Gray Halls (Part 2)

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The woman looks at Jinks, a soft expression as she sets her knitting aside and shifts the warm blankets on her lap. "A game of golem sounds lovely. Though I have not played in some time." She says this as he shuffles and then turns her kindly gaze on Aryia. "Asking if I am Vardama is horribly rude child. Imagine me asking your finger if it is you! And I said that _you_ do not have all day."

This mild correction given seems to amuse the woman again. You can feel her amusement like a palpable thing. A wave of good humor. It makes you want to smile in the face of her warm hearth. "It is good that you do not wish to impose on too much of my time. After all, mortals do not last long in the Gray Halls. Best get to the game children."

GAME: Seyardu rolls fortitude+3: (2)+12+3: 17
GAME: Jinks rolls Fortitude: (5)+5: 10
GAME: Aryia rolls fortitude: (16)+14: 30

Aryia, with her teenage-like youth, flushes easily at the kind chastising from the woman, her sitting on her hands and looking to her lap. "Ssshhorrrrhh..." "Sorry." she apologizes, both barely spoken and running a closed fist in a circle on her sternum. At least this small fragment of a deity was at least welcoming. She lightly smiles. <Handspeech>

Then it hits her. The realness of this entire situation. They're here, it's happening. With all its oddities included. Mortals don't last long here, said the Harper herself. And she felt very, very small in front of the finger of Vardama.

The younger Aryia nods slowly, rubs at her throat, and glances to the two she trusted to come with her on this. Their fatigue. Best get to the game. "Sssshhuuh..." "So what do we do." <Handspeech>

The warmth of the fire was comfortable. Jinks covers his mouth with one hand as he yawns, managing a one-handed shuffle with the other. His eyes squint shut for just a moment but he gives a little shake of his head, returning from the one-handed shuffle to a dynamo. Then a flare, collapse, and cut.

"Sat at a table for two days without moving, playing a hag for her eye," boasts the bard. He grins and quirks an eyebrow. "If you're worried about odds we can give the Harpist the golem and you the amulet, tallman," the gnome offers, cutting the deck with one hand and producing his coyote's-head broach with the other to serve as 'the amulet.' "Gives you house odds and a seat at the table. Not bad playing opposite three mere mortals..."

"I do not know what that is. Are we playing with golems? That does not sound like a good idea. Fairly dangerous, at that." The small cleric half yawns as she looks at the seated figure. "But Jinks seems to know what is going on, he offered after all. Is it hard to learn these games? You'll have to explain it before hand, or as we go."

"Yes, explain the game for your friends. It would be rude to play them without them knowing the game." The elderly woman seems eager for the game, but obviously not eager enough to deny you the right of knowing what it is that you're playing. She will wait patiently for you all to understand what you're getting yourselves into.

Aryia didn't know this game at all, her looking to Jinks with a raised yet concerned brow. "I've never played this..." she motions, her throat bobbing for a thousand words yet died on the lack of knowledge how to use them. Was this the Trial? <Handspeech>

GAME: Aryia rolls 1d100: (22): 22
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d100: (100): 100
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d100: (19): 19
GAME: Seyardu rolls 1d100: (44): 44

"There are 52-cards in the deck split evenly between four suits of 13, each. Flesh, clay, stone, and iron." Jinks holds up the deck and flicks his wrist, letting the cards fan out into three-quarters of a circles for display. He collapses it back down and does another quick shuffle, tossing small stacks from one hand to the other, cutting, and then tossing them back the other way. "You'll have five cards and the goal is to obtain a set of specific cards. Two of the same number, or three, a series in numerical order, all five of the same suit, a set of three and a set of two, four of the same number, numerical order of the same suit, and the highest five cards (nine-through-thirteen) of the same suit."

"Starting with the player with the amulet we each take a turn..." and so on he explains.

They say all gnomes have a passion; a thing that defines and drives them. Something that might be taken to a point of obsession. Considering how often the bard is in trouble for his other nocturnal antics it might come as a surprise the gambling is Jinks'. The yellow-gold flecks in his eyes seem almost to glow as they settle in for the game and he explains. THIS is what he does when he's not out rutting or killing for money and it's a thing he enjoys very much.

"We can start slow... set the ante to one gold crown. Until you've the hang of it." His grin is wolfish.

Aryia gulps slightly, drawing a few cards after the game is explained. She didn't feel really good about this hand, so she bites her lip. A bet, a small one..?

The once-mute bets... what does one bet? Her hand was shaking some. Uh, one crown? Or... okay? Money?

The mute lightly whines, putting in three gold coins in.

Would they have to bet something much more severe later?

