westwhere | unkharil

unkharil | event

UNKHARIL

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Leaving the House of Manouk through waypoints, the party arrives back to the present time of Akhuras, in the jungle swathes of Unkharil. Those undergoing a canon update fleetingly detour into their home worlds. Old or new, you wake with a start, on high alert — body ablaze with static electricity. Some characters might struggle with vertigo, misted memories and dimmed powers for up to 48 hours, while their bodies readjust to no longer being lost in time.

You are in the care of a highly disciplined, if largely nomadic caravan — the refugees of most holy Alem, the kingdom built upon hell that succumbed to the undead. Karsa informs new recruits that the party assisted Alem’s king Deimar with evacuation efforts and with sealing the gates of hell, months prior. Their kingdom lost, Deimar has now taken his people to his mother’s ancestral grounds of Unkharil — a temple-fortress in a valley bordered by four tall mountains that serve as its protective walls.

Legend says the four mountains pillared the heavens, while snake god Kharil-asuk nested in the valley below to recover after birthing the world. So long was his sleep that cloud gods sent down the first bursts of lightning and thunder — frightening awake Kharil-asuk, who slithered into the jungle, never to be seen again. Since, sacred Unkharil has served as site of worship and coronations.

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King Deimar — whimsical, breezy, but cuttingly sharp — welcomes you in Unkharil, until the Merchant finalises your travel arrangements east. His people are weary, battle-worn and starved for kindness. Where applicable, some might optionally remember you under the false identity you wore in Arc V.

Seek out accommodations in the stone huts of the temple-fortress or the humble, often single-person cells that were dug bluntly into the mountain walls for hermit monks. Unkharil was deserted over the years as Kharil-asuk’s cult lost worship — but superstitious bandits have kept their looting away from temple grounds. You may still find furniture, pieces of clothing and worship, while refugees can spare clothes and food supplies.

TASKS

■ Assist with cleaning and reconstructing the destitute grounds of Unkharil, raising new stone columns and cleansing altars. Those with a connection to nature or the animals sense this is a quiet, revered territory.

■ Many survivors of Alem’s siege suffer from burns, cuts or trauma you can allay. The orphaned, widowed and wounded appreciate a kind word, company or help settling in.

■ Find a thin golden stream in the jungle, whose tepid waters may accelerate healing, improve your spirits or give you a day of staggering good luck. Bring back waters for recovering refugees.

■ Learn to use mountain scaling gear (rope-bound pairs encouraged) — or tame a 3-meter Kalioperus flier (useful for scouting and the Wailing below). Refugees and the few remaining temple monks may assist, but it’s learning by doing on the slippery mountain sides and with the thin-tempered fliers.

■ Largely warriors, Deimar’s people lost numerous troops defending Alem and now replenish their forces by teaching their youth weapons combat and light magic. Come dawns, join them in the courtyard to learn a skill or offer your own lessons. Alem instructors are strict, disciplined and martial — but fair. Characters who lack natural magic can learn to operate gem-triggered spheres that generate shields or a burst of fire/lightning. You may keep the gems after, but your character will need a few weeks of study to achieve mastery.

■ (Learn to) fish, hunt and forage to renew supplies. Beware flesh-eating fish in some jungle rivers. Ride an okapi?

■ Yet wary of traders, Deimar (grudgingly) invites merchants to revive their routes to Unkharil, with many caravans, errant scholars, priests, necromancers and sorcerers arriving to study his proposition. Some arrive all the way from magical jewel city Taravast — including an exuberant acolyte of old master Wrath! — and may offer exotic food and drink, or unique items. You may trade or earn coin by selling services or performances. Musical, art and thespian instruments can be found on the grounds.

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QUESTS

THE HEART(H) OF IT

”Rise and shine, lads! Heat of a jungle’s sun won’t be waning, no use waiting it out. The iron here’s rung cold too long. What little’s left of it. Shows the place was run by monks. They abandoned the smithy, once the fires guttered, and the mines, soon as the mouths collapsed only a little! Ha. Spoiled devils. Even left behind the ore already dug out. You go right in and fetch some iron… some copper, some silver… whatever yo find. We’ll get the blaze going. Time to forge. Don’t worry. We’ll make it worth your while.”

