Written Wonderland

Hrm, Evan hadn't asked for much in the way of specifics. He pondered momentarily if that had been a tactical error, but he supposed he'd just figured that soldiers would either be on board for this or they wouldn't. That was more or less the point he'd gotten to himself about it.

"For starters, you'll need to leave your charm here." He'd've had to say that at some point or another, and it wasn't a total deflection from the question, so now seemed as good a time as any for it. He hesitated about what explanation to give, though, as he realized he wanted to stress different parts for Seth than he'd stressed for Xavier, especially since all of this still felt a little nebulous. "I think overall they're worthwhile to wear to sleep, but the priestess indicated that they could be dangerous during the ritual."

Maybeee that would be sufficient for Seth? Evan hoped so. In fact, he hoped so enough that he decided he'd go ahead and honestly answer Seth's actual question, maybe Seth would be willing to just move on.

"I will admit I didn't ask for many details other than what we needed to show up with - or without - and what the risks were. She told me to bring two other strong-willed men, and that we'd be safe as long as we don't break the circle during."

Hrmmm, should he mention the comment she had made about rope? He still wasn't sure how serious she'd even been about that, and saying it in the wrong way could be alarming.... for now, Evan sat on it, figuring that was enough to let Seth respond to, anyway.

Seth raised an eyebrow at Evan but at least respected that Evan was being honest. The slap-dash plan seemed very much in line with previous things Evan had led them into, which had been exciting when he wasn't on the deciding side of it like this. 

It seems like he wasn't going to get much to rely on other than his gut and his desire for retribution, which was present but was certainly a quieter part of his mind at the moment. Trying to keep everything under control was requiring a tremendous amount of mental and physical effort.

Did he want to see her again? Yes. But, he wasn't sure that was the rational or even revenge-centric parts of his brain talking. 

At this point, he didn't think it was possible for him to say no. In fact, no refused to come out of his mouth. Too much of him was battling for this opportunity.

He thought about how to give Evan the information he needed and suddenly wanted to withhold it. Being vulnerable again did not feel comfortable. But, if this was going to have a chance in hell at actually succeeding. he felt he needed to just get on with it. 

"I really wish that you had gotten specifics, but I do think I'm probably more qualified than most in the camp given... Yeah. But you should know what you're in for if she gets into you. She's not... she doesn't hold back." Seth sighed and decided he would just follow Evan and be brazenly honest. At least, to a point. "It makes sense that it would be the goddess of dreams, come to think of it. She definitely started there. Pulled them up right in front of me, all the ones that, well, you don't tell your wife. And then, the goddess--I guess?--appeared to me, and she made me feel like she was actually with me and... she's... I really think the men have been going insane out of lust more than anything," Seth finally said in a blurt. He didn't want to wait to hear what Evan or Xavier had to say about that as his eyes had already dropped, and his face was absolutely turning a beet-red shade. 

"But, in terms of what she's looking for, she lingered on a couple of my memories when she was searching through them. In one of them, I was helping tie up the king's son during one of the early nights after we left the palace grounds, and in the other... it was the memory of the battle at Yersil where we first starting seeing the shadows appear with the king's sorcerer. I almost... one of them had me, and I thought I was dead. The cold in my body felt like the cold of decay, but then my lieutenant got a hold of the situation and stabbed the demon, which at least distracted it long enough for me to get away." Seth took a breath. "I guess they were notable because the rest of the memories she pulled up were rather... risque in nature." Seth hands balled into fists uncontrollably. 

--

Xavier looked incredulously at Seth. Seriously? The men were mumbling mounds because of... wow. To think he had to put all that work into the charms so they could keep their dicks in one piece. It was true that Xavier liked to tumble as much as anyone, but he wasn't that desperate. Regardless, Xavier was suddenly gratified that it was not all that far-fetched to think his tiny twinge of jealousy about Seth was founded, although he had a hard time taking him as any kind of serious threat at the moment.  

But did they really want to be taking Seth with them? Xavier was really not sure Seth could keep it together with the goddess in the room, but he looked to Evan to see what he would say first. 

