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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orichalcum" data-source="post: 1289843" data-attributes="member: 3722">Alea Iacta VII: When in Rome Chapter 6: A Watery GraveLlyr quickly binds and gags the unconscious archer and then throws Verix over his shoulder and Meloch over the back of the war-goat. “Do you know any temples near here, Meloch? You said you were wandering around here yesterday.”        Meloch, gasping from the poison seeping through his blood, struggles hard to remember and finally blurts out “Apollo of the Mice – back on the Via Curetes – towards the left.” Llyr begins to run towards the Via Curetes – he can hear Verix’s breath slowing, and isn’t certain he’ll make it in time to save him.    Luckily, the temple of Apollo of the Mice is particularly devoted to aiding poor people in need of healing; the priests refine various potions and antidotes by testing them on the sacred mice of the temple. Initially, the priest shakes his head, telling Llyr that without knowledge of the poison, there is little he can do. Meloch gasps out, “It was strychnos, sold to me by a Marsian apothecaria.”         The priest is clearly puzzled as to how the pygmy and his companion came to be poisoned by their own purchase, but his face brightens at the mention of strychnos. “Ah! We just made up a fresh batch of the antidote for that – wives tend to try and murder their husbands a lot in early summer, when it gets so hot.” He bustles away and returns in a moment with a hot green liquid, which he feeds to Meloch and Verix, slathering all over their wounds as well. Both are on the edge of death and barely recover. From afar, I can sense Meloch’s weakness, and douse Cornelia’s household gods in wine as I feel him start to breathe regularly again.        Once Llyr is certain that they will remain alive, he speaks to Meloch, “I have to go back and interrogate that prisoner. Stay here until you feel better; I’ll send a messenger to Metellus and Marcus to come and fetch you both.”        Llyr goes running back to the alley and finds that the archer has nearly untied his bonds. Llyr’s ropework is exemplary, however, and he has a gladius to the throat of the man in an instant. After some hurried threats, the archer readily admits that he and his friends were hired by a tall, red-haired Celtic man to lay in wait for any or all of the members of our group and slaughter them. After missing the pygmy the day before, they had bought strychnos poison from the same shop that the pygmy did. The archer believes that many other people were also hired, as he saw other people following the pygmy today. He doesn’t know what the reason was or who the man was, simply that he offered 50 sestertii for each corpse. Llyr slits the man’s throat and hurries back to the temple.            Meanwhile, Verix has pulled himself back upright, and tells Meloch that he needs to go immediately and visit his family. Meloch urges him to wait and remain for the escort of Marcus and Metellus, but Verix refuses, and staggers out the door, weaving from side to side from the effects of the poison. Meloch, barely able to move himself, wishes him luck. Soon, Llyr and the others return, and they go back to Cornelia’s house to discuss developments.         It is not until some hours later, when Verix has not returned, that we all begin to grow somewhat concerned. Cornelia’s mother sends a runner to the house of Verix’s parents, who inform her that, in fact, their son has not visited them at all in the previous two days. There is no sign of him on the streets. Finally, Wena takes one of the pearls that Verix had brought back to Licinia Luculla, Cornelia’s mother, and uses it to attempt to scry on their companion. After a few minutes, the Iceni vates looks up, pale, from her wooden bowl of clear water, with the pearl floating at the bottom. “I saw him.”        “Well?” Cornelia demands, anxiously.        “He’s floating in a tunnel somewhere, face downwards in the water. I think he’s dead.” Wena answers soberly.</blockquote>

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