My name is Adayn (They/Them). I am a farmer on Innistrad, in Gavony Township.
I was given this device to access Ravnican social media by who I believe was a Dimir agent looking to cause mischief, and I have now paid an omenpath visit to that plane. Fascinating place.
A History
My mother was a member of the Dawnhart Coven, thrown out for her realization that the coven's claim to be an unbroken line from a Pre-Avacyn religion was false. She died during the Travails.
My father was a wandering Avacynian monk. Enough said.
I received training in the Dawnhart Coven ways from my mother, and as I grew older began learning from the world around me. A Kessig witch affiliated with black mana was driven from town and her home burned but she gifted me her grimiore before it happened.
As I read, I found new power, power that could be used against the creatures of the dark in conjunction with the power of the Dawnhart witches. Some pieces were clearly self obsessive but kernels of truth presented themselves to me.
Over the years I have acquired enough knowledge to service me well, and piece together a view of the past I believe to be accurate enough to service the present.
Spring had come at last. The cold ache of winter receded, letting the new yellow-green growths on the trees finally color the hills and mountains that clove Torrezon in half. The rivers were running high, new life was growing and blooming everywhere, and the sun was shining.
Arturo had received a small bonus stipend a short while back that he had been saving for this trip. They would need a proper arrangement of horses, hearty and trail-tested ones at that, in order to carry everyone and everything through the mountains. He had invited the High Marshal to come join him before he set off back home. Guitirre had been a little surprised at the invitation, but decided to take him up on the offer.
"A few weeks out in nature will do you good," Arturo had said to him. From the look on his face, the older vampire couldn't disagree.
He made sure to stock up on plenty of supplies -- tents, things to sleep on, various tools, a number of maps, all kept either bound to saddlebags or things that would need to be carried. Arturo had planned for at least thirty to accompany them on this trip, just to be safe. It was going to be a long journey.
Lazaro had been a bit hesitant to leave his own duties behind. There was much to be done, much to plan, but Arturo had been incredibly insistent, and so the priest finally caved. The paladin knew he'd be thanking him later. Hopefully. So long as the others didn't get into too much trouble, of course.
The paladin did compromise on stopping in a small village on the eastern side, after they crossed back over, just so he could send out a bit of paperwork that he'd be bringing along with him. He thought that Lazaro might've been granted more leeway now that the bat was gone, even temporarily, but apparently he was wrong in that assumption.
Regardless, he also had made some arrangements to ensure that the animals were being watched. Hibana would be accompanying, but on leash. Otherwise he knew the wolf would simply run off and get too lost on his own. Luckily, getting the leash to be nearly as long as his house was wide wasn't of too much trouble, so he could still run enough. Aster, Guitirre's mastiff, seemed not to like him very much. The High Marshal told her to hush her whining and growling.
He went through one last bit of counting to make sure that everything was ready before he went to go call Vasro to begin grabbing their guests and fellow adventurers.
Swift, despite also being busy as a condemner, was making an active effort to help their brother and brother-in-law by keeping an eye on their two kami kids. Bantenso and Danjikisei had been mildly wrangled by their uncle and told to stay with either the horse that Swift had put them both on, Swift themself, or Koda (who was watching Swift fret like a mother hen and trying desperately to not burst out laughing at the sight; he was losing).
"Okay, I think that's that," Swift muttered, speaking too soon as usual, because Bantenso had mischief and mayhem in his heart and wanted to pet the puppies.
Valentina was fresh off her ship, a little shorter of a journey than Guitirre's Twilight had been. She missed Adayn, but unfortunately they couldn't be here for this trip, having gone on a journey of their own that could conceivably take them several more months. She had forgotten how long their trip actually was, although the couple kept in contact via communicator.
She kept a watchful eye over Koda's siblings that were accompanying them, although not Koda himself. They were all adults in their own right, but just in case something happened.
The following is an excerpt from the book I am writing on Capennan Folk Magic following my recent visit to the plane.
Chapter Three - Cephalids
The Cephalids of Capenna are similar to the octopuses, squids, and other cephalopods of other planes, lacking in hard bones and instead using pressurized blood and powerful muscles to remain upright.
They are most common among the Obscura family of New Capenna, where their lack of bones, as well as their propensity for illusion and mind magic, make them excellent spies and infiltrators.
However their main source of folk magic, known in Planar Common as "Two-Tides" represents truth and falsehood equally.
Normally here, I'd put the native Cappenan Cephalid name beside the Planar Common name, but there is no decent way to represent Capennan Cephalid with Planar Common Script, and printing presses are not equipped to print Cappenan Cephalid so here's a photograph of a clay tablet, with the name of this branch of folk magic in Capennan Cephalid inscribed upon it.
Two-Tides is a sympathetic folk tradition, where the main way of engaging with it is sculpture, typically of clay. This aids in the ritualistic aspect of associating two or more truths or ideas and forcing an amount to become false while forcing the rest to remain true.
Vasro Hayashi, the interplanar representative of the Obscura describes this mechanism thusly: "A Cephalid can lock in a truth that their hand is touching something they want to steal when they momentarily touch it, and lock in the truth that their hand is in their pocket, then tighten those two truths together and the magic will cause the object to dissolve into sea foam and reappear in the pocket of the Cephalid."
The clay typically helps in this tradition by making the truths or falsehoods easier to link. Mr. Hayashi went on to say, "Alternatively, a Cephalid can make you just flat-out die by making a clay sculpture of your corpse and taking the false-truth of 'you are dead' and the truth of 'you are alive', linking them, and making the death one true. This is quite hard to do, however, since all replicas used this way have to be mostly size accurate."
