Same Sad Song

The dungeons are never a welcoming place. The guards are, at least to those that visit them often and are of a friendly demenor. Which means that Seldan gets a warm welcome from them if not the place itself. It's hard to be comfortable in a place meant to harbor some of the most dangerous criminals in Alexandria. Crazy wizards and insane sorcerers, people who've used magic to alter reality and whom are still dangerous to this day should they ever escape. As usual as Seldan approches he gets a hearty welcome from the guards.

"How's it going Seldan? Are you well?" The guard on Seldan's left is a friendlier sort than his companion on the right who keeps mostly silent. "Weren't you here pretty recently?"

Seldan has come quietly and without announcement to anyone, and today, he's skipped the armor and heavy weaponry, which simplifies the required removal greatly. He has never said why he was wearing it last time, and doesn't now, only greeting the pair with a warm smile. "Yes, though did you have a skinless ghost haunting you, and a friend who hugs a man and grows claws in the next instant, would you not be minded to seek stable company more often?"

He bears under one arm a couple of writing pens, several vials of ink, and other writing materials, and a fresh set of clothing, put together in a box. As he speaks, he sets them on a nearby table for inspection, and then proceeds to divest himself of magical items. He has done this enough that the guards know what he has, and unless they are new, have seen the black, discolored skin before.

The guard laughs at the question. "Undoubtly so!" The man rifles through Seldan's things carefully, checking the box for a false bottom and all the other little tricks that could be problimatic in a jail. "Careful with the pens. Don't let any of that writing material get to the other prisoners or we'll have a riot on our hands. I suppose you're in to see Menel then?"

"Even so. I know that he is well, and yet would I see it for myself." Seldan's smile fades. He finishes divesting swiftly enough, then steps back to wait. There is nothing unusual or unexpected in the box or about the box - it is writing material, and a set of clothes. "Understood," he adds about the pens, then looks down the hall and sighs. "You may have heard of the incident yesterday, wherein an attempt was made on Menel's life."

After the inspection everything is handed back to Seldan, except of course for the magical equipment that he handed over in the first place which is tucked away into a box of its own and placed behind the guards for later retrieval. "Yea we heard about that."

"I was actually on guard duty that day." The other guard replies, looking at Seldan. "I almost let that Sith out of her cell. I'm glad you talked me out of it."

Solemnly, Seldan nods, taking the box. "She is ... we do not fully understand what holds her, only that she was a captive of the one responsible for the plague. I fear that she may seek to try again. Were I you, I would be wary of any seeking Menel, including myself. Disguises are easily had," he nods to the box that holds his gear. "And she knows me well enough to imitate me."

The guard arches an eyebrow at that. "We'd know the moment they went into the anti-magic zone that they weren't you though." The guard waves to the archway that leads to the dungeons. Beyond there... magic no longer works. "But I catch your drift. We'll be careful."

The second guard steps forward to pat Seldan down per protocol. With that done they both step aside to allow the man egress into the dungeons below.

Seldan accepts the pat-down without comment, and they will find nothing - they never have. "So you would." Apparently mollified, the paladin raises a cheerful hand and turns down towards the archway, the box closed firmly and held securely as he passes under the archway.

As he walks the now-familiar halls, frowning at the sensation of having cotton stuffed in his ears and mouth, the utter silence of his magic, he makes a point of walking the very center of the hallway, out of reach of any of the dungeon doors, to avoid a grab forcing him to drop or scatter the box.

Most of the prisoners now recognize Seldan, and for the most part he is left alone by them. A few mutter to him, offering whispers of power that are always ignored. Deeper into the dungeons is Menel's cell, which is filled with the soft sound of someone pacing. It's the swordsman himself of course, moving through the small space with an awareness that is bred of long hours in the same space. He's clearly been stalking the small cell for some time now, and only stops when he hears the sound of Seldan approaching his doorway. A quick smile alights his lips at the sight of the other man, but it fades quickly into concern. "Hey. Um... How are you? I didn't get a chance to talk to you after... what happened."

