2017-07-14: Trials and Crucibles

• Log: 2017-07-14 Trials and Crucibles
• Cast: Sorey, Talise Gianfair, Alisha Diphda, Seraph Edna, Rose
• Where: Lacour - Market District
• Date: 2017-07-14
• Summary: Talise shows the Shepherd and his friends the Iris Gem left behind by the Trial Knight, K.K., and plans for the future are made.

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==========================<* Lacour - Market District *>==========================

The Lacour Market District does not rival that of the major commercial powers of Filgaia in terms of volume or value of trade, but it the class of the world in traditional weapons and protective gear. More than a hundred individual shops line the streets of the district, each bearing its own name, specialties, and branding. Almost any kind of weapon or armour can be found in Lacour, and odds are good that anything innovative will be found here first...or make its way here in short order.

The merchants of the Market District are proud and competitive, and walking down the streets is an exercise in patience, as they bombard passersby with litanies in praise of their work and curses for the rust-ridden works of their neighbours. At no time is this competition more fierce than during the Lacour Tournament of Arms; this annual exhibition to name the World's Greatest Fighter includes considerable prestige for the merchants sponsoring their entries, and talented fighters will find their services heavily sought-after.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bqMqHag86c

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

So the tournament has been exciting enough - Sorey has been there to cheer Alisha on, although he felt that it wasn't wise to join himself. Mainly because he didn't really feel that there was a strong need to do so, nor did he feel comfortable with the prospect of very large bets being placed on him by certain members of the party.

As a result, he had looked at Rose with a certain amount of disapproval when she had tried to sneak him onto the signups regardless.

But there was one interesting bit of news that had come to his attention - the mention that there was a sphere of some sort that had been acquired by Talise in Lahan, and that it contained some sort of mysterious images that they might be able to make use of. Which was interesting enough that Sorey was willing to take a look, at the very least. Alisha and Rose of course had been invited - and the Seraphim as well, of course. Although they generally came along no matter what happened with Sorey, unless they had pressing business elsewhere.

As to where they were going, well... Sorey had taken the liberty of finding a private room at an inn where they could view these strange images. He wasn't sure if they would appear in the orb, or be projected all over the room or something similar, so privacy was... well, a good idea?

But with the group having set up, all that they needed to do now was wait for Talise to arrive, and then they could see just what mysteries this Mysterious Orb would reveal to them.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Last week around this time, Talise Gianfair had revealed a thing to the Princess of Hyland.

One thing had led to another. It's why Talise is crossing the market square en route to the quarters of the Shepherd and his retinue, carrying a pack over one shoulder in place of her sword, her hands gloved in brown leather in lieu of her usual world-lifting gauntlets. She's put on a hat to hide her hair and shadow her face, but as she slips past the front desk of the inn she slips the hat off, moving down the hall and checking room numbers, privately grateful that the Shepherd had thought to swing for a private location for this little get-together.

Soon enough, she's found the room number she's looking for. Shifting her pack over her shoulder, the pirate-turned-bard - still rocking the blonde, unsuspiciously just like Lady Chloe the tournament fighter - reaches out to rap on the door a couple of times. "Sorey?" she calls through the panel. "It's Tal. I'm comin' in."

True to her word, she pushes the door open and peers into the room, as though to gauge whether Alisha had sent word to Sorey alone - or if he'd brought others to view the curiosity she'd picked up from the Trial Knight on that horrifying day in the ruins of Lahan. It seemed like so long ago, but the secret had remained closely guarded among her traveling companions since then.

Until now, at least, when experts were to be consulted.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

Alisha has been quite busy in the tournament... until she wasn't so busy at all, having advanced in the winner's bracket and getting a rest. (Except for one particularly absurd outing.)

Which is why the princess is here. That, of course, and that she knows what is coming -- even if she doesn't know a thing about what she saw. The princess of Hyland stands up when Talise, still with bleached blonde hair, enters. She raises a hand in greeting and wvaes once at her.

"Talise," she says, with a smile. "Thank you for coming."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Certain members of the party that would have placed large bets on him, totally not in collusion with Rose, were currently dwelling inside the Shepherd. It wa a crying shame that she couldn't do the party a favor and bet ridiculous amounts of money on his assured victory, but well. It makes sense. Shepherd drawing a ton of attention to himself by fighting in a clash of steel and egos, doesn't sound like the brightest idea. And so, she sat back to cheer Alisha on. Who was doing surprisingly well actually. Hm.

...Hm.

But that's that, and this is this.

For now, Edna remains inside, seeing no real, pressing need to manifest herself. She can watch from Sorey. Not to mention she's still feeling extra lazy from that beating she got in that side match in the tournament. No thank you. Not doing that again. Nope. Nuh uh.

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

Look, Sorey, you need money to travel.

