Alchae No More (Reysin, Aislyn, Phobius)

by **Phobius** on July 17th, 2015, 9:05 am

"I'm not fine!"

Miss Wanda's sudden, somewhat-shrill yell made Phobius wince, and before he could do much of anything she had sent herself to the ground, falling from Miss Maya's arms like a sack of flour that'd become too heavy to hold. Concerned and fearing that she had hurt herself, the Inartan boy started to kneel down, only to freeze when she continued to talk.

She didn't sound like she wanted any help...as a matter of fact, she sounded like a whole bunch of things, the countless emotions in her voice swirling together in one big, boiling stew. Phobius didn't think he had ever heard someone who was so angry, before...and sad, and confused, and hurt. And yet here the newly-legless woman was, going on about how he was gone, now, how he had left her, how much she had needed him, and the fear within Phobius continued to grow, enough that he had to wrap his arms around his own stomach to keep himself from feeling sick, again.

It was Kuvarakh. He hadn't wanted it to be, had hoped against hope that it wouldn't be, but it was. Miss Wanda had tried to do something that he had done, but it had gone wrong, and as a result the man had left. That was it, wasn't it...? He had left because she had gotten it wrong?

But...but why? Phobius mused, unable to wrap his head around the sudden truth of the matter. Why would he leave if Miss Wanda had gotten hurt...? How come he didn't stay and help her get it all right instead of wrong? If he had...if he had, none of this would have happened, and...and she would still have her legs...

All of a sudden, an unfamiliar voice called to them, and Phobius turned his head to look. A few feet away, amidst the dusty, crumbled wreckage of the Alchae stood an odd-looking-yet-nicely-dressed man with a purple beard. Tilting his head a little, the boy had to stare at him for a moment before realizing that the beard wasn't a beard at all; rather, it was a beard-shaped mass of purple flowers.

Phobius was pretty sure that he had never seen this man, before. So how did he know his name? Better yet, how did he know all of their names? He glanced over at Miss Maya and Mister Ekans, wondering if maybe they recognized him, but they looked about as surprised and confused as he felt. Then his gaze shifted down to Miss Wanda, who seemed...well, scared, for some reason.

And what was a Speaker?

For a moment the boy was tempted to ask, but he chose to hold his tongue, instead, listening as the Flower Man—as he had been officially dubbed in his mind—went on to address Miss Wanda, whose name he also knew, saying that she had made a "mess" and forgotten some sort of "agreement."

"Perhaps you would like to enlighten your friends here, I'm sure they would like to know what exactly is going on," he said, giving Phobius a look. The boy merely blinked at him and looked back down at the woman, who shook her head, supposedly not wanting to explain things. Then another stranger came into view, this one a much older man with what looked like paint all over his face, the colors going hand-in-hand with those of the robes that he was wearing. Phobius squinted as he began to speak, finding it near-impossible to understand what it was that he was saying; the words sounded like Common, but he couldn't be sure, the accent that shrouded them so thick that it confused the boy.

But Flower Man seemed to have gotten it all, and turned back to the three of them.

"What would you have done with those who have broken your trust? Deceived you? Harmed those whom you love?"

Phobius frowned a little, not having expected to be asked a question, let alone one that sounded so...serious. Was there a right answer? A wrong one? If he picked the latter, would he get in trouble? Or, worse yet, would Miss Wanda?

There was a somewhat-tangible pressure in the air, all of a sudden, and the Inartan boy felt as though he would have to give his answer, soon, though he was in no way ready to. Luckily the others stepped up before him, and he looked over at them as they gave their answers, quietly marvelling at how smart the Dhani and the woman sounded. Then his frown deepened. Taking her magic sounded a bit harsh...and Miss Maya didn't really answer the question, having chosen instead to ask one of her own. Which left him.

Phobius directed his attention back to Flower Man and wrinkled his nose a little, thinking hard. "I guess...I would be kinda sad," he said after a while, sounding genuinely honest. "And upset. It's important when you trust someone, and...it hurts when they lie to you, or hurt somebody you love. So I would ask why, because there's gotta be a good reason, right? For someone to do those things...?"

It looked as though he was hoping for actual confirmation, for a moment—as if he was unsure that he'd said the right thing—but then he went on.

"I mean...I think so. People don't do bad things without reasons. And maybe Miss Wanda did some bad things, but...I don't think she wanted to. I don't think she wanted people hurt, either, and...I bet she's really sorry."

