[BoC] The Memory Remains (part 1)

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

The hope of being able to save Oliver Kadar at the end of this impromptu journey had become a sprouted seed within Shinsou, but this new, terrible situation was utterly deflating. The entirety of everything the boy had said was frustrating and completely logically sound. Now, with a nightmare scenario encapsulating not only the two of them but the kid’s sister, the question that continued to ring in his ear was why. This no longer concerned Shinsou’s involvement with the Brotherhood. Someone had been very patient, very skilled, very opportunistic and very callous to undertake an attempt at a mass poisoning like this; one that, if done correctly, could probably have finished off Crossroad’s minimal population.

Ramius has set me up, the shit, Shinsou convinced himself, and now I have this poor kid’s sister on my conscience as a result. How many more will get caught up in this before its done?

He stood silently as the boy and his family frantically tried to revive the girl. Angela, as she was called, was breathing; but barely. Rubbing his chin as his eyes glared down at her form, Shinsou was struggling to accept what had transpired but then something caught his eye. It was something he had seen before, a day earlier, in the corner of the girl’s lips.

Foam.

Polonia poisoning? It seemed plausible, given all of the other symptoms that Oliver Kadar had been displaying in the Brotherhood’s medical wing twenty four hours prior. As the Telgradian knelt, jerking her head to one side, he inspected the lips and throat for similarities to his Brotherhood agent.

“This is what happened to Kadar,” Shinsou explained, dabbing at the brownish froth bubbling from the corner of Angela’s mouth. “It has all the hallmarks of Polonia, alright. The one thing we have going for us here is time – we’ve caught it early. I’m not a medical expert but my friend started suffering organ failure two days after ingestion.”

It was strange. Shinsou’s immediate focus was on the situation of a girl he did not know, in a town he would struggle to find on a map most of the time whilst on a mission to save a friend from death. Kadar’s odds for survival, given both the length of this scenario already and the fact he was likely being cared for by the very man who had orchestrated his assassination, were lengthening beyond reason. Shinsou thought upon this as he waited for someone, anyone, to say something. It was one of his fifty thousand problems, or so it seemed. Whichever way to tried to reason, Osiris had come to the glaringly obvious conclusion with a heavy heart.

Oliver is going to die, if he isn’t dead already, and there is nothing I can do to stop it because I’m all the bastard way out here.

A moment of sadness overtook the Telgradian. Kadar was a friend. There was no doubt that he was a loyal member of the Brotherhood but firstly and fore mostly he had always been there for Shinsou personally. It made his gut wrench to think of the man dying alone and in pain amongst the very people who had put this treachery into action. But, even as a small tear welled up in the corner of his eye, Osiris knew what Oliver would say to him, were he here now.

Yeah. “This is what I signed up for”. That’s what you’d say, right? That this is the risk we take every day. Shinsou lamented, looking down once more at the terrified expressions of the boy as he looked for answers. You’d tell me to take care of this girl first. She had nothing to do with all this baggage that followed me from Whitevale.

Everything around the Telgradian seemed to be moving in slow motion. As people scrambled for what meagre medical equipment they had, and hoisted Angela onto the bed, Osiris stood there in a trance. He hated the fact he had been so blind to all of this; that as a consequence of a lack of his own understanding, he would lose a friend and soon be solely responsible for the death of this poor girl and possibly countless others who may have drunk the water. That it had taken a child to point this out to him; at this very moment, a very distraught one at that, was beyond humbling.

As Shinsou had gathered himself, a moment of acceptance arrived. He knew Kadar was dead. When he got back to Whitevale, the Telgradian would have every bastard up against the wall until he found the people responsible. Ramius would be first to feel his wrath and Shinsou would make sure that Oliver Kadar would be avenged in the most creative of ways. But, for now, compassion, intuition and haste were required in equally large amounts for those outside of that murky life and for those who just wished to live in peace.

”Do you have any idea what could cure this?” Shinsou, now placing his faith in the pale boy, asked. “We have two days to find an antidote, and whilst I don’t know the first thing about herbs, I have a fast mount and a strong arm. I’ll do what I can to help your sister. Also…”

Shinsou felt his blood race and his heartbeat quickening as the vision of Kadar’s wasting body came back to him.

