"Speech: Halkeginian"
'Thoughts/telepathy'
'Spells and the like'
"Speech: Common/Dwarven"
"Speech: Draconic"
The next morning Raskreia wakes up next to Kirche, who is currently using her as a pillow, in her room. Nothing explicit has happened, much to Kirche's silent disappointment, but it was nice to share a bed with someone once in a while.
During the ball they had talked a bit and Kirche had been scandalized to find out Raskreia had been sleeping in a bedroll this entire time, and as such has offered her to share her bed. Internally Kirche had been hoping for more but in the end she knows when to not be too pushy with things and Raskreia seemed exhausted, from what she couldn't really tell. When asked she said something weird about how hard 'weaving creation' is.
As Raskreia is used to waking up just short of dawn she is up quite a bit earlier than her erstwhile roommate, so it is only after quietly slipping out of bed and performing all of her morning rituals that Kirche finally wakes probably stirred awake by the fact that her 'Body-pillow' is now no longer in huggable distance.
Looking around blearily her eyes land on Raskreia who was just finishing to tying up her hair. "You are up to early. Why are you up so early?" She asks with a light slur.
"Sorry Red. I have things to do, places to be, otherwise id love nothing more than to sleep in for once." Kirche slowly nods and falls back onto her pillow.
Silently exiting the room she goes to where she suspected Felniir to be, in the clearing in the woods sleeping with Sylphid.
Once in said clearing she is surprised that there is not one but three occupants, none of them asleep. Tabitha seems to have wanted to check on her familiar and is now inspecting Felniir's equipment while the cat is silently watching the human do her thing.
As Rask approaches she is figuratively crushed by a hug from Sylphid, who thanks to Felniir instructing her now had a much better control of her own strength.
"Hey there to you too Illo, is see you are well."As she says that the dragon lets go of her and takes a step or two back.
"Morning Rask, Big sis just came here to see how if I am alright. She had been inspecting Felly forever now though." Was the dragons reply as she looked back at Tabitha with a small amount of jealousy.
"I see. Hey Tabitha, something catch your eye?" to witch the young mage just points at the various trinkets scattered across the tigress, such a the metal collar, the bracers and the small earrings.
"Magic?" Raskreia mentally sigh's, one day this girl will talk in full sentences.
"Yes they are all magical, and I made each and every one myself." She said, hopefully correctly guessing what the blue themed wanted to know. And judging by her nod she has.
"How?"
"How, I make them or how they work? Both? Well, I make them by taking a mundane piece and inscribing invisible runes into it with special ink which gets absorbed into the item. Then I infuse the runes with some magically potent material or another to give them a jump start as it were. And from there they pull magic from around them to power themselves." Rask nearly laughs at the look of pure interest in the girls eyes, while the rest of her face stays as indifferent as ever.
"Learn?" That last word sounded almost eager.
"You want to learn to do this? Well I have a book or two back home on the topic. I was going to go there anyways, so I will just bring them."
After that the younger girl nods in what might have been eagerness.
"All right you furball, I'm going to go work on stuff, you want to stay here?" her answer is a mere dismissive wave of a paw.
With a shrug Raskreia vanishes through a 'Gate'
Raskreia's demi-plane
With a nary a sound a dwarf and an elf are deposited in a space outside of space.
Raskreia had gone and retrieved Kwalin from his workshop so he could make it that she is no longer catatonic after sacrificing her bodies strength.
"You know, some might call you sadistic for casting spells like this." And the dwarf would be correct. Using blood money to fuel spells as powerful, or demanding, as she is about to cast is not normally done. Excepting bloatmages of course, but the less said about them the better.
"I just call I capitalism, saves us almost ten thousand gold. Besides I had my bones broken and an arm hacked off, its not like I have a problem with pain." Which makes the Dwarf grunt in acceptance.
"Alright then, lets do this, see you in twelve hours, 'Time stop'"
After having cast the powerfull spell Raskreia is positioned outside the normal flow of time, now normally this wouldn't last all that long but inside of her own demi-plane which does not have a flow of time in the first place, it will last indefinitely as does any spell in here. Mind you if she had no way of ending this spell she would be stuck in this state for the rest of her life. But since she does she can save herself twelve hours of the day. While it isn't like she is pressed for time all that much, it would be good to get this thing done as soon as possible. After all the workers want to do some working soon.
