Porcelain Child/SessionFiftyOne

[10:02] <onine> Kess brings his slender sword upwards, the blade whiapers through the air like a bird taking wing. The strike pushes the great beast Brattica back and out of the arc of the blow, but not nearly enough to allow him escape from the vicious stab that buries the sword deep into his heart. [10:03] <onine> "UUAAAARRGH!!!" Brattica roars in agony as crimson blood drips down the blade. Then he falls silent, his eyes fluttering closed, yet still he stands with the blade buried in his chest. [10:03] <onine> There is a terrible silence, pierced only by your own exerted breaths and the sobs and gasps of the chained prisoners. Six moves in quietly, checking those he can and reassuring them. [10:04] <onine> Mouse limps awkwardly over to Tide, barely able to move from Brattica's paralysing attack. [10:05] <onine> She fawns over him quietly, while he tries his best to reassure her and convince her *not* to wrench the Direlance out and kill him. [10:05] <onine> Then the quiet is invaded by a new sound. Deep, amused chuckling. [10:06] <Kess> "Well," he exhales, "That was unpleasant." [10:07] <onine> Brattica's massive hand reaches up and pulls the sword from his breast, holding the end of the bloodied weapon in a vice-like grip, causing more crimson to spill down the silver blade. [10:08] <onine> "Heh...heheh....Ha! HAHAH!" The great figure laughs. "Such delight! Such great beings! So long I have roamed bored of the living and yet here you are! For nearly three centuries no one has pierced my body so perfectly and so fatally! Such a grand ending will I write for you!!!" [10:08] * Kess pulls back, as harshly as he can with the surprise. "Hands off!" [10:09] <onine> Brattica releases the blade and slumps to the floor, blood spilling from his wounds and onto the marred carpet, mixing freely with the rivers of blood from the innocent castle defenders he has murdered. [10:11] * Anona gapes in wonder. Certainy, she suspected something like this from the stories... but it doesnt' really lessen her surprise. [10:11] * Kess steps back, bloody sword at the ready. "What happens next?" [10:12] <onine> The body thuds to the floor and begins to fall apart and crumble into broken grey stone. [10:13] <onine> "I don't know and I dont care!" Mouse says, wincing as she holds Tide. "Lets just go." [10:13] <onine> "He wont let you go." Tide murmers. "He's still here..." [10:14] <Kess> "Fine. Even if he's still got power, let's start a strategic retreat." [10:15] * Anona recovers from her surprise and sighs. "See, if I'd just gotten a chance to BURN the body..." [10:16] <Kess> "Burn it all down if you want, I don't care." [10:16] <onine> There is a deep sound of cracking stone, a sound that seems to echo all over the castle. This is followed by more and more noise that grows closer to your position at the top of the tower. [10:17] <Anona> "I have a feeling that cannot be at all good. I say we collect who we can and proceed to get the hell out." [10:18] *** Epheri has joined #palas [10:19] <Kess> "Good." [10:20] <Kess> "Can Mouse still walk?" [10:20] <Anona> "Can you?" [10:21] <onine> "Not fast, Brattica's attack seems to have had a largely paralysing effect." Mouse replies from Tide's side. [10:22] <onine> "You're wasting time" Tide says with a sense of urgency in his voice. "Leave me, perform the proper rites later - but you have to leave NOW!" [10:22] <onine> There is a tremor that shakes the top of the tower, the way a wooden building would vibrate in a strong wind, and it seems to grow stronger. The windows begin to rattle and soon it grows to a nearly deafening pitch. The mortal prisoners look up to the domed ceiling, fear in their eyes. [10:24] * Anona 's voice harsens. "Tide, I've faced the fae, Anathema, and Dragons-know-what. Whatever's coming, I'll either handle, or I'll die, and don't bet on the latter." [10:24] * Kess runs forward, sword aimed to cut free the chains of the prisoners. "Get going," he calls, "I'll save who I can here!" [10:25] * Anona grabs Mouse. "And YOU are coming with me, like it or not." Anona begins to drag the woman along, willing or no, best she can. [10:26] <onine> "No, Anona!" She cries as you pull her up, she turns and tries to hold Tide's hand. "Tide I'm not leaving you!" [10:26] <onine> "Go!" He yells in response. [10:26] <onine> Then