What? The World Needs Saving AGAIN!? IC Thread 11

[Xihirli]

Demis didn't start crying. Tereine frowned and, not looking excited about it, pinched his arm. Then he started crying.

---

"That is correct," Tanaquill said. "We can handle the passing off later. For now," Tanaquill said, looking embarrassed. "I... ah, need your help with the weave. It is new to me, and I want to see if I can weave it in such a way that excludes the Mind Flayers and Aboleth from its use."

[Valmark]

"I know crying means they're healthy, but did you really need to do that?" Sirthis asked leaning down to kiss Demis' forehead, then he started to sing for the crying kid.

Spoiler: Ooc

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I know that makes sense to do, but Sirthis had yet to see a non-crying toddler.

Performance! (1d20+18)[28] Lucky (1d20+18)[35]

Peerless Skill (1d12)[12]

---

"Can I come too? I'm curious to see the Weave" Eris asked.

[Xihirli]

"Yes," Tereine said. "Or he won’t breathe properly."
Demis cried and cried until Sirthis reached his crescendo and then Demis started staring until Sirthis once again sang his newborn to sleep.

---

"But of course," Tanaquill said. "I am going to have to limit it to just you, though. Too much observation makes the weave... rambunctious." Tanaquill held out a hand toward Eris.

[Valmark]

"Good thing nymphs don't tend to sleep through my performances at least" Sirthis joked with a chuckle, kissing Tereine.

---

"The Weave, the fabric of all magic, is shy" Eris considered that aloud, taking Tanaquill's hand.

[Xihirli]

Kissing back, Tereine rested her head on Sirthis’s chest. "Demis has your penis," she said bluntly.
"As opposed to yours?" Minthe asked, chuckling.

---

"Just the opposite. Keep your distance." and in an explosion of feathers, Eris found gerself facing a gargantuan silver loom, with glowing threads pulsing in it. A tiny thread spooled out and reached toward Eris, but Tanaquill pulled her away.
"You don’t want two." And Tanaquill strummed a string running from Eris’s gut toward the loom, curling in the air.

[Valmark]

"I see a great future ahead of him then" Sirthis said full of pride.
"That... Was an unintended pun but it's a good one"

---

"This is really cool. Why not two?" Eris asked, poking her thread "Do they suck your magic out?"

[Xihirli]

Minthe kissed him and laughed.

---

"Suddenly doubling the flow of magic into you will explode your cells," Tanaquill saud briefly.

[Valmark]

Eris immediately stopped playing with the wiring.
"So how does it work?" she asked, wagging her tail in curiosity. That wasn't a sight many mortals got to see.

[Xihirli]

"This loom is the beginning of a complicated web that stretches to every living thing," Midnight answered. "Every thread goes to someone." She lifted a string. "This one is Tren Krom’s."
"Then let’s cut it."
"We should, but not in Eris’s presence. The resulting burst of magic would liquefy her."

[Valmark]

"Why would it liquefy me and not you?" Eris asked "You're currently mortal, right?"

Spoiler: Ooc

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I want to do an Insight check on Midnight because I'n worried she's trying to separate them and set up a trap for Tanaquill, but first let me check the daily rolls (5d20)[4][1][13][9][14](41)

[Xihirli]

Midnight blinked, then swore. "Alright, I'll point out all the strings you need and you can cut them after I go. It should take... oh, two days to find them all?"
Tanaquill smiled to Eris.
"I wouldn't ask you to leave your family for so long."

[Valmark]

"I imagine the appeal of this place will drop fast so I understand" Eris shrugged, tentatively trusting Midnight now that it seemed she simply forgot her own mortality "Midnight, if you pass by again before becoming a goddess we can party another time. I mean, the both of you can pass whenever but as you said getting gods drunk takes an awful long time"

[Xihirli]

Midnight smiled and laid a hand on Eris's shoulder. "It's been a pleasure." And then Eris was back home.

Spoiler: OOC

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What is NEXT!?

[Valmark]

"Wait! Does being cut from the Weave also stop the Dark Weave? Or could they use that?" Eris tried to ask before Midnight saw her off.

[Xihirli]

"Nope, different thing bye!"

And then she was home.

[Valmark]

Spoiler: Ooc

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I think we have the last of Sirthis' kids' births.

