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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 8516050" data-attributes="member: 6816692">The case of Miller - Part 2          As the city walls of Alais Primos are constantly being watched by attentive guards, we sneak out of the city to use the veil of the night to get to the vision outside of the city. Especially as all the farmers would be fast asleep at this time of the day – or rather night. Kasvarina dons the Arc and we are heavily surprised, and also a bit shocked to be standing in broad daylight all of a sudden. Six large, blazing bonfires appear around us and one after another male Eladrin warriors appear, their faces pale in shock. We look around us and see bodies of numerous female warriors scattered on the ground, lifeless. And as we look up and see the dissolving, ashen outlines of a six-armed, huge Eladrin woman, we know that this must be the moment right after the Malice had happened.Kasvarina is in the center of the six flames, right underneath the image of the goddess, holding a charred, still girlish body, crying out in terror. Botch Auryn and Gabriels want to rush towards Kasvarina to care for her, but a strange presence draws each of them towards one of the flames. As we draw closer, we see that the flames are actually erupting from the fallen blades of Srasama. And as we draw close enough to the blades, the fires jump to our own weapons. This causes the resonance between the blades to collapse, leaving Kasvarina crying alone on a dark field while the cheers of victory emerge from distant Alais Primos and Asrabey watches silently and in awe.(Yep this just empowered our blades with the presence of two Blades of Srasama. As for the lingering Star of Dhebisu... it will get its moment of glory)While we still feel a hot presence running through our bodies, Auryn rushes to Kasvarina to look after her. But as soon as the quick blaze of Srasama's flame ends, Gabriel collapses as well, feeling a resonance of what had happened to him that day. Kasvarina is still devastated, mourning the death of the one she held in her arms. Auryn comforts both of them and reassures both Kasvarina and Gabriel that they lived their lives after this tragedy. She urges them to move to a safe place as well as the sudden burst of daylight in combination with two large armies might have alerted the guards of Alais Primos.And just as she thought, the citizens of the city appear to be joyous at the sight of the vision after a short, initial panic. We watch the city cautiously and see that some Clergyfolk proclaimed this vision to be granted by the gods to praise their past victory and remind them of their greatness, which is replies with joyous cheers.“So much suffering and all they can think of is their victory...” Gabriel scoffs, still holding his dizzy head.When Kasvarina shakes off her grief, she explains that she has never ever felt that much pain. Maybe Launga's death came close, but she was also fueled by a thirst for revenge on Latika and Rilego back then. Gabriel also recovers as he feels that this time, there would be no rebirth and no lingering sense of death or souls of recently deceased driving him mad. Still the memory reminded him of one of the most tragic days of his life.We agree to rest from this straining vision and set camp nearby. The next morning, we sneak into the city once again to see if there would be still a high level of alert. What we instead see is rather surprising: The celebrations of the night have continued and apparently someone called for a spontaneous, religious holiday to celebrate the coming of the Victory.We're a bit baffled but not too surprised to see that Crisillyir hasn't changed one bit regarding the Malice and that the biggest tragedy in the history of Elfaivar is reduced in complexity to simply the cheerful celebration of winning a war. Still we opt to seize the opportunity of the citizens' distraction to come close to the last memory site. We're still cautious as we suspect that this memory might just lead us to the core of the tragedy: the moment of Srasama's Fall.Both Gabriel and Kasvarina prepare for the worst, but when Kasvarina uses the Arc of Reida, an Eladrin army forms around us, with Kasvarina and Sor Daeron (who still has both of his arms in this period) in the center. The army is positioned at a distance to the wall of Alais Primos, and the city seems to be protected by a golden, glowing, magical sphere. Sor Daeron steps forwars and calls out to the Crisillyiri that he will kill their human prisoners one by one until a champion of the Clergy is willing to combat him one on one.We're not sure on the General's tactics, but to our disgust, he does order the execution of human prisoners of war right in plain sight of the city. And we hear screams of anguish coming from within the city walls. As the cries grow louder, the golden shield opens up for a tiny passage and a human Cardinal, Richelmont, comes riding outside alongside a small troop.But Richelmont doesn't answer Sor's demands, as he calls upon the power of his gods to conjure pillars of salt that disintegrate a few of the Eladrin soldiers. One of these pillars strikes Sor Daeron's arm who takes the loss of the limb without batting an eye.“Kill him! Kill that coward!”, Sor orders his soldiers and the cardinal doesn't last much longer.