Alaris slows when Nikolai calls out, hanging their head and turning toward the tiefling. "I don't know if what I did was right or wrong. I don't get messages like that... I don't have the kind of relationship with The Lady that you have with your master. But I have never betrayed the light and life within you, and even after we return from Paragon and I go my way, I will keep your secrets. All of your secrets," they emphasize with a gesture to the rest of the group, and then take Nikolai's hands in one of theirs and give them a firm squeeze. "You have my word on that as well." They turn again and continue the long walk back to Bednik and Piotrgrad. Dog runs up and thumps into their legs, and Alaris bends down to ruffle their fur for a moment as they quietly lead the way.

Ling grins and takes a drink from her cup. Maybe not that stupid. "So are you just a saint, going around offering help to anyone you meet? Or do you have a thing for half-elves?" She leans back into her chair, stretching her legs underneath the table, giving Elodia's foot a playful tap. "Or pale blondes in general?" 

“I find most people have a thing for blondes,” Elodia replies with a knowing smile, pointedly pulling her long golden curls over her shoulder. “Once I might have aspired to saintliness, but no longer. I’m here because I think we can help each other; no saint would have me with thoughts like that.”

Her hand drops slowly from her necklace back to her lap as she gauges Ling curiously. “What of you? From what I understand, your help doesn't come free. So is it half-elves, or blondes?” She pauses, considering. Influence is, if nothing else, a pervasive thing - there's always a chance it had extended even to bounty hunters. “Unless, of course, it isn’t a choice in the first place.”

A fair, dark-haired woman sits down with a thump on an old stone altar. Her clothes are coated in dust. She reaches for the pack set on the ground next to her, pulling out her waterskin and drinking deeply. The congregational hall is in ruins. Pews are smashed and strewn across the floor in a haphazard mosaic. Blood covers large swaths of the floor. What corpses there were had been buried by now, surely. But the more puzzling piece of this puzzle was how this was connected to her family. If it was connected. She knew that they had been here, in Piotrgrad, but she didn't know where. Her mother had pointed her to the Priesthood of Sud for respite in the city. They held beliefs similar to her own, and the atmosphere of their holy spaces had a familiar and comforting presence. Their clerics had told her of a recent attack at a small church on the south side of the city. It seemed promising enough at the time. Now, she wasn't so sure.  

"Church of Vida, an undead crisis....." she mutters to herself again. Nimue rises from the altar, and pulls her long dark hair into a quick braid, rolling it up on her head so it wouldn't dangle down her back. "You've sat long enough, Melda. Do you want to be a stone, hm?" She mimics the raspy, aged voice of her great-great-grandmother. A smile crosses her face, and she looks up through a smashed window. "No stones here." Nimue listens to the echoing silence that descends on the building, before laughing at her own bad joke. She sighs, shaking her head as she picks her way through the smashed pews and stones. "Talking to yourself again, Nim? Ha. Just like Grandmama." After a further ten minutes of searching, frustration wrinkles her smooth, white skin.

Grabbing her bag from the fellowship hall, she sits in a quiet place to meditate on her discoveries. Or rather, lack thereof.      

Caio gives a silent nod of approval as he watches Nikolai and Alaris have some sort of reconciliation before they continue on back to town. 

His mind works its way through the various problems the Trio & Friends face: the planar disturbance, the Morgensterns, their actual job, and now a dragon. How were they- wait... Trio & Friends? This was not a title Caio ever would have come up with. He presses his consciousness back into his mind and senses the other presence there. But his visitor only offers the impression of a silent smile, so familiar to his own. 

Even in this distracted state, Caio is alert as ever. As they walk past the ruined church, the site of their fleder battle, he half expects one of the mutant beasts to leap out at them. Instead, his wary glance catches the briefest glimpse of snow white skin through a window. He freezes, and signals for the others to stop as well. After pointing out the discovery to the party he sends Ghoul into the rafter for a better vantage. “A high elven girl, looks about my age. She’s just sitting there. Perhaps a worshipper mourning the loss of the temple? Or perhaps she knows more of the fleder and their fiendish friends. Should we question her?”

