Carantathraiel

Wanderers

"Just because the wards don't detect anything now doesn't mean the legends about your heritage aren't true." Envy stated. "Magic comes in many forms, afterall."

His steps were careful, still, his free hand tense and splayed. He tried to count his steps in his hear, making a mental map of the manor and the gardens.
Which smelled lovely. Envy relayed his thoughts, complimenting what was undeniably a flourishing garden. The aroma of the plants as they closed their petals for the night was pleasing to his nose.

"No, you will not." Envy answered. "Those with magic would sense a pressure. A tension. You would, too, if you were to resist. Nothing more than, say, when you're laying on your arm strangely and your muscles ache. If I sense that, I won'RMT press, so don't worry." He explained, letting her have as many details as he felt would comfort her.
"To let it work, all you do is look. And relax. I connect our minds. If you prefer, I can give you some tell that let's you know I am sharing your conscious. A scent, or a warmth. But it's simple. Safe." He gave her a reassuring smile. "You know you're not obligated, right? Hearing you describe it it just as lovely."

[Hr]

Ruli pressed his lips together as she spoke, listing her worries. It always marveled him how women had the ability to worry about so many different things at once, simply because they were minutely connected.
He would have lopped this all in a single box in his mind. 'Today'.

"Maybe you could approach Janes about it. Work on a solution together. She seems the rational sort. She might have some insight from the perspective from the non-magical side. You know, assuming she still is one." He added. "It would smooth over the transition, as well. If you're not ready to make it obvious, give Ed a task. Daryll is already working with you. Make it look like a family effort."

Wanderers

Envy turned his head her way as she mentioned what Ruli mentioned; for a fleeting moment, he worried she would ask about the conversation in the tent camp. But when she mentioned her willingness to try to show him what he could see, he grinned. "It is harmless. Especially since I don't think I have the ability to be malicious in any way. Especially not to you." He reassured. "I have a few times seen views through Ruli or Zeke's eyes. It is how they showed me Úvano. How perfect it was. But I have never actually seen a real sunset. Not from start to stop. Only when the sky is already violet." He inhaled and rose, taking careful, measured steps towards her, mentally counting in his head so he would be able to get around later.
"If you're really willing, I'd love to see it with you. More than to just sit beneath."

---

Ruli chuckled. "Empress of Amria and non sequiturs, I see." He teased. "Of course. But I want a pint of my own. I want to taste more Amrian drink." Ruli informed her, starting back down the hall toward the common room. "This is where you get the real taste of the country. The rural inns on the sides of the roads. The crooked hostels and the shacks that reek of piss. This place is far nicer than that, but something still tells me it'll have more genuine drink than whats in your royal stores."

As they reached the common area, Ruli turned toward Kire as he waved for two more drinks. Easily understood, even without words. "So. Speak your thoughts. What will be keeping you up alone in your room?"

Wanderers

Envy grinned. "A moment to collect my bearings, perhaps, and I would be happy to sit beneath a sunset with you." He answered her, moving to sit upon the bed. Immediately, he was delighted with how soft it was. He wiggled momentarily, deciding he was be very unwilling to wake up in the morning. "Uh." He said after a pause. "I should perhaps inform you that I am not the best at being woken up. Perhaps inform your personnel to avoid entering in the morning." Envy grinned crookedly. "I hear Kire has the same sort of reluctance. Imagine the empress with a bestial growl and fangs."

---

Relieved at Gavin's promise, Ruli let him in, spotting Kire at once, then noticing the pint she held. He made no comment on the drink, glancing at the woman behind the counters who would serve them, silently wondering if she spoke the commmon tongue. Not that that mattered. It was easy enough to order drinks when languages weren't shared.

He followed her upstairs, watching in amusement as Gavin all but collapsed onto his bed. It'd been a long day, and working so diligently on wards and runes exhausted the mind.
As they paused in front of his own door, and she asked how he was doing, Ruli glanced toward Gavin's door again. "Not quite as tired as he is, but well." He answered. "And you? Your days here typically end in pints?"

Wanderers

Ruli smirked at Kire when she mentioned the gold, nodding silently at her in response.
"How much am I to get?" Ysaryn demanded.
"You?" Ruli arched an eyebrow. "What have you even done? Beside smack a poor child with a blanket?"
"He was on fire!" She gestured, annoyed.
It was Envy's laugh that made her lower her arm and leer at Ruli. "We'll be back." Ruli said to her, leading the way to Narda's manor, dragging the four of them along.

