Chapter V - Brimstone

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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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"Yes, I read!" Meris quickly replied back, not knowing how long the connection would last. "I'll be there ASAP! I have to get Kramp patched up!"

She then looked to Bagley and Archie. "I've never heard him sound so cheerful and exuberant, not even during our conversations in Dalarath," she noted, wondering what exactly had happened. She knew how deeply her friend had wanted to wield magic, and putting him in touch with the Nexus could certainly lead to something incredible, hence his excitement. "Could he?..." she speculated aloud

"It'd be more efficient if we could head to the Greenvale and patch him up there, I would assume," the Archmage said, figuring out how to tackle the awkward timing of their predicament with Lucian's message.

***

Aislinn snarled and whipped around to face the gray-skinned man, plotting how to pull him back. She used her provided shield to buffer the victim's defenses and launched a telekinetic slash at the escaped attacker's legs and using the same force to reel him in.
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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For now, Percival settled with grabbing the Archimedes' dangling shroud and steadying it with a hand, so the less acrobatic members of the bunch would have an easier time returning to the vehicle. "Fly to Evergloam's Old Bowery," he said, pointing, "and open your way back once there. You shall be within a stone's throw of the Greenvale - I will have notified the Lady of your visit."

Loren had already hovered onboard while carrying McKinley, while Bucky had let Neasa bound her way up on the ship's main deck with the hostage in tow. As heavy as he was. he settled with clambering up the rest of the stockade's ruined face and waiting for Archie to reposition the ship on a patch of rooftop that looked to still be stable.

"I gotta say," he called down, "if it turns out Meris is right, I think we just saw a lil' bit o' light at the end of the tunnel! My guess is he wouldn't be far off from what the original Weavers were s'posed to be able to do, before they got corrupted! I'd imagine we'll get to see some pretty nifty stuff!"

Once they were all onboard, Archie felt inclined to consider this, as they sailed towards their directed gate. "He is of a race of beings designed to shepherd our world's material laws; safeguard the primacy of the Thrones as tools of creation. If he was given free reign over what is real using arcane means, I would imagine his abilities would starkly differ from the likes of what even Meris and Aislinn have displayed."

Kramp coughed and laughed, the sound of it all being weak and rather pained. "Think he might make it so's I'd never been shot with crude iron?
- I daresay he could ensure you would look as though you had never been shot at all," noted the Clank, "though I cannot speak for the Bane's lasting psychological effects."

The Christmas Demon grinned. "Yeah, I'm kinda feelin' it, too... Cold despair sneakin' in from behind Obie's fire, like someone left a window open in there. Somethin' like a draft in my soul."

The smile quivered, looked a tad less convincing. "Colors're gettin' darker, too. Limbs feelin' heavy..."

Loren berated him with a bit of a brusque patting-down of his chest. "You've got punctured lungs and you're speaking through the pain. You're adding to the damage you've already suffered. Keep pushing and you'll choke to death before we reach McHale."

* * *

Lucian gave the street ahead a wary glance, then headed back towards the Tree. "I can't simply leave like this," he told Aspasia, "not in good conscience! Feel free to go on ahead if you wish, I must thank Sophia for her efforts."

The Ascended Void Weaver couldn't keep a grin off his face as the previously arduous clamber down to the main chamber went by surprisingly easily, his big eyes easily adapting to the surrounding gloom. Considering the display he'd offered, the refugees now looked to him in various ways, going from fear or suspicion to elated smiles and offered handshakes. Rothchild was a bit giddy at the prospect of being thanked as who he'd always truly been. The idea of being accepted for who and what he was outside of his alliance with Shield made butterflies flutter in his stomach. Nervousness wasn't involved, so much as a raw torrent of joy and gratitude. He was almost glowing by the time he reached Sophia's chamber, but caught a few errant words from behind him that forced him to quickly sober up.

"I heard he's of the same species as the weird Chtulhu freak some Commoners say they saw in Faerie, just before Holden's posse put the boot on Machae. Guy nearly killed one of the McConmaras, remember?
- I don't know, Rachel. Maybe they're not all bad, who knows?
- I'm just saying this town too hot for us mundanes. I've already been looking to move back in with the folks in Oregon. Heard Canada's nice, this time of year, too..."

Rothchild wandered too far to catch the rest of the conversation. Naberius saw him return first, as he'd taken to distribute a few other soup cans and MREs. "Ah, mister Rothchild," he started, his tone pleasant. "How fare the heroics?
- As well as can be," scoffed the Void Weaver with some amusement. "I simply wished to offer my thanks before leaving, now that Astra is in safe hands."

He stopped a little ways away from Sophia. "Milady, no words could express the gratitude I feel. A thousand thank yous would not suffice. I feel... as I've always been designed to feel. I know this much. I fear I would die an incomplete man, half of an accomplished scholar or a decent spiritualist bemoaning the absence of powers unperceived.

