Laying Low [Everyone]

Tree enters with Luther trailing behind her, carrying wine and glasses for everyone. "Everyone still alive in here?" she asks brightly.

Glen's eyes slide open, and Elen bounds over, entangling himself in Tree's legs. "We're still in one piece thus far. Just a little tired." And he sounds tired, too.

"Well, you're not used to night-sailing," she points out with a grin. "It's gotta be way past your normal bedtime, right?"

"It would be one thing if it was just the one night," Glen says with a smile. "It was one day of sailing, a night of sneaking and arguing and maybe almost dying, then another day of sailing, then a day of sailing, then a night of sneaking and fighting and running. I don't even feel like I have a good grasp of what day of the week it is right now, ha."

"Plus all the busy days and late nights leading up to the sailing and the fighting," Sunrise adds with a chuckle, setting the food down. "We ran into a lot of dead ends trying to get information that might help us find you, Tree. Everyone, eat! It's not fancy but it's tasty and it's filling, and I for one am starving."

Glen doesn't hesitate, grabbing a bit of this and a bit of that and piling it up on a plate, and putting together a few things for his hungry kitten on another plate. He chows down enthusiastically and Elen starts slurping down his food with a similar aplomb. Glen looks up from his food for a moment, a little embarrassed for forgetting himself. "Oh, uh. Thanks." He grins then dives back in.

Their tone is playful but even so Tree sobers. "I'm really sorry Laerdya put you all through this. And I'm sorry for...my parts in this affair."

Sithani would normally eat daintily in front of a crush, but right now she's just hungry, and scoops up handfuls of everything she wants, dumping them untidily on her plate. At Tree's words, she shakes her head. "Hey, it's not your fault your mum wants to figuratively embalm you. And it's not your fault your boyfriend didn't leave a note," she adds teasingly.

Glen nods in Sithani's direction and croaks, "what she said." He swallows an enormous bite and blushes a little. "Besides, we knew what we were getting into, we didn't have to say yes, and we're being compensated. As far as I'm concerned, fair's fair."

"Also a lot of it did involve side trips," Sunrise admits with a smile. "We were trying to find the safest way to approach you, and that meant going little far afield trying to get information and gain allies. All worth it in the end, I think, even the parts that didn't turn out to be directly related."

Thimb, unable to stand the quiet in the room had summoned a deck of cards and she and Hamish had been carefully constructing a card house. When the door opened, and Hamish heard the word food, they darted over, knocking the whole thing over. Luckily, since the cards were summoned, Thimb was able to wiggle her fingers and banish them back to the ether rather than collecting the whole mess to clean it up. Hamish waited for the people to fix their plates before running off with an apple nearly the size of them and depositing it in Thimb's lap proudly before running back to get candied nuts for themselves, stuffing their cheeks like a rodent.

Still sitting cross legged on the floor, Thimb dug out the last of her cookies from her pack and used mage hand to set them down with the other food. She made a mental note to buy more at the first opportunity, though while digging in her bag came across something else. "Oh! Tree! I, uh, brought these for you," she said pulling a small stack of her own romance books out. They were older series that she hadn't spotted on her shelf before so she had figured Tree hadn't already read. "I, uh, saw your shelf and wasn't sure what state you would be in when we found you so I thought you might want something distracting, although, um, I don't think that's the case, but, well, you might still like them? Or not?" why was she getting so self conscious offering her some books? She stood up to set them on the near by dresser so Tree could go through them without her staring or be forced to take them. Thimb then went to take the apple Hamish had brought her to see they were currently eating it.

"You don't even need food for sustenance," she said with a frown, "how are you always hungry?" Hamish fixed her with a wide eyed look before swallowing the fruit in their mouth and going back for more.

"Oh, gosh!" Tree's face lights up as she gathers up the books. "Thank you! I didn't think to pack--my mind was elsewhere. Thank you so much." She too blushes and looks shy to be caught in a guilty pleasure.

"If you ever come by the farm, I've got so many more, I just figured these would be some you haven't read?" said Thimb with a smile, glad she liked it. She had only known her for a day but she had found she had grown rather fond of Tree.

"So, um, do we have a plan? Besides maybe let Tree just stand outside Laedrya's window, yell "I'm fine knock this nonsense off!" and run away before she can put her in a burlap sack? Or, probably a silk sack, with frills." she fake shuddered at the idea of such a sack.

"How do we even talk to Laerdya?" Sithani asks. "'Oh, hey, we know where your daughter is, she's totally fine, and she wants to meet you alone outside the Feytower.' That feels like a recipe for zappy death bolts."

