Ch.5 "Lost Souls" / Kell and Sigrlinn

[tbgg]

Kell grabs imaginary Vin's hand and walks with him toward Heph and Sigrlinn.

When they arrive, she says, "I saw you two talking rather earnestly and figured we'd better come check it out. Have you decided anything, or are you still discussing?"


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Heph replies, "I would like to go to my mansion now. Are you and Mr. Cobbler finished dancing? I wanted to give you time before we head out."

The illusion of Vin does not respond. And it won't unless Kell wills it to.

 

[tbgg]

Kell looks at imaginary Vin, who looks back at her with a raised eyebrow. Kell hugs him tightly for a long moment, and he returns the hug.

"I love you. Stay safe," she tells him softly.

"You stay safe for real Vin. He loves you too, fair nymph," he returns.

With a regretful little sigh, Kell wills imaginary Vin away.

She tells Heph, "Yeah, we're done. I'm ready." And she looks at him expectantly.




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[Legendary Sidekick]

You find yourselves outside a mansion. Metal birds chirp and flutter along bright fluffy trees. A lime-green moon is rising. A blood-orange-red moon and a teal-green moon are already risen.

You aren't sure how you arrived here. You were just on the dance floor a second ago.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn blinks and looks around. "...Uh... I don't think this is the real mansion." She looks at Kell. "Maybe I need to cast a spell to get us out, like I did to get the two of us here?" She looks toward the door. "Or maybe we're supposed to use the hearth inside to contact Aphrodite and Hestia."

 

[tbgg]

Kell looks uncertainly at Heph, a confused look on her face. "Yeah, this isn't where we started from."

She shifts her gaze to Sigrlinn. "But you aren't a fairy anymore - you no longer have Phoebe's hearth magic. *Can* we contact the others without it?"


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[Ireth]

"Oh. That's... a good point." Sigrlinn winces. "Okay, does anyone have a backup plan? Maybe we should just head inside and see what we find."

 

[tbgg]

Kell looks back to Heph. "Did you bring us here with a plan in mind?"


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[Legendary Sidekick]

"A plan?" Heph replies. "Oh! You must be wondering how we got here so fast. Well, I went through life not being able to walk. In this world, I can walk. And dance. Dancing is nice, but walking takes too long. It's boring.

"But I thought you two are used to walking and you must like it since you walk all the time. So I decided to blink is in front of the mansion so you could see it, then walk from here. Or was I mistaken? I can blink us inside, if you'd rather not walk."

 

[Ireth]

"I think Kell meant, 'do you have a plan for getting us back to the mortal world via the mansion'," says Sigrlinn. "Of course, someone with a magical knife that sends gods to other realms wouldn't want to make it easy to get back even if they wanted to..."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Sigrlinn

You feel a tickling sensation along your shoulder.

"Don't swat me," says a teeny-tiny voice.

You recognize the voice as Arachne's. The spider woman is less than an inch tall. Her voice is barely audible, but you hear it in the quiet moment as Heph seems rather stumped by your words. Arachne latches onto your ear lobe. She speaks directly into your ear.

"Hephæstus has no memory of arriving here. For me it was different. Hera took the knife to me. She tested it on me, and for a while, she watched the world in here grow. I weaved this world, and Heph made changes of his own. I like what he's done with the place, but if you will help him out, I will do all I can to support you. If you used magic to get in here, does this mean no one took the knife to you?"


Both of You

As Arachne speaks to Sigrlinn, Heph is heading toward the mansion. You can choose to follow him. If you don't follow, he'll probably just blink you inside. He mumbles words to that effect as he heads into his home—

"—to see my wife," he whispers to himself.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn stands still to listen to Arachne, murmuring in reply. "She took the knife to you... does that mean she stabbed you with it?" She shudders, trying not to dislodge the spider-woman. "No one stabbed me with it. I just touched the hilt and tried to use magic to see how it worked. I was in a fairy body then, so it was hearth magic. Or it was meant to be. As a Huntress I don't have magic."

She watches Heph leave, then glances at Kell. "I think we should follow."

 

[tbgg]

Kell nods to Sigrlinn, then follows Heph toward the mansion.


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Sigrlinn

"Something like that," Arachne replies. "Actually, Hera had already made me a spider-woman. I needed to make clothing for her. Sure, it was my penance, but I thought we were getting along fine. I knew she'd leave me like this forever—Hera's not known of forgiveness—but I didn't think she hated me. Not until a man came to Olympus with a gift—a black knife—and I don't mean an ordinary black. Black like the sun would shine if the shine were reversed and became darkness. She let me look at it—commanded me to, really—and while I was looking, I felt a hand swat me lightly. Not hard enough to kill me. I was…"

She pauses. There's a shudder in her voice as she goes on, "…in pain. A lot of pain. And too broken to move. When the knife was positioned to cut me, I welcomed it. When I ended up here, I could move my legs. The pain was gone. I haven't felt any pain since."



