DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HWD: The Heartwood HWD: Introduction

Mikal

He looks at Conrad, then briefly at Camelia when she adds her comment. But for now he responds to Conrad, as the other topic seems to be a separate issue that doesn't address the problem. It might be important, but he doesn't want to be distracted. "You know where this child is held?" He asks Conrad, nodding at his suggestion.

"Securing that hostage removes one piece of bargaining power, yes, and should be first. But they will just take another. We need to eliminate the threat. But it seems so pervasive that if we just meet one, then there will be a handful more still able to act. We cannot spend all our time rescuing one hostage after another, forever."

"Hmmm. Perhaps, if we each tell the one who contacted us that we have the key and will bring it to a certain place, and for them to meet us there, we can gather all of them together in one place, and strike them at once?"

Celi

Celi raised her hand hesitantly. "I did not see the events to which you refer, so I do na' have that evidence. But I would ask ... is it possible that the girl is part of a plan to gull the good squire ... or any of us who might wish to seize the key and mount a rescue?"

What better way to bring the squire around to their side, than a good old-fashioned rescue of a damsel in distress ...

Daxia
with the rest of the Gang

Daxia exchanged one last look with Kadri before resuming her relaxed posture in the chair. She looked at Camelia, eyebrow raised... then Celi, an appraising look... the Squire, with a slight shake of her head, almost sadly... finally to settle her gaze on Mikal.

"You not listening to me, Mikal. So I tell again, so others can hear. You listen this time, yes?" The slightest admonishing smile came and went quickly.

"Merchants, and thieves guild likely, running Cragside. Not Lord Shannon, sad to say," she remarked, looking at Conrad. She looked again around the full group, eyes coming to rest on Kadri. "The ones who approach each of us today? Bullies working for ruling merchants. Many merchants, many bullies, yes?" Her eyes slid to Mikal. "You think eliminating them do any good? No. More just come. And then more again. Innocent people likely get hurt. I not be part of that, letting innocent people be hurt."

Then she looked at Conrad again, leaning forward and resting her arms on the table. "All respect to you, Squire, rushing off to fetch girl only say to ones in charge we making connections, we see pattern, we very smart." She shook her head. "Must think crafty. Must be subtle. Must not let them know we so smart." Daxia tilted her head, regarding the Squire of Rames intently. "Must play game of Doublebluff with them. You play Doublebluff?"

Cesare

"I agree with Daxia. One advantage they all have over us is they know more. We need to increase our knowledge."

He looks over at the squire, with a touch of disapproval.

"We do not know what we are up against. What resources those people have. To charge into a rescue attempt blindly is plain stupid. Hostages, if that is what they are, could be kiled. And to hand over our best bargaining tool puts us all at risk of the other factions who might not be too happy with us. Playing for time is our best play for now. One person has already dies last night.. this must be important.. very important. We need to know why."

He grins.

"And besides where I come from, Kadri is the current owner of the key. It is her decision."

Kadri

She looks over at Cesare and Daxia and nods slightly.

She looks over at Darian:

"Does a true hunter murder a man and then threaten to torture his daughter? I think probably your question is answered right there. The man is a true coward. And a bully. I do not like Bullies."

She looks at Camellia

"Her life has been directly threatened if the key goes to her. . or anyone else. And the person who held a knife on me. . he was good. He was professional. He snuck up on me, and I will tell you that that is no easy task. Would it have been a kindness to the girl to tell her that I had the key, but if I gave it to her, there was at least one man who would be trying to find her and kill her -- or worse yet, engage in torture or who knows what else? I would consider that no kindness. I did not tell her a single lie. I intend fully to see the key returned to her and her safe. As I swore. However, the first cannot be accomplished before the second. I will place the welfare of an innocent over truth every time, and I will sleep very well at night doing it, thank you very much."

Then she looks towards Conrad:

"I fully appreciate your sentiments . . sir. . . and share them. However. . . I would be completely remiss in my oath to the lady if I were to go with a plan which could cause her that much. . risk. Right now, they - whomever they may be - know I have the key, and for all they know, am going to give it to them by sunset. Or at least one of them thinks such. For the moment, they should be allowed to continue to think that. . should they not? We know at least one party will not move against her as long as they think I may comply. Thus, for the moment, at least one party to this is frozen in place and held while we figure out what to do. We need to do this in a way that doesn't let them know we are moving against them. If we do let them know. . then we need to do it in such a way that it baits a trap and forces them to move against us at a time and place of our choosing, so they can be drawn from the wound and spat out, like bad blood."

