[flashback] talking thunder.

[Caelum]

"Maybe it isn't a mistake," Caelum said very, very quietly, words soft in their stumbling. It was as if every word was a footstep warily traversing upon thin ice, only the ice had already broken, he had already fallen into the cold deep. "Maybe I just want it to be one. That would be better, wouldn't it, Hadrian? Somehow that would be better than believing it was a thing destined, my role here now a thing long determined and my goddess could be so cruel to even her most beloved."

He fell quiet, not looking at the young scholar, but instead at the scattered sheets of paper on which every hour of his existence since his fall was charted, scrawled into a pathetic idea of a quest.

"As much as I want to believe it was a mistake, I am forced to accept the possibility that it might not have been and, thus, I am here for a reason, that the Bright Lady let me slip her grace and her grasp in order to achieve some portent purpose. But if that is true, then that purpose must exist beyond the confines of my own soul's advancement. I was already ascended. I am now less. And we do not exist to suffer. So what am I to achieve? Or is it only to outgrow my own hubris?"

[Hadrian]

"If life is any guidepost, I would say that the gods are cruel. Perhaps cruel to be kind, like a mother bird pushing her nestlings out to force them to fly... I certainly don't have any answers for you, but I thought you should acknowledge the possibility that you're here for a reason. Perhaps you do know the reason, but that knowledge was stripped from you before your... descent. Perhaps the knowledge was an unfair tool."

He paused to consider.

"I'm reaching too. I have no idea. Perhaps I'm just blaspheming in my attempt to be open to all possible solutions. And I'm... sorry. I'm not trying to rub salt in your wounds. But it does seem as though... if it is some kind of test or a quest, then the sooner you figure out what it is, the sooner you'll be nancing about on the clouds playing a harp and being perfect again."

There was a little humor there; if pressed, he would admit to a certain amount of jealousy. A certain amount of enjoyment seeing someone brought down from on high to muddle along with the rest. A certain amount of wanting to watch this proven climber make the ascent again to learn just how it was done.

"Best case scenario, though, Syna and Leth are doing what they can to rectify this, and if you and your brethren are doing the same from down here... well, eventually something will happen."

[Caelum]

The impossible happened: Caelum laughed. It was weathered sound, filled with the dust of a thousand roads, but there was yet a little glitter left beneath all of the tarnish.

"I've never played a harp in my life," he admitted, "I don't think."

[Hadrian]

Hadrian grinned, but didn't laugh at his own joke.

"Sure. Next you'll tell me that you didn't float around on clouds composing paeans to Syna when you weren't eating ambrosia and nectar."

He scoffed; it was his sort of humor.

[Caelum]

"Oh, well, the nectar part, for certain," he deadpanned. A little of the humor lingered in his face, in his eyes, and even that small light changed him. His gaze dropped back to their papers, considering them for a long while before he leaned forward to begin gathering them up into painstakingly organized piles.

"I keep household in Zeltiva," he admitted finally, "And ought find myself there again shortly. Perhaps we could continue our research."

[Hadrian]

Hadrian wasn't much of an aurist yet, but he was going slightly cross-eyed trying to see if there was something special surrounding Caelum that mere mortals did not have. He still wasn't sure what he was seeing was real rather than an optical illusion from eye strain. They had been working on this for a while now.

"Perhaps you could get us into the archives. Charm a Regent or two." He smiled. Whatever hidden knowledge lay within that place was something many a scholar would kill for.

He smiled, only half joking. If he knew anyone who had a shot, it was probably Caelum. After all, he could probably claim the mandate of heaven. How many people would be able to stand up to a horned avatar of the solar goddess if he said that he had business in there?

"I live in a little cottage near the Old Quarter, but I spend most of my time in the College of Magic. I shouldn't be too difficult to find."

[Jedo]

And the Jedo award goes to... Caelum: Research: 3 xp Rhetoric: 3 xp Philosophy: 4 xp Meditation: 5 xp Teaching: 1 xp Lore: Human Light heartedness, aka Jokes Lore: Human naiveté Hadrian: Research: 3 xp Rhetoric: 3 xp Philosophy: 4 xp Meditation: 5 xp Sneakiness: 1 xp Lore: Caelum's bitterness Lore: Fallibility of the gods OOC: Super nice and clean read you two. Fantastic writing always deserves a little something extra, so I figured that I'll be a bit generous with what I have come up with so far. Questions, suggestions for additional skills/xp, pm me please. Love me.