A very large and very white hat with legs moved across the streets of Ul'dah. Upon further inspection, the hat was actually hiding a lalafel. Her tiny hand was pulling from a Roegadyn woman that towered above her, guiding her across the city to its most famous inn, the Quicksand. They walked various steps into the building and then the lalafell stopped.Â
"Were are here." Ulanan said, looking around. Her hand was still clenched on the other woman's clothes. "I don't see either of them, but they are likely in their room. If they didn't leave. We'll have to ask the innkeep. Do you want to wait at a table and have something to eat once I find them?" she asked, briefly looking up.
Cypress, followed the other woman's lead, the treated skirt bunched and wrinkled in her hand. Bandages wrapped about her head to cover her eyes and mess up her short, choppy hair, made from strands of oranges and pinks. "I'd rather find them first. The food will not go anywhere, but they might."
"That's why I said 'once I find them'." the lalafell replied grumpily. "This way." She carefully pulled the woman to the other side of Quicksand, going all the way around to avoid the lowered central area and the few steps that lead to it.Â
When they reached the innkeep, she let the Roegadyn free for a moment to place her hands on the counter and use them to rise her head above it. She exchanged a short and low burst of words with the man, another white clothed lalafell, curiously, before going back to her. "It seems they are in the room I expected them to be." she started. "Having dinner. Do you want to interrupt them?"
"I think you already know the answer to that," came the answer. While Cypress might have felt lost amidst the tavern's patrons, but she didn't show it. Her back was straight and her face looked straight ahead, features determined.
"Manners are not your strenght, I see." Ulanan was quite grumpy that day. She grabbed the Roegadyn's clothes once more and pulled her towards the rooms. "It's this way. Watch out with the steps. Ul'dahns love steps and stairs and all kind of things that make walking difficult."Â
Indeed, she was very grumpy.
D'hein was walking away from the rooms, looking at his feet, tail dragging sadly behind him. He still wore the destroyed clothes he'd been wearing since Vesper Bay.
Cypress followed, her large feet only occasionally knocking into something, "I was not raised among big cities like this one here. Indeed, I have spent most of my years away from civilizations. I do not intend rudeness."
"We'll have to educate you one day, then."
It was not long before Ulanan noted the familiar Miqo'te up ahead. She first pointed at him, but that lasted only about three seconds before she dropped her hand and frowned at herself. Pointing was not going to help the woman notice him any better.
"That's D'hein in the hallway." she commented. And then she called out to him while raising her free hand. At least he could see it. "D'hein!"
The man was still looking at his feet. When he heard his name, one ear twitched and swiveled, and he muttered as though in answer to some question. "Apparently petulant, by at least some accounts." He paused in mid-step.
Cypress looked down at where the sound was coming from, though that didn't actually do anything to help, "D'hein?" she repeated questioningly, habitually looking around with her head before she forced herself to stop.
"That's the man who was in Vesper Bay with them." she said, wondering if Cypress had forgotten him. She kept pulling Cypress, moving forward. "D'hein! Over here. I'm not -that- small."
D'hein lifted his gaze, seeing the pair, but seemed utterly drained of enthusiasm. "Hm? I apologize. You must forgive me. My life has been sapped from my very bones, that I now walk as though on a quivering thread."
"You speak with the wrong people about such things, or perhaps the right ones depending on your viewpoint." Her eyes itched and a red hand lifted up to her cheek to scratch under the bandage and at the edges of her eyelid against doctor's recommendation.
Ulanan didn't know if she should be worried about D'hein's words, or if it was just him overflowing with melodrama. "Did something happen to Antimony?" she asked plainly.
"Perhaps." D'hein sighed. "More likely something has happened with me, but you would not care about that. Antimony and K'airos have been given food and are well." He finally lifted his gaze far enough to see Burned Cypress' face, and blinked in bemusement. "What has happened?"
The hand stopped scratching at his question, and dropped down to her side, "We found... voidsent. Not the one that is housed by your daughter."
