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| Details |
| Author: | Athena |
| Summary: | It's a big day, as Tabiana goes into labor, and Admiral Siamus Fallon pays a call to the father, Reniya. As part of the celebration to take him out for a drink, they stop by Lathrik and Natalyah's to reunite the two friends who hadn't seen each other in two months between the Highlands and busy times after, and to start tying up the bows on the red string conspiracy… only for another small ball of yarn to unravel and start spinning off in a new mystery. 12,222 words. Personal Plot RP. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
At the edge of the Cathedral District, in view of the sparkling ocean, stands a house belonging to the Hartrims, made up of two simple, blue and white two-stories with a neatly kept yard, and a number of flowers in bloom.
A lean man in an aristocratic blue suit, his cravat tugged askew, pauses on the path to the house to admire the view of the harbor below in the clear summer afternoon air.
The pause lingers as he seems to subside in brief daydream, his dark gaze gone soft and abstract. The sea breeze tousles his unruly dark hair.
In the square behind him, someone shouts a greeting to someone else. The voices snap him from his reverie and he turns back toward the Hartrims' house as though he hadn't paused at all. His stride lengthens as he moves impatiently toward the door; he knocks briskly and then stares the door down as if expecting it might voluntarily get out of his way.
He is carrying a bottle under one arm.
The door opens after nearly thirty seconds of failing to move aside on its own, and a short, familiar woman peers out. Othelia Hartrim, upon recognizing her guest, wilts. "Admiral Fallon," she says in greeting. "Are you here to take my son away?"
"That depends," Siamus tells her gravely, "on your definition of 'away,' Mrs. Hartrim. I might borrow him out for a drink, if he's amenable. But I promise to return him to ye in mostly the same condition he left in, possibly even before the end of the day."
"Oh," Othelia says, relaxing a margin as relief washes across her features. "He hasn't been well, you see, and… oh, do come in." She steps aside to allow him into the foyer. "Would you like me to fetch him?"
The gleam of that suppressed smile in Siamus's gaze fades a little into concern. "Not been well? I hadn't heard. I'd be obliged if ye would, thank ye kindly, if he's well enough to see a friend."
Othelia gestures to his left, towards the green and brown themed living room, then scurries to the stairs. "You are free to make yourself comfortable," she says with a smile. "Jeremin is out at sea, and Penny is at work, so it's just the three of us right now."
"Thank ye kindly, Mrs. Hartrim, though naturally I'm sorry to miss them. I hope ye'll give them my regards when they return," Siamus says with smiling courtesy, instead of the thing he might say in response to being told 'it's just the three of us' by anyone else. He strolls into the familiar living room and begins to browse vaguely in the way one does in someone else's house when one is pretending to be genuinely interested but not nosy.
Othelia does not return. Instead, Reniya himself emerges into the living room, wearing a casual white shirt under a blue vest, with loose brown pants.
"Fallon," he greets, his expression alight with surprise. "Y'get here straight from work, mate?"
He looks decidedly more healthy than advertised.
Siamus looks Ren over with a smile. "Ye look decidedly healthier than advertised, I'm glad to see. Your mother said ye'd been unwell. And aye, straight from work, to come and see ye when I heard." He pauses and considers Ren again. "Did ye hear?"
"Land yourself in bed a couple weeks and that lass'll never stop fussing," Ren says with a light shrug. "Did I hear what?"
"Land yourself — how did ye — hold on." Siamus steps toward Ren and then leans around him slightly, peering in the direction his mother vanished before straightening again. He lowers his voice. "Did Miss Lynds not send ye word? Here, step outside, man, I assume ye wouldn't like your mother privy to all your business." He takes the bottle from beneath his arm — whiskey, naturally — and gestures toward the door with it.
"Tabby Cat? What —" Reniya pauses, then nods, accepting the invitation outside. It's the next best thing to being asked into bed, after all. He stops at the door to allow Siamus out first, then steps outside behind him, smiling as the harbor enters his view. The smile fades again a moment later.
"Is she alright? I haven't checked the mail yet today," he admits.
Siamus drapes an arm companionably across Ren's shoulders. The gesture is a sufficiently frank piece of warmth that it is clear he's in an uncommonly good mood; his usual sardonic social reserve has faded. With his other hand, he prods the bottle of whiskey against Ren's chest. "That's for you." (He means the whiskey, presumably; the chest is already Ren's.) "And I believe she's quite well, aye. She's in childbed, or was when Her Grace wrote to me."
Reniya stares at the whiskey, his hands slowly moving to close around it. "She… She what?" His blue-green eyes shift to lock into Siamus's, and his grip on the bottle grows disturbingly loose, enough that he might drop it if the other man lets it go. "Now?"
Siamus does not let go of the bottle; he would never risk quality whiskey. He laughs at the look on Ren's face. "Aye, now. Best not to think on it until the business is done, I can tell ye it's not best for the nerves. So have a drink wi' me, why don't ye? The bottle's a gift, but I'll take ye out for a proper drink besides, if ye like."
"Welp," Reniya says, firming his grip on the bottle. "Beats sittin' around worryin'."
Or so he says, though his expression is immediately pensive, and he follows it with, "This is all… It's natural, aye? It'll go as it should?"
Siamus squeezes Ren's shoulders and nods firmly. Best not to think on it, he said, buddy. "Oh, aye, it'll go as it should. Which is, I point out, something ye can't have anything to do with at this point anyway, so let the ladies get on wi'their business and us be on with ours. They'll let us know when it's all done and they needn't worry about us fainting, aye? Where will we go? D'ye want to find Dinnsfield and Elle as well?"
"Elle's been… working to make up lost time," Reniya says, though a wrinkle of concern appears on his brow at the mention. "And ol' Lathrik I haven't seen in… It's been near two months, now."
Siamus draws back a little to stare at Ren. "Ye haven't — is he well? No, I suppose I'd have heard if he wasn't, from Miss Kensington-Whit or…." Siamus knits his brow. Would he have heard?
"Well," he decides after a moment. "There's a way to find out, aye? And there's enough in the bottle to go around, though I can always send for more. Come on. And what's this about ye not being well yourself? 'In bed a couple of weeks' sounds well and good, but not if ye were there by yourself."
"All by myself, aye," Reniya says, his smile a little rueful. "In fact, it's been around two months since I've shared a bed with anyone. If y'can believe it, I've been mostly sleepin'."
He starts the way towards Old Town. "Elle hasn't mentioned anything going wrong out Lathrik's way, but I s'pose he hasn't got the the most up-to-date information either. About time we pay a visit."
"Two months? Tides a'mighty, man." Siamus is earnestly dismayed. "Ye might've sent word it was an emergency." Okay, well, that's probably a joke.
Probably.
"And why would Elle not be up to date?" Siamus pauses. "Tides, the three of ye haven't had a falling out, have ye?"
"Naw, mate, it ain't anything serious like that," Reniya says, nudging him with a shoulder. "Ol' Lathrik's got a family now, aye? And Elle's not got the time to visit every day with all the work he's been up to — something's eatin' that man, I tell you."
"Got a fam—" There's a moment, there, and then the astonishment fades. "Oh, aye, a family. The parents and whatnot." Not what Siamus thinks of as a family. "They're all… well, I suppose it's no good asking ye whether they're all well. May as well enquire together."
"I've never met 'em, myself," Reniya says. "But, aye, that's where we're goin', so."
"Ye never have? Ah, then you're in for a time," Siamus tells Ren cheerfully.
A TRANSITION
The Kensington-Whit-Dinnsfield house, formerly the Moore house, doesn't have any sparkling views, but it does have the benefit of a quiet old street and several rare butterflies, both adding to its charm.
