Sepdet makes a dry little laugh. ~You find strange things. Am I to eat like a Man now?~ But she sits up and leans forward to bite a piece.
Michael Powers reaches out and gently touches your hair, murmuring, softly, "Merita...you've lost so much...I wish I could take your pain for you.."
Sepdet nibbles absently on the food, stopping halfway through and snorting. ~Lost? Who? She's off the cliff. She's off the wheel. I'm told there's someone named hope, too, but he died, and there's just this girl...~ she shrugs, wistfully. ~Just this girl. It's no one, really. Go back to the Wheel, it's safe there.~
Michael Powers sighs slightly and looks at you lovingly. "Just this girl who happens to be the daughter of my heart. Who I would walk through Erebus for. I don't want safe, Merita. I want to be at your side and care for you."
Sepdet gives her head a violent shake. ~So did Sen. They hunted him down and killed him. Can you hear them howling for joy? For...for hope...~ Her face cracks again, and she turns restlessly back towards the fire, staring at it through hands raised in front of her eyes.
Michael Powers slips his arms around you and gently encourages you to lean against him.
Sepdet stiffens at the bare touch and shuts her eyes.
You paged Michael Powers with 'Oh, I forgot. I have glyphs written in white paint over my body, strider glyph on my forehead.'.
Michael Powers pages: Thorn-style glyph-writing, or something odd?
You paged Michael Powers with 'Not Thorn's style. Something very odd.'.
Michael Powers pages: Hmmmm...anything recognizable other than the Strider glyph?
Long distance to Michael Powers: Sepdet doubts it. Mage-shit.
Michael Powers pages: Ah. But no wyrm-stuff, eh?
You paged Michael Powers with 'If anything, /negative/ Wyrm. Sepdet almost glows, she's so painfully pure now.'.
You paged Michael Powers with 'Like a newborn.'.
Michael Powers pages: WOW
Sepdet whispers softly, ~A jackal is held, but the Star isn't so sure she feels that way. Don't you remember what she was? Don't you remember? Dusty held her, and he dies. The Dancers held her too. Her brother did, and he died. And her other brother--but he is not dead yet. His hand is quiet.~
Joseph has connected.
Michael Powers nuzzles the top of your head and murmurs, "We're here for you. I'll not give up. No matter what."
From afar, to Joseph and Sepdet, Michael Powers is bleeding a little bit, by the way....going to have to toss the clothes he's wearing...or give them some serious cleaning when he gets home. And he's ignoring it totally.
Joseph has arrived.
Sepdet shrugs away from Michael's embrace gently, wriggling like a pup. ~Please,~ she says softly, ~Have regard for the dead.~
Anubis appears in a glimmer of light.
Anubis has arrived.
Joseph's presence shadow's the cave entrance and a moment later the Wendigo enters.
Michael Powers nods quietly.
Anubis takes stock of the situation. Thorn said you would be here.
Sepdet shrugs away from Michael, and goes back to staring at the fire. She doesn't react to the elders entrance.
Anubis whuffs. Anpwhotep, you are bleeding.
Joseph seems rather subdued, and steps to one side of the cave, standing there as Anubis takes stoke of the situation.
Michael Powers notices Anubis. Looks down. "Oh. Yeah. Came through Shadows. Something must have tried to delay me. I guess it managed to get in a hit or two."
Anubis steps over beside Sepdet, and looks down at her. Her scars are gone.
Sepdet laughs sadly, almost pityingly. ~There are a lot of people following a star blindly, Sen-n ka'i. Didn't I tell them not to?~ She doesn't raise her eyes from the fire even yet.
Anubis looks over at Powers and Joseph. What happened?
Michael Powers shakes his head. "Sebek is dead. It appears he died as a result of a fight with a Dancer."
Anubis's eyebrows furrow. Where is his body?
Joseph corrects him. "No, Rhya..he /was/ a Dancer."
Michael Powers says "Ground to bits by a machine in the sewers. The machine that killed him."
Anubis looks over at Joseph. Sebek was a Dancer?
Sepdet twists her head violently. ~There is no body, I tell you. He fell off the cliff thirteen years ago, when his father condemned him. They made him a Dancer, and the girl something else.~
Michael Powers looks at Joseph. "In that case, Who was the Dancer who was blown to bits upstream of where Sebek died?"
Sepdet presses her face into her hands, half-listening.
Joseph's eyes lift to meet the two Elder Striders, avoiding Sepdet for the moment, though every time she speaks his eyes darken, "That I dont know, but I understand this much...Sebek was a Dancer, and when they came last night he turned on Sepdet and would have killed her. We owe Rat for her life. It was the Gnawers who chased Sebek Twin-of-Hope down and killed him."
