ꙮ This time, Salme’s climbing the stairs going up to the Queen’s Castle. There’s so many of them - a contoured switchback path going up a steep hill atop which her fortress stands. It’s impossible to stand at any point on the staircase without feeling the slate-black bulk of the fortress looming ominously over you.
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- Yazhn Ravhi, the Hierophant
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#saint
#sq
walks the stairs carefully and purposefully. She’s wearing her full outfit from Samudra, though the coat Archie gave her has been swapped out for a long, twisting length of gnosis-worked fabric that trails behind her like a banner made of gleaming ocean waves woven into linen. The sword at her hip feels heavy. The Mask does not. ⁂
thinks that the effect is somewhat ruined by the mini FU she carries in one hand, and the large, overstuffed pack looped over one shoulder. Ah well. It’s still enough drama, even if it’s not optimal drama.
ꙮ It still Billows, and that’s what really matters. You feel, somehow, like everything Billows more, in proximity to the Castle. Maybe that’s just your imagination?
doesn’t think its her imagination. She can feel her hair Billowing as well, let down in lose curls, only a single bead threaded close to her scalp keeping it from getting hopelessly tangled. There’s a lot you can do with gnosis if you have free time and you’re vain enough, you know?
ꙮ Indeed there is. There’s a wide, short road paved with black smooth stone between the head of the stairs and the Castle proper; there are torches on either side of the path that light as Salme passes between them. (They don’t look like they’re a permanent thing. Do they get brought out for special occasions?)
: “(Oh Jae, you really shouldn’t have),” she murmurs. She lets a flicker of burning gnosis lose, fire trailing behind her to mirror the torches. Just sparks. They maybe look a bit like stars.
ꙮ The Castle itself seems empty - who knows whether it actually is or not, or whether it’s good at seeming that way for Dramatic Effect. You know already that most of it’s just for show, anyways - the actual governance of the City all gets done in the Bazaar and surroundings, or district by district. But what a show it is - a rough, angular crystal of black stone, obviously built by human hands, once somewhen, but built in the shape of a natural object, like it’s growing right out of the hill it’s perched on. Lights dot its surface - windows into empty, but well-lit rooms. Ambience, you know? A gate yawns lazily into a vestibule, which becomes a grand vestibule, which becomes an even more grand vestibule - this last of which containing statues of the Scorpion Queen and legendary heroes of Queenstown, commemorating repelled monster-attacks and invasions and who-knows-what-all-else. And then one more archway, after that.
doesn’t suppose any of those statues of the Scorpion Queen have an empty hand, do they?
ꙮ Oh, a couple of them do.
has a very suggestive sausage she bought on her way here. Just in case, you know? And she’d like … well. She’s rolling liminal to stick that sausage in the statue hand where it would absolutely be the funniest to do so. What do you need from her?
ꙮ Oh, honestly, that’s a [Take Half]. You can just kinda… slip it right in wherever, I think. There’s one where she’s kind of gesturing grandly in a way that would look really, really lewd, if you…
does precisely that. Then steps back to admire her handiwork. She’ll share this memory with Zaya for certain, ideally everyone.
ꙮ There’s. A very, very quiet, attemptedly-stifled, failed-to-stifle giggle that echoes ominously from the grand hall.
grins, turns, and starts making her way there. She’s still doing the spark thing, maybe letting them flare out more behind her. Whole fucking constellations. Never let it be said she doesn’t know how to perform.
ꙮ The Great Hall. Unnecessarily expansive, mirror-polished floor, enormous black suits of armor with crossed spears lining the walls on either side. You have the feeling that if a real enemy somehow got this far in to the Castle, they’d all dramatically spring to life… but also, that that’s never once happened. No carpet, so your boots clack on the ground. So you can see the enormous blood-red dueling circle cut into the mirror-surface. ⁂
ꙮ The Throne. You’ve seen it before, but it’s in its element, here. The lighting suits it. It’s up on a dais, and Looms the way the Castle itself Loomed over the hill. The Scorpion Queen, True Hero of the Beast, is seated resplendently on the throne in all her majesty– she’s got one leg crossed over the other, she’s got her chin on her fist, she looks like she was bored to shit until about twenty seconds ago, honestly, but now she’s focused, intently, on you. She’s in full battle dress - black armor with a chitinous sheen.
