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[selfimage]

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[selfimage]

[ "his literal hand"; that one brings him back. ]

He used his avatar to attack Reul directly in a very specific spot.

[ he's repeating it to solidify the idea, to let it branch out a million different ways in his mind. his hand is to his chin with thrumming fingers in a way that Jason can't see, but what he always does when he's thinking. ]

And now Ridire is dead, as is that avatar of his.

[ he stops for a moment. ]

Ah ...

[uneulogized]

As Harry understood it, you kill the Avatar, you kill the guy behind it. There is no living beyond that. It's also very difficult to kill someone empowered with all the strength of a god.

[selfimage]

[ something knocks softly against wood, and he taps a finger against the table. ]

Then why the avatar at all?

[ and a little snort. ]

Then there's the little mess we've got with the avatar of the Hel-spawned Void.

[uneulogized]

Because you can't act without the avatar. You might think you can, but in truth, Reul was useless against Ridire and his pet. That's why they call upon someone to act on their behalf.

[He says these words after a beat. Everything is becoming clearer.]

So, if you go without your avatar, you give up something. You may have entered a pact by arriving here that you didn't realize you stepped into, Loki.

[selfimage]

[ there's a pause, as if a tumbleweed has blown through their conversation, and it's soon followed by the slap of Loki's hand to his face. ]

Of all the—oh, fucking Hel ...

[ ever hear Loki swear? well, there it is. ]

A kink in the plan, that's for certain. A dangerous one, filled with annoyances and unneeded risk ... but it certainly falls into place.

That makes the Void something tangible.

[uneulogized]

I'd say that it makes the Void a god. Why else would it have an Avatar? And if someone tortured a little girl, ripping her apart piece by piece to make it better, what does that mean for an Avatar? There was power associated with it.

See, that just makes it clear that it was the Cult. Of course, we knew that, didn't we? Now we have a little more idea as to why.

[He pauses.]

It also means you're screwed.

[selfimage]

[ not just him. Thor, Ariadne—they're screwed too, and in the possible worst way that he could imagine. it makes everything else make sense. the Void, the avatars, the attack on Diasbaile, no, it's all too convenient. ]

As if we weren't all screwed already.

[ there's a sigh. ]

Jason, there's something you'll learn about me very quickly. I spend most of my time screwed, but I'll not do it without using every dirty trick that I can come up with.

And I have a few killer ones.

[uneulogized]

[Without even a beat of hesitation:]

What do you have in mind?

[selfimage]

I'm sure you remember my audience, and the little question I had for Morla.

How the gem broke, and fate of the Tuath Dé. She said she was bound by someone named the Drabkeeper. No one's seen this particular fellow since he high-tailed it out of a fire that Reynard started at his keep before we arrived. Books make for a lovely firetrap, so light a match and ta-dah, all that knowledge goes up in flames.

But it strikes me as off.

Why would Reynard burn it to the ground and let him escape? From what I've heard, Reynard never seemed like the kind of guy to let arson go unfinished. So either the Drabkeeper wasn't his main goal, or something else happened there before it burned to the ground.

Reynard—the cult—wanted something from this Drabkeeper, and they wanted something else destroyed. I could take a guess, and it's a clever cover. Everyone thinks that it was the information, and to an extent, it most likely was, but it just wasn't all, I wager.

The Avatar of the Void ties to the cult, there were shrines in Leathann, the cult ties to the Drabkeeper, the Drabkeeper to fate, fate to our goal.

I'm not just a god, I'm also a shardbearer. We'll just have to do some clever work-arounds for now.

[uneulogized]

[After a beat, he asks:]

What else can you tell me about the Drabkeeper? Have you learned anything else aside from his burnt domain? Well, partially burnt. I like fake arson, too. It's misleading.

[selfimage]

Ah—let's see. Just bits and pieces here and there. Parts of a greater whole that seem nothing but coincidence, even if they are dreadfully convenient coincidence.

His sigil is a fox. Please, let that one sink in.

Apparently he's also a shardbearer, one that was severed and then re-tied to this world. We know that shardbearers wander after their shards are removed, unable to bind themselves to the afterlife, but ... here's the thing ...

He came back. Returned from the dead.

[uneulogized]

Just so we're clear—not the kind of returned that we do, right?

[selfimage]

I can't be sure. I'm not certain of the entirety of your situation—but he can't be another incarnation, he can't ...

[ there's a pause. ]

There's no way he can be like me.

If that's true ... then we're dealing with someone far more skilled in shards than we can imagine.

[uneulogized]

No, no, that's not what I meant. [But that answers another question: Loki's been able to guess about his death. He was too obvious. Too many people know, and one day, it might be used against him.

—Focus.]

We come back after we die. That Faolan did that, and now he's playing house with his Seelie boyfriend. What you're telling me is that this Drabkeeper came back, but what was the nature of his return?

[selfimage]

Something unnatural enough to startle Waver.

[uneulogized]

So you got all this information from him.

[He barely hides his bitterness. Jason has had to pick a scapegoat for all their informational failures, and Waver has been the target—perhaps unfairly, but Jason is never one for fairness.]

[selfimage]

That part, yes. He insists his source was reliable. Lucky us, he's not one for bad information—only omission.

[uneulogized]

I'd like to know who his source is, [he adds in a mumble.]

But something tells me that the Shuck might have our answers. Unnatural defiance of death ... you'd have to figure that Death would have a bone to pick with that one.

[selfimage]

[ it's not to say that he wouldn't like to know who the source was, but he knew that Waver wouldn't tell him. there were ways to go about it, but they were high enough risk that he couldn't sacrifice what he had at the moment. ]

Most likely. The Shuck probably has lots of bits and pieces of what we're missing, all the corner pieces of our little puzzle. But speaking with him could get either of us a one way ticket in the wrong direction.

[ there's a long pause, and his voice sounds a little resigned. ]

Right now my shard is all I have.

[uneulogized]

Wow, that's a defeatist attitude if I've ever heard one. [Of course, they've come out of this conversation with a whole fuck ton of uncertainty, but still.]

[selfimage]

I have a very long and complicated history in dealing with the dead.

But, perhaps ...

[ he's pursing his lips a little bit, a hand goes to the back of his neck and he turns it. ]

That means the Shuck also may have an Avatar, doesn't it?

[uneulogized]

May have one, or may eventually have one. Reul didn't have one a year ago, but Ridire already did. [And if Ariadne had never been told about it, Jason thinks that this is still in the motions.]

[selfimage]

Eventually is key.

There were visions that were given to the gods—ones of another war. This time, between the divine, rather than just the mortal. One particularly pleasant one involved the Shuck being gutted on the antlers of the Hart.

[uneulogized]

Killed by his own brother.

[He muses about this for a moment.]

Did Ariadne get it?

[selfimage]

Yes, she did. As did a few others.

Though it's difficult to tell if it's contrived or if it's real. We could be at the mercy of one clever and powerful enough to make these prophecies self-fulfilling.

That is the question, isn't it? Is it really a prophecy, or is it someone trying to manipulate all the things that haven't happened yet?