OOM: Vivec City, 18 First Seed, 3E 428

[moonandstar]

Garyn hadn't felt the need to involve Ibani in his last little spy mission. Retrieving a skull from a tomb for an alchemist who is a little TOO insistent that she isn't a necromancer had been an easy enough job. But this? This was going back to Vivec...a place where he very much had meant to make himself scarce from. What's more, one of their contacts would be in the Foreign Quarter - the very same place where a number of corrupt Fighters Guild members had been killed by a booby trap he had set.

So a little bit of Sith discretion and underhandedness would be welcome, in addition to backup.

They're approaching from the bridge that leads from the silt strider dock - the Guild Guide would bring them too close to the Fighters Guild for his liking.

The buildings are massive ziggurats crossed by canals - not big enough to be impressive by her standards. But it's far from a typical city in Garyn's.

Comments

[moonandstar]

Garyn hums, still feeling the warmth of the pre-reading festivities, but increasingly engrossed in what he's reading.

"I can see why this book has been suppressed. The notion that the Tribunal's divine powers have the same source as Dagoth Ur's...and that source is the Heart of Shezzar himself..."

[last_kallig]

"Very heretical sounding indeed, but that doesn't mean it's wrong."

"Did we find enough to satisfy Caius?"

[moonandstar]

"No...I find something compelling about it."

He's still reading, and it takes him time to process that a question has been asked.

"Oh, there's more than enough here. The Sixth House is on the rise, and the Temple is resorting to torture and suppression to try to disguise the fact that they've lost control. Meanwhile the locals are seeking hope in ancient cults. Perhaps they'll find it.

"There's even an explanation of what happened to the Dwemer in here, if you can believe it. Apparently they used the same enchanted tools that the Tribunal used on the Heart to become gods, but something went wrong and they all disappeared. It's as clear an answer as I've heard, at least."

[last_kallig]

"It does seem to fit well, doesn't it? Might be wise to have Bar make a copy, just in case."

She kisses him, then yawns. "All this reading is wearing me out," she mock complains.

[moonandstar]

Garyn feels he's absorbed all the information he will need to. He turns his head to give Ibani a kiss.

"Yes...I feel like I could get forty winks myself."

He stretches his arms, being already in his smallclothes after their previous activity.

[last_kallig]

"Sleep well, my dear."

It won't take her long to drift off, curled up with Garyn like this.

[moonandstar]

Garyn's sleep comes just as easily, but does not stay that way.

He finds himself standing on a windswept plain, blown by ash from Red Mountain. From out of the ash, a tall figure rises, wearing a golden mask and beckoning to him.

"There are many rooms in the house of the Master. Be easy, for from the hands of your enemies I have delivered you."

Now the open plane begins to fade away, and gives way to a dimly lit funeral parlor. He cannot quite see whose body lays upon the plinth...

[last_kallig]

Ibani knows, when she's pulled into the dream, that it isn't hers. The figure in the golden mask feels wrong, feels menacing, far more than he ought to.

She tries to call out to Garyn, to reach him, but the space refuses to bend to her will!

[moonandstar]

Garyn sees now the figure laid out before him...it is himself. His own body, surrounded by candles as funereal incense hangs in the air. He reaches out, touching his dead body with his own hands. And he sees the body's eyes open.

And then suddenly, the thing that was dead is him. He feels himself rise from the table, heaving with unnatural breaths...and then, as a flash of light passes before him, he bolts up screaming in bed.

[last_kallig]

Ibani isn't screaming, but that's only thanks to her years of torment on Korriban. She hugs him as soon as she can, tries to comfort.

"You are here with me, my dear. I will not let him have you."

[moonandstar]

"It must be...it must be..."

He can barely bring himself to speak the name.

[last_kallig]

"Yes," Ibani agrees. "That was no natural dream. It seems we have attracted his attention." Well, GARYN has, but she's hardly going to let Garyn tackle HIM alone.

[moonandstar]

Garyn scowls.

"Which leaves me able to do precisely nothing about it."

He turns to Ibani, his face desperate and sad.

"Promise you'll kill me if I go mad."

[last_kallig]

"I will not let him keep you my dear, even if that means I must take your life," she promises. "I will not let HIM have you," she adds, the last words a growl.

It would do dreadful things to her psyche, but she knows that she COULD do it.

[moonandstar]

Garyn wraps his arm around Ibani and leans against her, holding her close.

"I know you mean that. That's what I love about you."

He manages a wan smile.

[last_kallig]

"All my scars aligning into something useful, for a change," her own smile is as wan as his.

She holds him close, listens to the sound of his breathing.

[moonandstar]

"I love you, Ibani. I always will, with every part of my soul, as long as it is still mine."

[last_kallig]

"You have a poet's soul, love." She kisses him softly. "I feel the same way."

"He will not have you, no matter what I must do to make it so. I will shake the foundations of your world, if I must. Tear the Heart from his grasp."

[moonandstar]

"If that is indeed the source of his power," Garyn says.

"For myself, I'd rather you not try to kill a god singlehandedly."

No, indeed, he'll have to leave that task to himself.

[last_kallig]

"It wouldn't be my first choice of approach either," she allows. Which isn't saying that she WOULDN'T do it, if it came to that.

[moonandstar]

Garyn chuckles weakly and nuzzles the side of her face, pulling in to kiss his cheek.

"Though I'll note you haven't ruled it out."

[last_kallig]

"I try not to rule anything out, Garyn," she replies. "I know better than to try such a thing, my life being what it is."

[moonandstar]

"Can't rule out anything for being too strange, I suppose."

Garyn continues to remain curled up against Ibani.

"If nothing else, I can now see why the Emperor felt this was worthy of the attention of his secret service."

[last_kallig]

"Worthy of more than that," Ibani replies, tone acid. "And far earlier than present efforts."

She huffs. "But it brought you to me, so that's enough to buy the Emperor considerable forgiveness."

[moonandstar]

"Indeed," Garyn says. "As horrible as those dreams have been, they're better than dying in the Imperial dungeon would have been."

His soul was not his own there, either.