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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

[OOC: I'm ready to wrap up this part of the scene. I was trying to suggest that when Heidur processes the information she's gained, she won't handle it sequentially. But I guess I should've made that clearer up front. :) For whatever it's worth, all of the indirect thought that I'm using is a similar stylistic thing. She lives in a thick fog of ideas.]

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur stands and paces the length of the room to stretch her legs. The sun was westering, but it was still a few hours before dinner. That gave her some time to think... And she still had the mess of half-formed questions about the Serpent and the nature of the Black Road. She collects her Trump deck, returning it to its case as she walks to the door. Since it doesn't fit the case, the Chaosian Trump is simply left in her pocket. Other uses for it might occur to her.

Crossing the center room, Heidur arrives at the door to her library. At first glance, it appears that the doorknob is an oxidized bronze or copper statue in the shape of a reptile. But the fact that its claws are sunk deeply into the wooden doorframe might seem a bit incongurious. Rather than grasping its head as the statue's pose suggests, Heidur rubs under the lizard's jaw, and it flicks a dry three-forked tongue across her palm. The bronzed reptile promptly releases its grip on the doorframe, and Heidur enters. It resumes its guardian position when she closes the door behind her.

The room is initially darkened by heavy curtains, but these are quickly thrown open, as are the windows themselves. Once again, the room is filled with sea air.

Newly revealed by the light, the library's primary furnishing also seems to be dustcloths, but Heidur pushes one of these aside to reveal a floor-to-ceiling bookcase. The shelf at chest height bears a collection of ammonite shells rather than books, and the Atacchaman fossil emerges from one of her many pockets to join it. As she turns away, Heidur accidentally knocks over the only item on the shelf that doesn't fit the theme - a spent pellet of nuclear fuel. She rights it, noting that it was still warm to the touch after decades. Rather than lingering, Heidur reluctantly withdraws from the memories it calls up. The dustcloth falls back into place behind her.

Another cloth is tossed onto the table in the center of the room, revealing a short-backed chair with high arms and overstuffed white upholstry. The upholstry is crushed velvet in a reasonably hideous paisely pattern that's just starting to turn yellow with age. But from the way Heidur sprawls sideways in the chair with her knees over one arm, one can surmise that it was chosen for reasons other than visual appeal.

As much as she tries to concentrate on articulating her questions about just what the Black Road is, and what its being alive might mean in the greater scheme of things, Heidur finds herself nodding off. Eventually she gives in and falls asleep...

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:25 am Post subject:

When Heidur awakens, a crimson light fills the room and the windows reveal a wild sunset in Amber. The sea air is still cool and the wind is intensifying. She can almost hear the call of the sea from her slumber in the armchair.

Looking out the window reveals the moon has risen above the horizon and is visible on the very edge of her sight. Then there is Arden and Amber's other environs. After growing accustomed to Atacchama, it seemed that everything about Amber was very intense. The colors, the forest, the sea and the sky were still very impressive even after several hours here. There was a strange sentiment that however adaptive her body was, her mind was perhaps equally affected by the changes in environments, at least to a minor extent.
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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

At first Heidur is reluctant to release her grip on sleep, but the sunset calls her to wakefulness and greets her when she arrives. The scene catches her before she's awake enough that the fine threads of thought can weave themselves into a veil between senses and awareness. She spends a timeless, wordless, moment absorbing the view. When it happens that Heidur comes back to herself, it's to the feeling that perhaps she should play something. After all, her violin is right here...

A short while later, the instrument is out of its case and in tune. Heidur sets bow to strings as the sun slips below the horizon, and it seems to her that the music composes itself while she plays. She restrains herself from considering what sound or emphasis might fit next, knowing better than to interfere with the flow of right-feeling notes and motions. A tale of journeying, homesickness and return winds out into the night air, even exchange for the sea breeze that finds its way in. The last of the sky-glow is finally lost; the final note is allowed to fade away. Heidur wipes the sweat from her brow, only just noticing that the floor is rather hard to be kneeling on for any significant length of time. She sets the violin back in its case, loosens the bow before reuniting the two, and admires the instrument's moonlit finish that makes it seem to glow against the protective black cloth. Unicorn only knows when I'll be back. Ah well... She folds the fabric over, latching the case before returning it to the shelf behind the dustcloth to her right.

