Wizard's House

[wizardseason]

"Hey"

The Wizard greets the evil-allured knights the same way every night, with the same word, while casually sitting on the steps of the porch outside of her little home. The building looks handmade, like it was built by people who cared about the place they were going to live. Surrounding it on all sides are fields as far as the eye can see. Vegetables of all kinds, with fruit trees and bushes placed throughout the landscape. Closer to the home are bigger trees, willows and others, providing shade from the strange three suns above. Wherever this is, it isn't the world that the knights know.

Plunged into the ground a mere few feet away from the steps leading up to the home is a handwritten sign that states the following:

Knight Rules:
- Tell others if you want
- You can't reveal others
- The world ends this year

Comments

[tropicalstorm]

"Mine told me, what was it, 'remember to set me free'? And the kid was in front of the Wizard's house-" she's cut off by the Wizard's approach and raises an eyebrow.

"Speak of the devil," she mutters under her breath, before getting to her feet and calling out, "You're late tonight, Wizard! What gives?"

[scandeled]

Matilda purses her lips, silently sitting through the conversation, an achievement earned only for a topic as serious as this. Her eyes linger on Gyre in particular, something about his tone makes her want to comfort him, and she stands like she's going to do so-- but thankfully, the Wizard's apperance saves her from any awful fate that might come of such an action.

Matilda presses her hand against her chest in surprise-- a hint of relief passing across her face. "You're okay!"

[daddykong]

One of the perks of being meditative is that Garrot doesn't have to look at anything. Instead, he's envisioning Ten, keeping mental notes on the cryptic things these kids said, and listening. First, he figures it's the rustling of trees, but as the footsteps get closer, his eyes snap open and like always, he's glaring at the Wizard.

"You're not alone." His eyes dart to the lantern that she's holding with her own dreamspace hand. She's not using her magic and it's unnerving. "You wanna introduce us to your little friend?"

Garrot does not actually want to meet her little friend. They will probably further complicate an already complicated world-saving situation.

[sustainer]

Everyone else perks up at the sight of the wizard, but Gyre retracts down into himself, his eyes darting down and to the side as he plucks at Haizea's words. He wishes she had continued!

Instead they're all focused on the wizard and he drifts his attention up to her once Garrot points out that she's not alone. He tilts his head slightly, trying to see who could be with her right now. He hasn't got anything to add, just waiting for her to explain everything. Hopefully explain it better then she did on the roof anyway.

[wizardseason]

Fortunately for Haizea, the Wizard has an answer for that question. Unfortunately for Garrot, she has an answer for that one too. She lowers the lantern slightly, letting the light spread out all around her for feet in every direction. If there was someone there, they're not there anymore.

Isn't that just odd?

She glances towards Matilda with a little wider of a smirk at her words, and then at Gyre despite his silence. She turns back towards Haizea as she finally answers.

"I said we were going to where it started. To get there, we need two of these." She says it a moment before she waves her hand towards the ground. A glowing circle appears on the sand. The center of the circle is filled with what looks like space and there's an unmistakable mist rising out of it.

"Follow me." She says it a moment before she steps inside.

When the knights follow, because there's nothing left for them on this barren, darkened beach, they'll feel like they're riding down a slide that's made of light. A moment later, they'll land in the center of a huge cavern. Where they land is a circular platform in the center of twenty-seven metal rings making up the floor. It'd take a lot of counting to see the 27 rings but, believe me, they're there.

Surrounding the center platform are twenty-seven raised platforms in a big circle around the center. Floating above three in a row are bright yellow blobs with one, two, and three eyes respectively. On the other side is a single platform with Web floating, seemingly unconscious, above it. Just above their body is Aqrisqi's, who also looks unconscious.

More unsettling than that sight, though, is that the four Wizard-aligned knights won't arrive together. Instead they're all here separately but experiencing the same thing. The Wizard is standing at the edge of the center platform, looking out towards the three bright yellow blobs. She speaks when she notices the knight stir.

"The other three are safe."

[ This thread will now branch out into four individual threads! ]

[daddykong]

Of course the second presence disappeared. Ugh.

As much as Garrot wants to be petty and spiteful and just not follow the Wizard into the little space circle, he knows full well there's nothing interesting on this beach. Plus, as loathe as he is to admit it, he wants answers and he knows the Wizard will gives them... vaguely, through half-truths and infuriating bullshit. But it's better than nothing. Well, pillars with a floating Web and blobs... that's pretty not great.

"What the fuck about him?!" Garrot's angry, naturally, and his posture looks like he's about to start throwing punches as he gestures towards Web with one hand. "You can't just fuckin' cheat and steal Knights like this!"

[wizardseason]

Excuse you, Garrot, she gives only the most truthful of true statements. She's honest and open about all the necessary information.

At least as much as she's allowed to share. Fortunately, in this moment, there's plenty she can share.

"I saved them." She answers, simply, her own gaze drifting away from the three monster bodies and towards the floating body of the Rooster knight. She hasn't acknowledged Garrot's posture at all.

"No one saw it, but the third monster got a lucky hit." She pauses, before clarifying: "They are alive, but only barely."

[daddykong]

Garrot! Grumbles!!! His fight-ready stance doesn't change, because he still doesn't trust this situation at all. In fact, he takes a step closer, glowering and looming over the Wizard.

"You're telling me you've been able to save Knights, and you've just been letting them die for forty fuckin' years?!" He knows nothing he says or does to her will matter, but this? It's so beyond personal.

[wizardseason]

When he steps closer, she turns her gaze onto his and.

Her smirk is gone. Her expression is completely blank, cold, void of any emotion whatsoever.

