Elize kills a man, Mercedes kills 10+ men and Hieronymus draws a caricature
General Summary
Battle in Hut Town
Midday the 7th of September. Mercedes and Elize are in Hut Town where they are approached by a large angry mob of Phoenix followers shouting insults at Mercedes in particular. Elize and the bodyguards very much want to flee but Mercedes is itching for a fight, especially against a large group of heretics. Despite Elize best efforts to calm the situation, succeeding for a while, Mercedes does not get the hint and proceeds to goad the mob into a frenzy anyway and walks up to meet them with her rapier drawn.
Against better judgement, the four bodyguards join the fray to back up Mercedes as the crowd of over 20 people attacks. Elize stays in the back and watches the flanks. Mercedes is having the time of her life, violently felling heretics as straws of grass as they rush towards them, blood and intestines soon piling up on the street around her. The guards are not having as good a time; they fight valiantly and fell a few, but (having not practiced fencing with an aspect of the War-god) are soon overwhelmed by the dozens of clubs, knives and other improvised weapons bashing and stabbing at them.
Behind, Elize is attacked by two other rioters emerging from one of the alley-ways. She draws her rapier and enters the first real life-or-death fight in her life. Frightened, she stabs at one of the approaching men, and all her training during the summer has paid off as the swords goes straight into his heart and he falls, squirming in pain and fear as blood gushes out on the cobblestones. Aghast at what she has done, she backs away as the other attacker who is still standing screams heartwrenchingly that she killed his beloved Thomas.
In the front, more angry peasants join the fight, pouring in from the alley-ways and from up the street. As the guards each fall to the ground from blunt trauma or knife wounds to the legs, the crowd is incited to keep attacking even though they have lost a lot of people to the Howling Wolfhound standing among them covered in their blood. Their triumph seems inevitable as a club breaches Mercedes defenses and breaks some fingers on her right hand, making her drop the rapier, but, through a grunt of pain, she immediately flips it up with her foot and catches it with her left hand instead, and the battle rages on.
Elize tries to keep her assailants at bay, but a second attacker (bleeding Thomas not withstanding) having gotten past the fallen bodyguards aims a knife at her which she fails to deflect. It catches her arm badly and she drops the sword, arm limp and useless. She backs up towards the house wall but is caught by a strong arm around her neck and get a knife held against her throat. A man tells her to give up, and that she'll fetch a good ransom. Elize is having none of it and wiggles loose.
Mercedes, still furiously fighting, notices Elize is backed into a corner and tries to tell her to run away. Elize cries that she can't just leave Mercedes to her doom. Indeed, she is getting surrounded as the mob gets past the fallen guards. She decides that the crippled guards on the ground whom she was trying to defend would unfortunately have to be sacrificed and, despite the plea of the guard closest on the ground below her, fakes a stab at the person behind her to make him duck, rolls over his back and stands in front of Elize to protect her from the attackers, summarily putting her sword through Thomas lover who is still desperately trying to get revenge at Elize.
The crowd, who would rather take the precious loot from the fallen guards than throw themselves at Mercedes sword, relents in their attack. Since Elize is wounded, Mercedes also decides to end the fight. With Mercedes holding the crowd off at pistol point, Elize shouts at them that they should leave because this is the Wolfhound and they are lucky to be alive. The crowd apparently agrees and hurriedly scurries off, still bringing with them the bodies of the four guards, two of whom has been with Elize for years, to strip them of their loot.
Thomas is still alive, writhing on the ground, and Elize, overwhelmed with guilt, begs Mercedes to try and save him because she has never killed anyone before. Mercedes stabs Thomas and says it's alright, she killed him, not Elize, so she got nothing to feel guilty about. It doesn't quite work, but it helps Elize put it in the emotional backpack for a while, at least until after her wedding the next day. Still very upset, she gives Mercedes a hard faceslap and on the verge of crying asks her how she could force her into a situation like this, you damned idiot. Mercedes realizes it's a rethorical question and instead changes focus to Elize wounded arm which she dresses as the guards finally arrive, wondering what in the Mist they are doing in Hut Town during a raging riot. They are escorted back to the palace.
