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[Anastasia]

"Healthy pettiness," The Red Knight chuckles at that, "I hear your familiar promoted at long last, Alicia. Overdue from all I've heard. Congratulations."

"She was overdue," Syala agrees, "She's a tulani now, it's quite the advancement."

[Ebiris]

"She'd been serving above and beyond a coure's level for years, I think she's earned it and can be trusted with that power," Alicia says. Yes there are stories of celestials promoted too soon who proved unworthy and fell, but she can't imagine Marie being one to end up like that, not with all she's experienced of Hell, the Abyss, and being there for most of Antenora's rise from the pit. "Just yesterday Shar wanted to Compete with her and she performed superbly."

[Anastasia]

"Aaaah," The Red Knight laughs warmly, as warm as the cider you drink. "Splendid. No one likes Shar, no one. Cheers to Competing against the bitch." She raises her mug up, the others joining her in that.

"What strikes me about her is how sadistic she is," Syala says after that toast and the loud clinking of mug on mug, "We recently brought one of her faithful back to the light, and what she told us...the ways she did it, was so personal, so hateful. Like a cat playing with her food out of pure malice."

"I can't understand that," Jessica agrees, "It's the worst parts of the heart magnified a thousand times over, and we are the targets of it."

"She is the worst," The Red Knight confides, "She hates, she destroys - and she ends it all out of her hate. She hates the game so much she wishes to end it for everyone, rather than withdrawing and allowing us to continue playing. It is intolerable and so self centered. If Creation bothers her so greatly, ask one of us to put her out of her misery. She will find no shortage of worthy volunteers."

[Ebiris]

"And yet she joined the battle against Daa-vid alongside all the other Gods," Alicia says, close to something she's been pondering.

She still believes the use of the Fairest Star was monstrous, and in effect a monument to Shar in its entropic destruction. Yet if worst came to worst, could something like it be used again to slay her?

It wouldn't help with Ao of course, nothing of Creation could... but still, the sheer power of the Fairest Star demonstrated by the God King beguiles.

[Anastasia]

"Yet Asmodeus did not for his own reasons," Syala says, "It's always struck me as curious as to why the devils sought to aid that gnome so much."

Here The Red Knight adds, "Sometimes Shar does cooperate with us, if we'll have her. Have you ever heard of the Hecatoncheries? She would have participated, if we had allowed her to. She wishes to destroy all of us, but she does not reject us as fellows and kin. No matter how much it can vex us, and we have been greatly vexed by this over the eons."

[Ebiris]

"Mystra told me of it," Alicia says on the subject of that dread weapon. "I suppose even in asking to Compete with me, she's accepting me as an equal isn't she? As for Daa-vid and the gnomes... much of what we found in their ruins suggested a vast mastery of diabolical summonings and bindings. I don't know if the seal of the god-king has more to be discovered beyond what I saw before ascending, but I always believed Daa-vid had managed to ensnare Asmodeus himself, whether by power or the right kind of contract."

[Anastasia]

"If he did, he has never spoken of it," The Red Knight admits, "Though Asmodeus keeps his secrets as close as anyone."

"That would be amusing to see happen," Syala says, "Also a scary thought, as what if Daa-vid did it before he got the Fairest Star? What if he was that capable before even that happened?"

[Ebiris]

Alicia finishes off her cider before she speaks again. "If he was outwitted his pride would keep him from admitting so, and if he joined voluntarily self-preservation would reward silence on the matter. Though from what I saw of Sylian's perspective, Daa-vid wasn't some hapless bystander who lucked onto the Fairest Star by chance, so I'm sure he had his talents."

[Anastasia]

Jessica hms at that, "Well, either way..." A trail off, "Such weighty things we wonder about. What are the better sides of being ascended, sister?"

The Red Knight smiles at that, but defers to you, "Do tell."

[Ebiris]

"Having weighty things to wonder about," Alicia replies immediately. "Being closer to the mysteries of Creation and their answers. Yes it can be taken as a downside if you'd rather be peacefully ignorant, but that's not for me."

[Anastasia]

Syala reaches over and flicks your ear. "You were supposed to say your gorgeous, beloved wife being there for you whenever you want her."

With a soft little murmuring of amused laughter, smothered away, "Ever closer - perhaps that's why you're here. You're suited to searching for an Answer." Jessica suggests.

With her own smile lingering at the by play, "A seeker of knowledge, always a wise devotion." The Red Knight says, "Have you found more answers than questions, Alicia?"

[Ebiris]

"Oh yes, avatars means I have two of you," she responds to Syala with playful banter of her own before she looks at Red Knight. "Perhaps not, but the new questions I discover are interesting in their own right. It's not just about the knowledge though, it's about being an important part of Creation myself, having my words and deeds impact things on a grand scale."

[Anastasia]

"It seems Mystra chose wisely," The Red Knight says, raising her drink to you again. "Tell me: Were you as pleased with this choice when you first faced this opportunity, when you first claimed your realm of Sylica as your own?"

At that Jessica straightens up slightly, attention on you.

Syala smiles back and turns to the Red Knight, "It's something we always..." A pause here, "No one was expected to defeat Triel's Furnace. We were the ones who finally made it past the desert and then we defeated all the challenges beyond it without fail or pre knowledge."

[Anastasia]

Bumping this up for a reply since it was obscured by another post.

[Ebiris]

"Aside from some reservations about having to recuse myself from Daa-vid's judgement?" Alicia begins. "Yes, it's all as I said, I was given the chance to do so much more, for my actions to have greater consequences. And actually completing the Furnace was exhilarating - the challenge of pitting ourselves against challenges and the elements with nothing more than our skills and ingenuity? The reward felt like it had been earned at the end."