With just a day left before the Rake leaves for Olympia, Tasha has been busy getting things settled in Rephidim - and at the top of her list is seeing her mother again before she leaves. The Fallen Friend is busy this night, with Desdi tending bar and Tashly hurrying between tables. At least with a uniform that fits, the serving girl isn't falling out of it all the time now.
As before, Tasha has made sure to conceal herself under her cloak to avoid broadcasting her recent success and social status. Underside is many things to many people, but more than anything, it's a thief; a thief that is always looking for a mark and Tasha knows enough to want to keep away from its prying eyes.
After crossing the room and keeping a handle on her coin purse, dodging both patrons and Tashly, the young woman makes it up to the counter and pulls her hood back enough to smile at her mother.
"Tasha, hear you going with Eyeshine on Rake again," Desdi notes, as she pours Tasha a drink. "Miss being drover?"
"A little," Tasha replies in a low voice, "but this is about business; we hired The Rake to take us where we need to go. A settled up with the Captain -- Eyeshine, I mean -- too." Reaching over, the young woman intercepts one of the drinks her mother had poured before Tashly can take it, instead sliding it over infront of herself with a grin. "We might be back in town after it's all over, at the Temple's request."
"Temple.. you involved with them now too?" Desdi asks in a very quiet voice. The usual clientele would likely bolt if they thought the Temple was going to raid the place..
"In one way or another, we seem to be involved with everyone. And you know, our history is the Temple's history. We have the same origin," Tasha replies, risking a glance over her shoulder to check if she was heard. "At the very least, it's good they're, if not on our allies, at least not our enemies. After that, we'll be returning to Abaddon. Maybe we will sooner; it depends how things go. I wanted to let you know, though, in case this is the last time we're in town before we return home."
"You barely visit," Desdi complains. "Rush rush rush. You always a hyper little girl, bouncin' off walls. Dat not changed I see."
Tasha chuckles before taking a sip of the beer she absconded with, then she shrugs her shoulders. "What can I say, I'm a busy worker. There's so much left to do and never enough time to do it in," she insists. Pausing to take another sip, she adds, "You can always come visit me on Abaddon, and I'm sure I'll return some day. Anyway, I'm here now, if you want me to stay a little longer. I'll have to leave before long, though, as I'm meeting topside with a few vendors to inspect our supplies."
"Me go to Abaddon?" Desdi laughs. "Who watch tavern? Tashly still too green. Where you off to next?"
"She won't be green forever though," Tasha says, gesturing with her mug to exaggerate the point. "As for our next stop, it'll be Olympia. We have a few personal things to do there -- Captain Eyeshine with his shipping contact and us with our contacts in Amazonia, then it's off to Abu Dabi, and finally, in to the wilds."
"Arrr.. Olympia," Desdi says, almost wistfully. "Land of romance, that."
"It is beautiful. You know, you could come with us and see what the ol' bird can do in a land built for it," the hybrid points out, winking. "You did say you were considering him, didn't you? I imagine I'll be doing the same with my man, just as soon as I finish up all the worrisome things and have a talk with my friend in Amazonia." Here Tasha exhales, sounding a little tired suddenly. "Sometimes I think the work and the prestige are getting to me, but I know if I press on, everything will be fine in the end. You should consider a vacation though, mom. It's a good chance to see if you really want to spend time with him."
"No.. not there," Desdi says, her tone going from wistful to stern. "Not with Eyeshine. Wouldn't.. be right. Met you father there."
"Ah?" Tasha asks, her mug freezing in mid-air, inches from her lips. "You met dad in Olympia? I always thought you met him here?"
"He from here," Desdi notes. "So I.. settle down here. He on big adventure, flying on Rake. By time we land.. well, we went out on town together. Lots of ruins there, some pretty private.."
"Olympia has a lot of interesting ruins, as it used to be the seat of an ancient civilization of Khattas," Tasha remarks. She leans forward, ears perked. "I meant to ask, did anything, ummm, unusual happen? Weird sky? What were these ruins?"
"Oy, that long time ago," Desdi notes, polishing a mug in thought. "Uh, was also pretty drunk. Was near the big circle of not-ruined stuff, with big statues. Off behind one of those.. past garden. Kinda in hillside, like.. like a fake building in front of a cave or grotto.. think might have been a hot spring. Remember it being warm and wet."
Tasha peers at her mother as she tries to sort out the answer, her mind working and ears flicking. After a few seconds she ventures, "Like ... an altar before the sacred precinct? What did the statutes look like?"
"Really big, like giants," Desdi says. "Each with own building, and a big fountain in the center. One had big flaming sword. Was cold night, we looked for someplace warm. Drink too much and you get cold.."
