DM (Charalampos "Babis")
Sometime after you've made yourself comfortable in the upper level of the Brined Bone Tiamiuls sister, Neilith comes over.
"So... how have you been?"
Tiaumil (Darren M)
Tiaumil looked up and over to where his sister stood, awkward in a way that family reunions between those who didn't keep regular contact were. It had been centuries for them. It had been centuries, but he still remembered her in a way that was clear in his mind, and the shadowfell didn't let people change much over time. But he always remembered her focused determination, her skill and cunning, her loyalty to those she deemed fitting for it. He'd never had her skill back then, and he didn't now either. He'd always lacked in the ways that mattered in Merdelain, always been more of a dreamer than a survivalist that could thrive in such a place.
He'd always hated Merdelain City and those in it for what they were, but he didn't hate his family.
"Happy and contented, for the most part," he said, knowing without checking that she'd have hated the life he had. She'd have found it boring, tedious, and without proper purpose. She'd always been far more of an idealist than he'd ever been, and in a practical way. She was right to condemn him for running, probably, but they'd been raised to make their own way in life, and this had been his. "Everything is so much more there, on the material realm. Vibrant and interesting. Change is constant, and the magic… fascinating."
DM (Charalampos "Babis")
Neilith's eyes narrow a fraction, but there is no overt hostility, only a probing air. She moves nearer to the table, fingers brushing its salt-stained edge. “Vibrant,” she repeats, the word clipped, foreign in her mouth. “You always chased novelty. I thought maybe centuries away would dull that.”
She takes a step closer to you, her gaze fixed. She exhales slowly.
“I've buried too many brothers, one of them you. I am not sure if the one I see now is him or just something that learned his shape but you helped us...and now the overseer is dead." Her gaze doesn’t soften, but there’s a trace of approval under the calm. “I’m glad he’s gone. No one here will mourn him, Shades, they’ll just breathe for the first time in months. Maybe now they’ll remember what it feels like to stand their ground instead of waiting for the next demand.” A small smile appears on her face, almost predatory in it's intent. "No choice now, they have to fight. But I'll buy us time, should be weeks before they send someone, that is if they notice their precious inspectors are missing "
"What are your plans now? Will you go to speak to Mother and Father or disappear again?"
Tiaumil (Darren M)
"Novelty," he said, not dismissing, but contemplating the word, his eyes on those in the room as he talked with his sister, passively watchful. "Perhaps, but not frivolously. History told us that this was not always our home, and I was not the only one seeking to exit this plane and return to the place we once, as a nation, used to reside. I gave much to earn that outcome, not merely the name you once you knew me as, and what I found there was everything I had hoped to find."
He looks away from the room and back to her. "If I am not your brother, then I do not know it. My memories of this place, of you, are as clear as any I have, enough to know that you never had the same drive or wish to leave. We were taught to make our own way, and I did that through the means and opportunities afforded to me. But nothing is free, and what the city are doing is very likely to worsen the wound in both worlds catastrophically if they manage to go through with their plan, enough that even gods are taking action. And so I am here once more, helping this group achieve what centuries here have not."
He turned his body a little more, and there, hidden mostly from the group unless they were looking specifically, she would see the familiar hatred in his eyes, the familiar anger that had been absent up until then, even for the group. His voice lowered to a whispered hiss of viterol.
"But my hatred for the city has not abated. I chose the God of the End of All Things for a reason, and I fully intend on aiding in being THEIR end. They are a blight that should not exist here, or anywhere else."
He would not yet answer about his plans.
DM (Charalampos "Babis")
She nods, and for a moment, the same hatred flickers in her eyes, a reflection of your own.
It hadn’t been there when you left. Time, or the city’s decay, had carved it into her. Merdelain, in its pride or its desperation, had seemingly turned many of its children against it. A small part of you recognises the use of knowing that.
“You won’t hear disagreement from me there,” she said. “Whatever glory it once claimed, the city has rotted from the inside out. Every law, every ritual, every command, it's just ways to keep the rest of us quiet while the high houses devour what’s left. And for what? To flee our home.”
Her voice hardens slightly, though it remains calm.
“But it won’t fall easily. I don't know what you plan but you do not know how far they'll go to protect the Kingdom. What they’ll sacrifice to keep it standing.
If you mean to end it, you’ll need more than hatred. You’ll need timing, allies, and luck enough to outlive the first step.”
She studies you again, the faintest trace of something between respect and concern crossing her face.
“It’s good to know you came back for something worth the risk. Don't let the city consume you big brother.”
Without saying anything else she hands you a paper thin sheet made of bone. On it, scrawled are signs and trails. Everything needed to contact the resistance in Merdelain. Everything needed to contact your Elder sister.
That Neilith trusts you enough to entrust this to you, after you've been gone for so long speaks volumes.
Tiaumil (Darren M)
He nods a little, acknowledgement there, in the mutual hatred. He had seen the rot first and rebelled, in his own way, against it. But time had opened her eyes too, it seemed. All the better. They would need strong allies in this, and she had already proven herself far more skilled than when he'd left.
"So far there is no great plan," he murmured to her, both of them calmer once the mutual hatred had been seen and responded to. "I was only brought in with them recently, and while they are powerful and skilled, the group lacks direction. We came here, initially, looking for one of their companions, but Merdelain has already destroyed him."
He would catch her up with the general events and what they had found out, trusting her in the same way that she trusted him with the document and the location of his sister. Trust was generally not found much in Merdelain, but there were family ties there, and mutual goals. The details of what he'd found out about Merdelain city's plans, the towers, the capture of the dragon's soul, as well as the fact that they seemed to be able to view things in the material realm to have the knowledge of Ularan Mortus's death. There was a lot there that was worrying, and she knew the lay of the land in the shadowfell better than he did, now.
"Mother and father," he said, when silence had settled once more, "what do you advise? The deception here, and my presence, may destabilise things if they know. What are your thoughts?"
DM (Charalampos "Babis")
Hearing you describe the group and it's capabilities you notice her eyes widen.
"Perhaps this quest of yours isn't fated to fail.."
As you continued she listen closely without interrupting, quite unlike your experiences as a child. It seemed you had all grown up.
She took a moment after you finished speaking and said "No, I wouldn't meet with them or tell they you here. You'll likely end up dead in Merdelain and I think they have their fill of us dying. Mother would suffer and Father.. Well, he would be the way he always is, especially when things aren't the way he expects them to be."
She lays a hand close to your hand and continues in a softer voice."If you don't end up dead, if you somehow manage to make a difference, then come back." She leans back and smiles. "Even father would struggle to criticise a hero."
Tiaumil (Darren M)
He nodded. In truth he hadn't intended to visit them, but she had asked, and so it was best to check.
"Even if we succeed, I doubt many will brand us heroes, and I have no real use for the title. But in succeeding the world will be given a reprieve to continue onwards as it should, without ripping itself apart, and that is certainly something I can get behind. There are far too many things out there to learn, for me to relish it all coming to an end so soon."
He breached the distance, raising his hand up to squeeze her arm a little in a familiar camaraderie. He wouldn't go so far as to hug, not in a room where he didn't want to entirely turn his back on others, where they might both need their hands free, but he did touch to reassure her of his presence there at her side.
"You know my name now, and if I am still alive in the aftermath it will be far easier to remain in contact. Also, if it is within the remit of my knowledge, or if you have scrolls or spellbooks from which to copy, I can create scrolls if you have the materials, before we leave. In this, at least, I am very well practiced, and scrolls can be handy in a pinch. "