RP:Dude, Where's My Khat?

From HollowWiki

Part of the Do You Believe In Magic? Arc


Summary: Khitti is missing. Dominic desperately searches for answers. Pilar meets him and shows support and friendship. Seriphus eavesdrops.


Kelay Way

Pilar couldn't get Dominic's letter off her mind ever since it had arrived. She had feared that Khitti would get into trouble, had warned her... and now she was missing. She couldn't wander far from Larket, but she had come to Kelay hoping to find Dominic. Maybe he could tell her more.


Dominic stood in the middle of the square, fear in his heart and on his face and in his voice. He was approaching anyone who would listen (and more than a few people who wouldn’t), showing them a likeness of Khitti and asking if they knew anything, if they knew anything about the other mages who’d gone missing, if they had seen a particular blue dragon skulking about… he didn’t care what they thought of his raving -- he was desperate for some answer, any answer.


Pilar didn't have a hard time finding him. He was doing a good job of standing out. "Fer the last time, I ain't seen yer girlfriend an' I don't know nothin' 'bout no mages!" a man huffed at him before stomping away, knocking into Pilar. He didn't even stop or say "excuse me." What a dick. Pilar rubbed her shoulder where he'd barreled into her before approaching Dominic. "Mr. Dominic..." she said. There was worry in her voice, too.


Dominic pivoted from the irritable man to the vampiress, the anxiety in his expression dimming ever so slightly as he saw her. “Oh, Pilar. She’s not -- I don’t -- here.” He thrust the rough depiction of Khitti into her hands before rummaging into his pack for another one, moving up to the next person and trying to ask them the same such questions; no luck there, either. He turned back to Pilar, biting at a lip and nodding toward the picture. “I-it’s not very good, but I tried.”


Pilar peered at the sketch of Khitti. It was... alright. Enough that she knew it was meant to be Khitti, at least. "It's a fine picture, Mr. Dominic." She looked around the square. Was this going to get them anywhere? No one seemed interested in helping... She looked at Dominic. "Did she say where she was going when she...?"


Dominic could only shake his head. “Not really. Just that she was scouting around for answers to all the missing mages. And now she’s probably one of them.” His hands were trembling and clinging tightly to his depiction of Khitti as he made another attempt to plea to someone for information. More apathy. No one knew anything, and most didn’t care, anyway. Not -their- problem. He circled back to Pilar again. “...At least, I almost hope it’s that and not something else. At least then she could still be --” he choked on the last word, unable even to say it. Alive. What if she wasn’t…?


Pilar put her hands on his shoulders. She wanted to pull him into a hug, but they barely knew each other. "She's alive, I know it." Her bond with Khitti had grown cold. She had tried to get through, but received no response. Didn't even feel her presence, like usual. She feared, like Dominic, that she was lost forever. But she refused to give up hope. She squeezed his shoulders. "We just have to keep trying. I'll help you however I can."


Dominic took a deep, slow breath and nodded, trying not to have an anxiety attack right there in the middle of the square. “A-alright. Yeah. I don’t really know what else to do, though. I’ve been in Frostmaw and Xalious too, and no luck. Whatever’s happened to her, it doesn’t appear to have had any witnesses. Not that I’ve found, anyway. I feel like I’m missing something, some other way to find her. There -must- be a way…”


Pilar wondered herself. "Maybe we should leave a notice on the board in the tavern. Someone may see it and send us word. It couldn't hurt, especially since we can't stay out here all the time asking everyone who comes by." She looked into the sky, as if the clouds held the answers. "If I was kidnapping mages... I would want to have a way to keep them from using magic. But magic flows through all things..." She looked at Dominic. "Maybe we need to search for a place with... with less magic?"


“Yes, of course, the tavern.” Dominic cast a glance towards it. “I don’t know of anywhere here like what you’re talking about, but -- you’ve no doubt been in Lithrydel longer than I have. -Is- there anywhere like that? With less magic?” A hand went to his chin. “Now that you mention it… that seems most likely. Otherwise, most mages could find a way to escape, right?” Quietly, he added, “That also assumes they’re being kidnapped and not killed, but…” But no, she couldn’t be dead. He felt like he’d -know-, somehow. Or maybe he was just so desperate that he’d do any mental contortion necessary to refuse the possibility.


