Will You See How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes?

The Loreseekers were expanding and becoming a Name in the Settlement, something that filled Jigano’s heart with pride. People were starting to come to them with questions in need of answering, and quests in need of fulfilling, minds hungry for knowledge and learning. One such mind had made its way to Loreseeker Hall while he’d been poring over his cipher for one of the languages he’d finally cracked, after months of studying it from a variety of books he’d pulled from the shelves. It was another herbal, like the first book Samuel had shown him, but this one—

Ah, but he was digressing. A young woman who looked passingly familiar had introduced herself and requested directions to the Underground Shrine. He had been there once before, in Remi’s company, and while he was far from comfortable with the maze of subterranean passages he wasn’t sure any of his fellows were any more experienced with it.

Besides, he needed a break from staring at the tiny, cramped script in the margins of the book. So, catching up his Spark Bird feather lantern, his rapier, and his cloak – it could get clammy, down beneath the surface of the world – he’d left Isuma sleeping in her basket in his office and joined Phoebe in heading towards the entrance to the underground. Standing before it he found himself taking a long look around at the vigorous spring, inhaling the fresh wind and watching the clouds scudding playfully across the sky before he turned to his companion and offered her a half-bow of invitation. ”Normally I’d let the lady go first,” he murmured, blue eyes sparkling. ”But perhaps just this once you’ll permit age to go before beauty?”

Phoebe had been so grateful to find someone willing to walk her down to the underground shrine. She had been wondering after it after what Ludo had told her about the Voice. Just what had the people who had come before released, and why was it so dangerous? She believed the god, don’t get her wrong but…it was hard to comprehend anything seeming dangerous to a deity. So dangerous it had to be locked away…it was boggling to her. Nothing seemed more powerful a force than Safrin, Frey, and Ludo.

But if she could just see the shrine…maybe she could reverse the harm that those who came before her had done. It was at least worth a look, right?

Jigano had been very personable and kind to lead her there on such short notice. Well, no notice really. Lead her there immediately. As they arrived at the entrance, she smiled and nodded. ”Of course, please lead the way.” she said her cheeks flushing lightly at the implied compliment.

Phoebe seemed a nice enough young lady, bright eyed and eager. He didn't know what drove her to seek the buried shrine, and while the business was her own he couldn't help but be curious. Jigano stepped forward with his lantern to light their path, leading the initial descent away from the light and into the chill shadows beneath the earth, glancing back occasionally to make sure his patron didn't need help, though she looked fit and graceful enough to manage just fine on her own. It was instinctive courtesy, though, and he made sure to shorten his steps to hers so she didn't have to hurry to keep pace. "Watch your footing," he murmured."The ground can be uneven here, and the shadows make it harder to know where to step."

He raised the lantern high so its warm, life-giving light shed around them, sending those shadows dancing and racing across the walls of the broad tunnel they found themselves in, and he smiled back over his shoulder as they walked, confident in his own steps. "It's a bit of a journey, if you'd like to talk for awhile. I won't pry into why you need to go to the shrine unless you want to share, but I'd be curious to know about you and what you do for a living, to pass the time?" A combination of genuine and professional interest prompted his question; he liked learning about the people he met on a purely personal level of course, but knowing who and where people with useful trades were in the Settlement was also something that helped the Loreseekers to answer questions and make sure those who came to them were given the right assistance or directed to the right person who could help them.

The midwife's blonde head bobbed when she was guven warning about the path. "I will, thank you." she said with a smile. Phoebe, true to her word, farefully picked her way through the rubble and uneven path on light and nimble feet. Finishing school dance classes were paying off after all it would seem!

When he spoke again she smiled. "Oh! I suppose you would like to know that given all you're doing for me." she said with a light laugh. "I'm a midwife. I have a clinic in town below my personal residence." she explained. "So keeping that running is how I spend most of my time. But I've been looking after my boyfriend's siblings lately too. And him really." she said, not wanting to really get into the details if she could help it.

