Over and Under

[session 2, 20.04.2023]
Over and under
 
We return back to the tunnel that leads… somewhere, hopefully to the church proper. It’s dark and damp, but Eira is actually perhaps the coolest person on earth? They’re the one who broke down the bricked wall to reveal the tunnel, and I kind of want to see them do it again. Teach me how to do that trick, perhaps. Either way, we walk. I keep my rapier close, I do not like the idea of the priest, I do not like his views on magic, how he’s burst into the town accusing well-meaning citizens of witchcraft and followed through with his threats. The folk here say he burned Allison alive, but instead of Allison, the fire burned those around her. She did die, but so did a lot of other people.
 
Eventually, we find a door that leads to a cellar. It’s cool here underground, almost bordering chilly. The walls are surprisingly high with wooden beams, unlike your regular winter cellars. In another room, we find a winged statue, with tables set about it, both covered with linen sheets. I feel like I know what might lie under them, the shape telling enough. Once we lost our carpenter during a storm, his leg crushed under a poorly fixed cannon. His body lay under one such sheet until the storm passed. However, I am also curious by nature, and can blame only myself, when I went and lifted one of the cloths to see who was under there - it’s not like I would have even recognised the person no matter who they were, but when have I considered the consequences of my actions? To my horror, both of the corpses set to wait for burial raised themselves from the tables they were resting on, and only quick thinking and a couple of lucky stabs made them quieten once more. Clearly there’s something devious at work here. Luciano knows how to work his rapier, although he seems incredibly scared of any physical altercations. Nobles such as himself probably have others to fight their fights. I am, however, incredibly worried about Kazys, who fainted at the sight of the terrible creatures. Rusalka manages to get him back on his feet, wafting smelling salts under his nose until he wakes up.
 
The corpses look a couple weeks old, tops. Much like the burning of the town. Even though the fires are long gone, I feel like the stench of it gets seeped into our clothing and hair, until we all smell like soot.
 
We continue, try to find a door that leads us up and into the church. There’s one with double-doors that seems holy enough to be such, but we can’t find a key to fit its lock. It’s a good thing we have Eira with us - Eira, who seems so small and almost frail, but who packs a punch. It feels wrong to thus break into a church, those are, after all, holy ground. Violence should be left at the door. But I remind myself the holiness is long gone, as long as evil chooses to live within its walls.
 
It’s quite beautiful, actually. There’s quite a few bookshelves, still untouched and intact, and colourful light that filters through stained glass windows I hadn’t really noticed earlier. I recognise depictions of the seven gods, smile at the sea and its deity.
 
Despite everyone saying the priest claiming to have hated magic, the place still feels brimming with magic of some sort. It’s electrifying, or perhaps it’s just the nerves. As we walk through another arched doorway, it feels like puncturing a membrane - there’s definitely something up. In the great hall, the man, the priest, welcomes us in. Clearly, he’s not having a good day, as he spits at us.. things that I’d rather not repeat here. Of how he regrets not drowning Allison instead. (I think of the sea, and how it takes abd takes and gives nothing back, unless you treat it with kindness). Something about the man gets my blood to boil, perhaps the imminent danger he poses to Rusalka - and to myself, I suppose, but that’s the least of my worries. When I threaten to puncture his lung with my rapier, he hisses at me, and I feel an involuntary shudder as something passes through me - an energy of malevolent energy I have not felt before. Like every muscle in my body is protesting my decision to hurt this man, like someone else would wish to control my body in my stead. I fight the feeling, and eventually, it passes. It’s disquieting, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
 
Would you believe me, would you believe me, if I said I truly did not wish to kill the man? Merely to injure, to stop him from hurting others? My rapier did pierce him, and I can still hear the wet sound of his last breath and it makes me shudder. That’s not who I wish to be, but despite it all, I do not regret it, if it keeps those around me safe. On his person, we find two rings - one with a detailed dragon wrapped around the band of the ring, and another made of silver, depicting ocean waves under a crescent moon. Rusalka quickly pockets the first ring, and Luciano seems curious about the other one. I feel somewhat queasy about taking a dead man’s belongings, but perhaps it’s just because I’m the one who ended up killing him. He was not a good man, after all. I watch as his blood pools around him, slow and thick like syrup. His heartbeat stutters to its final end, and all I can think of is that our blood is the same.
 
To our surprise, we find Allison here as well, alive and well. Her hair is no longer wheat and gold, but all red as fire, same as her eyes. Her clothes are ripped and torn and singed all around her, and it feels like wildfire herself has stepped into the room with us. She tells us of Herodes arriving in town a few weeks ago, claiming that she is a dangerous witch and turning those around her against her… Likely out of fear and obeisance, as he seemed all high and mighty and important. We burn his body together, and it feels only a little sacrilegious. I think of his words, how he should have drowned Allison instead. I wonder if the sea had taken him, had we given him to it. Or would it have spat him back.
 
Allison quite eagerly decides to join us in our travel back to Miss Lalisa, so that she may recover from her… recent misbecomings. Dying must take a toll on you, after all.