• Closed • Calling Mum

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

12th of Ymiden, 719

Kura was standing outside of her sisters cave, relatively close to her house but actually in Sweetwine Woods instead of on the border of it. Granted, you wouldn't suspect that Kura lived anywhere near this place just on the look of things, but Ela had always been good at choosing her dens. She was, however, glad that Ela was living in Beacon now, if only because it meant that she was finally getting the acceptance the poor girl had always desired, but been terrified of trying to get. However, Ela's cave still had her wards up, which made it a pretty safe haven for her plans. She did not, however, expect Max to agree with her on that point.

She turned to Max, who had accompanied Kura out for this meeting out what Kura suspected was a mix between Max's strong sense of loyalty and a desire to mess with either Kura or Karem. She could quite easily see Max having decided to be present for this meeting just because it offered her the chance to snark at divinity. Fortunately for all involved, Kura's mum wasn't one to get hung up on propriety, which meant that she was unlikely to get annoyed at Max. If Empress Raskalarn showed up as well though, that could get interesting.

Still though, she needed to get a-hold of her mother for a variety of reason, so it was best to stop beating around the bush. "All right, a few quick things to note. Even as a joke, don't start actin' like you're tryin' to worship my mum, all right? She fekkin' hates that sort of thing and the last time I saw someone try it, she kicked them in the teeth while they were crawlin' around on the ground tryin' to kiss her boots. Also, don't try to figure out why she talks funny, I've known her for over a century and I still have no fekkin' clue." she said, a mild note of annoyance in her voice.

Then she sighed and worked a krick out of her neck before taking a step forward. "All right, then. Let's get her attention, shall we." she said, before she called her own in-born power and started to flood the area with it. It didn't do anything, this flooding of divine ether, but it would help get her attention. "Karem. Karem. Karem." she said, repeating her name three times in that weird rule that seemed to immediately guarantee whatever Immortal you were tryin' to reach could hear you. "Hey, mum, I need to talk to you about an offer you made to Faith and Padraig back when I was still havin' trouble sleepin'. Only, they don't know how to reach you, so they asked me to get in touch with you." she said, once she had repeated her mothers name three times. It wasn't really a pair, since she was sitting on a rock and smoking her pipe as she said it, but praying to her own mother would just be weird.

[Max]

They were in the middle of no where by Maxine's standards. It was quiet. Eerily quiet. The only sounds she heard were the songs of birds and the crunch of foliage by woodland creatures. The ex-convict wasn't sure she hated it as much as she expected. The only other person she had to keep track of here was Kura, but she'd been doing that for four trials now. The process of discriminating each stranger in her range was a constant, exhausting exercise. Hypervigilance had become a survival tool since her incarceration and a social curse. She was always hyper-aware of people's hands, and she hated when they dipped into pockets. Her eyes were always searching waists and for silhouettes of weapons under clothes. Every face that passed was evaluated in a quick sweep. Even in her own business there remained that paranoia. She suspected it would never go away, but at least out here it was eased.

Max had already gotten through a fifth of rum by the time the councilwoman presented herself. The ex-convict was inclined along a fallen, moss-ridden log. The bottle was clutched by its neck in one hand. She was tired. So tired. It had nothing to do with the Emea debacle either. The Ambrosia was different. She knew it when she'd come back from Rharne. The stuff DuCarinos had hooked her on was stronger, purer than whatever the Red Ravens were importing now. Something was wrong with the supply, and when Max confronted Asher about it, it seemed that he knew it too. Part of the deal to get access to their intelligence included helping them fix their product problem. The investigation in Gunvorton was still plenty of trials away though. The weaker stuff wasn't doing it.

Her body knew the difference. Everything felt a bit slower than it was supposed to. Random aches and pain would hit her out of no where. She was so irritable as of late as it was, she couldn't tell how much of it was probably withdrawals, too. She was here though. Present. Going through the motions at times, but here. It'd be fine. She had to alcohol to supplement at least some of what she was missing. Self-medication was king anyways.

"This the same spiel you gave to the poor bastards you brought home?" Maxine mused from where she laid in wait, smirking. "No fake worship. Don't point out her speech impediment. Got it." She ran a hand down her face and brought the bottle to her lips. While Kura went to calling out to her mother, Max busied herself by studying the label of her drink. An exhale of mirth slipped from her. Before she never knew what useless letters were scrawled. Faith's offering had granted her an answer to the insignificant curiosity.

Call three times? For fuck's sake. If I knew that, I would've been out of Slags Deep fuckin' cycles before.

