Part 2: The meeting of paths

Without turning around, Katrin listens to Lilliana's apology. Again. The girl seemed to be making a habit of lashing out. For a moment, she contemplates turning and lashing out with her own frustrations. But what good would that do anyone. She was here because she wanted to help Ash. To help her friend. Nothing more.

Stormchaser said: Sable arches an eyebrow at Lilli's anger, but says nothing of it. "You don't have to apologise for not being prepared to face a dragon , Lilliana. Neither was I. Tell me, what have my friends told you of Gesrik?" He asks instead. She shrugs. "Nothing. Should that name mean something?"

"He's the hobgoblin bandit who killed our friend Kou," Sable explains. For a brief moment, a flash of what might be regret dances across the wizard's face, but it's quickly replaced by grim determination. "He's quite powerful," Sable adds in a matter-of-fact tone, "commands a large number of warriors and, most importantly, deals in blood magic ." The wizard pauses to let that sink in before continuing. "Gesrik leaves marks on his followers much like those that Krutaelis has now bestowed upon us. That makes this a skill that can be learned, mastered and bent to our own will. I understand your anger and frustration at the situation - I share those feelings - but know this; this is not the end of it." Sable shakes his head with a wry grin. "Today, the only thing to be done was to survive and escape. Tomorrow, the real work begins. We have wise and learned friends to consult. We are resourceful in our own ways. We will rise to this challenge as we do to all others. Have no fear of that, Lilliana. I, for one, do not intend to live out my days under a dragon's thumb, but it is a battle that must be decided on our own terms, long before we ever face the monster itself. That is something that takes time, cunning and careful preparation. Do you understand?"

Lilliana sits quietly and listens, really listens to Sable's words, nodding here and there. "I do understand." She takes another drink from her waterskin. "I think I'm ready now if everyone else is as well."

"Then we will do it together," Sable tells her, pushing himself to his feet and offering a hand to help Lilli up.

Akiran spends the rest with his eyes boring into the arm of his silk tunic, too shamed to look at the mark itself but as of yet unable to make himself forget it's there. With the thought of "How much further can I fall" ringing through his head. A deserter, an exile, and now a slave of the chromatic, this truly had to be the limit.  The sound of Gresik's name breaks his self pitying train of thought as his snout snaps to attention and fixates on Sable "You studied his mark right? Is ours like his? Can she hear us now, can she see us?" Rapid firing questions with a sense of urgency the Dragonborn has seldom shown.

Sable shakes his head regretfully at Akiran. "I never got the opportunity to learn much more about the capabilities of Gesrik's brands, but it certainly appears to be the same kind of magic. You must understand that a lot of this is based on assumptions. In order to form a plan of action, we make assumptions based on the best information that we have available. For example, fog clouds and tangled thorns typically fall under the purview of natural magic, the likes of which is wielded by druids and the fey. I assumed that something of that kind must be responsible, since it seemed most likely based on the information available. However, in truth a green dragon - a much rarer creature that nonetheless possesses similar powers - was responsible. Thus, the next step is to gather more information. Once we better know what we are dealing with, we can arm ourselves with the tools with which to fight back." The wizard pulls his pack onto his back and plants his staff in the ground in front of him. "Anyway, mushrooms now, blood magic later." His gaze falls on Katrin, waiting for her to take charge.

She gives Sable an acknowledging nod. "We don't know what's in this cave, so don't do anything rash," she glances at Akiran, armorless. "Any more questions?"

Thezra nods, “Yes. What do these things look like? Will any mushrooms do or is a specific type required?”

“Red,” Ascian replies vaguely. “The Red Amanita kind, I just don’t know what that means.”

Hefting his shield with his right hand on the hilt of his blade, his scales creaking with how tightly he holds the sheathed sword. Akiran grumbles "Let's just get it done. Way today's going, I wouldn't be surprised if Duar'kens in the cave waiting for us. Be the damned cherry on top to have the bastard try an kill us for a third damned time." 

"Red and white," Sable confirms with a sage nod, "with dots on them. Let's go."

