The Never-ending Story

Log Info

• Title: The Never-ending Story

• Emitter: Ravenstongue

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Rune

• Place: Ravenstongue and Telamon's house

Lupecyll-Atlon house, afternoon.

The lord of the house is out for the day, and Cor'lana Lupecyll-Atlon remains, dwelling peacefully with Pothy in her home. They're keeping cool today with chilled tea and a house that's got plenty of magic to make the air running through it cold enough to be tolerable. After all, an Alexandrian summer can be a warm one, almost unbearably so.

Despite all of this, Pothy is splooted out on the couch, letting the cold air drift over his feathers while Cor'lana's reading a book. It's got a distinctive cover. She rolls her eyes. "I can't believe I'm getting paid to rip this thing apart verbally next week. This is so not me it's not even funny. Like. I'm putting a collar on 'Balgiman'. Like he's a dog."

"Woof," Pothy comments dryly. "At least you're being paid money to make fun of the Crimson Pen. Isn't that what you always wanted? Royalties for your likeness or something like that?"

Cor'lana looks like she's about to toss the book at Pothy... or at least, she's contemplating it. "Yeah, I know," she says with a sigh. "But getting paid to read dreck isn't my idea of comedy. At least I'm in demand in the Theatre District."

The moment that the cool air hits Rune's face, she makes a sound that would not normally be considered acceptable for pleasant company. "Okay... what kind of magic is this, and how do I throw coin at it so that I don't bake alive sharing a room with a Makari that gives off a bonfire's heat in the summertime." In the winter, being around Harkashan is fantastic. In warmer temperatures, not so much...

The rogue seems to have invited herself over. She appears, looming over the back of Cor'lana's seat, eyeing the book she's reading. "Oh, I've seen that one. I mean, I always figured you were kinky, just not that kind of kinky." Rune teases. "A collar could be cute, though, on the right person."

She raises a hand towards the avian familiar as well, "Hey Pothy, you melting in the heat, too?"

Then, back to the other Half-Sil, "So... how do you get paid to review lewd books? I mean, if there's a market for it... I'm game."

Cor'lana clears her throat, flushing a little. More than a little. Even the tips of her pointed ears are red. "My bedroom activities are nowhere near as lurid as what the books describe," she says, "but I decline to comment. Not just because it's mine and Telamon's privacy, but if I dare breathe a single word about it, Lily-of-the-Valley might come out of nowhere to fervently take notes. She's typically hiding somewhere."

In fact, Cor'lana points to the open window of the kitchen. "Usually there. Which, speaking of which, that wind gets a nice breeze? And I figured out how to enchant that particular window lightly so the breeze shifts a little colder. I might patent it, if some wizard at the Arcanist's Society hasn't already."

"I'm a Pothy-puddle," Pothy says with a sigh. "This is my most comfy form when I'm in the heat. Melting. Becoming one with the couch. And antagonizing my sister, of course."

Cor'lana rolls her eyes. "He does do that," she says. "As for how I got paid... Well, there was supposed to be a poetry reading next week with a poet from Llyranost. Someone by the name of Faphinae Cari'thana. Unfortunately, she's canceling because it turns out her son was proposed to, so while she will be in Alexandria, she will be busy with her family. The bookstore it was going to be held at needed a replacement act. And I haven't had the time to write any new poetry lately? So... I suggested I could read something else."

Here she sighs. "And the bookstore owner suggested I could read some Crimson Pen that's about me and I mock it as I read it. Well, the tickets to that event have sold out, apparently. So maybe you could read your own Crimson Pen?" Lana looks at Rune and smiles. "Speaking of which, in a roundabout way... How are things going with yourself and your mother now?"

"I'm just teasing you." Rune replies, smirking over Cor'lana's shoulder. "What you do with your beloved is between the two of you. Though... if you believe the Crimson Pen, you and I have had our own secret affairs behind dear Telamon's back." She fans herself, but not because of the heat, "Scandalous." Then, the rogue laughs, obviously amused at the whole thing.

Then, to Pothy, she gives a nod of agreement, wiping a sweat-laden bit of hair off of her brow. "You and me both, buddy. I think I might have to move in just to sit by the window." Rune is joking. Probably.

