| Players: | None |
|---|---|
| NPCs: | Rusalka and Hadassah |
| GM(s): | Ashe |
| Date of IC Effect: | April 21st, 2008 |
| Location: | Northreach |
| Synopsis: | Hadassah returns to Northreach under the wing of a much more experienced mage — Rusalka. Together, they manage to pinpoint and secure one of the creatures partially responsible for the influenza outbreak. |
Just south of Kalmar Gate, the main road is quite broad and well-traveled, busy with carts and wagons from sunup to sundown. Horses, too, along with the inevitable throng of pedestrians. The district through which this artery runs is a thriving one; alive with homes and businesses, more of the latter near the main street than the former.
The buildings in this district are neither small nor plain; some are simple brick and wood, lightly adorned if at all, while others are made of stone block and wrought-iron trim, not nearly as fine as the manses of Maratha's nobility but grander than many structures in the city.
Much of the traffic on the road is trade-related - caravans coming into Maratha, others departing. Many of the carts, wagons, and traveling groups go east towards the Trade District by way of Dagger Point, rather than heading straight for city center. Others on the road - tinkers and peddlers, travelers seeking some unusual item from the city's huge market square - take the slightly narrower (and much prettier) roads through Garden Front into the bazaar.
Early morning - even earlier this time, and chilly for it - finds mages back in Northreach again, beneath a cloud-dotted sky. The epidemic has neither gone away nor spread; neither has its virulence increased. It is simply a background annoyance to the lives of this district's inhabitants - more evidence of an unnatural origin, not that such was necessary. Thus, while Hadassah was sent back (first for not locating the spell sources she did pick up, and second for sending a first-year student to investigate a potentially dangerous situation), she has not been sent alone.
Rusalka is not terribly pleased at having had to interrupt her research for this assignment, which may have something to do with the brisk pace she sets. The only sounds on the street, aside from birdsong and the distant noises of early traffic on the main road, are produced by their heels on the cobblestones. A small pack swings at Rusalka's side in time with her strides, several other tools of the mage trade tucked into the sash of her very traditional robe. "What year are you, Hadassah?" she asks conversationally, as she comes to a halt at a street corner. The question she doesn't ask is whether Hadassah's crystal has picked up anything - by now, the younger woman should know to supply that information whenever Rusalka stops. They've been working their way across the district for a while now.
Hadassah is appearing considerably more relaxed than the last time she was out here in Northreach, and though her hair is tousled as if she just rolled out of bed the expression on her face is a peaceful one; even her gaunt features and the dark circles under her eyes do not detract from the air of calm that she pervades. Maybe it’s because she’s still tired, or maybe it’s because she doesn’t have Benjamin and Indira to be looking after — together, those two will suck the composure right out anyone (in Hadassah’s opinion, at least). “I’m in my fifth,” she replies absentmindedly as she rotates the crystal in her gloved hands. It /has/ picked up something, but she wants to be absolutely sure before she alerts her elder. When she does, it’s in a much softer voice — almost as though she’s afraid that speaking too loudly might frighten it off. “Rusalka. I think I’m getting a signal. Down the street.”
"Good." She can work with a fifth-year. Rusalka nods brusquely, looking down the street in the direction indicated. "Let me know when we're halfway to it," the mage states, resuming her forward progress - but at a markedly slower pace. It wouldn't do to spook whatever is carrying the glyph. "How good are you with casting walls? We may need one or two." Hopefully Hadassah brought her own spell-casting supplies, because Rusalka has plans for her own. (And if she didn't, someone's going to need talking-to.)
There's only one point source, and it seems more mobile than the first one Hadassah came across before - but it's moving around in a small, localized area.
"Walls." Hadassah can feel her heart already beginning to sink. "I'm— better with Fire, honestly, but I can do it." She just doesn't want to. One of her hands drops to the leather satchel attached to her waist, and she begins to nervously finger one of the straps. Inside, she keeps a small collection of materials for on-the-fly spell-casting that includes a small pouch of brick dust and an even smaller bottle of tar. The brick dust, she decides, will do; even if she can only cast one spell to aid Rusalka, well… one is better than none. "What are you planning?"
"Hm." A brief pause. "Well - although I'm sure you're terribly disappointed - Fire spells really aren't in the plan today." Is that supposed to be humor? Probably, given how very dry her voice is. Rusalka considers the street around them, the buildings and alleyways, as though to factor them into her plan. "For the outbreak to last this long, the spell has to have been bound in a crystal," she replies, addressing the question obliquely. "From what you described - how the spellsource moved - it sounds like the crystal was then put on some sort of animal. If we can cut off even one escape route, /catching/ the animal will be much easier."
