Demicles

Gorandis: You know, I am glad this place is quiet.
Gorandis: Though the lack of allies is... unfortunate.
Lorelei: Power comes from quality, not quantity.
Lorelei: What you see before you is what we always had.
Lorelei: Don't let the illusion of disloyal souls obfuscate the truth.
Gorandis: Quality over Quantity, yes. But I would still like there to be more than a grand total of five reliable people.
Lorelei: Preferences.
Osred Dall: <*picks his nose.*>
Gorandis: And the quality is certainly... debatable.
Gorandis: So is this what you do all the time Lorelei? Simply Loiter?
Gorandis: Dumuzif told me to ask something of you. Something of Merlyn's. I can't remember the term he used...
Lorelei: I have killed those that have annoyed me or they have fled in fear.
Lorelei: A curious thing to be asked for. What need have you of it?
Gorandis: Dumuzid has yet to properly pay me for my services and so he told me to turn to you.
Lorelei: Your services in?
Gorandis: With his ring project. I have provided him with some materials along with enchanting materials he already possessed.
Lorelei: Ah. His...hobby. Yes.
Lorelei: What the Imperfect speaks of is a divine athame that is to be utilized for repairing, for a lack of a better term, Dumuzid's soul.
Lorelei: If you--Hm. Fair. I know what to gift you, Summoner.
Lorelei: A tool I have little use of now that you may find better for bolstering your daemons.

Snap!

Lorelei's hand--healthy, of course, for the Scourge-clad malificent limb of the Malpercian would be in absolutely no condition to follow up-- rises into the air and unleashes a loud snap, a surge of terrified aides rushing towards the wraith queen in a desperate attempt to assist lest they be considered to be slacking off.

"Bring the auger of spirits." Speaks the woman with a deep authority, the lackeys rushing through the gateway towards the White Tower in a rush, stumbling upon one another all the way.

Eventually, though lengthy enough to make the queen testy and to begin tapping her foot, do they return--many carrying summoning stones and other fetishes but one particularly intelligent girl holding Demicles.

She won the scavenger hunt!!!

The girl is beckoned, Demicles taken without a word given to the silent aide as she approaches Gorandis. "This is a powerful tool. You may not find it useful in battle--for it is on the tepid side of things, all considered, but it is powerfully attuned to darkness and spirits. It is typically utilized for bringing forth Yokai, but I found it more then enough to suit my needs. Do you wish it?"

Demicles is offered.
(Lorelei)

"Ah yes... Demicles..." Gorandis had stayed silent as it was fetched and now that it was here he was, well, more than a little disappointed. It was an incredibly useful tool yes, but he had been expecting something a little more unknown to him. It was like receiving a family heirloom as a gift, it was an honour in some regards, yes, but... it could have been more.

"I know its strengths and weaknesses. After all, did you not show me the extent of it yourself multiple times? The bringing forth Yokai is... meaningless to me. What with my own talents, but... I might be able to find some use for it. Who knows, maybe I'll use it to travel back to the spirit realm in the future. I do wish to explore the realms a little better..."

His hands come out to accept the staff. They don't seem hesitant but there is a little bit of reluctance, as if accepting this would somehow lessen what else there was for him to gain. "Though this does make me wonder, what was Dumuzid speaking of when he mentioned something of Merlyn's? The name does not ring any bells to me."

"Was Merlyn some famous wizard or something? Or was he another one of your people who turncoated off into other lands?"
(Gorandis)

"...You must understand."

Demicles, still, is proffered--falling gently into the hands of the sorceror as he takes it into his hands. It is a beacon for Yokai, yes, but so too is it a beacon for the call of spirits because summoning is quite weird and if you think about it even a little bit summoning yokai themselves shouldn't really be possible and it has to be carefully tiptoed around due to the implications.

That said, Lorelei leans forth ever so gently as the translucent woman stares down upon the wrath-filled mercenary bought not with coin but with spite. "Merlyn was the keeper of the blades of Merlyn. Merlyn killed Lasswell, Merlyn killed Nahele. Merlyn is the greatest ally we have for from his efforts is a new dusk blooming. What the Imperfect speaks of is a divine dagger that can pierce through any material not divine in it's own nature."

There's but a small pause as she leans back again, hands resting upon the blade she wields as if it were a cane, pointed down upon the ground with it's tip lightly buried within the grasses.

"...and it will not be removed from the hands of myself or the Imperfect by way of anything short of death. It is valuable, it is coveted, and it is being far too liberally spoke of if my opinion is to be heeded. Yet Dumuzid does as Dumuzid wants and I am not the one to argue otherwise. It will not be yours. It is an unfortunate truth."
(Lorelei)

"Fine, I am not one that easily succumbs to avarice nor greed. If it is yours then it is yours. It is not something worth fighting over, not when we have as little strength as we do. Demicles will do, I suppose... And I will make good use of its powers, perhaps with this I can bring forth more creatures to fight for us... Then again I might just get more like Metztli..."

