As Joanna readies herself for sleep, Halli curls up near Zee too tired to play much and just contentedly rests her head near the Harrower's hand. The lighting seems highlight how petite the young woman really is. Her armor is obviously made for someone more bulky than she is, and it's only thanks to the thick padding she has on underneath that she's even able to wear it properly at all. Her dark hair falls past her waist to her hips as she lets it out. WIth all she'd been through and for all the confidence she had gained since her first awkward meeting nearly two months ago, she was still a young girl just barely into womanhood. Something that is painfully obvious as she turns to face Zee after getting ready to sleep. Her hair falls in front of her face and behind those long, silky locks, two pools of silver gleam in the soft light of the room, worried and vulnerable.
"Zee, do you remember when you did that reading for me after I... I told you about the nightmares I had after Ravenmoor," she asks, "do you think you can do another one for me? One that will show how my sisters are doing?"
Joanna once again finds herself on a mirror smooth lake. Beside her stands Halli, tall and proud, a giant of a wolf whose eyes gleam with an intelligence that is beyond that of many animals. The air is cold and flakes of snow fall to rest on the surface of the lake. Despite this, Joanna doesn't shiver. Unlike so many other dreams, she appears dressed in a white gown with a sapphire blue sash trimmed in gold, the colors of House Whitehall.
Standing a few paces away, facing her, stands two young women. From their face, to their hair, to even their builds, the resemblance is uncanny. Joanna is more filled out with muscle and their eyes are green instead of gray, but there is no denying that they are closely related. They wear matching gowns, though one wears white with a black sash while the other wears black with a white sash. Their eyes are filled with jealousy and longing, something that Joanna had never noticed before when they had been fixed on her. She knew these women. Knew them well.
Artemis and Diana.
Her sisters.
What could she say? What should she say? Turmoil welled up from inside her and paladin felt the voice of her step-mother trying to intrude. She could feel the words coming, but Joanna blocked them out, ignored the cutting remarks and focused on her sisters.
"Why did you leave us," Diana, the elder, asked, her voice raw with pain and rage.
"Why did you abandon us," Artemis demanded, her face twisting into an ugly expression of pain, sorrow, and envy.
For a long time Joanna stands there, quiet and unmoving. Slowly, she takes one step after the other, covering the ever widening distance in a steady, deliberate march.
"I was weak," Joanna answers plainly, "I was unsure. I didn't know how to stand up to Mother Dearest, and I was hurt. I understand why and how it happened now, but it is only in the past couple of months that I have realized the mistake Papa made when he played favorites with me. I know it hurt, but it doesn't matter now. Nor does the fact that we're all that's left of the Whitehall bloodline."
Joanna stops, bare inches from the twin sisters, her sisters. She wraps her arms around them, holding them tight as if they were the only way to keep her head above water in a stormy sea. All of the pain, the turmoil, and the cutting remarks vanished. None of it matters now. All that matters is her sisters were in trouble and she needed to help them.
"I'm sorry for pushing you away," Joanna tells them. "I'm sorry for leaving you behind. I promise you, both of you, that for as long as we live, I'll be there for you. I need to save a friend, but as soon as we're back in Magnimar, I'll be coming for you."
She holds them tighter, her eyes squeezing shut as she pours her love for them over the simmering coals of the times, the many times, she'd been hurt or hurt them back. The pain lessens and the anger fades.
"We'll be sisters, Artemis, Diana. We'll be family in truth as well as name. Just wait for me a little while longer and we'll never have to deal with Mother Dearest again."
The scene fades, leaving Joanna and Halli alone. She had no idea if her sisters had heard her words, or would accept her apologies and her attempt to make things right, but she had to try. She had to try saving them from her stepmother.
Otherwise, she'd betray herself. She'd betray her heart.
With a sigh, Joanna closes her eyes and wakes up.
Zee probably first became aware that Joanna was up when the paladin smacked her head into the wall and gave a surprised yelp as she fell to the floor. The fall was less painful than the event that caused it, and for a couple of minutes Joanna lay curled up on the floor clutching her head where she's hit it against the wall.
"I am really starting to hate this place," she moans as she tries to ignore the flashing lights and swimming stars.
Shortly after she'd recovered and gotten ready, she eats breakfast and nods to Briana's plan.
