Sal nodded, and gently picked up Emily's body.

Noah tried to run his fingers through his hair but ended up grinding claw on horn. "Active sublimation, yikes." When Talion stood and started talking about breaking seals and the world tree Noah opened his wings wide and cast a rote spell. Hole in the middle was designed to let the passive disruptive nature of that much power slip around the barrier.

When Sal picked the doctor up Noah stepped close enough that his wing span covered him and anyone else who was going and needed protection.

He had no idea what was going to happen but dragons and world trees rarely got along.

Mistral took on a despairing look as she watched the memory spheres crumble away to ash, just like all the rest of the Collector's works.  To recover who Dr. Lennis was from barren dust seemed tantamount to an impossibility.  Then again, they had recently restored a young woman's soul from beyond death and bodily destruction alike.

She watched as Sal picked up the faded waif that was Emily, and stood alongside him as the hidden door was opened.  Mistral was uncertain what to expect beyond this point, but was resolved to face it nonetheless.  Beneath the shelter of Noah's wings, she strode forward to step through the shimmering threshold.

---

Mist's player knows some stuff about the world tree from mythology, but what does Mist know about world trees in the World of Darkness? :P

• 02:40, Today: Mistral rolled 4 successes using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 10(+5),5,5,10(+3),9,9,6.  Int + Occult + spec.

 Talion stepped through first, walking some distance in front of the group. Atlas led the group and Grey took up a place in the middle of them.

 As they stepped through the door, they found themselves in a dimension of pale blue radiance and the air filled with with particles of light. The luminous stairway upon which they found themselves was titanic in scope, large enough that one could not see the other side despite the pale luminocity that pervaded the entire structure.

 The center was dominated by a pillar of flowing light, a beam that extended both up and down as far as the eye could see... a beam composed entirely of mana.

 The stairway upon which they found themselves seemed to be made of a hybrid of wood and crystal... and still alive, it pulsed rhythmically with a heartbeat all its own.

 Within the crystalline wood structure could be seen veins, pulsing and pumping liquid mana through the veins of the World Tree.

 Likewise, the tree was covered with webbing of a manner almost identical to the veil that Mistral still wore... the only thing that had not yet disintegrated. Tiny spiderlike entities crawled across the various surfaces, weaving their webbing in intricate patterns along the walls.


 Once inside, the chains (also composed of mana) wrapped around Talion's body finally became visible, each shaped as a large logging chain with a massive padlock binding it together. In his right hand flared to life keys of a smiliar material.

 As he undid the first lock, his form changed into that familiar black creature with multiple arms and a skull head. With the second, it grew wings of blue fire... but, when he unlocked the third the black turned blue and the skull covered in flesh. Even from their distance, the group could feel a force pushing back against them as Talion's Pattern became visible to the naked eye... even Sal could see Talion's soul expanding beyond the confines of his body, like a protective shell.

 However, upon breakin the fourth seal upon himself, the small (roughly the size of a small dog) spiders turned hostile, launching themselves at him... but they exploded upon reaching a short distance from him, their bodies engulfed in blue fire.

 The spiders did not attack anyone else... apparently the phobia that Grey exudes extended to the spider creatures as well.

 During this time, Atlas spoke. His tone was something akin to that of a tour guide. "Behold, the Stairwell of the Gods, the pathway by which creatures of divinity enter and exit realities. It connects to the World Tree like a stem connects a piece of fruit. This is the Origin of Mana, the river by which life and reality itself coalesce into a dimension.

 The spiders you see are called 'Glasswalkers', a term coined by the late Sariel, Talion's mentor, and the first known pioneer into hyperdimensional metaphysics. Glasswalker silk is a mana conductor and the Glasswalkers form a symbiotic relationship with reality, diffusing mana into reality itself, forming the basis for Axioms and the fundamental laws of reality.

 When a mage speaks a word of power, they are imbuing a Glasswalker thread with power. When they move their fingers in arcane gestures, they are strumming Glasswalker threads... and, when a mage breaks reality, it is the Glasswalkers who come for them."

