Post by Malri 'Taffeta' Thistletop on Sept 9, 2019 6:06:36 GMT
1496 DR, 18 Flamerule
(seven days after this conversation)
The sun is still somewhere behind the hills, but the sky has begun to lighten to a cool grey-blue in anticipation of its arrival. The dim light soaks through the small window of the entresol and outlines Taffeta’s face as she sits still and silent. From here she can see out into the town, and down into the main room of the house: front door, larder door, Rose’s bedroom curtain; steps up to the girls’ bedroom and hers and Nerry’s.
A slight creak from that direction – she looks and sees familiar feet coming down the steps. Nerry pads across the main room, looking around blearily. Then he looks up and sees her, starts climbing the steps.
‘Couldn’t sleep, my morning lark?’ he whispers as he reaches the top of the steps. She shakes her head. He lowers himself down to sit on the floor next to her; notices the crossbow resting, loaded, nearby. Waits.
‘Another nightmare?’ he asks after a while. She shakes her head again. Says nothing.
‘Aila told me about the one she had,’ Nerry says. ‘She dreamt we were all having dinner together, down there. And then it got very cold and the front door opened. And there were… vines?’ He looks at his wife. She nods slightly, not looking at him. ‘Black vines? With red eyes, and big thorns on them?’ She says nothing. He carries on. ‘She said they came in through the door and started grabbing everything.’
‘Then her necklace was hot, it was burning her – the one she got from the… golden dragon?’ Taffeta’s mouth moves a little. Nerry can’t hear any sound but the shape of her lips reminds him of the dragon’s name. ‘Zmee,’ he says, ‘yes, that was it. She couldn’t take the necklace off, she said, but then it stopped burning and the vines swallowed her up.’ Taffeta nods again.
‘You had the same dream? The same night?’ asks Nerry. Taffeta nods, then shakes her head. ‘There was more,’ she mumbles. Nerry waits.
‘After that,’ she says, a little while later. ‘I woke up. Thought I did. In a… a ruined temple.’ She stops. Nerry gently takes her hand and squeezes it. ‘Zmee was there. Hurt, ve–’ She stops and clears her throat. ‘Very hurt.’ Nerry realizes she probably hasn’t had anything to drink since the night before, but he’s reluctant to interrupt now she’s talking. He stays still for now. ‘Couldn’t fly. Another dragon attacked her. It was… pale. Thin. Like it was already dead. I tried to help her, but… lightning hit me… Then I really woke up. And…’ She looks at the golden bracelet on her wrist.
Nerry nods. She’d woken him up in a panic and shown him the bracelet. It had had glowing letters on it. He’d read them to her: ‘The job is not done. I need you. Ask Daisy.’
He pats her hand and says, ‘I’ll make some tea. Will you come down?’ She looks anxiously at the window. ‘Okay,’ he says, ‘I’ll bring it up.’
The clouds near the horizon have started to turn pink and yellow by the time Nerry has lit the fire, boiled the water, and brewed the tea. Nobody else is up yet. Taffeta holds her mug in both hands, only occasionally remembering to sip from it.
‘Now, my love,’ says Nerry after taking a gulp of his, ‘You still haven’t told me what happened yesterday after you rushed off.’
‘Oh… I, uh.’ She looks away from the window and takes a moment to fully absorb what her husband just said. ‘I went to the Ettin to see Daisy. I was telling her about the dream and Ginead crashed in. Said he’d had the same dream. He was shouting, so these other people came over. Jacinta was one of them, I told you about her…’ Taffeta sips a little more tea, looking out of the window again, then down at the front door.
‘Daisy said we should go to the dryads. In the Angelbark. Jacinta came too, and a few others… I don’t remember their names.’
Nerry frowns a little. This is unlike her: Taffeta is normally very good with names. And better than this with stories, too. ‘What did the dryads say, my buttercup?’ he prompts her.
‘Mm. Ellie said the vines sounded like dark druidic magic. And the, uh. The temple sounded like what their sister was building. Iraya. The balance… They said the birds are sick. The balance is wrong. Daisy said we should go to Iraya’s temple, and she’d go with the dryads to check on Zmee. Ellie sent us by magic but it didn’t… we didn’t get there.’ She rubs her eyes and rolls her shoulders.
‘We arrived in… some kind of cave. It wasn’t the shadowfell. I think it was the underdark. There were goblins and… some kind of flat flying thing that wrapped itself round me… and a big… I think someone said it was a hobgoblin? It knew who Ginead was, had some kind of grudge against him. Or… maybe it worked for someone who did. Said something about him having powerful enemies, I… I didn’t really listen. Everyone was crowding around, I didn’t even see really. There was some kind of symbol on something the hobgoblin had… a medallion? I don’t know. Ellie said it’s something to do with the… the Gorr family. She came to find us, teleported – brought us back to the grove.’