"Yep and let's hope those cocoa-demons haven't figured out Zee's not the Rune-whatsit of Lust," Joanna answers after swallowing the last bite of her breakfast.
Just in case I hadn't sent this to you, Jo's sisters are named Artemis Victoria and Diana Crystina.
Well, that wasn't a bad night.... Some dreams were quite vivid, I'll admit. Buut I'll take these kind of dream over my past nightmares following Lenore's death everynight
"Yeah, but if they don't, I'd rather not have Zee on the pointy end of things. Even if they are magic, her clothes still reveal a lot of skin to get scratched and bruised. Do you think me or Arsith could take point and have her be a little behind," Joanna asks, "uh, I mean, if you think it's... a... good... idea... Briana."
Rested and fed, the group are determined to press onwards... yet, for the first time since descending into the chambers beneath the Lady's Light, they have no obvious route forwards...
Joanna just nods at what Briana says, readying herself and gathering Halli to her side as they make ready to head out.
I don't like leaving those things at our backs. If they are still here, then it's likely that the Gray Maidens have ways around them.
Halli lets out a low growl as she eyes the gray flame.
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The previous night...
As she removes her satchel and weapons to ready for bed, Zee finds her gaze falling on her friend get out of her armor. She is momentarily struck with her friend's beauty... and a very erotic thought crosses her mind. Surprised by the vivid image, she quickly wills it down. That's not like me... she thinks to herself. At that point, she also catches herself about to slip off her dress, and immediately stops herself. How much of Sorshen is still with me??
Trying her best to hide these thoughts, Zee then gets in bed. The feeling of lying on a soft mattress with clean sheets is luxurious after nights in a ship's berth or (worse) in a bedroll on the ground.
As Joanna also gets into bed, Hali hops up and nestles between them. At that time, Jo asks her question about her sisters and a Harrow reading. The request snaps Zee out of her odd thoughts.
"You would like a reading? We could do a reading now, if you wish. You wish to see how your sisters fare? I can try, but the Harrow typically shows a glimpse of your own fate, not that of someone else."
Taking out her deck and one of her Varisian scarves, she lays the scarf on the bed between herself and Joanna. She sits cross-legged across the scarf from Joanna, who likewise sits up in the bed.
...Lawful
...Neutral
"The Locksmith represents the tools your have at your disposal... or a special tool that you will find in a time of need. In this case, I see nothing particularly dire nor particularly fortunate with your sisters' fates... But there is something they need... Something that is... here. You are the special thing they will need when the time is right. But that time has not yet come to pass, and you will be there for them when it arises." She looks up, deep into Joanna's eyes. "And I believe that you will be finding something precious, as well." Zee smiles mysteriously, then reaches out and strokes Joanna's hair with her fingers.
Seemingly just realizing what she's doing, Zee takes her hand back quickly. "That was too forward of me. Forgive me. I... I'm not sure what is happening with me. It's not just that I am now in a body that isn't mine... something within me has changed, too..." Zee then gathers her cards, hands trembling. As she puts her cards away, she begins to sob quietly, tears welling in her eyes.
In the morning...
Zee wakes up to the sound of Joanna falling out of bed and cursing. She throws off the covers and rushes to the side of her friend, while Hali moves to the other. Joanna is only out for a brief moment, and comes around to find Hali licking her face. "Are you all right?"
Once Zee is confident that her friend is, indeed, okay, she heads back into the hallway. She raises her arms and her head to the ceiling, and murmers a prayer to the Starsong. With her eyes closed, she begins to dance while murmuring a song to herself, seemingly oblivious to anyone who might be watching. She does this for a solid ten minutes before she concludes, then returns to her room to study the patterns of the Harrow.
After breakfast, the topic turns to what to do from here. Zee again examines the various Thassilonian inscriptions on the ten doors, and on the blank wall at the end of the hall.
"'Thou wouldst enter? Then thou must touch!' It's writtem on all nine of the wooden doors, and on that blank wall at the end of the hall. And the inscription on that tenth door, with the frost, is different... I still think we shoud avoid that door."
When Zee offers to do the reading and explains the limitations, Joanna just gives her a soft "thank you."
