Post by Orianna Èirigh on Aug 23, 2022 11:34:21 GMT
OBSERVATIONS & EXCERPTS from the JOURNAL of SECOND ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST ORIANNA ÈIRIGH of ASHKHA
My heart left today to walk the Staircase. I should have known it would come. No. I knew it would come. But I feel less hopeless about it than I would have ever done before. Because of our promise, manifested and held by the ring I wear. It is small and it is perfect. A circle, like life is. Like our life together will be.
Eternal…
After my lessons with Ilthuryn I made my way to Port Ffirst. I thought the state of Daring Heights was bad but this place… It was hit hard. Not as bad as New Hillborrow — another place I should go to at some point, perhaps with Gerhard when he returns so we can visit Marto — but the destruction I saw seems to be healing relatively quickly for the coastal city.
It wasn’t until I was in the port town that I found out the escort request was for after dark. Not an entirely strange request but perhaps so for the people of the Dawnlands? I’m not sure.
I think I will commune with the stars to pass the time…
Magnolia Argenti is the matre di of the Flourished Hook, and our coordinator for this escort job. She was very fond of taking notes on Snowey and mine’s conversation when we met at the appointed time. M. Argenti also seemed rather perturbed at the others who arrived either late or just too on the nose to be considered early. I was fortunate that I was looking at the constellations on this clear night and caught the movement of The Lady of Mystery, else I would have been late myself! I wonder for whom M. Argenti writes her notes…
A black furred tabaxi with the name Prowler, an aarakocran called Kreekor, and another desert denizen (also a tabaxi) named Nakia are my other companions on this evening’s travels. The client’s names we were told are Mrs. and Mrs. Vasrock. I am unsure how legitimate these names are but they will have to be the ones we use if we need to.
Curiously, when Nakia asked if Mrs. and Mrs. Vasrock were good people, M. Argenti stayed pointedly silent…
A human and a tiefling exit out of the Flourished Hook, arm in arm, the tiefling with a cane, the human seemingly blind. But there was something about her movements that made Orianna think she could see just fine, just not with her eyes.
“I think they’ll do,” the human looking woman says.
The tiefling gives a small, derisive scoff.
“She’s one of your kind, darling. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll do.”
Orianna tilted her head, only just realising the two were speaking in infernal, and they were both speaking about her. She looked away, pretending not to notice, though she felt she did a poor job of it. The two climbed into their mahogany, dark stained, extravagant carriage hitched to their two friesian horses and Orianna took that as her cue to summon the spirits of the Natural World to her, for her allies to have mounts of her own…
I kept thinking about what sort of trouble the two mysterious people were expecting and coming up short. There is always so much happening in the Dawnlands. Gerhard’s whole Infinite Staircase ordeal was only one of several incidents that have been ongoing in recent months. What about the necromancer whose work we’ve both come across in the Witching Court? I don’t think Lord Vandree has solved that particular puzzle yet — much to his annoyance probably.
Then there is the matter of the second prophecy Grougalorgaran gave us. I haven’t had the time to pursue any leads for it since my return. I’m hoping, when I catch up on my tasks at the Academy from my time away, I will have time to do some proper research.
The moon has a strange silhouette tonight. Almost like a shimmer, a ripple of water. Or a light? I think I see something…
Orianna feels something sink into her temples through her head and to the back of her skull. Trickling down her spine it almost reminds her of the sensations of falling into a vision and yet her eyes see not what could be, but what is right in front of her.
The creature is vast and wild, like an animal, a great predatory beast of the seas. It does not wish to harm her, more that it is curious to Know… about her… about the others… It merely investigates, looking around at who she is, what she is. It feels primal, older than most things. Her curiosity possibly is what protects her as Orianna reaches out to try to understand what it is that has come down from the light of the moon.
Then her vision bleeds into starlight and everything else falls away.
She is small. She is young — in her eighth or ninth year of her life. Her father, Thaneni, was teaching her how to read the heavens, his crystal scales shimmering as he spoke with passion about the birth of the first constellations. She listens, enraptured, wanting to know more.
