Hmm, it sounds like you're still settling into work. Or maybe that you're working up to adding to the yearlong prompt so that we can start work on this month's?
Restoration Fabian started to rise, once again thinking that talking directly to Dread was the best thing to do when a susurration started up around him. He hesitated, his thighs complaining as he tensed the muscles, half-crouched and half-standing, and then the whispering became soft but distinct voices. He sank back down level with Rystin and they realised that they were listening in on the conversation that the Auditors were having below them. "Wisp-elf magic," murmured Rystin, but both he and Fabian were more interested in the voices they could now hear. ...-hat over there next to the other one. There are two more to go on the other side. They must not interrupt the main flow of the spell... ...four of you to do that? How heavy can it be at all, you're just laz-... ...because if we don't bring it out of here we have no more Auditors, period. I thought this was all explai-... ...-reen I should thin-... ...ow! Why did you drop tha-... ...-ing to take over the Museum and get rid of the Director. He's been a nu-... ...only elves anyway, who cares if we dr-... ...-nterference from somewhe-... The susurration died away again and there was silence around the statues of Esmaranth. As Fabian, for what must have been the fourth time, started to rise, Dread crouch-walked stealthily over to them and crouched down next to them. "That was courtesy of Sebastian," he said. "That guy knows some very strange spells, but I can't really complain about that at the moment. We have a problem, I think." "Just the one?" asked Fabian. He wasn't intending to be arch but the stress of the situation was getting to him. "Well," said Dread, eyeing him with the tolerance you only get from your closest friends, "the big one that I can identify, that is probably more important than all the rest--" "In other words, not the bit where they said they were going to get rid of me." "--is that that Altar down there is somehow being used to create Auditors." "What?" Rystin looked horrified. "Auditors are made? They're not real?" Dread's face twisted through several emotions as he tried to decide what to answer first. "They are real," he said at last. "And until right now I didn't know that they were made either. But it fits with the kind of magic around the altar. At a guess, and this needs so much more study I can't even begin to explain, but at a guess, ordinary people are transformed into Auditors. Permanently, given there's a necromantic component. So it looks like there was a... a cohort of Auditors created and then the Halls were closed. Presumably some of those Auditors are dead now; I'm guessing you can't retire from whatever is done to you if you become one. It looks like the Auditors want to restore their number. Or maybe grow it since they're taking the altar away." "By people you mean humans," said Rystin. There was no malice in his tone, it was almost a schoolteacherly correction. "Elves aren't good subjects for necromancy," said Dread, and you could tell by the way he reddened after he said it that it was an automatic response. "Uh, well... sorry. I am sorry. But they're not." "An Auditor restoration," said Fabian into the resulting silence. He was pretty certain his ex-wife would call this tactless, but leaving the silence to grow seemed worse. "I think I'd have preferred a proper overhaul of their department and behaviours and new leadership. First."
And it's nice to finally see the picture of what's going on become more clear. What's to be done about it all is, obviously, still less than crystal at the moment.
2 comments:
Hmm, it sounds like you're still settling into work. Or maybe that you're working up to adding to the yearlong prompt so that we can start work on this month's?
Restoration
Fabian started to rise, once again thinking that talking directly to Dread was the best thing to do when a susurration started up around him. He hesitated, his thighs complaining as he tensed the muscles, half-crouched and half-standing, and then the whispering became soft but distinct voices. He sank back down level with Rystin and they realised that they were listening in on the conversation that the Auditors were having below them.
"Wisp-elf magic," murmured Rystin, but both he and Fabian were more interested in the voices they could now hear.
...-hat over there next to the other one. There are two more to go on the other side. They must not interrupt the main flow of the spell...
...four of you to do that? How heavy can it be at all, you're just laz-...
...because if we don't bring it out of here we have no more Auditors, period. I thought this was all explai-...
...-reen I should thin-...
...ow! Why did you drop tha-...
...-ing to take over the Museum and get rid of the Director. He's been a nu-...
...only elves anyway, who cares if we dr-...
...-nterference from somewhe-...
The susurration died away again and there was silence around the statues of Esmaranth. As Fabian, for what must have been the fourth time, started to rise, Dread crouch-walked stealthily over to them and crouched down next to them.
"That was courtesy of Sebastian," he said. "That guy knows some very strange spells, but I can't really complain about that at the moment. We have a problem, I think."
"Just the one?" asked Fabian. He wasn't intending to be arch but the stress of the situation was getting to him.
"Well," said Dread, eyeing him with the tolerance you only get from your closest friends, "the big one that I can identify, that is probably more important than all the rest--"
"In other words, not the bit where they said they were going to get rid of me."
"--is that that Altar down there is somehow being used to create Auditors."
"What?" Rystin looked horrified. "Auditors are made? They're not real?"
Dread's face twisted through several emotions as he tried to decide what to answer first. "They are real," he said at last. "And until right now I didn't know that they were made either. But it fits with the kind of magic around the altar. At a guess, and this needs so much more study I can't even begin to explain, but at a guess, ordinary people are transformed into Auditors. Permanently, given there's a necromantic component. So it looks like there was a... a cohort of Auditors created and then the Halls were closed. Presumably some of those Auditors are dead now; I'm guessing you can't retire from whatever is done to you if you become one. It looks like the Auditors want to restore their number. Or maybe grow it since they're taking the altar away."
"By people you mean humans," said Rystin. There was no malice in his tone, it was almost a schoolteacherly correction.
"Elves aren't good subjects for necromancy," said Dread, and you could tell by the way he reddened after he said it that it was an automatic response. "Uh, well... sorry. I am sorry. But they're not."
"An Auditor restoration," said Fabian into the resulting silence. He was pretty certain his ex-wife would call this tactless, but leaving the silence to grow seemed worse. "I think I'd have preferred a proper overhaul of their department and behaviours and new leadership. First."
Greg - hah, yearlong prompt.
Sigh.
Ah, that is a neat trick. Useful Sebastian.
And it's nice to finally see the picture of what's going on become more clear. What's to be done about it all is, obviously, still less than crystal at the moment.
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