Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Down to Brass Tacks ​

21st of February 2007 A.D.

Time to intervene before this gets messy, you've had quite enough messes to clean up this week. The tab of the Sprite can popping is unexpectedly loud, pulling Susan's attention back towards you. "You don't need powers for that sort of work though?" You ask with an arched brow, before counting off on one hand "The Venatori Umborum, the Holy Office, you drop 'of the Inquisition' so as not to get bogged down in bad press and deliberately you take a slug from your can before continuing, meeting her eyes with yours. "But I can also give powers. If you want." You give a half-shrug, setting down the can as you do. "Its your life, and we all make our own choices."

"You can just hand out powers? Who... What are you really?" There's something like awe glittering in those eyes, more than Martin's matter of fact agreement or Isabela's formal thanks that devolved into snark at the drop of a hat. It feels deeper closer to the fealty someone born in Sanctuary might proffer and you are not entirely sure what to do with it in the context of Harry's ex.

"Isn't that the million dollar question," you shake your head. "It's just one more reason I'd love to have an investigator working for me, someone who's used to operating in secret all over the world and who can take care of themselves. It's not powers that do that, it's people. I've killed plenty of powerful beings and most of them didn't have the sense to get out of the way so..." you chuckle and repress the passing urge to find a white cat to pet.

For his part Harry looks between you with an expression that's almost... Sad. Why would he be sad? Had he expected Susan to give the fight to raise the kid? Dad raised seven kids while being a Knight of the Cross.

"Maggie isn't safe here anymore," Harry states plainly that creeps towards the faintest edge of panic as he adds: "We need to get her to Chicago where I can keep an eye on her."

"Are you sure that's any more safe for her? White Court Central... They might not be as bloody as the Reds, but they aren't the sort of influence to raise a child around."

Welp, there goes introducing her to Isabela I guess, you laugh inwardly, a joke only Usum can hear.

"It's over," The proclamation carries a power almost sibylline drawing draw the eyes of other diners to Tiffany only to flinch away from whatever they saw there. "The child is known to friend and foe alike, of her parents and of her great-grandfather."

"I'm going to assume that's one of yours," Susan tries to smile at Harry, but Tiffany isn't done.

"Ebeneezer McCoy, most recent Senior Council Member among the White Council, a name few would dare to conjure by. Blood's different, by that they will dare conjure all too well," comes the answer.

"I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but who are you really? Are you a wizard?" Susan asks, trying and failing to hide a shiver at the dreadful truth in those words.

Silence falls over your little corner of the restaurant, only seeming deeper for the crash of the waves. Finally she speaks: "I guess I might as well lead with it, not like some occularly challenged middle manager from Hell didn't reveal me in front of the Senior Council a few days ago. Hello I go by Tiffany McNeil and I'm a recovering Fallen Angel. Or at least I am a version of one while also serving as an object lesson on why you shouldn't reproduce just because the result would be useful. In my case the reproduction was much more literal and the incarnation more complicated." A sly smile slipped onto her lips. "Presently I'm sleeping with Harry, I'll let him put a name to that. Wouldn't want to spook him."

Susan laughs mostly in shock you'd judge, but a little bit in honest amusement. "Good luck with that, it's going to take a while."

"I posses the subjective experience of having lived six thousand years upon this Earth, and countless aeons before," Tiffany's words are as dry as you imagine the desert in Sinai is.

"That might do it," Susan allows leaving poor Harry with his eyes bouncing from one to the other unsure what, if anything, he should say.

"Come on," you take pity on him. "We have to go talk to the Mendozas. It's not going to be an easy explanation. Maybe skip the Fallen Angel bit."

"Just to be clear crosses don't start bleeding around do do they?" Susan asks in what seems to be genuine curiosity. "Because they have a lot of crosses."

"I could make it look like they do if I put my mind to it, but no, I have not found crosses to be the least bothersome," Tiffany starts to explain her condition while Martin gives the most discrete of sighs at what one suspects is some kind of pattern. Still it occurs to you that you might not even have to awaken Susan's Po with the way she and Tiffany seem to be hitting it off. Being honest you're not sure how to take that and from the look of him neither does Harry.

Suggestions for where Maggie should move

[] Sanctuary is safer than anywhere on Earth. Sure there will be an adjustment period, but not that much of a one at her age

[] If the Mendozas do not want to move with her you're sure Mom and Dad will take her in

[] Keep quiet. Now that Susan is settled you're just here to handle any vampire ambushes along the way

[] Write in

OOC: Tiffany is among other things quite proud of 'occularly challenged middle manager from Hell' since it makes it sound like a asshole with glasses not a one eyed demon lord and yes she is having fun teasing Harry.

 

[DragonParadox]

Packing for the Future ​

21st of February 2007 A.D.

The Mendoza's live in a neighborhood that while clearly industrial, it's not the sort with rusted chainlink and broken down cars on blocks out back, more swing set and fades hopscotch markings on the pavement no matter if the swings look like they could use a new coat of paint and you wouldn't want to risk a car without a mind of its own on some of those potholes, a quiet corner of the world that sadly won't stay quiet much longer.

Once, twice the doorbell rings, louder than you are used to until a woman answers looking to be at that timeless middle ground between mid twenties and fifty that some people just have the luck to get, her hair tied off more to get it out of the way than for how it looks, wearing a house dress faded from the wash, though still adorned with a pretty floral model.

