Getting warmer

I tossed Joseph some of my clothes and we headed downstairs. Every five fricking feet he was distracted by a painting or a statue or a suit of armor or the fricking carpet. Finally, we managed to haul him into Dame Gold's sitting room. We found her pacing back and forth. Two of her personal guards were in the room, and there was a figure in the corner standing in the shadows. When Dame saw us she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank the Gods," she said. "Please sit."

She gestured toward a set of six chairs. All of us sat. Joseph started to wander around the room, looking at the various paintings and statues. I guided him to a chair and made him sit.

Dame started to sit, and then stood again. She wiped her hands on her dress. "My own wizards have cast spells upon this room to make it immune to eavesdropping of a magical nature." She looked at the man in the corner. "But there are other methods."

"There are, Lady Gold," a familiar voice said. "You will be happy to know that no one is eavesdropping via psionics."

The man stepped out of the shadows. Thaddeus nodded at us. "Greetings, friends. Anna."

Anna's mouth fell open. "Hi."

"I fear I must apologize," he said. "I had to be sure."

"Sure of what?" Audry asked.

"That you were who you said you were," Thaddeus said. "Of the five of you, Anna was the most...open."

She stood up, her hands balled up into fists. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He held up his hand in protest. "Only what I said. Open. Your thoughts are clear to me. Most peoples thoughts are clear to me, but through you I could see that you and your friends are definitely from Mitrik."

"You could'a just asked," I said.

He smiled and bowed his head. "I am sorry. I was paid to do such."

"By who," Saul said, and then he understood. "Lady Gold, you know us. Why would you need to do this?"

"I am sorry," she said. She clasped her hands in front of her. "I had to be sure. Recently, a soldier from town made an attempt on my life. Previously, he had been very reliable. He had a family, he had roots in town. His attempt on my life made no sense. I hired Thaddeus to investigate."

"A psion?" Anna said. She was still standing. "You were reading my mind?"

"Anna, please," Thaddeus started, but Anna cut him off.

"Did you like what you found? You like going through a girls thoughts, do you?"

I stood and put a hand on her shoulder. "Anna, I don't think it's like that."

"Oh really? What--?"

"Anna," Audry said. "Perhaps we could discuss this later?" She glanced at Dame. Anna glared at Thaddeus, who seemed genuinely embarrassed. The man made me a bit nervous. A man with a sword I can deal with. You can even know what a wizard is planning if you know what to look for. But a psion? You won't know until it's over.

"Forgive me," Dame said. "I have put you through much. Not just you, but all my guests. I had to be sure you had not been mesmerized in someway. Thaddeus assures me that this is not the case."

"Woah," Joseph said. "Wait a minute. You, like read peoples minds and stuff?"

Thaddeus nodded. "I can. Though I assure you I am not doing so at the moment."

"In the distance," he said.

That threw even me. I realized that his grasp of Common was tenuous. I think he was trying to translate his English catch-phrase, "far out."

"I am sorry for bringing him on short notice, Lady Gold," I said.

"Joseph and I are aquianted," Dame said. "He claims to see the future."

"Well, sort of," Joseph said. "I, like, see things, you know? Sometimes I don't know if they will happen or if they are, like, happening now. But, I know it's real, you know?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't know," Dame said.

I started to wonder if I had done the right thing. Joseph didn't say anything about this crystal ball nonesense.

"Yeah, it's kinda weird," Joseph said. "I didn't believe it either. Thought it was old acid or something. But, look, I knew they were here."

"You knew I was here," I said.

"Well, yeah," Joseph said. "But that's not all."

"That's all well and good," Audry said, "but let's stick to the issue at hand."

I told Dame about Joseph and his ability to sense where people like me were from and how he believed that this General character that was running the war (the one every ominously calls, "the Evil One") is from my world. Dame listened to us calmly. When Joseph finished, she turned to Thaddeus. He simply nodded.

"Our prophet friend is speaking the truth," he said, "or at least what he believes to be true."

"Yeah, see," Joseph said, pointing at Thaddeus. "Check out the big brain on him, man! He knows!"

Dame stared at him, her expression unreadable. She was probably wondering if Joseph just called her a man. Fortunately, Marc saved the day.

"At any rate," Marc said. "I believe it would be prudent to get Joseph in touch with people in Greyhawk or Furyondy. Or Veluna, for that matter. Anyone involved in the conflict would certainly like to be aware of the location of this 'General.'"

"Indeed," Dame said. She sighed. "Lord knows we have tried to find this man ourselves. My brother among them."

"Your brother?" I asked. "I had no idea."

"Yes," she said. "It...it is why I called you here."

"Of course," Audry said. "We will help anyway we can."

"Thank you," Dame said. "But I would not be so quick to agree until you hear the entire story. But I must ask all of you to swear not to reveal what I say. Please, I beg of you."

We didn't hesitate. All of us swore. If you new Dame the way we did, you would too.

"Thank you," she said. She spoke as if a burden had been lightened, but not lifted completely. "It is regarding my brother. He did indeed go looking for this General. They believed him to be south of here."

"Well, he was south," Joseph said. "He totally went some where else though. He's, like, in Celene now. Or at least in that direction."

