Muirfinn's diary (Moore)

[Anastasia]

"It's a long story," Hanna says, "It's not a happy one, and it involves Queen Ilsenine. Sit down," Hanna pats the roof next to her.

[Nephrite]

Moore sits down as instructed. "Considering the circumstances there..." He nods, solemnly.

[Anastasia]

"Early in our Crusade, we found out that the devils were preparing something. 27 spoke of a Child of Lifasa, a creature that would rule over the bodies of anyone from Lifasa. We investigated and in time we found out it was a child to be born. On that day all of Lifasa's resistance would end and all the creatures of Lifasa would become slaves to Hell." Hanna's fist balls up and she rests it on her knee, taking a deep breath after.

"We found out that one native of Lifasa had been taken to Gathgorian. For reasons unknown to us, the Duke of Destiny decreed that Gathgorian would impregnate a fey of Lifasa and the Child of Lifasa would be born of that. More of his destiny manipulation tripe." Hanna meets your gaze, "The fey was Queen Ilsenine. I know not how they did it, the size alone...but...it happened. The Child of Destiny was growing within her. The only clue we had on how to stop it was that 21 could destroy it, could destroy even an iron clad destiny. We found 21 and discovered Ilsenine was held in Gathgorian's home fortress in Avernus."

Hanna takes a breath, petting 21 absently. "We raided Avernus to rescue Ilsenine. 99 cornugons protected Gathgorian's fortress and we fought a near suicidal distraction battle while Afina snuck into save Ilsenine. Gathgorian was not there, but even then we suffered and had losses that day. But...I will spare you the details, but we did. Afina rescued Ilsenine. That was when Gathgorian arrived."

A look out to Aurora, "We had no choice but to flee, but that's not the important part. Ilsenine was horribly...bloated...with the Child within her. Even unborn it tried to dominate us as we fled. Somehow we made it past the warded area and retreated to Aurora. That's when the Child stirred even more. It began to enthrall the natives of Lifasa until 27 came out. He repeated his prophecy about 21 and we finally called Sylvie, who used 21 to obliterate the Child of Lifasa."

By the end of that, Hanna's voice is dry, dispassionate, in contrast to her white knuckle and the harsh set of her jaw. "We disrupted Taelfagn's endgame by destroying the Child. Lifasa will not surrender its will to Baator, not with the Child no more. Yet that was only the end of the beginning, for we have waged many battles since then."

[Nephrite]

Moore looks aghast several times, but settles into a small frown. "From the way he puts it... It sounds like Taelfagn isn't quite done yet. But... regardless... why is he so insistent that Tannin is a traitor, you think?"

[Anastasia]

"He's been hung up on Tannin for ages now," Hanna admits, "We have no idea why. Everything we've looked into bears out that Tannin's on our side."

[Nephrite]

Moore rubs his chin. "I mean, I'm not familiar with enough magic or divine power that can trick that many divinations, but... I wonder if it's simply something in him comes out that way." Moore taps his chin. "As if somehow from his perspective, he sees 'betray' but that's... mm. It's hard to put into words. Either way..." Moore takes a deep breath, then simply smiles.

"It sounds like I have some research to do. I don't think Sylvie is back yet... oh." Moore seems to catch himself, then he takes out Muirfinn's diary and flips a few pages. "You seemed to have some insight on this before, do you know much about the Glasae Queen, by any chance?"

[Anastasia]

Hanna checks out the page, "Nothing more than what's in here. Some fey seem to know more, but they aren't talking."

[Nephrite]

Moore nods, then flips another page then points out the note in the margin. "Vaaliel sounds like a divine name to me, but it's not one I'm at all familiar with. Ring any bells by any chance?"

[Anastasia]

Link me to that page?

[Nephrite]

http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,103889.0.html Entry 9

[Anastasia]

"Not offhand, but I'll look into it," Hanna says.

[Nephrite]

Moore nods. "Thank you. Please don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything I can help with and... ah, don't worry -- I never saw you." He says with a smile.

[Anastasia]

Okay, next move?

[Nephrite]

He'll check out the stone for magic or try and identify it (not like the spell unless that's necessary) since it seems important.

[Anastasia]

The stone is not magical.