Lucian looked down on himself and lightly closed a fist. "I feel... whole; for the first time in my life. My mind is my own, and my senses are abuzz with the life of this Nexus. Standing so close to your demesne, I feel anchored to this city in ways I doubt I could express. London might be near and dear to me, but these caverns' walls speak to me as few have before."

One hand on his cane and the other one lightly parting, he took a step forward. "Would it be too forward of me to request an embrace? A handshake might suffice for some, but you truly saved my life."

He then looked off to Francis. "Your sacrifice honors me, mister Quigley. I will carry your legacy to the utmost of my abilities."

Amazo looked a little saddened, but he worked up a kind smile at that. "Go and tackle the lady of the hour; I'll settle with a handshake," he said.

* * *

The ghoul grunted, seemingly opting to follow Aislinn's imposed momentum rather than fight against it. The pulling motion turned into an attempted tackle, the undead being doing its best to apply its entire weight against the roane's midsection. Tom's staff was too slow for him to intervene using mêlée combat, but bits of its jacket and shirt could be seen flying as Gubbin hacked at it.

"Why did they attack you?!" shouted Drake to the victim, even as he kept his pistols raised in the direction of the roane, ghoul and Malk's offered dogpile - waiting for an opportunity to strike without injuring either comrade.

"I don't know!" replied the man. "I work in a small office complex near here; I was headed to my car and they jumped me from an alleyway! What are they?!
- Demons or undead, with our kind of luck!" replied Three. "Stay back - if they come any closer, I'll lift you over the mansion's fence.

Tom gritted his teeth. "We have to hurry this up, the other two are fighting my entropy hex! I won't be able to hold them back forever!"
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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"You need to settle down and rest for now, Mr. Kramp," Meris addressed. "Being quiet puts less pressure on your lungs, so I'm requesting that you save your strength until we can get you stitched up and ," she ordered, bringing an index finger to her lips.

As to Lucian's new state, she mused, "Given the Void Weavers' innate ability to create matter from nothing, we could be looking at an entirely new school of magic that's specific to them. Also, depending on how elevated he might've become, we might be getting to see the pinnacle of what's possible, at least for now."

***

Aspasia gestured to the lich to wait, as she understood it wouldn't take the Void Weaver long to show his gratitude to Sophia.

Meanwhile, Sophia smiled warmly and openly hugged him, then bringing the snake in for the embrace. "I'm glad to have done it. I knew of your legacy to protect this world from the Others and the Loyalists, and your previous disconnection from via was a wrong that needed righting. I know you'll continue to carry on with this goal; now you're readily equipped to face your opponents and are whole," she said to him.

The dryad then looked to Quigley. "I cannot thank you enough for your sacrifice, Francis. You're more noble than you realize," she told him, placing a via-laced kiss on his forehead. It wasn't the Staff of Solomon, but he would feel an arcane boost transferred to him.

***

Even with her new powers as an Archmage, Aislinn's instincts urged her to go for the jugular vein, which she slashed at with her telekinesis. She managed a brief arcane phrase during the struggle and added cutting flames to the retaliation at the bizarre being. Punches and kicks were applied whenever she was able to make physical contact with the monster.
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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Bucky sniffed. "Then I don't know whether I should be scared or elated. I kinda doubt his Ascension was on the Goat's list, so we've got that goin' for us."

Bagley seemed a bit more thoughtful. "Something tells me his Architect is not one to have his servitors interfere in the affairs of our Creator. It'll be interesting to see in which capacity he is able to contribute."

A few seconds later, Archie raised his voice above the wind. "We shall pass beyond the Gate at any moment, now! Brace yourselves for strong and cold winds!"

* * *

A few tears fell from Lucian's eyes as he parted from the dryad. "I never wanted to stop," he admitted. "I'd only passed on the torch to my adoptees' descendants because I had no other choice. Would that I could have met you, entreated you centuries earlier, then Astra's childhood would have been quite different, I'm sure. I was never proud of having reared an entire bloodline to combat those threats I could no longer personally face, but as it stands..."

He sighed, smiled behind his tendrils and looked back to his youngest descendant. "I hope I will live up to those tales her parents told her of Grandpa Lucian's adventures."

Astra smiled. "Don't be silly, I never doubted your power, Lucian! It's just - knowing you used to do so much and now seeing you like you were just minutes ago was... difficult. I was afraid we'd lose our connection with our origins. We're one of the largest basins of interracial people in the country, and all Rothchilds grow up hearing about the villa in Dalarath. We all grow up hearing about you. Now we'll be able to host and sponsor gifted kids again, and they'll get to see you, for the first time in decades. They'll get to learn from you. We'll all carry the same torch together, but you won't be gone, now. We won't lose our roots. We won't lose our dreamer, our philosopher."

Astra's words touched the Void Weaver, who then embraced her while lightly sobbing. "I was so afraid, Astra," he confessed, "so afraid I'd lose you as fog took my mind! You, my brightest star and the kindest of our hearts!"

In the meantime, Francis received Sophia's kiss with what looked like all the chivalrous gravitas he'd never shown before - before flashing his fangs impishly again.