Noah was absolutely beside himself when it came to the volume of magic present. The critters, the threads, the transformations... He was a fat kid in Wonka's factory without supervision and he had just taken his medicine. If not for the fact he had a barrier that he could only roll around with his wings up protecting an innocent person, he would have already dove off the side to go poke around at the tree.

It was such a distraction that he did not notice he had started glowing like a blue ember. The baseline for the body that was made for him was a comet dragon. With the abundance of raw source and mana he was glowing from the core of the matter that made him.

He kept pace with the group to make sure the Hole in the Middle kept up so Talions power, spiders, or other things couldn't get to them. But he absolutely pulled out his slate and started recording the conversation. He even went so far to take pictures like a giant tourist.

Sal looked in awe. He said, half-jokingly, "Could I perhaps record what we see here, as well? After telling him about the land of the dead, Neverland, and teleporting to Paris, the Prince has questioned my sanity. I would of course, share it with no living soul."

Mistral was floored by the incomprehensibly vast arcane majesty of the Stairwell of the Gods.  Though she appreciated Atlas's explanation and listened closely to it, she didn't need to be told that this place was a keystone of reality itself, because any Awakened would know it instantly.  She knelt to study the skittering Glasswalkers and their intricate webs of supernal threads.  The patterns were intuitively familiar to her, because she had been unknowingly interacting with them ever since her Awakening, albeit from the other side.  Mistral studied the various transcendent phenomena of this realm alongside Noah, sharing his enthusiasm for the wonders on display and comparing observations.

To Sal's question, she answered "I doubt that any recording of this place could transfer to our world.  If it did, then it would appear as nonsense to the eye of any who saw it.  Those who peered too closely would risk madness."

With some apprehension, Mistral observed the unchaining of the more imposing aspects of Talion's form, and wondered at what he meant to do.  She looked to the soul-sapped waif that was Dr. Lennis and then asked, "Will this allow you to restore her, Monsieur Apocalypse?"  As much as Mistral liked Emily personally, to breach the foundations of creation itself to restore the life of one mortal woman was an act of extravagant hubris.  Mistral could only hope that Talion knew what he was doing, and that he was of sound enough mind to do it.  The last time he was this upset he had leveled New York City, so there was certainly reason to worry.

Sal smiled, not the toothless smile he was forced to use around the Kine, but a genuine, friendly smile, that-- despite his fangs-- almost failed to seem the slightest bit threatening, and then said, straight-faced, with the deadpan delivery of a vaudeville straight-man, (not that his friends would remember Vaudeville, it died long before Sal did,) "Then perhaps the Prince is right. I've already lost my mind."

 Talion stopped only for a moment, half turning to look at the group behind him. His posture, even as transcendant as it was, bowed by the weight of his sorrow. Talion's face was no longer a skull. Instead, it flared with the power of creation. His eyes were swirling globes of golden radiance and his mere gaze made everything heavier... as though the weight he bore was now a physical thing. Fortunately, Noah's spell protected against the brunt of it, though the barrier itself nearly cracked beneath the weight of his gaze.

 When he noticed, he quickly averted his gaze and the pressure ceased. "Yes."

 As Talion moved forward, Atlas once more began to speak. "This place transcends the fifth dimension, existing within the sixth. Most recording devices will pick up little of what transpires here. You may try, of course... but I cannot say what you will have."

 Atlas had little time to continue on his tour, however, because they then came to another door. The first thing that drew your attention was a massive statue of purest black, seeming almost to bend light around it dominating the center of the room. In its chest, eyes, shoulders, and knees were what seemed to be glass spheres with miniature galaxies within.

 The next thing Mistral and Noah noticed was that they no longer had access to magic. There were no threads to pull here, no reality to manipulate... and so, no magic.

 Then to the architecture of what seemed to be marble and basalt, forming a room with a very Greek or Roman aesthetic, peering out into...

