Maladies Most Unusual (COMPLETE)

[Whim]

Ewan stood, arms crossed, as the rude cat went on and on about her old mistress. Annoyance turned into fascination as she went on. The bit about the Giftgiver was awfully familiar. And after what Vanya did how could the cat call them stupid? He was squirming with impatience by the time she finished the tale.

"Whose to say we didn't make that cow better?!" he shot Eckhart and Kino a glance as if looking for moral support, "And I don't think we need to listen to a cat at all. What are you going to do to us anyway? Scratch us? Spit up dead mice?"

Ewan narrowed his eyes, turning serious, "And I know this Giftgiver of yours. Prince of Dawn, yeah? You don't give gifts to fair folk. Its his brother, the Prince of Dusk, that does trades. Gave him all my years and learning and he made me all immortal and whatnot." The boy puffed out his scrawny chest, preening. He was definitely better at magic than this... dumb operation.

[Alize]

As Belladonna finished her story, Kino couldn't help but pity the ugly little creature a bit. Living with the fallout of one's hubris hurts like a sumbitch, and the remorse in the cat's mewling was real. Not that the alchemist felt any less inclined to give the tramp a good punt, mind you.

As Ewan chimed in about the Twin Princes, she wondered just how exactly the little boy had heard of such esoteric mythical beings. There was more to the urchin than there seemed, at least that much was certain. Was it that farfetched that there might be a grain of truth to the boy's outrageous claims of being some kind of former archmage? The odds still were that he was just an endearing scamp with a gift for bullshittery, but that wasn't exactly a hundred-percent sure bet now, was it? The alchemist's musings were rudely cut short as the cat addressed her.

"I can tell you've wanted to say something for a while. Spit it out, Beaky."

"Stow the jabs, furbag. Here's what I'm thinking. If your "Giftgiver" and Ewan's "Prince" are one in the same, and if my 'ol gramp's stories were true, then I've an idea about what happened to this Vanya of yours."

Seeing that she had Belladonna's attention, Kino continued.

"The Twin Princes, they're extraplanar tricksters. Ethereal gamblers. Eldritch dealbrokers. They collect the souls of mortals to use as gambling trinkets. Keep 'em stored in gemstones and use 'em as prizes for the games they play with each other. At least according to my alcoholic, Alzheimer's-ridden bastard of a grandfather, that is."

"But gramps knew his stuff. And if I'm right about this, your old master ain't moving on to any afterlife. Not while she's all bottled up inside a cosmic poker chip. But the Princes love themselves a gamble. Her soul might not be beyond your reach, if y'wanted to try 'n set things right. Try 'n let her... move on."

Kino concluded with a flourish of her hands.

"Well. Thoughts, mangebag?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart looked on as the cat addressed them. He could feel sympathy for her, for sure- but he didn't much like how he was being treated. "You're the one who tricked me into this relationship, asshole." he thought bitterly. "What gives you the right to insult me for not being good enough?"

After listening to Kino's story, the cat's fur bristled. "You think I don't know all that?" she hissed angrily. "The first thing I did after he took her was research his true nature. The Giftgiver doesn't appear to the same person twice." Belladonna's whiskers drooped. "Vanya's soul is stuck in limbo, and I have no way of reaching her."

At that, something clicked in Eckhart's head. "But wait, if the Giftgiver gambles away the souls he takes, what's to say he still has Vanya? Maybe somebody else has her now?"

"That was smart Eckhart, now the cat will worry that her friend is in the hands of someone even worse. Good going."

[Whim]

"By the time the sidhe are through with a soul its always different." Ewan said in a small voice, almost reverently. But he was beginning to get angry. With all that could have happened an eternity of being ten wasn't a horrible fate. Stupid, bossy cat. He trotted from the stairwell over to a nearby workbench. No way did this all belong to some lonely girl with a cat. Either she had a a prior master, or had been receiving a LOTS of gifts. The boy paused to examine a straw farmer's hat. And, with a flourish, modeled it before a nearby mirror. It looked good, in a wholesome, ragged farm-boy sort of way.

