Tretesta tells Luna a Story - 04/10/21
Tretesta rapped sharply on the door, then cracked it open, calling inside in his slightly accent affected Ishgardian. <“Hello? Delivery of wine, cheese, and stories!”>
Luna turns her head towards the door, having just finished washing up some odd dishes. Her own Ishgardian comes refined and elegant, lacking any fury. <“Sir Tretesta. I suppose I appreciate your attempt at levity, but deliverymen usually do not come directly in.”>
Tretesta - <“I tried the backdoor and found it locked tight!”> He pushes through the door finally with a bottle under one arm and a paper wrapped package in his other hand. “But I am also not a normal delivery man, neh? How are we tonight?”
Luna lifts a brow. “What backdoor? Ah, I suppose well enough. Lucatiel is sound asleep after a late dinner. There yet remains some odd fish and chip if you so desire, as well as some tea. Though I would wager you have brought your own h'ors d'oeuvres.” — Tretesta wiggles his wrapped package at Luna and grins “Cheddar and a Port, if you'd like to share. I thought I might be here a little while, might as well be comfortable. Shall we? Wherever you'd like to…” He turns his eyes upwards, then back to Luna, gesturing with his cheese at the general bar area then the stairs going down.
Luna sighs though she offers a small grin. “Very well, I shall not turn my nose at such an offering. I would suggest perhaps the table on this floor - upstairs risks awakening my ward, and downstairs is… a mess.”
Tretesta joins Luna at the table promptly and starts to sit. He pauses though, and turns to head to the back. Before Luna could utter even half a protest, he would return with two smaller wine glasses, a wooden board, and knife. Setting the proper serveware on the table, Tret finally sat himself down and unwrapped the package gingerly “I'd hope not. Despite the madness in my head, I still have a nose and taste for good food.”
Luna does not protest, though she comes close. She only exhales, watching the man set down as if ready to home-make a charcuterie board. “Madness in your head? You as well? Seems as if we are all blessed with such irregularity.”?
Tretesta - “I mean… Those were your words to me a few nights ago. I can understand if you found some way to forget the whole evening though.” Off to a rather hilly start conversationwise, Tret pulls the cork on the bottle and pours each of them a glass, sliding the dark red liquid across before taking a sip from his own glass “But we shouldn't revisit that night. I'd hate for you to be annoyed again.”
Luna: “Indeed, you are here for conversation and information, not to relive the tragic comedy of a night best left forgotten.” She takes the glass with a polite 'Merci'.
Luna sniffs the glass for a moment before sipping at it.
Tretesta digs a notebook out of one of his packs as well as a charcoal stick “Yes, yes. I promise you, I am a…. what's the word… consummate professional? So. Down to it. She hasn't told you anything of… substance? yes? yes.”
Luna: “Let us hope you speak true.” She sips at her wine once more, covering her mouth as she does and speaking once she sets the glass back down. “No, very little. She speaks of 'adventure' and this… Haimus betraying the group. You dispatched him, and then she speaks almost naught of anything further.”
Tretesta flips open the book to reveal… scribblings, it looked like. there was what appeared to be letters here and there, but even looking at those long enough didn't make any sense. He picked the book up off the table shortly after and reached for the knife. a cut of cheese was obtained, and his eyes went to the book “Yeah… Yeah… So this all started with Astra getting the four… five… of us together, saying she had a line on some ruins, trials to pass, and wealth to be had.”
Luna raises a brow once more at the sight of such errant scribblings. She almost asked about them, but decided better of it for now. “The five of you being… yourself, Lucatiel, Miss Astra, Miss A'erina, and I presume this… Sir Haimus? Ruins and trials? I heard of no such thing from Lucatiel.”
Tretesta: “Yeah, Haimus. Some big lug Astra pulled along. Don't know anything about him other than he's dead. Maybe. I'll get to that… So yeah, ruins. On the other side of the world, I think. Golmore?” He pauses there, flipping forward a few pages, back, then tapping the book “Golmore. landed near some desert and this building buried almost entirely in sand. Oh yeah, We had to do some kind of crazy group teleport, set up by Astra…and then we were attacked when we first landed..”
Luna: “Pardon monsieur!? Attacked? Stay thy tongue, this is much at once.” She rubs her temple for a moment, perhaps vigorously. “Golmore? I am not aware of this location, I must posit it is far Eastward. And you speak of a large group teleport? I know little about such ability other than the vast amounts of aether needed - I find myself tired just teleporting from Ishgard to Limsa sometimes.”
