Utterly Mad

Now was the time to fight as Stam had instructed. This thing attacked in wide devastating sweeps, but was too quick for one of Ferrets own clumsy chopping slashes. The thing had called her "slinky" and sure enough, she moved with fluidity about the rotunda platform. Not quiet agile enough to keep from losing a shoe though. Or a good amount of hair. As she had rounded the platform once again, she had stopped to try a faint on it, but it had been too close. Back in the tunnels as she fled, Ferret realized that the creature must have been keeping stride with her the whole time. As she made the quick jab of the faint, Ferret was forced to take a quick hop backwards instead. It had hoped to simply take her head off with a quick grab, but had only managed to knock the girls fur cap off and get a handful of auburn hair. The locks gave instantly with little pain on Ferrets part, the reek of rotting hair filled the air for a brief moment. She needed something to distract the thing so she could land at least one good hit. No one noticed Lydia come into view at the opposite side of the rotunda. "Nora!" Her shout cut the silence unpleasantly. "Good timing." Ferret thought as the creature turned it's head sharply in Lydias direction. Ferret leapt into it's midst and taking her sword in both hands she wound up and took a wide hard swing for it's right leg. The steel plowed through the clay shell and bit deep into the shriveled brown flesh beneath. It staggered and screamed loud enough enough to shake the rust from the platform. It hunched down to examine it's wound. Pushing the advantage of the creatures pain, Ferret cocked her sword arm and with what remained of her weapons basket she decked it hard in the side of that laughing mask. The basket and mask shattered and for a brief moment as it reeled and fell, ferret could see what looked like a round hole lined with needle like teeth in it's face. It caught itself on the railing and tried to pull itself back up, but the rail bowed and snapped sending it into the rushing depths below. She watched the water for a time and when she realized she could hear the rushing of the water and the whispering in the dark, she knew it was gone. "Did it touch you?" Lydia asked from her side. She was holding out Ferrets cap, which she took gladly. "Just a handful of hair. I thought you wouldn't come down here." Going over what she had been through in her head now, she thought to berate Lydia for putting her through this, but pushed the idea aside immediately. It wasn't Lydias fault she was afraid of this place. It wasn't Lydias fault she had decided to come down here. Ferret had put herself through this. "Oh, your hair?" Lydia grabbed for Ferrets hat and only managed to knock it off. Ferrets hair had gained several grey streaks, but the influence of the elfs touch didn't seem to be spreading any further than that. "you'll have to cut it a bit short to match up, but you should be fine." Lydia said, and then remembered what she had been told when she had survived her own encounter, "You're a fortunate lady. Not many get to meet an elf and escape." Ferret just looked at her hard for a moment and then back down into the water. "That was not an elf was it?" Lydia nodded, picking Ferrets hat up off the walkway again, "Once upon a time, it was. I met one myself before I died. Light another stick of that incense please." "can you even smell it?" Ferret asked, taking her cap and digging through her bag for the wooden box. "No," Lydia replied, "but it gives me a warm safe feeling. It would really help about now." Ferret withdrew another stick of incense and reached for her lantern only to remember that she didn't have it anymore. "No can do I guess." She said, putting the stick back, "My lantern went into the soup, and that was all I had for open flame. What are you doing down here?" She thought briefly about asking about the repelling effects of incense on spirits, but decided that if Lydia had managed to find her by following a trail of residual smoke, chances are it was just another false superstition. Lydia dodged the question. "What else have you got in there? You can't have brought incense with you, It wouldn't have survived wet when your stuff was ruined." Ferret rummaged through her bag and pulled out all the things she had taken from the ruins. Two boxes of coins taken from behind the counter of some business, a small bag of jewellery, and a collection of bottles and tubes from the incense shop. Lydia went to pick one of these up but only managed to knock it over. "Pick that up and remove the top." Ferret did as she said, feeling a bit embarrassed at the way Lydia had looked at her when she had withdrawn the coin boxes. The jewelery was fine apparently, but the taking of the coins seemed to have diminished her just a little bit in Lydias eyes. The brass cylinder she had assumed was just another finger sized tube of incense had a familiar mechanism and wick at a much smaller scale beneath it's cap. "clockwork candle." Lydia explained, "Fortune in spades it seems. Now let's see if we can get some of that incense going and I'll see if I can take you to the chapel."