Olly tried to steady her hands against the wooden table as her breathing became ragged. Nole was in danger...Nole, her baby brother... Alarms were sounding off in her head as she thought of the worst. Everyone knew that Olly doted on Nole as much as Atticus had doted on her, the three of them bonded in such a way they couldn't describe. Her heart matched her brother's, they felt the same things sometimes like twins were talked of doing, except being years apart in age from one another.
Olly closed her eyes, tried to focus with her heart and her mind at ease. Sometimes, when she was younger, she could feel out her siblings, no matter the distance, no matter the time of day or night. She could feel them, or at least feel what they were feeling, but that was enough to go on sometimes, like a compass...
"Remember Allana" she could hear Atticus's voice in her ear "Remember to listen with this" touching her chest "Not always with your head. Deep inside you is a voice, all aasimar have them, a voice to guide, to teach, to warn. Sometimes it's not a voice, sometimes it's a picture, or a feeling..."
A feeling, yes that sounded familiar.
She had never heard a voice telling her what to do, what was right or wrong, what to look out for. Instead she had always looked inside and felt with her heart, and whatever feeling felt the best, she would go with that. Although, as she tried to use it to seek out her brother, her mind going calm and her heart opening up to the world around her, she could only feel...emptiness.
"No" she sighed into her hands, the tears starting to form as she cried hard tears now. It was just like before...just like with Atticus...empty and alone.
When her older brother had disappeared, Olly had tried to reach out to him. She had been sitting in her room, only a candle lit against the darkness, and she had closed her eyes to find her brother. She had felt Nole downstairs, sleeping quietly in his crib next to mother and father, but as her heart wandered into the darkness of the night, she felt coldness grip her. Her body had become numb, her flesh shivering as she tried her best to call out for Atticus.
But as her heart cried out for him, the dark empty void surrounded her mind, unsympathetic and cold as she reached for nothing in dark blindness. Her little heart had been racing, so fearful, so terrified as she had cried out for her brother, lost in the dark void she had wandered into. She felt black leathery hands grip around her throat, her eyes, her face, a then she felt herself being thrown through a burning flame when she suddenly gasped, breaking the meditation and freeing herself from whatever dark thing was about to take her soul.
Gods...was Nole in that same dark place she had gone to?
Quickly she began to change back into her traveling clothes and riding gear, sacking her armor along with the rest of her clothes. If she got downstairs quickly enough, Peren would have time to come up and change and pack while she readied their horses. But first, she had to tell the elf the news of Nole's disappearance.
It was past midnight now at the tavern, but the hustle and the bustle below was still going strong, the Ford's soldier's coming in after their nightly shifts were over.
She could hear Peren yucking it up with some of them, boasting about the troll kill. She could see Ed and the rest of the crew huddled together, Curio strumming a drunken tune while the Kenku and Half-Orc were passed out on the table. Ed watched as Olly came down the stairs, her brow furrowed and in a awful hurry as she quickly swept by people to get to the elf. Ed turned his head and tried not to stare behind him, knowing he should stick to his word and mind his business. Taking a large swing, he patted Jeet to wake up and asked if he should get them to their rooms. The Half-Orc nodded and Ed stood up to go to the tavern owner for a room key. Standing there though, he inconveniently had a prime spot to listen in as Olly came up to the Elf who had been busy gloating.
"Peren" Olly said tapping him on the shoulder "I need to talk to you."
Peren turned with a half smirk before looking down at Olly, his eyes a bit glazed from drinking through the night but Olly knew he was only slightly buzzed.
"What is it Allana?" he said somewhat calm.
"I received a message from my mother" Olly said "She hasn't been able to find Nole, and nobody has heard from him in some time."
"Alright" Peren said raising his brow "What has that got to do with us?"
"Peren" Olly said trying to get him to take her seriously "They can't find him. Mother's looked into the moonwell and Nole isn't on this Plane. I even looked a moment ago and I couldn't find-"
"Wait you looked? What do you mean you looked?" Peren said getting annoyed "I told you to rest your energy and now I'm finding out that you are scrying up there without me? I knew I couldn't just enjoy my night down here without you up there fucking around. This is why I can't trust you."
"Peren that's not the point!" Olly said yelling, now angry for being talked down to like a child in front of everyone "My brother is missing do you not understand?! I'm always ready to go whenever you snap your fingers and now I need your help! We have to leave to go look for him, something could have happened to him."
"Your mother is blowing things out of proportion" Peren sneered "And we aren't leaving until I say we are. I'm not going off on some wild goose chase just because your over protective mother thinks something bad is going to happen."
