Torn sat atop his nimbus cloud near the entrance to the Blinded Scales, looking over the realm. Very fitting. I like it. He decided that he’d give Dalanesca a window to prepare for his arrival, and so flew over to what he assumed was where he’d find the mosts priests, a large grey courtyard in the middle of the realm, directly in front of a building that looked like a courthouse. There, he saw a group of clerics clad in black and white, apparently discussing the finer details of law and justice, as well as the virtues of moderation and balance. It all looked rather monk-like to Torn, if it hadn’t been for the individual leading the discussion - a middle-aged man in magnificent dragonscale armour, wearing regal-looking purple robes, holding a spear of what could only be described as grand master craftsmanship. One of the priests spotted Torn and pointed, at which point the armoured priest turned to look, and waved Torn down.

The militant-looking priest eyed Torn up and down, his expression a little judging. As Torn flew around on a cloud, wearing armour and carrying a harp, this was understandable to some extent - but Torn still found himself slightly annoyed at the fact. The priest spoke up, his tone amicable despite his expression.

“Welcome to the Blinded Scales, visitor. I am Marth Coralax, Redeemer and Destroyer. How can I help you?” The man certainly looked like he was speaking in official capacity - he was standing in a military fashion, his arm outstretched to hold his spear at a diagonal away from his body. It was a fairly universal gesture - Do not move, please. I need to know more about you to do my job.

Torn smiled in return, his tone jovial as always. “Redeemer and Destroyer, eh? You’re Dalanesca’s high priest - and more, Angela told me.”

Marth looked at Torn with a slightly sceptical expression, but seemed to give Torn the benefit of the doubt. “Lady Dalanesca and I are betrothed, yes. I’m assuming Angela - being who she is - also told you she’s carrying my child. These are not lies, but you never answered my question.”

Stiff, this one. Torn kept smiling amicably, undeterred. “Yes, sorry. I am Torn Flashborne, recently appointed Prince of Epics by the grace of the World Tree. I -”

Marth held out a hand, interrupting Torn. “Your arrival is expected, my prince. I apologise, she is resting at the moment, so…” The man looked a little awkward, which didn’t surprise Torn. From what he’d understood, Marth had only ever encountered other deities after they had become familiar with Dalanesca. This made the current meeting something of a first for the mage. Torn was in a good mood, though, and didn’t want to spoil the meeting by tormenting his host’s fiancée.

“It’s fine, friend. I’d like to explore the place a little, anyway. The Justiciar can give me a signal when she’s ready to receive me, I’m sure.”

The priest smiled, apparently satisfied with Torn’s reply and relieved that the strange god had taken it so easily. “I will go to her now. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait too long.”

Torn nodded, and flew off, exploring the sights. Sanctus was beautiful to behold, and Malum was interesting to say the least. Him being a god, however, the two areas seemed a little confused when he flew through them, both areas showing both bad and good. Torn assumed it had something to do with the fact that he himself believed that evils could make things interesting - which to him was good - while good things could be boring, which to him was bad.

Meanwhile, Marth teleported to Dalanesca’s room, and went over to the bed, shaking Dalanesca’s shoulder.. “Milady, that god that Angela, uh… warned us about, has arrived. Torn.” He sat down next to her on the bed, giving her large belly a gentle caress. “He said he’s fine with spending some time exploring the place, but he was on a flying cloud, so that won’t entertain him for long.” He chuckled a bit, apparently finding the newly minted god’s casual demeanour somewhat amusing. In truth, it reminded him of himself in his more glory-hungry youth, and he could definitely see him marrying a rosenite. “I doubt you have more time than to get dressed and splash some water in your face,” he continued, offering to help Dalanesca up. “Besides, all things being equal, you shouldn’t keep a guest of such high esteem waiting,” he concluded, advising her in a slightly more official way.

