Shake the dust off your feet

[Anastasia]

Every so often, you have to wonder about your sister.

Jessica strides in, rather dirty. Her clothing is dirt and mud stained, along with a few other stains that you can't immediately identify. Her face is smudged and could use a good wash. The smell of the road lingers around her, the scent of dust, heat and sweat. She enters your suite and sits herself down, not the slightest effort of divine will to clean herself up as she rests on one of your chairs.

In comparison, Colke is pristine. His brown hair is tied back and clean, his traveling clothes likewise unblemished. He is a tall, strong man now with long hair, expression distant but not unfriendly. He sits near Jessica and rests as a scent of pine trees and fresh earth comes from him.

"We're back, sister," Jessica announces after a moment, "I hear Marie's done well while I was away?"

"Antenora seems so proud of her," Colke agrees as he settles in, "As happy as if she did it herself."

"Antenora intercepted us to tell us, privately," Jessica goes on, "It's adorable how happy Marie's successes can make her." She sits back now and takes a long breath in and out, "Though I'll merely be happy with a good soak after this latest trip out."

[Ebiris]

"Antenora's just being modest, she contributed as well," Alicia says, standing by the window and looking outwards, a high tower in Liberton giving a nice view over Sylica and its new surroundings beyond of Elysium.

"Still, a good job is a good job, even if they didn't get the goal they were looking for it's still one less dark champion roaming around, and an arrow in Mystra's quiver for the battle to come," she turns from that window to look over Jessica and Colke. "And even without asking after your success, you're certainly presenting the right image of having worked hard while you were out and about. How did it go?"

[Anastasia]

"Well, we had some considerable success," Jessica agrees, "Some danger as well, as well as learning about Colke." A glance at him, "A good trip all in all."

[Ebiris]

"Don't leave me in suspense," Alicia says, coming over to take a seat facing the pair. They're not bringing along a prisoner at least, she'd know if they had. But the margin for 'some considerable success' is fairly broad and so it's up to Jessica to explain what all happened.

[Anastasia]

"We didn't find Yarus but we know exactly where he is," Jessica begins, "Colke put the pieces together, so why don't you begin?"

Colke bows his head to Jessica at that, "Colke currently resides in the Dead Rat's Nest. A particularly unpleasant demiplane tucked away in Pazunia, it's known to be a hotbed of Talontar activity. The entire demiplane is in the form of a gigantic dead rat, the city is in the hollowed out skull. Our understanding is that he has an agreement with one of the high priests of Talona there."

"I weep no tears at a reason to inflict a bit of payback on Talona, but it does complicate matters. There's no sign that Talona's directly involved in the Shar or Adversary end of this. The relationship between Plag - the high priest in question - and Yarus seems to be entirely professional. They move in the same circles, it's hardly surprising to see this."

"So we know where he is," Colke continues, "We have to capture him to go any further, or find some other way to make him make the move we want him to."

[Ebiris]

"That's very interesting," Alicia says, since she would've expected Shar's servitors to be kept close to home in the plane of shadow. "Do you know how recent this arrangement is?"

Given her own recent troubles with Talona it might've been a recent opportunity taken to garner an extra shield against her. Although the Abyss in general is troublesome for her as Marie has so correctly pointed out.

[Anastasia]

"At least a century old, based on the age of the source," Colke reports, "That's what you said when you checked, Jessica?"

"103 years," Jessica agrees, "As I said, by all appearances it's unrelated coincidence. Or the Abyss could be moving against you, who knows how planes perceive time and reality?" A pause, "Could they even use temporal magic? Could the Keepers even stop a plane if it chose to meddle in time? That's a disturbing thought, sister."

In a dry voice, Colke speaks as he changes. She is now rather like Antenora, save for short hair. There's no reaction to the change, as if it was the most natural thing for Colke to do to herself. "Sometimes such logical speculations lead off of a cliff and far away from common sense. Wasn't that what you said yourself?"

To that Jessica laughs - a wry sound, "Yes, but please don't tell Antenora I said that. If it's true there's nothing to be done about it, so we can only work with what we have. We have enough concerns without theoretical Chronomancy added to it."

[Ebiris]

Alicia similarly does not react to Colke changing appearance. It's just a thing they do.

