Varanis — 1626 0743 Grapes
????, Fire Season, Season/Illusion Week
Context
Fire Season/Illusion Week/Fire Day/Still in the morning. [[[s01:session-44|Session 44]]]
Berra and Varanis are visiting Irillo while he recuperates at the Temple of Chalana Arroy.
Follows immediately after [http://journeyoftheheroes.wikidot.com/varanis:1626-0741-facing-humakt Facing Humakt].
Events
Berra and Varanis make their way to the Temple of Chalana Arroy. At the Temple, they ask after Irillo.
Berra is looking much like a guard should – serious and a little bit dangerous, very professional. Very Humakti. Although there is the occasional sideways glance directed their way, the two women are escorted to a small room where Irillo is recovering.
“Irillo?” Varanis calls quietly from the entryway. “May we come in?”
“Let me put a robe on first!”
“Don’t strain anything doing it.” Berra then drops her voice a bit to ask Varanis, “Good sign?”
“Seems likely,” she replies.
“Soooo. It’s been sunny again.”
Varanis raises an eyebrow.
Berra, bad at small talk, keeps on trying. “Hot. Fire Season.”
“Yes. Though it gets hotter in Nochet,” her reply is absent-minded. “Do you think he’s ok? He’s taking a long time.” Varanis is staring at the curtained-off entry.
“He has to do it without straining his back. Think about how you’d do it, and then remember you’re stitched together.” Berra seems unworried about that notion.
“Alright. Safe now!”
“Maybe he has the robe on.” Berra decides to take that moment to cast Detect Enemies, with a very innocent look on her face.
Varanis steps past the privacy curtain and into the room, making room for Berra to follow her. She looks closely at her cousin, trying to assess his physical state.1Varanis rolled on First Aid for the hell of it. Failed. Berra passed.
Irillo looks a bit stiff in his movements but basically okay.2Or starting to come down with Creeping Chills.
“Irillo! Should you be out of bed? You look dead on your feet. Lie back down before I fetch the healers.” Varanis closes the distance between them quickly and places a gentle hand under Irillo’s elbow steering him back to his bed.
“Don’t,” says Berra. “Let him make his own decisions.”
Varanis stares at Berra in shock. “But…” She looks at Irillo again, dubious. “Cousin? Do you feel well enough to be up and about or did you only get up because we are disturbing your rest?”
“I am. Really. I am fine,” he reassures her.
Berra falls silent, but gives Irillo a wink. Maybe it’s the robe.
Varanis steps back and gives him room. Berra gives Varanis a quick nod, like that was well done.
He takes a breath. “So, what brings you here?”
Berra’s saying-nothing face is a picture. Varanis gives him a quiet summary of everything that has happened.
“An illusion?” he says at last, when the Vingan finishes her narrative.
“Probably. Or else something like the doubling that Onjur did when we fought him. Who knows what Lunar Magic is, or what illusions can do?” Berra speaks for the first time in a while.
“Eril wants us to do the LightBringers quest as soon as we can be ready. Are you well enough? I need you, cousin.”
“I will be. Issaries doesn’t need to be physically heroic, does he?”
Varanis shakes her head.
“You will probably be missing most of the Journey to the West, Lord Irillo,” Berra says. “Sword Eril will be able to send you more neatly than I could. You just have to be the Lightbringers’ Band when you are there.”
“Soon, then,” he replies.
Varanis nods. “I need your advice on another matter. I want to get word to my family. To warn my sister and brothers to take care. With Kallyr missing, people may come looking for them, especially if I fail or die. How can I warn them without putting them at greater risk?”
“Letter… or a friendly merchant?”
Berra puts in, “How can it be written so they don’t put their heads up to look?”
“There are things I’m concerned about putting in writing and I don’t want to draw attention to them if I can avoid it,” Varanis says, sounding practical and looking worried.
“She said it better,” Berra notes.
“Find an encoder then?”
The blank look from Berra could mean anything, but she does not ask.
“Xenofos would probably be able to handle that. Do you know any merchants here you could trust to get messages to Grandmother? She could probably arrange for someone to get them to the right places.” Varanis has begun to shift about the room, but seems to become aware of the fidgeting and returns to stillness.
“Don’t write to them,” says Berra. “Write to someone they would trust and tell anyway.”
“Grandmother Mirava, then. She visits her great granddaughters anyway, so she will see my sister.”
Irillo says, “I can find someone, yes.”
“Thank you. Do you need anything before I go?” She’s not fidgeting, but looks like she really wants to.
“Well, some grapes perhaps…?” comes his answer.
“Can we borrow Salid?” Berra pipes up. “He’ll probably stay here otherwise, and we might need an extra warrior. I’ll be away over Godday Night.”
“Of course… if he’ll go.”
Varanis arches an eyebrow. “Grapes? Do want them peeled too?”
“And good to see you,” Berra says like Varanis did not interject.
“Would you mind?” Irillo’s tone is too innocent as he looks at Varanis.
“I’ll send one of the trollkin for you, cousin of mine. They’ve been chomping at the bit to be helpful. Sometimes literally, and we don’t have the Grazelanders around the repair the tack.” She smiles sweetly at him.
“He’s not THAT hungry,” Berra points out. She levers herself away from the wall she was casualling against.
Irillo misunderstands, perhaps, “You’re sending a trollkin, a cousin of yours?”
Berra goes to find Salid, or else to be outside the door.
Varanis laughs. She walks over to Irillo, plants a kiss on his cheek, and says “Take care of yourself, cousin.” As she leaves the room, she’s still smiling.
- 1Varanis rolled on First Aid for the hell of it. Failed. Berra passed.
- 2Or starting to come down with Creeping Chills.
