Stephanie's Heart: The Archive

[reading_rainstorm]

In your dreams you are in a thick and foggy forest. It could be mistaken for the woods around Tributary if you don’t know your plants. You are on a trail leading into a clearing, in the center of which is a simple, concrete structure with a single door. A chaos star has been spray painted on it with a stencil.

You approach the structure. Looking over your shoulder you see a large shape lurking in the fog, obscured by the foliage. Two shining Feline eyes peer at you from the brush. You feel your heart rate spike as you turn the knob and find an old fashioned elevator tucked neatly inside with an accordion grate standing between you and the ornate, gilded interior. It creaks open as the presence behind you steps into the clearing. It is a sphinx, an eight foot tall lioness with the face of a woman and the large brown wings of an eagle on her back . The feminine face and olive skin tone of a Greek woman from antiquity smiles as she readies herself to to pounce, the wings on her back stretching and give a few readying flaps.You back into the elevator and close the gate with shaking hands as the sphinx leaps at the elevator. Her claws twisting and shearing the metal of the grate slowly, but she is too late. The elevator springs to life and you descend.

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A small light above flickers on as it illuminates your view outside the exposed elevator as you sink into the concrete structure. You descend for a few moments before an opening in the concrete gives you the view of an observation deck on a hill, looking down on the sprawling suburbs and campus of a college town. The elevator continues downward. The concrete gives way to old, dusty marble as you continue sinking. You see a vast maze stretch far and away that gets nearer and nearer. This has to be it, right? Your destination? No. You plunge further down, past the walls of the maze and the marble is replaced again by well polished wood. Beautiful stained mahogany rises past you as your descent finally starts to slow. You are greeted by another grate that creaks open for you. Entreating you to enter.

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[turntoash]

"I'm sure we will. Whether that'll be something you enjoy is a question for the future."

Metis flicked her cigarette to the ground and ground it out, and then -

She ignored the sphinx.

Rummaging again through the supplies in the shack, she looked up how to do the ritual.

[reading_rainstorm]

As you touch the supplies the basic shape of the ritual starts to take shape in your head. Symbolically burnt contracts, sigils to weaken the membrane between this world and the fae's circles of silver and iron to keep the entity in place.

[turntoash]

Metis takes careful note of the steps flowing through her mind, and she works through them, slowly and deliberately. Magic was easy to mess up, after all, and even in a memory she didn't want to take that chance.

[reading_rainstorm]

Focusing on the memories steps, Metis will find herself painting the sigils with the red ink around the circle of stones, drawing a circle with the silver. Then sigils in black then the iron circle. Your hand holds the contracts in one hand and the lighter in the other.

[turntoash]

Metis flicked the lighter open and watched the dance of the flame. A lost memory bumped up at the edges of her consciousness. Something about fire...

Not eager to interrogate the unease that filled her gut at the moment, Metis set the contracts ablaze.

[reading_rainstorm]

The contracts light and their flame turns a soft lavender hue. The smoke from them swirls around Metis to form two figures that start to take shape and definition. Stephanie standing rigid and sweat beading at her brow and an inhumanly tall and mint green skinned woman standing in the ritual circles that speaks to her with a smug tone.

"That was wrong again mortal. What should I take from you this time? How about...your warmth."

"Fine it is yours. My turn...

Eight brilliant scholars take their chairs;
I pray you, please observe them.
A steward's seat looks down on theirs
That he might better serve them. "

"...A place setting? Shining cuttlery and a plate?"

"Wrong. It is a menorah. Eight candles that are lit by a center one placed above the rest."

"Fine take the last mortal as your prize. We continue."

"Actually, since I have beaten you thrice, and you only twice. That's game. Best of three."

"What? I never agreed to-"

"You didn't I was the one who set the terms of the game though, and it remains my right to. The game is done."

"If you think you have gotten away with this disgrace mortal-"

Stephanie takes out a balled up rag and tosses it at one of the sigils, smudging it and breaking the spell. The woman in the circle disappears. Stephanie collapses to her knees and shivers.

[turntoash]

Huh. Going toe to toe with an immortal - Metis knew Stephanie was made of tough stuff, but this hammered it home. She knelt next to Stephanie and put her coat over Stephanie's shoulders.

"Hey," Metis said quietly.

[reading_rainstorm]

The wispy Stephanie smiles at her.

"Thanks. I should have brought my cloak this night. Didn't make that mistake again, heheh. You got a prize too."

She nods to where the ash of the contracts had collected. The card Death sticks out from the pile.

[turntoash]

Metis snagged the card and stored it in her jacket.

"You gonna be all right? Anything you need? I know it's a memory but I still don't like it."

[reading_rainstorm]

"I'll be alright. You've seen where things go from here. I didn't even know Florence before this."

As you slip the card in your pocket, you realize that all that is left of the luck charm you picked up is ash. Must have helped you get lucky with that ritual.

[turntoash]

"Yeah... I know. Take care, Stephanie."

With the Death card in hand (in pocket?), Metis made the trek back to the throne.

[reading_rainstorm]

As you enter the Hall of Fate with Death in your pocket you see a new door in the hall. Death. You can still open the door to Stephanie, but you know whatever Stephanie wanted you to see is behind the door with the grim reaper carved in stone.

[turntoash]

Metis rolled her shoulders. Time for the show.

Into Death's door.

