Shattered Star

With a sigh, Cade runs a hand through his hair--which is quickly followed by him batting a flowing lock out of his face.  "W-well, then, ahem," Cade begins stiffly.  "Anastasia...." he pauses, looking for the right words,  "...was a friend.  We only knew one another for... well, about a month, but, she... always kept the interests of others at heart.  Despite her personal turmoils," he continues, "she... she never let them interfere with her relationship, or with... with her duties."  Once again, Cade pauses.  "...By the gods did she endure hardship.  ...Far too proud to speak of it, too, I think.
I have not known her long, but... but I hope that she at least finds peace.  Wherever she is."

Ali chokes back a sob. "I hope wherever she is...it's nice to her" Tears stream down their face as they say that.

As Cade's eulogy comes to a close, there's a sudden loud rustling from the bushes behind the group, followed by a THUD and an "OW!"

Ali dries their tears and pulls out their sword. "Who goes there!? Show yourself, now!"

After a brief pause, a figure crawls out of the bushes. She's clad in steel armor with red-painted accents, a vibrant scarlet plume emerging from the helm, and a heavy-looking steel shield with a scarlet rose painted on the front. While her armor is mostly in impeccable condition, as is the bardiche slung across her back, the front of her helmet has been violently mutilated, covered in long gouges that don't pierce all the way through but leave deep impressions; while they criss-cross all over the front, the most notable are a long and thick gouge over the right eye, one visible chunk of metal gone on the middle of the face, and the left chin melted away. Despite the intimidating appearance of the helmet, there's something awkward in her stance as she rubs her free hand against the back of the helmet bashfully.

"Um... hi? Sorry to interrupt... what is clearly a funeral, which I was spying on. So, uh, also sorry for spying. I didn't mean to... well I sort of did, in that I meant to sneak up on you and find out what you were doing, but if I'd known it was a funeral I would've totally waited respectfully out of earshot until you were finished instead of creeping through the bushes like a weirdo, so, um... sorry?"

"What's a Grey Maiden doing out here, spying on us?" Meliora asks firmly, her bow still at half draw.

"... hunting?" The Maiden says uncertainly. "More specifically I'm hunting other Gray Maidens. Bad ones. I'm one of the good ones. The Order of the Scarlet Rose. That's the good ones, not the bad ones I'm hunting. Not sure if they have a name."

Cade, his eulogy unceremoniously interrupted, flinches away from the noise, but steps back as the Gray Maiden introduces herself.  "...You are quite a ways away from Korvosa," he speaks, moving to the front of the group.  "What are your quarries' crimes, if I may ask?"

"Well, quarry," the Gray Maiden admits. "One in particular. As for her crimes, kidnapping, torture, brainwashing. It's admittedly more a personal mission than that of my order but tracking down rogue Gray Maidens is one of the many things we do and she's gathered up her own personal little squad of them. So it's not, like, just a revenge quest. Just mostly a revenge quest."

"...Quite," Cade replies after an awkward silence.  "...Well, as it so happens, we came across what appeared to be insignia belonging to the Gray Maidens inside the Lady's Light," Cade directs, pointing to the monument, "however, we then encountered... complications." He glances back to the corpse of his fallen comrade.  "...I would happily direct you to where we found the markings," he offers, "provided we... see our friend off properly."

"Right, you guys were in the middle of... right." The Gray Maiden bows her head slightly, clearly uncomfortable. "You handle that, it's important. I'll just... be... over here."

Now with an awkward audience, the party carefully places Anastasia's body onto the pyre and set it ablaze.  For the next hour in the rising sunlight, the party solemnly tends to both fires as their Gray Maiden looker-on waits for the ceremony to end.  After the hour, all that is left of both pyres and bodies are nothing but charcoal and ashes.  With their final goodbye said, the party gathers themselves back and reconvenes with the knight-errant.