Dalanesca stirred slowly, her eyes opening with some reluctance.  Under normal circumstances, she did not feel quite so drowsy upon waking - but the closer she came to delivering the child that she and Marth had created, the more sleep it seemed she needed - divine or not.  She was lying on her side, facing the direction in which Marth had appeared.  She looked up at him, smiling as she focused on who it was that had roused her.  Her smile wavered slightly as she listened to what he informed her of, and she frowned.  Her hand came to rest over his own as he touched her stomach.  “For the love of the Voice, doesn’t he know that I am with child?” she asked, sounding agitated.  

She knew that it was only proper for deities to visit one another, as from time to time they were required to work together in various aspects of the universe - and she was Triune, and since she had the authority to call any of the deities to Conclave, it only made sense for her to be well acquainted with them.  At the present moment, however, she was a bit lacking in the manners department, as the child growing inside of her drew away much of her energy as well as her patience.  

She managed to sit up in bed, staring at Marth as he continued to speak.  “You let him wander off into the cities along?” she asked.  “On a flying cloud?”  She sighed, and got up, taking Marth’s hand to steady herself as he offered her his assistance.  “I’ll take the time I need to get ready,” she said, firmly.  “He showed up unannounced, and he can wait,” she said, her voice sharp and biting.  After a second, she frowned again.  “Sorry,” she said, her hand resting on her stomach.  “I’m a little on edge,” she said, laughing softly.  She turned and walked unsteadily towards her bureau, pulling out some clothing and undressing from her night clothes with a bit of difficulty, pulling on a black silk dress.  The dress clung to her shape, but was still rather comfortable.  

After sliding her feet into a pair of slippers and tying her hair back in a braid, she looked to Marth.  “Would you mind terribly coming with me?” she asked, giving him a soft smile.  “Keep me in check, as it were.,” she added, in reference to a moment beforehand when she had snapped at him.  She took a glance at herself in the mirror, and assumed that Marth would follow her as she headed out of her room.

She teleported to Malum, deciding she would check the Black City first - it seemed to draw more visitors than its counterpart.  Even with teleporting herself to the general vicinity of the city, it took her a while to find Torn, as he seemed to be traversing the area quite easily - apparently, Malum’s effects had not taken hold of the new deity, and she was not surprised - from what Angela had told her, Torn was quite the interesting character - one did not ascend to hold such a title as the “Prince of Epics” without being a bit morally skewed.

After a bit longer, they managed to find where he was, still floating on his cloud.  “I take it that you are Torn Flashborne, Prince of Epics?” she called.  She stood near Marth, one hand resting on her pregnant belly, the other on her hip.  “I understand you’ve come to meet me - can you please come down from there?  I’d rather not shout,” she said, annoyance somewhat audible in her words.  

Marth seemed largely unaffected by Dalanesca’s vicious mood, having followed along on the entire span of her pregnancy. He simply tried to be the voice of reason and calm, and helped Dalanesca get out of the bed. “He recently became a father himself, you know. Twins, with a rosenite. Those children are bound to take a lot of his attention - he might just have forgotten,” he said, ever the voice of reason and moderation whenever Dalanesca’s moods got snappy. “As for the wandering, who am I to tell the patron god of adventure not to explore? I didn’t want to antagonize him,” he said, his own voice with a hint of sternness, reminding Dalanesca that his hands were tied when he was dealing with other deities, unlike her.

“Take your time,” Marth said when Dalanesca snapped at him. He chuckled softly at her apology. “I’ve seen less pregnant women treat their partners far worse,” he said, clearly not affected. “Ever seen a pregnant cryomancer? Never did an ice-mage’s fury burn so hot,” he said, clearly referencing a specific memory he found rather amusing. As Dalanesca finished getting dressed, Marth followed her out the door. “I’ll try to keep you from killing him,” he said with a chuckle. Something told Marth that Torn’s jovial nature would lighten the mood quickly enough.