"I'm really, really honored, Sophia, but you know me, right? Chronic dissatisfaction shored up with last year's Miss California, a deeply-seated need to showboat brought on by my mentor's absolutely crippling superiority complex... Basically, there's no point in trying to sugarcoat this little, uh, loaner of sorts unless I can drag you across Rhode Island's priciest molecular cuisine joints in full view of the local paparazzi for the next month or so, while somehow turning Ciaran's complete acquiescence to it all into venomous tabloid fodder."

Naber's jaw wordlessly worked for a few seconds. "Pardon me, but should I laugh or be utterly disgusted by your referring to Solomon's mantle as a loaner? Consider me more than a tad confused, here..."

The snake rolled his eyes. "What do you think, Rin-Tin-Tin? Do I look like the kind of guy who'd settle with Oh, no problem - it's my pleasure, Sophia! Shucks, she's gone and kissed me too!" he added, sounding purposefully dopey as well. "I couldn't just lie there while Chtulhu-land's first practitioner in God knows how long realized someone had pulled the plug on him. couldn't I? Plus, ask Aspasia Robertson how long I've spent trying to get her to brute-force her way into connecting with the Nexus. That's close to sixty years of research, Snowy."

Naberius huffed out a breath, but Amazo went on. "You knew what you signed up for when you gave me the Rod. I've got the technicals of Solomon's credentials, but I'd never be king material. You should be glad, Meris now has a decent fall-back guy if she can't keep Megiddo for some reason or another."

That left Naberius blinking. "That would imply that she-
- she'd be faillible, yeah," snarked the Wizard. "We all are, and having a backup plan is only good mortal practice. I'm just surprised you spent most of human civilization working on an Heir-to-Heir basis. If I'd been in your britches, I would've inducted Meris and Rothchild on the spot."

* * *

The ghoul bled, but too weakly for it to have any real effect. Eventually, however, one of the punches she'd delivered to the side of the ghoul's head seemed to do the trick, the skull giving way under her knuckles as if the bones had been partially rotten. The being rolled off of her with a yelp and seemed to try and claw at its gouged head, but its gestures were now erratic, looking more like seizures. Three opted to close the distance as he saw this, lowered his guns and unloaded a few rounds in the being's skull. The thing sagged and immediately began to decompose, an increasingly foul smell rising off of it. Something drove Aidan to kneel down despite the stench and inspect the creature further. A few seconds passed, and he looked back to Aislinn, Gubbin and Tom.

"This feels more like one of the Loyalists' Animates. The full-body Flesh Mask matches the ID I found in the guy's pockets, but the facial structure doesn't match once the face's come off. I'm letting the Lexicon and Sam feed me data: it looks like this is one rare instance of a pure Black Speech user managing a form of necromancy. They're - ugh - keying into my sense of  smell for genetic samples, and none of them were alive at the time of incorporation, based on the twelve or so strands they're picking up..."

Tom frowned at the increasingly green-faced soldier. "I thought Squids couldn't tap into via, let alone Hellfire or corrupted sources.
- They can't," agreed Three, "but they've got effective powers of persuasion. A Squid can either follow the noble, tedious and impractical path Rothchild's tried to follow for centuries in the hopes that enough book smarts are going to translate to arcane smarts at some point; or they can scramble a trained necromancer's brain and make him or her work for them. If I were a Loyalist, I know which option I'd take."
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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Neasa and Meris found their respective places to hold onto for dear life, knowing that their method of transportation was not without its hazards. The younger selkie still clamped down onto the captive's tentacles, wondering how they were going to get any truth from the Void Weaver. Perhaps the Countess might have a way to ensure his words would be honest. Meris kept an eye on Krampus and gently placed warmth-emitting hands on him to protect him some from the harsh, cold winds.

***

The dryad nodded in agreement with Quigely's statement, albeit feeling slightly frustrated with how he had completely discounted his worth as a person. "All practitioners are, Naberius; even we dryads are. Via is an inherently amoral energy, hence why it has been handled by Archmages and Warlocks alike. It may start with good intentions, but it can gradually shift to something darker. The Hyperboreans merely wanted to survive at first, but their greed and hostility got the better of them. As for Aspasia, she voiced her hesitation to exposing herself to the Nexus, as she didn't feel it was right to go as boldly as Rendell had, which then turned him into a half-lich. Other accounts of fauns touching with their Wyldfae sides are highly personal and unpredictable. For them, it's a matter of timing."

Ciaran and Aspasia had opted to return to the deeper interior of the galleries and ventured in at the tail end of the snake's rebuttal. Both of them quickly noted the tension between the magician and Meris's right hand man. "Someone call my name?" the satyress asked rhetorically as she looked at them both.

