But my heart is too weak for that, I want them to have a happy ending aaaa lmao

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littleweirdlady · 9 months

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What is the relation of Jules (My OC) With the Eldarya guys ?

I love talking about Jules ! Especially because she's quite special, I can't Help it ^^'

EZAREL - The "IdontknowwhyImtalkingtohim" guy

First, let's start with this annoying elf !

Jules, when they first meet, was thinking he is just an assh*le, always complaining and never helping... But, he eventually adapted and even appreciated the repartee of the "human girl". So now, they are two children always fighting (kindly) with each other !

When Jules is not well (mentally or physically or both) he will be worried, not full worried, but a little, because his little nightmare is not "making trouble" around him. He won't admit it, but he likes her, as a friend, he likes make fun of her, so if she's not here anymore, he can't torture his favorite victim... What a Shame !

Jules likes him a lot, his sense of humor is having his effect, and, like Ezarel likes to torture Jules, Jules likes to torture Ezarel. An eye for an eye, a leg for a leg !

When Ezarel is paired with Nevra, there is no match, they're pure nightmare, even hell together, more than Ezarel alone... Fortunately, Valkyon is here to make balance... Without him, Jules will be in a pure hall of shame.

VALKYON - The Serenity place

Let's continue with Valkyon !

When she first meet him, she think that he was really introverted... And, she was right, he don't speak really often, and don't go see other people... Jules was also a really introverted person, she stays with her bestfriend, the others don't matters... But when she was teleported on Eldarya, she knew she must be more... Extrovert to be integrated. So thats what she do, try to talk with the native of this world... Especially some of the guard like Ezarel, Karenn, Chrome and so Valkyon.

Now, her relation with Valkyon is great ! He likes speaking with her and she likes speaking with him. When she need to have serenity and calm, she's going to see him. They don't have to talk, just being around and keeping company is enough, Jules with a book and Valkyon sharpening his weapon.

When Jules is not well (mentally or physically, maybe both), he will be worried and concern... Every morning, the young woman wishes him "a good day" after his morning work. And when she don't, he will ask to Miiko, Nevra and Ezarel if she okay ! Like i said, he appreciate her company, so if she's not well, then he will try to help as he can.

For him, see this young lady struggle with his two best friends is half amusing and half annoying, because he knows too well this two and their puns that can be infinite... He will help this poor soul, even if he's called "papi" or "grand-pa" after that, he can handle.

NEVRA - The crush she can't believe her eyes to love...

Next, we have Nevra !

When they first meet, Jules had a bad image of him... A real womanizer that she can't believe her own eyes... Like "How someone can flirt with that kind of puns... Unbelievable !" But... She kinda like it after some days... She understand that the vampire try to play some seductive games, so she accepts that fact and enjoy playing this game with him. Like "Hey darling, do you believe that... One day, you'll have a big crush on me ?" and she was like "Yeah, sure... Maybe in your biggest dream !" all with a flirty attitude ! Yeah, that kind of interactions and the worst part is that he's right !

Something else that Jules appreciates a lot about Nevra is his seriousness in certain circumstances. He can be very serious when it comes to work, or the person to which he values (Karenn, Chrome, even Jules !). He likes to jokes and flirt around but if you touch one hair of his babies, you will cry very loud !

When Jules is not well (Mentally, physically or both) he will start the "Protective Mommy Nevra" fonction. He likes her, very very much ! She is in the same basket as Karenn and Chrome, but, maybe more in the lover way. He will do all he can to makes her go well again ! Because, he won't admit it, but she is his little princess, his favorite woman, the woman that makes him go insane and affectionate. Simply the woman with who he wants to start a long relation, something that make him the lover of this splendid lady !

Nevra is one of the all guard that she appreciates the most (maybe not really objective due to her crush on him). She likes that he begins little by little to detach himself from other women to flirt only with her and only her. (Even though he believes Jules never noticed) She likes him for who he is (romantic, affectionate and maybe clumsy sometimes), not who he pretends to be (Flirty, Nacissist and more confident that he really is)

LEIFTAN - The "You are kind but... Nah I don't know" guy

And Leiftan for the end !

Jules is a bit mixed about Leiftan, she thinks that she appreciate him, but... At the same time... She don't know. Something bother this lady but she don't know what ! But, he helps her in her firsts days so... Any help is good to take !

She doesn't spend much time with him due to his work so... She don't really know him... In some ways, Leiftan scares her a little, she think that his kindness can be a little bit intimidating...

If she is unwell, he will be worried, but can't really do whatever he wants so... He trust the others to take good care of her. Even if he really want to approch her and befriends with her.

#eldarya #nevra #eldarya nevra #eldarya ezarel #eldarya valkyon #beemoov #eldarya leiftan #the origins

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party-in-eldarya · 9 months

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1. Pray tell me, darling: how would she find you? Did Alexis read those lines he wrote? Ignatius literally said that Charles has done a lot to convince everyone around that Erika EXISTED. No one believed him, not even Ignatius. He was doing “research” on world where he believed Erika is entrapped in. What more would her mother did, should she be in his place? I am reading those lines and I think that something went wrong. Like a page went missing in the script, or maybe part is from one version, the other is from 2nd version and they somehow got mixed... it just... doesnt’ make sense?

Also Erika makes a huge drama, because she suddenly believes that it took one year for Charles to notice that one person is missing in his family of three+Ignatius and cat. Hate to say this, but HSL Candy was more mature than ANE Erika.

Wtf is wrong with Erika? Earlier she was soooo sure that humans killed sentries- tho no one has seen bodies/the killing/nothing. But she was screaming around that humans FOR SURE killed them. Now, she is so sure that her father didn’t even try to look for her, tho again she knows shit.

Ignatius is a person everyone needs around them. He is right, that kind of surprise can kill a person.

CHOICE:

pretend that we need to do something first

be huge dick and forbid him to do it.

Sadly, Leiftan gets ericafied and threaten Ignatius. Remember: he was an excellent actor, a good diplomat, able to hide his true self from HH, Miko and many, many others. He has so many options to win Ignatius over, but ofc he chose the beemoov style. The stupid one.

They go on their merry journey to steal money from her father. No problems, heroes of Eldarya are blameless.

Erika thinks that the code for safe is silly, because she knows her parents’ wedding date. While I partially agree with that- 1) her father didn’t expect that his own child would steal money from him 2) isn’t that a proof that Charles cares for his family?

3) ofc now Erika claims that this house was always awful, always too cold, too orderly, wrong angles, wrong vibe. Not like Eel’s prison, right? That were good ol times hun!

4) I think I misclicked something while talking with HC. I do not care that much... never would have thought I’d say it... but first half of ANE was superior so far.

5) they are on this mission for at most 3 hours and they already need to eath something? RIDIK. Team Leiftan.

Instead of wasting money on explaining how the voting works, and why Nevra has a deciding vote... we could do something else, something interesting. See, the writer is on sentences limit, but he could try to make those lines meaningful.

#playing ane what a joy #ep 11

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candysweetposts · 2 years

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This is it! I couldn't do much and here's why: the image it's so "full of things" that catches your eyes that it's hard to see the imperfections. The first time I saw this I didn't know where to look first, which is bad in my opinion. I know what they tried here but my eyes hurt for some reason when looking at this image. But that's just a personal preference.

I made some minor changes here and there to the eyes of the boys and of course on her. YOU ARE WELCOME ERiKA! No more back pains from now. I'm sorry that I couldn't do something similar for the boys too, especially for Nevra. He looks like someone cosplaying as him.

I won't comment about the event itself too much here but I don't hate it. It's ok and matching 3 it's not that hard, the outfits are very nice, pets- idk, so good job beemoov.

#eldarya a new era #eldarya edit #eldarya music event #erika #lance #mathieu #nevra #leiftan

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grimm-rider · 10 months

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Entry 24

On our way out of Edeya’s manor (it’s so funny to think she has a manor—I mean I knew it mentally, that her parents were major players and she’d been raised basically like a princess, but to actually see it’s another thing) Nestian stopped us. He told us there was a complication that had come up. I thought at first he was just going to reiterate the fact our families were in danger, that Elvanna had put a hit out on them. But he told us that his human mother was in danger. Apparently in the mirror dimension Nestian had met a summoned creature called an Eidolon that was his mother’s partner, and she had tried to get his assistance to save his mother. But he had refused, because he needed to save Edeya. Because he was afraid that Aenland wouldn’t make it to help try to assist us. Because he didn’t know where I was or what my status was—and even if I was okay I think he didn’t trust in me to get through a fight by myself. Which, given that quintessence golem the Mirror Edeya had become there at the end, honestly his instincts probably aren’t far from the mark. I wouldn’t have been able to affect that thing, it would have been up to Talsune and Roscoe if I’d been the only one there. And I would have had to deal with all of the swarm spirits on my own without Nestian’s handy Lightning Javelins. Which means if Aenland were there I’d have needed to rely on waiting for Nevra’s lightning breath to gather enough energy to be used again, and in the meantime we’d have been dealing with spirits throwing Harm at those who weren’t shielded from it by my power, and draining the lifeforce of those they touched. And if Aenland weren’t there we would simply have no possible way to destroy all of the spirits, unless I could lure them all together to hit them all with chain lightning at once.

Fortunately, that is not how it went. Nestian was there, and while he took a bit of a beating (I had to cast Restoration twice—once for him and once for Aenland, due to the spirits’ life draining effects), he was in one piece. Enough to be embarrassed and try to make an escape when Aenland and I implied that Edeya’s parents were his future in-laws.

As we talked, I mentioned casually that I thought that Elvanna was more afraid of us than she let on. The others agreed, but Nestian asked what made me say that. So I told them about my little venture into Abaddon to meet with Queenie. Edeya joked around, jabbing at me asking if I’d betrayed them. She obviously knew better. None of the others even insinuated that I would have considered it.

Funny. When did it get to that point? A few months ago I would have sacrificed Aenland to a talking tree for safe passage in a heartbeat—or for no reason at all, really. He was unbearable back then. I’m actually fond of that idiot now, even if he still grinds on my nerves sometimes, it’s in a less…volatile way. Nestian was just kind of a stick in the mud who I vaguely appreciated having a mindboggling protective streak. Now…I don’t know. Things are a bit complicated where Nestian is concerned, considering my master killed his father. But I respect the way Nestian always moves forward with what he believes and doesn’t let anything dissuade him once he’s set his mind to something if he believes it’s right and good. I might not care about all that moralistic stuff, but I can appreciate how much it takes a person to stick to their principles. I don’t have any, and it’s easier that way, but I know Nestian’s are important to him, even when they are utterly baffling to me. So I am…trying to respect them.

