ꙮ The Temple at the heart of the City. There is a hallway, on the far side of the Temple, an arched gallery - not The Gallery, but still, a place of remembrance and recognition, not often visited. It’s a fair ways out of the way from the paths most humans and Kin might take through the Temple doing their Work. Yazhn Ravhi visits it often. One wall of the gallery is a tight latticework that lets in piercing spears of sunlight, with half-circles open to the sky, casting their sharp anti-shadows on the base of the far wall. The desert wind blows in. It is not a comfortable room.
No song playing
Up next: 0 songs
Scene Archives
← Active ScenesBetter Angels Of Our Nature
#yazhn ravhi
#jorule
is there, now; he kneels before an ancient acephalous marble statue. Dug up out of the sand, once, early on. Too beautiful to abandon.
has taken the form of a bird - more specifically, he has seen fit on this day to take Salme’s original offer made all those planes ago, and has borrowed Jory’s body for a bit of a flight. He lands on the frame of the window, looking down at Ravhi for a bit, before craning his neck around to make sure no one else is around.
ꙮ No one else is around.
: “Yazhn Ravhi.”
tilts his head to the side. He is not startled, this time, to hear that rich and sacred tone with his own ears; he knows he heard it with his ears, but he does not - yet - look up to find its source. His breath does hitch, briefly, as his prayer is- halted, certainly. We’ll see about answered. Softly: “I am he.”
: “I take it you have some time to spare?”
snorts, very softly, out of his nose, suddenly. He shifts positions, slightly - a less formal meditative stance. “This time is my own, yes.”
: “I’d like to speak with you on the topic of Angels.”
tilts his head to the other side, and then he does look up, and squint into the light, towards the source of the sound. Briefly considers that his interlocutor is invisible, or somehow in the light itself, with equanimity, before his eyes find the silhouette of a raven. He doesn’t say anything, but he is listening.
: “I assume you are… familiar with the word?”
shakes his head. “I am not. But I take it I will come to be?”
: “…Really? The Yazhn of Yazhn didn’t keep secret records on the topic?” The raven clicks its beak.
raises an eyebrow. A sign and a portent this may be, but it’s a remarkably insouciant one. “I may know the fact, but not the name.”
: “Or, I may not.”
seems to consider that for a moment, before asking again: “Stoicheia?”
shakes his head, again. “In words, my mysterious portent, words in the tongue in which we both speak, if you would?”
: “Well, if you don’t know the words, then it seems likely I’m just barking up the wrong tree… Because in what world would the land of God have and know of Angels but not call them anything else…?”
opens his mouth, and shuts it again, and thinks, for a few moments. “So they are something that we keep and know, here, then?”
: “You’ve at least three of one time, and possibly thousands of another. But you may not be aware of it. Maybe it was knowledge lost to time.”
lets out another soft snort through his nose. “Two markedly different enumerations for something sharing a title. Perhaps the word was less lost, and more set aside in favour of another.” He rises, slowly, because to look at the bird from where he’s kneeling he nearly has to stare right into the sun, and his curiosity, even still, borders on the foolish, but not that strongly so. “The latter category. The Shades?” It’s a shot in the – well. In the very bright light of day, really.
: “Yes. Or what’s left of them. They aren’t as they should be.”
looks up, intently, and his voice is very controlled, but the Angel of Darkness has been around the block, and can tell that he’s got Ravhi’s rapt attention when he says, “What do you know of them?”
: “Beings of untold power. Curious, that you’ve attached one to a human and got it thinking and acting and exerting its power, again.”
’s hand curls up into a resolute, determined - but not angry - fist. “Once, yes.” And softly: “At great cost.”
: “Also curious, that you bound it to a human, and not one of the Roshu.”
pauses, briefly, and glances skywards. “Who… what… are you? I find my tongue loose, and your voice resounds in my ears with the God’s own resonance. I believe you know that. But there are things I have never spoken of to a living soul, not even Yazhn Dyu.”