"If only we had your expertise before," Dame said politely, "then perhaps my brother would not be in the predicament he is in now."

"What has happened, Lady Gold?" Audry asked.

"It seems my brother has had some trouble upon his return," she said. "He sent word indicating that he was successful, but he did not elaborate. He was afraid the message would fall into the wrong hands and that his efforts would be for naught. It seems he cannot return, or he is afraid to."

"Afraid to?" I asked.

"He...caught something," Dame said. For a second, I thought her dear brother had VD or something. If only he were so lucky. "By night, he changes. He goes mad and becomes something terrible."

"Gods," Saul said. "Lycanthropy?"

Dame nodded solemnly. "Apparently it is something of a plague to the south. He was attacked by an animal and now he becomes an animal by night."

"My condolences," Marc said. "I do not wish to bring this up, but I must be honest. Curing lycanthropy is nigh unto impossible."

"Yes, I am aware of this," Dame said. "That is why Black Kerr is here."

"Who, the crazy lady who talks to bushes?" Anna asked. "She can help?"

"Indeed she can," Dame said. "She in alchemist by trade. I have paid her significant sum of money to create a cure. My wizards have assured me that it is not an illusion or fake in anyway."

"But it's affects are uncertain until it is actually consumed," Marc said. "Do you know his precise location? A teleportation spell could whisk us--"

"No," she said. "We cannot use such magic. Kerr has informed me that such magic may disrupt the mixture. It must be carried to my brother by hand."

"That's what you wish from us," Audry said. "You wish us to find your brother and give him this potion."

"Yes," she said. "If it does not work, then you mush retrieve the information he has on the Evil One, the one called the General." She finally sat down. "It pains me to say this. The information my brother has is more important than his life."

"What?" Joseph had managed to remain silent up until now. "Uh, look Lady...Lady Gold--cool name by the way--he's your brother. Ain't nothing more important."

"I envy your sister, if that is what you truly believe," Dame said. "But this war does not go as well as we wish. We need every advantage. The longer we delay, the more lives are lost."

"Bummer," Joseph said, in English (there really is no word in Common for "bummer").

"Yeah," I said. "Lady Gold, if your people say the potion is good then it's good. We'll get it to your brother and bring him back. Don't worry."

"Certainly, do not worry," Saul said. "We destroyed a temple, didn't we? We can certainly do this."

"At least we knew where the temple was," I said. "With respect, Lady Gold, we don't know where to begin here."

"Hepmonaland," Dame said. She stood and went to her desk. She pulled up a piece of parchment that was very clearly a map of the surrounding area. She pointed to a point on the map. "There is a small village here. This was where my brother said he would be."

We looked at the map. The village was called Elredd.

"I have heard of this place," Audry said. "It is a wretched hive of scum and villainy."

Mos Eisley came to mind, and I suppressed a smirk. "Yeah, and we have to go there."

"We will leave tomorrow," Saul said.

"Thank you," Dame said. "I ask that you attend the party tonight. It is the last day of the festivities. If there are any spies in town, they might be curious if you were not present."

"Certainly," Marc said. "We will do what we can to bring your brother home."

She nodded and we stood. Thaddeus nodded at each of us as we left. I wondered if he was peering into my mind, and decided it didn't matter. We had nothing to hide from Dame Gold.

Joseph stayed with us for a while. He wandered around the manor, looking at everything like a cat in a new home. At some point, he just disappeared. I didn't know if he went back to town or just plain got lost.

That night the party went into the night. We tried to have a good time, but frankly none of us were in a partying mood at that point. We stayed together, but spoke nothing regarding our mission. We retired as early as we thought we could get a way with, saying we had an early start to get back to Mitrik.

I didn't sleep very well. I never do before an adventure.

---------------------------

The next morning Dame bid us farewell. We played at being merely guests to the party. Dame smiled the whole time, but the worry in her face was evident. Thaddeus was at her side the whole time. I wondered if he kept others from reading her thoughts.

We headed west for Mitrik. The plan was to continue that way for a couple of hours and then head south to Elredd. Anna stayed about half an hour behind us. We had her horse and on her horse we had a doll that was about her size and shape, made of bedding from Gold's manor. We dressed it in her clothes.

"Made it myself," Anna said.

It looked stupid to me, but from a distance it would probably fool most people.

We had reached our destination--a point some way out of town where we could safely turn south--when we heard something through crashing through the brush. Saul and I both nocked an arrow in our bows.

"Hope that's Anna," I said.

"She wouldn't make that much noise," Saul said.

"Unless she wanted you to know she was coming," Anna said. She came out from behind some trees. She was breathing hard, which is saying a lot because Anna can run all day if she needs to.

"Little early?" Marc said.

"Someone's coming," Anna said. "It looks like a herald. He's riding hard, hard enough to kill his horse if he keeps it up."

"How long?" Audry asked.

"Soon," Anna said. "There's more. Outside the trees, I saw smoke rising from Safeton."

We looked at each other. Given recent events and that it takes a pretty big fire to see this far from Safeton, there were only two possibilities. Either someone really hated that statue and torched the entire garden, or....

Anna was already on her horse in front of the life-sized doll. "I think we should go back."

We didn't question her as we kicked or horses into a dead run back toward Safeton.