The too-warm summer heat fades away as the Fireblades enter the mouth of the cave. Immediately the floor of the cave begins to drop in a steady decline, a rocky ramp worn smooth by years of water flow. The smooth stone is slick, but not so slick that it's difficult to traverse -- at least not while taking your time. Additionally, the angle of the descent is not so steep as to cause concern as to whether the party will be able to climb out -- again, not while taking the time to move carefully. The initial tunnel continues for ninety or so feet before it opens up into a wider chamber that seems to grow even wider at the edge of the torchlight. Katrin and Ascian hear it first: the gentle lap of water on rock. The air down her is much cooler -- almost cold, and it quickly becomes clear to the entire party that this chamber holds an underwater body of water. Continuing on for a short distance, and the water comes into view. The chamber opens up into a massive underground lake. Sunlight filters in through a large opening in the cave roof, illuminating the still blue water. Thick rocky ledges seem to be cut into the sides of the cavern -- some sort of artifact of the erosion that created this place -- that look like they could be used to continue around the side of the lake. Green moss clings to the side of the cave, soaking up the sunlight that filters through the roof. Looking up, the Fireblades can see dense tree cover -- likely one of the groves of trees they could spot from the point that the exited Krutaelis's mists.

Walking into the cavern, Thezra eyes the lake with suspicion, peering into it as best she can through the reflective light of the sun that bounces off of it. Small flurries of movement quickly catch her eye, but then another and another go by. She sighs. Just some cavefish. "Shall we then?"  She looks to the others expectantly, pulling herself up onto one of the rocky outcroppings and shimmying her away forward towards the otherside of the cave.

Sable sidles on up after Thezra, following her gaze to peer into the water himself. "It is said that all manner of fell creatures lurk in the depths beneath the earth. We should be cautious."

"That is why I have not taken my eyes off those pale little fish in there, yes." She nods, continuing along.

Katrin manages to give a half-smile as they enter the cavern. Nowhere near as deep and grand as the underground lakes of Hol, but certainly beautiful. "Sable's right," Katrin says, pulling herself up after the wizard. "All kinds of terrifying things lurk in the underground lakes of Hol. Who knows what lives under these waters."

The Fireblades continue around the lake, moving slowly and carefully on the moss-slickened ledges. The sunlight streaming through the cave roof fades away as the cavern slowly narrows into a tunnel. Soon, the lake has transformed into a gently flowing underground river, and the party moves along a slightly sloping bank. Darkness begins to creep in, and natural rock formations become more plentiful. Stalactites, stalagmites, and columns line the side of the bank. Eventually, a small trickle of light begins to illuminate a taller cavern, and the sound of a loud waterfall can be heard. More rock formations are spread across the cavern that holds the mouth of this underground river as water pours in from the surface.  The faint light coming from the top of the waterfall illuminates the left-hand side of the river. Alongside the waterfall, growing out of the damp rocks, those that can see in the dark see many small red mushrooms, all adorned with white spots.

Katrin looks around, creeping forward slightly to get a better look at their surroundings. "Nothing immediately dangerous around, but we should still be careful." 

Lilliana looks around the area in awe, she hadn't witnessed this type of beauty before. She'd always imagined caves as dirty, dark, and dank places where only fungus grew and monstrosities lurked. She had a sudden appreciation for dwarves and their own versions how beauty as she glances over at Katrin with a nod. "Is there anything I can do to help with this?"

Katrin shrugs, looking the girl in the eyes, finding it difficult to keep her current mood from her words.  "Keep your eyes open and don't do anything stupid. That's about all there is to it."

Sable frowns at Katrin's uncharacteristic coldness towards Lilliana. Maybe she was taking the encounter with Krutaelis worse than he thought? "Let me know if you spot the mushrooms," he tells Lilli with a smile, raising his staff aloft to cast some additional light. "As long as we don't destroy the heads, it should be fine to harvest them and get going again."

Katrin glances at Lilli. She supposed she should probably feel some sort of remorse at her own snapping response. It wasn't the girl's fault they'd bound themselves to a dragon. But she ignores it and points to the side of the waterfall. "They're over there, Sable. By the waterfall. We'll watch for trouble." It was apparent that Sable hadn't necessarily been speaking to her. But despite the beauty of this place, the sooner they had the mushrooms, the better.

Moving slowly and cautiously in case of monsters lurking amongst the fungi, Sable moves towards where Katrin is pointing until he can see the mushrooms. Once satisfied that there is no immediate danger, he begins to harvest them.

Lilliana frowns at Katrin, but doesn’t say anything and just nods at the instructions given by their de facto leader. Everyone was on edge after this dragon encounter and she also knew that hadn’t been particularly ingratiating herself with Katrin recently. She would need to fix that. She was the first one to come to her side after all back in Crossroads.