Travelling isn't free you know! All those healing items? All that food Edna has to eat? Well, let's say the money Rose has earned betting on Alisha so far is going to cover a lot of that. And since it's money she earned off the princess' back, she had insisted pretty hard that Sorey and Alisha take at least some of it. You know, half to two thirds. Their share. It beats relying on odd jobs to afford an inn room, right?

So where is Rose?

"YES, YOU ARE COMING TO BE SOCIAL TODAY, MISTER," her voice rings out, screaming. When she appears, she is... not alone! No, there's that tall, mysterious Wind Seraph with her, grunting and almost flailing as he is... being dragged by the ear.

"OI, SERAPH EARS WORK LIKE REAL EARS, QUIT TUGGING!"

Look, Sorey, she tamed her fear! With violence.

Go tell her violence isn't the answer after that.

"Heeeey guys! Princess, mister Shepherd!" She can neither see nor hear Edna so she assumes Sorey didn't bring his ghostly friends after all. A safe assumption that won't cause problems later.

"I hope we're not late?"

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey opens the door for Talise and nods politely as she walks into the room. He's not been told a lot - probably so he can judge for himself what they are going to see from the memory sphere.

Really there's not a lot of proving himself Sorey wants to do - the tournament has been interesting to watch, but he doesn't feel like there is something he needs to prove to other people, and his power isn't really meant for overcoming other people. It's there to help save people from the corruption of Malevolence.

But he chuckles when Rose wanders into the room, dragging Dezel along behind her. Sorey grins for a moment at the rather direct method that Rose is using to bring along her companion. "Well, it does seem like you two are getting along a bit better," he comments mildly, a grin on his face. "Just make sure that you don't take his ear off, Rose."

Sorey isn't sure that Talise can see the Seraphim or not, but he just assumes that she can because... well, people usually indicate if they can't from the weird expressions that pop up when Sorey, Rose, and Alisha talk to people who aren't there.

But Sorey glances at Edna, and raises an eyebrow as if to say 'Anything you want to contribute?' She tends to be a bit taciturn, but Edna's also been around for a long time and she might be able to contribute something to the history that they are going to see.

"So, Alisha told me you had something interesting that you wanted to show us," Sorey comments to Talise. "I admit that I am curious, and so are my friends." He looks at the ongoing chaos brought on by a bunch of Seraphim and people in one place.

...he must be used to this by now.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise wasn't busy with the tournament because... well, she's not in it. Her plans are limited to an exhibition bout with her traveling companions but fate has yet to bring such an adventure to fruition.

She smiles warmly back at the familiar princess, though. "Hi Alisha. Thanks for passing on the message. I really appreciate it." Not that she'd had reason to think Alisha would do otherwise. Whatever the woman's opinions on Lucia, Alisha was good people in Talise's mind.

Then she turns to acknowledge Sorey with a polite nod. Quickly, she glances from side to side, eyebrows rising slightly as she realizes there aren't any readily apparent Seraphim lurking in the room - or if there are, they're being too discreet for her (admittedly weak) resonance to pick up. It's pushed aside with a shrug as she eases the door closed behind her.

Or she tries to. At least, until Rose arrives, dragging one of the Seraphim. Talise blinks once, then two more times.

Then she laughs easily, waving a hand in the air. "You two look like you're getting along nice, huh? Hi Rose. Hi Rose's Seraph pal."

As far as she can tell, there's no Edna here - at least, if she's inside Sorey, Talise can't see her. All she can see is the young Shepherd. Turning back to him, she clears her throat. "Yeah. You were there for the attack on Lahan. I don't know if you saw K.K. drop something," she says as she shrugs her pack off her shoulder. "But I was able to pick it up. I don't have a ton of experience with things Hellions carry, but Alisha tells me it might be something. An Earthen Historia, she called it."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna has nothing to contribute. Though Rose's arrival with Dezel earns Sorey a mild chuckle from within himself. Once the Earthen Historia is mentioned, she finally sees fit to manifest. There's a golden shimmer as she flutters out of the Shepherd's chest as a mote of golden light. Then it expands outwards, golden particles becoming the... short figure of the Earth Seraph. Being that they're inside, she keeps her umbrella closed as she stands next to Sorey. Alisha, Rose, Dezel, they all get blank looks, and perhaps a faint nod. Then it's back to the subject at hand.

"Earthen Historia, huh?" She muses, a hand coming up to her chin. "They're orbs that contain the memories of the world. Lunar, I'd assume." She shakes her head. "I have no idea if this sad dustbowl of a planet produces Earthen Historia, but there you go." And that knight was carrying this... Interesting.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Rose! And... Dezel," Alisha says, with a smile -- and a glance -- at the Wind Seraph. Then, she looks to Edna and nods when she appears in that burst of light. "Yes," she says. "I had heard about them, but until Talise showed me... I had never seen one before. But, as to what it shows..."

