Of What Once Was (Solo)

[Ruby]

Set two days after the events of the thread 'Of What Could Be.' (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=20091)Forms the introduction to the Lux Aeterna, the build up to the confrontation with Lucian.

“Obscuring the fact that you are uncertain will not aid the thinking process Lilith. I am sure you’re more than capable, so please, get on with it,” Ruby rolled her eyes and turned her attention once more to the book she was reading, pompously titled On The Merits of Love In A Time Of War. The sun was shining high in the sky, like a bauble caught in the fires of winter warmth. The wind, oft an accompaniment to such splendor was for once absent, and all the ladies and fair folk of the city were out in the resonance and glory. One might describe it as a ‘day for the parasols,’ which was apt, given their sudden blossoming in every street in Scara Brae.

Lilith, who had been discussing and presenting an idea to Ruby from the babbling brook of her over excited mind slouched, rested her hands on her hips and tried to put a finger on where she had been before being rudely interrupted. “Ah, yes, there I was. I was thinking, that if Duffy wants to truly end Lucian and has agreed to not try any tragic acts of Empathy, that we should indulge his enthusiasm and conversion.”

“Indulge?”

“Use it to our advantage.”

“I’m not sure Duffy would see it such a light hearted manner, he’s very temperamental about that sort of thing.”

“I didn’t mean betray him,” she shook her head furiously, spinning on her feet and spinning the violet parasol at twice her own rate. It just felt like one of those moments. “I mean to say we should use his emotion to ensure he remains focused.”

“Which is why it was agreed that he spends time away from the troupe to gather the allies that are required to perform the Lux Aeterna?”

“Yes, but how long will that last?”

Ruby thought for a moment, detaching her eyes from the end of a paragraph to stare idly at the doves flying hazily overhead. It was hard to think in the sweltering heat, nothing to do with the fact that they were both wearing heavy dresses of summery hue and a corset corset, something akin to coat on a coat. “I have faith in him, he has found one of the chosen, there is no need to question wherever or not he will succeed in finding the others.”

“I doubt they’re just going to drop onto his lap, do you think it’ll be so easy?”

“I…” She sighed, Lilith was ever the one to hold logic and reason and truth to her heart, something she always regretted being ashamed of between siblings. “I suppose it will not, but we have our duties, and we will complete them to the best of our abilities.”

“Huh,” Lilith snorted, stopping her dance to give her sister a look of distrust. “You’re only saying that because you feel a modicum of power and success returning to your grasp whilst Duffy is busy.”

“Do not assume so much Lilith, it is nice being able to stick around with the children more, certainly, but I have my own obligations I am struggling to keep at home – something many of you have not yet had the luxury to experience.”

“Pfft, that did not stop you flirting with Logan in the Coliseum!” She wagged a finger and smiled, dropping the parasol to bask in the sun and the exhilaration of a witty retort. “Although I am somewhat proud of you for not acting on an impulse and becoming more likes your namesake – it is good to see some of us have a moral backbone.”

“You, Lilith, are beginning to tire me. Come, let is return indoors; the heat is obviously getting to you.” With a gentle amble Ruby climbed to an upright position and stepped down from the wide and tall ring around the sparkling fountain of Market Square. There was no market here today; heat was not a good environment to sell your wares, especially foodstuffs. In other parts of the city they might not care about the state of the goods sold or the following state their customers got into, but in the theatre district and more cosmopolitan hubris, there was an unwritten law that summer meant shade, and shade was hard to find.

“Ugh, so easily riled yet so furiously tempered!” Lilith trailed after her and together they waggled their petite derrières towards the smallholdings Ruby kept in a quieter part of town, away from all the drab and dreary responsibilities of the rich and the famous.

[Ruby]

“You never really told me what happened in Salvar, Ruby.”

“That’s because,” the Crimson Mistress began to reply, but pursed her lips in restraint. “That’s because, there is little to tell. I was under duress and much of it is lost to the sands of time.”

“Your impressionist metaphor only makes my belief that you’re keeping something stronger, more prominent.”

“You will hear of it, one day, but I wish to keep some cards close to my chest. Privacy is a bittersweet rhapsody I am becoming rather partial to in a world where we share every little bit of our personality with those we love. Do you not think?”