all of a sudden the rattling windows, the cracking noise of stone and the howl of the wind ceases. [10:27] <Anona> "Look Mouse, you stay here, you're dying for two..." [10:27] * Kess doesn't wait to find out what the new silence is about, drawing his blade through chains one after another. [10:29] <onine> One by one in succession, the windows around the circumferance of the throne room shatter inwards, spraying the inside of the room with shards of broken glass and allowing the high-up gales to rush in. Cracks begin to appear in the floor, ripping carpet and breaking and toppling pillars. [10:30] <Anona> "We go. NOW." Anona begins to drag Mouse anew. [10:30] <onine> Curtains free themselves and blow through the room, and the countless scraps of paper whirl aroudn in the sudden tornado of gusts. [10:32] <onine> Then with a sickening lurch, the stable stone beneath your feet disappears into the darkness below as part of the tower sloughs off like so much shed reptile skin. [10:33] <onine> The screams and wails of the men and women is matched only by the tortured rumbling and cracking of the marble walls of Palas as after thousands of years they finally succumb and crumble away... [10:33] <onine> Finally, the chaos begins to fade, and vision and sense of up and down returns. [10:35] <onine> The tower has split diagonally down the middle, and a portion has slid off and collapsed at least a portion of the main hall below and taken most of the roof. Dust still falls and scatters on the broken shards of stone. Papers and shredded books rain down from the sky, scattering into the hall and coming to rest like snowflakes. [10:36] <onine> A good portion of the people were left behind in the upper tower, and most that fell have landed on the top of the ruins. Mouse and Tide are missing, close to the throne they remain far above. [10:37] <onine> Six rolls from the top of the pile of stone and into one of the long water pools that stretch down the hall. The blue moonlight casts bright shafts in the dusty air. [10:38] <Anona> "OW!" [10:39] <Kess> "You ok?" [10:39] <onine> You have a fine collection of bruises, but have avoided serious injury. [10:40] <Anona> "I'm fine.... but what about Mouse?" [10:40] <onine> Six catches one of the falling pages and examines it between looking carefully for attack down the hall. [10:45] <Kess> "Give me an idea of where to look, and I'll go back for her, but there's no time to search now!" [10:46] <Anona> "I think, right now, we need to attend to ourselves. And see what's become of Brattica." [10:47] <onine> [I have a bad feeling about this.] Six replies turning and holding up the page. [...Anona gripped Mouse by the arm as the tower began to collapse, stone and gold fell as the ancient colossus crumbled and died...] [10:48] <Anona> [YOU have a bad feeling.] [10:49] <onine> He turns the page over and scans down. [...What about Mouse?" Anona asked, gravely concerned as the situation escalated beyond their control.] He reads down a little further. ["I have a bad feeling about this." Six suddenly called out in the tongue of old...] [10:49] <onine> He looks up and gulps visibly. [10:50] <Anona> [If that's Brattica's attempt to write an "ending", kindly don't skip ahead.] [10:51] <Kess> [Ha! That's one egotistical bastard, he even wrote down the chronicle of his own downfall.] Kess grins, trying to lighten the mood. [10:52] <onine> [It's not quite accurate though, there's mention of another character... person... here that is not present.] Six turns the page back and frowns. [10:52] * Anona looks around for whatever would be the best route OUT. No intention to abandon Mouse, but her instincts say to save the mortals WITH her... "oh?" [10:54] <onine> [If I'm pronouncing it properly... Kt'Shai?] He reads carefully. [10:55] <Anona> [Might be my demon. I don't actually recall if they /have/ proper names, the lowest ones.] [10:56] <onine> [A god and now a demon - what next?] Six drops the page and nocks an arrow into his bow. The scrape of wood on wood is criminally loud. [10:57] <Kess> [Am I mentioned in there? It sounds something like my name, with a mouthful of mud. Could be a mistake.] [10:57] <Anona> [Well, Six?] [10:58] <onine> [Your name isn't on that page.] Six confirms. [10:59] <Kess> [Well, that just shows that he's careless.] [10:59] <onine> "The