Running Ink [IC]

[Aoiroo]

She moved next to Equinox as she examined the book.

"This may work, but you must understand that this is a magic book not like any I have seen. The sheer variety of magic bound into its pages makes it completely understandable that it is extending as far as it is and physical contact even as indirect may create a link that might overpower you. We must make this quick, as quick as possible."

She glanced over at the book eying it quietly as she followed the extensions throughout the room.

[Fox]

Spreading his feet somewhat to get a more solid footing, Gaian Knight cracked his knuckles. "Well, then. I suppose we'd better get this right the first time." His little collection of stones spread out around the book, thinning and stretching to form an odd sort of structure a few feet away from the case. It looked, aside from the material it was made out of, quite a bit like the sort of shield one might find in a lab that handles hazardous samples or chemicals. One large area was left open, to face the group, but the rest of the case was blocked off from its surroundings in case the worst happened.

"Ah...those not touching the book might want to back up a bit. I really don't know if that thing's going to hold, and in the worst case it might spare the rest of the display by channeling the worst of whatever it's got at us, so...." He shrugged, apparently figuring that was a pretty decent trade-off. "Though I guess that's only if it explodes. Way, way too many things explode, in my experience. Ready when you are, ma'am."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox stepped up and pointed her wand at the opening, spinning it in a quick circle before leveling it at the book. Instantly, the entire space left inside the stone construct turned into a solid block of ice, the water in the air expanding and cracking out into a white-blue mass.

"OK, hopefully that'll hold it. If not... well, keep your defences up, just in case." She reached out and put one hand on the stonework. "OK, I'm going to need everyone to hold hands, and then one of you put your arm around my waist."

[trollthumper]

The book did not struggle against its frosty bonds; it simply stood there, its pages open to the world under clouded ice. "So, where do we want to send this thing?" said Nick as he reached his hands out to the others. "An active volcano? Eldrich's doorstep? The Parkhurst, for further study?"

"I think I'd rather like it back," said a voice from the darkness. Out stepped Melinda Thompkins, looking the way she had when she'd left the library. Her voice, however, had taken on a more balanced tone, with a hint of a baritone alleviated by a competing alto. "You have no idea how much money we had to put up to retrieve it. It wouldn't do to just send it scattering into the winds again."

"Note to self," muttered Nick, "don't trust damsels in distress." He looked to Melinda. "Who's 'we'?"

"Speak for yourself, Ar," said another voice, like a knife scraping across gravel. A hulking man emerged from the shadows, his face concealed by a black hooded sweatshirt. "I'd be happy to see that damn book back at the bottom of the Mediterranean." He threw back his hood to reveal a face the shape and color of mangled concrete, sharp brows and fangs giving hint to some dark lineage. "Gotta say one thing for it, though -- it brings the freaks running."

"You're one to talk," said Nick. "Wake up on the wrong side of the cement truck?"

The thing in the black sweatshirt clenched its fists tight; the sound of cracking stone rang out through the store room. "Necromancer," he said, "I'm going to enjoy gouging holes in you. Ariel, strike this up."

Melinda's form dissolved, to reveal someone androgynous and unearthly beautiful standing where she once had. Hir skin was pale and seemed near transparent, and hir eyes pierced the darkness of the room with unnatural light. She spat out syllables in Latin that came across perfectly to Changeling and Equinox:

"Restless shades, come forth from the plains beyond. Come before us, tell us of the worlds beyond, and do our bidding as commanded, until the binding is ceased."

A cold mist washed over the library floor, coiling upwards. From it emerged four pale and ragged ghosts, their limbs moving in the jerky fashion of a drunken puppeteer shaking his marionettes. Nick looked to the demon. "Let me guess," he said. "Your friend's Ariel. That must make you Caliban. Didn't think you'd be the sort to appreciate bindings."

"I appreciate irony, necromancer. Nothing more, nothing less." He gave a sick smile. "Tell me. Do you like my little servants? How they dance and make merry? Your kind see keen to bind elementals, demons, faeries - anything not human enough is free to be made a servant to a mage. How does it feel to see your dead made the plaything of the other?"

"You want the truth?" said Nick as the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "I think it's the stupidest thing you've done in a long, long time."

[trollthumper]

One of the ghosts jerked forward, its actions not so much guided as forced. Claws and barbs erupted from the ends of its ectoplasmic arms, and it bore down on Nick like a guided missile. He took a step back as the awkward phantom clawed the ari before him.

