Day 65 (S45)

The final day of their confinement, Rina heard a voice in her head as a Sending:
"Hello! Rina! It is Francis in Castle Frey. Long time no talk! I heard you all won the Everbleed Bowl! Congrats on your victory, I-" The voice then cut off.
She responded: "Francis, use smaller sentences."
Another Sending reached her: "It seems I talked too long! It is a good thing we have clerics here with all these spells, otherwise I would never be able-" it ended again.
She, again responded, "Make it short and to the point, Francis."
Another sending: "It seems I did it again! I am sure this is expensive, I am so sorry. Oh, they're looking at me all angry now-"
Rina didn't respond this time.
A few moments past, then Rina heard Francis once again: "Need... you... here. Therius... worried. Three Fangs... worried. Not sure... I am speaking... short enough. Come back as soon as possible. Okay I think I-" it then ended.
Rina responded: "We will be there as soon as we are able."
She told the group that the Three Fangs wanted them back in Pennislovica as soon as possible.
"I need to talk to Drake about this bag of Holding he gave me for winning the Bloodletter contest... Last time I used it, my arm came out all slimy and cut up."
"Yeah, I think we should both talk to Drake first thing," said Rina with a smile.
Alice rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Blanke," Rina started, "What are you planning to do after this?"
"No plans," he said.
"Then why don't you come travel with us? We could use someone with muscle."
"I have muscles!"
"More muscles than a rock?" Alice said with a devilish grin.
Blanke's eyes got wide for a moment.
"We could really use someone like you on our travels," Rina said again, "Want to come stay with us for a while? We have a house in Castle Frey - how do you feel about Dhampir?"
"I hear they eat people," Blanke responded blankly.
"Well... it's not that simple, but why don't you come with us?"
"Okay!" Blanke said excitedly.

Lloyd finally came to Tower 5, "Hello good friends! I have won the 2nd tournament!" He presented a trophy, "I won the Singles!"
"I'm sure you did, Lloyd," Rina said sarcastically.
"We are going to leave to Pennislovica once they let us out today," said Alice, "I'm assuming you won't want to be coming with us."
Lloyd responded, "HaaZaah! I will not be visiting the vampires this day!"
A well dressed royal guard came to the door of the suite and opened it without knocking. "You are free to go. You are to return in 3 days time for the Everbleed Ball where you will present your Wish." He then walked away without another word.
"Good, let's get out of this city," Rina sad, grabbing her already-packed bag.
They all walked to a tree park at the edge of Everhelm, where they found a large larch tree in the 9th row.
"This will make a perfect traveling tree!" Alice said.
"Can we please just use the bottom of the trunk this time?" asked Neely, "Last time I fell and hurt my ankle."
"Nope! This is how I do it!" Alice said as she climbed up a few branches.
"I'm far stepping this time," said Rina, using the spell to soften her landing on the other side.
"What... are we... doing?" Blanke asked.
"We are using the tree to teleport to another tree," Rina told him.

Just before they entered the tree, Lloyd got Blanke's attention. "Blanke, my dear friend! I must part with you this day! I must thank you for being the most..." a tear formed in Lloyd's eye, "the most amazing friend this champion could ask for!" Lloyd then handed Blanke a ring, inscribed inside were the words "Lloyd's Boi."
"Tis a Ring of Protection! May your enemies never hit you, Blanke old friend!"
Lloyd and Blanke hugged, then Lloyd pranced his way toward the harbor where a ship would take him back to Greenwarf where his father waited to take him home.

"Let's get back to our home now!" Rina said enthusiastically.
Alice cast the Treestride spell, and the four of them teleported to their tree on the edge of Castle Frey.
Rina looked over the giant, stone city which faded from white to grey to black from the center outward - her chosen home. She breathed in the Pennislovican air, "Ahh... Finally back home! Come on, Blanke! You need to meet everyone here, you need to see our house!"
Blanke, mimicking Rina, took a deep breath in and... immediately sneezed. Then sneezed again, and again.
"Blanke, you okay?" Neely asked.
"I don't know! Something here is making me sneeze!"
"Hope you like mushrooms!" Rina said as she frolicked toward the city.
"I'm... Allergic to mushroo- ACHOO!"
"Oh no," Neely said, "Blanke, looks like you are going to have a rough time here. Everything has mushrooms, everywhere... there's mushrooms even along the walls."
"That... that city is where we're going?" Blanke asked, "But... it has no sun. No trees. No color."
"Isn't it amazing!" shouted Rina, "It's like a thousand years old! Most countries come and go, but this has been around for more than 3 times my current lifespan!"
Blanke sneezed again, and they all followed Rina into the city.
Royal guards were waiting for The Bound at the entrance of the city. The guards bowed to them, "Greetings, The Bound. Lord Francis should like an audience with you this evening. He will send guards to fetch you at your home in a few hours. I will announce your arrival to him."
They thanked the men and entered the city.

