All Roads/Session 5

Pete: The night following that dreadful scene at the Brewer's hall is a fitful one.

Pete: Perhaps you have not slept, but those who could suffered terrible and extremely vivid nightmares.

Pete: Neb is treated as best as is possible by the Sentinels before being taken to a local hospital, along with Eidolon.

Isis: Isis has employed a subtle piece of magic to make sure she can sleep, but preventing dreams - which she'd be quite capable of - would defeat the purpose of allowing her mind to come to terms with the events of the day.

Nebuchadnezzar: sleeps fitfully in the hospital bed. Having been kept overnight for observation. Between the medicine and the interent nightmares he is not much rested at all but then again he hasn't had a good nights sleep in three years.

Kenan: Kenan found some comfort in meditating, which consisted of flipping a coin and analysing the events of the evening; he seems to be blaming himself for at least part of what had occurred durnig the night

Pete: Morning rises and it is very early in the day when there is a knock at the sanctum door.

Isis: The next morning Isis rises with the sun. More sleep would only mean more nightmares anyway.

Isis: The house somehow seems more quiet than usual so the knocking at the door seems very loud. Laying aside the pen and the books Isis goes to answer the door.

Isis: Just before opening it she invokes the Third Eye.

Pete: On the other side stands Arclight, the sentinel who spoke to you at the scene. He wears the same scruffy clothes that he wore the night before, his dreadlocked hair tied back, and looks extremely tired. "Hey, good morning." He attempts a smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Isis: Isis seems to just look at Arclight for a long moment before answering. "Better than Eidolon and Nebuchadnezzar, I fear. Physically, that is."

Isis: "Of course, I don't really know how they are feeling," she adds after a moment. "Do you have any news?"

Pete: He nods, his expression still quite blank. "From what we've got so far there's no doubt someone did this on purpose. As an on going investigation though, I can't really tell you more than that. Sorry." He gives a sigh, then looks over you into the house. "Do you mind if I come in? I've come to take your statements, you and Kenan, if you have the time."

Isis: "I do have time. And I will ask Kenan if he does." She pauses for a moment, then says with the air of a ritual phrase: "On behalf on the City and the Tower Arclight is invited into the cabal sanctum."

Pete: He pauses, then a genuine smile crosses his face briefly at the ceremony before he enters. "Thanks."

Isis: She guides the Sentinel into the kitchen and puts aside her schoolbooks and notes into a small stack at one side of the kitchen table. "Make yourself at home. I will see if Kenan can talk to you."

Isis: In contrast to the previous day she moves in a more subdued manner going up the stairs to knock on the door of Kenan's room. "Kenan? Are you awake?"

Isis: "Don't answer if you're sleeping ... oh."

Kenan: Kenan opens the door, fully dressed, as if he was expecting a visitor. it's clear he hasn't slept well, but he's shaven; smell of freshly brewed coffee fills his room "Good morning Isis, I hope the night wasn't too bad for you"

Isis: "It wasn't as bad as some," Isis says lightly. "Good morning, Kenan. There's Arclight downstairs in the kitchen. He wants to talk to us about yesterday."

Isis: "Or just to me if you don't want to," she adds after a moment. "But he'll probably come back later then."

Kenan: "of course, I'll head down there immediately" - Kenan does so

Isis: nods and follows him back down.

Pete: "Hey man." Arclight holds out his hand to shake as Kenan enters, "How're you doing?"

Isis: "I can make tea if you like," she says to Arclight coming back to the kitchen. "I don't understand coffee, though."

Kenan: "as well as it's possible, considering the circumstances" - Kenan smiles sadly

Pete: "Tea would be great, thanks. Milk, two sugars." He then nods to Kenan, "Good to hear. Yeah, everyone's been pretty shaken up."

Isis: Isis nods and busies herself with teakettle, teapot and leaves.

Pete: "Guardians are chasing their tail trying to work out how it happened in one of their own dens. And as you can imagine the Arrows are being pretty loud about it too. Not that I've got time for politics, though."

Kenan: "No wonder they're upset, it must have been quite embarrasing for them. Any news about yesterday's incident?"

Isis: "They must be feeling terrible," Isis agrees. "I've never before seen such a bad paradox."