A small smile formed on his lips as his fingers wrapped around the staff. Carrying both this and the twinblade would be a pain but he needed one for battle and one for magical purposes... and there was no where he could store valuables. "But, this Merlyn does sound interesting, sounds like he really did us a favour if he was the one who slew Nahele..."

"I wish I could have been the one to do so." The small smile fades to a frown as he stares along the length of the staff. The whole spirit/yokai stuff could be explored at a later date, when he was far more alone and when he had all of his materials ready for the... conversion process. "Keep the dagger, whatever it is, I am sure it will find more use with you than with me."
(Gorandis)

"...I warned you once before and, in truth, you don't need the warning again. I'll give it to you anyway. Be careful when you don't know what you're summoning. We know firsthand the creatures that lurk within the dark of the Spirit Realm. Pulling random creatures means we have no idea what we will garner. It's chaotic and it's risky. It's..." Lorelei bites her tongue, ,thinking of the proper word to use as her violet gaze shifts lightly back down towards Durendal, rocking it back and forth idly as if it were an tick.

"...A creature bound to you takes a certain toll upon you. I know this, you know this. The concern is making sure what wears down upon you is very much worth your time. I don't know the creatures you have brought with you. I've not verified nor engaged them. I trust they are quality. The concern is still there.

Unlike the damned who can be risen and have direct control over, I know you lack that direct control. While it cannot kill you..." Again the wraith goes silent, giving a weak shrug and shifting back to walk towards the statues once more.

"...these creatures are not benevolent and they never will be. Be careful--I would not be suprised if any attempted to gun for your death if you didn't reign them in properly. Would it not free them? Would it not give them full reign? The shorter the leash, the stronger the loyalty. It is something the old tribes knew well."
(Lorelei)

"Do not think me so simple that I haven't given them failsafes. You've seen what I do to people, what I do with their spirits, collecting them and all of that. well, if they ever turn on me, that's what happens to them. Their lives are crystallised and they will be left to rot for however long I want them to. I cursed them as soon as I summoned them, perhaps you could say even earlier than that."

"They are crafty and they are malicious and that is why I have summoned them. I can handle myself and their talents can be useful, especially when I myself have been rather disbarred from travelling elsewhere. I know the risks and I have planned for them accordingly. And if there ever is a betrayal then they will soon know why I am a sin of wrath..."

He took to his feet, strapping Demicles to his back alongside the twinblade, making sure the pair of them are secured. "And i very much doubt that they can cause more of a toll than the sin can... You have yet to really explore that of me, you just seem to have accepted it. I am surprised... I thought you'd have been truly disgusted by it."
(Gorandis)

"I believe you, Summoner."

She stands forth again, staring down upon the ever-expanding grove of southern trees as if expecting something to come out at any time--ever ready to combat the threats towards Loranthis and devour those that dare step forth. "Just know that I believe in the ever-growing capacity of those to fail us. Do what you will to safeguard it but nothing will be truely trusted until run through their paces. I intend to, one day."

When they're available and Lorelei was available too! When everything lined up and they could, one by one, be viciously grilled.

Durendal rises, Durendal falls---lightly tapping into the ground as the wraith speaks, falling to silence for a deal of time (enough to think she wouldn't fully respond) before, with the typical disharmony that she gives off, the mouth of the malpercian opens. "...If I were to shun you for being wrath, I am then to concede I should shun myself for being an angry person. Wrath is different then gluttony. It is not 'sin' I disliked. It was the hedonism. It was the uncaring. It was the fulfilling of their desires and shunning the Imperfect.

It was not the sin. It was the symptoms of it I loathed. Should your wrath bring your blade against the Imperfect, you will perish. You know that well--it bares not repeating."
(Lorelei)

"Then we'd both better wish that he never becomes so stupid as to rile me up. He seems to know when to show respect for now though at least... I wonder how long he can really keep that up. And I wonder how his rings would clash with my own sin. I would probably win in the end. Mine's a bit more deep rooted than some stone I enchanted for him."

"Still, I do sometimes wish I could be far more controlled. Thankfully nothing has set me off in this place so far... though there have been times where I've been pushed. At least there aren't idiots that don't know when to quit. That don't know when to stop running their mouths. And that don't know when to stay down after their legs have been shattered."

"Though, in truth, I do wish that some bounty hunters would show up sometime soon. It is rather boring around here at times..." His fingers brush over the shaft of Demicles for a moment. "Though now I certainly have something to do again. So who knows... And feel free to judge my summons whenever you wish... though one seems to have disappeared."

"And if he does not return soon then there will soon be a vacancy."
(Gorandis)