Amyra:Chapter 1

Chancel_Amyra

Teaser!
[Theresa] "But I think he'd rather have room to run around. He could get de...am I debating the mental health of a rabbit?"
[DanteE] "Yes. A God-touched cannibalistic potentially dinosaur-sized rabbit."
[Theresa] "Just checking."


~-~-~-~-~
The country of Amyra has been undergoing strange times of late.
For the last hundred days, every night, a person would die.
The deaths seemed to follow no particular pattern of victims. Young, old, sick, healthy, any could become affected.
However, the manner of death was sufficiently distinct as to make it clear that there was a single cause of some sort.
Each person would, sometime around morning, undergo a severe coughing spell and develop increasingly severe allergy symptoms over the day.
By midday, extreme pains would wrack their bodies from within, and most were bedridden long before evening.
At nightfall precisely, they would be found dead, with odd greyish vines nearly filling their bodies.
Medical treatments were of scant help, as it was impossible to root out the vines from within without surgery that would be lethal in and of itself.
Various cranks, mathematical crackpots, and occult groups claimed to see some sort of emergent pattern in the locations and the times, but none would agree on what it was.
All were, however, within the borders of Amyra, and each major city in that nation had at least one victim.
For the last few months, it's been nearly impossible to get out. None of the neighboring countries will allow their borders to be crossed until a cure is found, and that doesn't seem to be happening.
Tonight, the night of the hundredth death, getting out becomes impossible.
On the roof of an old university, done in the gothic style, a man stumbles to his knees. His body twitches with pain, and if one were to look, they would see writhing forms under his skin.
He grasps a weather-beaten gargoyle for support, and gasps his last. As his pulse stops, vines begin to protrude from his mouth.
With uncanny rapidness, they begin to crawl out. Surely, an observer would think, his body could not contain such volume, but the vines seem unconcerned with their noncompliance with geometry.
In under a moment, the roof of the building is covered.
In ten, the city is.
In an hour, the nation.
The borders, in particular, are covered with growing foliage of all kinds. One could not escape even with the use of large-scale demolition equipment, let alone on foot.
Soon, little or no unused space exists within those boundaries. Buildings or plants, every square mile is covered.
On the high mound of foliage that covers the former university, six people stand. Four of them are human, and all but one of them are unsure of how they got there.
A creature shaped much like a man, but build to a larger scale, paces with frenetic energy. His crafter seems to have decided to avoid the more common building materials of bone and flesh.
His bones are bricks. His fingers are tree branches. His eyes a red light and a green one, seemingly taken from a traffic light.
He smells of both nature and civilization, jungle fumes and smog.
The rest of you are at his feet, awakening.
What do you do?

• vbh70s is now known as James
  
• Knockwood is now known as DanteE
  
• Etheric is now known as Carrie
  
• lazarus is now known as Brian
  
• BethL is now known as Theresa
  
• Random_Nerd is now known as Hollyhock
  

[Brian] (moan, for one )
[Theresa] *blinks*

• Carrie stirs and wakes, bleary-eyed. She gazes up at the Imperator's form without speaking.
  
• Theresa is doing a lot of blinking. This was...not the afterlife she had expected.
  

[Brian] "What happened?"

• Carrie rises to her feet and gazes off into the distance at the green and silver expanse before the horizon.
  

The giant of paving stones and tree branches is never still, even for a moment, and he seems to be even now increasing in size. But not uniformly... first his left leg will grow several inches, then his right arm, and so on.
[Carrie] “...Is this a dream?”

• Dante gets up. You notice one eye is in thick bandages.
  
• Brian stands groggily up.
  
• James sits crouching as he has done for centuries, staring straight ahead. Slowly, slightly, he turns his head.
  

"Welcome, subjects, to Locus Amyra. I am Kudzu. I am older than humanity, and will last longer than it. I come from farther away than you can conceptualize. I am cities, plants, numbers. I am hope, I am courage. All of you are mine, for all of you are /me/."

• Carrie's eyes focus slowly on the Ymera's form.
  

[Theresa] "I didn't _think_ my neighbors were smoking stuff...this is...beyond bizarre."
"I have chosen, out of all the world, to make of this place my home, and of you my self."
[Brian] "Um? What?"
"You will serve me. You will embody me. In return, you will be rewarded with authority and power that you would never conceive of in a thousand years of imagining."
[Carrie] “Your home... In me? In... us?”

• James begins to flex his fingers.
  
