Healthy Wife, Happy Life

[KoriStronghammer]

They had let him out. Finally free in the fresh air, and he had put tracks between him and the city as soon as he was able and allowed to. They had given him rules of course, keep an ear to the ground, listen to the rumblin' and join up so he could report in. Idiots. He could strut and pose like he was doing it, and then nothing come of it. No reason to join up or roll anyone over, just pretend for a nice long while. Everything would work out if he could just keep em all at a long distance away.

His weary feet kicked the dust of the road as he entered the small town he had called home before his incarceration. He could see the object of his desire right down the road. The Red Chalice. Beer, ale, food! The greatest of the things in life that he held dear to his heart. The beer was good. Very, very, very good. Any stew that they cooked up in here would be better than the slop that he had been fed while in the jail, and he would gladly trade his unborn children for a nice cut of venison.

Throwing open the door, he hollered to the slightly empty room, shaking the rafters and jerking the mice in the walls to wakefulness.

"BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES AND HIDE YOUR DAUGHTERS! STRONGHAMMER IS BACK IN TOWN!"

He walked to the bar, smiling and excited. He could smell stew. Some kind of stew. It smelled good. He sat at the bar and looked at the server.

"Beer. Two tankards, and keep it coming. The largest bowl you have full to the brim of stew, butter, half a loaf of bread, an apple if you have it. Please."

[Saruna]

The word 'mother' was long gone down the dusty road, kept preserved in memory and dusted off on occasion and looked at with a fond and terrible rememberance. To be called such by Fayane was the perfect distraction for Saruna's rising contention, and for the moment it soothed her feathers such that she couldn't help but beam at Fayane and her. . .male companion. Companions. Tanobi was still on thin ice.

"Why, you left me a no--"

The most unearthly roar reverberated from the tavern, shooting upstairs faster than a chicken fleeing the fox. Saruna took a step back, bumping into Ran who in turn had stiffened as though he might take up arms. Saruna was fairly certain he did not carry anything on him, but she knew well enough the nice young man had enough of his own memories, and the youth to fight them off.

The voice was familiar. Saruna looked at Fayane, and then turned to look at the stairs. "Was that. . .was that Kori?"

[Tanobi Durant]

'Kori' the word did not resemble anything any of his studies or experiences had led him to believe that this was a group or profession but rather a name, likely of a man and a very excited loud man if the shout coming from the first floor was to be heard correctly. It would seem to Tanobi that his charge had brought with her more than a few surprises if the nature of her injury's and increasing group size was to be surmised. With curiosity tugging at his emotions ever so slightly Tanobi inquires as to the identity of the recent patron of the tavern with a turn of his head and an uplifted tone he asks:

"Friend of yours?"

[Fayane]

Fay went dead pale when Kori's voice rumbled through the tavern like a clap of thunder. He was free. She was more the happy for Kori for being free, no this wasn't the issue, the issue was that he was likely hell bent on killing her. She'd arrested him. Put in him a cage. You don't have to know Kori very long to understand this was a very bad idea.

Jerial, noticing her distress, wrapped an arm around her and cradled her. Without thinking he pressed a kiss to her hair, neither of them noticing any reaction this may have caused. Fay closed her eyes and fought to think. Unable to, due to exhaustion and her brain basically just screaming at her to sleep, Fay opened her eyes to look pleadingly at Saruna.

"I know I have no right to ask, but for now, I ask that you do not alert Stronghammer of my presence. I was forced to arrest him when someone in the village recognized him and I doubt very much he shall forgive me... given my current state... I cannot defend myself or anyone else should Kori fly into a rage."

She closed her eyes for a moment, her limbs were so heavy, but she needed to stay away just a little longer. When she opened them again it was with great difficulty.
"Why did you call us here Saruna?" Fay's voice rasped tiredly.

[Saruna]

Saruna had taken two steps towards the stairs, Ran turning towards her as if hesitating between following and assisting Fayane back to her bed, when the dual questions stopped her. "Kori is an old fri -- you what?"

Saruna had, of course, read the Vitiable Paragon in the days -- no, was it weeks? -- since she'd last seen Fayane or Kori, and with her hermit-like ways she had not had much else in the way of news. Certainly that horrid rag Daily Tattler was never on her menu or allowed anywhere near the vicinity of her home, but in this case it was likely to have contained the news of Kori's arrest in dramatic juicy details. Her mind was frozen for a few seconds, struggling to comprehend the apparently huge changes that had occurred while she was. . .if she was being honest with herself, while she was feeling sorry for herself. That was not a kind observation, but Saruna was well versed in honesty. At least until it came down to her repressed motherly instincts.

