While the pair's adventure to Occultatum had been successful, it had not been without trials, and both found themselves incredibly exhausted by the time they had reached Adeluna.  Though Douken had been kind enough to get the cart to pull Mazerine with, in which she had rested for quite some time, she was still incredibly drained.  They both agreed that getting a place to rest would be best.  They stopped at a shop quickly for Mazerine to acquire some new clothing, and then made their way to the Winking Mermaid, Adeluna's largest tavern and inn.  Mazerine easily secured them a private room on the upper level of the inn, requesting a few things such as a hot meal to be brought up, along with a wash basin and kettle for heating the water in the fire, some wine or ale (she made it clear she did not care which), and some medicinal accoutrements such as wrappings and ointments, and a dish of hot water and a cloth for cleaning the wounds.

When they were safely in the room, Mazerine could have easily collapsed into the large bed and gone to sleep for several hours right then and there.  At first glance, the room was much nicer than that they had shared in Egjora, offering much more space - but of course, it had cost more too.  That was no worry to Mazerine - at this point, she was happy for a safe, warm, and dry place to recuperate from their journey.  

The fire in the room had already been stoked and water was already heating in the large kettle, which looked rather inviting to Mazerine - though she hadn't the patience to wait for multiple kettles full of water to heat up.  Instead, she decided it couldn't hurt to cast just a bit more magic and walked towards the basin full of water, muttering a small phrase under her breath.  The water bubbled for a moment before steam began to rise from it.  Dipping her hand in, she could sense that it was the proper temperature.  "Make sure I don't fall asleep in the water," she said to Douken with a bit of a laugh and moved to stand behind the privacy screen near the basin.  As she undressed, she tossed her dirtied and tattered clothing to the side, the firelight making only her silhouette visible on the outside of the screen.  After a moment, she slipped into the water, the steam obscuring much of her body from view.  She let out a sigh of contentment as the warmth spread over her body, sinking low enough for her hair to be dampened by the water.

After a moment of relaxation, she busied herself with washing.  "Go in the front pouch of my satchel," she called over to Douken.  "My silver's in there… take what you want.  I put you through a lot more than I let on," she said, and her disappointment with herself was fairly audible in her voice.  She said nothing after that, finishing up and slipping out of the tub back behind the privacy screen, wrapping herself in a fluffy robe that had been left near the basin. 

She felt refreshed enough after the bath where she did not feel the immediate need to sleep, instead walking toward the table and messed with wrapping a bandage around the wound on her hand.  When it came time to dress the wound on her stomach, it was rather awkward for her as she attempted to do so without exposing herself to Douken, until she gave up altogether and just sat down at the table.  A decanter of dark wine had been left, and poured herself a bit, taking a sip.  "I know I said it once already, but thank you," she said, looking at Douken with an apologetic look on her face. "And I'm sorry that I wasn't more truthful with you… but hey, we got it, didn't we?" she said, looking towards her bag where the box they had obtained still sat.

It had been a long travel for the pair to return back to Adeluna, feeling longer with pulling the cart of supplies and the practically exhausted Mazerine from her death-and-revival incident. Still, getting back into the massive city, they had some tasks to take care of before the could even think about taking a place to sleep in. After all, who would even want to walk around on blood-soaked clothes without being looked at suspiciously, even if it was your own blood. Hell, maybe the fact it was her own could be worse considering where everything was.

Luckily, the shops they hit were willing to not ask questions and give them what they asked for without much question (considering many adventurers and thrill-seekers sought these lands), making quick work to find themselves at the Winking Mermaid. While he could do with leaving the cart itself near the front, he still felt like it was important to bring in the supplies inside with them, getting everything packed up as Mazerine took care of getting a room set up for the pair. When he returned, she willingly led them up their room, set up with a large queen-sized bed and a bath basin separated by a paper screen

Mazerine was quick to take to the bath first, making a silhouette on the paper to leave an impression what she was doing. Nothing too hard to really imagine, though, considering he had already seen her fully nude. As for Douken, while he did not strip down for a bath (as there was only one basin with enough room for one person), he did, at the very least, remove his coat and under shirt, letting his chest breathe and wipe away the sweat from the long hike.

