Where There's Fire - 10/05 - Glade

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Glade is walking down the cobbled streets of Port Ffirst, looking in some aggravation for a tree that hasn’t been either burned down or broken last year. As she crosses over from the Old Town to the New Town, she hears a familiar voice in Primordial: “Glade? Gla-ade! Is everything alright?” She turns to see the familiar controlled fire that is Glint waving at her from across the street, his face slightly concerned. She must have been so focused on her task she missed a couple of earlier calls.


"Oh... OH! Hey Glint!" She greets him with a wave. "Sorry, I-" her thought trails off as she looks around one more time. "Sorry but... are there any trees left in Port Ffirst? Have they all been burned down last year? I was looking to go back to Daring Heights, but I can't seem to find one."


Glint takes in her appearance as he approaches. “Why, yes, I believe there are a couple just outside Root’s house,” he nods and outstretches his hand, stepping aside and showing her the way. He has papers and stationery in his other hand - Glade notices writings in Infernal just as Glint falls into step beside her. “I can walk you there?” He offers.


"Oh thank you. Yes, that would be lovely. Urm, do you also need to come along to Daring Heights?" She asks as the two started walking.


The fire genasi’s eyes dart to the notes in his hand. “No, thanks,” he sighs as they both walk down the narrow streets. “I still have an Infernal lesson. Last one, hopefully,” he adds under his breath. “I’ll probably see you there next week. I have some business… that requires teleportation.”


"Oh," she mouths. A few awkward moments pass, Glade pondering whether it would be nosy whether to ask or not. Finally, the curiosity gets the better of her. "M-may I be so bold as to ask what business?"


Instead of giving an answer, Glint quickly takes stock of the street. It is not completely deserted, but Port Ffirst is certainly not a town of morning people, so the two genasi can walk in peace. That is not to say the streets are quiet, what with the constant ruckus of squabbling seagulls in the morning sea breeze above them. Whilst the birds are a tad annoying, at least there's little chance anyone would overhear their conversation. "There's something off going on in Kundar," Glint says, and Glade has to keen her ears to hear him over the seagulls' screams. "Perhaps you've noticed? I believe my background could help me find out more about it..."


Glade listens in carefully and, like Glint, becomes more attentive of her surroundings. "Not just Kundar," she says in a whisper as well, "Daring Heights, Port Ffirst and even the Feywilds seem to have the same culprits behind all of this." She scans the road ahead, making sure the are none who may wish to eavesdrop. "You think Root's place may be a safer place to discuss this, or do you have some other place in mind?"


Glint frowns and shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to drag Root into this. Let’s go off the street for a moment.” He ushers her into a small cul-de-sac, and casts a spell that Glade had seen Lolli use whenever they went adventuring into the wilderness. Minutes later, a small tower, two storeys in height, fits itself nicely between the surrounding buildings. Through the open door, Glade sees a comfortable sitting room with a small sofa and a couple of chairs. Glint walks inside and carefully puts his language studies on a coffee table.


"Cozy," she remarks as she closes the door behind her. "Think we will be safe to discuss in here?"


“Safe-er,” Glint shrugs, dropping into an armchair. “This is Port Ffirst. If nobody is listening, you’re probably not talking.” He huffs and gestures towards a flowery sofa. “Please, have a seat.”


She gently sits, grasping onto her simple staff. "Well, Daring Heights seems to be covered in this symbol, same one seen in Kundar, someone with silver pin in the shape of the symbol has been seen in Fluffleton, Lolli's village... and now we just had someone transmuting gold pieces into copper."


Glint nods, taking all the new information in. "That is... remarkably ubiquitous," he says with a shiver. "I must admit I've only seen that symbol in Kundar. It was a brooch worn by a particularly suspicious person. Mathias Prideborn's secretary. Have you met her?"


"Um, I..." She scratches her head trying to remember the details of her recent trips. "When I was in Kundar, I remember seeing a green kobold in purple robes who wore the silver pin, taking notes and accompanied by a red dragonborn. Is one of them this... secretary?"


Glint chuckles. “Yes, I’m also sceptical about that. She certainly seems like one, and I wouldn’t discount the possibility that she also works as one. Which makes her the most dangerous person around. Prideborn certainly likes to throw his weight around, but,” he continues with a crooked smile. “In my experience the person that does lots of talking is rarely the one calling the shots,” he says, pointing at himself with a broad gesture. “So I’d like to look into this clipboard kobold.”


