ꙮ Lunchtime, at the apostates’ sietch. Clan Emberlight’s been here for a couple of days, helping out about the place, or doing some mad science of their own. Dyu got here from the City the other day, and suddenly in the time since then, any number of small, seemingly-unimportant speed bumps and tiny little miseries of the sietch have been smoothed out like they were never there. So, when Clan Emberlight gathers together for lunch - a thick, hearty mushroom stew with barley bread and huge metal bowls of spicy roast cricket for those daring enough to try the delicious snack - you get any number of people stopping by to say hello, to give you a wave as they pass by, to wish you shade and comfort in the waking day.
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- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight (Yan Knot)
- Qarina, the Weapon
- Yan Lion Aurelius
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#full cast session
#chapter 5: mu
#chaya
#dyu
#qarina
eats heaping spoonfuls of the mushroom stew with chunks of barley bread, and consideres the roast cricket… with caution to the wind, he’ll crunch on a few of them! Do they taste like almonds? What DO they taste like?
is willing to try the roast cricket. She actually barely even blinks an eye at the roast cricket. She also takes a solid helping of stew and bread. She’s dressed for exploration, with her hair done back in two neat braids, wearing her trousers and boots and shirt from Almachadta.
is thoroughly enjoying the crickets. The taste of fire is important.
, of course, is not a picky eater–he happily chomps crickets, though he’s breaking up his mouthfuls with mouthfuls of stew. It helps soak up the spice.
ꙮ The taste is really hard to describe, honestly. Nutty and savory, and they’re perfectly spiced! (You can tell they’re taking advantage of some of the spices and sauces Emberlight brought from Samudra, and they’re a really perfect complement!)
can eat little monsters just as well as big monsters, yeah. Nothing weird here, honestly.
has mostly recovered from her ordeal, and even did a quick bit of scouting earlier. She comes back into the sietch for a bowl of mushroom stew, avoiding the crickets and trying real hard not to let anyone see her inner thoughts on eating bugs.
: “Shhhdncmfft,” Archie mumbles with a polite bow of his head to each passer-by in between bites of food. He cautiously glances over a cricket and takes a delicate nibble before doing his best to conceal spitting it out. “(Not a good candidate for cross-planar food diplomacy efforts),” he quickly jots down in an oversize tome of recipes and tasting notes.
politely doesn’t notice Qarina or Archie in regard to the crickets, and crunches a bit more. Stew is good, but it’s nice to have something with some texture.
joins everyone for a the meal, taking a healthy portion of the soup into his bowl with some bread, and a single roasted cricket, to satisfy his curiosity, if nothing else.
ꙮ The Samudran spices are startling! But you really do think they make the whole thing work.
shows up mid-meal and settles in to eat with the others. “Theres good news and bad news.” Ah, the mistress of smalll talk.
speaks to the Vehru server who he met a few days ago and who happened to wander by. “So, it’s nothing but water, right? Like, there’s some land masses, but there’s so much water it loops around on itself.” He’s clearly talking about Samudra.
: “Fire away.”
: “Bad news first?”
: “Ah! Bad news first so we can get fired up!”
looks rather bemused. “What else is new…?”
: “Oh-“ He quickly turns to the party. “-there’s three moons now, that’s a different kind of bad news- but go on-“
: “At least there is good news.”
: “Bad news is a few of the passages I knew wouldn’t actually fit some of you. I thought they would, but they were smaller than I thought. Good news is I found a different way around.”
: “My apologies.”
makes eye contact with Chaya as he swallows his current mouthful and pauses eating for the first time you’ve seen, listening attentively.
: “Are there any downsides to the other way around?”
ꙮ Bunk mews, and headbutts Archie’s ankle pleasantly.
gives it affectionate but absentminded pets (and a tiny nibble of bread!).
: “Nothing you can’t handle. It wont be comfortable, but its manageable. We’ll need more water, it takes a bit longer.”
ꙮ Bunk sort of contemplates the bread thoughtfully for a minute and nuzzles Archie’s paw instead. (Bunk eats gnosis!)
: “Where are we going?” he asks, innocently, because he really doesn’t know. Drinks it down with some orange water.
takes the nibble of bread instead, reaches back out, and focuses from his fingers a tiny stream of pellucid gnosis.
ꙮ Bunk purrs riotously, pellucid gnosis is a Rare Treat.
: “At least we have plenty of capacity to carry things.” She glances at Aurelius, Luĉja, and Wolf in turn. Her entrusted Clan members for Carrying Lots Of Shit.
looks distinctly amused. “Expect heavily loaded packs, yes ma’am.”
looks at Salme with an eyebrow raised, gesturing to his Cloak of Many Pockets.
concedes Archie’s pockets with a nod of her head.
: “Cave diving. Its going to be very deep.” She looks at Dyu. “They drag you into this or are you staying here?”
: “When you say diving, do you mean literal diving? If so, I might be able to help us there.”
gives Dyu a look of “Chaya was worried about -me-“ to convey the level of expected danger.
shoots Dyu an amused look. “The adventure will be good for the boy.”
: “No, not literal diving. I have found pathways that take me through the underground lakes, but fortunately we get to skip those today.”