Two of the upstairs windows are cracked open to help let in a breeze to cool the upper story as the early summer heat takes hold, and all curtains have been opened, allowing the curious a peep inside.
Natalyah is at her usual business, namely cooking and keeping an extra eye on Solari, dressed in a summer yellow blouse and a new dark blue loose fitting ankle length skirt. Her handkerchief is a classic with solf gold embroidery that reads simply [I HATE EMBROIDERY]. She periodically hums pieces of songs that can sometimes double as a [Hymn of Hope], which means every so often there's a brief mana surge inside the house.
Reniya approaches after a grin and nod at the butterflies. "Ladies, gentlemen," he says to them as he passes. After a slight hesitation he raps lightly on the door, the mark of one unfamiliar with knocking.
Siamus stands back with his hands in his coat pockets and watches Ren practice Knocking Like a Grownup with the same sort of interest certain people might exhibit for the butterflies. What an exotic little creature.
Before Solari can do something like answer the door, Natalyah is already swooping up her canes, and pushing towards the knocking with a definitive call of, "I will get it!" It's a decent attempt at forestalling chaos, and she probably didn't need to use Darkflight to get there, but she did.
Which means that it's barely been a few seconds before Natalyah opens the door with an unintentional violence as it swings open hard enough to bump into a doorstop, surprised by the two men on the other side. But not displeased, as she smiles at them with that curl of her lips that suggests she knows a secret (and maybe she'll tell them).
Siamus meets her smile with that tilted brow and sardonic gleam in his gaze that says he is enjoying a private joke and it's probably not at your expense but who knows? It could be. "Miss Kensington-Whit," he greets her. "I hope we're not intruding."
Reniya eyes the door with envy. "Swallowtail," he says. "What'd the door ever do to you?"
Lathrik may not have heard the knock, but he does hear the impact of the the door with the doorstop, followed by familiar voices. "'Talyah? We have guests?" He moves to join her at the door.
"No, not at all," Natalyah says to Siamus, all manners. "Please, come in."
Reniya gets a tongue stuck out at him, none manners. "It's Ren and Siamus," she calls back to Lathrik, moving out of the way of the door, pushing along on her canes.
The interior of the house smells like coffee recently brewed, and an undercurrent of Natalyah's expensive jasmine perfume. Some parts of the house are still exactly the way Lucy left them, and others have changed significantly over the past few months.
There are even more hanging butterflies than there were at the gremlin house, and Reniya might not be able to ignore the prominent position a little paper boat with a tiny flag takes up on the kitchen windowsill.
Siamus ambles in after Ren, gazing around with frank curiosity after another flashed smile to Natalyah. "Dinnsfield," he greets Lathrik. "Pleasure to see ye again. Thought ye might like a drink."
Indeed, Reniya does eye the paper boat flatly, but his gaze is soon arrested by the presence of Lathrik. "Oi, still alive, I see," he says.
Lathrik looks Reniya over as well. "Aye, so're you," he replies.
And then Reniya steps forward, pulling the paladin into a tight embrace.
"Two bleedin' months its been," Lathrik informs him, thumping him solidly on the back. "Ye haven't been t'work. Elle said ye went home, but…"
"Aw, it's a dull story," Reniya says, turning to face them towards Siamus, a hand still slung over Lathrik's shoulder.
"Fallon," Lathrik says in greeting. "Celebratin' the continuance of the world?"
Solari is seated not on a couch or a chair, but the floor in the living room, hovering over the coffee table with a pen and paper, scribbling something that is probably (hopefully) just nonsense. She is wearing a blue and white button-up dress that someone else probably helped her into.
"Something like that," Siamus agrees genially, though he flicks a glance at Ren that lingers a moment. Are you going to tell them the News, or is Siamus? "How've ye been, Dinnsfield? Haven't heard a word since the Highlands, though I did go in to see Pennings the once. Had no idea Hartrim'd been laid up either. How's the family? Where's the family?"
Natalyah raises both brows, but she shuts the door behind the two men, and makes her way back into the modern kitchen filled with gnomish engineering gadgets and devices, pulling out glasses (there are plenty here, although not all of them match). She seems much too happy for someone on an ordinary Thursday, an electric good cheer that seems like it should be making her hair stand on end.
"Lathrik's curse is gone!" Natalyah announces with no preamble and no sense of ceremony whatsoever, just the immediate information thrown out into the air like unsubtle confetti. Well, no one could ever accuse her of withholding information at least.
"Oh, aye?" Siamus breaks into one of his rare genuine smiles. "Well that's brilliant news, isn't it? Congratulations, Dinnsfield." For a precarious moment it looks like he might hug Lathrik too.
He does not.
"Oi, you didn't kill your mother for it, did you?" Reniya asks, glancing around.
"Aye, thanks," Lathrik says to Siamus, elbowing Reniya. "No we didn't kill 'er. She's…" He starts to point to the living room, but frowns. He no longer has a clear view on Solari. She has become… a chair.
He breaks free of Reniya's grasp and heads to the living room to investigate, only to breathe a small sigh of relief a moment later when he confirms that she is, in fact, still there.
Solari looks up from her scribbling at his approach, then peers past him. Her gaze seems to light up when she sees Reniya, and she pulls herself to her feet, scrambling towards him at a near run.
Lathrik, caught by surprise, stares dumbfounded as she grabs Reniya into a hug.
Siamus also looks a little disconcerted. He steps back politely to give wider berth to the baffling hug. His manner simultaneously shifts slightly, subtle changes in posture and expression; if anyone here was not clear on their status as Friend, they can tell now from the way he is suddenly projecting Courteous Gentleman rather than the casual ease of a moment ago.
He waits politely for the mystery reunion to finish rather than interrupt to greet Solari himself.
Natalyah also looks like she might also be expecting potential fall out, one hand hovering in the air, a long finger swooping into familiar paths now as she sets a [Fear Ward] on herself, just in case touching involves a sending that spirals into bad places.
"Do you know each other?" Natalyah asks Reniya, and possibly Solari, directly. There's something a little strange about her voice, a bit muted in comparison to her usual way, the side effect of the magic.
Reniya is not expecting a small lady to pop up out of nowhere, run at him, and give him a hug. His automatic response has him catch her in his arms, but his expression is one of pure bafflement. He looks to Natalyah and starts to reply, but his expression suddenly twists into one of confusion, and then genuine fear as his gaze snaps back to Solari.
“I — what…” he staggers back towards the staircase, catching his balance on the railing as he tries to escape, but Solari continues to hold on.
“Ren?” Lathrik starts towards them, a note of fear in his own voice, Light beginning to gather around him.
"Careful," Natalyah says with that strange extra calm. "Ren, try to think of something peaceful or happy. Your boat or a tavern or whatever. Don't draw her thoughts towards fear while she's touching you." She gathers her own Light, readying for a shield if necessary. "Solari?" she calls, gentle and firm at once.
Solari responds to her name, looking over at Natalyah and releasing Reniya at once, her gaze bright and happy.
Reniya finds himself a chair and slides into it, a little shakily. "Well that was… a lot," he says, attempting to regain his own cheerful smile.
"What happened?" Lathrik demands, moving to stand between Solari and Reniya.
"I saw… myself as a child, couple times, which was well an' good, but then it was…" Reniya tries to laugh it off. "Y'ever seen yourself die five or six times in full clarity?"
Siamus's gaze follows Ren and sharpens at that last; there is a sort of pause in his whole manner, a frozen moment. He looks like he might have an answer to that particular question. He looks like it's not a great answer.
Then he shifts his weight back subtly, looks from Reniya to Solari and then to Natalyah.
Natalyah shakes her head, frowning, but it lessens as she catches Siamus' eye.