Tasha blinks at this, putting her beer down. "That was a temple to the old gods," she whispers, stunned. "They would be Khattas; the man with the flaming sword is Abaddon." The young woman stares in to her mug, watching the alcohol ripple and distort as people walk by. "Dake building past the circle of statues ... That would have been before one of the temples, maybe even past its entrance and close to the inner mysteries ... " She looks up, her expression anxious, haunted. "Do you ... remember which statue you went past, to get near that ... cave?"
"Uh, just remember the flaming sword," Desdi says, thinking. "You dad said, 'Hey, let's follow the sword, then I'll show you mine..' err.. or something." The bird hides a blush, and goes on. "So yeah, we sort of follow where sword point. Was a garden, and then the hill.. maybe not in straight line, we were kindy wobbly. But was steam and warmth.. heat even, and ruins."
Tasha is silent for a long time, her beer forgotten infront of her. Then, she suddenly stands up and steps away from the counter. "I ... I just remembered I needed to look in to something," she mumbles, ears canted back. "I'm sorry I can't stay longer. I'll be back, maybe. Maybe before I leave."
"You be careful," Desdi says. "No be distracted on underside streets, yeah? Pay attention to you surroundings."
"Aye ..," Tasha breathes, though she certainly doesn't sound focused. After a moment, she pulls out several coins and puts them on the counter; inexact change by a good degree, and far more than anyone pays for a drink in The Fallen Friend. Without another word she walks out, head lowered, thinking.
Miraculously, the distracted hybrid isn't mugged as she seems to wander about at random - but nothing is really ever random, and Tasha subconsciously seeks out a familiar, comfortable place to really sort through her thoughts. And so she finds herself at the Underside docks, the piers and cradles suspended over one of the most impressive (and terrifying) views on Sinai: a ten-thousand-foot drop to the blurry landscape of the surface.
On the end of an unoccupied pier, Tasha sits herself down, head resting on a hand as she watches the clouds roll beneath the island. "Have you been watching me, all this time?" She murmurs to the night air. "Amazonia, Abaddon, Sheol ... was it all your doing? Am I just following the steps laid out for me?"
The clouds pass below, forming a sea in the air. Wind currents flow like rivers through them, carving channels and valleys. Lightning flashes in the shadow of the Sky Island, and the shapes of the clouds could suggest anything a person might wish to see. But that's the only answer the world gives to Tasha's question.
Tasha sighs, dropping back against the pier and landing with the soft thunk of flesh on wood, and the clatter of metal as her swords slide down against her leg. "What am I doing?" Her feet dangle off the edge, that terrifying leap. "It's coincidence, isn't it? It can't all mean something. Maybe I'm just really conceited." She pauses a moment, then lays her ears back and thumps her head against the wooden dock. I am conceited, but believing it's coincidence would be too easy. And nothing is ever that easy. She places a hand down on the dock and propsherself up, sitting at an odd angle. Olypia. I'll get my answers then.
"It could be a conspiracy," a familiar lapine voice says from the beginning of the pier, back on solid rock. "The world is full of conspiracies and secret societies and.. secret.. conspiracies.." Aaron trails off.
"Ahh!' Tasha hops to her feet, hands reaching for her weapons as she begins to turn, only to pause and ask, "Aaron?"
"Who else would be stupid enough to come down here to watch your back?" the Lapi notes. "Good thing too! You were completely oblivious when you left the tavern. You even ignored the prostitutes calling out to you.."
"I was ... " Tasha stalks towards Aaron, giving him a once over, then reaching to prod his shoulder, to make sure he's real. "I was thinking," she insists.
"Yes, I know how that can take up your whole brain so that your butt had to do all the body control stuff," Aaron jokes, grinning. "Did your mental math come to a conclusion at least?"
Satisfied Aaron is real, Tasha lets her guard down, breathing a sigh of relief, her muscles relaxing. "No," she admits, head shaking. "Aaron, I didn't tell you about what happened with the mage Hake," the woman pronoucning the scholar's name as 'Ha-key', the affectionate pronounciation hinting the deeper relationship the two have reached over the course of the last few days, "and I visisted. He said magic was involved. Not a lot, just ... enough. I was curious, so I asked my mother if anything happened, to try and alleviate my anxiety about it, and she said I was concieved -- I mean, they did it, -- in a temple! And not just any temple, an old temple to Abaddon!" By the time she's done explaining, she gesturing wildly, and clearly upset. "Abaddon!" She repeats once more, in case Aaron hadn't quite grasped the connection yet.
