1629, Sea Season, Harmony Week, Fireday
Context
The group are climbing towards Don’t Ask when Broo attack and Mellia is heroic. In the aftermath, Varanis is angry. Session SA4.10.
Events
In the aftermath of the fight, Varanis begins to take stock.
Irillo gets a quick glance to ensure that he’s fine. The Humakti dead are going to need dealing with – she glances at Berra to see if she’s got it in hand. Then Varanis stalks over to Mellia and Lenta.
“I have a lot to say right now,” she says as she draws near, her voice tight. “Let’s start with, are either of you injured?”
“I’m fine, thanks, Varanis,” Mellia responds. “Did I miss something when I cured that disease?”
Berra, meantime, is over by the body of Bleujen, but not paying attention to it. She is doing a debrief with the other surviving Humakti. All of them seem to be looking out for further trouble, even as they talk.
With her broo covered clothes in a pile in the ground Lenta shivers a bit. She frowns a bit as she wipes her stomach with a rag Mellia gave her earlier – apparently it smarts when applied to small scratches and cuts. Looking over her shoulder she shakes her head as response to Varanis.
Over by the Humakti, Berra indicates the up slope, and the direction in which she felt the enemy disappear.
“Thank you for curing me of whatever that was. Thank you for helping all of us. Why, in the name of all the gods, were you doing itthis close to the broo?????” She points to where Mellia and Lenta had been standing when the explosion hit.
Mellia looks at the marks left by the exploding broo and swallows hard. Then she snaps, “I was saving lives!”
“And if you’d died in the process? You don’t run as quickly as you normally do!” Varanis argues.
“… bees.” Berra is gesticulating over by the body.
Mellia pauses for a moment, then replies, “I should have brought my Truestone and put a Resurrection in it. Before you ask, Venlar’s got it.”
Varanis just gapes for a moment. “Can you at least acknowledge that running into that mess was not a great choice?!”
Berra’s voice drifts over. “-give a damn if they… hornets…. BAKED!”
Mellia shouts, “If I hadn’t, that Humakti would be in Humakt ‘s hall right now!”
Irillo says quietly, “Sorry. Next time I’ll disrupt the smoking one a long way away. I’m not a warrior.”
Lenta keeps on wiping icky stuff off her skin.
Mellia says to Irillo,” I don’t think anyone knew that broo explode. If there’s a next time, we will know better and do better.”
Berra leaves the other Humakti alone to wander over to the argument.
“You dealt with the trouble you could see in the way you knew how, Irillo. I didn’t know he’d explode either,” Varanis tells one cousin, before rounding on the other agin. “But, we all knew he’d try to kill all of us, including a pregnant White Lady!”
“Uh…” Berra looks confused.
“What?” Varanis demands.
Berra narrows her eyes. “Are you asking a White Lady not to heal people?”
“No,” Varanis snaps. “I’m asking her to do it safely. Without taking unnecessary risks! She and Lenta just about died!”
Berra looks to Mellia and back to Varanis. “Mm. The day after I met this woman, she saved my life. She dived into a cluster of ogres when I was about to be torn apart.”
“But she…. Argh! Fine. Fine. It’s all fine. If she dies, Maalira can bring her and the baby back. Right?” Varanis glares.
“Not my job to say.” The little Humakti looks down, though, and then glances at Mellia. “Hope so.”
Mellia mutters, “I’m not sure about the children.”
“Look. I was scared and we all know I sometimes yell when I’m scared. I didn’t mean to…” Varanis pauses. “No, I definitely meant to yell.”
“I meant to yell,” Mellia replies.
Lenta shudders a bit when Mellia says she was not sure of the children and extracts something from her hair.
“Look,” Varanis says, attempting a reasonable tone. “Can we just say that for a little bit longer, until you’ve had this baby, you avoid broo, rather than run towards them? Pretty much anyone else will try not to hurt you.”
“I can try,” Mellia answers. “I may even just stay home with Venlar. This waddling and peeing business is getting old.”
Berra nods. “We do go into danger so you don’t have to,” she says to Mellia, almost wistfully.
“You’re almost there,” Varanis tells her.
Mellia sighs. “I got my start on battlefields. Old habits die hard.”
Berra nods like she understands that.
“Bleujen was not going to run to you. Not with that leg…” Lenta says quietly and looks at the now dead and mangled Humakti.
