We brought the statues back with us to the Siren's Roost and commandeered one of their banquet suites. The place still stunk of recent revels and the sour wine stench permeated everything, overlaid with the chemical smells that still clung to us from the Colossus.
We used the salves to bring them back to the living. Xolos, a young dwarf, was a gifted poet and spoke eloquently about those who's homes he had patronised. Gondros introduced himself as a famed composer and musician and appeared to have some minor magical talents to help his performances. I'm glad we could free them, though neither had much insight into the Lady's operation or why her Patron had need of their particular talents.
When I'm more awake, I'll devote some time to studying the salve and seeing if I can replicate its effects. With basilisks and medusa in our path and stories of Titans petrified by my father and Lutheria, some protection might be a blessing. We carefully set the two back on the paths to get home.
After that, we slept.
The infiltration and interrogations had gone on until the early hours of morning and to collapse into somewhere warm and comfortable was entirely welcomed.
As I did emerge, some hours past when I normally rose, I saw an agitated Alke rise from our customary table in the common room and hurry towards me, a small sheaf of papers in hand. Dark circles showed she'd had the bare minimum of rest before getting up and she'd been waiting for me ever since. In a calm, quiet voice, she asked if I could help her send an important message.
We went out onto the cliff paths, facing the morning sun eastwards. She asked me to send a bottle of the petrification salve and a note to someone in Aresia.
The air spirits were lively this morning and as I whistled and reached out my magics for a companion, it was a large Amazonian Stimfay that answered my call. They're exceedingly rare now, with the memories of them mostly captured in mechanical simulacrums. Perhaps it bodes well for Alke that the spirits provided us with such a guide.
I carefully attached the package to its broad leg and for a few minutes we simply sat in the morning sun, watching the bird loop to the south and begin the journey, until it was gone from sight. I didn't want to push, but I asked her if she wanted to talk about what we had done.
She spoke softly of her time as a young woman, before she became a medusa. Of unrequited love and how her former love had been turned to stone as a result of the pledge she made to make him hers forever. She has spent the last 20 years seeking a solution and today it has finally become a reality.
It's astonishing really. She's clearly heartbroken, conflicted over the decades of guilt she's burdened herself with. She surrounds herself with barriers to keep people at a distance, yet I've found if you can earn her trust, she is one of the most selfless and good souls that I have encountered. I hope this brings her a measure of peace.
I hugged her close and we returned to the others.