The Civic Festhall (Clerk's Ward)

A slender coal-black brow lifts as the polar offers the child a smirk. He lifts the flyer up to read, his fiery eyes providing ample light whatever the hour. After a few moments of mental translations, the flame dancer clenches the flyer and balls it in his fist. He looks towards the Festhall, shrugs his shoulders, and steps towards the entrance, letting the drifting ashes of the flyer trail from his hand.

"No better way to learn a weakness than to learn a joy."

Jennifer Blinked more than just a little dazed she was standing in the street looking up at a structure that dwarfed anything she had ever imagined.

Did she die and wind up in some twisted after life in punishment for her rejection of the gods? How ironic that after years of torment and an ultimate rejection of the powers she would die in a battle against a priest who rejected the power of her queen. Fear ran down her spine and she swallowed or could this be another realm of existence. Was that any better?

She walked into the great building patting her saber and though she rarely depended on steel anymore it gave her a little comfort.

Walking further into the large building her heart jumped into her throat. A large creature with the head of a cat grinned at her “Lass you have to drop a little coin if ya want into the show”. Jennifer gaped and turned hard to leave and crashed into a larger creature that looked as she thought a werewolf might if they existed. Her hand near her saber, the only thoughts in her mind were getting out and getting somewhere else.

(OOC: this place is actually run by the entertainers guild now as techinally the Sensates don't exist in the city anymore. Although it is basically still the Sensates if I understand correctly.)

"ATTENTION, ALL!"

The voice is loud, but not shouted; well-projected, like an actor or a politician. Anyone who cares to look sees that the owner of said voice has emerged from the deeper parts of the festhall with a large beatific smile on his handsome face.

He continues, the volume only slightly lessened now that he has some listeners. "Welcome, all, to the Festhall!" The speaker appears to be male, human, and in his mid-thirties. His build seems to be average beneath his oh-so-expensive suit of spotless clothing.

He begins to move through the crowd with effortless grace. "Here, you may find any and all pleasures, any and all amusements. All you have to do is ask." The saintly smile tilts a bit and becomes a sly grin. "And a little jink never hurts..." He jingles a purse he's drawn from nowhere; then replaces it in the nowhere from whence it came.

"I am Majordomo here...and I have staff here all day and all night ready to guide you. Enjoy!"

A pillar of scintillating light erupts from the polar’s “backstage”, snuffing out the darkness as a flame-winged figure floats up, shining as bright as day. The polar’s features have been replaced with a stylized celestial continence: alabaster skin with just a touch of gold that seems to race through his veins, long, flowing golden hair, whipping about on a non-existent wind, radiant eyes glowing the color Elysium’s sky, and a humble white loin cloth hiding little of the statuesque musculature of the faux angel. The fiery celestial lands on his toes as he looks to the fire-made “fiend”, making an exaggerated beseeching gesture, as if begging the monster to halt its assault. The celestial toes forward, gesturing to itself, to the town of flames, and to the fiend, his wings accentuating his movements with shifting hues. The fiend straightens and gestures to the celestial, and throws back its head in silent laughter, as only the gentle roar of flames provides sound. The celestial reels, toeing backwards as if struck in the heart, agony washing over its face as it curls up, looking over its shoulder at the town. Sparkling silver tears fall from the celestial’s eyes, floating down like fiery bubbles to alight upon the town. The fiend laughs and exalts in bringing fear and sadness to such a righteous being. But as the tears strike the town, the blue fires in the celestials eyes become blood red, and his teeth gnash as he rises again, pointing the fiend angrily and asserting a challenge to the beast.

“yyyeaah" she stammered and slowly toke his hand “what is this place?” She flinched as a box shaped metal creature came walking by smiling widely despite being on fire and being chased by a women trying to put it out. “It’s so strange here”

The fiend guffawed in silence, and summoned a trident formed of shifting blue and purple light, menacing the celestial with the dimly-glowing weapon. The celestial, in turn, summoned a blade of brilliant white flame, ripples of heat emanating from it, though not enough to harm the surroundings of the Festhall. The two foes circled each other, each beating their wings as they flitted from position to position. The fiend’s movements were coarse and crude, but the celestial danced as it moves, slowly waving its holy sword as it locked eyes with its mortal foe. Fed up with the pixie-like movements of the celestial, the fiend moved as if to plunge its cruel trident in to the hapless flame-made village below it. Enraged, the celestial leapt in to the air, wings blazing like a phoenix’s triumph, then swooped down, sword-first, spinning in the air as it made to cut the fiend’s shoulder, but soon intercepted by the trident’s tines, and forced almost to the ground. Recovering quickly, the celestial made another pass, as the fiend tried to skewer celestial’s wings, both thwarted by each other’s own strikes. The opposed beams of light clashed, stroke after stroke, as the polar and his fiery construct warred upon each other, sending sparks in to the air, as if steel against steel, the celestial fires boiled away from the tainted trident’s tines, the eyes of each combatant blazed in hate and fury. Every time the fiend tried to impale the celestial, the polar dodged from the tines in an acrobatic roll and flit of his wings. Every time the holy blade neared fiendish flesh, the great beast intercepted it or knocked it aside. The choreography continued in this manner, with the powerful beast and the graceful protector having at one another, until the first strike sung true.

“I was battling a priest; I got light headed and found myself in a masonry building after seeing a bright flash. Within a few moments I was pulled into some kind of gate and found myself on the streets of this place….” Jennifer was still visibly shaken but still apparently watching most everything that went on around her.

Malketel just chuckles under his breath at the comment of fame rolling his eyes as the next page in his book turns.

"And what exactly would you show her? Your famous bedroom perhaps?" He mutters not quite quiet enough to escape being heard over on the bench near-bye.

Malketel looks away from his book, and the tome closes and dissapears from whence it was drawn.

