[[ No worries. Rest is good. And fluids. It's good to find Melitta! ]]

Brand looks at her, his eyes narrowing briefly and taking in what he can [[ Darkvision help? ]], then smiles again, clearly happy to see her. "Well...clearly I'm not rescuing you." he says.

A look of concern lingering in his eyes, he continues, "Though, I'd be happy to buy you a meal...or three."

"I was quite worried, I spent several weeks searching for you and Dworkin, then...something almost killed me in my sleep, and ... I felt it was prudent that I take a few weeks elsewhere to recover...", he shrugs.

Glancing at Jay, he continues, "To cut a long story short, I just got back, and started pursuing other means...hoping to learn to use sorcery both for my search and other things ...when I ...bumped in to Jay here. He seemed to know that I was looking for you, and said he would take me to you. So...here I am. I would dearly like to hear what you have to tell. Are you well? What has been happening? Jay told me you and Dworkin had a falling-out. That wouldn't have been pretty, I imagine."

[[ Does he know that she was trying to find her lover? (Negris?) ]]

Quote from AlaricBrand >>

[[ No worries. Rest is good. And fluids. It's good to find Melitta! ]]

---

Brand looks at her, his eyes narrowing briefly and taking in what he can [[ Darkvision help? ]], then smiles again, clearly happy to see her. "Well...clearly I'm not rescuing you." he says.

[[Although it is clearly Melitta, she has more lines on her face than you remember, especially frown lines.]]

A look of concern lingering in his eyes, he continues, "Though, I'd be happy to buy you a meal...or three."

"I was quite worried, I spent several weeks searching for you and Dworkin, then...something almost killed me in my sleep, and ... I felt it was prudent that I take a few weeks elsewhere to recover...", he shrugs.

Glancing at Jay, he continues, "To cut a long story short, I just got back, and started pursuing other means...hoping to learn to use sorcery both for my search and other things ...when I ...bumped in to Jay here. He seemed to know that I was looking for you, and said he would take me to you. So...here I am. I would dearly like to hear what you have to tell. Are you well? What has been happening? Jay told me you and Dworkin had a falling-out. That wouldn't have been pretty, I imagine."

[[ Does he know that she was trying to find her lover? (Negris?) ]]

[[No. Brand doesn't know anything about that because it didn't happen in this timeline.]]

A small smile appears on Melitta's face as Brand expresses his concern, but then it disappears as she begins to frown.

"What is that I can smell?" she says, looking around the room before fixing her eyes on Brand again. "You have the smell of something foul on you. What is it?"

Brand is left in something of a quandary as Jay takes a step back and all activity in the kitchen stops.

"Foul...you mean the undead? I fought with one earlier today - a malicious spirit of some kind. It is now properly dead. Is...is that what you mean?"

"No!" snaps Melitta, a wary look on her face. "It is something demonic." 

With that, she takes a step back and reaches over her shoulder. There is a flash and she now has an unsheathed sword in her hand, which she bring round in front of her so that it is pointing straight up, but is firmly between her and Brand.

The sword begins to glow with a soft violet glow as the glowing orange orb fades away and Brand can now feel an almost palpable presence of menace in the room.

"I knew nothing of this, I swear," says Jay, backing even further away.

And, from behind him, Brand hears one of the women say, "Shit."

"The only things I can think of are...the items you already know about. I would prefer not to discuss them in company, however. I have no idea if they are demonic."

[[ Please let me know if my situation assessment is incorrect: surrounded, outnumbered, threatened by a sorcerer of unknown power, the only(?) known way out being a locked door behind him. Are there any windows or holes in the roof? ]]

Quote from AlaricBrand >>

"The only things I can think of are...the items you already know about. I would prefer not to discuss them in company, however. I have no idea if they are demonic."

[[ Please let me know if my situation assessment is incorrect: surrounded, outnumbered, threatened by a sorcerer of unknown power, the only(?) known way out being a locked door behind him. Are there any windows or holes in the roof? ]]

[[There are two shuttered windows as well as the door in the back wall. The wall was re-barred but is not locked. There is also a fireplace with a chimney, currently unlit.]]

For a moment, Melitta looks confused, and then she queries, "These items? Are there three of them?"

Brand nods, "Yes, though I did not know they were demonic."

The sword is lowered to a rest position at Melitta's side and with a gesture she lights a candle in a pottery candleholder on the kitchen table bringing more light to the room.

"We should talk," she says, looking at the other people in the room. "But not here... And not with them on your person."

"I don't suppose you'd consider leaving them here so we could go upstairs? There we could could be guaranteed that no one is listening."

