RP:A Sage Chat

Part of the The God of Undeath Arc

Summary:Blue and Orange stop by Treehouse D'Chath to discuss the Guardian of Sage's notice about Quintessa. Tempers flare, but cooler heads prevail. Just an ordinary family discussion.

Treehouse D’Chath

Shishi and Leralynn step out of a black portal rended through space inside Sage Forest. There is a low thrum that is the sound of two Planes interacting with and exerting their pressure on each other. The gateway from Vailkrin through The Veil of Shadows closes behind The Blue Demon, his open left eye glowing red, while his right remains closed behind heavy scarring that doesn’t seem to be healing particularly quickly since the dragon blood incident during the Titans of Winter finale. The vampire sports a set of black horns sprouted from the edges of his forehead that curl backward to the sides of his head. The Orange Witch is in her usual necromancy attire of a dark, short dress with black pants underneath and has her own irises glowing red for a few seconds after the pair steps out of the portal, which then shift back to their usual oceanic blue shade. The father and daughter are spotted by a singular Sage elf whose reaction is likely colored by whether or not Magikrios has informed anyone of the planned meeting with The Titan of WInter or not. The teenage witch’s identity as a Quintessa Blackwell accomplice has reached across the length of Lithrydel while news of Shishi’s recent attack on Kasyr Azakhaer may not yet be common knowledge, so their reception may not be the the most welcoming one. Regardless, the forest inhabitant retreats to the nearby ranger’s camp to report Orange and Blue’s arrival. Shishi and Leralynn make their way towards the D'Chath tree house and once they’re underneath the structure The Blue Demon glances towards his daughter and asks, “Do we just go up?” He cups one hand around his mouth and shouts upward, “Yo!”

Luckily for Shishi and Leralynn, that Sage elf was also a member of the Unseen Hand, a trusted member of Magik's secret little organization that doesn't exist. As Blue and Orange make their entrance, the Unseen simply holds a finger to his lips to politely signal the two to remain quiet before he slips away quietly to give Magikrios the heads up. Once company arrives at the treehouse and Shishi draws enough attention to himself by yelling in the middle of the forest, an obnoxiously tall elf leans over the railing above the Vailkrin visitors. Magikrios points to a sketchy staircase that wraps up the tree to lead to the rickity looking entrace to Treehouse D'Chath. Magik disappears back inside to wait for his guests. Once inside, Shishi and Leralynn will find themselves in a dark foyer that leads to a massive open common area, dining room, and kitchen area. To the east, a swimming area along with a massive bar waits to entertain any guests that may find their way there. The west end of the treehouse, a long hallway with numerous doors to guest rooms with another spiral staircase that may or may not lead to the master bedroom. Magikrios can be found standing at the head of the long rectangular dining table, waiting to seat his guests. "Shishi. Leralynn. Welcome." The elder Lyastri can be seen wearing a Sound of Sirens t-shirt, simple black cotton pants, and fuzzy black slippers. He opens his hands to each vacant seat next to him, "Drinks?"

Shishi and Leralynn move slowly up the staircase and into the treehouse. The Blue Demon seems like he’s only half paying attention as he steps inside and shuffles into a seat at the table, as if someone or something were speaking to him inside his head. This coupled with the unusual horns of shadow on his head might be a bit unsettling to those who know that this is not typical for the vampire, especially if they’re somehow aware that this is the same new look that he was sporting when he attacked Vailkrin’s Castle. “Gwah~” He snaps out of it, “Aye. You have bloodwine?”

Meanwhile Leralynn has her arms folded at her chest and wears a resting witch face while she moves to the table, “No thanks. We’re not staying long.” She sits and immediately starts pulling leafs of paper from her enchanted messenger bag. When she has five sheets of varying degrees of being torn she waves them across the table at her uncle. “What the hell is this?” Shishi puffs out his cheeks, she’s diving right into it then. The Orange Witch flings the notices towards Magikrios. They flop and flap in the air and don’t make it very far, one drifting off the surface of the table in the process. The papers that land face up reveal that they are copies of Magik’s announcement of himself as Guardian of Sage Forest in which he denounces and bans Quintessa Blackwell from Kelay-Sage. The teenage half-elf has been tearing them down whenever she finds them posted.

Magik nods at Shishi and takes a few steps off to the side. He shuffles around in the kitchen for a quick moment to gather a super fancy wine glass and a fresh bottle of bloodwine from a small wine rack. After popping the cork off, he begins a nice slow pour, "Manufactured right in Vailkrin. Elven blood. Or.." He finishes the pour and examines the bottle, "Orc? Giant..I.." He walks back to the dining table and places the wine infront of his, uh, ex-brother-in-law? or whatever. "It's blood. It's fine." His attention quickly shifts to his niece and her direct question. Magikrios deeply sighs as she starts making a mess with the torn papers. "It looks like you vandalized property of Kelay-Sage is what it looks like." Magik finally settles into his own chair and waits until Blue takes a sip or gulp of the wine, non-chalantly examining his new fancy horns. He doesn't want Shishi spitting out the boodwine because of his next retort to Leralynn. The Lyastri smirks then asks his niece, "Jealous you haven't been banished from Sage as well?"

