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[ruinsprofessor]

--"Raine Sage. I can't reach the console right now. If it's an emergency, don't wait to get a hold of me, keep moving. I'm sure I'll hear about it soon. If not, leave a message and I'll contact you when I can."

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[ruinsprofessor]

They understood each other, then. Good. That was all she could ask. With that scant reassurance in mind, Raine moved on.

"All right. I'll start with Valishaera. The ruins you saw were part of that city. We made landfall there this summer. The black and white arch, in particular, was of a kind that featured prominently-- it's a portal to the Dreaming. Do you know much about the planes here?"

[redlightgreenlight]

The name Valishaera meant nothing, but it must be a place in this world if the foreigners had been there. Valdis shook her head, "I know very little about the planes, but can I assume that the Dreaming is one of them?"

Dreaming seemed self-explanatory, but there had to be more to it.

[ruinsprofessor]

"It is." Raine nodded. Probably best to skirt the finer details of Solomon's theories for now; what mattered most was the Dreaming. "Life is the plane in which we stand now. Our enemy I believe has dominion over the plane of Death, which while accessible is inadvisable to visit. And the Dreaming is a place which, as you may have intuited, works rather like a dream. The surroundings are at least somewhat malleable, and it most often draws from your own experiences and memories. I suspect that the presence of the arch in the vision means we'll need to conduct at least part of our final endeavor within the Dreaming, whether it's retrieving the stone, or what we must do with it once we have it."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis listened quietly, contemplating what a venture into the dreaming might entail. Her past was more of a nightmare than a dream, her memories were mostly bitter and angry. She sighed.

"I see," she said, "And how do you manipulate this plane?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"In my limited experience, intent, familiarity, and emotion. Any combination will do, but those together seem to work best." Raine was quietly thoughtful for a moment, then added, "My experience with the Dreaming has also been in limited 'pockets,' so to speak. It may be somewhat more flexible, more easily altered, when those restrictions are removed."

[redlightgreenlight]

"You have been researching this for some time it seems," Valdis said, "Have you been doing it on your own?"

She wouldn't put it past the woman to research weird things alone, but this Dreaming seemed so complex that she suspected that Raine had someone helping her. Not that the woman wasn't smart enough, but the planes were complex.

She herself had the ability to manipulate the spiritual and physical planes to an extent, but she didn't understand how any of it worked. Then again, she had never tried to understand, and perhaps that was where her problem was.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine shook her head. "Not on my own, no. To be honest, my focus has been more on the taint and the places beneath the shell, but I've occasionally been collaborating with Solomon Wreath. He has a particular interest in the planes, and the bulk of the progress there is attributable to him." Despite the overall grave nature of their conversation, this mention brought Raine to smiling a little.

[redlightgreenlight]

Raine's smile was not lost on Valdis and she had a feeling it had to do with the mentioned Solomon Wreath.

"Ah, yes," She replied, "I've met the one who calls himself Death Bringer, I get the feeling he doesn't think much of me, but we did discuss the planes briefly."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine raised her brows at the mention of that title. She knew of it, but she hadn't gotten the impression it was something he had any actual fondness for. "That's an interesting way to refer to him," she said neutrally, leading. "How was it you met, that something like that came up?" If she was a betting woman, she'd lay money against it being wholly friendly circumstances.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis winced, "It was not one of my finer moments," she replied, "The enemy's drug got into my system while exploring the palace and I offended the wrong person on my way home." That was putting it lightly to be sure, but she waved a hand dismissively, "Your Solomon showed up and managed to talk some sense into my slightly unstable mindset and a fight was avoided."

[ruinsprofessor]

Her Solomon, hm. Raine blinked at the phrasing, briefly bemused, but didn't disagree. "Fortunate," she said instead. "An outright fight at that point could have been disastrous."

The entire thing sounded like a complete understatement, however. "The wrong person?" Raine repeated, curious. Any of them could be the wrong person, really, given the right motivation.

[redlightgreenlight]

Considering the powers of the people involved, 'disastrous' may also have been putting it lightly. Raine's reaction to her phrasing was not missed and Valdis felt slightly elated that she had been correct in her assumption. There was a relationship between the Light Mage and the Death Bringer, which was interesting, but she decided not to press it further at this time.

"Solomon said that his name was Bakura," she answered, "He held a hundred souls within him, his own and ninety-nine others." Which was nothing compared to the number she held, but he seemed to care deeply about his souls, whereas hers meant little. "The ninety-nine took offense to my presence. I assume they sensed the souls I hold and divined that I had the ability to steal souls." She shrugged, even if she hadn't made the empty threat to take his ghosts, the relationship had probably been doomed anyway.

[ruinsprofessor]

Oh, no. No wonder that had gone horribly. Valdis had, effectively, threatened Bakura's family. Raine covered her eyes briefly with one hand, sighing. "Yes, I'm not surprised," she said, resigned. "I would recommend that you avoid him in the future. He will have taken that personally, I think."

But the other woman had likely already come to that conclusion. "Doubly fortunate, then, that the confrontation didn't devolve."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Fortunate, yes." Valdis rolled her eyes, "And don't worry, I tend to avoid the people who take extreme offense to my existence."

She had little interest in Bakura, he was a threat, but a threat that probably wouldn't mess with her. But Solomon, on the other hand, had called himself 'Death Bringer', something carrying far more weight in her mind that a simple man carrying a few souls.

[ruinsprofessor]

"Then you have more sense than half the people I know," Raine said, light, with a faintly amused smile. Unfortunately true. "Our powers, and the planes. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

It seemed like most of what Valdis had wanted had been covered, but she wouldn't be surprised if more had come up in the interim.

[redlightgreenlight]

Considering that most of her curiosity had been satiated, and her original purpose for coming had been fulfilled, Valdis shook her head, "No. Thank you for your time."

She stood and made for the door, she had taken up enough of the mage's time for one day. But when she reached it, she turned back to where Raine was, "And thank you for the other stuff too."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine followed her to the door, and nodded acknowledgment. "You're welcome. Be careful, Valdis." She shut the door behind the woman, and when she had gone, exhaled heavily. Troubled times indeed, but at least other Foreigners were stepping up. There might be some hope for unified purpose yet.