Ulanan took a long breath and let it out very slowly. "There was a shipwreck. It was recent. The voidsent might have attacked it while...D'aijeen's was attracting them to Vesper Bay." she finally said, mostly speculating about the subject. "We came back to make sure Antimony and her daughter were well."
"... I see. And... You were injured?"
Cypress made a grunt at Ulanan's assertion that they were here to check on the wellbeing of Antimony and her family. Certainly she had no ill-wishes towards them, but to say that was misdirection. "The lalafell harbored doubts," she answered, after all this time still unknowing of her guides name. "I paid for it.
Ulanan lowered her head and released the roegadyn's clothes. "I know it was my mistake. No need to throw it on my face in public." she grumbled.
D'hein lifted the palms of his hands in gesture. "That's not why I'm asking. Not at all. You found a Voidsent that was associated with D'aijeen somehow, but you did not find D'aijeen?"
The Roegayden shook her head, "No. We did not. We found the beastly pet and another, in the body of a girl. In the time it would have taken us to return to the ship crash and track her again, it would have been far too late."
"The alternative was to keep going and let her bleed to death." Ulanan added, looking up at Cypress. "That was not acceptable considering our small chances of success."
"Such dramatics," Cypress said dryly.
D'hein shrugged. "Antimony and K'airos are fine. Now what will you do?"
"It seemed a good possibility that... D'aijeen would return to her family. Or that they might know possible places where she would hide." Despite what everyone else may have believed, Cypress did not distinguish between the host and the voidsent in this case.
Ulanan simply stared at D'hein while the Roegadyn spoke.
"So you intend to question them further." D'hein shook his head. "Don't they warrant some time? Any at all?"
"Even if you stand still, Althyk will not stop time for you. This is not a matter that will wait for wounds to heal."
"We can't rest until the voidsent is dealt with for good." Ulanan added.
"Fine." D'hein said. "But you will approach them with ludicrous reverence."
"I won't pretend that I know what that means, If you wish to come D'hein to ensure it though, you may." Cypress's bandaged face turned down to where she knew her companion would be, by virtue of their enormous height difference, "Please, lead the way, lala."
"Ulanan." she replied, grumpy again. "We have names, too. And 'ludicrous reverence' means you should not be as blunt as you always are."
Ulanan, so that was the name, "Hmm. I can make no promises, all the better than I do not speak with them alone then."
"Speak to them as you would goddesses," D'hein said, stepping aside.
"Hmn. Perhaps you should re-examine your relationship with the Twelve. The stuttering flowery language many insist on would only annoy them."
Ulanan huffed, pulling the Roegadyn forward. "Because you speak with them personally on a daily basis."
Cypress stayed quiet at that, letting the tug on her clothing lead her forward.
The tiny woman stopped in front of a particular door, the one leading to Antimony's room. Her plainfolk ears distinguished two voices on the other side. "Here we are." she announced to the Roegadyn. "Watch your mountain manners." She then knocked the door.
Inside, K'airos didn't even have time to wonder about how expensive mirrors really were before the knock came. "Oh, maybe he forgot something." she said to Antimony, thinking it was D'hein at the door.
Antimony looked up sharply, expression conflicted, and finally sighed, "Perhaps," as she crossed the small room to open the door.
Cypress could only guess what Mountain Manners were. They were probably what D'hein was so worried she would exhibit though, as he'd asked her to speak with 'ludicrous reverence'. She remained quiet at Ulanan's side waiting for the knock to be answered.
When the door opened, Ulanan raised her head and did not smile. She was probably a bit gloomy, at least. "Hello, Antimony." she greeted plainly. "Are you well?"
That it was not D'hein stopped Antimony in her tracks, and when she looked past her short (and usually welcome) visitor to the other, she drew a sharp breath through her nose. "I was," she spoke thinly.
"It will yet be sometime before everything is well again," Cypress's deep voice sounded as if it was being dragged over the coals, smoky and rough as it was. "We are here with questions, not because we wished to torment."
"... I have no interest in your questions." She frowned sourly towards the red-skinned roegadyn before giving Ulanan an almost hurt look. She made to shut the door.
