Caretaker of Sanctuary

[21:32] {NARRATION} The last thing Adar sees on the mortal plane is the nodding serpent, its eyes aglow. Of course it would be there; it was its duty to stand watch.

The intrepid magi gets pulled through as soon as he so much as touches the portal, yanked into the twisting aether by the wayfinding tunnel one end of which had been etched onto the platform.

It's a disorienting journey from point A to point B, through a tunnel of streaking dazzling lights like distant stars. When it finally ends Adar is, for lack of a better word, spit out into somewhere else entirely, right onto the shores of what appears to be a small beach.

A dark sky shines above and the air smells of rain. And all feels...right. At peace and in harmony. Whisps float freely and openly, dancing among the flowers like ghostly fireflies.
[21:50] Ethernavigation Compendium. Chapter thirty two.

Sequels of Warping.

The currents of wayward finding can prove disorienting to some unexperienced in the craft, or merely tagging along. Side effects to those unprepared may be (and not be limited to): Nausea, light memory loss, light headedness, minor hallucinations, unnaturally high heart-rate and panic attacks.

Though sparse in effectiveness, most of these were present in some regard, working oneself to recovery proved excruciatingly difficult, especially given the short length of the transmission.

"Wonderful…" He'd mutter. I shouldn't have had such a beefy meal before barging in. I should've known.

Finally finding composure, he'd find the gut within himself to perceive his surroundings. Wisps freely roamed the vegetation-ridden area vividly. Barely regarding the Navigator's arrival upon their plane.

"Where?" A sparse question. As Adar entered a meditative state, clawing outwards with his mind-waves, attempting to seek out his position, or gather out any clues on it.

Am I underground? Is this some kind of haven?
(Adar)
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[21:58] A few of the whisps do react to his arrival, but they're less shy than those in the woods outside. This is like their home, and what reason do they have to be timid here? A few stray spirits swirl around him, settling on his head and his shoulders. They're keen on finally inspecting this latest arrival.

Another spirit arrives noiselessly. It appears humanoid, for all intents and purposes, a young woman, but the faded edges of her form say otherwise.

Her eyes, slitted much like the serpent guardians, light up when they settle on Adar. A smile spreads on the specter's face.

"Oh. A guest!" she chirps, her taloned hands clapping together and her wings fluttering.

"The first in...ah..."

She pauses to think.

"...Ever?"
(Caretaker)
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[22:09] A twitch, as the navigator's groove is suddenly messed up by the sudden stimuli of mortal speech. The last place in which one would expect to hear such dialect was from the other side of the ominous portal to Arthur knows where.

"Guest? What? Where!?"

His eyes slide open, symbolically, as he looks for the source of the sound. Eventually stopping at what seemingly appeared to be a Wind Drakanite. He'd gape in bewilderment, incapable of effectively making out her silhouette, and gathering not more than ethereal traces of energy from her outline in response.

"Where did I land?" He inquires, bringing himself up to his feet once more, vaguely cautious. The spirit's presence proving much less imposing than the guardian's.

Not a single hint of dirt, wear, tear, sweat or blood lies on the navigator's figure as he paces forward in her direction. Just a handful of sand had been rubbed onto his finegarbs upon falling from the warp.

"More importantly, who are you, why are you here?"
(Adar)
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[22:16] The spirit appears startled, jumping slightly, and puts both of her opal clawed hands up with their palms out.

"Ah. Please. At peace," she asks smoothly.

The Spirit is comprised highly of arcane energy, quite obviously not more on the Order side of the spectrum. Matter of fact, all of it instills everything in this place to a varying degree. It is imbued with the same invigorating sense of life as on the other side, but here? It is unrestrained and boundless.

Pains and ills ease away in this place, mental, physical, spiritual. Its a veritable Eden.

"Me? Why I'm...I'm..."

Bewildered. The spirit looks confused. Name, name...