"As for the shrine...well...I spoke with Ludo over Long Night and they said that people came down here and released someone called the Voice. Apparently part of the reason the barrier is up is because of them, and if we tske the barrier down while she is out, that would be very bad. And Safrin had unkind things to say about her too so I am apt to believe Ludo. So...I was hoping I could maybe figure out how to undo what was done." she said.

"Only if you're willing to share," he assured her, but her laugh was open and honest and the words tumbled out of her with an easy joy. Jigano listened curiously, glad to know that the Settlement had a midwife he could refer people to if anyone came to him with questions about babies. He looked politely curious at the mention of her boyfriend and his siblings, but privately thought it a shame that her boyfriend wasn't taking care of his own siblings, and instead foisting them off on the patient young woman who had her own business to run. Perhaps there was a reason for it... or perhaps Phoebe was just too nice for her own good.

He raised a brow at hearing that she, too, had spoken to Ludo at long night. Apparently the god had been in popular demand? He nodded as she continued, having heard some of the story before, but the mention of Safrin had the brow going up again and he hummed thoughtfully. "Did they say why it would be bad, or what specifically would be bad about the barrier coming down while she is free?" he asked curiously. "And what sort of unkind things did Safrin have to say? I admit, I haven't had much to do with her. I was hired to play music for Bastien's... ah. 'Church' once and I've not been back since." He spoke with careful tact, striving to speak courteously of one not present to defend himself. Bastien held an ambivalent place in the bard's book. The man wasn't malicious, but he was entirely self-absorbed, and his idea of performing had less to do with entertaining others and more to do with self-aggrandizing. It wasn't the most endearing of traits, to say the least, but as long as he wasn't harming anyone else Jigano tried not to think poorly of the man. Hadn't he died over Long Night? Though the notice for his memorial had been written with a suspiciously familiar amount of pomposity...

”I don’t mind sharing. I’ve nothing to hide.” she said with a smile.

”Ludo didn’t say much…I think they found me a bit stupid honestly. I hadn’t slept in…far too long and wasn’t fully with my wits when I met them.” she said with a slight frown. “But they said something along the lines of the barrier being up to keep the Voice and her ilk inside… her ilk being the ascended who only needed to replenish themselves as needed before she was released…and something about them not knowing their situation before.” she said with a sigh and shook her head. She didn’t really know a lot about ascended or…well a lot about Caido. Some of this just skimming the edges of her knowledge base.

When Jigano mentioned Bastien’s church her nose wrinkled. ”Well don’t take Bastien’s representation or worship of Safrin to heart. He was just using her to glorify himself and get what he wanted. She took away her approval of him after he insulted her.” she said with a curt nod. She could only imagine the sort of distaste for or misperceptions of the goddess Bastien’s actions may have given Jigano. ”Safrin told me that the Voice is an imposter, someone who was once a mortal that has tried to become a deity but is in fact not. She said that she would prey on my ignorance.” she said, trying even then to put the puzzle pieces together.

”The only deity I haven’t asked is Frey…but I don’t think it is a topic they would be interested in. Though…certainly they must miss Rae…maybe if I framed it like that…I don’t know.” she sighed.

Nothing to hide? That would indeed make her a rarity, but she looked at least as young as Remi, and Jigano hid his rueful sigh. He wasn't that old, was he? But somehow people seemed to be getting younger by the day. It was both a gift and a curse to be that innocent... but remembering the young pup's words he held his criticisms back and simply returned Phoebe's smile with a gracious nod.

The description of Ludo made him smile a little ruefully. He suspected the trickster god considered most mortals to be a bit slow, and no one was at their best during Long Night. But what Phoebe had to say about Ludo's information matched what Jigano had already learned, and he nodded thoughtfully.

The young woman's response to Bastien's Church was understandable, and Jigano tried to hide a smile at her confident assertion. That she was probably right didn't hurt, but hearing that he'd had the balls to insult a goddess - and then was punished for it - had the bard raising a brow in curiosity. Of course, that meant that the sex and hedonism that Bastien had touted as appropriate worship might not be right...

