Two Totems and Tea

Evening is setting in, the gray dimness merely becoming darker. A light snow has overspread the city, and most people are finishing up their errands by torchlight or lantern light, the better to seek the warmth of one's own hearth or that of a tavern as soon as they are done.

Not all, however, choose the security and warmth of the hearth on a night like this.

In an alleyway that borders the Temple of Eluna, a rush of wings is accompanied by a clank of armor on stone, the sound of metal footsteps following. Seldan hits the ground through the trees, rather more noisily than he would have liked, and looks around him, the white-feathered wings on his back melting into nothingness beneath the armor. A freeze, a pause, while he looks around to see what if any attention he might have drawn.

GAME: Seldan rolls stealth: (9)+3: 12
GAME: Auranar rolls perception: (12)+5: 17

Auranar is not nearly so stealthy, thanks to her red dress and her long fur-lined matching red cloak. Even in the darkness she stands out. Red gloves complete her set, and one might be forgiven for not immediately recognizing her with her hood drawn up against the cold. She stops every person that she sees, talking to them quietly but urgently. "Have you seen a man, ginger-blonde hair, blue eyes, about this tall?" She measures off a height a fair bit taller than herself to the best of her ability, but everyone shakes their head and moves on quickly. Eager to get home. She huffs a sigh to herself.

Diligently she moves on, looking all around for some sign of the man she's looking for. He's nowhere in sight, but the sound of metal clinking draws her attention and hesitantly she calls out into the dimness; "Hello?" There's an uncertain waver in her voice and she pulls her cloak more closely around herself as she looks for the source of the armor-sound that she recognizes. Only to find Seldan standing there looking around himself. "Oh! Seldan! Goodness it's good to see you! I've been looking for you for _days_!"

Uh-oh. For a moment, the ice-blue eyes look like a deer frozen in headlights - until he recognizes the woman, and lets out a slow breath. "Forgive me, my lady, and Her light upon your path." A polite bow accompanies that. "Alexandria is no longer safe for me, and I venture here only to see to a few tasks that will not wait. Have you need of me, you need but leave word with the Seers. How might I be of service?"

"Her light upon your path." Auranar returns easily, a warm smile lighting upon her features for a moment. "I should have thought of that, but... The need was urgent enough to make me forget things like leaving messages with others. Besides... that's not important."

She sighs and looks at Seldan squarely. "I have a need to talk to you about an urgent matter. I'm looking for a paladin of Eluna. Someone I hope you know. They were in the marketplace some time ago and ended up with a powerful artifact attuned to them." Auranar knows she's being vague, and her eyes keep flickering around, but she doesn't want to risk saying too much in the open.

The nature of the request gives Seldan pauses, a serious and steady look at odds with the ginger-blonde mane made wild by virtue of being half-encased in ice and snow. It's quite silly-looking, really, at odds with his usually neatly-groomed appearance. "Yes, my lady, I am aware of the incident, but I should not say more here. Come, let us find a quieter space. Perhaps the library in the Temple, or have you another?"

"It is a short walk to mine and Verna's home. Where a ready fire and tea can be had. I even have some cookies that Verna made." Auranar smiles here. "We can be assured of privacy there, at least as much as one can be assured of privacy anywhere these days." Her smile fades quickly. "Still, it would be much more comfortable than even a library."

"You are kind to offer your hospitality, and it has been some time since I have seen either of you." For the first time in a while, a boyish grin breaks through the serious mien, and he runs a hand through his wild hair to break up some of the ice crystals, dislodging snow across pack and pauldrons. Reunion is not, at the moment, in evidence, but it is doubtless not far away. "As to privacy - I have a means that may serve us, do you think it prudent. Come, then, for tea will be welcome."

