| Logs |
2009 August 23
| When The Bough Breaks |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Bough Logs |
Fifth Movement, Fourth Verse
The tomb is silent after the recorded image of Lord Krishna disappears, the light in the crystal likewise fading to nothing. It is silent, this deep in the ground, without even the sound of bats or the giant ants to disturb the still air.
Norris feels moisture on his face. He wipes away the tears he didn't even realize he shed. He feels like they should move on, and get what we came here to get, but can't manage to break the pained silence.
Mikal finally sighs, after a long time of quiet grieving, and raises her head. She wipes her eyes on her sleeve, murmuring quietly, "Well. We have some work to do, I guess." She looks at the walls, determinedly not looking at the sarcophagus for a bit... then she gets a puzzled look, "Wasn't there... supposed to be a vajra too?" She wanders over to the bas-relief, reaching out towards the vajra in the sculpture, "Unless... this is it?"
Norris trots over and eyeballs the sculpture that Mikal points out.
The bas-relief seems to shimmer at the touch, and it becomes more defined, more 'lifelike' and a little less stylized, almost more of a statue than a bas-relief. Most prominent is the hand of Krishna holding the vajra, and it actually separates from the bas relief. As it does so, the hand turns, palm-up, holding the vajra forth as if offering it to the four now-mortals.
Mikal blinks a bit startledly, her mouth opening in a small 'o' of astonishment again and her hand pulling back a bit -- but then she collects herself and bows politely to the sarcophagus, then to the statue, "Our heartfelt thanks, honored Vishnu Lord, for your gifts. We will do our best to use them wisely, as you would approve of." She reaches out carefully, pulling her sleeve over her hand before taking the vajra in hand. Once she has it she turns, heading for Jareth.
Mikal sets the vajra down carefully on the sarcophagus next to him, murmuring, "I think this is yours, mon chat beau."
Mikal is careful to, at no point, touch the apparently masculine symbol.
Norris touches the bas-relief in wonder. "That had to have been magic, and not mechanics..." he murmurs.
Mikal smiles over her shoulder at Norris, "Why not check it and see, Norr?"
Once the item -- little more than a short double-headed sceptre but made from brass and quartz -- is removed from the stone hand, the bas-relief transforms again, returning to it's prior state. This time, however, the bas-relief does not show Lord Krishna holding a vajra.
Mikal blinks interestedly, turning back to the bas-relief, "Whoa, cool. Now it looks like he's throwing the lightnings from his hand!" She looks at the other wall, murmuring thoughtfully, "We... really ought to figure out how to tag or mark or something on the scrolls, so we don't loose track of which is what." She looks around at the others with bright-eyed interest, "Do either of you carry any writing implements on you?"
Norris nods. "Well, we have the vajra...now we need to find the names." He reaches into a pack, and pulls out something he picked up from the rakshasa encampment...parchment, a pen, and a well of ink.
Mikal brightens, "Oh, nice!" as she sees Norris do that. She patters over, curiously adding, "Find what names?"
Norris smiles. "I asked for these back when we were hoping to find the True Name of Azrael. Wanted to be prepared."
Mikal nods in understanding, "Got it. Well, if I call off which scroll is which, can you label them? That way when we carry them upstairs they won't get jumbled up?"
Norris says, "Perhaps I misheard, Rabbit...but I thought that the Lord said that they had catalogued many of the true names of the angels?"
Mikal nods a few times, "Yes, definitely! I thought you were referring to the Metatron's name." She pauses, studying the wall, then adds bemusedly, "El-Amon instead of El-Amon-Re. Do you suppose... could it be that easy?"
Norris considers. "I can try to label them...don't expect fancy labels, though. Unless I label them in Italian, perhaps..."
Norris looks bemused at Mikal. "I don't understand?"
Mikal is blinking slowly at the wall, considering -- then she turns back to Norris and grins, "Re! Could that be the Metatron's name? Is that why the Architect is now called El-Amon-Re?"
Mikal cheerfully adds, "We don't need fancy labels -- just clear ones!"
Norris nods and gets the pen and well ready. "All right. Ready to work, then." he notes agreeably. "But I expect that it couldn't be that easy. But maybe Re is a clue. How did the name come about, anyway? I thought it was just an amalgam of different names that mortals called him?"
Mikal shakes her head fascinatedly, "I don't know, Norris. He started getting full of himself somewhat later than I was Inanna, so I didn't get to watch it up close and personal, you know?" She glances over her shoulder, noticing Norris is ready, and calls out the name of the first scroll in a clear voice, reading it off the wall.
