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 Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 5:23 pm
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:18 am
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:19 am
Solo #8
1067
Alice was tired.
Sick and tired of just sitting around, waiting to die - no, that wasn't entirely accurate, she reminded herself, even if it was far more dramatic to think of it that way. She and Kyrjadis had an agreement, assurance that the guard would not simply be consumed to fuel the goddess' rebirth. They were supposed to be partners. To say that they were supposed to be equal partners would be stretching it; to be perfectly honest, Alice wasn't entirely certain that Kyrjadis would ultimately honor their bargain. It seemed reasonable to expect a deity of Justice to be true to their word, and in the time they'd spent together, the goddess hadn't actually given her any reason to suspect that she would be betrayed, but Alice had trust issues. She preferred to think of it as practicality, as that sounded less like a character flaw and more like a strength, but the fact remained that she did not fully trust the deity she bore. As they happened to share headspace, despite token barriers they had both erected, Kyrjadis knew that, and Alice knew that she knew that, which was not nearly as awkward or uncomfortable as it might seem. They coexisted remarkably well, all things considered.
Regardless of her uncertainty about what might or might now happen when the time came, Alice was growing increasingly tired of waiting around for it. It had only gotten worse once Laurence had...once his god had emerged. She didn't know if he had had any kind of arrangement with the Dragon King or not, and she had conveniently not yet gotten around to speaking to him. She preferred not to think about him at all, about the gnawing ache left behind, but it was impossible. She should have been used to it by now, accustomed to losing people she cared about, but this was a loss that refused to be compartmentalized. That, more than anything, was what was driving her crazy, but she preferred to blame it on waiting for Kyrjadis.
Whatever the excuse she gave herself for needing a distraction, she needed one. A big one. This was not something for which reading a book would suffice. Every book in the entire Library would not be enough. No. To run from a ghost, she would have to chase others.
Xun Jiang had told her once that aoidei could activate certain doors and in so doing travel to other worlds, but Alice had never asked Shyamaath, despite curiosity and concern about the fate of the Castle and, more importantly, its residents. In a way, she hadn't actually wanted to know. She could pretend that there was a chance the others had survived just as she had, whether they had left or stayed put, but if she went back, she would be forced to confront the reality that maybe that was not the case. But now she needed to know.
Shyamaath spent most of her time with Rio and his contingent. When Alice had first become Kyrjadis' host, the demoness had attended her faithfully, but she had never been one who liked being waited upon. She hadn't wanted to insult her, however, by telling her that she wasn't needed. It had been a relief to learn of the aoide's affection for Love, because it had given her a positive way to get her out of her hair by sending her back to him and assuring her that if she had any need of aid, she would come and ask. She hadn't expected that she ever would, but now here she was, awaiting the arrival of Justice's servant (former servant, as Alice thought of her, but she had yet to say as much aloud). She had knocked on Love's door earlier in the day, but the formally hospitable Nashwa had been the only one at home, and after inviting her in and accepting when she declined, had agreed to send Shyamaath whenever she happened to return.
Her usual patience was wearing thin these days, and the wait grated on her. There was little to do but watch her dogs, Hector and Gryne, wrestle playfully with each other. They had tried to involve her several times, but she kept shooing them away, and eventually they had given up and settled on chewing only on each other. Even occuppied as they were, they were first to spring up from the floor and greet Shyamaath when she finally did arrive, opening the door without knocking. The pair of mutts, covered in each other's slobber, bounced happily around her legs, knowing better than to jump but so very, very excited! If it had been a visitor Alice didn't know as well, she would have called them back, but she knew that the demoness was not at all bothered by the beasts.
It was only once the canine greetings were out of the way and the scene had calmed that Alice spoke from where she sat. "Shy. I'm glad you're here." Her lips formed into a ghost of a smile, and she added in a half-hearted attempt at levity, "Maybe not as glad as them."
"Hey, Alice!" The aoide was still distracted enough by Hector and Gryne and scratching their drooly ears that the host's somber mood hadn't registered with her yet. "Nashwa said you needed something. What can I do for you?"
"Do you know how to use the doors? I want to go somewhere." No polite small talk today. She was through with waiting.