name was whispered to me by the winds, stolen from the lips of friends and enemies." A dignified and disembodied voice says from nowhere. "But why is it so familiar...?" [11:00] <Anona> "Perhaps you've grown forgetful in your old age." [11:02] <onine> "As you shook the image of a simple man with your singing sword, so did you shake the the secret of your name from your heart...but such a name...." The winds begin to pick up the pages, snatched almost by an invisible hand they begin to scrunch up and reshape themselves. "No matter, this story will soon be punctuated with its close - a saga's end." [11:04] <onine> The paper pages form into the darkness, taking strange abstract shapes, shapes that hang in the air together to form a semi-humanoid shape. [11:05] <onine> "Your name has awakened me, your actions have made you know mere side story - it fills me with purpose, purpose I have not felt in centuries. Indeed yours is a tale worth writing, and a tale worth ending." [11:06] <Kess> "Give it a shot," he responds. "I've been through worse than you." [11:07] <onine> The figure advances a few steps, showing its feet, a grim parody, a simple and strange slender foot at the end of bony legs created of little more than abstract shapes connected by grey mist. [11:08] <onine> "It would be a pleasure. Spied upon your future have I, and the more I read your tale, the more I have become intertwined in it. Now I may interact fully, as part of your tale - indeed I may now take part in your closing saga!" [11:09] <Anona> "I don't know, I always thought of myself more as trilogy material, myself." [11:10] <onine> The shape steps forward fully, its body is a mismatched collaboration of shapes followed by shadows of the deepest black. Across the paper shapes words of every language seem to hang and ride together. Two specks of iridescent light hang nestled in the shapes where a humanoids eyes would be. [11:10] <Kess> "And you couldn't help but muddle in it. Your prognostications are worthless now." [11:11] <onine> In its clawlike hand it bears what looks like the strange marriage of a scythe and a writing quill. [11:12] <onine> "We will see how worthless they are..." The menacing shape steps forward. "I hope you are as intriguing as your story so far suggests." [11:13] <Anona> "You know, paper seems a funny choice of body for you in this situation, all things considered." [11:16] <onine> "An interesting line... we will see how well it works!" With a swirl of shadow the great shape darts forward, its full height coming into view, at least a yard taller than any man. [11:25] * Kess moves forward to meet him, instantly predicting and measuring his assault. He steps aside the apparition's path, bringing his sword in a flat arc, a terrible two-handed blow. [11:26] <onine> Brattica turns his weapon sideways and holds it in the path of the blow like a staff, catching the sword on the ornate black shaft of the weapon. [11:29] <Kess> "I don't care about your story," he grunts, pushing his blow through with sheer force, "and I don't care about you!" [11:30] <onine> The blade cuts clean through the shaft of the weapon and slices likewise through Brattica's middle, trailing shadow. He laughs and connects the broken weapon back together with a sparkle of purple light. "Good! Good!" [11:33] <onine> Brattica turns partly toward Anona and Six, and the corner of his shadowy cloak arcs and stretches around wide, skirting about them and picking up a stray scrap of page. It seems to leap up off the ground and hover in front of Anona, held by shadow itself. Scrawled over the page's writing is a blood red glyph that glimmers brightly. [11:35] <onine> Believing Anona sufficiently neutralised Brattica lunges at the warrior Kess, sending up great plumes of water from the pool. His scythe comes in fast, trailing a path of inky purple light that hangs and clots in the air like blood. [11:40] * Kess ducks down as the scythe comes at him, using his own sword to nudge the blade up over his head as he falls out of the killing zone, his feet sliding with even only a hint of the force of the blow, throwing up clouds of dust and rubble. [11:42] <onine> Changing the path of the blow Brattica pulls the scythe scraping along Kess' sword, pulling and extending the young man's reach upward, then lashes out with his