Edeya was the only one I liked from the start. My fellow Irriseni, a would-be Winter Witch who threw away centuries of tradition to walk her own path. It figures that I’d like her. It helps that before she took up her new semi-pacifist ideals, we tended to see eye-to-eye the most out of the group (now strangely it’s Aenland who tends to see things my way most often). Not that I told her everything. I do worship Norgorber—a few secrets are mine to keep.

Except for Greta. I’ll let her in on my secrets.

…

I miss Greta.

On our way to the rebels’ hideout, I cast Sending as we flew invisibly towards the clocktower. I asked Greta if she was okay and where she was. She replied immediately and confirmed she was okay. She didn’t confirm where she was, but instead apologized for fake dating someone whose name got cut out of the Sending as she ran out of words.

I’m glad she’s okay…I wish we weren’t running around so much right now. I’d like to try to find out where she is and meet up with her. Get her out of whatever situation she’s stuck in. Meet her ‘boyfriend’.

I’m not jealous, that’s ridiculous, Greta is free to do as she pleases. I’d be a damned hypocrite if I got possessive of Greta when I already introduced Cesseer into our relationship.

Aaaaand Edeya and I may have fake dated while Greta was away too, so we’re even anyways.

We arrived to the clocktower not long after that. We landed silently in the overlook where we’d once slain Logrivich—and where I’d made my favorite skeleton. We found the trapdoor leading down locked, and no one responded when Nestian tried knocking—because of course he did.

I think he just thinks it’s funny at this point.

No. Maybe if it were Aenland. Nestian just genuinely considers it the best course of action because he hasn’t died yet from all the times a door’s swung open and someone’s swung a weapon at him shortly afterwards.

I mean, I suppose if it works it works. But if he dies from it one of these days his girlfriend is reviving his ass, not me.

I used the Chime of Opening to unlock the trapdoor (it worked on the first try for once—good thing, I get a feeling it doesn’t have many uses left in it), and we piled down to the floor below. Where we’d once meet the captive singer Bella Belvorica.

Nestian began making a beeline for a bookshelf by the far wall. When Aenland dropped to the floor, he drew his bow and an arrow in one swift action, whispering something to his arrow as he drew it back, then released it. It shot past Nestian and straight through the bookshelf—which vanished as the illusion making it appear there was dispelled, as was an Explosive Rune behind it.

Behind there the bookshelf had been was an opening that appeared to have been created with Stoneshape, which led into a passage containing a spiral staircase leading down, deep down below the clocktower.

We followed the staircase to the bottom and came upon a large set of rooms that appeared to be made for a decent sized force.

But there was only one man there, who seemed particularly jumpy. However he seemed familiar with Aenland, and he accepted our explanation when we told him that Edeya’s parents were former Winter Witches and were harmless.

The rebel was awaiting the return of Solveig, who was still alive and their leader it would seem.

Unfortunately, a moment later another rebel came in with some scouts, and reported breathlessly that Solveig, Bella, and Donya has all been captured and were going to be executed imminently. Scout…the scout…directed us to where they were to conduct the execution, and we raced out.

We made it just in time. We split up to pincer strike the Winter Witches, with Talsune, Roscoe, Aenland, Nevra, and I swooping down from behind where the captives were tied. On the opposite side Nestian and Edeya would run in.

And we got some unexpected help. As the winter sorcerers who were acting as executioners readied their spells to end our allies’ lives, a woman with unusually colored skin stepped from a building and raised what looked like a gun but sleeker—almost like something you’d see on a Dominion ship, minus organic bits. When she fired it, an X was burned into the face of one of the sorcerers and then his head exploded.

It was spectacular.

That was our cue to swoop in. Aenland began firing, taking out one of the sorcerers immediately before they could get their wits about them. Talsune and I flew low over the heads of the captives and landed just in range for Talsune to run a blade through another sorcerer, and I crushed her bones in the same moment. I’d heard the woman with the gun mention that the sorcerers had put up fire protection and that was going to be an issue for her. So looked like it was going to be up to us to cut through them.

I didn’t have a problem with that. I was feeling bloodthirsty.

As Nestian darted onto the battlefield, bringing his axe down on the final sorcerer, the ground began shaking. A reverberating rumbling came, growing closer—enormous footfalls. Then an unbelievably large Rune Giant cressed the horizon, lumbering towards us. It was here to do Queen Elvanna’s bidding.

She had told me that she *was* Irrisen. Apparently the Rune Giants, at least, agree.

Unfortunately for the guardian of Irrisen, we had Aenland. And faced with the archer, the giant was slain with his usual brutal efficientness—just a hunter felling another beast.

While Nestian and Aenland were dealing with that, Talsune and I had lined up the remaining four Winter Witches and caught them in a deadly mix of flame breath and Mass Inflict. They were still standing, so I quickened a Boneshaker on the nearest for good measure. It was maybe a little petty—that particular spell caster had tried to polymorph me into a sheep a moment prior. And one of her buddies had tried the same on Talsune. But we’d both resisted—me with the help of the barrier of fate Vigliv had woven around us, and Talsune through sheer force.

Two of the Winter Witches stepped out of formation, one aiming what looked like another polymorph, but whoever he aimed at clearly resisted because none of us randomly became sheep or whatever. The other one caught Nestian, Nevra, and Aenland in a Cone of Cold. A moment later they, too, had arrows sticking from them.

Talsune slashed through the final Winter Witch, and when I saw she was still alive on the ground, just barely, I cast another Boneshaker to smother the last sparks of life in her.

Another life snuffed out.

I didn’t feel much better. I still missed Greta, and in the back of my mind I was thinking about needing to contact our families to warn them about Elvanna’s threats. It was hard to savor the deaths of a bunch of nobodies right that moment.

While we’d been dealing with the witches and giants and such, the prisoners had been escaping from their bonds. They were mostly all out once the battle was over. The woman was helping Donya with the last of his binds, and Solveig and Bella were already free.

The woman with the strange gun that could pop people’s heads introduced herself as Zernebeth. Now that I got a better look at her, not in battle, I also saw that one of her arms was like a construct’s arm, entirely made of metal. Either that or it was a very strange very flexible gauntlet that covered her entire arm. But seeing as she soon enough told us she had come to Irrisen from Numeria, I think it’s safe to say her arm is technological. One of the strange wonders hoarded by Numeria’s Technic League.

We quickly departed from the scene of the deaths of eight agents of the crown—after I used Decompose Corpse to make them all into much harder to identify skeletons (and perhaps giving a silent nod to the Pallid Princess, in making the bodies decay away). We reconvened back at the rebel base. Edeya’s parents had made themselves at home, having chosen a room for themselves from the ones available. Solveig told us she would have something she needed to go over with us, but she wanted to give us a little time to gather ourselves first.

So I took the moment to take stock of our new acquaintance—possibly ally. I asked her what her story was. After all, it’s not every day a blue one-armed lady pops up and starts shooting Winter Witches to save a bunch of rebels from execution. She must have a reason to be helping us.

Zernebeth was very open with us that she was a former captain of the Technic League, which she called a ‘vile organization’. We let her know we’d had some indirect dealings with them, as Queen Elvanna had been working with that raptor looking man at Artrosa. Zernebeth looked mildly disgusted with the idea of the person, identifying him as ‘Prosser’, and stating that explained where he had been. She confirmed that he was a terrible person. But, she also told us that the Technic League likely didn’t exist anymore as of two days ago.

Apparently the king of Numeria, one Kevoth-Kol, had been woken from his drug induced stupor and he’d done away with the Technic League who had been controlling things in his absence.

Now apparently an elite task force was being sent into a mountain at the capital of Numeria to deal with a different potentially world ending threat than the one we’re dealing with, with Elvanna. So if they fuck up, we could do everything right and save the world from being frozen over just to have whatever they’re fighting take control of the entire world. Apparently.

Not a very reassuring thought, but Zernebeth said not to worry about it. She seemed very confident in the abilities of the people handling it. So I suppose I’ll just have to trust they’re competent and won’t fuck this up for everyone.

I suppose they could say the same about us, but I’m confident in our ability to see this through, so I’m not worried on our end. I just don’t like the idea of leaving my potential life or death or freedom or whatever in the hands of utter strangers I don’t even know the capabilities of.

Zernebeth doesn’t seem worried though, and she seems like an intelligent woman—joining an ill-fated league of technofascists aside.

Zernebeth told us she would not be of much help to us at the moment—she was a powerful wizard, but she was currently sans her spellbook. If she could get that back she’d be a force to be reckoned with. For now she just had that blaster gun thing, which apparently had limited uses. I asked Aenland about the guns we’d collected for the rebels, thinking we could give one to her, but apparently he handed them off to Nadya before they separated, and we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her since then.

In fact, all of our companions who weren’t our core ‘four riders’ were missing. Nadya, Greta, Jadrenka, Cesseer, Anastasia, and Dimitri were all missing without a word.

According to the two rebels Aenland had saved, those who were with them seemed to hear something and then gathered up all the guns they had brought and left for somewhere without an explanation. It sounds like they received a Sending. We’re theorizing it was from Jadrenka, because they were seen leaving with a black-haired half-elf woman—and with her skills Jadrenka could have easily switched out her Winter Witch disguise for a half-elf form to continue keeping a low profile.

Aenland suggested we Sending them. I told the others I could, but I had been planning on saving my uses of Sending today so we could all contact any family members Elvanna might be targeting to warn them. Nestian pointed out that our companions might be in more immediate danger. He said that if it came down to it, he would give up his uses of Sending.

Why does he always do that? Put others first and give up things? Doesn’t he ever get frustrated giving and giving and letting himself get hurt for others and never letting anyone else do the same for him? I don’t understand him. I just don’t.

I agreed, however, since clearly this is what everyone else wanted. We’d do it after we’d talked to Solveig.

Zernebeth seemed legitimately remorseful for the things she’d done in the past. Apparently, whoever was in this elite team had really made an impression on her. She told me that she first thing she was going to do when she got her spellbook back was make it up to Donya—she even had the diamond for it already.

The implication was clear. And that’s, I think, all the motivation any of us need to get her spellbook back. As if getting the help of a powerful wizard wouldn’t have been motivation enough.

That haunt we’d seen all those months ago, of the child who Nazhena had murdered…that all could be wiped away.

Zernebeth said she hoped even though redemption was dead, she could do this much. I told her she didn’t need gods to seek redemption. That’s a bunch of bullshit. If you want to be better, you do it. You don’t wait for a god to tell you it’s time, that’s lazy, that’s just making excuses.