She steps around from behind Cor'lana's chair and takes a seat near the bird, reaching out to give him a scratch on his headfeathers. "Oh, so they're paying to see you blush and get flustered? At least I'm betting that's what they're expecting, anyways. Either that or the polar opposite and they'll get even more lurid tales." Rune waggles her fingers.

"Huh, I mean, I guess I'm not surprised. Corey and his nightingale are about as close as you can get without a ring getting involved." And then, her blue eyes snap towards Cor'lana. "Oh no, we are not introducing my mother to my Crimson Pen books. That is forbidden!" Some things you just don't want to share with your mother.

Then, she seems a little more thoughtful. "She's... doing as well as you'd expect. Forgets what version of reality she's in a lot. Had a blow-out fight with my father, from what I've heard, although she won't talk about that."

Pothy's tail feathers are wagging up and down from being given scritches. "Lana's mother would have loved the Crimson Pen," he says. "And she probably would have read Lana's books, just for the fun of it--and to laugh at how badly they butchered her 'baby girl'. Nadina was kind of like you, Rune. She was... and is, in some ways, as free as they come in terms of spirits."

Cor'lana frowns, looking thoughtful with Rune's observations regarding her mother. "I can imagine it's hard for her to adjust," she says. "I mean... She was lost in time. That does a thing to a person."

"Yeah, it does," Pothy says softly, and a little too-knowingly. His tail's not wagging anymore. "I can imagine the fight with your dad wasn't fun for her, either. Nadi... Had some pretty specific instructions for me in regards to Lana, because she architected her own death. I feel like if she returned to life, she'd have a lot of people she would want to talk to and get into screaming matches with, too."

"That's the problem." Rune replies to Pothy, "My mother would probably take great pleasure in embarassing me to no end. That, and critiquing the writing style." There is a small quirk at the corner of her lips. "If she hadn't been trapped in that time loop for the last number of years, I wouldn't have put it past her to be the writer of the damn things."

For a moment, she looks between Cor'lana and Pothy, perhaps trying to take in the bits of their combined story that she wasn't aware of previously. "Honestly... I think the thing that pissed her off most was how he treated me. I'm sure he made a lot of promises to her in those last days, and from the sound of it, he didn't keep many of them."

Rune rubs at the bridge of her nose. "Worst part of it all, is she knew my dad was cheating on her before she died. And with one of her best friends, too. That he'd already written her off, given up, and moved on." Gritting her teeth, she shakes her head, "Fucking asshole..."

Then, looking back at them, "I feel like there's a story there that I don't know. About your mother?" Her brows furrow.

Cor'lana gives a small smile. "It's... Well, I guess it's part of why I felt so compelled to help you with your mom, Rune," she says. "I got my sorcerous power not from my father's side of the family, which is how I'm descended from Grandfather, but from my mother. One of my mother's ancestors was blessed by what I personally believe is a servitor of Navos. He was given considerable arcane power and a repository of knowledge: Apotheosis, also known as Pothy."

She gives Pothy a little scratch on the feathers as she says, "Pothy was supposed to remember everything for every 'inheritor' of the power that came after my ancestor. Every time the inheritor dies, the arcane power passes down, and Pothy becomes the new inheritor's familiar. My mother inherited Pothy when she was only a few years old. Her father died on some misadventure, and her own mother was so depressed after her husband died that she sent my mother to live with her cousin. If you've heard Telamon mention an 'Uncle Gerald' and 'Aunt Liandra', Uncle Gerald is actually my mother's first cousin, and Liandra's his wife. We just call them Uncle and Aunt because it's easier. At any rate, my mother ended up running away from home at sixteen and adventured with people for several years before she slept with my biological father at a ball in Llyranost."

"Please don't make me remember," Pothy says with a shudder.

"I wasn't going to have you narrate my conception, Pothy," Cor'lana says with a gentle smile. "Suffice to say... My biological father never mentioned that he was descended from what he believed to be a fae monster, who would come to claim the eldest child of the eldest child once every few generations, among lots of other things he failed to mention. That fae monster? Grandfather. Hard to believe, I know, but my father's family had come to hate him for taking children to live with him in the centuries since he had some of my earliest-known ancestors with his wife, Lana'lel. My mother just saw this... monstrous figure looming over me as my father was handing her freshly-born baby to it, and she blasted Grandfather, grabbed me, and teleported across Ea to Rune."

