RP:Grand Theft... Moon??

This is a Mage's Guild RP.

Part of the Lies Within Us Arc

Summary: With Haladavar out of commission, but Odhranos missing, it falls to Ernest to take command of the operation and put the final nail in the rest of the Ossian Order. But what kind of display might the Mage's Guild be able to pull off that could break their will to fight?

Mage's Tower

Highest Remaining Floor

Ernest had just had a heck of a time explaining to one of the healers what he needed done. It’s amazing the kind of communication difficulties one has when one cannot speak and has no paper around to write on. Fortunately, he’d been able to get his curse broken--and once that was finished, he just needed a moment to gather up some negative energy to turn into shadows, with which he could use a shadow portal to very quickly retrieve a particular item that could do the same thing but faster. It was a good thing they had this lull that he could use to replenish his magical energy, because without it this next part was going to be pretty much impossible. He marched over to where the others were gathered around the archmage’s body, boots clinking ominously as he approached--not for any specific reason, he just liked to think of himself as fairly ominous in general. His head tilted at Odhranos’s apparently lifeless body and the mummy casually flicked his “detect corpse” spell in its direction with a gesture--but then did a double-take and tilted his head. Odd. But, whatever, he could work with it. “Right,” he announced, loudly enough to grab everyone’s attention. “If yer all finished bellyachin’ like a buncha whiny sissies, we got a score ta settle. In case y’ain’t got th’ memo, lemme get y’all up ta speed. We won th’ battle, but the Ossians out there ain’t gonna jes’ quit bein’ a problem, ‘specially if word gets out that yer boss here went and kicked th’ bucket in th’ process of makin’ a martyr outta ol’ Halibut. I was hired specifically ta come up with a way of makin’ it crystal clear once an’ fer all that Odhranos is the archmage, an’ that’s exactly what we’re gonna do. As th' man with th' plan, I'm assumin' operational command startin' now. So put yer big kid pants on, quit yer hysterics, an’ do what I tell ya, fast, or y’all ain’t gonna last a week in this here tower.” He pointed to the arcane observatory that Haladavar had been using. “We’re gonna use their own tools against ‘em. Quintessa, get that thing put back together an’ pointed at th’ moon. You’re smart, figure it out. Spellblades, clear th’ rubble, we’re gonna need th’ space. Khitti, an' you," he pointed to Lanlan, having noted the man's talent for illusions, "I need you ready to back me up on this ‘cause I ain’t a hunnerd percent certain I can do it all by myself, so if you gotta meditate or drink a potion or somethin' ta restore yer magic, now's th' time."

Quintessa had only started to examine Odhranos by the time Ernest made his approach, her mismatched eyes flickering over to the Sceleratus with curiosity. She stood, allowing Ernest to finish speaking before she gazed over at the arcane contraption he meant for her to repurpose for their goals, a little unsure if she trusted his judgement. “Their god is dead.” Quintessa stated firmly, turning to look at Ernest in the eyes. “Without leadership their ideology has nothing to hold it together- no strongman to follow into oblivion. They are routed, they know it- and this thing…” The warlock paused to approach the device, long fingers already tracing over the detailed structure to surmise how it worked. She -could- get it working again, the concept was simple enough, but did she really want to point it at Arh’Nuk again? “I can make it work, yes, but if you expect me to point it back at my moon without explaining to me what you are planning you are sorely mistaken. To even suggest such a thing- it borders on sacrilege!” She turned away from the device to face the group, mismatched eyes focusing on Odhranos again. “Our focus should be getting our Archmage safe and breaking the code of that soul cage. Let the Ossians escape with their lives while they still can.”

Khitti narrowed her eyes at Ernest and the things he said, but ultimately sighed, stood up, and brushed herself off. “Fine,” she said cooly, waving her hand to summon up a temporary protective bubble of light, and then one of shadows, around Odhranos’ body with the little bit of magic she had left--who knows how long they would last. Energy crackled like electricity in the space between the two shields as she stepped away, eyeing the mages, trying to figure out who might have leftover potions. “Oi, you!” The redhead pointed at the nearest spellblade. “Give me all the magic restoratives you’ve got.” Once it was handed over and she chugged them all, Khitti withdrew her swords as she readied herself again, each one erupting with their respective magicks. “They need to be wiped out, Tessa. If we don’t, someone will find a way to take the lead and we’ll have to deal with it all over again. We’ve already lost enough and they have to pay,” her words were stern and dripping with malice, though not for the changeling. “-All of them.-” It hadn’t taken long for the switch in her head to flip from grief to anger. She knew Ernest was right of course, but for once in her life she wished she could have the time to actually grieve over her friends and family that died. She never could. She always had to keep moving. And by time she was done, no grief remained. Only anger and loneliness. “Arh’nuk’s power will be meaningless if they manage to rebuild their ranks and try to wipe us all out again. Odhranos will have sacrificed his life for nothing.”

