Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

The maid ponders the image for a moment. "The fairy?" she asks curiously and looks off into the distance, trying to recollect her memories. "Yes... Hmm.." she ponders. "That's a difficult one. But I haven't seen it around for weeks now. It aswell as a few others had been driven into the woods by hunters and it took refuge in an old abandoned part of the castle."

The maid brings her hand up to her chin in thought. "As for a cat, I do not know..."
As atrium asks her to keep him informed about marcus' re-arrival she smiles and nods.

As Clarent leaves, Jian kind of calms a bit. Seems like the worst part is done, meeting the master, which was unknown until now. But... that face. It's just all so weird. Since he met all of these people, nothing seems to make proper sense anymore. At least it doesn't seem normal to him at all, considering all he did before was selling his wares. He takes a look around again and the room emtied up fairly well. He can risk asking about that door, but if it would be the right thing is a different question. A few minutes pass and he then decides he at least can ask to fish out some reactions that might give some hidden information.

"Excuse me", he starts, "There seems to be a door behind the banner haning down there. At least I can see the small bit below it, and the buldge in the banner itself. Is it hidden due to being unused? Or is there something that shouldn't be accessed by certain people?"

As he finishes up, his hearbeat surely picks up a bit. What if that causes some serious trouble now? In this case, all he can do is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. He finished his food just a bit before asking and it seemed to be the best thing he had in a while, so that is a thing he can look forward to if he actually witnesses the light of the next day.

The maid, Janette, turns to give Jian attention. After his curious notation of the door behind the banner she glances over to it. "Ah" she says in a normal tone.

"That's for storage. Only servants with clearance usually go in to it, to prevent theft by newcomers or guests." she reassures Jian. Janette then glances back at the door for a short bit before returning her attention back at the group. "Is there anything else you require?"

Sharpe watches Clarent, or "Lord Dahaka" as she so pompously proclaimed walk off toward the main door. Her current name though... that's definitely an indication of something more screwy here. Perhaps it's her last name, but ah, wouldn't one share the name of their estate? and that glass, how could she just turn it from water to red and back again? If anything, its not the Clarent he saw in the city a few days ago.

As he keeps his eye trained on her, he sees the most peculiar thing: a shadow reaches and pulls at the door. No way is it her.

He turns and gathers his coat and puts his wide-brim hat on, messing with the feather. Out of the corner of his hearing range, he listens to Jain ask of a door, and a reply with something about storage.

Without looking, he asks.

"And what might that room store? Also, where might we find room and board?"

For a moment, he remembers something, someone from long ago, comrades of his in a still life memory.. My, if he could have their help, this would be so much easier.

He hopes nothing bad has happened to Air in the meantime.

"Various things" Janette answers Sharpe. "And once the three of you are done with dinner and ready to go I will show you the way to your rooms."

The maid does another handgesture and the two servants move to the main door and open it outwards. Out in the hall there are no more generic statues of various knights with weapons but in their stead there are now various servants bowing.

Dr. Atrium is rather shocked at that the girl says. He stands up and pushes in his chair. He puts his coat and hat on, he picks up his bag and walks over the to maid.

"I am done with my dinner. If you are here to help me then I need you to bring me to the abandon part of the castle you told me about. I want to find the girl tonight. Now could you please lead the way."

The look on his face tells the maid that he isn't going to be taking no as an answer. If this maid doesn't help him, then he will search every inch of the castle to find the girl and his cat.

"Your wish is my command." She says, smiling widely as she bows deeply. She rights herself up and turns to Sharpe and Jian. "My servants may show you to your rooms if you do not wish to acompany us. Otherwise,  please, follow my lead." and leads doctor atrium out of the fancy dining hall and down the hallway.

As they progress, the servants lining the sides of the hallway bow in pairs, staying bowed as the individuals move past them. All of them are expresionless and look a little sickly, but none of them seem to mind.