He straightened when they arrived, finding it rather impressive. "I'm not sure why I expected some sailors shanty on the foamy shore." He muttered, glancing sidelong at Envy. The Kartaian, in another completely unfamiliar surrounding, was standing stiffly, his hands splayed slightly, as if afraid to move lest he bump into something.
"You know, Narda." Ruli said quietly. "You take his hand, and give him permission, he can see what you're seeing."
"That's enough." Envy cut in. "Magic makes many uncomfortable."
Ruli only shrugged, about to grab Gavin and leave, only to see him tailing the others toward Envy's room. With a sigh, he followed, watching Envy cautiously step and shuffle along the halls.

Standing in the doorway, Ruli tilted his head. "Do you have many guests who are as tall as you are?" He wondered. "Or, having to put up with regular sized beds when you travel, you decided to grace people with appropriate sized mattresses?"
"Regardless," Envy said, moving to stand near-ish to the bed. "I think we'll be building a bed this size for when you come to stay with us."
Gavin yawned, and Ruli glanced his way for a moment before looking to Envy. "Are you alright? Do you need anything?"
Envy snorted. "I think I am perfectly fine. A soft bed my size? I won't complain."
Not what Ruli meant, exactly, but he only nodded to Narda. "I'm taking the apprentice back with me, then. I'll return in the morning."

They arrived in the in, appearing at the doorway and giving a small bird a start. As it fluttered off, Ruli turned toward the warded city behind them. "No wandering out tonight." He instructed to Gavin. "We don't go in there without a second. If anything happens, we'll need help. Got it?" He demanded gently before he opened the door to the inn and stepped inside.

Wanderers

Ruli was quiet while they worked, throwing his focus on the task at hand, and finishing before any more incidences arose. He wouldn't allow himself to dwell on his little slip; how he was angry at himself for it. Never mind that it was in the shadow of people being harmed and afraid. He feared that opening up the wound enough to let Kire in, to tell her a little bit about his past, had rendered the wound open. He would have to leave it alone for it to heal again, to let it become another scar.
Envy, seeming to understand his mood, made idle talk; asking about the view, the people, the forest itself. Gavin answered almost all of the questions, giving Ruli the silence to bury everything he hated about himself once more as his hands flew over their runes.

When they had finished, and the ward was placed along the outside of the camp, Ruli and Envy stood uncomfortably inside. While they'd made gaps in the wards just to allow the Kartaian's sun-blocking charm to continue working, he could still feel the effects of the wards. The ants on their skin, the cold sweat on their spines.
The moment he was asked if he would stay, Envy shook his great head. "No." He said far too quickly. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. Just. The wards."
Ruli nodded. While he seconded the Kartaian's dislike for being within them, he would tolerate them for now. "We allowed for your portals in case of emergencies, like the fires. But Ysaryn and I will have to leave in order to travel."
The fuchsia haired elf grunted unhappily. "This explains why I feel much heavier."

The promise of the inn, outside of the city gates and their wards, was inviting. Envy still looked town, then turned toward Narda. "I would hate to presume anything of you, but I would hazard a guess your furniture is, perhaps, slightly more accommodating? Is your couch long enough? Or, er, strong enough?"
"We can always press two beds together." Ruli offered. "Or take you home for the night." But Ruli grinned at Narda. Not going to make me drag him home, are you?

Wanderers

When there’s a greater power influencing the bearer of the magic, I would detect that signature alongside the individual. Ysaryn tilted her head. "So it is like cooking meat?" She asked, and Ruli shot her a glare for the comparison. She raised her hand, continuing. "Meat is their magic. But the season and the marinade, it is the influence. Is the burning pine the boy or the influence?" She asked.
"My guess is the pine is the boy." Ruli muttered, glancing the child's way again. "It is unfortunate that you're the only once who can smell the signatures. We'd be much more helpful." He added to Kire.

As he followed Gavin out to get to work, Envy ducked out and joined them, desiring to avoid the flammable patients as well as put his hands to use. Ysaryn continued to circle. As Kire asked if she'd stay, she shrugged. "I have good nose. Maybe I can pick something else up, if not like you." She said, deciding to linger and help. "It may not be combat, but it is still a fight."

