"Well, the situation is that Lady Ranni, and by extension, us, just commited high treason against the Greater Will, in order to escape its grasp. She has renounced her Empyrean flesh, but the ritual was not without terrible cost. I believe, to say more I must first introduce you to the state of The Lands Between, should we do so now?"

"Sounds good." Allegra looks at the map - hopefully it will be used to explain a bit about the geopolitical situation she has stumbled into. 

He indeed points things out on a map.

"The Lands Between lie under the dominion of Golden Order, and its God - Queen Marika, who is vassal to Greater Will. The Two Fingers are the Will's envoys, but their communion is not fast, and so it is Marika who rules the land and manifests the Order."

"God's consort holdes the title of Elden Lord. There's been two so far, Godfrey, Lord of the Battlefield, and Radagon the Red. Radagon usually doesn't involve himself in wordly affairs, and pursues the understanding of fundumentals of the Golden Order."

"The Royal Capital is in Leyndell, at the foot of the Erdtree."

"Marika's children and stepchildren are demigods, granted significant power."

"Descendants of Godfrey are the Golden Lineage, but of the demigods only Godwyn remained here after Godfrey's exile. His home was Stormveil Castle, and the demense of Limgrave"

"Then come the Carian demigods - children of Rennala and Radagon - General Radahn, Praetor Rykard and Ranni herself. Radahn is said to be strongest demigod, and is adept at gravity magic. He holds the Redmane Castle, and is fiercly loyal to his father."

"Rykard has terse relations with rest of the family. He made his home on in the Volcano Manor on Gelmir, and has tinkering with magic derived from its fire. The Order considers such magic blasphemous, nobody dares to accuse the demigod, yet. He has a significant army, and should there be open war, he will be the main force opposing the armies of Leyndell."

"And at last, the malformed twins, Miquella, the Unalloyed and Malenia, the Severed, children of Radagon and Marika, both were born with afflictions - Miquella's body stayed ever a child, while Malenia suffers from Scarlet Rot - a disease as much as a curse. They are loyal to each other, Miquella, searching a cure for his sister, grew dissatisfied with the Order's offerings, and they left through the Forbidden Lands in the north, and haven't been heard from since. At least, by the Capital."

"And we are here, at Caria Manor in Liurnia of the Lakes - the main power here has historically been The Academy of Raya Lucaria - the greatest school of sorcery in the lands between, but Rennala has become the master of the Raya Lucaria, uniting the power of the academy and the Carian family. But since Radagon left her, she... hasn't been at her best."

"I believe that is the rough explanation of powers at play, do you have questions about anything?"

"I'm not going to remember all those names immediately," Allegra warns them. She looks at the map and tries to match everyone up to their places. It all does look very Summer from here, with volcano armies and great schools of magic. "you say Godwyn's home was Stormveil Castle and Limgrave, who rules there now?

And I don't suppose there's anything like a place of power aligned with - natural processes and abundant life, or... logic and purity? I'm not sure I'll be able to bind a coven without the - structures - I'm used to at home, and without one it's going to be difficult to do anything but the most basic investigation magic."

"As of less than an hour ago, Stormveil is without ruler." he says grimly.

"Destined Death can't be cheated, but it can split. For Ranni to die in body alone, another of equal strength must die in soul. That was the terrible price that was paid."


"I'm not sure about places of power, Abundance was a domain of the Erdtree in the old age, and its blessed sap has not been seen for long. Logic and purity are sometimes associated with sorcery, but not strongly."

"Okay. Stupid questions: the lands between what, if that is actually an answerable question and not just a turn of phrase? Where did Godfrey go into exile and is there a chance he might come back? Does Stormveil or the Golden Lineage have an army or similar, that might be also quite upset with us and capable of doing something about it?" Are there any known fixed portals leading out of here, she doesn't ask quite yet; she'll see what the reaction is to these, and maybe slip it in under guise of wondering if there is anywhere relevant but not on the map.

"It's... something between a turn of a phrase and a statement beyond my knowledge. The fog surrounding The Lands Between leads to different places, and is said to be impossible to navigate in directions apart from 'to The Lands Between' and 'out of them', but there's also places from which travellers arrive far more often than others, such as Land of Reeds. Godfrey went beyond the fog. It is said, before he became Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, he was known as "chieftain of the badlands", perhaps he would seek to return to his home, but that is just my speculation, not many travel here through the fog."

"And imminent threats from Stormveil, or are they likely to fall to infighting? I think our major problem is that if the Queen and/or the Golden Order and Greater Will actually start paying attention, they could make a spirited attempt to wipe us off the map, but what other threats are we looking at?"

Heading out through the fog at the first opportunity was certainly starting to sound quite tempting, but she didn't exactly want to let anyone present know that she was contemplating it.

"There will be some infighting, but our main defense is that nobody knows who exactly killed Godwyn. Depending on how long the infighting goes on, the Stormveil can be a significat force, but not comparable to Rykard's, Radahn's or Leyndell's. Additionally, any army attempting to storm the manor, will have to go through lands controlled by the Academy, who are unlikely to allow it."

"Are they likely to object to an army marching from Radahn's domain - it looks like he has to go through them to get to us and Rykard?

Smaller factions - things like Alecto and her people - is there any other significant player I should be aware of on that scale?

What's your estimated timescale on things like 'open war' and 'more extremely determined assassination attempts'? That will affect what I try to teach, and apply magic to; I doubt teaching people is going to be a fast process, but nor is rederiving more useful spells than the healing I have on hand."

