Insight and Impediment
4th of January 2007 A.D.
"Well I guess you could say it all started not with Summer, but with Winter last Halloween when I became aware from Lady Raith that there were pawns of the Enemy in Queen Mab's court. Looking into it I discovered that one of them was the Lady herself. I a had agreed to meet with her upon another matter...."
"She was in trouble for helping me," Lydia cuts in, stalwart friend through and through. "It interfered with the Queen's plans for—" she stops and sneaks a look at Harry.
"Such webs are strung between us as would snare a spider," Tiffany laughs. "She is asking you if you are alright with her explaining
your part in this Harry?"
"Oh... ah, sure?" Harry's answer sounds more like a question.
"We had gotten in the way of the Queen's plans for me, certainly for my father, hence a meeting on Samhain," Lydia finishes firmly, obviously taking that for the no is actually is, though why Harry is looking at Kincaid with worry you're not sure. The man is clearly here to earn his salt not play political games.
Is that jealousy, does he think I find him hot? He's not bad, if you are into the whole leather and enough firearms to overthrow a small country vibe, but I'm not. Tiffany? Still no, though whatever it is she seems to find it somewhat amusing.
Shaking off the questions for now you explain how you had exorcised Maeve and gotten out of Mab's bad books and into the good and, much to your surprise, the Archive does not question it, she nods as though she had expected it, as though she had known.
"We have been informed about that," she admits. It's hard to tell if she means that the True Venatori or the inner gathering of her many lifetimes lived. "At once worrying and welcome news as many things to do with the War are. Please, continue."
So you do, explaining the meeting with Lilly over the holidays how you had become worried over her troubles taking to the mantle which had fallen upon her shoulders unbidden. Here you choose your words with utmost care, not wishing to imply that Titania messed up, much as you might think so. Explaining the facts is one thing, but no one ever made it far in politics
or diplomacy by laying their feelings about third parties on the table lightly.
From the kind of questions the Archive asks, you get the uneasy feeling of being watched all too closely. A good thing you have your own skills to slip though on platitudes.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 13/15
"So I made this." With a soft tinkle of many twined chains you lay the Red Adamant Owl on the table. Kincaid picks it up first and weighs it in a gloved hand for a moment. "Feels like blood gone up in smoke twisted round and round compressed. Closest thing I can think of is that drumstick..."
To your surprise the Archive giggles, then she snaps her hand over her mouth to keep in in. "No,
nothing is like the Drumsticks of Doom. Probably just means it's new."
You and Lydia ask at the same time: "Drumstick of Doom?" Harry looks like he wouldn't have been far behind.
"There is this little town in New England, not that far from Boston though it might as well be another world, they had a Thanksgiving with what they claimed was a bone from the first Thanksgiving, I can absolutely
guarantee to you it wasn't, but one stormy night about three years ago in May the town was attacked by a vampire, a proper old monster of the Black Court who must have been tossed into the sea centuries ago. It was weak, hungry, befuddled by the changes in the world. It still managed to kill a lot of people sadly, but when it holed out in the Museum for the night some teenagers from the town staked it with that old bone tied to an old mop handle. It worked alright and when they pulled it out it was changed, sacred."
"To what?" Dad asks, a touch confused, but mostly saddened by the loss of life.
"A lot of people celebrate Thanksgiving with diligence if not fervor," the Archive explains with admirable solemnity given the subject matter. "There's always been power in harvest feasts. In any case the Venatori picked up the bone as well as two of the people involved, I was the one who cleared it for use instead of being left to languish in storage, odd or not it is a weapon worth using and
unlike most holy weapons no one is going to be after us to recover it.
This—" she gives a once over to the talisman, running her fingers along the edges of the winds. "Is more sacred than holly, a distinction fine enough to cut a blade of grass tip to root most days, but not this one, definitely not this one." One short sharp nod to herself the girl seems to have come to a decision. "Can you make more of these Miss Carpenter?"
"You can call me Molly is you like, that 'miss' feels like shoes three sizes too large," you offer a little sheepishly. Between the sly humor and funny stories something tells you the girl behind the power also wants to be heard, but you cannot make it about her or she'd demure back to the station of her duty.
"Molly then," she agrees, takes one more sip of her hot coco. "If you can make two of these I will deliver the list of traitors to the Summer Queen myself, three and I will do my best to mediate the gifting."
"What about Katherine and..." you stumble on the boy's name for a moment. "Josh, I think his name was? They are in trouble and it's the kind that's sure to draw other people in it. New masks for old horrors..."
"It is not all that easy to do what our foes seem to be attempting, if it were our battles would all be hopeless, the new connections must be sanctified, or I guess one could say ratified. English isn't the best language for this."
"[Alternative Proposition Expedient-Thought-Flow,]" you answer, pouring Essence into the words to modulate the answer, the last thing you need is to make the Archive's companion start bleeding from the ears. Unlike the flat rejection of all compulsion that Tiffany's mind had offered, you feel the Archive's mind, or minds perhaps, flex into the shape of the primordial language so it 'only' costs you four motes to keep everyone comfortable, still more than enough to set the air blazing with balefire.
Lost 4 Essence -> Now at 9/14 (SCC: Harry; Michael; Kincaid; Lydia)
"[Outstanding questions of origin clarified]." The Archive seems to stutter a moment.
[Pardon, complication, insufficient clearance to share information. Conditions of clearance unclear. Novel and unique circumstance, undesirable/frustrating]
"[Presence of randomness unfalsifiable, probability approaches zero]," Kincaid offers darkly. Or as one might say in plain English: 'Man that sure looks lucky, I don't believe in luck.'
"[I express uncertainty...]" The Archive looks at your dad with a spark of trust, certainty in her eyes.
[Not unwillingness to experiment, results could provide deep/long term utility]
[There is virtue/wisdom in taking time to consider] Dad sounds oddly hesitant, though it is hard to tell if it is because of the means of communication or the matter at hand.
[Where the flame glows hottest there the substance of the world is more malleable and new things are wrought,] Lash offers her own perspective, clearly fascinated to learn more.
[I find moral fault in risking the young upon randomness-and-not-randomness.] Harry seems surprised to find himself siding with Kincaid, not too worried to give it much thought.
[Age of Self-upon-Self-Becoming reaches deeper than thine name-known kin-line.] The Archive actually pouts and she looks as cute doing so as one might imagine, not that you are planning to say so.
"[Untrue, age of soul-self though the circles passing...]"
The girl cuts him off, tapping on her cup.
"[Water-here-present once drunk by Beasts of Dread Recall, water is ignorant of fact. Water-of-Self-Beyond-Self frozen, building ever-layers.]"
The last word is spoken with such force it makes the bottles behind the bar shake and clatter, earning the girl a chastising look from Mac, not that she pays it much mind. You've been a big sister long enough to know that expression, the look of a kind who wants to do something twice as much because someone had raised an objection. Doesn't mean she's wrong though does it?
Do you think it is a good idea for the Archive to push past her limiters?
[] Yes, you want to know whatever she can tell you about yourself and your Exaltation. You'll make her a talisman to resist her Mantle today
[] No
-[] There's probably a reason for those limiters (Advise that she never try to overcome her limiters)
-[] Take some more time to study this before taking it head on (Advise that she try to learn more about said limits and why they might be there)
OOC: I hope all the primordial-speak isn't unclear, if any of it is don't hesitate to ask 
