Summary:The Solars confront Lilith, and with effort extract some information regarding her conflict with Herons.
XP:C4, I4, L4, Z4
Tags:< A Congruence of Hearts | Sol Invictus Logs | Anything to Piss Him Off >
Cerin walks through the door. "It's this wall here," he says, allowing them to study it whilst he looks beyound and about, for how the space is connected to Creation here. As he does, he flicks his vision through the city, as bugs and birds enter the six hundred yard sphere of his real vision, examining them with his Savant's Eyes.
Cerin's observations of the creatures suggest nothing more than mundane fauna. His examination of the location reveals slightly more interesting information: there appears to be an area of bent space which was prepared independently as a standalone "object" and then physically moved to this location. It seems to be self-supporting and draw on no exterior power source.
zahara approaches the wall, brushing her fingers across it lightly. "It does not look particularly interesting."
Lucent "It sounds weird."
Imrama "Its a long way to go for a wall."
Kraken "Now that is interesting," Cerin says quietly. He pulls out his orichalcum dagger, plunging it into the wall like it's made of rice paper and then slicing up and around. "Unsubtle," he admits reluctantly as he does. "But it is quick."
The wall peels away like a ripe orange's rind under Cerin's careful hand, and it reveals what lies past it: a faintly shimmering, visually impenetrable energy surface, the local manifestation of the warped space which Cerin detected from the air.
Lucent "Huh."
Zahara "Ahhh now THAT's much more interesting than the wall."
Cerin "I thought so, too."
Imrama "Can we...move it?"
Zahara "I'm more interested in what's IN it right now. Or Who."
Cerin "I'm almost certain it was not made here, so it can be moved." Cerin says as he reaches out and touches it. He wants to see what it feels like. And if it moves.
It feels oddly gauzy and yet metallic at the same time; he feels it providing a soft resistance, as if Cerin's not quite allowed to enter.
Imrama smiles at the idea that there could be a someone inside the distortion. Awakening ancient beings from their timeless prisons has worked out rather well for him lately.
Cerin Well, that's easy enough to solve
Lucent "What does it feel like?" Lucent asks, reaching out to it as well, all taken with the pretty shining thing.
Cerin activates the Lock-Opening Touch.
Cerin feels the space-bend give way gently under his hand, and knows he can now reach, or even step, inside without opposition.
Zahara pokes at it herself curiously
Cerin sticks his head inside.
The space inside is bright and sparkles gently in a variety of colors, forming as it does the border of a space that is about 500 feet across in each direction and stretches up at least 50 overhead.
Lucent "You sure that is advisable? Why not use a stick?"
Inside, Cerin sees first the appointment of what appears to be a pleasantly furnished apartment: a four-seat table and a sidebar with several magical cooking implements, a single bed, two high-quality reading chairs and a small selection of (currently empty) bookshelves.
Elsewhere, there are small wardrobes, a small selection of finely-crafted (yet clearly never used) weapons of war, and a large fishbowl dedicated to a single fancy kitefish.
There also seems to be a small filing cabinet in which a variety of papers and small loose objects are stored.
Cerin reads all the papers at once.
Zahara ,seeing that Cerin has not died yet, ducks beneath him and sticks her head in too
They appear to be, by and large, abandoned drafts of an epic romance set during the final days of the Old Realm. More interesting, perhaps, are the objects in the filing cabinet, most of which appear to be bangles and other assorted doodads made of the Magical Materials, including a gold choker with a clasp shaped like a stylized owl.
Cerin ducks his head back out. "It seems to be an appartment," he announces.
It is at this point that Cerin realizes they are perhaps 10 seconds away from a startling event.
Zahara ventures further inside, to get a better look at the doodads.
Cerin "I believe Lilith might be arriving soon, too," he adds.
Lucent "Never let it be said the owl-woman is not timely."
Cerin steps inside, revealing the doodads to Zahara. And commiting every detail of them to memory. He also hides the Pendant in his cache egg.
Zahara hmphs and gathers up the rest of them, after rifling vaguely through the documents, stashing them in her loot sack. "I suspect stealing her doodads will not make her any more intent on slaughtering us than normal, eh?" She grins.