— Eitam, master forger

Deimar’s ironmongers revive the smithy of Unkharil but require precious ore and materials for manufacturing. Scale the steep mountain of Masida that walls in Unkharil to the east and infiltrate its abandoned mine to recover some previously discovered, but abandoned goods. Beware crumbling paths, rotten wood stairs and moulding ropes, as parts of the mines threaten collapse. Refugees supply golden fireworks that can shoot out to alert anyone within the mine you are in danger. Blacksmith rewards await.

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Visiting merchants are willing to resume trade, but have ongoing safety concerns.

■ Meet a first set of incoming grain-bearing caravans in the jungle and escort them on the last six-hour leg of their voyage to Unkharil. These are hefty and slow wagons, frequently targeted by bandits who dam their paths or pretend they are wounded, while their brothers attack from tree outposts.

■ Destroy the encampments of the vicious jungle-based Red Claws bandits. These outlaws typically attack in groups, share nightly meals and drink to strengthen their ties, providing excellent ambush opportunities. They cover their faces with a cinnabar or blood print of their leader’s palm.

■ Hold talks to appease the merchants Balthazar (easily impressed by shows and the arts) and Anathula (who wants a clear business pitch). Give diplomacy your best!

THE WAILING

”… they were so happy, so holy, then why do they shame themselves with tears now? You must be wondering. The truth does not honour us: first, Unkharil’s priesthood only accepted brothers from among those who survived snake’s poison. But the chosen were few, and the lands needed tending. Then, Unkharil accepted brothers from men of great skill, literacy and wisdom. But the learned were few, and the lands needed tending. Then, Unkharil accepted orphans, survivors of the jungle, men of the snake’s vision. But wanderers were few, and the lands needed tending. And soon, what recruits Kharil-asuk did not provide, in his mercy — his priesthood took… from the breasts of widows, from pillaged homes, from bandits. They kept even the most unwilling.”

— groundsmaster Kayik

Unkharil’s new residents soon find their beauty sleep disrupted by nightly wails, projected from several of the monk cells dug into Mount Nathadi, which walls in Unkharil from the south. These are the ghosts of former monks, whom you can appease by scaling the mountain and cleaning their cell, recovering their bones for burial (where applicable) or providing a minor service for the ghost (your choice of what the monk might desire: perhaps the recitation of a poem, an update on the weather outside, a good deed, etc.) Many of the monks were especially devoted to Kharil-asuk and to theories of reincarnation — for the lives of men are to the soul like a snake shedding its skin — and may impart you their wisdom.

WATER MY CROPS

Help Deimar’s people to revitalise local soil, seed gardens and crops, build dams and redirect jungle rivers. Water or lunar tide sorcery also work. Alem refugees were primarily warriors and will need you to illustrate the basics of gardening and land care.

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TO DAYS GONE BY

To welcome the start of their new lives, the refugees hold two nights of celebrations. During the day, you prepare tall bonfires or purify the lands with incense and sage-infused water, finding you are readily welcome in every home.

■ The first banquet night (OOCly on 25 August) pays homage to the lost: the survivors of Alem remember the siege and encourage you to speak of your own dead. Letters of penance, love or remembrance are written to the dead, read by the witness of your choosing and burned in bonfires. Heavy, syrupy and thick drink abounds.

■ The second banquet night (OOCly on 5 September) honours the living: everyone must show and express gratitude to someone alive, for any reason. Grit your teeth and offer thanks.

SERVANTS OF AFIRU (warning: snakes)

”There was no strength left in the bones of Kharil-asuk, after birthing the ground and the sky and the moon, and man and his mountains. And the first son of his likeness paid the price: brave white Afiru, small and feeble, but how proud he was! And the dozen men who caught him, not knowing his right divine, thought they did him a kindness to cull his pain young: to set him on a slate of stone and cut him in small parts, and eat of him for their dinner. Fools! Each bite of Afiru took root within them! Come morning, a dozen men woke in the image of Afiru: half snake, half human, beastly and cunning, their roiling bellies only quenched when they ate of their brothers. So, Afiru seeded his curse, and that same stone plate is now his altar: and just as he washed it with his life’s blood for men, so too must men now pay the price of bleeding.”