“I guess, it’d be nice to have some secrets, if sisters are allowed such luxuries…” Silence descended over the siblings, so that only their footsteps, dainty and proud echoed through the cool cascading ambiance of the delicate promenade between Market Square and Highgrove. Beyond that rested Broman Avenue and the Delacroix Household. There, they both knew, would be waiting arms and a warm and humble embrace. Was that not luxury enough? Ruby thought to herself.

“All I do know and all I will say, is that whatever plan Lucian had for us in our exile he did not seem to act upon it; he had every opportunity to sunder the troupe, to tear it from the fabric of reality just…like…that!” She clicked her fingers in the air and swallowed the indignity of being.

“Maybe he did…”

“What do you mean?” They turn a corner into a winding brick road, a gentle decline taking them down to the lower but more elegant districts of Scara Brae. “What have you not told me?”

“No, I mean to say, what if Lucian’s plan had been to change the dynamic of the troupe. Perhaps, in making you think he has not acted, you will be blind from the truth of the matter – which his plan is already well set in motion. We cannot begin to conceive logical notions in his design, in his archetypal methods.” Lilith’s smile was internal, but the warmth exuded by her being made Ruby sick with acknowledgement. They turned another curve in the road and slowly came to realise that the air, hot and humid, was tantalizing tainted with honeysuckle and jasmine.

“It has only been two days since my ‘discussion’ with Duffy. There is no chance that Lucian’s conundrum could be so well timed to launch after such a revelation. If he is biding his time or conducting some foul part behind the scenes, beyond reach, then I am sure we will know of it in time.”

“I am sorry for questioning you sister, I just worry for your fortitude, and you do so much for so little reward!”

“Ha!” Ruby smiled wholeheartedly, tilting back her head to sprawl into a cat like stretch and laugh combination; it brought jovial springing to their souls.

The red brick and thatched roof of the nearby hall and the flowers which embroidered it into a picture perfect state blended with the halcyon moment.

“My reward, my dearest sister, is to live on the borders of fame and infamy, to arrive at home, here,” she waved her hand wide to the house three down from the hall, one detached property with ancient windows in what might be known as a Tudor design on some other world, and appreciated it’s grandeur.

“The place I call home. The place we call home.”

[Ruby]

“Home,” Lilith looked up at the first floor windows, visualising the innards of the house in her mind. She walked the hallway and landing and spun around in a delicate circle into her bedroom, into the paisley chamber of womanly delights. “Yes…this where home is…but it is not where I feel at home.”

They both walked up the steps to the double oak doors in perfect unison.

“No?” Ruby replied, in a tone that suggested she knew where the conversation was going, but could not be bothered to alter its course. She turned and pushed the ornate handle, in the manner of a doorman too scared to take hold of the brass lion that guarded the castle.

A bell tinkled somewhere inside.

“The Prima Vista is where I feel at home.”

“Oh, fancy that!”

“Don’t mock me Ruby, I am serious – you may feel somewhat ambivalent about the troupe now, but you felt it too once, before you met,” as they entered the hallway Lilith stopped mid-sentence, spying a tall and handsome figure waiting suspiciously calmly just inside.

“Before you met me?” Ruby’s husband cracked a smile, trying to look as if he’d been passing the door by simple coincidence, and not as if he’d seen them approaching from the sun lounge to the side of the mansion. “Aye, well, I am afraid the past is just that, and I have been worried you had gotten lost in it…my love, did you forget we are entertaining this afternoon?”

Ruby’s parasol fell abruptly, a clumsy misdemeanor of frustration. She had indeed forgotten, and the shock of being reminded did not bode her fortunes well. “I-yes, I, Lady Gregory…”

“Lady Gregory, the esteemed matriarch and sponsor of your debut into this society you’re so fond of,” he adjusted his crenate and straightened the edge of his tuxedo, “will be here in precisely one hour and thirteen minutes.”

“Then we shall be ready and waiting,” Ruby gives Lilith ‘the look’ of sisterhood, that said ‘split up’ but secretly meant ‘convene in our usual bolt hole.’ “I shall ascend to prepare, I assume all preparation have been taken care of my love?”

Ruby’s husband, whose name Lilith had never been able to cement to the back of her mind nodded, pecked Ruby on the cheek and slid away with unnerving speed and grace into the side door beneath the balcony, which was the universal location of the kitchen and servant’s quarters in virtually every house in Scara Brae.

There goes my afternoon bath… They both muttered to themselves, each ascending a staircase with parasol tucked under opposite arms and timing beyond perfect. They timely shut their doors to their chambers at the same moment, as if they were born for the role.

