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Middle of the week, and the lodge bustles with its usual activity. People coming and going, parents picking kids up from the day care center, others coming to use the library or the computers. There's going to be a dinner tonight for one of the Buds that's becoming a full fledged Scion this week. Their family is polynesian and so the meal is being tuned in that direction. Lots of pork and sweet sauces.
Balm, having begun to extricate herself from her responsibilities, is more or less a bystander to these things now. Peacekeeper has been standing in with the expectation of assuming her duties once Balm has moved on, learning under Balm's eye while the old Dreamspeaker is still around to lend advice. Agoston, her familiar, is resting at the feet of Balm's wheelchair while the old woman pens her letters. Probably her final thoughts for those she knows would want them.
Kay arrives at the lodge, feeling the weight of the times on their shoulders, as they reel in their thoughts and emotions to focus onto a particular set of appropriate ones, some kind of practice for later, they're pretty sure. Diamond navigates the people in a usual soft, friendly manner, waving to the children and Children alike and quickly reviewing the menu before deciding that, once more, cleaning up after the parties is more their speed in terms of social functions. Sometimes Kay actually behaves like Moros!.
Kay approaches Balm, setting their gaze upon the Elder and Peacekeeper, who's likely nearby, perfect. Exactly who they needed to meet up with. Several layers of magical protection cling upon Kay in various iterations of the shielding practice, due to the 'Interesting Times' they're living in.
Fox has been spending an awful lot more time around the Lodge of late, though really she's been spending a lot more time around Balm since that whole incident with the old woman nearly dying when the Tree was attacked last year. Ever since the moment that she realized how close she came to missing out on even another year of the Elder's wisdom, she's been making a habit of visiting. Having tea. Listening. Just... being around.
So after spending time helping set up the meal -- and sort of making vague noises about not cooking the pork, something about a rabbi making a good argument -- she has removed herself from the bustle and slunk down into foxness, curling herself up next to Aguston like she belongs there.
It must be concerning, indeed, because Peacekeeper is out of her usual light, billowy, floral colors which she prefers and is instead in black BDU's, shit kickers, and a sports bra with a muscle shirt over it. The only weapon at her hip is a rod of wood, about a food and a half long, with a slight taper towards one and. A truncheon of some sort, but it looks somehow more than that on her hip. She gives Kay a nod when spotted, and briefly touches Balm's shoulder to indicate the arrival of others. Balm's vision is for the birds.
"Ah! My little mushroom returns to me," Balm calls warmly. "Agoston is pretending not to know Fox is a Fox so he can sleep and not have anyone point out he's supposed to be barking. You look a bit preoccupied if you don't mind my saying so."
Kay approaches the ragtag group of familiar, shape-shifted Magi and Elders, eyes falling to the various weapons. The little magical cloud starts to dance like an aura around Kay as they smile at Balm's welcoming words. "I am." they then greet the familiar, fox and Peacekeeper warmly, hugs, offered pats and other preferred form of affections. "Hey Fox, Auguston, Peachkeeper."
"A lot of it is complicated emotional work, but I am worried about your intended journey, in relation to the recent interesting 'times' we've been experiencing."
Fox tucks her tail over her nose and scoots in closer to Agoston, because a fox gotta fox. There's a gentle ripple of magic crawling up the spine, and then Fox's voice just sort of occurs in the air. It's much tidier, apparently, than reshaping her vocal cords and jaw to make human words come out of vulpine jaws. "There have been a lot of things to think about, Grandmother. And... Events." Scoot scoot nudge scoot. What a pest. Her gaze flicks up to Peacekeeper, watching her thoughtfully, then Balm. Peacekeeper. Balm. Kay. Nudge Agoston.
The dog yawns expansively all all of this noise and fussing about, and "talks" in his own right. Only he's a husky, so his talking is loud, high pitched whines that dip down into playful, sad sounding little whines. Chatty huskies are the best kind, though, so it just makes him look doubly cute most of the time.
"Do I need to ask one of you to wheel us somewhere a little more private?" Peacekeeper is already falling out of parade rest to slip around and start maneuvering the push chair about. The dog finally comes to its feet and stretches expansively before shaking out its coat and coming to stand beside his handler, coming On Duty.
The very much rhetorical question is answered when Peacekeeper starts to lead the procession down the hall towards the staff offices. Once they're all through the security door, though, Peacekeeper assures everyone, "It's safe to speak here." She's still heading for Balm's office, though.