Anubis's mouth curls downward. ~Then where is the body? And how long ago did he die?~ Anubis' voice is uncharacteristically urgent.
Sepdet's hands clench. ~He was lured to his death by his own sister, when she saw his friends had come for him. She brought him into a death-trap, but Rat came at her calling, and pulled her to safety. Despair escaped, but the Rats chased him down, and he died alone in the stinking dark.~
Joseph looks at Anubis, "All we feared about him was true. He died the moment his father chose which hand to hold out." -- "That I do not know, Rhya."
Sepdet snarls again. ~There is no body. It was destroyed. It fell off the cliff.~
Michael Powers says "Traveller followed the body we knew as Sebek into a garbage grinding machine. It was ground and flushed. Beyond that, I can offer no more information."
Anubis frowns. ~Then we will gain no information from him. Unfortunate.~
Michael Powers nods.
Anubis looks over at Sepdet. ~Will she recover, do you think?~
Sepdet turns away. ~Fourteen years he sought to find his sister. Fourteen years, with the pack that raised and raped and ruined him. To take her away from the evil he thought she lived in, to the evil that was his. He found her. He was set to save her. He died, to keep his packmate from killing her. The others already paid the price for his folly.~
Joseph's gaze settles on Sepdet, and still there is an air of disbelieve with it. He shakes his head faintly. "Obviously the Dreamwalker has healed her beyond hope. Physically, anyway. I have yet to know if Sepdet lives though." he directs the last sentence to her directly.
Sepdet reaches for the necklace at her throat and sighs. ~Something not here.~
Michael Powers watches Sepdet quietly for several minutes, then murmurs, "You now know as much as I do, Anubis-rhya."
Anubis nods. ~Is she tainted?~
Michael Powers shakes his hand. "She is more pure than the a still-damp cub."
Michael Powers says "Even that has been burned from her."
Anubis nods. Her mind is simply lost. Has anyone spoken to the Talesinger of this?
Michael Powers shakes his head. "Now that I know of it, that's next."
Joseph shakes his head as well.
Sepdet shivers again, although it is surely not cold with fire and friends within the cave, and keeps her gaze carefully fixed on the floor. Her left hand lies forgotten against her neck, touching the red fish at her throat.
Anubis nods. ~This is her battleground.~
Anubis turns back to the Wendigo. ~There are other things to discuss. Joseph, you seem to know a great deal of the prophecy concerning Sepdet. What have you heard?~
Anpwhotep sprawls. Cocks his ears attentively.
Joseph lifts his chin, "I was present when Nekheb disclosed the prophecy to Sepdet. I had questions, but the Strider ignored me."
Anubis cocks an eyebrow. ~When did Nekheb tell her?~
Joseph tries to pinpoint the day in his memory, "Weeks. I remember it was the night I brought Sepdet to the woods so she could meet the Strider cubs when they returned."
Sepdet traces her free hand in the ash, muttering quietly to herself. ~The Defenders of Hapi, they say, their cubs will be good for the caern. Everyone waits for those cubs.~ She smiles proudly, then her face falls. ~But the Defenders of Hapi all died, one by one. And then the lioness their leader was cursed: no cub by wolf or homid. That should have been the end of it. Should have been.~
Joseph's eyes dart to Sepdet, pained, before he returns his gaze to Anubis.
Anubis nods. ~I did not know if Nekheb had told her or not. I had hoped that perhaps you would know something that he did not.
Joseph's eyes narrow, and he cocks his head. "I know this....Nekheb said the theurge of his pack was killed."
Anubis says, ~Nekheb's pack, or Sebek's?~
Joseph says "He said that they took time to bury the dead, and /then/ they hunted the Dancers to find Sebek. And they did this on a crescent moon in the umbra, on a cold track."
Anubis's eyes narrow thoughtfully. Why, do you suppose?
Joseph clarifies, "Nekheb's own pack. They went in to stop Sepdet's father, and got there too late." He shrugs, "That I cant answer. To kill the cub? To kill the Dancers?"
Anubis nods. Odd, anyhow.
Joseph agrees.
Anubis nods again, as if to himself. ~Have either of you heard of a man named Shepitra in the city?~
Joseph shakes his head.
Anpwhotep tilts his head. "Sh'pit-ra? No....interesting name, though."
Joseph's blank expressions shows he does not understand it.
Anubis nods. I thought so, as well. Nekheb mentioned him as well.
Anpwhotep wonders what a teacher of Ra would be doing here.
Sepdet tucks her arms around herself, listening listlessly.
Anubis shrugs. I do not know. But Nekheb came here looking for this man.
You paged Anubis, Anpwhotep, and Joseph with 'Gee, insanity is a good excuse for the fact I'm GMing elsewhere. :P'.
