Lifting the Mask: LXXI
Riu took a deep breath of fresh morning air. Summer was always the loveliest of times. That's what her father used to say, before.. Yeah. she took a barefooted step out of her room, and onto the balcony located so close by.
"Wakey wakey Kuro." She whispered softly and waved a hand allowing the arcane misty blue and white energy to spill from it. Like a mixture of clouds and hurricanes, the staticy magic opened a pocket dimension in which Kuro happily flew out.
'Mad.. lonely..' Riu was hit suddenly by the emotions of her familiar, why.. Was he upset? She wondered. The blue and black dragon flapped about the room before arcing through the doorway spinning around the balcony.
"Hehe, cute Kuro.." She giggled at the dragon spinning on his back as he soared through the air. He was such a gentle little thing. She held out a single hand waiting for her small friend to land on her palm. It took several minutes, numerous backflips and a plethora of stretching on the house's roof. "Come here little guy.." Riu offered up her hand again, and finally the dragon relented. He plopped down in the grasp while she rapidly moved to grab his fat ass with both hands, the dragon lazily rolling in her arms like a kitten. The morning air was warm and sensual like a soft breeze against your face. Waterdeep got hot in the summer but the morning's and nights were just barely warm. Like a gorgeous crack in the oven just a little bit toasty with calm winds from the seaward to cool you down.
'Leave.. Alone.. Mean..' Kuro's thoughts were projected to her once again. Ok ok, she relented she probably should take him out more often, but it wasn't her fault really. They get distracted as a party sometimes. Was she really above that?
"Let's go, you party pooper." She said at last, Riu got dressed quickly, her hair still wet from the shower she had before she deployed her familiar. She opened her door to the hallways of the second floor. Walking carefully she passed by the open door of Asher, his room was situated next to hers however she didn't need to pass it unless she intended to go down the stairs as the room was only actually accessible through the den. Curiosity got the better of her, or as Eroh'wis would say; a quick few flaps of the wings is a tug in the right direction- Selune, was her Aunt really that bad with metaphors? She relented and crooked a head through the opening. The room inside was.. Tidy, far better than she expected. The far back corner had two large windows with a big bed between them silver in correlation, his choice probably. On its right was a large dark glossy wooden table; a night stand, Riu thought Asher was right handed.. Perhaps not? On its surface she spotted his iconic metallic and porcelain mask, she had never actually seen it separated from him, it was so odd to see it lying on the table. The mask was shaped to cover the face quite perfectly with its lower guard being golden and patterned after a skull's jaw examining its surface showed the thick roots of bone it tried to imitate. While its upper half above the jaw resembles more of a porcelain face with the eyes of a wolf. It didn't have any glass over the eyes, just narrow slits. On the sides of his table she could spot his two long swords both bearing the mark of some sigil she couldn't recognize.. One side an odd double sided E with an X throughout it.it appeared to be some kind of hourglass;
"Ughh" Riu groaned. She hated hourglasses ever since Mr.Fillerton tried to use one to time her study habits. The professor was always a sadist. The other logo though.. Riu could swear she recognized, like a wolf holding a bone over an open book. It was nobility. She could swear it was.
"Shit.." Riu ducked out of the way when Asher's voice came ringing out. He crossed by the open door hastily slipping a shirt over his body the deep scars from where.. Ant'tran had struck him; were still visible; he didn't seem any worse for wear after last night though! So that was something. Asher's dark black hair came into view, he was turned around, again denying her an unraveled mystery of why he was always wearing a mask. He was probably six foot four or so, maybe even taller.. His olive skin really matched his dark and brooding look he sported any time he wasn't mocking random thugs. Riu shook her head, why the hell was she here again? Staring at the man wasn't going to tell her what the heck was on his swords. Really only asking that would help. She spun on a heel and jogged quickly down the stairs making her way to the tavern below.
