Tallas watched Mira carefully. Their jobs loading cargo onto ships allowed Mira the opportunity to preach to sailors and other travelers, but she could overextend herself in her enthusiasm to share her faith. After a particularly hard day in the middle of the winter just past she woke up one night vomiting blood and ended up losing a full week's work. Today, though she simply looked tired, she had that look that said she was worrying about her lack of ability to attract others to Exquaestio. Today had been fairly typical. The merchant captain had been pleased to pay for Mira's ability to move even heavy objects without touching them, and unlike most had no objections to her preaching as she worked. Unfortunately, there had been no response or questions from either ship's officers or crew in response to Mira's prayers and rites. Occasionally they'd received an offer to take lunch with the ship's captain, but most often this had been simple politeness and not real interest. Lunch arrived, and with no invitation forthcoming, Mira and Tallas ate with the other longshoremen. Though the workers had been hostile at first, the better part of a year working the docks had made them accepted if not exactly welcome. Lunch was nearly over and Mira had gotten her color back when their conversation was interrupted by screams. Mira immediately got to her feet and started hurrying towards their source. Tallas followed, grumbling slightly. Exquaestio taught aide to those in trouble, but his time as a mercenary had taught him caution and he wished he could teach it to Mira. The source of the screams was an ally between two warehouses and behind a beer stall. A very pretty girl of about 12 or 13 was covered with deep bleeding welts. At first Tallas thought she was the source of the screams, but then realized they came from the older woman trying to hold the girl's hands away from her face and body. Tallas's gorge rose as he realized that the girl had made her wounds herself, and done it without a sound. In an attempt to distance himself from the scene he switched his sight to the spirit realm from the physical. What he saw then shocked him even further. Tallas couldn't say what it was, but something _alien_ overlay the girl's body. Not thinking, he brought forth his soul sword, the sword that was only visible in spiritual reality that he'd learned to create from his own soul. Tallas wasn't quite sure how, but he _knew_ the thing was startled, and when he started to advanced towards it with sword in hand, the thing "leapt" out of the girl's body and "flew" into the air. Determined not to let it escape Tallas took the "step" that separated body and soul and followed after the thing. Though the thing was slower in the spiritual realm than Tallas's soul body, as soon as it realized it was pursued it started ducking through buildings, around corners, and using similar tricks. Though Tallas tried to keep up, it eventually escaped. Tallas swore in anger and carefully marked where he was in the town. Perhaps he could track the thing down later. He then "snapped" back to his physical body. Back in his physical body Tallas first noticed the pain in his head. His body had obviously collapsed when his soul left it and his head had hit something in the resulting fall. The second thing he noticed were the shouts. "It's her fault! Casting magic! What'd you do to my girl witch!?" Tallas sat up and winced as the pain in his head moved from a single spot to an overall throbbing. "It had nothing to do with us goodwife. Your daughter had been possessed by a demon. It wasn't about to let her go before I drove it off." "It's _her_ fault! Casting spells, stirring up the dreaming!" Tallas got to his feet, and found Mira supporting him with a worried look on her face. "Goodwife I suggest that you tend your daughter. I drove off the demon, but we can do nothing for her injuries." Walking out of the alley with Mira's support, Tallas was worried by what he saw. Too many of the gathered crowd were obviously listening to the mother's accusations. ----- Jefferson http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