"Let's go take care of your business with Drake before we go home," Rina said.
"You mean to the ShapeSmithing school," Alice corrected, "We don't even know if Drake will be there."
"Who is Dake?" Blanke asked.
"He's one of the Three Fangs," Rina responded, "He used to be one of the three vampire kings of Pennislovica until he and Godfrey stepped down about 70 years ago."
"Vampires are real?" Blanke asked in disbelief.
"Very," Rina said with a smile.
"Blanke," Neely started, "Why don't we go to the apothecary while they go to the ShapeSmith... we need to get you medicine for your allergies or you aren't going to have a good time here."
"I'm already not having a good time here..."

Rina and Alice got to the ShapeSmithing school and Drake was, in fact, not there.
"What do you mean he's not here?!" Alice asked the teaching assistant.
"I'd like to know that, too," said Rina.
"Uh, well, he and the Frey brothers have been doing a lot of kingly business over the last week or so," the TA responded, "He's put all teaching and managing the shop in my hands until further notice."
"You all need to replace something that was supposed to be the prize for the Bloodletter contest," Alice said as she pulled out her mysterious bag, "This was supposed to be a bag of holding, but it bit me."
The Teacher's assistant grabbed the bag and looked it over, "Drake told you this was a bag of holding? It's incredibly unlike him to get anything like this wrong."
"That's what I thought, too," said Rina, "I know he has a great attention to detail. I found it odd that he gave us something so... bad."
"This is what I made for my graduate project," said the TA, "This is actually a bag of devouring, not a bag of holding."
Alice rolled her eyes, "Why wouldn't he just say that's what it was?!"
"It is meant to be more as a trap, not really something you use as a bag. But I can make it a regular bag for you, if you'd like."
"No... I'll keep it. But I want to buy a real bag of Holding!"
"We only have one, Drake made it himself - it is $5000 gold."
"I'll take it!" Alice said, pulling out the money.
"Great, glad you are happy. Is there any message or note you want me to pass on to Drake? Or is this all you needed?"

"I want to leave a note!" Alice said angrily. "I want it to say, 'How dare you not give me a real prize...'"
Rina interrupted, "Yeah, tell him I said that, too," she said with a smirk.
Alice continued, "...'I'm going to find you -'"
Rina interrupted again, "Yeah, tell him I said that, too," with a bigger smile on her face.
"...'and when I do, you're going to get it!'"
Rina giggled, "Yeah... tell him I said that, too."
"...'I deserve more from you for everything I've done!'" Alice finished.
Rina's face was beat red, "Yeah... tell him I said that, too."
"So... You both want me to tell Drake the exact same things? I thought only Alice won the prize."
"Depends on what you consider a prize," Rina said coyly.
"...Okay, I will write that this note is from both of you."
"Tell him that Alice's threats are Rina's promises," Rina said and turned to leave.

While Alice and Rina were in the ShapeSmith shop, Neely and Blanke went to the apothecary.
"Isn't there anything you can do to help with allergies?" Neely asked the woman behind the counter.
Blanke sneezed, "I can't be around mush... mu... ACHOO!"
"He's allergic to mushrooms."
"We can have something made up for him, yes! It will take a few hours to get it ready. Come back for it later this evening."
They left and met up with Alice and Rina as they headed toward the manor.

The party all made it to their home, the dangling manor, high above the streets of Castle Frey.
"Aww! Look!" Alice sayd as they approached their front door, "They've hung little planters all over the front of the house, it looks like we have a yard!"
"You mean, this is your house?" Blanke said in amazement.
"Yeah, it technically belongs to me and Alice," Rina responded, "Actually, there's other names on the deed, too, but... we don't need to get into that. You can sleep in Aurelius' old room."
Blanke continued to sneeze, "Who is that?"
"He's one of our party members who died..." Rina responded quietly.
Daria had made sandwitches and handed them out, and Tomas was dusting areas of the house.

