[Wind Reach Quest - Closed] Hunger Runs Deep

[Fenilen]

Fenilen's eyes jerked up at Sairque defensively when she suggested that he may be talking to himself. "Can't you see them? There's dozens of them! All linked together by chains! Little children, elderly... There's so many of them. And they're all stuck here! This chain has to lead somewhere! It has to mean something!" Fenilen spoke hurriedly, tears still running down his face. "Why can't you see them? They're everywhere!" His grip tightened around the ghostly girl as she began to recount her sad tale to him. The tears only came in greater and greater numbers as the tale went on and on. Killed by her own father because she had wanted the comfort of her mother's loving embrace. Inhuman. Wrong. Sickening!

Images of his mother coughing up blood in her bed shot through his mind. The normally pristine white sheets of the bed were stained with smatterings of dark red blood. Her crimson lips and pale skin were caked with dried blood, the product of the bloody coughs. Fenilen's whole body shook and his sobs came with renewed vigor as he watched her life fade away before him, watched as she past from this life into the next...

Watched as his choice killed her. He had only wanted comfort! He had only wanted to feel her loving arms around him as his body was wracked with the pain of the plague! Why did she have to die!? She didn't do anything wrong! Why did it have to be her? Why? Why? Why? Endless questions shot through his grieving and guilty mind, all whilst his body shook with his sobs and his eyes went red from his tears. He watched as his father approached, the father that had raised him in the rare moments he had been home. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground, begging for mercy, begging for the anger in the man's eyes to go away. He hadn't meant to kill her! Why couldn't he forgive him?

He felt the talons of the eagle lifting him up, watched as the ground beneath him blew past, watched as the Tomb came into view. His screams were lost as the howl of the wind stole them straight from his throat. Terror shot through every bit of his being. He was going to die. He was going to die! The wind burned his face and his eyes. He shut his eyes tight. The only indication he ever had that his world was about to end was the lack of the presence of the talons that had once held him. As he came back down to earth, he felt the heat of the mountain beneath him. The overwhelming heat.

He felt a moment of pain unlike any he had ever felt, and then he snapped back to reality. His sobbing had peaked after watching this powerful display of images. He spoke, choking on his words, trying to make himself feel better just as much as he was attempting the help the daughter.

"He's not here anymore. He's not going to hurt you. You're safe. He can't hurt you, the plague can't hurt you, no one can ever hurt you again. You're safe," he repeated the last two words over and over again, getting quieter and quieter with each repetition, until he finally stopped.

Eventually, his broken voice spoke to Sairque again, as a red, tear-stained face looked up at her. "Why can't you see them?" he asked pleadingly.

[Renol]

Renol bowed his head to Whisper, saying his thanks before he left the room. She was lost in her meditations now and he didn’t want to disturb her any further. He closed the door to the room silently before he turned and headed back over to where the group was. It took him a second for his mind to register the sounds of the sobbing man standing with the group, cradling thin air in his arms protectively. Renol’s brow furrowed questioningly as he walked over, listening to what Fen was saying. He, apparently, had missed a lot of what had happened in the short time he was talking to Whisper.

Renol looked over to Sai, quietly asking her,”What’s going on?” Fen kept going on about someone not being there. Someone not being able to hurt a person. It was insane gibbering for all Renol knew at the moment. Apparently something had happened and Fen had snapped. Then, another pleading look from the Avora as he asked about seeing something.

Renol gritted his teeth for a second, trying to figure out what was going on,” He is starting to damage my calm…” Renol looked around for a moment, trying his best to figure out what it could be that was tormenting Fenilen. Nothing he said was making any sense. ” See what? See who?” Did you do something before you saw all these things? What happened?” Renol turned back to Fen kneeling down and clasping his shoulder firmly,” Calm the petch down and tell us what is going on!”

On top of everything that Whisper had told him, he had to help deal with someone who was apparently going psychotic. That made things so much easier for this trip. His mind was already running loops over Whispers words, trying to figure out some sense to it all. Once Fen finally calmed down, Renol would be able to divulge the information he’d been given. But first he was worried about Fen getting a grip on reality once more.

[Sairque]

Without bothering to glance around, there was no one to see no matter how much the Avoran glassblower pleaded, Sai gave his shoulder another squeeze and gently shook her head. His tears had effectively pushed thoughts of that second connection from her mind, and she was focused solely on Fen. There were no chains, nor hints as to what vision Fen was currently tortured by. However, aside from the uncomfortable nature of his words, and the tears streaming down the lanky man's face, no harm was being done. And Sairque simply didn't know how to help the man aside from believe that he was seeing what he said he was and let him work through his trial.

