Day 56 (S37)

Blanke and Neely woke up both hungover and exhausted by nightmares.
Rina and Alice were protected by any magical issues by staying in the Great Pyre.
"We should go see if Neely and Blanke are ok" said Alice.
"Yeah, I feel kinda bad about leaving them," replied Rina, "but to be fair, I had a lot of questions to answer last night. I was also not wanting to be out of this pyre after everything that happened yesterday."
"Make your excuses later, let's go check on them." Alice said.
"Excuses?" snapped Rina, "You could have gone out there any time to get them, or at least check on them. You didn't get baited by your dead husband to almost get killed. I was even questioned for over an hour."
Alice just started walking, but turned around a moment to shrug and smile at Rina.
The two of them made their way back to the hotel. Alice bought them food. Rina got herself and Alice a coffee, but got tea for the others, "It's an herbal tea with Withersalt to help with your hangover."
"Why did you not come back for us?" asked Neely.
"I ended up having to answer a bunch of questions about what happened, I was bleeding, I-"
"And you, Alice?" Neely interrupted.
"It just didn't cross my mind" she said.
Neely rolled her eyes, "You're both horrible."
"I'm trying to be better" Rina said, "I know elves have the reputation of being assholes. I promise I'm trying to be better."
"Isn't that a little racist?" asked Neely, "Like, aren't you being kinda racist against yourself by saying that?"
"I'm and elf so I can say that" she said, "Maybe you're being racist by insinuating that I'm being racist."
Neely just groaned and rubbed her head.
Blanke just continued to mumble to himself all morning, "The rock... but I won... Why rock..."
"What's up Blanke?" asked Rina.
"Last night, there was a rock. I won the competition, but everyone thought the rock won."
"Did you two get into a fight after we went to the pyre or something?" Alice asked.
"No," said Neely, "We got drunk then we came back here."
"But... the rock. I won, not the rock." Blanke mumbled again.
"So when you say it happened last night" started Rina, "did this happen before or after you went to bed."
"After bed... They were all cheering but I won the everbleed bowl."
"So you think you won the whole competition when round 2 isn't even over?" said Neely in a very grumpy tone.
"I know I'm the one who defeated them..." Blanke responded.
"Ok, Blanke" Rina started, "What else happened?"
"I lost all my muscles..." responded Blanke.
"Ok! See, there you go. Look at your arms, you will see all your muscles are there! It was just a dream, Blanke."
"What... no, what if these muscles aren't real?" he asked.
"Dreams are just things that your mind makes up when you sleep. They aren't real." Rina tried to explain.
"No... no it was very real" said Blanke.
"You mean to say that you believe all that nonsense was actually real?" said Neely, "Like, you actually think everyone - even the queen - turned into someone who looked just like you. And that you won a competition that isn't even over?"
Blanke nodded quickly.
"I give up" said Rina, "I try to help, I really do. I just can't mother everyone."
"We should to to the arena and see if we can make any bets or anything" said Alice, who was still thinking about her winning the bet by taking off an arm.
"I'd also like to talk to the Beasts of Tooth and Claw before their match" said Rina.
They all make their way down to the lobby, two of them hung over and the other two holding their coffees.
Then Lloyd comes riding the banister down to the lobby and jumps in the air while throwing gold around, "Haazaah! Isn't it a great morning, friends?!"
Alice pocketed some of the gold.

On the way to the Arena, Blanke continued to talk about the competition, "I still need to fight the Knights of Light," he said to Lloyd, "Do you have 50,000 gold so we can fight them?"
"50,000? That is quite a sum! What is this for, exactly, my friend?"
"Simon will make us fight the people we want if we pay him."
"We will fight them anyway!" said Lloyd, "And we will win!"
Blanke continued to mumble about winning, and about rocks, and about money, but Lloyd was not convinced.