— old village tale

Within the jungle depths sleeps the minor, ruined temple of serpent god Afiru — malicious son of Kharil-asuk — whose mind-thralled servants abduct hapless innocents as sacrifices to the deity’s naga emissaries. Infiltrate the decayed temple to ruin Afiru’s altar — releasing his servants from their thrall and ending his worship. The naga priests are half beasts, half men, but deathly silent and possessed of fiercely sharp and venomous claws and fangs. If poisoned, your wounded limb swells, then numbs, then darkens as the toxin spreads through your body. You have 12 hours to get back to Unkharil, increasingly groggy and stiff, and drink a cure — or may pre-emptively carry a few doses, going in.

A HUNDRED MOUTHS (newcomers only)

Large stone gates carved into the northern mountain that walls in Unkharil hide an ancient granary whose wares could allay starvation… and interest visiting merchants. To open the doors, you must fit missing ruby beads back into the gate’s carvings. The gems, you learn, were picked out and dragged away by feral Kalioperus fliers — larger and more vicious than the ones you ride — and taken back to their nests at the very tip of Unkharil’s walling mountains. Report your ruby finds — rewards await.

ANOINTED (warning: snake)

”I saw him! With my mind clear, and my eyes shut, and my heart open. And he was beautiful! I ran in high grass, and my feet tore, and my dress ragged, and do not listen! I was not as the others are, greedy. I wanted nothing, nothing! He asked, ‘Daughter, what do you wish of me?’ And I said to him, ‘Only to see you.’ And he said, ‘So be it.’ And after mother Moon rose, and the good rain downed, and it was silence in this world he gave us, but for this breath, that was the murmur of the skies! No vastness greater than the drums of his heartbeat, and his sundered gaze: one eye, it was blood, and the other gold. And together, they saw me. He saw me. And he loved me! So he gave me the silk of his shed skin, to remember him by. In the morning, old women say, hunters found me in the jungle, stroking a piece of old, mouldy rope. But I know, it was him, it was the Father. And he saw me, as they do not see him”

— Laila, weaver

Deimar inherited his mother’s lands, but his uncles are likely to contest the claim of a pauper king with a feeble army. To legitimise his rule, Deimar wants the blessing of snake deity Kharil-asuk. The few remaining locals of Unkharil say the great serpent may be seen on stormy nights with lightning and thunder by those who wait at night in the jungle, after purifying themselves with meditation or partaking of ‘mind-cleansing’ asuk — a strong drug that triggers hallucinations and prophecy. The enormously large serpent body of Kharil-asuk — two-kilometres long, 100 meters wide — slithers before his chosen and must be chased into the depths of the jungles, no matter the animal and bandit dangers, before it disappears.

Inquisitive and untamed, but not necessarily malicious, Kharil-asuk often seeks to shrug off his pursuers, camouflaging in the landscape. He speaks as a voice in the heads of his pursuers, assessing them with questions about true worth and what entitles men to land, wisdom and nobility. He may attempt to drive those he deems unworthy for their past sins (betrayal, murder) in the path of mortal danger (cliffs, bandits, traps). Anyone can chase Kharil-asuk and speak with him. You can still sign up for a RNG to receive his blessing.

NOTES

■ Newcomers may be introduced to the large undead dragon, now bound to the party since Arc V. Formerly a tormentor of Alem, she keeps her distance and flies outside of Unkharil for now.

■ This downtime event lasts until 15 September and is followed by Arc VII. Pace yourselves and engage in as much or as little as you want, quests-wise!

QUESTIONS

NPC INBOX

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[ The time between their last conversation with Emilia and Wrath and gathering supplies wasn't uneventful. If anything, Five is more tense than he was before once the evening comes around, and he's distracted enough that it takes him a moment to realize what Allison is referring to.

He'd argue his point more, but she already knows his reasons for asking her. Still, she's... considerate to keep from doing it front of them again. ]

Now works. [ Then he frowns when he remembers how quickly she brought it up before. ] Not that we're keeping any secrets.

Even if they know about it, that doesn't mean they have to see it.

[She's been turning it over in her head ever since he asked her to do this. As much as some of her rumors can be off-the-cuff, Five is clever and she doesn't want to give him any loopholes.]

I heard a rumor that you don't interfere with the completion of the ritual. You don't blink out, you don't run, and you let Wrath do what he needs to do.

[There's a brief pause, and then she adds for good measure:]

Relax. Breathe. Everything is going to be fine.

[ Five may have had more to say about that, but he doesn't have time to respond before her rumor starts. He'd expected it to be subtle, something like a failsafe that he didn't really need, up until it takes hold. Suddenly he's breathing deeper and there's an odd sense of calm that comes over him.