[Ruby]

Ruby’s chamber was nothing spectacular, a simple and elegant and functional dress room with the added advantage of a bed, an open balcony window and a large mirrored wardrobe and powder chest. She spent so little time here, the rest of which was divided between the Tantalum and the second best bed in the master bedroom that it seldom accrued dust, seldom saw life and seldom was it in need of adjustment, purchases or cause for concern.

On the far side of the house, Lilith pushed aside the mirror on her wall and slipped into the dark passageway that ran along the outside wall that faced the street. When they were girls, they had discovered the mansion occupied by an elderly woman who oft smelt of cat urine and tended to eat nothing other than ash and the scrapings from the plates of her many dogs. When the Tantalum Troupe had discovered Ruby, and subsequently cast her aside as Tantalum, she had used what gold she’d spared from the troupe’s coffers to establish herself a homestead, and was drawn instinctively to the same house she’d snuck into with Lilith as a younger, more dangerous self.

The owner was said to still wander the streets, homage to the destitution and neglect of a society’s elders…or perhaps she was still looking for her ‘beloved Tommy.’

“I cannot believe I have been so stupid!” Ruby cast her parasol aside and let the clattering calm her nerves and settle her thoughts back on track. All her training and elocution was temporarily cast aside due to fruitless frivolities and summer day dreaming. When Lady Gregory ‘came for tea,’ she made an evening occasion of it, and the last time such a thing had occurred, there was little left of Lady Gregory’s hallway and she had been propelled across Althanas to an adventure she’d thought she’d buried in the sand.

Knock knock. Ruby’s own window clicked open and swung away from the wall at the hinges. Lilith appeared and slipped into the room, the mirror clicking itself shut behind her long dress trail. She wasted no time, “What on earth did you invite her for?”

“I…do not know.”

“She will be here before we can change, so this will have to do!”

“Good lord Lilith, if we are seen at high tea wearing outdoor clothing we will be castrated…I don’t know how it is possible, but Lady Gregory will see to it that it is done!”

“Yes, she will, so put on some of the Leaman perfume, adjust your hair and try to make yourself look as if we were just enjoying the garden.” It was common knowledge that ladies of a certain pleasure enjoyed the casual hobby of strolling in and about their own gardens. Not only did it embroider a picturesque scene of summer nobility, but it was also said to clear the senses, sharpen the mind, and make a woman fertile. Ruby had often disagreed with this viewpoint, not entirely liking the comparison between her and a tulip, or some other such clichéd icon of womanhood. She’d expressed this viewpoint in a dress you could smother several men with, and thus the hypocrisy had erased any further resistance to the notion.

[Ruby]

Ruby picked up the bottle and sprayed, shuffling her restricted body into the seat by her dresser. She watched her sister in the reflection as she shuffled her bosoms and uncurled the hair from its honey nest arrangement, a task which took the removal of thirteen pins and several lengths of concealed string. And a gold coin, for some reason Ruby did not question. “Wait…” She stared at the bottle.

“Don’t question it, just does it! She will not recognise me if you endeavor to sing a song before she is given too much time to remember.” In the sudden paranoia, both their well pronounced accents began to fade into the common slang of their stage bound counterparts.

“She ain’t going to recognise you Lilith, it’s been coming on eight months and there was the whole incident with Lady Gregory’s court case in between…she will be so incessantly chattering about that she won’t have time to think.”

“I hope,” Lilith leant back on the edge of the bed to gain some leverage to adjust her reverse corset, grunted, pushed, and lay prone and panting. “I hope you are right, caus’ we’ll ‘ave ‘ell to pay otherwise!”

“I think you might have to call Blank, we need something more than haphazard conjecture!”

“What good will he do?”

“He enjoys playing villains; we need someone utterly loathsome to be in attendance, more loathsome than Lady Gregory,” Blanks silence was often the misconstrued result of an abject horror at his own predicament. It was as if his connection to The Aria was purely to the distant works of the philosopher Nietzsche, as if a bridling nihilistic wave of otherworldly damnation was hammering at his door. Of course, such works were being incorrectly drawn upon, as Friedrich’s original intentions were not to be used to philander with seven sisters of the same line and become a swashbuckling thief, but a dramatic license was after all, a dramatic license.

“We do?”

Ruby sprayed a second wave of perfume and set the bottle down next to the various creams and ointments she’d purchased on the whim of incessant women but never truly come to use, or know the use for. “Yes, she will be so enthralled by his company she will think we were dressing down and dangerous to entice him, and promptly arrange a ball for him and her blasted pug nosed daughter!”