 … Atlas quickly re-directed the portals, shaping them such that they formed a composite picture of a large, webbed sphere below you. "What lies beyond the Sphere is not for the uninitiated... even the Awakened to see. It is the realm from which things far worse than Star Vampires come. Even strong minds break if they are not ready.

 What you see is the Sphere. Beneath the webbing at the base of the Stairwell is the Aether. The other Supernal Realms exist beneath the webbing on the outside of the sphere, with the Fallen World in the center, surrounded by the Abyss. Just as the Supernal Reams transcend the laws of the Fallen world, so too does the Observatory transcend the laws of the Supernal. Here, the Words of Creation can be spoken."

 However, Talion's Pattern expanded yet again as he unlocked the fifth seal. Blue became gold, concentrating the blue only in his eyes and the flaming crown atop his head. His Pattern expanded to fill the Observatory and, once more Mistral and Noah could feel their magic return. Unlike before, within the confines of a conflicting reality, there was no pressure driving anyone away and he could finally approach the group. He did so, carefully lifting Emily's fragile form from Sal's arms and taking her to a dais overlooking the portals. He did not look at them but, when he spoke, the group could hear him strain to contain the sadness in his voice.

"Thank you... for helping me find her. Sal, I'll find a way to repay you later but Mistral, Noah... the greatest thing I can do for you is teach you the Words of Creation. Watch, and listen."

https://youtu.be/HK0VOeau_gs

 Talion took a deep, shuddering breath, reaching up to brush away a stray lock of hair from her face as he produced the wedding ring he'd been saving, placing it upon her chest as he strummed the strings of his own pattern, eliciting lights and vibrations that could be heard and felt sympathetically. With his voice, he began to sing. He wasn't very good at it. His voice stuttered, on the verge of weeping... but still, he sang.

 You did not know the words, but you could feel them and the message they conveyed. His love, his sorrow, his anguish... and his honest desire for her to live happily.

 As he sang and strummed upon his own pattern, you could see in the portals that the glow from his pattern rippled out like waves across the surface of the web covering the sphere. The wedding ring evaporated into golden vapor along with the contract of the Collector... and finally, Emily herself.

 With the spell cast, Talion slumped over the dais as he forced his pattern back within himself... from gold to blue, from blue to black, wings vanishing, and, finally, back into human form.

 For now, he just stood there, slumped over the dais, defeated.

 From the side, Atlas spoke. "It is done. To undo the contract, the Master made sure that it was never written... but, to do so required an equal sacrifice. To create a world where she would never be obligated by the Fey, he had to sacrifice the reality in which she fell in love with him."

Sal gained a new admiration for Talion. He was certain that he'd never be able to make such a sacrifice.

Not sure if active spells failed.

Noah watched with direct and focused attention. He also rode that thread of mental connection he had with Mistral in the event she also wanted to see the magic being used with Omni-sight. The words could not be forgotten so there would be much in the way of research to do. Still, with all that happened Noah sighed. "And now I am sure he is the Hero. The hero is the one who pays the price." He stepped forward with his full weight not knowing if his normal mass mitigation would even work so he didn't use it.

He looked at Mistral as he walked toward Talion. He never wanted to forget her, it was worth the suffering in his mind. But this was not his choice to make. "Grey, please do me a favor and prepare a room for Talion on the ship. He will be staying with family for a bit. Now is not the time to be alone."

He pulled from his side pack a pair of mesh gloves that looked as if they had been nearly destroyed into slag. The perfected metal mesh he used to walk through Talion's mana reactor. He was fairly sure there was no risk but he did not survive by doing stupid things ignorantly. He put a talon on Talion's shoulder as he sat down behind the man. Not saying anything further and just waiting.

 OOC: When the group entered the top layer of the observatory, all active magic turned off. Noah activated his magic again when Talion expanded his Pattern but it turned off again when he crammed it back inside of himself.