She clearly wasn't expecting to see Susan at her door, much less with company.

"Madre de dios!"

For all her talk of not having trouble with crosses Tiffany flinches for a moment, thankfully unnoticed.

That sets the tone you are dealing with. Ximena and Emiliano Mendoza are far from being vampire hunters or even members of the Fellowship, but they know what lurks in the dark. Unlike many of those who survive a brush with the darker side of the supernatural they did not convince themselves that it was a man in a mask, a nightmare or gas leak, any of the comforting lies that hold up the world in its present form. They had seen it with their own eyes, whole remote villages being kept in a state of abject terror of the things that came in the night, denied even the comfort of church that should formed the core of village life just in case one of them would gather the courage to turn it into a weapon against them. Ximena had been entrapped promises of a new life, a well paying job far from her native Chile —in the US it's easy sometimes to forget that South America is a continent with all the differences in peoples and land that one might expect of it— new blood for the 'herd' as far as the vampire lord of that domain was concerned, Emiliano had been born to that life.

Both of them had taken the chance to flee when a Fellowship cell had firebombed the estate in the day. None of the vampires had been old enough to walk under the sun and the mercenaries had proven themselves either disloyal or incompetent. Though the pair had started out on the Fellowship's very limited charity they had been lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of manufacturing jobs in the plastics and rubber industry in town. Ximena stopped working when she had her first child, Emiliano made foreman last year.

All the above you pick out between the lines of increasingly worried questions. They had long feared this day would come, ever since the day they'd agreed to foster a girl of an active Fellowship member, saving up what money they could to go on the run and start again somewhere else, hopefully somewhere they could find a job.

And that's my cue, you think. "Money isn't an object." Before either of them can raise an objection you explain. "I can make diamonds with magic, real ones that stick around. If you want to come with us back to Chicago that at least won't be a concern."

"I can't ask this of you after all you've done... I shouldn't," Susan looks up from her hands. "But for Maggie I have to, you're the only family she's ever known. I don't want to take that sense of normality away from her."

"If they know they know," Ximena looks grim. "If they look for the girl and not find her they will vent their rage and hunger on who they do find. I will get everyone packed. Senior Dresden Margarita is this way if you wish to meet her." There is something almost tentative about the words that makes you wonder what they must think of him. Even without taking into account the magic Harry certainly looks like the kind of person who would pick a fight with a Red Court vampire, but they have to be wondering why they had never even heard of him before, a topic everyone had been studiously avoiding.

"So how are we getting five people through US Immigration on no notice?" Tiffany too had chosen to hang back and give Harry the chance to speak with his daughter privately

[] Government files are online these days, unleash IRIS on the relevant databases to produce documentation that might not be watertight but should be good enough

[] Call on one of your contacts
-[] Lara Raith, the White Court can do it easily though Harry's probably going to be dubious on the notion and Susan likely even more so
-[] The Library of Congress, they are the government, part of it at least
-[] The White Council, it is likely to be slow in the wake of the chaos Peabody left in his wake, but everyone trusts them, it just means the Mendozas are going to have to be careful for a few months

[] Write in

OOC: No rolls for this one, there would have been if you did not throw in 'I can magic up diamonds', but as is they are on board with getting out of vampire country even if it means uprooting their lives.

 

[DragonParadox]

Where Borders are Not​

21st of February 2007 A.D.

"I think we should do this through the proper channels or at least as close to it as circumstances allow." Huh, Olivia must be rubbing off on me more than judging from how bitter that sounded, you realize. "Sure Lara could swing it, Thomas's sister, but Susan said she was wary of the White Court which is fair enough and as for the Council, their head paper pusher turned out to be working for horrors from beyond the veil of time and space, it's going to take them a while to smooth that over so it might well come down to calling the Library of Congress in the end anyway. That being the case better to do it myself, I have more brownie points stored up from the Vegas thing and the Boston thing."

"The Boston thing?" Susan asks still a little off balance.

"The Wicked City, the Hell of Alienation and exploitation was meddling over here in the States." Aggravating systemic issues that are still going to go off sooner or later, you don't add. This is a happy moment not one to weigh down with all angst for the future.

"So you're sure these are the good guys?" se asks, her look growing more intense. It's not hard to believe she put a bullet though someone's head in Rio now. "Government spooks?"

"For what it's worth they've been around since the government was very different and they take a long view on things. Way I see it if an institution managed to keep the US from declaring war on the Faerie Courts all the way up to the Accords in '94 they have to be doing something right."

"Being good at your job doesn't make you morally upstanding, especially when the job is cover-ups. Trust me I met the whole circus," she counters.

"Maybe not, but it does make one rational, the Library have nothing to gain from playing games with the paperwork and a whole lot to lose."

The conversation is briefly interrupted by the sight of the kids coming down which is when you catch your first glimpse of Maggie hiding behind a slightly older boy who has to be the Mendozas' middle child. She looks a lot like her mother, but there are little hints of her father in her nose and the line of her jaw. This one's going to be a handful, you know with Essence-bought insight. She isn't hiding behind the older kid because she's shy, she's getting a good look at everyone before she ventures out.

For his part Harry is trailing along as though he can't quite believe the literal flesh and blood child here before him, not in a vision or in a plan made half a world away, though he is quick to snap out of it when it comes to the plan. "Even if the ones you talk to are on the level I don't want to risk it getting back to Daedalus."