Zernebeth seemed to like that.

As for me…I hope that bringing back that kid will smooth over the lingering sickness I feel every time I think about having worked with Nazhena—even if I only did it to get to Elvanna. I don’t know what all I did back then, how much I helped her when I pretended to be her friend, how much I got my hands dirty to keep the mask firmly in place. I know myself. I know if I had a role to play and I needed to not get caught under any circumstances then I would do whatever I had to in order to play the part—although I might have also done whatever I could to undermine her where possible when in her blind spots.

But since I’ll probably never get my memories back at this point, I’ll never know exactly what I did while rubbing elbows with the most vile people in Whitethrone. I could probably ask Baba Yaga…but I don’t know that hearing it would help any. It’s not productive.

I left Zernebeth to tinker with her gun thing. Aenland went off with Nevra somewhere, and Nestian told Edeya maybe she should go talk to her parents. She agreed, and grabbed Illivor to go catch up with the family she hadn’t seen in years. It’s hard to imagine what she must be feeling right now. I don’t know what I’d been feeling in her shoes.

Nestian and I were alone in the main meeting room. Nestian told me that he had something he needed to talk to me about. He explained there was something he’d left out from his story about meeting his mother’s Eidolon.

When he’d been returning back to reality from wherever he’d met this being, for a moment he saw many white tails.

We only know one person with multiple white tails. Especially someone connected to Nestian’s family in any way.

Nestian told me he’d originally come to the decision that he wasn’t going to kill Master Keisuke. Because I cared about him. He didn’t feel like revenge was worth hurting a friend by taking someone away from them.

But, he said very seriously, if Keisuke has his mother and she’s in danger, he will kill him. That’s different. That’s not revenge. He will do whatever he has to, to protect her. To save her.

I told Nestian I understand, and that he should do what he thinks is right—regardless of how I feel about it. He should go with what he feels he should do.

I’m never going to be happy about having to fight Master Keisuke. I’m never going to want it to come to that. But I understand…to an extent. I don’t understand Nestian foregoing revenge—that’s something I would personally never do. If someone killed a member of my family I would hunt them down and kill them, and if I were feeling particularly vindictive I’d kill their close family too—first, before I kill them, so they’d have to see it. And I don’t put nearly as much weight on family as Nestian does. That’s why Elvanna had better be ready for a storm if she actually touches my family, because she’s not going to break me that way, she’s just going to make me want to be more creative in the ways I kill her and perhaps ways to make her afterlife torment.

…I wonder if a wish that would affect Elvanna’s afterlife would count as a wish for my benefit…I could get very creative with ways to hurt her with a wish…

No I’m not wasting a wish on her.

Anyways…

I don’t understand him foregoing revenge. But I understand that he needs to save his mother. If someone I cared about were in danger, or harmed, I would tear whoever had caused that apart—and I expect no less from others.

Nestian seemed to accept my response. He asked me if I knew where Master Keisuke might be keeping his mother. The only place I could think of was the Nonagon—but if she was there then we had no way to get to her, its wards were far too powerful to try to brute force our way past from what I’d seen the one time I’d been there. I told him I knew of one place, but I didn’t know what the chances were he was holding her there, and if she was there I didn’t have any way to get there. I did tell him that if he wanted me to try speaking to Master Keisuke—maybe gather some information subtly—I can Send him without using any spells, so that option is always open. For the time being, he wanted to be more certain of things before he went that route.

That’s fine, although I will have to Sending Master Keisuke soon enough. He’d requested I reach out when I get back to Golarian. Once I’m not running around like crazy I intend to do so.

Solveig gathered us up shortly after Nestian and I spoke. She told us about the fact the rebels were fairly scattered at the moment—currently it was just the small handful they had here. The Iron Guard had been utterly decimated in the early days of the rebellion, and the other followers of the Everbloom had been scattered to the winds when the last base was compromised. Fortunately for them, Solveig had been granted a vision ahead of time by their patron deity and was able to evacuate and set up shop elsewhere for the handful she was able to track down again—but most of the rebels were scattered.

As for the Crone Queens, they had split Whitethrone amongst themselves and now most of them spent their time in fortified strongholds across the city. Only two could be found outside of strongholds: Vain Betyrina would flit from one social event to another—and kill anyone who dared comment on her desiccated visage—and Desperate Velikas controlled the Royal Library, which was surprisingly still accessible to the public.

The Royal Library was also where Zernebeth’s spellbook would be.

Solveig told us she would have a mission for us later tonight, but we’d have some time to rest before then. She had two powerful associates coming into town we needed to meet up with. A cleric of Cayden Cailean and a warpriest of Calistria. They would be arriving to a Winter Witch bar late this evening. And she expected a fight to break out—apparently trouble had a tendency to follow them.

I asked if a Winter Wolf would be out of place in this bar, and Solveig said they would not be—in fact the prince of the Winter Wolves and his entourage drank there sometimes. I filed that away for later. That would be perfect. I hadn’t planned on using the Rimepelt again without Greta’s go-ahead, but this was not the sort of situation to get caught up in thoughts like that. I was too recognizable without a disguise—and given my skin’s pallor it would take a lot of time and make up to make a passable disguise for me. But I was also the best at talking us into places (and talking us out of trouble). I could use the hat of disguise, but with Winter Witches anyone could have True Seeing on, or a dragon around, or a summon with True Seeing—relying on an illusion was a risk. The Rimepelt was a true transformation—looks, scent, and all from what Greta and Nestian have said. It would be a lot harder for someone to see through that disguise—especially since I know Winter Wolves intimately well at this point.

So we decided that I would go in with Nestian and Edeya, while Aenland, Nevra, Talsune, and Roscoe would wait for a signal on the roof across the street.

But that would come later in the evening.

As we split up to rest, I brought up the Sending spells again. I thought it would be a good idea to message the people who were in danger now. Nestian thought we should start with our missing companions. I agreed seeing as this seemed to be what everyone else wanted.

First I messaged Anastasia—my logic being she was a fairly clear-headed woman, on top of the fact that we desperately needed to know where the heir to the throne was. I asked her very basically where she was and what the plan was.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken into account one thing when choosing Anastasia as my target: she doesn’t know anything about magic. Not even the basics everyone in Golarian learns at a young age. Like the fact that a Sending is only 25 words long. (Unless you’re me or Master Keisuke and can bend those rules a little, but that’s a whole different story.)

I had to force me message through some resistance—the feeling of sending a message between planes. So that told us one thing: she was somewhere that wasn’t on this plane.

When Anastasia replied, she rambled on, and only got a little bit of actually relevant information to me. Namely that Baba Yaga had given her instructions to go to some sort of cache, and she didn’t know where she was exactly.

We figured based on what we knew, it was likely that Dimitri, Nadya, and Jadrenka were all with Anastasia. Which meant since I’d already checked in with Greta, only Cesseer was unaccounted for.

Aenland left, uninterested in hearing how Cesseer was doing, because he’s still being a total brat about monks. I messaged Cesseer and received a much more succinct answer from her. I could tell she was still on this plane. And she answered that the mirror had sent her to some sort of arena, possibly a jail of some kind. She was having to fight to survive. She was going to try to bust out when the opportunity presented itself. She was as okay as she could be.

So that’s…not optimal, but she’s in her environment, at least. She’ll be fine until we can find her, I don’t doubt that for a moment.

I conveyed this to Nestian, then asked him if he would like for me to message one of his family members. He told me that Aenland and I still needed to contact our families—he would go after us. I told him he doesn’t always have to sacrifice himself and put others first in every little thing. Nestian argued that his family could take care of themselves the best of ours—my family were just average people, innkeepers not fighters or magic users, not in any way prepared to defend themselves, and Aenland’s mother was in a fragile state. Nestian’s family were bears, and Peanut was apparently a powerful druid in his own right, so they were the best protected.

I wanted to argue. Not because he was wrong but because it bothers me that he keeps doing this. But I didn’t have an argument for that—he was right, loathe as I was to admit it. So instead I took a seat and cast Sending—channeled through the pocket watch for the final time I could this day, to steal away as many words as I could for this message.

To my mother.

I know myself. I wouldn’t have contacted my parents in the last year. The things I had gotten myself into weren’t for them—the life of a partially-undead double agent serving Baba Yaga was an entirely different world from the simple life of an innkeeper my parents were living. It would have been dangerous for them to even know about most of what I was doing. And how would I have explained it anyways?

So I knew as I cast the spell that this would be the first time my mother heard from me in over a year. With no idea I’d been through two deaths, a bout of amnesia, and made the deal to be one of Baba Yaga’s riders twice over in that time.

“I’m sorry I haven’t reached out. I’m fine, but you both need to take shelter. Ustalav was not far enough, Elvana has set her eyes on you.”

It was the best I could do with the words I had.

It only took a moment before I received a reply. I heard a voice I hadn’t heard since leaving for Irrisen, over a year ago. It only felt like a few months ago with my memory loss. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“Calio, it is good to hear from you. We will take shelter in our way. We have enough money for a wand. Will Send if anything occurs.”

That was good. That was exactly what I needed to hear. A tension curling inside that I had barely registered lessened slightly. Slightly. They weren’t safe yet—merely informed. My parents—and my friends’ parents—would not be truly safe until Elvanna had been dethroned.

Nestian pointed me in the direction of Aenland—because of course Aenland had to go first—so I made my way up to the roof where Aenland and Nevra were talking. Nevra asked me about Cesseer, so I told her what I’d learned. Then I told Aenland that I’d finished contacting my mother, and asked him if he’d like to reach out to his.

Aenland gave a bitter laugh and said that even if she were no longer comatose, she wouldn’t want to hear from the runaway who got her husband and favorite daughter killed.

I had nothing to say to that. I don’t know his mother. I couldn’t deny his assumption about how she’d feel, for all I knew he was right. I suppose I could have pointed to the fact he left to get a weapon to end Treerazor’s life rather than ‘running away’, but what difference would those semantics make?

Nevra filled the silence by suggesting we reach out to a Huntmaster instead. So that at least someone was informed of the danger. Aenland reluctantly agreed, and gave me some long-winded elven name with FAR too many titles, which took the combined brain power of both me and Talsune to even try to remember. I’ve already forgotten it. Huntmaster Grell Sun-something-something-shadows-and-something-about-leaves. Anyways I remembered it well enough at the time to get the Sending through. I warned the Huntmaster that foreign assassins from Irrisen’s current regime were targeting Aenland’s family, and to be on the lookout.