"She still doesn't speak much," she explains, setting the glasses onto a tray, and levitating as she picks it up to carry over to the others. It seems like they're going to need that drink sooner rather than later. "Her primary method of communication is through a projection from her mind to yours, but it's not well controlled, and it's heightened by touch. She might have wandered from actual memories into her own fears, and took Ren along with the wandering. Unnatural sudden fear can be cast with void magic, often called a 'psychic scream.' Luckily, it seems it stopped before it broadcasted to the rest of us. As a matter of fact, I have a [Fear Ward] on myself, because if she mass projects, it will catch me in it, and I can't halt the change to my other form even if I'm braced for it."
Natalyah eyes Reniya. "If you saw yourself as a child, then…that suggests she knew you then. But that doesn't make sense, does it? I thought you and Lathrik didn't meet until after he and Peril were on their own?"
Siamus, rather than seeming reassured by this explanation, takes a further slight step back. He watches Ren, his brows knit with concern.
"Aye," Lathrik says thoughtfully. "She might've… Wait. She seemed t'know you, too, during the rescue, 'Talyah. And the deaths… I was having dreams for a time, about…"
At that moment, Fray Farrens marches down the stairs, what's left of his hair wet from his recent washing up. "Adm'ral!" he all but roars in greeting. The neighbors love him. "What brings you by?"
Solari wiggles her fingers at Natalyah. She was addressed, and now she is being ignored.
Natalyah flinches from the shout, her head twitching as her more sensitive hearing rings. She wiggles her fingers back at Solari obligingly.
"Well, she had seen me before. That time when Peril summoned the unbound succubus, and you were mana drained without a potion. Someone looked through your eyes at me, and the only rational conclusion giving the timing would be that it had to be your mother," she answers Lathrik, still weirdly calm for Natalyah. "I have no idea why she would have projected Ren's death to you, though."
"Farrens," says Siamus, still in Gentleman Courtesy Mode. "Been a while. Was bringing Hartrim out for a drink, thought we'd stop in for Dinnsfield and I might see how everything's gone since… then. I'm pleased everyone seems well." There is the slightest rising intonation on the last; it is almost but not quite a question. "I believe it may be an inopportune time, however. Ye have some family business among yourselves, so I'll just say how very glad I am to know it's all turned out."
"Family business?" Fray sweeps the room with a glance. There's Lathrik, Natalyah, some guy he doesn't know, and… "Ah. Solari and I were just about to head out for a walk, see more of the city. We've been getting a feel for 'er little by little. Stormwind, that is. I'm sure you're welcome to take more time, as you please."
He clears the last step and reaches a hand for Solari, who claims it as though it belongs to her. Her light brown eyes examine Siamus, and she wiggles her fingers in greeting.
Reniya, for his part, has already started to compose himself, smiling a greeting at Fray.
"Aye, we're… It's nothin' needs solved this second," Lathrik says after a tentative examination of Reniya to confirm.
Siamus inclines his head courteously to Solari. "Mrs. Farrens," he says. "A pleasure to see ye, ma'am." He has resumed the smiling social mask but it does not quite match his gaze.
He glances at Lathrik inscrutably, and then surveys Ren again.
Fray and Solari make their exit, closing the door behind them.
"Welp," Reniya says, rubbing his cheeks to force some color back into them. "Whiskey time?" He shoots a lopsided grin at Siamus.
"Aye, give it here," Lathrik says, claiming the bottle and moving towards the glasses.
Siamus is still watching Ren, his brow furrowed. His gaze is tinged with concern. "Aye," he agrees affably after a moment; the tone doesn't match the look in his eyes. "Whiskey time."
He shifts his gaze back to Lathrik. "All right, there?" Though he is no longer looking at him, it seems clear that the apparently-casual question is directed at Ren.
"Why is it whiskey time?" Natalyah asks, as she sits back down on the couch, landing strangely as she drops the levitate, but gathering a glass for herself. She's not whiskey-no-ing, just whiskey-why-ing.
"Why is it ever not?" Siamus suggests. He glances at Ren again. "The bottle was a gift to Hartrim, to celebrate. We thought we'd share wi' friends."
"And the curse is gone, aye?" Reniya takes a glass after Lathrik fills it and wastes no time in draining it, holding the glass out for more.
Lathrik scowls at him. "Oi, at least let me finish pourin'," he says, offering the next glass to Siamus.
Siamus accepts the glass with a courteous nod. "Been a while wi' no word. I'd been wondering." He turns to lift his glass in a cheers to Reniya and discovers the other man's already drained his.
That's cool. Sometimes a man's humours are urgently imbalanced.
"That's because for a while there was nothing to really tell. Almeiria was right that Solari wasn't in any state to be able to remove the curse herself. She could hardly even look at it. So, we sent for Almeiria, but she wasn't at home for it. She was off working for Cobalt Company, so it had to wait. Since the curse was stable again, we did," Natalyah explains. "Solari and Fray have been living here in the meantime, adjusting to the city and being normal. Well, relatively. There's been a lot of shouting the roof tiles off, and Solari wanders around at odd hours.
"Almeiria finally got back to us just two days ago, and she and Solari were able to remove the curse finally, but it left Solari completely drained, and Lathrik and I —"
She pauses. Wait, some activities are maybe not to be widely shared. She just leaves it dangling there, to be filled in apparently with imagination or supposition at what she and Lathrik have been doing with his near-lifelong curse removed at last.
Siamus nods sagely. "I'm very glad to hear it," he says. Sort of ambiguously.
"That Almeiria lass, she's Ilanya's friend, aye?" Reniya asks, finally accepting another drink as Lathrik finishes pouring everyone else their share.
"And my cousin, apparently," Lathrik says.
Reniya's eyes widen. "Oi, seriously? Count Whatsit doin' that on purpose, y'think? Collectin' family members?"
Meanwhile, Natalyah's eyes narrow. "He does have a reputation for liking to collect people. Why can't he just be satisfied collecting obscure Darkmoon Faire tokens or whatever," she grumbles with irritation.
"But I don't think the timing works, unless he was trying to collect Lathrik for Almeiria. And I think he would have tried to hint at it when he came here to be sure we all could appreciate how clever he was being, like when he said he was looking after the family of his employees to drop the pin for the connection between Peril and Lathrik. Almeiria isn't an employee, so it doesn't work for a double implication."
Siamus drinks whiskey and looks politely nonplussed. Is he going to have to get out another notebook? Don't make him get out another notebook.
"Hell of a coincidence, then," Reniya says, taking a slower drink this time. "But a fellow like that, I bet he doesn't show all 'is cards. Y'know some of his maids are mages?"
"Well, as long as he's not having them throw blizzards at us to try to snow us in the house in the middle of summer, I don't see why we should worry about it." Natalyah shrugs dismissively, as she settles back into the couch with her whiskey.
"Anyway, you said you were celebrating something, and that's why you were taking Ren out for a drink," she says to Siamus, and then glances at the whiskey bottle. "With a drink. What's that sort of celebrating for?"
"Ah." Siamus clears his throat and looks over at Ren. "Hartrim's to be a father. That is — ye know that part. Imminently, I mean. Miss Lynds is in childbed."
At this news, Lathrik's frown finally clears, and he claps Reniya on the back. "Mate, that's — she's well? Do ye know?"
Reniya takes another drink in answer. That's why he's here, buddy.
"Will we… be allowed to visit, when that's done?" Lathrik asks, looking to Siamus, the one with Experience.
"All's well last I heard," Siamus confirms. "Her Grace would… well. And that's what the bottle's for, aye? I've found in my own experience it makes the labor easier. For the father," he deadpans.
To Lathrik, he says, "Not straightaway, it will be a little time for mother and child to settle and the baby to be well wi' the world. But you're welcome at Fallon House whenever ye please, and I'm sure Miss Lynds will be glad to have her friends if ye ask to visit."
