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Empty Spaces [IC] (Desril and steinulfr)

"The collar is c-cursed," the girl says. "It doesn't let me l-leave this room. The ch-chains are just for show. Another...visitor...didn't want me m-moving while he...he...." She trails off, clearly not wanting to discuss what happened to her.

"My name is Annabelle," she says instead. "I was, I was a research subject here. They...did things to me. You don't want to kn-know what."

The collar itself radiates an aura of abjuration magic. It appears that the girl is telling the truth - the collar is designed to prevent the wearer from moving more than a set distance away from a matching anchor. It can't be removed by normal means - once on, it fuses with itself, preventing it from being removed normally. A spell that breaks the curse will allow it to be removed, as will meeting a condition. Based on the structure of the spell, Emilia is pretty sure the condition in question is the collar being coated with the blood of an angel.
 
Frowning, Emilia nods her head. "Well...I may not be my grandsire...but my blood is already spilled...maybe I can free you." Reaching up to the bite wound from earlier, still fresh and wet after so little time, the aaimar smears her hand in her own blood before placing it on the collar, hoping that's enough to undo the curse, but ready to bleed a little more if she has to.

"Emilia...and I'll get you out of here, I promise...and...if you need to talk...I've....endured things too," she admits, trying to be strong for Annabelle.
 
"I really hope you haven't gone through what I have," Annabelle says. "They c-cut me open and played with my insides. They d-did things to me and I was awake the whole time and...it was bad. It was really bad."

"That d-did something," Annabelle says, staring at Emilia. "I don't...let me see if...." She stands, shakily, and walks over to the door. Hesitantly, she steps outside, and then collapses, sitting down abruptly and turning to look at Emilia again. There are tears in her eyes. "I can't believe it," she says. "After so long, I...I'm afraid this is a dream and if it is I don't want to wake up."

From what Emilia can see, she's pretty sure the curse isn't wholly lifted - the collar still won't come off. But the actual binding keeping the wearer from leaving is broken.
 
"It's not a dream...or if it is it's not yours," Emilia says, staggering over to Annabelle's side and plopping down next to her, the nude aasimar embracing her freed, mostly, new companion. "And...no, not...not that...I've just been...eaten, by a basilisk...and...there was a demon before I found you...a manticore...hellhounds...they did...other...things," she says, skirting around what actually happened as she pictures herself once more as Yethazmari's bitch. "But it's all behind us, you're free now, once we're out of here we can find a way to remove that collar completely...I can't leave just yet, but I can at least take you some place safe first..."
 
Annabelle all but melts into the embrace, resting her head on Emilia's shoulder. "I know," she says softly. "There were...visitors since the people who experimented on me left. A couple of them tried to save me. Most were...not exactly sorry to find me. They d-did other things to me. No d-demons, but...I think people can be just as bad as demons." She sighs heavily.

At the next suggestion, though, she looks up again. "I'm n-not letting you do that," she said. "Not alone. There are...bad things in this place. I'm not going to hide somewhere safe while you st-stay here. I may not be good at fighting but...the things they did to me changed me. I can do things, I know how to h-hurt people, and I'm...really, really hard to kill."
 
Emilia shakes her head, hiding the wince as her hug is returned. "I won't force you to go alone, but I can't let you fight...you've been through enough...if you're sure though...just stay behind me...and if I'm in trouble...just run, okay? I don't know why but...I don't....die easily." Protecting the people here was what she was meant for, and if that meant risking another death she didn't fully understand then she'd just have to die again.

"But...if you can tell me anything you know about this place...it could help. How long have you been here?" Rising to her feet, Emilia tries to help Annabelle do the same as she continues onward, checking the rest of the hall.
 
"I don't really know," Annabelle says. "The people who experimented on me...the council...they disappeared a long time ago. The last person who came here said it was more than sixty years ago, and that was a long time ago. And I was here a while before they disappeared." She shrugs, the motion strangely loose, like something is disjointed in her shoulders. "I don't really know anything about the rest of this place. They kept me in that room the whole time."