• Carrie looks around, taking in the presence of the other four for the first time.
  

[Carrie] “Is that... what I feel?”
[Theresa] "Did...did anyone else see that gargoyle move?"

• DanteE looks to the Gargoyle.
  

[Carrie] "It's..."
"In you. In each of you, I am."

• Brian looks like a standard physics geek. Pimply, thick glasses, white lab coat.
  

[Carrie] "It's like us. One of us. It's... one with him."
[Theresa] “How...why?"
[Carrie] "As I am..."
"You know, within yourselves, who and what you now are."
[Brian] "I don't understand"

• Carrie looks to Kudzu.
  

[Carrie] "I can feel what I am. But I too do not fully understand."
The Imperator's arm sprouts another face, which regards Carrie. "What do you not understand?"

• DanteE is a young man, dressed in black, carrying a cane. One eye is bandaged from a recent injury.
  

[Carrie] "Why?"
"Why? Because I choose that it is so."

• Carrie nods.
  
• James blinks slowly, and his eyes begin to glow a deep red.
  
• Carrie thinks deeply.
  
• Theresa blinks. "The vines...they're...so many voices..."
  

[Brian] "I don't ... feel different."
"Perhaps not. But you are."
[Theresa] "What are we supposed to do with all of this...power?"
"You are to do three things."
"You are to protect it. Each of you is now one of the pillars upon which the world stands."
"Do not permit that which has been given to you to be harmed, or all will fail."
[Brian] "Harmed?"
"Second, you are to do as I will that you do. Strive in all ways to anticipate my needs and purposes."
"Third, you are to do as you choose, so long as it does not interfere with your purposes and you are willing to undergo whatever consequences your actions subject you to."

• Carrie brings her attention from her expanded self outward and tries to ingrain her Imperator's words on her mind.
  

[Carrie] "I..."
A mouth opens on the knee, which grows into a head, and it almost looks as though a smaller figure is trying to crawl out.
This face, to [Brian] "There are those who would destroy this world and all else, so that nothing is or ever will be again."
"You are to prevent them from doing this."

• Carrie gathers herself to one purpose, and speaks.
  

[Brian] "Ok. So we protect ourselves?"
[Carrie] "I accept this commission. In the name of what I feel within me."

• DanteE suddenly registers that he can see his bandages...
  

"Yes. In doing so, you protect the world. You are Numbers, and they are you. In protecting them, you remain intact."

• DanteE rips off his bandages. His left eye is a strange crystal sphere.
  

Kudzu paces further. Under his foot is crushed the body that was the last to die, that had fallen on the gargoyle that is James.

• Carrie regards the body and a strange dread fills her.
  

"Have you any questions, any requests?"

• DanteE points to the 'eye': "What is this thing?"
  

[Brian] "How do we control ... the power?"

• Carrie thinks.
  
• James begins to crawl over to the body, slowly, haltingly.
  

[Theresa] "Are there limits? Opposites?"
to [DanteE] "It is you, just as you are me."

• DanteE looks over the landscape with his newly restored bifocal vision.
  

"Many things have limits. The only limits which must concern you are those that can be impressed upon you. Every constraint that you accept is one that you claim."
"You control it by being yourself, in the deepest way possible. Chose that a thing will happen, and if it is within your reach, it will."
[Theresa] "Do we stay with you all of the time?"
to [Theresa] "You are always with me, wherever you are. You /are/ me, little ones."

• Theresa tries not to wrinkle her nose at being called 'little one'. Her mom used to call her that.
  
• Carrie finally registers her question, still staring at the body.
  

[Carrie] "May I protect those who this power threatens, not as a limit, but as a choice?"
"You may protect those that you choose to protect. By doing so, you will bind them to yourself by obligation. Every gift a man gives has a hook, which binds the soul of the receiver to the soul of the giver."

• DanteE looks down. His cane is now a longsword...
  
• Carrie nods slowly.
  

Kudzu splits in two, down the middle, with a sound like a wrecking ball hitting a building, and in a moment two shorter figures stand where he had been. Both begin to wrestle each other with great force."
[DanteE] (Ok... looking at the Mythic World around the new chancel. What do I see?)
[Hollyhock] (Both plants and buildings alike are people, striving with all their might to overcome each other and become greater, just as the two halves of Kudzu contend against each other. Kudzu himself looks exactly the same.)

• Carrie looks to the shorter figures and cocks her head to the side.
  