Norris needs a moment to sound it out. Finally, he's got a sufficient abbreviation. Fortunately, they're not in a hurry. While Norris's voice is clearer than ever, his brain is still that of the boy he was.
Mikal is a hunter; patience is easy for her. She takes it slow for Norris, re-reading and re-saying words as necessary for him. They're effectively outside of time here in the Nether, so she's in no rush.
The first scroll is labeled, simply, 'Bail/Oracle Override Codes.' It is accompanied by various cautions, mostly noting that they will only work on 'Oracles derived from post-Fall Mapeketh mortal design neurodigital intelligences' whatever the Nether that means. The second scoll is a bit more understandable in it's label: 'The First Scroll of Known True Names of Sceptres in service to El-Amon, also known as Angels.'
As she reads for Norris, in the moments while he's writing and labeling she looks around the room, searching for one last burial shroud for the last remaining monk. She thinks it would be respectful to wrap him as well, when they bring all twentyfour of the deceased out for Raven to retrieve.
Mikal brightens when she spots the "missing" burial shroud, neatly folded by the niche the body lies in. She waits until Norris is carefully writing a label, then goes into the other room and, with a soft prayer over the body, spreads the saffron shroud over the deceased monk. Before she leaves the room she whispers to all of them, "An' we survive, I promise you all surcease in Raven's gentle arms -- or that of a proper Throne of Death."
Mikal returns to the sarcophagus room and continues reading titles off the wall to Norris. Again in a moment while he's carefully labeling another scroll, she pulls out their bail and holds it in her hands. Her voice is soft, "Bail, can you hear me in here? Do you still work?"
Norris looks curious as he notes the second one. "How many names are there?" he starts to ask. And then waits till Mikal is done, instead working on sounding out the words...that's a lot of words. More shorthand. "And is there some kind of legend? Associating use names with true names."
Mikal smiles at Norris, "We'll check it in a minute, Norr. Go ahead and label it first, okay?"
Norris nods and gets back to it.
Of the half-dozen scrolls set into all niches, two appear to be filled with scores of True Names of angels. Most appear to be minor angels, little more than lancers and functionaries. As expected, the last name in the second scroll is listed as the True Name of Azrael... and if the script is any indicator, it is a mouthful to say, and even then pronunciation looks like it's going to be tricky.
There is a quiet chime form the bail, and it answers, "I am fully functional. Being a construct rather than an aethyr, I can operate within the Nether regions of the Dreamtime."
Mikal looks relieved, "Oh, good. Can you tell me why override codes would be important for an oracle or a bail? Also, are you a..." she glances up at the wall to make sure she's got the peculiar phrase correct, "a post-Fall Mapeketh mortal design neurodigital intelligence?"
The bail chimes. "There are certain parameters which bails are not permitted to breach without override codes, and certain operating modes which can not be engaged without such codes. I am not a neurodigital intelligence. Most Oracles, however, are."
Mikal looks puzzled, "Er... what are you then? And what are those modes and parameters, please?"
Norris looks amazed that Mikal can even pronounce all those words!
Jareth is taking a little time gathering himself together and it's quite a while before he reaches out and takes the vajra.
Another chime. "These modes include: manual editing of the internal database; debugging access to the internetworking protocols used to communicate with other bails and Oracles; editing of proto-hardware addresses and protocols; manipulation of data-recording and -acquisition methods and techniques; and user-access to the Instrumentality.
"I am a nonsentient Autonomous Intelligence expert system and relational database crafted by a post-Fall civilization shortly after the Godswar became known to mortals of that civilization. I was inserted into the Dreamtime and associated to the Instrumentality network in order to provide information and assistance. I presume it was to aid any members of the civilization who crafted me, who might find themselves in the Dreamtime." Again, whatever the Nether all that means.
Norris looks pretty well stumped by most of that.
Mikal blinks, staring rather blankly down at the little ball of light in her hands. After the bail has been silent for several heartbeats she murmurs a slightly dazed sounding, "...oh." She looks utterly confused for a few moments more -- then finally simply shakes her head sharply once, "Uh, right! So, um, did any of that mean that there's a way for us to ask you to not share any of what we're learning here with anyone else, unless we tell you it's all right to do so?"
