[3/21/2025]
Another morning at the rebellion stronghold. Dayne sees Aelin limping out of her room, her foot still sore from his shield dropping on it yesterday.
Dayne:
“Damn, Aelin… you, uh, really took one to the foot there, huh?”
Aelin:
“Oh, I was just being humble. I could’ve held it just fine.”
Dayne:
“Is that right?”
Aelin:
“Oh, yeah.”
Dayne:
“Honestly, I kind of expected that to happen, but…”
Aelin:
“I’ll try it again.”
Dayne:
“Really.”
Aelin:
“Yeah?”
Dayne:
“I mean… far be it from me to deny you a challenge… but if you fail this time, you have to go get a drink with me.”
Aelin:
“I’m not gonna fail.”
Aelin looks at the shield as Dayne holds it out with one hand, and she holds out both of her hands to grab it. She, surprisingly, doesn’t drop it instantly, but it slowly starts to slip out of her fingers as she holds her breath and musters all of her strength to hold it up outright.
Dayne:
“…Are you holding it, or slowly dropping it?”
Aelin (face red, running out of oxygen):
“I’m holding it!”
She holds it for a second longer before deciding to get cocky; she drops her right arm and holds it up with only her left manaforged arm. She manages this for about a second before letting go, Dayne catching it before it hits the ground.
Dayne:
“Well, damn, I’m impressed. I didn’t expect that.”
Aelin:
“Yeah, I told you I was holding back.”
Dayne:
“Yeah… maybe you’re right. I appreciate the offer of help, though. I didn’t really expect that from you. I can see that you’re taking this “friends” thing seriously.”
Aelin:
“Well, we are friends. Aren’t we?”
Dayne:
“I’d like to think so.”
Aelin squints playfully at him, and walks down towards the kitchen for breakfast. She runs into Olwynn on the way, and the two share an awkward exchange of “good morning’s” and “how’d you sleep’s”.
Dayne, Olwynn, and Aelin convene at the breakfast table. They notice there’s significantly less food than normal — Lorin’s not here yet. Maybe she’s just sleeping in.
They discuss what happened yesterday: Sylvaeus’s sudden disappearance, Greg acting suspicious, the egg… there’s clearly something wrong around here, and they have to figure it out.
Dayne asks Olwynn what her whole reasoning is for being here — that she doesn’t exactly seem like a bloody adventurer type but more of a bookish homebody.
Olwynn:
“Well, under normal circumstances, I would say I am, but…”
Dayne:
“Wow. And here I thought Aelin was the secretive one. [to aelin:] I think she’s got you beat.”
Aelin glares at Dayne and looks back at Olwynn with curious eyes, clearly wanting to hear what she has to say.
Olwynn:
“There’s some things that only time can teach. And I grew up a little too fast for the rest of those in my… clan. So, we can call it a bit of a waiting game.”
Aelin (raising her mimosa glass):
“Cheers, then. To being forced to grow up too fast.”
Dayne:
“Yeah. Cheers.”
They all clink glasses. They continue to sit at breakfast, waiting for Lorin, but… she never shows up.
They walk over to Lorin’s room together. Dayne pounds on the door, trying to get her to wake up. There’s no response. He tries the door handle, but it’s locked.
Aelin pushes him out of the way, lockpicking Lorin’s door with ease. The door squeaks open… and Lorin’s room is a mess. The bed is broken in half, the sheets torn. The tables and chairs are splintered, and there are large gashes in the stone on the floor. There was clearly a fight here; a fight that also involved magic. There’s soot marks, glistening residue, patches of ice that shouldn’t be there… evidence of spells left behind. However, there is no evidence of blood. No bodies. As if a battle happened and disappeared.
Dayne pushes inside, looking around and immediately taking out his spear. Shadows seem to snake out from him as he uses channel divinity: divine sense.
Dayne:
“I don’t sense anything nearby. I don’t know what the hell happened; I didn’t hear anything last night. What about you two?”
Aelin:
“I didn’t hear a thing.”
Olwynn:
“Nothing.”
Dayne:
“Shit… I… had a dream, a night or two ago. About someone. Maybe it wasn’t just a dream. They appeared in my room.”
Aelin:
“Who.”
Dayne:
“That doesn’t matter. They just — someone showed up in my room. I could’ve sworn it was a dream, but it just —
Aelin:
“You’re just now telling us this?”
Dayne:
“It just now became important. That’s the only explanation here — something got in here.”
Olwynn:
“Dayne. Who was it?” [she rolls a 4 on persuasion]
Dayne (looking over, furrowing his brows):
“You were so tight-lipped earlier, and now you’re prying about what I don’t wanna talk about? That’s not exactly fair, is it Olwynn?”
Olwynn raises her hands in placation, and turns to focus on the room, and what arcane magic she might be able to find there. She sees a large runic circle in the center of the room — the leftover magic from a teleportation spell.
Aelin (to Dayne, from aside):
“What ever happened to not keeping secrets that matter to us?”
Dayne:
”My dreams don’t matter to you, Aelin.”
Aelin:
“What if they do?”
Dayne:
“I’m not ready yet, okay? Is that good enough for you?”
Aelin clicks her tongue and looks away. Dayne sighs and turns away, his hand reaching up and gently tracing the scar that runs across his neck.
Olwynn crouches down and touches the runic circle on the ground.
Olwynn:
“This is how they came in — and I assume how they left.”
Dayne:
“Damn. They fucking took her. Someone — or something — took her.”
Olwynn starts to trace her fingers around the circle, seeing if she could somehow reverse engineer it… [and she rolls a nat 1 on arcana]