[PRP] Lend a hand (Shiloh & Temperance)

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Chief Mercer?" It was kind of super shitty that he was telling people that he'd been geased, but it was to be expected. He hadn't been especially pleased about it, though Temperance had thought Hart was damn clever.

One of her hands tugged at her dress. "Well, you're a principal, right? So shouldn't you, of all people, know? It seems logical. I don't know if America knows who the third is, though." Temperance knew America didn't. "The choice is yours, but I... I can't tell you anything without the geas being passed."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Chief Mercer, yeah. He was really upset about it." Shiloh wrung his hands a little, "I dunno, he's always poking around where I feel like he shouldn't, but it's kinda concerning they're geasing everyone... like I get it y'know? They're afraid of being found out, but..."

He sighed.

"You're right though, I am a principal. I mean, I'm not really trying to hide it anymore." His shoes were really interesting to look at for a moment, but he looked back up to Temperance. "I don't think Meri knows though, she'd try to tell me too I think, even if she got geased..."

Shiloh was silent for a while, his thoughts visible on his face as he chewed his lip in deep consideration.

"Alright." He sighed. "I can't not know. Lay it on me."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Everyone? Really..." Unless Hart had gone nuts, everyone was two people. And Sonny's wasn't even a technical geas, but a request that Sonny could not refuse. It was kind of weird, but Temperance wasn't going to visit Sonny any time soon to discuss it.

"Well then. Shiloh, would you kindly not communicate to anyone the identity of the principal or things indicating she might be the principal." While talking, she'd circled back around to sit in her chair. She could feel the magic swimming in the air around her words, waiting for the reveal, waiting to pounce. Temperance sighed, not looking at Shiloh.

"It's me."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Well I guess I meant that kind of rhetorically," He flushed like he was embarrassed, "I mean Mercer, and then Sonny, so—"

His voice caught off as a sudden weight hit his chest. It wasn't the same as the Noble geas; that had commanded his attention and forced the air out of his lungs with an entirely different sensation. This felt like a punch to the gut without any of the pain, like hands around his neck without any of the pressure.

"It's you."

As if the would you kindly bit hadn't tipped him off in the first place.

Shiloh was silent then, for a long, good moment. He was feeling a lot of different things, like his trust being compromised, like understanding the entire situation, like how suddenly everything made ******** sense. The third principal had never died; the trees were rotting because they were removed from their world, and the tithe trials were a perfect reason as to why. He felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier.

"So," His voice was miraculously monotone, though the edge buzzed with something a little dangerous and a little hot. "Why the ******** did you do that to Sonny then? You know they can be reasoned with like anyone else, right? You didn't have to force them?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

The silence seemed to drag on and Temperance didn't particularly want to look up. Instead, she drew a circle in the spilled tea. His voice finally made her glance up.

"You might not believe me, but that... wasn't me. Hart requested Sonny not tell anyone and... Sonny can't refuse someone acting as a principal's request." She sighed. "This... the magic here didn't come into play until Chief Mercer. Which I also didn't place - it was a clever bit of work by Hart after Mercer forced her to tell." Round and round in the spilled tea until she forced her hand to stop.

"I don't suppose that makes it better. After... Adoelle and Sonny came to me. Her throat was still cut, the edges still wet and she still spoke. You don't worry that you'll be killed just like the others?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

It took another round of silence, but eventually Shiloh seemed satisfied with the answer. "Hart did it, huh..." He sighed, "You should still probably talk to Sonny though. Try to explain the situation. They're um... Meri said they were really, really upset."

"I guess I understand though." He huffed a little, "Micheal was there, and his voice was still all rough and wheezing like he still had hands around his throat." Shiloh was quiet again, but this time it was just for a moment, "Maybe my sense of self preservation isn't that great, I dunno. I was keeping it lowkey for a while, but... I just wanna open the cage, y'know? I'm tired of people having ulterior motives and keeping secrets and s**t. I just wanna get stuff done..."

He was they key, Temperance was the tree, and that made America the trifecta. Who'd have thought.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"What would I even say to Sonny? 'Hi, Sonny, my fetch did that, but I'd have done the same thing'?" Temperance rubbed the back of her neck.

"Sure, I don't mind opening the cage, but I don't want to die for it. All the others died. People chose Adoelle to die."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Well if we open the cage, then they're gonna be free, and then they're gonna want you dead anyway. They already do." He huffed, "I'm just saying you should talk to them is all. It's not good to let that stuff sit..."

The pressure was still on his throat, but it was slowly fading too. Still, it was ambivalent in its presence; he could feel it at his back, but it wasn't acting, not right now, just this once. He assumed it was because it was Temperance he was speaking to. Anyone else would have him in pain. There was a flash of worry; how would that translate over his mental link with Jamie? How was he going to explain a new wall that wasn't ever there?

"Adoelle wanted to die." His hands hugged himself, "Sorry, it's hard for me to feel sympathy for any of the other principals. They did terrible things to Melany. They're the reason the Spinel Lady existed in the first place. I can't forgive people like that." He looked up, "The deer triplets too. All of them. ******** 'em."

