Planeside 3

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
What Perfidy and Mendacity still don't seem to realize is that from Sekhmet's perspective, they still haven't done anything wrong and therefore have nothing to fear. "You three, take the prisoner to the dungeons and, uh, lock him up." Sekhmet indicates a pair of guards and a hellhound. In the meantime, she gathers up all the blades from the two murderous fiends and conjures up a sphere of solid stone around them; an effective makeshift containment. "Now. Do the two of you know how to destroy these things?" She asks the succubi.

[Ironsmith]

[Scorching Depths]

The guards obey, hauling Slicer to his feet (sort of; they still have to drag him) and carrying him off to a more secure location, indifferent to his continued sobs.

Meanwhile, Perfidy and Mendacity just stare at Sekhmet confusedly. "...Destroy them?" "What?" "Can you even-" "never heard of anyone ever" "Why would you want to-" "ires of Mount Doom, maybe?"

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
Sekhmet sighs. "Do you want a weapon capable of very permanently killing you or others like you just floating around?". She puts a hand on the stone sphere and channels fire into it, hot enough to rapidly melt any mundane metal, the stone, and hopefully the blades within. But they survived the flames that incinerated Spicer, so it might not work, in which case Sekhmet will need to think of something else.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

I studied the heavens in my tower, seeking the secrets of the cosmos and beyond. I spent... a very long time doing that. My body crumbled through disuse, and eventually my hilltop tower collapsed, too. I survived, and kept up my studies. Then people started turning up. I didn't know why, at first, and didn't care. They used the rubble from my tower to build cottages and things, at the base of the hill. Then some priests showed up, and decided my hill was a good place to build their temple. They cleared the last of the rubble but didn't find me, which was fine. Then they built a giant fire and kept it going for three weeks. I couldn't see the sky to continue my meditation, so I hovered up and challenged their god to a duel over the hill. Their god didn't answer, so I killed the priests and extinguished the fire. I kept the temple; didn't care about it, to be honest. Their god was a coward, I thought, and ignored it. The god wasn't a coward- just a long way away. Far enough away it didn't hear my initial challenge, until after I killed its priests. It arrived a week later, answering my challenge. Our battle razed the temple, then the town, then the hill. Eventually, I lost. It was close, close enough the god couldn't kill me. So it handed me to Master Emile the Godless who brought me here. The fight probably killed a lot of people, including many worshippers of the god. That's possibly why it lost; gods need prayer, at least a little.

The next cell the two reach does not contain a Burning Bishop. It does, however, contain a group of shop mannequins- twelve of them, maybe. Six are wearing various style of skirt and blouse or dress, and six are wearing trousers and shirts. There's a thirteenth that only seems present if Kiun does a head count, however; there's thirteen heads, and six mannequins wearing 'feminine' clothing, and six wearing 'masculine' clothing. The cell door is shut, and the mannequins don't move as Kiun appears or looks through. If she glances away or blinks, when she looks back the mannequins are all holding knives which they weren't before.

[Ironsmith]

Scorching Depths
Sekhmet sighs. "Do you want a weapon capable of very permanently killing you or others like you just floating around?". She puts a hand on the stone sphere and channels fire into it, hot enough to rapidly melt any mundane metal, the stone, and hopefully the blades within. But they survived the flames that incinerated Spicer, so it might not work, in which case Sekhmet will need to think of something else.

[Scorching Depths]

"Well, not us, no..."

"But you've seen how crazy some demons can be. Maybe we could have those for self-defense?"

Rather predictably, the blades seem unharmed by Sekhmet's attempt at destroying them... they don't even appear to be warmed, let alone damaged by the heat.

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
"I am not giving these away to anyone." As we have seen, Sekhmet has her own way to defend herself. She doesn't need these disgusting weapons to do it. "I'll, uh, have to find another way." A plan is forming in her mind, but that is for later. For now, she just needs to put these somewhere no one can reach them. Sinking them through the palace floor as if it were liquid will make them nearly impossible for anyone but herself and Pan to find, and she trusts Pan not to play with them. Eventually, she should find a way to dispose of them permanently though.

[Ironsmith]

[Scorching Depths]

"What, are you saying you don't trust us?"

Perfidy gives Mendacity a little bap along the back of her head. "Gee, you think?" She grumbles.

"...Right. Dumb question." Mendacity amends sheepishly.

