• Graded • [The Forging] Balance

[Pegasus]

The Mausoleum:
"On the way over, her heart stopped," The Element who had landed said to Jacien. He nodded. They had brought her here, because the Sohr Kahl could land, there was a large area and there were no living souls near for the ghost - or the emeans - to feast on. Here were just the dead.

"Bring her down," he said. He sounded calm, but there was a glint in his eye, an expression. He was eager. Keen. "Then leave."

"Sir," the Element replied and he did just that. He laid Elisabeth gently down and then turned and walked out. By now, Elisabeth was unconscious, although that was probably a mercy. Jacien knelt over her and, as he did he took off the simple silver ring he wore.

"Well, I didn't know that," said Cally and he nodded. "I'd appreciate your continued discretion." Cally thought about it. "Does Kura know?"

"Of course."

That was enough for the ghost. "How fresh is the freshest dead body here?" Jacien asked Cally, his hands examining Elisabeth and his eyes frowning. "Damn fools and their damn magics." Cally - rather surprised at the question - answered. "I mean... how fresh you wantin'?". "Freshest there is. Quickly."

Cally hesitated slightly, and Jacien spoke to her, calmly. "I need to keep this woman alive. But that won't help if the thing possessing her doesn't stop. Please, Cally." The wisp sighed and moved. "Grim this is," she said, muttering to herself.

The pair of them worked and it took time.

And then, eventually, Elisabeth's eyes opened. Jacien was there, sitting with her. He looked completely normal, as she remembered him. "You need to rest," he said. Indeed, if she tried to move, she'd find herself exhausted. "That feeling will pass, soon, and I will take you back to the Glass Temple." His gaze was, as it had been before when she met him in Almund, cool and almost amused. "You stopped breathing once on the way over here and again when you were here. You were possessed by a ghost of significant power." He reeled it off calmly. "Then, when your ... " a pause, "friend acted rashly and foolishly. To try and save you, he jeapordised the entirety of Scalvoris because you were too busy talking to get your trousers on." He did not sound angry - but there was a calm steel in his voice. "You stopped and talked. You changed your mind. You stopped and talked again. All the training in the world will not help you if you don't learn to stop and think and then act." He shook his head. "Drink this, it will help you."

He started the process of getting her dressed once again, she would realise that she was naked under the blankets. Her arms and legs were mostly numb, though, and she was barely able to move. There was no one else there, and he helped her with the drink intermittently as he dressed her. "You have been healed, but you nearly lost your leg to the frostbite, so it will be painful for a while. You have questions, no doubt?" One corner of his mouth lifted in a sardonic smile.

Info & Rules

• This thread is for you and me!
• Due to the time-sensitive nature of this, I can not hold out for people to post. If you miss a round, there will (I'm afraid) be consequences.
• This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was taught to me by a dear friend and one of the most talented Storytellers I've ever known. With thanks to Crimson / Straylor.

!	Message from: Reminder
	There are no required skill levels for this. It is - undoubtedly - dangerous. It's a war. What will get you hurt is NOT if you are low skilled. What will get you hurt is doing something foolish. There's plenty for everyone to do. Equally, being highly skilled is not a guarantee of anything. This will need teamwork and smarts.

Status

Things are much improved. There's just your voice in your head - but your body is weak and you need help sitting up. You'll grow progressively stronger over the next few moments.

Objectives

!	Message from: Must-Do Objectives
	None this round.

Next Post: Sunday 6th June

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 30 Ashan

The Battle Within....

The battle raged on within the young woman’s mind. The voices….there were so many…..challenging her beliefs, screaming the worst things one can imagine about themselves at her. It felt like an eternity of battle. Frustration, determination, heartbreak, commitment, despair, resolve – the emotions went up and down like waves, Elisabeth never knowing how deep one would sink or how high she could rise.

There were small moments where she felt like she would be overwhelmed, cut deep by the words she heard, but when she felt those moments come, she held on to the one thing she treasured above all else – hope. Believing in herself. Believing in others. Knowing that regardless of any challenges, the people assembled would get the job done.

Gripping that sphere of hope helped her combat the voices, pushing back against them when they threatened to annihilate her.

Awwwww…you’ve left the island. Too dumb to stay. Just a silly girl out of your depth. They are going to take you someplace and leave you there to rot.

Yes, but where are you? Whatever you are, you're not on Ishallr. Inside me instead. Not bothering the rest of the team or slowing them down. This is bigger than me...

It was a small victory, but Elisabeth would take it.

After a time, the voices fell silent. It was quiet where she was, and yet there was a sense of being safe. The energy was oddly feminine, although the young mage wouldn’t be able to reason why that was. In fact, Elisabeth wondered if she might be dead but didn’t allow herself to dwell on the idea.