Heidur stands, stretches, then paces restlessly. The darkness is no barrier to her, but habit more than sight guides her feet as she winds among the familiar furnishings of her library. What did she actually know about the relationship of living creatures to the pole of Order, and by extension, that of Chaos? Back in prehistory, the Unicorn had somehow been involved in Dworkin acquiring the Jewel of Judgement, which had been necessary (but not sufficient?) for him to inscribe the pattern. Legend had it that Oberon was descended from the Unicorn, and from Dworkin by that elder's own admission. Stranger things happened in the universe at large.. but all the same she'd rather not go there. ...Wait a minute. Hadn't Dworkin once offhandedly referred to the Jewel as the "Eye of the Serpent" or somesuch? That didn't rule out the Serpent being a wholely allegorical creature, nor the Unicorn since she hadn't met it herself. Certain of her family claimed to have encountered the latter, though, and it might actually be worth taking their word for it rather than dismissing it as a political convenience... If she assumed for the sake of argument that the Serpent was also a real creature, as involved in Chaos as the Unicorn seemed to be with Order, what did it mean that its eye had been used to draw the Pattern? Was it just a conduit for Power? Or something more? That aside, under the present set of assumptions, one might reasonably call the two creatures living things "of the highest order", whether they were directly connected to the poles of reality or simply very powerful beings with their own agendas that happened to involve the Pattern and/or Logrus. The latter option was in some ways simpler... and the former could play merry hell with her attempts at a unified theory of Order and Chaos. Heidur pauses to lean back against a bookcase, sending a puff of dust swirling into the moonlight. That still doesn't answer the question of what the Serpent might have to do with the Black Road. On the other hand, I should see what Dworkin has to say about this set of asumptions before I base too much on them.

Heidur locates the appropriate Trump from her deck and focuses her mind on it...

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:58 am Post subject:

The trump is cold in her hands, but she does not get the sense she is connecting to anything. It feels more like a loop, as if she could concentrate forever and be given the impression of getting somewhere. A trump trick, most certainly. Someone or something was blocking the trump to Dworkin in a subtle way, but not subtle enough. Hasty and crude, Dworkin would have called the attempt at trump subterfuge, clever enough to trick the newest of neophytes.

If Dworkin had not wanted to be contacted, he would have blocked the contact himself, unless this was something else entirely: after all, it was an effect she had not experienced before. Eric had given Heidur very little information about her family and mentors, and Caine did little to fill her in on anyone, having remained vague while demanding precise answers from her.

Of course, pushing the contact further was always an option. There were ways around trump tricks, after all.
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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Isn't that interesting, Heidur thinks, Am I being deflected by something in the middle? Could be natural, could be artificial. The distinction might not be important if she can circumvent it.

She presses the contact with greater force, hoping that it will cause the Trump connection to echo with the impression of whatever mind had tampered with it - if indeed there was another mind involved.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:33 pm Post subject:

The trick is cleverer than she originally thought, for pushing forward makes things loop faster, increasing the coldness in her fingers without connecting to the target. She does find a certain resonance, and after some time, Heidur is reminded of Oberon's presence.
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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur steps down her efforts once she has the impression. Last thing she needed was for the power she was feeding into the connection to go 'round the loop and hit her in the back of the head. It didn't seem likely, but she wouldn't put it past her grandfather to do something like that.

Oberon. But the trick was simplistic enough that she almost didn't believe it was his. Dworkin would have taught him better. Either he had been extremely pressed for time, or there was more to this than met the eye. And why impede contact to Dworkin, of all people? Something was wrong here, beyond the petty wrongs that her family did eachother from time to time.

With the air of someone disarming a bomb, Heidur turns her attention to the efficiency of the loop, seeking places where the energy it channels might leak away into the true Trump connection.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:22 pm Post subject:

After analyzing things a bit further, breaking down the various effects of this trick, she realizes that its construction is simple and yet has few flaws to exploit. She is fairly certain that she can break down the loop effect within an hour, which would most likely make her late for the dinner Caine is hosting.
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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur shakes her head as she replaces Dworkin's card in her deck. An hour to break through would make her late without even having a conversation. It could wait.

The next card she draws bears a portrait of a dappled grey mare with a black mane and dark socks, leaping into the air. The Trump artist had picked an angle where the ground wasn't visible, so it was only Heidur's prior knowledge that made it clear the horse wasn't flying. This one, at least, she expects to be no trouble. Heidur stretches out her psyche through the card, "Wind Dancer?"

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:32 pm Post subject:

The contact opens quickly. Wind Dancer is running, a young woman riding her, her fingers tangled into Wind Dancer's mane. She looks like a local of Shacher'il. Although the young woman has not entered the trump contact herself, it is obvious that she's aware something is amiss... Something other than the four 'things' running after them. It is twilight and they are in a forested plain region of Shacher'il. The 'things' look rather indistinct, from the speed of Wind Dancer and the fact that they are dark and their mass and mutiple limbs are cloud-like from this distance.
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Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur's image is half in shadow, half lit by the moonlight, and for a moment the angle is right for her eyes to reflect a catlike gold. Taking in Wind Dancer's situation, she immediately turns and strides into the darkness, moving through her unlit rooms. "You've stayed in the thick of things while I've been away," she observes, "Just a moment and I'll bring you through."

Heidur's typically fast walk turns into something close to a run when she gets into the hall, dodging servants and guards as necessary. Down several floors of defensive - rather than decorative - spiral staircase, through another hallway, and she arrives at the nearest outdoor area in the castle. "Ready when you are." Not bothering to check whether anyone else happens to be using the garden, Heidur reaches through the Trump to Wind Dancer, but leaves it up to the mare to make the contact that will transport her to Amber.