[Undeniable Interests] Intentions like torn pages (Callisto)

[Jilitse]

"It is a very distant past, Callisto. I have been through so many bodies I fail to remember something so trivial. I suppose I could remember exactly how I looked centuries ago if I really tried." Jilitse was somewhat challenged, "This I know, however: I was human before a Nuit." Jilitse noted the Ethaefal's interest in Sahova, when she tried to pry a little about Jilitse, the Nuit replied with her face stoic, "It was for an adventure. I am looking for knowledge long lost and forgotten, and I am searching for Priskil." Returning to a Goddess sounded like dying and meeting the deity with your own soul. No need for that, right? The Nuit gave a little shudder. She eyed the Ethaefal curiously. What did she mean when she said --

And before her eyes, Callisto transformed completely into a Konti. Jilitse was not able to conceal her surprise. She took a step back, and for the first time, blinked. This was Callisto's other form? The Nuit weighed Callisto's words. She did not sound pleased that she turns into something else, into a Konti. "A vile thing to look upon disgust..." Jilitse echoed the Ethaefal, "Projection reinforces your dominance."

"Wait," She straightened up, focused in their conversation once more. "Did you just say you want to find the rift in the Ukalas?" She had never heard of a rift! "Is that even possible?" Her voice carried no tone of disbelief, but rather one of deep contemplation. Jil had stumbled another person who's fighting for a lost cause! She prodded a little, "Could this be connected to your return to Syna?" The Nuit frowned. It sounded like a preposterous plan, but then again Jil wasn't one to badmouth people with impossible missions.

She listened earnestly for Callisto's reply before mouthing about her own quest, "Perhaps, you are right. We are not different in some aspects. Where do you find the motivation, the drive to pursue what you do?" Sounding a little melancholy, her voice ringing in a singsong manner, "I have lived for so long, wondered a lot about my pointless existence. Not exactly pointless, I guess. Just. a. little. bit. boring. And then I receive a mission," she was talking in hushed tones now, "I'm going to look for places that the Valterrian destroyed." The Nuit looked away, "For a greater purpose. You see, Callisto, Alahea may not have been fully destroyed after all." Jilitse gave her a twisted smile. "I don't know where to start, though. Digging up ruins was never my forte."

Enough about myself, she thought. Jilitse then looked at Callisto, mesmerized at the drastic change in physical features. It's not everyday you see something transform because of twilight. Not even close to morphing! Jilitse asked the Ethaefal who was now a Konti, "How do you plan to find the right coordinates you need?" It was a question that made the Nuit sound very interested in Callisto's quest. "Where do you start aside from looking for books?" To Jilitse however, it was a matter of knowing how Callisto was going to go about her 'research'. Blame it on being in Sahova for such a long time. Jilitse considered most of the things she did like it was a project, an experiment, or an application. To top that, the concept of the Ukalas might be a little bit too rare. If Callisto finds out about such knowledge, surely there would be something that might be useful for Jilitse, too? She tried to pocket the surprise in her face, holding unbreakable eye contact with the Ethaefal... who was now a Konti.

[Callisto]

“I see, I was only curious. Forgive me.” Never had she sounded so polite to herself, and she blinked for a moment, astounded at her rather calm demeanor despite the fact that this woman had witnessed her degradation. Now, in the body of a Konti, she could not recall her past lives; there was an impenetrable wall there, blocking her access to the other side; the memories of bodies she’d inhabited centuries ago, before the Valterrian, and everything in between. There were only flashes of a peaceful life on Konti Isle, and the white women that were generous and caring toward her.

At the change of subject, Callisto gave her a charming smile. “But of course, dear Jilitse. The rift that our kind have fallen from, it’s where we could possibly return, through the slice in the heavens from whence we fell.” Indeed, it was a wild plan, but a plan nonetheless. In this world, she still needed a shred of hope to continue, to will her forward each step of the way.

“I don’t know if it’s impossible, but I will hopefully find out. I know of the rift because I had seen it before I had slipped through, although the memories are hazy in this imperfect body and mind, it’s nonetheless there.” And when the Nuit began to speak of herself, Callisto returned the rapt attention. She could truly admit that she enjoyed the company of this woman… this… creature. “A misson,” the Konti repeated, “Yes, a mission would occupy my time, it would give me a reason, because although I say I yearn to return to my Goddess, I have no idea if it will come to fruition.” The word Alahea was not lost on her. Even in this state she had heard of it, the land before the Valterrian.

“You seek answers? You seek to know more?” Callisto continued, “My motivation is weak, I want more, much more. Strength and knowledge. Is it not what all true scholars hope to achieve? To learn of the world around them, and delve deep into the ancient, cryptic texts calling their name and hoping to discover a piece of information that would make them gods in their own realms.”