There's a burst of snow as the door to Auranar and Verna's house opens without a knock to accompany it. Auranar's voice does however, just in case Verna is in. "Verna? Are you home? I brought company." She enters and shakes off the snow from her cloak as she opens the door a little wider for Seldan. Once he's properly inside she takes the cloak off and beckons him further into the house. Thankfully the fire is as promised already lit, and Auranar makes her way toward it eagerly as she strips her gloves off her fingers. "Do you have a preference on the type of tea Seldan?"

Verna is, in fact, present. In her usual chair (daresay her favorite) near the hearth. Rather, she was. In the brief moment between the abrupt flinging open of the door and recognition of Auranar by sight and voice, Verna is no longer in said chair. Instead, she is standing rigidly upright in front of the chair with a book lying half-open pages down on the floor (sacrilegious spine damage!) next to a now-spilled cup of tea (caffeine abuse!).

It takes a full second before Verna relaxes and offers a smile, "Welcome home, love. And company," she adds the latter as she stoops to retrieve book and cup.

The man accompanying Auranar pauses a bit longer in the doorway, leaving snow-caked cloaks outside, and quietly ducks in, closing the door behind him with a clank of armor. When he walks inside, though, he speaks a word, and the armor becomes a warm shirt and trousers, the open-front robe he wears over it still caked with snow. Ginger-blonde hair is wild and caked in snow and ice, as one caught in a wind.

"Her light upon your path, Mourner," Seldan greets her quietly, but warmly. "It has been some time, and I apologize for the upset. Tea of the hot variety is preferable, and you have my thanks for it."

Auranar pauses before the fire, looking at Verna with concern before realizing that their entry must have startled the other woman. There are a variance of things - creatures and individuals - whom might come through their door unannounced after all. She lays a slightly chilled hand on Verna's arm briefly to comfort her. "I didn't mean to startle you dearest. Let me get something to clean the tea up with."

She moves swiftly then, getting a cup of tea settled for herself, and one handed to Seldan before grabbing up a towel from the kitchen to clean up the spilled tea with. In moments she is done and seated in the chair beside Verna’s - her favorite spot. Though there are plenty of other places to sit, including a sofa settled in front of the fire and a few stools settled closer to the kitchen in case they have any sith-makar company.

Verna's smile to Aura is warmer the second time around. "It is quite alright. A morsel of paranoia is healthy, or so I have read." She sets cup and book aside before turning her attention to Seldan. "May She judge you fairly, Silverguard. That said, I expect She would, and you need not be so formal, Seldan." A hint of the former smile lingers with the words before she inquires, "What brings you to our home? Not to imply that Auranar's hospitality is not reason enough on its own."

Seldan accepts his cup of tea with a polite smile and sips from it, but when Auranar goes to get the towel, he sets it aside on a table next to the sofa, and traces a sigil in the air before him, grinning boyishly when it lights up gold-silver-blue at an arcane phrase. Verna will know this magic for a simple cantrip, and he grabs the sigil out of the air. With that same hand, he walks over towards the spill and runs a hand atop it, as if intending to simply wipe it away. "Auranar wished to discuss with me a matter requiring some privacy," he explains, "but I expect it is one of which you are already aware."

GAME: Seldan casts Prestidigitation. Caster Level: 16 DC: 18

Auranar has the grace to look embarrassed as Seldan casts the simple cantrip which she herself could have done. She's so used to mundane solutions that the magical hadn't even occurred to her. "Thank you Seldan." She offers politely, putting the towel away unused and sitting down. "Perhaps you would care to use the spell you mentioned earlier? It may be wise to make sure there are no prying ears listening."

Verna quirks a brow as she recognizes the spell. The surprise may be more at why she did not think to perform the courtesy, herself. The answer is likely similar to Auranar's thought. "Yes, thank you, and if there is need for further privacy, please feel free to ensure such." To Seldan's comment, she nods. "I expect that I am already aware, or would be so promptly." Her eyes shift to Auranar. "We do not keep secrets from one another."

GAME: Seldan used a Scroll of Mage's Private Sanctum.