"Got it," he told her as she told him where she placed her silver, taking what he considered a decent portion with a bonus for giving him such a scare. Setting his pay into his collection of coin, he pulled out a pretty thick book, a quill, and an ink bottle before taking it all over to a nearby desk and chair before opening it and looking over the written contents. A book that catalogued the runes he crafted during their trip, plus more, along with his breakdowns on how the rune parts translates into effects. Quietly, he took the moment to look everything over, but it quickly became hard to really focus on it. After all, as he sat there, able to catch his breath, he could feel his eyelids droop. He could hear her words as she spoke, but the were quick to muddle together before the world around him faded black, the quill lightly falling to the floor.

Mazerine's gaze drifted from the box back to Douken as she realized he hadn't responded to what she was saying to him, and she saw that he had fallen asleep at the table, the quill he had been writing with having fallen to the ground.  She could not but briefly smile as she watched his bare chest rise and fall with each breath he took, and she understood why he had dozed off - he must have been exhausted, after all, he had pulled the cart with her in it all the way to town.  She wasn't a large person by any means, but it was enough weight coupled with their belongings where it would have added more strain to an already strenuous activity.

She got up, still wrapped in her robe, and picked the quill up, laying it on the table.  She glanced at the pages he had been writing in, much of the information not making sense to her, but she did not close it as she did not want to smear the ink if it had not yet dried.  Just then, a soft knock sounded at the door, to which she padded over and answered, getting a tray of hot food from the barmaid that brought it up to them.  She thanked her, and set the tray on the table, frowning because she knew she was going to have to wake Douken in order for him to eat.  

Before waking him, she fixed each of them a plate - it was a sort of roast, with some small potatoes and a bit of gravy to go with it.  Unsure of how much Douken would eat, she fixed him a decent sized plate, setting it in front of him and pouring a bit of wine into a cup for him.  After she had fixed her own plate as well, she leaned across to Douken and placed her hand on his shoulder, gently shaking his shoulder and softly speaking to him.  "Hey, the food has arrived… you should wake up and eat," she said softly, and once his eyes had opened she pushed the plate of food as well as the cup of wine towards him.

"No time for sleeping yet," she said, giving him a grin.  "We've got some celebrating to do after we finish eating," she added with a bit of a laugh.

Slowly, the world around him muddled more into nothingness as he fell deeper in his sleep, as if he was going to quickly fall over from his seat. However, a gentle shake was given to him, which in his sense was a massive jolt, which snapped the tired human back to reality. Light flooded his eyes as the elf in front of him was more like a wall of blur as he fought to get his vision back while his nose was flooded with a new smell nearly. Her words were muddy, yet clear enough to understand.

"SooOOOORry 'bout that…" he managed to push through as a yawn escaped him as he spoke. "I didn't expect pushing such a trek would be draining." He was lucky that the lower plain they left had placed them closer than where they entered… Then again, looking back, a good potion of their hike to the ruins was more of a climb, so it was actually quicker when they found themselves more ground level with where they needed to be, making the travel back much shorter. Still, he let Mazerine rest during the trip back to recuperate until now, so it was near time for him to do the same.

However, she was one who wanted to make sure they celebrated their prize while it was still fresh in their mind: the good and the bad. With a light smile, Douken told you, "You're right. Besides, what good would sleep be if my stomach would not stop complaining?" Closing the tome in his lap, he placed it on the table before picking up his fork and pushing it into the bit of roast, slowly cooked so that the meat shredded apart without the need of a knife. The fork along was able to pull apart a good chunk before getting locked into placed by a baby red potato before being taken all in one bite, the taste of a rub filling his mouth with the juicy meat and gravy.

"So, what do you have in mind in terms of celebrating?" he asked her once he cleared his mouth of food.