free claw to grip the extended arm. [11:44] * Kess tries to hurl himself backwards with his surprise, seeking freedom from the rapidly approaching grip. [11:47] <onine> The bony claw wraps easily around Kess's extended arm, and Brattica wrenches it sideways and brings the reversed blunt shaft of the sythe down hard on the elbow for good measure, then lifts the young man into the air, his feet free of the ground. [11:49] <onine> Six runs to the side, splashing into the pool of water further away and leaps onto a barricade to get a better shot at the monstrous beast now gripping Kess firmly. He looses nocks and looses two arrows in quick succession. [11:51] <onine> The arrows shear past, taking scraps of shadow and stony bones with them, which quickly turn to paper shreds. [11:52] <onine> Brattica's sinister pinprick eyes glare out of the darkness as he stares hard at the young mortal as he attempts to nock another arrow. The cloak of shadow extends and snakes across the ground upending a few helmets and then thrashes upwards sending a plume of water crashing upwards behind the mortal. [11:53] <onine> Six yelps and rolls lightly off the barricade, losing his shot as he turns to face the sudden very close shadowy threat. [11:54] * Anona snorts at the floating sigil and proceeds to try and light it aflame, followed by a second blast at Brattica. [11:56] <onine> The page disappears in a puff as the flame turns swiftly green then coughs out completely. The small shadow holding it grows a dragon's head which sneers at you then retreats back to the remainder of its form. [12:05] * Anona takes careful aim into the clinch... well, as careful as she ever gets. After all, paper burns quicker than Kess, doesn't it? [12:12] <onine> The fire bolt sweeps in, lighting the air and impacting with Brattica, showering small flickers of flame over Kess and the god. [12:13] <onine> Brattica tosses the scythe into the air where it morphs and lessens into a small fist sized ball of silvery black metal, then grabs at Kess' other arm. [12:14] * Kess twists to the side, placing his foot against the wall and kicking upwards to get out of the way - and if he's lucky, get behind Brattica and take control of this thing. Because if he doesn't make it...it'll get messy. [12:17] * Kess soars above Brattica, twisting his paper-arm behind him, then using his momentum to whirl him around and shove him down the passage. [12:18] <onine> Brattica turns, his bright eyes looming out of the darkness. "Exceptional.... marvelous! There seems no limit to your strength!" [12:20] <onine> The god grips the metal sphere and it reforms into the strange quill-scythe once more. "Let us see how far your endurance can carry you!" He swings the scythe through the air to lend strength to his words, then turns fully to you. [12:22] * Kess kneels and picks up his sword, but gasps in surprise at how swiftly the god finds the strength to continue his assault. [12:23] <onine> The cloak seems to expand outward then fragments loom forward, shaping into the legs of spiders, Brattica lightly charges forward, his feet making no sound along the stone. 'Bones' change shape and rearrange themselves in his free arm, creating the body of a skeletal snake, its fangs bared and sparking. [12:25] <onine> The fangs sink into your arm, and in a second you are wreathed with sparking magical energy. When it fades from sight you can still feel the sharp pain in your joints, slowing your muscles and making you weary. [12:30] <onine> "Really, I expected more!" Brattica sneers, turning to Anona. "Perhaps *you* are stronger?" [12:31] <onine> The god advances into the moonlight and raises the scythe above his head, bringing it down then whirling around to skewer you with a swipe from the side. [12:40] <onine> Both blows strike true, the first lashing down, ripping your robes and cutting a crimson line down your leg from your right hip to your food, and the second hooks around, ramming the shaft of the scyth against your waist. Brattica pulls the weapon savagely back, cutting deeply into the small of your back and left hip between the ciurass and hipguards of the breastplate. [12:40] <onine> He pulls you off the blade effortlessly with his free claw and sends you staggering down the rubble. "All too easy..." [12:42] <onine> Realising the error focussing on