HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

[Arkhosia]

[Overdue Appointment]

"...Oh." The association finally clicks. Ana nods to show she understands but gives Kitty a furtive look. There's something weighing on her mind from all of this - but they can't discuss it here. "Yeah, I- I know, um, Obi hunts sometimes. I guess I could...." She rubs a hand against her arm. The idea still doesn't sit right with her, but there's no choice but to try and accept it.

It takes a moment for Ana to register Zhareen coming close. She blinks, and raises her gaze. "I- Really?" Huh. She's never actually seen a dragon before, which feels weird when she thinks about it. They weren't really that rare around here, were they? "My, uh, mom said the people who ruled where we used to live were related to them - my first mom, I mean. I... guess she'd be happy, knowing they were still around to protect us."

The last bit about the gem causes Ana to think a little and shift awkwardly. "Um- how, like, mortal do you have to be for that, and how careful? Cuz- one of my friends is like, a changeling, and my boyfriend's - um, I think one of his moms is a nymph or something?" Subconsciously, the girl lifts her other palm to a fading bruise on the side of her neck.

[Gullara]

[Overdue Appointment]

"If there was substantial risk to others there'd be risk to yourself. There shouldn't be much reason to feel concerned." Vax interjects. "At most contact my cause some discomfort. There's no real risk in discovering that to be true by it happening."

[Shadowcaller]

[Overdue Appointment]

Zhareen lets go of the bracelet and raises to her full height as she nods in agreement with her wife. "Oh yes, there should be no risk at all to them whatsoever. Unless perhaps if they accidentally swallowed it but then you probably have a bigger problem on your hand I'd say." The warlock lets out a chuckle.

Obriane still had one concern however, well, she had a lot of concerns but one she had a question about. "So, uh, right. About the payment...?"

[Arkhosia]

[Overdue Appointment]

"Okay. That's... good." The reassurance seems to ease Ana somewhat. The last thing she wanted to do was make the people close to her any more uncomfortable, and knowing that it was unlikely through this particular means was still something.

[Gullara]

[Overdue Appointment]

Vax glances at Kitsuki. "We'd discussed it over the phone to make sure it was acceptable before you made the trip."

"Yes. It's fine, Obriane. We can talk about it later." The kitsune adds, without any apparently concern, so presumably there's not reason for Obriane to be concerned.

"I think that's everything then." It's a relief honestly. Some questions to answer, but Kitsuki can practically feel one weight off her shoulders.

[Shadowcaller]

[Overdue Appointment]

"Oh... alright." Obriane doesn't want to sound too relived as it had been weighting on her the entire trip here. She hadn't even wanted to ask Kitty about it. Pointlessly delaying the answer for, as it turned out, no good reason.

She would probably get a drink once they got home just to calm her nerves.

"Well, we'd want to get back to Ana in about a month just to make sure the bracelet isn't causing her any distress. But otherwise yes, that should be everything." Zhareen smiles and nods as she looks at Ana and her parents.

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

Wenomir arrives in HALO, a folder under his arm. It's a fairly routine visit, but this time he's got a report on something that HALO is probably going to want to know, if they don't already.

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

Ambrosia is waiting for Wenomir as he gets off the shuttlepod that took him to HALO. She greets him with a nod and a smile but has an important question right on the get-go. "Shouldn't Felandria or Reinholdt be here for this? Since it sounded more important to HALO than just me."

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"We don't know how important it is just yet." All his personal feelings about it aside. "I expect Reinholdt and Felandria will learn about it in due course. And it's your area of expertise, since it concerns a god. A self-proclaimed one, at any rate."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"If your suspicions are true, then it's extremely important to me. If I didn't have a child to take care of now I might have investigated this myself." The scholar declares with a weary sigh.

Then she suddenly pauses as she had a sudden realization.

"...I told you about Ugi, didn't I? I thought I did at some point."

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

She has a what now? Wenomir's silence answers Ambrosia's question before his voice can.

"...no, you haven't told me anything about a child. Congratulations, though."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

An awkward pause follows.

"Well... now you know. And thank you." She gives him a curt nod. "Anyhow, to get back to the information you gave me regarding this cult-" The scholar gestures for him to follow "-we should probably sit down first. Let's take one of the seminar rooms." After leading Wenomir through a few corridors she takes one of the first doors to the right where he finds himself in a spacious room with plenty of tables and chairs all facing the center and the large screen on the far end wall.

