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Return to the Court

The three of them stood before a massive pile of rubble. Sirene insisted they were in the right place, so Rebecca began to clear it using her Irongrip vines, while Sergei and Sirene watched. They were deep into the ruins of Valenca, far deeper than Rebecca had ever ventured over the years, and quite likely deeper than anyone had ventured since Valenca was abandoned. Rebecca casually cleared away entire buildings from what appeared to be a lot forgotten public square or courtyard, until they reached a layer of seemingly immaculate tiles.

"Here we are." Sirene said. "The roof of the court."

"The roof?" Sergei asked.

"Observe." Sirene stated. She walked around the cleared courtyard, tapping tiles with her foot seemingly at random. Just as Rebecca was about to ask what she was doing, the entire courtyard shook, and a hole opened in the ground. "Looks like the magic has run out. We'll have to jump down. Don't worry it's just a few feet."

Sirene walked over to the hole in the ground and jumped in without a moment's hesitation. Seeing her do it so readily gave Rebecca confidence and she did the same, motioning for Sergei to follow. The room they arrived in was small and dark, but Rebecca noticed a door at the end. Looking at Sirene expectantly, Sirene nodded and snapped her fingers. Some but not all of the lights flickered and turned on, bathing the room in a low glow.

"It saddens me to see it like this you know." Sirene said, gesturing at the state of disrepair of the magic.

"Where are we?" Rebecca asked. "For that matter, what kind of magic is this?"

"In the antechamber of the Court, and frankly I don't know. This magic predates me." Sirene replied, walking to the door to the rest of the Court. "Come on, follow me."

Rebecca audibly gasped when they stepped through the door into the library proper. She ran to the railing and looked down, and upon seeing it stretch down for nearly a dozen levels down, looked up and saw it stretch up equally high.

"Where are we?" Rebecca demanded.

"A pocket dimension. Welcome, Duchess Ashe, to the Umbra Curia!" Sirene exclaimed, clapping her hands, causing the ceiling to flicker to life with a soft glow. "You're in the largest repository of knowledge on Karand, and perhaps the entire universe! This is the true power of the Court!"

"This is... amazing." Rebecca said, a look of awe on her face. She had never seen anything even remotely like this in her life. Not in all her years of travels. "This is from all over Karand?"

"Not just Karand. Itari, the Gheddan Steppes, even Cleyix." Sirene said as they started to make their way down the stairs. "Even some places... beyond our universe."

"Beyond?" Sergei asked.

"Some of these books are older than I am. I'm not the only Conservator the library ever had, merely the longest serving."

"What's that whirring sound?" Rebecca asked as they descended yet another flight of stairs.

"You pay attention, that's good!" Sirene exclaimed with a laugh and stopping on a landing "Umbra Curia, affer mihi servum!"

A bookshelf on the landing whirred with a soft click, and a Dwarven automaton emerged from behind it. It had a gold and silver gleam and walked smoothly, far unlike the modern Dwarven golems which walked with a jerking motion.

"Greetings Conservator. Who is this you have brought?" The automaton said in its metallic voice. It turned to look at Rebecca and the white orbs placed on its head seemed to stare through Rebecca. "You smell of the Rus, but you are not one of them. You may speak."

"I am Duchess Rebecca Ashe, and the vampire with me is my servant Sergei Ivanov." Rebecca answered. She had the feeling she should be honest with this machine. "My husband is a Rusalki, he is the Moonfall Prince."

"I’m a descendant of who?" Rebecca demanded, glaring at Sirene. "Did you set me up?"

Sirene had a shocked look on her face. She hadn't been expecting this. She looked at the automaton, then at Rebecca.

"For once, no. I genuinely had no idea you were related to him. Duchess, I think this makes my plans even more appropriate. But we need to make a detour first. Automaton, have there been any breaches of the Curia while I have been away?"

"When you sealed the Curia, we closed the dimensional portals behind you. The Curia has been inaccessible since you left, Conservator. We maintain it as we always did, albeit in some peace and quiet."

Sirene could swear the automaton would smile if it could at that last line, but moved right along.

"Good. We're heading to the private quarters of former Magus Natsuki first. Are they still intact?"

"Affirmative. The last people to visit Magus Natsuki's quarters were Tanya Torvaris and Conservator Ignitis in 8902." The automaton answered as Sirene began to walk again.

Sirene inhaled. Eigengrau was right, Tanya did have them return before she died. But what was the gift she left? As she weighed the options, Rebecca spoke up.

"Now this is interesting." Rebecca said with a venomous smile. "You're just addicted to working with villains, aren't you?"

