Lady of the Lake (20 Mir 2001) Alice, Agatha and Kuon are guests of Lady Nymuae of the Lake Note: Mirari players other than Alice and Agatha should not read this log.

Near One-Eye's Hill
A beaten path here runs left and right around One-Eye's Hill, and would eventually end at its peak: a modest and flat area from which one would have a spectacular view of Cadmus's Teeth, the mountain range to the northwest of the town. That view is unfortunately blocked from here by the abundant trees, which cast long shadows across much of the path.

Before Nymuae left Ainigton to return to Mirari, she told Agatha and Alice that she would return for them on the following evening, and asked them to meet her on the path to One-Eye's Hill. As the sun dips low on the horizon, the two girls tramp up the path, looking for their friend.

Agatha feeds Kuon another sausage-treat, and asks Alice, "So, what do you think will show up on the pictures Nymuae is bringing back?"

Kuon barks cheerily, snapping the treat and then looking up at Agatha for more.

The red-haired girl pats the greyhound on the head instead, trying to conserve the limited supply of treats.

"Oh, I don't know!" answers Alice uncertainly, yet happily. She walks alongside Agatha with everything she thought to bring: the treasure of the mirror wrapped carefully, her purse, Lord Mel and Sir Teddy Bear. Her outfit is a simple denim jumper with a light blue shirt with a flowery design to it. "I don't know what souls look like. Maybe it will be like a rainbow?"

Kuon looks a bit disappointed, then tries his sad puppy eyes on Alice.

"Good evening, Agatha, Alice." Nymuae's voice rings clearly before her as she descends the path to meet them. "I am glad to see you here. Are you ready for the journey?"

"I think so," Agatha says, readjusting her shoulders under her heavy pack. She made sure to bring more essential supplies, like candy bars, soda-pop, and toilet paper - just in case.

"Hi, Rebecca!" Alice says, looking up. "I'm ready! I have everything with me." She digs a half-wrapped sugar cookie out of the pocket of her jumper, and offers it to Kuon.

The greyhound looks ecstatic as he gobbles the cookie up,then barks a cheery greeting to Nymuae, comically trying to lick the crumbs from his muzzle before he bows his head. The result is more or less that he looks like he's checking for any cookie bits that fell on the ground.

The dark-haired sorceress nods gravely. She looks a little older and more tired than when they saw her the previous evening. "You will go through the Siege of Stone and Water, then?"

"Yep! But ... will we get wet, Rebecca?" asks the blonde girl. "I didn't bring my swim clothes."

Nymuae smiles at Alice. "No, thou wilt not get wet. I shall keep us dry for the shift."

Agatha nods, and asks, "Is the other side sheltered, or should we put our coats on first? And how did the pictures come out?"

"The other side is sheltered, yes," Nymuae answers. "House October keeps the Mirari half of the portal well, in fact -- much better than the dank cave on this side. As for the pictures -- I left them still developing. They will be ready by the time of our return to my abode."

Alice nods, then turns to Agatha and points at the cave. "Did you hear that, Rebecca? I've never seen a nice cave. I bet it has chairs and couches and rugs and things! All scary caves need chairs, then they wouldn't be so scary," she tells the older girl.

"That's a relief," Agatha says to the news. "Is there any problem with me bringing through a bit of iron?"

"No," the sorceress answers, after a moment of thought, "but keep it well shielded. It will harm any fey creature it comes in contact with. What of iron are you bringing, and how have you wrapped it?" she asks.

Agatha turns to show Nymuae a long burlap bundle strapped to the side of her camping pack. "I have some pieces that I thought could be worked into a sword and spear, if there is a blacksmith over there that can handle them," she explains.

Alice's nose wrinkles at the mention of the offending metal. "Is it sharp, Rebecca? Like birds with notes?" she asks, looking to her now much older friend.

"I do not think you will find a smith who will work with iron or steel in Mirari, Agatha. Nonetheless, it may prove useful in some fashion." She nods in approval of the decision, touching her fingers to the thick burlap wrappings. "They should be fine like that." Turning to Alice, she adds, "Iron burns the fey. It hurts them like boiling acid against the skin. They cannot bear the touch of it."

The little girl gives her older friend the most horrified expression, and she reaches up to cover her mouth with a hand. From behind the digits she whispers, "That's awful, Rebecca!"

"It makes for a great defense against them, though," Agatha notes, "just in case."

