2021-05-02: Wash Away The Sorrow

• Log: Wash Away The Sorrow
• Cast: Seraph Lanval, Day Muirwall, Kaguya, Seraph Boudicca, Cyre H. Lorentz, Azoth, Venetia Vuong, Dean Stark, Yulie Ahtreide, Violet Salazar, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ruth Pauling
• Where: Celesti Wastelands
• Date: May 2, 2021
• Summary: Several teams make it to the heart of Siddim Canyon's Domain - the concentration thickest at a derelict fortification where an atrocity took place. The Domain Master - someone who appears to have deeply regretted being the one who did the heinous deed - is presently absent, so an opportunity to cleanse the Domain presents itself. After everyone exchanges information about what they found, Siddim is laid to rest... but the danger hasn't passed yet for the Zoara region of Aquvy. (This scene ICly takes place on May 1st, 503 PC.)

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===========================<* Celesti Wastelands *>===========================

Decades ago, the nation of Celesti ripped itself apart in a vicious civil war. Outside of a handful of settlements, its former territories are lifeless. The remains of trenches, bunkers, and barbed wire lines serve as lingering reminders of the conflict--scars that have yet to heal. The earth is dry and barren, and much of the groundwater has been contaminated by biological or chemical weapons.

Travel through the Wastelands is treacherous. The roads are pockmarked with shell craters, and Reapers have been known to haunt its blasted plains. A handful of functional rail lines cross the wastes, but these travel directly to their final destinations. The shattered remains of ghost towns dot the landscape. Some may yet hold things of value, but experienced travelers know better than to go treasure-hunting on a whim. The war-dead of Celesti do not rest.

Ghosts aren't even the strangest things one can find here. As the war dragged on, both the Congressional Knights and Aquvy Union dug up ancient weapons to aid their efforts--including, it's rumored, ARMs from Zeboim. These rumors draw both the daring and desperate into the wastes, and more often than not, to their end.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HwM11d2FQ

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    It's late afternoon for May 1st, 503 PC. There's still some daylight left for this dreary fallen village turned Malevolent Domain.
 
     After a harrowing encounter with a Malevolence-induced recreation of what happened to the village of Siddim, the handful of Drifter teams who braved it have all come to where it's strongest: a derelict old fortification that was host to someone who committed a truly awful thing. The Celesti Civil War was host to no small number of them. It still haunts so many corners of the Zoara region of Aquvy today - and today, the village of Siddim can get paid its last respects by someone other than who did this to them.
 
     Seraph Lanval, the Oracle of Schturdark, is working overtime to try and keep coaxing down what rain he can from the clouds passing overhead. He can compel water to a point, but the movement of the winds and what's actually in the skies in a given moment are the domains of other Guardians. For whatever reason, the natural rain lowers the pressure - if not the concentration - of the Malevolence. Making use of this should be enough to stop the heart of the Domain from acting up forcing everyone to relive that scene again.
 
     The Domain Master continues to be nowhere in sight. There's a bit of time to gather oneself, check out the nearby farm (the cockatrices are docile, but are still cockatrices), share information, or otherwise prepare for the act of Purification.

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Day Muirwall didn't expect to ride headlong into a Malevolent Domain this morning. His horse came through it better than he did.

The young knight hasn't been all that talkative since what happened in the depths of Siddim Canyon. He's tethered Guingryph somewhere aside, the armoured warhorse looking on impassively while Day himself watches Lanval work without truly seeing him. He should, by all rights, rush over and throw the rogue Seraph in chains.

He doesn't. First off, Lanval is doing something honourable and good here - something Day himself cannot do. all you can do is kill. kill someone acting out their emotions. you might as well kick a mentally ill person. like you did. fool.

Second off, he's got a lot on his mind - moreso than he has in awhile.

Seraph Vesna, hovering just behind Day, watches Lanval a moment longer before laying a slim hand on the knight's shoulder. "You don't have to feel bad about what you did," she murmurs. "The dark emotions that Malevolence feeds on... you didn't put them in that person's heart. Just like you didn't--"

Day clicks his teeth together and shakes his head. "Not in front of the others."

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya has been... ungentle about this Domain so far, as she peers around looking for the source of the Malevolence. Sure, she can't purify it, but that doesn't particularly dissuade her. In fact, she happens to be reviewing the area with a number of different devices, gathering data on the phenomenon because if she weren't doing that she'd be being grouchy at people.

She glances over at Lanval, and shakes her head, not bothering to get in his way. THere are a lot of people here she recognizes, but at the moment...

"Yep," Kaguya says, returning from a farmstead. "Stiiill cockatrices."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Lanval isn't master of the skies, but he's not acting alone, either. Up, up, and up; even the lowest stratocumulus which forms about the edges of rainfall is a cloud thousands of feet in the air. Rise, nimbostratus, climbing eight thousand, higher --

    They dance today on winds unseen and there is little evidence of their gathering, but for the way the clouds come together, collected to a place where Lanval might coax out the rain. The wind corrals them, spurs them onwards, circling loose about the Domain.

    It is a thing of infinite calculation. Weather is not a matter of one element or another; lightning could catch within the clouds, or moisture gather there -- the sun's light breaking through, or impacted by the darkness of covered night. To ask one thing of the sky is to ask a dozen others, and it is so EASY for innocent aims to end in all the sorrow of a hurricane.

    All this to say Boudicca is concentrating very hard, and has nothing to say about cockatrices at the moment.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Speaking of people who can control the various things that roll through the sky who are trying to wrangle up enough cloud cover to dump a deluge of rain over the heart of the domain...

Cyre is right there! For this kind of thing, he doesn't use his Nahual form. It's not just a matter of strength; they need a long, steady downpour, and they need as many purifiers on hand as possible after it starts going. The god-body that is the divine Wind Tiger is a mighty force, capable of suplexing the taint straight out of a Fell Drake, but it's also utterly exhausting to evoke. Right now... that's not something he can afford, not until they're ready to well and truly banish the taint that has seeped into the landscape.

So before then, he's going to be focusing his attention on drawing the clouds together.

After all, Boudicca might be a wind Seraph, but she's not the Oracle of Fengalon. When it comes to blow-hards who might have a long-lasting influence on the local weather, Cyre is pretty much the nearest thing to an expert.

Though even for him, changing a weather pattern isn't exactly easy work.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

One week, Azoth's on the assault against Drifters, protecting Solarian interests with all the violence and power his current chassis can withstand (and then some). The next, he's investigating Malevolence in Filgaia, no one aware he plays both parts. Seeing Ida and Yulie heats his core with an ache. Ruthlessly, without hesitation, he cleaved his way through both, heedless of Ida's righteous anger and Yulie's unwavering compassion as overridden objectives demanded.

Azoth, naturally, greets them both with a bright smile, same as he greets everyone else he knows, though it grows gentler under the heavy rainfall and heavier emotional implications of the Domain.