Despite the macabre nature of these examples, Cephalids frequently use this magic for day to day workings, as attested to by the Cephalid text "An Outsider's Guide to Cephalid Magic." The following quotation is from a Planar Common translation of the text.
"Cephalid Magic is frequently used to alter the weather, turn inedible objects into edible food and to aid or harm others. Outsiders will frequently only see this magic in big dramatic events, but every pot and sculpture is usually a spell."
I, the author, profess very little skill in this method of magic, although I have done minor workings in this system. I found myself with a glass of polluted water from the canals of the Caldaia, and with no options decided to test out this magic. I held the truth that water is drinkable along with the truth that this water had unsafe particles and used a flow of mana to force the pollution one to stop being true. Lo and behold, before my very eyes the water cleared as if it had never held those things at all.
The Cephalids in addition to their folk magic have a few other sources of traditions and spell work. Being closely associated with the sphinx Raffine and the Obscura, divination is common among them. I interviewed an Obscura agent who did not wish for their name to be recorded here, but told me "Raffine torments all her agents with visions of the future." Unlike other forms of divination on other planes, this is not a voluntary process and many would descibe it as being forced to see past the veil. In addition, while few worship them now, there are the Old Gods of Old Capenna. Many of their names are lost to time and the sealing of the city, but the Old Men of Water and Dirt and their union which makes the clay used for writing and magic were once important to them, as attested to in recently discovered Old Capennan text "Hymn to the Elementals." Some sources, like the Old Capennan text "The Ends of The Land" suggest a tie to the deity known simply as That Which Watches, represented in murals as the night sky, although much less is known about how this god was worshipped, if at all, by any Old Capennan culture.
Adayn's covered wagon was set up outside the omenpath from Kamigawa to New Capenna. It held various supplies, and also Regalia's bed. The pest himself was currently curled up next to the witch on the driver's bench, waiting for one of the Kami to come out and cleanse them in case of Pestoxy infection.
They looked over the plans for the trip. New Capenna. Thunder Junction. Thyrsus. Theros. (Lots of Th- planes). They started thinking about their time on Kamigawa instead.
It was their second time there although Valentina's first. The wedding of Goldenscar and Greasefang. Adayn had brought a coffee machine. One of those really fancy ones. They had to sell quite a few tinctures and reagents to afford it. But they had managed it. The rest of the money went towards this wagon, elderly work horse, and supplies.
The wedding had been nice, as was their stay in a less than nice hotel in the Undercity with Val. Regalia had feasted on the bugs, which made the room quite comfortable. Some of the shops were nice, and Adayn had met Itachi in his noodle bar, which they hadn't been able to do the last time they were in Kamigawa. Itachi was a very nice man and Adayn very much liked his cooking. They had been there fairly regularly with Val.
Adayn wished Val could come with them on this trip. Unfortunately, the whole continent of Torrezon was on edge from the Xerexians, and the Bat God that was definitely not defeated no matter what the Church said to placate the people. But that did mean a military post for her, and she would have to travel back to receive it. She was a Captain after all.
Adayn was startled out of their reverie by Regalia hissing at a pair of nezumi walking by. The two were fearful and staring.
"Sorry," Adayn said in heavily accented nezumi. "He not friendly."
Despite the poor grammar, the point came across and one went, "Foreigner," and they both hustled off.
Adayn opened their communicator, checking the time in both Kamigawan and New Capennan. They had dinner reservations in about three hours, which should be enough time to figure out the lay of the land and how to get to the restaurant. But where was the Kami who was supposed to cleanse them?
Torrezon had a number of various holidays. Some were practiced more locally or regionally than others across the continent, but there were a good number of those which were always celebrated anywhere one could stand. One of these holidays had been the Darkest Night, the meaning of which had been swiftly and terribly co-opted by the coming of the Betrayer. What was observed as a day of deep remembrance and preparation for the turning of the seasons instead was a night of horror and warfare.
That made the following holy day all the more significant.
The equinox had a few different colloquialisms depending on region. Some were more inspired than others -- the Equal-Night, the Turning of Days, the Night of Balance, the Day of the Scales -- and in years before Torrezon had been united under one banner and rule, the significance of this day had varied. Still to its myriad peoples would it, though much of that significance had been removed and replaced with something the Church of Dusk claimed to be newer, better, more pure and more holy.
For it is on the eve of the equinox that the Dawn Era began, when first the Legion set sail to find the object of their salvation. And it was on yet another equinox that the Saint was returned, though that one heralded the cooling of days and the coming of winter rather than the welcomed embrace of spring.
Both had their places within the Torrezone high holy calendar, but this equinox -- the Dawn Equinox, as the Church officially recognized it -- was the mark of the turning of the new year. By midnight, the new year would begin, and this time there would be far more rejoicing and some held over traditions taken from the ruined Darkest Night.
Alta Torrezon was full of light and people. Hundreds, thousands, coming to see and delight in the many fesitvities taking place all across the city. Vendors lined the streets with all sorts of delightful goods, delectable scents of all sorts of various foods filled the air, games were being played and contests had in the more open areas of the city, closer to the gardens. There was still a chill in the air, and plenty of warming-fires by which many came around and spoke and laughed and shared drinks and food with one another. Gifts were swapped and stowed away.
It was a night of families, of happiness, of well-wishes and blessings. Many of the more pious among the clergy or the Legion would begin renewing vows of faith and some would begin Blood Fasts. Many of the highest figures of the Church of Dusk moved among the people, granting blessings and benedictions as they went.
