Summary: The Solars confront Jena and discover the issue is more complex than they expected.
XP:I1, L1, V1, Z1
< The Best Sleep Of My Life | Sol Invictus Logs | Without Employing Oranges >
Imrama Jena Roderick returns to her office within the Floating Palace of the Deliberative after a hard day of deliberation, and turns on the light. She finds four solars there, waiting for her.
Imrama 's grin is wide, but utterly unreassuring. "Hello, Jena. We would like to talk to you. Would you please sit down?"
Varanim "Hey," says Varanim with a soulsteel finger-wave.
JenaRoderick steps in, finely clad in a gown of the finest materials, her silver circlet and chain prominently displayed. Her expression turns dark the moment she sees who waits for her, though it is as easily taken for unhappiness at the invasion of her office as for something deeper. "What are you doing in here?"
Imrama "Showing you the courtesy of doing this in private. It is your choice if you wish to shut the door, of course."
JenaRoderick , a wary look on her face, gingerly closes the door behind her and seats herself.
Varanim ::What's your plan here, Imrama?::
Imrama ::Confrontation. Unless anyone else wishes to make a counter-argument?::
Zahara smiles moving from the side to lounge against the closed door
Imrama adopts an open, friendly posture, and pours tea for the Lunar Princess. "We have noticed that you are a traitor to Creation, the gods, and all that lives. This prompted some curiosity in us, and so we wanted to have a little talk."
JenaRoderick "I'm... what?" she says, an incredulous look on her face.
Imrama pours the tea very slowsly, and focuses on it, rather than Jena while speaking. "My friends and I are being fantastically generous to you, madam, by addressing this here and now rather than in the Deliberative chamber. Some small degree of candor on your part would seem to me to be the least that could be expected in return. You work for the First and Foresaken Lion. We know this. Let go...
Imrama ...your incredulous game."
Varanim "Wow. I was just going to ask if they really sent Tyrian off to the pits back in the Thousand, but his sounds much better."
JenaRoderick "I..." She blinks. "I really don't know what you're talking about," she says, "and I'm a little insulted. Who is Tyrian?" She blinks again. "Who are you?"
JenaRoderick Remarkably, Charms do not seem to indicate that Jena is lying.
Zahara ::Hmm she does not think she's lying. Perhaps her mind has been wiped?::
Varanim "I'm Varanim. We last saw each other in the Lion's library, where you told him I had potential. Consequently I went to the Doctor, instead of the dogs." Varanim's tone is calm, and her eyes show only mild curiosity.
Varanim ::Or mine's been tampered with, let's be fair. Although it's less obvious how that would make sense here::
JenaRoderick "I've never seen the Lion, his library, or you before," she says with a slightly haughty tone.
Imrama raises his eyes to meet Jena's, and looks into and past them, past the physical and into the realm of the spiritual. ::Are you hiding from yourself, or is your self hidden from you?:: Imrama thinks of Jena, but only to himself, as he gazes into the shadowy contours of her heart.
JenaRoderick Imrama looks deep, deep into Jena's hidden secrets: that she holds an embarrassingly-gathered secret giving her power over the ruler of another member of the White Flats Alliance; that she killed a lover who betrayed her once, and never admitted to it; that she once sabotaged an important trade deal for her nation, simply to achieve revenge against a long-hated foe...
JenaRoderick ...and that, even beyond the great absence of her life before Exaltation, there are other gaps in her memory....
Imrama show's Jena a look of pained sympathy. "There is a hole in your mind." ::Change of plans. Jena appears to be a victim here, rather than a perpetrator.::
Varanim ::Do tell.::
Imrama ::There are gaps in her memory wider than the space between worlds.::
Imrama "I apologize for confronting you in this way, Lady Roderick, but it is clear now that pieces of your memory are missing."
Zahara ::Perhaps she is not a victim still.::
Imrama ::Possible, but I think it best to postpone judgment.::
Zahara ::They know that we can interrogate people beyond the normal methods. She would not dare infiltrate while having knowledge of her plans. I believe we should search for a trigger.
Varanim bows her head for a moment, eyes distant, then smiles a little and shakes her head ruefully.
Imrama ::That makes sense. How would you go about doing this?::
JenaRoderick looks at Imrama with indignance. "Is this some kind of hazing ritual you are going through and giving to all of the Deliberators?"