"I am well." As always, Seldan brightens on seeing Menel, even if the journey required to see him is not always easy, and his smile returns. "The Sunguard caring for her took it better than I expected, and I was little more than touched. She is well." Once fully inside the cell, he offers Menel the box. "I thought that it would be well to offer you a change of clothing. Are -you- well?"

Menel brightens considerably at the news that Seldan brings, and his expression glows with gratitude when Seldan offers him the box. "Thanks! I really appreciate it. I don't have anything you know. I've been gone from Alexandria for so long that all my stuff is gone and I haven't exactly been able to go out shopping." He takes the box and holds it gently, clearly touched by the gift. "I'm fine. Nothing that a little healing didn't cure. I'm more worried that she attacked me in the first place."

"No? Then it is well that I can bring you something, even if it be small." Menel's pleasure in the gift brightens Seldan's mood still more, and his smile is more open. "The guards would have you take great care with the contents, that they not fall into the hands of the prisoners here." The smile, though, fades on the change in topic, turning to concern. "She ... was not in control of her own body, Menel. She did not want to. I ... think that She held some level of control over Cryosanthia's mind, and wished you dead." He moves to take a stool in the room. "Why would She wish you dead, Menel?"

Curious, Menel peeks in the box, nodding at the contents and then setting the box on his bed so that he can join Seldan in sitting down on one of the stools that take up the majority of space in the room. The serious conversational topic steals his smile as well, and a more serious expression slides over his usually sunny features. "I worried that might be the case. I couldn't think of any other reason that Cryosanthia would attack me except that /She/ wanted her to." There was more emphisis than usual on pronoun.

The swordsman sighs. "There's got to be a reason right? I mean, she really wants me dead. She's sent Kol after me, and now Cryosanthia... I just wish I knew exactly what it is that I did or know that makes me such a threat." Menel scrubs a hand over his white hair. "I keep thinking that there must be something, but if there is I don't know it. I didn't even know she was fae."

"Even so, and that took much research to learn." Seldan studies Menel thoughtfully. "Though it may be painful, perhaps in exploring your story might we find the answers. Will you attempt such a thing? It is not my wish to pain you, but if we can answer this question, then might we find a means to stop Her within the things that you can tell."

Menel looked at Seldan. "I told you once, bringing Her down is my goal. While I might not be willing to sell my soul to get it done, I'm willing to endure some pain to get there." He met Seldan's eyes with his own. "So what'd you have in mind?"

"Tell me of your experiences with Cryosanthia, the one you call Sasa." Seldan leans forward, elbows on knees, listening closely. "You knew her from the time you were a child? Who was she to you?"

The swordsman's eyes go a bit distance as he thinks back, smiling a little to himself, but it's a half sad smile. "Yea, I knew her when I was just a kid. /She/ keeps a lot of prisoners, but most of them... they don't last long. She experiments on them. Uses them for things that I never understood and their bodies..." He shudders and continues. "But Cryosanthia survived. I don't know how or why. I think she must have made herself useful to Salina like I did."

"She was like a mother to me, after a fashion. My own vanished and I ended up wandering to the tower not knowing any better. She comforted me during the worst times; tended to my wounds when I needed someone to. And she's the one that helped me escape the first time." Menel looked down suddenly, his hand clenched tight around his knee."

The name is not one that Menel has spoken before, but it matches the one used by the woman in the Fernwood, and so Seldan quietly files that away for later asking. "Their bodies? What was done with the bodies?" His tone is very, very gentle, and his eyes go to that clench on his knee. "And ... she helped you escape ... the first time. How did you do it, and what did she do?"

"There were specific dump zones in the tower for the bodies. They'd disappear from those places to... somewhere here. I'm not exactly sure where. That's how Cryosanthia helped me escape. She dumped me in with the bodies after... After a beating that nearly killed me." Menel flashed a grim grin. Seldan knew of his wounds, the scars on his back which were the proof of his years in the tower. "I appeared in the middle of this frozen wasteland and just... walked until I found my way back to civilization."

Menel furrowed his brow. "Now that I think about it though, I think that the place where we dumped the bodies must send living people to different places than it sends the bodies. Because I didn't see any corpses where I ended up, and none of the people I rescued have mentioned seeing them either."

