024.4 Afina and Sylvie

[Corwin]

[20:24] <Kotono> A few days pass for Afina without incident. One morning, as she sits in the cafeteria and eats breakfast, a familiar face flies up to her. Lief sits opposite her, concentrating a moment as a glass of water appears before him. "I wanted to thank you again," he begins, "Training with you has helped, and I've been able to work those lessons into helping the others."
[20:27] <Afina> "Good," Afina nods. "There's no sense hoarding our skills if they can strengthen the Crusade by being spread around. We're all having to learn new things to survive in this," she opines with quiet fervour.
[20:31] <Afina> "Good," Afina nods. "There's no sense hoarding our skills if they can strengthen the Crusade by being spread around. We're all having to learn new things to survive in this," she opines with quiet fervour.
[20:31] <Kotono> "Yeah," Lief's own reply is likewise quiet, "If you need help with anything, just say the word. I owe you," he adds, "More than once, now."
[20:33] <Afina> "Nothing at the moment, at least. You'll be called on soon enough, though," Afina reassures him.
[20:35] <Kotono> "Alright," Lief drains his glass of water and rises, "Thanks, Afina. I'd stay, but I think you have company."
[20:37] <Afina> She does? Well, must be someone behind her. They can greet her normally if so. "I'll see you later, then," she nods.
[20:39] <Kotono> As Lief turns and flees, "Good morning," Elder Magi Tepen greets, "May I join you?"
[20:41] <Afina> "Of course," Afina nods, for all that she's nearly finished. She can surely make time for Tepen. "How are you this morning?"
[20:42] <Kotono> He sits first, "My bones carry their age well," he says, a moment's smile to Afina, "But there's still life in them, and that is enough." After another moment, a glass of tea appearing on the table before him, "One of our newest arrivals, Sylvie. You talked to her some?"
[20:44] <Afina> "A little bit," Afina nods. "She wasn't what I expected."
[20:47] <Kotono> "I confess that I agree with you," Elder Magi Tepen nods, "She has a terrifyingly sharp mind, but it is sinking in a quagmire of shattered illusions and regret. Can you tell me what you know of her?"
[20:50] <Afina> "I'm a bad person to ask for gossip or interpersonal intuition," Afina cautions before shrugging and going with what she has. "She lost someone important to her and threw aside everything else she had left to go burn a path of vengeance across the planes. But 21 sapped her of her resolve and left her doubting everything she'd ever done. She follows our will because she doesn't trust her
[20:50] <Afina> own."
[20:52] <Kotono> "Mmm, curious," Elder Magi Tepen murmurs, taking his tea and sipping. After that he puts it down, "She can be an asset...her ability to learn and adapt is frankly frightening. Have you seen her read or study? It is as if knowledge is rain and she is a thirsty desert, devouring it completely in seconds."
[20:53] <Afina> "She seemed to like the library but I never stayed around to watch her read, no," Afina shakes her head.
[20:56] <Kotono> "Mmmm." The Elder Magi frowns, "I ask because I went to Tannin and I found the two talking. I don't know if they have a history, but they seem to know of the same lands. Realms such as Purinn, Malmuth and Baronies." After a pause there, "I'd like someone to get to know her better, give her an anchor here. Are you interested in trying"
[21:00] * Afina gives Tepen a look of faint incredulity. Could he have picked a worse person? Still, everyone big thinks pixies are cute and adorable, she supposes, so she has that going for her if nothing else? "It sounds as if Tannin is doing that, but I can try."
[21:08] <Kotono> The Elder Magi returns the look with calmpatience, "Thank you. Humans tend to think your kind are cute, especially women."
[21:10] <Afina> "Do *you* think I'm cute?" Afina asks back blandly.
[21:12] <Kotono> "Yes," Elder Magi Tepen replies without even breaking his calm look. Going to sip his tea again and sighingly exhale, "Humans find things smaller than us cuter by our nature. I believe it's an artifact of our parenting instincts, as our babies are quite small."
[21:14] * Afina blinks. She really hadn't expected him to go with that. Lacking a good retort now, she turns back to her breakfast. "I'll go look for her in the library after I finish, then."
[21:17] <Kotono> "Thank you," Elder Magi Tepen replies, and after a moment he rises.
