Goh's Study Chamber

[Haeo]

Red Gypsy

The study was devastated. The enchantments were restoring it as fast as they could but the room still looked like a wretched hovel with dust ankle deep on the floor and hanging in the air in sparkling motes, mute testimony to how thoroughly the new Baron had deconstructed the room’s contents. Yet, he stood and walked through the billowing dust like a pillar of calm until he passed the servant and the skeleton.

As he passed, he spoke to the servant. “Well done.” Then he was gone, striding through the corridors at a pace that would have forced most to jog to keep up with him. The bond was throbbing with Ilea’s distress. There were some things that he could let her face alone. This did not seem to be one of them.

((Exit to Goh’s Private Chambers))  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Aaannnnd Because I'm bored....

The female flinched as Shale got to his feet then cowered as he approached her, fairly certain that she was going to die for bringing bad news to the new Master. Instead, he pulled a small startled sound from her as he praised her.

Of course, her shock was totally ruined when she sneezed. The golem with her simply looking at her for a moment as it waited for her to move on. It still took her a moment, but then she walked out and went back to the job she'd been given.

As she and the golem left, the study slowly began to restore itself. there were a few spells he'd ruptured from sheer power, but the rest of the place still managed to restore itself. So he would still have access to the information the study held.  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Ilea led Shale back to the study, their bond automatically pulling any fatigue or pain from him to her. She could handle both better than he could and still work perfectly.

She moved to the desk first, searching through the papers on it then shaking her head as she looked at the shelves. She was trying to remember...

She finally moved to one shelf further in the room and pulled out a leatherbound journal then brought it over to the desk and opened it, moving through the pages methodically, "He wrote down every plan and plot he ever made. There was one... He seemed particularly pleased with it... He had one meeting... But it's hazy... I was in alot of pain and chained to his throne..." she said thoughtfully as she worked at trying to find the right reference.

She knew that Shale didn't like her talking about those moments in her past. But right now it was useful to them.

he finally paused as she read over one passage then looked up at Shale, "This is partly Goh' work. He set it in motion, long ago. He always wanted Lareth dead and the Drow killed off. I never knew why. He had a couple of demons here a few times. I was never there but for once. I can barely remember it... It's in pieces and hazy... But they wanted Lareth and Cynthia dead and one of them on the throne... Goh would have helped with the former, but would never have allowed the latter. He wanted the Demon Realm for himself... As well as the Elves... And the Dragons... And Sebastet's island..." she explained, letting him look at the journal.

The extent that Goh wanted to rule was vast. And his plans had been just as vast, just as complicated, and just as devious...  

[Haeo]

Red Gypsy

Shale was dividing his attention as he followed. He had reports from golems that a guest was impatiently using magic to amuse himself in the Great Hall. Presumably, Ilea had a plan for that one but he would have to keep a certain amount of attention on him for safety's sake. It wouldn't do for a careless spell to disrupt incomplete or delicate workings. Shale was also still attending to the Forge and trying to assess the likely situation at the Castle with what limited information he had about the nobility. He had been raised in exile, after all. Information about current events had been somewhat limited.

Shale listened and watched without losing his composure but actually thinking about Ilea's former life did add a subtle and ruthless tension to his mannerisms. Reading the journal and directly seeing the grandeur of Goh's ambition was not as much a surprise as it was a confirmation of what he had already suspected. It would take a long time for Shale to accomplish his goal of erasing all possible traces of his former enemy.

Still, as he was now... what should he do with this information? Who was the heir in this situation? Was it the queen who was in charge now? He had little knowledge of her and much of it came from suspect sources. Still, considering what he knew, and the sentiments of the sources involved, he suspected that she was guilty of extreme competence and clear thinking. She may need this information.

