Chapter 7: Wherever You May Roam

Giran seems relieved to have something else to talk about. "That sounds like a great idea," he says. "What do you need from me? I know a few of these people, but I’m not sure I know much about their talents."

He frowns slightly then. "What... projects? Are we staying here? Do you think it’s safe, this close to the city?"

Verrian puts her arm in Giran's and starts to stroll as she explains. "I doubt we're going to stay very long, but we'll need a day or two to get the wounded treated and come up with a plan. I think we're safe enough for that long. But I got up this morning and saw my friend Yelnar organizing some of the people he'd armed into hunting parties, and I realized that with all these people, we probably have a lot of skills that could also be organized to meet the needs of the community."

She stops and looks him in the eye. "I'm a trained diplomat, so I'm certainly good with people, but you're actually one of them. You're likable, and you inspire trust. I want to make sure that the people we talk to feel they're talking to friends about how they can help, not like they're being cataloged like commodities. And... there's something else."

She takes a deep breath. "I'd like to talk to some of the people who were detained by the Crows. We need to understand exactly what they were doing to the magic users. Whatever it was, I think it had something to do with unleashing those creatures on the city. They seem to be going from city to city, wreaking havoc with magic, and if we're going to stop them, we need a lot more information about their processes than we have now."

"We should talk to Vesina," says Giran. "She was there on..."

A thought suddenly comes to Giran, and it drains the color from his face. "Kletiani. She’s not here. Sun and moon, if she didn’t make it out...". He lets out a sigh. "She was our leader. Not that there’s anything left to lead, but..."

He swallows heavily and starts over again. "Vesina was taken by the Crows, voluntarily. She was in the square last night. I don’t know if you met her. But she’ll be the most knowledgeable. I heard she was two houses over."

He points in the appropriate direction and nods his head. "Come on, I’ll take you there."

Verrian had forgotten that there were more people in the resistance than the ones she's already met, and she feels vaguely guilty about it. She starts to say something consoling about Kletiani, but Giran has already resumed talking about Vesina.

She makes a sound of affirmation and follows him as she leads the way to the house Vesina is staying in. She wonders silently if Kletiani got caught up in the fires, or if she actually made it out of Hara.

Vesina is easily found, a short, dark-haired human woman speaking with a crowd of tired-looking people near one of the smaller outbuildings.

"Well, yes, some of us could stay here, but these farms were abandoned once," she says, "and it may not be any more sustainable to live here now."

Someone near the front of the group asks her a question that's not audible from a distance, but her response, pitched to carry, is. "I understand. We could use magic. But without even knowing what the problem is, it's hard to know how to fix it. Not to mention that we still don't know how they were able to gather us all up so easily. Any significant use of magic could just put us back at risk."

Another couple of people ask more questions, but she holds up her hands with a kind smile. "There are a lot of questions, I know. I don't have all the answers. We'll be talking over the next few days about what sort of long-term plan might be beneficial."

The impromptu conference doesn't so much break up as it dissolves, Vesina staying to chat with a few people while the others mill about aimlessly, wandering away to look for something to do with the rest of their morning.

Giran takes Verrian's elbow lightly and steers her toward Vesina, making introductions. "Vesina, this is Verrian. She's a friend of the halfling man you helped free the mages, and would like to know a bit about what happened in the warehouse."

Like most infirmaries, there's a range of issues to be dealt with. The worst off is a young man who says he was caught in a dead-end alley with the fire advancing, and had to run through the fire to escape. He's been tended to as best as people were able, but he's not doing particularly well, with burns over much of his body, but Coreene's ministrations seem to bring him some peace and relief from the pain. "Do you know what caused the fire?" he asks her, voice hardly more than a whisper. "It seemed like it came on so suddenly, and so strongly..."
Ember's manner is infectious, especially with some of the children who are a little singed and suffering from smoke inhalation and similar conditions. They smile, and some laugh, and others nearby who are able to walk come closer to hear Ember's jokes and cajoling. Their worried parents seem thankful for the small sorceress's efforts, with one mother asking tearfully if she can give Ember a hug in gratitude.
There's no sign of the large man known to most as Brick. Wil stops to describe him to a few people, but no one's seen a man matching that description, at least none of those that weren't captive inside the warehouse. One of the mages Wil helped escape says that he thought he saw Brick running for the main city gate after they got free, but that's the most anyone is able to provide.

