6. City Streets

"D-dead?" Stella whispers. At the strikes, she grits her teeth and clenches her fists, feeling the urge to strike down the abusive guards in retribution.

Stella checks to make sure no Flaming Fists are close enough to hear, then knocks politely at a slightly lesser volume than normal, but not so quiet that it might be missed.

Realizing it's possible that the manor is occupied by Flaming Fists, she takes out her second stargazer lily—partially crushed from Dieter's tackle—and places it on the doorstep, causing it to appear as if out of thin air when she lets it go. If Xan or Jannath answered, they'd recognize the flower from Lily's sketch in her tome. If it were someone else, they might think it some kind of gift or sign of gratitude left by someone before immediately fleeing.

She then stands to the side and pulls Dieter with her, just in case.

After a long moment the door unlatches and swings open just enough for Xan to peer outside. His eyes sweep the walk and the street, then he looks down and sees the lily.

He bends down to pick the flower up. "Aiwë? Stella?" His careful whisper floats on the breeze. "If you can hear me, this place is being watched. Don't reveal yourselves."

He stands there with the door open for a long moment, eyes tracing the street.

Stella lets out a pent-up breath. "Stella and Dieter," she whispers she slips inside past Xan. "Here," she whispers once inside.

Xan closes the door.

"It is as though the world has been turned upside down. Duke Eltan has been murdered! They say that your group is responsible, but that's preposterous."

He pauses. "Where is Aiwë?"

"...We don't know...Wyrm's Rock, maybe?" Stella's timid voice comes from the air. "That's where the leader of those Fists—or whoever they are—are taking Entar and Aldous."

"It...started when I tried to divine who Rieltar will be receiving orders from," she continues slowly. "Firstly, himself: we believe he's starting a war as a sacrifice to the Lord of Murder, involving Gruumsh somehow. Secondy, Sfena, leader of the Iron Throne in Sembia. Lastly, someone named 'Sarevok'—in Orcish, it also means Son of Sara, Koveras' mother. Aiwë figured out that it also means Koveras spelled backwards."

"Koveras seemed frightened and confused, then started to run after...some hostile moves were made against him." She refrains from specifically calling out Dieter. "I don't think he's humanoid; I think he's a doppelganger with some kind of...locked away persona that takes over sometimes? But that might be wishful thinking. Either he's the leader or he's going to be..."

She shakes her head and starts to speak faster and faster. "Then Aiwë chased after him—I summoned a tiger for her to ride to help her catch up, but that just meant she was alone with him for a bit before he got away—she returned and offered to help serve tea, and then she was acting a bit strange, but I thought she was just upset, and then I thought she warming up to me after I had a breakdown yesterday and said I was going home, and then when I figured it out, she refused to cut her arm to prove she wasn't a doppelganger, and the Fists broke down the door, and Dieter and I escaped, and...and..." She gasps for breath and takes a moment to calm down, trembling.

"I...don't know if it was the right thing to do—they called the doppelganger their boss and said to take the Silvershields to Wyrm's Rock. Dieter wanted to go straight there, but...I thought we needed your help. The plan is already in motion, but Sarevok knows about the infiltration. We could get help from the two Zentarim too? I don't know...can...can you help us?"

Stella freezes realizing Xan could be a doppelganger even if he did recognize the lily. "And...can I please see your blood? I just...don't want to be left wondering..."

At Stella's bidding, Xan proves he's himself with a small cut using his belt knife. His moonblade remains sheathed at his side, but seems to pulse slightly with worry.

Xan frowns. "So you have not seen Aiwë since she went off with 'Sarevok'."

He folds his arms and drums his fingers several times, thinking. "When Liia heard about Eltan's murder, she went off to meet with the other grand dukes at the Ducal Palace. I'm sure she would very much like to know these things you've told me. I should go to her... But I can't ignore your plea for help either, and Aiwë is missing, presumably captured or worse..."

The elf puts a hand on the hilt of his moonblade and exhales. "Finding Aiwë must be my priority. And given what you've said about the Silvershields being taken to Wyrm's Rock, it is reasonable to assume she was taken there as well."

He nods. "I will accompany you to the Flaming Fist headquarters."

Stella shutters a sigh of relief seeing Xan's blood and hearing his pledge of support. "Thank you."

"If you think it's important enough to inform Duke Jannath, I can send her an Animal Messenger to deliver a brief message. I can use an Illusory Script to attach a longer, hidden message with it. It would take several minutes and is still possible to be intercepted, but it is an option."

"Either way, do you need a potion of invisibility? We have two left...they were for the infiltration tonight, but, well..." She gestures. "This all happened." She then remembers she's still invisibl.. "...I don't know exactly how much longer these will last on Dieter and I, but we should still have enough time to escape the immediate area, if not the district."

