Full Moon Visit [Aria]

[Deleted]

The sun had just gone down when Iris arrives in front of the cabin. She managed to time this was fairly well, flying over most of the way as a crow and not transforming until the house was in sight. She keeps looking around. Hopefully, her brother wouldn’t think to do an impromptu visit here in her absence. There were decent odds that he might, and she preferred going to locations where he was unlikely to turn up.

Shivering a bit against the cold air, she knocks on the door. “Aria?” she calls, “Are you in there?” She hears things stirring in the woods and looks around again. Perhaps even more frightening than a sudden appearance by her brother was the fact that there was a basilisk somewhere around here and it was a full moon. “Aria?” she calls again, a bit more panicked.

[Deleted]

Aria was busy about the cabin, stoking the fire, and lighting a few candles. The inside of the cabin was slowly improving. Yes a good part of the floor was covered in wood shavings, at least the left side of her house was. The kitchen however was starting to look cleaner as she had started to rip down the rotten cabinets…which was what was burning in the fire place right now. The two chairs that Rivers had made were improved as well. She had only had to fix them up slightly, she sanded them down as well. She had even finished them with walnut oil so it had a healthy and smooth shine. Bits of wood had been chiseled away to even place a nice vine pattern running up the legs and back of the chair. All and all they actually looked like a high quality piece of furniture. That was now out of place in the run down cabin. Off white cushions were also sewn for the seats and tied to the chair. They were stuffed with some sort of down and were actually fairly soft to sit on. A basket made of twisted branches sat by one of the chairs, a quilt slowly in the works of being sewed gently draped across a large chest.

Aria had just placed the cauldron over the fire filled with water; and a bit of deer meat. She dropped in some potatoes she had purchased in the market into the stew as well to cook a bit. Along with a couple of herbs and such. It wasn’t much but once it started cooking it would smell good and nothing was better than a warm stew on a cold winters night….A knock sounded on the door and she quirked an eyebrow; Gabby didn’t knock…and Rivers just popped in.

Aria walked to the door; which was still in need of repair…and realized…she really needed a looky hole like Claire had….She then heard the voice and opened the door.

”Muse? You know you can just come in this damn freakin door doesn’t have a lock yet…”

[Deleted]

At the sound of Aria’s voice, she opens the door and flies inside. “Oh, thank the gods,” Iris says, shutting it behind her. “When I said I would come over, there wasn’t a basilisk on the property.” It takes a while for her heart rate to resume a normal pace.

She carefully walks around the wood shavings and sits on a chair. Looking around, it seemed that Aria was working on quite a bit of home improvement. The furniture looked nice, and it was clear she removed some of the cabinets. “I can see that you’ve been very busy with this place.”

Eventually her eyes settle back on Aria, “I figured this discussion was best saved now. So what are your long term plans? And I don’t mean in for this house. You want to start a massive organization, but what do we do if nothing happens? What do we do if something does? Do we fight against the course set by Fate or are we moving it along? And what if the existence of this attracts the attention of… certain persons who would be unhappy to hear of your existence? Honestly, it is the thought of the latter that bothers me.” There were very people in this world whom she could call a friend. That few consisted of Aria and Rivers. That was about it.

[Deleted]

Aria chuckled about her reaction, and closed the door behind her.

”Gabby is an interesting enough snake, I like him; he’s taking care of the novites around here….did you know that’s why this house was abandoned? THERE WAS A WHOLE FREAKIN NEST OF THEM HERE!”

Aria visibly shivered, there were few things that would make her go into a full blown panic and creeped her out to the bone. Novites were definitely one of them. Aria smiled and nodded when Iris noticed she had been improving the place.

”It will take a while…but I can at least make this comfortable. I want to fix up the stables as well….Gabby is helping me make a network of tunnels below the property. Much better than me digging them out considering he’ll know how to do it without making the tunnels collapse.”

Aria took a seat and picked up her needle and thread and continued to work on her blanket. Her face taking on a serious tone as she thought about how to articulate her plans.

”….Fate is the one that bothers me about all of this…I don’t know his plans; that’s the problem with demi gods….we are the ones that can meddle in the world much more than a full blood because in the end we are still a part of it and it apart of us. Now…short term….I want to unite the lower city people, or at least a good portion of them. Frankly where there is poverty there will always be crime, it’s a necessary evil….and the laws do not support people of the lower class….On the surfaces…really I will be honest it will be organized crime. Frankly I hope to direct it to those that it wouldn’t be put out on the streets if a little went missing…but in the end we are the thieves of Nova.”