• Theresa kneels down next to some of the vines, listening to them talk.
  

One of the figures bends the other's arm far past its limit; with a great crack, it is wrenched from its socket and, indeed, from its body. The victorious figure then smashes the other to the ground.
It then consumes it, devouring it whole, and in a moment is at its former height, singular once more.

• DanteE looks Kudzu in the eye. "All right... who or what are _you?_"
  

In answering, Kudzu merely smiles wider than would seem possible, with bricks for teeth. "That, in full, I doubt you will ever know. If you discover it, however, please tell me, for I dearly wish to possess that knowledge myself."
The vines are confused, uncertain, bewildered.
They know not what they are, where they have come to, or what their purpose is.

• Theresa pets them, murmuring soothingly.
  
• Carrie notices Theresa and slowly is able to perceive the spirits of the vines.
  
• Carrie walks up to the vines in the Glory of Hope, instilling the spirits with the certainty of their own potential.
  

[Theresa] *murmurs* "It's okay. You're safe, don't worry, just grow, that's what plants do, you're okay..." Much like a mother with a child who has had a nightmare.
The vines coo with delight at Carrie's emanation and Theresa's words.
[Carrie] (to Theresa) "You are... the word that comes is Sister... My Sister Caelestis.
[Theresa] "No, my name's Theresa...oh, wait. I know that word... yes, sister. We're...family now? All of us?"

• James suddenly rises to his full height, stretching his arms and wings out as far as he can.
  

[Brian] "Um? Did that gargoyle just move?"
One would think that a creature such as James, rocky and dense, could never fly with wings smaller than those of a largish airplane. The laws of nature seem to recoil, however, as if vaguely embarrassed, and don't interfere.

• James returns to his crouching posture, but is now looking around actively.
  
• DanteE sees the little gravity spirit that's leaving James the hell alone.
  

The gravity spirit has much the same expression as a skinny 5'4" guy who just watched a big bruiser take his drink and decided to just order another.

• Carrie considers.
  

[Brian] "Feels right."
[Brian] "even ... the statue"
[Carrie] "We are more than family. We are parts of the same."
[Theresa] "And this is now Home."

• Carrie looks out at the distance.
  

[Carrie] "Somehow, it is right."
[DanteE] "Wait...
"Yes?"
[DanteE] "That would mean ... all those deaths... they were YOUR doing!"
Kudzu's left eye, the red one, shines brightly, leaving afterimages in the sight of any who meet his gaze. "They were. With your help, they shall prove to not have been in vain."
[Brian] "Why?"
[DanteE] "Do you even know the FEAR those deaths generated?
[DanteE] "Do you even understand the extent of the INSULT it was to me?
"I do. This nation is now my body, and all the things that I have done to those in it, I have done to myself."
[DanteE] "Do you know the damage your little experiment did to ...
[DanteE] "...
[DanteE] " ... to me?
[DanteE] blinks.
[Carrie] "To Ourself."
[DanteE] "How the hell did I get so invested in that?"
"Just as they are me, they are also you, now."
[Carrie] "What harm has come to me, as well? Perhaps..."
Far below in the streets, and in other buildings, there are people still.

• Carrie looks distracted as her mind searches outward. (Lesser Divination of Hope, the closest person whose hope is in danger of failing.)
  

There's a lot of that, Carrie. Many people are frightened and confused, and don't know what the future will bring. At least half the people seem to be frightened or despairing, probably more.
[Carrie] (To Kudzu) "May I go?"
Under the vines, bits of the building still peek out. It was the tallest building in the area, and unless you miss your guess, it's been growing even as you stand there.
"You may."

• Carrie nods.
  
• Carrie traces a path down the structure, leaping from vine to branch to protruding building-ledge, until she is in the street with the people. As she walks among them, she infects them with the Hope of her presence.
  
• DanteE follows Carrie, having nothing better to do...
  
• DanteE jumps off the edge if the building, sliding down the tangle of vines like a surfer. (Dude.)
  

As Carrie passes, the people around her are suddenly brighter, happier, less frightened. It's almost audible, the change in the emotional atmosphere.

• James moves closer to the others, dragging the broken, vine-mutilated body by one leg.
  
• Theresa goes over to the gargoyle. "Hi....umm...do you want me to help with..him?"
  
• James stares straight at Theresa for a moment, then turns towards the body.
  

[James] "... yes"

• Theresa smiles and takes a look at the corpse. She straightens out the limbs and respectfully lays him out.
  