Tretesta raises his eyes from the book, no smile offered across right now “Oh, It gets worse before it gets better, Luna. Remember though, she came back whole and generally unhurt. so no reason to panic here.” He popped the bit of cheese into his mouth, chased it with port, and sighed before picking up “Yeah, set up…some focus or something, had a whole system, I don't understand it but I didn't ask. So we get attacked, scramble up to the ruins. Which are buried up to their top….>
“We bust in a window, throw a rope in, send Luca in because I know it would hold her, and then the rest of us get in and close up the hole we made.”
Luna sips at her wine for a moment, still having not made a move for the cheddar, too focused. “She may be unharmed of the flesh but I know her - she is upset by something. Clearly, seeing you lay and attacker low qualifies, and I must imagine he had some charm on her for the effect to be so profound. Though I feel aught more occured. She hides well, but not perfectly.” She shakes her head. “So some sort of augment was needed for such a large teleport, and then you broke into some sort of buried temple. I see… Do go on.”
Tretesta: “He was a flirty bastard, sure. He was just there for heavy lifting to me, though. We poke around, find a hall, and start down it. Find some platform over a pit. get close, Astra lights it up… Its a pit of spikes. and then… ” He pauses and stares hard at his book ”…Voices? Yeah.. Yeah, I had something talking to me, Rina later said something was talking to her. “Feed” something something. And then it went to shit. Big guy turned his sword on us, called astra a witch, told us we were all going to die.“
Luna lets out another frustrated sigh. “And you stepped in, blessedly. You heard voices, for true? How very queer. Miss A'erina as well. I wonder if Miss Astra and Lucatiel heard them. Perhaps Sir Haimus as well, directing the betrayal. If so… surely a price to pay for a momentary charming. Halone bless his soul.”
Tretesta 's brows knit together as he scans a few lines. he finishes his current glass swiftly and pours another before going on “He.. Had some words for Luca as well. She certainly didn't want to see him doing that, and he yelled at her for… being a tease? And yes, that's where I came in. Smacked him good with the staff i carried, managed to sidestep a charge… and then I pushed him into the pit. He had to be hearing something the way he was yelling. But… whatever it was, he had to go.”
Luna looks a bit shocked. “He referred to her as a 'tease'? Truly? That is very strange - Lucatiel is surely not the flirtateous sort.” She remains looking stunned for a moment before coming out of it. “Ah, I see. There was no confirmation of his perishment, but given the situation… It would be foolish to assume otherwise. Enthralled or no, you had the right of it. I would have done much the same. We may pray for him all the same.”
Tretesta: “Oh… Oh no. I saw him. No reason to guess about it…. Where are we… Yeah, Luca kept her distance from me for…. most of the rest of the time. As if I was going to kill someone else since I had done it already. I did tell her a little further in that I did it because he would have killed one or more of us instead. Told her to be better than me though…” He stopped, eyes going wide. Tret began to scribble in the margins, mouthing the words as he wrote, and then speaking up ”…Overcome him. Luca heard a voice too telling her to 'overcome him'. Yeah. Had to be all of us then…“
Luna: “What? Really?” Again does she look surprised. “She has surely concealed the entire expedition from me, it seems.” After a moment in her own mind, she speaks again. “While I can not speak for her youth as the daughter of a pirate, to my knowledge she had yet seen a life taken. I am not surprised she gave you such a berth. Though, knowing her, she did not stay away forever. Ah, do go on.”
Tretesta lays the books down on the table for a few moments, long enough for a snack and drink, speaking between mouthfulls “Yeah… seems so. Maybe I'll have a talk with her as well. she.. no, later. So. another long hall. and we get to another room… this one we finally meet our.. host? the thing in our heads at least. a goddess it seems, according to Astra. but this was just a glowing ball that we saw now…” he picked the book back up and flipped around a bit, catching up.
Luna: “I would appreciate you not rousing her from a slumber. She is quite slow to wake, especially mid-night.” Hey eyes glance to the stairs behind Tret, almost protectively, though they return shortly. “A goddess? Madness. Surely a Voidsent or some aught divine deceiver.” She takes another sip of her wine, finally opting to cut off a small portion of the cheddar and eat it, covering her mouth.
Tretesta: “Of course not tonight… And not madness possibly. If Ifrit and Ramuh are gods in their own right, this could be as well. So…This goddess apparently was…controlling Astra? Dominating. something. Astra apparently doesn't remember much of anything that happened, so I don't even know now if it was really Astra who put this whole thing together…”
“What's the word… Tempering? But I thought the primals didn't give up those they tempered…”
Luna: “What!?” There is a moment of intense fury and the woman nearly stands before catching herself. “If I see that woman in my tavern… I swear…”
“Those we saw 'tempered' by Shiva seemed more as convinced to join her cause than fully enthralled.”
