Goodbye and Welcome Back

[Madeira Dusk]

50th of Winter, 520

Technically, Madeira had two children. One of them was a grown woman who had left Lhavit to seek her own adventure, the other was the serious-faced preteen who floated in and out of her house on mysterious tides she couldn't predict. But in reality, Madeira had four children. It was just that one has been dead for a decade, and the other was three stories tall and made of wood.

"What's her name?" The ghost of Emma Chamelle was bouncing on the balls of her bare feet, her hands fisted in the folds of her nightdress. Whether it was from excitement or nerves was hard to tell. Knowing Emma it was probably both.

"You'll call her Miss Alice." Madeira had a jar of blood in her lap, and was painting a sizable ahleas star with a long-handled brush on the wraparound porch in front of the Infinity Manor's front doors . "Is that the wraithmint tea, Maro? Thank you sweetie." She accepted the delicate porcelain teacup from her housekeeper and set it aside.

What's she like? The house itself whispered into her mind in its effervescent, sexless voice. Beside her Emma cocked her head. Emma understood the house, to an extent. All the ghosts seemed to. They couldn't hear it, but that didn't seem to stop them from understanding what it wanted.

"Miss Alice is intelligent and courteous, and a trifle insane. I think you'll like her. Be kind, and try to keep Jomi away from her for as long as possible, okay?" She dipped the brush in her gory paint and swiped another long, intersecting point of the sixteen-point star. Typically the spiritist would scribble the symbol in her palm with a pricked finger. As long as it was tangentially ahleas-shaped she could make it work as a summoning conduit. But as this was a first summoning, and the spirit was both a new member of their home and as far away as one could get from it, she felt she could afford to indulge in a touch of theatrics if she wanted to.

Spooks materialized from somewhere in a flurry of soulmist and a stench of licorice candy, probably curious about the smell of blood. Her suspicions were confirmed as the creature came up behind her and sniffed at the glyph, a pink tongue poking from between his needle teeth for an experimental lick.

"No!", Madeira pointed a warning finger at him. The cat thing hissed at her and slouched off back around the house.

"Can she stay in my room?" Emma wouldn't touch the glyph herself, but she was standing close enough to her master make her shiver.

"You don't have a room, kitten", Madeira reminded her, subtly pushing the ghost away with a finger on her waist. Jomi did, but that was because he had an shocking amount of stuff for a creature with no earthy desires. A situation that did call into question the addage 'you can't take it with you'.

The bouncing child didn't seem to notice the gentle rerouting. She simply alternated from dancing around Madeira to dancing around the teacup. The tea inside, made from a special and very difficult to acquire plant from Black Rock, had the entirely unique effect of being pleasing to ghosts. To them, the mint tea actually smelt like mint tea, and in a world of sensory deprivation it felt like a miracle. The ghost soaked in the effect and managed to calm herself, if only a little bit.

"I'm gonna introduce her to Raj! And the chickens. And Naymon. And-"

I hope she is kind, and not as scary as Autumn. Do you think she'll like-?"

Madeira tuned them out as she painted the last intersecting lines as straight as she could manage. The bloody symbol was drying in the unseasonable winter heat, turning from an alarming red to a cracked brown. The spiritist smiled at her handiwork.

As if summoned by the magnetic pull of misplaced things, Maro cracked open the front door door and snatched up the jar and brush almost as soon as she set it aside. Madeira looked out across the yard. The house seemed extra vibrant today, as if it had applied a fresh coat of paint; and its wild splashes of colourful flowers on the lawn looked extra perky. The house was primping itself for its new guest, though it would be mortified if she acknowledged it.

"I expect a warm welcome. She might be a bit confused", Madeira cautioned those in earshot. She carefully placed what was typically Jomi's ring in the center of her glyph. The soulmist inside pulsed dully. Closing her eyes, she pressed her gloved palms together and searched for the connection between that drop of soulmist and the ghost it belonged to, that thread of connection that stretched across the vast space that separated them. Finding it, she mentally seized onto that connection and dragged the ghost towards her from the other side of the world.