All of a sudden, Phobius could feel his eyes filling with an unwelcome warmth, the honey-toned orbs within them turning glossy with the onset of tears.

"Really, really sorry. S-so don't punish her. Please? If she says sorry, will it...will it be okay? I g-guess she could pay money, but..."

OOCThis took way too long and I'm sorry. .__.

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

by **Fable** on August 1st, 2015, 8:23 pm

As each of the three spoke, the Speaker listened with judicial reticence. His eyes gave nothing away as they stared into those that would meet him, though his investment in the conversation far outshone that of the hairless woman, who seemed far more interested in a gentle drift of ash wafting through the air than those around her. The old man let out a muffled chortle at Reysin's closing statement, but gave no further indication as to why his humor might have found purchase in the Dhani's words.

"I see." The young man did not seem particularly impressed with what Reysin had had to offer, however there was a slight glimmer of light around the edges of his dark irises. Wanda, however, only gave the Dhani a stare of muted disgust, whether he turned to see it or not. "A logical justice, then. Apt."

Giving due attention where it was tacitly required of him, the Speaker turned to listen to Aislyn's reply, once more giving little indication as to whether or not he approved of the woman's words, though his brow did twitch at her more brazen question. While he did not divulge to whom the promise had been made, the bald women let out a low, rumbling laugh at the second inquiry, her blue green eyes fixing upon the illusionist with a knowing amusement that was clouded by a darker, foreboding haze. "The very fact you are not aware of such mishaps should prove testament to the punishment's outcomes." There was humor in her voice, though it was far removed from the more common Alvad levity.

The young man shook his head, the flowers rustling in a quiet sigh as they passed through the air with both grace and poise uncommon for those of root and vine. "Precedence, as I am sure the three of you are aware, does not quite have the place in Alvadas as it might outside these walls." Another slow, sweeping gesture was delivered, only this time, it was indicative of the greater perimeter of the city's limits. He gave Aislyn a slight frown, one that was echoed in the expression of the elderly man who's gaze bore into her as if she were some curious form of questionable art. "I would also remind you that no answer is, in and of itself, an answer all the same."

Finally, all eyes fell to the last to speak. Wanda had remained relatively silent, save for a few muffled sobs or quivering breaths, and she made no indication that she had anything more to contribute to the impromptu tribunal around her. All three remained stoic in the Inartian's slow descent into sorrow, though not one made a move to comfort the young man. Instead, the young man turned a dark, questioning eye to the woman to sat upon the ground, her own eyes a watery reflection of Phobius' own as she shared in the boy's grief, though hers was a far more marred creature that his own. "Humor us, Wanda."

She did not reply immediately, her eyes still fixed on the red headed young man who's tears slipped down his face in such innocence. Slowly, her hands curled into clenched fists before she drove her right into the dusty ground beneath her, the sound of flesh slamming into stone astonishingly emphatic in the otherwise silence of the magically decimated surroundings. "Petch it all." Though her voice shook, there was a life to it once more, a bitter, hollow bite to her words that was as acrid and stinging as citrus to an open wound. "I believed him. In him. He let me think, just for a little while, that I was..." She shook her head, moving her hand to run slowly across her bottom lip, several crimson marks dotting her knuckles from where they had split against the stone below her. "That I was worth something." She held up a hand, though whether it was to stop any sort of protest or merely to alleviate some of the sting, it wasn't clear. "I fooled myself, just as he fooled me... And now..."

The Speakers remained impassive, though all three listened with a varied degree of interest as the woman spoke. As for the city itself, the buildings had, at some point between the Speakers' arrival and the start of Wanda's explanation, shifted back into a dull, grey stone. The light no longer bounced from the shimmering glass in some wonderful, curious dance, instead it seemed to barely hover over the clearing, a pale, empty sort of creature that did little more than to remove the shadows that would have otherwise filled the sooty arena. There were no sounds of life aside from those in the center of the destruction, and no longer were there multiple paths leading in various directions. Instead, only a single gap was to be seen between the closely knit structures that surrounded them like silent stone guardians.

"He's gone." The panic in her voice had faded, replaced by the near hateful quality of her hushed tone. Her eyes rose to meet Aislyn's, and while she sounded for all the world a bitter old woman, there was no accusation in her gaze as she continued, merely something a few shades sadder of a business like transaction. "He never came back from that gods be damned house. He left me. Us. I needed to get work done, to... I don't know." She let out a heavy sigh, the weariness of her situation having set in to counteract her panic with dysphoria. "To prove I wasn't... Or that I was who he had convinced me I was." Her eyes settled on the dapper, lavender bearded man. "I knowingly put all these people in danger. I tried to do something beyond me. For... For pride or..." She waved a hand in the air, shaking her head with all the weight of the world upon her. "Or petty fears..." She looked to Phobius, a small smile at the corners of her mouth. "But I am sorry. My foolishness bought me far more than I thought it was worth."

