Closed Home,Sweet Home (Kuvarakh)

[Alea Campbello]

27th Winter 512 AV

Alea stumbled into Alvadas and then fell onto the ground. She slowly picked herself up and looked around. Alvadas had changed since she was last here, but of course it had, it was Alvadas. He looked up and then saw a familiar face. She ran as fast as she could towards the alley that the man was in.

She got to him and jumped on his back.
"Kuvarakh!" She shouted as she done a forward flip over his shoulder.
She then realised that she had left her satchel over from where she had ran from. She pushed the djed to her fingertips and then manipulated the res over to her satchel, from there she pushed the res up and towards her, turning it to air at the last moment. It flew up and she jumped up, catching it in mid air. She then turned to Kuvarakh.
"So, what have you been up to"

[Kuvarakh]

The blow sent him stumbling, if not quite collapsing, forward several steps. There was something familiar about the voice. Something that relieved the sense that he was being assaulted, and made it more playful. He put all his effort into a spin, only to have the weight suddenly disappear as he nearly collapsed, spinning, from his OWN effort now.

A shadow passed overhead and he managed to regain his balance in time to see a satchel end its flight in the hands of a woman. A familiar looking woman. A familiar looking naked woman. Propriety demanded he turn his gaze away. Were he not a Nuit, his blush would have been profound, for the glimpse he inadvertently enjoyed was quite superb. Black, feathery hair, sharp features and a very capably athletic build. 'Ahhh...to be young...and alive...again.'

"Wait, what? Alea? Is that you?" he asked, still avoiding making eye contact while she dressed herself. He knew she was a Kelvic and would need to dress after any transformation back to human form. "Up to? Oh, nothing too extraordinary. Just working and holding down the fort, as they say. Eridanus has left me in charge temporarily. Most of the guild has gone east to involve themselves in some difficulty back there. I have gotten a few updates, but they don't really clarify much as far as anyone's return, though it is good to hear that they are all okay."

It occurred to him that she had gone the other way just prior to the news of the events that had led so many members to depart east. "I thought you had relocated to Riverfall? Did you have a change of heart?" hope crept into his voice as he asked, to be replaced suddenly by concern. "Did something go wrong? Are you okay?"

[Alea Campbello]

Alea realised that he was averting his eyes, she looked at him confused and then realised she wasn't wearing any clothes. She quickly put on her leather suit.
"I never got as far as Riverfall," she said to him.
Should she tell him about the bodies, after all, maybe it wasn't her maybe it was a rogue wizard or a wild animal. But maybe it was her, maybe she would be killed or worse. After a long time of pondering whether not to tell him, she decided to. Maybe he could help her.

"I woke up surrounded by trees in a place that I didn't know. I circled around for a while before finding my bearings and setting off. I flew for a while until I spotted bodies on the ground. I flew down to them and found, well I found something very disturbing" She stopped, controlling herself and then continued, "They had crow feathers on them, then I walked for a while longer and found more...bodies. They were impaled on spikes that were unnatural there" she looked at him, pleading for some help.

"Can we go somewhere more private" she said and then climbed onto a rooftop to spot the Order's headquarters. It was only a few minutes away, for now. She nodded towards it and then set off, this time on foot.

[Kuvarakh]

"There are a number of unused rooms back at the facility right now. With so many gone, I've been indulging in some creative scheduling. Smaller classes, trainees getting some lecture and demonstrative experience subbing as teachers. I've got more one-on-one time for every one, but in many cases, it's left unsaid who is technically the instructor and who is the student. Often the roles switch spontaneously, mid-session."

Kuvarakh continued to ramble as they walked. He kept his eyes forward, for the most part, but he was very aware of the change in the woman beside him as they neared The Order's main building. She had been quite animated when she first spied him, indulging in good-natured sport. Now she was reserved to the point of anxiety. He babbled on about the mundane dealings of the facility, seeing if a routine topic of conversation would set her at ease.

It was easy enough to guess what was on her mind. Dead bodies, earth spikes, crow feathers, she herself an earth reimancer, as well as a raven Kelvic. They reached the front door and Kuvarakh stopped. "Here we are. We should have no problem finding a secluded room."

He gently took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. "I think I can guess what's troubling you, Alea. Did you, by any chance, collect any of the feathers that were at the scene? I ask not only for the purposes of color and texture comparison, but I've also been curious about something related to Kelvics in particular that I think is especially pertinent. If the feathers are yours, as I think you believe, are they replaced anew by a change back and forth between your two forms? Basically, do you keep scars when you transform?"

[Alea Campbello]

Alea walked with Kuvarakh up to the building. She listened closely to what he said, it took her mind off the incident. They eventually reached the building and Kuvarakh found them a quiet room to talk in. She listened to him and smiled. It was weird for her to have someone help her. She grabbed her satchel and pulled out a feather. She passed it over to Kuvarakh and then began taking her clothes off so she could change.
"If you want to avert your eyes then you may," she said smiling. Then she was surrounded by bright lights.Then she perched on the desk, hoping Kuvarakh would check if she had any scars.

[Kuvarakh]

Even after nearly an hundred years, Kuvarakh still remembered desire, though he lacked the blood to truly manifest it. He had supposed it would be long forgotten by now. 'Maybe in another hundred years...' he groaned inwardly. Alea's smile was mischievous. But there was still the undercurrent of anxiety.

"Yes, my dear, I WILL avert my eyes, thank you." Closed as well as averted, he still perceived the light as the Kelvic transformed back to her raven form. He brushed his horizontal finger against her taloned feet and she hopped upon it. He lifted her, turning her to different angles and heights as he held the feather along side, comparing shade, gleam, shape and density.

