Sailing Away (Everyone)

Tree nods quickly, grateful to be able to provide some good news for once. "Yes! Provided you really have died and been resurrected? In that case, you're immune, therefore not a carrier, therefore unable to infect anyone you interact with."

Korogur pipes up here, adding, "But we're not fishing the damn things back up. Too dangerous that someone else might take them off you without knowing any better. Gods above, what if you'd been pickpocketed? Laerdya is so careless, it-- Sorry, babe."

"No, I know," Tree says quietly, looking miserable again. "She's awful. I just."

Sunrise lets out a breath. "Oh. Okay, that... that's good. That's good. She, um. She specifically recruited people who had died once? We were told it was because... well, it doesn't matter."

The amulet is in her room. If it can be studied we may be able to find a way to destroy it without harming Gwyn. Tree. They... don't think they can break in and take it, they've been trying to find a way. But... you could.

She takes another deep breath and looks at Korogur. "I am curious. You seemed sure that Laerdya was telling lies about you, but she seemed to truly believe Tree was being held hostage. Was planning a whole ambush attempt in the forest when we convinced her to try a different method. How sure are you that someone who knew about the kidnapping - and, well, had access to a bloody nightgown - didn't send that note trying to make some profit on the side?"

Luther is, for the moment, silent.

Korogur frowns at Sunrise but Tree looks up with flashing angry eyes again. "My nightgown? They really sent it to her? That wasn't something you made up?" She looks between Sunrise and Ka'Ri, willing to believe them now but very angry.

"Yes, it's true," Ka'Ri answers meekly, her eyes still brimming in gratitude to Tree for the good news. "We weren't able to figure out who sent it, but magical testing confirmed it was your blood. I'm sorry to be the bearer of that ill news in the wake of your good news, but it's true."

Sunrise sighs. "If we want to consider Laerdya a sinister mastermind, she could have faked it, written the note herself, and put on a very convincing performance, including hiring us to enact a very bad plan that she might have guessed we'd balk at and find an alternative to. It would even make sense; she was desperate to find you, and Luther at least suspected you might have left of your own free will and wasn't as frantic as she wanted him to be. You tell me: is she that good of an actress?"

Tree turns her angry glare on Korogur, who sighs and gives her an apologetic look. "I don't think Treygis would send a ransom demand? That sounds... pardon me for saying so, but really fucking sloppy. But Durug or Trukurth, maybe? One of the lieutenants? They might've thought... I don't even know. Money to finance the cure or line their pockets? An attempt on grabbing or killing Laerdya?" He shakes his head. "She's not popular with the Redfangs right now. We've lost people too, you know."

"And they had a bloody nightgown," Tree says, turning back to them, her expression still furious, "because I fought a practice duel with Brud and took an unlucky cut to the face. Ran to the laundry basket and grabbed what was handy to staunch the bleeding. Someone must've took it to send to Mother."

"Knew I should have made time to chat up Brud," Sunrise murmurs. "Okay. Okay."

She's quiet a moment, thinking. "Okay," she repeats. "You ran away, both because you didn't like the things your mother did to try and protect you and because you disagreed with her methods in curing the plague. You've been working ever since with a group that's independently trying to find a cure. It's true, it's plausible, and it's a whole lot more legal than 'you ran away to become a pirate.'" She looks at Tree. "There's a lot of people who want to know you're safe and not being held captive. Would you be willing to come to a neutral spot - a temple you trust, maybe - and meet some folks? Luther, at least, maybe someone from the city guard just so they can know for sure you're okay? With whatever assurances you need that you're free to go afterwards?"

Looking at Korogur, she adds, "That would take a lot of the heat off you. After that... there might be a way to put some teeth into the 'collect the metal' initiative. As for the amulet..." She furrows her brow. "Mokoz is working on a cure. Do you have any other mages you trust, powerful enough to try to change or undo what Laerdya did, but that you'd trust not to just destroy the damn thing out of hand?"

Glen has been looking back and forth between each of them as they take turns speaking. The pending question has him on pins and needles but he is trying hard not to show it, listening quietly and respectfully.

"How does the amulet limit the range of the plague to just this city and environs?" Sithani asks Tree. "And is the effect centred on you or on the amulet? Would it help to just throw the amulet into some obscure demiplane? Actually, answer Sunrise's question first." She turns to Korogur. "Also - do I call you 'Captain' or 'Korogur'? Anyway. Can I ask: how do Betreygis' political aspirations factor into this? If Thorn hadn't left him, and he'd remained quasi-heir to the Xiloscient council seat, what would he have done with it?"

Glen fidgets a little, trying to keep his mouth shut, but ultimately decides to speak up to Sithani and Tree, nevertheless expecting a hard rebuke from Tree given how they've tangled. "It's not limited in range. There have been confirmed reports of plague victims coming out of the Silverwoods. I'm worried it may spread to the Darkwood Outpost on the way to Jewelness, and to my village in the forest."