His hood's up as meager protection from the rains as he watches Seers and Oracles do their mysterious, fascinating work. Though were he not a machine resistant to Malevolence, he's concluded he'd be better off with it down after all he's seen.

As Kaguya returns, he rubs the back of his neck. "Are we sure they aren't naturally cockatrices...?" But this is a place of Malevolence. It would be stranger if they were.

"I'm not able to feel this way the same place as some of you can, but..." He frowns. "...It's clear lot of scars were made here. And it seems like there's going to be more scars made very soon."

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"Don't prod them, they're dangerous," says VENETIA VUONG about the cockatrices.

Venetia looks as if she has had an Adventure getting here. She has dust and some grue on her travelling dress, which has also had the sleeves rolled up into the armpits so as not to interfere with THESE GUNS (as in, her arms, because she had to engage in feats of strength), while THE ACTUAL GUN is sitting unusually cockily in her hip holster. If she had a hat it would probably be at a jaunty angle.

She is also leaning against some wooden fencing. This is partly because she is a little tired, due to all the Adventure. She would probably like to eat something but she didn't exactly pack multiple lunches, or if she did, they were all shared out.

"I'd appreciate a summation on the rite that they're preparing, if any of you have participated in such things before," Venetia says. "Do we need to do anything?"

She looks up at the howling infinite madness that is a bare sky, through a mere bucketful of atmosphere between her and the screeching cosmic void.

"Did you get a good look at the wels or whatever they are?" Venetia asks Azoth. "That was messing with my head, I'll tell you that much."

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Dean looks up at the gray skies with one hand over his eyes. Though the falling rain from earlier hadn't been Lanval's doing, the Oracle of Water is doing his level best to coax out more. Considering how it'd been weirdly pacifying to the Hellions around, it's a good idea. For now, he looks over at Boudicca and Cyre, who are helping Lanval with that rain, then over at the farm, where cockatrices rest, but are still cockatrices. Better not mess with them for now.
    
    "They might be. I think the one that was over at Port Rosalia was," Dean tells Azoth. "But we won't know for sure until we get 'em purified. If they're not in a mood to fight, we may as well leave 'em be." He looks over in concern at Day, but he looks to be having a private conversation with Vesna, so he leaves that be for now, and looks instead to Kaguya and Venetia. "Yup. But hopefully for not much longer."
    
    How exactly does the ritual work? "I'm not sure. This is kind of different from the stuff we've done before," he admits to Venetia. "Usually we use the purifying power of our Guardian, but just normal rain seems to be able to calm the Hellions down around here. I dunno why. But that's what Lanval and the others are trying to call down right now. Hopefully it'll make the actual purifying later easier."

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

It's been a difficult journey for everyone. For Yulie, as well, who has had very little experience with Malevolence up to this point. It was hard... but, this was something she felt she had to do - especially after the visions she had seen. The hurt in this person's heart.

She's been quiet as everyone gathers, but, eventually, she breaks her silence.

"How is... Um, how is everyone doing...?" She asks, timidly, knowing that tensions may be a little high at the moment. She's spent her time tending to whatever wounds she can.

A certain alchemist has, as well, who is currently spending her time going around the perimeter of the area, setting up some temporary earthen walls just in case. The Hellions may have helped them get here, but who knows what may happen when the purification actually starts - to say nothing of the potential of the Domain's Master returning at any moment.

Yulie looks to Azoth as he speaks. She is, of course, unaware that he is the mysterious robot that attacked at the ruins.

"...Yes." Yulie agrees, confirming with his assessment. Many, many scars. Yulie rests a hand over her heart. "I can... feel them, deeply. The pain of the lost, and the scars left on this land's heart..."

She hopes this brings some measure of peace to them, though.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

JUST FOR VENETIA'S BENEFIT:

Cyre is presently performing a dance that's basically just Concheros, except with far fewer feather headdresses.

Still shirtless, though. That whole 'maximum exposure to the elements' thing seems to be a... thing.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca is not shirtless, Cyre, because she IS the elements. (The element is wind.)

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

OBJECTION

Elements are shirtless by default. Have you ever seen a bonfire wearing a t-shirt?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Be that as it may, the wind appears today in full plate.

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Day blushes a rosy pink when he realizes that Venetia Vuong is here. He glances away with a soft clear of his throat, trying to hide the blush behind a hand over his chin and mouth.

And no, he's not shirtless. It is hard to take off your top on a lark when you're wearing fullplate and a surcoat.

Aware of eyes on him, the young knight breathes a low sigh and straightens, letting his hand fall to his side as he glances towards Dean. "If you're concerned that I'm here to make things difficult for you, don't be. Whatever differences Althena may have with whom, they are superceded by the importance of preventing Malevolence from spreading further."

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet rather miserably takes refuge from the deluge in the doorway of the fortification, where she can see all the goings-on. She can't exactly do anything to help -- except keep an eye out for monsters or Hellionized wildlife.

What she saw in Siddim still haunts her. It was war, yes, and the first rule of war was that innocents suffered. She's no stranger to violence -- no Drifter is -- but to be slaughtered in such a manner...she shakes her head in befuddlement and reminds herself to concentrate. Even now hostiles could be moving closer.

She'll be taking notes as she observes the ritual. Cyre's dance is particularly interesting. Good thing her Merc Manual has some blank pages and extra-wide margins!

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia's mood is somewhat elevated by all this shirtlessness. She winks at Day as he rides nearer, but regards Dean with a thoughtful nod. "I have a Graph to 'purify the ground,'" she says, "but this is something that was more, mm, well, I'll say that it's a design from before anyone on Filgaia had heard of this situation. So while I doubt it would hurt, I doubt it is the same kind of thing."

"What I wonder," Venetia says, "is if this purification will also address the... pre-existing issues with this territory. If it could be rehabilitated, re-settled, I mean, that's going to be a good thing, given..."

Venetia kind of waves a hand around as if to encompass all of Filgaia.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"We sure aren't!" Kaguya answers Azoth brashly. "They might be. They might not be. It's a big mystery." She looks over at Venetia, mostly because of the evidence of Arm Strength and also Gun. The talk of how bad the Malevolence is goes on, and Kaguya looks over Yulie. "Softie, huh?" she reflects, but there's no malice in her tone as she says it. She glances Day's way but but doesn't comment. Instead she looks to Venetia as she mentions, "Malevolence can make things worse but removing it doesn't fix the ground on its own. The weapons people used here way back when probably did most of the trouble here. It's not completely unsalvageable, but it's pretty much beyond the resources and expertise of the people still stuck here."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's righteous anger--the very same anger Azoth saw in the ruins--still coils around her heart. She's seen so much suffering over the past few years, and these past few weeks have been a return to brutal form, a reminder of just how pointlessly cruel the world can seem at first glance. But after pouring her heart out to a trusted associate, and then seeing the Domain with her own eyes, she's regained a sense of focus. The grief and pain and terror haven't gone away. Ida welcomes them, listens to them. At times in the past, she's used others' tragedies as an excuse to neglect herself, but she can't do that here.