---
Arturo had a leather leash in one hand, and a very excitable wolf at the end of it that wanted to get into everything. Luckily, Arturo was well-versed enough in handling rowdier mastiffs that he knew how to keep him close and keep him from being too much of a nuisance. Lazaro had woven an arm around his free hand as the two walked through the busy streets.
"It's so full," Lazaro muttered. "I cannot remember the last time we had a Dawn Equinox this busy."
"We missed out on the Darkest Night," Arturo said, gently pulling Hibana a bit closer. "People want to make up for it and have a night of smiles instead of terror. Besides, the equinox after the invasion was over was plenty full."
"That was for the Dusk Equinox," Lazaro gently corrected. "We usually have greater turnouts there because it signifies the height of the harvest season."
"Equinox is an equinox."
"They have their differences, sir. You should know them by now," Lazaro gently chided him. Arturo grunted at him, and Lazaro grunted right back.
"Let's go find your brother," Arturo said, "and then we can go bother your family before I go find my own."
"I did say I could come with you," Lazaro reminded him.
"Calisto's conversation should be with family," Arturo told him. "Direct family, I mean. Not that you aren't his family now." He pressed a kiss to his husband's forehead.
"I understand," the priest said. "But still, the offer is there."
"I know, beloved." Arturo gently nuzzled him a little, and Lazaro smiled and chuckled.
"Alright, before you knock me over," he said. Arturo smiled and snorted at him.
Arturo hugs Vasro as best as he can with an arm full of wolf, giving him a kiss on his squidly forehead. Hibana licks at his face and tries to gently bite at him as a form of greeting. Lazaro smiles and also gives Vasro a hug.
"Blessed Equinox," he said. "Koda is still out on his voyage, as far as I am aware."
"I don't know what the full itinerary is," Arturo said, thinking. "They might be half-way to the tip of the continent. I don't think they're trying to move very fast, but I could be wrong."
Swift gives their wiggliest nephew a squeeze around the shoulders. "Good to see you as well, Vasro. I'm pretty sure Koda will be staying with the ship, if only so Haruko doesn't wear herself out. He kept texting me about some kind of...design for something and said it won't be completed by this equinox. Didn't say much more than that."
Valentina dragged Adayn through the celebration, the newlyweds laughing and talking to various celebrants. Valentina was not in official legion clothing for the most part, instead wearing a red jacket over a white collared shirt and dark brown pants. She did have legion symbols on the jacket denoting her as a Captain.
Adayn wore a short, forest green cloak over top of a light grey, sleeveless dress that showed off the arms and chest developed by years of farm work. The couple stopped when they saw their family talking in the street and made their way over.
"Well Met, Uncles! Cousin!" Val said. She had clearly fed recently, and was tipsy.
Adayn simply smiled, waving at the group. They were eschewing drinking for the celebration, but still seemed a little unfocused, although they were clearly trying.
Hibana made a whining noise, wiggling very insistantly to try and get down and greet people. Arturo was still firmly holding him.
"If I put you down, no running or jumping," he said. The wolf whined and yipped, and Arturo put him down. Hibana then immediately went to go give 'proper' wolfy greetings.
"Blessed Equinox to you two," Lazaro said, while his husband was trying to each a wolf manners. "I hope you are enjoying yourselves now that you are wed."
"Blessed Equinox," Cecurro called over to Adayn and Val. He double-counted the wrapped packages that he was holding and was relieved that all of them were still there.
"Blessed Equinox." Val said. Adayn pet the wolf gently, as Hibana tried his best to knock them over.
"We are enjoying ourselves, although we are to be split in not that much time. I received news of my deployment. Luckily I do have enough time to attend Goldie and Fang's wedding and make it back before I am to go."
Val checked her pocket discreetly. Yes there was still everything she intended on gifting wrapped up in there.
Torrezon had a number of various holidays. Some were practiced more locally or regionally than others across the continent, but there were a good number of those which were always celebrated anywhere one could stand. One of these holidays had been the Darkest Night, the meaning of which had been swiftly and terribly co-opted by the coming of the Betrayer. What was observed as a day of deep remembrance and preparation for the turning of the seasons instead was a night of horror and warfare.
That made the following holy day all the more significant.
The equinox had a few different colloquialisms depending on region. Some were more inspired than others -- the Equal-Night, the Turning of Days, the Night of Balance, the Day of the Scales -- and in years before Torrezon had been united under one banner and rule, the significance of this day had varied. Still to its myriad peoples would it, though much of that significance had been removed and replaced with something the Church of Dusk claimed to be newer, better, more pure and more holy.
For it is on the eve of the equinox that the Dawn Era began, when first the Legion set sail to find the object of their salvation. And it was on yet another equinox that the Saint was returned, though that one heralded the cooling of days and the coming of winter rather than the welcomed embrace of spring.
Both had their places within the Torrezone high holy calendar, but this equinox -- the Dawn Equinox, as the Church officially recognized it -- was the mark of the turning of the new year. By midnight, the new year would begin, and this time there would be far more rejoicing and some held over traditions taken from the ruined Darkest Night.
Alta Torrezon was full of light and people. Hundreds, thousands, coming to see and delight in the many fesitvities taking place all across the city. Vendors lined the streets with all sorts of delightful goods, delectable scents of all sorts of various foods filled the air, games were being played and contests had in the more open areas of the city, closer to the gardens. There was still a chill in the air, and plenty of warming-fires by which many came around and spoke and laughed and shared drinks and food with one another. Gifts were swapped and stowed away.
