”You want to know about Morrigain? Well, I can’t say I’ve ever taken too much time to learn about her. She is a sworn enemy of my people and inimical to my very being, a tyrant who rules her grim people with an iron fist backed by dark magic.”
Qillion notices that the King of Dandelion seems strange and flighty, though it is most likely his nature as one of the first fey. She doesn’t know much about Morrigain, save for the fact that she is as ancient and poweful as the King of Dandelions, though considerably more vicious.
"I spent time in her courts millennia ago, as my status as a mortal realms diplomat meant I occasionally needed to speak with her, and even at the best of times she was 'prickly' to say the least."
"I've only known Lord Liriiestil a short while, your Highness", bowed Zaidel to the Dandelion King. "But I have witnessed his powers of diplomacy, language, and discourse firsthand, and they are astounding to behold. Truly, I have never met such a cunning linguist or master debater as Liriiestil! The big warrior does his best to keep a straight face.
::Liriliestil, dose the king seem changed to you from when you meet him last?::
She sends only to Liriliestil.
::"I would appreciate if you did not communicate with me telepathically, as that assumes a familiarity we do not have. However, to answer your question, it's been over ten thousand years since I last saw the king, so it stands to reason he would have changed somewhat since then. We fae are known to be a fickle, mutable race after all."::
::"As you wish"::
The King says, ”Well then, if you are ready to meet the queen, I shall take you there.” With that, he snaps his fingers and in the blink of an eye the party finds themselves in a dark and dreary forest, standing in front of a great earthen mound, a door carved from basalt set in its side.
Zaidel looks around in shock of the instantaneous teleport. "Whoa!"
Looking to the other bewildered Returned, the big warrior asks "Should we knock?"
As soon as the psiport ends, Qillion crouches down and looks about, but she says nothing.
::"Scan"::
::"Scanning"::
seeing no danger she slowly stands.
Zaidel walks up to the door, and puts his ear to it to hear anything on the other side.
"Which way do we need to go?"
Lucas looks around dazedly as he regains his bearings, going from the brightly like Seelie court to this dark forest has left him momentarily night-blind, but he quickly takes in his surroundings as his eyes adjust.
During his survey, Lucas asks Lir, "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that feeling. If we're going to be going up against some Fey boogieman, I don't suppose there's going to be a chance for me to purchase or create some cold iron ammunition?"
Zaidel presses his ear against the door but he is rudely surprised when a whispered voice echoes from the door, "I am the only promise never broken and when I am kept, you shall not know."
Zaidel repeats the riddle for everyone else. "What do you think?"
"The afterlife, maybe?"
"Close. It's probably death." Lir replies.
"I'd agree with something along those lines. People swear vengeance and seek revenge, but neither of those are "never broken". Life itself is generally a promise of death, although that might be put to the test by Joseph."
With the first mention of death, the voice says, much louder, "You may pass the first gate. Your answer may be what is to come." The vast dark doors open, the sound of stone grinding on stone to reveal darkness beyond.
"I'd agree with something along those lines. People swear vengeance and seek revenge, but neither of those are "never broken". Life itself is generally a promise of death, although that might be put to the test by Joseph."
Zaidel looked nonplussed. "Well look at that! William Munny's got jokes!"
"Who is William Munny? One of these Unseely creatures?" asks Kei.
"Western joke, Kei", explains Zaidel. The big warrior looks to Liriiestil and nods, "Death". The god-blooded human walks back up to the door, repeating the riddle and giving his answer.
::"analysis"::
Her other mind, the one embedded deep in suit came back at once.
::"There are a number of possible answers given linguistical Variations, but in this dialect the two that show the highest probability of being the riddles answer are 'A Secret' being the singular form of a thing and..."::
But before it can say the second word Liriiestil says Death and the door responds.
::"Indeed, Death"::
As others moved up, she walked to the door, placing her hand on it and feeling its construction. Working our how it was made and the forces that shaped it.
Kei moves up and says "Death" then follows the others.
The party enters to find a vast dark cavern. Two figures stand at the center. Those with darkvision see that they appear to be knights clad in dark armor wielding wickedly sharp swords.
The elf king strides forward, and bows respectfully to the pair of knights. "I am Liriiestil, lord the elves. We seek audience with the Winter Queen, Morrigain."
One of the knights chuckles and says with a hollow, grating voice, "Summer child, we care little for your authority. Tell us, why do you seek audience with our lady?"
A siegel flashed warning in her eye sight as they enters, framing the two dangers ahead as her Clairvoyant Sense outlined them.
"We seek entrance to the Pretender's barrow." Lir states matter-of-factly.
Not liking the dark armor knight's tone, Zaidel subtly puts his shoulder between Liriiestil and the knights, standing defiantly.
Kei simply watched the proceedings, not entirely sure what was going on.
Seeing the large human Zaidel move Qillion has a feeling that yet again there may be combat. She metal shudder hits her which is just as quickly pushed away. She looked at Kei who seemed as perplexed as she was. Instinctively as if remembering some deeply ingrained skill, she placed her mind into a fugue state. Her focus was there, within that mote, she splinted off parts of her mind to still her thoughts and organise them. Place some logic to the mass what was her memory. Then a flash of an image a feeling.
She was in a room, large with a bed, no a medical gurney. She knew this because she was laying on it. She was looking up into a ring of lights. Around her where devices, Psitech devices linked to her reading her body and mind. The a form a face, she know the face but could not give it a name. Just a feeling that she trusted this person, trusted them with her life.
::"Is there pain Qillion?"::
The others voice
::"Yes"::
She replied, her own voice.