Both of You

As you enter Heph is already inside. A metal maiden in a maid outfit has her head bowed as she greets her master. Heph says some words that you can't really hear, and the maid turns to you smiling pleasantly.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Chief Executive Directors Sigrlinn and Kelleia." She points down a hall with her feather duster. "Please come this way."

She leads you down a hall. Hanging from the ceiling is a strip of honey-colored paper. Two flies are stuck to it, facing the ceiling. You hear a faint, almost-inaudible buzzing coming from one (or both?) of the flies.

Arachne whispers to Sigrlinn, "Ah. That explains why some of my shoemakers didn't show up for work. I will help them." She zips off Sigrlinn's shoulder.

The maid gestures toward a sofa. "Kindly have a seat. Master Heph would like to be alone as he reunites with his estranged wife."

The sofa is in a library. There are several books, lamps that look like tiny glass suns under skirts, and a box labeled HearthVision™ where one would expect to see a fireplace.

The maid seems quite proud of herself as she says, "I spent the day removing all 99.7% of the dust and 3 of 3 pests. There is only a 0.0129% probability this room could be cleaner! Tee, hee, hee?"

She looks at you as if seeking your approval.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn shivers at Arachne's description of the knife as she follows Kell toward the door. "That's the one. I'm sorry you had to suffer so much before being sent here." She pauses. "If I'm right, the man who brought the knife might have been Loki. If he was tall, with dark hair and golden eyes, and fangs..." She shudders again, clenching her fists as she fights to banish memories of the night Loki destroyed her village and left her a blank slate.

Taking a breath to steel herself again, she looks around. A metal maid greets them, and Sigrlinn manages a smile. She tilts her head to look at the flies trapped near the ceiling, wondering whether these are the same ones she and Kell met earlier. At the maid's bidding she takes a seat on the sofa, looking around the spotless room. Maybe one of those three pests was the fly she and Kell piloted through the building. "You've done a wonderful job in here."

 

[tbgg]

Kell smiles at the maid and says, "That is very clean indeed. Good work. Do you have a name?"


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Sigrlinn (before Arachne leaped from her shoulder)

Arachne confirms the man was tall and slender with dark hair. She didn't notice any fangs, and the eyes were covered with shaded spectacles.



Both of You

"My name is S, 4, ehh—"

As the maid is about to say a letter (probably M or N), Heph shouts so loudly the three moons fall from the sky.
"YOU!"
You see red and green explosions in the east. Buildings topple and burn. Tidal waves converge toward the moon landings—then reverse in a devastating tsunami, reducing the buildings far below to rubble!

S4M-or-N's eyes glow bright red. "This is a disaster," she says emotionlessly.

Her eyes continue to flash in alarm, but if you look out the window, you'll see that the broken world being washed away is far below a cliff—or perhaps a floating chunk of land? In any case, the mansion seems unaffected by the mass destruction.

Heph is angered by something, judging by his voice.

"Chief Executive Directors," he bellows, "I could REALLY use some advice!"

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn jumps at the bellow, then rushes to Heph's side. She stares at the destruction below the mansion with wide eyes, then looks back at Heph. "What's going on?"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The Master Bedroom

Heph is glaring at his bed. Aphrodite is in it, but she's not alone. There is a lean, muscular man with her. It is safe to assume that the only thing covering Aphrodite and the man are bedsheets.

"Chief Executive Directors," Heph says in a tone that suggests he is doing all in his power to remain calm, "I believe you have already met my wife, but not my brother. Ares, Sigrlinn, Sigrlinn, Ares, and this is Kelleia, the nymph who saved my marriage despite your efforts to destroy it."

He turns to you.

"So. Advice?"

Aphrodite and the bald, square-jawed man both look at you expectantly with facial expressions identical to Heph's.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn is at a loss for words. Why would Aphrodite bed another man -- her brother-in-law, no less -- just after resolving her marriage with Heph? She looks at Aphrodite, wondering if perhaps this was all a misunderstanding. Was she forced or coerced into this, or was she willing? Maybe Ares had disguised himself as Heph to get close to her?

At last she says, looking between the two gods in the bed, "What I want to know is, why did this even happen at all?"