Shortly after their lunch, there was a knock at the door. Five royal guards were there to escort them to the center castle. They followed, and when they arrived a the long dining hall, Francis was already seated in his typical seat next to the throne. Rina sat right next to him, Alice crawled under the table and used fog cloud, Blanke jumped into it and did a back flip onto the table. Neely just tried to sweep away the fog with her hands, and trips over the leg of a chair. Alice popped up from under the table with her two bats on her shoulders.
When they all finally stopped, Francis was looking at them - mouth agape.
After a moment, he spoke, "Oh man, I missed you guys! Everything is so much more fun when you are here!"
Everyone got seated at the table, Francis commented on Alice's bats.
"You have two very nice friends there!" he then turned into his small bat form and flew over to the other bats. They began speaking with one another. Then Francis went back to his Druse form, "They seem to like you! The boy is a little shy with you still, but you're a good owner."
Alice smiled and hugged her bat friends.

"And this is the new guy?" Francis gestured to Blanke.
"Yes, he fought with us in the Everbleed Bowl and we decided to bring him here with us," said Rina.
"Have you ever met royalty before, Blanke?" Francis asked him.
"We met uh... The Queen of Asmery. I made a bet with her - I won."
"Ahh, the queen, yes. We don't have those here in Pennislovica."
Rina thought about that for just a moment - realizing that Drake was, in fact, technically a King. "...yet," she thought to herself.
"Nice mesh top!" Francis continued to talk to Blanke, "I wear these with my husband, Sullivan Frey - they're basically his favorite on me."
Rina buried her head in her hand, "I did not need to know that about my king... I did not need to know that about my king."
Blanke pulled out one of his cheaper mesh tops and hands it to Francis, "Here! Try these next time, they're my favorite."
Francis took it, smiled, and nodded, "I'll do that, Blanke, thank you!"
"I did not need to know that about my king..." Rina mumbled again.

"Well!" Francis started, "It is time we talk business. We needed you to come back here because the clerics of Therius have been quite worried since last week."
"What was last week?" asked Neely.
"Everyone in the entire kingdom seemed to feel a small prick in their minds. Everyone got hurt just a little all at the exact same time."
"I remember that," said Rina, "I could see some of Alice's memories for just a second."
"You could see them? How?"
"I imagine it's because we did the blending together."
Francis nodded, "So, you all experienced this, as well?"
They all nodded, except Blanke. "I didn't feel anything."
"You did not feel a small spike in your mind almost exactly a week ago?"
Blanke shook his head.
"It was right at the end of the fight," Rina tried to remind him.
He shrugged.
"Well, either way," Francis continued, "We need you to get us to Therius' underwater library tomorrow morning. The Three Fangs and some of the soldiers will be going, as well as some of the clerics. They are... concerned about some of the developments since the mind spikes."

"I'm surprised none of them were here to talk about it," Rina said.
"Ah, yes, they are dealing with some business with The Kingdom of Bolgroth," Francis responded, "They are trying to get us to send them soldiers. We are resisting it, but it has been difficult."
Rina looked surprised, "The reason I wanted you to trade with Bolgroth was to keep them from harming Basta'Thrope'... If they want soldiers to continue to harass Darrian and his people, then please say 'no'."
"It does not seem they are speaking of Basta'Thrope'," Francis replied, "they seem to have some other enemy they are aiming for, and they don't feel they are strong enough."
Rina looked pensive, and did not respond.
"We will take you all to Therius tomorrow," Alice said, "Meet us at the tree on the outskirts of town that we usually use."
"Yes, we will do so. Thank you, The Bound. You may be dismissed."

"How do you like Francis, Blanke?" Rina asked him on their way home.
"He liked my shirt," Blanke said, "You like my shirt, I like you."
Rina nodded and smiled, happy that's all it took to make Blanke happy.
"Blanke, let's get your medicine on our way home," Neely reminded him. They stop at the apothecary, and everyone does some of their basic shopping to restock spell components and goods.
They arrived home after dark, all of them tired from the day.
Blanke slept in his water bed underneath the roots of a tree in Aurelius' old room.
Neely still slept in the smaller, spare bedroom on the main floor, unfortunately just under the stairs. Anyone going to the lavatory woke her up as they creaked.
Rina even attempted to be quieter by using a Dimension Door, but it had its own sounds as a spell that were just as loud.
"Rina... just use the stairs," Neely said, "The sound of magic is scarier to me right now than just the sound of footsteps."
"But... I don't want to have to walk up all the stairs. My room is the basement, remember?"
"But you're wasting so many spell slots!"
"And I get them back on a short rest!"
Neely sighed, Rina Dimension Doored back to her room in the basement, and everyone got a long rest.