'Here we go again, feels somewhat weird to be the only thing moving for such a long time but whatever.' As she says that she lays about the ruby dust she already has, in neat piles around herself in preparation for what she is about to do.
"Alright, first off. 'Bulls Strength'" Using her shirt to cast the spell from its formula her muscles bulge momentarily before seemingly going back to normal. Now she cant use this strength she just gained in blood money, but she doesn't intend to anyways, it is merely so that she does not feel as much like a immobile piece of flesh as she would had she not done this.
'Blood money: Simulacrum' as she casts the first spell the dust she already has is joined by even more dust. Normally materials created by blood money would turn back into blood after a few seconds of not being used, making it useless for spells such as this. But since time is currently of no issue she has all the time she could ever want.
Other than the rubies a giant mass of ice and snow forms in front of Raskreia right next to the rubies.
'Well, time for art' as she says that she move up to the mass of ice.
Twelve hours later (not one second later for anyone else)
Kwalin is still standing there not having moved a muscle, before his friend casts her time stop he has been thinking 'Tongs and hammers! This woman doesn't know how to go easy on herself does she? She was like this since we met and back then she wasn't even an adult as far as elves are concerned.'
He looks her over for a moment as she is checking if everything is here that she could possibly need.
'She hasn't changed a bit has she? I have aged, Zarhon has aged, Thorgal… well he has his cloak of immortality so no he has not aged. Her? She hasn't aged a day. If I didn't know she had a clone of me and the others somewhere in this plane I would almost be a bit jealous."
He just barely withholds a laugh that is threatening to come out. 'Torag's beard! What am I thinking? Being jealous of her? She would share anything of hers with us, she has literally jumped in front of a gun the first day we met to save my life.'
Before he can think further Raskreia turns towards him, smiles, and starts casting a spell he has seen her cast quite a few times before. And the next moment he is standing in the presence of not only his friend but also a copper dragon which is at the very least three times as large as him, in height alone.
If he didn't know it was a simulacrum he would have been intimidated by the things presence, if only slightly. As it was he just walks briskly over to his friend who seems close to collapsing and casts a 'Heal' on her instantly restoring colour to her skin.
"Thanks! I really needed that actually." She once more smiles at him and he has the feeling that she has the urge to pat his head, and is rather happy about the fact she chose not to.
"That was the sole reason you called me over in the first place, so no thanks are necessary. Though they are welcome. Now can I go back to my forge?" To which the dragoness just pouts, an expression that makes the newly created dragon snicker.
Raskreia turns towards her creation and glares at it making it shut up "Sure. Just a moment 'Invisibility' there, and now 'Gate'" after casting her two spells the dragon vanishes from sight and a portal opens, on the other side one can see once more the back of Kwalin's forge.
"You know that you will have to move that portal in the back of my store eventually? It cant stay there." As they pass the portal they can hear the relatively light footfalls of the dragon following them behind them.
"I know I know, I will find a better place soon."
Border between Tristain and Germania
Joshua, or simply Josh, was contemplating his recent lot in life as he is standing together with his colleagues in front of a large tent trying to communicate with a pair of short an stocky people.
He was just a simple man who had taken up the work of a guard after having decided that being a farmer is not something for him and that he would love to see the world a bit more.
To bad for him tat he didn't realize at the time that being a guard usually doesn't let one travel around all that much, he should have become a mercenary if he wanted such.
To top this mental failure of his he has ended up in the service of one count Mott, and Josh will be the first to tell you that Mott is not the best employer one could be asking for, not by a long shot.
But it was work and it's the only work as a guard he could find at the time and at least he got paid, even if his employer was a right arse.
Then one day the count goes travelling towards the, relatively, nearby academy and of course he needs some guards to come with him. Which much to his elation included himself and Timothy, or Tim.
Once he got there he wasn't as elated anymore however as the purpose of the counts visit is one which gives him and his friends allot of dislike for the count. He was going there to acquire a new maid for himself, a young lass by the name Siesta if had heard correctly. A fine young girl, and soon to be a fine young woman if he were to be the judge of it. And such a waste on the damnable count. But, alas, they were commoners and as such couldn't voice their complaints without repercussion.