"Alice!" she shouted, completing the summon with a word.

[Alice Weaver]

Today was the day. The moment of truth. The final step is Alice floated above the broken and battered roof of the typical Sunberthanian home, glancing over her home. As much as she did so despised the way it worked she had to admit it had some charm.

Just people trying to live their life as they would, bent to the whims of fate much like the spirit was. In that, she could sympathize with the people who were not a part of the gangs and just trying to make ends meet.

Hrm. Maybe these people were more similar to her than she would like to admit. Perhaps she would return one day...unlikely but it’s not like she didn’t have the time to make the trip. It would just be a massive waste in the end to see a few crumbling buildings. Especially when the grandeur of Lhavit awaited her just over the horizon. So the Ghost pivoted and faced away from the City, standing on the edge of its bounds, to attempt to peer over the horizon, towards her destination. She strained her sense to try and feel anything that would indicate Maderia calling her towards the city.

Would she even know the sensation when she felt it? She assumed there would be some kind of tug no? Could she resist it? Or is it like an apple falling from a tree and there is no way to stop that fall. Not that she would resist this call but it might be something to ask in the future, depending on how free Maderia became with her summons.

So she waited, she was good at waiting, time meant nothing to her really. Sure she’d like to return to life before her family became old and withered and they faded from this realm into the land of the dead but that was just extra. As long as she got it at the end that was all that mattered.

A gentle tug drew her from her contemplation, like a friend pulling another friend through a crowded. Insistent but not aggressive. Now she could feel it, the familiar feeling of her own soulmist called from her from way over the horizon and she could feel another bit mixed in with it.

That would be Maderia, I suppose. She told herself, the bit of magic mixed in with the bit of her shroud sure felt like what she experienced when she possessed Maderia.

Quickly the tugging became more insistent, turning from a gentle pull to jerks that yanked the ghost forward.

“I get the feeling that it isn’t about to be the most pleasant experience…” She grimaced as the summon took hold and threw the ghost through the air, racing faster than any bird could hope to achieve. And in seconds she was there. In an a new, unfamiliar place.

The Spirit’s soulmist rolled and bubbled over the intricately drawn symbol as Alice took a moment to collect herself, taking a few seconds to reform her mists from being speed across the World in the blink of an eye. Her form mostly complete she patted herself down.

“Head, arms, chest, legs? Do I even need legs? Seems like a waste but they are there.” Each body party she spoke of was touched with an ethereal hand as she manually that checked nothing got left behind. It was only then she noticed she had an audience. Still gathering herself all her mind could process at the time was an “Ah. Hi?” before a pause and a confused look flashed over her face. “Mint?”

[Madeira Dusk]

“Head, arms, chest, legs? Do I even need legs? Seems like a waste but they are there.”

And so Alice Weaver spent her first moments in a foreign land checking that she had brought all her pieces with her. Giddy with accomplishment, Madeira wanted to laugh but stifled the urge. The woman had just been forcibly dragged through time and space, she had earned a moment to collect herself. Only when her head popped up and she noticed her audience did the Spiritist speak.

"Hi yourself", Madeira smiled as she rolled laboriously to her feet, shaking off the pins-and-needles sensation from her hard seat on the floor. She picked up the tea and set it on the porch railing to better envelop the party in its fragrance. "Welcome to Lhavit."

Emma, who was so excited to meet the newcomer just ticks before, now seemed incapable of looking her in the eye. The little ghost lapsed into shy silence and stole glances up at Alice from between her fingers. The Infinity Manor, however, was not so tongue tied. The trees on the breezeless lawn shook in welcoming applause. And though the boards beneath them popped like most houses did when they settled, most settling houses didn't pop to the beat of popular sea shanties.