"It's been a pleasure!" Markos's voice was not the first thing Riu wanted to hear when she arrived at the base of the stairs. She took a deep breath swinging the doors to the house open, the tavern was a lot cleaner than last night while everyday the woodworkers guild and others worked hard to renovate their tavern they were recently told just a few days ago that it should be done by the end of that week. Riu was.. Excited, this was an opportunity to run something her parents had, had no hand in creating! Maybe.. This success would be all her own. She saw Markos wave a figure out the door who was holding his hat in a parting message. Was that.. Vincent? The calm and cool detective of Tiger's eyes waved rapidly before leaving his intentions lost on Riu. She approached the bar readying herself something to eat while Markos shut the door. She didn't know how to feel about him, Markos Amanodel... he had become rather famous in the city. The mad man who walked from place to place trying to convince them to join his cult. She wasn't privy to this when she met him but the recent weeks had taught her some of the city word. Yet.. when Riu looked up staring into his eyes those.. Insane purple eyes. She glanced for any semblance of humanity, the warm and comforting sensation she had received when he talked to her all those nights ago.. For so long her parents death had defined her.. And though it still did. Riu knew she had gotten some closure, at least a start. But now that Skeemo was dead she felt as if her party members held more mysteries than she was able to unravel.
"Was that Vincent? From Tiger's eye?" Riu feint an ounce of ignorance. Where did she stand with the cultist? How did he feel about her specifically, and was all of that talk the night before they killed the gnome.. Was it just some; one off ounce of sanity? All this meddling made her brain hurt, what would her mom say?
"Oh yeah.. He was.. Just here to tell us about something.. Related to uh.. Mm.. it's not important.." Markos replied. His signature high pitched voice sounded.. More erratic, softer like a female.
"Hmm, I see. Anything we should know about?" Riu pursed her lip. She felt an ominous feeling spill from Markos some kind of.. Energy radiated from him, like.. Well, it was like Ant'tran. The same energy she had felt all that time ago. Markos turned around and Riu got a good look at him. His feminine face held a small smile, he looked so paranoid glancing around the room every few seconds like he expected it to shatter apart. Sometimes she got the feeling her life wasn't real so she got the understanding.
"No.. not really.." Markos responded. He held a hand out curling it into a slow fist while purple and black energy crackled around it. She recognized the spell. She had cast it not twenty minutes ago. A portal opened in the house while a squid-like figure flew out. His familiar, the same one she helped him obtain. The cutlists familiar appeared as a small pink squid with white dove like wings behind it and a blue orb at its forehead. The familiar flapped passively in place near Markos while the two of them stared at each other. He was conversing with it.
"Cute." Riu offered she got an almost unnerving feeling around Markos that day, what the heck was it? "Are you enjoying your new familiar? I'm surprised you haven't gotten one before..." She recalled how naturally the spell had come to him, yeah the ritual was easier for her, but he seemed almost to move with the magic when they cast it.
"I always wanted to.. And now I have one.. What do you think, Cerdest?" Cerdest? He had named his familiar already. Riu nearly squealed, that was adorable. Unlike Markos, his familiar had soft blue eyes that didn't hold his abyss gaze. She like it. "She would never let me have one.." Markos's voice came in a whisper like he was thinking of something very far away. "Said I wasn't good enough.. I didn't.. Deserve.. Friends.." Holy Selune, he sounded like a wounded puppy? Riu studied his face, what was it he was talking about? Crap. She would go to the store that day. She promised herself a bookstore, perhaps she could learn more about this mythos he spoke of..
"Morning, guys." Riu spun around, Asher was walking through the tavern, wow he was quiet walking down those stairs. She slipped a bagel in her mouth and crushed it. Confusion.. She fucking hated not knowing. "How did you all sleep?" Asher held up a hand and cracked his neck, swiping something from the kitchen yelling back to them.
"I slept well.." Riu muttered to herself, she was thinking, these gods that now surrounded her.. Asher's Ares, Herod's two deities, and Markos's.. Numerous references to a.. Her.. and him. So many. Maybe Selune would help her. "Vincent visited us!" She yelled out suddenly towards the kitchen. A little bit of clattering out there woke her to what was going on. Asher stuck his head out in surprise.
"And? What did he say?" The man sounded genuinely interested, well, as interested as you could when you were wearing a mask! His tight mask held any facial information from Riu, she was only able to discern anything from his voice.