The pessimism that he'd been gripping so tightly onto seems to slip out from under him. He only puzzles over its loss for a moment before his eyes clear and he looks back up at Allison. ]

Are they on their way?

[Allison reaches for her crystal and checks for a response to her message before nodding.]

They're on their way. Anything else I can get you?

[ He nearly asks if she could dig up any coffee, then shakes his head. Why would he want to be more awake for this? Alcohol might have been his second choice, if he wasn't already feeling oddly relaxed, all things considered. ]

If we haven't thought of it by now, I don't need it. [ He moves towards the center of the hut, just shy of pacing. ] Wrath said it wouldn't take long, but you can keep an eye out for anyone who wakes up and wonders what's going on.

[She nods, before moving to the door and scanning out into the area around them. He's right, not many people are out, but that may change if they start making noise.]

I'll make sure they get less interested.

( It is not long before Wrath and Emilia arrive at the hut. The moon is bright, full of power. Wrath is aware of it though he does not hold the stone in his hand at present. His own power appears to have returned to him in full as it is so it's unlikely the moon is necessary, but the boost in power can never be a flaw, and given Emilia and him want to utilize this full moon power to finally break their curse in full, this will be a good time to see exactly what it is capable of.

He carries a box with all of the ingredients needed, nodding to Allison as they arrive and he sees her looking out the door. He examines the space in front of the hut, finding the area where the moon shines its brightest.

From the box, he first pulls out a bed roll, unwinds it and lays it down on the ground where the light hits. He works with quiet efficiency - herbs placed on to a stone along with a bowl, onyx, some copper. )

( Emilia greets both the Hargreeves with an understated smile, otherwise somber as befitting the occasion. She walks across the space to stand opposite Wrath, a small basket in arm that carries some ingredients as well, most especially the moonstone.

She is here to play support more so than to be the main caster, for a change, and she observes Wrath as he works in his diligent and methodical way. She rarely gets to see him in this light, and would enjoy it more, under different circumstances.

Once he's done with his part, she goes about setting up a circle around his work, the circle they will be working within. She alternates candles and ferns to delineate the shape. Half the candles are black. The other half rose-gold.

Only then does she cross the space back to him, lifting up her dagger in offer. )

[ Five nods to Allison, and he trusts that she'll be able to handle any nosy neighbors that wander by. She's seen what he's gone through to keep this quiet, only to have it come out at the end. Really, if he could commend himself on anything, it's that he's managed to keep his curse from most of them for years. The three people gathering are among the only ones aware of the shard in him, and how he got it. — Once it's over, he might think to update the other two that aren't present.

He'll likely have time to debate that, judging by how they've prepared the hut.

Stepping out to meet Wrath and Emilia, he notes they're already well on their way to setting up whatever is needed for their magic. Five looks between the objects placed with some significance on the ground, surrounded by candles. For all of his studying of curses, he barely knows what they do. It's too late to ask, and somehow he's not bothered that he doesn't understand more about the ritual he's agreed to participate in.

He waits in silence as the candles are lit and Emilia brings out a dagger. That should set off warning bells for what's to come, but instead he simply stands calmly by. Like he isn't about to be completely vulnerable and exposed to whatever may be lurking in the shadows.

Even when he's oddly relaxed, he can feel the anguish that isn't his, built up inside. He's resolved to be rid of it by whatever means. Distantly he hears a voice, that sounds a lot like Dolores, teasing him for how long it took for a paranoid old man to do what's best for him. (It's a nice change from the last time she spoke to him, even if it's only in his mind.) He glances once to Allison and sighs out a breath. ]

Looks like they're close.

( Wrath takes the dagger from his wife with appreciation and then sets it to the right of where he currently has kneeled within the circle she creates. The bowl is filled with water, with a twig of rosemary, with sea salt, with the copper from before, with splash of oil. With one careful stir, the bowl is set beside the dagger. And then as a final amount of preparation, Wrath draws the shadows in around the hut, around the circle - light but enough to give them additional cover.

His gaze drifts to Emilia as she makes the finishing touches to the circle. Rarely does he ever have any support when he does a ritual of any kind, but he can think of no one better to give it to him and to cleanse Five through the moon's light. Who better than the moon daughter herself? Then he looks over to Allison and Five. He can tell the rumoring went beyond an order but to a forced calmness. There is tension from earlier today which is entirely missing. It is not a decision Wrath can understand, but for a great deal of time, Wrath had nothing of his own - not choice, not purpose. He would not voluntarily choose to ever be in such a position again regardless of the circumstances, but this choice was not his to make.