The brief silence was broken by a distant bell ringing, and abject horror struck both their faces. Very quickly they both charged across the room and bolted the door, crashing into each at the last moment and falling down in a bundle of ribbon, lace, and common as muck dishonor. They both sat upright and tensed their entire bodies in a craning motion, listening for any signs of being overheard from beyond the mahogany cullis.

[Ruby]

The door opened as if by magic, and in swept the spidery husk of Lady Gregory and her two poodles, Isabella and Murfree, sisters alike in vicious parables and unworthy honour. Ruby’s husband fell back from the bridling mass and bowed politely as they entered. A butler and a maid appeared from the kitchen door at once, as if they’d simply drifted through the walls. The scene was set. Daggers drawn, first words muttered.

“Hello Lady Gregory, welcome!”

“Pleasure, pleasure, where is the Lady Ruby and her sister?” Her lips pursed, whistling the question more as a command than any polite indication of location. “I trust they have remembered our engagement?”

“Of course! Of course! They are presently occupied with ladies matters, but they have assured me they will be joining us briefly. If you’d like to come this way, to the sun lounge, we can begin with discussion and the Earl Grey.”

Fate decided to deal the poor man a good hand, and the three girls accompanied him to the adjacent room, a glass circular chamber overlooking the somewhat bedraggled garden in full blaring view of the midday light.

Apparently, it was the height of fashion, comfort and status to possess such a thing. Ruby had little use for it, except to ensure her guests were as equally uncomfortable as she was.

Silence filled the hallway, until a small creak split the tension. Ruby peered through the newly made crack in between the door and the frame and sighed. Their misdemeanor had gone unheard, and they had been brought a great deal of time in which to prepare. ‘Occupied with ladies matters’ and ‘assured’ were both very explicit terms in the noble terminology – it meant ‘we may not be there at all.’

“I love that man,” she smiled, looked over her shoulder at Lilith and picked herself and her sister up. “With the time brought we can change our plan. She’s only brought two of her corrupted offspring, and that is two enough we can handle. You should go down first, to ensure Lady Gregory’s mood is made fouler, and I shall be down shortly after…there is something I need to do before I embrace the countless hours of tedious boredom we are both about to suffer.”

“Very well,” Lilith pulled the door open but paused as she stepped out. “Is…everything okay Ruby?”

“Pardon?” She looked over her shoulder and flicked the crimson locks from her eyes, coyly trying to hide her disheveled and tear smocked face.

“Is…” No…don’t ask… “It matters not, I shall see you shortly…”

The door clicked shut, leaving the headstrong Matriarch to her doubt ridden troubles and a growing sensation of helplessness. She loosely waddled to the dresser and plucked a single handkerchief from a pink steel floral box, and emptied her sinuses into its triple pleated lavender scent.

Lilith stood on the opposite side of the door with her ear to the cold wood and frowned…

“What did you do…Ruby…”

[Ruby]

The tears came like rivers, spiraling down her delicate form and saddening the expression she’d upheld for so long. The cold hard and resolute exterior broke, like a mask into a thousand shards, and the walls of resolution came crashing down.

Duffy was right; they could not do this alone.

The balancing act Ruby kept so well was now unfeasible, unfretted, and unnatural. She could no longer pledge loyalty to either her home life, or that of the Tantalum, and with the shadow rifts appearing all over the city and the absence of Duffy, they needed her more than her ever doting husband and his obsession with knitting. What was she to do?

The Aria shined.

But it did not shine with an answer; it sung only more questions, in staccato lullabies and tempestuous melodies. They were riddles upon riddles on a sea of torment. “Damn you!” She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, letting the false world she was drawn to for her heart’s sake tumble down into a pile of rubble. The sea which replaced it calmed her, even though its waves were rolling and tumbling death knells to the sailor’s dream.

The conversation with Duffy in the alleyway was an important turning point in her own self questioning. For so long she’d ignored all the little signs, the petty comments and the badly disguised attempts at flirtation. They all seemed to be typical traits of a young boy out of his depth, she’d laughed with Lilith about Duffy’s inadequacy with women…but it’d dawned why.

When the world was shaking, the four principle truths reared their ugly head.

She opened her eyes after what seemed like an eternity compressed into five minutes. Tucking her pride back into its box the Crimson Mistress turned on a timely heel, plucked up a fan from the powder stained dresser which had a dashing Akashiman design, fluttered it, and strolled over to the door.

