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Sivetrys's adventuring party meets the blue girls
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Umakhi is dissociating! Pretty badly!

When she sees Zan looking at her, she starts signing rapidly. 

It's been about four hours. Rids and Vakt are dead, we have both bodies, Rids will need a Resurrection. We're safe here, the elf is in disguise but is an ally, she's a sixth circle sorceress, speaks Celestial and Taldane but not Tianji, rescued us. We landed on a demilich, it dominated Rids, feebleminded you, made Rids cast Icy Prison on Vakt, I caused a cave-in, we barely escaped, got rescued by the sorceress and her party who were nearby. Rids - Rids - 

...huh, her hands are shaking so badly she can't sign, that's weird. And her heartbeat is so loud

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Oh no. (A small sob escapes her throat. It's heartbreaking, seeing them both like this, she doesn't know what to do-)

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...she closes her eyes and forces herself to take a deep breath. Too much is at stake for a careless mistake. Her family needs her.

The immediate concerns:

  • Luto is calming down a bit in her arms. Not as much as Zan would like, not enough that she's okay, but enough to get by. She feels guilty about the others dying, which is both unfair to her and unsurprising.
  • Uma is doing really badly. It'll get worse if she keeps trying to give Zan a sitrep; that's hurting her and she can't tell.
  • The sixth-circle sorceress ally is in disguise for some reason - probably this isn't a great place for an extended conversation.
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She blinks away her tears.

Angel, angel, that's enough for now, she signs to Uma. Take a deep breath for me? You don't need to push yourself. It's going to be okay.

She turns to the elf who is a disguised sixth-circle sorceress. "I'm Zan. It's a pleasure to properly meet you - I have much to thank you for, apparently. I think it'd be good if we could get somewhere more private to decompress for a bit. Is there an inn nearby?" 

(At no point during any of this does she let go of Luto).

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The elf nods evenly. "Jivandria. A pleasure to have you back to yourself. A room's been arranged for you at The Honorable Vagabond," she then says, apparently entirely unaffected by this 'affection' and 'emotion' business.

(Downside to her scheming: wow uh, turns out it's a little uncomfortable to not be herself with the allied party that is regaining members and having obvious emotional reactions about it?? She doesn't exactly regret anything, having a secret teleporter identity is still on the whole smart, and this whole affair is going to be great for her cover, but - well. There are emotional downsides.

Also: no room has been arranged, but that is where the other party is staying. And she's totally going to just buy them a room.)

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Zan picks up on the buried discomfort, though she isn't sure what exactly it means, yet - maybe something to do with the disguise? a cultural thing about public distress, maybe? (Luto wouldn't be tracking that now, probably, it's only been four hours and she's really hurting...)

She squeezes Luto and pats her as a warning before she lets go, transitioning smoothly into a formal bow. 

"Then let us make for The Honorable Vagabond," she says, and despite the situation, there's an easy warmth and confidence in her voice. 

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Jivandria gives an incline of her head, politely thanks the cleric responsible for the Heal for her time, and then will in fact lead the way to the inn in question.

The Honorable Vagabond turns out to be a very upscale adventurer inn; it is in fact more than just 'a room.' It's the sort of place with a party suite, with a couple side rooms for sleeping, or item crafting, or other adventurer downtime activities, and a centralized room for planning and gathering. Also, they do not in fact have anything pre-arranged, but Jivandria asks for a specific section of the inn (that is next to where her own party is housed) and pays for it through the week without any kind of fuss.

(Look, it's just not a particularly large expense when one is a teleporting, item crafting sorcerer-baroness. And these people have been through a lot already.)

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Zan has two hands and two members of her family with her, so she's holding both of their hands as they move to the inn.

She raises an eyebrow when 'Jivandria' just buys a (rather upscale!) suite for them right in front of their faces. 

When they make it to their suite, she turns to their mysterious elf ally. "Will you be joining us in these lavish environs, or should we come find you once we've caught up?"

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"I can help you get settled in," she says, which is not the same thing as staying, now is it. Mysterious elf ally sure is mysterious.

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But once they're inside she stops being an elf, and starts being a much more animated half-elf.

"Hi, sorry about that, I, for inscrutable sorcerer reasons, am running a lot of my teleport sales out of a fake identity, and that identity has been to Highhelm and I as myself have not. Sivetrys, pleasure to properly meet you."