Shishi sinks in his seat a bit, sipping at the bloodwine given to him and letting his one open eye bounce back and forth between Magik and Leralynn. He remains silent and only slightly flinches when the Lyastri asks that question of Orange. The teenage witch’s eye twitches at the quip and she shoots a glare across the table that makes her looks so much like her mother, Aarika, that it might be startling. “I’m not kidding. I have just as much reason to be banished, aye. And why not? Because he-” she points at her father, “wouldn’t let it happen? Because I’m family? ” Blue shifts in his seat and raises a brow while she continues, “...but that’s not the point. This is disgusting.” She falters, hesitating before leaning back in, “Y-you should be ashamed! You and Khitti both. You call her sister, daughter.” Oceanic blue eyes narrow and the girl grits her teeth, “But now when she’s in trouble and you can actually help her, you all abandon her and pile on with everyone else. And for what? That thi-” She catches herself and corrects, “That mayor in Cenril?”

Magik does his best to keep his cool while Leralynn vents her frustrations. In a less tense situation, his smirk would have remained while looking to Shishi to get his reaction to his daughter's outburst. This is not one of those times. As Leralynn gives Magik a piece of her mind, his eyes start to burn furiously, his body starting to put off his familiar black smoke. When it's obvious Leralynn is through, Magik quickly stands up causing his chair to slide and almost falls backwards. He even slams a fiery fist into his dining room table for good measure. Hopefully Blue hasn't put his wine down at this point, "And you should be ashamed for assuming that I'm turning my back on her over the Valrae incident!" Magik furiously points a fiery finger to the west down the hallway, sending a quick little flare off of his fingertip down the long hallway, "I'm surprised Tessa's not in her room at this very moment!" After a quick huff, Magik returns to his seat. He takes a deep breath in and sighs. The black smoke dissipates as he keeps his eyes locked on Orange, "I'm disappointed she hasn't reached out to me. I haven't heard anything from her. Nothing. Nor Karasu. And that has me worried." Regaining his calm, he asks Leralynn a simple question, "Regarding my notice that you have so graciously torn down from everywhere, did you ever stop to examine the papers?" Magik leans forward and pushes one towards his niece, "Go on. Tell me what you see."

Shishi takes another sip of bloodwine and gets that look in his eye again like he is listening to a conversation that no one else can hear. Magik shouting back at Orange doesn’t earn any change in The Blue Demon’s demeanor, like he knows for certain that the Lyastri won’t harm her in this moment. Leralynn bristles, “If it’s not the Varae incident, it’s even worse! What else is it? The Trees? You weren’t there in Xalious when that thing, that -bug-, showed up. You didn’t -see- it! That’s what she needs our help with! That’s why she’s lost!” After his outburst, it looks like the Guardian of Sage refinds his calm, and the young necromancer does her best to match his energy, “Does she know that? That you’re worried? How could she?” She taps one of the papers on the table with two fingers, still too flustered to actually give them a good look, though she does take a stab at responding to Magik’s request, “I see you throwing your hat in with the rest of them and taking away a place where she should be able to be safe.” Probably not what he’s getting at, but it’s all she can see inside this fit she’s throwing. “Even if you don’t mean it, and you do want her to come to you…” again she slams one of the notices, “...this only hurts her.”

Magik cooly folds his arms across his chest as Orange rebuttals. Upon the mentioning of the big bad bug that has wrecked the lands in more than one way, he slowly shakes his head. His voice gets low and cold, "I was there before that, Leralynn. I was there when the chasm opened in Sage. I was there on the path to Vailkrin when another chasm opened and those thrall attacked me, Khitti, and Lionel. Were you there when Lionel disappeared in front of our eyes and there was nothing we could do about it because the thrall had adapted and quickly overran us? No. Where were you when Kasyr and I had to destroy an entire village before that damn bug could? We called it 'saving them'. We didn't save them. We gave the villagers a quick death before they could be turned to even more thrall for Lithrydel to deal with." Magik looks to Shishi for a short moment before returning his focus to his niece, "Kasyr and I took a chunk out of that -thing- so we could figure out how to kill it. We gave everyone else the opportunity to do so. So, yeah. I -was- there." That may or may not have been the first time Magik has told anyone about the necessary slaughter of villagers. It really was quick. Kasyr ended up enhancing Mag's abilities from above the village. Vaporized them immediately and singed off a huge chunk of bug for them to bring back to experiment on. It was a necessary and unavoidable evil. Did Magik mention the nightmares? Of course not. He's bottled it all up by now. It's fine. (It's not). Anyways. Magikrios ends up grabbing a notice that Orange has on the table. He holds it up, "Where would the last place be that someone would look given what is said here? Given my little threat as well? Here. In this forest." Magik crumbles the paper into a single hand and shows it off, "Quintessa is smart. Too smart for her own good at times. But. She knows me as well." With that, the announcement sets aflame and burns to a pile of ash rather quickly. As the flame dies out, Magikrios dumps the ash onto the table before him and picks through until he finds a small..something.