Wrath gestures toward the bedroll as he looks at Five. )

It is nearly ready.

[ If it wasn't telling before that a rumor had been used on him, it might be obvious with how little hesitation Five has once Wrath gestures to where he's supposed to go. He steps around the candles and approaches the bedroll, lowering himself there, still just as calm as notices the moonlight is directed in this exact spot at the center of the circle.

It helps that it doesn't exactly look like an operating table. More like a sacrificial alter, but that's probably just Hollywood and his years here influencing him. These people never met a problem they couldn't solve through a little ritual sacrifice.

Somehow that idle thought doesn't bother him as much as it should. He knows Wrath might be disappointed that he relied on his sister, but he could probably see why it was necessary. Emilia must too, and Allison certainly did. He was still true to his word in the end. No more room for mistakes.

He looks up from where he sits and gives a small nod as he waits for his next instruction. ]

( Wrath picks up the dagger at his side, and then moves the bowl of water between the both of them as Five sits on the bedroll. )

The ritual requires a small amount of your blood.

( He lifts his other hand out so Five might give him his palm. )

[ Of course it does. The dagger had to be for something, and he should be relieved if all it's for is a small amount of blood.

Five shifts in his position and holds out his hand. ]

Better than the last one. [ Although in hindsight, he should have thought to wear something he wouldn't mind throwing blood up on. Sue him for thinking Wrath's methods will be a little less messy. ]

( Wrath takes his hand and then slides the dagger across it with the same methodical efficiency that he has done the rest of the preparation with. He holds the hand over the bowl until several drops of blood slip into the liquid, until it is enough, and it is not very much at all as he had promised.

Then he takes the bandage, wraps and ties it around Five's hand where the cut is. )

Lie back.

( He had originally planned to use a sleeping tincture of some kind, but it seems that will not be necessary. The entire ritual will be quick as it is. He burns sage, blows the smoke of it into the water as well, and it lights with power, with the purging that the ritual promises. Wrath's gaze moves to Emilia to be certain she is ready, and she does appear to be - beautiful in the moonlight. )

Emilia will cleanse you with the light of the moon while I remove the mirror from within.

( Something twists low in her belly to see Five so compliant, so agreeable. Emilia has to remind herself it was a choice he made to ensure the results of the ritual, to be free of the curse. That she must respect it, in spite of the way it churns.

Her gaze slides over to Wrath, sensing the weight of his own, and she gives him a nod.

The candles come to life all at once as she clasps her hands together, tucks them under her chin. Her eyes close, and where she would have once needed an incantation, perhaps runes to strengthen the magic, now she taps the unbounded source deep within.

She tempers this volcanic source, and with the moonstone resting at her feet, summons a mote of light between her hands much gentler than her offensive fire. Draws it toward the circle, even as she reaches out in turn.

Toward the moon: that she may commune with it, the circle now fully gleaming. )

Edited (last one) 2023-09-04 22:13 (UTC)

[ Five doesn't make any further commentary once Wrath draws his blood; the sting of pain barely causes a reaction at all from him. He watches the blood drip, and lets him wrap his hand afterward, then lies back at his request.

He's still breathing evenly when the candles grow brighter, and even unmoving, he can see Emilia from the edge of his vision as she seems to be drawing light between her hands. To 'cleanse' him. A word he's used to hearing from someone else, though he never had proof that it did him any good. He has higher expectations of Emilia, so maybe it will this time, even if he doesn't feel it.

Their magic is foreign to him, but he does wonder if they still plan to keep the shard. Maybe she means to catch it once Wrath draws it out of him, however that works with something that's likely intangible in its current state.

Not that it's anything he needs to worry about right now, and he's not, despite the way his hands grip into fists at his side. Emptying the shard on the train is a recent memory, and the slight pain in his palm is nothing compared to what was drawn out of him then. It hasn't absorbed as much in the time since, but he's prepared for it not being a pleasant sensation. If he focuses, maybe he can manage the same lack of reaction, for Allison's sake.