Sable reaches out for a cluster of mushrooms growing out of the wall next to a stalagmite. He blinks for a moment, as the stalagmite seems to shift in front of him, and he wonders for a moment if his morning pipeweed had been too strong. But it shifts again. And again. More rapidly, with a strange, slimy jerkiness that feels wholly natural and unnatural at the same time. Before Sable can open his mouth, four tendrils peel off the rock with that same jerky-but-fluid motion and lash out. One grabs him, the others grab Katrin, Thezra, and Lilliana. Katrin and Thezra get pulled along for the ride, but Lilliana is close enough to some other rocky formations that she is able to reach out and wrap herself around one before getting pulled away. But the tendrils are strong -- stronger than Lilliana, and they wrench her from the rock with the multiple sharp snaps of bones shattering. She is pulled in close to the stalagmite, her left leg dangling useless and bloody behind her as she joins the other three that have been pulled in. The stalagmite opens a dark yawning hole lined with rows of sharp, needle-like teeth, and lets out a guttural growl. A single blood-red eye blinks open as well, staring hungrily at the four morsels it has packaged up. 

"AaaAAAaaah!!!" Sable exclaims as the roper comes to life and grabs him in its tendrils. He turns his head to see Lilliana's ruined leg and screams again. "AAAaaaAAAh! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!" Thinking quickly, the wizard slides a scroll of misty step from the tube on his belt and tosses it to the sorceress besides him. His hands are shaking so much that he almost drops the one thing that could maybe save their friend ally. "Lilliana, catch! Focus on me," Sable tells her, trying to catch her eye. "It does this ." Then the wizard utters a word of arcane power and his body dissolves into mist, reappearing a few feet behind Akiran, Ascian and Ember. Sable slams his staff into the ground to steady himself as he materialises, before twirling it through the air to send a bolt of psychic energy streaking towards the monster, weakening its defences for his allies. His spell complete, the wizard retreats into the shadows.

Lilliana gasps as she's suddenly grabbed around the waist by something and pulled hard. She grasps a nearby stalagmite with her arms and legs, wrapping the long appendages around the rough stone, but her arms are quickly stripped away, leaving scrapes and abrasions along the exposed flesh. She grunts in exertion as she tenses her leg muscles as tightly as she could, but her physique was nothing compared to the strength of whatever this thing was and she’s ripped away with an unimaginable force. An ear-splitting scream of pain fills the cavernous space as the bone and muscles of her left leg are utterly sundered by the force of this creature. She doesn’t even have time for her mind to fully appreciate the sheer amount of damage sustained as the thing continues pulling her along while her nervous system dumps an excessive amount of adrenaline into her bloodstream.  As she dangle there trying to figure out what to do, Sable calls her name and his voice breaks through the fugue state quickly descending upon her. She sees him passing something to her, then watches as he disappears. She tries to focus her vision as it quickly begins to tunnel, her peripheral rapidly disappearing just as she turns to see that single red eye and fang-filled oblivion drawing nearer. A primal fear invades her mind and removes any conscious thoughts beyond self-preservation and she drops the guard she’d been holding up for the last several years. Her upper body jerks backwards, reflexively as two golden symbols bloom brightly, one on the right side of her neck and the other on her forehead. Her eyes flash with a golden light as two large, feathered wings erupt out of Lilliana’s shoulders! With a heave of effort she flaps the pristinely white feathered wings, but as she does… the feathers begin to wither and fall from the wings in tattered clumps. Her head flies around in confusion as she does not understand why she is not able to simply fly away like she once had been able to do. Her eyes widen in shock at the sight of the skeletal wings that remained with a few scattered bits of feather still clinging to it in places. Another scream breaks from her mouth, a mingling of terror and loss as the golden light of her eyes fades into pools of inky darkness and the symbols upon her face turn into a dark purple. A wave of that same fear radiates off Lilliana into those around her as a dark, translucent membrane stretches across the skeletal frame of her wings and begins to fill in with twinkling motes of star light.  Her head turns in a jerky motion towards the scroll, still clutched in her fist as Sable’s words echo back to her from some immeasurable distance. She unfurls it and begins to read before her physical form bursts into thousands of star-like motes and streaks through the cavern to reform behind Sable. She tries to stand, but immediately collapses to the ground from the ruined mess of her leg. On the ground, she whimpers as she stares at her leg as she begins to pull herself away like a wounded animal.