"The pleasure is mine." The simple task done, Seldan returns to his pack, and opens one of the side pouches. From it he retrieves a scroll case with a red cap, leafs through a corner of its contents, shakes his head, replaces the cap and then the case, and retrieves another one, similar to the first, but with a blue cap. He repeats the process, but seems to find what he wants, and pulls from it a fairly long scroll.

He reads from it, chanting with a fair bit of concentration. There is a silvery-gray flash that spreads out from him, to the corners of the room and up the walls, climbing like a liquid sort of fog to the ceiling, then winking out to a bare shimmer even as the parchment crumbles to dust in his hand.

"That will serve," he turns to the pair, declaring himself clearly satisfied. "For the duration of the spell, none may see in, nor hear our words, and scrying through the barrier is not possible." With that, he settles himself carefully down on the sofa.

Auranar nods politely to Seldan, relaxing somewhat in her chair and holding her tea cup with both hands. She wears a serious mein now, her expression tense. "I asked Seldan here because I was looking for a paladin of Eluna who was seen in the marketplace with one of the totems. Someone mentioned that the person bled on it, which means that it was accidentally attuned to them. I suspect now that Seldan does indeed know who this person is, because of the precautions he's taking. Someone that he wants to protect. A protegee?" This last draws her full attention to Seldan.

Verna ahs softly and nods. "I understand the desire for discretion, in that case." Seldan and Auranar (as usual) hold her attention, though she offers nothing further in favor of listening. While she is certainly familiar with the matter, as Seldan supposed, this is not her discussion.

Seldan's smile is very small, as he sets his teacup aside again, and reaches into the pack at his feet. From it, he extracts a statue depicting a young lady. "You refer, perhaps, to this?" he asks calmly and evenly.

Auranar looks at the statue, and then to Seldan, then back to the statue. It makes her uneasy to have two in such close proximity, but the source of her sudden unease might not be immediately clear to the others. "Yes. I... I did not realize that the paladin might be you Seldan. Have you done any research into it? Do you know which deity it was created by?"

"As I recall," Verna notes following Seldan's revelation, "you did display a penchant for bleeding on your surroundings with some frequency..." She is not terribly surprised at this. God-forged totems in her lounge has become something of a trend as of late, afterall. She dips her head with Auranar's curious and pertinent question.

Still, Seldan's smile remains, and he tucks it discreetly back into its pack, the smile becoming an open, if quiet, chuckle for the bleeding comment. "I fear that is so. In that instance, Serene and I had dispatched one of -" he pauses, "a stray demon within the city. I had been struck, although only mildly so, and the explosion when it perished drove the statue it was holding into me."

"It is not, itself, a thing of evil." He spreads a hand palm-down in conciliatory fashion once he has straightened up. "The Dreamer has shared with me Her wisdom regarding these statues, and I will aid you as I may. She has made it clear to me that my task lies elsewhere, and that the bulk of this task must be left to others within the city. Still - I was able to learn its nature. This one was crafted by the Draco Solis."

The red-clad elf sips her tea and rallies herself. "I must ask you to do something which you may not like then Seldan, though I will explain the why of it. I will ask that you give the totem to me. During my research of the totems I learned that if those that hold them worship the gods that created them, it creates a stronger bond. One that may allow us to use these totems more effectively. I know a servant of Daeus who is in the center of this conflict, and allowing him to hold the totem you possess may give us the upper hand that we so desperately need."

Verna trusts Auranar's judgment. Implicitly. This does not, however, preclude an intake of breath as she requests possession of the totem. It is not until many words later that Verna finally parses her intent. The breath is exhaled. "If you are needed elsewhere, it would be best not to keep them divided. As you noted, they are not aligned to favor one side over another, yet are the path to success for either, or both. That and Aura is far wiser than I in most matters."