"Paws off it, ratboy!" Belladonna bared her teeth.

Ewan felt the hat grow heavier, and brackish slime was dribbling down his bags. Was something in the hat? Cringing, he lifted up the hat to reveal a dead frog. "Oh-gosh-what!" he flung the offending object away. It sailed through the air, over Belladona and Eckhart, and landed with a wet thud on Kino's beak. Wretching and whining he shook out his tangled hair. "Sorry your friend is gone, but we can't go chasing after sidhe tricksters if that's what you think. I did it once already! And Eckhart got the book fair and square so we can do what we want with it!

"And uh. Sorry Kino," he bit his lip, averting his gaze from the imposing beaked figure.

Belladonna's yellow-green eyes narrowed, fixing on Eckhart. "If the book is all that's left of her! I'm going to make sure its used properly..."

[Alize]

Kino plucked the hat from her beak before twirling it around her finger then discarding it. She placed her hands on her hips and stared at the child, adjusting her posture so as to radiate an aura of taciturn disapproval. Ewan grinned sheepishly. Behind the cold, dead eyepieces of her mask, the alchemist was grinning from ear to ear at the ragamuffin's antics, but he didn't need to know that.

She cleared her throat.

"If your master did get traded to somebody else, I'd imagine some an oracle or scry-seer might be able to point you in the right direction. Pantheon's Plaza in the capitol might have someone along those lines. Or maybe the arcanist's district. Would a piece 'o Vanya's clothing help them track her soul? I mean, it works that way with bloodhounds..."

"An' also, the capitol's as good a place as any to go t'sell some of the book's remedies. We'd make bank what with all the sick folk there, 'an feel good about it to boot. What do y'say, Ecks?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart's eyes lit up at Kino's suggestion. "Yeah, that sounds great! There are healing schools in Arca too, so I'll be able to take classes with the money we make!" Eckhart's mood began to improve. "Oh Ansgar, this is going to be awesome! So what if that stupid cat comes with us?"

Belladonna, however, had different plans. "No. I want to go to Altas Verde, that's where the connection between the faerie realm and our world is the strongest."

Eckhart looked at the cat, and then at his friends. "Um, well, we out number you."

Belladonna stared at him. "I don't care what you want. You have the book, you're sticking with me. I'm going to Altas Verde, and so are you."

Beginning to get annoyed, Eckhart turned to look at Ewan and Kino. He said nothing, but his eyes pleaded for help.

[Whim]

"Well I was going to Arca anyway. No harm just looking I s'pose..." Ewan nodded in agreement with Kino, glad he got a laugh out of her. Then the dumb cat started running her mouth.

"We're not getting pulled into your mess!" the boy put his hands on hips defiantly. "I'm right sorry about your friend but that's how it goes!"

Bella flicked her tail and curled around Eckhart's angle. "Oh I don't need you or beaky! Just Tunafish here and Vanya's book," she purred. Just then Eckhart's eyes flashed yellow and the young man began moving on his own accord. He began chanting an unfamiliar tongue. It was easily recognizable as a gating spell.

"Hey what are you-?!" the boy hurled an old shoe at the pair, but an invisible barrier deflected the projectile. One of Kino's knives followed, getting stuck mid air and oozing acid. "Let him go!"

"I'm not going to trade him. That would be suicide. No, no, he's better off..."

Ewan shouted his own spell back. Within Bella's barrier the floor cracked open' revealing a toothy mouth. Morrigan's Mangling Maw. A trio of tongues slithered fourth to snatch the cat but it was too late. A corona of foxfire illuminated the room and Eckhart and Bella are gone.

"I hate cats. Not good for a single thing except mousing," the boy scowled, staring with incredulity where Eckhart and Bella once stood. He gave a heavy sigh and gathered up his hat. "I guess we know where they are. But, um, I reckon we deserve to loot this place, yeah?"

The pair set about ransacking Vanya's cottage in restitution, gingerly stepping over the probing tendrils of the extradimensional maw.