She only needed to keep the masque up for a few hours more, then she would cast it aside once and for all…Scara Brae was more important to her, it was more important in the grand scheme of everyone than flights of fancy.

As she descended the staircase she thought of the four things that kept her alive, each in turn driving her forwards.

Love....

Hate....

Faith....

Hope....

[Ruby]

Love.

Who did Ruby La Roux love? She’d been so certain once, when the summers were long and the future had no meaning or claim to the rest of her existence. Now that it crept up on her she was rapidly losing hope in the sense of attraction to another. Ideals were quickly beginning to be more poignant than flesh, ideology of being, of living, of surviving…that was mankind’s true love…surely?

The cold band of gold about her ring finger panged her back to reality. Yes…she did love. She loved a man who gave her this entire splendor, all this affection, all this undivided attention. What had she to offer in return, but a swansong to the days of yore, the last fragmented truths of a dying pleasure in a city that did not trust its own sense of expression?

She loved Duffy, but not eternal, undying love – it was more the love of a brother, scornful exchanges of hate and regret with the odd recollection of a golden age long gone.

She loved the troupe, her once true home and the reason she had rediscovered her sister and her calling.

She loved the song, the spiritual resonance of words in the air that could rapture men and bring women to tears of ecstasy over tragedies and comedies and everything in between.

She loved herself…the guilty obsession of every woman.

She loved gold…

She loved the city…

The thoughts in her head brought her half way down the staircase before she stopped, unannounced but unobserved, and blankly observed the newly installed chandelier above their plainly adorned hallway. She peered and scrutinised the central orb and with a gasp of surprise, she suddenly realised what she loved most of all.

She loved the thrill of the chase, of the theft, of the gambit and the performance, she loved the gulling sweep of dialogue, the absent love of men in seedy taverns…she loved attention, she loved fame, she loved the pretense of infamy she had garnered as the leading lady of the Tantalum.

What she loved, was to be loved, and the Orb of Attainment sat high in the air in her own home loved to be discovered in the strangest of places.

[Ruby]

Hate.

A powerful emotion, one quickly raised to being by the sight of that disgusting artifact. Had it not been made into trinkets far and wide? What fortune or curse had brought it here?

It hung like a star in the night sky and spiraled on the whim of a simple enchantment…had her husband brought it…rebuilt it…encapsulated her rage she’d vented at him and hoped to calm her?

How she hated Lucian.

How she hated Wainwright.

How she hated hate itself.

She stepped onto the last step slowly, looked up momentarily and walked forwards with blind abandon. “Why…why?”

There was a time, before she’d discovered who killed her first love, before she’d discovered that Lucian was the cause of all their woes, that she’d simply resigned herself to being as she was and stopped questioning the malicious intent of the universe in singling her out for all the sin. Why her? Why me? Why Duffy? Why Lilith?

There did not seem to be an answer…there did not seem to be a resolution, only more questions in an endless sea of doubt.

The Aria Shined…

Ruby opened her mouth, and a simple and elegant verse slipped through her teeth in gritted fallacy.

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

What Ruby La Roux hated most of all, was not being in control. She hated being a simple puppet for some dark king, a maelstrom unleashing fury at the gods with no hope of ever damaging their greed, ever harming their selfish ways. What was she, if not a simple and humble woman in a conflict with the behemoth and the leviathan?

She strolled over the hallway, saddened by her tears but lightened by the crystal glowing above.

Lucian would fall.

She hated him too much for him not to.

[Ruby]

Faith?

Ruby smiled.

She did not need faith; she had dedication, love, a cause and a reason to rise against…

From the Aria came a long and distant melody, a tale to inspire and to castigate.

Her lips opened and a fiery tiger burst from her. It danced about the hall as she spiraled and floated into the air on a display of electric butterflies and devils and angels.

