Date night

[Ebiris]

"Oh yes, that was a problem last time wasn't it?" Alicia smiles a little as she dries off and starts to get dressed.

Lets get Marie and go see if Sanzha's up for fun at the Cauldron.

[Anastasia]

Any prep needed for this?

[Ebiris]

Not immediately, we'll buff up once/if we team up with Sanzha and before final departure.

[Anastasia]

The Cauldron is busy.

No, the Cauldron is hectic.

Soldiers bustle and hurry about all the while, coming and going. Traders as well, guards and soldiers at the ready, watching the perimeter and beyond. When you 'knock', you immediately have Amaryl appear, "Alicia, Marie," she greets you. "Welcome."

[Ebiris]

Jessica's there too!

"Hello Amaryl, things are looking busy here," Alicia says. "Is Sanzha available right now? We could use her expertise on an errand."

[Anastasia]

"She just got back," Amaryl says, and as yo ugo, "Is there any news on the war effort?"

[Ebiris]

"Not from our end since the battle with Eblis," Alicia shakes her head. An act of will ensures no one but Amaryl and her companions will hear or be able to lip-read what she says next, "Valar asked us to deal with a Dao installation on Earth, just had Jessica scout the place out and it seems ripe for working alongside Sanzha to handle if she's fit for battle."

[Anastasia]

"Oh, that one," Amaryl frowns, "It's formidible."

"Disgusting, too," Jessica chimes in. "It's not worth trying to leverage an army, so we're going to try and disrupt it with a smaller force."

[Ebiris]

"No sense letting it go to waste though, after we've ousted the defenders it might be worth taking for ourselves. Probably more easily held by Cauldron elemental forces but we can see about dividing that up after it's actually been taken," Alicia says.

[Anastasia]

"Our own safe staging area," Amaryl muses as you fly down and down, everything becoming a blur as you pass into the undercaverns in a moment. "We'd have to make sure the dao didn't leave contingencies to retake it."

Amaryl goes to a door, "Oh, and we can talk here, Sanzha's inside taking it in. I saw the most lovely lair recently and I just had to make a copy of my own. It's so fiery and rustic and whimsical."

[Ebiris]

"Oh that should be good. Most dragon lairs I see are rather sparse, aside from the hoard part," Alicia says, curious what appeals to Amaryl's sensibilities.

[Anastasia]

Ahead is a volcanic crater, with you atop the volcano and looking down.

Inside the volcano's crater lava waterfalls come from above, forming a great lake of pure, red-orange molten rock. Here great islands of solid steel float, and on them are bookshelves. Great bookshelves stacked on top and top and top and top of others, making spires of them. Each bookshelf is taller than Hanna, stuffed to the brim. In spite of the heat here not a book burns.

A series of elevated bridges and steel pillars rising from the lava sea provide passage from one island to another, forming a great maze of bookshelves, steel islands and bridges, often with gaps or tops in the shelves forming great ledges, where various equipment and strange things sit.

Jessica pauses at this, "Oh, a red dragon's lair. How silly of me to think otherwise." Her voice sounds like that explains it all, curiosity giving way into understanding.

"Isn't it perfect for that? It's actually a copy of a magma para elemental's home, I'm going to customize it more, but isn't it striking and pretty?" Amaryl says, "It's so dragon."

[Ebiris]

"I like it," Alicia says after taking it all in. "A maze of books is always an interesting motif, since it offers multiple ways to lose yourself."

"Having to make the books fireproof is a bit of a pain, though. I always like stone carvings, or rune-embossed adamantine for things built around lava," Marie adds.

"Mmmh," Alicia makes an agreeable noise. "Actually now we're here and it's safe to talk? I'm sure it'll be widely known shortly, but just in case? Eblis has returned to Celestia," she tells Amaryl. "Antenora was able to get through his skull at last, and he's attempting to reconcile things. We don't have to worry about his part in the war any longer."

[Anastasia]

"I think I like the dissonance of this," Jessica remarks to Marie, "And the reminder of how fleeting wisdom can be, and easily it can fall into the flames of ignorance and hate."

"Truly?" Amaryl gasps, a hand to her mouth, "That's wonderful news, the best news! With that we can prosecute the war without his shadow lingering over us."

"My," Sanzha calls, coming from behind a bookshelf, "You have been busy."

[Ebiris]

"That's why I like things that are built to last," Marie says to Jessica.

"Antenora deserves the credit, without her none of it would have been possible," Alicia says, turning and smiling at the marid when she appears. "But in the interests of staying busy the three of us were going to attack the dao outpost on Abyssal Lake, and thought you'd make a good fourth."