[[1493-04-09 - Hour 7 I|<< Hour 7 I]] | [[1493-04-12 - Hour 8|Hour 8 >>]] ## Hour 7 II We're back at the safehouse for a rest, and there's good news: Selise's heart is beating again. It wasn't as long a day as 'yesterday' – it sometimes seemed like it, though, with Rictavio constantly whining about everything that he could possibly think to whine about. But that's just kind of how he is. We ended up leaving Cicero's after forever. From the sound of it, Rictavio and Rupert argued through the entire fitting, but it did give me time to do some rune carving. The trip to the mausoleum wasn't distraction-free; we saw that same walking, swirling mass of elements and furniture that we had seen during our first hour in Elysium. Like before, we tried to duck into an alley, but we were a bit too slow this time. Luckily, we took it down easily. We were at the mausoleum soon enough. The tower seemed even taller than before, and I could hear something that I couldn't last time, back when I had peeked through the hatch from the sewer: the sound of someone wailing from high up above. Ezmerelda didn't seem phased. She just threw open the door and called for the head priest, Deannach, who promptly showed up to greet us. Deannach – like the rest of the priests there – was almost completely covered in bandages. He was happy to see Ezmerelda again. All things considered, he was a pleasant guy. He was already aware of the rising dead, but he hadn't known about their employment at the press. He said that he needs to have a talk with Rosa; I'm hoping that it doesn't go horribly for him. In return for our information, he offered to teach us about Elysium's burial practices, which was an opportunity that Skoll jumped on. To start, Deannach told us what we could already see: the mausoleum is completely comprised of bricks that are made from the remnants of the dead, which members of their congregation gather from around the city. It seemed kind of grim to me, but that might've just been because I was on site to witness the masses of corpses being shoveled into furnaces. Since I'm not a complete jackass, I refrained from commenting. Deannach asked if Skoll wanted to make a brick. Skoll wasn't as eager for that as he was to learn about the place – but he wasn't reluctant, either. Deannach was very...hands-on, when helping Skoll make the brick out of ash and bone. Rictavio started getting huffy about it. It probably didn't help that I made a joke about him drinking that blood for nothing. Also, while Skoll and Deannach were making the brick: I realized that we kind of maybe left Father Donavich in Barovia? I'd like to think that he made it out on his own, but I definitely don't remember seeing him in New Markovia. So that sucks. Not much to do about it right now. In the meantime, Skoll wanted to place the brick himself. We all started up the staircase, which spiraled up and around a pole in the center of the tower. It was a long walk up. Eventually, we made it to a section of the tower that was largely destroyed – apparently, they had an "angel incident." The sound of sobbing had gotten louder as we moved up the tower. According to Deannach, the wailing was coming from a spirit who inhabits the tower. He has the idea that her cries keep the tower standing; because of this, they stay out of her way. True or not, it kind of sucked to hear – but I had no desire to bother her, and I definitely didn't want the tower to come down. So I left her alone. Skoll placed a brick among the thousands (or maybe even more – there were a fuck ton of bricks). Afterwards, Deannach slid down the central pole; I followed suit, and so did Nia and Ezmerelda. I realized a little too late that Rictavio and Skoll hadn't followed. If I had known they were going to take the long walk down, I would've offered to fly them – but now that I'm thinking about it, Skoll could've done the same. I guess they just wanted to spend time together, which would be cuter if it didn't mean I had to wait around in a crematorium for like half an hour. Rictavio's excuse for taking the stairs down was that he didn't want to break his bones, which prompted Nia to comment on her own – apparently hollow – bones. I knew that Skoll grows the occasional feather out of his head now, but I never really considered that my bones had to go somewhere too. Mine certainly aren't hollow anymore – I'm a lot heavier than I used to be, which is something I noticed pretty much immediately after being turned into a human. Even though I was already aware of it, I insisted that Ezmerelda tell me if she thought that I came back heavier from the feywild. I was trying to flirt with her – she would be the one to know, considering she picks me up from time to time – but I think she thought that I was testing her, like I would ever do that. We headed back to Cicero's. Thankfully, it was a straight shot. I got some wine and soup while I was there. The wine was cheap and the soup was strange, but the warmth was nice all the same. In exchange, I told Cicero some stories about Borca since he wouldn't take my money. Rupert was still working on Rictavio's new clothes by the time we were ready to leave Cicero's. We decided to take him back to the safehouse because Cicero wasn't going to let him stay at the bar and we had an extra room anyway. It wasn't long after we left Cicero's that we came across a crowded street – well, by Elysium standards, at least. There was really no more than a handful of people; the most notable ones were a man sharpening a broken blade and another man posted at a makeshift barricade. The "guard" – Rolf – was