Nerek'Talar; Irinys Makes A Fiend. {Open}

[Rinneh]

Irinys looked at Zachariah with some measure of approval. She wasn't going to praise him outwardly, of course, but he had fought well. His skill was nothing compared to that of the Creator, but she had to commend him for his efforts. They had taken out ten men fairly quickly for being only a group of two. Her talons and claws might have helped -- monsters tend to kill men better than other men, after all.

"Shall we be moving on?"

She didn't want to tarry there. Instead, she thought only of returning to the quiet of her village. She needed time to think about all of this logically. Had it really been the right decision to help him? Solitude would help her, and she yearned to be alone once more. The company of others, aside from Tzach'nita, was unbearable. The company of the Creator she always enjoyed, but that goes without saying.

[Zachariah]

"What, and not stay in this beautiful little spot for a while?" Zachariah joked. "Well, I guess if you insist. I do love the smell of blood, though." Even if he had meant it, that was clearly not a problem given his current blood-drenched state. "You're quite effective, if I do say so myself." He motioned for her to continue on, wishing only to leave and return home at that point, though it was an exciting rush to have been in such a large battle with few injuries to show for it.

"We've just killed a good bit of the crew," Zachariah added. "I only hope there's not a good bit more. I recognized quite a few of those men from back on the ship, and from chasing me down."

[Rinneh]

"I am meant to be effective. That is my sole purpose, the reason I was Created," she replied, in as smug a tone as the robotic words would permit. Of course, that was her belief. She had found no other reason to live aside from serving the Creator. Maybe she hadn't explored everything under the sun, but she seemed driven to fulfill her pitiful destiny as the minion of the Lord Razgriz. That was just fine with her. She had all the friends she'd ever need, and everything was provided for her. It didn't seem so bad.

She didn't understand Zachariah's sarcasm. "This place is not beautiful. I do insist -- we must move from here whether you like it or not."

[Zachariah]

"Yes, yes, big scary Dark Lord made you, have to be good at killing. I've heard it before." Zachariah said, rolling his eyes. He had once before had a run-in with a harpy who was almost identical to Irinys, only with a far more inflated sense of duty about her, and a reservoir of arrogance larger than the Eastern Land Mass. "And no, this place isn't beautiful. I hate it, and the stench of blood is making my brain numb." Zachariah said.
"I didn't mean it when I said the place was beautiful. If anything, I thought only a harpy would find this corpse-ridden blood-spattered place beautiful." Zachariah started in a direction which he had a vague recollection of them originally heading in.

[Rinneh]

Irinys came as close to killing Zachariah as she had come all day. With a fearsome, ear-splitting cry, she blocked his path. Her eyes bored into his. "You should not speak of my master. His name will not be smirched by you, thief!You shall never speak of him again, even in praise. Your words are not worthy of his blessed name!" Apparently he'd trodden on a nerve.

She turned on a talon and continued walking the way she had come, almost daring Zachariah to say anything further. She wouldn't hesitate to try and rip him apart. In fact, she would enjoy it.

"It is not the blood that bothers me," she remarked, after a moment. "Blood is a result of glorious battle. It is just disturbing to know that I have helped a lowly creature such as yourself. I should have let you die."

At least she was honest....

[Zachariah]

"Perhaps you should have let me die, then...." Zachariah had only stopped and looked at her when she turned and shouted at him, following her as she continued. "After all, having helped a lowly creature such as myself it would've been clearly wiser to have let me die, and then been accosted by ten men. And then what choice would you have? Die or have the shame of running from 'lowly creatures' like myself. After all-" A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, stopping him short.

It was a man a head taller than Zachariah, with a small red beard and large green eyes. He was dressed richly, a red shirt, red vest, red pants, black buckled leather boots, and a ship captain's hat. "Hello, boy. Good seeing you again." Zachariah nodded a greeting. "It has been far too long. I've taken out your men, as you might've seen. What makes you think you won't share the same fate?"

The captain gave a snarl. "Because I'm far more skilled than my men ever were, and- urk!" Zachariah had unceremoniously stabbed the captain mid-monologue, not one for long speeches or reasons why things work, but the knowledge that this particular captain enjoyed showing off in any way possible, which got him a blade through the heart.

Zachariah kicked the corpse off his blade and turned back to Irinys. "Shall we continue on, then? I think I see light ahead."

[Rinneh]

Irinys smiled slightly as the captain fell. He was even more bothersome and talkative than Zachariah. Then something struck her -- since she'd completely ignored his analysis of her remark.