And suddenly cat.
That's the sum total of the thought process of Josh as the biggest feline he has ever seen quite literally pounces on the count. True, he deserves it but they are still employed as his guards so they do a token effort of trying to convince the cat to get of the man.
Something they give up, not reluctantly in the least, once the cat moves her jaw threateningly over the counts jugular with every small movement they make.
Five minutes later the headmaster of the place shows up with one of his professors and Josh thinks this will soon be resolved and everything will be proceeding as is normal once more.
Then he sees the woman who is, unbeknownst to him, going to soon be his new employer.
From there it rapidly pans out and the count and the tow of them are to fight this woman and her cat. Which as it turns out is not as easy as one might have expected. The cat became incredibly fast and the last thing he saw before falling into unconsciousness was white fur slamming into him.
A few moments later he woke up once more, lying right next to the thing which knocked him unconscious in the first place and Tim. He woke up just in time to see the end of the events taking place.
Well long story short he is now employed to the same woman he has fought back then.
And so far, which isn't saying all that much admittedly as it hasn't been all that long yet, she is a much more likable employer than Mott. First thing she did was admit that she didn't really need work right now so she gave them all a paid vacation until she gets something set up.
Which is why he is now here, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in front of a tent and trying to communicate with a broad midget who doesn't understand his Language.
Him and Tim had been among the first few to arrive here after messages had been sent out to come to the location indicated as work would soon be provided.
Well, he might just have made a mistake in changing employers as at the moment it seems like they will be guarding a tent, next to a dirt path leading through what might as well be a marsh.
But oh well, humans are adaptable and so will he be.
Just as he is about to give up communicating with this person in front of him, who has been rather insistent on something, which sadly includes them entering the tent, when yet another midget, as he has been silently calling them in his head, comes out of the tent.
This one wearing some rather comfortable looking clothes rather than the chain the outside two had been wearing. This new one looks much younger than the first two, judging by the short length of his beard at the very least.
After a few exchanged words between midgets the tent guards step out of the way, evidently allowing them access.
The younger midget turns then towards them giving them a once over, before thankfully speaking in a language they can understand.
"Ah, you must be the people Raskreia has hired previously. My name is Kloin, and I am, or will be, in charger of the operation here. At least once it begins in the first place."
Josh, who had been elected as the spokesperson of the four who have already arrived, steps up "You are in charge? Is there anything we can do for now?" while a bit strange that there is someone other than Raskreia in charge right now Josh sees no reason for deceit here. After all who would settle down out here AND know of them and their employer.
"For right now, not really, we are just waiting for Raskreia to show up which should be in an hour or two from now. So I suppose, find a dry spot and make yourselves comfortable, if you want you could even join us at the table." And with that Kloin headed of to said table, which he now noticed is stocked with drinks and meat.
Shrugging towards his other guards he walks over to said table and sits down next to yet another midget where there is a chair free. Something his friends emulate.
One additional thing he notices, that he hasn't before, is oval hole hovering mid air at the back of the tent, but he then decides to just shrug it off as "Magic".
They sit there at that table for a good hour, in the meantime two more of their number have arrived and sat themselves at the table. He was a bit surprised at the amount of alcohol these midgets seem to be able to stomach without it affecting them in the slightest. Especially considering that he was already feeling slightly tipsy from these drinks after only one flagon. Admittedly the drink was exceptionally good
Deciding that it would not do to get drunk before meeting his employer he politely asks Kloin, as the only person here to understand them, if they could have something with lighter to drink. To which he simply nodded and went over to where the drinks were kept to bring back a large pitcher of what could possibly be wine. One of the other midgets looked at the container dubiously and said something towards Kloin in their guttural language and after Kloin replied in kind the other midgets snorted in what he might interpret as amusement.
A bit put off by the fact that they seemingly had no water to serve he poured himself some of the, he is assuming, wine and takes a sip. Josh does not know much about wine, or anything at all really, but he would say with confidence that just like the drink earlier that this wine would be suitable even for the local nobles overly sensitive taste buds.
Approximately ten minutes after the hour mark they start hearing someone or something approach from somewhere in the tent, something big in fact.