Taffeta says nothing for a while, looking out at the orange and yellow seeping across the sky. The sun will be up soon. Eventually Nerry asks, ‘So you didn’t find the temple?’
His wife shakes her head. ‘Ellie said her teleportation spell was… compromised. Like a trap. For Ginead maybe. Daisy and the others went to Zmee’s cave but… she’s gone. And her little fey dragons too. No sign of anything, they’re just gone. Oh!’ Suddenly the weary blankness on Taffeta’s face is replaced by alarm and dismay. ‘I shouldn’t have – They said not to tell anyone! You mustn’t say anything, please.’
‘I won’t, love,’ says Nerry quickly. ‘Of course I won’t. But why?’
‘I’m not sure… They said someone might try to do something bad if they know Zmee isn’t protecting the balance…’
‘So what happens next?’
‘I don’t know,’ says Taffeta quietly. ‘They said we should just go home and look out for anything strange. They’re going to try and find out more…’ She trails off and falls silent.
The pair sit for a time as the yellows and oranges deepen above the roofs and tree-tops outside, Taffeta all the time looking from door to window, window to door.
At last Nerry clears his throat and asks, ‘My love, my tawny owl – what’s wrong?’
‘Zmee…’ mumbles Taffeta, but Nerry gently puts a hand on her shoulder.
‘No, love. More than a tenday ago you insisted all five of us had to go to Port Ffirst so you could talk to Paw, and you didn’t say why. Then when Idari went missing it was like you thought you knew what had happened… and when she came back safe, you blew up at her like… well, like I’ve never seen you. And yesterday – I see why you left in a hurry to find Daisy, but why did you tell the rest of us not to leave the house? And not to answer the door to anyone, even… what did you say? something like “even if you think it’s someone you know”? I can tell there’s something else. We’ve known each other more than twenty years, love. You’re… scared about something, and you’ve been scared for a while.’
Her face is turned away but Nerry has felt Taffeta’s shoulder growing more and more tense as he speaks. She says nothing for a moment, then –
‘I… I don’t know… There’s something…’ The shoulder rises and falls as she draws a deep, slightly shaky breath. ‘When I helped Paw find that stone… The tabaxi we fought… One of them wasn’t a tabaxi. It was… It was something called a rakshasa. I think it’s from the hells. And… I killed it. But I didn’t, because… everyone says these things don’t die. They just… go back to where they came from, and… grow again, or… I don’t know… and then they come back and… Oh Nerry!’ Suddenly Taffeta is sobbing and gasping, jolting against Nerry’s hand. He pulls her close and holds her shaking body tightly. ‘It’s going to come after all of us! And it can look like anybody! Sunday said it could – it could kill you all and make me watch, or it could come home looking like me and kill you and you’d think it was me…’ She curls up against Nerry, choking and sobbing. ‘I’m sorry... sorry for everything... I’m so sorry...’
The warm light of dawn is starting to suffuse the house and Nerry is speaking softly, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the entresol, his wife curled on her side next to him with her head resting on his knee.
‘... and you think we should wait for Paw?’
‘I don’t know,’ replies Taffeta’s exhausted, throaty voice. ‘I wanted to, but… it’s been days, I don’t know when she’s coming back… and then what happened yesterday…’
‘You think it was something to do with the…?’
‘The rakshasa? I don’t know. Maybe not. But with Zmee gone, and the bracelet not working any more...’
‘Working?’ asks Nerry.
‘It helps me… guess what people are thinking, I suppose. Sense if something isn’t right about someone. If they’re lying, maybe. But I don’t feel that now, since yesterday, and… it just makes me worry even more. I feel like anybody I meet could be… that thing…’
‘So. What do we do?’
‘I don’t know… I was thinking we could move out of the house but…’
‘Would that be safer?’
‘Maybe. Harder to find. Maybe easier to defend. But the girls...’
‘They’ll understand. And they’d probably rather be somewhere else than sitting in here all day not going out. Where could we go? Back to Reaching? Or to the dryads?’
‘I don’t want to bring danger back to Reaching. And the dryads are weakened without Zmee. Maybe deeper in the Angelbark. Find somewhere there’s nobody around.’
‘Then let’s go. I can see you don’t feel safe here. We’ll need some time to pack up: shall we go tomorrow?’
Taffeta sighs heavily. ‘All right. Tomorrow night. After dark, so no one sees.’
‘That’s settled, then,’ says Nerry, gently easing his leg out from under her and pushing a bag of fabric scraps under her head to replace it. ‘I’ll go and wake up Mam and the girls, and tell them what’s happening. Oof,’ he says as he stands up, his knees aching a little. ‘Then I’ll make breakfast and we can start packing. Do you want breakfast or would you rather…?’
He looks back at Taffeta. She’s asleep on the floor with her head resting on the bag of cloth. Behind her, outside the window, a red sun is rising.