Sharpe finishes up his food and simply looks down the hall at all the servants. Uncanny Valley fuel to the max, he decides to himself. They're likely all copies or something. Still, doesn't mean he's going to jab any of them, you never know what might come out.

He frowns as his attempt to amuse himself falls short. He slumps back in his chair a little and stretches, then resumes his esoteric chair-pose.

"I'll go with Atrium. If you want to come with, Jian, that's fine. Besides, don't want to leave you with the doll-servants, uh?" He simply says Jian.

Jian gets up from his chair, looking at Janette, he bows.
"The meal was quite nice, thank you. I personally would join Doctor Atrium and have a look aswell, if that is fine.", he says.

He basically is saying this to make sure nothing is going wrong. He also slowly is falling into a calmer state, which makes it easier for him to actually talk or engage people. This might be a good chance to get some info and maybe find clues about the amulet aswell. It is still quite a mystery where the girl and the cat went, so he's curious aswell. He really dislikes how Sharpe behaves in this situation, it really leaves a bad impression on the whole group and might cause to make them run into problems. This behaviour earns him a lot of disrespect from Jian, as he was raised in an environment where manners, a formal attitude and tradition were a common thing. He doesn't say anything about it though, but he surely knows what kind of person Sharpe can be, and take a note about it in the future.

Janette leads the group back the direction they came from. As two servants open the second door they move back into the very brilliant and fancy entrance hall. The group makes their way down the stairs as the servants stay behind and close the door behind them. They all make their way back to where the main entrance was prior, but in its stead there is now a single small door, barely enough to fit one person at a time with a statue of a dragon above it. The dragons claw is clasped around the door's frame. Janette opens up the door and steps through, holding the door open for the rest of the group. As they step through to the courtyard they entered in it's unlike anything they saw when they had entered.

There is a very slight stench and all the flowers and grasses are wilted. Six graves surround the empty fountain. Across from them are two strong metal doors. Janette points at the house the doctor had visited previously. "It's right here." she says calmly. "The fairy had been taking refuge in this part of the castle. Nobody visits this area anymore so it wasn't ever a problem..."

Dr. Atrium frowns when he sees the house.

"I have already been here, that is how I got the picture of the girl. Last time I looked in there, she wasn't there." He sighs and looks at the Lanette. "Please wait for me here." He looks at Sharpe and Jian. "You too. I want to look inside by myself just in case she wants to attack."

He walks over to the house once again to see is if the girl is there. He slowly opens the door once again and looks inside and see that the house still remains empty. He walks over to Janette with a rush to his step.

"She isn't in there. I don't have the patience to be lead around blindly."

He sighs and rubs his temples. What is with me? I have never acted like this in front of a woman or anyone be for...not when it wasn't close to a new moon. Why am I so up tight? Nothing is adding up. He thinks to himself. He wipes his forehead and looks at Lanette with a calmer face.

"I am sorry to be rude. It's just that she is so little, I don't want her to get hurt out here. I can tell by they way you talk that you don't care about her, but I do. So If you can, please help me."

Sharpe does as asked. He senses that perhaps his perchance to put his task above other things is getting to him. He was never trained for a prolonged stay somewhere, rather his job was always get in, do what needed to be done then leave. One things for sure, this isn't the Straylight Run he thought this was going to be. In any case he's rather nervous anyway and tries to relax and restrain it.

Jian takes a look around, what an abanoned place... It all looks old, empty... The feeling is not bitter to it and he surely can imagine how nice it must've been to look at back then. He walks up to one of the graves and runs his fingers along the side of it. He wonders if this is the grave of somebody that was well known, a king, a upperclass man, maybe a prince? He steps over to the fountain and looks into it. It's empty, filled with grass that slowly withers away. A tune comes to his head, something he used to hear back then. A slow and slightly sad melody, something that was played on funerals in his home country. The setting might not be the same, but the situation by the looks here, just throws him back.

