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Post by moralhazard on Mar 12, 2019 23:54:53 GMT
Thea watched as the merman’s hand opened and the trident tumbled to the ground. She sighed a little, hair settling back into place.
Slowly, as the merman spoke, Thea would half-walk, half-limp across the room to the large wardrobe at the back. She was already opening one of the drawers as he made his plea, reaching behind the false back and emerging with a blue bag. She let go of her side, and grabbed what looked like a plain shirt with the other hand, pulling it out and pressing it against the bloody hole in her side, whimpering a little at the pain but keeping the pressure on.
“I believe you. Take it,” Thea limped back over to the merman, the bag sliding out of her hand to plop on the floor next to him. Inside, if he opened it, he would find the gem he so desired.
Thea glanced around; the chaise lounge by the fireplace was damaged, but not quite destroyed. Better to sit there then also ruin her bed with bloodstains. Still limping, Thea made her way over to it and sat down, slowly, cringing a little at the pain in her side. She was still facing towards the merman, just in case.
There was plenty of noise outside, Thea thought fuzzily. That was probably good; she didn’t want to pass out from blood loss.
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Arioch
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Post by Arioch on Mar 13, 2019 0:30:56 GMT
The first seconds were the absolute worst, when Thea began to walk around the room towards the half-destroyed large wardrobe at the back, the crucial moments where he sensed either she would turn back and kill him or not. And just as Thea grabbed the blue bag it would be noticeable to all the way the stone was shining through the fabric. Lyfnan stared in disbelief at the bag, and the stone shining within clearly visible as it could not be hidden within.
"W-What"
He said stumbling in his search for words. Surely it couldn't be possible. When she dropped the bag the stone rolled towards him due to the cracks in the floor and slid outside the bag, now it's glow growing faintly dimmer and dimmer. It was not just the shock that Thea would hand out the gem so easily, and come through without any other question that which shocked him, it went beyond that. It had been an impossible thing to even consider...
"The stone..."
He began to say
"It shouldn't be... I..."
He touched it with his scaled fingers and it began to lose a bit of it's glimmer once again. He then looked upwards towards Thea.
"I..."
His mouth opened and closed again his eyes blinking as he tried to find the words watching her get dressed. It was something close to shame, but that went beyond embarassment, and pushed past disbelief.
"... It would seem you are... The rightful owner..."
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Post by moralhazard on Mar 13, 2019 0:40:43 GMT
Dressed was perhaps overselling it. Thea was still wearing only her cotton nightie, which wasn’t in much better shape than the robe had been. The shirt she’d grabbed was acting more as a makeshift bandage pad than anything. For once, Thea was too tired to be over-concerned with modesty, although she did shift a little on the lounge so her nightie would cover as much of her thighs as possible.
Thea let out a long, slow breath. She didn’t really need to - now that they weren’t fighting she could hold her breath as long as she pleased - but the feeling of breathing had always been comforting to her. Perhaps it was the effects of being raised by humans.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Thea asked, adjusting the shirt-pad against her side. The blood flow seemed to be slowing a bit, at least. Ugh, Thea didn’t even want to think about what might have been on that trident. “I don’t have to worry about dying from possessing it?” There was a sharper edge to her voice than usual, especially as the absolute destruction of her room and almost all her things sank in. At least the anger took the edge off the bone-deep exhaustion threatening to drown her with every aching movement.
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Arioch
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Level 6 — Barbarian
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Post by Arioch on Mar 13, 2019 0:48:10 GMT
"It shouldn't... it shouldn't be"
He repeated like he was still processing the information or trying to think on how he could interpret it some other way but the signs were pretty clear. He left the stone in the floor... And rolled it her way, so unceremoniously that it was hilarious. Or it would have been to anyone who had known him from outside the current situation. The stone rolled and when it approached Thea it began to shine faintly again waiting to be grabbed.
"But... you're not even a merfolk..."
The merman kept talking to himself like he was trying to reach something out of his grasp.
"The stone... is told will recognize it's owner and find it's way to him, but... a human that is..."
He frowned looking to the side before looking at her again.
"Apprentices and supplicants of all sorts would line up to just test the stones and see if they were fit to receive it how come you..."
Another pause, a sight that was violently paused in between.
"No, it was not poisoned... It was just... Enchanted..."
He thought about what he should do then, this situation superceded him clearly and he was not part of the clergy. He was a warrior with a mission that had been working for the temple, he wasn't fit to make these kind of decisions.
"I'll have to inform the head priestess of this... She... She will know what to do."
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Post by moralhazard on Mar 13, 2019 0:57:04 GMT
“I’m not human either, you know,” Thea said, quietly, looking down at the stone sitting by her bare feet. She was normally very fastidious; the sight of her feet splashed with ink and blood and bits of dust from her destroyed furniture should, Thea felt, have been more upsetting than it was. All she felt was a vague sense of displeasure.