Alaris Forien spends the long walk back to Piotrgrad entrusting their safety to the alertness Caio and Ghoul while they meditate and pray. 

Lady Freja, I despair. I cannot heal these wounded warriors.

Through your acts of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, kindle the light of hope in the world, beating back despair.

Lady of Light, how do I serve them when I am so weak and foolish and unworthy?

Where there is good, beauty, love, and laughter in the world, stand against the wickedness that would swallow it.

I'm tired, Lady. So tired.

If you allow the light to die in your own heart, you can’t preserve it in the world.

My light is so dark... the shadows beckon at every turn.

Let the light of your joy and courage shine forth in all your deeds.

The paladin stops when Caio signals. They scrub their face with their hands with vigor, and push back their burnished red hair to let the cold breeze settle their nerves. "Why not? Maybe some good will come out of this day after all."

The soft rhythm of her footsteps is the only sound that comes from Shiva along the walk back to Piotrgrad. Her thoughts are a jumbled mess of hypotheticals injected with every emotion that she has ever known. By the time that the group passes by the old church, her gaze has become vacant, her expression slack. When Caio alerts the group to a presence, it only barely manages to pull her attention. "...what? Oh, yeah. Sure."

     Astrid keeps quiet for the rest of the journey back to Piotrgrad, not to dare breaking the tenuous calm that has settled over the rest of the group. The long trek through the soggy terrain reminds her to pay a visit to Bluebell to make she that she's ready for the trip to Paragon. 

     A shiver runs up the cleric's spine as the party comes upon the church and recalls the encounter with the fleder just a day before. Her heart skips a beat catching the movement a moment before Caio makes his declaration. She takes a calming  breath.  "I wonder if they know anything about those bat creatures?"

Caio’s black eyes look back and forth between his friends. Though certainly the least gregarious of the group, it seems he is the least emotionally drained and perhaps the best to make the first move. He steps around the crumbling wall and approaches the figure. “Hello.” He says the greeting in elven, before switching back to common so his friends are not left out. “I’m not sure if you’re aware but this is a dangerous place. May I ask what brings you to this temple?” Though the shadar-kai cuts an imposing figure, his tone is soft. Ghoul flies down from the ceiling to land on his shoulder and cocks his head curiously at the girl.

Nimue watches the figure approach, barely batting an eye when a strange bird flies down and lights on his shoulder. She almost laughs a little at his question, though she remembers that most people cannot read minds, and so he may find her laughter rude. She smiles, and glances at the smashed pews and dried gore coating the floor of the church, before responding in Elven. "It certainly does look dangerous. Though I've not found it to be." A thought crosses her mind. He seems to know what happened here. Maybe I don't have to go door to door after all. 

She crosses her legs in front of her, looking at the man with urgency, switching to Taneman, when she notices he has friends. "I'm looking for something. Something.......dangerous. If you know what happened here, I would have you tell me. Please." 

"It does not." Ling agrees, tilting her head. "But one of your pretty rings may be enough." Her eyes evaluate them, judging each of them for their price and how well they may suit her. Then she replies to Elodia's second question, with a wolfish smile: "Oh, he's a good kisser." Now let's see how she takes that. Little rich girls all think their lovers have no eyes for anyone else. "But I promise it was entirely by choice."

 Nikolai watches the woman carefully, but also keeps his eyes scanning around, checking rooftops and alleys in the event this was an ambush. The elven lass seemed friendly enough, but he'd been wrong before and he would not make that same mistake again. He keeps one hand close to astra furora and allows Caio to do the speaking for group.

Caio stares down at the girl, his visage cold and calculating. “We are monster hunters. There were monsters here, and we dealt with them. As for why the place fell into such disrepair that it would attract a brood of mutated beasts in the first place, I can’t say.” He pauses to scan the dilapidated church with an air of disinterest, but he doesn’t hide the curiosity as he asks his next question. “What is this dangerous item you seek?”

