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Bright Journey	The gloom of the overcast, darkened sky pervades everything this late at night, punctuated by a hot, humid breeze that leaves even the most breathable clothing uncomfortable. Only two things relieve one from the sticky weather--the breeze coming in directly from the river, and the promise of rain later. Bright Journey normally doesn't look like she belongs anywhere near here, that's for sure. Her hood and cloak, normally training behind her, is now snug around her. She's not hiding, per se, but the gold-trimmed black cloak does a much better job of making her look like part of the scenery than her white dress does. She looks out to her left, out over the river from the worn dirt path she's walking on. The sky may be threatening, but the lights of the city reflect from the rippling waters well enough to make quite the picturesque journey. The path is an old one, the overgrowth almost hiding it from the eyes of the dock workers on the southern end of the city, just across the river. It meanders here and there, but runs roughly straight for a time before finding its way to a small, well-hidden cave entrance all but invisible to anyone not looking at it from directly in front. Bright pauses for a moment, speaking to, apparently, no one. "Here we are," she softly says. "There's some sort of...thing...already in here, but while we can look, it's not why we're here today. We should get moving, though. This place becomes a terrible mud hole in the rain. The cave doesn't flood, though. C'mon. We should be able to do our work here."
Rishi	A squeak from under the cloak answer's Bright as a small rat climbs down and scurries into the cave. A few moments later, Rishi's shapely arm becons Bright to come in. "It is looking to be most fine for our purposes, yes, and I am not hearing anyone else doing the hiding, but...what is this 'thing' that is being already here?"
Bright Journey	Bright reaches up and brushes back her hood, letting her long fall of pink hair spill out as she shakes her head briefly. "There was a cursed stone deeper in the cave here, long ago. We don't really have time to go search it out again, to be honest, and I'm pretty sure someone already took it back when...wow." Bright pauses, looking a bit misty-eyed as she turns to look at the river again. "Back when we were here last. You know, I was just thinking of this place as Silk's old hideout, when she first arrived. I forgot a bunch of us actually met here. I just needed a place out of the way, somewhere we could afford to lose if the crystal's owners could track it down magically." Bright takes a long, deep breath, then walks into the cave. Inside, there's not many remnants of the time Silk lived in here. It's quiet and cooler than the hot breeze outside, a welcome relief. It's also looking fairly mundane, in all honesty, with not much more than the bed she'd been using at the time and a bundle of ragged leather, which once hung across the entrance. Bright walks over to a candle holder near the edge of the bed, clearly a more recent addition, and starts striking flint against steel to light it. As she does so, she comments, "Don't forget, the crystal works both ways. Its whole point is to listen in, we think. So once I unwrap it, someone might be able to hear what we're saying. It should be muffled pretty well right now, though."
Amethyst	Amethyst stands beside Bright, nodding. "It's crazy how long ago that was. I don't even think I had Exalted when we first met. To think that I met all of you back when I was still just a wyld sorceress." "Oh how much has changed since then." "So this crystal, remind me, how'd we get it again?"
Fudou the Mountain	A bored looking alley cat makes its way lazily alongside Bright Journey and eyes the cave with a displeased appraising look. Though let's be honest. They often are displeased and appraising of all things. It seems to study things, stirring only slightly as the small rat skitters off and makes its way further into the cave and then, after a moment of contemplation, following after. Before long, Fudou's immense figure has shimmered its way into existence 'somehow' as attempting to observe and make sense of Lunar transformation tends to be a difficult task. "So is there danger then of our location being tracked back to here or is it just a matter of them hearing us?" he muses while resting one hand on his hip and leaning the other arm up against the side of the cave wall to support his weight.
Rishi	"Oh! Yes, this is where I was first doing the meeting of you and Ammy. And getting the Prophesy." She grins, wistfully, pulling Ammy into a hug. "Ah, such are the memories. But yes, the examination of the crystal, we must be keeping most silent." Rishi tilts her head, considering. "Are you needing to be setting much up for your examinations, Ammy? If so, Bright can be doing the telling of you now. If not, let us be doing the examining, before we are having the long discussions." Rishi taps her chin at Fudou's comment. "I am not being certain yet. We will know of the working, once I am doing the smelling of the crystal."
