Desperate for Answers

"Desperate for Answers" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
After the debriefing, Verdandi wanders aimlessly around Haligan for a time, thinking over everything that had been said. Eventually, her feet take her to the house that Darien is staying in, and she bites her lip. Nala had said he might be able to help…
She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.
central-is-growing
The door popped open oddly, with a single boot, and Darien peered through the opening, a bowl and spoon in his hands, clearly mid-meal.  He wasn’t surprised by the unexpected visit, though he did seem puzzled as he didn’t recognize the girl standing at his door. “Oh, uh, yes?” he said politely, with one half of his mouth full of chicken. 
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi looks abashed as she takes in his appearance. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you while you were eating…” she says. Part of her insists that she should just come back later, but the larger part is determined to get answers.
“I, er, I was wondering if you could help me. Nala–er, the Warden, she mentioned that you’re a powerful mage?”
central-is-growing
He swallowed and looked at her cautiously, seeming a bit embarrassed by her words. “You could…say that,” he managed to get out, sliding his foot a little further back to open the door more. “Although that isn’t usually why people come to see me any more. What is your name?”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Verdandi,” she supplies. She bites her lip. “I… I had this vision, I don’t know how, but it felt real. I tried to show the Warden, but she couldn’t get into my head, even when she… attacked me.” She rubs at her temple. “I said she could, but it didn’t work. And then she suggested that you might be able to… approach it a different way.”
central-is-growing
Darien tapped the end of the spoon against his lips, frowning. “The Warden couldn’t get into your head?” he repeated, pointing the spoon at her. He scooted the door open wider and stood out of the way, as an invitation inside. “I’m flattered…” He chuckled a little. “But I’m afraid the Warden gives me too much credit. I may have experience with the mind, but even I cannot outmatch a demon of her caliber.” He put the spoon back into his bowl with a click and paced back to the table, setting it down and looking at her in concern. “But it does sound intriguing, I must admit.” There was so much implied with what she had told him. Visions? A human mind impenetrable by a major demon?
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi shuffles into the building, looking around curiously before she returns her mind to the subject at hand. “It’s just… she mentioned valkyries. And suggested that…” she casts her mind back to what the Warden had said, “since they’re sort of the opposite of demons, that that could be why she can’t get into my head.”
After a brief hesitation, she sits across from Darien and resists the urge to slump forward onto the table. She contents herself with rubbing at her eyes and grumbling wordlessly.
central-is-growing
He took his glasses off, staring at her with wide eyes. “V-valkyries? Odin’s ghost…”
Sitting at the table as well, Darien linked his fingers and fidgeted his thumbs against each other. “My dear, where on earth did you come in contact with…?” He shook his head. “Never mind. I can…have a look at it–” he gestured towards Verdandi “–if that is what the Warden is suggesting we do.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Please,” she says. “I’m running out of options, if you can help me, I would be so grateful.” She taps her fingers against the table. “I think what I saw really happened, but I don’t know how I saw it.”
central-is-growing
“All right, then.” He began his reach out to her mind, continuing, “I don’t know what I can do, but–oh…my goodness…”
He trailed off in utter shock as his mental probe ran into an enormous web of energy, like nothing he’d ever encountered before. He gripped the table in front of him, his eyes moving uselessly back and forth to take in an image he could only see in his head. “Well, you weren’t kidding, were you,” he muttered in awe. He used his other hand to rub his forehead as he took in the barrier before him. “I’m sure you’re tired of being treated like…some medical prodigy, but…well, I don’t know what else to say. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He got to his feet and quickly hurried to his nearest pen and paper, starting to run his usual mental assessments on the blockade. “Apologies, let me just…” There was several seconds of furious scribbling. “Ah, how I have need of a familiar again…” he mumbled aloud.
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi’s brow furrows at the mention of a familiar, but she lets it slide. “Can you get past it?” she asks. “I don’t even know how I’m doing it, otherwise I’d stop.” 
central-is-growing
“I will certainly do my best.” He pushed his spectacles back up his nose and peered down at the last few notes he was making. “Though it almost seems to be more of a question of convincing whatever-it-is emanating this protective energy if I may have access, instead of brute-forcing my way in. To a demon, it would definitely say no, so hopefully I present less of a threat. You don’t happen to…be able to communicate with…it…do you?”
aroleplayingcephalopod
She frowns. “Not… not exactly. I’ve heard this voice in my head a few times, but… that’s all.” Dragging a hand through her hair, Verdandi sighs. “I want to be able to share–what I saw, but it won’t let me.”
central-is-growing
He sucked in a breath to steel himself. “Alright, that’s…that’s quite alright. That can be my job, then.”
With nothing else for it, he tried a simple deconstruction of her defenses, trying to make the thread of his consciousness as small and unobtrusive as possible. From what he knew of the Warden, she used a heavy hand when breaking into minds. Perhaps something more refined would be of use.
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She lets it out slowly, willing herself to relax. “Please let this work,” she whispers. Unlike when she attempted this with Nala, she doesn’t feel anything–given the disastrous results from before, she wants to take that as good news.
central-is-growing
He reached out and gently laid his hand on hers, to comfort her and to strengthen their connection. “You’re doing just fine. Just breathe.”
