not forgotten. (hadrian)

[Caelum]

"I'm glad you didn't know, Hadrian," Caelum cut him off, whirling back around in his pacing. This time, however, he scraped to a halt on the edge of the sunlight puddling on the floor from the bedroom window. It slid across the scarred toes of his boots, highlighting more dust motes than it did what of him remained in comparable shadow. He was shaking his head, burying hands into the pockets of his riding jacket with a slump of shoulders that had not existed in their shared history until now. "Summoning is something I know next to nothing about. Magic," his words stumbled, sliding for a minute as if they might fall right back down his throat. Ghosts of Ravok tiptoed behind his eyes. "Magic as a whole I don't know a great deal about, but gods.. Gods, Hadrian, I know. If you help a goddess and She helps you, are you doing good? That's going on the truly hazardous assumption that all gods are good and, even if they are, that their far broader view of morality and its long term results is remotely comparable to your own. We live in a universe of dystheism. Our gods often possess as many bad qualities as they do good or --" His shoulders lifted in a shrug that was less for his friend and more for the very djed that surrounded and sewed up them all. "Or this is pointless," he sighed. "You're doing what.. What you think is right. You're going to Ravok to aid a friend. You're trying to help a fallen goddess of whom I've not heard foul things. Hadrian, I'm sorry. I can't help but fear in this. You must understand that it doesn't only matter what you do, but why you do it. They are in my opinion equally important and, I think, they might be to the fallen goddess of the stars as well. It isn't enough to believe in the gods anymore, not when faith can find you cast out from their arms." He was silent for a minute, staring at that sunlight. It had been a lover and a friend, a sister and a mother. He stepped back to his chair, defeated before he had even begun. "I would heal that rift in Syna and Leth's realms," he spoke wearily. "And I'll aid you in whatever way I can in this, but I cannot, will not go back to Ravok. Gods forgive me. Tell me more about your plan, Hadrian, and this thing you've heard of Denval, is it?"

[Hadrian]

"I didn't ask you to come to Ravok," he said heatedly, quickly, as soon as the steam within burst its seams, and he instantly regretted it. It was truth: he had not asked Caelum to accompany him. What was unsaid, but also truth: he would feel more confident if the ethaefal were a part of the traveling party. Not only because he might heal whatever wounds they might incur, but because he was a longer term, comforting presence in his life, a kindred spirit when on the trail of an idea or some datum of knowledge. There were plenty of things he might have said to defend himself, but defending himself meant prolonging the argument, and he didn't want their sudden, unexpected reunion to be marred by struggle and dissent. He exhaled whatever he might have said about human morality versus divine morality, about magic and friendship, danger and loss. "Denval," he began again, his voice calm, "there have been reports... well, the first time I heard tell of a higher instance of ethaefal falling around Denval than elsewhere, it was after you left Zeltiva. A visiting professor from Denval was teaching in a Kalean Cultures class, mostly about the troubles with ethaefal breeding... he was very... fixated... on breeding and bloodlines. Anyway, it was something I meant to ask you about the next time I saw you... But when I was in Alvadas, I think I might have met an aspect of Ionu, or at least one of Its servants... and he... it was a male aspect, I suppose, or servant... He said something about it. He said something about the ambiance there being attractive to fallen celestials. I normally remember details better, but that whole period of time blurs strangely in my memory..." He sighed, suddenly weary. "It makes sense. I was talking to someone at the Temple about Aquiras... The Denvali still worship Him, did you know that? Even though He's been lost or comatose -- depending on who you believe -- since Sagallius cut out His heart. But it makes sense," he continued, trying to guide Caelum along the path of his meandering thoughts, "that many ethaefal would end their celestial journey there where the worship of the god of travel persists. Where their chaplains speak of internalizing the journey. I suppose they would tell you to heal the rift within yourself to heal the rift in the Ukalas." Hadrian left it there, figuring Caelum would take it where he would. He was the one who had actually been there, after all. The young enchanter, his friend, was merely passing along the story as a life-line, for there were often dead ends to climb over.

[Caelum]

"Higher purpose," Caelum murmured to himself, long legs stretched before him and elbow propped on the air of his chair. He gazed at his friend, the master wizard, the ambitious philosopher, with heavily lidded eyes and did not rise to the bait of not being asked to join Hadrian in his journey in Ravok. In that release of temper, the excess steam of a soul set to boiling by the dangerous manipulation of djed, the ethaefal saw too in Hadrian the trespass of time and its damages. He understood. "There's a theory of it, that the secrets of heaven could be locked in my mind. Not just in mine," he gestured, worn, physician's hands trying to snag upon something in Syna's light sewn through the air. "But in the minds of all us reaped from the cycle of lives to the Ukalas. Our memories are pockmarked, incindiary, but is it only because our now corporeal brains are incapable of surviving the potency of celestial wisdom? And if so, how incapable are we? Hadrian -" Abruptly, he was standing again, hardly even aware he was turning once more to pace. He had ever been the sort to think on his feet, to move with the whirl and wail of the wind even when it was still and waiting to be born again from the womb of space. Cagey, this physical form a prison for a spirit already ascended. "It is understood by those who have sought it, who have wished to study it and use it mostly for their own ends, that the language of the gods can't be uttered by physical mouths. That, of course, is even assuming that anyone not a god even knows it; but we do. I do. Bits and pieces, broken sounds and syllables; but the rest is there just like my memories of Sunsinger, of every life lived before even him. They're just waiting for me, wanting me to find them. Sometimes I think that if I could, if any of my brethren could fight it free of themselves, we would have our answers. We could heal heaven. We could.. We could resurrect gods. The Cycle cannot keep the divine out of it, could it? If gods die, then gods must be born." He whirled, coming face to face with his friend. Madness, people would say of him, people had already said. But was it? "You said you'll be going to Denval. After the Ravok," he clarified. "I've some business of my own to attend, but I can meet you there. I have an idea and I'm going to need your help."

[Archon]

Illumination of Development Caelum +3 Rhetoric +2 Philosophy +1 Intimidation Lores: Letters aren't reliable, The hubris of a mage, Recognizing a pointless argument Care to see more? : Rhetoric experience for the conversation, Philosophy experience for the discussions on the nature of things, and Intimidation experience for the grumpiness. Hadrian +3 Rhetoric +2 Philosophy +1 Persuasion Lores: Letters aren't reliable, WIzardly Plans (Grand), Think before you speak Care to see more? : Rhetoric experience for the conversation, Philosophy experience for the discussing of how things work, and Persuasion experience for the attempt to sway Caelum's opinion. Notes: A great social thread. I did indeed enjoy reading it.