It was another quiet day at the office, with the upcoming construction of the arena the Police Force has been busy dealing excessive patrols throughout the city. Scorching Spike and Officer Celara while teamed with Dr. November, Arctic Eagle, and Azureflame decided to call it a day as far as patrols was concerned.
The team disbanded as both officers returned to Headquarters to fill out the necessary paperwork for the missions that have just transpired. However, as Celara approached headquarters with Scorching Spike taking care of things elsewhere. She noticed Shae Firewarder hanging around the roof of the Paragon City Police Force building in Galaxy City on the south east corner.
She flew by and said, "Hello Shae" thinking that Shae was only just visiting or loitering around the property. However, Shae did something unexpected and followed Celara into her office. Celara looked at her and said, "Oh I'm sorry Shae, I though you were just hanging around, did you need something?" Shae says, "Heh, yeah well... I'm turning myself in."
Celara said, "Okay... *followed by* WHAT!? You're doing what now?"
Boy oh boy it seems like everyone is out getting arrested nowadays! First Maggie kills a hellion and now Shae is turning herself in! After a bit of lengthy discussion Celara took Shae in and of course, placed her under arrest until her lawyer could arrive at the FC building in Galaxy City. There was much heavy discussion but not enough information to really know what was going on fully.
Shae is currently residing in the FC building awaiting for the arrival of her lawyer who will hopefully help Shae get out of this interesting dilemma.
Dr. Raul Contrerez, a botanist working for the Portal corporation filed an assault complaint against the Hero known as Shae Firewarder today. According to Dr Contrerez, he was in a newly opened dimension collecting samples of plant material when a woman, later identified as Shae Firewarder, ordered him and the other scientists to get back across the portal. Disputing the orders of this woman, whom he did not know and who looked like some woodland ruffian(His words. Another witness, Dr. Sonra White, described her outfit as, "brown and black leather, and hard to see in the woods we were in") Dr. Contrerez stood his ground and refused to leave. Dr. Contrerez then states that the woman threw smoke in his eyes and mouth causing him to choke and then when he attempted to run into the woods she hit him with her fist, knocking him out. When he awoke he was back in Peregrine Island, on the floor, and the portal was closed, and unpowered. Dr Contrerez intends to press charges
Shae Firewarder
Dr Sonra White is a zoologist working for Portal Corporation. According to Dr. White, Shae Firewarder, whom Dr. White recognized from news broadcasts, came into the clearing where the scientists were only beginning to set up equipment, and ordered them all to head back across the portal. Dr. Contrerez began to dispute the orders, and Shae insisted that if they stayed here, their lives were in danger. Several of the doctors and researchers present began to pack up, but Dr Contrerez began to interfere. Whereupon, Shae Firewarder, muttered something that sounded like, "There is no time for this," and incapacitated Dr. Contrerez. The researchers then carried Dr. Contrerez and their equipment back across the portal into our dimension.Dr. Sonra White, described Ms Firewarder's outfit as, "brown and black leather, and hard to see in the woods we were in."
Shae Firewarder
Grad student Dee Whithers is a reluctant witness against Shae Firewarder. She is willing only to dispute parts of Dr. Contrerez's story, and not willing to comment on other parts. According to Ms. Whithers, Shae warned them of danger and asked them to get back to Paragon city immediately. According to Ms. Whithers, this seemed relatively plausible as this was wilderness, and researchers have been endangered on "portal jaunts" previously. Ms. Whithers brought our attention to the release of liability form that all the researchers had to sign before going through the portal. Apparently the form releases Portal Corporation from liabilty from any harm suffered including mutilation, death and any biological or magical changes suffered because of travel through the portal or things encountered on the other side. Also according to Ms. Whithers, Dr Contrerez grabbed a box of equipment from Ms. Whithers in a violent fashion, when he was disputing the decision by the researchers to follow Shae's advice and leave this dimension.
Shae Firewarder
Grad student Tom Qurtis didn't have much to add. Or say really. He would only confirm or refute other's statements, and would not volunteer any. He confirms that Shae warned them of danger. He confirms that Shae incapacitated Dr. Contrerez. Mr. Qurtis was one of the people who carried Dr Contrerez out of that dimension.
Shae Firewarder
Grad student Barbara Newsmith refused to talk to this interviewer at all. She seemed scared, but would not say of what or of who. She is the other person who assisted in carrying Dr Contrerez across to PI.
Technician Brad Peterson recognised Shae Firewarder because of her other trips though the portals. He says she exited the portal after the scientists, though he doesn't recall her going in with them. Then she walked over to him, bumped him and apologized and then he suffered a coughing fit. When he could see and breath again, his station where he controls the coordinates that the portal is set to was nonfunctional, due to the control board having been removed. The control board was found in the wastebasket beside him, melted.
Shae Firewarder
No fingerprints were found on the keyboard. None.
Due to a technical snafu, the videotapes of the portal area were erased. Apparently they were on a magnetic type tape, and someone set them down next to a powerful magnet at some point when they were on route to the PPD. We are looking into the circumstances of this. ((erased before the police even touched them.))