    Ida sits in the very center of the Domain, the sniper nest used by the butcher of Siddim. She's seated on a stretch of flat, solid rock, a battlement exposed to the sky above and the others below. Rain plasters her hair against her scalp, and drips down her trenchcoat to pool around her. Her hands, still encased in Hyadean biometal, are folded in front of her, meditatively. Her eyes are hooded. She breathes in and out, takes in the suffering and sorrow and guilt.

    It looks like she's just sitting there, but this is as important as the preparations Cyre and Boudicca and Lanval are making.

    "Maybe," Ida says, to Azoth. She manages a gentle smile despite everything. "But we've made our choice. This Domain must not be allowed to spread. The people who were killed here deserve peace."

    Ida looks down at Venetia, then. "...That's not our wheelhouse," she says. "Though..." A pause. She remembers Mount Manfred. "If... any of you have Mediums of your own, they might work as amplifiers. I don't know the precise technique Tethelle and Cecilia used, but..."

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Day clears his throat into one gauntlet when Venetia winks at him like that. "Hello, Venetia." He's still blushing, because Siddim Canyon is just like that for him these days. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Resting the point of his shield against the turf, he clasps his hands on its upper edge and frowns, glancing between Venetia and Kaguya for a thoughtful moment - if nothing else, it's a line of thought that allows his mind to clear some of this. "There's a difference between Malevolence and the physical damage caused by someone under its influence, yes. When the Domain goes away, it won't restore the land or anyone killed."

    something you well know. idiot. adulterous idiot. you thought with your sword and a girl paid.

The thought is silent, internal. Outwardly, Day closes his eyes and draws a slow breath through his nose, then lets it out, trying to refocus himself on what matters. The task before them.

He opens his eyes with a glance at Ida, pressing his lips together. They talk of Mediums, and for a moment, a thought occurs to him.

    Why DOESN'T the Goddess grant us the power to remove Malevolence? Why must even Her Seraphim draw upon the power of idols from another world to cleanse a power that is of ours?

"Vess," he says with a glance at the Wind Seraph hovering not far away. "What can we do to help?"

Vesna purses her lips and doesn't answer immediately.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    "Oh, no--that wasn't what I was worried about," Dean tells Day. "Still, that's good to know. Thanks." To Venetia, he nods. "Yeah, it's probably not exactly the same kind of thing. This is specifically for Malevolence." When she suggests that maybe this could help with the pre-existing issues, his expression turns thoughtful. "Huh! I hadn't thought of that. I sure hope it can." He sobers, remembering the vision of that... person, who'd been slaughtering so many villagers. And for what? He's not sure even that soldier knew. "There's been enough tragedy here."
    
    Kaguya points out how and why it wouldn't, though. Dean shakes his head. "Maybe, but we can hope it'll make things a little better! Right, Yulie?" After all, she'd be even more sensitive to ghost stuff, wouldn't she? He brightens when Ida brings up Mediums and how they might help too. "Oh yeah! Yeah, that could be a big help, too! In fact--" He digs into his pockets and produces two Mediums: a stone Fire Medium, bearing the insignia of Moor Gault, and the Original Artificial Mountain Medium, bearing the insignia of Dinogenos. "If anybody doesn't have any, I've got a couple here I can lend out!" It might not work, using someone else's Medium, but at least they can give it a try.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    The cockatrices, so far, are that. They haven't made any overtly mean gestures at Kaguya from their pens. (One of them has a blindfold on, for some reason, but behaviorally is otherwise identical to the other Hellions. At least, while it's raining.)
 
     None of the Hellions who are about the Domain have come to converge upon them. That, so far, might track - if there isn't a central will currently directing them to do anything beyond following their own feelings, there's no reason to assume they're going to all hurl themselves towards the heart of the Domain en masse. So long as the rain keeps going, it should stay that way.
 
     This hasn't stopped some of the roaming wels from aggressing on a number of Hellions, and that's something unto itself - but they haven't approached the Domain with their own grievances beyond the grave. With a Paladienne with them, they aren't out of the reach of finding peace themselves... once the bigger problem is dealt with.
 
     Lanval is deeply appreciative of the resources and talents at play in keeping this much going. Weather systems are not a simplistic thing! Somehow, they're all making it work. Being a Drifter has ever been living by the seat of one's trousers in terms of getting anything done, and this is one of those times!
 
     He spares a little cat-like smile for Day as he speaks his resolve about what he deems more important.
 
     To Venetia's musing, Siddim Canyon is doing much better than most of the surrounding environs of Northern Zoara. The frequent rainfall has done it wonders, and the Domain Master has successfully grown food (...and Kuko Berries). It's well out of the way of the established railroad routes and still just out of reach of the fewer, riskier Guild Galad inspector-dodging caravan routes... but it is viable land for agriculture. (It will be more viable once it is not deeply poisoned in discordant bad feelings.)

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth blinks once at Day's reddened face. It's one of those expressions he doesn't immediately expect to see on the guy who so thoroughly trounced him in the heat of combat. But people have all kinds of sides to them, don't they?

With a tilt of his head, he answers Venetia. "The wels? I didn't see any here -- only Hellions."

He nods to Dean, smiling. "I don't want to bother them. They have a right to be cockatrices... if they're cockatrices. If they're not, then they have a right to be, um, whatever that is. But I guess we'll find out."

Yulie speaks of feeling it more deeply. Azoth regards her curiously. What is it like, he wonders...? "Will you be all right? I have some cookies on me, if that would help." He's heard sweets can improve moods sometimes...! Up against the heaviness of Malevolence induced pain though? Maybe not so much.

Dean hands out mediums and Azoth holds up his palms in surrender with a nervous smile. "Pretty sure I'm exempt." He looks over the skies. "...I'll keep watch for any surprises."

That might be all he can do.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "The land," says a woman with eyes aglow with air-green magic, "is older still than men, and may yet breathe in times to come." There's something resonant about her words, echoing in the drum of her barrel chest; more fey than she is, most times, and perhaps it speaks to her concentration.

    She's not just controlling the weather, after all; she's also preparing herself for what's to come.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Dance. Dance. Cyre does the dance. The dance which brings the wind, the dance which brings the rain. He's being absolutely drenched in it all, but honestly that's still way better than dealing with the Malevolence without it.

"Whoever this was," Cyre says in staggered breaths, because he's dancing and can't exactly stop. "They were Aquvy Union. Somewhere from... I don't know! There's a city, I think. One of them nearby. Somewhere with a dome or something?"

Dance. Dance. Never stop the dance. The wind must blow, the rain must fall.

"Still, think Mariel would really appreciate all the work that's been done here. Maybe the Hellion that runs this place just wants to live in peace? Not that we can let her domain keep spreading or anything."