"Who?"

While Harry and Tiffany gets Susan up to speed on the would be Men-in-Black with dimensional ripping weaponry you marshal your arguments. Fortunetly they are very simple: "Harry the whole thing we are doing here is taking the Mendozas out of hiding. If someone wanted to find the people you cared about they would just have you followed and once they had an adress they could check their documents or lack thereof. You are not a target of opportunity, I'm not sure you ever were but definitely not after what happened last week. If anyone serious goes after you they are going to pull out all the stops."

"That's not a very cheerful thought Molly," he points out, though he's not disagreeing.

"Darn it and I was doing so well."

***​

Two hours and several thousand miles away —it had taken a bit of cajoling and a lot of explaining to get the family to pass though into Sanctuary to use as a bridge to Chicago, but you're an old hand at it my now— you dial Von Trier's number and explain you need paperwork for five people, two adults three children to be able to live work in the US with way to get citizenship in the process.

"Am I to assume from your tone that these people appeared on US soil recently?" The tone is so neutral is wraps back around to being suggestive.

"Yes, there was cause serious cause for concern regarding their safety in all areas controlled by the Red Court, the family adopted a girl whose mother is an active member of the Fellowship..."

A sigh comes through as a burst of static, loud enough to interrupt. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes, though I can hardly fault you for it. Over the last few years we have been getting constant lobbying from the expected quarters to declare the Fellowship of Saint Giles a terrorist organization. It is not a hard brush to wield unfortunately. Normally we lean on local NGOs to back up their character, especially religious ones. Certain segments of the political establishment are quite fervent in that regard. Over the last month though some outside player has decided to run a smear campaign on Catholic organizations the lines of which I have not seen in decades. One wishes leadership had more sense than that but when one's power depends so stringently upon the masses... Worry not, I can adjust this to being on a cartel hit list without any mention of the Fellowship."

And with that it's done. Your part at least. No doubt Harry will be spending quite a while warding the Mendozas' new home, getting to know his daughter, but for now you have an exorcism to perform and perhaps anoher Po to awaken.

It's been a busy month.

---

Arc Fourteen Complete​

Triumphs

1. Helped train young wardens 1XP
2. Successfully dueled Ramirez 1 XP
3. Discovered Drusus' spell and broke it 2 XP
4. Made contact with Morgan and Company 1 XP
5. Dueled a Lord of the Outer Night to the death and impresses upon his former entourage than they should depart 4 XP
6. Saved a dying god from both the Red Court and destruction 3 XP
7. Captured of Horace Shaw and Freed Cryrl 2 XP
8. Unveiled more of the conspiracy 1 XP (Morgan did a lot of the heavy lifting)
9. Dealt with the mad mage 1 XP
10. Faught your way into the Hidden Halls 1 XP
11. Passed though the Warden Ambush without harming them 1 XP
12. Helped banish a demon lord 2 XP (McCoy did the banishing proper, Carlos was the distraction)
13. Slew the corpses of ancient wizards/Captured Warlocks/Obtained some genuine surrneders 3 XP
14. Dealt with Namshiel's thralls breaking the Curse of Mindfire 2 XP
15. Disocovered the glamor hiding LaFortier and saved his life 2 XP
16. Drove off Thorned Namshiel, denying him his prize 1 XP
17. Tracked the Merlin 1 XP
18. Dealt with thrall wizards 1 XP
19. Offered insights to Harry which helped in his Enlightenment 2 XP
20. 'Disarmed' the Veil-breaker 1 XP
21. Swayed an Angel from her path 2 XP
22. Refused the temptation of knowledge 1 XP
23. Slew Drusus in his own Labyrinth 4 XP
24. Persuaded dead wizards to place themselves in your power 1 XP
25. Restored a dying god 1 XP
26. Convinced Senior wizards to use the Book of Laws 2 XP
27. Lydia persuades ancient knights not to rush into the middle of an unfamiliar war 1 XP
28. Helped smooth over Harry's meeting with Susan 1 XP

Total XP: 0 (Unspent) + 49 (Earned this Arc) = 49

How do you spend your Experience?

Special
[] Alchemy: The Art of transmutation, not merely of matter, but mind and spirit. To all you have learned from Bob, all you have read in Harry's books the insights of an elder age are added, as steel is alloyed from charcoal and iron (Cost 3XP/Dot)

[] The Sight, birthright and peril for all who are born with a wizard's depth of understanding (Cost 13 XP Discounted by 2)
Mus study with Harry before you can make use of it

[] New Ability 3xp

[] Ancient sorcery spell 10xp

[] Attribute current rating *4xp

[] Ability current rating *2xp

[] Caste Ability current rating *1xp

[] Caste or Favored Charm Charm rating *3xp

[] Other Charm Charm rating *4xp

[] Willpower current rating

[] First dot of a Sorcerer Path 4xp

[] Follow-up dots in a Sorcerer Path current rating *3xp

[]Merit current rating *4xp

[] Remove Touch of Frost (2 XP)

[] Buy down Nightmares (4 XP)

[] Write in

Vote Will Open in 24 Hours ​

OOC: I thought about putting this off until after the exxorcism, but that will not itself give any XP and you guys have been waiting for this a while now so here we are, almost 50 XP for you to spend from the many plots you kicked over this month.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Crumpets and Curses ​

22st of February 2007 A.D.

