All Roads/Session 18

Flashback:

ST: Jean-Louise, when she gave her campaign speech, was far more down-to-earth in comparison to Latimer's promises of action.

ST: She reminded the concilium that in the two hundred years that the Mysterium have been in power that atlantean influence in London has only grown.

ST: She recognised there were currently problems, but she called for calm. In response to Latimer's promise of increased Sentinel numbers she responded that she would not implement a salary or reward system, as that would attract the wrong people for the job.

ST: She would offer more direct resource support to the sentinels in their investigations in future, to combat the current crisis. She would also encourage the sentinels to work more closely with the Guardians overall.

Kenan: (this being mage, what sort of resources are we talking about?)

fRqaAxk0T: Mysterium vault resources.

fRqaAxk0T: Information, artefacts, loaned personnel.

fRqaAxk0T: Rotes.

fRqaAxk0T: Money, too. Though that's usually fairly easy to come by.

fRqaAxk0T: She also promised that she would take a concilium-wide vote on whether the constitution required amending or re-writing. If found to be the case the Mysterium would not object to negotiating suitable changes.

ST: Those being the pertinent points the rest of her speech promised business as usual.

ST: Emphasising how successful London has been, despite the current 'anomaly'.

ST: That aside, shall we begin the session proper?

Kenan: Kenan figures this sounds like bullshit, but less of a bullshit than what Latimer was promising; he considers casting invalid vote for a while, but eventually decides to vote for Jean-Louise

ST: Honestly, the idea of an 'election' in the concilium is something of a novelty.

ST: It hasn't happened for centuries, and there is not a huge amount a candidate can promise as each order tends to take care of its own.

Nebuchadnezzar: hasn't bothered to vote

ST: What it does decide though is which order garners the most influence in decision-making in the city.

ST: Which means they tend to steer the concilium.

Now:

ST: Sunday dawns, last night having been when Latimer had been so kind as to invite you to share a drink.

ST: Blustery, but not overcast. It is a little warmer than the season has been providing so far.

Isis: The evening before Isis managed to get her thought bottle to work, although imperfectly. But although there are a number of things she'd like to try next, today is for a different sort of exploration. Isis has risen before dawn to prepare the way, working with chalk and High Speech in the sanctum's entrance hallway.

Isis: Around nine in the morning the portal opens - very briefly. But that's enough. Once the directional folding is achieved once it can be reopened again with far greater ease.

Isis: She'd promised to have thing's ready 'after breakfast', so this is the most convenient way.

Isis: After breakfast, dressed warmly and in the usual protection spells Isis stands ready to transport herself and the others.

Isis: There are chalk markings on the floor, geometric figures and Atlantean symbols but no obvious magic at work yet (or anymore).

Isis: "Are you ready," she asks brightly. "We can step through at any time."

Kenan: "let us do this thing!" mumbles Kenan, his mouth half full with what he's been eating for breakfast and coffee

Isis: "We /do/ have enough time for you to finish breakfast," she smiles.

Kenan: "it'sh fine" - Kenan puts down the mug after draining it

Nebuchadnezzar: gestures an afermation

Nebuchadnezzar: He looks tired and is carrying a briefcase and his work coat

Isis: nods and holds the small compass orb she uses for this kind of spell up before her and intones a few words in High Speech.

ST: As the spell disgorges you instantly in a place far from home the first thing that hits you is the smell. Must and mold mingled with more than a fair amount of stale urine.

Isis: There is a blurred distortion all around them as she pries open the directional fold she had created earlier and shunts the three of them through.

Isis: "This apartment over there," Isis says quietly, familiar with the surroundings from her scrying.

ST: The narrow hallway you're standing in is dark. Dull light shines down behind you from stairs that lead upwards. Below them are stairs leading to the lower floor.

Kenan: "right. we'll have to do something about the lock"

ST: The floor crunches underfoot with dirt and grime. A few short steps and you find yourself standing outside the apartment you saw in the vision.

ST: The door is closed. It's as old as the rest of the place, but it looks as though a new padlock was installed recently. A ribbon of yellow police tape hangs limply down on one side of the frame.

Isis: "Alastair and the other one would have come through here," Isis muses. "Kenan, we rely on you from here on. What we want to know lies in the past ..."

Nebuchadnezzar: glances around. Carefully examining the scene.

Kenan: "do we know the rough time of when it happened? it would help considerably..."

Isis: shakes her head. "No."

Isis: She looks around, trying to get an idea of roughly how fresh the damage from the fire might be.

Nebuchadnezzar: walks around the room his hand stroking his chin, looking at the walls and the ceiling

Isis: "More than a few months, I think." Isis shrugs. "But then, he has attained mastery. That's something that takes years, usually ..."

Isis: "I wonder what his Path is. As Master of Mind ... unless that wasn't him ..."