"I'm sorry that I brought trouble into your household. I promise you I’ll find the people responsible for this.”

[Sage]

Sage stumbled backwards as the world seemed to fade around him. He had stepped into a nightmare, plain and simple, yet his gaze was glued to the motionless form of his sister. He could only continue to stare as his elder sister came in only a few moments later and began barking orders to the workers that had followed the commotion.

“This is not real, is it?” his thoughts sounded hollow, but he could just not rationally accept just what he was seeing. His throat swelled as his stomach lurched into his throat, as his body tried to reconcile what he was witnessing to provoke some kind of reaction.

But the more Sage continued to watch in disbelief the more he began to feel that immeasurable pressure that was now starting to bare down on his shoulders. And he almost faltered under its colossal weight. But instead of giving in he was instead drawn to the other heavy presence he could feel in the room.

Shinsou Vaan Osiris.

Sage grimaced as he studied the warrior, the man was in the same position he was, if not caught up even more into the twisted spider web of lies and deceit. He seemed calm, but beneath the surface Sage could almost feel the concern for his family as well as the sheer burning rage that dwelt at his core.

“…a cure?” Sage quietly repeated what the man had said, his mind desperate to grasp hold of any sort of rational thought. A cure … was possible. The boy blinked as the world slowly came back into focus, there was still a chance he quickly realised. The book where he had first learned of the mushroom would have had to have been one of his father’s personal collections.

“It's possible, please follow me!” he said to the man as he willed his body into motion, passing by his mother as he spared one last glance at his catatonic sibling. His brows knitted together at sheer wrongness at the sight, and it took all of his frayed wit to even step beyond the door frame and back into the hall. Sage spared the man a glance to see if he was following before leading the exhausted warrior down the stairs and into his fathers’ personal library. As he entered Sage took fleetingly noticed at the pile of books he had just been reading only a few moments before, “How did this day change so fast?”

“…I- I apologise. But I don’t know how much help I can possibly be” he said thoughtfully after a moment’s hesitation. The young boy paused to lick his dry lips and began to consider a question that Shinsou had asked him before “You asked me before, what was I do here…”

He shook of the hesitation and bushed one of his locks of hair behind his ear as he stepped over to one of the shelves and began to peruse the titles along the spines of the books one by one. Sage only allowed himself to pause just long enough to pluck one of the books from out of its normal resting place so that he could hastily scour its contents. “… not this one”

Sage also came to the realisation that he had yet to introduce himself and turned to the swordsman with a look of concern “My name is Sage Ainsworth, and I am the adopted son of Owen Ainsworth and I … Read” He felt his cheeks flush with the lacklustre admission. “But I … I’ve read about the Polonia mushroom once before. But I don’t recall which book it was that referenced them.”

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Great, Shinsou thought dryly as Sage began pondering over the extensive book case, so he's read about the mushroom in a book but hasn't got a clue which one? Needle in a thousand haystacks...

The Telgradian felt guilty for the reproof; after all, Sage was under an immense amount of pressure and he was just a boy, but just a glimpse at the sheer volume of tomes revealed the ridiculous scale of the task ahead of them. As Sage began running his fingers down the spines of selected books, Shinsou began to pace.

There must be something we can do to hurry this up. The herb isn't native, but what about the mushroom?

"Hey, Sage." Osiris began, tapping his charge on the shoulder. "You said the Cacao herb doesn't grow locally, but what about the Polonia mushroom? If we can find a sample, it might be quicker you testing it than wasting hours pouring through a million books. Time, sadly, is not a luxury we have in abundance."

He gazed upon the child and hoped for a positive response. It was a long shot to start with; even if it was native to Crossroads, there would be other complications. Could they pick it safely? Would Sage know what to test for and how? Would the boy have the right equipment? All these issues were glaring. Shinsou shook his head, lecturing himself internally.

One problem at a time, Shin. Solve one problem, then the next. Then keep solving problems until somebody gets cured.

[Sage]

The boy searched book by book, tome after tome and page after page. With only a rough inkling of where the correct tome could possibly be the boy opted to make a note to re-organise the library as soon as it was appropriate. It had been too long since his father’s library had any sort of defined order to it. His father had certainly read every book once before as had Sage, but while his father had taken the knowledge and honed it with a life time of experience. The boy had not.

