npc inbox: ellethia

[groundrules]

NPC INBOX

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

Previous NPC inbox posts:

■ Arc I: Sa-Hareth

■ Interlude: Stairs of Sighs + Arc II: Taravast

	ENAM Well-travelled guide and botanist. Associate of the Merchant, formerly himself a tradesman. Measured of speech, honourable, sincere. Lover and protector of animals, whatever their nature. Travels with apprentices.
	HATISSE Revived witch of the Attaryl, partly responsible for the massacre of the Stairs of Sighs. Formerly a court witch of the Attaryl. Manipulative, vicious, a trained seductress. Formidably powerful. Buried with wards and injuries by her own sisters to prevent her return. Somewhat bound to Wrath.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.
	THE MERCHANT The patron saint of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few.

OTHER CITADELS

	"HALTHAM" | ANURR The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.
	MACALUSO SPINA Earnest and moderate nephew of Bonaccorso Spina, now leading Doxe of Taravast. Adrift, following the betrayals of his family, Macaluso benefits from support from the witches of Bessis and seeks to rebuild the citadel he secured with the party's help.
	VANNOZZA SPINA Beautiful and fierce niece of Bonaccorso Spina, targeted by the old man for possession. Crafty, coy, strategic and cold, she now acts as adviser to her more idealistic cousin, Macaluso Spina after executing her grandfather.
	RIGARDA Lively, charismatic and gossip-prone lady of the highest echelons, formerly closely allied to Bonaccorso Spina. She carried out the dirty work of brokering weapon shipments to the Brotherhood of undead lieges, buying Taravast's protection. Alive at Anduin's largesse.
	KARSA Currently unavailable | Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices. Furtively left the group, bearing injury, at the end of Arc II.

Comments

[aprescoup]

( He is silent longer than might seem at first necessary. )

This is... a place of strangeness.

[weifinder]

I agree. I would appreciate being educated in the ways you find it strange.

( a small pause. )

Would you like your gift first, or after, to drive away the taste of here?

[aprescoup]

( Here, now, he tips his head down, seemingly abashed — shy, all once, curious and stricken. You see: )

I... have not had a gift in a very long time.

( He would sooner have it now. )

[weifinder]

( softly spoke: )

Then here. For you, Scholar Asgeirr. You'd mentioned before a desire to see butterflies?

( wei wuxian shifts, and the talisman he holds activates with a flick of his wrist. the butterflies are bright orange and red as their wings flap, their centres white, a burst of fluttering fire that flits and flitters around before they head toward the door, to the stairs, and out. barrier breaking butterflies, and no he doesn't call them that, but it's flash and show and beautiful when it's not flying at one's face, or perhaps even when it is.

he watches the ghost, some portion of attention on the shimmering butterflies as they leave. there are no particular barriers he feels they'll arrive at and break through, but with his luck, never say never. )

[aprescoup]

( Oh, but they are beautiful, kindly, splintered. Dissolving as pale light before his eyes, and his mouth cuts in a bashful smile, too young for this face. Spreading. )

They... are very beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

[weifinder]

( just a smile, more sincere than many, smaller than most. )

You're welcome.

( it is the least he can do, in light of so many other terrible things he might, for the living or the dead.

but he doesn't pressure the moment, shifts gaze to stare after the disappeared butterflies, lets the ghost determine if he's ready to speak, or if he's content as he is. all of this place, all of this former home of the merchant, echoes in wrong things, in remembered tragedies, in living decay. lifecycles that bind and force nightly death and rebirth, mocking many things.

at least the mermaids, dead and alive, appear satiated by aspects of it all. )

[aprescoup]

( It is a fine thing, to be surrounded by so much beauty. His frail, wrinkled hands hover briefly around the light of the butterflies, tempted to capture them. They descend, ever fearful.

No. Not so. Not yet. He would but ruin this moment. )

Where there is no death, those... in my condition are not natural. That is the trouble here. I am... aware. That I am unnatural.

[weifinder]

Ah.

( an exhalation, and he sits, neither near nor far from asgeirr and the cloak. this, he knows. this, he can better understand. )

I wonder if the living are unnatural in a place without death, too, but don't let me digress. You're aware of being in a state which isn't natural. What further?

[aprescoup]

Is that... not enough? ( Wide, bright-eyed and his brows furrowed. What more is needed for discomfort? ) I am an old man. Easily inconvenienced.

