Fortuna Verto

74-Mesmerizing Inevitability

Axln's first experiences in this timeline did not lend her the greatest of confidence, only a spiral of uncertainty in exactly what situation she had found herself in. However, much like everything that had challenged her from her own timeline, she wasn't about to let anything simply stand in her way, she would find Lyun.

The most discoordinating part had to be finding herself in the middle of the citadel, without even a sign what this timeline's version of her would have been doing here in the first place. It was especially rough in how this version of her wasn't quite so channeled into chaos, in fact it seemed innately resistant to the influence. There was also quite the concern that her first attempts to simply open a gate to the temporal absolutely failed. Something was a complete mess in this timeline, far more than she would have expected. Clearly, her first course of action would be to gather information.. though that was again a challenging incident. The usual teather she held to chaos was absolutely gone, all she had right now was the ambience of self she had come here with. She could then still influence time, she could even still influence chance, but she was being explicitly denied Lyun's presence. This.. resistance.. it led her to believe the girl was at least alive in this timeline, but that she somehow had unknown enemies.

Axln could tell as well that the passage between principled planes still laid open for her, but she had been hesitant to take it. All of the familiar presence of the temporal was gone, leaving that path very uninviting. However, with herself so disconnected, there was no certainty which world the girl would be on. Even so, she wouldn't be yet as blessed by the temporal, so even if the girl did flee to the other principle, she would then simply be trapped there. Axln was the only one free to move in either direction. Quite simply then, she would need to simply get a count of the situation here, and figure out her best move from there. Reliably, she might need to pass off as yet another of the principled in order to do so, but that would just need her to put a lid on her temporal presence, her form's natural resistance actually helped to do the rest. Even wandering around though, the place seemed mildly uninviting, like it was on guard for some reason. Maybe, in this timeline, the seal of the citadel hadn't yet been released. Such would certainly explain the lack of ersatz here too, yet another sight she had grown used to. Fortunately, the defenses still did nothing to her, though something about everything seemed.. broken? Was that why she was here then?

It was fortunate that her principled aspirations seemed to still carry over to this world, her gift responding as smoothly as she might have expected. Her arm was as annoying as ever, but she knew such a cybernetic resource would still be imperative right now. Something about the design though was slightly unfamiliar, but it wasn't something she was going to be too worried about. Principled nonsense, most likely. Even her power gear was more of annoyance than use, but she did have appearances to keep up. Besides, she would have to depend on something if she wanted to avoid drawing too much on chaos. One aspect of chaos she especially favoured though would be the use of probability. Such had an indisputable use right now, an advantage which would simply turn this maze of chance to her own favour. It was in fact this advantage which played out as the greatest resource in her success, eventually finding herself on the other side of a large hall filled with assorted statues, Lyun and Mheridz both standing there. Well, that was alarming, why was Mheridz still here? She should have been wiped clear from the timeline already, something really was up here. With such considerations, Axln knew she would need to be very careful with how she proceeded.

"Axln! You're alright! I was really worried there for a while, we had suddenly lost you without warning." "Oh, yeah, I'm not actually sure what happened either, but it's really not left me feeling that well, my head is killing me." "Well, do you need a rest then?" "I.. I'm not sure. I think maybe the best course would be to keep going, maybe talk for a while, we can see if this passes or gets worse." "Oh, yeah sure." "Wow, my arm feels like a disaster right now." "Oh, right, I forgot to make special exceptions for that, sorry. I'll make sure the arm at least works, but you probably won't get anything special from it." "Ah, well, that's fine, not a big deal. Sorry, I probably look like a huge mess right now, where are we going again?" "Wow, and this was your huge trip. Maybe we should step outside for a while, actually get you some rest, let you clear your head. There is no way we're going to finish things if you're like this." "I guess whatever you think is best." "Mheridz, let's let her rest a while, a trip back is still going to be a long one. There is a lot of good space here, we could make it a slight bit more comfortable. I'll figure something out, you make sure she stays okay." Lyun was off exploring the open room, deep in thought for some still obscure reason Axln couldn't figure out. The girl really was good at saying a lot that explained nothing.