Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Secrets Great and Small ​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

Asking for advice is asking for trouble, you get off the chair start for the door, then you stop again. No reason to be rude even if you don't like someone, you can practically hear your mother's voice. You really do not think she had meant that advice for this occasion but still you turn to the Fallen Angel still looking unfairly composed and regal on that battered chair and nod. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Lasciel sort of huffs amused then she slowly gets up and wordlessly poses with the boots, giving you a good loot at them. "You can probably make them, if you get the leather proper stitching and the silver. Making yourself very good at stabbing things isn't all you can do."

"What do you know about what I can do?" the question slips out. It is not asking for advice, you remind yourself.

"I have some guesses, quite a lot of them in fact, but now is not the time to share them." She tips her head to the side, thinking. "As as gesture of goodwill I will say this much, when I saw you slip off that torment tree I got the feeling that I should know precisely what you are, but I didn't and a phrase came to mind, in Latin of all tongues: 'Hic sunt dracones'."

"Here be dragons," you breathe. Latin is not your best subject at school, but you do like history and that was one of the things they used to write on the edges of old maps usually with dragons and monsters drawn in.

"Maybe ask a dragon, they remember much and their tongues are less bound by oath than most, but beware their pride."

So it is that with the words of a Fallen Angel still ringing in your ears the vision fades to mist and the mist takes on the familiar hues of cream and white that revolve into the shape of Saint Mary's. Harry is still sitting right where you left him, but he looks like he has been though a hell of a run, breath rattling in his chest.

You on the other hand feel refreshed, like the fire that burns in your mind just got a little brighter from knowing that which you had not before, from revealing secrets unspoken.

Gain 1 Essence

"I don't know where this power comes from, but it's yours, no strings attached other than having it." He runs his hand though his hair making it even more messy and giving you the inappropriate urge to just pat it back into place. "Be careful with it, power changes you. With great power comes great responsibility."

Did... did he just quote Spiderman at me? Now you find yourself swallowing a laugh at the sheer silliness of the situation, but then the mirth fades from your thoughts as you recall the conversation you had, the Council, the Laws. You could just keep quiet, you think Lasciel would play along since she has by her own admission no reason to sow discord between you or you could admit that you just had along chat with a Fallen Angel about wizards... and about Harry himself. He probably would not want you to know about his first... girlfriend, Lasciel had said 'lover', but that word sounded super awkward outside the context of talking to Lasciel.

What do you tell Harry about the soulgaze and the talk with Lasciel?

[] Nothing, pretend you do not know what the Laws and the White Council are (Manipulation+Subterfuge)
-[] Write in stunt (optional)

[] Some but not all of it (Manipulation+Subterfuge)
-[] Write in what you you share
-[] Write in stunt (optional)

[] The whole of your vision and conversation
-[] Write in stunt (optional)

OOC: Remember you can use excellency for subterfuge if you like.

 

[DragonParadox]

To Judge and be Judged ​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

"Gotta admit, I was surprised to learn you have a beautiful woman with great fashion sense trapped in the basement of your soul. Kinky!" You are not sure how you managed to string those words together without stuttering once, but the smile that accompanies it is mostly pride in having done so. Well... that and glancing between your lashes to see if you might have drawn more than a professional look.

"I do not think he is feeling amorous," Usum offers as Harry looks frozen, like you could tip him over with a feather as gram used to say.

"Darn it, what is it with everyone and using weird Harry-related words," you grumble at him as Harry reaches with a hand to his forehead as though unsure he he wants to massage away a headache or cover his eyes, maybe even both.

"Molly that's..." he stops then starts again. "I know you are not going to trust me as much once I tell you who that was, but you have to listen."

That is so not what you wanted. Dropping your voice to w whisper because this is a lot more serious than joking about soul basements. "It's OK, Harry I know she is Lasciel, a kind of Lasciel as she put it because you would not take up the coin, I know how you got the coin and why, she explained a bunch of things."

"And you believed her?" You would be more offended at being called naive if he did not sound so strangled.

"Most of it was stuff you can confirm and for the rest of it I can just look with my Crown, she called it a 'flighty spark of intelectus' if that helps. I'm not going to just blow that on the spot, but I could so it would not have been worth it to her to lie just to get something in around the edges."

"Molly people a lot older and wiser than you have thought that of the Denarians have thought that and all of them came to a really bad end out of the bargain," he says gravely.

"You were listening to her, just now, when your eyes would slide off and..." you think back to Arctis Tor when he had been observing a tree. You had not caught him at it then, but if ever there was a time he would want the literal shoulder devil to weigh in it would be then. So you guess: "And at Arctis Tor too."

From the way he kind of rocks back a little and blinks, like you had thrown dust in his eyes or something it seems you had guessed aright.

"Yeah well who says I'm not done for kid?" he sighs. "I'd like to think I can hold out against the Nickleheads more than most, with what I've seen of them but..."

"No, no no," you cut him off, each syllable a little louder than the last. You catch yourself just in time, lowering the tone so it would not echo though the whole church, but the words come out anyway "I am so sick of hearing about people being inevitably damned, you because of Lasciel, warlocks because they broke the Laws of Magic. That is not now this works." You can feel your eyes start to itch with the start of tears, but you don't care. "That is not how any of this works, people have free will, they can choose to be evil and they can choose to be good, that has to be true or the words don't mean anything!"

"I'm sorry." He grips his hands together as if he does not quite know what to do with them. "So she told you about the Laws huh?"

"Yes," you reply, wiping away the handful of angry tears, at least you will maintain they were angry if anyone asks.

"You have broken chains of Winter, passed though flight, though battle and the veil of worlds to come to this place my princess," Usum offers softly. "Treasure your tears and do not be ashamed of them for they too mark the hour of your ascension."

"Alright how about this?" Harry asks after a moment. "You tell me what Lasciel said and if she told you any lies or twisted any truths, because they are good at that too, I'll tell you and we can go from there."

