agentlenet | psychic thread

[The gentle brush against the Strangers' minds comes in early evening. It is, as all mental touches are from Fayura, soft and unassuming, much like a polite knock at a door. Once as many minds are connected as she thinks will open the door to her, she speaks.]

I am curious, Strangers, what you would do with the young man who shot and killed Councilwoman Vera.

Many of you come from worlds where there are laws against murder. While we have no such laws here, when a Blood male in a Queen's Territory kills another without cause, she may demand a price from him. Sometimes, that is his own life if he was negligent enough with his temper and sometimes, it's something less.

My trouble is this: if I execute him according to the laws of the Blood, of which he is not one, the Guilds will rouse their people into a furor and attack not only me, but the people of Draega. If I turn him over to the Ebon Council, the Guilds will do much the same, and that will incite the Council to strike back. And if I return him to the Guilds for accolades instead of punishment for taking a life, the Ebon Council will have cause to rip apart the Guilds and anyone in their way to extract from him the price for murdering one of their own.

Were you me, what course would you take? And please try not to shout over each other; this is as many of you as I could reach.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

More will die regardless of if he's executed immediately or not. The type of change you're talking about is a slow, complicated process that will see people killed both fighting for and against it.

[ He notes her weariness, as well as the hint of more, and he doesn't envy the position she's in despite knowing what he'd do if caught in a similar one. ]

What's there to build? It's already been built, and it's crumbling. At the rate things have been going, you may as well tear it all down and start over.

[She hesitates and then abruptly cuts off the rest of the Strangers. It's just them now, distaff to spear on a thread of Purple Dusk.]

We don't get another chance. I've woven these webs, and I've seen what comes in them. If I tear down the Ebon Council and the Guilds, there will be nothing and no one left. If I don't cause their deaths, the wars and plagues that follow will. If I tear down only one faction, the other rises up and destroys me.

This is the only path I've seen that gives us a chance, but even this could fail. And if I—if we fail— [But that catch is telling. It speaks to her fears.] —Terreille doesn't get a third chance.

[ There's a still silence on his end as she finishes speaking. The past month and then some have taught Haein that he's in over his head, and that there are only more tragedies to come. So... this basically confirms it.

Some things are too broken to be fixed. This place, he has come to decide, is one of them.

... But at the same time, she can't fail. If she fails, then so does he, and there's no one Haein considers more important than himself, and nothing more important than his goal. It's too unfortunate that this doesn't inspire any sort of confidence. ]

The only path and it's uncertain, [ he echoes the words, mind a blank at how ominous it sounds. ] You've potentially brought us all to our deaths.

[ His tone turns wry, unsettled. ]

And we volunteered for it.

You, at least, will not die.

[Once before, she showed him a tangled web, drawing a simple version in the dirt. Now, she gives him one of her own memories: a massive series of interlocking webs that span some kind of dark corridor made of stone and lit by steady globes of witchlight. At the center of each web is a fragment of a glittering Jewel, the color not easy to make out in the witchlight.

Most of the webs shimmer with a silvery color, but on some, the threads are dark and fragile.]

These dark threads are those who came here and returned. The web goes dark because my power no longer feeds it. Should the worst happen, all I need to stop is remove the Jewel chips from these webs.

[ Ah, the web again. Seeing it in a memory is different, and he takes a mental note of the Jewel fragments, as well as the threads.

People who "came here and returned"? He briefly wonders what made them give up, what had been the final straw. And when would that moment come for him?

He's quiet, contemplative. It sounds easy enough, but what if... ]

What would happen if you were killed before you were able to remove the Jewel chips?

The power would fade, returning to the Darkness. The webs would fail. What anchors you to this world would crumble. You'd go.

[She makes a quiet, thoughtful sound.]

That's the technical aspect of it. How it would actually play out, what it would feel and look like? That, I can't say. If a tangled web isn't disposed of properly, it can... warp. Twist.

[ Great, that's reassuring... He'd been hoping for a more solid answer in regards to their exit strategy. ]

Let's try not to find out.

[Dryly:] I, too, hope I survive the next year.

Using the councilwoman's murderer to set an example could probably dissuade future assassination attempts.

Just a thought.

Yes. [Her tone drifts toward pensive.] It could. We shall see.

[She pauses a moment before adding:] You are bold in your opinion, Haein, and though I may not agree with it in its entirety, it is still a valid position. Keep that fire and that determination. I will need to hear it again, and there is value in it.

[ Hey... don't say... things... like that.

There's a stretch of silence on Haein's end as he struggles with a response. ]

Sure, it's not really going anywhere. [ He'll probably go to his grave with the same opinions. ] Good luck, I guess.

[ He'll definitely be watching from the sidelines to see how things turn out. ]

psychic thread

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject