If there ever was a city to get lost in, it was Waterdeep. Ed couldn't help but take his hand and grab it tightly on Olly's robes, like a child fearful of wandering away from it's mother. Orcs carrying big loads of wheat passed by without hesitation as dwarves setting up shop with their wares gruffed at other merchants for idling too long at the stalls. Ed found his head turning this way and that to just look at everything. Bands of Elves passed by laughing in their language as goblins tried to haggle with a tavern owner about some deal of lamb legs they heard from a vendor. People of all shapes and sizes passed by, skins from all nations seemed to blend together in the crowd as different races conversed there like some type of chaotic utopia.
"Is it always like this?" Ed said in Olly's ear as they waited for a herd of sheep to pass by with a Half-Elf shepherd coaxing them along the busy street.
"Always in Trade Ward" Olly smirked "This is where most of the commerce happens for the city. Orcs and Goblins wouldn't dared be allowed in the high end places like North Ward or Castle Ward. Only the highest of nobility and class reside there, or in Sea Ward where I haven't even seen some of the castles and villas set up there."
"It's just a little too crazy here for my taste" Ed said getting a little more nervous and a cart of fruit nearly collided with a cart of cloth right beside the trio.
"It's alright. I always feel that way too" Olly said smiling, moving his hand from her robes to clasp her hand in his "Just stick close and it will be over soon."
Ed looked down at Olly with a thankful smile, happy he had his friend to guide him through the busy streets.
"People don't seem so divided here though" Ed said as Qila squawked at some Tabaxi merchants that were trying to sell her fake jewels while they passed by.
"Well Waterdeep isn't just run by nobility" Olly shook her head "There have been some pretty big baddies that have stuck around here and run the Underground through Waterdeep because it's so big. Most of the nobility turns a blind eye to it though, or even partakes in it as well from what my mother and father have told me."
"You think Nole might have gotten caught up in that?" Ed asked concerned as they turned down a less busy street, the merchants and vendors a bit calmer than the hustlers on the main paved road.
"I wouldn't rule it out" Olly grimaced.
"It wouldn't be the first time your family has been led into darkness" Qila tweeted "Always being caught up in some lord or ladies plot."
"I don't have a fondness for nobility" Olly said shrugging at Ed "I haven't met very many that weren't just doing charity to help themselves."
"Nor I" Qila clicked "I'd rather be out in the coldest of winters than stay a minute in some nobles house."
"I can understand that" Ed nodded "I've met some good nobles in my life, but I try not to get mixed up in their affairs too often. It's not what Pelor asks of us."
"Pelor?" Qila twirled curiously "That is your god?"
"He's a Life Cleric" Olly defined for her friend.
"Pelor is not heard of very often in the Sword Coast" Qila nodded "But the Aarakocra know of him. That is a good god to have on your side when all becomes dark."
Ed put his hand over his heart and bent, as his people did "My thanks."
Qila nodded once more before going ahead and then stopping in front of a Inn with a boards head sign, it's wide mouth open in a grin with a apple placed in the middle.
"Here" Qila gestured as they entered inside. Ed could smell the warm scent of timber and fire, a stew cooking in the back as tables were set up all along the sides of the barkeep, patrons quietly eating and talking while the outside remained busy with shadows of people gliding across two big stained glass windows. It was homey and warm, something his body was craving at the moment after days of being on the cold road.
"This will do nicely" he said smiling as Olly went up to the barkeep for their room keys. Qila bid them farewell as she went up the stairs fast, ready to be high up and perched somewhere.
"She hates crowds and hates being bunched up with people even more" Olly said walking calmly with their room key "Being in a cage most of your life will do that to you."
"I feel sorry for her" Ed said "That can't be easy growing up in such a horrible place. But she was lucky your father helped and gave her a new life."
"My father taught her how to fly again" Olly smiled "she taught me how to have a friend. It was a even exchange."
Olly found the room on the third floor, the building one of the higher ones in Trade Ward. Entering the room, the walls and floor were dark redwood, the bed filled with feathers instead of straw, and a separate room with a bath and spout for hot water.
"Oh jackpot" Olly sighed "Lake water is refreshing but nothing beats a warm bath. Would you mind?"
"Not at all!" Ed said waving his arms "I think I would just love to sleep. Want to switch when you are all done?"
