of all the people having bad times tonight Llei sure is one of them
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It doesn't take him any longer than it should to realize that he's a tiefling standing outside in the pouring rain with a child's corpse. He also has smaller problems, like the arrowhead stuck in his arm, and bigger ones, like he fact that Valentia is dead - but his most urgent one is that at least half the city wants him dead, he doesn't know which half, and there's nothing between him and them but the rain.

It takes him embarrassingly, terrifyingly long to think of anywhere he can safely go. The church of Abadar offers sanctuary - so hundreds of people might be there, any number of whom might want him dead. He's tried, these past months, to make some passing effort to redirect his old worship of Dispater to Erastil, a fact which has absolutely no bearing on whether the priests at that temple will kill him on sight. His friends among the nobility were just driven from the manor, and he doesn't know where they are now. Cansellarion isn't here. Blanxart is dead. The palace? He doesn't feel at all certain the Queen wouldn't prefer him dead. The Duchess of Chelam? No reason to help him. Bainilus had dined with Narikopolus and opposed the select's speech on the floor, but he doesn't know where she's staying.

He passes a dead man, swinging from a lamppost. He doesn't see the horns until he's nearly close enough to touch him.

He needs to get inside. 

He thinks through his options again. It's not possible that there's no open shelter. If he hadn't been separated from everyone, trying to get Pedro-Lluís out - if Marit and Arn hadn't died - oh. 

He doesn't want to go to the temple of Iomedae. It feels blasphemous. It feels dangerous, after hearing Select Wain's speech. But he heard the explanation; Select Wain isn't a member of the formal church heirarchy. The other members of the church haven't been hostile. He doesn't think Cansellarion wants him dead. He couldn't have asked for anything more from Marit and Arn. And the goddess -

He's still afraid of the goddess. But he remembers the fountain. Why bless him then, and curse him now?

 

He is soaked through to the bone when he reaches the temple. His clothes are torn, and bloody, and still smell of smoke. He's lost his bow, but his sword is at his side, where it should be. Pedro-Lluís's body hangs limply.

He knocks at the side door, afraid of the front. He's ready to bolt or draw his sword again, the moment his instincts tell him that something is wrong. But he waits, first.

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It takes a while for anyone to come to the door. It's crowded inside, and nobody hears the first knocks.

Eventually, someone does hear and opens the door. He takes in the injuries and the limp body and, yes, the horns but -

"Come in, quick, out of the rain - is the child alive - "

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"I don't think so." If there's a cleric he'll hand him over just in case, but they've been walking through the streets for too long. If he'd run for the nearest temple immediately it might have mattered, but - not now. 

He steps in, though, dripping all over the floor.

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There is a cleric. Singular. He can be fetched for a dying child, obviously, but there's not much he can do for a dead one. (There are usually two more Select here but nobody's seen them tonight.)

"I'm sorry. I'll take him to the cellar where we're keeping the other bodies for burial when the rain stops, but if you want some time before that..."

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"No, I'll - his grandfather will want him. We were separated." He has no idea whether Ramirez can pay to have Pedro-Lluís raised, or has any interest in doing so. Probably not, but he's already let the child die, and is hardly about to additionally lose the body. He should go back and check for Valentia's, too - he could have grabbed the body when he left, but he'd thought he could get Pedro-Lluís to safety. He has no idea whether the crown has responded, or even knows about what happened -

" - I need to tell someone what happened. Two priests of Iomedae were murdered."

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...Oh no he was really hoping they were just. Busy. Helping elsewhere in the city.

"I can take a report, or - the city watch have been by a few times, bringing in injured people - or you can stay until morning when we can send someone to the palace -"

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"I can explain. I don't know what needs to be done, they're dead." He glances around at the huddles of people, and realizes he doesn't want to say where he was. "Is there anywhere that doesn't have - people -" 

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"...The cellar with the other bodies."

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"That's fine." He can follow, if it's an offer and not a decision that he should speak out in the open. He really doesn't want to do that.

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Yeah it's an offer. The cellar used to be a torture chamber but now it holds cheese and dead bodies.

 

The Iomedan brings paper and a pen and inkpot so he can record the account. "Alright, whenever you're ready."

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He lays Pedro-Lluís down, close to him, anxiously keeping one hand on him.

"I am Llei Napaciza, regent of Ilnea, in Menador, here for the convention. I was staying at Charthagnion Manor, with Archduke Narikopolus. Select Valia Wain of Iomedae denounced us at the constitutional convention this morning, and said that we should be afraid of the people of Cheliax, but Count Cansellarion had dinner with us and didn't seem concerned, so we - were unprepared. He left us midway through dinner to attend to other matters. Shortly after that, a mob came and surrounded the house. We had two lay priests of Iomedae, Marit Tenwaller and Arn - I'm sorry, I don't remember the surname. They said it was fine to defend ourselves. We sent a familiar to the palace with a message, but no one came. We considered going out and offering ourselves to the crowd, but - there were children in the building. Narikopolus sent Marit out to try to talk to the crowd, and ordered us not to kill anyone anyone until they came onto the property. They did, and we shot at them - just the ones who passed the fence, not the ones shouting outside - but then they started throwing torches, and they broke the gate down."

"They tore Marit apart first. I saw them kill Arn, and most of the retainers. They killed my daughter. Archduke Narikopolus, Baron Antonio Ramirez, and Marquis Aniol Reixech were there, but I don't know what happened to them. And - there was another person visiting who certainly needs to be raised, but he didn't want it to be known that he was there, after the denouncement - we promised him not to say, but I don't think he'd want to hide from the church of Iomedae - ?"

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