((A day after Negotiating with a Battering Ram.))
***
Antimony wasn't entirely sure why she'd chosen to take D'edy Nunh's invitation. Parties were not exactly her thing, least of all parties hosted by a tribe whose members had been almost uniformly hostile to her - with a few exceptions, or really, just one - and then there was the added awkwardness of it being more than just a party. By all rights she should steer clear of such things. But D'hein was going to be there (he had to, because of that certain awkward point that made it more than just a party), and she could not shake the need to speak with him after everything that had happened. This seemed like a reasonable opportunity, then. And perhaps it wouldn't be so bad...?
So Antimony made her way up the spiraling staircase that led to the Dodo tribe's commune, dressed in her usual plain get up, though she'd put a bit more effort than usual into making sure her hair was nice. There wasn't much to be done for the livid bruising that spread across one cheekbone and in a starburst pattern across her nose and into the corners of her eyes, unfortunately. She'd managed to reduce the swelling significantly with a poultice of her own making, but the rest would have to fade with time. She just hoped it wouldn't damage whatever sway she could muster too much.
At least her nose wasn't crooked.
She made it up the last of the stairs only mildly out of breath, and a minute later - after regaining her composure and making sure her hair hadn't gone wild - she opened the door that would lead out into the commune's courtyard, preparing herself for the guard that was sure to greet her. And possibly turn her away before she took even another step.
The woman who apparently was in a habit of standing with her back to the door that Antimony was guarding turned half-turned to look over her should as it opened. Her dark eyes looked down through her dark hair, ash-gray skin of her face twisting at the sight of the woman. The massively tall woman -- at least for a Miqo'te -- glared at Antimony with barely restrained hostility, recalling the anger she'd shown the previous day when she'd tried and failed to turn the woman away.
Past her, the courtyard was alive with music and movement. The Dodos evidently weren't against bringing paid servants into the commune, as there was live music being played by a troupe of Lalafell in black business suits. The tune was lively and loud, not exactly aligning with the dreariness of the suits, but at least one of the Lalafell was moving his little legs happily in an attempt to compensate for this. They didn't seem accustomed to playing happy music.
Servants were orbiting the fountain with trays covered in drinks and food, all of them Lalafell. There were dancers, but these were Miqo'te, and they were dancing in the fountain instead of on any kind of dance floor.
The tall, dark woman, continued to glare at Antimony. More specifically, she was glaring at the woman's glasses, at her hair, at one part of her face and then another. Eventually, her gaze moved to the bruises on her features, and lingered there for a few seconds before her hostility was transmuted into a strange, unfriendly amusement. She smiled. "Maybe you should have been a smidgeon more careful yesterday."
Antimony's ears shifted back and she clasped her hands low at her waist in front of her. "Yes. Well." She cleared her throat awkwardly, flicked her tail, and then made sure her posture was straight before meeting the huntress's gaze with a slight frown. "D'edy Nunh," she still only half believed that klutz of a miqo'te was a nunh, "informed me yesterday that I was invited to this... celebration. If you'll let me pass, then...?"
The tall woman rolled her eyes and reached into a pouch on her belt. She plucked a small string of colorful beads out and tossed them at Antimony's chest, muttering, "Sorry." Then she stepped aside and gestured towards the courtyard. "Get going."
Antimony's hands fumbled to catch the beads, and she blinked down at them in confusion as she stepped through the door. "These are for..?"
The dark woman only stood taller, eyes wide and snapped, "I said go! Stop blocking the door!"
Ears flicking up in surprise, Antimony bounced forward and then hurried away from the door. Once she'd put a comfortable distance between herself and the surly guard, she slowed to take in what had become of the courtyard. Her hands idly twisted the beads around her fingers as she listened to the upbeat music from the lalafell. There was no doubt it was a celebration, she thought, though one very different from the kinds she was used to. But music and dancing were a commonality, at least, even if the details were keenly different.
Wandering towards the middle of the courtyard, near the fountain, and lingered there for a moment as her eyes searched the milling crowd. She felt horribly out of place, in a way similar to how she'd felt in those weeks after first setting foot in Limsa. One of the lalafell servants carrying a tray of unidentifiable but very strong-smelling finger food paused by her, lifting her burden in offering. Antimony gave the tiny woman a friendly, only somewhat nervous smile and plucked one of the items from it with a, "Thank you." This earned her a confused look before the lalafell hurried off, presumably to care for the hungers of other folk.
The Dodos were wearing most of their plumage. Except for the sparse handful of huntresses who were stationed about the courtyards, likely watching the bridges to make sure none of their Lalafellin servants went wandering off, the Dodo women were dressed in silks. They idled about as though the party had already been on for hours, but they had settled into it as though it were a normal day. They ambled about with drinks in their hands or sat on the benches as though they were decorations themselves, mostly brown-haired women in pastel hues with seemingly every limb, join, finger and toe bearing polished metal and gemstones.
A very thin woman appeared before Antimony. She wore a single layer of soft pinks and blues that seemed less like a garment and more like a few yards of expensive cloth draped and tied around her body, and a puffball of blonde hair above her head. She stood there for a moment with a near-empty wineglass in her hand, redness on her face and glass on her eyes, staring at Antimony's face for a long quiet moment before her mouth split open and her head pitched back. "Hey, she showed up!"
At once, a general murmuring rose up from the many silk-clad women, and the huntresses, as they set their drinks and lances aside and dug into pockets to produce small beaded bracelets. Even the dancers in the fountain -- wearing pastel silks of their own that, wet, didn't do much to hide their bodies -- pulled bracelets from somewhere on their persons.
The first in the crowd to throw a bracelet at Antimony was the puffball-haired woman, just kindly tossing it at her head as if she was trying to get the loop of beads around one of her ears. "Sorry," she said as she did so.
Then the rest of the bracelets came, from every single woman in attendance, each one saying a simple "Sorry," as they threw them. Some tones were mute, some sincere, at least one playfully melodic. The bracelets were not thrown hard or maliciously, but over two dozen of them rained down on Antimony over a long moment. One of the Lalafell servants ran for cover as a poorly-aimed bracelet smacked him in the face.
Antimony ducked her head, flicked her ears at the first set of beads, let out a muttered, "What?" at the second, and then just froze in confused silence as more clattered noisily over her. Her tail stuck straight out behind her, completely still though not bristled. When it seemed as though no more beaded bracelets were going to come her way, Antimony shifted her feet anxiously, felt her toes knock against beads that had fell to the ground, and gave a wide-eyed stare to the dandelion haired huntress.
"... I'm sorry," she mumbled, shook her ears, blinked. "I... am afraid I don't understand what this is about..?"
The woman laughed, the sound sluggish and heavy on her lips. "D'edy had us all make friendship bracelets for you and told us to say sorry and give 'em to you so we made a game out of it." She lifted her glass and used it to point at the place where her ears would have been if they weren't concealed by her massive hair. She succeeded in spilling red wine on her head. "First person to get it on your ear gets first night with the new Nunh." She tapped her head with the wine glass and reached for Antimony's ear, as though she couldn't tell whether or not anyone had won just from looking.
Antimony leaned her head away from the woman's clumsy hand, and her ears shifted back. "That, ah--" Her own hands reached up, patted at her hair to reassure herself that she hadn't become some living ring toss target. None of the women had managed to find their intended mark, luckily. "Ah, well, that is... that's very nice of all of you... I think. Yes! I appreciate the gesture."
"Good! Hey, why you dressed up in all that wooly stuff?" Dandelion-head shoved her glass indicatively at Antimony's robe, pouring out her wine on ti, but she didn't even seem to notice. "You cold or something? Or you just don't have any good clothes."
In the fountain, the women had resumed their dancing. Very few people were actually watching them, but the women seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Jumping back with a short yelp, Antimony batted at the front of her robe before realizing that really wasn't doing any good for the wine that had already sunk into the fibers. "These are my clothes," she stated a bit defensively, green eyes turning an unhappy frown down at the red stain. Her tail flicked. "I... could ask you why you are wearing... what you are."
"What? It's pretty!" She spun, then stepped forward suddenly so that she was mere ilms away from Antimony, her puffy hair brushing the woman's forehead. "Hey, we're friends now. Come on! Let's get you nicer clothes!"
Antimony almost protested that tossing a "friendship bracelet" at someone because your nunh told you to did not necessarily make you friends with said someone, but she was already on rocky ground with the Dodo tribe - or at least she had been so far. She was hesitant to risk even the sliver of good will she'd managed to uncover, at least because she didn't want anyone threatening to throw her off bridges or hitting her in the face again.
She protested instead, "That's very kind, but I like my clothes as they are."
"I'm offering to give you free things." The danelion-headed woman pushed her glass at Antimony's face. "Stuff for free. You don't gotta wear it, just catch it and resell it if you don't like it. You at least gotta let me make up for throwing you in jail that one time, Miss Sagolii Witch."
Antimony winced at that, leaning her head away from the wine glass. "You could begin by not referring to me by such a name," she suggested coolly. "My name is Antimony Jhanhi."
"Ya can't live down a nickname!" She flipped her glass carelessly and finally dropped it. It broke into a number of large pieces against the stone floor, and a servant quickly raced over to collect them; most of these women were barefoot after all. "Like, people call me... I don't have a nickname. Woops." A Lalafell presented her with a new glass of wine, which she took without question, placing it to her lips immediately and spinning away.
Her hair shifted, hinting at the movement of her ears inside of it, as she looked back towards the fountain. She lifted her glass and shouted, "D'edy! She's here!"
The Nunh had appeared in fountain at some point, his formally fuzzy ears now sleek with water and his very thin tail sleek and dripping. His body, practically just bones and skin, shone with water from head to toe. There were no clothes to obscure the sight, except for what honestly looked like women's underpants, and scanty ones at that.
Evidently trying to dance with the women, though it was painfully clear that he had no idea how, he stopped a moment after being noticed and jumped out of the fountain as though summoned. "Hello!" The tiny Nunh trotted over to Antimony, his bare feet slapping the ground.
Stifling further, annoyed protest at the unwanted nickname, Antimony turned to follow dandelion-head's gaze towards the fountain. She startled, blinked rapidly at the sight of the mostly naked, soaking wet Nunh, and then looked firmly away. There was a heat in her cheeks, but the bruises mostly hid it. "Hello," she offered stiffly as the Nunh approached, wringing her hands in front of her. Then searching for anything that would be appropriate to say and not really having a clue, she tried, "It seems everyone is, ah, enjoying themselves tonight." It fell lamely.
"They are! Come here, puffball!" D'edy extended his wet arms towards the dandelion-headed woman.
But she turned away from him and moved so that Antimony was between them. "Oh no, you don't. I'm going to have a new Nunh tonight, but it's not you!"
"Ah." D'edy's arms dropped to his sides. "Everyone keeps saying that. I mean I know he's got that tail, but-"
"It's not the tail I'm after!" She put the wine to her lips again.
"Huh." D'edy blinked, and looked at Antimony, and his smile burst forth over his thin face. "Well! I'm am just thrilled to the gills that you showed up! Surprised a bit, too."