"We need more information," Stella remarks. "We could also use the expertise of the Zhentarim...as manic and ruthless as they may be. We can go to Xzar and Moranton are staying, recuperate there for a bit so I can regain some of my druidic abilities, then head to Wyrm's Rock. I can send in a familiar to scout about without risking ourselves...I could also try to locate Aiwë via her clothing, while we're in the area. Then we can decide what to do from there."

Dieter pauses. He puts his hand between his plates, when he returns his hand it’s covered in blood.

"We need to rest, They’ll be using Aiwë as bait. We should rest for the night and try again tomorrow night. Besides we need information that hopefully the harpers can get us." now that his adrenaline had worn off Dieter was exhausted and wounded.

"Oh, stars! Here..." Stella hadn't realized he was so wounded. She places a glowing hand over one of his wounds and quickly mends it.

(Healer. Dieter regains 13 HP.)

"I don't think they've had enough time to devise using Aiwë bait...but they will if we give them more time. I also don't want to waste the distraction from the Harpers meeting with Rieltar tonight...Could we at least go scout for information before we decide to rest for so long?"

Dieter feels a head rush as his flesh melds together, the new nerves sending a wave of sensation to his mind.

He grits his teeth and stands up straight

Dieter uses second wind

Hp 64/78

He wipes the his hand off on his clothes and adjusts his breastplate.

"Lead me to our enemy." Dieter says

He turns to Aiwë’s cousin.

"I’ll need clay, ash, and animal fat."

Stella blinks.

One minute, Dieter's tackling her through a window. The next minute, he leaves her to hide in a tree. Then he's saying he wants to go straight for Wyrm's Rock. Then he's saying they need to rest. And now he's all in.

A slight wry smiles creeps onto Stella's face.

"Splendid!"

She did not understand this boy. But he did keep them from getting captured, helped her think, and was willing to back her up the whole time.

And...well, she wasn't much better, Stella realizes, thinking over her own actions in the last 24 hours.

Dieter sees Stella’s moment of thought

"If I can’t stop you from going unprepared I will at least come with you" Dieter smiles
"If you find me confusing it is because you do not understand yourself."

"You can stop me, but you haven't given me a solid reason yet," Stella says. "And you were the one who said we should go straight to Wyrm's Rock! But you're right; it's a risk, but I feel like waiting is the bigger risk."

Xan frowns at the thought of leaving Aiwe in the hands of her captors any longer than necessary.

"I am being a bit over dramatic. I’ll follow you where ever you go."

Dieter turns to Xan

"Can we count on your help?"

"Of course," Xan says, nodding. "What is your plan?"

"We will make two portions. One will be the fat mixed with clay powder and the other charcoal powder. We can use the mixtures to break up our features while we do our scouting.

We need to find Aiwë’s location and rescue her then the dukes."

A pained expression falls across Dieters face

"I’m afraid that my judgement is impaired though, Aiwë’s capture tears at my soul. I want to thank you Stella for bringing me here. If you had taken me to the rock I would have done great and terrible things to those people, evil things."
He pauses, he shudders to think of how easily the doppelgänger had agreed with his plan, how it lusted after it. It pained him more that he did aswell.

"if the guards on the street can be believed the flaming fist are being manipulated by the death of their leader and are innocent in their actions. We need to consolidate our power base and regroup.

For right now Stella I would like you to locate Aiwë using your magic…. Could you locate her by her piercings? They might have changed her outfit but there is a chance they left them in." Dieter asks.

Stella's face softens (though it's still invisible). "You are welcome. Thank you for keeping us from getting captured," she replies.

"The guards called 'Aiwë' their boss. Either Scar, or 'Scar', appointed 'Aiwë' as the boss of those guards, or the guards are in on the fact that she's a doppelgängers. But yes, I would much rather assume their innocence for now."
"Good idea. If we get close to Wyrm's Rock, I should be able to find her if she's there and not in a lead-lined room. If she's not, well...I'm not sure. I can ask the fauna at the estate if they saw anything, but I imagine the estate will be watched for a while. I shouldn't have dispelled my tiger...I could have asked it what happened...I..." she exhales sharply, suddenly upset with herself about many things. If she hadn't betrayed Aiwë's trust, she would have noticed Aiwë acting strangely far sooner. But thinking about that now wouldn't save Aiwë, Aldous, and the Duke.

"I think we should leave before our invisibility runs out and find Xzar and Moranton at their inn. We can rest there for an hour, then scout Wyrm's Rock and leverage their skills if we need to get in or need support if we're spotted. If you think we should get that intel sooner, though, we can do that first."