Though her eyes remained worried on Fen, where he was now lost in his mental voyage down this girls demise, Brunhild got her attention and they went a short distance away, as though they hadn't had privacy staying where they were. Not much of what she had to say made a lot of sense to the flight leader. Two people had been dispatched to talk to Lorlyn, a Tam and a Tor, while a Dek named Leesa had ran into a ghost lured to her death by music and been taken by a craftsman named Sham, who had found the stone solid, no cracks, dentable but not chippable, to Harmon, the top reimancer of Wind Reach. And that Lorlyn had spoken of music the day she was found by Herth. Brunhild thought the stone had been grown into place, while Sai wondered if it hadn't been melted or something turned it amorphous which would negate the natural formation of any kind of rock. No matter though, she had no idea, really.

Sairque wished the woman luck in finding the lost Endal and turned back to Renol when Brunhild remembered something off hand and caught her attention again. Rhian? A handmaiden? Got lost on her way to Whisper? She could stay lost, for all Sairque cared. This place wasn't that hard to find. Sai almost tuned out on the description of the woman until all the tattoos were mentioned. Oh, that Rhian. The haughty one that had killed her Eagle and should be tossed out simply based on her sour attitude alone. As if there wasn't enough going on. Sai turned away from Brunhild, and having missed Renol's question due to the conversation about Rhian, met the unpleasant sight of the male Endal accosting the poor glassblower.

She would have winced as the Endal's hand descended on the man's shoulder, already knowing of the horrible anxiety that would overcome the man and could lead to any number of unpredictable reactions, had she not been in command mode. Now there was a messy jumble of loose ties fraying away at the problem of the shifting stone, and it was her job to tie them together as best she could at this point.

On the upside, Catabasis had relieved part of the burden by informing her that they had guides with supplies waiting in the underground forest. Okay. First things first.

"Renol, honey, not vinegar," she advised with a significant look to the shaking Avora and a tilt of her head to get him to give the man some space. Sai swept into the space vacated and knelt down before Fen, taking his hands in her own and letting him see the warm mushy center of comfort and love that Addy was so good at showing people but Sai rarely let out.

"Fenilen, I don't know what you've just experienced but I do know that I need you to be logical and rational about it. I need you to figure out if it was related to our mission, and if it was, I need you to pick out the important parts and tell us of them," she intoned gravely, slowly, with as much understanding and comfort in her gaze as she could muster. She had faith that the man would interpret his ordeal correctly and relay it to them. If only Addy were here, Sai's attempt paled in comparison to the bright and shining warmth that the healer shed with nary a thought at every turn. Hopefully he would understand the feelings she was trying to convey even though she had delved straight to the point. After one last squeeze to his clammy hands, Sai expecting Fen to be quiet and work through his experience while still paying attention to her, she rose and turned to the frustrated Renol. There was no time for him to lose his head, and the flight leader expected him to snap back.

"Renol, we have two chiet miners and three days worth of supplies waiting for us in the underground forest. Brunhild filled me in on what she knew. A few people have gone to Lorlyn to figure out her part, if any, in all of this. Possibly the same music that lured her into her current state of being is tied to whatever is holding all the ghosts here. There was a Dek that ran into a ghost that died while following some music, that ghost just made her way back up here," a sharp look over to Jaz at this point. "They took the Drudge to the reimancers to see if the same tune is the one associated with the new stone, and I assume that they'll also take her to Lorlyn to see if it's the same music she remembers.

"It seems too likely a coincidence that Shiz sang while working, and that she was stronger than any reimancer ever before or since," Sai posited, tapping her pursed lips with the finger tips of her right hand. "It would be nice to speak with Lorlyn about this, but I think the information garnered there would offer no real help. We're going to meet the miners presently," she informed him, hoping he would think everything over and have some thoughts to add once they were underway. "It would be nice to talk to Lorlyn first, but with so much evidence pointing us toward the warrens, I'm afraid any information garnered from her would be superfluous. We're going to find the source of the ghosts and the music. I'm going to send word to Addy and one other woman who was helping Brunhild, you get Jaz and Fen together and we'll go," Sai told him as she turned and went in search of a reliable looking pair of Dek.