The bail is quiet for a few heartbeats, then chimes again. "Yes,"
Norris is clearly trying to get it, though. "I think it's saying it was made back before the Aqal made everyone have to go to sleep, and enter the dreamtime? By folks that survived the Godswar?" he says tenatively.
Mikal blinks at Norris, "Er... I didn't realize the Aqal made folks go to sleep, though. I thought they just ate them?" She gives the bail a relieved look, "Oh, good! All right, that's what I want you to do. Walk me through telling you the right way to tell you that, please?"
Chime. "Address me, and speak the override code. Then give the command. I will repeat it back as best as I understand it. Then instruct me to commit the action when you are satisfied. If you wish to instruct me to cancel that command, or commit to another action, then you will have to give me the override code again."
Norris grimaces. "I admit, I'm working off of stuff we were told a long time ago. But I thought the reason that we were in Stanton to begin with was because we couldn't deal what was going on in the real world. What with spider wasps eating our reality."
Mikal murmurs to Norris, "Give me just a moment, please?" After that she gets the bail to give her the correct override code, then addresses it and speaks the code. Once she's reassured that's correct, she gives the command, listens and verifies it, and then gives the command to implement her command: to not give any of the information they're receiving just now to anyone or thing else unless so commanded by her, Raphael, Norris, or Jareth.
Norris absently wonders, as he listens in, how Raph would command it to do anything. Unless Raph really can talk, and he's just been giving Norris a hard time!
The bail complies dutifully, once Mikal has picked out the correct code -- with it's help -- from the scroll of such information.
Mikal looks relieved when she's done, tucking the bail gently away, "There! It may know all this stuff, but it won't accidentally let the Architect know now what the plan against him is!"
Norris looks hurt! "You had a plan this whole time and didn't tell me?" It's hard to tell if he's serious!
No it's not. There's a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Mikal blinks in wide-eyed shock at Norris -- then giggles as she notices the little smile, "Silly!" She bounces over, settling next to him and giving him a quick hug before she adds thoughtfully, "Norr, let me see the Name scrolls, please? Considering how long battle has been going on, it wouldn't surprise me if some of what used to be minor angels are now much more highly placed... and I want to scan the 'daily' names and see if there are any like Michael or any of the others the rakshasa have such trouble with!"
Norris nods and hands them over. "Remind me what we'd do with these names, exactly? You think we can summon them and traps them in salt, or something?"
Jareth has been quite silent most of this time, as if he wasn't quite with the rest of his odd little pack. He picks up the vajra carefully, turning it over in his hands to acquaint himself with it before he stands up to join in looking at the scrolls.
Mikal shakes her head to Norris, "Not just that. It depends on how beleaguered the rakshasa are, you know? For example, we could summon them one at a time, hold them and make them tell us all the True Names of other angels they know, command them to defend the rakshasa or attack their compatriots in the next battle, make them swear to not reveal that they'd talked to us and to not harm us... and then release them back to the other side."
Mikal's smile at Norris is almost innocent, despite the harsh content of her words, "You know what I mean?"
Norris stares at Mikal. "You can really do all that? The name has that much power?"
Mikal blinks at Norris, then looks down at the scroll, "Um... that's kind of the impression I'd been given. Bail, is that true? Can the True Name compell so much?"
Norris must have missed that part....
Mikal adds thoughtfully, "And... can we be heard from here by aethyrs? Like if we said a True Name here, would it work? Or would we need to be outside the Nether regions?" She looks up and beams at Jareth as the young man finally joins them. She puts a hand on his knee once he's settled, murmuring softly, "You all right, Jair?"
Jareth seems to consider for a moment, "There's just been so much death... and so much of it senseless that it's overwhelming to be here in a place created for us and have the voice of a long-death brother-deity speak to us."
Mikal studies Jareth for a moment -- then leans to put an arm around him, resting her head against his shoulder.
Jareth strokes Mikal's hair quietly, looking around at all the work his packmaes have done.
Norris shows Jareth what he did so far, his writing sketchy, but clear enough to understand when he explains what the shorthand means. And he gets back to annotating the scrolls as he lets Mikal tend to her lover, curious what else is here.
The bail chimes, "The True Name is powerful, yes. It can be used to compel an aethyr to do the things you suggested... but only with an extremely indomitable will. The True Name is used in a contest of wills between the speaker and the aethyr. Depending upon the will of the aethyr and the nature of what is being required of it, the contest can be simple and over quickly, or long and drawn out, or failing to compel the aethyr. Certainly, without the proper bindings, an aethyr will normally seek to never be put under bondage to the speaker ever again... angels in particular being known for killing anyone who attempts to use their True Name against them. There are countless practices and techniques, however, which help to bolster the speaker's will and wear down the aethyr's will in order to ensure success in such a contest."