"When you attempt your next trip, Balm, I believe the seers will run interference." Kay explains with a soft voice, the moment Peacekeeper says it's safe to talk. "Attempt to prevent you from achieving your goals." A look around the familiar halls, Kay seems momentarily distracted by something unseen. "I'm pretty sure this is not a surprising turn of event, but my attention was brought to the possibility recently."
Fox untucks her muzzle long enough to start playing snappy jaws with the other canine, but stops immediately once Agoston goes On Duty. She stands up and shakes herself with prim delicateness and then hops up on Balm's lap. Somebody is pushing but it isn't Fox. (It is Peacekeeper.) Fox leans against the Elder like a cat and stares over her shoulder up at Peacekeeper, blinking her yellow-green eyes slowly, like a happy cat. "That makes sense. They've been dogging our steps in the Astral -- no offense, Agoston." That voice that just sort of happens sounds thoughtful. "There were multiple effects that went off when we went to the Tree's reflection a while ago, and they were all the same. It was a carefully-sprung trap. So. Yeah."
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if they did after the stunt they pulled attacking our tree like that," Balm complains with a rattle in her voice and a shudder to the hand she lifts from her chair arm to emphasize the point by dropping it down in a brittle fist on her chair arm. "Though frankly, it will be good to know that my life is worth them trying to muck about with. Confirmation I've done a pretty good job with it." She is finally positioned behind her desk, and Peacekeeper moves back around to stand behind the chairs where Kay and Fox are welcome to sit if they like. Agoston sits down at the side of Balm's chair, watching her, not the others.
"What makes you so sure, Kay?" Peacekeeper asking the pertinent question. She likewise gives Fox a small nod, "So you think the attack will come from the Astral this time? Rather than the here at the Lodge, or at the Tree again?" There's just the sliiiightest tightness at the aging woman's jaw as she realizes there may be a lot of rearranging of assignments very shortly.
"I've had many reason to investigate Time magic because of recent events." Kay explains, throwing a bit of a side-eye toward Fox as he reminds them or something related to pigeon and sexiness for a brief instant. "And one of those reasons led me to believe what you're planning would be a prime target for an assault."
"One of the things that makes this situation so frustrating is that I don't know what I can say in clarity safely without causing mass problems for other people."
Amazingly, Fox being a fox -- which is usually when she's least able to hide her emotions -- only sort of twitches when Kay mentions Time magic, and that glance aside gets briefly ignored before she lets out the biggest of big sighs. "Yeah," Fox agrees. "There are ... reasons... why... it makes a lot of sense." And she curls up very small in Balm's lap, putting her tail over her nose as if to protect herself from the expressions that she imagines are about to occur on Balm and Peacekeeper's faces.
"ImetmyfutureselfandafutureWeaverbecausesomeoneismeddlingwithtimelinesfrominthefutureliketheSeersandthenuhhhhhtheywarnedusaboutstuff."
Peacekeeper and Balm both look at each other for a long moment, sharing the sort of blank expressions that can communicate volumes when you've known one another as long as these two have. Then they both look down at Fox, then over at Kay, then between the pair of them at turns.
"That actually makes a great deal of sense," Peacekeeper finally admits. "It certainly explains why everyone's had a hard time finding a pattern to their attacks or a reason for when and why they occur. They're not attacking people and places per se, they're attacking chances. If two people chancing to meet on the corner of 5th and Chestnut gives rise to a baby destined for great things, they don't need to kill anyone, they need to delay a bus." She looks like she might be kicking herself. It's something that's obvious only once you've had it pointed out to you, just how vulnerable your timeline really is.
Balm, on the other hand, looks remarkably nonplussed. "Once I find my path, I'm pretty sure only the Abyss can stop me. Maybe they've got some trick up their sleeve that I don't know about, but I've been planning this walk for ... a long time. Preparing for it. Searching for it. Testing the roads leading to the edge of whatever's next for me. I feel confident that I can do this, and if my people stand with me, I am certain I can do it. I'm sure our Warmaker has a lot of sayings about there being a difference between walking into a trap and knowing you're walking into a trap."
"I can't put this off forever. I could go to sleep tonight and not wake up. That's how old I am now. If they want to stop me, they're going to have to do better than intending to. They're going to have to actually do it, and they're going to have to actually do it when we know they're coming."
"If that's how close you are to not making it, I could guarantee you have time for a while longer, as long as there's no outside intervention, of course." Kay responds to that. "I'm not advocating for pushing anything back, but I'm saying I can remove the chance of it happening soon. All I need is five minutes."