She frowns, then shakes her head. "I couldn't make sense of it. It is an exciting find, though--ah, except for the image itself. But... to think we could see the memories of an entire world."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Well he'd better start cooperating and making himself useful if he wants to keep his ear! Our caravans aren't beds, the least he could do is help move crates instead of resting all day!" Rose comments, actually quite cheerful, as she releases Dezel's ear.

"Hmph." is all he has to say as he crosses his arms and turns his head.

"Hey Talise! Dezel, say hi."

"Yo." he half-heartedly says, keeping his head turned. What with his hair and hat covered his eyes one might assume he's staring off into space or something.

At the mention of loot recovered from the Trial Knight, Rose's eyes light up. "Oh! I remember that! ... then I got distracted by Alisha being run through, ahaha..." Not that it's funny or anything. "Earthen Historia? Why do I feel like I've heard that name before..?" She rattles her brain, trying to recall. Dezel chips in.

"Mayvin. You heard about them from him."

Rose huffs. "Well THANK YOU mister I've been stalking you YOUR WHOLE LIFE!" Evidently she's not comfortable with that yet.

Then Edna appears.

Rose actually stumbles back and almost hits the ground as she, for a moment, panics. Sorry Edna, she's not used to THAT yet either. "H-Hey! Don't just... don't just show up like that! How would YOU like it if I just appeared out of nowhere?" She calms down pretty quickly, thankfully. "Huh? Oh... that's what they are. Well, this K.K. guy is from Lunar, so it checks out. Don't know why he'd be carrying that though, I didn't take him for a collector."

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"I've heard of them from my old Master," Sorey replies to Talise, referring to the man who had trained him in his swordsmanship. "They tend to contain memories of past events, although unless you can identify the location and people within it can be difficult to draw the right context from them. He and Gramps were rather unimpressed by them as record keeping tools, although I was told that they tend to be created around important events - the Trial Knight must have brought it from Lunar, so they might have more of them somewhere." It would be interesting to see just what was contained on this one.

He looks at Edna for a moment, and grins. "That actually hadn't occurred to me, Edna. I wonder if this world produces Earthen Historia. Or if it does, if they're someplace that can be accessed by regular people or if only Seraphim can find them." It was possible that there were those sorts of commonalities - but without the Seraphim lurking around, no one had noticed them before.

And then Rose reacts rather... strongly to Edna's appearance. "...to be fair Rose, how are they supposed to appear? I have the feeling if Edna rose from the ground, Lailah appeared in a burst of flame, or Mikleo as a block of ice that shattered into pieces and he was standing there, that you would probably be even more freaked out." He nods sagely, although he is of course away of the futility of trying to bring logic into the question when Rose is dealing with her phobias.

But that conversation finished, Sorey turns back to Talise. "If you don't mind, I'd like to see it," he asks, holding out one hand. Like the history nerd that he is, Sorey has a burning desire to find out just what is hidden in the sphere, and maybe be able to learn something new about his home.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise has seen Seraphim a couple of times before but she has never seen one come out of Sorey's chest. She sucks in a quick breath as Emma emerges. Her resonance may not be great, but she can at least see a hazy shape of a girl-phantom with parasol in hand. She quickly covers the surprise with a wry, slightly abashed smile, scratching at her head. "Honestly... I don't know much about that sort of thing. But like Rose said, the Knight's Lunarian, too, so I'd assume KK brought it with him. Or her."

She cants her head, looking back to Rose with a warm smile. "Hi Rose and Dezel. Sorry if I've lost track of who all the Seraphs are. There aren't a ton of them in Meribus that I knew about."

Not that Seraphim would've had reason to roll with her. She's a lowly pirate who became an even more lowly bard who became an even more lowly shiftless vagabond in a world where all her loves were declared a sin. She's no Seraph, and certainly no Dragonmaster.

But she's a pretty decent treasure hunter, at least, and she begins to open her pack even as she listens to Sorey explain. "Yeah. Our group didn't have any luck identifying people or places, but the only Lunarians we've got are myself, Sephilia and Captain Manydays, and none of us are from Glenwood or have much direct experience with Hellions or their history. Aside from what we've experienced here, that is." She nods towards Alisha. "Which is why I reached out to Alisha, and now to you, Sorey. You probably know more about Hellions than anyone else I can think of."

As she speaks, she reaches into the backpack. Carefully, she withdraws a wrapped bundle of heavy burlap cloth. "Careful before touching it with a bare hand," she cautions. "The minute you do, you'll get the entire memory hitting you." And she holds the bundle out, pulling back the cloth just enough to give Sorey and the others a look at what lies beneath.

An orb, glowing with a steady aura of green.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"If this world has Earthen Historia, then I'd like to know one important thing." Pause. "... Why is there no mabo curry?"

Ladies and gentlemen; Seraph Edna.

Her gaze falls on Rose next. "....... ......." And faintly, a smirk forms on her face. "Next time, I'll burst up from the ground behind you." She'll do it too. This is Edna we're talking about here. But that's also left by the wayside as she listens to Alisha. "Hm. Can't make sense of the memory, huh?" She tilts her head a tad, looking at the orb produced, then at Talise. A moment passes, and then she shrugs.

