Closed Stranger things have happened (Thomas Cosa)

[Mirage]

30th of Winter, 515 AV
Location: The Meadows Public House

Kalinor was a strange place. Hidden deep in the bowls of the earth, its pale residents strutted and crawled along the walls and strands of silky webs as easily as many man could do on cobbled streets. They held their heads high, a sign of pride that was at the same time humbled as the accepted one another with equal importance to the growth of their web. If anything it was like one very large family. Yes of course there were some that made trouble here and there, a gossiping aunt or two and a brother who could never seem to stop his boasting. To each other though there was a sure sign of equal respect, so different from Sahova. What they did share with Sahova though was a disregard to any and all things not Symenestra. Creatures that were unlike them were inferior, ugly, disgusting and pitiable. In their words, as gracious as they seemed, was a passing note of disdain. Nothing so open and hostile as the Wizards of Sahova had been, but one could not help but notice it. Pretty words did little to hide ill intent.

Kalinor was a strange place indeed. Suspended above the cavern floor an impossible distance away everything in the city seemed perched just on the edge. Like everything was just one large balancing act. For some perhaps it was thrilling, but for one in particular it was maddening. Kalinor was a strange place, difficult for any but Symenestra to traverse, but for women it was near suicide to come at all.

A clear knock rang out on the door to Thomas' room. Unexpected, and probably the most inconvenient time possible. Clear, honest and without hesitation it was. Three quick raps in quick succession, followed by three more just as quick. Insistent, persuasive and somehow they seemed to not wish to accept no for an answer.

When the door was opened a perhaps familiar face was revealed. Tawny skin and a thin frame, most likely due to a less than acquitted diet. Intelligent eyes looking out from a desperate face framed by black locks. Her cloak was large and bulky, and so it could almost be missed, the appearance of six arms from beneath the darkness of that fabric to push her way into the room. One set slammed the door shut, while two others held a large package snugly at her side.

"Thomas." Laria said, checking the room quickly before turning her eyes back on the man she had searched for for a year, "Finally. You hard person to find."

[Thomas Cosa]

Thomas had been spending the last few days busying himself thinking of clever ways to kill Keene. The warden had proved himself a decent housemate, quiet and unintrusive, clean. Still, Thomas was used to having a space to himself since leaving Sahova, and wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea of sharing a room now. He wasn't actually going to kill Keene, it was simple exercise in imagination really. Nothing more than a enjoyable way to pass the time.

He was in the middle of a particularly far-fetched fantasy, when a sharp knock against the door interrupted his thoughts. Thomas hadn't even the time to decide to ignore whoever it was when three more knocks sounded, clear, quick, and loud. Again, three more sounded in precision, so quick Thomas couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't known a more impatient person in all of his life. Opening the door, he'd realized he hadn't.

His once upon a time apprentice moved quickly, too fast for Thomas to register an appropriate reaction. His shock worked in her favor, the ephyarian skimming into the room, closing the door with a pair of hands as he struggled to process what was happening. Surprise and disbelief were short-lived it seemed, burning away in favor of rage and suspicion.

Thomas' eyes narrowed as he watched Laria re Ahnatep from a careful distance, his magic exploding past him, enveloping her aura. "Well, perhaps if you tried to fight my expulsion at all, I would be easier to find," his tone was biting, cold, and obviously unhappy. He noticed the package, heavy, but more importantly, he noticed her desperation. The sour smell, colored a putrid yellow scarred what had once been a delightfully confident crimson aura.

This wasn't the Laria he'd left behind. "You reek of desperation, dear. Maybe you want to tell me why?" He asked, his voice brimming with condescension.

[Mirage]

The Eypharian raised a hand to stop any further talk, "Is not important."

With no explanation the woman moved farther into the room, the package still hugged close to her side as she began to walk around the room. Her many hands began running over the furniture, giving everything a critical inspection as she began to search for... something. "You force leave because you stupid." She said simply, in her usual blunt way, as she threw back the sheets of the bed and checked under the mattress, "Not matter though. Sahova not what was before. You lucky you left when you did."

She began to rummage in the drawers, keeling to look under the bed and tilting the night stand to check its bottom. She even went to the chests and opened them, without hesitating to look through every inch of the room.

"You with someone else? Someone stay with you?" Again she looked at Thomas, a hand set on her hip as she wore her 'answer quickly we don't have time' look. She completely ignored his last comment, perhaps thinking it unimportant as well.

