aterat | There's No Piercing This Fog

Entry tags:

There's No Piercing This Fog

Who; Nida, Open
What; Investigating the Maiden's Mercy
Where; The Harbor, The Maiden's Mercy
When; Early April
Warnings; Possible encounters with anything referenced in Event Information or mistaken combat in the fog

1. The Harbor Master's Office
The Captain hadn't exactly given him an okay on what Nida resolved to do that day, but he also hadn't been deliberately waved off. And clearly things weren't going to get better if Nida just ignored them and basked in the wonder of his life right now. No, this was up to them to solve, and with their mystery team now gone, Nida supposed it fell to those of them more confident in a fight and familiar with the harbor to deal with it.

This wasn't the first time he had come into the office. In fact, this time he wasn't breaking in. He just waltzed right in through the door and took a deep, sad breath. Caelan was gone. Nida sighed and mvoed through the room, moving through it in a thorough search. Perhaps something had changed with the return of the ship. So he started a search with the shelves in the room.

2. Battles To Be Fought
Well, he supposed he had just been delaying in what he needed to really do. Which was get to the boat. This was something he probably should have told someone he was off to do, like he had with the bear. But... But he didn't want other people getting involved in the mess that this might be.

"Forgive me, Ignis," he whispered to himself as he unslung one of the two polearms from his back and headed for the docks themselves. He took the partisan in hand as he called to Siren, stirring up her power. With it came a brief swirling of the fog that consumed the harbor, settling as she wrapped her awareness around his. Her power could not let him see through the darkness, but it did heighten his hearing quite a bit. He'd need it, to take on whatever might haunt the chill, lingering fog.

Fear starts to whisper at the edges of his mind, but Nida tries to shrug it off. He's a SeeD, one of the best. He helped kill a giant evil fear bear. He can handle this.

But when he heard movement off to the side he whirled on the balls of his feet, his weapon lowered below him, pointing into the encroaching mist.

"Come out," he barked out with all the biting authority he had learned when working with the guard.

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There's a silence following Nida's command, and it feels like it ought to go on for far longer than it does. No answer—it could be someone caught, a threat in waiting—

Or a bird.

Finally, there comes a cheerful little caw, and out of the mist hops a crow, perched up on some crates stacked on the docks. He tilts his head, watching Nida, and caws again.

And then, a woman's voice from the fog: "Chill out. You're not the only one interested in this place, yeah?"

He doesn't buy the silence, not at all. And when the bird arrives he frowns. To his senses, the ones Siren gives him, the bird gives him a tremble. It's magic, and beyond it, another source.

Which means he doesn't bother lowering his weapon.

"Perhaps, but I don't like being snuck up on. And the guard has declared this area off limits, even to people who work magic."

"Did they? I didn't realize," she says; if he could see her, she might shrug. As is, all that happens is Crow fluffs up his feathers and preens under a wing. Witch continues, "I'm new here, though, so they've got to be nice to me about it."

The weapon remains, so Witch doesn't move. She's close enough that she doesn't have to raise her voice to be heard, but she doesn't want to be in swinging range of someone else so jumpy.

"Look, I'm not interested in fighting or whatever, I'm just nosy," she says dismissively. "If you wanna talk, that's all fine and dandy, but not while you're waving that shit around."

"Given I'm part of the they, I think I get to make my own mind up about that," Nida countered.

And really, his problem was that she was insisting on staying out of sight. If she was closer and he could be more certain that she wasn't a threat, then he'd probably relax. Then again, he was a trained fighter so he had very different opinions on what proper ways to handle this would be.

"Come close enough so I can see you, and I'll lower the weapon. Otherwise, we might have a problem."

"Ah, hell. Guess I've been caught, then." She still doesn't sound terribly put-upon by the whole situation, though. Despite that, she's not feeling especially agreeable; on the best of days, Witch is paranoid, and with a quiet fear clawing at the edge of her mind from somewhere, today isn't one of those days.

"Lower the weapon and I'll come closer," she returns. Crow lifts his beak from under his wing to caw once in assent. "Can you blame a girl for not wanting to be in firing range? Pretty sure this place has got enough problems, anyway. Would way rather have a conversation like regular people instead of causing more."