"Oh well. Only one way to find out. Let's see what this thing holds."

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"The Seraphim tend to remain hidden, Talise," Alisha explains. "I had never seen one -- or had proof they were real -- until I met Sorey." She knew they were real, but... that was a matter of faith for her, not a matter of truth. Alisha couldn't see it until she had the means to do so. She looks at Rose and Dezel, then.

Her brow furrows. Something about that, about how Dezel had stayed with Rose for her entire life, bothers her. She doesn't have the words to put to it yet. And, besides...

Sorey asked to see it. She looks at the Shepherd, and then she nods once. She takes a step to the side to clear the way for the Shepherd -- and the others, if they want -- to touch the Sphere if they like. Her eyes fall on it.

But she doesn't plan to touch it again. She remembers well what it could do. "Do be cautious, Edna. It's... a surprise, when it happens."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Through a door like normal people, Sorey!" Rose insists. "Or they could just... not go invisible at all, sheesh!" Edna taunts. Rose despairs. "P-Please don't do that - hold on! Sorey... are there more of them inside you right now? ... no, wait, important question! IMPORTANT QUESTION!"

Rose turns to Edna, suddenly curious. "What's it like inside Sorey? Are there like... couches? ... no, wait, it's Sorey so... I bet it's nothing but bookshelves. Like some kind of library!"

Dezel brings a hand to his face.

As Talise reveals the prize, Rose turns away from Edna and oohs, knowing better than touching the shiny thing this time. "So, do have to hold hands for it to work on everyone, then? Or just all touch it together?"

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Why does Sorey give Edna these ideas?

It's entirely possible that they get along better than people expect, and Sorey's nice guy persona has a bit of a mischievous side to him. Still, he is looking forward to Edna's next appearance to Rose. Just to see if she's true to her word or not. And then Rose starts... asking weird questions?

"...is that... really appropriate, Rose?" he asks after a moment, although he expects that its more like...

...truth be told Sorey has no idea what it's like, although he sort of assumes that his Seraphim become one with him in a sense, and they're basically sharing his senses. It's not like there's an actual room inside his head or anything...

...is it?

But as Talise offers the globe, Sorey reaches out and sets one hand on it. "Rose, I'd appreciate it if you and Dezel took a look as well - if the images are unusual, it might be something that one of you two might be able to identify." Rose had mentioned a mysterious storyteller previously - he might have said something that she could recognize.

He does look at Alisha, confirming that she doesn't want to have another peek. After all, who knows what she might see on a second viewing?

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"We can see the memory. We just don't quite know the significance," Talise admits with a rueful smile towards the parasol-toting blur representing her best effort at parsing the existence of Seraph Edna. "We have a couple of theories but I have no basis for knowing if they hold water."

As Alisha explains a little more about Seraphim, Talise lowers her head a couple of inches and smiles lopsidedly. "I'd only heard about the Seraphim in stories. But we don't always get the same stories Glendale storytellers get. I have some Hellion and Seraph stories but not a lot, and they're not necessarily... meant to be super specific factual guides or anything."

She shifts her grip on the globe and peers down into it. Before she can say anything else, Rose chimes in.

The tall swordswoman blinks curiously. "I... I wouldn't have thought about holding hands. We all just touched it at once," she admits.

Talise, for her part, has seen the memories enough times that recalling them again seems to be awfully extraneous. Instead she pulls the rags wrapping the sphere back a little further to allow more of that uninterrupted green glow to radiate through the burlap. "Alright. Hopefully it's something," she says, eyes on Sorey as he reaches for the sphere. The Shepherd lays his hand on the glowing globe; others express their intent to.

...When it is touched, images flood their minds, like reliving someone else's memories...

He walks the country side. Alone. Forgotten. Discarded like so many others. But he is not like the others. No -- he is different.

He is forgotten, but not lost. He finds purpose in hunting others. Creatures. Monsters. Hellions. He scours the countryside, his clawed footfalls thundering across the earth as he follows the whispering trails of purple impurity that sing their sad, forgotten songs to him. He finds them in the form of twisted predators and even more twisted livestock. He finds them in the form of men turned into a state between human and wolf, in men warped towards ravenous trolls and greedy goblins. Even in the dead, their spirits twining with familiar loneliness along his sharp, violet claws.

And each and every one of them, he introduces to the pit.

Werewolves, orcs, slavering apes, gelatinous monstrosities and so many more all struggle and slaughter each other within a massive, stone pit, bedecked by towering statues of dragons lording above them like kings. They kill and eat each other without relent, all while he watches above. Hints of features can be seen within the haze of memories: a face more lion then man curled into an ugly sneer, golden, leonine mane wreathing his scornful contempt, there is nothing within his terrible features but a tired, weary disdain. Emptiness.

