"Some have tried confronting him, but the result is never quite right. Sometimes they don't find him, others they vanish the same as the others." Kayla shrugs. "To be honest, we've simply grown accustomed to him."

The Lampkeeper rocks back on his heels at the touch. La feels something draining from her, even as the Lampkeeper grows more relaxed, calmer.

"Oh. Oh my, you have such life in you...you remind me of her." He pauses, muses, and then says, "For this, I will serve. For the life and laughter you offer, for the declaration of life...I will serve, if you can save her. Come. I want to show you..."

He walks, and the forest blurs, flows, blends into a single impression of a moment of riotous green life. When it resolves clearly once more, the two are standing in a clearing. All around are people, each one encased in clear crystal, blood slowly trickling out of them through channels in the crystal.

The blood merges into streams that flow to the center of the clearing, where an emerald flame the size of a child dances atop a pool of blood. The air smells of iron and jasmine. The Lampkeeper goes and rests his fingertips in the pool, and the flame brightens, strengthens.

"She was dying. I could feel her dying. And I will not let that happen. That can never happen." He says this with a voice that falls like a tombstone, the second date carved out by sheer force of will. His tone suggests that this is all the explanation necessary.

Alvatter listened and made some additional notes but at this point he had largely made his as much headway as he could without actively seeking out the Lampkeeper and studying them more closely.

"So how would you all like to proceed? I believe that there are two avenues available to us. The first is that we can use our power as Inheritors to strengthen the wards against the Lampkeeper and hopefully similar beings of the ilk. Alternatively we can seek out and remove the Lampkeeper's influence from this place. Perhaps peacefully but I am not confident in that."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:53, Mon 23 Nov 2020.

“No,” Laila agreed, “but who can say. He has never sought to explain himself or returned any who wander off the path, so perhaps if faced with adversaries who are more than mortal he might be willing to treat and settle some accord. There may be some motive to his actions that we cannot see.” She casually shrugged off the idea, all but dismissing it out of hand. “Failing that, we know the warding lanterns have some power to keep him at bay. Perhaps some sort of confinement is possible or we can house that magic in a shape the people can carry on their person.”

That last idea was not a new one. Laila had certainly thought of it herself, and she was quite sure that those of the Garden had to have attempted such a thing over the course of their watch. But she was no crafter of fine things, much less those of true power, and her own work to bolster the wards had seemed the sum total of all she could achieve alone on that front. It was a solution of sorts but one that ultimately left the root of the issue unresolved. At least it was more than she had been able to do for the other matter…

“There is one other thing to consider, not related to the Lampkeeper but no less important. Kayla spoke around this before” - a knowing look to their host - “but regrettably the Garden also has its own problems with food.”

“This place was made a paradise, a realm for enjoyment and pleasure … and nothing more. The trees and plants here offer a bounty of fruit like you’ll find nowhere else, but that is all the earth permits. Any other crops fail. It’s like the soil thinks them too plain and refuses to let them detract from the colour and beauty it fosters.” Laila gestured to the array of delicacies set upon the table, things delicious and appealing but hardly what one might wish to live on. “There is no shortage of food here but not a diet suitable for life. Hollow plenty.”

“Changing that will not rid this place of the Lampkeeper, but it is another problem we should solve if we can. Any answer might also be helpful in solving our own shortage.”

Alvatter considered their issue for a moment before offering a few possible solutions, or at least inquiries.

"Accepting that the magic which sustains the Garden is too potent to simply disregard perhaps we can work around it. Have the people of this realm explored grafting as a possible avenue of diversifying foodstuffs? I'd recommend stone fruits given that you could potentially grow almonds, coffee, and even olives among the fruits."

He then began to list some possibilities, counting on his fingers for each of the foods.

"Olives can of course we eaten although their raw state is quite bitter. They can also be used for oil which I imagine is a much rare commodity."

"Coffee can be fermented and roasted before being used to brew a strong beverage. Should you ever tire of floral teas and fresh water that is. And I suppose wine and spirits should you have a distillery."