Zahara ::With her permission - or not - we could enter her mind, as Lucent has shown me.::
Lucent ::I could do that. Do remember that is not the most pleasant experience for anyone other than the Doctor.:: Lucent breathes out fractured crystals, kaleidoscopic yes opening. ::There. I am sorry, I just had to realign some of my essence. It is hard to get used to those.::
Lucent "No, Jena, this is not a hazing ritual. The First and Forsaken Lion has been using you, or one who looks like you. We know now you have vast stretches of blank pages in your own personal history, which leads me to believe you have been tampered with." He steps foward, the demeanor of an old friend, his mien that of a dream as he places a hand on her shoulder.
Lucent "May we help you?"
JenaRoderick shrugs a little as if to dislodge Lucent's hand. "Your entrance has not greatly endeared you to me today," she says. "I am not really sure about your desire to 'help' me here."
Lucent "You will have to forgive my friends, they get a little on the edge when someone rips their arms off, kills our countrysmen or lures us to perfect ambushes. It is a terrible thing, really, but it cannot be helped."
Lucent The hand never goes anywhere.
Varanim ::First Loss of Innocence, now Jena--who's next for magical transformations that place them beyond recriminations, the Lion himself? I bet he's secretly Bertie, seeking acceptance for his past oopsies.::
Zahara ::Don't forget Spring,:: she adds helpfully
JenaRoderick looks at the gathered Solars. "What are you planning on doing here?"
Varanim "I'm pretty sure Lucent is about to get intolerably sparkly. Apparently it's okay when he erases people's memories, bad when someone else does it."
Lucent "Well, I plan to dive into your being and see the points in which your mind has been tampered with, breaking the seals upon your memories and placing them together with our own Essence if need be. To make you remember it all, to make you whole."
Lucent "Actually, I never erase memories. I convince people to remember it differently."
Lucent "It is something ELSE altogether!" He says, looking quite hurt.
Zahara "I believe," she says delicately, "that that is contrary to the point, which is to regain memories in this case."
Varanim "Fair warning, past data suggests this may drastically increase his urge to sleep with you. You may not consider that a problem, of course."
Lucent "And after all my work to make going inside her NOT sound dirty, thank you!"
JenaRoderick She blanches a little. "I... " She gets a distant look in her eyes. "I don't want to remember," she says. "The way of Luna's chosen is not to look into the things that we've left behind."
Zahara "Ah yes, since it is inevitably involving mass murder."
Zahara "Or perhaps another atrocity?"
Imrama "Jena, I don't expect you to boil over with trust for us. But most of us in this room know something about what it is to be uncertain about the past, and to suffer for it. I know that you know, that you are missing things from after your Second Breath, after Lunar called you fresh to her ranks. If it were me, I would want to know."
Lucent "The way of Luna's chosen is to be self-reliant. To take control of your for and your mind. You are letting outside influences rule you. You are endangering yourself and your people by letting the Lion take you." He offers her his hand. "You are Exalted. There is nothing on your memories you cannot beat. Nothing."
JenaRoderick looks over the group carefully, weighing options, considering plans...
JenaRoderick Finally, after a great deal of thought, she seems to come to a decision of sorts. "You," she says, pointing at Varanim.
Varanim raises her eyebrows.
JenaRoderick "You do it."
Varanim blinks. "Why me?"
Varanim "Anyway, I can't, it has to be him." She looks over at Lucent. "Right?"
JenaRoderick "You said you knew me," she says, a steely look set on her face now, "but I don't remember you at all. So if someone is going to dig into this, well..." She laughs mirthlessly. "Maybe at least I can find something out about you, too."
Lucent "HmmmHmmm. It takes a deep understanding of the flows of body, mind, and soul. It is a powerful medicinal technique, and while I am sure she could learn that if she wanted to given a few months, she was more worried about raising corpses and controlling hordes of the dead." He nods. "So, you are stuck with me... but she can come with me, and spearhead it."
Varanim looks faintly dismayed at the turn the conversation has taken, but after a moment of rubbing her temples, she shrugs. "What the hell, it might be funny."
Lucent "Well, then... Varanim, can you touch her dirty head place, if you please?"
JenaRoderick "You can stay at the front door," she says, "or are you worried she'll get lost?" She seems a bit nervous at this point; the bravado definitely masks a certain previously-sequestered concern about the absent memories.
Lucent "I will need to guide her to the depths of your mind, and my Essence is needed. I can let her go first, but that is the extent of how far I can go, Jena. Varanim's abilities can heal the dead, not the living." He nods. "We can... promise to look the other way?"
Varanim "I'll keep an eye on him," she says to Jena a little grimly as she finally leaves off leaning against the wall and approaches to follow Lucent's directions.
Zahara "You could always use a blindfold."
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