Evan listened intently to what Seth had to say, doing his very fucking best to keep his expression utterly stoic. It was a feat, to be sure, but he basically managed. There was less he could do about some blush coloring his cheeks, though - ... especially when, amidst all this sexual context, Seth went and mentioned tying up the king's son. Evan couldn't quite stop his eyes from widening just a touch, overcome very briefly with this feeling like he'd just learned something disturbing - fascinating? exciting? what the fuck - about his soldier, followed quickly by disgust at himself for jumping to entirely wrong conclusions so immediately. In hindsight, it was obvious that Seth was separating that memory from the dreams he didn't tell his wife (hah), and placing it instead in the same category as the relievingly sobering cold of decay.

Good fuckin gods, Evan.

The captain was... starting to feel just a little bit scared. If lust was so specifically a liability... but, who the fuck would he send in his place? And, would he really be able to pass this up? Nah. He wasn't scared enough to overshadow how brightly his curiosity and determination burned. Besides, if anyone had practice not acting on all the goddamn lust that they felt... right? Gods, here was hoping that was how the fuck this worked. If not...

Yeahhh, he should probably bring some rope.

Fuuuuuuck.

"I see," the captain finally mumbled, partly just stalling for time while his brain tried to pick out what it actually needed from what Seth had said. He greatly appreciated the soldier's candidness, but goddamn was it hard to respond to.

He did manage to pull up a memory of something the woman had said the previous day, though - that the goddess needed someone who could walk into the land of the dead? Something like that. He wasn't sure what the fuck tying up the king's son might have to do with that, but the cold of decay felt.... like maybe something was there. Evan wasn't sure now was the time to share that thought, though; he didn't want to lay too much at Seth's feet here, when even asking him to go on this quest was already a bit rife.

"Thank you, Seth." He followed up after a brief moment, and gave the soldier a nod. "Sorry to ask you to dig back into it."

Then, he shifted his focus, to regard both Seth and Xavier more inclusively.

"I don't know how much of that we'll run into when we confront her with the priestess; we should each be prepared to face both risque and morbid thoughts today. Seth has already faced those down and pulled through; and Xavier, I've seen you stare into death and grin. I'm confident we can handle this."

Honestly, Evan really was most worried about his own performance at this point, but his soldiers sure the fuck didn't need to know that. His expression at this point was determined as ever, and he let that excited grin turn back up, just a bit.

"Are you both in?"

Xavier looked from Evan to Seth and back again and exhaled quietly. He still didn't particularly feel like Seth was qualified for this ritual, but if Evan was confident...

"Let's do this." Despite feeling like what the men had gone insane for was ridiculous, he still couldn't pass up an adventure of this caliber.

Seth tried to get his face under control before he looked up at his captain. "It would give me a lot of peace of mind if she were on our side, as unlikely as that is. So, I'm in. Ready when you are."

"All right." Evan's excited grin widened to full force, and he pushed himself to his feet.

"Go leave your charms in your tents, and take a few minutes to prepare however you need to. Rendezvous back here, and we'll depart. The journey shouldn't be long."

Seth did not have to be asked to leave twice. He stood up from the cushion and made his way over to his tent without a word, taking the charm off from around his neck on the way there. In his tent, he decided to bring a bracelet he had picked up ages ago intending to give it to his wife. Hopefully that would be enough to remind him of who he was and what he stood for while he was in the presence of the goddess. As his fist clasped around it, several of the beads burrowed painfully into his flesh. Yes, this would work. 

--

Grateful that Evan's excitement was fully present again, Xavier couldn't help but mirror the grin, even though there were still some sticky bits of this situation for him. It was a very good thing Xavier didn't plan on telling Evan no because he very much wanted to say yes every time that ridiculous grin happened. 

Xavier ran back to his tent, not caring who would wonder about his pace, but when he got there, he stood awkwardly in the center, wondering what exactly to do. He should, obviously, take the charm off, but he couldn't shake the feeling that having it on wouldn't affect him nearly as much as, say, Seth, but at the same time, he did not want to disobey Evan's directions. Finally, he decided to compromise. For the amount of comfort it would give him, Xavier decided that, if it wasn't against his skin, it wouldn't technically be functional and would be safe to carry in his pocket. He deposited the charm readily there and surveyed his tent for anything else he might need to bring. He strapped on a dagger to his light armor and strode back to meet Evan, patting his pocket briefly for comfort.

--

The crone busied herself with the last few preparations for the ritual. Cottage cleaned (to the degree possible, anyway), reagents gathered, chant books readily open, she was starting to feel more confident in the endeavor. She knew the goddess would be upset at being approached this way, but it was a risk they were going to have to take if they were going to get anywhere with the negotiations. The crone was ready for the king to meet his justice, and this army wasn't strong enough to do that on its own. 