I got a very rude reply. This man is fortunate he is all the way in Kyonin, or I would have taught him some manners. He said he doesn’t know who I am, and he doesn’t know why anyone would target Aenland’s family—said in a tone that very much implied he didn’t think highly of my friend. But he agreed to be on guard.

I don’t know if I believe that he will take the threat seriously, given his tone. But I told Aenland that the Huntmaster was informed and would be on guard—and left out how rudely he’d reacted to Aenland’s name.

Aenland apologized for being such a downer. So I told him that he carries his sadness better than most people.

Hell, if he hadn’t said what he did, I wouldn’t have realized just how much all of this weighed on him. He always seems so above it all, so chipper and quick to bounce from one thing to another. It’s easy to forget that his father and sister were killed by Treerazor’s minions, and his mother left comatose. He doesn’t stew in it—at least not openly. If it were me, I’d be consumed by it. I’d throw everything I was into destroying Treerazor and getting sweet vengeance. I don’t think I’d be able to swallow down my anger in the way he somehow masks his sadness behind such a jovial persona.

I don’t know if I said the right thing. He seemed…confused, maybe? I don’t know. Edeya, or even Nestian, would have been better suited for this conversation than me. I don’t know how to comfort people, it’s like speaking a foreign language I never learned and I can’t cast tongues to cheat my way through it. I’ll make observations or point out facts, and sometimes I can think of an observation that might help deescalate someone’s emotions like I did for that lovely gentleman who was going to shoot himself in front of my friends. But comforting someone, trying to just make them feel better, whispering empty promises that everything will be alright and things will get better and ‘you’re going to be okay’, as if you can know that…that isn’t me. I prefer to act and to fix things than to talk about feelings.

As far as Aenland goes, fixing things could either be seeing his mother alive and well—which isn’t a guarantee. Or killing Treerazor and getting his much-deserved revenge. That second one, at least, I can help with. If he doesn’t just run off to do it with his mushroom girlfriend without any help from the rest of us, that is.

Anyways, once I was done Sending the Huntmaster, I returned to Nestian. I told him I had sent every single person we needed to Send except for anyone Nestian wanted to contact. I had two uses of the spell left, just for him.

First Nestian contacted Peanut. He asked for his mother’s and her Eidolon’s names, and let them know she was in danger. Peanut replied that Nestian’s mother’s name was Hilda and the Eidolon was Jiji. There were apparently quite the pair.

Then Peanut told us that he was going to be in town in two days—and that he was finishing this.

Those last words had a biting air of finality to them, and I felt like they were partially aimed at me. Or perhaps, more accurately, at Master Keisuke.

I told Nestian exactly what Peanut told me, not leaving anything out. Then I suggested since he knew his mother’s name now, he could use the final Sending to try to reach out to her.

After some hesitation—some worry she wouldn’t know who he was—he agreed.

He sent a message informing her that it was a message from her son via a friend, and asking where she was and if she was unharmed.

The Sending was received—I am positive it was received. But something kept the receiver from responding. I passed this information on to Nestian. She was alive, I could tell that much, but something was blocking her off from me.

That was enough for him for now.

We parted ways to rest until our evening mission.

That night we made our way to the Winter Witch’s bar. We ran into a patrol, but nothing we couldn’t handle—just some shapechanging golem in the shape of one of the Crone Queens, a couple of ice elementals, and some sorcerers. We got the drop on them and dispatched them without breaking a sweat.

As we neared the bar, I activated the Rimepelt and returned to the Winter Wolf form I’d used last time we’d been in White Throne. I wished it was Greta on my arm instead of Edeya—not that Edeya isn’t a lovely woman, she is incredibly attractive as well. But Greta would have loved kicking up some trouble in a Winter Witch bar.

At Nestian’s suggestion, Edeya and I were pretending to be together, while Nestian—in human guise—played the role of our bodyguard. Edeya joked about me seducing her away from Nestian, but quickly dropped it, saying she was sorry but Nestian was more her type.

I would hope so, seeing as Nestian is literally her boyfriend.

Not that I’d say no if the idea of having a third were ever floated, but neither of them strike me as the sorts who are into that sort of thing.

Anyways, we walked right up to the bouncer like we belonged there. He stopped us, noting that he’d never seen us around before. I told him that I was just in from Red Tooth. Edeya added that she was showing me the sights. Nestian remained silent—the picture of a strong and stoic bodyguard.

The bouncer gave us a once over, then stepped aside. He let me know that some of the patrons were a bit jumpy about Winter Wolves being in their wolf form in the bar, so it would be best if I stayed in human form. Although the venue was a popular place for the prince of the Winter Wolves and his entourage to make an appearance, so Winter Wolves were hardly a rare or unexpected sight there. As we walked past, he asked if we were here for the VIP event. I didn’t dare ask about it and risk blowing our cover, so I simply smiled and said of course.

Our little trio made a bee-line for the bar. I subtly scanned the room as we walked. There were a number of Winter Witches here, as well as an unexpectedly high number of Ice Devils which appeared to be for protection and intimidation purposes. By a back wall there was a curtain that seemed to lead back to some sort of VIP area, and two blonde brutes were standing guard.

In the middle of the bar was a man who seemed to be having an animated conversation with some admirers, a mug of alcohol in one hand and a small glass of wine on the table. I pegged the Caleanite immediately. He looked like a fun guy to have a chat with.

In a dark private corner of the room an elven woman was sitting with a man at her arm. She looked closed off and uninviting.

I knew who I was going to talk to first.

When we got to the bar Edeya ordered herself some wine, and me spiced wine, with a wink saying she knew it was my favorite. She’d taken note of Greta’s preferences, it seemed. I don’t know if ALL Winter Wolves favor spiced wine, necessarily. But I will say I’ve certainly gotten a taste for it, drinking with Greta, so Edeya wasn’t entirely wrong either way.

I took my glass when it was brought to me, and then made my way to the Caileanite’s table, taking a seat across from the man without waiting for an invitation. The man greeted me jovially, introducing himself as Joseph Molot, and I greeted him in kind, noting that he seemed to be the life of the party. We had a little back and forth—it may have dipped into a hint of flirting, it’s a bar these things happen—but it was purely for show, to keep suspicions low—as I reached out to his mind and telepathically told him that I knew he was here for the resistance. His grin grew at that, as he responded by saying his ‘little flower’ was reaching out.

He sent his admirers away, telling them to go ahead and get another drink at the bar. I asked him what brought him here, exactly? He told me that he knew that the big man himself was going to be here, so this is where he was going to be. He asked, what about me? Did I ‘ride’ here? I gave a sharp grin at how much he knew—or had surmised—and confirmed his guess.

Then Joseph decided he was going to stir up the hornet’s nest a bit. Make things a little more interesting before we left. He got up onto the stage, where some band or another was playing, and clinked his glass to get the room’s attention as he made a toast. He toasted to this fine city, thank goodness the riots had been quelled so soon so they could keep the downtrodden populace beneath them. And to Queen Elvanna—may she choke on her own blood.

I couldn’t help but grin at the immediate effect that single curse had on the room. Everyone froze. The Winter Witches rose from their seats, hands going to their wands. The two blonde brutes began cracking their knuckles. The Ice Devils didn’t seem to react—but I suspected they were buzzing with anticipation as well. I stood, drinking down the last of my wine and then dropping the glass to the floor as Joseph asked if it was something he said.

No one knew I was on his side yet. I could work this to my advantage.

A moment later the woman from the corner of the bar stormed up onto the stage. The woman began telling him off about the things he’d said—saying she couldn’t believe he’d say such things and get everyone all riled up…without her. In the blink of an eye there was a whip in her hand, glowing with some sort of greenish light.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nestian and Edeya approaching me. Nestian was motioning for me to use the Stone of Farspeech. So I did, telling Aenland up on the roof that shit had just gone down. Although I’m sure Talsune was already well aware and on his way to swoop in and join me for this brawl.

Someone charged the stage and all hell broke loose.

And as it did, the curtains to the VIP suite opened.

And out stepped Vain Betyrina—one of the remaining ten Crone Queens, asking who had dared crash her party.

#pathfinder #reign of winter #journal entry

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verystrxxwberry · 1 day

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Hi Alex! Would you please make a list of headcanons about Nevra in every aspect of a couple? I’ve read the others and I’m so obsessed with it

ELDARYA; Nevra as your boyfriend

♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭: Even more headcanons of Nevra as your partner! (Some suggestive comments but sfw mainly!) ↝ 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: Hi, I am doing great, thanks for your words and request! I hope you enjoy these headcanons <3. I wasn't really sure if you also meant the nsfw aspect with this request, but there are a few suggestive comments in these ones. Also, I didn't check it in the best mental state so there's probably spelling mistakes....

♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•.

When he found out about human fashion, he became crazy and probably begged you to let him go shopping for clothes with you. And there is where he developed a certain love to match his outfits with you! He finds it a cute detail and a subtle act of love from both of you.

Something you should get used to about Nevra is that he is very clingy. As you two are out in public, expect him to wrap his arms around your waist and bury his face in your neck. You would feel him simply breathing, or giving small kisses around the skin as he mutters “you smell good”. You’d have to control him because at some moment you’d feel how he sucks a little your skin, giving a little hickey… “Aww, but it’s a loving mark!” He’d tease you -but he is actually marking his territory-

When he is in love, he changes his behavior. Remember that flirty side he used to have? Well, that didn’t change actually. But he stopped being a skirt-chaser and committed his whole heart to you. All his flirting is only for you.

Literally a hopeless romantic but would never admit it. He is a genuine gentleman when it comes to you. He is gentle mainly because you are the first one he ever falls in love with.

He is terribly afraid of losing you, that adds fuel to be more gentle with you. You deserve to be treated perfectly by a perfect guy just as he is. -He also has negative things, do not idealize..-

He is way too good with his words, in all senses. And Nevra uses his charm to see your cute shy expression, to see how clumsy you get when you get nervous due to his flirting. Not only flirting, but also good spontaneous jokes! His heart goes faster every time he sees you laughing and smiling. He feels like he achieved his daily mission he isn’t sleeping correctly if he didn’t see you smile during a whole day.

He doesn’t like to talk about his own insecurities, because he is kinda insecure about some of his personality and physical traits. But he quietly buries his head on your chest whenever he wants comfort, even if he doesn’t say it out loud.

If you use perfume, he will put a little on his wrist to not miss you that much when he is busy working. It makes him feel like you are there, like his presence is there, even if he doesn’t see you.