"Just give us two minutes." Ulanan begged from under her hat. "We won't bother you anymore after that."
Cypress kept her mouth shut for the time being, acknowledging that her guide knew how to navigate this sort of thing better than her.
Some indiscernible emotion flashed across Antimony's features at Ulanan's words. Her fingers shook briefly against the doorframe. Then she glanced back towards K'airos. "I must think of Airos. We will not entertain your questions."
K'airos shifted in placed, standing near the bed where all the clothing was piled on.Â
"I understand. But the voidsent didn't stop with your daughter." Ulanan replied, plainly and in her most serious tone. She even boldly stepped in the way of the door. "We found the beast in a  shipwreck along the coast and destroyed it. But we don't know if it will reform or reappear somewhere else. We need your help to find if such a place exists."
"My help--" Antimony turned back to the door, brow knit tight behind her glasses. "What do you expect me to do, to find a voidsent? I have lost two of my children now for good. You will NOT ask me to put at risk the last!"
"Your daughter and the voidsent were one in the same. Your family knows more than any about it. After all that’s been left in its path, I would hope that you have some part that wishes to see what good may have resided in her put to rest and not overshadowed by what remains," The red woman stood towering in the hallway, her head aimed straight ahead, unable to focus on anything easily.
Ulanan threw the roegadyn a disapproving glance, but upon seeing her bandaged head, it hit her that such an action would have no effect. She still did it, of course. "We are not asking you to come with us." Ulanan turned to Antimony. "Just to tell us if you can think of anything that could help us."
D'hein lingered well down the hallway, far out of Antimony's range of view, though perhaps Ulanan and Cupress would realize his continued presence. He watched two carefully.
Tail flicking in agitation behind her, Antimony stared down in distress at her small friend. "... What I could tell you... I never understood Aijeen. If... if it was ever even--" Her ears shifted back to lay against the sides of her head. "I will never know where my daughter ended and the voidsent began. Please just let us mourn in peace."
"You say that you don't know where one ended and the other began. That’s why we are here. Because they are not so separate as you would wish."
Ulanan gripped on Cypress' clothes and pulled quite hard. "Manners!" she raised her voice. "Be tactful! Polite! Do they have none of that in your silly mountains?" She huffed and looked back at Antimony, spending a moment to look very apologetic. "Do you know if she had any...private location of her own back when she was still with you, in the Sagolii? Somewhere she could practice her magic without you knowing?"
Expression growing pained, Antimony leaned some of her weight on the door, though she didn't try to close it and squish Ulanan. She remembered those terrifying moments where K'aijeen's troublesome efforts had had their purpose revealed. She did not ever want to revisit such a place, but... "The cliffs. There was a cavern." She sighed thinly. "... There are many caverns. But hers... Ah, please, I do not wish to speak of this. Leave us be."
Cypress leaned down, into the direction that the her clothing was pulled tautly from to speak more directly with Ulanan, "Do you know where this is?"
Ulanan thought for a second, tapping her fingers against her chin. "I don't." she finally replied.Â
"You won't find it." K'airos interjected, standing behind her mother. "It was deep in the Sagolii, and there's no way to know how much the dunes moved, or if they covered the cliffside..."
The lalafell gripped Cypress' clothes once more and spoke to her. "In any case, I just thought of something else we can do to further our search."
"What?" Cypress asked simply.
"Come!" Ulanan urged the woman to follow her by pulling enphatically. "No need to bother them any longer. Thanks for humoring us, Antimony!"
The Roegadyn stood her ground, the tugging at her clothes doing nothing to move her now that she didn't wish to do so. "I would have you tell me first, before we leave."
Expression slackening in confusion, Antimony just blinked between the lalafell and the roegadyn.
"D'aijeen lived in the dodo community." Ulanan said, using both hands to pull the Roegadyn. To no effect, naturally. "D'hein will know more."
"The other girl seemed to information as well," Cypress reasoned.
"I will not suffer you to interrogate my daughter," Antimony interjected with a sudden glare.
D'hein's ears popped up where he stood off to one side. Him? Know something? Strange thought. He wasn't sure if her did.