Looks to Qarina. “Of course Chaya was worried about you!”
murmurs, loud enough that Wolf can hear, “Izaak has competition I see.”
looks a little chagrined, murmuring back: “It’s complicated.”
nods to Chaya with a grin, “They’ve not dragged me into anything I’m not willing to be part of.”
stares at Dyu, eyes widening, and taps her spoon against the table, staring “Excuse me?!” back at Dyu
, back at Wolf, says, “I didn’t expect you two to blend families so so soon.”
gives Qarina a look that says, “there’s no excuse for you, my dear.”
flushes but answers Salme with an elaborate eye roll. “I’ll tell you more later.”
gives him a thumbs up.
shifts eyes from person to person to person, silently absorbing subtext as he chews on a piece of bread not unlike a grazing cow.
: “So cave-diving. We need water. Any other preparations? Food, I presume. Will be we sleeping rough? Is it a multiple day expedition?”
drums her fingers a bit nervously on the table.
discovers that he’s stopped petting Bunk when Bunk kindly reminds him of his duties and obligations. He looks at Chaya a little disappointed. “Not to be boastful, but with me there, the lake route might end up being easier. But I won’t deny I’m curious to see new places, too, so I won’t object.” To Salme, “With certain options at our disposal, there’s a limit to how rough we’ll need to worry about sleeping. We can get some extra provisions, but we’re decently well-stocked on food there as well.”
ꙮ Mew!
keeps shoveling up stew and bread and crickets. “Less than a day down, but pack extra. You’ll want the comfort afterward. It is not a nice place we go.”
: “Define ‘not a nice place’?”
: “Worse comes to worse… we raid the library’s bar?”
: “Then perhaps having a healer there will come in handy!”, he says, before eating a bite of bread, dunked into the dregs of his bowl of soup.
: “It is not physically uncomfortable, but your mind will probably be unsettled. Or maybe not, you people are strange and surprising.”
shrugs his shoulders. “Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut if we’re rough camping for the fun of it… we can get by no matter what!”
: “The library was my thought as well. There are a few places comfortable enough for sleeping, and we have food. I’d like to show our new friends the place, anyway, unless there are any objections.”
waves at Chaya at the words ‘strange and surprising.’
: “Yes, you definitely count.”
pulls a rock out of their bag, and eats it.
: “Shade and comfort are sacred here, and I would share what of ours we can with them.”
ꙮ People are starting, slowly, to filter out of the big common room, and go about their daily business. (A lot of waves to Clan Emberlight, as people depart, just like when people were filing in.)
: “Looks like you’ve been busy while I was gone.”
gives various “bye”s and “see ya”s and “catch ya later”s as they slowly filter out.
gives a series of nods, smiles, and two-finger salutes to a number of people as well. “Simply being helpful.”
waves to their new friends in the kitchen crew
waves as people filter out, giving smiles as they go.
gives a couple waves herself. She mostly helped out with any mending that needed done. Not that there was a lot, considering the level of gnosis in people’s clothing.
ꙮ There was enough, though, and it mattered to those you helped.
ꙮ Ari the glassworker and one of his apprentices comes over and gives the Awoken a big pat on the shoulder, at one point– and then it’s the six of you, and your local friends, preparing for your expedition.
ꙮ Not too hard to get some packs prepared with food and delving supplies - Chaya’s done this enough times that she knows pretty much exactly what you need, and Aurelius stashes a few things in the pocket dimension because he’s [Always Prepared].
tosses Dyu a tomestone before they set out.
catches it, and puts it into his pack, with a mental note to ask for more info about the tomestone later.
looks over to Ari. “I understand you’re the craftsman who made the sunscope! Excellent work!” To Awoken: “I don’t suppose we still have it? Any damage?”
: “Oh yeah, we still got it. No perceptible damage, and I think we could get more shots out of it before having to scrub the insides…”
ꙮ A few tunnels and caverns that are well-lit and well-travelled, with patterned lights sunk into the floor and luminescent moss on the walls, that’ve gotten familiar to you at this point, and then Chaya leads you deeper in, and the floor lights give out first, and then, after some time, the moss does, too. Bunk stays some distance in front of her at all times, so that it looks for all the world like the entire party’s being led around by the little grey cat.
: “Excellent. I had an idea, and I’m happy to help with the maintenance.”
is paying close attention to the turns–if someone’s close to him, they might hear him muttering a little under his breath. “Past three corridors, a left…”
is pestering Dyu right up until the moss goes out. Then she’s hammer out, eyes wide, mouth shut.
is dressed lightly for the journey, eliding much of the heavier outer wear, though he’s still covered head to in his linen tunic and pants, and is wearing some thick gloves that he got from the glassblowers.
ꙮ You’ve not -yet- seen an Elemental in the caves themselves, although, you suppose, there could always be a first time.
hangs toward the very back, keeping pace, but only just. She draws a thread of tenebrous gnosis into herself—not enough to lose herself entirely, but. As a reminder.
looks down to make sure he doesn’t lose his footing and notices a stain on his cloak from breakfast, hurriedly wicking it away with an all-too-practiced application of pellucid gnosis.
ꙮ Somehow, this deep underground, the faintest breeze kicks up, keeping the air fresh. It’s pleasant.
he tolerates Qarina’s pestering, only mildly aggravated, until the moss ends, then he’s on alert.
lets the danger finder lead, the way he’s designed to. She’s close on his tail though, faintly-glowing green eyes making sure of the footing. A stone in her hand will occasionally refresh marks on the walls. She’ll tell the others about what was found in various spots along the way, and any unexplored recesses she still hasn’t gotten to.
sticks close to Dyu, keeping an eye on the young Kin in between attempting to keep a mental map in his head.