The scene slides to the side and she is following her cousin and best friend down a recently discovered dark stone hall. Nim carries a torch but the light hurts her eyes.
“We shouldn’t be here. We’ll get in trouble,” she whispers quietly. Somehow she knew if she spoke any louder the dead would come for her.
“Don’t be silly. We won’t get caught,” Nim replies, also keeping her voice low. The talons of her dragonborn feet make small scraping noises every time she steps but she seems to be mastering the art of Quiet Stepping.
Unlike her. She winces as her cloven foot makes another soft clop sound.
“It’s cold down here. What if-”
“Don’t be such a scaredy cat Orianna.” Nim stops and turns around. “Besides, if anything attacks us, I’ve got this.” She pats the sharp kopesh by her side, one clearly meant for a higher level acolyte. “I’ve been practising.”
The scene drips away. She falls back into a hard stone chair with her father, Rimmon, pacing back and forth in front of her. He has his arms behind his back, his purple and onyx accented Archivist robes swirling around him as his midnight blue tail flicks back and forth.
“How could you be so reckless, Orianna? I thought we raised you better than that.” He didn’t shout. He merely sounded disappointed.
“I’m sorry father. It was- Nim and I we just thought-”
“Don’t blame your cousin for your choices. You could have said no to exploring the Spiral, but you didn’t.”
She lowers her head. “Yes father.”
Rimmon stops his pacing and sighs. She feels him come over and kneel in front of her taking her hands in his.
“You are very precious to me, Orianna – to both your father and I. It’s okay to be curious, to want to know more. But you must temper that curiosity with the wisdom to know when such things are dangerous.”
She’s too embarrassed to say anything so she only nods.
“Now tell me… what did you find?”
She slowly looks up and with a sheepish grin she says, “Nim and I found a chamber covered in all kinds of gems.” She turns her little fist over and shows off a fiery topaz gem the size of a small acorn in her palm. “I was looking at this when…”
The question booms across her mind, shattering the memory. She is thrown across her memories to somewhere closer to the present. A quiet street in Daring Heights. A man, dressed in light summer clothes, sleeves rolled up, hair tied back in a loose half pony, eyes warm and earthy brown. It could be any day over the past few weeks after her rescue from the Study. The specific one does not matter, because-
“With him. We could be anywhere at all in the realms, it doesn’t matter. Happiness is wherever he is.”
The man’s face changes, looking sorrowfully at her even as he holds a locket clasped in his right hand. The light of a small, blue star shines from between his fingers as he steps through the archway in their home.
“He made me a promise of eternity.”
The place where these questions come from seems to hesitate, examining her anew. Then-
She didn’t even have to think about the answer.
“A room for a week with the same ten people.”
Her breathing quickens, fighting back a panic at the memories of a room with no doors, an open ceiling with the cold void and a single star above-
That scene is wiped away. She floats now in endless starlight. Or is it bottomless water? The reflection of the stars below appear to be the same as above. But on one side there is a constellation of an axe and on the other, a constellation of a pouch with five gold coins falling into it. She looks back and forth between the two, curious about their meaning. Yet she feels like it may be simpler than that. Perhaps it is just the act of making a choice that’s meaningful rather than the option chosen.
She chooses the pouch.
The moon shines up in the sky.
The light surrounding Orianna and the others ripples around them in waves from the big silver disk in the sky.
A being a pure light, arms spread wide, descending down to them, perceives her and Snowey and Powler and Kreekor and Nakia. Only she and Snowey seems to be looking back. As for the carriage-
Is that… a lightning genasi? Orianna doesn’t know why she thinks this. Then-
One of the doors to the carriage is thrown open. The tiefling throws up her hand casting a spell and-
It is like an old cloak she cannot be rid of.
She was not Seen by any of the Watch for so long. She heard the whispers, understood their side glances well enough to know she was an unknown. And yet when she did finally have her first Vision that feeling never really went away.
