Anvil (Afina)

[Anastasia]

"Yeah," Dana watches, and after a beat, "How'd that one go bad? The assassination."

[Ebiris]

"He was at the bottom of Magmasoul," Afina begins. "I used a spell to turn myself into a fire elemental and infiltrated the place. It's under Imix's control but he allows those bearing his mark within... I had to negotiate and trick my way past the guardians until near the end I discovered this random trinket I'd taken off a corpse near the start was actually a marker for free passage. Could've saved myself some trouble if I'd tried it, but I got by okay. Found the fallen solar down in the core of the place, meditating on the nature of Fire. So I made my preparations and rushed in, not even thinking to check for traps or other defences - I went right through a wall of dispel magic he'd set up and suddenly I was a normal pixie again in the deepest and hottest part of Fire. Forget the Sundered Sun, I was seconds from death and in far too much pain to renew my magical protections."

She holds out her hand with fingers curled around a ball of fire that appears there and then vanishes as she flicks her fingers. "So I made a deal with Fire for my continued existence, and it spat me out by Simmer's grove as a part elemental and no memories. The rest you know. I do sometimes wonder what that fallen solar thought as he saw me appear, fly screaming past him, and then vanish again."

[Anastasia]

"Shit," Dana whistles, as pure chaos is weaponized and used to force the flank-assault back for now. "That was sloppy. I mean shit, those fallen are like devils with wings, right? Those fuckers are more paranoid than a virgin at a whorehouse."

[Ebiris]

"It was terribly done," Afina agrees. "Impatience and overconfidence don't make for a happy couple. Still, I've learned to enjoy being like this so I can consider myself lucky... and oh, looks like Ithea's getting good use out of her anarch abilities."

[Anastasia]

"No shit, she rides those abilities like your Queen's gonna ride Moore," Dana says, grinning. "Heard he makes her all wet and warm."

[Ebiris]

"Who even told you that?" Afina grumbles, hunching forward. "Some people are too gossipy for their own good."

[Anastasia]

"Oh, hear and fucking there." Dana turns to her, "You sound put out. What, were you hoping to be the royal bedwarmer?" She grins at that, "Or are you offended that your Queen's crush is making the rounds?"

[Ebiris]

"The last one," Afina says, making a displeased face at the implication. Her relationship with the Queen is many things but thankfully it has never been carnal. "Her Majesty deserves a little privacy..." she looks briefly to either side before going on, "But since we're on the subject she did herself no favours by reacting so brazenly towards him. I've never seen the like in all my years with her!"

[Anastasia]

"No shit? She must have it bad." Dana grins even more at that, "I mean really bad. She's probably sitting on her throne right now, sighing and hoping her dear Moore comes back in one piece."

[Ebiris]

The sad thing is she probably is. Afina is briefly tempted to ask Elena for confirmation but she dismisses it as frivolous and focuses her attention on the illusory battle unfolding before her. "The Queen we know today is a very different woman from the one who ruled on Lifasa," she notes even as she devotes most of her attention towards the battle. "As soft and gentle as she can appear, any who underestimate her do so at great peril."

[Anastasia]

Aurora's forces look to be rallying, Dana nodding along at the moves. "Yeah? How was she back then?"

[Ebiris]

"To hear most of my fellows talk, Lifasa was a paradise close to becoming like to the heavens. That may be so, but in the Gloaming Forest we clung to the old ways, bitter as they were. Do you think Tepen or Jaela would have need for an assassin of my skills in the world they describe coming from?" she smiles wryly.

"Suffice to say that her Majesty made excessive use of my talents. She showed me kindness too, yes, but she has always been a cold and driven woman, one quick to answer even the smallest of slights with deadly force."

[Anastasia]

"Yeah, shit happens," Dana says, "She got broken, didn't she? Snapped apart like a fucking log and not all the glue in all the planes can put her back together. Not like she was."

[Ebiris]

"She is not broken," Afina insists, "However she saw too much of herself in the devils that held her captive and so has sought to change her ways. That is a laudable intention, one I hope she is true to."

That aside, it looks like people are starting to put up walls and things around the hole in the obsidian? "It looks like they're starting to deal with the source of the undead at least. Although there's a human idiom about horses and stables that comes to mind."

[Anastasia]

"Right," Dana drawls, but doesn't touch on it further. "Yeah," she agrees, "Wonder if they'll pull it off."