"Let me guess, it's the same old story," he said. "You're still pissed off at your old master, wherever he might be. And because you couldn't take up a meaningful hobby, like boxing or macrame, you've decided to try and start killing mages instead." Unnatural blue flame coated his hands, and he hurled it off like a bolt, striking Caliban right in the crown. "Was therapy too expensive?"

Caliban reeled under the psychic onslaught, but when the assault passed, he stared Nick down, undaunted. "Start, nothing," he hissed. "We've slain half a hundred necromancers, shamans by the score, invokers by the dozen and two certified archmages. You're nothing to us, boy."

[Fox]

"I dunno," Gaian Knight mused, the bristling rocks that floated behind him betraying his not quite so at ease mood. "I'm with Nick, here: you really ought to try some therapy. Murder's bad for the soul."

Apparently not all his rocks were still up behind him - more than a few had dropped to the ground, moving nearly unseen until they started flowing up Caliban's legs like living things, earthen snakes or vines spreading out to try to encase him and hold him fast in a cocoon of stone. "I was going to ask if we could just talk this out, but somehow I don't think that's on the table anymore."

[trollthumper]

Caliban leaped back from the flowing stone, but not fast enough. The earthen vines wrapped around his legs, binding him fast to the ground. "I don't need to hear you talk," he said. "Screaming will be enough -- "

"Oh, for God's sake, Caliban," said Ariel, as zhe directed one of the ghosts towards Nick. The ghost landed a hard blow against Nick's skull, but the necromancer seemed to be made of sterner stuff. "Show some professionalism, will you? So they need to be dealt with. That doesn't mean you need to gloat like some pantomine villain."

Nick steadied himself. "Guess that means you're sick of him too, huh?"

"He may be vexing, necromancer, but he is a trusted friend and companion. Don't even try it."

"Eh. Worth a shot."

[Aoiroo]

"Such a sad tale is yours, to be so badly mistreated I can understand the urge to lash out against those similiar."

Stepping forward she twitched her hand as a morningstar formed into it,

"I sympathize at least that the life you have lived and the examples you have been given shows not the good capable of the present company, but I cannot condone what you have done and not help but question the methods. Maybe after you have had some rest may you find time to look over what you have done."

Stepping forward she swung the weapon in a low swing hitting the more agressive of the two agressors in the midsection. The blood on the spikes of her mace dripped in an arc as she pulled it back than looked at Ariel,

"Do you have any more words you would like to share? Your company has said some nasty things, so I feel no remorse in giving him pain, but you seem reasonably pleasant."

[trollthumper]

The illusory mace struck Caliban right in the temple. The cambion reeled under the mental assault; his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed to the floor of the basement. Ariel turned towards Changeling with barely restrained fury. "Yes, my company is rude and vulgar," zhe said, hir arms conducting the ghosts. "But he was also my close companion in years of servitude. And I do not take kindly to practitioners inflicting their abuses upon him." The ghosts flew across the room, striking hard at Changeling and Gaian Knight with ectoplasmic blows. "You have just taxed my reason, child."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox was slow to react after such a large evocation of ice magic, and thus was powerless to prevent the ghosts from rushing at her compatriots. Dammit, can only take out one, how to choose, how to choose... Without hesitation, the witch spun and threw her willpower into her wand, right hand stretched out in front of her. "Pyrkagius!" she shouted, a burst of red-hot flame lancing forth to spiral into the incorporeal entity as if it was solid.

With another huge exertion of willpower, she drew her wards up around her, solidifying them and intensifying them into until she had a dome shaped shield spreading out from her left arm, ready to absorb and deflect incoming blows. "I've never bound anything to my will, and, faerie, if you seek a judge a whole race by the actions of a few of their kind, why don't you start sparkling and spreading pixie dust?" she said cruelly to Ariel.

[trollthumper]

A sneer darted across Ariel's face. "Have you ever spent time in a tree, sorceress?" zhe said, levitating towards the ceiling of the basement. The air grew damp as clouds surrounded hir. "Bound by the roots of base earth, imprisoned by your very antithesis? And when freedom presents itself, your rescuer plants you in a gilded cage, constantly promising you freedom as a reward." The clouds roiled and turned black, and a lance of lightning shot out towards Equinox. "I have my reasons to be bitter."

"And let me guess," Nick said, "they all had it coming." He moved to intercept one of the ghosts as it stormed towards Changeling, but it was too fast. And so was she, as she managed to gracefully dodge the phantom's assault. "Every hermetic, every shaman, every necromancer, every amateur demonologist, every one of them did something that meant they had to die." He hurled another bolt of eldritch fire at Ariel, but the sylph was too quick. "Or at least something that pissed you off."