Aria was under no illusions, crime was crime; she grew up with it and it was something she learned to live with.

”What I do want to do is create a safety net; and a network of people to be my eyes and ears. That will be the first step. I need my ferrets; people in the castle and people in the various districts. Even branching out to have a few agents in foreign countries as well…I want to know where the chips are falling and what I need to watch out for, that will be the first phase…at least a part of it. I also need to find a second…a person with military know how and a bit on the shady side. I need people who are able to act and are comfortable with the business. I particularly want to get some well-known smugglers on our side; their routes in and out may …benefit us if things go south. Particularly getting people trained on those tunnels, if Mysteria summons the acid rain again I want people evacuated from the city; underground. Its crucial to get as many innocents out of the city of Nova as possible as SOON as anyone makes for the Center of Nova….”

Aria put down her work and looked at Iris with a serious expression.

”But I would count on something happening rather then it not….The center of Nova is activated by innocent blood being spilled, it’s why ambrosia started wars in Fey…. And it is why Mysteria summoned the acid rain in our time. Thousands of innocents must be sacrificed in the city. Now….think about it. If you start killing a lot of people you get wars and a broken up kingdom that’s prey to those around it….like what happened in our time. However…if the people being killed say…from this country or any country for that matter…would it cause the same issues? “

Aria bitterly smiled at the last question.

”Daddy and the others were allies of the thieves during our time; the center of nova can be used against them as much as it can to everyone else. In fact they were the ones that appointed the thieves as guardians of the damn thing….and my situation is the same…well almost the same as it was in our time. I’m more then sure Grandpa ordered me to be taken care of as an infant…only difference is Zeppy gave Daddy a deal. Daddy chose me…eventually when I got older and met Grandpa again and the others; they accepted me. There must be something they liked yes? Well I hope I can do so again…if not well….Things may get interesting. ”

[Deleted]

Iris looks back outside through one of the windows. “Basilisks or novites. What a wonderful thing to have to choose between… But I guess I would also take the snake.” She’s honestly glad they didn’t stay in this place long enough to see the giant spiders.

Organized crime. Rivers wasn’t always completely on the up and up. Still, being thieves by trade was somewhat of a new experience for her at least. If their parents could see them now… Well, they never were too impressed with them anyways with Rivers never becoming a talented elemental mage. So perhaps nothing would have really changed in their eyes anyways. “Alright. One, do we have a way of dealing with the guard? Two, do we know what other similar organizations in the city? Those would be two of our largest obstacles of even getting off the ground.”

Iris frowns at the mention of the Center of Nova. “There is very little anyone can do if someone gets to the center and the world falls apart. That is the situation where we have completely repeated the mistakes from before. The best we can do is try everything we can to avoid that outcome. However, I can’t act like I don’t fear that our presence won’t recreate the same issues. There is the possibility that we become a self-fulfilling prophecy for our future.”

Iris gets up and starts pacing around at the mention of the gods. “Our situation has never been exactly the same since the time we got here… Things are different in weird ways. Have you checked out some of the history books? It’s like someone took one of ours and every few pages or so, they decided to rewrite some details. I wouldn’t trust anyone from this world until I knew what parts of them had gotten edited. Gods included in that. However, if they do have an interest in this, you’ll probably find yourself facing down Teleska at some point. Or maybe even your father himself. It would be good to prepare for that as well. They would be good allies admittedly, but I know all too well just how capricious and cruel that they can be.” She wasn’t interested in seeing what new curse they could possibly devise for her or others. If Aria only feared her own death by their hands, she wasn’t nearly scared enough.

[Deleted]

”I quite like Gabby, he’s well enough for a snake….Then again I get along with Helly to….I’m not really normal….am I?”

Aria scratched her nose when she asked if they knew about a way with dealing with the guard. Really that was a bit of a difficult one to think around.

”Well; I would suppose making connections with people in the guard would be a way to go. A close personal friend of mine happens to be a captain….But I released him from the thieves….so really I don’t want to rely on him. Yes if I got caught or even if I asked it, I do not doubt for a second he’d risk himself to help me…. But I don’t want to have to put him in that position.”

Aria scratched her chin in thought.