Mistral looked on at the frightening power exuding from Talion in his grief, and struggled to retain her dispassion in the face of an arcane spectacle the likes of which had probably not been seen since Atlantis fell.  She turned her attention toward the study of the midnight statue with its cosmic spheres, and the grandiose architecture of its vault.  They looked upon the webbed sphere that contained all that ever was, and more, crackling with layers of fractal arcane complexity.  These were sights no mortal was ever meant to see, and Mistral drank them in as Atlas explained.

The fifth seal broke and magic returned as Talion became both more and less.  His power had grown tenfold, yet he now could take Emily with extraordinary gentleness.  It was difficult to comprehend thanks coming from this titan of phenomenal power, but Mistral replied with what grace she could muster, "De rien, though I merely showed the door...  Nonetheless, I will not miss this."  His sorrowful song and the sacrifice shook the very roots of reality, and by its end Mistral discovered that she had been silently weeping.  Perhaps it was the parallel to her own forgotten sacrifice in the goblin market, except that this was noble and true while hers was petty and destructive.  Perhaps it was bittersweet knowledge that Dr. Lennis could have another chance, even without Talion.  Whatever their cause, Mistral failed to keep the tears at bay.

Mistral glanced to Noah, then stepped in beside Talion and extended a hesitant hand.  She clasped his shoulder in awkward support, but words failed her even more than they usually did.

Now the question was... how had spacetime been altered to bring about this change?  Had time itself been rewound to before Talion and Emily had ever met?  They would find out, Mistral supposed.

 With the seals forced back upon him, Mistral and Noah found themselves touching only the reality scoured and bloody flesh of a body pushed beyond mortal limits.

 He remained silent for a few moments before taking a deep breath. "I am certain that you have many more questions... and I will answer all that you have. You have earned that much, at least... but I would like to ask you to wait until I've had a shower and a nap first."

 His attempt at humor fell a bit flat, but it was clear that he had no more emotional energy to expend. He pushed himself back up into a standing position and took another deep breath. "Alright, lets go."

 Talion and Atlas led the group back down the Stairwell of the Gods. The more they studied the (massive, comparatively) spiders and their reality-webbing, the more that the esoteric parts of their spellcasting began to "click" in a more concrete manner. Whereas before, it had always been image training, now they had a concrete concept regarding how magic truly functioned...

 … it was so much less complex than any mage had ever made it out to be.

 … and now they could understand why Talion spoke to accomplished mages as though they were children.


… and, once more they found themselves in the Observatory proper... while still on a Golden road, composed of the Leaden Tower itself, suspended over the abyss, powered by a black hole, and containing portals to all the supernal realms... it was somehow mundane now compared to the majesty that they had just witnessed.

 Atlas opened one of the scrying windows and there Emily was, fast asleep in bed as if nothing had ever happened. Talion smiled a weary, bittersweet smile. "All of this. Everything that has happened to her. Our meeting, her Awakening, and all of the terrible things that have happened since will be nothing more to her now than a vivid dream... and that, too, will fade in time.

 And the Collector?"

 The last bit was a change in tone and directed at Atlas. He brought up another image of the Museum of the Collector still in shambles. "It seems that the Museum is caught in a time paradox."

 Talion stared at the portal mirror and laughed. "Well, how about that? Seems like a Earth will be greeting a new god in the coming weeks. Let's hope he doesn't completely tear away the Veil when he wakes up. And Pan?"

 Atlas replied. "Peter Pan was never killed and Hook, along with the children were never rescued."

 He nodded again. "I see. Mistral, what about the boy who's memory you traded. Can you remember him?"


 Regardless, once he had his answers, he exited the Observatory back into the Fallen World... and, now that they had seen the vibrant webs of the Glasswalkers, they knew what to look for. The threads here in Talion's domain were vibrant and new, but carried nowhere near the mana capacity of the Glasswalkers in the Stairwell.

 As they exited Talion's main complex, they could see that the courtyard of the campus had been cleared and cleaned. It was now occupied. "With the reality shift, I was released from prison much sooner and the college has been reopened. Reconstruction of the city will be accelerated slowly."