***

"Hurry up and get that info down, Three; we still have two other of these things to put out of their misery. Tom's spell is only going to hold for so long," Aislinn noted with a moue of disgust at the sight of the rapidly decaying body. However, she still didn't feel that this sudden attack was random. If the Loyalists were sending out Animates to lure them out, where was the necromancer? She skeptically eyed the human the creatures had been chasing and kept her arcane guard up, just in case.
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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"I was just telling Lassie's long-lost brother about how long I've spent trying to crack your case," explained Amazo. "Arcane birthright matters a lot less to me than what you choose to do with the local via stock - and if historical data suggests your people used to channel Mantles like the Fae, then it's reason enough to try and remedy the current situation. I don't need thirty-two reasons to justify why I boosted Rothchild. He used to have power, some cosmic bitch took it away from him, now it's been restored. It's Sophia and Naberius that're making a big thing out of it."

He shook his head and scoffed. "I went as far as picking the lock for your joint's back entrance and imbuing everything that wasn't nailed down with as much via as I could spare. I figured you'd soak something in, maybe react somehow. Nothing ever happened."

Coach looked slightly peeved. "Nevermind how it wouldn't have worked because I'm around, that's just uncalled for, Francis. Rudeness aside, I probably sponged off most of your deposits within hours of coming in for a shift - you know how liches are.
- Which is why I think you're part of the reason she hasn't gone Fae yet," added Quigley. "You're basically an arcane capacitor on two legs - I could crack the Nexus open Rendell-style that its power would try and get to you, not me and certainly not her. Do you want models or renders? I've got hundreds of pages of the stuff, back home - enough raw theory to make Merlin blush."

Lucian sighed and looked back to the group. "Gentlemen, this isn't constructive. If it helps, I might be able to further my own research into Faerie, now that I've earned the ability to push beyond mere library work. If I was blocked off with a proclamation in the Black Speech, then perhaps Morgana foresaw the Fauns' rebirth through technology and opted to curse their indirect issue. Even then, if all modern Fauns descend from a single genetic sample, it might have been easier to curse that single male or female of the species. Modern research suggests that even cloned embryos show some form of connection to ambient levels of arcane emissions, so Aspasia's very being would not be reason enough to lock her out."

Quigley blinked. "Why did you bother with trying to hack her problem?
- I was a cultural researcher of sorts, for Dalarath," he explained. "A Slaver Lord. My responsibility towards the Binding Council was to try and find ways to better lure in specimens of quality, which made me an anthropologist, historian and Biology researcher by default. Even in serving the resistance, my interests never wavered. I simply moved from working to enslave Humanity to attempting to preserve it. In learning of the existence of two species who were just as deprived as I was, I knew I owed it to myself to inspect the issue further."

He shook his head. "The Chimeras do not warrant hacking, mister Quigley. Theirs is not a destiny that can be brute-forced back into glory. You could recombine miss Robertson's DNA for hours that you would never be able to find the precise nature of the lock holding her to mundane standards."

The Squid looked back to Aspasia. "The Fae are nothing if not creatures of feeling or insight. You would be more liable to find workable answers in a yoga ashram than in Paradise's best-equipped mercenary research outposts."

* * *

Three stood up and approached Tom. "Let go on three, Tom," he whispered, his pistols shimmering out of view and his sword appearing in his right hand.

A few steps were taken, Drake's features forcefully going from nauseated to focused. He yelled on cue, sword coming up to bear. The other two rushed him, but Drake pushed one away with the Black Speech and then quickly worked on the remaining one, sword slashing in progressive downwards strikes that looked to have been adapted from Silat into a weapon-holding form. One last upwards strike was accompanied with more mental force exerted, Drake shooting off the ground with enough speed and force to cleanly bisect the apparent human down the middle. Green ooze spilled out in a lazy spray. Rather than wait for gravity to bring him back down, Aidan then thrust his sword at the fleeing attacker's back, leaving it pinned to the floor. It screeched inhumanly, its head managing a complete turn before resting to look at Drake as he hovered downwards.

"IN HELL AS IT IS IN DALARATH!" the creature spat. "ANGELS AND DEMONS ALIKE SHALL BURN!"

Three hardened his features and gripped his blade's handle to twist it. "Who'd you influence?"

The creature shrieked again. "NOBODY! YOUR CREATION IS ROTTEN FROM ITS CORE, WE ONLY HAD TO OFFER OUR HAND!
- It's Akoman, then," deduced Drake. "The Fall's true orchestrator, if Lucifer isn't to blame.
- THE EYE SEES IN DARKNESS! THE BLIND KING'S RULE WILL BRING ORDER THROUGH CHAOS!"

Drake ignored the creature's further nonsense and shot it in the head. "Hell's compromised," he told Tom. "If a Squid could get to Akoman, then Akoman could get to Leonard. The Black Goat - he's part of a ploy orchestrated by the early servants of Amaxi, then.
- And Lucifer really did leave Hell to try and counter it ," further deduced Tom. "If Akoman got to Uriel before the Fall, then Judeo-Christian civilization's OG Bad Guy is the only one we could rely on."

Three scoffed at that. "I knew religious syncretism leaves a lot of things open to misinterpretation, but if it turns out the Fall was a stopgap measure to stop something worse, I don't think mortal civilization could recover from that kind of revelation. So much of what we do and who we are depends on things being black or white at some ultimate level," he said, as he pulled out his phone to text Crystal about the need for a Medical and Forensics team, "that some people couldn't function without those absolutes."

