A Riddle of Numbers Wrought
Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
Being guests, you and Lya are, as courtesy dictates, the first to share your tale. Oddly enough, Aikaterine seems to brush aside the fact that you are a dragon of a kindred not often found in these waters with only a few perfunctory questions, you assume meant to assuage your pride. Instead, she is far more curious about Lya and how she had come to be aligned with so many of the spheres. The arcane equations that trail in her wake seem to fade in disappointment when Lya explains that she had never taught that aspect of her magic to anyone, even though she was one of the founders of the Scholarum. Easy enough to recognize a dedicated scholar, and while Lya's deeper lore is not something you would lightly share, you offer a chance to visit your realm when she has the time and inclination.
"My thanks, Your Grace," her spell of Tongues effortlessly translates the courtesy into common, though the smile she wears is less convincing. "Now I think I have spent quite enough time indulging my curiosity. I will share what I can in exchange, though I must warn you that some aspects of my studies and my service to the emir are not for me to reveal at my leisure, however
intriguing the company." One might almost suspect her of flirting with Lya had you not known her interests are more academic.
Thus you begin with the beginning, or the closest you can come to it at least, with the Sundering and the history of Axis following that calamity. The Gilded City at the heart of the Spheres is not as it once was. The forges are cold and dead, and in the dark places beneath its spires of amber and jade festers crime and corruption that would have been unimaginable in the days of old. It is not Heaven's Shore, thankfully, a mere monument to Asmodeous' pride kept from destruction at his whim. The axiomites still rule, their circles of lorekeepers working to stem the tide of chaos where they can and even turn it back when the chance shows itself, but they are aligned with Hell and they need its aid more than the baatezu need theirs, the lesser partner in a pact named with startling forthrightness, the Necessary Evil.
Or perhaps not so startling, the mage before you seems to have a certain dislike for metaphor and simile, more than other sorcerers at least, who reach for them almost instinctively to explain their magic and often other aspects of their lives. In any case, she is just as blunt in in explaining her presence in Kelasi, "I was exiled for fomenting dissent in the service of a dangerous obsession..." the words are spoken almost tonelessly, though you can just make out a thread of anger underneath it. "My search for the Anvil of Law was deemed by my elders to be an unhealthy fixation with Balance that Was..." she hesitates a moment and mutters something in an odd tongue that sounds akin to Infernal, if one were to somehow decant the black ruin from it leaving only the impossible precision. "With Solving an Equation whose terms have been changed too far," she corrected.
"Is such a punishment commonplace?" Lya asks hesitantly, wary of giving offense but clearly fascinated by the notion that beings of supposed Cosmic Law could be counted lawbreakers in the eyes of their fellows.
"Unhealthy fixations are not unheard of, but neither are moments of inspiration in the service of fulfilling the Great Plan," Aikaterine replies stiffly. "Absent perfect divination, the only means of distinguishing one from the other is hindsight."
"What can you tell us of this Anvil of Law? How did it come into the possession of the Brazen Throne? What powers does it hold?" you ask, intrigued.
"Here, we touch upon those subjects that I may not freely speak of," the mage shifts slightly in her seat, as though seeking physical balance in tandem with whatever mental conundrum she is facing. "I cannot answer the first question without leave from the Emir, but as to the second it was once used in forging the sensory aspects of Lhaksharut Inevitables, the guardians of the veils between planes, though it can be adapted to other forms of construct and..." here she nods towards Lya again. "Soul forging."
The image of a
six-armed creature of metal and stone rises to mind, while half its body is carved with masterful skill and artistry, beneath the belt there are no legs but instead whirling metal rings that almost give the impression of a genie's elemental vortex. There is something more just beyond your grasp, part of some ancient fraying dream, but when you try to grasp it it is gone like mist between your fingertips.
What do you do next?
[] Head back to the Moonchaster to buy mercenaries and try to gain other alliances
[] Try to investigate more in Kelasi, perhaps there are other ways to find the secrets Aikaterine will not reveal
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: If anyone's wondering the Axiomite's tongue is just as close to Celestial as Infernal, but Viserys actually speaks Infernal so that's the comparison that most easily came to mind. Not yet edited.