"Sounds perfect" Olly said a little bit too excited to get clean. Ed nodded and began stripping his armor off, ready for the sweet release of not sleeping on the ground. Olly didn't waste time as she closed herself off in the washroom and began doing the same. She promised herself she would repair and stitch her armor after the bath, but the desire for hot water trumped her Ranger duties at the moment.
After Ed piled his armor together and folded his vestments, he let loose his tunic from his trousers and took off his belt, letting the fabric flow around him as he settled on the bed, spreading his arms and legs out over the bedding. Sighing he closed his eyes and breathed deep, hearing the movements of Olly in the next room. The spout was heard clanging as he imagined her pulling the lever, the hot water steaming up the bathroom as she let loose those long tresses of gray blue hair...
"Stop it" he heard himself chiding those thoughts "Think of something else will you?"
But as sleep started to take the Cleric, he couldn't help but imagine the angel sinking down into the hot water, the bare flesh of her back to him as those delicate fingers started working the soap into her hair. He could almost smell it, that orchid fragrance that seemed to hang around him each time she passed, the warm amber water dripping against that neck as her eyes would turn up to him.
A quick inhale made Ed's eyes pop open as he gave himself mental slap, hearing the actual water from the other room slosh as he heard Olly's contented sigh.
"You okay?" he heard her call out.
"Gods don't let her come out" he thought to himself as he coughed and got out "Everything's okay! Just settling in!" as he shifted around on the bed, trying to fall back asleep without thoughts of her dancing around him.
"Alright" Olly called back, her body sinking back into the water. She had heard him go on alert, but started to relax again as she sensed his breathing going back to normal. She couldn't help but have a higher sense about things around her, it was just part of her nature. It made it difficult to relax fully when she could feel things going on in the next room, or sometimes in the building outside even if it wasn't her business.
"Ranger's only go looking for trouble in the wilds Allana" Atticus would constantly remind her "Don't interfere with the spats of the people."
"Yea, Yea" she murmured to herself closing her eyes. "I hear you big brother. Not like that stopped you."
Olly shifted in the washtub, her shoulders sinking low into the water till her head rested against the railing, trying to submerge as much of her body as possible. What she wouldn't do for a hot spring right now was beyond her, wanting to feel the steaming heat all over her aching bones that seemed to be getting more painful as time went on. When would she be able to stop? Did she ever really want to stop? The only thing that remotely stopped her father was the fact that he was missing his leg. Would it go so far as it did for Atticus? To where she completely would disappear off this world? Is that what happened to Nole?
As she felt the water around her, a strange feeling began pricking in the back of Olly's mind. Her eyes were closed, only a candle in the corner of the room giving her any sense of light, but there was a growing darkness she could feel somewhere...
Suddenly Olly's eyes were seeing but they were still closed, a vision hitting her mind like lightning. Her hands gripped the sides of the washtub, her knuckles white as she gasped, her body thrashing in the water.
It was Nole. He was in the water, except it wasn't normal water. It looked like dark, black ink that she could see him sinking into. He was looking up at her, or she was looking down at him? She didn't know except she could see his eyes staring up in fear straight into her's. That freckled face was twisted, his face pale and gasping. His glowing eyes that matched her own began to fade as the darkness took him. His expression was so pained, so betrayed as he called out in the dark. She saw his mouth move, the words deaf in her ears but she knew what he was crying out for.
"Olly..."
His deaf screaming made tears form in her eyes, her own screaming echoing his as she saw him sink under the inky black water, his hands holding out for her as his fingertips disappeared beneath the surface. She tried to reach him, her hands waving in the emptiness, but the water was going down and she was going up.
"NO!" Olly screamed, her head shooting up as the hot water around her blasted up from the washtub.
Ed was up in a second, hearing the thrashing of water and then the desperate heart wrenching scream come from his companion. Without thinking he busted down the door, the wood hitting the ground hard as he rushed in the steamy room to find Olly curled up in the empty washtub, her body limp and lifeless.
"Allana!" he cried out collapsing next to her, his arms pulling her out without regard that she was bare to him as he began patting her face to try and get a response. He readied his palm, a light beginning to glow above her chest as he steadied himself to jolt her awake. Suddenly her eyes shot open, a gasp of air escaped her as she sat up shaking. Ed breathed out a sigh of relief, still holding her to him as Olly tried to come back to the here and now, her eyes searching the room as she tried to remember what happened.
