IC Thread Adley's Second Seeking

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

You where nervous, there was only one shot to get this right. If Wallace Jace escaped again who knew where he could be found again, or what he might do to Narim's Avatar in the meantime...or had done...oh Gods please don't let it be Fallen. You thought to yourself. Three months ago you and the rest of Steelhaven had failed to protect the Virtual Adept Deacon and Jace had managed to steal the soul he wanted, Narim's powerful Crystal Cave. The Virutla Adept himself had been left alive and he was trying to keep his courage up...trying, but you felt you where loosing him a little day by day. You had not seen Narim touch a computer since his soul was stolen, it was to painful, and while he tried to smile his eyes had lost their shine. Your boyfriend tried to make himself useful and he cooked, he poured himself into it to distract himself and you could not well refuse to eat the result and you could feel your waistline beginning to be affected by that, but anything to keep the Virtual Adept happy, or at least distracted for just a little while longer. You heard him crying in his bed at night though and it broke your heart that you could do nothing to help, nothing to ease his suffering, nothing before now that is.

Wallace Jace had been found holed up in a former Technocracy Construct. Flambeau apprentices had stormed the place during their Gauntlet and cleared it out about a year ago and now that cretin Jace had taken it over with a new batch of allies, the old buildings would have everything he needed to start his dirty practice up again, however he was not as hidden as he thought himself to be, and you, your Mentor and a strike team from Steelhaven was on their way, intent on stopping the Nephandus once and for all and once Wallace Jace was dead...again...his stolen Avatar, Narim's Avatar should return to the side of it's true host where Cita would have little trouble re attaching it to the Virtual Adept. You could get him back, get Narim back as he was, yes sure he had been through a trauma and he would need care and time to recover but he would recover...unless his soul had become corrupted then...no you did not want to think about that, the first priority was to kill Wallace Jace.

The car came to a halt on an old parking lot, it was covered with graffiti and garbage and in a huge crack nature had started to reclaim it. The building before you carried the scars of a whole batch f Flambeau apprentices more interested in proving their worth and taking down the enemy than they feared Paradox. Scorch marks could still be seen, and while new windows had been fitted here and there new bits of plaster and wood showed where there had been holes in the walls.
"Miss Mundis, mea filius with me, the rest of you split into two teams and go in through the front and back doors, the three of us will take the basement entrance."
Jeffry ordered. The second car had just stopped and the rest of the strike team had arrived.
"We hit them fast and we hit them hard...any questions?"
The war mage said and he looked across the faces of the gathered magi.
"Allot is riding on this, we can not let Jace escape, anyone but the Progenitor himself, I want prisoners if possible but Wallace Jace dies...tonight."
He said and if there was no questions he would begin to lead you and Fran towards the door to the cellar entrance, located in a small cement wound in the ground a little distance from the main building. The missionw as starting and you had to win...there where no other option.

[Adley]

The scenario very quickly became his 'reality' - a sobering reality that was one of his worst fears, all too real in scope and emotion. Everything he had done, or tried, stretched to the limits of all he had, and getting help from everyone and it still hadn't been enough. Every contingency he had tried, had been thwarted, as again Jace had been one step ahead of them. Not even knowing the threat had managed to prevent it and by turns it was eating him up and spitting him back out every single day in an endless progression. That Jace was still active, out there and had his avatar kept him moving forward with determination - that and he couldn't let despair claim him, without letting Narim slip further and that he wouldn't do either. But every morning when he got up he could feel that sense that something beautiful and sacred was in the hands of a vile, unworthy being and not where it ought to be, and why? So Jace could hurt him, and all of reality.

The building looked like hell had visited and had stayed past welcome. When he'd done is gauntlet, he hadn't had this much power at his disposal. How he had managed not to die, was due to someone else with more skills and power than he had, helping him. When this whole shitshow had first started to reveal itself, he had still been fumbling around and unable to conjure a proper fireball. As the second car rolled up, he glanced over the occupants as they disengaged.

Killing Wallace Jace for good was the objective. In turn, the hope it could free Narim's pent avatar so it could be safely returned, whole and well...and if it was not well, they would find a way. But first, that blight on humanity had to go. He tested at his shield, got his weapons ready and followed. He had yet to speak one word since they planted their feet on the scorched earth around the building. For now there was nothing to say and just one thing to do.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

Many of the mages you knew well from Steelhaven was taking part in this operation, Adjan, Antonio, Hildegard and off course your Amicus, along with Ty and Marian.