But he continues to watch the carnage unfold beneath him. And when the last of those twisted beasts are devoured, when the lone survivor emerges, looking larger and more monstrous and empowered by the impurity of a pitfull of Hellions slain to nourish it, those empty, sinister lips twist towards an uglier smile.

Because he knows he has truly found purpose.

... and the memory ends...

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna smiles ever so mysteriously, and doesn't answer Rose's plea not to do what she says she'll do next time. Or does she answer her question regarding what it's like inside Sorey.

Seraphim secret.

Totally.

Besides, there are more important matters to attend to. Like this memory building up before them. She reaches out and touches a finger to the surface, watching as the memory appears before her.

The memories of a man. Forgotten, wandering the countryside. He wanders, and he hunts. He hunts the hellions, and follows the malevolence, casting them all into the pit. The man, with the face of a lion more than any man she can recall, with a golden mane, and a void of emptiness within him...

The memory ends once the monsters have all slain each other, and Edna blinks.

"..... ......" She frowns and brings a hand to her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully as she steps back. "I... have no idea who that was. I think." Her icy blue gaze remains squarely on the orb. "I have ideas, but I've got exactly zero proof. Not worth saying in the least."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Is it? I don't know any social conventions about talking about stuff like... people's weird... inner dimension place things." Maybe it IS inappropriate! Rose has no idea. Dezel is just glad Rose still doesn't know he can go inside her. Things are touchy enough as it were. Don't think he can't see that glare of yours, princess!

Things quickly refocus onto Talise and her offering. Rose nods to Sorey, and Dezel finally stops facepalming long enough to reach forward alongside everyone. There's a silent agreement from him, even though he's not expecting to recognize anything about the history of mysterious knight he's never met and has barely heard of in anything but hushed whispers.

And so they touch the orb!

Rose and Dezel watch as they see the story of... someone neither of them recognizes. Dezel, more than Rose, sees hints of what he'd call a Lord of Calamity, or at least someone he'd be led to call that if that was all the data they had. Rose, for her own part, is mostly in over her head. She hadn't seen Hellions yet. Now she's seen more than she ever wanted to.

The story ends. Rose whimpers, seemingly terrified. "Sorey, were those... is that what you've been fighting, all this time? Is that what I couldn't see, when Port Timney got... you know...?" There was a horde then. They looked normal to her. People, animals. Insane, but normal.

Dezel breaks the mood by saying: "That looked like a Crucible. Hellions gather and fight to the death in them. Whichever one comes out on top is stronger for it. It's called Venomization." Short, to the point. He briefly adds: "That's all I know. No one knows who built them, why, or when."

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

The image itself is extremely strange - Sorey has no real frame of reference for it, although he can see that it has to do with some unnatural force - something related to darkness. Are they Hellions? It seems likely, but it is impossible to say. And on that same note, it is impossible to tell when this particular event occurred. That was part of the problem with Earthen Historia - while several might be interconnected, it was impossible to make major inferences from them.

Thankfully Dezel does have some information for the rest of them, and it confirms at least part of what Sorey was thinking. But Sorey looks at the Wind Seraph for a moment, and nods. He repeats what Dezel had said for Talise's sake, before musing for a moment. "I figured it was Hellions then, but the timing is something that we need to consider. Was that something recent, or in the ancient past? That figure... it seemed like some immense dark power." Clearly this might have a lot to do with why there were so many Hellions about, if someone had been working to create more and strengthen them over time.

"While I can't say this is reassuring, thank you for sharing this Talise." He looks around at his friends for a moment, before adding, "We know that the Trial Knight was related to Hellions in some way." He considers for a moment, and adds, "We may need to keep looking into what they have been up to soon. Once the tournament is over, at least." Or at least once Alisha has finished, they need to look into his dark works, and see if they can find more clues.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Venomization..." Alisha looks sideways at Dezel. She waited, while they experienced it. She remembers it took her by surprise, then. The princess has wide eyes -- but she nods to the Wind Seraph. "How terrible. And these Crucibles... they're hidden away, back on Lunar? Who would even use such a thing?"

Questions Alisha knows the answer to, unfortunately.

She frowns, then she nods. "Speculation doesn't tell us much," she says. "You're right about that, Edna. Still... Talise and I were wondering why the Trial Knight had this. And--was it something we were meant to see, or an accident that it fell into our hands?"

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

They're memories Talise has etched into her own thoughts at this point, after repeated viewings in the hopes of making sense of them. She doesn't view them again because she knows what the memory will be once she looks once more. The same man. The same pit and the same dragon statues.

Her eyes lower to the sphere as if she could somehow scowl at it until it revealed K.K.'s secrets. "That's the problem I ran into," she agrees with Edna, setting her jaw. "I know what I think it means. But I can't prove it is what I think."

The tall woman lowers her head and closes her eyes for several seconds, letting out a slow rush of breath. "A Crucible," she murmurs. She can hear Dezel just fine.

