15[21:25] The final day in Brightwork dawns for Dryas. Where does she awake to greet it? Did she sleep well? [21:35] 07Dryas awakens in her chamber in the palace, clutching an empty bottle beneath the pillow. [21:38] 07It took a little while to get to sleep, but life finds a way, as a philosopher deep into a heroin stupor once said. Dryas reflects on the tasks she needs to accomplish before putting the place to the torch. Perhaps the best first move is to get right with the Gods - and weigh the mettle of their newest, fraughtest, ally - Peleps Deled. 15[21:40] Deled was secreted aboard Dryas's flagship in the middle of the night, assuming that former Guildswoman didn't bungle it. Assuming Deled didn't snap at the prospect. Assuming the Moray didn't steal over them like a shadow in the night and snuff them out personally— these are very dangerous and difficult times. [21:42] 07Very true - only two comforting thoughts. If disaster had struck, perhaps someone would have woken her. Or, if disaster had struck, they were compassionate enough to let one get some rest. 15[21:43] All of Brightwork separates the palace from the Drifting Leaf; Dryas the Younger need only cross it, passing restive guards and feeling the heavy eyes of the Watch whose commander Dryas had crossed the evening before. It's lucky they're planning to burn the place down; if you succeed, most of the people who die will be people who don't like you! [21:45] 07Perhaps these things have a way of working themselves out, after all. 15[21:48] It's not an imperfect Hierarchy. The sky over Brightwork is heavy and gray, threatening if not promising rain. The natural harbor shields the ships from the worst of the rough sea Dryas can mark in the distance, but the Leaf and the ships moored around it all fidget a bit in the water. [21:53] 07That's something to mark if they plan to leave in a hurry. Hopefully it keeps up just long enough for them to make good an escape. [21:56] 07What is the mood of the people of Brightwork that Dryas happens past? Are the people of the city preparing to make merry for the wedding? Are they in relief at the arrival of the Moray? Are they despondent or indifferent? 15[21:57] Dryas notices an unusual number of sailors and soldiers on deck — all her people, of course, but the guard stations are double-manned, and a full complement of sailors is making themselves busy. Catela herself is overseeing the last of the repairs to the hull, which must've continued through the night. 15[22:00] The carnival atmosphere that attended the Moray's arrival the day before seems to have dissolved overnight. People are back at work — or back at refusing to work — and the only sign of the revelry within the Inner City is the lapis-blue rosette every member of the Watch is wearing this morning. [22:04] 07Dryas checks in with Catela. "All is well, I trust? And our newest guest arrived last evening?" 15[22:05] Catela hesitates just a moment. "Yes, ma'am. We've made him comfortable in the hold. His request." [22:06] 07Dryas considers this. "He's an ascetic, then? He cause you any trouble?" 15[22:11] A longer pause. "He is, ma'am. No real trouble. Just a slight mismatch of personal styles." [22:13] 07Dryas sniffs. "Very well, Master Catela." 07 If he's being an asshole she certainly, in theory at least, has the authority to deal with that. Might not be worth much out in a place like this, though. Dryas makes her way below decks. 15[22:15] It's like day into night once she goes below decks. It's tomb-silent in here. Everyone who's awake must be above-decks. [22:21] 07Dryas pads her way through the hold: "Peleps Deled?" 15[22:21] It's so quiet that the way the boards creak beneath her boots when she arrives at the hold is almost startling. What is startling is the "I asked for QUIET—" [22:23] 07Dryas will follow the sound of the voice. 15[22:25] Dryas steps into the hold and finds him sitting in the lotus position behind some water barrels the floor around him is gouged with deep scratches. His back is to her. [22:26] 07Did he make the scratches? All kinds of things getting scratched up these days. 15[22:31] Those aren't scratches that happen just by pushing stuff thoughtlessly around the hold, that's for sure. Her first thought is the Lunars, but they don't have a pattern consistent with someone trying to move around via clawed limbs or directly damage the place. She does remember Deled having curved, sharp fingernails (fingertips?) sort of like the toes of a bird. The other thing she 15[22:31] notices is the hold's been rearranged since she was in here yesterday. In particular, the barrels of wine and rum seem to have been removed. [22:38] 07Dryas clears her throat again. "Venerable Shikari Deled. I trust your transport here was not overly uncomfortable? Or overly comfortable, for that matter." 