At the sound of incessant and rather panicked hammering upon her front door, Ciara Dundragon leapt from her bed and rushed to answer it. She opened it to find two drunk women - barely recognisable as her usually-composed sister, and the painfully prim Cerys Jones.
"Are you two drunk?" she asked, though she knew the answer. She folded her arms, pulling her cotton robe a little tighter across her body.
"I'm only tipsy," Shandri said, raising her hand somewhat defensively, her other hand was occupied with holding Cerys upright.
"You drank wine," Ciara grunted, evidently unimpressed. "What did she drink?"
"It was yellow," Cerys said. "And tasted like it would take paint off the wall."
"Oh good." Ciara sighed. "So did you come here to make it easier for me to arrest you for drunk and disorderly behaviour?" she asked. Shandri and Cerys both burst into a fit of giggles, causing Ciara to glower at the two of them with only more disdain.
"No, no… we came because…" Shandi paused to giggle, before taking a deep breath to calm herself, "Jones found something she doesn't want to tell Diero about."
"That's… I didn't… I just didn't… it's not that I didn't want to."
"Dear, if you'd wanted to tell him, you'd have told him," Shandri said, almost scoldingly. "We can talk about your trust issues another time. Right now, we have something we need identifying."
Ciara's eyes narrowed, her lips parting in disbelief. "What is this? The invasion of the Mystran church? This can wait until tomorrow." With that, she went to shut the door, but Shandri stuck her foot in the way.
"No, no… You don't understand, it's important!" she insisted, and Ciara opened the door again. "Please? Just do this and we'll leave."
"This is ridiculous," Ciara grunted, but Shandri didn't move. Inhaling sharply, she flung the door open, and stepped aside. "Get in. Quick. So we can get this over and done with and you can leave."
Shandri cooed in excitement as she pulled Cerys into Ciara's house. It was far smaller than Shandri's. In fact, it was similar in size to her parents' home - perhaps even a little smaller than that. Whereas her parents' home was cluttered - admittedly with necessary things - Ciara's was shockingly bare. No shelves, one small table in the corner with one small chair. There didn't seem to be any stairs that Cerys could see, and in fact, where she would have found the stairs were this her parents' home, was a small bed. She cocked her head in confusion, unable to grasp how Shandri could live in the lap of luxury and allow her own sister to live in such poor conditions.
"Don't look at me like that," Ciara said. Cerys had not been aware she was staring at Ciara, and she certainly had no inclinations as to any sort of way in which she had been looking at the woman. "I find it best to not judge others," she grunted.
Cerys nodded, but the motion sent her spinning. She wasn't aware that she was falling, but she must have been, for why else would Shandri Kulenov have needed to catch her?
"Oh! Do be careful, dear," Shandri said, sitting Cerys down upon the one seat in the room. Cerys glanced around, not sure of how or when she'd made it to the chair, but the room gave her no clues. Sighing in defeat, she rested her head on the table.
"I feel…"
"Sick?"
"No…"
"Tired?"
"No…"
"Ah. Embarrassed."
"No." She lifted her head to glower at Shandri, but Shandri was not standing where she had been a moment ago. In her place was Ciara, holding a small round object between two fingers.
"What am I puzzling out for you two?" she asked, glancing between them. Shandri placed the small bone needle down on the table. Ciara's jaw clenched. "You came to my house to wake me up in the middle of the night to look at… whatever that is?"
"It's not as simple as it looks," Shandri said. "Miss Jones here found it where that hobgoblin was. I detected a faint whiff of divination magic about it - lingering, somewhat latent."
"You've got be kidding me. This could have waited until the morning."
"We don't want Diero to get involved," Shandri said, placing a hand on Cerys' shoulder. Ciara glanced between them again, her gaze resting upon Cerys, just long enough to make it clear she was doing this for Shandri, and not for her.
