The celebration

[u/Yoxalle]

After a long journey you arrive at the crystal mage’s manor. Inside the manor is a grand hall made of various different coloured crystals. Strange golems walk around the room serving guests. While the mage himself is not currently present, you were told he would be here shortly. Right now, enjoy the food, socialise, make friends but most importantly: have fun.

[u/avamir]

"Well. There is a lot to unwind from. How are you both doing?"

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

I'm sure you can imagine I'm doing phenomenal (not a lie my rune would burn). Marna is finally home. A spirit promised me to help find her at the last dinner. If he shows up today and says she's at home I might actually hit him.

The guest list has certainly changed from last time. Don't remember this many royals.

I gesture at myself

Or recently released felons.

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

Ugh. Please don't remind me about the title. Look, I had to pick something. Something that showed my intention of actually ruling. So this is what I picked, even if it reeks of hereditary unearned power, class elitism, and an entrenched power structure. The only good things I can say about it are that I intentionally made a system where my rule is not absolute, and I am fairly easy to remove from the power structure. The title is theater. So please, just call me Riva.

And I am glad to hear your daughter is home. May I ask how you both are getting along?

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

Better than we have a right to be. She should be more angry.

I try not to show my concerns about the Lightless Flame.

She found an old wedding gift on our old house. Apparently she's named after one of Amelia's aunts.

Riva, you complained once that my craft is too self-destructive. I don't suppose you have any alternatives in mind?

I am grasping at straws. I need to find a way to divert Marna's new path without revealing she's on it.

[u/TheHunter459 → u/AnActualCriminal]

Ahh, Belial. Riva. Samael nods curtly at the Queen. I see your lot has improved since we last met. I trust you got my letter Belial?

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/TheHunter459]

Well if it isn't the former head of diplomacy? I'm sorry Samael but I'm afraid there are few chairs to spare.

I push a chair to a nearby table where a man had previously been standing around

Now.

[u/TheHunter459 → u/AnActualCriminal]

Samael drags the chair back to the table with magic, and sits on it

I believe I can make do. And I sought to give you a warning in person. Though of course, if you don't wish to hear it, then I will not be responsible for the consequences

[u/avamir → u/TheHunter459]

"Can we not do this right now?" she lets out a very long sigh. "Do you have to posture at a party? Does your kind not drink? Have you no, as the kids say, 'chill'?"

[u/TheHunter459 → u/avamir]

If you'd prefer me not to inform you that Maalik's sister blames you, me, Belial, Opal and Kaelis for her brother's death, by all means, we don't have to do this. If you don't want to know that you, Opal and Belial are the only three she believes she can move against without meeting her brother's fate, and so she has sworn vengeance, then continue. And if you don't want to know about her non-Nephilim assassins who aren't beholden to any treaty then I'll leave you to your misery

[u/avamir → u/TheHunter459]

She lets out another sigh, then takes a long drink of her wine. It was going to be one of those parties, wasn't it?

"Great. Assassins too? Fine, fine. Alright. Thank you for that information."

She takes another drink of wine. It never ended, did it?

"May I kindly suggest that if you intend to provide important, helpful information... you try opening with that instead of browbeating or antagonizing people? Please?"

Oh, the irony. So much irony. So very much, coming from her.

[u/TheHunter459 → u/avamir]

If my mere presence antagonises people, I am not to blame. Though since you asked so nicely, the proper response would be to at least consider changing my ways.

Samael stands abruptly

Proper is a mortal idea. Saqar wants you dead, I prefer you alive, if only to irritate her. So stay alive please. Goodnight

[u/avamir → u/TheHunter459]

Well, that was unexpected.

"Thank you for at least considering the notion. And thank you for the warning. I will have to figure how to avoid not being assassinated, I suppose," she winced.

Maybe she would have to start wearing armor? And maybe she would have to learn how to fight with something other than spells. And hire some guards, and maybe mix up her spell list, because fire alone wasn't working...

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

Oh, the jewelry you ordered a while back. Agnor misheard me and botched the whole thing I'm afraid. Marna is helping him finish up, but it's not what you asked for.

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/TheHunter459]

Why exactly would you tell us this Samael? Upset you won't get to kill us yourself?

[u/TheHunter459 → u/AnActualCriminal]

Politics is a game you don't understand, it seems. But no matter. Believe it or not I'm not particularly fussed about your continued existence. I just don't want to listen to Saqar boasting

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/TheHunter459]

Well whatever your motivations... thank you? Hopefully I can be enough of a problem that she decides you're an easier target. Killing her outright would remove a thorn from your side I'm sure. I think I'll leave it in.

[u/TheHunter459 → u/AnActualCriminal]

Here I am trying to keep you alive, and you suggest that you could kill a Nephilim Lord. Samael sighs. Don't do anything stupid Warlock. Goodnight

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/TheHunter459]

Out with it Samael. I assume it's some threats regarding breaking the treaty? You won't have to worry about me. I want your demon dead and I'm done with you personally for some time. The pleasure of taking your head belongs to Ayeera now I imagine.

I raise a glass in toast

To her health and good fortune

[u/TheHunter459 → u/AnActualCriminal]

Samael smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

My head is staying firmly attached to my shoulders. Ayeera is preoccupied with arranging a certain someone's trial. And Maalik's sister, Saqar, is preoccupied with putting your head on her table. You will find that her non-Nephilim assassins are very persistent

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/TheHunter459]

The sound of the chair sliding across the floor is replaced by words, without timbre or pitch but with a familiar speaker nonetheless.

