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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:08 pm
"I see." Carda wanted to cry. "The damn Council," he muttered. "All high and mighty, playing God with the lives of people, stripping the souls right out of people who dare to disagree..." Carda clenched his fists. "Never mind. It's not your problem. This is something I need to do myself." Carda was determined that no matter what had happened in the past, things were about to change. He was not going to sit idly by and watch the most important people in his life be stripped away one by one.
But he was right. It was something he had to do himself. This was his conflict, and he had no right to haul anyone else into it.
"Why ARE they doing this to me, anyway?" he whispered to himself.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:19 pm
Hooboy. The awkwardness descended again like a cloud. Sosiqui squirmed inwardly.
She really, really wanted to be annoyed at Carda. The headache she was developing all but demanded it.
But all of a sudden he was reminding her WAY too much of how she'd been when she arrived in Gaia. True, Carda was in one piece... but there were other kinds of breaking that could hurt just as much.
"Dammit," she grumbled, letting go of Five's hand. "Can you go home on your own, kiddo? And take this little pinfeather-brain with you?"
Five nodded and pulled the protesting gembird off his hat. "'Kay."
"Thanks a lot," Sosiqui said, smiling at him and patting him on the shoulder. "I'll be back for dinner." The little black mage nodded again and headed down the path towards home.
Then Sosiqui shrugged and turned back to Carda, arms crossed. "Okay. So what exactly is going on? Shoving it up inside isn't going to help anyone, and I suppose I can be a listening ear just this once."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:34 pm
Carda smiled wanly. "Thanks. That means a lot to me."
He sighed. "It's difficult to even remember last week without wanting to hurt something, but I think I can restrain myself. You remember how my teacher was exiled as punishment for so-called heresy? Well, what's supposed to happen is that they strip away your magic, leaving you a normal person again. Then they send you to your homeworld and place a guard on you so that no other Striders can ever make contact with you."
Carda started to tear up just from the memory, but he remained in control of his emotions for the time being. "I discovered that for some reason Xironielle had been exiled to MY homeworld instead of hers. At first I thought that maybe there was some extenuating circumstances, you know, like there was some reason why she couldn't be exiled to her own world... I decided to risk it. I had to get in touch with her. So I sent Seraphim into the house where she was staying..."
Carda was desperately trying to avoid breaking down in front of Sosiqui, but it was becoming harder with each word. "Seraphim said she was sitting there with a blank stare on her face, completely oblivious to anything going on around her. That's when I knew that something was wrong, but when she said that she couldn't see Xironielle's soul..."
Carda couldn't take it any more. "You see why I had to quit now?" he sobbed, tears streaming down his face. "If I don't do something soon, I might as well have signed her death warrant! I can't live with that on my conscience!"
Carda just stood there, not saying anything else. Seraphim did her best to console him, but it didn't do much good. Carda was in too much grief to respond to much of anything.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:39 pm
Sosiqui instinctively moved to comfort him, half-hugging him with an arm around the shoulders. "Well, uh...." She had no idea what to say to that, really. "I can see why you're so angry," she said, finally, aware that anything she could say would be lacking.
She thought for a moment. "Are you sure what, uh, Seraphim saw was your teacher? Could be a decoy or something. Present 'your teacher' as a soulless body, freak you out, make you act rashly... capture you."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:48 pm
Seraphim piped up from her perch atop Carda's head. It somehow seemed like too silly a place for her to be, considering the scene, but it was where she chose to be, and that was that as far as Seraphim was concerned.
"It was Xironielle. I made sure to ask the Lord of Light if it was really her, and He said it was."
"They put her soul into a sword," Carda managed through his sobs. "Don't ask me how I know, I just know. I have to get into the Strider Armory, get that sword, and get back to Xironielle before her body withers away to nothing."
He sniffled. "But you're right about one thing. They wanted to get to me. They used her as bait to get to me, but they didn't want to make it obvious. They wanted me to slip up so I could get caught doing something I wasn't supposed to do... But WHY? I don't get it! What is it about me that is so important to them that they would strip the soul from my teacher? Heck, I'm starting to think that they had something to do with Michelle's disappearance!"
Carda shook his head. "I don't know why this is happening to me, but I'm the only one who can do anything about it at this point."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:52 pm
Sosiqui thought. Really, her head hurt, and she didn't have much of an obligation to help...
... other than common human decency, her conscience hissed.
Point.