"The doors?" Shyamaath tilted her horned head for a moment, eyebrows furrowed, but quickly realized what Alice was getting at. "Oh. Those doors. Yes, I do. Thicket taught me. Where are we going?"
On another occasion, Alice would have asked who Thicket was, and why they had such an absurd name, but she dismissed the idle curiosity. "The Castle. I need to see it, if it's even still there."
"I can do that." The demoness left off the 'I think' she might have otherwise added, seeing now that the guard was all seriousness today. It was easy to guess why. "When?"
"As soon as possible. Tell whoever you need to tell and get ready." A pause, and she added, "Do you think your friends could watch Hector and Gryne?"
"Are you kidding?" Shy laughed. "They'll love it. Alright, give me a few hours. I'll be back."
"I'll be here."
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:20 am
Solo #9
1038
It had been a long time - years - since Alice had crossed into the pocket dimension that contained the Castle, and though Shyamaath's particular method of getting them there was different, it was similar enough that she couldn't blame that alone for making her ill. She had no time to appreciate that they did indeed emerge in the correct place before she was sick, and little time to do that before Shyamaath was rushing to check on her. Coughing, Alice shooed her away. It took a few minutes for the effects of the travel to fade, and when she finally stood to look around, she saw that they had appeared in the courtyard.
Or what had been the courtyard, anyway. To the east, what had once been a hedge maze was maze no more, but a thick tangle of vegetation that, from here, looked like it would be impassable without a machete. The hedges of the maze and the garden beyond it, both of which had once been carefully maintained, manicured, and separated, had declined to stay separated once their human caretakers had gone. Beneath her feet, the stones that paved the courtyard were being broken and pushed up by roots and weeds that had taken advantage of the crumbling and cracking of decay. Looking to the north and south, she saw that the walls of the castle had fared only marginally better, covered in vines and near to crumbling. The towers had fallen, collapsed in to the courtyard, strewing rubble. Underneath it...pieces of the lives of people she'd known. Maybe more than pieces. She considered, briefly, that she could try to dig through it, to see for certain, but...no. Whatever was there, she would leave for the earth to take. The western wall, farthest from the maze, was in better shape, and looked much less like it was going to crumble in on itself. The heavy doors that led to the ballroom had rotted and fallen from their hinges, and the many arched windows that had offered a view into the courtyard had all broken.
Shyamaath laid a hand on her shoulder, startling her. "Alice? Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she assured the aoide hurriedly, shrugging the hand away. "I'm fine. Stay here. I'm going to look around."
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
"I'm sure." The last thing she wanted right now was company. It didn't look like anyone was here, didn't feel like anyone was here, so she wasn't particularly worried for the aoide's safety. "Just...stay here. Don't go wandering around."
Resettling her pack on her shoulders, Alice cast another look at the ballroom, but decided she preferred not to clamber over what was left of the doors. On the northern wall, the door to the kitchen looked to be intact, and so she went to it. She pulled gingerly on the handle at first, concerned that it might be fragile, but what it was was stuck. Grimacing, she pulled harder, and then harder still, until it popped open and swung with a loud, strained creak. She dusted her hands off on her skirt and stepped into the kitchen, which was in as much disrepair as she was expecting. The disarray was covered in layers of dust and cobwebs, cookware scattered everywhere and table and chairs upended. Someone had torn the place apart, no doubt looking for food when famine had taken hold.
She picked her way across the room, sneezing at the dust she stirred up, and looked through the open door into the dining room. The room had been magnificent, once, surrounded by elaborate fish tanks on every side - wall, ceiling, and even floor. They were long since empty now, the glass shattered and the fish very likely eaten. Alice sighed. So much for going that way. Climbing over the rotted ballroom doors looked much more appealing when compared to traversing a room full of broken glass. Back outside she went, where Shyamaath had found a place to sit while she waited. The benches had all crumbled into uselessness, but the aoide had found something that was apparently made of sturdier stuff. Alice couldn't help but laugh when she realized what it was. Not a bench, but a great stone lizard, long and heavy-bodied and just low enough to the ground to make a decent seat. The demoness probably assumed that it was just a statue, but Alice knew better, because she'd killed that basilisk herself, with the help of some very brave friends. Friends she hoped were still alive somewhere, if not here.