"Ah quite right. I am called Malketel, and my bussiness is trading. I'm sort of a middle man, dealing in rare goods. I find people that have them and people that want them and connect the twain for a profit." He speaks in a smooth voice calmly smiling with now teeth showing. "Though if you are new here you'd be well advised to be wary of who is around you. This city is somewhat a neutral ground and fiends and celestials, llive side by side with paragons of order and manifestations of chaos.. And you can never truely tell just by looking at someone who or what they are. There are good fiends and evil celestials for example."[/i]

Looking slightly ruffled at the dog-crossed-creature, Corriander runs through several responses to the bedroom comment. Deciding on the most withering response, he ignores him.

"It's a crossroads, dear girl, and yes, people turn up from all over the place."

Glancing sharply at the Malketel, he adds, "...whether they have a purpose or not, invited or not. Delighted to meet you, by the way, Malketel."

Corriander looks about for a moment, then snaps his fingers. "Manners, manners. You must be hungry and thirsty, my dear girl. I shall fetch some refreshments."

He turns towards Malketel once more, and says "I'll take it *you* may as well participate. I can trust you to keep an eye on the young lady, hmmm?"

Without waiting for a response he whirls about, and heads to a nearby refreshments stall that seems to be staffed by a man with a fair few arms over the average, and makes some requests.

Malketel sits down in front of and just to the side of Jenefer, smiling aimiablely. Of coarse there is no bench there but he doesn't fall, the very air supporting him in an invisable chair..

"So my dear, if you don't mind my asking what trade do you ply when not finding yourself in strange cities?"

"Sigil, madam. Err...which Empire do you mean? This place connects to many worlds and there are many empires in those worlds. Does your world have a name?"

"Dirty? Well most cities have worlds surrounding them. This one has its portals which open and flush the city's air and water at the lady's discretion. It is a very busy place so between ah flushings things can build up. You either get used to it or you use a filter spell."

Three deep scars had been torn in to the celestial’s face, the skin and flesh looking as if it had been burned away, embers falling away before they faded into motes of light, and then nothingness. A long, bright blue tongue of flame flicked out of the fiend’s mouth, to caress the tines of its trident. The celestial shook himself, bit back the pain, flicked his golden locks over his shoulder, and rejoined the fight with redoubled wrath, slapping away the wretched trident as he made a long, slashing scar across the fiend’s belly, a puff of ash bursting from the wound as the two returned to their deadly dance. Every moment and every swipe brought more fury from both opponents, and the battle was truly joined. Heedless of their own pain, the two exemplars bled one another mercilessly, warring like no mortal could hope to. Images of the villagers appeared in the flames, hopeful faces, terrified souls, eyes unable to watch, and others unable to look away.

Both foes bled, and soon felt wary. The two bitter foes parted to catch their breath and twirled away from each other’s parting blows, but each stumbled at the end of their dodge. The celestial pointed his blazing sword at the fiend, and his eyes made a silent demand for peace. The fiend returned the gesture, but only grinned, and promised death in the same manner. Desperate, the celestial made a threatening sweep with his sword, declaring the result of further conflict, but the fiend only lifted its trident, and moved as if to strike the village below. Eyes wide and exploding with golden light, the celestial dashed forward, propelled by his fiery wings, to strike at the creature’s heart, forgetting the fiend’s original ruse. As the celestial came close, the trident flicked up, and impaled the hapless celestial’s stomach, causing the surprised would-be savior to lose his focus, and thus, his weapon, in a flash of light. The wretched weapon’s tines tore in to the holy creature’s gut, and emerged through his back. The fiend roared silently in victory, but did so too soon, as the celestial grabbed its thick throat, and summoned forth his blade one last time. The fiend’s eyes widened in horror as the holy flames erupted within its throat, tearing it apart. The holy blade and the unholy flesh boiled unto each other, and the fiend’s entire body became unstable. It’s head nearly separate from its body, and its life about to be extinguished, the fiend yet managed one last savage grin as it grasped tightly to the celestial’s body. In the span of a moment, the entirety of the fiery display, save the shining celestial, became as dim as shadow, and then the whole of it exploded in to brilliant light, as if a small supernova had just gone off, and then the fiend was utterly gone. Alone now in dull light akin to dusk, the fiery display the town extinguished, the celestial lay in a heap, its wings gone, its body crippled, and what flesh it still had char-blackened. The flames extinguished from its eyes as it stared up, and a simple smile emerging on it’s ashen face, before its eyes closed forever. A moment of nothing, and the polar’s body fades in to invisibility, the tale at its end.

Another few moments, and the polar allows light to return to it, now that it has regained its more usual form. It leans back against the interior wall, and glances around, making no gesture to bow or seek applause.

"I guess I should find myself a room in this city somewhere? Is there an Inn near here? I think I should be able to afford a room this city does accept gold and silver?"

ooc: maybe just suggest the inn right here in the Festhall so it will be pretty easy to access her later to join back up with you when I get back no matter what you decide to do with your character while I am gone. Sorry again for ducking her out of the plot while I am on my work trip.

Still a little uneasy Jennifer followed Gerzel as he beckoned and kept an eye out for the other fellow she had just met. Perhaps a chance to unwind a bit and a night of sleep would make the situation look better but she somehow doubted it.

"Thanks for all the assistance you are providing this is defiantly a strange new world" she smiled a bit thinking about how big of an understatement that really was.

Jennifer walked into a gothic looking room. It was simply magnificent nothing of this size existed within the empire. Glory went to God and Emperor such a display would be arrogant. One thing she had silently always questioned about the empire but it had ended the class wars and forged a new power…

After stirring in her room for a short while she decided to stroll around again not feeling so tired anymore. She wondered what other sights this strange new place had to offer.