Mithar Keep & Frescot House IV: Magic babble lies within

[UncleWolf]

Entrance

If there's a second chair, Jezebel will sit down as well, facing Cessie. "You treated me far more fairly than most I've met when you had every reason to hate me." She explains before giving a smile. "Though you probably do anyway, but I don't mind. You treated me like I was a person, not a monster even when I was a monster." After that, she gives a soft sigh, still smiling. "The Lotus Gardens are doing well. They're...peaceful. It's turned away from the pure debauchery it was and has become a place of...fulfillment. It's protected, safe, pure, and I love everyone there. There's still marks of its origins, but I don't pretend to hide such anymore. Everything I've done, good and bad, whether it has turned out or not, has shaped me into what I am now, and while I might regret some of those choices, I wouldn't change them. The same goes for what I've built and I look forward to shaping more lives in the future. Even my time as a Daemon made me a better person, especially since I've removed all such traces of corruption from both myself and The Gardens." She explains before folding her hands in front of herself. "You should visit sometime. At least for a walk through the park. Some fresh air would do you good even if you don't stay long."

[Shadowcaller]

Entrance

Jezebel really saw her as that close? There was that ritual she helped with but it was more of necessity than anything else. Her story surprised her however, was Jezebel really leaving all that had happened behind? True, the person she saw before her was far different from the one she had seen last time but she hadn't expected Jezebel to go quite so far in her change. To abandon that being she had called a god sounded like something monumental. Something she really had to see to believe. "Why don't we visit it right away?" She gestures at the clock. "It's always take a walk this time of day, we could simply stroll down to Riverside and have a look."

[UncleWolf]

Entrance

Jezebel seems to hesitate for a moment before standing and smiling a bit. "Sure. And it's funny, isn't it? We've been through a lot together, mostly against one another, and we certainly hardly know things about each other but...well, perhaps that's what makes us somewhat close. You were the first person to actually talk to me once I arrived here, you know that?"

[Shadowcaller]

Entrance

"I was? Never considered that." Cessie replies, once again surprised by the former Daemons words. Those hadn't been the most pleasant circumstances however even if Cessie still didn't know what they had attempt to do at the hotel. "But I've met Magtok a lot too and I still wouldn't consider him very close you know." She then remarks as she stands up as well, pushing the chair in under the table again. "Still, it sounds like you have changed a lot since the first time we spoke. You looked a lot different for instance." She was going to say "You were human" but that might come off wrong.

[UncleWolf]

Entrance

"I was a child." She points out with a smile. "I looked like a human adult, but I was hardly out of my teens. Twenty-one. I was rash, ambitious, and head strong. Not bad traits all in all, but I was too smart for my own good and lacked the proper wisdom to apply myself. I admit I'm not much older now, but I've experienced much since then. I'm far from humble of course." She adds with a grin as she heads towards the door to hold it open for Cessie. "I doubt I ever will be, but if you can handle that, so can I."

[Shadowcaller]

Entrance

Cessie had been in that situation too many times. It took her years of simply wandering around the world until she really started to grow up and even then she doesn't feel she really started to fully mature until recently. Being the mother of three children and suddenly divorced. Funny what turns life can take. "We've all been young and arrogant, as have we all committed mistakes. Admittedly I had no idea you were so young when we met." Or that she could lead an entire cult at that age. "You seemed so much older."

[UncleWolf]

Entrance => Riverside

Jezebel's smile fades at the remark and she lets out a deep breath. "I had to grow quickly back home. Far faster than anyone should. There are some things children shouldn't experience, yet I had to last through much of those things." She admits before smiling once more when the sun hits her and she begins to lead the way.

[Shadowcaller]

Entrance => Riverside

"I understood that you might have had it tough." Though she hadn't really considered it until now. "I'm just glad you've been able to turn it around." She then follows Jezebel to Riverside.

[Gullara]

[Fall]

Sakura squeezes Cessie tight. She's pauses uncertainly. "It's for the best. You weren't happy toward the end; I could tell. It hurts now, but you're gonna be okay."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fall]

Cessie buries her head in Sakura's shoulder for a moment, just holding on tight for comfort. "I'm mostly worried about the children." She then admits, her voice sounding somewhat stronger as she starts to let go of Sakura again. "You don't think you could pass by a bit more, take the children with you perhaps?" Cessie rarely asked for help but she didn't feel very confident in raising the children on her own, even with Kirin and Garn helping her.

[Gullara]

[Fall]

"Of course, I'd love to. Things are starting to stabilize again with the new babies, so that'll be a lot easier." As easy as it ever is, at least. But Sakura smiles wide at her friend. "It'll be great. The kids are gonna want to see each other more, and we can introduce them all to their newest cousins." Sakura giggles, already excited about these plans.

[Shadowcaller]

[B][Fall][/B

"I'm sure they will be thrilled, just imagining so many babies at once gives me a headache though." Cessie replies with a small smile as she starts to wipe away her tears. "Not sure what your secret magical technique is."