I don't go out of my way to be rude, no matter what some may say to the contrary. Take today for instance, walked into my office, gulped down the coffee without any sensation beside hot, felt briefly guilty over it since Lash made one of those fancy lattes with writing in them, looked down saw what seemed like a Christmas tree '2' with a bubble coming off the side. Still on the Linear A kick looked like... My lovely companion had recently figured out that Lasciel had left her with bits and pieces of old languages, things that might conceivably help, but weren't complete enough to be full languages in her head so she had taken to mediating in order to fish out as much of it as she could. She did so while 'putting her body on auto-pilot' which is how ancient Minoan script had ended up on everything from coffee and pancakes to paper towels to walls and doorframes.

Compared to that I ask you was it so bad not to recognize the person at the door at 8:30 AM? Even if he was my boss technically and the head of the White Council and... bearing crumpets? Just as I was beginning to reassess the odds that I was in fact still dreaming he shoved them into my hands and stepped in.

"One hopes those are appropriate."

"For?" There was a lifetime of wariness in that question.

"A gift for a new parent. I was informed that I should bring either some form of baked goods or alcohol. I had no insight into your tastes in the latter so the former seemed a safe bet," he answers stiffly.

I'm going to blame the hour for what I said next too. "You weren't just worried what I'd be like if you encouraged me to drink?"

"No. I'm guessing you are more dangerous sober than three sheets to the wind," the Merlin replied taking in my office with such a complete non-reaction that it was almost a judgement in itself.

"How'd you figure that?" I challenged. 'In for the penny in for the pound', if that how they put it in Merry old England. He should be familiar with the concept them.

"Family resemblance."

Oh... I hadn't really had much time to consider the implication of the less earth-shattering of my familial revelations, specifically in light of Ebeneezer's place on the council, his history with the likes of Langtry and Listens-to-the-Wind.

"Do you have any idea where Lara Raith has been these past three weeks?" The question jarred me out of inner wondering and back into the here and now.

"Out of town is all I know and good riddance." Somehow I didn't think that would satisfy the old chap, but he only harrumphed like he was tallying against an invisible scoreboard."City's always quieter without her around to stir the pot and sip the foam off the cauldron."

For a moment he was quiet, thinking about how to ask his next question maybe, or maybe not given it was delivered with a bluntness that would do a bull in a china shop proud. "Dresden why do you do all this, the detective agency, the consulting? I know it's not for the money or I would have offered to give you a stipend to cover the expense."

"But you're not going to raise the Warden salaries are you?" Now I was getting a bit pissed, which is why it was so surprising that the Merlin laughed.

"The salary is not meant for anyone to live off of, just so that we can claim to employ all Wardens at all time for magical reasons, usually though not always relating to the Faerie courts. The true payment of a wizard is in contacts, reagents laboratory access and the ability to call on more junior wardens for your own purposes, in time of peace at least. Did you think the Council was that hard up for funds."

"I thought you'd missed inflation since the 50s or something like that," I half-grumble.

"We are old not senile Dresden." Just like that the good mood had vanished. "I would very much prefer if you moved to some place less eventful in now that you will have to take on more teaching jobs, not that I have any illusions, some at least of the eventfulness will follow but not all. There are certainly safer places to take a young child."

I opened my mouth angrily, stopped to think about it for once. "Even if I were willing to do so I can't. As of last month I'm a Warden in more ways than one."

"Pardon?" The Merlin looked me up and down as though for some strange sign.

"Out on the lake there's an island with no name, well it used to have no name before I gave it one, called it Demonreach."

And that was the first time I had heard Langtry curse, his acccent thickening as he went. "Sblood, zwounds and the rusty nails that made' em! When, how and what did you find, leave nothing out?"

"Wait a sec, I have questions too..." I started, but instead of arguing he waved it off.

"Yes, yes, I expect you do, I'll answer all I can, just start from the begining..."

OOC: Fun note Arthur is from a transitional time in the history of swearing when curses that blasphemed were still considered worse than those that had to do with bodily functions so him cursing by long form 'Gods Blood', 'Gods Wounds' and the nails that made them is deadly serious. To be fair to him he just got the news that Harry Dresden has the magical equivalent of nukes.

 

[DragonParadox]

Shades of Hunger ​

23st of February 2007 A.D.

"I'm going to need a place to do these exorcisms," the sound of your voice echoes though the station, though not unheard by company.

"You mean like some kind of temple?" Isabela teases as she seemingly appears beside the storeroom door, whips of shadow trailing from her fingers. You had seen her thankfully and so had Susan which is why she just reaches for the holster on her belt instead of drawing.

"I get backtalk about that inside my head thank you." While you might not be able to scoff as well as Tiffany it's a decent showing.

"The fact that makes sense is wild, thanks for that, also shadow play, learned it from one of the baby wizards..."

"What do you mean you learned it?" There's no getting around the suspicion in those words. Vampires of the White Court can do some limited magic, Thomas for instance can do a bit of Thaumaturgy, but something that instinctive quick as fleeting shadows on the wall isn't shaped with words and gestures but with spirit and the spirit of a vampire of the White Court is hunger.

"It was entirely above board, they got a bit of a rush I learned how to play with shadows. I was trying to get the little light globes those make great ambiance, but I got shadow because I'm such a dark and tortured soul." She lowers her voice and the light level at the same time to comical effect, at least you think it's comical. Susan looks like she finds it a a tad creepy.