"To the gills," Antimony echoed in a mutter and then shook herself, focusing on D'edy's face. "Well. Yes. I..." Her hands worked around themselves for a few seconds as she sought a suitable explanation. With all these women around her looking forward to the "new nunh", she felt suddenly supremely awkward in her intention to speak with D'hein. "It seemed the proper thing to do," she tried, winced. "That is, not that I would let my work be influenced by personal favors or anything--no, nothing of the sort! Just that, ah, it was such a mess what happened yesterday and... it seemed.. fair? To accept! I suppose."
"Seemed fair to me that you'd take legal action against the tribe for professional abuse and seek monetary restitution." D'edy said, smiling. Then he slapped his sides again. "Not that I'm telling you to do that. Party's good too!"
Behind Antimony, the dandelion-headed woman crouched, picked up a beaded bracelet, then stood and slipped it over Antimony's ear. "I win!" Tossing her hand in the air and spinning wine everywhere, she spun and shouted, "I winnnn! You girls better try harder next time!"
D'edy Nunh clapped and smiled, nodding, "That's good, very good. I love a business-savvy woman. Now we just need D'hein to actually show up and then we can all rip his clothes off."
Her ear twitched at the unexpected weight, but as her hands reached up to paw it off, she choked at D'edy's words, hand freezing on the bracelet around her ear. "We... What?" She coughed, pulled the beads off and let them hang in limp fingers. "That, ah--" What kinds of rituals did these Dodos have, she wondered a bit shrilly. No wonder Aijeen had grown up so... Clearing her throat again, Antimony twisted her tail behind her. Well she may as well say it, even if she was obviously intruding - did it count as intrusion when she was invited? - in a tribal affair. "Er, I had.. rather hoped to speak with him, actually," she forced out after a moment.
"Then you shoulda stuck some beads on your own ear." The dandelion-headed woman closed in on her and said, "He's mine tonight. You'll ahve to wait your turn."
"Okay, hey look! It's the winner's turn to dance!" D'edy reached over, grabbed the woman by her arm and pulled her away from Antimony, pushing her towards the fountain. "Special winner dance! Go make everyone jealous."
"Yes, winner dance!" The woman stumbled towards the fountain, not for a moment doubting that the winner dance was an actual thing.
Letting out a sigh as though he'd been relieved of some ponderous weight, D'edy spun back to Antimony and leaned towards her. "Well I can tell you're not interested in competing with the me and the ladies for his attention. So either the rumors are wrong and you're not interested, or the rumors are true and you can take him any time you want!"
"Rumors? What--" She grimaced then, recalling D'themia's angry, nasty words suddenly. She sighed. "... No. They are not true. They're just--ah! Who started those rumors anyway?? Certainly not Aijeen. No."
D'edy lifted his arms and joined them behind his head, knitting his fingers together with his elbows pointing upward. "Iiiii don't know. The women do get pretty jealous sometimes. Anyway, hey." He ducked his head forward. "The girls think I'm hiding D'hein away so that he's full of energy to have fun all night. Or something. But between you and me he's been moping since yesterday morning and I can't even get him to acknowledge there's a party going on at all."
Green eyes blinked once, and then her ears pressed back in acknowledgement. "I see." A pause, and then uneasily, "Because of... D'ahl?"
The Nunh pursed his lips, biting down on them and looking off towards the sky as if the thought were only just occurring to him. "Huh. Y'know, maybe. He has been haunting D'ahl's apartment. I just thought he liked the mirrors."
Antimony recalled those dizzying mirrors and thought no one but that twisted woman could enjoy such things, but she kept that thought to herself. It wouldn't do to think ill of the dead anyway, especially when her spirit likely lingered if it hadn't been given a proper hand off to the sun... Shaking her ears to dispel distracted thoughts, Antimony looked away from D'edy briefly, then back to the nunh. "Where is he now? I would speak with him."
"Probably still there. Just don't tell any of the women. They'd go down there and make him a Nunh on the spot!" He luaghed.
Antimony nodded, hesitated, and then admitted reluctantly, "I don't recall how to get there."
"Uhm, okay." D'edy looked one direction, and then the other, and then pointed Antimony towards one of the bridges. "Just tell the huntress over there that I told her to tell you where D'ahl's apartment is. And try not to let it get all awkward."
"Of course." Antimony looked past D'edy for a moment, towards the fountain where dandelion head was performing a rather uncoordinated, if suggestive, victory dance, then grimaced and bowed her head towards the Nunh. "Thank you. I hope you enjoy your party." She then turned, stumbled backwards as she barely dodged a lalafell servant who had been maneuvering with a delicately balanced tray of wine, and then righted herself with a flustered flick of her tail before making to cross the courtyard.
None of the other women stopped her on her way, thankfully, though she did end up accepting another bite of food from one of the servants before she finally approached the guard D'edy had indicated. Clearing her throat and folding her arms to try and hide the wine stain dandelion head had given her, Antimony stepped up to the woman. "Excuse me. D'edy Nunh has said you are to show me to D'ahl's apartment. Please." She spoke as straight arrowed as she could manage, hoping to avoid any questions as to why.
The woman she spoke to, a huntress dressed in the typical all-white armor of the commune's guards, snapped her gaze from the party as though she hadn't seen Antimony approach. Her short off-red hair hung about her face in great clumps, rigidly poking her features like flower petals. Her eyes, yellow as pollen, widened, dark lips twisted. "What in the seven hells?"
A whole five seconds passed, where Antimony blinked back at the woman in startled silence. Then she straightened suddenly, clasped her hands in front of her (one of which still held one of those silly friendship bracelets), and repeated firmly, "You're to show me to D'ahl's apartment, at D'edy Nunh's request." A brief pause and then an added, "Please."
One of the woman's eyes narrowed. Just one. The other twitched, and glanced away, and then back. "Wha... I mean, why? I mean, that's... But you're the..." Her gaze dropped to the bracelet in Antimony's hands, and she bit her lips and closed her eyes. Breathing deeply as if to calm herself, she snapped her head to one side and then the other. Her neck cracked loudly. "Fine. D'edy's the boss now, right? Everything's turned crazy overnight. The kid's the boss and the Witch gets a tour."
Antimony frowned, opened her mouth to protest their continued insistence in referring to her with that abominable name, but perhaps wisely reconsidered a moment later. "Not a full tour. Just to D'ahl's apartment," she reminded. "But thank you."
The woman's shoulders tightened and her arms shook, her ears slamming flat against her head. "...Yeah, sure. No problem." Her tail shivered as she led Antimony across the bridge and into the opposite tower.
Antimony followed quietly and did her best not to look down as they crossed the bridge, or even think about looking down, or consider that there was a down to be looked upon, or just... well, she kept her eyes glued to the red-head's back until they were safely inside the tower.
The woman took Antimony to what might've been a familiar door, with the decorative engraving on its outside still defaced just like it had been last time. "Here. Why?"
Stepping up to the door, Antimony lifted a hand as though to knock, but hesitated. She pursed her lips at the guard woman's words, rolled over a number of potential replies, trying to keep D'edy's request and her own desire to avoid embarrassing conflict in mind, and finally just settled on, "Private matters."
With an audible crack of limbs and armor, the woman snapped her head down towards Antimony. "Hey! I know D'edy said we should all be friends, but it's a little creepy that you of all people need to be escorted to D'ahl's home, alone, in the middle of the party, for 'private matters'. You sure you don't have some more specific purpose you want to volunteer?"
Antimony flinched, her tail curling as she half turned towards the guard, and then leaned away when the woman's face loomed startling near. "That... I am sorry for any appearance of, ah, creepy! I promise it's not like that. Only... well, family matters and it's.. all rather awkward for me to discuss and a long story nonetheless and--" She cut herself short, her ears shivering, and then just finished quickly, "Ask D'edy, if you must."
The woman leaned back from Antimony, one hand on her hip. "Careful. He might just tell me, and I'm sure he knows plenty."
"Yes, well," Antimony fidgeted. "I suppose he could. About some things. Ah--" She glanced back towards the door and then to the huntress. "... If I could have some privacy...?"
"You want privacy to open the door?" Her white-armored arms crossed. "I'm not going in there. The mirrors are unsettling. Especially now that she's dead. And with what happened to her body, a bunch of us suspect she'll end up haunting the place."
Green eyes widened at that. "To her... body?" She hadn't really learned what happened to D'ahl specifically, aside from that she had died an apparently horrible death. The guard's words settled heavy in her stomach, and her fingers itched for a few key ingredients that could at least help cleanse the...
"Ah, right, so. I will, uhm, be going inside now," she blurted out, turned, opened the door, and then slipped inside.
Watching Antimony slip into the apartment, the guard smiled. "Watch for her face in those mirrors, Witch. You've been warned." And then the door shut her out.
Inside, D'ahl's apartment was just as it had been when Antimony left the previous day. With so many of the mirrors broken, their confusing affect was lost. No longer a labyrinth, the entryway was just a hall covered in mirrors, with a few glass tables and a small number of doors. It would be one left turn to the apartment's main foyer, where there would be a single small window and most of the useful furniture.
Leaning her hands back against the door a moment, Antimony glanced around the entryway, eyes skittering over the mirrors cautiously and trying to ignore the numerous, bruised faces that blinked back at her. If D'ahl's spirit had not been properly released, the guard's words were entirely possible, she thought grimly. The apartment was unnervingly quiet, but she didn't let that dissuade her. Tail twitching close by one leg, she pushed away from the door and began to make her way down the hall. A crunch beneath dropped her eyes to a shard of glass that was now broken into a number of smaller fragments beneath her shoe, and she grimaced. Nothing had truly been touched since...
"D'hein? I know you're in here," she called out, taking her foot off the glass and pushing the shards off to one side of the hall. "Perhaps we should talk."
There was no answer, though there was a rhythmic click of glass from further in the apartment.
Antimony's ears flicked about, both unsettled by her surroundings and annoyed at the thought of the Tia (Nunh?) ignoring her. She followed the click of glass down the hall, into the main foyer.
Dhein sat in the foyer, one on of D'ahl's large, red suede sofas. He feet were up on a footrest in front of him, his head back and staring at the ceiling. More specifically, he was staring at a mirror on the ceiling, bearing a reflection of himself. He held an empty bottle, clicking it against a mirror-topped table to his right. The man's ears and tail both hung limp, his lips a neutral line, his eyes-half lidded and glassy. His red robe was bundled tight around him like a blanket.
Well, that was certainly moping, Antimony thought, pausing partway into the foyer to watch D'hein quietly. The beads of the friendship bracelet jingled as her hands began to fidget unconsciously. "I heard about D'ahl," she offered, then winced, recognizing that was likely a horrible place to start. She shifted her gaze to the mirrors about the room, sighed, and then pressed her lips together before speaking a bit snappier, "How long do you intend to remain here?"
The clicking of the bottle stopped. D'hein blinked. "I have also heard about D'ahl. I was asked to identify the body. It was difficult to judge." The clicking resumed.
Her hands continued to fidget distractedly as her brow lowered behind her glasses, lips turning down in a somber frown. A heavy silence followed D'hein's words for nearly a minute, and then Antimony let out a faint breath before speaking quieter, "Everyone--well, D'themia and... they thought I had done it." She blinked then, a suddenly worried look crossing her face as she eyed D'hein sideways. "Ah, you--er, you did not agree with them, right? I would never..." Her face twisted and she tried, "I worry for what it's done to Aijeen."
"I don't think you killed D'ahl, no. You couldn't." He set the bottle on the table, directly in the center of it, watching his movements in the mirror above him. "What are you worried about?"