"I see." Again, no compassion was to be heard in the Speaker's voice, though neither was their a nefarious glee at the woman's confession of partial - or perhaps even total - guilt. "So, we now know why." He nodded to the Inartia. "While perhaps the three of you are not aware with whom the promise was made, we are." This time, the nod was directed towards Aislyn. "And while logic has its place within the grand scheme of justice, this is Alvadas. Punishments and crimes are as subjective as the passing days and nights beneath Inou's graces." He took a step towards Wanda, though this time the woman did not recoil. She merely stared up at him, her eyes void of defiance, only filled with ever growing exhaustion. "Wanda Malvolia, we have listened to what you and your companions have had to say. Have you nothing more to add?"

There was a slight pause, then she shook her head.

"Very well." He turned to address the three as the elderly man stooped to - with surprising strength for one who seemed to decrepit - lift Wanda into his arms with a soft "alley-oop". "Phobius. Yisanareysin. Maya." His eyes met with each as he spoken, words careful and tailored, fitting both suit and trim of his neatly kept figure. "You have, collectively, decided this woman's fate. Know this, and understand the gravity of your own thoughts, words, and actions."

"Come now, Severus." The bald woman rolled her eyes, the tentacles beneath her skirt gently tapping at the man's ankles. "Gravity has little merit without its counterpart, wouldn't you say?" There was a slight twinge at the corner of Severus' mouth, but it was gone within the few ticks it had appeared.

"Very well." To each of the three, he handed a small, silver coin. On one side, there was engraved a beautiful woman, on the other a terrible hag. "I leave you three with this, then." As he set the final coin in Aislyn's hand, Severus took a step back, the other two Speakers already making their way towards the only path of exit, Wanda silently in tow. "You are given a final choice: a single coin for a single vote. Cast it as you see fit." With that, Severus turned to follow his two compatriots, leaving Phobius, Reysin, and Aislyn alone. Should any try to follow, it would be found the distance far too great to catch them, and within a few ticks, the figures were gone, not a trace to be found upon the single road that remained for the three to make their way back into the city proper. Once departed, it would be found no path, no matter the determination of those seeking it, would be found to return to the ashen clearing. Thus, the three were left with the coins, alone yet not alone, each to their own thoughts lest they think to share them.

by **Yisanareysin** on September 3rd, 2015, 11:48 pm

The more events unfolded, the more convinced Rey was that he had no petching idea what was happening. It was a very unpleasant sensation. The Speakers seemed indifferent to all of their answers, and even to Wanda's explanation. An explanation that, in fact, made no sense whatsoever to Rey. Something something trying to do too much, with alchemy, he assumed. Could that even happen with magic? The worst that had happened to Rey when he'd overexerted himself was a migraine, and the loss of his sense of smell for a few days.

Under normal circumstances, Rey would have been fascinated by this new discovery. Of course, under normal circumstances he wouldn't be standing in a dusty circle with three speakers, an illusionist, a courier and a legless woman, desperately hoping nothing terrible was going to happen to him.

Correction, a dusty circle with what appeared to be only a single exit. Fantastic. That wasn't an ominous sign in the least. Still, there was nothing he could do about it now, so he resolved to put his panicking on hold until he had good reason to.

Besides, he was too nervous to panic properly.

As the Speakers spoke their piece Rey kept silent, reluctant to draw any more attention to himself. Dozens of questions whirled around in his head (What had they decided to do to Wanda? What was he implying about logic in Alvadas? What was gravity?), and in his head they would remain. For once, he decided, this was a time for caution, not curiosity.

Then the Speakers departed, taking Wanda with them. Sighing with relief, Rey looked down at the coin in his hand, holding it up between his thumb and forefinger. On one side, a beauty, on the other, a crone. Mercy and punishment, Rey supposed. Although in a place like this, with lawkeepers like that, who could say which was which. Another choice to be made. He hummed thoughtfully.

As subjective as the passing days, beneath Ionu's graces.

With a flick of his thumb, the silver coin leaped into the air, briefly resembling a gleaming ball before landing with a smack in Rey's upturned palm. Whatever face it landed on, he gave it only a brief glance before slipping the coin into his pocket, and heading towards the path.