The last room of the hall proves to be another workshop for making magic items, this one more thoroughly stocked and less looted than the one above. It does not contain anything of obvious interest beyond that. As Emilia continues to the middle hall, she finds a long gap before the first door, which is locked.
 
Frowning, at the information, the less than useful magical items, and the locked door, Emilia idly muses to herself before looking back at Annabelle with a start. "Wait, you've been here that long? You're so...young!"
 
"I think that...whatever they did to me? I don't seem to get any older. I was eighteen when they bought me and started....experimenting on me. By the time I was twenty, I sort of stopped getting older." She pauses. "On the outside, at least."
 
Hearing that, Emilia pauses and turns around to pull the girl into another sympathetic embrace, not saying anything, just trying to comfort her after everything she's gone through, realizing that Annabelle has had a far worse fate than she's had. Still, she can't dawdle for too long, and after an all too brief minute, once the two disentangle, she moves to focus her attention on the door. "Think we can just cut through it," she asks the blade, readying to strike with Serathiel's go-ahead, trying very hard to ignore the fact that her posture and nudity leave nothing to Annabelle's imagination.
 
Looks like just steel, the blade replies. Let's try.

As the blade comes down, the metal parts with a shriek, revealing a large, open room. It looks like a library rather than the workshops and laboratories Emilia's been seeing here, and unlike the ones above, this one's contents are intact. Most of the books look to be written in arcane languages, including some that Emilia doesn't even recognize. One shelf in particular, though, draws her attention. A handful of the books on it are in Draconic, but almost all look to be written in some alien script that looks like a twisted version of Elven. Next to it, though, is something more interesting: a star chart depicting the same collection of stars that she saw in the underground observatory below the Dreaming Pillars.

The books themselves are largely indecipherable. The ones in Draconic, the only ones she can read, appear to be a mix of treatises on astronomy, the outer planes, and related magical theory. One, however, stands out, both by topic and by the ribbon marking a page. The topic of the book is the Dark Tapestry, and the marked page is a discussion of the relationship between the Dark Tapestry and the planet Aucturn near Golarion.
 
Looking at the tomes, Emilia sighs in relief. Books were a problem she could understand, and immersing herself in the information contained within would help her forget about not only her total lack of clothing in front of Annabelle, but also keep her mind off her depraved and recent misadventures.

The star chart, at least, proved she was on the right track. She just had to keep looking and she'd find answers, and it seemed she was being pointed to the Tapestry. Finding the ribbon-marked page, the aasimar flips it open and begins to read rapidly, trying to get as much information as she can while she was there. You never knew when the base you were researching from would disappear in a terrifying flash of light and she didn't exactly have any way to take all the books with her. As she was reading though, she realized that Annabelle didn't realize why she was here. "Ahh, sorry, um...this is why I came to this place," Emilia explains.

"There was an...incident earlier and I'm trying to...figure things out. It's...complicated," she says before going on to explain to Annabelle, assuming the girl doesn't look uncomfortable in knowing, although Emilia is less than direct in explaining the more sexual parts of her adventures, nor does she mention the voice in her head or her apparent immortality.
 
Annabelle nods along as though the story is perfectly reasonable, not pressing for details on the empty parts of the account. "I think y-you're very brave to keep going," she says. "Most people would have st-stopped a long time ago."

The book suggests that the planet Aucturn is closely related to the Dark Tapestry, possibly being an outpost of it within the solar system. It's inhabited by many aberrations and other creatures associated with the Dark Tapestry. The book also details Aucturn's position relative to both Golarion and a handful of other stars and planets believed to be connected to the Dark Tapestry. Among them she recognizes the cluster she keeps seeing, which is underlined in a later hand.

Looking at it, it looks like the confluence of the stars which is coming up in a few weeks coincides with Aucturn coming unusually close to Golarion, as well as a number of other planets being in specific positions which the unknown author of the book was tracking. This sort of confluence is quite rare - but the last such time, when Emilia encountered the Yethazmari, also had many of the same planets being in position.
 
