Shattered Star

Cade looks frazzled and heartbroken.  He jaw is rigidly clenched in anger, and his glasses hang askew from his face.  A tense, awkward silence hangs in the air as everyone tries to find something to say.

"...Tell us everything you know about the Crow." Cade croaks to Cecilia, breaking the long silence.  His voice is unsteady with emotion and exhaustion.  "The Star is an ancient artifact of unknown potential--we can not afford to have it fall into the wrong hands."  At this, Cade reaches into his bag and pulls out a set of ink and paper, ready to record anything of note.

Ali places a hand on Cade's shoulder. "I agree but we're in no shape to go after it tonight...We're tired and upset and that leads to mistakes. We should rest and recuperate. Maybe a time out would be good for us all. Get to know each other and strengthen our ties..." Ali contemplates a moment, "We all still need to bathe after all that unpleasantness in the sewers. Maybe a bath is in order first."

”You all should probably rest now that I think about the time,” Sheila says, seemingly just now becoming cognizant of her own exhaustion. ”I will have Cecilia give you a report tomorrow morning, and her former associate will be held so you can question her.”

Cecilia nods. ”I can give the report, but I’m not sure how much you can get out of Terisha. She’s too loyal to say much. I’d just take her to the guard and be done with her.”

Sheila looks back to the group. ”That’s up to all of you, I suppose.”

"We should question her anyway," Anastasia says quietly. "Just in case. I'm, uh, I'm gonna just turn in. It's been a long day and I'm tired."

Naomi nods her agreement. "Good to have all the information we can. Rest well Anastasia," She says, before turning her attention to Cade and Ali. "I think I might know a bath-house near here that should still be open, if you both are interested."

Cade glances at Ali and Naomi, then drops his gaze to the floor in sullen thought.  "...I would first head to a chirurgeon," he morosely replies.  "We were all exposed to raw sewage earlier.  I would rather ensure we are of good health before heading off to bathe."

Naomi thinks for a moment. "Less sure about any of the local healers being open. They've probably mostly gone to get dinner or maybe even to bed by now," She says, before giving Cade a wide smile. "Besides, I've spent plenty of time around healers, and I can tell you with mostly certainty that a clean wound is better than an unclean one."

"If you're really concerned, I'd recommend coming by the Temple of Sarenrae in the morning," Anastasia says. "We've got some of the city's most skilled healers. Unfortunately they'll all have retired for the evening."

Cade, just now realizing how late it truly was, looks through one of the study's windows and sees the crescent moon rising in the night sky.  "...You both make fair points," Cade admits through a rigid jaw.  "I suppose a bath would be a better end to this day than the alternative," he continues, still clearly upset.  "Lead the way, Miss Valdemar, and I will follow."

”Before you go, there is the matter of your pay,” Sheila says, pulling out a bag from her desk. ”This bag contains 200 platinum pieces. Considering the day you’ve had I hope you’ll find it appropriate compensation. You’ll likely need it for the challenges to come.”

Ali whistles and takes the cash after Anastasia takes her cut. "I'll hold onto this if no one else has any objections?"

"If it's quite alright, I'd feel more comfortable if we went ahead and divided it up here," Naomi says, with a smile.

Ali shrugs and lets everyone split the cash. She keeps an eye on her cut though.

Once the money is divided up evenly, Naomi, Cade, and Ali set off for the bath-house.

After a brief journey, involving a couple of detours where Naomi swore she wasn't lost, just taking them on the scenic route, the trio finds themselves before a great wooden building, steam rising through vents set into the ceiling. After paying their entry fees, and some extra purchases from Ali, Naomi and the gnoll split off from Cade and shortly there-after find themselves mostly nude and surprisingly alone in a large pool of hot water.

Leaning against one wall of the pool, Naomi lowers herself down to where only her head is above the surface, letting the warmth of the water soak the pain out of her body, as her hair fans out on the water's surface around her.

Ali takes up a spot within conversation distance of Naomi. Now mostly naked, one could see a variety of scars on the gnoll's body. They give a toothy smile to Naomi as they wash up. "Let me know if you need help getting your back" They joke.

"That would actually be lovely, thank you," Naomi says, rising from the water enough to grab the lump of simple lavender-scented soap she'd brought with her. "Would you care for any assistance too?"

Ali is a bit taken aback, not expecting Naomi to actually take up the offer. "Sure, my back gets a bit hard to reach some times," They take Naomi's soap and washes her back with surprising gentleness from such a muscled gnoll. "So how'd you get involved in all this?"

Anastasia trudges home, grateful for the dark of the moonlit night. When she reaches the Temple she immediately heads to her chambers in the basement. It's an empty area, originally intended for emergency overflow when the Temple needs to be used to host refugees or traveling crusaders, but it's more comfortable for her. Once down there, she heads to the baths. She readies one of the tubs and sinks into the resulting scalding water, relishing the painful sensation along her skin.