"Do you know how to sail a ship, thief? I should say that we won't be getting anywhere without a captain. I despise ships -- so I cannot be of any assistance in that manner. I am here to make sure you leave safely, and that is all. I must get back to my work soon." By 'work,' she meant guarding her village against unsuspecting forest-dwelling animals...but that was beside the point. The Creator was going to see King Shenk very soon, and she needed to be ready to escort him, should he call upon her. If she was away, he would suspect something -- she almost never left her village when she did not have an assignment.

[Zachariah]

"I can... sort of sail a ship." Zachariah said. "I hire crews because it can't be done by one man. Also I'm quite lazy." He grinned. "And what work do you have to do? Sitting on a building and staring into space? I must be the most exciting thing that's ever happened to you, at least recently." He started towards the light, laughing softly to himself. "A few squirrels infiltrating the village won't kill you."

[Rinneh]

"It is not about squirrels! I must await the call of the Creator. He expects it of me." The word 'expects' was spoken strangely, in a way she hoped would warn Zachariah not to question her motives ever again. "And shall you be hiring a crew? If that is the case, and we are near the port, perhaps we should part ways."

That was enough of an adventure for her. If the Creator found out that she had been helping someone not under his control...What would he say? Something like that had never happened before. Indeed, Harpies were left to themselves untill needed, but they were solitary. Would she be seen as unusual by the others? Would he take back her amulet, the object she treasured above any other, because it had been made for her by the Creator as a gift.

[Zachariah]

"If I can find a crew who will hire a man like me, then yes. I will be. If you wish to part ways, then we may. By the way, is this yours? I found it in one of the houses, and I can actually read it." Zachariah said, holding up a very dirty, somewhat charred piece of parchment. "The dialogue is awkward, though, it's as if it's some sort of code."
The parchment read:
"My dear sister,
I am afraid to say that, for me, Hell's bells ring. He, you know who I speak of when I say he, is not going to be available for some time. He seems dead in his mannerisms, and I am uncomfortable talking without thinking 'run!' to myself. Anyway, I hope that you are safe, and he is better soon. I am afraid that, happily, I really can make the trip over if I can find a crew. No, though, I will not be able to protect the book longer. I hope that you can find someone, anyone, anyone to protect it, as I know it is very very precious to you.
Ring, dark bells.
-A"

"As I said, it's quite odd in its writing, and too vague to mean much, but I was curious if you knew anything about it, or what code in which it make be written. So, do you?" Zachariah inquired.

[Rinneh]

Irinys looked at the note for a few moments, and made a face. "I know naught of this letter. Alas, I cannot write. Neither would anyone write to me." She sighed, a strange and saddening sound. "You found this in the ruins of my villlage, you say? Might it be very old, from the time that the Elves lived there?"

Something gripped at her heart, and she didn't like the constricting feeling. Memory, perhaps? The feeling that she'd been mislead for years on end....

[Zachariah]

"Likely it is." Zachariah agreed, still observing the note inquisitively. "But, as I said before, I'm not sure anyone wrote to anyone else exactly what we see before us. Doesn't the way it's written look even a little silly to you?" He looked at it closer, trying to examine as many details as possible.

Only once before had he intercepted a secret correspondence much like this one, a seemingly innocent, albeit awkward, message that had some sort of code in it, though he could never put his finger on what the message or code was.

It almost looks like someone was trying to cram certain words in at certain times, he observed, and quite a few of these words are rather blatant space-fillers. And what do bells, at the beginning and end of the message, have to do with the rest of it?

It was certainly an odd letter, but just what was the message?

[Rinneh]

"Silly? No. The writing looks fine to -- ah. The words, you mean. They do seem strange, but I cannot think of a reason for it. Perhaps it was written by a child who knew not how to construct a sentence." She chewed her lip, thinking, and shifted from talon to talon. "Is there something so odd about it? The Elves are gone, gone to their new forest. This could be from before the Creator took from them this place. It may be horribly outdated.

[Zachariah]

Zachariah examined the spidery, eloquent handwriting. "I don't see anyone with this sort of handwriting being unable to construct a proper sentence." He said. "I know I've seen this somewhere before, and I know that I'd learned the code for it, but I can't quite remember where and what..." He put a hand on his chin, straining himself to remember. Something hit him, after a moment. "The bells. The mention of bells ringing. That's part of it. That's.... what is that? It's... it's what signifies where the code is."

[Rinneh]

"Where the code is? As in, how to decipher it? The only place I could think of is a bell tower or a church, but the village does not seem to have either of these. If it was once present, it is probably ruined now." There was pride in her voice for that. Though she had not yet been transformed, she no longer thought of herself as an Elf...but, then again, she didn't realize that she ever was one.

"My sisters destroyed those villages thoroughly. But why decode this letter? What use is it to you? You should be returning home, Zachariah."