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Post by Rheyna on Sept 24, 2007 0:13:08 GMT -5
Once again, Rhaina felt the power of a summoning spell pouring Shadow power down through her arms and body and into the ground beneath her feet. She held her body as still as she could, despite the impulse to shiver in response to all that Shadow. She wondered why warlocks seemed so untouched by the depths of the power they tossed around, why their primary disdain seemed to be for the arcane, not for the Light. As her thoughts wandered, the power coursing through their bodies caused a rift to open in the world, and through it stepped first Cassidy and then a tall silver-haired elf.
Rhaina felt concern as she stared at Sorcha, whom she hadn't seen since extracting the promise from her not to pursue the mstery of Pavel's disappearance herself. She'd had a few brief notes from her friend, and knew she had been studying with the priests in the Temple of the Moon. The woman who came through the portal looked like a quintessential druid, though, and even Rhaina, not particularly sensitive to the powers of the elements or of nature, could tell that Sorcha's powers had grown immensely since the last time they had been together.
Shaking her head to clear it of the many thoughts and questions that cluttered it, she stepped forward and took the druid in her arms, hugging her tightly. "How are you, Sorch?" she asked with a gentle smile.
Sorcha had to bend over to hug Rhaina, since the priest was such a small woman, but her hug was as enthusiastic as Rhaina's. There could be no doubt that she was glad to see her friend, regardless of the circumstances.
"I'm very tired," the druid answered. "I just came from a trip to the Dream with Ventus. Oh, Rhaina, it's another loss. He found his destiny, and it isn't with me." She sighed and a bleak experession crossed her face for a moment, quickly chased away by a glowing look of pure happiness. "But you will be happy to know that High Lord D'ana'no has returned from the Dream, returned to his body, completely free of the contamination. His time in the Dream clansed him and did something else, too, that I don't know how to describe. It's as if he's been distilled, or refined, or something. He's still himself, and he's forgiven himself for what he did to us all, too. So I imagine he will find a way forward from here."
"D'ana'no?" Rhaina said sharply. "Sorcha, the last time I saw him, he was lying dead under a destroyed city, and your seed and song couldn't call him back. Whatever happened?"
The elf smiled a little ruefully. "You'd have to ask Ysera and Elune. I don't know the answer. I just know I took Ventus into the Dream to see him, and everything changed."
She turned to face Mila, and continued speaking. "Greetings, Mila. I do recall our one meeting. I'm sorry that I could not come back here more quickly, but I was occupied in the Dream. Luckily, Lady Cassidy is able to pull some strings with the druid hierarchy, and they made sure that I learned of your need as soon as I returned from my wanderings."
Mila smiled briefly and nodded at the taller woman. Then she stepped aside, revealing a gnome bouncing on his toes behind her. "I don't believe you have met Litman. Litman, this is Sorcha'Rei Llyramanion, druid and priestess. Sorcha'Rei, this is Litman, gnomish researcher, master magician, and the whole reason we dragged you here tonight. I hope you can forgive us."
Sorcha's face settled into the grave expression Rhaina had most often seen on her face since word of Pavel's disappearance had reached them. "I will do what I can to help you, Litman, but I doubt it is much of value. I have not seen nor spoken to Pavel in many years."
Litman rolled his eyes, "You are an elf. It's been four years, a mere blink of your eye."
Sorcha chuckled ruefully. "Perhaps it only seems like many years, then. I believ you have questions for me?"
"I do indeed," replied the gnome. "Sit down over here, have Mila pour you some tea, and let's find out what you can do to help us find Pavel and Essa."
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Post by Rheyna on Oct 17, 2007 15:23:08 GMT -5
"So wait. You dumped Pavel because you couldn't stand the Light shining out of his eyes? And now you fill yourself with light as a druid, and fight as a priest in shadowform? Are you crazy, or is the world just topsy-turvy?" Litman sighed heavily, obviously frustrated with the story the druid had told him. "I didn't think druids had any truck with anything but Nature and Arcane powers, and priests are notoriously unintereted in balance."