Natalyah, not a father, takes a long drink of her whiskey. Maybe for Science to see if the bottle works across the board.
"What if 'e doesn't like me?" Reniya asks suddenly.
Lathrik frowns again. "The baby?"
"Aye, the baby. What if I hold 'im and all he does is cry and I can't get 'im to calm?" Reniya stares into his glass as if his son is already judging him somehow.
"Maybe it's a… practice sort of thing?" Lathrik offers, also not a father.
"Well," Siamus says, and frowns thoughtfully into his glass. "I suppose… that is, he will cry a great deal, and ye won't always be able to calm him. It won't be because he doesn't like ye. It will be because he's a baby and doesn't much know how he feels about anything, and certainly doesn't know how to say so. He'll howl because… he's tired, or colicky, or… made a mess, and none of it to do with ye. But mostly I expect he'll just take to ye? Mine all have done."
Natalyah looks like she's considering offering up Helpful Moth Facts again, but her gaze slides over to Lathrik. "As a matter of fact, most newborn creatures are like that. It's all instinct and survival. It's not like they have any context of the world to come out of the womb and start evaluating your hobbies and interests, or your perpetual lock picking instead of knocking, or whatever."
Siamus gestures with his glass at Natalyah. See? A Scientist said so. A Lady Scientist, which means she just naturally knows Baby Business.
"Oi, I didn't do it this time," Reniya objects. "I knocked like a gentleman."
Lathrik snorts. "Barely, I expect," he says.
"You've got no proof, mate." Reniya perches on the arm of the brooding couch. "Speakin' of fathers. That fellow jus' left. That's yours?"
Lathrik nods. "Fray Farrens. Loud as they come." He takes a drink, but there is a slight smile on his face, and a glimmer of pride in his eyes.
"I suspect that the only reason we haven't been getting one of the Guard sent over with noise complaints is that the guard they'd send is Lathrik," Natalyah says, draining the rest of her whiskey.
"A loud fellow," Siamus agrees. He does not seem to have much to add. That's basically his entire store of Fray Facts, right there. He drinks some more.
"But there is something we wanted to talk to you about with Fray and Solari, and getting them back into the city properly. Before everything, they used to live in a place on the street in Old Town that we used to, that you now own. Fray has an old map of the city before the sacking of it in the First War, and Lathrik says that it lines up with the new city on that block," Natalyah says, laying out the situation on the table.
"Fray wants to work for it, not just have it handed out to them, if that was any concern. Probably for the best to have him employed doing something if you know of any proper uses for his skills. He seems like the type where if he doesn't have something to do, he'll end up climbing the city clock tower shirtless."
"Ah," says Siamus, processing this. "Ye want — I see." He looks around at the three of them again, then tips back the rest of his drink and sets the glass aside carefully. "Naturally, I can do that. Glad to. The houses there… it's flats now, aye? It would be a flat. Above a shop."
Lathrik makes a 'hmm' sound. "Might be a problem for the shop," he admits. "'Less it's a shop that didn't mind shoutin'."
Reniya glances between Siamus, Natalyah, and Lathrik. "He really that bad?" he asks.
"What manner of skills has he got?" Siamus inquires. He has reverted to Gentleman Courtesy Mode. "Beyond with a sword or a brawl? If I'm… to find him employment as well. Has he a trade? Or is he purely a fighting man?"
"Soldier from the start, to hear him tell it," Lathrik says, shrugging. "I believe it. When I took that blow from 'im in the Highlands, I worried my bleedin' arms would fall off."
Siamus nods courteously. "Well, I have military contacts in plenty, of course. I'll see what can be done along those lines. And arrange for the flat, if a flat is acceptable to your parents." He looks from face to face and puts his hands in his pockets, smiling his enigmatic public smile. "Anything else, while I'm here?"
Natalyah has started to frown, and as soon as his hands go into his pockets, she rises to a floating stand to drift quickly to him, reaching out for his arm.
"Wait, no, I didn't mean— " True chagrin crosses her face. "I'm sorry. I've never been any good at bringing things up subtly when I know them. If it had been anywhere else, or anyone else, I wouldn't have said anything. It's only because it's you. And you're one of the most decent, fair, and generous people I've ever met. But I didn't mean to make you feel like you're a… a favor dispensary. Not after everything you've already…"
Tears prickle in her eyes, and that's about the only warning Siamus gets before she's flung herself at him. She hugs much the same way she does everything: with the full force of herself, holding nothing back. It's a crushing, squeezing embrace.
"Thank you. For everything. Everything you did and said. You've been such a good friend to me and I've never done anything to earn it or deserve it." There's a shudder to her full body at it, a curl of shame to her shoulders, but she doesn't let go.
She raises her head to look up at him, earnest velvet brown eyes with no game to play, only truthful imploring. "So won't you stay, at least a while longer? Not as Siamus Fallon, man of influence and favors, but just Siamus, with his friends, even if there’s no crisis to fix or enigmatic puzzle to solve?"
Siamus' mask of smiling, sardonic courtesy flickers warily at Natalyah's approach; at her words it drops away entirely, revealing the profound, embarrassed unease it had covered.
And then she attacks hugs him and he freezes with something that looks very much like alarm. When she shudders, he lifts a hand to pet her hair tentatively. There, there? (He has seen Avrenne wield this technique. Except without the question mark.)
"Ah," he says smoothly in response to her plea, and flicks a look at Lathrik and then Ren.
There is an almost painfully awkward look on Lathrik’s face, and his cheeks flush from embarrassment and guilt. “Aye, ‘Talyah has the right of it. I’ve yet to thank ye properly myself, and for that I pray you’ll forgive me.”
“Cheers t’that,” Reniya says, raising his glass. “We’re all of us grateful for all you’ve done t’help, and if anything’s been done to put you off or make you uncomfortable, you’re best sayin’ it up front."
Siamus looks down at Natalyah — not that far down, she's floating — and then at the other two men again in silence.
"To be clear," he says at last, "I am… happy to do a favor, whenever I can, particularly for a friend. And I consider the lot of ye friends, for my own part. I'm just not altogether clear myself — that is. I hadn't heard from ye. After everything. I was concerned. And then here, I'm not certain… there's a great deal going past or over my head right now, and I'm not certain whether I'm intruding. Or whether I am Fall— Sia— Siamus?" It is a polite inquiry but it is an inquiry, and there is a deeper uncertainty in his expression when he looks down again at Natalyah, who is — yes, okay, he's just checked, she's still doing the thing with her arms to him. "I only meant to bring Hartrim a drink. Not to impose."
Natalyah does a bit of a start of a motion that seems like she checked it partway, as if she might have pecked Siamus on the cheek in a surge of affection and then remembered things like social connotations and implications; she settles instead for another bone crushing squeeze.
"I'm sorry for that, too, then, the not writing. I suppose I thought that you're, well, important, and all I could have said was that things went back to normal, and there'd been no progress with Solari, and it didn't seem like enough of a reason to interrupt. But I didn't mean for it to sound like silence," Natalyah says repentantly.
She releases him from his bear worgen hug to instead grab at his arm, and it probably seems obvious from the way she sort of strains forward that she's trying to drag him back towards the sitting area, except that with the Levitate, she has zero force or power, so it just leaves her sort of floating near him with a hand on his arm. "As for the rest, then you can come sit by me in the Still Figuring All This Out Corner, because I don't understand it all, either, and you're good at this sort of thing. Also you probably have a notebook on you and I don't right at the moment."
He twitches a slight smile at that. "… I do have a notebook, aye. I've just come from work."
