nexus_crossings | The Silence of the Storm

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The Silence of the Storm

Rations have been cut. Again. Everyone is on one bowl of watery soup a day. Sometimes with crackers, sometimes not. Most people are too tired and weak to do much more than sit around and talk, and nobody discourages them in the slightest. Work has to be rotated constantly as people weaken quickly, but the fires still need to burn, people still need to guard the cooks and rations, and the sick still need to be tended to. Soon the hardest job is keeping up morale while the big expedition comes back. All the gods and heavens of the multiverse help them if they don’t come back with supplies, and soon.

The boundaries have tightened to an almost suffocatingly small space. It doesn’t take much to imagine where they will be by the end of Winter, which at least makes planning a little easier. People are already relocating to deeper in the Plaza. Unfortunately it means that those who have enough energy to often end up fighting with their neighbours, as the close quarters tests everyone’s patience. There are a few spaces carved out for like minded people to shelter from the dreary situation. Mechanics and those like them have set up a nice little place close to the Crossroads Café, and a break area for those helping the sick is sheltered in a room behind the injured and ill. Zandros moves from groups to individuals, looking for help in creating some form of morale boosting display that will adhere to Isidor's instructions. People are surviving in whatever ways they can, but it's reaching breaking point.

((It's the Final Event Post, everyone! OOC Post is here! This is for those stuck at the hub while the Main Expedition is going on. There will be a second part to this post for the Return of the Expedition. In the meantime, have fun!))

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Is it possible that she has now found the trail of the thief who took her clutch? Hermione finds a glimmer of hope within herself to trudge forward.

And once her runes provide her the information that it is possible that her mind is being tricked by magic, Hermione forces her bright mind to regain some alertness. Obfuscating is a powerful magic. But one she has faced before. One she can find a way to break again, even without her wand.

When she spies movement behind the tree line, and sees the unfamiliar woman, Hermione steps forward, with a determined look on her face. Her eyes scan the meager supplies that are within sight, looking for her beaded bag. "What do you have there?"

"None of yer business!" It's a bit muffled around the food she's trying to finish quickly before anyone can take it from her. Though she pales considerably when she spies the human from before approaching through the snow. Neko didn't count on her coming back and so soon. The 'human' takes a half step back away from Hermione.

"This stuff here is mine." It takes a lot of effort not to hiss when she says it, too. But the clutch, the bag. Her prize full of fish....is it really worth all of this? It's not like she can get to any of it. As it is now it's useless to her.

"I am not interested in these items that you have claimed as yours..." Hermione doesn't see the clutch among the other meager supplies.

"I am only interested in an beaded bag that was taken from me. It is purple with feathers." Hermione is trusting in her runes right now that this woman might either have the clutch, or knows about it.

"If you have seen it... I only want it. Nothing else from you."

"Fine! Fat lot of good it's done me anyway. Just get outta here and stop following me around, nya!"

There's a moment where the woman seems to shrink ever so slightly, twist into something more petite and slender before Nekomata herself reaches into the snowbank next to her dwindling stash of stolen goods and pulls out Hermione's clutch and tosses it toward the witch with a clawed hand.

"I wouldn'ta had to slink around digging through the trash for food if your stupid byag hadn't eaten all my supplies." So she says, but she did steal the bag from Hermione in the first place. Sometimes a demon's just gotta embrace chaos. Also, Neko is kind of a selfish cat. "Take it. I didn't take nothin' from it."

More like she couldn't.

Hermione catches her clutch and holds it close to her chest. She listens to Neko complain for a moment. She now remembers Crookshanks telling her about this cat demon, and how she helped him, before he passed.

"Tell me what supplies are yours, and I will return them to you." Hermione replies softly.

She has her own supplies in the clutch, so doesn't need anything extra.

Wait, what?

Is this half-frozen humie offering to help her after all of that? The cat demon's ears flatten in suspicion for several seconds before she nods slowly. Okay, yeah. That's a fair deal right? A finders fee of sorts. Even if she only found it by stealing it and knocking Hermione into the snow in the first place.

"I bought some fish an' put it in the bag. Then I couldn't gyet it out again."

"Fish?" Oh dear, she hopes that clutch recognized the presence of food and sorted it properly, where it would not spoil. There is some complex magic on her clutch. And someone else using it -- without knowing about the magic -- might wreck her whole organization.

"Here..." Hermione holds out a rune (the one symbolizing cat) to the cat demon. "I have to retrieve my wand before I can take items out of my clutch. By holding onto this rune, I will be able to find you afterwards. And give you the fish that is yours."

