The Warlock's Revenge: A Heart of Stone

[Pig Boy]

The Warlock

Hermoine was a bundle of nerves as the Lightning Knights tore into the cottage, after the Warlock left. She demanded answers, however, having wherewithal enough to do so. And knowing she was innocent, "Please, let me go back to see my family! I need to see my daughter, make sure she's alright!"

Vivian found her there, intact for all it seemed, but her back turned from Vivian while she laid curled up in a fetal position on the bed. She appeared fully clothed as she had the day she disappeared, wearing the same outfit. There appeared to be the scent of blood about, but nowhere evident on the bed or near Seriel. She was murmuring words, without much feeling behind them. "You're going to help them, aren't you?" She asked to nobody in particular.

"The pets need feeding, and the floors need sweeping." She sniffled, "They're going to revolt when we get back."

"Seira?" Seriel called for her sister, then her mother, "Mother?"

She still didn't move her body, but remained on her side, in the fetal position, facing away from Vivian.

The knights downstairs made all the commotion as they meticulously dissected the cottage, looking for any and all evidence as to the identity of this 'Warlock'.

Seriel stirred suddenly, moving for the first time, "Mother, is that you? They took something. I don''t know what."

"It's so cold." She shivered once, and then was still. She didn't appear to be breathing deeply, but continued to speak, "Can you fix me some tea? Or..."

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian's knights were very gentle with Hermoine, but they were clear that she couldn't leave yet. They needed to have her checked by a Priest or a doctor, and they had sent word to the Cathedral for a medic as soon as they had positively identified the captives. They also needed to talk to her about what had happened in the cabin. They did tell her that her family had been notified that she had been found and was safe, and that her daughter was also safe and was helping with the relief efforts. Once she was calmed down, they began to take what information they could give while other knights interrogate the servants and guards of the cottage, to see what they could learn about the owner.

Upstairs, Vivian had slowed to a halt when she'd found Seriel, and had at first been relieved. There didn't seem to be any injuries, so perhaps they had stopped whatever had been done to her. But then there was the smell of blood, and something was clearly wrong with Seriel. Vivian listened as she walked to the bed, sheathing her sword and setting down her shield next to it. What had they done to her that not even Seriel knew what had been taken. She sat on the edge of the bed and gently put her shoulder on Seriel's shoulder. "I'm here, Seri. We'll get you some tea in a minute, just let me take a look and see what they took, okay?" she said, her tone calm as she turned her daughter to face her.

[Pig Boy]

The Warlock

Hermoine calmed down soon enough, and began talking slowly, as if to calm herself down. Especially hearing that her miracle daughter, Perdita was fine and even helping in the relief efforts. "She's such a special girl." Hermoine nodded, "He was strange, I'll give you a description if it helps?" So she did, and if the description was relayed to Vivian later, she'd know the description lined up with that strange mage that she'd encountered with Faith and Doran in Westwind Ruins. While that was little enough to go on, given what they'd managed to find out about the man, she had a lead at least. And the servants would soon fill in details, although those were scarce as well. Apparently they were house sitters more than servants, but paid well to watch the space. An inordinate amount, in fact. They were scarce with information ,worried that they might get fingered by this strange villain for mischief or else not paid or compensated for their continued stewardship.

They would need deeper interrogation come what may.

Vivian meanwhile approached Seriel, and put aside her sword and shield. At the first touch of Seriel's shoulder, she'd note that the flesh was cold, and very tense. This alone wouldn't necessarily signal something was very wrong on its own, but if it did, Vivian was soon reassured when Seriel turned toward her, and appeared to be normal. Her eyes looked normal, her face looked normal. But there was something wrong in the way she looked at Vivian.

"You're going to help them, aren't you?" She repeated. "What did theyd do? That's a pretty stone, and now I live in it."

She reached for Vivian's face, and then her hand trailed down her neck. Vivian had good reflexes, but even she would be given only a fraction of a moment to react, as the girl's hand opened, revealing a sharpened bone, sharp as a razor, which she tried to plunge into Vivian's carotid, as her entire being tensed, and a rictus of rage and hatred formed on Seriel's face.

