Hera very clearly had a magnificent sense of direction around the city as she made her way as fast as she could possibly go to the front gates of the fortress, taking the quickest possible route to be in front of those silver gates.
it was when Hera reached those gates and stopped that both Lewis and Daisy where finally able to reach her in a panting and sweaty mess, clearly having to overly exert themselves in the chase after Hera, unsure if they should let Hera get near the fortress. After all, Hera could have been massively mentally messed up during her time as a goat. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that Olga would cause aftereffects to her curses.
Lewis in his slightly exhausted state, having spent the majority of the day walking and now a good deal of the evening running, walked up to Hera and said, panting in between every single little breath he said, clearly drained of most of his energy.
"Hey... Hey... Can you just stay still for a second, we just need some time... To... Breathe..."
Hera turned back to face both Lewis and Daisy and slightly smiled as she clapped her hands, clearly a sign of her planning to exert a small amount of her apparently endless energy on some session of ranting or perhaps she'd use it make a singular powerful statement. Only time would tell what she did, which well, it did, for Hera spoke.
"Oh, hi! Hope your well. I didn't realize you followed me."
It was there that Hera's words began to slightly stop and her mouth hung open as she began to scream incredibly loudly and nigh without a break, just screaming much like a capra. Lewis realized as she was screaming that she must have clearly been affected by the curse placed upon her before. Which honestly one had to slightly credit the sorcerer queen for that added effect.
It was there as Hera screamed much like a goat trying to recite the entirety of an actor's career that Hera personally got lucky and those behind her became unlucky. For apparently, a blond woman, a slightly blue haired woman, and a old man wearing some sort of leather cap were pacing around the edges of the fortress and happened to past by the gate and hear the screams of Hera. Which, or course intrigued them enough to investigate and the blond woman of the trio said, shouting full of joy and bloody excitement.
"By! Celestine! Your back Hera! We thought we lost you! I nearly had a knight's funeral arranged for you. So c'mon, Beardsley open up the gates, we have Hera back."
Lewis got the general vibe that the blond woman was probably the Alicia he had heard about from Hera when she was brought out of her form as a Capra. Now Alicia herself was quite something going off her armor which was incredibly weird and served by the looks of it, no purpose beyond a fashion purpose. Now, next to her and moving to open the gate was the old man, who Lewis was now able to identify as Beardsley. He looked incredibly pissed at Hera being back, perhaps they didn't get along or something like that.
As the gates opened up, Daisy began to slightly back away most likely realizing that it was a bad idea to be there, considering the current state of Hera and her mental conditions, and well, if someone was to be blamed for a faulty recovery. It was most definitely going to be Daisy. so, out of fear, Daisy quietly ran away to a nearby establishment of some sort, leaving Lewis behind.
Hera herself said as the gates opened, rushing past where the gates once were to hug onto Alicia, who herself looked joyful to have what Lewis could only assume to be a dear friend. That was changed when Hera spoke and said.
"I have some terrifying news for you! During my time as a capra, I received several visions from the sorcerer queen... Um, Ali, did you happen to hire any mercenaries recently? anybody by the name of Vault? Or vult?"
Alicia looked a little confused as she said, pausing the hug and slowly bringing her hand over to the hilt of her rapier, just in case Hera was in fact some sort of Trojan horse made by the sorcerer queen Olga.
"I didn't, Maia did, around 16 days ago, they should be stocking up on rations and gear, a real boon to the smiths I'd say. Why exactly do you ask? Are you alright, I'm worried Hera? Who's the man by you?"
Hera in a slightly manic state, clearly starting to panic a little about the unknown or possibly the known, was quick to say, her tone fragile, much like glass under pressure, yet much like breaking glass, sharp.
"I'm not alright! things are bad, very bad!"
About seven feet from Alicia, on her right was her loyal adviser Beardsley, who looked slightly concerned by Hera's ranting and general manic state. Hera, upon seeing him froze her talking and began to try and reach for her sword, which wasn't there by her thigh.
It was this time Lewis, chose to introduce himself and say, walking in front of Hera, in some desperate attempt to calm things down, thinking Hera might be a little stressed out with the whole uncursing thing and whatnot.
"Hi, my name is Lewis and I'm from Kent. So, how is-"
Before Lewis could ask how everyone was doing, Hera gained some ounce of confidence back from her frozen stare at the Adviser known as Beardsley and said, proclaiming in a fiery rage, pointing her armored fist at him, even as he looked absolutely bewildered.
"You... You! You coward! you bastard! Was this some attempt to get Ali in your bed? Did you think they'd just let you keep her!"