Shae Firewarder
After her lawyer, Victor Nobles left, Shae lay in her cell remembering...
Shae had been walking in the woods, talking quietly with her contact in Djinni.
"You can't bring that one now." he said.
"No, I understand. They are having a hard enough time with the others. They would never approve the plan with him...them...." Shae sighs in frustration.
"You are thinking on human time now. Be patient."
"It is hard enough to find the ones I trust enough to bring in on this, let alone getting approval from..."Shae stops and listens. There were voices near...where no one should be.
Shae and her companion moved silently closer to the voices, "Oh, Damn..." Shae realised that her whispered curse had come out in English.
Her companion looked at her and whispered in Djinni, " They know not the danger they are in...if they came by portal the alarms will have been triggered. A warband will already be on the way..."
"I know. I can't let them be killed here. Besides the fact that they mean no harm, if they are killed here, more will come to investigate." Shae looks at her companion. "I'll shift them back, but, I can't say how long that will hold them, not now that that the way is open..."
"Shae...what will they do on their side...to you?" He sounded worried for her.
"They won't kill me out of hand."she whispered back to him, "Their laws don't permit that."
"I know enough of human lands to be aware of that....and enough of Djinni know that isn't the worst they could do to you."
Shae stared at the four walls of the cell. Four walls that had started to feel very close and confining, and whispered, "I know...."
((99,999,999,998 bottles of beer on the wall))
Shae Firewarder
Brad Peterson was nervous. Very nervous. He'd spilled his coffee once this morning already, and the only reason he hadn't called in sick was because he really did love his job. Well, that and he was dying for more news than the TV and papers had had. Last night he had seen a couple things on the news on Shae Firewarder, but by this morning the news had moved on.
On his way back to get a second cup of coffee, he heard a two of the security guys talking...
"And now I have the cops breathing down my neck about that erased security tape for lab 5 yesterday morning."
Brad stopped to listen in what he hoped was an inconspicuous place. Thinking fast, he stopped and tied his shoe.
"I don't know why they don't switch over to something besides tape anyways. It isn't like they are lacking in the technology."
"Well, the police weren't happy that we had handed over an empty tape, but I told them there wasn't anything I could do."
Brad moved on and breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't need to worry about the tape at least. They wouldn't know he had wiped down his keyboard after she had left.
Shae Firewarder
After several days of investigation it turns out that Portal Corps has decided NOT to press charges against Shae Firewarder. Most of the witnesses who had seen what happened insisted that Shae was most likely protecting the good doctor from a terrible, terrible fate.
Though Dr. Raul Contrerez has enough political pull to keep the case going for an extended period of time, even enough to delay the bail hearing. Speculation is that when this is all over he will not have any favors left in keeping the case alive.
Crimson stood in the shadows and watched. He had wanted to help Shae Firewarder, partly because she was reliable and knew when not to talk about her missions, partly because he wanted her to owe him a favor for once.
Unfortunately for him he had been frustrated at every turn. The keyboard was clean, the tape was erased, Portal Corporation wasn't pressing charges for destruction of property... There was only one very vocal doctor still offended by her treatment of him making waves, and somehow he suspected that the good Doctor Contrerez would cease to be a problem somehow ...
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He walked along the corridor keeping his head down. It had been too long since he had attempted anything of this sort..in this kind of setting at least. His skill at looking like an anonymous working man was being sorely tested. He made his way to the office of the Portal Corporation's Director of Operations, and let himself in. He had almost discarded the idea out of hand, but, the oracle had insisted that this plan had the highest chance of a positive outcome for Shae of the available futures. He left the counterfeit personel list on the desk, and was about to pick up and pocket the one he was replacing when the sound of voices outside, one of them the Director herself, alerted him to the danger of discovery. Knowing that being found in here would ruin the plan entire, he scanned the room for a suitable hiding place. Besides the desk, the only only other large piece of furniture in the room was an oblong table pushed up against the wall...It's support was a long panel of some sort of metal attached to an oblong foot, slightly smaller than the top of the table. He made it into the shadow of the table barely in time, and then froze...looking into the face of someone who had clearly been thinking along the same lines as he. The two men stared silently at each other in the shadow behind the table as the Director and her guest came the rest of the way into the room
Shae Firewarder
The Director was having a bad day. But then, she considered any day that she had to deal with Dr. Contrerez a bad one, and right now, Dr. Contrerez was following her into her office.
" Please sit", she gestured at one of the chairs in front of her desk, "and, before you say another word to me, let me tell you that I don't care to hear it. I know you have powerful connections. You have made that obvious, to me and the rest of Paragon as well."
She looks down at her desk, and then back up at Dr. Contrerez with narrowed eyes, "It doesn't matter who else is suggested for the next trip across a portal, for some reason every list has your name on it...So...to get you and everyone else out of my hair, off you go. You are in. Now. Get. Out. Of. My. Office."
Dr. Contrerez left the Director's office savoring his victory, and the director put her head in her hands and sighed. She was considering leaving the office so that whoever it was that was hiding could leave...but no...they owed her a little discomfort. She decided to keep whoever it was on his knees for a little longer. She set aside the two counterfeit lists on her desk and pulled out some paperwork to pass the time...
