RP:A Changeling Doesn't Concern Herself With the Opinions of the Sheep

This is a Mage's Guild RP.

Summary: After a foolish decision to wipe out all Drow in Lithrydel, Magister Daath appears in Quintessa's office to inform her of the folly of her actions. Quintessa thinks rationally about the situation and agrees to stop poking at the hornet nest, instread focusing her efforts elsewhere.

Mage Tower

This room is huge, and the entire place is covered in blue and white marble, with many torches and eight pillars reaching up to the ceiling to reinforce the room above, and keep the tower standing. The columns are covered in mystical runes, probably magic to keep the pillars strong, making them able to withstand pressure that normally wouldn't be possible. In the center of the room, there is a spiraling staircase made of glass, and also inscribed with the same type of runes as the pillars, leading to the higher levels of this magical tower. Next to the stairs there is a small desk here with a sign on it. At the top the sign reads... directions for all new mages. There is a door to the south, and you now notice that it too, is covered in the strength giving runes, that leads outside and a door to the west leading to the dormitory, a place for young mages to rest after their studies here.

Quintessa crushed a clove cigarette into a glass ashtray before she leaned back in the chair she had brought to make her small office a little cozier. Her Compendium Toxicum lie on the desk next to the ashtray before her, almost finished. Between recruiting young mages and designing the curriculum for the Spellblade Corp, Quintessa barely had time to add to it, but she managed to gather all the information the Mage's Guild had to offer her on the subject and put it into her book. Thus, her third rough draft was finally ready to move on to the next step: the Healer's Guild. With a labored sigh, the young hex blade's mismatched eyes drift towards the window and her mouth turns down slightly in a frown. Quintessa had much more important things to worry about than how her book was coming along. The changeling had accidently slighted a Magister, and she knew she was at least instore for an earful when Daath finally caught up to her. The hex blades stands and nears the window to look outside, at the village that still buzzed with actively even as the sun went down. When was the last time Quintessa had seen Daath? She could not recall if he came to her commencement ceremony, the day she was promoted to Arcane Steward, but she knew for certain that he was there the day the Mage's Guild saw the end of the Razurath race. "Such bittersweet memories..." she mutters to herself before reaching for another cigarette, "Things were certainly simpler back then."

Daath appears within the halls of the Mage's Guild in such a manner that no one can recall ever seeing him arrive. Having such intimate knowledge of this location, the magus has means both magical and non to come and go as he pleases. Such is the benefit of being one of the masters of magic in this particular guild. He has kept tabs on things as he has ventured off to research and delve into magic better left outside these sacred halls of learning, and for the most part the drow noble had found solace in his quasi retirement. After helping destroy a race in its entirety, as well as establish a foothold for a resurgence in the Mage's Guild (And yes marry the Matron Mother of all the Underdark), the magister had grown tired. Things didn't need him to lord over them, pupils took it upon themselves (as they should) to push boundaries and test limits. And as his faux marriage quickly ran its course of usefulness, the master of the arcane did what he always wanted to do: Leave things be and go study magic. But, as peaceful as it was to be able to summon forth creatures from realms of madness, or recover relics of long forgotten empires, or figure out the transcripts of ancient rituals, it seemed that the realm was not yet ready to fully allow him to relax. One day, as he finished dealing with a particularly powerful pit lord of the chaos realm, a would be assassin tried ot take his life. Of course such is folly for numerous reasons. Drow are naturally paranoid and have set defenses for such things even at family gatherings, let alone while out alone on the surface. But a master of magic? The poor fool never even got his dagger fully out its sheathe before death took him. Thinking it a random happening, as such things can be, Daath tried to return to his work. But it seemed more wished to kill him, and not even because he was Daath, Magister of the Mage's Guild. No, they simply wanted to kill drow. And why didn they wish to kill drow? It took only a trip to Kelay Tavern to find out an apprentice of the guild had decided it best to open season on -all- drow. A pesky problem, to be sure, but one the magister knew had to be rectified for many reasons. And so, having found where she would be easily enough, Daath seems to simply materialize within Quintessa's office within the guild, which (funny enough) makes the magister laugh that arcane stewards now have offices, but truly to him it doesn't matter. He waits a moment, his own arcane defenses probing for possible traps, before he says. " It almost suits you, having a little quaint office, busily working to make the guild better. Sad, that so much energy had to be wasted playing silly games with a silly child like Gevurah."