Nebuchadnezzar: continues examining the hallway. "Were we going to examine the apartment? Or just stand in the hallway?" He says quietly

Kenan: "I am not particularly proficient in the art of opening doors without a proper key", Kenan replies

Isis: "The ones who attacked him came through here," Isis says quietly. "Maybe a postcognition can tell what their intent was."

Isis: "If you don't mind I can make it so we can all see when you're looking across time."

Kenan: "hmm, if you wish"

Nebuchadnezzar: reaches over a removes the lock from the door

Nebuchadnezzar: "The lock wasn't even closed." Neb lies.

Kenan: having considerably improved his chances of finding anything of significance, Kenan carefully examines the apartment

ST: The apartment beyond is a fire-gutted shadow of what you saw in the vision, and it wasn't particularly in good shape then either.

ST: The smell of char is apparent on the air, but not as overpowering as you might have expected. As Isis determined, the fire could not have taken place recently.

Isis: Isis lingers outside the apartment for a moment longer, intensifying her sympathy to the place (but not the other way around).

ST: The layout is the same though. You enter into what was once the kitchen area, and ahead of you opens into the main living space where the rusting frame and springs of a mattress languish in one corner.

ST: Either side of the living room are doors. The one to the right enters into a bedroom, while on the left a bathroom. Both are as bare and burnt as the rest of the place.

Isis: A second spell frays the sympathetic threads she may have created by working magic on the area.

Isis: Then she enters after the others, less interested in physical appearances (which she knows already) but very curious what the others' magic might find out beyond what she can tell.

Nebuchadnezzar: wanders in glancing at the place with some distaste. His eyes however are sharp, carefully examining the room.

Nebuchadnezzar: He examines both the bedroom and the remains of a wardrobe... paying particularly interest to the latter

Nebuchadnezzar: "Kenan, you may wish to examine this spot here. It looks as if someone used to..." he looks upward considering his word..." hide something here."

Isis: Isis too lets her eyes roam, walking around at random. It seems unlikely that any possessions or hints as to 'Jeans identit would remain intact, but something like that could be just as useful as his real name.

Kenan: "this place has been cleared out a while ago, there have been some people around"

Kenan: Kenan examines the niche

Isis: "There's nothing left to tie back to him." Isis smiles a little. "That would have been too easy."

Isis: As Kenan prepares to peel back the veil of time Isis shifts the blacksmith's puzzle in her pocket around, establishing telepathy sufficient to share his sight as he'd given his permission to do.

ST: Before you the spell opens to a scene almost exactly like the one you saw previously.

ST: This time though Jean sits back on the mattress in the living room, newspaper open on his lap. The young girl you saw lies on the floor near him, tapping away on a mobile phone.

ST: There's a knock at the door. Jean suddenly looks up and as he begins to speak the vision becomes horribly distorted. "Hide, Lucy." You make out before the spell fails.

ST: Again you're standing in the present, with only each other to look at.

Kenan: 'all right, we'll be here for a bit longer'

Kenan: 'if you could get some snacks and coffee, that'd be great'

Isis: "Was that a shielding practice?"

Isis: "Or does the ... event make it difficult to perceive?"

Nebuchadnezzar: continues to look around, peering here and there and not paying all that much attention to Kenan

Kenan: "it was shielding"

Isis: nods. "How long will your ritual take?"

Kenan: "whole day, I imagine. I don't think giving it any less will have a point, the shield would've been strong for something like what happened here, I imagine"

Kenan: (8 hours later) :P

Isis: "Oh. Alright, but remember we want to look at before that as well to see if we can find out his name."

Kenan: "how long before?"

Isis: Isis waves her hand vaguely. "Hours, days, weeks. Those shouldn't be sealed, right? So that shouldn't be hard."

Isis: "All we need is a letter laying on the table with the address line fully visible, or something like that ..."

Kenan: "oh, that should be easily doable later"

Isis: "I hoped so," Isis smiles.

Isis: "Alright, I'll see if there's anything else to find. And start on our way back if there isn't."

Nebuchadnezzar: .wod 7

Nebuchadnezzar: "Should it be getting colder?" Neb says looking around, suddenly alarmed.

Isis: "Nebuchadnezzar," Isis says quietly, nodding toward the corner.

Nebuchadnezzar: looks slowly towards the corner Isis is indicating, his movement slow

Isis: She brings a small bone flute out from under her winter jacket and to her lips, attuning herself to the whispers of the beyond.

Isis: "Hello," she takes a few steps in the same direction, and gives a friendly wave to the empty air. "How are you?" There's a slight Twilight-born echo to her words.

Nebuchadnezzar: tenses, aware of what Isis is up to. He too raises his ghostly vision, something he has never favoured doing.

ST: She looks up with something of a start, uncomprehending for a moment. Her dirty, dreadlocked blonde hair obscured part of her face. "Are you talking to me?" She croaks after a short moment.