the shadowy cloak, Six turns his bow sideways and braces his arm on one of the overturned table barricades and looses two arrows at Brattica [12:42] <onine> They are swallowed into the shadowy cloak and disappear without a trace. [12:44] * Kess howls in anger, a loud, bestial sound - more furious with himself for allowing his allies to come to harm than with Brattica. He launches himself forward as blur, his weapon flashing in the pale light as it comes down once-twice-three times. "LEAVE - HER - ALONE!" [12:49] <onine> The shadow parts and scatters either side of the god ripping and shredding into small pieces that flutter like leaves to join the other shadows in the great hall. [12:50] <onine> The god seems so much smaller now, thin, delicate... [12:51] <onine> He stands silent, then at last speaks in a humble quiet voice. "How...such power..." [12:52] * Kess whirls his sword back into a ready position, still trailing wisps of paper. "Because you dared to hurt the only people who even give a damn about me anymore." [12:52] <onine> The god turns and reaches out a claw to touch you, but recoils a little. "Your story is far greater than I could perceive... who...?" The pinpricks of light blaze brighter. [12:53] <onine> "Of course... Heh.... Of course! It all is clearer now, at last, all too well, I can see!" The god stands taller, looking down upon you. "The mark, you - Apostate!" [12:54] <onine> The god cackles. "Yes! This is it, the first sign of the greatest saga, retold once more after an age! The third instance of the spiral begins!" [12:55] <Kess> "It's Kess. Kess Shenai. And that's the only name you deserve to call me now." [12:55] * Kess still feels the adrenaline racing through him, but a momentary look of worry washes over his face at the god's words, before he refocuses himself. Don't let yourself get distracted... [12:57] <onine> "As you say - your tale was a fine end, sealed for an eternity, never again to walk creation - that was then, and now the mark you bear is renewed with a finer genesis of meaning and purpose!" He strides past you, marching the paces to the barricade, siezing Six by the hand and examining his arm. "It cannot be! The Tengu Eye! Inconceivable!" [12:58] <onine> [Let go!] Six growls and is released by the god. [12:59] <Anona> Hurt, Anona still manages to growl. "You sound as crazy as my parents once did." [12:59] * Kess shifts forward, raising his sword. "Don't touch him. I'll listen to you talk, but you stay the hell back." [13:00] <onine> 'Now I see, I cannot destroy you - for a far greater ending is in the pages ahead as long as you live!" Brattica laughs. "Since we are so close to one another Apostate, since we have both walked this path before, since we have both read and been written in this saga, allow me to impart upon you a favour, a token." [13:01] <onine> "Though I risk becoming ever more embroiled, I will tell you your future - or in a way, fortell your doom!" The shadows seem to creep back, but stay a respectful distance. [13:04] <onine> "The signs are already upon you, the Invictus and the recast Apostate will face you, and succeed, but that is not all. You will meet the supreme being, the greatest instance of choice in all creation... the Evocator. When the Evocator loses all hope of renewal.... it will be your death!" [13:05] <onine> His voice takes on a quiet, morbid tone. "It is unavoidable. You cannot stop it. It is already written." [13:07] <Anona> "Not if *I* have anything to say about it." [13:08] <Kess> "None of us are going to roll over and play dead for destiny." [13:10] <onine> "Your efforts will make the story so much the better." He replies sincerely. "If the wards are not in balance as they were in the first two tellings, the end is assured....now then..." [13:15] <onine> He turns to face Anona, his eyes still blazing. "You... bearing the mark of the Scepter. Your progenitor has already hopelessly tied your destiny to this story, and his narrow-minded foolishness has instigated your doom and ensured the fall. Why do we not... speed things along?" [13:16] <onine> A scrap of page peels off Brattica's hand and soars swiftly through the air, slapping and sticking hard to Anona's left cheek. [13:17] <onine> Brattica chuckles with satisfaction. "Farewell, I shall watch your story with *great* interest." [13:19] <onine> The