rift reading 2 with arcadia

[19:34] "Oh, I almost forgot." Speaking of random initiation of conversations...

"Yo, Arcadia." Fingers twirl as a means of gasping his attention for but a moment. "If you're itchin' for that short little thing I wanted to show you, I'm all ears right now."

Long had she been enthused by the topic at hand. And if Foster had any inkling of what she might have been up to, their last exchange might be a telling sign.

"When you're not busy standin' around and all that though."
(Noel Serpente)
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[19:34] Arcadia says, "Oh. Of course."
[19:34] Arcadia says, "Lead the way."
[19:45] Into the ebony tower they go. The looming figure that long became synonymous to the prophets of Naysien would bear the interiors acclimated only to her likeness.

Within the stone throne room would Noel pass upon the pit as the revered silence becomes the perfect backdrop for her imposing request.

From her inventory, a familiar purple tome is pulled forth. Gilded in leather and fine etchings would she flip through the initial pages, their foreign teachings and vague sources coming to life as she (finally) had read parts of it, to Foster's request.

"Y'know, I've been thinkin'. The two of us found something really different in that trip," she opens, hand flipping through the pages of the book. "Call me curious, but I just wanted to know how you're doin' on your end with... what happened." A curt enough opening. After all, he had been one victim to the odd sigil in the temple's influence.
(Noel Serpente)
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[19:49] And so off they go!

Into the depths of the tower, and onto the throne room proper. It would serve as a place for them to discuss things without the interruptions of outsiders. And so, it is here the young Drakanite sits, his legs hanging off the ledge.

"Ah, yes. The... The trip." Arcadia seems awkwardly quiet when it comes to his experience within the ruins. Unlike the others who were battered and broken, Arcadia was wounded on an entirely different level. Left forever altered by the experience.

But was it for the better?

Only time would tell.

"I mean. I've healed. Physically, at least. But whatever that circle was... It. It changed me." Arcadia's hand raises up, and with but a mere gesture a foul orb of occultic mana forms into existence. It produces an ominous glow, one that fills the room with a faint sense of dread.

And as his hand closes?

The orb fades.

"It imbued me with... Something. I don't know what. But it did. Even the way I think has begun to change. And honestly..?"

He turns to face Noel, and for the first time, there is a tinge of fear in his expression.

"It scares me."
(Arcadia)
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[20:04] "Changed...?"

A lingering curiosity. A sense of questioning from what had occurred to them within the temple.

By all means, what she found was not exactly the most... heroic or blossoming magic either. Perhaps it may pale in comparison to what Arcadia had been afflicted by, yet still it bore a lingering curiosity to truly assure herself of it.

Whilst one grasped upon the spine of the book to hold it open aloft, the other hand sits upon her chin.

"Well... what is it like?" A posed intrigue upon his current state of mind. "Change how you think so?"

Surely, it hadn't changed his on whims to the great ebon dragon. Of all the people, she would have thought him one of the last few to lose such a luster.
(Noel Serpente)
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[20:08] Noel Serpente asks, "*Changed how you think?"
[20:08] "Make no mistake, Noel."

Arcadia leans forwards, his eyes glancing down towards the sacrificial pit just a short distance away.

"My view on Naysien have not changed. If anything, they've only grown more concrete after seeing my sisters ascension during the ritual. My belief is unshaken. But-..."

There is a brief pause, before he lets out a small sigh.

"I don't know. I feel... angrier. Normally I would've laughed at such heresy spouted by those last night. But instead I felt an overwhelming anger. An urge to destroy them and sacrifice what remained to the drakes in the pit."

An occultic influence upon his very psyche.

"But... That's another topic for another day."

His eyes shift towards the book in Noel's hands.

"But what about you? What did you pick up in that decrepit temple?"
(Arcadia)
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Well that answers that.

"Y'know what, I respect that." By all means, a further fluttering of Naysien's teaching was a welcome opening. Her bleeding beliefs manifesting upon a growing anger...

Was this not what was deemed true reverence?

