The first lead
On the distant world of Kosinost, in a surprisingly roomy sprawl of interconnected upper-story rooms above several businesses that formed Miko and Skip's headquarters in the freeport city of Estergord, Miko Tanner was struggling with a screwdriver and one of her father's spyglasses. She pushed, twisted, tried to reposition slightly...slipped, swore, and dropped the screwdriver.
Then a warm, red glow filled the hallway outside, accompanied by a loud BEEEEEEEP and her cousin Jaspier's deadpan voice.
WARNINGLittle Warriors approaching.
Please stand back.
We have no wish to cause a teleportation mishap
Please stand back.
A sudden flash of inspiration hit Miko's brain, and she raced out to the hallway and emptied the entire contents of her several ball-bearing pouches underneath the reddish orb hovering in the hall...
Please stand back
Please stand back
Please stand back...
...and darted back into her workshop, biting her knuckles in anticipation. Please, let this be her father. Or Aramel Dunkstern. Or Morvull, or Mitne, or Atholis, or just about anyone really...
Jinx teleports into kosinost landing onto the ball bearings before she even gets a chance to find her bearings. "Hellooo? Miko? Woah-"
The floor moves on its own accord underneath Jinx's feet. There's this moment where her feet skid out in different directions, and she almost stabilizes, legs splayed wide, as she looks up to see a wide-eyed Miko looking on in amazement...and then the ball-bearings move again. Jinx's feet end up where her shoulders should be, and her shoulders where her feet should be, and her brain wondering why she's staring at the ceiling with no air in her lungs.
"THAT....WORKED....AHAHHAHAAAHAHA......". Miko presumably had more words to finish that sentence, but she never managed to speak them. She spent the next minute rolling uncontrollably with laughter.
"Owwww, I haven't fallen on these in a while, that's... embarrassing" Jinx says while waiting for her head to stop spinning...then she leaps up and dusts herself off, frowning at Miko laughing at her. "I'm still getting used to multiverse travel! everything feels different in other worlds, that's the ONLY reason why I fell! I swear to the gods!"
Miko was just beginning to collect herself, but that reply sends her breathlessly gasping again.
After about a minute of this, a female satyr with thick, bright red hair in curls opens another door into the hallway. "Oh dear...", Skips gasps. "Ah...Welcome to Kosinost! Is anyone injured?"
"Aside from my ego, no one is injured." Jinx does a bow.
"Hello there! My name is Jinx! You must be Skips correct?" I've got a message from Lady Wintergreen for Miko, once she's uh, recovered from laughing at me. Wintergreen wants me to give you this location. It's an underground fight club in Estergord. You're supposed to find someone there, Lady Wintergreen says you'll know who it is when you see her!" She holds out the letter with the location on it to miko, waiting for her to stop laughing.
"Daphne Skiphoof, in full," the satyr replies pleasantly. "But yes, you can call me Skips."
After some more time, Miko gradually collects herself and appraoches Jinx. "I...ahha, oh dear. I was terrified for a moment there you were going to be Wintergreen herself. And then you...phhht...That was actually ridiculous! Ah, good to see you, and yeah....Welcome to Kosinost! Hope you enjoy the trip."
She shows Jinx into a small shared kitchen with a simple tripod table in the center, the chairs and table all low-slung for smallfolk (Skips prefers to eat standing). The complex may be fairly large, but clearly neither Skips nor Miko prioritize cooking or shared meals.
Miko unfurls the letter from Wintergreen onto the table, which includes a simple map of the Estergord docks, and an underground set of tunnels Miko knew existed but hadn't gotten around to exploring yet. Most of their time here so far had been staking out what they were fairly sure was the Arcane Eye's own outpost here in Kosinost.
"Well Wintergreen was gonna come herself but I just so happened to ask if she needed anything and she got me to deliver this! I guess you got lucky. I'd hate to see what lady Wintergreen would do if she fell to your mighty ball bearings"
Jinx sits down at the table, taking a moment to adjust to having a table be eye height to her without having to stack pillows.
"So what's the important business you guys are working on here in Kosinost? I hope it's not another huge multiverse ending threat, we do not need another one of those any time soon, not after I've just adopted kids!" Jinx says light-heartedly but still hoping that it isn't another multiverse ending threat.
"Everyone's business is important to someone, it's just a question of scale," Miko mumbles, rifling through Wintergreen's letter, rereading it again. On not getting much clarity after the third time reading it through, she turns it sideways and tries it that way. "According to Wintergreen, no one's hunting fae creatures in Elanora yet. I note she was careful to say 'yet'. But this Arcane Eye, they're doing it right here, despite the fact that the locals hate them for it, and according to Skips they're doing the same on Faerun."