Tretesta: “You'll what? Yell at her for being as much a victim as the rest of us? Luna, this wasn't her fault, i believe.”
Luna: “Her fault or no, she put Lucatiel in danger, not to mention you and Miss A'erina. That is unacceptable.”
Tretesta: “And yet, you must accept it. the three of us knew there was some level of danger to be had. We all made a choice to go into a situation we had little knowledge of. Luca made her choice, and I know she learned from it.”
Luna turns her lips down in a frown, sighing. “I suppose so. Ever more do I wish I had gone with to safeguard. But… let us not get distracted. Continue, what happened with this false goddess?”
Tretesta: “I wouldn't bother with false…. But yes. There was some disagreement with how to go on. I knew we didn't have much choice, Rina was defiant as she normally is. But eventually we gave in and took the 'Trial' that we were offered. This is… where I don't have much information for the others. I fell asleep..and then saw things horrible and… plesant. and then it was over because apparently Astra and Rina finished first and were attacking each other? I have no idea what that was about, but I got caught in some crossfire anyway…”
Luna: “I do not find it so hard to believe Miss A'erina and Miss Astra came to blows, though as you say who knows as to why. Regretful that you were involved in any manner, completely innocent. What of Lucatiel, do you know? Any sort of hint as to what she experienced during this 'trial'?”
Tretesta returns to scanning through his notes, sipping at his glass slowly as he tries to either find notes or jog his memory “She…said …. what was…. Being alone? without carby. and…you died? That sounds… close. Yeah….”
Luna looks aghast for the briefest of moments. “What!? I was gone? More-over, she was alone? That…” She sighs, looking rather concerned. “Does sound somewhat correct. When I… foolishly vanished for three weeks, she was incredibly distraught. I know not in depth, but it sounds like that brought to it's conclusion.”
Tretesta “So… the fighting I think broke Luca and I out of our thing early… But suddenly the *next* room opens up. That's where things… kinda get odd…” he flips forward a few pages and then taps the book again “Here we go. So… Room full of treasure… and a table of food. Trap, right? Seems not. But there's this giant statue of a 4 armed woman. and that little orb. Telling me to touch it. But I didn't, and it didn't like that. Turns out the orb is the… eye? of the goddess. who was the Statue”
Luna puts a hand to her chin. “Interesting. So the fight caused interference in some fashion. The eye of the… goddess? What?” She looks confused, but seems to be following. “And it was not a trap? Very queer indeed. So what happened in this new room?”
Tretesta: “Well….A lot and not a lot. We were told to offer the goddess something for the treasures in the room. and then she left for us to decide what to bargain. And we spent far too long overthinking the situation. Time runs out, she comes back, and we offer up the few bits of jewelry we had on us. Goddess looks at them, gives them back, and then tells us to… pick a piece each of some jewelry she had.” He shakes his head, staring at the page as he goes on ”..We each pick, seeing as we did not have much choice, since leaving wasn't on the table. Everyone gets something…and then Nothing. I mean… Everything but us was gone. Including all of the gear i had brought in for exploring that hell hole. Just… white all around us. forever. Luca puts on her thing…and just gone. I thought… I thought we were just going to die. But we were going to die anyway but slower if we stayed in that… void. so I did the same… and I'm suddenly home.“
Luna: “You were all forced to receive jewelry? If you speak true, that must explain where Lucatiel received new earrings from. By the Twelve… I shall have to investigate them thoroughly.” Her eyes once more dart to the stairs before back to Tret. “So I presume you all returned home safely after donning the proffered finery. It did not hurt you or vex you in any manner? It just let you go?”
Tretesta: ”….That last bit, one more time, please.“
Luna blinks and raises a brow. “Pardon? I ask if it left any impact upon you when you returned home. It seems strange to have just let you go so freely.”
Tretesta raises his left arm and pulls up his sleeve to reveal the bracelet from the story “I… Get a strong urge to stop if i try to take it off. so I stopped bothering. I'm going to guess Luca's might be the same type of thing. Don't try and take them from her. I haven't had any bad effects from it yet, but I can only imagine what will happen if we try hard to get them off. I speak as a man with more than desired experience with… Cursed items.”
