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Holmes: Okhfels drags Aysha back kicking and biting into camp with Fahd helping Serama along behind them. As they approach, Isadora seems to be fiddling with some sort of crystal.
Isadora: Pocketing it, Isadora says, "What's all this?"
Holmes: Fahd frowns looking at the object Isaodra holds. "That thing has a spirit. But one that I don't know."
Okhfels: Okhfels calls for a rope to be brought, so Aysha can be tied up. "Fahd, you can explain what happened to Isadora." He supervises Aysha's detention, but stays close so that he can hear what Fahd has to say.
Holmes: Fahd recounts the tale of how he and Okhfels came upon the copse where Aysha was performing some ritual using Serama as some sort of ritual element.
Okhfels: Okfhels's expression makes it clear that he's not satisfied with that explanation.
Okhfels: Okhfels looks around for the Riani chieftain.... whatever his name was.
Isadora: "Anything to add, Okhfels?"
Okhfels: "Fahd, would you tell why we crashed Aysha's little party?"
Holmes: Fahd looks a bit confused, "Well, obviously you're not talking about stopping the ritual...you mean where we were going originally? To the two-tree shrine."
Holmes: "Are you accusing me of something?" he asks.
Okhfels: "No... not yet. I just want you to tell Isadora what you told me, about why we were going to the shrine."
Isadora: "Please do. I love stories," says Isadora, reclining against a nearby pole.
Holmes: "Okhfels was wondering if there was some way to deal with the yellow sky. I was going to show him the two tree shrine where we might worship the spirits that could deal with the evil spirits," Fahd says matter of factly.
Isadora: "Without impugning your honesty in the slightest, is it really as simple as worship? I don't recall anyone mentioning that previously as an easy solution to this fog business."
Okhfels: Okhfels shakes his head in frustration. He knows better than to just bust out with an accusation, but it's killing him to keep it in.
Holmes: Fahd frowns, "Perhaps your spirits aren't powerful enough to stop the yellow sky. But I think that there are ones that are at the shrine that are."
Isadora: "Leaving the business of spirits aside for just a second, I confess I'm not sure what to do with this woman you've brought me. The Rhiani are looking for a new priestess, perhaps...?" She intends to question Okhfels later.
Holmes: Dhazari and the others who had headed off with Nurek arrive back in camp. Nurek comes forward to Isadora, "The Vajaari will be held up for quite some time worried about goblins, ladyship."
Holmes: His dark skin is covered with sweat from the exertions of the day. The Rhiani look a tad worked over as well.
Okhfels: Okhfels says, Vajaari?
Holmes: "My people," says Nurek. "Before I had to flee from them."
Holmes: Isadora knows that Nurek fled Vajaari lands because he was persecuted for not worshipping the dark god of war they all seem to follow, Z'taar.
Isadora: "Give me the short version right now," says Isadora to Nurek, "and then get some rest."
Holmes: Nurek gives a very concise, but informational debriefing to Isadora indicating where the Vajaari are, and how long it will likely take them to react, etc.
Okhfels: Okhfels, overhearing, says, "Okay, so let me get this straight... this makes the yellow fog, the goblins, and now the Vajaari..."
Isadora: "Go on, then," Isadora says to him. "And remind me later that we're probably not paying you what you're worth."
Isadora flashes a smile at Okhfels. "It all started around when you arrived, I think."
Okhfels: Okhfels smiles back, raising his hands defensively. "You can blame me for the goblins, but the yellow fog and the Vajaari are none of my doing."
Holmes: Nurek smiles as he turns to go, "I don't remember ever being paid. But I do like my white tent."
Isadora: "So," Isadora says, turning back to Dhazari. "I appreciate that I can ask you this question, and you'll answer me straight: Is this woman"--gesturing at Aysha--"your problem or mine?"