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Ah, hahahahaha," Kaguya says when Dean even gets near her with the Mediums. "..." She gives the Original Artificial Medium a thoughtful look, but then shakes her head. "Nah, I'll just be here taking readings. I will say... The ground right here is actually better than most of the soil in this area. So this could be the center of somewhere better, if you can get it purified and no longer reeking of Horrible Emotion Disease."

She walks over and nudges Azoth's arm. "We can watch out together. I'm sure not touching thoe things."

Kaguya steps... out of the immediate vicinity of the purifying. At least out of the epicenter.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia reaches into her pouch and starts rummaging around for a Medium. She looks over towards Dean and says, "Ah! Good old Dinoginos. Glad to see you've been caring for his Media here, though -"

She seems momentarily nonplussed at the sight of the Medium tablet proper. She whistles to herself. Then she looks back towards Day and says, as she finds her own Medium, "That's certainly true, but this area has been doing very well. It's interesting. I don't have any theories, but it is suggestive. It might just be a happy coincidence."

Up comes her own Medium! She shows it to Dean and Day with some pride, holding it like a premium trading card because she is the product of an arrogant, expansionist civilization. "I got Duras Drum, myself. I suppose it's good that there's a variety of representation."

Cyre raises a rather dyre question. Venetia straightens up, frowning in thought. She seems to have no snappy quip about this proposition, but it at least makes her feel better about not waxing the cockatrices.

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Day's shoulder armour creaks subtly as he cants his head towards Dean, nodding once.

As Kaguya steps out of purification range, so do Day and Vess - they're far less in danger, to be fair. The Wind Seraph, however, gives Day's shoulder a delicate touch. "There is something we can do for this place, even if we must leave sweeping away the Malevolence to the others."

"What's that?" Day blinks, but it comes to him quickly enough. With a look down the valley, he scratches one cheek. "We can bring the breeze, can't we?"

"We can, at least, help the plants and the soil recover." Vess smiles, adjusting her big round glasses.

"Then we shall," Day decides before looking back towards Venetia.

His cheeks colour subtly, but he nods back to her as she shows off her Medium. "I don't have one of those," he concedes. "But the rain does seem to have helped in one respect. With luck we can keep things that way once the Malevolence has been removed."

He clears his throat into one gauntlet. "It's... it's good to see you again, in any case." It's a quieter admission.

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

Yulie doesn't know how much Purification or Malevolence, so she doesn't answer when the question arises. She does offer a small smile and a nod, though, when Dean addresses her.

"Yes... and... it should help me see to it that the spirits here are allowed to rest peacefully." She agrees. Even if only because it means she wouldn't have to deal with Hellions.

Mediums... the means of calling upon the aid of the Guardians. Yulie did have one of them at one point, but she had handed it off to one of her friends.

Azoth has a question for her, though! Cookies...

"I... should be fine, but... it's hard to say no to cookies..." She admits. They do tend to be pretty good for one's mood... She looks toward Cyre, then.

"She was... an Etone, once. I... saw it in a vision..." Yulie murmurs, as Cyre brings up where the Domain's Master is from. A follower of Granas did all this... she doesn't know what to think. But then again, the Granas faith was a complicated subject these days.

Yulie then looks toward Kaguya with a curious expression.

"You can... take readings from Malevolence...?" She asks. She doesn't really know a whole lot about it...

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's head tilts as Boudicca speaks those resonant words. Hearing them gives her hope. She didn't grow up in Celesti, but Guild Galad was born in the blight, and grew out of the very wars that caused it. If there's hope for this place, than maybe...

    She thinks back to Sylvie, and the Echo Seed she grew.

    Ida rises, and starts down the stairs towards where the others are gathered. The steps are old and rain-slick, but she's balanced on worse. "A dome?" she says, face curling in a frown. "...Guara Bobelo. That must be it. They raised some old Zeboim-era fortification, and couldn't lower it again." She stops near where Dean and Venetia are gathered, and pulls out two Mediums of her own. The first is a Stone Medium, remarkable only for the reddish-orange cast of the granite it's made of. That one bears the icon of Moor Gault. The second looks almost like Dean's own Original Artificial, but there are differences between the two. Dean's has more detail to it. Ida's looks like a copy.

    The symbol of Dinoginos stands out against its surface.

    Ida holds both of them gently, reverently. She nods to Azoth, acknowledging his own contribution. "You may experience visions, or other such phenomena, as the Purification begins. This is perfectly normal."

    As for Day, Ida... pauses a beat, and nods to him as he leaves, with a gentle smile. "Thank you, Sir Knight," she says. She knows what he is. She fought him. She doesn't have to look hard to see the guilt clotting in his heart. And Yulie...

    "An Etone?" Ida's smile vanishes in an instant. "Are you certain? Do you--perhaps after the war. Or before?" Either possibility has horrible implications.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth frowns at Cyre. "It wouldn't surprise me, but... I don't know if we can call this 'peace'." He looks back up at the rains, letting droplets fall right into the lenses he calls eyes. "Someone who thinks they're heartless might pick at the wound -- ah, if I can extend the metaphor -- to convince themselves they feel at all."

To Yulie, he pulls a cookie tin from his pack and offers it to her, smiling like he never offered her an energy sword across her flesh instead. "Then you don't have to say no."

Kaguya bumps him and Azoth tentatively, maybe a little too gently, bumps back with a curious beep-whir. "Oh, all right." Is she... afraid of mediums? He shifts a little to be between her and them. Protective! "You seem to feel this all heavily yourself. Would you also like a cookie?"

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

From her spot in the doorway, Violet overhears Ida's warnings about possible visions.

Great, just great. That's all you needed in a dangerous situation, to be cut off from your senses. She resolves to resist the visions, if they appear.

        Unless she sees her dear deceased husband.

        Though even if she saw him, there was no telling whether the spectre was real or not.

On Filgaia, anything was possible.

She's seen weirder things. It was part and parcel of being a Drifter.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Azoth and Kaguya both refuse Dean's offer. Given that one is a robot and the other a Veruni, that's understandable... though theoretically, either of them should be able to use the Original Artificial Medium. That's why the Artificial Mediums exist, after all.
    
    He brightens at Venetia's comment. "Oh yeah, thanks! I got this one," he waves the Fire Medium, "from that old Guardian Temple, and this one," he waves the Artificial Mountain Medium, "from the Memorial Sanctuary. Even with Dinoginos's Medium, though, I guess it figures that I ended up a Seer of Moor Gault's, huh?" He smiles as she says hers is Duras Drum's. "Yeah, it does feel good to have a lot of them here, huh?"
    
    Yulie and Day don't accept Dean's offer of loaner Mediums either, and neither does Violet, who seems content to remain a lookout at the entrance. Dean holds them out a moment longer; if nobody still borrows one, he'll put them back in his pockets. He casts Ida a thoughtful frown as she muses on the source of the fortifications, but history is not exactly his strong point, so he doesn't chip in.
    