Irillo mutters quietly, “So why do I go into danger?”
That garners a sympathetic look from Berra. Perhaps she has a soft spot for merchants.
Varanis glances at him. “I don’t know… you made the choice, dear one. I’m glad you did. They were stronger and more organized than I expected… speaking of which… did I see one higher up the slope? What was it doing and where did it go?”
“It’s gone – it meant to hurt Mellia, and then it changed its mind and fled.” Berra indicates direction with a jerk of her hand. “It probably jinked around a bit once I – once we – couldn’t sense it any more.”
“What are Lunars doing here?” asks Mellia.
“That armour looked very new and shiny,” Berra says with a dark look.
“Does it fit them?” Irillo checks.
A nod from the short Humakti. Berra knows armour.
“Will you two know if they come back?” Lenta asks and nods towards Mellia and the short Humakti.
“Overnight and for the morning, yes.” Berra also knows magic.
“Odd though” muses the Issarian. “If it were Onjur he’d ambush some of Argrath’s people or fake the armour as someone else”
“It’s not Onjur. If it was Onjur it would be subtle.” Maybe Berra knows Onjur too.
Up by the body, the two Humakti are starting to instruct Bleujen in the way her spirit will walk now.
Varanis watches them. Now that the anger is draining away, she looks tired. “I need to clean my sword.”
Mellia looks thoughtful. “Onjur is the only person, Lunar or not, who has tried to have me killed.”
“He hasn’t.” Berra shakes her head. “He really didn’t. He just asked if anyone would. But… he wouldn’t do it like this. He’d make sure someone was blamed and cause internal strife. This isn’t like him. It’s just broo.”
“Then what are random crazy Lunars doing here? How close are we to Tarsh ?” Mellia asked.
“Lunars give people money to buy armour.” Berra shrugs. “It doesn’t have to be just one person. Stay flexible.”
Berra pauses and then adds, “And if he knew you was here, he’d know I’s here, and when he comes for me, that bastard’s going to come hard. He’s not after us as names.”
“Who would know we are here? Kalis sent me after you and told you are heading for the Nunnery. She knows now that we are here. The trolls. People at Beast’s gather and Aranwyth. I find it unlikely that they would have specifically told that to anyne. And even if they would have done it, all of those got the information so late that sending the broos here as a reaction sounds unlikely.” Lenta looks around. “I don’t want to even touch those clothes anymore, nor clean ones before I am properly clean.”
Berra winces slightly. “Yeah. You need a cloak, though. Before nightfall.”
“I think we should press on. The question is do we have strength now or in the morning? We don’t yet know what the blockage under the hill is and if we need to fight there too.” Lenta looks up the hill and then at everyone in the group.
“As soon as we can,” Berra says. “The ceremony for Bleujen can be short, but we should finish it. We can leave her body here if it’s under rocks.” Something makes her smirk. “Irillo’s good at gathering those.”
Lenta nods and looks at Bleujen with a tear on her cheek.
Mellia tells Lenta, “Burn those clothes. Don’t touch them. Set them alight with magic if you can.”
Berra, of course, is dry-eyed. She wiggles her ankle as she watches the other two Humakti from a distance.
Mellia is the busy healer. She is probably postponing grief and shock.
Mellia comes over to Berra and asks, “Is something wrong with your ankle?”
“Yeah, just the twist in it from before. After that everything got quick.” Berra gestures over to where the mini rockslide got her. “And then something hit me, too.” She has a bruise on her left arm.
“We press on, when people are ready,” Varanis says decisively. “Up the hill. If Bleujen’s people want her brought back to the Tower, then we build a quick cairn now and pick her up on our way back down.” The Vingan is unmarked, now that the blotches have been dealt with. Even the splatter barely reached her, compared to those who were closer to the blast radius of the broo.
Mellia purses her lips and begins to examine Berra’s arm and ankle. “Forgive me, old friend, but I am going to try to do this without magic.”
“S’fine,” Berra says. “I’m in good shape mostly. Can you do it so I can keep on keeping an eye out?” That is, she does not want to sit down to have her ankle bound.
“I can try.”
Mellia just tells Berra to stand on the other foot for a minute.
Berra is good at balancing.
Mellia gets Berra all bandaged up, but is beginning to look tired. She waddles off to a nice safe spot and lies down.
Berra gives Mellia a deep nod in thanks, and a small smile. Then she leaves the White Lady alone.