: “You can think of me as an Emissary - or wait one of them was already using that. Dammit. That was a good title to use. Hmm.”
: “Well, anyway, I’m the Angel of Darkness.”
lets out a slow breath. “A bringer of shade, then. Do you…” He tilts his head. “Did you travel here with Clan Emberlight?” It’s almost not even toned as a question.
: “No.”
looks up, sharply. Frowns. “Then, you have been here as long as I have been awake? You are no fiend I recognise nor know how to summon.”
ca-CAWs, before pointing a wing at Ravhi.
: “That was, in fact, a lie. Please keep in mind that just because someone is speaking like this, does not strictly mean that what they say is true. Just that they know the trick to it.”
: “Can you imagine how crazy it would have been if I didn’t arrive at the same time as them and I’d been secretly watching you undetected for… what, decades? Not sure on the logistic of how long your terms of service are.”
smirks, out of the corner of his mouth, because he knows when he is being instructed in something, although he feels compelled to say: “I am very good at recognising lies, Angel of Darkness. I was trying to discern the shape of it. Lies can be hidden in truth and truth in lies, after all. You could have, for example, not traveled here with Clan Emberlight because you are Clan Emberlight, secretly, say… Salme playing a very strange trick on me. But I do think you are something more interesting than even that.” He takes a step closer. “And I would like the truth, to this question. What I say, do I say in confidence?”
: “Salme is the best!”
: “Depends on what it is you have to say. If it’s worth keeping secret, my lips are sealed. If it’s worth retelling, the truth yearns to be free.”
snorts out of his nose, again. “Thank you for your honesty, Angel of Darkness.” And he takes a breath, and looks towards the statue. “But if you are with Clan Emberlight, then…” And he actually smiles, a little, and his nictitating membranes blink. “…well, I’ve already written to Wolf, anyways. There are certain things in an unbroken chain of understanding, passed down from Yazhn of Yazhn to successor. One of them is that the Shades are not to be meddled with, under any circumstances. And yet.” He draws himself up to his full height. “My first attempts were to bind a Shade to a Rohsu, yes. They ended very poorly.”
: “Hmm… I wonder if they dislike your nature. Though that does beg the question; what was so dire that you decided to ignore the warning and perform experiments?”
raises an eyebrow, and answers. “I would– I wished to– speed the Work. Be a shortening of the way. And the Shades came to me, when I laid out my circles. They…” Softly. “They still come to me, waiting for me to try again.”
: “I mean… it’s been, what? 250,000 odd years by your library’s reckoning? To make this much progress? Do you really thinking binding Shade would speed up the process that much?” A pause, as the raven clicks its beak. “Suppose it’s no surprise the Shades themselves long to be whole again, however.”
: “One year, Angel of Darkness. One year sooner matters. One hour sooner matters. Yes. And Qarina is–“ –his shoulders fall, slightly, he exhales. “One girl, as magnificent as she is. One girl onto whom I have placed an impossible burden. One girl, whom I hope very much knows shade and comfort in her life.”
: “Ah, well, not so much any more.”
: “Anyway if that came across as judgemental, that’s probably more a reflection of your guilt at having violated a taboo than it was intentional on my part. No skin off my beak if you wanna restore otherworldly beings of incredibly power by binding them onto your charges. I do have to wonder, though, why doing so was made taboo in the first place.”
shrugs. “I invite judgement, Angel of Darkness. If–“ He pauses. “I think… and I very much wish to speak with her about this, at length… that Salme believes that my Work – our work, here – is involved, in some capacity, with the catastrophe that befalls her world, and those of others. I cannot look her in the eye, and tell her that I know that she is mistaken. And if there is any chance that she is not, it only means that my charge is more urgent than I believed it to have been. I, perhaps, should not have turned away from what I did. I wanted to– understand. To watch Qarina, and understand, through her, why the taboo existed. And– her life has not been easy, and I know it, but– more on account of her fellow humans, no matter what songs I find to sing to them. I do not know why the taboo exists. I would step back through time and wrest the answer out of the First Cohort with my claws if it were in my power to. There has to be some reason. Will she– have I doomed her to die earlier than the Sun-sickness would take her? When will I know?”