"Hello, Miss Alice." There was interest but not an ounce of curiosity in Maro's green eyes as he poked his head out the door to politely acknowledge the new member of his household. "My name's Maro. I'm the housekeeper. Please call on me if you ever need anything." With his dry introduction given he smiled politely and retreated back inside.

Madeira waited for Emma to do the same, but the girl only flickered under the attention, so she sighed and did it herself. "This is Emma Chamelle. We've been travelling together for... Four years?" She looked at the girl for confirmation. "She's a little shy, but a sweetheart. You know Spooks, of course." she motioned behind Alice, where the cat thing had prowled back around to witness the fuss. He stared stonily back. "And this is the Infinity Manor", she opened her arms to indicate the ground they stood on. "Its something called an Architectrix building, meaning it's just as alive as I am. It's very glad to meet you, but you can probably tell that already."

Taking the teacup with her, Madeira motioned for Alice to follow her out onto the grounds and away from the many staring eyes. "Why don't we have a little walk? I imagine you have questions about Lhavit, and this place."

[Alice Weaver]

The welcome was warm. It seems Madeira had a habit of picking up people and pulling them along with her. And it seemed Alice was just the next one in a long list of lost, or not so lost, souls. The woman seemed to be very excited to have her here and Alice couldn’t find fault in that at all. Out of everyone there, Alice herself was probably the most excited one to be there. This was her time to expand herself and start upon her self imposed quest, and it seemed she’d have support along the way with the few bodies that were waiting for her.

“Thank you for having me.” She responds to Madeira’s welcome with a slight curtsy and dip of her head. There was another ghost that looked to be one of a small girl next to Alice’s host but they remained silent as another person introduced themselves. His name was Maro and he was apparently the housekeeper. He did not seem terribly interested in the ghost as he gave her a glance over before leaving. “Greetings to you as well, Sir Maro.” She called to his back as he retreated within the bowels of the house.

The small ghost looked like she wanted to speak but flickered as Alice looked at her. Shy and reclused this one seemed to be. Madeira seemed to note the smaller ghost reluctance and introduced them to her. The small spirit’s name was Emma and she’d be with the Spiritist for around four years now and she was shy but a sweetheart. Giving the spirit a smile Alice gave Emma’s spectral hair a ruffle, delighting in being able to touch another soul. “Hello, Ms. Emma. I look forward to making your acquaintance. I’m sure you could show me more about this city than Madeira ever could. We should make a day of it. What do you say?” She tilted her head slightly as she smiled at the little girl.

While waiting for a response Madeira went on to introduce Spooks again, the snippy ghostly cat, and with a flourish presented the Manor. Stating proudly that it is an Architectrix building, meaning that it was alive and very happy to meet her. Though she could already tell that. She could feel the faint pulse of something at the back of her mind, akin to a warm welcome hug. The pure excitement coming from the building brought a smile to her face. Now the question was did she wish to burst Madeira’s bubble slightly with her having already been warned of the building by Moritz. With the grin taking on more of a sly look she decided it’d be in good fun to needle Madeira.

“Ah yes. A living building. How quaint. I could have sworn Moritz was pulling my leg.” She says dully as she forced a yawn, her excited mists betrayed her nonchalant tone before switching back to a more excited one. “It’s amazing Madeira. Truly it is. And I’d love to take a walk around though you might regret it after your ears start to bleed from my insistent chatter.” As she follows the scent of mint away from the gaggle of people, following her tiny beacon of light and hopes with a bounce in her step.

[Madeira Dusk]

Emma covered her face completely with her crusted fingers but still giggled when Alice spoke to her. She nodded furiously, at once delighted and embarrassed to be given so much attention. Her shoulders hunched but she still pushed her head into Alice's palm as she pet her curls. "Okay!" she mumbled into her fingers, her small voice barely audible.