As he looks into the direction of the house, he can hear the doctor having quite a fit. Seems like all of them are way more worked up than him right now. He might be nervous and scared, but he still is not on the edge of losing control of it... so far.

He looks back at the fountain and stares at it. What a wonderful thing it would be, to be able and see how pretty it must look when it's on. To him, it's also not really understandable why this place was left like this. It surely has a meaning behind it and nobody cares for it whatsoever. All he can do is speculate why, so he stops doing so and walks towards the house after finishing up imagining and thinking about all that.

As Jian looks at the fountain, and its surrounding, he feels the warmth of a hand on his shoulder. As he looks, Clarent, or Lady Dahaka is standing next to him. He never noticed her appear but neither did anyone else. "It used to be beautiful." She says in a soft voice and then lets her hand drift away from his shoulder as she circles the fountain, unseen by Janette or Sharpe or Atrium, though Atrium can feel a magical presence. "When I was a child, many years ago, I used to tend this garden with my older sister."

Lady Dahaka continues to circle the room, unseen by anyone but Jian, and gives the fountain a slight tap. Within moments it catches everyones attention as suddenly water begins to run out of it. The water travels out of a womans hand and into the basin surrounding the statue. As it does so, parts of it travel through tiny slits in the basin and fill up an area under ground covered by small grates secured into the ground.

All around the group the flowers and grasses that had wilted begin to upright themselves, filling with colour and plesant smell as they revitalize. Lady Dahaka then purses her lips against a finger and steps into the shadows, dissapearing from Jian's sight.

Doc Atrium and the other three look around in awe of the plants that had seemingly randomly arisen and been restored to their former glory. Eventhough the wild growing weeds had not dissapeared by this act, it seemed to make the garden even more beautiful. Atrium tries to take a step closer to the flowers to investigate the strange happenings but notices a slight resistance on his hand as he moves forward. Checking back the little lost girl is suddenly by his side, staring at him with its curious eyes. She holds a rat in her other hand and her mouth is lightly covered in blood.

The sudden presence of magic makes him look around. That mistress of this castle was just here...but why? Dr. Atrium asks himself. He goes to find where the main source of this magic it when something small grabs his hand. He spin quickly to see what has him. When he sees it is the girl, he smiles big and gets on his knees and hugs her.

"I am so glad you are safe. Where were you?" He asks the girl.

He sees the dead rat in her hands and his heart sinks. This poor girl...this is how she has to do to eat. He takes the rat from her little hands and puts it on the ground, he wipes her mouth with this sleeve. He reaches into his bag and pulls out some bread he has and gives it to her.

"Here you go hun. I am sure that this is going to taste better then the rat you where eating."

Sharpe feels uneasy, seeing the girl with the rat and bloody at the mouth. Such a thing makes him question whether she is real or simply yet another machination of the dimension. He sighs, reassuring himself that Doc knows what he's doing.

He walks out further into the garden and observes the various flora spawning about, flowers and herb seedlings literally springing out of the earth by clear shining. He then spots a peculiar flower, and grins to himself. He may not be the horticulturalist that Jian is, but he knows his herbs when he sees them. He walks over and takes a bit of the purple-colored star-shaped flower, and tucks it in a place he'll remember it later, but won't be easily discovered. He slides one of the pedals of nightshade under his coat, and keeps the other for the resident infiltration specialist for when she returns.

He returns to Doc's side, keeping a watchful eye on Jian at all times, sure that nobody saw him taking field samples.

Clarent's disappearance leaves the fountain being turned on and everything being regrown. He stands in front of it and lets the whole picture leave an impression on him. This surely is beautiful to watch. Sun shines into the courtyard, shining down onto the front of Jian, leaving a longer shadow behind him. He's left with the question why Clarent was so friendly to him, as he constantly thought she's an enemy of thiers by the way people reacted earlier. He walks up to the fountain, running his finger through the water. "What a magical event... This... I am not even sure what to say.", comes from him as he looks around again.