Camelia

There was an ire in Camelia's expression. Kadri played at words. And meanings. Camelia grew up in the Imperial Court, watching the elders fence with words, and muster meanings within meanings as they tangled themselves within webs of intrigue. She watched as their offspring tangled in the same games, life and death, as sharp as blade were those tongues, and equally as deadly. It was nothing new to her. She could do it quite well herself, and she could tell when others did it. It was a dance, so much like a feat of mental dexterity akin to the greatest of blademasters and their own physical skills. Camelia made no claim to be an expert, but she lived and trained herself among them.

She allowed Kadri to speak fully before stepping forward, a smile that shielded the truth. Eyes that roiled like an ocean.

"But you did lie... Twisting words and ommitting truths is a lie, no matter what the justification. In fact, your efforts to save this child's life might well cost it, for she was allowed to return to a place where you knew her life would be in danger.

"Couched in terms of oaths and promises, you still carried what was her father's... if her story is to be believed, and maybe it should not. But to say that her safety is paramount pales before the truth of actions when we left, three of us no wiser to your actions on the night afore. Thus you endangered us as well. Why could we not have taken the girl back with us, protecting her, and along the way shield her from the exactitudes of the words that reveal full truths and still abide by the intention of your oath? And then, we set to verifying her story and establishing her right to providence?

"Just questions Kadri, just questions... I come from a world of words, I speak them well... I study them... Why, because lives can depend upon them... Truths... Lies... Meanings and Intentions. But again, the girl's life is at risk, and we left her behind, three of us unaware that she was in dire jeopardy... Many factions, Sha? So says Daxia. Fair enough, the tales told bear that out. Two points of leverage... the Key... and the Girl... We could have held them both, and then draw the threats out into the Light of She... So many threats they are, that you assume they won't simply grab her and leverage her now, if for only they were to suspect we favor another.

"You played a dangerous game, with us as your pieces... Just questions Kadri, Just questions."

Daxia
with the rest of the Gang

Daxia looked mildly at Camelia, noting the anger in the woman's eyes. A quick glance at Kadri, but then turning her attention back to the Imperial woman.

"All is dangerous game, Camelia," she said quietly. "You grow up in Imperial court. I spend much time in Allaine court. Think we learn similar lessons, yes? We learn all life is dangerous game." She paused for many heartbeats, watching Camelia. Finally, she said, "Girl safe if one faction think Kadri give them key. Girl safe if one faction think Daxia give them key. No one else threaten girl, yes?" She glanced around the room again, before meeting Camelia's eyes once more.

"I say before to Squire... bring girl here, bullies know we know them. Kadri know this. Must not let bullies know we see their game.

"Yes, we playing game. We ALL here playing game. But WE making rules... not bullies... US. I say we play game. We know how to play game, you and I, yes? Right now... girl safe. So now we make rules, we make plans, yes? You understanding my words, Camelia Ayyanasdotter?"

Darian

She sat back at Kadri's response. Yes, angry enough to mess with a hornet given answer.

"I have question for all. How these people know each of us involved somehow? All approached separately. Only thing in common is see thing last night and staying here. Or do they just guess since we all arrive together?"

Mikal

He grins at Daxia. "Killian would have liked you. He always told me I had two ears and one mouth and it was done on purpose so that I should listen twice as much as I talk. Lesson didn't take too well."

He listens to the other comments, first Cesare's and then others speaking about gaining information and then Camelia's and Kadri's, which while somewhat combative, after being supported by Daxia imply playing at intrigue.

He sighs. "I hate intrigue."

He looks at Daxia. "I know Doublebluff. Prefer Fourstones or Threece. Much more casual. But I know Doublebluff. Can play at need, in both meanings of the term, though it is not my favorite thing."

He looks around. "So. Who has an idea of gaining the information about who, and where, we need?"

He then looks at Conrad. "When the time comes to rescue the girl, if the time comes, I will help you. But can we come up with a better idea than bashing down the front door?"

Celi

Celi had to keep closing her mouth in wonder as her gaze swept back and forth from one player to the next, trying to follow the thoughts. No *wonder* the lords feared common intrigue. If a group of virtual strangers could come up with this from an alleyway robbery gone bad ...

