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Lucent Zahara had come with the most exciting news! Upon working on the Cathedral she discovered the Essence in the area acted as nascent Dragon Line, a proccess that would take centuries... or much less if Exalted were involved! That was clearly an influence in the dream and intuition that had guided Lucent to the place of its construction!
Lucent Knowing that, Lucent and Zahara now go to ask the help of...
Lucent knocks on Varanim's door!
Varanim opens the door a moment later with bag on her shoulder and stick in hand, looking un-thrilled to see either of them. "It's my day off," she snarls, apparently celebrating the occasion with bloodshot eyes and a wobbly posture.
Lucent "We need your help!" He points! "To brighten the Cathedral!"
zahara "By which he means construct a manse"
Varanim winces a bit at his overuse of exclamation points. "What's in it for me? I don't do churches."
Varanim Then she looks over at Zahara and grunts with a sort of grudging interest.
Lucent "Well, you helped Zahara in rebuilding a God's structure. I thought you would be a great help!"
Varanim Blinking blearily at Zahara, she says, "Will he shut up about this if I don't come along?"
zahara "What do YOU think?"
Lucent grins innocently. VERY innocently.
Varanim looks nauseous, and snags a half-empty bottle from the desk for breakfast. "Fine. Let's go. First time someone tries to bless me, I walk."
Lucent stops his blessing behind Varanim, whistles
Varanim "Get Verbena, if she somehow doesn't have better things to do with her time. She's hell on wheels for landscaping."
Lucent "The little Twilight? Right, let u..." He stops. "... where is she?"
Varanim mouths 'little Twilight' and starts to shake her head before realizing the motion is a mistake. "This way," she says, stalking off.
Doctor It's not too difficult for Varanim to locate her: Nesula's rented out an entire city block for her fledgling group of Solars, and Verbena's apartment is right in the middle of it. She comes to the door with a strange golden doodad in one hand, and a mess of papers strewn about behind her. "Yes?"
zahara contemplates telling Nesula about Markuran... and then decides that really ought to wait. A long time.
Varanim "Lucent here is being annoying, and it will be over much faster for all of us if you help him finish his Manse. It needs to not blow up."
Lucent "Verbena?" He smiles, angelic. "I am told you are quite the Geomancer. And we need the best."
Lucent looks cross over his shoulder, "Varanim!"
zahara chuckles
Verbena pulls her brown hair back from around her neck. "Riiiight. Erm, right this minute?"
Varanim "Trust me, he doesn't get LESS annoying with time."
Lucent "Yes."
zahara "Are you otherwise occupied?"
Lucent shoots Varanim another murderous glare "... to the right this minute part."
Verbena thinks for a moment. "Hold on." She shuts the door.
Varanim leans against a nearby wall to vomit while they wait, taking a drink afterwards and looking much refreshed.
zahara "ew."
Verbena After a long ten minutes, Verbena finally re-emerges, her hair immaculately tied up into its elaborate knotted shape, a new outfit of fiery red and orange silks still held together by golden ropes. She steps out and closes the door behind her in one smooth motion. "Okay, I have a minute."
Lucent winces. "You know, it would be better if you just stopped drinking."
Lucent "Perfect!" He smiles at Verbena, a pointed bow. "Come, then, The Sunrise is not far from here."
Varanim pointedly ignores Lucent, sneers halfheartedly at Verbena's impeccable dress, and looks to Zee for salvation. "Your fault."
zahara raises a brow, "What'd I do this time?"
Verbena -------
Lucent The Sunrise is a beautiful espetacle, the emblem of the Sunlands cast in gold overlooking all who pass close, catching and the sun and shining ever-brighter, in all directions, without casting a single shadow.
Lucent Down its myriad towers beautiful oaken doors greet Varanim and Verbena, and within glass murals show the members of the Sunlands' Circle in all their glory, the image of the Sun holding his four treasures over the altar, images of the Maidens appearing to be made out of a single gemstone each around him, each smiling in his support.
Lucent Even from the outside the constant flickering of thousand candles ever-burning with each of a Kashaen's prayers can be seen, although from the outside they cannot yet see the beauty etched on the ground, the figure of the sun.
Lucent And even Lucent is amazed on the progress Zahara has made on it. "It is even brighter..."