He notices the midgets, all start looking towards where he had seen the oval hole in the air and he turns to look as well. Then he feels his jaw go slack. There standing next to his new employer was a rather large dragon with pure copper scales, in fact he could almost see them glimmer and shine in the light of the tent.
What was even more perplexing is the fact that the dragon seems to be talking to Raskreia, and Judging by the fact that she was laughing with almost every word that is being said it is quite humorous.
Perhaps it is one of the legendary Rhyme dragons he has heard of in stories. But aren't those supposed to be extinct?
Well his employer certainly got a whole lot more interesting just now.
After a few words in that strange language these midgets seem to be speaking in are exchanged between the dragon, Kloin and Raskreia pretty much everyone that is not native to these lands stands up, if they haven't been standing already, and goes to exit the tent.
Reading the mood Josh and his compatriots also stand up, a bit reluctantly as the food was actually rather good, to follow. And Josh walks up to Raskreia who just now seems to have noticed them in the first place.
She fully turns to face him and gives them a collective smile seemingly contend with the fact that they are there in the first place. The dragon takes to the air with Kloin seemingly directing it places, for what purpose is not yet clear.
"Ah, you are here. I hope you didn't have to wait for me too long." Their employers voice drags them out of the gawping at the magnificent sight of a shining copper scaled dragon flying in the full light of a shining morning sun. "I still had something to do before I could come here. I know it isn't very impressive yet, but that will soon change with the help on my reptilian friend up in the sky."
"No you have not made us wait long, and even if it wouldn't have been much of a problem Mi Lady." He quickly reaffirms her, true she had them wait but it was really not that long at all and food was even provided. Then he remembered that she didn't want to be called lady "I mean Ms. Raskreia."
If she was bothered at all by his minor slip he could certainly not tell, but he was sure she wouldn't punish him for something so minor in either case.
"Well, that's good. Do any of you have any questions?" she said looking at all of them. At first no one spoke but then Tim stepped forward a bit hesitantly but Raskreia just smiled encouragingly at him which made him more sure of the fact that he was allowed to speak.
"Well, Ms. if it isn't too much to ask, how is that dragon going to help with setting things up here, and also what is whit all the… how do I put this… short people?" To Josh's silent amusement these questions, rather than offend Raskreia as it might have done for Mott, seemed to just amuse her.
"Well…" Tim quickly introduced himself after a short pause. "Tim, the first question should answer itself rather quickly. As for the other question, well they are Dwarves. As in not human. I am not sure how much people in these lands know of dwarves but back home they are known as great merchants, craftsmen and warriors. Oh and their booze is some of the best out there, even if I cant really handle it all that well."
His, and his friends, mouth was slack. DWARVES? They were just children's tales were they not? Wait no, true tales don't always say the whole story but they often have a grain of truth behind them. Its not like they know the whole world, only yesterday he would have told anyone who claimed to have seen a talking dragon that he is a fool.
Elves exist, what is to say Dwarves don't? This job is looking more and more exciting by the minute, he already got to drink some of the best drink he has ever tasted, his belly is full, and he has seen two supposedly legendary species. The fact that his new employer is nice to look at and has a pleasant personality is also an added bonus over his last employer.
The rest of his friends, emboldened by the fact that Raskreia had not been annoyed in the least by them asking things, decided to ask some other minor questions of their own. Such as how often they would be able to visit family, where they would sleep, and such.
Raskreia answered everything patiently, but she did answer everything concerning this place with "Ask Kloin" or "I don't know, Kloin made the blueprints" and variations thereof
Josh in the meantime was observing the aforementioned Dwarf and the dragon. Kloin seems to be directing a few of the other dwarves as well as the dragon to do something.
The dragon would call something down to Kloin, who would then look down at the papers in his hands and then direct a few other Dwarves each holding a number of small flags. Those flags would be placed at different places into the mud or earth. This process would repeat until they had made a rather large circle around the tent.
Josh then noticed that the circle of flags was a few dozen meters away from the bottom of the hill the tent was positioned on. Perhaps they plan to erect a wall there? But all that was around was mud and earth, what would they use as a wall? Sure Earth mages could make walls but that would still take quite a bit of time at this size that they had planned. Not to mention the entirety of the ground was still unstable swamplands. It would probably take weeks to set anything worthwhile up.