Thezra curses under her breath as they’re all violently yanked, screaming as she sees Lilli’s leg get shorn almost entirely off. It all happened so fast she could only stare in abject horror, and it was worse for the fact she knew it could’ve been avoided if she’d been more prepared. The whirlwind of motion - the tentacles, the leg, Sable vanishing, then Lilli… having wings? Her eyes go wide, half in fear of what was happening around her, half confused as all hell. Turning her mounting anger towards the creature, she reaches back, struggling even to get a grip on her sword, and strikes towards it, the metal clanging loudly off the solid stone, the echo reverberating around the room. A small motion across the blade sparks a glow as fiery chains jut out, ensnaring the monster to attempt to hold it back, but its whipping tentacles shatter the magic before it can solidify around it.

There's blood and screaming and bright light and Ascian is running before he really knows what it is he's running from . The sight of Lilliana's mangled leg and then the wings that had sprouted from her and withered are imprinted in his mind, hung like paintings he has no response to yet in the face of all-consuming self-preservation, but knows he doubtless will when forced to examine them after all this is over. If  all this is over. This, which is all his fault. Telling Ember to keep running even after he himself stops, Ash turns at the rock outcropping back toward where the others are still tethered, the tendrils disturbingly long and undulating. He can't leave them. Not when he's the only reason they're here. Not when he's already gotten them branded. Raising his bow, he wills his hands not to shake as he aims at the thin tentacle grasping Katrin and fires. Relief upon seeing it snap attempts to override the desire to be anywhere but here, but ultimately fails to as he shifts sideways and disappears back against the rock.

Akiran slowly trudges behind the group, his eyes still locked on the tainted scales beneath his tunic. It wasn't until Sable's shout that he snapped too, though he quickly wished he hadn't. As his gray eyes take in the horrific sight before him, Katrin, Sable & Thezra all caught in the monster's grasp. But what turns his stomach is the sight of Lilli drug through the dirt with her leg bent at an unnatural angle and blood pouring forth.  Armor less against an unknown beast, that has more than half of the crews swords firmly in it's grasp. Every instinct in the Dragonborn shouts to run. But his eyes remain fixed on Lilli. He didn't owe the rest anything but despite himself he found that he liked the kid. Drawing his blade he prepares to dart forward when Lilli begins to glow and dark wings sprout from her back. Muttering a low "Fuck..." as she blinks from existence. Only to reappear further up the cave's tunnel. As he runs towards the fallen mage, Akiran takes in her mangled leg & the growing pool of blood surrounding Lilli. He had come across wounds like this during his time with the Legion. She'd be lucky if she even survived let alone kept the leg. Kneeling in as calm a voice as he can manage "Lilli, focus on me. Just listen to my voice, you're going to get through this. Your story isn't going to end with eaten by a piece of shit rock you got it!" He then moves to tear off a piece of his tunic to staunch the bleeding. As he lifts his hand rather than the armored gauntlet he usually sees in the field, or the shimmering silver of his scales, he finds that his hand is glowing. With a chaotic smattering of blue lighting arcing between his fingers, sparking around his right hand. Without know truly why he was doing it he reaches out and touches what's left of Lilli's leg. The lightning arcs into the wounded mage and with a crack  reminiscent of a thunderstrike the wound on her leg stops gushing blood.  Unable & if he is honest unwillingly to process this miracle at the moment Akiran stands and grabs his blade taking a step forward "We're getting you out of here"

"Ahhhhgh!" Katrin cries out as the tendril wraps around her. A ragged scream pierces the air, and she glances over to see Lilliana dragging herself backwards, her leg a mangled, ruined mess. "Shit,"  she mutters, groaning as the tentacle tightens around her. The pressure suddenly releases, and she glances over to see the tentacle falling from around her, severed by an arrow. She smiles. Thanks, Ash. Without wasting another moment, she dodges back away from the creature, skidding to a halt and stamping her foot down. The Hammer emerges from thin air, crashing down on the mushroom covered creature. To no avail. "Shit!" 

The stalagmite roars in fury and the small pieces of broken rock on its surface, left there by the Fireblades' weapons, begin to smooth over. As this happens, it turns its bite on its only remaining prey -- Thezra. The jaws open wide, needle teeth glistening in the soft reflected light on the water, and slam down on Thezra's armor. There's a muffled roar as the stalagmite bites again, experimentally. And again -- the screeching sound of enamel on metal echoing about the cave. It draws back, seemingly confused at its snack and her metal wrapper. Irritated, it lashes out with tendrils toward Lilliana, Akiran, and Katrin. Lilliana's skeletal wings wrap around her, preventing the tendril from closing around her again, while Katrin and Akiran simply bash the tendril away with shields. Never once does it take its eye off of Lilliana, the strange necrotic burns it received in her transformation seemingly occupying much of whatever passed for its mind.