"Litman," Rhaina started to say, and then was interrupted by Mila.
"Litman, if the Circle and the Temple are satisified with what Sorcha is doing, I hardly think that we, who are involved with neither, should question it."
The little gnome glared up at the steward. "I'm not questioning the Circle and the Temple, although I can tell you it's high time someone did. Something is wrong in Teldrassil, and nothing you can say will make me believe otherwise!"
He paused for a few seconds and took another sip of his tea. "Tell me again why you took up the priesthood. Not the deep philosophical reasons, but the proximate cause."
The elf gazed steadily at him. "I went back to the glade where I had fought the demon for D'ana'no, and there I encountered a hunter acquaintance. We both felt uneasy at the power we felt in the glade, and we wished to know more about it. So I took him into the Dream - I can do that, now, ever since the time I brought the kitten out, it seems that I can open the way there for people who are not druids to visit it. We went to the glade, and to our surprise, there were people there, and a large cat-like being. In the course of the evening's conversation, Emalia (the cat) called me "Druid, Priestess, Dreamer, Fool". I couldn't disagree with three of those names, but "Priestess"? Still, even after I was back in the Eastern Kingdoms and back about my business, I was haunted by that, and by my discomfort with how I couldn't get rid of the light from inside me -- which is all wrong for a Balance Keeper. So I went to the Temple of the Moon for advice, and they insisted that the only way Elune would answer me was to have me train as a priest. And now here I am. I blame Emalia."
Litman scowled. "Did you ever tell Pavel about this cat thing Emali-whatever?"
"No, this happened after he disappeared."
More scowling. "Can you do some priest thing, please?"
"I'd have to go change my clothes. The Temple of the Moon does not permit me to act the priest in my druidic armor. And the Circle is likewise intrasingent about letting me weave patterns of shadow and light while in the state of mind of a priest. They all require me to keep a clean birght line betwen the druid and the priest."
"How do you feel about that?"
"I am less interested in my abilities at any given moment than I am with what I can see."
"Explain yourself," the gnome said, more a command than a request. Rhaina wondered why he was getting so irritated.
Sorcha seemed to look off into the distance as she spoke.
"When I am a druid in the fullness of my powers, I feel a powerful connection to the world, and I use light to rebalance what is being unbalanced. I would call that which unbalances, Evil. Otherwise, I use the power that flickers in every living and non-living thing to allow me to shift my shape and my capabilities. It is through my connection to the world as it is, balanced with my ability to walk the Dream, that I live, breathe, sleep, act, and love.
"When I am a priest, I see light and shadow. I see balance not in terms of the world and the Dream, for as a priestess, I do not Dream. I see it instead in the play of light upon the face of shadow, the way in which shadow acts as a ground for light, making it visible and meaningful to us. I weave light and shadow directly, into patterns that flicker off my fingers and act to bring the two back into balance. I do not sing, as I do when I use druidic powers. I weave with my fingers and my mind and my heart and my spirit.
"I came to explore the priesthood of Elune because I was gifted greatly by Her, touched, and filled so often with Her light. I did not understand it, not being a creature of light and shadow. Now I am. And it deepens the ways in which I am also a creature of balance."
Litman scowled. "You are too concerned with philosophy and goddesses and other impractical matters, I think."
Sorcha suddenly grinned. "It is the gift of being long lived, I think. There is time for all the philosophy one could ever want to engage." Then her face sobered. "I think sometimes that night elves are doomed by our new mortality. We were designed to have unlimited time to sort ourselves out, and so we are often slow to do so. But now, that time runs out. It scares me, to be less than I was."
Litman sighed again. "If you had to do it again, would you still send Pavel away."
"I don't know. Not for the same reasons, certainly."
Litman pointed at the necklace, which lay on a scrap of parchment on the table. "Have you ever seen a gem like that before?"
Sorcha looked at it. "No. But it's very disturbing."
"In what way?"