Holmes: Dhazari raises his eyebrows. "That's an interesting question. Serama is not precisely a member of our tribe, but she is Rhiani in a way, and we had given her hospitality. That said, she'd been dealing with some of your people quite a bit."
Holmes: "Other than her assault on Serama, I don't know of any particular crime she has committed...but she does stink of sorcery," he looks derisively at Aysha.
Isadora: "Would you have any objection if I threw the offender in a hole for a few days, or is that unlikely to be enough?"
Holmes: Dhazari shrugs, "I think that's fine. But I think that she speaks false. I think she might need the sword."
Okhfels: Okhfels nods.
Isadora smiles crookedly. "If you want her dealt with Rhiani-style, you can take responsibility for her. I'll lock her up, but that's all I'll do right now."
Okhfels: Okhfels gets a "Hey, I just got an idea" look. He swallows it for the moment...
Holmes: "Do we know that she's lied?" asks Dhazari. "I can't just kill her on a suspicion."
Holmes: Dhazari turns to Aysha, "What were you trying to do with Serama?"
Aysha smiles at Dhazari
Aysha: "My masters are pleased with me. They have given me the means to reunite with my lover. Serama was... aiding me in the process."
Holmes: "Speak plainly, devil-woman!" says Dhazari. "Did you force her to aid you?"
Isadora shoots Okhfels a "What the hell is she talking about?" look.
Okhfels: Okhfels makes a "hellifIknow" shrug.
Aysha: "Serama and I are old friends."
Holmes: Dhzari frowns.
Holmes: "Who are your masters?" Dhazari demands.
Aysha: "My masters are... my masters. The ones who sent me hear."
Aysha waves her hands helplessly
Isadora: "Not to nitpick too much, but she didn't actually answer that last question," Isadora observes.
Aysha: *here, obviously
Holmes: Serama, somewhat groggy still, speaks, "I once was seduced by Aysha's ways. But now I follow a better way. She made me help her."
Holmes: Dhazari considers what Serama has said, "That's a crime right there."
Isadora shifts herself over next to Okhfels while Dhazari continues questioning. "You're thinking something," she murmurs to Okhfels.
Holmes: "She at least deserves banishment," says Dhazari. "I could see if the elders have something more appropriate."
Okhfels: Okhfels looks around. "Maybe she knows something about the Yellow fog," he says quietly. "If she can dispel it, spare her."
Holmes: Dhazari, taking the cue from Okhfels asks, "Can you dispel the yellow sky?"
Okhfels: Okhfels says, "Good ears on that guy."
Isadora thinks about commenting that if Dhazari takes Aysha for a liar, now might not be the best time to ask her about the yellow sky... but the moment passes.
Aysha: "It is... possible. But I do not think my masters would like it."
Holmes: Dhazari turns to Okhfels, "What is it she told you when you went into the White Woods with her? Why did you let her go along?"
Okhfels: "Let her? Heh. If I had had my way, she'd have been tied up for trial long before this."
Okhfels: "The mission to the White Wood wasn't my idea... Isadora sent me along to keep the wizards in line. After the rest, how could I argue with one more?"
Holmes: "Hmm," mutters Dhazari. "She gave no explanation at all? Surely she must have said something?"
Okhfels: "Nothing that made any sense to me."
Okhfels: "Like I said, it wasn't my job to say who went and who didn't."
Holmes: Serama volunteers, "This was the first that she ensorcelled me. She said that she had a child who was lost in the woods. Had my head been clear, I would have remembered that she has no child."
Holmes: Dhazari looks at Okhfels, not wanting to question Serama, but hoping for confirmation.
Okhfels: Okhfels blows a frustrated breath. She knows how to dispel the yellow fog... and now she'll die.
Okhfels: "I don't remember if she said that to me or not... I think she didn't, because I would probably have laughed in her face."
Holmes: Serama says, "she said it to Archelaus, too, I think."
