15[20:10] It's Jai who ends up leading Oyabun past Lookshyan checkpoints and aimless undead. He and Xu Sim are well-known to the topside fighting men, but what do they say when someone asks what the deal is with the 13 year old who staggers like he's drunk? [20:13] 10Jai makes up a story on the spot. "We found him in an alley, slumped over like that. He took a really bad blow to the head. He can walk, but Master Xu Sim wants to take a better look at him, make sure his brains aren't all scrambled out." [20:13] 14Well, not what I would have gone with. [20:15] 14Stranger: [20:18] 10Oh. Huh. That's bad news.10 Jai continues on smoothly. "He's free of fae taint, if that's the cause for concern. May we pass?" [20:20] 14Nice. 15[20:20] Stranger's words smooth Jai's passage, and the three of them descend. Meanwhile Keldar, Stranger, and Xia Lan are in conference in their Undercity command center, organizing the to-and-fro of supplies and personnel and double-checking the work of the Council in managing civilian peacekeeping and logistics. The Emissary - one of four, now, but still holding the definite article - has 15[20:20] returned to the front, to keep watch in case the raksha across the river make a move. [20:21] 14Stranger has one more Codex page to give -- would The Emissary take it if it were offered? 15[20:23] The Emissary insists it isn't necessary. [20:23] 14Either way, Stranger's business is the logistics. He should probably take some time to heal, but there's so much work to be done. [20:24] 13There's always so much work to be done, and it'll be easier if you heal up. [20:24] 14True, but lacking in consideration for limited time. [20:26] 12Keldar's not of much help. In part this is due to Cethleann's curse - suggestions he make go unnoticed, ideas he comes up with turn out to be redundant. In part this is because he's much more busy convalescing, spending most of his time seated and breathing slowly in the back of the room and occasionally rising to change bandages stained in colors the human body has no business [20:26] 12producing. 15[20:26] Once inside it's easy enough for Jai to make his way to the conference room. Xu Sim is beckoned away to help with the staff shortages in the infirmary warrens. Oyabun has the presence of mind to slip back beneath his hood, which gets fewer odd looks than an obvious child did. [20:28] 13Xia Lan's much the same, though she's unable to even acquit herself properly in combat the way Keldar is. Cethleann's curse is maddening. 15[20:30] So it is that Jai arrives with the short hooded figure in tow, who says "Oough," by way of introduction. [20:30] 10Jai's taken a moment to wash his hands and face before entering the room. The rest of him is still spattered with dirt and soot. But no blood. Always the mark of a good operation. He gives the others a little wave as he enters. "I'm pleased to report that the mission aws a success. Master Xu Sim will be joining us shortly, once he's finished with triage." [20:31] 12Keldar: "Good to hear. How's it look out there?" [20:32] 14Stranger turns from what he's doing with a slight wince when Jai speaks. "Excellent, even if it's raised more questions--" 14He pauses as he sees the 'boy.' "--than it answers." [20:32] 13Xia Lan: "...and who's the new kid?" [20:32] "...That's an excellent disguise. Unless your Mistress is in the habit of hiring on children." [20:33] 10Jai pats his Oyabun on a shoulder and pulls up a stool. "Sorry. He's a little nauseous at the moment. He, uh, expedited our return, and I guess it took a lot out of him." [20:33] 14Stranger motions for one of his gophers to fetch a clean bedpan. This place is ramshackle enough without vomit all over the floor. [20:34] 13Xia Lan: "Okay. Wow. Trustworthy then, I take it?" 15[20:34] Oyabun sits too, swaying just a bit as he does so. "Holy shit." [20:34] 14Stranger: "After a fashion." 15[20:34] "Xia Lan??" [20:35] 10Wait, Keldar said something. "Not even a little. And, um, the raksha camp is in serious disarray thanks to Xu—" [20:35] 13She waves. "The very same." 13She almost said 'the one and only,' but, well. The Unfeathered is still out there somewhere. [20:36] 10Hai actually looks genuinely shocked at this last. "You're a fan too?" [20:37] 10Jai actually looks genuinely shocked at this last. "You're a fan too?" [20:37] 14Word certainly travels fast. Nexus, the new cultural capital of the Threshold. 15[20:38] Small unlined hands emerge from drooping sleeves to wipe at the still-hooded face of the boy Jai brought. "She's real good! Pearl and her new trainee are big fans. We hear all her stuff." 15[20:39] Oyabun finally lowers his hood, revealing the face and neat haircut of a 13-year old boy. Beneath cloak and cowl, he seems to be wearing a formal sort of child's suit, the kind someone in secondary school on the Blessed Isle might wear. "So..." 15[20:40] He blinks, and his eyes settle on Keldar for the first time. "A deathknight?! Here?! Jai you said you were working with Sun-chosen. You said you had a circle!" [20:41] 14Stranger: "What?" [20:41] "Oh." [20:41] "Take off the helmet, Keldar." [20:41] 10Jai: "Like hell he's a deathknight! I should know!" [20:41] "He just got beat up real bad in our last battle, that's all." 15[20:41] Oyabun: "Like hell he's not! Scoured black flesh, blood from every pore. I've read the reports." [20:42] 14...Is he seeing what we're seeing, or...? [20:42] "That's because he took some kind of Essence beam directly to the face!" [20:42] 12Keldar: "What? Are you- listen, kid, I'm more alive'n you are. I just took a Terrible Gaze to the face." [20:42] 14Ah. [20:42] "See?" 15[20:42] "Shit. And you lived?" [20:42] 13Xia Lan: "Keldar's very tough." [20:43] "How are Pearl and Sober, by the way? And - I don't know if he still goes by Mr. Tellurian..." [20:43] 12Keldar: "If you can call this living. But I'm going through bandages at a decreasin' rate, I think, and I can still walk." 15[20:43] "I'm -" He looks at Jai. "What did you tell them my name was?" [20:44] 10Jai: "I didn't tell them any name, yet. Just, you know. That you're the Oyabun." 15[20:45] "Whatever. I'm whoever he said. I've got something for that here." He sticks his hands deep into his pockets, and those assembled hear the clang of metal on metal on glass and the squeak of some small animal. He comes up with a cork-stoppered vial containing what appear to be threads. "Want a bean, old bean? Fresh from the Gardens." [20:45] 10Jai's shoulders slump a little. "It sounds less cool when I'm saying it out loud." [20:45] 12Keldar peers through narrowed eyes. "Whassat?" 