35. Mission Update
General Summary
Marwa gets the gist of the whole thing. That he knew he was doomed but refused to be bothered about it, wouldn't fight it, wouldn't let anyone else do so either. That it changed him, sapped his wellbeing, haunted his dreams and eventually took his sleep altogether, that Alejandro and to a lesser extent Silva argued with him about it. that him and Kit were a thing, united by their refusal to dwell on negatives, constnatly pointing out the little revelries, and she gets the story of the night he disappeared
Isaac left his pack and everything in it. Silva tracked him for about a half mile and then 'he learned to fly or something because the trail just stops'
Julius may have noted that the coastline was in that direction
Silva and Rogue were out searching all night looking for a trail
Alejandro wore his throat raw shouting out on a search radius
Julius drained his metaphorical spell slots. He's not a diviner, his grip on scrrying was unpracticed. "You can't be expert in everything, amor, it's not your fault"
and I think Marwa can see how even years later, it's still painful to revisit
Marwa is sitting down with her hand over her mouth, looking off to the side. "...You brought her here to tell me that Mika's on the clock. That he might not want a way out."
"No, baby, no"
"It's futile, we're just following your footsteps." she angrily wipes a tear away. "What am I supposed to do then, give up?"
"Of course not." - Baba
"Look, I get it. You all think I'm young and foolish, or whatever. Don't know what I'm getting into. Of course I fucking don't! But let me tell you, I REGULARLY get into shit I don't know anything about, so that's not a new experience for me. That doesn't mean I run, or leave someone on their own."
I think they're both waiting, letting you get it out
"That's not who I am, and that's not who you raised me to be. So...if you were thinking of asking me to let this go. Save it."
Kit's got a look like 'I like this one'
"I knew when Mika said his only shot at freedom was a memory wipe or a Wish, things were dire but. So fucking what? So what. Would any of you feel better if you'd written Isaac off sooner? If you'd made different choices along the way? Somehow I doubt it."
"We're not trying to talk you out of anything, Marwa. We just thought you should go into this with your eyes open." -Alejandro
"You're our brave girl, you always have been." - Julius
She's full on crying now
"There's nthing you can't take on. But baby I am so, so scared for you," and I think J's gonna hug you if you let him
oh yeah I definitely want a Dad hug right now, sniffle into his robes
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm scared for me too. I just...can't not do things, just because I'm scared."
"I know, baby, I know."
"Damnit, Marwa." -Alejandro, rueful smile, "You got my foolhardiness, it seems. Hey, we may not have all the knowledge, but we sure as hell go down swinging, right?
which gets a watery laugh from Marwa
"Kit you're a part of family group hugs, get over here."
Kit's more than a littel misty herself
I think Alejandro wants to say something to the effect of at least this kid's fighting it but idk if he'd do so aloud - old arguments, etc. Instead, he might encourage her, if she can't be swayed to leave it alone, then give it your all. know your enemy. Not just whatever thing has its hooks in him but the hurts it can cause, the Bad End it's dragging him toward. These are the enemy as much as the entity is.
"Kit...I don't know how to ask this. Can you help?"
"I don't know. But I can try! We can always have hope. Hope is free."
do you know anything about Wishes?"
"Oh, the spell?"
"Yes!"
"I can't say I've ever met someone who could cast it, but it's supposed to be very powerful - anything you want, but only if you're very, very careful with it. There are lots of stories of Wishes going wrong - Wishing their enemy was dead only to be sent into the future in the aftermath of them having lived a long life and passed to old age, things like that. Finnicky."
"Sounds almost...fey. Kind of tricksy."
"It's chaos magic, certainly," Julius agrees, "There's an argument to be made that it's not completely arcane, either. It's hard to tell whether it's real or a byproduct of the tales, but they say no one can Wish more than three times in a life. I've never heard of a spell making itself inaccessible like that. It's odd."
"So we'd need to find someone willing to cast Wish on our behalf...as opposed to being able to cast it ourselves. Someone who was willing to have it maybe be the only time they ever cast the spell."
Julius nods, "It's powerful magic. I've told you before about pacing oneself with magic - a novice should light a candle, not a bonfire, lest he burn himself. A spell that rewrites reality, across the entirety of the realms, shaped by the force of the caster's will... it could be devastating, even for an accomplished mage. I wouldn't want to see anyone untrained trying to use it."
Marwa's face is compressed. She's wondering who the fuck is going to take a chance on us with this level of risk, and remembering that, untrained or not, Mika is both stubborn and self-dismissing enough to try it
"It's worth my risk" etc.
probably safer is to hit up towers and find a 20th level wizard who'll take a payoff before he gets the chance to try.
Julius brings up Luck Blades/enchanted items as another option - about as rare as finding a caster, and therefore an academic difference in feasibility, and that reminds Kit about stories she's heard of the Deck, which, I think Julius makes a face when she brings it up, like ugh, he kind of hopes that thing's not real because its fucked up
"It makes for a good story, but only an idiot would draw from it."
(also "idiot" is definitely a word he does not throw around lightly)
"Cool. So our options are...convince a high level wizard to cast it for us, find this magic deck of cards with a small possibility of drawing the card that could grant a wish, or stumble upon an enchanted magic item that grants us access to the spell. Anything I'm missing?"