Pilar shrugged helplessly. "Not that I can think of. All I know is that Xalious Village, and part of the mountains are very magical. So they might not be there." She sighed. "Or maybe they are and I don't know what I'm talking about. I just..." She shook her head. "I'm as lost as you," she admitted. She looked to the tavern. "Let's... let's go place that notice. And maybe get a drink or something to eat. On me."


Dominic threw one more worried glance around the square before nodding to Pilar. “Alright. Maybe we’ll have more luck that way. And -- now that you mention it, I can’t even recall the last time I ate. The last day or so has been very…” he trailed off, looking for the word, one hand raising to his brow in an expression of fatigue. “Very… draining.” Even that seemed a woefully inadequate description. He was running himself ragged looking for answers.


Kelay Tavern

Pilar could hardly blame him. She was rather worried, too. The two of them entered the tavern and she led him to the bar. She pointed out the menu board and murmured softly, "You can read that, yes?" She hadn't forgotten that he was still learning, but he had, after all, been able to reply to her letter. And she didn't want to read it for him if he was capable of doing it on his own. By the bulletin board, a woman was writing something.


Dominic tilted the menu towards his face more, peering at it with furrowed brows. “Yeah, more or less. Plus, I’ve been here a few times. I’m sure I can figure it out.” He scanned the menu a bit further before hailing the bartender; he ordered tea and a few slices of spinach quiche, which he’d begin consuming ravenously the moment it arrived.


Pilar managed a smile for him. "You are learning to read Common faster than I did," she murmured. She ordered for herself wine. She didn't need to eat anything, being a vampire and all. She watched Dominic eat as she sipped her drink. He really was hungry. She glanced over at the bulletin board. The woman who had been writing put up her notice, then walked away, dabbing at her eyes. They were close enough, and Pilar's eyes keen enough, that she could JUST make out what it said. She read it over quickly. then stood up and hurried over to the woman before she disappeared out the door.


Dominic paused in his eating long enough to give Pilar a pained smile. “I’ve had a very good teacher and a lot of free time since the war in Frostmaw concluded, is all. Mostly that first one… Khitti truly loves books. She makes it seem easy…” He didn’t rise from the table as Pilar did but continued working on his food, on some level realizing he needed to consume as much as he could while his hunger could still overrule his unease.


Pilar returned to the table a few moments later and sat down. She sighed. "That women's daughter is yet another missing mage... She was studying in Xalious when she disappeared." Pilar rested her head in her palm and leaned on the table. "This is all just... this is awful." She looked down at her wine. "There must be a way to track them all down. Maybe... if someone could lure this kidnapper out..."


Dominic sighed, frustrated. “That was one of my very first ideas, and Khitti shot it down. She didn’t want to get the Mage’s Guild involved, assumed everyone would think she was crazy. She was -convinced- it’s all that Raiez person’s doing.” He took a sip of his tea and then set it down on the table a little too hard; a bit sloshed over the edge. “If she was right, well -- how does one lure a dragon?”


Pilar hummed. "Well, I'm sure the Mage's Guild has noticed mages going missing... As for Raiez... I don't know. But I'll take any lead at this point." Pilar sipped her wine. "Dragons are people, too. Each one is different." Hildegarde was lured out when her friend was kidnapped. But Pilar didn't want to go with that tactic. Plus, who knew if Raiez even had friends? "If it is her, then maybe another mage will be the key..." Pilar swallowed the rest of her wine. "I will be the bait."


Seriphus strides in silently, though the word "bait" seems to throw the shrouded man's step. He takes a seat in the corner without a word.


Dominic rose abruptly from the table. “What? No! What if -you- just get taken, too?” His hands curled up into fists at his sides. “I should do it. It’s my fault she’s missing in the first place. I should have been with her. I shouldn’t have let her leave me even for an instant. I should have -- I should have…” His eyes went to the rafters as he blinked back tears. Dammit. He was a mess. As always.


Pilar got up slowly and walked around the table to his side. Carefully, she pulled him into a hug. "It isn't your fault, Dominic. It's the kidnapper's, no one else's. We'll find them. We'll find HER." She looked at Dominic. "We won't do this alone. We have friends who will help. All we need is a plan."


Dominic took a deep, shuddering breath. “S-sure, yeah.” Not that he actually believed her. It -was- his fault. Of course it was his fault. He was supposed to protect Khitti, even from her own recklessness if need be. Why couldn’t he get even -that- right? “I don’t … I don’t actually -know- much of anything about Raiez though, assuming it’s even her. I guess being a mage might be bait enough, but from then… what?”


