[Forge PRP] Bonaventure, Ville de Mort.

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

While Kirke and Sabine worked beneath the mausoleum to make sure things where in order, Bastianna was focusing on the top side. The maps had to be kept up to date, by documenting each escape route along with each change in any of the tunnels. These had to kept hidden and only worked on when the masoleum was locked up for the night. If anyone found out about these maps, then they would be useless. What point was a secret escape if it was no longer secret? The papers were all kept in a loose stone just above the door frame. Coming into the room, the last place you'd look would be over the entrance to find papers to detail an exit.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Given time Sabine would have the catacombs smoothed out so evenly that you'd not think that it was made of anything but stone--at least for the first while. As the tunnels got further out to several escaped routes they were only dirt and beams. If things went well, meaning that everythig didn't go to hell, most of the tunnels would only rarely be used.

Wiping her hooves she placed a few more wall sconces at the begining of each tunnel. They were in metal holders with soaked clothed wrapped around a fat chunk of peat wood. If they needed them at any time to run, the torches would light.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

She had learned from a process of watching in some of the local communities, on how to preserve things. You could dehydrate and store vegetables. Some vegetables kept well without it. Fruits were made into butters or jams or preserves if they wouldn't be eaten before time came. Grains were kept on drying racks and there was a malting floor in one of the catacomb tunnels that allowed her to turn some of it into mead. This item was more of a trade item, there was a harpy nearby that liked to get raw, strong mead to flavor. She always had something good to trade for it too whether it was advice on how to do something or to learn a new skill. On rarerer occassions Kirke would trade for something that she couldn't make herself despite her best efforts.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Bastianna knew the Casquette family had (for far longer than they had been called the Casquette family) always planned and built mausoleums. Soquili were naturally suspicious types who didn't often want to linger or be around death for any longer than they had to. It was part of why death had naturally become a part of the family business. Death and secrets went hoof in hoof. And what better place to hide secrets than the in the place they feared to gaze to long into? Death had it's perks. Besides it was said that some liked to keep their secrets buried. What better way to hide them then by actually burying them.. Most would rather not take the chance of digging up a corpse, unless they had unequivocal proof that there was something there that was distinctly not a body.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

(Enter Marcellus, though he has not arrived at the cemetery)




Marcellus Casquette du Sang traveled mostly by night, not that he had to but for no other reason that he loved the night best. Shadows and whispering wind were his playthings, they added to the mystery and pageantry of whatever he did. All that he did, he did with showmanship—since none of the other members of his family had it. But Marcellus had been born with it.

Why not make things interesting by providing some smoke or shadows? What was the point in saying something flat or without inflection when the mere changing of a voice could bring the listener to their knees with fear? It was a kind of magic that could be invoked with only the voice and facial expressions. Why not use it?

The rest of the family had no gift for it, but they did understand the importance of it. They did appreciate that it was a gift instead of something frivolous. His grandfather had been the first one to use it with their work in the graveyard and the deals that took place in the mausoleum on site.

He had been traveling a long time, a few months. Part of the journey was convoluted as he stopped at various places to gather or barter for items that would be essential to his showmanship. But he was always expressly careful with his blood.

It was precious and would not be traded unless absolutely necessary. Others might not find it’s worth as valuable as he did, but they did not know the things he knew—about how blood offered protection and the ability to do…well, innumerable things.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

The mortar and support had largely been a secret affair, worked on in the dead of the night. Sabine was tired, but she was so close to being done or at least done to the point of no rush anymore. She wasn't one to stay idle. The bone cells required the most finishing work. There were crevices to check, another layer of mortar, and all the fine touches so that when the rarely used cells were needed they would be inescapable. Even though they would be even less likely to use than the escape tunnels, they had to be perfect. If there ever was a reason to use them, it would be against an enemy or prisoner who would be larger and difficult to restrain. Kirke could help with size, but she had too good of a heart to be much help.