"It's a rock of some kind. I can tell that it really is. But it has no flickering power. It's as if its essence has been drained. So maybe it would be more accurate to say 'It once was a rock of some kind'. Now it's just dangerous."
Litman looked at her with narrowed eyes. "What do you mean, 'flickering power'."
Sorcha replied, "Everything, animate, inanimate, sentient, or not, has power in it, the power of its materials. It is the power that we use to cast Nature spells. Druids also use it to fuel our arcane spells, because we have no direct access to the arcane. Everything around me, in this room, or any place I have ever been, has power in it. Powerful relics, like the idol I carry, they pulse with this power. Little pebbles on the ground, they flicker with it. Usually a small gem like this would flicker. But it is inert. Litman, this is very unusual. I am over 300 years old, and I have never one single time seen anything with no power in it at all."
Litman looked again at the gem. "Well, it has no arcane or elemental power in it, either. Rhaina, does it have any light or shadow?"
Rhaina reached out towards the object with her mind. Probing at it, she could feel nothing. "No, Litman, none."
"So this is a completely inert object? Sorcha, are you sure you have never seen nor heard of other inert objects?"
"No, Litman, there is always at least a tiny flicker of power. I was taught that it cannot be otherwise, because this is the power that holds an object together." She sighed. "I imagine the Circle would like to study an object without this power, but I myself as simply afraid of it."
"Afraid? Why?"
"It is an object that should not exist. And yet, there it is. I can think of only two ways that it could exist. It could be that someone has found a way to extract from objects their powers, leaving only this inert shell. This would mean that person has access to unlimited power. I am no expert in power extraction, but I do not think this would be possible. I would expect a drained object to start to regain power just from being in the world. After all, the object still exists, so the underlying power must still be there, somewhere. The other possibility is that someone is continually draining it."
Litman's eyes grew big. "This gem was found on the body of an agent of Pavel's enemy. why would you give a gem you are constantly draining to someone else?"
Cassidy spoke up. "Perhaps because you can use the conduit you create by draining it to carry something else, as well?"
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Post by Rheyna on Oct 23, 2007 4:27:17 GMT -5
Litman leapt to his feet and stood there bouncing on his toes, talking faster than he ever had before in Rhaina's presence. Ticking off on his fingers, he was making a list of items he wanted Mila to obtain for him. When the steward took off at a run, he turned to the other three. "Rhaina. Cassidy. Sorcha. Into the lab now. NOW!"
He took off, short legs pumping industriously, as the taller women trotted after him. Out the door into the hallway, where Coldiron was walking purposefully towards them. "Steward said you wanted to see me, Mr. Litman."
The gnome snorted. "Litman. It's just LITMAN. 'Mr.' is for humans." He shook his head, as if to dislodge a thought or three. "Yes, Coldiron, I want you to guard this door. Don't let anyone in or out. We'll be next door in the laboratory."
The dwarf grunted at the gnome, and took up a position across the hall from the door they had just exited. Then right before Rhaina's eyes, he stepped back in to the shadows, and nearly disappeared. When she squinted hard, she could still see him there, solid and stolid, but if she didn't look hard, the space he occupied seemed empty.
Shaking her head, Rhaina trailed after the others into the lab.
Litman bustled about, seating them around a stone table, high enough that they had to sit on stools rather than chairs. When the women were all situated, he clambered up onto a stool of his own. For a few minutes, the only sound was his breathing and muttering under his breath.
Around the time that Rhaina started to be irritated with Litman's hurry-up-and-wait approach, and his evident lack of interest in telling the three of them what he was thinking, Mila and two sturdy young men arrived, carrying boxes and bags. Under Mila's direction, the odd assortment of items was carefully arranged on a lab bench not too far from the group around the table. The steward dismissed her assistants, closed and locked hte door carefully behind them, and joined the group at the table.
"Well, Litman?" she said, in a deceptively quiet voice.