"You're going to help them aren't you!?"

She shouted as she tried to drive the razor into Vivian's neck.

[Vivian Shiryu]

The knights weren't going to push too hard to interrogate the servants for the moment, but they were very firmly told they were detained until further notice. None of the knights particularly believed that they'd been ignorant as to the goings on of the houses master, but they weren't going to do an interrogation on the spot. Their focus right now was on securing the cottage. They did take down Hermoine's description of the man from the cottage, and any other details they could recall.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Vivian had gone cold when she felt how cold Seriel was to the touch. But she looked fine at first, but then she started talking again and there was something...wrong with how she looked at Vivian. And then something flashed in her hand. Vivian was fast, thanks to Three Sheets to the Wind, but Seriel was at point blank range and still got a decent cut on Vivian's neck as she dodged back. Fortunately, Vivian's own mortalborn powers gave her some regeneration while the sun was up and she triggered her Runes by snapping her fingers to bolster them, since several of her runes were regeneration based. She jumped back from Seriel and summoned a Brightgleam Shield as her powers and magic worked to heal her wound.

This was bad, very bad. She'd fought necromancy thralls during the war against Ellasin, was that was this was? Seemed like it, for certain. But was Seriel still in there or was it just the body? "Seri, can you hear me? Is someone else controlling you?" she asked, her tone no longer nearly so calm, though she was keeping her voice controlled. "Or are you just someone that the Warlock put in my daughter's body?" she asked, her tone calm. Whichever was the case, it was still Seriel's body and Seriel had never been particularly strong. She was a musician and a medical student, not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination. Vivian wasn't anticipating any trouble keeping Seriel, or her body at least, from killing her, so she didn't need to fight back with blades or lightning.

"Everyone stay out of this room for the time being, and inform the Cathedral and Stormwatch that we need an expert on Domain Magic, specifically Necromancy." she called down the hallway to her knights. "And send word to Praetorum and Winston that I may not be able to get back right away." she called again. Then she paused, and sent one more command. "Request an additional commander from Stormwatch, one capable of making a ruling on emotional compromise." she said, her voice strained. She had no desire to give up command of this, but she knew full well that she may have to, and she was not in position to make the call.

[Pig Boy]

The Warlock

It was true, Seriel had never been a strong or swift combatant, or any kind of combatant at all. Vivian used her abilities to dodge the worst of the cut, but did receive a superficial one that drew blood from her skin, barely missing the blood vessel beneath.

She was able to handily defend against Seriel, but the undead revenant of her daughter continued to taunt her, while her soul watched in mute horror at what she was forced to do by the necromancer's will. "I hate you! Why did you leave me! Why did you let this happen! Die!"

Vivian's instructions had been shouted out under duress, and the knights could hear the urgency in it. Thus, swiftly perhaps swifter than Vivian might've expected, they produced a Zuuda that had happened to be in the area working with the knights on Shadow Quarter business. It happened to be Carter Frask, and his partner Saul Grunnik that entered the room behind her, closing the door.

Carter Immediately went to work, banishing the spirit and magic animating the undead. Severing its control from the master, while also freeing the soul and destroying its prison. Thus Seriel was freed, and moved to the Beyond. Her soul was too hurt to continue in this life, and thus when judged by Vri, she would accept the journey into the unknown.

Meanwhile, they were left with the well preserved corpse of Vivian's daughter, and Carter took stock quickly. He gave Vivian a meaningful glance, and nodded in sympathy. A rare show of somber sympathy from the usually hard-nosed Zuuda. "I'm sorry Vivian. This... this is beyond horrible. What happened here."

Saul looked at the body of the girl, checking for wounds, and nodding at the cavity in which the prison had laid, and now evaporated. He looked up at Frask, "A revenant. The work of a master, by the looks of it."

"At least it isn't a lich this time." Frask's lips curled in disgust. "Acothley..."

"I've been tracking him for seasons now, since he resurfaced." Frask confided in Vivian. "I know this will be hard, but there is a way we can defeat him in short order. Before he can do more damage."

Saul looked at Frask, astonished. "You don't..."