[James] "... it is confusing"
[James] "this face confuses me"
[Theresa] "How so?"
Beside the body, the vines writhe as a foot-tall Kudzu sprouts from the ground.
"Confuses you how?"

• James is talking less haltingly the more he does it.
  

[James] "I don't know... this broken little thing seems familiar"

• Theresa repairs the rents in the man's clothing if they are natural fibers.
  
• James examines a wound in the body formed by the escape of the vines
  

• Carrie does not speak, but continues skipping through the streets, to the next group of people she senses.
  
• DanteE concentrates a moment.. and his cane becomes a sword.
  

One can observe the turning of heads as people watch Carrie's progress, quieting as she passes to look upward, realizing that things aren't so bad after all.

• DanteE clears the path leading to the door of the building.
  

[DanteE] (What specifically was this building, BTW?)
[Hollyhock] (Used to be a university's clock tower.)

• DanteE throws open the doors. Time to set up shop.
  

[Hollyhock] (You can reshape it, if you want, with Realm miracles. A Level 4 one'd let you remake it as whatever you wanted, pretty much.)

• Carrie continues spreading Hope, but it is slow. She reaches out with her mind to seek the place where she might have hope to reach a large segment of the population (such as a TV station nearby, if one exists).
  

There's a newspaper just a few blocks to the north, and a radio station a few miles away.
[Carrie] (What do I feel within myself of this new power? Does it seem like it could spread through my voice, not merely presence or image?)
[Hollyhock] (Not the Glorious gift, it's local only. Miracles of Hope aren't limited in that way, however.)

[Brian] "So. What now?"

• James looks at Theresa and the small Kudzu
  

"Have you a purpose of your own which you wish to enact? Or would you rather I provided you with one?"
[James] "It feels like this should hurt, but it doesn't"
[Theresa] (to James) "This..was you?"
[James] "I don't know..." James looks at his own stone arm "this body seems right, but there is something..." he looks back at the body, then Theresa. "Do you think so?"

• Theresa tilts her head to the side and thinks. "It may have been you. I think we're all now different enough..that you can be whoever you want to be. Grow into your new you."
  

[James] "Maybe I should keep it for now"

• Theresa whispers. Vines carefully wrap around the body. She says, "There. He'll say safe and preserved just in case, for whenever you need him." (Preservation. My guess Minor?)
  

[Hollyhock] (Minor, yeah. Only affects the vines themselves, but it'll easily provide an airtight seal if you want.)
[Theresa] (Yep. Tupperware him.)
[DanteE] (Don't forget to burp him.)

• James puts his hand on Theresa's.
  
• Theresa looks up. Hmm?
  

[James] "Thank you, sister. I hope we do not fight very often."
[Theresa] *grins* "No problem, brother. And besides, what's a family without a little ribbing tween members? So, what do you think of the makeover of home?"

The voice of Kudzu echoes in all your ears. "I would, for reasons of my own, have you perform a few small tasks for me. I would have a dozen rabbits taken from Australia, a feather from the wing of an Angel, and the heart of a demon. Within a week will be soon enough, I think."
[Hollyhock] (Remember, all of you with Aspect have inhumanly keen senses to some degree.)
[Brian] "Um. Angel? Demon? Run that by me again?"
[Brian] "And Australian rabbits?"
[DanteE] "How do we get there?"
[DanteE] (Talking about Australia, though the other two places would be just as inaccessible at the moment)
"A dozen rabbits from Australia. The feather of an angel. The heart of a demon."

• Carrie pauses, then moves back toward the clock tower.
  

"This, my home, opens into many places. Walk into the foliage on the borders, and choose a city or forest, and you shall find yourself there."
[Theresa] (to the Boss) "Wouldn't the demon kinda need the heart?"
To [Theresa] "Then perhaps you should find one that can be persuaded in some way to part with it."
[Brian] "How do we find demons and angels?"
to all, in answering Brian's question: "Look to the sky, all of you, and attempt to look beyond the world you live in."

• James looks up.
  

[Brian] (I'll slip into the Mythic Realm.)

• Carrie looks up with her newfound eyes and sees what she sees.
  
• Theresa blinks, shifting...
  
• DanteE looks up...
  