"Hm, not sure, depends on who ends up in charge."

"There aren't many small factions, Golden Order holds a tight grasp. Ones that exist, tend to survive by service to demigod or the Queen."

"I do not expect open war, unless something else disastrous happens in short time. Assasination attempts... Alecto rebelled? Not unexpected. We will contain her before she has another chance, and other factions are unlikely to send assasins unless they learn significantly more details."

"We are likely to have years once we deal with immediate aftermath. The next stage of the plan was always expected to involve a long search."

Allegra doesn't especially want to stay here for years, but she doesn't think it's in her interests to let anyone here know that.

"I should be able to re-derive something useful in that kind of time, assuming the stars are cooperative. Can I get an overview of the kinds of magic you are familiar with, and an estimate of how many practitioners of those - or reasonably intelligent people, who might be expected to be able to pick up teachable magic - you have to hand?"

"Magic is broadly divided into Sorceries and Incantations, with many kinds within each group. Sorceries involve directing raw power from some source, while Incantations are calling upon entities to control it. Most common forms of sorcery draw power from the stars and channel it through glintstone, and most incantations of the Golden Order call either on the Erdtree or the Two Fingers."

"Most of the powerful sorcerers are graduates of the Raya Lucaria, but they are wary of change and new practices. Their admission standards are also notoriously high, you might find quite intelligent people among those the Academy rejected." it might be hard to tell through the mask, but his voice sounds slightly bitter.

"Hmm. Can you give me some more specific examples? By way of comparison - I divide magic into spells, rituals and hearth magic - the former is a quick shortcut to do a few very specific things which can be powered from collected ambient energy a few times a day, or by something like glintstone; rituals take an actual investment of power like you can find in glintstone, are theoretically much more flexible although getting a new effect is a considerable amount of work and study, and getting it efficient even more so, and do sometimes call on entities to help control the power; hearth magic is tiny effects that work as much as I like, the most obvious being a variety of emergency healing which will stop someone dying of most normal injuries, by tapping into patterns in the world."

"Most magic that gets properly categorized works like spells, like, for example Glintstone Pebble, a simple battle spell launching a small amount of energy. Rituals are usually used to alter objects, like Mistress Ranni created the Black Knives. I've never heard of something similar to hearth magic."

"Ah, the creation of most magic objects is a separate field to me - artisanry - which I'm not especially studied in. Rituals can temporarily imbue objects with magical properties, but it generally fades quite quickly.

It sounds like, unless there are any needs for the immediate aftermath, you should gather any practitioner of local magic that is willing to talk details with me - although it sounds like that might be difficult - and at least two hopeful candidates for learning my variety of magic, of similar cultural backgrounds if possible, because I would like to see if I can get them working together - and I should see what applies here, and if I can successfully teach someone.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan? Oh, and I'll also definitely need star charts, plenty of paper and writing instruments, and ideally a supply of glintstone that nobody will be upset if I drain while experimenting."

And I'll want to go looking for places of power, she doesn't add yet, because she doesn't want to push her luck at this stage - once she's established some trust, hopefully she'll be able to get to that, and be able to test this 'leave through the fog' avenue.

"Paper, star charts and glintstone is easy. I guess we can try calling in some Carian Knights - they aren't the most powerful sorcerers, but know it well enough, and it's much easier than introducing outsiders."

"I'd also bet that Seluvis knows someone who'd be happy to talk about unfamiliar magic, and also that you will have more luck with going to them without his introductions."

"Immediate aftermath will demand some attention, so we should avoid commiting to anything right now, but overall it sounds reasonable."

"Is there any particular help you might need in the - cleanup?"

"Ranni didn't have time to inform me yet - Alecto rebelled, did someone die in the capital? We will need to retirve body, cloak, and the knife. After Godwyn's death is announced, Ranni would be expected to appear in the Leyndell, which is both a constraint and an opportunity to observe how events are unfolding. I'm not sure whether she would want you to accompany her."

"She said a name, Ti-something, apparently they didn't manage to recover the body?" If Ranni wanted her to keep anything quiet, she should have left her with instructions.

"Oh. Tiche. No surprise Alecto snapped. It would have been during their flight, and only because they got careless, they wouldn't have the opportunity to get the body, so it will need to be done during Ranni's visit. Also this means they are likely to figure out how to see thorugh the veils."

"I'm not sure whether I'm more of a help or a liability - everyone seemed to be quite impressed with chirurgy but it isn't exactly fast and I'd rather hope nobody needed to be prevented from dying at a diplomatic meeting that ought to go smoothly. And I don't know anything about local etiquette, or have any repeatable defences against mind effects until we can replicate liao. Uh, that is a particular plant extract that puts me in the right mindset for some of my abilities, I only have a couple of doses with me - do we have anyone who might study it and work out if we can get something similar here?"

"Can I have a sample? I can try to manufacture it, but can offer no guarantees. Do you think concentrated starlight can have a similar effect?"

Allegra reaches into her bag, pulls out one of the doses of liao - a small vial of purple liquid - and offers it to Seluvis. While she's been warned he cares only for himself, he's probably going to at least need training to use the results, so issuing him the substance seems like a reasonable plan. "Does concentrated starlight have the effect of improving your focus enough to examine the fundamental forces of the human spirit, and manifest them in the world? If so, then maybe."

He takes a vial and puts it somewhere within his gown.

"Not exactly, but it certainly improves focus." he says in a more smooth voice than usual.