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< Love And Souls | Sol Invictus Logs | Knives Of Kasima >

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• Zahara storms back to her quarters and slams the door, and Sol preserve anyone who crosses her path along the way.
• Cerin gives her some time to calm herself, then knocks on her door "Zahara?"

<Zahara> "Go away!" she shouts through the door. "You are NOT breaking the rest."

<Cerin> "I have no intention of breaking the rest. While I can't say I disagree with Marku's actions entirely, he does have a point."

<Zahara> "So do I."

<Cerin> "Please, let me in, I need to talk with you. You have to understand what they are like first. I won't try to destroy them while we talk."

<Zahara> "Promise not to destroy them afterwards, either. If necessary, I will be the one to do so."

<Cerin> "I cannot make that promise now."

<Zahara> "Then you will remain outside."

<Zahara> "Don't even THINK about picking the lock."

<Cerin> "Zahara, do not be unreasonable. I need to talk to you. You did not where one long enough to truely understand what you are dealing with. That is why I cannot promise not to destroy them after, now."

<Zahara> "I was watching when you let one touch your soul. Do not think me so foolish."

<Cerin> "That is not the same, I don't think, no matter how well you can read me."

<Zahara> "Neither do you truly understand the weapon, Cerin, for all that you have worn it."

<Cerin> "I am not claiming that. I would just like to be able to talk to you in a sensible manner about it. I cannot promise more than that oath, because it would be betraying a greater oath to do more."

<Zahara> "Then promise me you will not destroy them today."

<Cerin> "If you will promise not to work on them today, then I will promise that."

<Zahara> "I already started."

<Cerin> "No more then, please."

<Zahara> "Cerin, I don't have time to waste on your silly foibles. Leave, and come back when I'm done."

<Cerin> "This. Is. Not. My. SILLY. Foibles. Damnit!" there is a brief pause. "This is me not wanting you to loose any more of your soul."

• Zahara answers coldly, "Then you should allow me to study these so that I can defeat the next ones we meet more easily."

<Cerin> "After we have talked. Please."

<Zahara> "We are talking now."

<Cerin> "We are shouting at each other through a door with more wards than a sorcery school. I thought we could have more civilised talking than that."

<Zahara> "Yes, you're lucky it's shoutable at all."

<Cerin> "Zahara! Don't be like this. Let me talk to you in a sensible manner, please."

<Zahara> "Why should I? You obviously don't think I have any sense."

<Cerin> "You know that isn't true. I just want you to understand what it was like. Because I don't want you to feel that. Ever."

<Zahara> "I'm not planning to attune it, Cerin."

<Zahara> "I understand its danger, I felt you through the Unity. But I will not destroy it until I have learned from it."

<Cerin> "How do you plan to study it then?" he asks.

<Zahara> "I will observe the way it's put together, the magical effects that bind it, the similarities and differences between it and other weapons, and the crystals from Rathess, because it obviously sh ares similarities. I will see if it will accept a soul that is no longer living instead of one that is.

• Zahara turns the crystal artifact over and over in her hands, having locked the other away securely... well secure against anyone but HIM, at least.
• Cerin nods, not that Zahara can see "If it is that sort of study, then I will not worry so much about your study of them, but I /could/ not let you consider attuning to them. I would destroy them before that, even though I know you would be so angry."

<Zahara> "So If I promise not to attune them, you will not attempt to destroy them?"

<Cerin> "Or attune any living being to them ...at least without me being there."

<Zahara> "Fine." The door opens.

• Cerin steps inside. Though he's trying not to show it, this conversation was ...hard for him.
• Zahara eyes Cerin with a hint of anger still in her gaze, "There, we are not shouting now." She closes and locks the door behind him, in case Marku should get the same idea.
• Cerin nods. He has a mixture of anger and pain in his eyes. "No. For which I am greatful."

<Zahara> "What else did you want to say?"

<Cerin> "That was all on the subject of those ...weapons." he considers, then burries the hurt and pain as best he can "You were studying the Daybreaker."

• Zahara considers saying something to ease his pain, but decides against it. After all, he thought her too foolish to trust, when he was the one who put the damned thing on in the first place. "Yes, and it is most curious."
• Cerin nods "What did you see?"

<Zahara> "The most notable aspect of the soulsteel was that it was incredibly rigid, and ordered. And had much more capacity than the typical blade of that size."

<Cerin> "What exactly do you mean by capacity?"

<Zahara> "Well you know that Soulsteel weapons tend to draw Essence out of their victims with each blow, correct?"

• Cerin nods.

<Zahara> "This weapon, I believe, has the capacity to contain entire Essence of a Solar of power equal to us." She raises an eyebrow. "Which raises an interesting possibility."

<Cerin> "It would explain certain things. The blade itself contains a soul. Complete and functional, as far as I could see."

<Zahara> "The question is, was the containment voluntary - which I doubt - and, if She knows how to do it again."

<Cerin> "I wasn't thinking of it like that. I doubt as a young Solar she would have the knowledge to do that. I suspect that soul may have been waiting a long time."

<Zahara> "You remembered how to use your ancestral weapon, did you not? Her youth is exacerbated by her power. The young know nothing of control."

<Cerin> "I do not know what weapons Ymir used. But I conceed your point. I have skill in things she did. Far greater than I could hope to have otherwise. Hmm. A captive Exalted soul?"

• Zahara nods, "Apparently freed, but how? She could not have attuned to the sword as a mortal. Perhaps it drank of her blood."

<Cerin> "Perhaps. It is possible it was simply waiting to be picked up. Unlike most Daikliaves it has a much more normal profile."

<Zahara> "Hmm, true. And you saw how it manifested in her Anima, this sword is tied to her, more deeply than normal artifacts."

<Cerin> "Well. It is possible that she bears the spark of the entity that was resident within the sword. Which would explain the ties."

<Zahara> "That was my thought."

<Zahara> "Although she seems no danger to us, she has the capability through the sword to consume our souls more thoroughly than this thing." she tips the crystal weapon a bit

<Cerin> "Yes and No. That would simply eat us. And we would assuage its hunger for merely an moment. The sword..I do not think it would consume us. We would simply be resident within it."

<Zahara> "Being imprisoned can be worse than death."

<Cerin> "I know. I am just uncertain as to how true a death these would provide. Where there is life there is hope. If they are as hungry as I fear..."

<Zahara> "I would be reborn.

<Zahara> "But with this sword, not until released. We need to speak with the spirit, find out how it happened."

<Cerin> "That is what I am not sure of. I watched a soul fall apart. A weapon could catch the spark too, were it voracious enough."

<Cerin> "But yes, we need to speak with the sword."

<Zahara> "Ah, but we do not know this weapon's capabilities beyond the brief show we saw. That is why I must study it."

<Cerin> "I know that. I was not objecting outright to you studying it."

<Zahara> "you just didn't believe I was smart enough not to attune it."

<Cerin> "No...not that. I just know how driven you can be."

• Zahara frowns a little, "Well then. Are we finished here?"
• Cerin nods "Unless you would like my help in studying the weapon? If not, I will leave."

<Zahara> "As long as you're not offering solely to watch over me to make sure I don't do anything naughty." she says drily.

<Cerin> "Not solely. I would be lieing if I said that was no part of my reason at all."

<Zahara> "Well, I suppose that will have to do. Here. Look at this diagram." she rolls out a scroll of parchment carefully, and begins to explain her reasoning so far

• Cerin listens and considers the diagram, what he observed in the village, and so they begin to work...

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< Love And Souls | Sol Invictus Logs | Knives Of Kasima >