Chapter VII - Healing Pains

This is what you came here for. Adventure, intrigue, murder, mystery and action - plus a healthy dose of boring everyday stuff. One continuous story-line, broken up into smaller themes for easier consumption.
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TennyoCeres84
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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As Aidan told her what had transpired at the diner, Meris lightly gaped at the idea of someone having that amount of control over a enthrallment process and then frowned thoughtfully. "For all of that, it must be an important message, whoever or whatever is delivering it in the Darkhallow," she mused.

"It may be that whoever it is may want to maintain some anonymity as well," she suggested. "Everyone else has been there, so someone unused to the Darkhallow would be perfect to protecting their identity. Abraham isn't as traceable, like with your Fort Knox analogy," she mentioned to the young man.

She looked back to Nereus. "Not long after I left Dalarath, I met Matriel, who aided me when I was at my most doubting. He scoured the Shadowlands at the time Chauncey would have disappeared, as well as Heaven and Hell. It's possible Chambers moved him around some after he put Buck's spirit in our son's body. There's the possibility that Chambers lost track of him while he was busy kissing Amaxi's arse and controlling you," she acknowledged.
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Darkhallow virgin? Abraham looked confused, like he couldn't decide whether or not to take offense at the term. After a few moments he shrugged it off. "At least it served a purpose in the end, confusing as it was," he conceded gracefully.

With the pieces laid out before them, Marius mulled them over. Then he cocked his head to the side, as if someone else was speaking. "The Noise is saying if it IS a trap, we should turn it around and spring it on whoever's after us," he told the others. "Be that as it may, have you considered confronting Chambers? He'd know your son's whereabouts, if anyone would. And it's not like we haven't got enough heavy hitters on our side to threaten him with."

Charles chuckled at that. "Me 'n Abe was gonna go un'ercover pretty soon, we c'n keep a weather eye out fer anythin'," he offered.
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Three traded a glance between Nereus and Charles. "You got him back here safely; word's going to start travelling. If the Travers guy knows, then the Loyalists know - or they will soon enough. It wouldn't hurt to have an advance warning, if anything shakes up back on the West Coast."

Nereus grimaced, pursing his tendrils together. "I agree on keeping an eye out, but he won't stay in California. He had no love for the place; I was the only reason he didn't just enthrall our financiers down to bare functionality and skip the pleasantries. Something's going to serve as the official cause for Renewal imploding within a few weeks - and it'll be messy. Either he creates a patsy and lets the ship burn down, or he leaves and watches it go the way of Scientology."

Three sighed in thought. "So where do you think he'd shack up? You must've had safe houses or backup plans, right?"

Nereus slid the hand he'd kept on Meris' back down to her waist. "We had several. The media cult plan didn't pan out, so the Prelacy's going to want answers. It'll be a few weeks, at least, before they're fully reorganized. If I were Chambers, I'd consider two options," he said, looking back to Charles and Abraham.

"Option A is risky on his part, but effortless if well implemented. He can do what I did, assume an alias, and go dark - let someone else move the chess pieces in the hopes that we'll lose his scent. The safest spot would be in one of your own blind spots, which are now also mine.
- So, right here in Hope," deduced Three.

The former Augur nodded. "Someone's silent partner, providing only capital and resources to their own plans - all in order to stay in place and re-assess things.
- And Option B?" asked Herbert.

Three exchanged a look with Nereus and Meris. He'd been in this long enough to know where this was headed. "He also goes dark on our end - but settles back down in Dalarath. He appeases the remaining zealots, helps Nick Buck in any necessary crackdowns. That implies a coastal point of ingress, probably somewhere you won't want to immediately confront," he deduced, looking back at Nereus, who quietly seethed.

"Greece," said the Squid. "He knows I won't want to set foot there - not now. Akrotiri and Lesbos are packed with... bittersweet memories. It was the beginning of the end of my active streak of rebellion; I know he's left a structure in place since the early eighteen-hundreds. Thrall families waiting on a few keywords to offer him room and board and complete servitude, an embedded militia that likely doesn't even know what it happens to be serving, access to offshore accounts..."

Three nodded. "So either here or the Santorini Islands, then. That's a start."

By that point, Mantus and the others had finally made their way down. "What's a start?" bluntly demanded the Judge as he approached. Aidan relayed their recent theories and nodded to Gremory, Aislinn and Ciaran. Once briefed, Randolph stroked his chin for a few seconds and then looked back to Marius.

"Vlastos - do you think you could work your old contacts, see if any movement has been observed in Santorini or the greater archipelago? Anything literal or figurative - from equipment shipments to various bank transfers. I can take care of the local details."