Lanlan was having a pleasant experience having his eyesight restored. Very uncomplicated. It was just like having a really serious sunburn, only on the inside of your pupils. “How many fingers am I holding up?” Inquired his doctor, who was holding up several fingers. But Lanlan couldn’t see them. Slowly he rose to his feet to behold what had just transpired. The Mage’s tower, half destroyed. The meditation room below them is in some kind of suspension, orbiting around an invisible center. Odhranos, lifeless on the ground… Experiencing it again with his own eyes, it’s jarring. “He saved us,” Lanlan mumbles, “Does that make it worth it…?” His moment is interrupted by Ernest. Lanlan turns his gaze on him sharply, “Who are you that presumes to give orders to -me-! Odhranos, my friend, is gone! You’d think I could get a moment to grieve without having to stop and clean up the mess of...of a fool in search of...more power.” He resigned in that moment, having a quiet realization. “Alright I’ll do it. Whatever needs to be done I’ll do it. I’m ready.”

Karasu was still in the despair part of her grieving process. Her hysterics had stopped, but tears still flowed freely, cleaning the blood from the lower-half of her face and staining the cobblestone below. Magikrios pulled her up to her feet and gave her a quick squeeze of the shoulder before departing downstairs to make sure that Ossians were encroaching on the makeshift healing station. The demifeline did not question Ernest's order. Rather, her racing mind welcomed the instruction that would force her to take her eyes off of the Archmage's lifeless body. One calloused and cut hand extended in front of Karasu to wordlessly cast a spell, but the mana did not flow. "V-V-Vent-tus." She whispered hoarsely. A breeze from the shattered windows of the observatory carefully made its way around the floor, sweeping glass and detrius out of the brass frames. Faint cries of pain could be heard from below as the debris rained down on the congregating Ossian Order members, but it brought no joy to her. The spell tapered out, and Karasu's arm fell down, hanging limply by her sides. "Khitti is right." She said, before turning to face Quintessa. Karasu's eyes were bloodshot, an open gash was just beginning to clot on her hairline, and blood still dripped from the glass embedded in her palms. A darkness not since seen since the pair's fight in Cenril hung in her red-violet eyes. "How many more people are going to die if they're allowed to regroup? Once they've retreated, they will celebrate the death of Odhranos as a just punishment for ridding the world of Haladavar." Her head lowered with each venom-laced statement. Embers flickered from behind her fanged teeth as she hissed, "I won't allow that."

Ernest did not have time for mutiny right now, but fortunately Khitti was taking his side. He offered her a brief grateful nod for explaining his position to Quintessa, then continued: "Their god is dead but they got th' know-how ta try again. Cain't underestimate folks like that, 'specially not when we got th' tools to make sure they DON'T try again. So we're gonna make sure they never point somethin' like this at th' moon ever again, right now, by givin' 'em a magical flex unlike any other. There ain't gonna be any harm done ta 'yer' moon, don't worry, we jes' need access to it an' I don't think any one of us has th' juice fer somethin' like that unassisted." To the one who inquired who he was, he said simply, "Like I said. I'm th' one with th' plan. Th' one your friend hired me ta come up with. Don't y'all worry about Odhranos, he ain't dead." That particular bombshell he just sort of dropped rather casually, and when presumably he was met with a bunch of blank and disbelieving stares, he gestured at the body laying on the ground. "I hit 'em with my corpse-location spell. That ain't a corpse. He's only mostly dead. Soul's prolly jes' missing. Someone oughta find that when we're finished." With that, he frowned. He hadn't anticipated for Khitti to put a shield around Odh's body--that was going to make this a mite complicated. Not impossible, but complicated. He gestured, using some slight terramancy to carve some runes on the floor around the archmage, inside the barriers which had been set up. A snap of his fingers activated them, creating a dome that would redirect magic that touched it--and then another gesture widened the circle, shoving the barriers aside, dissipating them from the inside rather than outside. Ernest murmured something under his breath that only Khitti was close enough to hear, and then abruptly collapsed in a heap like a puppet whose strings had been cut. (Ernest whispered to Khitti, "Trick me inta bein' th' hero anyhow, eh Odh? Well, at least I get ta be a villain about it.") There was a faint, cold breeze that shot across the room from Ernest's body to Odhranos's, and then, with a gasp, the Archmage opened his eyes and leaped to his feet, patting himself down all over as if checking to make sure everything was there. As he did so, a small metal object fell out of his breast pocket and rolled across the floor to land at Karasu's feet. "Woo!" he said--though immediately those closest to him might notice something off about his voice. It was his voice--but the tone was... very familiar in other ways. "Ain't that somethin'. Almost fergot what havin' real skin feels like." At the now probably shocked and horrified stares he was getting, he put his hands on his hips. "What? He ain't usin' it, but we gotta make it look like he's doin' th' flexing. Besides, somebody's gotta keep it fresh while ya locate 'is soul. My shell ain't actively decomposin', I'm obviously th' guy ta do it. Now are we gettin' on with winnin' this war or not?"

Odhranos gave 1 Alexandrite Heart-Reading Compass to Karasu.