"I see," replies Glade, looking with interest. "I'm not that knowledgeable about city roles, so I assume that a secretary is someone who takes notes for someone else? How are you planning on finding out more about this note-taker lady?"


Glint's smile grows a bit wider, bordering on condescending, but not exactly going there. He leans in, fingers steepled over his knees. "Secretaries don't just take notes, they keep notes," he clarifies. "And if we go off the supposition that knowledge is power…" His hellfire eyes dart quickly to his spell book before returning to Glade's face. "Well, secretaries often end up having all the knowledge is all I'm saying," he says with an uneasy roll of his shoulders. "They also enjoy relative obscurity, which is ideal for any sort of shady dealings that the front man, or the fence, would be blissfully and deliberately ignorant about, or would claim plausible deniability of. So yes, I am definitely planning to find out more about this note-taker lady," he says with a nod. "You didn't happen to catch her name by any chance?"


She shakes her head. "Unfortunately not. I only got a glimpse of the two as we were leaving through a tree. No idea about her name."


“Any other observations?”


"About the one time in Kundar... other than the ruined business of small merchants, branded afterwards with... 'PTC'," she says with one finger raised as if pointing out the letters individually, "which stood for 'Prideborn Trading Company'... nothing."

Deep in thought, she averts her eyes, and reaches for her bag. She puts it on her lap and rummages through its contents. "After that... we spotted someone with a silver brooch that seemed to match the drawings." Her eyebrows raise as she finds what she's searching for. She pulls out a small, clean, leather pouch. She unties it as, with two gentle fingers, picks out what Glint can tell is a slice of dried peach. She pops it in her mouth with one hand while she extends the other to him, offering a peach slice. "When we went to the harengon village of Fluffleton in the Summer Court, to help Lolli with some family business, one of her friends was making a potion of some sorts. By his accounts, it seemed to be something along the lines of the Scrying spell. The potion seemed like a success, but as it was completed, another harengon ran in and swept it from under our noses. He bore the same silver pin brooch as this secretary you speak of."


Glint accepts the snack with a confused frown. “Scrying? And… Feywild?” He asks, bewildered. “For the life of me I cannot see a connection. Wait, didn’t you say you’ve seen something related to that symbol here as well? in Port Ffirst?” His head snaps up and he looks at her with concern.


"Somewhat," she says and pauses for a moment. "From rumours that are spreading around, it seems that the general thing is to 'cause chaos'." She bites into another piece of dried peach. "Mmm - I ended up here following Lolli and Beets after we've dealt with the previously mentioned issue. We helped Boosya, Lolli's grandmother, to stop someone who has been turning gold coins to copper within some vaults - specifically, those who did not have... a dimensional anchor, as they said. The culprit was a blue kobold dressed in garments similar to those from Kundar. Her name was Hyacinth. She did not have a pin, but her patron received a letter that did have that symbol on it and the only thing written in it was 'Cause chaos in Port Ffirst'."


Glade notices a strange spark in Glint’s eyes as she’s talking of chaos. The wizard shakes his head, as if to get rid of a persistent thought. “Chaos? That sounds…” he pauses, turning the thought around in his mind. “Annoyingly non-specific,” Glint huffs. “Do you know who sent that kobold? Was it PTC?”


Her head tilts a little as she's putting her thoughts in order. "Uhm... I think the name was Kanudor... the Transcendent? Something like that. The guy seems to be some sort of mix between a red dragon and an efreeti."


Glint’s eyes immediately focus and almost light up. “A half-efreeti? That is an interesting development…” His eyes go back and forth as he’s talking, as if looking for an angle.


They sit quietly for a couple of moments, Glint thinking, and Glade snacking on peach slices. Only the gull calls from outside, muffled by the thick walls of their temporary refuge, break the silence.


“Hmmm…” Glint says at last. “I’ve heard Prideborn talk, and… as uncomfortable as it was for me, I couldn’t help but notice he’s quite good at spinning a tale. He’ll be screaming bloody murder as soon as adventurers as much as breathe in the direction of Kundar. All in all, you can do no right by being a non-kobold in that city nowadays. But if he has allies from elsewhere…” Glint says with a careful smile. “Perhaps we can pass as such for long enough to find out what is this chaos leading towards, or even long enough to make him doubt his allies!” He says with the same dull spark in his eye. “That sign on their brooches… did that kobold you caught have it? Or the dragon who sent her?”