"It is merely dangerous, Alice. Dangerous things have their uses: do not thy parents keep a stove, even though the fire can burn thee?" Nymuae smiles. "Do not fear o'ermuch. If you are ready?" She looks to both of them.

Agatha turns to Kuon, and asks the dog, "Will you need to be carried down the slope?"

Alice nods slowly, turning to look around the cavern. "I ... I'm ready Rebecca, Agatha -- if ... if you are."

"It is very steep," Nymuae says. "We shall probably need to lower him with a rope."

"Okay, I'm ready too, then," Agatha says.

The four -- two girls, a sorceress, and a dog -- make it to the bottom of cave with some difficulty, but without incident. Nymuae takes Alice's hand, and gestures for the others to follow as she steps onto the surface of the pool. Her foot sinks slightly into the water, without a ripple.

Agatha looks to Kuon and takes a deep breath before stepping onto the water.

Kuon seems almost humiliated by being lowered on a rope, and wags his tail most enthusiastically to be released. He turns his sad eyes toward Alice, as if hoping some morsel will be offered to comfort him in his shame.

Alice pauses at the rim of the pond and watches Rebecca's foot carefully. "Wow, Rebecca, faeries must be very light. Simon sunk like a rock!" She tests the water with the tip of one toe, then reaches over to take Rebecca's hand with both of hers as she makes a full-fledged step on to the water's surface. So absorbed is she with the miracle of walking on water that she doesn't notice Kuon's begging.

"I'm sure there'll be plenty of scraps for you on the other side, Kuon," Agatha tells the canine.

As promised, they enter the water, but it seems to glide around them without touching their skin or clothing. The sensation is weird, and heightened by the gradual sinking process, which feels almost like riding a down escalator -- they're not stepping down so much as sinking lower while they walk forward. When they reach the center, Nymuae turns to other three. She releases Alice's hand to raise her own above her head, and shouts something unintelligible. The waters rise suddenly to engulf them, and there's the sensation of plummeting downwards, falling into a bottomless pit.

Agatha tenses, and tries to joke, "You could charge tickets--" However, about halfway through her sentence, it's garbled by the rushing waters.

"Yay!" cries Alice, for to her this is like a great amusement ride. She raises her hands above her head. "Wheeee!"

The greyhound, somewhat miffed at having gone treatless, is startled by the experience, then decides to attempt to look as if he's gone through it before. His success is halved as he flails a moment, then when he realizes he doesn't have to do anything, he straightens out and tries to look oh so nonchalant.

"--for a ride like this, I bet," comes the second half of Agatha's sentence, as they find that they are already rising again.

The ascent seems to take no time at all, and they break the surface of the pool smoothly, rising until they are almost standing on the surface of the water. Nymuae smiles. "Welcome to Mirari, my friends."

The Siege of Stone and Water, Mirari
From this side, the Siege looks strikingly different. Instead of the black interior of a moist cave, the walls are carved into the familiar partial-spheres, and the rock floor is flat and polished. The streams that complete the spheres lead to a central fountain the same shape as the pool, but with a statue of a hippocampus pouring water into it from the rear. Before the pool, where the jruuh-heap was in Ainigton, a single pillar of rock stands, dark and grand. A soft golden light, emitted from curved shields mounted on the walls, lights the area. A single arched corridor leads out to the north.

Agatha quickly steps onto solid ground. "Think you could teach us how to make that work, Nymuae?"

Even though her hair is not wet, Alice reflexively shakes her hair to dry it. "That was fun, Rebecca!" she exclaims. "I bet you went home early just to play with the Siege. I think I would, if I could. It's better than the traveling fair and the county fair waaaay down the road Daddy took me to last year."

The greyhound bounds off the water, then shakes his paws in a mock-dainty gesture, flicking droplets away.

The sorceress smiles at Alice. "I am glad you enjoyed it. Walking the Siege is a gift, Agatha, and opening them for others is another. Either one possesses the talent or not -- it cannot be trained. If you are an Opener, you will come to know it."

"I'm not too thrilled about 'coming to know' things," Agatha admits, speaking quietly. "The changes in you and Tom are still a bit unnerving, you know?"

"I did! Very much. Thank you, Rebecca," says Alice as she steps out of the pond and onto the solid, polished stone floor. "It is a pretty cave. Daddy polishes cars sometimes and he uses a smelly wax from turtles, but I don't think they have smelly turtles that have wax here," then comments Alice.

