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 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:56 am
The eyebrow raised again. "I see." Sunny took a long, deliberate sip of tea, then folded her hands on the table, thinking in vain of her secret stash of brain-fogging drugs. A drop in the chocolate milk--and oh, look at that. Sosi's safe, at least until Carda figured out his mind had been messed with. Of course, they were all at home, for emergency use only, in a locked box that had been opened perhaps twice in the past twenty years.
"This... this Strider Council... forgive me, but while I'm vaguely familiar with the kairomancers, I don't know much about these Striders... this council is attempting to get to Sosiqui through you. I'm correct in this?"
Ghlyssa's eyes widened. "Oh..." She started to rise; Sunny waved her back down.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:12 am
Carda sighed and dropped his head to the table. "Way to go, genius," he mumbled to himself before lifting his head again.
"I might as well tell you everything. But please, don't tell Sosiqui. Not yet. I haven't had a chance to talk to her about any of this yet, and I'd rather she heard it from me. Less of a wait for her to kill me for not bringing it to her attention sooner," he added with a halfhearted grin.
"The Strider Council is made up of the most powerful Striders alive. They can do things with space that I can only dream of attempting. I imagine if they were to pool their collective power they might even be able to merge Worlds together. A long time ago there was some conflict between the Striders and the kairomancers. I don't even know what it was all about, except maybe a grasp for power. Anyway, there's been this huge grudge between the two groups ever since."
Carda slumped down in his seat as he continued. "Meanwhile, oblivious to all this, I'm making friends with a fragment of a kairomancer, completely unaware that I have special powers or that she ever had any of her own. I think I was about sixteen or so when weird things started happening to me, things I couldn't explain. I would teleport by complete accident. One time I nearly hurt someone. That's when my teacher showed up and told me that my sister and I had special powers. Powers that we could develop so that we wouldn't hurt anyone again by accident.
"Naturally I jumped at the chance. So did Michelle, my sister. Just before we left, the Sosi I'd grown up knowing gave me a shattered piece of her kairomancy wand. She didn't even know what it was, she just thought it would look good as a necklace. My guess is that someone in the Council got wind of the fact that I had connections to a kairomancer and let the Head of the Council know about it.
"This guy is dangerous. VERY dangerous. He's got more power and skills than me, my sister, and my teacher combined. And he wants more. I think he's trying to elevate himself to some sort of god-like status by acquiring a kairomancer's power. He's been exploiting my connection to Sosiqui from day one, and I'm worried that if he ever tracks me down again, he's going to get what he wants."
Carda sat up with a new detemination in his eyes. "I'm not going to just stand by and watch a friend be used like that."
The fire in his gaze died out almost as quickly as it had flared up. "Granted, I'm not much use to Sosi if she thinks I'm just a nuisance."
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:28 am
Sunny pursed her lips thoughtfully. "That's quite the story. Sounds like a real mess." She sighed. "Look. Here's the thing. I won't tell Sosi myself. However. I certainly hope you bring this to her attention soon. If my friend," she stressed it slightly, "is going to be in danger because of this, I would like her to know. And while I can certainly understand disagreeing with the decisions of your superiors--more than you know, really--the fact remains that you're admitting to me that you're quite closely linked with these people.
"I'm going to tell you something. I'm not human, and I don't really look like this. This is an act. For my own safety, I don't think I'll tell you what I am. You're not the only one avoiding people, and I've had a bit of a close call recently. But believe me. If any harm should come to Sosiqui or Riven because of you, you are going to have one heck of a problem, in the form of yours truly." She grinned.
Ghlyssa stared at her guardian in some surprise. This, from the same person who refused to squash the spiders wintering in the basement?
"Now, you seem nice enough. I'd really hate to have to do anything I'd regret. You understand me?" Sunny finishes up her bluff with another sip of tea.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:35 am
Carda read enough into Sunny's reply to get enough of an idea what she was talking about. "Yes, ma'am," he replied weakly. He thought about telling Sunny that he had quit the Striders, but the fact still remained that people would be tracking him down just for THAT. He decided against it.
A thought occurred to him. "You know, maybe you might be able to help me out. There's only one way left that another Strider could track me down, and if I can get rid of that, they'd have to start looking through every World they have access to... which is a hell of a lot, I can tell you that. Do you know of a method that could possibly remove this?" Carda rolled up his jacket sleeve to expose a diamond-shaped mark on his arm that looked like a cross between a tattoo and a scar.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:40 am
Sunny relaxed almost immediately. Being fierce is sort of exhausting. "Well. I'm not sure. Short of cutting it off or burning it off. Lasers, maybe, but I don't know if there's anyone in town who'll do that sort of thing. The first two don't seem like really great options, especially by yourself. You'd want back up for when you fainted from pain or blood loss or whatever."
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:51 am
Carda's thoughts instantly turned to Sosiqui's little companion, Five. He could do some pretty cool things; maybe he could help.
Maybe Carda needed to find Xironielle as soon as he was done eating and drag her out of here and down to Sosi's house, potential disaster though it may be.
"Good point... Thanks anyway."
Carda turned back to his meal, but soon found that he wasn't as hungry as he had been when he came in. Opening a portal in his backpack again, this time to his refrigerator, Carda stuck his taco salad and his milkshake into his bag.
Well, it was easier than waiting for a box.
Carda set a stack of gold on the table, which was enough for the meal and a decent tip. Standing up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he bowed to the two girls. "I hate to dash like this, but I've got to go find someone before she shops herself broke. I'll see you around."
Carda practically ran out the front door of the cafe.
((Figured this is a good place for me to stop, since I'm starving myself IRL and I likely won't be on after I leave in a couple of minutes, so I'll let you finish this up how you will and get going...))
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:59 am
((Yeah, I'll have to be going in the near future myself. Thanks for the RP. Was fun.))
"That was interesting," Sunny remarked, after watching him leave.
"Do you think Riven and Miss Sosiqui are going to be okay?" Ghlyssa asked worriedly.
"I suspect so." Sunny shrugged as she rose from the table. "Honestly, Glee, Sosi's pretty tough. And he doesn't seem like the sort to do anything intentionally. Could be wrong, of course." She sorted through her wallet to pay for their own meal.
"Were you serious about... what you said you'd do...?" Glee ventured to ask.
"Well, I was serious, yes. But if I would actually do it? Probably not," Sunny admitted. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
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