"Then of course there are the delicious almonds which can be eaten or dried and ground into a flour. While not as useful as a cereal grain it can be used to make breads, unleavened unless natural processes aid you, and I imagine it would go quite well with the olive oil."

He then stopped and looked around, coughing into his hand as he realized he was rambling.

"There are a few more options of course but that was immediate thought."

Listening to the exchange and the answers to her questions, a hand rose, and rested on Rashana's chin lightly. She mulled the details over for a bit, before chiming back in. "Unfortunately, food is about the one thing I've found my talents consistently fail to achieve very much success with. I could at best create the tools and infrastructure one might use to prepare food more efficiently." She exhaled lightly, and gave her head a delicate shake. "Not a useful answer, in this case, I know."

She nodded her head then, lightly. "A direct confrontation may at the least tell us more about this figure. Laila, if you can show me what you've already done to craft the protective lanterns, it's likely that we can create something more effective together, as well. All are fine strategies, I think, but we would need to prioritize. If the problem can be solved directly, a great deal of effort could be spared on an actual project, and probably to a better end than simply trapping this being with lamps that may run low."

Laila had a look of sympathy for Rashana as she outlined her own shortfallings. It was humbling to recognise those places where their power, however great, was inadequate for the challenges before them, and she knew that sense of frustration very well. Even with several of them present it seemed unlikely that there would be any quick fix for the issues blighting the realm.

She was quick to step in after Rashana’s second point, keen to explain herself.

“I didn’t mean for that to be a permanent solution. My thought was that the people of the Garden should have some say in how this ends, assuming we are not forced to destroy the Lampkeeper outright. We should at least consider some safe means for them to speak with him if he can be captured or chooses to cooperate. He is their enemy after all, not ours. It doesn’t feel right for us to stand alone in judgement if we can offer them a part in any outcome.”

Alvatter heard the points raised by Rashana, nodding along with them.

"With my power I believe I could strengthen the wards. Such a working would only last while I remain within the Garden, or at least return regularly to reinforce the spell structures. Also should be manage to obtain an arcane connection to the Lampkeeper I can banish them from this place forever."

"You both have a point... Still, seeking out some kind of interaction with the Lampkeeper would give us more insight into what we're dealing with..." The girl paused for a moment, taking one more drink of her tea, before sitting back and casting her eye about. "...Alvatter, did you happen to see La with us earlier? I saw her joining us, but she isn't here, now."

Rashana had been trying to take a bit more note of her than before, especially after their arrival in the Nexus. Laila's seeming loss hadn't been easy, and in the subsequent confusion... well,  she'd been instrumental in making things happen.

"I've noticed she seems to have a talent for eluding attention. She may already be having a look about, though I couldn't guess as to where." She said with a slight shrug.

  "Was she always like this?" The temple-girl's voice is low, still soothing in the way one approaches an injured animal.  In fact, that better explains her demeanor all this time: tending to someone frightened of her.  It's almost a palpable aura of care, and she's not even looking at him.  She's watching the flame as she rinses the blood left on her hand in the blood of the pool. If his second-hand offering brightened it...

  The flames strengthen enough the air they draw in can be heard rushing. She rocks back in a start, but not in fear, and the display some. The potential for More draws the air tight, all the same.  She still hasn't looked at him.  "Oh, but I know better.  Is she even like this now?   Or is it a cenotaph?  I'll have to protect it differently, depending."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Wed 25 Nov 2020.

Alvatter turned to Rashana and frowned. He took in the room for the first time, really looking at everyone assembled.

"Huh." he said almost casually.

"It does appear that she's slipped away."

He considered that for a moment before looking back to Rashana.

"It is her way of course, to be unseen. She is a consummate professional in that way. Still I am a tad concerned that she might have found herself in precarious situation, especially given the lurkings of this Lampkeeper. It might be best if we look for her within the city."

"It is her spirit. Sustained by the life of these others. Life for life, for the gods are fair, as they say." The Lampkeeper waves at those encased in the crystals. "But she needs so much, to stay here. So very much. And I cannot repair what was done, cannot return her to herself. It is all I can do to keep her like this."
This message was last updated by the player at 02:54, Thu 26 Nov 2020.