Isabela gains Obtenebration ●

"I think it's because darkness, regular non-metaphorical darkness like this at least, is just the absence of light," you posit after a moment. "Like someone ate it."

"Wait and the Council is just OK with this, trainees getting..." Susan's voice is heavy with revulsion. Consensual vampirisim wouldn't really be in her radar would it?

As you open your mouth to defend your friend she beats you to it. "One of the things they came here to learn is how to protect themselves from people like me. The only way to learn how to fight it is to experience it. Better to find one's limits when you can call time out then when you're out there alone and the would be get-of-Liltih are on the prowl. If I can get more out of the deal in the process by getting them to show me magic from the inside well that's another lesson isn't it? Vampires are always seeking an edge, we always want more. How much to give, how much to take? How far one dares to walk knowing that? It's an important lesson to the learned for wizards and for other folk. I liked your column for the Arcane, it was humorous without appealing to common self-deprecation, took the work seriously when no one would have expected you to. "

"You're telling me people like you read the Arcane?" Despite herself perhaps the former reporter's clearly curious.

"Young ones sometime, it's not like our elders tell us much, trying to piece together what's really happening from headlines is all we're left with... still better than the Raiths."

The look of horror in Isabela's eyes is genuine, it is also like a sorcerer's pet demon, very deliberately invoked to remind the woman she's talking to of shared humanity. Vampires are always looking for an edge.

In the end you do not need a especially set aside for exorcisms. Compared to wrestling with wrestling with Nemesis or even with the lesser creature that had been your first exorcism that parasite coiled around the soul of Susan Rodriguez is a pitiful larval thing like a tadpole made of barbed hooks dipped in blood. With one last mewling screech of hunger it melts into a puddle of ichor on the floor.

"That's... holy shit I didn't even remember what this felt like. Did it do something to me or did I do it to myself because it was too painful to remember?"

"Do you need a moment?" you ask gently.

"Nah, I think I need a few years of therapy, but I don't have the time or the money for that. What do you call a magic therapist anyway? A witch doctor?"

You laugh politely, but answer too. "Maybe for some but I hope I'm not assuming too much to say you're Catholic."

"Raised at least," she shrugs, though there's more pain there than she wants to admit. "Didn't feel right to go after... I felt unclean and then I just got out of the habit."

Well she got that backwards, you think sadly, careful not to let any of it show on your face, instead explaining: "Do you know Saint Mary's? Ask for Father Anthony Forthil..."

"And would that be open even after I get a little less human than I am now?" she asks bluntly.

"I am pretty sure he would love to talk with Tiffany if she showed up asking for an ear to speak to and some advice on life. I have it on good authority he gives good advice too."

She nods and leaves, still 'ungifted', enjoying the sunlight. It's only later when you talk to Martin that you get an inkling of what may have happened below the surface. The Fellowship he explains trains its members to sublimate their hunger into violence since violence is their calling. By removing the parasite, he speculates, you made that drive vanish in an instant.

"The First Change hits you hard, I guess the same is true in reverse," he muses as much to himself as to you. After a moment he asks a seeming idle question that's anything but. "Do you think Bianca would have been able to feel that if she was still alive? Her brood dying?"

"Only if she were looking for it. The 'death' itself was over very quikly and the parasite was very weak," you answer.

"If it were an ancient, one of their elders?"

You shrug, the truth is you do not know enough about the Red Court, but what you do know tells you that the older they are the more they can break the rules.

"I'd rather stay as I am. It's good enough for me..."

The obvious question comes to mind, but should you ask it? It's clear he doesn't want to tell me and I hold a lot of power over him. What do you do?

[] Ask Martin what infected him

[] Do not ask

[] Write in

OOC: Susan just had her conflict drive yoinked out and the effects of DPE annuled. -2 is a lot in this system. Where she goes from here is up to her. I thought about having a vote on where to send her but Father Forthil seemed too obvious so I just rolled with it.

 

[DragonParadox]

Thief's Covenant​

23st of February 2007 A.D.

Glancing down you ask a question, like a bird on winds ethereal your mind's eye flies and thence you see it. Outwardly it still bears the shape of a man, a flesh-puppet in the shape of a fallen hero, the first to be taken by the alien hunger and be worn by it, the paths they walked, the rivers they drank from, the way their language shaped their face all fallen into empty night, false seeming now dressed in the garb of of red and green and gold, in bard of a younger people, seeking who it may devour. Raised high above the head of a kneeling man it holds a bleeding a heart, still beating weakly allowing the blood slowly dribble onto his head.

Spoiler: The First Parasite

The First Parasite allows the blood to slowly dribble onto the head of the man the supplicant whose face you recognize, Martin and he speaks, words in an unfamiliar tongue, stolen as all its finery and all its might. If the day should come that you would stand in truth before the thief who calls itself Kukulcan you will try to end it and yet you cannot but pity its empty hunger.

Unworthy to be called a king of any hue Majesty, Usum's words drift into your consciousness. This time you have no urge to argue.

As you watch on in disgust a single clawed finger pierces the flesh-mask replacing the human digit drawing a line across his palm from which drips a viscous red ichor that seems loath to fall from the wound. But fall it does in accordance to the rules of some ritual you can only guess at, mixing the blood of the dying as it falls into Martin's mouth. Wouldn't that make a full vampire? One cannot help but wonder. The timing would have to be perfect, trusting that, it's... a kind of faith. That at least seems genuine, more's the pity.