Mazerine laughed quietly as Douken yawned through his words, and joined him in eating as he started to do so.  She was still feeling a bit off and had fixed a much smaller portion for herself than she had plated for Douken, mostly pushing the food around on her plate with her fork.  Taking small bites, she chewed her foot rather deliberately when he asked her if she had any ideas on how to celebrate their success, and she shrugged, swallowing before answering.  "Good question," she asked, clearly not having thought her suggestion through.   "Tonight it's probably best to stay low, and get a decent amount of rest," she said.  "You're clearly tired, and I could use a good night of sleep myself," she added, pausing as she grabbed her cup and took a drink of wine.  "Maybe we can spend some time in the town tomorrow, I haven't been in Adeluna without something pressing to attend to in a very long time," she added with a bit of a grin, before spending a few minutes eating. 

It did not take her long to finish her food.  Drinking the last of the wine from her cup, she then filled it with water from the pitcher that sat on the tray along with the still half-full decanter of wine.  Taking a long drink of the water, she set her cup back on the table.  "I mean, we could be boring and spend time studying the contents of that box before we sleep - but what kind of celebration would that be?" she said.  "It's not going to lose any purpose if I wait a few days to start looking at it," she said.  Falling silent for a moment, she flexed her injured hand, the wrappings of bandaging feeling a bit stiff, and bending her hand seemed to loosen them up.  "What do you say you teach me a little more about poker before we sleep?" she asked.  "It was fun, but I still don't think I completely know what's going on with it - but I'd like to," she added.

While Douken was offered the bigger platter of food, he was only able to eat three-fourths of its contents, partially because of the tired feeling that wanted to was him over. Still, it seemed the two were ready to make plans for the next day. After for this night, he could agree with her on keeping things simple. No study of runes, but of cards again, as she seemed eager to learn more about how to play poker. "Of course you don't know much about it, Miss My Q is higher than your K," he snickered, both knowing she did not know much of the fundamentals before cleaning off the table, leaving the tray near the door for the maid to pick up later before pulling out the deck once again.

However, before starting play, he made sure to show her the ranks of each card, mainly when it came to the face cards before showing off what hands could be gotten, starting with as low of a Pair to as high as a Royal Flush, before reverting back to its lowest, the High Card. "So pretty much, the success of your hand is determined by how hard of a hand it is to get. three of the same number is harder than two pairs because the deck only supports four  of that card. If a tie comes up, then the high card value is what breaks the tie. I don't really remember how to break a tie between two royal flushes, but the odds of that happening are extremely slim." Hoping she understood that much, he shuffled the deck and dealt out hands, not really betting or worrying about the mind games. Still new, she kept her plays a bit more reserved, playing safer with pairs and three of a kinds, which was much better than throwing it away for a King.

Once their fatigue was at its limit, the two decided to call it a night. However, neither of them really bothered to change into anything else, as it seemed the moment the pair hit the soft bed, the two were out like a light, leaving the maid who retrieved their food to darken the room for them.

Douken was woken up by the stir of the morning folk outside… and then some. Letting a yawn out, Douken pulled himself to the window, seeing the people very active with getting things set up. SO many tents and flags that more the royal emblem and colors suddenly flooded the streets. Events were being set up with games and colorful characters, all in a mere moment. When his elven companion woke up and the two got dressed  more casually than their dungeon run (so it can be cleaned and sewed properly if it could be salvaged), the two headed downstairs to get themselves some breakfast. As they were being waited on, he could not help but as, "So I saw some sudden commotion going on outside. Did we miss a holiday or something?"

"Oh, no!" their waitress said, "It was during the night that our queen gave birth to a baby boy… a new prince to the kingdom! The king got all excited and suddenly declared to get some festivities set up for the people to celebrate with him!"

Throughout Douken's further instruction on the finer points of poker such as card values and hands, there were a few times in which Mazerine let out a small exclamation and playfully hit him in the arm as he poked fun at her.  For all her faults, she did much better this time around.  She only managed to win two hands out of all they played, but it was more than she had managed to do the last time they had spent time playing the game.  When they called it quits and she laid down on the bed, she was asleep almost instantly.