smiles, slowly, the corners of her mouth drawing up. She sets the FU and her bag down well outside the dueling circle and then sweeps her skirts to the side in a low, low, low dramatic curtsy. She holds the curtsy but looks up, up, up at her. “Stings and Kills, Angel of Hope, Scorpion Queen, True Hero of the Beast. Do you know why I’ve come here?”
meets Salme’s gaze. She doesn’t have her shades on, this time. Not for this. A wicked smile curves her lips. “Presumably… you’re here to try and kick my ass. But I think you should tell me in your own words, rather than me doin’ any presuming.” She leans forward. She doesn’t get up, though. Not yet. Not yet.
straightens to her full height. It’s not very much. She still has to crane her neck to look up into her eyes, especially up on that throne. “A Rite.” She holds out her sword in front of her, perpendicular to the ground, still sheathed. “The stakes. If you win, you take my sword.” She tilts the blade. The blade is steel, but the hilt and sheathe are intricate bronze metalwork. She’s never seen the like of it on the Beast. “You melt it to your throne somewhere you will always see it. Somewhere it will always serve as a reminder of me. That we fought, and that you saw me and could see only me for however long the Rite lasted.” ⁂
pauses. “And if I win, which I won’t, but if I do? I want to see that maid outfit.” 🙧
listens, intently– blinks. pauses. Her eyes light up. She starts to laugh, with open delight, while she stands- when she stands she unfurls, unfolds herself, arms flexing, trying the ground under her claw-armored toes. “I accept your stakes, Sword-Saint of Almachadta.” She fixes her gaze on Salme– on the sword– back again on Salme. Steps down off the dais. ⁂
reaches with one of her hands into the palm of another, and with another of her hands into the palm of the fourth, mirrored motions, so when she draws two blades out of her own palms, she’s pulling all four arms apart in a single fluid motion. They sheen red, like blood, and fire dances along their edge. She steps into the dueling circle.
does not step into the dueling circle, but cartwheels in, rolling into a low tumble before springing to her feet, unsheathing her sword in one smooth motion. She’s smiling, but her eyes are focused on Jae. Could not look away from Jae for anything. Not in this moment.
could, also, not look away. Those were, after all, the stakes. Also, she doesn’t particularly want to, and Jae is a person who does what she wishes. One of her blades almost lazily taps against the delineation of the circle without looking, and it’s set aflame.
ꙮ A Rite of the Dragon has been invoked! The stakes: Salme’s sword, melted into the Queen’s throne, or… the maid outfit. Who even told you about that thing, anyways!? [FATED CONFRONTATION]
would snort if things were a little less serious, but, come on. You know who.
pauses. Blinks. Starts laughing, again, delightedly, and more than a little baffled. If you were trying to put her off guard… you may have succeeded! [Forfeit Initiative]
grins at her. “I carry you with me, babe.”
then, more seriously, she dances forward, well into her guard, and takes her hand—gentle, thoughtful, kind, and says the words she came here to say. And the tone does not make them less cruel. The softness of her touch does not make them any sweeter. But. Still. “Jae, how about you finally tell me the truth?”
[Libra]
ꙮ There are precious few people on the Beast, in all its history, who can be said to have made the Scorpion-Queen flinch.
does flinch. But she squeezes Salme’s hand, a little, too. It’s a good, vicious shot. Of course Salme took it. How could she have done otherwise?
listens to the truth. “Do you want to know what it told me, Jae Carver?” She squeezes her hand again.
: “Goddess, no. It’s bad enough that -you- know.” And she immediately scraps her hand and Refreshes, and then, immediately and without warning– because, after all, she has four arms, still holding Salme’s hand with one of hers, her two blades come in from either side. [Heavy is the Crown] for [8]!
