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Old 03-27-2021, 07:34 AM   #69
Stomoxys
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Default Day 196 since leaving The Homeland

With my companions unconscious, the camp was quiet so I decided to investigate Odon's tent. One of their followers was standing outside, but made no effort to keep me from entering. Nyra was still lying comatose on the bed with one of the followers giving them their blood. A screen at the back separated the room from the inner parts of the tent and shelves and tables with mystical artifacts lined the tent walls. A stack of parchment sheets covered with strange figures immediately caught my eyes. There were about thirty of them and and I could not figure out what the figures were supposed to represent. Perhaps some kind of geometrical shapes or a new writing system or something more esoteric. While I was studying them, tracing out the shapes and trying decipher their meaning, I heard someone entering the tent and carefully put them back.

One of Odon's followers entered entered the tent and stared at the blood donor for a while. I think the were communicating, but I could not detect any of them using magic. After staring at each other for about half a minute, they exchanged places and transferred the transparent tube to the arm of the new donor. At the end of the tube was an incredibly fine needle that they carefully inserted into a vein in the new donor's arm. I do not think I have seen so fine metalwork before except a few exquisite pieces of gold jewelry. However, this needle appeared to be made of some hard metal like steel.

Besides the parchments, there were also a large number of crystals, stones, and flasks in the room, including the bottle of accidents I had given to Odon. Many of the items were magical, especially a collection of star stones like those at the Azura temple and the star circles. These contained more energy and shone much brighter than the ones I have seen before and it almost felt like looking at a star. I will have to experiment with my own stone later. Unfortunately, Paulon entered looking displeased as usual, and got one of the followers to escort me out.

Not much had changed outside and Grogg. Grogg was still lying in their ditch and was mumbling something in their own language. The only word I could make out was 'Orga', which sounded like it was incorporated into a number of compound words. Perhaps I should get Grogg to teach me their language. It is much nicer to listen to than the other apeoid tongues and sounds almost like singing. At the moment, however, Arani would be a much more useful language to master and I set out to see if any of Odon's followers could help. Eventually, I found one that responded to Arani and I tried to explain that I needed to master the language and wondered if they had any reading material. They clearly understood what I said because they left and came back with a book.

The book was handwritten with detailed illustrations and must have been quite costly. It turned out to be a collection of fairy tales about some human prince. On the first page was an illustration of the prince riding on a lion, but the lion was smaller than Mir's lions and appeared to be a reddish brown instead of pale gold. The prince's clothing reminded me of those seen in Darwan's illusion, indicating that the book originated somewhere to the south. Leafing through the book, I stopped at an illustration and looked over my shoulder to make sure Nuur-Karif and Grogg were not nearby. In the illustration, the prince was fighting with something that looked like a big snake, about two and a half times longer than the prince, with short, stubby wings. The snake was spewing something from its mouth at the prince and reminded me of the apeoids' description of dragons and Grogg's claim that snakes were young dragons. Snakes are obviously not dragons, but Grogg knows more about them than anyone, so perhaps there is some connection. Nothing good would come from starting another theological discusion between Nuur-Karif and Grogg though.

Paulon had gone out through the whirlwind a short time after they had me thrown out of the tent and now they came back carrying a bolt meant for the ballista. Yana had been preparing lunch and Wolfram and Grogg appeared again. Wolfram had apparently come to their senses while they slept and now agreed that we should send Kra with a message to Gromann and Pakk and we could wait for them while Wolfram and Grogg recuperated. I agreed and suggested that we could send a message with the priests of Tsovin and Vagan to The Evening Fortress if it was worded opaquely.

I started drafting a message while Wolfram and Grogg discussed how fast Kra could fly. Grogg insisted Kra could reach Pakk and Gromann in the swamp in a couple of days since they once fetched Trollnip in a couple of days. They had to confess they did not know how far Kra had flown, but handed me the plant after taking a deep drag. Their eyes glazed over for a few seconds, though I did not notice anything besides a somewhat pleasant, spicy smell. From what I can tell, the plant belongs in poor soil and according to Grogg it grows in the mountains, which seems plausible, though I would not be surprised if I found it in a shady crevice in the stone desert.

Nyra entered the tent while we were talking, carrying a large platter of elaborately prepared fruit. They looked frail, but stumbled over to Grogg and presented the fruits and thanked them for saving their life. Grogg accepted and started stuffing themselves while Nyra reluctantly agreed to sit down. I got the impression they considered it dishonorable to sit down, but they were barely able to stand upright and passed out before they reached the chair. Luckily, Wolfram was able to catch Nyra before they fell and handed them over to Grogg. Wolfram did not look like they were in any shape to carry anyone. Grogg, on the other hand, lifted Nyra up on their should with little effort and I followed them outside.

Odon was standing in front of their tent, but came running when they saw Nyra. Four of their followers were standing around, but all of them snapped to attention, while Odon rushed Nyra back to their bed. Grogg and I followed and saw how Odon's followers started a new blood donation while Odon used some kind of magic. Whatever they were doing, it seemed to work, because the colour lowly returned to Nyra's pale cheeks.

There were no signs of the silver needle, prompting Grogg to ask about it. Odon looked pensive for a second before motioning for us to follow them further into the tent. Behind the first screen was a room that contained something that looked like an enormous spirit shard. I could see it with my bare eyes and I sensed that it was strongly magical, but at the same time, it felt like it muffled the world around itself. I could not sense any demonic presence from it, but Odon paid it no heed and walked through a second screen.

The innermost room in the tent was full of books and scrolls in what looked like many different languages. However, the centerpiece of the room was a glass cloche containing an apeoid heart. It looked perfectly fresh as if it had just been removed from a body, but there was no blood and it lay perfectly still with Grogg's needle sticking out of the left ventricle. Odon said Nyra's fleeting life would end if their heart was not returned to them soon and asked us what we knew about the needle. It was a bit unclear what they wanted to know, but they clarified they thought the heart was exhausted. From our experience, the needle restores fatigue very quickly, so the heart should be ready to be returned to Nyra.

We were ushered out of the tent and Odon did not want any help. When I pointed out I could provide them with star energy, they only muttered that they should have known that earlier, but now the tent needed to be completely clean. We were left outside, as the traffic in and out of the tent grew frantic before quickly subsiding again. My companions still needed rest, so I fetched the Arani book and sat down outside to observe Odon's tent.
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