With an unspoken command, Shale called a group of his raven golems to him. Their wing beats resounded through the halls as an unkindness of 45 ravens swiftly lines every surface they could land on. Of these, one landed on his shoulder and peered at the journal as he turned the pages. It would remember the relevant information and transport it as instructed. When he had finished feeding the golem the information regarding Goh's plans he dispatched it with the other 44 identical golems serving as both decoys and escorts. In minutes, they were gone. In hours, they would be at the castle and carrying out various tasks. The messenger and two others would seek out Cynthia and then remain in case she had any instructions or other messages to send to Baron Shale. The other 42 would begin shadowing the visible security staff and servants in the castle with instructions to protect them from attack and report on anything unusual. And so, a protective 'unkindness' would rest over the castle to the amusement or annoyance of those within. It was also a visible token of the Baron's loyalty, for those with the ability to understand it.

"I see." Shale said at length. "One more long plotted problem." The question was what to do now beyond what he had already planned. He was not yet established enough to hunt down specific demons with only vague memories and carefully worded journal entries for justification. It was frustrating to have so many crises so close together when he had only had a couple days to begin getting his new territory under control. His exhale emerged with a nearly silent hiss of irritation. Even as Ilea was pulling discomfort away from him, he could tell that he was getting a headache.  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Ilea gave him a simple nod, "He apparently had alot of things in place that I never really knew of," she looked down at the desk for a moment, "There's alot that I didn't know about..." she added in a softer tone before raising her head and taking in a breath to continue, "He has hundreds of these notebooks hidden in the shelves in here, all with more details on what he was planning. There are only bits and pieces in each one, but all of them together might tell us what he was really up to," she explained, hoping that he wouldn't balk over it.

She looked around the room and felt herself nearly drowning in the enormity of the task, but knowing that there was no choice.

She took in another breath, "I need to go see to our new 'guest' but for now I'll see about pulling as many of the notebooks as I can find. And there's no need for a headache, we'll work through it. If I had a headache for all of Goh's plots that I did know about, I'd have a life-long migraine..." she told him simply.

Then she gave him a kiss to his cheek and a brief wink before moving to pull the journals that she knew about.

She really did need to see to the new 'guest' but this was important to her.

There were too many things that she'd missed over the years....  

[Haeo]

Red Gypsy

Baron Shale attended to Ilea’s words and nodded with a look of enduring patience as she began to locate the small notebooks. He only watched for a brief moment, until he began to see something akin to a pattern in the hiding places. Then he began searching for them himself.

Shale had some success but he was both slower and less certain of what he found. So he set his finds aside for Ilea to check later. The faster they found these scraps of Goh's handiwork the faster they could begin to make counterplans.

Ilea had been almost flawless in her control before, to the point of seeming like she was without depth. She had nearly seemed like a doll. Now, she had grown and was showing far more complexity and independence. Even in these strange and difficult times, he found himself taking brief seconds to marvel at how much he loved her. With the bond as his tool, he placed the sensation of his hand gently on her shoulder for a moment for comfort and support. These things were necessary but they could handle them.

His efforts in the Forge were continuing but some of the designs were too heavy for regular use and others were more difficult to produce in numbers because of the greater intelligence demanded by their weapons. Still, the battle power of his golems would be far greater than ever before when the upgrades and the new varieties were complete.  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Wolfe Garm

Ilea finally collected all of the journals she could find then started looking through them to put them in order, working her way back and forth until she thought she had them right.

She knew that Shale was worried, but she also knew that he was proud of her progress so far. Admittedly, she wasn't quite so sure about her progress. She only knew that she loved and needed Shale. Her past? She wasn't so sure about....

She finally arranged the books by their plots and in order then gave a heavy sigh as she looked at them.

"I was right... He planned Lareth's death, the deaths of the Drow, the downfall of the Elves, and an even bigger takedown in the human realm. I know that the gods couldn't interfere with him or act against him, but..." she looked down as she tried to figure out how to feel about what she'd learned. There was just so much...

Part of her wanted to be suitably horrified over the massive amounts of death and pain that Goh had planned out. But... Well, part of her was also strangely impressed with the plans he'd laid. Those plans would be many more years before they came to fruition.