Under the table, the two men crouched. One was silently laughing, while the other simply stared at him.
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Across town, Dr Contrerez's efforts were having slightly less effect, as a long delayed bail hearing was held.
-----
--
Shae Firewarder
Crimson looked out at the waves and crumpled the list in his hands in frustration. All that sneaking around...and he needn't have even bothered. Once again, someone else had the task well in hand. And he had had to sit there under that desk while that man had the nerve to laugh. Well, thinking about it, he supposed that the situation might, eventually, seem funny.
Ah well, he had other things to do. The Malta had kidnapped another diplomat, and he needed to find a hero to send to the rescue.
-------------------------------
In the woods, on a recently visited dimension, a pair of djinni are talking....
"Are you truly going to build here?" the dark haired man says uncertainly."There was an alarm in these woods just recently...?"
"Are you implying that I might not be able to handle a few humans?" The woman turns to look at him, her silver skirts rustling.
"No..not at all...Of course not." he stammers, and starts to sweat a little.
"Actually," The woman looks indulgently at him, and fiddles with the pearl buttons on the sleeve of her satin dress, "the portal that was here is the reason I want to build the castle nearby." she stroked the fabric of her gown. It was totally inapropriate for walking in the woods; an expression of power and wealth displayed to the squirrels and rabbits.
"It will be convenient, really. The humans will be unable to resist exploring...and little Shae will be unable to resist attempting to rescue them. The softhearted wench will walk right into my hands....again." She smiles cruelly, and the man shivers.
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((C'mon...don't you ever wish you could torture your contacts back? ))
Shae Firewarder
((This is basically a heavily edited log from last night in Gemini park. EXTREMELY heavily edited, as it wasn't a slow night there. My apologies to all who vanished from the following text, but I really feel it is long enough as it is.))
((Many, many thanks to Vesperi for having the patience to sit and help me get this story out, finally.))
Vesperi: "Hmn, so, you wanted to talk, when we had the chance...."
Shae Firewarder: "True."
Vesperi: "um, well...." Vesperi trails off.
Shae Firewarder: "There are a couple things."
Vesperi: "Yes?"
Shae Firewarder:" Hm. Well, did you want the questions first...or the story?"
Vesperi: "Hm, how about the questions...."
Shae Firewarder:" Well, to start...I heard you looked at Kelp...a while back because of some headaches he was having."
Vesperi: "Hm, yes, I've examined Kelp."
Shae Firewarder: "Did you recommend a course of action though...or someone else to see?"
Vesperi: "Hm, I don't know if you could really say I recommended a course of action. Rather, I let him know what was going on and left him to decide upon his options."
Shae Firewarder: That's all I wanted on that, thank you."
Vesperi raises an eyebrow
Shae Firewarder: "I'll not pry further"
Vesperi: "Um, ok.... uh, no, that's fine. But uh, well, huh?"
Shae Firewarder: "It had to do with who he chose to ask after..."
Vesperi: "Oh, who was that?"
Shae Firewarder: "Natalia"
Vesperi cringes."Oh [censored], you gotta be kidding me!"
Shae Firewarder: "and though I don't know her, the reactions from others to the name...."
Vesperi: "Um, yeah, I'm gonna take that up with him later."
Shae Firewarder: "So, though I am not...truly involved, I found myself wondering."
Vesperi: "Right, so what's next? before I go yell at Kelp that is...."
Shae Firewarder: "Heh."
Shae Firewarder: "Next...You may or may not be able to do the thing I would have asked you...I once again, want something found."
Vesperi: "Hm, well, you know my limitations. Does it have a soul?"
Shae Firewarder: "But it needs...to be someone that I know and trust that looks for it."
Shae Firewarder: "It's an area protected by a spell...set by a person in particular..."
Vesperi: "So you need to find a place?"
Shae Firewarder: "A place. <sighs> and a well hidden one."
Vesperi: "Hm, and you say there is a spell protecting it?"
Shae Firewarder: "A 'forgetting' spell. It makes it hard to find..."
Vesperi: "Hm, well, normally I probably wouldn't be able to help you in fidning a place. However...."
Vesperi ponders for a moment,"Shae, have you ever heard the saying 'the more we try to hide our steps, the more we show our hand'?"
Shae Firewarder nods, " I have heard something similar."
Vesperi nods
Vesperi: "Right, it seems to me the solution to that problem then is simple. Don't look for the place at all. Look for the spell."
Shae Firewarder: "Then the spell is what I will seek..."
Vesperi nods and then grins, "Right then, next dilemma..."
Shae Firewarder: "Heh. We are down to the story, and past the questions. "
Vesperi: "Well, story time then...." *smiles broadly*
Shae Firewarder: "Long ago there was a young Djinni. She grew up protected in her parents lands."
Vesperi settles in to listen
Shae Firewarder:" When she finally went to court and met other young Djinni of her kind there was a fashion at the time for exploring the human worlds."