Quintessa shakes her head at Khitti and Karasu’s words, remembering what she and Odhranos had talked about on the beach in Cenril. “No, you’re wrong. You’re both wrong. This isn’t what he wanted. Odhranos wanted to shed as little blood as possible. He wanted to come in and stop Haladavar so that all those who he had led astray could be saved too. If I kill them all I would be betraying the Archmage’s wishes… I cannot do this. Let the Ossian Order fade into obscurity as they did when Haladavar was frozen in amber.” Quintessa glanced back and forth between Khitti and Lanlan, her denial still making her believe Odhranos still would come back. “He’s not dead.” she states flatly, staring down at his lifeless body. “We need to put his body in Gentle Repose… give us more time…” Doubt was starting to creep into her mind, but she was not ready to accept the possibility. “...time to fix this. I’ll contact House Mahara- get the other Provectus Malus to work with us… Yes, he’ll know how to put him back together…” When Ernest confirmed what she was already thinking her mood lifted, her hand raising to point at the undead. “See! What did I tell you? My hypothesis was corre-” Quintessa paused, stopping her sentence when she saw Ernest’s body drop lifelessly to the floor only for Odhranos’ body to spring to life with the likeness of the cowboy speaking through him. The changeling’s finger slowly curled as she shuddered. “Possession.” Now she had many experiments she wanted to conduct on Ernest in her mind, but those thoughts would have to wait on the backburner. She cleared her throat, getting back to the matter at hand. “If it’s a show of power you want, why don’t I just point this thing at the door and wait for them to show up? After I obliterate the first wave they won’t press an attack. If we are lucky they will surrender as soon as they see their own device aimed down their throat. Just because we -can- kill them doesn’t mean we should, we just have to show them we can. Intimidate them.”

Khitti raised a brow at Ernest’s whispers, squinting at him as he went about his business. After a few moments--and after the Not-Odhranos said some very Not-Odhranos-like words--the Mistress of Shadows just smirked with obvious amusement and was very clearly impressed. “Possession? I’ll have to add that to your file at the Necromancer’s Guild. And you could’ve just said something about the barriers, y’know.” She eyed his mummy remains for a moment, before moving to circle around Ernest. “Fascinating,” she said, ever the curious sort. With a nod of her head, she took a step back, giving him some space. “Let’s get this over with. If I don’t come back and bring some “phoenix” nuggets with me for my kid, Lithrydel’s gonna have a whole lot more problems than the Ossian Order.” Never get in the way of a three year old, with both elemental and black tides magic, and his nuggets. She sighed at Quintessa’s pleas and argument. Somewhere inside of Khitti, she knew the changeling was right: killing them all was not Odhranos’ way. “Fine. But now I’m gonna have to find something to kill on the way home.” The magic on her swords went out, and the weapons themselves resheathed. She took a second to think things over, eyeing Not-Odhranos first, then Lanlan. “Ah!” She snapped her fingers and grinned. In a similar fashion as the one she’d used to create Emilia’s new hand, shadow-ice was summoned up, taking the form of a skeleton. Soon after came the shadows to form the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, then another layer of ice, and finally one last layer of shadows to give it that lovely creepy aesthetic. The beast, now that it was whole, resembled Khitti’s tikifhlee, right down to the purple eyes. It let out a roar--which was really just the sound of the ice crunching and breaking and reforming within it--as Khitti hopped atop its back, shadowflames pouring out of the giant sabercat’s mouth. “Okay. I’m ready.” There might be a bit of innocent eye-batting.

Lanlan knew the plan, and knew that Odhranos wasn’t dead. Knew that he was just...gone. Irretrievably, gone. And if he wasn’t, irretrievably gone... then neither was Haladavar...and that would make this sacrifice all the more confusing. What cleared nothing up, was when Ernest decided to possess the Archmage’s soulless body. “Odhranos…! How!?” But when the body spoke it dawned on him. Lanlan produced a glass wand from his sheath to his fingers, and pointed it directly at Ernest, in the archmage’s body. “No, you can’t do that. That is… repulsive,” he said shaking the wand unsteadily, “Unsavory. Just disrespectful! You will not parade around using my friend’s body like some puppeteer!” He took a breath just to huff it back out through flared nostrils. “There are better ways. And you know it.” Could Lanlan destroy Odhranos’s body? It would be better than seeing it used like this; how Lanlan’s own body was used. But could he do it? His wand wavered… but not his conviction, and he pointed it instead at the currently dispossessed corpse. To his surprise, not everyone seemed to think like he did. “Have you all gone insane!? We can’t allow this!”