"You don't know anything about her." Sirene snapped. "Tanya was a complicated person. I petitioned Lady Vordea to erase all knowledge of an entire subschool of Creation Magic from existence after Tanya died."

Rebecca smirked before continuing. "Did someone fall in love with a villain? A wicked witch?"

"Shut up!" Sirene yelled, whirling to stare at Rebecca, who was taken aback at the outburst from Sirene. "Tanya's evil was committed under a kind of magic no longer possible! Mind control!"

Rebecca's expression softened. This was entirely unexpected, but if that magic existed once, she could make it exist again if she asked Sirene the right questions. Thinking it over for a moment as Sirene stared angrily at her, she decided to try the curious approach first.

"Mind control magic?" She asked, doing her best to sound surprised.

"Yes." Sirene said, her voice still hard. "It was a hideous magic I took great pains to erase. Enrapture will never steal another person's mind because I made sure it can no longer exist."

"Enrapture?" Rebecca inquired, as they continued to stand on the staircase landing. The automaton accompanying them just whirred and offered no indication of anything.

"Duchess Ashe." Sirene said sternly, walking up very closely to Rebecca and staring at her directly in the eyes. "I am not telling you anything about this spell. You aren't just a creation mage, you're the creation mage, and could remake this spell if I told you anything about it."

Rebecca sighed. Seems Sirene saw right through her game, and so she shook her head.

"You caught me. Let's keep going, shall we?" Rebecca offered, stepping back from Sirene. "I'm curious as to what this gift Tanya left you is."

Sirene glared at Rebecca for a moment. It was so easy to forget she was a profoundly evil person, even worse than Baroness Barclay in many ways.

"Hmph." Rebecca continued. "Did the Hero forget I'm the Villain? I'm not a good person, Sirene. I've never tried to hide this."

"I didn't." Sirene said quietly. "I just wish you were."

"I think..." Rebecca began to say, before continuing in a much softer tone. "In another life, we would have been good friends."

"What makes you say that?" Sirene asked, finally starting to walk again.

"Just a hunch." Rebecca said with a wink. Maybe if her own path hadn't been so dark she would have been the idealist that Sirene is, Rebecca thought to herself. But she had seen the very worst humanity and others had to offer from a very young age. That path closed when she was still a teenager. "You've called me evil in the past, Miss Ignitis. Who is truly evil, me? Or the environment that created me?"

"Rebecca, I held my father in my arms as he died from plague. The villagers of my hometown tried to burn me to death, thinking I was responsible. Even so, I ended their lives one by one to spare them the painful death by plague. They were all infected and didn't know it." Sirene said in a soft but stern tone. "The first eighty years of immortality are the worst. That's when your first generation of friends begin to die. First the humans and tabaxi. The dwarves and hin not long after. You can count yourself lucky if you've befriended any elves though. Out of my elven friends I've made over the centuries, I've only had to say goodbye to 4 generations."

"Sirene..." Rebecca began.

"Quiet." Sirene said, interrupting. "Let me finish. Any number of events in my first century of living would have been enough for me to fall into an eternity of darkness and evil. Yet I didn't."

"The Hero isn't allowed to do anything so gauche as falling." Rebecca countered. "You aren't just a hero, Sirene. You're the Hero. You see the good in everyone, even me. I don't have that luxury."

"You're a rotten bitch, Duchess." Sirene said angrily. "But you're the right bitch for the job."

Rebecca grinned. That was more like Sirene. "Don't you ever forget it. Sergei, I hope this was enlightening for you."

"It was, yes." Sergei said, finally speaking up. "Sirene, if I may, what kind of person was Tanya?"

"Complicated. Intense. Greedy. Vengeful. Constantly at war with herself. She was... well. I haven't thought about her in a long time, Sergei." Sirene answered, looking wistful as she talked about Tanya, before pausing. "Let's just say... the Bay of Storms wasn't always filled with water, and the Morinder used to have less islands."

"She sounds fascinating." Sergei said, to which Rebecca nodded.

"Indeed. Actually, there is one thing I would be willing to teach the both of you, that she knew." Sirene said, suddenly remembering. "Duchess, I'm sure you're familiar with sonic magic."

"Quite. Is there something special about it?" Rebecca asked, as they made their way through the seemingly endless shelves of the massive library.

"How about triggering spells stored in runes via sound?" Sirene asked, as she made a turn and entered a side chamber. "She was the most powerful creation mage I ever knew until I met you, Rebecca."

"While interesting, I prefer my plants." Rebecca said, waving dismissively. "Come, let's see what Tanya's legacy is."

Sirene nodded. No point in pushing the issue if Rebecca wasn't interested. Reaching the alcove, Sirene punched out a specific brick, reached inside, and pulled a lever, revealing a long descending staircase.

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