She woke up for the same reason as Douken - the noise outside was a bit out of character, or at least she thought it was.  She sleepily climbed out of bed to join him at the window, drawing the robe she wore tightly around herself as she shivered in the cool air of the room.  "I wonder what all that is," she said before she busied herself with getting dressed.  When they had made it down into the tavern and were being served, she listened as the waitress offered an explanation to Douken about what was taking place outside.  It sounded like a rather momentous occasion. 

After the waitress had walked away.  "You know, I think I know what we can do today," she said to Douken with a grin.  When he agreed, the pair finished their breakfast, with Mazerine running back up to their room only briefly to grab a bit more silver for her pouch, not knowing what she would need for the festivities that were taking place. 

When they left the tavern, there were tents set up in every direction - it was hard for her to choose which way they would head.  "I… which way do you think we should go?" she asked him.  She scanned the area, her eyes falling on a beautiful green tent emblazoned with silver cording.  "Oh, that one is beautiful, let's go see what's in that o-" Mazerine was cut off as an older woman approached the pair.  

"Oh dear, my girl, you can't celebrate the birth of our prince looking like that!" she exclaimed, her eyes scanning Mazerine's outfit.  She hadn't any fancy clothing with her in the first place and was dressed much in the same manner as she normally would have been, minus her belt that carried her dagger. 

"I don't, I"m fine, really," Mazerine, protested - but it was to no avail.  The woman made a tutting sound at her and shoved a mug of something she had been carrying at Douken, instructing him to wait for his 'elf girl' there, and she dragged Mazerine off into a small purple tent right near where they had been standing.  Mazerine gave Doukena a pleading glance as she was dragged into the tent by this woman, not out of fear but out of sheer confusion.  

Not ten minutes later, the woman shoved Mazerine back out of the tent.  She was clothed in a rather fine white gown crafted from silk, with an emerald dyed leather corset around the top.  Her long hair had been piled in several braids on top of her head.  The woman yelled something to her about being dressed for the occasion with a drunken laugh.  Mazerine walked up to Douken, her face a bit red.  "She told me that a celebration like this was nowhere for a woman to wear pants," she said quietly, fidgeting with the rather elaborate (for her, anyway) skirt.  

Finally looking up at him, she shrugged her shoulders.  It was clear she was a bit uncomfortable in the ensemble. "Maybe we can go look in that tent now?" she asked, giving him a brief smile and gesturing towards the green tent again.

Douken could not help but blink when the drunk tiefling came up, trading her drink away for Mazerine as she went to fix her up in more "appropriate garments." While she stared at him for help, he could not really do much but wave as she was pulled into a female dressing tent… and man, was he not going to bother getting a reputation for being a peeper. However, while he did wait for her, he could not help but take a sniff of the ale she was drinking beforehand. "Of course it's Dwarven Ale…" he sighed, placing the mug near the entrance as he waited for Mazerine to return in her "more appropriate outfit."

However, instead of presenting her properly, she was more shoved out, Douken's arms sticking out instinctively to catch her shoulders, which was not needed as the dress's cut showed more of her lower leg at the front while hiding them in the back. The blush was clear embarrassment as she fidgeted. "Well, at least you look good in it," he complimented. "I mean, could always be worse." Still, from how she was, she wanted a decent distraction, and the tent from earlier seemed like a good option.

However, things did not seem as set up as the person running the tent came up, clearly sweating while in his arm was a box full of carved crystals. "O-Oh hi, and welcome. I am sorry if things looks messy… I mean, itsnotlikeIwasnotreadyfortheking'scalltoactionforcelebration,makingusworkextraquicklytomakesureweareradyforthenight'sfestivities… Oh, sorry! When I lose my nerves, I start muttering like that… But, uh, if you want anything, feel free to holler…" Setting the box down, he wiped his brow before working to set up his stand even more, from crafted gems for magic mediums to well-crafted quartz crystal carvings.

"Maybe the main street is not the best place to look," Douken offered. "How about we see the bazaar until evening?"