She sighs softly. "And we lived in paranoia all my life. My mother got paranoid so badly that she... When she thought I was ready, she used a ritual that disintegrated her body, making it so that I inherited her power and Pothy, and put a seal on my memory so that no one could harm me. I couldn't remember my own name. That's why I called myself 'Ravenstongue' when I came to Alexandria."

Finally, Cor'lana points to her chest. "My mother lives on in me," she says. "Every time I cast spells, I hear her and my ancestors singing in my head. And... Pothy keeps a portion of every inheritor's memories when they die. So he doesn't get lonely."

"I have a hard time letting go," Pothy says softly.

In moments like these, it is obvious that Rune is a storyteller's daughter. The rapt way that her eyes follow Cor'lana, giving the woman her full attention. There are looks of curiosity, concern, worry, following the emotional ups and downs of the tale. "So you come from magic on both sides, just different sorts of magic." Her lip quirks, "My father knows magic, mostly from books, but I inherited my mother's love of stories and her tendency to get into fights." She shrugs, not-so-innocently.

"It seems like she was trying to protect you. Though... it seems like one of those stories where things would have been different if everyone would have just sat down and talked it over." It's a far too common trope, sometimes. Perhaps because it is so easy for such things to happen in real life.

"I mean, your Grandfather is a monster, but he's more the sexy kind. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he could rip someone into itty bitty pieces with those hands, but he seems like a kind enough soul. And he loves you."

The fact that Cor'lana claims her mother lives within her, has Rune touching her own necklace. "I always felt the same way, though perhaps not quite so literally, with the voices and the memories." There is a little uncertainty in her expression, "It's a little strange, with her alive again. The woman who is and isn't my mother at the same time. I just... want her to be happy, you know?"

Cor'lana nods softly, although she can't help a little snicker at the remark about her Grandfather being a sexy monster. "I've talked with my Mother through visiting Pothy's library in dreams," she says. "It's not really the same as talking with her... But she has regrets about the way she did things, and the way she just ran, but it was all my father's fault in the end. That's why I wanted to help you, if I could, because... If I could help her escape, maybe you, and her, could find a new life where you're both happy."

And here she smiles widely. "Without your asshole of a father. Which is also something I know far too well. I think the Corpse-Eater killed mine, and... I don't really miss him. Hard to miss someone you never knew. And someone who was engaged in an affair with his brother's wife." She casts a look over at her tea. "Maybe I should have brought out wine rather than tea. Our dads are apparently more alike than I thought."

Then Cor'lana looks at the necklace that Rune's got, and it seems to remind her of something. "Oh... I was wondering. Have you heard from Glasina recently since all of this started?"

There is a thoughtful look that passes as Rune fidgets with her necklace, "The funny thing is... I would have said that I was happy." Her blue eyes look over to Cor'lana. "I was out from under my father's roof. I had the skills to pay my own way without having to resort to thievery or underhanded means. I found not only people who I call dear friends, but also a lover who I adore." She smiles softly, "But, there was always that piece missing, and I didn't understand it until we figured out why."

When Cor'lana mentions she should have brought out wine, Rune laughs. "I try not to let my father drive me to drink if I can help it. I'd like to say he's not worth my time enough to give a shit but... he had his moments when I was little. I can't quite hate him fully, as much as I'd like to."

It's easy to latch on to the shift in topic, though. "Yes, actually. She was one of the first people I sought out after everything." As if to answer that question in part, Rune motions at her tattoos, which look the same on the surface, but there are subtle differences in the lines in places. Maybe a hint of a butterfly wing in the swooping patterns. "Like mother, like daughter, I suppose."

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Spellcraft: (2)+29: 31

Cor'lana looks at the patterns that she's seen on her friend's arm several times, but she catches the subtle difference, and it's clear she finally recognizes something, because she's squinting at it, staring at it until--

"You made a pact?" Cor'lana looks up at Rune with surprise. "Now, it's not a bad thing! Don't get me wrong; I'd be the world's biggest hypocrite. But I didn't know if Glasina would be the type to offer one. Fae who offer pacts can be... Well, you saw what happened with Verna's mother. They can be really cruel."