[Gullara]

[Fall]

Sakura laughs. "You just have to be a little crazy is all. And accept that you have veeeery little free time." Sakura squeezes Cessie around her shoulders. "Think you could do that? You'd probably get a lot less other work done."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fall]

Cessie shakes her head slowly, but still seems to be in good spirit, at least considering she was crying not too long ago. "I don't know Sakura, I still need to do my job and all you know?. Perhaps I need to hire another servant. Kirin can't be here all the time and neither can you." Her research and information gathering was rather time consuming and she hadn't done much of the latter part of late either. Her continued existence here in the nexus depended on it.

[Gullara]

[Fall]

"Really? Well if that's what you need to do. I can get why you want the help ever since those fairies have been around our house. It's nice to have some help." Sakura replies. It keeps her sane, that's for sure. And she can have a little bit of free time!

[Shadowcaller]

[Fall]

I'm pretty sure Sakura is already insane Ghar, so a little bit too late for that.
"I could never do without help personally." Cessie admits, it was probably since she also had a job. But she wasn't going to mention that detail to a fey who probably never had one. "Too much to do and I really don't want to spend all my time with them either. It just becomes too much." She sigh a bit.

[Gullara]

[Fall]

"Oh I know. I guess we've had this conversation a million times by now." Sakura gives her shoulders a shrug. "But yeah, I'll definitely be over more. It's up to you if you want more help around here, though. I guess I can't provide it all." Especially not with her own pile of children to take care of.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fall]

Sakuras children come in little baby piles ('little' being rather relative here). "I wouldn't want you to exhaust yourself for me Sakura, you got Adir and children of your own with little free time to spare as it is right now. How are they doing anyway? I barely know their names yet, everything just happened so fast with the birth and then the break-up..." The divorce you mean.

[Gullara]

[Fall]

"They're doing great. Cern is being a bit troublesome I guess. He doesn't like that we need to spend so much time with the new babies. He'll be fine, though. Laela ecstatic to have a new brother and sister. Gwydion, well, he's Gwydion. You'd never know how he feels about it." The familiar warmth enters Sakura's voice as she talks about her kids.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fall]

Baby-craze. Soon there will be froth coming out of her mouth. Or maybe that was Magtok...
"Sounds like they're going along fine though. I feel like I can barely keep track on mine anymore." Cessie takes a deep breath, pushing back other bad thoughts entering her mind. A part of her wonders if it was the right thing to have children with someone she couldn't love. But it shouldn't be about Harnel anymore. The children were persons of their own and she loved them all. "I'm just... worried how they will turn out. It has been said that if there isn't a father around things won't work out the way they should. What if they will turn out wrong somehow?"

[The (second) portal to Mithar Keep]

"It feels strange to say, but I'm doing this way too much." Cessie says with a laugh as she finds herself staring at the Keep once again. Would Jezebel insist on a permanent portal to the keep as well? She somehow found the idea rather amusing. "Sakura made a portal to the keep too, maybe we'll go visit her next."

[UncleWolf]

Second Portal to the Keep

Jezebel seems to have forgotten to let go of Cessie's hand for the moment as he turns to close the portal, reversing the motion with his free hand. "Are you wanting me to stay for a little while longer?" He asks, taking a moment to smooth out the air where the portal once was. Only after then does he let go of her hand and turns around to look at the Keep from the gate. "I had planned on heading back after seeing you to your door, but it is up to you."

[Shadowcaller]

Second Portal to the Keep

Cessie shakes her head. "Don't know! On one hand, I shouldn't invite a ex-daemon lady in my house in the middle of the night, on the other hand, I'm not sure I can go to bed yet and I would have to stay awake a few hours being horribly bored. It's too late to do any proper research." Nor is she really in the state of mind to do it considering what happened last time she tried to do research under the fey influence. Cessie turns to Jezebel, smiling lazily. "What do you think? I'm not sure you even sat your foot inside the keep yet."

[UncleWolf]

Second Portal

Should Cessie look up at Jezebel's face, she'll find that he actually seems to be thinking about the offer seriously. Not just that but he even seems a little conflicted. Finally he gives a bit of a shudder before composing himself and smiling slightly at Cessie. "If you feel you can trust me enough, I don't mind keeping you company until you're ready to fall asleep. I promise I won't do anything untoward."

[Shadowcaller]

Second Portal

"If you feel that way Jezebel, just go home before I bore you to sleep though. There might be a few questions if someone find you sleeping in the guest bed." Cessie replies, apparently not noticing, or ignoring Jezebel's hesitation as she turns to unlock and open the door to the keep and then gestures inside. "Gods aren't vampires are they? You hardly need my invitation to enter after all."