Herbert added a shrug. "It seems to me that finding out which avenue to send our scouts into should be child's play - we have angels in our midst. We could perhaps petition Gabriel, or maybe Abdiel or Matriel..."

Three seemed unconvinced. "You forget, our free will is crucial for those angels who believe in us. Nobody's ever going to give Charles or Abe an easy sign to follow, even if I'm absolutely certain Gabriel's already done the trip forwards just to get his bearings. I'd pick our trip to London-Upon-Faerie if I had to travel while we're mostly blind, and I'd make sure to keep us occupied so we can't follow up on Chambers."

Something seemed to come to Randolph's mind. "The jiangshi stirring up trouble days before a ceremony Vienna Council envoys are obligated to attend... This is too convenient. Chambers would be smart enough to realize that the Black Goat's removal and the official response have conspired to create a power vaccuum - he couldn't have hoped for a better distraction."

Herbert threaded his fingertips together. "So we execute a pincer move. Either Charles or Abraham follows us to London to observe along with us, and the other one remains here to watch over newsworthy events that could feel like a Chamberlain of Dalarath re-establishing its base of operations."
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Aislinn sighed as they were informed and they planned. "There's also a via imbalance since Sophia passed. Jack's been having to take the brunt of it since. The new dryad will just be getting used to her new duties," she acknowledged. "Hope's still vulnerable, and all of these events leave us open."

Aspasia and Miranda weren't far behind Rhadamantus, Aislinn, Ciaran, and Gremory. They came in as the judge was inquiring about Marius's connections in Greece and other means of dealing with Chambers. "I thought we'd be coming down here for a reunion with you two, not preemptive planning," she commented.

Meris sighed. "Unfortunately, Chamber isn't one to sit idle when Nereus escaped. You and your family will be at the Choosing. I'm sure Hanako and Matriel have also been invited there, so we won't need to ask an angel the best course of action."

The older Fauness thought back to events at the very beginning of the incursions. "When Hell's forces were just starting to come onto this plane, Coach and I were investigating Harrison Arkham. He was acquiring property surrounding Centennial Park for supposed historical restoration. However, he's gone quiet in the wake of the War and Sophia's passing. He might be laying low or possibly colluding with Chambers. However, I doubt he's in it to bring about Amaxi's return. From what he gathered, he seemed like he was playing a long game to come out on top."

The oldest selkie frowned thoughfully. "As for Greece, weren't planning to go there to speak with some of the Gruff elders there about your Wyldfae roots?"

Aspasia scoffed. "Well, yeah, at some point. But I need to get through visiting London-Upon-Faerie first. If Chambers has any plans there, I doubt Gruffs are the top priority on his list."

She continued, "We mainly need to know who's heading to London and staying here. From there, we can figure out how to defend our weak areas."

As they talked, Neasa could be seen leaving one of the elevators and approaching them, an initial smile shifting to a confused expression of concern.
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Marius nodded and turned a few steps away, pulling out his phone and composing a rapid series of messages to people and contacts in the area. It wouldn't take him long, as his fingers could move with blurry speed over the "keys" on the screen.

At the same time, Aidan's phone dinged with the sound of an incoming text. It was not from Marius, but from Mary, whom he'd messaged some hours ago:

Aidan! Lovely to hear from you, it HAS been a while. Unfortunately I can't drop in just yet, myself and some of the more Fae-friendly of the Seven are actually in London, poking about after some weird leads. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier, there's a party of some sort coming up and we can't miss it!

The Pride Wars were interesting, to say the least. Those medals they gave me SHOULD have gone to Auntie Song as well, but it's not polite for the government to acknowledge the Triads here so it was just me. Even after literally fighting off Hell! It wasn't all bad though, I kicked MAJOR ASS in my new exosuit. Very little of the functional drawbacks of the old design and only a 5% loss in performance! And we're about to debut an even BETTER version very, very soon!

So exciting. Our R&D folks are earning their own medals at this rate. But when we DO meet up you should see my new friends, apparently there are some demons where if you beat them up hard enough they fall in love with you? I think that's how it works anyway, might be oversimplifying.

Enough about me, how have you and all my other lovely students been? -MJ

It was accompanied by a couple pictures of Mary herself, presumably in the new exosuit and posing like some underwear model. Typical of her, really.

Charles and Abraham looked at each other, then the swarthy agent stepped forward. "I will go to London," he offered. "I do better in high society, and the boss knows the signs of squid activity better than I do."
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Being reminded of the dryad's inauguration, Aidan found himself massaging the back of his neck with a groan. "Fuck, that's today, too... Horatio was adamant about setting up some sort of party for you two before we'd leave for London," he admitted to Meris and Nereus, "and seeing as we didn't know how tangled things would be, we just assumed you'd want to tag along. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with standing out in the open while Eirean and Vernon plant a tree - now I won't be able to keep myself from assessing things tactically, and I don't want the new kid to come to, thinking we're afraid of sniper runs..."