Pulling himself together, Sable cautiously advances until his staff just barely sheds light on the monstrosity lurking in the darkness. Gripping his staff grimly, the wizard begins to work a more complex incantation, reaching for the creature's primitive mind to crush it with his own. However, the roper's intelligence is strange and alien and flaying its psyche proves such an effort that blood begins to run from Sable's nose. "I... can slow... it down..." he manages to grunt to his allies as he lashes at the monster's mind, stepping back out of reach of the creature's tendrils once the job is done.

Lilliana is too busy staring at her mangled leg in shock to really process what is happening with Akiran, but she let's out a terrified yelp as an electric shock pops into the pulped muscle and bone. The skeletal wings rattle as they occasionally flap uselessly around her, meanwhile her eye sockets are still inky, black pools of... nothingness; an empty of the great abyss between the stars that seeks to suffocate all light and life as they look up at Akiran. Her entire begins to shake as she stares at him, before turning back to stare at her leg again, not really comprehending everything that is going on around her. As if from a great distance, she can hear the shouts, cries, and clashes of her friends fighting around her, but her vision shrinks around the edges, pulling into only a small tunnel of sight as the immense pain suddenly sets in.  An unfathomable agony breaks through the fugue as her nervous system finally catches up to the rest of her senses and she lets out another shriek of pain as her entire body begins to shake from the pain blossoming up into her hips. If she had been of a mind to describe it, she couldn't. Burning? Cutting? Ripping? Throbbing? All of it? Every sensation of pain she'd ever experienced was wrapped up and twisted in her mind from the overloaded nervous system. 'Hurt? Heal.' It wasn't words, but a memory? A concept so ingrained into her that she did not need to have a conscious thought as her trembling hands reached down towards her leg. The dark purple rune on her neck flares a beautiful bright golden color for the briefest of seconds before the glow suffuses into her skin and seems to travel down her neck, through her shoulder and into her arm, all the way to her fingertips that she touches gingerly to the... to her leg. There is a slight reprieve from the pain, enough at least where she could begin to somewhat regain her thoughts as she flips onto her backside and continues to scoot away from this monster that continued to come after her. She had to get away, that was the only thought she could focus on for now... escape.

The screams and cries and flashes of magic are an overwhelming din, and without further thought than to get somewhere he can help, Ascian darts out into it, his bow ready to aim at the tendril holding Thezra – until it's obscured from sight. He's so sure of his feet, has  always  been so sure of his feet, he doesn't think to look where they might be going – and the shock of the water is second only to that on his face as he tumbles hard into the icy depths. If he were strong or magical or at all substantial in weight he thinks there might have been a chance he could get his footing – but he's weak and mundane and horrifically thin, and it's all he can do to keep his grip on his bow as the current batters him, forcing him away from the mushrooms and away from his friends and away from Ember, too many feet downriver.

Thezra grunts against the creature's strong grip, craning her neck to see the rest of her party fleeing. Putting aside her desire to slash into the thing, she instead concentrates inwards, allowing the strength to well up within her until her form starts to swell in size. Finally at a level where she more than matches the living rock, she bristles against its grasp, the tentacle squeezing hard enough against her larger form to lacerate her arms and side a bit before finally she rips the thing off of her. Sighing in relief, she starts to reach for her blade, but thinks better of it, instead lashing out and snatching a handful of mushrooms from the top of it.  With the thig they came for squared away as quick as possible in her pouch, Thezra cracks her knuckles and steps up closer. "No idea if rocks can breathe underwater, but let's find out together." With as much force as she can still muster she shoves into it, groaning under its weight as its tentacles flail wildly about, the bedrock around it cracking and chipping as finally, the creature tips backwards, crashing with a heavy splash  into the crashing waters of the waterfall, almost immediately sinking mostly out of view. Panting, she turns and dashes back towards the others "I have the mushrooms, grab Lilli and let's go! "

Seeing Katrin's holy weapon clink off the beast's rocky hide with not even a scratch left behind. His blade wavering in front of him, Akiran looks behind him and sees Lilli on the ground with pain lining her face. And the Dragonborn decides it's time to go. Fortunately at the moment Thezra frees herself and most surprisingly sounds the retreat.  Spinning on his heels he sheathes his sword and rushes to Lilli, quickly dropping to his knee in front of the mage. "No way to sugar coat it, this is gonna hurt like hell. Just gotta keep it together for a little longer" As gently as the dragonborn can manage, Akiran lifts the Sorceress and softly hefts over his shoulder. For the first time relieved that he only has the silk of his tunic and cloak.  He then sprints down the tunnel, his shield held in front of him as he races for the exit.

