Welcome to Gaia! ::

People had been reporting to the database that they were finding effects of the weird storms on their wonders and homeworlds. So, once he had the time, Emain Ablach had focused on that part of him and opened his eyes to that idyllic countryside. There were purple clouds here darkening the otherwise clear skies, but no lightning, and the wind was nothing but a stiff continuous breeze that flapped his hair and cape. He turned in place, taking in the village, noticing that the trees were bare. The grass crunched under his feet rather than rustling.

"...Finian?" he called, turning in place again. No answer. A thought occurred to him. "I'm sorry it's been a while!" Then, quieter, under his breath, "stuff's been happening, and I've been busy."

"That's better." The voice to his side turned him toward the main hall. Finian, despite having no weight, was leaning against the door frame leading inside, a frown curving his mouth and darkening his eyes. He uncrossed his arms and walked closer, but did not fully reach Emain Ablach. "What sort of 'stuff' has been happening? Is it related to that?" He tossed his chin upward toward the sky, making his hair bounce away from his face.

Emain Ablach brushed his own out of his eyes. "Yeah. There's a problem--"

"Clearly," cutting him off. Ah, Finian was in a mood. Wonderful. Emain Ablach rested his shield against the ground, leaning it against his leg, and shook out the arm that had been holding it. It felt heavier than it normally did. "Your shield is different. You are dressed differently. Is this related to the 'stuff' that's been happening?"

"Yeah." Emain Ablach shifted his weight to one leg, folding his arms loosely over his chest. "Do you know anything about the clouds?"

"No." Finian shook his head. "I've never seen them before. It's rarely stormy here, you understand."

"Yeah, that tracks." A sigh. "Is the Code piece still where I left it?"

"How would I move it? Who else would move it?" Finian's tone was flat.

"That's fair. Alright. I need to talk to it." Emain Ablach picked up his shield and moved for the meeting hall. How he was going to have a heart-to-heart with it, he wasn't sure, but he was running out of options of people to ask. Might-as-well ask the thing that was ******** amounts of old.

The piece of Code was indeed right where Emain Ablach had left it, sitting in pride of place in the center of the table in its crystalline box. The niche in the wall that was technically meant for it was higher up, but Emain Ablach had not felt like climbing on chairs to put it back when he had last been there. He waited for a moment to let his eyes adjust and for the lights to come on, then moved for the box. Leaning over the table and steadying himself with a hand splayed on the warm wood, Emain Ablach reached for the box.

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed outside just as he touched it.

Ominous.

He sat in one of the chairs, taking the piece out of its box and cradling it in his palms. Now what? "...Hello." His voice echoed in the hall. He heard Finian snort softly behind him.

It replied to him! It had replied! To him! Emain Ablach was, admittedly, not expecting that and had not expected to get even this far. The response took Emain Ablach enough by surprise that he lost his next words for a moment. With a murmured apology, he looked around. The location was... stark. Bare. The only indication of where the Code piece ought to be--rather than in a box on the table--was the notch in the wall above his head.

"I ought to bring you something that livens this place up a bit," he sighed, half to himself. But surely the Code did not speak to him to hear his opinions on interior decorating. As an ancient entity, it surely had bigger things to worry about than the appearance of the place.

Though, if it had opinions, he was all ears--

Anyway.

He set the box back down on the table and sat politely before it, hands loosely clasped before him, wrists on the edge of the table, back straight, both feet on the floor. "There is something happening, outside and on Earth and other homeworlds. A lightning storm with no known cause that doesn't seem to behave like normal weather." Emain Ablach glanced over his shoulder toward the entrance as lightning flashed overhead. Finian could be heard exclaiming loudly, with particular gusto.

"I don't suppose you've encountered anything like this before?"

Emain Ablach replied with a slight, absent frown. "I was afraid you'd say that." He broke from his posture to rub the back of his neck. "I was mainly here for that, I admit." Only a heartbeat of silence before he continued, "but if you are open to it, I... did have some more general concerns."

Finian's voice carried with the wind, somehow, incorporeal as he--and it--was. Magic, no doubt. A lot could be explained with that one word, Emain Ablach was finding. He wasn't sure if that comforting or not. Then again, was that terribly different than relying on faith? ...He would think about the ramifications and effects of magic on, and in, a faith-based religious hierarchy later. With a lot more comfortable surroundings and some good food and better company than a ghost railing against the weather.

"I haven't told him," with a toss of his head back in indication toward Finian, "what took me so long to show up here, but I assume you probably already know I used to be in the Negaverse, right?" Before he lost his nerve, he continued without confirmation or denial, "I'm sorry."

How long had the Code waited for him to show up? How long had the wonder he was supposed to protect sat abandoned and derelict?

'I honestly thought I was fighting for the good of the planet and its people,' seemed like such a hollow excuse that it didn't leave his lips, even if it clanged disharmoniously in his mind. Disharmonious not for a lack of truth, but for the lack of weight, the lack of being a good enough reason. How many people had he hurt? Had he killed anyone?

"You have my word that I will not misstep again." 'Misstep' seemed like such an underwhelming way to describe it.