Isis: As usual when Nebuchadnezzar invokes the Grim Sight Isis takes on a strangely contrasted appearance. She shines brightly with youth, but cobwebs of death surround her like a mantle of sorts and her hands are stained. Beyond her initiation into the corresponding arcanum she has seen and been touched by death, far more than one would expect of someone so young.

Isis: "Yes," Isis says brightly. "What's your name? Is this your home?"

ST: Her English is broken and halting, laden with a strong Parisian accent. "Isabelle." She says, still looking a little shocked. "I stay here, yes. How can you see me?"

ST: "Everyone else cant see me. They forget me." Her word choice is a little poor, she doesn't have a fluent grasp of the language.

Nebuchadnezzar: focuses on the woman, trying to more clearly see the ghost. But for a moment he is seeing another person another time, a woman more familiar to him.

Nebuchadnezzar: Quickly shutting his eyes, Neb focuses on the here, on the now and on this ghost.

Nebuchadnezzar: He swallows, takes a deep breath and opens his eyes.

Isis: "Would French be more comfortable for you?" Isis inquires in that language, her facility with it gifted by Mind magic.

ST: She nods then murmurs, "Ah, yes.."

Isis: "We are not like everyone," Isis says simply.

Isis: "How long have you been staying here, Isabelle?" Her tone is friendly. Just because she is a ghost doesn't mean she is less of a human being.

Isis: Just another stage of the same.

ST: She does't say anything for a second, but then makes to stand. She looks over the three of you, "I don't know. I can't remember. A long time." A pause, "I think I'm dead."

ST: She seems a little overwhelmed at the fact she can actually speak to someone.

Isis: nods seriously. "Yes, you are," she adds after a moment.

ST: "I am?" Her voice cracks a bit and her eyes water even more, "Oh shit.."

Isis: "But you still remember who you are, so you /are/ still you."

ST: "I don't remember it happenening. I- I keep forgetting all the time. It's so hard to think."

Isis: Isis takes a step closer. "People don't stay the same forever," she says, trying to reassure the ghost. "Being dead is just a different state of being."

ST: "Who are you?"

Nebucahadnezzar: winces at Isis' take on Death. Unable to hide his feelings on it.

Isis: Isis looks to Neb briefly. "Can you make it easier for her? Help her?" She knows that there are spells to return to ghosts the facilities they might have lost, but she is not yet accomplished enough to be able to do it.

Nebucahadnezzar: "Not yet, my own knowledge of the dead..." he looks sadly at the ghost, "it has not advanced that far yet."

Isis: "I'm Isis. It's nice to meet you, Isabelle."

ST: "I thought you were called Lucy?" Her brow furrows a bit, then she suddenly scrunches up her eyes and rubs her face with a palm.

ST: "No. That was someone else." Her face is wet with tears when she looks up again, "You look like her."

Nebucahadnezzar: "We could move her if she wished and possibly fix her later." Neb says aloud. "However comsidering this shades obvious connection with the Scelestus..."

Isis: "Several entities have said that," Isis nods. "Were you close to Lucy?" Her tone is sympathetic.

ST: "She.. She could see me too." The girl says, as if remembering again, "I met her. I don't know when, long ago."

ST: "After the fire."

Isis: Isis frowns briefly at Neb's objection. "The Scelestus or the man he was before that, though?" She turns back to the ghost to ask her when the meaning of woman's words hits her and interrupts that train of thought.

Isis: "You saw Lucy? After the fire? Have you seen her recently, too?"

ST: "No, she wasn't here for long."

ST: "I don't think she was."

Isis: "Could she talk to you before the fire as well?"

ST: She looks a bit agitated and scratches at her arm, where you can see a number of tiny needle pricks.

ST: "I don't remember! Why do you want to know about her?"

ST: "Can you help me get home? I can't find my way out of here."

ST: Her tone turns into a sudden hopefulness as she speaks those last words.

ST: As though the idea had only just occured to her.

Isis: Isis takes a deep breath, exhaling calm and peace for the troubled woman. "It's alright, it's alright. It's not that important right now."

Isis: "I don't know ... where is your home, do you know?"

ST: Isabelle visibly calms at the release of the spell, though tears still trickle down her cheeks. She closes her eyes to remember, "Ah.. Thirty- Thirty six, avenue du Marechal Joffre. 60500 Chantilly."

ST: She smiles just a hint after reciting the address, but it's lost as soon as she opens her eyes.

Isis: Isis looks to Neb. Clearly if she can she would like to help the ghost.

ST: "I just- I just want to see my mum again. She doesn't know where I am."

Nebucahadnezzar: gives a pained look. "We can transfer her via a soul jar... and then hopefully she can let go."

Nebucahadnezzar: "I'd ask your questions first, Isis. After there will not be time." His voice goes very quiet

Isis: Isis nods silently.