But Frask continued over his partner's protests. "It means you won't leave this room alive, bled out from the wound of your undead daughter." So saying, Frask materialized a body double, but as he formed it, he disguised it

as Vivian

. It was the spitting image of her, on the floor, even down to the wound. But this one was clearly dead.

"We'll sneak you out in disguise, or in a gurney, however we can, but then we'll devise a disguise so none will recognize you."

"As for your daughter... I propose turning her body into a weapon to turn against the Warlock." Carter looked at Vivian, his eyes searching and always thinking and recalculating with every tic. "We'll have a wisp inhabit her body, I can make her stronger, faster, and more skilled. The Warlock won't know what hit him."

"But I won't do it without your agreement. It does mean you'll have to relinquish your identity until we've dealt with the Warlock." Carter crossed his arms, and waited for a response from Vivian. "I leave the decision in your hands. What do you think is best?"

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian's regeneration powers closed the cut quickly, and she held of Seriel's attack with relative ease. Well, not actually Seriel, as the vileness spewing from the thrall were not things she would ever say. "Right, so the latter then. Hopefully you can't feel this, Seri." she said, before basically body checking the thrall that was left of her daughter to the ground. Vivian was wearing her plate armor and was thus significantly heavier than usual. Since she was already taller and bulkier than her daughter, it wouldn't take much effort from her.

She was still shaking, wound up and something was pushing at the edges of her mind. From within, not without. She pushed it aside, focusing on the situation on hand, restraining whatever was possessing Seriel until backup arrived. Backup in the form of...Carter Frask and another Zuuda, as it turned out. She had known Carter during the War of Death and Souls, but she hadn't interacted with him at all since. He and his companion drove whatever was possessing and Seriel went limp. When that happened, Vivian knelt next to her daughter, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She was wondering now if she could have saved Seriel if she been faster, if she could have done anything to prevent this.

"Is there...is there nothing that can be done for her?" she asked, her tone ragged. She suspected not, or Carter would already have done it already. He said a name though and Vivian looked up at him. "You know who did this?" she asked, her tone regaining its focus. That something pushing at her mind was getting harder to ignore and Vivian pushed herself to her feet. She needed to move, do something, but she forced herself to focus. It was harder than it ever had been before. She wanted to find this Acothley, drive her sword into his heart stomach and watch him die slow, to break the laws of reality and bring her daughter back to life, to curl up on the floor and just cry. She couldn't do any of it right now, so she focused on Carter.

He had a plan, and went over it, creating a body double of her as he spoke. Part of her liked it, liked that it would let her go after him directly, but as he talked, her neck started to itch. Drying blood, her blood from the cut. She reached up and pulled it away from her skin, wiping away the remainder before it could cool into more metal. That was what was wrong, she realized, looking at the small piece of metal in her hand. "It won't work. Even if anyone initially believed that Seri's body had been able to land a mortal blow on me, which is unlikely given I'm known to both move and react very quickly thanks to Palenon, I'm also known to have quite a few regenerative or healing abilities, both Mortalborn, Magic, and Spirit granted. No one who really looked at the events would believe this worked. I don't believe for a second that this was intended to kill me, he wanted to hurt me." she said, her tone dropping to a low growl.

Then she held up the shard of metal that had once been her blood. "Then there's this. Even if anyone did believe that, a cursory examination of the body will out that it isn't me. My blood is literally a liquid metal, and it hardens into a solid metal called blood-steel when it cools. If I died, my body would turn into a small ore deposit in fairly short order, and there's no faking that." she said, before shaking her head. "Plus, we'd have to tell too many people the truth to be able to keep it from getting out, and the behavior of some of the people we did tell would give it away anyway. Specifically, my two siblings. Vega's one of the bravest, most proactive people on Idalos, and very bad at stealth. If she's not here in less than a day after my death carving a bloody swath through Rharne's criminal element, it'll clue people off that I'm not dead. Even worse is Varlum, who's by default a twelve foot tall fire breathing Ithecal made of stone, and he can make himself bigger. He'll already be in a very bad place from Faith's death on top of that. Seriel's death will already hurt them both, mine could well turn Varlum feral. Not to mention my other daughter." she said, her voice wavering.

