"I was passing through when I was pulled, either by this place or by whatever artifact you're talking about.  Possibly both."  She smiles cheerfully.  "I'd say it was out of my way, but the architecture is worth the walk.  I'll have to remember this place, it's beautiful."

[OOC: Comforting (virtue) and Foolhard (hubris)]

"The stairs are right there to either side of you!" Anders calls back down.

"I am Anders Mendelsson, and this here is Prad. He's a bit under the weather. Behind me is Alessandra Castillo, Vasily Pavlychanko, and Valentino Iocovelli."

He figured it was obvious which one of them was which since they more or less looked like their names.

"Valentino claims this is a Syrne facility, but what its purpose is we've yet to ascertain. We've only been here about half an hour ourselves."

"Just how did you get here, if you don't mind my asking?"

"...Valentino's here?  Fate twists in strange ways."  Her smile widens and she leans around the large man to look down the hallway, though if the man in question is still in one of the side rooms she won't be seeing him.

After a brief look, she offers her hand to Anders, then to Vasily and Prad.  "Well met.  I am Fiora Ambrogia.  I arrived on foot, much like you I expect, simply following the road fate has for me."

"Nice to meet you. You know Valentino? That's good! Let's get back to where he is, so we can continue our examination of this place." Vasily leads the way back to the room where he and Valentino had been searching seconds earlier.

"Valentino, I'm led to believe that you know this young lady; Fiora Ambrogia?"

"It is a very small world, indeed, if you are here, Fiora!" Valentino exclaims upon seeing the fellow Vodacce.

"We followed Prad here, because he has the artifact. He walked out into this field and just stood there. It was only when we went after him that we saw this otherwise invisible cathedral through a narrow sliver in the very air."

"I would hazard to guess that is not how you came here, though."

He turned to the others then.

"There is definitely sorcery at play here."

"The room up front appears to be living quarters, as was the first room we just looked at on this level."

"It might be, save that you knew what pulled you here when you followed."  Moving closer she extends her hand, this time palm down and fingers slightly curled  "It is good to see you again, even if fate has knots and snarls in store for us."


"Sorceries I believe, at least two, maybe more."

Valentino makes a bow and kisses the back of Fiora's hand.

"I don't get to practice my training much. It was effective against some brigands we met on the road here, but it was hardly satisfying," he adds.

"I know next to nothing about sorceries, and probably wouldn't recognize it if I saw it. Since the Syrne predate the arrival of people, however that happened, I'm not sure how that relates to the Church. The teachers failed to tell us about that."

"When we're done here we can practice Veronica's lessons together."


Biting the corner of her lip, Fiora looks around the room again, then stares intently at Valentino again, judgingly.  "Different children receive different lessons...  Because that is the way it has always been done."

"Greetings, Miss Fiora," Alessandra says. "As Anders said, I am Alessandra Castillo. I am a member of  The Explorer's Society," she finished as if that explained why she was here. And maybe it did.

[Arcana: Glorious (virtue), Curious (hubris)]

Fiora's eyebrows rise.  "A dangerous thing to tell a stranger, given the church's proclamations."  Gesturing around the room she adds. "Though I suppose merely setting foot in Syrneth ruins would tar us all with the same brush.  Quite the bond to share unexpectedly."

Reaching into a pocket*, Fiora retrieves a small box and pulls out a deck of cards.  "With the noose already around all our necks, I suppose there's no further harm in knowing a little more, and it might help here and now.  Sorry I didn't trust you a year ago Val, but it was far more than just my life on the line."

The cards begin to fly through her hands, whirling around her fingers in clearly practiced motions.  "The doorway hidden by illusions, that's one sorcery in play.  The doors that don't lead to the other side is a second sorcery.  Finally, fate is tangled up in knots here, to the point that it's pulling strands from a league away."

The cards in her hands come to a halt, and she flips the top three from one hand to the other, holding them up where everyone can see.  The Devil, The Prophet, and The Fool.  "Well, that's ominous."


*link to a message in this game
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Thu 05 Aug 2021.

"How unus...." Understanding dawns on Vasily's face of something that was probably pretty obvious to at least the Vodacce majority of the group. "Are you one of those so-called Fate witches? I thought they, I mean you, always wear veils or something?"

