View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
Luto steps on wind, which is next to star, and gets another green glow and note in the sequence. "Oooh."
The final chime plays. Then the sequence of notes repeats from the beginning, the intro to a hauntingly beautiful piece of music that fills the room.
As it does, differently-colored streams of magical energy (purple, brown, blue, green, grey-white, and orange-red) flow out from each tile and coalesce in the hollow pedestal, swirling and mixing.
Sophie watches as well. (It's tempting to break this down into an alchemical parable. She doesn't have nearly enough context to do so coherently. It's only that it feels like one.)
Luto is only looking at it occasionally - she's scanning the room constantly for other changes, because sometimes the people who build these places are assholes.
As the music swells to a crescendo, the light coalesces into a softly glowing golden orb, filling the pedestal exactly.
It remains there as the music fades, pulsing slowly.
Pick up the orb?
Halfway through the movement, she remembers the severed hand around her neck. Pick up the orb telekinetically?