"I understand, Agatha," the sorceress says in an undertone. With another smile to Alice, she says more loudly, "I fear I do not know what October's people use to polish their floor, but I believe thou hast the right of it -- it would not be smelly turtles." She walks out of the pool and towards the corridor.

Agatha smirks at the turtle comments, and gestures for Alice and Kuon to go ahead of her, so she can guard the rear.

Kuon glances back to Agatha to be sure it's what she wants, then trots ahead of Alice, seeming the very model of a proper guard dog.

Alice bobs her head in compliance, and skips after the Lady Sorceress, using the lines of the Siege to form her skip steps, as she hops over each of them. As she goes, she whistles the tune of the flute.

With the girls behind her, Nymuae comes to a pair of great double doors. With a single push of her hands, they swing soundlessly open. Beyond, two strange creatures have pivoted around to face the opening door. They have the torsos of men, clad in hardened leather with bronze studs, but the heads and legs of a stag deer. They hold bronze polearms in their hands, crossed before the door. Their expression is one of surprise, and one stammers out, "Lady Sorceress--" his confusion evident.

"Hi! Um, ... centers!" calls out Alice as she breaks in her whistling long enough to greet the two guards. She also stops in her skipping enough to wave to them, then proceeds forward after Nymuae.

Agatha pauses in reaching for her wooden sword, remembering that Elinor used a glamour to appear somewhat similar, if less bestial, and assumes the creatures belong to House October.

Kuon looks back at Alice questioningly.

Alice explains to Kuon matter-of-factly, "They're centers. Half-man and half-horse! Only they're half .... half something else and maybe they're centers."

"Good evening, gentlemen of October. I have brought through people to aid Mirari. Kindly stand aside." The Lady Sorceress has drawn herself up to her full height, and folded her arms over her chest, looking from one of the stag-men to the other.

Kuon noses at Alice's hands and follows after Nymuae smartly, as much as if to say they should proceed as the important guests of the Lady Sorceress.

The Siege guardians hesitate, exchanging glances. "Ah ... great lady, we were not told that you would be bringing guests."

The little girl studies the dog for a moment, then nods slowly. "I think I understand. Okay!" She nods again, and turns to follow Rebecca again, this time trying to mimic Rebecca's stance, and walking, steady, playing the part of royalty. "Hail, guards! Step away so Rebecca and I can go and have fu- ... travel ... hence!" she directs.

Looking from one guard to the other herself, then to Nymuae and Alice, Agatha wonders what to do if the guardians try to make them go back. She certainly doesn't want to try and fight them.

"Your ignorance is not my concern, gentlemen," Nymuae replies, nodding to Alice. "Will you deny passage to me and my guests? Stand aside." Her tone brooks no argument, and the guards offer none further. With another exchanged glance, they uncross their halberds and step apart, mumbling apologies.

Agatha blinks at the commanding tone. Was there magic in that? she wonders.

"Thank you! Here, have a cookie!" The little girl digs in to her pocket and offers the two guards a cookie each, the last of her home-baked treats, wrapped in paper napkins.

If anything, the stag-men look more puzzled by the cookies. They accept them, however. Both give courteous bows, forelegs crossing and torsos dipping at the waist. They offer her thanks, but don't appear to be quite sure what to do with the treats.

The greyhound gives Alice a hurt look. Those were, from his point of view, perfectly good cookies that he could have eaten.

"They're cookies. You eat them," Agatha says to the guards as she passes. "Uh ... sorry for the surprise, too. Nice racks, by the way," she adds, hoping they'd take it as a compliment.

Alice sticks her tongue out at Kuon. "You got a cookie!" she tells him merrily before she returns her gaze to the guardsmen. "You eat them. See? They're good, my mommy made them and they have lots of sugar!" She casts a glance after Nymuae, looks worried for a moment, then gives the guards a parting wave. "I need to go! Bye!" And then she strides off after her friend.

Kuon heaves a doggy sigh, then barks after Alice as if warning her to not run too quickly, lest she outpace her protectors.

The guards' ears pinken noticeably at Agatha's compliment, and they shuffle their hooves anxiously. One of them buries his muzzle in the napkin, possibly to eat the cookie, or maybe to hide his expression. Nymuae has a small, private smile on her face as she walks before the others. She spreads her cloak around her, and gestures for the others to do the same with their coats, before opening the doors leading out of the guardroom.