Still, Darian had asked the key question: how did all of them get swept up in this, enough to be singled out for approach ...

"Excuse me, but I think Darian's question deserves ... consideration? Even if us being together was enough to send their messengers around to cozen us, how did they know we were together? *Somebody* told them. So they were here among us, and saw..."

Squire Conrad

He listened to these people that he did not know talk of subterfuge and games and plots.

"I do not know what this key is or what its importance is that so many have an interest in it. But what I do know is that I sent a griefing girl from the relative safety of the hospice to an inn because I was not told of the dangers. Her life is now my responsibility. Her safety is more important than any advantage of subterfuge. I am going to take her to my knight and if needed to the Rock and the protection of my father."

Kadri:

In the midst of the back and forth, when there is a significant pause, Kadri again speaks.

"Fine."

Her voice goes. . rather calm and quiet. And takes on the cadence of someone who had, at some point, been taught to speak, the enunciation very careful, and her language precise.

"When it is decided that anyone else is allowed to be involved in the process, and when the Lady Camellia decides that anyone can differ in opinion from her without calling their motives and character into question, then perhaps we can actually have a discussion, but right now, there seems little chance of that. I had hoped, that by bringing this to all of us, together, we could all act, together, or at least make the attempt, however, there seems to be little interest in doing that at this point. Camellia. . you act as if being in court makes you know everything there is to know, but believe me, there is an entire world outside of the word games of Nobles, and it has its own rough rules of hunter and hunted. I freely admit that I do not know all, but I act as best I can with the knowledge I have, to effect the best result I feel I can secure. You will have to live with that. If you do not care to. . then I do not, honestly, care."

She looks around again, at everyone, one more time.

"Spiriting the girl off and making a big production of it is liable to put her at EXACTLY as much if not more risk than leaving her be. At least for the moment, the fate of the key is in doubt. Since they seem to have a vested interest in not only acquiring it but - as people seem to forget - in keeping it out of her hands - once she has it - or they even assume that she has it - all bets are off. And squire of Rames, I apologize for this, but not even the security of the Rock - as sturdy a redoubt as it may be - is immune from determined professionals with long knives and short morals. The moment these people believe that the key is at immanent risk of being in that girl's hands, all the reason they have to leave her living dissipates like candlesmoke in the wind.""

She turns back, briefly bows - crossing her arms and clutching the opposite shoulder with each hand - for the moment looking exceedingly. . formal - and does not, for the time, resume moving.

Darian

The huntress shook her head exasperated with these city folk and their talk.

"Someone let Darian and Longtooth know if they need to do something. I no understand all this talking in circles. We can find other ways to pay for winter shelter if furs no bought."

Camelia

And the conversations continued, threatening to splinter and create further fractures. Although, truth be told, None of them hardly knew one another. Camelia's closest ties were to Comfrey and Conrad, but she didn't really know them save for finding some similar views of duty and honor and compassion and mercy. That didn't mean that the others didn't possess such traits, Camelia knew them less than the benefactors who had seen her from the Plainsend Inn to Cragside.

She watched Kadri as the woman seethed, and she waited. It wasn't that the woman lied to the girl itself, but rather the lack of clarity and transparency in her motives to do so. The girl was now in danger where it could have been prevented altogether. It was about the fact that Kadri acted on her own while with others, and did so without considering the ramifications of each of their nature's as people. Not Kadri's fault because she didn't know her and Comfrey and Conrad anymore than they knew her. And yet it happened and the machinations of intrigue weighed more importantly than the welfare of the girl. Camelia wanted Kadri to recognize that... For whatever that was worth. It might well never happen. But it was worth waiting to see...

That is until the conversation around her continued to twist and turn and the plotters plotted and sought angles within the machinations as though they had any grounds upon which to stand. All of them in a foreign town, among established players with resources and information... And they had nothing of the sort, save a key, possessed by one individual whose own actions have already shown Camelia that she sees the key and it's mystery to be more important than the girl's life that all agree is in danger.

And then Squire Conrad spoke. He was a man of clear moral instincts and an unwavering sense of duty. But he wasn't wrong, to a point. Camelia was certain the Lady of Aterra would also be similarly entrenched in the view that the girl was the priority. Camelia couldn't disagree.