Her gaze was piercing. Kuvarakh made an effort to show no sign of his assessment. His spirit sank as he saw, what appeared to him, a perfect match. He tried to cover it by remarking on the light being disappointingly dim, hoping she would believe that was the source of his frown. he carried her over to the door and again compared angles and lighting.

He tried to recall avian terminology and began to ramble about 'rachis spread and opposing angles of up versus down curved edges on opposite sides of the calamus. As well as the color fade point at the quill tip, extending to a greater differential of vane length percentage resulting from an extended downy barb and after-feather band.'

He was relieved to see Alea's raven head cock to the side in confusion, and then heave a sigh of relief as Kuvarakh finished up his assessment "I am quite certain, with all these discrepancies, that this is NOT one of your feathers." He did follow up with the disclaimer that he did see some scars, though. He did not want to come off as if there was absolutely NO points of concern, as that would probably be TOO positive to be entirely believable.

He didn't know quite what to think, though. Every indication was that she'd been there and been in a struggle. Having no memory was a disturbing element, but he did not believe she had murdered a bunch of people and blocked out the memory. He could try hypnosis, but that might trigger something best left alone for now.

One thing that stood out in her favor, though he knew his knowledge of reimancy was sketchy at best, was that the power to generate multiple spikes as an attack took a higher level of command than Alea possessed. She had always stated "air" to be her primary element. He recalled, years ago in Ravok, how a master had used that attack against him. And while it was true that this did not PROVE it was a high level attack, why would a 'master' use something less?

"Do you suppose, my dear, that we could return to the site of this...attack, and have a look around? If it's not too far, that is, I cannot travel as quickly as you." he said with a smile.

[Alea Campbello]

Alea was so relieved. She hopped to the ground and turned back to her human form. She quickly got her clothes on and then ran up and embraced him. He was very cold, but then again, he was dead. She was so happy.

"Thank you so, much. I was so scared there, but I guess somewhere deep inside me I knew I couldn't kill, I just wish I knew why I had memory loss, I guess some questions just have to be left unanswered,"

She suddenly realised she was crying and she quickly wiped a tear off her face, not wanting Kuvarakh to see her crying. Then, something dawned on her.
"Do you know hypnosis ? I think I remember you using it once"

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh tried to keep his hesitation from being noticeable. "Why, uh. yes. I was thinking that very thing. Now now, there's no need for tears. We'll get to the bottom of this. I will naturally need to do some preliminary work to establish how much you DO remember."

He guided the shaken woman to a seat. "So how long did you have you travel to get back to Alvadas since you came to. I mean, where did this occur? Was it close to Riverfall, or closer to here?"

She seemed to be considering his question as he made his point. "To be frank, I'm not sure it would be wise for me to just go barging into your mind with hypnosis until I can determine as much as possible from the site of the incident. For instance, did you see anyone else around? Were the victims all dressed the same way? Were they perhaps bandits? Things like this. Maybe there was an attack and someone used that spell to defend themselves. Maybe you are suffering some residual effect of attack or defense."

He didn't want to say that memory loss like this sounded like a subconscious attempt to forget something horrible. He was not sure what would happen if he used hypnosis to force her to remember. "We need to go there and see what there is to see."

[Alea Campbello]

"Sure," she said as she turned to face the door. "Shall we go then?" she called behind her as she set off. After a few wrong turns, ice obstacles and having to climb on top of buildings they eventually made it to the main gates. She turned round to him.

"Are you sure you're ready to see this" she said, her own voice breaking "It's more than a little disturbing" But she could tell that he was ready.

It was a longer walk than she had thought, of course she had flown most of the way. Eventually she reached the bodies. They were just as she remembered. 3 undamaged and 3 on spikes.

She knelt down next to one and slowly turned it over. The back was covered in blood, she couldn't see any wounds because of it. She walked over to the bodies and the feathers were missing. Probably the wind though, she thought, or hoped.

[Kuvarakh]

Feathers were not the thing that first occurred to Kuvarakh. He was stricken with self-loathing at the realization that he was thinking how conveniently well preserved the winter weather was keeping the bodies. He shook off the thought, along with the sense of disgust with himself. He was a Nuit, it was natural to take note of any "deposit" of bodies for future use. He had not killed them, after all. 'Who did?' the thought came unbidden as Alea crossed his field of vision.

He looked around for a moment, now noting the absence of feathers. He didn't know offhand if this was a good thing or not. Alea had produced a feather pretty much on command back at The Order's HQ in town. 'Why would she pick up only one?' he thought, uncomfortably. 'Why, in fact, would she pick up any? Except to remove incriminating evidence?'

No, that was not fair. Anyone who had done this would remove such telltale connections to themselves. It was only the fact that she had kept the one feather, as if she knew she was going to need it. But this could very easily be a set-up. As a hypnotist, he knew how easy it would have been to implant the impulse to put a feather into your bags. The number of innocent reasons one could impose to make the victim remember it being there were too numerous to list.

To his mind, the one feather had matched her feather structure perfectly. But she had mentioned there being more than one. He hadn't seen any indication of a great number of feather missing from her body when he'd checked, but one missing "here and there" could achieve that result, he supposed, while still tallying a good dozen.

"Could you possibly recall how many feathers were scattered about? I don't need an exact count, of course, but are we talking three or four? Ten or twelve? More?" he asked, nonchalantly. "Did you pick up more than just the one you showed me back at the facility?"