At the Nuit’s next question, Callisto paused. “Digging through my own mind, I suppose.” It was a vague answer, but it held some truth. She knew where she had fallen from, it was only a matter of extracting the coordinates from her head, or.. “Find astronomers, researchers in the art of the Universe. Magicians capable of seeing the rift with their own eyes. It will be found… it has to be.” She fell quiet, her gaze lifting toward the sky.

[Jilitse]

"A slice of the heavens from where you fell," she echoed. What was death to the Ethaefal? To them, was it not defined by the common pulser's cardiac malfunction? But the end, the end that Jilitse had always feared to meet, was not the same for this Ethaefal. It was a return to Syna, a return for Leth for others, not the bastard reincarnation that sent souls to Lhex for their untimely rebirth - wiped of memories, wiped of experience.

And here she found an Ethaefal who actually desired to return to Syna. To Jilitse it sounded like wanting suicide badly. Do Ethaefals have to die to return to the Ukalas? My, my, she would have to read up on them when she had the time. Maybe a quick return back into the shop can find her a short history about the Ethaefals? It was better if she cleared it up with Callisto, "Do forgive the inquiry, but you said you slipped through a rift in the Ukalas? Have you ever considered dying in order to return to Syna?" The suggestion was tactless and misplaced, but it was done in the honor of an mad guess, "I am sure Lhex will guide you."

"Don't we return to them when we die," she looked up above the night sky. The gods and goddesses, are they out there? Could Priskil be looking down on her this very moment? She sighed, "Wow." But her solemn voice showed no hint of remorse or amazement. "I think I have a crisis."

She mulled it over, until a mild frown was replaced with a smile, "Your story had cause me to rethink mine, but I believe I will never be able to draw parallels." She eyed Callisto in a different light now.

"Strength, knowledge, yes. Power, even more so. But to what end?" It was her favorite question, her favorite moral question. "Not all scholars pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge," she wiped her face of emotions, "Some of us have a purpose other than an exponential increase in supremacy. To some, yes, supremacy is a purpose in itself." She thought of Sagallius and Drainira, and all the others who wished to rule the world.

"But I think of myself otherwise," She thought herself to be antithesis to Drainira, if only to correct Mashaen's mistake in creating a Supervisor, and to save the only person she held loyalty to from his Grand Oath, "and that is one of the reasons why I left Sahova." An idea turned in her mind, "The place is perilous for pulsers, living creatures like you. But I believe that you will not find a bigger facility of magic elsewhere in the world. There are secrets we keep, secrets lost and forgotten in this day and age." Callisto will believe Jilitse, on account of her claimed age. Didn't Sahova survive the Valterrian? If so, it implies that there would be ancient knowledge there. "But you must be very careful if you decide to go and always be circumspect about the Nuits, even the golems." Her tone carried a sense of motherly warning, the kind that most people disregard.

"Maybe you will find what you're looking for there." Jilitse said, wondering once more, if Callisto ever thought about death as a reprieve from her wretched Ethaefal life.

[Callisto]

Callisto glanced down at the lovely Nuit. And indeed, she was lovely, lovelier, at least, than the grime-encrusted humans running about without a care in the world. She listened to her question - no, more like a suggestion, and gave a slight laugh. Kill herself! The Nuit spoke so boldly, and so freely, without the fear of repercussions. And she admired this of her.

“Yes, Jilitse, I have thought of ending my life, ‘for the good of the Goddess’, to return to the Mother. But you know, on occasion I believe I had a reason to fall so low. Syna allowed this to happen, Syna bade it be true. I am here, she is there, was there not some purpose to this?” She smiled, “I believe if only it might be a fraction, it may as well be something. Ending my life would be too easy, far too easy, and what if I had been wrong? No, I believe finding it while I still retain this form, this physical self would give me a measure of strength, and honor.”

She raised her hand, eyeing the glint of the scales under Leth’s light, “Remembering what had been lost centuries ago, this would be valuable knowledge. I lived far before the time of anyone that now dwells here, living, and perhaps even un-living alike. In my time, the race of the Konti had just sprouted, I remember this clearly, and yet everything else is for naught. Stuck in the back of my mind, waiting to sprout and take shape.”

It annoyed her that these memories could not be unlocked. They revealed themselves to her only when they wished, but there were always flashes, always dreams of a life she once lived, so distant yet so far off. But she wondered what was Jilitse’s story. What was here motive to become what she was? Her lips were sealed however, she had no intention of bringing up past pains if there were any, or annoyances. “Supremacy does not always supersede Power. Power can simply mean complete and utter control of oneself. Discipline, organization, meditation, a governed state of mind that heightens ones abilities to do what they wished. There needn’t be Supremacy in the equation, Power may be used in different ways, to accomplish different goals.” She paused for a moment, “Supremacy is such an ugly term, either way. I always align it with negativity. Why must it be negative?”