"You rescued them by the same path?" Seldan asks. He still hasn't moved from that forward lean, elbows on knees, listening raptly, but the Myrrish lilt in his tone holds a wealth of both sympathy and curiosity - and not a little calculation. "Were you to stand in the place where once you ended up, would you know it?"

Menel nodded. "I got the idea from Cryosanthia, once I was captured again I got as many out that way as I could. As for where I came out. I think Mikilos knows it. I was rather young the first time I came out that way, and the second time I was practically dead." A wry expression crosses Menel's face. "I seem to have a penchant for near-death experiences."

"Ah, you know Master Mithralla." Seldan chuckles, but only perforce. "Still did you not die, and truly that is a mighty thing indeed. To rise when others would fall, and look out for others as well. That is well done of you indeed." Genuine respect colors the words, but soon, he is musing. "A specific link, that differentiates between living and dead. Surely is that a fixed thing, especially if the tower itself be unmoving. Where the dead go, I know not, and given my fortune of late, it likely leads to Thul's realm below." There's wryness in those words, too. "But Sasa survived. Made herself useful. She spoke of spending decades as a maid."

He sits for a while, deep in thought. "I am not an expert on teleportation circles, and I must needs consult with others who would know more of such magic than I. Where in the tower were these dump zones?"

Menel grinned. "Yea, I saved him once from the tower and he returned the favor. He's how I ended up here." He waved to the room they were sitting in. It wasn't what most people would consider a good place to be, but for Menel it suited better than where he /had/ been. "I think the bodies go somewhere She finds useful. She'd talk sometimes about how if people couldn't be useful to her in life then they'd be useful to her in other ways."

The swordsman shrugged and then looked embarrassed when Seldan mentioned 'Sasa'. "Smaller bodies went below her... work area. Larger bodies she'd move up using magic to this big magic circle." Menel made a motion with his hands to indicate something very large. "I saw a door there a few times when Kol would come and go. But it never opened for me."

The look of embarrassment is not lost on Seldan, but he listens intently and with great interest. "Were there areas that Cryosanthia did not clean, or cleaned carefully? Areas that you also avoided?" He pauses a moment. "How much of the tower did you know?"

This question made Menel think very carefully then he sighed, his hands moving a little expressively as he spoke. "The rooms... moved to her will. So saying where anything is exactly isn't very easy. I know that generally the workshop was above the place where the bodies went, and that below that were the cells where She kept people but... The cells themselves are tiny windowless rooms without doors? So She could open and close them as she pleased. I know that She was studying how people interact with one another because She'd let people in with other people sometimes and watch them using magic. I think... That She doesn't understand how people work very well? Or maybe She was learning better how to manipulate them." Menel thought again, his brow furrowing. "We weren't allowed above the big magic circle. There's this big staircase there, and we weren't allowed to even clean the steps."

This seems to give Seldan a great deal to think about, for he frowns as he listens, and then says nothing for some time when the explanation is done. he clearly seems to be processing something. "The rooms move to Her will, and she opened and closed walls at will. The bodies remained within the tower - somewhere - and the dump zone differentiated living from dead, but returned the living to a fixed place" He speaks very, very slowly, as one thinking. "Mikilos spent some time in the tower as well, aided your escape as you aided his. Never has he spoken of any of these things."

He tails off again, then picks back up, "For how long did you know Master Mithralla?"

Menel nodded a lot as Seldan reiterated some of the points that he had made. It was all as Menel knew it, but then... he couldn't have said much for /certain/. Seldan's question however made Menel's nose wrinkle up and he sighed. "That more than anything I can't tell you. Time just... moves so differently there. There's no sun or moon to tell the hours by. Food is so inconsistent that one can't tell when it's coming or /if/ it is. I tried sometimes to tell the days by I slept, but even that isn't a good marker because I know I was pushed to stay awake sometimes for far longer than my body was comfortable with. To the point that I learned to sleep whenever I wasn't working. Even now my sleep schedual is back and forth. If I'm not doing something it just feels natural to take a nap for however long I can. I know it was a long time. Felt like a long time. I got to know him well enough to know his whole name, and respect him quite a lot. It wasn't as long as I knew Cryosanthia I don't think, but he lasted longer in the tower than most before I got him out of there."

