Curing my Curse [Caelum]

[Talen Stirling]

He was content as he followed the healer into the shadow of the pear tree. The garden seemed a structured peaceful place of healing, just as the everything around this place seemed to him. As the healer leaned closer to some growth on the ground Talen did the same, although at a small distance. It was a pretty flower, one he'd never seen before. Instinctively, he was in awe of it for no other reason than his knowledge that it must be related to his cure. That and the fact he wasn't a man of flowers, and usually tried not to get too close to them 'lest he destroy them. When the healer smiled apologetically, he just smiled back at him and looked honestly curious. He leaned lower, yet didn't come closer for fear of getting in the man's way or stepping on the flowers. "Myrdas..?" As the healer told him the name and purpose of the flower he tasted the name. He liked it, and nodded absent mindedly to show that he understood the significance of the flower. A moment after, a thought and a question ocurred to him. "A surdent mushroom? One in your posession or one we have yet to aquire?" He grinned mischievously, he liked naming them as a group and sort of hoped there would be something he could do to help himself. Then again, perhaps his only task would be to pray and he would take to it as best he could.

[Caelum]

A grin caught the healer's mouth in answer to the watchman's. The combined mischief of the pair all but caused the sun to hide Her face behind the drifting clouds, but a little wind flew up over the lip of the cliff to muss at Talen's hair. It seemed abruptly as if the whole of nature was as eager as they for a break from tedium. "One we must acquire," Cian enunciated with relish while releasing the leaves and grasses that protected the star burst of precious flowers. He all but bounced back up to his feet, gesturing grandly toward the low, tumbling garden wall and the yawn of the sea cliff sinking beyond. "Out there. Down there. Well, something like that. It grows in only this one place 'round these parts I know of." He paused and stuck his tongue into his cheek, giving Talen sobering eyes. "It's a bit dangerous," he hazarded. "I've been there before, and never alone. We will play at wisdom and be certain to let someone know where we're going first, eh?" He sounded terribly hopeful, did the healer, as if wanderlust had grabbed him despite his determined station here at the end of the earth. Or perhaps it was adventure lust, or simple knowledge lust. The gods knew, no doubt, but no Denvali had ever fished free of Cian all of his mysteries and motivations.

[Talen Stirling]

Cian's share of his cheerful approach to the challenge made Talen grin slyly, everything from people to the weather seeming to be on his side today. His eyes followed the healer's gesture to the cliffs and the jagged rocks and crashing waves were daunting yet not enough to dampen his optimism. If there was a cure and they could find it, he was sure they would. When Cian advised care, Talen turned to him and nodded obediently like a good patient. The hint of a smile was still present on his face though, and they way his eyes vividly followed the healer's words suggested he was of no mind to play it safe or be cautious. "Yes, Master Nox. Where does the 'shroom grow? Will we have to sail? Or.. Climb?" That idea gave him pause, perhaps they should rather find someone else for such a task. He had little skill at navigating cliffsides, or picking mysterious mushrooms. Still, the healers apparent enthusiasm and his own happiness at a possible cure made Talen ready for anything.

[Caelum]

"Nothing we can't climb," Cian dismissed the watchman's concerns with a wave of his hand. This was as he whirled to trudge back towards the clinic, out from beneath the elongating shadows of grappling trees that, perhaps, were trying to stop him, stop them both. The beckon of another god bid him on. "We'll need to be wary of the tides," the healer continued on while shoving open a closet in the clinic corridor, having waltzed his way through the still room with his thoughts buzzing in hope of this new adventure. "They come in too high and we're too deep, could be bad. Very bad." Gasping for air at shallow puddles of it trapped between waves and cave ceiling. Yes, that would be bad. A knapsack thudded the floor and was swiftly loaded up with a strange assortment of materials. Everything from flint to canteen, strange seeming metal hooks to a small wooden box so thickly coated in beewax that it appeared to be melting in his hands before swallowed up by the canvas of the sack. "It shouldn't take too long, though," he went on, determining his way through a first aide kit that left him rising to wander back through the doorway into his still room whereupon he removed a series of things from drawers to stow and replace. "We'll be back for midnight. Jolan'll find us on our way down, so we can tell him. He'll alert Astrid. Hey --" And he spun around, throwing a grin at Talen. "Maybe we'll find a giant fish to cook for dinner while we're at it." The knap sack was heaved onto a shoulder in short order, the clinic left behind with long strides that darn near bounced as Cian picked and plucked his way down a winding path -- more like a goat trail -- side-winding through the face of the sea cliff begun at his garden's end.