And so you tell him, though you keep back the request for the end so you can get through. He seems startled when you not only recount the Laws, but also the warning that breaking them warps the mind of the one who does it. It's when you get to the Justin and Elaine part that he starts to look really uncomfortable. You try to rush though the whole relationship thing as fast as you can, but that is it turns out no the problem.

"It doesn't matter if it was self-defense, I broke the law, I turned magic which comes from life and it meant to protect life against it and it marked me, just like it does every other warlock. If Lasciel was trying to make some fantasy where breaking the Laws for the right reasons is fine..."

"Of course it matters," you reply not angry just confused. "Crimes have degrees, even what I did which was a hundred times worse than what I did because Rosie did not deserve what happened to her. It was like... getting in a car without a license and running over someone because I did not know how to drive. That does not mean it is the same as someone who goes on a multi-year car based serial killing spree. I know it is not just the same because hitting people with cars is not addictive, but people do beat addiction with something other than death."

"There is a way around that, I can protect you, but you have to trust me." You know what he is about to offer.

Do you trust Harry Dresden, with not just your safety but his own? "The Doom of Damocles," you answer, keeping your voice carefully neutral. "Lasciel said you would offer that and said you made a lot of enemies on the Council who would use that against you, so she asked me to refuse."

"And why would you think of doing her a favor?" There is anger in those words, though it is not directed, mostly, at you,

"Because as she put it we have a shared goal, keeping you alive." You pause and look him in the eye. "I think that is a worthy goal even if I have to share it with a Fallen."

"Molly you are seventeen, it is not your job to keep me alive," he is trying to sound stern and not really managing it, too much shock,

What do you reply?

[] It's not a job, it's a choice and you made it, no Doom
-[] Offer a suggestion
-[] Leave it up to him

[] Fine, you will do what he thinks is best

[] Write in

OOC: Between the Exaltation and talking to Lash this is a very different Molly then the one who came to this point in canon. The presumed right of the White Council to judge her is being questioned hard, but I hope in a believable way.

 

[DragonParadox]

Paths Narrow and Steep​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

Breathe Molly, the crusty old wizard government is not going to change its laws because you ask them to, even if you are right. Alas Harry's eyes do not move an inch from your face when you do it, but them's the breaks. "Okay, okay, we're getting ahead of ourselves, let's step back for a moment, look at the whole thing, and figure out how we can sort this out without anyone needing to come under threat of death or damnation"

"Alright," he seems a little startled by your sudden turn, but that is way better than the condescending 'let the adults handle it' attitude. You are going to be eighteen in November and you made this mess so you are going to do everything in your power to make sure you do not drag other people down with you.

"The problem at hand is that I did Black Magic, and the White Council takes a 'Zero Tolerance' policy towards that, due to the effects said Black Magic have, the fact that the situation has changed doesn't matter, because they don't want to get in the habit of making exceptions, because Black Magic is both addictive and tends to drag people into doing more and more evil stuff. Actually making said exceptions requires someone to stick their neck out for you, and doesn't actually get you off the hook either. You can do that, but you have enough enemies who'd take advantage of it that it would meaningfully limit your own options. Let's put a pin on that, but I don't want you to have to stick your neck out if we have another solution, right?"

"Hold on there," He rubs his temples again. How long had it been since he had a proper night's sleep? His eyes are a lot of things, but well rested is clearly not one of them "I can practically hear Lasciel talking in that, thinking that the Council are all a bunch of schemers and most of them are out for my neck in particular. Most wizards are homebodies who stick close to their labs and their interests don't go sticking their heads in other people's affairs and I've got my own friends on the Council."

"OK, first off I did not ask her for advice, this is all me." If not quite the 'me' that got out of bed this morning, you admit mentally. You are pretty sure you did not have the ability to put a freak out on ice like this before, maybe because you did not have enough ice. "Secondly it's nice to know you have strong friends. Your former master I'm guessing since he was able to sway at least three quarters of them?"

"Yeah, Ebeneezer McCoy, he taught me the most important part of magic the 'why'." He gives you a distant sort of look like he is already imagining teaching you and not sure he's up for it. "He's a member of the Senior Council, that is who is in charge of the day to day stuff under the Merlin."

"Merlin is real?" You are not sure why you are surprised, you just got kidnapped by servants of Queen Mab of the Winter Fey, but does that mean there was a big round table with knights around it in post-Roman Brittan? An actual Holy Grail? Maybe you could ask dad about that last one.

"It's not a name, it's a title, but there was a Merlin once upon a time, the original."

"And how does the present one feel about you?" you press.

The silence that follows is almost answer enough on its own, but he does eventually admit that the Merlin is one of those who don't like him."I'm not always as prompt and presentable as his idea of a wizard would be. Not enough curl to my beard see?" Harry runs his fingers through an imaginary beard

Though you do laugh a little, you do not miss that he is trying to distract you. If that is all there is to it you will eat your sword. "And..."

"What do you mean and...?" he challenges. "Don't you think that is enough? Honor of the Council is in how we comport ourselves"

Okey so the voice is funny but... "If you don't involve yourself in the affairs of the Council much I do not see why it would be. Out of sight out of mind. The trouble would be if other people really liked your...er... improper beard." That sounds way dirtier than you meant it.

"We have been on opposite sides of an argument before."

"And you came out on top," you finish. "While being non-senior whatever, not looking proper in his eyes and presumably those of his peers and being disreputable because of having been under the Doom." You pause for the confirmation you know will come. "And onto that I say yikes"

He does not disagree.