"Working?" Seldan, as he has throughout this, listens deeply and intently, hanging on every word. "What did you do, within the tower?"

Now Menel looked down, fingers wrapping around themselves so that his hands were a tangle of them. Binding one to the other. "Cleaning mostly." His voice was soft at first trembling, but it quickly grew hard. "Disposing of the dead. Sometimes I'd fetch things for Her. I-implements."

His hands lifted and he covered his face. "I did whatever She told me to. Fetch Her whip for Her so She could beat me with it. Stand there and listen while She... She basically /tortured/ people. Not for information or anything they could /give/. She didn't ask questions She just experimented on them. I don't know. I don't know /why/." His voice was filled with horror, for what he'd seen and what this fae woman had done. "It was so horrible Seldan. She's just this little thing. Just this small woman, but She'd tear people apart and s-sew them back togehter again."

Slowly, Seldan reaches for Menel's knee, a strong and steady hand on it meant as a gesture of support. "She has no interest in ... things. She simply wishes to ... learn. Of people." Menel may not see the bearing and features stiff with quiet fury, but it sings through his next words. "Menel, it is precisely this sort of thing that I am sworn to oppose, with all that I am and all that is granted me. I will see this creature stopped, or die in the attempt. I ... know not what I can say, to ease your pain ... but thank you. For all that you have done for others ... and for all that you have given to me."

It takes a long moment for Menel to recover himself, but Seldan's presence helps. He nods once and scrubs his hand over his face and hair, trying to play off that he wasn't near to tears. Shakes his head and finally meets Seldan's eyes with ones that still shine with the need to cry. "I know you feel the same way I do Seldan. I want to help. Helping... Helping helps with this you know? If I can save even one more person from Her grasp I want to... I know it doesn't bring back those I couldn't but..." He blinks and clears his throat. "We've gotta keep going right? Gotta keep trying to stop Her in whatever small ways we can manage until She's finally beaten."

Wordlessly, Seldan scoots a little closer, not taking his hand from Menel's knee except to place them, if the man allows, on his shoulders. "You are helping. You speak of things that we must know, if we are to have any hope of stopping her. You are the one person who can speak of the place without her knowing just what we know. We will continue, and we will see it finished, with your help."

He does not remove or drop the hands, waiting to ensure that the swordsman is okay before continuing. Written in his face are the questions he wants to ask, but ... he waits."

Menel relaxes further, taking solice from Seldan's words. "Thanks Seldan." The words are full of emotions, his sorrow at what he could not change, his determination to continue on in spite of everything. He nods, then smile wryly. "I'm sorry. You have more questions." He nods again. "Ask. Maybe you'll think of something I know that I haven't yet."

Finally, Seldan drops his hands, letting them rest in his lap. "Did you ever see her working with some sort of black ooze, in your time there."

The swordsman has to think about this. "I think so yes." Menel tilts his head, eyes going a bit distant again as he recalls the memories. "There's this black substance that I've seen her pull out of people. Or put into them. Little vials of the stuff. Is that what you mean?"

"She pulled it out, or put it in ..." Seldan returns to that deeply thoughtful mien. "And it made them ill, I will wager. Do you remember anything at all of its effects, or of how she dismissed it when she had no more use for it?"

"It did a lot of things. Some people were fine, others died... horrible deaths. Then or later. I don't know what happened to all of them. I wasn't there for all Her... experiments." Menel sounded vaguely glad of that, and just a little disappointed that he didn't know more. "I'd guess some kind of magic. She used magic all the time, for /everything/. It's as natural to Her as breathing and I'm afraid that I don't know anything about it at all."

"We know what it is," Seldan says gently. "I am as you see me, because of it." A very thin line of pale skin has begun to appear across one of his defined cheekbones. "Of those you recall, do you recall seeing the mark of the snowflake ... anywhere upon them? Afterward?"

Menel nods, not once but twice. "Always. She makes it. With needles and small knives or... Well I guess I'm the only one she gave such a big mark to." The swordsman looks grim as he talks about the mark on his own back. "I think that they're some kind of... I don't know... Mark? She puts them on everything."