The guard turned back to the ballroom and the heap that its doors had become, and very carefully stepped her way across them and onto the marble floor. Large cracks ran through it, one right up the wall, and the stairways that had led up to balconies had collapsed, just as the balconies themselves had. She didn't dwell here, but walked across the floor to another set of doors, these still on their hinges but open, and into a hallway. The carpets with filthy and threadbare, and in places all but disintegrated when she set foot on them. She turned right down the hall, passing paintings and tapestries that hung at odd angles on the walls, some more intact than others, but she wasn't here assess the state of the art. A short distance down the hall, she took a left through a doorway she knew would lead to a set of stairs down to the dungeon. Or would have, if the exterior wall hadn't fallen in, blocking access.
"Dammit!" Alice swore and glared at the obstruction, too much for her to clear away. The dungeon was not a place where most would want to go, but that was where the Hanged Man had lived (by choice), and as such one of the places she most wanted to go. There might be some clue down there was to what had happened to him, and if there was, she needed to find it. Once the frustration passed, she recalled that there was at least one other way into the dungeon, assuming that there hadn't been more collapses in the lower level.
That seemed unlikely.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 10:08 am
Solo #10
1041
Alice turned back the way she'd come down the hall, leaving behind the north wing of the castle for now. With the stairs to the dungeon blocked, there wasn't much of immediate interest in this wing; she would come back later and poke around through whatever was left of the various rooms, but for now, her priority was to find her own rooms, which were in the east wing. She jogged past the ballroom and turned left with the hall, passing what remained of a toy room and a music room, neither of which she'd ever spent much time in. At the end of the hall, one of the castle's several towers had collapsed in, making her profoundly glad that she hadn't lived in one of them. Just short of the rubble, on the right, was the door to her rooms, wide open. She stopped short of it, hesitating for a moment, but shook it off and entered.
She was not surprised to see that her rooms were in a similar state to the kitchen, furniture upended and belongings strewn everywhere, sorted through and in many cases discarded, and then left to gather thick dust. Her desk had been overturned and emptied out, the pages of the diary she had kept torn out and littering the floor, dry paper crumbling under her feet. She was offended only for a moment by the invasion of privacy they represented, but soon cast away the feeling. It was an old life, a dead life, and whoever had gone through it was very likely dead as well. Alice shook her head and continued, passing through her old bedroom and running her fingers along the wall, searching for a switch that was somewhere...there! She pressed it, and a hidden door opened with a cringe-inducing grinding sound, only to stop halfway, leaving just enough space that she could probably squeeze through. She shed her pack and sword and slid through the opening, and found that the small room on the other side had remained undisturbed all this time, touched only by dust. Several swords and pieces of armor were intact, and a box.
Her heart stopped when she saw that box. It was small and simple, just a little wooden box, but it had belonged to the Wheel of Fortune, and in it he had kept unawakened cards of both Arcana, until he'd disappeared and the box had come to her. She'd never been able to puzzle out why, and that question had always bothered her. She brushed her fingers over the lid of the box, sweeping away dust, and touched the catch that opened it, curious. Would its contents be the same as when last she'd looked through them? Cards had found their way back into the box before, somewhow or another. After a moment, she pulled her hand away. No, not now.
Alice stepped back and onto another switch, one that opened a trapdoor into the dungeon...where, of course, it was very dark. She went back out to the bedroom and retrieved a candle and holder from the floor and matches from her pack, and took them down with her. At the bottom of the ladder, she lit the candle after several attempts. It wasn't much, and she would have to proceed carefully, but it was better than nothing. The dungeons were dank and musty, much more so than she remembered. She hadn't spent much time exploring them, not after she had found unpleasant reminders of her past life down here, and couldn't help but regret it now. Shuffling along in the dark with a single candle, she moved from chamber to chamber, skirting around crumbled stone and hoping that she hadn't found her way down here just in time for another collapse to occur. Not soon enough for her, the candle half melted, she found what she was looking for. His room.