::"Do you wish us to remove it, the pain, the memory's"::
The other said, and she knew it was true, because she knew she had had this done before. Done many times.
::"Yes, the things I did, I... I can't the thoughts of them in me, please, I give consent."::
She did not remember what thous thoughts where but she remember the feeling off them. Grate sadness and pain, what ever it was she had done the pain of it had been unbearable.
::"Then we shall begin, She shall take these memory's away and give you new ones."::
There was a humming sound from the devices linked to her and darkness came.
Why had that memory came, why here now? She looked at the two knights, it had something to do with them, some thing about thire military stance. The readiness for violence. Outside back in the broken city she had skilled those two men with such ease, such detachment and yet after she had felt pain, the same pain she had felt on that gurney. Why act without feeling and then feel? If only she could remember what it was she had felt so much pain about she would know why her thoughts had run to this fragment of a memory. Why they felt linked to who she was, really was. As the moment in the room with the two knights seem to expand as her mind went searching, she could not shake the feeling of disquiet that she was lost to herself. That until she found out who she was and why she was her it would not go away.
The other knight nods his head and says, ”Why would you wish such? Does your king not remember the pact that was signed? The barrow is off limits to all fey.”
"Why is that?" asked Kei, clearly curious.
"Some lords of fey coveted the power of the Pretender. None may enter."
"It would appear forces of the Pretender have been seen amassing at the border between the summer and winter lands. Also, we're not fae. Or rather, my companions are not, and I am a neutral party. My allegiance is to the mortal realms, not the Courts."
"Wait, who is the pretender?"
Qillion waited behind the others. She did not feel like she could add to the conversation and it was illuminating to hear what was being said.
"Of course", chimed Zaidel, "these topics and more are what we should discuss with the Winter Queen...and not the guards! So 'gentlemen', if you wouldn't mind not block the way..."
Touching Zaidel lightly on the shoulder, Kei said "Hold on a moment please. Would someone please answer my questions before we have to explain to the mistress of the house why we brutalized her less-than-adequate guards before walking into her house uninvited?"
One of the black knights chuckles and says, "Ha, that one has spirit. Very well, you may pass us and see our lady, if you can withstand her majesty." With that, he motions behind him and the back wall of the cavern opens like double doors, the sound of stone grinding on stone is nearly deafening. Going through it, the party sees a sight that no other mortal eyes have seen and lived to tell the tale. A colossal cavern stretches above them, pillars of skulls rising into darkness. Vast throngs of fey part to make a pathway, a clamor of countless languages creating a chaotic, clamorous atmosphere.Some goodly fey seem twisted beyond recognition, others darkly beautiful. Still more stand or hover, different from what those of the summer courts have ever seen.
At the end of the path on a throne sits a pale woman dressed in dark robes, a twisted crown of dark wood around her brow, holding a staff of the same dark wood. Small, twisted fey of all varieties scurry around her bringing reports, food, and offerings. One scampers to her holding what seems to be a baby. The touches the staff against the child's forehead and then to the fey's and smirks as the fey quickly shifts into the appearance of the child before it runs off. Her head then snaps to the party and she raps her staff against the ground, the court suddenly growing silent. She speaks, in a voice like a dagger made of ice sliding into your ribs in a dark alleyway, a primal fear seeping into the party, "Mortals tread the ground of my court. I should have you killed for your insolence. But I believe I know why you have come. If you come for the reason I believe, I will hesitate my wrath."
Liriiestil, having been in the Winter Queen's presence before, is unaffected by her overwhelming aura. He bows deeply, showing proper reverence to a fae queen. "Your majesty. It has been quite some time since I have last seen you. You are looking lovely as always."
[ooc] Diplomacy
Zaidel bows hesitantly before the Winter Queen. The uneasiness the god-blooded warrior feels seems very familiar, like a lone boy scared to walk through the house in the dark to get to the bathroom at night. It's an old fear that takes him, something once thought grown out of.
Damn it! You have come close to death and have died today, but this..woman scares you?! Plus, you are probably some god's kid! Act like it. Wear your Big Boy pants!
With determination, and the notion that his longsword and crossbow can be within his hands in a few seconds, Zaidel stands up straight, forcing himself to face his fear, just like all his nightmares throughout his life on Earth.
Like Chuckie said, 'I'm a Big Brave Dog!'
As the walked past the knights and into the space she looked to see what was going on.
in her sight 1000s if symbles come up flooding her tacking. She cut back the count as she spotted the queen. The the Queen spoke and physic shock-wave hit. It hit the walls of her mental defences and washed over and around.
The mote of her mind held intact.
Seeing Zaidel bow before the Queen, Qillion followed suit.
Again she said nothing, it was better to let other do the talking here.
As he walks through the door, Kei says "I still don't know what's..." his speech is then cut off by the woman sitting on the throne.
He simply stares at her for a moment, before blushing and then dropping to the ground and bowing.
While Liriiestil and Zaidel argue with the knights, Lucas waits for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cavern, when suddenly the cavern opens and he can see what looks like thousands of creatures staring at him and only him. His eyes are drawn to a single woman sitting on a throne, and when she speaks, he knows that the paranoia, the fear creeping into his bones is coming from her. But with the source identified, Lucas takes a deep breath and is able steel his mind and body against its visible effects, hopefully well enough to prevent the fey in front of him from identifying what effect she had on him.
Unfortunately, this whole mental process took long enough that Lucas was visibly slower than his companions in bowing, and although Lucas knows that it is probably a bad idea to anger the fey queen in front of him, his bow is noticeably too short to have been properly courteous, but showing deference to the first creature to actually give him a moment's pause is the last thing that Lucas is worried about at the moment.