Jeffry led you towards the opening to the basement entrance. There where no guards on the outside but chances are there would be guards on the inside. Your Mentor cast a simple spell that took care of the lock on the door and your group went in. Here though there where scorch marks on the floors and walls, the Flambeau apprentices had been here as well. The first room you came to was a small storage chamber, no one said something your Mentor gestured for the room to be checked out, but there was nothing of interest there.

Your group continued on soon though you saw two men in the plain, concrete hallway. Jeffry reacted quickly and he reached out with one hand and before they had the time to even scream the two men where ash, yes he wanted prisoners but he wanted more to be able to get into Jace's facility without being discovered.

You moed forwards past the ashes that where guards a few moments ago and you are sure you heard Narim's Crystal Cave call out to you, it was not so much words, but you felt it's presence a beautiful, holy presence, a cave full of crystals containing all the world's information, but now it was in distress, deep distress and it called out to you for help, you could feel it up ahead begging you to help it.

[Adley]

There were a whole lot of Euthanatos, which made sense. And Colin thank goodness. He didn't see his sister, Helena though. He thought she was was there...for a second he felt confused. But then, he had to focus. You never knew with Wallace Jace, who had a ghost army and too many tricks up his sleeve. Adley wanted to rush in but something held him back besides his pater. Hurry but don't run. Make haste, but don't kill the rest of your group. Running into a trap wouldn't help things. He ran his eyes over the building and if he hadn't done so, put up spells to investigate traces of prime and spirit magicks. The first couple of people he hadn't even got much of a proper look at before they were smudges on the floor.

The pang of distress sent his heart beat into overdrive and he felt his entire being want to run, run towards it and help. "I'm coming..." he promised. "Hang on..." He tried to focus on the 'direction' of the feeling, so they could use it as a way to guide them.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

There where the shining red glare left behind from your Mentor's fire magick, you could see that despite the spell reducing two men to ash, Jeffry was holding back, if he had let loose the full force of his power this whole building would be gone, and that was tempting but there where prisoners to rescue and who know is such wast destruction if Wallace Jace did not find a way to slip away. Your Mentor wanted to see the man die before his own eyes to be sure, completely sure that this time he was gone.

Fran and Jeffry seamed to understand you where sensing something. Your Mentor gave you a hand gesture to be careful, but said nothing he just followed your lead. You heard Narim's crystals sing but this time it was a song of fear...terror and a pleading for help. Your group rounded a corner and you heard something else, this time with your physical ears.
"Dammit the boss is going through the Caul and we are left here on guard duty and do not get to see the ceremony."
One woman complained.
"Well for me I do not really want to see a Caul again for as long as I live."
A man replied.
"But they are the most unholy glory."
The woman replied.
"I will kill one of them, take the other quietly but alive, we need to know where the Caul chamber is, now..."
Your Mentor quickly wrote out on a page in his ever present notebook, then he waited for a moment for you and Fran to be ready, then he stepped around the corner and one of the two guards met the same fate as the last two guards, the woman since she seamed the most loyal. You heard the sound of Fran rattling some bones and then nothing, as if the whole Euthanathos just existed in a field of silence as she crept towards the lone, now very scared guard. The man muttered some words and shot a ball of black flame towards Jeffry who deflected the blast, leaving you and Fran free to act and to take the guard down so he could be made to talk and tell you where Wallace Jace was before a stepped into a Caul with Narim's soul, and the whole time you heard the Crystal Cave scream in fear in the back of your head, the Avatar was terrified and clearly with good reason.

[Adley]

Fear was trying to to consume him and it was not his own and then, it was his own as he realized what was happening. But if he could use the song of fear to get to him in time...it was all he could do to not panic and run, making a hole straight through all the walls of the damned labyrinth with whatever he had at hand. He had no idea if such an idea would work, or was wise, but the rising tide of fear and knowing what was happening rose up through him. His pater had not done it, so he figured there was a reason not to just incinerate the building - Jace was wiley enough that he could live through even that. He could feel everything vibrating with terror, and he held onto it like holding onto the hand of a terrified friend or child.

