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Message: <blockquote data-quote="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 6499146" data-attributes="member: 83398">Shadow of the Colossus, part IIThe Constables chased Borne to the harbor. By the time they arrived, he had already been engaged by the Royal Fleet. The Constables heard the familiar voice of Harkover Lee in their heads. “The king could use your assistance aboard the RNS Coaltongue. Do you consent to be teleported?”The agreed and arrived in the midst of the battle. The King was performing his ritual, gathering fey energy to banish Borne to the Dreaming, using the ship’s magic capacitor to focus his ritual through the ship’s main weapon. Borne was wading through the fleet, closing on the king’s position, picking up ships and throwing them into each other. Just after the constables arrived, Borne shot beams of necrotic energy from his eyes. When the beams struck the Coaltongue, ghostly shadow creatures emerged and began advancing toward the king. The ghosts seemed to carry familiar faces of those who had died in the past year. The Constables convinced themselves that the faces were an illusion and that they were not actually destroying the souls of former Constables Mort Stark and Pablo Duende. When the apparitions wore the faces of former enemies like Caius Bergeron and Cardiff Hengehill, though, the Constables sought them out with glee. Borne continued shooting angry ghosts from his eyes even as the Royal Navy fired their guns at him and tried to cut off his approach towards the Coaltongue. Borne clearly had some idea what the king was up to, and was trying to stop him.The constables fought off wave after wave of ghosts as Borne sank ship after ship on his inexorable approach. The ghosts were draining the king’s power, and he looked close to failing his ritual when Borne finally arrived. The colossus, hip-deep in Flint Harbor, took two mighty swings with his fists, smashing at the king with his right hand and the constables with his left. Everyone survived the first attack, but another swing of his mighty fists would probably have crushed some people. However, the king finished his ritual and channeled it into the capacitor of the ship. Geoffrey Massarde aimed the ship’s main gun and released King Aodhan’s fey magic at the shadow colossus.Green tendrils wrapped themselves around Borne. He struggled against them, but they managed to wrap him up like vines claiming an abandoned vehicle. Borne lunged for the Coaltongue, but there was a bright flash of light and the 300-foot-tall mechanical man was gone. The rushed in to fill the void where Borne had stood, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of spring.King Aodhan thanked the Constabled for their help in protecting him while he banished the colossus. As the Coaltongue returned to port, it was greeted by the cheering throngs who had witnessed the defense of their city from shore. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Aodhan asked IronPeak to kneel before him. Harkover Lee produced the King’s ceremonial sword and handed it to the king. King Aodhan knighted IronPeak, and each of the other constables in turn, including Alienor and Colleen, though not James M. Chinast’s Remarkable Mechanical Hat. He had to draw the line somewhere.With their newfound titles and power (IronPeak estimated that the constables had been elevated from the 10th Level of Combat Effectiveness to the 13th, which could only mean something to a Martial Scientist), the Constables were in a position to affect the world on a larger scale than they had up until now. Within a day, the King sought their counsel. The Jierres had not showed up to the Peace Summit. Their ship was returning to Danor and Han Jierre had issued a statement condemning Risur for secretly constructing a “sorcerous machine of war and terror.” Jierre’s statement called out Risur for offering peace with one hand while holding the two most powerful war machines in the world behind its back. Jierre called on his people to prepare for war against their historic enemy. It was not a war of Danor’s choosing, but Danor would defend itself against the tyranny of Risur’s war machines.The King asked his new knights for advice. They all knew that Lya Jierre was part of the Obscurati and that the Obscurati had diverted Risuri military and industrial resources to build Borne. The intricacies of the situation seemed difficult to sell to a public that needed guidance in these troubled times. Aodhan didn’t think it was a good idea to bring up shadowy conspiracies that may have infiltrated his government. The people needed an explanation, and they needed an enemy. Danor was presenting itself as one. Would the Constables sign off on an official story that Danor had been behind the Borne Project, and that the Jierres had planned this all along to manufacture a casus belli? The Knight-Constables debated back and forth for a while, but finally came to an agreement with the king: let the blame lay with the Jierre family. Two of them were already known to be involved. Who knew how many more were in the Obscurati? Could it go all the way to the top?Later that week, Alienor took the opportunity to meet with Gale. Unbeknownst to her, Cazara and Summer also had a meeting planned with Gale for the same day. Gale had a busy appointment calendar. Alienor and Gale talked about their complicated past relationship. Gale had raised Alienor and the two had been lovers for a time. On Axis Island during the last war, Alienor had helped Gale escape at the cost of Alienor’s husband’s life, and Alienor wanted to make sure Gale knew that she ad been aiming for Lord Stark and not Gale. Gale said she knew. She told Alienor that she trusted that Alienor never missed, which caused some muffled giggling in the trees, as Cazara and Summer eavesdropped on the conversation. Alienor wanted to know what the future held for them now, and Gale shut her down, saying that what they had in the past was in the past and that she had no place for Alienor any more. Alienor asked for a favor before they parted. She was concerned that her daughter in Danor might get into trouble with the oncoming war. If she needed to get out, would Gale have a safe place for her? Gale agreed, saying that taking in lost girls was something she did on a regular basis, and that if Alienor’s daughter needed a place to hide, Gale knew a community of skyseer druids in the Cloudwood who could take her in.Gale and Alienor parted ways, and then Gale went to her meeting with Cazara and Summer, where Cazara inquired about Gale’s connection to the Vekeshi Mystics. Had Gale received any communication from them? Gale said she was disappointed in the relationship, as the Vekeshi seemed to be directionless at the moment. She gathered that there were no new orders coming from the top and the local cell of the Vekeshi Mystics seemed to lack the initiative to do much more than lounge about and/or have naked parties by the light of the full moon. Cazara asked about Gale’s intentions moving forward, with a potential war on the horizon. Gale said she would see how the situation developed, though her general enmity toward Danor and technology would guide her. Cazara asked if Gale and her organization would be available to help if needed, and Gale promised to work with her when it suited Gale’s agenda.The Knight-Constables of the Royal Homeland Constabulary spent the next month or so tending to the more mundane business of hiring new constables and getting settled into their new headquarters. Everything was settling down until Summer received a package from Elfaivar...</blockquote>

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