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Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 5:11 am Post subject:

"Well, let's assume he does and you can expect him contacting you at some point over the next few days..." She says.

She places a chair in the corner of the room, sits and concentrates on Daniel's trump. She briefly shares with him that his estate has been taken over and not to worry about it yet... She quickly gets to the part talking about the seal and the great possibility it corresponds to Daniel's Pattern room in the black mountain cave. She shares with him the fact that it is not a complete secret and that Shadowlings have been reaching a greater understanding of Shadow thanks to it and that there are at least two dozen people able to walk through Shadow without following the Black Road. For a time, she asks pertinent questions about Daniel's own journey during which she asks who Orcini is.

Ian remembers that name, but not from where. Amber, most likely, and long enough ago that he would be given time to forget. Alas, she does not dwell on the subject.

When she is done, she replaces the trump in the front of her deck and looks for Gerard's trump, takes it out and attempts to make contact. It takes a while.

Eventually, she reaches him and shares in the briefest of details what she found out. About the distorted and possibly tainted Pattern, about the fact that inhabitants of Shadow have formed an order walking it and using it to communicate with each other and travel Shadow freely. She assures him that she is in no danger, and Ian can assume that Gerard proposed to help investigate. She insists that he continues on his mission and that she will contact him when she knows more and confirms those possibilities, at which point she promises to contact Eric. She bids him goodbye and good luck, forgetting to ask what his own mission for the king is currently, and waving her hand across the card, she slowly replaces it behind Daniel's trump.

She finally turns to Ian and sighs, giving him a nervous smile. "Daniel took it pretty well. I mean, the estate not being his for the time being... He assures me he has never seen or invited mystics to visit the Pattern here. I suppose we'll be able to confirm it tomorrow..." She sighs again and goes to sit by the bed, then let's herself fall back and sighs. She looks lost in thought for a moment.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian tries to eavesdrop as little as possible. When all is said and done, Ian turns to Flora. "How far away is the um, Seal, from here? I'm thinking if its close I could scout it out tonight and be back before morning or we can wait for tomorrow. I'm fine with it either way."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:30 am Post subject:

She thinks for a moment more, then answers him, her eyes blank, "I honestly don't know the way exactly. The Black Mountains don't offer the friendliest of strolls... Daniel described a way to a hidden cave. The landmark to look for is a large bell-shaped rock. Behind it there should be three rocks laid out in a row among other similarly sized rocks. Apparently those three aligned rocks point to the direction of the cave's entrance. From what I remember of the area, it sounds like a two-hour hike each way."

She turns her head to look at Ian. "If you go now, you can trump me from there, or I can trump you back to here to save some time... Are you only confirming that the Seal is in fact the twisted Pattern, or is there something more?" She asks casually, her tone free of suspicion.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

He smiles at her natural, family-bred suspicion. "I think its too important to not wait. Besides, I can do a two hour hike in my sleep." When did he last sleep, he wonders? "To save time, I'll get there, do some reconnaissance, then Trump back to you. If something really crazy is going on there, I might bring you to me. Now please, please, promise me if anything weird happens here, you Trump me immediately, and either I'll come right back, or bring you to me. If you can't reach me and things go bad, Trump back to Amber. As for confirming a rose by any other name, I suspect that the Seal and the 'Twisted' Pattern, as you call it, are one and the same."

With that he goes to the window, to see if he can make his exit that way.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject:

She sits up in the bed, studying him for a moment. Finally, she smiles and says, "Be careful, then and I will do the same."

Looking outside he sees the shutters have been drawn. Opening them, great gusts of wind try to enter the castle. Outside, the great yellow moon still shines high upon the plains and hills of Windborne. He sees that he needs to jump or scale down approximately twenty feet to make it to the ground below. Also, the shutters of the room below are open as well.

