There's No Place Like Home
Last night, for the first time in six months, I was in Columbia.
Yeah, I know, I said I would never set foot in that hellhole again, etc, etc, blah blah blah. Circumstances have a funny way of making an idiot out of people who say "never". In this case, it was a favor to a friend and a sense of responsibility.
The friend is Davina. Because of a number of issues, she wasn't going to be able to be present for the Columbia council meeting. Now theoretically, she's the Heirphant up there and respresents the Circle to the Council. Mind you, I can count the Acolytes in Columbia on one hand with fingers to spare, but yeah. So she called in a favor, and asked me to go and speak in her stead.
That wasn't the only issue; there was also the matter of Elaina, and to be blunt, that's one that I needed to deal with. For good or for ill, she's my thrall... and despite having no knowledge of her asshattery until well after the fact, that still makes me feel like its my mess to clean up.
So, with no shortage of trepidation, I flew my ass to Columbia.
You know, it's amazing how much the place can change in six months while remaining a complete and utter shithole.
Their "Council" is still a largely futile game of musical chairs. The populace still, for the most part, couldn't find its collective ass with both hands and a map. And the same idiotic games are still in play.
Got a helluva shock when Elaina showed up... because she wasn't supposed to be just "showing up" anywhere. Under lock and key (and stake) of Joshua Narrow, or so I'd been told. When I called Narrow and found out that she was *still* under said lock and key and stake, well that was when it got weird. Turns out that Columbia's had a problem with look-alike agents of what they think are VII lately, and this thing was one of them. Eerie as hell, though; the damned thing could tell me things, like what "she" had given me the last time we were in St. Louis together. Thing acted like it was my thrall, too. But when I took a cold, hard look at it with the Sight, I could see the magic masking it, all tangled up in auras of pride and wrath. I wound up being the one to stake the thing; the Columbia fuckers can figure it out later.
As for the real Elaina, she's... well, she's dealt with. As a traitor against the Circle, I had been prepared to end her life. As it turns out, it kind of already has, in a way. Joshua is doing something intensely disturbing to her, is already well along the way of it: he's sort of rebuilding her mind. In a way, the Elaina that betrayed the Mother is already dead, with her memories of her time with the covenant gone... and as the only way I'd get to end her shell would be to start a small war with the First Estate of Columbia, I'll have to settle for that. Part of me would rather kill her as a mercy at this point, but it's just not within my grasp. Gods, I hate politics.
Speaking of politics, sitting in on the Council in Davina's stead was... bizarre. I had tried to forget how dysfunctional they were, but it's hard to do when the bastards are fucking up right there in front of me.
John Doe is still representing the Carthians, and still every bit as much a moron as ever, with all the saavy of a carrot. And yet, he was a marvel of political accumen in comparison to Father York. I've never seen anyone so successfully cut off their own feet before, but he managed: he effectively demanded that the self-damned Sanctified not be given a vote on the Council, a request that the rest - myself included - were only too happy to grant him (with the except of the idiot Doe, who voted against).
York also tried to arrange for a certain degree of autonomy for the Lance on their holy grounds - right to grant sanctuary, that sort of thing. The look on his face when I nodded and agreed and then demanded that the Circle be granted the equivalent was priceless. The rest of the Council made it pretty clear that either both will be shot down or both granted, and either way, that's fine with me; at least I ensured parity with the bastards for the Circle... and if I neglected to mention just how extensive our "holy lands" are in Columbia, oh well.... :)
Oh, to top things off, the idiots decided to not only let that little abomination of theirs keep walking around, but to appoint the thing as "Harpy to the Council Rebecca Washington". This thing is like a showcase for all that is wrong in Columbia; they try to send their precious little "harpy" to visit Lamar - or pretty much anywhere else - and they're gonna get her ashes back in a baggie. I'd love to get my claws into the bastard that embraced a fucking 12-year old.
The old saying is true, there's no place like home. And damned if I'm not glad to be back home now in Delphi again. And now I'm gonna set this journal aside, go hunt with Slip and enjoy the taste of home.