Verbena "Yeah, this looks pretty nice," she says, sitting on a nearby rock and giving the place a visual once-over.
Varanim looks it over with a profoundly skeptical eye. "What exactly do you expect me to do here?" she says to Lucent.
zahara "The Essence I used in creating it seems to have changed the geomancy of the place quite a bit," she gestures to the nascent dragon lines. "Like attracts like."
Lucent "I imagine we will need to change the architecture and the landscape somehow... and you still possess the crafting abilities imparted in you by Zahara, right? Can you not naturally feel the shape it should take?"
Varanim scowls a bit, then nicks her finger and drops blood in one eye to take a look at the other side of the Shroud.
Verbena The world on the opposite side seems reasonably stable -- the region of Solaria has been well-kept for some time, and there seems to be little activity there.
Varanim "Boring," she pronounces after a moment. "Solved problem."
Lucent looks at Zahara and Verbena. "And how can we change them further? Empower this place?"
Varanim Without letting on that she's being conscientious, Varanim begins to amble around the place, making a slightly more thorough check for signs of disturbing events in the past that might have unforeseen echoes.
Varanim Mostly ignoring the others unless directly questioned, she makes a gradual circuit of the outside, then slips inside to look the rest over, the better to critique. Since she's here, and already working on her day off, she hums a little drinking song and looks hard.
Verbena looks over the place with a careful eye, and after a moment, takes her chalk out and starts notating directly around the building itself. "Well," she says, "to start with, your overall geometric structure is off. You need to eliminate these windows here, convert to a three-door overall structure, raise the ceiling level one point four two feet..." She goes on, walking around the building and notating all around.
zahara follows Verbena, considering her suggestions and offering the occasional question or her own suggestions
Lucent follows, noting everything on a parchment he had brought in horrible handwriting
Verbena After two full laps around the building, it is absolutely covered in tiny golden squiggles and diagrams, and Verbena sits back down on her rock smugly.
Lucent "RIGHT!" He makes the last note, "I think we can have this done soon enough, if we can count with the Empress' hand. I will call upon all able-bodied Kashaen to aid her." He nods! "Anything else?"
Verbena "You also built it in the wrong place."
Varanim pokes her head out the door in time to hear that, and laughs.
zahara raises a brow. "Oh, well I suppose it shall simply stay a cathedral then?" she says mildly.
Lucent freezes in shock. "WHAT?"
Verbena laughs. "Your dragon lines are going to get knotted up in the deposits of naturally-occurring conductive jade that are right... under... here," she says, poking a spot right next to one of the corners of the building with her foot.
Lucent kicks nothing in particular. "Well, then. We will just have to MOVE it."
zahara "I could use some extra jade, anyway."
Verbena Varanim's studies are rather slow and elaborate, but eventually she's able to get a pretty good picture of the local area: its ancient history as a medium-density residential area during the first age, the complete destruction of its existing structures during a powerful Essence battle, the re-emergence of natural growth and the years of calm, (...)
Verbena the occasional battles of local tribes that had occured within this land, until finally the early settlers of the Sunlands cleared the land and began the nearby development.
Lucent focuses on the Red Seal, sending out a pronouncement. "I need you. To serve the sun, to bring our glory. To rebuilt that which was built under the orders of the fair maidens of the sun. Come. Now." It spreads out, the order to all of his people in the Sunlands!
Varanim "It's a startlingly peaceful piece of land. Figures you'd waste it on a church," Varanim pronounces as she shuffles out.
Lucent "You know me, I just have to do those things." He smiled as they began to come! Men and women trained in the methods of the First Age, perfect soldiers with bodies out of old sculptures! As Verbena pointed the diagrams and Lucent shouted the orders, as Zahara lent them power and skill, making the work of days become the work of minutes!
Lucent As Zahara herself called an Earth Elemental, Immense Turtle of Earth, a roiling carpet moving the cathedral to its right place as it sung to every brick of it! As Hopping Puppeters came to break the earth and mine the Jade, as the Kashaen worked in the Manse... and in the span of three days of work the Cathedral had become a Manse, a bright Manse that span more than the space of a city block, with so many rooms... and a grand stone at its center!
Lucent And on the fourth day, they rested. And there was a party. And it was good.
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