The young woman lived her life by a code, and having only her mother as a guide to teach her things, she had to accept the way her mother imparted life's lessons. The burgeoning truth about her heritage now weighed upon the young woman, but in truth she had lived her life by principles espoused in the stories her mother took most comfort in. The Ballad of Jeminy Kilkenna, first and foremost.

Was Camelia a Dayalan? She didn't know the full truth of that. But it seemed so, and where once that name was just a title, it had become so much more in just a day. But the foundation for it had always been there.

She was about to speak again, when Kadri quelled the fire and defended herself.

"Of course you care Kadri, or else you would not have acted as you did at the Hospice. You care, or else you would have walked out the door just now. You care, because you take issue with my characterization of you. That is good. It speaks to your motives and that is what I wanted to know. I care as well, I care that if we are now united under a common threat... which we are... Then we must act as one to face the threats... or we will fall one by one to them."

Camelia wanted the floor and walked to the center of the gathering as though she were born to it. In fact, she had been raised around power and influence and it's proper use and misuse. Too long had she privately railed at the latter and lamented the lack of the former.

"We are under threat, as a group for that is how we are seen... all of us now, for agents of numerous factions, all vying for one thing, have identified us."

She looked to Darian and then Ceili, "How they did this might be a matter of grave concern. But we know nothing of the depth and the breadth of the resources aligned against us. We barely know each other. The currents... the crests and the waves of our circumstances would likely drive us apart, and then we would be at our weakest. Our enemies, for that is all I can assume them to be, want this, need this. Separate us and divide our interests. We stand here and can't agree on anything and that threatens us as much as any plot that has a deadline looming right now. It would be our own indecision and independence, our self-reliance that would lead us to sever the ties we need to face these unseen and unnumbered foes."

She turned in place, in the middle of this motley group. She was likely to be the youngest of them and she knew it. They had no reason to listen to her, or to accord her words any value where wisdom and life experience mattered most. All she could do was speak what she felt and hope they understood where that heart was vested.

"Our gathering, now... here, just as we gathered in two separate groups the previous night... is not by coincidence. I have spent a lifetime, however short that might seem to any of you, a lifetime looking at the currents in the Grand Tapestry of the Fates. A curse, a gift... Whatever you might feel about such things... We have been woven together, and the fates weave as they will. Our paths were meant to cross, and challenging that destiny would be to challenge the Fates themselves."

Again she turned to make eye contact with them.

"I am just one person, but I am different than all of you, just as each of you in turn is different than the rest of us. We each have a view and a way of seeing the world that places value and importance on differing things in differing orders. None of them are wrong, just different. And we must find a way to blend them together, or else we will be driven apart to seek our own Path, and I can tell you that the Fates do not take kindly to disturbances in their Tapestry. Easier to remove an errant thread than it is to reweave the whole thing."

"There has to be a way where we can compromise and plan a way to satisfy everyone, whilst staying true to ourselves and ultimately bind our separate Paths together as the Fates have woven... Protect the girl, and uncover the enemy, thwart the evil and learn what it is that we are fighting for in just the act of agreeing to try... Just try to work together. "

"I have lived my life knowing that I didn't belong where I was, but knowing nothing else. I am not sure that I am what seems obvious to some, and disturbing to others. But what I do know, is that I am meant to be here. If I am Dayalan, then I will be Dayalan. I have risked my life to protect another, and I would do it again. I accepted that I might not survive so that another might live. I would do it again. I allowed myself to be abducted, so that the person they came seeking would not fall to their evil. I would do it again."

Daxia
with the rest of the Gang

Leaning back in her chair again, arms crossed, Daxia watched the eddys and currents of conversation, body language, emotional intensity flowing through the room. The words registered, though she gave no outward sign of interest except a raised eyebrow at the Squire's proclamation, a long look at Kadri standing apart, and finally an intense stare edged with worry at Camelia's long speech. She allowed a bit of silence to separate the Imperial's speech and her own words.

When she spoke, her voice took on a different timbre, her accent almost completely gone, her features blank and emotionless. Only Verchovai Dandelion might recognize the tone and cadence as being nearly identical to that of young Lord Allaine. "Your stories shift like the melting snows in spring. You speak fine words of a tapestry woven of our lives, yet your own tapestry is tattered and the pattern unrecognizable. While I can agree to your sentiment, we cannot work in concert until your stories have been settled in stone, and you have repaired what has been torn apart.