"It does unfortunately tie back to the Abyss running rings around us," she says. "Still... that long? And given our information we can assume - and yes I realise the problem, but it's what we have to work on, that Yarus is only recently ascended. Staying somewhere crowded like that, I'd expect the change to be noted, if Plag is no fool. More assumptions so take them for what they're worth.

"Where did the information come from, and how far did you go to verify it? Have you been inside the demiplane?" she asks, a look over Jessica's somewhat filthy appearance.

[Anastasia]

"No, the information we needed was in Ooze," Jessica sours, "It came from a lost tome, the journal of a mad marilith banished to Ooze. In her madness she speaks a great deal of truth, if only because she's lost the ability to filter reality from imagination and truth from lies. A slight bit of magical aid and she speaks only truths. She wasn't capable of lying and her journal rings true. I have no reason to suspect it's a lie."

"I concur, it was not a lie," Colke agrees, "That demon was as close to truth and harmless as one could be. We haven't been inside of the demiplane yet. We were saving that for you, in case you wanted to look into it personally."

"As I said, we owe Talona," Jessica agrees, "It would be ill tempered of me to deny you a chance at that, if you wish to take it."

[Ebiris]

"It's not as if I want to pick a fight with Talona," Alicia says. "What happened in Pandemonium was humbling, and it'd be foolish to strike at her out of hurt pride. Still, we..." she trails off and looks at the door expectantly.

Loud footsteps are heard. The door slams open, Marie leaning in and catching herself on the frame, red-faced and panting.

"You were going to go to the Abyss based on dubious testimony from an atypical demon, weren't you?!"

[Anastasia]

Jessica eyes Marie and ever so slowly nods. "Yes?" She offers. "All signs point that it is reliable."

[Ebiris]

Marie steps in and closes the door behind her. "Just like the Man of Winds was reliable?" she asks. "We're not going through this again. How many times before the lesson sinks in?"

"Marie, we can't assume the worst every time," Alicia begins, only to be cut off.

"No!" Marie wags a pointer finger at Alicia. "This is exactly the same setup! A crazy demon that only tells the truth? Really? We're doing the exact same thing right after the last time and expecting it to be different?"

Put like that she does have a point. "Still, we can't just ignore it. The stakes are too high," Alicia says.

[Anastasia]

"They are. Rather than that, how about we see if we can confirm it first, then?" Jessica suggests, "If you're concerned, Marie, do you have any ideas how we can confirm this information?"

Colke merely bows her head and doesn't argue with Marie.

"In all truth," Jessica goes on, "I did notice the similarity of the situation. The problem is that it's still entirely believable. If we're being manipulated, and let me remind you that this affair has nothing to do with the Abyss until now, it's so deftly done that's difficult to discern."

"I could go," Colke suggests, "I am much more disposable than-"

"That's a poor way to put it,' Jessica cuts in, a half frown on her face.

"Regardless, the truth of the matter is that I am." Colke continues, "If I can find proof that Yarus is there, then we can proceed."

[Ebiris]

"I'll go," Marie says, putting her foot down. "You need someone like me, someone who lives and breathes trickery, who understands chaos. If Alicia goes she'll be very sneaky, very technically proficient, and very straightforward, and this'll turn into another disaster. This is Marie's time to shine!" she jabs a thumb against her own chest.

Alicia idly wishes she could have her old obedient and sweet familiar back. But she can't deny her track record with the Abyss lately has been lacklustre.

"Alright," Alicia says. "You're the goddess of trickery here. But if you find Yarus and verify he's a deity, you call me in and then I'll be very straightforward."

"That I can do," Marie says, deflating a bit since she was fired up to make this more of a fight. "I'm glad you're being mature about this."

"Honestly, the similarity does feel like I'm being deliberately goaded, I'm not blind," Alicia says, crossing her arms and looking out the window.

[Anastasia]

"Alone, Marie?" Jessica asks, "I'd be happy to go with you rather than leave you to do it alone."

Meanwhile Colke stays out of it, but after a moment changes her mind and adds, "At the risk of complicating it, what if it's a double feint?"

"Then we can bring up entire black boards of plans and counter plans like what goes in Antenora's mind," Jessica's voice is tired at that, exasperated. "We don't know if it's a coincidence, a simple plan, a more complex one or just opportunism. With the Abyss it won't be entirely predictable. We'd hardly be the first who run into what looks to be a plan and is nothing more than chance lining up just so."