Baba Luga
Vestige
The hours pass quickly by the fire in Kasimir's cozy home. The aged elf if quite pleased that Ina and her friends have brought back the Vistani girl Arabelle. He listens to the story of their adventure at the lake eagerly. "Her father, Luvash, will be in your debt. By Vistani custom, he owes you hospitality. But," his dark eyes narrow, "be careful still. They adore the Count. If they are pressed to choose between loyalty to him and the code of hospitality, Von Zarovich will win every time.""Because the town of Vallaki is small," he says, seemingly going off in a new direction, "the people there live close with their livestock. Goats, chickens, pigs live inside the houses with the people. The children love their animal cousins. They feed the goat, pet it, play with it, give it a name, month after month. Then one day it is that goat's time. Father slaughters it for meat. The child is sad, angry even, but loves his father no less. And there will be another young goat soon. It has a name too. Maybe the child thinks about what will happen, but is prepared and not so distraught as before. By no means does the child try to scare the goat, or let it loose to find its way to the hills. The Vistani are the children, you are the goats. We dusk elves," he adds as an afterthought, "are like the cats and dogs."
What follows is an account that Kasimir swears Ina has heard before, though she can't remember, of how, in a past age, the elves of Barovia would not submit to Strahd's father, King Barov, when he claimed this valley. Thus refused, King Barov set upon a cruel conquest, extinguishing the elves' royal line, banishing many others and forcing the survivors to live among the VIstani.
When Barov passed and his son Strahd, then still just a man, took his place, the elves hoped for better treatment, in error. Strahd became an undead monster and the elves made a last desperate, failed rebellion. Strahd's wrath was great. In punishment he murdered all of the elven women, leaving only the handful of male elves at this encampment alive, to witness, over centuries, the end of their people.
As Kasimir tells these things to Ina, she can see him gauging her response to each piece, deciding what to share next, beginning to go into more detail, but then thinking better of it.
Back up at the big tent, the Vistini man Timbo comes back over to watch Syvis feeding Otrev. "He's an odd one, no? So tame. Do you know their story, these Birds of Berez? The people of Berez were very wicked and murdered an innocent young woman who was dear to our king. The land itself rebuked them. The waters of the Luna River rose up and washed over Berez, leaving only a wasteland. And the pretty birds of Berez lost their voices, as did their children, forever. This was back when my father was a boy."
Having heard this tale from Timbo, Syvis is able to get a little out of him about the so-called Kasht-Gadjikane, though he seems to think them beneath contempt, not worth talking about. According to him, they descend from Barovian townspeople who, generations ago, left to establish a new settlement in the forest. But once there, their fear of King Strahd—Timbo owes that the common Barovians do fear him—turned to obsession and worship, so that the current generation regards him as a god. From what Timbo says, it seems that these "wild folk" do indeed have some sort of magical communion with the plants and animals here, and can work magic not so very different from Syvis'.
More Vistani have returned from searching for Arabelle or other business. Spits of meat are placed on one of the fires, filling the tent with a savory aroma.
At first, the singers and dancers give Moire a mixed reception. When the paladin comes up to them, the lutist suddenly switches tunes, in what, based on the surrounding Vistani's reaction, is some kind of musical in-joke, but the fiddler prompts her back to the previous song with a gentle nudge. Some of the dancers come close to Moire, intent on coaching her in the steps, not content to let her improvise. Most seem amused and pleased at her efforts, though one older man takes the affair quite seriously, lecturing her in his language and pushing others away so that he can clearly demonstrate for her the proper form.
Someone suddenly seizes Moire and whirls her around. It's Luca, with his curly salt-and-pepper hair tied back. He must have just arrived. Moire's various tutors abandon her to his care and he leads her in a few dances before a sudden wave of lethargy washes over her. Hircus feels the same. The bolstering boon granted by Torm earlier today has run its course, leaving its beneficiaries enervated. Somewhere in Vallaki, the young woman Nina must be experiencing the same about now.
When, at Kasimir's suggestion, Ina comes up to the tent to check on her companions, she sees them scattered among the celebrating Vistani: Moire with Luca by the dancers, Syvis with her birdcage and Hircus off by himself, seemingly lost in thought.