“So that's your champion? Look at him now, kissing the mud formed by his own blood! Soon you will all join him!” Sor shouts toward the city and its defenders.His words are met with panicking cries and in this moment, the golden shield begins to flicker and fade for a moment. Now we understand what this cruelty was all about and just in this same moment, Sor signals Kasvarina and a group of Eladrin soldiers to advance. They make a beeline for the small gap and manage to get inside before the shield is made whole again. This doesn't help them that much though, as the Eladrin are quickly outnumbered by Crisillyiri defenders and slain one by one until only Kasvarina is left standing. She fights against a group of Paladins and is then knocked out by a massive mace blow. But just as the Paladins are about to kill her, one priest orders them to stop and we see the familiar face of young Miller. He states that this should be enough and that they'd be better off with gaining information from a few prisoners than killing every last of the enemy soldiers. And that he may provide them with the information if they'd hand him the unconscious Eladrin.The memory fades and Kasvarina comes back to her senses, her mind still dizzy from the blow. We understand that this must have been the moment when Miller and Kasvarina had first met, but we also see that more than just a couple of Crisillyiri saw the vision of the shield and the advancing army, so we withdraw as quickly as we can. As this doesn't seem enough, Gabriel dares a short-distance teleportation effect which fortunately works as intended.We quickly talk about atrocities being committed at both sides during wartime, which is something that Gabriel Carlyle, Asrabey and now Kasvarina know too well. Auryn however feels as if the legacy of her people was tainted as she, too, has heard the stories of the heroic last stands of her people during the Defeat and the Malice.“Don't think that either side has clean hands. I've seen enough...” Gabriel starts and then whispers “and probably hand enough part in... all of this...”Asrabey on the contrast stays silent, being unsure about what to say.(and also these events happened way before he was born...)With heavy hearts, we agree to travel to the ruins of Pala next as we knew that Miller was around this place before his death, which would most likely warrant at least one visit of Kasvarina. Still we don't know where exactly to find Pala, so we kind of agree to turning to the most unlikely guide we know to have been in the ruins of the city: Rock Rackus.Carlyle isn't happy with the prospect of having Rock anywhere this ragtag group of psychologically unstable people (including probably himself), so he decides to ask a couple of people once we are in Orithea whether anyone might know the way to Pala. Once the rest sees what Gabriel is up to, we join him and follow a few breadcrumbs to the Clavel Ranch.(He'd do anything to not have Rock Rackus around. I'd honestly think that having to endure both Asrabey AND Rock at the same time would be the stuff of nightmares for Carlyle)The trail seemingly ends there as no one of the workers of this ranch claims to have heard of Pala. But we sense that these claims doesn't have too much truth behind them, so we stay for a little while. And when all of a sudden the ranch is attacked by a rabid Malice Beast, we of course do what we do best and defend the people of Clavel alongside one really potent fist-fighter named Pete.Pete thanks us for saving the local Axebeak population, a special breed the Clavel Ranch is famous for. He then carefully asks more about our background and as soon as he is convinced that we are no Danoran secret agents, but part RHC, part Eladrin nobility, he warms up even more. We are a bit baffled that Pete had thought that three Eladrin and a Deva to be Danorans, to be honest. But when he shows us his tattoo, the “Fist of Pala”, he has us all intrigued. Pete tells us about his band of brothers and sisters who wish to uphold the legacy of Pala, the lost paradise. He himself and his family left Danor to a place where people could be truly free (albeit in constant danger of a random Malice Beast attack). We ask him once again about the way to Pala, and this time he is willing to lead us to the city's ruins.Pete gladly takes us to the place and his most holy site: A pillar with an inscription that talks about brotherhood and a dream. Pete explains that this pillar inspired the Fists of Pala and that those who caused the fall of the city-state shall never be allowed here. We get that this inscription might be just tied to the Obscurati and are glad that the script inspired a wholly different group to do real, tangible good for their region. We thank the man for his trust and promise that he'll soon witness a vision of the past he'll probably never forget.Then Kasvarina uses the Arc of Reida and an older man sitting bench appears out of thin air. We see that this bench is the very same rock that got later erected as the lonely pillar in the ruins of Pala, and we also see that the city is engulfed in flames. Still the man casually sits on his bench and smokes a leaf of Nicodemus while the rest of the city's inhabitants are in panic and trying to flee with all they can grab while bunch of Crisillyiri madmen is on a happy murder spree against the “infidels”. And then we see Kasvarina approach the man, holding a blood-stained sword.She pleads with Miller to let go and flee with her as she can fight a way out for the two of them. She adds that this way, the two of them could survive – and live – together. That they may still have tomorrow and the day after waiting for them. That they may yet find their peace. But Miller just casually reads in his book, barely taking notice. He then tells Kasvarina that he will never have peace as Crisillyir will always come back to hunt him. But even if he dies now, the cycle will not be broken as he'll simply return in another body. Which is why she, not him, should make haste to flee and be safe.Kasvarina continues to talk to Miller and beg him to leave, but to no success. And as the Crisillyiri soldiers are finally approaching, she takes cover and the soldiers drag Miller away. The form a pyre from his scripts, tie him to a stake and burn him alive.The vision ends and Kasvarina is still in turmoil about the death of Miller. She talks about her helplessness in this situation, the despair she had felt and her furious anger towards the Crisillyiri. Pete on the other hand is astounded and in awe to see that man, who he knows to be the founder of Pala, be so unafraid while facing his death. Still he is very much surprised to see that Kasvarina, who was undoubtedly part of this vision, is looking almost the same after centuries. We explain that Eladrin don't experience age the same as humans and Pete seems content with it.Auryn feels Kasvarina's anger and as we talk about Miller's death, she states that no matter the cruel laws of Crisillyir, these people simply had no right to invade a foreign state in this no-man's land and kill their leader.