ꙮ Nobody has to discard, of course, because the Scorpion Queen is alone on her side of the battlefield.
takes the hit, feels the swords bite into her, and she laughs. “Well, fair enough,” she says, dropping her hand, dancing away, laughing, laughing, laughing, like she isn’t scared, like that didn’t really fucking hurt. Or maybe she’s laughing because it did.
keeps laughing, flames sparking along her skin, blue fire, hot fire, fearless and wild, and she says, “I’ve already won in the way that matters to me, you know, but …” and when she spins back she slices at her, three tenebrous-infused strikes, one at her neck, one at the armor-joint between chest and rib, and one low at at the tiniest gap in armor at her legs.
[Rage!] + [Void Flare!], discard [Scorpion and the Frog], alas. 2 from VF + 2 from Warmonger + 2 from I Am the Odds + 2 from Rage + 1 from burning bonus = 9 x 3 = 27.
takes some truly vicious hits, and– she COULD have danced out of the way of them, she’s good enough. But that would have taken her out of range of Salme; it would have forced her to avert her gaze. And so, instead, she takes the vicious hits, one, two, three- barks out a rough, pleased laugh. She was GOING to say something, some witty rejoinder about winning in the way that matters to her, but instead, the flames along her blades grow brighter and deeper. [Rage], to match Salme’s - both had written ‘fire’. She breathes out, roughly, “You don’t have two of those in you, babe. But that was a damn good hit.”
stays well within her guard. She’s going to take these hits. “No, I don’t. But I got some good advice. Go in with one thing that I want to do and do it well and accept the loss. And look at me. I accomplished two. Though,” she slides to the side, grabs one of Jae’s free hands, sends a smothering layer of radiant gnosis along her arms to her blades. “You’re gonna work for your win, Ms. True Hero.”
[Superannhilate] on SQ's [Rage]
laughs, again, as the fire on her blades dies, and, in principle, brings one of her free hands around to grab Salme’s other wrist– but the radiant gnosis is aimed directly at Salme, this time. She can keep her rage. [Superannihilate] for [4]!
takes that hit too, grinning at her, and flicks back a nasty lick of tenebrous gnosis for Jae’s trouble. She gathers radiant gnosis around her wrists, uses that to break the grapple she can’t hope to win, steps back and lets the radiant gnosis settle over her in a shimmering shroud. Then she darts forward to deliver a spinning kick to Jae’s chest, movements infused again with tenebrous gnosis.
[Instant Barrier], then [Heavy is the Crown]. Jae takes 1 damage for tenebrous bonus, +2 def for Salme, 5 + 2 for rage + 1 for burning = [8], Salme takes 1 for hitting Jae.
: “Tch, what did I say about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery early on.” She spins, taking the blow, makes a dismissive gesture with one of her hands and scoops the other through the air, gathering possibilities, then beams. “Ah, there you are.” And she cuts out of the whirl, towards Salme. [Real Ultimate Power] for [7]!
Refresh
.
Discarding Guarded Strike
laughs. “If that’s the case.” She steps back and instead of gathering possibilities, plucks the exact one she wants with ease. “You know, I think I like your picture on the traveler’s guide a little better, personally. Did Zaya ever show you that, or do you still not know what I’m talking about?” She goes low and drives her sword at another miniscule gap in her armor, sword flickering with blue, blue flame.
[Real Ultimate Power] 6 + 2 + 1 = [9]. Discarding [Death Parade]
: “For this last hit, though, Jae? You better make this fucking awesome.”
laughs, and laughs, and dances with Salme, trading blows. But, again, she can keep this up, and Salme can’t, and she knows it, and she taunts Salme with her stance, briefly- “You know, she mentioned it, but she didn’t have it with her. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to show it to me, after I win?” And then she draws close, closed-position close, the tip of her cold, unburning red blade against Salme’s chin. “Which is now, by the way.” And she whirls, with all four arms, and both blades, she whirls and is a whirlwind. [Real Ultimate Power]
takes that hit too, and it hurts, it fucking stings, but she laughs even as it hurts, even as she imagines, for one brief moment, if the stakes were otherwise and what it would mean. And she goes down on one knee, but only one, and looks up at her with certainty, the kind you only get in moments like these, when you’ve completed a dance or a battle and your blood sings that you are alive in this moment.