Her head was starting to ache and she went to put a hand to it, but stopped when she saw that her hand was flickering. Overlays were appearing over it and vanished, each one a different person. The kind of overlay that appeared when she used her Remnant powers to channel the Ithecal Ras. She was relatively certain her Domains had been altered by her forging in Gilgarod, and that her Remnants Domain had been tied to the heroes and villains that had passed through the Forgeheart. How many heroes and villains had the murder of a child as part of their motivations? Entirely too many, and now it was like they were all fighting around the edges of her mind to be the one she'd channel.

She shook her head and tried to push them all out, turning back to Carter. "My powers are trying to...manifest." she said, by way of explanation. "Anyway, my family tearing through Rharne on a vengeance driven quest is something to be avoided. Plus I've also been put in charge of negotiating with an Induk that may well be capable of levelling a small town, and I'm pretty certain my ability to take most things in a fight is a big part of those negotiations, given Clemengoth's nature." she said, still trying to focus. "So no, pretending I'm dead is more likely to cause problems if it works, and not likely to work on who you want it to work on in the first place." she said, her hands shaking both from the grief and the powers she was trying to push aside so she could focus. "If you know for sure who did this, though, give me his full name and we'll be able to go right to him." she said, her tone a low growl as she recalled Praetorium's paper.

[Pig Boy]

The Warlock

Carter listened to Vivian's reasons why his plan couldn't work, as presented. And he had to agree, there were too many wrinkles, and beyond that the Warlock's motivations, which may not have been to cause the death of Vivian, however close he'd gotten to driving a knife through her artery. Still, he wasn't willing to relinquish every aspect of the plan. Staging an escape of the Revenant that lived within her daughter might be just what was coming to the Warlock. And Carter was loathe to relinquish any advantage in his pursuit of the Warlock.

"I still think that putting a wisp in the body of your daughter would be an effective ruse and weapon against the Warlock. She could've escaped during the attack, regardless of her programming, revenants don't always act as intended when the necromancer has moved beyond their scope."

"But his name, is Tobias Acothley. " Carter frowned, "I'm sorry, I know how painful it is to lose someone. Unknown to me, he was my wife's father. Before she died."

"And he's been a thorn in my side forever since then." Frask looked to his partner Zuuda, and shook his head, "But that's neither here nor there. I'm not come to compare my pain to yours."

"Have you met someone by his description before? He must know you to hold any such grudge to do this..." He gestured toward the corpse of Seriel. "He would not act in this way toward a random bystander, at least, not the Tobias I know."

When Vivian recalled her prior run in with a man by the name, Carter frowned even deeper. "He was trying to bring back my wife. But she is beyond his grasp. Such hubris, to think he could rend the fabric of Emea itself to follow where she'd gone. I'd send him to his death, so that he could be reunited, were I not sure he'd be condemned to Colegut or somewhere equally unpleasantly suited to my wife's destined end."

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian had watched Carter process the information she had given him, still pacing agitatedly as her Remnants Domain roiled within. She had a feeling it would calm if she let it manifest, but the way those powers manifested changed her, and right now she needed to be herself. She forced it down again, as well as the urge to smack Carter upside the head when he suggested using her daughter's corpse as a trap again. She knew how hard it was to let go of an idea, and he wasn't trying to be hurtful, just practical and intelligent. She did, however, now have a much better understanding of why Famula had chosen Faith to lead the Zuuda over Carter. He wouldn't have been able to keep all those separate factions following his lead if that was the way he thought.

When he gave the Warlock's name and mentioned his daughter, however, Vivian frowned and came to a halt. There had been a graveyard with a Frask recently, hadn't there? She thought it over a moment and then whirled to face Carter. "Grenadine? Was that your wife?" she asked, before shaking her head. "I have met him once before, at Westwind Ruins. He was trying to, I think, revive his daughter, even said he'd managed to call back her soul. He was...keeping her in a well, if memory serves. Faith, Professor Doran Thetys, and I ran into him and we may have interrupted the process." she said, before relaying the story to Carter in detail. "I would hardly think that a disagreement about whether or not soldiers were innocent would provoke such a reaction. I would guess, then, that he's angry because we interrupted his plans and I'm his best target at the moment." she said, her voice shaking in anger as she started to flicker again.

