Goals 5-1

Étaoin's new body fared surprisingly passable in the water. Her large and more flexible wings made navigating the waters a breeze, or would a stream be the right term here?

She never doubted her ability to swim before, but this was a whole different experience. With enough time she could probably learn to maneuver this place on par with some of its native denizens. It was undeniably tiring however, as her body wasn't exactly streamlined nor used to this kind of activity.

Étaoin wondered where to go. Without a map of the region, she could only wander aimlessly, potentially going in circles. The other alternative was to go back to where she came from. The castle was definitely a bad idea, but close to it was the city of Tarsus, the capital of the domain. A place like that was bound to have all the resources she needed. Pain had numbed most of her senses after that harrowing transformation, and she could tell she was going off of pure spite and adrenaline at this point. If nothing else, all the stuff she stole should buy her a safe place to rest on such a place.

Rather than treating it all just as additional currency, however, it could be worth considering learning magic and putting it to use… she was extremely talented with a blade and bow, but magic could only add to her arsenal. It could strengthen her weapons or fill in on her weak spots.

As she thought, she came to a simple conclusion. There was nothing as valuable as information. If she knew more of what was happening around her or even ahead of her, she could prepare and not be taken off guard.

Sure, there was definitely also value in being able to throw around the elements, or being able to protect oneself or charm someone to obey their whims, but if one could know what was coming ahead of time, then a simpler solution can be found. That wasn't to mention that she couldn't trust anyone in this realm, while magic wouldn't lie to her.

As such, divination magic seemed like a natural choice for her to look into.

It was a thought she shelved away for later as she noticed the gnawing of her insides. She was hungry. Curses were muttered under her breath. She at least wanted to reach Tarsus before taking a break, however it would appear she was running on less energy than she thought. It wasn't surprising, even if it was inconvenient. That transformation likely took a lot out of her.

Étaoin looked around but she seemed to be in a semi-open plane. The coral on the sea floor might've offered shelter when she was still small, but not so much now. There was a crevice in the floor, elevating a chunk of stone above the rest. It seemed like the closest she would get to a place that would be difficult to ambush while easy to get away. The coral around her still offered some meager protection by breaking up her silhouette up to the waist.

There was a sigh as she sat down, leaning sideways against the rock face. Before doing anything else, she grumbled another complaint about how she would rarely still be able to sit and benefit from a backrest lest the seating provides room for her added insectoid abdomen, she decided to call it her thorax from now on, sticking out of her back. How would she comfortably lie down? The answer appeared to be sideways, just like with the sitting. She dug into her pack and retrieved some of the food she'd taken from Cecaelya's lair. It was tasteless, probably because of the saltiness of the water dominating any other flavor, and she'd already grown numb to the salt. It was chewy too. For a moment she missed her meals in the glass house, before angrily discarding the thought.

Right before she was about to pack up, her eyes fell on the iebba stones. She'd learned quite a bit about them during her captivity. They were the physical container for human souls. The casing that housed them reflected the person it belonged to, and the more powerful the soul was, the more defined the stone. Meanwhile, the material of the stone showed where their alignments were. People that tended towards evil more than anything else were made of lead, those of good opal, and chaos and law were sapphire and gold respectively. Tahl’karrser was the only place that utilised iebba stones as far as she knew, which explained why lead was the most common type. Beyond currency, it was possible for fiends to eat the soul and destroy it, gaining power in return. The more powerful the soul, the more powerful the daemon would become.

Étaoin hesitantly picked up one of the iebba stones. Each one here was at least decently defined. Her hand lingered in the bag, starting to shake, before letting go of it and retracting her hand as if it'd burnt her. It was a ridiculous idea, offensive, even. She wasn't an evil monster. She wasn't as debased as them.

… Right?

Tarsus was a fascinating city to say the least. It was built in a huge chasm, with caves and grottos in the rock faces functioning as housing for its inhabitants. It laid in the shadow of castle Dynophrorion, metaphorically at least. The structure did loom over the city in the distance, but as an addition it was built on some manner of pillar which elevated it greatly compared to the city in the sea floor. Looking down from the balcony of the castle at the city was more akin to a tall person looking at an ant hill by their feet than someone overseeing a city from their back yard.

Étaoin for her part was quite happy with that arrangement. The extra physical distance would work in her favor in remaining hidden and out of Dagon's sight.

She wasn't sure if she should stick around, however. He might still try to search for her when he finds her missing, and the closest settlement was certainly the best starting point. At the same time, the chances that Dagon would recognize her were slim to none, so as long as she wouldn't draw the wrong kind of attention she would be fine. At least that was what made sense to her. Unlike this place sometimes, which was in reality the true source of her doubt.

In spite of living in Hell and specifically this little corner of it for months now, she still struggled to make sense of it oftentimes. At the bare minimum the way these creatures thought was unintuitive to her at best. With fae, the idea of being the target of a terrible curse was far from unheard of, so it was difficult to hide in spite of one's appearance. However, these creatures were fiends, not fae, so they would logically leave her alone thanks to her altered appearance.

The uncertainty and circular thinking made her even more antsy than just knowing she wasn't safe. Now there was a chance that she would end up letting her guard down out of a false belief she would be safe and getting caught anyway.

Rather than allowing her thoughts to wander around the same subject for much longer, Étaoin decided she should cave to her exhausted body and find a place to rest.

Fortunately it didn't take long to find an inn. As the capital city there were even multiple options. Alongside her plethora of options she also found various other shops she knew were going to be of use to her later. There were various kinds of merchants peddling wares. She was pretty sure she saw a smithy, for example, which would be perfect to better arm herself, but she also saw materials, tools and trinkets. There has to be magical items there as well, so she made sure to make note of the area to peruse later.

When it came to lodging, she settled on one of the middle class options, called the Rocking Horse. Figuring it would be low profile enough not to be noticed, but also not so low class that a recent runaway might resort to going there, she paid with one of her gemstones. She knew it was far too much, but it did earn her an anonymous stay, and she vowed to get her hands on actual coinage the next day. It only took seconds since being introduced to an imitation of a bed for the woman to fall asleep.