There will be an awkward moment of silence, before the succubi simultaneously decide to ask the obvious:

"So what happens now?" "Are we free to go?" "Or are we staying here?" "Or would you throw us out?" "Contact the Letheans?" "How much trouble are we in?"

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

"And have you learned from this to take your time, or better care of your hills?" Kiun muses. So focused on its task that their body collapsed, and then their building. One of the perils of working alone, isn't it, that if you don't keep things going, no one will.

"'Emile the Godless' is a curious title. What can you tell me of them, besides that they locked you up here."
Kiun give the mannequins a glance, not slowing down. It would be nice to get some better clothes for use on missions, wouldn't it?
But-
Oh, they all have knives now. No, definitely not opening that door. There are easier ways to get clothes, surely. Perfectly good ways that she just hasn't bothered with.

[Brefaisil]

Marcie nods slowly. A disappointment, but not a surprise.
"Times do seem that they are coming to an end. But that only means we must stand up and hold them together. It may call for drastic m- action, with the curse over everything, but it can be done."
"Meaning no offense, do the Lords and Ladies truly always live up to the ideals of the lovers? Some of them have had their gifts for a very long time."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

They're a sceptic. Most sceptics don't believe in the divine, and this is fine. Emile is a sceptic powered by belief. He believes so strongly that gods aren't real and can't hurt him that it's very nearly true. He is very dangerous for those that choose the path of divinity, for his mere presence is a bane. I could not even fly when his hands were about my skull, let alone try smiting him with... any sort of power at all, really. Gods which are strong enough can bypass his faith, but priests, warlocks, demigods, and druids are all helpless against him, as are angels and many fiends. So a good choice for somebody to go arrest an ancient undead wizard seeking omnipotency to go with immortality.

And in future, I would move to a mountain top where it is much harder for people to get in my way and distract me with petty gods and bonfires. Although the Skull doesn't seem to have considered what would happen if it gets buried in snow. Presumably it has some countermeasure for that, before it's dragged halfway to the ocean by a glacier that solidified about its ears.

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

Kiun's eyes widen, and a smile lights up her face.
"That's amazing. Do you have any idea how he developed such incredible heights of skepticism?"

After a while, a thought occurs to her.
"Why don't you just leave the ground behind? Then nothing could obstruct your view."

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
Sekhmet looks askance at the two succubi. "Why are you two so sure I'm going to punish you? What have you done wrong?" She tries to sound reassuring. "Of course you're welcome to stay here. Or to go, if you like."

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

Marcie nods slowly. A disappointment, but not a surprise.
"Times do seem that they are coming to an end. But that only means we must stand up and hold them together. It may call for drastic m- action, with the curse over everything, but it can be done."
"Meaning no offense, do the Lords and Ladies truly always live up to the ideals of the lovers? Some of them have had their gifts for a very long time."

[Brefaisil]

"As Lord Bridger would say, 'to err is to be human'." The priest replies with an amused smile. "And though they may be Lords and Ladies now, they were born and so remain human. Were any example among them perfect, we would not need so many." He shakes his head. "And... some have taken to the changing times better than others. They remain examples to our people, but more in the sense of embodying vices and flaws to be avoided."

Scorching Depths
Sekhmet looks askance at the two succubi. "Why are you two so sure I'm going to punish you? What have you done wrong?" She tries to sound reassuring. "Of course you're welcome to stay here. Or to go, if you like."

[Scorching Depths]

The succubi exchange a glance. What did they do wrong? What did they do wrong?! They brought a pair of murderous demons to Sekhmet's domain, who slaughtered at least a dozen of her subjects between them, that's what they did wrong!

Unless...

Did Sekhmet just not blame them for that?

"...You... you're still going to let us stay here?" Perfidy prompts. "After all of that? Aren't you mad at us?"

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
"I don't blame you for, uh, what your associates did. You'll, uh, understand in time." Sekhmet is the Lady of Forgiveness. She's got a different point of view than most fiendish rulers. "You're still welcome." Slicer and Spicer acted on their own, without prompting from these two. Sekhmet won't blame them.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

No, I don't, not for sure. He may have been raised that way, part of a community of such sceptics- or else a product of a lesser sceptic community, either a deliberate end result when they founded their community or a happy accident. Or perhaps it was the opposite, he was raised by highly religious people and was thoroughly unimpressed with them. Perhaps they failed to live up to their ideals, or were cult leaders with no real divine backing using sleight-of-hand and parlour tricks to con the gullible out of money and status. It's a rare occurrence, and the Skull of Am-Het doesn't know enough about Emile's personal history to identify the root cause of their faith in faithlessness.

