You paged Andrea with 'Pretend this is before-dawn this morning or after-dark today, moon's up, and Quiet's going or coming from her rounds. Jade's lurking there near the cave in the umbra when she gets back.'.
Umbra: Lake Arthur
Contents:
Andrea
Obvious exits:
East
Jade is coiled up in loose lazy loops over the cave's mouth. She raises her head and gazes sharply towards Quiet, eyes a-glitter, when she comes into view.
Quiet comes back from a round of the island as the moon starts to sink, her body bulked into the dire wolf form, despite being at the heart of her territory. She gives the Uktena spirit a shallow dip of her muzzle, a respectful greeting.
Jade gives a flick of the tail in greeting and is suddenly hovering in that disconcerting place just ahead and above Quiet's eye-level, a foot from her muzzle. She circles in air slowly, casually. *We are together one circle of time.*
Quiet cranes her neck slightly, attempting to keep eye contact with the spirit. *In this circle,* she agrees.
The serpent jerks sideways as if striking something, fangs exposed for a moment. Then she fixes yellow eyes intently on the wolf, matching and holding her gaze. The enigmatic toothless smile contains alien humor as words seep into you mind: What do you see?
Reflected in the snake's eyes is a scene more substantial than where you now stand. It is a miniature image of the valley of the caern, every detail perfectly realized. You can see the puffs of steam rising up from the cracked ground. You can see the half-frozen waterfall tumbling like snow into the pool below. You can see every line and lichen on the sharp facets of rock, and even the footprints on the thin trails snaking up into the mist.
Quiet locks into this stare with the spirit, appearing all the world on the outside like a wolf exerting her dominance, except that her tail has stiffened with intensity rather than raising in authority. She answers briefly, *The caern.*
Jade moves in close and brushes against the wolf's neck, coiling around it once with a whisper of scales and feathers. Sliding off again, she falls back to hovering before Quiet's eyes, and her jaws drop open, baring moon-crescent fangs. She looks at the theurge coolly and expectantly.
Quiet's posture, on the other hand, is silent question. Her muscles have tensed subtly, as if prepared to spring from cover.
Jade's body goes quite still, so that for a moment the scene to an observer would be that of a puppet snake, wolf figure frozen in an odd tableau. Jade hisses softly, an unhurried note of challenge in its tone. *Does knowledge come without risk?*
Quiet raises her tail slightly, instinctive response to that tone. *No. Even the tamest knowledge bears the risk of failure. For deeper knowledge, the dangers are more.*
The snake opens her mouth a little wider, more ominously. *Choose.* The golden eyes flick to Quiet's paw and back to hold her gaze again. Dim and faint, the caern-scene remains reflected there instead of Quiet herself as should be.
Quiet's tail quivers and her tone harshens. *I will not risk the caern, even for knowledge. Not again.*
The serpents' faint hiss sounds amused. *Wisdom,* it notes. After a long silence, Jade concedes, *You are ours. The caern is not ours. The risk is yours only.*
Quiet gives that the consideration of two breaths. She then answers, pack alpha to totem protector. *If it is knowledge that will serve the War, serve what we do for you and Gaia, I accept the risk.* She raises her tail and eyes again, locking eyes with the spirit snake. *I accept.*
In a quick darting motion Jade strikes out and latches onto Quiet's leg with her fangs, digging in deeply. A leaden coldness creeps out from the wound, taking with it all sensations of your own body, which falls in slow motion like a puppet stripped of strings. As the numbness creeps over you and your vision dwindles to a point--no, two points, the mirrored scene still reflected in Jade's eyes.
Long distance to Quiet: Sekhmet is just sorry I couldn't do this when the whole pack was here, to watch everyone else go into protect-Quiet mode and be appalled. ;)
Your blood pounds in your ears with a threshing sound, and in rhythm with each heartbeat, the view before your eyes seems to pulse. One moment it is the solid, physical caern. The next is the shimmering, shadow-world of the same valley, where the mist and fog coils like a living creature, the lunes flutter, the glade spirits lean close over the canyon rim like huddled children warming their hands around a campfire, and the ley lines and currents and power of the place are palpable tastes and smells.
Quiet's body falls, though the theurge is completely unaware of it, the housing of flesh and bone having nothing to do with the double vision pulsing in her eyes. She still breathes, eyes fixed on the distance, but is otherwise locked in a world apart.
You paged Quiet with 'So anyway. That's it. Quiet will be unconscious for some time...Jade coiled up on top of her keeping guard. You can have Quiet wake up soon, but this is a very good reason for you to log off and not RP her tonight. And if you want to alarm Ouro, one of them can find her here before she wakes up. ;)'.
You paged Quiet with 'Oh yeah, and one other thing. I'll bug Inle to set Pulse of the Invisible on your +sheet when she comes back from wiz-vacation tomorrow. Enjoy. :)'.