15[20:47] "The Oyabun": "These are Seven-Chakra Beans. They only grow in Yu-Shan since the Fall, and each plant only sprouts once every three hundred and thirty-three years. One of these can bring a man on death's door to the full of health in the time it takes you catch your breath." 15[20:47] He shakes one out on the table. "I've got three." 15[20:47] "You look like you could use one." [20:47] 14One assumes 'the Fall' doesn't mean autumn. [20:47] 12Keldar: "Hrrrgh. How much?" 15[20:49] Oyabun: "I told you, I've got three. You'll only need one." [20:49] 10Jai takes a deep breath. "But for a proper introduction, and this doesn't leave the room, this is the Chosen of Heaven, Shadow of the Ebon Throne, Master 99 Dark Star. And probably another half dozen titles I could dredge up if I tried. Also, um. He usually doesn't look like this." [20:50] 14Stranger: "Which one of the Maidens, if you don't mind my asking?" [20:51] 12Keldar stares blankly for a moment. "I'm asking what's it cost." [20:51] 14Stranger: "In the interest of honesty, the reason I ask is we've been working with one of Jupiter's, off and on." 15[20:52] 99 Dark Star: "...cost?" 15[20:53] "Oh, right. Nexus. Uhhhh pay me in intel. Tell me everything that's happened and what you're working on, what your main problems are, et cetera." [20:53] 14Stranger: "You're in the paradise of commerce in all creation, 99 Dark Star. Ask him for a coin or something." [20:53] 12Keldar looks over to Jai for some indication as to whether he's being poisoned or similar. [20:54] 10Jai shrugs. He's never seen this jar with the beans before. And if Oyabun really wanted Keldar dead right now, he would be. [20:54] 10He's pretty sure of that, anyway.  15[20:55] To Stranger: "Mind telling me which Chosen of Jupiter you've been working for? There aren't that many of us." [20:55] 14Have to be maximally insulting before accepting a gift in good faith. It's good to know that at least the curse hasn't changed who Keldar is. [20:55] 14Stranger: "Mmmmm. No, I don't, but I'll play a bit harder to get than that since I'm not getting a bean. Which Maiden?" 15[20:56] "Jupiter, Maiden of Secrets. I'm not doing her name any favors by telling you this, so be prepared to put in a good word for me at my trial." [20:58] 14Stranger: "I would hardly be worthy of the name Stranger-Visits-Heaven if I didn't actually do so from time to time. His working name is Bubo Malcavet, and until recently he was embedded with the Dragonlord Nessun Dorma." 15[20:58] 99: "Sorry what did you say your name was?" [20:58] 13Oh, boy. [20:58] 14His smile widens. "Yes, I gathered that might get a reaction." [20:59] "I'm told I'm a bit tamer than the one who came before." [20:59] 12Keldar picks up the bean and sniffs it. He's never seen or heard of one of these things, of course. "Listen, if you just want to give the thing away you can go ahead, except that if it does half of what you say it does it'd be absurd for you to just pop in and gift it to a total stranger." 15[21:00] 99: "Yeah, well, it'd make sense if you were smarter. Eat the damn bean." [21:01] 10Jai: "Just eat the dang bean, Sarge. He already told you what his price is, that's more than a lot of people get." [21:01] 14Stranger: "I assume his angle here is to stop the fall of Nexus to a raksha army and prevent a massive middlemarch from springing up just few weeks' travel from the massive shadowland already blighting the Threshold." [21:01] 12Keldar: "Alright, but if this ain't at least fast-actin' you'll have time to regret it." 12He flicks it off a thumb and into his mouth. Crunch! [21:02] 13Xia Lan: "Do we know where the Mask went off to? I was uh. Preoccupied. At the time." [21:02] 14Stranger, to 99 Dark Star: "Please excuse the Dawn Sergeant. Or don't. Either way, you get used to it." [21:03] 10Jai: "He was already gone by the time i made contact with Xu Sim." [21:03] 13Comfortingly: "He's like this with everyone at first. Like a particularly unruly cat." 15[21:04] 99: "Please. This isn't even top 10 most annoying reports. It's not like he's going to abandon me." [21:04] 12And at second, and at third... anyway, Keldar looks thoughtful. "Hmm. Kinda vanilla-y. Although I don't really get what the big oh holy shit." 15[21:04] 99 drums skinny hands on skinny knees. "Bubo... Bubo Malcavet... that's one of 84's Destinies. 84 Ivy Throne, in the Directorate." [21:05] 10Jai shrinks down into his chair even though he's got the better part of a yalm on Oyabun right now. [21:05] 14Stranger: "He's not in town, sadly. I asked him to look into something in land, closer to the Realm. I was hoping to hear back from him by now." [21:06] 5Xu Sim makes his way through the Undercity towards the old Thorns quarter, ignoring rumblings in his belly and whispering Lookshyans and curious Nexans. 15[21:06] 99: "84's senior enough that he'll just go on walkabout and not code in for months. He's probably got a wife somewhere. Haven't heard from him." [21:06] 14Stranger isn't about to demand they play the Question Game -- getting a Chosen of Jupiter to agree to answer honestly would be a waste of time anyway -- but this feels like a close enough approximation. [21:07] 5The sorcerer has his eyes peeled for zombies, skeletons, demiliches, bound ghosts - whatever bound undead may be, should lead him towards the Scion. [21:07] 14Stranger smiles. "His woman sits on the Council of Nexus." 15[21:07] 99's cheeks puff out as he blows through his lips. "And he's not here?" [21:07] 12Keldar twitches maybe once before what looked like it was going to become a violent convulsion resolves itself instead into a sort of smooth blurring of his entire body. He glows as if his flesh is lit from within, shafts of pale anima stabbing out between bandages, and quickly grabs onto the end of the table he was standing before to steady himself. After about a minute of this, he [21:07] 12lets go, leaving smoking fingerprints in the wood. 15[21:07] "Waste of a vacation." [21:08] "Perhaps he's fool enough to have more than one. Didn't seem the type, however." [21:08] 10Jai goes wide-eyed. "Holy shit that's some bean." [21:09] 14To Keldar: "Too much to hope for that it fixed the curse too, I suppose?" [21:09] 12The Dawn Sergeant looks unchanged until such time as he coughs, and then blackened, twisted flesh goes cascading off him like so much dust. He coughs again, then scratches at an arm to reveal pristine flesh beneath bone-dry flakes of carbonized viscera. "Holy shit. You need a better business plan, buddy." 