Adventure 7-3

[Asrana]

<Anastasia> At last! Home! ...not quite. But so close that it may not matter for Seryf. The trees gracefully and carefully grown around the perimeter of the elven garrison/embassy/tradepost gush with elegant life. A far cry from the humanic encroachments all around, a large square of life in the mutated human cityscape. A pinch of beauty and refinement as Seryf approaches. There is only a single recessed road to it, defensible and well kept. Slend
<Anastasia> Slender, magically reinforced wrought gold gates are ahead, a single sentry stationed afront at all times.
* Seryf slows a little as she comes up, eyes darting to the guard. Anyone she knows? As she approaches, she waves, probably overly friendly, but she hasn't been back in ages.
<Anastasia> It is indeed! Her free flowing green hair falls like a tree's leaves, her hand resting on the pommel of a plain but well kept long sword. Willowy and graceful in the shaded sunlight, "...Seryf?" Fiera breaks into a grin at your approach, squinting a moment to see. "Seryf!"
<Seryf> "Hi, Fiera!" Seryf laughs, spontaneously hugging her friend despite her guard duty. "Our group's passing through Paxburg, so I had to come visit everyone..." she explains, willowy and strong blonde elf unable to keep from smiling
<Anastasia> Seryf is softly hugged back, Fiera taking her hand and clasping it before going back in position. "Gods! You've gotten strong, Seryf! You nearly crushed me!"
<Seryf> "Trying to pull a sword through a troll's hide will do that..." Seryf admits, blushing a little. "And fencing with people that use those heavy human broadswords...but how is everyone? Who's at home?" she asks, trying her best to not just bounce in place. These humans have been infecting her with energy!
<Anastasia> "Trolls? What HAVE you been up to with that silly ironworks of a knight and all the half breeds?" Fiera does look quite content in a reserved, elven sort of way, watching Seryf squirm. Her smile fades into a calmer, more peaceful look. "What DID you get up to if you fought a troll?"
* Seryf calms down, just a little, her hand patting Sun. "Besides some brigands and goblins and that like? Did Maryl ever tell you the legend of Corela?" Seryf asks curiously, leaning against one of the trees that makes up the wall around their home complex.
<Anastasia> roll 1d20
* Serith bats the dice around, getting a roll for Anastasia : [ 1d20=7 ]{7}
<Anastasia> "Yes, yes. I vaguely recall it now, but I haven't heard the tale in...30 years, perhaps?" Fiera furrows her brow as she thinks, "But why bring up hisotry now?"
<Seryf> "Because I inherited her relics," Seryf answers, smiling easily. "We found her home village, and passed through the trials of ascendance...and I became the new weilder of Sun and Moon."
<Anastasia> "Did you?" Fiera looks closer at you a second time, probing now. "Suna nd Moon?"
<Seryf> "Her sword and her gauntlet," Seryf explains, smiling and holding out her left hand, wearing Moon. "It wouldn't be a good idea to draw Sun in public, but...I wear Moon most of the time. My hand can't be hurt...I even managed to bowl Gavin over in his armor by punching him with it," she snickers.
<Anastasia> "Incredible." Fiera laughs ever so slightly, cupping her hand to her face. "Sir Daon will wish to hear this when he returns, doubtless."
<Seryf> "Probably," Seryf murmurs, calming more and more as she readjusts to being around a more 'normal' elf. "Mmm...how've things been around here, though? It feels like a long time..." she frowns, shaking ehr head. "Humans are very busy people."
<Anastasia> "They are...horribly so. I don't understand how you tolerate them." Fiera's smile is soft and graceful, however, not betraying anything else. "Sir Daon and Sir Teren are both away on orders. IT's extremely quiet here - they only left a winter's wreath of leaves here to maintain the garrison."
* Seryf smiles back, shrugging a little. "It's funny to watch them...and kind of invigorating, running around like they do sometimes..." she just shrugs, snickering a little. "It's like you forget yourself, and everything's happening so fast..." the words come out breathily, Seryf shaking her head. "It was nice to be in Corela's home though, It made most of our forest look downright human sometimes."
