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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 10, 2008 21:37:05 GMT 1
Hans was indeed watching. It was what he did best.
"Oh, I don't know," he said. He had been here a week, watching and learning, but he had never made himself known to anyone besides Kasiya. "I haven't spoken to many Garou... just Owl's children. I wouldn't know what to make of any of them."
He paused for a moment, watching Kasiya with his small yellow eyes.
"He seems to understand our duty," he added. "More so than most."
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 11, 2008 6:09:16 GMT 1
Kasiya smiles, more at home with the Spirits than with his own kind. He continues to watch the sunrise, taking a moment of peace before all hell breaks loose.
Me either
"I hope so. We are lucky enough that Owl watches over this place and one of ours guards it. For the other tribes to understand our task seems almost too much to ask."
Then, partly because he had agreed to fuel Hans' thirst for knowlege and partly because he likes the little creature, he doesn't make him ask about the Rite.
"Anna's Rite of Passage is going as well as we could have expected. Walks-with-Death Rhya took us into her dreams as planned and she found an untainted ancestor of the white howlers. Now she quests for Fenris."
Alone, unaided. As one of us should. It is a lonely road, as she will find out soon.
He leaves the rest open for Hans to ask. The things that interested Owl's brood perplexed him sometimes. Nevertheless as chiminage went, this was the most pleasant kind.
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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 12, 2008 12:19:39 GMT 1
"Fenris' brood value friends and allies," Hans remarked. "Where there's one, there's usually many. I suppose his children are the same."
He watched the sunrise, possibly only because Kasiya was watching it.
"A White Howler?" Hans asked. "It must have been a very ancient memory. I heard they all fell to the Wyrm and became the Black Spiral Dancers many hundreds of years ago."
The small spirit sounded a little nervous at the topic of dicussion, but there was also a hint of curious excitement. It was obvious that he his knowledge of the White Howlers was limited.
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 12, 2008 21:33:58 GMT 1
Hans' reaction to the Howler ancestor is not a suprise in any way shape or form. Even though it built up a form of spiritual credit between them, Kasiya was finding the curious emotional attachment that was so common to him building. He always did get on better with spirits than people.
"When Anna returns as a Fenrir Cliath we could introduce you and ask if she would consent to channel the old one, have him tell his tale."
He shows no lack of faith that Anna would return whole and accepted. No doubt that he would conclude the Rite. He does, however realise the inherent danger of letting Anna open herself up so fully to her Ancestral connection. There were still the others. Hans knew. Hans knew a great deal.
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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 14, 2008 11:36:07 GMT 1
"Oh that would be wonderful," said the spirit. "You seem to be confident she will return. I have watched her for a while. Her visions overwhelm her, and she does not quite understand her gift as you do."
Hans suddenly looked thoughtful and his squeaky voice sounded a little sad.
"It can lead one down the wrong the path," he said quietly. "I have seen it before."
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 14, 2008 20:04:25 GMT 1
He appreciates the compliment, they were rare these days.
"Then we will guide her and help her find her way. She will never tread my path but I will not see her lost. Did you lose loved ones along the way?"
He pauses before that last sentence, Hans was a great deal more complex than most spirits, more self aware. He deserved compassion and respect just as much as those to whom Kasiya tended. As always, Kasiya's emotions are worn upon his sleeve for all to see.
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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 15, 2008 9:44:54 GMT 1
Hans wasn't sure 'loved ones' was the right term. He was only a Twice Born after all, and love was a very complicated emotion for such a small spirit.
"Many years ago," he started, adopting the tone of someone who was telling a story. "Before you, I had a friend much like the cub. Her name was Ghost-Chaser, and she was a Silent Strider too. She is the one who named me Hans. She said it was her father's name. Like you, she had the sight, and Owl watched over her and her duties. I learnt a lot about death and the war from just watching. We came to Berlin searching for the secrets of the dead. But this city corrupted her. She abandoned Owl, and danced the black spiral. Now she is known as the Hag. Her name is feared by smaller Spirits and unseasy ghosts. She has gone even beyond the limits of ordinary evil."
Hans finished his story and continued watching the sunrise.
"That is what the Wyrm does, isn't it?"
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 15, 2008 15:42:25 GMT 1
"Yes. Now. The bitterest of enemies were once friends. I am sorry for your loss."
So Hans knows the Hag. I wonder if she knows her onetime guide aids her enemies. Sad that it came to this end.
"Thankyou Hans, everything we know about the Hag can aid us. The small spirits and restless dead have always been friends to me. Do you think Owl wishes me to destroy Her?"
Kasiya rarely knows of his duties, instead relying upon fate to direct him on his path. If this was Owl's task for him here it was a monumental one. All the signs were there though. He had been directed to the Hive, taken the Hag's children and now Hans.
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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 16, 2008 21:37:18 GMT 1
"Yes, there is no redemption for Ghost-Chaser," Hans said. "I will help you."