"Yes, yes," the gnome replied. "Ladies, those stones are extremely dangerous. I don't know yet how they work, but we have to isolate them. They must be cut off from whoever is draining them. Mila has brought me the supplies I will need, but I need each of you to help, me, too.
"I'm going to have each of you build a shield out of pure power around an ordinary marble, such as children play with. Then I am going to leech off the power of your shield into this container." He held up a small egg-shaped box, made, as far as Rhaina could tell, out of spun sugar.
"A sugar egg?" Cassidy asked.
"Yes, yes," replied the gnome. "Sugar when melted into a syrup is relatively inert and very stable indeed, magically speaking. I believe I can force into it all the different kinds of shields we know how to make, and it will hold them all. Then I'm going to put that stone in the other room into the box and see what happens when I close it."
"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Mila. "Won't it alert the person who is draining the stone to our presence?"
"We don't have a choice," replied the little mage. "Cassidy is right that other things can undoubtedly be transmitted along the same conduit. I wouldn't be surprised if whoever is on the other end listened to the entire conversation."
He shook his head. "And there is still the problem of the one in the ley lines at the dower manor. If this works, we'll build another sugar box around that one, in place as it were. This one will be a thousand times easier. We'll view it as a test run for the one that really matters."
Now, one at a time, please. Sorcha first. The rest of you go wait somewhere else" He jumped down off the stool and made shooing motions with his hands. "Go, go. I'll send for you when I need you."
As Rhaina left the room with Mila and Cassidy, she could hear Litman chattering at Sorcha. "Now, druid, we'll start with the power of Nature. Build me an egg-shaped shield made up of whatever it is that you druids are always turning into green ribbons and suchlike."
Rhaina didn't stay to hear Sorcha's response, but closed the door behind her, and followed the steward down the hall to yet another sitting room, this one also scrupulously clean, but having the feel of a room that was never used.
"Litman will be awhile," Mila commented. "We might as well settle in until he's done with Sorcha."
as the other two sat down and tried to get comfortable, Mila walked back to the door and pulled the bell cord there. Soon, Bridget appeared. The woman responded cheerfully enough to Mila's request for more tea and sandwiches. "Oh, and Bridget, please make up the window seat in the suite Rhaina and Cassidy are using for Sorcha to sleep on. I don't want her anywhere less safe than the one set of chambers we know are warded."
The steward closed her eyes for a moment, and Rhaina was shocked to see how weary she looked. "I hope Litman is right and these candy boxes of his do the trick. If they don't work, we're in serious trouble." Then she opened he eyes and looked bleakly at Rhaina. "As if the violent loss of the heir to he Keep weren't enough trouble."
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Post by Rheyna on Dec 6, 2007 7:30:55 GMT -5
The sound of the door opening jerked Rhaina out of the slight doze into which she had fallen. The waiting women in the room had chatted quietly while eating a light snack, but they'd each drifted off into her own thoughts as they finished their sandwiches. Rhaina had curled up in the corner of the overstuffed sofa and nodded off, trying hard not to think about their situation.
She blinked the sleep out of her eyes as Sorcha stuck her head around the edge of the door.
"Cassidy, Litman would like to see you next," the elf said in a tired voice. Turning to face Rhaina, she added, "Litman wants me to ask you how strong you feel with Shadow, Rhai."
"Well, I know how to use it, but I don't use it much," she said. Then she narrowed her eyes at Sorcha. "But aren't you working on a project using it, under the direction of the Temple of the Moon?"
"Yes," replied the druid with a sigh. "Litman suggested that you and I work together to build the shadow shield in his egg, but that will mean changing out of these clothes and into my priestly garb. Now I know why Cassidy made me bring it."
Mila was on her feet as Sorcha spoke, beckoning a servant from the hallway to run and get Sorcha her bag. "Will you need a quiet place, Sorcha?" the steward asked her.
"Yes, for about half an hour." She looked around the room. "I could do it here, if that seems safest, I suppose."
Mila thought for a few seconds, then shook her head. "No, I think that the best place to do this is in the alcove behind where Coldiron is. That way, you have a guard if anything tries to disturb you."