"I . . .you called me? You left a note on my door," Saruna said, looking between Fayane and Tanobi. Ran shifted uncomfortably, turning so his back was to the wall of the hallway and the greater part of the front of his body faced them while still allowing observation of the stairs, as though Kori were some mythological creature who might come charging up. "I should see to Kori, to make sure he's quite all right," Saruna said, but she moved slowly, seemingly curious about Fayane's strange words.

[KoriStronghammer]

Now this was a bowl. Okay, it was more a bucket, but he had asked for a lot of food. He tore into the warm loaf of bread, barely chewing. It was good. All of the food they had given him was good. Sighing contentedly, he lifted his head from the stew and grabbed one of the red apples they had placed in front of him. The flesh was crisp and cool as he bit through it, savoring the taste. He ate it in three bites, core and all. Then he took a deep breath and dived face first back into his stew bucket. When the ladle he was using as a spoon finally scraped the bottom, he took the last chunk of bread and soaked up the juices and ate those as well.

He belched loudly, very content with the meal he had just scarfed down. He leaned back in his chair and began to sip on the tankard they had placed out of the range of his teeth when they had a chance. It was good cold beer. Must have been brought up from the cellars. Damned good. The serving girl came close to his table again.

"You girl. I'm looking for two people. Saruna Rischett and Rosemary. Rosemary used to work here. Do you know where I can find them? I would rather have Saruna and her whereabouts first, if you don't mind."

[Tanobi Durant]

Tanobi not wishing to be unmindful of the new arrival uses his walking stick to slowly raise himself from the seat of the floor and maneuver to the stairway alongside Saruna and her young ward. The gaze of the old Doctor snapped to the most obvious of candidates, a man built strong and likely tall sat at a seat near the bar and eating in a manner that suggested that he had not eaten a cooked meal in a great deal of time. From just looking at him it was apparent that he was not from the immediate area and likely from a more northern province, the chance to learn something from another culture gave him a good stance to introduce himself and 'Saruna' whom was asked for by name could prove useful in unwittingly providing Tanobi with the details of precisely what he had unwittingly gotten involved in.

"Hello there friend" Tanobi greets in an even toned voice. "I am Tanobi Durant a traveling physician, please excuse any rudeness on my part but you bare features I've yet to see much of in this stretch of land. After you get re-acquainted with Madame Saruna-" He indicates with his free hand and a brief turn of his head in the appropriate direction. " I would appreciate it if i could inquire about your native custom".

[Fayane]

With everyone gone Fay was given the time to think that she needed. "I . . .you called me? You left a note on my door," Fay frowned at Jerial who also appeared to be confused.
"She summoned us first..." Jerial murmured to Fay's unspoken question, moving so he could recline on the bed. Pulling the fox-shifter close so she could rest against him, they began to brainstorm.

"Someone wanted us here, that much is obvious." Fay's sleepy voice commented, Jerial nodding, playing with her hair absently. "Yes... and the fact that it was Kado and Cerion who summoned us is also disconcerting. Who are they, or more importantly, who do they work for. The story they gave us could very well be a lie." Fay nodded weakly
"I do not know if we can trust them... but I know we can trust Saruna." Her voice was firm. She heard Kori and them rumble downstairs, but couldn't be bothered to concentrate, her consciousness was fading quickly.
"Jerial... Saruna is our number one priority... we MUST protect her." Fay mumbled against his chest. She felt him nod and smiled even as her eyes fluttered shut.

[Saruna]

Saruna hesitated on the stairway until Fayane and Jerial faded back into their room. It was improper of her to leave them without a chaperone, but practicality demanded she let go of her reservations. If what they said was true, they had been alone together out of her sight for quite some time. She supposed they would not do anything any more inappropriate than they had already. The thought made her sniff for the time she had not been there to see to the girl. The tickling sensation of failure as some instinctual surrogate mother was not far behind, but she pushed past it and started down the stairs, smiling reassuringly at Ran. He was such a good boy, to ask after her health.

Stairs were fickle things. They were your friends, to get you from one level of the building to another, but they also seemed to take the energy straight out of Saruna. She paused at the foot of the stairs, breathing deeply, and caught the tail end of Tanobi's statement.

The pair were incongruous so close together, and for a moment Saruna could only stare at them before her brain caught up with her in time to offer a warning. Too late.

"Tanobi -- " she started, before she was cut off.

