Simple Gifts [Closed] - Part 2

[laurenande]

WHO: Galadriel, Thranduil, Solas, Myrobalan, Merrill, Kitty, Lakshmi, Teren, Marcoulf, Jang, Obi-Wan, and Anders
WHAT: A trip to a perfectly normal Chantry in the middle of nowhere.
WHEN: Current.
WHERE: The Island of Alamar, Ferelden.
NOTES: Current warnings, to be updated: Mild Gore

The Abbey on the White Cliff

Around noon on the fourth day, Brigette and the other sisters gather up the people of the Abbey. Everyone who can walk, who can stand, is urged to join them in the auditorium--the doors at the end of the main hall are thrown open and the people welcomed in. Today Reverend Mother Alvar will be enacting her final miracle and, in the grand tradition of this Abbey, the people are invited to behold and take joy in the sight of it. They are encouraged to be there for the end of the previous Reverend Mother's life, just as they are encouraged to welcome the new Reverend Mother, Luca, as she assumes her new position.

The auditorium is a wide, stepped chamber that drops downward into an open forum and stage. The roof is high and domed and was once constructed of the same grey stone as everything else on the island. It was caved in at some point, destroyed by a falling tree, but it has been patched over with wood and canvas. The extensive scaffolding speaks volumes of how much effort has gone into restoring this room, but all of it stands still and empty in preparation for the ceremony.

Above the center of the stage, in the very middle of the room, visible from all angles, there is a great green tear in the veil--a massive rift cleaves the room in two. It churns sluggishly, ebbing and twisting, muted under the weight of whatever pall hangs across this Abbey. Around the rift there is a golden arch--the wood is carved into flames and swords and papered over in hammered gold leaf. Behind the rift there is a triptych depicting scenes from the Chant and each is lovingly painted and framed in gold.

The room is filled with chaos, but not of the sort one would expect in the shadow of a rift. The people who meander in, the pilgrims who take up the seats near to the stage at the base of the steps, all of them are smiling, all of them are happy, some are weeping tears of joy or remorse, but all of them are entirely unsurprised by the rift's presence. They take no issue lingering near it. Praise is heaped upon the carpenters for their diligence in finishing the arch, songs are sung softly as everyone gathers, and eventually the room is prompted to recite from the Chant as Alvar comes to the center of the stage. She is frail and those who spoke with her earlier will see how she has aged--twenty years in a day, it seems--and she leans heavily on Luca until she moves apart to stand on her own.

Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.
From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.
Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.
In my arms lies Eternity.

When she speaks the Chant, for a moment, her voice sounds youthful again--no older than Luca's--but it is fleeting and before the end she is breathless and thin once more.

OOC:

Hey everyone, this is part 2! I will be posting an initial thread for this scene that will be a free for all, but feel free to start a thread beneath the Ceremony Header if you want. Below I will be reposting the updated areas and people links, same as the previous post.

New Top-levels are welcomed, as always, but if you have questions please hit me up.

This section will contain the rest of this plot, unless we skyrocket to too many tags for me to keep them straight.

Comments

Team 2 - Kitty, Lakshmi, Teren, Thranduil

[laurenande]

(OOC: Feel free to start threads as you like. This is a catch all for your adventures.)

Brother Morely - Looking for Teren

[laurenande]

It's early, well before dawn, when Morely comes looking for Teren. It has been a number of hours since she berated him in the main hall and he has long since given up working to relight candles. He still carries his lantern, though, and the small flame in it sheds a watery yellow light on everything as he moves.

He pushes open the door to the dormitory quietly, certain he will just be able to find Teren, but both the door and his lantern creak in the process. He winces, but presses forward, lowering the lamp as he steps into the room.

He is a broad shape of shadow, but he looks nothing like the creatures that haunt this place.

[doneisdone]

In a rare shift from the usual, and perhaps from having exhausted herself yelling at the universe, Teren is asleep. She lies on her side, with one hand curled up to her sternum and the other under her pillow, legs slightly curled and her long dark braid uncoiled behind her. She looks peaceful. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[laurenande]

Morely, because he doesn't know better, or know at all that the people in this room are prone to stabbing, moves inside and peers at the faces in the beds. He finds Teren quickly enough and, in an exceedingly unwise move, bends and sets his hand lightly on her shoulder.

He shakes her.

And also whispers: "PSSST."

