Inside Under the Crown of Ogotay

[Firouz]

Firouz looked puzzled.

Some things were different about Bryn, and they had seemingly started when they came across Scratch once more a few days ago.

Could that be it?

Should he meantion it?

Or did Sinbad not want it hashed up once more?

[Sinbad]

"We had a lovely encounter with the devil a few days ago." Sinbad said, his eyes darting towards the door through which the brunette sorceress had just left, his attempted smirk looking a little off. He couldn´t make a real connection between that and Bryn´s behaviour, but assumed that this might be it. He hadn´t been with his crew the whole time and couldn´t tell what might have been going on while he had run head over feet into that monster´s trickery. "I guess that wasn´t exactly a relaxing experience."

As usual when talking about serious matters like this, he tried to mildly play it down with his choice of words, carefully edging around details such as the one that what had happened had all been his fault. He still felt guilty for it and that was one of the things that had been weighing on his shoulders these days.

[Firouz]

Firouz nodded and said as he looked engagingly at the older sorceress, "Point of fact, Scratch said something that intrigued me, and it...it might have something to do with Bryn's sudden change and thoughtfulness."

Firouz paused and though uncertain about saying it.

Rongar patted his shoulder and nodded encouragingly.

Firouz patted Rongar's hand in thanks and ended as he met Caipra's gaze with his own, "Scratch was somewhat amazed, I think, to see Bryn with us. In fact, he said, 'I am somewhat surprised to see a girl with your peditgree hanging around with these good-doers'."

He ended, "I might have paraphrased a little, but that's the basics of it."

[Doubar]

Doubar weighed his head slightly at what Firouz said. He could clearly remember that moment in the spider-web and how all their gazes had been drawn to the brunette sorceress who just had glared at the devil with, what Doubar figured, was a mixture of anger and shock. Again he hadn't paid all too much attention to this back then. Too much had his thoughts been circling around his little brother of whom he knew that he was somewhere in the demon's lair as well.
Maybe they should have paid more regard to the young sorceress then, the first mate now wondered, maybe they had all done wrong with just leaving the devil's word hover in the air, not caring about what he had said anymore. Bryn had no memory of anything despite her name, so having a devil speak about her heritage - even if it may has been just a trick - was most likely to shake her world.
With a silent sigh escaping his throat the big turned his head slightly and added a mumbled "Aye, that's been what he said" to Firouz' words, before he let his blue eyes wander to lay on the wise sorceress who sat next to him.

[Caipra]

Caipra was in shock after what Sinbad and Firouz came to tell her. And she didn't even try to hide it.
She couldn't believe that Scratch could have, in a few minutes, ruined all the efforts she and her husband had done for that Bryn remained what she was today, a young innocent girl, which, she hoped, could never sow evil around her.
Bryn should probably ask herself lots of questions by now. The old sorceress had to talk to her, reassure her. This was probably why she came to Basra.
Caipra heard Doubar saying something but she didn't listen. Then she suddenly realized that all eyes were turned toward her. She watched them and tried to speak as normally as possible.
"I should have known that Scratch had something to do with it. I'm glad to see that you have not been injured."
*physically at least* she said to herself
"This demon is very good for sowing doubt in people's minds, and I suppose that it's not easy for Bryn who doesn't remember anything about her past. But she should not be done misconceptions. I'll try to talk to her, to reassure her when she'll return."

[Sinbad]

A slight shadow passed over Sinbad´s face at the old sorceress´ words. "This demon is very good for sowing doubt in people´s minds..." How very true, he thought to himself, for a moment not even wondering at her drastic reaction, thinking that it was due to the fact that they had only narrowly escaped an encounter with the demons of demons. How very true...

[Kriss]

Kriss just rised her eyebrows while she was listening to the conversation with fright and curiosity.
'The devil, demon, Scratch? What are they talking about?' Not that she hadn't had any strange adventures in her life but that what they have just said was very curious. Anyway it wasn't her stuff.
But she decided to not disrupt them and leave. She took Aniel on her arms, stood up
"Excuse me for while, I have to take Aniel to bed" she said with smile and went away.

[Caipra]

Caipra fixed the door, trying to feel the presence of Bryn outside the tavern. But she felt nothing. The young sorceress was probably out of reach of her magic. She hoped she didn't stray too. The night would soon fall and the streets of Basra were not very safe.
Caipra turned to Kriss when she got up and apologized before leaving. She suddenly realized that her friend wouldn't understand anything of what they were talking about, and she even should be a little frightened. The old sorceress didn't think that the conversation would turn so wrong. On one hand, she was glad to see her go. It was better for her.
"Oh course Kriss, we don't want to hold you. Do what you have to do. Don't worry for us." She said to her friend, smiling.
She made sure that Kriss was far from the table before saying to the crew.
"I'm sorry I should have warned you. Now that you know that magic is forbidden in Basra, you should also know that Kriss doesn't know anything about me. She just think I'm a simple healer...I don't want to put her into all this, you know?"
She smiled to the crew, hoping they could all understand in what situation Caipra was.