  "Like this," the girl repeats, with her too-wide eyes still on the flame. Only now, they have a more canny look in them—a cat who knows the bird's wing isn't broken. She squeezes her fist enough for another dribble to run into the pool. "Nothing ever stays the same, Elder."

  Then she grasps the fire.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:15, Thu 26 Nov 2020.

Confusion marked Laila's features. "I'm sorry, someone else came with you?"

Alvatter nodded once.

"Yes Bire La. She is one of the Dreamers. A survivor of Irohn just like us. She came with us to the Garden but it seems that she has slipped away between then and now."

The fingers of Laila’s lone hand idly tapped the arm of her chair as she did her best to make sense of that answer. Irohn seemed a lifetime ago now, and there had been a great many people swirling about them in their homeland’s chaotic last days. It had been all too easy to simply stop paying attention to specific names and face. They had become as tools, defined only by how they might aid her in pushing forward towards the goals that lay ahead. The thought sent a ripple of shame running through her and she shivered slightly at its passing. How quickly she had distanced herself from those who should have been her responsibility.

The tapping came to an abrupt halt. Laila pursed her lips, hesitant, before risking a guess.

“I don’t know the name, but the woman who played secretary at our first council perhaps? She was a Dreamer, I think.” Recollection flashed in her eyes. “She was with us on the Roads too, wasn’t she - before the last?”

"That's her." Rashana added, looking to Laila gently. "She has a talent for slipping away if I so much as take my eye from her. She's been helpful, surprisingly so - she has a talent for getting things done when we ask, almost to an unusual degree. We don't talk much, but she has made herself a fixture in helping us." She put a finger to her lip. "So, if she is wandering about, I doubt we'll find her unless she wants to be found, but at the least, we should look."

Bire La touches the flame, blood to fire, and the flame leaps up into her. Distantly, she hears the Lampkeeper shouting. His voice echoes like it's coming from the bottom of a deep well.

But then it all fades away. She is no longer in a forest. She stands on a cliff, looking out over an ocean. She had not seen an ocean before, but she is seeing one now, and the awe at looking out onto the waves fades into open-mouthed amazement as the water turns crimson with a sunset behind it. She feels something push her forward from behind, though nothing is behind her. She falls free through the air, lit by fire and smelling of salt and sorrow.

Abruptly, in the sudden fashion of dreams, she is elsewhere. She stands in a meadow, looking onto a bed of crystal. Within, beauty. There is no other way to describe her. She has coffee skin and raven hair, and her fingers are so graceful as they twist in her sleep. Her eyes are wide open and smell like almonds. She looks at Bire La, and her mouth does not move but a tenebrous alto speaks. "You are not Rahim."

The world shifts again. She is caught between teeth. She is held. She feels the pain, burning, searing through her body like acid spreading through her veins. She cherishes the flame as she feels herself coming unwound. And then the voice speaks again. "But you smell of Rahim. His power."

The pain stops. She is standing on the branch of a colossal tree, the branch wide as a highway, each leaf looking like an emerald dinner platter. The woman from within the crystal stands before her, her almond eyes gleaming with unshed tears, her lips twisted into the most expressive sorrow. "I'm sorry. I thought you were...never mind. What are you? How did you survive that?" And now, finally, La finds her voice responding to her will.

  And the first sound to emerge is a grunt of pain. The doll girl was careless in the safety of her silence, and it slips right out. And then it didn't happen, because she is too poised, too pristine to feel anything so venal as mere pain. It would be agony deserving of a pieta or nothing, for one like that, made of teacups and petals. "I have so many questions," she answers, and her tone is clear: that is her answer. She bows, but as to a generous host, not a superior.

  "You've been here with no body to take you places for a very long time. How long has it been since you've seen Rahim? Smelled his skin, not just his soul?"

Alvatter considered.