"Sure" Olly said finally done, the dark venom in her voice coming out "when it's actually somebody you love asking for help you could care less, but I bet if I jingled a little gold in front of your face you would be out that door ready to go."
Suddenly like lightning Peren's hand came up and cracked across Olly's face, her head whipping back as her skin immediately turned to pink and then hot red.
"Who do you think you are talking to me like that?" Peren said standing over her as she held her face in her hands, the tavern now silent as the two of them stared off "After all that I've done for you, all that I put up with, and you want to talk like that to me? You listen and you listen right now, you would never make it out there without me, because of that gold you talk down about keeps us living the way we do. You would destroy yourself before you could even help anyone else if someone was not there to check you once in a while when you get out of line."
Olly began feeling the hot tears stream down her face, the water burning hot against where Peren had smacked her. Her heart felt torn in a million pieces, confused, betrayed, and embarrassed. This was once someone she thought she had loved, and now hatred brewed and bubbled up inside her as she stared up at the elf.
"Now" Peren said looking around and adjusting his tunic as everyone now seemed to be looking somewhere else other than the couple "You are going to go back upstairs, undress, and wait for me to get up there when I've calmed down. Understand? Because if you aren't up there waiting for me, I will be waiting for you with a knife at your throat next time you wake. Now get out of my sight."
Olly spat at him, her eyes full of hatred as she moved fast into the crowd and up the stairs, her heart racing and her blood boiling in rage at the transaction.
Ed had listened, but couldn't stop the elf from hitting Olly, Curio halting him in place as he nearly lunged at the male elf. Olly pushed past everyone, her cries now being heard as she could no longer hold them back. Ed watched as she sprinted for the door to her room and slammed it shut, the thud of iron on wood echoing in the hallway as Ed sighed. None of this sat right with him, and it made him feel rotten he had watched Peren actually strike Olly and had not been able to do anything about it.
As he helped Curio slump the Kenku and Half-Orc across the straw beds, Ed took a deep breath, looking out their window to darkness of night. He needed sleep, maybe he should just lay down somewhere in this room and call it good for the night...
But would he actually be able to rest, knowing what he knew?
Olly had stood in her room for a good second before grabbing a nearby pillow and screaming as loud as she could into it from the frustration and anger she felt. How fucking DARE that elf touch her!? If her father EVER found out what Peren had just done to her, he would rip his limbs from his torso. The thought alone made Olly smile in a dark way, so angry at the elf she wished him harm upon harm for striking her and embarrassing her in front of everyone. Who did he think he was bossing her around! Telling her to go upstairs and undress for him! To use her body just like he used her power and her skills and her wit!
"Well no more!" she hissed into the air, slamming the pillow down to the ground and grabbing the things she had packed. She threw in a few rations of food, a flask of water, and all the essentials for most explorers in a ransack. She looked at Peren's side of things and didn't feel bad about snatching a few extra coins from his purse to fuel her upcoming journey.
If Peren wasn't going to go with her to help Nole, than she was going by herself. She would prove to that damned Elf that she didn't need him, she was a Duer! She had survived worse things than this, she wouldn't be taken down by the likes of him. She was worthy of love, of adventure, of being herself, and her brother needed her.
Standing with her weapons at her side, Olly threw open the window of her room and looked up at the sky and the stars above. Tomorrow, if she could get away fast enough, she would see some new stars in the sky above. It would be a new day, and a new start. She took a step on the ledge with her sack of supplies and armor at her side, and jumped.
The loud bang outside his window suddenly made Ed jump up and stare out, seeing a pair of boot and legs and a unmistakable perfect ass right in front of him.
"Holy shit" Ed sighed with a slight grin as he watched Olly outside his window, her armor sacked and her weapons at her side as she scaled past his window and down the outside of the tavern walls.
"She's sneaking out!" Ed thought to himself going to the window, watching the minx of a ranger dart down to the second story awning, her feet light as a feather as she darted over to the edge of the building, then leaping in the air like a squirrel and landing gently on the roof of the stables next door.
"Gotta love that dexterity" Ed softly chuckled as he got up and strapped on his armored boots, his longsword sheathed at his side as he moved quickly downstairs where Curio was.
"What's up priest?" Curio said as Ed sidled up to him in the tavern booth, watching out the window carefully to see if Olly would come out.
"I just saw the Duer sneak out of her bedroom" Ed said with a nod to the window.
"I would imagine so after what just happened" Curio said looking over at the Elf who was thankfully still distracted with a group of soldiers and tavern girls.