Gremory cleared his throat. "You've got Shax's number, literally and otherwise. The Burning Legion's been either subsumed in the Celestial corps since the big kerfuffle or dissolved across the civilian pop, from what I know."

That mention reminded Aidan of the first Pride Knight Lucian had uplifted. "Demons consecrated in the Architect's service... That'd be a decent foil to any local opposition. It should keep us safe while the dryad's rooted."

Aspasia bringing up Arkham made Nereus grimace lightly. "I'd heard of Providence's destruction - and it's sliding-away into Heaven, replaced with its own Celestial counterpart. Arkham's own plans were on a longer time-scale, and closer to those of Travers' ilk than Chambers'. It might be we've made a chance ally if the angels restored him, but I wouldn't lower my guard in his presence. I've seen his action reports before escaping - the buildings he'd purchased weren't picked just for their market value."

Coach sent his wife a look of approval. "I knew you were onto something, hon," he said, adding a snap of his fingers. "I'm guessing the distances between them have some sacred numerical value, something of importance to a ritual?"

Nereus nodded. "Centennial Park is rectangular, like one of the cartouches you'll sometimes find in the Black Books to address the Outer Ones - primeval forces that predate the Architect, your God or the Others."

He paused, fumbled in his own jacket pockets for a moment and then fished out the battered BlackBerry that was part of Lee Olmstead's cover. Pushing its stylus out, he began to draw on the screen - starting with two neat and precise rectangles. Seemingly random squiggles then followed, as Nereus obviously elected not to draw the actual sigils associated with the cartouches. All they needed was to see if the sigils' position correlated to the purchased buildings.

"This one is for the Principle of Chaos - and that second array is for Entropy." It's at the second one that Silas' eyelights grew brighter. "Asp," he said, pointing to it, "I think that's the exact layout, isn't it? Why Entropy, though?"

Nereus shrugged. "I won't know until Meris and I have both thoroughly investigated the man. I wouldn't blame him for attempting to oppose the Pride War's aftermath with an elemental, primal form of imposed Order, but Creation doesn't need added chaos or entropy to begin with. Nothing is ever built to last because nothing can, but the conditions that allow us to exist won't desynchronize for billions of billions of years! Right now, even with everything we've gone through, there's no need to tip the scale in one direction or another."

Then followed Marianna's returned message, to which Three opted to reply with a recorded message instead of a text. 

"I sure hope I could look half as good as this after a fight, but I'm more the take a hot shower and collapse into bed type... We're doing fine, potential threats notwithstanding, and both Meris and Nereus say hi. He's arrived safely. We're a few hours away from inaugurating Sophia's successor, Belial's going to try and steal our thunder on TV with an announcement he's scheduled in the same time slot as the ceremony - and your being in London is actually perfect. We're headed there ourselves, starting tomorrow. We'll have to stay for a few days, so we'll probably have time to catch up."

There was a pause. "There's a lot we have to go over, and I'd rather not do it while we're trying to look all Black Tie-worthy... I'll let the others settle in and hit the sights for a few hours..."

He clicked his tongue. "The Museum Tavern, on Great Russell Street. Archie swears by it. Ceremony's at 4:30, I can be at a stool by 2 PM. Plane-hopping's going to put Nami and shuttle workers out of a job, at this rate... Let me know if that works out for you."
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Aspasia peered over at Nereus' diagram and frowned with concern and frustration. "That's definitely it. As far as Entropy goes, it sounds like something related to thermodynamics and the way the universe works, more like something that the Thrones or their makers understand," she mused with a shrug, tilting her head at the Archmage. "Is it possible to set up a long term ritual to occur over such a long time that it's basically unnoticeable?"

Meris hummed thoughtfully as she studied her husband's diagram. "Theoretically, it is possible, but someone with those sorts of aims would need an immense amount of patience and time on their hands. Something like what we're talking about is the equivalent of watching cosmic paint dry! With someone like Arkham or Travers, it's entirely possible that they're setting up a ritual that would be finalized well beyond the time the universe and everything in it will come to a functional halt. However, the motive is a crucial part of this seeming ritual. Until we investigate further, this is all just speculation."