She rolled her head sideways to spy Kura when she finished her call, eyes following the pipe smoke as it rose toward the trees. She hit the bottle again before casting her stare up through the bright green leaves which filtered sunlight. "Maybe you're doing it wrong," she set herself up with a tone serious for the jibe she was offering. "Try a dog whistle. Might work better."

[Pig Boy]

There was an awkward silence, after Max spoke her last jibe. Just the ordinary ambient noise of the Sweetvine woods. Occasionally an owl would cry, or a rodent would squeak. Branches fell to the fallen leaf beds on the ground.It was a quiet, pretty day all things considered.

About a few bits into their wait, something strange did interrupt the wild din of the wood. The noise, something that resembled a bastard mutt of a wolf's howl and a hound's baying. Except, it sounded like a word, almost. There was something familiar to the timbre of its voice, that Kura might recognize, though she may not know from whence the familiarity came. The sound was muffled though, so it took yet another repetition for it to ring clear.

"Gooooooooooooooooooood..." Now they could hear the sounds of four legs shuffling in the woods beyond the treelines. Then, from behind a trunk, a large Imperial Barghest appeared. It didn't look immediately threatening, and approached impassively enough. It didn't show the telltale signs of aggression. Instead, it cantered right up toward Max, sniffing the ground around her, huffing and chuffing.

"Hmph... Good. Harumph. Good?"

The Barghest, snuffled the ground at a certain spot, for a good bit or two, before lifting its leg to mark the spot.

The large, reptilian dog-thing licked its chops as it relieved itself on the ground near to where Max was standing. It whined slightly when done it's business, and kicked the dirt behind to spread its scent. Then he turned around, and sat on his haunches, looking expectantly at Max, barely acknowledging Kura for the moment.

"Good?"

Around its neck, a large collar with a tag on it. If Kura narrowed her eyes to read the etchings on it, she'd find written in Atvian, the word or name 'Good'.

At the back of Kura's mind, she felt a strange suspicion that her mother was nearby. She was nearby, although why she failed to show herself as yet was a mystery. Perhaps her scarcity had something to do with this... Good.

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

"Mum didn't much care who I brought home as long as I was confident about it. And no worship period would be more accurate." Kura said in response to Max's sarcasm, distracted by the call she was getting ready to make. When she was finished, with the silence hanging in the air, she grinned slightly at Max's comment about the dog whistle. "You're welcome to try, but I don't fancy spendin' the next twenty trials as a wolf because mum decided I needed a time-out." she said, her tone amused.

Then the howling started, the sound of it familiar to Kura's ears for all that she couldn't place it. The second howl, however, was definitely new, for all that the word it said was a common one. The barghest that sauntered into the clearing didn't clear things up any, since the lizard-dogs couldn't talk. That being said, she did break out into a grin at the sight of the animal. She loved barghests and had owned a fair few of them over the past centuries, as they were loyal animals. "It's a barghest, a dog, of sorts, from the Eternal Empire." she said, before pausing and tilting her head in curiosity as the animal focused on Max

Kura looked at the collar as Max, then said a single word in Atvian. "Maith." she muttered, then looked up at Max. "Um, it means "good" in Atvian. It appears be his name." she said, before looking at Max and shrugging. "And it appears that Good's business is entirely with you." she said. She could feel her mothers presence, but she wasn't showing herself. Even odds said that Good could very well be Karem, but she had no guarantee of it. Wouldn't be the weirdest thing her mother had done, though. "Odds are, mum is...either learnin' about you or testin' you. She...likes to make people learn when she meets them. It's usually more straightforward than this though." she said, staying back from Good for now.

[Max]

Max's muddled mind was conjuring up a snarky reply when the baying sounded. Her expression twisted in disgust, and in a trill, she'd risen from the log to stand instead. She gripped the bottle tightly in her hand. The woman had heard a wolf's eerie howl before. The sound that filled the forest now belonged to no canine whose song she'd ever heard. Her brow furrowed and her gaze briefly scanned the woods before settling on Kura to ask, "What the fuck is that?"

The noise came again but it sounded different this time. Max switched the bottle into her left hand so her right could be occupied with a sword. There was a strangely humanoid quality to the bellow of the unseen beast. It almost sounded like speech.

Did it just say..."good?"

