Summary:Lucent and Varanim venture into Jena Roderick's mind in search of answers.
XP:L1, V1
Tags:< A Seed In The Path | Sol Invictus Logs | We Have, Ahem, A Problem >
In a dark chamber, somewhere deep in the Labyrinth's maze of rooms, Jena sits, her eyes closed, hands spread out on the table before her.
Varanim Varanim's expression is an odd mix of curiosity about this whole freakish procedure and discomfort at the prospect of going into another person's head.
Lucent walks up to Jena, placing two fingers on her forehead. And two fingers over her heart. "Varanim, come here, and touch the exact same places I do. It might be more painless than when we went into Thirteen's."
Varanim shrugs to the question of painlessness with her best indifferent face (admittedly, quite good) and approaches to follow his directions.
Jena grunts faintly as they press their fingers into place but does not otherwise react.
Lucent "Now, think about those symbols I showed you, Jena. Picture them in your mind. Open it to them, open it to us..." He allowed it to flow through them, as she did, speaking to her subconscious and being spoken in return. Simple word assossiations, opening the channels to her mind, making intentions plain... the words constructing the space about them. More real than themselves with every utterance... until they are.
Lucent And Lucent and Varanim find themselves within Jena's mind!
There is a moment of darkness, and then they find themselves standing somewhere... other than where they began.
Beneath their feet, a massive plateau of flat red sandstone, stretching out to every side, and beyond it, fields of shifting, blowing sand, kicked by strong winds into numerous storms that push and shift the dunes with a tremendous ferocity.
At the center of the plateau, there's a roughly-hewn stone chair, with Lucent's name carved onto the top of the headboard, and off to one side, a stick with a small bundle tied to one end, wrapped in some manner of indeterminate animal fur.
Varanim goes to the bundle, of course, hefting it and then peeking inside.
Lucent walks to the stone chair. "... why is MY name carved in her mind?!?"
Lucent sits on the chair, to see if anything happens
Varanim "Because the ladies can't resist, you, of course. Either that or you're supposed to sit."
Lucent "I will take the former." He grins, "But, what is the worst that could possibly happen?"
As Lucent sits, the wind seems draw together to one spot, where it blows a sizeable valley into one of the bordering dunes, like a long passageway leading, at its end, to more sandstone -- with a doorway, like a tiny piece of a buried temple, now shown to the world.
Inside the package, meanwhile, Varanim finds a few odd objects: a small chain, a red jade comb, a small glass case holding a pressed butterfly, a rock, a ring in the shape of a tiny silver crown, a fig, and a small black steel coin.
Lucent "Hmmmm. Subtle."
Lucent peers at them curiously
Varanim shoulders the stick after showing the bundle contents to Lucent, then sets off for the door with a whistle.
Lucent goes with Varanim, pushing the doors as they get to them. "You think she buys her bags of mysterious content in the same place Saraya did?"
Varanim "Mm," she grunts noncommittally, obviously thinking about something else. "Could you pull this trick on a Malfean, I wonder?"
Lucent "I might. But then again, the mind of a Malfean may be terribly more dangerous. If not kill us outright. It... would be an interesting experiment, however." He nods. "You think their problem is psychological in nature? It seemed more... physical, when I saw Glimpse's death.?"
As Lucent stands from the seat, the sand along the walls of the valley seems to lose its coherence; the pathway begins to cave in upon itself.
Lucent "... she is smart."
Lucent "Very, very smart."
Lucent "I guess it is too indecent to allow boys in her special place. She needs a spanking."
Varanim "You need to tell me about the whole Glimpse thing in detail, sometime." Her eyes narrow at the collapsing sand, then she smirks at Lucent. "Looks like I'm off to have girl talk. I'll keep in touch and you can tell me what not to step on." She moves down the sand canyon to the door and pushes.
Lucent "Be careful." He walks back and seats upon his throne. "Please."
Varanim "Don't worry," her voice floats to him, "we go way back."
The door slides open easily with a push, and Varanim finds herself inside a chamber, its walls covered in elaborate geometric designs. Though there is no obvious source of light, a pale glow seems to suffuse the entire area.
Varanim walks to the center to stand and consider the designs, taking them in for a few silent seconds before sending her impressions back to Lucent and looking for the path to continue.
As she stares at them, the designs seem to resolve, grow clearer: circles, squares, hexagons... but all of them bearing Lunar phases, inked upon them in grey wash. They range from full to new, but then, there are some others that are different -- whose rock is dyed jet black, utterly invisible even to the the faint light that fills the chamber.
Varanim Always more interested by the obscure than the plain, Varanim crosses to that section of the wall, lifting her hands to run her fingers over the blackened rock.
It's as if something is... missing. The very touch of the symbols beneath her fingers seems off somehow, as if the rock is just barely even there.
Varanim "You asked for it," Varanim shrugs to the empty air, then slams the butt of the stick sharply against the semi-present barrier.
The particular symbol Varanim strikes slides into the wall with an oddly smooth motion, and a moment later cracks are appearing in the wall, forming an irregular pattern from ceiling to floor around a certain set of the symbols.
When it's done, the whole section falls backwards as a single chunk, revealing what lies beyond: a cliff-face, looking out over a broad vista: another desert, this time with seven houses rising up from in it, one of them flying a flag with a crescent moon.
Varanim marks the symbols that formed the focus of the shifting, then steps forward onto the cliff. ::Seven houses in the desert, one with a crescent moon flag. Anything familiar?::
Varanim While waiting for his answer, she looks for a good route down the cliff.
A conveniently placed stairway of rocks appears to be waiting for just such an occasion.
Varanim Shouldering the bundle again, she heads down the stairway and hopes for a lack of sudden landslides.
As she hikes down, she starts to see some activity over between the houses: streams of... ants? Moving back and forth between them.
Varanim Frowning, she moves closer. ::Jena has... bugs in her mind?:: she thinks back to Lucent.
Lucent ::Bugs? Hmmm, spying on her? Changing her thoughts?::
< A Seed In The Path | Sol Invictus Logs | We Have, Ahem, A Problem >