15[21:10] Xu Sim traces a crooked path through the streets of Nexus, passing shades and revenants wandering aimlessly. As he gets closer, they start to move in unison, in more predictable patterns. He finally finds the Scion of the Sevenfold, hair frazzled, engaged in constant sorcerous effort to marshall all the undead that the Mask commanded with nary a thought. Her pale face alights at the 15[21:10] sight of her beloved. "My love! I heard the worst!" [21:10] 13Xia Lan rolls her eyes, but says nothing. Though... if it DOES cure the curse..." [21:10] 13Scratch that last ". [21:10] 12Keldar: "Get someone with a dustpan or something in here. I'll be back in a sec." 12He strides out, trailing flakes of corruption the whole way. [21:10] 14To 99 Dark Star: "My main concern is that we're missing something important, and I sent Bubo on a mission far more dangerous than either of us anticipated it would be." 15[21:10] 99: "Where to?" [21:11] 12It's about a minute later that Keldar returns, dressed in loose cloth with his sword across his back, but only a minute and a half later that anyone notices. He catches Xia Lan's eye and shakes his head morosely. [21:11] 13She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding and puts her head down on the table. [21:14] 12Keldar: "Emissary seems to think this dies when Cethleann does, though. Kinda seemed like his best guess, but it made sense to me." [21:15] 13Into the table: "That's not soon enough." [21:16] 10Jai: "Especially not if anyone trying to kill her is also at risk." [21:17] 12Keldar: "Long as we can make it stick, right? Though how to do that's the real question, 'cause running her body through wasn't good enough." 15[21:17] 99: "You're talking about the ishvara, right?" [21:18] 14Stranger: "Pnuema. Specifically, The Nail. When the Emissary was killed, the city appeared to choose a new Emissary in the person of a 'dead' cabbage vendor who was nearby when the fatal blow was struck. We learned later that he was still alive, after a fashion, and was being kept as such by the previous Evening Master. One assumes that he is the Emissary we see before us now, [21:18] after some dark transformation. But before we learned of all this the cabbage vendor's family was kidnapped by the Guild at the behest of the Immaculates and transported downriver, with a final destination of Pneuma." [21:18] "Your guess as to what they want with them is as good as mine, but mine is leverage." [21:19] 5Xu Sim's haggard face cracks into a thin smile as he rushes forward, heedless of the bound dead. "You heard correctly," 5he explains as they embrace. "I nearly won the war at a stroke - captured the Eye of Balor - led the doddering Emissary - straight to Keldar - but they took it away - ended up with Mask - blasted me with it-" 15[21:19] Seven: "They betrayed you?!" 15[21:19] Her grip on his arms tightens. [21:19] 12Keldar: "The ishvara, yeah. Xia Lan and I got cursed fighting her off." [21:20] 13She lefts her head up from the table. "Wasn't my finest few days of combat. It's been even worse since." [21:21] 12Keldar: "So what's it take, huh? Should I have gotten out one of our standard-issue iron blades instead of this daiklave?" 15[21:21] 99: "You can't kill an ishvara. An ishvara is like... a theory. At best you can disprove it." [21:22] 5Xu Sim: "They tried to cut another deal with Balor to put everything back to the way it was. Keldar didn't even wait for an explanation." 15[21:22] "Depending on the theory a sword to the face is a reasonable counterargument, but it sounds like that didn't work." 15[21:22] "What's she like?" 15[21:22] "Just... be the opposite of that." [21:22] 14Stranger: "A dreamer. Literally. Still seems to be in love. Likes to appear reasonable. Honestly, I think Keldar's got the whole 'being the opposite' thing down pat already." [21:23] 12Keldar: "She, let me see. She betrayed Balor and came back here to take his Eye after he gave up the ghost. She likes to appear in the form of people her enemies have lost or betrayed, but bigger and scarier. Fought with a lance in person." [21:24] 14Stranger: "An important thing about love, for her, though is that it's tied to vengeance. It's not healthy love. She's always anticipating betrayal, and eagerly awaiting the moment she gets to punish it." [21:25] "I'd go so far as to say that defines her concept of both love and vengeance." 15[21:25] 99: "What's the opposite of betrayal, then? Loyalty?" 15[21:25] "But you guys are all loyal to each other, presumably, so that's not it." [21:25] 13Ha ha ha ha ha. 15[21:25] Seven: "Those fiends. But, you're alive and healthy, and for now that's enough. What came of the Mask?" [21:26] 12Keldar: "I'm plenty loyal. And we were all working in tandem when we actually faced her on the field. Took I forget how many hits for a couple of ya." [21:26] "And it's not being brutal and terrible, because otherwise Xia Lan would have shaken it off already." 10Jai blushes. "I mean…" [21:27] 14Stranger: "Perhaps it's better to ask what would cause her to think love is always destined to end in vengeance. Romantic betrayal is an inherently selfish act, yes? Pursuing a liaison that feels good with no regard to the feelings of your partner. Perhaps the answer -- and why Keldar is NOT her opposite -- is: selflessness." [21:27] 13Brutal, no, but terrible... 15[21:27] 99: "Maybe forgiveness? I dunno. Theory was never my strong suit. I work wet." [21:27] 5Xu Sim shakes his head. "There wasn't any way to stop all three of them. But by the time we realized what was going on, it was in Mask's hands. He blasted us with it. I only escaped by a hairsbreadth, but then so did Mask - I last saw him south of town, behind the enemy lines. He hasn't been... in contact with you?" [21:27] 14Stranger: "Most theories hold that selflessness is fundamentally alien to raksha anyway, given their essential narcissism." 15[21:28] Seven shakes her head. "Everything here is in disarray. He relinquished control of the dead." [21:28] 12Keldar: "Kinda self-defeating to become selfless so you can take down your deadly enemy, ain't it? 'cause it's not self-defeating, if you follow me." [21:29] 14Stranger: "Well, I'm uncertain that any Chosen of the Sun can be fundamentally selfless. Individualism is sealed into our exaltation. It is a primary tenet of the Sun Himself." [21:29] 5Xu Sim: "I did recover this," 5he notes, producing his vial of the deathlord's ectoplasmic ichor. 