Hans finally stopped watching the sunrise and went back to watching Kasiya.
"And He will help," he added. "Maybe tonight, we can go find Him, and seek his blessing."
The Twice Born twitched slightly. The prospect or coming face to face with Owl was a bit too much for him. But he seemed committed to this, almost as committed as Kasiya was himself. Hans was used to watching, but long conversations were not the Spirit's strong point. He was tired.
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 16, 2008 21:57:47 GMT 1
You've a debt to pay. You feel responsible for the Hag becoming what she is. Right or wrong matters not, our path is set.
The familiar sense of rightness seems to envelop Kasiya like an old friend's presence and a lovers embrace. His path is indeed set. It is another dark one.
"Yes. That will be for the best, but you should rest now. I have duties to the Garou here. I will be ready to meet Owl tonight."
Owl's nature as a night-time predator is not lost on one of his devoted children. It would be best to wait and pay him the respect of meeting him at his own time.
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Post by Shehrazad on Mar 18, 2008 14:49:04 GMT 1
"Good," Hans said. "I will find you later."
And with that the little mouse disappeared, leaving Kasiya alone with the still rising sun.
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 18, 2008 22:01:52 GMT 1
Hans could rest, listen and learn. He would do all the things he needed to do to be fresh and at his best for Owl. The usual sense of awe and reverence at the thought of his Tribal Totem hovers in his forethoughts. Never fear, he was a good and willing servant.
He pulls his mind away from the spiritual for a moment, returning instead to the sunrise. Feeling the warmth on his face, appreciating the beauty and, inevitably, he is drawn back to the spiritual as it serves to reinforce the love he bears for Gaia. Every day she is reborn, fresh and ripe with new possibility.
Kasiya sits for a while in reverence of the Mother, drinking in all the sensations he can to steel himself against what the day would bring.
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Mar 31, 2008 23:19:37 GMT 1
Returning a little later from the library, Kasiya turns around on the spot, surveying the yard, taking in the feel of the place.
The sun is now risen and is beginning to burn off the nights chill, banishing the freshness and permitting the morning pollution to invade. Such was the price of a Caern in a city. Night-time dew still remains, giving everything around him a clean new feel.
He turns again, not Looking but Searching, the first symbol he needs to invoke. Seeing what he needs, Kasiya walks in a straight line to a patch of soil. Plants have tried to grow here and failed. The ground is too stony. He crouches and, with the clever fingers his human shape gives him, begins to sift the stones from the soil, first in handfulls, then individually, until only soil remains and a pile of mis-matched stones at his feet. He whispers a brief blessing in the language of the spirits:
"Grow here. Cast your seed and flourish. I give you life as I ask for guidance."
Now the plants would grow and with that small offering he pays his way. The plant spirits, small and quiet as they are might not hear it, but it has been done.
With both hands he scoops up the pile of stones, letting them fall one by one to the ground until the right one remains. It is longish and shaped like a childs drawing of a teardrop, which is to say, only in the vaguest sense. Nevertheless it can point. Cleaning it off by rubbing it between his palms, giving it his body heat, he notices an inticate pattern of lighter colour running through the pebble, and takes the time to let his eyes fully know the instrument of the spirits' will.
Again, Kasiya sits. From his pocket he takes a length of string and fastens it around the stone that it may freely turn. It is a knot that was taught to him along with the Rite. He then makes a cat's cradle from his left hand to bear the Questing Stone and raises it in front of his eyes. Looking, staring, eyes boring into the stone he speaks the old words, summoning the quiet power of the pact between Garou and Spirit, forming it into the Rite of the Questing Stone as his mind repeats over and again:
Jan Stoltz. I seek Jan Stoltz. Take me to him. Jan Stoltz...
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Post by Shehrazad on Apr 1, 2008 23:25:32 GMT 1
As much as Kasiya tried, the spirits were unwilling at that moment to offer him guidance. Ten minutes after Kasiya had begun the stone still span, but only as part of the natural build-up and release of tension in the string. It would perhaps help if Kasiya included others in performance of the rite, as is customary.
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Kasiya
Cliath
Treads the Darkest Path
Woof.
Posts: 598
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Post by Kasiya on Apr 3, 2008 6:20:39 GMT 1
He frowns. Many rituals were indeed intended to be done in groups. Mystic rituals such as the ones he knows, however, are the exception to that rule, but the sees the symmetry.
Had he sought alone as he had done before then the spirits would have blessed his rite. Now he seeks with a pack, so the pack should be included. That would bring the symmetry the spirits required.
Who to choose? I will need five. Vasara and Saxon. Kamut. Nadhezdha is not yet returned. A shame that Anna still quests. Micah then. The fifth? an untried Cub or the stranger who is no wolf. Not perfect choices.
As he ponders he rises, keeping the stone on it's cat's cradle from his fingers.
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