gathers her strength then, to offer her sword to the Scorpion Queen with both hands. She keeps her eyes locked on her.
slows, and faces Salme, and keeps her gaze locked on her. She’s winded, and her eyes are grinning like a fool even if her face is– not solemn, exactly, but not smirking any more. You can tell that she wanted this. With reverence, she takes the sword. runs her fingertip along the blade. Studies the guard and hilt, for a few moments. Looks back up at Salme, and then leaps -backwards-, soaring through the air like she’s on wires, so as to not have to turn her back, not have to break the gaze. She runs her fingertips down the blade, again, [Take Half] and it glows, almost immediately, white-hot, even while she’s still touching it. She doesn’t seem to notice.
sits down, on the throne - still holding Salme’s gaze - and gently drives the sword into her throne, into the right armrest, so that that beautiful, unique hilt will be right where one of her hands lies, for her fingers to curl around, any time she’s seated there. Hers, now.
smiles, in her victory.
raises her chin, proud. “That sword belonged to the Sword-Saint before me, and then, not to the Sword-Saint before him, but the one before them. Her name was Sanna, and she was given that sword by the Sword-Saint before her, though she melted it down and reformed it into a shape that suited her better. And now it has again been melted down into a shape that suits the current Sword-Saint better.”
: “Thank you, Jae.”
gives Salme a bit of an odd look. Lets her fingertips play on the hilt, one more time, before she stands, hops off the dais almost nonchalantly to walk back over to Salme, claws clacking on the metal floor. Less ominously, this time around. “You’re odd. You know that?” The spin she puts on it, it’s clear that she means it as a compliment. “Thank -you- for the challenge, Salme.”
: “I am? I thought I was a pretty typical Almachadtan, what with the plane-traveling and the complicated boyfriend situation and the eldritch weight of the Mask,” she says dryly. She straightens. “And I’m glad it was a challenge. I actually got jealous, you know, seeing you look at Wolf like that after the Rite. I wanted your attention.” She frowns. “That’s never happened before, especially not in a Rite. You seem to bring it out in me.”
goes over and grabs her pack and the FU. “Snacks!” She says, handing the FU to her. “And I brought some weaving attempts for show-and-tell,” she says, gesturing at her bag.
laughs, again, a bit more normal of a laugh, and then eyes Salme again, at that… admission. And then, like it’s the easiest and most obvious thing in the world, “Well, good. You should want my attention. I demanded yours, didn’t I?” She follows Salme over to The Snacks, and just sits down, cross-legged, on the floor, in the middle of the throne room, like you do. “Oh, no. Oh no I’m not breaking your fancy Samudran thingamawhatsit. I’m not having that on my conscience, there’s enough there already. Show-and-tell the snacks AND the weavings.”
plops down next to her. “Okay, well, Awoken put a lot of this together when we went to Almachadta, so if the charcuterie is particularly entrancing that’s all him.” She pulls out several intricate plates of cured meats and fancy cheeses (albeit no provolone), several perfect cuts of raw fish from Samudra, and the Last Tofu Burger.
: “Honestly, though, my favorite are just … blackberries. There’s a way they taste when you pluck them, Centrelight-warmed, straight off the bush. Alas, the Freshness Unit does not seem to be able to keep the warmth of the Centrelight intact, but.” She sets out a small bowl of perfect, juicy blackberries.
