Chapter 7: Wherever You May Roam

After she and Giran have completed a day's work of interviewing various former residents of Hara and cataloging the skills and abilities - magical and otherwise - available in this makeshift community, they help organize the serving of the evening meal. Yelnar's hunting parties apparently did well; between their bounty and the success of Coreene's night hunting, food for all these people is no longer the number one thing to worry about. It's down to number three or four.

Verrian's friends all agree that it's now time to get together and talk frankly about the situation - to share all their stories and knowledge from when they were separated and to figure out what to do now that they have essentially a village of refugees on their hands.

This abandoned farm village has what appears to have been a combination town hall and event space. It's small by town hall standards, but probably accommodated the entire village for weddings or dances. Verrian enlists the help of Giran, Wil, and anyone else who happens to be around to clear out debris, sweep the floor, and find chairs and benches. These are arranged in roughly a circle in the room.

Verrian makes sure that all of the people she came with are aware of the meeting, to take place after sundown. She has Giran invite Eanala and Livia, and anyone else they think should attend. She finds a lantern that still has some oil left and hangs it from a hook in the hall, then scrounges for candles to make sure there is enough light for them to see each other.

The remaining Hara resistance members -- Giran, Livia, Eanala and Vesina -- all join the meeting, though they seem strangely reluctant, as though they're not entirely sure they should be here. They nod and smile and greet those of the party that they've gotten to know, Vesina making sure to approach Wil and shake his hand and share a few grateful words with him before she rejoins her friends. Eanala gives Coreene a smile and a concerned look at her state of apparent near-exhaustion. Livia mostly stands behind the others and looms. She's good at it. Giran remains mostly to himself, though the young man maintains a pleasant expression.

Verrian watches as people assemble in the hall, noting the unease of the resistance members. She also noticed Coreene's exhaustion when she delivered her some food at dinner, but she's reluctant to say anything about it.

When everyone has arrived, she decides to open the meeting herself.

"Thank you all for coming. Several of us felt that it would be a good idea to compare notes after the events of the last two days, as well as try to decide what to do next."

Addressing the Hara resistance members, she says, "I know I wasn't forthcoming with you all when we first met, but I think we can all agree that after what we've been through together, we might as well trust each other." She takes a moment to explain the history of their little group - its origins in Meriava, a summary of the events in Viamard, and the subsequent joining with Coreene and Uelten.

"Coreene and Swan described the state of life in Hara and the rounding up of magic users, so we decided to send in Wil to pose as a magic user to try to flush out where they were holding them and what was happening to them. I slipped in after to try and keep an eye on him. The rest, you know."

She pauses to see if any of the resistance people have questions. If there are none, she turns to Wil. "I'm afraid we haven't had much of a chance to talk since we reunited. Would you mind filling us all in on what you experienced after your arrest?"

Wil moves to the front and climbs on a chair.

I know I am not easily seen from the back, so I will take the high ground.

Wil looks around.

As Verrian said, everyone has bits and pieces of what happened, but I am not sure anyone has a complete picture.

Everyone nods assent, so he begins.

As she mentioned my friends and I came to Hara for two reasons. Firstly a little girl asked two of us to save her mom...which would be reason enough. But we also learned that those with a talent for magic were being taken off the streets and not coming back.

He sees the natives of Hara agreeing, and so he continues on.

We had just helped a village who had the same thing happen. We got there too late to save any of the mages, but we drove the people behind it, out of town. We thought the same people might be here, and we were right.

He pauses to take a drink of water before carrying on.

I will leave the magic side of thing to someone who may know more about it. And move the story forward to what happened to me when we came into Hara.

I left my armour and weapons behind and posed as an alchemist with some magical talent, hoping to be captured so we could have someone on the inside.

Unfortunately, no one really knew for sure what was going on. I talked to one of the guards, Brick, and persuaded him to help us escape.

Then Vesina helped me get everyone ready to escape.

This next part is obviously difficult for Wil, he takes a deep breath, wipes his eyes and continues in a rough voice.

One man was old and near death. He said he wouldn't survive the trip, but asked to be allowed to create a diversion. I figured he would cast a minor illusion and I would get him out in the confusion

Hubris

Brick arranged for us to be moved. The old man made a fuss so six of the guards went over to force him to move.

He looked at me across the room and mouthed thank you. Then he...well, I don't know the magic terminology of what he did...but he blew himself up.

His voice drops to a whisper.

He was just gone and so were the guards. And he thanked me.

Wil visibly shakes it off.

Then we ran to the river, and there was more fire there. Maybe you guys know where that came from, but it was a surprise to us. We ran for the silver gate. There were some smaller fire monsters coming up from the ground, but they didn't attack us. The rest you know.

Wil looks around and realizes maybe he said too much.

I am sorry. My grandmother always said my tongue must be tied in the middle and flapping at both ends because of how much I talk.

He climbs down and takes a seat.

Next.

"I, uh." Elora looks between the members of the resistance committee, ensuring no one has any follow up comments to make. "The Crows employed the use of a...mage hunter. It was beastly, and had a sort of...liquid form? I'm not entirely sure I understand the physiology, but it's strong, relentless, and resistant to most magic."

"Chirp!" Pip says in agreement, his head twitching between the members present, perhaps scanning for anything edible or worth stealing.

"After such an encounter, I think it's fair to believe the Crows could...deploy another. The good news is they can still die, but running is much much safer."

Elora looks a bit shaken.

"They're...scary."

From towards the back Yelnar interjects "It's anti-magic abilities may have been formidable, but it was definitely an ambush hunter - no match for a disciplined martial force."

He resumes listening intently, as he experienced little in his rearguard role.