His heart still hurt though, when he thought about Noeh. God he didn't want to hate her, not after all she'd done for him in Court, but what the <********> man.

"There's a way to open the cage without us dying though, I think." He said quietly.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance looked at her hands. Shiloh was right, but it was daunting, especially when all she wanted to do was set up a clinic at the court. "Maybe you're right," she acquiesced.

"About Sonny. The rest, no. It doesn't matter if someone wants to die; they all died unfairly. Abuse shouldn't beget abuse, and I know we will just... disagree on that. I can't regret the people I've saved or the ones I've tried to. For me, forgiveness isn't linked to any of it." She took a deep breath. Temperance didn't want to argue this with Shiloh - they would never agree with each other and that was fine.

She looked up sharply at his next word. "And how?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh could at least respect that; being disagreeable, but staying in your lane. That was a good skill to have, even if Shiloh didn't practice it as much as he should.

"It's a little complicated and still a huge work in progress." He explained, "It's something I'm working on." Well, actually it was something Jamie was working on, but he wasn't about to divulge his boyfriends name like that. Sure, Temperance probably would go harm him, and sure, she was a secretive sneaky enough individual that she wouldn't snitch, but that didn't mean Shiloh was going to go around telling everyone his master plans. At the same time, if Jamie could have the schema study Temperance, it'd be another principal that it could have important information on.

He was clearly weighing his options.

Suddenly Shiloh was wearing a s**t eating grin, "I'd have to geas you."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She stared at him for a moment, then laughed. "I can't really say no to that, now can I?" Temperance spread her arms out.

"Is it a no-telling geas? Lay it on me."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"No, it's the Noble geas. No point in keeping it to myself since Aleksy blurted it out at the conference." Shiloh looked a little annoyed actually, but he pushed himself through it. "But I guess there's a proper way to use it when it's Noble to Noble..." He cleared his throat.

"I invoke the court prerogative," He started off, his voice quiet and somber. Still, he said it with an intensity that only ever came from practice; it was obvious that, since he'd learned it, Shiloh had murmured the geas over and over and over under his breath to commit it to memory, "Grant that I may never prove so fond to trust a man on oath or bond—Temperance Clark, what I'm about to tell you doesn't need to be repeated or communicated to anyone else, in any way-shape-or-form."

Shiloh breathed.

"Not that I guess it really matters." He looked embarrassed for a moment, "But my boyfriend is involved, and I don't want him to get hurt 'cause something accidentally slips. But if you're a principal too, then we could maybe use your help."

"Anyway, it's a little vague for now 'cause we're still gathering information." Shiloh was still seated, his legs crossing, "Jamie has a really powerful magical device called a schema. Basically what it does is... absorbs magical data, I guess. When you cast something, there's so much you need to keep yourself aware of, and it's super easy to make mistakes. But with a schema—" He made a wide motion, "—you could allow it to store all that information for you. It was specifically made to deconstruct things, and it's super powerful. You could use it to create a counter-act to the fullmoon madness that Moonwalker's have to live in fear of. You could use it to deconstruct the noble geas too, or entire incurable diseases, or basically anything."

He huffed, "So. It's entirely possible you can use it to deconstruct the cage too. Right now we're trying to learn as much as we can about sigils so we can undo it properly—but in theory—you could reverse the spell rather than break it. It'd remove the effects of the sigil on the world and our principality without severely ******** everything."

"Anyway, it's a super powerful object, so we're keeping it really quiet. Anything between us about the schema needs to be kept under wraps. God ********' knows what someone could do with it." Shiloh sighed, "You still following?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She let out a hissing breath as the magic caused her to hyper-focus on Shiloh's words, then it eased. It felt like wearing a too tight ace bandage for a moment. Once the weight lessened, Temperance listened interestedly about the schema.

"Which sigil are you thinking of breaking? The one we created didn't make the cage, that was the old one." She tapped her fingers thoughtfully. "If you reversed the one we made, it might through us back into our old world."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Both, ideally." Shiloh said idly, "We want to destroy the cage, but the remnants are still around. This sigil is built on the back of the old one." He shrugged, "I guess that's why it shifted us, instead of remaking everything."

"Anyway, I don't wanna think 'bout parallel universes right now." He rubbed his temple, "It isn't like this world would stop existing if we went back to the other universe. And like, who knows what happened to the people we replaced. Everyone says they're dead and I guess I kinda believe it." He paused, "And I think it'd just mess stuff up even more..." He thought about Ollie for a brief second.

"All of our developments are in the early stages though. If you wanted to consent to being scanned by the schema though, we're trying to get as much information about anything related to either sigil as possible." He looked up at her, "But that would mean telling Jamie."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"We don't have to talk about the whole parallel thing now." It kind of made Temperance's head hurt, too. She sighed.

"Are you alright with me doing the same to him as to you?" She almost looked sheepish. Almost.

melancholies