Elize absolutely don't want to see Mercedes anymore that day and, after a medicus has gotten to take a proper look at her arm, goes to her guestroom to soak in the bath to be in peace until her fiancé comes back from the marriage-preparations to comfort her. Julius is beyond himself with regret that he wasn't there to protect her. Malakit also comes to visit, having heard she got hurt.
Mercedes feels ashamed that her supposed heroics led to her friend being hurt, and a bit disappointed that no one seems to appreciate her combat prowess, and goes to lay in her bed wrapped in her blanket for the rest of the day.
Being Hieronymus
Hieronymus wakes up in the desert sun. The same desert, he realizes, as the one which he visited with Kleon. But this time it is not red, and the temple and buildings around him are no longer dilapidated, instead standing pristine in all their ancient glory. At the foot of the temple and along the surrounding buildings stand upright reptiles, two-legged and two-armed, dressed in hooded robes. Glowing eyes follow him from under the hoods as he walks towards the temple, and as he approaches he starts hearing a chanting voice. At first it does not even sound human, but the closer he gets, the more human-like it becomes, even if he can not quite understand the strange language in which it chants.
He climbs the large stairs of the temple and reaches the top, the place where he and Kleon had stood two days before watching the sleeping ancient lizard floating in stasis. This time something other floats before him, a person with it's back towards him. As it turns around, Hieronymus sees that it is himself. But as this version of himself opens it's eyes a bright light shines out, and regular Hieronymus get a feeling that he is in several places at once, his mind powerful enough to exist and experience at several points at the same time. He feels that this is, indeed, a perfect, divine form of himself, that is now within grasp.
Morning, 8th of September. Hieronymus wakes up to the smell of herring and saltbrine and the sound of shouting and furious knocking on his door, and remembers the drug-related salted herring incident the night before. With a groan he rises and goes to the door. He opens the door a smidge and discovers two people whom he assumes are his downstairs neighbors. They are very upset about the sheer amount of salty smelly water having poured through the planks in their ceilings from his apartment, one waking up with fishy water in his face and the other having had her fur vests ruined. Heironymus, who does not like being scolded, explains passive-aggressively that he accidently tipped his barrel of herrings but accidents happen and they should talk to the landlord about the leaky ceilings instead. The neighbors angrily leave.
He has recieved two letters, either during the morning or he had missed them during his exotic powder-fuelled painting spree the day before. One is from Princess-Mayor Mari de Luna with a commission for painting a wall in the Princely Palace, which surprises him and almost makes him feel guilty for a moment since he knows the purpose of the other paintings he has been commissioned to paint. Paintings portraying de Luna.
The other letter is an invite to Elize Kindling's marriage to Julius Nyckel. He realizes he had stolen a fancy red suit the night before that would be perfect to wear for the occasion, he'd just have to wash away the stains of bodily fluids.
It knocks on his door again and this time it's the landlord who has gotten complaints about Hieronymus. He is much less angry than the neighbors had been, but says that it would of course be expensive to fix all this, replacing the furs of the lady and what not. Hieronymus gives him two dubloons and the landlord eagerly accepts them, saying Hieronymus is his favorite tenant and goes on his merry way.
Hieronymus returns to the business of the suit. He also wishes to finish a painting of the de Luna family which he has been painting, meant as a gift to said family, so he can give it to them during the wedding when they were all in the same place anyway. With his incredible painting skills, he manages to both finish the painting and wash the suit in time for the wedding.
Wedding
It's the day of the wedding, and Elize is mostly preoccupied with the preparations, leaving early for the de Luna villa on the Northern Heights, which she had been allowed to borrow as a venue for the wedding, with a beautiful view over the ocean and above the rancid smells of the city. A lesser army of party planners are still there making sure everything was up to snuff, with lavish decorations and entertainment being prepared.
Mercedes is forced to report to her mother what had happened the day before, as she wonders why the actual fuck she and Elize were out with a minimal escort in Hut Town in the middle of raging riots. Mercedes doesn't really have a good excuse other than that she really wanted to fight, but proudly says that she killed at least ten people or more. Raining on Mercedes parade, Mari answers that it's great that she killed ten heretics out of the tens of thousands roaming the streets, but there are better ways for her to fight the heretics than killing them one by one, like for example help with the war effort. Mercedes, feeling sheepish as she usually did after talking with her mother, returns to her room to find some clothes for the wedding.