: “Tch, if he wants to entrance me with it, he can come entrance me with it himself.” She doesn’t sound like she really means it, though. She glances at the blackberries - and the fish, to be fair, AND the delicious charcuterie – but it’s the blackberries she goes for first. They’re Salme’s favourite, that makes them more interesting immediately. And– “Oh. Oh, Goddess, I’d literally forgotten how good blackberries are. And these are. Exquisite. Damn. Warmth of the Centrelight or no.”
grins at her. “Everything’s delicious on Almachadta. We may not have cool magical technology or, you know, much metal but we do have really good food.” Her mouth twists for a second at that, but she shakes her head. “Oh shit, yeah, you probably aren’t going to be surprised by a lot of this, right? You’ve lived enough lives that the planes being split up is probably weirder than them not.”
considers her for a moment. “You don’t have to answer that one if you don’t want to, by the way. I know you’re still working through some shit.”
waves the concern off. “Planes were like this when I got here, at any rate, so I dunno shit from an ass about Almachadta other than little things I’ve been able to glean, and what you’ve told me. And I’d rather hear it from you, anyways. Or taste it myself. Goddess. Proper fish, too.” She’d been at the fish, she looked like she was having another, slightly less intense, religious experience there. “Yeah, the little otter guy might have a swing at the Three Grand Soups, if this is what y’all are working with.”
laughs. “Oh, he’ll give you a run for your money I bet. I believe in him at least. He’s sort of terrifying when he sets his mind to something,” she says admiringly.
: “Ah. And,” she flicks her hand, the Traveler’s Guide appearing in it and flips to Jae’s page. “As. Well, not promised, but teased enough that I feel obligated to share.”
snorts softly. “Was terrifying enough in the Rite. Honestly? Off the record? I hope he wins. Zaya gently nudged him at Lauritz, I’m dying to know how that goes.” She reaches over, immediately lets out a wolf whistle at the art. “God DAMN somebody loves me. Alright.” She then actually… reads the text, and starts laughing, again and again. “How much of this was there the -first- time you read it?”
: “Just the first paragraph.” She peeks at it again. “So. Do you think you cheat?”
looks over at her. “Babe, I think I win.”
laughs.
: “Can’t argue with that,” grinning at her.
shakes her head. “No, you can’t. Well, you can if you manage to beat me.” A beatific smile.
: “Hey.”
: “What’s the coolest fuckin’ thing you’ve seen so far? Out of all the places you’ve been?”
: “Hmm.”
swallows and then laughs a little. “Well. On the Beast, there’s this woman who is also a Hero who is also an Angel, and she sits on an iron throne and is—naw, you’d like that too much. Hmm.”
: “Oh.”
laughs with genuine delight. But she DID want the real answer, yes.
: “The two things I thought of were both things I made. One’s even something I can show you, but I’d … need to ask first. But. Imagine a room with thirteen sides, with walls that reach up to glass panes on the ceiling, and in each glass pane one of the constellations gleams, and in the center pane shines the light of the True Sun, a sun that loves and loves and loves and could never harm anything. And on each wall—most walls, at least—are shelves filled with what look like books, but are really crystals with starlight caught in them, repositories of memory, stories and songs of yourself and those you love. That’s the Liminal Library.”
grins. Oh, she grins.
: “It was the first time I ever saw the stars for what they are. On Almachadta they exist as patterns in the way the Centrelight shines, but I had never seen the stars. They’re more beautiful here on the Beast but still, seeing them, seeing the sun? I’m kind of glad I saw them before I got here. I’d probably have gotten even more emotional than I already did.” ⁂
: “But Aurelius and I made it, and we keep—making it. Changing it. Developing it. He—it’s a safe haven and a tool for understanding and a place to simply be. He makes it better every time he gets it in his head to add a feature. And I wove gnosis to make the receptacles of memory. And Awoken has made this amazing lantern and I think it might be an entelechy, though Aury thinks it’s just a fiend, and there’s a secret door that leads to a hallway that—“
stops and blushes a bit. “It’s all of ours, but. I made it. Or we made it together. And I got to see the stars—which was my first answer, as … common as they are here.”
listens, she listens raptly, but from the very first sentence she was grinning. And leaning in, as Salme continues, and - her tail twitches, just the tiniest wiggle of her vicious, vicious-looking stinger. (And the grin softens to a smile, when she talks about the stars, but she listens no less raptly.) And she listens, and she listens, without interrupting even once, which looks like it’s terribly difficult for her, honestly, but she’s making the effort. “Haaa… no. That sounds absolutely goddamn magnificent.” She leans back, satisfied, and after a moment, sets her eyes on another piece of REAL FISH long enough to capture it, before looking back to Salme. “Now you get to ask me something.”