[Thomas Cosa]

Thomas watched the Eypharian search the room relentlessly; she scoured drawers, checked underneath his bed, Keene's bed. He remembered his mother doing the same thing, checking for the monsters he'd sworn lived under his bed. He realized, breathing in the murky lights of her suspicions, that until Laria had shown up, he'd believed himself safe. The yellow sour of her molted desperation, sparkling her aura in a smokey haze, was a truth Thomas had only too willingly forgotten.

Sahova would never be finished with him. They may have forced him out, abandoned him to the mainland, but the moment they wanted him back, he wouldn't have a choice.

"I was stupid for not checking the room. I'd never thought, I'd --," Thomas sighed, the empty room swallowing his words. "With a warden. Keene Ward. I remember him saying that he patrolled Mount Merlus when I met him on the Citadel and -- ," he paused, remembering suddenly he'd run into Celeste a few days ago, "There's another, but she doesn't live here. Celeste, one of Riyanna Sterder's initiates." He's played his question game with both of them, and old exercise to practice auristics. And they were both here, and Thomas hadn't even bothered to suspect them! Sahova had made his mind sharp and aware and the mainland had only dulled him. "How far does the Citadel's reach extend? Do they know that I'm here? Did they send the wardens after me?" It was, perhaps, a fool question. Neither Celeste or Keene had moved against him in any way, but Laria had always been far more clever dancing through the corpses schemes than he. Evidence being that she'd out stayed Thomas on the island.

"What happened there, Laria? Why have you come to find me?" His attentions fell to the package, his magic tasting the thin, brown paper, the weak, tawny string. Even as thin as the paper was, his magic had yet been able to penetrated something so solid. Thomas was only able to feel the waxy finish. "What's in the package, Laria?"

[Mirage]

Pursing her lips the Eypharian would look once more around the room before sitting on the edge of the bed, the package resting safely in her lip with three hands resting on it, two on either side and one on top. Tapping her fingers on top of the box Laria the woman would adopt a thoughtful look.

"Celeste?" The name seemed to be familiar to her, "One of Amaryllis' puppets. She here? Thought she died in Heartlands." It seemed a mildly interesting revelation, but nothing that Thomas said seemed to disturb the woman's quickly growing composure. In fact she almost laugh as relief would begin to silp into her aura.

"You not important enough to Sahova." She said simply, waving two hands around at the room, "No you worry now of place you in. This Kalinor, you not know?" Her expression was one of disdain, and befuddlement, "Spiders as bad as Wizards. They everywhere, hear everything in nest. Not Sahova, but Kalinor not safe. Especially for women."

Looking down at the box Laria would run a hand over it, "This... This was brought for Thomas. When Sahova evacuated many things lost. This left behind, and Cid as me to bring." She would then extend the package toward Thomas, letting him take it and open it.

Inside was an old friend. Stranger, in a dormant state with his four gems packaged neatly beside his body. Both the centipede and the follower body were included in the box, as well as a note.

Thomas,

You little idiot, you left this behind. Mashaen gave it to me after you were gone, and with the things going on here I decided to take the opportunity and return him to you. I don't know the details, but they messed with something they shouldn't have. Now we all have to clear out, save whatever research we can and go. They are loading a boat as I write this. Turns out they didn't tell us everything about what we were working on. Anyway there is enough chaos here that we can slip a thing or two off the island that we wouldn't be able to normally.

I am giving this to Laria to bring to you. She doesn't need to be in this place, just like you don't. Do your best to convince her to stay. I don't care if its with you, or anywhere else. Do not go back to Sahova.

Cid Morten

P.S. I tweaked him a bit. Hope you don't mind.

[Thomas Cosa]

"You think the Symenstra are as bad as the Citadel's nuit?" Thomas stared, incredulous, his magic searching for any break in the familiar ebb and flow of the Eypharian's sunlit aura. Nothing. She really thought the spiders were a risk. If it had been anyone but Laria, he'd laughed in their face. Instead, he was silently cursing himself for being so trusting. "What do you mean 'worse for women'? Are you in danger? Like, serious danger?" Despite his initial reaction, Laria had been the closest thing he'd had to a friend while he lived in the Citadel. Hai, she'd been like a sister, the way they'd fought. Thomas would never trust the Ephyarian fully, he couldn't, but she had the closest thing to trust he could give to someone. He would do as much as he could to save her, without threatening his own life.