Thea would have thought her lack of humanity was obvious – the blue skin, the wind whistling through her hair – but who was she to judge. Anyway, especially non-humans tended to use human as a catch-all; she was correcting the merman more for form than anything. Thea wasn’t human; she was a genasi, and she was proud of it.
Thea looked, slowly, down at the stone on the ground It was beautiful; she had felt it call to her the moment her client had first shown it to her. It really was like the sea had been caught up in a little stone. She could see why the merfolk had wanted it back. Honestly, none of this really make sense at all; she was tired, and grumpy, and Lyfnan still really wasn’t make a lot of sense. She just wanted him to take the stupid thing back.
Thea huffed, slowly, reaching down to the ground as carefully as physically possible - the movement sent a stabbing pain through her side anyway - and scooping up the stone, cradling it in the palm of her free hand.
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Arioch
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Post by Arioch on Mar 13, 2019 1:05:14 GMT
The stone gave off a small tingling sensation, like some kind of very vague static electricity. It was a faint force like water swirling very slowly in her hand and it quickly began to shift in the inside. It began to shine faintly. The myriad stars that were buried deep within the stone blinked back to life very slowly, calling to her. The small stone pulsated with sorcerous power, and a bittersweet feeling.
Lyfnan stared in disbelief in the meantime, not human? Sure she wasn't, the signs were all there. Two legs, two arms... And the rest of the pieces were in place as far as he was concerned. Slowly he began to get up, though most of his body was badly mangled by lightning magic and thunder conjuration. And it was just about in that moment when the first steps managed to reach the door and a mage popped up his head to see what was going on in the room.
"Is everything al-aaaaaahh"
The robed voice owner shrieked as he was how everything had been pulverized or vaporized and the blood sprinkled everywhere. Also the huge merfolk rising up from the ground and tossing a sudden glance his way, with his sharp teeth all bloodied showing through from his lips. The man turned back and ran making noise downstairs.
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Post by moralhazard on Mar 13, 2019 1:13:46 GMT
Thea turned her hand, slowly, examining the stone from side to side. It was incredible how a small stone could seem to contain the power of water swirling, and even… look like it? She lifted it, gazing into it, curious about how it seemed to move like the shifting of the tides. What looked like stars inside it seemed to wink to life, and it called to her – not Thea-the-glassblower, not Thea-the-genasi, but Thea-the-sorcerer.
Thea exhaled, setting aside her first reaction – chuck the stone across the room at Lyfnan and hope he took it away this time. She closed her hand over the stone, lowering it to her lap. A few months ago, maybe she wouldn’t have been sure, but Thea had put in months of effort to grow closer to her magic, and she was nearly positive that it was that same storm magic that the stone called to. Perhaps it made sense; the storm that had found her too strong to eat and spat her back out with a bit of its magic had been at sea, after all.
The door opened, and Thea’s most squeamish neighbor squealed in horror at the sight of shattered furniture, a huge, bloodied mermaid, and presumably also Thea in a state of indecency and clear physical distress.
“More will come soon,” Thea said, practically. “And this is a home for mages. You’d better go,” she looked up at Lyfnan. “You can tell the head priestess that the stone calls to the sorcerer in me,” she shivered a little. “Maybe she’ll know what to make of that. I don’t.”
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Arioch
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Post by Arioch on Mar 13, 2019 1:26:24 GMT
Lyfnan briefly looked over his shoulder back at her, surprised that she would give him such a warning after he had so very shortly ago tried to kill her and, arguably, steal from her. After breaking all her stuff. And also waking up the whole neighborhood in the ensuing fight. He blinked twice in a row when he heard her say those words. Sorcerer? She? Really? A human? It made absolutely no sense, but he couldn't really stay to ask her more questions whose right answers he didn't even know.
"I... Thank you"
He said, those two words were the last ones he thought he'd be pronnouncing when his day began with a murder and a theft. That said he began to slither outside of the room with some effort.
"I will consult with the priestess and..."
Lyfnan hesitated for a moment thinking of just what to say about the subject. He didn't know how the priestess would react to the knowledge that the stone had been Thea's.
"We will meet again"
Declared and quickly began to head downstairs as the storm kept rampaging through the skies, the constant pouring water that was now starting to leak inside and outside of the room thanks to the broken windows making his walking easier. He descended as fast as his lack of legs would allow for him, and quickly slid outside almost seeming to hover over the damp surface of Waterdeep, except for the faint trail of blood he was leaving behind, trail which was quickly removed by the falling rain.
Soon enough, he desappeared into the night, with his words telling her he, or others, would come back eventually.
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