She pulled a bit more roughly on the bracelet than she'd intended and she jumped as the string snapped, sending colorful beads scattering to the floor. Antimony blinked at the cascade helplessly for a moment before shaking her ears. "Ah, well, that--they were... close." Her brow furrowed as the beads, their numbers multiplied by the mirrors, bounced and rolled beneath D'hein's seat.
One of D'hein's ears twitched as he watched the beads in the mirrors. "Close is a way to say it, yes. Though I'm guessing they have terminated such intimacies. Otherwise this wouldn't have happened."
"What?" Antimony's brow furrowed deeper. "I'm sure there was nothing Aijeen could have done to prevent... it was a horrible thing, but to suggest she had anything to do with it..!"
"Nobody actually believes an animal attack killed D'ahl. It's not like something escaped from the coliseum without being seen."
"Yes, but... Aijeen?? No, that's not possible." Antimony set her mouth and tone firmly at this.
D'hein's tail swished beneath him. "How do you figure?"
"She is not a murderer." Her certainty lent an icy crispness to her voice.
"History disagrees with you."
"Excuse me?" Green eyes narrowed with affront. "Aijeen has done some questionable things in the past, but she has not killed anyone. She could never. That you would even consider thinking such... how dare you!"
The Tia blinked at the mirror three more times before finally dropping his gaze to look at Antimony. His brow dropped immediately, his lips turning down. "What happened to your face?"
Antimony's ears flicked back, and she crossed her arms defensively at the question. "Don't change the subject. It's unrelated--ah, mostly. But regardless! You--" she frowned at D'hein, tail curling up, "--should not be thinking such horrible accusations about the girl you claim to think of as a daughter."
Pushing his lips out, D'hein shrugged and looked up at the ceiling again. "D'aijeen has killed two people that I'm sure of, in the past, when she was still young. So you can't say she's never killed anyone."
Antimony paled. "What--what are you talking about? She's certainly never killed anyone under my watch."
"Well you weren't watching there for a while."
Her ears set back flat, eyes narrowed as her tail shivered. "Further evidence you--this entire tribe has done nothing but corrupt her!"
One of D'hein's ears lay down on his head, his other just twitching to the side. He closed his eyes and joined his hands over his stomach, taking in a deep breath. When he exhaled, the breath shook in his chest. He opened his eyes again, blinked them, and just stared at himself.
Antimony balled her hands into fists against her arms, practically vibrated where she stood in anger, and then turned half away from D'hein with a huff. "I refuse to believe she would have a hand in D'ahl's death. Have you seen her since?"
"No." He lifted one hand in a neutral gesture. "Nobody has. I'm assuming she's run off."
Her tail drooped. "And has no one gone to look for her?"
D'hein chuckled. "Everyone kind of figures she had something to do with D'ahl going crooked and then dying. So, no. Nobody has gone looking for her."
"That is not funny," Antimony snapped, then made to pace forward, found herself face-to-face with her own... face, spun around to pace the other way, only to meet the same, and then just whipped her tail back and forth. "This is absurd. You are--you're... no! I do not know why I came here. I'm going to look for Aijeen." Then she spun on her heel.
"Why did you come here?" D'hein suddenly sat up, dropping his face to look at her. "You didn't ask me anything that you can't figure out by asking anyone else."
Antimony hesitated, kept her back to D'hein while her tail shivered with a nervous energy. "You... I may not like it, but you are... personally involved in matters regarding Aijeen," she spoke with some reluctance.
"Personally involved. That's a word for it." One of his ears twitched again. "I think I know her better than you do."
Antimony's posture tightened visibly. "You certainly presume a great deal," she bit out.
"You don't even think she's capable of killing anyone, when as a matter of fact, she's unsettlingly good at it." D'hein stood, his tail immediately swinging back and forth behind him. "I didn't expect her to kill D'ahl, but you heard her when she ran out that door. She said she wasn't going to let D'ahl get away with hurting you. That's how she said it."
"She was angry, and those words could mean any number of things!" Antimony shook her head, dug her nails into her palms. "If Aijeen was involved in this murder at all - and there is no reason to think she was! - it was as a witness only, I'm certain. Which means she is out there alone, likely frightened, and--and I must find her." She again made to exit the foyer.
"She wouldn't be alone. She'd be with Airos."
"All the more reason to find her!" Antimony huffed and turned on D'hein. "Be quick to condemn her if you will, but she is my daughter. I know her and I will not shirk my obligations to her. I almost hope D'ahl does come haunt this place, so that she can tell you how wrong you are!'
"I'm not condemning her." D'hein spread his stance and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm saying that D'aijeen ran out of here as mad as Halone at the wrong time of month, saying she was going to find D'ahl. And then a few hours later D'ahl turns up dead from an animal attack, which is exactly how the other two people D'aijeen 'didn't kill' ended up dead."
"Listen to what you're saying - an animal attack? She's a child! Even if she were to--to--" Antimony couldn't bring herself to say it and so pushed on, "--she could not do such a thing as that! No, you're mistaken. It's not Aijeen."
"When Aijeen kills people she makes it look like an animal attack." D'hein ducked his head forward and spoke harshly. He pointed off towards the center of the commune, at nothing really. "The last Nunh made D'themia look like a kitten, and we all had to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to get rid of him. Aijeen had to kill two of his women, and they came out of it ripped to shreds. She took credit for that!"
"What...?" Her ears flattened out in confusion even as she felt her stomach twist. "Why would you say--that's nonsense, she... No." She gestured sharply with one hand, cut through the air in front of her. Then she turned away again. "You're wrong."
"I'm not wrong. It's history. It happened." He took a step forward, broken class cracking under his red shoes. "I'm not telling you she's a murderer. She killed in self-defense then. But you can't run off pretend she's not capable of hurting someone, or that she didn't kill D'ahl. She did. There only way around that is delusion."
"It's not delusion, it's--it's reason! She is physically incapable of it!" She thought back to how her daughter had clutched at her in the bathroom of her inn, how weak her gestures had been; Antimony's throat tightened.
"Incapable?" His ears went askew, and he shook his head. "If she can hold a scepter and a twig and tribal -- beads, I guess? -- then she can do anything that can be done with magic." He pointed at Antimony now. "You'd know better the strange magic she brought with her from the desert tribe of yours."
Antimony flinched, ears lowering further against her head. She furrowed her brow at a nearby mirror, at the bruised face glowering back at her, and then breathed, "She never hurt anyone deliberately." A pause, then reluctantly, "She only became truly dangerous when she created that monster."
Snapping his head back, one ear lying flat on his head and another standing straight up, D'hein blinked several times. He then spread his palms, "How can you keep doing that? Saying she doesn't hurt anyone and couldn't if she wanted to, and then 'Oh, by the way, everything went downhill after she summoned the monster'."
"She did it to help us!" Antimony all but shouted, then hesitated. Those were the excuses K'aijeen had made when they'd found her, at least. Antimony had believed her, but it hadn't changed how threatening the whole situation had been. Reaching up, she made to squeeze the bridge of her nose anxiously, then winced and pulled her hand away quickly when her face gave a painful reminder of why that wasn't a good idea.
"To protect you." D'hein squinted, his lips curling downward. "You're the only person D'ahl hurt at all. You're the only one who she could've been trying to protect. Wrongly."
"Are you going to try and claim she is using that monster again?" Antimony snapped. "It's gone, fled into the Sagolii. And likely died when whatever dark magics she used were no longer maintaining it."
"Used it? She used it?" His tail flicked behind him, whacking the furniture loudly, though he showed no sign of noticing. "So not only can she apparently summon monsters, but use them! What kind of monster?"
"It doesn't matter because it's dead," Antimony insisted, and her tail shivered.
"If she summoned one, she can summon another, can't she?"
Antimony was silent at that, posture tense and drawn in. Eventually she spoke in a quiet voice, "She... stole meat and bones from our stores. The monster was..." Grimacing, Antimony didn't finish the thought.
"I don't know who you're talking when you say that she can't hurt anyone, but it's not my daughter." D'hein pulled himself back into a straight and composed posture, turning his face towards the mirrors. He saw Antimony in them, but he mistook her for D'ahl briefly. "Then again, I wouldn't think D'aijeen would ever hurt D'ahl either. So I guess we're both wrong about her."
Though she bit down on her tongue to keep quiet the remarks she wished to make regarding how entitled D'hein was to calling K'aijeen his daughter, Antimony couldn't stop the short huff at his words. "I am sorry for your loss. But I refuse to believe it until we've spoken with her," she replied tensely. One ear shook.
"Now might not be a safe time to go looking for her, Antimony."
"Don't be absurd. Nothing will keep me from seeking out my daughter, especially after such an incident."
Crossing his arms once more, D'hein looked at her sideways. "And where do you plan on looking?"
Antimony pressed her lips together a moment, arms tightening against her sides. "I will ask after her... And Airos. Someone in this forsaken city must have seen one or both of them. Or perhaps they've gone to Drybone."
"And you don't think the Sultansworn is looking? Meanwhile there are four more deaths out there, and we don't know what killed them. Maybe that was her monster, too."
"Unless you've told them of Aijeen," a certain threatening venom entered her voice in those words, "then they would have no reason to search for her. It matters not, however."
D'hein blinked, "She's the one who turned D'ahl's body into the Sultansworn. They're involved because of her."
Antimony blinked, her ears flattening at that, but then she only said, "It doesn't matter. I am going to find her." She made for the hall she'd entered from then, tail flicking.
"Fine. Don't let her hurt you if you find her." One of his ears lay down, the other turning an unrelated direction. "I'll just be here. I've got nowhere to be."
Antimony paused at that, half turning back towards D'hein in the doorway. "You're not interested in the celebration they're throwing for you outside? The title of nunh is nothing to toss sand at."
D'hein snapped his gaze to the single, tiny window in D'ahl's apartment. "The only reason I was trying to get rid of D'themia was for D'ahl and Aijeen. The word 'Nunh' sounds kind of stupid to me right now."
For a moment her expression softened, then shifted away before turning back towards the hall. "I... may be able to gather the necessary things to usher D'ahl's spirit on to the light, if you wish it." She hesitated then, and finally added, "If you wish to help Aijeen, you should help me find her."
D'hein's ears spasmed, standing upright, then slamming down, one sliding forward while the other slid back and then changing positions. His tail pinwheeled. He looked to the mirror but there was only his own frustrated expression and Antimony, with her back to him. "D'themia had D'ahl's body thrown outside the city to waste away alongside those of starved refugees, as though she were not even an Ul'dahn, much less a Dodo. I had considered..." His tail went still for a moment, and then shivered. "Searching for her."
Antimony swallowed. "It is easier to care for the spirit if one can also care for the body." There was no love lost between her and D'ahl, but she couldn't deny that it bothered her to think that the woman was so damned in her death. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"Can it be done without. In case we can't..." There were more words to the sentence, but D'hein ran out of breath before he could speak them.
Antimony took a deep breath and wondered how much power her prayers could have when she'd spent years vehemently denying the religion they were attached to. She didn't voice this concern to D'hein, however, instead offering a simple, "Yes. It just takes certain arrangements."
D'hein Tia turned his gaze back to Antimony, inhaled deeply, and then spoke with a heavy breath. "Well. Aijeen will be with K'airos, and K'airos has obligations. If she's gone back to Drybone, she will have duties there. We can check with the Brass Blade offices here by foot, and there by missive, and see what's become of her."