Ulanan sighed heavily. "Hey, K'airos!" she shouted, making the girl flinch at how sudden it was. "Did you live in the dodo place?"
"Wha- no, I didn't. I was-"
"Did you ever go there with your sister?"
"No..."
Ulanan threw her hands int he air. "There! She doesn't know more than Antimony does. Let's ask D'hein instead. He probably knows that place like the back of his mane."
D'hein pawed at the back of his mane, appearing self-concious.
Cypress tried to contain the frustrated roar that built up inside her, "Did she not just speak of a cave? D'hein has information as well, perhaps. But I will not have us toss away opportunities."
"It was years ago, where she made..." Antimony's tail drooped, as did her voice, "... the demon. Please, you know all I can tell you."
"We don't know where it is. It's in the Sagolii, but we can't guide you there." K'airos replied, crossing her arms. "I would guide you there myself, but I don't know where it is!"
Ulanan kept pushing, being increasingly annoyed at Cypress. "All your plans to find the voidsent are to trust Althyk to throw you at places in the correct time. We can go wander aimlessly in the Sagolii after we look into the places we have closer!"
"Do not seek to make fun of that which you obviously do not understand. My relationship with Althyk is beyond reproach."
"I'm not making fun." Ulanan answered, grumpy. "But Althyk won't favor you if you don't help him help you by making things that make sense. Like examining her room in the dodo community."
Cypress relaxed slightly at that, "Hrm. I will not be of much help with such a thing now."
Working her jaw in tense silence, Antimony looked between the two.
Ulanan did something she hadn't done in a while right after that:
"All you actions aim to Althyk's aspirations, but Althyk already acts by aiming you in the apt approach!" she said, and pointed at D'hein down the hallway. "D'hein's right there, standing like a halfwit, as if some force pulled him to wait so he can help even though he doesn't know it."
"Not like a halfwit," D'hein retorted. "Like someone who doesn't trust the Roegadyn to act any better than a barbarian."
Flinching back from the door, Antimony's ears shifted towards the Tia's voice though she refused to look down the hall towards him. "In that case... you have even less reason to disturb us."
All of the social constructs and mannerisms pinged about Cypress, ironically only causing her discomfort, while it brough order and peace to everyone else. "Let us leave then."
Ulanan was most pleased about that. She almost squeaked. Almost. But that would have been unlady-like. "D'hein!" she called out, guiding Cypress with both hands. "Come with us!"
 He watched the two with some trepidation that was not unlike Antimony's own. "I'm afriad I see little point in these things, either."
Ulanan hurried to reply. "Don't be so contrarian. D'aijeen was hidden in D'ahl's room. She probably had her own room. We might find a clue on how to lure the voidsent, there."
"We have little to go on, now D'hein. That is why we are searching for leads now," Cypress had followed Ulanan to a stop just down the hall in front of D'hein.
D'hein eased heavily to one side, turning slowly and watching the cieling as he thought. His ears swiveled incongrously. "I am not sure I wish to return to the commune presently, however."
"You're cooperation was not a question. You were not asked to volunteer."
"Ack! Your manners are terrible!" Ulanan complained. "We'll let the man at least change clothes. He's wearing the same attire he was in Vesper Bay. We can eat something while we wait. Olives! Those will cheer you up."
Antimony took a step back from the doorway then and eased her weight from the door as though to let it shut. "He mourns as we do. If you've any heart at all, give him peace." She turned from the door then.
"I did not mean because of something as simple as my attire." D'hein paced towards the exit where the inn became the tavern. "If I wanted to change, the Commune is where I would go to do it. I meant, overall, I am unsure if it is wise for outsiders to enter the Commune at the moment."
“It will not be time for peace until the matter is laid to rest and your daughter with it. To deny such a thing is shoulder responsibility for what she does," Cypress continues to ignore Ulanan's cautions about manners, mostly because she doesn't know how to use them constructively.
Ulanan huffed and threw her hands in the air, releasing her and doing nothing more.
