faderift | OPEN: Kirkwail

OPEN: Kirkwail

WHO: Anyone
WHAT: Ghosts
WHEN: Wintermarch 20
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: OOC post. More content warnings than you can shake a stick at, probably, including allusions to slavery and violence in the body of the log post. Please use appropriate warnings in the subject lines for your own threads.

The storm sweeps in like an assassin: unexpected, in the dark, and throwing sharp pricks of sleet at exposed eyes and noses with expert aim and enough force to almost draw blood if the angle is right. Half an hour after the clouds crest the cliffs is all it takes for the city to retract indoors and huddle around fireplaces, settling in for a long night that will, unforeseen, turn into a long two days.

The Gallows, too, is pelted with ice; the walls of the cliffs and the fortress protect much of it from the worst of the wind, but when it can find a path over or through the walls, it slams through windows or doors to scatter papers and snuff out fires.

In the dark, in the rain, hurrying between towers or already accustomed to jumping firelight casting strange shadows and the wind howling like a wounded animal, people might be forgiven if they don't notice at first. But there's a hanging in the courtyard, a dozen translucent wisps of bodies dangling from the idea of nooses, and there's a girl's voice in the basement of the templar tower screaming for her mother, and there's a ghostly man in the library holding the blade of a knife to his palm and whispering this is it, this is it—or maybe there isn't, actually, when you lift your head to pay closer attention.

But as the night wears on they multiply, and they brighten, and even if you haven't noticed them, they begin to notice you.

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It's a lie Six knows well enough that she doesn't force the matter; she's been in Inessa's shoes more than enough times. As long as the other woman does not seem as though she is about to run off into danger there's no reason to press her, no reason to make her think too long about what is happening and the pain it is causing. Instead, she moves to hover, a guardian standing tall, no hesitation in her features.

"Look at me instead." Six is large enough that she might take up all of the other woman's vision now. She will be stalwart and protect; she had her own memories shatter her not so long ago. It seems wrong to not offer aid to others now that she is strong enough to do it.

"Nothing will harm you. Cover your ears if you need to."

Blocking out the sounds is a good idea, to be fair, and once Inessa regains some sense of herself, she covers her ears. Thankfully, the area falls silent not long after, the final phantom noises those of murmuring and whimpering. Lifting one hand slightly away from an ear after a few moments, the young Warden straightens a little.

"...it's over? For now...." Moving her hands away from her ears, she sighs wearily, shoulders sagging. "Thank you. I would have given anything to hear my parents again...but not like that. Never like that."

It's not a sentiment Six can understand. She could see her father again if she wished it, but she doesn't; she has no desire to see that man again, no wish to stand in his doorway and show him the person she has become in spite of what he had done to her. There's a gladness to her, happy that someone else has a joy in their parents, but it doesn't stop the sour note on her tongue.

She will never have that.

"For now," Six agrees, lowering her sword - but not putting it away just yet. Turning back to Inessa, she shakes her head. "It was no burden. I am glad to have been of aid to you."

"Garahel will be grateful. Poor boy's been wearing himself out protecting me, but I made him sleep before he wore himself out." Resting against the back of the bench, she rubs her temple. "I barely remember more of them than that moment; I was young when taken to the Circle. The spirits -and demons- are latching onto whatever provokes us the most. They're practically ravenous...."

"I have been keeping Two as far from this as possible. It is not safe for him - I think he is just confused." The poor Mabari is asleep, tucked in her room under lock and key until all of this is over. Six shifts, finally resting and letting some of the tension ease from her shoulders, putting her blade to one side. "I... Have seen enough to know that they are preying on the deepest emotions. It is why I came here."

Poor mabari. Inessa has no doubt both want to help their mistresses, but the madness infecting the area isn't anything they can defend against. She doesn't want Garahel endangering himself against something that can't be defeated by normal means.

She nods, a slight smile on her lips that doesn't reach her eyes. "Likewise. I was hoping a place dedicated to prayer might keep me focused and calm, but it's been an uphill battle regardless. I suspect the prayer garden is no different."

Six doesn't know what reaction Two might have to all the spirits - not more than what she has seen already, an intense urge to protect his mistress. She wants to check on her horse as well, an ache in her chest as she thinks of the poor beast, large and thick and tied in a stable, but she cannot flee too far. The spirits will keep up with her and she cannot risk the reaction that she might have to that.

"No, I think not. I..." A frown, her hands crossing over her chest. "A spirit took the form of my God. It has been helping me protect others, as if it was truly her, but I know it is not. I cannot give it all my faith."

Listening, she perks up a little at the news Six shares, nodding at her hesitance but still oddly bolstered nonetheless. "Still, that's a good sign. I know it seems as though demons are all that exists at times, but more benign spirits surround us, too. They just tend to be less intrusive...but what's happening now could be a call to action for some. If there's a role for them to play, they'll take it."

"I have never been afraid of demons. They are not as frightening as their human kin." A frown, eyes forward. "A demon follows its natural instinct, born to be as it is. Humans choose to be demonic." There's something deeper in that, but she shakes her head, finally relaxing properly and moving back to settle down on the ground again. "Will they fulfil their roles and leave?"