What an wonderful start to the season.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

by **Aislyn Leavold** on September 6th, 2015, 2:39 am

"The very fact you are not aware of such mishaps should prove testament to the punishment's outcomes."
Damn the fact that they were right. Speakers always had a strange way of knowing everything, even when they didn't. At least she'd gotten a response, though, instead of being smitten for questioning the way things were done.
Perhaps Aislyn would become a speaker one day, as, in theory, the knowledge came with the title. Plus, she would be paid for putting people in their place. What a wonderful job.
Though, Aislyn hadn't exactly made a very good impression on the speakers, as far as she could tell. Which, if the way to Speaker-hood was chosen by popular opinion, was a minor hitch.
On the other hand, maybe they treated every poor Alvad that crossed their path like a see-through artwork to be toyed with.

Biting her tongue, Aislyn resigned herself to observing. She was good at that.

Phobius was the last one to give his testimony. Though she refused to let herself console the boy any more than she had already tried, Lyn did feel empathetic towards him. His attempt to protect Wanda was saddening, but she tried not to think much of it. They couldn't kill her, right? Ionu was not a malicious god; the illusionist knew that. But if the deal hadn't been made with Ionu themself, who could it have been made with? The speakers had dodged her question quite skillfully, but still, it was curious.
For a sparse moment, Aislyn forgot what the scene before her was, and how shaky the ground they stood on had become.
Simply put, there was no one to miss any of the lives that were standing before the speakers of the city at that moment.

Wanda came out of her silence once again, this time, baring nothing but what Aislyn could assume was the truth. The older woman's eyes once again met Lyn's, in a colder, foreign sort of way. Not quite pleading. Far from it, in fact. Just... Sad.
She wasn't trying anymore. She had given up on what had been sacrificed that day. Be it the day Kuvarakh ventured into the mansion, or the day Wanda attempted to take Kuv’s place. Whenever it had been, Wanda obviously didn’t care about herself anymore.
Which was why it bothered her so much that Wanda had said us.
”He left us”
Like Aislyn, or Phobius, or even petching Rey was in the same situation she was. But she hadn’t addressed Phobius or Rey. She had addressed Aislyn, even after Lyn had not exactly favoured her in her testimony to the speakers.
Once again, Aislyn bit her tongue.

Wanda’s hollow words continued, condemning herself. Admitting her guilt. Spilling the truth- or what could only be believed was the truth- up until the bearded speaker approached her.
As much as Aislyn had struggled, the speaker had ease, picking Wanda up as if she weighed nothing, which the woman knew was untrue. His actions sent a sense of certainty through the meeting, as if this were to be the last time any of them would see Wanda again. Which it very well might be. At this realization, Aislyn bowed her head slightly.
The woman had respect for the dead, even as they were still breathing.

But then there was the coin.
A single, shiny, peculiarly ordinary coin. Rather, ordinary in the Alvadas meaning of the word. In actuality, the coin was in no way ordinary. It had a very different design to the truly ordinary miza, and obviously had a very different meaning. On one side, a woman of beauty. The other, one lacking such a quality. Obviously meant to represent good and evil, in some way. Or maybe not. This was Alvadas, after all.
And to some extent, it was Ionu.
There was no way to predict which side would wind up condemning the trio's lost companion. Rather, if Aislyn knew her deity well, it would be the opposite of what anyone would expect.
Unless Ionu was not the one orchestrating this; but it was a risk she was willing to take. So the woman held the coin in her hand, hag side up, before slipping it into her pocket.

With finality, Aislyn let her arms fall to her sides. Once at rest, however, she returned to an old habit, and the only sound that the woman emitted as a soft breeze began to blow through the dusty clearing was the soft tick of a locket clicking, open, and shut.

by **Phobius** on September 6th, 2015, 8:12 pm

Had Phobius been more of the crafty, manipulative sort, he might have thought to use his muted sobs as leverage against the Flower Man and his strange-looking friends. But he was...well, himself, and the look of sadness upon his face was as genuine as could be, the tears that had freely fallen from his amber eyes no less natural to him than the act of breathing or blinking.

Having said all that he had wanted to, the young Inarta wiped the moisture from his cheeks with his sleeve and sniffled. It seemed as though the Speakers had been listening, but it was hard to tell what they were thinking about, now, with how blank their faces looked, and he found himself growing worried. Had he said all of the wrong things...? Or, worse yet, had they already made their decision? He had tried his best to defend her—something that Mister Ekans and Miss Maya seemed to have forgotten to do—but if his words didn't even matter...