For a moment Max was concerned Kura had been downplaying her mother's odd speech pattern. Chrien wasn't quite the sight for sore eyes and Audrae's presence had always had an undertone of a threat. Max had no clue what she expected to follow Kura's calling, but it wasn't this. The rustling of foliage and the disruption made by shuffling legs warned her that, whatever it was, it was coming closer. It didn't make them wait long. A lizard-like dog thing burst from the tree line without pause. And it came straight for her.

Max didn't let uncertainty paralyze her. The strange creature cantered toward her and the marked woman raised her gladius in kind with a harsh expression. Kura's explanation filled her ears, and though the councilor had won some semblance of rare trust from the ex-convict, she didn't like the ungodly looking thing that had elected to preoccupy itself with her. But it did keep her from swinging the blade. Max watched the Barghest snuffle around her with a razor focus, waiting for the behavioral cue from the animal that it was time to go on the offensive. The words it seemed to speak did nothing to calm her suspicions. Letting it live and explore so close to her was all she could tolerate.

"This isn't a damned dog," she regarded Good with persistent distrust. The Barghest calmly faced her and sat, looking weirdly domesticated for such a muddled animal. Her detoxing brain started walking paranoia into her thoughts. "And I don't do games. If she wants to know about me, she can read my rap sheet at Slags Deep. It's all on paper."

In the meantime, it didn't look like Karem wanted to make herself known. Chrien and Audrae had been far more straight-forward with their entrances. There had been no mistaking when they wanted attention. All Max and Kura had now was this bastard dog thing, which was staring at her like it expected her to do something. She shrugged at the mortalborn and extended the bottle out toward the creature. "Maybe he's just thirsty," Max smirked. "Or worse. Sober. Have at it, big guy. This is something Good." Slowly, she began spilling some of the rum from the bottle.

[Pig Boy]

The barghest lapped sloppily on the bottle of rum that Max'd offered it, the corners of its lips tightening in pleasure as it seemed to enjoy the liquor. After a few moments, it's snout wrapped all the way around the bottle's neck, to where he'd begin sucking the liquid out of it by the mouthful. Between draughts of the beverage, he'd come away for breath, "Ruh, Good, Good!"

It resumed it's beverage after this brief pause, and continued until it was all gone. Once the bottle was sucked dry, he turned around, and sat directly on Max's foot.

He seemed to excite for just a moment, almost starting off his foot when a noise issued from the surrounding woods. The sound was like that of a large thing being dragged across the leaves of the forest floor, with four large limbs pounding the ground. But Good held his position on the foot of Max, keeping watch.

Out of the woods, the noise grew, until at last a woman riding a turtle happened on the scene. The woman was unmistakably Karem, and the beast she rode an ancient Ragdila. The creature came to a stop some several meters away from the two women. Once settled down, Karem stepped off of the creature's saddle, coming around to scratch the tortoise-like creature around the skin of its neck.

She spared one glance toward Max and Good, and smirked, "Looks like he's your problem now..." She snorted. Good merely watched her with cold reptilian eyes as he stood guard at Max's Foot.

"Well Kura," She turned toward Kura, and shrugged, "Why'd you call? What have Faith and Pad gotten themselves into these days?"

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

Kura grinned slightly at Max's reaction to the Barghest, it was surprisingly unnerved for someone who spent so much time playing herself up as the hardest, most unflappable person around. "It is too a dog. They're an excellent breed. And he's scary looking to anyone who don't know about them. He's the perfect dog for you." she said, her amusement clear in her tone. She snorted at the comment about the rap sheet, however. "Max, if you think a piece of paper that only lists a few of the actions you've taken tells anyone anything about you, you have a lot to learn." she said, her disdain for that idea made very evident.

When Max decided that Good needed a drink, Kura waited for the Barghest to ignore the drink. When he instead decided to drink the entire bottle, Kura raised an eyebrow. "Congratulations, Max. You just turned a dog into an alcholic. You've actually managed something I've never seen before." she said, a dry amusement in her voice before the stumping started. She turned to that and started counting seconds. The sound was familiar, as was the speed, or lack thereof, of the animal that was travelling.

When her mother finally emerged, she really was riding on a ragdila, a large turtle creature. Kura watched the slow approach of the imperial pack animal with an amused glance. "What, were you bored?" she asked as the turtle came to a halt and Karem snarked to Max about Good. When her mother turned to her, she grinned slightly. "Well, Faith started a war with an ancient necromancer, Pad made trackers to help us find her, and now Faith is leading an army of ghost-talkers, even the other champions." she said, before frowning slightly. "Wouldn't have been my first choice, but since Ellasin attacked Faith, I guess Famula felt that she should be in charge. Not mine to question at the moment, though." she said, before pausing as she remembered something.