Six's assessment prompts a nod from Inessa, who can't bring herself to disagree about the nature of humans...or other mortals. Demons, as vile as they can be, can always be trusted to follow their nature. That question has her hesitating, and she bites her lip. "I doubt it's that simple. Why abandon a buffet when it provides so much sustenance, after all?

What I wonder, is what brought this on now? The area was cleansed, the Veil repaired. Was it sabotaged, somehow?"

"I do not understand how the Veil works. Is it possible for someone to have sabotaged it? For someone to break a part of it, like a stone wall?" It seems baffling to her that magic could be broken like that, that there's something that could rip a hole in something that seems so powerful, but she can admit to not knowing enough about magic in this world to make any kind of real commentary.

"Someone must know how to repair it."

"That's what Corypheus did when he created the Breach, and much smaller violations have proven possible." Inessa's lips form a thin line, thinking back to the Blackmarsh. Her expression grows thoughtful, as her gaze shifts to Six's hand, and the anchor. "...anchors can repair rifts. No more rifts have been sighted here, but if we can find the source, perhaps they can still be of aid? So much depends on finding what everyone has failed to notice until now."

"I have seen the smaller Rifts. I did not think there was much that I alone could do." She had been informed that it took more than one person with a shard to close a Rift; if something had happened here that was large enough to bring so many spirits then how many of them would be necessary? "Should we attempt to gather more?"

"I...we could try, yes. Anything is better than waiting for more to happen." Inessa leans forward and rubs her temples.

"...maybe this is a sign, that I should have continued to lead the Rifts and the Veil project. I thought someone else would take over, but it's been left rudderless. What if there was something I could have done?"

"Sitting and waiting for the worst to come is not a full proof plan." Six wants to repair this, to help people as best she can, but she feels bereft of knowledge.

Shaking her head, Six turns back to look at Inessa.

"Nothing could have predicted this. Magic is unruly, strange, uncontrollable. It is not your burden to carry."

"It would be easier to believe that, where we not Fade-flooded." It may be quiet for now, but they both know it won't last. The thin Veil will draw more beings to them, benign or much less so. That means the current situation isn't much of a respite, though she tries to use it to regain some calm.

"...maybe there's something in the office, though. Something added recently or that was overlooked...?"

"Does it need a leader? Someone to guide it?" Six shakes her head, pushing herself up. She's tall, thick with the weight of her muscle but burdened with the memories and spirits, not standing as tall as she might have otherwise. "Is there not someone with the same qualifications that you had?"

Moving forward, she adjusts the weight of the greatsword on her back before she turns back to look at Inessa.

"I will go with you."

"I would have thought so, but none have stepped up. I guess I can't blame them, when I felt overwhelmed with the sheer scope of it." The Breach, the rifts...the last few years had completely overturned her understanding of it all, making her realize how little she truly knew. And she was a prodigy, the best in her class.

Looking over to Six, Inessa manages a grateful smile. "Thank you. I have a feeling the central tower will be no less haunted, and it's going to take some focus to find anything of use there."

"I can understand. The burden of leadership is not a mantle easily taken or carried." It's not as if it's something Six could offer to do, as much as she might like to. She is so distant in her understanding of the Rifts and the Veil for her to ever consider what it might mean to lead such an organisation; better for her to stick with caring for the boats and ships with the pirates.

Shaking her head, she motions forward.

"It is no trouble." A pause, hesitant, but - "Sarenrae might greet us."

"As long as her echo is accurate to your memories, I would actually be interested in seeing her." Ever since Six spoke of Sarenrae and what she meant to her life, how can Inessa not be curious? But she bites her lip a moment later, reluctantly adding to those thoughts. "What we heard...my memories...those were real, those happened. But I don't think accuracy matters to spirits or demons trying to get a reaction out of us. She might be as you remember her...but she might not. I hope so, but...well, better to be prepared."

"She is as I remembered her," Six admits quietly. "But I never met her in person. She is a God, beyond my realm, and she came to me in dreams and offered me wonderful things. Seeing a spirit take her form is... Not something I had anticipated." Six moves forward, back towards the entrance, standing a little taller now. "If the spirit feels I need her I am sure I will come."

"I think I understand....I could no more anticipate meeting the Maker while I still live and breathe." Possibly not even afterward, though that's a subject for another time. She peers outside, her expression untrusting. "It's quiet now. We can try...."

She doesn't expect it to last, not when spirits are ravenous, but it would at least give them a head start.

"It is not her, but it is her. The spirit knows what I know of her and shares that depth of feeling." Six moves forward, heading back towards the door of the chapel and making sure to affix her greatsword and armour properly. Only then does she turn back to look at Inessa, nodding her head.

"Nothing will harm you. I will not allow it."

"That's something, at least...and thank you." Inessa's smile is tired but genuine. "You are not alone, either. I won't let you succumb." She then tries to refocus, taking a moment to be certain before power-walking across the courtyard, ready to sprint the second anything emerges.

"It is no problem." Six might say it time and time again, but she recognises that it's just a response; Inessa is genuinely grateful. It's easy to follow the other woman, hand lifting up to rest around the hilt of her blade. "We will be safe."

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OPEN: Kirkwail

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