Back in Technicolor
The TarRaCe is empty. Completely and totally empty. Save one very large table which has a large banner thrown over it in large letters which says, "To My Heroes". A stream of confetti falls from it in a never-ending stream that never actually hits the table but never actually makes a pile on the floor. Much to the thanks of the serving staff.
There's a man standing beside the table beaming, and he must be Albus Kinkade though you've never seen him before. He's got short graying black hair that's neatly coiffed (though this looks recent). He has a moderate and somewhat scraggly beard that's very well kept (this doesn't look recent), and a flair for the dramatic that shows in his clothes quite well. This starts with his big floppy purple and pointed hat which sits atop his head neatly. Down to his rainbow scarf wrapped around his shoulders in loops and loops and loops around his shoulders to his purple robes which are marked with the arcane sigils of his business and his toes which poke out of his robes in the dead of winter proving he's wearing sandals of all things.
The TaRaCe's door bangs open, and Magpie throws her arms out wide, her biggest grin on her face. "Albus!" she crows, taking in the empty restaurant, the huge banner, and most importantly of all the very human wizard standing next to the table. "...Oh wow, you do have good fashion sense! It's so great to finally see you, buddy!"
Toodling up to the wizard, she leans back, and back, her grin growing ever wider. "Seriously good to see you."
Corey is dressed in his armor and colors of Gilead, a green cloak over his mithral armor and a symbol of Gilead hanging from around his neck. His hair is pulled back into a very well-groomed ponytail, and the young llyranesi man is all smiles as he enters the TarRaCe after Magpie, quickly spotting the production that a certain archmage has made of the place--because it's rather impossible to not notice it. He comes over to Albus Kinkade and bows a little at the waist.
"Wow, Archmage!" Cor'ethil exclaims. "It's so nice to meet you in the flesh. And not in the book. Err, what Magpie said. It's really good to meet you again... in the proper edition this time." He smiles like he hasn't made a horrible joke.
Albus laughs at Corey's joke like it's not a terrible one. (Maybe being stuck in a book for a while you don't hear a lot of zingers.) But he pulls out a chair and offers it to Magpie. "I have been waiting to hug you properly Magpie. If you will allow me that." He holds his own arms open, and his blue eyes twinkle with unshed tears. "I have indeed."
The moment that she steps into his arms he embraces her and they share a moment that is true friendship. He might shed a tear or two, and he's not ashamed to admit it at all. Eventually he withdraws with a smile. "I've asked the kitchen to make some of my favorites, and some of the ones we spoke of sharking when we had a chance to eat together. I hope you don't mind."
They'd had months to talk to one another, and he hadn't forgotten their conversations, not one. The food comes out and it's a mish-mash of weird and wonderful things. Not breakfast or lunch or dinner but everything that one might talk about a with a dear friend when one is trapped in a book and longing for things that they haven't had in a while. Albus sits down and he invites the other two to sit down with him and to share with him his first meal. "Tell me how you both are doing, please."
Corey looks positively thrilled with the eclectic selections of foods, beaming as he reaches over and takes a little sandwich off of a plate. "Well, I'm set to be married," he says softly, smiling. "Just that Mother keeps adding things to the ceremony, which is why it's been a bit delayed. She apparently commissioned some artists to create things for the wedding that will then be added to the curuchuil garden, and... I can't really tell her no."
He sighs a little, smiling. "But beyond that, my fiance and I have a little house now, outside of Alexandria. I started raising chickens. He started growing poisonous herbs in the garden. We're careful not to mix the two." Another bad Corey joke.
"Kiz, you don't even gotta ask," Magpie says, in the process of climbing onto the chair. And when she does step into the hug, she squeezes with a fierceness that belies her smol and noodly frame. "Been waiting for this forever," she whispers, eyes shining with yet-unshed tears.
Once she finally drops back down onto the chair, she turns and waves ebulliantly at Corey. "Glad you're here, Corey! We're about to commit some serious gastronomic crimes, we're gonna need you as a witness if the cooks get called up to the magistrate!"
As the meal begins, and Magpie finally gets to lay her hands on steak Diane with poached eggs, her excitement is tangible. "Albus, buddy... That's a loaded question, I haven't been anywhere near this happy since I finally graduated from the Academy at Rune, and I don't expect to be this happy again for a lotta whiles yet."
Sitting back, she listens to Corey's account of his impending nuptuals, and chuckles. "That tracks with what I've heard about moms, but let me know if you want someone who can tell her no. ...Might not be me, but, I can give it a shot."
"For myself... it's actually been a little slow, which is nice. Slow enough that I'm thinking of investing in a bakery, having something to pay the bills. like. I'm not... there just yet, but, it's a fine dream for a side job, once I'm done being stupid and desperate for pay."