Vesperi nods
Shae Firewarder:"A dangerous fashion, to disquise yourself as mortal and forgo magic for a time."
Shae Firewarder: "She took the name 'Amalia' and stayed for a while in a human city."
Vesperi nods again, understanding this is more than just a story.
Shae Firewarder: "doing laundry for a school...a college of sorts, though they used a different term."
Shae Firewarder:" It seemed a grand adventure, and hard work was...novel perhaps."
Shae Firewarder: "She took any opportunity to read what she could, and learned all she could of the area and the history."
Vesperi nods and listens
Shae Firewarder: "The other girls thought her strange, as she gave no thought to marriage, or finding a man to 'keep' her...but then they were mortal, and such things seemed more urgent to them. "
Shae Firewarder: "One day a scholar at the school noticed her, and spoke to her. He became intrigued with her, as she was unlike any girl he had met. Unique in his experience."
Shae Firewarder:" She in turn found him interesting as well, and being young, impetuous...foolish even...She fell in love with him."
Vesperi nods
Shae Firewarder: "And when he asked her to marry him, against the wishes of his family and against her better judgement, she said yes."
Shae Firewarder: "His family...made it hard for her at first. But over the course of the next five years they grew accustomed to her, and she to them. Her love for the mortal man made it seem to be worth the hardships."
Vesperi nods and waits for it all to go wrong
Shae Firewarder: "One day he came to her with the news that he must leave to go to war. His lord was building an army to retake the holy land."
Vesperi starts to piece together how long ago this was
Shae Firewarder sighs and looks at her hands, "She wished to go with him, begged to go with him, but he would not hear of it."
Vesperi: "Hm, and then...."
Shae Firewarder: "To convince him that she would be useful to him at his side she revealed her true identity."
Vesperi sighs sadly
Shae Firewarder: "He did not react as she had thought he would."
Vesperi: "No, no I'm sure he didn't."
Shae Firewarder: "First, he raged at her for the deception, and then he got very quiet, and acted as if he needed to think things over."
Shae Firewarder: "He sent her, and his sister with her on an errand into town....."
Shae Firewarder: "When she returned, the room, the house...had been searched ...ransacked."
Vesperi nods
Shae Firewarder: "She found him sitting in his study, with her lamp in his hands."
Shae Firewarder: "And so she did accompany him to war, but not at his side as his wife, but rather as a slave, and as a weapon."
Vesperi nods sadly and sighs
Shae Firewarder: "He used her for many years. The Holy land was retaken with her assistance, he rose in power...and one day finally he made a mistake."
Shae Firewarder: "After his death, she retrieved her bottle and went back to the lands of the Djinni."
Vesperi: "But that's not the end of the story is it?"
Shae Firewarder smiles sadly, "after I returned home, it took many years to recover from the rage and the betrayal"
Vesperi nods
.
Shae Firewarder: "Finally I began to recover, My sister... among other things she is partly responsible for my reawakening to hope."
Vesperi nods and smiles, "Remind me to thank her later."
Shae Firewarder:" I began to go to court more, and I began to let the young men of my own kind there court me."
Shae Firewarder:" I began to think of finding someone to marry."
Vesperi: "Hm, and did you?"
Shae Firewarder: "Which isn't a light thing for someone who might live for a *very* long time."
Vesperi: "Shae, it shouldn't be a light thing for anyone."
Shae Firewarder: "I didn't marry...I had narrowed my list of possibilities... and then my little sister went plane hopping to find the perfect birthday present for a cousin of ours."
Shae Firewarder:" and vanished."
Vesperi: "And that's when you got drawn back here isn't it?"
Shae Firewarder:" I came here hunting for her."
Vesperi nods and gives her a soft smile, and places a gentle hand over the top of hers,"You owed me no explanation Shae"
Shae Firewarder: "I found her, but she had been used as bait to trap me."
Vesperi removes his hand but continues smiling softly at her
Shae Firewarder: "I was trapped in the bottle for aproximately 50 years."
Vesperi nods sadly
Shae Firewarder: "as was Drina."
Vesperi: "I understand, Shae."
Shae Firewarder: "and...apparently a cousin of mine, and a couple other Djinni as well."
Shae Firewarder: "There is a spell on us...one that was triggered when we were all freed at once in that room."
Vesperi: "And that is?"
Shae Firewarder: "One that prevents us from meeting face to face. The reason I could not *see* my sister in person."
Shae Firewarder:" Initially I was perplexed at how this spell could have ben used here."
Shae Firewarder: "It is a Djinni spell...and one used to protect the emporer in his private apartments. It prevents more than a certain number from being in a room, and is intended to cause disarray in the ranks of assasins."
Vesperi: "Ok...."
Shae Firewarder: "and you can see, I hope, why I have not attempted to find a way to break it?"
Vesperi: Yes, I think so.
Shae Firewarder: "If I did find a way, certainly if I had a mortals help in doing so, I would never be able to go home."
Shae Firewarder: "However, even with this spell on us, we have managed to compare experiences somewhat...over the phones here in Paragon."
Vesperi nods,"Hm, and...."