    There's a lot to discuss right now, after all.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Oh yeah," Kaguya answers Yulie gamely. "You see, there's malevons--very very tiny pieces of Malevolence, 'elementary particles' we call them. By counting the number of those in the general vicinity with my machines, I can determine how strong the Malevolence is in a given area. Purification turns malevons into harmless material that can no longer be detected as Malevolence. It's all very technical, you see."

Kaguya looks over each of the Mediums, but only vaguely. Instead, she notes potential visions, and doubts it in her case, but, "I don't know enough about their uniforms to place what they were or from when," she says ith a shrug. And instead... Kaguya notes Azoth being... nice. Aww.

"I wouldn't say that, exactly," Kaguya says. "I don't really feel Malevolence very strongly at all. It's just that I'm still kind of sensitive to the ultimately pointless suffering that war inflicts, because I've found out that no matter what a good reason you have for it it still sucks!"

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

There are worse members of the Guard than Day. When Ida flashes him that smile, he inclines his head respectfully. "I don't have the same power as you, as much as I might wish it," he concedes plainly. "But I can at least do what is within my power, Lady Everstead-Rey." He remembers her, too - it's hard to forget given that she punched him in the face not so long ago.

To Dean, he blinks once, then bites down to his lower lip. "Do you have enough power collectively to do this? I'm not... sure the Goddess would approve, but if it's necessary..."

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia glances at Kaguya for a moment, having overlooked Kaguya until now due, primarily, to her height. This is an unusual sort of response. "When you say Horrible Emotion Disease, what exactly do you mean? Or is that slang? For Malevolence? Eh?"

The question of Etonery arises.

"I don't know if any of the rest of you ran across him while moving in," Venetia then says, shifting a little and folding her arms, "but - there was also someone out there who helped me up a hill when I was struggling. This may be the same person you're thinking of, or it could have just been some sort of Malevolence phantom, given the established trend of non-hostility from these entities lately."

"To explain myself a little," Venetia continues towards Cyre, "there were... reports of revenants and such things here before the Malevolence. I had theorized that perhaps the two hostilities would cancel each other out, somehow. It's just an intuitive guess, though, so don't give it too much weight."

She narrows her eyes at Kaguya anew, then, as the topic of the malevon particle is raised. She is attempting to infer, possibly by direct perception, if Kaguya is having a laugh at them.

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

Yulie nods in Ida's direction.

"Yes... or at least, I saw her with one." Yulie replies. "The vision I saw... she, or...myself, looking through her eyes, was standing with an older man in Etone robes, and the two of them were fighting an army of Reapers..."

She hesitates a little. ...She decides it's best not to bother them with the olfactory descriptions.

"He said..." Yulie screws up her face distastefully, not happy about the words she's about to recount. "'This is where the likes of you best serve the Light'. ...I don't... I don't think I like him much."

She will gladly accept a cookie from Azoth, then.

"Thank you!" She replies... and then, looks to Kaguya as she supplies an answer.

"Oh, I see... I didn't know that." Yulie remarks. She... seems to be accepting this at face value. Someone may want to step in.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Oh, well," Cyre says, STILL DANCING because yeah that hasn't stopped yet and probably won't be stopping for at least a little while longer. "We did run into zombies and the living dead on the way in. Weirdest thing though, none of them were actually infected by the Malevolence."

Beat.

"Well, except for the Balloons, but you can never tell what those things are carrying around. The dead dropped some weird yellow cartriges when they re-died, though. I've got them in the pocket of my robe over there--" He thumbs towards where said robes are propped up on a conveniently placed chair. It's impossible to say whether or not this motion is just part of his dance or not. "--If anyone wanted to try identifying the things."

He looks to Azoth, then... shrugs. "This might be the most peace that person's ever been able to find for themselves. The guilt they're torturing themselves with is some real intense stuff. I'd say it's probably the 'core' emotion making up all this gross purple stuff."

Dance. Dance. Dance like you want to win...!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Ere she tasked us with your defence," comes the distant response of the Wind Seraph working the skies, after Day speaks of whether the Goddess would approve. "Filgaia or Lunar, the same blood through your veins, you mortal beings. If this be not her will," a moment's pause as she calculates a particularly strong piece of turbulence, "it is changed."

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

On when the vision happened, before or after the war: Yulie shakes her head, unsure.

"I... I don't know. I'm sorry. I didn't see anything that hinted at when it took place..." She explains.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Dean blinks in wide fascination when Kaguya describes her Malevolence-tracking method. He doesn't understand any of it, but it's still fascinating. "Wow! I didn't know you came up with something like that! That's so cool, Kaguya!"
    
    Day shows reluctance and willingless both. Dean gives him an encouraging smile. "It's fine! These Mediums are ones I had already--the purification power I can use doesn't have anything to do with them. I'm not totally sure you *can* use them to purify?" he admits sheepishly. "But it's worth a shot, right? Just make sure to give it back when we're done!" Whether he borrows the Fire Medium or the Mountain Medium, or doesn't accept either, is up to Day, of course.
    
    Boudicca weighs in on whether this would be the Goddess's will or not. Dean looks at her, then nods back to Day with an encouraging smile. "Yeah. If the Goddess is the kind person her believers say she is, I don't think she'd mind you helping out with this."

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

"Some of us also have some insight on this," Seraph Vesna puts in tartly, resting her chin on Day's shoulder and pouting towards Boudicca. "I'm not fully privy on the deal cut between you and the Guardians, but--"

"Vess, don't," Day cuts her off with a shake of his head. "This isn't the time for a theological dispute."

"But-"

"Listen. I don't know what happened between the Goddess and the Guardians thousands of years ago. But it doesn't matter right now." The knight sets his jaw and steps forward, shield in hand. "We can help heal the land, if nothing else. And ultimately, if they need us for this as well, then they need us for this too. I have no intention of bowing to idols. But she's right." He nods towards Boudicca. "The Blue Star needs help."

Vess bites down to her lower lip, momentarily caught off guard.

Day doesn't push the argument further. He takes the Mountain Medium from Dean with a nod, looking down at the shape of it in his gauntlets.

"Look here, idol," he mutters at it. "I'm borrowing you for a minute. But my faith belongs to the Goddess and won't waver for a moment. Do you understand me?"

The Medium doesn't answer. It's a rock.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Looking out for surprises is always a welcome role to take up. That the Domain has given two unlikely beneficial surprises alone would be a cause for worry: its pressure abating in the natural rain, and that its Master is currently not here. What would have the place been like had she been here?
 
     Some questions along those lines might be best left unanswered.
 
     "'d appreciate that," Lanval opens one eye half-lidded as he looks away from the focus of his work of the supernatural equivalent of 'pls pls pls pls drip here k thx' to Day and Vess.
 