It was a night of families, of happiness, of well-wishes and blessings. Many of the more pious among the clergy or the Legion would begin renewing vows of faith and some would begin Blood Fasts. Many of the highest figures of the Church of Dusk moved among the people, granting blessings and benedictions as they went.
---
Arturo had a leather leash in one hand, and a very excitable wolf at the end of it that wanted to get into everything. Luckily, Arturo was well-versed enough in handling rowdier mastiffs that he knew how to keep him close and keep him from being too much of a nuisance. Lazaro had woven an arm around his free hand as the two walked through the busy streets.
"It's so full," Lazaro muttered. "I cannot remember the last time we had a Dawn Equinox this busy."
"We missed out on the Darkest Night," Arturo said, gently pulling Hibana a bit closer. "People want to make up for it and have a night of smiles instead of terror. Besides, the equinox after the invasion was over was plenty full."
"That was for the Dusk Equinox," Lazaro gently corrected. "We usually have greater turnouts there because it signifies the height of the harvest season."
"Equinox is an equinox."
"They have their differences, sir. You should know them by now," Lazaro gently chided him. Arturo grunted at him, and Lazaro grunted right back.
"Let's go find your brother," Arturo said, "and then we can go bother your family before I go find my own."
"I did say I could come with you," Lazaro reminded him.
"Calisto's conversation should be with family," Arturo told him. "Direct family, I mean. Not that you aren't his family now." He pressed a kiss to his husband's forehead.
"I understand," the priest said. "But still, the offer is there."
"I know, beloved." Arturo gently nuzzled him a little, and Lazaro smiled and chuckled.
"Alright, before you knock me over," he said. Arturo smiled and snorted at him.
Arturo hugs Vasro as best as he can with an arm full of wolf, giving him a kiss on his squidly forehead. Hibana licks at his face and tries to gently bite at him as a form of greeting. Lazaro smiles and also gives Vasro a hug.
"Blessed Equinox," he said. "Koda is still out on his voyage, as far as I am aware."
"I don't know what the full itinerary is," Arturo said, thinking. "They might be half-way to the tip of the continent. I don't think they're trying to move very fast, but I could be wrong."
Swift gives their wiggliest nephew a squeeze around the shoulders. "Good to see you as well, Vasro. I'm pretty sure Koda will be staying with the ship, if only so Haruko doesn't wear herself out. He kept texting me about some kind of...design for something and said it won't be completed by this equinox. Didn't say much more than that."
Valentina dragged Adayn through the celebration, the newlyweds laughing and talking to various celebrants. Valentina was not in official legion clothing for the most part, instead wearing a red jacket over a white collared shirt and dark brown pants. She did have legion symbols on the jacket denoting her as a Captain.
Adayn wore a short, forest green cloak over top of a light grey, sleeveless dress that showed off the arms and chest developed by years of farm work. The couple stopped when they saw their family talking in the street and made their way over.
"Well Met, Uncles! Cousin!" Val said. She had clearly fed recently, and was tipsy.
Adayn simply smiled, waving at the group. They were eschewing drinking for the celebration, but still seemed a little unfocused, although they were clearly trying.
The wedding was held outside, in the Innistradi tradition. Spring flowers were woven into a trellis set up for this purpose, mostly Torrezone, but a few early flowers imported at a cost from Innistrad through various omenpaths. The priest of the small church stood under the trellis, and Valentina Vazante stood beside him, dressed in Legion finery, all flayed muscle designs and expensive cloth.
Adayn Sorackle walked proudly down the aisle, across the grass and past the guests, which included Val's Uncles, Arturo and Lazaro, and as many of their children as could attend, Lazaro's brother Cecurro, Val's grandfather and the entourage he brought with him, and Adayn's youngest half-sibling, the planeswalker Marlene. Despite a wedding expected to be a quite large event by Torrezone customs, these were the only family members in attendance, with the excuse given that the church they had settled on being too small to accommodate more guests.
Adayn reached the trellis. They were dressed in a fine gown, the green of new growth. The priest smiled and said his first part, a long and winding speech, about the joining of family and the love shared between two, as sanctified by the church.
Then it was Valentina's turn. She presented her name and lineages, and a coin, stamped with a beautiful rose and the Innistradi symbol of the New Moon.
Adayn's turn was shorter, and he presented his name, lineage, and his coin, stamped with the Torrezone word for family and the Innistradi word for safety.
And then there was something that wasn't part of the traditions of the church. The exchanging of vows. Adayn went first this time, and said her vows in Torrezone, clearly practiced and practiced well.
"Valentina. You are my love, my light, a shining beacon of hope for a better future for us all. Pious and kind, mighty and glorious, many should strive to your example. A whirlwind romance turned into a love to last all the ages of this world. Through trials and tribulations I will love you. Through sickness I will love you. And on my deathbed, I will love you."
Valentina had tears in her eyes. She had not expected Adayn to learn Torrezone to say their vows and she was touched. And she chuckled a little as she delivered her vows in Innistradi.
"Adayn. You are beautiful. From a humble beginning to now a figure of importance and wonder. My love for you grows everyday into a beautiful flowerbush, laid heavy with petals and thorns to protect us from that which threatens us. I promise to love you for all my time on this mortal coil, and when I finally pass I will sing your praises on my tongue as I forever rest."
The priest stepped forward and, using a thin red cord, tied Valentina's right to Adayn's left, pronouncing them wed in the eyes of the church.
Adayn couldn't sleep. As the days in Torrezon began to creep longer, he was supposedly going to feel better.
Supposedly.
Right now, he was looking through the cabinets for the third time that night. The same things were there, various unopened jars of pickled vegetables, a few bags of dried beans.