[Talen Stirling]

Talen shrugged and followed the healer blindly, with a trusty smile. Whatever made him the healer intent on going through with this so soon and on his own he didn't know, yet it didn't matter. He had faith in Cian Nox, and the drive that called him to act was at least as strong as the one that gripped the healer. It would be salvation. The healer rambled as he worked, hands working deftly in packing gear and strange supplies many of which Talen hadn't a clue at what were for. He followed him and listened, nodding confirmation if the healer looked to see if he understood. The idea of being trapped by water made him nervous, but Cian's obvious confidence calmed his doubts. The healer was capable - The man was already abit of a legend for his skills at his job. He followed the healer further as he went into his still room, but waited in the doorway rather than enter. They'd be leaving anyway, and he wouldn't know what to pack... Alert Astrid? Talen leaned on the doorframe and looked curiously at the healer, yet despite the hint of doubt that had crept into his mind he couldn't help but shoot a grin back at the healer. "Maybe... How we're gon' catch it is a problem we'll look into when the time comes huh'?" He shot back. Perhaps that was what the hooks were for. Then again, most likely they'd have a more serious task ahead of them. He was still content, and took up position just appropriately far enough from the healer. The same position he would have taken up on a patrol. He walked swiftly as the healer, and was happy to follow in his path, a path that would hopefully lead to his cure.

[Caelum]

Down the narrow path side-winding through the brush and bracken, past thin, crippled trees bowed by the sea wind and shoots of wildflowers mingled with brambles and berries, they walked and Cian rambled. He talked in that diluted accent of his that had a habit of reminding the Denvali he was not one of them by birth, instead only by years and service. He was telling a story about how he met the little girl Haddy who so often could be found underfoot at the clinic. It had been a disaster of an afternoon years ago when Cian and Haddy's mother had both found themselves in the bakery. Blood and sweat, water and screams had littered the otherwise cheerful shop when an accident at the ovens and the resulted fire had triggered a trauma induced miscarriage. Of course, the woman never miscarried. Cian had seen to that on the Denval street while the Watch and helpful citizens streamed past, putting out flames. A long, trial filled month later, he finally delivered the little girl safely into the world and her mother's arms. As he told the story, however, he managed to not paint himself as a hero. He instead talked about the mother's courage and endurance, the swift actions of the baker and the Watch, the generosity of all of Denval. It was plain that he loved this city for the people who inhabited it, that in fact he felt the city was its citizens. Cian Noc had a lot of faith in gods, but it was becoming clear that he held maybe just as much in the good of man. The shore line curved at the base of the cliff, spilling into a gentle hill spiked with rocks where it met the waves of a retreating tide. He found his foot holds through them, the path growing increasingly more narrow and treacherous as it led them around the face of rock. Sand and dirt, leftover grasses struggling to hold them still together, bled up into the floor of a cave's opening. "Here we are," Cian announced to the Watchmen before climbing the last feet through the stone mouth.

[Talen Stirling]

Talen followed the healer, a friendly smile finding it's way to his lips as Cian told his story. The healer had saved many people in Denval, himself included, and even if he didn't emphasize his own role in what had happened it was still clear that Nox was a great blessing for their community. Unwaringly, or perhaps not so, the healer's story convinced Talen that he was one to be trusted, perhaps even loved. They obviously shared the same goals, although their reasoning might be different their pledge to serve and protect was alike. In no better way could the healer have convinced the warrior to follow him to the ends of their quest and the cliff. Talen moved carefully behind the healer, supporting often on the rocks and cliff. The tide was growling intimidatingly a ways off as they neared the cave mouth, and he glanced at it with worried eyes before answering the healer's obvious statement. "Likeable place.. How long have we got?" He crawled through the entrance space after the healer without hesitation despite his question, and looked around curiously. Something so foreign so close to Denval was a rare sight after living there 20 years.

[Caelum]