Letting out a short sigh, Antimony's tail relaxed just a hair. "That is something. A place to start." A pause, while her hands fidgeted with the sides of her robe. "I don't suppose you have access to salv--ah, that is... Sagolii sage?"
Blinking, D'hein's brow popped up and then dropped. "I'm not sure what... Are you asking if I can change what people call you? Because the huntresses are sort of stubborn around here."
"What?" Antimony blinked and turned a second time, giving D'hein a confused look. "... I'm speaking of the plant. A short shrub. Purple flowers. The leaves are... essential."
"Oh." One of his ears canted violently. "Is it rare? If it's something that can be bought I'm sure I can buy it."
"It wasn't particularly rare back... with the tribe." Her fingers twisted a bit in her robe.
"Then it probably won't be rare here." Both his ears snapped forward in rare cooperation, then one of them screwed it up by drifting off to listen to a different part of the room. "Don't let my lack of mindfulness disturb you. I'm no horticulturist."
"I will need it for the ritual." She pursed her lips, tail curling. "And a few other things. Something of D'ahl's."
D'hein gestured broadly, "Pick a mirror," and then pointed towards a mirror that sat ajar from the rest; a perpendicular flat plane that pivoted outwards. "That's her room over there. She's rather spartan, but what she has she is protective of. I'm sure anything you take would work."
Antimony hesitated, wavering in the hallway with an indecisive shifting of her ears for several moments before turning to move towards the door D'hein indicated. "Given a mirror's properties, I don't think it would be the best choice," she murmured and looked about the room.
The room inside would be bare bones, as though no one had ever intended to live there for more than a few days. The bed bore a luxurious spread and a single pillow. There was no closet, no table, just a plain wooden wardrobe that hung open and probably contained most of D'ahl's possessions.
D'hein took a single step to follow her, but went no further. "Is there something specific that has... better properties?"
Antimony glanced over the bed but rather quickly crossed the room to the wardrobe. She closed her eyes a moment, muttering a low apology to the dead for disrupting their home, and then began to sift through the contents of the wardrobe. "Something that was near her frequently, or physically on her body would be ideal," she said as she moved. Her tail hung low as though in submission while she searched.
"She should have at least some jewlery," D'hein answered from the living area.
The wardrobe would indeed have jewelry, though not a great deal. It would seem expensive to Antimony's eyes, but by Dodo standards it was humble. Even the four elegant dresses that D'ahl possessed in the wardrobe would cause the Dodos to suspect the woman had taken some vow of poverty, set as they were beside a far greater number of more reasonable wools and leathers. Deep below the clothes would be a book and pen. And then weapons: knives in leather sheathes, elegant and lethal. No small number of those.
Antimony gave an uncomfortable look to the weapons, considered the jewelry for a few moments, but then pushed aside some clothes to take up the book and pen. She opened it to a random page, hoping it was what she thought.
A journal! It opened to a page depicting the layout of a room, its furniture and occupants, windows, doors and light sources all labeled. The opposite page provided incredible detail about the outlined setting; oddly so for a journal. It seemed to be a description of every possible detail of the room, with interesting insights into the the depth and thoroughness of the shadows and the way that the sound of the room's occupants echoed in the corners.
D'hein shifted in discomfort, spun a couple of times on the broken glass, listening to it crack beneath his feet. "Unless... Do you need something that burns? Are we going to do some kind of bonfire thing?"
"No," Antimony shut the book, stepped away from the wardrobe and turned to D'hein with it in hand. "There would be fire for the body, but this is more symbolic. I will need to burn the sage, however."
D'hein's ears shifted back on his head when he saw the book. One twitched, and slowly fell. His eyes looked over the journal as though something aberrant. "That's fine. I'll get the sage, and we can send off that missive to Drybone while we're at it. We can ask the Brass Blades concerning K'airos, and then we'll do the ritual. Sound good?"
Tucking the book in one arm, using her free hand to carefully adjust her glasses, Antimony gave a slight nod, the gesture more realized in the bobbing of her ears than anything. "Alright." A pause, and then she was moving to walk past D'hein towards the door. "I am certain all of this will resolve itself quickly once we've found them."
"All of this?" D'hein's voice carried annoyance as he followed the woman toward the door. "All of what? What about this is going to be 'resolved' just by finding Aijeen?"
Her tail quivered, pulled close to her legs as she walked. "We will know better what happened to D'ahl. And Aijeen... she will need my--" she paused, winced, "--our help." Glass cracked under her foot as she crossed the foyer, but she didn't stop, making for the hall and then the door she'd come in.
D'hein Tia continued on her heels. "That doesn't sound like much of a resolution at all. It sounds like you just want to turn the page, and are assuming that once you do everyone will be on that page with you. But what if you're reading out of a completely different book?"
"There is only one book." Antimony blinked, huffed, flung open the door. "And that is a ridiculous comparison, anyway."
"Really? Because apparently in your book, Aijeen did not kill D'ahl." He followed her through the door, his footsteps quick and heavy, his words the same way. "And in your book, D'ahl being dead is just a footnote. IN mine, that's the end of the book. We're in the epilogue now."
"Life does not end with the death of someone you care for." The words were surprisingly bitter to Antimony, and her ears set back against her skull as she began to retrace her path through the hall of the tower. "I am doing my part to help her."
"Not just one person. The last person." As they stepped out of the tower, the sound of the party hit them again, the event having continued uninterrupted.
Antimony halted a few steps down the bridge and spun suddenly on D'hein, glaring. "The last? Does Aijeen means nothing to you, then? You claim her as a daughter, but D'ahl was the last person you cared for?!"
The only person who noticed Antimony's shouting was the huntress that stood on across the bridge, the same who had guided Antimony to D'ahl's door. She looked over at the pair on the bridge, her features wavering between alarm and confusion, but definitely surprised.
D'hein stopped on the balls of his feet, tail whipping behind him. "She killed D'ahl." He dropped his head, glared hard at Antimony. "She. Killed. D'ahl."
"You don't know that," Antimony hissed, tail twisting about. "And even if--even... You have a responsibility! That never ends. Ever. You can't run away from it!"
The Tia's head canted to one side, crags etching into his face; his family relation to D'themia Nunh became visible. "Don't lecture me about the responsibilities of a parent. When I met Aijeen she didn't have any parents. I didn't need to take care of her. I chose to, and I haven't said anything about running away."
"She has always had parents; she just never--gah!" Her tail lashed as she turned around, and she glared at the narrow stone beneath her feet, her grip on the journal tightening. "Mourn your loss as you wish," she finally muttered. "I will do what I can to ease it." Then she began once again to cross the bridge, paying no attention to the guard on the opposite end.
D'hein kept even pace with Antimony as she walking, practically stepping on her tail. "I remember a time when you were so inconsolable that it took a month of plotting just to convince you that your daughters were alive. And you lecture me about running away."
The huntress guarding the bridge stepped far back from the pair, watching them with a blanched expression as they proceeded into the courtyard where the party was. The women dancing in the fountain noticed D'hein's entrance, waved at him, and began to call attention to him. D'hein, on the other hand, appeared blind to his surroundings.
Again Antimony froze and spun on D'hein, tail bushy and green eyes glaring wide as her hand closed the short distance between them to jab at his chest. "That is precisely it, D'hein Tia!" She did not look at her surroundings, and did not notice the crowd they were slowly drawing. "I lost everything. My daughters, my--my nunh! Azeyma failed them. But it wasn't the end. You are wrong."
Without realizing it, D'hein had become the center of attention. Half of the women dancing in the fountain had jumped out of it upon noticing him, and the others had begun to dance all the more. D'edy was shouting a loud greeting to D'hein, just one of many who had stopped what they were doing to acknowledge him. Even the music had stopped, as the musicians noticed a change in the atmosphere but were unsure what kind of music was appropriate for it.
D'hein gestured to the stalled party around him. "This was supposed to be for them! All of this was for D'ahl and Aijeen, and now it means nothing. I'm glad your daughters came back, but D'ahl's not just going to turn up if I'm patient, and Aijeen can't take back what she did."
A wet-headed dandelion with a long, soggy tail slammed into D'hein's side bodily, wrapping ehr arms around him. Her clothes had almost slipped off her body by then, mostly stuck to her because they were so wet as to be transparent. "I've got you now, my Nunh!"
The Tia, though, didn't even seem to feel her, shifting only subtly under her weight. He shook his head at Antimony. "No matter how many more pages I turn, this is still where the story ends."
"You don't know what happened," Antimony insisted, features drawn. She leaned back suddenly, blinked at the woman who'd wrapped herself around D'hein. Her ears twitched, going lopsided in a conflict of emotion. "You can't know until we find Aijeen." Then, tail shivering, she snapped unthinkingly at the woman, "Leave us be."
The soaked-through woman, cheeks bright red, inclined her head towards Antimony. "Ah, fah. It's a party. Have some fun, Witchy."
D'hein began to extricate himself from the huntress, eyes still on Antimony. "I know what happened. You're in denial, and that's a lot more like running away than what I'm doing."
"Oh! Heeeeeey!" D'edy arrived, just as naked as he had been before, glowing with cheer. He stepped up alongside D'hein and Antimony, but addressed himself to Antimony. "Good, you got him! I knew you would. So I set up a mock Nunh-battle between D'hein and a pile of Lalafell: two on the bottom, and one on top with a stick!"
Antimony's ears splayed outward and then back, almost disappearing in her grey hair as she stared wide-eyed back at D'hein. At D'edy's voice she flinched, glanced towards the Nunh, and then snapped perhaps a bit harsher than necessary, "We're leaving now."
D'edy's fluffy ears lay flat. "Wha-"
"D'edy." D'hein found he was able to extricate himself easily from the drunken woman who was stuck to him. "D'ahl died yesterday. Why are you celebrating?"
"Uhm." He smirked, paced over to D'hein, and sort of received the sopping wet dandelion-head, who was too drunk to stand on her own but very capable of complaining about her mistreatment. "D"themia's gone. You can be Nunh now. This was our plan, right?"
D'hein pushed himself away from D'edy and the drunken huntress. "The plan is ruined. I'm not doing this." He turned, then, to stomp away from them, marching out through the party.
"Hey!" With her puffball hair flat against her head, the dandelion's ears were actually visible, thin and pale. "But... I won and..." She suddenly pushed D'edy away from her, violently enough that the man toppled. "Hey! D'edy's no real Nunh! What're we supposed to do without a Nunh? What kind of tribe doesn't have a Nunh?"
D'hein answered with a swat of his tail through the air and a shout over his shoulder. "Mourn!"
Antimony stood frozen for several moments as D'hein stomped away. Then without a second look to D'edy or the dandelion head, or the rest of the party, she spun to follow after the Tia, tense all the way from the tips of her ears to the tip of her tail.
The women in the fountain had long since stopped dancing. The guards stood as slack and wide-eyed as anyone. D'edy sat on the ground and stared at D'hein's receding back. The lalafell with the musical instruments shook their head at one another.
And thin woman, puffy hair sticking to her face, stood weak-kneed and shivering by herself in the middle of party, her clothes only barely clinging to her body. She swayed and rolled her head in an attempt to stand up straight, and then shouted at Antimony's back. "What did you do to him, Witch?"