"...Thank you for your patience," Cade croaks to the Gray Maiden, breaking the party's collective silence.  "We'll see you to where we found the insignia.  --Oh, and uh," he adds hastily after turning around, "don't mind the golem, it's... friendly enough."

The Maiden turns her head and sees the golem for the first time. "O-oh. Uh... hi?" She approaches it and extends a tentative hand. "I'm, uh, I'm Zoey?"

The golem offers no response.

Asami just raises an eyebrow as Eiko lets out a giggle. "Silly, the golem doesn't talk. It mostly just smashes things, but it won't smash anything unless Mr. Cade tells it to in that funny language he learned to speak after he was transformed," She explains, skipping in Zoey's direction. "I'm Eiko, and that's my mommy over there," She introduces herself, pointing in Asami's direction.

Zoey stares at Eiko for a second, then leans down. She doesn't have to lean far to be at eye level with the child, emphasizing despite the size her armor gives her that she's actually fairly small. "Well I've never met a golem, so I couldn't know. Thank you for telling me Eiko." Her voice is warm and courteous, but when she looks up at Asami there's a bit of a chill, and although her expression isn't visible she doesn't seem happy.

With the grim task of the funeral over, the group descends back into the Lady's Light with their newfound companion. They are able to easily navigate back the way they came. When the group happens upon the grave site of the Gray Maidens, Zoey stops them for a moment.

Zoey approaches the graves and kneels down, touching two fingers to her lips and then to each of the shields. "Rest well, sisters. May you know an end to your suffering."

Silence hangs in the air as the Gray Maiden offers peace to her fallen comrades, yet after a few minutes Cade awkwardly attempts to break it in curiosity.  "...S-So," he attempts, unsure where to begin with Zoey, "is there a... reason why a contingent of Ileosa's personal army--f-former personal army," he adds hastily, "w-would meet their end here?  'Tis a fair distance from your homeland of Korvosa..."

Zoey's quiet for a bit, eyes closed as she runs a hand down one of the shields. "... after the rebellion and Ileosa's death, there was a schism. Those of us who followed out of fear stayed to help protect the city, make things better. Those who were genuinely loyal, or too brainwashed for there to be a difference, declared us traitors and enemies, and left. I know most of them have found a home in Cheliax, but a few cells splintered off, becoming mercenaries or bandits. The group holed up here is one of those."

"...I see," Cade nods hesitantly in response.  "Then... I take it there are more renegade Gray Maidens still within the area?" he prods, trying to gently coax the situation from the grieving Maiden.

"Probably," Zoey replies softly. "And I'll send the traitors to graves much like these ones." She stands, brushing the dust off of her knees. "Let's go."

Not wanting to spend much time in the room where Anastasia died, they move quickly to the next chamber. A row of marble pillars, each carved to resemble a beautiful woman, supports the ceiling of this long curving hallway, although the pillar closest to the western door seems to be missing its head. As the glass golem advances first into the hall, one of the remaining marble column heads sprouts several stone, insect-like legs and begins to attack. The other heads quickly follow suit.

Skittering through the halls, the party quickly takes their positions and begins fending off the disturbing automata.  Ali, Eiko and Asami surge forward to meet them as Meliora, Cade and Zoey stay back to provide support.  While Meliora's and Zoey's arrows strike true, Cade finds his magic ineffective against the alabaster sentries, and with the fighting moving into tight corridors the golem hesitates in its movements.  Thankfully, Ali's impressive strength and steel smash through the automatons with surprising ease, and soon the corridor is cleared.

The group advances down the hallway to next chamber. A pair of columns carved to resemble Sorshen flank a fifteen-foot-wide alcove in the west wall of this forty-foot long hall. A mural of Sorshen standing atop a towering pyramid is painted on the wall of the alcove, but it, like the walls and floor of the hall, is splashed with blood. Standing near the center of the room is an undeniably handsome but fiendish looking man. He grins with sadistic delight as the group enters his view. "Well hello! I see some lovely ladies here. Business or pleasure?"