Amon (JadedDM) Private Thread

[JadedDM]

Amon decides to face his captors head on, not cowering while they search for him. A spell on his lips, he swings the door open and steps through it.

[Jenara]

Entering the room, Amon is confronted by Searos and Kim, followed closely by Brax and Vee.

(Rejoin main thread)

[Breila]

When Amon comes home, he is greeted by his mother. "Hello, Amon" she says with a friendly smile. "Your father is in his study. Come with me, I will give you the tea tray for you two." She hands him a tray with a teapot under its cosy, a sugar bowl and milk jug, and two cups. There is also a plate with biscuits that smell as if they came out of the oven just a short time ago.

When Amon opens the door to the study, Bryce looks up. "Oh, Amon, there you are. have you been able to deal with the disturbance at the Adams's shed?"

[JadedDM]

Amon sets the tray down somewhere convenient. "Disturbance? Oh, uh, yes, all taken care of. Nothing to worry about at all," he says, wondering how his father even heard about it and so quickly, too. "Biscuit?" he offers.

[Breila]

Bryce smiles and takes the offered biscuit. "A band of children came with a wild tale, and two concerned mothers showed up here because they couldn't find Geraldine" he explains. "But then someone else came and told us Geraldine had set out with you all to handle things. I'm glad it all went well.
Let us enjoy tea, and then I'll show you something" he says.

[JadedDM]

"Oh, yes. Wild tale, indeed," Amon chuckles. "Lieutenant Petersson was with us the whole time, and everything's fine now." Eager to change the subject, he shoves a biscuit in his mouth and takes a long drink of tea. "What is it you wished to show me, Father?" he asks.

[Breila]

"Glad to hear that. I'm sure she will report back to me in time. Now, what I wanted to show you..." Bryce walks back to his desk and picks up the chest with the wolf coins that was sitting there. He brings it to the tea table and opens it, taking out two coins. One that is whole and one that is... cut in half!
"I showed these coins to Brian the shopkeeper. As he is receiving the caravans, and has travelled with them in the past, he knows a lot of coins from many lands. He says he has never seen anything like this before. And then, to my surprise, he took a saw and cut one of them in half! Look here."

He hands the two pieces to Amon. If he looks at the cut, he can see that they are not pure gold, but the core is of a dull, slightly silvery metal.

[JadedDM]

"Oh! They are fakes," Amon says. "The smugglers must have been using them to scam people as part of their operation," he concludes.

[Breila]

"Well, they are not necessarily fakes, Brian explained to me" Bryce says with a smile. "In a country where all coins are like this, and everybody accepts their value, they present no problems. Brian even told me that in a faraway country, people were using colorfully printed papers as currency, strange as this may sound. But as soon as these coins are presented elsewhere and exchanged for true gold coins of equal weight, you get a problem. We will alert people to this with all the caravans that pass through town, but of course word spreads slowly like this."

Having said this, Bryce leans back in his chair. "So, Amon, have you and your friends made any plans yet as how to deal with the smugglers?"

[JadedDM]

"We think that they sent a ship here every new moons," Amon explains. "So the others believe the ship will come again and we can catch them in the act then. Until then, I guess we just wait and see, and keep our ears to the ground."

[Breila]

Bryce nods. "Yes, I gathered as much."
He looks at his younger son, for a moment it looks as if he was going to say something, then he catches himself, and after a moment, says something else.
"Amon, I believe you are not telling me everything. But you have proven to be a man of cool head last night, and I think I can trust you." He rises. "Would you be so kind and bring the tea tray back to the kitchen? And then you may do whatever you please for the rest of the day, as far as I am concerned. But perhaps your mother would like your company at dinner, ask her, will you?"

[JadedDM]

"Yes, sir," Amon says quietly, picking up the tray. Feeling rather guilty, he returns it to his mother. In a way, Searos was lucky. He had asked Amon not to mention the gnolls, and Amon had reluctantly agreed. But Amon never agreed to lie for him. If his father asked him outright, Amon would feel compelled to answer truthfully. But his father trusted him, although that only made Amon feel worse about the whole thing.

"Here you are, mother," he says, handing her the tray. "Thank you very much. Would you like me to stay for dinner tonight?" he asks.

[Breila]

"Oh, Amon, that would be lovely!" Eleanor Cousland is quite exited. "We haven't seen much of you in recent time. So, if Daos has no objections and you wouldn't rather eat with your new friends... What would you like to have? It's a little late now to make something really special, but maybe I have something you really like."

(OOC. I assume here that Amon has been at Daos's house for the whole day and evening during his apprenticeship, as was the cusom almost into the 20th centuries. Often, apprentices even moved into their master's households. If I'm wrong, correct me please.)

[JadedDM]

Amon considers his mother's words. His 'new friends?' His father had used the exact same phrase. Is that what they were?

He tries to imagine how they would react if he were to walk up to them and ask to join them for dinner. Somehow he doubts they would even miss him. Searos and Gunter tended to stick together. Amon had to admit he was envious of their friendship. They seem as close as brothers. Amon actually does have a brother, but he never felt particularly close to him. Gunter kept to himself mostly, though. He didn't say a lot and just seemed to follow Searos around. Searos, on the other hand, had made it pretty clear he didn't trust Amon or any wizard, for that matter. Actually, Searos didn't seem to really trust anybody, except maybe Gunter.

Brax was something of an enigma. He wasn't sure what to make of her. She did not fit his preconceptions of either a Drow or a priestess of Pelor. There was something unnerving about her, the way she spoke and act. Her words never seemed to fit her actions, and vice versa. It was difficult for Amon to put his finger on. But it unnerved him.

Kim was even more of a mystery than Brax. In fact, the reason Amon insisted on using the title 'Mage' when addressing her was because he had no idea if Master or Mistress was more appropriate. And he was too embarrassed to ask which gender Kim might be. He was also never sure if she was mocking him or not. She would say things to him, that seemed nice, in a completely deadpan manner. Was she being sincere or just snarky? He could never tell.

He got along fairly well with Vee, although to call her a friend seemed a stretch. He really didn't know much about her at all, other than she seemed rather reckless and perhaps overeager to prove she was not a child.

Actually, this seems true of all of them. He had observed them and learned quite a bit about them, but to say they were friends...just seemed a stretch.

He attempts to conjure up a hypothetical situation in his mind. What if they all just left tomorrow, without even saying good-bye? How would Amon feel? He imagines he'd be kind of upset about it. Although he'd probably get over it eventually. But what if Amon were to leave instead? How would they feel? Honestly, he couldn't imagine they'd even really notice.

Well, Echo would...if only because she'd have lost her favorite target.

Realizing he was allowing himself to get lost in his own thoughts again, he snaps back to the present. "I'm sure anything will be fine. Will the others be joining us, as well?" he asks, referring to his brother, sister-in-law and nephew.

(OOC: That works for me. Even if it wasn't custom, I figure Daos is a stern enough taskmaster to insist on it anyway. Although, one point of contention--according to his bio, Amon's mother is named Eleanor, not Katherine.)

[Breila]

(OOC: Sorry, I forgot to look into his bio for info, I used the council.doc for info where Bryce's wife is mentioned but not named. I edited the post accordingly,)