Holmes: Dhazari frowns worse than before, "I think that Serama is telling the truth. But I'm still not sure that means that Aysha lied. If she was under a spell, maybe she imagined it. Perhaps this was part of how Serama was ensorcelled?"
Okhfels: Okhfels crosses his massive arms over his chest.
Isadora: "This is starting to sound more and more like a Rhiani procedural question," Isadora suggests mildly. "I'm more than willing to cede authority over the case to your people."
Okhfels: (a gesture that's unusual for him... perhaps it means he's convinced of something.)
Holmes: "Well, banishment seems too good for this one," he says. "Perhaps some time in your cage would be best, actually."
Okhfels: "She's a slippery one... mark my words.
Okhfels: "
Holmes: Elkaru comes along just then.
Sebastian: Sebastian wanders over right behind him, but not with him.
Holmes: He looks twice at Aysha, then comes over to Okhfels. "I had thought that she'd died with the rest of Sherezak. How do you know this woman?"
Okhfels: Okhfels makes a frustrated noise. "Pfft. Well, one night, a few weeks back, she casually magicked my mind. Not a friend of mine, if that's what you're asking."
Holmes: "Hello, Aysha," says Elkaru walking over. "What's going on here?"
Isadora: "Right. Serama, you don't exactly belong in either camp. That needs to end, soon. Take some time to rest up from your ordeal, then inform me whether you want to appeal to the Rhiani camp or to me for justice. That decision will be binding. Until then, Aysha goes in the hole."
Holmes: Elkaru seems somewhat taken aback. "She's been up to no good?"
Sebastian: Sebastian looks around. "Ah, this seems like a bad time. I should come back later?"
Isadora: "It's been rumored," Isadora says dryly to Elkaru. She looks expectantly at Dhazari, waiting to see if he takes issue.
Holmes: Dhazari seems quite pleased with this answer. "Excellent. I hope she gets lice down there."
Isadora: "I seem to be finished here," Isadora says to Sebastian. "Any news?"
Sebastian: "When is there anything but?"
Aysha looks at Elkaru with surprise
Aysha: "How did *you* get here? That is... "
Aysha: "How is Fahja?"
Holmes: Elkaru makes a face, "I heard that Fahja went into the White Woods."
Okhfels: Okhfels gives Isadora a look that says, "I want to talk to you later," and goes out to see what he can do to arrange an incarceration for Aysha that will actually hold her.
Isadora grimaces at Sebastian. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. I'll catch up with you soon to demand the whole story."
Sebastian: Sebastian gives a little bow.
Holmes: "Speaking of Fahja," says Elkaru, "I'm just back from a hunting expediton - we caught some deer - has anyone seen Fahja?"
Holmes: Dhazari turns around. He was about to leave, but something catches his attention.
Isadora heads off to write some letters that will hopefully never need to be read.
Holmes: "Sebastian, what did Okhfels say happened to the battle dancer named Fahja who went into the White Wood?" Dhazari queries.
Sebastian: Sebastian cocks his head and pulls out the journal. He flips through it quickly, scans a page, nods to himself, and puts the journal away.
Holmes: Aysha stands tied with soldiers holding her watching the interchange.
Sebastian: "Left behind after being stung by some sort of flying creature. At least according to my notes."
Holmes: "Did she just ask you what happened to Fahja?" Dhazari asks Elkaru.
Holmes: "Why?" Elkaru responds. "Was she there? Fahja doesn't like her much. Not after the whole demon affair."
Sebastian: Sebastian's eyebrows rise. "Demon affair?"
Holmes: "Fahja says that she sacrificed some of the city folk to raise a river demon," Elkaru continues. "He tried to stop it, but was washed down river after it knocked him in."
Sebastian: Sebastian turns to look at Aysha. "Demon affair?"
Aysha sighs sadly
Aysha: "I was a servant of Akalatan then."
Aysha: There is a certain amount of longing in her voice
Aysha: "He sent me a mighty champion to protect the clan... but... I was unworthy of such favor."