[weifinder]

Enough, enough! This one wondered if there was anything that followed that thought, that's all.

( he waves his hands, a stopping and dismissing motion at once. )

We should be leaving in two more seven nights, I believe.

[aprescoup]

( He seems to perk at that, nodding along with the forecast. )

I would not be saddened. ( And softer, this time his hands touching the butterflies, going through them: ) We do not belong here. I do not believe anything belongs here.

[weifinder]

... I believe you're correct. I don't feel anything belongs here. Dead or alive, or caught forever as neither.

( A softer voice in turn, partly as his ghostly companion speaks more softly as well. He watches him, with the butterflies. Back home, people would find this grotesque, and in no small part because it is his. )

Though with our previous record in each location we visit, I would be surprised if we don't also see some way to unmake this place in our going.

( Dry. So dry, thinking of it. )

[aprescoup]

( He seems unexpectedly sympathetic, if not outright thawed: )

You are a kind young man. You have brought me butterflies. And that... that is a great gladness. Thank you.

[weifinder]

( this appears to take him by surprise, enough so that he blinks, smiling a half beat too late as he laughs, still quiet. )

Ah, I'm pleased it brought you gladness! You've been kind to us.

( and elders, dead... and alive, but also, dead, deserve respect. which is why: )

Has your cloak felt properly mended?

[aprescoup]

Yes. Thank you. I have been shown much kindness by some. And... misunderstanding from others. I cannot ask for more.

( A pause, sprawling. )

My friend, what do you hope to achieve here?

[weifinder]

... In the lighthouse, the remains of Ellethia, this world?

( A half smile, and a shake of his head. )

I don't want to lose people I care about, Master Scholar. I've had that happen enough in my life, before and after I tried ending it, that preserving their safety, their living status, is more important than achievements from place to place. Who am I to believe myself the one who can change a great number of things? It takes support, and people, and timing, and I feel as if the merchant who heads our expedition wields us effectively as knives to cut without eyes. If it harms or hurts, as long as we live, as long as we're not in the hands of the undead lords...

( and a sigh then, settling back and glancing toward the long shelves, spines stacked irregularly here and there. )

If I could, I would see this place set back to a cycle of life and death in step with the world beyond. See the dead in those waters laid to rest, and not deprived it, without known end. Yet this isn't my world, and my concepts of what a cycle of life and death should be doesn't make it true for here. So: I don't know, Master Scholar. I hope to achieve our continued existence, and our eventual returns home.

[aprescoup]

I believe, if you are used against your wish, against your inclination... you should not be the instruments of another man. You should move against that.

( He seems troubled enough to pause, to contemplate. ) To abide, my boy, is to be complicit.

[weifinder]

Mm. You're right.

( he says, after listening, after his own pause of contemplation. )

Where we benefit from the man's connections, in this eastbound effort to return home alive... we do not need be his tools. Poorly aimed, and destructive, as we are in ignorance, we can do better.

( more realistically: some of them can do better. they are no unified whole, and he doesn't expect them to be, but it is a matter of choice, isn't it? something else to speak on with lan zhan, sizhui, lily, eleven. wei wuxian chooses revolution! or, well, chooses not to be the flea sunk with the scorpion and the turtle as they cross a river swift and strong. )

[aprescoup]

In other words, you would like to take advantage, as long as you.

( Perhaps... he betrays nuances of his own bitterness here. )

[weifinder]

I try to be a better man. As most will tell you, I usually fail.

( no real intonation, just a humourless twist to his lips. )

I apologise for letting you down.

[aprescoup]

( He listens. It is against the wisdom of maturity to incriminate or reproach without heeding, start to finish. Without letting a man have his say. )

I have failed enough in my own duties to never fathom rancour.

[weifinder]

Mm, and still, you offer advice better for following... harder, yes, but that's no bad thing.

( he rubs at his face. )

I'll speak with Lan Zhan, even offer the idea to the rest. Some of us have remained here for over half a year by now, I think.

[aprescoup]

You must wish yourselves returned to your homes. I do not fault you. ( But his silence indicates this largesse is not vast or unending. ) But you must not sacrifice so much here, that you no longer return where you wish to go as yourselves.

[weifinder]

Master Scholar, such as it is, it may be too late. Some of us... we've already changed. For the better, I feel.

( impossible as it seemed to start, but it's true, and he smiles, small and wry. who'd have thought? in this world, this deathless world, to have that, the earmark of life? )