RP:Warning Signs

Part of the Time Heals All Wounds Arc

Synopsis: So, here we go, Krice saw the malign entity as well that rests inside Linken. Krice gives a fair warning and becomes worried for the herbalist who lets the dark man rest within her barriers. Penelope is unsure on how to truly respond to Krice's worrisome mood.

Halifax Roots

The long windows soak in the sunlight and the doors are propped open to the herbalist’s shop. The herbalist has her hair tied back in a messy half-do. She wears a striped blouse and an apron is tied around her waist. As one would walk in, the owner of the store is straight ahead, and the surroundings are overpowering with different scents of herbs. The store right now seems to be quiet, for the evening lingered upon them. The woman lingers behind the counter with her mortar and pestle. She was idly mashing bright blue flowers in the small bowl she carried. Her moss eyes are carefully on the petals and seeds as she tries to get her pestle to catch the tiny seeds to grind them in the bowl.

Krice came to Penelope's little store from the only viable direction, south, dressed in his usual black attire. No need to fancy it up if there -was- no need. His sensitive nose detected the multitudinous aromas before he even got into the store. Silently, with his katana unsheathed and held in his left hand behind him, the warrior paused back from the counter and scanned his surroundings, while working to mentally shut down at least half of his olfactory sensitivity. " Lots of smells in here," he mumbled in observation. And maybe halfhearted complaint.

Penelope had been more aware of her surroundings since the warrior had intended her to do so. As he steps into the door view, her moss eyes spring up on him. “Well, well,” she smiles crookedly for a moment. The woman lowers her tools momentarily. “That’s what you get for walking into an herb shop. What else would you expect?” She lofts a brow while she smashes the petals slower as her attention is now focused on him. “I’m guessing you’re not here for the aroma?” There is a small snicker and an amused little smile on her pale lips.

Krice didn't feel any need to smile because his thoughts were elsewhere, but Penelope's easy manner of greeting earned her a smirk, at least. He stepped forward, still holding his swrd, keeping it behind him out of the way. " Not here for the herbs," he confirmed, his features shadowed by focus. " The blonde elf boy with the blue eyes and the scared-stiff temperament... He your ex?" The one with the demon hitchhiker.

Penelope’s smile began to fade as Krice begins to talk about the metallic-armed elf. Her expression is flat and her lips sort of twitch as she stares stoically at the man before her. The mashing comes to a halt as she sets the tools on the counter. “Err.. yes,” she begins to untie the apron around her waist. Briskly she walks to the widened doors to the outside and closes them partially for the conversation that seemed like it was going to become grim. Linken was a dark subject. The shop was almost closed anyway, so what was an hour earlier? “What about him? Where is he?” The herbalist sort of quirks her brow as she finally turns around to face the warrior before her. She had not really spoken with Linken lately, for she was bustling around with other tasks.

Krice wasn't proud to be the one responsible for Penelope's diminished mood but this was important. He was silent and patient while she registered his question and moved to close the door, his expression apologetic for the turn in the conversation - before it had even fully begun. " He's around," was the warrior's response. Judging by his tone, it was the truth. " I met the demon that's in him. It's not very friendly, is it?" His features adopted a wry shadow.

Penelope held her chin up more than she needed to. Her lips become a little tighter. “He is around. I’ve been taking care of him,” she says as if this is nonchalant, though obviously there was much to talk about. As the warrior mentions the demon, her chest tightens and the room feels cloudy for a moment. The herbalist stares straight through the man across the room from her. “What did it do? It didn’t hurt anyone did it?” Her tone tries to remain at-ease, but there is shake beneath it. The woman then breaks her lifeless gaze and she blinks at Krice as she does not let him get a word in yet. “Linken never used to be this way, y’know?” Her brows pull in, “No demons, no heebie jeebies. He was strong and confident. A warrior like yourself. A complicated man, but not this complicated. He was a good man,” she looks frustrated. Her voice becomes soft and almost empty. “I really don’t know who he is anymore…” She then sucks in and asks again. “What did it do?” Her voice is stern and more collected this time when she asks.

Krice stepped closer to Penelope when she spoke, partly because the conversation was a serious one and he wanted to keep it intimate, between them--not even the herbs were allowed to hear--and partly because he respected her, trusted her enough to put himself just outside her reach (on the other side of the counter). He didn't seem overly surprised to hear that Linken was strong, confident, a 'warrior' before his possession, but he couldn't imagine it now. " It didn't hurt anyone," he was quick to reassure, his overall demeanor softening in deference to her sorrow. " What do you know about it?"

