Attack on Sylica

[Ebiris]

Just Alicia and Marie. I'll be in a study while Marie will escort the Sharran from her room to me.

The room has a bath if she happens to want to scrub all the creepy body-paint off too!

[Anastasia]

It's perhaps two hours later when Marie leads her in here. She's clean up, face drawn and tired. She looks perhaps 30 to 40 somewhere, coming and taking a seat. She doesn't speak at first, silent, visibly drained.

"Emmaline," she finally begins. "My name's Emmaline."

[Ebiris]

Marie's in her maid attire and makes to be inconspicuous standing by the door and looking prim after she's brought Emmaline in. It's a nice study, dark wood furnishings and comfortable chairs, the only light being magical wall-sconces that give enough to read or write by. As well as the bookshelves and writing accessories though, it also features a particular painting.

It's a scene of contrasting light and darkness, a poorly lit cottage surroundings though the centre is illuminated in warm tones by a fireplace in front of which sits a toddler sitting down hunched forward and playing with brightly painted wooden blocks, his hair a wispy black and his face turned away from the perspective but chubby cheeks of a rosy hue are evident there.

Perhaps it's manipulative but Alicia feels no shame in playing upon the one similarity she and Emmaline have if it drags her away from Shar's ways.

She's out of her armour now, no weapon at hand either. Hopefully her magic will suffice if Emmaline does suddenly decide to go for her original mission, but this is all about avoiding that. "Emmaline," she repeats the name, nodding in greeting as she sits facing the other woman, before she turns her head to that painting. "His name was Felix. He liked to build things out of blocks, and tell jokes about daddy passing wind, and listen to stories about brave little boys going on big adventures," she closes her eyes, reminiscing about her boy. "Tell me about Nicolas," she asks after a moment of just letting those memories roll around in her head.

[Anastasia]

"...he was a bright baby. He talked early, crawled early, walked early." Emmaline's voice is pained as she goes on, looking up at the painting. "He had my brains and...and..." A trail off at that, "He was going to be strong in body and mind. Someone who could build a better life for himself."

[Ebiris]

Taking 10 for 54 on sense motive to figure out if Emmaline trailed off on that leading statement about her son's father out of general sadness that they're gone or if it suggests a more particular unease with the father in particular that she doesn't like to think about him.

[Anastasia]

You get the distinct impression she isn't fond of the father.

[Ebiris]

Alicia isn't about to push that button then! "You loved him very much," she says gently. "How can we not? Everything about them makes you want to nurture and protect... it's why I still to this day can't understand why anyone could hurt a child. It'll never make sense to me," she looks at the painting and sighs before asking the painful question, "How did you lose your Nicolas?"

[Anastasia]

"...my husband...was a man with a temper. He would strike me when he was upset, but never laid a hand on Nicolas. Until one evening he wouldn't stop crying...and we were trying to sleep, but he wouldn't stop. He..." A trail off there, a shudder through Emmaline.

"He...he...shook him. He took my baby and kept shaking him until he stopped crying. He never...He didn't mean it, but he..."

[Ebiris]

Alicia's face twists on hearing that story, wearing an ugly scowl. A brute with a temper and no self control, she can see why Emmaline isn't fond of him. She's certainly not going to wax nostalgic about her Hans then, best to keep the focus on their children.

"What happened to your husband after that?" she asks softly. "What did you do, Emmaline?"

[Anastasia]

"...I still don't remember. I just remember screaming and then being in a cell. The city guard says they found me stabbing Jonah, screaming even though he was already dead. I was sentenced to die," Here Emmaline's voice becomes hollower, "But my hanging was delayed by a ravager raid on my home town, and in the chaos, another prisoner helped me escape with her. Her name was Damodrel, an adherent of Shar. She brought me to the faith and...it all made sense."

[Ebiris]

"And you'd have leapt on any sort of sense after experiencing madness like that, wouldn't you?" Alicia muses aloud, seeing the chain of events. "I don't think you should have been hanged for that. It doesn't matter if it was your husband or a stranger, no woman could stand by the murder of her child. I'm sorry Emmaline, I'm sorry for you and for Nicolas. Something like that can break even the strongest soul."

[Anastasia]

"It...it hurt and everything they said made sense. Then...they taught me a little magic and I had a talent for it," Emmaline continues. "A lot of talent. Magic came to me so easily. I'd never been tested, never tried, and it turns out I was a prodigy. Dark magic in particular...when I learned to draw on my hate and pain, it resonated. So...I started working to stop other people suffering. A town, a country. We triumphed. The monarchy collapsed, I watched as the king was sacrificed, the same king that 30 years ago saved us all from ogres and wraiths, who saved us all...die under Shar's looming gaze."

A pause, still looking down. "For it I was darkly exalted. My magic was key to it all. Shar was impressed and rewarded me...by making me a spirit, denying me the finality of death." A shudder passes through her, "She trained me for this, a chance for what I craved."

[Ebiris]

Speaking of ogres, was Willard involved in this last battle and how did he do?

"Did you really stop suffering? Was the king's death quick and painless?" she asks, even if Emmaline's already probably got it by now it's something she has to push home. "I've seen Sharran dungeons, where people are tortured and kept alive long past the point their sanity gives out... Even if one sees the appeal of a peaceful oblivion, it's so rarely what Shar actually offers."

[Anastasia]

He was and he did fine - still sorting out but did fine, you believe.

"..." No answer, a pause instead. A long pause. "Shar loves it. She loves all of it. She wants to end everything, but she wants to make us suffer as she does. She hates everything else so very much, she hates that we dare to be alive and aware. We have to suffer for it before she'll deign to let us go."

[Ebiris]

Alicia is patient enough to wait through the pause. "For all her pretensions, she's as small and petty as the rest of us isn't she?" She looks at the painting again. "She laughed when Felix and Nicolas were killed. And if I'd killed you or you'd killed me? That would've brought a smile to her lips as well. Two bereaved mothers who's pain brought them to murder one another, all because she was so clever in setting it all up."