Taken aback by the elegant interior before her, Shiva approaches the bottom of the stairs and calls out into the lavish space, "Hello? Mistress?"

Ling follows Caio when Shiva splits off, but not before taunting: "Go get some!" At first, she stays silently at his side, taking a moment to observe Clarissa and her entourage carefully. "He's quite capable, he just likes to play the broody, serious type. Suits him, doesn't it?" Ling answers with a laugh. "But since you brought up frivolity. Do you have a fetish for tieflings?" Grinning, she cocks her head to the side, waiting to see how Clarissa responds to this tone.

She can get anyone to open up.

Caio is glad his voice is much quieter and more agreeable than the others' seem to be. He finally lets his frigid exterior soften a little with a tiny smile as Ling's bubbly nature creates the perfect foil for his more serious demeanor. "I"m actually quite chipper for a shadar-kai." He says this in a feigned, crestfallen tone.

Shiva senses a presence behind her - somebody lurking in the shadows. However, before she can react they're pressed up against her back. One cold hand grips the tiefling's hip, while another caresses her throat.

"Good evening, pet," Mistress whispers in Shiva's ear.

Startled, Shiva tenses and straightens up as she registers the sudden presence. But she then relaxes as the gentle voice of Mistress floats into her ear, pressing herself into the woman's cold grasp. "Hello Mistress....I didn't know when I would see you again..."

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---

Across the city, once Alaris reaches the river they can see the slums of Bednik spread out before them on the far bank. The pinpoint lights of many tiny fires litter the destitute quarter like a field of orange stars. Social hubs for the poor and disenfranchised.

Alaris shuffles across the bridge, gazing at the fires and remembering all the times they'd huddled around them with the other street children of Tanemburg. When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose was their rallying cry as they tucked themselves into corners and crevices, listening and learning... darting out and collecting forgotten things... finding food to share with the family. 

When the paladin had taken their vows, it was with people like these firmly in mind. How did I get from there to where I am now, running with people who can barely stand the sight of me? Maybe I should just come back and live like this... live among my people and destroy whatever it is hunting them...

Across the bridge, Alaris finds their feet on a rough dirt track. Are they going someplace where there's no going back?
Looking back, they can see the soft-limned edges of the temples of the city over the bridges,
There's probably hot soup at one of the campfires on this side.

"Lady,"  they whisper in a prayer, "is it our people maintaining this world order? Families sleeping in huddles in the southwest,
no home, no job, no peace, no rest?"

As they approach one of the fires, they unsling their pack and slump down, tattered cloak fluttering around them. Out of the pack comes some hardtack bread and a bit of sausage. Their mind flashes back again to that dusk years ago when they took their vows. They meditated for days, and wrote their own expressions of loyalty and purpose before coming into Lady Freja's shrine.

"Lady, wherever there's a thug beating somebody,
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries,
Where there is fighting against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me, Lady, I'll be there.
Where there's someone fighting for a place to stand,
A decent job or a helping hand,
Wherever somebody's struggling to be free,
Look in their eyes, Freja, you'll see me."

Now Alaris Forien huddles again in the campfire light. They murmur aloud, "Nobody's kidding anybody about where this life is going. I'm just sitting here down here in the campfire light, with the ghosts of my old friends."

Clarissa smirks back Ling.

"Would you like to find out?" She asks, leaning closer to the sorceress.

"I know," Mistress tells Shiva and the tiefling girl can hear the smirk on her lover's lips. "You were busy today. Did you have fun?"

Alaris blends right in amongst these people - their people. Snippets of conversation float their way here and there as they keep their ears open for words on the wind.

"They came again tonight."

"Why is it always the children?"

"That blasted orc, if my leg was what it used to be I'd show him a thing or two!"

"How many have they taken now?"

Shiva smiles and, slipping into a manner that few seldom witness, turns around to face Mistress. She's bouncy and giddy, her voice soft as her hand comes up to twirl her hair. "I did! So you were watching me, then?" She looks up into Mistress' eyes, their cool darkness reminding her of a crisp autumn night.

Quote from stormchaser6 >>

Alaris blends right in amongst these people - their people. Snippets of conversation float their way here and there as they keep their ears open for words on the wind.

"They came again tonight."

"Why is it always the children?"

"That blasted orc, if my leg was what it used to be I'd show him a thing or two!"

"How many have they taken now?"

Alaris offers a chunk of bread to a bedraggled fellow with brown eyes and a scraggle of beard. "Do you know what is this they speak of? Disappearing children?"

"From a certain point of view," Mistress purrs, the hand around Shiva's throat shifting to grasp the tiefling's hair at the base of her skull as she turns. "You keep dangerous company," she adds with a grin that reveals glistening ivory canines.

"T's'them wild men," the man grunts in return, gladly accepting the offer of a shared meal. "They come out o' the south an' spirit folks away," he explains as he wolfs the hardened loaf down.

Shiva's smile broadens, and she giggles as she answers her Mistress "Yes, it comes with the territory, I guess." Her expression then becomes calmer, and she moves closer into Mistress's space, "May I put my arms around you?" 