Fiora opens her mouth to answer his question, but when he keeps talking her smile turns to a snarl and she bristles.  "I. am. not. a. Slave." Pausing for a deep breath, she holds back further vitriol, Vasily probably doesn't know, doesn't understand.  "My fate is mine to decide.  Not the Princes.  I bare my face, I refuse to wear colors that hide blood.  They like to pretend fate is free, but it's not.  We bleed every bit as much as any Porte Sorciere, but we're forced to wear black to hide the blood.  Forced to endure wound after wound to keep our slavers in power.  I am Free.  I stole my lessons from those who would sooner see me hang than learn to read.  I tore down my father's power with a single blessing, and now he lives at the pleasure of Lucani, imprisoned for letting me escape."

"If they catch me, they will kill me.  But the same is true of you, which means I can trust you, at least this far."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:39, Fri 06 Aug 2021.

"So the veil is a symbol of enslavement? I see. And the princes would kill you for not living the life of a slave? And they would kill me for associating with you? I have heard that the princes are ruthless and as dangerous as they are powerful. I guess we would do well to avoid Vodacce, then.

I'm not so convinced that the hidden doorway and the doors downstairs are separate sorceries. I suspect that they are, in fact, to nuances of the same hand. Probably the method of construction of this place as well. Assuming it was, indeed, one of the ancient races, that, perhaps, could be the Devil your cards speak of. The Fool is probably us, since we come in here with only profound ignorance. So... who, or what, is the Prophet?"

"The veil and the black dress.  They would reward you publicly and handsomely for turning me in, and then they would privately turn you over the church for execution as a heretic for exploring Syrneth ruins.  They'd take the money back once you were dead of course, and that lavish public reward would cost them nothing."  Fiora corrects, familiar with how things are done in the viper's den.


"The cards have meanings within meanings.  Deciphering which meanings apply is an art, but sometimes the naieve reading is its own insight.  The Devil can be a foe, but it can also be a trap of your own making, or both.  It might be those who built this place, or it might be this place is dangerous, or there is danger in having come here, but we already knew that last."

"The Fool is a young wanderer in need of companions, which could describe all of us.  But it is also a new journey, and potential danger... again."

"The Prophet is the need to communicate, to speak up and give warning, even if you won't be listened to."

Sliding the deck back in its box, she returns it to her pocket.  "So, a foe and a trap, new friends and danger, and a need to speak up about something."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

"At least our lives won't be dull I suppose."  Stepping up to Valentino, right up in his personal space, Fiora stands up on her toes and tries to kiss his cheek, watching for his reaction.


[OOC: No Sorte going on here, she just wants to know if he'll still let her kiss him now that he knows what she is.]

"I see the Church has convinced you of its lies, Fiora," Alessandra comments before the cards are drawn.

"Knowledge is power, and the Church wants all the power for themselves. Thus, while they condemn others as blasphemers who investigate the ancient ruins, they have their own Inquisitors that do the very same thing. And what they find is never reported to the people."

"The Explorer's Society did, perhaps, take a back stage role for a few years, but most chapters simply acted on behalf of the ruler of that country, since each crown was always seeking power over its neighbors."

"We no longer operate in the shadows, except perhaps in Vodacce."

Once the cards are drawn and Vasily makes his comment...

"I can only offer my own apologies for the cruelties you endured, sister. Such acts belittle our entire race, especially those in the country where they are perpetrated."

"I do not know that I put much stock in your cards as they are open to such broad interpretations. A soothsayer can claim one thing, a fortune teller something different, and neither be the truth."

"However, were I to interpret the cards, I would say the Devil isn't so much this place but the reason that brought us here--we do not wish to see any nation gain the purported powers of the Black Pearl. On the other hand, we could have already entered the trap, which is not being able to get out or get back."

"The Fool would seem to indicate, as you said, companions. Why else would you have been brought here?"

"The Prophet... could that not indicate the Pearl's... urge to return here, to, as we have speculated, recharge its powers? It cannot move of its own accord, so if it was at the bottom of the sea, it would have stayed there for eternity had it not been found by a fisherman. Or had it influenced the fisherman... or even the fish! ...to effect its escape from the briny deep?"