“This is what they do. What they've always done. Waltz into foreign territory as if they owned and ruled everything, imposing their wretched 'justice' upon others who just wish to live their life in peace. Our hands are undoubtedly bloodied, but they are atrocious, merciless beasts. And we are right to never forget and never forgive.”, Auryn whispers.(Seems like most of Kasvarina's defining memories were cruel and we haven't come to the core of it all yet. No wonder she turned out to be unattached and cold.)We leave Pete with his new knowledge and discuss on where to go next. And as we see that the Crypta would be the “easiest” place to go next (since Methia is very much off limits), we understand that we'd need a thorough plan first. Carlyle isn't happy at all with the prospect of seeing “that demoness” once again and we are very much concerned that we may need more secrets to sell to her in order to get in and out in one piece.As our knowledge is quite delicate in nature, Gabriel and Auryn agree to take the matters to King Aodhan so he may judge the nature of secrets we may share with Ashima-Shimtu. So we send a sending to Delft that we'd need an audience with the King once we return from Orithea. Delft reminds us that he is no secretary, but he'd still ask for the audience since time seems an important factor.Once we're back in Flint, we visit Chatwood and see that she has grown a bit more accustomed to this new city. We offer her to work for the RHC as a Skyseer should she be interested in a new occupation and she returns that she'll seriously consider it once she has figured it all out. We then give a short report on our missions' progress to Delft before we continue our travel to Slate.When we are called to the audience, we are surprised to see that it is only with King Aodhan this time. Aodhan is a bit surprised to see Asrabey joining the crew, but we explain that he barely made it out of the Dreaming and might have a positive impact on Kasvarina and her memories as he'd been part of her memories for quite some time.(despite the serious lack of Asrabey in the recent visions. Still feeling pity for the man.)We also take the opportunity to formally introduce Kasvarina to Aodhan and our King appears to be pretty impressed by our deeds so far. He then returns to his roguish charm and asks whether we'd have more of this tasty veteran's elixir. We share a quick laugh, and Auryn promises to ask her mother whether she'd have more to spare.(that's the Aodhan we all love <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )We then tell King Aodhan about our plan to visit Ashima-Shimtu and stress out that we'd never give the demoness any secrets without the sovereign's permission. At least no secrets that'd be tied to our roles as agents of Risur, which would be those secrets she'd be most interested in. Asrabey and Kasvarina appear to be completely confused by our discussion, so we tell them all about our previous encounter with Ashima-Shimtu in the depths of the Crypta Heraeticorum. Also, we add that she already told us that we'd meet again so she probably foreseen it all to this day.King Aodhan explains that he'll need a moment to decide on which secrets would be safest to share with an ancient demon. When we suggest that she'd possibly know nothing about the Obscurati as the Geas and the divination shield would prevent her from seeing what they're up to, King Aodhan agrees to add knowledge about the Conspiracy to his list of possible secret candidates. He also agrees that this knowledge might be especially tasty since she does seem to know about Borne, but that he'd need to think more about the possible consequences.(and thus ends session 51. Where it seemed like the memories of Kasvarina were growing more and more grim despite not being at the bottom of it all. Seeing all of the Crisillyiri history gnawed at Carlyle's own memories, but I guess it also reminded him that he made the right choice to leave his home for good. Auryn however is a more mixed bag. She finally saw with her own eyes that her people could be just as cruel as the Crisillyiri, but then her previous beliefs were reinforced when she saw the culling of Pala. Miller is a completely different beast though and I guess that he is meant to be that controversial figure from the start. He is sympathetic, but cruelly flawed from the beginning. Unlike Kasvarina, who is portrayed with a righteous albeit misguided anger. We'll see a more thorough analysis from the view of Auryn and Carlyle once we get to that spire. I sometimes get an eerie Demona vibe from him, but unlike her, he managed to keep his followers and expand his influence through the ages. Also, he sees himself as an altruist while she is more racially driven. And while we haven't yet seen the whole story of Kasvarina yet, I'd leave this musical piece here. Stories not related, but the theme and lyrics fit her perfectly:[MEDIA=youtube]A5A1uAd2J9c[/MEDIA]Up next: Will Asrabey finally find satisfaction at the icy ends of the world?)</blockquote>

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