"And yeah, basically, I feel like that's part of what the attacks on Alexis and that city councilor were. Though that's a hunch more than anything." They ponder aloud when Peacekeeper speaks up about the methods and ideas.
She solemnly nods at Peacemaker. "Yes. They want to destroy the future where we're winning by ... picking apart the threads that get there, or whatever."
"I told me to tell you that I love you," Fox interjects quietly. "I knew what you were planning before you announced it, because I told me, by -- " A little pause. She stops short of spelling it out: her future self wouldn't have told her that if Balm were in that future for Fox to tell the Elder herself. She knew Balm had to be gone, or dead. "It might have been just my emotional -- I do love people -- but."
But she doesn't think she would have made sure that she knew if that wasn't important. The vulpine creature whines and covers her muzzle with her paws. Thinking too much about Timelines is a Big Headache, Actually. "I know all of that, Grandmother. I'm just saying. I told me."
"Though Weaver did take time to tell themself about the waffle iron they put on their arm." She squints her face up very small. "But also they said... if we anchor ourselves outside our timeline then we will be able to see the effects when they ripple through. And... uh..."
Scrunch.
"We cross-referenced the temporal signatures and potentiality threads and they all intersected in Philadelphia, 2021. We know it's Seers. We know it's not the Pylon you're familiar with. We know an Acanthus of the Panopticon is involved." All of this is very carefully recited, as if she's been repeating these sentences to herself over and over again since one day in the woods. "And she gave me something for Vasha. A symbol. A sign."
"I think he's going to -- defect. And I think that's -- necessary."
"Alexis. The Mystogogue who's been handling the Lloyd's & Lewiston data dump?" Which is a front company for the Seers of the Throne tied to the Mark One and Mark Two programs. Peacekeeper's eyebrows go up a bit, "Yes. I can... certainly see why someone like that might prove vital to the timeline. Is Alexis aware her life is in danger?" Peacekeeper unfolds her arms and moves over to Balm's desk to borrow a pad of paper and begin scribbling notes for herself.
"Panopticon," Balm echoes without really having any frame of reference for it. War with the Thrones has never been in her wheelhouse. Peacemaker, on the other hand, gives a smalls hake of her head at all that's shared. Because it's a lot.
"Temporal anchors are a good idea. At the very least, they'll let us identify friend from foe and present us from future us. Do we have many Time masters about? Who can explain the process or tell us what to expect?" Peacemaker is almost the opposite of an Acanthus. The least flighty person in the Lodge, quite possibly. So she's not it.
"My time teacher's Cookie Monster, I think he might be capable in that area. I'm not sure however if he's a master or not, off the top of my head."
A look to Fox "The Lost and Vampires are also involved in this somehow and been interested in Time studies as well. Apparently they want a meeting regarding that. Also, a Vampire named Guy heard that "A Sexy pigeon knows where the clearing is? and really, I don't know who else to mention that to than you."
"I'll make sure Alexis knows, but I'm referring to the attack she suffered when she first awakened." Then a look to Balm in regard to her offer of getting her more time.
"That is the most Fox phrase I have ever heard, and I talk to dogs," Balm agrees before nodding along to Kay, "If they tried once and failed, they are likely to try again. If they haven't already. She needs to know that wasn't a happenstance." Peacekeeper is content to withdraw away from the leadership role as Balm asserts herself into the role once more. Soon enough, she won't have Balm to share the load with, and she'll want very much to have these times back. That smile she's wearing sure seems to know it, too.
She shifts a little bit in her spot on Balm's lap. "I've been -- studying -- with Vasha since this all started. I -- will apply myself more and ... " Fox clears her throat. "And Vasha is."
"Anthelion is an Adept, and an Eleventh Question. But also like -- probably that will be a big problem for any Pentacle but the Lictor isn't the boss of me," she mumbles. There's a moment when Kay speaks where Fox stares at her for a long second and then splutters. "A sexy pigeon?"
"... Lux wore a sexy pigeon costume on Halloween. That is one of the Lost. Lux is my best friend who isn't a Firebird and also is very good with um... dreaming... and being spooky and clever. I have no idea what the clearing is but if Lux knows then ... that's good. Because Lux loves me and will help and also the fake Interfector tried to kill their friends so."
"I knew you'd at least know what this was!" Kay celebrates with a little fist pump, her attention moving between the various people involved, tilting her head at Balm in particular, studying the Elder for a brief moment as the mood lightens slightly. "I'm not sure how to make a meeting between groups happen in any official fashion, but hey, we can make it work."