Out of the rest of the Senior Council Harry does not even know most of them well, nevermind being able to count on them. He puts on a brave face on how wise they are, but wise does not mean 'good' or 'fair'. Evil can be wise in its own way at least when it comes to achieving its goals, not to mention the self-interested and the corrupt. He also explains what the Red Court is, giant bat monsters with addictive spit that pretend to be human, and how the war had started. Now you know why Lasciel had said 'inciting incident' and not 'cause'. There was no way that two world wide supernatural powers were fighting over a burned down club in Chicago. If a lot of the White Council really believe that then they aren't very wise after all.

"OK so there was peace between the Red Court and the White Council before and there is peace between them and the Winter Court now right?" you lean forward a little the way you do when you are working your way through a hard question in class. This is like old time European politics, though hopefully without arranged marriages to any bat monsters. Even Usum is creeped out by them and does not know what they are beyond 'bad news'.

"The Council can't be everywhere Molly," Harry cuts in to your thoughts, his voice oddly gentle. "I'm sorry..."

"For what coming to my rescue?" you roll your eyes, then all faux-offended add. "Waiter, waiter, I ordered the rescue three hours ago and now it's cold." The memory of ice piercing your wrists rises to the forefront of your moment, but only that, your smile does not waver

It gets a laugh out of Harry... and an all too familiar throat clearing sound out of your mother. You turn to see her not quite glaring at a point equidistant in the space between you and Harry. Space which had grown rather small space you now realize, snapping back. You would be alot more embarrassed if you did not have more important things on your mind. It's not every day a girl declares herself inhuman to hopefully get out of a death sentence and trying to perform magic with your mom present is...probably not going to go well. On the other hand the standing alternative is 'Molly Carpenter, wizard's apprentice' so maybe you can convince her to let you try

How do you present things to Harry and your mother?

[] Bluntly, there is no point trying to sugarcoat this, you have changed and there is no going back. Now it is time to figure out just how (Charisma+Empathy)
-[] Write in stunt

[] Imply that if this power no longer allows you to use magic like a wizard than it might be the first step to not having magic (Charisma+Subterfuge)
-[] Write in stunt

[] Write in

OOC: You guys took nightmares which means you do have to deal with trauma, but you also took nine willpower,which means she is a hell of a lot better than she was at pushing those feelings away...at least when she is awake.

 

[DragonParadox]

Magic is Like Eating Soap​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

"It's pretty obvious I'm different now right?" you pause, looking more towards your mother than the wizard who would actually be able to tell how you are different. You like your power and you like the answers it has already given you, you even like the prim voice of the demon in your head since you are pretty sure that unlike poor Harry your guest works for you, but you don't want things to change with your family you don't want your dad to be mad or Hope to be scared and as unfair as that might be to her you want your mom to say so, just for now,lie to you if she has to.

"You are still you under all that," she manages, stumbling a little over the words. You'll take it, enough to carry on, to drive the point home.

"One of those spiders got me on the leg," you point down to where your lower leg is still covered in some of the stubborn snow of the Nevernever... only it's not really snow anymore. What comes off when you shake your leg is clear gunk... 'ectoplasm' you remember Harry calling it, and a good bit of red from your blood.

Mom gasps as she rushes over. "How did you... Why don't you say anything?"

Inwardly you wince a little at the way you had played at her heartstrings, you knew she would do this, she always does this, even when Leech bruised her knuckles on some bully's face and she gets grounded over it. "I heal faster and don't feel pain as much."

"About as much as the pari when they do not call on their Hunger," Usum offers helpfully though you hesitate to compare yourself to a lust spirit host.

Wait, that is the point, the White Council do not make rules pari either. "I think I heal about as fast as Thomas does when he does not go all out."

"Most kinds of supernatural powers have toughness as part of the package," Harry offers. "Does it feel like it has a weakness, like silver or fire?"

"Nothing can take your health from you forever Wise Soveraign, you may be broken, but not undone by any mortal power or artifice," comes the answer from your guide. While you do not much like the implication that immortals might have some way to do it, now is not the time to worry about that. Sufficient onto the day the evils thereof and all that.

"That might have changed how you do magic then, the sort of themes of it," Harry says,catching on to where you are going with this. He is a detective and not just a wizard after all.

Darkness, Cold, Conviction, Sight, Poison Fire.... It does not really feel like you have a theme at all unless that theme is 'scary witch', but you nod anyway. "So I want to try to cast a spell, just something small, to see what's changed."

Mom looks up from where she had been examining your perfectly healthy though slightly blood-caked leg, The lines around her mouth are deeper as she searches your face for... something. It looks like she finds or maybe doesn't find what she is looking for. "Just... be careful now."

Lost 1 Essence

Harry clears his throat professionally and asks: "What can you do?"

"I'll just try to make myself harder to notice." The last thing you want to do now is offer a list of everything you had ever tried with magic. In hindsight you had tried to do a lot of silly-dangerous things.

The church is loud and filled with memories and starting eyes and judgement. Part of you just wants to shoo them both away, you don't want to look foolish in front of Harry or look... sinful you guess in front of mom, even though you do not think magic is a sin she does. But that is not going to work. So you are quiet and so you are still, the books on meditation had been some of the few useful ones you had found trawling occult bookshops.

When you look close enough light has a sound, a quiet constant harmony, no matter if it is the steady glow of fluorescence or the contained heat of an Edison Light or even the light of sun and stars.

You look ​

If you listen close enough the sound of everything has a feeling to it, whether its music drifting in from the street, the sound of passing cars, of children playing far away

You listen ​

When you stop to think about it everything glows, just not with its own light, an apple, a door-frame, a cat lounging in the sun, all of them feel the touch of light and all of them cast it back into the world

You feel​

And so as you had done many times before you try to coax them, to nudge them as you want them to go, like blowing soap bubbles. "I'm not here," you breathe into them...or try to at least.

The moment you touch the magic is surges towards you...through you and falls into the place behind your heart,freezing cold and hotter than the sun. You try again and again...and again and every time it slips through your fingers and right into your soul as Usum puts it. While you grow no more adept at stopping it with every try you become convinced that there is something at the other end more than 'a whole pile of magic', a substance, an essence that is heavier, more real.