Antimony blanched, her back to the door. "You--you would dare--" It would not look well to K'airos, but Antimony could stand it no longer. She flung her arm behind her to slam the door shut.
"Were are here." Ulanan said, looking around. Her hand was still clenched on the other woman's clothes. "I don't see either of them, but they are likely in their room. If they didn't leave. We'll have to ask the innkeep. Do you want to wait at a table and have something to eat once I find them?" she asked, briefly looking up.
Cypress, followed the other woman's lead, the treated skirt bunched and wrinkled in her hand. Bandages wrapped about her head to cover her eyes and mess up her short, choppy hair, made from strands of oranges and pinks. "I'd rather find them first. The food will not go anywhere, but they might."
"That's why I said 'once I find them'." the lalafell replied grumpily. "This way." She carefully pulled the woman to the other side of Quicksand, going all the way around to avoid the lowered central area and the few steps that lead to it.Â
When they reached the innkeep, she let the Roegadyn free for a moment to place her hands on the counter and use them to rise her head above it. She exchanged a short and low burst of words with the man, another white clothed lalafell, curiously, before going back to her. "It seems they are in the room I expected them to be." she started. "Having dinner. Do you want to interrupt them?"
"I think you already know the answer to that," came the answer. While Cypress might have felt lost amidst the tavern's patrons, but she didn't show it. Her back was straight and her face looked straight ahead, features determined.
"Manners are not your strenght, I see." Ulanan was quite grumpy that day. She grabbed the Roegadyn's clothes once more and pulled her towards the rooms. "It's this way. Watch out with the steps. Ul'dahns love steps and stairs and all kind of things that make walking difficult."Â
Indeed, she was very grumpy.
D'hein was walking away from the rooms, looking at his feet, tail dragging sadly behind him. He still wore the destroyed clothes he'd been wearing since Vesper Bay.
Cypress followed, her large feet only occasionally knocking into something, "I was not raised among big cities like this one here. Indeed, I have spent most of my years away from civilizations. I do not intend rudeness."
"We'll have to educate you one day, then."
It was not long before Ulanan noted the familiar Miqo'te up ahead. She first pointed at him, but that lasted only about three seconds before she dropped her hand and frowned at herself. Pointing was not going to help the woman notice him any better.
"That's D'hein in the hallway." she commented. And then she called out to him while raising her free hand. At least he could see it. "D'hein!"
The man was still looking at his feet. When he heard his name, one ear twitched and swiveled, and he muttered as though in answer to some question. "Apparently petulant, by at least some accounts." He paused in mid-step.
Cypress looked down at where the sound was coming from, though that didn't actually do anything to help, "D'hein?" she repeated questioningly, habitually looking around with her head before she forced herself to stop.
"That's the man who was in Vesper Bay with them." she said, wondering if Cypress had forgotten him. She kept pulling Cypress, moving forward. "D'hein! Over here. I'm not -that- small."
D'hein lifted his gaze, seeing the pair, but seemed utterly drained of enthusiasm. "Hm? I apologize. You must forgive me. My life has been sapped from my very bones, that I now walk as though on a quivering thread."
"You speak with the wrong people about such things, or perhaps the right ones depending on your viewpoint." Her eyes itched and a red hand lifted up to her cheek to scratch under the bandage and at the edges of her eyelid against doctor's recommendation.
Ulanan didn't know if she should be worried about D'hein's words, or if it was just him overflowing with melodrama. "Did something happen to Antimony?" she asked plainly.
"Perhaps." D'hein sighed. "More likely something has happened with me, but you would not care about that. Antimony and K'airos have been given food and are well." He finally lifted his gaze far enough to see Burned Cypress' face, and blinked in bemusement. "What has happened?"
The hand stopped scratching at his question, and dropped down to her side, "We found... voidsent. Not the one that is housed by your daughter."
Ulanan took a long breath and let it out very slowly. "There was a shipwreck. It was recent. The voidsent might have attacked it while...D'aijeen's was attracting them to Vesper Bay." she finally said, mostly speculating about the subject. "We came back to make sure Antimony and her daughter were well."
"... I see. And... You were injured?"