[Xihirli]

Amete's second son followed. Her birth was difficult, but not noticeably so. Minthe acted as midwife, and soon she was holding Vorse, kissing the pale baby on the head.
"You give such beautiful babies," Amete told Sirthis as Vorse cried.

[Valmark]

"That's because I have such beautiful partners" Sirthis smiled kissing Vorse's cheek "I couldn't give them without you" he chuckled and started to sing for the new life they had sired, grasping one of Vorse's hands with his finger.

Spoiler: Ooc

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Literally!

(1d20+18)[24] Lucky (1d20+18)[27]

Peerless Skill (1d12)[4]

[Xihirli]

Spoiler: OOC

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29? Awful, just horrible.

After singing Vorse to sleep, Sirthis found Vorse placed in his arms. Amete leaned back on her flower.
"You’re sweet," she said.

[Valmark]

Spoiler: Ooc

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31, thank you. 27+4.

But yeah, that's below average for Sirthis. Remember when he couldn't even reach it?

"And you're cute" Sirthis sat down next to Amete's flower "Both of you" he added, looking down at his youngest newborn gently rocking him as Vorse slept.

[Xihirli]

Amete smiled up at him.

Spoiler: OOC

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Break tomorrow, then a big post/big jump.

[Xihirli]

Weeks became months, months became years.
Midnight took on the responsibilities of Azuth, leaving Eris and Leff to their school. They kept serving and protecting the city, and occasionally Zariel would invite Eris to go hunt for the last few Obyrith, but they seemed to be hiding out pretty well and they never quite found them.

"My task was to see every demon dead," Zariel said, frustrated after one such failure.
"And I will not leave my work undone."

---

Eris kept up her life with her kids, her wife, her pets, and her friends. She started a tradition of a weekly meal out together, often with games. Sometimes poker, sometimes something juvenile like playing hide-and-seek with them. Malyanna didn't turn up for all of them, but it was surprisingly many. And Sirthis visited pretty often, with his family there. Clephesia started going to school, but surprise, it was their own. Delilah and Stacia put together a standard curriculum for reading, writing, and mathematics to go alongside the training, and Clephesia was in their very first class.

---

Back in the feywild, Sirthis's number of kids stabilized as the nymphs agreed these ones were enough to handle for now and Mab started bulk ordering Luxa's contraceptive tea. Verenestra, Titania's daughter, stopped by from time to time to play with the kids.
"I'm your cousin," she said to Boots at one point.
"Cou... sin?" Boots had asked.
"Yes! Your mother and my mother are sisters!"
"Mama sissy? Mama sissy?" Boots looked around trying to find her.
"Oh... no, she's not here."
"Why?"
"Well... some people... like my mother... have some very strange ideas. Some ideas that make them not want to see other people very much."
"She all alone?" Boots asked.
Verenestra nodded. "More than she knows."
"That sad," Boots said. "Lala says when sad hug Alown... Riss... Riss... Gods Sad Reschich."
Verenestra smiled at her. "Oh? Who's Alown Ri-?" And then a bat was in her face.

---

Sirthis's kids grew up, running around and playing with each other. Playing with him a lot, too. Even though there were plenty of eyes to look after them, they always ran off to him.
Alifa could scarcely crawl onto his lap and hand him a book without Calis running by saying "hi, Dada! Come out-side?" Or Relliss grabbing him and saying "dada, me want talk anmals!" Which Relliss liked to do with Sirthis as translator. But then Boots would show up, too.
"Storytime now! Wait for Lif!" And Aerthis, at least, would dutifully sit and wait for the book to finish.

---

Though of course the kids spent time on their own exploits. Hedge reported one such incident to Sirthis when Aerthis and Calis were only two. Calis went up to the kitchen flies. "Hi!" he said.
"Hello," the fly amalgamation said in a buzzing approximation of Sylvan.
"Who you? Me Cal."
"I am millions. We are the cook."
"Why?"
"Your aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, began as Queen of Flies. And while she ascends to ever greater heights, we are her oldest and most loyal subjects."
"Why?"
"Her sister would not be our Queen, and it seemed as though we would be outcast forever. Then-"
"Why?"
"Some have an idea of beauty... and we are outside of it. This idea is very important to some."
"Why?"
"No nymph's son need ask such a thing."
"Why?"
"Your mother is an embodiment of-"
And while Calis was talking to the flies Aerthis slipped in, grabbed a bowl of cookies, and slipped out.