That's an answer of sorts, certainly if anyone could feel blood of their blood being unmade it would be the first of them, but how on Earth did Martin get from willing supplicant before the seat of the Red King to Fellowship veteran? For a moment you doubt your judgement, maybe he didn't, maybe he's just playing the long game? But then you remember his Hunger is gone, that moment of shock impossible to fake. For that to be true he has to knowingly serve me not the one who gave him the poisoned 'gift'.

On the drive home between one song and the next when all you can hear if the rumble of Black Rider's engine and the sound of his wheels on the road you wonder if you can use that. Not the sympathetic link, not the magic, power rarely flows uphill, but the wounded pride the betrayal must cause. After all if a worm should pretend to be god for a thousand years than its wormy heart would be pierced by supposed blasphemy just the same.

What do you do next?

[] Spend some time with your family

[] Finish making and presenting the Book of Laws

[] Get to know Maggie, the kid's been inside your soul, but she's barely said a dozen words to you

[] Write in

OOC: I know this is very short, but musings on the nature of the Red King did not really fit in the same update as any of the rest of the stuff you might to to wrap up the month.

 

[DragonParadox]

With Ocher Thread ​

24st of February 2007 A.D.

Wizards are no strangers to exacting specifications, in composition, provenience, age even the time of day in which leather had changed to velum or iron to steel, but even so Ancient Mai looks in askance when you explain what this book's going to need for this working. Seven substances for seven sins, seven bindings for seven laws. Only the first had been agreed to. For now only it would be made, but you'd told her what it would take to make the others... Well two through six. You're pretty sure you could make something for those who broke the Seventh Law, but that's a secret best left slumbering unless it is desperately needed.

For the First you're given a scrap of ancient silk blue as the sky, still vibrant and yet in candle's light red and blood, once part of the whole that covered the face of Temujin whom history recalls as Genghis Khan. For death is not a thing to be forgotten even when guilt is set aside. Light should those pages be that were set upon silk, yet heavy as lead they are as you press them and heavy the scents of mirth and of sage. Red ocher stains your fingers red. Not the red of blood this time though, but the pigment that had been used in laying to rest the honored dead.

No instrument of forgetting this, no pardon can any magic give against the judgement of one's own counsel, but this much you can give to people like Harry, that their magic will not betray them, will not drive them to be the worst of themselves.

The brazier set over the table burns with high leaping flame as though it too approves it the thought. Flame is the element of rage of loss of self, but also of transmutation. So it was written in the Corpus Hermeticum when the White Council of today was barely a dream in the mind of a man named Ambrosius. So it was the judgement of fire that was given to wizards who erred in this way before the Sword of Damocles, fitting that it should bear witness.

Gained Book of Laws (First): Splendor ●●●●

Now all that's left is the politics... joy. You had been cordially invited to speak before the White Council, all of it. Reading between the lines this is the Merlin anticipating questions from the more hidebound wizards about your qualifications and skills. 'Who is this Molly Carpenter?'

While you have no doubt you can handle that there's the question of if you should take advantage of your place in the eye of so many wizards to promote some of your other ideas.

What do you speak of before the White Council?

[] Of the need to modernize, some of the greatest threats out there are moving into whole new technological vistas which the Council has been slow to adapt to

[] Talk about the need to involve more minor practitioners in their own defense and more broadly in maintaining the magical health of their communities

[] Just stick to explaining what the Book does and why you are competent to make it

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy.

 

[DragonParadox]

Called to Council ​

25st of February 2007 A.D.

To say that the whole of the White Council meets in the Grand Hall in Edinburgh would be at best misleading at worst a bald-faced lie. The hall can fit five hundred if they are on very good terms whereas at the beginning of the War the number of wizards had been inching towards fourteen hundred. Even including losses, which are not kept up to date there is no way every wizard on Earth could find a seat upon the polished granite of the chamber. So, as Tiffany would say, politics as usual. You smile a little at the memory, last December you had assumed that as Tiffany McNeil became more and more her own self with lived experience she'd grow less cynical about the world and the state of man. That does not seem to have happened and yet she is helping more and more, no matter how much sly insinuation she might indulge in.

"Why are you smiling? Should I be worried?" Carlos comes up behind you, not so much unheard as unnoticed in the press of wizards. It's mostly a joke, you read in his eyes, mostly.

There's a shadow behind his eyes that hadn't been there before, the knowledge that he had been made a puppet and that the one who did it, unlike most of the other conspirators is still at large.

"No, not really just thinking about Tiffany's... quirks."

The choice of words startles a laugh out of him. "That's one way to put it yeah." But alas his expression soon grows more serious as he looks between you and Harry.

"Be a bit more careful when you're talking about that. Word got around about that the eye demon said and how your friend doesn't deny it and now there's all kinds of rumors about her, about Harry, about this new power of his. People are spooked about demons what with the stuff that just went down and being told 'nah this is one of the good ones' doesn't cover it, especially for a lot of the more traditional sorts who see magic as an extension of their faiths."

"Not to sound like a certain blond character from the Book-Series-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but do these people know who my father is?"

His answering gesture is half a shake of the head, half a shrug. "Probably but the Knights have a reputation, you know in general."

"I don't know, Dad doesn't go around sharing magical scuttlebutt about himself. What do you mean."