Treasuring this moment he sits down on the edge of the fountain. Looking at everything that has grown. In his current state, gathering Herbs is out of question, he is way too focused on how beautiful all this suddenly turned out to be. A few tears escape him as he remembers the village-plaza he had back at home. It looked similar to this, without the graves. He wishes that he somehow will be able to keep this place in remembrance, on a picture or a drawing, but unfortunately there's nothing that makes this possible at the moment. He wipes the tears out of his face, constantly looking at the whole area. "Thank you...", he whispers, hoping that Clarent might hear it.

Janette looks around, then shoots a puzzled look at the fairy and then at the flowers and tall grasses. She sighs softly and turns her direction to Atrium. "Well then, shall I show you your quarters for tonight?" She asks politely, then giving the fairy some attention as well. "Naturally, if you so wish, the fairy may stay with you, at your own risk. We shall have a small bed prepared for her in one of the guestrooms."

The flowers still bloom vibrantly and the atmosphere turned very light. The only example remains the plant sharpe took samples off. Unbeknownst to the group or sharpe, the flower wilted and dissapeared behind the tall grasses.

Dr. Atrium takes the girls hand and fallows Janette to the guestrooms. As they make their way there, he isn't looking around like he did before. He smiles down at the girl again, he looks over her with his eyes to make sure nothing is wrong. When he sees that she is alright, he looks up to see where they are going. When he gets to the room, he drops his bag next to the bed and picks up the little girl and puts her on the bed. He takes a clothe rag out of his coat and wipes her face clean, he then pulls out the rag doll that belongs to her and hands it to her. He stays with her until Janette returns with another bed. He walks over to Janette.

"You know a lot more about her then I do, what language does she speak? I would like to speak with her. Also, what does she like to eat? If you could bring some food for her, that would be most helpful to me."

Janette leads the group back into the castle, and up the stairs to the left of the hallway. The stairs lead to a narrow but long hallway with various doors left and right. They walk down and take a right turn, ending up in an identical hallway. She directs sharpe to the first room on the left. Then Jian to the room across from that on the right. She then leads the doctor four more doors down, and to the right, next to a staircase leading and another leading down next to it. She bows politely and leaves Atrium and the Fairy in the room as she closes the door behind herself.

All three rooms are decently luxurious but surprisingly plain compared to the rest of the castle. The rooms are similar, each with a big double bed and night stands as well as a desk, on which there are various items, papers and pens, and a door to a small cabinet sized room with a sink and mirror inside, but no toilet. Each room also has two big closets and a shelf in between with various decores standing atop it. The ground has soft carpet run all along one corner of the room to the adjacent one, thus filling up the entire floor and making it quite comfortable to walk. The ceiling is rather plain but has some sort of lamp attached to the top that seems to be powered by a dial on the wall with a small gold and copper tube running along the wall and up the ceiling to the lamp. It figures the dial, depending on its setting, can either make the lamp brighter or dimmer.

Sharpe's room is the only room with a window. It's quite large, with two wooden shutters. Looking outside the castle he can see immediately infront of him a wall, only slightly lower than his window, with a nice walkway leading to a three towers and around their back. The part of the walkway closest to the edge of the wall has a little bit of a drip with grasses and flowers growing in it. Not very tall but pleasing to the eye. On the other side of the walkway is some gravel. It's a very modern looking set up as could be read about in texts of the ancient civilization before man. Lately this sort of visualization has been very popular among nobles and rich-folk. Past the castle walls its hard to make anything out. Though there now seems to be a sky... maybe... somewhat... the castle is surrounded by white mist that makes it hard to see past the walls, though it is quite bright. Maybe about afternoon.

A while later Janette returns with two discoloured servants. They look rather sickly but do not seem to mind as they carry a small bed into the room and place it down next to one of the closets. Janette nods and gives the servants a small hand gesture and they creepily turn towards Atrium and bow in unison, then right themselves up and leave the room promptly. Janette bows aswell, a slight hissing emitting from behind her. "Unfortunately, I have no idea what language it speaks, or if it even does." Janette says, "Please, if I can be of any assistance to you, I will be just around the corner in the first room to the right." She says and closes the door. Footsteps, muffled by the carpet, sound their way down the hall and around the corner. A door can faintly be heard opening and then shutting tight.