Agatha follows along and hides a grin.

The world outside is bitterly cold, in sharp contrast to the warmth of Ainigton's summer. An icy wind cuts through the four travelers, and Nymuae pulls up the hood of her cloak. "Winter deepens her hold on the land," she murmurs.

Alice's coat is of the same color as her blue top, though of a different and heavier material. It sports a wool interior and neck lining, and two pockets to either side. Unfortunately, though big, it only reaches to about Alice's thighs and don't cover her legs particularly well. She bundles this tightly around herself, pulling her purse close, and begins to whistle that same tune again. Her ability to whistle has gotten a lot better to Agatha's mind if she considers it, a whole lot better since her encounter with the flute.

Agatha takes a moment to get into her own padded winter coat(green, of course) and then shoulders her pack. "Do we have far to go from here?" she asks Nymuae.

"Oooo, it's cold here, Rebecca. It's never this cold at home," says the little girl. She shivers bundled in her jacket as the wind blows the bottom of her jumper causing it to dance and flap against Alice's leg. "I feel like a popsicle."

"Farther than I'd like," Nymuae admits, ruefully. "Perhaps I should have requested an escort of Lord October, after all." She gives a rueful glance to the towers of a castle, just visible to the north. "At least the weather is clear," she says. She turns to face the west, and beckons to her companions.

"Let's hurry, then," Agatha suggests as she follows, checking to make sure Kuon is handling the cold ground okay.

Alice trundles along after Rebecca and pulls her coat tightly about her head. "I think my toes are ice cubes."

Snow in drifts coats the ground farther from the shelter of the hill, a few inches high, and it crunches under Nymuae's boots. She turns to Alice, with a frown of concern. "If thou art truly chilled, thou must let me know immediately," she instructs. "Cold is as dangerous as fire. I will warm us by magic if I must."

Kuon doesn't look any happier with the cold, but barks ahead of Nymuae and looks back toward the others every so often as if encouraging them to hurry up a little so the dog won't have to freeze his toes off in the snow, and then he looks ahead of them again as they catch up.

"I ... I'm cold Rebecca. I'm sorry," admits the little girl as she stands freezing in the snow. The jacket simply doesn't extend far enough down to cover the thin material that drapes across her legs. And since Alice doesn't wear pants the wind easily kicks the bottom of her jumper off her ankles letting the biting wind against her skin unabated. "It's so cold."

Agatha isn't too keen on the idea of using magic, but nods. "At least warm up Alice if you can."

Looking troubled, Nymuae nods. She draws open her cloak, and drops to her knees in the snow, tracing a design into the ice. In the center of it, she places a candle and lights it, and bows her head for a moment. Then, she lifts her eyes, and calls out in a ringing voice, "Sun of the East, shed your warmth upon us, cold and weary. Let your fire pierce the cold and melt the snow! Luminaeth impresyasah, Impresyas miyon, Miyon esfar! Eastern Sun, hear me!"

At first, nothing seems to happen. The wind beats at the candle, and Nymuae cups her palm around it to keep it lit. Then it flares, and the light of the sun shines on them radiantly. The wind's cold bite fades, and all four feel warm and comfortable, as if curled up before a fire while winter rages impotently outside. Nymuae exhales, brushing a hand over her forehead, then takes up the lit candle and stands.

Kuon brightens up as he notices the cold is no longer nipping his paws so fiercely. He wags.

Agatha unzips her coat in the sudden warmth. "That was impressive! Do you have to keep the candle lit to maintain it?"

When the sun begins to shine, Alice too relaxes. She relaxes her frigid grip on her coat and lets it slide back against her shoulders. "Ohh, oh, thank you, Rebecca! I don't think I could have made it all the way in the cold. It's just so, so ... cold." She smiles again, lifting her head to bath in the magical sunshine. "It's nicer in the summer back home."

"The cold is a good reminder of why we're here though, Alice," Agatha reminds the younger girl. "We've got to end this winter."

"Good! I don't like this winter cold," Alice says, nodding. She resumed walking.

"Yes..." Nymuae's voice sounds a little slurred. "The candle must stay lit." Her words get a bit stronger as she speaks, and she shakes her head, tossing the hood of her cloak back. Her hair gleams black in the Mirari sunlight, not a trace of red in it. "I have not warmed the world. Only ourselves. Come, let us move on."

"Okay, Rebecca, let's go!" says Alice, her voice carrying much of her old enthusiasm as she finds herself warm again.