It is dangerous to contemplate the cosmos without sufficient grounding. I seek to become as a star, a ball of light illuminating a world inhabited by those relying upon my grace and humility for their survival. I do not wish to attract the attention of the void, the endless hungering dark between worlds. So I stay connected to the earth, physically touching it, to keep my mind grounded and anchored in the mortal plane as I contemplate the divine. Becoming a god is hardly a desire for those possessing an excess of humility. The Skull may have a more optimistic belief in its nature than is strictly warranted- or else it's planning on changing that with its ascendency.

[Ironsmith]

Scorching Depths
"I don't blame you for, uh, what your associates did. You'll, uh, understand in time." Sekhmet is the Lady of Forgiveness. She's got a different point of view than most fiendish rulers. "You're still welcome." Slicer and Spicer acted on their own, without prompting from these two. Sekhmet won't blame them.

[Scorching Depths]

"You're not going to mulch us, or burn us up, or turn us in, or-"

"Mendy. She said no."

Mendacity lets out a sigh of relief. "So... does that mean we're safe?"

"...I guess? Relatively speaking, I mean. We're guests in her house, the two psychos who followed us are out of the picture, and I don't think she's going to turn us in to the author-"

Perfidy cuts herself off as Mendacity steps forward and wraps her arms around Sekhmet's waist, hugging her tightly. "...Heck with it." She mumbles, joining in.

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

"Oh, the void above the skies isn't the same void as all that, don't worry." Kiun tells the skull. A lot of the stuff it was saying seems crazy, but that at least she knows something about. "You can't get there from here."
She's mostly thinking about faithlessness, belief in skepticism. It's an interesting and very plausible Form. But there are so many possible ways to produce it, and so many factors they don't know.
Still, just know it's possible to disbelieve so much...

[Brefaisil]

Marcie smiles. Human isn't a bad place to start, and it's not easy to be more. Surely the Lords and Ladies are...
Well, surely they could be a lot worse.
"One last thing, purely out of curiosity, but how does one join your organization?"

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

"We have partnerships with several academies here in Brefaisil." The priest explains. "They offer tutelage in theology to any students who can afford it. Once properly educated, interested scholars may seek to join our order in an official capacity... provided the council of bishops approve, of course." The priest stiffens. "At one time, the order was open to any who wished to join, but various scandals of the past have taught us to abandon that tradition."

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
Hereabouts, Sekhmet is the authorities, no turning in required. Currently, the authorities are hugging the two wayward and frightened succubi, because after everything they've gone through, they need a hug. "Don't worry. It'll be alright."

[Recaiden]

Marcie nods.
"An understandable precaution."
Although in the current times, it's hard to say if keeping troublemakers out is actually making things better. But they've had only a few glimpses of the church of Absum.

She stands up from where she had been and bows to the priest.
"Oh, I had almost forgotten. Do you know anything you can tell me of Lady Fraochun the Weaver?"

[Ironsmith]

The priest falls silent for a moment, a deep frown working its way onto his face. "...There are many things I could tell you about the Lady Weaver." He replies coldly. "Most of which are not fit to be repeated in a sacred place such as this. If you intend to seek an audience with her, I advise you to keep a clear exit in mind at all times. That is all I will say on the matter."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

You may believe that, if it makes you sleep better at night. I don't need to sleep. The skull doesn't believe her, which given it has studied the cosmos for a very long time- decades at least, for their tower to collapse; more likely to be centuries- it considers itself an expert. There might also be some conflicting cosmology going on due to the nature of the Nexus.

They're approaching another cell, this one not filled with murderous mannequins. Instead, it contains a bed, a desk, and a chair, as well as a middle-aged man wearing a horsehair vest. He's got pale skin, red hair starting to grey, and he's muttering and chanting as he kneels on the floor with his hands folded in front of himself. A candle on the desk flares every so often.

[Recaiden]

[Brefaisil]

Marcie puts on an apologetic smile.
"I suppose you've no time to leave this sacred place and speak freely?"
"If not, I will keep your advice in mind." She takes a moment to look around the chapel. Can't start having an exit too early.

[Prison Realm]

"I don't need to sleep at night." Unlike the skull, she does need to sleep sometimes. But every day? That would be risky and excessive. "Nor is astronomy particularly comforting, should I need it."

There are surely cosmology issues that she isn't thinking of, though.