ꙮ Ah, that’s where Zaya picked up that game.
nabs a piece of salmon. “That,” she says, devouring in one bite, “is a dangerous offer.”
: “Babe, we’re up to our tits in ‘dangerous’ already.”
: “What are you gonna do, challenge me to another Rite if I don’t give you a good answer?” Grinning, she spears a piece of cheese and eats it.
laughs a little but considers it, really considers it. “You can choose. Either: how bad did you lose your shit when Zaya burned all your hair off or,” she swallows. “Did anything happen 1,296 years ago? Or you can answer both.” She takes another handful of blackberries.
laughs. There’s an edge to it, but she laughs. “Oh, I lost my shit. And then I kissed her on the mouth.” She looks smug. “Did she tell you that she looked me dead in the eye and told me she thought I looked even hotter with my hair singed off like that? I bet she didn’t tell you that.”
: “Also: yes.” And she grabs another blackberry.
grins at her. “She did not tell me that. She mostly told me how she called you a pompous ass, which I absolutely believe you were.”
: “Well, see, you learn a new thing every day.”
: “Also: you shit. Your turn.” She savors a bit of cured meat.
: “Not that I was or am a pompous ass, you knew that already.”
thinks, for a minute, and then sounds like she’s quoting something. “The world is deep with love and light. What most brilliantly dispels sorrow?”
: “A good orgasm,” she replies immediately.
laughs so abruptly she almost has a Cheese Related Incident before recovering her composure. For some reason, she wasn’t expecting that. “Yeah, you’re not wrong.”
: “I mean I was being flippant but. For me, I think, it’s laughter? Love and light’s nice and all, but. The best moments during this journey have been when the only thing I could do was laugh.”
gestures, vaguely, at what Literally Just Happened To Her, A Few Seconds Ago, and nods.
: “Oh. I know. That was intentional. I am a performer and a storyteller.” She flips a couple stray curls over her shoulder with an elegant toss of her head. “Okay. Seye told me a story. The oldest story about Stings and Kills that she knows. About a sword that got locked away, a true sword, the one in her heart that was Hope. And she asked me some questions about that story, questions I couldn’t answer, really. I’m not even sure you could answer them, but,” she says this next part without judgment, “What does hope mean to you, Jae?”
rocks back, a little bit. Thinks about her answer to that question, for a minute. Realises that she’s not going to be able to answer it, in her heart, without a blackberry in her mouth.
rectifies that situation.
: “Hope means never giving up. No matter what. Never giving in. Never cutting your losses. Not even when you’re the most certain you’ve ever been, of anything, that there’s no fuckin’ way you’ll ever win. Because you don’t fuckin’ KNOW what’s going to happen tomorrow. Nobody can. ‘cept I know that if I stick around long enough?” She leans forward again. “I always win.” And then, to prove her point, she spears a piece of cheese, which constitutes victory in this immediate scenario.
smiles at that, and nods, like she’s received some solemn wisdom. And, in a way, she has. “Your turn,” she says as she turns to the bag and begins rifling through it.
: “Ah, fuck.” She laughs. “Zaya always wins at this game because she can always think of more questions than me. Right now my question is boring because you’re about to answer it anyways, but. What’s in the bag? I wanna see it.” She makes the world’s silliest grabby hands with the two hands that steadfastly have NOT been touching any of the Snacks.
grins, and tosses it at her. “My very first attempt at weaving on a countermarche loom.” If Jae unfurls it, she will see something that looks. Like a fairly uneven and badly-done piece of a cheesecloth. The edges are fraying.
unfurls it, yes, and holds it like it’s the most precious thing in the whole fucking world. Feels its texture with her fingertips- at the centre, at the edges. “Hell yeah, Salme.” She holds on to it for a minute longer. “You gotta keep this forever, babe. Some day you’re gonna want to look at this, and then look at what you’ve just finished, and go, goddamn, I’ve really come far. And then some days you’re gonna wanna look at it, and love the poor asshole who made it so long ago. Who took step one of the long road to being fuckin’ good at doin’ the thing.” She very carefully furls it. “Don’t, uh, toss it out ‘cause you think it’s a piece of junk you and nobody else will ever wanna see.” She’s got JUST enough dignity to not scratch awkwardly at the back of her head when she says this bit.