She bit her lip and stepped over debris to enter, holding out the candle and looking with no small amount of dread to see what remained. There was no evidence of looting as there had been on the first floor, but neither was there any evidence of life at any recent time. However, there was no evidence of death, either. She had feared finding human remains here, but there were none. She suspected she would find some eventually, in some part of the castle, but at least there were none here. Feeling like an intruder, but desperate to find out anything she could, she began going through drawers and chests, looking for nothing in particular but desperate to find something. Everything was neatly organized, not rummaged through until she had come along, but there was curiously little of value, considering that the room had been occuppied by a thief. Perhaps he had made it out alive after all, and taken any valuables with him. That was what she would choose to believe, at least. She lingered at his wardrobe, the clothes all musty and covered in dust. A small, sentimental part of her wanted to take something from the room, but little with any meaning was left intact.
She left it behind her and returned to the ladder, blowing out the sputtering nub of a candle before climbing back up to her rooms. Here there were things that might be worth taking, the box not least among them. But did she really want to take it? Did she even want to open it? Ultimately, she couldn't resist, released the catch on the lid and flipped it open.
...and laughed. Looking back at her from the top of the stack of cards was her own. Lost, it had somehow ended up back here, where it could do her absolutely no good. Well, at least she knew now what had happened to it. She picked it up and pocketed it, and looked with no small amount of apprehension to see what card had been under hers, and was relieved to see the Knight of Swords, a card that as far as she was aware had never awakened, and most likely never would. The Castle was dead, and she hoped it stayed that way.
Alice dropped the lid and left the box behind.
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 12:40 pm
Solo #11
615
Alice returned to the courtyard as evening approached, looking to that ridiculous basilisk statue, but Shyamaath was nowhere to be seen. Dammit. Why was she not surprised that the aoide had gotten bored and wandered off somewhere? She frowned deeply and called for her, and a moment later, was answered by a muffled call from the tangled mess of plants that had once been a hedge maze.
"Here! Hang on, I'll be out in a minute!" A minute and much rustling later, the pale purple demoness emerged, brushing leaves out of her pigtails.
"Didn't I tell you to stay put?"
"Well, yeah, but I didn't go far," Shyamaath countered with an unrepentant grin. "Besides, I think you might like what I found!"
There was more rustling from the bushes behind her, but the aoide wasn't at all disturbed by it, and before Alice had a chance to do anything more than point, alarmed, a dog emerged. A giant, rough-haired dog she hadn't seen in years. A dog she had been sure was dead, but was clearly not; he was, however, very old, his cream-colored coat gone mostly white and his long legs stiff with arthritis, but no amount of stiffness could stifle his enthusiasm when he saw Alice. He ran to her with a joyous bark, tail wagging just as fast as it could, and covered her face with kisses when she dropped to her knees to wrap her arms around him, weeping.
It was a long while before she could say anything, but when she finally could, she looked up at Shyamaath in disbelief, still clinging to the old hound. "How did you find him?"
"He found me! Scared the hell out of me, actually, but he liked me just fine once I gave him some jerky. I figured you'd probably know him."
"Yeah, yeah I do. Huh, Jo?" She ruffled his ears and gave him another squeeze, earning a few more licks.
"He's not all you'll like, I think! C'mon!"
Shy ducked back into the hedges, and Alice frowned after her before getting back to her feet and following, Jotun close on her heels. "Is this really necessary?" she complained, shoving branches out of her way and being thankfully that there weren't any thorns. Eventually, they reached a tiny clearing, where they were greeted by the suspicious barking of two half-grown but nonetheless rather large dogs, one red and one black but both with Jotun's rough, wolfhound-like coat. "...You have got to be kidding me. Seriously? I'm guessing these are yours, but where's momma?"
Her old mutt simply whuffled, tail still wagging. No answers would be forthcoming from him. 'Momma' was probably dead or had otherwise run off, or was simply elsewhere at the moment. Jotun had been one of a number of dogs who had lived in the castle as pets and guard animals, a number that had included her great dane and the High Priestess' wolfhound - both undoubtedly dead of old age or worse by now - which was where Jotun and his three littermates had come from. Studying the not-quite puppies, she guessed that they were descended from the red mastiff one of her fellow guards had kept. Not only was one of them red, they were a little heavier-bodied than their sire, with wider heads. They didn't look like they would grow to be as tall.
"Well." Alice swung her pack off her shoulders and folded her legs, digging out some of the food they'd brought. "Might as well get comfortable, we're going to be here awhile."
Because they were coming with her. If she took anything home with her, it was sure as hell going to be her dogs.
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