Quintessa continues to stare out of the window for a moment even as the prickling sensation of her aura detecting a powerful magic user nearby alerted her of Daath's presence. The hex blade was expecting him, so why did his presence fill her with dread? "Magister Daath," the changeling answered only after he spoke to her and she slowly turns around to look him in the eyes. "It's functional," she says, the tiniest hint of a smile betraying her amusement. There were no traps set up in her tiny workspace yet, though the idea had crossed her mind. Thoughts of Lanlan returning here and disrupting her research kept her up at night. "As for Gevurah," Quintessa pauses to sigh and step forward to extinguish her clove cigarette. For a moment she thinks about the katana that hangs on her wall just behind Daath, mismatched eyes flickering up to it before returning to the Magister. "I admit, I was overzealous." She is of course referencing the bounty she had placed on all Drow, indiscriminately collecting ears. "But the feud between Gevurah and I isn't something I started. She's the one who tried to kill Master Kasyr and I."

Daath studies the woman as she speaks, watching her eyes move from him to other things about the room, but his gaze never wavers. Those scarlet orbs lock on to the hexblade as he says. "Her actions against Kasyr are foolish, and regardless of loyalties you should be smart enough to know when two opposing forces like that clash, you sit back and watch to see who wins, and play your hand accordingly. Kasyr could easily kill Gevurah, his plethora innate abilities and experience dwarf even her almost endless schemes and alliances. Polar opposites, one could say. Kasyr having carved a path to power almost by accident and sheer dumb luck, and Gevurah rising to power by being born into a family where others laid the foundation for her ascension." He pauses, but not for effect, but to laugh. Gevurah does have a way of swaying people to her side, even if they have no -real- need to be there. "You should have seen who would have killed who, and then killed the weakened victor yourself, but I digress. I have no qualms about that, I do have a warning for you though. Do not over play your own hand, especially when you play Gevurah's game. She -needs- attention. She demands chaos, she cannot live a life of contentment, and thus when no actual enemy is present she turns on allies to fill the endless void that plagues all drow. Gevurah represents drow culture in it's purest form. Like a ouroboros, her own actions and endless desires will have her eating her own tail eventually. Its why I parted ways with the child, for that is what she is. She may be a matron, but she is naught but a child playing adult with no supervision. She wields powers gifted from gods, and a rules a house made strong by more powerful and feared drow. She has an ego that demands worship, but no real way to make it happen, save surround herself with those that others fear. Our marriage was such a pact, and it allowed me into house D'Artes, to which I found a great emptiness. It is mighty, with resources and wealth as one would imagine, but what I sought was the legacy left by Tiphareth, of which he left nothing. And so I saw what it was. A playhouse, like all of the underdark is to her." His point is coming up, as he knows he is ranting. "She -needs- you to solidify -her-. Without something to make her -look- grand, mighty and powerful, she'll be exposed for the rather exposed and lacking child she is. The legacy left by Tiphareth and Keter are what keep the wolves of Trist'Oth at bay, its why calamity seems to befall the underdark time and time again. The leader of the city -allows- horrible things to happen to her people so she can stay in her house of cards. She runs around with Lanlan, oh yes I knew, because she is a school girl. Without the Mage's Guild the Underdark would have fallen. Without your aid, she would have failed to get that curse off. Without others, Gevurah withers in the dark halls of our ancestral home, while here you are, thriving on numerous fronts by -your- own actions. Do not be so naive as to play -her- game. In fact, do not even humor it. Leave her be and her attention will wane on to whatever else can sate her needs to self gratification, do you understand?"

Quintessa stares at Daath as he speaks, her mismatched eyes showing understanding as he explains in a different light things she only saw from her own perspective. A pale digit rises to tug at her bottom lip and she nods her head, agreeing with what he was saying. The stubbornness of her apprenticeship had yielded to a calmer, rational attitude in her Stewardship, and her willingness to sit a listen to reason had grown tremendously since taking responsibility for a vampire house. Quintessa understood that Daath's pool of knowledge eclipsed her own and that she would be wise to heed him. "Of course, she's been playing me all along," Quintessa couldn't deny she had fun playing with her, but the whole rivalry was a huge waste of her time. The changeling had many other things to do without getting caught up in Drow politics. "I won't be her source of entrainment and self-entification any longer. However..." Quintessa's gaze drifts away for a moment as she tries to remember a logistical detail about her armies in the Dark Forest. "Just because I'm going to remove this bounty doesn't mean that Gevurah is going to stop trying to kill me. Lanlan too. They've both made it clear that they want me and Kasry to suffer and I can't expect them to back down. Unless..." Quintessa looks hopeful for a moment as she looks up at the Magister, "Unless you deal with Gevurah and Lanlan. I'll agree to an armistice if she agrees to stop meddling in my affairs. Are these terms to your liking?"