---

When Boots turned four, Mab took her and Sirthis to Toril... specifically, Fortune's Wind.
"Eris Lelahinn," she said. "You have created a school not simply for learning but for strengthening?"
Boots ran up to Eris and hugged her. "Gramma frend!" She said in Sylvan. "Lala frend!"
"I understand your wife speaks Sylvan. I was hoping that this could be a place where she could begin her learning, along with the rudiments. Oh, not of battle yet, but of exercise and discipline. I asked Stelus to begin and he handed her a sword immediately."
Boots mimed swinging a sword around and Mab rubbed her wrist, though there were no longer any signs of damage. "Before you answer, I should remind you that shinies are no object."

---

Later that month, Leff was resting on Eris's chest late at night, humming lightly as she tended to do with Eris when they were alone. "You know... this is the longest I've ever been at peace." She smiled up at Eris. "I could get used to it... I... I only ever wanted to heal, I've realized more and more. I'm never... as happy as I am when I see someone smile again after losing so much. These wars, these deaths... I don't know how many more I have the stomach for."

---

But peace did not mean losing her edge, and while Eris did not have another serious fight against Stelus, he insisted that he was saving that until he was truly ready for their rematch, they did spar, as she did with Leon and even Jade's spirit in Mielikki's afterlife a few times when Leff or Sirthis would bring her over. Jade was... young. Spry. And went for the liver.
"AAAAAHAAAHAAAA! Eris, I never should have been afraid. I knew this place was great." Leff pointed to a herd of grazing, glowing golden deer. "An endless wilderness to hunt, and be hunted in. The chase, the fight, tackling a wolf to get at his prey, unending!" Jade cracked a smile. "I don't think I ever fully understood what I felt I'd lost about my youth... it wasn't my friends. Auvray and I still talk whenever the little guy's daddy god gives him permission to pop over, and the same was true when I was working for Mab. He even brings Xelphilia! I had my friends in my old age, I had everything I ever fought for when I was younger..." She rested on a stump, healing from Eris's injuries to her. "But not the fight. Don't get me wrong, I was happy we managed to beat Morhail and help all those people... but in the moment... adrenaline rushing, blood pumping... all that melts away."
Jade started to sing. She wasn't good at it.
Time to fight
Stand above the rest
The Ultimate Battle?
It has no meaning, it is just fighting.

I'm have faced many powerful foes
Is it alright if I show off my strength?
Full power, breaking limits
From this point on, the Gods will watch in awe

Time to fight
Stand above the rest
The Ultimate Battle?
It has no meaning, it is just fighting
Until heaven and earth melt away.
There is no meaning, it is just fighting
Until the self is slain.

When my fist goes astray, the sky breaks
When everything is destroyed, what is born?
Every blow a death
When I break
Who will I be?

Time to fight
Stand above the rest
The Ultimate Battle?
How foolish
I'll laugh at fate
When my spirit is pushed to its limit
It will shine eternally

My self asleep, I have awakened, limits destroyed.
Surpassing consciousness, the fight continues.
What is power?
Heaven and Earth
Will burn in pillars of fire

Time to fight
Stand above the rest
The Ultimate Battle?
No.
I'll laugh at fate
It has no meaning, it is just fighting
Until my self is annihilated." She smiled at Eris. "When I joined Xelphilia, I thought..." She laughed. "I thought I could live without blood running down my blades, and without bruises up and down my body. I thought I could live without war." She laughed again. "You know better, don't you? You're like me... the fight is when you finally feel alive."

---

Sirthis found himself visited a lot by Malyanna, who often brought books on flora and fauna related to alchemy and magic. And every time she tried to read one to Alifa, the baby would crawl into her lap and push a princess story Boots had had Lala tell her before into Malyanna's hands instead. And Malyanna often found herself surprised how much that made her smile.
"She is going to grow into study, right?" Malyanna asked, looking down at the sleeping toddler in her arms.

[Valmark]

"Perhaps... Perhaps they went and joined either Tren Krom or hid into Abeir. It'd explain how hard it is to find them- and stuff like Gate wouldn't work either" Eris suggested on one of the hunts with Zariel, trying to help her cope with the failure.

