Random 74

It wasn't just the first bit, or the tremor in her hands, but it was the whisper that caused him to cough and then burst into silent laughter -- Sebastian's shoulders went up and down in barely contained laughter. "I almost hope someone was, but you're right," he managed, just barely in a hushed voice. And to think that they'd entered the washroom in a somewhat... not sour, not foul -- no, tense mood. That was it.

Sylvie was feeling decidedly erratic. She was certainly too tired to lie or pretend anymore. Somehow the "what's the worst that could come from this?" scenario in the back of her brain had changed from an angry mob killing them to having to run far, far away together. That was something.

When she had finished scrubbing Sebastian's back, she scraped a little soap off the bar for her hair, and handed the rest to him. By the time she rinsed off the soap, the water temperature was just starting to turn towards pleasant. She squeezed as much water as she could out off her hair and hurried through drying off and getting dressed, leaving the socks for until after she had opened the hatch again to let out the air that had taken on some of the smell they had brought with them.

Sebastian took a bit more time than her with his hair, but in the end, they were more or less ready at the same time. He felt a bit more relaxed physically, but shifted his attitude slightly, pulling on the dressing gown. It still felt a little odd, and he suspected he might feel a slight breeze on the way to the kitchen. Finally, reaching for the door, he paused, hesitated -- and looked at her and offered a hand. "Please?"

She took his hand. "What?"

"The hand, that's all," he smiled, then opened the door and headed down the corridor. Whatever would happen, would happen.

In the kitchen the whole family was present, Gemma and Garren sitting at the long side of the table closer to the door, Riya and Mael on the ends. That left two seats for the guests, one of them next to the stove. Tea, cups, and honey were indeed standing ready.

Both parents were worried and confused. Garren wore it clearly, Gemma mixed in more irritation. She gestured to the two chairs. "Have a seat."

The children, though, were a different mixture of worry and confusion -- Riya serious indignation, huffing and glaring. Mael was clearly out of his depth, on the other hand. Irregardless, Sebastian nodded and helped Sylvie to her chair first, then sat down himself, crossing his legs. If he felt naked with just what he wore, he didn't show it. "Thank you," Sebastian finally said, looking at each face one at a time. Before anyone could say: "My name is not Kai, though it was once. It's Sebastian. I'll spare you the cliché and just say, I've lied and mixed truth." No act there. He behaved exactly as he did around Sylvie these days, looking a little melancholy.

"Damned right about that," Riya muttered, not even bothering to be the image of hospitality, so Sebastian focussed on mixing tea for Sylvie and himself while he waited for the first question.

"Why?" Gemma was actually looking at Sylvie, who was looking uncomfortable and a little guilty.

Sebastian handed Sylvie her cup of tea and then leaned his elbows on the table, staring at Gemma until she looked at him. "Because I'm both a pilgrim and a solver of problems. Don't blame her: she wanted me to tell you the truth from the get-go once I knew what was going on in this city, but like I said to your earlier today. It's because of me."

"Well, you certainly are a talented liar, comparing you now with how I last saw you. But let's hear your story. What is going on?"

Sebastian spread his hands and looked a little chastised. "I am. My story? It's as I said as Kai. I follow both Fortuna and the Old Lady. Unfortunately, I also work for them, and... what is going on, that's the whole problem here."

Riya snorted. "Really."

"Really," Sebastian said. "This rain and flooding were manmade. It should be calming down, though, seeing as... Sylvie and I spent the last few days finding out how to stop it -- and then we went and did it." He paused. "Call me crazy. I know someone will."

"It does sound far-fetched," Garren put in.

"Particularly with the rain still going on," Gemma muttered.

"It's true, though."

Before Sylvie could explain, Gemma asked her, "How do you know he didn't trick you?"

Sylvie made a sound between a huff and a laugh. "Where do I start? I was there?"

Riya on the other hand was squinting whereas Mael seemed to have no idea what he had gotten into, but looked ready to act as muscle should his parents decide to toss this strange Sebastian out. Somehow he didn't think it'd work.

"Far-fetched, yes, and how would you feel if some posh bastard walked into your house, told you he was such-and-so of two different pantheons and needed help in the form of information? Sure, guy walks in, claims he's the Old Lady's Eldest and starts sprouting nonsense." He didn't pay attention to Riya who suddenly twitched. "I'll tell you this, though, Old Ivy. That tiny glass spindle I asked you about -- that was a prototype. There are three larger ones in the city."

Gemma "tch-d", but Sylvie calmly talked right over her. "They were drawing the rainclouds here. We've been stopping that." Hopefully. "The rain that's here has to fall, but it shouldn't go on for long now."

"We're back to 'why', here. For example, why tell us now?" Garren wanted the whole story to see if it fit together.

"Or what do you have to gain from making us believe you're the Hat. Ridiculous!"