Cerin "I don't believe we've met"
Something huge that moves dramatically more quickly than anything one might normally see in the Creation of today streaks by with an earsplitting shriek, neatly lopping off the top ten feet or so of the house and sending the flinders that once made it up it flying outwards (with tiny pieces of debris nonetheless descending lightly upon where the Solars stand.)
Imrama gazes upwards.
Cerin's sight informs him that the greyish-silver blur he sees move past is a rare example of a jaergeomalix, unknown in Creation for approximately 2594 years, while Imrama's merely confirms the name that the group would already have attributed to it: Lilith.
Zahara "Well, no, but it's the principle of the thing. After what she's done, do you expect to be greeted with open... " She tries to get a better look at the thing that just flew past
Cerin "You don't see one of those every day, either," he remarks.
Zahara "What IS it?"
Lucent "Impressive!"
Lucent raises a hand. "Hello!"
Cerin "A Jaergeomalix, I think. I read about it in an old, old, hunting journal. So I went and looked it up."
Imrama "Rather, it is Lilith, in the form of a Jaergeomalix. We just had the roof torn off from over our heads by the Queen of the Wyld Frontier. That makes this a pretty awesome day all on its own."
Zahara "Ahh... perhaps you can dedicate today to Grala then."
As the beast swoops around for another pass, those with less... swift vision can get a better look at it: a bird with perhaps a seventy-foot wingspan on its primary wings (forty on its two pairs of stabilizing secondary wings), a beak that looks like it could crush small mountains, shining silver talons (matched by vestigial claws on each wing) and pitch-black eyes.
Lucent "I had never heard of something like that. SO cool... the stories are all true!"
Zahara "Have you heard of the art of taxidermy? ..." She stares at the creature, beautiful and terrible.
Lilith In a moment, the Huntress' form is blurred again as she rockets down towards the house again, this time set on a slightly... lower angle.
Imrama stands next to Cerin. "An auspicious meeting is about to take place, my friend. Between the greatest hunter of the Third Age and the greatest huntress of the First. I wonder if she'll wear her famous hat, the one she made herself from the invulnerable skin of the Ringtailed Procyon of Lotor."
Lucent flares his anima, waves his arms! "Hello! Lilith! Queen of the Wyld Frontier! We are here to talk to you!"
Zahara discreetly steps away from Lucent
Lilith proceeds down at an immense rate, the very air almost tearing and breaking at the speed of her descent, until, just moments before she collides with the group, she... stops, and steps lightly down from midair to alight on the ground in a human form, as if doing so were no great feat whatsoever.
Lilith The woman who stands before them is lithe, not quite on the level of "very tall" but almost. The moon's kiss that fills her soul is quite outwardly visible, in the silver sheen across her eyes and the owlfeathers that tuft her neckline, ankles and wrists, but she dresses in a supremely non-ostentatious fashion:
Lilith close-fitted pants of kafike wool, optimized for mobility; a sleeveless tunic of agykel leather; a sharp silver knife tucked, sans sheath, into a simple cord belt, and no shoes.
Lucent bows. "It is an honor, Queen of the Wyld Frontier! I heard soooo many stories! I am Lucent Copper Haze, and I am sure you have heard of my friends!"
Lucent "Er, Circle. My Circle! Our Circle."
Lilith looks over the group with a skeptical eye. Her short-cropped and spiky brown hair and tendency to curl the right corner of her sharply-defined mouth at the slightest provocation add to the appearance of, at best, bemused disinterest. "Nope."
Lucent "Oh. Um. That is new."
Imrama steps in to the dialogue. "Ah, then allow me to make the introductions. To my left is Lucent Copper Haze, Patriarch of the Kashaen, Lord of All Eden and survivor of the First Age. Behind me and to the right is Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Zahara Zhan, the Dreambreaker, Ruler of the Sunlands.
Lucent "We never met before," He pouts, bashfully, "You never attended the parties."