One was sent to her home, and if Addy wasn't there, to Val's birds, with instructions to have her meet them in the Underground Forest with healing materials and anything else that would be useful for at least three days underground. The other was sent off, with a description of Rhian, toward Val, or Lorlyn, or Harmon with Sham and Leesa, in case the ex-Endal had found something interesting in any of those directions. To Catabasis, Thank you for your help, you're a life saver. Will we be able to keep in contact no matter how deep I go?

It would be nice to be able to have contact with the outside world no matter what happened. Of course, she also realized, watching the other Endal with Jaz and Fen as she returned to the chamber, that Fereo would probably be more able to keep a strong connection.

"Does anyone need to get anything before we go?" she called, not bothering to walk all the way over to them since she would just have to turn and retrace this path on the way to the Forest. "Okay, boys, let's go spelunking."

[Dreamcatcher]

~ Fenilen, Renol, and Sairque~ OOCOk, seeing as Brunhild moved the whole thread along to the underground forest I will be doing this in two parts… feel free to use this thread to roleplay out the lamp and Fenilen’s reaction. Once done I will grade it, the lmap allows you too see the dead souls of wind reach if you are touching it. It also allows you to interact with them, the chain is what keeps them anchored to this world, while they let you have clues as to what can be done to release them. As Fenilen told the little girl that her daddy was no longer here, she began to scream. “Who are you?! Are you a bad man?! DADDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYY!” Then a wail began to come from the child’s mouth slow loud and horrible that Fenilen felt like his ears were going to burst. Yet strangely he realized that the yell was in his soul. Every nerve and feeling inside of him grew taut with pain and fire as the little girl yelled. She began hitting Fenilen chest and what appeared to be frost began to come trail down his Katinu, the group began to see Fenilen’s breathe in the air, and his clothes began to turn white with frost. Only, Fenilen’s arm with the lamp kept the frost away. Jaz dropped to the floor with his hands covering his ears. “Petch, she’s a wailer… drop the damn girl you fool!” To all but Fenilen, Jaz seemed like the light that held him together was breaking up, he was shifting back and forth between a man and long strings of light. Sadly for Fenilen, the wailing girl in his arms was cooling him to a dangerous level. He felt the pain and horror of the girls soul echo throughout her scream. It bound his arms and legs into a locked position as freezing cold arched over his body. She sat in his arms kicking and screaming, wailing for her daddy. The group began to see the air in Fenilen’s arms turn into a white mist, and the faint screams of a little girl began to echo in their minds. Whisper stumbled out of her room, and made it three steps towards the group before puking all over the floor. “Knock the lamp out of his hand!” She said between heaving and spasming on the floor. The air around the group began to get colder and colder, already it looked like Fenilen had stepped outside in the middle of winter without any furs. Once the group was done asking questions and understanding some of the hidden dangers of the lamp, they moved onto the Underground Forest. And so ends Act One.

[Sairque]

Sai hurried back toward Fen and Ren, only breaking into a run when Whisper burst through her door and vomited on the floor. The scene had quickly devolved into chaos, Jaz was crying out, shimmering in piece-meal, Fen was turning blue and still interacting with nothing Sai could distinguish-wait, was that a cloud of fog in his arms? And for the second time, something entered her mind that shouldn't be there. Shaking it off, literally, the Endal bore down on the group, focusing intently not on the faint screaming in her mind but the chaotic scene before her.

It was fortunate that Whisper gritted our her instructions, it was hard to pick who was the most in need, and from the way that Whisper had handed off the lamp so nonchalantly, earlier, it wasn't the most obvious culprit at first. Though, it did make sense once it was pointed out because she had mentioned she had just found it and that could possibly mean she didn't know all the risks involved with it. The flight leader weaved between pillars, steps echoing on the gritty stone under foot, and snatched a random unstrung bow, quite exquisitely made if under-appreciated at the moment, as she went. Sliding to a stop, she thrust the length of wood through the handle and with both hands gripping tightly, yanked the lamp out of Fen's one yet-unfrozen hand. It was too valuable a tool to knock out of his hands and risk breaking, but that didn't mean it was put down like it would shatter at the slightest bump; she had other things to do.