(seven days after this conversation)
The sun is still somewhere behind the hills, but the sky has begun to lighten to a cool grey-blue in anticipation of its arrival. The dim light soaks through the small window of the entresol and outlines Taffeta’s face as she sits still and silent. From here she can see out into the town, and down into the main room of the house: front door, larder door, Rose’s bedroom curtain; steps up to the girls’ bedroom and hers and Nerry’s.
A slight creak from that direction – she looks and sees familiar feet coming down the steps. Nerry pads across the main room, looking around blearily. Then he looks up and sees her, starts climbing the steps.
‘Couldn’t sleep, my morning lark?’ he whispers as he reaches the top of the steps. She shakes her head. He lowers himself down to sit on the floor next to her; notices the crossbow resting, loaded, nearby. Waits.
‘Another nightmare?’ he asks after a while. She shakes her head again. Says nothing.
‘Aila told me about the one she had,’ Nerry says. ‘She dreamt we were all having dinner together, down there. And then it got very cold and the front door opened. And there were… vines?’ He looks at his wife. She nods slightly, not looking at him. ‘Black vines? With red eyes, and big thorns on them?’ She says nothing. He carries on. ‘She said they came in through the door and started grabbing everything.’
‘Then her necklace was hot, it was burning her – the one she got from the… golden dragon?’ Taffeta’s mouth moves a little. Nerry can’t hear any sound but the shape of her lips reminds him of the dragon’s name. ‘Zmee,’ he says, ‘yes, that was it. She couldn’t take the necklace off, she said, but then it stopped burning and the vines swallowed her up.’ Taffeta nods again.
‘You had the same dream? The same night?’ asks Nerry. Taffeta nods, then shakes her head. ‘There was more,’ she mumbles. Nerry waits.
‘After that,’ she says, a little while later. ‘I woke up. Thought I did. In a… a ruined temple.’ She stops. Nerry gently takes her hand and squeezes it. ‘Zmee was there. Hurt, ve–’ She stops and clears her throat. ‘Very hurt.’ Nerry realizes she probably hasn’t had anything to drink since the night before, but he’s reluctant to interrupt now she’s talking. He stays still for now. ‘Couldn’t fly. Another dragon attacked her. It was… pale. Thin. Like it was already dead. I tried to help her, but… lightning hit me… Then I really woke up. And…’ She looks at the golden bracelet on her wrist.
Nerry nods. She’d woken him up in a panic and shown him the bracelet. It had had glowing letters on it. He’d read them to her: ‘The job is not done. I need you. Ask Daisy.’
He pats her hand and says, ‘I’ll make some tea. Will you come down?’ She looks anxiously at the window. ‘Okay,’ he says, ‘I’ll bring it up.’
—o|o—
The clouds near the horizon have started to turn pink and yellow by the time Nerry has lit the fire, boiled the water, and brewed the tea. Nobody else is up yet. Taffeta holds her mug in both hands, only occasionally remembering to sip from it.
‘Now, my love,’ says Nerry after taking a gulp of his, ‘You still haven’t told me what happened yesterday after you rushed off.’
‘Oh… I, uh.’ She looks away from the window and takes a moment to fully absorb what her husband just said. ‘I went to the Ettin to see Daisy. I was telling her about the dream and Ginead crashed in. Said he’d had the same dream. He was shouting, so these other people came over. Jacinta was one of them, I told you about her…’ Taffeta sips a little more tea, looking out of the window again, then down at the front door.
‘Daisy said we should go to the dryads. In the Angelbark. Jacinta came too, and a few others… I don’t remember their names.’
Nerry frowns a little. This is unlike her: Taffeta is normally very good with names. And better than this with stories, too. ‘What did the dryads say, my buttercup?’ he prompts her.
‘Mm. Ellie said the vines sounded like dark druidic magic. And the, uh. The temple sounded like what their sister was building. Iraya. The balance… They said the birds are sick. The balance is wrong. Daisy said we should go to Iraya’s temple, and she’d go with the dryads to check on Zmee. Ellie sent us by magic but it didn’t… we didn’t get there.’ She rubs her eyes and rolls her shoulders.
‘We arrived in… some kind of cave. It wasn’t the shadowfell. I think it was the underdark. There were goblins and… some kind of flat flying thing that wrapped itself round me… and a big… I think someone said it was a hobgoblin? It knew who Ginead was, had some kind of grudge against him. Or… maybe it worked for someone who did. Said something about him having powerful enemies, I… I didn’t really listen. Everyone was crowding around, I didn’t even see really. There was some kind of symbol on something the hobgoblin had… a medallion? I don’t know. Ellie said it’s something to do with the… the Gorr family. She came to find us, teleported – brought us back to the grove.’