, from the back, calls out, “Have you found any other particularly interesting ruins or caves, Chaya? I know you said you … knew, what you’d show us. But are there other things?”
he envelops a hand with a bit of radiant gnosis, to give a little light if it is needed to see.
: “Many other things. If I it wasn’t two days out of the way, I would show you the Singing Lake. It is my favorite. Ruins of entire sunken cities, very dangerous but also chock full of useful things. Rocks with bones in them, sometimes. Its a whole different world down here. It will still kill you, of course.”
’s eyebrows go up sharply. “Entire cities?”
ꙮ Probably a couple of you with little motes of light out, after the moss gives out; it’s certainly enough to see by. The same dark, sturdy rock all the way down, remarkably consistently - in a few places, almost looking like it was worked with gnosis into chambers that were once used, like the ones closer to the surface are in use, and have been out of use for a long time; others are more treacherous ground, but Chaya knows how to guide you through. At a certain juncture, where Chaya’s mental map gives two possible paths to take, Bunk begins insistently mewing an objection to one of the paths and lashes its tail irately at the very prospect.
: “Ohohohoho! Neat!”
lets his eyes glaze over in wonder at the thought of it and its similarity to certain Samudran locales. “I should very much like to see it, ideally before we leave. I think it could be very enlightening.”
huffs a bit of a laugh. “The most beautiful things usually are. Able to kill you, I mean.”
thinks of the most dangerous fiends on the Beast. The ugly ones kill just as well, where they’re from.
nods to himself as Chaya talks. No real surprise there were larger cities down in, and not just a collection of personal rooms.
: “Many buildings with spaces in between them,” she nods at Wolf. “Close enough to a city for me.” She crouches down to pet Bunk, listening to his complaints, and nods, gesturing for him to head the way he isn’t complaining about. Only a fool ignores their familiar, and she is not a fool.
ꙮ Other way seems fine. Some nice stairs cut into the path on the steepest incline that way, anyway, whether by some long-forgotten apostate or– otherwise, who’s to say.
skims her fingers along the granite wall of the cave, feeling the cool, inert stone. She draws a bit more tenebrous gnosis into herself anyway.
decides the steep steps are getting too precarious for his short legs. He focuses on drawing from the moisture on the breeze, coalescing it into a bubble-shaped floating blob of water for him to recline and float down on. Pleased with himself, he does a little twirl in the water just for show.
: “How do,” and she forces herself to keep her voice normal, even though a certain resonance wants to bleed in, “how do you keep records here? If you do keep records?”
stumbles–just a little, more of scuff of his boot on the stairs–but he reaches out to brace against the wall as he descends, eyes flicking off to the side at…nothing, really, head tilted.
: “Stone tablets.” A pause. “No, just kidding. I have a book I write things down in. I found a place with many boxes of them, all empty.” She pats a pocket of her coat. “Once I fill it up I give it to the sietch, so they have a record of what is safe and what is not. Then I start a new one.”
shakes their head. Looks around. They pause, and reset some of their gears that appear to have slipped a bit.
looks at Luc. “You hear it, don’t you?”
: “Yes. I can also hear your heart. I am…actively resisting acclimating myself to it. I prefer to keep time by a more…universal metric. This place is slow and strange.”
: “My heart?” Wolf blinks at Luc, for once distinctly rattled.
headtilts at Lucja. “How can you hear -his heart-??”
: “Like the Deepforge, if it was different, maybe.” They nod at Wolf. “I can hear that your heart hears it. I assume you would be able to do the same if I adjusted my internal timing.”
: “It is in time with the pulse of wherever here is. I am no World-singer, but The Beast has always had a heartbeat. This place has one too.”
takes a deep breath, exhales–sees if what he hears slows when his own heartbeat does. “Indeed…”
: “Slower. Stronger.”
whispers a “FASCINATING” to himself.
: “Do not attune yourself to the heartbeat of this world.” Even for her typical blunt mannerisms, that sentence carries a sense of actual forbiddance.
: “Indeed, Yazhn. I would choose the same word.”
raises an eyebrow at Chaya.
: “Struck, it grieves. Beating, it lives,” she recites, “The striking never stopped happening, only receded far enough to feel like a rhythm…”
: “I am…trying not to.” He deliberately breaks the rhythm of his breathing, trying to un-synch himself–even though that kind of synchrony is what he does.
ꙮ There is an odd regularity, after the steep segment, to the passageways through the caves, here. Some obvious places where rubble and rock was cleared away. Largely Chaya’s own painstaking work. Like a slow spiral in towards some central point.
ꙮ You’re getting close, now.
calls a short rest. “Water. Food, but not too much. Soon it gets… bad.”
: “Define ‘bad,’ please.”
ꙮ And you can hear the rhythm echoing in your blood, in your veins, in the small and private caverns of bone and meat inside your ears. Slow. Steady. Persistent. Eternal. With a little discipline, you can put the awareness of it aside. For now.
ꙮ Archie, do you have a gnosis-blank?
: “You hear it. It is not your friend. It will only get worse.”