Karasu had her back turned to Earnest when the revalation was dropped harder than a giant in a dwarven pottery shop. Her head snapped to look at the mummy so quickly that her hair whipped with it to leave bloody curl streaks on a nearby guild member. "Not..." She started to echo his statement, but before she could get the second word out, Ernest had changed bodies. Seeing the vulgar accent come from the Archmage's mouth made her lip curl in disgust. "Ugh." A slight thump against her boot drew her attention off the nightmarish sight, but what she saw instead almost renewed her crying again. A golden locket no larger than her hand lay at her feet, with a polished alexandrite stone reflecting the morning sun into Karasu's face. Quickly working, Karasu hissed as she plucked the larger glass shards from her palms, then patted the blood off against what clean areas of her clothing were left. The demifeline kneeled and carefully scooped the mememto she had given Odhranos. It seemed like a different lifetime, one before she knew the truth behind her training, and before Odhranos becamed burdened with the care of the guild in Brenwyn's absence. Tears threatened her eyes as she gingerly presses the latch, revealing the compass inside. A red arrow made of pure mana illuminated the remaining shadows of the rooms as it pointed away from the observatory. Karasu's brows furrowed as she dug into her pockets, revealing a matching compass with a garnet stone in place of the alexandrite one in her opposite hand. A flick of the thumb, and her own compass opened with an identical arrow manifesting, pointing directly at the warlock backtalking Ernest from the telescope. "This..." Karasu looked up, her eyes wide. "His compass is still working!" She exclaimed. Her excitement waned. Wouldn't this just lead her to Iintahquohae if it's directive had not changed? Directing her attention to her own compass, she made a quiet plea. "Take me to Odhranos." A disgusted look is given to the flexing Not-Odhranos. "The real one." The arrow disappated, and Karasu shut both compasses as she turned her attention to her girlfriend. "Quintessa. If Odhranos trusted..." Her eyes flickered to Not-Odrhanos and back. "That. With the contingency plan, and wanted to show mercy, let's obey his wishes." Karasu strode up to Quintessa with her head held high, though the tear streaks and drying snot made her look more pathetic than intimidating. Her attention shifted to Lanlan. "That display makes me want to throw the hell up, but if showing them Odhranos' quote unquote living body is the only way to make them step down, we don't have many other options." Looking at not-Odhranos, she spits, "But YOU get back in your regular ugly body the second it's done. You're freaking us all out."

Ernest contorted Odhranos's face into a lip-curled snarl at the continued resistance to his plan. This was what he was hired to do. Convince the Ossians they were wrong. And he needed that moon beam, and Tessa was the one most equipped to handle it. "If ya point it at 'em and obliterate their first wave, that ain't doin' what Odhranos would want either! My plan kills nobody, it don't harm yer moon, it's basically guaranteed to crush any morale they got left, -Odhranos paid me real well fer it- an' yer sayin' this ain't what he wants? It's -his own goldurn plan-! I made it FOR HIM. Fix th' machine an' get it pointed at th' moon before they mobilize!" To Lanlan, he had to take a moment to stop himself from grinning, but said, very quietly, "You smash me, yer friend's got nowhere ta go. I'm sure we can get 'im back, but you gotta not panic right now an' do what I tell ya, which," he walked over to his body, fished around in his pockets and retrieved an orb from his longcoat, then tossed it to Khitti. "involves makin' that orb look bigger." To Khitti, he said, "Be ready ta catch what I throw at'cha, inta that orb there. It'll be A LOT so make sure yer really prepared." And to Karasu, he actually did grin. "As soon as you got yer archmage back, I'm as good as gone."

Quintessa didn’t respond to anyone right away, only silently considered the moment before climbing onto the arcane laser and beginning work on fixing it, pointing it directly at her patron moon like she had been directed to. “I’m trusting you,” she added reluctantly, pulling her goggles down to aid her in following the magic circuits and reconnecting them. “If this damages Arh’Nuk any more than it already has then I will finish what the Spear could not.” That thinly veiled threat wasn’t an empty one either; few things were as precious to the changeling as the little sister of Vaalane, the red satellite she occasionally prayed to, and anything that threatened it was offensive to her. After a moment the device was restored, arcane energy causing a slight hum as the runic engravings began to glow a faint white. “It’s operational… I think. The sigils are written in some elvish offshoot I can barely understand but I am certain I can get the mana beam cutter to activate.” She exhaled slowly, giving a nod at the Ernest-in-Odhranos-body. “On your order.”

Odhranos ||From the mountain pass, the sounds of angry chanting bounces and rolls up the narrow canyon of rock, as magelight flares arc upward over the peaks. Delayed by Frostmaw’s army long enough, the body of the Ossian forces had been taken by surprise when their supposedly impregnable barrier was shattered by some heathenous attack from the North. Surely more trickery from these frosty heretics. Unable to disengage from the northerners harrying of their border, the Ossians were only now making their retreat, largely unaware of what had happened within Xalious. Crushing gravel beneath her boot and spitting a wadge of phlegm to the ground, Yvin Vorsar stamps over the ridge and is greeted with carnage. Their most holy Sanctum, invaded, defiled by these nonbelievers! She watches the tendrils of smoke as they pirouette around the stone tower, and her mouth fills with the bitter taste of iron. “HERESY!” She screams, her voice raw with unhinged anger, and behind her, similar shrieks and roars of anger and disbelief ripple down the canyon. “They DARE challenge our God!? He Who Stands Above All!?! DEATH! DEATH TO THE HERETICS!!!” Near gibbering with unbridled rage, her arms erupt into searing white-hot flame, and with the sheer force of her incandescent fury, she launches from the ground, a comet of righteous retribution, while behind, her fellow believers charge by foot and by flight towards their tower.