He looked curiously at the girl as she parroted Safrin's words so staunchly, wondering how different her opinion might have been if she'd met the Voice first. She seemed to have strong opinions, but was easily swayed by authority. "That doesn't make sense, though," he said slowly. "If the Voice hadn't ascended to godhood, then Safrin or Ludo could have had her killed or punished. To say nothing of their more powerful counterparts who erected the Barrier in the first place. Given that all of them together could only contain her, I'd say that even if her beginnings were humble, she has the power of a god now, and it would be foolhardy to underestimate her as anything less - no matter how it galls the egos of the Old Gods," he cautioned his charge as he led the way deeper into the tunnels of the Underground, his lantern lighting their way, but making the shadows even blacker at the edges of its glow.

Perhaps contrary to the anticipated nature of her youth, Phoebe mulled over his words carefully. She supposed it made sense in a way...but she wasn't wholly convinced. "But does having the power of a god actually make you a god? Or does it just make you very powerful? Where I am from, some magic users were so powerful they were indeed godlike...but still just people." she said as a counterpoint. The Voice might be godlike in her power...but she wasn't ready to say that made her a god.

"Of course it doesn't mean she should be underestimated. But isn't it all the more reason to heed their warnings, that should the barrier come down while she is free, that it would be bad?" Phoebe said, looking over at Jigano. She wasn't trying to be argumentative, nor did she think him outrightly wrong - he had brought up a good point. But so far things did add up to her in a way. "Not to mention that the Spire demon's fang is similar to that of an ascendeds...and if she is just a human who has attained immeasurable power...well...absolute power corrupts absolutely, does it not?" she said, explaining herself further.

"Of course...no one will take me seriously. I'm just a stupid little girl to most. So...I just have to see if there is a way to re-seal the Voice before Ronin and the rest attack the Spire."

Jigano didn't bother hiding his delight at Phoebe's well-thought-out response, and he flashed an approving grin at the young woman walking at his side. "Ah, that's where it gets interesting," he said, "in how you define godhood. If two beings are equal in power, how do you decide which one qualifies as a god and which isn't?" He gave a little shrug, sending the light and shadows bobbing around them. "I think it depends on how our different worlds see things, too. On my world it is possible for a mortal to ascend to godhood - it's happened at least four times in recorded history as a celebrated event, and the existing gods accepted them as one of their own after they passed the Test of the Starstone." Technically five times, but Cassandalee was still a very young goddess, with few followers or clerics, and her path to ascension had been... unique. With him gone, only one mortal was left who had witnessed the event... a sad thought the bard tried not to dwell on.

Phoebe made it easy to be distracted, however. Jigano nodded at the girl's caution, but he tilted his head at her wording. "Bad how?" he asked, genuinely curious if the gods had imparted her with more specific warnings. If so, he might have to rethink his approach, but the lack of openness about the Voice's threat seemed strange to him. "As I understand it, the Voice was locked away in the very shrine we're headed towards for three hundred years... but in all the time she was supposedly asleep, the barrier remained, locking the innocent people of Caido in to a slow, wasting death." His lips firmed in disapproval of that, though he knew why the gods may well have made that choice. It didn't mean he liked it, though, feeling the echoes of its guilt in his own memories.

"The Spire's guardian is Ascended, or at least related to them," he told her, pausing as the tunnel split before taking the one that Remi had led him down before. "It's gone mad with age and sunlight though. It doesn't seem to be under her control anymore - if it ever was," he cautioned. "But power corrupts gods, too, or have you no fallen gods on your world? Gods of darkness as well as light?" He gave a little shake of his head, slanting a reproving glance at his companion as she belittled herself.

"Are you a 'stupid little girl'?" he asked gently. "You don't seem much younger than Remi, and he seems well enough regarded. Vervain is a woman, but no one disregards her opinion without risk. Since I've arrived here, it doesn't seem like being young or female or a combination thereof makes one less capable or less worthy of admiration. So who are these people who won't listen to what you have to say?" After all, he was taking her seriously enough to guide her - and to do so trusting in her ability to handle the risk she was taking in confronting a goddess in her own lair.