Tom rolled his eyes. "I know I'm material enough to give Evangelicals a stroke, wait until they realize Heaven's original arrogant asshat had his heart in the right place the entire time... I don't think Gabriel's quite ripe enough to understand he's been duped by an old friend, much less that that old friend had decent reasons."

* * *

The ship, as it turned out, reached the Greenvale first. The Tree being just across the street, Meris wouldn't have too much trouble sensing the aftershocks of the via discharge that had elevated her friend. Trees derived from Yggdrasil tended to have simple emotional auras, leaving sapience as the gift and tool of their attending Dryads. For now, the air was tinged with something that felt like exhausted glee, like the mixture of exertion and pleasure that'd follow an intense and liberating bout of physical activity. If the Centennial Tree had had legs, it probably would've propped them up on a chair, somewhere. The eddies of the interfering cone of dark energy still floated about the park, now diffuse and too weak to pose any real threat. The stones that dotted the park were new additions, however, and while their placement would've fooled most of everyone, a keen eye like the roane's wouldn't have too much trouble spotting the disguised entrance to the galleries Sophia had carved out of stone, roots and loose soil.

The Greenvale didn't exactly have a helipad, but one of Eirean's Gruffs was waiting, head poking through the third floor's sunroof, with what looked like a gaffer pole and an extendable ladder. Once the airship drifted closer, the Wyldfae gestured for Archie to cast a rope down and to secure the ladder's topmost rung. Loren, however, didn't exactly feel like waiting, and knew carrying the Krampus down would be a bit of a logistical nightmare. Considering, he cocooned both the Christmas Devil and the still-sleeping Fae in balls of telekinetic force and settled with gently gliding along with them through the opened skylight. Once he was down, he focused on preventing Bucky's weight from shattering the skylight's panes, and then on ensuring that Neasa's imprisoned friend wouldn't feel too inclined to try for a Suicide-By-Local-Vigilante scenario. The Void Weaver didn't look pleased once he realized he had no control over his own limbs and couldn't stop himself from sedately clambering down and calmly waiting for his jailers to handle him again.
 
"You will pay for this insolence!" he seethed at the alien, Martin rolling his eyes at the threat. "At least," he replied, "now you know what it feels like to lose all sense of self-control. I can't quite visit your own nadirs of madness upon you, but I've absolutely relegated a few local serial killers to beating hearts, churning guts and baseline cerebral processes."

 The Loyalist tried to keep the same airs of righteous indignation, but terror was an obvious addition to his features. "Creatures of the White God can do this?!"

Loren shrugged. "We called Him the First Mind, back on Telor - but yes. When the Crimson Spirit touched one of us beyond all hope of salvation or containment, we cut away at their mind's connective processes. We killed all higher-order processes and left them peaceful; largely to be used as vessels for terminal sufferers of our people's old nervous system dysfunctions. You could consider it non-surgical trepanning."

Bucky dusted himself off after leaving the ship. "If you had nervous issues, why didn't we end up with a berjillion spinal cord infections or whatever?
- The afflicted and asymptomatic could never join colonization missions," replied Loren. "Strict rules prevented us from carrying our own pathogens to Earth or other celestial bodies, so much so that Anastasius reached Russia as an initially sterile individual. I engaged our standard decontamination protocols within an hour of breaching Earth's atmosphere."

Shamus sniffed. "We've still got the occasional Crimson Spirit whackos around, last I checked..."

Loren sighed. "You've fought against AIDS and other autoimmune diseases for decades, and we left Telor just as we barely began to scratch at the Crimson Spirit's own genetic makeup. Its asymptomatic phase is too long to be accurately detected by those instruments that followed us from Telor, and ours is a species that still poorly understands madness and mania. You're born and raised in a dispassionate environment, and then find one of your peers with bloodshot eyes, driven by sick dreams of total conquest that leave no room for rationality. Going from my homeworld's Cartesian mindset to yours is palatable, mister Wallace, but going from Telor's rigid structures of thought to what I sense in our friend," he said, jutting his chin at the Squid, "is something else entirely."
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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"The reason I'm making it a big deal out of it is because I deeply respect you, Francis, and I found your giving up of the Staff to still be a selfless act, regardless of how practical you view it to be. Not many would do that," Sophia observed, lips pursed with some annoyance. "So sue me for caring and taking notice of that," she bit back with some acidity.

As for Aspasia, Quigley's explanations initially caused her to roll her eyes toward the ceiling. "Well, the one time I smelled anthro snake pheromones and expensive cologne makes sense now," she commented dryly.

The fauness shot the magician a peeved look and sighed. "The only reason I'm not verbally lambasting you, Quigley, for trying to force my Fae powers to awaken is because I know what your intentions are. Rendell and Issacs' reasons were strictly for their egos and to make us better super soldiers. Some of Goliath Corps' scientists are no better; hell, I'm sure some of them wanted to figure out how to tweak Miranda enough to have me deliver a magical Faun, especially since she's the child of a lich and a faun. Instant Nobel Prize material!"

