Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!insosf1.infonet.net!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!uunet!not-for-mail From: guido@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Guido Roessling) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: STORY: Qelrik part 49 Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:06:44 -0400 Organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA Lines: 217 Sender: smm@uunet.uu.net Approved: smm@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <38oq7k$ivi@rodan.UU.NET> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Important information ===================== By late evening, Fox felt like she needed to get up for a little while. She had slept almost all day, a black, dreamless sleep of healing. After dressing in her red blouse, black breeches, high boots and gloves, she decided to go out into the common room for a drink. Besides, she had work to do. Myrlight had gone, and Fox found she almost missed the kender. She was not the type who enjoyed a lot of company, but she had become somewhat fond of Myrlight in a short time. Fox did not really understand why. She faked a slight limp, stiffening her left leg as she had walked before her side had healed. It did not hurt a bit, and only a fading pink line on her side bore mute testimony to her injury. However, it was better than explaining her too-rapid recovery. As she sat down at the long bar, the barkeep Wes came up to her with a broad smile. "Ah, Damerya," he said briskly. "Good to see you up and about." "Thank you, Wes. I'd like a sherry, please. Your best, of course." "Of course," he said echoing her smile as unlocked a small cabinet behind the bar. This cabinet housed his most expensive liquors, kept for such guests willing to pay the exhorbitant prices he required to cover high import taxes. He uncorked the bottle and poured it into a small pottery cup. "Sorry I don't have a real glass for your drink, Damerya," he apologized, recorking the bottle. Fox smiled thinly and took a delicate sip. "Excellent sherry, Wes. The vessel doesn't matter. Please add this to my bill." Wes returned the smile. With her demands for the best room, the delivered meals, and the expensive liquor, this visitor was racking up a hefty bill. But Wes prided himself on being able to judge a person, and this woman, with her quality clothing and gentry manners, was obviously a patron perfectly capable of covering her debts -- and more, if he guessed correctly. Fox's smile widened slightly -- though not too wide, because ever since the Immersion Fox's smile had become a little feral. She had been careful to adjust her aura to the benign gold she normally wore, rather than the harsh purple of her own. Adjusting her aura had become as natural a routine as brushing her hair on rising. She knew the look Wes was giving her, as she sipped her sherry. The sherry was no more than adequate, but she saw no reason to inform the barkeep. She noticed Wes looking somewhat askance at a nearby table as he picked up a clean rag and began cleaning out a cup. "Something wrong?" Fox murmured. Wes waved one hand. "Ah, it's nothing. I just get some strange folks in here sometimes, is all." Fox raised her eyebrows. It was usually enough to get a bartender talking. As usual, it worked. Wes leaned forward on his elbow. "Can you believe this? Pretty gal, real pretty -- the kind that almost don't look natural. Anyway, one of my girls overhears her talkin' to her friends and tellin' 'em she's a vampire." Fox felt the color draining from her face, her hands almost buzzing with sudden cold as she set her cup down to avoid dropping it. "A vampire?" she said weakly. "Yeah. Go figure. Not as if vampires come round regularly to common-houses and just sit at my bar, you know?" He laughed, shaking his head. Fox joined the laughter, but for a reason Wes could not have begun to understand. "When was she here?" Fox asked offhandedly. "Is she still here? I'd like to see a vampire, you know." "Ah," Wes said, with another dismissing wave. "I've had people in here claiming to be kings, great wizards and high muckedy-mucks of some order or another. I mean, I've had real royalty and aristocrats -- present company included, of course -- and real wizards and priests, but I've also had a lot of people who didn't know reality if it bit them in the ass." He coughed. "Pardoning the language, of course." "Of course." She glanced around. "So she left, huh?" "Yeah. Not long ago. Maybe an hour, maybe less." Fox cursed herself for having slept so long, and for being so wrapped up in her own problems she had failed to detect the presence of a Blessed. "Was she alone?" "Nah. She was with a couple fellows -- one a kind of nondescript fellow, wouldn't look twice at him. I think he had fake arm; held it awful stiff. The other fellow was a big guy, real thick -- muscular, I mean, not stupid. Awfully scarred face." He stammered a moment, looking at Fox's own facial scars. She glanced up at him, raising one eyebrow. Fox had two rather prominent facial scars: an old, three-inch white scar under her left eye, and a long scar, still quite pink, stretching from her right ear to the point of her chin, ending in a precise whorl about half an inch below her lip. "Not that there's anything wrong with face scars. Yours aren't really noticeable at all. His face was just one big scar -- looks like he got burned or something." Fox faked a laugh. "Never heard of a vampire travelling in a pack." "Oh, she seemed harmless enough." He pointed to a nearby table, still strewn with cups and mugs. "She was sitting over there." Lazily, Fox rose, eyes scanning the cups. Her eyes fastened on a pottery cup, and she picked it up absently. As her fingers closed around the cup, Fox asked the pottery to tell its story. She saw the image of a beautiful woman, with dark hair and dusky skin, fingers cold on the warm pottery. In an instant, she saw pictures of the woman's companions, and knew their discussed plans. Fox had always been able to talk to objects that way. She glanced into the cup, regarding the leaves stuck to the bottom. With a grin, she brought the cup back to the bar, capturing as many images as she could as she set it down in front of her. "In all my days," Fox said with a smile, "I never heard of a tea-sucking vampire." They shared a laugh over that, as Fox digested the information, her excitement growing. She was not able to get a lot of other information from the cup, but enough to know they had discussed Qelrik. She closed her eyes for a moment, using the energy residuals on the cup to feel their presence. They were some distance from the inn, but she fixed energy on them and memorized their pattern. She could track them that way for at least a couple of days, as long as they did not travel too quickly. Suddenly, she was aware of Wes' hand on her arm. "Are you all right, Damerya?" Fox opened her eyes, smiled and nodded. "My side is still pretty stiff, after all." "Maybe you ought to keep to your bed," Wes said doubtfully. "That was a pretty nasty wound you took." "I thank you for your concern, my friend. I believe I will do just that." "Of course." As Fox finished her sherry to return to her room, she thought about how she really intended to spend the remainder of the evening: a deed needed repayment. Pasithea had told her which order was responsible for her wounding, and it was time they learned they could not serve an Ilar that way. *************************************************************************** This story is a collaboration of seven people: one German, two Canadians and four Americans. Comments about particular characters should be forwarded to their character's "owners": Finn Ambrose - Sheryl Ann Galchutt* - fi48@sol.acs.unt.edu Gernodt - Guido Roessling - dida@pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Dahlarin - Brent Hughes - bhughes@student.business.uwo.ca Kyle - J.E. Mason - ** no current mail address ** Fox - Barbara French - bcfrench@mailbox.syr.edu Will appear in future chapters: Gladrial - Jennifer Immel - bhughes@julian.uwo.ca Sir Percy - Bret Rudnick - rudnick@cfatrw.harvard.edu If you have WWW access, you can also read the chapters there. The site is http://rbhp62.rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~guido/qelrik.html ************************************************************************** ************************************************************************** Legal stuff about Qelrik All characters contained in this story are the sole and exclusive property of their authors. They are the copyrighted property of the authors, and may not be used for any reason without the express written permission of the authors. Qelrik is (c) 1993, 1994 Guido Resszling, Brent G. Hughes, John E. Mason, Barbara C. French, Jennifer Immel, and Bret Ryan Rudnick. Gernodt T'Slorung -- Guido Roessling Dahlarin -- Brent G. Hughes Growler --