By now his friends have finished asking everything they wanted to ask and were too watching the proceedings.
At this time Kloin was once more calling something up to the dragon who, Josh would swear, nodded and flew to one point where flags have been placed. He could see the dragon seemingly concentrate intently on the ground for a moment, he was then astounded to see the mud in quite a stretch turn into what can only be solid stone.
The dragon once more seemed to be deeply concentrating a ten foot tall and maybe thirty foot long wall of solid stone appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't very thick from what he could tell but it was solid. And it just appeared. It didn't shoot out of the ground, or gradually grew from nothing. No one moment it wasn't there the next it was.
Before Josh or any one of his friends could really contemplate the significance of what they had just seen, the wall doubled in thickness, and then yet again added the same amount in thickness. This repeated quite a number of times, and now there was a thirty foot long, twenty foot tall and twelve foot thick stretch of wall. Even a parapet was already in place.
He was once more pulled out of his amazement at the speed at which a wall of such, rather considerable might, is being build by not a mage, and even a mage would not be able to build something like this THIS quickly, but a dragon of all things. He turns towards what has focused him once more an it is his new employer tapping him on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry I don't think we have been introduced yet." She would say.
Josh takes a quick breath to make sure that he is as composed as he can be, and standing as presentably as possible. And judging by the approving look in the woman's eyes he cant be doing so poorly.
"My apologies, my name is Joshua. May I say that you have a most spectacular familiar there." He says indicating the dragon.
She looks confused for a moment, much to his shared confusion. But then her eyes light up with mirth. "Oh, why thank you but that dragon is not my familiar, I don't even have one to be precise. I have created that dragon earlier today using another dragon I had met during my travels as inspiration, but I am glad you like him."
Josh is proud to say that he has managed to not look slack jawed as he said "You created… a dragon?" Considering that all the others are still watching the giant reptile fly around creating walls he was the only one who heard her speak at all, and if he tells them this they will most likely think him daft. But wow, just wow. He looked at the woman in front of him in new appreciation.
She didn't brag about this, she didn't even tell them until the subject of the matter was addressed by him in the first place. Mott, had he been able to do this, would have rubbed this into their faces as much as he possibly could. Her? She just offhandedly mentioned it as part of the admittance that it wasn't her familiar.
"Yes I did, but to be fair it is a pale shadow compared to the original, whom I based him off. But as you can see he can still perform the task of a builder quite splendidly. But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about." She looks over at the rest of his friends who are still not paying attention to her or anything she is saying. He quickly fixes this by punching Tim in the shoulder which gets his and everyone else's attention. Tim was about to say something when he notices why he had done so and shuts his mouth before it is even properly open.
Raskreia for her part gives him a nod of thanks before turning to address them as a whole.
"I apologize for not being able to welcome you properly, but I will do so now. Welcome to the as of yet unnamed trading you shall be working at for as long as you are willing." She motions to the area around herself "I know it isn't much at the moment but as you can see, we are working on it. Kloin will be the one in charge for the most part, and he will give you the tasks he thinks need performing. As such listen to anything he says as if it had been me who said it." She stops here for a moment to see if anyone had any objections to what had been said so far, which there was none.
"Just a few ground rules though. First, and I don't think I need to really mention this in the first place, don't make the dragon angry. Honestly I don't know why anyone would do that as it just seems like a stupid think to do all around but I have been told by a friend I should say it anyways as he had one of his workers melted while working close to a dragon whom said worker consequently pissed off." Some people chuckled at this though they stop once they realize she was being serious. "Mind you this rule doesn't mean you should avoid him, I'm sure you will find that he makes for quite good conversation. But just remember that he is a giant reptile that can bite you in half if sufficiently annoyed."
Josh made it a point to go talk to this dragon once he had the chance. If Raskreia said he would make for good conversation it must be true to some extent. Though he also makes sure to make it a point to be polite while doing so.
"And second, I am sure you have seen the portal in the tent. Err the oval hole floating in the middle of the air, if any one of you want to go through there talk it over with Kloin first as id rather not have you stumbling along on the other side alone without anyone guiding you. Mainly as no one on the other side would be able to understand a word you said."