     Visions are brought up. Yulie speaks of one where the Domain Master was an Etone. "Mmmm," he scratches at his chin a bit from where he currently sits, "that washn't the one I got," he looks over to Azoth and Dean, in case they want to share - did everyone get different ones?
 
     Then again, he remembers it was sort of weird, how they all came to the same place and more or less missed one another until after all was said and done, but... that's Malevolent Domains, sometimes.
 
     He doesn't comment on whether or not something's the Goddess' will. Considering his own personal history, it would be very dangerous right now for him to speculate within a Domain. Esepcially one tinged with emotions that might find a little too easy purchase.
 
     So he goes back to giving Day a little smile, because doing little things to help people out and brighten their day is a little joy. He's always going to be about that.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida turns to look at Kaguya, her expression turning a little flat. To say she'd done research on Malevolence during her Hellion days was an understatement. If only the core of her notes weren't in Castle Rabenstein, she thinks--but this isn't the place for an extensive debate on the nature of the beast. "Malevons," she says, her tone a little dry. But then Kaguya swerves, and Ida gives the Veruni a sad, small smile. "Eloquent," she says.

    On that subject...

    "...We ran across the same," Ida says, to Cyre and Venetia. I presume they were the corpses of the murdered villagers, and none of them had the slightest drop of Malevolence within them. What's more, I did a... rudimentary ballistic analysis..." Ida sets the Mediums down, pulls out a pair of bullets. They're similar, at first glance, but for the color, but the more you look at them, the more alike they become. "Same markings, same pattern from the rifling. I'd wager our Domain Master ran across the earthbound dead they'd created, and tried to put them down with the same gun that killed them."

    Then, Ida turns to Yulie. "...Maybe that came after," she says. "But..." A pause. Day makes a weighty request. Ida pauses a moment, considers the two Mediums at her feet. She stows the bullets, then picks up the Mediums, and smiles. "...Likewise, if any of you wish to borrow mine..." A look at Azoth. "I'm more than willing to entrust you with them."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    "Mmmm," Lanval thinks about it as Ida brings up that interesting bit of trivia. "Besht I can guessh... they hated their murderer sho much, they weren't gonna give her influence the time of day." He should probably be careful about how much focus he's giving to conversation versus how much focus he's putting on asking the natural elements of the world to bend their rules a little for him. He might be one of the most powerful water elemental spirits alive, but he can only grasp so much of it at once.
 
     "Might alsho be a different kind of thing goin' on that makesh undead 'round here, too, 'n they jusht didn't mix anyway." That's as much theorizing as he can put on that front. Regardless of how it's come to this point, Siddim is going to be finding peace before long.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    The Original Artificial Mountain Medium does not indeed respond to Day verbally. It does respond to him in terms of power, though--indeed, Day might be surprised at how accessible its power is. Whether that includes purification is hard to say, because for all its accessibility, not all of its power is immediately available. All the same, it *does* include defensive, protective abilities, so it might be helpful to set up some defense magic in case anything goes wrong.
    
    Dean meanwhile blinks at Lanval. "Oh--now that you mention it, you're right," he says. He looks over at Azoth. "What was it again? A bunch of folks sitting together at a fire? And there was a shadowy figure, and then..." He frowns. "It was too hard to look at them. And before I could, the vision faded."

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet chimes in with the discussion about visions. "My vision was of a hooded figure, with eyes as gray and damp as these rain-spattered rocks. The sigil of the Aquvy Union. "If I was no blessing, then I'll be a curse," they said. She shudders at the memory. Such overwhelming feelings of sadness and guilt! It was no wonder this place was cursed!

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia considers the Seraph Vesna thoughtfully for a moment, but does not comment. She might notice she is being Looked At.

"I had the impression of someone being hauled up to Meria Boule for her bounty by her old allies because the war was over and money was tight. The allies were mercenaries, you see. I don't think she was very happy about this experience, and you know what, I think that that's fair. If anything I admired her fortitude and endurance in these situations..."

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

So, the Domain Master tried to put the dead they created to rest... Well, it makes sense that wouldn't work, much as Lanval says. Yulie nods, though, as Ida considers that maybe it happened after. She nods, before looking toward Lanval.

"Even we Paladiennes don't know what exactly causes a spirit to remain bound to the earth..." She admits. "We know generally what leads to it happening, but..."

She trails off, going quiet. For now... she could only hope they'd be able to find peace.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I mean Malevolence," Kaguya says of the Horrible Emotion Disease. As for the vision... "Yeah, I'm with the soft girl," Kaguya says of Yulie. "I don't like him either. He seems like kind of a major jackass? Like, the kind who doesn't have a lot of business being in..." Pause. "Well, anyway, a jackass."

As for malevons... Kaguya is pretty good at keeping a straight face, but only pretty good. Venetia can probably see it in Kaguya's eyes, she is absolutely having a laugh here. If not from that, then from the grin she gives Dean, or from the half-joyful look she gives Ida over Malevons too. ...It's well gone by the time she comments on war, though.

She watches Day and Vesna for a moment, thoughtfully, at their exchange and at what Day has to say. Boudicca, too... well. She does not comment on theology.

"Yeah I dunno crap about how undead work," Kaguya says. "I know science, not this stuff." Pause. "See, even the priesty types don't know," as Yulie admits to inexact knowledge.

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Surprise flickers across Day's face as the Medium responds more acutely than he could've expected. He immediately purses his lips and makes a few connections in the back of his mind.

I can see why they were enticed. The idea of having access to the power of a god at will is an empowering thought. But it's not our place to wield that power frivolously. I will borrow it here to help. Nothing more!

With a look towards Venetia, Day slides a gauntlet off, then pushes a hand through his soft blond hair. "I had a vision too," he says, tone a little muted. "I was holding an ARM and shooting Reapers. There was a man telling me it was where someone like me would best serve the Light. I didn't fully understand it at the time."

Day had a lot on his conscience already by the time they pushed through things. A lot of parts of his mind are still unsorted right now. He glances at Yulie nevertheless.

"I think we must have experienced the same vision."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    It's not really the time or the place, with everything Boudicca is juggling, but Vess's objection is Noted.

    (What happens when two winds cross each other?)

    "Gramerci, knight," she issues to Day, instead, and the expression of gratitude is old as moss.

    She falls silent for long moments, looking to the sky, before she rumbles on the heels of Venetia's explanation: "She wished to believe... that others saw good possibilities. But all yet come is deathless souls."

    At least they have someone here who can help with that! Boudicca will have to thank Yulie, later.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth hands out cookies with a happy beeping. They're simple sugar cookies, cut in perfect circles. He regards Kaguya more softly when she mentions the horrors of war. "Is there ever a good reason...?"

He frowns further with Venetia's reports of revenants and wels. Is there a connection? Data to file away for later consideration.

"But it's a peace that stands to hurt them even further," Azoth says to Cyre. "This place is hurting the wildlife here, and if Malevolence spreads to others, and causes more harm... Wouldn't that make their guilt worse?"