Ernest rubbed his hands together and faced the machine as it came online--and not a moment too soon by the sound of it, as he could hear the Ossians approaching rapidly--peering into it with the help of a Hand he summoned to do the gazing for him, and then up at the moon. "Right," he said, and concentrated, holding his hands out. "Fun fact about shadows," he added, and reached out to every corner of the room, dragging every bit of darkness into his hands. "They're essentially an object's way of sayin' 'I reflect light'." As the machine's power began to surge towards the moon, the cowboy flung his beam of darkness into its own beam, tossing it like a lasso, hurling a thin bolt of darkness heavenward in the blink of an eye. "So if an object ain't -got- a shadow," he grunted as the little tendril of darkness made contact with the massive heavenly body--oh man was this going to be a lot--and went taut, "then light don't mess with it." He shifted his grip, and adjusted the beam of light that shot out of the machine as well--and that beam latched onto the red glow from Arh'nuk. "But all that light's gotta go somewhere--so why--not--right--HERE!" And then Ernest PULLED with all his might, tapping into every ounce of strength he could muster, using the energy of the machine, Odhranos's own physical mana reserves, the darkness and negative emotions towards him from pretty much anybody in the room--and ripped the shadow off of the moon, stealing it entirely. The dark side of the moon just seemed to peel away and flood down the machine's beam of light--and the beam of light was also retracting as Ernest bent it to his will, dragging with it the moon's glow. As if the entirety of Arh'nuk was liquified and poured down a drain, Ernest pulled the entire imagery of it down and down through the sky, and separated it into light and dark, holding each in a blindingly concentrated orb in his hands, holding them spread apart as far as he could. There was nothing physical in his hands--just imagery--but it was a massive amount of imagery to contain. The energy howled around him like a black-and-red whirlwind as he fought to contain it--and then he remembered that he didn't have to do this alone. "Khitti!" he shouted. "The orb!" Turning to face her, he slammed his hands together--and the spheres of light and dark collided with a brilliant flash that lit the entire sky, and a streaking bolt of red flew towards the orb--imprinting on it, overwriting its natural imagery. If Khitti and Lanlan couldn't help him contain it, it'd spell disaster--but with the three of them together, he was certain they could manage to pull it off. Ernest couldn't help but let out a wild "Yeeeee-hawwwww!" as they fought to contain the light and shadow from the entire moon in this small space. "We're doin' it! We're STEALING THE MOON!"

Khitti shadowstepped off of the shadow-cat, sending it off to help deal with the Ossians as she took the orb and held it aloft, allowing the light and darkness to pour into it. She used her own light and dark magic as a way to try to stabilize the orb, both hands engulfed with one type of magic each as they grasped the orb. The two magicks acted as if they were magnets, repelling one another, fighting against each other as Khitti tried so hard to keep them contained. What she wouldn’t give for a third type of magic right now. If only she had Meri’s psionics, she’d be able to use telekinesis to force it all together. The redhead gritted her teeth. The magicks sparked and flared; to be in this close proximity to it, well… everyone had seen what had happened to Haladavar’s body earlier when it was hit by Khitti’s shadow-light orb. The pain of it all grew and Khitti tried so hard to focus. The flares and sparks left scorch marks here and there, both on the floor and Khitti herself. How long was this going to go on for?

Lanlan can’t believe what he’s hearing! “Karasu, no. People can’t just take other people’s bodies to use them as they see fit and then discard them like trash when they’re done! There must be laws against this!” Must there be? Who would’ve thought to encode that into law. “...Right…? It...it doesn't matter. It’s wrong.” But Lanlan couldn’t exactly fight him if everyone else in the room was on board. He’d need back up. He blinks and flourishes with his wand, pouring his magic into an ethereal construct. It takes up a fluid form, becomes humanoid, grows familiar clothes, and then speaks. “Excuse me, but I think you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you,” said an illusionary duplicate of Odhranos, doing a decent emulation of his voice too. “Would you perhaps take a nice cup of tea, instead?” And the new non-Odhranos poured the first non Odhranos a non-cup of non-tea. Lanlan takes over from here. “Like I said, there are better, less…-intrusive- ways.” But now it seems...there’s no time for this. The cavalry is at the door, and not to help him. He allows the illusion to dissipate, returning to dust and wind. And now what’s happening? Moon theft. Definitely another crime. Watching as Ernest drew in copious quantities of unstable energy, Lanlan grew fearful. Could he help? Of course! What was illusion magic if not the subtle manipulation of lights and shadows. Should he help? He hesitated. “I -have- to help,” answering his own thoughts as he casually unfolded a pair of blackout sunglasses. “I have to, or else my friend’s body will disintegrate.” He engaged the massive unstable power with his wand, using his magic manipulation to halt flares in their tracks, forcing the tendrils of volatile shadow to wrap back into itself. Then he flexed his hand toward it, manipulating the solar flares into similar tendrils, and braiding them against their nature into the magical shadow. Just tying it into knots. “If there’s even a scratch on that body…”