His entire being focused on the package when she handed it to him. There was something delectably familiar about the thing inside the package. Thomas breathed, collecting his spell around the thin paper wrapping, draining the world of it's telling color. He focused his magic, pushing it past the first aura, sharpening his spell into needles, stabbing deeper and deeper. Magic. Weak and barely beating, but the familiar electric current was there.

Thomas fingers danced with the cheap twine, a misstep tightening the knot instead of loosening it -- he wasn't paying attention, his magic was still sharp, penetrating, and with a slight gasp, he realized what was inside. Metal. He couldn't feel the size, but he could feel the cool blue of the material. It was a guess, a hope, but he tore open the box.

"Stranger," he whispered, forgetting Laria and everything else. The sickening knot in his chest that had seemed to grow since his expulsion, loosened, a relived sigh escaping the animator. Thomas grabbed the letter, reading, and then re reading. Cid still cared. Mashaen still favored him. Stranger was back, and with him. "Did you read the note, Laria?" He asked suddenly, inspired by his sudden elation. Maybe he could start over -- Cid had fled the isle, maybe the could all reconnect.

First, he would have to convince Laria to stay with him, at least for winter. Thomas wasn't fool enough to try traveling during Morwen's time.

[Mirage]

Laria thew up a pair of hands, crossing the others over her chest as she gave Thomas an incredulous look, "You really not know? You really are ignorant." She said this without much venom, but the genuine surprise on her face said that she really couldn't believe Thomas didn't know.

"You not heard of Symenestra Harvest?" she asked, "They send men out to cities all over Mizahar, collect women to bring back to Kalinor. Women never seen again." Leaning back on one arm the Eypharian looked absently around the room as Thomas opened the box, "Spiders say they want knowledge, but is lie. Make no sense why they travel so far for just learning, and not explain why they want mostly women or why women disappear. They not spread far into Eyktol so I know little details, but wherever go it not good."

Laria shrugged and laid back fully on the bed now, two hands resting under her head and the others lay relaxed at her sides, her eyes half closing, "Cid just ask I bring. I not open or look, didn't care to. None of my business, and on Sahova i learn if not your business you leave alone."

[Thomas Cosa]

"The Harvest?" Thomas echoed, the entirety of his magic and attention acutely focused on the Eypharian's aura. "I -- I had thought that -- that," he stumbled with his words, not sure how to process what she was telling him. The Harvest had been a legend, a silly racist myth that permeated human culture. Something children were warned against, teased with, something that kept them inside the house past dark. Be good or when the Spiders come to steal you away, I won't bother to look. Hai, he'd imagined everyone living in Syliras had heard that threat. "I didn't think it real," Thomas said, realizing only then how much Laria had risked bringing Stranger to him. The animator hadn't known they only targeted women; his mother hadn't cared to distinguish that particularly fact, considering it would have made the threat considerably lesser.

The animator turned away from Laria, focusing instead on the golem. His darling Stranger. Thomas examined one of the gems, the green one, before sliding into Stranger's centipede form. The follower form was too bulky for Kalinor's delicate bridges, and was possibly more likely than a human to stumble into the cavern below. "The letter mentions the evacuation -- Cid doesn't know much either. Just that the masters were messing with something they shouldn't have," Thomas said, keeping his voice casual. He wasn't entirely sure how, but he needed Laria to stay. Kalinor may be dangerous for her, but Thomas knew traveling the wilds in winter was a death sentence. "He said to not go back," he paused, snapping the last three jewels in quick succession. The wizard was looking at Stranger, but his magic was locked on the Eypharian. He was hoping to get her to stay with him, at least till Spring, but that would mean Laria fighting every instinct she had to run -- the very same instincts that had kept her alive on Sahova. It wouldn't be easy, but with his auristics, it might be possible.

"Wadajmistosot," Thomas fumbled through Stranger's awakening password. He would have to change it to something a bit more pronounceable -- it had been a silly idea when he'd thought of it, but he could think of something better now. The golem stirred, immediately crawling up the wizard, settling around Thomas' neck. "Laria, it would be too much a danger to risk the wilds in a winter season. Celeste -- Riyanna's initiate, is god-marked by Ionu and practiced in morphing. We might convince her to help hide you, she's doing well at keeping herself hidden." Thomas sighed, stoking the centipede golem. "Cid writes that he wants us to stay together. Maybe he makes his way here as well?" Thomas asked, hoping the Eypharian would know the old gadgeteer's location.