They got to the arena and found Simon there in the lounge.
"Ahh, The Bound," he started, "you do know you cannot be here once the matches start?"
"Why?" Rina said, "I just wanted to root for some friends."
"It would not be fair in the competition to let some people see the other set of matches and not others. Those fighting today didn't see your match yesterday, so you aren't allowed to watch today."
"Ok, well we were just wanting to make some pets with Pip" said Alice.
"And I just wanted to say hi to the Beasts of Tooth and Claw before the match" said Rina.
Simon sighed, "You may talk to pip and you may say hello to the other competitors, but you have to leave once the matches start."
Blanke then butted in to the conversation, "The answer's 'no' Simon..."
"What? What do you mean, 'no'?" Simon asked.
"We can't afford to pay you for-"
Simon interrupted Blanke, "Shhh, ok ok let's not speak loudly about this. There are many other competitors here. This is a private matter."
"Listen," Simon continued quietly to Blanke, "The Church of Luminus is very invested in the Knights of Light making it to the final round. After someone died yesterday and your friend got stabbed - I won't be able to help you with that anyway."

Alice went to Pip, "Any special bets?" she asked.
"You can make normal bets today" he said, "but only those competing today can know of the special bets."
"What about bets for tomorrow?" She said.
"Tomorrow's special bets must be made tomorrow" Pip answered, "Now please go unless you have a normal bet to make."

Rina found three members of the Beasts of Tooth and Claw, and spoke to the bat girl who had spoken to her on the first day.
"Eee - I see a lovely woman approaches?" she said to Rina.
Rina smiled, "I wanted to just wish you good luck today. And give you these."
Rina manifested two Healing Elixirs with 2 of her spell slots. Small vials with crystal-blue, icy-looking liquid inside. "These work as potions," she said, "I know it isn't much, but I know sometimes the smallest thing can turn the tides in battle. They will disappear after 24 hours if not used, so you might as well if you need to."
"Eee - thank you Reeena" she answered.
"I'm sorry, I never did ask your name" Rina said.
"Prettyface Quietwing" she answered.
"I'm happy to know you" said Rina, "and the rest of you. Good luck, I'll be rooting for you!" she smiled and walked back to the party.

"No dice on the bets" started Alice, "what do you want to do next?"
"We should try to find out more about that disintegration spell" said Rina, "I say we go to The web."
They get to the Web early, before it opened to the public.
The ghostly, masked figures approached them, "What can we do for you today?"
"I would like information on how the the Valedictorians got that disintegration spell scroll."
"You are looking to purchase a disintegration spell?" they asked.
"No, I want to know who has purchased one within the last month" said Rina.
"That information is only available to the Admins" they said.
"Who are the admins?" asked Rina.
"Madame Mother Epogra is the main admin" they said, "She is the one who pulls the web."
"Ok thanks," Rina responded, "we need to talk alone" Rina said to Alice.
They stepped out for a moment, and saw the Emperor's Whiskers walking in.
"What should we do?" Rina asked, "I don't want them to get the idea that we are actually looking for that scroll."
"How about we scope out the place, see if we can find more info on our own?" Alice responded.
They go back in and Alice approaches them, "Do you have any animals who I can buy as a familiar? Ones that are being well taken cared for and are here ethically?"
The figure paused a moment, "No."
"So you don't have an animal section?" she asked.
"Yes, we have an animal section. Would you like us to take you there?"
"Yeah, why didn't you do that the first time?" she asked again.
The figure did not answer, just began floating down the stairs.
Alice and Rina followed them, and could see many other figures had now split off and begun working on things for the day. They were all going in and out of a central office freely.
"Alice" Rina whispered, "do you think that's where the Madam is?"
"Probably" Alice whispered back.
They continued down the stairs to a small room full of cages with all different kinds of animals magically put the sleep.
"Oh," said Alice, "I specified 'ethically' - that's why they didn't immediately say they had animals."
Rina openly felt bad for all of the animals, but there was very little we could do.
"I'd like a bat" Alice said, "one that's a big as I am!"
The figure brought over a flying fox, "This one wll be 1600 gold."
"Done!" said Alice, "I'm naming her Luna!"
The party went back upstairs to see one of the figures handing a large case to the Emperor's Whiskers.
Rina used Ghostly Gaze to look inside the case. There were many papers and documents, nothing was close enough to be read.
"This looks like an information dump," said Rina, "there's tons of journals in there. I'm betting there's a bunch of information - maybe on other competitors?"
They watched a little longer as the Emperor's Whiskers left the building.
"I might be able to disguise myself as one of those figures" said Rina, "I wonder if I could make it into the office and get admin information."
"You could" said Alice, "but we don't know what could happen if you go in there. And you'll be alone."
"Yeah, I tried that yesterday and I'd rather not" said Rina.
"Why don't we wait, the Web has been here a while - it's not like it'll be going anywhere any time soon."