She smiles brightly though. "They can also be very kind. I mean, I made a pact with Grandfather, and I helped Auranar with her pact with Grandfather, and... While that had a family incentive, there was a good reason for it. It brings us closer to him. And there's a possibility of gifts you can have as a result."

To that end, Cor'lana looks curious. "Did she teach you about those? Like how to activate your mark?"

Rune nods rather than confirming out loud. "I actually sought her out. Time after time, she offered us aid, even when there wasn't anything in it for her in return. It was enough to make me believe she's one of the good ones, even before knowing who it is she serves in the higher order of things." She runs her fingers along the mark, which seems to be more than just ink on skin, now. A change that is also visible in how Rune holds herself. As if she felt it were more part of herself, rather than an honor to someone lost.

"You don't know who she serves, do you?" Her head tilts, as if expecting that if Cor'lana knew, she would not be giving such warnings. So, Rune clasps at her necklace again, the one that had always seemed to have that connection to the Sky-singer. "Glasina is a handmaiden to Lady Tanith, and my oath is to bring her stories. Both those I experience and those I hear, so they can be relayed to the Lady for her entertainment."

As for how to activate the gifts of such a pact, Rune nods. "I've seen Harkashan activate his pact a time or two. Though... I've been a little hesitant about it. Not that I distrust the powers or anything, just that I'm so used to depending on my own physical talents that I forget there are other things I can lean on in a pinch."

Violet eyes go wide, which proves that no, Cor'lana really didn't know. "Glasina? She serves Tanith?" The name is said reverently and with joyous surprise, as Cor'lana's whole face lights up in a smile. "No, I didn't know at all. That's wonderful... And fits completely in line with what I know of Tanith. I think she has people who do all sorts of things for her, so why not someone to tell Tanith good stories?"

She actually gets up from her chair then. "Let me show you something... Hold on just a moment." Cor'lana disappears up the staircase, but she returns a small time later, dressed in her adventuring robes rather than the casual dress she typically wears. "So here's a trick I use, and it'll probably be helpful for you."

Cor'lana walks up to Rune, unfolding her sleeve to reveal a small sewing pin, the kind that's used to hold fabric together, hidden in the hem. "Anywhere that a weapon's not allowed, and I'm not able to quickly draw a dagger--I just prick my finger on the end of the pin." She does so, and it's clear she's used to it, because she doesn't even wince, lifting up her blood-beading thumb. "Now..."

She brings it close to the curuchuil mark that many a Crimson Pen has focused on. "This is my pact mark. You feed the blood to the mark. It doesn't need a lot, and frankly, the connection will only handle so much blood. After a certain point, it just won't accept more. A proper pact connection prevents Glasina from taking more than she might need for the magic to work. Just a quick dab of the thumb on the mark--"

Thumb meets skin, and then Cor'lana's eyes, which always glow, are glowing brighter, the mark on her chest shimmering subtly with magic. "And there it is. This is... Well, it's the part that's scary. It feels powerful to be like this. Because you feel your pact-maker's magic, just a fraction of it. I feel Grandfather with me when I call on him like this."

A quick nod of her head confirms what Rune had already said. "I was a little surprised, myself. But it aligns with everything I've experienced. That the Sky-singer has always felt close at hand." She raises the necklace, which more than once had given her feelings of comfort from something beyond herself. "It's like they've both been with me on this journey, and I plan on continuing to see where it leads."

When Cor'lana gets up to head up the stairs, Rune returns to her light scratching of Pothy's feathers, at least so long as he seems to be appreciating it. When the mage returns, she pushes to her feet and cocks a curious expression. "I think you've shown me something like this before, when we first talked about pacts." However, there is a huge difference between seeing something, and understanding it at her core.

"I put myself through days of being tattooed from my neck down... I'm not afraid of a little poke from a needle." Rune smirks. At the very least, when the mark was changed by Glasina's magic, she hadn't had to go through the process of being inked a second time. "Guess it's something that will take a bit of getting used to. I'm so used to magic being a foreign thing, and this... it's definitely a type of magic."