They all nodded in acceptance, though some were curious of where that portal might lead. Though not curious enough to just go wandering through on their own, they might in doing so offend someone like Raskreia for example.
After a few moments of letting them murmur among themselves Raskreia continues on with what she wanted to say "Now that we got that out of the way. You should go talk to Kloin at some point in the next hour or so if you have any special requests about your living arrangements. I am sure he already has a rough draft for your barracks set up but if you want to change anything about it, you should do it before the actual building is in place."
Josh was confused about something so he voiced said confusion "Wait, you are saying this place will be done today?"
Raskreia laughed lightly "No of course not. The rough work, the walls and such will probably done by the end of the day, but that is all. Anything made of wood, such as the Inn I was planning to have erected, should take a bit longer. But that is not to say that will take too long." She looks around the area for a moment before fixing her gaze on something in the distance. "Alright, I gotta head off now. After you talked to Kloin about anything you would perhaps want added just do what guards do I suppose, meaning make sure that nothing disturbs the workers." As she says that she moves away from them towards some of the dwarves mulling over some papers.
Josh takes that as his cue to move too "Alright lads, you heard the lady, does anyone want to add something to the place in the plans or are we going to trust that they will provide all that we need?" the others looked uncertain for a bit but decided that they didn't know anything about planning in the first place and to just leave that to those who have more experience in these matters.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful in comparison to how it began to Josh. The rest of the men that were due to arrive did so one by one and were each regaled with the news of what will be going on from now on. Most were understandably awed by the dragon quite literally thinking walls and rock formations into existence but soon got over the novelty of it.
By now they were no longer standing on muddy marsh ground and instead they are standing on top of a solid surface of stone which the dragon had created. It had left large areas as they were for reasons they didn't know, probably so the inside of the place wasn't just a slab of rock.
By the end of the day they were surrounded on all sides by walls and the dragon and dwarves have actually started on forming a small gatehouse. At the rate they are building it, it should have its skeleton structure done by tomorrow at noon, as there was actually a lot thinks to consider doing with it. Josh is wondering what they will use for the actual gate.
They have also been provided with a walled in section with a ceiling that might at some point become a barracks. But for now is mostly a hollow stone area.
Well, Raskreia did say that small scale work would take a while longer. The food was nice though and so was the drink. No complaints here.
Josh can't help but wonder what the coming weeks will bring, certainly this place is more lively than Mott's estate ever was.
Raskreia's demi-plane
Late in the evening Raskreia had come back from the construction site that will soon be able to call itself a trading post. She had spent most of the day going over everything that needs to be done over there. She is rather happy about how much has already changed over there. Solid walls a half finished gatehouse (sans gate), solid foundations for future buildings and the skeleton structure of what will at one point be the barracks.
Not being really tired at the moment she decides to do something she had wanted to do badly since she had first encountered this. She was going to study the two remaining artifacts she has acquired.
She has the veritable armada of unseen servants that occupy her plane move the cauldron towards her small personal library. There she places all three items onto a large stone desk that they already share with another artifact, the one she has gotten a long time ago during her hunt for Tom. The book of infinite spells, sadly well over half of the spells contained within are already used up, in fact she doubts there is more than four more spells in the book before it vanishes to find a new user. Sadly the page turned away from the last spell page that she had, which was a true resurrection, now it is a pitiful acid splash. She decided to not turn the page as she had found it humorous to leave it at this spell.
Laying down the staff next to the book she goes to identify the remaining two items.
But not before pocketing two books on enchanting and magical item crafting.
Turns out it isn't as easy to do as she first expected, she had to cross-reference multiple books and sources. Six hours in and she wasn't a single step closer to identifying the hourglass.
The cauldron however…
She is actually somewhat disgusted at having the thing in her home.
At first she had thought it to be some sort of powerful witches cauldron, perhaps even something from Baba Yaga. But no, after going through a good dozen more books she has finally found the origin of the runic design. Runelords.
This was a gods damn runeslave cauldron, albeit one that was specifically made to be used on humanoids rather than giants, if the size of the thing was in any way shape or form an indication at least.