It only intensified.
For she had two Callings.
First as an Archivist. Second as a Seer.
So which one is really her? Which path is she meant to be on? What will happen when her fathers find out she’s not in Ashkha but out in the wild world, living with a man who may one day become a being Beyond The Known Realms? Will her people understand her? Will they banish her?
What if they say she has been pretending all this time? Has she been pretending and not knowing it?
What if Gerhard finds out and decides-
Her love, her heart begins to turn away. She knew this day would come. It came too soon though and she was not ready. A single tear falls from her violet eyes as he takes another Step and leaves their home. But he will return. She knows this, feels it, like she feels the silver and blue band on her finger. Because-
“He made me a promise of eternity.”
I don’t know how to explain what happened. One moment we were on the road from Port Ffirst to Daring Heights, travelling under the ever watchful Cosmos above. The next there was this being, a creature of pure elemental force, made of both light and lightning.
And then… Questions. Visions. Memories. And Choices.
We all came out of our respective visions to a sight I will not forget. The tiefling Vasrock reached up and grabbed the light shed by whatever the creature was. The light cascaded towards the ground, crystallising into a long, jagged piece of glass shaped like a spear and then, it was over.
Nakia tried to ask what the elemental was but all we were told was it’s “a stray”. We were assured it’s not dead, but contained. And when the tabaxi asked what they planned to do with it… we got no answer…
The human woman leans out of the carriage, passing Prowler a pouch of money, further proving she wasn’t as blind as she appeared. They had made it to the city and had just passed through the Swamp Gate. Orianna had a million questions but didn’t get a chance to ask any of them. The moment the money was in the tabaxi’s hand, the carriage door closed, Charles spurred the horses into a trot, and they were left in the dust.
“Anyone else feel like maybe they didn’t actually need an escort after seeing her deal with the only strange thing that happened en-route anyway?” Snowey asks.
Orianna nods, holding her Star Cradle close to her chest.
My heart left today to walk the Staircase. I should have known it would come. No. I knew it would come. But I feel less hopeless about it than I would have ever done before. Because of our promise, manifested and held by the ring I wear. It is small and it is perfect. A circle, like life is. Like our life together will be.
Eternal…
After my lessons with Ilthuryn I made my way to Port Ffirst. I thought the state of Daring Heights was bad but this place… It was hit hard. Not as bad as New Hillborrow — another place I should go to at some point, perhaps with Gerhard when he returns so we can visit Marto — but the destruction I saw seems to be healing relatively quickly for the coastal city.
It wasn’t until I was in the port town that I found out the escort request was for after dark. Not an entirely strange request but perhaps so for the people of the Dawnlands? I’m not sure.
I think I will commune with the stars to pass the time…
Magnolia Argenti is the matre di of the Flourished Hook, and our coordinator for this escort job. She was very fond of taking notes on Snowey and mine’s conversation when we met at the appointed time. M. Argenti also seemed rather perturbed at the others who arrived either late or just too on the nose to be considered early. I was fortunate that I was looking at the constellations on this clear night and caught the movement of The Lady of Mystery, else I would have been late myself! I wonder for whom M. Argenti writes her notes…
A black furred tabaxi with the name Prowler, an aarakocran called Kreekor, and another desert denizen (also a tabaxi) named Nakia are my other companions on this evening’s travels. The client’s names we were told are Mrs. and Mrs. Vasrock. I am unsure how legitimate these names are but they will have to be the ones we use if we need to.
Curiously, when Nakia asked if Mrs. and Mrs. Vasrock were good people, M. Argenti stayed pointedly silent…
A human and a tiefling exit out of the Flourished Hook, arm in arm, the tiefling with a cane, the human seemingly blind. But there was something about her movements that made Orianna think she could see just fine, just not with her eyes.
“I think they’ll do,” the human looking woman says.
The tiefling gives a small, derisive scoff.
“She’s one of your kind, darling. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll do.”