When she lifts her head again, she looks at Rose steadily. "If that's what it is, I think my theory is a little stronger now. I didn't know those places existed. But if they do...."

She draws the rags back voer the orb, folding that green glow out of view and pulling the sphere in closer to herself. As Sorey weighs in, the tall woman nods, slowly and gravely. "Any time. So long as you're going to be working against K.K. and the other Hellions, I'll do anything I can to help you, if you'll have me," she says, voice a little quieter.

As Alisha speaks up, Talise nods and looks to her again. "I had a thought on that. I wonder if the memory is one of K.K.'s," she muses. "That maybe K.K. was that Hellion that came out of the Crucible. Either that, or K.K. is that Beastman."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna shakes her head. "It could be either, but my money is on something else entirely." She narrows her eyes. "What that is though, I couldn't say." Arms are crossed and the Earth Seraph ruminates deeply. "Well, let's get the obvious thing out of the way; That couldn't have been anything but a Lord of Calamity." She smirks.

"Sounds like fun, huh?" That smirk falls. "I don't recall ever hearing about a beastman Lord of Calamity though." That frown deepens. "Before Lucia, the last one..." No, she's not going to bother. She shakes her head and leaves it at that. "Either way, a lot of things don't add up with what we're seeing there. And that just adds a million questions, with no answers in sight." A careless shrug. "If you ask me; I think our best bet is to find our Trial Knight and beat some answers out of them personally."

Simple. Effective. Edna.

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"As hidden as anything can be when you have people like the Shepherd going around exploring dangerous ruins for giggles," Dezel clarifies, which seems less like a dig at Sorey coming from him and more a dig at humans being dumb and reckless.

Rose will just be over there breathing and recovering, give her another couple minutes. The zap of memories wasn't so bad but those Hellions were scary, man.

"It could mean a lot of things," Dezel says, raising a hand dismissively next to his head, "And there's no way to tell which is right unless you find more of those. If that fell from his pockets during the battle then consider beating him up until more candy falls out. S'what I'd do." Big talk. He's no match for K.K., and he knows it firsthand having been inside Rose at the time, but that won't stop his mouth.

Rose kind of agrees with the plan.

It turns out Edna does too.

Sorey, you need new friends.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Unfortunately they can't do much about these Crucibles until they get back to Lunar - and they need to deal with the Lord of Calamity before they can head back home. Either that, or find a way to prevent her from getting back to Lunar, but that wasn't really an acceptable outcome for Sorey.

Thankfully Sorey does not consider going to beat up the Trial Knight immediately to be a viable plan, and he's willing to say so. "I don't think that we're going to be able to get too much out of the Trial Knight at this point, and we can't say for sure that this isn't just something they were carrying around." He looks at the Earthen Historia for a long moment, and shakes his head. "It is an interesting clue, but it would be strange for them to be carrying around a clue to their identity or a weakness during a battle, especially when they have gone to such lengths to conceal their identity."

It could be dangerous to make too many assumptions, but Sorey does have a solution! A way they can strike back, make things better, and see about weakening the Trial Knight's plans. "I think we need to go and cleanse the malevolence corrupted Hollow and see if we can determine how it became so corrupted - given what the Trial Knight said when we faced them in Adlehyde, they seem to have a connection to both the Shepherd and Hellions. Like the Hellions were pawns but in some way also a part of their plans. I managed to cleanse a lot of the countryside, but I think we need to deal with the root of the problem before it gets much worse."

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Nn..." Alisha nods to Dezel. "I-I see. Do you know how we could do that, Sorey? Do we need to go back in there?" She hesitates, then glances at Talise. If they're talking about this, they likely mean her too. Alisha certainly won't say no to requesting help from outside. Though, too many, and they could risk drawing trouble.

"If you do," she says, "I am with you, Sorey. And I am certain that everyone else is. Right, Edna? Rose? Dezel?"

Though she looks at Rose. Is she okay?

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

'Before Lucia,' Edna says. Talise presses her lips together and just lets that one go, but it's an uncomfortable reminder of how much she wants to avoid getting involved in that particular bun toss.

"I don't know who all the Lords of Calamity were. But if that's who it was, then there's a serious problem." Talise rubs the back of her neck with one hand, grimacing. "I wish I had more proof, but...."

Dezel hands her a way to get it. In spite of herself, Talise laughs shortly, blushing. "I've fought the Trial Knight a couple of times now... they're not an easy person to knock goodies out of. But I'll keep an eye out for them." Privately, she too is shelving that plan for now, though as Sorey voices his doubts she does not along.

"The stories of the Trial Knight say that they come around to put their victims through... well, trials. They're described as crucibles of suffering and hardship, to test the person's worth. I'm sure it's related somehow. But...." Trailing off, she looks at Sorey again and nods briskly. "...I'll come with you. I've been in that hollow a time or two. When my traveling companions checked it out, we... we found some horrifying things there."