15[21:30] Seven's eyes go wide. "He bled?" [21:30] "So hopefully I'm wrong, and it's something like salt or whatever else farmers use to kill weeds." [21:31] 13She doesn't press on Jai, though. That'd be mean right now. "I - if it truly was selflessness, that's impossible now. Our actions are informed by that knowledge, so. Is an action selfless if it's a change in behavior brought on by trying to break a curse?" [21:31] 12Keldar: "Here's the thing - are you sure you can only 'disprove' a raksha when it gets that big? Because we're Anathema, and legend tells we went out and just plain stabbed all sorts of shit you're not supposed to be able to. Full weight of her curse fell down on me and I've still got my sword hand, after all." [21:32] 5Xu Sim: "He was not able to stand, for a time." 15[21:32] 99: "Obviously I'm not sure. I'm just going off what I've been told, and my bosses don't like giving up the goods any more than I do." [21:33] 10Jai mumbles "You can say that again." 15[21:33] Seven: "But he did recover..." 15[21:33] 99 elbows Jai. "Look at me. Am I not cooperating?" [21:33] 12Keldar: "There's gotta be something keeping her alive, or that her body's just regrowing out of, or something. Like a magic supply chain. Which Xu Sim's already messed with, right?" 15[21:34] 99: "Sure, any raksha can be starved." [21:34] 14Stranger, to Xia Lan: "That depends on whether your definition of selfish or selfless relies on outcome or intent. The philosophers that argue every action is selfless because 'knowing you did the right thing' is a reward are arguing intent. Most of them are know-nothing shitheads, but so are most philosophers in general. In material terms, selfish is defined by increasing your [21:34] material position with no or outright negative regard to others, while selfless is defined by increasing the material position of those with less than you with no or outright negative regard to yourself." [21:35] 14Stranger: "But I do not think the raksha outside of the Wyld are so powerful that they can turn mere knowledge of how to break their curse into a means to deny it. At least, I would hope not." [21:35] 10Jai: "You're being too cooperative, old man, and that's what's scaring me. I thought you were going to deck me in that camp." 15[21:35] "The thought occurred, kiddo." [21:35] 13Xia Lan absorbs Stranger's words, but -- "...old man?" [21:36] 12Keldar looks nonplussedly between Jai and 99. [21:36] 14Stranger: "The problem is, of course, that in a war, there are only a few truly selfless acts on offer. And those all seem completely unacceptable from both a strategic and a personal standpoint." [21:36] "Perhaps it's a moral victory if you break the curse while dying, but she wins either way." [21:36] 5Xu Sim: "He seemed to. He said I would never see the dawn. He seemed... confident about that." [21:37] 10Jai: "Usually he looks like a real hard case. Yea tall, yea big," Jai gestures, "going prematurely gray. If he didn't use my nickname for him I wouldn't have believed it was him at all." 15[21:39] Seven: "I'm happy you returned and he hasn't. But you didn't come up here just to see me, did you?" [21:39] 13She blinks. "Well, all right." [21:40] 5Xu Sim: "What if I did?" 15[21:40] Seven: "Then you're a fool, and terribly romantic." [21:41] 12Keldar: "I'd forget the selflessness thing. If it's love becoming vengeance, then, I dunno, you could fall for someone you betrayed or decide not to betray someone 'cause you got the hots for 'em or something. But all of that seems sketchy, especially since it's not like Cethleann's particularly chatty on the field." [21:41] 5Xu Sim: "I did come to see you. I wanted to make sure you were alright, that you knew I was alright, I didn't want to speak to a bug to do it. And I wanted your advice about a curse," 5he replies. 15[21:42] Seven: "A curse?" [21:43] 14Stranger: "Chatty in the field or not doesn't seem relevant. What might be relevant: she was very interested in Zuniga." [21:43] 12Keldar: "'swhy we should just figure out how to kill her for real. Between the lot of us, there's no way we can't obliterate her properly, right?" [21:44] 13Xia Lan: "I'm no help as I am, unfortunately. I couldn't even scratch anyone, last few fights I was in. Just - feels like I'm swinging through syrup." [21:44] 14Stranger: "'The lot of us' is our two in-close battlers cursed, me still hurt, and Xu Sim...well, he's mostly fine." [21:45] 12Keldar: "I can still fight, and maybe more importantly, Xu Sim can still concoct. And you can sanctify." [21:46] 14Stranger pauses. Then: "It might be impossible to do the fully-selfless thing, but...even if we can't satisfy the antithesis of what she values, we can still change what she values." [21:46] "Well." [21:46] "If we're convincing enough." [21:46] "It's not a magic trick." [21:47] 5Xu Sim: "Cethleann laid one on Dorma before she killed him; she laid the same one on Xia Lan and Keldar - though the brute resisted it enough to remain, well, quite a brute." [21:47] 12Keldar: "I'm more comfortable with magic tricks, but what's your idea?" [21:48] 14Stranger: "I either find someone down here with the dreaming sickness or intentionally infect myself by leaving the iron dome, I go to sleep, we parlay, and I literally talk her to death." [21:48] "Well. Discorporeality." [21:49] 13Sun knows he's capable of it. [21:49] 10Jai puffs out a breath. "I'm pretty far from being a swordmaster. But maybe I can distract her enough to give Keldar an opening." 10He thinks. "Or I could find out where she's reforming and just put cold iron through whatever raksha have instead of hearts." [21:49] 12Keldar: "Uh, you sure? I mean, if you can talk her to distraction and make sure she's here in even some sense I might be able to have another go at her." 15[21:50] Seven: "That's a mighty curse indeed... typically the way you revoke a curse is by running it down. Every curse has a condition or a time limit. 