"Yeah," Ame agrees. It seems like fixing whatever the dhar was doing to his brain is working?

Ame sighs and turns toward her party. "I think fixing the madness works. Given that, what do you two want to do here? Lily, what about you?"

"He might be wanted. He certainly stinks of dhar. First thing to do is to get out of this rotten forest so we can think clearly."

"I don't like any of this. He seems repentant, but... Not entirely there."

"I just wanna go home," Lily says. She jingles a coin pouch. "And keep this, for forcing me."

"Oh he definitely owes you at least that, and hazard pay too," Ame says to Lily.

Hesitating only a moment, Ame steps over and scoops Theodore up into her arms. He's not all that much bigger than her, and it wouldn't matter anyway; she's strong enough now that he feels like he barely weighs anything.

She turns and starts walking in the direction they came from.

"Step one, we take him to a cleaner bit of forest. Step two, we get him 'entirely there'. I think I can do that if I keep healing him. Step three... we make an informed decision about whether we're going to help him, turn him in, both, or neither. Yeah?"

He doesn't really move or react to any of this. What would be the point. Everything is terrible forever and it's his fault for underestimating dhar and also being an evil cretin who deserves to die.

Elizabeth is efficient at looting anything that seems salvageable and burning the rest. The forest fire she started earlier is spreading, too, if not as fast as expected. Probably because dhar is displacing all the other Winds.

"We can probably head due east at Ameron-speed and be alright? We'll have to camp out, but we were going to do that anyway. Except wait, what about, um, Lily..."

Lily is standing sort of listlessly on the edge of the village, looking skeptically at the surrounding forest. And not carrying a weapon.

The 'Ameron-speed' thing gets an amused snort.

"We can't really move at me-speed dragging you along, let alone Lily," Ame reminds her wryly.

Ame veers over toward Lily. "Hey. Do you mind sticking with us with a while? If you need me to take you back to town right now, I will. I came out here for you. But I would like to give this guy some due consideration too, so."

Lily sighs. "I am having the worst day and I just want to go home and shower and hide in my room for the next three days, Adventurer. I don't actually know your name. I don't have so much as a weapon or the Skills to use it, so I will actually need an escort back, if you're offering. I can follow your friends for a while first."

"You come first," Ame opines. "We'll escort you as far as the edge of the forest, before we do anything else."

Ame (still dressed in only her boots, fishnet shirt, weapon straps and backpack) adjusts Theodore a little and gestures for Lily to follow. "Ameron Lavere. Call me Ame."

"I would've pegged you as an Amaranth," she says sarcastically, acknowledging the shared profession. "Look, the kid had a lot of money. I'm guessing from the destroyed village, an inheritance of sorts, and don't let me know otherwise because some guards have lie-detecting so I want to say it's for services rendered. I'm taking six gold. There's maybe most of a plat, all told, haven't counted. Fair?"

Ame nods. "I'd let you take more if you wanted it. Hazard pay."

A random, irrelevant memory bubbles up, something she read once after one of her clients gave her a flower as a joke. She looked it up later, and read something about that flower that kind of resonated with her at the time, though she doesn't remember exactly what it was... 

Nostalgic, "And I think I'd be more of a Camoensia than an Amaranth, actually."

"...Eight gold." Sigh. "Let's just... Go. This whole thing is surreal."

Ame nods, giving her a sympathetic smile. Then they form up and Ame leads them into the forest at a brisk walk.

Abyssia and Elizabeth quietly argue about tactics, a bit jumpy. Lily jumps at every odd noise or flickering shadow as they go along, muttering under her breath. There seems to be a lot of dhar still in her, but not as - deep set. Acute, not chronic.

It presses down like a pall of sick dread, reminding her of the decaying brick, dirty concrete and Nazi graffiti like she'd half expect to turn around and find herself back in the Bay. Her Axiom lets her hold the impressions at bay as easily as it lets her hold depleted stamina at bay, but around the edges she feels... fragile. Like her new strength and prowess was all a dream.

It's a relief to leave the dead village and the ritual site behind them.

Once they're out from the worst of it, Elizabeth chants and hungrily draws in the surrounding Winds, trying to wash away the rot. The flows of ghyran are soothing and cleansing, a weight off their shoulders. Theodore still positively reeks of dark magic, though, no matter how much the Axiom is applied.

"We should probably get well out of the forest in case the fire picks up. It'd be a bad idea to linger. Sorry about that, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and in my defense it was that or get bit by a ghoul. We didn't even bring camping gear, ugh..."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume that trying to sneak Theodore here into town would be suicide."

Elizabeth and Abyssia glance at each other. "Well. He really reeks of dark magic. I can even smell it and I've got no Windsight. I'm sure there exists an explanation that would satisfy people... But it'd be a lot more trouble than it's probably worth, I expect."

Ame takes a bracing breath.

"Alright. After we drop Lily off we'll find a spot out away from town and upwind of the fire. Whichever of us has the least dhar exposure takes the rest of Theodore's money, goes into town and brings back camping supplies. Does that work?"

("Fine by me," Lily comments from the side.)

"I think we all have about the same exposure. Bys doesn't have your endurance and I'm gonna sorta sanctify our camping spot a bit, so I vote you go shopping."

"Sure."

Once they reach the edge of the forest, Ame peers out at the walls of Letersoot, then gives Lily a nod.

"Be well. And tell Rose that I'll drop by soon to follow up but that she doesn't owe me anything but maybe a favor later. It's only fair if Theodore here foots the bill for your rescue, too." She glances over to check with Bys and Liz. "That okay?"

"...I'd... Appreciate it if you walked me all the way in. But I don't know if they'll ask you questions at the gate or anything. You should put your skirt back on, though."

"...yeah, alright."

Ame sets Theodore down against a tree, filches one of his money pouches, and turns to Bys and Liz. "I guess we're doing this out of order. I'll try to be quick."

She tugs her skirt out of her pack and wraps it around her hips. Just the skirt. The panties are fishnet and lewder than just being naked anyway and also are covered in dirt.

The gate guards have a confused report of someone matching Ame's description bolting out and going after a necromancer! That's very alarming! Is her party okay, do they need help?