This lunatic had lost his own daughter then gone after hers in order to punish her. There would need to be a reckoning for that, and a hundred different ideas from as many different voices flooded her mind, pulling her to pick one, to let the one that gave it give her power. Growling, Vivian shook herself and concentrated on pushing them all back down. She needed someone she trusted fully to help keep her grounded now, or she would do something stupid because she couldn't concentrate on the here and now. Carter was an ally, but not one that knew her or vice versa. Most of her other allies were scattered and she couldn't call on them easily. After a moment, her eyes focused on the bloodsteel she was still holding, and she remembered the powers of her Bloodline. "I'm calling in some more help. Give me a second." she said, before she used the House Call power to ask for Vega's help.

"Once I get answer, we'll go after Nicol. I have a paper that will find anyone, so long as their name is written on it. We'll use that to take us straight to Nicol." she said, her voice regaining some focus. Then she knelt next to Seri's body and put a hand on her hair. "As to your suggestion about the Wisp. There's logic to it, I don't deny that. But would you have been able to handle seeing Grenadine's body used in such a fashion?
she asked, her voice losing some of it's anger to sorrow as she spoke. If Vega answered and was able to come through, Vivian would explain the situation to her sister, then go and retrieve the paper that Praetorium had given her.

Off Topic

House Call: House Call: Once a cycle the members of House Shiryu can call the other Steelblooded to their side. Each member of the house can use this power once a cycle, and the called can refuse to answer, though they'll need to provide an explanation at the next family reunion.

[Vega]

Enter the redhead.....

All things considered, Vega wasn't expecting to see Vivian to-trial.

She felt the call and she answered. Of course she answered.

"Vivian needs me. I'll be right back,"

she said to Arlo and smiled slightly, then she disappeared from where she was in Sweetsong and then, she wasn't in Sweetsong, then she was in a room with Viv and a man and ...

"Tiddle?"

Vega looked at the situation in the room, at the lifeless body of her niece and then Vivian spoke. It was all that Vega could do to listen, but listen she did. Cold horror at the sights and sounds she was faced with caused her body to react in a physical way. She was shaking from head to foot as Vivian spoke and she explained things to Vega. Tiddles was dead? Rharne was on fire and this was the work of a necromancer? There was so much to take in and Vega was the first person to admit that she was not book-learning smart. There was a necromancer and it was a necromancer known to both Vivian AND this Carter fellow.

Carter. Vega looked at him and she considered what Vivian had said. She nodded to her sister.

"I understand. Go get the thingie from Prae,"

Vega said, because Vivian needed to do that. She waited until Vivian was out of the room and then she turned to Carter. Her eyes were swirling in a vast array of colours and they moved fast.

"I don't know you,"

she said - stating the obvious of course.

"An' you don't know me. But I get it. You're a Champion of Famula an' this guy is dealin' some kind of somethin' with you an' yours. He's hurt you. Hurt you in a way that really shouldn't be allowed, an' isn't fair."

Vega was - unashamedly and obnoxiously - who she was and never was that more true than right now.

"An' that's how it is, an' I'm sorry an' I will help you find this guy any way I can an' as long as you need me to. But it makes you blind too an' you're focused on what's goin' on with you. But you're a Champion of Famula. Of souls. You're suggestin' that you can put a Wisp into Tiddle's body."

Her voice was brusque, harsh, shaking and full of emotion.

"Tiddle. My niece. She's lived through so much an' ...."

her voice broke, but she cleared her throat and continued.

"An' as a Champion of Famula you can put her back in there too?"

Sparks flew from Vega, indications of just how emotional she was. Of course, her swirling eyes and shaking hands spoke the same message.