Holmes: Sebastian is vaguely aware that Akalatan is a god of Charon who some few Rhiani worship (and more important in the Lankani religion, but that's another story).
Sebastian: "Who are you a servant of now? And what brought that about? You seem to have preferrred Akalatan..."
Holmes: Dhazari seems stuck on something, "She just said she didn't know what happened to Fahja. Was she there for it, Sebastian?"
Sebastian: Sebastian blinks at the interruption to his train of thought and reaches for his journal again.
Sebastian: "Hmm..." flipping through the pages. "Let's see. It appears that she was present with the group at the time that Fahja was stung. She was also with the group that fled the fortress in the woods. Fahja wasn't with that group, it's not clear what happened to him after that..."
Aysha looks pained
Holmes: Dhazari says, "That, then, was a lie."
Aysha: "These are not things I enjoy remembering."
Sebastian: Sebastian turns to Dhazari. "Which was a lie?"
Holmes: "She asked Elkaru if he knew how Fahja was. Knowing that he didn't, and she did," he says.
Sebastian: Sebastian squints. "What? Asking questions you know the answer to is a form of lying?" He looks a bit confused.
Holmes: "She dissembles," Dhazari says. "She implies things that aren't true. By asking if he knew about Fahja, she was trying to say she didn't."
Holmes: Dhazari seems desperately grasping at straws. He wants Aysha dead, clear as day to anyone present.
Sebastian: Sebastian looks at Dhazari closely. "Perhaps we should just imprison her for a bit, hmm? That was what you and Isadora decided?"
Aysha finally seems to notice Dhazari
Aysha: "I do not know you, man. What cause have I given you for such hatred?"
Holmes: "You do not know truth," says Dhazari spitefully. "Oh, you conceal it well, playing games with the truth. But, at heart, you are false."
Holmes: Dhazari, realizing that he's already made a deal, however, pulls back, "I let the Ikaiti have you for now. But I'm not done with you."
Holmes: As he leaves, the guards take Aysha away to her imprisonment.

Sebastian: Isadora and Okhfels stand in front of the sturdily crafted boat. It looks simple enough to handle and quite seaworthy. Except for the giant boulder sitting in it. That will probably reduce it's bouyancy somewhat.
Okhfels: Okhfels, already knowing what's what, sets himself carefully, and lifts the boulder off the boat.
Isadora: "I don't know how this will work out," Isadora says, "but I think something needs to be done. So, here we are."
Okhfels: Okhfels looks over the boat. Having a big rock on it might have done some damage... he wants to make sure that he won't have to swim to shore.
Sebastian: The boat looks fine. Looking at the rock closely Okhfels can tell that it is, strangely enough, shaped very much like the inner hull of the little boat.
Isadora: "Right. I think we need to go to the center. As close as you can get, anyway. I hope it doesn't matter too much." Isadora sounds a little less certain of herself than usual.
Okhfels: Okhfels puts the oars in the boat, and pushes it into the water. Holding it steady with one hand, he offers the other to steady Isadora as she steps in.
Isadora settles herself in, laying her sword by the seat--you can never be too careful--and pulling out the crystal. She cradles it in her hands as they move out into the lake.
Okhfels: Okhfels takes a few minutes to get used to the oars, but they're not complicated, and before long his powerful strokes are propelling them quickly across the water. Okhfels keeps an eye out for signs of leaks.
Isadora squints firmly into the depths of the crystal, hoping to feel some indication that the magic is starting. This can't be too difficult, knowing the wizards she knows, right?
Okhfels: Once in the center of the lake, Okhfels sees Isadora start using the crystal. He looks around, to see if the world is noticing their hubris, and then watches her closely.
Okhfels: "Be careful. After all this... I won't lose you."
Okhfels: "I don't know if this is going to help... but I can't think of anything else to do to make this work."