Taffeta says nothing for a while, looking out at the orange and yellow seeping across the sky. The sun will be up soon. Eventually Nerry asks, ‘So you didn’t find the temple?’
His wife shakes her head. ‘Ellie said her teleportation spell was… compromised. Like a trap. For Ginead maybe. Daisy and the others went to Zmee’s cave but… she’s gone. And her little fey dragons too. No sign of anything, they’re just gone. Oh!’ Suddenly the weary blankness on Taffeta’s face is replaced by alarm and dismay. ‘I shouldn’t have – They said not to tell anyone! You mustn’t say anything, please.’
‘I won’t, love,’ says Nerry quickly. ‘Of course I won’t. But why?’
‘I’m not sure… They said someone might try to do something bad if they know Zmee isn’t protecting the balance…’
‘So what happens next?’
‘I don’t know,’ says Taffeta quietly. ‘They said we should just go home and look out for anything strange. They’re going to try and find out more…’ She trails off and falls silent.
—o|o—
The pair sit for a time as the yellows and oranges deepen above the roofs and tree-tops outside, Taffeta all the time looking from door to window, window to door.
At last Nerry clears his throat and asks, ‘My love, my tawny owl – what’s wrong?’
‘Zmee…’ mumbles Taffeta, but Nerry gently puts a hand on her shoulder.
‘No, love. More than a tenday ago you insisted all five of us had to go to Port Ffirst so you could talk to Paw, and you didn’t say why. Then when Idari went missing it was like you thought you knew what had happened… and when she came back safe, you blew up at her like… well, like I’ve never seen you. And yesterday – I see why you left in a hurry to find Daisy, but why did you tell the rest of us not to leave the house? And not to answer the door to anyone, even… what did you say? something like “even if you think it’s someone you know”? I can tell there’s something else. We’ve known each other more than twenty years, love. You’re… scared about something, and you’ve been scared for a while.’
Her face is turned away but Nerry has felt Taffeta’s shoulder growing more and more tense as he speaks. She says nothing for a moment, then –
‘I… I don’t know… There’s something…’ The shoulder rises and falls as she draws a deep, slightly shaky breath. ‘When I helped Paw find that stone… The tabaxi we fought… One of them wasn’t a tabaxi. It was… It was something called a rakshasa. I think it’s from the hells. And… I killed it. But I didn’t, because… everyone says these things don’t die. They just… go back to where they came from, and… grow again, or… I don’t know… and then they come back and… Oh Nerry!’ Suddenly Taffeta is sobbing and gasping, jolting against Nerry’s hand. He pulls her close and holds her shaking body tightly. ‘It’s going to come after all of us! And it can look like anybody! Sunday said it could – it could kill you all and make me watch, or it could come home looking like me and kill you and you’d think it was me…’ She curls up against Nerry, choking and sobbing. ‘I’m sorry... sorry for everything... I’m so sorry...’
—o|o—
The warm light of dawn is starting to suffuse the house and Nerry is speaking softly, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the entresol, his wife curled on her side next to him with her head resting on his knee.
‘... and you think we should wait for Paw?’
‘I don’t know,’ replies Taffeta’s exhausted, throaty voice. ‘I wanted to, but… it’s been days, I don’t know when she’s coming back… and then what happened yesterday…’
‘You think it was something to do with the…?’
‘The rakshasa? I don’t know. Maybe not. But with Zmee gone, and the bracelet not working any more...’
‘Working?’ asks Nerry.
‘It helps me… guess what people are thinking, I suppose. Sense if something isn’t right about someone. If they’re lying, maybe. But I don’t feel that now, since yesterday, and… it just makes me worry even more. I feel like anybody I meet could be… that thing…’
‘So. What do we do?’
‘I don’t know… I was thinking we could move out of the house but…’
‘Would that be safer?’
‘Maybe. Harder to find. Maybe easier to defend. But the girls...’
‘They’ll understand. And they’d probably rather be somewhere else than sitting in here all day not going out. Where could we go? Back to Reaching? Or to the dryads?’
‘I don’t want to bring danger back to Reaching. And the dryads are weakened without Zmee. Maybe deeper in the Angelbark. Find somewhere there’s nobody around.’
‘Then let’s go. I can see you don’t feel safe here. We’ll need some time to pack up: shall we go tomorrow?’
Taffeta sighs heavily. ‘All right. Tomorrow night. After dark, so no one sees.’
‘That’s settled, then,’ says Nerry, gently easing his leg out from under her and pushing a bag of fabric scraps under her head to replace it. ‘I’ll go and wake up Mam and the girls, and tell them what’s happening. Oof,’ he says as he stands up, his knees aching a little. ‘Then I’ll make breakfast and we can start packing. Do you want breakfast or would you rather…?’
He looks back at Taffeta. She’s asleep on the floor with her head resting on the bag of cloth. Behind her, outside the window, a red sun is rising.