Another of the refugee mages approaches Wil as he walks through the camp, and offers a hand to shake. "I want to thank you," he says quietly. "So many of us had given up hope of ever getting free. They could say it was for our own protection, but we all knew that something was happening, when the people they'd take away never came back. No one had the courage to fight back until you came along."

Wil shakes the man's hand.

Thank you. If not me, than someone would have stepped up. You all had the courage in you.

After the man moves on, Wil's face falls and tears spring to his eyes.

That's right Wil, you got them to move. Every burn, every missing person from that warehouse...they owe it all to you.

He pulls himself together and continues to help out where he can. Helping Yelnar with fighting training, helping the people training to hunt with archery lessons, helping cook the meals.
Anything that will exhaust him enough to quiet the voices.

Verrian smiles at Vesina, inclining her head in polite greeting. "I don't mean to intrude, but my friends and I have encountered..." She starts to say "Ildemu" but then realizes that's not the name he's been using here. "We've encountered Roland Crow and his crew before. We want to stop them, but first we'll need to understand what they're actually doing."

Frowning, she says, "In Viamard, where we first met the One-Eyed Crows, they were using magical technology to extract mages' magical abilities. But just now, you were talking about whether or not to use magic, so I gather that's not what was going on here."

Ember seems....healthy. Seeing how much she can help. One almost wouldn’t notice how worried she is for the victims. She hugs the woman, hiding a pained expression in her shoulder before pulling back with her usual bright smile. As she works, she is quick to get information from Coreene when needed, not wanting to stress her more.

They’re suffering.
I know. We’re trying to help.
No. Coreene. Verrian. Elora. And what about the men?
Then I’ll help them, too.
Will it be enough? Will it matter? You act like small things make a difference.

She shakes her head suddenly, trying to hide the mental stress from those she’s with. Gently, when she sees a good opening, she begins asking less-traumatized families about the orphans, insisting that siblings stay together. That the littlest ones find homes first.

Vesina bobs her head in greeting, the small woman's manner sharp and birdlike. "I only saw Crow a couple of times, but it was enough to tell he was bad news. I honestly don't know for certain what they were doing with the people they took away, but I can tell you no one saw them again. It could be that they were... did you say extracting their abilities?"

A shiver passes through her. "It could have been that. I will say, though, that they took some people into a room in the warehouse, where a fellow in a grey robe asked them a bunch of questions. The people I've talked to said that he was... twitchy. Like he was hearing voices in his head that he'd stop and listen to every once in a while. He'd laugh suddenly, with no provocation. Talked to himself. And then after a while, he'd shake his head and tell the guards to take the person back to the warehouse. Like they'd been rejected. I can only guess that those he... deemed suitable... were taken away somewhere else."

She reaches up and twists a lock of her dark hair around her finger. "I'm not much of a mage. They took me into the warehouse, but never to this other room. Maybe they knew I wasn't what they were looking for in the end?"

Verrian listens to Vesina's story with interest. She's looking forward to having a chance to hear about Wil's experiences over the past day.

"The Crows have some sort of potion that gives a person the ability to detect magical ability in others. It sounds as though the man in the gray robe is one of those." She pauses, remembering something Giran had just said. "Is it true that you went in voluntarily? Why was that?"

"We needed to know what was going on in there," says Vesina matter-of-factly, head tilting to one side as she looks back at Verrian. "There aren’t that many with magical talent in Hara any more, fewer still connected with the resistance. Someone had to do it. They’d been rounding people up for a while, and at first it just seemed like more of Ghara’s thug tactics. Even if it had just been that, someone needed to find out the truth. Best way to do it was from the inside."

Verrian nods, hoping that the respect she feels for this woman's bravery shows. "What can you tell me about the mages who went in that were never seen again? What kind of talents did they have?"

At this, Vesina sighs. "Say this for Crow and his people," she murmurs. "They knew how to keep us in the dark. None of us knew one another before we were housed together. Or very few of us at least. I tried to get to know as many as I could, listen to their stories, but I wasn’t there long enough to get to know many. I wasn’t able to discern much of a pattern in who was taken and who wasn’t. There were people from all the nations, all races, as far as I could tell. Never saw many Vaelt elves, but they don’t leave home very often anyway. No Naucans either. But again, there weren’t enough of us to present much of a sample size."