 Once away from enough people, Grey used the Kaiju system (which she had apparently brought with her) to transport them back to the S.S. Grey... which was still blue.

 … but now it was docked at an island which wasn't there before. On the island was a geode the size of a mansion that had been carved out on the inside to make a house out of amethyst.

 Grey grinned. "I got bored so I made a house. Also, I delivered cookies to some people, met two meanies in a jet, and found a bunch of synths that need helping!"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:06, Fri 28 Aug 2020.

Once everyone started moving and they came back into the fibers Noah slowed slightly and clenched his body. Crystals formed under his scales and started to push their way out. The process of making dragon stones was quick and useful in a place of abundance. And given what just happened they may need some mana on the spot.

When the mirrors came up Noah was watching closely. "The wound is fresh, a brighter day will come." He frowned at the collector, not a CareTaker in sight. "The level of danger presented by your friend to resist a reality-altering root spell... Not exactly sure what it is. There is really only one God, the creator of this reality. It will be interesting to figure it out."

He smiled at Grey, "It is a very nice home and island. Have you named it yet? Shall I tap the local leyline for you here as well? I'm thinking we could catch a few very large fish to stock up the kitchen if you like."

Sal remained quiet until Grey showed up. Her cheerful energy was infectious, and even a vampire wasn't immune."I see you've been busy, Grey. Good work!" Sal said.

It was good to see Talion beginning to come to terms with his loss, as the alternative was rather disastrous.  She answered his humor with a similarly poor jest of her own, albeit a well-meaning one, "Oui, you must have that shower and nap.  You look fatal."  Mistral looked back at the Stairwell of the Gods as they made to depart, and considered its majesty.  This place had laid bare the true workings of reality and exposed the needless complexities introduced my mankind's limited understanding.  She left with the others, but knew that she could never look at magic the same way again.

Back in the Observatory, Mistral felt some degree of relief to see Dr. Lennis safe in her ignorance of this harrowing ordeal.  She was surprised to hear that their foray into Neverland had been nullified, although she was aware that she remained a bane to Pan.  Mistral voiced the question that had been on her mind, "What else of the world has been turned back?  Dr. Lennis's disappearance came before the abduction and rescues of les enfants and the destruction of New York City.  Have these been reversed as well?"  That would seem too good to be true.

They asked after the memory Mistral had traded away to the vile Hat Man Jack, and she considered the question.  She looked back and found that the absence remained, filled only by the negative aspects of the excised memory.  Mistral looked down at the delicate rose vine gloves that still adorned her hands and shook her head.  "Non.  I cannot say how, but this contract has held."

More was discussed on the return voyage to the S.S. Grey, but Mistral kept to her own contemplations.  They returned to discover that Grey had been busy, as she ever was.  The glittering amethyst geode mansion was not even in the top five most incredible thing she'd seen today, but it was her favorite nonetheless.  Mistral turned to the elfin godling she'd adopted as a daughter and ruffled her silvery hair with a ghost of a smile, "Very well done, ma fille.  This is certainly the most beautiful home ever created."  Grey's explanations of the other things she'd been up to were adorably worrisome, so Mistral asked as she made toward the amethyst mansion, "Tell me about these friends you brought cookies to.  Did the jet... survive your meeting?"

 Talion gave a small laugh at Mistral's poor jest. "I suppose I do. Unfortunately, to change the destruction of New York would create a rip in reality. Far too much was affected to simply reverse it given the state of reality itself... but, there will be small things, here and there, that may be different."

 Grey grinned as her hair was ruffled, basking in the attention she was receiving. Inside the amethyst mansion, they found that sunlight had been let in and reflected around, suffusing the entire inside of the mansion in a soft, purple glow, negating the need for light. The only things not made of carved crystal were the beds (though the frames were). The mattresses were made of some form of nanofiber mesh that was both very soft and very supportive.

