<P> Finding and Seeking - Valyrmora/ Tajnevaki

[Eftemie]

For a moment, thoughts simply scattered thru his mind causing him to sigh. What should he be looking for? All morning he had been in the maze trying to figure things out from before- at least what was left of it.

Tajne was wandering the hallways now after having spent the day with the goblins. He was looking at all the doors and trying to figure out exactly how many gods were returned. He was certain one was connected somehow to what he was trying to do. It seemed there were far more than he had first thought. Some he knew like Ankou, Xun Jiang, Takeru, Lisana, but there were others he had no idea whose they were.

He came across one door and realized that it was likely Industry. The cat made a mental note to check on him and see how he was. It had been a while since he had spoken to him, but Industry was likely busy now. No. Whatever he was seeking this time was something else. He just had to be in the right place at the right time and find it.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

Eftemie

At that moment Alva opened a door a bit further down the hall, a door with birds carrying candles and a field of flowers, next to it was a bright mosaic door. With the known gates to the Underworld secure there was not much left to do but train and learn. Val was sure the learning thing was new to her. Libraries and tomes were much more her brother's thing.

Host and goddess were dressed for the outdoors, tan leather trousers tucked into laced up fur lined boots, a padded leather training vest over a thick shirt, Alva's sword hung at her side, it was a crude weapon, stolen when she was just ten from a village they had burnt to the ground. Who knows where the villagers had gotten it from, some travelling sword for hire or even knight.

She had been about to go in the opposite direction when she spotted the god a little further down the hallway. At least he felt like a god.
"Hello." Val spoke through the lips of her host. It was becoming easier and easier to take control, she hoped her time for rebirth would come soon.  

[Eftemie]

Tajne turned at the sound of the voice. He watched her a moment, then nodded moving toward her. The host of a god, but which one? The image of a portion of his maze with a lake that looked like a mirror dropped down over him. A soul drifted down into it, but a live person could not. He raised an eyebrow.

< The underworld, musty and sweet, haunted by the spirits of long-dead, passed thru a mirrored lake where living do not tread. > This god had something to do with the Underworld. He frowned. < In truth Mystery recognizes the lady and welcomes her. >

He had recognized her as the other Underworld but then he knew that Nergal was absent from what Kios had said of him and from Echo's actions and attitude. Was this who he was looking for?

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

Val watched curiously as writing seemed to appear in the air. How strange she thought ans moved closer to it. She was glad she had more of a grip over her host now, as Alva was illiterate, but through her eyes she could see the words, and process them.
"Not haunted." She replied, drawing closer still to the strange god. Mystery, ah, well that made sense. She had heard the god spoken of, Cosine knew him, Ankou and the children too.
"Lord Mystery, Tajnevaki?" She was sure that was the name she had heard spoken. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled warmly. "You truely recognise me?" He ould be the first that had. "I am Valyrmora, Underworld, sister to Nergal."

Eftemie

 

[Eftemie]

Taj nodded. In truth he did recognize what he felt of her. < Connected to Lament, an aunt is welcome to Tajnevaki.> He nodded at her use of his name. He was as the name implied, a distraction within the mystery. < The mirrored lake is lost. > he replied. It was as much else was. Gone with the decay of the gods and time.

He needed to rebuild the maze but something had been stopping him each time he had thought about it. In the end all he did was help the goblins with their homes and the castle. Perhaps this was more than a chance meeting. Had the underworld been connected thru the placid lake which seemed almost mirrorlike? He was unsure.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

eftemie

"Oh, Kios, of course." She said in response to his acknowledgement. So he did not remember her, just sensed her connection as Underworld. "Yes, I am his Aunt."
His next words brought a frown to her brow. That made no sense to her, though he was Mystery so perhaps that was the nature of his realm.
"The mirror?" She did not recall such a thing.  

[Eftemie]

Taj nodded standing in front of her. < Two ways into the labyrinth but only one way out. A second door gleams like a mirror in the center of a placid lake. The underground shines beneath, but the mirror is broken and the maze lies in ruins.>

It was the easiest way he could tell her that although the labyrinth once held an entrance to the underworld and his own entrance to the mazes that were used to test others. It could be rebuilt but it would tkae a bit to do so.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

A Labyrinth, the red eyebrows of Val's host furrowed as she tried to make sense of his words. The answer was there somewhere in her mind that was not truly hers yet. She could see the Underworld as it was, as it had been. They called it a world, when in reality it was a fortress. It had walls in the form of the roots of the World Tree, gateways, though there were few of them were virtually impregnable and guarded by ferocious beasts. No one could enter who should not have been there. She had found the Gate of Bone and the entrance at the roots of the Tree ... but the other. The Labyrinth.
"I remember it, I think," she could see the reflection, the vast walls. "It exists still? I haven't been able to venture into my realm yet."

Eftemie

 

[Eftemie]

< The labyrinth exists where times stands still, but the connection to the realm of the dead is broken. > They would need to repair whatever the entrance had once been. The maze needed much work and the goblins were slow to do it. He would eventually have to get others there to help reconnect and reshape things as they once had been. But with other things more pressing, he was uncertain when it could get done.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

Eftemie

Another thing to add to her list. It would not be so bad she thought if Nergal had not decided to disappear, now she had to do the work of two gods and she was stuck in the land of the living. She smiled at Mystery.
"Part is in the world of the living. Part you are familiar with?"  

[Eftemie]

Taj nodded. < Explorers walked the mazes contained within, created by cat on a whim. Tested and true the brave and faithful find the end, while others remain without hope. In disrepair, the goblins rebuild, but time takes months or even years to fulfill. >

The maze would not be easily rebuilt though he had the goblins refortifying the castle keep and the goblin town. The rest he would have to redo bit by bit by exploring it himself with Aeon and Resta. And likely Xander too. It would give Vryce something to do.

< Should Lady Underworld see such sights, her grace would be welcomed. > Perhaps she would remember something he did not quite see. He knew where the lake opening had been, but whatever was beneath it, had been hers and Nergal's. He imagined that he had collaborated with them to make the opening there in the first place as well as what would lead to it.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

"I would like to see it." She she replied. Somehow in her eagerness to discover the other gates she had forgotten that one. Unless it had been Nergal's devising. "It would be good to have such a passage open once more. Without Nergal to sit as judge I'm worried for his boarders."

eftemie

 

[Eftemie]

Taj nodded to Valyrmora. < The Cat awaits your discretion and time. > It was up to her when she wanted to go. He could easily enough take her there whenever it was. Even now if that was what she wanted to do.

There was no need of walking or a mount, he would simply change and fly her there. It was the easiest way to do this, but it was up to her when she wanted to go. It was likely she had as full a schedule as he did, though he seldom did things in the order they were meant to be done.

midnight_medea

 

[midnight_medea]

"I have nothing on at the moment, so whenever you are free." She replied, there was only so much that she could do physically and seeing the maze would be a nice distraction, it might even help her in her plans.

eftemie

 

[Eftemie]

Taj nodded then simply changed shape. He became the cat with wings that he usually was for Keme and Kios. It was the safest way to go since he would be able to protect her far more easily should she need it.

The labyrinth was not especially dangerous. It was simply wild right now and he was trying to figure out how to change things so he had really done nothing to reshape it. The lake itself was there but had turned into a bog. It would need to be cleaned and fixed before it could be used again.

midnight_medea