I found Ara today.
We finally reached Gall this morning, after traveling along the Mirror, stopping in the middle of the night to get some sleep. All the bounties we handed in were enough to buy out the stock from a local merchant in Alveo, so he let us take the next Cloaker caravan that came in to town. I'm glad we were able to stop here, if we went straight to Murcas we probably wouldn't have found her, and she might be in an even worse state than she already is.
As soon as we came to Gall, we went to the local Crux Fleet. They were able to point us to the Fallsview Inn, which is Ara had been staying. She told me to go there in her most recent Sending. Once there, the barkeep was able to confirm that Ara was probably there, but he wouldn't let me up to check. Luckily, Lowtide and Arzula were able to offer their help to get us upstairs. We were able to find her room, and Lowtide picked the lock to get in.
Ara did say she was being pursued by someone, and the state of her room looked as if someone had attacked her in the night. She was still there, thank Mikaya, but she had sustained some injuries in the fight. I was able to heal the wounds, but she won't wake up. She's also showing some signs of the Rot at the places on her body where her injuries were, but it shouldn't be enough Rot to fully incapacitate here. This is a slow moving disease, it should take months, even years before those infected fall into the coma, and the time before it is marked with a clouded mind and confusion, as well as paralysis of the limbs where the Rot has completely taken over. The infection on my arm is much farther along than she is, and I haven't experienced any of these advanced symptoms yet.
I do have a bit of a working theory about what happened to her. Yesterday, after our stop at Pinelle's, we went to the Crux Fleet in Alveo so that Inyanore could hand in her report about the source of the local Infection. While we were there, we met her "friends" from a few days earlier, who were accompanied by one other person who introduced himself as Daro. Inyanore pointed out that we was a very famous and high-ranking member of the Fleet.
Anyways, remember that fire column I pointed out yesterday? That's where they had just come from. They were fighting the Fire Woman that the dragon had talked about, and the spoils of that fight was a spear that was suspiciously similar to the rapier we got from fighting the Shadow Man back in Corterram. So if there's a Shadow Man with a rapier, and a Fire Woman with a spear, then maybe there's a Rot Person with it's own weapon? And maybe that weapon has Rot powers?
Using Isley's princely status, we were able to get help for Ara at the local Iphandian military fort. While I don't think they can do much, at least someone can look after her if I have to leave with the others, and they'll be able to help us get her to Murcas. I was able to find her bow in the destruction of her room, but not any other possessions. Arzula is much more keen-eyes than I am, and was able to point out a new horn that she carried at her waist, as well as a small wooden tube hidden in her mouth. Inside the tube was a rolled up note, reading Greystone Grimoire, 9H. She mentioned 9H before, so I assume that's where her notes are hidden in Murcas. I asked Isley about it, but he had never heard about it before.
However, he did recognize the horn she carried. He left one looking exactly like it back at his lab in Murcas, and lab that was also investigating a separate incursion of the Rot that started in southern Iphandia. He said it was a Sending Horn, able to cast Sending once per day to anyone. I guess that's how she's been contacting me lately. I wonder if Ara had found her way to his labe point? I don't think she'd be one to steal such an item on a dime, so I assume something must have happened to her while she was there. Perhaps that's when she realized she was being pursued? Hopefully the lab is still in one piece when we get there.
We're going to leave for Murcas tomorrow. The walk up to the surface should take about 14 hours.
PS By the way? This Daro guy? Very suspicious, according to Mr. Lowtide. And I agree. The vibe off of him was just... strange. And he was very insistent about taking the rapier off our hands.