"An arcane mark," Seldan agrees. "A symbol of ownership, and possibly also a means to scry. Scrying is unlikely to reach here," he adds, nodding as if to reassure. "She placed them upon anyone and anything she touched? Whether the plague touched them or no?"

"Everything. Even the abominations She made." Menel's mouth twisted. "She experimented on more than just people, animals too. Combining them with other animals." He shuddered. "I don't think that all of those things were touched by the plauge. But I guess I couldn't say for certain. But it makes sense if it's a mark of ownership. She uh... Liked to think of things as... belonging to Her." His mouth twisted unpleasantly.

Seldan's expression echoes Menel's, with a healthy dose of anger added. "To tamper with the creations of the gods so, to use her magic to create such suffering - she will answer." His yees narrow. "What became of the abominations she created?"

Unfortunately Menel shrugs again. "I don't know. I think a few guard the tower, I know that not all of them survived. I think others She has plans for, but it's not like She's overly chatty. She didn't think it was something I needed to know." He sighs. "So much that I don't know. I feel like if only I'd done things a little differently maybe I'd have these answers for you."

Seldan frowns at that, in the way of one who does not like the sound of that. "Then we must prepare for anything ... and I must have the spell of shaping stone at hand, to free those trapped within." The last is murmured, but he sprk returns to his normal tones in due time. "Tell me, in all of your time there ... did you ever see or hear of something that looked like," and he describes Eclavdran, as Halani described it to him.

Menel grins a little to himself. "Already planning a breakin are you? Good." He clearly approves, even if it's clearly as of yet an incomplete plan. Then, he's listening intently as Seldan paints a picture of Eclavdran to him. He blinks several times and then finally shakes his head. "That sounds like a demon. I can say I saw a lot of... unpleasant things during my time in that tower, but I /never/ saw a demon. Unless you count Kol and his brood."

"And his brood? He is not alone?" Seldan is quick to jump on that offhand comment, even as he nods on the earlier point. "I am, although there are things that must be done before that will be possible. But I would hear of this _brood_ of Kol's."

The swordsman leans back slightly his lips tight. "Kol. I don't know that much about him, or his brood, but no... he's not alone. I don't know how many vampires he's made but occassionally She'll... /give/ someone to him. And they don't come back. Or if they do, they're vampires. And not just vampires but... CRAZY. Like bug-at-the-end-of-it's-life nuts. I've heard him talk sadly about his children walking off into the sunlight, or fondly of how they went and murdered an entire township. He's... unstable, and he does something to his progeny that makes them unstable too."

Seldan's answering look freezes for just a moment, then deflates. "I am glad to know that, and I am now wishing that I had spoken to you much, much sooner. Could you guess at numbers? 5, 50, 500?"

"Probably more than five? Less than fifty. But I can't say for sure. Plus he could be gathering people on his own for all I know." Menel shudders though, and gives Seldan a apologetic look. "I don't think he has the temperament to control an undead army thank the stars, but I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner. I assumed you guys knew that vampires tend to make nests. I suppose even Kol must get lonely."

Quickly, Seldan shakes his head. "The fault is not yours. Too long have we sat on our hands and on what those who fell into her hands know. I am not one of the Grey Lady's faithful, I am more knowledge..." He trails off, as if remembering something, and looks away. "She once stole a body from the Vardamen temple, and the artifacts buried with it. Have you any memory of such a thing?"

Menel shook his head. "Sorry, no. I think that was after my time. Or maybe between times." He smiles a little and shakes his hand. "Time you know?"

There were more questions probably, but the pair are interrupted suddenly by the appearance of one of the guards. He looks a bit startled, and not very pleased, and he looks between Menel and Seldan and pins the paladin down with his gaze. "That crazy sith is upstairs right now trying to get in. I figured you'd want to know. Could you maybe talk to her?"

Seldan immediately rises, eyes on the guard, and immediately glances at Menel. "Forgive me. I have more things I would ask, but this comes first." With a last squeeze of Menel's knee, he rises and follows the guard out at a quick stride.