one.

[thraxios]

[The post is written in a confident hand.]

I've examined this book for some time now, but I don't recognize the school of magic from which its enchantment is derived. Admittedly, I'm most familiar with the marks of Cabaline and Eusebian magic; if it is a more complex work from another tradition, I hope I can be forgiven for failing to notice how it fits into the overarching doctrine associated.

In any case, it appears to function as a method of communication far quicker than notes sent at breakfast. (A mercy, I'm sure.) I had never guessed that the realms of the dead would be so inclined towards chatter...but perhaps eternal rest is less of a comfort than it sounds to the living.

Have any treatises been written on the theological basis for this place?

((OOC: As noted in paradisaooc yesterday, this is dated to after the expedition to Terra Haute gets going. I've just got a few other commitments today and want to get this post up when I have a moment.))

Comments

[Written]

[3nterprising]

[Faye doesn't recognize the handwriting. She supposes it isn't a bad idea to help acclimate him to the castle, at least. When she was new, she appreciated all the help she could get.]

I don't understand how it works either, but communication is always a good thing, I guess.

What do you mean, realms of the dead?

voiced, of course.

[kethedammit]

Hey, where're you from?

1/2

[thraxios]

[There are some things Gideon had thought to expect of this place. Mildmay's voice is not one of them.]

[thraxios]

[He listens to the message, horrified at the implication--what happened to Mildmay in those scant minutes to bring him here first? (Or is it some manner of trick on the part of this little book?) There's only one way to find out. He writes a single word in response, in large, clear characters so that Mildmay can read it.]

MILDMAY?

[thraxios]

It certainly seems convenient.

There are only so many places one might end up after dying.

[kethedammit]

[And Mildmay recognizes that handwriting, even if he didn't recognize Gideon's normal script.]

...Shit, Gideon?

[thraxios]

YES.

[He can't think how to ask something as complicated as How in the world did you end up among the dead in a fashion short and clear enough that Mildmay might read it. It doesn't occur to him to just try writing that; Gideon is laboring under the assumption that Mildmay caught the word "Cabaline" from his original message.

After much consideration, he finally adds something to his message.]

HOW?

[kethedammit]

Nobody knows. Big damn mystery of the place.

But, you like... you okay, and everything?

[thraxios]

DEAD.

[There's no room for subtlety in a conversation written like this, even as it pains him to write it out. And without Mildmay before him, it's impossible to convey how concerned he is for the man.]

YOU?

[kethedammit]

Shit, sorry, I know, I mean... nevermind. I'd come and get you, but I'm on a fucking camping trip. You ain't in trouble or nothing?

'M fine. Camping trip. [Doing better than Fe- oh, shit.]

[thraxios]

NO.

[He can hardly complain about a sunlit garden after so much time spent in Felix's quarters in the Mirador. Still uncertain how to inquire about Mildmay's health without using more words than is fair to Mildmay, Gideon decides that the answer will have to wait until the end of this camping trip. Until then, he can appreciate Mildmay's conversation for what it is.]

GOOD?

private to gideon from here on out.

[kethedammit]

Nah, it's for dumb shit. Look, I gotta tell you something kinda big, okay?

[Added a few moments later--] And, oh, shit, you don't gotta write like that if'n you don't wanna. The journals read it all out for knuckleheads like me.

and likewise

[thraxios]

[Well, he'll gladly take Mildmay up on the invitation to be wordier.]

You may, once you've explained what it is you're doing among the dead.

Whatever the reason, I am glad to hear your voice.

[kethedammit]

Oh, shit, no. The way this place works is, uh... [Some fucking luck that Mildmay has to be the one to explain the complicated shit. Kethe must be laughing his ass off.] Well, it's some big dumb magic thing, obviously. But it pulls people in with no reason to it, so far's I can tell. Dead or alive, it don't care. And it fucks with time, too. For me, you been, uh... well, it's been half a decad, and then I been here for a full decad.

...And for Felix, he was here two indictions before I showed up.

[thraxios]

I'm glad I may count you among the living yet.

[Pause. His stomach drops.]

Felix is here?

Do they know--[and there's a scribbled out bit before it continues] It wasn't him.

[kethedammit]

Uh, thanks. 'M glad to see you. Or, well... you know.

Yeah, he was cleared for it. Shit, a lot happened after, what d'you wanna know?

[thraxios]

Yes, I know. [This is the point where Mildmay would normally get a smile and nod and nothing else, but they're rather too far away for that.]

Good.

[There's a very long pause before Gideon finally asks a question. He's got plenty more, but this is the one he most wants answered in light of Felix's reprieve.]

And what of Isaac Garamond?

[kethedammit]

Uh, Felix fucked him up real bad. I think he drove him mad. [Oh, that rhymed. On his end, Mildmay puts his head in his hands.]

[thraxios]

Good.

[Gideon sits back and considers this, a vindictive sort of pleasure spreading over him at the idea. Perhaps if things had gone differently--if Isaac had not made his ill-fated attempt to frame Felix for murder...but perhaps he and Felix would have ended up in the same straits all over again. It's a thought for another time, sometime when he's not in the midst of a conversation.]

What did you want to tell me?

[kethedammit]

So it's been two indictions for Felix, right?

[thraxios]

Yes.

[kethedammit]

He's, uh, seeing somebody.

1/3

[thraxios]

[thraxios]

[thraxios]

[It's a punch to the gut, a revelation that leaves him breathless and miserable. 'Two years' is fine intellectually, but it isn't Gideon's intellect reeling here. Not when, so far as he knows, he was strangled less than a day ago.

But it's not Mildmay's fault for having been the bearer of such news. And Gideon repeats that to himself once, twice, before answering.]

I see.