Cold exposure wasn't an odd occurrence around these parts, a common sight out on flights, but limited mostly to the newer riders that hadn't yet learned when to pack extra clothing in the event of a significant temperature drop. And, of course, sometimes a rider did get a bit too comfortable and forgot things, but, either way, Sai took one look at the frosty glassblower and sized up the depth of his chill. It should yet be shallow enough that getting him up and moving wouldn't do more damage than good, so, with a glance at Renol, beckoning the perceptive man over with just a tilt of her head, Sai grabbed Fenilen by his stiffened Katinu and jerked him strongly to his feet, using her legs to provide most of the force necessary to get the lanky man up until Renol could join and help her. "Come on, man, come on, move around. You'll be okay," the short Endal comforted, and although she knew he would be more comfortable with someone he knew well, looked at Renol. "Will you...?" the question was left hanging, yellow eyes meeting the golden ones and shifting to the frozen glassblower, trusting her fellow Endal to get the poor Avora warmed back up. It was so nice to have competent help around.

Meanwhile, Sai left the two men to hurry to Whisper, helping the poor Konti up and offering one of the scarves, previously used to neatly add a dash of color to her outfit as a sash, to clean up a bit with. There was probably better resources about to freshen up with, but Sai knew nothing of that sort of stuff. "Is there anything I can get you?" She would go get whatever Whisper wanted, if she wanted anything at all, and return post haste.

"Why did that just happen?" asked to both Fen and Whisper, having a vague idea that the lamp had called someone to the glassblower and the ghost had apparently freaked out in Fen's arms. If the frosty mist and his frosty state and Whisper's instructions and Jaz's comment were anything to form an opinion on. But the important thing was to know how to keep that from happening again, because they would surely find the lamp useful on their travels...but not if they kept having to thaw each other out.

[Renol]

Wait... did she just call him Honey? Renol fought down the grin that tried to take up residence on his face. He knew this wasn't the time. Things were not looking good. He was just trying to interject some humor on what could easily be a bad situation. But he took a step back from Fen, giving Sai the room she needed to try and calm the man down. Renol knew he wasn't the greatest when it came to situations like this. He was more of the hard charging, 'suck it up and drive on' type of person. It wasn't very often that he showed the 'honey' side of things. Especially with the situation concerned another male. So he gave Sai the room she needed to try and calm him down.

He was surprised as she stood and turned to him, informing him of the miners and provisions that were set aside for them. Looked like it was going to be time to rough it for a little while. At least they wouldn't be exposed to the elements on this little trip. That was a bonus. Renol worked on sorting out the other information that she had revealed as Sai went to find the Dek to relay the information she needed. Things were starting to make at least a little more sense it seemed. A conclusion was starting to unfold it seemed, at least to him. He was probably wrong though. He usually was when it came to figuring out mysteries. But he wanted to at least try to help.

Carefully, he brought his bond to the front of his mind I'm pretty sure you got all that, right? Renol chuckled slightly to himself it seemed We're going to be heading into the underground forest for a few days it seems. So I want to make sure that the bond is open both ways. You can let me know anything that happens up where and i can let you know anything that happens below. One way or another, we’ll get to the bottom of this. Renol looked to Sai as she voiced her question from a distance. He thought for a second, "It'd be nice to get at least a change of clothes and some such. Shouldn't take much more than a few minutes."

Renol watched as Sai took off at a sprint, heading past him back over to Fen. He heard Jaz's comments as he turned, suddenly becoming aware of the faint sound silently echoing through the confines of his cranium. His eyes narrowed for a second as he turned, but shot wide as he saw Jaz's form flickering wildly, "No no no no no!" He looked to Sai, trying to ask her a question, but the words ground to a halt at the tip of his lips as he saw the state Fen was in. The frost collecting over his body and the chilly figure that formed in his arms. Renol's eyes were wide as dinner plates and he barely registered the words that Whisper gutted out. He watched as Sai deftly pulled the lantern from the Avoras hand, depositing it onto the floor halfway carefully. The male Endal snapped out of his stupor as Sai motioned for his help. In a second he was back to himself, rushing over and throwing one of Fen's arms around his shoulder. He supported the avora around the waist with his arm, holding him up, "Come on, Fen. Let's get you moving. Get your blood pumping again." he gently started to brush off the frost that had formed on the man’s clothes and limbs, working to get the cold off of him. As he worked to get Fen moving once more, his mind slowly started realizing what had been going on. He looked back over to where Jaz was, trying to make sure that the ghost was alright once more, in no danger of vanishing or anything like that. He had made a promise to Fereo about helping Jaz, and come hell or high water, he was going to make sure that got done. He wondered what the ghost that Fen had seen looked like, and what chains he had been talking about. Renol was realizing what had happened and part of him wished he could have seen it for himself to know what the man had been talking about. Maybe then Renol would have been more help then he seemed to be at the moment. But what mattered right now was making sure Fen got warm again and that Jaz was still there with them.