"They try to redeem the Denarians on the regular in spite of their everything, cooking up plagues, starting wars, tearing down empires and burning down libraries. No one doubts that they have their heart in the right place, but to make a long story short, no one doubts they have their heart in the right place, it's their heads they worry about and this being an actual demon..."

It is, you conclude to yourself as he speaks a good thing it takes the White Council a long time to come to any semblance of order, gives you more time to take in what he's saying.

"It is not really talked about but wizards can learn demonology." The young wizard who had come to sit at Carlos' other side says. You faintly remember her from the fight but she politely reintroduces herself as Yuki Yoshimo . "The first lesson of that black art is demons never change, a demon conjured for the thousandth time is only different from the first in that they know you better and more dangerous for it. One assumes the lady knows Wizard Dresden quite well."

Is that... is Harry blushing? Casting your eyes that way you confirm that he is indeed and hard enough that both younger Wardens noticed.

"We are all friends," you interject quickly. "But that I bring here today has nothing to do with Tiffany."

"Oh you do not have to convince me honorable lady. I have the power to feel the Dragonlines and Dragon Nests even when my Inner Eye is closed. That and I am a swift judge of character when one saves my life."

"Well then between allies new found I trust that my proposal today will pass."

Carlos winces. "It's just a feeling but from the way some people approached me yesterday I think there might be wizards out here who came just to pick a fight with the Senior Council over not dealing with the crises for so long, letting the traitors fester."

He motions to the other side of the chamber where a distinguished older gentleman who looks about of an age with Morgan if he were considerably less battle-worn holds informal court among a large-ish group of his peers. Given that all of them thought to coordinate outfits, formal wear and gold buttons it's not hard to imagine they coordinated arguments too.

"That's Gregori Cristos he's... well he's a lot from what I heard from Wardens who had to work with him, a skilled duelist but a micro-manager and he holds grudges. Before you showed up to reveal whatever your thing is I thought he was working to replace the Warden Captain, but now I'm not so sure."

"When did you get so good at this stuff?" Harry had recovered enough to ask.

"When I was providing security for Senior Council members," Carlos explains. "It's either listen to people talk politics start counting specks on the wall. It was a hard choice but I eventually went with the first."

Cristos wasn't on your list of traitors or for that matter the enchanted, but just because someone isn't working to bring about the End Times, knowingly or unknowingly, doesn't mean they can't be a problem.

What do you do?

[] Continue with your speech

[] Approach Cristos before the meeting
-[] Try flattery, he seem the type to be vulnerable to it
-[] Cut some kind of deal, appeal to his ambition. You do have a lot of wizard shaped bribes

[] Find out what his greatest shame is

[] Write in

OOC: And here we see the advantages of all those times you worked to keep young wizards alive throughout the fight, information and ready-made allies

 

[DragonParadox]

Sins and Sensibilities ​

25st of February 2007 A.D.

The flash of a muzzle in the dark, a young man falling to his clutching at his chest as blood pools though layers of white linen and brown rugged wool, bright brass buttons are tarnished forever as the light goes out from his eyes in disbelief. A much younger Cristos stands over him holding an antique pistol—not so antique for the this hour before dawn on the rocky shore of of the Peloponnese, you know instinctively— The dying man tries to say something, a secret clawing to get out of his chest, but blood steals his voice and shock sends him under, never to reveal that the duel had been meant to be rigged from the start, just a game meant to prove the the authorities that the two men were not allied with the rebels in the mountains, that they were as they seemed foolish youths inheriting too much of their parents coin.

But young Cristos too had seen with eyes more than mortal that once would have marked him as a priest of Apolo or by that god cursed. He knew that nothing but the death of Andreas, for that was the name he would carve into the headstone in three days hence, would convince the commander of the Turkish garrison of their innocence. One or the other must die by shot or both would be hanged and the seer dared not reveal what he had seen, for magic feared and hated greatly or so he told himself. He had been willing to risk death for the freedom of his people, but not to embrace it. The choice had been no choice at all and it had been magic that tipped the scales even though no spell had been cast in the killing.

***​

Well, you take a deep breath, that is somewhat apropos to the idea of sparing those who have broken the First Law, too bad I don't have any way to know about it that isn't digging though his fate for sins. I could not even claim to have seen it in a soulgaze since every wizard here who hasn't already soul-gazed you is keeping their eyes averted. Still you rise from your seat at the invitation of the Merlin to encouraging looks from Yuki and Carlos and an uneasy one from Harry, still not used to the head of the Council being on the same side.

"Good evening to you all and thanks to the Senior Council for inviting me to speak at this juncture." You pause for a moment looking around the room, judging who dislikes you for your own sake, who dislikes the connection to the seven most powerful wizards in the room and who might like Yuki feel they owe you a debt of gratutude after what you just did. "I am in one sense alone here today, the only one not a wizard called to speak and yet in another sense I share with you a world behind the veil of the mundane. I was taught by a trusted source as each of you were to keep the secret, the whys and hows, the limitations of magic and its dangers, not just from without, but from within. A useful lesson for a girl prone to dash headlong action and yet I cannot but wonder more and more at the price of that caution, the price all of us pay. This day is not one of celebration, victory tastes of blood and ashes, most of all of questions. Why did this happen? How could so many have fallen so deeply?"

"And you're going to answer that are you girl?" a voice calls from Cristos' right, not the man himself of course, it would be beneath him to heckle.