Cor'lana grins, her eyes still alight with the blood pact magic. "You'll get used to it in time," she says, "but... I don't necessarily recommend 'honing' it every day, like people recommend practicing every type of magic. Really, I think for pacts with fae beings, this stuff tends to work best based on emotion. Like for right now... I'm not in danger. I can just carry Grandfather's connection and he will make my steps all the lighter and faster until the blood I gave burns out from the mark. But there are times where I've been in serious trouble and needed Grandfather to help me because I feared what would happen if I didn't. Like... When Marsward killed Telamon. I fed my blood to my mark and called on Grandfather for him to help me destroy Marsward--and he did."

In the span of seconds, the magic burns out, and Cor'lana's eyes are back to their normal glow again. "But I think you're right. Ni'essa has touched a lot of people's lives in a positive way. I've seen Telamon go from someone who didn't much devote himself to the gods to devoting himself to Ni'essa, the more that he found himself in her orbit. Myself... I respected her, but I fervently started to worship her when she saved Pothy."

Pothy shudders. "Keep scritching me, Rune," he says. "Lana keeps wandering into dark subjects. Maybe you should get her talking about the Crimson Pen again." Little antagonist that he is.

"Well, you have the benefit of your Fae patron being your Grandfather. So I'm sure he'd forgive a bit of over-use if it was for a good cause." Glasina, on the other hand... well, Rune isn't so certain if she would become annoyed or not. "Once I bring back a few stories to her, I'll feel a bit better about leaning into those abilities a bit more." How do you say that you feel somewhat indebted to a Fae, without using the words that might get you into trouble? Well, Rune manages well enough, it seems.

"My father never taught me to put much faith into the gods. He believed that they rarely moved in ways that mortals could even grasp. This..." Rune explains as she holds on to her necklace for a moment, "Feels a little more personal. And, as we're well aware, my father is often wrong." She smirks.

At the request, Rune settles back down and gives the bird some more soft scratches, "Alright, alright." She looks back to Cor'lana. "So... which one of your many affairs are you going to read out to the people?" Quirking a brow, Rune asks, "You know, so I can pass the word around about how scandalous it will be."

"Your father must have either been blind," Cor'lana says with a snort, "or he was just making himself blind to the gods with a belief like that. Although... I can understand, to some degree. I remember praying to the gods when I didn't have my memories and hoping that Navos would answer me in particular. He never did. It's easy to assume the gods don't care when that happens. But yes, your father is wrong more often than right."

She seems to think about something else that puts a deep frown on her face, but then she shakes her head. "I don't know. All of these are awful. I mean, the 'Temptress' in this book practically enslaves both 'Balgiman' and 'Velamon'. I'm told the next two books in the series has her adding even more men to her harem." She groans. "I wouldn't even know what to do with two men. Let alone three or four or five."

"The gods gave you two hands," Pothy responds, preening under Rune's attention.

"Two hands for what?" Cor'lana says, massaging her temples. "Nevermind. Don't tell me. I'm sure I'll find out later in this book."

"If I were to look at my father in a forgiving light, I'd say that he likely did pray to the gods at one point in the past. Losing loved ones time and again is likely to make someone a bit jaded." Then, she rolls her eyes, "But I'm not that forgiving. Though... I do admit being a bit afraid of the Sky-singer when I was resurrected. I didn't know what she would want from me, or if I would strong enough to face it."

She offers a small smile to her friend, "I learned that there's a lot of strength in friends, even when you feel like you are weak. That, and I've become stronger this past year."

And then, Rune nearly spit-takes at Cor'lana's question about what to do with her hands. STARE. "You know, as someone who was doing the naughty for longer than I have... I would have thought you'd have more of an imagination." The words are teasing. "Either that, or I read the wrong type of books. Or the right kind." She admits.

Cor'lana flushes at Rune's words. "Look, I mean it when I say I'm not anywhere near as... 'adventurous' as the Temptress in the books is." She sighs. "Telamon was my first and will be my only until my dying days. Before him, I never experienced attraction to anyone before."

Pothy snorts. "She thought she was dying. She described the feeling of having a crush to Telamon and said it was like 'dying, but in a good way'. And then asked Telamon if that's what having a really good friend is like."