She soaks for only a minute before reaching for a rough sponge and a block of plain soap, lathering it up and reaching a pink-tinged arm out of the water. Slowly, she runs it along her skin, pressing it in hard to clear off the last remaining grime and dried flecks of blood magic couldn't clear off. And when it's clean, she does it again, this time faster. She switches arms, this time rubbing somewhere in the vicinity between vigorous and frantic, before moving to her face, and then back to the first arm. Over and over she scrubs at her body, going back frequently. The soap eventually loses its lather and the water its warmth, but despite this Anastasia continues to scrub. By the time she finally gives up and tosses the sponge across the room in a fit of frustration, her entire body has been rubbed raw, her skin an uneven, patchy coating of dark pinks and reds.

She stops, taking in a deep breath before standing, drying her body off (and wincing from the roughness of the towel against her skin) before donning a long white nightgown. At last, finally feeling as clean as she knows she's going to feel, she retreats to her room to collapse on her bed.

"My father's a Pathfinder," Naomi explains, practically melting under the gnoll's ministrations. "I recently had a falling out with my family over some differences in opinion, so I figured I'd follow in his footsteps. Was hoping to see the world he keeps talking about in the stories he'd tell when he visited. Wasn't expecting there to be quite so much studying and training first though," She adds, turning as her furred companion finishes to reciprocate the attention. "How about you, what led you to the mercenary life?"

Cade, meanwhile, wastes no time in cleaning himself.  Filling a bucket with scalding water, Cade simply washes his skin clean and scrubs his hair thoroughly, then does so again to make sure nothing was left unclean.  Even with Naomi's magical cleaning trick, Cade could still feel pieces and flecks of things better left unknown, and each time he felt a patch of caked skin or matted hair he scrubs himself harder.  When he feels like he finished what he could, the water that accumulated in the bucket still soured into a disgusting greenish-brown.  Wincing, Cade wrapped himself with a towel and poured the liquid out at a communal runoff.

As the contaminated water sloshed out, the series of events play back in his head.  He saw himself enraptured by the Shard's legacy and history, blind to the threat at arm's length.  He saw himself standing in the study with the rest of the group, speechless at the theft.  He saw himself run through Heidmarch Manor, blindly looking for a thief that vanished long ago.  Each of these scenes causes the wizard to tighten his grip on the bucket, and in a fit of frustration he slams the bucket into the ground.  The sound of hollow wood splashing into a puddle echoes in the night air, followed Cade's uneven breathing.  For a few moments, he stands there, biting his lower lip to keep his composure while he quells the frustration building inside him.  After a few deep breaths, the wizard eventually regains his control, retrieves the bucket and returns to the bath-house.

With his body cleaned, Cade retrieves his spellbook and flips it open to a particular spell.  With a few utterances and gestures, Cade casts a spell similar to Naomi's trick, however with a more practiced hand.  The spell weaves around his belongings, obliterating the grime and filth that caked itself deep into the outfit's fabrics and leathers.  To be safe, the wizard casts the spell a few more times, and when he could no longer see anything expelled from the cloth he snaps his spellbook shut.  Now, finally cleaned and clothed, Cade finds himself alone at the bath-house's entrance.

Ali gives a a small noise of pleasure before answering. "I was training to be a guard, believe it or not. I guess the wanderlust got me though because I didn't wanna stay any longer. Sold my sword to whoever would pay the highest. And now, Lady Sheila is quite the heavy coin purse. I suppose now we gotta stop some jerkbag from making an all powerful relic and doing...whatever he's planning. Nothing good I'm sure," They appear pensive a moment, "Bah, too heavy a subject for now! I've seen you shoot fire from your hands, are you some kind of mage?"

Naomi giggles. "Something like that, though apparently my magic's closer to that of a God-blessed priest than Cade's magic. Apparently some God or other decided to bless me with power to fulfill some plan or other they have. Didn't come without drawbacks though, as apparently that same power is why my arms are the way they are," She says, her eyes sliding over the charcoal-like texture of her lower arms. "Got used to most of it over the years, but the weapon training the Society tried to put me through hurt like you would not believe."

"I know a think or two about brutal training. I got a fair share of scars from it. But that's interesting, about a god blessing you. You don't know why or who?" Ali thinks for a moment, "I don't know much about religion or gods, sorry. Anyway, let's finish up here, water's getting cold."

"Sure. Besides, we don't want to leave Cade waiting, who knows what might happen to that poor boy left to his own devices," Naomi replies, before diving under the water to get the rest of the soap off. Surfacing, she heads for the edge and leverages herself out of the water, reaching for a towel she'd set nearby.