[DM note: Okay, that's a lot of questions and I'm going to have to ignore some of them because of the emotional state of the young people involved. Sorry, feel free to ask again as we go on.]

Tree looks very uncertain at everything Sunrise has said. "I mean, if you want to be strictly accurate, I ran away because I found the body Mother was going to put me in after I die, and I was afraid she was seriously considering killing me to speed up the process? But, yeah, euphemistically? I guess? As for meeting somewhere--"

"Absolutely not," Korogur says, putting a protective arm around her. "They wouldn't let her come back in a million years. The city will do anything Laerdya says. I don't care if it leaves heat on me."

Glen listens as Korogur interrupts Tree and watches him put an arm around her, before she can answer for herself. His face shows no reaction, but his eyes flit over to Ka'Ri first, then to Sunrise and Sithani. He knows better than to speak at the moment, so he remains quiet and attentive.

"So you'd prefer, what, the scenario where your ship is attacked and she's dragged back by force?" Sunrise gives him an exasperated look. "They're not going to stop until they can verify she's okay with their own eyes. This way, she controls the narrative. And she wouldn't be alone."

She turns her attention strictly to Tree then, her tone softening. "Or do you not think Luther would move heaven and earth to make sure you're happy and free? Or Rik, for that matter?"

"Is there a spell that would let you send a projection of yourself to talk to her? Any way you can reliably communicate without having to be there?"

Sithani turns to her companions. "That said, I think it's a coin toss whether Laerdya will be able to work on a cure if Tree isn't back in her frilly cage, full stop. Which could be a problem depending how far along Mokoz is with her research. Nine Hells, all the trouble caused because Mokoz wouldn't or couldn't join the Feytower in the first place, or some Redfang had the bright idea of obsessing over taking the fucking credit of all things..." The credit. Actually that might not be a bad outcome for this. If we can break the Redfangs as a crime family while keeping Mokoz out of it, and push that tiefling gang towards my suggestion of absorbing what's left of the Redfangs' organisation, and persuade Thorn to do politics on behalf of the orcs and tieflings, in addition to Sunrise's effors, we might be able to give some political sway to those two minority groups.

In a private thought-beam to Sunrise, Sithani projects, <At some point we need to talk politics. I have a wildly ambitious idea about what we could do with all this, but I need to run its feasibility past someone practical.>

"Well, she can't have her," Sunrise says bluntly. "She's a grown woman, and eventually Laerdya is going to have to put on her big-girl pants and accept that."

Then, turning back to Tree with an apologetic expression, she adds, "Still though, right now she does honestly believe you're a captive being raped and tortured. I'm fairly angry at her - for, uh, killing me, for starters - but it would be a kindness to show her that you are, in fact, alive and well."

Glen hears mention of Rik and his eyes soften. He addresses Tree quietly and deferentially. "I promised Rik I would stand with him in making sure you are free to leave once they see you are safe." He nods along in agreement when Sunrise says Laerdya cannot have Tree.

"She probably wouldn't believe a projection," Tree points out, looking troubled. "She'd think anything I said was coerced. Hells, she probably won't believe I'm not being coerced even if I meet with her in person. Coerced or brain-washed or magically controlled. She doesn't see me as me." She sighs and rubs at her arms, frustrated. "But I don't want her to think I'm being tortured. That's a rotten thing for the Redfangs to have done at her."

Glen's statement causes her to brighten a little. "You know Rik?" she asks Glen and Sunrise, looking up with eager interest.

Glen nods and swallows hard, continuing tentatively. "Yes. He and Thorn have children together. Rik and Sunrise and I fought off the Redfangs on the street along side Luther Rivvers to bring Thorn home to safety. I trust him with my life, and I promised him I would help make sure you are free to live your life as you please."

"Oh.... that's nice....." Tree says in a quiet voice about the news that Rik has children with Thorn. "But I'm glad... he and Luther are working together."

Glen hears Tree's halting response and adds, "Rik cares very much for you, and speaks of you as his own daughter. He is beside himself with worry, and will do anything to make sure you're safe and happy."

"He'd like to see you," Sunrise adds softly.

She brightens a little at this, looking at Korogur with warm eyes; he, too, seems happy at this news. "I really miss him," she tells them. "I used to go see him at temple every week. I...didn't know he knew who I was. I mean, his daughter."

Sunrise looks thoughtful. "What about this?" She offers after a moment. "Temple of Yondalla. Just you, Rik, and Luther. Would that work? At least as a starting point?"

My turn: are you okay? I know I just dumped a lot on you. But I'm promising your daughter a meeting with you, and that's not going to work if you've dropped dead of shock.

Tree and Korogur exchange a long look. "I'd be able to leave after?" Tree asks. "No tricks, nobody grabbing me or trying to kill me so Mother can trap me in a new body?"

Glen nods solemnly, and puts his hand over his heart. "No tricks. I will defend your right to walk back out of there of your own volition with my life, and I'm guessing several of my colleagues would do the same." He looks expectantly around the table.