"Just some random things about Lif.." Markos replied. "I'll tell you later ok!" The half-elf was quick to exit the room running to the backyard.
"The hell is he in a rush for?" Asher remarked. "Do we still have that map? I've been so confused by what it means all this time." Riu frowned; she didn't have the map on her but she did recall what he was talking about. Fucking hell Professor Gonvergal made her religiously memorize all the noble families names, houses, crypts, and fucking lineages. For once it actually served her well.
"The map was pointing to the Cassalenter's libitina.. Or.. sorry their-" Riu started to explain.
"Crypt, the family tomb where nobility lay, Libitina." Asher finished pulling out a nearby chair for Riu to sit in. She obliged and sat down. How.. Did he know that? Sure it wasn't any secret what the nobility called it. But still it wasn't normal for commoners to know it. "No I got all of that.. But what I'm trying to figure out is how the Gralhunds knew to point us in the right direction.." Asher held a hand up to his masked face, Riu wondered where this was going.
"They were told weren't they?" She suggested, though she knew better than to stop Asher's rapid thought process. "By some informant, probably the guard, right?" He shook his head instantly.
"No.. the guard we talked to said They had fallen out of normal checks, and had not talked to any customers or much less anyone for weeks, so how did they know where the nimblewright would be?"
Riu paused. 'Wait.. that was true..'
"Well Maybe it was the guards we were with? Told them before we saw?" She offered the information regardless of knowing it was wrong.. That couldn't be right.
"The guards had not had contact with them either.." He started lowering his head and she got an image of his tuft black hair. "Furthermore Renaer told us the guards were failing to locate it.. The two spots we were given were the docks and the villa.. The City of the dead is not something the guards could have known." With each word he made more and more sense.. What informants of theirs could have told them if they couldn't even get back to either the guards or their customers?
"I.. didn't even think about it.." Riu whispered. She couldn't have assumed this, how would they know? Unless.. The figures.. The two figures.
"The woman at the green house told us she saw two figures fleeing right? Urstul.. And the nimblewright. I'm just guessing here.. But I think more is going on." Asher stood up Riu got the feeling he was entranced in thought, she was now too. Her father always said to question everything.. He.. he taught her that before he died. Before she and her mother were taken like that.. Now she questioned what was going on.
"I... don't know what to think, maybe that's what Vincent was here to tell us about?" Riu suggested but Asher had already stood up, and paced about a little.
"Maybe.." Asher remarked, though he seemed spaced out. "Not really sure."The soldier reached the door and pulled at the one sided mailbox pulling free a letter.
"What's that?" She stood up curious, the party didn't get much mail besides frequent letters from various people offering to install a hundred door bells. The man held the letter between his fingers running them along its edges with such quiet solace.
"A letter.. From my kids..." Asher showed the address bar. She had a hard time reading it with his shaking fingers. The tagline read; Adol and Stalana. Though their last names were absent. Asher looked down each movement of his hand indicative of his emotions. "My ex-wife.. Doesn't let me see em very often.. I.. I've always intended to uh.. Say some things.. They.. don't even know their name.. So.. just.. Didn't expect another letter.." Another letter? Riu wondered what that meant. She felt terrible for him, his wife not letting him see his kids? That had to hurt.
"Open it.." Riu exclaimed, she almost felt giddy, she was learning more about her party members. Asher slipped a finger under the letter opening. And took a deep breath.
*Kraboom*
A sound filled the air echoing from the back yard. Asher hardly looked up.
"WHAT THE FUCK, MARKOS WHAT IS THAT!" She snapped her attention to the sounds of Herod screaming in the backyard. Dashing over to the window she spotted Markos waving his trident around while Herod ran throughout the yard, a massive portal spilling large tentacles everywhere in the smack middle of the yard. "Turn it off, turn it off!" Herod yelped, his normally calm demeanor cracking while he panicked to get his friend under control. Riu rolled her eyes. She slammed open the door.
"Could I get a hand with this?" She inquired. She peered over her shoulder expecting Asher to be standing there. But instead, she only saw the small gust of wind from an opened and shut door. "Shit." She groaned. Now she'd have to deal with this by herself. "Markos.. What on Toril have you done.."