His eyes narrowed as he heard the two other guards and got his weapons ready to take them out. At his pater's command he nodded and then glanced at Fran. He mimed towards Fran, a grabbing gesture then pressing his palm flat as if pushing someone down - he was going to try to hold them with a spell. The Labyrinth itself was partly spirit, he knew from the last time that something like that should work.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

Fran nodded to your simple gesture and moved forwards as you expressed your plan, she would be ready to silence the Nephandus and to grab him if your plan failed. Your spellcasting was not easy, the Node of this place had first been sanitized by the Union and then corrupted by the Union there was not a shred of it's Resonance that went well with your own and it disgusted the Fire Angle but desperation won through and you used the spell you had used several times before, grabbing the Nephandus and slamming him to the ground, making gravity just so much heavier around him, pinning him down. The man was about to scream but no sound came out, Fran's own spells certainly.

With your new prisoner secured Jeffry spoke in a husked whisper.
"We have no time to argue with you, so I am giving you one simple choice Nephandus, we are in the middle of combat so if you talk and tell me exactly where your Caul Chamber is, then I will kill you here and now, if you hesitate, refuse to cooperate or lie I will take you prisoner and personally haul you to Horizon and see your damned Avatar flayed of your still living body, do you understand...nod if you do."
The man nodded quickly. Jeffry gestured to Fran who lifted her spell of silence and words started flowing out of the prisoner.
"Down the hall, then to the left and down one more hall, there you will find a set of double doors the Caul is beyond, I am not lying, please don't take me captive I do not want to be Gilgulled I..."
The man did not have a chance to finish his pleas you heard two Latin words uttered from your Mentor's lips and he made a simple hand gesture and then the man on the floor to was ash.
"My shield is stronger than yours, I will go first, you will keep Miss Mundis covered."
The old Hermetic said simply then he started running in the direction the guard had spoken of, he stopped before intersections not to run into a trap, but seconds counted, and he knew that even if he could not hear the Crystal Cave's distressed cries like you could, perhaps if you where fast enough you could still save Narim's soul...perhaps.

Here and there in the corridor you heard screams, prisoners probably, most of the screams came from what could be Jace's lab...they would have to be saved, but first you had to stop the unholy thing that was about to happen, and you saw your Mentor run, flicking fire from his fingertips when need be, not caring if it cost him Paradox, that price would be paid later, right now he wanted to save his Cabalmate, and stop Wallace Jace once and for all.

[Adley]

The place itself was fighting him too, and not just because it was Fallen, but the memory of it's former life also remained in the same way the scorch marks did. At least it believed enough in gravity for his spell to work, with effort, though it didn't settle on gravity per se. But the man was down, and Fran had rendered him silent and soon he was answering his pater's questions. And just as soon he was dead. He'd told them a way to go, and he hoped it would avoid leading them astray in the labyrinth. Soon enough they were running towards their final objective, and he was moving to cover Fran.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

You ran, covering Fran, up ahead your Mentor cleared a path, there where not allot of guards, after all most was in the Caul chamber seeing their master Fall again. Soon the double doors the dead Nephandus spoke of was before you, you could see the ehm...Labyrinthification of the former Union Construct was starting here for the doors where made of bone with growing flesh and here the walls was starting to smell putrid and you could see an eyeball had erupted from the wall. Here though was two guards.
"You will not disturb the Boss why can not you assholes just let reality die."
A tall woman shouted she sent a blast of lightening towards you but Jeffry got in the way and it bounced of his shield, the woman had some power though she would not be swept aside like the other guards. A shorter man chuckle and then in his stead was a creature made of rotting flesh, diseased fur and sharp fangs and claws. The Black Spiral Dancer lounged itself for Fran and Jeffry could not help this time as he was busy trying to take down the woman with the lightening spells. Fran emptied her magazine into the werewolf and it did some damage, her bullets was not ordinary but it still did not stop the creature's advance and from the chamber you heard the Crystal Cave scream and cheering from the Nephandi.
"Go...Adley...go we will hold these off, go save Narim's soul!"
Jeffry ordered as he countered another of the lightening woman's spells with a grunt of effort, it was clear it was Master of the Art vs Master of the Art and none of the two would give up easily.