Bright Journey	Bright Journey first doffs her cloak, deftly hanging it up on one of the hooks still mounted in the stone, where Silk used to haang one of her tapestries back in the day. She fluffs her hair out again and walks over to the leather bundle, but doesn't unwrap it yet. "Well, this is exactly how I left it last, but fate -can- be fickle sometimes. If it's gone, I guess we'll find out they can track it. But since I don't see any changes to this place, I'm going to venture a guess that it's still in here and they can't find it so easily. I would be much more concerned with their ability to hear what we say--frankly, I can't imagine any other reason it would have been in the private booth where we found it, and we clearly heard a sound coming out of it from the other direction. The sound was just a short...how would I describe it? Just a scraping sound, like wood or stone. Hard to say. Or maybe it was something else, but that's what we all heard. Anyway, once we're done we'll know exactly what its capabilities are. "Now. Are you all ready for me to unwrap it?"
Amethyst	The dragon hugs her love, then starts preparing. She sits and takes out a notebook and sketches some basic references, along with producing little vials of various liquids to test how they'll react with the crystal. She also takes out her ritual blade and lays it next to her as well. Does she... intend to try cutting the crystal??? Then she drinks a pale pink vial, her eyes unclouding to the sight of essence flows around her as the veins in her eyes darken and turn violet. Of course she'd be using drugs to help her with her process. And finally, she places her goggles on as her pupils shift to see in the dark easier. With a slight stirring of essence her hands glow violet as some sort of crystaline tools form in them. "Ready."
Fudou the Mountain	"Hmm..be careful." is all Fudou says, arms folded now though he lifts one hand up to make a vague gesture of 'go ahead'. "If your concerns hold true...as a guess..well.. I suppose there's no need to be overly speculative until we know more but it stands to reason that we should be on our guard no matter what." He nods his head, "Go ahead then. Let's see what we can discover."
Rishi	Rishi puts a finger over her mouth, as Bright pulls out the crystal. Rishi's cute nose shifts slightly, her entire face taking on a slightly more feral cast, as she takes the crystal, closes her eyes and starts quietly sniffing it for a short time, before handing it over to Ammy.
Bright Journey	Bright looks to each other person in turn before turning back to the leather bundle. She kneels down, picking up the entire bundle--it's pretty significant in size, like a bundled quilt--before turning it upside down and setting it on the makeshift bed. She carefully unwraps the leather as if she were peeling an onion, layer by layer, before doing the same to what is obviously another one of her own cloaks. The black cloth is a bit road-dusty, but the gold trim is not too dissimilar from the one she was wearing coming in to the cave. As the final layer is pulled away, the crystal is, indeed, still inside. It's a pale peach-colored crystal, a spindle perhaps three inches thick by six inches long, with seven vertical facets and a relatively sharp point at the top end. The bottom might also be sharp, but there's a metal--perhaps steel, perhaps silver--cap on that end, well carved and decorated, with a curled grip much like a teacup's or candle holder's. On one of the facets is a relief carving, skillfully executed, of a glyph. The pictogram is of the Old Realm word, 'Clarity', cunningly executed. Bright steps back, studying the crystal herself without a word but leaving Rishi to handle it.
Amethyst	Taking the crystal, Amethyst nods. She adjusts the lenses on her goggles, rotating them to focus nicely on the crystal before her. She conjures up a dropper and uses it to put a little bit of each vial's contents on the crystal, testing its properties, it strength and hardness, its composition in similar properties that alchemy could deduce. Then she very gently holds it, and takes her athame, taping it against the crystal and listening for its response, feeling the essence that it disperses as it vibrates, analyzing how it might or might not connect with the five elements of creation. At last, she nods, and mixes something up here and now, a substance that should be able to dissolve some part of the crystal, confirming its composition thus possibly identifying the origin of its materials. She very carefully takes her athame and tries to scrape a little bit of the crystal off, little bits of dust to use for her test. Placing the dust in the beaker, she waits, and focuses on it, watching to see if the particles will dissolve, or not.
Fudou the Mountain	Fudou the Mountain falls silent and grows utterly still once the crystal is revealed. His lips purse abit as if he -wants- to say something but his senses and an understanding of the situation gets hold of him and he refrains. He does seem to be focusing rathe rintently on it. Listening quietly but sharply with the best his senses can bring to bear at the moment.
Amethyst	Amethyst is almost mesmerized when she taps the athame against the crystal. She was not expecting that sort of sound: Perfect resonance. And so she takes another look at those runes, sketching them down in her notebook, considering if she's ever seen such runes before or what their meaning could possibly be. She also makes a rough sketch of the crystal itself, all without speaking a word lest whoever's on the other end hear what she's up to. Once she's finished, she offers the crystal back to bright, and makes a sort of wrapping motion.