 Grey had also created a desalinator and solar powered water heater, supplying the geode mansion with hot water... something Talion availed himself quite readily as Grey explained herself. "Yes... but they threw their window at me! They were meanies. It made me drop most of my cookies!

 The other people were really nice. There was this one guy, really big, he went and got me coffee. He was really nice. One of them wanted to talk to Father... she didn't seem so nice. Then there were two more. One was a normal person and didn't seem surprised at anything and another one was a wizard!"

Noah started writing on one of his slates. "That means they still kidnapped the kids just not the doctor. So the storm still happened. However as the Collector is currently stuck in a paradox it also means there is a smidge of the whole thing still around, which is why we havent forgotten the ordeal yet."

"This also means we have little Tortuga in the hold. A small army of dead faries. We should still have the thorns to make Sal and scar some soul bane weapons." He looked at Mistral with a smile, "We could have the aircraft moved into the front hall, it would look amazing with all the light."

He tilted his head when Grey mentioned Synths that needed help. "Are they still there? We can hook up the bus and go see them after a good session of mutual comas." He would have offered to help make more cookies but he couldn't cook to save the world, and ate just about anything including building materials. He was the worst person to deal with cooking.

"I suggest we recuperate, train, and then go kill that bastard, Pan again. Maybe this time it will stick!" He then looked at Grey, "Just... we need to figure out a way to do it without Grey, or protect her from the temporal nonsense she went through last time."

Noah nodded, "Through our connection it felt like when I go through portals. Up starts spinning and direction becomes angry. With her it was like that but on another level." He pulled down the giant shirt of his to see the new scales on his shoulder. "If we do go kill him we need to be sure about it. At this point he has had nothing to do with Talion. It was the demons followers that snagged the kids. Though... they did have fetches replace the kids for some time as evidenced by the M I B agents footage. We should still have pictures of that. Perhaps he did have a hand in it all."

Sal said, "Pan still kidnaps children, we know where he lives, and we know we can kill him. How is his connection-- or lack thereof-- to Talion relevant? We promised Hook and his crew we'd save them. They remain unsaved."

 Grey looked at Sal with a bit of a resigned expression and a pout. "Yeah, I don't want to go back to Nevernever Land again. Thinking about it makes me wanna throw up."

Mistral was distracted from contemplation of altered timelines when Grey made a rather remarkable report of her recent activities.  She stared at the elfin godling for a long moment, then said, "Grey.  Jets only 'throw windows' when the crew are forced to eject to escape danger.  Is there une chance that your greeting may have been... misinterpreted?  Did you greet them from outside the jet during flight, peut-être?"  Mistral was intrigued by the descriptions of the people Grey had met, and had to wonder whether these people had been left terrified for their lives or extravagantly wealthy from one of Grey's economy-destabilizing trades.  She inquired, "Was this sorcier one present at the recent gathering of the Concilium?  What is it they wanted of your father, ma fille?"

The idea of putting Amelia Earhart's plane on display earned an approving nod from Mistral, but she said, "It must be kept in temporal stasis and protected from damage, however."

Returning to Neverland sounded similarly unappealing to Mistral, although this time they would be at a vast advantage.  Mistral said, "As Pan's bane it would be trivial to slay him once more, but I would prefer not to subject Grey to that realm again.  To win over Hook and his crew again and get them safely away, are different matters.  It must be weighed against other priorities."  Mistral looked around the opulent crystalline palace and realized how tired she was after the harrowing experience in both the goblin market and with the Collector.  "Respite and recuperation are the first of those priorities, to my mind.  Have you made chambers for us, Grey?"

 When asked if she had greeted the men inside the jet from outside during flight, she grinned. "Yes! They were flying with me so I decided to ask if they wanted cookies! Then they threw their window at me. Does that mean they were scared of me?"


OOC: aside from the conversation with Grey, this is /thread. XP is given out and I will be starting a new post as soon as I get my thoughts together (and some sleep)