"I considered the institution of marriage for a while, when I was young." Albus says, cutting into a cinnamon roll, and eating with gusto. He clearly is enjoying the delicious treat and the sweet, sweet icing that is atop of it, slathering each bite in the sweetness. "However my mother was very disapproving of my chosen match and sent me off to Rune to learn magic instead. Needless to say she was very displeased to learn that Rune did nothing to cure me of my disposition."
He smiles warmly at this and adds a handful of bacon to his plate - as everything is better with bacon and eats a bit for good measure and drinks a bit of cider. "As for you Magpie, whilst I think you could open a smashing bakery, we both know that your talents would be wasted therein. You should do something that would be better suited to your skills."
"Why not a bakery and being one of the finest arcanists in the city?" Corey suggests with a bright smile in Magpie's direction on the heels of Albus's words. "I'm sure Magpie can handle both. Or maybe use a spell that allows her to make a second one of herself so that she can do both. My twin sister's mentioned doing so, just so she has someone that can do all the things she doesn't want to do and have time to do all the reading and magical experimentation that she wants."
Then Cor'ethil looks thoughtful as he reaches for another little sandwich. This one's got thinly sliced portions of meat in it with cheese melted on top. "So, here's the thing. It's not that my Mother is domineering and putting her own projection of an ideal wedding... She just wants to make sure I feel like Karasu and I have her full support, especially where... Well, Karasu is only going to have two family members present. I'll have my parents, my sisters, and probably a sizable number of the ravens, and friends of the family--"
Cor'ethil pauses. "Have I mentioned my family breeds ravens and trains them as messengers? Anyway, Mother's just trying to pull out all the stops to kind of welcome Karasu wholly into our family. So I'm not begrudging her a single thing."
"...Could see if I can come up with a way to do agriculture on other planes," Magpie mumbles absently, eyes unfocused. "You hear people talk alla time about wines, an' how the terrain affects the taste of the grape... Wonder what kinda flour Fire Barley'd make? Planar bread, planar beer, now that's some possibility..."
Blinking rapidly, she pulls her head out of her own mind, and clears her throat. "Sorry... I mean I probably will do something more... substantial... but I mean, you know, how much I love just... food, Kiz. Enough that Corey's sister seems like she has the right idea, an' I know for certain that that's a terrible idea to seriously try an' do."
As Corey describes the true reason behind his mother-generated wedding delays, she can't help but laugh. "Okay, so your mom's good people, an' you just don't wanna discourage her. That makes sense, and it's a good issue to have.
Turning back to Albus, Magpie tilts her head. "So wait. Your mom's answer... To you being sweet on the 'wrong' girl... Was... to send you... to a place... where they'd teach you how to hoist the finger at physics and go where you feel like?"
"...I'm not sure she thought that whole plan through..."
Albus leans toward Corey a little thoughtfully. "No, you didn't mention that your mother trained ravens. That's delightful. Very intelligent animals you know. They can teach their young for generations to come you know."
He flushes a bit at Magpie's statement however and shrugs. "Wrong girl? Not quite. Wrong boy? Yes. She was quite scandalized to learn that her eldest son was not going to be producing any heirs for the family... you know the drill. They've been on me for years to change my mind but... I've never."
He shrugs and pops a grape into his mouth quite finished with his cinnamon roll and enjoying the refreshing taste of something a little lighter now. "I think she'd be far more upset to learn how many ahem! That is to say! I was rather hoping that I might return the favor and aid you two in some way. Surely there's something that you need? Help I can provide?"
Corey frowns. "That's awful," he says. "That your mother treated you like that. I can't imagine mine ever thinking that way. Did you ever reconnect with him? Or is he elsewhere now? The idea that my mother would ever ask me to 'reconsider' who I am or who I loved..."
He shakes his head. "Well, as much as I'd like to mention that you could always come visit the ravenry if you were so inclined..."
Cor'ethil eyes Magpie for a moment, before he looks at Albus and says, "Do you have any interest in helping me... rid this world of a great evil?" That's one way to begin things.
"Double think her mind wasn't finishing what it started," Magpie scoffs. "Dad would've torn a strip or five off her for treating your heart like that, and I'd agree the whole way." As Corey asks if he reconnected, she glances his way, then back, nodding in agreement at wanting to hear.
Then he asks how he can help, and the gnome purses her lips at the paladin's offer, settling back to let him pick up the thread, as she judges how her beer pairs with her Egalrin-style spiced pork sandwich.
Turns out? Pretty well!
Inexplicably Albus turns a bit pinkish around the edges. "Well you could say that we did. But you could argue that we didn't. It's... complicated." He coughs into his hand. "Funnily enough we both ended up in Rune. But ah... it's a long story. Another time? I'm curious about this evil of Corey's which yes. I would be very interested in thwarting. It's my calling in life you know. Thwarting evil." He nods. Eats a grape. Almost chokes on it.