Cypress made a grunt at Ulanan's assertion that they were here to check on the wellbeing of Antimony and her family. Certainly she had no ill-wishes towards them, but to say that was misdirection. "The lalafell harbored doubts," she answered, after all this time still unknowing of her guides name. "I paid for it.
Ulanan lowered her head and released the roegadyn's clothes. "I know it was my mistake. No need to throw it on my face in public." she grumbled.
D'hein lifted the palms of his hands in gesture. "That's not why I'm asking. Not at all. You found a Voidsent that was associated with D'aijeen somehow, but you did not find D'aijeen?"
The Roegayden shook her head, "No. We did not. We found the beastly pet and another, in the body of a girl. In the time it would have taken us to return to the ship crash and track her again, it would have been far too late."
"The alternative was to keep going and let her bleed to death." Ulanan added, looking up at Cypress. "That was not acceptable considering our small chances of success."
"Such dramatics," Cypress said dryly.
D'hein shrugged. "Antimony and K'airos are fine. Now what will you do?"
"It seemed a good possibility that... D'aijeen would return to her family. Or that they might know possible places where she would hide." Despite what everyone else may have believed, Cypress did not distinguish between the host and the voidsent in this case.
Ulanan simply stared at D'hein while the Roegadyn spoke.
"So you intend to question them further." D'hein shook his head. "Don't they warrant some time? Any at all?"
"Even if you stand still, Althyk will not stop time for you. This is not a matter that will wait for wounds to heal."
"We can't rest until the voidsent is dealt with for good." Ulanan added.
"Fine." D'hein said. "But you will approach them with ludicrous reverence."
"I won't pretend that I know what that means, If you wish to come D'hein to ensure it though, you may." Cypress's bandaged face turned down to where she knew her companion would be, by virtue of their enormous height difference, "Please, lead the way, lala."
"Ulanan." she replied, grumpy again. "We have names, too. And 'ludicrous reverence' means you should not be as blunt as you always are."
Ulanan, so that was the name, "Hmm. I can make no promises, all the better than I do not speak with them alone then."
"Speak to them as you would goddesses," D'hein said, stepping aside.
"Hmn. Perhaps you should re-examine your relationship with the Twelve. The stuttering flowery language many insist on would only annoy them."
Ulanan huffed, pulling the Roegadyn forward. "Because you speak with them personally on a daily basis."
Cypress stayed quiet at that, letting the tug on her clothing lead her forward.
The tiny woman stopped in front of a particular door, the one leading to Antimony's room. Her plainfolk ears distinguished two voices on the other side. "Here we are." she announced to the Roegadyn. "Watch your mountain manners." She then knocked the door.
Inside, K'airos didn't even have time to wonder about how expensive mirrors really were before the knock came. "Oh, maybe he forgot something." she said to Antimony, thinking it was D'hein at the door.
Antimony looked up sharply, expression conflicted, and finally sighed, "Perhaps," as she crossed the small room to open the door.
Cypress could only guess what Mountain Manners were. They were probably what D'hein was so worried she would exhibit though, as he'd asked her to speak with 'ludicrous reverence'. She remained quiet at Ulanan's side waiting for the knock to be answered.
When the door opened, Ulanan raised her head and did not smile. She was probably a bit gloomy, at least. "Hello, Antimony." she greeted plainly. "Are you well?"
That it was not D'hein stopped Antimony in her tracks, and when she looked past her short (and usually welcome) visitor to the other, she drew a sharp breath through her nose. "I was," she spoke thinly.
"It will yet be sometime before everything is well again," Cypress's deep voice sounded as if it was being dragged over the coals, smoky and rough as it was. "We are here with questions, not because we wished to torment."
"... I have no interest in your questions." She frowned sourly towards the red-skinned roegadyn before giving Ulanan an almost hurt look. She made to shut the door.
"Just give us two minutes." Ulanan begged from under her hat. "We won't bother you anymore after that."
Cypress kept her mouth shut for the time being, acknowledging that her guide knew how to navigate this sort of thing better than her.