Being the reasonable and level headed person that you are you grab for that. You can hold it just fine, it does not go back where it came from, but it just lies there, like a lump of steel or maybe uranium. No amount of whispering at it is going to make this bend this into a spell, at least not in English. You are going to need stronger older tools for this.

How do you feel about this?

[] Relieved, one more argument for the White Council not to try to cut off your head

[] Saddened, as much sense as Lasciel's warning makes you would have liked to be a wizard,maybe learn from Harry in formally

[] Perturbed, what does the Essene in your soul do? What spells could need that kind of power

[] Write in

OOC: So there it is,no easy access to all the flexibility of Dresenverse magic for you unfortunately. You are going to have to make do with your Demon Emperor superpowers for now. To be clear what is happening is your Exaltation is in emergency power mode since there is no Essence out there, there is however this thin denaturated soup of probability that can be used as an Essence precursor so it just slurps that down and produces by its standards a pittance of motes each day. When Molly tries to do mortal sorcery she makes a path of least resistance between the magic she is trying to shape and the cosmic pump in her soul so it just slurps it up.

 

[Jack vile Ripper]

A.N. It is done. Behold!

Emerald Sun Lights over the Wicked.​

Shintai: Demon-Emperor Shintai
-Strength +3, Dexterity +2, Stamina +3, Appearance 0

Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor: +2 Soak
-Flight: The ability to fly
-Hardened Devil Body: +3 Bruised Health levels
-Hardiness (Heat): Immunity to heat of any kind.

Appearance:
-The Final Form of the Conqueror of Hell appears to be a giant sixteen-foot-tall viridian sun in the shape of a burning, lidless eye glowing with sickly green light. The eye is surrounded by 4 rings that layer its upper half in an asymmetrical arc, making it as if the eye tracks the movement of everyone under its baleful glare. Each ring is adorned with ever-changing, multi-hued fractal feathers that sprout off each ring like willow branches with crystalline quality. Underneath the burning eye is a tripod in the shape of three titanic millipedes, their skin shimmers with volcanic glass sheen and at their tip are mandibles that act as the eye's hand. And upon a maw was grasped an obsidian Macuahuitl-blade that seeps all light into it.

Sequence:
The Demon Empress closes her eyes as she is enveloped by a vast ball of green fire crowned by eight rings of brass. Each ring holds eight mouths, each containing eight vicious fangs.

The rings lazily rotate and spin about the fire until it coalesces into the form of a giant green all-seeing eye, which never moves but gazes in all directions regardless. To any and everyone around her, the empress is always staring directly into their eyes.

When the empress chooses to draw her sword and spread her wings, her rings begin to spin so quickly that they blur and sing demonic praises in an ancient tongue to the glory of their master.

In a fraction of a second eight of her sixty-four mouths yawn so wide that they split their rings, sending them shooting out spinward at specific locations around the eye.

As their praises peak the seven mouths on each once crown slam closed their jaws and swallow themselves whole, allowing each one to reform to reflect its new purpose.

One crown grows sharp and sprouts jagged fangs, forming a brazen Macuahuitl-blade dripping with nuclear venom and spite.

Four are positioned along the upper half of the eye, such that a trick of perspective (and essence) make them appear as asymmetric arcs framing the gaze of the empress in all directions. An illusion enhanced by skeletal frame of fractal feathers grown from each wing's broken fangs.

The final three orbit beneath the eye as a tripod, segmenting into what appears to be titanic millipedes of volcanic glass with almost delicate grasping mandibles.

Unbound by its crown, the lidless eye grows brighter and seems to glare at the world around it.

In-Effect:
-The rings of the eye encircle one another, flaming the burning eye with sight-searing incandescence as the wings hymns notes of needle-ice being twisted and crushed to the ears of those that can hear. The burning eye's flame licks and spews out gouts of nuclear fire. The eye propels itself in disobedience of gravity and its motion controlled by its will. The millipedes act as the limbs for the eye and they undulate and billow out with languid motions. Each chittering leg writhes voices of blandishments that exult the Infernal's glory and whispers voices that seed apostasies and schism. Unbound by the physical restraint of its Crown, the eye fills the mind of those who beheld it in their sight. Never sufficient to learn something new, or confirm something suspected, but always just enough to draw the mind to questions that could have been asked and truths that could be known. And the sword seems to gorge upon all sources of light into eternal frost and darkness.

As the Infernal battles, she uses her many rings to protect herself against harm by layering them unto the path of an attack. She uses her tripod-like limbs to grasp her sword with dextrous ease and reach against her enemies. When she works her sorceries, her flame sputters and dances as arcane glyphs and runes appear in sparks and ash.

A.N.: Thank you @Artemis1992, @BronzeTongue and @CorruptedKing for giving me ideas in making this Eldritch Angel.

 

[DragonParadox]

Odd Talents ​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

You snap back to full awkwardness, letting out a relieved sigh: "Well that's not going to work, I can't use magic like I used to anymore. It's too delicate for my clumsy teenager hands." you look around first at your mother, frowning hard enough to scare off storm clouds, though whether from the sight of you trying to do magic or just worry you can't tell and at Harry who seems kind of distracted, by whom you would rather not speculate too hard. The idea of being watched by Lasciel like that is more creepy than talking to her was. "That'll help right?"

"Not as much as we might hope," Harry says. "You are still human enough to soul gaze, that means that as the council teaches you have a soul so you're human."

"So only humans have souls do they?" the increasingly familiar voice at the back of your mind gripes. "So rude. What does he think the rest of us think and feel with? Donkey hide and silk?" The image of colorful figures being paraded before a screen, their shadows telling a tale of kings and generals pops into your mind, shadow puppets you know they are called and you know that they are from the Middle Kingdom. It takes the rest of your brain a little longer to catch up and realize that means China.