Orianna tilted her head, only just realising the two were speaking in infernal, and they were both speaking about her. She looked away, pretending not to notice, though she felt she did a poor job of it. The two climbed into their mahogany, dark stained, extravagant carriage hitched to their two friesian horses and Orianna took that as her cue to summon the spirits of the Natural World to her, for her allies to have mounts of her own…
I kept thinking about what sort of trouble the two mysterious people were expecting and coming up short. There is always so much happening in the Dawnlands. Gerhard’s whole Infinite Staircase ordeal was only one of several incidents that have been ongoing in recent months. What about the necromancer whose work we’ve both come across in the Witching Court? I don’t think Lord Vandree has solved that particular puzzle yet — much to his annoyance probably.
Then there is the matter of the second prophecy Grougalorgaran gave us. I haven’t had the time to pursue any leads for it since my return. I’m hoping, when I catch up on my tasks at the Academy from my time away, I will have time to do some proper research.
The moon has a strange silhouette tonight. Almost like a shimmer, a ripple of water. Or a light? I think I see something…
Orianna feels something sink into her temples through her head and to the back of her skull. Trickling down her spine it almost reminds her of the sensations of falling into a vision and yet her eyes see not what could be, but what is right in front of her.
The creature is vast and wild, like an animal, a great predatory beast of the seas. It does not wish to harm her, more that it is curious to Know… about her… about the others… It merely investigates, looking around at who she is, what she is. It feels primal, older than most things. Her curiosity possibly is what protects her as Orianna reaches out to try to understand what it is that has come down from the light of the moon.
Then her vision bleeds into starlight and everything else falls away.
WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A CHILD?
She is small. She is young — in her eighth or ninth year of her life. Her father, Thaneni, was teaching her how to read the heavens, his crystal scales shimmering as he spoke with passion about the birth of the first constellations. She listens, enraptured, wanting to know more.
The scene slides to the side and she is following her cousin and best friend down a recently discovered dark stone hall. Nim carries a torch but the light hurts her eyes.
“We shouldn’t be here. We’ll get in trouble,” she whispers quietly. Somehow she knew if she spoke any louder the dead would come for her.
“Don’t be silly. We won’t get caught,” Nim replies, also keeping her voice low. The talons of her dragonborn feet make small scraping noises every time she steps but she seems to be mastering the art of Quiet Stepping.
Unlike her. She winces as her cloven foot makes another soft clop sound.
“It’s cold down here. What if-”
“Don’t be such a scaredy cat Orianna.” Nim stops and turns around. “Besides, if anything attacks us, I’ve got this.” She pats the sharp kopesh by her side, one clearly meant for a higher level acolyte. “I’ve been practising.”
The scene drips away. She falls back into a hard stone chair with her father, Rimmon, pacing back and forth in front of her. He has his arms behind his back, his purple and onyx accented Archivist robes swirling around him as his midnight blue tail flicks back and forth.
“How could you be so reckless, Orianna? I thought we raised you better than that.” He didn’t shout. He merely sounded disappointed.
“I’m sorry father. It was- Nim and I we just thought-”
“Don’t blame your cousin for your choices. You could have said no to exploring the Spiral, but you didn’t.”
She lowers her head. “Yes father.”
Rimmon stops his pacing and sighs. She feels him come over and kneel in front of her taking her hands in his.
“You are very precious to me, Orianna – to both your father and I. It’s okay to be curious, to want to know more. But you must temper that curiosity with the wisdom to know when such things are dangerous.”
She’s too embarrassed to say anything so she only nods.
“Now tell me… what did you find?”
She slowly looks up and with a sheepish grin she says, “Nim and I found a chamber covered in all kinds of gems.” She turns her little fist over and shows off a fiery topaz gem the size of a small acorn in her palm. “I was looking at this when…”
WHAT IS YOUR VERSION OF PERFECT HAPPINESS?