Some indiscernible emotion flashed across Antimony's features at Ulanan's words. Her fingers shook briefly against the doorframe. Then she glanced back towards K'airos. "I must think of Airos. We will not entertain your questions."
K'airos shifted in placed, standing near the bed where all the clothing was piled on.Â
"I understand. But the voidsent didn't stop with your daughter." Ulanan replied, plainly and in her most serious tone. She even boldly stepped in the way of the door. "We found the beast in a  shipwreck along the coast and destroyed it. But we don't know if it will reform or reappear somewhere else. We need your help to find if such a place exists."
"My help--" Antimony turned back to the door, brow knit tight behind her glasses. "What do you expect me to do, to find a voidsent? I have lost two of my children now for good. You will NOT ask me to put at risk the last!"
"Your daughter and the voidsent were one in the same. Your family knows more than any about it. After all that’s been left in its path, I would hope that you have some part that wishes to see what good may have resided in her put to rest and not overshadowed by what remains," The red woman stood towering in the hallway, her head aimed straight ahead, unable to focus on anything easily.
Ulanan threw the roegadyn a disapproving glance, but upon seeing her bandaged head, it hit her that such an action would have no effect. She still did it, of course. "We are not asking you to come with us." Ulanan turned to Antimony. "Just to tell us if you can think of anything that could help us."
D'hein lingered well down the hallway, far out of Antimony's range of view, though perhaps Ulanan and Cupress would realize his continued presence. He watched two carefully.
Tail flicking in agitation behind her, Antimony stared down in distress at her small friend. "... What I could tell you... I never understood Aijeen. If... if it was ever even--" Her ears shifted back to lay against the sides of her head. "I will never know where my daughter ended and the voidsent began. Please just let us mourn in peace."
"You say that you don't know where one ended and the other began. That’s why we are here. Because they are not so separate as you would wish."
Ulanan gripped on Cypress' clothes and pulled quite hard. "Manners!" she raised her voice. "Be tactful! Polite! Do they have none of that in your silly mountains?" She huffed and looked back at Antimony, spending a moment to look very apologetic. "Do you know if she had any...private location of her own back when she was still with you, in the Sagolii? Somewhere she could practice her magic without you knowing?"
Expression growing pained, Antimony leaned some of her weight on the door, though she didn't try to close it and squish Ulanan. She remembered those terrifying moments where K'aijeen's troublesome efforts had had their purpose revealed. She did not ever want to revisit such a place, but... "The cliffs. There was a cavern." She sighed thinly. "... There are many caverns. But hers... Ah, please, I do not wish to speak of this. Leave us be."
Cypress leaned down, into the direction that the her clothing was pulled tautly from to speak more directly with Ulanan, "Do you know where this is?"
Ulanan thought for a second, tapping her fingers against her chin. "I don't." she finally replied.Â
"You won't find it." K'airos interjected, standing behind her mother. "It was deep in the Sagolii, and there's no way to know how much the dunes moved, or if they covered the cliffside..."
The lalafell gripped Cypress' clothes once more and spoke to her. "In any case, I just thought of something else we can do to further our search."
"What?" Cypress asked simply.
"Come!" Ulanan urged the woman to follow her by pulling enphatically. "No need to bother them any longer. Thanks for humoring us, Antimony!"
The Roegadyn stood her ground, the tugging at her clothes doing nothing to move her now that she didn't wish to do so. "I would have you tell me first, before we leave."
Expression slackening in confusion, Antimony just blinked between the lalafell and the roegadyn.
"D'aijeen lived in the dodo community." Ulanan said, using both hands to pull the Roegadyn. To no effect, naturally. "D'hein will know more."
"The other girl seemed to information as well," Cypress reasoned.
"I will not suffer you to interrogate my daughter," Antimony interjected with a sudden glare.
D'hein's ears popped up where he stood off to one side. Him? Know something? Strange thought. He wasn't sure if her did.
Ulanan sighed heavily. "Hey, K'airos!" she shouted, making the girl flinch at how sudden it was. "Did you live in the dodo place?"