Well, Albus turning pink has Corey intrigued, that's for certain, but when an Archmage asks to change the subject... One changes the subject. So Cor'ethil says, his voice low, "So there's someone out there in the world who is still an issue. Where Karasu, my fiance, is from, there's an evil man by the name of Akimitsu Sori. He is responsible for the death of Karasu's brother. He is also partnered with a cabal who is resurrecting him. A servitor of Tarien himself believes that this cabal is aligned with fiends or is composed of fiends. Either way... We should put an end to Akimitsu Sori."
He looks sober. "Otherwise, he's going to haunt Karasu and I for all of our days together. And that's more days than I care to spend on the defense of a hunt."
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+22: (1)+22: 23 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+32: (19)+32: 51
As Albus blushes and dissembles, Magpie raises an eyebrow and grins over the rim of her mug... but likewise sets it aside, to make her newly-returned friend more comfortable. Because why spoil a party mood with embarrassment?
And Corey lays out his problem, and Magpie's grin slowly fades. "...Well you got my help," she says firmly. "At the very least, y'all deserve a honeymoon you can enjoy in peace."
At first the name doesn't ring a bell, but you throw in that the name is obviously Xian in nature and suddenly Albus catches on that this cabal is a fiend-summoning menace and his blue eyes narrow considerably. "Oh yes. Them. They raised a bunch of assassins as vessels from youth for fiends to use and then set fiends loose. One could hardly tell the difference in the scope of the terror and bloodshed caused. Once every hundred years or so they'd get a bright up-and-coming one that wanted to reawaken the old ways and do this. Usually they'd get themselves killed trying but it looks like this Sori survived? More's the pity. He'll be well protected at this point."
Albus frowns and thinks for a moment. "Last I checked the most powerful fiend active in Xian was banished by a paladin and rightly killed off, so they're not likely to cause you any grief. Have you considered petitioning Vardama? You know, to keep his soul in the halls? Tied up in legislation for a bit?" This last bit seems a bit ad hoc.
Cor'ethil frowns more and more severely as Albus speaks. With the last question, he shakes his head. "We haven't, yet," he says. "Quite frankly, when Archmage Telamon interrogated Sori last--he was already dead, but implied he would be resurrected quite soon. I imagine he already is alive again."
He looks at Albus. "My mother personally killed him," he says. "I suppose I could have my twin sister scry to see if he still lives... She's got her nose buried in a book most of the time anyway, so it'd be a nice way to get her 'out of the house', so to speak. She's been renting an estate in the Nobles' Quarter with Mother."
Looking from Albus to Corey and back again, Magpie frowns... then clambers up onto her chair, reaching for half a calzone with what smells like a goblin-spiced filling. "So this is a cult workin' over generations. Any chance as they happen to have an identifyin' mark or something like? Scry usin' that, and you could probably get a really good idea how close they are at the moment. A little warning's better than no warning, right?"
While the gnome looks worried at the incipient violence to come, it's clear from her facial expression that she's in her problem-solving brain, because running around in a fluttering panic only helps if you need to be exhausted.
Albus thinks for a moment. "I could kill him again. Temporarily. I know a trick that won't work twice on a man like him." Albus smiles thinly and takes a drink of his cider and points to his chest with two fingers. "If he's still alive I can make him not-alive for you right quick. So let me know. Then you petition Vardama to tie him up a bit. As for the identifying mark... They're assassin's Magpie. They worked as infiltrators and spies. They did not have identifying marks. Not back when I was looking into them anyway. Maybe Sori changed things."
Cor'ethil blinks at how easily Albus offers up a man's death--even one as depraved and monstrous as Sori's--but then he smiles a little. "You're like Mother," he says. "She suggests that sort of thing in a heartbeat and without a moment to spare. Well..."
He thinks for a moment. "Let me discuss it with Karasu. And maybe see if he wants to bring his ancestor in on the whole thing--oh." Corey then brightens considerably. "Albus, Magpie, you'd love Kiku. He's an odd fellow--I suppose you have to be to be a Tarienite servitor. But he's a kind-hearted soul. We'll have to find him some fried food, though."
Magpie pauses a moment, as Corey remarks on Albus' decisiveness. "...Well I mean," she begins, "isn't it kinda telling that someone deals with demons, but also, like... refuses to stay dead when someone stops them... Pretty sure that means if they come back, they're gonna keep doing the thing that got them killed."
With a shrug, she picks at a cream puff, considering what she's been told.. and grinning in answer at the description of Kiku. Which, let's be honest, a Tarienite servitor does sound like a lot of fun. "Heck, Corey, I'd fry it myself. He got a preference? Veggies? Meat? Fish? Potatoes? Bread?"
"When it comes to fiends one can't afford to dally." Albus says seriously. Quite agreeing with Magpie. "He's just going to keep coming back until he's put a stop to. Which means talking to a servitor of Vardama, and then putting a stop to his cult." Albus nods and then sits back in his chair quite full.
That isn't the end of the night of course, there's plenty more to discuss. Plots and plans, but that's all that's really important. They have a good time. That's what's important. They live a little, and they rally for the next cause. That's what's important.