Taking a seat she folds her hands together though as he sits down facing he can see that there's an intensity in her eyes he doesn't usually see. More similar to when they're dueling than discussing something. "So that name Jaryło, it ties us together doesn't it? You felt it in your mind as well. Not as... insistently as I did but I could feel the threads of the narrative, the dream, that clung to me reach out for you too."

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Yes... I feel it." Wenomir takes a seat and puts the folder in front of him. "He claims to be the heir to Jarowit. Whom I can't seem to be free of, no matter how much time passes. I defy him every day but the dream put me in his place."

[Thursday Violist]

[Library]

Well if she waterproofs herself and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, she won't have to worry about drowning. And since the water isn't touching Seraphina, there probably isn't any pressure crushing her. Suffocation would still be problem. Depends on if humans with unusually sharp fangs need to breathe or not.

Reinholdt, alas, doesn't notice the just sharper canines because he is focused on keeping things together. He would be impressed with her teeth care though. Did she just sharpen them while waiting? That's pretty impressive.

Maria continues to blush and stammers a bit, "Y-yes, well-well just... set them over there. I believe we're about ready to begin," Maria says, gathering her notes that were threatening to overflow. She knows what she needs to do and what to interlace with what so now it's just a matter of implementation. Maria looks towards the patient... who isn't where she was earlier. With a blink, Maria looks around over to where Seraphina spoke. Teleportation too? What a fascinating subject.

"Right. Grab a bite to eat and resume your position. You," Maria says, harshly looking at Reinholdt who is still giggling under his breath just a little. He straightens up suddenly, the picture of professionalism. "May evacuate the premises and give us some space."

Reinholdt gives a defeated shrug. "Alright, alright," He says, going to step out and leave them be for the final treatment.

[Library]

Seraphina is pretty sure she needs to breathe.
If she suffocates at the bottom of the ocean, then revives, then she'll still be at the bottom of the ocean. Probably. She's not really sure how it works, but it makes sense. And then she'd still be in the same situation, unless she can find some kind of mermaid or something to give her a magic water-breathing kiss.
It's not really something she wants to test.
Dying isn't really something she wants to test, regardless.

The woman grabs the sandwich, and goes back to where she was originally sitting.
She bites it.
Sure, it helps abate her hunger, but it does nothing for her hunger.

She watches Rein leave.
She knows it would be better if he stayed. It's much easier to control herself if there's more people around, she imagines.
Instead, she chews the sandwich.
Well, at least with the weight where she put it, the door's going to stay open.
And so, in that way, Seraphina justifies to herself that everything's going to be fine. Sure, her mind's feeling a little cloudy but she's sure that she's thinking clear enough.
Besides, as long as she has the sandwich occupying her mouth there's no chance she'll try anything. It just makes sense.

"Mmmh mm mffms," she says with her mouth both closed and filled with sandwich. "Mffmnnnmm."

Unlike before, when she kept looking away from Maria in order to , Seraphina has now convinced herself that she'll be perfectly fine so long as she keeps on looking straight at Maria's face and lips and neck and chin. It's a bold strategy, but she's confident it will work.

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Yes, and this is someone willingly putting themselves in that the role you've tried to defy so much. Since I can't help but to wonder, considering what I've seen of Jarowit's 'great feats', proving himself to be this heir would involve slaying something impressive, wouldn't it? Like say, a dragon?" Ambrosia inquires as she crosses her armored arms over her lap.

[Reinholdt]

[Library]

"Of course," Maria replies to Seraphina's indecipherable rambling. Whatever that means.

The librarian hands Seraphina one of the towels. "You'll want to sit on this, wound exposed. I cannot promise there won't be a mess upon your clothes if you choose to keep them close." Maria emphasizes this when she puts the scalpel nearby. "As part of the ritual, I will be making a small incision to allow the excess magic freedom to flow out and that can get messy. There will also be bleeding, but it should be superficial."