Valentina had a meeting. She was always having meetings, leaving Adayn alone.
Alone.
They were alone. They would always be left alone.
No. No, that was wrong!
Wasn't it?
Adayn's mind was already drifting, having trouble grasping reason. Their breathing quickened. Vision began to fade.
Their 23rd birthday. A party in a small hamlet they were currently living near, out in the Moorland. Whiskey and sodas all around. A pleasant night.
Abruptly it turned cold. The party went quiet. A mob of ghouls shuffled out of the mist. The farmers gathered up together, but the alcohol was playing against them.
It was a slaughter.
Adayn had only lived by playing dead underneath the tent that collapsed overtop of the party.
They couldn't stay.
It was the Travails. Adayn lived on a small farm out towards the Geier Reaches. The whisperings were in the back of their mind. "Join Us."
They grabbed their pitchfork, and carefully made their way outside, greeted by a horrifying sight. Amalgams of farmer and animal, screaming shrilly, incomprehensibly. "Join Us."
It was a slaughter.
Their community destroyed by their own hand.
They couldn't stay.
It was less than a year prior. They lived on the farm they would come to call their own.
The moth door was opened.
They were begging, pleading with the party about to investigate the door. "Don't go. Don't leave me."
"We'll be back in a jiffy," their most recent partner had said. The door closed.
There was a scream.
It was a slaughter.
Everyone they knew consumed by the House.
They couldn't stay.
Valentina came home from the barracks in the wee hours of the morning. Adayn was collapsed on a heap on the kitchen floor, a broken jar of pickled radish next to them.
Adayn was calm. The Darkest Night was over, technically speaking. All the readings they were doing were pointing to the conflict not being over yet, but they were keeping that close.
Their bone throwing kit lay out in the open, although tidily wrapped. Now that the Inquisitiors weren't so bloodthirsty, they felt as if they could keep it out.
Valentina had gone to the local barracks. A priest was discussing with the Legionairres which of their allies had died and which survived and what the newly reminted Pontifex was decreeing.
Adayn had decided not to come with, and asked Val only to tell them if someone they knew closely had died. Mostly out of concern that if they heard a full death count they'd burst into flame, scaring the Legionairres.
A grandfather clock ticked away the minutes.
There was a soft knock at the door, a rhythm used to identify the couple to eachother. Adayn answered the door.
Val's cheeks were tearstreaked, and her eyes were deadened.
"Who?" Was all Adayn asked.
The flames would've blinded a human. As it stood, they still hurt Valentina's eyes. Adayn was the brightest point in the room, although nothing else was catching ablaze.
"Leta." They whispered. "It can't be."
"Adayn, my love-"
"No. It cannot be!"
Every plant in the room, of which there were many, began moving of their own volition.
It took a while to calm Adayn again, but calmed they were. But they had to check something.
They crossed the room and opened their bone throwing kit, setting it up in the proper way and passing the five bones between their hands, before throwing them.
"What do you see, my love?" Val asked.
"Very confusing. The Humerus is in the direct middle and links the Vertebra in the New Moon to the Wishbone and Knuckle in the Hunter's Moon."
"Which means?"
"Her fate is a time for us to forge ahead but confusing matters something terrible happened of course in the past and will happen in the future. All of this is linked somehow. And yet the Tooth lies in the Hunter's Moon. Fear of what comes next and the flame of warding?"
"What does it all mean then?"
"I may never know. I just hope she... I hope she took those bastards out with her."
Valentina Vazante awoke abruptly. She attempted to sit up, but pressure on various points held her back, kept her laying. As her vision adjusted to the brightness of the room she was contained within, faces swam into view. A glorifier, the same one she had seen on the wall. And a condemner.
Feeling slowly came to her. Her chest was bandaged. Her arms, legs and head all restrained. She knew what this meant.
A condemnation of a dangerous individual.
"Why?" Was the first word out of her mouth. The glorifier rushed to her side.
"Cap- Uh... Vazante! There has been much afoot. You need your rest." The glorifier attempted to exert a calming aura, which fell onto a furious Val.
"I may not have the authority anymore from what you said. But I demand to know. Why?"
The condemner stood tall as he came into Valentina's view.
"Everyone saw you, using unholy magics of other planes to nefarious purposes. Cardinal Ayere himself has ordered your condemnation. And demotion."
"He will not have that authority for much longer." Val spat.
"Silence, heretic." The magic seeped into her. Even if she wanted to disobey, she could not.
"You will be investigated for ties to the Betrayer. And the new threat he brought with him. I will leave you for now Vazante, to reflect upon your sins."
The condemner strode out of the room, leaving it significantly darker.
The glorifier shook his head. "The Cardinal insists you used that magic of yours to aid the Betrayer. Any fool with eyes can see it was anything but. However petty of a squabble you have with him, I'd recommend you hold your tongue while you're condemned for it."
The glorifier left too, plunging the room into total darkness.
"Is the horse ready for him?" High Marshal Guitirre had the reins of his own steed wrapped around his hand, and his eyes were kept to the slow, sweeping shadow that was beginning to pass over Torrezon. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon, and its last fading rays were fading fast.
"Yes, High Marshal."
"Vazante?" Guitirre looked over at his Marshal. "Ready?"
"Yes, sir," Arturo said. A bit of cosmium had done him well, but he still looked like a stiff breeze might knock him over. Guitirre would recommend him for a high commendation when this was over.
If they both survived, naturally.
"You can get us all the way to Alta Torrezon, yes?"