[Fenilen]

"See them! All of them! There's twenty of them, at least, all over this room! Ghosts! They're all linked by a chain, bound around their necks or their chests or something! I don't know why they're here, they just are! Why can't you see them!? I didn't do anything! I just stood here! I just wanted to get going so we could solve the mystery, and then these ghosts appeared! They started flashing in a beautiful display of colors, as if a painter were using the world as his canvas! Why can't you see them!?" Fenilen's voice was panicked as well as upset, his eyes and face red as he sobbed. When Renol's hand settled down on his shoulder, Fenilen smacked it away, crawling away from him, shaking his head violently, protecting the girl and the lantern from his grasp. It was only when Sairque settled down in front of him that he began to open up again. His eyes met with hers, looking at her pleadingly. The lantern found its way snuggly around his arm, and the girl soon balanced on his knee as his hands clenched hers. His thumbs rubbed the centers of her palms as he listened to her, still sobbing quietly as he did.

"Don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know," the boy softly repeated, shaking his head vigorously as tears continued to stream from his eyes. "Little ghost girl is here. She's with so many other ghosts. So many of them! Twenty! Thirty! Forty! She's covered in plague sores, oozing pus, begging to be held, begging for someone to ease the pain, begging for someone to help her, but no one can help her. Only I can see her! Why can't you see her? She says that she got her mother sick. She snuck into her bed at night when her father was away, Her mother died from the plague just like her. Her father got angry. Father was furious! Father flew her away with her Eagle, dropped her into the Tomb, burned her alive, burned her to cinders, killed her! I saw it! I lived it! I felt the heat, felt the sickness in my veins!" He then looked at the girl, squeezing her tightly once again, letting the lantern slide back to his hand from his elbow. "But now she's safe, because he's not here anymore, and he can't hurt her, and no one can hurt her, and no on-" his sentence stopped as she began to scream.

Her scream was met by his, one of pain and agony instead of one of emotional misery. Fenilen's body attempted to react as anyone's would, trying to bring his hands up to his ears to shield them from the noise... But his arms were frozen! He tried to move his legs, but they refused in a fashion quite similar. Green eyes watched in horror as the frost began to creep up and down his body, originating from his chest, where the girl beat with her small, balled up fists. Fenilen's scream grew in magnitude as every part of him burned with an agony unlike any he had ever felt before. What was wrong with him!? What was happening!? Why couldn't he just die!?

Skin a deathly pale, Fenilen's eyes looked at Sairque helplessly, begging for her to save him from this agony, begging for her to save him from the girl that only he could see. He couldn't hear anything over her scream, it was all consuming, ringing in every part of his body. Sairque appeared to detect his silent plea. She sprung into action, lifting an unstrung bow off of the ground with her certain hands. Then, in a surprising show of athleticism, she shoved the wooden construct forward, slipping it into the lantern's handle. With a quick yank, she removed the lantern from his hand, freeing him from the visions of the ghosts, the visions of the girl, the paralysis.

A gasp flew between Fenilen's lips as he fell flat on his back, hands shooting up to clutch his ears. Instantly, he curled up in a fetal position due to the freezing cold that clung to his pale skin. He likely never would have stood again if it weren't for the firm hand that clung to his Katinu, knocking some of the frost from it. Sai yanked the lanky boy to his feet. Despite his sudden ascension to a standing position, Fen stood there in a daze, teeth chattering against each other as his entire body shook in violent shivers in an attempt to produce warmth for itself. This time, when Renol physically attached himself to Fenilen, he was welcome, considering that he provided extra warmth and knocked off frost that clung to his clothing. Eventually, after enough frantic pacing had been completed, he dropped to the ground, doing a few push ups, trying to get the blood in his arms flowing. Once finished, he frantically returned to brushing the last of the frost from his arms and legs.

Soon, his panic died down, leaving him silently traumatized. He settled in a corner as far away from the lantern as he possibly could manage, pulling his knees up to his chest. Hateful eyes glared venomously at the lantern, and the occasional spasm wracked the lanky boy's body. Quiet curses were uttered under his breath. Never again would he touch that thing! He swore on his life! Fenilen buried his face in his legs and listened to the haunting scream that echoed in his mind, that echoed in his very soul, the very essence of his being.