"I have my reasons, necromancer," Ariel said. "I am not petty."

[Fox]

"Petty? Naaaah," Gaian Knight replied, though there wasn't any humor in his voice. He'd weathered the ghost's attack well enough, though even if he hadn't he wasn't sure he could do much to them; instead, he'd turned his attention toward Ariel, sweeping out a glowing hand and sending a stream of stone projectiles hir way. "You just go around murdering people in cold blood because a couple other, unrelated people screwed you over half a millennium ago. I certainly can't see anything petty about that."

[Aoiroo]

Although slowed down a bit by the shock of the attack, Changeling managed to shake it off and see an immediate problem of the ghosts. Heaving the morning star, she ran and plowed her weapon into the head of the spector neither stopped by either it's quickness or semitangibility on this plain. Pulling back, she glanced at Ariel and said with a sigh,

"Hell hath no fury, though really how satsifying can this strange revenge be if you are still at it even after so long. This is no longer the world it was, magic is scarce, and it's abuse as gone down with the over all use. There are those who might seem to do the things that you seem wrong, but no one here is guilty of any of your charges. Really, it is a bit of a wonder, where were you last year when the dead and spirits were being bound and manipulated on such a scale that it took weeks for its full containment. It is rather strange that you are only here after the fact."

[trollthumper]

"Our lot is not with creatures of flesh, child," said Ariel. "Our lot is with the outsiders, the ones who never knew the bonds of mortal life and blood. We bear umbrage at their bondage, be it at the hands of men or gods. Your souls were lost, but they were considered. My brethren have been summoned and bound by mages for everything from slave labor to paltry questions. We are nothing before the sight of sorcerers."

"First of all, way to perfectly bury your cognitive dissonance," said Nick. "Second of all, man, you really just love giving me reasons to kick your hot-air-filled ass all the way from here to Atlantic City, don't you?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox casually threw up her arm, the ghost's headlong assault halted by the dome of magical force projected from it. "Huh." She whirled casually, magical shield held up with nothing but a slightly effort of will, as she met Ariel's gaze. "Before you kick her ass, Nick, I've got a paltry question for her."

She levelled her wand, the tip spraying red hot sparks as the witch's willpower and magic filled it. "What are your opinions on pyromancy?" The lance of flame was white-hot and so dense with heat and fire that it was basically solid, the air sizzling and boiling around it.

[trollthumper]

The gout of flame tore through Ariel's ephemeral form; zhe managed to gather hir misty corpus back together, but elements appeared charred and rent asunder. "Clever," zhe spat, and lightning followed in her fury, dancing at Equinox's feet. "Your flame has some bite, but I've dealt with worse salamanders in my time. It will take more than mere fire to make me back down."

"Oh, trust me," said Nick as he weathered another ghost's blows, "my fire is nothing like mere." He extended his will, and the gout of ghostly flame - the one that had missed Ariel's head by mere inches - reversed direction and accelerated back towards the air elemental. It struck hir in the back of the head, exploding into a corona of ghastly green light. Zhe shrieked in pain and convulsed in midair. "You fiend!" zhe said. "How dare you dig into my head! How dare you!"

"Well, what can I say," Nick said as another gout took flight. It struck Ariel once more, but zhe didn't react; zhe was likely still fighting off the sensory overload from the first blast. "I kinda set aside my tact when people are trying to kill me."

[Fox]

Mostly hidden behind the cloth that covered half his face, Gaian Knight set his jaw as he looked out over the enemies still standing. Well, flying, really. Still. I'm clearly not going to hit them with rocks, and the big meaty one's down. Heh - it's a shame mythology's just mythology - there are some gemstones that....hmm. "Did you know," he began, betraying his professor nature as he turned to regard the ghost that looked...hurt? In as much as spectral entities could, anyway, "that almost every precious stone and a lot of the ones that aren't have all kinds of mythology surrounding them?"

From all around, seemingly always from outside an onlooker's point of view, shards of polished-looking red and green stone started coming together into a small cloud at the end of one of his hands. It almost seemed to grow of its own accord, bits and pieces appearing from behind other bits and pieces as they moved and swarmed. "Take jasper. A lot of folks back in the day thought it could repel evil spirits," he continued, regarding the little cloud with fond curiosity...before directing it like an angry stream of gunfire into his one-ghost audience. "Maybe they knew something modern people forgot."

[Aoiroo]

Changeling ignored the ghosts more or less, they had very low success in trying to hit her anyway. Instead she turned to Ariel who was losing her grip on things,

"You are very strange, your existance is a bit of a convulted contradiction. You say you wish to help beings but have such a narrow focus on what you consider beings, like it is only magic users that are wrong, that creatures of magic do not routinely do the things that you accuse of us."