Verrian's disappointment is great, but her diplomatic shields are in good working order and she hides it behind a reassuring smile.

"It's all right. I'm just happy so many of you survived the ordeal. Listen, I'm not sure yet what the future holds, but for the time being, we're trying to create a community to meet everyone's needs. I know that the remaining mages don't have what you'd consider major talents, but even so-called minor magical skills are useful at a time like this. If you could get a list together of what kinds of things people can do, it will help us all a great deal."

Elora spends a great deal of the day recording everything. The number of refugees, mages, weapons, supplies, anything really. Based on these findings she starts delving into the statistics for optimal hunting/gathering parties, reasonable training class sizes, etc. She isn't quite sure whether this personal undertaking isn't just to keep her mind occupied, but she's glad her focus is for a good cause.

Yelnar is using the time out in the wilderness to regroup a bit, and is also experimenting with trying to use only hand signals to communicate with his group - it’s not going well. In the middle of trying to showing a complicated set of gestures to communicate "approach from downwind, walk carefully, don’t obstruct each other’s firing lines" the group hears a scream and rushes to investigate, clearly understanding "follow me."

They come across one of the other hunters who appears to have gotten separated from his group, being attacked by a wolf. Yelnar notices that the wolf appears to be a bit emancipated, and the flank showing from his direction appears caked in dried blood. One of his group raises his bow to fire upon the creature, but Yelnar puts his hand up to stop him. Muttering the words to a spell, Yelnar casts Speak with Animals and approaches.

"Excuse me Lone Wolf, you appear to be injured and hungry. If you could stop attacking my friend there, I might be able to help with both of those problems." Yelnar looks around, but sees no sign of any more wolves. "What happened to your pack?"

The wolf does not move off the hunter as yet, but his head does come up to look at Yelnar. When he talks, it does not come across as sound, but a series of images the wolf sends. It introduces itself, sending an image of the wolf jumping around joyfully, and Yelnar interprets it’s name as Jumps Like Rabbit, smiling at the image.

It then sends an image of its pack fighting a terrible battle with some sort of mutated bear. The pack fights valiantly and brings the beast down, but the next image shows the aftermath of the battle, where Rabbit is the only survivor, but is still sorely wounded. He wanders off, but without the rest of his pack and compromised by injury, he has been unable to successfully hunt for some time, until this hunter tripped over him and provided him a potential meal.

Not really knowing how, Yelnar is able to send images of his own. He shows himself healing the wolf with magic, hunting as a pack with Humanoid creatures, and sharing the kill with the wolf. The wolf sends back the image of him jumping for joy as an assent, and moves away from the Hunter, limping towards Yelnar.

Yelnar moves forward to heal the wolf, explaining to his men that the wolf is injured and has been unable to hunt.

Coreene, who had been working in sullen silence, is almost startled by the question. She looks at the young man, thinking on what she should tell him.
She decides on the truth.
"There was a ... monster." she says, taking her eyes off of him and focusing on the bandages that she was putting on. "A giant of molten earth and flame. It emerged from beneath the city and started wreaking havoc..."
She sighs, looking back at him. "Unfortunately... we were unprepared for such a foe, and Hara was lost to it."

"The whole city...?" whispers the man. "How... many escaped?"

Before Coreene can answer, his head rolls to the side as he falls into fitful sleep. It’s not clear whether the man will survive his injuries, but at the very least, he has found some relief from them here. But there are still many to treat, most not so badly injured, but still suffering in some way.

Morning sunlight slants through a window, a bright patch of light mirrored on the floor, motes of dust illuminated in the sunbeam.

"I don't know..." she says to the sleeping patient.
Coreene chastises herself silently for putting so much on the young man in the state he is. Too tired to bemoan the casualties, and much to tired to try and count the number of injured, she continues her work.
She reaches into her pouch, pulling out a small, star-shaped leaf, and rubs it between her fingers to bruise it until it is dark. She then gently opens his mouth and places the leaf on his tongue. He makes a face, as expected, but the bitterness would fade soon and the sedative properties would ease his slumber.
With a heavy sigh, Coreene takes note of the laughter and joviality coming from the area of the infirmary in which Ember was working. When less was weighing on her mind, she thought about taking some notes from her on bedside manner. Until then, there were more victims to treat.