They opted to leave after getting Luna, who was about as big as Alice, and clung to her back the whole time.
"I'd like to explore the city for a while," Rina said, "and I'd especially like to see Mt. Luminus."
"Why do you want to see the mountain?" Blanke asked.
"Well..." Rina started as she looked at Alice, "Alice, do you think we should tell him everything?"
"Yeah, but one sec" Alice then went back into the web, and came back out with 2 scrolls of lesser restoration - she used them on Blanke and Neely.
"Here you go, guys. This should make that hangover go away" Alice then healed them both.
"Gods" said Neely, "Thank you so much, that's so much better."
"I feel fine now!" said Blanke.
They walked around the city, getting more tea and coffee along the way. Rina looked quickly at some books in the library and found one that filled in the blanks of the history of Mt. Ivatim.
"Ok Blanke," Rina started, "It's about time we filled you in on some stuff going on with us. Same with you, Neely - since you plan to join us." Rina continued:
"1000 Years ago there was a temple on Mt. Ivatim in Pennislovica, this was possibly even before the Dhampir actually established the country. The temple had a basement where hundreds of people of the Eyeless Cult had committed suicide. It also had a room with murals depicting all of the gods."
Blanke looked confused.
"Remember Phesoi? Phesoi's Realm? With the little trials where you got your Catapulting sword?" Rina reminded him.
"Oh! Yeah they were nice." Blanke answered.
"Yes, they are a god," Rina then continued the story: "They were on one of the murals we saw. Along with three Dragons, a Giant eye, therius - who is the last of the original vampires, and two other women: Oara and a women in a River of Glass. Some people did escape the suicide, or were unaccounted for at the very least - the number of robes did not match the number of people there. 100 Years ago someone summoned a Shepherd from the Niktalia Eternal plane and fought it. They lead it down to the basement of the temple, and stuck the End Medallion in its skin to stop it from attacking."
"And technically that medallion is mine" said Alice, "But Rina holds onto it so bad stuff doesn't happen when I go unconscious."
"Bad things happen when you sleep, too?" said Blanke.
"Blanke you cannot seriously think that actually happened?" Neely said again.
"Anyway!" Rina interrupted, "Please listen, this is the most important thing we will talk about today. When we defeated the Shepherd it disappeared back to Niktalia, and a woman named Gabrielle showed up in its place. We tried to get her to safety, but one of the Fingers of Luminus kidnapped her."
"Why didn't you guys save her?" Blanke asked.
Rina looked at Alice with an annoyed face, "We tried." Rina said, "But there was another woman we had to save, too."
"You should have stuck to Kin's plan!" Alice said
"She was literally being executed in front of us!" said Rina, "And she's my son's friend. I couldn't just let that happen."
There was a bit of an awkward silence until Rina spoke again:
"Then 100 years ago, after this incident, all of the people on the top of Mt. Ivatim, in the town of Ivatum, disappeared without a trace. One of the Cardinals of Luminus then set off a Withersalt bomb at the top - killing all wildlife for decades.
We've recently learned that there is another medallion called the Beginning Medallion, too, and we need to find it for Alice."
"There's a lot more to this" said Alice in anticipation, "but we've gotten to the edge of the city, Rina!"
They finally reached the eastern edge of the city. In the distance they saw it - Mt. Luminus - towering over everything around it, dwarfing Mt. Ivatim on size. The snow-covered top reflected the sun from every angle, always shining more light onto the city of Everhelm.
"And I gotta jump off that..." Rina said to herself.
"Why would you jump off a mountain?" asked Blanke
"Well, I'm told there's someone at the bottom I need to find."
"Then why not just go to the bottom?" said Blanke.
Rina smiled, "If only I knew myself."
One of the smaller peaks next to the main mountain had been cut flat and seemed to have an alter on it.
"What's that flat spot for?" Alice asked.
"Oh, I know all about that" said Blanke, "There used to be a town on the mountain called Lightwalk. They were all basically a cult, they would execute people on that plateau."
"Oh... great..." said Rina, "So I'm supposed to be an execution?"
"I dunno" continued Blanke, "but I know they decided it wasn't worth taking prisoners all the way up there for that so they don't use it for that anymore."
"Instead they just stab people in the middle of the street!" Rina complained, "I'm done looking at this. I want to see the results of today's matches."