: “I suppose you can only know when she’s dead, no? But she’s strong. Strong as hell. Strong enough to fight - to kill - without ever invoking the Rite. Which is. Hmm. Wonder if there might be something there.”
: “But, for what it’s worth, Salme is correct on that earlier musing. The timing of your rites of renewal line up exactly with world ending events on not one, but three separate worlds. It’s - difficult - to do the math and not come to certain conclusions.*
nods. “The moment she first spoke to me in the Temple, asked the questions she asked. And I know she’s got a Zvahr’s eye. And so I… yes, I would speed the Work, I would– I need to understand. I need to understand so much more than I understand, Angel of Darkness, and my God cannot answer!” He exhales, very softly, and bows his head, and takes a moment, takes two moments.
: “Yeah, being dead certainly comes with a number of draw backs.“
snorts, loudly, out of his nose, and suddenly feels a little lighter for having technically committed blasphemy. And then he looks up. “Emberlight’s arrival… I prayed. I prayed to the God for– I did not know what I was praying for. I will not claim that you arrived in answer. But I am glad, come what may, that you came. Even if my charge has grown weightier than I could have imagined, I am glad.”
: “Knowledge, too, occasionally comes with a number of draw backs.“ The raven nods its head in understanding.
: “Speaking of we're about to dig up a really doozy of a secret your world's been hiding out of sight so please look forward to that in a few days.“
: “You will share what you learn with me?” It’s, again, almost not phrased as a question.
: “Someone will, I’m sure. As fun as ruining Salme’s fun would be, Wolf probably wouldn’t appreciate the opportunity being snatched away as much.”
snorts, softly, again.
: “(Where the hell did I put the tenebrous glyph... could of sworn I had it too... ah well.)“
: “So there is an esoteric knowledge behind the voices you people put on. Fascinating.”
: “Oh, yeah, it’s just infusing your voice with gnosis more or less. Easier to do if you know a specific glyph that resonates with each one.”
looks thoughtful. “That makes sense.”
: “It sure does.”
looks up at the bird, again. “I have… so many questions I would like to ask, and none that I think you’d have the answers to. Alas. Except for… Shades are, you said, one kind of ‘Angel’. And you are the other. Yes?”
: “Usually doesn’t hurt to ask.” A pause. “But yes.”
: “And that I’d at least three of that kind, somehow. Counting, or not counting you?”
: “Oh, no if we were counting ALL the ones here at the moment we’d almost be into double digits! No, there’s three from Mu, specifically.”
: “‘(The others are just visiting.)“
blinks his nictating membranes, slowly. “You’re a person, then, wearing a bird’s form. An Angel, in that sense, is simply a kind of person.”
: “Debatably, depending on how far you really wanna break it down I guess.”
: “What does it mean, for a person to be an Angel, then?”
bobs his head from side to side in thought.
: “Mostly, I think, the distinction is that they’re… not necessarily loved more by a higher power, but are marked as both interesting and important to them… and that they’re capable of traveling to a whole new world; be that figuratively or literally.”
looks curious, for a moment, and glances off, again, at the headless statue, lost in thought. “Does every world have Angels, then?” And then, after another moment, “Who are Mu’s?”, fully expecting not to get an answer.
: “Most don’t. So finding three here without a clue was… surprising!”
: “You, of course, know all three.”
laughs, softly. “An easy statement to make, given that the Yazhn of Yazhn must know everybody that lives.” He doesn’t sound upset about the deflection, though.
: “Oh that’s right, you make ‘em all yourself here don’t you? What a weird ass world.”