Cerin ::Now that's a trick:: Cerin remarks as he studies Lilith's essence. ::That's a nice trick or two::
Imrama " Somewhere about are, probably, Long-Awaited Spring, the foremost tactician in all the worlds and physician to the Unconquered Sun, Phoenix of Ashes, who requires and suffers no titles, and Varanim the Last, the only Solar Exalt in all of recorded history to master the Void Circle of Necromancy."
Spring "I am in this wardrobe."
Spring sticks his hand out and waves.
Lucent turns around with that You-Are-Embarassing-Me-In-Front-Of-The-Grownups-Expression "... why."
Imrama "And either immediately behind me and to my left, or else in a place where no eye may see him, is Cerin the Wolf, Grand Arbiter of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy and the greatest hunter of the Third Age." Imrama nods curtly to indicate he is finished with the list. "My friends, this is Lilith, the Sister to Dragons and the Companion to Owls."
Spring "Hello."
Spring "I was looking for other extraplanar spaces. They keep them in the strangest places."
Lilith "Hi," she says, waving briefly with one hand in the direction of the wardrobe without turning to look at it. "Give me my choker."
Lilith * "Give me the choker."
Zahara offers her a pretty silver necklace
Lilith "The right one," she says, her eyes flicking to Zahara's bag that she can totally see the inside of.
Lucent "You forgot Imrama Stormfound, Heir to Valineth of Windgears, Greatest Admiral of the Third Age, Whom The World Is A Weapon, Explorer of Places Beyond and Reveler of Wyld, Smoke and Visions. A romantic hero the likes of which the world had not seen before, and might never again. Also humble."
Zahara "Does it have sentimental value to you?
Spring "I was wondering if we could ask you a few questions."
Lilith considers for a split second, and ultimately "vaguely rude but not murderous" wins out over "kill them all and take what I want," so she looks at Spring. "Fine, but you first: why?"
Spring "Would you believe the very fate of Creation may be at stake?"
Imrama smiles and inclines his head to Lucent gratefully.
Lilith "I've heard that one before. You," she says, pointing at Cerin. "How'd you know I would be here?"
Imrama leans in between Cerin and Lilith again and smiles. "Greatest. Hunter. Of. The. Age."
Lilith 's eyes narrow. "You, in the closet," she says, kicking the base of Spring's wardrobe. "Ask."
Spring walks out of the wardrobe, eating...something.
Spring "What did you do in the Chrysanthemum, and why, and what did you find?"
Lilith "I re-trashed it. Because someone who worked there deserved it. Just junk."
Cerin "Oh, you've met Herons too?"
Lilith "To my own disservice, yes."
Spring "Ours, too."
Spring "Why do you dislike Herons? Specifically. We already know about his personality problems."
Lilith That's basically the first thing Lilith has heard in this encounter that she's actually liked, and her senses are finely tuned enough that she's already entirely discounted the possibility that Spring might be lying. She seems to relax an infintesimal amount.
Lilith "He sold me down the river."
Spring "More specifically. How, and to whom?"
Lilith "The Dragonling gestapo. He arranged an 'escape' for us. Told me it was 'just business.'" She laughs bitterly.
Cerin "Ah."
Zahara "We did not fare particularly well during that period either, I sympathize."
Lucent "Sounds like Herons alright. He sent us on a wild goose chase, and has information we would much like to see... did you happen to capture any lore of the Forbidding Manse of Ivy while you raided the Golden Chrysanthemum, Lilith? We did so while on the lookout for information. And nothing would make him feel worse than using his knowledge for goals not his own."
Lilith "There was nothing left," she says, and spits. "Those " -- there follows here a shocking ancient vulgarity more common in an era where a larger portion of those considered "people" potentially had a larger or differently-arranged number of orifices -- " wrecked everything when they raided the place."
Lucent "Oh. We had figured that the bulk of the thrashing had been your doing, and the killing had been theirs'. My apologies."
Adrienne Varanim, who was possibly asleep and definitely reeking of cheap wine at the time the group left the ship, ambles in just in time to catch Lilith's turn of phrase. "That's not anatomically poss... wait, never mind, not true. I forgot that latest article in the necrosurgery quarterly."
