The Midnight Sun

Hasdrubal slumps at the general outcry. Grasping his head firmly, he rips it off, and attaches it to his old body, which then stands up. It picks up the various viscera, and ducks out of the room.

"Spoilsports."

At the sound of Kate’s scream, Madame Naoki winces, her ears flattening against her head. However, this momentary discomfort due to her uniquely heightened sensitivity to sound does not hinder her for long.

Naoki doesn't see Hasdrubal leave, as she’s already in motion. She rises from her chair, sliding around the table to kneel down beside her comatose dining companion. Naoki takes one of Kate’s own hands in her own, and applies two fingers from her other hand to Kate’s wrist.

She sits silently like this for exactly one minute, clutching Kate’s hand, counting her pulses. Evidently satisfied, she removes her two fingers, but continues to hold Kate’s hand in her own.

Naoki’s face is torn between concern for Kate’s well-being and barely contained rage at Hasdrubal for ruining her moment. She turns her head around, prepared to articulate the full extent of her displeasure to Hasdrubal, to find he has since left. Maelik remains where he was standing, and Artemis has entered the room. She relaxes slightly, drawing comfort from this knowledge. She expunges the anger from her mind, and the corresponding creases on her face flatten.

Turning back around, she bites her lip, considering what to do. After a moment or two more of deliberation, she decides on a course of action. Gently releasing Kate’s hand, she repositions on the floor to Kate’s side.

Turning her head, she addresses Artemis and Maelik.
“She’s unconscious. Her pulse is steady, and I don’t think she sustained any injuries. I am going to take her back to my office to recover.”

Carefully, she slides her arms beneath Kate and stands up, cradling her close to her chest. She staggers a bit; Kate is far from heavy, but Naoki is far from muscular.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Naoki allows Artemis to take Kate from her arms. Artemis is probably the only individual she would entrust such a task to, and she couldn’t argue that she would do a better job. Grim scenarios of her tripping and dropping Kate come to mind, so she allows Artemis to do the carrying.

Before Madame Naoki follows Artemis out, she pauses to address Maelik.

“Please continue with the dinner preparations. I’m still hungry, and she will be too, once she wakes up. If we’re not back in here by the time you’re finished, go ahead and bring it to my office, if you would.”

She pauses again, and looks up, just now noticing Maelik’s headpiece.

“Nice hat, by the way.”

She moves her arm, as if to clap Maelik on the shoulder, but she stops midway through the motion upon realizing that,
A) She’s not tall enough to reach his shoulder without standing on her toes.
B) Even if she could reach his shoulder, it’s covered in scales and spikes.
C) It probably wouldn’t be a particularly good idea to clap Demonlord Maelik on the shoulder, anyway.

So instead, she transitions the movement into an awkward thumbs-up, before pittering from the room. She follows closely behind Artemis, and opens the door to her bedroom allow them entry.

As Artemis sets Kate on the bed, Naoki makes a brief stop at one of the bookcases that line the walls of her office. She stoops down, to the second shelf from the bottom. From the left side of the shelf, she pulls a thick, blue, leather bound tome.

‘The Identification and Treatment of Minor Medical Maladies’, by Arlington Strongham

With this book in hand, she enters her quarters. She pulls a chair from the wall, sliding it up next to the bed. Seating herself, Naoki reaches over and grasps Kate's hand, squeezing slightly as she spreads the tome open on her lap, using her free hand to flip to the index. Scrolling down the page with her finger, she finds the location of the entry she was seeking, flips to the appropriate page, and begins reading.

-Another Day-

From outside, the Ethereal Prince Vigil gazed upon the Midnight Sun. After much investigation he had tracked down it's whereabouts. He entered the place and was intrigued by the environment. He'd never seen a place like this. The Ethereal would no doubt gain some attention due to his unique appearance. He'd come to the bar to speak to an employee.

"Good day. I'm looking for a person named 'Grandma', or some way to make contact with her."

(Doing a time split for Grandma, this will happen after her time in Gauldin)

The employ looked up and gave Vigil a puzzled look at first due to his appearance. It only took a moment for him to recover though, the Midnight Sun had all manner of visitors.

“I shall see if Grandma is available to meet with you, one moment.” The man motioned for Vigil to take a seat and headed towards the private quarters.

After 5 minutes or so, the man returned. “Grandma has agreed to meet with you, she finds your appearance quite interesting.” How Grandma had seen Vigil from her rooms, seemed to be something the man had no intention of explaining.

“Follow me if you will, you can meet in her sitting room.”

If Vigil agreed, the man would lead him back farther into the building, up two flights of stairs to the third floor. Upon reaching the third floor, they would walk down the hall a bit until they reached a door. The man would open it for Vigil, admitting him to a rather cozy, although finely decorated sitting room.

Grandma sat in the corner of the room in her rocking chair. She was knitting something as the two would enter.

“Who might I have the pleasure of meeting?” Grandma said this while placing her knitting to the side, studying the newcomer.

Maelik regained his composure shortly after Hasdrabul's departure and was standing straight, proper and cool as a chilled cucumber. Of course he was still freaking out under the surface, one of the mouths he intended to feed just fainted and an speaking from personal experience an unconscious mouth can't effectively chew food.

"Wh- Ho- AH COME ON! How am I supposed to conduct dinner when people are flopping to the ground like wet noodles? Bloody home, me and that maniac are going to be having a very serious talk about manners after I'm finished here... Making a mess of my affairs *grumble grumble*"

The demon took the following order from Naoki in stride, assuring her that he would get on it immediately and asking her to reassure Kate that he would do his best to make up for the trauma she just went through.

Once the girls left Maelik hurried off with a determined but obviously flustered pace, reentering the kitchen and once more warding off any of the other chefs, warning them that he would be going solo once more.

It was then that the demon took a good look at the faces he was getting from the other chefs, and then a sudden realization came over him. He didn't remake his disguise.

"... Shit."

With a violent turn he spun on the other chefs, his draconian features twisted into a murky looking hate visage.

"Not a word of this... Are we clear?"

He was answered by a unanimous covering of mouths via quick hands and went about his business as if nothing happened, only occasionally giving a death glare to a cook that seemed to be edging too close to his space.

"So much for that disguise... Ah screw it, I got more reach this way anyway."

"Not officially, just taking care of some things while Andraste Ruana is gone." Vigil clarifies. "Yes, an impressive structure."

"My kind come to this realm often, though not in my current form, but as what you'd call Wisps. I used to be one roaming the lands, I recently reached maturity though and now adopt this form." Vigil explains, "It's much more marvelous here though."

"Most would prefer to stay in the ethereal realm. Or they don't have the option to come here like I did. A large enough portal would need to opened for a mature ethereal, I came here while still a wisp and it's much easier to phase through the realms then." Vigil explains that as an ethereal becomes more powerful it gets more difficult to cross realms. Vigil became curious, "Would you happen to know about the binding rituals of demons? That which bounds a demon to a human for a pact?"

"I wish to remove a bond. If this Davous could assist me in this, I would be grateful. " Vigil states his intention. "Yes, there are many creatures existing in the realm. It's very different from here. Much less vegetation, and the vegetation is carnivorous. The animals get food through photosynthesis mostly. There is one being who rules the realm, Purge. He says that the realm used to look much like this one, but a cataclysm destroyed it."