Shae Firewarder: "The one who trapped us is a Djinni...and I know who, but because of political considerations back home the plan I have to defeat her requires a few things."
Vesperi: "They are?"
Shae Firewarder: "One, is something in an apartment guarded by a forget spell."
Vesperi: "Hm, so that is the place you wish to find....?"
Shae Firewarder: "It is the place I was freed in. I think there may be evidence I could use against her there."
Vesperi nods
Vesperi: "As I said then, don't look for the place. Look for the magic on it."
((Again, thank you Vesperi for helping me get this out. I bless your patience with me.))
Shae Firewarder
Shae had felt his eyes on her for some time before she left the park. She turned a few corners, and then stopped, waiting. She crossed her arms and looked at where she knew he would appear.
He came around the corner and she could not help but admire his adaptability. He could blend in anywhere, from the Djinni royal court, to a park in Paragon city and go completely unremarked. She watched him as he took in her stance, and his own posture changed. Suddenly he was obviously a powerful Djinni warrior, though he was still dressed as a Paragon City civilian.
"Why did you tell him so much?" he demanded.
"He needs to know," she replied, calmly.
"He does not need to know so much about you. You let your guard down too far, here, and he cannot help you track what we seek."
She watched him as he glared at her. Then he looked away down the street and sighed, "Shae there are some things that I can not protect you from." He looked back at her and she was surprised at the intensity in his eyes.
"Thomas, I am sorry. I do not mean to make you worry for me. I have my reasons, although I cannot fully explain them."
"Ever mysterious Shae, " he said softly. "I suppose that is part of the attraction. I do trust your judgement. Perhaps I am merely overreacting." He sighed again, "Did you have to speak with him in the middle of such a public place?"
"Would you have preferred that I meet him somewhere more private? My apartment, perhaps? or his houseboat? A secluded spot in Perez Park perhaps?" Shae studied the sudden storm in his dark eyes and said softly, "Thomas, you need not worry about that." She took a step closer and touched his arm.
"I blew my cover did I not?"He murmered softly,"Shae, right now..."
"I know. The middle of a campaign is not the time to start this, and she does not need the leverage."
They stepped back from one another and he put on the citizen demeanor that hid him so well on the streets of Paragon. She looked up at the warwall a moment shimmering in the dusk, and then headed to the tram to Skyway.
Shae Firewarder
(I haven't quite gotten to typing up the next part yet. Maybe I'll get to it tonight. )
Shae Firewarder
The man in the expensive silk suit stood looking out of his office window at the streets of Steel Canyon, far below. His office was above the legal flight ceiling for Heroes, and occasionally he enjoyed looking down on the superpowered saviors of the city. Right now, though his thoughts were far from the spandex clad flyers zipping past traveling from one end of the canyon to the other. The phone on the expensive mahogony desk behind him rang.
He pressed the button and his assistant's voice came clearly through the microphone,"Dr Contrerez is on the line. He wishes to speak to you regarding the court case. Do you wish to speak with him, or shall I say you are unavailable?"
"I'll speak to him this time, Thank you Jean," he sat down at the desk and picked up the phone, "Raul, how nice to speak with you again."
"About your court case. I hope you realise that the best you will manage with that is to tie her up in court a while?" he listened to his phone and absently picked up the crystal paperweight on his desk, turning it to catch the sunlight streaming in from the window behind him."Raul, even with your assault charges hanging over her, she still rescued you again at the behest of Portal Corporation, this time from the devouring earth; I doubt there is a jury anywhere that would convict her of assaulting you."
He narrowed his eyes and set the paperweight down gently,"No, I think you overestimate my power in that regard, and fixing a jury is not something that I would do, not for you, or for anyone."
He leaned forward and spoke firmly into the phone, "I believe it is time for you to make a choice. I can exert myself somewhat and get you back on active duty at Portal corporation or I can continue to waste my efforts tying up this Shae Firewarder in court."
"I thought so."He leaned back in his expensive leather chair and listened for a while before speaking again, "That world...why that one in particular? The coordinates may be hard to recreate. What can you do for me to make this worth my time and trouble? "
He picked up a pen and twirled it in his fingers. taking mental notes and calculating in his head the worth of what the doctor was offering, and the likelyhood of his success, "For that, I will work on it. Welcome back to active duty at Portal Corporation."
After he hung up on the Dr., he tapped his fingers on the desk and looked out the window at the warwall, shimmering greenly in the sunlight.
Then he picked up the phone again, "Jean, phone the Director of Operations at Portal corporation for me, and call me when you have her on the line. Thankyou."
Shae Firewarder
Shae was tired of staring at the computer screen and Thomas was weary of walking all over Paragon City. She plotted the last coordinate on the map and scrubbed at her eyes. Then she hit the com button and spoke to her partner,"I think we have enough points to narrow it to a two block area in the Highpark neighborhood of King's Row...I don't think we can narrow it further this way. The next step is looking at records in city hall I believe." She stood and stretched, and then startled at the sound of the front door of the SG Headquarters unlocking. Alert now, she moved quietly through the two rooms to the entry way, and then stood, surprised.