Okhfels: Okhfels takes the crown of white metal out of his sack, and lays it over the head-sized crystal.
Okhfels: "I'm just going on instinct, here."
Isadora: "You and me both," Isadora says, grinning as she continues to stare into the crystal. She'll ask about the crown later, assuming they both live through this.
Holmes: She tries to follow what Salast said, but the way the crystal feels nothing seems to be happening. But by simply opening up another part of herself, suddenly she can see deep into the waters of the lake. Deep down to where the spirits lie. But they lie beyond, in a lake that is apart from this lake. And the leap is so far to make.
Isadora: "Oh," Isadora whispers. At some level, she hadn't really believed the crystal would do anything at all--not for her.
Okhfels: "Captain Dockandar charged a hundred men into total darkness... stopped the goblins forever in that tunnel, he did."
Okhfels: "Nothing else to do but leap in..."
Okhfels: Okhfels puts his hands on Isadora's.
Okhfels: He gives her a reassuring smile.
Isadora: "I can see all the way to the bottom. I never knew it was so deep..."
Holmes: Reaching out, using the power of the crystal which seems to have something living in it that she is working with, together they manage to part the glistening rays of light that barely manage to reach the bottom of the lake. Beyond, the world she sees is more real and yet less, than any Isadora has ever seen.
Holmes: A ways away, a huge shrine, built in a manner like the ruins north of the lake, stands before her. Then two beings seem to emerge from it.
Holmes: As they approach, the two beings seem to stand off with each other. One is a huge hairy ball, flattened, wth titanic shovel-like claws, a badger. The other is just as large, with many armored legs and a stinger that looks sharp enough to pierce anything; a scorpion.
Holmes: They look at Isadora to see who, after two millenia, has opened the door to their sunken world.
Holmes: They are majestic almost beyond belief.
Holmes: Either one could crush a tree without thinking about it.
Isadora: Isadora, coasting on stubborn determination and impulse so far, comes up against the reality that she has no idea how to talk to spirits. Her world has never included more than empty religious formalities, or untrustworthy sorcery performed by others. This... doesn't fit.
Okhfels: Okhfels, perhaps sensing her indecision, gives her hands a gentle squeeze.
Holmes: The beings speak to her, voices angry, questioning, and in a speech that she doesn't really understand (though there's something about it...). What's obvious is that they want to know who it is who they are in the presence of.
Isadora: Isadora's hands hold the crystal in a white-knuckled grip. Eyes staring into the water, she says, "Isadora. I'm Isadora." Without thinking of it, she adds in a whisper, "I didn't know..."
Holmes: As Okhfels gets the notion to start rowing from the worried look on Isadora's face, he notes that the lake is starting to drop in level here in the center.
Holmes: The water starts rotating about in a circle making the rowing much harder to direct.
Holmes: Despite the massive currents, driven on by the need to get Isadora to safety, Okhfels manages to swing the boat out of the current at just the right moment using all his might. He contiunes to fight the current all the way into shore.
Okhfels: At the shore, Okhfels doesn't bother to help Isadora out of the boat. He leaps to the shore and hauls boat and Isadora together up out of the water.
Holmes: As they look back, out of the whirlpool rises the shrine in the north of the lake. A new island stands there, with the collossal buildings standing on it. The lake calms itself once again, the water having filled the place where these buildings once were.
Holmes: The lowering sun glints off the marble of the shrines once in an other world, now firmly in their reality.
Holmes: *
Holmes: *
Holmes: *
Holmes: *
Holmes: *
Okhfels: Okhfels grabs Isadora in a huge embrace, lifting her off the ground. "You did it! You did it! Isadora, you did it!"
Okhfels: Okhfels laughs triumphantly, the first time he has laughed with true glee in weeks.
Isadora: "I did something," Isadora says, laughing breathlessly and tightening her arms around him fiercely. Her eyes have a faraway look for a moment, then she looks him full in the face, laughs again, and kisses him.

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