Astrid nods and spurs Bluebell along towards the grove. "Given..?" she asks the ranger. "Who exactly gave us this cozy campsite?" She notes the budding trees of the early spring and thinks back on the snippet of a conversation she heard in her first night in Piotrgrad between the Grimmi and Sarameian. Whatever plans were being made there sounded like they were waiting for the snow to melt in The Gap.

Directing her horse to the side of the road with the others, Shiva raises her arms high in a stretch, then brings her hands down onto the small of her back. "Ugh, I wouldn't mind making camp. It's been too long since I rode like this, my back is killing me." 

“A stag.” Caio responds simply. Ghoul swoops over the priors and back around towards the grove like a dog herding sheep. It’s clear that the bird didn’t get Caio’s demands for quiet as he heralds the groups arrival with a squawk. 

The priors and pilgrims slip inside the verdant grove with mixed looks of awe and confusion. However, due to the dense trees, the carriage must remain by the roadside under guard.

 Nikolai looks around at space enveloping them with awe. "This place... it's a threshold to the Hedge. A border world! Fey creatures often traverse these places. If we decide to camp here, we should do so with caution..." He becomes distracted as he looks about and feels a strange nagging sensation, a flutter in his.... spirit? No, that didn't make sense... The other Nikolai! That's what he was feeling, a tingling in the back of his skull.

'What is it? Do you sense something here?'

'No! The fey in my world use these gateways too... It could be that we can make our way home from here.'

Following behind Nik, Shiva takes in the breathtaking beauty of their campsite. "The Fey certainly know how to travel in style, this is lovely." Laying down in the soft grass, she closes her eyes with a content smile on her face. "Caution, got 'cha. Would be a shame if we ran into some nymphs or something of the like."

The small clearing is indeed beautiful, the thought crossing Nimue's mind as she dismounts. Absently, she pulls a sugar cube from her pocket, giving her horse his well-deserved treat after a day of travel. There's an electric hum in the air, likely due to the gateway to the Fey close by. She sits at the edge of the clearing, closing her eyes, letting the aura of this mysterious place flow around her. It's comforting. Something a little bit like home. 

"You feel it too, don't you? Places like this. They call us home. But we cannot go, my darling, for we have work to do."

The peace in her mind sours slightly. I'm aware, thank you, Grandmama. She watches the others as they set about preparing places to rest, her eyes ultimately resting on Nikolai. Even if he was willing to forget.....was he willing to forgive? The thought traipses across her mind, like muddy boots tracking dirt on clean floors.  

Inspecting the verdant nook he’d discovered, Caio nods in agreement to Nikolai’s information. “That tracks.” At Shiva’s comment about nymphs, Caio adds. “Or fauns.” His tone is dry as ever but for those of the group who were present that night in Temnitsa, the comment is a clear self-depreciating joke.

Before they settle in, Caio steps back out to the carriage and get to work camouflaging the exposed vehicle. He starts with one dead, mossy log, propping it up against the side of the cart. Then he takes all manner of dry brush and kindling and builds up a sort of screen, successfully obscuring the form of the carriage from anyone traveling out on the road. With the ranger’s work complete, Ghoul finds a comfortable place to roost next to Nimue, and Caio cracks open his new book for the first time as the evening grows quiet.

"Truly the stag is a blessed sign," Alaris murmurs to the priors as they guide the elders towards a comfortable spot in the glade. "Ancient power - life and light and joy - dwells here. Let us do nothing to mar its beauty." The paladin inhales, reveling in the glorious scents of spring. Extending their senses, they reach out to their other. "Do you feel it? The strength? Can I see you here?"

The flapping of wings causes Nimue to look up from her book. A small smile lights her face. She shouldn't be surprised. She gives the bird an absent scratch behind his head. "Here to keep me company, are you?" Her eyes drift to Caio, then back down to her book. The mud in her mind is slowly washed away by Ghoul's soothing presence. 

As the others settle into the space, Shiva reflects on all that had transpired in the last week. It was enough to fill out a year's worth of change, revelation, and heartbreak, with more likely to come. "Ling isn't in danger, but who knows how long that's going to last with that unhinged ****er Valentine. And Sonya...hopefully she's comfortable in her accommodations, even if the boundaries of our arrangement are clear now. And..." Shiva sits up in the grass, realizing that a certain farewell had slipped past her. Raising her right wrist up in front of her, she regards the bracelet with the ornate A on it. "Hello Mistress. I'm sorry that I didn't say goodbye before leaving on assignment, a lot has happened in a short time. I wish that I had been able to see you, you've become one of the few stable things in my life over the past week. But, hopefully I'll be back in your arms and your fangs will be back in me soon."

Lowering the bracelet, she takes notice of a low hum that had echoed through her mind since they arrived in this Hedge. "Hey, everything alright?" "Yes, it's this place. I feel closer to being a physical body here, this place is transitive. A border world, like Nik said."  "Ah, interesting. Is there anything that I can do to help?" 