He can be fatherly with you every now and then, as he got the big brother experience and has a big protective instinct. That means that you are forbidden from working when you are ill, or overworking some extra hours of your work.

You can’t barely hide your mood from him either, because he is very observant and can notice your change of tone when you speak or your expression.

He is gonna use his whiny tone and the excuse of working all day to get you to bath with him or give him a massage. He is gonna pout if you don’t spoil him. And trust me that he can be a big drama queen when he wants something.

When you least expect it, you will find yourself being shut from an argument by his lips. He doesn’t let you be mad for a long while, and he doesn’t like arguing with you at all.

Speaking of kissing… making out sessions most of the nights unless you don’t want to. He is clingy during cuddles and he misses you during the day, of course he is going to cup your cheeks, join your lips and devour you for very long seconds. It would reach a point in which the only sound heard in your room would be the lewd sound of your kisses.

So yeah… he is a very passionate kisser. He even tilts your head to deepen the kiss, his bold leg pressing in between your legs…. And mf will say that he was getting comfortable…

Complimented insecurity = flustered and shy Nevra. Not even kidding. He’d blush.

Nevra being in love equals to him memorizing everything you love and what things do make you happy. He’d perfectly know your favorite color, food, dressing code, perfume… even your favorite position.

He loves your thighs. Like, whatever there is meat or no, he doesn’t give a fuck, he is gonna use them as his personal perfect pillows.

He also loves your voice <3. When you sound sleepy, when you laugh, when you whisper, when you moan.

Encourages you to visit him during his night shift. And if you two can skip a few minutes to have dinner or hide somewhere so he can fill you up with kisses, that would simply make his night perfect!

Talking about sleeping… When it’s sleeping time, he loves to get ready for it with you. He loves to snuggle with you under the sheets, hugging you and caressing your back to make you fall asleep as he talks in a low voice about anything you were talking about. It’s most likely that you fall asleep first due to how comfortable the warmth of his embrace felt along with those caresses, so he’d admire your relaxed expression for a few seconds, caressing your face so gently that you wouldn’t even realize. Then, he’d allow himself to fall asleep.

He doesn’t move much when he sleeps, but he searches for any kind of physical contact with you in the darkness, to show his affection and that he is there for you. It can be by resting his hand on your arm, belly, back or anything near his hand.

✩; remember to reblog and like to support my content, I hope you enjoyed it!

#eldarya #eldarya headcanons #leiftan #nevra #valkyon #beemoov #ezarel #lance #mathieu #: ̗̀➛ alex's eldarya hcs!#headcanons #writing

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tetrakys · 1 year

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there's one thing that I don't understand, why was the new writer of Eldarya and MCL took over the writing and made Chino step down while she was the creator ?

Are you referring to Eldarya ANE's writer? No, he has nothing to do with this decision. If you check the credits page you can see that Eldarya has multiple people working on the plotting of the stories:

The creator/art director is the person who has the original idea of the game and characters and makes decisions on how the plot should evolve. The creator basically decides characters' backgrounds, how the story starts, how it ends and main plot points. This person is Chino.

Then there is the proofreader (I guess it's also called product manager?), who is the person that decides what happens in each episode and reads the script of the game written by the writer and makes changes. This is the person that sets the tone of the episode and tells the writer how characters should behave and what kind of interactions they should have. Chino used to do that at the beginning of TO, until the management of the company decided that someone else should take over. This happened I think between episodes 20-22. One of the last things she personally worked on was Leiftan's spin-off, since then she has no idea what's been happening in Eldarya episodes anymore.

Then there is the writer, who is the person who actually writes the whole script, the actual dialogues, but they are lead by the project manager, so they don't make decisions on the plot. This person used to be Hikaru until episode 29 of TO, after that the current writer arrived, they wrote episode 30 and the whole ANE.

That's why, despite Chino having left, episodes 21-29 don't feel extremely different, because at least Hikaru was still there and knew the characters and their personalities, but you can see that the events in the plot had already started to make little sense. That's when Eldarya stopped having any flirting and fluff and we were only given a few random sex scenes, almost as if to tick a box to say yeah this is still a romance game. Also the whole Blue Sacrifice, the LIs' backstories etc plotholes over plotholes because they decided to change the scenarist mid-game. And it's my opinion that the second project manager clearly didn't bother to pay attention to the previous 21 episodes nor try to really understand what was Eldarya's real story. I know this story now (which is what I'm explaining in the fic) and I can say that it really doesn't take an effing genius to follow a simple plot. Nor be consistent with the characters' real personalities.

I am angry with the writer who messed up Lance, Leiftan and Nevra, but in truth the guy only arrived when TO was over, the project manager/proofreader should've told him on the first day "look, this is wrong, you should make the character behave like this instead". Why didn't they do that? Why did the company decide to risk messing up the game by removing the creator and making work someone else on the scenarios? And why make this person work also on another game (uncoven) instead of focusing on the one they had just assigned them? I don't know, I'm not Beemoov's CEO. All this seems so absurd to me, who would ever make such stupid decisions? The same people who decided it made complete sense to remove love interests from otome games apparently 🤡 I'm sorry if I sound really salty. I loved Eldarya with all my heart, I'm never going to get over the fact that this game died because of shitty managerial decisions.

#eldarya #you guys should stop asking me about eldarya I turn into a ranter salty depressed bitch

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ayda--demir · 1 year

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First Therapy Session - Nov 23, 2022

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Ayda sinks into the plush cushion of the couch, a leg crosses over the other, her fingers laced together and resting on her lap. The toe of her heel taps along with each tick of the clock.

“I know asking for help is the hardest step. You should be proud of yourself Ms. Demir for taking those steps. Today we will go at your pace.” Dr. Celik assures her, a notebook on his lap and a pen in his hand.

She had promised Nevra that she would go to therapy to help deal with her issues. The Turk was willing to give this a try for her friend. Doing it for someone else was never the right step, but it was the gentle push that she needs to finally deal with everything that consumes her.

Her nails start to pick at the tailored suit dress pants she is wearing, the nerves settling in. Now given the opportunity to talk freely about what lay on her chest had her freezing up. Opening up was something she rarely did. Ayda suffered in silence, not wanting to burden others. That was what started her alcohol problem.

There was one person she needed to let go, but she wasn’t ready to speak about him. That was too personal for her to open up about first.

The brunette takes a deep breath, both her feet moving flat on the ground, palms rubbing up and down her thighs and she sits straight.

“I think the easiest to start with is my family.” She pauses for a moment, her eyes looking at him before she looks away. “I come from a Turkish family, which I am sure you could have assumed. I am the youngest of five and I have four older brothers. You can imagine how protective they can be.” She honestly was shocked they let her and Berat be together. Perhaps they saw how he protected her from the altercations they ran into growing up.

“Two years ago I started my own path and moved away from the family business. For the most part they understood that it wasn’t for me and let me go. I was able to open my own business and start something that was solely mine.” She wasn’t going to mention it was the business she and her ex planned to open when they left the gang life.

She heard the scribbling of pen on paper, wondering what notes he was taking. The brunette was trying not to feel like he was judging her. It was his job to listen and help her work through her problems.

“How did they feel about it, when you told them you were going down your own path?” His hand came up to remove his glasses from his face and place them down on the table beside him.

“My Pa, I don’t think he was too pleased with it. Part of me wonders if he was grooming me to take over the family business. Which I find odd, considering my oldest brother was better suited at it.” Hasan had the drive and desire for gang life. “I am a disappointment to him. He has told me a few times.” She shrugs her shoulders at him. It was the truth. That was why he was probably trying to marry her off.

“What about your mother? How did she feel when you told her this?” He asked.

Ayda had to think about that. Her mother, she knew the woman loved her, but wasn’t the most affectionate. “She wasn’t the softest woman. My ma, she complimented my father very well. She may not have liked some of his choices, but they shared the same passion. I feel that is what made them strong.” The Turk was always the odd one out of the family, no matter how hard she tried to fit in, she still stood out.

“She was disappointed, too. She might not have voiced it like my pa, but I could see it in her eyes.” Her gaze glances down at her lap. “Hasan was the only one who understood that I didn’t fit into that world, and when I was ready to finally take that step out, he helped me.”

Dr. Celik nods his head, going to write more down in his book. “Do you still talk to your brother?”

“Yes, more so recently. He likes to check in with me. I have started to go back to family dinners and my father ambushed me with an ultimatum.” Her voice trails off.

“And what is that?” He replies, looking at her when she finally looks back up.

“I have a year to get married, otherwise he will arrange one for me. It is common in our culture, but to me, it feels like he’s giving it another attempt to pull me back into something I don’t want.”

“Why don’t you tell him no?”

Ayda snorts and shakes her head. “One does not simply say no to Mehmet Demir. And if I did, I would no longer be welcomed in the family. I don’t think I’m ready for that step.” She knew Hasan would always be there for her, but no matter how cruel and fucked her family was, they were still her family.

“There is your dilemma. Why do you feel you need their validation? You are a grown woman who can make her own choices in life.”

Why did she feel like that would be something some would say? One face in particular who mentioned that they couldn't escape their name.

There was this sudden urge to punch the doctor in the face, not that she would ever do it.

“They are my family.” She retorts, knowing damn well that wasn’t a good enough answer.

“Is that how a family should treat each other? Forcing you to do things you do not want?” He asked her. She was starting to hate his fucking questions. Everything he said to her was in the form of a question when she wanted solutions.

"No. It isn't." But my family is not a normal fucking family. She left that part out.

"Then why do you let them control you like that?" His tone is neutral, making a few notes.

Her body grows rigid and she sits up, going quiet. He doesn't say anything to her, giving her time to process what he asked of her.

It was a question that haunted her. She was thirty years old and capable of living her life the way she wanted.

Five minutes passed and she finally found the words.

"There is no working things out with my family, especially my ma and pa. If I refuse, and turn my back, I will be seen as a traitor. And given my last name, it will follow me around." She takes a deep breath. "I'm afraid of being alone. The last time I was, I turned to drinking heavily."

"Ah, and you are afraid what might happen to you if you do? Not with your family, but you." A smile etches into his features, feeling like he was getting somewhere with her.

"Yes."

"Then that is something we can talk about. Finding you a support system if you decide to go that route. It is not something you have to decide now. It would be best that you take some time and really reflect on what your values and goals are now, not then. Letting go of the past is hard, but necessary." His eyes flicker up to the clock.

"It seems that is the end of our session for today. You did well Ayda. I will see you in two weeks."

She nods her head and stands up. "Thank you Dr. Celik. I'll think about what we talked about." Could she finally give up her family? Was she ready to be seen as a traitor?

