Foxside: The Temple of Inari 52 - Nine Years of Foxes

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven shrugs. "If he's not in his room or with his wife, I'm not sure, Your Holiness. I haven't learned any scrying or locating spells, really." he says, not really sure how to handle this.

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

"Thank you, Miss."
Winds looks to Steven, who is clearly the important one here.

And then quickly looks back.
"What? Why? What are 'newts'?"

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo concentrates a moment then looks at Steven

He's in the library, as usual: please go fetch him and prepare adventuring garb - this is not an opportunity to miss.

Back to Winds

It is a small, semi-aquatic ambhibian with smooth permeable skin and frequently vibrant colors. Quite a few of them are mildly toxic, and they eat worms and water bugs... Rather like a sort of Ooze elemental - I would assume the border between Earth and Water would be a good place to look.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven gulps.
"For him or for both of us? I don't think I have any adventuring gear. I haven't even met with Myobu since getting back from the Shadows to make my sword..." he says.

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

"Thank you."
Winds nods. He's wondering many things- who are these people, why is Archangel chasing newts, why does he exist- but he doesn't ask them aloud.

He just smiles at Steven, shivers, and waits.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo smiles

Both of you, my Messenger: this is too important to leave to others. I will mind the temple myself

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven nods, then fixes it into a bow.
"Yes, Ma'am. But uh, could you please call for us some gear from the armory then while I get him, since I don't think either of us have any and will have to briefed on what's going on momentarily?" he asks.
Perhaps asking his boss/goddess to do things isn't the most proper way to go about things, but it's only reasonable since he has no idea what he's doing in times like this.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo merely nods. Steven will find Frederick at the same desk he was at last time this sort of question came up. The young shadow-fox is more than happy to come along, chattering along in his usual fashion as the pair returns to the sanctuary.

There, several acolytes have assembled a pair of backpacks and two sets of light leather armor with strange dark chainmail over critical areas, bearing the circular nine-tail symbol on a medallion over the sternum.

I have brought you some of our temple guard armor... it's the best I can do on such short notice. It will serve you as well on the Planes of Earth and Water as it does here.

Leather with light chain... "as well as" isn't really all that awesome, to be frank.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven looks at the packs.
"Uh, are there breathers in there? The Plane of Water sounds like a place where being able to breathe without needing to say a prayer for a spell would be useful.
Can you go over what exactly it is we're doing, Ma'am?" he asks.
He's not expecting much, honestly. His lack of combat training means he really wouldn't be able to move in anything heavier.
He still wishes he had his sword, though.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo chuckles

You don't need to breathe, Steven. You can't starve, you can't freeze, you can't burn, you can't be reduced to ashes by the light... you are beyond environmental danger as of an hour or so ago, when I commissioned you as a full Messenger.

Frederick looks uncomfortable

Um...

Tamomo chuckles

You are my nephew until you or Helen breaks off the engagement: you might as well be one of us, Frederick.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven's ears flatten and he effectively pales.
"I-but-I....
...all that still counts as mortal?" he asks, overwhelmed.

And wait, death by sunlight is a thing that at some point he might have had to worry about?

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo sighs

I might have need to send you to the plane of Radiance, or Fire, or the universe where gamma radiation is the most common form of electromagnetic radiation. Do you have any idea what Inari means when she says "every possible world?". I was born, grew up, and was murdered on a world very like what you were used to, but Frederick doesn't know that out planet is so far from our sun and has such a thick outer atmosphere that what you call "UV" light didn't reach us in appreciable quantities. Our humans NEVER got sunburn. EVER. There's no such thing as "sunblock", because no-one ever needed it!

Think what one small change can make.

I can't have my primary servants getting damaged by trivialities, Steven. You are shielded from opposite spin wind: do you even know what that is? You don't have to worry about sympathetic eddies, or discontinuities, spatiality sinkholes, and probability loops! Steven... I don't even understand what all those are. But it's enough to know: If *someplace* tries to hurt you... it will fail.

Within reason... so don't go places I haven't told you about...

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven bows to Tamamo again.
"My apologies, Ma'am. But I grew up raising corn. Being told that I don't need to eat or breathe and such is simply...jarring. The divine magic was hard enough to accept getting overnight." he says, a bit of mirth in his voice.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Tamamo shrugs

Where you're going next, there is no air. Ya know... air is opposite earth, right? So... get used to it: MALUKHAR, Inari's boss's boss's boss's boss, sent this guy on a quest. We get this right, maybe we can lose the "lesser" part of my title. I get a promotion, so do you Steven.