===
The young paladin's cheeks color slightly as Zee strokes Joanna's hair. She looked puzzled, and her puzzlement only grow as her friend quickly withdrew her hand. Confusion quickly turns to worry when she hears Zee begin to cry.
"Zee? What's wrong," Joanna asks as she crawls around to face her friend. "Did I say or do something to upset you," she asks as Halli shifts to curl around Zee and rest her head on the Harrower's lap.
"I'm sorry," Joanna whispers just loudly enough to be heard as her head bows and shadows cover her eyes. A single silvery tear flows down each of her cheeks as her shoulders begin to tremble. "I don't know what I did, Zee, but I'm sorry," she begins to sob, "please don't cry Zee, please."
Joanna groans as Zee comes to check on her, then Halli begins to lick her face.
"ACH! HALLI!"
Joanna snaps bolt upright in an effort to get away from her friend's licking tongue and painfully cracks forehead to forehead with Zee. She lets out a curse as she goes from sitting to doubled over on her knees with a splitting headache.
"Oooooow," she moans before managing to look sideways at her unfortunate accidental victim. "Sorry about that. I didn't knock you out, did I?"
===
After the two of them recover Joanna washes her face off and starts getting ready. Through the door, she watches as Zee dances and remembers Lady Midnight's carnival and the dance she'd seen there. She'd meant to ask Zee to show her, but would it be too awkward now? Given what seemed to be happening to her, would she refuse?
Joanna didn't know, couldn't know.
With a sigh, she turns back to her preparations and gives Halli a look when she comes over for some petting.
"I've still got headache from where I headbutted Zee after you licked me in the face," she says sternly. "I'm not going to fall for the puppy eyes."
===
When Zee comes back in, she finds Joanna with an expression between bemusement and exasperation as she looks at Halli and pets the wolf. Halli looks happy, as always when receiving some petting or scratching, but there's a hint of smugness about her now.
"If we ever run across a puppy demon," Joanna tells Zee in a dry tone, "we are surely doomed."
The paladin gives a snort of amusement and looks up at her friend.
"Do you always dance when you wake up," she asks.
"It's on the wall," Joanna asks before looking at it and finding that she'd missed it. "Why is it on the wall? It's like some kind of instructions, right?"
Looking at the inscription more closely, she frowns in thought.
"So what happens if we touch the wall?"
"I thought she was talking about the frosty door."
Following the logical argument being made around the various inscriptions along the doors of the corridor... and in the wall at the end of the passageway, Briana takes a deep breath - and runs her hand over the brickwork. For a moment nothing happens, and then - accompanied by an inrushing scent that is purely erotic - the wall slides open to reveal an opulent marble chamber. The room is somewhat dominated by an enormous bed that sits upon a raised dais whilst the walls bear frescos of a woodland scene, with leering satyrs chasing nubile nymphs. A domed ceiling inlaid with mother-of-pearl rises twenty feet above the opulent bedchamber... and it is from this marvel that the soft light illuminating the room gently glows.
...there is a single exit from the room, a grand double door heading to the north.
Right. let's have a look.
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Zee embraces Joanna and buries her face in her friend's shoulder, sobbing for several long moments and hugging her tightly. And then the sobs begin to ebb. With a deep sigh, she releases her embrace, but keeps her hands on Joanna's shoulders.
"I'm sorry... I'm kind of a mess right now. Putting yourself in a tomb and then walking away can do that to a woman!" She chuckles mirthlessly at her own morbid comment. "Thank you. You are the closest friend I've ever had." She strokes Joanna's hair again, and at that Hali plunks down between them, apparently wanting some attention, too. Zee smiles and scratches the wolf between the ears. "And yes, you're very nice, too!"
At that she lies back down for a fitful sleep.
The Theater / The Marriage / The Courtesan
The Empty Throne / The Betrayal / The Tyrant
The Twin / The Unicorn / The Liar
Her eyes scan the first column... The past, she thinks to herself. Two partial matches, with the Theater and the Empty Throne partially aligned, and The Twin almost exactly misaligned.
"My childhood was idyllic. The Theater represents being my being born with the Sight. The Empty Throne represents the loss of my Varisian family...especially you, bunică. But also the strength that my family and our traditions continue to give me. And there's The Twin... the card of indecision. That represents my doubt at leaving my original family to strike out with a new one."