[21:19] <Kotono> Sylvie is indeed found in the library. She has a book open, lost to the world in reading it. A ways to the right, you can see Adrian and Misalea, the former on his tip-toes to get a high reaching book as the latter looks on.
[21:22] <Afina> Floating over to the sole human resident, Afina keeps herself near head-level for ease of conversation. "Good morning, Sylvie. Reading anything interesting?"
[21:24] <Kotono> Sylvie looks up from her book, "An analysis of the body of a gelugon," she answers, tapping a diagram on the rightmost page. The image of an ice devil can be seen, labeled by body part.
[21:27] <Afina> Angling her body over to better look, Afina recognises it as one of the devil types she saw in the invasion and never since. "I saw these in the invasion of Lifasa. They were part of the first wave but I've never seen any since," she observes.
[21:33] <Kotono> "They're powerful, but invasions aren't what they usually get involved in," Sylvie explains, "They're usually lone agents if they leave Hell." Pausing for a moment to mark her place in the book and close it, "They're a little less threatening than the cornugons - the horned devils. Big, black ones with greatswords. Above them are the nightmares - paeliryons, pit fiends, hellfire engines,
[21:33] <Kotono> brachina."
[21:39] <Afina> "We've got a pair of cornugons in the dungeon, at least until we find a good way of killing them permanently. Apparently one's taken Queen Ilsenine to sire a future ruler of Lifasa on her, he's supposedly a lot stronger." Her voice is naturally bitter, but everyone else seems to know about the fall of her Court's leader, no point hiding it now. "A paeliryon was in charge of sacrificing
[21:39] <Afina> all the other captured pixies in Hades, and we killed a pit fiend that came to recruit us a few months ago," she lists off all the known contact with such luminaries among devil-kind by their Crusade.
[21:42] <Kotono> "Good work," Sylvie says, "The only good devil is a dead one." Leaning back in her chair, "They've been the enemies of the country I'm from since I was born."
[21:49] <Afina> "I doubt if anyone in my home had ever seen one, or probably even thought about them until we saw the flames on the horizon," Afina shrugs, lowering herself onto the chair's armrest to sit as well. "The first wave got beat back soundly anyway. We were holding our own against the second until Abigor set foot on Lifasa and every plant in the world died instantly," she shivers at the
[21:49] <Afina> recollection, the horrifying screams of dryads and treants that had just been fighting all out against the hellish army. "That was the end of my battle. Others lasted long enough to see Abigor in person, but no longer."
[21:52] <Kotono> "Oghma's library..." Sylvie abruptly shudders, "That...that came close. On my world, I mean. I was investigating things about my world, looking to gain power. I found a claim that the local heroes stopped a Duke of Hell footsteps away from coming into our world."
[21:54] <Afina> "Lucky for them, and everyone in your world," Afina notes, just a bit enviously. "What was your home like, anyway?"
[21:58] <Kotono> "It's a Prime." Sylvie answers, "I was born in a city named Balmuria at the dawn of what will be a long golden age, I suspect. For a long time the Gods were withdrawn, as was magic and the fey. In the same age I was born, the Crimson Guard came into being. With them magic came back and miracles happened. My hometown became the biggest and most important city in the known world. It's a
[21:58] <Kotono> big city constantly growing, full of magic and wonder, side by side with opportunity." Sylvie starts to smile a little bit, "The city all but worships the Guard after all they did. With magic and divine blessings, people live lives that only the richest of the rich could live before this. There hasn't been a famine since this, nor anything but victorious war and prosperity." She shakes
[21:58] <Kotono> her head as her smile fades, "I didn't truly appreciate it until I learned of other worlds."
[22:09] <Afina> A human city growing fat on the blessings of nature but never giving anything back, overfarming the land and victoriously warring on its neighbours... she's probably being unfair, but old prejudices die hard. "It sounds nice," she says instead, choosing to be diplomatic. Lifasa had cities like that after all, and she now sees the value in them simply as part of her world. "Most people
[22:09] <Afina> I've talked to though Lifasa was in a centuries long golden age when it all happened, though. If you'd been on it a few years ago you might have seen similarities to your home. I never saw it myself, though. The Courts of the Gloaming Forest only focused on each other, not the outside world."