Riya scritched her head, but looked a little too nervous for a change, turning to whisper to Mael instead.

Sebastian kept his hands in front of him, eyes half-closed. "I have nothing to gain from that, to be honest. Tell that to the Old Lady's flock, though. They kicked my ass before telling me the rain's not natural," Sebastian said to Gemma, then looked at Garren. "I told you. Sylvie opposed my lying and deceiving and keeping this to myself, because I thought I could deal with this alone." Back to Gemma. "But I couldn't and can't. I promised to her that I'd come clean."

"Could we maybe get the full story, in order?" Garren rubbed his temple.

Gemma looked back and forth between Sebastian and Sylvie.

Sebastian glanced at Sylvie, then at Garren. "Where do you want me to start?"

"When you... learned that the rain wasn't natural seems like a good point."

Sebastian blinked, took a sip of tea -- his had been untouched until now -- and then licked his lips, took a deep breath and began talking. He detailed how he had spent a couple of days waiting for the rain to stop so he could leave the city, up until the Old Lady's people found him, dragged him in for a serious chat and related the matter to him; from there, he went on to explain how, not knowing who else to trust, he turned to Sylvie and found himself with some help. "She insisted," he said, before detailing how they drew back on help from Sister Auker and her contacts, too. Then came the rest of the details: the break in at his room in House Crow, how that inadvertendly gave him a clue to work on -- "that same spindle I asked about from you" -- and how the bits and pieces slowly began to pile.

He even told them about how he broke into the Saba estate, but didn't stop to explain himself, and went on all the way to the happenings of the last night. How, having learned of Langoll's death, he went to find out where Langoll had died and all the sordid details.

And then he told them about what they'd got out of Brice and exactly _how_.

His tea was cold by the time he stopped, but he still drank it, his throat being dry. "And as such, with all that information, we spent the rest of today disarming the artifacts." Sebastian glanced at Sylvie, slightly anxious, but mostly tired and skeptical.

Sylvie listened, sipping the tea, occasionally adding a nod or a few words of confirmation. Hearing that the first thing Kord had done when finding Sebastian was knocking him out surprised Sylvie, but at least made her feel less bad about Sebastian slapping Kord in the argument about Brice.

Gemma spent most of the time watching Sylvie's reactions, though she turned to their other guest when he got to last night's events, stunned hearing what business they had dragged in their house. Once the tale had ended, however, she asked Sylvie. "How can you trust that fraud? He must have made you fall for him head over heels--"

"I have not," Sylvie snapped, leaning forward. "I wish, but I haven't, and I know the difference." The sudden outburst from their usually mild-mannered guest came as a surprise to the Old Ivy family, making certain details maybe more believable. A bit calmer, voice firm but tears rising to her eyes, she said, "Think me a liar and criminal if you must, but don't think you know my mind better than I do."

Garren took Gemma's hand, looking for words to calm things down. "This is quite a shock..."

Sebastian watched the exchange with a slightly worried frown, especially when Sylvie finally cracked. At that point, he lifted his injured hand and placed it on hers and watched her, oblivious to how Mael and Riya were whispering more and more loudly about something.

"And every word of it is true. If it were lies, what would we have to gain by telling you?"

"That is a point," Garren said, turning to Gemma. "And it involves other people, so at least parts can be verified."

Mael nudged Riya and looked at the two foreigners nervously. Riya, on the other hand hissed something before realising she was being watched by more than one person. "Um, mother, speaking of... the Old Lady's people..."

"What is it?"

Riya put on a nervous grin. She knew very well Gemma didn't really like her collecting gossip and rumours, but in any case: "Well, there's talk that the Eldest has been seen out near the Old Lady's, and, uh, in the city too. You know those out of town folk when they, ah, start talking... and, uh, let's say one missus came here for something for a cow's udder infection and blabbed away about how there's stuff going on down there and that came up, accidentally."

Mael shrugged.

Sebastian began to stare, scarcely believing what he was hearing. Those idiots. Those blessed idiots.

Sylvie sat back, turning her hand to take Sebastian's gently, and smiled. She watched Riya, like everyone else.

"What kind of 'stuff'?" Gemma asked, stunned.

"Errm," Riya began, "you know, crops going bad, people needing to rescue their cattle from the mud, sheep and so on and people having to dig the ditches deeper. And then a really pissed off seven-foot tall man with shining eyes and hair down to his ass-- I mean, butt, stalking his way toward the city, that sort of stuff."

Sebastian looked only slightly amused, utterly ignoring the way Riya hemmed and hawed. "Also, ah, er." The girl was quiet for a moment, wincing. This sounded too unreal and couldn't surely be connected? "Mrs Keefer came in for her sugar imbalance again and kept on chattering about some two foreigners at the gambling lair near Fortuna's shrine, and... um. Complained about some two foreigners making one of the employees really upset, but then started to mutter something about the poor boy's grandfather and... how did it go?"