The Flower Man suddenly turned to Miss Wanda, and Phobius followed his gaze, only to find that the dust-coated woman was looking back at him, a strange hardness having settled into her eyes. And he listened as she began to speak, the corners of his lips gradually drawing down as his frown deepened with her words. It sounded as though she blamed Kuvarakh for a lot of things...and though the Inarta couldn't really judge just how much of what had happened had been his fault—if any of it even was—he didn't like how she was making him sound. She and the alchemist had been close, but now...now she seemed to think that he hadn't cared about her, at all, which Phobius knew wasn't true.

But had he really left her...left them...by staying at the Mansion? It would explain his disappearance, but...well, why would he have stayed so long?

The Mansion could have made him stay, Phobius mused, suddenly remembering his "adventure" in the living house's halls the day they had gone to make repairs on it. It'd been a nice house, but he had felt as though it had intentionally been keeping him from Kuvarakh, for one reason or another. So maybe he hadn't wanted to stay, and it had trapped him inside. It just...didn't make sense that the alchemist would abandon them all, like that.

When the woman finished explaining, she looked up at him again and smiled a little. The young Inarta merely blinked at her, surprised, then returned the smile as best as he could, though the effort it took was a lot more than he'd expected. She was sorry, just like he had thought she was. And that counted for something, right?

He looked over at the Flower Man, searching for a sliver of understanding in his otherwise-unreadable expression, but the man didn't seem to be too interested in what she had said. He then spoke about some sort of "promise" and justice in Alvadas. Miss Wanda was given a chance to talk some more, and when she didn't the oldest-looking amongst the Speakers knelt down and picked her up, as though she was as light as a feather.

That all three of them had "collectively decided" the woman's "fate" didn't sit well with Phobius, who felt as though he understood the words and their implications a bit more than he would have liked. With how different their opinions on the matter were, how were they supposed to decide what would happen?

As if to answer his internal question, the Flower Man handed him a silver coin, then told them that they would be using it to vote. Still frowning, Phobius turned it over in his hand, noticing how one side had an old, unfriendly-looking woman on it, while the other had one who was pretty.

I just...choose a side? he mused, furrowing his brows in mounting confusion as he continued to inspect the bit of silver. But what do they mean...?

Wondering if the other were as lost as he felt, Phobius glanced over at them. Mister Ekans had already pocketed his coin and was walking away, while Miss Maya seemed to be taking her time. Then she turned it over and slipped it into her own pocket, her mind made up. Which left him.

Feeling anxious, the young Inarta took another moment to look over his coin, amber eyes boring into one side and then the other. The old lady was probably a bad something, while the pretty one could be a good something...

Phobius turned the coin so that the pretty woman would be facing upward, then put it into his pocket, hoping against hope that he had made the right choice. It was looking as though Miss Wanda would be punished either way, but if they had all chosen the same side, then maybe...maybe she had a chance.

The boy looked up from his hand, and was able to catch a glimpse of the Speakers as they walked away with the woman in tow, having gotten impressively far in a short amount of time. And for a tick or two, he thought about trying to go after them, wanting to let Miss Wanda know that everything would be alright; that, despite what she thought about herself, he thought that she was a good person, and that all good people made mistakes, every now and then. But he willed himself to stay put, instead raising a hand and waving at the woman, all the while trying to ignore the horrible feeling that he wouldn't be seeing her, again.

"Goodbye, Miss Wanda..."

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

by **Fable** on November 18th, 2015, 4:04 am

Upon returning home, each would find their coins changed from the simple discs they had been before. In Phobius' pocket, there was a scintillating bracelet of shimmering blue beads of different sizes, just wide enough to slip snugly over his hand to hang loose about his wrist or tight around his ankle. Reysin's coin had revealed itself to be not one but two simple cubes of ivory, upon which each face there was always a different picture no matter how many times he might study them. For Aislyn, she would find an egg-sized locket, elegant metalwork forming the appearance of an eye with an iridescent "pupil" of mother of pearl at its center, though it would seem the latch is stuck and immovable.

Phobius

Skills

Lores

Rewards/Consequences

Reysin

Skills

Lores

Rewards/Consequences

Aislyn

Skills

Lores

Rewards/Consequences

and

Notes :

Quest Alchae No More (Reysin, Aislyn, Phobius)