westwhere | Side Quest: Take This!

While it might not have seemed possible for Lily to look even more shocked and dismayed than she already did - after Shen Qingqiu spoke, she somehow managed to look even worse.

"Macaluso's guard?" The implications were staggering, but when El mentioned hiding the weapons again it pulled Lily back to the present.

"Right. You can stow them upstairs in my workroom. There's a box that can hold it all." She looked to both of them and then over her shoulder towards the door. "Follow me, don't wander off, and if you see a ghost just bow and keep walking - they don't like it when there are too many visitors at once. Especially if you haven't been introduced."

She gave Eleven one last look before she headed towards the door, waving them over. "Come on."

Like the kitchen, the hallway Lily led them into was dusty from disuse, though as they ascended the stairs to the next floor, things began to look a little tidier and well-kept. Lily had even gone so far as to leave vases of flowers on some empty tables - an effort to make the house a bit nicer and please the ghosts.

After taking them past a few doors - one of which sounded like a few old men were chatting behind it - she stopped at the entrance of her workroom and drew her wand, removing the wards and protective enchantments that had been placed on it. The door swung open onto a cheery but sparse-seeming room that she was quick to usher them both into before she could shut the door again.

He hadn't been keeping up on the political intrigues, honestly such politics weren't his favorite, and even when they could be fun, it was only fun for the outsider looking in. Alas, he felt he should probably try harder to keep up with things. He had sort of assumed things could just sort of work out as long as he stuck with the group and stayed out of trouble.

But now he was in a lot of trouble!!!

He would have to ask about things soon.

He followed along, taking a glance here and there to take note of the place, trying to sense how many people were in the building through what sort of energy signatures he could sense. But most of this was because he was nosey and not for anything else in particular at the moment.

"Might as well keep them for ourselves if both parties are questionable."

Oh. Ghosts. Undead. That could be what he was sensing.

A chill spread over his shoulders and down his back as they walked. Hopefully they could pass unnoticed or unobtrusively. They wouldn't be here if it hadn't been an emergency, and Eleven didn't intend to visit it again.

He hummed quiet agreement as Lily led them into a room- then paused as he spotted a wayward splash of color and life. The arnica flower. Eleven smiled.

"So this is where it is.."

"Is it safe to keep them?" She asked Shen Qingqiu while moving through the room, using her wand to untransfigure a couple of the sparse tabletops, revealing the cluttered surfaces hiding beneath.

Though she was looking over her work area, she heard Eleven's question, and it brought a tiny smile to her face. "I told you it brightened up the place," she looked up at him briefly with a shrug before returning to the task at hand

"Here we are," Lily reached for a small, beat-up wooden box that had been waiting on one of the tables among the chaos of papers, jars of ingredients, and bottles in various states of being filled and labeled, destined for the stockpile she was making for the group.

"You can keep them in here until you decide what you're doing. This will be able to hold everything and then some." With a bit of cajoling it might even be able to hold the pair of them too, should the situation get desperate, but Lily didn't think it would be especially calming to point that out.

Cocking her head to the side her gaze settled on Shen Qingqiu - she didn't know much about him, but now he knew a good deal more about her than most of the group. "And please, as a favor to me, keep this place to yourself?"

Edited (sorry left out words) 2021-10-19 04:46 (UTC)

"Unknown, but we lack in recourses in general, so anything is good, isn't it?" and with that he dumped the bundle he had been carrying into the box before he started to empty out his pockets, pockets that barely could hold a book, let alone weapons. They were clearly enchanted in some way.

"As for sharing, I had no intentions," though why did it have to be a secret beyond the obvious ones to keep it from?

Eleven hummed shortly, nodding.

"I don't even know where we are right now." Somewhere in the necromantic district, he knew because she'd told him before, but that was the extent of his own knowledge. He avoided the district as a whole, and wouldn't be making many exceptions even now.

From his bag, he carefully few more weapons that most definitely shouldn't fit, but Lily well knew the trickery behind that.

"Thank you for doing all this for us, Lily. I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but you've truly saved us."

"What sort of weapons are they? Did you learn anything about what they can do before the situation went south?"

The more they stashed inside the box the wider Lily's eyes grew as she continued to piece together the ordeal the pair of them had been through that day.

Lifting her wand to conjure a pot of tea, she was quick to pour them both a cup, passing them over before sorting her own.

She paused, on the verge of having a sip, and looked back to Eleven smiling again as she shook her head. "I'm glad you called, and that I could help. This is," she looked between them again, flummoxed. "Quite the pickle indeed."

"Not really..." this was the first opportunity to really look at them.

"Ah... I did make a friend however...." and he placed a hand to the sword he had at his side.

Eleven accepted the tea with a faint smile in turn, the warmth of it doing something to help abate the lingering chill.

His attention turned to the sword at Shen Qingqiu's side, surprised. They'd be looking for those weapons, but.. he also doubted anyone but Rigarda knew precisely what they were looking for.

He set his tea aside and hummed thoughtfully as he lifted the last of the weapons from his bag- a sword with many edges- and hesitates, staring at it as his heart thrums, oddly reluctant to part with it. It almost felt like it was calling to him.

"..I don't.. need another sword."

Edited (tense consistency) 2021-10-19 20:49 (UTC)

Swords were a bit over her head, but she watched the two of them with interest, curious about the way they had both connected with one of the weapons from their cargo. Maybe it was a sword guy thing.

Studying El as he seemed to toy with the idea of keeping the sword he had held onto she looked at the one Shen Qingqiu kept as well.

"And you're both quite certain they're safe for you to use, no curses?" She'd read a book like that, with a ring that bewitched the bearer the longer they carried it.

"This is a spiritual sword, there's not much one can do when the spirit makes a choice," he wouldn't complain though, his own spiritual sword was left far away in another world.

"If anything I'm surprised they could make such a thing and with a full spirit. It will take to cultivation well, and... this master was lacking in a sword," he would have to name it.....

A spiritual sword that chose its wielder? Eleven frowned and expanded his senses, flinching as he did so. The heavy pall of death left him shivering. He settled and reigned his focus back in.

"I don't know," he said in answer to Lily. "We just took them and ran. Is there a way to tell? I can't parse through the amount of undead in this place."

"A full spirit? As in, it's alive?" This was definitely beyond her realm of education, but the prospect was fascinating in a way.

Lily frowned at Eleven, Curse Breaking took years of training. Detecting and removing curses was delicate work, like magical surgery almost. It was always incredibly frustrating not to have an answer. "I don't know if I can tell, my magic isn't suited for the curses of this world. On the other hand, I suppose they wouldn't curse them if they really were meant to barter for the city's safety - however a brilliant first strike that would be."

Side Quest: Take This!

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