But enough of that, here's a (final?) cell.
"Hello. Are you the bishop?" Kiun calls out.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

Well, sleep during the day then. Whenever. I've not met somebody like you before, so... I'm guessing at your biology. Which also means Kiun shouldn't get surgery from the skull, assuming it has some manner of manipulating tools.

The praying man turns to look at Kiun and the skull, which quickly floats behind. "I was. They say I'm a heretic, but I'm not. The gods gave me the fire, how can that be heresy? It doesn't burn the pure of heart, either. They're heretics and apostates, afraid of my divine gift." He's mistaken; the only person his pyrokinesis doesn't burn is himself. He raises a hand, and flames flicker into existence above it.

[Recaiden]

Kiun manages to shrug.
"Don't worry. It's incomplete anyway, so knowing about it wouldn't be very valuable in the end."
Luckily, there are very few things that would call for surgery on her.

"The gods gave it to you? How does that work When did you receive it?" Perhaps the Bishop could be useful to them as well?
Gods are dangerous, wrong things, for the most part. Meddling with innocent living creatures for their own twisted reasons. Not all bad of course, some are so responsible as to clean up the problems that other gods cause. But suspicious all the same.

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

Marcie puts on an apologetic smile.
"I suppose you've no time to leave this sacred place and speak freely?"
"If not, I will keep your advice in mind." She takes a moment to look around the chapel. Can't start having an exit too early.

[Brefaisil]

The priest gives her a rueful smile. "My duties keep me busy here, yes." The priest stands and gives Marcie a polite little bow. "Which I should return to. Farewell, miss. May the lights of the Lovers guide you."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

Your anatomy is incomplete? How did that happen? She's not obviously missing any body parts, is she?

"Since birth, I have been able to light candles with a thought. More recently they boosted that power, which was fortunate. I had been attacked by heretics, ruffians with no respect for my position, clad in leather and mail with clubs and axes. I was able to burn them to a crisp, and returned to my congregation and told them of the miracle. It does not the burn the righteous, I know this- I can walk through the flames without harm. I reassured my flock of such, and offered to demonstrate. Alas, all those that attend my cathedral... They were heretics and apostates, hiding their sin from me." He was born with the gift, the stress enhanced it, and the rest is him attributing powers and ability to it that simply isn't there. He believes it all, but he's mistaken.

[Recaiden]

[Brefaisil]

Marcie gives the priest a slight bow in return.
Then it's out of the chapel, and off towards the seediest parts of the city. This won't be fun.

[Prison Realm]

To the skull, she explains, "There is too much human in it. The next generation will be different."
"Besides, I haven't undergone my second metamorphosis yet. I should end up rather different."

To the bishop, Kiun nods.
"I will release you from here if you will follow me and my instructions. This gift should be shared with others who are pure of heart."
"Do you agree?"

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The skull does not understand what is going on with Kiun, although realises now she's not anything it's encountered before and it should stop assuming she's just a weird fiend-blood. Ascending her to godhood might instead prove tricky- and the skull doesn't know about the hive mind, which would certainly change things.

"I do, yes." His eyes fasten on where the Skull of Am-Het hovers; he's spotted it, and his lip curls into a slight snarl. He's spotted the undead, and doesn't like it. He's planning on testing Kiun's righteousness with his fire when he's released, for though it'd be the gods' work even blasphemers and apostates can work their will.

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

It would be hard for the Skull to have known. The hive mind doesn't easily reach in here, between planes.

Kiun nods, and reaches out her magic to open the cell.
"Good. We have a deal."
She flutters a wing at the Skull. It had better stay calm.
"Come out, and do what you need to."

If it's only fire (and it doesn't last too terribly long) then it won't burn her.

[Ironsmith]

It won't take long for Marcie to find the specific part of town the guards had warned her about; the tunnels here get a little narrower, doors more frequent and accompanied by narrow stairs in many cases, collectively making up what was probably once a slum. Although the real giveaway is the abundance of cobwebs; at first, exclusive to the corners of the tunnels, but eventually spreading in sheets over the doors and windows and street, covered in dust and wrapped around various human-sized bundles.

Actually, the real giveaway is the soft, feminine voice echoing through the tunnels in a melodic lilt after she's wandered a while.

Who is this serene young maiden
Who enters my domain?
What treasures does she seek within
Save freedom from her pain?
Why does she call to the Weaver
What weight is on her brain?
What grief does she wish to leave her
To never trouble her again?