'Until you fall in battle', 'a year and a day', 'to the seventh generation', and so on. But that's no use here... perhaps a sacrifice? An offering sufficient to persuade her to withdraw it. She has some connection to the Emissary, doesn't she? 15[21:50] Maybe you could offer her him." [21:50] 14Stranger: "Raksha are creatures defined by their emotional connections to themselves and, when they've manifested in Creation, to the world. Change that emotional connection and you fundamentally change the raksha. If 99 Dark Star is right about her essential nature and I'm convincing enough, it's possible they'll just...pack up and go home." [21:50] 12Keldar nods to Jai. "See, that's what I really want to know - where the coffin she's gonna climb back out of is. You didn't see anything like a fort or command tent out there, I'm guessing?" [21:51] "I just need to prove to her that love isn't vengeance deferred." [21:51] "Which, I admit, I'll have to think about how to do in a way a raksha will respond to." 15[21:51] Seven: "You could also kill her, I suppose. If you could find the place of power where she reforms." [21:52] 14He seems to hear Keldar for the first time in a few moments. "But yes, you should put together a secondary plan, in case I fail. Especially since the only way for me to do this without endangering an innocent life is to go out onto the battlefield and fall asleep." [21:52] "Also if I truly mess this up, you might need to kill my body." [21:52] "Unsure on that front." [21:52] 14Probably not an issue for Keldar. [21:53] 12Keldar: "Woah, woah, not worth that kinda risk. Not unless you've got some kind of silver bullet argument you've already seen work on her lieutenants or something." [21:53] 5Xu Sim: "She does. I wonder if..." 5he pauses in thought for a moment. [21:54] 14Stranger: "Ending this fight without having to do suicide charges into the raksha's ranks is worth it at twice the danger. To say nothing of the great wall that's sprung up to our south. Perhaps the Emissary can be convinced to watch over me." [21:54] 5The doctor's jaw gapes. "I AM a fool!" [21:54] 10Jai: "I saw… here, I think I could draw a more complete map now." 10Jai ducks out of the conference room for a moment and returns with a large scrap of cloth and a charcoal stick. [21:55] 12Keldar: "It's a suicide charge either way! Have we even got, I dunno, some smelling salts to wave under your nose if the blood starts draining out your body?" [21:55] 5Xu Sim: "The grove that I found myself in, it could work like a phylactery, or the anchor of a ghost! No place like that existed there before, I'm sure of it." 15[21:56] Seven nods. "That's a good idea." [21:56] 13Xia Lan, quietly: "I don't think it's wise without some kind of guarantee that it'll even do anything other than make you vulnerable." [21:57] 14Stranger: "I'm not particularly worried about my well-being. I am, however, worried about failure. Which means if I'm going to do this I'm going to have to actually take bedrest." [21:57] "I need to be at the top of my game for this." [21:58] 10Jai: "I'd say we could ask for another one of Oyabun's beans here, but there's only two left and, well, we know they don't work on curses. So they probably won't work if you lose some kind of mind-battle." [21:58] 5Xu Sim: "The Mask could have struck there, too, but did not for some reason. I wonder why..." 15[21:59] Seven: "If what you said is true, perhaps he didn't like his chances in his weakened state. Or perhaps it simply didn't occur to him." [22:00] 12Keldar: "I'm against it. You're worth more than any soldier, Stranger - I'd rather have you with us on a charge for Cethleann's place of power." [22:00] 12The Dawn Sergeant's looking over Jai's map, now, searching for anything interesting. [22:00] 5Xu Sim: "What's your plan? Do you need help? You're just... holding it all down?" [22:00] 14He purses his lips. "Well, if it fails, I suppose I could always try then. Unless we all die." 15[22:01] Seven: "I just need them all in one place. But they've all gone off wandering and it's so slow picking them up in ones and twos." [22:01] 5Xu Sim: "Nobody is helping you?" 15[22:02] Seven: "Necromancers are not popular with the living." [22:02] 14To Keldar: "What is the plan for locating and destroying her place of power, then?" [22:03] "I'm living, last I checked,"5 he replies defiantly. [22:03] 12Keldar: "I want to know where it is and real confirmation - probably from Xu Sim - that it's destructible. Then we'd forge out with a contingent of the Guard and raze it, salt the ashes, the works." [22:04] 14Stranger: "Do we have time to sit around and wait while it's located?" 15[22:04] Seven: "You're very special." [22:04] 12Keldar: "Depends on what that looks like. I was gonna be sitting around and waiting a lot longer before the Oyabun showed." [22:06] 14Stranger: "I suppose my point is more that I could give my idea a shot while the scouting is going on." [22:06] 13Xia Lan: "And wander into the unknown, on her territory? Seems like suicide with extra steps." [22:07] "I would ask the Ambassador to martial the crows, but I'm unsure they'd have any idea what to look for from the air." [22:07] 5Xu Sim: "I had no idea you were being disrespected like that. No more." [22:12] 12Keldar: "Problem is it might leave you unavailable for actual fighting, and you still sound like you're planning to make up what you'll say to her as you go along." [22:12] 5Xu Sim, into the Codex:  [22:14] 14Stranger: "That's what conversations are, yes. Going into a conversation with a script would be insulting and suicide." [22:15] 10Jai looks up from the map. He's sketched a handful of unique structures but isn't quite sure which of them would be significant. "I'll go round up some people for zombie-wrangling duty." [22:17] 12Keldar: "Well, it's your funeral. We both gotta talk to Xu Sim first, though - he can tell you about the honey disease and the rest of us about, I don't know, raksha spawning chambers. ...and, uh, yeah, I'll the Guard on that." [22:18] 5Xu Sim bids his leave of his beloved and makes his way back to the council with incredible alacrity. [22:19] 5Xu Sim bursts into the council of war moments later. [22:19] 13Xia Lan: "It's not just his funeral, is the problem. And - yes, we should wait for... ah. Xu Sim." [22:20] 14Stranger: "Xu Sim! How is Seven taking our, ah, dalliance with the Mask?" [22:22] 5Xu Sim: "I believe she finds the independence refreshing," 5he responds with somewhat uncharacteristic diplomacy. [22:23] 14Stranger: "Hopefully she has much more to look forward to. We're discussing what to do about Cethleann." [22:23] 10Jai slips out of the conference room in the wake of Xu Sim's dramatic arrival. Some fresh air is just about what he needs at this juncture. And Oyabun is still being far too understanding about all of this. He's kind of wondering if this isn't just another exam. [22:23] "We are of two basic schools of thought." [22:23] 5Continuing - "Now, how did a... kid... it was a kid, I'm sure, manage to unlock the Sapphire Circle?" [22:24] 14Stranger looks around. Apparently the Oyabun managed to slip out as well. "Oh, he's not a child. He just looks like one. They must have better disguises than ours." [22:24] 13Xia Lan mutters something indistinct. [22:24] "That, or he's secretly a Lunar who ate a child's heart. But I believe him when he says he's a Chosen of Jupiter." [22:25] 5Xu Sim is improbably satisfied with the explanation. He's moved on. "I'm an idiot, I was standing in her very phylactery, her physical anchor-place, the elm grove that the Mask and I appeared in, it's right there." [22:26] 12Keldar, who is unaccountably uninjured and wearing fresh clothes: "...seriously? Whereabouts?" 