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Zan's face lights up at the transformation.

 "Ah! Uma mentioned you were in disguise," and she has some guesses as to what the inscrutable reasons are but that can wait, "and I'm delighted to meet you. Thank you so much for getting me back to health and for looking after my family," (She squeezes Uma and Luto against her sides affectionately) "while I couldn't."

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Luto is clearly embarrassed, but not in a surprised way. Zan is just Like This.

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(...the physical contact is grounding, which is good, because Uma is not very grounded right now.)

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"I and my party are really just glad we were in the right place to help, but you're quite welcome," says Sivetrys, with absolute sincerity. "It seems like Uma explained some things to you, but I'm not sure what you're aware of yet? The demilich responsible for the situation is dead, and in the middle of becoming permanently dead right now." If he's not already permanently dead already. It's Ekundayo, he's very efficient. "Nothing is an immediate emergency anymore."

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Zan nods. "She gave me the basics, yeah. ...If nothing's urgent, I'd like meet the rest of your party and then discuss next steps once we've had a chance to decompress together?"

Her eyes and face (neither of which Uma is tracking, of course) make it clear she's very worried about her poor alchemist.

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Yep!! So reasonable! Sivetrys is also a little concerned about Uma, but does not have the relationship established with her to properly help. (Though she has helped how she can.)

"Absolutely," she agrees. "My party is right down the hall, I got you a suite next to ours. Number 7, on the left. I might personally be out, I've got a - an errand to run in Absalom, that I need to get to before dawn." Her own party's not-immediate-emergency, actually. Which is so incredibly not their problem, and she is not making it their problem in the slightest, but she will be honest about it happening. "But I can hold off for a little while if you expect to need something from there in particular." Most obvious emergency is the two dead party members, which: "- I expect sourcing diamonds to be significantly cheaper here, if not necessarily faster, and I can have Jubilost start asking diamond pricing questions for you, if you like, I don't think he has anything planned in particular."

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 "If Jubilost is amenable to checking on diamond sourcing, that would be lovely. We'll need to head to a temple of Abadar to get the funds once we're done here, but I don't expect that to be hard." And... "I don't think we urgently need anything from Absalom, but once we've stabilized a bit I expect we'll be eager to help you with that errand, if we can." She definitely noticed the way Luto and even Uma relaxed a bit when Sivetrys dropped her identity, which is telling, and in four hours she can't have not noticed how absurdly well-read Uma is.

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"Hopefully the errand will be as short and easy as a quick calling, but, well. We'll see. Thank you."

And then it's back being helpful!

"The major temple of Abadar is on the level above us, on the Eastern side of King's Crown - it's literally called East End if you ask for directions. There's a smaller temple on this level near the central staircase of Highhelm, but they won't be able to personally exchange large amounts of money without a runner or a Sending, and the price for runners to different levels is, uh. Comparatively high." What with all of the fucking stairs. "I recommend just flying to the main one yourself, if you can."

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 "Noted and appreciated," (she looks at Uma, who is already signing something short), "Uma can mix me up a flight infusion, so that's handled."

She reaches out for a handshake, smiling warmly. "Thanks again for everything. I wish the circumstances were less turbulant, but we're obviously very lucky to have met you, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better."

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Sivetrys beams and shakes her hand. "You're quite welcome. The more people alive and well on the side of 'Not Evil,' the better, yeah? Looking forward to getting to know you better, too."

And then she'll head out and give them space to decompress. (And sweet talk Jubilost into researching diamond prices. Hmmm, probably she can pitch this as one of his potential primers, an inside look into how the diamond industry cuts its spell components, maybe...)

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As soon as Sivetrys is gone Zan pulls them both into a tight hug, eyes watering. "I love you both so much. You've been so brave. It's going to be okay. ...Angel, we can go through the details on what happened later, just let me hold you both for now, okay?"

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Uma sobs, clinging to Zan desperately.

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Oh no, she hadn't realized how badly Uma had been bottling her pain, but of course now it's coming back... "W-we'll get them both back soon, Uma, it's going to be okay, and I'm so sorry for,"  

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She opens her mouth to object, but -

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"No!" she's still whispering, but her voice is fierce. "Luto - it was a Dominate - there was nothing you could have done," 

She's sobbing into Zan's shoulder, and clutching them both tightly. She keeps seeing - Ridaya's undead body - 

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