"Four or so hours," Cian answered with an expert's certainty. A glance was tossed over his shoulder at the tide that was their time piece and mortality reminder. One corner of his mouth skewed in to what was, inevitably, half a smile and half a broken heart. He never realized it displayed the latter. "We'll turn that to two to be on the safe side. Here --" A hand caught Talen's in a light grip and the healer boosted himself atop a particularly slippery rock to bellow out the cave mouth at the sky. "JOLAN!" The hand not attached to Talen's shoulder waved wildly until one of the circling gulls hunting up their supper took an abrupt swoop down. "KEEP AN EYE OUT, MATE!" The sea gull's harsh cry guttered before with a flap of wings it lazed back up to seek out the bubbling currents in the waters that typically housed schools of delicious fish. "Jolan," Cian offered Talen while hopping down from his perch, pack bouncing against his back. "Kelvic, yeah? Keeps eyes open at the docks. Good lad, if a bit shifty in the fingers. Come on. Try not to, ah, touch anything you don't have to." With that the healer spun about and removed a pair of short torches prepared back at the clinic. They were the both of them handed to the younger man before he rummaged up a bit of flint and used the knife from his boot to strike out quick sparks. They caught fast and with a hiss that seemed to echo down the dark of the cave, thrown back at them in strange, slithering echoes as the healer took back one of the torches for himself. "This is a back entrance to the mines," Cian explained as they walked. The path was narrow and as the daylight dimmed the farther they walked from it, shadows were thrown by stones and debris that seemed here beneath the surface of the world to still lay where Ivak's Grief had left them centuries before. "There," he jerked his chin toward a dusty but stalwart wooden beam that ripped up the stone wall after five or so minutes of walking. "The supports. There wasn't much copper this far down the shaft. It's a branch off the main tunnel," he went on as the support beams grew more regular and the glow from their torches caught in sparkles and winks against shining, worthless veins in the walls and ceiling. "Fortunately, the fungus we're looking for is not too deep. Well, it would be farther if we took the primary route. Day grows short. This is better. Besides, last time I tried to access it from the other side, well," he grimaced. "Let's just say I'd rather not repeat the adventure. There are funny patches in our mines, Talen. Patches we're going to avoid like the plague."

[Talen Stirling]

Talen followed the healer's words and movements with the rapt attention that he bestowed only upon those who had earned his respect and he considered his leaders. Once given, he was always keen to follow orders and suit in any way possible. When the healer grasped for support he provided it readily and steadily, although he knew not why he wanted to climb the rock. He looked at the healer curiously, but his unspoken question was answered when he yelled to the skies. He knew of Jolan, and nodded a silent confirmation when the healer explained and jumped down from the boulder. He was ready to support him if he lost his balance, unnecesary as it may be because the healer moved gracefully. Taking one torch in either hand, he swung them around contemplatively each in turn while Cian rummaged. They seemed like the toy swords he'd fought and played with as a child. Maybe he could still... He threw one up in the air with a jolt of his wrist, it spun around and he caught the handle carefully in the palm of his hand. As Cian got up and turned to him with the flint and steel, he couldn't but try another trick and swung the righthand torch around resting it on the back of his hand and caught it as it came back down. He reached them out to the healer with a innocent grin, they caught light quickly and he passed the one of them along. They started moving, and soon those two torches become the only light in an old darkness. The walls were moist and slippery, water resting trapped between rocks leftover from the tide with weeds and sea critters searching for the missing sea. It didn't feel like a safe darkness, but the kind of dark that doesn't pass away with the sunrise. The kind of dark that would trap you, blind you and drown you. Talen appreciated the healer's talking, even if it wasn't truly interesting. It was better than the sounds of drops falling from the ceiling, and held a promise of a way out. He surely wouldn't admit to being scared, but healthy caution was definetely close to his mind. Just like the torch, held as close as possible without setting his hair alight. "Allright.. You won't hear me objecting to us getting this over with as quickly and safely as possible. Priskil light our way." He murmured his little dark comment with a nervous voice, yet the prayer with a conviction that echoed with promise and faith. Faith in his goddess, and now also the healer.

[Caelum]

The healer's laugh caught in the cave like a moth in a lantern, fluttering and whizzing with a smoke addled glow. "Handy with those," he cast Talen a grin, nodding to the unlit torches. Before striking at the flint to bring back the light, he snatched up one to flip it in a cartwheel about the breadth of a strong wrist, mimicking the guard's moves. Maybe he, too, had practiced and played with wooden swords as a child; but that fit poorly with the present day face of this priest of Rak'keli. After all, even after over eight years of dedicated service to Denval, his citizenship continued to be denied for his refusal to take up arms. Funny, though, considering he was a member of the Dandy Guild. One had to presume the guild members had good reason. Captain Astrid herself was a member. Mention of Priskil left Cian unnaturally quiet, the only sound in the world that of crackling flame and sleeping earth beneath the tread of their footsteps. He looked back at Talen with an expression suggesting he was going to speak, but he seemed to decide against it as they traveled deeper into the bowels of the earth. They came upon a split in the path, the edge of their light licking up the feet of something strange and old. “We stay to the right that,” Cian said, tilting his head in that direction. As he did so, the flames of their torches guttered beneath an abrupt wind. It was as if the tunnel itself exhaled. For a handful of heartbeats the light increased exponentially due to the flux of oxygen, but the reprieve was short lived and in a smoky whoosh both torches went out to leave them in the black. “The hell,” Cian muttered.