: “Slowin’ for snacks!” He pauses right before pulling from a bota of orange water, noticing the rhythm. “…oh!”
struggles to put it aside–rhythm, melody, these are his lifeblood. “What…why is it dangerous?”
takes a sip from a water-bottle.
sits for awhile. Tapping the time as they remember it against the stone, their core fighting the reverberations in their chest.
produces a spare blank from a pocket somewhere. He works quickly, having recently re-familiarized himself with the process - first the inscryption, then the quicksilver.
drops the gnosis from herself long enough to sidle up to Awa and gesture at his bota. “I’d like to try.”
: “Mm– here!” He helps to pour some into her mouth. “It’s got a tang that’ll have you believin’ your own heart, and not the worlds’!”
ꙮ You pour the quicksilver onto the inscribed glass pane, as everyone else gathers for snacks and quick refreshments before you descend further. The quicksilver nearly drips off the edge of the glass – not the fault of the inscription, you know you performed it correctly. The stasis is almost complete, here.
takes a sip from her water, and offers it to Dyu.
almost chokes because she wasn’t quite expecting him to pour it into her mouth, but she’s adaptable. She blinks. “Oh. That is tasty.”
visibly looks for a way to put it into words. “It wants you to live in the same pain that it does.” A pause. “Want may not be the correct word. I dont know if it is… directed enough for that. It simply… by being near it, you are in danger.”
bows his head appreciatively to Qarina, and takes a sip of her water.
: “What wants us to live in the pain it does?”
laughs a little. “You’re such a Yazhn. Bowing to your friend, underground, who knows how far away from The City.”
looks down at the blank in alarm. He thinks about it - could this be the source of Mu’s radiant gnosis? Curious, he tries the quicksilver again, this time trying to channel tenebrous gnosis into the blank simultaneously.
: “The heart.”
laughs in return. “You can take the Yazhn out of the Temple, but you can’t take the Temple out of the Yazhn, I suppose.”
ꙮ Archie: Whatever way you modify the gnosis-blank, the stasis is too strong for it to even let the quicksilver sink in enough to even take a reading. Whatever the epicenter is, whatever it means – you’re sure it’s close.
: “…I fear I may be in some difficulty, then.” He gives a faint smile as he says it, but there’s sweat on his forehead.
: “The suspense is terrible… I hope it’ll last.”
: “Mmm, don’t like that. I wish we had enough time to find a countermeasure. Chaya, you’ve been here before and survived, right? Is there any trick to it?”
places a hand on Wolf’s shoulder. “We will overcome even this. Do your best to sing with us.”
nods, once…closes his eyes and tries to focus on the five–eight–other instruments around him…and the one far beyond them, more imagined than heard.
shakes her head. “It almost got me. I don’t know of any fancy tricks or deflections or evasions. It just rolls you over and buries you.”
ꙮ For a small mercy, unlike the Sun’s light, it doesn’t seem like it’s doing any physical harm. It’s just… powerful. hard to ignore. The physical sense and sound of blood rushing in your ears. Your own breath wants to follow it. Your steps want to follow it. But you are many, and you shine brightly.
reaches out and puts a hand on Wolf’s arm. “I’ll help you as best I can. For you, and for Teacher.”
: “Teacher’s okay, right? Everyone’s okay back home?”
isn’t really sure who else she means by ‘everyone,’ since Dyu is here.
pats Dyu’s hand. “Thank you, Dyu. Listening to the others helps.”
: “Aye, Teacher, and everyone, are okay.”
waits until people have had the chance to recoup their strength and stands up, dusting off her coat. “I hope you people can make more sense of this than I did. I’d hate to have brought you down here for nothing.” And she resumes leading them further down the spiral.
nods, following closely behind Chaya.
grits his teeth and follows, looking grim.
picks up her hammer, and stands by Dyu, trying to look like she’s confident.
: “Play the song of yourselves in your ears, if you must!” He hums lightly- low high high low, low high high…
moved closer to Qarina and says in a hushed tone, “I believe Teacher has found a kindred spirit in Wolf.”
decides, then, she has had enough of being human, of this slow, spiraling descent into something fated. She draws tenebrous gnosis up into herself, and becomes darkness and wind, spiraling around Wolf’s shoulders before falling back to the rear again.
whispers back “I mean, I think we already knew that, but that’s good. They seemed real happy at breakfast the other day.”
takes the rear, and the most time to fit through parts of the passages, purposefully moving, stepping, humming against the rhythm of this place.
takes a moment to toss a breeze through Qarina’s hair.
ꙮ And you think, for a moment, turning and turning tighter and tighter, closer and closer in to some point in space that you know, with every artery and gear in your body, must exist, but cannot yet see, that it will never end. But Bunk keeps picking its way through, and Chaya after it, and the rest of you after her – and, again, in the middle of the bowels of the desert, there’s a breeze. Forceful, this time, and known to all of you, and it is Salme and more than Salme – and it is easier, then, to take the next step forward, and the step after that.
follows along, beside Qarina, whispering, “Well, yes, but I’m trying to be…diplomatic, here. And I’m glad, teacher deserves to be happy.”*”
looks over to the whirling Salme, and a look of surprise crawls across his brow.
feels that dark breeze across his shoulders, cooling his skin…closes his eyes and draws on something within himself…and when his eyes open, his pupils are so dark they’re nearly black. The light in Dyu’s hand doesn’t seem to reach him the same way anymore–he’s shadowed oddly. “Thank you, Salme.”