Mikal narrows her eyes a touch grimly, "Do they now? We shall just see about that!"
Mikal says firmly to the bail, "Can an angel tell if someone is just practicing saying their True Name? Also, could they hear us call them here?"
Norris is digesting all of that. "Is it our will, though? or is it the will of the gods we were? Can we possibly tap into that?" he queries, asking himself more than anyone else.
The remaining three scrolls appear to be unlabeled, but as Lord Krishna said they are lists, maps, charts, and other directions to a number of hidden places throughout the Dreamtime. Some information is presumably well known -- like the locations of all the known Oracles, some of whom doubtless fell in the Godswar. Others appear to be lands which lie somewhere in the Deep Wyld, and are difficult at best to reach: Atlantis, Thule. A few others are not so well-known, or are not at all familiar to the group, and have names such as 'Neuschwabenland,' 'Phoenix-Atlanta,' 'El Dorado.'
The bail chimes and answers, "Yes. But not here. They cannot hear their names uttered here in the Nether."
Mikal nods slowly, a bright, triumphant glitter in her eyes, "Good. We shall just see whose will is stronger then!"
Among the list of angelic names, one catches Mikal's eye: Janiel, the angel who confronted the group at the raksasha battlefield.
Mikal smiles slowly at that, murmuring softly, "Ah! A perfect one to practice on." She reads the True Name carefully, trying to commit it to memory.
With some guidance from the bail -- which notes that it speaking a True Name will not catch the attention of the aethyr in question -- it helps Mikal to speak Janiel's True Name properly.
Jareth listens and murmurs the True Name to himself, as well, figuring that backup is not bad.
Norris's brow knits at mention of 'Phoenix-Atlanta'. "Sounds like someone smooshed together Arizona and Georgia..." he mumbles to himself in a vaguely southern accent.
Mikal happily thanks the bail and practices with a will until she's sure of that one. After that she flips idly to Azrael's name and tries sounding it out just for fun. "...ee... raugh... t-saht -- no, wait, that's t-saight -- t-saight-th... oh, heavens! What horrible names!"
Mikal giggles in spite of herself, then grins and hands the scroll to Jareth, "You have the voice, I have the will. Let's work together! Can you memorize that one?" She points to Azrael's True Name.
Norris looks up at Mikal. "Probably why they don't use those names. Even the other angels got tired of trying to pronounce them!"
Mikal laughs aloud at that!
Jareth's eyes narrow and he nods, "With pleasure, mon lapin."
Mikal beams at Jareth, her eyes bright with determination, "We'll help Raven yet, Jair!"
A brief glance through the two scrolls with the lists of and maps to various esoteric places, are notes, apparently penned separately in Lord Krishna's hand, as to what might be there. Stores of lotus-seeds are noted, as are various repositories. It's also clear from the notes that while he wrestled with the idea of leaving some places lost and forgotten forever, he relented and did not expurgate any from the list; Neuschwabenland appears to be the top of this small list, in that he regards the place as an aberration and an abomination to his own worshippers. He does not go into detail.
Also noted is the destination of Freyja, Artemis, and Sleipnir. It is in the Deep Wyld, somewhere beyond Thebes, in a location marked only as 'Smoking-Mirror-Palace of Hummingbirds.' It is indicated that the people of 'Itzamna' reside there, separate from all else, and according to Dreamtime legend have such great enmity with the servants of El-Amon, that they sear the sky with lightning and fire and smoke when they see one of the six-winged sceptres.
The last scroll is perhaps the most esoteric of all: It is labeled, simply, 'The Granary of Enoch-Nod' and in language that -- for now -- borders on the unpronouncable, is filled with diagrams and dialogues apparently stolen from that ancient city, which sits somewhere on the far side of Mount Zion, yet hidden from view. Much if it is rambling, dissembling, but deeper study might give some hint as to what secrets it holds.
Mikal blinks with interest at the amazing scrolls. She finally looks up and beams, "These are wonderful! Do we have them all labeled? Let's pack them up and get going, so the rakshasa can review them, and we can have a proper war council on what to do next!"