12He gestures at the map Jai drew. [22:26] 14Stranger blinks. "Cethleann's and not Seven's, I hope." [22:27] 5Xu Sim: "Yes, Cethleann. It's south of the lines, it was weakly patrolled when I arrived, but of course it's on the opposite side of the entire army." [22:27] 12Keldar: "And the Mask? What'd he do?" [22:28] 13Xia Lan: "...how sure are you? And, uh, other side of the army doesn't exactly inspire a ton of confidence..." [22:28] 14Stranger: "Well, if it's really that easy, we'd be fools not to at least try to burn it to the ground. But it means we can't go in force." [22:28] 5Xu Sim, pointedly ignoring Keldar "I'm pretty certain. But it might be reachable, Jai made it through in one direction and I made it through the other." [22:29] 14Stranger: "Jai's little friend has the ability to move from one place to another instantly, apparently. Perhaps that might help. Or perhaps there's some draconian rule preventing it. We can ask when the two of them turn up again." [22:30] 12Keldar: "Neither he or Jai looked too steady on their feet after." [22:31] 5Xu Sim: "Of course, if we had more thistledown we could pummel it in an instant from the safety of the ramparts." [22:31] 14Stranger: "For completion's sake, the other school of thought is that I sit down with Cethleann via the dreaming sickness and attempt to change the emotional bond that defines her as a raksha, which I know. But with these developments it sounds like I won't be able to brag about talking a raksha out of Creation after all." [22:31] 5Xu Sim furrows his brow. "You tried that already." [22:31] "Using the thistledown on the iron dome is the only reason half the city's children and dedicated guards aren't murdering people with whatever's handy." [22:32] 14Stranger: "No, I didn't." [22:32] "My goal in our last conversation was to convince her to release the child she was preying upon." [22:32] "This time, I would be going in alone." [22:32] "She offered us terms, if we produced the Scarlet Empress." [22:32] 13Xia Lan: "Which is why Keldar and I vehemently disagreed." [22:33] 14Stranger: "Sadly I don't think the Ambassador has eaten the Scarlet Empress's heart, so we don't have one on hand." [22:33] "Though I'd be much more willing to give up the real one." [22:33] 12Keldar: "Emissary wants the Empress's heart, too, for what it's worth." [22:34] 12Keldar: "Either way, I think the most practical thing is just to crash in there and flatten the grove." [22:34] 14Stranger: "As do all her daughters, half her sons, and every court sorcerer and ambitious warlord in the Threshold." [22:34] 13Xia Lan: "I feel like trying to disguise myself as the Empress would work if I wasn't, presently, cursed." [22:34] 14To Xu Sim: "No offense." [22:35] "Or maybe not, I don't know how Cethleann operates." [22:35] 5Xu Sim: "Why not offer the Emissary as a sacrifice, then? It's what they actually want. Make them go away afterwards." [22:35] "Asking for 'the Scarlet Empress's heart' seems like one of those things where if you got what you wanted, you'd distrust it because it was too easy." [22:35] 14Stranger: "Partially because I swore an oath not to do something as stupid as that." [22:35] 13She snorts. "Okay. You get to ask him to give himself up." [22:36] "I'll make sure your grave is lovingly decorated." [22:37] 5Xu Sim, with a bit of steel in his voice, "I almost had the better of him last time, alone. I'm sure next time it won't go the same way again." [22:37] 14To Xia Lan: "My problem with you disguising yourself as the Scarlet Empress is the part where they want the Scarlet Empress expressly to rip her heart out." [22:37] 12Keldar, pointedly ignoring Xu Sim: "There's no point in playing her game when we know where her weak spot is. I just need to know what ensures the destruction's complete - salt? Iron? Xia Lan leads a prayer?" [22:38] 13She waves vaguely. "You can fake that too, if you try. She'll be upset very shortly afterwards, but - anyway, this is all hypothetical. I could maybe trick a lax guardsman as I am now." [22:38] 14To Xu Sim: "We're not turning the Emissary over to Cethleann with no idea what that might do just because you're mad he put us in a position where we had to give him his Eye back. The idea is ridiculous. The most likely reason they want him back is so they can resurrect Balor, the actual, true Balor, to stand at the head of their armies -- and then where are we?" [22:40] 14To Keldar: "If we had more iron it would be in the air already. Unless some of your men are walking around with iron weapons they didn't kick in before, we're stuck going without." [22:41] 12Keldar: "It's weapons I mean. I can't get you another shot with the Tomb but a ritual ring of swords stabbed into the earth's doable." [22:42] 14Stranger: "Sounds reasonable, so long as we can bring that many with us." [22:42] 12Keldar turns to Xu Sim here: "What I'm saying is, if we get to that copse of trees, and you've got room to work, can you hex it so us burning it down and then killing Cethleann sticks?" [22:42] 5Xu Sim: "Cethleann takes the form of others when she wants to kill. It's her way of proving a point. Zuniga for Dorma, Dorma for me. And so on." [22:42] 12Keldar: "We already know we're a match for her in the field. Just have to make sure our victory's final." [22:43] 14Stranger still has concerns about that assessment. [22:44] 5Xu Sim: "As you may have heard in the last sally, I introduced new discord into the dreams of her Dreamers, her Sleepers, whatever you want ot call them. Her food. It set the host into chaos." [22:44] 14Stranger nods. "That might make my work easier, if I were to attempt my play." [22:44] 12Keldar: "I did hear, and that'll make getting there in force a lot easier. But I want the phylactery itself neutralized." [22:44] 12Keldar: "And in a way that doesn't just mean that Cethleann defaults to a second, farther-away phylactery instead. She's gotta die." [22:46] 5Xu Sim: "She's an Ishvara," 5he repeats. [22:46] 5Xu Sim: "She's an Ishvara," 5he repeats. [22:46] 