"Wha- no, I didn't. I was-"
"Did you ever go there with your sister?"
"No..."
Ulanan threw her hands int he air. "There! She doesn't know more than Antimony does. Let's ask D'hein instead. He probably knows that place like the back of his mane."
D'hein pawed at the back of his mane, appearing self-concious.
Cypress tried to contain the frustrated roar that built up inside her, "Did she not just speak of a cave? D'hein has information as well, perhaps. But I will not have us toss away opportunities."
"It was years ago, where she made..." Antimony's tail drooped, as did her voice, "... the demon. Please, you know all I can tell you."
"We don't know where it is. It's in the Sagolii, but we can't guide you there." K'airos replied, crossing her arms. "I would guide you there myself, but I don't know where it is!"
Ulanan kept pushing, being increasingly annoyed at Cypress. "All your plans to find the voidsent are to trust Althyk to throw you at places in the correct time. We can go wander aimlessly in the Sagolii after we look into the places we have closer!"
"Do not seek to make fun of that which you obviously do not understand. My relationship with Althyk is beyond reproach."
"I'm not making fun." Ulanan answered, grumpy. "But Althyk won't favor you if you don't help him help you by making things that make sense. Like examining her room in the dodo community."
Cypress relaxed slightly at that, "Hrm. I will not be of much help with such a thing now."
Working her jaw in tense silence, Antimony looked between the two.
Ulanan did something she hadn't done in a while right after that:
"All you actions aim to Althyk's aspirations, but Althyk already acts by aiming you in the apt approach!" she said, and pointed at D'hein down the hallway. "D'hein's right there, standing like a halfwit, as if some force pulled him to wait so he can help even though he doesn't know it."
"Not like a halfwit," D'hein retorted. "Like someone who doesn't trust the Roegadyn to act any better than a barbarian."
Flinching back from the door, Antimony's ears shifted towards the Tia's voice though she refused to look down the hall towards him. "In that case... you have even less reason to disturb us."
All of the social constructs and mannerisms pinged about Cypress, ironically only causing her discomfort, while it brough order and peace to everyone else. "Let us leave then."
Ulanan was most pleased about that. She almost squeaked. Almost. But that would have been unlady-like. "D'hein!" she called out, guiding Cypress with both hands. "Come with us!"
 He watched the two with some trepidation that was not unlike Antimony's own. "I'm afriad I see little point in these things, either."
Ulanan hurried to reply. "Don't be so contrarian. D'aijeen was hidden in D'ahl's room. She probably had her own room. We might find a clue on how to lure the voidsent, there."
"We have little to go on, now D'hein. That is why we are searching for leads now," Cypress had followed Ulanan to a stop just down the hall in front of D'hein.
D'hein eased heavily to one side, turning slowly and watching the cieling as he thought. His ears swiveled incongrously. "I am not sure I wish to return to the commune presently, however."
"You're cooperation was not a question. You were not asked to volunteer."
"Ack! Your manners are terrible!" Ulanan complained. "We'll let the man at least change clothes. He's wearing the same attire he was in Vesper Bay. We can eat something while we wait. Olives! Those will cheer you up."
Antimony took a step back from the doorway then and eased her weight from the door as though to let it shut. "He mourns as we do. If you've any heart at all, give him peace." She turned from the door then.
"I did not mean because of something as simple as my attire." D'hein paced towards the exit where the inn became the tavern. "If I wanted to change, the Commune is where I would go to do it. I meant, overall, I am unsure if it is wise for outsiders to enter the Commune at the moment."
“It will not be time for peace until the matter is laid to rest and your daughter with it. To deny such a thing is shoulder responsibility for what she does," Cypress continues to ignore Ulanan's cautions about manners, mostly because she doesn't know how to use them constructively.
Ulanan huffed and threw her hands in the air, releasing her and doing nothing more.
Antimony blanched, her back to the door. "You--you would dare--" It would not look well to K'airos, but Antimony could stand it no longer. She flung her arm behind her to slam the door shut.
"Song dogs barking at the break of dawn, lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm; and these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, send their battered dreams to heaven."
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