[K106.22] 37 Ortackus, around Bo's Point

I'd finally made it up to a rock that was connected, and settled down to pray, giving thanks for helping us to interrupt the death ritual and keeping us safe, and asking for guidance about what to do about the broken shrine of the Father.

The vision I got in reply:
I had just come out into a bright day, and my eyes were adjusting from being in a dark building. I could smell the sea, and there were bleached rocks around. The sky was clear blue, and the city around me had rounded white buildings made of mud. There were people sheltering in doorways and under hides that had been strung across poles that stuck out of the sides of some buildings. The people were tired, many of them were sick, and I was tending them. I wasn't sick. I was a human, like the others around me, but not a kind of human I've seen before: they had light hair and long faces. The sick ones had faces pocked with sores, and most were bleeding through their bandages. As I was looking at this, my perspective suddenly changed as I checked to see who I could help, going out from the person I had been, and I realized that I had been (was now?) a healing spirit that had been with the person as he worked. Now I could see the person I'd been with wore a tan cloak, enveloping the head, and his hands were covered in blood. Strangely, he couldn't seem to hear me-the-spirit when I tried to communicate. I looked around the town, and could see the life forces seeping out of the sick people. I moved to the middle of town, where there were small dead rodents whose bodies had the same marks of this disease. There had been a battle with some animals, and the town had fought them off, but the disease struck after that. The spirit I was went down into a hollow beneath some building that was lit by shafts of sunlight from above, and there was the body of one of the animals, all black and oily, partly rotted. I could see vapors coming out from the body, poisoning people in the city.

Cor arrived, and told me he'd met the guardian of the grove of the Forest Lord, or something like the guardian. We decided to keep the telling until we got back to the others; it wasn't such a long walk.

Cor told of his experience first:
He went to the biggest trees nearby, and when he got there, he found a ring of trees with their roots intertwined in the middle around a rough pyramid. He entered the grove and got the feeling like he was in a huge building. He felt small in the presence of the forces in the grove.

He climbed up to see what was inside. Through the hole in the top he could see a small pool of water. He took a few coins and dropped them into the pool before climbing down and attempting to pray to the Forest Lord. After a while, he felt like he was being watched, and noticed across the pool there was a figure of moss and stones that had not been there before. He started conversation with it.

The creature called Cor a death reaper and told him that his kind was not welcome there. Cor said that he did not serve the lord of death and that it was his goal to thwart him. It told me that I dealt death and he replied that he only killed when necessary. It spoke of The Law and of the need. It was not clear if it agreed that killing is acceptable when required or if that was Cor's place as a dealer of death. Cor thought both.

Cor asked if it was his fate to be a servant of the god of death and it asked if he believed in fate. Cor said that if he believed in fate he would have given up a long time ago. It spoke of the great book and said that in the cities there were some who would tell him that his fate is written in the book but that others believe the book re-writes itself by our actions.

Cor said that he did not wish to serve the god of death and wanted guidance from the Forest Lord to choose his path. It said that his roots were soaked in the poison and that if he did not remove them from the poison and let them run free that Cor would eventually be consumed by it. It spoke of the trees in the orchard and the trees in the town. It told him that the trees of the orchard were safe, that they were protected and clean, but the trees of the town had their roots in the poison. Cor thinks this is why the spirits could not use the trees of the orchard. It said that in time the town would fall to the forces of cold and death up on the mountain. Cor said that he wished to stop the lord of death from destroying the town, to keep the balance of this place. It said that to heal the town Cor needed to remove the poison, then the trees in the town could no longer be used for the purposes the great cold spirit desires. When Cor asked how, it told me to open the wound and let the poison out. Cor asked if the wound was the shrine of the Father and it said it was.