"One of the students I was with before mentioned something about a cat." 'Mentioned' is something of an understatement; Benjamin really wanted to take it home with them — and now that Hadassah really stops to think about it, it's probably a good thing they didn't. "We didn't find anything else, so maybe it's embedded in a collar of some kind?"
Rusalka nods to Hadassah. "Or as a pendant on that collar, yes." She glances back down the street, then nods slightly, remembering her own student years and sweeps with similar search-crystals. "This should be about halfway - am I right?" she asks, prompting the student. "It's still there?" In the meantime, she double-checks the bracelet on her arm and gives Hadassah's a not very subtle glance. No sudden failure is a good thing to see.
"Halfway," Hadassah confirms with a short nod. "It hasn't moved. Much." At Rusalka's glance, she turns her gaze downward — to her own bracelet. It's still there, too; after everything she's seen and heard, she isn't about to take any chances. Her fingers dance over the satchel's buckle, readying. "Just tell me what to do."
"All right." Rusalka doesn't answer right away, but folds her hands, bringing them up in front of her mouth and contemplating the street through narrowed eyes. Thinking. "We'll assume it is this cat you mentioned. There aren't any alleys right here, so… Do you think you can get on the other side of it without startling it and block off that end of the street when I ask you to?" Lowering her hands, she looks over at Hadassah. "Not before then, mind - I'm going to need some time to prepare."
As Rusalka speaks, Hadassah returns her eyes to the crystal to ensure that their mystery signal isn't going anywhere. She watches the older woman in her peripheral vision and offers her another nod. Not exactly the epitome of confidence here, but what she's being asked to do is simple — in theory, there shouldn't be any issues. "I can."
Rusalka nods again. "Then that's what we'll do." Her eyes flick up the street; then she walks out into it for a ways, perhaps another half of the distance to their target. There, she lowers her pack to the ground and begins pulling out implements. In the middle of the street, perhaps, but there's no one else using it right now. Some are replaced in the pack; the ones Rusalka keeps include two crystals, a small glass bowl wrapped in cloth, a short knife, what looks like a paintbrush, and three different-colored pouches.
Now Hadassah is watching Rusalka again, and keeping the crystal in the corner of her eye. Whether or not they succeed in cornering the signal's source, this is a valuable lesson — and even though she isn't one of the top students at the mage academy, she at least has the sense to know she'd be a fool to let a learning opportunity like this pass her by. She keeps quiet, careful not to disturb Rusalka as she works; there will be time for questions later.
The first thing Rusalka does is slice across the pad of her finger and begin drawing a rather complicated glyphic pattern in the bowl. Blotting her finger on the cloth it had been wrapped in, she uses one of the crystals to fill it with water; when the liquid stills, Hadassah can tell some sort of image is reflected across its top, but it isn't very clear at a distance. Looking over towards where the presumed cat is going about its business - perhaps rummaging in the ornamental bushes for food - Rusalka nods slowly. The water-crystal is left beside the bowl and a pouch and brush picked up instead. Getting back up to her feet, she looks at Hadassah and tips her head towards the far street - get yourself in position. She isn't /quite/ ready yet - but she remembers how long students take to cast spells, too.
Hadassah slowly starts the street, giving the signal the widest berth possible. She even keeps her gaze fixed straight ahead, one hand resting on the main section of the satchel's body — just in case. When she's certain that she's put enough distance between herself, Rusalka and the presumed cat, she adopts a position opposite the older mage on her end of the street. From the satchel, she removes her pouch of brick dust and an ornately-carved stick that looks like it might have been fashioned from a birch branch. Rusalka's assumption is a correct one; even though the spell she has planned is rudimentary magic at its finest, she lacks the experience required to work swiftly. It's going to take her a few minutes.
While Hadassah concentrates on getting her glyph correct, Rusalka begins to decorate her section of the street with a more elaborate version of the same spell. Two copies of it, actually, apparently set at an angle to one another. If they met, they would between them define a corner - but the two translucent-amber barriers do not meet. The far ends stretch to the buildings, while the near ends leave a hole open. In the middle of that hole, Rusalka sets the second crystal, a last sign sketched on its surface with her blood. Most of her implements are left somewhere (hopefully) out of the way, but she keeps one of the pouches with her as she moves over across from where the presumed cat is. The only piece left is Hadassah's wall.