: “Yeah, you would be. I’m…glad too. He’s got a lot to deal with. And anything that helps him, is good in my book, I think.”
jumps at the breeze, but only a little
nods to Qarina. “Agreed.”
: “I cannot see you, Friend-Salme, but thank you for walking with me.”
notices the change in Wolf’s voice, and headtilts in his direction.
eddies briefly around the Awoken Prince, and a brush of cool air kisses his cheek, and then curls around each of them, a little like a cat. The wind is not still, you know. It’s unpredictable, it’s never it the same place twice. She tugs a bit at Chaya’s hair but never steps in front of her. Just twines between them all with no real pattern, but always coming back to Wolf.
smiles a bit, one corner of his mouth turning up as he notices Dyu’s look. “Tenebrous.”
gives an expression that says, “Ahh, okay.”
shakes her head. Yazhn always just say words like they explain everything. Maybe it’s the books.
bites into a wild grin, with redoubled wind under his boots. “(This is how we’re gonna beat ‘em,)” he mutters with a snort of pride, and rotates his shoulders around in warm-up for a fight.
puts a hand up to keep Salme from blowing her hat away and keeps leading on, Bunk falling back to walk beside her now that the path is known and safe. Its just the destination the familiar objects to.
ꙮ And then you turn one last tight corner. There is a cavern, and it is– bright? It’s bright. It’s bright with the light of the Sun, streaming in from crystalline panels growing out from the ceiling of the cavern that seem to be looking out into the sky of the desert itself, and– the light does not harm you, in such a way, it’s almost pleasant to be present in, after the cool damp of the caves, and that is, itself, wondrously strange, but it is not– it could not be– what draws your eye. ⁂
ꙮ That would be the absolutely enormous crystalline heart taking up the vast bulk of the cavern; big enough that you’d have to crane your neck all the way up to look at it all. Rainbows of light refract through it, billowing out from some point deep within; you can feel a pulse of stasis shoving outward from the surface of the heart like a physical force, billowing itself out into the world. There is the space of one breath, and then:
- You hear — and your Star hears — a song, echoing from the stillness: Eternity
ꙮ Light pulses through the crystal heart. For one beat, you are somewhere else. White stone beneath an immense weight. Green beyond it: leaves layered upon leaves, wet branches, a river catching sunlight. So much moves beneath that sky. So much is alive. Light shimmers off grey glass. ⁂
ꙮ Below you, the human looks at you, gratitude in their eyes, welling with their tears. They would be Unmade, if not for you. ⁂
ꙮ Above you, a shape interrupts the light. Wings as black as night, with pinpricks of starlight dusting the patagia. Talons, sharp as subtle obsidian knives. They fall towards you. You feel each point enter. The talons close upon something deeper than flesh, and draws it apart. ⁂
ꙮ There is a sound you have heard before—the world opening where no opening ought to be. Here it continues. Through the stone beneath you. Through the green beyond it. Through distances that had, until this instant, joined one place to another. ⁂
ꙮ The pain is immense. So is the love. It reaches toward the river, the leaves, the innumerable lives beyond the stone. There is no time to count them. There is no time to say anything to them. The talons tighten. Light pours through the wound. For an instant it catches the bent head above you, the claw buried to the wrist, the edges of vast wings. Then the wings come apart in the brightness, and the brightness remains. ⁂
ꙮ You know that light. You have crossed a desert beneath it. ⁂
ꙮ Light pulses through the crystal heart. For one beat, you are somewhere else. White stone breaking under your talons. The smell of damp in the air, well-tended but sprawling orchards and the wilds beyond. The sky observes, impassively. ⁂
ꙮ Below you, the human looks at you. They are still here. The Phthora did not, will not, take them. You will not allow that. ⁂
ꙮ Above you, a shape interrupts the light. Silver-gilt black-velvet wings, whose softness you know. Talons you’ve watched sunlight glint off. They fall towards you. They part your flesh, they grab hold of that which was, already, in every possible way, their own. ⁂
ꙮ There is a sound you have heard before, but it reverberates, a rippling crack, spiderweb fractures inverting every colour you love in the world, spreading in all nine directions. ⁂
ꙮ The pain is immense. So is the love. You reach out with every sense and feel the living world, in what you suddenly know are its last moments. That all will break; that all, perhaps, already broke. That the universe was born like this; that it was only a matter of time until rending light tore syzygy to shattered glass. Your wings shred in the light; you are torn, and torn, and torn– ⁂
ꙮ You know that light. You have crossed a desert beneath it. ⁂
ꙮ Light pulses through the crystal heart. Again. White stone beneath an immense weight. Green beyond it. Light shimmers off grey glass. ⁂
ꙮ The human looks up. Tears fall from their eyes. You reach to free them from their Unmaking. ⁂
ꙮ A shadow above. Betrayer-wings, black as night. Talons, falling. Catching on something, deeper than flesh. ⁂
ꙮ The pain is immense. So is the love. There is no time… ⁂
ꙮ You know the light. You have crossed a desert beneath it. ⁂
ꙮ Light pulses through the crystal heart! ⁂
knows this light. She has crossed a desert beath it. And more. She has stood in this light before, in this cavern, seen these moments, felt this pain. But today she will not stop. Today the cycle will not hold her. The light of the sun does not break her. She stands, resolute.⁂
The light of the heart does not break her. She endures, resolute. ⁂
ꙮ Starlight begins to rise, in whorls, around Chaya.