[doneisdone]

Before he reaches the 'T', there's a dagger in Morely's shoulder and a second one flashing from beneath the bedsheets, though this one stops before it hits home.
Teren is wide awake, her blade buried to the hilt with her formerly pillow-hidden hand still gripping it, her thin chest heaving and her eyes blinking rapidly as her brain catches up.

"MORELY," she hisses, the word angry but equally surprised. Is he here to kill her? She's got a second knife just in case.

[laurenande]

The fact that Morely doesn't suddenly shout or scream at having a dagger driven into his shoulder is something of an accomplishment. He sucks in a sharp breath, recoils a bit, and lets out a very quiet whispered curse. He drops his lantern, that was inevitable, and the little flame goes out as he does.

"Fucking shit--You stabbed me!?" It's spoken as a sharp whisper, but it is still something of a shout.

[doneisdone]

"What are you doing sneaking in here and grabbing people!!" Teren whispers sharply back, eyes glinting with rage.

She has not removed the dagger.

[laurenande]

"You were the one who wanted to help! One person line!" Morely snaps back at her and gestures, with his now freed lantern hand to the dagger in his shoulder. His expression says: WELL???

"Is this helping for you? Andraste's ass!"

[doneisdone]

"AND?"

Her hand is still gripping the dagger but not pulling it out-- at least the other one is free now, gesturing impatiently. WHAT'S YOUR POINT BUDDY

[laurenande]

"Luca was maimed, just like me you bloody lunatic!" Morely snaps at full volume.

"The thing that did it took something from her, the thing they use! I assumed you'd want to help since you're all high'n'mighty about being better than folk. BUT APPARENTLY YOU JUST WANT TO STAB ME."

[doneisdone]

Now that he's being useful, Teren tugs the blade out with a grunt of irritation. Rummaging around in her pack beside the bed, she removes a roll of gauze and pushes it into his hand, assuming he'll know what to do next. She doesn't have time for that.
He's lucky she's letting him stay so close to her bed.

"You'll wake the whole place, you idiot," she snaps, wiping her dagger on the top blanket, "what did it take?"

[laurenande]

She pulls the knife out and he immediately moves away from her bed, pressing the gauze into his wound with all the finesse of a man who has never before been stabbed. He has never before been stabbed. He clearly has no preference for staying quiet, at this point, and gives her an incredulous and pissed off look. His ennui is seeping back in, but now that he can clearly feel the deep wound in his shoulder, it is slow in returning.

"Oh no, I'll wake the whole place. What a TRAGEDY," he bitches and levels a glower at Teren. "It took somethin, I don't know what, but Luca's arm was in shred and she was a titter about us all gettin' out.

"If ya plan on stabbin more people come askin' for help, maybe just go back to bloody sleep. Luca's lost enough blood already."

[doneisdone]

"Stop your grousing," Teren snaps, and gets up, looking like she may do some more stabbing if Morely isn't careful. "Tell me everything you know."

RINGNAPPING: Teren, Kitty, and Solas

[doneisdone]

Some cursory exploration led Teren to a small room behind the auditorium on the second floor: one might say she followed the temperature, but just as Morely said, where it's most freezing cold is where she's likely to find the thing at the center of all this.
Whatever it is.

Now, with the chaos of everyone leaving, Galadriel being found, and most things having gone fully and utterly to shit, is the time to find it and deal with it. So Teren taps one clawlike finger on Kitty's shoulder and beckons her silently away from the group, leading her outside and around the abbey to where they stop beneath a set of iced-over windows.
"How are you at climbing," Teren asks.

[rathercommon]

"Good," she responds. Her gaze is curious, but her manner is matter-of-fact.

It's cold out here, but she isn't suffering terribly. Not like the others. God, they've really got to get out of here. So, in a low voice, she says, "Got a plan?"

[doneisdone]

That's the answer Teren hoped for. She doesn't quite smile, but gives a grim, determined look with a nod.
"We'll need to break the ice over the window," she says, pointing up at the thick layer coating the glass, "then break the window, and get inside." She keeps her voice low, just in case there are any stragglers, abbey folk who have evaded the chaos. "I don't know what we'll find. But we're getting it bloody out and taking it somewhere this stops." Dare she say: to the Inquisition? It only took her three years to start almost trusting them as an organization.

Flipping open a pouch on her belt, Teren brandishes a hefty chisel that she hands to Kitty, one no doubt used for... not... above-board things, but at least they still count as official business. This woman knows her way around a lock. "I'll give you a boost," she murmurs, bending to cup her hands such that they can be stepped into, "give it a go and tell me if we need firepower."

