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 Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:27 pm
(( This thread involves Rei and Soren, after arriving in the Host Club's warm interior. Please do not post, aside from a certain superb lurker who knows who they are. ))
Rei let out a small sigh of relief as a wave of heat embraced his body with the opening of the door. But, as he stood in the doorway, hand still on the doorknob, a frigid breeze swept by him once more, prompting a slight groan. As soon as Soren had walked past the Druid, he closed the door behind them both, shoving the cold away once more. Rei was silent as he walked through the foyer, with the Sage following close behind. A left turn took him to another door, this time to a simple parlor, with a couch and chairs. Much more fitting for conversation than the foyer, Rei thought.
The Druid took one of the chairs, resting his right arm on the armrest. The left arm took the tomes from his robes, placing them in a stack on a small table next to him. With a wave, he beckoned for Soren to sit, so they could relax and talk.
"So. What do you know about what happened during the fall?" Rei's questions were nice and simple, for now. Hopefully, they'd stay nice through it all...
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:57 pm
Needless to say, the guard's appearance aroused a bit of concern.
Soren had stealthily glided through the snows behind Rei, a good portion of his mind dedicated to why that man had approached the druid with such grave uncertainty. It was no less comforting that he had been so easy to sway, so easy to turn away. It simply did not add up in the sage's mind. He'd kept his gaze fixed forward and observed that which transpired in the corners of his eyes, though he saw little of interest aside from the occasional misfit. It was near the end of their trudge when he suddenly wondered what mischief his other half had stirred.
He acknowledged the shift in temperature with a passing thought and no more. When Rei was comfortably situated in a chair, Soren accepted his invitation to another seat and gently placed himself upon the cushion, handling himself more like a delicate artifact than a tired man. His gaze glanced over Rei's face. It seemed to both scrutinize the boy's features and to ignore them.
"I watched the citizens slowly descend into madness," Soren answered, his tone flat and passionless. "Those of Eyris, those of near villages, and those of some remote regions. I tried to track the source, but my vision could tell me nothing of that which lay in the desert. The miasma which obscured any preternatural sight of the desert lifted near the end of the epidemic that had occurred in Learania. I assumed it was the remains of something in that area which was the source." He stared at the druid with unwavering eyes for a moment. Then proceeded to say, "I have also heard whispers of the agitator. Both of them, a shadow of myself included."
His expression remained unchanged. Soren recalled images of the past without a spark of emotion, without a hint of reaction. They were all mere fragments of data to his mind. "Is this your concern?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:14 pm
For someone talking about half of a country's people going insane, he sure was calm. Though honeslty, Rei wasn't particularly surprised by the man's lack of emotion, since he was about as enthusiastic as a rock when they were conversing in the streets.
"And where were you, to see such far apart areas so easily? It just seems..." Rei tried to find the right word, and have a coherent thought following it. Soren's stoic demeanor was unnerving, at least a little. "...odd..." he mentally berated himself for not choosing a more intelligent word, what with all the reading he was doing. "...that you would be able to monitor an entire country's mental state, but you did nothing to stop your diabolical stand-in." The Druid crossed his arms, almost as if he were victorious in a simple conversation. "So, just how involved were you with that entire ordeal? I mean, you had to know something, since you know so much now."
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:28 pm
Soren regarded his fellow for the expressions, the emotions that bled through. Needless to say there was not much to see aside from a bit of perplexity. He again ran some courses of thought through his mind to make sense of what he was about to say, what he planned to elaborate on, although there was no connecting anything with the numerous blanks that dotted his memory. He saw fit to explain what he possessed the most solidarity on.
"A mere cavern," he answered, "with a pool of water appropriate for Seeing. One of the practices my anonymous benefactor tutored me in."
Almost immediately his mind zoned in on Rei's simple action of crossing his arms. When nothing of intrigue popped out, the sage's focus relaxed back to its surroundings, just faintly noting the flicker of some nearby candle and the shadows that a burning hearth somewhere cast upon the walls.
"I was completely isolated from the scene. Had I known my counterpart was truly involved, it may have aroused enough concern to bid me come." No, that was not correct. He blinked at the druid and tried to remedy the hole in his thoughts. There was some other reason he had not been there, some other reason he did not come immediately to the assistance of old allies. If it was not for the absence of that vital figure in his head, everything would be far easier. Soren permitted the slightest sliver of frustration or mental strain with this. "Something held me back. A duty, perhaps." Yes, that sounded right. "A duty that has just recently been lifted. Should I recall I would inform you, but no such thing occurs."
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:49 pm
"So, you could monitor an entire country, but you couldn't keep tabs on one person?" Rei smirked, shaking his head. "Looks like your benefactor didn't do that good a job on tutoring you..." Rei would have gotten more entertainment out of being slightly witty, but chances are, if it was an anonymous benefactor, and Soren forgot what he was doing to begin with, there'd be no point in speaking ill about his tutor. Hardly something to provoke an emotion, probably.