***
Antimony wasn't entirely sure why she'd chosen to take D'edy Nunh's invitation. Parties were not exactly her thing, least of all parties hosted by a tribe whose members had been almost uniformly hostile to her - with a few exceptions, or really, just one - and then there was the added awkwardness of it being more than just a party. By all rights she should steer clear of such things. But D'hein was going to be there (he had to, because of that certain awkward point that made it more than just a party), and she could not shake the need to speak with him after everything that had happened. This seemed like a reasonable opportunity, then. And perhaps it wouldn't be so bad...?
So Antimony made her way up the spiraling staircase that led to the Dodo tribe's commune, dressed in her usual plain get up, though she'd put a bit more effort than usual into making sure her hair was nice. There wasn't much to be done for the livid bruising that spread across one cheekbone and in a starburst pattern across her nose and into the corners of her eyes, unfortunately. She'd managed to reduce the swelling significantly with a poultice of her own making, but the rest would have to fade with time. She just hoped it wouldn't damage whatever sway she could muster too much.
At least her nose wasn't crooked.
She made it up the last of the stairs only mildly out of breath, and a minute later - after regaining her composure and making sure her hair hadn't gone wild - she opened the door that would lead out into the commune's courtyard, preparing herself for the guard that was sure to greet her. And possibly turn her away before she took even another step.
The woman who apparently was in a habit of standing with her back to the door that Antimony was guarding turned half-turned to look over her should as it opened. Her dark eyes looked down through her dark hair, ash-gray skin of her face twisting at the sight of the woman. The massively tall woman -- at least for a Miqo'te -- glared at Antimony with barely restrained hostility, recalling the anger she'd shown the previous day when she'd tried and failed to turn the woman away.
Past her, the courtyard was alive with music and movement. The Dodos evidently weren't against bringing paid servants into the commune, as there was live music being played by a troupe of Lalafell in black business suits. The tune was lively and loud, not exactly aligning with the dreariness of the suits, but at least one of the Lalafell was moving his little legs happily in an attempt to compensate for this. They didn't seem accustomed to playing happy music.
Servants were orbiting the fountain with trays covered in drinks and food, all of them Lalafell. There were dancers, but these were Miqo'te, and they were dancing in the fountain instead of on any kind of dance floor.
The tall, dark woman, continued to glare at Antimony. More specifically, she was glaring at the woman's glasses, at her hair, at one part of her face and then another. Eventually, her gaze moved to the bruises on her features, and lingered there for a few seconds before her hostility was transmuted into a strange, unfriendly amusement. She smiled. "Maybe you should have been a smidgeon more careful yesterday."
Antimony's ears shifted back and she clasped her hands low at her waist in front of her. "Yes. Well." She cleared her throat awkwardly, flicked her tail, and then made sure her posture was straight before meeting the huntress's gaze with a slight frown. "D'edy Nunh," she still only half believed that klutz of a miqo'te was a nunh, "informed me yesterday that I was invited to this... celebration. If you'll let me pass, then...?"
The tall woman rolled her eyes and reached into a pouch on her belt. She plucked a small string of colorful beads out and tossed them at Antimony's chest, muttering, "Sorry." Then she stepped aside and gestured towards the courtyard. "Get going."
Antimony's hands fumbled to catch the beads, and she blinked down at them in confusion as she stepped through the door. "These are for..?"
The dark woman only stood taller, eyes wide and snapped, "I said go! Stop blocking the door!"
Ears flicking up in surprise, Antimony bounced forward and then hurried away from the door. Once she'd put a comfortable distance between herself and the surly guard, she slowed to take in what had become of the courtyard. Her hands idly twisted the beads around her fingers as she listened to the upbeat music from the lalafell. There was no doubt it was a celebration, she thought, though one very different from the kinds she was used to. But music and dancing were a commonality, at least, even if the details were keenly different.
Wandering towards the middle of the courtyard, near the fountain, and lingered there for a moment as her eyes searched the milling crowd. She felt horribly out of place, in a way similar to how she'd felt in those weeks after first setting foot in Limsa. One of the lalafell servants carrying a tray of unidentifiable but very strong-smelling finger food paused by her, lifting her burden in offering. Antimony gave the tiny woman a friendly, only somewhat nervous smile and plucked one of the items from it with a, "Thank you." This earned her a confused look before the lalafell hurried off, presumably to care for the hungers of other folk.
The Dodos were wearing most of their plumage. Except for the sparse handful of huntresses who were stationed about the courtyards, likely watching the bridges to make sure none of their Lalafellin servants went wandering off, the Dodo women were dressed in silks. They idled about as though the party had already been on for hours, but they had settled into it as though it were a normal day. They ambled about with drinks in their hands or sat on the benches as though they were decorations themselves, mostly brown-haired women in pastel hues with seemingly every limb, join, finger and toe bearing polished metal and gemstones.
A very thin woman appeared before Antimony. She wore a single layer of soft pinks and blues that seemed less like a garment and more like a few yards of expensive cloth draped and tied around her body, and a puffball of blonde hair above her head. She stood there for a moment with a near-empty wineglass in her hand, redness on her face and glass on her eyes, staring at Antimony's face for a long quiet moment before her mouth split open and her head pitched back. "Hey, she showed up!"
At once, a general murmuring rose up from the many silk-clad women, and the huntresses, as they set their drinks and lances aside and dug into pockets to produce small beaded bracelets. Even the dancers in the fountain -- wearing pastel silks of their own that, wet, didn't do much to hide their bodies -- pulled bracelets from somewhere on their persons.
The first in the crowd to throw a bracelet at Antimony was the puffball-haired woman, just kindly tossing it at her head as if she was trying to get the loop of beads around one of her ears. "Sorry," she said as she did so.
Then the rest of the bracelets came, from every single woman in attendance, each one saying a simple "Sorry," as they threw them. Some tones were mute, some sincere, at least one playfully melodic. The bracelets were not thrown hard or maliciously, but over two dozen of them rained down on Antimony over a long moment. One of the Lalafell servants ran for cover as a poorly-aimed bracelet smacked him in the face.
Antimony ducked her head, flicked her ears at the first set of beads, let out a muttered, "What?" at the second, and then just froze in confused silence as more clattered noisily over her. Her tail stuck straight out behind her, completely still though not bristled. When it seemed as though no more beaded bracelets were going to come her way, Antimony shifted her feet anxiously, felt her toes knock against beads that had fell to the ground, and gave a wide-eyed stare to the dandelion haired huntress.
"... I'm sorry," she mumbled, shook her ears, blinked. "I... am afraid I don't understand what this is about..?"
The woman laughed, the sound sluggish and heavy on her lips. "D'edy had us all make friendship bracelets for you and told us to say sorry and give 'em to you so we made a game out of it." She lifted her glass and used it to point at the place where her ears would have been if they weren't concealed by her massive hair. She succeeded in spilling red wine on her head. "First person to get it on your ear gets first night with the new Nunh." She tapped her head with the wine glass and reached for Antimony's ear, as though she couldn't tell whether or not anyone had won just from looking.
Antimony leaned her head away from the woman's clumsy hand, and her ears shifted back. "That, ah--" Her own hands reached up, patted at her hair to reassure herself that she hadn't become some living ring toss target. None of the women had managed to find their intended mark, luckily. "Ah, well, that is... that's very nice of all of you... I think. Yes! I appreciate the gesture."
"Good! Hey, why you dressed up in all that wooly stuff?" Dandelion-head shoved her glass indicatively at Antimony's robe, pouring out her wine on ti, but she didn't even seem to notice. "You cold or something? Or you just don't have any good clothes."
In the fountain, the women had resumed their dancing. Very few people were actually watching them, but the women seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Jumping back with a short yelp, Antimony batted at the front of her robe before realizing that really wasn't doing any good for the wine that had already sunk into the fibers. "These are my clothes," she stated a bit defensively, green eyes turning an unhappy frown down at the red stain. Her tail flicked. "I... could ask you why you are wearing... what you are."
"What? It's pretty!" She spun, then stepped forward suddenly so that she was mere ilms away from Antimony, her puffy hair brushing the woman's forehead. "Hey, we're friends now. Come on! Let's get you nicer clothes!"
Antimony almost protested that tossing a "friendship bracelet" at someone because your nunh told you to did not necessarily make you friends with said someone, but she was already on rocky ground with the Dodo tribe - or at least she had been so far. She was hesitant to risk even the sliver of good will she'd managed to uncover, at least because she didn't want anyone threatening to throw her off bridges or hitting her in the face again.
She protested instead, "That's very kind, but I like my clothes as they are."
"I'm offering to give you free things." The danelion-headed woman pushed her glass at Antimony's face. "Stuff for free. You don't gotta wear it, just catch it and resell it if you don't like it. You at least gotta let me make up for throwing you in jail that one time, Miss Sagolii Witch."
Antimony winced at that, leaning her head away from the wine glass. "You could begin by not referring to me by such a name," she suggested coolly. "My name is Antimony Jhanhi."
"Ya can't live down a nickname!" She flipped her glass carelessly and finally dropped it. It broke into a number of large pieces against the stone floor, and a servant quickly raced over to collect them; most of these women were barefoot after all. "Like, people call me... I don't have a nickname. Woops." A Lalafell presented her with a new glass of wine, which she took without question, placing it to her lips immediately and spinning away.
Her hair shifted, hinting at the movement of her ears inside of it, as she looked back towards the fountain. She lifted her glass and shouted, "D'edy! She's here!"
The Nunh had appeared in fountain at some point, his formally fuzzy ears now sleek with water and his very thin tail sleek and dripping. His body, practically just bones and skin, shone with water from head to toe. There were no clothes to obscure the sight, except for what honestly looked like women's underpants, and scanty ones at that.
Evidently trying to dance with the women, though it was painfully clear that he had no idea how, he stopped a moment after being noticed and jumped out of the fountain as though summoned. "Hello!" The tiny Nunh trotted over to Antimony, his bare feet slapping the ground.
Stifling further, annoyed protest at the unwanted nickname, Antimony turned to follow dandelion-head's gaze towards the fountain. She startled, blinked rapidly at the sight of the mostly naked, soaking wet Nunh, and then looked firmly away. There was a heat in her cheeks, but the bruises mostly hid it. "Hello," she offered stiffly as the Nunh approached, wringing her hands in front of her. Then searching for anything that would be appropriate to say and not really having a clue, she tried, "It seems everyone is, ah, enjoying themselves tonight." It fell lamely.
"They are! Come here, puffball!" D'edy extended his wet arms towards the dandelion-headed woman.
But she turned away from him and moved so that Antimony was between them. "Oh no, you don't. I'm going to have a new Nunh tonight, but it's not you!"
"Ah." D'edy's arms dropped to his sides. "Everyone keeps saying that. I mean I know he's got that tail, but-"
"It's not the tail I'm after!" She put the wine to her lips again.
"Huh." D'edy blinked, and looked at Antimony, and his smile burst forth over his thin face. "Well! I'm am just thrilled to the gills that you showed up! Surprised a bit, too."
"To the gills," Antimony echoed in a mutter and then shook herself, focusing on D'edy's face. "Well. Yes. I..." Her hands worked around themselves for a few seconds as she sought a suitable explanation. With all these women around her looking forward to the "new nunh", she felt suddenly supremely awkward in her intention to speak with D'hein. "It seemed the proper thing to do," she tried, winced. "That is, not that I would let my work be influenced by personal favors or anything--no, nothing of the sort! Just that, ah, it was such a mess what happened yesterday and... it seemed.. fair? To accept! I suppose."
