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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[reading_rainstorm]

"I am aware.

However. The only thing I want here is knowledge. Certainly knowledge is something you and she want on this matter as well."

[whatpossessedyou]

Do you know everything she knows?

[reading_rainstorm]

"I do. And she knows everything I know. We are one in this way."

[whatpossessedyou]

...fine. To finish the memory, I suppose I must complete the ritual?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Just do part of it. Any that you wish as long as you think it is right."

[whatpossessedyou]

I don't—know.

[but she's seen Stephanie cast spells before. so she's going to take a page and start drawing a sigil with the inks, one that she's making up as she goes along, that expresses, "What happened next?" which she'll put on the altar and light on fire]

[reading_rainstorm]

The sphinx scoffs.

"That's not anything like-"

The page you light is engulfed in pitch black flame. In your head you hear Stephanie's laughter. The High Priestess is the ruler of intuition. Of course that works.

The smoke from the page swirls around you 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.

[whatpossessedyou]

My brave love...

[if she can, she'll go and put an arm around Stephanie]

[reading_rainstorm]

You are able to. Memory Steph kisses your cheek. It's cold.

"That was clever dear. Take your prize."

She nods towards the ashes of the page you burned. The Death card lays in the ashes.

[whatpossessedyou]

[she tucks it into her waistcoat with the other cards]

Thank you.

[reading_rainstorm]

Memory Stephanie gives a departing squeeze of your shoulder before dissipating.

Where to next?

[whatpossessedyou]

[Well, now she's worried about the Sphinx tackling her, so since she's found the Death card she's going straight for the Hall of Fate.]

[reading_rainstorm]

Going downstairs your path naturally takes you by the table with the velvet cloth and the six candles by the Hall of Fate. Three of the candles start to smoke as you approach, the smoke swirling down to the cloth to mark a line for the cards to be placed in.

What order do you place your cards?

[whatpossessedyou]

[she places them in the order that she got them: The Star, The Tower and Death.]

[reading_rainstorm]

The first candle lights with a pitch black flame the other two with lavender flames.

The doors open allowiing you to finally enter. The Hall of Fate looks to be be floored and papered entirely with pages upon pages upon pages of Stephanie's journals. Every inch of the place is covered with her hand writing. There are three stone doors along the walls of the corridor. Each bearing the image of the tarot cards you found, in the order you placed them. At the end of the hall is a final stone door emblazoned with the image of The High Priestess

[whatpossessedyou]

[for a moment, she hesitates, tempted to go back through Sun House into the hidden door... but in the end, she's too curious. she'll peek into the doors in order, if she can, starting with the Star.]

[reading_rainstorm]

You are in Tributary. It is getting late into the afternoon. Stephanie is in her overalls, she wipes some sweat from her brow as she walks the path up to Sun House. She notices you on the path and stops in surprise. This is before the claws, before the changedance, even.

"Rowan? You're-"

She giggles a little as she goes over to you and gives you a hug.

"Always the unconventional one, aren't you?"

[whatpossessedyou]

[hugs back!!]

Did I do something strange...?

[reading_rainstorm]

"The library cards are slightly different than the memory cards. Though still made of memory."

Stephanie breaks the hug and walks with you. It takes less time than it should to reach Sun House. Stephanie opens the door, and Rowan's body is laying unconscious in her bed with her ghost floating above her. It's the day of Rowan's arrival. You hear Stephanie's thought's at that moment.

Shit, is she alright?..oh, no...she's really pretty.

"What the fuck happened here?"

Memory Rowan responds.

"Oh, hello. Really, I'm still not entirely certain. I... arrived earlier?"

[whatpossessedyou]

I thought they might be different, but there were three candles, so...

...you thought I was pretty?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Of course I thought you were pretty."

Stephanie slowly approaches. Warily watching the black cloud as she checks the pulse of the body. She feels a low pulse and sighs in relief.

Whatever the situation, the girl is safe...and the ghost is ominous but doesn't seem malicious. Fascinating to look at too.

"Huh. And you two are connected? I'm Grimoire. I'm pretty new as well, but I can help give you the run down. There was a meeting last night that I took notes at."

Stephanie flips through her journal and finds only ripped pages where her notes should be.

Shit, I gave them to Chilchuck.

"That I will show you later."

Memory Rowan speaks again and Stephanie can't take her eyes away from the ghostly form.

"That's my body. I haven't the faintest idea why I'm not in it. But I'd be very grateful for the, er, run down."

Her body?...Fascinating. I have to know everything about her.

Stephanie looks fondly to you and blows you a kiss, and you are back in the hall of fate.

[whatpossessedyou]

...well... that was flattering.

[she'll go into the Tower room next!]

[reading_rainstorm]

It opens and you find yourself in a darkened tile hallway, at the far end of it you see a stairwell leading upward, the light above, the only seeming bit of warmth in the memory. A young child, about eight, with shaggy brown hair and bright green eyes sits in a chair outside a door labeled “Morgue”

[whatpossessedyou]

Stephanie...

[reading_rainstorm]

The child's head stays down and they speak in a quiet voice.

"Not yet..."

The door to the morgue opens and two men step out. One is the man you saw shelving books he looks distraught. The other a uniformed police officer.

"I'm sorry for your loss sir."

"How am I supposed to...to take care of- (He says something but its static to you. You get the sense it's the child's name as they look up) "

"Dad...what's wrong..."

The man is not able to look the child in his eye he just breaks down sobbing. The door remains open. The officer continues consoling the child's father and the child slips past them into the morgue. You recognize the woman on the viewing table beyond the window. It's Harmony.

You are back in the hall of fate.