"Was that just...?" I ask Heiya, watching the sky as it clears itself up of that explosive mess.
"Yep," she chirps, her feet already spinning around to go the way we came.
"Hold on now!" I complain, putting my foot down on the topic, by immediately throwing my backside onto a bench. Heiya stops and looks back my way, rolling her eyes with a slight smirk to her lips.
"You're such a baby," she goes, joining me right by my spot on the bench.
"We spent all that time hastily walking to this city, then we had to sneak past a whole army and the like and now the one we're here for is already gone...!" I go on at length, losing my breath just as the point it made. A heavy intake fills out my lungs, and it blows right out just as violently.
"Well... I guess it at least makes one thing clear." Heiya says to me, her voice going soft as the you-know-what passes through both of our minds. I throw an arm over her shoulder and give her a quick shake, doing my best to reassure her. She's certainly right about that, she certainly is. Nin's magic is back, and that means we have our easy key into getting what Ivahstar wanted.
The death of Don Gamtambo.
"I guess it does." is all I can think of saying for the moment.
"You don't need to worry about me, Hrurim. We can get going when we need to. Best we get this over with." Heiya meekly admits, and I give her another shake-up.
"We'll stay as long as you want. Don't feel pressured into doing anything. You can feel easy, I suppose? Nin there has his magic back, and that means we'll have an easy time of this." I tell her, thinking on it all as I wonder if this is perhaps me being a bit cocky about the whole affair. Ivahstar had us prepping for years for a perfect opportunity we were so close to. Even with him dead, I doubt Gamtambo is somehow going to be in a nicer mood than he was before.
He knows only one body was there, he knows Heiya and me exist. Unless he's cocky about us being no threat, arrogant as arrogant can be. Then I doubt this will be easy if at all anywhere near the idea. Nin's power certainly gives us a new card to this, but, at the same time, it might be too much.
The underground is a specific kind of place. Outside of the Water Vein Colonies, there aren't many powerful witches. Wind-magic being what it is, it's not all that permeable to the land down under. Doesn't help either that those colonies are filled with people who like to keep the people of Jherikra out of the underground. An artificial disconnect that will only make Nin stick out more than he does.
Never mind his choice of dress, his peculiar habits or his absurdly out there biology. Simply being a powerful witch active in the underground could give Gamtambo the cause and means to call on witches of his own. The kind that can flood us all out right back to the surface... If.
If we give him time to become familiar with Nin's power.
"We might be best moving quickly...?" I make the mistake of muttering openly.
"Thinking about how best to use Nin?" Heiya asks, hopping off of the bench with Ivahstar's spike gun.
"I am." I admit, smiling a little at her intuitive thoughts, regardless of how on the same face of the tablet we are on. Still, it's a good thing to think about right now. Saves us the trouble of having to think about it when we're after Gamtambo proper. We can even simmer out into some milder frustrations like navigating the awful underground tunnels once again!
At least we have some contacts to work with. My own from back in the day and whatever Ivahstar might've left us in his unwritten will. They know Heiya, they all do. So we should be able to make something about it work, even without Ivahstar's blunt and forceful charm. Gods above, that man had a reputation about him even so long after leaving it all behind, and you could see it... And watch it work.
It was a mighty impressive thing to see, especially when my reputation with my contacts is more of a typical rapport. We've got aligned goals, I help them, they help me. We get a professional sort-of-friendship going and that's that. Ivahstar never did any of that, he practically terrified most of them into working with him.
Just giving out the results made both the victim, and the employer terrified. Every snitch for as far as the Orbital-Halo orbits kept their lips shut. I know Ivahstar put a lot of effort into hiding himself from Gamtambo, but he never left the profession. Somewhere should've spilt the beans about a hwardgon with a spike gun and a trail of bodies in his wake that never ended.
Nin's certainly going to end up like that if he hasn't already. I imagine being an osibindah who can think and feel like a normal person is already a reputation builder. Bad or not. What he is will certainly spread the word, especially once Gamtambo is a body underfoot.
"It's strange, you know?" Heiya starts to go, her thoughts coming out on a different river altogether.
"Hm?" I go right back.
"I want vengeance for Pops' death and... I'm going to be using someone else to do it. I want it. I want to be right there and do it just like that. Yet, we need Nin. He's going to be the one to get the kill if we don't do it right... And, well. Nothing goes according to plan." she goes on about, huffing away as she finds some grass to sit on. A poorly held standard of no-going-on-the-grass marking the sign so close to her. Not like anyone here to address it, either. Seems like the city was filled with warrior nobles.