"I'll take your word for it," she told Carda and his little angel both. "Well. Um."
The gears were turning, an idea was percolating. But it was crazy...
"Is she under extensive guard? And how good are Striders at detecting alterations in time?" she said, slowly.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:59 pm
"Well, the Armory is constantly under surveillance, but Xironielle's body had about... I dunno, maybe four or five guards around the house. As for your other question, Striders can only detect spatial distortion. Time is completely out of our league. I mean, the magical undercurrent can be felt, but aside from that, it might as well be a fairy sneezing for all we know. The only reason I recognized your magic for what it was that first time I saw you in that alternate Gaia was because of this necklace..." Carda stopped short as a thought occurred to him.
"Oh CRAP."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:04 pm
"... now what?" Sosiqui asked, hesitantly, inwardly praying that whatever had prompted his exclamation wouldn't hurt her head too much more than it already was.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:10 pm
"Why didn't it occur to me before? OF COURSE. They wouldn't dare go after a kairomancer, but if they had a piece of a kairomancer's power... Combine that with the power of a Strider, and..."
Carda looked up. He couldn't see Seraphim but he could feel her still sitting atop his head. "Seraphim, what would happen if someone had the power to control time AND space?"
"You'd pretty much be able to do anything you wanted to but of course the only One who has that much power is the Lord of Light-- HOLY CRAP!"
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Seraphim."
Carda turned to Sosiqui. "I hope you've got some sort of plan, because I think I just figured out why I'm the Council's target."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:15 pm
Sosiqui arched one eyebrow. "The wand-piece? That shouldn't be enough to do anything... unless they were after me. The other me." The thought chilled her, suddenly. Aeina had taught her about the long, long hatred between the mages of time and space... and the easiest thing to fight wars over was power. Both kairomancers and Striders certainly had enough of that, though limited.
Put them together?
"Holy crap," Sosiqui echoed.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:21 pm
Carda began scratching his right forearm absently as he talked. "Okay, this is bad. VERY BAD. If they ever figure out that that piece of you died, they'll start looking for another one of you. And they'll probably track me down to do it, because they'll think that I'll be searching for--" He froze as he realized what he was doing. "Crap, I'm being watched."
Rolling up his jacket sleeve, Carda could feel the entire signet-shaped scar on his arm itch like a colony of ants were marching over his skin. "There's someone nearby using spatial distortion to hide themselves," Carda added nervously as he began looking around for something that didn't look or feel quite right.
Another thought shot to the surface of Carda's consciousness. "My headband!"
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:22 pm
"Where?" Sosiqui said, quietly, a sudden intensity in her eyes.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:51 pm
"I left it at your house," Carda commented. Carda glanced down at the scar as he continued. "Okay, the headband needs to be destroyed. Sentimental value be damned at this point. As for this," Carda added, indicating the scar, "I don't even remember how I got it, so I have no clue how to get rid of it. But we have to sever any connection that other Striders might have to Gaia. If they ever discover that that part of you died, they'll try to track me down under the assumption that I'll go looking for another part of you. They probably assume that that part of you knew more than she did and that she told me everything... How they found out about you I don't know, but-- Bingo. Gotcha, sucker."
Carda had been talking the entire time to cover up what he was really doing: using his detection sense to pinpoint the spatial distortion that was causing his scar to react. He spotted it over by a tree across the way; the telltale shimmer of distorted space was as good as a warning flare to Carda. He opened a tiny spatial portal beneath his staff, the other end of which was located just a couple of inches above the spy's head. Carda then casually rapped the ground with his staff, which instead of hitting the ground, impacted the top of the spy's cranium. Space snapped back to normal as the Strider lost his focus and collapsed to the ground, blissfully unconscious.
Carda grinned proudly at Sosiqui.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:57 pm
Sosiqui relaxed. "By 'where' I meant more like 'where's the spy', but your way was a bit more elegant than what I was thinking of. Good job... and what are you going to do with him now?" She raised one eyebrow at him. "I have a few ideas."
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:01 pm
"Well, the first thing I'm going to do is find out if I know him. Then you can do whatever you like with the slimeball."
Carda walked over. Strange, the long black coat and floppy hat seemed familiar... He rolled the unconscious figure over on its back and promptly recoiled in shock. He was suddenly sorry that he had called the guy a slimeball.
His own face peeked out from under the hat.
Carda felt like he was going to throw up.
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