Completed [The Docks] Caught in the Web

[Vanari]

Vanari listened in rapt attention, hardly believing how many strokes of misfortune and blind luck could be crammed into one evening.

This was the first time she had ever seen so much bloodshed and nearly ended up numbered among the dead herself. It was also the first time she had received any proper information regarding the crucial dangers of Ravokian life. And, to be one of the few who could say they saw the Ebonstryfe in action and lived to tell the tale...well, she imagined that was no small feat either.

Of course, she had had help. Ria was just about the maddest, most competent person she had yet to come across in Ravok, aside from the Ebonstryfe themselves. Though, Vanari had a funny feeling Ionu may very well be up where ever he or she was, clapping with maniacal glee. Another well executed trick, dearest deity, she mentally saluted, too weary to dwell on the absurdity of her own thoughts.

As Ria more or less explained the nature and function of the Ebonstryfe, Vanari mulled over her words. Keeping the peace. Rising Dawn. Rhysol, god of evil. Great Morwen, and here she thought she'd seen the worst of it. From the sound of things, she'd only glimpsed a gleaming tooth or two of the monster lurking beneath her metaphorical bed. She shuddered again. Best not to think to deeply on these matters.

For now, anyway.

Ria's words of Rhysol hung in the air, sending one last shiver down Vanari's spine. The girl had gotten back on her feet and dusted herself off, then held out her hand once more. Vanari took it gratefully and hauled herself up to her feet, stumbling a bit before regaining her bearings.

"By all means, lead the way. At this point, I wouldn't care if it took us till morning to get back. I'm just glad my guts aren't decorating some poor sod's doorsteps right now."

As they began walking through the merchant's ring, Vanari's head began to fill itself with a thousand questions. She managed to keep silent for all of five ticks before she burst, "So, Ria, um...were you born here, in Ravok? And where did you learn to climb and jump and catch giant Vanthas like that anyway?"

[Kit Rowan]

x

Kit measured the pros and cons of holding Vanari's hand and elected to keep hanging on as long as the Vantha did not pull away. She started the walk down the path she trusted most and discovered she also did not mind how long it took for them to reach the Boarding House.

She took her time to consider what exactly to tell the Vantha. There was so much that Kit could use as leverage later on; her own birthplace was Alvadas, the cradle of illusion. She might have been able to buy the Vantha's help with only that. "Where I'm from," Kit held up her left arm, allowed the illusion covering her mark to dissolve just long enough for her new friend to see it. "Is part of the story of how I got this mark." There. She could be both honest and protect her secrets. "But I'll tell you this for free; it wasn't Ravok."

"I grew up climbing over rooftops," Kit said. "Finding ways to and from places that you can't find with your feet on the ground. So I guess that was where I learned it."

They walked together across another bridge, water glistening darkly beneath them, buildings looming over the head as they crossed over back into the docks. Kit saw the gleam of a night Ravosala's lantern but stopped as soon as she saw it, stepped back away and waited for it to turn a corner, vanish out of sight. If Kit wanted to hear about anyone who wanted to go somewhere in a hurry after a raid like this, she would ask the Ravosalamen.

"You're not giant," Kit said. "I'm small. And I learned to catch you just then." She turned, gave Ari a sheepish smile. "Good thing it worked out, huh?"

[Vanari]

The paired walked hand in hand through the city like two carefree children, sleepily making their way back after a day spent playing in the woods. Granted, Vanari had never had such a childhood friend, nor had she ever been allowed to play in the woods, what with every other step inside its snowy canopies being a potential death trap and all. But she imagined that, if she had, this wouldn't be too far off the mark.

Hmm, so Ria wasn't a native of Ravok. That might explain her intense desire to leave; after the initial wonderment of being in a new city wore off, Vanari wasn't too fond of the city herself either. Especially not after the madness they had just witnessed.

She tried to imagine jumping over roofs as a child, but each scene ended with her slipping on snow and crashing to her death. It would have been preposterous to be anywhere near a roof in Avanthal, and made her wonder all the more what Ria's home had been like. She pictured it being something not unlike Ria herself; mysterious and tricky, a place where people were kept on their toes, all lean and calculating and nimble. Idly, she wondered if such a place had anything to do with Ionu and The Inverted.