Norris waves his hands. "Wait, are we allowed to take the scrolls with us? I know the information was meant for us, but maybe they shouldn't be removed from here, lest they fall into the wrong hands..." His brow knits. "I'm not sure I can copy all that, though..."
Mikal grins cheerfully at Norris, "Norr, we came down here specifically to retrieve the treasures here: the scrolls and the vajra. Jareth has the vajra, we have the scrolls! Let's go -- we don't want poor Vibhishana to starve while waiting for us!" She starts carefully packing the scrolls into their backpacks as she speaks.
Norris nods absently. "I suppose that's true. If we were meant to take the vajra, then it would be silly to leave the scrolls. And it's not like we can understand them all by ourselves." He starts helping Mikal.
Mikal grins cheerfully at Norris, "Besides -- isn't this exciting?! Don't you want to learn everything you can from them? I know I do, and I bet Jareth does too!"
Jareth is already silently packing scrolls up, "What was the surprise, I wonder?"
Mikal says, "That Metatron has another name, mon chat!" She continues packing as she muses aloud, "Do you suppose there might be more information in there than even Krishna Lord knew?" She's almost bouncy with excitement, "This will be so exciting!"
Norris nods agreeably. "if only there was a quicker way to get back to the rakshasa stronghold." Actually, then he looks pensive. "I hope there's a way to get back there without us having to go back through that cursed city."
Mikal blinks at Norris, "What cursed city? There was the clearing with the handful of buildings in it, but that's surely avoidable. The city above us is fine, as far as I can tell?"
Norris shakes his head. "Not Angkor Wat. The one with the dark monk that tried to trap us."
Mikal nods, relieved it's the one she's thinking of, "We'll just route around it!"
Norris nods. "Okay then. Are we going to be doing anything with the angels on route, or we should get to safety first?"
Mikal says firmly, "My suggestion is safety amongst the rakshasa first!" She shoulders her pack carefully, then glances around, "We ready to go now?"
Norris thumbs up as he shoulders his pack too. "Ready and eager."
Jareth takes one long last look around the strange chamber. A trove of information left for them by a god that elicited a promise from demons to protect the mortals. It makes his heart ache a bit to leave it, but he nods, "All set."
Mikal beams excitedly at them all, then turns to face the sarcophagus. She rests her hands on it, her voice solemn, "Krishna Lord, honored brother in arms, we thank you for your efforts and your sacrifice. We promise we shall do our best to repay your trust in us. We ask your blessing on our efforts."
Norris doesn't really feel up to pithy words. "What she said."
Mikal closes her eyes, praying silently for a moment, then puts her palms together and bows deeply to the sarcophagus. After that she straightens, takes a deep breath -- then says firmly, "Now -- we do battle!" She turns and heads briskly towards the door, her stride determined.
Norris looks at Mikal as she leaves like that, and arches a brow at Jareth before he encourages the goatherd to follow.
Jareth grins at Norris and hies after his mate.
Emergence from the inverted pyramid/mandala, the group crosses the bridge, and finds Vhibishana at the other end, waiting quietly in meditation from which he rouses himself as the group starts to cross the bridge. He stands. "Did you find what you were looking for?" he asks, hopefully.
Jareth smiles and pulls the vajra from inside his tunic, "We found several things we expected and many more that we did not."
Mikal beams at Vibhishana, "Oh, yes! Our backpacks are full of scrolls, and Krishna Lord lies there in state, and mon chat has the vajra!"
Vhibishana brightens, beaming. "That's good! That's very, very good!" He becomes sober at Mikal's words. "Well... in a way it is good that Lord Krishna is interred here. At least his body was not despoiled by the angelic hosts." He taps his chin thoughtfully. "Mmm. We must impress upon my brother that this place should not become a shrine or pilgrimage. There is no need to draw attention to it from the angels."
Mikal says firmly, "Honored Vibhishana, no one but ourselves and your brother should know of this place until after we have resolved this conflict. Promise, please, that you will not reveal its location to any others? I will ask Ravana Lord the same oath when we return to your encampment."
He nods. "That was my thought exactly, Rabbit. I know of too many raksasha who would wish to come here, to dutifully pay their respects to Lord Krishna, and inadvertantly lead the angels here."
Mikal nods in relief, "Thank you." She smiles then, "So! Let us continue, please? Can you help us not pass through the dark monk's area on the way back?"
Vhibishana nods, making a face. "I will gladly avoid that place, yes."