"Oh, thank you," she said as Douken complimented her appearance.  "And you're right, it could be much worse - you should see the garments I had to wear back in Endopano, and when I was still at the Embassy here," she said, chuckling.  "You would see this dress, as beautiful as it is, as a pile of rags," she said, thinking back to the intricate clothing that the nobles wore.  

Mazerine's eyebrows raised as the pair entered the tent, being spoken to in a rather fast manner by the man carrying crystals.  She was rather unsure of what to say but was rather grateful when Douken suggested they leave and check out the bazaar until it was a bit later in the evening when perhaps more of the festivities would be taking place.  "I think that's a wonderful idea," she said and offered an apologetic bow of the head to the man before the pair ducked back out of the tent, and headed towards the bazaar.

It didn't take them long to reach the bazaar, and it was clear that special shops and small tents of goods had been set up for the festivities.  Jewelers and artisans of all sorts had their wares set up, along with specialty wines and ales and spirits, foods, and other things.  Several tents such as the one she had been pulled into were set up as well, with garments for men and women alike.  Mazerine glanced at Douken, about to ask him what he thought they should do next, when an idea struck her head.  

"Come here," she said, and rather suddenly grabbed Douken's hand, pulling him off to the side of the main walkway in the bazaar.  They stood near a dark red tent, from which a few very well dressed noblemen had just walked out.  Another man dressed rather well stood outside of the tent.  Mazerine fished her pouch of coins out (which had been precariously stored in the bodice of her dress), and the pair approached the nobleman.

"Excuse me, sir?" she addressed the man, her voice sounding much more proper and high-society like than it usually did.  "I've a bit of a problem and I do hope you can help to remedy it," she said.  "You see, this fine gentleman here has offered to escort me about town for the day's festivities and celebrations… and as you can see I've dressed myself in my finest yet he has not," she said, gesturing behind her.  "Perhaps you could be of some assistance?" she asked, offering the man a hefty handful of silver.  She looked over her shoulder at Douken with a sly grin.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course, fair lady!"  the man said, pocketing the silver.  He rushed forward and took Douken by the arm, beginning to usher him into the tent where he would dress him in fine attire.  

Mazerine snickered at him.  "If I have to, you have to!" she called as he was pulled into the tent.  She assumed it would not take long, so she wandered a nearby artisan stall, purchasing a rather beautiful necklace with a small green crystal encased in a silver globe, and put it on.  She wandered back over and waited outside of the tent for Douken to emerge.

When she went to pull him along for something, he followed suit, keeping quiet before the pair reached another outfit stand before watching her character completely change before him as she convinced the man running the shop into getting him an outfit more suited for the moment, just like how she was pulled into one herself. "Forgive me, my lady," he replied, though more sarcastically than as a noble (to him, they both can sound the same at times), "but I am a lone adventurer. Tis not been my place in life for such fancy suits." Still, the silver spoke louder than words as the man accepted the proposition and guided him in, leaving Douken to deal with the men inside.

"Now let us see… What to do with you…" the man muttered to himself as he worked on measuring Douken's body, not being shy on forcing him still. "Do we make you more regal… No, no. As much as the fair lady wishes you to look your best, we still need you to be looking good, and I dare say I do not think the regal look would ever be your style."

"If I may bother…" Douken told him, causing him to get a stern look up. "Dress me as you wish. All I ask is that I am allowed to keep this necklace with it."

There was a pause as the man looked it over before turning his head towards the back, calling out, "Give me top 32 with an inch off the sleeves. Pair up with slacks 20, half inch cut! And no NOT cut corners on this one!"

It was a moment later til Douken return in his new garb, having one of the staff deliver the clothes he on before to the Winking Mermaid for one of the maids to add to the laundry list. "Green eyes, green corset… and now a green pendant… You really do love that color," Douken told her. He was wearing a deep blue coat over a grey vest, cuffed pinned with brass keyhole-shaped cufflinks and the top button to the vest replaced with a keyhole-shaped button as well. His slacks matched the jacket well as it was kept together with a smooth, black leather belt with a silver buckle.

"Does it please you?" he smirked, "Because these slick shoes feel very tight on my feet…"