"Does that not suggest just some of its power? Would you really want that in the hands of the Crown? Or the Church? It could very well mean the end of all free will."

"So none of us risk the gibbet so long as we stay out of Vodacce, but all of us do if we visit."  She smiles.  "I am comfortable with that.  I have business there eventually, too many of my sisters are unable to free themselves as I did, but I'm not sure how to go about it yet."


"That's what he's carrying!?"  Fiora's eyes widen, flicking over toward the knot of fate among Prad's belongings.  "That does change the reading.  Ask the wrong questions, get the wrong answers.  You're right, The Devil is often a trap woven of your own desires, and a million guilder will trap many people with their own greed."


"No, I don't think I would.  The way it twists the skein is already unsettling enough when it acts on its own.

"Knowing about the pearl, I'd say The Prophet is the need to do or practice something difficult, the purpose of which is not recognized by others.  Keeping the pearl out of everyone's hands is exactly that I think.  People would think us mad for turning away riches like that, and everyone will want to take it for themselves, to use or to sell."

Turning to face Prad fully, Fiora reaches out and hooks her fingers, as though grabbing something only she can see, working at it like a stubborn knot for a few moments.

[OOC: Just trying to get a better idea of how screwed The Pearl's current bearer is.  If it's twisting fate from leagues away, his fate is probably tied in knots.]

Fiora gets this odd vision of a large and complex tangle of knots surrounding and enveloping Prad, and yet there's a single strand passing through it that has only two knots in it.

It takes only a moment to grasp that the tangle is actually the Pearl, while the single strand is Prad. From this, she realizes that Prad is not particularly significant in the scheme of things, at least not at this time.

The two knots in his strand probably represent that he's in possession of the Pearl and that it is influencing him.

She can't quite fathom the meaning of the big tangle other than that has something to do with the Pearl's fate.

"Hmm, his fate is still his own.  I don't think the pearl needs him, anyone would do."

"Ah, yes... I've heard something about witches being able to see the strands of fate that tie everything together. I'm curious; can you follow those strands? For a practical example, we've concluded that the Pearl has some sort of association with this place, however we don't know where within that we need to take it. Because of that we've been trying to methodically explore the place until something makes it obvious that we've found the right spot. Can you, instead, follow whatever strand or strands tie the pearl to the place itself, so that you could go, more or less, straight to where we need to go? OR, at very least, would you be able to confirm when we've actually found the right place?"

[OOC: Valentino?  Anders?  You okay?  Just nothing to say?]

"Learning to read fate is the first thing we're taught, but it's not that simple.  Fate is compared to a tapestry for a reason, but any mortal tapestry is a pale shadow of its complexity.  That pearl has hundreds of threads knotted around it, I can follow any one of them, until it runs through a wall, but which one shall I follow?"  She spreads her hands and shakes her head.  "It's the same problem, try every door or follow every thread.  I can probably tell when it's the right place."

"I look forward to testing my blade against yours again, my dear Fiora," he says when she kisses him on the cheek.

"I always thought there was more to you than could be seen on the surface, but I think I knew deep down inside that whatever it was, it wouldn't really change who you were."

"We may bend to others' will, but as long as we don't break, we are still who we were at the core."

"I've not encountered sorcery much, but have studied what I could about the Syrne. More than a passing interest, I guess you could say it's become a hobby."

"So, if we find the recharging repository for the Pearl, does that mean we won't continue to explore this place? I find it quite fascinating."

"I assume we'd continue exploring, for the purpose of gaining any knowledge that could be passed on to benefit humanity. I am not, however, in favor of taking any artifacts away from this place unless we can be assured that they could then be reproduced by ordinary means. Humanity shouldn't be beholden to ancient powers and artifacts."

"Do we want it to recharge at all?  Alessandra has a point, as does Vasily, it's worryingly powerful already, what will it do if it is recharged?  Will it even need a hand to wield it then, to twist humanity around it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Mon 09 Aug 2021.

"Well, unfortunately, we do know that it causes problems in its current state. So something needs to change. I'm not sure charging it is desirable, but perhaps, by finding its proper location we'll also find a way to keep it there or destroy it or otherwise prevent it from continuing to show up in the world."