"Seemed fair to me that you'd take legal action against the tribe for professional abuse and seek monetary restitution." D'edy said, smiling. Then he slapped his sides again. "Not that I'm telling you to do that. Party's good too!"
Behind Antimony, the dandelion-headed woman crouched, picked up a beaded bracelet, then stood and slipped it over Antimony's ear. "I win!" Tossing her hand in the air and spinning wine everywhere, she spun and shouted, "I winnnn! You girls better try harder next time!"
D'edy Nunh clapped and smiled, nodding, "That's good, very good. I love a business-savvy woman. Now we just need D'hein to actually show up and then we can all rip his clothes off."
Her ear twitched at the unexpected weight, but as her hands reached up to paw it off, she choked at D'edy's words, hand freezing on the bracelet around her ear. "We... What?" She coughed, pulled the beads off and let them hang in limp fingers. "That, ah--" What kinds of rituals did these Dodos have, she wondered a bit shrilly. No wonder Aijeen had grown up so... Clearing her throat again, Antimony twisted her tail behind her. Well she may as well say it, even if she was obviously intruding - did it count as intrusion when she was invited? - in a tribal affair. "Er, I had.. rather hoped to speak with him, actually," she forced out after a moment.
"Then you shoulda stuck some beads on your own ear." The dandelion-headed woman closed in on her and said, "He's mine tonight. You'll ahve to wait your turn."
"Okay, hey look! It's the winner's turn to dance!" D'edy reached over, grabbed the woman by her arm and pulled her away from Antimony, pushing her towards the fountain. "Special winner dance! Go make everyone jealous."
"Yes, winner dance!" The woman stumbled towards the fountain, not for a moment doubting that the winner dance was an actual thing.
Letting out a sigh as though he'd been relieved of some ponderous weight, D'edy spun back to Antimony and leaned towards her. "Well I can tell you're not interested in competing with the me and the ladies for his attention. So either the rumors are wrong and you're not interested, or the rumors are true and you can take him any time you want!"
"Rumors? What--" She grimaced then, recalling D'themia's angry, nasty words suddenly. She sighed. "... No. They are not true. They're just--ah! Who started those rumors anyway?? Certainly not Aijeen. No."
D'edy lifted his arms and joined them behind his head, knitting his fingers together with his elbows pointing upward. "Iiiii don't know. The women do get pretty jealous sometimes. Anyway, hey." He ducked his head forward. "The girls think I'm hiding D'hein away so that he's full of energy to have fun all night. Or something. But between you and me he's been moping since yesterday morning and I can't even get him to acknowledge there's a party going on at all."
Green eyes blinked once, and then her ears pressed back in acknowledgement. "I see." A pause, and then uneasily, "Because of... D'ahl?"
The Nunh pursed his lips, biting down on them and looking off towards the sky as if the thought were only just occurring to him. "Huh. Y'know, maybe. He has been haunting D'ahl's apartment. I just thought he liked the mirrors."
Antimony recalled those dizzying mirrors and thought no one but that twisted woman could enjoy such things, but she kept that thought to herself. It wouldn't do to think ill of the dead anyway, especially when her spirit likely lingered if it hadn't been given a proper hand off to the sun... Shaking her ears to dispel distracted thoughts, Antimony looked away from D'edy briefly, then back to the nunh. "Where is he now? I would speak with him."
"Probably still there. Just don't tell any of the women. They'd go down there and make him a Nunh on the spot!" He luaghed.
Antimony nodded, hesitated, and then admitted reluctantly, "I don't recall how to get there."
"Uhm, okay." D'edy looked one direction, and then the other, and then pointed Antimony towards one of the bridges. "Just tell the huntress over there that I told her to tell you where D'ahl's apartment is. And try not to let it get all awkward."
"Of course." Antimony looked past D'edy for a moment, towards the fountain where dandelion head was performing a rather uncoordinated, if suggestive, victory dance, then grimaced and bowed her head towards the Nunh. "Thank you. I hope you enjoy your party." She then turned, stumbled backwards as she barely dodged a lalafell servant who had been maneuvering with a delicately balanced tray of wine, and then righted herself with a flustered flick of her tail before making to cross the courtyard.
None of the other women stopped her on her way, thankfully, though she did end up accepting another bite of food from one of the servants before she finally approached the guard D'edy had indicated. Clearing her throat and folding her arms to try and hide the wine stain dandelion head had given her, Antimony stepped up to the woman. "Excuse me. D'edy Nunh has said you are to show me to D'ahl's apartment. Please." She spoke as straight arrowed as she could manage, hoping to avoid any questions as to why.
The woman she spoke to, a huntress dressed in the typical all-white armor of the commune's guards, snapped her gaze from the party as though she hadn't seen Antimony approach. Her short off-red hair hung about her face in great clumps, rigidly poking her features like flower petals. Her eyes, yellow as pollen, widened, dark lips twisted. "What in the seven hells?"
A whole five seconds passed, where Antimony blinked back at the woman in startled silence. Then she straightened suddenly, clasped her hands in front of her (one of which still held one of those silly friendship bracelets), and repeated firmly, "You're to show me to D'ahl's apartment, at D'edy Nunh's request." A brief pause and then an added, "Please."
One of the woman's eyes narrowed. Just one. The other twitched, and glanced away, and then back. "Wha... I mean, why? I mean, that's... But you're the..." Her gaze dropped to the bracelet in Antimony's hands, and she bit her lips and closed her eyes. Breathing deeply as if to calm herself, she snapped her head to one side and then the other. Her neck cracked loudly. "Fine. D'edy's the boss now, right? Everything's turned crazy overnight. The kid's the boss and the Witch gets a tour."
Antimony frowned, opened her mouth to protest their continued insistence in referring to her with that abominable name, but perhaps wisely reconsidered a moment later. "Not a full tour. Just to D'ahl's apartment," she reminded. "But thank you."
The woman's shoulders tightened and her arms shook, her ears slamming flat against her head. "...Yeah, sure. No problem." Her tail shivered as she led Antimony across the bridge and into the opposite tower.
Antimony followed quietly and did her best not to look down as they crossed the bridge, or even think about looking down, or consider that there was a down to be looked upon, or just... well, she kept her eyes glued to the red-head's back until they were safely inside the tower.
The woman took Antimony to what might've been a familiar door, with the decorative engraving on its outside still defaced just like it had been last time. "Here. Why?"
Stepping up to the door, Antimony lifted a hand as though to knock, but hesitated. She pursed her lips at the guard woman's words, rolled over a number of potential replies, trying to keep D'edy's request and her own desire to avoid embarrassing conflict in mind, and finally just settled on, "Private matters."
With an audible crack of limbs and armor, the woman snapped her head down towards Antimony. "Hey! I know D'edy said we should all be friends, but it's a little creepy that you of all people need to be escorted to D'ahl's home, alone, in the middle of the party, for 'private matters'. You sure you don't have some more specific purpose you want to volunteer?"
Antimony flinched, her tail curling as she half turned towards the guard, and then leaned away when the woman's face loomed startling near. "That... I am sorry for any appearance of, ah, creepy! I promise it's not like that. Only... well, family matters and it's.. all rather awkward for me to discuss and a long story nonetheless and--" She cut herself short, her ears shivering, and then just finished quickly, "Ask D'edy, if you must."
The woman leaned back from Antimony, one hand on her hip. "Careful. He might just tell me, and I'm sure he knows plenty."
"Yes, well," Antimony fidgeted. "I suppose he could. About some things. Ah--" She glanced back towards the door and then to the huntress. "... If I could have some privacy...?"
"You want privacy to open the door?" Her white-armored arms crossed. "I'm not going in there. The mirrors are unsettling. Especially now that she's dead. And with what happened to her body, a bunch of us suspect she'll end up haunting the place."
Green eyes widened at that. "To her... body?" She hadn't really learned what happened to D'ahl specifically, aside from that she had died an apparently horrible death. The guard's words settled heavy in her stomach, and her fingers itched for a few key ingredients that could at least help cleanse the...
"Ah, right, so. I will, uhm, be going inside now," she blurted out, turned, opened the door, and then slipped inside.
Watching Antimony slip into the apartment, the guard smiled. "Watch for her face in those mirrors, Witch. You've been warned." And then the door shut her out.
Inside, D'ahl's apartment was just as it had been when Antimony left the previous day. With so many of the mirrors broken, their confusing affect was lost. No longer a labyrinth, the entryway was just a hall covered in mirrors, with a few glass tables and a small number of doors. It would be one left turn to the apartment's main foyer, where there would be a single small window and most of the useful furniture.
Leaning her hands back against the door a moment, Antimony glanced around the entryway, eyes skittering over the mirrors cautiously and trying to ignore the numerous, bruised faces that blinked back at her. If D'ahl's spirit had not been properly released, the guard's words were entirely possible, she thought grimly. The apartment was unnervingly quiet, but she didn't let that dissuade her. Tail twitching close by one leg, she pushed away from the door and began to make her way down the hall. A crunch beneath dropped her eyes to a shard of glass that was now broken into a number of smaller fragments beneath her shoe, and she grimaced. Nothing had truly been touched since...
"D'hein? I know you're in here," she called out, taking her foot off the glass and pushing the shards off to one side of the hall. "Perhaps we should talk."
There was no answer, though there was a rhythmic click of glass from further in the apartment.
Antimony's ears flicked about, both unsettled by her surroundings and annoyed at the thought of the Tia (Nunh?) ignoring her. She followed the click of glass down the hall, into the main foyer.
Dhein sat in the foyer, one on of D'ahl's large, red suede sofas. He feet were up on a footrest in front of him, his head back and staring at the ceiling. More specifically, he was staring at a mirror on the ceiling, bearing a reflection of himself. He held an empty bottle, clicking it against a mirror-topped table to his right. The man's ears and tail both hung limp, his lips a neutral line, his eyes-half lidded and glassy. His red robe was bundled tight around him like a blanket.
Well, that was certainly moping, Antimony thought, pausing partway into the foyer to watch D'hein quietly. The beads of the friendship bracelet jingled as her hands began to fidget unconsciously. "I heard about D'ahl," she offered, then winced, recognizing that was likely a horrible place to start. She shifted her gaze to the mirrors about the room, sighed, and then pressed her lips together before speaking a bit snappier, "How long do you intend to remain here?"
The clicking of the bottle stopped. D'hein blinked. "I have also heard about D'ahl. I was asked to identify the body. It was difficult to judge." The clicking resumed.
Her hands continued to fidget distractedly as her brow lowered behind her glasses, lips turning down in a somber frown. A heavy silence followed D'hein's words for nearly a minute, and then Antimony let out a faint breath before speaking quieter, "Everyone--well, D'themia and... they thought I had done it." She blinked then, a suddenly worried look crossing her face as she eyed D'hein sideways. "Ah, you--er, you did not agree with them, right? I would never..." Her face twisted and she tried, "I worry for what it's done to Aijeen."
"I don't think you killed D'ahl, no. You couldn't." He set the bottle on the table, directly in the center of it, watching his movements in the mirror above him. "What are you worried about?"