The group dispersed as the two women left for a private chat. Emma followed Spooks into the garden to his annoyance, and Maro emerged with a bucket of grain in one hand and kibble in the other to feed the chickens and one roaming dog. Only the house itself watched them go, a passive observer.

The edges of Alice's grin sharpened as she looked back at Madeira. With forged nonchalance she admitted she knew the house was alive, and that Moritz had told her.

Madeira's steady stride skipped a step and she almost faceplanted into the overgrown lawn. What the hai kind of small world was this?!

"You know my son?" Her heart sank to hear it. Moritz was her opposite in every way: she could mistake charisma for intelligence, but he mistakes intelligence for having a personality. He was not her idea of a good first impression. "I hope he wasn't too much trouble", she laughed sheepishly. "Ask away. There's a lot you need to know about this place, its nothing like Sunberth or Syliras."

As they walked she tried to fill Alice in about Lhavit as best she could. She explained the different peaks, the bizarre sleep cycle of its citizens, a rudimentary understanding of the government and its laws. The rundown was patchy at best, even for a decent teacher like herself, but it would be enough to help her acclimate until she could figure the rest out for herself.

"Magic in Lhavit is different than anywhere else I've ever been, and it'll probably be for you too. It's incredibly open. There are three magic schools: Dawn, Twilight and Dusk, all run by different families. If you want to learn magic to try and... cheat death", her lips peeled back as if to limit how much of her mouth made contact with the phrase, "then they are the people you would learn from. Just do me one favour."

She stopped in her tracks and waited for Alice to look at her. She wanted her full attention.

"There are plenty of spiritists in Lhavit, but there's only one I need you to stay away from. His name is Rotsam the Curse Eater, he's the proprietor of the Den of the Lost. He has a terrible habit of Dusting my ghosts and trying to kill me. Stay far, far away from him."

[Alice Weaver]

“I do. He was quite informative. Told me a lot about you and who you are. It was all very enlightening. He could shape up to be quite the character...not like he already isn’t quite the character.” She decided at that moment to throw Moritz a bit under the wheels of the cart at this point as it still bothered her. “Did he ever tell you he did his first possession? It was with me because he about begged for it and I did it simply because I did not want any other ghost to get funny ideas. Maybe you should talk to him about being possessed by strangers…” She laughs softly to herself.

As they walked Madeira did her best to fill the spirit in on what was about Lhavit and how it worked. It was a rough deluge of information but it gave enough the ghost to work with when she would go off on her own. Then Madeira got to the most interesting bit about how magic works. Outlining simplly the three towers and how magic is more open in lhavit before throwing a verbal barb at the ghost.

“If you want to learn magic to try and...cheat death.” The disgust at how she said it could have melted the stonework but the ghost bore it without flinching.

“Are you done?” Alice asked back at her from the outburst, “Talk to me when you have died about your opinion on death.” And she left it at that. Suddenly the ghost walked straight through the Spiritist, having not been paying attention that Madeira stopped but was instead looking at the surrounding structures.

Madeira then spoke of someone names “Rotsam the Cuse Eater.” And how he was someone involved with the Den of The Lost and had a habit of dusting her ghosts and trying to kill her.

“Ah. Den of The Lost? Also, I’d prefer to not be dusted. I know what awaits on the other side for me. I don’t think I’d like it there very much. To add on. What does he look like and have you ever considered just...killing him back?” Showcasing her sunberthain tainted view at that moment. “And if its not too much of a bother could you show me where you teach? I’d love to watch sometimes.” She says without much concern for Rotsam at the moment, having just left a city of thieves and murderers it just seemed pretty par for the course at the moment.

[Madeira Dusk]

Madeira, ever the actress, and slightly more braced, had no reaction to Alice telling her that not only was Moritz possessed for the first time, but that he had begged a stranger to do it.