So engrossed into his own task he forgot for a moment that Shinsou was also in the room, pacing away impatiently. The man was on a tighter time limit than himself he realised. Standing around and waiting for a boy to pour through a library’s worth of content for a single page must have been driving him up the wall. But Sage was closing in on the desired book, he could feel it.

But Shinsou’s patience had reached an all-time low, and was keen to grasp any solution he could think off, patting the boy on the shoulder with what he thought could be a hopeful solution. “I …” Sage hesitated in his response as his mind began to parse the suggestion. “Yes, the Polonia Mushroom is a part of the local flora. But...”

“But testing it?” Again Shinsou had suggested that they should ‘Test’ it once more. Sage however immediately dismissed the notion all together. Test it, on what? Was Shinsou assuming that Sage had some alchemical skill? Even still Sage would have been hesitant to even approach a mushroom he knew to be poisonous without knowing how to properly handle it.

Sage shook his head as he spun to face the warrior. “It isn’t that simple, what if we get it wrong, what if all we manage to accomplish is wasting whatever sample we find” No, his sisters life was in question here, he could not afford to be careless and neither could Shinsou. He just hoped that the man would understand.

“I would honestly not know where to begin. My father would be more suited for the task, but as I said he is away on business in Scara Brae” He said running his hand down the length of his hair nervously. Of all days for his father to be away, now was when his family needed him the most. No, Sage would have to try. Even with his partial knowledge on the subject, he was more than confident that if the book had the cure, then he could certainly follow the instructions on how to make it. “Finding the antidote will only be a matter of time.” But exactly how much time he was unwilling to even think about.

“The book I am searching for had details about the mushroom. I can remember bits and pieces, but I recall that it had details on how to properly care for the mushroom as well as how to utilise each individual part” Even as he said that he could almost visualise the page, the carefully hand drawn picture with life like detail, the paragraphs that made up the page as well as the diagram that followed on the next page. It was there inside his mind, but just out of focus with missing details that he considered to important to just outright dismiss.

He was so close to either remembering the page in full detail or locating the book he was seeking. “If there is a cure then it will certainly mention it”

“If not …” the boy hesitated, staring at the polished oak of the table that was next to the reading chair he had spent the night in. The outcome should they be unable to find the cure was an unpleasant thought, one he knew he had no time to dwell on. Finding the book was only the first stage however, even after reaffirming his suspicions about a possible cure there was still the second stage to consider … “Even if I find that book we would still need to track down a cure …”

He continued to stare at the table, letting his gaze wonder to the pile of books he had just been reading during the night. He sighed as he felt pressure building in the forefront of his mind. A headache would be the least of his worries right now. The boy tiredly rubbed at his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in silent contemplation as he considered the table in front of him and the contents that sat upon its surface. Namely, he was drawn towards the half empty glass of water that was carelessly minding its own business “Has that been there all night?”

His face immediately took on a confused countenance as he stared at the inconspicuous glass of water. His mind slowly coming to an odd observation and with it, an odd thought “Just when was the water supply poisoned?”

“Ah … Mister Osiris, I just had a thought …” he said turning to the Swordsman, hoping that his polite inquiry would snap the man from his brooding.

“Do you see the glass of water on the table?” he said with a nod of his head in the direction of the glass and turned back towards the glass with a questioning look. “If someone were to try and assassinate you, then it would stand to reason that poisoning the water supply would be a logical choice” He said bringing the subject to light in an inquisitive manner.

“But when do you suppose that was?”

The boy approached the table with carefully measured steps, biting into the nail of his thumb as he did so and never letting the glass out of his sight. “That glass has been there all night… and I don’t think anyone else in town has been poisoned yet…” surely there would have been more of a commotion outside if there was, but so far only his sister had been-... The boy carefully considered his next line of thought “surely that would mean that the water was poisoned just recently, right?” he said turning to face his exasperated ally. “Or you would have been on guard if when you arrived everyone were to be paralysed.”