"I used to think you were freaky, but your mom still has you beat with that one," Aaron notes. "So.. yeah, temples and shrines on the surface tend to be built where there's more magic than usual. Normally you'd get a mutation of some sort from a child conceived in them. But you're saying your conception itself was the mutation?"
"I'm saying without magic, I wouldn't exist," Tasha answers, hands falling. "And I just so happen to have been the first and only person to ever approach the Temple of Abaddon and volunteer to join. And then there's all the dreams I've been having! It can't be a coincidence." her ears then perk as she hesitantly adds, "Can it?"
"Well.. yes, it can, but also no," Aaron says, peeking over the edge of the pier briefly before pulling back. "It could be a cascade flowing from that initial point of probability. In which it case it's more you causing the things rather than there being coincidence or destiny or something. It's called Strange Attraction."
"Strange Attraction?" Tasha asks, apparently unbothered by the drop. But of course, she has wings and a fall would only result in days or weeks of flying back to society rather than a terminal stop.
"Like.. booby traps," the Lapi says. "They may have been there all along, and you just happen to be setting them off because only you can set them off.. but they weren't made for you to be the one to set off.. uh.."
"Uh?" Tasha peers at the man. "Are you sure? Are you saying that I exist because my mother set off a booby trap? Or that I am the booby trap?"
"No, just.. nothing made your mother go to a temple and get knocked up, it's just something she did. Nothing could have planned for that to happen, really," Aaron notes. "I'm pretty sure, anyway. A lot of this is from going drinking with Chaos Mages, so should be taken with a grain of alcohol."
"It's like.. uh.. everything is mostly random, but.. there's order in that too because given enough time, everything is bound to happen somewhere.. or something," Aaron notes. "That Mage had a weird prescription.."
"I left my alcohol in the bar." Tasha makes a 'hrrm' noise as she begins pacing up and down the dock, ears flicking. "I can believe that," she decides. "What you're saying is, that maybe there was a plan, but it didn't have to be her. Or me. Sort of like how they say the stars were aligned. It was the right time and the right place, but it could have happened sooner, or later. It wasn't the people, or the place, or the time, but all of them together, and because of that ... " She stops, glancing back, "I exist? Is that also why an Amazonian princess lead me to Amzaonia, a xenophobic land where I just-so-happen to resemble one of their gods, as the only one of my kind?"
Aaron shrugs. "Frankly, if you do the math, every person is an odds-defying miracle," he points out. "If Calligenia hadn't been cute, would you have followed along?"
"Maybe," Tasha hedges. She then sighs, shaking her head. "Well, we're not going to find any answers here. Lets just head back, I'll see High Priestess Nitsa soon enough, and maybe then, I'll ahve an answer. Come here, I'll fly you back."
"Fly me?" Aaron squeaks. "You.. you aren't distracted anymore right?"
Tasha barks a laugh. "I've flown home with far less focus than this, and I usually made it!" She scoops Aaron up and spreads her wings, flicking them for a moment to cast off the dirt and wooden bits collected from contact with the dock. "Hold on tight!"
Instead of using the dock as a runway, Tasha simply turns, takes a step, and walks off the edge! In short order she and her passanger are plummeting towards the ground, thousands of feet below, until the woman catches the wing and pulls in to a g-inducing climb, arcing back towards Rephidim and the comfort of better environs.
The rushing of the wind isn't quite enough to drown out Aaron's high-pitched scream! He clings to Tasha uncomfortably - it may be a task to get him off of her when they land!
After several days on the Rake, Tasha finds herself before the Temple of Abaddon in Olympia, with its giant statue and gas-fed blazing sword. Unlike the one in Dianus, women aren't allowed inside, and so Aaron has gone in to arrange for a message to be sent to the Temple in Dianus about Tasha's wish to visit.
"I'll definitely want to take my time exploring this place," Gabriel notes, taking in the other Temples in the giant plaza. "I'm sure Hakeber and I can find those ruins you described too," he assures Tasha.
"They've got funny legs," Hakeber notes as she looks at the statues of the various gods.
Tasha had words to say about not being let inside, but soon forgot them as the group approached the circle of statutes. After a quick survey she hurries towards the statuteof Abaddon, stopping at his feet and peering up, and up. Despite having worked for the Temple of Abaddon in Amazonia, she never got a good look at the orginal artwork of Abaddon -- or any of the other gods, for that matter.
The armored Kattha has a fierce expression, and holds his scimitar horizontally over his head, as if he's about to execute somebody. Flames dance along the edge of the blade as well, fed by gas and oil.
"I expected him to have a lion's mane for some reason," Hakeber notes. "He doesn't look happy."