Her irritation melted away as she seemed to recall something, ears drooping slightly at what was an uncomfortable memory. "Mr. Rothchild's right, though. Nobody's going to be able to force me to embrace my inner Wyldfae. I technically learned that fact years ago on Paradise. Rendell was trying to throw his weight around Sector 7 where the Vanguard and Akari resided, and long story short, I killed Elder Protis because I was a good little soldier then," she remembered. "However, before he passed, he said that battle was my Anvil, that the Void sang around me. He went on about an empty socket, and that the jewel to fill it was where all green lies. I thought he was fucking nuts and delirious while dying at the time, but I eventually understood the truth of his words. I touched base with that part of me in Eien-no-Yuki while fighting, so I imagine the right situation will allow to access it fully at some point. Maybe this battle will do the same, but I'm not going to worry about whether it happens."

She blinked and awkwardly said, "Oh, and just for clarity's sake, Elder Protis didn't stay dead. Rendell effectively chickened out to the presence of Elena Nasir, the Mother of the Vanguard, and had Issacs resuscitate Elder Protis with cybernetics. Apart from Coach and Miranda, you're the only ones I've told that story to."

***

Aislinn snorted and rolled her eyes. "All of this drama over one asshole who's more of a micro-manager than Chambers, and the fact that God didn't just take an eon to check His kids to make sure their heads were screwed on tight and properly," she groused. "Namely Akoman's."

Meanwhile, Crystal texted back that the medical and forensics teams would be there shortly and to keep her updated on further developments.

***

"Yeah, deluded zealotry and bigotry aren't exactly minds you want to rub up against," Neasa snarked as she sent another glare at the Squid.

Meris sighed and eyed the Christmas Devil and then back to Loren. "What do we do in the meantime until Lucian gets here? I'm torn on wanting to congratulate my friend but also making sure my charge's lungs don't collapse," she fretted to him. "If the Countess has any Fae doctors on hand, we should at least get one of them to see him and McKinley."
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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Francis had looked fairly attentive as Aspasia had spoken, but the mention of Elder Protis and of the Vanguard and Akari made his eyes glaze out slightly. He shook his head as she finished.

"I'm sorry - what? I think I caught about a third of what you said, most of it was word salad straight out of a Larry Niven novel. Y'know, with those really weird seventies' Sci-Fi covers?"

Coach rolled his eyes at that and pulled out one of his pistols, in a gesture that briefly made the snake recoil. The "shot" towards the cave's ceiling was nearly silent, however, a lancet of blue light impacting the top of the cave's dome and then diffracting into an array of points in a three-dimensional space. The cluster spun on itself and grew tighter, until the features of what looked like an alien creature's 3D render could be seen. A six-limbed creature now stood in front of Amazo and Sophia - translucent and bluish, if still rendered convincingly. The top pair of limbs was crossed in front of its chest, the middle had its fists rested at the hips, and the legs were confidently spaced apart - reverse-jointed like Aspasia, the bones' sustaining muscles configured differently and allowing for more visible and more sizable tendons. It slowly spun as if on a Lazy Suzan, giving everyone a good look at what your typical Akari soldier looked like. The creature had six eyes as well, two slits for a nose, and a low, thin and strangely wide and expressive mouth. One corner perked up in a bit of a smirk, before the lips were pulled back almost like a set of blinds, folding back well past lean-looking gumlines that supported teeth enough to make a shark jealous. With an elongated head and what looked like a sparse covering of fur interspersed with chitinous plating, it looked like a member of a predatory species to a tee.

"That's a typical Akari soldier. Think of 'em as big and dangerously sapient ants, more or less. They're born into a role, they'll carry out that role until age or injury forces them to re-evaluate themselves, and then alter fundamental aspects of their biology to suit whatever role they'd assume. Elders guide and educate, Matriarchs maintain traditions, Maidens tend to their Ether reserves, and Houses raise their offspring together. A child belongs to the House - there's no such thing as concepts like having a mother or a father, for them. They use parthenogenesis to reproduce. They're no strangers to human emotion, but individuals from a common strand don't bond over children. It's odd from a Terran point of view, but imagine Renton's entire population falling in love with one another, or Asp and I seriously pitching in with Dylan Crenshaw's education as if he were our own kid and not just our next-door neighbor's. Kids grow up having thirty dads and sixty moms - and they remember all their names. Logically, they make the Red Chimeras' fixation on honor look cheap. The House, and its own traditions, pass before anything and anyone else."

The figure shifted, going from a confident pose to a hunched one, robes flowing into view around its form, one cybernetic arm and two fleshly ones grasping a staff to secure the specimen's sense of balance. "That's Protis, Elder in the House of Kings. They work closely with the Vanguard and they're the least likely to resort to aggression. You join the House of Kings and leave your own when an act of great wisdom impresses the locals. It's there that you find the species' main Ether-wielders, their Diviners, Mages or weaponsmiths. They've never separated tech from magic, so their creations make our magic-insulated computers look like child's play. In hindsight, I'm not surprised he never gunned for Asp. He could've asked one of the Vanguard Maidens to track her down here and kill her, maybe kill me and Miranda - but he never did. He's sent a few data packets in the past, back when he tried to keep America's holidays straight. Merry Christmas in July, Happy Birthday two months after the date..."