"Okay, so we are playing with cards? Not golems? That's good, I don't know if I'm in the right shape to be playing with golems." Seyardu chuckles. "Okay! It seems simple enough with those rules, I'll just need help having the symbols pointed out. When I can show the symbols, I'm not used to them."

The cleric reaches into her bag, and looks around for a moment, pulling out a coin and holding it up to the light.

The elderly woman gets her cards and stares at them without expression. Yet her eyes fall on Jinks and she folds the cards up and hands them back over. "I fold. No bet from me this round." In spite of her words she doesn't seem displeased, instead she seems amused by her fortunes. "Gold suffices, but what we are really playing for is for the womans soul is it not? Come, play. We will see if you can earn it."

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d100: (100): 100
GAME: Aryia rolls fortitude: (11)+14: 25
GAME: Jinks rolls Fort: (6)+5: 11
GAME: Jinks rolls Fort: (10)+5: 15
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d100: (77): 77
GAME: Aryia rolls 1d100: (98): 98
GAME: Seyardu rolls fortitude +3: (6)+12+3: 21
GAME: Seyardu rolls 1d100: (4): 4
GAME: Jinks casts Purging Finale. Caster Level: 10 DC: 20

Jinks pinches the bridge of his nose, struggling to stay awake in the comfortable chair next to the warm fire. He bites his cheek and digs his nails into his palm but the gambler is still having trouble focusing on his cards. There's a crack when he smacks his own face and shifts, sitting forward. He braces his hand of cards, collapsed, laced between the fingers of his right hand alternating over and under.

Jinks clears his throat and sings, finding his energy as he crawls through the verse to jump out the other side.

"The thought soon becomes the word The word then becomes deed If the deed is evil ... evil... Blame the thought that is the seed. Change the spark that makes the need.

The gnome's grin returns as the verse completes and he returns to his hand. "I'll wager the Hymn, then. My voice in praise; daily devotions for the Harpist for a decade." A cocky glance across the table, reinvigorated under his fast-fading blanket of song.

GAME: Seyardu rolls sense motive: (16)+13: 29

Aryia shudders a sigh as the gold is placed and the old woman folds. Was this...

She glances to the elderly woman. There it is. This is what they were here for. This was the Trial.

She flicks through her mind as she draws her next cards, trying to find some memory worth a bet. Worth risking. Worth losing. She knew Aya wouldn't want her to hobble herself just to make up for the shadowy monk's mistakes.

She looks at her hand. Young Aryia blinks, glances to the bard, and shudders a sigh. "... nnnggg..."

A breath. Some motions. "I bet... my memories of Aya training me, and me training her. All those hours, days, months of guidance. If, no, when she gets back, I want her to teach me again if this doesn't work."

Understanding that this would effectively remove how her sister works and how she fights from her head, she quietly sets her cards face down. Trembling in her seat. <Handspeech>

Seyardu does seem to be catching on to the way it works, somewhat. But she looks to Jinks, and blinks. "You have to be serious about risking that, Jinks. With how we are dealing now, I expect her to accept that."

Then she turns to Aryia, and blinks. "That too. But I will make one thing clear. I will not wager any souls. This is what lead to this situation. I would not cause undue harm on those in the process. But, If you are all prepared, I will not stop you both."

Seyardu spends a long time looking at her cards. Was that a stone, or was it clay? Why were they all materials that were hard to distinguish without color? The cleric sighs, and sets down her own cards.

The woman nods to Seyardu. "Indeed. I will accept both those wagers, and wager the woman's soul in return." She looks over her cards and lays them out in revelation. It's the best hand that she could have hoped for. A winning hand. "You've impressed me children. Which does not happen very often. Offering your devotion and your memories, bits of yourselves for this woman."

An image of Aya suddenly explodes into existance over your card game. A ghostly illuison perhaps. A shade. "I know the path you seek, and know it to be a hard one. So I will not place further chains upon you. But know this."

The image collapses into a tiny fragment of blue crystal that the woman holds out to Aryia. "The Gray Halls will extract their price upon you. For your bodies are not meant to be here. You will find yourselves changed in the world that you know. Perhaps greatly changed."

Aryia bits her lip, trembling in her seat, shaking, feeling the tug of this place weigh on her.

And then Aya's image erupts out of the aether, her eyes wide. Carefully, she reaches out, fingers shaking as she takes hold of the blue crystal. She moves it to her chest, hugging it, listening with wide eyes to Vardama. Her face felt wet.

"Hoo... ho.. hokhhaay..." her warbled, unused voice says.

Could she live with this price? Was it worth it?

Moon-less eyes glance down to the blue crystal in her hand.

Yes. Yes it was. New memories could be made.

