aefenglom | un: xXx_tWiStEd_MiNd_xXx

Skip to Main Content

Entry tags:

un: xXx_tWiStEd_MiNd_xXx

Name: Henry
Date: 10/07
Format: voice (please feel free to theadjack!)

I've been thinking about this decision we're left to make about Morgana Drummond. Sheesh, talk about a toughie, right? I mean, why NOT kill Drummond dead? Sounds easy-peasy to me! Dorchacht's Coven is even preparing the pyre and everything. Yay, fire!

[Henry busts out in a raucous laugh.]

You have to admire that initiative. Oh, by the by, you can't resurrect bones without the body stuffs, I guess. Reanimation ONLY. Trust me on that.

So anyway, they say they're gonna seal away her ashes. But I can't help but wonder if there's reeeeally any way to guarantee that she won't be resurrected after we burn her to bones at the stake. Imagine how awesome it'd be, facing off against an UNDEAD Drummond, revived by her necromancer lackeys! Nya ha ha! Guess we'd better hope that pile of ashes doesn't end up in the wrong hands, huh?

Who are you guys gonna side with? Dorchacht's death sentence, or Aefenglom's curious Coven?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[When he calls it petty, Henry ends up hanging onto that. He'd claim forever that he doesn't really 'get' revenge... But he also remembers quite distinctly the things these people fought against, and has a grasp of the sorrows they must carry for it. Namely, the Monsters who were robbed of their agency for so long.

But this man also makes a good point about transmutation. Henry starts there with an airy hum.]

Huh. I never thought about someone trying to wear her skin so they could pretend to BE her, postmortem! Yep, I can see that working out. That's not nearly as fun as raising her from the dead, if you ask me, but it's bunches easier. Even a sham of a symbol of her's enough to stoke the flames of her cause.

Sounds like a triple-win for captivity, then! We get her magic powers, nobody can necromance her, and nobody can impersonate her. Still, I don't really blame Dorchacht for wanting her dead. Some folks lived their whole lives as slaves under her. I guess that's a solid reason to make her pay, right?

[He says, cheerfully as ever, as if it doesn't affect him.]

[Oh, what Morgana had done was terrible. Emet-Selch wouldn't even begin to deny it, and were anyone he cared for treated to the cruelties she'd inflicted, his feelings would be rather different (but then, elevated as he was, the Ascian taking the lives of any of these mortals didn't exactly qualify as any kind of moral quandary). But her actions were hardly unique. And replying to violence with more violence only fostered a propagation of it.

But then, in a situation like this that he cares little for, it's an easy position for him to take.]

I doubt much compares to the 'fun' of necromancy.

[Said with a dry, idle lilt.]

But if one were so set on her demise... there's nothing that says an initial capture and study requires her survival in the long term. If one wished to be practical, [And to be particularly cruel.] she could be contained, stripped of information and strength- and only once drained of all use, summarily killed.

There will be other monsters- and I don't mean the furred and clawed variety. The more knowledge we have of the powers one like her might seek, the more might be used to prevent further cruelties later on. [Or who knows, it might come in handy just in general.] But 'tis a solution I fear would please neither party.

[And the idle dryness is met with a snicker on Henry's part, though he continues to listen patiently.

Hearing it broken down in such terms suggests that yet another Mirrorbound feels that both could be reasonably done. Capture her, drain her of magic and knowledge, then kill her. It sounds simple enough, until Emet-Selch suggests otherwise.]

Eh? Why wouldn't it please them? That sounds like it just about covers everyone's demands. Aefenglom wants her magic know-how, and Dorchacht wants her head lobbed off and her body turned to ash! It sounds like your plan hits every bird with a single bloodied stone.

[In either case...]

But I guess her knowledge of dream-walking's pretty exhaustive, if Miss Nessie wants it. I wonder if she knows something that even we can't shed light on. [Suddenly, Henry gets carried away with his darker thoughts and gasps.] Oh, for example, what if she's got a dream double? Who knows what we're up against? We'll have to go murder her in our sleep to keep Dorchacht happy! Guess we'll never know if we go and kill her on the spot.

[And again with the cheerful, if unnecessarily morbid metaphors. But it was a reasonable enough question (and a strange thing to realize, that much of what Henry said was entirely reasonable... or at least pleasantly agreeable, even if it was all wrapped up in unpleasant packaging and unnatural cheer), so Emet-Selch has little problem explaining why he assumes it wouldn't work.]

Why not? If our own Aefenglom's Coven is against killing her at all, preferring to keep her muzzled and captive for the rest of her days, merely delaying her murder would be little better than doing away with her with brutal immediacy. And our Dorchacht neighbors want blood, thoughts crowded with vengeance over all else. I wouldn't want be the one to try convincing them to wait.

[And so, Emet-Selch finds a way to be disappointed with both sides, humanity failing him no matter the outcome. It's his comfort zone....]

But yes, dreamwalking and who knows what else might lurk in that mind of hers. [Including whatever the hell dream doubles were.] Putting an entire city to sleep is in itself a fine trick... as is avoiding capture for an entire year and accomplishing such a thing while providing no warning.

[Henry hums at his reasoning for neither half being satisfied with a compromise. He thought at least Aefenglom would be satisfied with that, if their ultimate goal was info-gathering... But maybe they also don't want to see her dead, which just sounds dumb, to him.

But then, Henry's never been one to have the right opinions about these things, he'd learned. It was best left to others, who are better at being Human, most likely.]

So your angle's to pick her brain... I get that. We Mirrorbound are pretty connected to the concept of dreamwalking, but we still don't understand a lick of it. Who knows what Morgana Drummond knows about this neat talent of ours?

When I first came to Dorchacht, they whipped out some spells I think Aefenglom's Coven would pale at. This one time, I showed up with the Cwyld in the infirmary, and they treated it in the blink of an eye! I couldn't really remember what happened, since their Witches scrubbed my memory of it all, though. Pretty suspicious, don't you think? The Three said Drummond's responsible for all of the forbidden spells the city used. Think of all the nasty magic she knows!

[Better at being human was never a thing to reach for, considering the state of humanity. The Ascian, however, is better at being always Right, but that's just an inborn talent, unfortunately, and not something that can be learned.]

Oh...? [That certainly gets a more curious sound from him. Dreamwalking was one thing, but an effective way of healing this world-threatening plague was new. Not that Emet-Selch still gave a damn about the world or most of the people in it, but it was the sort of thing that would be better to not be hanging around infecting people in case anyone he did care about caught it.]

If this apparently forbidden magic so easily cures a case of Cwyld, then killing her seems increasingly foolish, which means it's the most likely outcome. [A sigh.] Though I wonder what our Coven would do, if her banned magics were the only way of destroying our local plague- as they're presumably forbidden for a reason. Saving a world inevitably involves sacrifice.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only