Quintessa can hardly believe what she is witnessing. She peels away her goggles to look at the process with her own eyes, an expression of disbelief and awe impermeated there on. “You are absolutely insane!” the warlock shouted at Ernest, her voice buffered by the sound of the black and white whirlwind, “I take it back, I think your brain has been too sundried to trust orders from!” With her goggles back over her eyes she grinds her teeth impatiently. “That’s not stealing Ark’Nuk you’re just stealing the image of her- stealing the light I use for my magic! You’re lucky you are in the Archmage’s body right now or this- whatever this is you are doing wouldn’t be possible!” Although Quintessa protests she does not neglect her duties in keeping the arcane device active. She might not approve of this method but that does not mean she also approves of ending the experiment before it is completed. She is in this until the end, unfortunately for her.

Kasyr has been here- though he's been functionally useless the whole while. There's been something altogether draining about trying to process -how- best to explain the events that had already transpired to Inks- especially given her engagement to the Terramancer. The only thing that ultimately rouses him from his stupor is the sheer amount of angry emotional resonance coming up from the stairwell. "I should get to that." There's an oddly quizzical glance given to the others in the room- the two 'not Odhranos' eliciting a faint grit of his teeth, before the weirdness of the Lunar heist starts to set in. "...Right. ...Right." He turns back to face the door to the stairwell, and starts to strive forward, a fresh hot feeling burgeoning in his guts. "Business as usual. On y va."

Lanlan :: Yvin Vorsar is heralded by a white glow from beneath the observatory. She’s landed on what’s left of the meditation room floor, surrounded by orbiting cushions and debris. She got there first. Easily. “Grrr let’s go!” She barks to her troops. But they don’t fly like she does, so its a considerable effort. The terramancers have it easy, being able to bring floating cobbles to them, stand on them, and bring themselves up. But they all find a way. A fair number of them reach the observatory and take in the scene. Yvin Vorsar puts it together fairly quickly. “You think you’ve destroyed him? You think he’s gone? He will never be! He’ll come back, we’ll make sure just like we did the last time! Haha! Raargh!” She throws her arms forward toward the trio attempting to reign in the power of the moon, and a the flames leave her. A white-hot ball of fire burns through the air toward Odhranos’s occupied shell, threatening a gruesome painful death if its not averted.

Ernest couldn't hear Quintessa's complaints or the approaching Ossians as the moon's energies were contained by him and Khitti and knit together by Lanlan. This was more magic than he'd ever tried to hold at once, and though he hadn't heard Quintessa's accusation that he wouldn't be able to do this without Odh's body, she was probably right. As the first Ossians breached the stairs, the "Archmage" managed to use his experience with curses and items to bind the image to the orb, then started striding towards Khitti, forcing the storm of energy to slowly shrink and condense--smaller, smaller, smaller. That step he took just so happened to be timed perfectly to avoid the blast of fire--mostly. The back of Odh's shirt and the lower bit of his hair were singed pretty badly, but Ernest couldn't concentrate on that right now. Lanlan's help also helped the storm to become less violent, and once Ernest and Khitti were both holding onto the pearl orb, there was a flash of light and the entire storm winked out, leaving the orb appearing like a tiny replica of the moon, shining with all its glorious light. Every detail of it was perfect--the dark splotches and various peaks and valleys that could be seen from here were faintly visible on it. Ernest beamed and held aloft the orb, and then made his very best attempt at sounding like Odhranos. "Haladavar was no god! He had no vision! He believed simply that by signing his name on the moon, that he might become a god--but BEHOLD the power of the TRUE gods of magic! They have given me the moon for my very own!" He held the orb up on his finger and spun it like a basketball, using the motion to distract the Ossians' gaze from a subtle glance at Lanlan to go ahead and inflate the orb's size, to show off that he, "Odhranos", could hold the entire moon on his finger. "Even if your puny master had been able to make it his soul's vessel, it would have made no difference--I could simply pluck the moon from the sky and wear it on my belt like the soul cages you bear, because I am Odhranos! Chosen Archmage of Xalious! All magic is at my command by right, and your band of usurpers have toiled fruitlessly for nothing! Now begone, scatter to the winds, and let your failure be your only companion!"

Khitti was grateful when Ernest took the damn orb from her. She let her magic subside and hopped back away from it and him, and started to access her own damage as Not-Odh addressed the woman spewing cries of ‘heretic’ like she was Oprah giving away free bees. When Khitti ascertained that she wasn’t too terribly injured from those warring magicks, she summoned them both up at Not-Odh’s feet, in a much lesser potency than before, to give him a bit more dramatic effect to his ruse. Thankfully for Ernest and Odh’s body, she fixed them just enough apart that they wouldn’t spark much. She’d hate for it to set them both on fire or explode them into too many body parts.

