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Imrama The infinite, timeless waiting of the White Room is disturbed as a lone figure enters. He quickly reseals the door behind him, the dull, Essence-less world returning to its self-contained equilibrium. Alone with the prisoner, Imrama walks over to the table where the captive Sidereal is restrained, and looks down upon him, eye-to-eye.
FierceRedStar The prisoner appears to be asleep as Imrama enters..
Imrama begins to address the prisoner without formality, seeming to start almost in mid-thought. "You are a man of many names, Fierce Red Star. I thought once that I would like to meet you, when I believed that your name was Rannath, and did not know that Rannath was a lie." Imrama fiddles with a small item from his coat, wrapped in cloth.
FierceRedStar The man on the table begins to stir, moving his arms as if he intends to wipe his blinking eyes, before the bonds upon them restrain him and he notices his constriction once again.
Imrama continues talking, as though speaking to no one in particular, even while looking the prisoner dead in the eye. "I must assume, Rannath that from your long hours spent watching our Circle and researching our secrets, you know that I am a naturally gentle soul. (...)
Imrama "There is a level of cold, calculating threat that Zahara, or Cerin, or Thirteen could offer you that I cannot begin to approach. Phoenix, too, might menace you in her own mad way, and Lucent might summon up the righteous anger to cow your jaded nature. But I can rely on none of those things."
Imrama "You know me Rannath. You know that I am governed far more by love than by reason. And you also know, I suspect, that a part of me was once a part of the tragic hero Askaru, who lived and died many centuries ago."(...)
Imrama "If you did know this, you would be aware that Askaru loved and was wedded to one of your former number, the Knights of the Golden Chrysanthemum, and that his loving wife, the root of his happiness and hope came to share your own sad fate among the fallen stars."
FierceRedStar "....maybe," he says, in a mumbled voice.
Imrama ACTION proceeds, "Because you know these things, I believe you will recognize your predicament in another moment, when I finish unwrapping this trinket. For I, who was once Askaru, have only recently learned from you, who were never truely Rannath, that those who are fallen retain all of their memories throughout their incarnations and the long march of years. Which means that, whatever her current spiritual state, Remembrance of Seven Tears
Imrama finishes unwrapping his small package, revealing a tube of shining metal etched with fine, detailed markings. It is clearly a channel-cage, but rather than the familiar Orichalcum construction, this device is made of Starmetal. He holds the contraption up to the prisoner's eyes.
Imrama "Remembrance of Seven Tears still lives, as she did so many centuries ago."
FierceRedStar Red Star's eyes, bloodshot and ringed with darkness, nonetheless open wide at the sight of the item Imrama holds. "You've got a channel cage there."
Imrama "You're not wrong." Imrama says, his tone colder than the Winter gales that scrour the valley where he was raised.
FierceRedStar "I don't know what you think you're doing with that."
Imrama "That makes two of us. I am neither a sorceror nor an artificer, as you must know. In matters of essence-science, I remain something of a leyman."
FierceRedStar looks back and forth uncertainly for just a second. "So why are you showing it to me?"
Imrama "Tell me, Rannah: if you strapped to an operating table in a hospital in Nexus, and found out that the man poised over you with a scalple was a farmer freshly plucket from the hinterland, how would it make you feel?"
FierceRedStar swallows. "You're crazy. I thought you were the nice one."
Imrama "You are old enough to remember the First Age. You of all people should know what even the nicest of us are capable of."
Imrama "When our hearts are on the line."
FierceRedStar looks around the room for a second. "I don't know what you think you're going to get out of me with that." He looks at the cage with an unsteady look for a moment. "And of course if you do anything to me, you'll lose anything I do know about anything."
Imrama turns his back to the prisoner to recap. "So what have we established? That I am a creature who is ruled by love, and bound by a wedding oath my predecessor swore to a lover I have never met. That I am ill-suited to the work of torturing or intimidating you, and yet you, who are chained, alone and unguarded with me at this moment, offer the first lead of my lifetime for learning the location and condition of my lost love."(...)
Imrama "Lose?" Imrama rounds on the restrained man. "What I have lost cannot be measured. So long as you remain the camly uncooperative prisoner of my Circle, you offer nothing to me."(...)
