reading_rainstorm | Stephanie's Heart: The Archive

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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From:

maskformask

Ah. Hm. I feel like I should probably say at this point that death is never the answer just in case this is. A concern. but I also know the tarot card isn't actually death of the body.

Thank you for telling me.

[goes to the Death card door]

From:

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..."

From:

maskformask

[following her, breathless] You're capturing her??

From:

reading_rainstorm

"Trapping her. She has to be stopped."

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 sphinx's 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. It 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 a 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 Louis "It's what I could manage under the circumstances"

From:

maskformask

I don't really know what the circumstances were, but by all means don't let me interrupt...!

From:

reading_rainstorm

Steph nods and the memory continues as though you were not there.

"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 you know 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.

From:

maskformask

Ahhhh.

Well. You're in this together through both of your choices, to some extent, I see.

From:

reading_rainstorm

Stephanie slowly goes over to the tablets and wipes her blood from them with her sleeve.

"Yup. That's one mystery solved. Many more to go."

She looks at you with her bright yellow eyes and you are back in the Hall of Fate.

From:

maskformask

[braces himself and goes for the Hermit]

From:

reading_rainstorm

Opening the Hermit door you find yourself in the office of a college. The books in the bookcases are all on mythology and religion. The nameplate on the door reads 'Dr. Xavier Sledge.' Stephanie is sitting in her cloak in a chair across from the desk, looking anxious and twiddling her thumbs.

"Ah, hey. Guess you get to see a different kind of stress ful situation now."

From:

maskformask

Hey. That's okay. Who is he to you?

From:

reading_rainstorm

"He's one of my professors and my-"

A man in business casual with a dark bushy beard streaked with white strides past you as if you aren't there at all.

"Stephanie! Sorry for running a bit late. Your e-mail said you needed to discuss your progress in the masters program?"

"Y-yeah, Dr. Sledge...I have been very stressed about it and I've been thinking...I think I need to drop out."

From:

maskformask

[falls silent to watch the scene with protective concern]

From:

reading_rainstorm

Dr. Sledge frowns and there is a tense silence for a few moments. Stephanie sweats under his gaze but continues to stand tall.

"Is there any way I can convince you to stick with it Miss Spiros? You know the promise I see in your work."

"I-I know, Xav- Dr. Sledge, but I'm quite certain about this decisions."

"Is money the problem? I can help you find grants if-"

"No...not entirely. I...I have research that I feel I need to pursue that would not be accepted in the halls of academia."

Xavier sighs and gives Stephanie a sympathetic smile.

"Well. I certainly can't stop you. There was a time I was in your shoes. You aren't the type to make a decision like this without thinking. I only have one request, Stephanie."

"What's that?"

"Tell me how this research of yours goes. I know you are capable of incredible things."

Stephanie gets a wobbly little smile before she hugs her mentor, and you are deposited back into the hall of fate.

From:

maskformask

Ohhh. That was cute.

[grimaces. Can he get away with not going. Yes, probably, but he won't do that. Tower time.]

From:

reading_rainstorm

You are 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. The youngest Stephanie you've seen so far, around seven or eight years old, sits in a chair outside a door labeled “Morgue”.

From:

maskformask

[crouches by her] Hey, sweetheart.

From:

reading_rainstorm

Child Steph looks at you weakly.

"Stay close to me."

The door opens and two men step out. One is Gene, Stephanie's father, 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..."

Gene is not able to look the Stephanie in her eye, he just breaks down sobbing. The door remains open. The officer continues consoling the Gene and little Stephanie slips past them into the morgue pulling you in tow. You recognize the woman on the viewing table beyond the window. It's Harmony.

You are back in the hall of fate. You still feel the warmth of little Steph's hand in yours.

From:

maskformask

[squeezes that sensation, like he could comfort her through time like that]

[quiet] I don't know what that grief is like first-hand, but I'm sorry you had to find it out yourself.

[lets out a little breath and then will head for the Emperor.]

From:

reading_rainstorm

You are in a grey, cement room of decent size with nothing in it except for a beat up futon mattress. There is a large, heavy metal door that you know is locked. Sitting in front of a wall with “I WISH ENOCH’S PROMISE WAS DESTROYED” written in what is clearly drying blood is another little Steph with shaggy brown hair dressed in dirty, threadbare clothing. She looks to be eleven years old.

From:

maskformask

Miserable way to be treated.

[sits heavily with her. Does she appear injured/the source of the blood?]

From:

reading_rainstorm

She's bruised and battered. Bleeding from her nose. She doesn't stop staring at the writing on the wall.

"It was. Four years. I learned more than they taught me."

You feel the time passing. Minutes, hours, days. Suddenly you can hear shouting coming from behind the door, not the door you entered but one that looks heavy and made of thick metal. A bell starts ringing, a raised alarm. Gunshots coming down the hallway.

From:

maskformask

[he realizes. Stephanie gets out, so they're not coming to kill her. But she gets out, which means...]

I wish you didn't have to see this.

From:

reading_rainstorm

"I wish you didn't either."

More gunshots. Louder and louder, ringing in your ear. Stephanie clings to you as she shudders in fear. The gunshots stop.

The door suddenly explodes inward. A man in SWAT gear leans around the doorway, checking the angles. He puts a finger to his ear.

"There's a kid in here, send medical down the east wing. He looks in rough shape."

You can see past the man, in the hallway Stephanie's father is on the ground. Shot dead.

You are in the Hall of Fates again.