Torn was flying over Malum, enjoying some sights and frowning at others. Foul murders and scenes of tragedy and vengeance made him smile, while imagery of rape, torture and slavery made him frown. There were also scenes that were just too boring to provoke a positive reaction from him, or too explicit and exciting to disgust him. For a few minutes, Torn got stuck fighting a shadow-version of himself, before the excitement of it grew stale and he summoned the shade of a basilisk to destroy his counterpart. Since the Blinded Scales couldn’t very well replicate the abilities of another god, shadow-Torn froze up and fell. Well, that was entertaining, he thought, before hearing a voice from below while cruising above Malum.

Torn squinted, and saw the belly. Right, she’s pregnant. “Hang on!” he said, bringing his nimbus cloud above the street Dalanesca and Marth stood on, and gingerly hopped off. The sixty-foot drop didn’t phase him much - Torn didn’t need the cloud to fly, and he had grown fond of high jumps. “Sorry about that,” Torn said, referring both to his unannounced arrival and his flying around out of reach. He made a sharp whistle, looked at his cloud, and made a gesture at Dalanesca. The cloud immediately turned around, and morphed into the seat of a chair - with armrests - offering a seat to the other deity. “I dragged you out of bed, can at least offer you a comfortable seat,” he said, smiling. “I’ll try to be brief, shall I? I’m marrying Keira Wintercrest, and, uh…” Torn scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. “With my recent ascension, you seem to be the only one with the spiritual authority that’s not one of her aunts,” he said, referring to his own divinity when it came to authority.

Marth smiled, then chuckled. He gave Dalanesca’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Same concern I had that led us to ask Angela to wed us,” he said, mostly in an effort to familiarize Dalanesca with Torn’s predicament, hopefully easing the tension in the air.

Torn perked an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I figured - or, well, Keira did - that if nothing else, the goddess residing in a courthouse should have the authority needed to make it official,” he said, grinning. He looked at Dalanesca again, his gaze softer, more imploring. “So… Could you? When you have the time, of course. A few weeks after your child has arrived, perhaps.”

Dalanesca gave Marth a bit of a look when she caught the stern tone to his voice, but she said nothing.  She loved him, and he was also her most trusted advisor.  This meant that she needed to take heed of the things he said, whether she agreed with them or not.  And, of course, he had a point - he always did.  She raised an eyebrow at the mention of a cryomancer, but decided not to pry- sometimes, she was better off not knowing.

“Killing him?” she responded, with a bit of a laugh.  “Darling, I don’t think I would be capable of it if I even tried.  I’m so tired,” she said, frowning.  “I honestly didn’t realize that a divine being could get tired like this, but I will be the first to admit that it is true,” she said, her frown turning to a weak smile.

Dalanesca waved her hand nonchalantly at Torn when he dismounted from the cloud and apologized.  “It’s fine,” she said, eyeing Torn with a bit of suspicion.  Angela had told her a bit about the new God - and while she would not necessarily refer to her Triune sister’s description of Torn as favoring him, she had not said anything truly negative about him - just that he was a bit of a dolt at times.  Dalanesca decided that she was to make her own judgements of the new divine, and he was off to a good start as he morphed the cloud he had been floating on into a chair and offered it to her.  

She made a face of pleasant surprise, and after giving Marth a quick glance, she took the seat gladly.  “Thank you,” she said.  “I do wish you would have sent advance notice of your intended arrival - Lady Angela did inform me that you would be visiting, though she did not tell me when,” she said.  “Normally I don’t care, but… as you can see,” she said, pausing and gesturing towards her stomach. “I am not exactly operating at full capacity these days,” she said, with a bit of a laugh.  She silenced as she listened to Torn’s explanation of his visit, and she couldn’t help but smile when he mentioned getting married.  “No reason to beat around the bush with it,” she said.  “Of course I’ll marry the two of you.”  She gave Marth a sideways glance at his comment, hoping he would see how readily she accepted what Torn asked of her.  

“I don’t think we’ll be waiting much longer for her,” she said, her hand gently rubbing her enlarged belly with a smile.  “It seems like I’ve been pregnant for twelve years… when really it’s only been nine months,” she said, laughing.  “How did Keira fare, with the twins?  Angela didn’t tell me too many details,” she said.  “So… shall we say three weeks after this little one makes her grand debut?” she asked Torn.  “That will give me enough time to recover - would you like to run it past Keira before setting anything in stone?” she asked.