Frowning as she reads through all the information, Emilia nods to herself. This was confirming a few things at least, "But what was the point of the pattern on the tower?" she muses aloud, "Maybe if I recreate the pattern I might be able to figure something out..."

Closing the book, Emilia glances toward Annabelle, "Sorry, this has...some of the information I needed. We could...probably leave now, but I'm worried you might not be the only prisoner here...would you mind if we kept searching a little longer?
 
"No. I'd stay and search the rest of the place even if you didn't." Annabelle's voice is firm.
 
Nodding her head, Emilia puts the book on a desk nearby intending to come back for it on her way out, "I don't...really have any way to carry this," she says with a faint blush, "But come on, let's see what else is here," she says and, feeling at least a tiny bit rested, moves to check the final hallway with Annabelle behind her.
 
Annabelle silently picks up the book and carries it as the pair walk over to the final hallway. The first two doors there are much like the rest of this workshop. The final one, though, reveals something different: another prisoner by appearance, a pale woman with dark hair sitting on the floor at the other side of what looks like a summoner's workshop. She has dark eyes and doesn't even look up as the door opens. "What do you want?" she asks, her voice incredibly weary. Much like Annabelle, she is wearing a collar and a pair of rings, though her collar looks to be silver rather than iron.
 
Emilia doesn't waste any time in moving over to the woman, concern obvious in her voice, "We're going to get you out of here, hold on!"

In a single swift motion, she severs the chain holding her collar, but even before the motion is finished she brings her left hand up to Serathiel's blade, slicing her palm open enough to draw blood to smear on the collar, not bothering to examine it and see if it needed something other than angel blood to break the curse she assumed was on it. "With any luck this will let you leave the room..."
 
"No, it won't," the woman says. And it appears she's right; Emilia can't feel any change, and the woman doesn't appear to feel the difference the way Annabelle did.

Looking at it with detect magic, the curse on this collar is subtly different. First off, it has an additional component preventing the wearer from changing form. Second, it requires demon blood to open it.
 
Frowning, Emilia nods, wincing at the pointless bloodloss as she tries to still the bleeding. "I-I see, I was too hasty...demon blood? Where are we going to..." Glancing toward Annabelle and the woman, the aasimar looks uncertain. "There was a demon used as a trap on my way in here...I don't suppose either of you know if there's another somewhere...?"

After getting their answers, she shakes her head, "Oh, forgive me, I'm Emilia...we're going to get you out of here, just give us a little time, okay?"
 
Annabelle pauses at the mention of demon blood, and then steps forward. "Here," she says quietly. "It might take a bit of cutting, but...."
 
Emilia just looks confused and cocks her head, "Wh-what do you mean? Are you telling me they were experimenting with you and demon blood?" The aasimar's eyes are filled with obvious concern and pity.
 
"Something like that," Annabelle says. "I...I'm part succubus. My mother, she was...a demon. It's...why they bought be to experiment on here. B-because I'm not...really human. I didn't w-want to tell you but I can't just let someone rot down here because I'm sc-scared of what you'll do."
 
Emilia just shakes her head, "It doesn't matter who your mother is...we all have family we regret. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you," she tries to be comforting. Holding out Serathiel, "It didn't take much for my blood to set you free, don't hurt yourself and I'm sure it will be enough to free her," the aasimar says, glancing to the imprsioned and yet-nameless woman. "You'll be free in a moment!"

"...but what do you mean about being scared?" She seems genuinely confused.
 
"M-most people are," Annabelle says, while the other woman remains silent. "Or else they...want me. I-I'm so used to being scared of people...." She shakes her head and takes the blade. Rather than a gentle slice, she slashes forcefully at her forearm - and the blade still barely bites in enough to draw blood. She takes the blood and smears it on the collar.

The imprisoned woman sits up straighter as Annabelle does this. "I felt that," she says, in a confident tone rather at odds with Annabelle's timidity. "You...you're really letting me out?"
 
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