14Stranger considers quibbling over 'die' again but frankly 'reforming over time in the Wyld' is functionally the same. [22:46] 5A shadow passes over his face as he recalls something. [22:47] 5Xu Sim poses a koan: "What happens when you kill that which cannot die?" [22:47] 14Stranger: "Lawyering." [22:48] "This is why my approach might yield more permanent results. I could be able to get her to swear an oath not to return." [22:48] 5Xu Sim: "Mask of Winters asked me that. Lawyering was not his answer." [22:48] 12Keldar: "Yeah, and we're Anathema. Nothing we can't cut if we put our minds to it." [22:50] 14Stranger's eyes flash. "If Mask of Winters had all the wisdom he pretends to, he wouldn't be stuck in Creation scrounging desperately for whatever ancient, sorcerous relics cross his path." [22:51] 12Keldar, to Xu Sim: "You're telling me that if you were right there with your hands on her place of power, and the rest of us plus an army at your beck and call, you couldn't ruin Cethleann's invincibility? [22:51] 5Xu Sim: "His answer - which may not be wise but seems knowledgeable - was - 'a vessel, a conduit, to pure Oblivion.' Why did he wait in the grove? Does he want to hear such a song again?" [22:52] 14Stranger: "It doesn't seem wise or knowledgable. It seems ambitious, and therefore perfectly in his remit." [22:53] 5Xu Sim: "He spoke from some experience, I think. We should prepare for unforeseen consequences." [22:53] 13Xia Lan: "If we could, they'd be foreseen consequences." [22:54] 14Stranger: "Far be it from me to trust the judgment of a creature who gladly aligned himself with the Stranger-Visits-Heaven of the First Age, but this would seem to be a mark in favor of trying to just get her to leave on her own." [22:55] 12Keldar: "Yeah, uh, if she just leaves and doesn't die I'm not sure if Xia Lan and I get back to normal." [22:57] 14Stranger: "If her no longer being in Creation doesn't do it, then there's no reason to think killing her would either. The curse is unnatural to begin with, and must be sustained through unnatural means." [22:57] 5Xu Sim: "Well, all curses have some sort of limit to them." [22:58] 12Keldar: "If the limit's her life then we're in trouble. Or at least Xia Lan is, I think I've got a bit of a foothold on the outside." [22:58] 14Stranger: "Raksha aren't alive the way -- we've had this conversation before." [22:58] 13Xia Lan: "I'm thrilled for you." 13Her voice is completely flat. [22:59] 12Keldar nudges Xia Lan. "Hey, I'm pulling for ya, here. You think they'd go to the trouble of killing Cethleann properly for only my sake?" [22:59] 14To Xu Sim: "Regarding the Mask, my greatest concern is him lurking in the shadows and popping out once his 'pillar of oblivion' or what have you appears." [23:00] 13She sighs. "That doesn't make it feel any better sitting on the sidelines." [23:00] 12Keldar: "Yeah... doesn't seem fair you couldn't at least hold on to your voice or somethin'." [23:01] 14Stranger: "Of course there's always the combined arms play." [23:01] "I negotiate with her while you all hit her place of power." [23:02] "It would certainly give me leverage, if not entirely show good faith. But then good faith only takes you so far with the gentry." [23:02] 12Keldar: "If you can keep her occupied that might be a solid move. Hate to have her pop up halfway through and be twice as strong for eating your soul, though." [23:03] 14Stranger: "I'm not precisely sure that's how it works, but I have means of protecting myself even in dreams." [23:05] 12Keldar: "Other thing is, like, if we can just blitz and raze the place of power and get in position to murder her properly, it'd be real awkward if you promised her we wouldn't." 12He pauses. "Though I guess you'd have at least gotten something good out of the deal, right?" [23:06] 13Xia Lan: "What should I be doing in the meantime? I'm - not what I should be, but I'm not completely useless." [23:06] 14Stranger: "Losing the place of power wouldn't kill her itself; it would simply make it so the next battle matters more. How much more depends on how much you respect the concept of an Ishvara, which we seem to be of mixed minds on." [23:07] "Combat's a no-go, like I said before. I can't even connect on any of these people. But I don't know where to help within the city." [23:08] 14Stranger: "So what we're looking at here is leverage, not a kill shot. The kill shot would -- if the theory here is correct -- be fighting her one final time in her alleged true form without the grove." [23:08] 12Keldar gives Xia Lan a helpless shrug. "I've been doing the Guard's easier paperwork." [23:08] 13Face planted firmly in table again: "Great." [23:08] 12He nods to Stranger. "Yeah. Now, if we're real lucky she's still, like, gestating inside a tree or something, and we kill two birds with one stone if we move quick enough." [23:10] "And if I can get her to release the curse and voluntarily leave using both my skill as a negotiator and the leverage of the grove's destruction -- which she will certainly feel, even if I can't communicate with you on the outside -- I see absolutely no reason not to do that, especially since it saves us you two possibly being outright murdered like Dorma and the Mask of Winters swooping [23:10] in at the last moment, cackling and riding some streak of anti-light straight down into the Underworld." [23:12] 12Keldar: "I'd be wayyy happier with Cethleann dead, but with Enigma's troops and the Mask still lurking around I gotta admit that her picking up and leaving quietly might be ideal. ...although that might make the swathe she carved across the Threshold to get here more of a problem to deal with." [23:12] 5Xu Sim: "I suspect that it may be possible to unmake her, rather than kill her. Perhaps the distinction is academic." [23:13] 12Keldar: "Just as good where I'm standing." [23:13] 5Xu Sim: "What you're really talking about, after all, Stranger, is to fundamentalyl change what she is to such an extent that she abandons her vengeance." [23:13] 14Stranger: "How? Wipe the memory of Balor's death from all Creation?" [23:13] 14Stranger: "Correct." [23:15] 13Xia Lan: "...sounds tricky." [23:16] 5Xu Sim: "So maybe the thing to do isn't to destroy her phylactery, but to alter it. [23:16] " [23:17] 14Stranger: "Convincing her that her seeking vengeance again is ludicrous given her own act of betrayal sounds less tricky than destroying the legend of the Balorian Crusade, full stop." [23:18] 5Xu Sim: "I suspect appeals to practicality, futility, or impossibility will fall