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

[cruelyethuman]

You will run to a place that I cannot follow. It would bother me greatly.

Where are you?

[peasant]

you should be relieved. i won't be around to ruin such important plans.
why do you want to know?

[cruelyethuman]

Alina- there is no plan without you.

I want to help.

[peasant]

right. there's no pawn for you to use without me.

and you need to know where i am to do that?
i'm in the castle.

[ isn't she hilarious. ]

[cruelyethuman]

You are the one using yourself as a pawn right now, not me.

Yes, I need to know that. Which room?

[peasant]

the whole point of a pawn is that it's used by someone else, staryy kozel.

hm. a hallway. with a staircase.
🤷‍♀️

[cruelyethuman]

You're trying to trade your life away for a child, Alina. Ask her if she wants that, persiki.

Fine, I will find you myself.

[peasant]

don't be so dramatic. i'm not going to die from making a deal with it, you donkey.
and you're not going to scare her by suggesting i will.

[ what she really wants to ask is why are you calling me that? and how do you know about that as she reads over that nickname again, and again, but — ]

no you won't.
i'm better at hiding than you are.

[cruelyethuman]

I'm sure every other person we've found who made a deal with the orb thought the same thing. That they would be in control, and we've seen where that leads.

Let's make a bet, then. If you're so sure, you can hide from me.

[peasant]

i'm not cheruvia. she was a monster to begin with.

betting implies you'll give me something when you lose.
which you will. lose, that is.

[cruelyethuman]

How do you know what she was when it all started? She was loved, after all. No one is born a monster.

I know what it implies.

[peasant]

you must've missed the part where she willingly killed her parents in the worst way imaginable to get what she wanted.
being loved by another monster doesn't make her any less of one.

good. then when i win, you'll finally shut up about this.
i would add "and go along with whatever plan i come up with", but i wouldn't expect you not to ruin it on purpose.

[cruelyethuman]

And the thing that demanded it, you are so willing to bind yourself to one just like it.

I have always kept my word. Will you keep yours this time?

[peasant]

whatever price i choose to pay for that is my decision, not yours.
i don't even know why we're speaking of this. i've already told you we're looking at other options first.

🙄
i've seen how you've "kept your word" before. i have to say, i'm not impressed.
if what you want is for me to take this option off the table, it's not happening. how is that for honesty?

[cruelyethuman]

If you've already made up your mind to sacrifice yourself, you will stop looking for better options. We're speaking about this because you announced to the group at large, that we can stop fighting now because you are willing to offer yourself and your Small Science to an orb.

If I find you, I want you to give everyone at least 24 hours before you offer the deal to the orb. No matter how dire the situation might look at the time.

[peasant]

does it look like anyone has stopped searching for ideas, aleksander? we're still discussing our options. no one has said, "sure, let's let alina do it herself."

24 hours is too long, especially if it does turn out to be dire. i can't promise that.

[cruelyethuman]

12 hours. Give everyone half a day to think up something that does not involve you and give me your word that you will not start negotiating with the orb before then.

[peasant]

that doesn't involve me? you want me to stay out of every plan now?

[cruelyethuman]

Just every plan that could get you killed.

Do we have a deal?

[peasant]

have you ever known our missions not to include a plan that could kill us all? that is quite literally every plan on every mission we have ever been on.

a group is getting themselves pulled back into the dreamscapes so we can strike a new bargain with the orb. let me guess — you have an issue with that, too?

[cruelyethuman]

That a plan might go less than perfect, is very different from leaping in to danger at the first chance of conflict.

Not unless the bargain is for you.

[peasant]

less than perfect is putting it lightly. you would do it if it got you what you wanted.

[ which, now that she's considering the words that have flown out of her mind, might serve as a warning of what she shouldn't do. alina, being alina, promptly ignores that thought and the prickle of anxiety that comes with it. ]

the bargain isn't for me, but i'm going in with them.

[cruelyethuman]

Would I make a deal with an orb of unknown power, in exchange for- what exactly?

What happened to being sure I would never find you, or your willingness to make a bet. Another lie to stall me, Alina?

[peasant]

in exchange for whatever you wanted.
you can't say you wouldn't, or you're a liar. you're here like the rest of us.

i'm not lying about anything. i'm considering our best options as they come along.
do you always have to be this annoying? i don't see why you even care.

[cruelyethuman]

I am offering my services, but I am not signing over my life. Not to the station and not to the orb. That is not my purpose.

Why isn't it enough to know that I do?