Inside she was roaring. Her son, the novice mage, had let a ghost off the street pilot his body?! In her mind she could see some faceless ghost overpowering him, forcing him to rob or hurt someone and getting arrested by the batshyke Xyna cult. Or abusing his body or soul or just refusing to leave. Ghosts were the most unstable creatures in existence and he was trusting them with contact with his soul! Of all the stupid, dangerous!...

She nodded thoughtfully, her brows pulled down in gentle motherly concern. "That was reckless. I'll talk to him about it."

She just shook her head at Alice's jab that only the dead should have an opinion about death. Death herself might disagree, but she wasn't about to start a pointless fight about it here.

“I can't just kill Rotsam", she answered her more straight forward question with a sigh. "It’s not that simple. It's also very illegal. Welcome back to civilization.”

Goddess forgive her, she would slit Rotsam’s throat in an instant if she could. But Dira wasn’t the one she would have to answer to in that matter, but Sagillius. She didn’t want to speculate what the god would do to her if she somehow managed to removed his plaything from the game. “He looks like a Myrian. Which is to say dark and covered in tattoos. He’ll find you if he wants you, but do your best to stay out of his way, that’s all I ask.”

A thought flicked on in Madeira’s head, nebulous and unspecific. There was something Alice said in that casual tone that didn’t sit right. Madeira went on, a touch distracted, as she dissected the conversation looking for the red flag.

“Sure, I’ll take you to the Tower. Having a ghost in class can be very helpful. It could be a good way for you to learn some skills as well, with possession training and projection and all of that.”

The spiritist crossed her arms, her head tipped back skyward. Suddenly it dawned on her.

“Hold on”, Madeira held up a gloved finger as if to pause the conversation. “What did you mean when you said you know what’s on the other side? You didn’t mean death, did you? You meant dusted.”

She was never told where a ghost goes when it’s dusted. Perhaps her family didn't even know, or never thought her ready to hear it. But what she did know was that Dira's touch did not reach that place. Dusted souls were considered gone for good. She had been forbidden from resurrection and had been told horror stories of what had happened to the people who tried. And this woman, a weaver who had been dead only five years, just casually mentions a fact that had been haunting Spiritist’s for centuries?

“How the…” Madeira pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes screwed tightly shut, as if the right amount of pressure was the key to making sense of this. “I brought a ghost back once. I knew the risks but against the odds he came back whole and alone. But wherever he was, whatever happened to him, drove him insane enough that he couldn’t even make sense of what he saw, let alone tell me. How do you just… know something like that?”

[Alice Weaver]

Sorry Mortiz, the ghost spoke to herself internally. She had seen that sweet look before that a mother gives to another mother about a thing they were disappointed in their child for. It was the silent tone shift of ‘We’ll be having a talk about that when we get back’ and it usually did not end well for the offending party, in this case, it is Moritz.

Next up was the talk about who Rotsam was and that Maderia simply couldn’t kill him as that was just a tad bit illegal.

Hrm. Maybe my time in Sunberth did change my thought process a little bit. I jumped straight to the ‘eliminate a threat through murder’ quite fast. That’s not good… A mental note made to curb the idea that murder was the first course of action she listened carefully to the description of the man who was a Myrian, dark and covered in tattoos. A bit worrying was the statement that if he wanted to find her he would and all she could do was stay out of his way and underneath his notice. Well, that seems like it will be a running issue that she’d now have to deal with. Wonderful. Aligning with Maderia did seem to come with downsides after all. Her claim of wanting help with protection and such ringing all the more true.

She nodded her aquatints to going to the tower. Her interest piqued at seeing how spiritism worked more in-depth considering it was now one of the few things in the world that could benefit her...as well as harm her.

“You meant dusted”

“I did.” Was the simple response given to that with a shrug of her ethereal shoulders as she glanced over Maderia’s shoulders down the street, admiring the order of the city before refocusing on the slight Spiritist.

Madeira seemed shocked and confused at how a spirit like her could know something like that. Her ears perked up at the mention that someone could recover from being sent to that place.