#self-para #therapy session 1 #broken pieces

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poetinprose · 8 months

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heyy, 14 and 22 for the ice-breaker questions?:D

Thank you for the ask! :D (from this ask game)

14. What do you think makes your protagonist relatable?

What makes Kendra (from Tenebris) for me relatable is her anger. Like being angry when seeing injustice or people causing suffering or just when you're overstimulated and you have the urge to just... lash out? '^^

About Thanea (from Aeternum): It always kinda bothered me when the protagonists in urban fantasy were at first completely repelled by the revealed magic and magical person in their lives and then immediately completely okay with it like it's the most normal thing in the world to suddenly have to fight for their life and being The Chosen One™️ or whatever, you know? I hope with Thanea I create a reaction that's more believable or natural? She already can see the supernatural so it's not exactly the same anyway but she's quite suspicious of Nevras but wants him to be trustworthy because she's been so alone all her life since nobody ever believed her or could relate to her. (Does this even make sense lmao)

22. If you were going to excitedly recommend your wip to someone, how would you explain it to them?

Alright I think I'm just gonna do one wip for this one, otherwise it will be too long. xD So let me tell you about Aeternum.

You know all those fairytales and myths and legends everyone has, right? Now imagine that all of them are real. Like, all of them. From dwarfs over the Sandman to your local stories about the haunted house outside of the village. The thing is: humans can't see it anymore. Well, except for Thanea who has never not seen them. Everyone including her parents thought she was crazy, imagining things and needs help. So she stopped telling everyone until one day while working in the university's library as usual she meets this professor - Nevras. But he's not human or at least some fucked up kind of human. He has unnaturally yellow-green eyes and black veins are crawling over his arms. And when he realizes that she can see that - which humans shouldn't- he asks her out for a coffee date. And from there her whole life gets crazy. She also meets Nevras' best friend Zalen, a fallen guardian-angel who owns a bar for supernatural beings where he's in drag at night. And he maaaayyybeee falls in love with Thanea's human brother Kjell but you didn't hear that from me sdkcjfkdl.

I wish I could tell you more but I think that would be too many spoilers. D: Oh there also appeared a ghost in the library shortly before Nevras met Thanea. She's very dramatic but loves that Thanea can see her. OH RIGHT there's also this extremely old diary Kjell brought Thanea from his trip to South America that he found in a little local book shop there that will play an important role.

#thanks again! ^-^#I never know if my answers are comprehensible lmao #they're so chaotic #but it was rambling a bit about Aeternum xD #wip: tenebris #oc: kendra #wip: aeternum #oc: thanea #nevras is also the protagonist from aeternum btw #they're both pov characters #but he's my co-writer's oc and she writes his chapters so I kind of forgot to talk about him for the first question '^^

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parasite-core · 1 year

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Last night in pathfinder, we had a nice calming vacation episode with no drama what-so-ever

@scarlet-the-girl

On our way back to Spurhorn Fortress, Aenland spent some time with Nevra and found that she had a beautiful singing voice and that coupled with his poetic aptitude they made an outstanding song writing duo. Nevra agreed to continue traveling with Aenland, as she had never had so much excitement in her life and she wanted to see more. She just needed to get some affairs in order.

Privately, in mental communication, Talsune asked Calio if he would continue to have him along as well. Calio of course agreed to have the Dragonkin along as long as he desired.

When the party arrived back to Spurhorn, they saw the Dancing Hut arrive at the fortress. They reassured the Triaxians that it was safe, then went to meet Jadrenka and Nadya as they exited the Hut. Jadrenka had apparently figured out how to drive the hut by spying on Calio back when he’d messed around with it before. The duo asked if they’d really intended to leave without giving them a chance to look around the alien planet. The party decided that they could spare a few days, and decided to take about a week to relax and regain their wits before heading to their next destination. They felt the Geass within them seem to cool l, not pushing them on, as if in agreement that they needed a rest before their next trial.

That first day Nestian and Edeya spent time together looking for pretty rocks outside of the fortress. Aenland went with Nevra and helped her to organize the Seneschal’s quarters, and found a useful helmet for the dragonkin in the process. Calio offered his prayers to Norgorber and Urgathoa, then went to spend time with Greta. They talked, and Calio found an ioun stone and some Truecolor Dye submerged in the cistern nearby, which he had his unseen servant Nikolai pick up for him without having to disturb the fortress’ drinking water. Greta saw the dye as orange just like Calio (presumably considering he’s neutral but also colorblind), revealing that her alignment had officially shifted from neutral evil to true neutral since traveling with the party. The two of them talked about the future, Greta said she hoped to continue to be with Calio once this was all over. Calio told her he’d been hoping the same. She was glad to hear that. She then offhandedly asked if they should name their ‘pups’ after the other members of the party—just something to think about for the future. The two of them sat together and talked for a while longer, then went off to do…other things.

Nestian, after spending time with Edeya, went looking for Jairess. In the infirmary he discovered that she had left him a note and a Breath of Life scroll. The note told him that she was out gathering materials to try to find out the truth of why her god was of two minds about him, and she would be back in 3 days. He gave the scroll to Edeya, under the logic that he believed Calio was going to be making a change soon and wouldn’t need to use the scroll. Edeya wasn’t so confident about that, given how much positive energy hurts the necromancer, but Nestian was certain of his observation of Calio’s growth as a person and where it was heading.

That evening the party reconvened in the mess hall and celebrated their victory hard, many of them drinking late into the night.

The next day, Calio went looking for Cesseer. He found her in the training hall. She expressed that she’d hoped he’d seek her out the day prior, but brushed it off knowing that they’d had a lot to celebrate. She said she knew why he was here but wanted to hear it from him.

Calio said he was here to make sure she was doing alright, and to apologize. She asked for what—for killing Yrax and freeing her, for saving her from an Intellect Devourer? Calio said, for leaving her with that monster in the first place. Cesseer told him there was nothing to apologize for, she didn’t believe he’d left her here with any ill intentions anymore. But he had hurt her honor a bit, hadn’t he? So she needed to correct that. She challenged him to a one-on-one fight. If he won, she’d come with him like they’d planned. If she won…well, they’d talk about that once it happened.

Calio agreed to the challenge, and faced off against Cesseer. She said she looked forward to seeing just what ‘the Grim Rider’ could do. Calio didn’t get a chance to ask for clarification on that title before they were in the middle of fighting. Calio was quicker on the draw than Cesseer, and raised up his Bone Armor, then got in close and cast a Quickened Inflict Light Wounds on her—but it fizzled against her spell resistance. She countered, one kick connecting but the rest deflecting harmlessly against Calio’s bone armor.

Calio cast defensively, and got off an Inflict Serious Wounds—this time the spell connected and broke through her magical defenses. She noted, not for the first time, that he couldn’t do that the last time she’d met him and she was excited to see just what he was capable of now. She went in with another flurry of kicks and punches, but Calio dodged and deflected all but one again.

Calio cast an Inflict Critical Wounds defensively, and got it off, but missed on the attack. He held the charge of the spell, prepared to try again in response to her next attack. Cesseer kicked Calio with a Perfect Strike, but failed to knock him off his feet.

Calio struck back with his Inflict Critical Wounds, and this time connected and broke through spell resistance, the negative energy burning across her skin.

Cesseer went for another flurry, but again Calio deflected each strike. Calio dropped his defensive stance and risked Cesseer striking him as he cast a more powerful spell—her blow was deflected off his Bone Armor and he managed to unleash a Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, striking both her and himself, healing himself and damaging her.

Cesseer went in for a final flurry—only a single strike got through once again. Then she stepped back, raising her hands in surrender, and bowed. Calio immediately quit fighting when she yielded.

Cesseer was impressed with him. She said she’d like to come along with him and see more of what he could do—and see more of his hot wolf girlfriend. If he would have her.

Calio said of course he wanted her to come along—he had promised as much already—

No, if he would have her.

Oh. Oh.

Well he’d have to make sure said hot wolf girlfriend was okay with that.

Cesseer smiled, telling him that was the right answer and he’d passed the test of character.

Aenland and Nadya were checking out the Triaxian armory. Nadya began admiring some magic arrows that would be incredibly useful for the resistance back in Whitethrone. Aenland was initially reluctant to ask the quartermaster to spare them, as he felt the Triaxians likely still needed them in their daily lives. However as he listened to how Nadya talked about the resistance and how it inspired her, he decided to do it for her, and asked the quartermaster if he could trade something for the arrows. He ended up trading an arrow catching shield for the bundle of arrows. Nadya thanked him for doing that for her.

Nestian went looking for Zorka and Ratibor, because the evening before he’d noticed that they weren’t in the Dancing Hut and their footprints led into the fortress. He eventually found them in the Hall of Heroes, where statues were being made in the general likeness of the four members of the party for their actions slaying Yrax. Zorka and Ratibor were in…very poor disguises. Nestian pretended not to recognize them for a few moments before Zorka panicked and admitted it was them and Nestian admitted he already knew. Ratibor got serious and asked Nestian why the party hadn’t told Jadrenka the truth about how we all met—he didn’t think we’d done the wrong thing, but he remembered the truth and he needed to know. Nestian told Ratibor that we didn’t really know what would happen to Jadrenka if we told her about the other timeline and everything she had been through—it seemed kinder to let her live her life as it was now.

So Ratibor remembered everything? Ratibor held out his hand and reintroduced himself as the Demon Lord Kostchtchie—at Nestian’s service. The strength in his handshake was not that of a man who had been stuck in the Dancing Hut watching the game for untold number of years—his latent mythic energy was clearly still there.

Ratibor asked Nestian if the party ever learned what had become of his and Jadrenka’s daughter—that was something he didn’t know. It was something we hadn’t learned, Nestian apologized but told him if we learned the truth we’d let him know.

That evening we met up in the mess hall and discussed. Edeya brought up that if there was magic that could divinely answer questions, then they could learn about Ratibor’s daughter. Calio considered this, and rattled off a handful of spells that fit the bill. They decided on commune—except they’d need a spellcaster with a god to commune with (as Calio did not reveal to the others that he worships Norgorber and Urgathoa, nor would contacting either of them for this be a wise decision). They decided to ask one of the local Apsu clerics to assist them the next day, if they would provide the scroll for the ritual.