It takes him a further moment to realize that he's being (ineffectively) towed by the floating lady, but when he does realize it, he moves obligingly in the direction she is leaning toward. "And I genuinely don't mean to intrude, to be clear. I'm… very glad to stay, but I did come because of Hartrim's news, and Dinnsfield's own news is a bloody welcome thing also. A damned good piece of news."
Natalyah looks back at Siamus half-baffled, half-pleased, which does an interesting thing to her expression. "Do you really think that if you were unwelcome, or intruding in some way, that I wouldn't just say it or make it abundantly clear, your rank and position be damned?"
"I suppose ye might embroider it on a kerchief," Siamus allows.
Natalyah laughs, a delighted wicked cackle.
Siamus turns toward Lathrik. "Will ye tell me, Dinnsfield? How it happened? What did Miss Fey and your mother… d'ye know what its purpose was, in the first place?"
"The curse? Aye, it's… I'm still not fully clear on it, myself. Almeiria can communicate with her, the rest of us just guess. I haven't touched her, myself. Afraid to."
Lathrik moves to take a seat on the brooding couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. "Suppose it was meant as protection, of a sort, just hastily done and with a magic no one really understood at the time. But — and I don't know if you noticed it, in the battle — during the mana drain from… whatever was goin' on with those rituals, she… took over and moved me away. Suspect she did the same during the assault on Southshore. It'd be why I survived."
Siamus exhales a slow breath, wide-eyed. "Tides below. Tides, man, that's — " He shakes his head. "I saw ye run, in the battle. At the time I thought — well, he'd been putting… things in people's heads, false visions. I thought it must've been the like, knew ye wouldn't leave Miss Kensington-Whit. But I was… ah, distracted myself, in the minute. By the — " He makes a vague, circling gesture. The mana drain.
He settles into the chair across from Lathrik on the couch, and glances over at Ren.
"And ye won't touch her because — what happened to Hartrim?" His gaze goes to Natalyah.
Natalyah sits back down on the couch next to Lathrik with a heavy plop of dropping Levitate. "That and she marked Fray with a different one, more deliberate. It's hard to know if she wouldn't put another one on thinking that it's better and protective. She's still his mother, and I think she wants to protect him and keep him safe, but her understanding of the world might be strange after so long. She lived with that same thing in reverse for what, twenty-five years? Imagine always having a hand on your child, and now you've been asked to keep it off. Presumably some parents are like that." Not in her experience, but so you hear.
"I've just been wondering with what she showed Ren — all this time I've been assuming that Fray's been taking Solari out into the city to show her it to acclimate, but now I'm curious if it's more the other way around," Natalyah muses. "She's been sometimes Lathrik through the years, and other times possibly passively looking through his eyes. She might know his old stomping grounds, all his patrol routes, all his friends… all of this might be like a life she lived second hand and now she's fully in it. Like stepping into a dream, maybe."
Siamus sits back wordlessly, processing this. "Tides a'mighty," he says at last, and looks at Ren again.
Lathrik suddenly jolts upright, staring towards the door in a near panic. "That'd mean…"
Reniya startles at his sudden movement, nearly falling from his perch. "Oi, might," he emphasizes. "It's a theory, mate."
"A theory," Lathrik repeats, but there are worry lines on his brow as he sinks back down onto the couch.
Siamus looks between them and tilts a baffled eyebrow.
Natalyah flinches as if stung, reaching for Lathrik.
"Might mean what? Might what be a hypothesis? Whatever you're talking about can't be a theory, in fact, because that is a well-substantiated aspect of nature supported by extensive evidence, and nothing about this is that," Natalyah corrects with no real heat behind the words, but an inevitable Scientific Tone of someone who cannot help herself.
"She might know… everything," Lathrik says, and there is a hint of fear in his voice, evidence of a man with something to hide. "I don't know how much she understands, but if she goes around touching people, then eventually maybe someone else will also know everything."
"What, like, Alliance secrets?" Reniya asks.
"Aye," Lathrik says. "Somethin' like that."
Siamus looks puzzled for a moment and then sits up slowly. "Ah," he says.
Natalyah traces the cord back to the same wall, and with the same energy says, "Oh, shit."
Siamus knits his brow fiercely, thinking.
It does not seem to help.
"Okay," Reniya says, still not understanding the full situation, "maybe you invite that Almeiria back, see if there's a way to control the… thought… givin'. Or y'don't let 'er touch anyone, but that seems harder."
"Almeiria's daughter mentioned a potion, as well," Lathrik says, staring at the coffee table as if reading the answers from it. "That'll be long-term, probably, but…"
Siamus looks up. "Miss Fey's…?" His expression concedes that if anyone was going to produce a toddler alchemist it would probably be Almeiria Fey.
"And Solari might get better, with time and stability. The uncontrolled casting might not be something she always does, once she can speak or communicate in some other way, or if she understands which information she cannot tell people," Natalyah offers. "On the bright side, if she ever needs or wants to earn a living, she'll probably make a killing working as a fortune teller 'palm' reader."
She glances over to Siamus. "Almeiria isn't much older than she seems or anything. Bronze dragons." That's it, that's the explanation. "I don't think they widely advertise it."
Siamus sits with this in silence. Dragons did it. Okay.
He clears his throat. "Did Miss Fey give ye an idea of what the odds are? That she'll improve wi' time?"
"The trauma might," Lathrik says. "The Void… situation may need some work. There was mention she's been hearin'… 'Squiggles,'" he makes a face, "And she's been fillin' our sinks to the brim and staring into 'em like she's seeing something."
"Squiggles?" Reniya peers around like he's missing something. "How d'you hear a squiggle?"
"It's an alternative name for one of the Old Gods. There's a non-zero chance that speaking about the Old Gods with their presumably true names can invoke them enough to draw their attention, and for those who already have a connection to the Void, that might be an actual risk to pull that attention to them directly. As a matter of fact, there are things called 'Power Words' and 'Shadow Words' for a similar reason. So, we use something else that doesn't quite really mean it," Natalyah explains. "Also, importantly, it's funny."
Siamus nods gravely. "The Old God at Vashj'ir. I've… heard it."
"Oi, seriously?" Reniya asks. "Did it say anything worthwhile?"
"It's a bleedin' Old God, Ren," Lathrik says.
"Well, sure, I'm jus' sayin', maybe a clue about it or something," Reniya says.
Natalayh raises both eyebrows and looks at Siamus.
Siamus weighs the question in silence. He gets up from his chair wordlessly and goes back to where he'd set his glass, to pour another measure of whiskey.
When he comes back he says, "I believe I made a bargain with it," and sits down again.
"A bargain? You made a deal with an Old God, with that Old God? Why?" Natalyah asks, curious rather than judgemental.
"Was this an 'on purpose' sorta deal, or a 'whoops I guess that's an Old God?'" Reniya asks, also more curious than judgmental.
Lathrik studies Siamus in silence.
"The latter," says Siamus, and smiles sourly. "I didn't know it was an Old God until… perhaps last month? Well, didn't suspect it. I still don't know. But it is my — " He looks at Natalyah. "Hypothesis."
The last bit gets one of Natalyah's impish smiles like they're sharing a secret, and a little pleased wiggle of her shoulders in a modified sway since she's sitting.
But the thinking eyebrows have still set up camp on the rest of her expression. "What did you make the deal for, and did it hold up its end of it?" she just asks boldly because she wants to know.
Siamus tips back the entire contents of his glass in one swallow and then sits for a moment. "There was a tidal wave, ye may recall," he says dryly, and then hesitates again. "Fallon House — my family, the lot of it — we're on the sea-cliffs. I tried to hold the wave long enough for them to escape. I couldn't, on my own. But it was willing to bargain."
"What did it want?" Lathrik asks, his gaze intense.