From afar, Anubis snickers.
Joseph pages: It just means Slow Fingers can keep up with you. ;)
Anubis shakes his head as if to clear it. Keep an eye out for him.
Anpwhotep thinks....
Sepdet speaks up again, suddenly. ~The mad seer said that the only way to do it was to defy the curse. A cub needed borning. Even a Garou cub. She didn't believe him. She was a truth-speaker, and said he lied.~ The girl's lips twist in a snarl. ~He did lie. Two cubs, not one--that was the tale he did not sing for his Talesinger. Two cubs. Despair and Hope. But they were born under the same star. He thought he would be able to tell which one to slay, when they were born. But he could not, for /then/ they were the same. It was his own folly that burned the babe he said was dead. His own folly, and a Dancer who took his cub he had damned at birth.~
Anubis looks over at Sepdet sadly, and shakes his head. ~Watch over her. I must go attend to other matters.~
Anpwhotep nods.
Anubis's eyes stop on his reflection in the mirror.
Anubis gazes into the mirror, and suddenly he vanishes.
Anubis has left.
Joseph's shoulders slump as he thinks on the words Sepdet puts forth, certain realizations coming home to him. He moves to her side again to sit.
Sepdet reaches out to Joseph blindly, not looking at him. ~Give me my name.~ Her voice is almost fierce. ~There were two cubs of hope born, and my father killed one of them. Give me my name. I must know which one still walks.~
Anpwhotep murmurs softly, "Star of morning, Star of hope, Sepdet."
Joseph takes her hand as it reaches to him. Glancing at Tep, he then turns back to Sepdet, adding, "Hope-Still-Burning. The hope that still lives. The one that must live."
Sepdet whines softly, pulling her hand back to her throat, out of Joseph's hand, fumbling with the fish. ~I came under the water, but haven't come back out of it. There's a name...~ She shuts her eyes, fingers moving to trace the ankh's slim line. ~Life?~
Joseph's eyes follow her fingers, and he swallows, dry, "Life."
Long distance to Joseph: Sepdet twits your nose gently. You have her cartouche, I think.
Susan pages: |Tep listens carefully to Sepdet's mumbling. "Pipe? Wait, I think she said pipe! Someone run out and get her some tobacco and a nice hickory pipe. And a smoking jacket!"
Susan pages: Tep shakes his head sadly. "She seems to be spiraling down into blackness. I'm starting to despair. She keeps twitching. Joe, hand me my spiral notebook. It's over there by my spiralgraph."
Joseph pages: I do? wait!! Oh, damn, I forgot. See, I always forget the obvious.
You paged Joseph with 'It was a long time ago she gave it to you. ;)'.
Joseph repeats, with a voice strengthened by resolve, "Life." As he squeezes her hand gently, his other reaches for the bone necklace he wears to a leather cord just under it. Pulling it off, he gathers it in his hand and pulls her hand up to meet it. "Life."
Sepdet looks confused but lets him guide her touch. Her hand closes on the hidden necklace, her own cartouche. Her eyes clear slightly. ~I knew she'd gotten lost somewhere.~ She smiles faintly. ~Kind of you to keep her safe, kola. Guess I'd better take her back now.~
Joseph says quietly, stilla little lost, but a slow smile hiding behind the voice. "probably a good idea."
Sepdet takes the gold amulet on the cord back and fumbles to slip it over her head, joining it with the other three.
"There's more soup, if you want it."
Joseph says, taking up the bowl.
Sepdet leans towards the bowl, then stops and smiles. ~No. Save it for the Lady.~
Sepdet half turns and looks at Tep with eyes downcast. ~Did you know the human theurge is Hequert?~
Anpwhotep tilts his head questioningly. "Human theurge?"
Sepdet waves her hands uncertainly towards the cave entrance. "Chloe."
Sepdet holds up her hands to the light. "Two steps down." Her voice is light and soft. "One. Two. And now I begin to be altogether different, I suppose."
Joseph puts the food away, the subdued look returning again as he loses himself in the menial tasks. He looks over at Sepdet's form and comments in a low voice, "You need some new clothes."
Sepdet snorts. ~It's warm in a jackal's den, brother. You know.~ She looks out into the dark. ~I don't want to go out to the desert. It's cold, and the Dancers will be out hunting.~
Joseph's voice remains like a low whisper when he answers, "Have to though. Maybe not now, but eventually."
Sepdet drops her head at that. ~I know. I...~ she draws back into herself, silent for a time, then says simply, ~My brother's body is out there. In here, a piece of him still lives.~ She waves emptily at the fire, eyes glistening. ~There is the ember. Or maybe in my own head. I miss him.~
Sepdet finally meets Joseph's eyes again, biting back tears. ~I couldn't have killed him, you know. And a piece of me died with him.~
Joseph's eyes when they meet hers are angry and glisten with tears of his own. "I meant to be there so you wouldnt have to."