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori looked at the man who was talking to him. Now he just stared at him, waiting for some kind of answer. What the hell was wrong with people? Who just bothered someone like that, when they were obviously at a meal? Teeth bared, his fangs glistening and a growl in his throat, Kori spoke.

"Leave me alone."

He began to eat his food once again. He wanted to eat, and he would wait til Saruna gave some kind of motion for him to come to her or she walked over herself. She was most likely angry at him for going to jail. Or for yelling loud enough to wake the dead when he came inside.

She always yells at me when I do something bad, like she's my mother.

Course, he hadn't had a mother since he was very young, so as far as he knew mothers yelled a lot at their children. It's what he had always seen in the village. "Stop doing that!" "Leave Syghilds braids alone!" "Gunnar, I swear if you do that one more time I'll put you in the cage with the Beast!" So now Saruna would yell at him for getting arrested, yell at him for being loud in the inn, and probably something else as well, and he could pretend she was his mother while she was doing it. But for now, she was still at the foot of the stairs, trying to warn the man asking questions. Who was still staring at him. Like he was some kind of caged specimen for his examination table.

Kori growled again.

"Get. Away. From. Me. Or I swear to the old Gods I will rip your head off and kick it down the street."

[Tanobi Durant]

The evidence of annoyance was clear in the large mans face and attracting the ire of strong, large men would no doubt prove to be a misstep in his goals of keeping himself and those undergoing his treatment alive and uninjured. Tanobi had received his answer, a sound resounding 'No' with different words and consequences should he persist. Tanobi turned to Saruna and walked in her direction slowly leaning on the stick for support as he reached her.

"You wished to speak with me Madame?" He inquires to his new acquaintance.

[Saruna]

Saruna's lower lip trembled visibly. For a moment she was the proverbial old woman, her age peeking out through paper thin skin. The vitality that Saruna had gathered around herself like a shroud shrank away, and the stress and strain of a very long week left her nothing but bones and sagging flesh. It took a moment to scoop everything up and stuff it back into a too-stubborn will, the selfsame attitude that'd kept her going so far through strangers and what might tenuously be deemed old friends. She ached for safety for them all, and like any selfish human for a moment she sent all of that in a straight, unconstrained look at Kori: mother's guilt at its finest.

"This is Kori, he is from very far away, but he is a good person," despite the way he was presently conducting himself, but Saruna didn't have the energy to attempt another significant you-should-feel-ashamed-of-yourself look. "Kori, this is Tanobi. He was helping Fayane, and isn't an enemy."

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori snarled in anger, snapping his teeth together with a visibly huge effort.

"Fayane is the damn enemy. If I ever see her, I'll rip her fucking heart out and eat the thrice damned thing!" He could feel his blood, hot with anger, rushing through his body. "And the same goes for that bitch Rosemary! I did all that fucking time in a cell, in the dark, because of those two! And the goddamn blood spirits will get their fill because of it!"

A deep creaking sound was heard, and he looked down only to see that he was breaking the table with his hands, he gripped it so hard. He had had a good life here. He wasn't respected, but no one had spit on him either. They came to him for work, came to him to create things for them. Then he had helped one person out of the goodness of his heart, and then it had all went down hill from there. He had almost attacked a dragon, even if it was a puny excuse for one, got the wood for Rosemary, then went to her home to find her father dead and her asking to burn him because she was so ashamed. So he did, and he had a drink while he did it. Then that thrice cursed bitch Fay had arrived, and took him to jail. They had put him in a cage, and it was bigger than most, but it was still a cage. Once his initial bravado had run out, he had been stuck there, in the dark, the stink, the sounds, remembering his childhood.

Stuck in a fucking cage, once again. Feeling trapped. Feeling lost, and feeling alone. Feeling like he was a young child again, and his mother and father had just been taken from his life in a shower of blood and death. Wrapped in a stone skin, small and alone, every breath a torture that reminded him that he was back in the cage. For all his size, for all his strength... he was a weak little boy again, who could do nothing but sit in a corner, wrapped in his fears and guilt, weeping as he fell into the miasma of his own mind. Those two, those two had done that to him. No one else. And they would pay. Their blood would slake his thirst and their hearts would fill his belly. Their skulls would hang from the chains of his armour until the skin rotted off and nothing but white bone remained. He would cut their feet off so they couldn't walk in the underworld, put out their eyes while they lived so they would enter it blind. They would pay!