"The Caretaker. I'm the Caretaker here. This is Sanctuary, and it's my duty to watch over this place. How did...how did you not know what this place was?"
(Caretaker)
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[22:28] Not only are her words heeded in response, but her entire figure instigates the navigator's demeanor to go lax. Her benevolent, straight forward halo seems to directly communicate with him. The obscure influences of his dark magic nature, though tamed, lie in stasis, as the Order spirit seems to directly relate to the virtuous magic that had deemed him worthy not long earlier.

It was safe here. The ominous ambience that had flooded the woods earlier shared no qualities to the one found here.

"Caretaker." He echoes, puzzlingly. "Caretaker of Sanctuary?" Bewildered, he stops himself to consider the odds of her inquiry. A shake of his head would come after.

"Unfortunately, I followed an abandoned wayward finding portal into this haven by pure coincidence. Getting it to work was a bit of a struggle, since the whole place was in ruins and overdriven by vegetation."

Reaching into his backpack once more, he'd unravel the scribblings he had made hours prior in an attempt to sketch up the circular dais. Then, with another feinted rummaging, he'd probe his holster and remove the sacrificial dagger for it to be freely seen by the spirit of Order.

"I believe it was dialed to bring me here." The scholar explains, handing it over. "I found this, as well."
(Adar)
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[22:34] The specter smiles and nods.

"Yes. The Caretaker of Sanctuary. Exactly," she repeats for emphasis. Names were no longer important. Only her duty to this place and what it stood for.

Her head cants and she reaches out to take the dagger in her claws. Another one of those long pauses. The seconds stretch into at least a solid minute.

"Oh...Oh..."

The Caretaker's voice grows soft as she struggles to remember.

"This is...this was...mine?"

She remembers. She remembers the knife, and just enough more.

"You...you went to the forest. With the Watcher? Not one of the smaller trees?"
(Caretaker)
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[22:58] A halted pause, as Adar's exorbitant, fully impaired gaze seems to vaguely loom about the Caretaker's figure regarding it, though awkwardly showcasing a clear disconnect from the visual realm. It wouldn't bare meaning in the navigator's actual means of perception. In reality, he had a clear vision field of her entire circumference. Even going as far as to watch her from the rear, he'd take note on the staff planted upon her back.

"The watcher? The scaled one? - Big, quiet, friendly one?" Vaguely describing the serpent, he'd inquire further, so as to get a grasp of what odds had caused them to meet within the confines of the Sanctuary.

"If so, yes. I met it once I found the larger tree at the heart of the forest. I was chasing down the source of a sudden energy spike that had taken place days prior. One that surfaced over the entirety of Agartha."

Another silent interval cues in his opportunity to further interrogate the apparition on its origin or incidence in the tree, wayfinding gate and arcane surges.

"Is the knife yours?" Opting to steer clear from mentioning the skeletal remains of two, he'd haltingly wave a lax hand at the spirit. A soothing halo would vibrate, causing her puzzled thoughts to find rest and offering further clarity in thinking. Memories become slightly more permeable; the phantasm of sentiments past resurface slowly.

"Smaller trees, you say?" A wild guess starts to spike the navigator up. "There were more gateways into this place?"
(Adar)
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[23:07] The staff at her back, oddly enough, is not a staff at all. It's a sword. Even more oddly, it's Nyeshk of Jianghese make. It clashes harshly with her very Gehennan appearance, yet there it sits in spite of it.

"Yes. The Watcher. I-"

There's a hitch in her speech again. Between the familiar dagger in her hands, which are solid enough to hold the old knife, and the Wisdom virtues efforts, she can temporarily sift through the things that happened before. Otherwise there's a decided disconnect between her current state and her prior memories.

"That surge. It was...us. When we opened the gate. Yes. And the knife is mine."

Thoughts and memories slowly coalesce, if only temporarily. His question makes her face light up further in recognition.

"Yes! Yes. Two seeds. I gave them out before we left."

The Spirits looks far off, her eyes momentarily flashing with white-blue fire, then she frowns.