Sepdet ducks her head. ~I know. I came looking for you. I think. Or the star. I don't remember.~
Anpwhotep slips back into the shadows and pads away.
Anpwhotep's eyes stop on his reflection in the mirror.
Joseph's hand reaches for her, though hesitant, as if his touch might harm her. "I knew it would come to it, and I wanted to be there."
Anpwhotep gazes into the mirror, and suddenly he vanishes.
Anpwhotep has left.
Sepdet takes his hand between both her own, less scarred now than his, with a different grip the one she use to have.
Sepdet pulls him in close. ~I can den with you. My father never /will/ understand. She glances after the retreating Strider with faint anger, and pity.~
Joseph's arm wraps her protecively, a gaze, clouded faintly with guilt perhaps, looks after the entrance where Tep has disappeared. He closes his eyes against everythign and just holds her. "I was so scared."
Sepdet's eyes widen. ~I'm sorry...~ she whispers. ~I nearly got Rat's children, killed, and I nearly betrayed the Wheel...for someone who was a lie. I'm sorry...~
Joseph cries quietly, finding release finally as he holds her--sure now that it really is her. He shakes his head, "Not a lie, just not all the truth. Sepdet cant see everything. Not even the Harbinger can see everything all the time."
Sepdet shuts her eyes again against the name, as if her own name reminds her of something she doesn't want to hear, but the tremor passes. ~Sepdet is dead,~ she murmurs softly. ~Listen. The Striders need someone named Sepdet, and hope. But I am not all her. A part of her died alone, angry, in the dark, with the brother who betrayed her. I am Bennu now--Phoenix's ember. But you may tell the others I am still Sepdet. They need to believe in Hope.~
Joseph's body curls as if in pain, though the dark, knowing look in his eyes shows her words reveal nothing he didnt already sense. They look up into hers, faintly pleading, "And what about Rabbit's Hope? Is she dead too?"
Sepdet cups the young man's back in her arms, pressing her cheek against his shoulder. ~I think she's still here, kola. I think she's burned and she doesn't want to come out of the pipe she crawled into to die, that the Rats pulled her from. But she is still here, and hears you.~
Joseph pulls a hand back to wipe his eyes, whispering, "Then I will sing to her while she hides, and heals. Each day I will sing, and I will dance, til she is ready to come from the hole, and join me in it."
Sepdet shudders. ~Oh, I shouldn't stay in hiding too long. Not too long.~ She glances towards the cave's mouth. ~Somebody needs to see the sky again.~
Chloe slips through the overhanging, overgrown vines tangling in the entryway. "Oh, mother above," she murmurs absently. "Thorn will be angry." Her dark eyes avoid those of Sepdet and Joseph and she examines the new growth in the cave.
Sepdet snorts. ~The Anubis will be angry. We seem to have a knack for this, mud-born.~
Sepdet turns and looks then, staring at the women's knees before glancing higher. "Yi." Her jaw works up and down for a moment, trying to remember something. "Heq't."
Chloe holds a leaf awkwardly between her fingers. Her head is ducked slightly, to hide her expression, but her manner is otherwise crisp and businesslike. "I only... wanted to come back and see how you were."
Sepdet turns her head away. ~I can't...~ She snarls at herself, and manages to get out a word or two. "Afraid. Drifting. Thank you."
Joseph's hand is on Sepdet's shoulder as he looks up and gives the mage a warm, and grateful, smile. The weariness is still present, but he seems calmer.
Chloe looks over, quickly, the dark eyes veiled; concern and bruising shadow her face. "Afraid of ... them?" She keeps her voice even, calm.
The girl's eyes settle on Sepdet and remain there.
Sepdet leans against Joseph's arm, not meeting the mage's glance. "Soon, them. Not now. Afraid of hope." She reaches up to touch the cartouche-amulet that has been absent from her necklace of charms for a long time now, brushing its edge with her smallest finger. "Hope is hurt."
Sepdet's voice is more drained and calm than it is wild, now.
Chloe does not lower her gaze, but turns her face away to look at a curtain of moss. Her chin remains high, proud, as she speaks. "Not always."
Chloe's throat tightens in a swallow. "You should rest," she murmurs.
Sepdet drops her eyes. "Who is to argue with the mud-born?" she mutters, with a twitch of the lips that might almost be teasing. She starts to lie back down, then stops, looks at Joseph very hard. With a faint frown, she reaches out with two fingers and brushes the back of one of his hands. That done, she seems satisfied. The small brown girl curls up among the vines, nestles in, and closes her eyes.