"Don't other factions use human sorcerers?" You ask. You cannot imagine the vampires with the drugged spit would not think of enslaving some even before war with the Council broke out.

"Practitioners, sorcerers are the ones with more power than sense," Harry corrects you, but you are not looking at him, you are looking at your mother. Just sitting there a moment ago she looked like she was still in armor, like she was ready to go another round with those spiders. But as soon as sorcerers came up she seems pale, haunted.

Your first thought was that someone like that had wounded dad maybe, but this looked more personal, less anger and more fear. Had she had a run in a sorcerer before? You had always thought that the reason she did not like magic was because she saw it as man meddling where he had no business, but now you wonder if someone like that had... hurt her.

Hardly thinking about it you reach out for that spark of power and kindle it into a flame of insight in your mind, that by its light you can find the right words "Mom, no matter what happens, no matter what I can do or how I change, block of ice stabbing things with poison fire I am still going to be me. No one, nothing can make me stop loving the people I love."

There is an odd ring to your words and you know at a level deeper than reason can touch that it is true, that your power will make it true if it has to.

Spent 1 Essence

"Oh sweetly, you don't even know what it is," she replies, but she sounds less certain than she was a moment ago.

"I think it is something foreign, like not Native American obviously, but also not not Western at all not European. I have been getting like China and India insights when I... er look at things." Because 'when Harry insulted the demon in my head' would not go over well.

"I don't know much about that part of the world, but I know where to find books and experts who do know more," Harry says sounding excited for a lead even in spite of his obvious tiredness."That is one of the things the Council is good for."

"Which is all well and good but we haven't decided that we are going to them at all with this," mom cuts in. "The Church has its own archives even of things far afield and if you can't teach her than she is obviously none of their business."

"Mom, I hurt people, I hurt Rosie, with magic," you remind her.

"So did those fetch things, so do vampires and ghosts and God knows what else and the Wardens don't hunt all those down do they? Either they are too small and insignificant or they are too strong and you have to make deals with them." She's looking at Harry now not at you. "Give me one reason, one reason why I should let you walk out of here with my daughter to face people who make a habit of killing people who did what she did."

"Because I am not the only one who can put two and two together and come up with four and if you look like you are hiding they will not listen even as much as they do now."

"Most of them won't," you interject, surprising yourself a little with how cool and collected you sound. "They don't like you, they don't trust you and the head of the Council has reason to dislike you."

For a long moment it is quiet on the balcony, so quiet you can hear your heart beating with an odd steadiness for one belonging to someone contemplating the potential of their own execution.

"There might be another way..." Harry says reluctantly. "If we talk just to my old master, just to Ebeneezer about all this, the power from out of Arctis Tor, the way you can't use magic anymore then maybe all this could be something other than a trial. But he might not a agree with me, think I'm not seeing this right and then we are worse off then if you had just gone to the Council now. On top of that the White Council is in town, they might put that two and two together before I can get ahold of Ebeneezer about this and then it's as bad as it gets."

And that is when something totally unexpected happens, oh not any sort of magic, by now you are expecting magic. Your mother looks at you and says: "It's your decision Molly, what do you want to do?"

[] Go to the Council now

[] Go home, you have nothing to do with the White Council

[] Wait for Harry to contact his old master than talk to him, maybe you can work this out

[] Write in (May include roll to persuade; Stunt optional)

OOC: I hope you guys do not mind me spending an excellency there, you had just made a perception roll and it would have been a really short update if I broke for a vote there. Also funny thing I actually did not roll her willpower initially since I figured that between two successes and you saying in so many words that a wizard's apprenticeship would not help she would just go 'I'm taking my kid home',but then I actually did roll the willpower just to see and well...see below.

 

[DragonParadox]

Homecoming ​

5th of July 2006 A.D.

"That..." you nod slowly thinking the whole thing over. "That would be best I think, talk to someone more senior who is likely to be sympathetic." You smile at the wizard, knowing it probably comes out more tired than anything. "Thank you for everything you have done, helping save me and dealing with my nonsense."

"Making sense out of nonsense is what wizards are for," he tries to make light of it, but you can read the worry on his face. You are not out of the woods yet, not by far, but for now at least you can have a few days reprieve. "I'll be in touch once I have a meeting set up," he adds to your mother.

"Thank you as well Mister Dresden." So he rates a 'mister' now, you note. Good to know she is warming up to him, though you guess after Arctis Tor everything can only get warmer. Usum actually laughs at the mental pun in what might be his most egregious act of toadyism.

"Let's go home baby, " your mom says after a moment and so you do.

***​

From inside the cab the house looks almost black against the glow of the streetlights, the burgundy and ivory it had been painted hidden such that it seems the rambling old Victorian into which your family had moved when you were nine. Falling in love with it then might have been the start of your liking for all things creepy, but now the house had been brightened up, almost tamed from the bright flowers in the front yard to the literal white picket fence around it. Not that your parents stopped at two point five kids, there had already been four of you then and Amanda on the way

There are lights in the windows and many faces pressed against them waiting for your return. What am I going to say? What am I going to say? The question runs through your mind like a hamster in its little wheel. You can't see the damage to the backyard from here, but you remember the things that had come to the house, the things that had taken you. They would have taken Daniel or Mathew just as readily, they would have taken anyone really. Fear was fear and that is what they fed on... and they had been there because of you. Now you had taken something from the Winter Court, something old, something powerful. Who was to say they would not come again?

"Molly!" Your mother's voice breaks you out of your reverie where you had just been standing on the sidewalk looking up at the house. "Come on, let's go inside and get you out of those clothes."

Looking down at yourself you cannot for once disagree with the scornful tone, jeans T-Shirt and jacket are all ripped in very much un-artful ways.

"Don't throw them out I can fix them," the words come out almost reflexively, remembering Lasciel's parting words about boots.

There is something reassuringly familiar about Mom's sigh. You are not sure what it says about you.