“It is possible that the assassin may still be close by. And … ah, wouldn’t an assassin carry an antidote for their own poisons?” It was possible, he quickly reasoned. Suppose the assassin found themselves in a situation where there was a mistake, some unforeseen situation that called for the assassin to cure the target, or even themselves should the situation arise. “Even one as fast acting as Polonia, there would still be time to administer an antidote if you were fast enough…”

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

We need to move fast, was the first thing Shinsou thought upon Sage Ainsworth arriving at his well thought out conclusion. The Telgradian knew the boy was absolutely right; the assassin responsible for this outrage would likely hold the antidote. It made sense. As for being able to find him or her? Crossroads was a small, almost irrelevant corner of the island that was tucked away and quiet. The people were different from the city's norm; they weren't variations of what passed for Corone citizens. Almost none of them had the dialect, the tanned skin, the browns or blonds or the eyes of the more urban folk.

Shinsou knew that he wouldn’t be able to sense the man or woman responsible for this, for he would have done so already, but with Sage by his side it was likely entirely possible to identify someone out of the ordinary in a town like this. The people here were clearly a small, tightly knit community; it stood to reason that a resident would be able to spot something out of the ordinary fairly easily.

If the bastard is still even in town…

Explaining the plan and ushering Sage out of the door without a moment’s delay, Shinsou set to work. Time was of the essence and every second wasted further endangered the Ainsworth girl. He noted, as they carried themselves back down the long staircase, that Crossroads was so far removed from what he was used to that something felt almost artificial about the place. The only thing that really marked the town was the town. Every time the Telgradian tried to take the place in, he felt distracted; unable to process small details. It was almost as if something was forcing him to lose his focus.

He pondered whether to mention anything to Sage at all, but decided against it as they entered the market place.

Small shops lined the square, along with the occasional vending stands that somehow managed to stay in business despite the low turnout. Most of the buildings were wood with brick and clay walls. One of them, in particular, sported the services of an alchemist.

Worth knowing in case we have to start clutching at straws for a cure. Shinsou noted, wondering if such a place would have the necessary skills to remedy such a harsh ailment.

The alchemist’s shop aside, there was a strange uniformity to the town. It was as if the glue binding these people together were unity in segregation; away from the busy cities and ports. But it wasn’t just that, either. That nagging, distracting hum buzzed about his head, forcing Shinsou to flit between thoughts and not really drink in any of the important details about the place.

The further along he went, the more Shinsou noticed something strange. It wasn't that he couldn’t keep his mind from becoming disorientated, but more that Crossroads was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside.

This place wasn’t that big from the outside. It was like a dot before….

Once again, although a little suspicious, Osiris buried the doubt and looked upon the building that stood before them.

There was a tavern at the heart of the township. Its banner was writ large in flowing crimson spirals up and down the height of the flagpole. A chimney smoked a faint grey towards its zenith, and Shinsou could swear the clouds were distorted after a certain altitude.

"In my experience," Osiris said, turning to Sage before carefully adjusting his silver sash around his waist, “Taverns are usually the citizen’s bureau of a town. Safe money would be on someone in there having seen something out of the ordinary.”

[Sage]

“Spread out and warn as many people as you can find” Alicia said to the small group of workers she had assembled by the front gate. The men looked worried, but were eager to get moving after what the blonde haired woman had just told them and spread out from the vineyards front gate.

“Sage” She called after him as he raced down the steps on the heels of the warrior. She gave the stranger a brief glance, a sign of acknowledgement but shrugged him off and turned back to her brother. Sage stood before his sister with barely any time ask what she had called him over for when she pulled him into an embrace, holding onto his tunic tightly.

“Don’t go and do something reckless” She spoke directly into his crown, “I’ll be safe” The boy promised pulling away from her. Alicia knew she could take her brothers word but, she looked towards the warrior and frowned in thought. With him she did not feel as though it would be quite as clear cut as her brother thought it would be

“I trust you to not get yourself in trouble … but” There were unspoken words in her hesitation. It was clear to him that Alicia had followed on quickly to what was going on, and who the poison had been meant for. He could also feel her unease at such a person gallivanting around their home and was none too pleased that her little brother was about to go running off to do something reckless.

“I know, it won’t be like last time, I promise” Sage said, recalling how she had been after learning of what had happened during his outing in Scara Brea.

But this was not Scara Brae, this was his home, and this was his sister whose life was on the line. There was no retreating from this. But unlike that time, Sage knew he wasn’t alone either. Sage spared Shinsou Vaan Osiris a look of his own, and nodded as he took off after the man, giving his sisters hand a soothing squeeze as he ran on by.