The sunlight streaming through the window dims as the sun dips below the Irespan. She hears the bustle of the Bazaar of Sails and smell the salt air. Looking out the window, she gazes upon the grandeur of the Irespan high above the city, and muses on what other riches or horrors it still contains.
A deep, resonant voice asks, "¿Και τι λένε τα χαρτιά για το μέλλον σου?" Thassilonian? She asks what the cards say of my present... Looking up, Runelord Sorshen regards her with a regal, impassive gaze, her bejeweled glaive held in her left hand.
She scans the middle column. The Betrayal is partially aligned, while the Unicorn is misaligned. "The Marriage shows a union of disparate elements. That means my new family of outcasts: Joanna, and Teldon, and Brianna, and Arsith, and Shadlah, and poor lost Nalathi. We are stronger together than we are as individuals. I draw my strength from them, and willingly give them my own. The Betrayal represents the risk of opening up one's family. I tried to help Gnaeus, and he repaid my kindness with death." She taps the bottom card in the columm, her Varisian tattoos on her hand almost glowing in the dim light. "And the Unicorn, misaligned, emphasizes that betrayal, for which I lost my life."
More dusty air blows through the window as the hot desert breeze blows past the jumble of the Warren. Voices in many languages shout and call, from the guttural orders of orcish slavers, to the whimpers of Chelish slaves, to the laughing exclamations in Shoanti, to the eerie grunts and moans of tamed zombie servants. She looks out the window to see the gaping crumbled wall leading into Kaer Maga. It is a strange place.
A kind and intimately familiar voice asks, "Și acum, Ziomarra, ce părere ai despre viitorul tău?. Looking up, she sees her own face looking across the table. The former her fans a tattered Harrow deck, which she then collapses, passes her hand in front of it, and the deck disappears. She asks me of my own future... She places her hands above the cards. The seven golden rings on the bronze skin of her unadorned fingers glint in the desert sun. The cards seem a bit farther away than she's used to, and then Zee remembers that she's taller now.
Looking at the final column, all of the cards signify danger. "Most positive, and partially aligned, is The Courtesan, the card of intrigue. I wonder if I must again play the part of Teldon's spiritual adviser with his next dealings with the Aspis Consortium." ... and it might be difficult doing so, looking as I do now, she muses. "In the neutral position is The Tyrant. Sorshen." Zee just knows this implicitly. She looks up to meet the gaze of her former self. "I must face Sorshen directly, but whether that is literal or figurative, I do not know." The old Zee that faces her raises her hands in a gesture indicating she does not know either... or if she does, she's not telling. But the card that makes her tremble is the final card, perfectly aligned in the negative future position. She taps it with a trembling hand. "This final card is the only perfect match in this spread." A smiling lamia offers a bouquet of dead flowers, dripping with poison. "The Liar, the card of dark love or of succeeding at a false quest." Staring down at the card, the lamia looks back at her, her face becoming that of Sorshen. The bouquet becomes a seven-pointed star. The Sorshen-headed lamia smiles seductively. "Are you sure you really want want this?" The lamia holds up the Sihedron... and then she throws it at Zee's face.
. . .
Zee snaps open her eyes, gasps, and bolts upright in bed. Hali whimpers and looks at her, but Joanna snores quietly. "A dream," she whispers. ...and also a prophecy? Perhaps I am not as distant from the Harrow as I'd feared... and I will face Sorshen, mind calm, and with my friends at my side and with Desna in my heart.
Zee curls back up under the covers, her sleep uninterrupted until morning.
She then gets up to prepare for the day.
Later...
In response to Joanna's question about dancing, Zee nods. "I do. That wasn't a traditional Varisian dance. Its a morning ritual of devotion to Desna. Normally, one would do it before sunrise under the still-dark sky, so I was envisioning the stars and constellations, naming them as I imagined them."
Now...
Zee purses her lips and nods as the secret door slides open. "As I suspected. Thank you, Brianna!"
Stepping into the room, Zee draws a Harrow card and casts a spell. She hold the glowing card to her eye, and then closes the other, and then scans the room, as if she were looking through a lens.