She pulled a bit more roughly on the bracelet than she'd intended and she jumped as the string snapped, sending colorful beads scattering to the floor. Antimony blinked at the cascade helplessly for a moment before shaking her ears. "Ah, well, that--they were... close." Her brow furrowed as the beads, their numbers multiplied by the mirrors, bounced and rolled beneath D'hein's seat.
One of D'hein's ears twitched as he watched the beads in the mirrors. "Close is a way to say it, yes. Though I'm guessing they have terminated such intimacies. Otherwise this wouldn't have happened."
"What?" Antimony's brow furrowed deeper. "I'm sure there was nothing Aijeen could have done to prevent... it was a horrible thing, but to suggest she had anything to do with it..!"
"Nobody actually believes an animal attack killed D'ahl. It's not like something escaped from the coliseum without being seen."
"Yes, but... Aijeen?? No, that's not possible." Antimony set her mouth and tone firmly at this.
D'hein's tail swished beneath him. "How do you figure?"
"She is not a murderer." Her certainty lent an icy crispness to her voice.
"History disagrees with you."
"Excuse me?" Green eyes narrowed with affront. "Aijeen has done some questionable things in the past, but she has not killed anyone. She could never. That you would even consider thinking such... how dare you!"
The Tia blinked at the mirror three more times before finally dropping his gaze to look at Antimony. His brow dropped immediately, his lips turning down. "What happened to your face?"
Antimony's ears flicked back, and she crossed her arms defensively at the question. "Don't change the subject. It's unrelated--ah, mostly. But regardless! You--" she frowned at D'hein, tail curling up, "--should not be thinking such horrible accusations about the girl you claim to think of as a daughter."
Pushing his lips out, D'hein shrugged and looked up at the ceiling again. "D'aijeen has killed two people that I'm sure of, in the past, when she was still young. So you can't say she's never killed anyone."
Antimony paled. "What--what are you talking about? She's certainly never killed anyone under my watch."
"Well you weren't watching there for a while."
Her ears set back flat, eyes narrowed as her tail shivered. "Further evidence you--this entire tribe has done nothing but corrupt her!"
One of D'hein's ears lay down on his head, his other just twitching to the side. He closed his eyes and joined his hands over his stomach, taking in a deep breath. When he exhaled, the breath shook in his chest. He opened his eyes again, blinked them, and just stared at himself.
Antimony balled her hands into fists against her arms, practically vibrated where she stood in anger, and then turned half away from D'hein with a huff. "I refuse to believe she would have a hand in D'ahl's death. Have you seen her since?"
"No." He lifted one hand in a neutral gesture. "Nobody has. I'm assuming she's run off."
Her tail drooped. "And has no one gone to look for her?"
D'hein chuckled. "Everyone kind of figures she had something to do with D'ahl going crooked and then dying. So, no. Nobody has gone looking for her."
"That is not funny," Antimony snapped, then made to pace forward, found herself face-to-face with her own... face, spun around to pace the other way, only to meet the same, and then just whipped her tail back and forth. "This is absurd. You are--you're... no! I do not know why I came here. I'm going to look for Aijeen." Then she spun on her heel.
"Why did you come here?" D'hein suddenly sat up, dropping his face to look at her. "You didn't ask me anything that you can't figure out by asking anyone else."
Antimony hesitated, kept her back to D'hein while her tail shivered with a nervous energy. "You... I may not like it, but you are... personally involved in matters regarding Aijeen," she spoke with some reluctance.
"Personally involved. That's a word for it." One of his ears twitched again. "I think I know her better than you do."
Antimony's posture tightened visibly. "You certainly presume a great deal," she bit out.
"You don't even think she's capable of killing anyone, when as a matter of fact, she's unsettlingly good at it." D'hein stood, his tail immediately swinging back and forth behind him. "I didn't expect her to kill D'ahl, but you heard her when she ran out that door. She said she wasn't going to let D'ahl get away with hurting you. That's how she said it."
"She was angry, and those words could mean any number of things!" Antimony shook her head, dug her nails into her palms. "If Aijeen was involved in this murder at all - and there is no reason to think she was! - it was as a witness only, I'm certain. Which means she is out there alone, likely frightened, and--and I must find her." She again made to exit the foyer.
"She wouldn't be alone. She'd be with Airos."
"All the more reason to find her!" Antimony huffed and turned on D'hein. "Be quick to condemn her if you will, but she is my daughter. I know her and I will not shirk my obligations to her. I almost hope D'ahl does come haunt this place, so that she can tell you how wrong you are!'
"I'm not condemning her." D'hein spread his stance and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm saying that D'aijeen ran out of here as mad as Halone at the wrong time of month, saying she was going to find D'ahl. And then a few hours later D'ahl turns up dead from an animal attack, which is exactly how the other two people D'aijeen 'didn't kill' ended up dead."
"Listen to what you're saying - an animal attack? She's a child! Even if she were to--to--" Antimony couldn't bring herself to say it and so pushed on, "--she could not do such a thing as that! No, you're mistaken. It's not Aijeen."
"When Aijeen kills people she makes it look like an animal attack." D'hein ducked his head forward and spoke harshly. He pointed off towards the center of the commune, at nothing really. "The last Nunh made D'themia look like a kitten, and we all had to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to get rid of him. Aijeen had to kill two of his women, and they came out of it ripped to shreds. She took credit for that!"
"What...?" Her ears flattened out in confusion even as she felt her stomach twist. "Why would you say--that's nonsense, she... No." She gestured sharply with one hand, cut through the air in front of her. Then she turned away again. "You're wrong."
"I'm not wrong. It's history. It happened." He took a step forward, broken class cracking under his red shoes. "I'm not telling you she's a murderer. She killed in self-defense then. But you can't run off pretend she's not capable of hurting someone, or that she didn't kill D'ahl. She did. There only way around that is delusion."
"It's not delusion, it's--it's reason! She is physically incapable of it!" She thought back to how her daughter had clutched at her in the bathroom of her inn, how weak her gestures had been; Antimony's throat tightened.
"Incapable?" His ears went askew, and he shook his head. "If she can hold a scepter and a twig and tribal -- beads, I guess? -- then she can do anything that can be done with magic." He pointed at Antimony now. "You'd know better the strange magic she brought with her from the desert tribe of yours."
Antimony flinched, ears lowering further against her head. She furrowed her brow at a nearby mirror, at the bruised face glowering back at her, and then breathed, "She never hurt anyone deliberately." A pause, then reluctantly, "She only became truly dangerous when she created that monster."
Snapping his head back, one ear lying flat on his head and another standing straight up, D'hein blinked several times. He then spread his palms, "How can you keep doing that? Saying she doesn't hurt anyone and couldn't if she wanted to, and then 'Oh, by the way, everything went downhill after she summoned the monster'."
"She did it to help us!" Antimony all but shouted, then hesitated. Those were the excuses K'aijeen had made when they'd found her, at least. Antimony had believed her, but it hadn't changed how threatening the whole situation had been. Reaching up, she made to squeeze the bridge of her nose anxiously, then winced and pulled her hand away quickly when her face gave a painful reminder of why that wasn't a good idea.
"To protect you." D'hein squinted, his lips curling downward. "You're the only person D'ahl hurt at all. You're the only one who she could've been trying to protect. Wrongly."
"Are you going to try and claim she is using that monster again?" Antimony snapped. "It's gone, fled into the Sagolii. And likely died when whatever dark magics she used were no longer maintaining it."
"Used it? She used it?" His tail flicked behind him, whacking the furniture loudly, though he showed no sign of noticing. "So not only can she apparently summon monsters, but use them! What kind of monster?"
"It doesn't matter because it's dead," Antimony insisted, and her tail shivered.
"If she summoned one, she can summon another, can't she?"
Antimony was silent at that, posture tense and drawn in. Eventually she spoke in a quiet voice, "She... stole meat and bones from our stores. The monster was..." Grimacing, Antimony didn't finish the thought.
"I don't know who you're talking when you say that she can't hurt anyone, but it's not my daughter." D'hein pulled himself back into a straight and composed posture, turning his face towards the mirrors. He saw Antimony in them, but he mistook her for D'ahl briefly. "Then again, I wouldn't think D'aijeen would ever hurt D'ahl either. So I guess we're both wrong about her."
Though she bit down on her tongue to keep quiet the remarks she wished to make regarding how entitled D'hein was to calling K'aijeen his daughter, Antimony couldn't stop the short huff at his words. "I am sorry for your loss. But I refuse to believe it until we've spoken with her," she replied tensely. One ear shook.
"Now might not be a safe time to go looking for her, Antimony."
"Don't be absurd. Nothing will keep me from seeking out my daughter, especially after such an incident."
Crossing his arms once more, D'hein looked at her sideways. "And where do you plan on looking?"
Antimony pressed her lips together a moment, arms tightening against her sides. "I will ask after her... And Airos. Someone in this forsaken city must have seen one or both of them. Or perhaps they've gone to Drybone."
"And you don't think the Sultansworn is looking? Meanwhile there are four more deaths out there, and we don't know what killed them. Maybe that was her monster, too."
"Unless you've told them of Aijeen," a certain threatening venom entered her voice in those words, "then they would have no reason to search for her. It matters not, however."
D'hein blinked, "She's the one who turned D'ahl's body into the Sultansworn. They're involved because of her."
Antimony blinked, her ears flattening at that, but then she only said, "It doesn't matter. I am going to find her." She made for the hall she'd entered from then, tail flicking.
"Fine. Don't let her hurt you if you find her." One of his ears lay down, the other turning an unrelated direction. "I'll just be here. I've got nowhere to be."
Antimony paused at that, half turning back towards D'hein in the doorway. "You're not interested in the celebration they're throwing for you outside? The title of nunh is nothing to toss sand at."
D'hein snapped his gaze to the single, tiny window in D'ahl's apartment. "The only reason I was trying to get rid of D'themia was for D'ahl and Aijeen. The word 'Nunh' sounds kind of stupid to me right now."
For a moment her expression softened, then shifted away before turning back towards the hall. "I... may be able to gather the necessary things to usher D'ahl's spirit on to the light, if you wish it." She hesitated then, and finally added, "If you wish to help Aijeen, you should help me find her."
D'hein's ears spasmed, standing upright, then slamming down, one sliding forward while the other slid back and then changing positions. His tail pinwheeled. He looked to the mirror but there was only his own frustrated expression and Antimony, with her back to him. "D'themia had D'ahl's body thrown outside the city to waste away alongside those of starved refugees, as though she were not even an Ul'dahn, much less a Dodo. I had considered..." His tail went still for a moment, and then shivered. "Searching for her."
Antimony swallowed. "It is easier to care for the spirit if one can also care for the body." There was no love lost between her and D'ahl, but she couldn't deny that it bothered her to think that the woman was so damned in her death. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"Can it be done without. In case we can't..." There were more words to the sentence, but D'hein ran out of breath before he could speak them.
Antimony took a deep breath and wondered how much power her prayers could have when she'd spent years vehemently denying the religion they were attached to. She didn't voice this concern to D'hein, however, instead offering a simple, "Yes. It just takes certain arrangements."
D'hein Tia turned his gaze back to Antimony, inhaled deeply, and then spoke with a heavy breath. "Well. Aijeen will be with K'airos, and K'airos has obligations. If she's gone back to Drybone, she will have duties there. We can check with the Brass Blade offices here by foot, and there by missive, and see what's become of her."