Her lips curl. "Horribly twisted bodies... villagers, monsters... all from around Lahan. Many of them not even fully transformed. Like someone... probably K.K.... had been using that cavern as a lab, to test their Malevolence before they made their move."

For a moment, her eyes drift to Rose with worry - but understanding. The orb had overwhelmed Talise the first time, too.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

The sensible option.

Of course.

But Edna wouldn't expect any less of Sorey, champion of justice and ruins. And also ruins. With his trusty sidekick Meebo the Marooner. She shrugs. "Or we can do that instead. That works too." The blonde drones dully after the Shepherd.

She also nods to Alisha. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever the Shepherd does." She sounds like she doesn't give a flip, but anyone who's been around her long enough should know better by this point.

To Talise, the Earth Seraph shakes her head. "No proof. No idea of how long ago this was. All we can do is speculate. Or focus on what we can do more immediately."

And then there's Rose. "Hey. Rose. Wake up." Edna says flatly to the merchant/assassin. And then she looks to Dezel. "Hey. Do something." She orders, pointing at him with her umbrella.

Poke poke.

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

Alisha prods Rose. Edna prods Rose. She snaps out of her daze. "Huh? Oh! Sure! ... wait, when you mean the Hollow, do you mean..."

Flashback: Rose goes into the Hollow a second time. Upon reaching the end, there sits a sea of bones around a lake. The bones rise. They swirl around the room like big, great tornado, ghostly shapes dancing within. Rose dives behind a rock. Shortly afterwards the party is driven out of the Hollow by the massive specter.

That place. Rose shudders.

Dezel stares(?) down at Edna as she prods him repeatedly. His shark teeth show as he just kind of frowns in annoyance. "Do I just have a sign on my back that says pick on me? Tch, and here that girl spends years of her life being afraid of ghosts when you two're clearly meant to be best friends."

This counts as "doing something" because Rose laughs and snaps out of her second daze. "You kind of deserve it! Maybe I should get an umbrella of my own just for doing that."

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Well excuse him for not wanting to go charging off to find someone that they don't know where they are! Clearing out their evil laboratory will probably help to discover what is going on there to boot.

"Cleansing the malevolence in the Hollow has been on my mind for a little while - I had a couple helpers who can deal with the Malevolence quite easily ask to assist me recently, so we should have a good force that is able to go in, deal with whatever we find inside, and then we can cleanse the malevolence once and for all." Sorey isn't going to plan for anything more than that at the moment - they need to get through the tournament first, and he isn't entirely sure that it will be completely free of trouble, especially with the Metal Demons still out there.

"If we can find another related Earthen Historia, that would help us track down when this one was created. Just one is only a snipped, but by viewing more we should be able to draw a larger picture." He looks at Talise, and then at Rose. "Given that these tend to be strange artifacts that people don't often understand, they might turn up as curiosities. Can you have the Sparrowfeathers keep an eye out for them, Rose?"

Maybe a reasonable, logical request will help her settle down after that experience.

But as Alisha asks, Sorey nods to her. "I'm counting on all of you - this is a problem of our world that has been brought to Filgaia. We need to work to resolve it And I think together that we can manage."

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Helpers...?" Alisha asks, looking at Sorey. Where did he find someone who could deal with Malevolence? She tries to think of how they could -- and come up short. Her lips purse for a moment, and then she shakes her head once.

"We need to look out for them," she says. "If one made its way from Lunar... then more could have, too. If they can give us any answers, then that would be for the best."

She frowns for a moment, then nods. "I think that is for the best," she says. "Leaving the Hollow as-is... I don't like the very thought of it. If I can help, please let me know. After what we saw in Lahan..."

She looks at Talise, then at Rose, and frowns. "...I think we must act, when we can."

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Sounds like we at least have a plan on what the immediate thing to do is. Or at least... whenever we're able to do it," Talise muses, eyes shidting to the blurry shape that is the Earth Seraph. A quiet corner of her mind is calculating the travel time back to Port Timney versus how long it'll be before Lady Chloe has to fight again.

For a moment she debates getting Layna to fill in for her if there's a conflict.

Tucking the memory sphere away in her pack and fasdtening it tightly, Talise nods to Sorey deeply. "If you can handle the Malevolence, I can handle the conventional threats. We've dealt with the Hydra that lives there before... and I've only become a stronger fighter since the last time I was in there. Between all of us, we should have a good mix of skills." She flashes him a wry smile, then. "Plus you'll need someone along to move the boulders and break down the doors for you."

Moving to a chair, she rests one heel on it and crosses her arms atop her thigh. If this were a hundred years later, she'd be doing a passable Captain Morgan, but the only captain she knows right now is Layna so she doesn't make the connection. Instead she scratches at the stripe slicing across her right cheek. "I'll keep an eye out for more of them... and if you need more helpers, there's always someone like Layna or Sephilia. They're both Lunarians and good in a pinch."