And do not mistake me when I tell you this, Camelia kha'Madoka kha'Ayanna kha'Kame kha'Chikato khal'Homura Akemi Koromov. You are not Dayalan." She looked at Camelia for a moment more before her deep blue eyes turned to the squire, and she just stared. For long minutes, she silently scrutinized him, then finally shook her head. She looked... disappointed.

Lastly, she looked between Darian and Celi, her natural Dawnview dialect returning. "Easy to say how they know us. How many men in alley last night? How many run off? All six bring tale to masters of group entering town after gate close. In spell-light, easy to see all. Then simple to listen to guards say travelers stay at Hart and Horse." She looked at Darian. "We walk to town center and women at well know we stay here. In city, gossip travel faster than fastest horse. But most interesting thing," she said, eyes turning to Kadri, "is chattering children asking if Daxia going to get into fight with the Mark, then woman at well saying lucky those in Mark oversleep or they seeing trouble this morning." She raised an eyebrow. "You live here, stable boy know you, so maybe you tell me who Mark is... and why children think I fight them, why woman think trouble happening if any from Mark see Daxia, yes?"

The Heartwood
Morning, the Town of Cragside
Restday The Last Day of the Month of Raven, 2623

Everybody

"What a bunch of fishwives ..."

The words are gruff and low, from a shortish, barrel chested mercenary in the Wild Horde's colors. He passes by carrying a handfull of heavy steins, bound for the father hearth and a knot of his compatriots. Mikal recognizes the sturdy swordsman. The one pointed out to him last night.

Barris Ironhand.

"You folks are sure lucky the Captain has a real thick skin, and it's no surprise she's still on the bloody roof.

"I don't know what trouble you are in, and its not my business, but it sure sounds like you are being out strategized and having been there myself that's the last place you want to be. You better pull yourself together, and fast."

He then pauses, tilting his head.

"The Dark Mark is a troop under Swordlord Connery Michael. The command is mounted, the rank and file foot. Of the three Bordertown troops, Mohlkavin's is the best, Donner's Swords comes next ... and the Mark, well they are hot brawlers, think they are better than they are, and hold no love for our Captain. "

A sharp nod is given in Daxia's direction.

"Guilt by association."

He then looks to the others.

"The curious thing is why are they here?

"Their contract is not held here in Cragside. It's held by the Bordertown Mercantile Guild."

With a shake of his head Ironhand then continues on his way.

" ... fishwives."

A tempest behind a thin smile. Camelia kept a rigid posture, trying to ease the anger. it wasn't the right thing for the place and the time. Unity was needed. She could read that much in the Weaving about them all.

The ranking member of her "Sister's" company of armed men addressed everyone. He wasn't wrong in his assessment, about any of them... all of them.

She would say what she needed to say, what should have been said sooner, more privately and first to Comfrey and Conrad. But now she felt few options, and less connection to any of them. Playing double-bluff, as the analogy was posed, is a losing proposition when you don't know your opponent and how they play. More importantly, if you don't have an end-game, an understanding of what you play for, then you will lose badly, never once controlling the board..."

"Tcha! Is it your intent to be divisive and humiliating with your words? Sha? I tried to find commonality in our gathering. I tried to put a cornerstone down so that we might look past what makes us different and what might keep us separate. I tried. Seeing Kadri stand up and defend herself gave me that insight. That we could work together. I understood her motives. She took the chance to trust someone other than herself. A bridge. Maybe others here would add stones to it. "

And the anger faded as she said what her heart needed to have said and her own ears having heard it allowed a peace to settle. But that peace brought other emotions to the fore.

"Maybe you think I speak funny. So what. And I never claimed to tell a complete story of my life. I do not think any of us have. We all have reasons for the things we do, for ourselves or the ones we love and care about. We all have motives. I never claimed I was Dayalan. I never claimed I was anything. My guilt lies in allowing people I didn't know believe I might be something I wasn't... even at my weakest and most vulnerable, I still had a life to save. I might well have failed as it was, but I can not stop being who I am. It is all I have."

"I am Camelia Ayyanasdotter... Handmaiden to Lady Kristine Melissa Deynekko. I am the Daughter of Madi Ayyanasdotter. I am proud of that, even if I do not know all that I am or where I come from. It is who I am. I can see now that my mother lied to me, about me and herself... to protect me, to keep me alive."