Keys jingle in the lock for a moment then the door swings open and you open your mouth to speak...

You do not get a single word in edgewise before the avalanche of 'are you OK?'s and 'Did those things hurt you' and 'where did they take you?' wash over you. Everyone but Hope and Hank are here even Amanda though it's way past her bedtime, she rushes in to hug mom then you and stops cold.

"Wha' happened?" she squeaks.

"The realms of the fey are known for changing those who pass through them," Usum offers and that is as good as anything you had come up on the way here. "It turns out you getting kidnapped by wicked faeries doesn't leave one quite the way they used to be."

"So it's like a curse?" Matthew asks.

"No," the word comes out more firmly than you thought it would. "It's like... superpowers I guess."

"Well show us then." Leech asks, eyes wide behind her spectacles.

"No," Mom cuts her off sharply, adding. "And why isn't Amanda in bed?"

Daniel clears his throat, as the eldest one at home that's his question to answer. "I let her stay up since she said she could not sleep anyway with worry about you guys being gone so long."

"How long were we gone?" Mom asks with dawning realization.

"You've been gone for two days, its Wendsday," your brother replies.

Add 'missed two days of school' to the trouble I'm in, you sigh inwardly. "I'm going to take a shower," you proclaim to no one in particular and then duck out of the room before anyone can stop you. You had hoped that dad would be back by now. Even if he is angry at you dad always gives good advice when you are in real trouble.

***​

The shower feels strange as the water cools almost instantly off your skin you can barely feel it. You turn it hotter and hotter and hotter until the bathroom is filled with steam. But it still doesn't feel like it used to. I'm always going to be cold, like that place, like those things. You don't know when you started crying, but you are and you can't stop.

"Yours is not the cold of that realm Most Dreadful Flower of the Endless Night," Usum speaks in your mind again. "Yours is the chill of Kakuri, the Night Realm where dwells Emma-O mighty among the Yama Kings, pretender to the throne of hell." Sensing your fear the demon adds."Your power comes not though him, nor through any other of the so-called-lords of that place. It echoes the surging essence of Yomi Wan..."

So sitting in the steam filled bathroom in your parent's home you learn about the Thousand Hells and the tainted spirits that live there tormenting the wicked, about the Wuan Kuei, the Ten Thousand Demons who are reborn of those sinful souls who manage to escape, by strength, by cunning and sometimes even by the machinations of the dark lords themselves and crawl back into their corpses to live again s hunters of the living. And you learn a little bit about where your power had come from before the black ice tree.

"The power which is now yours and I bound to was unearthed from a place of great, power darkness between the realms of Lanka and Kakuri known only as the Scar by the Rakshas of Lanka. Bound was it in black jade and taken as a trophy. Though they could use only the merest sliver of its might it was a great weapon in the wars of the demons, but they were ever careful not to bring it too near a living mortal soul for then it might be unleased. They questioned me under torrent for I knew many old secrets, though I did not remember what I had been before the Scar or whence I dwelt."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," you interrupt fervently, not caring if he is a demon.

"I am well now mistress, I will not be put back," he replies with the same conviction you had felt when talking to mom earlier. "When the Demon City was broken by its own hubris the shard of power was taken by the servants of Emma-O who use it much as the Rakshas had, but less cautiously, for they did not know that it was a crown meant for the Chosen. So they bore it up to realms nearer to the world of men where, in fields of snow and crushing ice, they battled the servants of Queen Mab. In the last of those battles the fey were the victors. They feared what my whispers would do to them so they bound me in black ice in the heart of their fortress and then in their folly they brought near you who would be Chosen and on their heels one with the power to break the prison...."

"Molly stop hogging the bathroom already!" Leech's voice and banging on the door cut off the dark history of your power and you realize that at some point in the account your tears had all dried up.

"Use the other one!" you shout back though the door.

"Can't Matthew's in there, but not for an hour!"

It seems not even unspeakable demonic powers can save one from the scourge of little sisters.

What do you do tomorrow?

[] Go to school, you have already missed too many days

[] Skip,you have more important things to do
-[] Visit Rosie in the hospital, it's the least you can do
-[] Take another go at those bookshops about magic this time with Usum fora guide so you do not pick up duds
-[] Go talk to Harry, you have a lot more to tell him and it would be nice to do so without Mom listening in

[] Write in

OOC: We are going to play day by day until the meeting with Ebeneezer then we will get into bigger time increments.

 

[DragonParadox]

Secrets on Ice ​

6th of July 2006 A.D.

You sleep like a rock or maybe a block of ice that night foregoing the covers you usually wrap yourself in the semblance of a burrito, remembering nothing of your dreams and glad of it. Maybe that is why you make with the sun in spite of having gone to bed near midnight or maybe it's the feeling of renewed potential with the new day. It feels almost as strong as it had in Arctis Tor... only you know without the mortal peril.

Gain 4 Essence

As you stretch in bed, sure with the certainty of long experience that no one else in the house would be up quite so early you feel more positive about life than you had in a long while. Sure the White Council might decide to cut off your head, but the same was just as true on Monday only you did not know the danger was there. The world seems clearer in the morning light promising if not that all would be well than at least that you are done stumbling around in the dark

Enough dillydallying now, a voice that sounds startlingly like your mom comes to mind though no sorcery but simple habit.It is good advice you might as well get to the bathroom first...

Getting ready for school is the same sort of carefully controlled chaos it is most mornings. This time it is Matthew yelling about his missing shoes and Hope crying over forgetting to do her spelling homework. You grab the shoes from where you had seem them in the backyard behind the tools and toss them to your brother with a teasing 'I followed the smell' but steer well clear of Hope. That is a 'mom emergency'.