[Adley]

Labyrinths disgusted him - flesh walls, stinking rancidness, eyeballs, genitalia, and /tentacles/...abomninations, and then there was the caul, and what that was too often made out of...the walls lit up as a flash of lightning arced by as he saw another beast of nightmare emerge - he'd seen bear shifters like this once and they had been horrid. He knew it would take a lot more to stop it, but his pater directed him onwards and onwards he went, dodging both of the door guards and dashing for the door to get into the caul chamber, like a spearhead.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

You rushed ahead towards the double doors, they where not locked but they mewled as if things in pain as you opened them, and you rushed into a scene worse than hell. From the roof hung the bodies of naked men and women, their spines had been sliced open so their blood and cerebral fluids could rain down on the celebrants below and worse the victims who hung here like macabre chandeliers was still alive, to weak to scream now but their mewls of agony joined with that of the doors. On the floor was a circle, foul symbols was drawn in blood, and in the center of the symbols where two dead children, they had been sacrificed for this unholy ritual. Two dozen Nephandi stood around cheering as Wallace Jace slowly lowered himself into the monstrosity in the center of the chamber.

Jace looked like he had when you had jabbed the shot of the serum into the Nephandus, ending his security system's rampage, only he was younger and more perfect. You felt the Crystal Cave reaching out to you, it was still pure but it's new host was halfway into the Caul, a horrid thing of pink, putrid flesh looking like female genitalia sprawled across the concrete floor, in just a few moments Jace would be completely in, you might have a shot, the celebrants around the Caul had been taken by surprise and you had your weapon in hand, but who knew if Jace, falling into the Caul he had so willingly entered would be enough, would his dying body still drag the Crystal Cave into the grasp of Oblivion? But if you did nothing what then?

Wallace Jace froze he was supporting himself on the edges of the corrupted flesh looking like a man lowering himself into a bathtub only he was covered in the blood and fluids of his victims.
"Stop him...stop him!"
The Progenitor shouted.
"Hold him of for just a few minutes!"
If you where going to act it had to be now, in the hallway outside you still heard the fight between Jeffry and Fran on one side and the lightening tossing Nephanda and the Black Spiral Dancer on the other, they would not get in here in time, it was up to you, up to you to act or not, and yet what action could you take to save the Crystal Cave from damnation...could you save it, preserve it's perfect song against the onslaught of darkness threatening it? Could you save Narim's soul?

[Adley]

Fear. Horror. Pain. Love. Despair. The plunge of his emotions was like a brilliant and sharp point that pierced his heart; all the words fell inside of it...
     (alas! For the kingdom wherein all these are at War.)

His thoughts, bitter reflections of failures that had and had not yet happened combined with the gruesome and abominations that he now witnessed before him collapsed in importance except for Jace with Narim’s struggling avatar -  all that concerned him was Jace and that gaping maw awaiting it’s next offering, which he had to deny it. It would never have that avatar. It never had, would not have. The song would be as it should Be; that was the function of the action of stopping Jace, it was not enough just to shoot him and hope he died before his soul was dragged in the caul.

Fear. Horror. Pain. Love. Despair. He would take everything they gave him and transform it. The plunge of his emotions was like a brilliant and sharp point that pierced his heart; all the words fell inside of it, and became the feeling of his own heart yet one that was not alone. A subtle transformation began with the sense of connection between him and the Tellurian. The hook of heaven– the letter ו – V(au), for six directions, starting in Tipereth.

   (For no one will fall even upon when they are connected aright).

Vau, ‘and’ – conjunctive, the first footstep of the camel, it’s tracks towards that which was above knowledge. Vau also transforms to the time of soul and connects the higher and lower, consecutive Vau. In six, complete. The connection that was still there held them together and whole.

   (One above three, three above seven, and seven above twelve, and all are linked together, and one with another.)

He drew the white brilliance down through his center, down through his feet, energy from Kether that circulated throughout creation, a shared process of the All by extension. That energy was Prime and even here in a dark place, it was, all that is, change until perfection. The Name breathed in, white light and pushed down through his feet. The plunge of his emotions was like a brilliant and sharp point that pierced his heart; all the words fell inside of it, and then were exhaled and released.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

You released, the letter V vibrating in your soul, no not just your soul, in the very core of creation, the core that where all thing and in all things. You heard Narim's Crystal Cave sing, the song terrified and desperate and yet it always sang, it never stopped being what it was, only that horrible maw to oblivion could change that, change what it was, change it's song to one of defilement and horror and you would not let that happen.