The weight of the world does not break her.⁂
She survives.🙧
- You hear — and your Star hears — a song, echoing from the stillness: Emet Mekheberet
ꙮ Starlight billows out behind her, like wings, like a shield, enveloping all of you–
ꙮ And you can breathe, you are here, and now, and not in the Heart’s eternal Moment. It still pulses, it still beats, of course. But your will is yours.
ꙮ 🙧
lets out a slow breath as the visions and and his eyes glow golden out of sync with the light in the room. “My will is my own.”
: “Enough!“ Wolf roars, in a voice like stone–and his shadow flares out to join with the starlight shield, deepening its darkness, brightening its stars. He is panting, raggedly. “Enough.”
The wings ripple with the beat of the heart, muting the madness, and at the heart of the storm stands Chaya. Unbending, resolute. The mountain will fall before the Survivor bends this day.
: “A lie? Is it a lie they know to be a lie, or simply a lie-turned-tradition?” Archie pants out the words, his mind already racing even before he’s finished taking stock of his body and injuries.
ꙮ A voice like wind, more than stone, a voice that joins Salme’s presence to howl its freedom. And, standing in the shield of starlight and shadow– collecting yourself, finding yourself even in the face of its Presence – maybe not this moment. But in the next moment, or the moment after that, you could stand unshielded but for your own will, and not be overwhelmed.
: “Well, I mean, we know where the heart’s supposed to go, and it’s certainly not here…”
gives a sharp exhale, and sends out a wave of radiant gnosis, to ease the strain everyone feels. “Be as a bulwark to that which is against us.”
: “That was the Sundering.” It’s not a question.
: “I cannot begin to fathom how we would bring a heart back to the Sun, though.”
ꙮ It is a testament to Dyu’s strength - which you all feel, in this moment, flooding out from him - that his gnosis reaches all of yours, in the Heart’s presence. And while the Heart did not harm your bodies, it’s still a welcome reprieve.
reels back, unhooking a bottle of water from his belt, and quickly moves to ingest it- except not, instead spitting it out into a misty shower above him, focusing the feeling of each droplet as it lands over his body. He remembers each drop, each prick of coolness, forming an image of himself that he could never forget.
: “So…whatever that thing…was, ripped out the Sun’s heart…and now…everything is like this?”
: “A moment, beating infinitely.”
whispers to Dyu, “Please tell me you learned something in Yazhn school to help with this?”
: “Seems like it.”
: “The longest death rattle of a fallen deity.”
whispers to Qarina, “Unfortunately, I haven’t the slightest idea what -any- of this is.”
: “Is the question… how to return the heart…?”
isn’t wind or darkness anymore, and she’s grateful for Chaya’s light because she’s not sure she could stand in the Heart’s presence and maintain her own will. “Why does it seem like the same fucking story over and over again?”
: “Or how to make time finally… finally, catch up with reality.”
: “That…seems dangerous.”
: “…Because it is? Everywhere is just vistages of the initial one.”
: “Was it the same, every time? It seemed like there were subtle differences.”
looks to Lucja. “Isn’t it, though?” He asks, wistfully.
: “I suppose we very well might discover that danger is your middle name, Awoken Prince. We have yet to shy from it. Though I have not a single idea on how to resolve anything we’ve seen.”
: “Why? Why?” She doesn’t quiet scream it, not at Aurelius, but. But. She might, if she could. “Some great beast, tearing apart the world? Are we just … echoes of something that happened forever ago, doomed to play it out again and again and again and again and again and … it’s fucking bullshit.”
shrugs, slightly.
: “We know what happened, at least. Even if why still eludes us. And how that moment turned to our worlds…” He shrugs, grimaces. “As ever, more questions.”
: “I have to believe that some way, some how, this time will be different.”
: “Then now, with all that has changed, perhaps we will play our parts differently, for the first time.”
: “Do we know what happened? We saw images of it. We saw—a perspective. We don’t know how we got to that moment. We don’t know what the stakes were.”
: “Right, we saw the what, not the why.”
: “Hence the ‘why’ eluding us–” He looks over at Aury, realizes they’re on the same wavelength, and looks like he doesn’t know whether he wants to laugh or scowl.
: “Solutions is where I’m at.” He pounds a fist into a palm.
looks like she wants to rip something apart. “We saw a what. A fragment of a what. But there was already a concern about an Unmaking. There was—right. This isn’t productive.”
: “Your idea of talking to it is really something, Salme. It’s likely part of what we need.”
: “The simplest answer, as I see it, is we have to make God accept that they’re dead, and it’s going to be okay.”
: “It falls into place, really.”
lifts his eyebrows at the Awoken–but not so much in shock, but in thoughtful surprise. “Does it…?” He doesn’t sound entirely doubtful, however.
looks to Wolf, and despite the hard brow, pumped stance, and wild grin, there’s a softness to his words: “There’s a world where the dead are joyous.”
: “Hmm.” He looks around at the others. “I am not sure here is the place to process these revelations.”