“Oh, so you can come back. I thought you were done then if that happened to you. Who the unluck spirit that had to be...rehydrated? Since you talk of dust.” She gave a grin before answering the second part of the question. “And I did not sit idly by while in Sunberth I wandered and drifted enough that I picked up a few interesting trinkets that I should be getting back soon since the summoning didn’t take my belongings with me so I had to make arrangements but that’s fine. Easier to be summoned and transport things another way than walking all that distance between Sunberth and here. Or even catching a ride on one of the trade ships. But one of those trinkets gave a bit of insight on what awaited me on the other side should something horrible happen to me and it just happened to involve that place.” She paused for a second before offering. “When it finds its way back into my possession would you like to look at it?”

[Madeira Dusk]

"I would like to look at it, since you're offering", Madeira nearly choked in her effort to keep her voice level. Gods, information like that could change a lot of things for her. Her clear eagerness at the chance covered her neat sidestepping of Alice's earlier question about who it was that Madeira had resurrected. It took her half a year and all her hypnotic power to suppress Jomi's memory of his experience, and even then it was like using masking tape to hold together a fatal wound. And the grin on the young spirit's face did not strike her as one that would respect just how dangerous and fragile her oldest ghost was.

She was amused to know Alice was another ghost who still had material possessions. She shook her head, baffled. It was not unusual for a ghost to haunt an object, following it as it moved and changed hands, but this didn't sound like a haunting. This sounded like in ten, twenty, or a hundred years down the line they'll become mystical beasts atop their hoard of 'interesting trinkets'.

They reached the gate, which swung open for them in a creak of rusty hinges. Madeira placed her still steaming teacup on the crooked shoulder of a tree, which she gave an affectionate pat before stepping out onto Zintia. Lhavit was alight today, a hub of activity, its bustling streets crowned with enormous structures of skyglass. She wanted Alice to feel at home here, with her. They might live in this city, but home was the manor behind them. But in the end she could only hope Lhavit had enough magic to satisfy her, without having enough to satiate her worrying desires.

Madeira wrapped her fingers around Alice's wrist, tolerating the sizzle of energy for the opportunity to give the dead woman's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Come on, then. There's a lot to show you. Welcome to your new un-life, Miss Alice." Grinning like a sinner, she swept out into the city, ready to explore every single part of it.

[Alice Weaver]

“Then I’ll be more than glad to share what I have with you after I retrieve it from where I stashed it. Hopefully, the Manor will be kind enough to give me a place to store everything. No hands make the whole thing a tad bit difficult to carry about.” She offered without much hesitation, it seemed something Maderia was interested in and that made for more goodwill.

Goodwill was always a good thing to garner, especially when it had almost no cost to it. She did however note that she did not get an answer to who the unlucky soul was but she did not want to press. She would find out eventually. She had the time. She really had nothing but time at this moment, really.

They reached a creaky gate that swung open on rusty highest she had to pause in her ‘walk’ for a moment. The high reaching glass structures, the mess of people, it was all...fascinating. So much different from the dusty squalor she had gotten used to last season. The feeling that she made the right choice resounded in her chest. And from what Maderia was saying there would be plenty of excitement around Lhavit as well.

Well, enough to be entertaining and hopefully not much to do with that Spiritist her patron seemed to have a bit of a long-standing spat with. But she had the feeling she was going to get involved in that one way or another so she may as well buckle up and prepare for the coming storm.

There was a moment of shock as Maderia casually grabbed her wrist, still undecided of whether she liked the causal touch or not but she accepted it nonetheless.

“Yes. And was a beautiful un-life that will be. I’m going to leave a mark here one for the better...I feel it in my soulmist..” She sighed out before getting tugged along a grin spreading across her face as well, a peel of laugher soon followed as she flickered excitedly around the Spiritist, the wild mists of her body snapping. Feeling closer to life than she ever had in many years as the pair vanished into the heart of Lhavit.