The next day, Calio went to talk to Talsune first thing in the morning. He was organizing the Dragonkin armory, which was a mess as the younger Dragonkin hadn’t put anything away. Calio found this amusing, as somethings were the same no matter which world you were on. He confirmed again that he still wanted Talsune by his side, so long as Talsune didn’t feel he was leaving too much behind. Talsune said at this point he desired to fight alongside Calio for as long as he would have him, and Calio would have to be the one to cut their relationship off if it was to be cut short at all. Calio has no such intentions. He began helping Talsune with cleaning up the armory, and felt the Dragonkin’s excitement when he found two weapons that would be of use for himself and Nevra in the upcoming battles. He decided this was the boon of being the one cleaning up—he got first pick of the best weapons. Calio cheerfully agreed, and when they were done cleaning up they headed out as they had a busy day ahead of them.

Calio met up with Edeya and the others in the infirmary, where they asked a cleric to cast the Commune spell. The cleric agreed for the heroes who slayed Yrax, and with some direction cast the foreign spell. They asked a number of questions, and were able to discover through the answers that Ratibor’s daughter was deceased, she had been a warrior and had died a warrior’s death. She had established a clan of witch hunters on the border of an icy country, and had spent the last years of her life searching for someone.

From the answers we gleaned that Ratibor and Jadrenka’s descendants were likely still fighting the witches in Irrisen to this day.

We returned to Ratibor and told him everything we learned. He started laughing and crying, proud that his daughter had become an accomplished warlord with a much better ending to her story than his own. He asked that when we returned to Whitethrone we take him with us, as he wanted to see his descendants in battle himself. We agreed.

Before we left, Calio asked Zorka on a lark if she had heard of the Grim Rider—assuming he would get the usual lack of an answer he always got from anyone connected to Baba Yaga when he asked about his past.

Instead Zorka said ‘yes’.

She seemed to struggle to say anymore, and simply told Calio that he was on the right path, and to keep going.

Afterwards we went to the Dancing Hut to talk to the Inter-dimensional rumor trader Zilvazavarat. Nestian asked about the state of Whitethrone. We learned that the city was split up between the twelve Crone Queens, but Queen Elvana had barricaded herself indoors to work on her ritual to freeze over the world, and the resistance was still fighting with hit and run tactics.

Aenland asked the trader to take one of Yrax’s horns back to Kyonin with a message that Huntmaster Boughmuse would be returning. The trader noted that with the current state of Kyonin this message might spur them on to acts of hope and courage. Aenland asked what was going on with his home.

The trader tried to get more coin out of Aenland for the answer, but Calio and Nestian intimidated him into wrapping it into his last payment. Zilvazavarat told them that Treerazor seemed afraid of something—his minions were acting in uncharacteristic ways. They were still acting aggressively towards Kyonin, but their movements were erratic and unusual.

Nestian asked if the bears in Taldor were alright. The trader confirmed yes—although there were whispers that some were pushing to take the fight to Irrisen and Elvana, but he didn’t see any reason for Nestian to worry. Nestian knew his family, they were slow to act on anything, it was unlikely they’d make any move soon.

The trader asked Calio if he had any questions. Calio asked if he knew anything about Elvana’s motives behind kidnapping children around the border towns of Irrisen. He got mostly the same information he already knew—tokens to trade to hags and people like Nazhena. But it was also rumored that she was looking for a child ‘with the potential’—what that meant, exactly, the trader didn’t know. Calio had one more question, although he doubted the trader could answer it. He wanted to know what he knew about the Grim Rider. Zilvazavarat said he had, in fact, heard of the Grim Rider—but before he could speak of it anymore, the Dancing Hut dismissed him, and he found himself in Purgatory.

Then we had another meal—Nestian helped to prepare it, having been learning Triaxian cooking over the last few days—and we headed to bed.

That night each of us were scryed upon—only one of us, Nestian, succeeded our will save to resist the scrying attempt. Then each of us received a message from one of our interlopers (except for, again, Nestian, who received a message from Peanut about Jairess instead)

Aenland received a message from Xanthadon telling him to go somewhere private and burn her handkerchief to summon her—he’d get this one for free, they needed to talk.

Calio got a message from Keisuke telling him to get a means of traveling between the planes and then cast it through the pocket watch, he’d give him a one time free ticket to and from his demiplane so they could have a talk face-to-face.

Edeya failed a second save after the scrying attempt.

Nestian got a message from Peanut telling him to trust Jairess when she returns.

The next day, Aenland left the fortress and walked out into the wastes, far enough away to be out of earshot and barely within eyeshot of Spurhorn. Then he burnt Xanthadon’s handkerchief, summoning the drow to him. It was the first time he’d seen his time period’s Xanthadon since the Aeon Pit. They talked a bit about the ironies of meeting each other out of order, and how it had affected each of their perceptions of the other on their first few meetings. Xanthadon told Aenland that she had the movements of Treerazor’s lieutenants. They were just outside of Whitethrone. They could go there right now and slay them, then take the fight to the great lizard. She didn’t doubt the two of them could kill the creature at this point.

Aenland told her he’d love to put an arrow in Treerazor’s heart right this moment, but he couldn’t. He was still bound by Baba Yaga’s will—if he ran off to do this he’d be severely weakened and wouldn’t be at his best to fight the Nascent Demon Lord. But he’d been promised a weapon that could fell the beast when this was over. And he would be returning to Whitethrone soon enough, inevitably. So he told Xanthadon not to think of this as a rejection, but as a promise to join her later.

Xanthadon gave him a new handkerchief to summon her with, although she warned him that she might be angrier if he uses it since he didn’t just come with her and she’ll take a price. After all her Demon Lord wouldn’t like her giving her assistance for free.

She held out her hand to shake, agreeing to meet him as an ally when the time came. She took her hand. When he did he saw the horrific fungal growth that made up much of her upper body, barely hidden beneath her shirt.

On parting she told Aenland that she had given them the blade of her sword in the past, and he should reforge her blade to make it whole.

Aenland wasn’t sure where said blade was (as Calio kept forgetting he had Xanthadon’s rapier to give it to Aenland with everything else that’s been happening), so he drew the cursed blade and tried to use it as a compass to guide him to it. It drew him to Calio, who was just returning from shopping in the Dancing Hut for a Plane Shift scroll. Aenland snuck up behind a very distracted Calio and placed the cursed sword up to his neck, asking him if he had something of his. Calio sheepishly admitted to having forgotten about it, and relinquished Xanthadon’s rapier. Then Aenland told Calio he needed blood in order to sheath the sword—Calio said that was fine so long as it wasn’t his. Aenland said he was kind of implying that, yeah. Calio reminded Aenland that he had to *kill* something to sheath the sword, not just draw blood. Aenland nodded, then left with the cursed sword still in hand, to find Nevra to go hunting for local monsters to kill.

Once he’d sheathed the cursed sword, he went to the fortress’ forge and reforged the swords, swapping their blades. He now had Wither Needle, the perfect form of Xanthadon’s rapier that had mythic properties, as well as the cursed rapier, which retained the properties the previous cursed rapier had had.

After calming down from being threatened by Aenland, Calio went to find a private room and cast the Planeshift spell through the pocket watch. The watch seemed to warp and grow, and suddenly there were nine of them, and he felt dizzy from the ticking, but the sensation passed as he appeared in a nine sided chamber made of what appeared to be frosted glass. There was singing coming from all around—it was Keisuke’s voice. Calio looked up to see Keisuke, in kitsune form, offering him his hand, so he took it, and his master led him into the Nonagon. Keisuke was not singing, it was a recording for the theatrics of it—something Calio could appreciate.

Calio gladly shared his recent adventures with his master, telling Keisuke about having slain a dragon and an Eoxian, and lamenting that he hadn’t thought to turn the Bone Sage into a skeletal champion until just that moment. Keisuke seemed genuinely impressed, saying that Calio had grown far more powerful in their time apart than he ever would have under his tutelage. Keisuke told Calio that he had a surprise for him, but before that he wanted to know if Calio had any questions for him. He also wanted to talk a little about the future—about whether Calio would join him on his hunt for mythic power.

Calio asked for clarification on why the followers of Norgorber had been so against him when Keisuke had introduced them. Keisuke had said it was because he belonged to Urgathoa, Calio didn’t understand what that meant—Keisuke was also a necromancer so clearly that wasn’t what he’d meant.

Keisuke clarified that it was because Calio had been undead. Calio was still confused, noting that he didn’t detect as undead. Keisuke said he wasn’t undead *now*, someone had clearly revived him. He realized that Calio had some misconceptions and cleared them up—he had been a skeletal champion when he’d been one of Keisuke’s ‘children’—he didn’t have the power to bring anyone properly back to life, all of his children were the undead. Whoever had brought Calio back either did a shit job or did it badly on purpose as a joke. Keisuke and Calio were thinking the same thing—that Calio had made a deal with Baba Yaga, the person he was supposed to have been assassinating, to be revived.

Keisuke mentioned that one of his targets was going to be near Whitethrone in two weeks. He hoped that Calio would be interested in helping him. Mythic power would suit him. Calio was inclined to agree, he had seen mythic power first hand and he wanted it. He was eager to agree that mythic power would suit his master just as well. After all, they were much alike.

Keisuke brought out a Mirror Man—assuring Calio that it was safe, its connection to the Winter Witches had been severed—and he told Calio it had a vision of him from before he lost his memories on there. It was him on Triaxus. He gave a knowing grin, asking Calio if he’s met a certain Battleflower while on Triaxus. Then he left the room, admitting he’d already watched it but that this seemed like a private affair. Calio could leave at his leisure once he’d viewed it and finished his tea. He was welcome whenever, of course, now that he knew how to enter, so long as he warned Keisuke before coming so Keisuke could shut down the defenses for him. Nothing personal, but incase he ever got mind dominated or something he couldn’t be too careful about keeping the wards up against him as much as everyone else on a regular basis. Otherwise…well, Calio felt only a small fraction of what the defenses given to Keisuke by the Pallid Princess would do in full force.

Calio activated the Mirror Man’s video and watched. There was a procession of the Winter Guard walking through Ivoryglass. In the middle were Queen Elvana, and himself—dressed lavishly, and looking incredibly confident and cocky. When they passed by the disposal room just outside of Yrax’s throne room, Calio called over one of the Winter Guard and then dangled them over the pit as the white pudding lunged for him. He was laughing at the man’s panic as he pulled him away from the ooze at the last second. Queen Elvana chastised the ‘Grim Rider’, asking him not to torment her men. Then they entered Yrax’s chambers. Elvana gifted the dragon a spellbook. As he examined it, Elvana gave the Grim Rider orders to scout the place out with some of her men. She turned to leave after making nice with Yrax, grimacing once she was no longer facing the dragon. Yrax sent Cesseer to keep an eye on the Grim Rider and his men. As they walked, the Rider immediately turned on the charm and had an easy conversation going with Cesseer, until the two of them went into Cesseer’s room, abandoning the rest of the Rider’s men. The Grin Rider opened the door again and told them to scram, before shutting the door in their faces. The recording ended.