Cor told it that we were being looked for by the people of the town. He asked if we would be safe in the orchard. It said that to restore the balance he would need to deal with men. Cor asked if there was a way to show them the truth. It answered that this would be difficult because many did not wish to believe, and that many of the men's roots were soaked in the poison. Cor said that he must avoid them then, and it said "if that is your wish", or Cor could try to convince them, to which it nodded. It told him that there were those in the city who still revere the Forest Lord. Cor asked who they were and how to find them. It said that their actions would reveal them. It said that Cor has two paths to choose from: one was down in the city to try to remove the poison, and the other lead up to the mountain to cold and death.

So... it sounds like we have to let the poison (the death energy in the rocks of Bo's Point doesn't quite seem right, if the poison has been going on since the shrine was broken, and the death energy in the rocks is more recent, and tied to these rituals) out through the wound that is currently the broken shrine, somehow. I don't know how. Of course.

I told the other what I'd seen, and it dovetails with what we're to do, though I still don't know about the sources of contagion here, whether they're linked or not.

Cor had described the state of the shrine when he was there, with smooth stones there, not covered in snow. There must be some followers of the Healer who have made pilgrimages to bring these rocks, and recently. So there are some in the city who would welcome the fixing of the shrine.

We talked about possible followers of the Forest Lord in Bo's Point. I suggested Lou, but Cor was doubtful. I still think he's our most likely candidate. Jack said we could ask the people at his temple, they'd know, and Mirashan said that not all of them were to be trusted. I pointed out that Hab was likely to talk with us, and she had a long memory, and her politics so far imply that she'd welcome the fixing of the shrine perhaps more than most. We ended up deciding we'd go see Hab in the morning, and figure out our next step from there.

I took the first watch, and taught Cor more about healing. Jack was still not settled in his mind, so I tried giving him a massage, which turned out rather well. And then I could finally grab some sleep.

In the morning, we headed back to town, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, skirting the fields using the shelter of the hedges, going in small groups.

Jack was first to Hab's, and tried picking the lock on the back gate we'd used late last night. Thank goodness Mirashan stopped him.

Cor knocked on the gate, but other than the dogs noticing, nothing happened. Eventually he told them to go get Hab, and they went off, returning with her assistant. He let us in, and said that Hab had been summoned by the Council already in investigating last night's actions. This wasn't the usual time for their meeting, either. He told us where the Council meets, near the Feather Wheel inn, in the western tunnels.

I tried to find out how the assistant was feeling, and read mostly that he was concerned about Hab, and thought that we brought this trouble on her. In some ways we did, of course, but in the long run, this is a better path than having the town destroyed. And she did know it was coming. Still, he didn't see it that way. I realized we'd never introduced ourselves, so I did, and his name is Jarnsune. I wanted to set his mind at ease as much as possible, but Jack wanted to get us out of there, saying that we had to leave town. Hrm. I don't know why he wanted us out of there, but I followed his lead.

We left from the back entrance again, and Jack said that Jarnsune had meant us harm. I still don't think so, but waiting around to talk to Hab when events are happening so quickly is perhaps not the most useful way to spend the day, anyway.

We talked about what to do next. Mirashan told us that there are six Council members, four heads of merchant houses and the two heads of conclaves. House Nalumoralt is involved with ship building and miners, and owns the Feathered Wheel. House Morukashal is involved with the kayfarth, also fish oils, sea inks, and they own most of dockside. House Urgasamor is involved in the iron works, equipping guards, and owns some bars. And House Wagokalane owns taverns and Menarchic shops, trading also in hides and herbs. The Comsezic master is Narlgast, and the Burdezic master is Pronwick. Jack thought we should go to the council, but I thought that might undercut Lou's authority; we should go to the House to find out if there were any messages for us first.

And that was what we decided to try next. We went in small groups again, trying for passing unnoticed, and down into the tunnels.

At one point Mirashan saw a guy she knew in the orchard guards, wearing his uniform. She told Thymelixsen to hide, then went over to talk with him. She heard about last night, how there were people from all over the city there quickly after it happened, and how the dead people were from most of the Houses (except Wagokalane, as it turns out). And the people Jack had told to leave were telling people they'd been warned by a Sunk. No wonder the Council is acting on this one, with people from their Houses implicated.