| Back to actions |
| Action Id: 3788 | Crisis: | Participants: Jeffeth | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Jan. 17, 2020, 2:11 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Tenebry |
|
Silver: 794874 Economic Resources: 4273 Military Resources: 5831 Social Resources: 247 |
|||
Action by Jeffeth
This action is building off of action #2438. It is reference to the hunt for Transition. Subplot #333 'Blade of Change'
It's late at night when Grandmaster Jeffeth comes to the Shrine of Gild. More precisely the middle of the night, the Templars are dismissed to stand outside while a few Knights of Solace help Jeffeth move in a /cart/. The cart is laden with sacks, and pulled before the Shrine. The Knights are dismissed, leaving Jeffeth alone in the shrine.
First he removes his boots and tosses them to the side. Then his shirt, revealing the legendary physique of the man but also the scars winding down his arm that Lagoma had left him on a recent excursion. Bared before Gild, Jeffeth slowly goes to his knees.
"Hi." Jeffeth chirps up to Gild with a soft smile, his hands placed on his thighs. "I think I'm getting used to being Grandmaster now. Thank you, for helping me with that." He falls silent, looking over his shoulder to the cart, then back to the shrine.
"Remember when I prayed to you real hard, and you gave me.. Well it felt like a hug. That meant so much to me. And you wanted me to go out into the world to help, to build up civilization. I've been trying. I have. I got marked by the Abyss for a little bit, I'm real sorry about that. I don't.. I don't know how it all works. But I didn't want to bring it around you, so I'm sorry I didn't come pray here for a while. I just didn't want you to see me like that." Jeffeth hangs his head at this point. "It should be gone now. I got it trying to get a hold of this sword. A sword to make the Silver Order stronger, more capable to stand against Ruin and all these dark servants that threaten us. It was wielded by a woman named Elysia, she was the Aspect of threee Goddesses. You probably know this but just, you know.. Gloria, Lagoma, and Death." He takes in a deep breath. "So I came up with a plan, retrieving the sword is awful dangerous. So I thought each of us would go to one of those three Goddesses to ask for help. Harlex was given a special sword from Death, Juniper was given this special compass from Lagoma. All to make sure we're safe when we retrieve Transition. I tried to go to Gloria and well... I got my chest nearly caved in and had to go on a very long journey because of the Abyssal mark."
He slowly looks up to the shrine. "Gloria and I have never been close, like you and me. Don't get me wrong I respect and honor her, of course." Jeffeth raises his hands in a forestalling gesture, lest Gild get the wrong idea. "Just.. You know. We've never had a connection. Not like I've felt with you. But I thought it was the right thing. Pray to the three goddesses." There's a small shake of his head. "Maybe I was supposed to do it that way, but I've been learning... A lot of things aren't so black and white like that. Three goddesses helped make the blade. Alright. But the blade is going to be used in your service, so why didn't I come to you in the first place?"
There's an apologetic look up to the shrine. "You know I'm still learning. I'm trying awful hard. But I need help along the way. Leading is hard, ma--" Cutting himself off from saying mama he knits his brow. "I'm so afraid of the people under me getting hurt. Leading them into something where they'll get hurt, or they'll die. I'm taking people with me into get this blade and more than anything, I just want to keep them safe." He looks back up at the Shrine. "We'll be traveling in a dark place to retrieve the blade.. So I wanted to ask you for your blessing. That you would ennable me to protect them. Keep them from getting sick. Please, Lady Gild. I ask that you give me your blessing so that I may faithfully serve you. I brought you..." There's a motion to his cart. "Everything I have. All the silver I currently have and all the resources I currently own. It's everything I have right now. I offer it to you freely to do with however you wish. I am your servant, I love you." With his prayer done, Jeffeth falls silent.
In the hours of the night, Jeffeth goes through his meditation stances Leona taught him. Praying through meditation, meditating through his combat forms. He prays for hours, and hours in front of Gild, until he drops from exhaustion or until she tells him to quit it. All in front of his offering, all the funds he owns. It's certainly a lot more than last time.
Result
It is exhausting, to pray so long, to pour yourself out and out and out -- and at some point, Jeffeth does collapse over himself. His forehead pressed against the stone. And he dreams. A floaty, dark dream.
There is a young girl, he can't see her face. He can't see himself. She is walking in the dark. The walls seem dimly textured of stone. He hears a voice, soft and solid and deep.
"There once was a girl named Jane
An explorer of much acclaim
Who roamed alone, far from home
To discover a maze of secrets and stone."
As he watches, the shadows seem to coalesce. Into limbs and teeth. So many teeth. It crawls after the girl, its movements silent, but swift.
"Alone she ventured, hale and whole
And everything she was, the shadows stole"
Jeffeth doesn't see the moment of impact. He blinks in the dream, and the toothed shadow, the girl, the walls, all of it, are gone.
"There never was a girl named Jane"
He blinks again, and he's smaller, a child again, walking in between walls of stone and darkness. He has a sharpened stick and a pot on his head. It would be darling if he weren't so exposed. If he weren't leading a group of masked children in his wake. They're all so exposed.
The voice starts up again.
"There once was a boy named Jeff
Who wished to save others from vile theft"
His hands are suddenly full of something both soft and unyielding, cloth and wire. A rough doll with glittering red eyes. As he watches it in his hands, it leaps out of his hands and runs behind him, runs behind his train of children. He looks behind him, and all the children have dolls, dolls squirming out of their hands and running to the back. It's like a wall. A wall of dolls in their wake.
The voice continues.
"With his friends he built
A poppet blessed by Gild
Sewn with love, gemstone eyes bright
In the darkness, a generous light"
They proceed. The dolls follow them, each of their eyes brightly lit. Red and green and blue and yellow. Behind the line of dolls comes the shadow-creature, with its terrible teeth and claws. He moves. It moves. But it never moves past the line of dolls. Not at first.
The voice continues.
"And while he wanders
The light he ponders
For when it turns black
He knows he must be back . . . "
The gemstone eyes of the dolls begin to dim as they remain in the shadow of the shadowbeast. They begin to walk slower. When the eyes darken entirely, the dolls fall, and the shadowbeast goes howling over them. Toward Jeffeth. Toward his charges.
". . . Or he'll leave his heart in that maze of stone."
The dream fades, suddenly, but the voice remains. Just long enough to whisper. "Be generous, knight of the road. Be gentle. Be brave. For your friends. For the world."
And then it fades, too.