"Yes, High Marshal. One way or another, we'll get there," Arturo answered. He held his moonsilver spear in one hand, looking back to the omenpath. A few of the Champions were warily watching Koda-Haruko. Arturo had told them to stop being stupid, that he wasn't a demon, that this was an oni-kami bond, yes they are different, he was from a different plane, and for them to focus on what was more important.
Cardinal Sirocco had given each of them blessings in the hour before dusk, and she was now situated on her own steed. She was not going to accompany them all the way back to Alta Torrezon, just far enough to dive back towards Austello once the pontifex was safely retrieved.
Darkness came for them. There was no stars in the sky to greet them as day became night. There were subtle clinking of armor as Champions brought their weapons up, ready.
"Contact!" one shouted as the omenpath began to flex and swirl. All eyes became trained on it and the blood-covered man who walked through.
A man who bore white bat's wings on his back and a great spear held in one hand. Strange clothing also covered him, but he had a more determined look in his eyes. The Champions bristled. Guitirre looked down at him, gently soothing Aster, who was growling.
"Pontifex Fein," he said by means of greeting. "I do hope you do not intend on telling us that we have been fighting in this war for nothing and that we're joining with the great maniacal bat-thing attacking us tonight."
"No, High Marshal. Far from that," said Mavren. "I am here to save our home, not force us to kneel before him. I will explain these," he flexed his wings, "in time. But know that I am ally and friend, not foe. Speaking of..." he took a step to the side of the omenpath. "I do not come alone."
More demons and traitors began to flock to them once they began to break clear, now on the straight to the heartcity. The Champions closed in tighter, slashing and keeping away their flying pursants while Guitirre stabbed at them with his dancing blade. He didn't realize what Koda was doing, believing, somehow, that Arturo was keeping up the tether.
He owed much to that man. He'd have to make sure he most certainly got proper distinctions after this.
The frozen walls of Alta Torrezon were alight with fighting, and Guitirre signaled for the Champions to keep a tight formation as they rode to the gate. Mavren rose up his spear with its shining head as a beacon, signalling to the defenders that he was arriving. A number of defenders saw the sign and cries started going up, loud enough to be heard over the wind rushing past the escort.
The cries that Mavren was coming swept through the city. Valentina heard them, in her furious state. All around her, demons and traitors alike were torn apart by nature's fury. She had been wandering aimlessly before this, but now with inexorable purpose, she made her way back to the outer wall.
Val had to see the Pontifex for herself.
A bloodletter stood tall in her way, growling. The wounds on her chest leaked blood, blood the demon wanted to taste. Valentina snarled.
A massive fist made of the stones of the road punched from underneath sending the bloodletter into the air. A series of clotheslines strung over the street, currently empty, entangled the demon, and in one final blow the wood siding of a nearby store splintered off the facade and pierced the bloodletter thousands upon thousands of times.
And Valentina never stopped walking.
"Captain Vazante!" Said a glorifier, meeting her on the stairs and looking with worry at the wounds on her chest. "We must get you to the field hospital!"
"No. I must see the Pontifex." She pushed the glorifier out of the way and when he protested, a single, golden glare was enough to silence him.
She made her way to the top of the wall.
"Captain! Captain look!"
Look she did at the glorious spearhead, shining with a holy light.
"We are saved." She said simply, before collapsing of exhaustion.
"I want every last member of the clergy to be out here! There will be no cowering this night! We face this bastard head-on!" Theodors roared. His voice was being amplified through some carefully woven magics, and his orders were being dispersed accordingly. His words were being echoed by practically all of the conclave -- including Macario, whom he would be working alongside.
"To every condemner, a glorifier! To every inquisitor, a cleric! Pair each with as many paladins as we can!" he continued. The Legion were handling their own scurrying of forces as night fell.
All of the humans were being sheltered within the cathedrals closest to the center of the city. Gold-armored paladins formed protective rings around them, a handful of clergy among them. Some human guard were with them too, but the vast majority of the humans who were more martially trained were elsewhere.
The walls were alive with activity. Ballistae were being loaded for the larger demons sure to appear, almost every single defender was holding at least a crossbow or a polearm, everyone was getting as prepared as they could. In anticipation for the coming of the Betrayer, the inquisitors and condemners had received more specialized training on how to quickly subdue and neutralize anyone who may be succumbing to madness. It was techniques being pioneered by Lazaro that would help them see the light of day, if all went well.
If. What an ugly word.
The Saint herself walked among all of the defenders even as the last light of day faded. Each that she touched felt themselves bolstered and renewed, ready to face the coming dark. Humans and vampires alike bent the knee to her as she passed.
Darkness fell like a headsman's axe. And with it came a dreadful screech that echoed throughout the mountainsides.
All of the vampires of Torrezon heard it and felt it. A twisting of the innards, a pull, a call.
My children, came a dreadful, whispered voice. It is time to free you from your false imprisonment. Come! Come and join me! Else you will find yourselves dying for nothing!
"If we die, we die on our feet!" Theodors roared. A number of curses were spat into the dark, accompanied by the stamping of feet and crashing of armor. "You are the ones who would see us enslaved! We will be more than meager beasts!" The old cardinal grit his teeth, then raised his hands to the infinite void above him. "Alta Torrezon! Show him what we're damn well made of!"
Shapes began to drop out of the vast blackness that had consumed the sky. Not a single star shone. All sources of light -- flickering torches, candlelight, everything but the divine light surrounding Saint Elenda herself and some of the clerics who had been preparing -- went out. More screeching followed. Bats by their thousands, accompanied by things far larger than simple flying mammals, descended upon the city.