And then, things slowly began to recede and fade, although coming into sharper focus. The warmth of the place she had been in slipped away, and a harsher reality flooded back.

Sapphire eyes fluttered open, only to find Jacien standing over her. Her head turned side to side, looking to see if she could riddle out where she was. “What? Where am I?” Elisabeth could hardly move, everything in her body aching. For the moment, the company she had with her didn’t matter. "There was a woman, keeping me safe?" She had no idea if that would make any sense to him, but she felt compelled to inquire.

She listened to him explain the basics - brought from Ishallr. Heart stopped. Ghost. Magic. Heart stopped again. Ghost? Oh, Isis! She had been one of the voices. It seemed so fuzzy, and yet, all the words she had heard, echoed in her mind. All those doubts and fears, threatening to rip through her resolve. Isis may have been dealt with, but the after-effects lingered.

Elisabeth wanted to tell him everything that had happened to their team since arrival, but the man continued on. In the three times Elisabeth had encountered him, Jacien had demonstrated a way of speaking that she found a bit fascinating. He could say a lot, by not really saying much at all. His expression never really changed, always seeming amused, poking people to see reactions. Stirring the pot, ever so subtly, just to see what kind of information he could get.

He spoke of her talking. Her indecision. He didn’t seem upset but then again, this was Jacien. Nothing phased him, or at least nothing had phased him in the time they had spent together. The man handed her something to drink, helping her sit up in the process. Her body was exhausted, although there was simply nothing to compare the exhaustion to. Elisabeth imagined it was like training for trials on end, but it was unlike anything she had ever experienced.

She remained quiet for a few bits, trying to collect her thoughts. He had just admonished her for talking too much and as such, she felt that more talking, perhaps, wasn’t the solution. She wanted to argue, to defend her actions, but she held her tongue for the moment.

He moved to help her get dressed, and then and only then did she realize she was naked. It didn’t bother her, and just as she had told Arlo on Ishallr, she was a sensible girl. Elisabeth would take the help. It gave her a chance to study Jacien up close and while nothing obvious stood out to her, there was one subtle thing – he was a bit tired.

Once he had her dressed, he addressed the pain in her leg, noting that she had almost lost it to frostbite. Curiously, he opened the door for questions. Up to that point, she had said nothing, limiting herself to observations and listening. Whether that surprised him or not, she didn’t know. Her mind was too busy processing everything he was telling her, and everything she knew, to speak.

Of course she had a million questions. There was uncertainty around all of it, but hadn’t he just told her that she had wasted too much time talking and not acting? How was she supposed to reconcile that with his invitation to ask questions?

And yet, there were things that needed to be said and asked. Her voice was soft, as if still slowly picking through pieces of information.

“Thank you, for whatever you did. I don’t wish to waste any more time asking questions, although you know me well enough, I think, to know that I have many of them.”

Jacien had been the one to collect information on her for Balthazar's trial. In effect, he had been one of the ones to determine she hadn't been party to their issues with Balthazar. Then again, his conclusion about her hadn't been a ringing endorsement either. Truth be told, the young woman had no idea what he thought of her, yet his actions were clear. He had helped her, but to what extent, she didn't know. It felt slightly disconcerting to have someone she didn't know have so much information on who she was, but at least at the moment, it was a blessing. Less time wasted with words.

The longer she sat, the more she felt her strength return to her. He was giving her a few moments of his time…and she was going to take them. Sighing a bit, she doubled back to address his concerns.

“Jacien, in every moment on Ishallr, I did what I thought best with the information I had at that moment. That’s all any of us can do. Some people act too much, not enough thinking. I would put myself in harm’s way every time to help someone else…” Sighing softly, she balled up her fist and gently pounded on the stone slab she was sitting on as if the repetitive motion helped her think.

“…but this isn’t about me. This is about Scalvoris and all those teams out there trying to save it. I will do whatever is asked of me to that end, but we should probably get to it. There must be something I can do to help. You know me better than anyone else here – that file you created on me proves it. Put me to work. What do I need to know?”

There was no reason for her to list off everything she had been through that trial as Jacien would already know it all. The Glass Temple encounter, Kura knew of it and thus he would as well. He knew she had all the information offered up by Chamadarst. The explosions and Chrien’s storm – Kura obviously knew about that. Jacien had been present at the Glass Temple Summoning and obviously had been informed about the Ishallr mission. Who better to know how she could help?

Yes, she wanted to know what he had done to her, but Elisabeth trusted - a word she never thought she would use with Jacien - him to tell her what she needed to know to be useful, and the rest could wait. She didn't need to know the specifics to continue doing the job.