Nikolai lets out a quick, barking laugh at Shiva's words. "That would be the way you die, Shiva! It is said that to look upon the beauty of a nymph is to drive the very sight from your eyes and to see one unclothed... That is said to be the very last thing you will see in this world. Careful what you wish for, dear." As the group begins to up camp, he begins to methodically walk around the perimeter and ward the area against intrusion. Should anyone outside their group enter this area, the sound of ringing bells would fill the air.

Quote from Aramalian >>

The paladin inhales, revelling in the glorious scents of spring. Extending their senses, they reach out to their other. "Do you feel it? The strength? Can I see you here?"

 
Has spring grown me a body? The other Alaris snarks back. I remain intangible, but this road does lead... somewhere else.

Quote from ZeeOfIstus >>

Lowering the bracelet, she takes notice of a low hum that had echoed through her mind since they arrived in this Hedge. "Hey, everything alright?" "Yes, it's this place. I feel closer to being a physical body here, this place is transitive. A border world, like Nik said."  "Ah, interesting. Is there anything that I can do to help?" 

 
Shiva feels the psychic equivalent of her passenger shaking her head.

This is just the road. I still need a way to walk it.

Hours later, the priors rise to break their fast and everybody collectively begins the process of striking camp. However, it quickly becomes apparent that something is not right. Something is missing - Elodia is gone.

As the morning hours bring her to consciousness, Shiva wakes and sets to breakfast before anything else. Her watch had been uneventful, her mind drifting as the soft sounds of the forest echoed around her. As she swallows a bite of food, she realizes that a certain bit of grace is missing from their troupe. Looking around, there seem to be no traces of Elodia whatsoever, as if she had vanished into thin air. Hopping up, she begins looking around the Hedge. "No no no no, you've got to be ******* kidding me. Guys! Elodia's gone!"

 Nikolai sits up with a curse. "Gods dammit! How could she have been taken in the middle of the night?! I knew we should not have stayed so close to fey territory." ...but why did he believe that so strongly? He paused a moment, he had not known so much about the fey...

'I worked with them. Tricksters, the lot. Never trust them.'

He immediately pulls out his tarrock deck to ritual cast the Sending spell he just recently acquired, but as he begins to lay out his deck he notices something very disconcerting... The cards were blank on the face. In a panic he immediately flips through his deck and realizes every single of them is blank. His heart beats rapidly and his stomach drops out his feet. "No... No! NO!" His immediate thoughts were that perhaps Shahar had felt Nikolai had not upheld the commandment of keeping Elodia safe and yanked away their gifts to him. He casts a simple cantrip spell, conjuring a simple illusion of a flower.

Within seconds the flower grows and blossoms from the carpet of moss on the ground. Nikolai reaches down to pluck and it comes away real in his hand.

      Astrid is tucking the tome on the undead that she spent a few hours reading into a saddlebag on Bluebell to when she hers the chorus of raised voices from the others. She glances around hearing that Eloida has gone missing. "Probably decided it was best to go back to town with her... err, umm... the recent news she got," she opines, approaching the others. 

    She watches curiously as Nikolai seems to be having some difficulty with his spells. She tries one of her own. Waving a hand at the ground under her feet she causes the earth the tremor slightly. "Hmm. No problems here."

   Standing in place, she watches as a flower sprout from the ground a Nikolai's feet. "Have you always been able to do that?" It's at that moment that she realizes that the ground is still slightly shaking from her spell - longer than normal. "Well... Isn't that strange. My spell still lingers." 

Nimue is searching through her small bag when the shouting starts. The illusory flower turned real, thanks to Nikolai. The shaking ground, thanks to Astrid. And the woman, Elodia, had disappeared. Something wasn't right. She walks silently up to stand beside Astrid, crouching down and feeling the continuous tremors of the earth beneath them. A dull glow from the pendant under her shirt, her eyes flash, and suddenly everything around her is hued in every color imaginable. The sound of birds becomes deafening, but there had been no birds before. And the deep scent of loam on the air, heavy in her nostrils. She'd never felt a Fey presence this strong before. She looks  up at Astrid. "This isn't good. The Fey.....their presence is very strong here. It overpowers all of my senses. Too many colors, too many sounds, too many smells." She looks at Nikolai, foreboding on her face and in her voice. "We should not have come here."  

As the magic of her friends goes awry around her, Shiva thinks to try her own. Pointing towards one of the priors staring at the group in confusion, she whispers a small message.

She startles as the whisper is echoed from all sides around the party, bouncing around the Hedge to a very disquieting effect. She chuckles to herself in half-confusion half-amusement. "What in all the hells is happening?"

Caio looks on quietly as the group begins to descend into hysterics at the news of Elida’s disappearance and the strange effects this place has on magic. He lets out a sigh of annoyance as he gets up and easily finds the woman’s footprints, unsurprisingly leading deeper into the grove. Without a word he begins to hunt, eager to get to the bottom of this before the more excitable members of the Newly dubbed Septem do something rash.