Sabine tried to spend at least a few minutes everyday working on something above ground. Sometimes it was a place to stash things, sometimes it was a small piece of detail work that was nothing more than beautification. These touches often reminded her of her childhood. Her grandfather showing her how to shape the roses he'd made for the old masoleum. He had learned to add color to them and texture until they looked real. He had always said they were gifts for Agathe because like his love, the rose would never die. When she had left, she took the first molded rose that he had made for her and put it in Bastianna's room as a reminder that she loved her Bastianna always and forever.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

There was not just one storeroom, but several. One or two above ground were kept for ease of access and for appearances. The ones in the catacombs below were scattered so that each tunnel had access to some portion in case the other tunnels couldn't be reach. All in all, it was a long summer of back-aching work with Lovey to coax plants to fruition then store what needed to be stored. It was good work that let her rest well. She loved the smell of the earth beneath her claws, the nature of plants fighting against the surface and death for light and life. But her flowers were her true joy. Some of them were grown purely for the sake of their smell or their beauty. Others had some purpose to them though she hated to use them.

Some of them she dried for just the familiar an homey smell. She diluted and boiled down lavendar, chamomile, and lilac into tiny bottles where their scent could be used to perfume oneself or calm one's self. KIrke loved this work the most, and often began inventing various new and interesting concections of smells and effects. Bastianna had told her that it was nothing short of magic what she did there. Before long the days became longer and the wait seemed unbearable for Marcellus to arrive. But they knew he was coming, so day after day they would check the horizon multiple times in search of his skyline. Kirke didn't know much about him, she'd never met him. But he was family, right? That meant he would love her no matter what?  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Part of the other focus on top side beautification was the inlaying of intricate stone work in the front entrance hall. The stones were layed out in the shape of the all seeing eye. Around the edges in the more detailed work was gold inlay of the fleur de lis. There was even one in inlaid above the door made of pure bone from the first Casquette family matriarch. There was one painting hung on the wall that was of a bleak hill painted in hues of grey with a stark white mausoleum painted in the far background. It was a gift that had traveled with the family for generations. No one knew exactly where the scene was or who painted it. It was rumored to be the very first mausoleum held by the family. But anyone who could possibly know was long, long dead.

Bastianna ran her hoof over the intricate flooring before moving to the welcome room. This was by far the most important part of the mausoleum a far as the clients were concerned. The hall was grand with it's all seeing eye that was supposed to warn the family of those who intended them evil when they passed over it. It was an old superstition, but one they still observed in that way where science and logic doesn't explain what is occurring but it occurs just the same. Many times their grandmother had felt the eye warning her against certain evils. Their grandmother Agatha had been a devout believer but Bastianna was more in it for the show, the awe and fear it inspired.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Marcellus breathed in the scent of the incoming rain as he felt the temperature drop. He knew that it meant that the weather was to change drastically soon, a storm was coming.

He knew that his sisters would be eager to see him and he was eager to reach the warm depths of the mausoleum so he carried on. It should be awhile at least, he thought so, before the storm raged at full tilt. Even if it didnt though, it seemed to have been brewing for awhile, as though it was going to last. He was eager to have a warm meal and a warm bed instead of damp sleep.

He pulled his pack further up onto his back before continuing on. With him he carried some of the tomes of their grandmother Agatha, plus a few of their grandfathers that he had now inherited.

His grandfather’s tomes mostly contained rituals or the like. Grandmother Agatha’s though were something different. This tome was something that stayed with the matriarch until death. Bastianna would have a few pages to add to it once he gave it to her, but for the large part she wouldn’t have seen the tally of debts owed and debts paid.

This encompassed his family’s work since the very first Casquette.

Far on the horizon white stone seemed to loom suddenly. Something in his chest made an odd sensation as he viewed it. He knew that that white place ont he hill was home.

There she was standing as though she had expected him, his sister Bastianna. Grinning for all the world as if she’d known the storm would bring him.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

It was a turbulent night. Outside of the masoleum Sabine could hear the wind howling. Her bones ached with the coming storm and soon she heard the lashing rain outside. Easing herself gently into the pool in her room, she joined Gris-Gris in idly swimming around. The water was inky black in the night and it swirled in small eddy's from the storm outside. Sabine ducked under the water and stretched out till her hoof touched the bottom of the deepest end. For one wild moment she wanted to move out into the river now that the current was strong, just to see how far it would take her. But she didn't. Her mind drifted like it often did in times like these. She saw the storm for what it was, an omen. She saw things sometimes, in the water. Celeste called it water waking. It was as though there were shapes and patterns in the water around her. Even the reflections on the wall shifted to coalesce into shapes to decipher.