Well, only time would tell at this point. Her companion was keen on keeping her cards hidden and the Vantha eagerly waiting for more. Tricky, tricky girl.

"You're not giant, I'm small. And I learned to catch you just then. Good thing it worked out, huh?"

Vanari grinned back, somewhat accustomed now to realizations that they had just barely escaped death by the skins of their teeth. "Never thought in a million years someone nearly half my size would be catching me like some damsel in distress," she snorted.

Now that she thought about it, they probably did make an odd sight indeed. One a towering Vantha, the other a girl slim enough to pass for a child. Though, she would never be so daft as to assume size meant anything in terms of skill. She'd seen enough to convince her for a lifetime of that.

All too soon, the familiar sight of the boarding house loomed into view. Vanari let go of Ria's hand to fumble around her pocks for her room key. For an instant, her heart lurched as her hands kept turning up empty. Then she remembered, rolled her eyes, and pulled the brass key out from inside her left shoe. She had sewn a little strap against one of the sides and wedged the key through it. So far, it had proven an effective enough hiding spot.

"Gods...I didn't think I'd actually make it back here in one piece. I owe you and The Trickster more than I could repay in a lifetime. Supposing I should start somewhere, you're more than welcome to stay with me for the night if your quarters are too far. My room is rather sad and plain, but it's clean and you can take the bed. I've got plenty of bedrolls."

Vanari squinted into the distance for a moment, wondering if it would rattle her nerves more than she cared to admit to have another guest so soon after Ely's recent visit. Such questions sent more confusing, incoherent emotions and misgivings bubbling to the surface of her already fading consciousness. Petching hell, it really was just better not to think. At all.

She unscrewed her face, smiling instead as a sudden thought flashed irrelevantly in her mind. "Oh, and the bacon here is excellent!"

[Kit Rowan]

x

Kit laughed softly at the thought of her struggling to even slow Vanari's descent . . . It had been perhaps a bell since it had happened, but still it felt far away indeed. The fearful impossibility of it turned to amusing absurdity by the fact that in the end, everything had worked out just fine.

As Ari fumbled looking for her keys, Kit frowned, catching wind of a potential problem and slightly irritated at having to think of way to solve this small tedium. When Vanari pulled off her shoe and pulled the key out of it, Kit raised her eyebrows and whistled a low, appreciative whistle. It was a good safeguard against thieves. Seeing Ari's safeguard only made Kit like her even more . . . Perhaps Kit could sew a pocket on the inside of her own shirt or trousers, for a like purpose?

Sense warned Kit against sharing Vanari's room. When she went to sleep, the might very well wake later than Vantha, and while Kit's illusionism was potent it was not quite potent enough to preserve her glamour while she slept, and she would have to rely on waking before Vanari to reapply Ria's seeming over her own, or simply slip out of the room before Ari noticed she was gone.

But she had not spoken with anyone who bowed their heads to Ionu since she had stepped out of Alvadas. Even Wrenmae treated the Trickster as the patron of the city he grew up in and little more, and never with the respect she, he deserved. And even Wrenmae was long gone. Kit did not want to let Ari go just yet, lest she vanish when she turned her head like an Alvad sidestreet. "I'll take a bedroll," Kit said, waving Vanari's offer of bedding away. "I've slept on worse things."

Truly, Kit had tasted Tarsin's bacon before. She lived here, under a different name and face. Kit smiled at her private little joke. "Truly? I think I'd like to try it, then."

[Alric Wilmot]

Grades Vanari observation +2 stealth +2 interrogation +2 acrobatics +2 running +1 Lores:horrors of the Ebonstryfe, What Ionu's mark looks like, fleeing the Ebonstryfe, The Ebonstryfe (Basic), The Rising Dawn, Kit (Ria) (acquaintance) Kit Rowan stealth +2 investigation +1 detection +1 negotiation +2 acrobatics +3 running +1 Lores:savior, fleeing from the Ebonstryfe, Vanari (acquaintance) Notes Secret : PM me if you have a problem or question about your grade. Please edit your post in the request thread to declare this thread graded