"Maybe it's something we just need to let happen?" I ask her, not all too sure what to say if anything at all. It's something we have plenty of time to figure out. Plenty of time to plan. We can certainly nudge and urge Nin the way that makes Heiya happiest. But it's as she said, nothing goes according to plan.
"I guess..." she shrugs, clinging to Ivahstar's weapon as she strokes it as if it were a pet.
"Again. It might be worth us not thinking about this if we can. I know it's not something we can do all that well, easier said than done and all that... But, it might be worth it." I say, going meek myself as I feel like I'm just saying things for the sake of saying things.
"If we can't get off the topic. Is there any point in trying?" Heiya asks, making our conversation far too philosophical for my street rat mind.
"I suppose there isn't..." I sigh, staying in the conversation regardless. Not like I would just up and leave her, anyhow. We have to stick together until the osibindah problem is solved fully. Just not the other osibindah problem we want to find so we can then leave.
Though, I'd rather we stay for a bit longer if it helps put Heiya's mind at ease. Some of this place has been good for her, other bits not so much. It's hard to tell with how everything has played out. And, well, I don't think there's a whole lot I can do for her when so much is in the head. Mental images that flash again and again, conversations that are always repeating. So much that you just can't get out.
"I guess we best get moving, anyhow? Who knows when Nin will be back and we will have to make a choice as to if we go to him or he comes to us." I say, trying to strike up at least something else as a topic.
"We wait for him. You saw how far he leapt." she huffs, getting up and off the grass with a few pats and swipes of the behind. I emulate her behaviour, not bothering with the latter and we carry on with our stroll. Heading to the city's walls regardless of the decision.
Who knows how much right we have to walk the walls, but there's no way to get a view otherwise. We've certainly seen a lot more than just soldier types up there, anyway. Seems like it's much the same now, too. Have this big explosion and some debris in the air and everyone's attention is still on the siege going on near the big hole in the wall!
"Up we go... No space at all." I grumble quietly, letting Heiya go ahead of me as we take the stairs. The gossip becomes louder and louder and I have to squeeze on by with our supplies and the like. We come to a stop by a small patch of clear battlements and Heiya finds something to stand on.
"He's certainly ready." she remarks, the proof of Nin's restored power out there for all to see. He's made a bigger mess of the land than the osibindah did. Even the siege on top of it all was less scarring.
"I don't think we're going to be able to get you that present you wanted..." I comment, watching all that magicless land as if it really was something with magic in it. Nin says he lost his power because of that giant. He said all that sand is what happens when magic is completely taken out of an object. He survived that, and this is just a taste of what kind of power is needed to survive that misery.
The countryside is utterly gouged and cratered, there's no good farming land anywhere over there. The Crack in the Sky as the locals call it, and quite a lot right now in this gossip up on the walls... It's all the scarier a sight with no ground properly underneath it. Never mind all the lingering damage from what I can only imagine is the osibindah earth shaman. There's this cloud that's practically fire, magic fire, but fire nonetheless. An endless storm of fire that's barely wafting.
Nevermind what's going on at the mini-mountain's peak... It's like a broken gas valve, and there's nothing to it. Just all that magic fire. Nin will certainly be able to get us what we want. He certainly will be able.
"That's a lot of firepower for such a small thing." Heiya remarks, the destruction simmering down enough to just let it soak in. The scale certainly feels limited compared to the spectacle, but I doubt anyone is moving home again when all is said and done. There's nothing to go back to, and what was just burnt down before is now not there at all.
A mess is not putting it into proper context at all, it really isn't.
"We can do with a lot of firepower." I say, trying to keep my mind off of such unnatural damage. Magic is a natural force, I know that. Witches are as common as my pinky is to my body. But I don't know about this, I don't know at all. This is something else.
I look to my hand, watching it tremble in a way it hasn't since I was perhaps in my first few firefights...
"You know, it might be best to have Nin go the wrong way." Heiya says and I look to her.
"Go the wrong way?" I ask and she turns to me, nodding.
"He makes such a mess that everyone just can't help but go there. Leaving Gamtambo with no one at all once he's in his so-called safe place." she explains, her voice teetering between reasonable and blatantly sadistic.
"Mm, that's certainly one way to give the girl what she wants." I quip, unable to really look at the destruction any more. I turn away, looking back towards the city as I pat around for my smoking pipe and a match.