Black Magic Woman

[Nailah Weaver]

"Professor Sackville would probably have much more to tell you. My knowledge is rather specialized and the pieces I do have tend towards the more personal. Not that I would mind telling you about some of that, but I think it might bore you."

[Gemma Sloan]

"I still wouldn't mind hearing about it when you have time."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Certainly. I wish the stories behind some of them were more cheerful, but it is what it is. This sword for one." she says, taking it down from the wall. "It used to belong to one of the few survivors of a race of bird people. A long time ago one of them fell to the influence of of the old god C'thon when the wards binding him were weaker than they are today. She was a valiant warrior of her people but her purpose was twisted and she became an agent of the Darkhold. One of the gifts that was bestowed on her was the ability to control necrotic energy and the sword became imbued with it. She was very old and I suspect she stole the life she took from those she struck down with this sword to sustain her own."

[Gemma Sloan]

She looked closely at the sword, her eyes glowing for a brief moment before fading back to normal. "It is a nice sword for such a sad story."

[Nailah Weaver]

"She thought she was doing the right thing, even though she brought death to countless people before I stopped her. Part of her clung to the weapon she used for so long, but in the end I broke C'thon's grip on the weapon and set her spirit free. In the end I like to think she found peace. If nothing else she helped me find my own. Her name was Rudra. It could be argued to mean many things, but I prefer 'The one who drives out Sorrow and ushers in Peace' from rukh draavayathi."

[Gemma Sloan]

"That's a pretty name," Gemma said, "And a nice meaning. It is amazing the lengths some people go to when they think they're doing the right thing."

[Nailah Weaver]

"The right thing can be very subjective. Few people in this world are evil for the sake of evil, although they most certainly exist."

[Gemma Sloan]

"More things are subjective than people like to think. One of the things that having two 'people' rattling around in your head teaches you."

[Nailah Weaver]

"It's good to keep that in mind." she nods. "Back then I didn't want to help her. I thought her lost beyond redemption."

[Gemma Sloan]

"Good to know even those that seem like they're beyond redemption can come back. Whatever redemption means," she said with a smile.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Weighing your heart against Ma'at's feather, in this case. Or finding your name listed in the Book of Life. Or being reborn as a higher being. It means something else to everyone but the idea behind it is always the same. What you did in this life has been judged and not found wanting."

[Gemma Sloan]

"And we always seem to put our finger on the scales against us."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Yet most of us still manage because while they may be the ones to judge us, the Gods are not against us." she says and gets a slightly distant look in her eyes as she recites. "They will come back--come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls?"

[Gemma Sloan]

"A reassuring piece of verse," she said, nodding to Nailah.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Very much so. It's the last thing she told me as she passed on, possibly the last thing ever spoken by one of the Lost Children of Akah Ma’at. It's possible she was the last of her kind and that sword is all that remains now. It probably deserves a better resting place, but it's the best I could do. No temples of Ma'at exist anymore."

[Gemma Sloan]

"Why not? Did the world just move on or did something else happen?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"It can't have helped that her chosen people fell to C'thon, but for the most part the world turned, temples were buried in the sand and people moved on. She's not gone, just forgotten. Maybe her time will come once more but the idea she represents will always live on. The order that opposes the chaos and gives the world structure."

[Gemma Sloan]

"Order and chaos always seems to be a more complicated set of concepts than good and evil."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I find that's merely because people wish good and evil was as simple as they make it out to be. And they're often intertwined. We tend consider those who would spread chaos to be evil."

[Gemma Sloan]

"People like order, which makes sense. And people certainly don't like to think they're evil, but I'm rambling."

[Nailah Weaver]

"That's quite alright. Anyway, that's probably the most important and historically relevant piece I have here. There's some genuine jars and bowls I managed to get my hands on and that bronze firebowl over there is from an actual temple of Sekhmet. Altamira was nice enough to provide me with a genuine eternal flame for it."

[Gemma Sloan]

Gemma moved over to inspect the flame. She maintained a respectful distance, but she tilted her head as she regarded it. "Eternal you said?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Unlike man-made ones, this one doesn't need tending or fuel. I suspect it'll burn for as long as the Phoenix exists. Or until she sees fit to extinguish it."

[Gemma Sloan]

"It does feel strange," she said, not elaborating further, but still mildly fascinated by it.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Go ahead and see if it responds to you if you want."

[Gemma Sloan]

"Oh, I'm only a pyrokinetic in the sense that I start fires. I don't control them the way my sister does," she said, sounding a little sad. "Would you mind if I touched it though?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Go ahead."

[Gemma Sloan]

Gemma moved closer and reached out to touch the flame, rolling her hand around in it with no apparent ill effect or even any discomfort. Her eyes glowed softly as her tone changed slightly, "Truly a remarkable flame."

[Nailah Weaver]

"How does it feel?" she asks curiously.

[Gemma Sloan]

"Like so much more than it appears to be. Even to say standing in the largest bonfire would not do it justice."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I suppose that only makes sense. Interesting."

[Gemma Sloan]

She withdrew her hand, but her eyes still glowed. "It's like the energy of a flamethrower, but so much gentler."

[Nailah Weaver]

"She certainly can be either."