: “I can’t help but feel like we haven’t found the root cause yet, though. Think about it - if the Rites of Renewal were directly responsible for the catastrophe, why would things be getting worse on all the worlds in advance? It makes the most sense to assume the Rite is a response to whatever the true threat is, that the Rites are the threat itself. It feels like we’re observing symptoms, still.”
ꙮ There are, certainly, more comfortable places, far from the epicentre of the stasis-field suffusing the plane entire.
: “Seems as good a places as any, though I guess Chaya might not want to keep this up for much longer.”
: “Agreed. Elsewhere would be more pleasant.”
considers for a second, before placing a hand on her shoulder. “(See, you didn’t need to fight any elementals. Just stare down the heart of a dead celestial.)”
dares to look back at the crystal. “Now, basking in the uncut faces of the Heart of Mu- is where it’s most clear that this world isn’t dying.”
: “It’s already dead.”
: “Then there must be a way to revitalize it. I refuse to accept the Architect’s conclusion.”
manages two words. Practically bitten off at the quick under the strain of holding up the bulwark. “Get. Out.”
: “Then, the question is whether we can restore the sun’s heart, or whether or not we can make a new sun, perhaps.”
gets out.
: “Understood.”
leaves as well, ushering Dyu and Qarina in front of him.
: “Uh uh. Not leaving you here.”
snaps his attention to the moment at hand and swiftly exits, following Salme’s lead.
takes Chaya’s hand. “I’ll drag you myself if I have to.”
kicks from the ground, not sparing a look back, heading back into a shadier tunnel, up distant stairs, far from this gravesite.
: “Be right. Behind you. Promise.”
ꙮ And yet, and yet. The Heart beats in its inexorable time, pulsing billow of light after pulsing billow of light blooming from its core, one and then another and then another. (And then you exit the caverns, and it is, mercifully for Chaya, and for all of you, out of sight, and the pull immediately eases for each of you, as you do so.)
: “You better be, Chaya.”
: “I’m leaving and counting to ten.”
walks slowly backwards out once Qarina starts moving, keeping an eye on Chaya just in case she winds up needing a shoulder.
retreats. One slow step. Another. Another Each foot planted like a thousand year old stone. The Survivor will not bend. But she’s not going to waste time getting out of a bad situation. Once she has gotten into the hallway she staggers and leans against the wall, panting.
: “NINE!”
: “Oh Thank…something. not God.” and tackle hugs Chaya into a wall.
nudges Dyu towards Chaya. “Thank you, Chaya. We would have been trapped if not for you.” His shadow is still doing strange things around his feet.
he rushes over to Chaya, gives her a hug as well, and takes one of her hands, and lets his gnosis flow into her, easing the tax of the exertion she just made.
gives an eloquent grunt. “Yeah.” She takes a long draw on her canteen. “Hope you’re happy, Aurelius. You got your song.”
is currently busy being an alabaster-and-gold statue holding a strange square of stone.
ꙮ It’s so good when Dyu’s around at the sietch, isn’t it?
: “We sure are! Thanks for taking point!”
looks to Chaya, “Does that feel better?”
looks at the Salme statue, and, now having a moment of odd experimentation, decides to try to lift it.
ꙮ It’s… I mean, it’s a very heavy statue. But nothing terribly untoward occurs.
: “Got the song, confirmed the missing part of the probably-a-dead-Shade, basically confirmed one of them exploding was what broke the world… all in all pretty pleased with the excursion, yeah.” Aurelius nod in thanks to Chaya.
: “(Ah, yeah, not getting her out simultaniously, then…)”
unstatue-fies mid-lift.
: “–oh!”
blinks. “What the fuck?”
nods at Dyu. “Yeah.” She draws in the energy slowly but deep, starting to rebuild reserves long left un-tapped. “That, quite frankly, sucked.”
ꙮ Awoken, invoke Burning at DC 4 to see if you can salvage that into a sudden princess carry.
- The Awoken Prince invoked their 🔴burning gnosis [d4] -> 4! It ✨explodes!
- The Awoken Prince invoked their 🔴burning gnosis [d4] -> 2.
- The Awoken Prince spent 2 Arete and now has 2 remaining.
ꙮ Ascension!
: “You’re really good at what you do, though.”
- The Awoken Prince‘s 🔴burning gnosis has ascended unto the 6ᵗʰ rank.
- The Awoken Prince invoked their 🔴burning gnosis [d6] -> 3.
ꙮ The Awoken was lovingly cradling the Salme-statue, somehow, bafflingly, within a split second of it becoming Salme again.
: “Hi Salme! I was gonna carry you out while you needed a moment. I can still carry you, if you’d like.” He smiles brightly.
smiles softly at Chaya, continuing to funnel gnosis into her slowly. “Full glad am I, moreso that I’m here to aid you.”
: “I was just accessioning the images of the corpse in the sky. It seemed silly to elide them from Dyu and Qarina and Chaya after they saw that.” She doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get out of the carry though. “Thank you, Chaya, for helping us.”
: “And to think I was worried!” He nuzzles her, still smiling, and he asides to the Mu natives. “They’re great pictures. But maybe we should look at ‘em when closer to a spout of orange water.”
takes one more deep breath. Pushes off from the wall. “You needed to see it. I was the only one that could show you.” She gently squeezes Dyu’s hands. “I don’t know what it means for the temple. I wasn’t sure I wanted you to see. But it wasn’t my choice to make.”
gently squeezes Chaya’s hands in return. “What it means for the Temple…will be something for Future Us to be concerned with.”
nods. “Dyu, we gotta catch up before heading back. I uhh…I’m gonna need a hand figuring out some stuff.”