You can't let it get you down
No no no no no
No no no no no
No no oh no no
Don't let it get you down

Just when everything seems to be going alright
Some unexpected misery enters your life
Then you ask your self how could this be wondering why
I've been there
You see your whole world come crashing down
All at one time
Your bodies weak from all the worrying
And so is you mind
Your walking down that rocky road
But things will get better
Cause trouble won't last forever

You can't let it get you down
Not now
You've come to far to turn around
You gotta walk with your head up high
Believing you can reach the sky
You can't let it get you down

Have you ever felt the need to get away from it all
The person that you care about the most just broke your heart
Just to be in the same room with them
You can't stand the thought
I've been there
You don't know if your relationship is worth holding on
How much longer can you take being treated so wrong
You're confused on what to do
But no matter what you do
You're gonna make it through

Oh, take it from me
The only thing you need is a little faith
The size of a mustard seed
You may cry through the night but hold on
Cause joy comes in the morning

In the morning
Joy comes in the morning
Have a little faith
Just a little faith
And you can make it
So don't you give up

Don't you let nobody turn you around
Don't you let nobody tuen you around
Keep your head up to the sky
Believe in yourself

As the song trailed off into nothingness, the tyger spiralled around the hall once more and burst into fire as Ruby's feet touched the ground. The rush of adrenaline scorched her veins, the belief in her own viewpoint rushed from nowhere and changed her. It burnt away the faith, the hate, the love, the fear...it found itself replaced by a song, by an amiable waltz, a damned cantor that was unquenchable, unending, perfect.

What Ruby did not know, was that she had sung The First Song.

The Aria Shined, Ruby rocked, and she finally realised what it was she missed and longed for above all other things.

She turned the handle of the door to the sun lounge, and squinted in the sun beam.

[Ruby]

Hope?

“Ah! Ruby, we were just discussing your recent endeavors with the homeless!” Almost instantly the fiery convocation and joy the song had brought into Ruby’s life was quenched by the drabness and horrors unleashed upon her senses; Lady Gregory was platitudinously sickening. There was no escaping this social conviction, this servitude to the nation to which she belonged.

Hope was a funny and sordid thing. It denied one the realisation and dramatisation of a goal, simply replacing it instead with a hurried and spurious sense of salvation.

She hoped they would survive the war.

She hoped Duffy would find someone as she had done, and hoped he would discover the meaning of loving, and being loved in return. That was something few members of the Tantalum ever had, beyond the brotherly bond they all shared, the communal throng of family hood.

She hoped Lilith would learn to forgive her for her transgressions.

Abandonment for something as futile as a man was a sin amongst sisters, but compassion was deeply embedded in Lilith’s soul. They endured, but not through the sharing bond, but because they could not stand to be apart. Her Fearful Symmetry was Lilith's after all.

She hoped Lucian would not have to die. Secretly, she wished he could be returned to the former glory that was Wainwright.

Who would forgive her for exploring the consequences of all their actions? What glory the Tantalum would stand in, if they could have their true Tantalum stand on stage with them!

She hoped one day to have the Royal House bless their performances.

She hoped one day, that they would be able to perform without stealing…without the deception and illusion of distraction to keep food in their bellies and wine in their gullets.

“Yes,” Ruby said meekly, sliding up to her sister and sitting on the floral cushion closest to the gin laced teapot and the neatly arranged French fancies. In the silence, she was almost certain she caught a glimpse of a fiery tiger prancing about the garden.

“I- I have been somewhat fortunate to receive the opportunity to do so.”

She hoped that she could leave all this behind whilst still embracing her husband’s world.

The duality was a curse, one she could bear no longer.

“Tell us all about it!” Lady Gregory took a bite of a pink fancy, one which clashed awfully with her typical black dress and cobwebbed shoulder pads. Suddenly, Ruby’s concern for etiquette faded, and she launched into a soul draining account of the trivial chores to the nobility of Scara Brae, in enhancing, sleep inducing detail.

The dictations of time the universe over would have it no other way.

[Ruby]

Two days ago.

“I din’t know that Lucian was called Wainright!” Duffy said, and Ruby silently cursed his ineptitude and immaturity.

“No, but the moment you arrived you discovered it and you had two years to tell me! But no, your own selfish little indulge lead you to ruin all our lives, we could have killed Lucian half a decade ago had it not been for your own selfishness!” It's your fault!

“Do you think I wanted to tell you what Lucian did? What he did to you, to me, to the others? When I found out he killed my parents, and that he killed your first love, I cried so much I re-opened the wound and let the blood touch the four artifacts – it was as if Fate pushed me.”

“Now Lucian has eternal power over us, the only way we will ever be rid of him is if we find the Orb…I assume you now know it’s true name?”

Duffy squandered a moment to listen to the rats as they scarpered away into dark holes and moldy rubbish piles. It was along a tunnel just like this that he’d walked, two years ago, with the vial of blood and the four items that once belonged to the Tantalum named Wainright Jones…

“The Orb of Attainment is known by the name Wainright’s Eye, and through it, Lucian sees all of Scara Brae.”