N i n j a stood in the hallway, pointing out the security measures and handing keys to two of his companions. Night Whisper stood behind him and nodded to Shae.
N i n j a noticed Shae standing in the doorway and smiled at her, "Ah, Shae, this is Blooette, and you remember Sun - Burn?"
Shae smiled and nodded to them, "Greetings."
Sun - Burn smiled back, " Ello"
Blooette waved and said, "Hello."
The party moved into the lounge and she managed to catch Ninja's eye. He let Night Whisper continue the tour, and came over to her. "You needed to speak to me?"
Shae nodded, and shrugged,"You stocked up the secret super group headquarters with a bunch of tech stuff...I borrowed a bit of it to help me find something. It is occasionally useful to know a boy who can afford the best toys."
He smiled charmingly at her,"Flatterer."
She smiled back at him and explained further, "I needed the tracking system...the little whatevers and microphones..and the computer map for the coordinates. I'll get them back in the cabinet soon."
"No rush, no worries..." He looked at her more seriously, "Derrik says you have helped a lot..I am grateful."
"When I could find him. His paths and mine rarely crossed." She paused, uncertain of how things would change with N i n j a back and the headquarters occupied by more than just her and Night Whisper,"I was heading out, as I have an early start tomorrow. Good hunting, and hope to see you more often."
Shae Firewarder
A Castle was being built at the top of a hill, the white stone of it's foundation blindingly bright in the sunshine. Watching the construction was a woman in a silver satin gown, the gems in her hair throwing off false sparks in the sunlight. A dark clad man hurried up the hill and bowed gracefully and deeply to her.
Pleased with his haste and courtesy, she smiled at him, "I can see you have news...is it of Her?"
He shifted uneasily, even when she smiled, she was still dangerous, "I have news of Shae, from the Human lands."
Her eyes narrowed, and her smile became more predatory, "Come with me. I will hear of this in more private quarters."
He followed her to a silken pavilion in a sunny clearing where not long ago there had been the deep shade of forest.
The woman paced across the patterned carpets and sank gracefully into a silk covered chair, and waited for his report, as a servant seemed to materialize at her elbow. She held out a hand and the servant set a wineglass filled with a fragrant white wine into her hand, and then placed a small plate with dainty finger foods on the delicate table beside her chair.
Knowing her well, her messenger did not expect to be offered a chair or refreshment. He began to recite his news, "She has started hunting those they call the 'Carnivale' again. Apparently there is some secret they hold that she wishes to divine. She has become rather absorbed in this task and is examining the masks that the Carnivale wear when she has defeated them."
"Is there more?"
He began to sweat a little, with no idea of how much information she would believe sufficient,"My Lady, I deemed it most important to get this word to you quickly. Events happen swiftly in the Human lands, and Shae may learn this secret she seeks and move on to other things."
The Lady swirled the wine in her glass absently, "I can not move against Shae openly here, as she can not move against me. Our political connections are balanced, for the nonce. However, her association with humans has always been risky. It is a dangerous game to live in the Human lands, for a Djinni, is that not so?" she looked at her messenger and he shivered."I have a connection in the Carnivale; I think that I will send her...a present or two...."
Shae Firewarder
(Spoiler warning: If you don't want ANY clues about Carnivale arcs, stop here, as I am using one as background for this portion of my story.)
Shae and her small army of fire elementals picked their way through the graveyard. So far they had rescued three ghosts from the Carnivale, and somewhere ahead of her was the one leading this particular Carnivale picnic. In the back of her mind an idea was forming; The ghosts had been grateful for her interference in the Carnivale's plans, and perhaps one of them could help her with the information she sought. As the thought entered her mind, though, she caught sight of a woman in an elaborate, colorful gown, with her hair up in a fashion that hadn't been current since the 1600's. The woman was speaking to her companions on a ledge below Shae and her army, "A soul is a soul, whether dead or alive. They will bend to our will."
Shae Firewarder stopped and motioned for her elementals to stay hidden a moment as she evaluated the strength of the group of Carnivale on the stone ledge below her. Then she summoned a whisp of smoke to hide her army in, and led them forward. Eagerly the fire imps charged; the Strongman managed to get one blow off before he was swarmed and taken down. The woman in the elaborate gown turned towards her as Shae flung cinders into the eyes of the group on the ledge. Several of the Carnivale stumbled blindly to a stop, choking, but the cinders went right through the gowned woman as she calmly smiled at Shae, "You will spend eternity as my slave." The woman held up a shimmering ball that Shae suddenly recognised with a sickening sense of dread. Time seemed to stop as the Djinni made ball dissolved into a shimmering mist of gold and Shae was held securely in place, unable to move or speak. The gowned woman then let her insubstantiality fade, and summoned illusions to keep Shae's fire elementals busy and at bay. The sounds of battle faded somewhat as the illusions and the fire elementals chased each other around the corner, intent on their battle.