Wanderers

In an involuntary action, Envy flinched when Narda first touched him, though no more than snapping he arm before his torso. He exhaled, nodding, though he still seemed distracted, his brow still dotted in sweat. He shifted his arms again, as if his skin were crawling beneath the fabric of his tunic. "I know." He said, though his voice was soft.

Ruli nodded, his thoughts returning to her admission over breakfast, where she had said the Seer warned her to be prepared. This had to be it. He studied her, sure she thought the same. The panic of her people; afraid of their neighbors and of themselves. Their own family members. Fear would spread faster than the plague.
Ysaryn shrugged upon hearing Daryll's question. "I did not know what I could do until only recently, but there -"
"Its detectable at birth." Ruli said, then he froze and glanced up when Ysaryn gave him a funny look.
Envy, blinking back into the present at that convenient moment, cleared his throat. "Its common in my clan to display the instinct of it immediately." Ruli glanced at the Kartaian, then down at the ground, his mind wandering. "Often, those who fail to display talents are used as grunts."
Ysaryn's gaze shifted from Envy, to Ruli for a moment, noting the lost expression on Ruli's face.

"We'll make wards quickly." Envy said, sensing Ruli's distress and answering. "We brought supplies, as well as more of the medicinal leaves." The large elf inhaled, sweat still lingering on his face and along his spine. Mentioning it seemed to make Ruli remember, and he straightened and held up the canvas pouch he'd filled with leaves, as well as a few clippings of the trees themselves. "Gavin?" Envy said, turning toward the young man to request he begin. "Ruli? You, too. Time is the essence, here."

Ysaryn still circled, trying to see if she could find any tell. "Will suppressing be good?" She wondered suddenly. Ruli, on the way out of the tent with Gavin, turned.
"Why would it not be?"
The elf furrowed her brow, then gestured and switched tongues. "Fire burns. If it does not get out, it will still burn."
Ruli hissed, turning to look at Envy for his thoughts. The idea of burning flames still seemed to make the elf uncomfortable. "Can we be sure they'll all manifest fire? Kire," He switched tongues again, looking to the empress. "Etta had a fever? But you're sure she won't be pyrokinetic?"

Wanderers

Ysaryn kept swatting the flames, the blanket smoking and singed by the time she stopped, the flames snuffed out. She looked up, wide-eyed, at the boy, Kire, Ruli. "What fuck!?" She shouted.
"Ysaryn!" Ruli snapped back at her, his eyes on the boy, who stared fearfully at his hands.

In a blink, Kire, Daryll, and the boy were gone. Ysaryn hissed, looking frustrated. Ruli turned toward Envy, whose back had hit the canvas wall. "Envy, relax." Ruli urged. "The fire is ou-"

And they were back, the smell of water filling the tent. Ysaryn froze, leering at them, blanket raised in her arms as if waiting for the fire to reappear.
Ruli wasn't sure what to focus on. The soaked trio, the pale boy, the nervous Kartaian. As Kire spoke to the boy, apologizing and handing him to the healers for tending, Ruli turned to Envy. "Breath. The flames are gone."
Envy took in an uneasy breath, nodding. "We'll make a charm to - for him." He said, still pressed against the tent wall. Ruli knew he'd have left the tent if the sunlight didn't make him just as uncomfortable. That, and he knew Envy's instinct to help and solve problems was holding him here.

Kire vanished, and Ruli breathed steadily, calmingly, for a moment before he swallowed his worry for the young Wyvern. "It shouldn't happen," Ruli voiced, trying to think. "Kire can suddenly smell Etta's magic. Her signature. Now the boy ..."
"It is waking up." Ysaryn breathed, lowering the blanket, but her eyes were still on the boy; waiting.
"Is that even possible?" Ruli asked, turning to Envy. But the Kartaian wasn't collected yet, his milky eyes still wide, his brow sweating. "Envy, can magic just manifest in people?" Ruli pressed, hoping to distract him.
"Uh." Envy reached up to scratch at his face, along one of the wrinkled scars that marred him.