"The boon of a deity could also work," Kit pipes up, "but they're not easy to come by." And the way her tone deflates indicates she's definitely petitioned her own and been denied.
'Who's a deity of justice? Because this is some fucking injustice, let me tell you.'
'I mean this doesn't...this isn't just chaos these patrons are spreading. It's fear, manipulation, violence, oppression." She's getting worked up again. "Isaac, Mika, who the fuck else do these entities have under their thumbs? Whole groups of people? Just because they can, because they need some pet to sing them a song or fetch something for them? I mean what the FUCK?!"
"Tyr is the reining authority on matters of justice," Alejandro supplies, with the annoyed face of someone who has had run-ins with his black-and-white-morality paladins before and doesn't care to repeat them.
"Great. Where's the closest temple to Tyr?"
"There's a courthouse in Arcadia," Julius offers with a teasing smile, watching the colour drain from Marwa's face as she imagines marching up to a court of law to make demands.
"Never mind. Who else? Akadi's not big on intervention. Does Bahamut take visitors, do you think?"
Both Julius and Alejandro defer to the cleric, who's thinking.
"You'd probably have better luck with a human god," she ventures, "I mean a god who's concerned with humans and the other peoples of Prime, rather than dragons or outer-Realm business."
"Fuck, there's a lot of those."
"Liira is a lady of joy and revelry," Kit muses, "But the problem isn't that he's unhappy. It's the oppression keeping him that way. I don't think excising unknowable horrors from someone's brain is in her portfolio." Kit's thinking still.
Marwa picks up her train of thought. "He mentioned a memory reset as a possible 'out,' but-" she shakes her head, "That's way too destructive, right? I mean is it really a fix if you're not you after?"
Kit snaps her fingers - an idea!
"What about Lathander?"
Julius looks at her, a contemplative expression that everyone present can read as checking a potential solution for faults.
"Who's that?" Marwa asks, hopeful,
"He's the god of the dawn, of new beginnings and rebirths, renewal. Also inspiration and creativity. Isaac mentioned him once; he and Milil, Lord of Song and troubadours, are friendly. They're both known for their investment in mortal affairs, but I think the Morninglord's portfolio applies more closely than Milil's."
"New beginnings, that's exactly what we need." Marwa's eyes are shining. She's remembering times she's heard Lathander's name before; weddings, naming-days, new journeys. If Mika is going to move past this dark chapter of his life, who better to help him open a new one?
"Where are his temples? What do they look like?"
They finish the snacks and go through a couple refills of their drinks as they discuss specifics. When Lydia comes in to remind them that the lunch hour is upon them, Marwa jumps into her arms for a big hug.
When Marwa turns in for the day, there are a couple of letters for her that have been left on her nightstand. Both from Mika.
Marwa gives into the urge to let herself fall backward into her bed where she’s sitting, Reading them, and when he gets to the part about imagining stuff - she says out loud GOOD
Marwa is touched. She vows to start sticking things in his bag and pockets when he’s not looking. Just to see how much she can get away with.
a week? week and a bit? after that mail, she gets another letter from Mika. More like a note.
Hey Marwa,
Wanna do a haunted house?
#6 Main st., 'Brass Horn Inn,' Lantern Hill, E. Noriand
--Mika
“Bitch do I.” she grins. She can hear the line in his voice. the smugness, the shit-eating smirk.
She’s itching to go. The address is unfamiliar but Pops probably knows where it is.
when Marwa goes to tell her parents she’s leaving, it’s not a surprise at all. I don’t think it took long for her to see that her baby is okay. But needed to be home in a safe place for a while until she felt ready to fly away again
I think Lydia smiles and her chin wobbles as she hugs her
“Go do wonderful things, habibi. Just don’t forget your family or your home here.”
And Marwa of course gets all emotional.
But the family has a lovely dinner send off, and then when she's leaving Erik says walk this way, and takes her to the garage, where her NEW AIRSHIP IS DOCKED and has been kept covered partly because going-away present but also because holy man did Erik have to get some safeties installed before he was letting her anwhere near it
“Oh my god…Pops. It’s here!?”
"It's here, kiddo; go on, have a look around."
It's a smallish craft, but big enough for a party of five, with a little extra room for storage/extra passengers. Steerage is done by sails and wheel, and the propulsion on the hull can be retracted to make it a seafaring vessel
which Erik points out is NOT the same to operate as an airship so she should get someone who has ACTUALLY sailed before to navigate if she uses this function
also it's painted a lovely shiny sky blue
“It’s so beautiful”
She floats directly onto the ship, exploring, looking in the aft cabin, which makes a decent sort of sitting/general living area with a floor access to the hold, which is neatly divided between curtain-divided living areas that can be dissembled for extra space, a modest galley, and a small cargo area.
“Would you look at that, Nimbus. No prisoner efreet or elementals here! This is how an airship should be.”
Erik shows her how the navigation works, and makes her take it for a test drive around the property's perimeter before she can drop him off, give a big hug and kiss on the cheek, and wave as she flies off into the blue.