By the time they reach the Lake's edge, the travelers are weary, if still warm. Nymuae seems especially tired, weaving on her feet as she guides them to a point where the thick sheet of ice over the surface has been broken up and scattered. A thin sheet of new ice has formed over the gap. The sorceress sets the candle down -- the votive burned almost to a stub in its holder -- and stands upright before the Lake, letting her hair loose.

When Rebecca sets the candle down Alice walks forward and reaches unbidden to place her hands at Nymuae's waist, trying as she can to steady the taller woman. "Are you okay, Rebecca? You don't look so well," she tells her friend. "You can lean on me. It's okay."

Agatha looks over the broken and refrozen gap in the ice. "I guess there's a bridge or something that rises up out of the lake?" she asks.

"I am fine," Nymuae says, her voice brittle, almost snappish. She offers a weak smile. "Stand back, Alice. We are almost there. I will show you the way."

The girl releases her friend, though hesitantly. She steps back and nods her head a little before turning to look out over the lake. "O-okay, Rebecca."

Agatha puts a hand on Alice's shoulder, and reassures her, "Don't worry, Alice."

The sorceress raises her arms before her. The wind stirs around them, wafting at her hair and tugging at the hem of her cloak. Her tense features relax after a moment, and she lowers her arms as a wide platform of dark horn breaks the surface, shattering the thin ice as casually as a dog shaking off water.

The greyhound skitters back from the edge of the lake as the bridge appears, and quickly moves back to Alice's side.

Alice blinks and looks up, casting an uncertain look to her older friend. The noise of the displaced ice seems to catch her attention after a moment, however, and she gives Agatha a hopeful little smile as she turns back to peer across the lake.

Agatha smiles back to Alice, hiding her own misgivings about the bridge. I hope there's another way from Nymuae's castle out to the main town, she thinks.

If the platform is the start of a bridge, it's a very strange kind indeed. It juts out of the water at the edge of the lake, but if there's more to it, it remains hidden below the surface. Nymuae strides onto the dark, smooth surface, and beckons to her companions to join her.

Agatha steps forward to test her footing on the odd bridge.

The little blonde girl reaches down to ruffle up the dog's fur for a moment as she peers at the bridge -- and the woman who raised it. She glances back at the canine, smiles, and -- with a hand on the dog's neck -- begins forward and onto the bridge without further hesitation.

Once all are on it, Nymuae says, "There is no need to walk further." Just as well -- the platform is just several yards long and a few wide. "The rest of the way, we ride." She gestures downwards with one hand, and the platform sinks. Within seconds, water has swamped the glossy surface, but it swirls around their feet the way the water of the pool did, without getting them wet.

Kuon yips as he skips a little, attempting to avoid the water, before he realizes it's non-wet water.

Agatha has an odd suspicion, and asks, "Umm, are we riding on the horn of some large ... animal, Nymuae?"

Alice steps lightly, lifting one foot and then the other. She kicks up a bit of water, and giggles. "See, Kuon? It's friendly water."

Kuon gives Alice a sidelong look as if to suggest that he'd found that out already, then wags as he looks about.

The Lady Sorceress only smiles at Agatha in answer, as they sink beneath the waves.

The Spire of the Lake
Beneath the surface of the Lake, a reversed spire can be seen -- a spiraling tower widest at the top, nearest the surface, and narrowing to a point at the lake's bottom. The structure gleams like a polished dark horn, save for where glass winds as a single twisting window at the center of each spiraling turn, leading all the way down. A golden radiance within the spire glows through the winding glass, ultimately transformed by the distorting water to the spreading blue-green light that illuminates the Lake.

Agatha tries to gape and hold her breath at the same time, finally giving up and saying, "It looks like a giant seashell! I half expect mermaids to be swimming by."

Alice points at the tower, looking at it with wide-eyed amazement.

Nymuae leans back in the water, looking comfortable in an odd sort of way. "The mer-folk do not care for the cold," she says. "They'll be snug in their homes rather than swimming around." Their words are less distorted here, by the fairly calm waters, than they had been in the turbulent Siege's.

"Is this ... platform ... the only way to get in or out?" Agatha asks the sorceress.

"Ahh," tests Alice as she puzzles out speaking underwater. Her right hand swooshes through the water in front of her mouth. "Ahh ... ahhh ... ah! Oh, it's not so hard at all." She turns to look at her friend. "Rebecca, you have a very pretty shell-home."