"Couldn't've been a 'give up your firstborn' situation, 'cause you've still got the Lady Ery," Reniya says. Then he frowns. "You have, haven't you?"
Lathrik gives him a flat stare.
Natalyah's glare is much more intense, a hot flash of anger. "You don't really think Siamus would trade a child for anything like that," she says defensively, and it sounds a bit like a threat or a challenge more than anything.
"Never," Siamus says; his tone is icy. He pauses again and looks into his empty glass. "I gave it my gift."
"Y'gave it…" Reniya looks horrified. "Mate. Are you bloody serious? I barely survived Dalaran, how…"
Lathrik, however, frowns in confusion. "That's not… what ye were doing in the Highlands? The lightning?"
Natalyah glances at the whiskey bottle, and then back to Siamus.
Siamus returns Ren's look bleakly. "Was deaf and half-blind the whole of this last year." Then he tilts his head at Lathrik and gestures with his glass. "Until the Highlands."
Natalyah nudges Lathrik's shoulder with hers, nodding significantly at Siamus' empty glass. "That's the kind of thing a person says and obviously they need more whiskey about it," she also says out loud, helpfully. "And frankly, so do you with our ongoing hypothesis with your mother." She's a helper.
"What do you mean deaf and half-blind? You seemed normal," she asks Siamus. "Or at least the same as I remembered you to be."
Lathrik rises, moving to the whiskey bottle.
"That's…" Reniya does some math. "This whole time I've known you? Y'must've been suffering. You could've told me. I… I dunno what I could've done about it, but… But it's… back now? Somehow?"
Siamus glances at Ren and then back at Natalyah. "The world's not… it's hard to explain. I've a different sense of it. It's — alive, in a different way. It sounds, feels — " He shakes his head. "And then it was gone. Imagine ye lost… imagine ye lost your sense of smell, and couldn't see colors any longer. Imagine the world in… two dimensions, rather than three."
He looks at Ren and there's that bleak, black shadow in his gaze again. "Aye. This whole time. But then in the Highlands — " He nods toward Lathrik. "There was an orc elementalist who'd leashed a storm, meant to use it on us. Leashed it against its will, and I could… hear it. So I took it from him. And it was all — there again, suddenly."
Reniya scoffs. "Leashed a storm," he says. "Storms ain't meant t'be leashed. She's best wild and free, nature unrestrained. Best you do is ask 'er to look the other way as you pass, to spend her fury on your enemies instead. But to bind her… You killed 'im I expect?"
There is a rare flash of anger in Reniya's eyes, like a violent swell of blue-green seawater.
Siamus smiles like a razorblade. "Oh, aye. Ye may be sure."
Natalyah's face shows that sympathy without pity, finding a way towards understanding in maybe a worgen way.
"Then, that's something to celebrate, too," she declares. "You're free from the deal, and Squiggle is out an evil elementalist, among other things. So, ha."
Lathrik moves around the seating area, refilling glasses, then settles back down on the couch, placing the bottle between them on the coffee table. "What d'ye s'pose the thing wanted with your gift?" he asks. "And did it know you'd get it back?"
"Maybe it thought he'd up an' join the doom cult?" Reniya offers.
Siamus salutes Lathrik with his refilled glass. "I had the sense, at the time — that it wanted power. Any power. Or maybe it was just a piece of cruelty." He shrugs. "As to getting it back…." He's silent for a moment, contemplating his drink. "I don't know that it believed it would be bested. The naga, the Twilight cult, Deathwing: all its instruments in the world, falling one by one. My… hypothesis is that as it lost clawholds in the world, it shed some powers too." He has a sip of whiskey and shrugs. "Or the tides were with me."
Natalyah nods in consensus of this hypothesis potential, and then rests her chin on Lathrik's shoulder. "I agree that it makes a logical enough sense, given all we don't and can't know at the moment weighed against what we do know, and have seen," she says in Scientific Approval.
Siamus inclines his head to her respectfully. "But to return to — ye believe your mother's hearing it, Dinnsfield? How d'ye know? Miss Fey told ye?"
"Aye, she was trying to reassure Solari that Squiggles doesn't have a lot of power here," Lathrik says. "That it can't get her unless she lets it."
"That what the water in the sink is about?" Reniya asks. "Her checkin' for Squiggles?"
Natalyah shrugs. "Possibly. Water's used in a lot of forms of scrying. If she'd only done it in the downstairs bathroom I might also say she might have been checking her reflection, but no, she wandered in our bedroom —" She halts that sentence as another thought takes precedence, rigid tension through her.
There is definitely an entire train of thought happening in there, and then she breathes out, brushing Lathrik's arm with a soothing hand for some reason. "I can't speak for the past years, but I can say that while I might not be Almeira or Shadowman's caliber for detecting a shadow sight far away, I would have known it that close and focused on you. So, we were always only the two of us during certain times." You know, in case you hadn't worried about that before, Lathrik.
Siamus sips his drink politely and glances at Reniya. Hey Ren, how's it goin'?
Lathrik is now staring at a very specific point on the table.
Reniya is trying very, very hard not to laugh. In the end, he says, "Not sure what a… Squiggles would be interested in that for."
"So can ye explain, please," Siamus says, helpfully diverting the subject, "what it is happens, exactly, when ye touch her? Or she touches you? Hartrim said he saw…?" He gestures at Ren with his glass.
"Well, seein' as Ren's the only one here who's done it…" Lathrik says. "Best we have is what Almeiria told us. That it's how she communicates."
"There was that… of a sort," Reniya says, pausing to take another drink. "There were visions, aye, but also seemed like… feelings went with 'em."
"A lot of forms of Void magic connect to the mind in perception and feeling. You can influence certain things, like make someone not notice you even with you standing right in front of them, or make them feel an unnatural fear, or even take over their body temporarily. She's doing something like that, to project thoughts and memories.
"I intend to learn more on how to set up some sort of mental barrier first, so that she doesn't just run roughshod through my mind. It's not… safe for her in here, or in my memories," she says, a hollow note ringing in her voice. "But that's the basis of it. Almeiria was able to navigate through, but her connection to the Void is much stronger. For the unprepared, it's likely easily overwhelming."
"And… what ye remembered," Siamus says to Ren. "She — did she draw that out of ye, or did she show it to ye? Could ye tell?" His brow is knit intently.
Reniya drains his whiskey and moves to fill his glass again. "Aye, so. They weren't anything of mine. First thing I got was… a warm feeling, like maybe she was happy t'see me. That's when I was seein' my younger self. Then it switched to…" Another drink. "The other stuff. It was harder to tell, then, what she might've been telling me, because my own bloody fear got in the way. All of it was… dyin' without the good parts, and worse, Lathrik was there in every one, watching."
Siamus lowers his glass slowly and looks to Lathrik.
"I was having dreams, for a while," Lathrik admits. "About Ren dying. Poison, stab wounds, killing him myself, it was… a nightly thing, on two separate occasions. First was before we infiltrated Count Amerith's manor. Ren was injured that night, but nothing fatal. Dreams stopped for a while. Came back later, just before ye sent him to Dalaran, and then…"
"There was one of those," Reniya says. "Except I died in Dalaran, in that vision. That Rida lass had Moores dead, an' Lathrik chained and was takin' her time, makin' sure he suffered too. That's not how it went, in the end." He shrugs.
"That makes it deeply strange," Natalyah comments, stating the obvious. "Everyone gets nightmares for one, but even if we include the data that Solari can project her thoughts into someone, and maybe Solari had been trying to communicate something else using Ren and metaphors — that kind of specificity? With people she, we assume at the moment, had never met? And that it came that close to a form of reality, that means something more than a woman trying to use dreams to say something."