Maria places the crystal quite close to Seraphina. The large iron weight Maria struggles with, clearly having skipped armed day, and accidentally knocks out her own hair pin in the process. Maria's tousled black hair falls around her shoulders, framing her pale skin upon a lustrous dark background, bobbing gently with her movements. Fortunately the librarian manages to put the iron into the geometric configuration she prefers for her arcane rituals.

Ignoring the shift in weight upon her head, Maria starts drawing upon all the surfaces with chalk, muttering under her breath ancient incantations as she begins the first aspects of the double ritual.

A double ritual which takes much longer than the first one, unfortunately. It seems overlapping magics must be done even more carefully than a regular ritual. To no one's surprise.

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"It is possible," Wenomir admits. "Jarowit supposedly slew great beasts. Though the legend the King in Rags made us relive spoke of a great bird, not a dragon. But a dragon would be a tempting target to anyone claiming to follow in his footsteps."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"And the king just so happened to have a dragon at his beck and call." Ambrosia points out, trying to ignore the reminder of the additional insult which the 'king' had given her. A bird. A BIRD.
She didn't care how 'great' it was, it was but a glorified beast.

"What I'm saying is that it's possible that this person and the 'King' are working together since this fits pretty well with what I know of him." Or maybe she just wanted it to be him so she would have a way to get revenge? She would have to be careful. "...but we would have to investigate it more of course. I'm just saying it's a possibility considering he seemed to have plans. Plans which we have yet to see come to fruition."

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"The old lords and ladies of the fair folk did command dragons, apparently. It was a symbol of authority among them." Wenomir says it before realizing what a touchy subject it is for Ambrosia. "Do you think so...? It would be odd. The King in Rags and Jarowit were enemies, or so they say. An alliance between him and Jarowit's heir would be unusual. We have assigned one of our people to this, but once you've read this maybe you'll come up with some other avenue of research."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I saw his 'dragon'. A destructive pet, little more." Ambrosia declares with a dismissive shrug, not admitting that in that dragon she had seen a parody of herself. "But I see." She pauses a moment. "So does Jarowit have any still alive allies then? Since they would probably know him well enough to masquerading as his heir, no?"

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"No... as far as most people believe, he's long gone. If he ever existed." Wenomir shrugs. "People worship him as a god of war. A reminder of better times. You saw me deflect your lightning. According to some, Jarowit's chosen warriors could perform similar martial feats. But no longer. Ironic, I suppose, that an upstart peasant would replicate it now." A bitter smile darkens Wenomir's face. There's that deep-seated resentment again.

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Yet his enemies remain." Ambrosia mulls over. "But if is this his heir then surely he would be able to perform these martial feats, no? Since while I know you will hate this fact, you're probably the closest thing to his 'heir' there is. So you might be able to simply disprove his claim if you challenged him. Since I assume that being the 'warrior' god he also has a thing for honorable duels?"

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

Ambrosia isn't wrong. The very thought of being Jarowit's heir contorts Wenomir's face unpleasantly.

"There are... some complications with this idea. One, he might refuse the challenge due to my low birth. Formally, he'd be in his rights to. Two, if he did accept, there's every chance he could easily defeat me. We don't know the extent of his skill and power."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

To Ambrosia's credit she doesn't smile despite Wenomir having the expected reaction. If nothing else since she had a similar reaction to a lot of this. "Well, that's what your operative is on their way to find out, right? I would leave it as an option at least depending on what we will learn."

She pauses in contemplation. "I still think it's the most effective way to fight him though if you wish to combat him directly. But if he claims to be related to Jarowit he would probably try to copy as much as is publicly known about him as possible which you could use. So considering that you're an enemy of sort of Jarowit yourself, what do you know about him and his way of fighting? Since if you or someone else would face off against him he'd likely try to use whatever style he was famous for."

[Thursday Violist]

[Library]

Seraphina swallows.
She nods.
She obeys: the other wounds she recently had closed are probably visible now. She places the cloak and pack aside, sits on the towel, and places the rest of the sandwich in her mouth but doesn't bite down or chew. Good, she's ready for the ritual, her mouth is occupied, and she's distracted watching hair swishing through the air and by wondering if Maria works out on leg day, or if it matches her actions on arm day.

One could hope the double-ritual works like a double-sentence, done concurrently: so that it would only be slightly longer than the longest ritual. At least, Seraphina hopes this is the case, but...it seems that's not how it works.