Camelia shook her head, blond tresses flailing. Her voice was sharp and defiant, but not at anyone in particular. Perhaps the whole world, defiant to remind them that it hadn't killed her and it wouldn't beat her. Ever.

"I don't know her reasoning. I just have to trust her. Maybe she thought everything else she ever loved was gone, taken from her. I love my mother and I forgive her because she acted from her heart. I understand her motives."

"So here is my truth, my life... tattered and torn as you so correctly surmise. Brigands were coming to abduct Kristine. I don't know why, but it was a plot, and it had help from within the Palace. My mother read it in the car...."

She choked off the word with a clenched jaw.

In threes, over and over, reading the patterns and seeking the answers in the shifting currents, where the eddies challenged the waves and crests. 'Our secret Cami,' her mother would remind her. 'Our burden to bear.'

"...and it had an origin, a place to which she was to be taken. I don't know the reason? I couldn't see it. I couldn't suss out anything myself. Maybe because I was so deeply woven into it, that I was blind to it altogether. I don't know. It didn't matter at that moment though, for when I accepted my destiny I was bound to see it through. I had to stand in place of my Lady, knowing I might die in the effort. To know that I had accepted whatever cruel fate was intended for Kristine. That I might be killed, or worse. I did this because it was the right thing to do. Because I have only one friend in this whole vicious and angry world, and her life was in danger. I was raised to protect and defend the innocent and the weak. I was raised to stand with my friends, and die for them if I must while I lived for them when I could. Kristine and I... We were raised together. We cried together, we laughed together. Gossiped about boys together. You wanted truth, that's truth."

Camelia's eyes were glistening with tears that she refused to give leave to roll her cheeks.

"So when my efforts failed, thirty days down the Road East, I was threatened with my own death. All I had were my wits and my words and the belief that this was not the fate my Mother saw for me. I had to believe and trust... and dammit, I had to HOPE when I saw none, that I might find a way to live."

"I staggered in the rain, wearing clothes that weren't mine, scared, and alone, no food... no water, except for what I could drink from a puddle. I tried to eat grass, and it made me sick... But I had to survive. I had failed my friend and her enemies knew they had failed. Her life was in danger again. I followed those damn white horses... Until I couldn't go any further. And I stood in the shadows at the edge of the light cast from an Inn, near a well... in the pouring rain... And I knew I wouldn't make it to morning."

"And..."

"And..."

She shook her head. She had only the barest control over her emotions, and they were visibly raw and exposed now.

"My thread was woven back into the Tapestry... and Lady Comfrey and Squire Conrad, and all the others at that Inn.... They took pity and showed compassion. I didn't deserve it... but that is what mercy is, offering hope to those who can do nothing to earn it... a gift."

"My tattered and torn life... there you have it. Any one of you could be a part of the plot to hurt or kill my friend. My only friend I have ever had. I would do anything to protect her... Anything. I did this because it was the right thing to do. Now I have to trust that I have not sealed her death with ill-spoken words to her enemies. I have to trust you all... My life and hers depend on it now. What does that make me, Daxia?"

Cesare

"Aye, the Fates have a large hand in all of this."

He has stayed quiet during all the recitals, watching reactions, storing information.

"Last night, the injured thief crawled into nearby shelter. I did mention it at the time. We could see if he is still there or maybe trace him via a healer. He may have answers. Others will have information. It is a question of finding the right people, asking the right questions and being prepared to pay the price maybe.."

He looks around at everyone.

"I'd like an explanation about the girl, haven't heard that part of the tale. Then I suggest we make some joint forward looking plans that assume we will be watched and that none of us are safe."

Kadri

"Cha indeed. Enough of this."

She looks back around at everyone.

"I have only one more thing to say on the disagreement and then I consider it done, and wish to speak of it no further. We have other things to do. I did not hide the key from those in the 'group' as it were. Until it became obvious that this was deeper, I did not even properly consider this a group. However, I readily showed both Daxia and Ceasare what I had, which until the Hospice was merely a trinket of curiosity from a dead man. Now that dead man has an identity, and a face, and possibly a suffering daughter and wife left behind. That key. Is not a curiosity. It is a life."

She pauses a moment again.