The dark horn structure swings around, heading for the spire's top with an easy, curving motion. "Thank you, Alice," Nymuae replies. "At this time of year, this vehicle is the only feasible one for those who cannot breathe underwater. It is this, or swimming."

Kuon, deciding not to risk the embarrassment of reverberating underwater barks, stays dignified and quiet as he sits next to Alice.

Agatha looks up towards the ice-covered surface, and decides that swimming isn't practical.

"I don't think I'd want to swim this far, Rebecca. Mom didn't even let me go to the deep end 'til last year!" The little girl drops down to sit next to Kuon, and places her right arm over his shoulder in a loose hug.

"Do not fear, Agatha. I will give instructions, and the Leviathan will come at your call -- yours, or Alice's ... or Kuon's," she adds, looking down at the dog. "Are you comfortable, Kuon?"

The greyhound barks cheerily and wags his tail.

Stepping a little closer to the edge, Agatha peers around the platform-horn. At the first edge she looks off of -- where the platform narrows and raises slowly, the curved edge that first broke the lake's surface -- she can't see anything. When she tries the opposite end, Agatha spies a long, gigantic, serpentine body stretching out beyond the curve of a flat horn. Closer to the platform, she can make out a pair of ears larger than oars, smoothed back by the current.

Alice shifts to fold her legs under herself, and leans against the dog, laying her head against his neck. "Rebecca ... you really did it. What you wanted, you became a great sorceress like you always said you wanted to be," she says, sounding tired but genuinely proud of her friend's accomplishment.

"I am what I always knew I was," Nymuae answers, her body tilted back, supported by the cushion of water yet somehow still remaining in touch with the horn, not borne off. "Even though it was hidden from me -- still I knew."

Agatha steps back from the edge, and tries not to think about lake eels.

Alice nods slowly, then a little bit faster as she seems to understand. "I'm glad you found what you were looking for, Rebecca."

The Leviathan's horn touches to the broad, flat top of Nymuae's spire. As it does so, Nymuae straightens, giving another little sigh. "Almost there," she murmurs to herself. To her guests, she says, "I -- I will need a rest soon. I imagine you will, as well. It would be very late in Ainigton."

Kuon noses at Alice's hands, his brown eyes looking up at her as if to wonder what she might be looking for.

"I'll be glad to take off this pack, that's for sure," Agatha says with a grin.

The little girl looks down and watches the dog for a moment. She tilts her head, as if thinking on it, then rises to stand up, bidding the canine to do the same with a wave of her hand. "I want to go look around, Kuon, and I want to see Agatha's pictures. And ... and--" She covers her mouth as she yawns. "-- and I want to see the whole spire and all of Mirari and everything."

A spiral staircase at the center of the wide top bores downwards into the reversed tower, and the sorceress walks to it. "You have more energy than I, Alice. Shall we see what Agatha's photos have revealed," she says, looking at all three guests in inquiry, "and then retire? The tour of everything can wait until the morning, I hope."

Kuon gets to his feet and looks about in response to Alice's gesture, then looks back up and gives her a gaping canine yawn as if to suggest that such an adventure will surely take all day, so perhaps they'd better get some rest before that.

"Yeah, you don't want to be all worn out by morning, Alice," Agatha says.

"Aw," utters Alice, disappointed. She yawns again, shakes her head, then lets her hand fall, and beams a smile. Despite her enthusiasm, she does look rather worn out. "That's no fun. But ... okay."

The sorceress rests with her friends against the rail of the winding stairs, as the steps carry them down, like a spiral escalator. At length, they leave the moving steps and venture into her study, which looks mostly just the way a sorceress's laboratory ought to. Boxes, jars, vials, and cabinets full of oddments line the walls, along with bookcases and cubbies filled by scrolls and books. The long curved window against one wall shows a view of the dark lake beyond. Golden light illuminates everything.

Agatha looks around the place, being careful not to touch anything, and asks, "Did you set all of this up since you left town, or was it just waiting for you here?"

"It kind of reminds me of your room back home, Rebecca ... I mean, your room in Ainigton," comments the little girl as she looks about. She explores the room, peering at this and that, and in between as well. She goes so far as to start to pick something up -- at which point Kuon's hackles rise -- but quickly puts her hand back down, giving the sorceress an apologetic look.

