Sailing Home (Everyone)

Tree's smile softens and she bends to give Thimb a gentle, if slightly awkward, hug. "Thank you," she says softly. "I, uhh, like your familiar."

Glen tries to keep an eye on proceedings from his spot up with the captain and is relieved to see his companions bonding with Tree. He returns his keen eyes to their surroundings, on the lookout for danger.

Sunrise smiles, watching this, then turns her thoughts to Honey and Luther. We're on our way back. Is the temple of Yondalla okay with being used as a meeting point?

Thimb hugs back, and Hamish wiggles in delight at the praise. "Their name is Hamish," she said as Hamish hopped up on her shoulder to be better inspected. "They're a bit of a fluke and can shift their form around without having to be de-summoned. Yet to figure out how to help other wizards recreate that though... Do you have a familiar?" she asked, glancing around. Thimb knew she was the strange one for always keeping Hamish on hand, but Thimb also forgot that fact sometimes.

Tree shakes her head with a smile. "No. I always wanted one for company, but I couldn't bring myself to lock another sapient being in that bedroom, you know? It was so... pink. But that's really neat! Form-shifting without de-summoning is unusual!"

---

It was difficult to make the arrangements without telling too many people what was going on, but everything is in place. But, Sunrise, I don't have to tell you to be careful; the guard have been searching for Gwyn for weeks now, and Korogur for years. Don't let anyone see them.

Korogur's also remained uncaught for years; I assume he has some way to remain unseen. But I'll check, and I'll keep a charm spell at the ready just in case. There's a pause, then a rush of warmth. I miss you, by the way.

The answering voice turns softer, more relaxed. I miss you, too. It feels like an eternity. Sail faster, beloved.

She smiles softly, amused. I'll have a word with the wind.

Then, nodding to Tree, she steps away to where Glen and Korogur are chatting. "So," she asks quietly. "Once we're in port, do you have a way to roam about the city? Or should we be working on that?"

Glen ponders the question. "I'd been thinking hooded cloaks and sticking to side streets as much as possible. Not much more to be done - unless there's something you know that we don't, Captain. Secret passageways or a covered wagon."

"Or disguise spells," Sunrise points out. "Tree is a wizard."

"Oh, of course. Not a lot of wizards out in the forest, so I tend to go for the mundane rather than the magical. Tree, Thimb, Sithani." He grins a little. "You telling me that your bag of tricks doesn't include disguise magic?"

"Why would I want to disguise this?" Sithani asks, waving generally at her face. Then she frowns. "Well. I can cast a small illusion, but I don't know if it could be accurately overlaid onto a person and synchronised with their movements." (OOC: she's talking about Minor Illusion, and the rules don't explicitly say you can't do this, but given there are separate disguise spells it feels like munchkining.)

Thimb smiled bashfully, giving Hamish a little chin rub, "I can understand that," she said to Tree, "it was... very pink," she agreed with the utmost seriousness, and perked up at the mention of magic. "Oh! I, er, I can't do the whole make someone look like someone else, but, er, I can make someone invisible for about an hour? I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but the magic book I learned the spell from said an hour, give or take, assuming I don't loose the spell part way through. All I gotta do is touch them, and a few second later," she wiggled her fingers, "poof! Vanished like magic trick! I mean, it is magic, but, you know what I mean. I think. It's, uh, it can be a good 'oh no' as things get messy. I can only do it to one person at a time though," she rambled, "and, I haven't tested it yet, like I said, but, I'm pretty confident in this one!"

Glen nods to Thimb and Sithani, an impressed expression on his face. "Maybe that's the thing to do - just total invisibility? No cover to try and improvise, just total concealment." He turns to Korogur. "What do you think, Captain?"

Korogur can't help but look amused. "I think it sounds nice, if your friend here can cast it on all of us. If we're all going, that's... what? Nine people? Ten?" He turns his blinding grin on Thimb. "How about it, Mistress Wizard? How many times can you cast that spell in a day?"

Sunrise grins. "Point of order: not all of us are wanted criminals or high-profile missing persons. I, for example, don't have to hide at all when walking down the street."

Thimb froze under the power of the dazzling smile, "Er, well, I can cast it twice per day, but, I-I've got to concentrate on it? S-so I can only do it on one person at a time. Like I said, it, uh, might be a good emergency plan?" her voice was creeping higher and higher as she spoke until it ended in a squeak.

Glen chuckles. "Sunrise understood my meaning. Not all of us are infamous pirates or missing persons. Tree's appearance is different enough that she likely won't be recognized, but your face is plastered all over the city. Maybe you'd like to have a try at being invisible?" He grins.

Korogur scoffs, but his grin at Thimb only widens. "Think you can concentrate on me, milady?"

<Oh gods, I think he's trying to flirt with you,> Sithani projects to Thimb. <On the plus side, you can practice flirting back if you want. Either say concentrating on him isn't difficult, or make a joke about how little concentration he merits.>

He was- infamous pirate was flirting with- with her? Not actually though, right? Like, he was flirting in the way some people did with everyone? "I'm sure I can manage," she said, not able to be mean on purpose, but instead trying to play it off as jokingly arrogant. Still, unless someone punched her she was probably fine. Probably.

Korogur's grin only widens. "Anything special I need to know? Stay close to you? Hold your hand? Whisper sweet nothings so you know I haven't run off?"

Sithani tries to hide her smile as she watches this.

Thimb let out a small squeak and tried to will herself to not flush an adorable shade of pink. She failed. "Well, if you do anything, uh, aggressive, like attack someone, the spell will end- and that isn't me saying behave or I'll end it, that's just the nature of the magic- although I would like if no one had to attack anyone today-" oh shit she was stammering again dang it. "You can still talk and move around, but if someone bumps into you they might get suspicious. Keeping close to me- or any of us," she added on hurriedly, "so we can keep track of you just encase things get... messy, isn't actually a bad idea."

Logistics. Focus on those. Those don't wink.

Hamish glanced over at the other boat, where Ka'Ri was, and hoped she was like Thimb's family with the whole many spouses and not like some of the folks in the village. They did not want some guy in a fancy hat to derail what Hamish knew was obviously True Love TM but also wasn't sure if Thimb had any concept of how monogamy even worked. They certainly didn't. They had asked one of the barn cats one time but they just meowed which was not as helpful an answer as they seemed to think.

[Continued in Happy Reunion.]