"I was there when Warden Morgan interrogated Howard Shaw, I learned... to be honest far more than is comfortable about his particular journey, but it's not the place of man to be too comfortable. The fruit of knowledge has been bitten and that we can't take back. It all began with the secret, the lies that we must live that make all of us strangers to our fellow man. One would have to be more than human not to feel anger, fear, despair at one time or another and therein is the gap though which the armies of hell might march. Understand that I do not accuse any in this chamber of having failed to hold that breach. With courage, with skill, with empathy and yes with wisdom for which you are named in the tongue I now speak you have endured."

You leave another pause for reflection on the experience of alienation of being made a stranger in your own land and among your own people whether that be the bustling ports of Southern China, the green downs of England before she was Britain, First Peoples of the Americas or Greek rebels against a Sultan now long dead.

"Not everyone does, not everyone knows to even try. More wizards have been born in these past two hundred years than could have been predicted much less accounted for, more than could be trained or even contacted. It's a dangerous world out there, for those talented but lacking in knowledge more so than most and magic is always to hand. You know of what I speak, the First Law, 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'. That death should be answered with death is not justice, it is tragedy. So I come to you today wizards of the White Council with a book wherein those who have erred against the Law may sign their name and be bound, not in their minds, not even in their souls, but in their existence entire. They would never be able to kill water cannot burn or fire cannot freeze in place."

"Who are you girl, in whose name do you offer this?" Cristos asks, his tone more polite than his words, weary.

[] Answer as a Queen

[] Answer as your father's daughter

[] Answer as one who has once broken a law and been spared though the intercession of heaven and the work of ancient powers

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy, sorry this is late guys but we just had elections in Romania and the Exit-Pols just came out. The results for once are cautiously good as in someone sane and competent might win, then again so might one of two flavors of fascist so you know 2024 as per usual.

 

[DragonParadox]

Forging a Path ​

25st of February 2007 A.D.

"My own," you say forthrightly, drawing Cristos' eyes to yours for just a moment. "I offer this as Empress of the Fivefold Courts of Fate. As one who has the vision to see that the world need not be so cruel, and the means to help make it so. I offer this so that those who fall from the path might find their way back home, like a lantern in the dark."

A hush falls upon the chambers, as if the echoes of the hall had suddenly swallowed the whispers that filled it only moments before. No doubt they know something of what you showed their ambassadors three months ago, the knowledge would have spread like wildfire after your role in rooting out the traitors, but for many here that would only wetted their appetites for knowledge or planted the seeds of dread.

You cast your gaze out across the wizards gathered here and strive to count one from the other. The Wise some would name them and not without cause but with wisdom can so often come pain, and the weight of years you can see etched on many a face of every creed and every people to walk the Earth and some that are now gone, by the long years that magic gifted them the last of their kind wandering a world made strange. Perhaps your words find some purchase there, perhaps they are simply looking for a hand to cling to when the Council had come so close to ruin so suddenly, but it seems to you that more are nodding and smiling than glare or turn their heads aside. By far the most common are those not yet swayed, keeping close their counsel.

Bringing your eyes your eyes back to Cristos - knowing that the lines upon his face bear guilt almost two centuries in the keeping - and you say your final words, daring to hope that you'll be able to inspire hope. "I offer this as one who wishes that those who have erred and gone astray need not bear that sin eternal. That, esteemed wizards of the White Council, is who I am, and why I am here today."

"I... believe you," the Greek wizard speaks, seeming to almost surprise himself, though not so much as he does those who stand around him like a phalanx prepared for battle. "But I fear your generosity would open us to peril such as we have encountered before to our sorrow." He motions to a woman standing next to him, a Warden's sword at her belt. "The Swords the Wardens bear only one could forge and now she is indisposed... more indisposed than we knew. New Wardens by the score we must train, barely more than children and yet we send them less armed than their elders because we trusted a single smith with that arming. What if the book you offer is lost or destroyed by malice or mischance? We would find ourselves surrounded by warlocks now once more open to the darkness they called forth."

"Then I would make another," you answer easily.

"And if you were indisposed as Warden Luccio was or dead as too many of our fellows now are? What then? I make no claim that our enforcement of the laws was just or good, that is for philosophers to agonize over, but the practicalities of sin and salvation... well many her will know of my dealings with the rakshasa I am no stranger to them. If this is to be done I ask that a member of the Council be taught to perform this spell so that at great need we might replicate this tome."

Gallingly, this isn't even that unresonable a request, the book would underpin council policy and its loss would be a disaster, but it's also utterly imposibile. How do you tell a hall of people whose entire thing is being the best at magic that they'll never be skilled enough for this?

"The Wizard Dresden Majesty, he has awakened to the Essence of himself," Usum whispers in the back of your mind. "With the aid of the Wonder-Forge in Boston he might be able to reporduce the tome at great risk to body and soul."

That does not souns like something he'd enjoy, but you're sure he'd give it his all regardless, risks and all. Should he though? After all it's not like your planning to die.

What do you declare before the Council?

[] That is imposibile, mortals cannot make spendors (Charisma+Subterfuge Opposed to Perception+Subterfuge)

[] Explain that you might be able to teach Harry and others like him, putting even more responsibility on his shoulders

[] Write in

OOC: Doing pretty well so far as the surrprise from the people around Cristos shows he was going to say something far more combative.