Pete: "Investigation's still ongoing," He repeats what he said to Isis earlier, his typical casual demeanour giving way to practiced professionalism. "Can't discuss the details, sorry."

Pete: "There were two casualties, though." His tone wavers a bit.

Kenan: "casualties? you mean Neb and Eidolon" - uncertainty appears on kenan's face

Isis: Isis turns around. "Not Eidolon! Ledger said he would make it."

Pete: "No," He shakes his head. "Fawkes, don't know if you know him, one of the Guardian's." He pauses for a second to see if either of you recognise the name, "And Gwendolyn, one of the stewards from the mysterium Library."

Kenan: "what? when? how?" Kenan looks confused

Isis: "Gwendolyn was visiting us just yesterday," Isis says surprised and sad.

Pete: "We think Fawkes went down to paradox. He took part in the ritual. Gwen was taken by blood loss. The manifestation must have got her." His tone is subdued, especially when he mentions Gwendolyn.

Isis: Less surprised than she could be, though. She had seen at least one other body, though she had not thought about it much in yesterday's blur.

Kenan: Kenan bites his lip, thinking, but remains silent

Pete: Arclight just nods a bit to himself reverently, clearly quite peturbed by the whole business, before continuing, "I won't keep you long, if I could just take your statements for last night."

Isis: Isis is quiet for a moment. "There will be a funeral, won't there?"

Isis: "A statement. That means everything that happened at the Guardians' place, right?"

Pete: The question catches him a bit by surprise and he just looks at Isis for a moment, "Her family will-, uh, yeah. We'll hold something for her too." Sometimes juggling your regular and awakened lives can be tough.

Pete: He then nods and pulls out a large notebook. "It shouldn't take more than a half-hour. Can we sit down?"

Kenan: "yes, of course" - Kenan points to one of the chairs

Isis: "The tea is almost ready," Isis adds.

Isis: "We arrived there and met Eidolon at the door," Isis begins bringing Arclight his tea and sitting down herself, "and Solaris and many others inside. I don't know them all. We talked a little bit."

Isis: "Then Wickerman said that they were going to begin with the ritual. It was a powerful scrying across time and space. The scrying showed many angry people, a situation arranged maybe for or by then bald man who is suspected of being one of the Accursed."

Kenan: Kenan nods, indicating he's got nothing to add at this point

Isis: "I wanted to look at his soul, but I was attacked with magic before I could concentrate on that. Someone, I don't yet know who exactly but it was a master of the Mind Arcanum and very strong, imposed a phantasm on me."

Isis: "I noticed because of my mind shield - I always prepare one, you know - and I examined the resonance. There was a sympathetic connection to someone in the room, possibly the caster, too."

Kenan: Kenan's eyebrow rises, as this information is new to him

Pete: Arclight notes down all the details, though looks interested once Isis mentions the illusion. "A phantasm? What of?"

Isis: "Then suddenly there was a terrible noise and the ritual began to go Havoc. The lights went out and almost everyone panicked. I tried to get some distance, but then Kenan cried that there was a Manifestation so I tried to take away everyone's fear so they could fight."

Isis: "It worked too, but I didn't see very many people doing something. Eidolon went to stand in the creature's way, though. It ..." Isis hesitates briefly, remembering, "it hurt him badly. I was very afraid and tried to hurt its mind but it didn't work."

Isis: "Then Nebuchadnezzar used a stone-eater curse to destroy the thing, but he had to make it very strong and was hurt himself."

Pete: "Isis, what was the phantasm you saw?" Arclight prompts, his pen hovering over the paper since she mentioned it.

Isis: tilts her head slightly. "With your permission I can show you?"

Kenan: "yes. I did notice the manifestation, it seemed to be going straight for Isis. I'm surprised that no-one has taken any action until I shouted. Even then, it was only Eidolon who rushed to help Isis" - Kenan adds

Pete: "Go ahead," He nods to Isis, before turning briefly to Kenan. "Yeah, we thought that was strange too. Given everyone's reaction we suspect there may be a degree of unnatural influence involved."

Isis: Isis produces a small but complicated blacksmith puzzle from one of her pockets. "Watch this," she says, manipulating it in one hand. The motion seems hypnotic, drawing Eidolon and Kenan in and showing her a scene through Isis' eyes.