After a moment, she managed herself up into a standing position from the chair that Torn had crafted her.  “Marth, I’d like to show Torn around the realm. Will you be joining us?” she asked, hopeful that her would accompany them, just in case.  It had nothing to do with Torn, but rather the fact that the infant could be joining them at any moment, and she had been lucky enough to have Marth by her side nearly constantly as of late - she was not quite ready for that to change.  She looked back to Torn.  “We are in Malum, the Black City, currently.  Would you like to explore here a bit more, or would you like to see what Sanctus, the White City, has to offer?” she asked.  She had a feeling that Torn would find them both equally as interesting.

Torn smiled broadly as Dalanesca said yes to performing the ceremony. “Thanks a lot, Dalanesca. I’ll repay you if I can,” he said, giving a bow far more elegant than his words.

When dalanesca got out of her seat, Torn frowned with slight disapproval. “The nimbus cloud can move while you’re seated, you know,” he said, before the smile returned to his face. He seemed to smile rather easily. “And to be blunt, I doubt I’ll be able to slow down for your sake, so it might be best,” he added, only half-jokingly. “As for sightseeing, I’ve already toured the two cities. I doubt they have more to show. But I’d like to see the rest of the place,” he said, confident that Dalanesca’s realm would be more interesting than two halves.

Marth looked at the young man with a perked eyebrow, taken slightly aback with his enthusiasm and energy. This guy is clearly hyper, he thought to himself, but offered the young god an option. “There’s the Tower of Redemption and Destruction. Slightly more scholarly than I think you prefer, but there are some interesting devices there,” he said, inviting Torn to come along.

“The tower of Redemption and Destruction, eh? Sounds interesting.” He looked around, and spotted the tower, some way in the distance. “That’s it, I assume?”

Marth nodded as Torn pointed out the tower. “We call it the Two-faced Tower for short,” he said, and began walking. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”


The group arrived at the tower a few minutes thereafter. Marth had spent the walk giving Dalanesca a shoulder and neck rub, to alleviate her tensions, physical and mental. Torn had been playing a song on his harp, recounting the tale of Myralla Meadow, a priestess who tragically died trying to save the life of a boy she spurned. Over the course of five stanzas, he sang about how she had spurned him, saying her life belonged to the gods. And how she’d come to ache for him, for he had truly been sweet. How she’d tracked him down to be united with him, and how he had attempted to kill himself with poison. She had tried to save him by brewing an antidote from something to which she was allergic, but choked before she could give it to him. As they finally arrived at the tower door, Torn smiled at the two of them.

“Moral of the story is that love is never wrong,” he said, making the harp vanish with a snap of his fingers. “At least I like to think so,” he continued, laughing a bit.

“Not bad,” Marth said unenthusiastically, never having been one for music. He preferred visual art, and martial arts above all. “Well, here we are,” he continued, dismissing the song in its entirety, and opening the door. “Welcome to the Tower of Redemption and Destruction,” he said, showing Torn inside.

The first floor lobby, with its clerics milling about, wasn’t very impressive. In fact, Marth intended to skip the first four floors and go straight for the observatory. “The interesting stuff is on the top floor,” he said, showing Torn the spiral staircase.

Once they got to the top floor of the tower, Torn actually looked a little impressed. “Wow. These are a lot of fancy-looking gadgets,” he said, looking at Marth. “You designed all this?”

Marth smiled. “Most of it. The Skylance, that great telescope there, is my design.” He went over to the skylance’s control panel, showing Torn all the buttons and levers. “This is where I control it. The Skylance can work as a teleporting device, or as a magic cannon,” he explained, showing Torn the buttons marked “Fire” and “Launch”.

Torn looked at the control panel, dazzled. Uneducated as he was, the buttons and levers alone were interesting. Being told that they actually worked, and could do magic, stunned him completely. “Wow. What do these wheel things do? And what’s that weird ball?”