"Mrs Farrens at a distance trying to warn Dinnsfield? Of danger to Hartrim?" Siamus says slowly, thinking aloud. He is plainly baffled. He drinks some more while he thinks. It's Thinking Whiskey.
"And why would she have anything like foreknowledge of it? I was only half-kidding about the fortune teller work, but that begs a question of how would she have known of danger to either? Was it Squiggles who did have an interest?" Natalyah does not slow down to allow people to answer these questions one at a time before asking more. "Did you notice anything on that day of the tidal wave, Ren? Or feel like something noticed you?"
Siamus sets his glass down on the coffee table and leans intently toward Ren.
"I mean I felt it, the wave, but I'm guessin' Fallon did too," Reniya says, shrugging. "And I'm no Void expert, besides."
"We need a calendar," Natalyah says. "To see if we can look at when Lathrik remembers the dreams starting, and then what else was happening, or might have brought it on, around then that might have anything to do with Squiggles."
"I have — " Siamus sits up and pats his coat pockets. From one, he produces a vaguely familiar little notebook. He stares at it for a moment. "No," he says, and puts it back.
From a different pocket, he fishes out a palm-sized datebook. Y 28 - 29 is embossed in gold lettering on its front.
Natalyah leans over to inspect it. "Obviously we aren't likely to have a full picture, even with our combined knowledge, but it's worth investigating and starting to look at a picture of it. Squiggles is weakened, but not gone. And if it was something Squiggles wanted to happen that Solari picked up on, and if it was something about tidesages in particular, then that might be important. Something that maybe a tidesage person could do that the Old God wants taken out? That's the thing everyone keeps saying about the Old Gods. That they're patient, and they're willing to play a long game."
Siamus opens the book from the front and begins to page through it. It is marked with a week per page, the daily boxes small, and almost all of them are filled with jagged calligraphic equations.
He pauses at an island of three blank days. "Here," he says. "This was the wave." He looks up at Lathrik. "The dreams began when? How long after?"
Lathrik shakes his head. "'Twas mid July," he says. "Come to think of it, it might've been around the time…" He turns to stare at Reniya.
Reniya stares back. "What?"
"Ye had that… situation with Tabiana," Lathrik says.
"Tabby Cat? In July? We had the situation in September, it's why she's…" Reniya trails off. "Oh. Y'mean… that other situation."
"And then the dreams stopped after Ren did die, didn't they?" Natalyah confirms, eyeing Lathrik. "Which would give us the window for it. And maybe worth investigating into the people involved in that, for what might possibly be a link between them and Squiggles."
Siamus is paging through from the first days of May to mid-July. "What situation with Tabiana?" he asks, and looks up with a brow raised. "If I may ask. As to whether it's relevant."
Reniya shifts awkwardly on the arm of the couch. "Now, the situation… I spoke on it with you before, though in more discreet terms, and there's nothing further t'be done. See, Tabby Cat had a hard time fittin' in with the Guard. There was all manner of hazings and abuse on account of… the Argent Crusade allowing orcs in their ranks. A lot of us in the Guard hate orcs more than anything, Pennings herself included, although Pennings'll come around once the work's put in. Some of the lasses got it in their heads to attack Tabby Cat some nights, and I caught wind, so I just, stepped in for a bit, had 'em take it out on me instead. And I know what y’thought of that, but it’s done now.”
Siamus regards Ren levelly for a long moment. A very long moment. It becomes perhaps an uncomfortably long moment.
"Ah," he says cordially at last, and returns his attention to the datebook. "I do recall, now that ye mention. I was not aware it was Miss Lynds. And that was when ye began having the dreams, Dinnsfield? Around the time that business began? When ye first heard of the business? Were those one and the same time?"
“Some of his bruises were… weeks old, when we discovered them,” Lathrik says, considering. “It aligns with the start of the dreams, if ye do the math from there. But I was not aware of the situation when the dreams started, and after the infiltration of Count Amerith’s manor the dreams stopped for a time. That was when we… discovered the bruising and put an end to the situation.”
"So the dreams started before ye knew, and also stopped before ye knew but after Amerith? Or stopped when ye found out? I'm trying to clarify the timeline." Indeed, Siamus has just drawn a slash of a horizontal line across the top of a page in the datebook and is adding sequential hashmarks to it, labeled indecipherably. Maybe you should have gotten out the notebook after all, Siamus. Also you are never going to remember where in that datebook you put that timeline.
"They stopped after we found out," Lathrik clarifies. "I s'pose, to say it like that, they stopped after Ren stopped gettin' hurt."
"We can't completely rule out the possibility that Lathrik was picking up on something with Ren, even if he didn't consciously know what it was, and that Solari was amplifying those fears through their connection, causing his mind to generate possible scenarios and not something she directed.
"And we can't entirely rule out that what happened now with Ren and her, and him seeing specifics of things Solari probably couldn't know about wasn't the same thing of her amplifying his fear and his mind providing the specifics, just like a fortune teller will use vague hints until someone gives them details to work with," Natalyah says, watching the datebook with interest. "But that's why the data collection is important, so that we let the data inform our conclusion, rather than the other way around."
Science! Her favorite thing.
Siamus nods thoughtfully. "Aye, the first hypothesis struck me as well. The pair of ye are close for a while now, aren't ye?" He looks up, from Lathrik to Ren and back. "So there's a chance ye knew something was amiss with him but not what, and your mind…" He taps the side of his head with his pen.
"But with Hartrim just now — we're all in agreement she can't have known… that event. So we hypothesize the memory must have come up from his mind. But why that one particularly? If she's amplifying fears, is it… any available one? Is she choosing which?" He pauses. "And we've no way yet of knowing whether it's something to do with Hartrim himself yet or not. As Dinnsfield's dreams were about Hartrim, and the other business was Hartrim."
He studies Reniya.
"I know how to find out," Reniya says after another sip of whiskey. "Someone else touch 'er."
"Oi, that's dangerous," Lathrik objects.
Reniya shrugs. "That Fray fellow seemed t'manage fine."
Siamus looks between them and then at Natalyah. "Ye told Hartrim to remain calm. What happens if the person she touches doesn't?"
"It seems to reverberate in her, at least as far as we can tell. Your fear amplifies hers, and she loses herself in memories that made her feel that way, and then you see those, and so on. I can draw her back from it with an application of Fear Ward, but that only stops the worsening spiral," Natalyah says. "Fray and Solari had an entire life together before. There's trust and shared grounding memories, and an openness between them. I may be able to navigate that link knowing what to expect. I went through something… very similar with the Ritual of Balance, and with much higher stakes." She shudders at the memory, crowding herself into Lathrik, sticking her face near his neck.
"But I wouldn't try it today, or any other day until I'm sure I can keep her out of my own. And since we don't know how well or what she projects to others or what she takes out from them, she shouldn't touch anyone with sensitive information. This doesn't have to be solved today," she reminds them, and then looks over at Siamus. "All right, I revise what I said before, but someday you'll sit down with us and not end up talking about a possible enigmatic puzzle to solve."
Siamus blinks at her, as if trying to connect the last sentence to anything that's come before. He drops his gaze to the datebook and the pen in his hand, and his expression turns sheepish. "Ah," he says, and clears his throat. "And I will try… not to get carried away in one."
He sits up and tucks pen and datebook back into his pocket, clears his throat, and rakes his hair back. "I enjoy maths." He reaches for his whiskey glass again.
"And I enjoy mysteries," Natalyah admits.
"There's not a thing wrong with a good puzzle, Swallowtail," Reniya says, raising his glass.
Lathrik slips an arm around Natalyah, and sips his whiskey. "Aye, well, it'd be nice if all the puzzles could stop happenin' around me," he mutters.