<Anastasia> "You sound more like one than what you are." Gently tsk-tsking as she watches her hyper friend go on, smiling in an indulgent way, "You feel more human than ever before."
* Seryf rolls her eyes at Fiera, smiling easily. "Blame Elaine, she was showing that half more than usual this morning." Humming and tapping her lips. "Something else did happen, though," she murmurs, resting one hand on the tree. "As much as I love these...I can't feel it anymore. Not in the way Maryl does."
<Anastasia> "Hm?" Fiera's smile is gone now, eyes deeper in as she looks to you. "You mean...?"
* Seryf gives Fiera a wry smile. "Daon's fears were right, I fit in here all the more now," she sighs.
<Anastasia> "...I see that." Fiera's smile is gone as she looks her friend up and over. "You've changed in such a short time."
* Seryf shrugs, sighing a little. "I'm sure your brother will be overjoyed," she grumbles, blowing at an errant strand of golden hair. "And yes...though not at all in some other ways. I'm still Seryf."
<Anastasia> "Seryf the half human," Fiera doesn't crack a smile, "You feel as if you have becom ea half breed in this short time."
* Seryf raises her eyebrows, her own smile flickering into a more serious look. "And you feel like your brother's wearing a magic disguise," she replies, shrugging.
<Anastasia> "Mmm. Perhaps I do. But at least you are home now, Seryf." Putting that aside and smiling, "There are only a handful here, but come and rest. Refresh your elven roots, they are in dire need of itt.
<Anastasia> "
* Seryf smiles, poking Fiera's shoulder. "For the moment," she agrees, stretching. "It's nice to calm down like that...both ways have their advantages, I think," she smiles, patting Fiera's shoulder as she heads through the gates. "Don't worry, given an hour, I'll be back to how you remembered me a decade ago."
<Anastasia> "We shall see in the time that reveals all." So Fiera falls back on old maxims, "Let us go inside. I'll gets omeone else to watch the gate."
<Seryf> "Mmm," Seryf agrees quietly, calming and relaxing visibly as she steps into the elven hold, looking around herself, readjusting to her 'home', rather than her home away from home amidst half-elves, a human, and an elf that is nothing like an elf.
<Anastasia> A little while later...
<Anastasia> The barrack rooms are how you remember them. While not luxurious, at least it's a real bed and with a window to emit in fragrant whiffs of tree scented air. However, it really is a skeleton's crew left here. Only six elves, and only one of them you know. As you sit and rest, "So quiet," Fiera murmurs. "Forw hat you can, rest here."
<Seryf> "Thanks..." Seryf murmurs, smiling easily and relaxing. "Quiet is very nice..." she murmurs, calm and softer spoken, almost a full turn from herself at the gate. "Something especially to be valued after a couple weeks with a half-blood bard and a Waukeenar elf that, well...you thought I acted human?" she snorts.
<Anastasia> Gently chuckling as a willowy branch reclines in a wooden chair - unpadded yet soft, as if the lovingly carved wood lives on just to make the seat restful for it's elven sitter - "A Waukeenar? I would rather have a Dark Vicar of Zamzar than a coin counter of WAukeen pestering me."
* Seryf smiles a little more, removing her weapons and gauntlet, and more slowly disrobing from her armor. "Saul...mmm, yes, I'd have to agree, if he ever truly tried to pester me." Beginning to hum softly, it slowly grew less and less strange to Seryf to be home, amidst the walled off garrison. "He wasn't raised by elves, so..." she shrugs. "Elaine, the bard, is nice...very energetic, very human in that way, but nice."
<Anastasia> "What of the others?" Fiera gently asks, softening further as she rests. Despite wearing armor, her elven forged chain softly works with her body. Restful and at peace, "Soon you will talk of clipping your ears to fit in."