His gut told him that scream would stay with him the rest of his life.

[Sairque]

Whisper seemed to recover quickly enough after the lamp was deactivated by removing the human touch, but she remained weak and shaken. Sai helped her to her feet and then back to her room.

When she returned, clipped steps echoing off the smooth stone floor, the flight leader bought some time by retrieving the borrowed bow and meandering over to return it to its previously undisturbed resting place. Renol looked resolute, in good spirits still, but determined. That was good. After the initial shock of the ghostly attack, he wasn't shaken or scared. A reassurance that he was a good man to have along on the hunt.

Fenilen...poor Fen. Slowly walking back toward the men, she watched him pump out a few quick push ups to get his heart pumping blood through the hot core of his being to drag the warmth out to his extremities. As he settled into a corner to lick his wounds, Sai knelt in front of the lantern and pulled off a scarf to tie the ends around the handle and make another handle-this one safer and more comfortable to hold. Handling the contraption like she would an angry and untamed raptor, Sairque carried it to Renol.

"You feel comfortable carrying this for us? I figure you should since Jaz came to you, and he's kind of like our ghostly spokesperson." And you can probably deal with any trauma better than Fen, she left unspoken, but her eyes still cut tellingly over to the man curled up in the corner. They softened on him, but, still, even he would admit he wasn't cut out for violence or...anything remotely scary. Like spiders. Or deer. "It's up to you when you want to start using it," Sai told him, trusting him to be prudent but brave enough not to shy away when the time came. Her eyes were hard when they met his, she wasn't trying to abdicate responsibility--just delegate appropriately. "I don't know why we can all see Jaz but not the ghosts that the lantern gathers. Nor do I know how the lantern worked without being lit, but..." Sairque shrugged, letting the thought trail off.

After Renol had answered, she walked with him over to Fen if there was anything else they needed to converse about. When they were done speaking, she knelt down by their traumatized companion and gently brushed a few locks of hair out of his face.

"Fenilen, you did well. Are you feeling better?" She hadn't the patience that he probably needed, but he wasn't dying, nor had he any kind of physical wound. Still, she tried to be considerate and gently coax him up. "Now, what can you tell us?" she tried again, now that he'd had a bit of distance put between himself and the ordeal.

OOCSooo...Just want to keep things moving along and I didn't really know what to say. I'm fine with ending this thread here soon and moving on.

[Fenilen]

OOCBecause of Renol's absence, I'm going to go ahead and skip him. He can hop back in in the other act, I just REALLY wanna wrap this act up.

Fenilen needed to see the colors again. Fenilen needed to see beauty. He needed to see the masterful painter working his craft upon the world, upon the canvas he himself was upon. Renol kept him from the Colors. Renol couldn't even see the Colors! What did Renol need The Lantern for!? It's powers were lost on him! He couldn't see the ghosts. He couldn't hear the ghosts, couldn't offer them comfort, couldn't try to help them pass onto the next time like he could. When he was holding The Lantern, it was just that-- a lantern. No colors, no ghosts, no chains. Just a lantern that, when lit, revealed the mysteries of the world around them. Just a lantern that, when lit, gave them Priskil's gift, banishing the darkness from this realm, until the light went out or the lantern left the vicinity. This lantern was more than a lantern when it was in his hands. He had to use its powers. He had to free these ghosts. He had to see the Colors.

His eyes opened again to find the beautiful face of Sairque next to him, asking him once more if he could extract anything meaningful from what he had seen. Calloused hands brushed wispy hair, soaked with melted frost, from his forehead, the warmth of her hand staying upon his head for a few moments longer before returning to her sides. The heat her hand had placed upon her brow instantly burned in his cheeks and ears, turning them a bright red. If she asked, he was blaming the damn frost. Green eyes looked up at her, hanging onto every syllable that rolled out of her lips, every enticing, honey-dipped word, hanging onto them like they were his sole lifeline. His mind began to piece together the words he needed, trying to find the facts that Sairque was asking for, trying to find the words that could lead her to something useful. Those ghosts, the ones trapped in this world. They had to help them. They had to free them.