Isis: A memory: //You are suddenly aware of something out of place. One of the people in the crowd near you, on his knees, stares directly at you. He's animate, unlike the frozen scene.

Isis: "You look-" He whispers, his face is completely blank. "You look just like her." His voice speaks with a heavy French accent, and his eyes follow her as she moves. "Je suis désolé."//

Isis: Then, a composite of sight, emotion, deeper shades of perception. As close mental representation can come to reproducing a magical perception. //The resonance is twisted and sickly, you feel it more in the pit of your stomach than you see it with your eyes.

Isis: Something about it feels deeply unnatural. You could easily recognise it again.//

Isis: "That was the resonance I saw," Isis adds, unnecessarily.

Kenan: "this is most troubling. And the french seemed slightly garbled, too"

Pete: When the vision ends Arclight's face is etched with concern. "That's.. Very interesting." Feverishly he begins writing an account of the memory in his notebook. "We may need to take a recording of that, if it's alright by you."

Isis: "I can see no good reason for attacking me like this. The caster could have stolen or replaced memories, he or she could have hurt me badly, but they chose only this."

Isis: "Do you know the Mind Arcanum? If not I can make sure the memory I showed you doesn't fade so your friends can read it from you."

Kenan: "we could try investigating if there are, or were, any people who look (or looked) like Isis that that mage might have been thinking of. which magics would be best for that?" Kenan ponders

Pete: "If you could do that I'd be grateful," he says to Isis, regarding making the memory permanent.

Pete: "It's definately a lead we'll be following, but we would definately appreciate it if you left the investigating to us." The Sentinels operate in a similar fashion to the sleeper police. Amateur investigation tends to muddy matters, and tamper with magical evidence.

Isis: twists the puzzle in her hand some more, progressing but not arriving at a solution, and speaks words in High Speech. The breath of magic presses against everyone's Unseen Senses. "It will last for a few hours, after that it will fade like any normal memory."

Isis: "I could make it permanent, but that's not always very pleasant. Magic can sharpen it again after it has started to fade anyway."

Pete: Arclight nods, and accepts her attempts.

Isis: "Also Nebuchadnezzar had Alastair's clothes turned to stone," she adds to her statement, just now remembering. "I'm not sure why."

Isis: "After that you and the others came and Ledger saved Eidolon from losing too much blood."

Pete: He nods, taking down the rest of the account.

Kenan: "perhaps Alastair started acting odd, that spell seems to have immobilised him"

Pete: "Thanks." His tea went cold a while ago, though when he notices it he gulps it down either out of politeness or as an afterthought. "Apart from the phantasm your story looks like it matches most of the other witnesses'."

Isis: "Oh, and the demesne was twisted, somehow corrupted. That was why the paradox could happen, I think. It's possible someone exchanged the soulstone or somehow damaged it, but I couldn't tell without seeing it."

Pete: He nods at Isis, indicating that he already knew, "Yeah. We've been combing the scene pretty thoroughly. Good eye, though."

Pete: "You'll probably be hearing from us over the next couple of days. Could I get your phone numbers?"

Kenan: "sure" - Kenan gives him his "mage" phone number "have you any specific advice, or suggestions, for us?"

Isis: starts searching her various pockets without turning up anything looking like a phone. Finally there's the whisper of a Perfecting practice of Mind and she recalls the memory of the number. "I don't carry it with me all the time, though."

Pete: He nods and takes the number all the same. "Thanks. We'll probably be able to get hold of at least one of you."

Isis: "Do you think it was the same man as in the vision who did this? Both incidents were cleverly planned."

Nebuchadnezzar: There is the sound of a door opening, and the sound of a car pulling away. A moment later it shuts and there is the sound of someone hanging up their coat awkwardly.

Pete: Then he stands, pushing the notepad into his jacket before zipping it up. "We're definately considering that they're linked. We'll see what comes up, though." He looks over at the door when Neb enters. "Anyway, I'd better get going. Thanks for the time guys. And the tea."

Kenan: "Good luck solving this, and soon"

Isis: "Nebuchadnezzar is here," Isis exclaims, more animated now, standing up and going looking for the Moros.

Kenan: "Neb! It's good to see you're better, how do you feel?"