Now what. What in the world was she to do with a runeslave cauldron. Nothing that's what, actually scratch that she will ask her father if he would be willing to sit on the thing, figuratively speaking of course.
She quickly goes through one or two spell books she had acquired over her adventure, mostly from enemy wizards, and picks out a spell that she needs. "AHA! I should probably carry this spell on me… oh well" she activates he shirt beneath her robes which surges with the arcane allowing her to cast from merely holding a spell formula using her own reserves.
'Sending' "Greetings father, I would need to talk to you in person, may I come?"
A few seconds pass in which she fears that the spell might have actually failed to penetrate the dimensional barriers when she gets a reply "Certainly, though I do wonder what it is you need to speak to me about."
Reverting herself back to her natural appearance, and making herself as presentable as possible she casts a 'Gate' and steps through dragging the cursed cauldron with her.
Somewhere on Golarion.
Raskreia steps out of the portal onto a large balcony. This balcony however isn't outside however as one might think, no it is overlooking a truly gigantic cavern below. Not that one can even tell its size as there isn't all that much light in the cavern at all.
The Balcony in contrast is very well lit, probably to highlight anyone standing on top of it.
The balcony has a red carpet running along it leading somewhere away from the cavern.
Raskreia knows that this leads to her fathers living area. In the moment she has looked at the hallway behind her she feels an almighty rush of air coming from the cavern and the momentary beating of wings. By the time she turns back around there standing barely ten feet away from here is a absolutely majestic looking man.
Majestic almost does the man no justice clothes that many a king would murder his first born son for, a natural crown of seemingly pure gold horns atop his head splitting his silvery golden hair, massive leathern wing covered in yet more golden scales and jewellery, and she can just barely see the tip of his tail swaying idly behind him.
Overall he somewhat looks like a more regal male Raskreia.
Raskreia quickly walks closer to the man but stops at about five feet "Father, I apologize for coming here on such short notice. But it IS good to see you."
This was Raskreia's father Arzirius, now it might be strange for people that know that Raskreia doesn't particularly likes her mother that she is on good terms with her father. This however comes from the fact that her father wasn't at any point for the decision of her mother to have her raised by adoptive parents, he would have personally loved to dote on another child.
Not to mention he had been closer to Raskreia for most of her travels than she had initially realized.
"It is good to see you as well child, you wanted to speak to me in person and here I am."
Something that DOES agitate Raskreia is the fact that no matter how much she has adventured after having first met her father, and even though she is over a hundred and fifty years old now she cant help but feel like a child in her fathers presence.
"Well you see, the situation is as follows…"
Tristania
Louise is seething inwardly. No! seething is something she had been doing hours ago, now she was boiling over.
Her damnable familiar has vanished after having left the ball with Kirche of all people. She asked Kirche where Raskreia was but was told that she had left just after sunrise.
Tabitha had said that she had left through one of those portal she likes to create but beyond that she didn't know where she was currently.
To add insult to injury the princess requested her presence. Of course she answered the summons the very moment she had gotten them. Turns out the princess wanted to send her on a special mission which involved her going under cover and investigating weather or not nobles might be abusing their power upon the commoners.
Which of course she accepted and this leads us to the current situation where she had lost all of her funds provided by Henrietta and is now working at a inn that would be right at home in the red-light district.
She was currently shouting at a patron that decided it was a good idea to grab at her bum, which he was now regretting ever doing.
All in all she wished her familiar was here to share in her pain, but Louise had a feeling that that woman wouldn't really mind being in such a locale as this.
Albion
The floating island of Albion once was a shining example of the nobility of these lands, they were everything that all nobles aspired to be to some degree. Which is precisely the reason why enticing a rebellion here was rather easy.
At least this is what Cromwell is thinking as yet another settlement falls under his banner. Though it certainly helps to have a powerful magical treasure on ones side.
Soon Albion will be his and then they shall start unifying the land so that they may retake the holy lands from the elves. This is Cromwell's dream, and he will see it fulfilled even if he has to climb over a mountain of corpses to do so.
He might even become the Brimir of this era.
AN: AND BOOM! another chapter out, I AM NOT DEAD! I know, i know. you will get over it. Well i hope you liked this chapter and stay tuned for how it goes on.