Advancement

[Anastasia]

A strong blade and a stronger will, and an eye that will root out the deepest of secrets.

[Ebiris]

That's unhelpfully vague, if nicely poetic.

I'm on my way.

She opens a gate to Elysium at her own embassy in Dweomerheart and goes through. Hopefully she can get more clarification in person.

[Anastasia]

It is not hard to meet Mystra. She awaits you within Dweomerheart, amid a great room with a ceiling hundreds of feet high. Bookshelves run floor to ceiling, perhaps millions of tomes here. Everything is decorated in purple and silver, the throne itself pure silverfire that she rests on. Your footsteps echo a dozen times for each step you take, the room otherwise silent.

"Alicia," Mystra rises, "Thank you for coming swiftly."

[Ebiris]

"It sounded important," Alicia answers as she approaches the throne and comes to a stop once Mystra rises, hoping she'll make clear what this is all about.

[Anastasia]

Mystra begins to walk, "As you see, my realm has many books. Only the House of Knowledge would have more. For in books the wisdom of the arcane is laid down for each generation to learn from." Her hands are behind her back as you two walk amid the great chamber of books, "To fit that, I have libraries all across Dweomerheart. Most are only that, a place to store knowledge and learn knowledge. There are those hidden and forbidden from most eyes or even all but my own. Then there is one in particular, a great library."

Another step forward, "This Great Library is known for one particular aspect: The Deep Stacks. Are you familiar with them?"

[Ebiris]

Religion or arcana check? Or planes? Take 10 for 60 regardless of which.

[Anastasia]

Planes or K:L for Dweomerheart.

You think back and do recall a few things - mostly red by a few devout worshipers and gleaned through prayer about it, reinforced with some fragments you've picked up.

The Great Library of Mystra is a library in her place, only accessible to her favored (or if you have connections). It is a library said to be without end, perhaps infinite and some think it's an infinite demiplane or even another plane tucked into Dweomerheart itself. Others think that's just exaggerations, but one thing is notable: The Deep Stacks.

The Deep Stacks are said to be somewhere that space is bend too much and too often. A place where reality is thin, where odd things happen. There are minor things, like books coming to life to attack or offer magic, or to spells spontaneously manifesting, that happen without it being of great notice. The rumors and stories of greater things are more interesting. Of places where reality can flicker between potentials, where reality seems to fold in on itself as well. Dimensional distortions, some things too big or small, or paths too big or small. Flagrant impossibilities of space and reality.

[Ebiris]

"Only through rumour," Alicia answers. "Though those rumours tell stories of a library that matches some of what was in the gnome ruins outside Balmuria for danger and strangeness."

[Anastasia]

"They're mostly true, or come from a root of truth," Mystra agrees. "Knowledge is knowledge. No matter how much you learn, one plus one will always equal two. But what if that could be changed?" Mystra holds a hand up, a spinning sphere of glass resting in her palm. Your vision zooms in, where amid many mathematical symbols you see: 1+1=2. All the symbols hover together, linked together in a grand expression of mathematics. Before your eyes,it changes: 1+1=3. For moments all is still within, then your vision begins to zoom out. At the same time all the math around it begins to alter, equations cracking apart and cascading outward. Soon the entire sphere is cracking, the math within naught but an unstable blur.

"What happens if you trick a small part of Creation into thinking that one plus one is three?" Mystra lowers her hand, the sphere gone. "Creation's rules can be adjusted in many ways, altered temporarily through the Weave. But the underpinnings do not change, the foundational laws of it are constant as long as the Incarnations do not act or something beyond Creation comes."

[Ebiris]

"Like my spatial compression spell," Alicia says, pointing at the bookshelves to her left. "They're... 30 feet away from me." A change to compress that down. "Now they're two feet away," she reaches out to poke the spine of a book. "For distance alone and only along this direction, one plus one equals zero point zero three. The weave facilitates the change and nothing else is impacted. It doesn't cause instability like what you just showed me."

[Anastasia]

"You're right," Mystra smiles, "The Weave can affect Creation - but even permanent magic is ultimately a temporary change, suspending or changing rules for as long as the magic works. It can't permanently harm Creation, not in that way. Yet in a location put to great stresses, with mighty magic all working together to achieve just a result, combined with powerful divinations? It can stimulate some things, give glimpses of ways things could be or change. A few moments of seeing what might happen if one plus one did equal three, or ten, or five hundred. It is a test - but recently, a test has gone awry."

[Ebiris]

She pulls her stretched hand back and resets space to normal. "Something that shouldn't exist has come to be?" she asks. "Or changed something... someone, from how they should be?"

[Anastasia]

A nod. "Normally, the changes are phantasms, little more than images of what might have been, what could be - from personal history to knowledge to even fundamental physical laws. It is often useless, but on rare occasions I have gleaned great secrets from it." Mystra stops here, an image appearing before the two of you. "This time, something went wrong." Life sized images, letting you see it as if you were there when it happened.

In that image you see familiar faces. Moore, Cresiel and a robed man you don't know walk amid the stacks of a library. For a moment Cresiel and the man vanish, leaving Moore alone. Moore continues on - and in moments they reappear.

"At first, it was normal. Something changed that resulted in Moore traveling this path alone, rather than for the angel he sought within." Mystra narrates.

In between the blinks of an eye Cresiel is Canderella, who says, ""Let's keep going," Canderella says as she walks at Moore's side, matching Cresiel's pace despite being far smaller.

Moore opens his mouth as if to speak, but the words die in his throat, for he says nothing.

"Still, it's inferior," the robed man says, continuing on undisturbed.

To this Canderella sweeps her hand side to side, lightning crackling along it. "Would you like a demonstration of why you're wrong? I've been showing efreet lately, I could use a different target."

"Some change that resulted in Canderella working with Moore in Celestia, rather than Aurora." Mystra interjects.

Then it is Sylvie walking with Moore.

"I'm still working on it." Moore says to Sylvie. His expression is quietly determined as he says that.

"Working on what?" Sylvie asks, and with a ghost of a smile on her face, "That dispel of yours? You should just learn superb dispelling, it works better. You should focus more on lyrical magic for your bardic music."

A ripple. A shudder. What is said next is lost.

"Something happened." Mystra says, "I know she bore 21, and that is all the reason I need to suspect that is at fault."

Reality twists like taffy in that image, before Gathgorian now stands at Moore's side.

A smile of nothing but teeth and malice.

"I know. Her screams still echo," Gathgorian agrees, "We will finish this and return to Medicant. Is the celestial ahead?"

Another ripple, twisting again and again. Moore, Cresiel and the robed man continue on. Yet the image stays there, the occasional ripple repeating every several seconds.

"Something went wrong." Mystra says. More ripples. Flashes of...something. Flashes of Canderella, of Sylvie, of Gathgorian. The disturbance continues, cascading until after several seconds it solidifies. A thing that isn't quite a thing, a humanoid. Lightning ripples from it, magic flowing around it as a greatsword far too large for it appears in hand. "This time, the phantasm did not fade away, but became something else."

[Ebiris]

"An amalgamation? I know Canderella and Sylvie are both strong and talented, and Gathgorian... at least is capable. The work of an incarnation like 21 couldn't possibly be duplicated, but all the other factors still combine to something mighty. What has it done since it formed?" Alicia asks, intrigued.

[Anastasia]

"Wandered the stacks, reading. It has a thirst for knowledge and using knowledge," Mystra says, "It grows stronger by the hour. It must be confronted and..." A look at you, "I trust you for this, Alicia."