Pilar was silent for a moment. "I don't... know, either. But like I said, we have friends. We'll talk to them. Maybe... if they are waiting, hidden, when Raiez comes for me, they can catch her. Make her talk." How they would do THAT, she didn't know.


Seriphus appears to watch the conversation, though through his expressionless iron mask it's impossible to read his emotion. Still, something about his demeanor gives the sense of wistfulness. A familiarness with the situation at hand. Yet with the simple eye slits and the narrow cleft passing for a mouth, it's impossible to tell if the shrouded man even genuinely is looking at Pilar and Dominic. A barely perceptible movement suggests the man is about to get up.


Dominic furrowed his brows again at her implication, once again, that -she’d- be the bait, though he said nothing to call her out on it or insist again that it be him. “Blues use lightning magic. That’s about all I know. We were going through the books in the library trying to find some useful information, before, but… we weren’t able to uncover much.” He took his seat again and drained more of his tea. “I wish there’d been more time.”


Pilar nodded. "It's something. We know to guard against it, then." She retook her own seat and looked into her empty glass. "I wish Khitti hadn't gotten it into her head to get involved... But that's just like her. She cares so much about others..."


Dominic sighed. “She does. And I love that about her, and yet, at the same time…” The man swirled his tea in a slow circle, considering his words. “I… wish she wouldn’t. I just wanted to be with her. To be happy. We could have ignored all this and gone somewhere where it wasn’t happening and just.... enjoyed each other’s company, with no war or anything to get in the way. I wish I could afford to be as uncaring about it as most of those people out there.” A hand waved in the general direction of the exit, and the streets beyond. “M-maybe that makes me a bad person, to want to run and let it be someone else’s problem, but … there it is.”


Pilar shook her head. "It's only natural. To want to be happy. And if a peaceful life is what would make you happy, then it's natural to want that. At the same time, I admire her so much for wanting to make the world better." As if she hadn't fought a war alongside her to make the world better.


Seriphus looks down at the table before him when the words "To be happy." leave Dominic's mouth. Despite the unyielding, unchanging gray metal of the man's mask, the slump in his shoulders speaks of many losses, many great pains, in his past.


Dominic twisted his lips in thought. “I guess.” Whatever was going on in his head, he’d stopped sharing, but he was probably still beating himself up some more. He swirled his tea in more tight circles before finishing the last of it and staring at the remainder of his quiche. There were only a few bites left, but despite that and despite how famished he’d been when they’d entered, he no longer had the stomach for it. Sighing, he made his way to the bar and returned with pen and ink and parchment, to write something for the board. He got as far as resting the tip of the pen on the page before looking back up at Pilar. “Um. Actually, do you want to do it? You’ve been writing longer… I’m still struggling with the letters.”


Pilar nodded and took the pen and paper from Dominic. "What do you want me to write? And do you want to leave one of your pictures of Khitti?"


Dominic groaned and held his hands over his eyes momentarily before breaking his fingers apart and peering through them at the vampiress. “Gods, I don’t even know, Pilar. I guess just that, well, she’s missing like all the other mages, her name, and a way to contact us. Either of us. Both of us. The words don’t seem adequate, but...” He trailed off and dropped his hands to look at her properly again. “I’ll probably head back to the tavern in Frostmaw, so I can be reached there. And… yeah, we’ll attach the picture. I can always make another one.” He pushed the drawing from earlier across the table to Pilar.


Pilar took the picture and nodded. She offered him a small smile. "It really is a good picture..." She began to write, murmuring the contents of the notice out loud. "Missing: Khitti von Schreier. Red hair, green eyes, lean build. Last seen in Frostmaw. Was investigating reports of missing mages. If you have any information, send word to Frostmaw Tavern for Dominic or to the Red Ogre Inn in Larket for Pilar." Pilar got up and attached the notice and picture to the board, then returned to the table.


Dominic sighed. “Alright. I don’t know what else to do. I’ll… post similar notices in Xalious and Frostmaw, I guess. I believe those are the only other places where mages have gone missing. Someone must have seen -something-, especially if she was in the middle of investigating these missing mages herself.” He cracked a wan smile. “I imagine she probably made a lot of noise about it. Someone must remember her and be able to give us a clue, right?” He rose, and gingerly placed a hand on Pilar’s shoulder. “...Thank you. Really. It’s comforting to know that at least -someone- cares, besides just me.”


Pilar touched his hand and smiled. "More people than you know care."