Penelope is now back behind the counter and her hands rest gently on the top of the table. She stares at him head-on without a blink. “I’ll tell you what it wants, it wants Linken, It wants to control his every move and I think overpower him at some point. I can’t piece it together yet. Either way, Linken’s memory is swiped from anything that happened to him with this… entity.” She inhales sharply to catch her breath for a moment. The herbalist exhales, “The only thing I truly know is that I’m supposed to remind Linken everything that happened to him that I know. Our history, the things he told me about him. The thing sort of… threatened me if I didn’t. Threatened Linken,” her expression shifts in her uncomfortable state. “It’s… a strong entity. Capable of… darkness. It killed a man in front of me. It… threw up black goop on my face, but then it seemed like an illusion. This thing is stronger than it looks. I’ve also tried everything to get Linken’s memory back so far,” beat. “Herbs that aid amnesia, I had Yerrel look at him. I don’t know who to turn to, Krice,” her voice is almost a whisper. “Though, I have to take care of him because the only other place he has is his true home where his kids live, so I’ve been checking on them too.”

Krice nodded through the duration of Penelope's answer, at specific points that seemed of particular interest to him; so she was feeding him information to Linken that he had forgotten as a result of the entity. That explained some things. At her conclusion, her whispered words of uncertainty, he leaned in slightly and said, " He shouldn't go home to his kids. What -I- know of the demon is that it's ancient, sinister, and enjoys making people suffer--Clearly, look at Linken. He was disconcerted to hear that it had spat at her, that black goop had transcended its hold on Linken to produce the substance beyond him. " Are you okay?" His tone was gentle, genuinely concerned, but still calm and composed.

Penelope nods slowly at his observation. She had known to keep the children out of the picture, although they were old enough now to hold their own. “Yes.. truly it’s dark, but I’m not entirely sure what it wants with Linken.” The freckled woman lifts her hands off the counter and reaches for the mortar and pestle again out of fidget habit. Work made her… ease a little more. She was tactile. “I’m on my toes each day, I’ll tell you that. I don’t know what the next step is. I asked Lanara to see if she can come and take a look at him since… she knows a bit of dark magic.” The girl looks down at the mashed up bits of seed and petal. “What did you witness? How did you know of the demon?”

Krice's gaze was attentive and fixated on Penelope as he awaited a reply about her well-being. She wasn't a push-over but she -was- gentle, and the thought of her encountering so evil a creature as Linken's Demon was disconcerting at least. He glanced down at the mortar and pestle in her hands, then beyond it to the mixture within. Her question after his own knowledge of the demon drew his focus up again and he hesitated. The warrior was calm as ever, but seemed a little apprehensive to speak of the creature. " It popped out to say hi," he mumbled, thereafter switching gears. " Don't speak to Linken about what you're doing, or who you're talking to for help. What you tell him, you're telling the demon at the same time. At the very least, be as vague as possible."

Penelope places her mortar and pestle down again before moving to find a pan for the stove. The woman is now grabbing a pitcher of water that is off to the side and she pours a bit in the pan before turning her back to the warrior to set the pan on the stove. She does not light the stove yet, instead she turns around. ‘It popped out to say hi’. The woman only had a moment of being face to face with the entity. She wondered if the thing had gotten stronger since it last spoke. As the warrior tells her clear directions, the herbalist nods along with him. “Of course, of course,” her eyes flick to him again. “I know. I’ve been careful, but I told him that I –do- want to help him. I just don’t know how yet. If you think of any ideas –please- tell me as soon as possible.”

Krice watched Penelope move about the space behind the counter, distantly interested in the methods she used to cook and prepare herbal products--distant only because their topic of discussion was the more important thing. He nodded in an unspoken promise to let her know of any ideas that came to his mind on how to deal with the demon, and even voiced a couple, " I'm hesitant to involve Talyara, given how dangerous this is, but she might be able to think of something, too." Penelope had mentioned asking Lanara for help, the witch's sister, so it stood to reason. " Also, the High Priestess Leone. I'll try to get in contact with her and see what she suggests. She's very powerful. Maybe she'll be able to extracate it from him..." He seemed hesitant about that too, but there was his ideas.

“Talyara is the one I met at the events, right? She seems nice,” she pauses, “If she could help, keep her at a distance. I think the less people who know about this, the better. We don’t know what this thing is exactly capable of,” she admits. The woman then moves to light the stove to start to boil the water. She was making an oil. Oils were great distractions. “Leone, was she the one from the battle with the saurians? I think that… a priest is exactly who we need to help us in this situation. I talked to Zahrani who used light magic to detect darkness. I don’t know if she is able to help or not.” There were ideas from the two. “I think that we should talk to the people and perhaps… come up with a plan. Together.” She blinks. “I don’t think I can do this alone, and… as unfortunate as it is, I’m glad you came to me…” She looks to the side. “I just want Linken back. I want him to live the life that he always wanted, even though his life was… hectic. This is just the cherry on top for it, really.”