Letting out a short sigh, Antimony's tail relaxed just a hair. "That is something. A place to start." A pause, while her hands fidgeted with the sides of her robe. "I don't suppose you have access to salv--ah, that is... Sagolii sage?"
Blinking, D'hein's brow popped up and then dropped. "I'm not sure what... Are you asking if I can change what people call you? Because the huntresses are sort of stubborn around here."
"What?" Antimony blinked and turned a second time, giving D'hein a confused look. "... I'm speaking of the plant. A short shrub. Purple flowers. The leaves are... essential."
"Oh." One of his ears canted violently. "Is it rare? If it's something that can be bought I'm sure I can buy it."
"It wasn't particularly rare back... with the tribe." Her fingers twisted a bit in her robe.
"Then it probably won't be rare here." Both his ears snapped forward in rare cooperation, then one of them screwed it up by drifting off to listen to a different part of the room. "Don't let my lack of mindfulness disturb you. I'm no horticulturist."
"I will need it for the ritual." She pursed her lips, tail curling. "And a few other things. Something of D'ahl's."
D'hein gestured broadly, "Pick a mirror," and then pointed towards a mirror that sat ajar from the rest; a perpendicular flat plane that pivoted outwards. "That's her room over there. She's rather spartan, but what she has she is protective of. I'm sure anything you take would work."
Antimony hesitated, wavering in the hallway with an indecisive shifting of her ears for several moments before turning to move towards the door D'hein indicated. "Given a mirror's properties, I don't think it would be the best choice," she murmured and looked about the room.
The room inside would be bare bones, as though no one had ever intended to live there for more than a few days. The bed bore a luxurious spread and a single pillow. There was no closet, no table, just a plain wooden wardrobe that hung open and probably contained most of D'ahl's possessions.
D'hein took a single step to follow her, but went no further. "Is there something specific that has... better properties?"
Antimony glanced over the bed but rather quickly crossed the room to the wardrobe. She closed her eyes a moment, muttering a low apology to the dead for disrupting their home, and then began to sift through the contents of the wardrobe. "Something that was near her frequently, or physically on her body would be ideal," she said as she moved. Her tail hung low as though in submission while she searched.
"She should have at least some jewlery," D'hein answered from the living area.
The wardrobe would indeed have jewelry, though not a great deal. It would seem expensive to Antimony's eyes, but by Dodo standards it was humble. Even the four elegant dresses that D'ahl possessed in the wardrobe would cause the Dodos to suspect the woman had taken some vow of poverty, set as they were beside a far greater number of more reasonable wools and leathers. Deep below the clothes would be a book and pen. And then weapons: knives in leather sheathes, elegant and lethal. No small number of those.
Antimony gave an uncomfortable look to the weapons, considered the jewelry for a few moments, but then pushed aside some clothes to take up the book and pen. She opened it to a random page, hoping it was what she thought.
A journal! It opened to a page depicting the layout of a room, its furniture and occupants, windows, doors and light sources all labeled. The opposite page provided incredible detail about the outlined setting; oddly so for a journal. It seemed to be a description of every possible detail of the room, with interesting insights into the the depth and thoroughness of the shadows and the way that the sound of the room's occupants echoed in the corners.
D'hein shifted in discomfort, spun a couple of times on the broken glass, listening to it crack beneath his feet. "Unless... Do you need something that burns? Are we going to do some kind of bonfire thing?"
"No," Antimony shut the book, stepped away from the wardrobe and turned to D'hein with it in hand. "There would be fire for the body, but this is more symbolic. I will need to burn the sage, however."
D'hein's ears shifted back on his head when he saw the book. One twitched, and slowly fell. His eyes looked over the journal as though something aberrant. "That's fine. I'll get the sage, and we can send off that missive to Drybone while we're at it. We can ask the Brass Blades concerning K'airos, and then we'll do the ritual. Sound good?"
Tucking the book in one arm, using her free hand to carefully adjust her glasses, Antimony gave a slight nod, the gesture more realized in the bobbing of her ears than anything. "Alright." A pause, and then she was moving to walk past D'hein towards the door. "I am certain all of this will resolve itself quickly once we've found them."
"All of this?" D'hein's voice carried annoyance as he followed the woman toward the door. "All of what? What about this is going to be 'resolved' just by finding Aijeen?"
Her tail quivered, pulled close to her legs as she walked. "We will know better what happened to D'ahl. And Aijeen... she will need my--" she paused, winced, "--our help." Glass cracked under her foot as she crossed the foyer, but she didn't stop, making for the hall and then the door she'd come in.
D'hein Tia continued on her heels. "That doesn't sound like much of a resolution at all. It sounds like you just want to turn the page, and are assuming that once you do everyone will be on that page with you. But what if you're reading out of a completely different book?"
"There is only one book." Antimony blinked, huffed, flung open the door. "And that is a ridiculous comparison, anyway."
"Really? Because apparently in your book, Aijeen did not kill D'ahl." He followed her through the door, his footsteps quick and heavy, his words the same way. "And in your book, D'ahl being dead is just a footnote. IN mine, that's the end of the book. We're in the epilogue now."
"Life does not end with the death of someone you care for." The words were surprisingly bitter to Antimony, and her ears set back against her skull as she began to retrace her path through the hall of the tower. "I am doing my part to help her."
"Not just one person. The last person." As they stepped out of the tower, the sound of the party hit them again, the event having continued uninterrupted.
Antimony halted a few steps down the bridge and spun suddenly on D'hein, glaring. "The last? Does Aijeen means nothing to you, then? You claim her as a daughter, but D'ahl was the last person you cared for?!"
The only person who noticed Antimony's shouting was the huntress that stood on across the bridge, the same who had guided Antimony to D'ahl's door. She looked over at the pair on the bridge, her features wavering between alarm and confusion, but definitely surprised.
D'hein stopped on the balls of his feet, tail whipping behind him. "She killed D'ahl." He dropped his head, glared hard at Antimony. "She. Killed. D'ahl."
"You don't know that," Antimony hissed, tail twisting about. "And even if--even... You have a responsibility! That never ends. Ever. You can't run away from it!"
The Tia's head canted to one side, crags etching into his face; his family relation to D'themia Nunh became visible. "Don't lecture me about the responsibilities of a parent. When I met Aijeen she didn't have any parents. I didn't need to take care of her. I chose to, and I haven't said anything about running away."
"She has always had parents; she just never--gah!" Her tail lashed as she turned around, and she glared at the narrow stone beneath her feet, her grip on the journal tightening. "Mourn your loss as you wish," she finally muttered. "I will do what I can to ease it." Then she began once again to cross the bridge, paying no attention to the guard on the opposite end.
D'hein kept even pace with Antimony as she walking, practically stepping on her tail. "I remember a time when you were so inconsolable that it took a month of plotting just to convince you that your daughters were alive. And you lecture me about running away."
The huntress guarding the bridge stepped far back from the pair, watching them with a blanched expression as they proceeded into the courtyard where the party was. The women dancing in the fountain noticed D'hein's entrance, waved at him, and began to call attention to him. D'hein, on the other hand, appeared blind to his surroundings.
Again Antimony froze and spun on D'hein, tail bushy and green eyes glaring wide as her hand closed the short distance between them to jab at his chest. "That is precisely it, D'hein Tia!" She did not look at her surroundings, and did not notice the crowd they were slowly drawing. "I lost everything. My daughters, my--my nunh! Azeyma failed them. But it wasn't the end. You are wrong."
Without realizing it, D'hein had become the center of attention. Half of the women dancing in the fountain had jumped out of it upon noticing him, and the others had begun to dance all the more. D'edy was shouting a loud greeting to D'hein, just one of many who had stopped what they were doing to acknowledge him. Even the music had stopped, as the musicians noticed a change in the atmosphere but were unsure what kind of music was appropriate for it.
D'hein gestured to the stalled party around him. "This was supposed to be for them! All of this was for D'ahl and Aijeen, and now it means nothing. I'm glad your daughters came back, but D'ahl's not just going to turn up if I'm patient, and Aijeen can't take back what she did."
A wet-headed dandelion with a long, soggy tail slammed into D'hein's side bodily, wrapping ehr arms around him. Her clothes had almost slipped off her body by then, mostly stuck to her because they were so wet as to be transparent. "I've got you now, my Nunh!"
The Tia, though, didn't even seem to feel her, shifting only subtly under her weight. He shook his head at Antimony. "No matter how many more pages I turn, this is still where the story ends."
"You don't know what happened," Antimony insisted, features drawn. She leaned back suddenly, blinked at the woman who'd wrapped herself around D'hein. Her ears twitched, going lopsided in a conflict of emotion. "You can't know until we find Aijeen." Then, tail shivering, she snapped unthinkingly at the woman, "Leave us be."
The soaked-through woman, cheeks bright red, inclined her head towards Antimony. "Ah, fah. It's a party. Have some fun, Witchy."
D'hein began to extricate himself from the huntress, eyes still on Antimony. "I know what happened. You're in denial, and that's a lot more like running away than what I'm doing."
"Oh! Heeeeeey!" D'edy arrived, just as naked as he had been before, glowing with cheer. He stepped up alongside D'hein and Antimony, but addressed himself to Antimony. "Good, you got him! I knew you would. So I set up a mock Nunh-battle between D'hein and a pile of Lalafell: two on the bottom, and one on top with a stick!"
Antimony's ears splayed outward and then back, almost disappearing in her grey hair as she stared wide-eyed back at D'hein. At D'edy's voice she flinched, glanced towards the Nunh, and then snapped perhaps a bit harsher than necessary, "We're leaving now."
D'edy's fluffy ears lay flat. "Wha-"
"D'edy." D'hein found he was able to extricate himself easily from the drunken woman who was stuck to him. "D'ahl died yesterday. Why are you celebrating?"
"Uhm." He smirked, paced over to D'hein, and sort of received the sopping wet dandelion-head, who was too drunk to stand on her own but very capable of complaining about her mistreatment. "D"themia's gone. You can be Nunh now. This was our plan, right?"
D'hein pushed himself away from D'edy and the drunken huntress. "The plan is ruined. I'm not doing this." He turned, then, to stomp away from them, marching out through the party.
"Hey!" With her puffball hair flat against her head, the dandelion's ears were actually visible, thin and pale. "But... I won and..." She suddenly pushed D'edy away from her, violently enough that the man toppled. "Hey! D'edy's no real Nunh! What're we supposed to do without a Nunh? What kind of tribe doesn't have a Nunh?"
D'hein answered with a swat of his tail through the air and a shout over his shoulder. "Mourn!"
Antimony stood frozen for several moments as D'hein stomped away. Then without a second look to D'edy or the dandelion head, or the rest of the party, she spun to follow after the Tia, tense all the way from the tips of her ears to the tip of her tail.
The women in the fountain had long since stopped dancing. The guards stood as slack and wide-eyed as anyone. D'edy sat on the ground and stared at D'hein's receding back. The lalafell with the musical instruments shook their head at one another.
And thin woman, puffy hair sticking to her face, stood weak-kneed and shivering by herself in the middle of party, her clothes only barely clinging to her body. She swayed and rolled her head in an attempt to stand up straight, and then shouted at Antimony's back. "What did you do to him, Witch?"
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"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."
Hipparion Tribe (Sagolii)Â - Â Antimony Jhanhi's Wiki