Reaching into her coat, Kura pulled out the tracker she was watching for Padraig and Faith, holding it out for her mother to see. "Padraig used the blood you gave him in the trackers. They've been busy, but Faith said you wanted to see what he made." she said as Karem inspected the item. "Anyway, as for why I called you, there's two reasons. First is, Faith is hoping that you'll ally the Wolf-Walkers with us. Our tracking abilities would be a lot of help, especially since we're trying to intercept messages and spies from Ellasin. A Wolf-Walker is, almost by default, going to be a better tracker than almost anything Famula has to hand." she said, before shrugging. "Also, you once told Faith and Padraig that they could come to the Empire if they needed help. Frankly, I'd love if the Empress would be willing to ally the Empire with us, but I can understand if she thinks it's not in the best interests of the Empire to do so. However, Faith's children and some extended family are non-combatants and are in the line of fire. We're wondering if you'd be willing to take care of them, keep them safe and out of Ellasin's reach." she said, her tone simple.

[Max]

Max rolled her eyes at Kura's disdain for her suggestion her list of crimes be presented as evidence of her character. Her rap sheet was a piece of paper. That part was true. That piece of paper was also enough to merit what amounted to a death sentence. It had been sufficient for the people of Scalvoris and the government. No Immortal had manifested to argue against the evidence it presented to the world about who she was or what she deserved. Instead one had appeared to make her a more formidable monster. To help make her antisocial tendencies worse, not better. Prison had been good for that. The island believed she was what was on that piece of paper. She had decided to be just as they saw her then.

"Lot to learn," she scoffed, watching the animal approach the spilling rum. "And who is going to teach me? You?" Her eyes darted from the beast to offer an uninspired glance. The only things others needed to know about her were on that list. The gentle lapping of rum evolved into possession of the bottle. The ex-convict's eyebrows raised in pleasant surprise. Good wasn't savoring taste. He was set on suckling down the entire bottle. He finished it surprisingly fast, and when Max went to pull it away, the creature only followed the bottle with its snout latched to the lip. When he finally let go, Max peered down the neck of the bottle.

"Drank the whole thing, greedy bastard," she admonished him half-heartedly. She couldn't be irate with the animal. She was the one who offered the drink. She'd be hurting for it shortly though. Her frown deepened at the thought, but was slightly alleviated by Kura's amusement in the Barghest being willingly fed the vice. Her mind moved away from alcohol and withdrawals when she felt weight suddenly dropped on her foot. "What the f---off!"

Good didn't come off though. Instead he loyally sat there staring intently into the woods around them. Max looked down at the reptilian canine, noting its tough scaly exterior. It was nothing like she'd ever seen before.

"Ain't no dog," Max murmured confidently in defiance of Kura's surety. "Dog. Maybe if a dog was hit by a wagon. Twice." Good stirred at her feet at the sound from the woods. The ex-convict sighed at the disturbance, half-expecting another bizarre creation to race from the treeline. She tossed the empty bottle aside and kept the gladius in her right hand. Kura seemed entirely unbothered by the noise of something else approaching. The woman was irritatingly, perpetually calm. It made her hard to read. When the turtle lumbered into view, Max slowly slipped her sword back into its sheath.

Karem?

It took her no time to mentally confirm the Immortal had arrived. The resemblance was there, especially in the steely focus shared in the eyes of mother and daughter. No bullshit, all business. "Karem," Max gave her greeting with a nod. She watched Karem dismount the creature with a careful, suspicious gaze. Good offered the Huntress little reprieve either it seemed. He stared at her, nostrils flaring as he took in her scent.

"My problem? I didn't--" her protest was cut off when Good's weight shifted further back onto her foot with Karem's approach around the turtle. Max reached down to give the Barghest a hesitant pat. Then, while Kura began busying with filling her mother in on the Augustin antics, she focused on freeing her foot from its trap. It took a bit and some effort, but eventually, she managed to escape Good's seat with some effort. By that time Kura had managed to get to the end of her spiel and make her requests.

"We're" hoping?

Max's lip curled from the sidelines. She was not included in that "we" by any means. She wasn't so cold that she resented the idea of children taken from the hot zone. The ex-convict's thoughts on this war and its players had been made clear. Those thoughts were written on her face. Her fingers busied themselves by scratching the reptile behind the ears. Silence was the most restraint she showed, and it had grown more challenging now that the rum was gone. For now she let the immortals discuss their business.