Perhaps it would be best to lessen the teasing pokes she was prone to. But then again, she often forgot her own reminders the moment she passes through a room. So...

Regardless.

"Oh yeah. This book is something pretty interesting." Her initial appended readings had been a droll, yet she at least powered through it to the best of her abilities.

"To sunder paths through the lifestream. Y'ever heard of folks do that?" Her own question now posed. "Popping in from one place to another. Y'know if you told me if that were possible, I would've told you that you were probably an idiot."

Yet now? With such a reality altering spell written on paper for her? There was a clear shift in her disposition. "But... y'know maybe I'd feel bad for doing that now that I read a bit of this."
(Noel Serpente)
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[20:34] There is a brief pause at Noel's question, as the young Arcadia desperately tries to wrack his brain for information.

"Mmmm… Didn't that Lich use such an art? I think? It was hard to tell with all the undead that marched about, but..."

He shrugs.

But not once does he doubt her abilities to do so.

"I encourage you to learn it then." His eyes peer over to the pages, though much of the knowledge contained within is lost upon him. He was no scholar, to say the least.

"If it's a magic that will help serve us in Naysien's name, then I see no reason not to. And I doubt there are many others here as studious as you, so..."

He turns, giving Noel a thumbs up.

"You have my full support."
(Arcadia)
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[20:44] "He did," she answered. Her own visage of him during the raid had only been but a moment, yet long enough to catch whiff of his actions. "And if I can, no, and when I do learn this... I'm doin' it better than he could ever hope to do it."

A grip of a fist pumps from her countenance. A clear cast of comparison already set into motion.

"Can you imagine if you get beat at your own game? The amount of malding... hah!" A simple goal set, yet one that fuels her willingness to pursue such an art.

Albeit, it was one of the few reasons for it.

"By all means will I burst through the flow of life to prove to the world that Naysien's will is not bound to the simple blockades of reality." Not one was Naysien's followers to bend to what was physically impossible. To burst through and prove that even the most tempered hand can alter reality is...

Truly such an enticing goal for the Serpente.

"And maybe it'll piss off those sissies below too. It could be useful from a tactical standpoint maybe..." Her final goal with it was still murky, yet her drive to study had be stiff as sure.

Her hand flickers once more, the pins she had on certain pages make themselves known. "I've been meanin' to study some of the runes I had for this too, and I was thinkin' of maybe doing full practice once I get the hang of it. Assuming it doesn't kill me, aha."

A dangerous art, this much she now understood.
(Noel Serpente)
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[20:50] "And I have absolute faith you will do so without issue."

After all, they were Naysien's chosen. There was not a tinge of doubt in Arcadia's mind that Noel could accomplish what she set out to do.

Even if that involved ripping the life stream a new one.

"Good. Let them be pissed off. Let them cry out about their beloved 'Eos' and 'Angels'. It'll be better when we toss them into the pit." It was clear that Arcadia had no love for Osrona, especially after recent events.

"If you want to practice, I'll be happy to make sure you don't uh. Blow up. Or something."

After all, riftmancy was an unforgiving art. And having someone to ensure you don't fall into an errant rift was a blessing.
(Arcadia)
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[21:02] "Yeah. Maybe they can eventually just suck it when I flash it right in their faces." The crass and in-your-face methods she implores surely is something akin to her older lineage. The ancestry that simply thrives from the squandered anger formulated upon noble sissies.

Vengeance planted. More of Naysien's will becomes sown upon those within their enemies.

The more she becomes right and they become wrong.

"Haha, I can't wait." Perhaps this was a needed pep talk for her to continue her push. After all, she was going to need it if she was going to read further.

And god knows reading too long can be... painful.

"When I start practice, I'll let you know. Foster's also helping out which is a surprise. Usually he'd just say he'll watch and sit by a corner." Truly, many had offered a hand in her practice. For good purpose. After all, this was not a safe means of magic when in the hands of an amateur.

Which, as much as she'd hate to say it, she was one. "Blow up, implode, get tossed into somewhere to die in. One of those things probably...?"

"But I appreciate the moral support."
(Noel Serpente)