: “Noted. And … heard. I’ve already gotten a bit better, even.” She takes out a couple other pieces, most of them plain and undyed with varying degrees of tension issues, but one is a completely finished, vivid nasturtium-red woolen scarf. There are still some gaps in the weft, but it’s clearly much, much better already. “Wore this to the Septentrione, which is a huge glacier in Samudra. I keep … I want to weave gnosis into these things, to enchant them and make them better, but this thing is just warm and cozy.”
: “Warm and cozy is good. Not a whole hell of a lot of need for it over here, really, but it’s still -nice-.” She reaches out, to feel and- looks like, memorise the texture of each of the pieces of fabric. Nods. “Sounds like a rad idea, though. I bet that’d work. Been a few people experimenting with gnosis in metallurgy, here, I’ve tossed some Lucre their way when I can.”
: “Oh. That sounds fascinating. In Samudra they do so much work with fabric—Zaya helped me commission a new outfit for the Beast, and honestly the gnosis-worked materials I picked up from Samudra are going to be doing a lot of the protective work. I asked the weavers there about it, and also Jorule’s also said he could give me a few pointers, but I’m not sure how applicable it’ll be here.” She shrugs. “Anyway, I still need to master the basics but I’m getting closer.” She notes how carefully Jae savors each textile, and smiles a little. “Almost done with another side project—this one I’m actually good at. Was hoping you might be able to help me.” She reaches into her bag and unrolls a thin strip of green cloth ⁂
holds it up between her hands. It’s heavily embroidered, with a small brown sparrow swooping in from one side and a blue jay, gleaming bright against a streak of darkness, on the other. Then there’s a fox limned in gold and a wolf limned in flame. Two otters, one swimming right-side up with purple eyes, the other upside down with iridescent streamers, bracket a large, empty space in the center. “It’s for. Us. I’m the sparrow, Aury’s the fox, Wolf is … you know, obviously the wolf, Sininen is the bluejay, and the otters are Archie and his partner Caion, but. I don’t know what to do for Luĉja. Or. I have an idea but.” She hands it to Jae. “You know them pretty well, right?” 🙧
leans forward again, and reaches out for the embroidered cloth, and this time she lets out a soft hiss of breath, admiring its detail. Again, running her fingertips over the surface, very lightly. “Oh, babe, this is -lovely- work. Mmmm. Curious what your idea is. If I had to… mm. Someone who knew them even better than I do said they seemed like a– we have a little animal here with scales all over its body. Rolls up into a ball and acts all tough if something tries to eat it, but they’re sweet as anything if you’re not a threat. Called a pangolin. Do they have those guys on Almachadta? Anyways, they– it might bring up associations they’d want to leave in the past, or it might not. Always had trouble reading them worth a damn. But that’s what comes to mind.”
: “Aury talked about … an armadillo? That sounds similar. But we don’t have either on Almachadta.” She laughs a little. “I was thinking a tortoise. There’s that story, about how one bears the entire world on its back? And they live forever, and they carry their homes on their back, and they’re patient but also kind of goofy looking—but I … wasn’t sure.”
uses a quick slice of tenebrous gnosis to cut the tofu burger in half, and takes a big bite of her half.
: “Pangolins are better than armadillos.” This is stated as an unalterable fact. “–oh, yeah. Yeah, tortoise would work too. Don’t hate that for them. Tortoises are good.” And then she leans forward, curiously. “Now what’s -this-, then?”
: “Tofu burger. We’re out of the beef burgers, but I won this in a duel against Archie. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion, and getting my ass kicked by the True Hero of the Beast seemed like a good occasion.”
pushes Jae’s portion of the burger toward Jae. “Anyway. I know you’re out of questions to ask, but I have three more I’d like answered. What’ll it cost me?”