”I’m afraid my rings need to stay with me,” Elodia demurs, looking down to them. Both are gold; the one on her right hand is large and raised, a warm ruby field hosting the cameo of what appears to be an animal that takes up a third of her finger. The one on her left is daintier but darker, garnet surrounded by tinier stones. Losing either would wreak more havoc than she thinks either of them are prepared for.

The hand with the large ring folds delicately over the smaller atop the table as she looks back to the tiefling. "I fear there may be a misunderstanding. I’m not here to hire you, Ling. I’m here to assist. Information may not be as pretty on a finger, but I’ve found it’s worth far more.”

At the proclamation of Ling’s motivation, she laughs. It catches her off guard - but perhaps it shouldn't. If the sister can weaponize her looks, it only makes sense the brother would do the same. “I understand all too well. Though if you and I are as alike as it might seem, then it may not truly be a choice at all. With love it never seems to be."

Nimue meets his gaze with one of her own. "Monster hunters, you say? I'm familiar with the profession. Slain my fair share over the years." She casts a glance over the group as a whole. They certainly looked like monster hunters. Perhaps they could get along.....

"I'm looking for information. You see, a group of elves came here 100 years ago to slay a monster." A fierce cloud of emotion sweeps across her. "They all died." Her voice turned hard. "I need to know what happened to them. And I'm going to make sure it never happens again."

As an afterthought, perhaps it wasn't wise to share so much. But if they knew anything....

With her clear determination and investigative drive, Nimue achieves the impressive feat of causing Caio's stern face to break into a full smile. "Interesting." He flashes a glance to the others before returning his eyes to the elf. "I believe we're heading to the library tomorrow, perhaps you'll find answers there. In the mean time, why don't you join us for a drink and you can tell us more of these elven slayers." 

Ling seems surprised by how easily Elodia dismisses her revelation. Not lovers then. "My kind can't love, so I don't have that problem," she retorts almost angrily. The moment passes and her frown turns into a pout. "If you're not here to hire us and you're not looking to have a good time, what are you here for? As you said, we don't work for free. What kind of help are you offering? Will you braid my hair?" Ling crosses her arms again, regarding Elodia curiously. "You say you have information. Is it about that family? The sister doesn't seem to like me very much." 

     "I don't remember any sign of elves when we were in there." Astrid looks to the others for confirmation. "But there were still plenty of monsters that needed removing," Astrid says stepping around the larger folks to get a better look at the elf. "What sort of monster were your elves after? Something bat-like, maybe?"

A quizzical look passes over Elodia's face at Ling's heated statement - she's far from an expert in tiefling culture, but from those she's met, they seem to love as freely and openly as any other race. She makes a mental note to circle back to that, though Ling has already moved on, and a humorless smile curves Elodia's lips instead. "That works well, as I don't much like the sister. She has a penchant for trying to take things that aren't hers."

Her darkened expression lingers for a moment before it clears to neutrality as she leans in slightly towards Ling. "Yes, it's about the family. Certain members are far more hindrance than they are help; from what I gather, your lover and I are aligned on that. I have information that I believe can help, under the understanding you'll share what you know in return. Combining resources to rid this city of that particular stain seems to be one that benefits everyone."

Nimue's face twists into a look of agonized confusion. "I don't know what they were after. There's no record of it anywhere. It would've made sense to leave a record of it, but they didn't..." She stares off in the distance, almost like she had been talking to herself. A moment passes. "It was over 100 years ago, though," she muses.

She shakes off her brief fog and smiles. "A drink sounds wonderful. After the day I've had." Nimue rises to her feet, dusting off her trousers and blouse, buttoning up her leather vest. To her surprise, many of the members of this group were as tall as she was. She wasn't used to that. But no matter. As they start to leave, she looks at the shadar-kai. "What was it that you killed here?"