text / un: starkov

[peasant]

the good news first: rhys and i found the princess of kilnan in the castle and woke her. she's with us right now. the castle was designed to protect her against her mother's soldiers trying to force her back home, which is why it's been so tricky. it's meant to alert remi — her uncle, and the wizard we came looking for — to any unwanted guests, which would be us.

the reason he hasn't come to greet us is that he's asleep. aureliah — the princess — should be able to talk her uncle down before he throws us all out into the mud. he's trapped behind an entrance sam's group found, but aureliah should be able to unseal its magic.

i think more of us should be there when it's opened, just in case something goes wrong with the orb.

the bad news: the orb's name is phyllie. remi made a deal with her and fed his own arcane energy to her in exchange for curing a curse that was placed on aureliah and her mother, but something went wrong during remi's bargain and that energy was transferred from the orb to aureliah instead. that's the reason she has her uncle's magic, and why her mother is so eager to use her daughter as a weapon against kilnan's neighboring countries.

the queen thinks kilnan will be better protected if she can force her daughter to learn war magic. it sounds like remi has been searching through dimensions to find the "right world" (for him and aureliah to hide? we don't know what he meant) but the orb has been draining him of his energy.

from what aureliah said, he feeds "phyllie" monthly. the princess and i think that's the price he's chosen to pay for keeping the curse at bay.

the worst news: i don't know what will happen if we break the bargain remi has made, but i'm sure it can't possibly be anything good. aureliah's life force was given to her by the orb, and the wizard who cast the curse in the first place was killed in the war. so that's a dead end, but maybe someone has a better solution we can offer remi once he's awake.

[ as per this npc thread! feel free to threadjack and hop around threads here to your hearts' content. ♥ ]

Comments

Text. un: Kirigan

[cruelyethuman]

You would make a deal with an orb of unknown power, which has shown that it will pervert and corrupt everyone it strikes a deal with to serve its own needs.

And what would anyone gain from this self-sacrifice? Another enemy to fight or another soul to save.

[peasant]

[ ugh, it's infinitely worse when kirigan, of all people, comes to lecture her. alina prickles, irritated with herself for feeling like a stupid, scolded child in his presence. and agitated, beyond that, that he would firstly think of her compassion in terms of what can be personally gained from it. ]

then don't save me.
there. i solved your issue for you. you're welcome.

[cruelyethuman]

Not saving you is never an option, you must know that by now.

[peasant]

don't be silly. as you just pointed out to me, there's nothing to be gained from trying to save me.

[cruelyethuman]

[Somewhere in the castle, the Darkling is pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.]

You would be saved, or the princess would be saved. It amounts to the same number of people needing to be saved.

You mean a lot to the people on the station, Alina. They would not leave you behind or stop trying to help you.

[peasant]

[ what is she, if not the eternal thorn in his immortal life? ]

don't you mean the orb means a lot?
don't worry. there will be other orbs for you to find if i have to make a bargain with this one.

[cruelyethuman]

If I meant the orb, I would write the orb. I mean you.

Someone else could make the same bargain, it doesn't have to be you.

[peasant]

[ you don't ever write what you mean, she wants to say, and pummels the thought back into submission. keen as she is to start that argument, this isn't the place. ]

who else? my life isn't more valuable than anyone else's.
we don't measure lives to see which one is worth risking and which isn't.
it doesn't have to be me, but it will be.

[cruelyethuman]

Would you be this willing to let someone else do it in your stead? Would you step back and allow anyone else to make this sacrifice?

Or would you argue and plead for the one about to lose themselves to part of a whole so powerful, it can open doorways in to alternate worlds.

[peasant]

no, obviously not.
which is why i volunteered myself for it.

Private

[cruelyethuman]

Alina, don't do this.

forever private ➜

[peasant]

i didn't say i was doing it.
i said i would do it if it turned out to be our best or only option.

[ — as though that makes such a great difference. ]

[cruelyethuman]

Giving yourself to the orb will never be our best or only option.

You said that your life was as important as everyone else. You are not expendable, nor are you an acceptable loss to gain the orb.

[peasant]

you don't know that. we don't know all of our options yet.

the life of an innocent child isn't an acceptable loss, either.
i'm not doing it to gain the orb, but i wouldn't expect you to understand that.

[cruelyethuman]

How many ways must I tell you, that losing you is not an option.

There is an entire station full of people, it can be someone else but you. It is not either the child or you, it can be anyone else. There are plenty of powerful wizard and witches in this group.

[peasant]

i am just as powerful as they are.
how many ways must i tell you it has to be me?

[cruelyethuman]

I know exactly how powerful you are, Alina. I never forgot. I remember everything about you.

You want it to be you. Why?

[peasant]

because i don't trust any of them to do it for the right reasons.
and because i made a promise. i plan on keeping it.

[cruelyethuman]

Not even Rhysand.

Who did you make this promise to, since you have little problem with breaking promises you made in the past.

[peasant]

he doesn't count. rhys would make that deal to protect me from making it first.
oh, that's rich coming from you. don't talk to me about broken promises.

[cruelyethuman]

Of course, he counts. So would a lot of other people. You are important, just as we all are.
I kept every promise I ever made you, Alina.

[peasant]

i'm not sending rhys to make a deal in my place.
oh, sure you did. you just made sure to keep your promises as vague as possible so you could twist their meaning into something that suited you when the time came.

[cruelyethuman]

From your words, it would seem that you do not need to send him. He would do it all on his own, if he knew what you were planning to do.

I'm sure it suits you to think that. My promises were genuine, yours on the other hand- well, we both know how little you meant them, despite how easily you made them.

[peasant]

i know what you're trying to do. it won't work.

promises tend to get thrown out the window once you're enslaved by the person you made them to.
the only person you should be blaming for that is yourself.

[cruelyethuman]

What am I trying to do?

You ran away, Alina. Knowing that you were the only hope our people had, and you ran away. But perhaps the children of Ravka were not as innocent as the child you're trying to save now.