: “Well, I’ve had burgers before. If I’ve had a tofu burger, though, it was long enough ago that I don’t remember it for shit. And a burger you won in a duel, well, damn. It must be good.” She nods her head, in respect for the offering, picks it up, and takes a bite. “Mmm, goddamn. I think we’re just about even. Ask away.”
holds up her hand, displaying three fingers. “From least to most pleasant: one,” she curls one finger down, “What are your feelings about my discussing what I learned from Libra with my companions?”
lets out a huff, and leans back on her heels, and distracts herself with another chomp of the burger. She’s savouring it. “Yours fair and square. Would be shitty of me to try and tell you what to do with it. Knew what I was getting into when I said I’d do a Rite with you after you were waggling it at me the whole damn time at the train station.”
laughs a little. “Sure, but. It’s still your choice and I’m not sure how necessary the information is to our goals. Still. Appreciated.” She takes a breath. “Anyway, two,” and she curls another finger down, “one thing that is necessary is finding out what happened 1,296 years ago. I’m guessing this is something you can’t talk about yet. Is there someone you could put be me in contact with that can? A … historian? Or something? Even if the information is imperfect?”
briefly considers whether ‘blackberry’ and ‘tofu burger’ are two great tastes that go great together, decides that they almost certainly are not, and then lets herself look sad about THAT instead of about the question. Another bite of the burger. She puts a blackberry on her plate for after the burger is done so that there will, for certain, be at least one blackberry left to eat and they won’t all vanish.
isn’t answering the question, though, throughout all of this procedure.
: “Strongly… suspect… you’ll run into -someone- who’ll have some information you can work with, in your travels. Can’t say as there’s anyone HERE I could point you at, though, no.”
is watching her, carefully, and reaches out and takes her hand, giving it a squeeze. “Okay. Thank you, Jae.”
sits there for a moment, thinking. “Sorry. I didn’t think that would—Sorry.”
: “Naw, you’re fine.”
: “Sure. You’re not though.”
squeezes her hand one more time before letting go. “Three,” and here she folds down her final finger on her other hand.
: “Psh. I’ve got a tofu burger and blackberries and good company. What’s-“ And then Salme gets to the third question.
: “Do you wear your armor while you bake or do you have like. Normal clothes?”
: “Oh. Goddess. Normal clothes. Getting flour and dough and– all the weird random crufty crap that gets in everywhere out of armor would be fucking miserable.”
laughs. “Yeah? Not sure I believe you. Prove it?”
: “Yeah, alright.” And she stands– NO!!!!
very carefully, and with great enjoyment, eats the last blackberry on her plate. Really, really savours it.
grins watching that. “I’m the same way about savoring my food, you know.”
THEN unfolds herself again, stands up in a single bound, and snaps her fingers.
ꙮ Her armour vanishes in a whirl of gnosis that briefly, briefly surrounds her; when the whirl clears, she’s wearing something concerningly smooth and skin-tight made of immensely soft, fine leather that doesn’t leave much to the imagination and, MORE IMPORTANTLY, does not have crenellations and crevices and joints for flour and dough to get caught in. She’s SO much less pointy now, though. The tail looks… somehow… more menacing, though, in comparison?
blinks for a moment, and then laughs. “Well. I didn’t expect that, but I don’t know what I didn’t. What else could it have possibly been.” She shakes her head. “So. Fancy braided loaf?”
: “Fancy braided loaf. Got a bunch of wheat to grind. Was thinking of doing it by hand just to show off but you fuckin’ tired me out, so machine it is, not like I’m not drownin’ in mechanisms and gadgets up in here. C’mon, let’s go–“ –and, it turns out, there’s a sneaky little elevator that you can use to get to and from the Castle, and that’s why nobody’s ever seen the Queen climbing her own preposterously ostentatious stairs.
laughs at that, and follows, thinking only, in this moment, of the ridiculous echoing ground beneath her feet—really, she’s wearing sandals, it’s got to be some kind of trick—and her friend, who is here and alive and happy right now, and this fancy braided loaf.