He'll find out soon enough. One last time. He tilts his chin up to turn his attention back to Wrath, offering up no objection to what he's already warned is coming next. All he has to do is wait and allow him to work, then it'll be over, one way or another. ]

( Wrath says some quiet words in Latin - the voice of the serpent, commanding a language created after he was. It activates the ritual he has already begun with the ingredients, with the circle, with his own power primarily at use, honing it here in this moment. He reaches out with his hands over top of Five, hovering them there. His eyes are closed, and he focuses in on that despair that has been a beacon to Wrath since the moment they met over a year ago.

He calls to the despair with the aspects of himself that can welcome in certain emotions and harness them. Despair has never been one of them emotions that feed Wrath, but with the way the ritual has been made, he can use his ability in a different way. He pulls it into himself as he focuses on the cursed item itself like he witnessed in Taravast, like he wished he could do for the curse that still binds him and his wife.

The sensation will be uncomfortable at first - the coldness of the despair and the cursed item remaining. Then it does hurt an unbearable amount, the cursed item wishes to remain in its spot after all, but just as quick as it hurts, the pain is then dulled by the light Emilia filters into Five instead, the warmth she brings through the spark of the moon. No curse, no darkness, no despair will remain, it all runs from her light into the center where Wrath draws it out. Once the pain has numbed, there is only the uncomfortable sensation for the remainder of the ritual which is not long as Wrath promised.

This is the magic of two gods at work after all. They can do miracles if they so wish, or they can create cataclysms instead. That power radiates from his fingertips as he works with quiet efficiency.

Wrath draws the cursed item to him, and as he pulls it out, it appears as a shard being magically drawn out of Five's chest - no wound is there, only the uncomfortable sensation of coldness in its place. On the surface of the shard clings some of Five's own despair, a flash of their time in Hell - their brother in chains for Allison to see. )

[She almost doesn't recognize it as her brother at first. The image that Ben conjures now is the one that got to grow up, as a Sparrow rather than an Umbrella, but her image of Ben is that of an adult.

An asshole of an adult, but what of them aren't an asshole every now and again?

But no, that image in the mirror - that's her Ben. The one they lost a long time ago, who Klaus kept around whispering in his ear, but they lost him after Dallas. And she stares back into the young face that is gone in the blink of an eye, and she finds herself stumbling forward, trying to catch hold of it.]

Ben?

[ Five anticipated pain, so when it comes he's bracing for it, but no sooner does a shout escape him when the pressure in his chest is too much to hold than he feels a rush of warmth dull it away. For something that had made his body its home for years, he imagined it'd feel like an organ being removed or losing a limb. In the end it's something indescribable. A power he's unfamiliar with takes control, so far beyond himself that he can't be sure he wouldn't have fun from it if the rumor wasn't keeping him still. Instead the anguish he'd clung to is cut away as easily as it had first entered him in the lake.

It happens fast. He doesn't fight against the magic, or so much as move until he can feel cold settling into the emptiness the shard left behind. For as long as he spent wondering what it would look like if he saw it with his own eyes, he finds it's completely dark when he opens them. Outwardly, he remains calm, waiting for his vision to adjust and puzzling over the lack of light from the moon when he hears Allison.

Ben? ]

What? [ His voice is weak and his head lulls to the side to try to pinpoint where his sister is. Few things could draw his attention the way his family can, and even in his state he needs someone to tell him. ] ...Did you say?

It is a memory from Hell lingering on the surface of the mirror.

( Wrath will answer their questions at once as he fully removes the item, feeling the strange, cursed nature about it as he does so. Already it seeks more anguish or seeks a host that might be able to feed it. He has a box prepared for this as well, warded, which he places the shard into without ever touching it with his bare hands. Then he shuts the box and whispers another ward to lock it properly from anyone opening it.

They have enough mirrors from the last location that they have no need for this one, and given its cursed nature, it is likely best it is ultimately destroyed in some fashion, but that will take studying to determine the best way to do so without unleashing the curse on someone else. If it could be utilized as a weapon that would be an option, but Wrath has more pressing matters to attend to like his own curse.

Then he clarifies further: )

It was not truly Ben but a demon.

( He stands slow and then gestures toward Five as he looks to Allison - the consequences have already come to pass. Wrath can tell in the way Five cannot see her, but they will be temporary. )

Oh.

[It makes sense, once he says it. It's not the Ben that she knows exists now. It's the Ben that Five would have last seen before he left for the future. If it was really Ben, he would have been an adult.

She exhales slowly, and tries to shake the image from her mind.]

He didn't tell me.

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