Unable to move even her eyes, Shae realised that she was completely at the mercy of the Carnivale woman who was now stepping forward to look her over. Even as that realization struck her, she recognised the item still in the woman's other hand; it was a wax replica of a bottle, shimmering with gold dust and magic. The woman looked at Shae, "I know the scavenger hunt is over,"she frowned slightly and then smiled again,"But why stop when we're having so much fun? Let's see what it takes to frighten Shae Firewarder!"
===============================
"Isn't it lovely?" The woman cooed at Shae while turning the glittering bottle in her hands deliberately in front of Shae's trapped eyes,"almost as lovely as you are...but look! It changes!" the woman laughed delightedly as the magic spell caught and flared, and the bottle began to shift, turning more golden, and flickering with red sparks of flame."Such a pretty gift from an admirer," She looked into Shae's eyes, "Poor Shae, you are frightened; it is true then, is it not? It is summoning your bottle to me, and you will spend eternity as my slave."
Unable to move or speak, Shae watched the powerful magic spell provided to this Carnivale woman by a Djinni traitor as it molded itself to her magic. Shae felt the intimate touch of the magic as it invaded her helpless form and followed the mystical connection from her body to that solid bit of her soul and magic that was her bottle, far away in Founder's Falls in its otherwise secure hiding place. The wax bottle in the woman's hand shimmered and melted and appeared to reform, solidified, into a metallic gold with small red gems set in a pattern resembling flickering flames.
Shae Firewarder
Shae could do nothing but remember: the helplessness, and watching the form of the bottle be slowly replaced by the reality of her imprisonment. It had been a different place, a different trap, and long ago, but the same methods used. Now she recognized them as Djinni sorcery, and she knew the spell being used. It was the very one she had hoped to find the notes on in a certain warded King's Row apartment. She hadn't thought that her Djinni opponent would betray one of her own kind into slavery to a human.
The Carnivale mistress examined the bottle carefully. "What a pretty trinket," she looked from the golden bottle, patterned with rubies in an intricate pattern to Shae, "and what a useful toy you shall be." She released Shae from the now unnecessary shimmering gold binding with a word and a wave of her hand, and while turning, nearly tripped over the returning fire elementals.
Startled, she stepped backwards, into the open air. Opening her mouth to utter a command to Shae; instead she screamed incoherently in pain as the first fire elemental leaped upon her. Then she screamed again as a second elemental attacked her from behind.
And then the Carnivale mistress dropped the bottle....
================
Shae held her own lamp in her hands, and looked at the burning remains of the Carnivale mistress. The smell of burnt hair and flesh permeated the air, but Shae ignored it. Her elementals, healed by Shae's magic and ready again to defend her, stood around on the ledges keeping guard.
Eventually, she recalled her original purpose in seeking out the Carnivale to hunt this evening. Shae saw the white shape of a Carnivale mask on the ground and knelt to examine it. Carefully, she touched it with her fingers, seeking to feel the nature of it. She was tensed, expecting to feel the touch of the souls trapped within and powering it...
She did not expect it to turn into a snake and bite her.
Shae cried out as the venom of it burned it's way into her flesh, and an illusion of her Djinni opponent appeared before her dressed in an even more exquisite gown than the Carnival mistress had worn.
It laughed, "Poor little Shae. Surely you expected me to have a backup plan, should my human tool fail me?" The illusion continued, shaking it's head sadly," Of course you did not. I always have another plan, my dear, always." The illusion appeared to look at the burned body, "She made a lovely distraction, did she not?" The illusions eyes followed Shae as she circled it, examining it.
Shae agreed with it, "A lovely distraction, as you are trying to do now," and she burned the snake to a crisp with her fire, popping the illusion of the other djinni like a soap bubble.
Shae looked at her arm where the serpent had bitten her, detecting a faint green glow in the darkness, and feeling the beginnings of a fever. "How long was the illusion set to distract me for, and how long do I have?" She felt a wave of dizzyness and nausea overtake her and suspected that she did not have long to prepare.
((NOTE: I use the term 'bottle' an 'lamp' in my Djinni stories. They are essentially the same object, but one is sealable, and therefore I use it to represent the prison/trap/shackle, and the other is a lightsource, and therefore more symbolic of freedom/knowledge/willing service. There are several forms for oil lamps. One form is very much like that of a bottle with no lid/stopper/seal(resevoir for oil+wick=lamp, pretty much). This is the form I imagine the oillamps to be for purposes of my Djinni stories))
((edit-I am aware that I don't write in a very open ended fashion. I do make it hard for people to add to my stories(not on purpose, but I somehow manage it), but comments, reactions, and other events are still welcomed by me. If you are still reading this at this point. THANK YOU!))
Shae Firewarder
Sunrise was at 5:45. Hopefully, she could get the preparations done in time. Thankfully, this was the second time she had had to do this particular ritual. Also, she blessed her foresight as she had chosen to keep the materials she needed on hand, just in case.
Shaking slightly, she pulled out the black, leather bound book with the ritual in it, and scanned it carefully to make sure it was fresh in her memory.
Then she set out the herbs she needed for the purifying bath.
Then she made a phone call. "Don't speak. You will have to do it without me, " and she hung up.