"Ah...I do not feel them. That wasn't supposed to happen."
(Caretaker)
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[23:21] Meditatively, Adar would prod further within his suspicions. Had the Caretaker and another met their demise upon opening the door to Sanctuary? A husky hum escapes his lips, as he pensively regards the tale.

He somehow finds it within himself to hit her with trivia. A feat he and another had seen through with passion.

"There's another arcane tree, by the coastline of Levengard. One my friend and I have hand-grown from a suspicious seed. Fed it a spire shard for it to bloom. It dwarfs the one I came from in size. From what I gather, my friend got the seed from Fae."

Another interval of quietude. "I'm unsure of whether they're related at all."

Weaving forward, the interrogation slowly became slightly more assertive. Adar grew slightly impatient and riddled. There were still many things he didn't know. Caretaker brought little insight.

"Beside from the things that should be there, but aren't. What exactly is the portal I came from supposed to function for? What is the Watcher's duty other than to protect the tree?" He halts and further rummages through his storage, sliding off the particular trinket. "This music box was constantly playing at the heart of the woods. Is this familiar to you?"

A brow quirked.

"Miss Caretaker. What is Sanctuary?"
(Adar)
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[23:35] "Another? By Levengard?" she asks.

"No, no. If her tree were connected to this place, I could feel it. That one was grown with a shard, with sacrifice, and Asena's gift. I'm unsure of the nature of your friend's."

One by one she answers his questions, as best as she's able. It is certainly fair for him to have so many. Things have not gone as they were supposed to. The world outside had forgotten.

"The portal was supposed to bring the people that seek it out here, as it did for you. The Watcher is to protect the tree and the portal. It grew alongside it."

She reaches out to gently take the music box between her claws. The smile that results from its sight is nothing short of brilliant.

"Oh...Oh yes. This is Starseeker's. It was his favorite. We weren't able to take it with us."

He has more questions. And now, knowing nothing has gone to plan, so does she. There is little time to reminisce over the treasured music box.

"This is Sanctuary. This is a place in the Spirit World, unreachable by most means. You can feel it here, can't you? This place is a gift."

Cartaker gestures grandly all around with a sweep of her arm and wing.

"It is a place for those of good hearts and intent to find what they seek, and for others to find peace with what they've lost. That is why it was made. And that's why it couldn't remain in the mortal world. I had...I had assumed that's why you were here. The Watcher wouldn't have let you through if he thought you were going to do harm."


(Caretaker)
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[23:54] "Starseeker?" He'd inquire, feeling somewhat touched by the nickname. A title similar to the one he had been called for several times over the years. Though making no comment on it. A funny coincidence all in all. The bleak image of both skeletons twined in an embrace dissolving into dust briefly flashed into his consciousness, causing him to briefly wince.

Yet, darting forward to dismiss any concerns she'd have regarding his presence, Adar explained himself straight to the point.

"Worry not. The serpent knew well - my goals were purely passive." A sigh, as he reminisces on the tension upon their first encounter. "I yielded immediately. Certainly, its intent wasn't to prey on me. Even went as far as to lend me a hand in guessing how the portal operated."

Good hearts. What an idle label. Hero this, hero that. Kind-hearted this, good-willed that. Ideas Adar rejected wholeheartedly - undermining his own doing into naught more than his whim and interest. Shunning selflessness under thick layers of modesty, believing himself incapable of such traits.

"Then it's no more than a coincidence that I have landed here." He'd remark, nearly sneering any sort of higher good befalling upon him. "Unfortunate. I'm just a bookworm who got too curious. My goals were solely to further learn of the phenomenon transpired. Naught more, Miss Caretaker."

Baring a hint of disdain for himself, Adar's arms crossed pensively. Almost choosing to drive himself away from the soothing ambience of the vicinity.

"Sorry to have barged in." A lackadaisical, hard-felt apology, as he'd slowly stride back towards the beach.
(Adar)