The question booms across her mind, shattering the memory. She is thrown across her memories to somewhere closer to the present. A quiet street in Daring Heights. A man, dressed in light summer clothes, sleeves rolled up, hair tied back in a loose half pony, eyes warm and earthy brown. It could be any day over the past few weeks after her rescue from the Study. The specific one does not matter, because-
“With him. We could be anywhere at all in the realms, it doesn’t matter. Happiness is wherever he is.”
The man’s face changes, looking sorrowfully at her even as he holds a locket clasped in his right hand. The light of a small, blue star shines from between his fingers as he steps through the archway in their home.
“He made me a promise of eternity.”
The place where these questions come from seems to hesitate, examining her anew. Then-
WOULD YOU RATHER BE IN A ROOM FOR A WEEK, ENTIRELY ALONE? OR BE IN A ROOM FOR A WEEK WITH THE SAME TEN PEOPLE?
She didn’t even have to think about the answer.
“A room for a week with the same ten people.”
Her breathing quickens, fighting back a panic at the memories of a room with no doors, an open ceiling with the cold void and a single star above-
That scene is wiped away. She floats now in endless starlight. Or is it bottomless water? The reflection of the stars below appear to be the same as above. But on one side there is a constellation of an axe and on the other, a constellation of a pouch with five gold coins falling into it. She looks back and forth between the two, curious about their meaning. Yet she feels like it may be simpler than that. Perhaps it is just the act of making a choice that’s meaningful rather than the option chosen.
She chooses the pouch.
The moon shines up in the sky.
The light surrounding Orianna and the others ripples around them in waves from the big silver disk in the sky.
A being a pure light, arms spread wide, descending down to them, perceives her and Snowey and Powler and Kreekor and Nakia. Only she and Snowey seems to be looking back. As for the carriage-
Is that… a lightning genasi? Orianna doesn’t know why she thinks this. Then-
One of the doors to the carriage is thrown open. The tiefling throws up her hand casting a spell and-
WHAT IS A SECRET YOU DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO FIND OUT?
It is like an old cloak she cannot be rid of.
She was not Seen by any of the Watch for so long. She heard the whispers, understood their side glances well enough to know she was an unknown. And yet when she did finally have her first Vision that feeling never really went away.
It only intensified.
For she had two Callings.
First as an Archivist. Second as a Seer.
So which one is really her? Which path is she meant to be on? What will happen when her fathers find out she’s not in Ashkha but out in the wild world, living with a man who may one day become a being Beyond The Known Realms? Will her people understand her? Will they banish her?
What if they say she has been pretending all this time? Has she been pretending and not knowing it?
What if Gerhard finds out and decides-
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Her love, her heart begins to turn away. She knew this day would come. It came too soon though and she was not ready. A single tear falls from her violet eyes as he takes another Step and leaves their home. But he will return. She knows this, feels it, like she feels the silver and blue band on her finger. Because-
“He made me a promise of eternity.”
I don’t know how to explain what happened. One moment we were on the road from Port Ffirst to Daring Heights, travelling under the ever watchful Cosmos above. The next there was this being, a creature of pure elemental force, made of both light and lightning.
And then… Questions. Visions. Memories. And Choices.
We all came out of our respective visions to a sight I will not forget. The tiefling Vasrock reached up and grabbed the light shed by whatever the creature was. The light cascaded towards the ground, crystallising into a long, jagged piece of glass shaped like a spear and then, it was over.
Nakia tried to ask what the elemental was but all we were told was it’s “a stray”. We were assured it’s not dead, but contained. And when the tabaxi asked what they planned to do with it… we got no answer…
The human woman leans out of the carriage, passing Prowler a pouch of money, further proving she wasn’t as blind as she appeared. They had made it to the city and had just passed through the Swamp Gate. Orianna had a million questions but didn’t get a chance to ask any of them. The moment the money was in the tabaxi’s hand, the carriage door closed, Charles spurred the horses into a trot, and they were left in the dust.
“Anyone else feel like maybe they didn’t actually need an escort after seeing her deal with the only strange thing that happened en-route anyway?” Snowey asks.
Orianna nods, holding her Star Cradle close to her chest.