The lich smiled at his wife. "He knew you had a kind heart, just as I did."

Amazo clicked his tongue. "What's Ether?
- Ether is what happens to via in deep space," explained Coach. "It exists, it's out there - but it doesn't have anything to ground itself to. It starts bunching up and creates its own gravitational pull. Ether clusters are confused with White dwarves from Earth, since they give off a ton of light. Clouds of via so dense the outer layers are gaseous, so potent that the Akari have barely been seen eating. Meals are apparently extremely rare and heavy with significance - their version of a pick-me-up is a whiff of Ether from one of their compact inhaler designs. Elders like Protis wear a ritual rebreather and constantly inhale the stuff, unless they're with intimates."

The snake nodded. "Uh-huh. And the Vanguard?"

The projection shifted to what looked like a young woman in a catsuit, its design intended to both flatter her physique and seemingly offer a few attachment points for armor pads and accessories. Even with the blue tones, it'd be easy to see her skin tone was some odd shade of lilac, with what looked like naturally green hair tapering off to white highlights. Her eyes were striking, the monochrome projection giving off impressions of irises verging towards neon green, a soft glow accompanying them. Her hands were thrust forwards, fingers curled, and a ball of pure darkness hovered between the outstretched fingers.

"They're what happens to humans who inhale Ether and survive," replied Coach. "Not mages, not superhumans - but something in-between, able to play with gravity, force and light in ways Void Weavers tend not to think about or bother with. A nearly all-female basin of Space Mages, who control those forces they can control in as hostile an environment as a previously derelict space station. The Thrones' main seats of power are hard to come by without a source of pure, unsullied Nature to access, and even the passing of over two thousand years wasn't enough to fully anchor magic in with Paradise's man-made forests. The Yakuza tried to plant a bud from one of Hokkaido's own Dryad - it just grew into a common cherry tree. One of Earth's contributions to Paradise's biosphere. The Vanguard need the Akari to more or less procreate - by initiating other young women into their Pilgrimages - and the Akari need the Vanguard for protection. They're capable warriors, but Paradise was a prison. Some things are better left in jail."

Amazo nodded. "I know a thing or two about that... I'm sorry for having pushed the issue, Aspasia. I just thought the city could deserve you at your best - you and all your colleagues from Paradise."

Coach had to smirk at that. "I think I'll just toss modesty out of the nonexistent window for a sec and say Aspasia's already at her best. Arcane boosts from before the Minoan Empire fell would just be an added bonus."

Lucian chuckled at that. "Oh, I don't know about that, Silas... Now that I have time enough to review my own findings with Meris, I wouldn't mind turning a research trip with her and Nereus into decades spent touring libraries and museums, or a myriad little excuses to don work-boots and shake dust off of uncovered ruins. If it weren't for the current crisis, we might have time enough to satiate our respective inner nerds."

Coach clicked his tongue. "Gimme a bit of countertop and a fresh notebook, along with a dual-tip Sharpie, plus weeks of assured safety. Best immortality ever."

* * *

Three thumbed in a quick reply and left the street, choosing to wait curbside alongside Aislinn and Tom.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of Squids not participating in this," he admitted. "Some early Loyalist tainting the Principle of Order makes more sense to me than the Architect not having caught God's coding flub. If we could go extra-dimensional, we might be able to open God's cosmic PC, flash the Primordial BIOS with a clean firmware and then wait while Akoman dot EXE reboots or whatever. If Akoman's madness is a viral infection, then someone's figured out how to slip past an angel's notice. Lucifer can pull the scales back to an insane amount, but he never existed eye-to-eye with the Creator."

* * *

The Gruff approached Meris. "Leave him with me," he told her. "I will take him to our resident physician. Mister Wallace can carry the turncoat a mite longer; the Lady will see to his needs.""
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TennyoCeres84
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

Post by TennyoCeres84 »

Aspasia shrugged. "I understand why you were trying, Quigley, but I know I have to find my own way. We Chimeras have been treated as commodities and pawns, and some of us still are. If battle is the key to my Wyldfae self, then I want to defend my home because I want to, not based on someone's orders. I know that Arcadia was the ancestral home for fauns before they spread across the globe, so perhaps that's the place I'll fully connect with that part of myself. However, I'd like to see Miranda grown in a somewhat stable world, at the very least, before that happens."

She checked the clock on her phone and sighed. "We should get to the Greenvale. WIth Meris having been in Faerie, it's likely she's already there. You should get the celebration done before we're out of time and Pride starts to move again. We mostly dissipated their barrier, but they're going to regroup and still attack at the end of the two hour allotment they gave us."