Fudou the Mountain	Fudou can make for a good statue, which is surprising given how much of him there is. There's usually always somethign moving or another given the guys sinew and bulk but right now he's managing to just study and avoid doing much by way of leaning or shifting around that might cause a disturbance. His eyes do narrow slightly as he studies and watches the others and then focuses once more on the crystal itself. Wordless until given the all clear.
Rishi	Rishi settles back, her catlike legs folding under her, as she considers. Her eyes closed, her head tilted, visibly thinking as her falsified anima of watery light starts to seep from her body. After a short period thinking, she smiles, opening her eyes and watches very interested as the others examine it. Once they're both finished, Rishi thinks for a moment, smiles widely, and her body subtly shifts. She reaches for the crystal, her motions seeming to indicate that she would like to try attuning it.
Bright Journey	Bright Journey is holding back just as Fudou is. She's not as stock still, to be sure, but her attention is fixed firmly on what's happening. The truth is, she doesn't yet have what she needs to learn much from this herself--an oversight she will surely have to rectify--but for now, she's content to listen in thoughtfully to the goings-on...and to the crystal itself.
Amethyst	Amethyst holds up a hand as Rishi reaches for the crystal, and studies the runes a bit more carefully. But, unable to decypher then, she shakes her head, gets up and goes to wrap the crystal back up as thoroughly as it was before. She then lets an audible sigh of relief. "Being quiet is hard." "What I can make of it, it's definitely an artifact and something with those runes allows one to control it. I /know/ these runes are either Second Age or Shogunate era, but they're not anything in my wheelhouse. I'd need to go to a library and do some studying to deduce their meaning. I'm not sure /what/ else this crystal can do besides listening in, but it does seem like it can be reconfigured." "Amd the fact that it resonated so perfectly, that's a big hint in its secrets. It's like some sort of sorcerous mirror of sound."
Fudou the Mountain	"No one was listening in on the other side, from what I could tell." notes Fudou, "So perhaps we lucked out by doing this when we did so as to not contend with anyone else that could have noticed us and attempted anything." He nods his head as he hears Amethyst, "So then. Are you saying this is not the work of any mortal artistry then but the work of one of the Chosen?"
Rishi	Rishi nods, her nod expressing complete agreement with Ammy. "There is definitely being the mate to this artifact and...I am thinking that whoever is owning this thing is not quite knowing what it is being. I scented the complex layers of the magic in the item. It is being much more than the item for the 'dropping from the eves'." Rishi fingers the gold necklace she wears. "This item is being the fairly simple. It is doing the one thing." She gestures at the wrapped crystal. "That is definitely having the many of the functions. You would not be leaving this in a place where it could be doing the walking off if you were knowing that, and I am expecting that, if we were having the both of them, we could be doing much of the experimenting."
Bright Journey	Bright is still looking thoughtful as the artifact is wrapped back up. She rubs her pointed chin for a few moments, then looks at Fudou. "I couldn't hear anything else, I admit. I also admit that I need to develop my ability to research and understand magic, not just -do- it like I was a mindless golem." Her voice is wry, of course, but not humorless. "If we're as sure as we can be that no one heard us speaking, then hopefully they still don't know where the artifact is. If we're -really- lucky they may not know who has it, but we have to assume they knew when and where to place the object, and it wasn't completely coincidence, or they weren't just trying to listen in on the latest opium market negotiations." She chuckles. "All that together means we don't know exactly how much time we have to find this artifact's sister, but hopefully we know more than the person who has it. The less they know the more time we have. I assume, Rishi, that we can't just dot out and go tell the artifact to find its sister. We're never that lucky."
Amethyst	"I advise keeping it somewhere in Elderloch for the time being. Artifacts are usually immune to the shapings of the wyld, and even if they could track it, I doubt they could track to the wyld, let alone assault Elderloch to get it back." Amethyst says, "In the meantime," She holds up her notebook, "I, or, we? Have research to do." She looks over the group here, gauging interest in who'd like to come research this with her. "And there's no doubt in my mind that this was wrought by either one of the Chosen or a very powerful mortal sorcerer, much more likely the former." "Once I can decode the runes, figure out how the damn thing is controlled, who knows what we can ask of this little artifact."