Sharpe looks out the window at the vast expanse. For all it seems at first glance, he admits, there is beauty in this place. Whoever came up with it must've had good taste. Now if only there was a private beach, then it would be truly wonderous.

Still, the people must be downright ass-backwards to not include a toilet, he reasons. All in all, the castle looks very much like the infamous Straylight run he did years ago. That place wasn't a castle though, it was practically a posh fortress, extremely more involved than this place. This castle feels more lived-in, like it was meant for someone to have a home there, but it feels so... desolate. Dead. Barren. Sterile.

He can't shake the feeling that no great wizard or family lives here, but only a pack of hounds under the influence of dark forces.

He lays his sword upon the bed, but keeps his pistol with him as he goes through the desks looking for information that might be useful, but it seems to no avail. He goes on to look for some secret compartments, but even then he is unsure.

Jian enters his room, having a look around. He sits down on his bed, still kind of driven away in his mind because of the sudden events earlier. The place keeps flashing in front of him, it really was beatiful to watch. He grabs his backpack and opens it up to grab the book inside of it. He pulls it out and starts going through the pages. He's looking for the plaza in there, if there even is a picture of it in there. A few minutes pass and he then reaches the close end of it, just ending up with the picture of the current ruler of the country and the woman he saw in the tank top. No plaza was ever found in there, so he slowly closes the book again.

He lets off a deep sigh. His feelcoaster is quite crazy at the moment. From one moment to another he feels sad or angry, then happy again, then something bad happens and then it all repeats. This surely left a mark, as he feels quite exhausted while sitting down on the bed. He lets himself fall back onto it and looks at the ceiling. Even on the ceiling there are a few patterns, what a fancy idea. Staring at them more and more makes him feel quite tired, but he tries to resist the slumber he's about to fall into, without being successful. His eyes close and he slowly falls asleep.

Sharpe runs his fingers along the wooden desk trying to find any noticeable uneven bits. No success. He opens up one of the compartments and rifles through some of the papers. They are all empty. As he is about to put the paper down he comes to a realization. The bottom of the papers are a faint turqoise. He lifts them up a bit and notices a hole with some light emitting from it. He shoves the drawer back in and pulls out the compartment from underneeth but there is nothing inside. He tries to pull it out a little further but notices a resistance, followed by a cracking sound.

Sharpe stops abruptly and reaches inside the drawer and feels the top of it. He feels cold metal and something smooth and sharp held up by some tape. He fiddles around with it for a moment and then manages to undo part of the tape and pulls out three odd looking devices.

Each device consists of a slim golden frame, running in a half circle. On one end of the frame there is a tiny round emerald on one and a slim long crystal on the other. This looks like it would fit around someones ear...
Two of the three have green crystals, the other has a cracked blue crystal.

Dr. Atrium knees in front of the girl, he tries to talk to her but she just stares at him. When he hears a knock on the door, he walks over and lets the servant in to his room. He watches her carefully walk over to the girl and puts the tray of food down in front of her, then quickly shuffles way from her. Dr. Atrium notices the strange behavior and stops the girl before she leaves.

"why are you acting so nervous around the girl? She hasn't attack anyone since I got to know her. Also, why do you look a but green? If you wish, I can do a check up on you for free. I am a doctor you see, cureing illnesses is what I am best at."

Sharpe eyes two pieces of jewelry with a puzzled expression. Why would these be here? He would think this whole place be barren of such valuable items, but yet here they are. Perhaps they were left behind by a previous tenant, but then what became of their previous owner?

He sits on his bed and hunches over, scratching his stubble. How perplexing, he'll have to check the other rooms, or instruct Jian and Doc to do the same.