Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The knowledge Asher gleaned from Eao's past leads here. A stagnat pond in an eerie forest glade. One would never guess what lies beneath the surface. But the two angels should be able to find the entrance easily, since they know where to look. A hatch lies buried in the muck at the pond floor, hidden from all but the most discerning viewer.
Of course, such an entrance is probably not left unwatched, and indeed, anyone who does approach will feel a sense of unease, as if they're being spied on.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Well, we're here, Eao. Does this ring a bell?" Unlikely, but Asher still asks anyway. "They're watching us." He says, feeling eyes on them.

[Recaiden]

"No, it iss not that. But you have run into forbidden knowledge more than oncse in a day already?"
Prada laughs.
"Of coursse it wass. But you, I ssee, are not one for ssuch revelss."
All Nim had was one glass of wine, right? How dangerous could that be?

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

"Oh, no. I just had a dragon offer something and then tell me I shouldn't look after all for a similar reason.
I, uh..what sort of thing happens to people at those parties? I did have some wine." he asks the cobra nervously.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

"No, I've never been here before." Eao has, but she doesn't remember it. She too feels the eyes on her, and is watching through all her own eyes to find the source. "I feel it too."

[Recaiden]

"Nothing like that. Ssimple privacsy."
"I think, Nim, that you'll have to attend another if you wish to find out." hisses Prada, amused that Nim is understanding so thoroughly. What is he worried about?

A wind is picking up, blowing from behind them towards somewhere ahead and around that stand of trees.

"How then, do your people think one ought to act around...royalty?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

Nim grins awkwardly.
"Well, it depends on the culture but you're supposed to be respectful, and formal if they want it. And obedient maybe, but I wouldn't count as one of your subjects." He says.
"And there's some old school rules about royalty dancing with commoners like me, but those are outdated." Dancing with royalty will certainly be a story, regardless of it was a little sarcastic and the royal in question was a giant cobra.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Let's go in, then. And lets be careful." Asher advises, as he reaches to open up the hatch.

[Recaiden]

"I wass assking about your culture, wassn't I, Nim?"
Although, for all the humanss that call themsselvess kingss, I know of only two who fit our measure of ssuch thingss."

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

Nim shrugs.
"My culture doesn't have kings. So we only really respect them out of respect for others' traditions.
Who are those two, then? Why do they qualify." Nim figures the second question is more important than the first, since he won't recognize any names from this kingdom or its mirror.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Nightmare Forest]

Quin simply nods and raises Excalibur.

"Sleep."

The flames on Excalibur flare once more as he swings, aiming to cleave the entity in twain.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The hatch swings open silently. An unseen barrier prevents the water from pouring through. A long ladder descends the shiny metal shaft. Of course, neither angel likely has much need for ladders. Eao simply jumps in and begins hovering downward.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Asher follows her, looking around to observe his surroundings. While they're at the shaft, he focuses his senses (thanks, wheel-eyes!) to look around and take stock of who and what is waiting for them.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The shaft is empty. Disturbingly empty. Just a long way down to where the ladder exits into a larger chamber. Eao twists upside down in midair and peers out of the opening. "It's clear. Where is everybody?" Is this the wrong place?

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"It's too early to tell. They could be hiding, or watching from far away to see what we do! Let's look around and see what we can find, Eao." Asher suggests, twisting upside down as well and flying into the opening, hovering in place rather than landing on the ground.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The room at the bottom of the shaft is huge. Mind-bogglingly so. It's easily large enough to fit an aircraft carrier and still have plenty of room left over. Gantries and catwalks stretch across the vast space here and there, but the place is empty and silent...
For a few moments. Then the shooting begins. Clusters of automated turrets emerge from walls and floors and unload a hail of bullets at the two angels.

[Morty]

[Nightmare Forest]

The puppet is run through, its neck snaps and it's then cloven in twain. It offers no resistance to any of it and it vanishes in a flurry of blacks shapes. Something far more profound happens on a less physical plane. Something let go and returned to... mundanity.