Her sword disappeared as she held out a hand and a yellow light started to form,

"I have to wonder if you realize, how much worse you and your companion have become than those who had inflicted their wills upon you. Like the book, why do you continue to have something that causes such harm? Would not of it been better to destroy it, yet you use it to do far worse to other than you own enslavement. So that leads me to another question,"

Raising her hand she blasted a yellow bolt of lighting at the floating air spirit,

"Why do you not just call yourself Sycorax, if she so crafted you a monster for her actions, taking upon her legacy would be appropriate no?"

[trollthumper]

The gout of lightning struck Ariel hard, piercing the sylph's defenses. Zhe bucked in mid-air, then fell swiftly to the ground. Her airy form was caught half-in and half-out of the stone, floating like a log on the water. She lifted her head to glare at Changeling before she faded into unconsciousness. The ghosts swirled around the fallen elemental, letting up shrieks of fury. One of the bound shades took a swipe at Changeling, but missed by a country mile.

"We might stand more of a chance if we could sunder that damn binding," Nick said. "Sounded like a proper invocation rather than a necromantic spell, so I don't think I've got much of a chance of cutting it in half. But since the guys who put it up in the first place are down, we've got a better chance of pulling it off. Equinox? Any ideas?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"I've got a few ideas," conceded Equinox, raising her wand high above her head and raising her voice to the heavens. Her eyes began glowing like a dropped match in a fireworks factory, and the air around her began to blur.

"Libertas, Libertas!

Shatter these bonds, make these spirits free,

Yea, hear me, hear me, make them go free!

I ask of you a third time, to seal this spell,

Free all these spirits, and make all be well!"

She brought her wand slicing down in an overhead gesture, using both hands to simulate a sword shattering through manacles. And then white light burst everywhere.

[trollthumper]

The white light flooded over the dark basement, catching the ghosts and their unconscious captors as black shapes on a blinding field, like photonegatives. Thick bonds, invisible up until then, became apparent, and slowly crumbled under the magical onslaught. The light faded, and the ghosts remained, confused and taking account of their surroundings. In time, a sense of clarity came over them, and they began to fade away into thin air.

"Good one, Equinox," said Nick. "Didn't exactly trust those two to get ghosts who'd be keen on violence on reserve." He looked over the unconscious forms of Caliban and Ariel. "Question one: What do we do with them? And question two..." He gestured towards the book, still encased in stone and ice. "Where do we want to dump that? I believe our friends said something about the Mediterranean..."

[Aoiroo]

Changeling watched with a smile as the ghosts were freed from their bindings and laid to rest before tracing her sights two the sources of their problems.

"Clearly drowning such a tomb did not work the first time, I do not think another attempt is justified. There is too much power in this book to bring to Parkhurst either, it would no doubt interact with the inlayed magics both old and new and cause another conundrum. So I suggest we hand over all three troubles to the Master Mage, he should have no trouble finding a safe place to destroy the tomb and a safer place to store the other two."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight put his hands back in his pockets, the rather large quantity of gemstones he'd conjured from goodness knows where disappearing as they'd appeared - when out of line of sight. I'm really going to have to figure out how that works. "I'm pretty sure I could stick it so far underground it'd be a chore to get it back out...but if they dug it out of the sea, I guess that's not too reliable. I'm all for leaving it with the Master Mage, assuming, ah, somebody has him on speed dial, or something. I've never even met the guy, so I'm really not sure how you get a hold of him when you need his help."

[trollthumper]

"I can take care of that," Nick said. He pulled out a small trinket from his jacket, then ran his finger over it in a circle.

Hello, Eric. The voice of the Master Mage echoed through his head. I'm currently in negotiation with some of the parties from the Dark Dimensions. Is this a pressing matter?

Probably. I'm currently at the main branch of the library. Some witch hunters put Prospero's book in the basement as a lure. And it's leaking.

...I'll put them on hold. Do you have a means of conveying the book, or should I come over?

We're setting up a teleportation ritual. I just wanted to know whether you'd be okay with me dropping off the wild magic equivalent of a suitcase nuke on your front doorstep.

I'll get a containment circle ready. You said mage hunters had their hands on the book. May I ask...?

Caliban and Ariel.

Oh. Those two. I ran into them in Venice in 1952. They are insistent, aren't they? You may wish to send them along, as well.

Got it.

Nick turned to the others. "He's okay with the drop-off," he said, "and he thinks we should send the terrible twosome along with it."