Krice nodded first at Penelope's memory of who Talyara was, and then the same for her memory of Leone. He listened to her ideas with obvious interest and although there was a lot to reply to, he focused in on a particular thing. She wasn't aware of that which the creature was capable, and whilst he wasn't an expert on the creature, he did offer some insight to the understandably stressed woman. " It did something to me--or, I mean, the surroundings." He squinted as he reminisced about the event of which he spoke, idly scanning the contents of the shop. " It looked like an illusion but there was no magical signature to confirm that it was one. Everything was black. Nothing was solid - and then I fell. When I hit the ground, it was the forest again."

As Krice mentions the illusion-like moment, the girl forgets about the boiling water behind her. So the water would begin to evaporate, so what? The girl presses her hands on the counter and leans forward. “That was what I was thinking when the black goop was projected onto me, it was somehow reversed like it never existed,” she adds quickly to their conversation. “Perhaps… we are dealing with more illusion-like magic. Scare tactics. I’m not saying that it may be capable of something else, but… illusions are definitely I think a key source of magic it has.” She pauses and leans back. “I haven’t let Lanara in on that yet, but she might be able to help with the magical aspect of it all.”

Krice tilted his head to watch Penelope when she leaned forward, her reply jibing with his own. To a point. His first response was to nod to the pot. " Don't overboil that," he said, following up with a clarifying, " But that's exactly my point. It -wasn't- illusory magic. There was no smell, no signature or presence of magic when it happened. Even with illusions, if the image pervades my mind, I can still sense the magic causing it."

Penelope sort of jolts to make sure she is not over-boiling the water. She reaches for the mortar and pestle and dumps the ingredients in and has the herbs simmer. “Thank you,” she says. She then turns around. “Listen, I haven’t been around Link as much as I want to since work has been so hectic. Give me a chance to talk to him, figure out more, and then I’ll find you. Even though we have our training session soon, I can also let you in on some more details. You let Talyara know, and I’ve already let Lanara know, perhaps we can all gather to figure out how to approach this?”

Krice pressed his lips into a thin line of apprehension. Clearly he didn't like the idea of Penelope prodding the ailing elf. " It spat at you, Penelope. You need to be very careful. Next time, that 'goop' might leave something permanent. What if it has transferred something to you?" He leaned in over the counter and pressed his free hand into the surface, scrutinizing the woman with that characteristically intense stare. Clearly he was trying to discern whether or not she had been infected by the demon.

Penelope listens to him before crinkling her nose as he gives her a very stern stare in observance. “Cut it out. I swear to Sven I feel fine,” she waves him off. “Listen, I –will- be careful. I promise. Why do you think I wanted to learn to fight from you? I keep a dagger now on me, at least, so I know I can hold my own, Krice,” she looks at him with sincerity. “I can protect myself, Krice. I know I can. Besides, I can run to Yerrel, he’s just down the way. I don’t think the entity wants me at all, I think it wants Linken, if anything.” She says to try to cool the warrior down. “I promise to be careful and keep my distance. I promise,” she says this and her moss eyes linger on him to get the message that she would, in fact, be as distant as possible. “If something happens, I’ll try to seek you, I solemnly swear I’ll sleep at the tavern in Kelay until I can find you in the bar.”

Krice leaned away when Penelope reprimanded him for his scrutiny, assuming his normal, squared-shoulder stance once more. He wasn't apologetic despite her exasperation; he needed to make sure that nothing was hiding beneath the surface, skimming her soul without her awareness. Noting her concluding words, he squinted apprehensively but then sought to clarify something. " If it wants Linken... Well, at the very least, it also wants me. We might be able to use that to our advantage." He sighed through his nose, his brow furrowed pensively. " Take care of yourself. Let's get this sorted out quickly."

Penelope gave him a stoic expression. She knew that he was concerned and skeptical, especially because she was keeping the elf with her. He spills his words and she scrutinizes him for a moment. If it wanted Linken and Krice, then it sure would want Penelope as well if that was the case, though she does not say this by any means to keep the conversation level and to remain strong. “We will, I promise, Krice. I want this more than you do… after all, I was in love with the man at one point,” she confesses, but she keeps that stone gaze. “I’ll see you soon. You take care too—seriously,” she says this last comment more sincere and rests her hand on the table with emphasis. “Travel safe.” With that, she turns her back away to focus on the simmering oils that begin to separate in the water. The smell wafts, and the aroma is calming. Something she exactly needed after a stressful conversation, though with Krice in the know, she finds a sense of comfort that she is not completely alone in the mess.

Krice's eyes left some of their intensity with his last comment, and he regarded Penelope more as a friend to protect than only another citizen. He knew she must have loved Linken if they were together at one time, and he understood how important it was for her to cure the elf. The importance for -him- was ensuring that a dangerous entity wasn't allowed to hurt the greater public. When the woman turned back to her task, he hesitated in contemplation before turning to depart. Only once he was back on Kelay Way did the warrior sheathe his sword again, turning west to continue about his business.