She looks back to the finger of Vardama. She strains. "Thh.... thaaanksss fhohor... lisssssteteninnn..."

"I imagine the second time is less-surprising." Jinks grins through the choppy seas making their home in his guts. "Or (I suppose) 'hope' is a better word." He busies himself collecting the cards from the table and taps them into order before re-tying his ribbon and putting the whole thing in a pocket. Up comes his broach, next, and he pins it onto his coat.

"You've a lovely home, Harpist's Finger, but I do hope it's some time before I come to visit again." The gnome grins and gives a wink, tugging a pocket square from his breast pocket and offering it to Aryia as he passes. He pauses at the door, turning to look back for his companions as he adds "... and I do hope things are going well with the Coming Dawn. For the whole of you, I mean, and not just your plucking finger."

"I, I think I did that right. I don't think my hand had anything that was even close to be winning for a bet." Seyardu notes, but then, she looks to the others. "That was, I feel as if I should have though. But, I will need to help the others, yes."

"I can not hold this against you, yes. It is not your fault Aya ended up here, and allowing you to let us bring her back is a boon beyond words."

Seyardu looks to the others, and pulls out a tuning fork from within her satchel. "The less we linger, the better, so we should go. Thank you for giving them back to us."

GAME: Aryia rolls 1d100: (85): 85
GAME: Seyardu rolls 1d100: (12): 12
GAME: Aryia rolls 1d10: (9): 9 
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d100: (90): 90
GAME: Jinks rolls 3d10: (13): 13
GAME: Seyardu rolls 3d10: (20): 20

The guides are there, and they lead you back to the world of the living, but all of you - as you were warned, are changed. Different than you remember yourselves being. The cost of travel through the Gray Halls it seems, but you have Aya's soul. Which is what you went for.

Idling at the door until the others pass, Jinks smiles and nods one last time before stepping through the threshold and... back into Alexandros. The color has washed back out of his face and the laugh lines at the corners of his solid-black eyes are a little more defined. He seems relatively unchanged, thankfully, as a decade-and-change isn't too much for a people that commonly live three-and-a-half centuries.

Still, after seeing an image of the gnome before his first death one can't help but compare it with the spectre under shock-white hair. His smile, too, turns a bit sad when he sees Aryia and Seyardu back in the prime material-- but he bolsters his expression with a re-doubled, wide and idiot grin.

"Coyote laughs!" He cheers, sucking in the cold, crisp, and fresh air of the wilderness and finding Neighsayers still tethered. "We deliver her for safe-keeping and then celebrate, yes? I feel like buying drinks until all of Alexandria is drunk."

Aryia is led out, clutching that blue crystal the entire way, checking on it, double checking, triple and quadruple after taking the gnome's handkerchief and dabbing her eyes

Back into the cold as the cabin fades away, the desert of the dead. Frost-snapped grass underneath her boots.

Her throat felt empty once more. As did a spot in her memories that she immediately tried to recall. This was the price she paid. But if all goes well once more, that spot would be filled with new moments.

The mute didn't have too much of an affect from her time in the Grey Halls. Perhaps her face was a touch less gaunt. What skin that wasn't carved from scars a hint more luster.

She looks down at the blue crystal once more, transfixed by it before her fingers curl around the essence of her sister's entire being.

She tries to speak. "N-..*cough cough cough*." Flecks of blood dot her lips. Right, she didn't have that anymore.

She looks to the two. "...Yes. We can... find some way to keep her safe. I-I don't know what though. Maybe I hold onto her? But... whatever, we can think of that later. Thank... thank you both. Thank you so much..." she trembles in sign before stumbling forward to try and hug the two. <Handspeech>

Seyardu left quickly out the doors of the grey halls when it seemed her magic was not necessary. She was not confident if she could translate the movements properly to begin with. Upon getting out of the room, the silver cleric stops to rub her neck. "We are, out, and we have Aya's soul. This is time to celebrate, yes." Seyardu sighs. It may not be of not to the gnome and mul'niessa, but the silverscale was at least a few inches taller, and there was an extra bit of curl in the tip of their horns, which were larger in general.

Seyardu crouches down and picks up Ayria, and, Jinks willing, into a hug. "I am glad you are both well, yes. And Aya will be, as well. A drink, or two, that would be best."

"But only after we make sure the crystal will be safe." She adds quickly. "Perhaps a conversation with Mikilos or Cesran on how to best keep it safe. Wizards are good about such matters and precautions."

"... just balancing a scale," Jinks smiles back at Aryia, stepping into the embrace a bit bashfully. He's relieved, frankly, and can't help but laugh at some weight being eased.

After a time enjoying the glow of victory he can't help but smirk and observe, "The Mourners are going to get so sick of me."

-End