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Ten Thousand Shining makes its presence known, a shining light around Kovak Anur. Its speech is more felt than heard. There is much you have hidden in darkness. Many lies and more secrecy. The light grows as the terms of the contract are invoked, though only enough to fill the room as if lit by many candles. The spirit reaches out to the mind of Tayre Delane. Secrets you keep from each other as well. And then a vision forms in the light. The spirit is no dragon, able to overwhelm minds, but it is truth and revelation. What it sees hidden, it reveals. One of Delane's secrets is laid bare in the light. This costs it, and so it costs Kovak Anur - no exchange is free - but it is relatively simple and, almost more importantly, easily within the spirit's purview.
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Dec 5, 2015 04:16
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 12:54 |
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Tayre freezes, his expression unreadable as the sun spirit displays something he had tried to forget: his own daughter turning traitor, fleeing to the dragons and their agents. He had been forced to kill her, and now thanks to the sun spirit, her death flickered before his eyes over and over again, blood spilling across the cobblestones. "You have made your point, spirit," he spoke at last, quietly. "Some secrets we keep, not out of malice, but out of pain."
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Dec 6, 2015 16:18
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Ten Thousand Shining's voice never wavers. Indeed, it seems to feel little emotion at all. There is little difference to me. I do not know your pain or your malice. Your secrets I reveal because that is what I am, and your secrets I keep because Kovak Anur and I have a pact that transforms my power. The spirit's glow dampens down some. By that pact, my power is hers to call on, and her power is mine to grow upon, by clause and contract. You ask how she is changed, and the answer is: she is bound by pact, and so am I. My name, as mortals say it: Ten Thousand Shining And Two Great Radiance. This is what I am. Sun, light, heat. Revelation, truth, awe. Burning devastation and warming growth. That is what I am. The glow shimmers around Kovak Anur. And yet, by the pact, my power can be more than what I am. If the price is paid, according to the contract, that power can be made anything. That is my revelation. Even the dark and the hidden - though that price is high.
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Dec 6, 2015 23:11
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"So you now know," Kovak Anur says. "The extent of this power is still unknown to me - I am a simple researcher, formerly of the Empire's war colleges, but no more. This allows me to pierce the veil beyond - but to find out more, I must have a safe space to perform my research beyond the Empire's grasp." Kovak's reputation was not unfounded. The war wizards of the Empire have, through the long march of time, brought many who would have challenged the authority of the dragons to heel, ensuring a tyrannical piece. For a person from such a prestigious place to escape undetected and unfettered is, to all accounts, unprecedented.
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Dec 7, 2015 07:36
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Nores Unn steeples his hands on the table. "Even if you discovered no other ability, to know the secrets of others would be extremely useful to us - and also very dangerous. The survival of our movement has always depended on no one person knowing too many secrets. No one can stand up to questioning forever, but you cannot betray what you do not know. I have to say it plainly. We cannot allow you to leave after this." His expression and tone never change, but the two attendants he brought to the meeting stiffen, hands straying towards their coats. Unn continues as unconcerned. "I think that our goals are compatible, but if we take you in, you must understand that we cannot allow you to go wherever you wish. If for no other reason than your departure from the colleges, the Empire will want you very badly. And if they find you, centuries of our work will be undone. We will have to sequester you, for our safety and yours. You can continue your studies, but we must know whatever you find. You would exchange your freedom for our protection and support. And we would give up much of our resources and put many of our own in grave danger to learn what you have found." Unn turns to Tayre. "I was skeptical, but in this power of Kovak Anur's I see a weapon that will destroy either the Empire if we grasp it - or ourselves if we do not. I see no other path besides death or alliance."
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Dec 8, 2015 17:38
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Tayre's frown deepens. "I agree that this power could be vital. The dragons have so many secrets, and if we could learn even a few, we could anticipate their raids before they happen, prevent so many pointless deaths. But surely we do not need to resort to threats, Nores? This woman has put herself into our hands."
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Dec 10, 2015 18:30
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"I speak of consequences, not threats, Tayre." Nores Unn eyes the other rebel owlishly. "We are in her hands as much as she is in ours. Between the people in this room, there are enough secrets to destroy us and our cause." He turns and looks at Kovak Anur again. "And though I say we cannot allow her to leave, I doubt we have the power to bind a woman who escaped the war colleges. But we would be obligated to make the attempt, for the sake of those who follow us." "It is our lives that are in her hands, not hers in ours."
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Dec 11, 2015 14:16
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Kovak Anur ponders this. "I would be reticent to resort to force in this time and place, but I will also say that walking the roads of the Empire of my own volition rather than at the beck and call of someone else is rather refreshing. In other words, I would not trade my freedom for the sake of knowledge." She places a pouch onto the table, untying it to reveal a broken circlet or wrought iron and silver. A communion circlet, once thought to be unbreakable. It allows the transmission of mana from many individuals to one, and is so famed that it is part of the official insignia of the Empire. "This used to be on my brow," she says, using a finger to roll some of the smaller bits of metalwork around. "I realize that I am being rather selfish here - I ask of your protection and a research laboratory, but also not to be bound to you at the same time. Thus, I propose a trade: you give me what I wish, and you may use my name and likeness as you see fit, with this circlet to prove the authenticity of the statements. In return, the me who is speaking to you can pursue things of sound mind and free will. What you do with my identity and my accomplishments thus far is more than a good deal for your rebellion, no?"
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Dec 13, 2015 09:06
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Noves Unn adjusts his glasses, thinking, his eyes somewhat unfocused. "I still feel we are the ones giving much and risking much, for little concrete in return." He pauses, then his gaze sharpens on Kovak Anur. "I think there is a modification that makes it worthwhile for us. We can likely maintain our security by reorganizing the assets that may have been exposed by your presence here. But every time we call on you to take advantage of these abilities, that effort is undone again. That is true so long as you remain the only one with this power." "So - we do what you ask, but your first effort is to train three or four agents of our selection to use this power as well. That limits the risk you pose to us, and should something happen to you - or you change your mind about the arrangement later - then we have all gotten something tangible from the arrangement." "In that case, your continuing research would still be worth the cost of providing a laboratory, and we can arrange proper security measures for our interaction."
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Dec 21, 2015 19:11
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 12:54 |
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Think we're waiting on Quorum to post here, or, at least, Gorbash was - going to give it some more time before responding to this scene since it's still the holidays.
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Dec 29, 2015 06:57
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