"So, what do you know about what had transpired back then?" Rei looked casually out a window at the gray skies, before looking back at Soren's indifferent face. "I was there firsthand, so whatever you don't know, I might..." Rei silently hoped that he could entice Soren with a bit of an idea of what exactly he'd seen (though it likely wouldn't help much) and get some more information out of him. But if Soren's memory was as good as he'd let on, it may not matter...
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:11 pm
For a few moments his focus blurred. He withdrew into the depths of his mind and dug at the details, and there was no difficulty in unearthing the smallest of things from what he had observed. Soren could observe any place at any time, just not every place at every time. And with his ever-sharpening perception he had developed a certain acuteness with details.
"There was a weakness in the tapestry of Balance."
His gaze sharpened into focus to again appraise Rei while the sage spoke. "Prior to the almost continental decline of the populace's sanity, a force of some kind stirred behind The Door and compelled those who were not quite right in the head. Naturally, it drew the best candidate for chaotic composure, and took him in as a host of some sort." Soren seemed to stare through Rei's ribs for some reason, and then he lifted his head to regard the ceiling instead. Why ever he found these so fascinating was a mystery in itself. "Meaning that whatever power lies behind there can act as a parasite. I cannot say if something triggered all of this, although I can promise you that has something to do with it."
He reminisced the waves of discordant power which had swept the land, the dark autumn that was heralded to descend. The ordeal to come was something that seemed only loosely connected. He partly surmised on this while he watched dust particles drift through the air, and then he spoke once more, seeming to address those particles of dust rather than the druid. "There is still danger. The sorceress is still about and it seems a shadow of the autumn wanders in search of an opportunity to strike again."
Soren finally let his eyes fall back on Rei. "I would appreciate it if you filled in the holes for me, regarding the epidemic or the cause behind it."
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:29 pm
"So... balance and chaos were distorted." Rei paused, still trying to comprehend what the Sage had said. Soren was definitely a fan of putting things in annoyingly cryptic terms, today. "And The Door took an especially messed up being, that look-alike... and then things went sour. ...right?" Rei's mind flashed to the terrible memories of the inside of that infernal tower, hardly something he would want to remember.
But... a sorceress? Rei didn't recall anything about a Sorceress, or any female mages that he'd not seen before. Maybe he'd just missed something, but it still nagged at his mind. "...I don't know anything about a sorceress, Soren...." After a moment of contemplation, he arrived at a conclusion. The sorceress could have been the one that stole Amara, maybe. There was a lot of elaborate magic, that night. Again, his mind drifted to that tower...
"Well, do you know anything about just what your doppelganger was doing, in the desert...?" Rei was smirking once more. He liked the feeling of having information over someone else, especially if they could want what he knew. At the very least, it made conversation fun for him, sometimes.
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:37 pm
"Correct," Soren inserted after Rei had mused on how the balance of things had been distorted. He sat unaffected when Rei said he knew nothing of a sorceress, although he supposed that to was be expected. Not even the AWOL researcher knew too much of what had happened.
"No. Again, I could not see anything. The Seeing pool was unable to detect anything aside from a mangled blur for a good while."
He certainly had not asked Rei to fill in the holes, so Soren saw no reason to be upset over Rei's avoidance. He found this just a bit curious. Had he been his whole self, he might have lost a shred of patience with the druid, might have allowed his tone to heighten with anger and his muscles to tense through his indignity. But with who he was now, none of the sort happened. Soren just sat in that chair with his hands peacefully at rest.
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:20 pm
"So, do you want to know about what was transpiring in that desert?" ...Soren would want to know, right? Knowing what his sick little copy was doing could be of interest to him. Well, hopefully. "It seems like arcane disturbances would catch your attention..."
(( Worst. Post. Ever. ))
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:52 pm
After discovering where Rei was taking Soren, Rath had begun to make haste toward Host Club Manor. The fact that Rei was even talking to Soren might present problems. The word to the public was that the cause of the chaos had been eliminated, and those few who knew of Soren's involvement knew him to be dead. What that really meant was that all those within the guild, those that knew Soren, had been told he was dead by those who were there in the desert to witness it. If people saw him walking around... just thinking about it made Rath's mind hectic. It was uncertain what would happen, but there would surely be many angry people. Not only that, but Soren may still be dangerous. It was urgent that Rath get to him and find out what was going on.
Rath put his thoughts aside, as he approached the manor. He had never been inside the building, but was very aware of its location. It was a rather big building amongst the other ones in Eyris, and quite famous amongst the people. His own daughter was even a part of this club.
As the three approached the door, Rath could hear mumbling coming from inside, though he could not make out the words. Hopefully, it would be Rei and Soren talking and nobody else would be inside, during this time of day. Rath raised his hand and clutched the doorknob. However, before he could begin to turn it, a horseman came riding up, calling his name. The acting captain released the handle and stepped away from the door.
The scout made his way up to Rath, and dismounted the horse, after coming to a stop. He was not aware that Rath was headed toward the Host Club when he first set out, but upon questioning from some bystanders and fellow guards, he was able to figure out where to go. "Sir! I come with a message!"
Rath looked at the newly arrived guard, with a hint of annoyance. He was about to secure Soren, before this man's interruption. "....What is it?"