Mael filled in, sighing: "Sis here said that Mrs Keefer bitched about something about a foreigner looking like the same with the poor tyke's grandfather, like what one of her deceased friends had told her back in the day when she could see. I think Mrs Keefer's more or less lost it. Mrs Marga, I think you said, the dead blind biddy was?"

That was more or less the first time in a while that Riya looked a little surprised over her brother's composure. Maybe it was Loga doing that? That b--

The kids both suddenly realised their way of speaking might have been a bit less than politically correct, whereas it was Sebastian's turn to look stunned. He began to say something, but ended up staring at the children, then at Sylvie. You were right, but how much will this help?

"Yes, that employee was the old friend's descendant Sebastian mentioned. The scaring didn't look terribly deliberate to me," even less so after that episode with Brice for comparison, "but apparently he was worried about some kind of late revenge because the Jackites killed Sebastian's friend back then. Can't say the little cheat didn't deserve a bit of a scare, but it's not like we targeted him, he was just the gambler the house brought out." Laying the odd coincidences throughout the last few days end to end made her skin crawl.

"Fortuna, eh?" Garren suddenly wished he had paid more attention to some of the stories his older relatives had told.

He really hadn't wanted to get into more detail about that, but in hindsight, it was better that Sylvie said it, not him. It would have been bragging. Before he said anything he glanced Riya, busily biting her nails.

Sebastian looked helplessly at Sylvie and then away again. "Yes, I work for her. Them. Believe me, not my choice," he finally said, addressing Garren's question with a nod as he spoke. Strange, not knowing what to say. Yes, too much lying. Honesty's so very hard.

Neither Garren nor Gemma knew what to make of that.

"They're bloody stupid if they think one person can handle everything alone. Or evil, if they enjoy the consequences." In the nervous silence following those words, Sylvie leaned forward, elbows on the table. "That's why we're here. I know dropping this on you after having kept it from you is awful, but we need to make sure the truth about the Sabas' plans gets out. And I still hope you'll believe us, more than complete strangers would."

Garren cleared his throat. "It seems like a matter for judges and council, if there's evidence. You said those artifacts were disabled, not destroyed?" He was not entirely sure yet Sylvie had not been deceived, but remembering how scrupulously she used to make clear which of her observations she was certain about, and which not, he did not think she was a liar.

A gander at Sylvie later (bestillmybeatingheart) and Garren's words starting to make sense to him, Sebastian sat in a stunned silence for a while. For the first time in a long while he wanted to say I can't believe that worked and felt conflicted about it. Nevertheless, he caught hold of his thoughts again. "There'll be a time for judges and council later, but we do have some. The physical evidence, yes, disabled. It might be safest to get them outside of town, but that'll take help from the Old Lady's people. Ditto for if there's a good place to hide them inside the walls."

"Not in my house," Gemma said.

"They would probably be safer with the clergy, anyway." Garren thought for a moment. "Maybe it would be best if we did not make any final decisions tonight. This needs some processing."

"You suggest we harbour a criminal any longer?"

Garren gave her an innocent look. "Dear, we only have his word for that."

Covering her eyes with her hand, she muttered, "I hate it when you get like that."

Though unsurprised that Gemma had misgivings, Sebastian fought to contain his placid, tired look from showing the amusement (and, to his surprise, fondness) he felt at Garren. No wonder those two were still married. "I'll be gone come morning. If you want, I'll never set foot in this house again."

"Might be better," Gemma said with a sour look at the half-elf, "but there's a point to not making final decisions when punch-drunk. Sylvie, I'd really like to talk to you about this when you're awake enough to think straight."

She nodded and gave Sebastian a worried look.

Garren nodded, too. "And I'd like to talk to Auker, and the Old Lady's clergy." If Sebastian had convinced both of those of his identity, he was either the real deal, or close enough that it made no difference.

"Brice should still be at Fortuna's shrine, too?" Sylvie offered.

Sebastian returned Sylvie's look with a calming one, wondering if he looked as tired. Gemma might not like him, but she had a point. He patted her hand and turned to look at Garren, nodding as Sylvie mentioned Brice. "Can be arranged." The thought of what kind of argument break out if Kord and Auker met gave him some pleasure at first, but then he had to swallow when a certain scenario involving those two in romantic liaison occurred to him.

Subsequently, he began to talk tersely. "Need to get word to the Old Lady's people first thing in the morning. Just banking on safety and that means getting those containers out, quick." He regarded Garren for a while longer, whilst Riya was surreptiously trying to sneak out of the room.

"Look," he added, nudging his head toward Sylvie and her weary being. "Talk in the morning?"

"Yes." Gemma wondered if he would be there or run off, never to be seen again. "Here, Riya, not on some late-night or early-morning gossip run. More garbled rumours spreading is exactly what we don't need."