Imrama "But if I roll the dice," Imrama holds up the Starmetal channelcage and wiggles it a bit. "There is always the chance, however slim, that one of my friends will be able to mine what I need from whatever remains of you."
Imrama "Love lives on hope, Rannath."
Imrama "Lose?" Imrama rounds on the restrained man. "What I have lost cannot be measured. So long as you remain the camly uncooperative prisoner of my Circle, you offer nothing to me."(...)
Imrama "But if I roll the dice," Imrama holds up the Starmetal channelcage and wiggles it a bit. "There is always the chance, however slim, that one of my friends will be able to mine what I need from whatever remains of you."
Imrama "Love lives on hope, Rannath."
FierceRedStar looks sidelong at the device, and is visibly sweating a little. "I think you've made your point."
Imrama 's entire expression changes, becoming warm and affable. He pulls up a chair to sit beside the table where the Sidereal is restrained, reversing it to sit facing the prisoner over the chair-back. His body trembles only a little bit.
Imrama "I am exceedingly glad to hear you say that. Tell me then: what do you know of the remaining four Who Are Fallen, and in particular, of Askaru's wife?"
FierceRedStar swallows and does not himself visibly relax. "Well, it's not like we get a manual or anything," he says. "I only know what I've found out myself."
Imrama "You are an avowed information and influence peddler. I expect that you've managed to find out quite a bit over the course of centuries."
FierceRedStar "Well, I know who three of them are: Qian Mian, who I'm sure you've made your acquaintance of; Remembrance of Seven Tears, of course; and a Serenity named Maril." (...)
FierceRedStar "Qian worked for the Yozis since before the first time I died. Maril has been in and out of Meru; I run into her -- or him -- every once in a while, when she's decided she's between identities. The last I saw she had everyone convinced she was one of the Empress' children." (...)
Imrama raises an eyebrow, but does not interrupt.
FierceRedStar "About Remembrance... She died the same way I did, and fell off the map, again the same way I did. If I'm not wrong -- and I am rarely wrong -- she's turned up briefly in more places than the others. (...)
FierceRedStar "As a leader of the Heartwood Spearfolk. Taking on multiple identities to direct the movements of tribes in the South. Commanding a Legion of troops for the Shogunate. She even lived in a small town around here, a while back. Never stayed anywhere more than... two years, tops." (...)
FierceRedStar "The last time I saw her myself was quite some time ago, in the Nameless Kingdom; she told me that she didn't care why I was there but that she had ways to deal with someone who couldn't die and wasn't afraid to use them." He laughs to himself, and his eyes take on that crazed look for a second. "I killed the family I was there to kill and didn't waste time making myself scarce."
Imrama underbites with his lips pursed, jutting his chin out in a pensive expression. "Did she use a name or hold a title when you saw her in the far North?"
FierceRedStar "To those she lived among at the time, she was Olyra, reigning savant and woman of wisdom; 'Olyra' 'died' in an 'avalanche'" -- he emphasizes the quotes strongly in his speech, since his arms are too restricted to make quote-fingers -- "about a year later."
Imrama "And you've no clue as to where she might have moved on to." Imrama says rhetorically, his spirit flattening.
FierceRedStar "I don't give a shit about her unless she gets in my way," he says, spitting a little, "so, no. No I don't."
Imrama lets out a long sigh. "Still, every little bit helps." He flashes Fierce Red Star a short but honest smile. "You mentioned before that you had been killed by Reshina - was that in the same battle where Remembrance fell?"
FierceRedStar "Not precisely the same." He thinks for a second. "Someone -- several someones, I guess -- summoned Third Circles, set them loose in the capital. As cover for something else." He shrugs. "She got me near the beginning of the whole process, and by the time I had use of my own hands and legs again I didn't care enough to see what happened after that."
Imrama "I see." Imrama scratches his dreadlocked scalp, and sits quietly with the prisoner for a moment.
Imrama "Very well then, Fierce Red Star. I appreciate the information. I hope that you rest well." Imrama replaces the chair, and exits the Essence-sealed chamber.
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