It's late afternoon, and the guests are arriving for the reception at the wedding, where Elize and Julius sits to greet them. All high noble families except auf Klint show up for the festivities. First is, of course, Princess-Mayor Mari with family. Mari says that as neither the bride's not the groom's parents are here, she would be honored to give their marriage her blessing in their stead. Likewise, Prince-Mayor Consort Papelian, being the uncle of the groom, offers his blessing in his sister's abscense.
Elize is having trouble keeping it together, still plagued by guilt over having killed her first person the day before. The situation is not helped by several of the prominents guests who come to greet her talking about depressing or upsetting things.
Andal "Red Rose" Blankros says it's good that she has found a husband, and hopes she treats him better than she did his son Guiss Blankros who has been reduced to a pathetic pile of poetry. He is considering sending him to a mercenary company to make a proper man out of him. Elize does not appreciate the poorly masked slight and answers caustically that she's actually got a mercenary company that is looking for recruits.
Diego de Castillio also congratulates her, as is appropriate. He continues to comment on Elize having good relations with his daughter Theresa and continues to rant that there is no true love and the best you can hope for is to marry someone that you can tolerate, obviously not very happy with his own marriage.
Thankfully Theresa de Castillio herself approaches afterwards and apologizes for her father's mood. She says they have been missing Elize at the Bellwick Club and wonders if she'll bring her husband in the future. Julius wonders what she is talking about and Elize explains that it is a "sailing" club, and tells Theresa that they haven't talked about it yet, but maybe. Wink wink.
Then the onslaught of downers continue as Lora Rendell is next, the eldest daughter of the Rendell family. She isn't a downer as such, but when she explains that her parents haven't come because of the death of Edward Elize is close to breakdown again but keeps it together.
Afterwards, Nemo de Fornanza, Julius second cousin and also the killer of Edward Rendell, comes to their table. He says he's surprised to see his cousin Julius get married and wonder how they got his mother Agatha to agree since he knows she is very protective of him. Elize answers that they didn't ask her and Nemo continues to ask if she doesn't believe in the prophesy then? Julius gives Elize a confused look as she answers avoidingly and Nemo leaves, apparently pleased with having sowed seeds of doubt and sorrow. Julius wonders what's wrong with Nemo and suggests he should beat him up, but Elize tells him to ignore him and not start fights at their wedding.
Arda "The Cruel" auf Burgon also comes up to congratulate her. Even though she doesn't say anything upsetting per say, her very presence is upsetting. The sight of Gilberta auf Burgon, widow of the late Edward, dressed in black and looking pale doesn't help.
Mari approaches again to introduce Elize to Aldus Klump, whom she presents as the rightful chairman of Barrodal, in exile due to the coup. She thought it'd be good to introduce them to eachother since Elize and her mercenaries are going to play a fairly large role in the war.
Finally, Tyne Skalich congratulates her, both on her wedding and also her incredibly quick rise to the top in the city, calling her a shooting star. Rather ominously, he adds that there are an impressive amount of nobles and important people here, all under the same roof. Elize feels like he omitted "it would be a shame if anything happened to them". She isn't sure if it's a threat, a quip that he knows her family history, or if it was just a weird thing to say. It worries her none the less.
Hieronymus finds an opportunity to speak to Mari de Luna during the mingling before the cermony, and in addition to thanking her for the generous commission, he presents her with the family portrait which he had been working on the last few days. It is very skillfully done, and she is delighted and impressed with his skill, unofficially cementing him as one of de Luna's house artist. Mercedes is standing behind, also seeing the painting, and just as Hieronymus looks at her she throws an egg-shaped thing at the floor. Again. Hieronymus quietly ponders that she might actually be crazy.
He is then approached accosted by Castor "The Jester" Cindrii, who puts his arm around his neck in a friendly but a bit too violent manner and asks him if he is de Luna's new artist. Hieronymus answers, a bit overwhelmed by the friendly attack, that he guess he is. Castor immediately asks him for a caricature. Not seeing much reason (or choice) to decline, he quickly draws an exaggerated portrait of the man, a bit comforted by the knowledge that his nickname is "The Jester", hoping it isn't ironic.