GAME: Seldan casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 16 DC: 18

Seldan, too, draws a deep breath at the request, and levels an even, measuring stare at Auranar, all smile fading. He does not answer in words, not immediately, but instead, raises a hand and draws a simple sigil in the air. He speaks an arcane word, and a blue-silver-golden film appears before his eyes, through which he examines Auranar closely.

As Seldan draws the sigil in the air, Auranar looks embarrassed. "I do not have a magical bag such as you do." She rises to her feet and sets the tea cup down. With that taken care of she moves to one of the bookshelves built into the walls of their home and pulls down a thick book. It's not a real book however, but rather a hollowed book-binding with some paper inside to give it the appearance of a book. She opens it and pulls out a figurine that looks identical to the one that Seldan had been holding.

Seldan's eyes blink, but fixate not on the woman, but the book she had gone to retrieve. After a half minute or so of study, he slashes a hand across his body in an arcane gesture of dismissal, and the film vanishes. "That was not my intention, Auranar." Some of the smile returns, albeit a ghost of a thing. "I merely wished to ensure that you were not ensorcelled or controlled, that you make such a plainly dangerous request. Yet is it clear to me that that is not so. You hold another one." Now he focuses fully upon the statue, a note of reverence in his voice. "This is the one crafted by the Dreamer?"

Auranar settles the fake book back into place and nods to Seldan's question. "It is indeed. It was originally attuned to a wizard that worshiped her, and its original creator was known by him. He entrusted it to me. I pricked my finger to attune it to me, but it didn't change its form." She smiles fondly at the statue. "I... I have been worried about keeping it here, and it has brought me strange... very intense dreams."

"Well am I familiar with those. It is a thing of the Dream Realm, and thus am I unsurprised that such would be so." Seldan's eyes are on the statue that Auranar produced, thoughtfully. "Still - if it is as you say, then I shall exchange, does that please you. I am no servant of the Draco Solis," and for this, his small smile is a touch sad. "Much though my honored father would have it otherwise. I have made my peace with the Draco Solis, but I am given to the service of another, and there is but one to begrudge me that." There's a hard flash in the ice-blue eyes.

He seems to mentally shake himself, then, blinking several times, and coming back to the immediate present. "But, that need not worry you. Shall I exchange, that a servant of the Draco Solis might hold this one? I know of but one, and I shall not ask Zeke to shed blood."

Auranar seems to deeply consider this for a moment. In the end, the desire to not have many of these things mingling in one place for a long period of time wins out in her mind and she moves across the room to where Seldan is sitting. "That is a fair idea." She offers the statue to him.

"As you will, then." Seldan removes from his pack the statue, and sets it aside, next to his forgotten and cooling teacup, for Auranar to take. Reverent eyes are locked firmly on the statue as he reaches to grasp it.

Something... happens when their fingers cross over the totem. A swirl of magical energy that neither are prepared for. Darkness envelops the pair and to Verna nothing seems to happen save that their eyes go distant. To them however, the world around them is changing. Darkness swallows everything. Then in the darkness is a shadow. A beast of formless flesh, a writhing thing that can not be totally seen nor understood as having form. Chains hold it in place, giving it no further semblance of shape. Instead the chains are like hooks in that writhing nothingness.

The shadow opens red eyes and in those eyes dance the image of three wolves. The wolves resolve into men, but they can not be made out. They are too small in the monster's eyes.

The vision changes, like a dream nebulous. A woman takes shape, a woman surrounded by stars, and she is instantly known by each person who holds this vision. This is Eluna, and though they see her differently she is the same goddess. She points toward a tiny blue speck, and that speck swells as she fades into the night. Not gone, but rather taking her true form as the goddess of magic. The world swells and swells, becoming a place, a place in the desert where roses grow and a piece of a goddess once lay. Now the blue roses wither and die, outplaced by the black and that place gives birth to black wolves.

The vision swims again, and four totems with twisted forms face one another and begin to drip with black ichor. Chains link these totems together, reaching back and back into the dark. Into the unknown. Into something with red eyes...

