"I must say, it's a mess doing anything here. Can't even ascend as I usually might in a busy city." I remark to the other two, finally getting a moment to sit down and talk with them. Not a member of our happy little trio is dressed for the occasion, not that anyone cares. Even the guards of the city are practically off duty even as all the usual party problems come about.
"You couldn't have shoved your way through the crowd?" Hrurim asks with a scoffed-up brow. My own brow cocks into an arch, and a slight smirk comes to my lips.
"I could... But then this would happen." I go, gently nudging him a good few bodies worth of distance. The distraught man rises slowly, standing up and brushing himself off. He returns to his chair and quietly sits down.
"Fair," he lets out, a smoking pipe quickly closing up his fingers and a quick light bringing it to its namesake state. I take a glance at Heiya, watching her idly keep her attention elsewhere even with the noise and mess of the just now minute.
There's not exactly a moment to... Ah, there we go.
"So, what is the plan, exactly?" I ask the two, cutting straight to the point seeing as they don't seem overly involved in the party. They have drinks, they have food. But that's largely it. Perhaps for now, perhaps forever, either or, why waste the moment?
"Enjoy the party and then leave." Hrurim answers even though the question was more so for Heiya. Admittedly, I didn't give much of an indicator beyond verbal implication.
"Can do." I say, looking around at what is right next to us. I know at some point I'll have to go towards the palace proper. Most of the city will if it's able. Either I go early or I just force my way through, as Hrurim was so fond of bringing up.
"So... Your magic is all sorted, I see." Hrurim brings up between sucks of the pipe and the follow-up puffs. I give a quick nod.
"It is, I can keep my word to you," I say, giving Heiya a quick poke to gather up her attention, "And then I can be on my way. However long that will take."
"Shouldn't be long..." Heiya mutters, the noises of the party suddenly spiking.
"Pardon?" I ask, leaning down towards her. She stands up, her chest bashing against the side of my head and knocking my hat right up. I move and adjust, almost hitting her in turn with my beak mask.
"Shouldn't be long until Gamtambo dies before my barrel." she hisses, her eyes quite stern with obvious fury. I show some deference to her intentions and look away. Though despite her words, the gun she's holding is not her own. It's that dead father's one.
"Mm, I'll do what I can." I say, breathing in during my response as I weigh the many options I have to contend with. Beyond the legal implications of this, there's the scale of my response and how events play out. Heiya's words also make it clear I can't just point my dominant claw at the problem and let it vanish. I've got to play to her tune and however that plays out.
"So, how was the bug, anyway?" Heiya asks, spinning away from her wayward direction and coming back. The little claws at the ends of her fingers pierce the skin of some fruit. Grape-like things that are far wetter than any grape has a right to be. She pulls the collection up to her mouth, popping them all in. Her fingers keep moving, waiting until her teeth are done before she suckles the moist fur of one flavour for another.
"Oh?" I go, and Heiya gives me one of those looks.
"Don't try and hide the details. Hrurim here had to shoot dead one of those patterned ones. The exact same kind that were exclusive to that hive we crashed at however many years ago it's been now." Heiya explains, leaving me with a gentle nod.
It's weird, really, we actually have quite a history together, me and her. Not the best and the happiest, but we have it. Here I am clinging my life to hers for a spell and all on a promise to her. A promise to help her avenge the very man who tried to sell me off as an experiment where I would've been blown up.
Guess there's a great irony to all of this, from how I met Heiya, to how I got my magic. Though, I suppose I paid her back for her cruelty with my own when I went back to Tobaballe. We had our moments here, there, and everywhere. And now we are in the moment, this moment.
"Alxxcron, yes. It was him. Certainly was a difference in how things played out this time. Third time's really the charm. Had me terrified and running the first time around. He beat me to the brink of death the second time, and I barely escaped with my life and then... I killed him on the third. No effort at all, really, despite the looks of what I did. I went in, and I killed him. Whatever he wanted, he didn't get it, and he took it quite calmly, too." I explain, not concerning myself too much with the etiquette of storytelling.
If they care, they'll listen well, if not, well, not my problem.
"Calmly? Never known a bug to take death calmly. Bugs never stop howling for your meat in all the time they have you in their sights." Hrurim points out, his experiences with them probably the most like mine. I imagine criminals have more need to hound these monsters than a regular town militia or the like does. One hides to escape the monster known as the Law, not the other beasts in the night.
"Distinction of an earth shaman?" I suggest, shrugging slightly as my attention goes wayward towards a group of people playing about with swords. However, paying closer attention, even with the sloppiness and presence of alcohol in the area. It's still an intended show and more. Though the doctor on hand is certainly an awfully jittery lad.