[22:13] <Kotono> "It's going to be a golden age even for the most reclusive fey," Sylvie goes on, "I think. The local elves are more human than fey, and there's some conflict in Pallanth over it. But even then, fey numbers have increased by a factor of ten or more." Closing her eyes at that, "All those problems are nothing compared to the problems here, though. It feels like that world's problems were
[22:13] <Kotono> won, while yours are just beginning."
[22:17] <Afina> "Elves and fey? Hmm, that happened on Lifasa as well. One of the other pixies could probably tell you about it better, to my kind elves were no better than humans, and the fey indulging them were forgetting their own roots. None of that matters now, of course - we're all equal as refugees and crusaders. What about you, though? What did you do before you set across the planes?"
[22:19] <Kotono> "A candy store." A moment to just let that hang, "Whimsical Sweets. I got a job there as a helper...and somehow soon after the owner, Josa, had the bright idea to make it a trouble shooting group as well." That comes with a laugh, "Josa is an overfed elf with big words and a crippling shortage of common sense. Somehow he got all of us involved in it. It worked great for awhile and we
[22:19] <Kotono> began to get ridiclously rich."
[22:22] <Afina> Something went wrong of course, but that'd put the conversation on a downer she just climbed out of after talking about Lifasa's fall, so Afina tries to put that off a bit longer. "What sort of trouble did you shoot?"
[22:26] <Kotono> "Lots of things." Her voice is quiet, "A magical game from Ysgard, a surly teenager interacting with a mythal wrong, a mysterious grove that turned out to be a fey realm with a Phoenix egg, helping find the son of a sea elf chieftan. All sorts of crazy things. But no relationship problems, we didn't touch that crap.
[22:28] * Afina turns and just gives Sylvie a curious look at her vehemence regarding relationship problems.
[22:36] <Kotono> "Long story," Sylvie says, "One of our first cases was helping a woman escape a bad husband. A few days later the husband comes by, not knowing it was us that helped her. He claimed he was the victim of a terrible misunderstanding and wanted to get back with his wife. After that...it's just too messy to bother with. Too easy to get burned."
[22:41] <Afina> "Relationships are messy," Afina can at least relate to that. "At least nobody died, though."
[22:43] <Kotono> "No, that was later." Sylvie says, exhaling hard enough to blow her bangs around. "Say, do you know the goddesses Alicia and Seira? They're from my world, they were a part of the Crimson Guard."
[22:45] <Afina> "Oh, I know Seira!" Afina perks up, "Of Seira, even. Kascha, the ghaele eladrin with the blonde hair? She serves her, and she sent two hundred elementals to support the Crusade. If your home produced her it must be alright."
[22:51] <Kotono> "Yeah. When I said the city almost worships the Guard, it became literal with those two," Sylvie replies, a faint smile coming to her face. "I met her clergy before, they're all sort of like that."
[22:56] <Afina> "Perhaps Alicia can be helpful to us as well? We have a few things to do more immediately but we could pursue her later if she's like Seira," Afina muses, always happy to hear of more potential sources of recruits for the Crusade. Still, they should probably talk about more than just war and such... "Other than troubleshooting and reading, what else do you like to do?" she hazards searchingly.

[Corwin]

[20:05] <Kozzz> "This," Tapping her knuckles on the closed book she reads, "I've always been good at reading and learning. Probably too good. I picked up martial arts in a few weeks from people who had been training in it for years, back in Whimsical Sweets. Magic? I started figuring that out after spending a bit of time around Josa."
[20:12] <Afina> Yes, Tepen really should have sent Jaela or Ithea to relate to this human prodigy insanity. Then again, didn't she pick up armour-crafting very suddenly herself? It was just building on existing fundamentals, though... she may as well try and find a connection through it, though. "I had to teach myself how to make armour after we started gathering our army here, and then how to make
[20:12] <Afina> enchanted items. It was really quick compared to other things I'd learned, but necessity probably does that."
[20:18] <Kozzz> "It helps," Sylvie murmurs, "Between that or failure, learning fast wins." A ghost of a smile comes to her face. It lingers this time, "Is all of this hard on you, Afina?  You learn well, you apply yourself, but...this isn't what you really want. A means to an end, nothing more?"
[20:22] <Afina> "Hmf," Afina gives a faintly amused snort. "If you knew the life I had before you wouldn't be saying that. I've always been a means to an end. Only now do I get to choose the means and the end for myself."