: “Dyu, Qarina, Chaya.”
exhales, slowly, out of his nose. He doesn’t… seem surprised, not really. “Ah. No wonder they found you six, then. And no wonder they found each other.” He looks… distant. “Thank you, Angel of Darkness. Is there… hn.” He clicks his teeth together. “Thank you. Is there aught else I can answer for you?” He looks up at the bird, again.
: “Hmm…”
: “Where do babies really come from, Yazhn Ravhi?”
snorts, very softly. “Jars, Angel of Darkness. They come from jars. Although as I’ve been led to understand, you would not call the lives the Vehru awaken ‘babies’, or even ‘children’, when they are awakened. Far less strange, to me, than the idea of producing them with one’s own body, and then having them be weak and helpless for a decade, but.” He shrugs, lightly.
tilts his head an entire 180 degrees upside down. “Oh I wasn’t expecting you to even get that and lead into something else but - what the fuck do you mean, ‘Jars’?”
is enjoying this now, perhaps a little too much. “Jars. Like the Jar Game, only much bigger. Do they not have jars from whence you came?”
: “Containers are many and varied, but, I think, the important thing is what’s inside them?”
: “Ahh, that’s a different question entirely. Gnosis. The Vehru’s, mostly, although they accept donations from Kin when preparing to awaken Kin of an appropriate clade. It’s… remarkably tiring, although I imagine not as much so as the other worlds’ alternative.” He wrinkles his nose. “And then the gnosis is worked, and then we wait.”
squints.
: “You make humans the same way you make fiends, here?”
scrunches up his face. “Is that how -you- make -fiends-?” And then he pauses, and scrunches up his face more. “Although, I suppose, if you look at it the right way, a summoning circle is a very abstract sort of jar. The working is… much, much more intricate, though. Possible to understand and replicate with care and time, obviously, but profoundly intricate.”
is, visibly, briefly napkin-mathing the plausibility of a held summoning circle large enough to make an entire person with and frowning.
: “I mean, in as much as an Angel is just a kind of person, a fiend is just a creature you summoned with gnosis and going through specific motions.”
: “But fiends do not-“ -and he squints at the bird, because he might be looking at a counterexample, and that’s exciting- “-self-perpetuate the patterns which give them wakefulness, and living things do.”
: “I’m sure they could, if you gave them the tools and the idea to replicate. Man, Lucja’s gunna have a field day with this.”
looks thoughtful. “I don’t… see any technical reason why they could not, no.”
nods in agreement.
: “An unexpectedly fruitful answer to a question you admit to having asked as a joke in passing. I suppose this proves your point that it never hurts to ask.”
: “Exactly!”
: “Was there a question you were leading towards, then?” He glances back up, curiously.
: “Oh no where really, I was just going to be like 'damn, that would have been real funny if you knew what a baby was. Might do numbers in the rejoined world, keep it in the back of your pocket' or something to that effect.“ The raven shrugs.
snorts very softly, but raises an eyebrow. “Then your goal is to rejoin the worlds as one? I had wondered.”
: “I think at this point it’s more ‘find a way to stop everything else from being destroyed’ but I have a hunch that’ll happen by putting all the pieces back together again.”
nods, slowly, and murmurs, “(When the Work is completed, the Garden will not be given unto us. We will have built it ourselves, with our own hands.)”
looks up, after a moment. “Angel of Darkness?”
: “Yeah?”
: “Shade and comfort to you. In my surprise and haste and- curiosity, I forgot to offer that which is sacred.” A pause. “And, again, thank you.”
: “I mean I was being a weirdo at the start so it’s no biggie. Take care of yourself too, yeah?”
exhales softly out of his nose. “I will endeavour to do so. I will– I will meditate, for a time. And then there is Evensong to sing. Be safe, all of you, wherever it is you plan to delve.”
nods again in response, before doing a little bird hop to turn himself around before flying off into the sky.
watches the bird fly off, shaking his head in wonder. And then he– takes a look back at the statue, and bows his head to it, and walks out of the room. He’s spent enough time here, he thinks; he can continue his meditations in his own shade and comfort, for once.