He shows the caricature to Castor who is silent for a few moments. Then, thankfully, he bursts out in roaring laughter and slaps Hieronymus violently on the back, saying Hieronymus is a skilled artist indeed. They talk a bit about the de Luna family, since they are apparently his new patrons, and Castor tells about how their families almost ended up in a blood-feud after his daughter Virginia was kidnapped and participated in sieges and what not. Thankfully she returned with only a limp, as he was fully expecting a corpse. And he is honestly a bit proud of her.
Mercedes butts into the conversation and says that she at least became one of the main characters in an opera based on the Siege of C'trien. Castor remarks that he has seen it, but surely not all was true? Mercedes laughs nervously and says that it didn't happen that way at least. Castor proceeds to joke that his daughter apparently wasn't good enough for Mercedes then as she married a foreigner, then say that honestly it seems like Virginia's worst wound wasn't the gun wound in the leg, it was her broken heart. Mercedes continues to hotch a bit nervously, but Castor changes course and says that surely Mercedes, having lived in this very villa most of her life, must know where the finest wine is. She answers that of course she does, and she, Castor and Hieronymus finds their way to the wine-cellar.
Virginia asks Elize and Julius if they have seen Mercedes, and Elize answers that she saw her go towards the cellar with Virginia's father and an artist. She wonders if Yum is also at the party, which they say that she isn't, she had to leave the city with the Party Boat for a while. Virginia looks thoughtful and says she thought Mercedes and Yum would be together all the time now that they were married, then asks if the Cimil Ship will be back soon, to which Elize answers that it'll probably be away for a while, but love can surely survive long distances. Virginia answers non-commitally but is obviously hoping that it can't.
Hieronymus, Mercedes and Castor reach the wine cellar and Mercedes leads them to the room which holds very finest wines. Including a few bottles of the incredibly exclusive Je M'appelle Regelle Citadelle, one of which they bottle up and share between them while having a nice gemütlich conversation.
Then they notice a grunting coming from another part of the cellar and, expecting gossip material, the new drunk fiends clumsily sneak towards the direction of the grunting. However, the source of the grunting turns out to be Mercedes old friend and notorious gang leader Sevro, laying on the ground half-unconscious with a bleeding nose. Mercedes rushes to his side and asks him if he is alright, what has happened and what he is doing in the cellar.
Sevro says that he came here to complain to her about rousing unrest in Hut Town where his gang hangs out, as it has made making business much more difficult. Mercedes responds that well, they're heretics. Then she says they don't live in the villa since her mom is Princess-Mayor, which Sevro thinks is a shame because it is a very nice villa. Mercedes agrees. He then offers her a mushroom which she also agrees. Then he notices Hieronymus and Castor in the room and draws his knife and asks who the bohemian and old man are. Mercedes calms him down and says they're cool.
Then she remembers that he is bleeding in the cellar during Elize wedding and again asks what happened. Sevro explains that as he was looking for Mercedes, he met a guy with a crossbow who tried to shoot him, but Sevro threw a shovel in his face. Then he can't remember much more. Mecedes asks where the crossbow guy went and Sevro points out a direction where he thinks the guy and his friends went. Mercedes dismays that there were more of them and the four of them hurry the way the culprits went.
Extra paranoid after Tyne's words earlier, Elize notice that members of certain families, specifically auf Grulve, auf Burgon and de Fornanza start to leave, despite the festivities barely having started. Looking around, it strikes her that there are a lot of servants and miscellaneous party planners around, all of which are strangers to her and either one of them could be an assassin.
At the end of the cellar the group now consisting of Mercedes, Hieronymus, Sevro and Castor finds a wine rack standing ajar, revealing a doorway to a flight of stairs. They run up them into a small bedroom Mercedes knows is usually used by some sort of groundskeeper, now empty except for a rope ladder laying in a pile on the floor, suggesting this was where the people who are presumably assassins entered. They hear the sound of horses and wagons outside, and investigating further (by looking out the window) they see the wagons of the families Elize had spotted leaving, indeed on their way away from the manor.
It turns out Elize is distressingly close to the truth in her paranoia as she locks eyes with a generic-looking servant who suddenly pulls off his face, revealing the man to be The Bearded Man, seemingly pleased that she has discovered him.
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