The disease aimed at the Drow... The assassins sent after the demon king and his family... The unrest among the Elves a few years ago that had to be changed... Influencing the Church to go after Sebastet and her island... And...

She didn't even want to think of the plans that had been listed for her...

There were so many plans, all set in the long term and all geared to put Goh in ultimate power...

She glanced up at Shale briefly then simply threw a dagger at the doorway.

The man standing there simply caught it and shook his head as he leaned against the doorway for a moment. He looked at the dagger then tisked at her softly, "Such bad manners... You should be nicer to family, Ilea..." he said teasingly before looking up at her.

She froze at the sight of his face, a flash of terror moving through her. Then she remembered that he was dead...

She shook her head as she worked on placing him but gave up after a moment. Goh hadn't talked about his family that much, after all. Well, except to rail against them and protest about how they'd betrayed him. It had gotten old after a while.

She took in a breath and addressed the issue, "You'd be one of his brothers, then... Any plans on telling me what you're doing here?" she said simply, deliberately standing between him and Shale. She could feel that Shale was letting her handle this one. For now...

The man gave a teasing grin as he moved into the room, "Nalyne, as you please... I was sent here originally to clean up my brothers' mess. Now... I'm here to help you fix your mess..." he told her simply and moved over to one of the shelves, assessing the titles before he moved to another one. He finally found what he was looking for, pulling the book and flipping the pages until he found what he needed and nodded before passing the open page to Ilea, "You've opened the way for them... Now you will have to be the one to stop them... Unfortunately, you're going to have to talk to someone you aren't going to be expecting..." he added and gave a nod to Shale.

"Good thing she's got someone better this time around... Her last Master was a real a*****e... Brilliant, but still an a*****e... Thanks for getting rid of him, by the way..." he said while Ilea looked over the information Goh had gathered on the Xig'Dramoth, something she'd accidentally set attracted the attention of...

Matriarchal, ruled by a series of queens... There was more information but... It seemed that Goh was more paranoid about these than usual so he spread the information out in other books.

"Damn him..." she said softly as she looked around the room, noting that the information she needed was now spread throughout the room...

Nalyne gave a shrug and looked at her for a moment, then at Shale, "So you're the new one..." he said softly as he assessed the demon in front of him with eyes the color of a glacier. The part under the water, not above it. Nalyne would not be what Shale would have expected from being Goh's brother. Well, half brother... Still, he looked almost ordinary. Very good looking, but still nothing one would think that a full god would look like...  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Wolfe Garm

After a few moments of looking around the study then moving to pull more books from the shelves, she paused to give Shale a kiss to his cheek, "Why don't you go and check on the progress of your other projects while I see to this?" she suggested, knowing that he did need to check on the forge.

She gave a small smile when he simply agreed and headed for the door, grateful that he trusted her enough to do this even with Nalyne here.

Still, she wasn't expecting anything to happen...

Not here...

Both of them thought that he'd gotten rid of everything...

But there were still traps here...

All of them lethal to Shale....  

[Red Gypsy]

Haeo

Wolfe Garm

Ilea put herself to work. She was working on the Xig'Dramoth information while putting together the information on Goh's threats and plots. It was a monumental task, to say the least. She eventually bypassed the desk entirely and started spreading the books out over the floor and started taking her own notes.

She worked for hours, then hours more. She was hyper-focused now. Absolutely determined to get the information they needed and make it clear to see.

More hours later and she had the notes laid out by plot. Then she started making copies.

More hours later and she had everything laid out in two notebooks and sat back to stare at them. One was about the Xig'Dramoth. One was the numerous plots Goh had in place.

She rubbed at her face and neck, showing her exhaustion for just a moment before old habit and training took over and wiped the exhaustion from her face.

She got to her feet and picked up the notebooks, leaving everything else in place on the floor. One of the Rattles came in and she directed it to put the books up then carefully pick up the notes and set them in order on the desk.

She headed for the door, intending to go to Shale to show him what she'd found.

Then it happened........