07.07x: Refuge of Dreams (Part II)

[Joshua]

"Ruby?" He will ask, and note her piece on the board. "Ah, parallel shadow? A good idea. But... perhaps she may overshadow the current head of the Acra guilds?"

[Rasanam]

"I don't really think that's likely... to..." Rasanam trails off as he takes a closer look at the game piece representing Ruby and compares it to others in the city. "Huh. I guess that depends on how interested she is in politics outside the Ruby guild itself? Worst case, I guess we could ask her to keep a lower profile - she does seem to think she owes us her life..."

"On the other hand," he turns back to look at Nate, "There's also the two of us working to improve Acra, and we're going to be getting you out and active soon, and at some point we do still need to go talk to Rath. And the One. And that Paladin you said the One was looking for - Gregor, wasn't it? And, well, amongst all that, I'm not sure it's Ruby I'd be worried about overshadowing anyone..."

[Joshua]

"It's been a thousand years. It's unlikely he'll return anytime soon." Nate will offer. "He wasn't even... I mean, he hadn't even touched real power. So, it's possible he hit something he couldn't deal with. Although, I guess I should plan on doing something. I'd almost rather head home. It's been so long... but it doesn't really exist anymore... I didn't even think that was possible."

[Rasanam]

"Well," Rasanam says, "We're going to get you to a point where you can do things, beyond just whatever the controls in here allow. What you do after that is up to you. If you want to visit Amber, we'd be happy to help. If you want to go looking for... whatever is left of your original home, we'd still be happy to help - though, we do have some obligations here and in Amber that might prevent much in the way of immediate assistance. If you want to sit around here and, I don't know, maybe work on redeeming Vorel* or something, well, we'll help with that, too."

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* World of Wonders mythology note: Vorel, aka "The Adversary" was the incarnation of evil, in the same way that The One was the incarnation of good. Any more detail than that is largely lost to time. See also footnote here for a bit more info on The One and/or Rath.

[Joshua]

"Dworkin apparently destroyed my home. In a way I would not have thought possible." Nate sighs. "Besides, it has been many ages. I suppose it is time for real change."

"First, let's get me out from under that city. Then I will decide."

[Rasanam]

Rasanam nods. "Then I'd best get to work on that." And - unless Nate has anything more to say right now - trumps out.

[Rasanam]

I'm guessing that Lyra would spend some further time visiting during the week, but the next important scene here is once Rasanam's done with the engineering project of making sure the city of Dra'Varden doesn't collapse when Nathrezell departs.

And once that's done, Rasanam teleports Nathrezell (and himself, and Lyra) bodily to the game-board; Rasanam and Lyra standing on it, Nathrezell floating in the starry void next to it (since, err, the game board is "only" football-field sized, and Nathrezell's current form was large enough to build a city on top of...)

And then there's a pause, waiting for the elder dragon to actually wake up.

[Joshua]

Nathrezell will eventually yawn and stir. (Hey, you sleep for 1000 years, you see how fast you wake up.)

Before he opens his eyes, he will polymorph back into the human-ish looking demon prince form he's been using. "Thank you." He will grumble, summoning coffee, quickly. And enjoying that... "Been a while, sometimes easy to forget what a body feels like."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

ooc: (Sorry for the delay. I wrote up a post but there must have been a network glitch when I hit submit. I had no idea people were waiting on me!)

"You're quite welcome. I'm glad we could be of assistance. Rasanam did an amazing job with the engineering to keep the city intact. Things in Acra should remain in order while we're gone as well, thanks to Ruby, though she does want us to take her to her Acra eventually." Specifically addressing Nate she says, "We should still have some time before needing to return to Amber, though not too much."

[Joshua]

"Well, not sure if I should show up there or remain in seclusion. It's unlikely I'd be recognized. I'm almost a legend at this point. Someone who got stuck in a slow time place..." Nate shrugs. "I guess I should see how the wards on the Adversary are. It's possible your involvement might bring that to a head."