***

Aislinn hummed thoughtfully and shrugged. "We'll need an interdimensional being for that, Three; probably one of the angels from the higher choirs or someone we don't know of yet. Unfortunately, that's neither here nor there currently. Right now, we're stuck with the trial and Bleat-Britches' ego getting even bigger if he wins and countering Pride's movements while trying to keep as many people alive as possible."

***

"Thank you," Meris responded earnestly to the Gruff as she handed over Kramp and returned her eyes to the Void Weaver Neasa was again holding by the tentacles. Her gaze then settled on Archibald, Dr. Loren, and the others. "Since we're still waiting for Lucian, do think it'd be a good time to question him?" she asked.
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Re: Chapter V - Brimstone

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Lucian nodded. "Yes, of course. Thank you again, friends," he told the assembly. "I trust we'll see each other in less bellicose times."

He stopped halfway out of the galleries to make a quick pit stop to see Arthur and Alana. The same thanks were offered, a few bewildered mundanes' hands were shaken, and they headed out. A short walk later, they stepped through the Greenvale's front doors, the receptionist looking a tad more disheveled than usual. Still, the young woman managed a courteous smile.

"Hello, mister Rothchild," she said. "Mrs. McHale asked us to direct you to her office - Meris has just arrived. Take the elevator to the second floor and follow the main hallway.
- Thank you, my dear," replied the Squid, who still looked a tad shocked to see people react so reasonably to his exposed features.

* * *

Archie's head canted slightly, and he moved to rubberneck a bit ahead of the corridor beyond. "No need," he then replied to Meris, "it seems we're being collected as well."

Seconds later, a more human-seeming bellhop stepped in, followed by Eirean's stationed Gruff commander, Kay. "Mrs. McConmara," he told Meris, "Mister Rothchild's arrived. We've already sent him to Mrs. McHale's office. If you'll follow me, we'll just take the stairwell down one floor.
- I shall take our guest to the basement's holding cell," intoned the big bipedal goat. "With his words muzzled, he is no more dangerous than a common brigand.
- Hey, careful!" added Bucky. "Make sure you pin his tentacles, I've seen one of them pick locks and handcuffs with 'em!"

Kay nodded. "We petitioned the Bucks for copies of the Lady Meris' notes and asked of our blacksmiths that they design manacles for just such a purpose. He shall have enough range of movement to speak, but not to engage his appendages in fine motor tasks."

He then approached Neasa and her gripping hand on the being's tendrils and courteously extended a big mitt. "May I?"

* * *

Soon, the flashing lights of incoming First Response vehicles were seen getting closer. A few minutes later, depositions had been taken and the quartet was free to return to the mansion's warmth, their rescued victim in tow. The man's reactions seemed believable enough: his overcoat had been badly slashed, he'd lost one glove and what had to be a scarf, and shock seemed to compound the encroaching cold by making him stiff and wracking him with shivers.

"Let's get you inside," Drake said, "before you catch a cold. What's your name, sir?"

The man only answered once inside. "Rob McMahon," he said, shaking himself loose of some of his tension as he stamped his frost-laden feet on the entrance's mat. "I'm an accountant; I work two blocks away from here in one of the small office towers on the 23rd. I'd just got off from work, I got in my car, figured I'd cut through here to look at Holden Hall's Christmas lights, and my car just - stalled. It's one of these older hybrids - a Prius XHEV.
- Did they try and take it?" asked Tom.

McMahon nodded in the negative. "No, I think they wanted me, somehow. For my wallet, maybe? I remember a flash, some sort of wave of light rushing down the alley right next to the last stoplight I managed to take before stalling - and then my car's Low Battery signal winked on. I'd just charged it this morning. Then they came out of the shadows, broke down two of my windows..."

Tom grunted. "An EMP pulse. Were they patterns in it, something like designs or symbols?
- Maybe?" conceded the human, looking uncertain. "It happened really quickly, I didn't get the chance to really look at the flash; my eyes are still stinging from it."

Three frowned at the Warlock. "Can a mage create powerful electrostatic discharges?
- Magnetism is one of the forces Elemental Magic sophomores keep forgetting," he mentioned as they made their way back to the kitchen, "so focused as they usually are on the main four elements. Every primordial force can be tapped into, but barely anyone actively bothers with magnetism or gravity. The only ones who have an innate and half-conscious grasp on gravitational magic are TK users like Aislinn. Magnetism's usually Technomancy's domain, garden-variety hackers with the arcane ability to wipe boot sectors off of hard drives with a spell-based proximity trigger... It doesn't rule out the use of an imbued object, though - or a standard EMP discharge emitter. Standard EMP bombs are the size of traditional IEDs, unless you're talking about Paradise-built specific designs, like certain ionic rifles or pistols."

Drake smirked at that. "Is that the incubus talking, or is Quint's brain being put to good use?
- Column A, Column B," replied the warthog, smirking back. "I didn't know squat about EMPs as mundane devices until you asked me, but I've been a practitioner in enough bodies to know Tesla was an odd one out, so focused as he was on electromagnetic forces while everyone else busied themselves with comparing the size of their fireballs."
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