"Legion of Dusk!" came the call from High Marshal Vazante. "To the last! Fire!"
---
The seas raged.
The Legion vessels had been staying closer to shore, wishing to provide reinforcement by land at a moment's notice if necessary. This meant that they were putting much trust into the hands of the Coalition to pick up the slack and help keep any of the encroaching heretics from reaching the mainland. Many had gone off on their own pilgrimages, it had been said, and many were expecting to return tonight.
The calling did not make it easy, but they would hold.
They'd have to.
Even if many of those heretical vessels began to open their decks and allow some of the greater children of the dark god who flew to claim the heartcity to join the fight in the skies. They were hungry. They were powerful.
Valentina was on the wall. A terrible wrenching in her very soul. She was hungry. Hungry like she had never been before. But she took to the skies. "Skymarchers! To me!" In one hand she held a traditional duelist's dagger. It flashed in the light of the Saint herself. And she said a quick prayer, asking for forgiveness. This night would not be won by Legion might alone.
In her other hand, Adayn's pitchfork, thrumming with the power of pure life energy. Pure vitality. She drew on it, satiating herself for a time. Small demons descended from the sky and larger ones prowled in the air waiting for opportune moments. A skymarcher fell to her left. A ballista bolt rocketed past her head to the right, ensuring the destruction of a death drinker. As she stabbed demons with the pitchfork, pure life energy seeped out into them, flowers and vines seeking to throttle them, to force their way through their very lungs and throats.
And then she saw it. Just for a moment. The eye of Aclazotz at the center of her beloved city. And that distraction was enough.
A traitor demon slammed into her sending her spiraling down to street level. She looked into the eyes of an old friend as she fell from the sky, landing heavily, but caught by a cleric's quick spell.
Adayn stood in the cathedral where the other humans cowered. They went from person to person gently giving them words of encouragement and perhaps a little magic to calm them. They had prepared tinctures months in advance, ready for use now. Some for wounds that needed treating, most for calming effects.
The priests and legionnaires standing guard would have tried to stop Adayn, but even they acknowledged a crowd of people hundreds strong would overwhelm them, and their Innistradi ways mixed as they were now with the practices of the Church of Dusk were working where the paladins could not.
They smiled at a baby, who examined their plant body with amazement. "How wonderful is a little one. A future for us all." He said to the mother.
A rare smile. "Have any yourself?"
"Hardly. But I know how valuable they are."
And by the Heron in the Moon, a future is what we need, she thought.
"Join us Val!" The old friend said. "There is no use resisting! The Age of Everflowing Blood is nigh! You have beheld him in all his glory!"
She wept. Wept for her friend, a former legionnaire now twisted into an image of Aclazotz's ideal. "Never."
A snarl distorted the demon's face. "Then die with the rest of your kin." The traitor launched bodily at Valentina, managing to tear into her armor and give the duelist deep wounds. But the demon died for the trouble.
Close to death now, the whispers grew louder and louder. And in her delirious state she felt as if she could finally see. As she yelled in defiance, wood and stone remembered its connections to the world: to nature.
The very walls of Alta Torrezon began turning on the Betrayer's forces.
Adayn and Valentina were together in the gorgeous city of Alta Torrezon once again. It was the early morning, and Val had come off defending the wall against the demons of Aclazotz. The nights were growing longer and longer as the winter solstice, the Darkest Night approached.
The surrounding towns had been cleared of humans for miles leading up to the capital and the streets were unusually empty for this time of day. Shutters that were usually open to tempt in cold early morning breezes were shut and locked.
There was an empty, dilapidated building that they passed, with a quote commonly used in prayers to the Saint painted in bloody red along the facade. Snow piled up on every porch, colored grey and brown as it melted and picked up dirt.
Despite the grim appearance of the city, Adayn was cheerful. They had been evacuated to Alta Torrezon a few days ago, and were finally seeing Valentina. The love of their life. When they had arrived, a glorifier looked them over, rebuffing all attempts of the Cardinal's Inquisitors to see them before she pronounced Adayn not only well but perfectly healthy.
The Inquisitiors still visited Adayn's temporary residence regularly to ensure they weren't falling out of line with Church doctrine, which they weren't.
Valentina made sure they passed every test.
They soon came to a shopping district which, unusually for the area, had only one open market stall. Val frowned at that. She hadn't been outside the barracks except to fight on the wall in over a month.
They wandered through, Adayn looking excitedly at the storefronts. At least the shops were still open. For now.
Val and Adayn noticed it at the same time. An herbalist shop with a sign in the window bearing three languages as opposed to the usual one. The language of Torrezon, Planar Common, and... was that Innistradi?
Adayn swerved immediately to enter the shop, with Valentina entering cautiously behind them. It was, of course, filled with plants, the living ones being Torrezone in nature but a small shelf of dried Innistradi herbs. Val examined the living plants, each one neatly labeled in the three languages and the translations between the two Val could read being so well done she suspected whoever owned this shop had help. Or was just very fluent.
She could hear Adayn talking in Innistradi rapidly and being responded to in kind. The words she could pick up were Adayn's name, friend, various plant names, and "Dawnheart Coven."
As they were talking, another person entered the shop. Val immediately looked around the corner.
A tall vampire, the mark of the Cardinal on him.
"So, Bella. You have made a new friend." The Inquisitior observed in Common
The shopkeeper stammered, her rural Innistradi accent heavy, "I was simply commiserating with my fellow Innistradi how hard it is to acquire certain plants here!"
"You sure? Not planning anything, hmm? You know we are on the lookout for all heresies. Yes." He leaned on the counter, perfectly manicured nails tapping rhythmically as he waited for a response.