Phoebe's eyes widened a bit. There were...other worlds that had gods too? It wasn't just Caido? The idea was a bit boggling to her, one that was a bit too big for her to tackle right that moment. "My world didn't have any gods or goddesses." she said. "I didn't think anything divine existed before encountering Frey on accident. The magic users though...some of them had godlike abilities. Some could revive the dead. Some could conjure beasts of immeasurable power. Some could snap their fingers and fell legions of soldiers in an instant. But they were still mortals, prone to the same failings as anyone." That was why it seemed almost obvious to her what the difference was. A god was someone with immeasurable power that also was intrinsically not-human. They were a different species, a different being altogether. All the power in the world did not make a human any more a god than they were before, it simply made them more prone to the corruption unnatural power brought.

"I...don't know exactly...Ludo actually said they told me too much. I think...whatever the missing pieces are...they are not at liberty to say. Only Vai, Mort, and Rae could give those answers." she said and glanced at Jigano. "Isn't it better to do what I can to keep those attacking the spire safe from whatever ire they might earn from possible bringing the wall down with the Voice free than sit on what I have learned and in doing so bring them harm through my inaction?" She felt she had no choice. Doing nothing was more despicable than making the wrong choice with the best intent at heart.

"No I'm not.". she said with a furrow of her brow. "I'm 18, but I look like I'm barely of age so it isn't uncommon for me to be dismissed. So...I just don't try anymore. I doubt Ronin would listen to me...he is the one championing this." So all she could do was act on her own.

Hearing that the young woman had no previous experience with gods but now considered herself an expert on them was enough to take even the normally calm lorekeeper back. "Y... yes?" he asked, then shook his head and tried to clarify. "I mean, yes, those all sound like the abilities of powerful mages, not gods. I brought a friend of mine back to life once, using gloves made by a purely mortal artisan. Summoning powerful extraplanar allies was a particular trick of devils we fought, and another companion of mine, Oni, could unleash killing spells like you describe. Those aren't particularly godly powers, though thankfully they were rare. But any god worth its salt could strike down any single mage that dared to face it." If he had known what was going through her head he would have been even more confused. He wasn't human - or hadn't been, before. Most of his friends hadn't been human, for that matter. That didn't make them gods, though.

"Ludo gave Remi the ability to see beyond the barrier and encouraged him to bring it down," the bard said thoughtfully. "And Safrin gave Ronin a weapon for defeating the Spire demon. All of that after the Voice was freed and returned to power. So either they're telling different people different things... or else people are interpreting their words in very different ways."

And it was entirely possible that the girl he was leading to the subterranean shrine had sorely mistaken what Ludo meant.

He sighed, giving her a weary smile. "I think you must follow what you believe is right," he said gently, thinking back to how Remi had called him controlling. So, for the pup's sake, he would try and let things go. "I agree that the elder gods who raised the barrier in the first place might be a bit... unhappy... if it's brought down from within, but given all that Ludo and Safrin are doing to facilitate it, I would like to think that they would also try and protect the mortals in their care from any petty backlash." He gave another little shrug along with his lopsided smile. "But I am, admittedly, a bit annoyed at the Old Gods, as well, for dooming so many innocents to centuries of entrapment and the slow death of their world and children, just to punish one arrogant child-goddess whose crimes haven't been entirely explained."

"You came from Northaven, then?" he hazarded, based on her lack of familiarity with gods prior to Caido. "And Ronin knows you from there?"

Phoebe listened quietly as Jigano spoke. He insisted those feats weren’t particularly godlike, but she simply didn’t agree. It was beyond the norm, immeasurable power, something fantastical and unfathomable. But to her, the truest factor was what the individual was. A mortal, no matter how powerful, would never be a god; simply put because they weren’t one.

