Chapter Seven: The Stalemate At Loton's Cove

The room erupts in screams as Zangua leaps onto the table, glaive raised. There is a flash of blue light as Zangua brings the glaive down and feels it bite into the wooden backrest of Gorham's chair; the glaive bounces strangely off of its target on the second swing, sparking another flash of light. There are screams from every direction -- stop, stop, what is this, don't, he'll kill us all, and so on. Zangua feels hands grasping at him, and an older man shoves his way in front of Gorham, obscuring Zangua's view of his target.

Domarc, it's bedlam in here, but you still get an action.

Scintillating colors fill the room. A gash from Zangua's glaive runs down the left side of Gorham's chest, from his shoulder to his ribcage. He pats it with his right hand, blinking at the colors.

Edit: "You, you...this will leave a scar," says Gorham, wagging a bloody finger at Zangua. "Perhaps it will suit me?"

He puts one foot on the edge of the table and kicks himself backwards through the open window as his supper companions stumble about and grope the air in confusion.

"He's blinded me!"

"Are we dead? Is this death?"

"Who was that? Tarlen? Did I see Tarlen? Tarlen, are you here!?"

Tarlen is pressed into the door frame, sickly pale, and silent.

Remaining party members, you can take an action now, but Gorham is no longer in your line of sight.

Is there a door to outside, where Gohram went? Or is the only way out the window?

There's a door on the left side of the room, but it doesn't look like it leads outside. The window seems to be the only way out of the entire house from this room.

Leth rushes to the window and fires two arrows at a dark shape receding and ascending into the sky. Though he feels confident in his aim, it's too dark to tell if the arrows struck, and the shape keeps flying away into the night.

"Tarlen! What is this!? Who are these men!?"

A tall man with close-cropped red hair has found Tarlen and bellows at her with his hand clamped on her shoulder as she continues to press herself against the wall in shock. The man and woman seated at the left end of the table are on the floor together, clutching each other, while the older couple that had been seated at the right end stand off to the side, the man dabbing at his eyes, the woman staring fearfully out the window and blinking rapidly.

"It..it's Edvers' men," says the man on the ground. "They came just as he said they would."

"He'll kill us!" the woman in his arms wails. "He'll come back and kill us all!"

"Maybe not," the old man says. "We gave him what he wanted. The agreement was sealed. I think he will be a man of his word, despite this intrusion." He glares darkly at Tarlen, then fixes his eyes on Zangua. "Is it true? Are you the companions of Edvers Kells, and did this fool of a girl bring you into our house?"

"We did not break our faith with Edvers lightly," the old man says. "We had no choice. He would have destroyed all of us, everything, this house, the cove..."

"And now for nothing! You really think he'll ignore this, Father?" says the man standing over Tarlen. "We laid an ambush for him, violated his guest rights. He'll be back. He'll be back with his witch-men to avenge himself."

"We must flee!" the woman on the ground says, sounding suddenly hopeful. "Into the sea. It is time."

"Enough! Loton himself did not forsake Bload, and neither shall we," says the old woman standing at the window. She looks at Tarlen. "You sensed it too, didn't you? The evil purpose behind his desire. I have never seen a man so possessed by want. And yet at clever as he was, none of his explanations satisfied me." Her gaze falls on Felor and the other party members in turn. "And you, you friends of Edvers, you have risked everything to keep the Iron Sphere from him, haven't you?" She rights a chair and sits back down at the table. "Tell me why you do this. What evil thing will come to pass if Gavrel Gorham takes possession of the Iron Sphere of Sthombo?"

The party's silence hangs in the air. The old woman throws up her hands. "You don't know! Nobody knows!"

"I might," says a scratchy voice from back in the hallway. Behind you stands a woman approaching her middle years, in a nightdress. She reels as if drunk. She resembles Tarlen. "I took the ice on the second night," she continues. "I dreamed the dream he spoke of. On the third night I slept with it under my tongue."

The old man looks horrified. "Bernike! You should not have done that."

Bernike shuffles into the room. Tarlen tries to grab her arm, but Bernike shrugs her off and grips the back of a chair to steady herself. "They found a monster in the stars. They're going to feed Bload to it. The Sphere is the key that opens the gate and Gavrel is the star in the crown. I can still see it clearly."

"Mom--" Tarlen says, approaching her again.

"I can see the old blood, too...in a pool below the tomb...they all had the old blood, Ilhaz and...and all of them..." Bernike's words are faltering as she sinks against the chair. Her family looks on, aghast. "It's resting now, but in the old blood...the same blood...it will awaken...and that...that's why..."

Bernike falls to her knees and retches up a gout of clear water, then rolls on to her side. Her kin rush to her side, except for Farfar, the old man, who stands rigid behind the table. He is looking down at the floor, where the water that Bernike vomited up is already frozen solid, a smooth puddle of cloudy pinkish-white ice.

"I told him how to find the Sphere," Farfar growls under his breath. "But he doesn't have it yet."

Bernike shivers as the others try to warm and wake her. Somebody tries to push Zangua away, but Bernike seems to hear him, muttering "The Pharate...is safe...in the ice...resting."

"There is a place at the bottom of the ocean, a temple to Nethuns more ancient than any other, and only the hand of a merfolk can guide one there," the old man says quietly. "I told Gorham to come to the cove at dawn, and how to signal the merfolk, and what words to recite to identify himself as one of the descendants of Loton. Words that I have never spoken to any man or woman not of my own blood." He drops his head for a moment as if stricken by shame.

Bernike, meanwhile, becomes unresponsive. The family crowds around her and tries to get her upright. Zangua's shouts are ignored.

"I told Gorham to come at dawn," Farfar says again. "But I can take you to the merfolk right now."