Kuon, padding about the room after Alice, looks relieved when the danger seems to have passed. He gives a short little bark, just to remind Alice who's in charge of keeping her safe.

"It waited for me, Agatha, though much of what was once potent is no longer, after my long absence." Nymuae doesn't seem to notice Alice wandering about -- instead, she walks to one of the tables. A large book bound in pebbly white leather rests there, runes scrawled into its binding, and a lump of heavy wax sealing a leather flap closed against its cover. "Here." She settles onto a stool before the table, gesturing for the others to take stools and do likewise.

Agatha sits on one of the stools, glad she left her backpack out in the hall.

Alice gives Kuon an almost hurt expression, though she smiles after a moment to show there's no hard feelings. "I wasn't really going to pick it up; I just wanted to look at the color inside. It's so weird! Like yellow and red and blue but it's not being grey together," she tells him. After that, she notices her other friends gathering about the table and begins walking that way. "Let's look at the pictures, Kuon."

Nymuae cracks the seal, and a little mist rises from it, dispersing into the air. She opens the cover, and on the first page inside is a picture of Tom, Alice, and Elinor inthe tree house. The image appears distorted strangely, so that Tom appears to be both himself, the fourteen-year-old boy, and a taller version dressed in the Lord Explorer's garb, with a cloak hooked in place by a Golden Hawk medallion that looks strangely familiar. Alice is immaculately pretty, garbed as befits a princess, and warm in her fur-lined cloak. Elinor looks as she normally does, so her glamour that made her seem a horned lady does not seem to have made it into the picture ... but for some reason, her clothes seem to be blurred, an oracle's cloak superimposed over an explorer's garb similar to that of Tom's shadow.

The greyhound follows willingly, though looks odd as he tries to crane his neck into place to see the pictures.

When Alice arrives at the table, she leans down, offers to take Kuon's paws so she can lift him up to look at the book, too. "Look, Kuon! We're all dressed up!"

"Wurf?" goes Kuon, curious.

The sorceress frowns at the image, turning the page over to the next one to look at it. This one is of Agatha, Simon, and Elinor, but while Elinor looks the same as in the previous picture, Agatha seems normal but has a faint shadow behind her, as if a ghost of some lady knight in plate armor were standing behind her and looking sternly at the camera. And Simon's image is the worst-blurred: at once himself, a knight standing several inches taller in a chain mail coif and armor with a shield sporting the rabbit motif, and a jester somewhat smaller than Simon's original image. But dominant before them all is a kobold-seeming creature with long, cat-like ears, and Simon's unmistakable expression of uncertainty.

Agatha hmms at the images. "Our play roles have a big effect, it seems. But Simon never played a ... goblin ... thing."

Nymuae inhales sharply, lifting her head away from the book even as she stares at the images of Simon.

The greyhound studies the picture intently, but alas, it appears that canid senses, while generally quite keen, are not the best suited for up-close visual inspection. He snuffles the picture but finds nothing remarkable.

The little girl wrinkles her nose at that. "No ... no, Simon was never a goblin or a ... one of those, Rebecca. I don't know what that is," she explains, head shaking. She turns to Nymuae. "What's wrong, Rebecca?"

Leaning back a bit, Agatha says to Alice, "Simon is probably a creature of Year's End. Is that what you're thinking, Nymuae? Or does some House have people that look like that?"

"But ... he can't be. Simon's ... nice." Alice frowns at this, and shakes her head again. "He's our friend."

The sorceress traces her fingers over the kobold features. "If that is not something he played," she says, sharply. "Then it must be what he is. And yes, there are people of a House who can look like that." She pauses. "People of House April."

"Well," Agatha says, crossing her arms, "we can't tell Tom ... yet. He'll cut off Simon altogether then, and then April will probably send a spy we can't uncover."

Alice simply continues to frown, and she turns this unhappy look towards the dog that guards her as she seems to look to him for comfort.

Kuon cocks his head sideways, then looks at the picture, and up to Agatha. He nods once -- Agatha's plan seems wise to him -- then leans over and distracts Alice with a long sloppy dog lick upside her cheek.

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This site serves as a chronicle of sessions in an online roleplaying campaign moderated by Conrad "Lynx" Wong and May "Rowan" Wasserman. The contents of this site are (c) 2001, 2002 by Conrad Wong and May Wasserman except where stated otherwise. Despite the "children's fantasy" theme of this campaign, this site is not intended for young readership, due to mild language and violence.