An Anam Chum An Anam

[Alydia Ettermire]

Closed to Oren and Veatrix

A never-ending rucksack...

Even without having visited Dheathain's world-famous Synthesis Shop, it hadn't been hard to obtain a list of the few items needed to craft one. While she had a way to take what she wanted, she used it for big things...like buildings and statues. A bag would be handy if she was grabbing something relatively small, and if need be, she could always tuck it into her "pocket." Two of the items for the rucksack would be all too easily obtained, too...common leather and a feather.

The next item, however...could only be obtained by venturing into ruins, and if Alydia knew anything, it was that in Dheathain, ruins were absolutely dangerous. She didn't fight, having found running efficiently a skill most invaluable. Sure, she had help in the form of a couple of burly guys, but unless she was actually stealing something, which she wasn't, they preferred to be left alone to pursue their own lives. And they had told her as much.

How funny that they don't mind risking everything to be involved in the occasional heist, but try to get them for a little treasure hunting...ah well.

Leaning back and regarding the people milling through the street from under her wide-brimmed hat, she let her gaze drift over the all too many young hopeful adventurers who had come to Dheathain in hope of monster-fighting acclaim. Non of them would do. They were after glory, they wanted people to know their names.

She wanted fame too...but she wanted the fame that came from stealing monuments and important buildings. She wasn't quite at that level yet...but if she was going to get there, she couldn't be involved with hero types.

Just send me a selfish type after something in the ruins. That would do me nicely...

[oren]

All these people crowding together make walking IMPOSSIBLE!

A frustrated Yin- Li Chen weaved her way between people, keeping a firm hold on her belongings. Normally she wouldn’t have minded too much about the crowds, but that day she was just not in the mood to deal with the excited adventurers, and so called courageous heroes that cluttered the streets. In fact if she did not have a death grip on her belongings she would have punched someone out in an attempt to relieve her stress.

There really was no reason for this stress, other than lack of sleep, and sore muscles from travelling. It really was Yin’s fault. She refused to relax until she reached her destination. Now that she was in Dheathain all Yin could think about was sleep and eat before continuing on her way towards the ruins.

Just as she passed by the woman with the wide-brimmed hat, a person rushing towards something in the opposite direction ran into her. It had to be her lucky day, her messenger bag opened up and it’s contents spilled to the ground. Her research from Ankhas about a particular item she wanted scattered all over the street.

“For the love of---" Yin clamped her mouth shut before finishing that sentence, and picked up her medical kit which luckily held down some of the papers.

Counting the papers as she collected them, Yin chased after several that flew away leaving the most important notes behind for everyone to see. The girl finally catching the last of the flying papers read through them. Realizing they were only about a form of ghostly torture she stuffed them into her bag and walked back to hunt down the papers she needed.

I can’t lose the papers on the Fiends Pendant.

The papers Yin looked for outlined the love story of a witch who loved a knight whose wounds would never heal. She created this pendant out of gold, and glass filled with the blood of royalty for him so that he would never have to worry about the little cuts and scrapes he would get from training or fighting.

That was an item Yin would kill for, but luckily for her the scrolls said that the room the pendant was placed in within the ruins was guarded by a monster that could not be defeated. She hadn’t figured out how to get past this monster but she would some how figure it out she just needed a person she could bounce idea’s off of, or knew something about this monster.

But first! I need to get my papers back.

Yin checked every area they could have flown to as she walked back to the woman with the hat.

[Veatrix]

“Excuse me, sorry, excuse me.”

Veatrix pushed her way through the sweaty streets in the Dheathain region of Althanas. Too many youngsters milled about in the streets, chatting amongst themselves while holding their inexpensive weapons proudly to anybody who would look. They could barely have been out of adolescence and the stench of novic3 skill reeked from them like rotting garbage. Veatrix, after all the travelling she had done around Althanas, could smell from a mile away.

All her search for rare weapons and exquisite items had brought her to Dheathain. She wasn’t particularly there for the fame and prestige, though that would have been a major upside to her travels. She wanted a couple more desirable goods in some ruins in the area. Ruins were always good for magical artefacts or enchantments, but they always had to be acquired in the direst of situations. Every ruin had a monstrous beast that was undefeatable, everyone knew that. And sometimes, the legendary items that the ruins possessed were either non-existent, or already taken by someone else.

Unhindered by the thoughts of death and decay in a rat-infested underground dungeon in search of something that might not have even existed, Veatrix smiled contentedly.

As she passed a dark-looking woman dressed in some very imposing reds, a faintly familiar face caught Veatrix’s silver-framed eyes. The face she saw was a woman’s, light-skinned with hair so black, a blue tint deepened its depths. Her memory bank was sufficiently filled with names and places and faces and things, so diving into it was a chore. Veatrix knew she had seen that woman before.

Considering her quarry, the woman tripped clumsily, papers sent flying as she hid the ground hard. It was a pathetic and silly sight, and Veatrix couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.

And then it hit her, who the woman was. She remembered back when she was living in Scara Brae, that a ghost had possessed her. The woman, along with a cleric named Peter, rescued her from the possession and exorcised the ghost. That was just before she left for Radasanth. She remembered the woman’s form as they ran through the Brokenthorn Forest, shouting at each other for survival. She remembered small flashes of blue and white light, and the vast view of a crystal-watered lake.

Not even realizing what she was doing, Veatrix called out to her.

“Yin!”