"I repeat, I have had no reason above others to trust you - any of you - nonetheless, I have decided to cast my lot, one way or another, this direction. To cast my lot your way, as the winds may take. We need to not look for bad outside the good we may do. For the time, our horses ride together. We share the same watering hole and campfire, and have pitched our tents against the winds. No more talk of motives, only talk of plans. All of you. Truce. We go to war. And our blades need to be unsheathed elsewhere."

Another pause.

"Please."

She looks over towards Daxia:

She lapses back into a more comfortable speak.

"Mark arrived in Cragside few days before the Wild Horde did. Wintering here, I think. They. .mark with a a splash of blood across a horse's neck."

She pauses, looks to Cesare:

"The lady is Elissa Cragson. The Man, her father, Jeffery. She was at the Hospice when we arrived, and mentioned. . that her father had said that were anything to happen to him, the key would save her and her mother, and that it was made of Darksteel - and requested the squire's aid in securing its return."

After a short pause, she again continues.

“I am familiar with the warehouses. Was going to. . see if I could figure out where the key might be to. What else might others do?”

Mikal

He sits back, listening to all the arguing and talking. When Barris passes by and comments, he listens intently. This man he knows of, and trusts what he has to say.

The others then continue, as if the man had not spoken. At one point he glances at Darian and Celi and winks, saying, "This is why I hate intrigue."

He nods to Cesare. All this talk of building blocks and tapestries. At least he is trying to focus.

He is about to second the request for an explanation about the girl when Kadri steps forward and offers one.

He nods, then adds, "It sounds like the Mark is the muscle behind this, finding out who they're working for is a good first step too. I can try to make inquiries at the Guildhouse and see if anyone there knows. If their Contract is not held here, there will be curiosity there, and maybe information as well."

He looks around. "I know nothing of building blocks, and tapestries. As Kadri just said, I suggest we focus on the problem and let the relationship building happen or not as it will. There were people in Cameron's I would spit on as soon as speak to, yet when the time came to fight I'd defend their backs to the death, and they mine."

Cesare

He smiles at Kadri.

"Thanks. Clearer now. But we should not assume anything we are told by anyone is true. Is there a way to confirm this girl is who she says she is? We are being played. And by the way they think will serve them best. A sob story, a threat, a reward.. And in other circumstances I would have been tempted by four thousand crowns. Would have been nice, if it had transipred."

His tone suggests not likely.

"I had already started scouting for a keyhole this morning. I think that is a good option for one line of investigation - but noone should be out alone - too vulnerable. I would suggest three as a good number."

"The guildhouse another.." he nods to Mikal "..and the wounded man a third. That should do for starters."

Darian

Darian was only half listening until Kadri mentioned the name. She sat up then and turned back towards her.

"Kraigsson?" she asked just to make sure. "That be the one the merchant named thief of key. Furrier said merchant be Kaspar Gustafsson, say merchant prince with ear of guildmaster and much influence in Cragside."

Celi

Celi raised her hand again. "We have this key; it is special. What it accesses might direct our actions hereafter. Who could examine the key and tell us about it? They would have to have knowledge we do not possess, and I am unsure how such arrangements would go to guarantee their honest efforts."

Squire Conrad

First he bows slightly to Cameila before speaking.

"You acted nobly in the defense of your friend and took on the danger yourself. That alone proves a nobility of spirit and I am honored to have helped you and to continue to give you what aid I can."

"Secondly, I pose a question. Why darksteel? I have had many keys and seen many more in my duties. Keeps to the vault of the Rock, keys to the church, keys to many things of value and import and yet none of these were made with darksteel. A most rare and expensive metal, difficult to work. I do not think that this key is to some warehouse door. For a key to need to be made with darksteel...it is a most unusual key and most likely fits a most unusual lock."

"And third, some party seeks this key and is using methods most foul to try and obtain it. To threaten the life of a child is the act of a coward. The life of the child must be protected. The family is subect to being taken hostage at this time. They must be moved to a safe location."

Kadri:

"Two things - first - I cannot disagree with your conclusions about darksteel, yet I am fairly confident that this key is formed like a warehouse key - and I do have some experience in this area - whatever its material composition. Second, I agree we need to protect the girl - and threatening a child is the act of a base coward. . . .but we need to find a way to do it that does not leave it obvious what we are doing. because being too obvious could actually cause her. . more danger. Assassins. Remove a layer of protection. How can we move her - and her family - without being obvious. . about moving her?"