Some say the Fallen where those who failed to cross the Abyss and the maw of nothing, the chasm between the higher spiritual realms and the slow degradation and hardening into the material rose up to swallow them, and they fell into the Tree that was before, the Tree that should not be. The Crystal Cave hung over that great divide now, just as Wallace Jace hung over that Caul, that degradation of flesh. If Malkuth was the end step of creation, the idea that begun in Kether completed and both made manifest and less perfect, but still a reflection of the crown, then this Caul was a corruption of that perfect idea, no longer just made not perfect so one had to walk up the Tree again to regain said perfection but made decrepit. The Caul represented taking that which was not perfect and elevating it, not back into perfection but into a new state of unholy glory, letting it be a new Kether on a shadow Tree of non existence, not a Tree of Life but a Tree of death.

V not formed a line, a safety net, a beautiful, guiding light that wrapped around the Crystal cave, gently hooking it to Kether. Yes this Avatar had chosen to step out of the perfection of the Crown and decend down the Tree to be manifest into flesh so it could walk back up though the Holy Spheres to attain perfection yet again. To learn the perfect have to give up perfection, but it would not loose it's path, and like a yellow brick road of pure light the glory of the Crown hooked the Avatar from above, making the crystals sing even higher, even more beautiful, it was the song of the Sphere s that now filled the dark chamber with a speck of holy light, and as that song rose in pitch, reverberating up the tether to the Crown, becoming part of the Crown, singing the Crown Wallace Jace screamed. The Nephandus, not the rightful flesh for this holy being grabbed his ears and the screamed as if his head was about to split, he fell back into the Caul, you could hear the soft, fleshy squisk as he sand into the decrepit, horrible abomination and for a moment you held your breath, and yet nothing happened, the Caul did not close and Wallace Jace was still there laying on a bed of flesh that was just wrong, howling in pain while the Crystal Cave sang.

All the Nephandi Celebrants in the room seamed confused, they looked at one another, nothing knowing what do do.
"Ehm...should we...attack the Traditionalists?"
A woman asked.
"Ehm...fuck this I am out of here."
A man declared and you saw him begin a working to teleport away, and all through the chaos the Chrystal Cave sang, and the Caul did not close.

Beside you felt fire, a hot pure flame and a door that was a cleaning inferno opened up from nowhere, glowing and reverberating with the Crystal Cave's song.
"Do you understand."
A woman's voice in Enochian came from that glowing, flame portal.
"Do you understand?"
It repeated and then it's words faded into the song of the Crystal Cave, the song of Kether, the song of eternal Light.

[Adley]

The other Nephandi were escaping, but that didn't matter as much as what was happening - or not happening - to Jace, and his ill gotten avatar which was not for him to despoil. Jace was screaming now, like his many victims had screamed maybe, but for different reasons. But there was still the avatar's song and despite the fleshy touch of the caul, like a defiled flower, would not despoil Narim's avatar, while it was balanced against the rest, while it was as if at the center of the Earth, and all creation. He was about to move, but then there was something echoing in his senses, words. There was a question and it required an answer. He was still caught up in what was going on, what had transpired and at first it was not easy to start critically thinking and reflecting again instead of acting in the moment, fused into it and wholly absorbed...he felt momentarily confused.

There was so much more to it all, he knew; but the essential things that he had learned years ago held more inside of them that he had thought and held more meaning, like the differences between wisdom and knowledge. And the answer seemed more obvious, since it was all around them and was part of the fire. He made the signs for LVX, the Light of the cross.

[Anja Rebekka Schultze]

Jace kept screaming, his foulness not compatible with the balance and light that surrounded his stolen Avatar, and the Caul still did not close, unable as it was to corrupt the Crystal Cave while it was held by that bond from above, held in balance. You gave your answer to that voice booming out from the fire portal, and then suddenly you where inside of the inferno, it burned but there was no pain, it burned away one more veil before your eyes, one more layer of illusion and impurity from your being. The you again felt the fire angel's hand on yours as you where completely pulled through the portal, pulled through the fires of enlightenment and then...it was all gone and you found yourself in your rooms, laying on your newly acquired sofa, a blanket over you with your sister and Cita looking down at you with worried eyes.

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