Chapter 7: Wherever You May Roam

As the party and its charges finally get free from the walls of Hara, the Naucans quickly get in touch with the rest of their companions. Between Coreene and Swan and the input of well-meaning Hara townspeople, they are able to identify a suitable rendezvous point not far outside the city. From there, they agree to spend the rest of whatever night remains to them at a small farm collective not far down the road south along the river. The early spring nights are still cool and brisk, but at least there they should be able to find several buildings to at least be in out of the elements a little.

The group reunites and leaves the burning wreck of the city behind them. Many of the townsfolk, the immediate danger now past, openly question what they'll do now that even their meager homes in the city are destroyed. Some worry over the fate of friends and family not with them, others fret over food and provisions, still others try and hold the group together. A number of people, who have other options, think themselves better suited for making decisions, or are merely antisocial, split off from the group and go their own way, but the significant majority of halflings, renegade mages, and other townsfolk remain with the party.

Cresting any of the low hills south of the city gives any forward scout a broad view of Hara, and it's not a good one. While at least half the city, mostly that on the opposite side of the river from where the party escaped from, has not yet burned, there are countless pockets of flames that dot the landscape inside the city walls. The elder fire elemental that ravaged so much of the city continues to wreak havoc, having dispatched whatever unknown force was tormenting it earlier. How long it will rampage is impossible to gauge. By morning, it would not be unexpected for most of the city to be a blackened husk.

When Verrian finds Coreene after finally exiting the burning city, she appears calm. Even her sharing seems to be fairly buttoned up, which is a departure; from the moment they met, Verrian has seemed to revel in maintaining the constant telepathic emotional sharing that Naucans are accustomed to.

Her facial markings are the color of ash.

She gives Coreene a short, fierce hug, then shares, @Coreene: Let's find Wil and the others.

After a few moments of walking in relative silence, a tiny sorceress leaps into Verrian's arms, shaking a little as she hugs her, though she'd never let the others know that. It's part fear, part finally realizing how badly she was hurt. But her focus is on the Naucan.

Stars above I've been looking for you! With the fire, and the hunter, and the betrayal, and, and I found Wil, and I know he's fine, and there are so many mages who are okay! But I was having such a hard time finding you, and I was so worried, and I -

She leans back for air and her face goes pale. Your marks are gray. Verrian?

Verrian manages to keep her balance - barely - when her arms are unexpectedly suddenly full of Ember. The Naucan's fatigue and lingering injuries are making her less alert than usual, but the girl's trembling doesn't escape her notice. Verrian gives her what comfort she has left in her, trying to channel calm reassurance through her hug.Verrian smiles. She can feel that it's a facsimile of her normal smile, but it's been quite a day. And night.

"I'm just tired, little one, and full of smoke. I just need some food and rest."

Ember sets to work quietly using her prestidigitation to try to clean Verrian up.

Coreene nods, still holding on to Minama. She knew that the girl's mother would likely still be with Wil's group, and though they had all joined together, it was still a large crowd of people.

She smiles at the reunion between Ember and Verrian, and decides its best if she leaves the two alone for a moment. She wanders around through the mage group, reaching out, sharing Minama's mother's name to see if she can get a reaction.

Verrian lets Ember down as her arms start to complain. Her eyes widen as she looks around, suddenly recalling something. "Elora - where's Elora? Did she make it out all right?"

Ember gasps and reassures Verrian quickly. Everyone’s out! Even Wil. Elora’s really hurt, but she’s out.

She pauses and gulps, a sign her mind is acting up again now that they’re safe. But she takes Verrian’s face in her hands and gently guides her down so their foreheads are touching.

I’m really glad you’re okay. Im going to try to make the others more comfortable.

She pulls back but keeps her hand on the Naucan’s cheek, worry on her face as she brushes a still-gray marking.

Do what you have to, but then get help, okay?

She leaves to start magically cleaning up the others. She expresses gratitude but is otherwise quiet. After that, she goes to the displaced mages. Can they probably do it themselves? Sure. Do they need a gesture of good faith? Ember figures it can’t hurt.

Verrian closes her eyes in relief upon hearing that everyone made it through the Silver Gate safely. When Ember takes her face in her hands, she uses all her emotional resources to give her a reassuring smile until the little sorceress moves on to help people clean up.

She touches her own face absently, vaguely concerned that she can't find enough focus to override the emotion that's controlling the color of her facial markings. She's too physically tired, with too many lingering wounds, to keep all of her self-restraints tightly in place.

There's so much noise and confusion in this crush of scared, displaced people that she's finding it hard to choose a course of action. Instead, she just starts scanning the crowd for familiar faces.

Uelten stays behind, sending a refugee-message to Wil that he'll watch for stragglers and send them on to the farms. After the others have moved on, he slides into the shadows by the gate and he waits.

I don't understand. Was the stolen magic used to summon that thing? To what end? Or was it some kind of cosmic balance being righted? He thinks it through over and over, until he realizes all he is trying to do is distract himself. Wet cheeks come at last, during his silent vigil.

Any citizens that escape he'll give directions to, unless they're armed or suspicious seeming. Those he'll send toward where they cached the weapons, claiming the refugees are going around to the forest.

After an hour, if no one else comes, he follows at last.

Once everyone made it to the farm Elora decides to spend some time away from people, the noise starting to give her sensory overload.

