Morning Conversation

JP with Alexis and Voah:

Voah leaned a little against Gonyaul’s side and looked around the camp. Alexis was awake so she gave Gonyaul’s hand a squeeze and got up to stretch. Slowly making her way over to sit next to Alexis.

“Hey… Did you get some rest?”

Alexis had awoken relatively early and taken to silently sketching down what she remembered of the mausoleum and its fearsome inhabitant. At Voah’s approach, she looked up and smiled.

“Yeah, somewhat. How about you?“

She hugged her knees, pulling the muscles in her back and nodded.

“Enough.” She paused for second, trying to find the right words.

“I know you have your code, but… I can’t thank you enough for not giving up on us. I have no idea what we’ve put you through because of our recklessness… no idea where we are… but I will do my best to make it up to you.”

She looked at the bandages covering the mercenary woman’s wounds. “How are you holding up?”

Alexis shook her head.

“No code needed to want to find my friends.”

Following her gaze, she shrugged.

“I’ll be fine. Some more for the collection. I should be asking you that. You have been wandering those tunnels beset by Neph-Kin for days.”

Friendship was not a new concept to Voah, so why had it been so hard to open up to most people in a meaningful way. The people she had met here in Arcadia; Hunter, Alexis, Tarmen, and Gonyual were there for her without asking, without judgement… At least none that she could intuit. They saw past her obvious faults.

It seemed easy for them to be accepting and forgiving, but those were concepts she still struggled with in some aspects, especially in regards to herself. A byproduct of her faith or training maybe. It was her duty to judge, and she judged herself more harshly than anyone.

Alexis and Gonyaul made it feel easy to be vulnerable, and to ask for forgiveness.

She looked into Alexis’ eyes, “I… don’t know how much longer I would have lasted down there.”

The mercenary’s eyes softened, and she gently laid a hand on her shoulder.

“What you and Tarmen endured was already beyond what should be humanly possible. All we did really was to help out on the last stretch on your way out. Glad to have you back.”

She smiled softly, "If slaying that beast did this to you, we would have surely perished. I am grateful to count you as my friends. That's two I owe you now."

'Three if you include Gonyaul.' she wanted to say.

"Speaking of friends, where are the others? How do we contact them?"

“Boyce somehow found out about several entrances around here. He and Wim are looking down in the Karawanserei, while Hunter, Islana and that prospector are off to the valley.”

Alexis hadn’t really been happy with splitting up, but the greater coverage had won out.

“We’ve set a time limit of 5 days until we come back. Other than that… well, we could try and go fetch them.”

"By the Gods..." they really spread all out. That didn't make Voah feel better about the situation.

"Wait... how long... has it been since we last saw you? I don't remember any prospector or... what was that word? karawanserei?"