It was the first sliver of hope that Sage had felt for finding a cure for his sister. Shinsou was a man on a mission, having considered his words carefully and weighed his options the man had stormed outside into the quiet little town and was set to create ripples. Except that this plan also required his direct assistance. Sage hated the thought of leaving his family in their current plight to help this man track down an assassin of all people, but also to do so while leaving his own search incomplete did not sit well with him either.

Not that he said anything to the warrior, haste would often win out over cleverness and he was certainly willing to keep his options open. He would even be willing to show his face around the town alchemist, past … transgressions aside, there would be no possible way for the old lady who ran it would spite the whole town just because he would be the one asking for help. “I hope”
Sage easily kept pace with the taller man, keenly aware of the town’s residents openly staring at the strange man. However their stares were short lived, as the vineyards workers spread out into the town and began to holler each and every resident they could find.

“Don’t drink the water”
“It could be poisoned”
“Is the barrier working?”
“Who would do such a thing?
“Is there really an assassin here?”

Shinsou’s march eventually led them at the front of the tavern, whereupon Sage felt his cheek twitch
“The tavern, are we really going to…?” The use of a tavern as a source of information was something that was used far too often in every adventure book he had ever read. It was certainly true that all of the taverns patrons were loose with their tongues, and was prone to any sort of gossip that would spread around a village faster than genital herpes in a brothel.

“…lets proceed” he said begrudgingly with a flourish of his arm towards the establishment.

The inside of the tavern was open and spacious with a fine mist of smoke and the heavy stench of ale permitting the room, it was a familiarity that any traveling adventurer would feel at home in. But the gossip seemed to be stalled for once, one of his sister’s workers was already at the bar with the barkeeper looking a little more than horrified with the news he brought. The quiet dim of the tavern continued as Sage entered, with none even giving the Ainsworth boy a second glance but they certainly grew silent when Shinsou followed behind him. Sage ignored the awkward atmosphere the man had seemed to create in favour of actually scrutinising as many people as he could see, looking for strangers and outsiders alike.

A rough old looking man was the first under his scrutiny, but he recognised the man as old Maverick, a retired war veteran who lived about two miles down the road. He didn’t appear to look the type to use poisons, the man had always professed he used to be quite skilled with a spear until his age had caught up with him.

Another unaccustomed face he saw turned out to be the alchemist’s own grandson, someone who had left the town years ago but frequently came back just to visit the only family he had left. He certainly had the skill and the knowledge to have at least heard or know of the Polonia mushroom, but the idea that one of crossroads own was capable of willingly poisoning an entire village to get to one man did not sit well with the boy. “But can I really dismiss him outright either?”

“I am afraid I see no one I do not recognise” he admitted, turning to Shinsou. “The old man by the bar is a retired veteran, and the young man in the corner is the alchemists grandson, he left a few years ago however”

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

The Telgradian noted his companion's observations, nodding to affirm he understood, but he wasn't easy with just taking things at face value. His experience of places like this led him to believe that one did not simply learn by looking, and that a good, old fashioned eavesdropping was usually a good starting point on an intelligence gathering task.

"Bear with me, here. Let's get a drink, and listen."

Given his outlandish looks it was unsurprising that the patrons of the tavern were giving him somewhat of a cold stare. He wasn't exactly the most inconspicious looking man, after all, and even in a backwater town like Crossroads there was always the possibility that he would be unfortunate enough to be recognised. Luckily for him, the two men didn't extend their cursory glance beyond a couple of seconds before turning back to their drinks.

"What can I get you? A fine ale?"

Noting the bartender’s request, Shinsou interjected.

“Just whatever whisky you have will be fine, i'm not really an ale type of person,” He remarked, being sure not to insult the suggestion.

The Telgradian reached over and grabbed his tumbler, sliding it back towards him. He drank half the golden brown liquid, savouring the strength and bitterness of it as it warmed his throat. Sage politely refused the offer of a drink, deciding to sit in silence, pointedly ignoring the Telgradian until his glass was nearly empty. Satisfied, Shinsou pushed his half away for a moment and turned to shoot a glance at the two men at the bar. The veteran that Sage had identified was nothing out of the ordinary at all; just a hulking man enjoying a drink without a care in the world. The other one, the alchemist's son, seemed calm enough but was scratching the back of his hand a lot. A nervous tick, perhaps? Something else?