THe group depart Angkor Wat, with the blessings of the monks, who close the caverns behind the group as they depart. Once again, the hidden temple conceals its secrets.
The trip back to the rakshasa encampment goes well without any problems. Vhibishana detours the group around the temple grounds of the dark monk; fortunately, the fog is thick enough over that plateau that they manage to avoid even seeing the Maraist temple.
Jareth spends as much time as he can on the trip back reading what he can of the scrolls. He doesn't know how much he can commit to memory, but he hopes that his new 'me' will do them some good with the Names.
Mikal talks quietly with the bail, learning all the tricks she can for increasing her will, and decreasing the will of others. She starts the meditations the bail suggests immediately; there is a stern determination in her to make this work.
Much of the techniques in the bail's data repositories involve what could basically be termed the trappings of sorcery. While Mikal thinks she has the talent, much of this, in this case, may not be actual magic but will certainly aid her in focussing her will towards the goal of essentially overwhelming an angel with it's own True Name. Circles, symbols, mantras, ritual phrases, are all tools used in the past, according to the bail, in the summoning and, essentially, binding of aethyrs.
Mikal is slow, careful, and thorough, working with the bail to memorize how this is done. She knows if she does it wrong she endangers not only herself, but potentially all her pack, so she is excruciatingly careful of the details on learning this. Effectively, to her way of seeing things, this is just another form of trap setting.
Norris spends most of his time just stoically keeping watch over the pack. It is wrong to that that he's absenting himself from the others, as he is as he has always been: the quietest member of the group. He does read with Jareth, and discusses the matter of these missing places that the scrolls speak of. But most of his quiet time is spent thinking about something else entirely: fragments of memories of his past life as Hepheastus intruding on his mental landsapce. And he's trying to reconstruct them, on the instinct that they're somehow relevant to their quest, to overthrow the Metatron.
And then one day, Norris is marching last, the gears grinding slowly away in his head. And then a piece fits into place in the puzzle that is his brain, and it's like a door opens up. "oh. Oh!" As he's in back, no one else hears him. So he suddenly runs to the head of the line and waves his arms. "Excuse me! Oh! I just had an apostrophe!"
Jareth blinks at Norris, "You mean an epiphany?"
Norris points at Jareth. "Right, one of those!"
Mikal giggles in spite of herself.
Norris sketches his thought out in the broad strokes. He explains to his friends that he was regaining bits of memories from being Hephaestus. And that he had gotten drafted into plots and plans against the patriarchal Zeus, his supposed 'father', by his mother Hera, and his wife, Aphrodite. That he was taking the family of deities in directions that were unliked by the older goddesses, and they were trying to undermine him and bring him to heel. From what people kept telling the pack about El-Amon, about him once being far less astringent and nowhere near as patriarchal, and how the Metatron might have been behind this shift in mentality,this seems awfully familiar. And that's the crux. "What if the Metatron was one of the older gods, like a Zeus or a Marduk? What if he'd tried to usurp a mythology before, and he did it again with El-amon?"
Mikal blinks in startled, wide-eyed silence as Norris speaks. Once he's done she says bemusedly, "That, uh... sounds very possible, Bear, but... um... do you mean Zeus was stringent? Not, er... sour or bitter tasting, and causing body tissues to tighten up?"
Norris considers that. "I dunno. I always tended to tighten up every time I was around him..." he ponders aloud.
Norris nods then. "No, I meant, stern and unbending and like that."
Norris says, "I'm sorry, still not so good with the vocabulary-thingums."
Mikal giggles so much she has to sit down to catch her breath!
Norris stares at Mikal. "Well, it's true! Worst step-parent there ever was. Only reason I came back to olympus was because of muh Momma. Not cause of mister 'I curse you to be ugly and mortal' sourpuss. He was real durn sour."
Mikal finally catches her breath and looks up at Norris with a grin. She rises suddenly, flinging her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "You're wonderful, Bear, you know that?"
Norris flushes. "Well. Jus' sayin. Aint nothing ah can do but be me, so if me is wonderful, then that's a good thing."
Mikal giggles and goes up on tiptoes, trying to reach Norris's cheek for a little kiss.
Norris leans down to help. He's a helpful guy, after all. "Mebbe somewhere in those scrolls, there's a list of th' fates of the remaining gods? We kin do, like, process of elimination. And folks like Armaros and the Rakshasa and th' Seneshal can help, maybe the Bail too..."
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