[20:26] <Kozzz> That gets a slightly bigger smile from Sylvie. "I had the choices to make the means and the ends. Before Whimsical Sweets I was happy, despite it all. I was wasting away my talents, but I was happy. At first I lost those choices due to friendship and love, then for revenge." Starting to twirl a bit of her hair as she goes on, a finger wrapping blonde locks, "I think regaining that agency
[20:26] <Kozzz> is important for me. Chasing revenge was a meaningless life for me. What about you. Will you give your choices of means and ends up when you triumph? Will you return to what you had?"
[20:35] <Afina> "I'm... not sure," Afina admits, momentarily envisaging everything returning to utter normalcy and Ilsenine giving her that earnestly convincing look and stress in her voice as she asks if Afina would do her a huge service and remove - she never said murder, for all that Afina refuses to shy away from it herself - this or that nasty fey that's causing her all sorts of trouble. In her
[20:35] <Afina> memory it doesn't hold the same pull as reality ever did. And revenge holds its own allure... death was always a job for her before, but when it comes to devils it's her passion. "It depends on whether a convincing argument is made. I can't see myself returning, but someone might persuade me."
[20:38] <Kotono> "Don't. Satisfaction and happiness are too rare to throw away," Sylvie replies, looking to the small little pixie. "If this or whatever you do is that passion or happiness...hold on with both hands and never let it go."
[20:43] <Afina> "Speaking from experience?" Afina counters with, since she can hardly commit herself without knowing what her future holds.
[20:45] <Kotono> "Yeah. Yes, I am." Sylvie's reply is quiet as she smiles. A smile brimming with sad nostalgia. "I should have just clung to my lazy life with Mom and Calley...or realized that the risks weren't worth it once we were rich and retired with Janson. Senaril should have been the wake-up call I needed. We should have understood that all these heroic dreams are nothing but the result of an
[20:45] <Kotono> addled mind, choked on dreams of glory, treasure and fame. Once you have that moment, yes, freeze it. Hold onto it. Never let it go."
[20:49] <Afina> "And here you are with us? Why not try and recapture that sort of life?" the fairy asks bluntly, since Sylvie outright mentioned her family back home when they first met her.
[20:52] <Kotono> Sylvie shrugs, "I don't want to. The magic's gone from there." Twirling her hair around her finger again, "Even if I went to try and recapture it?" Shrugging, "21. Besides...I can't lie to myself and say I care about my child, can I? Calley was a constant reminder of my youthful failure. An irritation to attend to instead of doing what I wanted to. Oh, I lied to myself. Prettied it up
[20:52] <Kotono> to others, but at my heart, I was greedy and resentful of him. Not much of a mother, eh? My friends, those that remain..." She trails off here, "No, its best this way. Too much pain, too much loss, too much time."
[21:01] <Afina> Not inclined to judge the human for her family issues when Afina's own personal life was nightmarish enough, or wanting to show approval, she decides to change the subject instead! "I don't mind if we can benefit from your strength until you do find something else to do, at least," she allows before taking off into the air. "Speaking of, since you're so well read do you know much about
[21:01] <Afina> golems?"
[21:04] <Kotono> "Some. I know the theories," Sylvie rises, "I know all about them. Never studied making them. You bind an elemental spirit to the mass and it animates the golem. I can go into details if you want."
[21:07] <Afina> "That's about it," Afina agrees, "Since I've been doing most of Aurora's crafting, I've started studying how to make them as well. The ones Medi left us are powerful, but irreplacable and little use except for a last line of defence."
[21:15] <Kotono> "I can craft if I need to," Sylvie says, "It's not hard to pick up, anyway. Golems are a little more advanced than that, though. How far along are you?"
[21:19] <Afina> "I have most of the base skills need - like I said, I can make high quality armour and weapons, I can enchant them to some degree, and I can imbue spells into other items for various beneficial effects. It's mostly tying it all together and developing the right spells to animate a construct I might build," Afina explains. "Knowing a few more spells might help, but I've been steadily
[21:19] <Afina> expanding from the type I used to specialise in towards ones focused on fabrication."
[21:21] <Kotono> "Why don't I help teach you that?" Sylvie suggests, "A few pushes should get you going."
[21:25] <Afina> "Alright, lets go to one of the labs and you can show me what you have to help with?" Afina nods and starts fluttering towards the nearest portal.