They made their way to the arena and waited for the matches to be over. Finally the doors opened and the victors walked out.
First up were the Tall Tails - they had beaten The Mounds.
Rina waived to them, "Congrats, Estella!"
"Thank you, Rina." Estella Parstelo responded "We should talk later, yes? First drink's on me at Tower 4."
Rina nodded in response as they left.
The next out were the Salt Slayers, who had beaten the Sprite Lights - who had essentially thrown the match by just advertising themselves as a new coven and not fighting as much.
"Nice job, Salt Lickers" Rina said to Alejandro.
"Oh, thank you Rina. It was a sinch!" he responded.
"By the way, do you know the Tall Tails at all?" Rina asked.
"What, you think because we're all Tieflings that we must know each other?" Alejandro teased.
"No, of course not" Rina said, "I just figured since you've had more of an opportunity to get to know them that -"
Alejandro cut her off, "I am just joking with you, Rina! Actually, one of them is my cousin - Egnasio! I know them well, they are good people."
"Ok, good." she answered "They asked me to talk to them later and I just didn't want to be too... surprised."
Next out were the Knights of Light who had beaten the Emperor's Whiskers. They were all acting like frat boys.
Finally, the Beasts of Tooth and Claw came out victorious over the Eyeless Kindness, who were also mostly just advertising the Eyeless Cult.
Rina ran up and hugged Prettyface Quietwing, "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you! ...and for me..."
"Eee - wow, I was not expecting this." Prettyface responded.
"Oh," Rina said as she let go, "I'm sorry, I know not everyone's comfortable with hugs. I should have asked."
"Eee - no, it's ok, just let me - " the Prettyface unfolded her wings and wrapped Rina up in them like a burrito. Their faces were inches apart.
"You really don't have to" Rina said
"Oh no, it's fine, it's cultural" Prettyface responded.
"This is actually kind of warm" said Rina as the smiled and thought of Drake for a moment.
The hug lasted way too long before Rina said, "You can let go now."
"Oh! Eeee- so sorry" Prettyface said as she let go.
Then another member of the Beasts of Tooth and Claw approached Rina, a tall, tiger-like man, "You're Rina! I must say, your son is an amazing person to work with." he said with a purr in his voice.
She smiled, "Good, I'm so glad. It's always rewarding for a parent to hear good things about their kid like that."
"He's a really great guy" he said, "I'm Tony, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Tony,," started Rina "and Thanks for telling me all about Darrian. I haven't seen him in so many years. I look forward to seeing him now that you've won round 2!"
"It is hard for him to make it to these things given his station" said Tony, "Being an ambassador keeps him busy."
Rina smiled again, "He's really accomplished a lot, huh? I wish I'd heard it from him instead of strangers..."
Tony smiled at her, "He's one of the best men I know."
"Well he better be," she said, "I raised him."
He and the group laughed.
"Congrats, again, you all. I'll see you all tomorrow! Rina said as she headed back to her group."
Spiralhorn Handcrunch elbowed Prettyface Quietwing and smiled, "We did it!" she said.