"If you'll give me a moment I can attempt to reach out to her. Given that we have a close enough bond I should be able to reach across space to speak with her using theurgy."

Assuming that no one sought to stop him he rose to his feet and moved to a free space. He began to cast, focusing his divine power into each word and gesture.

Committing Effort for Scene to Cast Quickly Trumpet of Far Utterance on Bire La
This message was lightly edited by the player at 15:08, Mon 30 Nov 2020.

"Time is strange, in this place," beauty says, and her voice is sorrow, and she sighs. "But ages of the world have passed, out there. I don't know how Rahim has kept it up so long without going mad. The flame never dimming, never fading, in all this time." She shrugs, eloquently.

"We were doomed from the start, really. The emperor's favorite courtesan, and his trusted captain of the harem guard... Rahim threw himself on the fire, you know, when they burned me for adultery. Silly of him. He was always such a drama queen, you've really no idea." Her face is fond.

  And La's mirrors it: not just in also being fond, but in the specifics of the expression, too, and with remarkable fidelity.  "Oh, he's quite mad," she says in the usual tone for calling someone sweet.  "He thinks of nothing but you—perhaps he even can't—and preserving what life this is, for you.  Utterly insane.  You're two dreams dreaming each other, and neither can awaken lest they both perish."  Importantly, her tone does not change.  She makes it sound almost romantic.

  "You can't tell what sustains you."  It isn't a question.  "That's best for now.  I'm here to change it, in any case.  Will you come with me?  I'll see more answers with your eyes.  And you'll see his again.  And all three of us will find new life for you both!"  As simple as that.  Go with her—be the fire that makes her blood run hot.  And just like that, the road to a happy future stretches before you, after eternities of sorrow.  It's as insane as anything she could say about Rahim.  She makes it sound possible.  Makes it seem real.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:21, Tue 01 Dec 2020.

Beauty looks at La, and smiles, and there is nothing sharp in her as she says, "Deal. With my thanks." The bargain bites all the same, sharper than teeth could ever be, and the dream melts away and the Dream returns.

The Lampkeeper - Rahim - is standing beside her, hand raised to stop her, too slow. Only an instant has passed. The fire goes out, and for a moment his eyes and lamp burn with fury and betrayal. But then he sees something, and hesitates, and whispers, "You...Iesha? No, but you...her fire...you took her in, didn't you? And she dances on you like a candle's flame on the wicking...can she see? Feel?"

Alvatter finds his spell latching onto Bire La, and she appears in his mind's eye. But her eyes, once soft brown, now blaze emerald, like new leaves and fresh-cut grass and barium flame. Unmistakeably the same. Unforgettably different. Around her, a glade of blood and crystals, the latter beginning to crack and release bodies to the grass.

Corpses, more like.

For at least one of the bodies that struck the grass was little more than a shriveled husk draped in funerary rags. It hit the soft grass with a just audible noise, as if it weighed no more than a feather, throughly overshadowed by the weighty metal staff thudding to the ground next to it.

Bire La recognized that staff.

It was the badge of office of one of Anaya's lesser servants, both title and duty wrapped up in twisted black iron.  Anaya's Breath, it was named, for it was the tool and the word that that had filled the limbs of the dead with their Goddess' will. Which meant that the corpse next to it would likely be Etu, the small woman who had born both the staff and the responsibility.  Perhaps the imprisonment in the Lampkeeper's care had drained her, or perhaps the artifact had turned on its wielder.  Either way, it did not look like she would invoke its power again.

  The image turns its head sharply away from Alvatter, and a few seconds later begins to frown in confused wonder.


  La turns to face the ground, looking thoughtful, troubled, even lost.  They aren't emotions one typically associates with anything that might be on the ground in a glade like that, except perhaps a stream of blood flowing past.  For a moment she glances up and sees the ghost of Alvatter, and her eyes widen in brief surprise.  But she stands and turns away again, in the direction she originally faced.  Behind her back, one hand waves him away before she steps forward and both hands reach toward the figure appearing at the edge of the image.


This message was last edited by the player at 06:29, Wed 02 Dec 2020.