[Rongar]

Rongar tipped his head in acknowledgement and nodded somewhat seriously.

No, it would do to bring Kriss, an innocent, into this mess of magical politics they all found themselves in....

[Sinbad]

Sinbad had looked up when Kriss had left the table, giving the young woman a friendly nod when she excused herself, but at Caipra´s words, his features turned into a frown. He had not been with his friends earlier, when Caipra had mentioned what had happened in Basra in the last year, so the information about magic being banned came as quite a surprise. It made Caipra keeping a secret from Kriss understandable, but still she wondered what the backgrounds of this strange new development were. "Forbidden?" he therefore asked, unaware that his friends had already been talking about the matter. "However did it come to this?"

[Rongar]

Rongar polished off the last of the bread and pushed the clay plate away.

He tilted his head to the side as Sinbad's soft question hovered over them all.

How had this come to pass?

Well the root of it all was Rumina and her dark magics.

She was evil and had scared Omar badly, according to Caipra, so he had banded magic from Basra altogether even though he was well aware of the fact that there were many good magic users in his city as well as bad ones.

In fact, it was probably because Omar didn't know that Caipra was a white magic sorceress that prevented him from outting her and arresting her for being a practicing sorceress in his city's limits.

After all, Omar was a good man but he was stubborn and resistant to anyone telling him he was in the wrong.

He smirked when a thought popped into his head, Maeve probably would have given him a fireball to th rear after she had very bluntly yet nicely told him off!

He grinned to the tabletop as another popped in, Omar would have been so surprised, he probably wouldn't have countered her words at all...

He grew thoughtful as more thoughts of Maeve flooded in when it came to her rightousness, In fact, for the most part, Maeve got away with a lot of stuff like that because of who she was...er...is...

He raised his head and physically shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts and met Sinbad's eyes with his own.

He raised his right hand, moved his finigers till they all but his pointer finger looked like they were holding something round; her pointer finger was extended and pointing at Sinbad as he smirked in a way that he hoped would trigger Sinbad's personal knowledge of the dark sorceress' evil smirks.

Then he opened both of his hands; palms facing palms and touched the tips of his fingers together to form a point at the top of his fingers. He raised his hands up to make the shape taller (obelisk).

[Sinbad]

Sinbad had been around his tall, silent friend for long enough to be able to interpret quite a bit of what the other man was saying. He didn´t catch each and every one of his gestures, not all the time, but he noticed Rongar was trying to bring something across.

First it didn´t make much sense, but then his mind put the pieces together. Even though... did this really make sense?
"Rumina?" he asked, somewhat bewiledered with a faint scowl forming on his forehead. "We haven´t encountered her in more than a year. I thought she was gone for good. Or... at least for a while."

For a brief moment, memory of their last meeting flooded back. The battle that they had won, but Rumina, still not entirely beaten. They had not seen her die and even though Sinbad had not been sure about the dark sorceress´ fate, something in Maeve´s reaction had told him that Rumina had still been alive. He didn´t know how Maeve could have known. Maybe it was something about magic. Maybe she would have felt it. Again, his thoughts threatened to trail off and he blinked unnoticed to focus.

[Firouz]

Firouz leaned forward and eased his friend's confusion.

"Point of fact, Sinbad, when you were gone, Caipra mentioned that it could be quite possible be Rumina's evil magics that caused Omar to ban magic here in the city."

He sat back and cast his gaze around the tavern.

So far, no one was really paying them any attention, but there were always people watching with wary eyes in every city.

Then he frowned.

He couldn't find the one he was searching for.

He looked back at the others and asked, "Bryn's been gone for quite a while now hasn't she???"

[Doubar]

Doubar was just about to put down is ale and explain to Sinbad what Rongar had been really hinting at, but stayed silent when he heard Firouz do so. Slightly he nodded at the scientist's words, confirming that this was what the wise Lady had told them earlier.
At the younger man's question however the first mate listened up. A slight frown formed on his face before he shrugged it off and stated: "Aye, but she's a big girl. She can take care of herself." In a smooth gesture the big man then brought up his ale to take another sip from it.
Even though he clearly remembered the strange behaviour the brunette had shown earlier, he trusted her enough to stay out of trouble or dangerous situations.

[Rongar]

Rongar nodded with Doubar's words.

Bryn could take care of herself, but she could also find herself in trouble too.

He patted Firouz on the shoulder and shook his head. They'd wait a few more minutes before truly beginning to worry about her.