The party decided to head back to Tower 4 and meet with the Tall Tails.
Egnasio approached them right away, "Ahh, The Bound! It is a pleasure to meet you all. Especially you, small beauty" he said looking at Alice.
"Oh boy, here we go again" Alice said, looking a little annoyed.
"Oh boy! Here we go again" Rina said with excitement as she winked at Alice. "Just go for it, girl, I keep telling you." Rina slipped her one of the condoms she'd gotten at Castle Frey that had been in the bag of Colding, "One of us aught to be using them,"
Alice rolled her eyes but continued talking to Egnasio.
Blanke ordered anothe cheesecake from Mari, who was also hungover.
"I'd be happy to!" she said, "But a little tip goes a long way!" Rina and Alice each gave her some gold. Mari held out her had to Blanke, who just took the gold, "Thanks!" he said.
Mari just blinked and walked away angry. She was later seen staring at Blanke while sharpening her dagger and mumbling, "If he does one more thing... ONE more thing... I'm going to lose it."
This time the cheesecake was so dense that one bite completely filled Rina up, and it wasn't in a pleasant way, "Oof" she said, "How can you eat so much of this? I think I'm fine without cheesecake in my life."
Rina then went to talk to the Tall Tails.
"Ahh, Rina, nice to see you" Estella said.
"And you" said Rina, "I'll have a whiskey neat, then maybe we talk?"
"Ahh, yes. We should definitely talk" Estella said as she ordered two of the drinks.
"We think you have information that will be useful to us" said Estella.
Rina looked around, "Is this the time or place to talk about this?"
"Oh yes, this is the perfect time and place." Estella answered.
Rina made sure no one was listening, "How do I know you actually know anything valuable to me? I don't want to just spill for something that I get nothing out of."
"That is a good point" Estella started, "In that case, I will talk first. We are supposedly descended from Devils, so we have an innate connection to their world. I will tell you this: the term 'devil' is very new. Before maybe 800 years ago, those who are considered devils now were just powerful people in the underworld."
Rina stopped and thought about everything Agronoch had said to her, everything she'd learned.
"You misunderstand the ranks" said Therius all those weeks ago.
"Technically," Estella said, "there is no such thing as a devil. No certain entity is just good or evil. That's just a stigmatizing word people recently started to use."
Rina paused for a moment, "That is actually very useful information to me" she said. "So what do you want to know from me?"
"We would like to know the name of your Patron." she said.
"What good does that do you?" asked Rina.
"It's possible that we might know them. If not, we want to." Estella answered.
"Well... he did complain that I didn't talk about him enough when we fist met"
Rina said, "His name is Agronoch, but introduced himself as Enoch - it's a nickname or something."
"Agronoch? Ok, and how did you come to be his Warlock?" Estella asked.
"He chose me" Rina answered.
"Interesting," pondered Estella, "Anything else?"
"He's a Prince of Hell" Rina answered, "and he's Lord of the Beast Plains."
"The beast plains?" Estella said, surprised. "We are very interested in the beast plains."
"So am I" Rina said, "I've tried to ask him more about them, but it's hard to get an answer out of him sometimes."
"Only sometimes?" Estella said, "We are also very interested to know that you're in direct contact with him. We will be sure to inform the proper authorities."
"Authorities? What do you mean?" Rina asked nervously.
"Authorities being a good thing!" Estella reassured her, "The people of my country, Cofamoso, are very happy about your connection. We would love to have you there someday.
"I do intend to go to Cofamoso" Rina said.
"Good" Estella started, "Us Tieflings used to be scattered all around this area, but have mostly been confined to the desert, now. Should you ever go there, you will be greeted with a kingly welcome."

It began to get late and Egnasio asked Alice to escort him to his room. She does, and they play a game of cards. Alice says she needs to go back to her own room, so she does.
"I cannot BELIEVE you came back here tonight" said Rina when Alice walked in, "why don't you even give those guys a chance?"
"Just make your Tiny Hut and let me sleep" Alice replied.
Rina made up her Tiny Hut, which looked like an igloo with Enoch's magic, and everyone piled in.
"Except you" she said the Blanke, "You snore."
"Okay!" Blanke said as his head stuck out the doorway.

Rina sat in the corner writing all this in her journal. The looked out at this tiny little chosen family: wrestler Blanke, young Neely, cursed Alice.
She thought about her blood family, her son, Darrian, who should be arriving tomorrow. Will she recognize him? Will he care to see her?