Calio sat there for a short time, taking in what he’d seen. It was the first real look he’d had at who he’d been during the last year…and he wasn’t sure he liked what he’d seen. He couldn’t deny it was all stuff he’d have done—yes even dangling the man over the ooze pit for laughs—just a month or two ago. But now it felt…excessive. It was pointlessly cruel. Sure he was a jerk, and a killer, and a liar, but he didn’t have to be cruel for no reason. Or for no reason other than his own amusement. That was Nazhena levels of nasty. It was no wonder he’d been friends with her, no matter how lowly he might have thought of her even at the time…

Calio left the Nonagon, and returned to the material plane only nine seconds after he’d left. Talsune was surprised he vanished and returned so quickly, but he noted that Calio’s emotional state was precarious. He offered to talk if that’s what Calio needed. Calio told Talsune that he didn’t know how he felt about everything he’d just learned. Talsune understood. Sometimes it was hard to pin just one emotion to certain events.

Calio wanted to go lay down and isolate himself in his room, but Talsune noted that Calio hadn’t eaten yet today, and Calio agreed that he should probably go eat lunch, so they went up to the mess hall together.

Nestian, after spending some time on the roof waiting for Jairess, returned to the party’s shared room in Spurhorn. There Edeya was building a shrine. Nestian asked what she was doing, to which Edeya cheerfully told him she had made a penpal and she was making something for her. Nestian realized that Edeya was acting off, and put two and two together—she had some form of compulsion on her. Nestian put her in a literal bear hug to keep her from continuing to build the shrine, then he dragged her to the mess hall for help. He found Calio and Jadrenka sitting together. Calio identified Edeya as being under the effects of a Charm Person spell, although he didn’t know how since that’s normally a short range spell. Jadrenka dispelled it, then told the party that she had heard of a witch who, upon losing her familiar, communed with her patron and gained the power to cast through mirrors. This type of casting—if it really existed—would allow for a long ranged Charm Person spell. It was said one of the things this witch could do was scry on people at will and cast spells like Charm Person, Detect Alignment, and Fear through the scrying sensor.

Which meant no matter where we were, we weren’t safe. Edeya’s mirror twin could scry on us and try to dominate our minds at any time.

Edeya asked if we could dismantle the shrine she’d been building for her, as it…made her uncomfortable. Calio identified it as a shrine to the goddess Sarenrae, who had been slain a few years prior leaving her clerics and paladins without divine power.

Edeya told Calio and Nestian that she had found a pamphlet on Sarenrae worship stuck in a book and, despite it being illegal in Irrisen, she’d decided to sneak into her father’s basement and made a shrine to try out worshipping in secret. However when she’d been lighting the candles, the entire room began flickering, and she saw something in the mirror—her but not her—and it scared her. She accidentally lit the shrine on fire, and the entire room began to burn.

As she told the story she suddenly began panicking, telling them that the shrine they were taking apart was on fire. Calio realized, as a user of the spell himself, that she was under the effects of a Fear spell. It seemed to have radiated from the shrine. Neither Calio nor Nestian had a way to dispel her. Calio told her that it would be okay—the effect would wear off soon and she’d be okay. Edeya fled from the source of her fear, running through the halls of Spurhorn with Illivor clinging to her shoulder and shouting. Nestian ran after her to make sure she would be alright. Calio stayed behind and continued dismantling the Sarenrite shrine so that it would be gone by the time Edeya returned.

When he finished, he heard an echo of laughter that sounded like Edeya’s.

Nestian caught up to Edeya in the meantime and comforted her, assuring her it wasn’t her fault that she’d just run off like that while under the effects of a spell. He walked her back to the room, confident that Calio will have dismantled the shrine—he knew that despite what the necromancer might say, he does actually care about the others and try to look out for them.

After he’d seen to Edeya, Nestian received a message from Jairess: I’m Ready.

The bear man made his way upstairs and onto the roof, where he found Jairess in a spell circle with a symbol of Gozreh made of powdered diamond within it. Jairess said that she was going to commune with her deity and find out why they were of two minds about Nestian. She apologized in advance if what they learned was personal, as she would see what it was as well. Nestian was fine with that.

Jairess held out her hands and Nestian took them, then she cast the spell. Nestian saw flashes of visions. Another place, covered in ice despite it being spring. Two men and a bear walking through the snow towards a tree with a portal set into it. They were talking about stopping Elvana before it was too late. Then a fog billowed in and the visioned glitched, a figure represented by only a skull appeared. Its speech could not be heard. One of the men told Peanut to run through the portal—to escape with the baby he was carrying on his back.

Peanut never saw his druid companion—his brother—again. But he remembered what he’d come to this world for. He had gained some Druidic power of his own from his time as an animal companion, and he passed on his knowledge to others, apprentices who he trained and then sent to Irrisen to create pockets of summer in rebellion against Elvana’s eternal winter. And he rallied those the Winter Witches would never suspect to rise against them—the bears.

When the vision faded, Nestian found Jairess hugging him. She said she was sorry, she’d had no idea. Nestian realized that Gozreh was of two minds about him because he wasn’t meant to be in this world—he came from somewhere else.

Just like Calio’s master.

Nestian knew who that skull represented—who it had to be. He’d seen the man who was with his father in the vision once before—in the Eon Pit—and he’d shot at Keisuke despite none of the other beings coming and going to clear up the Yellow King’s minions interfering with the fight outside of the time vortex.

Nestian decided he needed to talk to Calio. He needed answers. Jairess said that Nestian wouldn’t get answers from ‘Dren Fielder’, but Nestian wasn’t looking for answers from Calio’s master—he wanted answers from his friend who may not have told him everything he knew about this.

Nestian searched the entirety of Spurhorn, enraged and teary eyed, gathering each member of the party as he accidentally ran into them before Calio, although he didn’t speak to any of them they simply followed him as he continued his search, worried about him.

Finally he went to the Hut and found that Calio had holed himself up in his room—completely oblivious to the storm that was coming. Calio invited Nestian in when he knocked.

Nestian asked Calio what he knew about Keisuke.

Calio could tell from his expression what this was about, but he tried to deflect out of habit more than anything, naming off things he knew—he had saved his life, he had taught him magic, and then he sent him out on his own. What answer was Nestian looking for?

Nestian called Calio on his lies, saying that he was more to the point when he was being honest. He wanted to know what Calio knew about Keisuke and his family.

Calio asked him back what he knew about his master, but Nestian shut him down, telling him that he didn’t know anything for sure, that’s why he was *asking* him.

Calio hesitated, then admitted that he knew that Keisuke had come into conflict with Nestian’s family once before.

Nestian asked which family. Calio was legitimately confused by this question, and said he didn’t know which family member. Nestian asked Calio what happened to them, and Calio admitted that Keisuke killed a member of Nestian’s family.

‘Your master killed my father’ Nestian told Calio.

After a long moment, Nestian asked Calio if they were friends, to which Calio said he liked to think so. Nestian asked if Keisuke had told him to hide this from Nestian. Calio chose his words carefully, saying that Keisuke had felt that if Nestian knew then the party would try to kill him, so it would be best if it were kept between them. (Aka, Keisuke never directly *said* to keep it a secret, Calio chose to because he knew that otherwise the party would try to kill Keisuke and he didn’t want that)

Nestian said he was sorry that Keisuke had tricked him. Then he left. Calio was flummoxed by that response. Then he heard Nestian give the loudest most heart-wrenching roar from his room.

Aenland asked Calio why he defended Keisuke, when he knew he hurt a friend of his. Calio said he got why the others want to kill him. He didn’t even think he was unreasonable for them to want that. But Keisuke had saved his life—without him he would have been a corpse in some forgotten cave somewhere. He owed him everything. Aenland didn’t feel like this was like Calio—he was independent and proud, not someone to be lead around on a leash. Calio argued that he simply took the fact that he owed him his life seriously. Aenland asked if that meant he should swear fealty to Calio since Calio brought him back to life. Calio took offense to this, saying he hadn’t sworn fealty to Keisuke. Aenland admitted maybe that was a bit far, but he still felt that Calio should take a step back and reconsider his loyalties. He placed a hand on Calio’s shoulder, and told him that if he needed to talk he knew how to reach him—referring to their connected Stones of Farspeech.

Illivor left with Edeya, but paused to tell Calio that people are more than those they owe—they’re the actions they take. She of all people knows that.

They had two more days of rest, although a cloud hung over the party. Calio spent time with Cesseer and Greta. He shared what had happened with Greta, and decided with her help not to tell Keisuke that Nestian and the others had found out about what he’d done—as Greta believed if Calio ever needed something more from ‘dear master K’ it would be best if he didn’t know that most of Calio’s friends were out for his blood. For Calio’s part, he just needed an excuse not to face any disappointment from the kitsune at him failing to keep his secrets from being unearthed.

Aenland spent his time with Nevra, and Nestian read the rest of his book and spent time with Edeya.

Finally it was time to head out. The party’s bonds tended to be strongest when in battle—it was about time to strengthen those bonds again after the recent events that had shaken them. Although Nestian didn’t look at Calio any differently than usual, Calio was certain he must just be good at hiding his feelings—or Calio is worse at reading bear emotions than human emotions, which is entirely possible.

Nestian set the bearskin rug into the cauldron, and Edeya threw in the currently-plush two-headed eagle. Then Nestian began stirring. And stirring.

And then the lights went out.

Zorka cursed.

The lights turned back on.

There was a man standing before us, and five shadow demons forming behind him. He spoke to us in Russian, saying we thought we could come to Earth to try to free Baba Yaga from the matryoshka doll in which she had been cleverly hidden. But he, Gregorio Rasputin, would make sure we never made it that far.

Aenland lit up, realizing ‘Oh, you’re Baba Yaga’s only son!’

Rasputin deflated a bit, looking taken aback that we didn’t already know that. He cursed and said that ‘Elvie’ was going to kill him.

We noted that we hadn’t known about the matryoshka doll either, and thanked him for his generous information.

He made to leave, only pausing to say ‘what’s up?’ to Calio as—of course—he recognized the Grim Rider. Because why not?

And so begins the book we’ve all been waiting for.

Rasputin Must Die.

#pathfinder #reign of winter #Rasputin must die #PF weekly

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