<Seryf> "Hardly," Seryf murmurs, smiling more warmly. "I'm already feeling more at ease here. I just shift perspectives..." Shrugging with a very slight motion, Seryf rests against the bed, green eyes closing a moment. "Gavin...you've met Gavin. Knightly, covered in metal, and oddly, the calmest of all of them. Darius...from those wild tribes, one of their totem animal empaths. The sabertooth? Nice, if kind of pushy, like her partner."
<Anastasia> "Darius is his name?" Sitting upa nd resting her hands on her knees, "The one with the night black panthertooth tiger? I have heard of him - it is not easy to be forgotten when you travel with such a beast."
<Anastasia> *Sabertooth
<Seryf> "Mhm," Seryf hums, curling up. "Short tempered, coarse by human standards, and half-blood," Seryf snickers quietly. "Makes for a most awkward combination."
<Anastasia> "May the Gods have mercy. Even if he controls his tiger, I would be wary of one in s uch hands." Fiera slowly leans back, calming easily. "Unless you find one to your heart's desire?"
<Seryf> "...That was an underhanded barb, Fiera," Seryf sighs, shaking her head. "Of those three? Gavin mayhaps appeals, for being comprehensible. He's also quite stuffy, before you even try to go there, hm? None of them appeal in that way."
<Anastasia> "Perhaps, perhaps not." Fiera easily eyes you back, restrained and calm, yet her words carry edged weight. "It is how half humans are born - an elf becomes intoxicated with the energy of humans. Then in mere months of courtship they make such a child. Months!" Clucking her tongue in displeasure, "Anything less than a decade...such scandal."
<Seryf> "The only one with intoxicating energy is Elaine," Seryf laughs easily, trying to ignore the edge to it. "I'd have been calmer on arrival, except I spent most of the time here talking to her."
<Anastasia> "At least she cannot court you." Laughing in tandem now, Fiera lets a short silenc  reign. When it is over and mirth has borne past this way, "It is mortifying ironic that the human of the group appears to be the second most civilised."
<Seryf> "Isn't it?" Seryf murmurs, smiling easily now. "Elaine is nice...in the same way wine is nice, I guess," Seryf murmurs, eyeing Fiera. "Her, I think you mgiht stand meeting. She isn't arrogant in the least."
<Anastasia> "Perhaps in lieu of or with a delicate wine to contrast with such energy?" Lightly chuckling, Fiera stops as there is a knock on the door. "Ah, I'll be just a moment."
<Seryf> "Sure," Seryf agrees, sitting up and beginning to reassemble her armor. Unclipping it is nice for a moment or three, but it doesn't feel natural.
<Anastasia> You catch a glance at the elf at the door before Fiera heads out, closing it behind her. Someone you don't know on first glance very well. So they go and talk, moments stretching out.
* Seryf raises her eyebrows. This must be interesting. But patient as any elf must be through centuries of life, Seryf simply relaxes in the room, soaking in the palce that served as her home for so many decades.
<Anastasia> Time passes. When Fiera comes back in, her good humor is gone. Solemness reigns instead, "I'm sorry, Seryf, but duty beckons me on. Master Daon and the others have sent word they will be gone far longer than expected. Until they return, I will be organizing an interum structure."
* Seryf nods slowly, the seriousness spreading easily. "If you need help in the very immediate future--barring tonight, I'm required to act human--just ask, hm?" Seryf offers, standing and hugging Fiera. "It was nice seeing you again...and reaching back into who I am," she murmurs as she lets go.
<Anastasia> "I may." A soft hug back to Seryf, a pause. "With what is going on now..." Looking down and away, "Yes, I may enlist your help yet."
<Seryf> "I'll be asking more details if you do, but until then..." Seryf nods, gently squeezing Fiera's forearm. "Corela's blessing, now get going...we do live in a human world, and sometimes, human haste is necessary, however uncomfortable."
<Anastasia> "Corela, hm." Fiera considers that a moment, mood lightening. "Ascendancy...in such a short time. Be well, Seryf."
<Seryf> "And you as well, Fiera," Seryf returns, her own smile almost shining now as she releases Fiera, settled once again.