Skips visibly flinches at the mention of Faerun.
"That's really strange, and concerning. Especially if it's happening across two different worlds with no previous animosity towards the fae." Jinx rubs the grip of messenger as if to help her think.
"Do you two have any leads yet?"
"No," Skips said sadly. "Miko's father knew Khelben when he was a child..."
"You mean when you and he were Little Warriors," Miko interjected.
Skips' eyes flash for a moment, then she lowers her gaze. "You still don't trust me, do you? But everything I told you is true."
"But you're not telling us half of what you know," Miko objected. "Here's a lead, Jinx. See if you can get Skips to explain how she got from Faerun to Kosinost in the first place. Her shield token's broken. A single trip between worlds, unprotected, can be enough to unhinge a mind, especially to a world far enough removed as Kosinost. But Skips is just fine."
Skips doesn't move, but she appears to be trying instinctively to shrink into the wall she's leaning on.
Jinx looks Skips dead in the eye, her hand poised to grab messenger if needed. "Yeah Mikos got a point. Skips, how did you get to kosinost all the way from Faerun without a working shield token? I trust Miko and if she thinks you're not telling 100% of the story, then I believe her." With her other hand Jinx pulls an item out of her cloak, the seal of the law-bringer, looking to Miko, ready to activate it if Miko asks. "If you want Miko to trust you, then you won't mind telling us how you did it?"
"I noticed Miko hasn't activated her token since I've met her either," Skips mumbles.
Now it's Miko's turn to try to shrink into the furniture. "Ah. Yeah. That happened."
The room falls silent for a good while. "Anyone got a coin?" Miko offered. "Flip you for who gets to go first?"
Jinx nods and pulls out a gold piece. "I'm happy to flip it for you both, to keep things neutral and fair?"
Skips visibly gulps.
Miko's eyes narrow for a moment. "I'll call it," she offers.
Jinx nods. "I'll count down from three and flip the coin, then Miko can call it."
She readies the coin "Three. Two. One." she flips the coin in the air after her countdown ends
Miko doesn't call it. She snaps the coin out of the air. Skips didn't even see her hand start to move.
"I made a deal with Auxum," Miko starts. "Yes, that Auxum. Lord of Hell himself. It was...necessary, one of those things, just had to be done, but the short of it is, I'm under contract with him to provide him with one favor while I still walk Elanora. So I can't use the recall function of my token, or I risk him waiting for me there to ask me to do only the gods know what..."
"And if you can't recall, you can't reuse your token to travel to any other world either, I get it," Skips finishes with a sigh.
"So you do know how they work. Your turn."
"If Jinx weren't here, I still wouldn't...you'll understand shortly." Skips is pulling her arms tightly about her chest, like she's trying to hold something inside. Probably her heart. Jinx and Miko can almost hear it thudding from across the room.
Miko's gaze drops for a moment. "I trust Jinx as well. Would you prefer I leave?"
Skips takes a long moment, before drawing a long, shuddering breath. "No. You just took a leap of faith for me, so...like you said. My turn."
"It's called Soil. It's...harvested. From fae creatures. When they die on the Prime Material Plane, they return to the Faewild to be reborn there, although that's a simplification. It's not like they just pop up tomorrow right as rain, dying still diminishes them, and the whole process takes time. A century or so. Maybe more, for the more powerful.
But when this happens, if a wizard is nearby, they can rip a part of the fae spirit's essense away from them, and it forms this grainy brown-black...well, stuff. And that stuff lets that wizard travel between worlds without risking their mind."
"And that's why you couldn't trust me," Miko nodded. "With some of this Soil, I could travel the worlds again. You thought I'd be tempted."
"You wouldn't be the first," Skips finished with a far-away look to her eyes.
"So you used...Soil...to get here?" Miko asked. She's not accusing. Her voice is much more gentle.
"I stole some from Khelben when I escaped, and brought it to Elminster, who sent me here. Els didn't think Khelben would follow this far into the Tree's branches."
"Do you have any more?"
Skips slowly brings out a small, leather pouch from her belt. "Enough for one trip to Elanora, or back to Faerun. But I'm no wizard. I can't Plane Shift."
She tussles the pouch in her fingers for a time, almost caressingly. Then she shrugs and throws it onto the table.
THUD.
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