This makes Cor'lana flush even brighter. "I was clueless in love. Honestly, I don't know how I got Telamon to even look my way. Did you know that he invited me to a dinner date after we met for the first time, and I showed up wearing the exact same clothes that I wore when I met him the day before, and I looked like I hadn't slept at all? I didn't think it was that kind of date."

"Clueless." Pothy sighs. "We wouldn't be here if Grandfather hadn't intervened. I think Lana would be living in a shitty apartment somewhere and she'd be eating Fernwood Pub food every night still, like when we first came to Alexandria."

Despite her teasing, there is a gentle look that Rune offers in that regard. "Despite my flirting and my own Crimson Pen rumors, Harkashan has been the only man I've been with... or woman for that matter. Not that I can't enjoy my fair share of eye-candy, and I enjoy teasing the crap out of Aelwyn, I don't exactly jump into bed willy-nilly with people." Hopefully, in some small way, it shows that Cor'lana isn't alone in her 'adventures' being exaggerated.

She can't help but chuckle a little, though. "He looked your way because you're fucking gorgeous. And to be clear, no, I'm not flirting with you when I say that. You're beautiful." Rune shrugs, as if this were simply a fact. "And it's something you're pretty damn good at flaunting.

"And don't go bad-mouthing the food at the Fernwood. It may very well be most of my meals when we're in the city." It isn't like the rogue and her cleric have a permanent home. They sort of drift from place to place more often than not.

"The Fernwood is good! It's just that Cor'lana liked to eat there all the time when we first came to Alexandria!" Pothy complains. "I had to nudge her into going into the Market."

Cor'lana is still flushed, a shy expression on her face. "I mean... I barely took care of myself back then," she says. "I just was this... Almost a ghost of a person. Barely alive. I came to Alexandria because I'd spent two years in my house waiting for my mother to come home, and she never did. I was brave enough to sell the house and take everything I wanted to take with me, but not brave enough to leave my room most days."

She smiles. "But over time... I got better. And I met Telamon, and I learned the truth about Grandfather, and I got my memories back. And now I'm me. And you've had your journey, too, like you said. You got so much stronger and you've learned so much about yourself. That is what life's all about. That's what stories are made of."

Cor'lana pauses for a moment. "Probably exactly the kind of story Glasina wants to hear," she says.

"Admittedly, the Fernwood isn't so good about making tasty snacks that would be to your tastes." Rune acknowledges Pothy's plight. Other than salty nuts that are meant to encourage patrons to drink more, there isn't usually the sort of things that birds tend to eat. After commiserating with the Raven, Rune shifts a little. "Hark mostly does the cooking. I tend to find the ingredients."

Seeming to consider Cor'lana's words, "Seems like we both have a bit of a growth arc to our stories, don't we?" With some amusement, "I think I've got the jist of it, but how about we share some tea, the cool breeze, and you tell me the rest. It may not be as lurid as a Crimson Pen novel, but I'm sure Lady Tanith would enjoy your tale." She pauses, "She probably already knows too much about mine."

"Well," Cor'lana says, smiling brightly, "there's a bit more to the story that I haven't yet said."

And so Cor'lana tells Rune of meeting ghosts of her mother again--dreamwalking into Pothy's mind, where the bird has shades of Cor'lana's maternal ancestors lingering around the library of his memories of Cor'lana's mother and all the ones who came before her. She tells Rune about the man who her mother loved but pulled away from, unable to commit due to her self-loathing. She tells Rune how, before the werewolves came, she experienced a vision of Maugrim, who she confronted and yelled at to give her her memories back if he was so mighty a god, and he gave back to her the memory of her mother, disintegrating into ash before her eyes--magic before her eyes.

It's a story that goes into more familiar territory then: the werewolves, Zalgiman Joaki, and the disintegration of Marsward. Rune was there, but it's a valuable perspective. And then there's a quiet rumination of all the stories that are yet to come.

Eventually Cor'lana decides to entertain them both by reading more of that awful Crimson Pen book, and she does discover what her fictional parody does with two men. She turns an impressive shade of red that, too, goes into the memories of the story to be given to Glasina.

The story never ends. It only has arcs that end--and arcs that begin.