---

He was also extremely happy to see Titania's daughter was unlike her mother, though he wished Titania would come out of isolation.
To that end he met up with Borra and Mab.
"Could we organize some kind of Seelie-Unseelie festival? Something with competitions" Sirthis asked "With dancing, singing, playing, fighting, treasure hunts... And all that festival stuff. The Seelie and Unseelie still have rivarly they could channel that way and according to Mab Titania is pretty competitive- perhaps she'd visit too. Especially if there's something she can partecipate in"

---

Eris cast Tongues on herself so that Boots could understand her- she pat Boots' head with a smile.
"I have no idea what that sentence means, Queen Mab" she said apologetically when the nymph said that thing about shinies "But we can certainly teach Boots about the basics of training and discipline- learning swordmanship and other weapons can't be done without a good mental and physical base. Along with what everybody learns of course- I'm sure Clephesia Senior will too be willing to help tutor her niece"

---

"The time will soon come when you won't have to fight anymore" Eris promised with a smile to Leff, stroking her hair "Once Tren Krom and Abeir are dealt with and our school starts producing the first next generation of heroes we'll be able to sit back and relax, knowing that there are others who will be out there helping who they can"

---

Eris chuckled.
"I... Have to admit, a life without battles sounds dull, Jade. But..." she smiled "If it means everybody else can be at peace I would take no fighting all day. And it's not like there's no way to get the blood pumping while in peace" she coiled her tail around Leff's waist with a smirk.

"Still, the fact that I can fight to... The death, I suppose, with you and spar with others never really leaves me starving for battles"

[Valmark]

Sirthis nodded, smiling at Malyanna while Alifa slept.
"Boots only recently began her own training and Alifa's older. Although... Perhaps to get her started you could try to find out what interests her the most" he suggested "You wizards tend to study everything but also specialize. She looks a lot at animals, observing her puppets for long so maybe we can try showing her magic related to that. Then expand on mor general subjects... You're the wizard, you know this stuff better then I do"

[Xihirli]

Zariel growled.
"Abeir. A whole planet where half my powers are just gone. But they'll turn up... when the planets join."

---

Mab turned to Borra, who nodded once. "I think it's a good idea, milady."
She smiled. "Alright. Let's reach out and make it happen."

---

Boots wasn't particularly good at keeping up with a regimented schedule, but when Delilah started making learning games Boots was all over it, and that sped things along. Leff was also surprised at how quickly she took to Common.

"Languages are easy for the young," Polly explained.
"They could learn to speak leaf if we knew how to teach it."

---

"Peace," Jade said. "After we beat Morhail, the Blood War, the Aboleth, all these evil gods... it seemed like the conflict would never end. That peace was an absurd thing to plan for. Even when I died, I would be put into Maglubiyet's endless war against the orcs... I guess it's never been on the table for me." She got up. "Alright, there's a hunting party soon. I'd invite you along but Mielikki says it's better to make people wait on afterlife stuff until after they're dead."
Leff gently patted the tail around her waist.

---

Malyanna frowned and looked over at Sirthis. "I don't have magic related to animals."

[Valmark]

"I'll do what I can to help" Sirthis said to Borra and Mab "Just tell me how. I'm likely not good for talking to the Seelie, but I've befriended several others... I could go talk to the drows and Luxa, the satyrs and Hyrsam, the centaurs and... just the centaurs. And Sune is welcomed pretty much everywhere in the Feywild"

---

"Mielikki is wise. Wouldn't wanna ruin the surprise"

---

"No, but I do. I can help you spark her interest then you can have her explore magic in it's wholeness" Sirthis offered to Malyanna "Although for now I just think it's too soon. Or I just like seeing you two together like this- Alifa loves you"

[Xihirli]

"Yes, recruitment of those party animals... and the Regalians, would go well. Regalia may even be a fine neutral ground on which to hold the games," Mab suggested. "Please go talk to them about it."

[Valmark]

"Regalia was...?" Sirthis asked "Sylph city?

[Xihirli]

"It’s the Drow city. Where Queen Luxa is."

[Valmark]

"That was going to be my second guess" Sirthis nodded "I'll be going now" he started transforming himself into wind "I don't have to say anything specific yet right? We just decided it after all"