Yeah, I know, I said I would never set foot in that hellhole again, etc, etc, blah blah blah. Circumstances have a funny way of making an idiot out of people who say "never". In this case, it was a favor to a friend and a sense of responsibility.
The friend is Davina. Because of a number of issues, she wasn't going to be able to be present for the Columbia council meeting. Now theoretically, she's the Heirphant up there and respresents the Circle to the Council. Mind you, I can count the Acolytes in Columbia on one hand with fingers to spare, but yeah. So she called in a favor, and asked me to go and speak in her stead.
That wasn't the only issue; there was also the matter of Elaina, and to be blunt, that's one that I needed to deal with. For good or for ill, she's my thrall... and despite having no knowledge of her asshattery until well after the fact, that still makes me feel like its my mess to clean up.
So, with no shortage of trepidation, I flew my ass to Columbia.
You know, it's amazing how much the place can change in six months while remaining a complete and utter shithole.
Their "Council" is still a largely futile game of musical chairs. The populace still, for the most part, couldn't find its collective ass with both hands and a map. And the same idiotic games are still in play.
Got a helluva shock when Elaina showed up... because she wasn't supposed to be just "showing up" anywhere. Under lock and key (and stake) of Joshua Narrow, or so I'd been told. When I called Narrow and found out that she was *still* under said lock and key and stake, well that was when it got weird. Turns out that Columbia's had a problem with look-alike agents of what they think are VII lately, and this thing was one of them. Eerie as hell, though; the damned thing could tell me things, like what "she" had given me the last time we were in St. Louis together. Thing acted like it was my thrall, too. But when I took a cold, hard look at it with the Sight, I could see the magic masking it, all tangled up in auras of pride and wrath. I wound up being the one to stake the thing; the Columbia fuckers can figure it out later.
As for the real Elaina, she's... well, she's dealt with. As a traitor against the Circle, I had been prepared to end her life. As it turns out, it kind of already has, in a way. Joshua is doing something intensely disturbing to her, is already well along the way of it: he's sort of rebuilding her mind. In a way, the Elaina that betrayed the Mother is already dead, with her memories of her time with the covenant gone... and as the only way I'd get to end her shell would be to start a small war with the First Estate of Columbia, I'll have to settle for that. Part of me would rather kill her as a mercy at this point, but it's just not within my grasp. Gods, I hate politics.
Speaking of politics, sitting in on the Council in Davina's stead was... bizarre. I had tried to forget how dysfunctional they were, but it's hard to do when the bastards are fucking up right there in front of me.
John Doe is still representing the Carthians, and still every bit as much a moron as ever, with all the saavy of a carrot. And yet, he was a marvel of political accumen in comparison to Father York. I've never seen anyone so successfully cut off their own feet before, but he managed: he effectively demanded that the self-damned Sanctified not be given a vote on the Council, a request that the rest - myself included - were only too happy to grant him (with the except of the idiot Doe, who voted against).
York also tried to arrange for a certain degree of autonomy for the Lance on their holy grounds - right to grant sanctuary, that sort of thing. The look on his face when I nodded and agreed and then demanded that the Circle be granted the equivalent was priceless. The rest of the Council made it pretty clear that either both will be shot down or both granted, and either way, that's fine with me; at least I ensured parity with the bastards for the Circle... and if I neglected to mention just how extensive our "holy lands" are in Columbia, oh well.... :)
Oh, to top things off, the idiots decided to not only let that little abomination of theirs keep walking around, but to appoint the thing as "Harpy to the Council Rebecca Washington". This thing is like a showcase for all that is wrong in Columbia; they try to send their precious little "harpy" to visit Lamar - or pretty much anywhere else - and they're gonna get her ashes back in a baggie. I'd love to get my claws into the bastard that embraced a fucking 12-year old.
The old saying is true, there's no place like home. And damned if I'm not glad to be back home now in Delphi again. And now I'm gonna set this journal aside, go hunt with Slip and enjoy the taste of home.