Azoth puffs his cheeks at the Mediums. Dean's offer, now Ida's. They are 'just rocks'.

That makes them more appealing.

"...We're here on a job, Miss Ida, and I can't help with that," he says quietly, fidgeting his hands together as he tries to be Good and Behaved.

Dean speaks of the campfire and Azoth frowns again. "I'm not sure I understood the full context -- I'm... missing pieces of sensation here. I don't... feel the emotions as strong." He winces. "At all. But --"

Azoth looks to the others. "Four people around a fire. Well, five I suppose, given the nature of the vision. The area was..." Azoth goes on to describe a rest area, and to anyone who was there, they would know it to be Port Timney. "...There was also a Picto Box, a Stone Medium... like, ah..." He draws the symbol in the mud: Ione Paua. "Some technology too. Veruni."

He glances to Dean. "I don't know anything about anyone being hard to look at, unfortunately."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Are you certain?" Ida says. She honestly doesn't know if Azoth would serve as a suitable conduit--perhaps it's better if he doesn't. But at the same time, he wants to help so very badly, and his options here are so limited...

    She ends up looking at him gently, concerned. But then he gives her something else to be concerned about.

    "Wait," Ida says. "The mile-marker. I think... Adlehyde used that style? And that mile would put it very close to..."

    "Port Timney."

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"You think she was over there when Timney was overrun?" Cyre asks, having never stopped dancing in all this time. This man-- this SHA-man-- has some impressive stamina considering he's been going for... how long now? Clearly, Fengalon demands the most killer moves and the longest possible grooves. He dances by Azoth now, just in time to see the symbol the little robot doodles in the ground. "That would explain where she initially must have gotten infected. But what was she doing carrying around a medium of Ione Paua? And... What happened to it...?"

Cyre looks thoughtful. Then concerned. "...All the Hellions in the region are holy beasts," he murmurs. "All of them. If one of the Saint Guardian's mediums was... corrupted somehow, or if it were being used as a catalyst... That might explain things. Could just be the Hellion's own personal alignment, but we've run into these kinds of things before, and they've never been... You know, that closely aligned. Have they?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "It's certainly possible," Ida says. "But what's more likely, judging by Azoth's account--" Her eyes flutter closed. She swallows. "She was a Drifter. She and her comrades heard rumors of wildlife turned feral--perhaps disease, or sorcery. They investigated, and found the vector. The Hollow."

    The Hollow. Ida cast a calling-card into the flames, thought she was simply making a witty joke in the face of otherworldly horror. No one was there, so perhaps the fire would accept her card so the occupant could return to visit? They had, of course. And they saw something in Ida's actions that Ida herself did not--the tension inside her had guided her, even then, and she'd consigned her very identity to the flames of sacrifice.

    "I know where she's going to go, too. Halim. It's a mining town; the Everstead-Rey Company has holdings there, and an... uneasy partnership with its inhabitants. I don't know what she wants there, but she cannot be allowed to have it in her current state."

<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.

Yulie listens to everything that's said. The Saint Guardian, Ione Paua... she thinks about that for a moment, but then Ida says something.

"We found... something about that too." Yulie says. She pauses, fidgeting a little, and nods. "Yes, and..."

She hesitates.

"...If... if she has regrets, and guilt over what she did here, then... I want to stop her... for her own sake. Stop her from adding more regrets onto that pile, from leaving more scars on the land and her own heart..." She says. "It felt like... she was suffering..."

What she did was a terrible thing - there's no justifying that. But in Yulie's eyes, nobody deserved to suffer. To further that would only be give more momentum to the terrible cycle of suffering.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

"If you want me to test it..." Azoth says to Ida, and this is surely not taking advantage of the situation -- the deceptive, traitorous spybot that he is -- to hold an Interesting Rock.

But even that might have to wait as what he ends up describing catches their attention. Azoth tilts his head like a dog that's heard a strange sound. Port Timney. Overrun? He listens to Ida's explanation. "The Hollow...?"

Lanval asks him of the vision and Azoth brings his arms around himself, glancing to the side. "I only have conjecture. I could see, but I couldn't feel."

Azoth nods to Yulie. "Yes. I agree. She didn't have someone to stop her before. But... maybe we can now."

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Dean nods firmly in agreement with Ida and Yulie. "In that case, for everyone's sake, we need to stop her--and lay her to rest."
    
    He looks over at Azoth and Lanval. "I don't know... I just know I saw a shadowy figure, and I *wanted* to look at it but I couldn't. I'm not sure if it was 'then' or 'now.' But... That's what I saw. Or... didn't see, I guess."

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

The topic of blame and sympathy leaves Day gravely silent. He curls his fingers around his borrowed Medium, looking up towards the sky with lips pursed.

This all cuts entirely too close to the quick for something that should, by all rights, be utterly remote from him. A crisis on another world, in another faith.

    And yet....

He breathes out slowly before finally glancing over towards Yulie. "Malevolence feeds on the dark feelings that live in our hearts," he says quietly. "It amplifies them and expresses them monstrously. I can hate what it does to people who hurt. But I don't think it would be right to hate the individual."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Agreed," Ida says. She reaches out and places a hand on Yulie's shoulder. Despite the gauntlet encasing it, it's as warm and gentle as her smile. Azoth, in turn, is allowed to select his choice of Mediums. As he takes the Copy Medium, Ida's smile widens. "Remember," she says, reciting something Venetia and Day might find familiar. "Though the earth moves and crumbles, the Mountain still stands." She clasps a hand over his, around the Medium. "Strength. Solidity. Rising from the depths to pierce the sky. These are just a few of his facets. It... couldn't hurt to hold them close to your heart."

    Some Time Later

    Uniting what appear to be two opposing elements--Fire and Water--seems, on the surface, like a difficult task. But both have things in common. Both move. Both purify. Both have no shape of their own. As the rain comes down around the fortification, the team gathers tinder and firewood, drying it out with a little sorcerous help. Venetia has an opportunity to select the best stones for a firepit--it takes shape atop the sniper nest, the very heart of the Domain. The scene of the crime. Cyre has ample opportunity to set everyone in their places; the Mediums are here to serve as amplifiers, after all, and positioning them in a significant pattern will help. When all is said and done, a group of wet, cold Drifters stands around a wet, cold fire pit.

    Ida kneels before the circle of stones, clutching the Medium given to her by Moor Gault to her breast. She breathes in, feels the guilt and despair and fear in the air. She breathes out, and mouths the words: 'I know. I accept your pain, without judgment, without hesitation.'

    Ida looks to her left, at Boudicca, and then to her right, at Dean. She glances at Lanval and at Layna. The Oracles and Seers form the innermost points of the giant Ley-channeling apparatus that is this ritual setup: shaped like a pentagram, they are positioned to balance and channel their chosen elements.