Without another word, Ciara snatched the bone shard up from the table and closed her eyes. Whispering, and moving her hand in an arc, Cerys could almost feel a flickering change in the atmosphere. Both Cerys and Shandri lingered in silent awe, until without warning, Ciara thrust the needle back onto the table and took two hasty steps away from it.
"What in the planes is that?" she asked, casting Cerys an accusatory glance.
"Bone," she slurred.
"Enough of that," Shandri said, waving a hand in front of Cerys rather dismissively. "Ciara, what did you find out?"
Ciara shook her head. "The object itself isn't inherently magical, but it's been enchanted - imbued - with divination magic, and-"
"What is that mean?" Cerys asked. "Divination what?"
"Divination magic is usually used in… clarifying matters, such as finding a person, or an object, or learning the truth of a matter - predicting the future," Shandri explained. "Why a needle would be enchanted with such magic is beyond me."
Cerys turned her attention from Shandri and Ciara, and to the needle on the table. She picked it up, holding it between her two fingers. She began to turn it as Shandri had done in the Singing Sprite.
"Do you think it was part of some other ritual?" Shandri asked.
"That's not the only magic I found clinging to that thing," Ciara said. "It was designed to-"
Cerys didn't let her finish. "To point to something?" she muttered. "Like a compass," she said, and Ciara's eyes narrowed. Cerys glanced over in time to see her nodding. "What else did you find? An enchanted compass needle hardly seems horrific enough that you would drop it and cower."
"I didn't cower," Ciara hissed. "I backed away, because that small needle possesses more necromantic energy than I've ever seen in one object."
All of a sudden, Cerys felt painfully sober as an icy chill gripped her insides. Slowly, as if she were worried of disturbing some kind of evil spirit lingering within the bone, she lowered her hand and placed the needle down onto the table as gently as she could. She didn't need telling about necromancy. There was plenty of mention of it in both of the books she owned. She shuffled the chair away.
"I didn't sense any necromancy on the needle," Shandri said.
"It's not on it. It's in it. Deep in there. Something horrible happened to whoever that bone belongs do."
"Whoever?" Shandri asked, any joy in her voice vanishing. "This is human bone?" She swallowed, and placed a hand upon Cerys' shoulder, grasping tight. Cerys' body stiffened under Shandri's grip.
"Without a doubt, that is human bone."
"We…" Shandri began, her tone already defensive, "might need to tell Mr Astorio," she said.
Cerys nodded - one solitary nod - and rose to her feet. "I'll tell him in the morning. In the meantime, what do I do with that?" she asked, gesturing to the bone.
"Hold onto it. Don't lose it. Whoever this person was… they suffered - a lot - for someone to acquire their bones. That's not the sort of thing someone is going to be comfortable with losing," Ciara said. "They might come back for it."
"Do you think that's why the hobgoblin was there?" Cerys asked. Ciara looked thoughtful for a moment, before shaking her head.
"I've seen hobgoblins cast magic, but… not this kind of magic. They have some kind of code of honour. I don't imagine this aligns particularly well with that code," she said. "It's possible, but it's best we talk about this tomorrow with Diero."
"Of course," Shandri said, nodding. "We should get you home now," she added, patting Cerys on the back.
Ciara shook her head. "Stay. I don't trust you to get home safely when you've been out drinking."
Scoffing, Cerys folded her arms. "I'll be fine," she said.
"With all due respect, Jones. One of us is captain of the guard in this town, and the other is a… small… vulnerable woman. If you walk out that door, I'll arrest you and you can sleep in the cells."
Cerys' eyes widened in protest, but she said nothing. Nostrils flaring, she scoffed and glowered down at the small bone needle. Rolling her eyes, she shoved it down into one of her pockets and shrugged. "Well then, I'd best get to bed," she grunted.
Cerys ran her hand over the soft curve of Diero's bare shoulder, and pressed her lips to his shoulder blade.