Really, she was giving him orders? Did she not at all understand the compromise thing? Fine. Nida started to call to the first spell that came to mind in his head, the one that would be least bothered by the fog, and easiest to point at the echo of her magic in his mind. Fire started to raise in his blood even as he lowered the weapon, just a little.

"There aren't regular people here."

"Depends what 'regular' looks like where you're from," she says, and steps out of the fog, both hands raised. As she does, though, she senses magic flaring, and, silently from beneath its patch, her eye scans the source, trying to return to her the nature of the spell so she can be ready if things truly go sideways. Even so, she doesn't prepare anything to counter it.

She hadn't been terribly far from him in the first place—still, she keeps more than reaching distance between them, now, even as she shuffles a half-step closer to be sure she's in sight.

She makes a short, dismissive gesture with one raised hand and goes on, "I'm not here for trouble. Crow and I are just trying to do some scouting, that's all." On his pile of boxes, Crow caws in assent.

Thomas had been keen on this place since the fog had first rolled in. The den of scum and villainy was where he fed most of the time, the main city being too, well...that didn't matter, but the Harbor district wasn't frequently patrolled, and he could avoid uncomfortable conversations regarding exactly what he was up to when he fed there.

But that was before the fog. Now there were creatures, and a very deep and animalistic part of him wanted to do something about the monsters preying on the people there. It was as though the Hunger wrapped around his soul had claimed them. This time, though, he wasn't arguing with it. Whatever this boat had brought with it didn't belong here, and it was throwing off the equilibrium. Thomas wasn't one to rush into the frey, preferring instead to prepare for whatever he might be facing. He wasn't sure what the Harbormaster's office might answer for him, but since the culprit seemed to be a boat, it seemed like a good place to start a hunt.

The incubus went still, more still than a human could manage, when he realized he wasn't alone. His chest moved slowly, a living statue, his features an expressionless mask, at least until he realized who it was moving through the room, presumably on the same mission. Motion returned to his features and whatever had come over him seemed to melt into a slight smirk.

"Moonlighting in administration, Nida?"

IT was elemental energy, powerful and curling in him, and when she stepped closer he let it fade back into his blood. Still he felt his body singing with Siren's energy, ready to lash out to protect her little hawk.

He even lowers the weapon fully. Human. That can be trusted for now. And her form read with magic to his senses. Not just the magic he could touch that all people brought to this world had, but... innate power. She's magic, he realized. Really magic.

"Trouble will come if you're here, if you want it or not."

Nida didn't flinch when Thomas spoke. While Thomas moved with a sort of silence that even Siren couldn't penetrate, he still range with a taste of magic in the air. Enough of one for Nida to know he wasn't alone. Of course he'd expected the source to be further away. Still, he didn't flinch, because that reaction had been trained out of him over the years. At least from noises. Those shocked him less.

"Of course," he deadpanned, looking toward Thomas. He was surprised to see the smirk. "But really, I'm just doing what I was trained to do back home. There's a problem? Start finding information so the people that make decisions can make them. Be their eyes so they can send the more effective hands."

She shrugs, wide and exaggerated, and says, "Story of my life." Now that the weapon's completely lowered and he appears close enough to at ease, she lowers her hands to her hips. Crow gives a caw, and, at her silent command, flutters over and returns to his usual spot on her shoulder by her uncovered eye.

"Would at least rather it not come from my fellow citizens or whatever," she says. "Wanna try for something that looks like one of those regular people conversations? We can do introductions. I'm Witch. This," with a tilt of her head towards the bird, "is Crow."

Crow caws in greeting.

Witch. Nida winces. The word is... not a polite one back where he's from. Which he tries to suppress. This isn't the world where Hyne betrayed mankind.

"I'd say it was my pleasure, but there's no pleasure here. Just a mystery."

She catches the wince—it's the sort of thing she's always on guard for, and there's a clear shift in her body language when she sees it; she stands a little straighter, folds her arms.

"Right. So is there gonna be an issue here or is that just your casual-occasion look of distaste?"

Oh come on, he's trying, lady.

"Where I'm from, that term comes with a history. Not a pretty one. But that's my world and I know it," Nida answered. "I do my best to work with it, but it's like someone just coming up to you and saying the worst curse or darkest oath you can muster. It takes time to get past it being something that doesn't mean what all of your experience says it means."

