T - Bee, Dark, Nako, Vyn

[Dark]

Suha sat on the cool tile floor, shivering again. The phantom memory of a cruel grip on her arm; the strong wind--in a hallway? strange, so strange, who left the window open, let the fog in--that had swept them bodily through the mirror, ripping them right out of one reality into the next with a painful tear; and the lingering sensation of that pain, fading now to a dull ache to join her existing hurts. Suha had grown quite weary of mirrors, she decided, though this one now seemed content for the moment to reflect only what it should (she carefully avoided looking too closely at her own visage).

“Hello,” she responded quietly to the woman, good manners reflexive. “Terribly sorry to drop in unannounced.” Suha glanced around the kitchen--nice place, much warmer then their last locale, and thankfully better lit--noticing the fine furnishings. (What use did blind staff have of a mirror, she wondered absently.)

“We got a bit turned around in the mirror. And the fog too, I suppose. Would you mind telling us where we are?” she mused aloud.

[Vyn]

Javaid flinched as wind rushed by them, as they were ripped into the new room. He immediately crouched into a defensive posture, ready for anything... and found only what he'd been looking at moments before.

A pale maid with absent eyes and a mess where a delicate meal had been.

By the ancestor's grace, what was going on here?

He turned back momentarily, staring into the mirror as the avian spoke. For all that it was lunatic babble, it was fairly accurate. Perhaps this world had not been the illusion, but the other side? This place certainly seemed more tangible than the last. Best not to let his guard down, but he couldn't help the swell of pity that rose in him. The poor woman was obviously blind and their bizarre arrival had caused her upheaval. Watching her struggle to collect upturned pancakes was beyond unfortunate.

"Pardon us, miss, we seem to be at the mercy of a strange magic... Allow me to get that for you." He offered in that low, hollow voice of his and crouched down to assist her with the mess. Of course, in doing so, he managed to nick a finger on one of the cracked plates. Tch, just his luck! Swallowing down the brief sting, he returned his attention to the maid. "I'm afraid one of your plates have broken, is there somewhere I should put the waste?"

[Bee]

Phaedra had been fully prepared to turn and venture back into the rooms they had earlier rejected, so finding herself actually in the grip of the mirror's magic was somewhat surprising, quite terrifying, and more than moderately painful. There was no demon in there this time, however, and when the journey stopped, they were in a warm, all-together harmless-looking kitchen, with an all-together harmless-looking maid. A portal indeed! What a marvel! Especially, she thought, giving Suha a glance, when it did not transport one to a vile hell-dimension. She took a moment to be grateful for that. Being half-choked by vines had been a wretched enough experience for the day, the thought of anything more made her nauseated.

"We are also looking for a young girl," she chimed in, because if they were going to beleaguer the poor young woman with questions they might as well go all out. She made herself feel a bit better about this by joining Javaid in picking things up off the floor. "You wouldn't happen to know of one coming through here? Perhaps being helped along by what could have sounded like curiously mobile foliage?"

[Nathalia]

"I- Oh?" Chrissie whimpered, terrified as a deep, echoing voice that deeply unsettled her, rang through the kitchen without being shouted.
She fell backwards, thrown off-balance by the jerking motions she couldn't help her head making in the direction f each new voice, toppling against the cart and shaking.
Had they come to kill her?
"Mirror?" She asked, completely at a loss, before flinching as a hand was offered to her. It must have been the man with the deep voice, for thought the hand was fine and long-fingered, it also felt thick, and slightly rough.
"Oh. I'm so sorry, I'll get it, just push me to it I-" She gestured helplessly for a second, before being pulled back upright, fumbling back to her cart, shaking with fear, and pulling out a thick, stiff bag of trash, and trying to search for the pieces.

Another voice was speaking...it sounded female, like the first.
So, two women and a man?
Shivering a little still, she tried to address it.
"No! I'm the only one who's been here all day! I'm sorry. Please, what do you want?"

[Dark]

“Nothing from you,” Suha murmured, “We’re just following the plants. So that we can find the girl they took. Terrible idea, but they insisted.” She gestured towards Phaedra and Javaid airily, not particularly caring that the motion was lost on the servant.

“Whose house is this?” she asked, looking around the kitchen again. It was a large space, like one might expect in one of the posh manorial houses, and much more suited for a small army of servants than just one blind girl. Though, many old families would rather lose servants and other small comforts than lose their ancestral home and good name to dwindling finances.

Suha remained close to Phaedra, and well away from Javaid while he moved about and startled the servant even more; she would deny both compulsions if pressed. Phaedra was being--very kind--and though Suha refused to think of the why, she drew a certain level of comfort from the woman’s presence.

[Vyn]

Javaid hesitated at the woman's panic. Certainly understandable, but it left him in quite the awkward situation. Perhaps it was his own familiarity with such anxiety that made him flush with such sympathy. He withdrew slightly from the woman, fingers tensing nervously around his staff. Why couldn't this socializing thing be simple?

He could tell his voice was only making the situation worse, a realization which helped no one and only left him feeling oddly homesick. He was no more capable of adjusting the pitch of his voice than any of his companions.

"I'm sorry, miss. We didn't mean to startle you." He glanced briefly toward the Esterberry woman, silently pleading that she might know the proper words to make this situation right. After all, she did seem to know what she was doing with the Morganberry woman and he had been no help at all there either. "We're only trying to find our missing companion."

[Bee]

Perhaps bombarding her with questions had been the wrong way to go after all. She was inordinately frightened by their presence, it seemed--although if she were blind, as seemed to be the case, and didn't know the mirror was magic, which was yet to be ascertained, she supposed she would be slightly startled by the sudden appearance of three complete strangers.

She dredged up the same soothing voice she had used with Suha just a short time ago. "We certainly didn't mean to cause any trouble, and I assure you we mean absolutely no harm. We just became a little lost in our search and wandered in." She glanced at the mess on a floor, curiously. "If you are the only one here, to whom are you bringing food?" More gently still, she said, "Is there a master of the house to whom we may speak?"