"That guy, the alchemist's son," he said to Sage as the barkeeper took his empty glass. "He keeps scratching the back of his hand. He's wearing a glove, though, so why doesn't he take it off?" Shinsou flashed him a knowing glance with the practiced grace of someone who held suspicion, “He can't be satisfying that itch through a few centimeters of leather. Think he is hiding something?”

There was a pause. If Shinsou was looking for a reaction from Sage, he would have been disappointed. The boy shrugged.

"Possibly, but maybe he is embarrassed by whatever it is he is suffering from?"

"Possibly," The Telgradian finally said. "But maybe not..."

At that moment, the alchemist's son to their right them leaned back and propped his boots on a nearby chair. He took a sip from his ale and then began unbuttoning the glove on his irritated hand, finally giving in to the ferocity of the itch. He was doing his best to shield the affliction from view, swivelling his body to ensure prying eyes couldn't see the skin on the back of his hand. It didn't work. The Telgradian could see the peeled, broken skin on the knuckles of the man's hand. The skin was red raw; blotchy, blistered and weeping. It looked in a terrible way, as if something acidic had made contact with it.

"I've just seen his hand," Shinsou whispered to Sage, exchanging looks with him, "It looks fucked up. Blisters, weeping wounds, red blotchy skin. Would you say that could be a product of working at an alchemist's, or could it be prolonged contact with something far more dangerous?"

Like Polonia...

Shinsou looked pointedly at the Ainsworth boy as he said the last, judging his reaction.

"If we can get you get a look at that hand, would you be able to tell what caused it?"

[Sage]

‘Bear with him as he goes off to do something so horribly cliché, he says.’ Sage openly frowned.

The boy was now utterly undecided on just leaving what was apparently becoming a wild goose chase for someone who may not even be here. He was starting to feel that this was becoming an exercise in futility, his sister was on borrowed time and rather than turn his father’s library upside down for a potential cure.

Here he was in a tavern.

Something about shin seemed kind of familiar. In the sense that he felt like someone Sage could openly trust. It may have been his presence, a whirling vortex of confidence that inspired people and led them to open victory. Maybe it was a glamour spell? Those seemed rather popular these days.

Torn as he was Sage had yet to leave.

And Shin did bring up a good point.

Sage tilted his head discreetly as he pretended to look at Shin to discuss something, all the while turning his gaze to the ‘Fucked up’ hand as Shin so eloquently put it. Sage winced in sympathy at the sight of the man’s hand in such a condition, it looked swollen to the point that the whole hand looked ready to pop.

Supressing the urge to gag, the boy instead began to chew on the facts he had. Polonia was a slow acting poison that slowly wasted away the body’s internal organs, effectively shutting them down one by one. It also needed to be ingested for the body to become paralyzed, so what would happen if such a poison were to come into contact with exposed skin?

“His hand may be like that for any number of reasons” Sage explained with a whisper.

He was thoughtful for a moment longer as he brushed his hair back over his shoulder. “There could be hundreds if not a thousand reasons why his hand would be in such a condition, Polonia poison could be a possibility, but a remote one at that”.

But another thought came to him.

Due to the animosity between his family and the resident alchemist, he was fairly certain that she would allow his sister to die if only to spite the Ainsworth name. But whole cruel a callous, he was also certain that she would not have poisoned the entire towns water supply just because she was feeling rather vindictive that morning. But that did not apply to her grandson, did it?

“Why not just go and ask him what he knows. My sister is alerting everyone in town as we sit here, so why don’t we just ask for his help. I know he was being trained as an alchemist before he left town, so if anyone in this town may know about how to cure Polonia poison, then he would know.” He said, growing more hopeful by the second. While he would forever question Shin’s choice to bring them to a tavern to find an assassin. The fact that they may have run into someone who knew alchemy was certainly an unexpected boon.

[Breaker]

Thread Title: The Memory Remains
Judgment Type: No Judgment

Shinsou Vaan Osiris receives 1320 EXP and 100 GP!

Sage receives 795 EXP and 100 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!