Zahara raises a brow at Varanim. "Really?"
Cerin "That was not what my reading of the situation suggested. And I should know. I followed your footsteps until you lept off the edge."
Varanim nods authoritatively to Zahara, miming a rough outline with both hands and her cigar.
Lilith narrows her eyes again, and considers something for another near-instantaneous moment before responding.
Zahara sketches that out mentally, and strokes her chin thoughtfully. "You must show me this quarterly of yours."
Lilith "Fine," she says. "I'm not going to bother keeping this one any longer," she says. She looks acquisitively at the sack again. "You give what's in that sack, and you pass along everything you find out as a result of what I'm going to tell you -- and if you don't I '''will* know." She waits, arms crossed, for assent to her terms and conditions.
Zahara checks to make sure there's nothing left from her previous hauls in the loot sack. "I'd like to take a look at them first, if you don't mind. I'm always curious about artifacts."
Lilith sighs irritatedly. "Do it now, then."
Zahara gives her a mock salute, and creates a nice table and chair to study on. "Do go on, I'm listening."
Lilith ''me glances over at Imrama. "Do your thing, first." She brings up a hand and gestures with two fingers, as if suggesting he come forward.
Imrama proceeds forward amiably, and bows. "Yes, ancient and terrible lady of the hinterlands?"
Lilith She holds out a fingers. "No talking 'til I get the flash."
Lilith -s
Lucent "You know, you could just join the new Exalted Deliberative. We are not as... Solar-Centric, now. And we do share our goals and information."
Imrama nods in sage understanding. He holds up his left palm to Lilith and his right towads Zahara. There is a brilliant pulse of light from the sky, to him, and then between them. "It is sealed."
Lilith nods. "Alright," she says. "I found a pretty good indication of where Herons was going to be headed."
Cerin "Oh?"
Lilith "Yes," she says, "out." She points in a randomly-chosen direction. "Way out." She pauses a moment.
Zahara "That's not very specific, is it?" She sets aside one of the thingamabobs
Lilith "Maybe three months before the attack he was meeting with the Bei Ji Xing. Which I wouldn't even have thought he knew about, much less could get in good with."
Cerin "Bei Ji Xing?"
Lucent "You have to remember we are not as well-traveled as you, Huntress."
Lilith sighs in recollection. "The North Stars. The Compass Points. The Lunar trailblazers." She looks over the Solars briefly. "He was making plans to travel beyond the bounds of the world."
Lucent "So instead of having only all the known Planes to search in, our search must widen to everything BEYOND them?"
Cerin "Ah. He seeks to find Osa?" ::Silver messengers come from afar, bringing wondrous treasures and grand news.::
Varanim ::Is this the one where "treasures" means "syphilis?"::
Lilith "That'd have to be it," she says. "He's not in Creation or anywhere near it now."
Zahara "Hmm. I've thought about going to Osa. Now that I know Herons may be there, I suspect if we don't go and stop him, something yet worse will happen."
Cerin ::Unlikely. Unless my interpretation of the symbology was 'hilariously' incorrect::
Lilith looks at Zahara. "Good. Now give me the choker."
Zahara The choker being the first thing she'd inspected, Zahara hands it over delicately, though she did consider tossing it in Lilith's general direction instead.
Lilith takes it, and it's only with finely-honed Solar senses that any present can perceive the momentary flash of emotion that crosses her face, unbidden. She pockets it without a word, and then after a moment looks up at Imrama. "I'm leaving now," she says. "I know you can find me. Don't forget the promise," she says, and transforms into a beautiful snow-white owl.
Imrama gives a formal salute to the owl.
Lucent "Goodbye!" Lucent waves to her, his cheerfulness dampened by an almost-pout. ::THANKS FOR BEING SINGULARLY UNHELPFUL!::
Cerin "I can. I am, after all, the greatest hunter of this age," he says with a smile. ''That, and I'm cheating/
< A Congruence of Hearts | Sol Invictus Logs | Anything to Piss Him Off >