[DanteE] (leaning out a window as he does so...)
As your sight shifts to the Mythic, you see a thing, rather like a road, and rather like an immense branch, drooping down into the sky. It looks, almost, as if everything around you is hangs from it like a Christmas ornament from a tree.
[Carrie] "That's..."
[DanteE] "The hell?"
[Brian] "Yggdrasil, right?"
[Brian] "So, the Norse were right?"

• Carrie keeps moving, back toward the others.
  

"Behold, a twig of the Ash. Yggdrasil is the World tree, and this world of yours hangs from it like a drop of water on a pine needle."
[Theresa] “Now _THAT_ is a tree..."
"Its branches support Heaven, and its roots settle in the soil of Hell. A wall of divine fire surrounds it, and from outside come the enemies of the world and, of course, myself as well."
"It is large beyond reckoning, so you may wish to find some faster means of egress if you wish to reach the celestial or infernal. Or, of course, you may choose to look nearer, for Heaven and Hell both have their agents here, as well."

• Carrie approaches the window where Dante is.
  

[DanteE] "What enemies? Who are these enemies that could threaten that?
[Theresa] "And every twig has a world?"
"Every twig has a world. There are numberless twigs on every branch, and numberless branches on the tree. I say this as one who knows something about numbers and about trees, so do not mistake my words for metaphor."
[Theresa] "Are you an Angel?"
[DanteE] "Guess I can't argue with that..."
"I am not an Angel. None, in all the worlds on that tree, know what I truly am."
"Like your enemies, the horsemen of the stars, I come from beyond the Tree, and I have forgotten whatever I may once have known of my first home."
[Theresa] "Ouch."
"I have, however, made a new home for myself, in this land, and in your souls. Perhaps this one will linger longer in my heart."
[Carrie] "We have the hope to make it so."
"As for your enemies, I suspect you will find that they are unmistakable. Strive against any who would destroy that which you embody."
[Theresa] "Will home be okay if we leave it?"
"This place is hard to reach for those of mundane capability, but it may be a target for those of a more numinous nature. You may wish to create defenses for it, I leave that in your hands."
"Before I leave you, though, I have two sets of rules for you. One is of myself, the other... of another."
[DanteE] . o O (Uhoh)
"First, my own Code. These principles underlie my very nature, and thus, your nature as well."
"Sanity and mundanity are shackles. Do not permit your spirit to be constrained by mere expectations or social customs. Be who you are, as brightly as you can."
[DanteE] . o O (Sanity is a shackle. OOooo-kay...)
"Freedom is the highest principle. Do not crush it in others, nor in yourself. Limitations are wounds and scars on the face of reality."

• Carrie looks within herself and feels the bright freedom of the shard within.
  

"Give in kind with a gift received. Whenever one presents another with a service, a gift, a present, that has not been earned, this binds the soul of the recipient with chains of obligation. Permit none to chain you in this manner, but release yourself by meeting that obligation and, so, freeing yourself from it."
[Theresa] "I think we crossed out of the mundane about the time I started hearing dandelions giggling..."
To [Theresa] "Expectations can be a chain too, human. Don't bind yourself too tightly."

• Theresa looks down. (To the Boss) "Yes, sir."
  

[Brian] "Theresa ... you hear ... dandelions giggling?"

• Theresa nods at Brian. "Yep. They're...not really Valley Girl-ish, but like little kids..."
  

[Brian] "Oh ... kay ..."

• DanteE looks up, and sees Theresa.
  
• Carrie looks up as well, and, still listening to her Ymera, begins climbing.
  

"The other rules I would tell you are not of myself, but of another, the Prince of this world. Keep them or not, as you choose, but if you break them while on this Earth, know that you defy the will of he who sits on the throne of the world."
"The first is the harshest. You shall not love. No man, no woman, no child, no animal. Those who are caught violating this law are hunted like animals and thrown to the Locusts."

• Theresa's eyes go wide.
  

[DanteE] "Huhwah?"
[Brian] "How could you tell?"
"This world's ruler has no power to see into your heart. Your nature is a thing none but yourself may know, and your heart likewise. If you wish to love, you may, but do not let it be seen."
"If any hears you declare love for another, sees you sacrifice of yourself, he has a chain around your throat."
[Carrie] "May we love You, and one another?"
"You may, if you choose, express respect for one another and for myself. I suggest that you speak of it in those terms, if you must speak of it at all."

• Carrie nods, as she continues climbing.
  