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"T's'them wild men," the man grunts in return, gladly accepting the offer of a shared meal. "They come out o' the south an' spirit folks away," he explains as he wolfs the hardened loaf down.

As the conversation progresses, Alaris fits in the following questions, to this fellow or anyone else that approaches. "How often do the 'wild men' come? Do they sneak in or attack? Do they say anything when they come? Do they bear some sigul or symbol? Some sign of who they serve?"

Ling leans in too, then draws back with a smile. "Maybe I would, but..." she sighs dramatically, "it's not what I came here for. You said it's a 'gift', you see things? Other than my beautiful friend and me right now, I mean." She leans her shoulder against Caio, making the two look a little like the cover of a grunge album.

"You know," Clarissa muses, sitting back as she clearly reconsiders her position. "I think I've already given your little band plenty of information this evening. Why don't you show me yours if you want me to show you mine?"

The half-elf tosses her scarlet tresses and gives Ling a sickly sweet smile that she knows all too well.

A predatory hunger engulfs Mistress's features as she sweeps Shiva off her feet, grinding her nose against the tiefling's cobalt neck and carrying her off up the grand staircase.

Alaris drifts from corner to corner around the central fire pit and beyond, slowly piecing together information from Bednik's various denizens.

"Every two or three days."

"Folks get ambushed, dragged off and never seen again."

"Boris said he saw them once, he hasn't been the same since."

"What are orcs doing in Piortgrad?"

Ecstatic joy and overwhelming anticipation flood Shiva's body as she is whisked away in the arms of her vampiric lover. The sudden loss of control to this beautiful woman almost consumes her intentions for having come to Temnitsa in the first place. But as Mistress ascends the staircase, Shiva manages to come back to herself, if only somewhat. 

"Mis...Mistress? Before you take me, I was hoping to ask you a few questions?" Her speech is slow, weighed down by her evident longing.

Mistress keeps walking, carrying Shiva away up the stairs and down another finely decorated corridor. She doesn't talk, but merely waits for Shiva to continue.

Shiva raises an arm up and around Mistress, tucking herself into the woman's neck before speaking, "Is there a name that I may call you by? Or do you prefer Mistress? And I came to Temnitsa tonight to see Clarissa Morgenstern, she seems to know more about me and the nature of my heritage than I ever have. Would you also know of what I come from?" Shiva then begins to plant little kisses on the icy neck before her while audibly panting and writhing, putting on a little show for her Mistress.

The mention of Temnitsa gives Mistress pause and for a moment she stiffens almost imperceptibly.

"You should stay away from Clarissa Morgenstern," she tells Shiva. "Nothing good ever comes of those who don't."

Quote from stormchaser6 >>

Alaris drifts from corner to corner around the central fire pit and beyond, slowly piecing together information from Bednik's various denizens.

"Every two or three days."

"Folks get ambushed, dragged off and never seen again."

"Boris said he saw them once, he hasn't been the same since."

"What are orcs doing in Piortgrad?"

As they move through the camps, Alaris asks after Boris, and asks if the ambushes happen at the same times and places. 

Nikolai shrugs in response to Astrid's questions. "Alaris is a strange one at times. They care very deeply for the downtrodden and abandoned peoples of these 'great' cities. I suppose it is an admirable goal given what I guess is where they came from. Alaris was raised on the streets before joining their order. It is a great part of why they have much of my respect, standing up for those who have nothing themselves..." His voice trails off and by the stiffening of his spine and sudden lengthening of his strides, it would seem that part of the conversation was at an end.

Once they are both seated back in the Black Sheep, Nikolai begins to burn some incense as he removes his precious Tarock deck from its protective case in the strange, leather shoulder harness he wears with Astra furora. He absently shuffles the deck while inhaling some of the pungent and acrid smoke wafting up from the incense. "Now, I must concentrate on my ritual. Each question will take roughly 11 minutes to complete, please do not interrupt me until I have completed my readings. Thank you, Astrid."

With those words spoken he shuffles, cuts, and shuffles the Tarock deck one last time before drawing three cards and setting them face down upon the table in a tri-star pattern. He then places the remaining cards face down in a complex geometric pattern around the original three in a slow and methodical way, speaking quietly to himself as he does. As each card touches the table they begin to glow with a dark silver light around their edges until finally the last card is placed. Nikolai closes his eyes and places one hand upon the three cards in the middle. "Will my friends find the answers they seek?" Without opening his eyes he flips over the three cards each of them flashing darkly in the dim light and causing slight disturbances in the incense smoke that is now swirling around Nikolai's horns. He opens his eyes to examine his reading; The World, Inverted Moon, and The Devil. He nods contentedly at his answers then repeats the same ritual as he scoops the Tarock cards back up.

This time he speaks aloud. "Are these voices we hear an attack?" He opens his eyes; Inverted Judgement, Temperance, and The Star. A slow smile spreads across his face, his pointed canines peaking out from the edges of his lips. "Shahar, ever the optimist are you? So be it. You have never led me astray, I shall trust in your... judgement." He places one hand atop The Star...

He glances over to where Astrid waits. "So, tell me, what does your god say? I have good readings, this gives me hope in our path and whatever this thing is that has happened to us."