"An' you haven't, an' I get that this is somethin' personal to you but in every way that matters that's a child in there. She's jus' at the beginnin' an' you can bring her back. Or your patron Immortal can, an' if you can't but Famula can, then let me talk to her an' I'll beg her. Because that little girl has a twin an' a mother who adopted her an' loves her completely an' I'm her aunt an' I got court marshalled for punchin' a dweeb who was hurtin' her."

She was running at the mouth, she knew, but it was truth. It was more or less the only thing she could do to stop herself from thumping him into next Ashan.

"So please, stop focusin' on this person who VIvian will find an' who has hurt people, an' focus on puttin' this right. Bring her back, put her soul back into her body an' if you can't, then let me talk to your boss an' ask her,"

Vega would speak to Famula - she'd make whatever deal or offer or whatever she needed to. And come to that?

"An' if Famula can't do anythin', then I'm goin' to need to talk to Vri as the Immortal of Death, or ask Daia for the greatest gift. Or... somethin'. Anythin' . Because this isn't right an' I'm not havin' it."

. Vega was clear and she wasn't backing down.

Because she couldn't.

"I have to believe there's hope. By Xiur an' Daia an' Qylios an' every single Immortal, there is hope an' you're goin' to help me."

[Pig Boy]

Reborn

"Yes, Grenadine." Carter replied to Vivian, "She was laid to rest in Westwind, long ago."

"He is would have tried to right his wrongs," Carter said, grinding his teeth as he thought of the Warlock. "An idealist turned to a blackened-heart can do many terrible things in the name of their cause. It's what makes him so dangerous. He feels he's in the right, and will stop at nothing, and believes in himself and his cause."

"At least with Ellasin, she held few illusions as to the consequences of her actions. She knew she was after power." Carter continued, "Tobias wants a better world, and would stop at nothing, even enslaving every living soul to make it happen."

"You saw the visions he opened up in the sky, as he was beginning his ritual in Westwind?" Carter looked at Vivian, "That was a technique he perfected, a sort of false illusion born of his rupturing portal. He can show you parts of Emea that reflect back on your deepest desires. Whether that place actually exists in Emea or is some contrivance of his magic is not for mine to know."

Carter looked skeptically at the paper, "I doubt the paper could follow wherever he has gone. You don't seem to understand. If a visitant mage doesn't wish to be found, he won't. It's the only reason I suggested we use your daughter's body as a decoy."

Carter shrugged off the suggestion of using Grenadine's body. "Without a soul, a body is just a piece of meat." He shook his head, "Only the soul is truly important... I..."

Just then, Vega arrived, having answered Vivian's summons. Having conjured her sister, Vega listened to the facts as listed out by Vivian, and Carter tried how he might to bring her up to date on everything, including the incident at Westwind.

But then it was her turn to give him a lecture, and Carter took it with stoic discipline, stone-faced and unmoved. "I understand she was important to you. I cannot help her, her soul was removed before I could even use the power, thus it wouldn't work... Perhaps... Famula?"

He frowned at Vega, and shook his head, "Very well. I will call to her, and pray, but you will owe us a service, surely as Seriel's soul has fled."

This said, Carter knelt before the bed on which Seriel was laid, and prayed over her body, calling out to Famula through the expanse of Emea and toward the very heart of Zuudaria.

The room darkened visibly, and then Seriel's body began to move, and stir. Her eyes opened, red as rubies, and she whispered, "Mother, where are you?"

Famula entered from the shadows behind them all, and bearing a red lantern. "She got a little lost on the way to Empyrean Gateway. It often is thus with a soul so abused and disrupted by necromancy..." Famula informed those present. "But I have found the soul, and I can put it back in her. She will not be the same. She won't be able to return to her sister, or to you Vivian to live for quite some time."

"I will take her on as one of my handmaidens, to care for and treat her soul until it's reborn anew."

"Mother?" Seriel got up from the bed, and her blood-red eyes stared at both Vega and Vivian. "Aunt Vega? What's happened? And who..."

Famula spoke to Seriel gently, "You have suffered torments that have been swept from your mind temporarily. In time you will have to grapple with them, but for now, be at peace and know that we will help you."

"I don't know what's going on?" Seriel said, and looked to Vivian.