Darien pierced deeper, continuing through the small slot he had discovered in her defenses and trying to see if he could reach any part of her thoughts. “Try to picture what you wanted to show me.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
Nodding slightly, Verdandi casts her mind back to the vision. Further removed from it, she feels less fright than she had at the time. Even still, her heart pounds uncomfortably in her chest. She can still see everything in sickening detail, down to the flickering firelight playing across scores of dead soldiers.
Closing his own eyes, he focused on the mental image she displayed to him, searching for details. A dark battlefield, a cloud of inky blackness, and a faint silhouette in the torchlight. His heart skipped a beat.
"Verdandi, focus on her. Anything you can see, anything you can remember."
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Okay,” Verdandi murmurs, scrunching her face up in concentration. She’s struggling to control the vision enough to get closer but--everything shifts, all at once. Immediately, she realizes that whatever this power is... it’s showing her something new.
It’s the same woman from before, but in a different setting. It’s hard to make out her surroundings in the dim lighting, but the woman’s face is clear. She has a cruel smirk playing about her lips as she makes a complicated twisting motion in midair. With the motion, more of the same black fog forms, shrouding the room in total darkness. She makes the motion again, and the fog dissipates. She’s practicing, Verdandi realizes.
central-is-growing
Darien gripped Verdandi's hand a little tighter. "What is this?" he said in little more than a hoarse whisper. "Where is this coming from? Do you know?"
aroleplayingcephalopod
Frightened by Darien’s response, it takes Verdandi a moment to find her voice. “N-no, I don’t know where it comes from. It’s-it’s definitely real, though. I know that much.”
central-is-growing
Notes forgotten, Darien looked down at the table blankly, his mind racing. He felt sick to his stomach, the usual feeling he got when something in the past was about to catch up to him. It happened frequently. It was about to happen again and he'd really rather hide out in a hole until everything blew over.
"I don't...suppose I fully understand. I know who that is, but...I don't know what it means any more than you do. Can you tell where she is, or when this takes place?"
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi’s eyes fly open. “You know her?” she demands. She gives herself a shake. “Sorry,” she whispers. “I’m just... afraid. Of her, of what she can do. I don’t know where she is, but it’s recent. I think... in the last couple days. That’s all I know,” she says apologetically.
central-is-growing
Darien bit the side of his thumb, deep in thought. "The last couple days." He hadn't a clue that she had survived Ragnarok, and if she had, she had to be up to no good. Ill intent followed her like a strong stench. "I am very glad you showed this to me. We can only hope she stays far away, mixed up in the mess of factions and away from the dungeons."
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Who is she?” Verdandi asks. “How do you know her?”
central-is-growing
"I knew thousands of mages; I'd be more surprised if I didn't know her. Her name is Pridiane. She was a mage I had under my jurisdiction while I was in charge...dangerous, as so many of us were, but somehow she survived the attack on High Central...she must be far more tenacious than I thought."
aroleplayingcephalopod
She shifts uncomfortably. “What if she... doesn’t stay away?” she asks haltingly.
central-is-growing
"Then we will likely have to deal with it," he said with an apologetic, crooked grin. "But you shouldn't linger a moment more on it until that happens. The world is vast, my dear, filled with people just like her. The best we can do is fight off whoever comes in our path and tell the rest to stay away, or else."
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi ducks her head, smiling softly. “Thank you,” she says quietly. 
central-is-growing
He waved his hand in humble disregard of her gratitude and squinted as he inspected the golden barrier again. "You can thank me when I figure out where this is coming from and how it is being sustained with no effort or intention on your part. This is...quite something."
aroleplayingcephalopod
She shrugs helplessly. “All I know is that the Warden said something about valkyries. I don’t know how they could be involved, though.”
central-is-growing
“I don’t remember all of my mythology correctly, but as far as I know, Odin is very much defeated...it surprises me that any valkyries would subsist after his death.” He scratched at his wrist and the cuff of his sleeve absentmindedly, retracting completely from Verdandi’s mind. “I may need to consult some more detailed writings from people that know more than I about the divine.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi tries not to let her disappointment show. Thanks to Darien, she knows more than she did before, but a part of her had hoped he would have all the answers. “Thanks,” she says softly. 
central-is-growing
He caught the color of her emotion as he left and squeezed her hand again, ducking his head a little to catch her gaze. “It will be alright. We can work on it more, if you’d like. I know I, for one, would like to keep track of Pridiane as much as I can, especially if it makes you feel better.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Yeah...” she whispers, looking up at Darien. “I think I’d like that.” She drums her fingers against the table. “Can I help you with anything? I’m not really needed for my patrol for a few hours.”
central-is-growing
“Well, if this isn’t too strange...” He spread his hands quite far apart. “I need a really, really, really large parchment. As large as the Chief can get me.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
A bemused smile plays across Verdandi’s face. “Okay… why?” she asks.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Verdandi Østergård
Category:Darien Whiteland