Everywhere, she saw a book. Wind chimes made of bones clacking without ears to hear. An alter of blood and a small crushed rose. She drifted through more water, the scenes less clear but more frightening in some way. When she came out of her reverie, she felt heavy as though all she'd see (even the stuff she couldn't decipher anything from) was weighing her down like stones. Gris-Gris helped her out of the water and into her alcove just before the headache came on. The lighting and thunder outside seemed to be echoing off the walls of her skull  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kirke had made sure to double check all the panes in her green house before she came in. The wind was whipping wildly around her. The glass, she had been assured, was something that actually wan't quite glass. It was tempered but not clear as glass, but clear enough to let in the light. It was thick and more durable than any glass she'd ever heard of. The maker had told her time and time again that it should weather most storms, so she made her way to her room to wait. Lovey closed the metal slats then curled up with her. The thunder was so loud that you could feel it shaking the ground. The wind rattled against the slats and moaned as though it were in pain.

Others would think it an ill omen or that something was wrong with her, but she loved this weather. It always allowed her to sleep sounder, deeper. It hummed a lullaby in her bones that made her grow heavy until sleep overtook her. Lovey though had never much liked a storm until he realized that he could burrow himself beside her in a dirt hole to muffle out the sound.

It was strange how the storm affected them both in different ways.

She could hear the rain slamming into the pains with more force than she’d ever heard before. Outside things whipped in a frenzy. She lifted her head to look around and scent the air. The air smelled like ozone, like metalics. For the first time she worried a bit, just as lovey started to shake beside her even in the comfort of his little den.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

It had been long months of work to prepare for this to be their base. She had not been able to accomplish this before Sabine had come. Bastianna's sister was good at the masonry, the bones of the building. It had always been a talent of hers. Bastianna had always been the leader, the one that could charm a crowd and make a mean bussiness deal. She was a force to be reckoned with. She wore the cloak of devoutness as one would wear a skin. Some of her believed in the old ways, but she was not nearly as devout as she made herself seem to be. The charade, the play up was all that was required to sell it. Others feared the mare when she exaggerated her accent and talked about the old ways of Santeria. The blood offerings were actually real, her brothers were devout and believed in the power of blood and sacrifice. They helped to sell it even more.

But at the core of her being business was her religion. The running and maintaining of the mausoleum and it's entombed secrets. She-- A sound in the night interrupted her train of thought. There was an eerie silence that she knew full well meant that there was something out there. Somehow it seemed familiar. Not empty but as though there was a presence there that she knew. Bastianna felt her lips curve upwards in a smile as a shadow finally emerged through the darkness. It fell away from the other shadows as she watched it get closer. When the shadow was closer but still not quite visible she spoke. "Why, hello brother."  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Marcellus let his laughter ring out in the momentary lull. Leave it to Bastianna to make it as though they’d only been apart for a day or week at most not the long months that it had been.

“Hello, sweet Bastiana.” He leaned his head over her neck in an affectionate greeting. “It has been too long since I’ve had your charming wit.” He pushed past her into the masoleum proper. His eyes instantly went to the all-seeing eye in the center of the floor. He smiled wickedly, “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

A few more glances around the room had him seeing that the design wasn’t sentimental. It nodded toward the past, but it had her own style. This place had her panache.

He studied the painting, “Something you’ve done yourself?” He nodded at it’s placement on the wall. “Grandmama would be proud of what you’d done. You’ve gotten a lot done. I wouldn’t have thought you could get this far so quickly. But I guess, I always have underestimated you.”

With a sigh, he slung down the bag from his back. “I’ve carried these tomes all the way across the Kawani. Agatha’s books are among them. Everything you need to know about running a mausoleum.” The sound of the bag hitting the floor was as loud as a thunder crack.

He rolled his shoulders in weariness. He was finally here, finally at his new home. He couldn’t wait to see the room that Bastianna had made up for him. If the outer room was this great, then his room would be a real treat.