[UncleWolf]

Entrance

"I only need an invitation to interact with your dreams in person. So please, invite all you want." Jezebel says with a grin before heading in, acting much more like his older self and not so serious. Once he's inside, he takes off his cloak and casts it to the side where it simply vanishes. Now that he's indoors, he's wearing a long sleeve white dress shirt with silver cuff links. For whatever reason he goes through the motions of removing the cuff links and casting them aside as well before rolling up his sleeves. It all seems rather...normal. Like a man who'd just gotten home from work to relax. It all seems quite natural at the moment, but...

Wouldn't it have been easier to just summon the shirt like that?

"As for boredom, don't worry about it. I don't need to sleep. I can choose to, but I haven't had the necessity for years now." He explains, turning back towards Cessie and waiting to see what she'd like to do. "It's actually a rather convenient part of what I am."

[Shadowcaller]

Entrance==>The living room

Cessie give Jezebel a look somewhere in-between confusion and mirth. "I see I have to be careful around you still." She replies as Jezebel starts making herself comfortable. "No need for sleep sounds convenient though, these days I'm awfully tired for seemingly no reason at all." She hangs off Jezebel's coat and takes a seat in a nearby armchair, gesturing for Jezebel to take the opposite seat at the other side of the glass table. "So to stave off boredom, you really need to tell me more about this "goddess" deal of yours, you're not exactly like any god from my world."

[Gullara]

[Fall]

Baby-craze. Soon there will be froth coming out of her mouth. Or maybe that was Magtok...
"Sounds like they're going along fine though. I feel like I can barely keep track on mine anymore." Cessie takes a deep breath, pushing back other bad thoughts entering her mind. A part of her wonders if it was the right thing to have children with someone she couldn't love. But it shouldn't be about Harnel anymore. The children were persons of their own and she loved them all. "I'm just... worried how they will turn out. It has been said that if there isn't a father around things won't work out the way they should. What if they will turn out wrong somehow?"

[Fall]

"Don't be silly, Cessie. I'm sure they'll be great with you as their mom. They don't need Harnel around to turn out good. I'm sure of it." Sakura gives Cessie a reassuring squeeze around the shoulders.

[UncleWolf]

The Living Room

Jezebel takes his seat and gives a small smile. "I'm honestly not sure where I could start." He admits before leaning back his head and giving a sigh. "Imagine...imagine being able to sense the desire and hopes and loyalty of everyone in a section of a town. Then imagine that giving you strength and power. That's what it's like for me. For everyone that seeks my help or sanctuary, I gain just a little bit more. My mind is always flooded with voices, but I've grown accustomed to it now and can handle it without a headache or stress. I can't hear the thoughts of those who are devout to other gods, but I can at least vaguely sense their needs in person if I have enough time with them. Just because someone isn't my flock doesn't mean I can't help them. It started with me when I was a Daemon, but it was all unclear and vague. Now...now I actually have control even if I lack the sheer force."

[Shadowcaller]

The Living Room

Cessie seems to listen with interest at Jezebel's explanation. "Interesting, can you do that on me too? It's said that I'm hard to read." She replies, smiling.

[UncleWolf]

The Living Room

Jezebel shakes his head. "Generally you probably would be, but not with you asking for me to. Not to mention that some of it is a little obvious." He points out before closing his eyes and extending his senses closer to Cessie. She'll feel a slight warmth wash over her as Jezebel gives a sigh. After the sigh, the warmth leaves and Jezebel stands up to turn away a bit, not looking at anything in particular, just anywhere except towards Cessie. "First, there's a lot of concern and worry. You fear for your children, specifically about what might happen now that they don't have a father. You know you're strong and capable and hope you can do it yourself as it now seems necessary, but there's always that nagging feeling asking Am I Enough? in there. The doubt eats away at you constantly, but every time you look at your children you can't help but feel a little...giddy and proud." He adds with a small smile.

"After the worry though, there's a lot of anger and bitterness about Harnel. I know it's a little obvious, but it's what I felt from you. You resent that he grew distant and left rather than trying to work it out and because of it, you want to...you almost want to get revenge on him some way." He explains, the smile fading and turning into a sigh. "You want to prove that you don't need him to be happy, but you're not sure how. You've thought about seeking another lover, but I think you'd regret that course of action almost immediately. It just isn't you even though I'm sure you could have your pick of anyone in this world."

Finally, Jezebel looks down at the floor, hands held behind him and all mirth gone from his voice. "And then you're sad. You're disheartened that you don't know what you did wrong, if you did anything wrong. This is the second husband you've lost and you're worried that perhaps you're fated to spend your life without companionship. You may have friends and children, but you wonder if you're going to be alone forever and even if you find someone new, whether or not the man will stay around. Lastly, you have an overwhelming restlessness. Despite the love for your children, you don't want to be stuck here. You feel restrained and suffocating and it feels so heavy on your shoulders that you aren't sure what to do."

Jezebel stops speaking then but doesn't turn around in order to give Cessie a few moments to absorb everything said and to come to a conclusion about it. It'll allow the mage to recompose herself should she wish so she doesn't have to face the goddess at the moment.