Katrin darts around the corner, reeling slightly from the creature's attempt to snare her again. She pushes past Thezra, looking around quickly, counting up her companions. Akiran was running out with Lilli, Sable and Ember right behind. Thezra was behind her....but where was Ash. She'd heard a splash. She catches up with Ember and Sable. "Where's Ash?" She asks as they run. As soon as the words are out of her mouth, she spots him tumbling through the water, coming precariously close to smashing against the rocks at the bottom of the stream. She glances back at Thezra, pointing to Ash in the water.  "Thezra! He's over there! Can you get him out?"

Not even looking back to see the creature slowly pull itself back out of the brine, Thezra stomps forward. "Get him out of wh- nevermind I see him." How did he even end up in there? Does something else stalk us?  She dashes forward, stepping over Katrin as she races up to meet the point the archer was bobbing in and out of the current. With a massive hand she simply reaches in and yanks him out by the scruff of his shirt, like a pup. "Are you alright Ascian? What did this to you?" She looks about, scanning the cavern for whatever sort of creature could have pushed - or pulled - the young man in.

Ascian's arms are still thrashing, blinking dirt and water and who knows what else out of his eyes as he's abruptly pulled out of the river and held aloft, pale hair plastered lankly to his face as his drenched clothes drip all over Thezra's giant shoes and the cave floor. For a moment he just stares at her, trying to process her unexpected size, before his limbs still and he states glumly, "I fell."

Thezra blinks in surprise and gives a flat, “Oh.”  Setting him down, she releases the tension in her shoulders and stops reaching back for her sword. “Well are you alright? That water was moving quite quickly.”

He too wishes he had a better answer, and fumbles with the shame as he nods. "Yeah. Thanks." Even if he had been more seriously injured, it would pale so considerably next to Lilliana's he doesn't know he could ever say anything. He gives a glance to the bleeding mage before back to the others, hesitating. "I have to go back. For the mushrooms. I'll meet you back at The Crossroads, if you need to take her."

“Right,” a look of recognition comes over her face as Thezra reaches down and fumbles with her larger form to find the small cluster of shrooms she had recovered, proffering them for Ash. “There is no need for that, I got these before tossing that rock. Hopefully this is enough.”

Akiran storms through the cave tunnel with Lilli in his arms. After putting some distance between the two and the beast, he slows his pace and takes another look at what remains of her leg. He had seen wounds like this, getting battered and broken was a well known risk in the merc life. Hell he had even seen sell swords survive em. Though a dark corner of his mind adds, that he had never seen anyone make it out with all of their parts after taking a blow like that.  Turning his snout to Katrin he nods down to Lilli and says "Can your Tempus juju help her? We gotta do somethin..."

Katrin looks at Lilli, frowning, then looks at Akiran, her expression guarded. "I can't restore her leg, if that's what you're asking. I'm not quite that powerful."

Akiran shakes his snout with a weary grunt. Knowing the answer already he asks "Can't you pray or something, attract his attention and get the big man to get his hands dirty."  Gloomily thinking that when it comes to ruining his sleep Tempus shows up in spades, but wont or cant give his people the power to do something actually good. Looking at the mangled leg and back to Katrin "Ya know what we gotta do otherwise..."

Katrin sighs. She'd already known what Akiran's reaction would be. She grimaces. "I know. I'm sorry, Akiran. Like I said, I'm not privy to many of Tempus' secrets. He reveals them in time. And believe me, I know how frustrating that is."  She takes a deep breath, setting her mind to the task now before them. "Set her down. Lilliana," she says, crouching in front of the girl. "Stay with me. I can't save your leg. I have to cut it off. And it's going to hurt. Here." She pulls out the bottle of liquor, uncorking it. "Take a drink of this. Akiran, do you have some leather scraps she can bite down on?"

Sable waves one hand over the other and a thick leather bit appears that he passes to Katrin. The wizard's jaw is set with resolve, but his eyes are distant and harrowed. "I'm glad you're alright, Ash," he mutters aside, drying the young man's clothes with another wave and a few magic words.