“So it is most fortunate that it is broken, is it not?”

They turned a corner and stopped at the edge of the alleyway, both of them watched the stream of people slip past the tall crack in nothingness that formed a metaphorical barrier between their private troubles, and the outside world.

“I… Suppose.”

“If we do not recover the fragments of the Orb, which I believe are now in various articles of jewelry on ears of various members of the Scara Brae Court, we will never be able to bring the four together and combine Lucian’s sceptr’d form into one, single, true representation of his hatred.”

“Stoppit!”

“Duffy?”

“STOPPIT! Lucian and Wainright are not the same, the man he was and the man he has become are distinct, separate, we can bring back the Tantalum that served Tantalus, we can restore the troupe to Scara Brae with his help!”

“Is it worth the risk? Is it worth all this torment and toil to perhaps, just perhaps, bring to life a buried light in a quagmire of malice? That man Scara Brae once knew as the Greatest Playwright to Live is gone, Duffy. He is dead in their imagination, he is a vestment to history, and he is forgotten and no more!”

“Must we truly kill him?”

“There can be no doubt –“ Ruby made to unclip the clasp at the back of her neck and gently pulled away the elaborate necklace. “These four artifacts combined and placed on the Tantalum, will summon to his presence the one who once made them,” she offered it to him, almost pushing it into his reluctant hand.

“I…I will do it.”

“Rest, Duffy. Think on all these things, call your allies that you have spent so long gathering, and realise, that you can no longer escape reality. You are Tantalus, you are the artful blood of Scara Brae, and you answer to no-one, not even Lucian.”


With a wink and a longing smile Ruby disappeared into the crowd and stepped out onto the corner of Pildon Avenue. She tensed, reeling in the confrontation.

She realised what it was she missed and feared...

She missed what she had...

She feared the revelation Of What Once Was...

[Ruby]

Spoils: Wainwright's Heart - possession of this necklace has now shifted to Duffy.

Infamy (Duffy & Ruby)- The Tantalum's name in the city of Scara Brae is now one of hot gossip and discussion, both because of it's skill and excitement, and because of it's tendency to go missing, just like the purses of it's audience. This Infamy has a reciprocal effect, in that most will know Duffy and Ruby's face, and some will respect them greatly; but others will be nervous at their sight or outright aggressive to them. The price of fame, 'ey?

In the honourable fashion of the theatrical tradition,



THE END

[Amaril Torrun]

Of What Once Was


Due to this story being written around the same time as Of What Could Be, the commentary may seem a bit rehashed.

STORY


Continuity ~ 4 You write with an assumption that your readers know everything that happened in the past. What is the Aria? What is the tension between Ruby and her husband? The brisk pace of your writing leaves out a lot of key details.

Setting ~ 5 You told me all about Ruby’s surroundings, but you need to show it more.

Pacing ~ 4 As a quick character brainstorm and development thread, I’d say you achieved the goal, though I feel like I would enjoy your writing more if you took it a bit slower. Your focus on character development outweighs that of setting and even plot to a degree, making the writing seem somewhat lopsided. Work for a more balanced approach to getting your story across.


CHARACTER

Dialogue ~ 8 The switch between noble and street tongue is creative and works well to emphasize Ruby’s two different worlds. I didn’t really understand the need for Lilith to speak both ways, since she wouldn’t be considered in the same class as Ruby. I was able to follow your dialogue a bit better in this story than Of What Once Was though I still had to backtrack a bit to figure out who was talking at times.

Action ~ 5 Sometimes you mention something a character was doing during a scene after the fact, such as Lilith dancing in your first post. This is another area that you could work on showing rather than telling.

Persona ~ 7 You give your readers a constant idea of what Ruby is going through, though she seemed to be a bit all over the place and the way you portray that makes the overall picture of Ruby a bit foggy.

WRITING STYLE

Technique ~ 6 While it still showed your talent, this thread didn’t have the same “umph” I’ve grown accustomed to while reading your work.

Mechanics ~ 4 There were a fair number of errors in this story, to the point that I didn’t have to look very hard.

Clarity ~ 5


MISCELLANEOUS

Wild Card ~ 6


TOTAL ~ 54

Ruby earns 574 experience and loses 56 gold for her household upkeep, as requested. The spoils are approved / transferred.

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.