15[22:42] His shoulders tense when Dryas clears her throat. "They put me in a box. It reeked of liquor. Even now the stench clings to my nose. It pollutes my senses. I close my eyes and I envision fire." 15[22:42] "Is it time for battle?" [22:46] 07Dryas: "Not yet. I wanted to speak with you." [22:48] 07Dryas: "If any my hearth-siblings were here, they would probably offer you a cup of tea. But frankly, after enjoying Southron coffee, I find tea wanting. If there is something you'd like, of course, I can arrange it. I wanted to speak with you in order to get your perspective on certain things. It's been a very challenging couple of months here in the West." 15[22:50] Deep breath. Deled kips to his feet and turns to face her, rubbing sweat from his brow with a scaly hand. He fixes Dryas with his heavy-browed stare. "Yes. I agree." [22:57] 07Dryas: "When we strike tonight, for example. Against a normal foe, it would be perfidy of the highest order. Perhaps not against necromongers or Anathema. Once you start with deception, misdirection... what's to stop you from sliding all the way to piracy, anarchy? The worst sort of rapine and plunder?" 15[23:00] Deled: "Fear is what stops you. Fear of spiritual dissolution. Fear of punishment. The constant, hanging terror that attends all those who live outside the law. Fear is the chain that binds all souls together. That is why those without fear must be destroyed without hesitation. They have stepped beyond the bounds of natural law." [23:15] 07Dryas: "What does a man who tore a siaka in half with his teeth fear? That spiritual dissolution?" 15[23:17] "I have one purpose. I was Chosen for one... purpose. My one fear is that I might be prevented from fulfilling it." 15[23:18] "By the weakness of those whose purpose is to aid me. By the intercession of darker forces." 15[23:18] He takes a step towards her. "What do you fear?" [23:29] 07The Roseblack of Crime takes a measured breath. "Letting down the people who trusted me. Going too far, or not far enough. Making mistakes that get people hurt." [23:32] "... Mediocrity. Or taking such stupid risks to escape it that I end up murdered in a powder room or with a garrote around my neck in my study." 15[23:36] Deled: "Very civilized fears. But we are not in civilization. This is a land of monsters. If what Daizo said is true, and the grinning beasts of Onyx walk freely in Brightwork, then there is no outer limit to our holy violence. In the absence of oversight the trust placed in us is absolute. Our commitment must be as well. It is not possible to go too far in defense of the sacred 15[23:36] against the profane." 15[23:36] "It will not be easy. But it is very simple." [23:43] 07Dryas is thinking about something else entirely. "That is reassuring." 07 She'll try to remember those words in that specific order for later. "But you don't think it would have a bad effect on everything else? Any sort of... succession... argument, back home?" 15[23:47] "How?" [23:52] 07Dryas: "Getting the Realm into a war with Onyx while Furia and the Water Fleet is wherever she is?" 15[23:53] "Conquering a tributary is already an act of war, is it not?" [23:55] 07Dryas goes a step ahead: "You think in conflict, the Realm can recover its strength? By avoiding conflict, it becomes weaker?" 15[23:58] "There is no reason to avoid conflict unless the Realm is weak. And this war's stakes are moral as well as material. To counsel against such a war is to predict our loss." 15[23:58] "Do you think we will lose?" [00:03] 07Dryas: "I lack the qualification to know. But Onyx certainly has made many friends, if uneasy ones, in the Guild for example." 15[00:04] Deled: "The Guild will rut with anything that moves, like a dog or an Icewalker. In all three cases I have overseen culls in the interest of public health." [00:13] 07Dryas: "The analogy works." 15[00:14] "Do you fear repercussions when we return to civilization? Entanglements? Inhibitions?" [00:17] 07Dryas: "Yes, but -- I like to think we bring a bit of civilization with us. Surely, we can burnish it in a place like this." 15[00:24] Deled: "What we are fighting is not a tarnish that can be rubbed away, it is a rust which has chewed to the very core." [00:36] 07Dryas gives a careful nod. "I have never been a very pious person, in truth. But if the battle tonight goes well, perhaps we can have more of these discussions in the future?" 15[00:38] Deled: "I think I would enjoy that. You're educated, but you're not a sophist. You have very practical concerns." [00:40] 07Dryas will respectfully take her leave. "We live in increasingly practical times. See you this evening, Peleps Deled." 15[00:41] "Ma'am." [00:41] 07 That could have gone worse! 15[00:42] As she makes her way abovedecks, she realizes it's grown eerily silent up there, too. Only the wind, the water, and the cries of gulls.