One of the advantages of being colder than the average corpse is that you don't sweat anymore and you do not really feel the heat either. You can dress in all black in the middle of summer. Hurray for silver linings... Silver that reminds you. Mom has a thing about you wearing rhinestones to school, says it makes you look tacky, but you cannot say that about actual proper silver and Nana Sophia left you some old silver rings back when you were so little they were probably a choking hazard for you and silver goes well with black as a certain Fallen Angel demonstrated.

"What do you think," you ask Usum as you pose in front of the mirror, non-ripped skinny jeans, jacket and Grateful Dead T-Shirt.

"I think those within this House of Learning should indeed be grateful that they may behold your sublime countenance even should it be the last sight before their death."

"That's not..." There is an odd edge to his thoughts."Did you just make a joke?"

"Humor is not beyond the scope of my abilities," the demon replies, quickly adding."But I spoke no untruths."

You probably should not be snickering in front of the mirror like this, really you shouldn't. A pity your good mood does not last long.

"Did you know the plant in your room is dying?"Amanda asks, popping up as though from the very livingroom carpeting which matches the cheery blue of her dress.

"What?" you ask, startled. That's a crane's bill, about as hardy as a house plant gets short of grabbing a weed from the garden. It had been a gift for your parents fifteenth anniversary from Mrs Evens down the street, who did not actually like any of you but had weird notions of neighborly courtesy so a really boring plant it was. It did not really fit in any other room in the house and mom did not want to re-gift stuff so you had taken it off her hands, joking that maybe you would find out if plants grow well with heavy metal after all.

"Maybe you froze it with your..." she waves sort of vaguely towards all of you and presumably the unnatural cold you had been thinking of as a good thing.

"Mom I need a pair of gloves!" you shout down the hall. After a moment and a reply half muffled by distance you add. "No I'm not going to to cut off the fingers I need them so I won't freeze everything I touch."

"In the attic.... Halloween costumes... big chest," comes back by way of answer.

The attic was practically stuffed with well stuff, decorations for the holidays table cloths and linens, old carpentry projects of dads and chests, lots of really big chests. That was not to say it was disorganized, everything was slotted in neat like soldiers ready for parade. Sadly you are not their general and so you you start looking though the first big chest...no gloves just some old papers and... Is that a letter?

The paper is old and yellowing and you know just how old it is because the thing that had first caught your eye had been the date on it 16th of November 1988, three days after your birthday. The writing on the letter is your mom's but you do not recognize the address, someplace in Boston. Who would she be writing to three days after giving birth and then not send the letter?

It's not as hard a guess as one might first think. Mom does not talk about her parents, like at all and it does not take Sherlock Homes to tell that something really bad must have happened for her to cut them off like that. But if your guess is right she had at least considered sending a letter and while she had not sent it she had not thrown it away either.

What do you do?

[] Take the letter, you are curious about the grandparents you never knew even if they turn out to be assholes

[] Leave it be, it will not do anyone any good to open that

OOC: I know you guys expected school, but I wanted an update to ground us a bit more in the house and the family since both are important to Molly and only of marginal note in canon.

 

[DragonParadox]

Wagon and Castle ​

6th of July 2006 A.D.

You think about it for a moment, not just taking it of course, but maybe you could talk to mom about it. Distantly you can hear Hank crying in the kitchen, probably about not wanting to drink his milk again because he does not have the right cereal to go with it. Nope, mom does not have the time for this. Especially not after all the trouble I made, you think guiltily.

A few moments later you find the gloves, motorcycle gloves you think Daniel had worn them for Halloween three or four years ago, but they fit you just fine and the dark leather goes well with the black well everything you are wearing. You get into the Beige Wagon turn the key and flip off the air conditioning you will likely never need again. The little Toyota Echo your dad had gotten you when you passed Driver's Ed was nice and you are grateful and all, but you would really like it if your parents let you paint it a less boring color than the one it had come with. Gift horses and dental check-ups Molly, you remind yourself, briefly confusing Usum. Not everyone gets a car when they are sixteen.

In fact the only reason you got this one was your dad helping out a guy who owned a dealership in Des Moines with something nasty. You do not know what it was, but you do know it had been 'off the clock' and nothing to do with what Dad had been sent to Iowa to do because mom had been upset over the risks he had taken. The guy had insisted in giving dad a good deal on a car to drive home with hence Beige Wagon. She was really cute and the number of jawas who fit inside was strictly limited so you only had to drop off Alicia at Saint Vincent along the way.

Spoiler: Beige Wagon

"Don't punch anyone I wouldn't punch Leech," you call as you roll in front of the school.

"So like most of the school?" she snickers. "You know the Sisters still talk about you like you the boogieman or something, the sorts of things you used to do to your uniform not to mention those magazines you brought to school."

"There's a reason I go to public school now and it isn't for the cafeteria food let me tell you," you roll your eyes. "Four years in there and you'll get sick of it too."

"Did you actually smoke on school grounds?" she asks, lowering her voice her voice such that you could probably hear it further.

"No." After a moment you add. "I may have been the lookout for some girls who did. Pro tip, its a thankless job and they will sell you out to the principal when, not if they get caught."

"Right I'll keep that in mind if any of my friends take up smoking," she giggles at the thought.

It's more likely she thinks. If there is one thing going to Saint Vincent had taught you it's that whoever had thought single gender education was more virtuous or somehow less distracting to the students had clearly never met a teenager in their lives, or possibly another human being. The bigger the list of rules is the less likely any of them are to be followed. There is a reason you think that even God stopped at Ten Commandments.

After ducking down a few side-streets and getting yelled at by some asshole who really needed to be at his destination thirty seconds earlier and to heck with road safety you make it to school fifteen minutes earlier than usual on account of the whole 'waking with the sun' thing.

Lakeview High was one of those late nineteenth century red brick buildings with the pretensions of being a lot older and grander, like whoever paid for it had seen an postcard from an Ivy League College once and said 'make it look like that with the funny towers.' What invading army it would need crenelations to guard against is anyone's guess

Spoiler: Lakeview Highscchool

"There are all manner of powers loose in the city, surely guarding the bright souls of the young from them is worth some considerations," Usum whispers in your thoughts, an uncomfortably reasonable reminder.