Neko doesn't know a thing about the magic on the clutch past 'it can hold a lot of stuff'. She's seen that much of it in action before. It's why she targeted it and Hermione in the first place. Having infinite storage for supplies in theory meant she could gather in the first couple of weeks while the getting was good, hoard it, and then have food all winter long. In practice what it's meant is that she can't get to any of the food she's put in there.

Not a bit of it.

She won't die, not for good. Her contract will see to that. But it still wouldn't be pleasant. Neko looks between the rune and the witch a couple of times before hesitantly reaching out to take it.

"Alright. Sorry I took yer stuff mya." If only because that's the expected response and Neko knows well enough that she's getting off easy here.

"We both learned lessons from this. I would have helped you.. if you had asked. You assisted my familiar... Crookshanks... before he passed." Hermione puts her clutch away in a safer place, in her blouse, near her heart.

"Stay safe, until I can find you."

Hermione focuses on the rune that she left with Reynard. And turns back to face the snow to get back to his 'shop' and her wand.

Like before, Reynard isn't there when Hermione enters. Nor is her wand. Until she turns away and he's behind the counter like before. "You figured out a way to get what I was looking for, then."

Hermione retrieves the rune that she had placed on the counter, before turning to face Reynard. "I did."

"I will need my wand to properly cast the magic required to open the clutch, and bring out the wand inside. The one you seek for exchange. I dare not risk casting such powerful magic wandless." Hermione explains.

That's a risky request if ever he heard one. Still, he bends down behind the counter and when he rises it's with the familiar block of ice. It nearly cracks the counter when he sets it down. He reaches inside as if sifting through loose soil, and pulls the wand out.

Reynard offers the wand to her, but doesn't let go immediately. Instead he keeps as firm a hold on the wand as he does her gaze. "If you do anything to try and trick me... Just remember, Winter happens every year for the rest of your life."

Then he lets go.

She watches him uneasily, knowing that at any moment he could decide to not trust her, and destroy her wand. She doesn't relax even as the wand is returned. And meets his gaze.

"My wand recognizes a promise made. I would not betray it."

Once he lets go, Hermione can feel the connection of her wand return to her. The strength of her magic renews, even with how tired and exhausted she is. It is like reuniting with an old friend. A dear friend who saved her life. Saved the life of her parents, her friends, and her classmates. Her eyes are wet with relief of having it back.

She will have to make time to do a proper cleansing spell with her wand later. Reynard barely trusted her to give her the wand in the first place -- so she knows better to ask for any time. It is best to get the task at hand done quickly and efficiently.

Hermione uses the wand to cast the many unlocking charms over her clutch, that keeps her supplies inside the small pocketbook. And when she opens it... a horrible, awful smell of rotten fish fills the room.

"Oh Merlin!" Thinking quickly, Hermione casts a Bubble-Head Charm over her mouth and nose, to protect herself from the rancid smell. Obviously since Neko had not bothered with any proper spells before getting a whole ton of fish placed in the clutch -- the fish have gone rotten.

Hermione gets queasy at the thought of how this fish smell will be stuck to EVERYTHING in her clutch. And how her precious order of how things were sorted is completely ruined now, with rotten fish every where. She seriously wants to cry.

Quickly, she casts an Accio, to retrieve the spare wand from the clutch -- and closes it so that less of the rancid smell plagues either of them. She removes the Bubble-Head Charm and places the spare wand on the counter, keeping her own close.

"As you requested. Payment made." His threat of how Winter happens every year makes her extremely cautious. "It takes time to bond properly with a wand. So don't take it hard if it won't work for you right away."

With the wand in her hand, Reynard watches her intensely. Magic as humans do it is different to how he knows any kind of power. It's hard to know the full implication of the smallest motion or word. Better then to watch everything and pay close attention to the energy in the air around them.

Since the wand was returned in order for her to cast spells on her clutch he doesn't worry when she starts casting. In fact, even when the atrocious smell plumes from the small bag he doesn't so much as bat an eyelid. Why would he? He's more spirit than man now, incorporeal until he needs to touch the physical world. It dusts the room with the scent of death, which is pleasant in its own strange way.

"I have some experience with bonding with things that don't communicate as humans do," he rumbles, turning from Hermione to the wand. He picks it up carefully by each end, examining it curiously. Satisfied it's not a hoax, he half turns to her. "You can go."

Hermione simply nods at his statement, and exits the make-shift store with both her wand and her clutch kept close to her. She will make ever effort to ensure that both are cleansed properly, and that new spells are cast upon them -- so she won't find herself separated from them again. Especially her wand.

She worries not about telling Reynard any more about wand use. If he believes he can manage himself... he can risk the dangers on his own. She will be ready to face him again when the time comes.

First thing is first -- she will return to Neko and give the cat demon her ill-gotten and now completely spoiled food.

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The Silence of the Storm

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