Seraphina watches.

And holds still to the best of her ability.

And, for the longest time, keeps the sandwich there between her lips.

Alas, that can't last forever: it takes some time, but the sandwich eventually gets a little gross and she has no choice but to bite, chew, and swallow it. With that protection no longer available, it's only a matter of time before the brain-fog leaves her to doing something stupid.

Some time after that, Seraphina pricks her own lips with her teeth, to get some blood on them. Once that happens, there's really only one thing left acting as a shield: the distance between the two during the dual-ritual. Because, as soon as Maria's face gets just a little too close to Seraphina's, Seraphina leans forward to steal a kiss (and just a little bit of life-energy, for now. Don't worry! It feels nice, like resting after a long day of work. Not that big of a deal, hopefully, in the middle of an important double-ritual).

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Enemy might be overstating it," Wenomir observes before continuing. "What we know about him are myths, legends, holy texts... but most of them agree that he had a mighty spear he used to slay dragons. And Jaryło claims to have it. The spear Jarowit used."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I feel like your rivalry with him runs far deeper than any person you've actually meet, or exist, ironically enough. Since he's always going to be the way you're projecting him in your mind as there's no actual person to break that illusion." Ambrosia remarks though moves directly onto the actual subject after this brief detour. "But a spear you say? They're not really dueling weapons though I've still seen people use them. Especially people of lower classes ironically enough. They require a lot less metal than a sword and are therefore cheaper. The shoguns usually hand them out to peasants to stand in the front to stop enemy charges. Though that usually only requires them to hold them firmly a few actually survive long enough to master them."

Ambrosia strokes her chin. "I wonder if that say anything about Jarowit himself?"

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I think in this case, a spear is the weapon of a hunter." Wenomir has thought about it. "Jarowit's mythology always mentions him slaying beasts. Dragons, giants, demons, behemoths of all stripes. A spear is an appropriate weapon for this. I almost wonder if making him a god of war is something that occurred later."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

Ambrosia nods thoughtfully. "I was thinking the same thing. It does sound like he's from an era where hunters had much higher status. Probably before the concept of war as we know it now was even invented. Since you're not telling me about any myths were he lead any great armies into battle or sought glory on the battlefield. Indeed, it's surprising that his story is still so... pure. Figures like this are usually reinvented as times goes on as other people's stories are included in their own and they're bit by bit rewritten into whatever society needs them to be."

She shrugs.

"Either way, we can take advantage of this. Whoever would face this 'heir' in battle would just need to get in close enough for him to not able to use his spear effectively. As each thrust is quite the commitment in a duel one just needs to be fast, which is your signature move, no?"

[Reinholdt]

[Library]

It is brave to assume that Maria works out on any day. Putting books back on the shelves may be the closest she comes, which honestly isn't too terrible as far as work outs go. Still, the only reason she maintains her figure is cause she's always too wrapped up in her books to remember eating. It really isn't healthy. Maria should find some way or someone to remind her that lunch was three hours ago, please have something.

Maria should also remember not to put her face too close to those who find her pretty or she might get a kiss stolen! Her eyes flutter wide and her cheeks grow a deep crimson as Seraphina takes a tad bit of life force and luscious lips from the librarian. Based on the looks she gets from Maria as the librarian pulls away, it wasn't... unwelcome. It felt... really nice.

So nice, in fact, that Maria stutters over an important phrase in the ritual. Well, not so important that it prevents the ritual from going off or changing the core facets of what the double ritual was trying to accomplish. It just weaves in some random side effects, surely nothing to worry about.

After a hundred and fifty minutes, the procedure is complete! Just as intended, the built up magic flows from the wound and into the crystal while Seraphina simultaneously feels an incredible surge of stamina that's probably going to keep her up all night to be honest. The sudden thick iron chain cuffs connecting Seraphina and Maria's wrists is rather unexpected. Chaining everyone within ten yards would also normally include Reinholdt, but he actually left a sticky note on the wall and wandered off to get some paperwork actually done because it was taking too long.

Because it's a double ritual, Seraphina also gets a second unexpected side effect of possibly believing she has diplomatic immunity. She doesn't, but don't try telling her that!

"... Wha?"