[rathercommon]

Kitty casts a curious glance at the chisel, and then at Teren, but, well - this isn't exactly the time to ask her about it. Nor the time to question the proposed course of action. There's so much going on here that any course of potential action is worth pursuing. So she tucks the firmly into her belt, steps lightly into Teren's hands (she's light, and her balance is impeccable) and uses the boost to find a solid footing on the wall.

She wasn't boasting: she goes up quickly, steadily, picking out hand-holds and foot-holds and rarely making a misstep. Within minutes, she's at window-level - and then, rather than using the chisel, she casts a glance around and then presses her hand to the window. As expected: the ice, formed of magic, yields before her resilience, leaving a steaming handprint that clears away the ice all the way down to the glass. Then a blow from the chisel and the glass shatters, leaving her able to carefully pull away chunks of ice until there's enough room for her to wriggle inside. A bit more chipping and pushing, and the window is clear; she leans over and calls down softly -

"Come on. I'll pull you up."

[laurenande]

The shattering of glass resounds through the room beyond, bouncing strangely off of metal and stone alike. The darkness ahead of them is pitch and the air in here is cold, as cold as it was in the auditorium when all the wraiths had been assembled. There is a queer sort of stillness to this place, and, as their eyes adjust, they can see why it is so curious.

This room is filled with linens, hanging to dry out of the rain. All of them are frozen stiff as boards, sheened over in ice and spread through the room ahead like a fabric maze. Beyond them, there is a wide table, the sort for folding sheets, clear of everything save a single shiny silver bauble in the center. It appears to be a ring.

[doneisdone]

That's pretty impressive, and Teren finds herself admiring how quickly Kitty gets up there. Note to self: use that later.

Or now, as luck would have it. Teren isn't as good a free-climber, but she's decent enough, and follows most of the same hand and footholds required of her substantially taller frame before grasping Kitty's hand once close enough.
She barely needs the lift, mostly just the balance, before she's in the window as well, kicking aside some shards of glass and looking around with a look of almost smug relief. That wasn't so hard.

[laurenande]

There is a moment or two of eerie peace as they standin the room, but before long there is a shout, not too distant but certainly muffled. It is the cry of a young woman and it is coming from a hallway beyond.

The choice is before the two, then, they can stay together on their task or divide and accomplish both. The noise of the breaking window had not drawn any attention, but the fuss being kicked up in the hall beyond certainly will, if it is not addressed.

[doneisdone]

It's a quick decision that needs to be made, and after Kitty rushes out to handle... whatever it is, Teren returns to the task at hand.
Slowly closing the door to the hallway again, she looks over her shoulder to the table and its single denizen: a ring, no doubt a magic one, and seemingly the center of all this fuss.
Stepping closer, she leans in to inspect it: then, tilting her head to make sure no one's coming, she extends a leather-gloved hand to pluck it from its resting place.

[laurenande]

The ring is heavy in Teren's hand, heavier than anything so small ought to be. It almost has a pull to it, a gravity, and there is a strange heavy silence that falls over everything as she holds it between her gloved fingertips. The whispers, the rain, the wind howling off the ocean, even the shouts of the girl down the hallway, all of them drop away for a long moment.

But nothing replaces them.

A second passes, and another, and the ring almost seems to warm under her touch. It grows warmer, then hotter, and within an instant it is blindingly hot. The sensation is not filtered nor mitigated much by her gloves.

[doneisdone]

That kind of silence is as alarming as any scream, after all the time they've spent surrounded by constant buffeting noise. Teren's eyes go wide, her instincts screaming to get out-- this isn't natural, it's clearly magic-- but the strange warmth of the ring keeps her holding onto it.
At least... until it becomes too much. With a yelp, Teren steps back and tips her hand, dropping it on the floor.

[whiskeyandbrimstone]

The yelp echoing in the room is met by the sound of the door opening, as Jang enters the room, run out and pushing past the frozen hanging sheets and the iced-up vats, the copper sticks frozen in what normally would have been hot vats of water, stirring and washing clothes.

Jang moves carefully through the forest of frozen sheets until she sees Teren. "Oh, was that you? What are you doing in here?"

[doneisdone]

She turns quickly, ready to fight, and sees Jang standing there instead of a wraith or... something worse?
"Nothing," Teren mutters, and, withdrawing two of the smaller blades from her boots and couching, touching the blades together inside the ring to lift it without touching it.
"Let's go."