Player Plot: The Brecilian Ruins

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Merrill, Ruby, and Pel
WHAT: Researching werewolves and elves at the Brecilian Ruins
WHEN: Early Firstfall
WHERE: The Brecilian Forest
NOTES: Warning for ghosts. Boo.

Comments

[mythalenaste]

Mara san Mamae, the boy answers tearfully. Ma halani? Ir souveri, lethallan.

[chainlightning]

She soothes him with another kiss and nods. Of course she will help -- how could she ever do anything but? With the strength of someone used to both hauling around other elven children and a wriggly dog, Merrill picks him up. Her staff is grabbed also, returned to her back in a moment of careful juggling.

There may be some gaps in language -- enough that Merrill is not so certain that this boy is truly a child, but not enough to prevent her from trying to help -- but there are tunes that she knows. They cannot have been changed so much, can they? And so she hums softly, an old song about a hunter as she begins to walk, carrying him through the ruins to find his mother.

i suck i suck i suck i suck i suck i suck

[mythalenaste]

Mamaaaaaae, the boy calls out, calmer now that Merrill is here. He genuinely seems reassured that his mother will soon be found. He is still a ghost, and weighs almost nothing in Merrill's arms.

Soon Merrill will come to a room with no door, only rusty hinges on the stone frame. Pel stands just inside, blocking entry, and she does not move when she hears footsteps behind her.

Ar tu na'din! comes a female voice from the other side. Ir emah'la shal!

no :|

[chainlightning]

"Er," says Merrill. She's not so sure that whatever that woman said is polite, but she can't exactly cover the boys ears when she's holding him, so.

"Pel? I don't suppose that woman is looking for her son, is she?"

That would rather neatly solve things. Hopefully.

As long as the boy explains that Merrill didn't kidnap him.

[mythalenaste]

Pel does not move. As Merrill gains a better angle, she will see a dagger hovering midair, aimed for Pel's throat, with no hand guiding it. Inside is indeed a ghostly woman, and she does not look friendly. She glances toward the boy in Merrill's arms, but does not appear to recognize him.

"Ir len?" Pel asks her breathlessly.

The woman sneers. Banal'len, she spits back.

Mamae! cries the boy, reaching a hand for the woman and squirming out of Merrill's arms. Mamae! Ir ma dirtha?

[chainlightning]

Oh no. The boy escapes but Merrill can't help but move after him (the dagger isn't pointed at her throat, but she hopes, prays that it doesn't dig in just because Merrill is trying to protect a long-dead child), startled.

"Ir abelas-" breathless, for Pel, for taking so long and for her sudden movement.

"Ir abelas- dareth, da'len!"

It's meant for the woman first, of course, but if she were to strike out at this child- well. Merrill isn't sure she'd be able to move fast enough. It's a horrid thing, to have to tell a child to be safe around his own mother, a woman who doesn't recognize him.

[mythalenaste]

Pel understands the conversation roughly as well as Merrill, maybe a little less.

"Is there something that can convince her?" she asks hoarsely.

The boy halts when his mother does not reach for him or recognize him. His hands open and he looks into them. He says something entirely unintelligible, then looks to Merrill with keen eyes. She is to find something, and she will know what it is when she finds it, perhaps? He is still a child, if a dead one, and with the language barrier cannot communicate well.

[chainlightning]

"We'll figure something out," Merrill reassures Pel immediately, then reaches out for the boy again. "Just- um, don't- move, I suppose... oh, dear."

This is really not a situation that she wants to leave Pel in, but it seems like she'll have to. She can't kill the mother of a child right in front of him, even if they're both already ghosts and the mother doesn't even recognize her child.

What a complicated situation.

"We'll just- look, then."