Brand nods, "Of course...as long as you can guarantee that they are not interfered with in my absence?"

[[ Assuming she agrees ]]

Brand removes his pack and goes into a corner of the room, facing away from the prying eyes, using his cloak for cover as necessary. He opens the pack, and removes three daggers gingerly from his bandoleer, seemingly fussing over each and checking them carefully as he does so. In the process he also removes the stones and puts them in the sack at the bottom of the pack.

He leaves the pack in the corner, feeling somewhat naked, then facing the room he removes the dagger from his boot and one from the back of his belt, putting them in the empty bandoleer slots. He winks at Melitta and smiles, "Better safe than sorry."

Melitta agrees and while Brand is organising his belongings she orders Delilah to make char and to bring it upstairs when it is ready.

When Brand says that he wants to be better safe than sorry, she smiles and says, "And to make sure that both your things and we have some protection, I will leave my familiar here to watch over things... He's good at that."

And, with a pop, a thing appears in the kitchen causing both Delilah and the other woman to shrink away in sudden fright.

Floating in the air is a head-sized being with a large mouth and an equally large single eye on the main part of its body. And, sprouting from the horrid things body, are four smaller eyes on stalks.

After scanning the room with its many eyes, the thing moves to hover over Brand's things in the corner. 

 [[ lol, gotta love mini-beholders ]]

Brand takes a step back, then musters his courage, after the ghost, he rallies quickly. He glances at Melitta, and smiles, "You are not a rat person, then."

"I don't imagine you get out much with that, either...what...who is it?" he glances between the two of them.

"Alaric, meet Adzo. Adzo, Alaric," says Melitta, doing the introductory honours, to which one of the eye stalks nods in reply.

Then Melitta adds with a smile, "Yes, he might be not people friendly, but he's a lot more impressive than a rat."

The looks on the two women confirm this.

"Follow me," say Melitta, as she turns and walk away down the corridor.

Brand bows slightly to Adzo, then glances rather more sternly around the room before following Melitta.

As Brand enters the corridor, he sees that the glowing sword is now gone and that the glowing orange orb has come back, and that Melitta is apparently using its light to make her way up a set of stairs to the upper level of the small house.

"You've changed too, I see," says Melitta from above him on the stairs. "Or did a friend cast that spell for you?"

Brand shakes his head, "The spell was cast for me, but I have changed, or at the least discovered things...and one day may cast it for myself...in fact that is what brought me to the bookshop in the first place."

Melitta waits for Brand to join her at the top of the stairs before speaking.

"I have discovered that the search for personal power has its costs," she says quietly. "I know you won't heed my warning, but perhaps you should be happy with what you have."

Having said this, Melitta leads the way to one of the two doors that lead off the small corridor. One door is open and Brand sees that the back of the room behind it is crammed full of furniture and somebody's personal belonging—a man's—while at the front of the room there is a small single bed covered in much-used bedclothes and a few items of clothing that Brand thinks may belong to a woman.

Melitta goes to the other door and opens it revealing a room apparently devoid of furniture. She enters allowing Brand to see inside.

The walls and floor of this room are covered in strange arcane markings made by a number of means: chalk marks on the floor, symbols drawn on pieces of paper that have been tacked to the walls, intricate designs of lines done in red paint that cover large expanses of the wall. However, despite the means, there is a common motif throughout: the eight-pointed star of Arion.

"Come in," says Melitta, indicating for Brand to do so. "I need to close the wards."

"I have discovered that the search for personal power has its costs," she says quietly. "I know you won't heed my warning, but perhaps you should be happy with what you have."

Brand smiles, "I ... currently ... seek understanding and options; although I suppose knowledge presents more or less the same dangers. At least I can put off unwise choices until tomorrow."

"Come in," says Melitta, indicating for Brand to do so. "I need to close the wards."1

Brand enters the room, "Your work does seem to have a recurring theme."

As she restores the wards, Brand asks "From what are you wardinf us?"

"Detection spells mainly," says Melitta as she closes the door. "The Mithrans have been searching for Arion followers in particular; they fear us, and perhaps rightly."

"Yes, they have the School under surveillance looking for Negris Black, and they are blaming Arion followers for a kidnapping there...but, to be frank, thise seem like minor matters to me."

He glances around the room, "There has to be more...you warded us, not Delilah and Jay and the others. What else is there?"

Melitta smiles ruefully and then says, "I suppose because I don't fully trust the one you know as Jay..."

Then she looks at Brand carefully and asks, "Have you guessed his secret? Do you know who he really is?"