Daath sighs and very clearly rolls his eyes as he shakes his head. " I just explained how one person tried to use others to do their own dirty work, and here you are hoping to get me to do yours?" A pity, he guesses he needs to work on his own pep talks for next time, as he feels he missed the mark a bit. " If you and Gevurah want to kill one another, by all means take your shot. Lanlan is crafty, for a coward who hides behind Gevurah's protection, but a -serious- threat? No. Not at all. Killing him serves me nothing, like squashing the bug, or swatting the fly. Gevurah, a devious snake with schemes within schemes is running out of actual allies. Can you name a truly powerful ally she can call upon to fight her battles now that Kasyr -and- myself are no longer at her beck and call?" Another sigh, as he says. "Get used to people trying to kill you, it comes with the territory of being someone vying for power. Not to mention, you're a twisted little one. You're not the paladin, or priest or noble knight. You'll gut the next poor soul who stood in your way to what you want just as quickly as you'd save them, if that was your fancy? Yeah? And you deal with darker arts. Such forces will always have something trying to kill you. So, the thing si you -know- Gevurah wants you dead. You also know the inner working of her death curse, so you cannot be wholly caught unaware by whatever she can throw at you. And Lanlan? He likes his parlor tricks, he is a talent illusionist, to be sure, but put you two in a dark ally, and I'd wager your blades would find his throat, even if he looks like a ten year old child. So, you have advantages and knowledge to ward yourself, or even go on the offensive if you truly wanted. -But-, thats just facing them alone. You waving around bounties for -all- drow just gives them validation to unite and storm the surface to cause chaos, which they love- so- much. And now you've increased the threat tenfold. So, no, I shall -not- be killing them -for- you if you want them dead, nor shall I act as middle man to settle whatever disputes you have. What you -will- do is handle this as you see fit, and handle it however you can. Your personal dealings are your own. Kasyr can storm in there and lop their heads off if he so wished it, however diminished his strength is, it is still considerable. Not to mention he is sheer dumb lucky at times. But that is also because he has nothing to really lose, does he? You, though, have many things aside from your physical body that can be attacked. You have a house, you have alliances, you have the guilds, you have your quests for power. These can be strengths, and they can also be targets. Too often many think a strength shall save them, but that supposed strength ends up being their own downfall. You wish to master the arts of magic? You wish to see the power it can bring? Magic will not, of its own will, save you or lift you up. You -use- magic to do that. So, are you going to let Gevurah be where your journey ends? Or will you continue to rise trhough these ranks and maybe, just maybe, stand next to me as a -master- of the arcane? Thats all up to you."

Quintessa feels the hope slip from her eyes, but what remains isn't a dejected girl, but a woman sure of her own conviction. Magister Daath was practically telling Quintessa that he felt she had the resolve enough to handle these things herself, it was just a matter of putting her on the right path. She had to finally grow up and stop expecting her teachers to do everything for her. Gevurah might be a bitter enemy until one of them were dead, but Daath was right; The conniving priestess had burned all of her bridges and stood alone. Quintessa had many allies she could count on if she truly needed it but not if she foolishly unified the Drow against her first. And Lanlan? He wasn't a threat at all as Daath had said. "I'm not going to let this be the sum of my efforts," she says, gesturing to her book, "My legacy is still in its infancy and it won't be snuffed out by some child Matron. So be it: I shall expect her dagger at my back at all times but she will not rob me another moment of time uselessly scheming and plotting against her. I have more important things to worry about- Like this Guild, for example. Many experiments go undone while I waste my efforts fantasizing about carving her up." The strange girl sighs, happy to have this burden lifted from her. "Thank you, Magister Daath, for helping me see this matter for what it truly is. It is a shame I didn't learn more from you earlier in my career."

Daath feels a bit of relief that she seems to have gotten something from this encounter. Time will tell, as it always does, if his words truly stuck or not. But, for now at least, the magus is content in the fact that she will be more careful in her decision making process. She was one of the few that are the future of the guild, and it is due to his loyalty and love for the guild (and magic) that he even took time to do this. As for her slight praise at the end, he simply says. "Thanks is not needed, so long as you truly take mastering the arts of the arcane serious. Be it studious teacher life style, like Odhranos, or elemental Queen like Satoshi, or adventurous wizard like Svilfon, or unstoppable force of darkness like Tiphareth, each is a viable pathway, but what matters most to -this guild- is that magic is protected, magic is respected and magic is pushed forward. I've done terrible -and- great things for magic. I've waged war just to test my magic, and played a key role in driving the wood elves from sage. I also helped Satoshi secure her kingdom from attacks. I've saved children, I've murdered children. I do whatever is needed to further magic, but even my own quests for arcane mastery never put the guild in harms way. So, do what you must, how you must do it, but always ensure the guild stays out of it. And that will ensure our paths never cross in a far more... devastating manner." And with that, he'd nods and take his leave, simply vanishing as quickly as he appeared.