[Pig Boy]

"You could say that." Karem lightly laughed to Kura as she patted her pack turtle on the head. "This one wanted to get out to Scalvoris, so who am I to deny my beast?"

Then, Karem listened to Kura's request, or series of requests. She thought silently for a few moments, then gave her reply, "You ask a lot Kura." Karem smirked as she checked out Padraig's trinket. She quirked an eyebrow as she admired it's make. "So unlike you..."

Finally, she handed the tracker back to Kura, and sighed, "But I can understand that times are troubled, and that calls for all of us to act a bit out of character at times."

Her gaze swept over toward Max, where she sat scratching Good behind the ear. After curiously watching the two of them, she turned back toward Kura, "So, we can take Faith's children under our wing, someplace safe where they will never be found by the enemy. That's the easy part and can be done immediately. As for the Wolf-Walkers..."

She shrugged lightly, "We'll grant their aid on the condition that Padraig share his invention with them, it's make and design."

"If you want the aid or an alliance with the Empire, Faith will have to present her case in person to the Empress' court." Karem twisted her mouth in consternation, "She's troubled at the moment by a pack of wild Yari that have gone awry in our territory, and are acting in a very belligerent manner."

Good meanwhile scooted a bit off of Maxine's foot, groaning a bit as he did so. His stomach rumbled slightly. He turned his head, craning his neck so he could admire his new mistress.

!

Message from: Pig Boy

Maxine, you've been gifted a special Barghest by the name of 'Good' by Karem. This Barghest can be considered to be of the best breeding and quality and training, and is absolutely obedient. To a point. It will not attack anything living. It can pin them down, or wrestle with living things, but it will not bring itself to harm any living thing through its own direct action. It's special ability is that it can swallow anything of a certain size and volume. Anything that would easily fit down a large barghest's throat. There, anything that enters its digestive system will be dissolved entirely and permanently destroyed, if such items can be. This has no ill effects upon Good himself.

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

When Max scoffed at the idea of Kura teaching her what she had to learn, Kura shrugged. "If you're willing to learn, yes. I was not always as I am now. When I was young, I was quite the monster." she said, before briefly flashing a feral grin. "In truth, a part of me very much still is." she said before Karem arrived. When Karem told Max that Good was her problem, Kura gave the woman an amused look at her protest. "Hey, you're the one that got him drunk." she said, a slight laugh in her voice before she continued with her proposal.

When Karem pointed out the request was unlike her, Kura nodded. "I prefer to keep my people safe myself. But we're all spread out and I can't. I am among Scalvoris' rulers, and so I must protect them. I cannot do both at this stage." she said, a note of animalistic anger entering her voice as her eyes turned gold as she admitted she couldn't protect the rest of their army herself. There was a very unspoken "yet" handing about her words. She nodded at Karem's conditions for the Wolf-Walkers aid, but gave a slightly amused smile. "The tracker has your blood and mine both in it. He'd be willing to share the designs, I'm sure, but replicating it isn't exactly easy." she said, before nodding at the comment regarding the Empire. "The Yari as a whole won't pick a fight with us, we promised them too good a brawl for them to pass up. I imagine this group are the ones too stupid to survive in Yaralon proper. But I'll pass word along to Faith." she said, before smiling slightly. "And thank you for taking care of her kids. It will help Faith and Padraig a lot, knowing the twins are safe with you." she said, before sitting down on the log with a sigh as her eyes shifted back to their regular icy blue.

Then she shot up off the log as if electrified. "Right! Other news, I have other news. Good news, important news!" she said, a very uncharacteristic note of excitement in her voice. "Right, so you know how Ela has been having trouble accepting herself after what happened when her father died? Faith let Ela talk to Alrur's ghost, finally give her some peace from that. She's doing a lot better now." she said, letting out a laugh as she talked about her baby sister. "She's living in Beacon Village now. Plays with the kids, without fear they'll reject her. They've accepted her as she is, fangs and claws and raw meat eating. Some of the children even want to be like her." she said, smiling at the memory.

Then she turned to the other news. "But just as importantly. I found her, mum. Kirei, the one who was taken from us. She's here, on Scalvoris. She knows who she is, and I woke her powers." she said, a note of mixed satisfaction and affection in her voice. Kirei, the middle sister between Kura and Ela, had been taken as a child. Kura and Karem had hunted, but had been unable to find her for decades. "We don't know what her powers are yet, but she knows she's your daughter. She's finally come back to us." she said, a note of pure happiness in her voice.