winds strangely begin to pick up and the shadows leap to action, racing toward the god in the shape of jungle cats, scarabs, spiders, snakes and all manner of shadowy creatures. They surround and envelope him in a sphere of pure black which shrinks swiftly... then disappears, leaving only a few pages floating in the air to give evidence to him even being there. [13:19] <Kess> "Interfere again and you'll find yourself reduced to a bloody, crumpled footnote." [13:19] <onine> You can still here a small deep chuckle which rapidly fades to nothing. [13:22] <onine> Six frowns and flexes his arm. [What was that?] [13:26] <Kess> [I wish I knew.] Kess drags his sword across the stonework, brushing any remaining debris off it, then sheaths it on his back. [13:27] <onine> [How in the hells did you even hurt it? My arrows did nothing.] Six slips the bow over his shoulder and climbs over the barricade lightly [13:28] <Anona> [Well, fire worked well enough.] [13:28] <Kess> [He surprised you, I think; you just didn't get off a good shot.] [13:30] <onine> A few of the prisoners that survived the fall from the tower climb out from the rubble where they hid. Most stand a good distance away trying to decide if you're still the enemy. A soldier walks up nervously, he looks not much older than eighteen. He kneels before the three of you. [13:31] <onine> "We owe you our lives." He says quietly, daring not to look up. "As the highest ranking officer remaining in Fortress Palas, I hereby hand the castle over to the Realm." [13:33] <Anona> "... Well, the thought is nice. Not much of a castle left, though." [13:34] <onine> "Untrue my lady, the tower alone is destroyed, the fortress itself is largely intact, a fine conquest. I ask only that you are merciful with the few men and women that survived the slaughter." He replies. [13:36] <Kess> "He's right, I guess. The Realm wins another one." [13:36] <Anona> "Look, *you* are alive, *we* are alive, and that's a good measure more than I expected when I walked in. Perhaps the commander will have idea, but I shall ask that we just get this over with." [13:40] <Kess> "We're not out of this yet. Where did Mouse and Tide end up?" [13:41] * Anona shrugs. [13:41] <onine> Six looks up at the still intact remains of the tower. [13:41] <Kess> "I'm sure these men could comb this rubble much more quickly than we could." [13:43] <onine> The people are poorly nourished, weak and largely wounded, they are probably not ideal. The Legion soldiers would be far superior. [13:43] <Anona> "That's probably so." [13:45] <onine> "Aaannooooonnnaaaaa!" From hiiiigh above. [13:46] <Anona> "Mouse?" [13:46] <onine> "Are youuu okaaaaay?!" [13:47] <onine> You can just barely see a figure waving from the broken ledge of the tower's remains high above. [13:47] <Anona> A bit louder. "MORE OR LESS!" [13:49] <onine> "We neeeed a surgeon. Or something!" [13:49] <Kess> "Looks like we got lucky, I thought we'd lost her."

[13:52] <Anona> "I'll get someone from the legion sent in!"

[13:52] <onine> "Alright!" [13:54] * Anona proceeds to run back to the boats, if they're there [13:55] <onine> The two soldiers still wait but the boats, and they rush over when they see you. "My lady! We feared the worst when we saw the tower collapse. Is everything alright?" [13:56] <Anona> "We're alive, aren't we? Hurry, we need a surgeon, a physician, something!" [13:57] * Kess wishes he could assist in a more direct way, but neither medicine nor commanding Realm troops is his strong point. He stands back, out of Anona's way. [14:01] <onine> One soldier remains behind with you, to aid in guarding the small group of prisoners, while the other rows swiftly back to the camp on the shores to bring reinforcements and specialists. You can hear horns sound as the teams are organised. [14:02] <onine> [Anona.] Six says quietly. [14:03] <Anona> [Yes?] [14:05] <onine> Six produces a metal ring, the circlet of office for Palas before its fall. It is the same design as the golden circle you discovered in Six Birds, though this is larger and decorated with an intricate mosaic of every colour of jade, including the rare purple, orange and yellow kinds. The steel housing glints in the moonlight. [14:05] <onine> [This was lying where Brattica vanished.] [14:06] <onine> Another piece of Dragonwrath is now in your hands...