Not a moment after Zee wraps her up in a tight embrace, Joanna does her the same, as she cries into her friend's shoulder. When the crying is done, Joanna holds Zee as long as she needs to. She would comfort her friend as long as she needed to.
When Zee pulls back and apologizes before telling the young paladin how much their friendship meant to her, Joanna gives her a small, but genuine, smile.
"We're all a mess right now,"[b] Joanna says, [b]"and you are my closest friend, my sister, in this strange company."
When Halli wedges herself between the two of them, Joanna can't help but chuckle.
"Of course, and she never misses an opportunity to remind us, the spoiled pup," she says as she scratches the wolf along the ribs as the wolf wiggles to get more comfortable.
Before Zee lies down, Joanna catches her arm.
"You may have Sorshen's face and body, her memories may be in your head, but you don't have her heart or her mind, Zee. Those are yours and yours alone. One way or another, we'll get through this," Joanna assures her before letting go and going to sleep herself.
Joanna joins in the laughter, needing Zee's support as much as Zee needed her support to stay upright as Joanna laughs hard enough that tears come to her eyes.
"Don't the... don't the bards... need... something funny... for their tales," Joanna asks as she gasps for air, a beaming smile on her face. True, things were still troubled between her and Brianna. True, Teldon was still missing. But, despite it all, she and Zee could still laugh and smile. Despite appearances, Zee was still alive and well, and that is enough for Joanna to cheer up.
===
"Do you think you could teach me to dance like that," Joanna asks, her face coloring a little as she gets straight to the point rather than try and talk around it. "I could teach you something in return or..." her voice trails off for a moment before she takes a deep breath, "the only dances I know are formal and stiff. I'm not very nimble and I want to change that. You and every other Varisian I've seen dance moves like fire, beautiful and vibrant and I want to be able to move like that too."
Joanna doesn't look at anyone as the erotic scents sweep over her as the hidden door opens. Her face flushes a little and her lips press into a thin line.
"Mother Dearest would love it here," she grumbles as she heads into the room and looks out for danger. Her eyes glow for a moment as she looks around.
Her fingers taking the texture of the fine marble, Shadlah follows her companions into the room, looking around.
As Joanna scans the room, Halli begins to curiously sniff at, well, everything.
There is little here of great note - the bed upon the dais is larger, and grander, than any of those within the rooms adjoining the previous corridor... a status symbol and a reminder of relative import to those who needed reminding maybe... but, having explored the room thoroughly (confirming low levels of benign magicks and a reassuring absence of evil), there is little more to do other than press onwards - through the doors to the north - or to retrace steps.
Joanna looks to the others as she approaches the doors.
"Are we ready?"
Once everyone is, she opens them.
The erotic frescos in the domed chamber beyond the double doors may have faded, but their intent to inflame the passions of those occupying the room is still plain. Four marble benches sit against the walls and a complex mosaic of thousands of colored chips form a huge starburst on the floor.
A study of the paintings on the walls reveals that the 6 figures depicted in them are engaged in more than just acts of passion — they are also engaged in the three forms of magic with which the Runelord of Lust herself was most fascinated by when she built the Lady’s Light: alchemy, enchantment, and conjuration.
And, to the north, a small door leads from the chamber. Listening at the door, the sound of trickling water can be heard...
"What kind of place is this? A ballroom," Joanna asks as she walks out into the room, turning to the others with a flourish, she gives them a mischievous grin and asks, "shall we dance?" She holds her sword, point lowered and her other hand reaches out to the others. She laughs as she turns her attention back to the door and makes for it while keeping a eye out for anything unusual.
Halli pads alongside the paladin and the others see her shaking her head at her companion's antics. The wolf remains alert as she crosses the room as well.
When we will be sure we can dance without being attacked, why not...
Arsith appears nervous, and her attention is more focused on the erotic paintings than on anything else
As Joanna strides out into the room, the grandness of it evoking memories of Magnimar's great ballrooms, she turns and playfully asks her friends whether they would like to dance...
...and, in doing so, places the overwhelming compulsion to tango across the marble in the minds of her friends.
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Arsith tries to resist the urge to dance.. but succumbs to it quick
For a new dancer, she does have a certain grace. Spotting Rowena, she giggles
isn't it what they call a "chat chat chat" in foreign parts?