Glade shakes her head. "As I said, she did not have anything on her, but she did seem to recognise it when Beets showed her a drawing of it. It's how we found out that her patron had a client that was related to that silver pin. The letter that was sent to Kanudor had that symbol on it. By Hyacinth's account, that was the only time she saw that symbol, so most likely the dragon did not have a pin on him." She picks another piece from the pouch, looking at it for a moment as she offers some to Glint once again. "As to how believable the claims were... Boosya seemed pretty skilled on making her talk."


Glint nods in acknowledgment. “Unfortunately, I’m much better at talking than at making others talk. Still,” he says, eyes dulling down. “I feel that symbol is important… can’t quite put my finger on it,” he adds, hand slipping from the armrest to land on the cover of his spellbook. “And a red dragon… Matthias’s bodyguard has a brooch of Tiamat with only the red head remaining… that’s too big of a coincidence. A red dragon, chaos and discord, and that symbol… Bet it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple…”


Glade swallows a dried peach slice. "You’re planning on stealing some from those that have it?"


Glint shrugs. “I don’t know anyone who do, except for that secretary. I was hoping to have some made, but…” Glint says, a cup of latte appearing in his hand as the smell of pumpkin spice fills the tower. “It might be a bit of a tall order to make them within a week. A taller order still trying not to attract suspicion while doing it!” He chuckles darkly. “Perhaps I could ask Lolli to conjure a couple for me…” he muses.


"Lolli does have amazing conjuration skill," Glade says with a smile. "Hmh... what would your options be if you were to go down that route, of making some through magical means?"


With a roll of his shoulders, Glint conjures a minor illusion of the pin. He hands it to Glade. She is a bit surprised by its weight: as she turns it around in her fingers she can’t tell the cold metal was just summoned into existence. “It will last for about a minute,” the wizard says. “And I can only make one of these at a time. Conjuration has never been my strong suite,” he admits, scrunching his nose.


She lifts it up, inspecting it. "Huh... some say it looks like a bird in flight... for me it looks like a needle punching through a crescent moon... or a sword... with wings?" Her eyes raise up, meeting Glint's. "Wait... did you conjure it? I mean... it feels real."


Glint gives her a shy smile. "No, this is just an illusion. A very good one, but it will fade. I cannot conjure things all that well." He sighs, rolling his eyes. Then, his gaze catches on Glade's staff, and a shadow of thought lights up his fiery eyes. "Can you?"


She looks down at the illusory pin in her hand, rolling it around, inspecting its details. "No... not like this anyway. The closest I can probably get is a stone version of it. If you were to use it, you might still have to use your illusion magic to make it look like the real thing." With one last look she hands the pin back to Glint. "Other than that... I got nothing, I'm afraid."


The wizard shifts in his chair. “Well… I don’t really know what else to do, so… I guess it can’t hurt to have them as a back-up…”


Glade's expressions lights up. "Great, uh-" she then stops, realizing something important "but I will need some time to prepare. I cannot make them now, but I will have some when you drop by in Daring Heights. But... how are you going to use them? I mean... won't you be questioned if you end up with one... what if they have a list of those who wear one?"


There is that dull glimmer in his eyes again. “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Maybe they need time to go check the list. Maybe they’ll believe one half-efreeti is helping another,” he shrugs uncaringly, like he’s talking about someone else. “Maybe we won’t need them at all. I’d rather have them and not use them, than need them and not have them. This is what you’d call “contingency”. But I would be immensely grateful if you can make me a brooch or two before I depart to Kundar,” he says, more like his usual self.


"It is settled then," she replies with some enthusiasm, "I shall make some stone replicas for you before you leave to Kundar."


“Much appreciated,” Glint nods, and goes to pick up his papers. “I’ll see you in Daring Heights by the end of the week, if that’s alright? And I’ll share any updates after my trip,” he adds hurriedly.


"I hope you won't get into too much trouble while trying to pull this off," she says with worry clear in her voice. She follows Glint, leaving the tower. "It's not wise to get into something that may be way over your head."


“Ah, dear Glade,” Glint smiles wistfully, dispelling their temporary shelter. “Where have you been when I was 14,” he says with a wink, but there is sadness behind his eyes.


"Probably in the grove, living in the trees," she mutters, but snaps out of it quickly. "Oh, you think Root will be ok if I use one of his trees to get back to Daring Heights?"


Glint shrugs. “I’m sure he can be persuaded,” he says with a trained smile as they walk in the morning breeze of Port Ffirst, accompanied by the incessant choir of seagulls.