Sylphi immediately peels off from the group, oblivious to the sudden shift in the atmosphere to go play in the snow.
The locals, who all seems some portion draconic, shrink back from Amoré as she steps up to two nearby women to ask if Ko Kiri has made it back already. They don't seem to speak common, and hurry to tuck their children behind them.
Amoré bristles and insists that she has no interest in their children, just Ko Kiri.
They keep glancing anxiously between her and Diana, until Diana finally gets the hint and walks over. They try to speak to her in Draconic...which Diana doesn't speak. Then they switch to Common and Amoré almost loses her shit.
Diana tries to calm her down as a large, blue dragonborn man approaches them. He ushers the women and children into the nearest home before addressing them. He introduces himself as Ra Kata, in perfect Common, and immediately moves on to expressing concern about how they know Ko Kiri.
Especially since Amoré had just been in the middle of loudly recounting the story of how they had met while Ko Kiri was committing an act of arson.
Amoré recounts the tale from the beginning, leaving Ra Kata to absorb it in mild distress before he is distracted by Sylphi's antics behind them. He abruptly asks Diana and Amoré if they claim her as a companion.
Amoré, still feeling lingering anger over the Cham Person incident™, answers "No," just as Diana answers "Yes."
Ra Kata looks between them, and back at Sylphi, before calmly stating that she could be thrown off the mountain if she isn't their companion.
With an ugly sense of glee rising up inside her, Amoré deadpans again that she doesn't know Sylphi just as the druid wanders over towards them, calling out both Diana and Amoré by name. Ra Kata gets more and more confused with their back and forth before sighing and asking them to follow him, and begins to lead them deeper into the city.
Along the way, they are joined by two more guards, and the three of them lead the party to a large building with huge twin dragon statues out in front. He ushers them up the stairs and inside, before having them wait outside a room blocked off by a thick curtain.
He slips between the divide, and while the three of them wait, they can only pick up the barest of frantic whispers through the thick cloth.
Eventually, another dragonborn comes to help Ra Kata open the curtains to lead them inside what appears to be a throne room.
A blue dragonborn lady sits on a simple throne, drinking tea on a dais at the opposite side of the room. Ra Kata leads them up to a respectable distance and introduces her as the town Elder.
The three of them bow, though some more shallowly than others...
The Elder begins speaking, though just like the women at the gates, she only seems to acknowledge Diana. Amoré's blood begins boiling as she directs all questions to Diana, feeling disrespected in a way most would never dare subject her to as a member of the High Nobility.
As once again, they are (no Diana is) asked how they know Ko Kiri, Amoré finds what little control over her tongue she cares to keep fail completely as Diana tries to dance around the answer.
Amoré chimes in about the arson incident again, only to be shushed by the Elder, to her fury. Her only solace being that Sylphi is given the same treatment even when she speaks up in Ko Kiri's defense.
The Elder again, addresses Diana and gets her to recount the night of the party in detail. Diana is mostly faithful, until they get to the part about Ko Kiri's involvement, and Amoré gets silenced again when she reminds them that Ko Kiri was actively setting fires à la molotov cocktail.
The Elder raises her hand and holds up two fingers.
Amoré is shocked into silence as she recognizes the gesture no one has dared use on her since her sixth name day.
The Elder takes advantage of her silence to finally deign to acknowledge the other two people standing beside Diana, though Amoré cannot even register what she says to Sylphi over the roaring in her ears.
The Elder then turns back to her, addressing her as "Rude One," and asks why she's even here.
Amoré snaps back that it's because unfortunately she can't go anywhere without Diana.
The Elder is silent for a moment before finally introducing herself as Ra Ja, and to her knowledge, Ko Kiri is not here. She beckons Ra Kata up to her on the dais before whispering something to him. Amoré is only able to catch the name "Ro Sama" before he straightens up and leaves the room quickly.
While they wait for his return, Sylphi tries to reassure the remaining dragonborn that Ko Kiri is alright. That she was showing promise of being a powerful druid. Though, she should have followed her instinct and insisted that they escorted her home.
Amoré scoffs, muttering that Ko Kiri was reluctant to even show them on a map where she lived. And even if she did want to be escorted home, who was this "we" Sylphi was mentioning? If Diana and Sylphi were so torn up about this the two of them should have acted on that concern and just left her at Agatha's and played happy bodyguards. But no, they let her walk off on her own.
Diana shifts the blame, arguing that she wasn't even there when Ko Kiri left Agatha's house. Amoré shifts the blame, because she was preparing for her Inheritance Trial. And after all, she didn't even want to bring Ko Kiri back to Agatha's, since the location was meant to be secret, but Sylphi and Diana vetoed her like they suddenly have to be responsible for every child they come across.
Sylphi starts arguing back, but they're interrupted by the arrival of Ra Kata and another blue dragonborn woman. She looks sickly and panicked, asking them if they've seen Ko Kiri as soon as she gets close enough to them. She barely gets the words out before she begins having a sick spell, leaning heavily on Ra Kata for support.
Sylphi tries to calm her down by Druid Crafting a flower scent, though it just seems to make her worse.
Another dragonborn man runs in, even larger than Ra Kata. The excitement drains rapidly from him as he takes everything in, seeming to realize that there is no Ko Kiri to welcome home. An awkward silence falls upon the room.
Amoré finds herself answering the new dragonborn woman, reiterating that Ko Kiri had a two day head start on them, but they had been utilizing Sylphi's magic for a few hours a day to try and close the gap. There had been no sign of her, or that they had passed her, so they had been hoping that she had just beaten them there.
Ra Krills, the other guard that had lead them in earlier, introduces this woman as Ro Sama...Ko Kiri's mother...
He explains that Ro Sama has been suffering from a chronic illness for quite a while now. One that has no cure. Ko Kiri was unaware of this fact, and left the village in order to find one, along with the money to pay for it.
Amoré feels her body go cold. For just a moment, another frail blue body...one half a continent away...superimposes itself over Ro Sama's in her mind.
Her fury has never been cold before.
"You mean to tell me, Ko Kiri went and got herself involved in mercenary work...committing ARSON specifically...because you wouldn't tell her that her mother's condition had no cure?"
Before she can blink she's incased in a large magic bubble.
Instinctually, she goes to kick the inside of the bubble, only for it to continue to move with her at the center. She notices distantly that while Sylphi was standing right next to her when the spell was cast, the bubble slides off of her with no resistance at all.
The dragonborn outside continue to talk about Ko Kiri's quest to find a cure, as if she isn't yelling her head off inside a giant magic sphere in the middle of the room. Neither Sylphi or Diana make any indication that they can hear her either as they express their own disapproval for the dragonborns' decision not to tell her the truth, so Amoré continues to seethe on her own.
Ro Sama breaks down crying as the conversation continues to drag on, despite Sylphi's efforts to console her.
Elder Ra Ja eventually decides that there is no more that can be done at the moment, and that they will reconvene to discuss any further plans to find Ko Kiri before they leave the Top tomorrow. Until then, they will be sheltered by one of her sons.
The bubble around Amoré finally dissipates and Ra Mana (one of the other three guards that escorted them here) is called forward to guide them out of the hall and to his home. He orders them to keep close to him, and tells Diana (loudly) to keep an eye on Amoré, or she might get thrown off the Top.
And after burning out most of her rage inside the bubble, Amoré can't even find the energy to snap back at him.
As always, Diana : @wolfy1298
And we thank our wonderful DM : @cappierong for being so brave about drawing architecture for me because I'm evil and asked for it ૮꒰˶ฅ́˘ฅ̀˶꒱ა 💕
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