"And as for you, Stranger," Thomas started, his magic still trained on the Eypharian, "Cid writes he'd made some small improvements. Care to share, old friend?"

[Mirage]

Stranger shifted on Thomas' shoulders, his long body curling around his neck with his head extending out in front of the man's face so that he could look his master in the eye, "Thomas Cosa. I believe the proper response is 'it is good to see you'."

Laria did not shift from her position, eyes closed and if Thomas took the time to notice he would see her chest slowly rising and falling. She seemed to be dozing off, exhausted from her trip and she did not respond to Thomas' question.

Stranger on the other hand was a buzz of activity, spilling gears and clicking parts as he crawled over his previous owners shoulders and down his arm, "Wizard Cid added some structural additions to this body, using a more flexible material at the joints to allow my body to more easily move but weakened the inner sections somewhat. In addition he added some new functions to be of aid to my master."

Crawling further down Thomas' arm Stranger would wrap himself around Thomas' forearm, the individual sections clicking and locking together to become a metal bracer of sorts that stretched from just below the wrist nearly to where Thomas' elbow joint was. Strangers head rested right at Thomas' wrist, on the under side at the heal of his palm, "My carapace is strong enough now to withstand some glancing blows, but Thomas is to avoid being clubbed with large heavy objects." Stranger's body shifted slightly and there was a click. The golem's head split in half and a thin needle like blade extend out. It was nearly a foot in length, at its widest at the base it was as tick as Thomas' thumb and at its very tip it was needle like and pointed. Though closer inspection showed that it was hollow inside.

The needle retracted back inside, collapsing in on itself as the Golem's pointed head closed back around it, "Cid replaced the original blade with a hypodermic one. He claimed it was 'more his style'. There is space for various substances to be injected through its hollow point." Slowly unwinding Stranger would turn his body so that Thomas could see underneath his head, and there was a small capsule of sorts that looked as though it could be filled with a fluid. It fit perfectly inside the dip in Stranger's molding, so it would not abstract any of the golem's movements.

Clicking for a few moments Stranger would suddenly continue, "There is also an unknown directive added. I cannot access it, and its origin is unknown."

[Thomas Cosa]

He watched and listened as Stranger detailed Cid's changes. Thomas smiled to himself at Cid's audacity; changing Stranger's original structure was changing an original Mashaen design. It hadn't been much of a secret that Kromby considered himself an active rival to the archwizard, and Thomas couldn't help but wonder if Cid had inherited that view. The needle was a observant change, however, if Thomas was being honest. He'd never been terribly great at combat -- quickly stabbing a rival with poison seemed a much more effective approach.

"An unknown directive could potentially be a severe issue, Stranger," Thomas warned, catching the Laria's aura change: the constant ebb and flow of her dimmed to a low beat. Something -- perhaps she was simply exhausted from her trip -- was putting her down. The fact she'd ignored his questions didn't go unnoticed, either. "But we can work around that," He said confidently, guessing Mashaen worked in a directive before handing the golem over to Cid and Laria. Still, it would be stupid not to take a few precautions. "In the case the unknown directive trumps the protection directive, you will immediately enter hibernation. In the case the unknown directive isn't hazardous to your survival or to mine, we will wait until the moment it activates -- upon it's activation you will immediately tell it's purpose and it's origins, should those become available to you," Thomas would wait for the golem to confirm these changes, but the added directives were only a start. He might have a while yet to figure out the unknown directive before it activated, which would only help keep both him and Stranger safe.

"Laria," Thomas snapped, slapping his hands together; the sharp violent noise a red purple that spiked against the gentle golden tint of the Ephyarian's aura. "We cannot rest. You are in possible dangerous, and obviously unable to travel so soon as this season," He started, a hint of admiration hidden behind the sharpness of his voice. He certainly wouldn't have made her trip, not alone, as she apparently had; the woman was far too stubborn to let anything so mundane as the mountain wilds kill her. "Should we make contact with the changeling? She can hide you, if you ever need to leave the room," Thomas paused, sighing. The Ephyarian hadn't agreed to stay, not yet, but Thomas wasn't going to let her out to try her hand at surviving winter. Not alone. "We also need to discuss our options. If we leave in Spring -- the earliest we could attempt an escape, where would we go? What do you think, Laria?," he asked, earnestly. Cid wouldn't have sent her if he hadn't thought the Ephyarian useful. And Thomas needed all the help he could get.