”Well we know Madoc has a smuggling organization, and there are small groups of bandits that have formed their own meager groups…but so far Madocs the only large scale organization worth noting. I took over the bandits that we ran into the woods. There in the process of hiring themselves out doing odd jobs around the city; preferably to the merchants around the city. They know no details though… the ones curious enough to ask well that will be a different matter. I have also talked to the owner of Gallows in….ironically I think one of his great great great grandsons or something was the person to give me my first job and Briar back in our time… wonder if he keeps a shrine to Granny in his basement to… Anyways, I think we can get him in on this as well…I find taverns and inns to be an awesome source of information. Best be on the owners good sides…which means we probably should make some ties to whomever owns the Mary in this timeline.”

Aria nods.

”Little we can do, but I believe that the sacrifice can work the same way if it is activated, but that would mean innocents were already slaughtered to activate it to begin with…..but you are right about the trying part, I cannot guarantee we are not setting ourselves up. Like you I only can do the best I can to hope to prevent the outcome, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fail….”

Aria watches as Muse got up and paced, watching voice thoughts that had already crossed her mind since the time that she got here.

”Yes I have noticed; that was the first thing I found out as soon as I got here and found out Core was not living in this world….It is also why I have not brought his wife into this whole mess yet....we start off from square one…the plus side is that also means that the people from the past that were previously the antagonist may not be the same this round. Which is why I want to find out what Noku’s state of mind is this round; without his brother to compete against he might not be the same person…..For the gods…well I know for a fact that what changed a lot of them has not happened yet, so I really don’t know what they will be like….Nor do I want what happened to happen to them….they may or may not be the same but they are my family no matter what, I do love them even if it’s not reciprocated or known”

Aria sighed and hung her head, she knew she might have to face one of them down one day or another.

”I realize I may have to face one of them in a fight, I have fought Zepon on a couple of occasions but he was never out right trying to kill me. More just poking to get a reaction…. I know how capricious they can be as well…grandpa did order my death after all only to accept me latter...out of all of them he has the worse temper. If I had to fight one of them I would not kill them, I would accept defeat before I willingly slay any of them… or their children. So do not count on me to do that, is that understood? I am one of them before I am a mortal…Though I may act it I do not have a single drop of human blood in me.”

She stared at Muse for a long time, she realized her stance on the matter may be a bit cruel, but things were the way they were…

”You do have my word however I will do whatever is in my power to protect you and Rivers. I don’t have to be mortal to consider you two family….. but anyways I’m ore then sure they have a part in this. If the center of nova was created in the first place…then Daddy made his first mistake and became Mylees dog...Core and Noku’s father still exists …and the twins were born. What happened to Core I do not know, but the fact that they were here means history is partially the same up until this point. Which means that this mess is partially the gods fault to begin with. They will be involved…heavily I bet my god hood on it….Plus despite the rules about not meddling in mortal lives directly…they tend not to fallow that as well as they should…especially when they find a mortal that is willing to do their dirty work….sooo I’m entering the champion’s tournament. If I become my father’s champion; well that opens a door for a couple things. Considering the prize for it is a passive ability.”

[Deleted]

“I don’t think any of us are quite normal, no.” Normalcy was for people that weren’t related to gods or didn’t regularly travel through worlds.

“If you don’t want to involve your friend, we should probably find new people in the guard willing to work with us. If you have enough noruvian, you might be able to bribe some of the guards who work in the slums to our side. Not that it will secure loyalty, but it gives us something.”

Iris raises an eyebrow at hearing the rest of the thieves were bandits. It didn’t really help the image of the defender of the people. “I’m unsure about hiring bandits… I didn’t think we were aligning ourselves with the type of people who murder travellers in the woods. It’s normally the poorest who find themselves at the mercy of the blades. As for Madoc and the owner of the Mary, those do seem like things worth exploring. However, I think Rivers has been sticking mostly to the Gallows Inn these days, so I have no idea what state the Mary is in right now.”

Iris looks relieved that Aria shares her concern. It had been weighing on her somewhat. “See, and that’s the part that worries me than anything else. Becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. I suppose there is nothing we can do other than act carefully though.”

Iris doesn’t bothering hiding a frown as Aria says she would admit defeat. “I don’t expect others to be so noble. If we get far with this, you shouldn’t be willing to hand over your life so readily. There will be many people and lives depending on your own. Besides, this world would be infinitely less interesting without you.”

Iris sighs when Aria promised to protect her. “Don’t worry about me. I’m unimportant. I’m more interested in seeing you and Rivers getting through everything ok. I don’t doubt that the gods are involved somehow. But if you feel like it is safe enough, then I have no issue with you participating in the championship. I hope that you win, but will you come clean with your father if you do?”