ꙮ Somehow, it feels easier getting out than it felt getting in. The pulse is– now that you’ve confronted it behind Chaya’s shield, it’s significantly easier to Deal With, so there’s that, at least.
nods. “Oh, we most definitely do.”
: “Yeah….” She looks at Qarina. “Yeah.”
: “And that was before we saw a giant crystal heart in the caves.”
looks, quietly, very proud of Dyu.
sees Wolf’s look, and smiles brightly in return.
gives the Kin a small two-finger salute.
does wiggle to be let down after a while, because she can walk perfectly fine.
ꙮ Even climbing the stairs seems somehow easier than descending them (except for Archie, unless he clambers on to Luĉja’s shoulder like Ĉasid, or something, which might not actually be the worst idea.) And then, not too much longer than that, iridescent moss on the walls in the distance.
waits for the wiggles, because he’s got no problem carrying her straight up. He acquiesces.
will happily carry anyone who needs a break
: “How many times have you stood in front of that, Chaya? Do you … have thoughts about what it might mean?”
gladly accepts Luĉja’s offer, clambering on his back.
ꙮ That does speed things up!
ꙮ Also, it’s adorable!
looks up at NIP, beaming!
does, at least at some point, end up leaning on Dyu a little–whatever he was doing with his shadow is gone, and between that and the strain of the Heart itself, he’s definitely in ‘one foot in front of the other mode’ before they get back to the sietch.
gladly props Wolf up, and helps him make the journey back to the sietch.
: “Once. It locked me down for damn near a week before I could crawl back into the hallway. And I couldn’t have even done that without Bunk half-dragging me.” A quiet snort. “I don’t know what it means. Now that you all have come around I have a rough idea, but it sounds like your boys got there while we were still down there.”
: “Not my boys. And I think we all sometimes forget to ask ourselves what we think we know and how we think we know it,” she says, and then adds, “I’m sorry that was something you stumbled on unprepared. I can’t imagine.”
: “A week! You were gonna tell me to walk away and leave you for a week!”
: “We were fully prepared to drag you out of there if we had to, you know!”
snorts softly. “I think we would have managed something other than leaving Chaya down there trapped.”
: “Aw, I don’t think she would’ve gone back down without a plan on how to come back up.”
to Wolf, “Well yes, but, trying to get that across to her, of course.”
shrugs. “I wasn’t sure if it was going to kill me this time. Or if I could disengage without shattering the bubble. or any number of other things. If it was my time to go, then I chose to go so that you all could get the hell out and do more good. Fortune smiles. We all got out.”
: “Okay, so there was no plan.”
: “Sure there was. I got you all there.”
scowls in Chaya’s direction, and to Awoken, “…clearly.”
: “…now I see why you fit in well with us.”
: “No plan for self-survival!” He puts his hands behind his head and smiles. “But it feels good knowing that you trust us that much.”
shakes his head in mild disbelief. “Your willingness to go to such great lengths to help us is noted with absolute gratefulness and respect. If there’s ever anything we can do to return the favor… well, I can only speak for myself, but don’t hesitate to ask.”
raises both of her eyebrows at ‘trust.’
: “Self survival is all well and good. But sometimes you put yourself in front of the knife because the person behind you absolutely must survive. You don’t measure the odds, you don’t weigh the pros and cons. You move. You stop the blade safely if you can, and with your body if you can’t.”
: “Yeah, we’ve done that dance before.”
gives a very ‘mm, yeah, that’s the way of it’ expression.
grumbles “ Yeahwellmaybeyouwouldn’tgetstabbedifyouletmehelpyou “
: “But never discount that the happy ending can also include yourself.”
: “Even if it seems impossible.”
: “You’re the Survivor, not the Martyr!”
gives Chaya an exasperated look. “Good thing there’s a healer here today, isn’t it?”
: “Oh don’t get me wrong. I dont want to die. But I made my choice when I walked out of the city. Nobody out here lives forever. It’s just a question of time, and hoping I do good even with the end of lmy ife.”
nods at Chaya. There’s just a quiet respect and understanding there.
sighs, then smiles warmly at Chaya. “And I made my choice to -help you-, did I not? and You -have- done good, and will continue to do so, of that I am confident.”*”
: “For as long as I can, Dyu.” She nods. “And thankfully there’s not much in the world I have seen that is as bad as that cavern. So hopefully that’s a good long time, still.”
: “Anything that’s a close second?”
: “Not that I am going to talk about today, that’s for damn sure.”
: “(She’s going to take that as an invitation for a follow up…)”
He nods. “Thanks what I hoped to hear, and as long as I have anything to say about it.”, he says with a laugh and a smile.
gives Aurelius a flat look before turning back to Chaya. “That’s more than fair.”
grins. “And if it wasn’t fair thats just too damn bad. I want a beer, a soak, and about a weeks worth of sleep. Preferably in that order.”
ꙮ At least several of those things will be available in– well, the sietch is in sight, at this point.
hands Chaya a cold glass bottle as they walk.
: “That’s a good start. Thanks.”
ꙮ And there’ll be baths for all of you who want one - nothing super fancy, but they’ll do the trick - and rest to be had.