"Now. What worries me is the fact that Tessa -is- this smart and I haven't heard anything of her. The notice is a distraction. If what you say is true, and I do believe you, I will make another one taking back the banishment from this territory, apologize, etc." He then looks back up to Leralynn, holding a small charred piece of parchment shaped like the outline of a hand. "This, my dear niece, is -my- message to her. This means 'come find me.' And she hasn't." Magik sighs again and leans back into his chair, "My next step is going to find her myself, but because you two wanted to speak, I had enough respect to do this first."

Shishi finishes his glass and sets it onto the table, the Titan solely focused on Magikrios now as he details his own encounters with Caluss and his minions. He takes the look from the former vampire to be meant as a way of extending that question to himself. Where was The Blue Demon during all of that? He’s kept himself out of this thing revolving around ‘The God of Undeath’ up until now. The danger of his status as an undead creature himself has made him cautious. The risk of being forced to participate on the other side, as the ghoul Kanna was previously, is too great in his eyes and outweighs any possible good he could do. Things are beginning to change though. Who knows what the near future might bring. Leralynn frowns at her uncle asking where she was. She’s acutely aware of her limitations and just as ashamed of them, so she doesn’t offer up any response. Then he explains his hidden meaning behind the notice and the girl frowns even deeper, “A-aye…” She feels exposed and terribly foolish now, and then Magikrios lays it on even thicker, exposing the symbol hidden in the ashes, but she’s also happy and relieved, though her expression doesn’t show that. The wild mix of sudden emotions wells up and tears start forming at the edges of her eyes, “I didn’t know… I’m sorry. I thought… I didn’t think…” She trails off, unable to even find the words.

Meanwhile, Shishi is smiling at the entire performance from Magikrios. There was a reason he hadn’t come into Sage with the same monstrous hostility as he had in Vailkrin for Kasyr, and now we see that confidence in his oldest Lithrydelian friend (and perhaps oldest friend in general) has paid off. The red hue in his one open eye fades away into the usual oceanic blue of his family and the shadowy horns on his head melt away to nothing as he stands from his seat. It’s almost as if that threatening presence was only put on for Orange’s benefit, and now that she’s been shown that Magikrios Lyastri is the man Blue already knew him to be, that charade is no longer necessary. “Thanks Magik. If we see her first, we’ll let her know too.”

Leralynn sits in her seat stunned, looking back and forth between the two men, her father already walking towards the treehouse exit. She wants to follow, but can’t, remaining frozen in that seat. She’s already apologized, but still feels she hasn’t done enough…

Magik softly smiles at Leralynn, "You are your mother's child for sure." In comes Veneficus D'Chath, teacher at the Mage's Guild. Magik shifts his attitude to a more pleasant one, "Take a few breaths, kiddo. Calm your mind. I know this was a lot to hit you with." As Shishi stands and his features return to normal on his way out, Magik makes the comment while holding the charred handprint towards Leralynn to hopefully break her from her frozen state, "Thank you both. Please give this to Tessa if you two find her before I do. Don't lose it, no questions, and this stays between us, yeah?" Magik stands once more and places his hand on Leralynn's shoulder, "Mistakes happen, kiddo. You were brave to come here and confront me directly, I'll give you that." There's a soft tap on Orange's shoulder before Magikrios takes Shishi's wine glass and heads towards the kitchen, "Now, it's your time to shine, Leralynn. Perhaps some redemption? Stay safe, both of you."

Leralynn takes in a deep breath and rubs the tears out of her eyes onto her shoulders and upper arms while Magikrios evokes her mother. “Aye… Sorry.” It is often the case that there are other women that she would prefer to be compared with than Aarika, but right now, after all this, she finds great pride in being likened to Red. Orange blinks at the handprint symbol and reaches out to take it into her right hand as she finally stands. “I understand.” It was a lot of information to take in all at once. What that emblem means hasn’t even really sunk in yet. The teenage witch looks at her uncle and lets out a sincere, “Thank you. I will… We will.” At its most basic description, this trip was a recruiting mission to make sure Quintessa had people standing with her besides Shishi, Karasu, and Orange herself. Turns out it wasn’t even necessary, but she’s leaving the treehouse happy. A bit embarrassed for calling out Magik, but happy nonetheless.

The half-elf girl joins her father and he taps his hand to the back of her head, ruffling blonde hair a bit while looking back towards The Guardian of Sage and offering one mode knowing nod of thanks. “Lets go get some waffles, er… donuts? What do you eat?” Leralynn swats at her father after his question, missing on purpose.

The last thing either of them say before they’re outside the treehouse is “Pancakes.”