”Or they knew they would try, regardless of any warnings.” Phoebe countered when Jigano said different stories were being told or things were being misinterpreted. ”It is a rare person that can want something or think they’ve a solution to a problem, and not chase it.” Hence why she was here instead of trying to convince Ronin to hold off on this attack. If the gods wouldn’t give them warning – or had and been ignored – why would she be listened to any better? She glanced over at him as he expressed his irritation. Phoebe was fairly certain she wasn’t brave enough to every feel cross towards one of the deities. ”If they could say, I think they would. Ludo had said they told me too much – doesn’t that indicate there is something keeping them from speaking on the subject freely? I don’t think the answer is as simple as a punishment for a child-goddess…something bigger must have pushed them to these extremes…entrapping their own worshippers, silencing their associated deities and trapping them too…I wouldn’t be so hasty as to assume the punishment does not fit whatever crime occurred.” she said quietly.

”Oh, yes I am from Northaven. But I didn’t meet Ronin until here. I was a bit of a newcomer to the settlement when we were all sent here.”

"But why make it easier for them to succeed?" Jigano mused. "If they don't want the barrier to fall while the Voice is free, why give powerful Outlanders tools and information to bring the barrier down now, and not do so for the Naturals fifty years ago when the Ascended's goddess was still trapped and sleeping?" He agreed with her that people would chase their desires, but what he found strange was that, if the gods were so adamant about the Voice's entrapment (or destruction), why did they seemingly encourage the warriors to face the Demon, the Spire, and the Barrier now, when she had a much better chance of escaping once it came down?

He nodded in agreement again when she said that the gods were bound somehow. "The Old Gods probably left some rules in place over their, ah, colleagues here. Though the fact that Ludo could tell you 'too much' and wasn't constrained from it is telling, too. They stopped because they chose to, not because they were prevented from speaking in the first place." A pact, perhaps, with the other two old - small 'o' - gods? Or a directive from the Old Gods? Alas, questioning deities often didn't end well. They liked their mysteries and their secrets as much as he did.

"Fear of the unknown, of change, can push people to extremes... even gods," Jigano said softly as he paused at a four way intersection, cocked his head, and then chose the right hand path for them to continue down. "A mortal ascending to godhood might have shaken the very core of what they believed, such that they lashed out without thinking or planning, to punish and control and to hell - literally - with those innocent souls caught in the crossfire." He tossed Phoebe a glance over his shoulder and the hint of a wry grin. "Then again, she could also have attempted to raise Ascended armies and forced the conversion of Accepted and Abandoned and Attuned to create more young gods like herself and overthrow the old order, and that's why they slammed the barrier over her." He gave a little shrug, returning his attention to their winding path. "The problem is... I've heard and read bits that suggest both. And neither side is unbiased in this, making it difficult to untangle the truth from the propaganda."

He nodded at the information that she had been a newcomer, and gave her a fleeting smile - more open and honest this time - as he slowed his steps over a slick area of uneven stone, ready to offer an arm in assistance should she need it. "What was your life like, before Caido?" he asked curiously. "And the land you came from before Northhaven?"

"Maybe they are tired of waiting." Phoebe said with a light shrug. "To be immortal and have to spend it locked up in here, separated from the other deities...it seems a pretty miserable existence. And perhaps the Naturals simply haven't asked...or they haven't asked the right questions... Maybe that is why we were all brought here, to spurr things along." she said. And then they had derailed it a bit by waking up the Voice, since they were all muddling about through a world that was terribly foreign to them.

"I suppose that is true. I may have also not been the right person to hear whatever knowledge Ludo had to offer." Phoebe said lightly. It was troublesome that it might be the case but she refused to be offended by it. She was just a midwife after all. There wasn't much she could do if given divine knowledge.

Phoebe considered what he said, nodding a little. There were two sides to every story, and the truth always lay somewhere in the middle. "That is true...but unfortunately we must all pick a side in the end. Isn't that so?"

He asked about her life before Caido and she sighed a little, picking her way around some slipper rocks. "I was a nobody really, the only reason I was chosen to go to Northaven was for my skill. But I was just a common girl in a war torn country. As much as people complain about this place...and as much danger as there is...at least there isn't literally a war raging every second every day." she said.