Arc 13 Post 30: Fire's Depths
Fire's Depths
7th of February 2007 A.D.
"We just ask him what the problem is," you offer after a moment. "I'm sure we can work something out."
Harry looks at you funny before asking, though a mouthful of thickening ash "You are going to break out the reverse-Babel again?"
"No need," you counter, burning the flames of Essence just a little brighter for nimbleness of speech. No sense lying when you don't have to after all.
"You're telling me that speaks English," he motions at the mountain looming larger and darker by the second, close enough that one can see the lines on its flank like old wounds, or the gullies of tears.
"Yeah." Now it's your turn to blink at him since you ironically aren't sure how to put this conviction into words. After half a minute or so you settle on. "Language shapes meaning, permeating the narratives of the otherworld. Spanish has a more developed or at least more common passive voice than English."
"That's not really a big deal..." he starts to answer.
"Oh?" you raise an eyebrow. "In the Aymara language of the Andes Mountains the past is conceptualized as in front of the speaker since one can freely take it out and study it, the future is unknown behind. I bet..." you had been about to make a prediction about Andean wizards ability to divine the past and their relationship to the local spirits, until you remember that is deep in the domain of the Red Court. If those magicians still live at all they are unlikely to be known to the White Council. "Embermane speaks English," you finish lamely.
"The bug spirits spoke Latin," he points out, not unreasonably.
"They were bound to do so, probably by their creator at the moment of their creation." Which would now that you think of give something of a timeline for when that act must have taken place. After all Latin could only have been spoken in this part of the world starting in the seventeenth century. There have to be members of the White Council alive who had seen it happen with their own eyes or if not them their masters one generation up... which begs the question of why Harry the Warden of Chicago did not know about the major wizardly working on Lake Michigan. Was this just distrust over his past, or something more sinister? That list of Council traitors itches at the back of your mind, but for now at least it's going to have to stay there.
Sixteen eyes, pools of white hot lava open on the flank of the mountain glaring at you and a voice that was like the rattling chains of the Titans said to cause Mount Etna to erupt into flame spoke: "Who comes before me shrouded in hellfire and reeking of pride?"
Not this again. As you open your mouth to defend your honor for what feels like the hundredth time against those who would judge the proverbial book by its cover... you realize that Embername isn't scrutinizing with the bulk of his displeasure, but Harry. That would leave marks on the soul wouldn't it, marks that a spirit of fire would be uniquely capable of reading.
"Before you stands Harry Dresden and I can assure you he is no creature of hell. Indeed he has dealt the Fallen their greatest blow in many a year by no other weapon but unwavering virtue. Hardest is the stone by flame tested, and sharpest when broken upon the right plane."
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/18 (Etiquette Excellency)
"Oh?" The syllable is so deep you almost hear it more in your teeth than your ears. "And what does that sharpness foretell?"
"Aid in whatever troubles these lands," you answer instantly.
"Are you certain you wish to offer that before you know what the task would be?" It's clear the question isn't for you alas.
"We're not desperate, fools or desperate fools if that's what you're asking," Harry answers with a shrug. "But you seem to not like Nickleheads which is a good sign in my book for hearing you out. Then we'll decide what to do about it."
Though you half-expect the spirit to ask what a 'Nicklehead' is he seems to have picked it up from context. "Very well then wizard you may know of my woes. I was called to this place, summoned from slumber with blood and with fire willfully set by one such as that which gifted you flame, called in two pieces with fel intent. There is to the east a place with no name where many are bound who would bring ruin to the realm of man. My Cup, my desire, called to the world of fixed form with the specific intent to be bound in that prison so that I-Before-You might serve as a way opener into the prison for the servant of Hell."
"That obviously didn't work...?" You half-ask suddenly very conscious of how close you are to the flame spirit and how not-fireproof Harry is.
"The one who was fed to the flames at the heart of the rites was stronger in spirit, in faith than the Warlock knew. On the door of death he stopped to speak with Me-Which-Was-Waking and warn me of what I might unleash if I broke the seals of the Nameless Isle, even just a few. In seeking to be whole I would make myself a tool and likely bring my own ruin, just as the ruin of man. I will not be a tool's tool!"
It's a good thing you are not flying with wings or else this... kin of Iku-Turso you are beginning to suspect would have blown you half a mile into the air with the strength of his barely leashed rage. He claims that he's missing his Cup... something nudges at the edge of your thoughts, that would be his desire yes, but also compassion. Before you stands a being utterly bereft of empathy for all his pain. Of course the warlock thought he would burn and burn without end. Only the sacrifice whoever he had been had been clever enough to make an argument not of the Cup, but the Sword, an argument for valor.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/18 (Occult Excellency)
Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 12/18 (Urge of the Forbidden)
What do you do?
[] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and get his Cup back. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking
[] Thank the spirit for sharing his story, you have much to think about, take your leave
[] Ask more questions. What was the name of the Denarian? The sacrifice who communed with Embermane? (Charisma+Etiquette DC 9)
-[] Write in more questions
[] Write in
OOC: That could have gone better, but also a lot worse.
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