#earthrunes

Caspian pats Vince on the shoulder "And that's how it completely happened, except for the parts where my story stretches the truth on numbers, names, and how high folks jumped and some of their phrases may have been a bit revised for extra oomph. Now tell me the story that happened here?"

"Well, first of all, I called to my pride, and my lionesses came riding in, a magnificent cavalry with their Leo in the lead - that's me, remember, it's spelled D-A-V-I-N-C-I, if we're being formal.... So there I was, leading Vince's Valkyries, that was their name - do't forget that part either...." As Vince makes sure to tell his part of the adventure, not missing any important details. And for whatever reason, there are a LOT of those details, generally starting with a 'V'.

"Verily!" Caspian agrees

"Verily, and with all Veracity and Verisimilitude!"

"So then, I called my smallest and fierces Valkyerie, the pooka Knight Verity.... pardon, Temerity... She changed her name, though heaven knows why..."

"Vexing" Caspian nods.

"Now, Vince, are we being vaunted and vain in this verbiage?" Coradel approaches around a corner, having caught the last few sentences and gotten the drift. of it. A nod to Caspian.

"Once we defeated the crone Voracious, it was into the maw of the mine... but first, a veritable impass of which only an impressive, improbably, and impeccible beast could fight past - so of course... Coradel!" He rises, and offers her a bow... a small wince at the end of it. "Ah, the old war wound..."

Caspian gives a sweeping bow despite his DeBukeness, then again, he might bow to beauty as much as rank, "Baroness, I was just getting an update from Vince from the local prong of the efforts. It's an alternative extravaganza to say the least. I welcome your view points as well"

"Now now, what would you know about proper view points, my lad? I heard that you DIED. Tut tut. I wouldn't recommend it myself, it sounds messy."

"I think if the two of you are having a tale-off, my Whiskers might have the advantage."

His tail swishes!

"Ah, that was a ruse, a clever plan... to throw off the devilish and diabloical with Devious deception"

"I DO sport a magnificent tail. Though, if you listen to my side, your tale would be just as grand."

"Died, Caspian? What's the truth in this?" She moves to Vince's side and rests a hand on his arm.

"They say that politics make strange bedfellows. Maybe that is the case, but I find that bedfellows that share gossip are amongst the sweetest kissers. Though, none so to compare to you, Lioness." He purrs.

"In point of fact, Siv killed me to save me" Caspian says "Picture this if you will? A bottle thrown to the sea, guided by the currents of fate! In it, a note with instructions for ONE satyress... to place glamour in it... and then plant it in a place she's never been before? But .. oh that's just the hook"

A fond smile to Vince, and then she listens to Caspian. "Quite a hook, indeed. A hook for a fish story that starts with a bottle at sea." Admiringly.

"And I am so very fond of fish. Now, did you bring any?"

An amused, pursed-lip look at the pooka.

"only a story that lends to the scales of justice no longer left to flounder" Caspian grins "The satyress Piper, and her companion Adam the mortal, had come to Fenix in Tijuana... a challenge of musical nature"

He says mournfully, "It is one of few things to give me pleasure, oh so dreadfully sore am I. I cannot run and play..."

A flicker of concern on her features for a moment, but she only says to Caspian, "Ah, yes, Adam the Unhatched. Odd young man."

"Very, my part in this drama? A humble cabbie...offering a ride to the shores... but it was there that a bottle washed up as I described" And he relates the tale, of how Piper fumed over waht it might mean, a game played to scam her out of glamour? And yet, if truly a life was waiting. Then he explains "While the note said to leave, I volunteered to sneak aabout... and see who picked it up. To my surprise a flickering woman, a serpentine flared pooka ..took it gladly..relieved and joyous... alas... it was not she who caught me, but caught I was... you see, it was Siv in disguise"

And Vince leans to one side, softly rubbing his hip. He knows this story... and it's not about him... sigh.