"The second Law is one perhaps more limiting, but less harsh. You will harm none who has done no harm. In this world, there is perhaps no true innocent to be harmed. However, if you do harm to another without proof of the other's guilt, you will be seen as breaking Justice itself."
"This applies to all beings of human status or above, and even to the enemies of this world. Intent is not enough; you must have proof of actual harm done. If you have such proof, you may enact vengeance for it up to seven times the severity of the offense."

• Carrie whispers.
  

[Carrie] "What must be done must be done cleanly."
"Ah, you have a touch of the Light to you, Hope."

• Theresa ponders if she can love plants...probably not. The Tree still shimmering above cries out for adoration...
  

"The third law is this: Treat no beast as your lord. No animal, no plant, no human, is seen as worthy of the bowing of your head."
"Do not be seen swearing promises to humans, saluting them, surrendering to them, or accepting insult from them. An insult from one who is merely mortal is seen as harm done to yourself, and may be punished."
[DanteE] "Heh... how _much_ harm?
"This you must judge for yourself."
[DanteE] "I doubt most folks who would insult us would respond to seven insults, even if they were good ones."
[Theresa] "So..now we have to have egos the size of continents to go with the amazing powers? I'm more used to letting insults slide..."
"The fourth law is this: Do not protect any from the 'justice' of the Court of Entropy. Assisting in crimes against these laws, or in covering them, is seen as a full sharing of guilt. Do not even allow yourselves to be used as hostages by those breaking these laws, or you will be accessories. Assisting lawbreakers without your own knowledge is a lesser offense, but it is still an offense."
"You are not obligated by me to keep these laws. You merely must know the consequences of being caught in violation of them.
"The final law is this: You must serve me before the war to protect reality, and that war above all your own concerns. Do not be caught being slack in your duties, for while I may be a gentle and forgiving master, there are those who would not be."
[Theresa] "So, you, the war, then us?"
"Yes."
[Carrie] "And, our... our Estates? Are they You or are they us?"
"They are the part of you that is Me."
"These are the laws of Lord Entropy, Prince of this Earth. Keep them or break them, but know them, and know the consequences of not abiding by them. Any who has evidence that you have broken them holds your beating heart in his hand."

• Theresa tries to burn the rules into her memory. Lots of responsibility with this power...
  

"There is, of course, a loophole, as there always tends to be. Also, of course, this is one that benefits Entropy himself. He has servants, mostly humans, which call themselves the Cammora. You will no doubt find them soon enough, as they come to make offers to you. If you make a deal with them, any service that you do for them, even if it would break these laws, is regarded as no offense."
"Likewise, if you hire them to break the laws on your behalf, you will be seen as free of guilt, for the Cammora are free of the laws of Entropy."
[DanteE] ("Wow, she's cute... You! Love her for me!"
[Theresa] "He has _flunkies_?"
"Servants can be most useful, Plants. Perhaps you will wish to cultivate some of your own. If you do, be careful that they do not stray."
"The Camorra will charge most dearly for the breaking of any of the Laws, however, so make your deals with care, and be sure not to do any harm to them without proof of their guilt."
"Use them or don't use them, but never trust them."
[Brian] "Entropy? You mean, like, the ruling force causing chaos and clutter?"
"No. That is his name, but not his nature."
[Brian] "He instills laws? So he's ... your ruler?"
"He is corruption. He is foulness. He is a creeping taint on this world."
[Theresa] "Then why is he in charge?"
[DanteE] "And he's in charge."
[DanteE] (jynx)
[Theresa] (*raspberry*)
"He is also a natural part of the world, and he, just as I, upholds the pillars of Creation. At present, he rules the Council of Four, who rule the Earth."
"He is mighty beyond reckoning, and though he is a foulness, he is also dedicated to the protection of reality in ways that most do not understand. So he assures us, at any rate, and none has managed to prove otherwise."

• Carrie continues to slowly climb back to the top of the dome.
  

"He is with us, don't forget that."
[Theresa] "Do we have to meet him?"
"I suggest that you avoid meeting him if you can."
"Meeting him may become unavoidable, if so, be polite, careful, and don't look at the hands. He doesn't like it when people look at the hands."
[Theresa] "Okay, I have to ask since he's not here...what's with the hands?"
"Whatever form he takes, fair or foul, his hands drip constantly with blood. Where it comes from, whether it is his blood or that of others, and why it flows constantly, he prefers not to say."
"He may be an ally, or a weapon to loose on your enemies, but never mistake him for a friend."

• Theresa shudders.
  

Beth


Chancel_Amyra