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As ever, Azalea is admitted to the Tower, and walks among her fellow Servitors of Dreams.
Azalea climbs up the Tower in silence.
Though there may be many angels or souls on the lower levels of the Tower, the upper spiral of
stairs is always quiet and solitary. Ivory treads are silent beneath climbing feet, ivory walls have
no echoes but those of the wind beyond the walls.
When Azalea finally emerges onto the balcony, a tempest of dream-bubbles is being whirled
across the clear dark sky, gemlike sparks flashing in a dreadful and wonderful aurora.
Blandine turns from where she is standing, the wind flicking at her green dress and tossing her
dark hair. Her eyes are the same shade as the sky, and specks of light reflect in them as she says,
"Daughter."
Azalea watches the dream bubbles, a faint smile whispering in her eyes. Then she bends to one
knee, as she seen Aron do so many times.
Blandine says, "Rise, my daughter. What do you seek?"
Azalea says "You, I think."
Azalea gets to her feet.
Blandine unfolds one pale hand. "I am here."
Azalea says "I have been - aimless."
Azalea says "Following Taroniel, without will of my own."
Blandine says, "Think well before you ask a direction of me, my daughter. I will expect that you
follow it, and it may not be what you wish."
Azalea says "I'm not asking direction, not until I tell you what I want."
Azalea looks up at Blandine, "Unless you already know?"
Blandine says, "I cannot be certain, my daughter. Tell me what you want."
Azalea responds, steadily, "I want Beleth to be Redeemed."
Blandine lowers her gaze, and the sparks of light strengthen in her eyes till they seem to open
upon stars.
Blandine says, "That is my desire also, daughter."
Azalea says "I know it must be possible."
Azalea says "I know it will take a very long time."
Azalea says "But I want to help."
Blandine nods.
Blandine beckons, moving across to the balcony. "Come here, daughter. Look beyond, where I
watch."
Azalea moves to where Blandine stands.
The direction that Blandine indicates seems an empty, barren stretch of land, a shadowed and
darkling plain... and yet, as Azalea looks out, her sight seems keener, and her vision sharper. The
line of sight extends further... and further. Dreamscapes float and shift across her field of vision,
dark and troubled things shot across with bloodlight and thunderlight.
Azalea watches in silence.
Her vision comes, at last, to a dark and twisted tower, one painfully familiar from memory. Jagged
cursive carvings ring it and crown it, and demons move around its base like crawling insects. Atop
it, on the balcony, is a presence. Around her, Azalea can feel Blandine's presence, a shield and
ward - but for a moment she perceives the figure atop the balcony of the other tower, crowned
and robed in shadows and fear, her glance the essence of nightmares and madness. And for a
moment, there is visible in the other figure something - perhaps a memory, perhaps something that
is still there - that shadows her in the fear of holy things, the awe of God, and the fear of the peril
of body and soul. Something darker yet purer, a shadow that is a presence of holiness. For a
moment that shadow can be seen. And then it is gone, and the vision with it.
Azalea turns to Blandine. "What can be done?"
Blandine is silent for a few seconds.
Blandine's voice is quiet, when she says, "It was her decision to Fall, my daughter. It must also
be her decision to return to God. Should she come with anything less than a free will, she would
be destroyed."
Azalea says "She didn't fall alone. She was helped."
Azalea says "There must be a way to help, now."
Blandine says, "You burn... so fiercely." She falls silent, again.
Azalea says "How else would I be?"
Blandine says, "True, Speed of God."
Azalea says "I have the flames of hell and the fires of ofanim licking at my heels."
Azalea says "And I want to help her."
Azalea says "She made me."
Blandine says, "I dream that one day she will look out upon the Marches, and she will see all
those who dream and hope, and she will see herself in truth. On that day, I hope that she will leave
her Tower and come to find me again."
Azalea says "It won't happen by itself."
Blandine says, "I could give you a task, my daughter. I could give you many tasks. Some may
never affect her. Some may affect her, but in ways that we will never know. One may perhaps
make a difference some day."
Blandine says, "But if you ask it of me, I will give you a task against what she is, and for what she
may become."
Azalea says "But you'd rather not. Why?"
Blandine says, "You misunderstand. I will do so gladly. But such a task must be asked for,
daughter."
Azalea says "Then I do ask for it."
Blandine opens her left hand, and a dreamscape begins to form in it - but half-visible, misty, as
though the owner were still awake, and only the shadow of his dreamscape moved in the
Marches.
Blandine offers it towards Azalea. "Touch this that you may know it and find it again, my
daughter."
Azalea lifts her hand to the dreamscape, touching it.
There is a ripple of light, and for a moment Azalea sees the face of a middle-aged man,
worn-looking, collar and cuffs neatly buttoned, black hair scraped flat over his head, eyes dull and
beginning to grow bitter.
Blandine says, "This is a man that dwells in the city where you are. His name is Harold Seth.
Within a year, his Fate is to fall to the darkness in his soul, to steal, and then to kill, and in the end
to shed blood out of a love for it."
Blandine lets her hand fall, and the dreamscape vanishes.
Blandine says, "Visit him in his dreams and his life, my daughter. Show him fear. Let him know
the excellence of the wrath of God."
Blandine says, "Let this fear turn him from his path."
Azalea says "I have used that fear in the purpose of evil, my Lady."
Azalea says "It will be a treacherous journey."
Blandine says, "Do not fear to call upon your brothers and sisters, or upon your friends. You will
be upheld."
Azalea smiles, faintly. "Friends."
Blandine says, "They are such."
Azalea says "Thank you, my Lady, for this task. I cherish it."
Blandine reaches out, and touches Azalea's brow lightly.
Blandine says, "Go in hope, my daughter, and one day may you serve the holy Fear again."
Azalea smiles at Blandine, in a wry and wistful manner. "Then I would be the child of you both
in truth."
Blandine says, "That would be my wish, daughter."
Blandine says, "You yourself are a sign of Hope, a piece of Nightmares returned to her original
home."
Blandine says, "Take this for yourself - some part of her angelic nature remains within you
still."
Azalea bows low. "I know. Perhaps this is why I feel endebted to return it to her, safely."
Blandine nods.
Blandine says, "Walk in hope, my daughter."
Azalea turns, and leaves.
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