Using a mixture of tar and brick dust (alone, she fears the dust might blow away), Hadassah's stick carves out a glyphic pattern in the dirt that covers the cobblestones underfoot. Fortunately, her shaky hand does not impede the spell; she works at such a slow pace that she has plenty of time to correct any mistakes she might make. This done, she looks up from her sticky creation and motions to Rusalka with a slight tip of her head. Ready.
Rusalka nods to Hadassah. Now. Then she advances on the shrubbery, sweeping her hand through the bushes and shouting to spook out their quarry. Predictably, it bolts. Towards Hadassah.
It is indeed a tabby cat, whose dark-colored collar supports a crystalline pendant.
As the cat tears towards her, Hadassah completes the final stroke of her spell with a swift horizontal motion, cutting the feline off at the pass. Now that her wall is in place, the real work — catching the cat — begins. Thankful that she's wearing gloves, she darts forward at the approaching animal and makes a clumsy grab for it; even if she misses or ends up with a scratch, the spell blocking off her end of the street should (in theory) hold.
All but bouncing off Hadassah's wall, the feline slips through her grasp and tries another route. Buildings? No good. Street? Not much better. Except for that one opening left to it. Rusalka cutting across the street towards it is even more reason for the cat to dash for the route offered - but the moment it passes over the crystal, bright threads unfurl almost as a flower might, forming a cage within which the cat is trapped. The animal yowls loudly in protest, until Rusalka catches up and blows a pinch of powder from the pouch in her hand into its face. Then the cat appears to fall asleep, and all of Rusalka's spells come down. She looks like she'd prefer to do much the same.
When Hadassah eventually catches up to Rusalka, she's huffing and puffing, doubled over with her legs bent and her hands on her knees. She looks from the mage, to the cat and then back again, eyes wide with wonder. Behind her, the final wall drops — not because it's no longer needed, but because the student has lost her concentration in all the excitement. "How did you /do/ that?"
Glancing over to Hadassah, Rusalka snorts softly. "To be perfectly honest, I have more practice at this than I like to admit. I'm used to Peter taking on half of it, though." Yes, they have frequent call for containment spells in their line of work. She picks up the cat, which close inspection reveals isn't exactly a cat - it has stubby fingers on its paws, including thumbs, and its facial structure is just slightly off. "Hm," Rusalka muses, considering the creature. Its collar is embroidered with glyphs, and there's no doubt the crystal holds more within. "Can you hold it while I pick up my things? It's quite safe," she assures the student.
Despite Rusalka's reassurances, Hadassah looks queasy at the prospect. Still, she nods, taking the creature off the other mage's hands without complaint. She, after all, has nothing to pick up; with her satchel dangling from her neck and her stick poking out from one of her robe pockets, she already has everything she needs. As she cradles the cat-thing in her arms, she pinches one of its paws between her index finger and thumb, frowning at what she sees. "What do you think it is, Rusalka?"
"It's a cat," Rusalka replies easily, as she begins to collect her previously discarded implements and return them to her pack. "Slightly Tainted, looks like, but it was originally a cat. That's the thing to remember about Tainted - they came from normal things, once upon a time." Straightening, she slings it over her shoulder. "If they aren't too far along, they sometimes still think and act somewhat like them. Someone chose to use it as a carrier," she adds, a movement of her hand indicating the collar. "I imagine the second source was another like it. Someone will have to locate it later."
Hadassah decides not to ask what will happen to the cat when they arrive back at the academy; despite her earlier revulsion, she has something of a soft spot for animals, and would rather not know what Rusalka's plans are for it. Instead, she tucks her crystal into one of her oversized pockets and begins stroking the tip of her finger along the cat's nose. "I really hope they catch the person who did this."
Rusalka's plan, at the moment, is to take excellent care of the feline and study the spell around its neck. "So do I," she replies. "The first step will be to see if there's any sort of signature in the crystal," she adds, as they begin the walk back to the school. "Whoever set this up… they're /very/ good," Rusalka continues, not without some measure of reluctant admiration. "/Any/ influenza outbreak usually kills /someone/. Children. The elderly. But not /one/ person died from this." Rusalka nods towards the cat. "He didn't just say 'make people sick' - which most experienced mages could do. He specified very exactly every single parameter of the disease." By implication, that's not something any given mage could succeed at.
The implications of this are not lost on Hadassah. As the pair makes their way back to the academy, her mind turns to what /else/ the mage might be able to do. She can think of very few reasons why anyone one want to infect an entire population without killing a single person, and not one of them is compassionate or even benign. Experimentation in preparation for something bigger is at the top of her mind, but she keeps this thought to herself. She's only been studying magic for five years; Rusalka and Peter, with their combined experience, will no doubt get to the bottom of this.
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May 25: Can we Keep it? >>