Gazing over at him, she tilted her head a bit, being reminded of her earlier observation. “You look tired. Have you had anything to eat?” To be fair, she felt indebted to the man for what he had done for her, even if she didn't know exactly what, but she also knew full well the stress and pressure they were all under, and Jacien was a part of that. A large part of it - he was the information man.

They all had to look out for each other.

[Pegasus]

The Mausoleum:
"You acted foolishly and rashly. You know you can die in moments in the cold yet you insisted on going one way then another, on explaining and explaining again, then chatting to a ghost. Now you seek to justify that. It is foolishness." He gazed on her calmly. "You were not helping anyone by your actions, you were hindering. You were not putting yourself in harms way to save a team mate, you were putting your team mates in harms way as they tried to save you." The expression he wore was, as always, impassive. "It became about saving you to the point that they risked every soul on this island because you did not change your clothes. Own your mistakes, don't justify them or glorify them. Judge yourself by your actions, not the intentions. Learn."

She said then that she could help and he shook his head. "No, you can not." He said, sternly. "When you are rested, we will take you back to the Temple and Kura and Doran will determine what task, if any, they have for you." His eyes rested on her and he added, again without emotion. "And if you truly believe that having a file on you gives me any insight into anything, you're an idiot." He watched her as she grew more able to sip the drink herself and then, just for a moment, his composure slipped. "Curse his bones!"

Jacien sighed. "It seems that Cassion has decided that I am no longer to work undercover, so that makes things easier in the short term." He did not look best pleased, it must be said. But, it made things easier, as he said, to deal in the short term. Jacien turned to look at an area which, to Elisabeth's eyes, was just an empty space. "Tell Kura that he's outed me in Scaltoth, please. We're beyond the point of damage control now, we need to cut our losses and I'll move jobs. Also, I've removed the Audrae link, she's fine." Then, he turned back to Elisabeth after, apparently, talking to thin air.

"I can speed up this process. You'll some green light, don't be alarmed."

He removed the only piece of jewelry he had on - a simple silver ring - and as he did Jacien's face changed. The immovable face, so devoid of expression, remained the same face - but it was far from devoid now. More than that, though, she saw the marks. Tattoos of delicate black cuffs adorned both his wrists and his neck. His finger nails were black, the mark of Gwelliph clear on his forehead. Looking at her, he smiled. "It does not pay to be seen for what you are, in my job. Hold still." And as green mist-like energy poured out of his hand and into her, Elisabeth felt her strength fully returning.

"Come," he said, holding out his hand. "We will travel in tunnels deep under Scalvoris to the Glass Temple. They are pitch black so, if you can not see I suggest you keep hold of my arm." He opened one of the sarcophagi in the mausoleum and it revealed stairs down. "Yes, thank you," he said to another empty space. "The floor is even and secure. We will walk slowly."

And he took her down, into darkness.

Info & Rules

• This thread is for you and me!
• Due to the time-sensitive nature of this, I can not hold out for people to post. If you miss a round, there will (I'm afraid) be consequences.
• This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was taught to me by a dear friend and one of the most talented Storytellers I've ever known. With thanks to Crimson / Straylor.

!	Message from: Reminder
	There are no required skill levels for this. It is - undoubtedly - dangerous. It's a war. What will get you hurt is NOT if you are low skilled. What will get you hurt is doing something foolish. There's plenty for everyone to do. Equally, being highly skilled is not a guarantee of anything. This will need teamwork and smarts.

Status

Fully healed! Feel free to post now in the Glass Temple. You will arrive about ten minutes after the end of what's just happened, as identified in my post. Thanks

Objectives

!	Message from: Must-Do Objectives
	None this round.

Next Post: Sunday 13th June

[Pegasus]

Your Review

Elisabeth

Overview

Poor Elisabeth! This was quite a trauma for her, and I felt that she was doing her very best to be understood. Jacien gave her quite the onslaught - and she'd already gone through so much. You portray Elisabeth's struggle really well and her focus on those people who give her strength. She has a really deep well of emotion and she has been through such a lot in such a short space of time. Beautiful writing - enjoy your rewards!

Points

XP: 15
Renown: Nope

Loot

1. All healed!

Knowledge

Detection: Noticing details in new surroundings
Detection: Identifying subtle changes in someone's face.
Discipline: Fighting warring voices in your head
Discipline: Hearing constant negativity
Endurance: Fighting muscle atrophy
Endurance: The after effects of a major injury
Socialisation: Dealing with taciturn individuals
Socialisation: Arguing your point.

Consequence

After your memories are returned etc, following the Feast, Jacien will write to Elisabeth and remind her of the job offer her made her. He would be happy to meet with her to discuss that, should she wish it.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this review - drop me a PM.