Walking to Rosewater

[Anastasia]

"It reaches beyond my jurisdiction and reach, so I cannot say with certainty," Mystra confesses, "But it is no small potential he has. Should he go on, he will be able to do more than chase phantasms in the Deep Ethereal. Much more."

[Ebiris]

But will he be able to kill Ao if it comes to it?

And as Mystra intimated, what even happens after that? Why does Ao need Shar to be his executioner's axe if any Beyond horror can come and tear down Creation? Is the Arbiter's protection enough? Is the Incarnation of Law still protecting Creation from the outside in a way that they won't protect it from Ao's plan? There's too much uncertainty in all of this.

"We should sleep ourselves, but this conversation breeds unpleasant dreams," she says pensively.

[Anastasia]

Mystra scoots down and goes to her side, lying there and facing you. "We should and yet...here we are." she confesses. She's smiling faintly despite it, lingering on her face.

[Ebiris]

She shifts a bit as well onto her side, resting her head on her folded arm facing Mystra. "We still have a comfy location, good company, and a purring cat. Perhaps that'll be enough," she smiles back before closing her eyes.

[Anastasia]

With this Mystra closes her eyes and you drift off, fast asleep.

Give me a d100.

[Ebiris]

[19:55] <@Ebiris> roll 1d100
[19:55] <Penuche2> Ebiris invokes Penuche's magic: < 80 > [d100=80]

[Anastasia]

Flickers of memory.

"It's needed," Is all Sylian says, "We will meet again."

A wind, the feeling of Beyond. Antenora's focus. Syala's warm presence. The empty, potential filled white that is everywhere and nowhere.

"It's needed," Is all Sylian says, "We will meet again."

Blood.

Pointing to Alicia, Antenora and Seira, "A drop of each of your blood is required. Fear not, I have no desires to waste it on petty revenge, nor would I need it to do so." Sylian says.

You remember the pain.

Alicia approaches after Seira, her own presence consecrating the ground as she walks. Running her thumb against the sharp blade of her sword, she holds the cut digit above the parchment and lets a drop fall.

You remember the droplet of blood.

"It's needed," Is all Sylian says, "We will meet again."

You remember Sylian.

"We will meet again, Alicia. I look forward to that final day. Will you be ready?"

[Ebiris]

Alicia wakens, her dreams as unpleasant as she feared. And yet the sharpened clarity of memory brings with it no answers.

[Anastasia]

Mystra is aslumber. Her face is open, relaxed. She looks younger like this, still and lost in the grip of a long denied rest.

[Ebiris]

No sense waking her, is there? Alicia just relaxes quietly, reaching down to pet Martin while the Mother of Magic takes a well deserved break.

[Anastasia]

Like this a time of disturbance and peace passes, mingled together like two streams flowing into one. Soon enough...

Anything else to do here or good to move on?

[Ebiris]

Good to move on. Will have a look at that scroll Mystra gave me back home first of all.

[Anastasia]

It's a scroll of Smite Soul, with annotations that describe the patterns and magic of it in some depth.

[Anastasia]

Thus you work on a new spell, spending some time on it. In the meantime...

I'm gonna need a little more time with that spell, it's a tricky one. In the meantime, what's your next move?

[Ebiris]

Alicia and Jessica will go look for Valnala on the Infinite Staircase as the source Vivantha recommended for finding its bottom.