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

[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?

[peasant]

that's what you think.

[ that's what they've all thought, alina included, in their desperate naivety. she still desperately wants to believe they haven't signed over more, but it's easier to force kirigan to face his own doubts. to turn this on him, rather than listen to him continue to lecture her. ]

you don't.
look at your actions. look at your words. they speak for you.
you can stop acting now, aleksander. i'm sure it must have been a suffering for you to pretend to tolerate me for so long.

[cruelyethuman]

When did you start to doubt the station and the intention of the missions, Alina?

[After listening to Peter, the Darkling has his own theories about what will happen to them all, once their use grows unwanted. About branching timelines and the existence of alternative timelines, that he will never be able to go home to the Ravka he left behind.

And neither can Alina.]

Pretend to tolerate you. I am suffering, but certainly not for the reasons you seem to think. I will find you, and you should think about what you are willing to bet on your idea that I won't. If not a period of reflection, then what do you offer?

[peasant]

[ pointedly, she refuses him an answer. her feelings toward the station and their purpose here is far from a topic she wishes to share with kirigan, of everyone here. ]

what do i have to offer? nothing but my own usefulness, according to you. you made sure of that.

[cruelyethuman]

Do not offer yourself to the orb.

[peasant]

those aren't the terms you proposed.
i'll do what i have to do. for now, you'll get your 12 hours of consideration while we try to find another option.
but i'm not staying out of every plan, no matter the risk, and especially not if things become dire.

[cruelyethuman]

Fine.

12 hours. You'd best not forget, Alina.

[peasant]

and if i do?
you can't do anything about it.

[cruelyethuman]

I'm sure it comforts you to think that.

[peasant]

oh, i don't think it. i know it.
looks like you're the one in the dark about secrets this time.

[cruelyethuman]

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