Aisinn clicked her tongue and sighed. "If I had to guess, they could be using the new dryad as a means to very, very gradually siphon off power from the Nexus and her. It wouldn't hurt her in the long run, but it could give any potential workings the spark it needs to begin," she suggested. "It'd fit with what Aspasia suggested. An absurdly long ritual that would go unseen by most except for those who know what to look for."
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Marius looked thoughtful as he put his phone away again. "Villains playing the long game... seems familiar, doesn't it? But that's a very long game, to wait until after the universe ends." Well, unless the game was called Homestuck. But he kept that to himself.

Mary's reply came in a text message again:

Oh, you're gonna be there too? That's a hell of a coincidence, in a world where there are none. Oh well! If you're all coming then be ready for an evaluation, it's been a long time since our last class and I'll want to make sure you've been keeping your skills up!

Also who's Nereus? -MJ
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Three smirked as he typed back. Long story - I'll let Meris tell you. You didn't answer my question, though... Museum Tavern, Great Russell Street, 2 PM tomorrow. Bring your appetite, I want one of those traditional meat pies...

We're fine. Too much to say over text. We'll talk in London. :) Be safe.

He then refocused on the matters at hand. "If the ritual's point of culmination is sometime in the Degenerate Era or maybe even closer to where black holes collapse, then nobody's ever going to suffer from them, right? Should we even worry?
- If I weren't a Void Weaver," replied Nereus, "I'd be in agreement. I am one, however - and one that's unfortunately aware of our initial place in Creation. We were the wardens of this world's conditions for manifesting, and every apocalypse - even the normally-scheduled ones - provides a window. The final folding-in or tearing-open of the Universe would reveal the Outer Ones to any being with enough power to witness them in their true form, enough power to entreat them."

Aidan nodded. "I know you didn't have Chambers' black book, but what's your assessment of Arkham?"

The Squid coughed thoughtfully. "Single-minded, like Jonathan - but less cruel. In our earlier meetings, he was more concerned with our existential birthright than any notions of planar dominion, which frustrated Chambers to no end. He believed you'd have to step in the queue, so to speak, and step in after God to reshape the Universe at a fundamental level, in order to truly address the Others' perceived injustices. Perverting or damaging the fabric of Creation as it exists today always struck him as a moot point. What's done is done, in a sense.
- But he's still tied to the Others," supplied Silas. 

Looking back to Meris and Aspasia, something seemed to dawn in Nereus' eyes. "Not unless he Ascends, like you did," he told Meris. "The ritual would effectively commit him to last until the very end of the Universe - to complete immortality - and would possibly serve as a beckoning bell for the Outer Ones, so he is effectively received by Them once everything ends."

Herbert extended a hand. "But again - how is this of concern to us, then? Is anyone endangered by this at a fundamental level?
Anjali narrowed her eyes slightly, momentarily looking like she and Archie actually shared blood. "We already have one Squid questing for godhood," she reminded the group. "I don't care how benevolent Harrison Arkham thinks he is, in the end, he's gotten to where he is using standard Shadow Lord methods. He's lied, cheated, framed and murdered his way to Rhode Island's real-estate scene - and people just don't turn cuddly once they're given a mantle of power."

Nereus rolled his eyes and scoffed in agreement. "I'll say - people like Lucian and I are a statistical anomaly; and mister Vlastos here is a much-needed improvement on the norm."
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Re: Chapter VII - Healing Pains

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Meris pursed her lips and thought over everything she knew of the Architect, the Others, and God, even as her past as Merath. She considered the possibility of Arkham or Travers seeking true immortality and entreating the Others. She remembered how the Architect had explained that the dead goddess was enraged and confused at how Her creations never worked out, her lack of clarity evident.

Looking down slightly, she rested her left thumb and index finger against her chin. "What if...what if Arkham achieves immortality, and his solution to curing the Others' cruelty is to wipe Them out? If Amaxi and Her brothers are as alien to our universe as we are to Them, it'd make sense that the Outer Ones are that to Amaxi and the other deities. The Architect and our God could potentially be wiped out as well."

She frowned. "The Loyalists, Arkham, and Travers think this creation is flawed in varying ways, so it would make sense that Arkham might want to perfect Creation in a way that fits that definition. It might be he still needs a base material for this altered Creation, which is where the remnants of this universe might come in."

Aspasia furrowed her brows and considered what that might mean. "So dull and stagnant?"

"And possibly more orderly," she mused. The Others, God, and the Architect all embrace some measure of chaos, with God being on the more expressive side of the spectrum and Amaxi on the more violent end. If Arkham was a god, it could be he's wanting something more precise and planned. Then there'd be no contention from whatever he would make. True loyalty, no machinations from peers."

"Well, that sounds as boring as all get out," Aislinn replied with distaste.

The older Archmage sighed. "That's true, but it'd be the ultimate form of control. Everything would be as it is, no change. We need more evidence to confirm this, but I suspect this is what he wants."
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