Flora walks over and gives puts his black cape back on his shoulders. "Windy out there?" she jokes, her mouth close to his ear.

~~~

It has been a very long day, probably more than a day, since Ian last slept, but his stay at the Windborne estate, coupled with the bathing at the hot spring, have proved to be relaxing and restoring. He feels rather fine. His ribs still sting from time to time if he moves a certain way, but the pain has become much easier to ignore.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

He turns and looks into her eyes. "Be careful."

Twenty feet is no big deal. He leaps over the balcony at an angle, so anyone looking out from the balcony below will not see him as he leaps to the ground. He hits the ground and rolls, then gets up in a corner. After looking around long enough to ensure he was not seen, he moves away from the manor and heads north.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:10 pm Post subject:

He barely hears Flora close the shutters back again.
Everything looks fine. Even the bird things have settled down, it seems.

Heading north, Ian quickly realizes that the moon's light is not enough to illuminate the black rock of these mountains. It slows him down just a bit, as it makes finding the landmarks she mentioned that much harder. The winds are much colder now, and dry as well, making his skin a bit chapped and his eyes moisten.

After what feels like several hours and minimal backtracking, Ian finds the landmarks and a crevasse two feet wide and four feet high. The hike was serene and relaxing in a strange way, high winds, crunchy rock, yellow moon and all the peace Ian could ask for.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

In a somewhat relaxed state and high humor, he looks down into the crevasse. "Hello?" He laughs, then wonders why he didn't bring rock. Standing up, he knows someone must have brought rope around here at some time. Bringing the Pattern to mind, he knows that the odds of actually finding some decent rope someone left behind are improving.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject:

"Hello?" Ian's echo answers.

In a fit of luck, or probability, Ian finds a dark iron chain buried under a layer of broken rocks. The chain anchors at the third aligned boulder, toward the base and continues into the narrow pass of the crevasse. Clearly, Daniel must have deemed this place important enough to return many times. Under the moonlight, the chain and the rock look very similar, and Ian suspects that even during daylight hours, one should be hard pressed to find it in the rocky debris of the bell rock's shadow.

The chain clinks deep into the belly of the mountain and the echoes reach Ian. A great bellowing wind suddenly rushes out of the crevasse. It is unsteady but powerful, howling at the intruder. It feels warmer than the winds of the outside. Ian can smell the dust of rocks and the musk of ages.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

"Paging Smaug the Golden." He mutters.

If the crevasse is vertical, he tugs the chain, to ensure it is secure, then starts climbing down quickly and quietly. He'd rather be on solid ground when something attacked.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:35 am Post subject:

The crevasse is mostly diagonal, and scaling it up and down would be easy enough, but the chain allows him to make a quick job of it. He descends over a hundred feet and avoids bumping his head by judging the width of the crevasse based on the sound of the strong wind traveling up. The crevasse is vertical for a few feet.

After what seems like another eighty feet down diagonally, Ian arrives at the bottom, the sound of his footsteps echoing around cavernous passages shrouded in darkness. The wind has ceased and he can hear faint howling coming from the outside.

There is no glow of a Pattern, or anything else, for him to see where he should be headed. He realizes quite suddenly that his journey from Amber could be a very elaborate trap.

The wind quickly resumes traveling up. He hears the faint clinks of the chain being used from above. Someone is slipping inside the cave with him!
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian draws Hollowshade, and the shadows grow a little bit deeper and darker around him. He stands, silent as death, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject:

The clinking continues for a bit, with what sounds like steel claws on rock.
There's two of them. Bird people he assumes, based on what sounded like the flapping of wings.

They reach the bottom and grow quiet, immobile. The powerful winds cease once again.
In an instant, in the darkness, Ian can almost see them, feeling them with his mind, hearing their breath and clawed feet on the rock. One of them is crouched and a few feet ahead of the other, who simply stands there, the chain still in his hand. He cannot tell if they are armed or not. The senses he relies on in the darkness reveals nothing more and he heard nothing drawn out of sheaths.
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Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject:

The clinking continues for a bit, with what sounds like steel claws on rock.
There's two of them. Bird people he assumes, based on what sounded like the flapping of wings.

They reach the bottom and grow quiet, immobile. The powerful winds cease once again.
In an instant, in the darkness, Ian can almost see them, feeling them with his mind, hearing their breath and clawed feet on the rock. One of them is crouched and a few feet ahead of the other, who simply stands there, the chain still in his hand. He cannot tell if they are armed or not. The senses he relies on in the darkness reveals nothing more and he heard nothing drawn out of sheaths.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian leaps up onto the slope, careful not to crush his skull, thus cutting off the escape route.

"Now we can talk about this like good boys and birds, or this cave can get messy. Start squawking."

If there is any kind of light outside they can see his vague silhouette, no doubt more menacing due to his cape and the longsword held in his hand.