Fudou the Mountain	"Mm it also may not be as alarming as first thought in some ways.." notes Fudou, arms folded and one hand rubbing his jaw as he studies the wrapped item. "If what you say is correct then it certainly can mean a number of different things..." he gestures at Rishi at that part, "Wrought by The Chosen in ancient times perhaps but who has it today? Someone not aware of this artifacts potential is almost certainily not savvy enough to have been 'hunting' for the likes of us or expected you all to be there. Certainly someone who -was- looking for us wouldn't chance this artifact fallign into our hands either. No doubt these individuals did not expect to 'catch' the information they caught and is using this artifact for its base purpose, not knowing of its full capabilities. Your guess on opium market negotations may be more on the nose then you think. Especially if you heard something. That implies startlement and perhaps a rush to cover the sister artifact up in a hurry." He shrugs a little and then says, "I still believe that we should investigate The Consortium in full, as a result. This happened on their watch. In their tents... and the business of gambling, merchant princes, gossiping and trade secrets is very much something they'd likley be into. They'd be foolish not to be considering the scale of business in this tournaments."
Rishi	"Unfortunately, the magic that I am 'scenting' is not leaving much of the trail. I will be recognizing the mate of this item as I would my own, but I cannot be telling you where it is being, nor can I be doing the traveling there." Rishi tilts her head, considering. "We could be trying to do the attuning, but without having both of the mated pair, maybe it is working or maybe it is alerting the holder of the other end." She pats Ammy's shoulder very tenderly, expressing much love as she does. "Ammy was being most correct to warn me off from trying to do the attuning of it." Rishi brightens "Hm! Yes, Fudou that is sounding most wise."
Bright Journey	Bright slowly nods as she listens to everyone's input. "You know, Fudou...I think you might be right. At the very least, I'd think it would be far better hidden than it was. But the idea that whoever is using it now didn't know what they had, and didn't know they would end up overhearing Chosen speaking...that really fits in with what we know. Rest assured, I already know for a fact that the Nine Sheaves is collecting information on people, and not just martial artists. We found some of that in one of their offices. But what we don't know is how far they'll go, or what they'd do if they stumbled onto the kind of information we could let slip at any time. After all, lots of organizations collect information, the Consortium is hardly out of the ordinary there. "I think we need to learn more about who in there is responsible for collecting information, and how they use it. And if it's not them, it may be one of their own rivals. But I agree, they're the likeliest. Their people are -everywhere- in the Arena and, if someone else left an object like this, they would be the ones most likely to stumble across it."
Amethyst	"It sounds like I should go find the full capabilities of this artifact for us, then maybe at least one of them can point us to the other one. It's definitely not a first age artifact or anything of the sort, nor is it Malfean or Wyld, nor are the symbols those used in alchemy or by the Realm's sorcerers. Most likely it's a second age or shogunate era artifact." She considers, "And of all the libraries I can think of, if anywhere had records on shogunate era sorcerery, it'd be Lookshy. And I do happen to have a contact with a Lookshyian Dragon." "But I'll make sure to look into my own library first." She closes the book, "And the one I frequent here in Great Forks. If neither of them turns up an answer to this script, well, I guess I know where I'll look next." "Regardless, I do wonder. Maybe it truly was some mundane and a lack of understanding of the artifact meant that they risked it uneccessarily. Or maybe one of its uses lets you track where the artifact goes, making it significantly easier to retrieve. Won't know till I decypher things. For now, what do you guys want to do with it?"
Rishi	Rishi sighs. "It is being annoying that we should not be trying to do the attuning, as that should be telling us much about what it can be doing." She sighs once more, then brightens. "Maybe if we are bringing it back to the Arena, we can be trying to be locating it's mate. If we are sending the loud note through on this end, we can be listening for it doing the coming out of the other side. Then we will be doing the knowing of the mate's location."
Bright Journey	Bright's eyebrows raise. "Hm! That -is- a good idea, though I don't want us to do it until we're sure all our friends are in the know, and all our ducks are in a row. As soon as we do that we're sure to attract -someone's- attention. Once we do it we have to be ready." She pauses, thinking again. "Yes. I rather like that idea. We need to be careful of the timing, too, but I'm with Amethyst--I want to learn more about this before we make a move, you know? Maybe I can try to find out things in my own way--by asking people. And I can help with research too, if you like." She tugs her cloak off the hook mounted in the stone, just as a long, low roll of summer thunder booms in the distance outside, echoing off the walls of the cave. "But honestly? I think that's a chore for tomorrow. I'm rather looking forward to being snug and warm in my own bed tonight, hopefully before the rain gets too bad. Amethyst, bringing it to Elderloch actually sounds like a pretty good idea. We'll have more control over it and maybe it'll be too far for the artifact to work anyway. Usually that kind of thing can't work across -all- Creation." Anyway. Shall we? It's been a good night, but it's time to go home."