After-mask

The pyre is lit and burning, and thankfully, the cavern is fairly large, but that doesn't stop the smoke from building up at the top of the cavern and beginning to work its way down.

As if this abattoir of a cavern didn't smell bad enough.

While the others finish the pyre and watch it burn, Dolan has slipped off down the tunnel, back the way they came, and does not appear to require light to navigate the pitch-black tunnels, and currently leans against the wall at the mouth of a side-tunnel, gasping out a prayer spell, hand clasped tightly to his still-injured side.

Once it has been assured that Karan'taara's body is burning nicely, Auranar had settled back to watch it disintegrate into nothingness. Albeit with a cloth wrapped around her face from her pack to quench some of the stench. Thus, it's not hard for her to notice Dolan slipping away. Her eyes red from smoke and tears, she makes her way away from the pit of death and the burning flames to follow in Dolan's wake.

For just a moment she hesitates when she sees him healing himself, she doesn't want to interrupt him if he needs a moment to himself after all... "Dolan?" She asks quietly, her voice slipping through the darkness on the footfalls of her nearly silent steps. "I'm sorry to interrupt. Should I go?"

"That you, Aura?" Dolan's response is pained, but the sun-like light of the healing spell he's using is like a beacon that casts him in sharp relief against the inky blackness of the cave. Some relief ensues, and he repeats the process again before speaking further. He does not- however, move from where he's leaning against the rock, and is still clearly unhappy. "Fuck. Damn little blood-drainers." By the light of his spells, his flesh and blood eye is closed.

"Are you all right, Aura?" _Focus, Brydion. Think about something else. That wasn't Kol._ "Just - give me a minute."

"I'm alright." Auranar says quietly in response to Dolan's query. All right. She doesn't feel 'all right' at all. She can tell though, that something is going on with Dolan, and that takes precedence over her pettier problems. "It's okay. I'll be right here if you need me." She doesn't move closer, but hovers where she is instead. She doesn't want to intrude, but she doesn't want to leave him alone either.

Dolan continues to work on his own healing, this time largely in silence, and after a couple more spells, he sucks in a deep breath, and lets it out. "Never wanted to remember what getting bit by a damned vampire felt like," he mutters, but the flesh and blood eye opens, and he reaches back to the hilt of his greatsword, drawing as if by feel a sigil on it. It begins to glow gently, with a sun-touched warmth, and finally, he grins down at her. "No, you ain't," he counters. "But you did a damned fine job back there. Where'd you learn to heal?"

Auranar's face colors at the way that Dolan rebukes her deflection. Thankfully the dark hides it well, though there's little she can do about the guilt spilled across her features that the dark can not hide so well. "It just comes naturally to me." She admits, voice still quiet. "Most of my magic does. I learned that I could heal others completely by accident actually."

She can still remember it, but she shakes the memory off and looks at him. "Are you alright? I... I can't heal you again, but I can take a look at the injury if you want. Might be able to bind it at lest."

Still smiling, Dolan remains leaning against the rock, but he seems to at least hurt somewhat less, and some of his equanimity has returned. "I've got it mostly," he answers. "The Knight blesses me with some of that as well. Just - don't want to move too fast." That's an admission. "I ain't minded to explain this shit to them." He nods back down the tunnel.

"I knew you had some magic, but you're a dab hand with that bow, too. That was a damned fine shot you put in that bastard."

"Practice." Auranar says softly, but her voice is laced with her embarrassment. "I didn't leave for so long just to learn magic, I wanted to be useful in a fight like this. So that if and when I cam across something that needed killing... I could hold my own. Not be some weak thing that needs saving."

She smiles at Dolan. "You're the impressive one Dolan. Holding your own against all those..." She trails off, it's not good to think about what those were. What they had been, her eyes lower, her smile faded. "And against Karan'taara too. You killed him. I owe you for that."

"Thank the Speaker for that, Aura. That spell of hers is damned useful and I'll be asking around in the Temple later." He offers a bloodied, gauntleted hand to her, an open palm gesture that offers comfort. "That bought us enough time to -" He swallows hard at the images of those vampiric toddlers. "Look, uh - don't tell Andie about that. She loves kids and she'll lose her shit if she hears about that."

He lets out a breath. "It didn't matter who killed him, in the end. Like Silmeria said, the only answer for someone like that is to eliminate them from the picture, permanently. If I know her or Harkashan, they'll see to it that he stays that way." A sharp exhalation of breath could be a snort. "You got your pound of flesh, so did I, and he won't hurt anyone else. I just want to know who _He_ was."

Auranar moves forward a little, a small worried frown on her face. She dislikes how unsteady Dolan's breathing is. She's not going to press him though. It'd be rude and... really more Andelena's job. "I have no intention of telling anyone about... that." She'd dream about it though. "But... I think I might have an idea who Karan'taara was talking about."

"Yeah?" Dolan still hasn't moved from his lean against the rock wall, but seems present and attentive. "If I have my way, Andie'll never find out about that, and neither will Lana." The mobile side of his features quirk up in a grin that is not reflected in the other half. "But who's he talking about? Is this someone else after you and Lana? Didn't know Karan'taara was after you."

"I don't think that Karan'taara _was_ after me. At least not until he saw this." Auranar touches the tattooed mark on her chest lightly. It's hard to see in the dark, but its a near mirror of the one that Cor'lana has. "I think he was working with someone known as 'The Corpse Eater'. Someone who haunts our family like... Like a vulture. I can't think of any other reason that Karan'taara would be so focused on this mark if not for that."

Enough light spills from the pommel of Dolan's blade to see the mark she means, and he listens intently. "Yeah? There's someone after the whole family? Fuck me. Is this what Lana was talking about," he breathes. "I get the impression she ain't want me and Andie to know. Don't worry, I ain't gonna let on, Aura. Usually I don't tell either one of them shit unless I want them both to know."

"So - fill me in. Who's this Corpose Eater, and what's he got against Lana's - your - family?"

And so she explains, in detail. When she's done she looks at him seriously. "I've been plotting to end this creature's plots against Grandfather and the rest of the family since I learned about it, but this?" She finds herself grinding her teeth. "This is exactly how low he'd sink to cause us pain."

"This have anything to do with what Pothy got himself into?" Dolan listens without interruption, and only asks the question when she is done. "Know that Lana's been worrying about that, but ... I ain't think there was more to it than that," he breathes. "Lana's grandfather's relation. So this sack of shit is fae?"

"No. Nothing about what Pothy's gotten into - so far as I know. But yes. The Corpse Eater is fae." Auranar says with certainty. Looking at Dolan. "I'd really appreciate any help you'd be willing to give in hunting him down, but I know you've got your own things going on; so don't feel obligated okay?"

"You'll have it. I owe Lana and Tel, a lot." Dolan shakes his head. "Truth, Aura? I ain't done shit since the wedding, practically. I'll be headed out to Selentia soon for a bit, but that's it. Jagoff ain't shown his face in Alexandria since we ran the werewolves off and took out their leader. I've got time. More than time. I'm ready to work on something besides furniture now that the healers have cleared me for Guild work."

A long draw-in and release of breath. "Been bored lately. So I'm yours. We talking a trip to Quelynos?"

Auranar shakes her head. "I think he'll come after us here. When we least expect it. I have a plan to lure him in, but so far it hasn't borne any fruit. I had an idea though... I need to talk to Cor'lana about it." She seems thoughtful and then smiles at Dolan. "You want in?"

"Yeah. I do. Let's hear this idea of yours." Despite the short, sharp words, it is quite obvious that she has Dolan's full and undivided attention, his half-mobile gaze focused and alert.

-End