All around them, there's a gradual change in the forest. It becomes a normal, old wood again. Eerily silent - did the animals die when the place became a fairy nightmare-scape? Perhaps they'll come back in time. The demented genius loci that the "Fear" woke up has fallen asleep or disappeared altogether, depending on how one looks at it. Hopefully all the other tortured spirits have also found rest.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

((Forgot to mention, but Asher has two pairs of wings in this form))

Just in case Eao isn't impervious, Asher shields her with his body, spreading both wing pairs to absorb the bullets. Of course, they don't do anything, and should bounce harmlessly off his wings.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

Eao isn't actually there to be protected anymore. As soon as the shooting starts, she blinks through space to one of the clusters of turrets, then begins slicing them apart with the tips of her wings."C'mon Asher! You'll miss out!"

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Yeah, she's right, he'll miss out on the fun! So, he teleports to another turret cluster and melts them with white-hot divine fire.

[Recaiden]

Nim shrugs.
"My culture doesn't have kings. So we only really respect them out of respect for others' traditions.
Who are those two, then? Why do they qualify." Nim figures the second question is more important than the first, since he won't recognize any names from this kingdom or its mirror.

"A ssubtly dangerouss decission, to trust otherss wayss in ssuch a fashion."
"They are thosse who've come to command thiss realm like we have."
Prada explains about the first human who is worth royalty, a story of ... who ... when they found themselves ... and finally .... It all makes perfect sense, but most likely, Nim won't be able to remember a bit of it, and any notes he took will likely be just spiky doodles. For this king or queen has decreed that their story can never be known.
"The ssecond wass a princessss who would never inherit the throne, and sso eventually came to sseek out the heart of our world. In sso doing she desstroyed hersself two timess over, and becamse ssomething more like uss."

Overhead, clouds are gathering, and winds picking up.
"What doess your culture have, then?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

How odd. How would Prada tell the story in the first place then? Must be a snake trade secret.
"Oh. Well, perhaps not a terrible end, then. But being destroyed twice over does sound rather unpleasant." Though being destroyed twice over and being more like a giant talking snake does seem better than being destroyed and simply meeting oblivion. That he'll admit.
"Usually councils and mayors and elected officials. There's still some kings running around here and there but I'm not from any of those places. I think my mother's people still have a king, but he's mostly a keeper of old traditions without much power these days I think." Nim doesn't really follow elven politics.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The two angels can dispatch the turrets with relative ease, but it's clear they'll face other, more potent resistance as they travel deeper. "It's still too empty. Shouldn't there be an army here?"

[Recaiden]

"Exstremely unpleasant, I should think." Nim observes.
"Did thiss king ever have any real power?" Outside of politics, that is.

"We will be passssing ssome hazardouss terrain ssoon. Ssimply avoid doing anything foolish, keep a foot on the ground, and you should be fine."

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Maybe after Zee defeated them, they became much more careful and cautious." Asher muses, travelling deeper with Eao.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

"Maybe. And what were they doing here?" A space this ridiculously vast must have had some purpose. But she doesn't remember it. Maybe spending some time here will help her recall.

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

”Many of them are reported to have been wizards. Or sometimes druids. But that’s not really typical outside of them.” He looks up between the sky and what’s ahead of them.
”Ah, is it normal for the weather to change like that? What should I be looking out for?” Nim asks.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Maybe they had their machines and vehicles, or maybe they trained here. Maybe they moved and are watching from a distance to see who would come." Asher's just throwing out ideas at this point. "Can you remember anything at least? One little thing?"

[Recaiden]

"Other than the rissing and ssetting of the falsse ssun, the weather changess with the sspeed of thought.
The way ahead of them unfolds, clears, hills and trees that would have been obscuring the view falling away. Nim will be able to see a weather phenomenon, clear as day.
"Other than the ssun, and thesse."

A miniature hurricane, or a whirlpool outside the water, or a spear pinning the sky to the ground. It is all these things, this strange storm, and it seems impossible that it should be there so close by. It should roar and batter at them, and it should be way up in the sky, not down among them. But there it is, swirling impossibly a few hundred yards away.

[Deathkeeper]

[Passing By]

Nim is suitably impressed. Or perhaps shocked speechless.
”Did you move all that just now?” he chokes out as he realizes that he might be in over his head with this place. Can Prada really change the whole layout of the place like that?
”Um. Okay. Well. What do we do? Should we just go around it at a comfortable distance?” That does seem like the most sensible course of action.