Thimb stretched, "We could deliver a letter from Tree to her, where she names the time and place? If she wants to meet Laedrya, I mean-" she gave Tree a look she hoped was supportive, "We can claim ignorance as to what the time and place is, and where Tree is staying? "Yes we found her and convinced her to come back to meet with you but no idea where she is right now, she asked us to give you this though"? I don't think she'd zap us then, especially if we open with her being healthy and safe in giving this news?" Thimb pursed her lips.

"She's not my Mother though, so, uh," she glanced to Tree, "you get final say here, you know that, right?"

Sunrise shrugs. "I mean, if she wants to throw zappy death bolts at the person offering to bring her to meet her daughter, okay, but since she wants to be reunited with Tree I have to think she'd realize that that's counterproductive." She piles a cracker high with cheese and meats, savoring the bite before continuing. "I don't mind being the messenger if folks are worried, though there might be a job we need you two to do." She nods at Thimb and Ka'Ri.

Glen nods along as he scarfs away, but is content to listen for the moment.

Thimb let out a questioning squeak at the mention of her name in context of 'doing a job' like someone who was actually useful on the heist team. She cleared her throat, trying to downplay the noise, and compose herself. "What, uh, what kind of job?" she asked, leaning against the dresser behind her, or rather trying to. She had misjudged how close she was to it, stumbled, and barely caught her feet before crashing into it. She brushed her tunic off, trying to channel the barn cat's "I meant to do that" aura and failing miserably as she flushed red.

Ka'Ri moved quickly as if to catch Thimb, but seeing her stabilize herself, she nonchalantly changed her motion into straightening back up and brushing her own hair back with her hand.

Crisis averted, she turned back to Sunrise and put on a face of practiced casualness and professionalism. "Yeah, cool, I'm down. What's the details?"

Internally she congratulated herself for not outwardly squeeing with excitement about the chance to do another solo mission with Thimb.

Sunrise nods. "The amulet," she says with a sigh. "We don't have enough information about it. How exactly does the magic in it work? Can the plague be reversed using the same object that started it? What happens to Tree if the amulet is damaged or destroyed?" Shaking her head, she continues. "There's a lot of questions that need answers, and we're not going to get them as long as Laerdya refuses to let anyone examine the amulet - and I don't expect her to hand it over to us. But when we come to talk to Laerdya and convince her to come see Tree, if one of our party were invisible and stayed behind to look around...." Her gaze travels from Ka'Ri to Thimb.

Thimb nods, looking thoughtful, "We do still both have our, ah, disguises, so we could be near by, but, my invisibility only lasts an hour, and if Ka'Ri has to use any magic of her own-" Thimb popped a closed hand open with a shower of sparks to imply popping back into visibility, "it only lasts an hour, and, um, I need to touch her if for some reason I need to recast it?" she rubbed her chin, "unless someone has a ring of spell storing, then I could throw a charge or two in there, cast it on her to start and she'd be able to cast it on herself again if need be..." she laughed hollowly, having been trying to get her hands on a ring of spell storing for years. Then again, she wasn't commissioner of the fey tower.

"I can also only cast it on one of us at a time, but, um, I assume the plan is to take the amulet so I can then study it? Or, er, someone more experienced then me, maybe? B-but I can try! I mean," she then looked to Tree, "if you're alright with all of this?"

Glen looks up at Luther. "Would your position give you access to any kind of artifact that might help them, Luther?" He looks back at the pair, with a grin. "Even if not, I think you've got this." Elen trills in agreement, in between chomps.

Ka'Ri momentarily flushed at the thought of Thimb's hand in her own for an entire evening before she shook it off. Some things were more pressing than her libido's continued interruption.

"I can definitely grab the amulet and some of her notes, especially if any of you can give me some pointers on which rooms are most likely to hold them" Ka'Ri started with strained caution. "Though if I do that..." she signed worriedly, "I wonder how long it will be until she puts together the pieces and comes up with a reasonably small list of who might have done this."

"It's not really my place to ask favors, but I might still request someone make sure my crew are either watched or moved somewhere safer while this is going down. Same with a friend of mine. I can give directions to his shop...er..."

Ka'Ri looked around and drifted into herself. "Never mind. What I meant to say is I'm in. You can count on me."

Sunrise gives her a sympathetic look. "Yeah. Honestly, by doing anything but delivering a meek and docile Tree to her doorstep we all risk incurring her wrath. We should be able to make sure your people are safe though." She looks at Luther. "What about that hospital you have set up? Could we move them there? And you'd know people would be taking care of them even while you're away," she adds to Ka'Ri.

Luther nods. "Of course my hospital is available to take in those in need of care. But, no, I'm sorry about the artifacts," he adds to Glen. "Anything I borrow would be recorded, and Laerdya has access to those records. My open involvement in whatever you do will not help your case with her."