Zee scans the room as her friends look about. Her attention is drawn to the starburst pattern on the floor, and she tries to read the magical aura.
As she examines the aura emanating from the mosaic, hazy memories of its construction come to mind.
"This is one of Sorshen's many, many bedrooms. Be careful: There is a magical..."
At that, Joanna playfully asks her question.
Zee is momentarily overcome with a desire to dance the czárdás, but quickly shakes out of it.
"...compulsion effect in this room. She placed it here to play games of dominance with her lovers."
At that, Zee has a flash of memory of a darkly erotic interlude in this room, which equally excites and repulses her, causing her to blush.
When Zee reveals the purpose of the room Joanna's expression changes from one of whimsy to one of horror as she sees the effect that her playful question has on Arsith and Rowenna.
"N-no. I-I didn't mean..."
Arsith, with Rowenna accompanying her in some fashion, succumbs to the urge to dance - it is an overpowering compulsion that embeds itself within the young priestess' consciousness and it barely fades when, having confirmed that it seems safe to continue, the friends pass through the door to the north. Outside of the room, Arsith can hear an internal rhythm... but her need to dance subsides to a gentle tapping of her feet.
The room itself is small, no more than ten feet by ten feet, and contains a simple pool of pure, clear water. Doors lead out of the room in all four cardinal directions - carvings in each of the doors seeming to echo the different scenes from the previous room's murals.
The pool itself is 3 feet deep, with a 2-foot-diameter grating in the centre.
Joanna doesn't meet anyone's eyes as they move on, keeping them on the ground in front of her and her mouth shut. The effect that last room had on Arsith and Rowenna had frightened the young woman.
Halli, unsure of what had happened, but knowing that something had upset Joanna, stays close to the paladin's side.
As Briana tries to reassure her, her mind goes back to when they'd tried to find a place to camp that first night. What if that enchantment had been in one of those rooms? She shudders as what could have happened goes through her mind.
Zee places her hand on Joanna's shoulder. "Do not be glum. There was no way you could have known that enchantment was there. And there was no harm done at all... and the worst would have been for you all to have to watch me me dance the czárdás, and I'm terribly out of practice. But perhaps I could give you that dance lesson once we're back in Magnimar."
The grating in the pool appears to lead to a small pipe from which the pool's water flows northwards... strangely, even though the water is clearly draining in to the pipe, the level of the pool doesn't seem to diminish. The grate, separating the pool from the pipe, is highly polished brass and could, were someone so inclined, probably be lifted free of the pool...
Examination of the doors to the east, the north and the west reveals something though - the scenes carved into the door, erotic in nature, appear to show folk and beast manipulating magical forces - namely Alchemy (to the west), Enchantment (to the north) and Conjuration (to the east).
"You're right, but what if that enchantment had been in a room where we were arguing or if I'd said something that put you all in danger or..." Joanna grabs one arm with the other and squeezes as she begins to tremble.
"I don't want that kind of power, even by accident. This room terrifies me. What if I start liking what I can do with it," she asks, her question hinting at something deeper than just being shaken by what had happened.
Joanna flinches as Brianna snaps at her. She'd done it again. She'd made Briana angry at her. The young paladin backs away. Her arms half-raised as if unsure whether she should be ready to block a blow or not.
"I... I'm sorry. I'll just..." she mutters as she takes another step back. Unsure of where to go or how to proceed, she backs out of the way of the others and waits for them to decide their course.
"Where do we go from here," Joanna asks, her arms now at her sides. Her hair partly covers her face. Her posture and expression are almost exactly like they were right after they'd found Natalya Vancaskerkin.
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Joanna grabs Briana's wrist and pulls her close. Her arms hold her friend tight as she takes a deep, shuddering breath.
"I'm sorry Bri. I know you and Zee are going through a lot. We'll find Teldon and then we can get everything out like you said," Joanna whispers into her ear. She squeezes tighter as she continues.
"I did not mean to make you angry, Bri. I did not mean to cause this rift. I'll be by your side and Zee's side. We're sisters in this, aren't we? Sisters stick together."
"I know, and when we're back in Magnimar, we'll get my other sisters out from under Mother Dearest's thumb." Joanna tells Briana. She holds her for a moment longer before letting go and looking at the doors.
"Which way shall we go," she asks.