Lanlan could see what Ernest was going for...but there was simply no way for him to inflate an image to the size of the moon, as if it was actually right here before them, balancing on a finger. But he was an illusionist so he did what he always did. He bluffed! Wanting to give nothing away, he crafted his image using nothing but his will and his eyebrows. Disguised as simply billowing gracefully in the wind, they actually concocted a massive screen. An enormous facade, weightless, no thicker than a piece of paper...and it seemed to span for miles. But it -was- a bluff. A perspective trick, if they so much as touched it, or moved outside the observatory, the vision would fail. The Ossian Order members are instantly overcome...with loss. All at once it hits them. He’s gone. Their master is gone. Defeated. Utterly. Except Yvin Vorsar. “We can avenge him!” She says. “We have to avenge him!” But as she looks around at her comrades, she can see: there’s no hope in any of them. No more will. And she falls to her knees, “This is. Was. All I had. I...where will I go? Where will any of us go now?” Lanlan wants to answer that ruthlessly, but he can’t. He has to tell Ernest something first. “You have to put it back,” he whispers. “Before they leave and look at this from outside...you have to put it back.”

Quintessa was quivering with rage at this point, even though she knew this was all an elaborate bluff. That much was clear at this point that didn’t stop the irrational anger that boiled in the pit of her stomach. Hopping down off of the mystical device, she turns her attention to the new arrivals, her sword twitching as she grips the hilt of her katana, her boots clicking on the floor as she approaches the false Archmage’s side. “There is nothing left for you here. No legacy to uphold. The Ossian Order is dead and only death can remain if you choose vengeance. Make another choice! Wake up from the dream Haladavar sold you, that he sold me. Choose to live your own life free from the shackles of the Order! Or choose to side with her.” Quintessa draws her blade and points it in the direction of Yvin Vorsar. “Give up this folly and surrender. It is your only chance of survival.”

Kasyr's attention flickers off to the left, a faint twitch forming on his face at the sight of the fireball. Sure, it fails to hit the mark, but it's one more indignity on the pile. Something fresh after everything else they'd done. The ensuing theatrics of the stolen moon, of Ernests bombastic 'impression' of Odranos is weird to watch. An unsightly puppeteering that does little to slake the anger he's feeling. Nor does he feel any relief as the Ossians begin to fall to their knees. Quintessa's speech comes close to what he's thinking, and yet, it's what she's feeling that truly resonates with him. "Where will you go?" A glimmer of silver flickers into existence behind Yvin, metal materializing into solidity only to abruptly propel forward with enough force that it won't simply puncture her skull- it'll obliterate it. "Somewhere warm, I imagine." Kasyr doesn't even bother to see the aftermath of what he's done, whether someone intervenes on her behalf, or not. He simply strides forward amidst the mass of mages, a brief flick of his head indicating towards the stairwell to indicate in what direction they should run. Though- that act of clemency is also balanced out by a very subtle command to his fledgeling, a subconscious nudge to end any Ossian that Inks might come across. Something to help with the grief she was no doubt going to be left with.

Ernest was very grateful for Khitti's assistance in making him look even more imposing. Light and darkness swirling around him together really made the effect of an archmage complete. And Lanlan's massive screen of the moon was equally impressive--perfect, in fact. Exactly what he'd needed. And as their will broke just as he'd predicted it would, now the illusionist was telling him to put the moon back. That was actually -very- doable. Now that the orb was safely containing the light and darkness of the moon itself and none of them were holding it in or dragging it down, all Ernest had to do was unravel the enchantment and allow the moon's light to shoot back into the sky where it belonged. Quintessa certainly wasn't happy about all this, and now that she'd stepped forward was the perfect opportunity to casually have a few Helpin' Hands drag his actual mummy body into a portal and disappear while nobody was watching. Now that he'd held up his end of the bargain, his priority was getting out of here without someone snapping and making a mistake everyone would regret. He'd seen Odhranos use terramancy to transport himself before, which likely meant that the spell was common enough it was baked into his muscle memory. He just had to find it. In the meantime, he tried to make Odhranos's face look kindly on Yvin--sternly, still, but did his best to warm the expression up. "Your allegiance to Haladavar and his lies was what led you to this dead end. Renounce him and his ways, and--" And then Kasyr fired a murder shot into her skull and he had to backpedal a little bit: "and -that- won't happen to any of you! I shall not prohibit any of you from practicing magic. In fact, I believe it's high time that Arh'nuk returns to its natural place in the heavens! I shall place it there myself!" He flung the orb upward, simultaneously unraveling the enchantment on it. A blinding flash of red, white and black erupted from the orb, surging skyward in a beam that behaved in much the reverse of the one that had stolen it to begin with. Ernest used the energy from the enchantment to send the now unenchanted pearl into a shadow portal, using the flash of light as a distraction, while simultaneously calling upon Odh's muscle memory to try casting some kind of terramancy transportation spell to get him the heck out of dodge before anyone recovered from the flash of light. What he didn't expect was for the floor to open up below him in a shaft that would send him straight down to Trist'oth, and close again immediately after. By the time anyone had finished blinking the lights from their eyes, Ernest had vanished entirely, leaving no trace he'd ever even been there save a business card on the floor where his body had been--with his full name, office location, a brief list of services, and general hours--as well as a small note, hastily scribbled in black ink, probably by a Helpin' Hand: "I. O. U. one (1) dormant archmage's body".