Luna now darts her eyes fully upstairs, turning her head. “You say she is possibly cursed by those earrings!?” She grits her teeth visibly, closing her eyes and returning her gaze forward. “Such vile malfeasance… I shall have to bring her to the temple, see if the preists may purify.” More temple rubbing, much more vigorously. “Do share with me your knowledge of these 'cursed items' then, Sir Tretesta.”
Tretesta: “I said that I have experience with curses. And attempts to bother these may cause issue. Right now? Not bothering me. Not bothering Luca, if this is the first you're hearing of it. Leave them be for now, Luna, I insist.” He closes his notebook and puts it and the charcoal back in his pack, turning back to his snack “You're going to have to trust me on this one. If these are cursed? It's the most pleasant curse I've had because it's not telling me to hurt people, or making other people come after me to take it away.”
Luna balls up her right hand on the table for a moment before relaxing. “As you say, she has not complained about them in any fashion. Very well. Though it pains me greatly I shall…. do naught about these cursed earrings. For now. But if she starts complaining about strange hurts or feelings from them, I shall take action.”
Luna huffs and downs the rest of her glass, forcing herself to lean back.
Tretesta: “Or, Tell me. Because if she is having issues, I may be having them too. Or Will be soon. I hate it enough that I'm locked into this mess. All I wanted was a quick payday. That she's stuck too… bah. But… We will see. Going to kick in Astra's door at some point, make sure she got out as well and ask what she actually knows.” He sighs wearily and leans back, running both hands through his hair ”…I swear, I tried to be good. I tried to do things different. But… hard to leave old ways.“
Luna: “Not your worst idea. I would contact you quickly should she experience issues. What I would give to join you for raiding Miss Astra's home, but I know it would be ill-advised for myself.” She raises a brow, curious. “What old ways? As far as I can tell, you prevented Lucatiel from being hurt or worse. I would not wish to find out that I have lost a da– a ward.”
Tretesta: “Yeah… Yeah. It… Worked out in the end. One loss that could have been worse. Which might not have even been a true loss. the goddess was saying he wasn't real. But… I don't know.”
Luna: “Really? Given how you spoke that she implanted you into some phantom situation, I would not be quick to believe what else she speaks. If she tells the truth, then you did not dirty your hand. If not, then you protected everyone.”
Tretesta: “I don't bother with trying to juggle “did i or not”. I did it, I have no regret. I am not happy with it, but i am content.”
Luna: “Given the circumstances, that is all one can wish for, it would seem. You will hear no complaints from myself. Is there anything else of note about the expedition?”
Tretesta closes his eyes for a moment, as if musing on the journey ”….No… Nothing immediately comes to mind. there are some fine details I left out, but nothing that I think greatly changes the story of us being in the ruins. Some of it… I'm still trying to understand. But otherwise? I'd call it…. not a great time had by anyone.“
Luna: “I see. I thank you greatly for your information, especially with Lucatiel being considerably un-forthcoming. I shall have to figure out some way to pry from her more intimate details, but without upsetting her.” She sighs, looking down at the table for a moment. “Never my strong suit.”
Tretesta: ”…Tell her you talked with me perhaps. That you already know some things could get her to open up a bit. do not blame her. do not scold her. Just… Let her know when she wants to say something, you'll listen. and do that. Listen. c….hahah… Comfort her, yes. Sorry. I've… Been using that word quite a bit lately.“
Luna: “Ah, yes, this alien word of 'comfort'. Believe it or not, I am capable of such warmth and affection, especially with her. That said, I will do much to remember what you are suggesting. Rest assured, I will not scold nor harangue. In the morning, perhaps. I suppose I could take a day off to be with her.”
Tretesta: “Of course you are, sorry. I've spoken with people recently that…. aren't so warm on the outside as you are. just amuses me I keep coming back around to that word recently. But yes. She is certainly traumatized. I've heard about the ship. I wish you the best in gathing information about such, and hope you'll let me know if there is anything I can help with. You certainly know some things i am capable of. But.. Its getting late. Keep the port and cheese, please.”
Luna nods. “I do appreciate the offer, Sir Tretesta. But I believe unless aught more arises from this… 'cursed jewelry' business. You have been a considerable boon tonight. I shall store the wine and cheese, thank you kindly. If there is aught I may do for you as well, do not hesitate to call upon myself.”
Tretesta pushes his chair back and stands “Sure. I'll be generally reachable and not super hard to find. usually. Plenty of folks in the shroud will keep a message for me at least. Have a good night, Luna.” he smiles wearily, and turns for the door.
Luna stands as well. “I shall keep that in mind. Take care, Sir Tretesta.”
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