Looking up again, she nods to Alisha deeply, then back at Sorey. "Then let's act," she says, closing one hand into a fist. There's a decisive edge to her tone. "We'll get together and go back to that hollow, and finish the job. So long as this is a Lunar problem, then we should be the ones to solve it."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Sure, I'll pass the word along. Shouldn't be hard to identify them if they're out there, shiny jewels like that attract attention even more than a chest full of gold." Only, Filgaia is some heathen world that worships silver as its money instead. That's just wrong. "Which... might mean they go for a lot. If I were you, Sorey, I'd start stockpiling rare monster trophies right away, because next thing you know some oddball rich collector has them and won't part with them unless you can provide something of equal value back." That tends to be how trades work.

"There's just one thing that bothers me. The Trial Knight pays attention. He doesn't skip a beat, ever. So... if he'd LOST this, he'd have come looking for it, knowing when and where he lost it. The fatc he hasn't might mean... he WANTED us to have it?" Rose ponders. "Which would mean solving its riddle is another one of his trials."

She could be wrong, and he could come knocking the next morning demanding his shiny trinket back, but it's been over a month. If it was going to happen, it would've already happened, wouldn't it?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna rolls her eyes. "Sounds about right, Rose." She says, mercifully sparing Dezel any further umbrella poking. "The memory in that Earthen Historia looked pretty important, so losing it doesn't sound terribly likely." But then she frowns. "Knowing that we're probably running around dancing to their strings makes me want to rock lance them in the butt though."

Oh well, no helping it, huh? She turns away from it all and walks back over to Sorey. "Whatever. We go clear out the malevolence and see what that hollow holds once and for all. It's a start. Plan acknowledged." She says, waving a hand without actually looking behind her, "I'm tired. I'm going to rest. Later." Edna's body breaks down into golden particles once again.

And she flows right back into Sorey, just like that.

...What IS it like inside of him?

She's not telling.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"We'll definitely need to make this expedition, but I think we can wait until Alisha has concluded her role in the tournament," Sorey comments, once again. He's repeating himself somewhat, but ideas are spinning in the back of his head as he considers how to go about approaching this problem.

"I'll need a bit of time to try and contact the two helpers I met who wanted to try and clear out the Hollow as well. Once I've gotten ahold of them, we can move forward and see about approaching the ruins. All of you," he looks about the room. "Let us see about getting records of other people's experiences, so we know what to expect once we move inside. I know that several groups were chased out by the dangers in there, and I want to take steps to make sure that we can reach the root of the malevolence and ensure that it is purified."

As Edna jumps back into his body, the Shepherd chuckles as a flash of yellow light washes across his form. "I'm glad you approve, Edna. And I'm always glad for your help."

There were too many terrible things that had happened in Lahan, and that they were somehow related to the Hollow was a sign that the place needed to be dealt with. When Talise mentions some of her companions, Sorey nods, but replies, "The big thing I want to do is ensure as few additional people are exposed to malevolence as possible. Unless they are transformed into a Hellion... there's not a lot that can be done for them, and they might end up having to grapple with it for quite a long time. I understand your desire to help out Talise, but please keep that in mind for yourself as well."

He's not going to say no, but there is a danger to flirting with malevolence. Of course, knowing many of the strong willed people around here, he expects she'll want to come along anyways.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Mm... thank you, Sorey," Alisha says. She nods, once. It is a little strange being the only tournament member here. (If only she knew.) She smiles, then, and looks back up -- in time to see Edna vanish into Sorey like that. She smiles, then, and crosses her arms once. "We'll be ready."

She glances sideways at Rose, then nods. There is something else... but she should talk to Rose, first, she thinks. Then she can talk to Sorey. They already agreed they would do it together. It only makes sense.

She looks back at Talise, then nods. "And... thank you, Talise."

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise presses her lips together. "When I ran into K.K. the first time, they suggested they were going to put me through the trials. Maybe this is another one of them. I just wish I could see how." Grimacing, she hunches her shoulders again and folds her arms atop that knee again. "Between the Trial Knight and the goddamned Pyre Witch, I...." She pauses. "...I actually haven't heard boo from the Pyre Witch lately."

She lowers her heel from the chair and turns back to Sorey, folding her arms across her chest and clearing her throat. "I've already been exposed to it, Sorey. I've fought the Trial Knight twice and I've been into the deepest part of that hollow. It's not lost on me that it's dangerous, but I also want you to have the best chance you can, and if that means I have to take the same risk as you do, then I'll take it."

She smiles lopsidedly and brings one hand up to rub at her shoulder, giving it a slow roll. "...Besides. I've got a bone to pick with the Trial Knight."

Her voice quiets a little. "...I wouldn't ask Sephilia, though. She's been through enough with Agatha and I don't want her to suffer anymore."

She smiles at Alisha, though there's litle joy to it. There's only a quiet determination. "...Thank you too, Alisha."