"I wouldn't know, any jobs I have involving the bugs tend to be to shoot them. Though, there was this one we did have, had to sell him for top coin. He'd never shut up when I wanted him too, wasn't all that much fun either." he remarks, searing my flesh with those remarks of his. A smirk comes to my hidden mouth, and I all but want to thank him for the pleasurable experience.
"Perhaps you need more time to master your torture skills. Maybe a few more nights in that lodge you stayed?" I suggest, and he scoffs at me, his eyes in a clearly delightful manner even in the dark. The smoking pipe goes back to his lips, and Heiya smacks my attention her way.
"If you're done with your verbal shootout." she remarks, leaving me a little dead in the water.
"Hm?" I go, hoping for that conversational lifeline as my mind is blank for the moment. I'm lost and I have no idea of how embarrassed I should be.
"So... You only killed the earth shaman?" she asks, and I nod, a smile coming to her lips.
"Well, on top of our patterned one, we also wounded a fair few." she giggles, her bragging having no grounds at all.
"You really want to compare a regular bug to the earth shaman itself? One can slaughter armies, the other picks berries." I point out and she shakes her head, her hand coming up to flick a finger the same way.
"No, no, no! We killed more!" she giggles some more as I look to my claws.
"Whatever, earth shaman's worth way more dead. Gods above, and I'll meet them again soon. I'll off myself and then I'll have killed the two most important kind of osibindah!" I jest, even as my mind reminds me of a far more sincere time when I tried that option.
"Please do." Hrurim scoffs, and I look to Heiya, gesturing so eagerly at her.
"He has a promise to keep!" she snaps, going right for the smoking human and whacking at him with some party effects. All manner of tickling cloth and the like gets in Hrurim's face, interrupting the smoking in fear of a sudden, flaming torch.
"F-Fine...! He keeps his promise." he goes, and I know he just wants to.
"Correct." I say, teasing him with that response to finish it off. Right to the punchline, or maybe the knife-in-the-neckline?
"... And then he kills himself." he finishes, snickering away as he fights off Heiya's dying assault upon his facial senses. Still, I give him a gentle kick. His chair collapses.
"And here I thought it could handle you." I say, knowing full well even the chair I'm on is barely managing with the help of my careful magic application.
"I've not put on that much weight in this party!" Hrurim snaps, tossing the broken chair away and across the rare open space. He kicks the loose limb of oak away, and he pulls a free chair in from elsewhere.
"You're lucky there's going to be so many broken things by the time this party ends." I point out, hiding what I did so easily amidst the joyous chaos of ongoing revelry. A party, ey?
"Didn't even break it." Hrurim complains under his breath, sorting out his smoking pipe once again. My eyes jump to the ground, spotting the spilt embers all over the place. I give him a very gentle kick, and he gives them the proper stomp and grind they deserve.
"So what's this thing about us being guests of honour?" Heiya asks as I lose my focus in Hrurim's fire-stopping efforts.
"Her Highness, the Lady-King Morgihranur is thanking you for being the ones to gift me unto her." I explain, putting on a high and mighty tone of pure haught and snob. In the thick of the party like this is the one time I can be free of any potential touchiness. Though, I best be careful as our host can so easily run us out of here if she so chooses!
"An award for simply walking and finding a hole in the wall? Just like being a child again." Heiya huffs and I nod at her oversimplification of the events.
"It's quite lucky we did. This entire kingdom would be noisy for all the wrong reasons should we have not come along." I point out, not entirely sure of how much of a thing our presence here did actually make. Alxxcron was quite focused on me for what he did, but, at the same time, I doubt he was hunting me through intention. He just happened to somehow come to the conclusion.
I guess it certainly explains the odd wave of magic I felt a while back... It wasn't Morgihranur, some doctor or any of the Ancient Jhermonikra machinery running through the kingdom. It was Alxxcron testing the waters. Probing the kingdom for useful information and details, of which, I just happened to be the jewel in the crown.
Not that it did him or his hive much good. Mmmmm... He did say a few things. Morgihranur also spoke of what she heard. The hive was wiped out, so he intended to try and live a normal life. He has the capacity to think and speak, so technically, if he did like me, then he could have. Still, it's an uncomfortable thought.
I have a reputation right now as the only mortal osibindah proper, and he could've upset that quite a lot... I guess that certainly gives his death a lot more value to me in retrospect.
"Well, I can't say I'm complaining. Plenty of food, all for free, and my stomach just can't get enough of it." Hrurim says, him and Heiya clearly having carried on speaking to each other as I blocked the world out to go to my thoughts.
"It's not even because it's all that good or tasty." Heiya complains, the odd paradox of magic and food coming into play. Personally, I quite enjoy all the different tastes I've had of the royal kitchens. Still, the lack of magic certainly makes it a bland experience.
Never mind a certain goddess and the part she's played in my life right now.
"I can get that quite easily." I add in, fiddling with the pearl bracelet Motrtha gave me so many years ago now.