"I think she intends to ditch him" Ed sighed and Curio could hear the dilemma in his friend's voice.
"You aren't thinking about going after her?" Curio said looking over at the human Cleric. He knew Ed to be a straight forward, good Samaritan kind of fella, but this new fire burning in his friends eyes was something he had not seen before in the mild mannered human.
"I don't like that she's going off into a troll infested forest alone in the middle of the night, no matter what her last name is" Ed answered honestly "If it were anyone else, I would be thinking the same thing."
"And the fact that she and the Sorcerer over there didn't just have a big fight in front of everyone and she might need a little consoling?" Curio said with a smart grin. Most men fell in love with the Duer girls, even some women too, was it crazy to think his friend might also?
"It's not like that" Ed said looking away from the Tiefling's yellow eyes "And I'm not afraid of some Sorcerer if that is what you are implying."
"I just know that Allana Duer is the most prized possession of Peren Xiolescent. He would literally kill for her, to keep her all to himself. And I don't think that statement is all just theory. The Elf knows people, knows things, and he can be dangerous if he's ticked off. Why do you think nobody has tried to sweep Olly off her feet since they've been together? It's because nobody has ever been able to get close" Curio sighed, setting down his instrument "Look all I'm saying is that the girl may not be worth falling for."
"Nobody is falling for anybody" Ed said standing up "It's about doing what's right. She's still a person in need of help. It wouldn't matter if she were an old crone or a young girl, I would still help because it's what is the thing Pelor would want me to do."
"Oh right I forgot you are the son of Pelor" Curio said shaking his head "Son of the god himself as they say."
"That's blasphemy and you know it" Ed said smiling down at him.
"Don't fall for angels Ed" his friend said winking "You'll never be able to fly as high as them."
"I'm going to go out there and going to try and help her" Ed said "The boys are upstairs sleeping it off and there is a bed for you as well."
"Do you intend to come back to us Cleric?" Curio said getting up to mirror his friend.
"Maybe" Ed said smiling "If Pelor's face smiles on us again."
Curio nodded at his friend, gave his wrist a shake in a small farewell, watching him turn and walk out the tavern doors into the night. Ed was truly a son of Pelor, the bright shining example of goodness. It made Curio feel exhausted as he went back to strumming his instrument, thinking of a new song about the Cleric and his Angel...
When Ed had left the temple, his teachers and peers all said that there was no one that had left the temple as such a example of that description except for him. He felt himself to be a good person, and to do the right thing because it was right, not because it was the law. Ed had healed the sick and banished, made crops grow and helped countless. It was why he was called The Cleric, the song Curio made was not a lie, for not many Pelorian clerics had done such feats as he had along the Sword Coast. He had made many friends, and very few enemies left alive, and there was no way in all the Nine Hells he was going to let a young woman go off in the middle of the night alone.
Wherever Olly Duer was going, he was going with her.
Olly grabbed her bow and arrows, wrapping the belt of the quiver around her waist to keep it in place on her back. As she began to mount Rosebud, she realized that she needed to get far enough away from Peren where he couldn't drag her back to him, but also had to leave as little traces of her behind so he couldn't track her. If she took the horse, he could track the hoof prints, but if she was on foot and went through the forest, he would have a harder time. Peren's forte was magic, not the wilderness.
"I'm sorry girl" Olly said patting the horse and giving her nose a nuzzle "I'll give the stable boy a few gold coins to take care of you. Until then" she said giving the horse a kiss on the nose "Stay strong and comfortable."
As the horse gave her a small neigh of what she hoped was understanding, Olly wiped a few tears away from her eyes before grabbing her sack of supplies and taking off near the back of the stable. She woke the small stable boy that had been sleeping soundly in a pile of hay, giving him five gold pieces to take care of Rosebud and should she not return in a months time, then he could have her as long as he promised to take care of her.
She smiled as the young boy nodded excitedly, probably never thinking he would have so much coin in his life and a horse to boot if he was lucky enough. Olly gave his hair a ruffle before looking to the entrance of the stable and taking a deep breath. She had never really been on her own, not completely alone. Her father had been there, her brothers and even Peren had always been behind her whenever she had taken the reins of her life. But now, now she was doing what she felt was right, but was wrong in the real world. In the real world, she should go back upstairs, try and make peace with Peren, try and make their relationship work and leave finding Nole to her parents. Those would be the rules that she would have to follow if she was going to live in the "real world."
For the first time in her life though, Olly was breaking the rules.