Even that much, even filtered through the technology of this world, it might compromise him with so much of Her magic poison running through her.
She prepared the ritual, and hoped.
Shae Firewarder
Vionha felt the triggering of the alarm spell.
Unfortunately when she felt it she was attempting to be charming and facinating to the Hand of the Emperor, and that took all her concentration. The Hand's mystical connection to the Emperor was a secret that she had not yet managed to make her own, and any clue she might percieve would be valuable in her research. She had to be careful though. In any dealings with the Emperor you had to be careful, and dealing with a Hand was in many ways the same as dealing with the Emperor himself.
It was several hours before she could check the spell.
She tracked the alarm spell to an apartment she had used in Paragon City and frowned thoughtfully. She had used that place to trap several djinni. She tried to recall what might have still been there. The djinni had since been freed and most of them had made their way back home. The trap had kept them away nearly long enough, however, and the disarray and confusion had helped further her own plots nicely. It was a pity that Drina had come back home only to go and study magic under Mathasus. She might have been useful, or amusing, but his stronghold was too remote for Vionha to casually drop by and the old goat had never liked Vionha. Drina was likely out of reach for the moment.
She decided to see what had triggered her alarm in person. It was always possible that her traps would catch something interesting, and her servants, however capable, might have trouble penetrating her trap spells without harm to themselves.
Vionha arrived in Paragon City in disguise. However open Shae and Drina had been about their origin, Vionha was not one to give away the advantage of surprise.
So it was that an old woman came back to a forgotten apartment in King's Row. She let herself in ad looked around. at first glance nothing seemed amiss. Dissapointed at not finding a captive disabled on the floor, or a body to dispose of, she examined the apartment more carefully.
Here was the room she had kept her captive djinni in. It was empty now, of course. The bottles had been tipped over, and the djinni freed a while ago. Some vandal had broken the bookshelves and had feed them all by sheerest accident. She hoped the potions he had broken open had transformed him into a cockroach. She looked up at the nearly invisible runes traced around the edge of the ceiling and smiled. If the spell to steal a Djinni's bottle was her greatest acheivement of research, the spell runes around the edge of the ceiling were her greatest acheivement of theivery. This was the spell that had been triggered when the djinni had been freed, triggered by the presence of more than three beings in the room at the same time. This was the spell that had teleported everything and everyone in the room to random points in Paragon. This was the spell that had kept Drina and Shae from being able to meet face to face in all the time they had been in Paragon. Vionha had copied this spell from the Emperor's own private apartments to use it here for her own purpose. The spell was meant to foil assasins, and therefore the beings affected by the spell were kept apart thereafter by the enchantment. It had been delicious fun watching Shae and Drina living in the same city, having the same friends, and yet unable to meet or to come to one another's aid.
A pity Shae had resisted asking someone to attempt to break the spell; Having her banished for treason for exposing Imperial secrets to foreigners would have been even better.
Nothing looked disturbed in any of the rooms. Carefully, Vionha checked her enchantments, Several had been triggered, but to no effect, no captive, no body. She checked the more mundane traps in the bookcase and on the desk, but found that her poisoned surprises had all been disarmed! She fumed. Someone had been here, someone clever and subtle enough to find and disarm all her traps without taking harm. She closed her eyes and attempted to get a magical or psychic sense of the intruder and found nothing. It might as well have been the West wind blowing through for all the traces left.
She looked around once more to see if she could discover a clue to the identity of the sneak through what valuables were missing.
The rare magic books were still on the shelves.
The antique knicknacks were still there.
A jeweled necklace lay on the desk where she had dropped it 50 years before.
A small bronze idol rested in the corner of the room, still quietly radiating ritual power.
Nothing seemed to be missing or stolen. She walked from room to room unable to discover what could be missing. All the valuables, all the powerful things were still here. The traps were sprung, but the bait had not been touched.
She did feel a faint sense of unease. A piece of the puzzle was missing, but what?
Shae Firewarder
The scientists hurried out of the portal, looking behind them. The first two across were carrying the unconscous body of a third, while the remaining scientists lugged all the equipment that they had so hopefully carried across the threshold in the other direction seemingly minutes before.
Shae Firewarder followed them through like a guard dog herding sheep, looking grim. She looked at the huddled bunch of rescuees for just a moment and strode purposefully to the controls of the portal. Looking over the shoulder of the technician at the controls, she thought briefly how useful it was to have tech savvy friends...you could pick up a few bits of information from simple contamination sometimes. She memorized the coordinates showing on his screen, and then, bumped the tech. Apologizing to the poor tech, who suddenly started coughing, she tapped a few keystrokes on the keyboard, and then knelt next to the still coughing and choking tech to reach under the desk. She flipped open a panel, and reached in to disengage a board and then pull the wires from it. Hearing the beginings of a commotion behind her, she called fire to her hands and the board and the chips on it melted to slag.
She knew the records would still be there somewhere; all she had done was delay the inevitable.
As she walked out of Portal Corporation, barely ahead of the growing disturbance, she wondered at the things one did sometimes simply because there was no choice...no choice at all....
Shae Firewarder