Hera in only a few moments switched over to Alicia and shouted, her eyes slightly weeping as she nigh began to collapse on her knees.
"Get him! He's... going to ki... Kill you! Move Ali! Move!"
Beardsley in a similar vein as to Lewis, said descending down a few of the steps, reached out faintly to Hera, offering his hand to bring her up off the ground. something that Hera refused and tried to punch him. Which in her current condition, she missed.
"Miss, Arcturus, I do believe our dear Hera, is being effected by the curse still, she's delirious. It's possible that her curse has been swapped out for another."
Lewis felt like he was about to be thrown under the bus here, so as a counter measure he chose to chime in and say, hoping to clear up some details that just have pushed under the rug.
"No, she's definitely curse free, I had one of those... Magic nuns fix her up, she's good. I think, not entirely sure though. So, uh, I think she's fine"
Alicia who was surely starting to believe the theory hinted at by her loyal adviser, chose to intervene in a fashion again much similar to that Lewis attempted before.
"So, Lewis, if that is your real name, tell me, why exactly did you join Hera here on her return? And if I may inquire, would you mind just taking a quick truth spell? After all, you are rather suspicious, coming along with Hera and claiming you are from some place known as Kent?" Alicia as she finished speaking, whistled out a strange tune, sounding like a whale and a dolphin call all mixed into one sound. From this sound, a group of 20 or so heavily armored guards arrived, one of which with a strange device shaped like a compass.
Lewis suddenly feeling like he was about to be interrogated decided to attempt to say something but was quickly interrupted by Beardsley, who said to the guards.
"10 of you, grab Hera and try and take her somewhere safe and where she can't inflict any harm to herself or others." After giving the orders to the guards, 10 of them went over to Hera and roughly grabbed onto her and began dragging her away, as she wept and shouted out a mixture of insults towards Beardsley and begging for Alicia to see reason, where Hera had poorly articulated.
Lewis in this position of slight pressure began to try and speak but was once again interrupted, this time by Alicia who said, slightly looming over him as the guards set up the device rather slowly.
"don't say anything, not till the artifact is properly set up. We don't want it to get tainted" it seemed like Alicia's opinion of Lewis was already very low.
Across Feoh, in a small tavern, actually the smallest and largest tavern, as it was the only tavern in all of Feoh, mostly due to a recent church edict banning all consumption of all not church mandated alcohol. Which had sadly closed a great majority of establishments. There in this tavern, at a rather small line at the front desk was Tim, waiting to be able to reserve a room for him and the lovely lad known as Lewis.
Tim had been in line for around 30-40 minutes, the line was the same as before, around only three people in length, including Tim, it would be four. The reason why Tim had been in this line for as long as he had been was simple, the couple at the front of the line were going through an entire essay of complaints and issues they'd had with the tavern and its room service.
This essay of complaints had so far covered; lighting, candles, bed design, lack of celestine imagery, the lack of scenic imagery from the window, the window design, the lack of experience in the staff, the lackluster food, and finally, the lack of general excitement produced from the tavern's decor.
The person at the desk was a young man, only around 20 or so, who actively looked like he was debating getting into sword tasting or perhaps the noose market. Eventually, the couple exhausted the ammunition of their barrage and left, undoubtedly leaving behind more damage to the 'excitement' than the tavern could have ever produced. But finally, Tim was able to walk up to the desk and say that he wanted a room, for two people him and Lewis, but he lingered a little bit before speaking. If the curse on Hera was lifted then that would mean they'd have to get three beds and that this tavern was most likely not the sort to have three-bed rooms, perhaps Hera could share a bed or sleep on the ground. Tim's inability to say anything at this moment caused the depressed looking man at the desk to blankly say.
"Are you mute? If so, consult the healers at the cathedral to heal your throat, I can't do that for you."
Tim realized that he had gone too long without saying anything as he was trapped in his thoughts, so he prepared his throat by briefly coughing to clear his throat, just in case. So, with everything prepared he began to utter a greetings, and! Almost as if bloody Celestine chose to intervene, the tavern door cracked open and fell down, from its fall came a women dressed in nothing but lingerie and dark purple flowers, who was quick to announce with a hearty laugh.
"I'm back! and john! Oh, john. I brought the mark you asked for me to bring next time. You know the one that you, I quote 'needed in order to be serviced as I am a spawn of evil and darkness' well! Guess what! I got a mark of protection from Prim! You hear me! Prim!"