Frederick blinks

You too, Freddie: our family does better - so do you.

Frederick nods in agreement, but serious bafflement

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

"Well, I don't know what 'lesser' you mean, Ma'am. But I'll do my best." he says.
Now he just needs to know what exactly they're doing.

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

Winds looks from fox to fox.
"I'll get you that. We're going to open a magically sealed doorway. Then we're rescuing someone from the Elemental Plane of Earth."
And then...he has no idea. But that's far off.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Frederick turns to Winds

Magically sealed, and sent her off to the Plane of Earth when she tried to unseal it? Sounds nasty enough... but we're not going to get anything fixed standing around here. Let's suit up, Steven.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven nods, and will presumably get changed by whatever means Frederick had in mind, letting him take the lead. He assumed that he meant for them to not change in front of a goddess, but he is wearing enough under his robes for it to not be embarrassing if that was the intention.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yes... surely they went off to one of the side rooms and then returned.

Where first, uh....

His ears fold down briefly in embarrassment.

Kinda skipped a part... Hi! I'm Frederick: I have a Master's degree in Arcane History and a minor in Divination. I'm not a priest, but my girlfriend is.

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

Winds nods. Pretty nasty, it was.
"Towards your base in the mountains, but turning off on a side road before we get there."

He stares at Frederick for a moment, puzzling out the words. Degree. People die over those. Knowledge. Complicated study. Priest, that's easy, people at the temples. People he kills. No, that his seekers killed. Girlfriend, female pair individual for two-sex humanoids, no formal bond, dangerous but irrelevant. Arcane History. Boring, unimportant to him. Divination. Knowing and finding. Frightens people.
"Uh, hi. I'm Burning Winds, and I used to know a lot, but now I'm kind of good for nothing."
He dusts himself off and heads towards the door.
"Do you guys have a good way to get around? We had a plane until the-oh, that's probably important. There's a cult worshiping some sun god that's trying to kill me. Probably you guys too since you're helping me. They drove the plane down with a magical storm. D- how did I forget that so fast?"

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven grimaces.
"If that's the case it might be best if we can teleport as close to it as possible so they don't notice our entrance." he says to Frederick.

"Steven Linde. Messenger of Tamamo, as of an hour ago."
Hrm. He might need different robes now.

[Lost_Deep]

Front Entrance

A familiar black limousine pulls up, and a familiar blue and gold pony comes out. She walks up, casually-

...well, you know, casually for her, she's still strutting...

-and goes about looking for someone. Not necessarily someone in charge, she isn't here on official business.

[Fenric]

[Front Entrance]

Well: lurking around the front entrance, one is bound to run into Cienwen. She is quite noticeably pregnant now, and humming quite happily to herself as she tends to the trees, doing something that only another dryad would hope to understand.

[Lost_Deep]

Front Entrance

"Pardon me for a moment," Caravan says, giving the Dryad her attention, "But I'm in need of some religious information. Nothing urgent, but could you please point me in the correct direction?"

[Fenric]

[Front Entrance]

Cienwen looks up from her work with a smile

Oh! Hello, there. What sort of information are you looking for?

[Lost_Deep]

Front Entrance

"I may have angered a deity and want to gauge the situation. It's not one that Inari would be friends with, in any case. I'm not comfortable sharing much more than that."

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

"Don't take us too close. The place outside the door is guarded by a pair of golems. They attack anyone who touches the platform. But only touches. We can climb or hover over it fine; that's what we did."

Winds puts a hand to his forehead.
"Uh, nice to meet you, Steven?"
Politeness. Yes.

However, he's not a wizard, so if they're travelling by teleport...

[Fenric]

[Front Entrance]

Cienwen looks sympathetic

Oh, dear! You should probably go see Caroline, then: I think she's in the garden.

---

Frederick grimaces

I can cast a couple different variations, but teleporting to somewhere I've pretty much no knowledge of is really dangerous. Maybe we should get the soldiers to drive us: they run out to their base pretty regularly, surely they'd let us tag along. We get on one of their patrols, and they drop us off: once there, I can get us back easily enough.

[Lost_Deep]

Front Entrance

"Thank you very much!" Gilded Caravan heads from there to the garden, looking around for Caroline. She isn't trying to be the center of attention, but she isn't exactly playing normal, either.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven frowns.
"Well, that sounds a lot more likely to go wrong, but if we can't use the magic then we just can't. That's probably our best plan." he says to Frederick.