Kire's return was another distraction, and Ruli turned toward her, sighing in relief when she said Etta was fine. "Kire," Ruli began. "Etta suddenly developing magic, enough for you to sense, its understandable. Being a Wyvern and all. But the boy," Ruli gestured, watching the child shiver beneath the towel as the healers inspected him. "It can't be a coincidence."

Wanderers

The Kartaian nodded, while Ruli glanced around the camp, already mentally tallying what they'd need, and how to best approach the matter. As they decided to split up, they loitered briefly while Gavin and Envy both took their own estimations, before Ruli brought them to the gate, and then through to Úvano.

Once there, Ruli took off for the desert, circling the edge for a while as he gathered the leaves he needed. He had to hunt the trees down, jogging across the sand often to dwindle the time it would take. He knew where a line of them stood, but he didn't dare travel too close to Ziad, fearing the Kartaians. It wasn't like he couldn't avoid them, -or fight, with the sword Kire had given him strapped to his hip- but he feared that they'd somehow track him to the seaside cliffs.

He was longer than intended in gathering supplies, returning to Úvano to find the other two waiting for him. He gathered them, and brought them back to Amria, and to the camp, just in time to see the bed catch fire.
"What the-" He shouted.
Envy, feeling the flames, hearing the scream, tensed and retreated.
"Put it out!" Ysaryn shouted, bending to gather a blanket from another cot, ripping it from another patient before she began to swat at the flames with it to suffocate them. "Get the boy!"

Wanderers

He waited as his words were translated, then stepped back to let the healers take over and decide who would receive what. He stepped back beside Envy, Ysaryn the only one of the three of them still making her rounds. As the woman expressed her relief when given the stone, Ruli turned toward Envy, who must have sensed his attention. The Kartaian nodded, frowning slightly.
That the effects of the fevers and voices were dimmed by the presence of their charms was good for the ill, but not great news overall. Whatever Solaralai was using to reach into Amria, divine or not, was also strong magic.

"We can work on a few more." Envy offered, while Ruli quietly watched. "Cater them to the effects."
"Could you not make ward around tree?" Ysaryn asked, pausing next to one of the women in the back. She breathed deeply a few times, studying the woman. "This one has an infection. Unrelated, I believe. Pleasure area." She wiggled her fingers over her own groin before she moved on.
Ruli glanced toward Kire, eyebrows raised. "I'll let you translate that however you want." He cleared his throat.
"She may just be pregnant." Ysaryn added, circling the next cot. "Humans smell so foul all the time, its hard to tell the difference between good or bad, at times."
"Ed is such a lucky guy." Ruli snorted, and she offered him a dark look.

Kire's joke made Ruli smirk at her, before he chuckled at Gavin's response to it. He studied Kire for a moment, admiring the way she faced this uncertainty with her head high, her mouth set in determination as she fought to understand what was happening to her people. She didn't send people to do it for her. She was here, among the stricken.
Ysaryn's softly cleared throat tore his eyes off the empress, and he glanced at the elf to see her smirking at him. He gave a quick shake of the head, hoping she wouldn't tease him for whatever she saw in his face.

Just then, Kire looked around at him, and Ruli wiped his expression into neutrality. "Yeah, we'll bring more. Might take me a bit to travel around and gather them." He offered, watching as she inhaled in a similar way as Ysaryn and turned toward the boy. He and Envy both tilted their heads at once. "Burning pine?"
Envy inhaled deeply, remaining where he was. "No." He admitted. He shifted his weight, clearly desiring to get closer, to inspect, but also far too aware of his appearance to approach an nervous child.
"Only sweat." Ysaryn answered, circling back to the boy to inhale the air as she passed, to avoid surrounding the child. Another shake of her head. "I want this skill of Kirai's. To smell magic."
"You could smell Etta." Ruli pointed out.
The elf clicked her tongue. "No. I could smell her blood. Strong blood, in that one. Just as I can smell whatever your blood is."
Ruli frowned at her, then looked back toward Kire.
"Gavin and I can work on a few more charms, and discuss the possibility of circling the forest." Envy said, changing the topic. "But I'm hesitant without knowing more about it. If it is growing, if it will change its temperament when it senses what we're doing." If she changes her temperament, he meant. "It might be wiser to ward the camp."
"The locals may not welcome more magic." Ruli offered. "Especially if the forest is telling them not to let ours near."