"If that's how close you are to not making it, I could guarantee you have time for a while longer, as long as there's no outside intervention, of course." Kay responds to that. "I'm not advocating for pushing anything back, but I'm saying I can remove the chance of it happening soon. All I need is five minutes." ))
Balm spends a long span of time considering Kay's offer, her bushy white brows furrowing up as though trying to pluck at what she knows of her metaphysics with how a life prolonged with Death would fare in finding the Dream Roads of the living.
"Have you done much Astral Travel under such effects yourself?" Balm actually defers to Kay here. She's spent a tremendous amount of time with the Mother Tree in the Shadowlands, and aside from Balm and Fox is one of the few Children who frequent such places. "My work is so tied to life, to the mind, to dreams-- I just worry the effect might make it harder for me to reach where I am going. Like. The universe would know my soul should be heading somewhere else. I'm afraid you're the expert on this point, Kay."
Which is when all eyes look to Kay for guidance.
All eyes on Kay, so quiet from Fox. She snuggles in against Balm all the more, and there's a soft shimmer of magic -- anyone with a keen sense of the periphery will know there's a mix of Time/Mind/Life all bound up together. Not Fox just taking a full-sense memory of snuggling Balm, making sure she can really remember it for when she needs it later. Shh.
"The spell in question reverse the effect of entropy, of aging. It would restore what's been lost over time, for the duration of the spell. If your life magic has stretch the rope of your life, then my magic will undo the damage time has wrought on it. The spell will not stop you from achieving anything or prevent you from dying anymore than enhancing your stamina would, as far as I understand it. It would simply ensure you don't die from old age on the day you'd attempt it." Kay explains softly "I could cast it upon a dead person to return them to life for a short time, but, it wouldn't undo their soul's passage into the after life however." She produce a grimoire from her handbag and settles it on her lap "But that is not the effect I would use the spell for."
Kay senses the magic Fox is using, though not the specific, their periphery is not keen after all. A deep breath is taken. "I love you Balm, we all do in our ways, we'll miss you all. But let us make sure you have the departure you've been searching for."
"Let them help you while they still can, woman," Peacemaker mildly rebukes Balm as only her successor could. As though the greater sin were in refusing to let them help than in transgressing the natural flow of entropy as an avowed animist. Because in this culture, it is.
Balm looks duly chastened and then offers Kay an apologetic smile. "Well. Let's keep the cork in the bottle until it's time for this old biddy to pop, then. Which reminds me. We've been preparing." Balm looks to Peacekeeper in a manner that implies this is payback for the rebuke. Making all of this official.
And so, Peacekeeper sighs and steps around the desk to give Fox a scratch and look Kay in the eyes. "Once Balm is no longer with us, I will be elder. You may not know much about Weaver's history with the FARC, but-- they have an ideal skillset for the sort of war it seems we're about to be facing, and we can all make up for their ... interpersonal skills." She means their hideous features. "But frankly, after another one of the Diamond's wars spilling over into our lodges? I am tempted to make them confront who we are-- who we truly are --each time they sit down across from us to make terms. I am so tired of carrying my weapon because the Diamond made it so."
She sighs, "I digress. When Weaver moves up, we'll need Talekeepers. The elders have been talking, and the community around the Mother Tree...? Your Legacy, the work you're doing? It's vital. We need you to record their stories. They're lost to us, many of them. It's something you can bring back to us-- perhaps that only you could bring back to us." Which has her looking down at Fox, "And likewise we've been leaving the tales of our animals from the archives. What do our dogs and cats and birds and snakes think? How can we better tend our trees? We have not bothered to ask before now."
"You can split the office otherwise as you please."
There's a rapid blinking from Fox at first -- she's been around Vasha long enough to know all kinds of resistance force acronyms, and trying to mesh together the Weaver that she knows, the one who aspires to install a waffle iron on their arm, with membership in the FARC? That takes a hot fucking minute. She even makes a small, confused, high whine, as if the thought really hurts their brain.
She curls up close in with Balm, leaning her chin on the old woman's shoulder and looking over it at Peacekeeper as she talks; let's put all that bit about Weaver in the back of our brains until later, when we can process it. Her eyes half-lid at the scratching, and she huffs again. "It will soon be to me to change what I am," she offers quietly. "To make this -- soul-shaping -- a thing which... to... make it something all Children can come to, if they want. So." Beat. "Yeah." This is relevant? Yes. Apparently Fox thinks so. Her gaze shifts to Kay, perhaps gauging her reaction.