Well, alone as can be with Pip by her side. They watch the burning city in melancholic silence, and not just because they can't have a two-way conversation. I should probably have my wounds looked at... Elora isn't entirely sure how she's still standing, but now that the danger has passed she's not gonna let an opportunity like this go before she must try and be bigger then she is again.

Eventually she will walk back, looking for the gang.

Coreene

Coreene sharing Evina's name throughout the crowd bears fruit rather quickly. Bustling through the crowd, Minama's mother spots Coreene and her daughter from some distance away. She claps her hands to her mouth, covering a gasp, and tears well up in her eyes. Some of those nearby look around to see what the excitement's about, and quickly make the connection. A few of them seem to realize immediately what's transpiring, bringing smiles to their faces as well.

"Minama, my little ladybug!" she calls out, stretching her arms toward her daughter.

Coreene smiles, not bothering to suppress the tears in her eyes. Giving Minama another tight squeeze for luck, she sets the girl down, watching her run to her mother.

Wil sees his aunt Blossom among the crowd of halflings milling around and hurries over to see her.

Oh auntie, I am so glad to see that you made it out. I am very sorry that I lied to you, but I had given the guard a fake name. My friends and I were trying to save the mages from losing their magic.

He stops and realizes he may be rambling.

Anyway, it is very good to see you.

Minama jerks her head up from Coreene's shoulder when she hears her mother's voice. As Coreene sets her down, she goes racing for her mother with arms open.

Evina crouches down to catch her daughter, and as she stands up with the girl in her arms, they twirl in a slow, happy circle. "Mama! I'm so glad the people helped you! Coreene was very nice, just like you said she would be," she babbles happily. "Why are you crying, mama? Are you hurt?"

Evina laughs, rubbing her damp eyes with one hand, though Minama's getting big enough that she can't hold the girl up with one arm for very long. "No dear. I'm just so happy to see you. I've missed you so much, my ladybug," she says, voice shaking. She walks over to Coreene and looks her very directly in the eyes, though blurry through the tears.

"Thank you," she whispers, hardly able to get the words out without her voice breaking.

Blossom plants her fists on her hips and looks back at Wil, clearly unimpressed with what he has to say. "Willitan Lightfoot, you are the most confounding, exasperating, misdirecting halfling I can currently manage to smack upside the head," she declares, and presses her lips together in a show of being confounded, exasperated, and misdirected.

Slowly, her lips begin to tremble and twitch. It's only a few moments later that she bursts out in laughter and throws her arms gleefully around his neck. "And I am so very glad to see you too."

She plants a wet, noisy kiss on his cheek and holds him by the shoulders at arm's length to look him in the eyes. Back to her more usual business-like manner, she studies his face, then the gaggle of big people milling about. "You seem to have come up in the world a bit. You might even be a bit taller, my boy."

Coreene smiles tearfully at Evina. Without a word, she wraps the both of them in a hug. "I am glad that both of you are safe." she tells them. She hugs them for a good while and then steps back fro a moment. "I need to get back to my companions, but we will be doing everything we can to make sure that you are all safe." She tells the two, and anyone in the general vicinity, before heading back into the crowds to look for her companions, with one last little wave to Minama.

Verrian

Giran, the lightly-bearded young man from the resistance, makes his way through the crowd of people, affecting a casual gait and manner. Of course, many of these are his people and some are even his neighbors and friends. He stops to hug a few people, expressing how happy he is to see them safe. For others he stops to express sympathy over those still in the city. Slowly, he makes his way around, looking for familiar faces. He's still weak from his unfortunate encounter with the hunter, judging by the hesitant way he walks and the tightness around his eyes, wincing with every step.

He's turning away from one group and not quite looking where he's going, and consequently bumps right into Verrian's back. "Oh, I'm sorry..." he says, stepping back and holding his hands up in apology. "Talva! Sun, moon, and stars! It's... goodness, it's such a relief to see you. Are you all right? Were you hurt?"

Verrian turns quickly when someone bumps into her from behind, nerves so frayed from what happened with Anders that she nearly draws one of her daggers. When she sees that it's Giran, a series of emotions surface and swirl like different colors of paint that haven't been mixed yet. Relief that he made it out of the city. Embarrassment that he still only knows her alias. Guilt that she might have had a hand in his nearly getting killed.

Some other stuff she is too tired and jumbled to analyze.

Then she remembers that all the exertion and heat exposure has probably removed all traces of the disguise makeup she'd been wearing, and she feels irrationally exposed. It's at this point she realizes that he's still waiting for her to respond to his question.

"I'm fine," she says. It's a preposterous response, given that she's standing outside of the burning ruins of a city, obviously bleeding and suffering from heat-related injuries. This is a banner moment for diplomatic eloquence.

She closes her eyes and lets her mind land on the most important thing she needs to say to him right now.

@Giran: My name is Verrian.

Giran blinks, at first confused by this seeming non sequitur. "Wh... oh!"

It seems to be the night for eloquence.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Verrian," he says with a boyish grin, and bows formally. "I'm... well, I'm still Giran. You already knew that. At the risk of sounding like a complete clod, you don't look fine. Do you need to sit? Rest? I thought I saw someone who had a bottle of wine. I'm sure it's just about vinegar, but..."

He sighs, and smiles thinly. "I'm going to stop talking and let you answer."