"Sir! A lady claiming to be from the land of Estarcia has arrived at the castle, saying that she has something to talk to you about. She said it was very important."
"..Estarcia...?" Mentioning of that country flashed a few images through Rath's head, but he focused on none of them. All he was concerned with was why somebody from there would come to Learania, let alone have important things to talk about. Still, this could be an opportunity to increase relations with the country and keeping this messenger waiting would do no good. It could even create trouble.
Before Rath could reply to the scout, he paused, then looked back at the door behind him. This Estarcian could not have come at a more inconvenient time. Though getting to Soren was important, this new occurrence would have to take precedence. He would not simply leave, though. After coming to a decision, Rath looked back and turned to address all three guards. "You three stay here. Keep a watch on this building and make sure nobody comes in or goes out until I return."
When finished giving his command, Rath took the reigns from the scout and mounted the horse. "..I will be back as soon as I am able." With a whip of the reigns, the horse took off, and Rath headed back to the castle. He had a feeling something very significant was about to unfold.
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:44 pm
Something told Soren that they were not alone. He acknowledged the disruption in the atmosphere with little more than a bat of the eyelash, and he reclined in the chair while wondering why Rei was holding off so much on information. Perhaps the druid felt satisfaction over being so elusive, perhaps he meant for there to be a deal of some sort before he said anything. Soren wondered if it was wise to be here at all. If it was not, he should have foretold it sooner.
"Yes," he said simply. "If it would please you." For some reason he felt it should not, unless he had already satisfied Rei's needs with the information he had been able to provide.
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:49 pm
Soren was, as always, irritatingly blunt. He couldn't show any interest if he tried, by the looks of it. Rei groaned, trying to mask it as a sigh. Either way, he didn't really care. There hopefully wouldn't be too much to tell...
"Okay, well, I don't know much about how things all started, but..." Rei skimmed through his recent memories, looking for a good point to start the story. The decreasing sanity of Eyris wouldn't be a good spot, even though fighting those Twins would have been a nice story to tell. The Druid's memory finally slid to a halt at the desert, at that tower, to be specific...
"We made our way to this large, black tower, in the desert. When we were about to rush to it, monsters appeared. I don't know where they came from, but they came. After we managed to deal with them, this giant... behemoth of an abomination spawned." Rei looked down, trying to find a way to describe it, aside from childish terms. "It was huge, and it had... countless arms of all sorts. But, then there's inside the tower..."
Rei stretched his arms above his head, showing a bit of fatigue. As he let out a small yawn, he focused his gaze on the Sage once more, this time with a much more solemn look.
"The inside of that place... Nightmarish." Rei visibly shuddered, letting out a small breath. "Hanging corpses, scattered limbs through the bookcases, and an impenetrable darkness. And at the end..." Rei rose an arm, and pointed to Soren's head, uncertainty in his voice. "Was you. Not the look-alike, you."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:55 pm
The sage observed the concise tale in mere silence and noted on the side how Rei had suddenly diminished the use of the word 'so'. He played the scenes in his head, allowing them to overlap the physical realm that he viewed with his eyes, and he began to reminisce the witness of a blurred figure he had periodically sighted in his visions during the whole fiasco. On the side, Soren acknowledged that numbness was fading from his body in the manor's comforting warmth.
"How unsettling," he remarked after Rei's last sentence. Soren was not entirely certain if Rei had actually finished speaking, but he'd supposed the druid was waiting for a comment, perhaps one that would clear away some of the confusion regarding Soren's appearance in the aforementioned tower. Instead, the sage just gave him a comment laced with such a dry tone that it almost sounded sarcastic.
"You are certain that it was me."
Yes, it was a statement. A statement was more prone to invoke reaction than a question was. Soren carefully studied Rei's motions and never let his attention stray to the other details.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:11 pm
"Well, I don't see who else it could have been." Rei said, almost sarcastic himself. "There was the doppelganger, and you were there, too." Rei eyed the Sage, trying to figure out his next sentence. "It was you, but it looked like you used to, with all the robes, and less white." Hopefully, Soren would understand what he was saying, that there were two Sorens in that tower.
"And then, you- Er, the 'old' you summoned up... a dragon, a Druid, and some poor excuse for my brother." Rei paused briefly, in case Soren would need a moment to comprehend what he'd said. "And then, we fought them. The three he summoned and the old Soren, I mean."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:37 pm
"So you lived."
Still his gaze drifted nowhere, although Soren seemed he could assess Rei's past scars (if there were any) regardless of movement. He played about in the pools of his memories, attempting to excavate some form of imagery or sound that sounded familiar when associated with Rei's account of the event. The sage certainly understood what Rei meant to say. After whatever phenomenon had split him in two, Soren could not say he was perplexed by there being multiple images of himself.
What should have concerned him was that a third one apparently existed. He had a feeling that this third entity was the same blurred figure he had glimpsed throughout the autumn, although now it seemed to have dissipated back into the mass energies of that which lay behind The Door — or perhaps a certain brand of nonexistence. The fact was that the third one was gone. It was back to him and Neros. Now, if it could only reduce back down to one...
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