The moment you get out of the car you realize this might have been a mistake as the bustling crowd of students making their way part around you wide-eyed and muttering.

What if anything do you tell your friends about your absence and how you have changed?

[] Nothing, they are safer not knowing

[] Talk about the attack at Splattercon!!! that was in the news right? (Charisma+Subterfuge)
-[] Write in stunt optional

[] Hint at the truth, see if they bite, ignorance certainly did not protect you (Charisma+Empathy)
-[] Write in stunt optional

[] Write

OOC Between dropping in appearance due to the spooky factor and the aura of frost you had to roll straight appearance on your one die not to draw any looks as these are kids who see you every weekday. If you had perform you could have rolled that plus appearance and sort of acted out 'I'm normal' but you do not. On the plus side it's not a botch.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Story Half-Told ​

6th of July 2006 A.D.

Thankfully a gaggle of whispering strangers isn't all your entrance had drawn. You catch a flash of red in the crowd and one literally glittering smile, because of the braces as Izzy barrels towards you: "Where have you been? I tried calling, but all I got was your brother tryin' to sell me come cock and bull about you being sick and you wouldn't answer. I was afraid you had run off with Nelson and then where would I be? Trying to cheat off Alec in history?"

"And what pray is wrong with my history answers?" came a drawl from behind you. In contrast to Izzy's 'burn on a cloudy day' freckled complexion and excited chatter Alec Morgan had the face and the drawl of a New Orleans Creole that made him seem kind of standoffish until you got to know him and appreciate his dry sense of humor.

Case in point... "What's wrong is you barely getting a passing grade on the last one," Izzy huffed.

"Which is still better than not passing," Alec replied serenely. He shivered a little. "Is there a draft in here. When I said they should put up the AC I didn't mean this much."

"Yeah, when has the school ever gotten that right?" you joke a little awkwardly, ignoring the fact that while your friends are not keeping to the four foot bubble that seems to have formed around you when you entered the school Izzy had also not gone in for a hug as she usually does. Probably for the best really, you think resolutely swallowing the lump in your throat. "I was at Splattercon," you do not speak it in the proper tone this time, you are not in the mood. "You heard about the gas leak right? It was crazy, people running around seeing things because of the poisoning, there was a fire. "

"Yeah, heard the cops were involved, well they would have with so many people getting hurt." Alec looks you up and down like he is searching for bruises.

"Yeah I got questioned and Nelson did get arrested for punching someone in the chaos. My dad had to come bail me out, like not literally but it was close," you mix lies and half truths smoothly, omitting Harry. There is absolutely no way you are going to mention Harry in front of Izzy given what you had done next.

"Asking to make use of his shower end then emerging draped only in a towel was indeed a rather crude attempt at seduction," Usum offers from the peanut gallery. "It still might have worked, but for the intervention of your mother."

"Not helping," you send trying and failing to keep a blush down. That had been mortifying and the conversation with your mother had been worse since you had to sit there and take it and play dumb.

"Did you break up with Nelson?" Izzy asks, misinterpreting whatever was going on with your expression.

"Yes," you bite off. It's not like you had been really together, you had kissed a few times but that was three months ago before you knew about the baby. "It's just... I don't know where Nelosn is gone OK, you can stop worrying about him."

Izzy gives you the 'aww' look like she is about to suggest a tub of ice cream for your loss or something, but then Alec gives her a warning look probably from figuring out you were more pissed off than sad.

"So is that were you have been all this time?" he asks. "Parental house arrest for springing you out of the real thing?"

You nod and roll your eyes, that is a good excuse. "The best lies are the ones people tell themselves," Usum offers making you feel a dirty. You do not want to think of your friends like that, but at the same time what are you supposed to do? Explain that you were kidnapped by evil fairies because you used mind control to try to cure Heroin addiction? They didn't even know Rosie and Nelson took anything stronger than weed, never mind the 'magic is real and it can eat your face' side of things.

"Mom thought I might have taken sick from the gas, I mean I did have a headache, but it was gone in a few hours," you strengthen the lie. "Still she kept me in for two whole days and now here I am having to tell Mr Mendoza that I missed class because of gas inhalation."

"Oh honey, you missed a test," Izzy says commiserating and this time you have no issue with accepting it. Your chemistry teacher liked his subject and as far as you could tell did not much like his students... and he especially did not like when his students made light of it.

Alas the fifteen minutes than you had saved by waking up early were well and truly gone by now and all you could do was face the music or in this case the 'pop' quiz he would always make up for the students who he suspected of trying to weasel their way out of one of his regular ones.

Yet with the paper in front of you things aren't as hard as you remember them being. No more sweaty hands because you do not sweat and your nerves are a distant thing. There is just more room in your head to think... and someone else to bounce ideas off.

"What am I ever going to need chemistry for?" you grouse at Usum in the middle of a particularly annoying problem about organic chemistry.

"Explosives seem a convenient weapon against foes too petty to wield essence against," he replies forcing you to bite back a laugh.

The rest of the school day is mercifully lacking in tests though a few teachers do give you funny looks when you trot out the story about the gas leak and the signed excuse slip from your mother

What do you do after school?

[] Go rollerblading with your friends

[] Visit Rosie in the hospital, it's the least you can do

[] Take another go at those bookshops about magic this time with Usum fora guide so you do not pick up duds

[] Go talk to Harry, you have a lot more to tell him and it would be nice to do so without Mom listening in

[] Stay home and out of any trouble that might come your way

[] Write in

OOC: In case you are wondering what Molly would have wanted to tell Charity after the shower incident it starts with 'you were five years older than I am now when you had me and dad's almost ten years older than you' and it would have gone downhill from there.