[reading_rainstorm]

You are in a hallway, complete carved from pristine marble. Looking at the angles and corners this hallway has you can tell intuitively that this is a labyrinth. Stephanie is standing in front of a large fire, reading a book and frowning. She still has her bright green eyes. She sighs and closes the book, tossing it into the fire. She turns and looks surprised to see you. You hear the roar of a lion from deep within the labyrinth. A feminine voice with a thick Greek accent bounces down the halls.

"You will regret that, my little book of spells."

Stephanie locks eyes with you.

"Run."

She bolts ahead of you and you find your legs carrying you just behind. She follows a path marked by spray painted sigils on the walls she periodically hops over and ducks under trip wires that connect to little paper figures taped to the walls and covered with sigils. Eventually you start hearing those traps go off behind you along with pained shouts and roars, then the flapping of wings.

"Shit shit shit shit."

A sphinx, one without Stephanies face swoops toward Stephanie tearing a gash in her shoulder with a claw. It curves around again in the air for another strike but Steph throws a glass object from her pocket onto the ground and the Sphinx is stopped in mid air. The Sphinx struggles to get her claw free of the solidified air and Stephanie rounds the next corner. Following her you see her target at the end of the corridor. Three ritual circles. Stephanie rushes to stand in one and tosses a set of tablets bound with bronze rings into another.

"C'mon...C'mon..."

[turntoash]

Thankfully, Metis was no slouch at running herself - a good foot speed helped kick death down the road from time to time. The trick, she'd found, was to not look behind her, no matter how much she wanted to - it wouldn't change anything about her situation, and it'd take her attention away from what was important, ie, the path in front of her.

Metis knew it was a memory, but even so, she felt the adrenaline spike. As Stephanie found the ritual circles, Metis skidded to a stop, drifting to Stephanie's side without being in one of the other circles.

[reading_rainstorm]

Stephanie gives a nod to Metis. The sphinx lands rounds the corner, when she sees Stephanie standing still in the circle, she stalks forward but stands outside it.

"Did you really think you were going to lure me into a ritual with you."

"I already have."

You notice that the magic circle Stephanie is is actually painted on top of an older, carved one, with the sphinx currently standing at the center of another ancient carved circle as well. Stephanie throws another glass item from her cloak, this one you can see is a knife. It shatters at the sphinxes feet but the shards fly outward cutting into the sphinx. A drop of blood lands on the circle lighting it up with sickly green.

Stephanie takes some of her own blood from her gash and spatters it across her own circle. Hers lights with a cool lavender.

"Pact circles. I name my demand first, since you were the 'Initiator' my demand is you return to the the slabs that bound you. I even set it up for you in the de summoning circle."

"Tch. And if I don't accept this pact or make no demands of you?"

"You'll be stuck to this spot, I'll die before you and then you won't have a way to complete the pact. You'll be stuck in that circle."

Steph looks to Metis "It's what I could manage under the circumstances"

[turntoash]

"Don't sell yourself short. That was some good trickery there. I'm impressed."

[reading_rainstorm]

"The next bit is less impressive."

The memory resumes and the sphinx speaks with a smile on her face.

"Very clever, little spellbook. I was right thinking you would be a fine apprentice. I'll agree to your demand. And for mine: Take the boon I offered when you summoned me."

Stephanie goes pale.

"Seriously? You mean..."

"With or without me, a sphinx will walk this earth."

The sphinx laughs.

"Fine."

Both the circles flare and then fade, releasing their prisoners. Stephanie steps nervously towards the sphinx. It bows to her and flaps its wings, filling the air with sickly green energy that flows into Stephanie. She closes her eyes like she is getting a terrible headache. When she opens them, she has the yellow feline eyes Metis knows well.

"Farewell, Grimoire. Enjoy my gift."

Stephanie splatters the tablets in the ritual circle with her blood and recites a spell in Ancient Greek. The Sphinx simply watches. When she finishes the spell, the sphinx slowly melts into lavender energy and flows into the tablets. Stephanie goes to pick them up.

[turntoash]

"Ah."

It was all Metis could say for a moment as she watched the memory play out.

"That fills in the gaps, doesn't it?" Metis approached Stephanie and helped her pick up the tablets. "Can't say I fault you, though. It didn't look like you had a whole lot of choice in the matter. Do or die, right?"

[reading_rainstorm]

"It does."

Stephanie wipes her blood from the front of the tablets. Three lines of text in ancient Greek. Riddles.

"Exactly...Found my way into another hopeless situation it seems."

The Stephanie in front of you is the High Priestess again, and you are standing in the true heart.

[turntoash]

"So... you'll just keep slowly turning into a sphinx? Unless the people you're working with can find a way to reverse it."

Metis sucked air in between her teeth.

"I don't know if I have much magic knowledge or not, but whatever I can do to help, I'll do it."

[reading_rainstorm]

"Thank you Metis. Honestly, you've been a pretty good help already. Sometimes it's just good to have a second set of eyes on things, you know?

Even the more...interpersonal stuff."

[turntoash]

"Anything you need me to do," Metis repeated. "I'll be a second set of eyes any time."

[reading_rainstorm]

Stephanie smiles and tilts her head, thinking a moment.

"You know...there is one thing I could use your help with. I won't ask you here...all this-"

Gesturing at the temple behind her and the headless winged lion sitting at the foot of a throne.

"It's a bit more I pressure than I'd like to put on you, ya know?"

[turntoash]

"I gotcha. I'll come find you tomorrow, then?"