"Hey," she whispered, digging her fingers into his thick hair, inhaling deeply the musky scent of his bedsheets.
"Oh, good. You're awake," Ciara said in a drawn-out sigh, yanking Cerys from her mid-way slumber. "Would you mind letting go of me now?"
Cerys' eyes opened to the sight of Ciara's resting form beside her on the floor. Swallowing, but saying nothing, she slowly shuffled back away from the woman, and rose to her feet. With held breath, she grabbed her bag from the chair and stepped over Ciara, heading straight for the front door.
"You know I am awake, Jones," Ciara said, evidently most unimpressed, "so sneaking isn't really necessary."
Cerys cringed, stopping in her tracks. Glancing nervously over her shoulder she grimaced. "Sorry," she said.
Ciara sat up, stretching. "For what? Sneaking? Or spooning?" she asked, and Cerys wrapped her arms around herself. "Honestly, Jones, I couldn't care less. It's worse in the barracks, and that's men. I'll take a cuddle with a woman any day over that."
"Can we," Cerys said, far too high pitched for her own liking. She paused to clear her throat, and repeated herself in a far more favourable pitch. "Can we stop saying things like that?"
Ciara's eyes narrowed. "Is there something wrong with the idea of cuddling with me?"
"Not you, no… I just… I don't… I don't do… that."
"Cuddle with women?"
Cerys cringed again at the word. "Not women, just… in… I don't… cuddle. I don't touch, I don't kiss, I don't…"
Ciara's eyes narrowed in confused silence. She drew breath several times, as if about to say something, but not sure of how to word it. In the end, she settled on a bewildered curve to her brow and an uncertain smile. "You don't cuddle?" she asked. "Why?"
"Can we just… not talk about that? Or this. Ever again."
Scoffing, Ciara raised her hands in the air in defeat. "No skin off my back. You're still alright with me bragging about it in the barracks, though… right?" she asked. Cerys turned pale. "Lighten up, Jones! I'm joking."
"You know what one of those is?" Shandri asked, stepping through the front door. Cerys had not heard the door open, and jumped, stumbling away from the sudden intrusion.
"Hilarious," Ciara grunted. "So where did you run off to this morning?"
"I went to get a fresh set of clothes for myself and Miss Jones, here," Shandri said, reaching into her bag and retrieving one of Cerys' dresses. Cerys narrowed her eyes as the dress was presented to her. She took it in her hands and unfolded it. It certainly was her own.
"Please tell me you didn't go to my house."
"Oh, I did - but don't worry, I didn't bother your parents," she said. "I was a spider at the time."
"I'm sorry… what?"
"I turned into a-"
"You turned into a spider, sneaked into my house, and stole some of my clothes?" Cerys asked, utterly bewildered by what Shandri was saying. "Just so we're clear on what happened here."
Shandri pursed her lips, evidently uncertain of the correct response to that. She glanced to her sister for backup, but Ciara rose to her feet and folded her arms.
"Well," Shandri sighed, "I mean…"
"Just so we're clear," Ciara said, "going into someone's house without permission is a criminal offence." An entirely too pleasant smile spread across her lips, and Shandri scrunched her nose up and shook her head.
"I figured you wouldn't want to face your parents looking like you spent a drunken night sleeping on the floor," Shandri said, glancing to Cerys who had the decency to at least look a little sheepish.
"On second thoughts, I'm dropping charges," Cerys said. "Sorry for wasting your time, Captain."
With a theatrical sigh, Ciara shook her head. "Well isn't that a shame, I was looking forward to throwing her behind bars for a day," she said. "Anyway, you should get changed, we're probably late."
Cerys wasn't sure if she was supposed to change here, or if there was somewhere more private she could go. She drew breath to ask, but it quickly turned into a gasp and a terrified squeak as Ciara began to strip off in front of her. Averting her gaze, she turned to Shandri to help, but the other woman was already out of the house and shutting the door behind her.