Isis: "Are you better now? Did they heal your injury?"

Pete: "Thanks." With that he exits into the hallway, nodding at Neb as he goes. "Hey." He lingers a bit as the rest of the cabal ask questions.

Nebuchadnezzar: Neb nods to the Sentinel as he one handedly finishes hanging up his coat

Nebuchadnezzar: other hand is still bandaged.

Nebuchadnezzar: "Better than can be expected considering the beating I'd taken. The hand should be ok, apparently though it will likely scar." He says with no real emotion, "otherwise they handed me some fairly generic painkillers and let me loose again."

Isis: "Life magic can make sure the scars aren't too bad," Isis says with the tone of someone speaking from experience.

Isis: "I don't know any, though."

Kenan: "you could probably even get them to look sexy" - Kenan tries to lighten up the mood

Pete: "You spoke to Olemba?" He asks, now that he has the opportunity to interject.

Nebuchadnezzar: "How are the two of you? Done with the Sentinel? Olemba visited me at the hospital." The last bit is addressed more to Arclight than the others. "Out of curiousity, Arclight, have you seen Syn? I would have expected to see him by now." He says glancing around.

Isis: "We're all done," Isis nods. "But Syntagma isn't here."

Nebuchadnezzar: He glances down at Isis, "I expect I can ask Syn to have a look, he is the one in the cabal with any talent with Life."

Nebuchadnezzar: "I guess it will have to wait then."

Pete: "He's still at the scene. He should be back later today." He says, "Anyway. I should be going."

Pete: "We'll be in touch. See you guys." With that he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Isis: "I could try to reach him with," Isis offers, "though it would be difficult."

Isis: She tilts her head as something occurs to her. "But he has a telephone, so you could reach him, too."

Isis: "Goodbye, Arclight."

Nebuchadnezzar: waves his good hand. Better to leave Sentinel Sin to his duties. He doesn't like to be interrupted." He says from experience.

Nebuchadnezzar: "Nice to see you again Arclight." Neb says as Arc leaves.

Kenan: Kenan waves to Arclight as the mage leaves

Isis: "Do you want me to use the pain-distancing spell again," Isis inquires quietly once Arclight is gone. "Since you only have those pills ..."

Isis: There's a hint of guilt in her tone, after all Neb got hurt protecting her from that manifestation.

Nebuchadnezzar: "The pills will be fine, Isis. Don't worry yourself." He says with a sad sigh, "Lets just let things return to normal." He glances around, "or at least as normal as they get here."

Isis: "Are you sure?" Isis doesn't seem to really trust the mundane pain medication.

Kenan: "that's a good point, neb, what should we be focusing on right now? this whole mess seems to be far from over"

Kenan: "I could try investigating some possibilities, if you wish" - Kenan adds

Isis: "I don't know. There's at least a master of Mind involved - " Isis quickly fills in Nebuchadnezzar on the attack against her - "and possibly even someone belonging to the Consilium. They would be very dangerous."

Nebuchadnezzar: He shrugs, "Personally I feel we leave i to the Sentinels, though..." He raps his working fingertips along the table in the kitchen, taking a seat, "I imagine it would be sensible to take precautions against further attacks, it seems we all caused that careful trap to go awry and I imagine their could be someone out for revenge." He sighs.

Isis: "I will make sure the wards are as strong as they can be," Isis agrees.

Kenan: "revenge for something like this seems... unprofessional, I'm more worried about that Frenchman's interest in Isis"

Isis: "What about that man whose clothes were transformed? Alastair?"

Nebuchadnezzar: "Revenge, interest, whatever you call it it is a hastle." he says with a yawn.

Isis: "Did he do anything?"

Nebuchadnezzar: "Alastair? Oh he was under some sort of Mind effect, powerful one. I thought he was reaching for some sort of weapon just prior to the ritual going wrong. I thought it best to prevent that."

Nebuchadnezzar: "The Sentinels are questioning him now."

Isis: "So perhaps it wasn't just me who was attacked?"

Isis: "Did you get the resonance of the spell on him?"

Nebuchadnezzar: "Sick and wrong I think, but I admit I wasn't paying too much attention to resonance at the time."

Isis: "That sounds like the one I saw ... with your permission I can show you and you could compare them?"