ꙮ Tsemdrulukh’s clearing and grove. The clearing itself is, of course, a sort of grove all on its own - wood-and-crystal sculpted-structures might as well be rooted, or sprouting, or in mid-leap. Tsemdrulukh themself is working on one of the apparatuses, carefully, while listening carefully for the knock of stone on wood from the device Aurelius used to send a message elsewhere. Some of the party’s left for the Courtyard already on swifts; Aurelius, at least, has stayed back, for the time being, it seems. 🙧
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- Aurelius
- The Awoken
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#tsemdrulukh
: “You got a minute for me to run a couple of things past you?”
doesn’t quite startle - they’re far too large and too deliberate-in-every-action for that. But there’s the vague sense that Aurelius snuck up on them. “We have so many minutes. What’s going on?”
: “So… I don’t know if the others have realized it yet - though they probably have if they took off for the Courtyard - but we’re about to… head out. From this world, I mean.”
: “Hunh.” They pause, thoughtfully, drinking the Centrelight for a moment. “…door’s open, again, then?” Their voice is -very- neutral.
: “Not as such. That was another thing. We… did find Ciet. They’re kind of. Stuck in the doorway underneath the Shrine. Basically impossible to open it up without ripping ‘em to shreads. Which is why we didn’t open the door.” Small pause, “So, I’m gunna open a new pathway instead.”
leans forward, perceptibly, listening.
: “I think if we pull ‘em out from Void-side we can do it, uh, safely. So my plan at the moment is to open this new pathway right alongside where the current gate is, get as close as we can without making extraction dangerous. That said, there is also the possibility that I could open it from elsewhere. Like, this location here is probably close enough that it wouldn’t be too hard to pinpoint Ciet’s location and get to it, if you happened to want a pathway into the Void with easy access for some reason.”
lets the wind rustle their leaves for a few moments, thoughtfully, considering Aurelius. “…you’re brilliant, you know that? Thank you. For.” A beat. “Trying to help them. Caring about a stranger from a world that…” Another moment, and they collect themself. “…so we’re at least a -little- guessing, but we -think- from what Tasna said… she never actually spent -time- Between. She never got -data-. You’ve… -been- there, it sounds like?”
pats the side of the large tree/crystal person. “Oh like they had a direct line between Samudra and Beast? Yeah that sounds… saner, honestly. But yeah we hung out in the Void for a bit before coming here. Even ran into the… remains… of someone? Something? Calling itself Ember? Might have ties to this world? Not really sure what was going on there, near some kind of ziggaraut and a lamppost and mirror. Strange stuff all around.”
: “She said it was just… a door. A door that went Between. She was pretty ticked off that she couldn’t poke around, actually, that’s… huh. That’s real interesting.” They rustle, a moment or two. “Never… heard of anything like that, although your Yeresh might be the one to ask about embers. Anyways, doesn’t… ring a bell to us, although when Tasna checks in we’ll ask. Anyways, uh, hm.” The crystal part of them shimmers lightly. “If Tasna’s right then it shouldn’t actually matter where here the door actually is, as long as you got a good read on what it sounds like on the other side. And it might… mmm.” They rustle, again. “Might be a good question for the King, honestly, or maybe the Sword-Saint. That Shrine’s secret and sacred. And it’s right in the middle of the Tangle. If you’re gonna be doin’… shenanigans, you might wanna consider doing it closer to the Courtyard, so that people can keep an eye on it, is all.”
glances to the left, glances to the right, “(Between you and me, I don’t think anyone else on this world really has enough knowledge to make that kinda call beyond you, personally?)” A cough. “But if you want I can defer to your King instead, sure. But like, there IS a non-zero chance weird unreal monsters find their way though it so I duno if the heart of your civilization is really a BETTER spot for it than the Tangle? Guess I can see why ya’ll might not want a second one in the Shrine though.”
: “Okay, so, probably not like. In the middle of the Courtyard, no. But… we still can’t even go into that shrine - we could but we still promised Ciet we wouldn’t. And if you are asking us, we think if you’re doing… whatever it is you’re doing… well. Let us know so that we can come watch, but also… there’s an old quarry not -too- far from the Courtyard. Defensible, if… we ever needed to defend it against anything. And not that we think anything’ll go wrong, but. Losing the six of you would be catastrophe enough. Losing the six of you and a Light knows how big chunk of the Tangle…”
rubs at his chin. “Yeah, that could work pretty well. See, I wouldn’t of thought of that if I just did it all off the cuff, this is why it never hurts to ask a locale.”
: “And yeah feel free to come watch the magic happen if we’re not doing it here. Feels like you’ve earned it.”
nods, solemnly. “Best ideas are the ideas you can bounce off someone at least as crazy as you are. Speaking of which when you all come back there’s some stuff we want to bounce off of you. It can wait, though.”
grins. “I like how confident you are that we’ll be back but… yeah, I also have a hunch that’ll be the case too.”
: “Can’t see as many seasons as we’ve seen without being good at waiting.” They seem amused, too. The crystal gleams.
: “Okay so like… two other things. First; You’re sure you don’t know what other names Tasna might be going by?”
is quiet for a long time, and the crystal shimmers, lightly, a few times, and then finally. “…yeah, no. Feels like True Names are important to her and she never wanted to talk about– she never really wanted to talk about much on her world, honestly.” A pause. “Your Queen might know where she’s hanging out, though? Get the impression she knows what everyone had for breakfast.”
: “Hrmm. Okay. Well, if she ever gets around to checking her messages, let her know to keep an eye out for the First Endjinn (neither of us can remember his name yet…) or Annarr in the comings days or weeks? Pretty sure we’re gunna hit Samudra first and then Beast, anyway. And, I guess, maybe ask her to let…” He pauses for a second, sifting through his memory in search of something in particular. “…Saranzaya know that both of us are alive and will be back soon. I imagine SQ probably does know but also hasn’t bothered saying shit yet.”
snorts softly, and the crystal shimmers. “We’ll be sure to pass the message along. Tasna goes quiet for days at a time, we’re just used to it at this point, but eventually she’ll be back.”
: “Alright.” Another pause, consideration, then shrug, before he pulls out a Very Fancy pamphlet from the inside of his vest and flips through a few pages of it, eventually coming to a stop on THE ARCHITECT’s entry. “And the other thing is this mother fucker. If he shows up while we’re gone, be EXTREMELY warey and on guard, and do not take anything he says at face value.”
leans in close to the pamphlet, for several reasons, crystal shimmering. “What in the Light is that? Anyways, so noted. Guy looks shady anyways…?”
: “Oh, this is uh… A Traveler’s Guide to Known Reality. I guess it records information on places we’ve gone and people of note we’ve met. No clue how or why, some of the entries are kinda weird. Feel free to give it a look through on the way to the Courtyard if you want.”
: “…utterly baffling.” They sound -profoundly- delighted. They do not get the chance to experience Profound Bafflement very often. Squints, riffling through the pamphlet. “What are… nevermind. Nevermind. We’ll worry about that later.” A wind-through-branches laugh. “Was there anything else you were curious about, friend? Tasna will say ‘the first virtue is curiosity’, and one supposes we say that now, too, these days.”
: “I think that’s probably good for now, double checking about the new gate pathway was the most pressing concern.”
: “We’ll probably have lots of fun data and stories when we get back though.”
: “We’re looking forward to hearing every one of them. Take care of yourself, and your friends, and Light shine on all of you, wherever you end up going.”
: “You too.”