But then her brain seems to loop back around to something else, and she chitters softly, a little sound between her teeth. "The Diamond is not the boss of us," she reiterates from earlier, "so it would be nice if their shit stopped rolling downhill."
"We might need to find a higher ground for us to avoid rolling down, which, simpler said than done." Kay replies with a little smile, prying her grimoire open in a quiet manner, turning the page until she's no longer on the lesser spell in there, though her attention remains firmly on the people speaking. "I'll do my best to acquire the necessary skills to fulfill the whole of the function."
"As far as letting them know who or what we are when we're at the table, I do agree with the sentiment of Not the Boss of Us. Not until I'm Elder anyway." she pokes fun at her own name here, meaning nothing serious. "I have other ideas and worries about specifically that, but these can be addressed when we cross that bridge honestly."
"I simply mean that I have managed to hold my position as long as I have without there being serious conflicts. We've negotiated our way out of their ridiculous duels. We've negotiated our way out of territorial disputes. Disputes over ley line access and tass resources. The purpose of negotiations is to ensure that war always happens on terms you can tolerate. But we are never at the table when these two go at it." Peacemaker leans over onto the desk, her wiry arms tense.
"If we're going to make the Diamond's war, and it sees that we must? They're going to make our Mother's peace with us. The Diamond, and the Seers. So. We're calling the emissaries in. There'll be a war council. Leaders will be chosen. Targets named. And then the people are going to strike. Strike and keep striking. And when the Diamond are content, we will keep striking and keep striking, and keep striking, and keep striking. Until they remember what war is when we wage it. Until the Seers are gone from this place, or have made the Mother's Peace with us, and the Diamond enjoys our peace on our terms knowing what it is to break it again without our informed consent."
She slowly turns her head toward Peacekeeper, blinking slowly, and doesn't say anything, her vulpine jaws opening slightly. Maybe Balm won't notice Fox panting. Nothing. Nothing.
Kay listens to what Peacemaker is saying, listening, understanding the underlying idea and emotion that motivates her and she manages to suppress too big a smile when she notices Fox's reaction to the declaration from their current Warmaker. She makes a mental note to complete her current projects as rapidly as she can, to be ready and up for it when the time calls for it. "I'm impressed. I have hope."
One of her hand places the Yew bowl upon the desk, enchanted from a prior spell a few days ago with Prime. She draws her finger across the rim of the bowl and through the cloud of spore, reaches out for Balm. It truly only takes her five minutes to achieve the magic, Chanting and by enviromental presence of the other Children, like a family, it empowers her magic too. A water-like aura sparkles around her for a brief moment as plant life seems to change slightly about, a cloud of somber energy passes through the air, through her spore and returns into the bowl. Leaving Balm feeling exactly a year and a month younger. "This'll last for a month, i'll maintain it if things need to be pushed that much further." (10 successes, spending it to make the spell more potenty by 1, hence the 13 months)
"Is it strange that I'm hoping that won't be necessary?" Balm lets out a raspy chuckle that trails off into a dry and hacking cough. It's helped by the reversal of her body's fortunes, but there's only so much 'better' behind her, barring some seriously transgressive magics at this point. But she does seem quite relieved in the wake of the magic and offers Kay an affectionate pat and squeeze from one of her frail hands. They settle back to petting at Fox in the meantime, once the matter is done.
"I'm old. I'm tired. I've taught the oldest of you everything I know, and the youngest of you everything I valued. Everything I needed you to know. And now I only have a few questions left. And tomorrow I start answering all of them, or content myself with just the one." Balm gives a rather shaky smile at that, as the truly infirm in age tend to offer. But it's heaertfelt. "If I make it, I am going to try to send a signal back to you all. So that you don't have to wonder." Her bony shoulders give a small shrug, "Fucked if I know how."
Granny cusses.
Between being petted by Balm and being stunned by the (sorry mommy) hotness of Peacekeeper, Fox doesn't really have a lot more to say. She's just kind of trying to not look like she's about to slide onto the floor and stare at the person about to be in charge of her Order. Just an innocent fox here, that's all.
"I don't feel like it's strange at all, it makes a ton of sense." Kay replies, standing to give a hug to Balm and also offer a quick scritch to Fox, should they be interested in that. "As for signal, I don't know if or how it's possible, but we'll look for it."
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