A Call Unanswered
Ninth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
Though the Snare has long become familiar from all the fiends summoned and bound within, there is nothing so ordinary about this gathering. You are not alone, but in the company of every one of your friends, from Ser Richard standing sword at the ready to guard and strike alike, to Xor floating near the vaulted ceilin,g and Dany still prepared to rain down curses despite all the protective magics she has thus far conjured, bright enough to dazzle the eye that looks upon them with the second sight.
Upon the chamber's walls, too, are worked protections wrought for this day alone, a
ward that should bar all spell-weavers who had not been present from the start from passing where they will within the chamber, and sickly yellow
runes glowing with a necromancer's power. For most fiends this would be too much, the traps more trouble than the foe, but the one you aim to summon now is perilous indeed. Warded against foresight, known only by the arts of artifice that even in the hands of another had almost slipped a spy into your home, and then near cost Lya her life when you trapped the pleasure devils who hid in Highgarden. You will not be taking any chances with any protections she may have forged for herself.
So at the last you step before the circle and speak the name of thirteen syllables, like drops of brimstone upon the tongue.... The circle remains empty, truly empty, Xor confirms. The magic in your mind unspent.
"Is it posibile the Uniila we crafted into a book did not truly know her sister's name?" Dany asks, the frustration you feel mirrored in her voice.
"Not unless the memory of the one we captured had been extensively modified," you reply. "The reason she even had that name is because it was required to pool their knowledge and skill in a ritual."
"The name could have changed as our foe did?" Malarys points out. "That is uncommon but not impossible in fiends, and I think we are well past setting aside the merely
uncommon." He waves vaguely at the chamber and all those gathered within, a faint smile momentarily touching his saturnine features.
"That would be too much of a coincidence, I think," Lya interjects. "If I were a devil artificer planning to work against someone I knew to have my True Name, I would secure myself against summoning before I even struck the first blow." After another thoughtful pause she adds: "The means that seems the simplest to me would be to cease being
baatezu entirely and instead enshrine her soul in some creation of magic and mechanism like we have done for the Yi-Tish scholars."
"A dangerous path if that is indeed the one she took," you muse, thinking back on the codes and principles of the Infernal Hierarchy. "Free though our foe may be of the yoke of any Arch-Duke, the Lord of the Ninth would not take kindly of a devil stepping so blatantly outside the place it has been assigned by deliberately altering her from."
"Even Asmodeous is not all-knowing of every infernal plot, though he would doubtless wish his subjects to think him so." The smile that shows upon Malarys' face this time is a far colder thing. "Perhaps it will serve us well to confirm this suspicion one way or another and then merely alert the proper authorities of the deviation. It could even gain us enough favor to infiltrate the Academy of Chains to bring Wisdom Siduri her vengeance."
"That would make capturing the Uniila and her work more difficult, but certainly worth considering once we have more than speculation and an empty ritual circle to consider."
What do you do next?
[] Attempt to seek out 'She Who Brings Enlightenment'
[] Reconvene with your most trusted allies and subjects on the matter of Heaven's Fate—and how much of it should be known to general populace
[] Learn what Brianne has been doing over the past year by divination and then speak to her.
[] Visit your uncle again. You have things to talk about, and people to scheme against
[] Begin the expedition to the Southlands
[] Write in
OOC: I know this is not really a surprise, it's been brought up that the Uniila might just not show up, but hopefully the discussion makes an interesting read, for as brief and update as this is.
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