"So that's what He looks like," Tasha remarks to no one in particular. Waving the others over, she tells them, "The Olympian gods are in the form of the Olympians themselves, who were mostly Kattha, with the digigrade legs. Their society is likely an offshoot of either that of the Khattan Trade Coalition, the Expedition Trade Library progeniture expansion project, or both. They were said to be the original users of magic, and this was thier capitol province until their nation crumbled under the strain of war."
Looking back, Tasha shields her eyes against the sun as she stares up at her god. "The very nation that believed in Him was destroyed by Him. Would you call that betrayal, or sacrifice?"
"Normal progression of a civilization," Hakeber notes. "They rise and fall in cycles, generally, unless there is an overwhelming monopoly of some renewable resource.."
"The didn't keep the secret of magic to themselves, probably," Gabriel suggests. "They gave away their edge."
"Oh," says Tasha. She stares up at the god for several seconds and nods. "That makes sense. So, they won't let us in to the rear areas, will they?"
"I dunno, they're all male monks, so some of that has to be going on..." Hakeber says, taking things literally..
"If the site we want is in ruins, it's probably not part of the temple grounds, but past them," Gabriel notes. "If it was important, it wouldn't be in ruins, right?"
Several of the red-robed (and scimitar-armed) acolytes mill about nervously as they watch the group.
Tasha coversher muzzle as she sputters a laugh, then she swats Hakeber and exclaims, "Hake! This is sacred ground, you're going to make me look bad in front of Abaddon." Apparently not satisfied, she looks about ready to bite Hakeber's ear, but pauses at Gabriel's question and so lets the scholar go.
"Well, /probably. Some times ruins are so sacred you /can't/ fix them. It really depends. Why don't we ask ... " Her gaze swings wide, until she spots one of the acolytes and points at him. "That guy!"
The feline being pointed at suddenly jumps in surprise, looking around to see if there's anyone nearby he can pretend was actually being suggested.
It's too late, the big red winged woman is already on her way. "Acolyte!" she calls out as she nears, "we have a question: we're looking for an area with geothermal activity, a cave with temple designs at its entrance, and raised, empty area infront of it. It should be somewhere past the statute of Abaddon, farther in. Do you know of anywhere like that? And can we see it?"
The scared acolyte starts to retreat, then rushes forward instead to keep Tasha from passing under the sword. "Wait!" he says in accented Standard. "No closer! We don't do sacrifice any more! No virgins! Don't use Dragon's Throat in ages!"
"Sacrifices?" Tasha glances bac to her trailing companions. "What do you mean? We can't go there?"
"Uh, go there?" the acolyte asks in confusion. "You aren't trying to sacrifice yourself or the other girl?"
"What?" Tasha asks, giving the acolyte a funny look. "No, nothing like that! I just wanted to see it with my own eyes. I was, um ... " And here she leans forward to whisper, "It's where my mother and father ... got together."
The acolyte doesn't look like he understands. "Nobody uses the Dragon's Throat anymore. Not any of the Temples. I don't know where it is.. just.. in the hills.."
"Do you know in which direction at least?" The red woman asks, leaning back. "And did you say sacrifice?"
"Tasha, are you scaring the acolytes?" Aaron asks as he emerges from the Temple, causing other acolytes to step back nervously. For servants of the god of war, they seem awfully timid.
"I think so?" To test this assumption, Tasha suddenly leans close to the acolyte she's talking to and growls.
"Old days, that is where people sacrifice done," the acolyte notes, squirming a bit and just gesturing towards the hills. "Maybe old road or something.."
"It's bad enough that they're afraid of Lapis," Aaron says. "Everything is arranged, by the way."
"That's good." Tasha leans back, looking a little put off. "Are these really acolytes of the God of Conflict, Aaron?"
"They get like this because of me," Aaron notes. "I guess I've gotten a reputation for bringing vexing females here - and there's the whole communicating with the Dianusian Temple. The Olympians are still a bit twitchy about the Amazonians."
"I see." Tasha glances at the uncomfortable acolytes, then shakes her head. "It's kind of ... sad really. I was expecting fearsome, or at least resolute, militants and other intimidating, capable people." Her head shakes. "I'm sure they're more menacing than they look, right? Anyway, I'm going to take wing and go look for the Dragon's Throat. Do you all want to stay here and look around?"
"Will you promise not to take any unnecessary risks?" Gabriel asks, arms crossed.
Tasha holds up a finger, both as to make a point and, if one were to follow it's angle, to indicate Abaddon. "It would be sacrilegious of me to play it safe here," she insists, solemly. And then she grins.