Khitti felt nothing for Yvin as Kasyr literally blew her mind. She felt nothing as he told the remnants of the Order to scatter and let Inks pick off any stragglers. Okay, she felt a little bit of glee that -someone- got to do what she wanted to do from the start. She’d just have to live vicariously through Kasyr’s deeds, apparently. Then the lightshow happened, and when Khitti’s eyes finally adjusted and she saw that not only was Ernest gone, but Odhranos’ body as well, that anger of hers returned. Khitti took the few needed steps to get to where Not-Odhranos had once been, bent over, and picked up that business card. It was all she could do to not set it on fire right then and there. “We need to find Odhranos’ soul… and now we need to find Ernest. The latter will probably be easier than the former. Then again, it was easy as hell to find Brenwyn’s spirit, so who knows.” She sighed heavily, a thumb and forefinger moving to pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance. “All that aside… I think we’re done here. But that--” The redhead turned towards the mechanism that Quintessa had brought back to life. “--that needs to be destroyed. -Now.-” She didn’t ask for help, but it was implied as she created a ball of shadows and light, like the same that had obliterated Haladavar’s body, and waited for the others to summon up their own magicks. And when they were done? And the thing was gone? She’d shadowstep towards whatever was left of the doorway, waiting before leaving to make sure there was nothing else that needed to be done before she returned home to indulge herself in a very large bottle of whiskey.

Lanlan dispels his illusion in time with the enchantments fizzlement, and it actually looks like the moon goes back up into space! Then when the light fades and he’s safe to take off his sunglasses, he sees how he’s been duped. He kicks a rock leftover after Erndhranos’s secret goodbye and puts his hands on his hips. His chest heaves with rage as he looks from person to person, finally settling on the last of the Ossian Order welps. He stomps over to them illusionary swords appearing all around him. “Well? Get the hell out of here! Move or I’ll perforate every last one of you!” The fake swords vibrate with anger, as they do begin to scramble away. But then have the arduous task of getting down two floors without stairs or anything so they’re very cautious about it! “GO!” He feels a little better. “Oh you’re going to break it.” He looks unsure, “But I think that, uh...No, know what, you’re probably right.” Sighs. “It’s probably--its for the best. Yeah.”

Quintessa cannot help but smile cruelly when that woman, whatever her name was, was given the gift of no longer needing a place to go. Kasyr had graciously answered that for her and she’d never have to worry about that again. The warlock’s smile faded as she glanced around for a moment, looking for Odhranos’ hijacked body for a moment until she found the card, which she promptly picked up from the floor and inspected. “I owe you one dormant archmage body. Elazul’s Bite…” She returned her sword to its sheath and turned to face Khitti, mismatched eyes flickering to the arcane device and back again. “I agree, this thing must be deconstructed. I can do it without blowing it up if you’d like me to. I’ll even ship you the pieces so it can never be built ever again. Once you have them in your possession you can just toss them into the sea like any other valuable artifact, right?” She gives her former teacher an impish smirk. Even if they didn’t trust her and blew it up, Quintessa would still linger to pick apart the salvage, taking anything of value that the former Ossian cultist might get their hands on. If anyone was going to take it, it was going to be her. At least Quintessa wouldn’t try to destroy the world with it.

Khitti || Tessa’s words gave Khitti pause. If they deconstructed it and the parts were kept safe somewhere--likely in the cargo hold of the Tranquility, since the ship itself was so well warded against anything (that’s Khitti’s fault)--they could potentially use the parts for something else. The question was though… who would get to use it? It was possible that Odhranos might not even want something that came from it within the Mage’s Guild tower once it was rebuilt. So that left the Necromancer’s Guild… And that guild -was- great at recycling. Her magic died away and she turned to Quintessa with a smirk, the girl’s teasing also having reached her ears. “Alright then. Deconstruct it and have it sent to the Tranquility. If you’re not too trusting of the ship for it, we can test out the wards there if you like. But, it was made to withstand things that I seem to attract often, so it’s well guarded. It’s even fire-proof.”

Quintessa was delighted that Khitti was okay with letting her take it apart. While naturally one would assume that the changeling had ulterior motives in mind and alas, some pieces might ‘get lost’ on the way to the Tranquility, but this particular device didn’t suit any of her immediate needs. Maybe in the future they would need something powerful enough to cut runes into one of the moons, perhaps to destroy some subterranean horror or to rip a hole into a lesser death-god’s temporal sanctuary so that they could ambush it. The potential was endless! “I’ll have this thing broken down by morning- You can count on me!” Already Quintessa was rushing to the device, trying to figure out the best way to dismantle it so that the larger pieces could be moved out first. This was going to be quite the fun project for the changeling.