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Aleria[/color] and [color=007236]Troe [/color][/h1][/center]


Most of the time on the ship Aleria could unfortunately not remember. Through the commotion she tried her best to help but sheltered as she was she froze. She had never seen true combat and she realized that day that she had a lot more to learn if she was to survive. Forget anything else, money and rewards be damned. If she couldn’t fight or even stomach it she was sure to end up as fish food eventually. Looking to the Goddess for strength she sighed and moved along with checking in on her crew mates, grateful none of them truly mentioned her blunder in not being more prominent in the main fight. 

—-
Kathila struck an odd cord with Aleria, she couldn’t quite place it but she didn’t like the woman. She couldn’t tell why or how she just didn’t. She didn't want to put much stock into it; however there was no point in sowing seeds of distrust that didn’t need to be sown. Turning her attention to Troe and away from everyone else she grabbed his hand, inspecting the severed pinky. She shot him a disapproving look.[color=fff79a] “Why in the Goddess’ name would you do that? You could have just taken the lady at face value.”[/color] She said softly, much more interested in the wound than scolding him. It would go nowhere of course, in one ear and out the other. She’s dealt with his type before, stubborn and stupid truly. Taking a closer look Aleria noticed something peculiar about the wound, the blood was acting weird. It was almost as if..it was flowing backwards. Doing a double take, sure enough it was. She assumed it had to be due to whatever magic was imbued in this gas but she had never seen anything like it. Before tending to the wound she made sure to let him know, [color=fff79a]“Do me a favor, take a look at your finger? Why is your blood doing this?”[/color] She wondered aloud. 

[color=007236]“If I had taken her word without any peer review...what if she had been wrong or misunderstood the phenomenon?”[/color] Troe asked genuinely. He respected her concern, but truly didn’t consider his sacrifice to be in vain...especially now that he was observing what Aleria had pointed out. His blood was seemingly being pulled along the water. He intentionally squeezed a bit more through his temporary bandage to be sure, but sure enough it was trailing westward along the coast at a rather peculiar pace.

Troe surrendered his injured hand to the healer, but not without indicating that the group should follow where his blood was leading. Thankfully Kathila was seemingly distracted once more and hadn’t seen what was going on.[color=007236][i]Good.[/i][/color] Troe thought. [color=007236][i]It seems we may have found a lead that she was unaware of...best to keep it that way.[/i][/color]  He noted in his head that this was rather absurd.

[color=fff79a]“I mean with what you discovered inadvertently I believe it was helpful without a doubt. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t reckless”[/color] She shook her head. Least it was a genuine insight into Troe’s psyche. After making sure that proper care was applied she looked back at Kathila and then back to the group. 

[color=fff79a] “I think we should keep to ourselves for the next portion of our journey. How exactly do we follow what we found without letting her know? I mean our group is..eccentric to say the least but I trust them at least.”[/color] She asked, crossing her arms. 

Troe thought for a moment before getting Kathila’s attention. [color=007236]“Does this mist continue all the way down the coast?”[/color] He asked, knowing the answer.

“Obviously.” She said, seemingly disappointed by the mere question.Troe looked at her the same way he had when before sacrificing his pinky. [color=007236]“We’ll have to verify that as well.”[/color] He said, not even noting the subtle disgust in the woman’s eyes at being doubted. She had clearly written the group off at this point as people that would likely get themselves killed without any intervention. Troe gave Aleria and Ashley a knowing look before slowly but surely following the trail of blood, making certain to keep himself between the dark red and Kathila’s gaze lest she realised they had a lead.

Aleria turned her attention to where Troe was heading, ready to follow the blood trail. Thankfully it seemed that Kathila had no intentions of following them currently so they made it out of eye sight easily. After walking for a bit, Aleria made her way over to Ashley to explain the situation in a bit more detail. 

[color=fff79a]“You by chance wouldn’t know what exactly is causing this would you? I’m perplexed, it’s out of my depth.” [/color]She lamented, confused but curious what would happen next. 

Eventually after following the coast line they reached a peculiar formation. The blood seemed to indicate that this is where the next step in their journey would be. Stepping forward, she could see the crumbled remains of what used to be a shrine. The earth had slowly over taken what was left of it and it seemed to have been left and forgotten. The only thing remaining was an altar, covered in bramble and thorns around the base. It had a deep basin in it almost like a bird bath. A sense of unease flooded Alerias body, something telling her that she did not want to be here by any means. She chalked it up to the island, and the strange phenomenons they had already encountered since being here. If put in context then truly this wasn’t out of place. But the tint of red the earth held in this particular place did not ease her worries. She turned to Troe, looking at him with wide eyes wondering what to do next. 

[color=fff79a]“You're the one with the strange blood, pray tell what do we do?”[/color]

Troe didn’t even hear Aleria as he studied the strange shrine...He had been here before...He remembered that when he was young he had been scolded for playing near this very ruin. He walked forward in an almost trance-like state as he looked closer at the inscriptions on the cave wall before approaching the altar. He looked it up and down before using his hand to attempt to dust off one of the inscriptions near the top of the aforementioned basin.

[color=007236]“The blood of the last son of house Rev…”[/color] He began to read the old runes aloud before noticing a faint red glow as his hand made contact.

A spike suddenly shot out from one of the letters impaling the center of Troe’s hand. He yelped in pain as the basin seemed to drink his blood as it poured from the wound. He kept himself from trying to remove his hand as he felt a strange need to let this altar drink its fill. Just as suddenly as the spike had appeared though, it sank back into the inscription leaving Troe’s hand oddly uninjured. He still felt lightheaded from the loss of blood, but was otherwise seemingly no worse for wear. 

The shrine’s inscriptions suddenly began to glow red as the area around the group began to shake and stir. The inscription on the cliff-wall glowed especially bright as the wall itself shifted and seemed to open into an odd cave entrance. Odder still, despite leading onto the island there was no sign of the black mist that had been repelling them from the island. Troe took a few steps before collapsing to one knee, slightly anemic and not quite balanced.