"I want you back within two hours then," Gabriel says. "I don't like the idea of you going into areas like that by yourself, you know. So if you're late I'll hunt you down."
Tasha snaps in to a salute. "Understood, sir, I will be back in two hours or be subject to hunting."
"Don't tire yourself out either," Aaron notes.
"I want to see the ruins too," Hakeber mutters. "So you have to tell us where to find them .. if you find them, that is."
As Aaron chimes in too, Tasha gives the acolyte a put-upon look. "They think I'm fragile and prone to getting lost," she confidesm knowing he can barely understand her. "I was fighting in bars and going on adventures before I met them, I fly a giant war machine, and they still worry about me." She past the acoltyes head, then begins striding off in to the circle of statutes. "You got it, Hake! See you soon!"
Quickly now, Tasha heads out, not wanting to be subject to any more mothering and excited to find this 'Dragon's Throat'. After breaking in to a run, she takes wing and angles to follow the direction the acoltye indicated.
There are several springs in the hills, and caves, but only one with the remains of a road leading to it and broken stone ruins. There's even a red glow coming from the cavern, along with a fog of steam.
Deciding this must be the place, Tasha touches down in the open area outside the cave. "Is this it?" For the young woman, it's a peculiar feeling to be in the place where her mother concieved her; it's the place she first went from 'nothing' to 'something,' however tiny a something that wuld have been, at least according to her ship's doctor.
It doesn't feel particularly special - although there's a good bit of heat coming from the cave, and the glow is likely from actual exposed magma further down. The whole area - indeed the entire Sinha mountain range - is riddled by a volcanic network and more, if the rumors of subterranean worlds are true.
After looking around a while and finding nothing of interest outside, Tasha finally turns towards the cave. After taking a deep breath she heads in to the glow, tucking her wings and setting foot inside the cave for the first time.
There's a powerful sulfur odor in the cave mouth. The floor has been shaped and has marble stairs leading downward, although the high humidity makes them a bit slippery.
Tasha grimaces at the smell, pulling a neckerchief from her belt and using it as a filter as she proceeds. Once she reaches the first step, she tests her weigth and balance, glad Gabriel and Fred talked her in to getting the rubberized replacement shoes, as her wooden ones would have sent her down the stairs the hard way. She takes her steps gingerly and makes her way down the marble steps in to the inferno.
The stairs don't go very far. Soon there's a wide platform, which extends out over a pit. Below, a river of molten rock flows past, nearly a hundred feet below. There are marks on the platform of where an altar might have once stood, and alcoves carved into the walls where idols may have rested.
So they sacrificed people here ... They probably threw the bodies in to the lava. Abaddon is the god of fire and fire magic, so they must have thought this place was sacred to Him. After stepping off the marble stairway, Tasha walks over to the edge of the pit, peering down in to the molten flow, a almost hypnotizing, calm procession of light and head, emminently deadly. The Fenris was also consumed in a lava flow. I wonder if there's a connection there? And they call me 'Aldara' in Amazonia -- 'Winged Gift'. Or 'Winged Sacrifice.' Could they have known? Is this the sacrifical pit they named me after?
Down near the flow, there's a glint in the congealed stone. It would be invisible to a non-Vartan, but the red glow is shining off of something smooth and metallic: a shard of mirror-like metal that must have been carried by the flow, only to be caught when the rock cooled a bit. Metal that didn't melt in the heat of the magma.
What is that? Lowering herself down, Tasha squints at the metalic object to try and make it out, wondering what could possibly had survived the trip in such a dangerous river.
She's seen the like before - in the armor of the Valkyrian Amazonians, forged in the Gash of Fenris high in the mountains. It's a fragment broken off from the crash, and somehow carried by the convection of magma to this spot.
"Eeeeerie," Tasha whispers to herself as she stares at the fragment. There are so many pieces now, so many clues, each hinting at an answer that constantly eludes her, and all of the coallescing right here, in this place.
Leaning back, Tasha brushes her hair from her face and thinks. She was created here, here where the lava flows. Lava that is sacred to Abaddon. Lava that is ruch in magic. Here, there's a piece of the Fenris, and she the one lead to it. It all comes back to Abaddon -- but which Abaddon? Can life have so many coincidences? The priestesses read her fortune through magic and knew she should find the ship. Finding the ship carried her to Abaddon. And near another flow, deep in the wastes, she met another Abaddon.
"I don't know why this is, but I'm going to find an answer," she tells the cavern as she stands up. "But there's one thing I want to say, and it doesn't matter if you're using me or not." Stepping forward, Tasha gazes down in to the flow, and, taking a deep breath, yells, "Thank you for letting me exist!"