"I can only save them if they're killed by monsters." She answers, leaving him a long, long moment to consider what she'd said. She's not backing out of the personal space invasion he's made of this.

[daddykong]

Not even someone with Garrot's loud anime determination is unfazed by the Wizard's dropped demeanor. A shiver runs down the doctor's spine, but he forces away any other shred of the heebie-jeebies. She's small this year, so maybe despite all her power he can make her feel small for just one moment. Doesn't hurt to hope.

"Can't save the ones you and the Protector want to die, because you'd just hold back." They have their goals they're working towards, after all. This is, of course, his way of saying they're both cold-blooded murderers. "So what happens to them when you die?"

[sustainer]

Gyre stands immediately when she steps into the space circle. He hesitates just briefly outside the edge of it, takes a deep breath and steps in. He wants answers more then he cares to wait anymore.

His hands splay out when he feels the slide underneath himself, and he ends up in the perfect position to catch himself as he hits the ground. He lets his balance return to him before he stands and scans the room. His attention catches on Web and he stays there, staring at their body with this slowly growing anxiety.

"What happened to them?"

[wizardseason]

"They were defeated." She answers, simply, her own gaze drifting away from the three monster bodies and towards the floating body of the Rooster knight.

"No one saw it, but the third monster got lucky." She pauses, before clarifying: "They are alive, but only barely."

[sustainer]

His attention darts from Web to her when she says they're still alive. His skin begins to pickle, his eyes widening a little. He... has given her the benefit of the doubt up until now, but the fact she presents this to him so calmly is extremely alarming. He tenses, on guard, but he's not going to assume the worst just yet.

"Why are they here? You should hand them off to a hospital or... or even just to Garrot if you really want us all to live."

[wizardseason]

"If they leave here, they'll die. They're alive because they're here." She answers, waiting for him to process through his feelings here. She turns away from the Rooster knight and fixes her gaze on Gyre. She gives him several moments to consider it before she follows with a more technical explanation:

"It's stasis. They're frozen in time."

[sustainer]

"Why?" he asks immediately. He had taken her pause to process as much as he could, but he just doesn't understand the end goal. He doesn't understand these pillars or the bodies floating above them. He doesn't understand why she'd save Web in the moments before death when she hasn't in the past.

"What is all this for?"

[scandeled]

Matilda wails as she suddenly finds herself sliding down some kind of awful magic slide, falling less than delicately onto her butt with a tiny "oomph" due to the good bit of flailing she does on the way down. Once she's finally gotten up though, her cute button nose crinkles in frustration, and she tugs her goggles down over her eyes as if the rose color might help her make more sense of the sight before her.

"I know. You wouldn't cause harm to them on purpose, right?" Matilda tries to smile, but it's hard-- she sees Web over there, and the blobs--- "W-what about them? Are... they safe?"

[wizardseason]

"They're-" She starts to say something, but stops herself after a moment. How can she explain that Web isn't, in fact, fine? There's only one way, and that's honesty.

"The third monster got a lucky hit, no one saw it." She explains, turning her gaze up towards Web.

"They're not dead, but they're barely alive."

[scandeled]

She knows it’s bad when The Wizard hesitates. Matilda’s face pales- she can’t imagine that. That she could survive the third monster, but someone else couldnt? It’s too awful, and the guilt of thinking this was all some act, some game, it pools on her stomach.

“Garrot’s a doctor! Maybe he—“ She looks at The Wizard, pleadingly.

[wizardseason]

"He can't cheat death." She answers, her gaze turning back to look at Matilda.

"Neither can I."

If she's feeling any particular way about this, her expression doesn't give it away at all.

[scandeled]

“But you just said it!” Matilda snaps, her voice raising a few octaves in a terrible sin to ears everywhere. She stamps her foot for good measure too, cheeks flushing. “They aren’t dead! Not yet!”

[tropicalstorm]

Oh, she hates this, she hates all of this. She doesn't want to go along with any of this bullshit, she just wanted to fight monsters and get back to her life! But, she's here now, and squints angrily at the strange platforms around her. At the Wizard's assurance, she turns to her and scoffs.

"Safe, huh? Safe like them?" She gestures towards Web's floating form. "You wanna explain exactly what the FUCK is goin' on here?!"

[wizardseason]

Haizea can hate this all she wants to, but she's here for a reason and that reason has to be explained. Fortunately for everyone, Haizea's demanding an answer.

"They would have died from their injuries if they were not brought here." She explains, before she moves on to a broader answer to Haizea's question.

"We're where all of this started."

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea is dubious at the Wizard’s explanation of Web’s current state, but decides to let it be for now. They don’t look like their current health is getting worse at least. She’ll focus on the Wizard’s more cryptic statement for now.

“Yeah? And where’s that exactly? This shit looks like a movie set, I’m ‘bout ready to see some kinda tomb raider bust all up in here lookin’ for treasure on these, uhh...” she trails off, staring at the platforms and then counts them up, finger lighting trailing her visual path in the air in front of her, “27 platforms? Seems a bit like overkill, don’t it?”

[wizardseason]

The Wizard watches Haizea's outburst, curious where she's going with it, then the show of counting the platforms and that seems like a good moment to respond.

"In the mountain." She starts, before starting to walk slowly in a circle around the center platform.

"And I didn't choose twenty seven. I didn't make this place."

[tropicalstorm]

The mountain, okay. Good to know that for the future. She idly wonders if this place is real or just accessible in dreams.

"Then who did? The Protector? The monsters?" She pauses. "Or is there another? Another being like you, like the Protector?"