Oddly enough, that settles her considerably, and while she doesn't unfold her arms, her posture visibly loosens. It would be one thing if he had denied it, and even if he insisted it was fine she wouldn't have trusted the truth of it, but that he explains the bias relaxes her. She doesn't hear that sort of awareness often.

So she says, quite easily, "Cool," and gives a thumbs-up from her crossed arms. "Wherever you go, witches and omens go together like bread and butter," she adds with a shrug, and continues, "So what should I call you?"

In his world witches were less tied to omens and more tied to literal attempts at world domination or, more recently, attempting to shatter time itself. But that's home. And home wasn't here. So unless she actually tried to destroy everything here, he intended to give her the benefit of the doubt, no matter how leery his instincts were. They could shut up.

They were instincts for another time and place than this. But damn if he wasn't trying. Hell, he was pretty sure he'd dated a guy that could be termed a 'witch' for a while. But it had been different then because it had been a guy, and the same connotations weren't there. In his world, men couldn't be witches. No one but women could have natural magic. It was just the simple truth. Women were strong with magic, and men could serve as their knights, their anchors. And that was just that.

"My name is Nida. You're welcome to call me that or Guardsman Nomura is you really want to go formal. I don't tend to."

"Spying on people and looking for a boat that shouldn't exist?" It was why Thomas was here, after all. He could handle frontline fighting in a pinch, hell he could even stay standing a lot longer than the average human, but that sort of resilience came at a price, it would leave the Hunger, the preternatural demon wrapped around his soul and from which he drew his power, Hungry and that made it, and him, dangerous. He wouldn't risk it if there was an alternative and he was dead set on finding one.

"Have you found anything so far?"

"Cool, 'cause I don't either." She shrugs lightly. "No pleasure here, just a mystery, yeah? Not for nothing, but if we're both after solving it, it probably makes more sense to move on together than to split up into the fog and run a repeat of that disaster of an introduction."

"Worse than a mystery," Nida sighed, posture finally finishing relaxing as he looked into the fog behind him. "Whatever is out of balance here, tied to the boat? It's going to affect the whole city until it's fixed. That's how it works. That's how it always seems to work. And our private eyes, or as close as we had to them, went home recently. So..."

He shrugs a little. There is only so much he can do.

"We have to figure it out."

"If you must know, I'd really call it gathering intel," Nida corrects. Sometimes he spied, but this? This was something else.

He sighed and gestured to the desk.

"A log that I don't remember from when I first arrived here. But I could have been distracted by a friend at the time. I've skimmed the contents but I don't know what to do with it. Other than maybe go try and find the families of the sailors listed. I haven't figured out whether it's useful or not."

Myabe Thomas could figure something out from it. Nida's job was to dig up information. He wasn't always able to figure out whet it all meant.

That was also exactly what Thomas would call it, and precisely why he was here. He nodded. Knowledge was power, and something that's meant learning about a thing gave it the ability to be more real. At least that's how it worked in his own world. He didn't know if the same rules applied to Aterat, the idea of not knowing that was a little uncomfortable in itself.

"The families might know something, but...don't you think it's a little weird we didn't know a whole ship of people had gone missing before now?"

"Actually, I'm not concerned about that at all," Nida admitted as he continued his search, pulling the bookshelf forward to check behind it. No secret doors. Boring.

"This place is... Well, broken is the best way to think of it I think. Whatever made this place the way it is meant they lost hope or something. And come on, the harbor has always had an abandoned feeling. Why wouldn't there be a missing ship of people?"

"That's what it says on the tin, Nida. You can't tell me you buy that." Thomas didn't. There were too many unanswered questions, and the Aspects knew way too little.

"And there wasn't even record of the ship until it showed back up, right? Or are you saying you missed it?"

Of course he doesn't buy it. And the Aspects weren't the things he liked the most, but his intention was to live out all of his life here.

"I didn't see the record before," Nida agreed. "But things come back here in pieces and starts. Remember the ball?"

He sighs and moves to the desk where the record book is.

"And if this is part of a new mystery, we have to look into it to get peace."

Thomas' wasn't, and that point of contention might bring them into conflict at some point, but it didn't have to be today.

"Yeah, I do, and it doesn't quite add up. Things show up here from other places, but this is almost a restoration. That's weird, right? Have you checked out the ship?"

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There's No Piercing This Fog

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