"Tantalus had grown suspicious of her starving herself, for despite the danger to her, she refused to Ravage from the slaves taken... but... as I was about to be tortrued, she feigned losing temper and 'killed me', using her arts to make me look like a corpse and threw me off into the water where I was retrieved by Jonas. "

"The Captain? That was clever of her, but is she well? You say she was flickering?"

She gives Vince a sidelong look, then kisses two of her fingers and taps them on his hip 'to make it better.'

And he slooooooowly tips over, falling, falling, until he has reclined and his head is upon her lap. Thus bouyed, he gives Caspian's story the attention it deserves.

And he pauses, thinking, to the bits he half listened to. Concern, "The Lady Siv? MY Siv?"

"Oh, the tale grows grimmer still and yet, more heroic... the details Sir Magnus got, the intel, a lot of it was from her, some clues sent to Miss Zara ... if not for Siv, well, I think Tantalaus would have been caught but the other prongs might have slipped free and even if Tantalus fell at least 20 soouls would be lost..." And he regales the tale of three witches , Sir August, himself...Sir Magnus and Sir Earl... but how it was Siv that lead most out... how the witch's da'an work cause Tantalus to be flattened by mortal women! And how Siv had subsisted on Nothing but Dark glamour... for the longest time

Coradel rolls her eyes and gives Vince a long-suffering look as he swoons...but she settles comfortably with his head in her lap and continues to listen.

"Ah, Miss Zara, my dear librarian.... " Listening intently now, now that it involves his favorite subject... the ladies most dear to his heart...

The amused look is gone. "Caspian...Siv fell to the darkness?"

And everyone gets their moment, but he goes on "Victory, but at what price? Siv was filled with a lust for her own sex... and there is no shame in this... but she also hated the women she saw, seeing them as harlots, objects... she fought... she resisted and spurned others AWAY from her hoping to fight the glamour envemoming her soul. She did not fall , but it was rising to claim her"

Quietly, "August did not tell me of this. Not exactly. He told me she had been endangered...."

Of course, her expression reflected a tender pride whenever August's part was mentioned.

"Sir August called to you and came to you as a dutiful husband would before the full curse was revealed'

Coradel's lap rumbles with his soft growl, not at Siv, but at such an idea that such could take HIS Captain dear... such an unholy desire. "A pacifist, I am, and eater of flowers and leaves - but were I to have a chance, I would wet these fangs, for that one. And deep, yes, deep."

"And again returns Piper, who noticed her friend in disaray, an who called upon Zane, her cousin, a pussiant wizard to be... and a plan was hatched to bleed Siv of this hateful glamor.. bleed her dry.."

A blink. "So he doesn't know. Oh, Caspian...I wish he were here to hear this. You will need to tell him again so he may record it. How did she escape the rising darkness?"

Coradel strokes Vince, not to soothe but to reward for the sentiment.

A blink. "Dry?!"

A look up at his Lioness. "Shall I fetch our Liam, that he may hear the tale? And stroke my tail, that it helps dull the pain?"

The large Eshu says "Emptied, and then filled... " And he relates more of how the glamour was collected. Of how a box was inscribed and given to use all her glamour... and how the COuntess Jessica did put her will and balefire to her sister's defense." And he speaks on.

"A lion on the box may have worked well.." He can't help but muse. A Narwhal? Preposterous. And yet, glad, none the less.

"Siv was saved, and I think perhaps she shall be cross with me, but she sees this as an embarrassment, but she fought, she fought because friends and lover alike urged her to fight. And not one bit of the tainted glamour remained..burned pure by her sister's love. "

As he relates the tale entire as he knows it

It is good that the fair librarian is NOT sitting in state with them, for he roars in triumph at hearing the conclusion of the tale. And then blinks, and holding his side belatedly. "It was.. an OKAY telling."

A shake of her head at Vince's question, and she does stroke his take rather distractedly as she listens.