    The channeling begins. The power of Schturdark flows through Lanval, through Layna, and into the clouds above.

    Ida reaches out, and sets her hand atop a chunk of wood that was once part of someone's home. She breathes out, and sparks flow from her lips. They dance across her hand, fed by the breeze drawn in by Cyre's ceaseless, sacred dance. By all accounts, the pile of wood before her should not catch flame, and yet, it does.

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

    The impossible happens. The Malevolence in the air begins to burn away, leaving behind only the scent of incense and pure wood smoke. The fire spreads across the gathered wood, warming the soul as it warms the body. As the rain soothes and dulls the pain, the fire brings comfort. The rain still falls, but now it washes away more than dust. Malevolence starts to condense in thick, dark rivulets, only to be reduced to the purest, clearest of water. White smoke rises from the fire, spreading out consume more taint.

    Ida looks into the sky, and smiles, even as she braces herself.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    With resolve spoken, and Dean and Azoth both being uncertain as to whether the feeling was 'then' or 'now,' and a clear and present danger before them... one thing's for sure. If she's capable of unleashing Hellionized wildlife to her aid, cutting this avenue of attack off for her is going to make the issue of saving Halim from her easier...
 
     But she must already have a head start.
 
     There is no further time to waste. Siddim Canyon needs to be cleansed now.
 
     That Time Later
 
     The somber violet-tinged landscape gives way to no brighter a color in its wake. It's all still so... musty, muddy. A sadness has been lifted, once conveyed through the medium of Malevolence. Underneath, Siddim remains a ruin. The tragedy is not that the war swept up and destroyed a place like this for no justifiable reason.
 
     It's that it is only one such village that suffered this fate. Of the settlements that remain, many have citizens who once lived in places like this. No small number of them have huddled together for what little they can get for themselves in Guild Galad.
 
     A kindness is extended to the ambient feelings of someone overrun by that guilt, that shame, and despair. How much the corruption has overtaken her, versus how much of this is simply a product of her unchecked presence through the passage of time isn't clear.
 
     A vision comes to those who participate, who offer themselves and their resolve to the activity. The Shamans and Seers directly trained and prepared for this take the brunt, but all - in some form - can bear witness to the following scene.
 
     It's dark out, and the sound of rain rings clearly in one's right ear. Colors and features of the landscape are difficult to discern... but they are sitting atop the fortification, where the heartless monster took aim at those fleeing.
 
     She looks at her hands. There's nothing strange about them at all. Squeezing them, clenching, unclenching... and then lowering them as if not wanting to see them, though a sense of their mood gradually improving... to a point. Their vision goes blurry with tears.
 
     "I keep hearing the same things," a woman's voice - and it's not unfamiliar, "it's always the same everywhere." She blinks, looking downcast to see a number of assembled Hellion wildlife who have come to visit her. (She seems most fixated on the Cockatrice. A favorite?)
 
     "All the suffering. This time, a young man who died after borrowing money from them," she breaks out to sad laughter, as if expecting her audience to know what 'them' is. "it's all right. You don't understand. You don't need to. I just... it's so much. So much of it is..."
 
     The Hellionized animals remain captive audience. There's a rising bile that bubbles through the sadness. "He didn't deserve that... Port Rosalia doesn't deserve that. No one deserves that..."
 
     Putting words together hurts, sometimes. Complicated feelings and emotions. Something stirs among the animals there. It's not certain if the Domain Master finds herself encouraging this, or disliking this.
 
     "Is there no one there for them?" Another laugh. "You don't get to choose who's there at your worst, do you..."
 
     It clears away, leaving behind the rainy landscape of Siddim Canyon - now raining on its own natural merits, rather than those of the ones with sway over the powers that sustain the world.
 
     The Malevolence is only one scar on this land. The other injuries - the loss of life, the destruction of the environment surrounding this otherwise fertile canyon, the near complete collapse of civilization, the emotional trauma surrounding all of this... that might not ever heal in their lifetimes.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    * * * BONUS * * *
 
     Over in the Cockatrice pen... they're all chickens, except for the one in the blindfold. That is a proper cockatrice. The once Hellionized animals look to one another, and come to an instinctual realization among them - there is one imposter among them.
 
     (A rooster, a minute later, is chased out of the pen by a mob of chickens on grounds of being sus while the blindfolded Cockatrice just kind of sits there and then proceeds to sabotage the tray full of chicken feed.)

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Guardian lore doesn't resonate in Day's heart all that keenly. As Ida begins to recite her lines, the knight looks down at the Medium in his ungloved palm.

He presses his lips together. Guilt tugs at the edges of his consciousness, as it has been doing continuously throughout the entire journey through the canyon. He's doing something he shouldn't again - breaking the rules.

    But it's for the right reasons. And maybe that's what matters.

From the sidelines, Seraph Vesna watches Day with her lower lip delicately caught between her teeth.

The ritual unfolds before them. Malevolence burns away, pushed out and driven by the rain and the breath of incense and woodsmoke. Guingryph, well off to one side, briefly snorts in surprise at the shift in the surroundings.

On its face, Day isn't sure holding a Medium is helping all that much. But as a flicker of a vision plays out before them all, he raises his head with a quiet frown. If he parses it, it's unclear.

The malevolent aura passes, and the knight exhales and sets the Mountain Medium down on a stone. "I appreciate it," he says to Dean, tone subdued. "Let us at least try something."

Day sinks to a knee and clasps his hands over his chest, closing his eyes with intense focus. Seraph Vesna joins him soon enough, similarly bowing her head and drawing her hands into a clasp. It's the knight who leads a murmured prayer. "Holy Althena, hear my prayer. Let Your servant bring a breath of life to this sad place. Let mercy and peace replace grief and woe. This I pray, in Your name...."

There are mightier magicians than Day, to be sure, but much of this is coming from Vess - and for just a moment, the wind carrying that drizzling rain is suffused with something else. The scent of fresh grass on a spring morning, of wildflowers carried on an errant breeze. The distant sound of songbirds, faintly heard but unseen. The caress of the wind softens for just a sweet moment, briefly akin to the tender touch of a loved one, bringing warmth with it.

It is a small thing - but it seems, subtly, to enliven the place. One small step further to start it back on a path of joy.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

The vision comes to Cyre Lorentz as he descends from on high into one of the sole oases in this blasted wasteland, now made slightly less inhospitable by the removal of the emotional detritus clinging to it. The god-body of the Nahual seems to breathe a long, tired sigh before abruptly dissolving as Cyre promptly faceplants into the ground with a long groan, "Uuuuuuuughhhh my buuuuttttt hurrrrrts. Catennaaaa I need a ruuubbbb~"

...Meanwhile.

Ashley Winchester, who was totally here this whole time (and possibly cleaning the inside of the cabin because he's a nice guy) also receives that vision... And will probably be in better shape to bring it up next time, because Cyre sure as hell isn't going to be up for fighting a Hellion for at least a few days.