gaunt and extremely jumpy. It was hard to convince him that we weren't "demons or beasts or creatures or such"; he was very confrontational, despite the fact that his only form of defense was a sharpened stick. I gave my handaxe to the man with the broken sword. Rictavio (reluctantly, after being convinced by Skoll) gave some copies of his books. Rolf wasn't entirely grateful – he didn't like the pictures inside. I'm hoping that nothing stumbles upon Rolf and his street; I don't think any of them stand much of a chance against demons or beasts or creatures or such. I'm also hoping that having an entire weapon between them will at least make them *feel* a little safer. Me and Skoll flew the others over the barricade. Rolf got pretty stressed by how easily his barricade was surmounted, but we needed to get past. I'm not sure what else he expected. Johannes was waiting for us near the safehouse. He had a couple gifts for us: one of them was an engraved stone with weird symbols. When Nia looked at the symbols through the mirror, she could read: "Mirrors show you what you wish to see." Cool. He then gave Nia an (alive, but tame) umbrella. It was dripping with what was probably saliva. I took a copy of the paper from Johannes when he offered. I wasn't much interested in reading more dishonest and ominous headlines, but I figured it would be rude not to take it. Speaking of ominous, there was a second door to the safehouse when we arrived. I opened it to find that fucked up staircase. When I peeked inside, though, I didn't see anything interesting. In fact, I saw even less than last time. I closed the door. Inside the safehouse, we caught up with Selise and Ireena. I tactically avoided mentioning the whole ordeal with the god telling me to kill myself; I figured that Nia would fill them in on the 'necessary sacrifice' thing later, and I didn't want to be the one to worry them. Plus, Ireena was pretty distracted trying to figure out how to comment on Rictavio's new look. Me and Ezmerelda went to our room after a little while. Ezmerelda started complaining about Rictavio and Skoll again; again, she asked why Skoll would ever be interested in Rictavio. I made the mistake of responding – even if all I said was that she doesn't want to know my answer. But Ezmerelda, in a tone that told me that I was already in trouble, insisted that I continue. It finally started to sink in that I should probably stop sticking my neck out for Rictavio in the face of Ezmerelda's anger. Anyway, Rictavio: I like the guy and he's a good friend. I even think that he has admirable qualities; I might be more inclined to list them if hadn't spent a good portion of the day acting more ornery than ever. I settled on saying that I think that he's funny, which I thought was an answer that could possibly allow me to avoid Ezmerelda's ire (it wasn't). She tried pressing me to say even more. I told her that she should probably just ask Skoll if she really wants to know why he likes the guy. Ezmerelda expressed interest in "getting revenge" on Skoll. That's how I found out that Skoll had interrogated her back in Barovia about her supposed feelings for me – and I knew exactly when it happened, because I vividly remember the shit-eating grin that Skoll flashed at me before dragging Ezmerelda up the wizard tower. I also vividly remember Ezmerelda being pissed after the fact. There must've been some kind of look on my face, because Ezmerelda said that she was sorry if I had been "bothered," back then. I told her that it doesn't matter, because it ultimately doesn't. Even if Ezmerelda didn't care for me much back then (which I still think is true no matter how much she likes to insist otherwise), it worked out. Just because I was hurt about it then doesn't mean I need to be hurt about it now. And it would be silly to be hurt when I get to sleep beside her every night, when she calls me her girlfriend, when she loves me. Back to the matter hand. Ezmerelda went to talk to Skoll; she wasn't gone for long. Apparently, she didn't know that Skoll is older than her, and learning that made her feel a little better about the situation. However, she wasn't feeling better enough to give Skoll her blessing, which she explicitly denied him. I was in the middle of trying to convince her to be a little nicer to Skoll about it when we heard yelling from the hallway – Skoll and Rictavio were out there arguing. From what I could hear, Rictavio made a comment about Skoll being a ball and chain, which incensed Skoll; then Rictavio started saying something about how he was excited and just wanted to "tell people." They must've had some kind of talk. I'm happy for them, even if it put Ezmerelda in the most sullen mood imaginable. She lightened up a little after I kissed her like a million times though. I'm sure the Selise thing is a weight of her shoulders, too, even if she thinks that Selise doesn't like her. Speaking of Selise: according to Ireena, Skoll resurrected her? And it worked? I guess I shouldn't be so surprised; she did look dead, after all. I'm very relieved in any case – I was kind of hitting a wall on what to do about that situation. Even though a god tried to talk me into suicide today, I'm feeling better about our chances than when I woke up this morning. We're all together, we're all healthy, and it feels like we have something of a path forward. --- ## Page Tags/Properties **Tags:** #Journal **Category:** [[Journals and Writings.base|Journals and Writings]] **Character:** [[Krue d'Avenir|Krue]] **Campaign:** [[City of Eyes]] **Date ([[Calendar of Harptos|Harptos]]):** 04/10/1493