Marth chuckled as Torn asked his questions. “They adjust latitude and longitude of the Skylance,” he said with a chuckle. “These levers control how fast the wheels affect the coordinates.” Marth then pointed at the ball. “That’s a globe, showing you where you’re targeting. It’s actually the size of a horse - what you see is just the magnifying glass,” he said, inviting Torn to look into it.

Torn held his eye close to the hourglass. “These are the streets of Adeluna! And this ball thing can show the whole world?”

Marth chuckled again, and began to spin the wheels. “Yep. keep looking,” he said, and span the wheels until the dials showed the coordinates of Wyllmochvar. “That’s the city I was raised in, in Pravpora,” he said.

Torn looked away from the glass, and up at Marth, his mouth open. “Amazing. Could you build something like that for me?” He looked thrilled at the prospect of having a device like that in his temple - while he’d obviously have no clue how to use it properly, it seemed he just wanted to have it because reasons.

Marth looked at Dalanesca with a smirk. “I suppose I could find the time,” he said.

Torn grinned broadly, and nodded vigorously. “Drop by anytime, both of you. You’ll have seats of honour at my balcony in the Dream Arena!” he exclaimed, turning back to the magnifying glass of Marth’s globe.

Marth looked at Dalanesca, and rolled his eyes with a smile. “I’m sure that’d be interesting. But for now, I must ask you not to linger. I think my wife is tired,” he said, with a smile. “But we might come visit you in not too long. What do you think, milady?”

Dalanesca gave torn a nonchalant wave of her hand as he bowed.  “No thanks or repayment is necessary.  If you’re marrying into Angela’s family, I’ll not hesitate to do you a favor,” she said.  She could not help but smile a little bit, thinking about when Angela had told her a bit about Torn.  Her fellow Triune goddess had not seemed overly impressed with him, but after talking with him for the bit that she had, he did not seem nearly as bad as she was expecting.  In fact, she found him rather humorous.  

She raised her eyebrows momentarily at Torn as he explained the cloud’s ability to travel, coupled with his comment on her not being able to keep up with him.  She opened her mouth to say something that was about to be rather crass, but thought against it when she caught a glance from Marth.  She internally knew that Torn was not making an attempt to insult her or her realm, but she still felt a bit miffed at how openly he spoke of the cities.  “They’ve got a lot of secrets that no one but me knows,” she said, her voice taking a bit of a darker tone.  “But perhaps things are best left where they’re at, for now.”  She sat back down in the cloud-chair, folding her arms across her chest.

Dalanesca remained silent for the majority of their journey to the Tower of Redemption and Destruction, or the Two-faced Tower as they generally referred to it as.  She enjoyed the shoulder rub that Marth gave her - and unlike Marth, she quite enjoyed the tale that Torn had spun for them with his song.  “Your domain suits you well, I see,” she said with a bit of a laugh, having relaxed a bit.  The tale itself had been rather odd, but it had still amused her.  

She let the men speak freely without her, contentedly sitting off to the side once they reached the top floor of the tower.  A magister brought her a bit of warm water with honey and lemon as she sat, which she drank happily.  She returned Marth’s smirk at Torn’s request to create such a gadget for himself, finding the younger god’s interest in Marth’s contraptions nearly adorable.  

“We will most certainly come visit you,” she said, with a smile.  She had not been overly excited at the prospect of Torn’s visit when Marth had first informed her that he was there - but he had grown on her, if only just slightly.  “Once this one comes,” she said, patting her stomach emphatically.  “We’ll make our way over, solidify plans for you and Keira being wed, and all of the things that go along with that,” she said.  “Besides, this Dream Arena sounds rather interesting, from what I’ve heard,” she added.  “But I think I’ll wait to attend that sort of event until I can imbibe freely,” she said with a small smile.  “But Marth is right - I need to go rest,” she said.  “I trust you can find your way out?” she asked Torn, with a brief grin.  “I’ll meet you back in my quarters,” she said to Marth with a smile, and she was gone, having teleported back to her room.