The cottage the crone had found nearly a decade ago now was still falling apart to some degree, though she made frequent attempts to fix it. The house was situated against the trees of a small meadow, furthest from the place where the path led into the meadow. The cloudy day cast a dim light over the surroundings, making everything look a little closer to decay than it actually was. 

The crone had set the braziers in each of the four directions of the meadow, waiting to light them until the rest of the party had gathered. Then she laid a circle of a strange white substance around the meadow so the braziers lay outside the circle. This required buckets and buckets of the substance, which the crone had made herself over the past few months in preparation for this. 

Inside that circle, she created a 10-foot diameter circle with one layer of salt, one layer of crushed charcoal, and one layer of twine the crone had made herself from the Ash tree bark in the deeper part of the forest. She lovingly laid each of the ingredients out and went back for more. 

No animals moved in the meadow, as though they knew to avoid it, and an uncomfortable silence--the kind where it is easy to believe the trees are listening--crept in and settled over the space. 


((OOC: Seth and Xavier are ready to follow Evan whenever he would like to go, and maybe just note that Elaine might find it strange if she saw the three of them walk into the forest.))

((OOC: Yeah, I've been thinkin bout the fact that Evan's aware he should be keeping this well under Elaine's radar. We have been sort of meta-hoping/assuming that Evan hasn't seen Elaine as he's walked around to find Xavier and Seth; if he'd maybe had to take some odd routes to help make that happen, he's happy to have been doing that lol.))

Evan let out a brief sigh once Seth and Xavier were off. Right after getting other people on board was precisely when he always doubted his plans the most.

What if Seth was actually more susceptible to the goddess now, given that she'd already had the chance to root through his head? And what if Xavier's apparent unphasedness about the situation was actually just youthful hubris? Had the boy even had cause to look at those risque and morbid corners of his mind before? Would he even know if they were there?

And then of course there was Evan himself. He had plenty of morbid and risque corners to poke at, several of which would be rather fucking uncomfortable to have to face today. Geh, and then it also occurred to him to wonder whether, the way this ritual might go, the three of them would end up sharing any of those thoughts... Evan felt sick to his stomach at the thought of revealing certain things to Seth, much less Xavier... but maybe it wouldn't go that way. Hopefully, the goddess being bound meant she couldn't get in their heads at all. Heh, he supposed that was an aspect of specifics it might've been nice to get ahead of time, but eh, then again, maybe not.

In the end, he still wasn't finding himself regretting any of this. Feeling anxious as fuck about how it'd ultimately go, sure, but not regretting it in the slightest.

The captain lightly pulled his charm out of his pocket and set it down over by his folded-up cot. He then pulled out a rucksack and stuffed a bundle of rope inside. His cheeks burned a little thinking of how embarrassing it'd be if they really needed it, but Evan wasn't so prideful that he'd outright refuse. Certainly not when it was a fucking goddess who was driving men literally insane with lust that they were dealing with. If the old woman said to bring rope, even in jest, then Evan was gonna bring some fucking rope.

He pondered for a moment on whether there was anything else he should bring. Actually, he should probably eat since he hadn't done that yet today. He left the bag in his tent, not wanting to look like he was going anywhere, and made a quick stop by the kitchens, scrounging for food he could take with him. Luckily that wasn't a particularly strange thing for the captain to do; eating was not precisely his favorite thing, and more times than not, he was just trying to get it over with to move on to something else, and in that sense this situation was in fact pretty fucking normal. He might've taken a bit more food than usual, but that was about the only notable thing.

Xavier and Seth were already back at his tent when he returned. That seemed promising, really, like they were both rarin to go.

"Picked us up some snacks, just in case," he said sorta playfully as he passed the men and slipped back into his tent. He did his best to deposit the food he'd grabbed into his rucksack without particularly showcasing what was already inside, and then threw his canteen in there as well. The woman had said they'd come upon her cabin quickly, but he figured it still didn't hurt just to have a few provisions on hand.

He picked up the bag by one of its straps, figuring that'd look a bit more chill than going ahead and wearing it on his back. He was pretty sure they'd managed to fly under the radar so far, but he wanted to make sure they staid that way. The last thing he needed was Elaine seeing him and immediately guessing that he was going somewhere, and deciding to investigate where and why.