With a deep crack, the edge of the table the he gripped broke away down a plank, leaving him with a large chunk of the hardwood in his hands. Eyes unfocused, he looked down at it.

[Tanobi Durant]

Tanobi looked upon passively the spectacle that was unfolding before him, occasionally giving only the response of a raised eyebrow at the shows of force and nonsensical bravado in the mans claims. This man 'Kori' has destroyed a piece of thick carpentry with his bare hands, Cerion had attempted to use a forbidden art of magic and Fay made brief un -knowing reference to 'Changers' who's identity he has yet to decipher. By all rights this was turning into the makings of one of those preposterous prophesies frequently enjoyed by the children of his tribe, and he realized that he was swiftly being swept up into one of the most dysfunctional and explosive of groups he had ever seen. However as has often happened, he was thinking ahead of himself, after a day of bed-rest fay will likely be on her way and leaving Tanobi and likely the people of Shim and Kori well behind.

Tanobi's thoughts reprized him with silence as he realized that he knew next to nothing of either his charge or her present company and would do well not to make assumptions of others. These were the pervading thoughts of the Doctor as he turned around without a word and shambled up the stairs using his walking stick for support for his bum leg. he had just walked past the door of Fay and Jerial before he spared a glance at the wood that separated Fay from the Vengeful Kori and then a look was spared to were he came from. He gave a sigh as he used his Stick as leverage to lower himself to the ground beside the door and sat leaning against the the wall in a familiar position he had slept in many times previously.

Sleep would not come however, as Tanobi now had to keep an eye out for any strokes of madness from Kori, lest he owe a favor from the alchemist for aiding him in the healing of a doomed woman, a briefly relieving and undoubtedly terrible joke died in his throat as he realized that Jerial was still within listening distance, and this old man has been manhandled quite enough for one day.

[Saruna]

Saruna's face was a map of lines in any circumstance, but at that moment it read naked disappointment. It was aimed, unerringly, at Kori; yet despite the disappointment in her she didn't speak out against him. She simply stared from his face down to his hands, and towards the piece of wood in it.

The burbling sound of conversation quieted to a dribble, and then down to silence as the other patrons noticed the small act of violence. Tension rose, then, for the Red Chalice had its reputation for playing haven to all sorts of malingering passers-through, and Kori was no familiar face to offer reassurance. There were a few rasp of whispers about them, and a few people got up and left. The sound of bishani hitting a few tables, and hurried footsteps only served to highlight the descent of silence after the door had shut behind them.

The bartender was staring at them, Kori and Saruna, indecision playing over his face. Did he need to hide for self protection, or should he raise umbrage over the casual mistreatment of his tavern? Saruna, quite pointedly now not looking at Kori, clasped her hands together until the wrinkled skin about her knuckles turned white, and primly lifted her chin.

"I will pay. For the damages. I will accept the bill of charge when you take this to a woodworker," she said, her voice starting out strong and rapidly weakening as her confidence flickered. Her body language remained firm, however, and she looked square at the bartender. "You know where I live?"

"Aye," the bartender said, "but if you pardon my saying, Missus, that's some right strange company you've kept of late. Real strange."

Saruna nodded sharply, and turned away from the bartender. She didn't look again at Kori, but down at her hands instead. She spoke quietly to Kori, in a small voice that others would have a difficult time overhearing.

"My father died somewhere down there. Alone, and for accusations of things he did not do. This is why Marn must fall. For such slight things, they offer precise, dark control. Imagine what that would have cost for one of their sworn to refuse to capture a prisoner? What would they do, I wonder, to find the answers of that?

"I would not wish anyone within their terrible grasp. I am so sorry that things turned out as they did. Fayane did not give that order. We must stop those who did, who continue to order good men and women down into the dark, never to be seen again. I do not blame the men who took my father away from me, I blame the men who saw fit to make such rules and consequences in the first place. Likewise, I blame the men who put Fayane into a position where she must choose between torture to her own person, or a holding cell for someone who should be friend.

"None of us will be innocent of wrongdoing to another person when this is finished. I do not ask that you like Fayane, but please do not blame her. We must rid Marn of this poison. We will need all the help we can get."

Ran had backed awkwardly from the confrontation, knowing it was not his place to offer comment. Nor did it seem right to listen in to words that were obviously meant in private. He backed up to the stairs, unsure if he should follow Tanobi and commiserate over feet placed into dangerous sands, or simply wait somewhere silently, unobtrusive to any one person. For the moment he stood quietly, undecided, watching Saruna's stooped shoulders as she spoke to Kori.