The man at the desk who Tim was now easily able to identify as John let out a sigh and said, clearly giving up on everything he had ever known and seen, every dream and every sunset yet to be. Which seemed commonplace as the rest of the line left through the broken door, moving past the mostly nude woman dressed only scandalous attire
"Miss, I just wanted a mark of safety registered at the cathedral, you didn't need to go to the Princess for this, but fine, you can stay. Pick a table... So, back to you, lad"
Tim once again was broken out of his thoughts, albeit this time those thoughts were directed at the naked woman who had just knocked down the door and was currently walking into the general table section of the tavern and by the looks of it trying to flirt with one of the waiters, already. Tim, said, being able to speak, after all he was very much overprepared to speak.
"Hey, the name is Tim and I'd like to inquire about getting a room with two bed and a half-way decent rug"
Back across that of beautiful Feoh, there stood 11 people in a night garden clearing, one of these people was Lewis. Now, Lewis for the past 20 or so odd minutes had been waiting patiently in this elegant night garden square for the guards and Alicia to get the device set up. Apparently, the artifact as they called it was a lie detector, they had explained its entire deal after the 10-minute mark, mostly because they believed they had been able to set it up. so, they were a tad humiliated when the artifact failed to work after they had explained everything.
Now the artifact itself was a strange thing, it was a small compass, inside was an arrow that pointed towards two colored sides, one side of the compass was red and the other a green, the arrow randomly switched between the two sides every three to five seconds. Apparently, to set it up one had to say a completely factional thing to it, the problem of course became, that everything that being uttered to it was too vague or reliant on naming. For instance, Alicia tried to set it up by saying 'Some flowers only bloom sometimes of day.' And the device refused to activate.
Eventually, after five or so minutes of further efforts, the device was deemed as 'Not wanting to comply' which apparently caused Beardsley to whisper something to a guard and walk over to Alicia and say to her, in well ear shot of Lewis. Perhaps ok purpose or not, the result was much the same.
"I do believe, Mister Lewis's presence may be dark in nature, for this holy artifact refuses to function. It may be best if we lock him up just for a night or two, for the city's security."
Alicia nodded at this report or well theory made by Beardsley and Lewis very much wanted to say something but well, he knew very well from a show he used to watch, 'anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law' so Lewis stayed quiet and tried his best to avoid agitating the guards as they picked him up with surprising ease and began carrying him to the royal dungeons of Feoh's fortress.
Daisy had been running and running for a while, she had not turned back since darting out of sight from the guards. She knew that they knew about her theories, about her brief protest outside the fortress regarding the little red men that terrorize the wheat fields. They knew.
She was still very much wearing her nun uniform and well, people did stare at her panicked running through the streets, but most assumed she was late to something or was practicing for some clerical duty. After all, a surprising amount of Feoh's nuns hold annual contests of strength and perception.
Daisy stopped her running after ran into a dead end, an alley way. So she prepared herself for death as she turned around and spotted, nothing. Not even the Lewis fellow. Daisy felt disappointed in the guards to be completely honest, they all just latched onto Lewis and forgot about her? Really? Did they just forget she was there? Most do.
Well, Daisy shouldn't be one to complain about a blessing, instead she looked for a safe place to hide that wasn't an alleyway... Which she had to note, this alleyway she found was very interesting, it had some sort of wooden tub on its side and a small pile of panties and flowers by it. some sort of Fairy or Fox was living here, most surely. anyway, Daisy moved on and left the alleyway and entered a nearby tavern. Which had its door knocked off its hinges and laying inwards on the ground. Strange decoration.
Daisy passed by two men arguing over room prices and the cost of a rug and went to go sit down at a table, trying her best to look respectable. It was there in this attempt that the most suspicious woman, daisy had ever seen sat at her table. This woman wore nothing but flowers and a bra, also a black and purple cape, and smelled like grass and luxury perfume. This suspicious purple haired woman said, in a somewhat soft but strangely serious tone.
"Greetings. I'm guessing your name is daisy, that's a lovely name. I am Radomira, currently thriving in the past. So! So! You wanna help me out? I might be able to offer you some 'favors' in case you wanna lose that chastity and stuff? So please come on, help."
Daisy out of basic instinct shook her head and began to prepare to get up and not say a word to this woman but Radomira said something quickly upon seeing the general signs of refusal.
"Irs not sexual or murder! the favor could be if you want! If that's what your worried about, I just want you to be someone I can rant at, I sort of ran out of people to complain at and Prim refuses to endure my rants. So I beg of you stay, oh! I can make it worth your time! I can tell your future? Or give you money? "
It was up on hearing about money that Daisy sat right back down and began to fold her arms and get comfy, preparing for a rant, with the full knowledge that she would be paid to listen.
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