Feeling as ready as he was gonna be at this point, the captain nodded to his accomplices and started leading the way. He took a bit of an indirect route, and was paying just enough attention to lines of sight that Seth and Xavier could probably guess that Evan was keen on at least someone not knowing where they're going, though he also seemed to be minimizing the number of people who were likely to see them in general, too. So... yeah, probably a safe bet that he was absolutely doing something he decided to beg forgiveness for later, rather than ask permission first. Certainly wouldn't be the first time. The good news was, he was always pretty good about taking the heat for his subordinates as far as those things went; it was his choice to take that sort of risk, and he'd just as soon his men be willing to follow him without having to make those calculations themselves.

((OOC: So yeah. I kinda feel like I made a lot of assumptions this post to keep it going smoothly which hopefully all work okay lol. I gather Evan's gonna be leading the way pretty silently the whole time, and'll prolly start munchin the foods he got once they're in the forest. I'm assuming it'd be like, bread and jerkey, or something. Lemme know if Seth/Xavier don't really have much to post and I'll go ahead and zip to when they come upon the clearing.))

Once the group entered the forest, Evan reached into his bag to pull out some jerky. He offered some to his companions before swinging the bag onto his back, and carried on quietly while he munched on his lunch. Overall he was pretty relaxed, if just a touch hasty to reach their destination.

He paused once they came upon a meadow, and took stock of what all was there: four braziers, two circles of.. something, and iron stakes in the ground. It seemed clear that the woman had already started setting up for the ritual... unless this was just weird shit she did to entertain herself out here. In any case, Evan remembered her warning about 'breaking the circle', and elected to play things particularly safe and go around the very edge of the clearing to get to the cabin, whereupon he finished up his last bite of jerky, and then gave the door two solid knocks.

Xavier thought it was odd that Evan took an especially circuitous route to the forest, but he decided not to worry about it. He was far too sold on the adventure part to much care about the consequences of being found out. 

Marching through the forest was leisurely, and Xavier readily accepted the jerky from Evan. It felt like the most light-hearted excursion he had been on in a long time--given that battle marches were the other memory that came to mind--and was disappointed that it didn't take them nearly as long as Xavier had anticipated. However, a new excitement dripped steadily into his belly as they came upon the clearing and walked around the circles. 

--

The crone answered the door immediately after the second knock. "Good, you're here," she said without surprise and without even looking at Evan or his volunteers. She grabbed three mugs off the decrepit table, each full of a silvery liquid, and tucked her chanting book and several purple cushions underneath one arm. The crone had dressed up for the occasion, having kept her priestess garb in surprisingly good condition considering the state of everything else she owned. Her long dress and corresponding robes were made out of rich lavender and dark purple thread with silver and black trim. She also appeared to have dark kohl on her eyes. It was hard to believe she was as old as she was.

Without letting any of the men in, she walked through them and closed her door.

"Come, and walk very carefully over the outer circle," she said over one shoulder. She set the cushions down about six feet away from the inner circle, one at each of the four directions, and placed a corresponding mug near the cushions that were near the iron stakes. 

She abruptly turned toward the men. "You," she said, pointing at Xavier, "sit in the east." Xavier did as he was told, slyly inspecting the inner circle as he did so. He approved of the ways in which the crone was binding the god. She was using a combination of all the strongest binding reagents his grandmother would use, and that twine felt... potent. Xavier couldn't look at it very long without a shiver up his spine. But, nonetheless, he was now fully prepared to trust the crone and her preparations.

The crone waited until Xavier sat down to direct Seth. "And you, you sit in the west." She turned, eyed Evan intensely, and said, "South for you."  

Evan had curiously craned his neck a bit to see inside the cabin after the crone had opened the door, but didn't enter as she hadn't exactly seemed to be inviting them in. He watched her gather things and then made sure he was out of the way as she was coming out, and obediently followed her as she instructed, minding to step well over the line of the outer circle along the way. In some ways it felt very strange to him, treating something with this much reverence, but despite not having much experience doing so, it didn't feel out of place. Maybe the crone had completely taken him in; that was just a risk he was taking.

Somehow it did make him feel slightly uncomfortable when the crone started ordering around his subordinates, but he didn't show any signs of protesting about it. He wasn't even sure what exactly about it made him uncomfortable, and elected not to dwell on it. Soon enough the crone gave him his own instruction - not that he couldn't have guessed once Seth's was given - and he obediently moved over to the Southern cushion, taking off his bag and setting it down on the grass behind him as he took his seat.