Clearing her throat, Verrian says, "When Wil was taken through the gate, I lost track of him immediately. When I got into the city, I couldn't find him or Pip, Elora's familiar, so I was forced to try to find people who would know where they were taking magic users. That's how I made contact with Eanala and her people."

She pauses, then continues. "They agreed to help the rest of you through the city when you came over the wall. Erannik led a team to meet and escort you through the city. But one of those people, Anders... he was working for the Crows. He set us up. That's how we wound up being chased by the Hunter."

She passes over Erannik's fate and pulls a piece of paper from her pocket. "When Coreene and I helped the halflings through the front gate, I took a detour to the building the Crows were using as their headquarters. They had already cleared out, leaving a pile of bodies in one of the offices. In there, I found Anders. He was sobbing, holding the body of a woman he called Kasia, his sister."

She takes a breath. "He said that they had forced him to infiltrate the resistance by threatening Kasia's life. Only they killed her anyway. They had used magic to... erase his eyes and left him to die."

Pulling a piece of paper from her pocket, she continues. "I found this note in one of the abandoned offices.

'Ghara will not cooperate. He is a petty tyrant, and is unlikely to give up even the ruined city that detests him and his hand-picked thugs. Let him perish when you've gathered enough to free it. We will have no more need of him or his cooperation.

-- D'"

Gesturing with the letter, she says, "I think they have been using the magic users to unleash something - probably that fire monster that attacked after we battled the Hunter. I don't know what they gained from it, but it seems to have been their mission here."

Damn.
Wil swears and when he sees heads turn his way he explains

Kasia helped me get past the first interview and wanted to be free. I told her I would help her and her brother escape.

Damn.

He shakes his head.

Oh, that reminds me, the original interview had a man who was very twitchy and seemed to be able to sniff out magic. He seemed on the verge of going crazy at any given moment.

Verrian leans forward. "I gather the twine convinced him? Did you speak to anyone else?"

The twine made it 50/50, I think they figured it would be better to err on keeping me.

I spoke to Ildemu. He was obviously in charge. He didn't say anything of import. He was sure he was the smartest person in the room and didn't hide it.

Other than that, some guards and most of the people in the warehouse. No one knew what was going on, or if the guards knew, they weren't saying. I am not sure if Brick knew or not. He lost his family to a mage, but I don't think he is evil...just hurt and angry.

Verrian looks at Wil, marveling at his capacity for empathy. With no guile and no real leverage, he still managed to persuade a Crow to help him help the prisoners to escape. It was, in a word, remarkable.

She nods and smiles, at him, then turns to everyone else in the room. "Does anyone else have information to share? Or questions?"

Yelnar looks enquiringly at the magical folk in the group.

"Any idea what that thing was that was left over after the Hunter shriveled up and died?"

Verrian stares at Yelnar in momentary puzzlement, then winces as she remembers the green sphere that had been all that remained after the Hunter had blown away like dust. She digs into her backpack and pulls out a weight that's been bound up in a handkerchief.

She sets the bundle in her lap and unties the knot. She picks up the emerald-colored crystalline sphere and holds it up for all of them to see. "Can anyone identify what this is?"

Elora raises her hand, both curious and cautious of anything originating from the hunter. "I-I can, if you think that's a good idea."

Her hand reaches out, Pip hopping down to land on her arm as he too wants a look.

Coreene sits very still in her chair, propping up her head with her hand as she leans into one of the arms of the chair. She listens to everything with subdues interest and appears to make it halfway through Wil's initial explanation of events before the weight of her eyelids grew to be too much to withstand and she nods off.

Ember almost offers to help with the orb, but she sees a light in Elora's eyes and decides to let the girl take the lead. When Coreene finally nods off, Ember is relieved. She uses little spells to clean the Naucan up and warm her cloak so she sleeps better.

There's a spell that's just a ball of fire, she tells Wil quietly. Please don't beat yourself up. Something that powerful can cause....euphoria in a caster. And if he really was on his last breaths, then you gave him a way to feel truly alive, and.....and....useful again as he left. There is something to be said for that. I bet he died feeling better than he had in ages.

Swan watches his friend fall asleep and Ember care for her. They were both exhausted from a long day of caring for the sick. While they were essentially side by side all day in the infirmary, they hadn't had a chance to reconnect after the trauma of the cities destruction.

"I'm not clear on something major. The guards were supplemented and deferred to the new sect, who were attempting to corral the mages. The note that Verrian found seemed to imply that destroying the city was the only way to take it back from Ghara and his petty thugs. But if they had enough political acumen to infiltrate the guards and take them over, didn't they already run Hara?"

Verrian's attention was on Elora's examination of the sphere, so it's a moment before she responds to Swan's question.

"No, the note is actually implying that Ghara was in league with the Crows. Our resistance members can correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say that either he was already running the city when they arrived, or they helped to install him. Either way, they were operating with his full knowledge. The guards were openly funneling magic users to the Crows, who were using that building on the main square as their headquarters. What I'm gathering from the note is that Ghara wanted to continue playing dictator, which ran counter to the Crows' ultimate plan."

She looks to Eanala. "Maybe our friends in the resistance will be able to tell us what sort of cooperation Ghara might have withheld, since they know more about the way Hara functioned."

Eanala nods slowly in response to Verrian. "Ghara has been gathering power in Hara for some time. I have a hard time imagining him giving it up willingly."

She looks over at Swan. "You remember what a petty little ass he was, don’t you? All the stupid, useless laws he would enact, the thugs he recruited to the guard to repress dissent, while he’d just sit there in that abandoned estate he took over like he’d somehow earned it?"

She grunts out a sour note. "If these ‘Crows’ had something planned that would end up destroying the city, I have a hard time imagining him going along with it once he realized what was going on. Make a deal with the devil...". She shrugs eloquently.