Callisto seemed lost in thought for a moment, her azure eyes roamed over the Nuit’s body, yet never strayed to her eyes. She appeared as if she looked through her. Power is within you, came the whispers in her mind, You give it life through your Suvai, through your grace and movement. Bend it to your Will. Why must it always be thus?

The Konti shook her head, then returned her attention to Jilitse, “I don’t plan to stay there long, but if I can survive the season there and learn something of it, even better. “ She was worried, then again she was not. There was no hint of anxiety in her tone, nor was there any flicker of fear in her eyes. It had fled, long long ago, in the face of a monster. “It will be a treasured experience.”

[Jilitse]

Strength and honor, the Ethaefal said. Yes, that would be vital to the Ethaefal's quest. The Nuit was somewhat perplexed about Callisto, within her lines was a deep longing for Syna, indicating a rather close relationship. The idea was new to her. Were Ethaefals fragments of what was once divine? Jilitse looked at Callisto with a sullen melancholic gaze.

Jilitse told the Ethaefal, "As you said, it is not always the case. But most of the time, it is. From what I know, people who run after power run also after the divine." But she was talking in terms of Sagallius, now. "The will to power is also the will to be divine. It is rational, even heartless. It is not just about using power, it is about gaining power. More and more and more." Sagallius must be stopped. "What would you do to attain your goals? What would you give? How much are you willing to sacrifice? Perhaps the ugliness is there, Callisto. The fact that many people are willing to waste everything and anything - even their own lives - in pursuit of power. That in doing so, they destroy more than they create. Such willful destruction..." Jil shook her head and let the message be unfinished.

And then the Nuit was silent for so long, it almost seemed as if she had nothing else to say. Just after the moment Callisto thought the conversation was done, Jilitse murmured a warning, "A word of advice, seek not Lector Qiao or anybody from his council, especially Aelobius. Aelobius is the chief Voider of Sahova, and is not a very desirable person. He was known to have caused the disappearance of one, two, many apprentices, during his time, both when he lived and when he became part of Sahova." Maybe there was a personal gripe there somewhere, after all, Aelobius nearly killed her the last time they met. "If you intend to live, avoid them at all costs. And..." Jilitse meant to say, 'Please drop a hello to Mashaen for me', but she decided would be dangerous for the Ethaefal if Qiao catches wind of their acquaintance. She hesitated and said, "should you go there, you did not see me." The intensity in her eyes was strong and powerful. It was more a warning than a threat. "It would be best for you not to speak of our meeting."

"Sahova has a lot of ancient knowledge kept within its walls." Some of them inside Jilitse's bookcases actually. "It would not be easy to get access to them, at least not the ones that would provide you significant help. Being able to read them is another thing. Do you speak the Ancient Tongue?" It was as if she expected Callisto to say no. Was it an offer to teach the Ethaefal? Jilitse wondered. Perhaps, if the Ethaefal asked, she would consider. Why the act of kindness, the Nuit thought to herself. Anything to give Callisto a little help. Why the urge to help? Perhaps, the idea of helping another person was a novelty in itself. Something new.

She smiled.

[Callisto]

The Konti cocked her head at the Nuit. People who run after power run also after the divine. She had never assumed such but it was a wise statement nonetheless. Callisto knew of the gods, knew of the squabbles some of them had, but to ever consider capturing or destroying one. Such insanity, such determination…. The thought was as a bud in her mind, ready to bloom. The Nuit had sparked something in her, and it showed in her now azure eyes.

Power, destruction, bending the will of the divine. But did Callisto not consider herself divine? Divine in my own broken way. My soul is still with Syna, my soul is hers… “Yes,” She said finally, after a long moment of silence, “But those that bend the wills of the gods and succeed them in it should fear those that come after them next. It’s an endless cycle, unless the originals are kept in tact. Unless.. They are kept safe.” Then silence once more. So many interesting points in this conversation, with an Undead, as well! Who knew such intriguing discussions could be found in the vicinity of a run-down book store!

And then Jilitse spoke once more, surprised her, as she was so caught up with staring at the darkening horizon. Callisto nodded in response to the warning, she would be sure to heed it. “Of course, I will do this. Aelobius and Qiao will be avoided.” The Konti, with all her gifted blood and sensitivity could feel the undercurrents of worry that dripped from her words. Jilitse had done something, no doubt, to cause her to speak such now. Perhaps this was the true reason why she was here, in Syliras? “You have my word, if it means anything to you.”

“No, I do not know the Ancient Tongue.” She remarked, “But I would be honored if you would teach me what you know, if you have time, that is.” She assumed the Nuit would know, why would she ask, if not? After all, what good is researching when the texts you are reading are unintelligible?