The vision fades, leaving Auranar and Seldan standing and sitting respectively in place.

GAME: Auranar rolls will: (20)+4: 24 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)
GAME: Seldan rolls will: (7)+32: 39

Auranar barely manages to stay standing, wavering in place suddenly without any reason that Verna can discern. She keeps her feet though, shoving the little statue more firmly into Seldan's hands and looking at the other one with trepidation before she takes it up. She seems relieved for no particular reason when nothing happens.

It takes Seldan a moment to shake off the miasma left behind by the abrupt, intense vision. "I see," he murmurs, half-absent. "Even so. Verna, have you ink and parchment?" He slips the statue swiftly into his bag where the other one had been, the one he'd relinquished forgotten in a new quest. "This must be set down, and swiftly, for it is a warning, and a potent one."

Verna departed briefly to refill her teacup, though keeps an ear to the conversation. She returns at the crux of the exchange which appears rather mundane to her. All save for Auranar' wobbling. With neither context nor causality, she is suddenly uncertain whether she actually wavered.

Until Seldan reacts and speaks, that is. "Of course." Her cup is set down and she promptly steps to her satchel to retrieve writing materials. It is only after they are set upon a low table that she asks, "What happened?" Her eyes, and question, are firmly directed to Auranar.

"A vision." Auranar says faintly, stepping back to her chair and sitting down firmly. She still has the totem in her hand. She looks at it thoughtfully but shakes her head. "I don't know why. That's never happened before."

GAME: Seldan rolls intelligence: (14)+4: 18

Seldan without a word takes the writing materials and settles, with some effort, cross legged before the low table. Even enchanted armor is not necessarily a flexible thing. He writes swiftly, and while his handwriting is legible if he is careful, this is written down with the swiftness of one wishing not to lose what he just saw. In the end, the result is legible, with some effort, but a reasonably complete capture of the vision that the pair just shared.

At length, he sets the pen down, and again casts the simple cantrip, passing one hand over another and watching as the ink dissipates from his fingers.

"Have you handed such to a true servant of the deity that created it before?"

Auranar shakes her head in the negative. "No. Do you think that we shared the vision because we both serve Eluna?" The thoughtfulness hasn't left her. She glances downward. "In truth I did not think my own faith strong enough to warrant much of a reaction. For while I have always followed Eluna, I am no cleric."

It is Verna's turn to step to Aura and place a hand upon her shoulder. "You need not draw upon Her power directly to hold faith, Dearest. It may be that you both were present, that two totems were involved, or that the time was at hand. Perhaps all of those or more." Or none. Verna is merely speculating. While she may not be able to give answers, she does wish to grant comfort and assurance. It is only after Seldan is done that she glances towards the parchment.

"It is as Verna says." Seldan does not look up, instead continuing to survey his work. "I shall make fair copies, for this information will be of use to your allies, and this information must needs be provided to the Temple library as well. No harm seems to have been done," he trails off, pulling a fresh sheet of parchment to him. This time, he writes more slowly, neatly, and carefully, his tongue between his teeth like any student. "I had no contact with the second totem, when the vision came over us. I know not if any other has held two totems together."

"Thank you Seldan. I feel... off after that. It was... very disconcerting. I've never held two totems together. It seemed... a risk I was unwilling to take." Auranar explains.

"Let us presume a matter of faith and timing, in that case," Verna happily(?) accedes, "and not test nor tempt anything further. Perhaps fresh tea, more pleasant conversation... perhaps cookies?" She is not as ...hospitable as Auranar, but she can make an attempt at being hostess. She did learn from the best.

"Indeed. For it has indeed been some time. I dare not remain overlong in any one place, and yet would it be pleasant to speak of other things." Even as Seldan speaks, he is continuing to work, making in the end three fair copies and leaving them to dry. He claims one copy and the original for himself, tucking them into his bag, but speaks nothing further of the matter, instead allowing talk to turn to other things.

-End