"Hail!"
The Inquisitior spun around, shocked to hear his own language coming from behind him. Val stood there, a plant in one arm, but at her full height and danger in her eyes.
"You do not need to scare these people. I wonder what the Cardinal would say, hearing that you are abusing two upstanding citizens merely discussing something they have in common."
"Our orders come from Cardinal Ayere himself-"
"And how often do you check this woman's neighbors, hmm?"
"Weekly."
"And the same for her, or more?"
"...more."
"And that order comes from the Cardinal?"
He was clearly uncomfortable.
"Answer."
"I am to check regularly for heresy and symbols of other religions."
"Well look around. Do you see any?"
"...no."
"Then you have completed your task. Leave. Now."
The Inquisitior glared. "Take care, Captain, that we do not investigate and find heresy in you."
"There is no family more devout than the Vazantes. Now I bid you leave again and my relative, the Cardinal Ayere, does not hear of this from me."
Fear finally entered his eyes and he left without another word.
Valentina had managed to charter the ship and get Shregresha and her warband loaded in as the personal honor guard. As for herself, she stayed below deck, in the depths of the merchant ship where Adayn's coffin lay.
On a hammock, swinging back and forth, occasionally glancing at the thing, just to make sure nothing bad happened to it. The motion of the boat and the hammock was soothing though and she drifted off to sleep...
This time the Enemy was not present. But it was still dark. Val looked around herself, noticing it was the road on Arcavios she had been told Adayn had been found on.
Adayn stood next to her, laughing about something seemingly through layers of glass. A beautiful laugh. A sword point erupted from their chest. She spun around to see an Oriq fleeing into the distance. She crouched down, tears in her eyes. The area around her changed.
Adayn lay on the floor of her cabin on the Legion ship they had first met, still bleeding.
"No... Adayn."
A loud sound behind her signified her door opening. She turned.
Arturo had walked in. "You couldn't save them, Val."
She looked back to Adayn. The scene changed around her.
On the High Street of Torrezon, Shregresha knelt beside her. "You could've done better."
"No."
The scene changed again. On Arcavios in her dorm.
Shadow Roxie stared judgingly. "Adayn was my friend. And you let them die."
"No!"
The scene became black. All that was left was herself and Adayn. Clearer than any other words in the dream came the voice, and the sensation of a bright presence.
"Don't worry Val. I'm coming back! No Oriq could keep me down!" Adayn said.
Val's real eyes snapped open. She was soaked in sweat from her nightmare, breathing heavily. She turned to look at Adayn's coffin.
It was open.
Adayn wasn't in there.
The thing ran along the plants. In a matter of moments they had crossed the Deoro and found itself standing in front of the omenpath to Arcavios. Vengeance would be his. She entered the omenpath, to hunt the Oriq responsible for the death of Adayn.
Val was on the top of the carriage, steering it herself. Strixhaven had offered her a driver, but she had refused one. The horses made their way swiftly down the brick roads leading out of the school, however once the roads became gravel, the speed at which she could travel was significantly reduced. Still, she was on track to reach the Torrezon - Arcavios omenpath by the next morning, if she didn't sleep, and sleep she would not.
Adayn's coffin laid in the main section of the carriage, and as such was relatively safe, especially since she had locked the doors herself.
However she had no such protections.
Maybe it was the way the wind whistled through the trees, or the way the horses were behaving. Perhaps it was the natural sharpening of instincts all vampires received. But she set her communicator aside and brought the horses to a halt, sensing danger.
A bolt of a crossbow whistled out of the gaps between the trees, almost striking her, but inhuman reflexes caused her to lean back enough that it thudded into the arm of the seat.
A man, darkly cloaked, stepped out of the shadows, not masked like the Oriq so probably a regular bandit. He charged her, bringing to his waist a shortsword of shoddy make.
Rapier and pitchfork in hand, two worlds brought together by happenstance, Val lunged out of her seat and thrust the rapier blade into his chest, piercing through leather armor.
Another bolt came out of the woods, and the humbler of the two weapons came up to meet it, the sigils preventing it from being damaged, so the bolt shattered against the metal tines.
More bandits exited the woods. She jumped over the body, still collapsing to the ground, and stabbed the next one with the pitchfork.
Stab and slash, slash and stab, the duelist of the Dusk Legion took out the bandits one by one. A few crossbow bolts had to be deflected but most went uselessly into the ground or even took out other bandits.
Eventually she stalked into the woods, looking for the one with the crossbow. She heard them crashing through the forest, running in panic. She thought about how to get to them quickly, but they had too much of a head start and likely knew the area much better and she didn't have the time.
And then she remembered something she had seen Adayn do with this very pitchfork.
She closed her eyes and stabbed it into the forest floor, channeleing mana through it. Unlike the memories of Torrezon or the mana at Strixhaven, she remembered back to the times she spent with Adayn in the natural world. How peaceful that felt.
And pure green mana crackled down the pitchfork's sigils and into the ground.
The very forest sprang to life, working together to drag the bandit all the way back to the road.
She opened her eyes once the man was in front of her.
"What are you going to do to me?" he demanded.
"You sicken me. Taking advantage of those on the road. Attempting to steal from a grieving woman."
The mana being channeled began to change, and a type the pitchfork had never seen was being channeled into it.
Red and white joined the green.
"Justice. That is what will happen to you."
The mana began to flow into the man. Fiery flowers began to grow out of his skin. He screamed.
Disquieted by her mana channeling, she got the horses going again. They continued on the path to Torrezon. Towards home.