Sorcha grimaced. "I suppose you are correct, although I hope nothing disturbs me. I'm really too exhausted to manage the transformation more than once today."
"Understood." The blonde woman turned and took Sorcha's satchel from the servant who had just arrived carrying it, and led the way out of the room.
Rhaina settled back into her spot on the sofa and tried once more not to let her worries overwhelm her.
"Sit, sit!" Litman bounced on his toes, looking even more energetic than usual as he pointed at a stool drawn up before the lab bench. Cassidy did not hurry, but made her way to the table at her own pace. She settled herself on the stool and then looked at the items spread out in front of her.
Much of it was Gnomish gadgetry she did not recognize, nor particularly care to. Her eye was drawn to an egg made of plain white spun sugar, approximately twice the size of a chicken's egg. When she stared directly at it, it did not appear at all out of the ordinary, at least to the degree to which a spun sugar egg in a research laboratory in the basement of an ancient stone keep could be called "ordinary".
However, when she looked away from it, and the egg was only in the edge of her field of sight, she could see that it pulsed with a flickering green light, the same color as the spells that druids often sang to life between their hands. Again, she looked directly at the egg, and saw nothing. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mage sense, and felt nothing.
Litman watched her in impatient silence, and finally interrupted her to say, "You won't be able to see it if you look at it, you know. I had to do it that way, Cass. We're going to try to push so many kinds of power into that egg that if it were visible, the combined power of it would blind a person who looked at the egg.
"But, as you have clearly discovered, if you look away from it, you will see that Sorcha has build a matrix of arcane power and filled it with that odd natural substance that she can manipulate so well. You and I will do the same with the elemental powers, and then we will have Rhaina encase it all in Light. Once that is done, Sorcha and Rhaina will work together to contain the Light in a layer of Shadow."
He sighed and for a moment Cassidy fancied that she saw the merest flicker of doubt cross his face. "I think it has to be in that order to prevent the jewel itself from transmitting anything across the channel through which someone is draining it."
Cass opened her mouth to ask a question, but Litman hurried on. "Now, here's how we're going to do this." He pulled a sheet of paper towards him and directed her attention to the sketch he had made on it. "As you can see, this is a figure-and-ground problem. I think that to balance this shield, one of us will create a series of fire ley lines." He stood a little taller. "I believe I should do that, Cass. I have been working with fire a great deal lately when my research has permitted me time to play with spells, and I have some new ideas about how to create the weft."
He looked up at her, grinning, and pointed at part of the drawing. "Now what I want you to do is to create a very thin thread of frost power -- not ice or even cold water, but pure power. Weave it in and out until we have a nice elemental fabric. Then we will carefully lift it and drape it over the egg. If we do it right, the sugar will bind to the power we have created, and wrap the shield around outside the natural one Sorcha has already made and bound to the egg."
Again, Cassidy tried to ask a question, and again Litman spoke right over her. "Now I know you, Cass, and I know you are going to point out the great danger here if we don't control this, or if the binding is not powerful enough to hold our fabric without letting it bleed into Sorcha's. Well, yes, you are correct. But we have to take the chance. I don't think we have much time. According to Sorcha, that gem should fly apart without any of her 'flickering power' in it, but it sits there, inert. Someone needs it very badly, to keep it form dissipating now that he must know we are aware of it."
Finally, Cassidy got a chance to speak, and heard herself say, "So you realize that if we do this wrong, we could destroy half this keep with the explosion we would cause, and you still think it's worth the risk?"
"What I think," the little gnome retorted, "is that we simply won't fail. No failure, no bleeding power, no explosion."
"Oh, all right," she replied. "If we are going to be playing with this kind of power, let's get it over with. Start making your weft of fire, oh mage extraordinaire, while I begin to spin the moisture in the air into pure frost power. And pray to all the gods you have ever heard of, even the ones you don't believe in, that we are as good as we think we are. Because if we aren't, a lot of people will be badly hurt."
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