Siamus raises his drink in an ironic toast to Lathrik and has a sip. Then he looks from Lathrik to Ren and back again. "Speaking of puzzles — how is it the pair of ye haven't seen each other in two months? I'd never have believed it."
Natalyah looks over at Ren and Lathrik. She doesn't have the full answer for this one either. "As a matter of fact, I've been wondering that myself."
The guilty look slips back onto Lathrik's face. "He wasn't at work," he answers rather sheepishly.
Reniya wisely keeps his mouth shut.
Siamus looks to Reniya. "Why weren't ye at work, Hartrim?" he asks Ren mildly, and raises an eyebrow that suggests Don't make me repeat what your mom said.
Natalyah pours herself another drink without sliding out of Lathrik's hold, sipping it with a suspicious look at Ren.
"I was… There was… some sleepin' going on," Reniya says, finishing off his glass. "Didn't Elle tell you? Or Fireworks, for that matter? Penny's been going to see him every day since he got back."
"Elle told me you'd gone home, but I figured you'd be out of there as soon as ye could. And then… now here ye are," Lathrik says.
"Now here I am," Reniya says, his smile one of amusement.
"I suppose," Natalyah says begrudgingly. She pokes a hard finger at Lathrik's chest. "Have you spoken to Peril? Did you send him a note at least that the curse is gone?"
A telling silence follows her question. Lathrik stares into his whiskey glass.
Rather than press the point harder, she relents, setting her hand softly on his chest instead. "Sinners and martyrs. Between the two of us, it's probably a minor miracle we don't have more people showing up at our door wondering what in world happened," she says with a fond exasperation and mercy on the guilt-prone paladin, and kisses Lathrik's cheek soundly for good measure. "All right, I'll handle it. I'll send out letters to everyone who helped us to let them know what happened and how much we appreciate it, and then on your next rest day we're going to see Peril."
She doesn't know there won't be another rest day before everything changes, because she is not any type of fortune teller.
"I'm surprised Junior hasn't come round himself, considering they're his kin as well," Siamus says, and then reconsiders. "… although perhaps he was concerned wi'the risk of being carried about upside-down again." He glances at Reniya. "Or perhaps Miss Hartrim's been occupying his thoughts." He does a very poor job of concealing a smile.
"Thoughts? The way she goes on about him, I'd be surprised if she hasn't tried occupyin' his bed." Reniya shrugs. "I ain't worried though. What with how skittish Fireworks is, 'tis likely he'd've given 'er the bed and taken up on the floor."
"Aye, that's… He's probably… fine," Lathrik says, though his frown shows a hint of concern.
"Your sister is certainly a lady who knows what she wants," Siamus tells Ren gravely. "Whether she knows what to do with it when she catches it, I cannot say."
"I think she's good for him," Natalyah says in defense of Penny, and maybe also of Peril. "All the best journalists thrive in getting outside their comfort zones and into mischief."
Is that what the kids are calling it these days.
Siamus's smile twitches faintly at into mischief, but he does not remark on it. There is a lady present. "Oh, I think it's brilliant," he agrees.
He might mean for the entertainment value.
"Imagine if they do marry," Reniya says, setting a hand firmly on Lathrik's shoulder. "That'd make us brothers by law."
Lathrik sits up straighter, startled, turning in his seat to gaze up at Reniya. "I don't need the law to…" He blinks, and either the drink is already hitting him, or the guilt roller coaster has shaken him up, as he continues awkwardly, "That is… I always thought of ye as…"
Reniya grins. "He's cute when he's earnest," he informs Siamus conspiratorially.
"An arsehole," Lathrik finishes, shoving Reniya off the arm of the couch. "Always thought of ye as an arsehole."
Reniya laughs, stumbling a few paces but maintaining his balance, and Lathrik settles back, glaring at the table, though there is the slightest pink flush to his cheeks.
"When he's not earnest, as well," Siamus observes with a slight, crooked smile at Ren.
"Yes, he is," Natalyah agrees, smacking a kiss to Lathrik's cheek. It's unknown if the whiskey is having any affect on her behavior. It's pretty much her baseline.
"Makes 'im a pain to go out drinkin' with," Reniya says, finding another perch.
Lathrik's blush deepens, and he finishes the whiskey in his glass in silence.
"Why's that, now?" Siamus cants his head at Ren.
Natalyah goes quieter herself at that, a sinking of her expression and her body language, the good cheer draining away to leave something unhappily pensive and uneasy behind. She glances at Lathrik's chest, and then away into her own empty glass.
She tosses her head, her hair hitting Lathrik lightly in the face from proximity. "I'm going to get the cookies," she announces, pulling away from Lathrik to rise to a levitating stand. "What's left of them, anyway."
Siamus sits up a little, peering after her, and then turns back to Lathrik and Reniya to raise his eyebrows in a silent question.
Lathrik eyes Reniya, but doesn't say anything.
Reniya himself, however, continues as though nothing went wrong. "He had this tortured look he used to do," he says. "Had folk, lasses mostly, flocking to 'im, trying to fix it, aye? T'see if they could be the one to show him a good time. Well. He doesn't do that look so much now, thanks to Swallowtail, here. Might not be so bad these days."
Natalyah gets to the kitchen and collects the leftover cookies from Almeiria's visit, pouring them out onto a plate in a strangely both morose and aggressive manner. Several cookies take issue with this treatment, and clatter off the plate onto the counter. Natalyah forces them back onto the plate.
"There aren't many left. I made them for Almeiria," she says, as she brings them over and sets them down into the center of the coffee table. "Are you staying for dinner, then, or are you off to a pub crawl?"
Siamus glances at Reniya. "It… hadn't occurred to me. The only plan I had was to take Hartrim for a drink, and to see the pair of ye if I could. Wouldn't wish to impose."
"We have the forks for four people now," Natalyah counters tartly, as she picks up a cookie and bites into it with a hard chomp, and plops herself practically on top of Lathrik.
"Four," Reniya repeats. "S'pose that means the lass ain't sick of me yet. 'Less you're givin' my fork to the Farrens'?"
"Doubt they'll be back in time," Lathrik says. "Even Fray can read a room a little bit."
"The real question we have to answer eventually will be just how much does Solari read a room and the people in it," Natalyah adds. "I'll make them something for later in case they don't eat while they're out. I can use Lucy's Zap-Frost-Be-Gone on more of the meat. It doesn't blow it up every time."
Lathrik makes a face at that.
Siamus's expression lights with interest. He may have decided to stay for dinner just to see this Zap-Frost-Be-Gone in action. "I'm grateful for the invitation, if it doesn't put ye out." He takes his silver watch from his waistcoat pocket and checks it, then glances up again. "Talking of invitations — did ye get them?"
"To the Charity Gala you mean?" Natalyah assumes. "Yes. We're going." Another chomp into the cookie.
"Aye, good. Good." Siamus lifts his drink in a polite salute to her.
Natalyah demolishes her cookie. There's an odd sense to her like she's risen to a dare someone made, but it's unclear what or who exactly that is. It's Natalyah Kensington-Whit, though, so nothing new.
"Hartrim?" Siamus asks. "Did ye get the invitation? Ye coming to the gala?"
"Wouldn't miss it," Reniya says. "Might be I sneak on in with these two."
"Fine by me," Lathrik says. "If ye can be ready on time."
Reniya wiggles his fingers. "On time-ish."
The real question is can Natalyah be on time-ish.
(The answer is no.)
"Never be on time," Siamus advises Lathrik genially. "Not for a thing like the gala, at least. Ye make them wait for ye, make sure they're all there to see ye come in."
This might be a technique that works better for Lord Siamus Fallon than for a strait-laced Stormwind Guard paladin, but who knows? Maybe Lathrik can learn to be a fashionable playboy too.