“I could see… Ghosts. Everywhere. One, two, three, four…” as he counted, a finger pointed to the locations ghosts had stood in moments before, but there were simply too many to count, simply too many to remember without seeing them again. “All of them, all of them were connected by a chain, collared around their necks, or if their necks were… gone, it was driven through their chests. Then, there were colors. So many colors…” his gaze seemed to focus off in this distance as he recalled the beautiful colors, the hand of the master painting his artwork upon the ghosts, his ethereal canvas. “It was more beautiful than anything in this world, like an artist was painting, like he was using the ghosts and the world as his canvas. Splashes of yellow, flashes of red, flares of orange! Nothing we can see can compare, Sairque. Nothing. The Colors were beautiful. Beautiful.” His eyes drifted to The Lantern yet again, drinking its sight in, watching as Renol held it in the sling Sairque had fashioned. He didn’t respect its power like he did. He didn’t WANT to see The Colors, he carried it as far as he could. But he wanted to see The Colors, he needed to see The Colors! He could read The Colors, follow The Chain, follow it all of the way to the ghosts!

Fenilen shot to his feet, lunging at Renol, his voice sharp. “Give me The Lamp!” he demanded, grasping for it, wrapping his hand around the silk scarf even as Renol shift and lurched away. “I can follow the Chain to the Ghosts! I can free them from this world! I can let them free!” His green eyes looked desperately at Sairque as his frail body wrenched the Lantern from Renol’s hands, collapsing, shielding it with his body, sighing quietly in relief as he felt its familiar handle in his hand. He could think again. Quietly, he looked up at Sairque at Renol flitted away, presumably deeply disturbed, to go retrieve clothes from his aery.

“Listen to me, Sairque, and mark my words!” the boy’s voice came out as a sharp whisper, his eyes looking up at her as he laid on the ground, protecting the Lantern from all harm with his pale chest. “I can defend the Lantern. I know what the screaming girl looks like. I know not to touch her again. I can follow the Chain, ignore the bait of the screaming girl, take us to whatever is bonding all of these ghosts to the world, and once we get there, we can free them, together, as a group, and then we can watch as they all leave this World for the next life. Please, Sairque, trust me. I need to hold the Lantern. I need to see The Colors again. I can deal with all of the horrors the lantern threw at me. I was unprepared! I’m prepared now! I know no fear! The girl is not to be trusted, not to be trusted, I know that now!” his voice grew in volume the further into his sentence he got, but so did his apparent instability. It appeared that he was reveling in his own insanity, reveling in the release it brought him from all of the cares of the world. Could one really blame him, though? The world was a stressful place. Release, no matter what form is came in, was welcome. If his release came in the form of seeing ghosts, colors, chains, and screaming girls that could freeze him to death after imagining that he fell into a volcano, who were they to judge him?

[Sairque]

"You have a way with words," the enraptured Flight Leader murmured to the articulate Avora, not catching the desperate note curling strongly around the man's words as he continued on in his description. But it was made plain to her quickly enough as she fell back onto her butt to avoid having the man jump into her bodily on his way to Renol. Completely bemused, she sat there, with her elbows on her knees, eyes wide on Fenilen as she scuffled with Renol and eventually won.

The Endal gave her a look and Sai motioned him off to the aeries to collect the belongings he mentioned he would like to take along.

Brushing herself off, the lone remaining Endal straightened and glared at the Avora with barely concealed consternation and skepticism. She dropped to her haunches right in front of the prostrate man, holding her thumb and forefinger a bare hair's width apart. "You are this close to being assigned a duty far from myself and that lantern. Do you understand that? You have a responsibility to me and every single starving person in Wind Reach right now to selflessly use that Lantern as we promised Whisper we would. You promised Whisper," she reminded him, knowing how he felt about his word. Her voice growled at its lowest register, brooking no nonsense and carrying assurance that she would take the Lantern from Fen and send his addicted butt running if he interfered and behaved improperly again. "We carry the hope of every man, woman and child in this mountain and I will not let you take that from them. You better snap out of it right now and do as you promise to or I'll smash that Dira-bedamned Lantern into a million pieces and you'll spend your entire miserable existence attempting to replace it for Whisper."

The only reason she had any leniency at all for the insubordinate man was because she felt he was a bright lad that would prove useful to have on the expedition. If he got all googly eyed and turned stupider than a lobotomized flea every time he touched the petching Lantern, that would stop being true. If he reacted positively, snapping out of his obsession and showing contriteness, she would soften her stance and reach out to squeeze his shoulder, dropping her hand to pull him to his feet. "Now you just be careful and don't piss off any more ghosts while you're using that thing, okay? How about we go meet everyone in the Underground Forest now?"