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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Alvar is going to kill me and take back her gift," Luca says, as she draws back the cup and the refill within it. She looks so shaken that it cannot possibly be anything but what she believes.

"She told me to return it, before she passed...and she has not come for it yet...but I cannot give it back, I can't let her take it away. I--she will try to kill me...she will kill me if I refuse but I have to, don't I?"

"What gift? That's what's been causing these miracles, right?" Jang sits back and takes a drink, thinking.

"I've got a bunch of questions, but I think we don't have time to go into detail. She wants it back, which, if I'm reading this right, has never happened before. That by itself is reason enough to not give it to her. Where is it now?" A deck of cards has appeared in her hand and she starts playing with it, shuffling and squaring the deck in one hand.

"It's safe," Luca answers on reflex and moves, cup in hand, to stand by the window. She is no more than a step or so away. She looks out it with the same air as a person looking for a pack of wolves.

"It is what gives us the miracles, what lets us save people--but it doesn't work, now. I can't...I can't make it work." She takes a drink, this time less desperately, and chokes a bit. "What if she is meant to have it--I mean, no--if I give it to her she will not use it for healing. She will take it and...and I don't know."

She looks back at Jang, at the cards, and is confused.

"Why are you playing a game?"

"Safe doesn't tell me anything Luca. If it's locked up in a box somewhere, ok, we know what to guard, but just saying 'Safe' means we don't even know where we have to watch. And we can't watch everything."

Jang looks at her standing by the window and gives a little sigh. "Maybe it's not you who's blocking it. Maybe Alvar is blocking it, making you think you can't use it so she can take it. Maybe it finally ran out of whatever was powering it. Where did it come from?"

Jang looks down at the deck of cards that she's shuffling and gives a grin. "Nervous habit, also it's how my magic works." She waves a hand across her face, shimmering cards appearing in front of her, sparkling for a moment before vanishing. "Neat, huh?"

"Neat?" she repeats, just slightly manic. She watches the cards as they are summoned and steps back a bit, her shoulder bumping the glass of the window as she does.

"I--it came from the Maker. He sent it through the rift and it protects us from the demons. It calms the rift and saves lives. It is our gift." Luca turns from her and from the cards, worried but not enough to stop her. "I have it with me."

"Right then. It's on you, and it came through a rift. Ok, I'm going to get some food, you look like you haven't eaten in a while, and I think you're gonna need it before too long and that booze really hits ya. Just...wait here. I'll be back in a moment."

With that, Jang stands up, and heads on out, heading to the kitchen. Not a lot of selection, but there's enough to get something edible. Quickly gathering things up, she starts to head back to Luca's office.

Jang leaves and, despite her desire to get her searching done quickly, is gone for some time. The stores in the kitchen require searching and there is very little that has not turned. She manages to find some, fish and bread and butter that is still within its freshness, but it was not a quick task.

One might expect Luca to be drunk upon Jang's return. Unfortunately, she is not. Jang returns to the room to find Luca crumpled on the floor, craddling her arm and sobbing like a madwoman. The room is cold, covered over in a sheen of ice. The rug cracks under Jang's feet.

Luca is of no help at the moment but, given the injury visible on her arm, that is hardly a shock.

"Shit! Hold still!" Jang drops the food and runs over to Luca and begins to cast her healing spell. The cards appear over her wounded arm, and she begins to play solitaire, focusing on the healing magic. As soon as she does, pain starts to fade in Luca.

"This'll take about ten minutes, but after you should be ok, if you didn't lose anything. Can't regrow limbs, but anything else, I'm good. What happened? Did Alvar come?"

Luca can hardly focus as Jang moves beside her. The instruction to remain still has no effect on her--she rocks and weeps but fortunately she does not flee. As Jang's spell begins to work she calms a bit, her arm less blindingly painful for the magic.

"Yes, she came and went--I--we have to go now. Bandages, get me bandages--"

"We're not going anywhere for a bit, just calm down. This will fix the physical injury, but you could still be going into shock. Now sit there and tell me exactly what happened. What did she take, exactly? What IS this thing?"

Jang continues to flip cards and play her game. "Besides, we're safe now. She wanted the thing, and now that she has it, you're not important anymore to her. So we have a moment to catch our breath and heal. Just wait, this won't take much longer."

Simple Gifts [Closed] - Part 2

The Abbey on the White Cliff

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