"I...I s-saw him" Olly got out looking over at Ed "I saw Nole."
"Okay" Ed breathed out "Where is he?"
"Somewhere bad Ed" she cried "I couldn't get him, I couldn't reach it was so dark. He's trapped and he's calling for me and I couldn't..." the tears came in full now, her body shaking She clung to Ed's chest, his arms wrapping around her because he didn't know what else to do except to hold her. He didn't care that she had covered the room head to toe in water, or that he himself was soaked through from her wet body, all that mattered was what had upset his companion so much that she was shaking in her skin.
"Stay still" he said into her wet hair as he used his palm of light to dry and warm a towel cloth hanging on the wall that had been drenched. Then grabbing it, he draped it over Olly's body, wrapping her with his eyes concentrated on the top of her head. Olly was as still as a tree, her body feeling almost empty as her mind tried to process what had just happened. Had she just seen the vision of her brother dying before her eyes? Was it a premonition of what was to come? A terrible hollowness invaded her within as she felt Ed's arms once again around her, picking her up and moving her into the bedroom away from the dripping wet washroom.
"Olly" she could hear his muffled voice as she tried to fight out of the haze "Olly I need you to breathe."
Olly could feel herself shake as she breathed in, his voice becoming clearer as she found his face. Those big round jade eyes of his were staring right into her own, the haze clearing up around her vision as reality began to set back in the more he talked to her.
"Olly it's okay" he spoke gently as she stared at him. He felt so lost at the moment, unsure if Olly had been hurt or had been stunned by a spell. He was prepared for either, but could not help if she would not respond to him. Her empty shell demeanor was somehow more frightening than even the goriest of wounds as she finally casted her gaze on him, her lips began moving.
"Sorry" she got out as she blinked a couple of times, regaining composure "I don't know what-"
"Don't try and figure it out just yet" Ed said "Give yourself time. I need to know if you are hurt in any way."
"No" Olly shook her head "I think it was a vision, or a dream..."
"Okay that's a start" Ed said moving her head back and forth to see if she had any spell marks "Did you hear anything before seeing this vision? Did you smell anything?"
"No" Olly said blinking now, her mind fully awake as the haze disappeared "I think it was what it was meant to be, a sign."
"And what sign is that?" Ed's brow furrowed confused.
"That Nole is in bigger trouble than we thought" Olly said grabbing the towel closer to her "I've never felt that type of panic before. I wonder if my mother felt it as well, or if it was just for me."
"What do you need?" he asked ready to be of service. Not knowing what to do was causing him more stress than he would have liked to admit to her, but he was steadfast that he was going to stay with her.
"Rest" Olly said feeling the weakness of her body take hold "That took a lot out of me, and I need to recover some strength if I'm going to figure out whats happened."
"You mean we will figure it out" Ed said pushing her down against the bed "You are not alone Allana Duer, I'm right here with you."
Olly felt her eyes weaken as sleep started to take hold, the power of the vision coming off of her making her feel like a used rag.
"Thank you Ed" she mumbled "I don't know what I would do..." and then she was asleep.
Ed took a moment to watch her as he saw the even breathing of her chest move up and down beneath the towel. Her tiny frame was curled on the bed, her hand resting gently next to her face as those perfect lips mumbled once more before she began to snore. Ed smiled before taking a huge deep breath to steady his heart. He had been on full alert since he had heard Olly scream, his body on edge now finally starting to feel drained. Ed got up and looked into the washroom, whispering a quick spell to heat dry the room as the water steamed up and out so that way it was less mess he had to deal with. He decided he would wash in the morning when he awoke, now though, he wanted the bed.
He looked over and felt a bit ashamed but he wanted to relax once again on that soft fabric, but Olly was snoring soundly on the bed as well. They had slept next to one another before right? What was another night? He justified it to himself just so when he crept on the other side of the bed and started to rest on those wonderful goose feather mattress, it didn't feel so terrible that he was also sleeping next to his companion. At least this time he was free to move should she turn and trap him once again. Olly was a tiny thing, but massively heavy when she was dead asleep.
They would deal with the images of her vision in the morning, and hopefully, be able to figure out exactly what happened to Nole Duer.