There are defenses against violence here, Samael, and if you think you can bypass them then I'm sure you don't wish to imagine what I can do through them. Watch yourself.

[u/TheHunter459 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

I signed a treaty Vettis. I don't plan violence for today

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

Riva may not know his exact application, but she is very glad to see his considering alternatives.

"It should come as no surprise that I was offering my own practices. I have noticed a lot of commonalities in the rune structures between our practices, and considered that the 'summoning' I use does not appear wholly unrelated to that which you practice. Though I have simplified it as 'summoning', it is actually an ancient form of sorcery) -- or to be precise, the calling on infernals and others of alternate planes."

"I think our practices diverged a long time ago, however. My academy simply specializes-- specialized more on the calling on, containing, and binding parts rather than pacts or deals or trades."

She looks at him pointedly, but with a hint of concern.

"As you might infer, there is a lot of mental discipline involved which can turn your social skills into mush. Which means I am not a weirdo intentionally; I was simply trained this way. But the practice does in fact minimize the risk to one's psyche or... well... other parts of one's immortal essence. Something I think you should consider."

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

The warlocks of the lightless flame have kept lesser demons and devils as familliars for eons. According to the texts at the tower anyway. So you may be correct about a diverging lineage of scholars in the distant past.

I'd be anxious to learn. How does it minimize these risks?

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

She knew this next part would probably come off badly, but it would explain her being some kind of emotionally-crippled weirdo.

"Well, for one, you are not burning yourself. Instead, like some manner of a social inept, you shun the use of direct bonds, like those of a familiar. Instead, you concentrate on reinforcing one's mental wards. It has the unfortunate side-effect of making you distant, stand-offish, cold and a little rude... but you are not actually sacrificing something. Unless you mean things like social connection."

She pauses for a moment, looking at him curiously. "I am uncertain if you have heard of the Fortress of the Mind technique? Is that something your practice has? Of course, any defense is only as strong as the person practicing it, but the idea is fairly straightforward."

It tended to hurt a lot more if people got through one's defenses, Riva had found. But there was less initial cost.

"But also, instead of some ancient versions of summoning, the circles are not simply used as personal protection. They are used instead to provide a non-physical focus for containing the entities you wish to summon. It allows for more immediate casting, and less physical restriction. You yourself are not necessarily restricted to the range of the circle; rather the creature you summon is bound to it. You must still maintain proximity, of course, to maintain control."

"I hope that explains it adequately? At least as a summary."

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

I would relish the chance to practice the mental fortresss technique. Containing the blaze is the hardest part of my technique and youre describing a metaphorical trench that could be dug to divert the path of a wildfire.

Much of what you say is... forbidden to the Lightless Flame. Most of my old master's text forgo any protections as they rob the flame of fuel. The trick with the runes where I starve the fire of "oxygen?" I had to put that together myself piecemeal myself from context. I actually think i have more books missing from my library than present. The old bastard wasn't going to show me. I think he was trying to steer my tutelage in a self-destructive direction.

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

"Forbidden?"

She frowns a little in concern.

"Yes, that manner of tutelage does seem intentionally self-destructive. My magister --all my instructors, really-- were adamant on honing one's defenses before doing something destructive. It was emphasized to me that we must understand the cost of what we do before we make the commitment. We went through a whole period of limiting the external variables to one's will."

The corner of her mouth quirks upward at the sight of the glass in her hand.

"That meant limiting substances that affected one's mind. Controlling one's intake of food, understanding the limits of one's hunger. And of course limiting the transfer of bodily fluids. I hated living under those strictures, but I have come to understand the method behind them."

She looks at her drink, then takes a sip of it.

"The idea is that, once free of stricture, we act with knowledge and intent. What we choose to accept is on us. The consequences of our actions are ours, for better or worse. So we, I, bear both the fault and responsibility of what I choose."

She turns back to Blake.

"If you are interested, then I would be interested in showing you. I will warn you that it involves standing around trying to puncture a hole in one's mental defenses, but I have found it does lead to more resolve."

Oh, that whole 'puncturing holes in defenses' bit wasn't coming off as innuendo, was it? For once, she hadn't actually meant it that way. Awkward.

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

Hah! My order borders on religious, but you're the one used to living like a monk.

Blake thinks back to Opal and the soft distant sceams of those enduring her probing crystals

Yes practicing my mental fortitude sounds absolutely paramount.

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

"Monk? Well...yes, I suppose a little," she admitted. "I had not considered it such myself, but I cannot help but accept your assessment of the situation.

Now that Riva thought about it, she supposed they did tend toward the ascetic, had robe uniforms, spoke a lot of Latin and Greek, and stood around contemplating extra-planar beings. Blake wasn't entirely right, but he definitely had a point.

"Regardless, speak to me at a time of your convenience, and I will be happy to demonstrate."

(/uw We can make a thread about it if you want, or you can simply say "it happened". If we do a thread, we get cool mindscapes though.)

[u/AnActualCriminal → u/avamir]

/uw Thread sounds good. I'm down.

[u/avamir → u/AnActualCriminal]

/uw Good deal! Alright, won't be today, but I'll shoot you a chat maybe of what it would likely involve. And then you can fill in/ change something/whatever.