on deaf ears. Of course, we can teach her an object lesson - and our armies are doing so." [23:18] 5Xu Sim: "I suspect appeals to practicality, futility, or impossibility will fall on deaf ears. Of course, we can teach her an object lesson - and our armies are doing so." [23:18] 14Stranger: "My first thought -- and this might tie into Xu Sim's idea of altering the grove -- is to convince her to change the legend to her and Balor dying together as doomed lovers." [23:18] 5Continuing- "But I think a demonstration of a fundamentally different concept of love-as-being would be more persuasive." [23:19] 12Keldar: "So she's dead retroactively?" [23:19] 13Mood. [23:19] 14Stranger: "Dead and alive aren't relevant. More that her legend is such that she has no reason to manifest in Creation." [23:20] "Sorry -- they're important to the story, of course. But what's in the story and the creature's actual nature are two different things." [23:20] 5Xu Sim: "Of all the things I thought I'd find in Nexus, love was not on that list. But I did, and it's not... it's just not revenge." [23:20] 12Keldar: "You know what I mean. We want a raksha that big dead - functionally dead, whatever - no matter what its story is. It's a menace." [23:21] 14Stranger: "And this is the most permanent way to do that, I think. Short of the Oblivion route. And if the story says she died back then, she was never here to begin with, which means no curse." [23:21] "Too bad it can't resurrect the dead." [23:25] 13Xia Lan, as if practiced: "You can't think about the what-could-have-beens." [23:26] 14Stranger: "That is explicitly what I'm going to be asking her to do. And then I'm going to ask her to make it reality." [23:26] 5Xu Sim: "We just show her conclusively wrong about love. We probably need the Emissary for that." [23:27] 13Xia Lan: "Sure. But you can't. [23:27] " [23:27] 14Stranger: "I'm not sure what condition the Emissary will be in to help. Unless you want to show her that love is a mechanical devotion to a series of rules that you interpret to do whatever you wanted to do in the first place." [23:27] 14Stranger gives Xia Lan a quick, small smile. [23:29] 14Stranger: "I'm pretty sure I can't take him in with me, either, unless...does the Emissary sleep?" [23:29] 13She's not looking at him. She's trying rather hard to trace the grains in the table, actually. [23:29] 14As if that would stop him. [23:30] 5Xu Sim: "Xia Lan, are you alright?" [23:31] 13She looks up, startled. "What? Yes, of course." [23:31] "Other than the curse." [23:31] 14To Xu Sim, to get Xia Lan off the hook: "Do you have any experience modifying phylacteries?" [23:31] "Does Sevenfold?" [23:32] 12Keldar: "Hell, just assaying them to make sure that burning it down and salting the earth does what we're lookin' for it to do." [23:32] 5Xu Sim: "Remember how we integrated the thistledown pylon into the Tomb of Red-Hot Iron? It should be a similar operation." [23:33] 5Xu Sim: "Additionally, while I do not yet know the Wyld-Shaping Technique, we've seen several instances of it." [23:33] 14Stranger: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that required the Tomb to be receptive. This grove should be actively hostile." [23:34] 5Xu Sim: "You aren't wrong." [23:36] 14Stranger: "Well, my view is that altering the grove and destroying it would give us different benefits. The first would underscore that she needs to heed the dictum that she leave, while the second would -- if done correctly -- give arguments in line with the phylactery's new nature better purchase." [23:36] 14Stranger: "So my main request is that we pick one before we start this and, if at all possible, stick to it. Because it would change the arguments I make." [23:37] 14Stranger: "Unless the 'alteration' you mean is turning it into some kind of soul-trap or bomb, in which case we're back at my concerns about giving the Mask what he wants." [23:38] 5Xu Sim: "Ideally, we could turn her inside-out into a trivial story and then simply punt her out of Creation where she belongs." [23:43] 14Stranger: "Do you feel confident you can do that through directly accessing the grove, given your expertise, the grove's hostility, and her obvious interest in not becoming unimportant? Because my offer is that she will still be one of history's two greatest doomed lovers -- but the love story will let her rest." [23:44] 13Xia Lan, recovering: "I think - Stranger's version is more likely to actually stick. People don't like being trivialized, and I can't imagine raksha are much different." [23:44] "I'd say alteration is more plausible than complete destruction...?" [23:46] 5Xu Sim: "The question you must answer: what is love? Cethleann says that love is vengeance, deferred. How do we reply?" [23:46] 14He grimaces at 'people don't like being trivialized.' They will put this right. "Ideally, given the nature of the creature that I'm trying to change, I'd like to have her leave without a desire for vengeance." [23:47] 14Stranger: "Love is a rose, and roses die. But they do not become swords." [23:47] 13Xia Lan: "Ask me again once I've had a chance to see Tsuka." [23:47] 14He pauses. "Yes, I think that might have some resonance with her." [23:48] 5Xu Sim, turning back to Xia Lan, "where is he now?" [23:48] 13Absentmindedly: "Roses have thorns. Don't let her turn that around on you." 13To Xu Sim: "In the medical tents. He was asleep when I came here, but..." [23:50] 13She moves abruptly. "I've got nothing more to add here. You know how to contact me." [23:51] 5Xu Sim, to Stranger: "Love doesn't die. Death isn't the end of love." 5to Xia Lan: "You must see him again. I can try to outsmart Cethleann or destroy her through sorcery, and Keldar can apply force of arms to slowly crystallize her and destroy her mortal ties to Creation, but now I think the way to beat Cethleann isn't with our arms or minds." 5Actually rather sheepishly, he [23:51] 5taps his chest. [23:52] 13She pauses as she exits, nods firmly, and vanishes from sight. [23:53] 14Stranger: "Far from it. I'm counting on her bringing that up. A rose that leaves its thorns in another opens wounds on its stem, and kills itself. She'll agree that at the very least, love is vengeance. But it is not vengeance deferred." [23:53] "And the dance will proceed from there." [23:53] "Hopefully." [23:54] 14To Xu Sim: "Obviously not. But I might need to get rhetorical with a raksha in a way I wouldn't with, say, someone who has taken a deathknight as a lover." [00:09] 14The conversation continues well into the night...