[Jilitse]

"The hard thing about Nader-Canoch is that it has a very low word count. It would take you time and practice to learn the proper way to speak it, and much more to read it." Jilitse said, "Sometimes words can have more than one meaning, and often times the intonation of the word and the way it is used in a sentence allows for a different meaning."

"You are a mage yourself, are you not. Take for example the word Djed." Jilitse spoke slowly, and her accent flashed at Callisto. This made the Nuit's voice more melancholy than it could be. "It is easier to pronounce, but long ago, the original alphabet did not include vowels. And such the word Djed was not always spelled d-j-e-d, literature in Sahova will show d-j-e-o-d or maybe even d-j-i-d." Jilitse narrowed her eyes, but she was not blinking. "If you ever find a book or a script such as that, you should grab it and try to study it, for it is possible that it contains history that is even older than me."

Leth was now beaming at the sky, upon the two strange creatures talking in the street. Occasionally a passer-by would look at the two of them oddly, but most just ignored the now-Konti Ethaefal and the Nuit. Whatever they were talking about, it was probably not of anyone's concern. "Callisto, I think it would be better if I hand you a paper with the letters instead of spelling it all out on you." She nodded and told Callisto, "Would you mind if we head out to the Bazaar? We might be able to catch a merchant who's still selling wares at this hour."

She then accompanied the Ethaefal to the Bazaar. As their feet led them towards the marketplace, Jilitse continued Callisto's introduction to Nader-Canoch. "The magic community is probably the only society in the whole world who is able to preserve the ancient tongue for what it used to be. And even then there had been a lot of variations. Time passes by and even the words evolve." Jilitse paused for a few moments and followed through with a question, "As a scholar, I take delight in reading books. They are my passion. The older the book, the better. I believe that they contain power and it is ours to unlock. I do not assume that you will find the answers you seek in Sahova, but our book collection is magnificent, and you may get your hands on a few that would provide you knowledge that will bring you closer to your goal."

"The meaning of Nader-Canoch eludes even the best of scholars, especially when it comes to written material. That's why I shall show you how words are written and the manner with which they are spoken."

She turned against Callisto and bought herself some paper. Jilitse then took out a pencil from a pocket and pointed Callisto towards a general direction. It seemed like the Nuit wanted her to follow. They walked about town, unexpected acquaintances. "I am teaching you Nader-Canoch so that you may at least have something useful in your pocket when you go to Sahova." So this was how helping another person felt like. Jilitse had a moment of looking a little squeamish. "I do not really expect anything in return, but it would be welcome if you would tell me more about your personal relationship with your Goddess."

She continued, "You see, I am seeking out Priskil, and I am unsure how to face her or even ask for an audience. In that sense she is elusive." Jilitse murmured, "You must understand, I'm a Nuit. I have lived for centuries without so much as a moment of sleep, none of the illusion of having a dream or vision about a god. The only thing that reminded me of them was the Valterrian, and even that was a hazy memory for me."

"If going to Sahova brings you closer to Syna, then maybe one day our paths will cross and you will tell me how it is like to face a God." The Nuit sounded a little perplex, but her face was wiped with the hint of emotion when they reached the Stone Gardens. "I find peace in this place. Perhaps it is the quietness of the night. We could continue under the light of the moonlight."

Jilitse started writing the letters of the ancient alphabet, and taught Callisto the proper way of pronouncing each letter. There were times she looked straight at the Ethaefal, a blank reprimanding look saying 'you're doing it wrong'. Jilitse's words were soft, slow, monotonous. Maybe it helped Callisto hear the letters right, maybe it didn't. It was certainly far from the language of the Konti.

"I'll list down some of the words and their meaning - roughly their meaning in the Common tongue."

Receipt :

Paper 4sm, Quill 5cm, and 1 oz ink 2 gm

Total 2gm 5cm 4sm

[Duality]

Jilitse Interrogation 5 Rhetoric 2 Storytelling 2 Teaching 1 Intelligence 1 Lore of Callisto the Ethaefal The art of being a Bad Customer Introduction on Ethaefal Explaining the Nuit Theories on Ethaefal Beliefs and Falling Meeting a fellow outsider Deductive Reasoning to figure a stranger out Giving Warning about Sahova Lost:-2gm, -4sm, -5cm Gained: 1 Quill 1 1-oz ink, half empty This was another good thread from a while ago. I do love the way you introduce reactions and branch out conversation. This thread showed really interesting interaction, I loved the opposites and parallels between the Eth and Nuit that shown in this thread. Jilitse's thought process and behaviors are so interesting to read. I didn't grade the other participant in this one because it's a suspended account. Still, great work! For any questions or concerns with my ruling, feel free to PM me!