[center][h2]Solace[/h2][/center]
[center][i]Themerlinhawk and Synthorian[/i][/center]
[center][b]Loom- Afternoon[/b][/center]


Pushing the front door of the town house open Lazarus peered into the kitchen. Shaylee was nowhere to be found and when he peered through the woodwork with his essence sight the rest of the people staying in the house were also nowhere to be found. Frowning he absentmindedly locked the door and walked through the kitchen. Pausing he picked up the disk Shay had left on the counter earlier and examined it.


The young woman was far more in his business than he’d expected but that was just what made her a fine mage. Taking the disk and her computer he walked up stairs and set them both on her bed. Scrawling a note he left it for her on top of the two before retrieving the rest of the box the disk had come from and setting it on her bed as well.  With the task complete he pursed his lips and started down the stairs. Flicking his finger at the teapot he boiled the water instantly. It was an awful use of magic as it made him complacent but there really wasn’t much time for that. The lab needed to be checked before he went to the Academy to get his bag and tea was required. Adding free leaves from a jar on the counter he poured water into the mug and picked it up. 


Trotting down the stairs he pushed open the door to the basement. Crossing it in quick strides he picked up Dracul and tucked it under his arm as he disengaged the locks on the other side of the stone wall that partitioned the basement. A door in the brickwork swung open and he crossed through it. Flicking on the light he made a beeline for his desk. The inside of the room was lined on three sides with large protruding metal shelving units with closed fronts. Some fifty or so hatches adorned the fronts of the shelves. 


It was small army he had kept on hand since the tragedy and he never failed to maintain it. There was another sub basement below which housed some of the artifacts he’d felt safe moving to Loom but he just needed to sort something out with a tool he’d been working on for Shay. Lunch had given him a moment of insight. Setting Dracul down he leaned over the item and drew up his essence sight. 


“I see you like to work in solitude these days, Thomas…” That voice was all too familiar to anyone that heard it. Old, gruff and full of experience. “Or did you choose to hide away from all that criticism?” There was no mocking or ridicule in the phrase, just curiosity.


Shock was all that registered in Lazarus brain at the voice and when he turned around his left hand was leveled and the lights in the room flickered as he pulled in a titanic amount of essence from Dracul, the storage shelves and basically anything and everything in the house that stored it. 


Stopping Lazarus blinked away the quicksilver in his eyes and released the charge of essence and energy back into its various vessels. “Damn, you about sent me through the roof. You gotta be careful about doing that. I nearly leveled this block.” Registering the older man’s appearance Lazarus raised an eyebrow. “That’s a new look. What brings you knocking?”


The man chuckled as he took a puff from his cigar, his eyes wandering Lazarus’ body from head to toe and back. Lazarus hasn’t aged at all. No surprise really, knowing him. “I like how you always assume that these visits are never casual… But then again, they never were.” His sharp green-eyed gaze veered away from the Necromancer and towards an antique recliner that looked awfully comfortable. “But I thought I’d break the monotony of our usual end-of-the-world meetings. Mind if I take a seat?”


Lazarus gestured and flipped his own chair around. No arms, the usual so that he could sit on it and rest his arms on the back of it. Settling in he snatched the mug from the desk and held it between his hands as his arms rested lightly on the back of the chair. “The reason your visits were never casual has to do with the fact that Loom has sat on the brink of crisis for the better part of two hundred years. We never had a chance to actually talk.” Sipping at the tea Lazarus appraised Solus carefully. It was strange seeing him in a fully human form. 


“So what do you want to talk about? And the answer to your earlier question is: both. The younger generation finds me less appealing than they once did and frankly I’ve found silence and solitude help with my creative process.”


Solus casually strolled over to the recliner and took a seat, legs crossed and resting an elbow on one of the arms. “You always had a knack for art. Nice painting of me, by the way. Adding your own essence into each stroke of the brush really adds some… spiritual texture to it.” He said with a smile remembering something Lazarus tried to do a long time ago in the room where the painting rested. He leaned a little towards the Resurrection Mage as he answered his question. “And I want to talk about you, these last 20 years…”


Frowning Lazarus swirled the tea in its cup. There was no way in heaven, hell or earth Solus could have seen the painting in his study in Finch’s Loft. Which raised an awful lot of suspicions but that was no doubt about to be part of the rest of the discussion. Finishing off the tea Lazarus set the cup down and folded his arms on the back of the chair. “Where do you want to start?”


Solus leaned back into the recliner, and gestured at lazarus with an open hand. “Wherever you feel comfortable.”


“Let’s start with the part where you neatly up and vanished. Not exactly a new trick for you but I figured when Hazumi went missing and the general flow of things went sideways you might turn up again. Guess I was right but just a fair bit later than I was expecting. So what have you been up to? My life has been rather boring since the Herald incident.” It was a true enough statement; training the generations of musicians and wielders the Academy had been pushing through had consumed the vast majority of his time. After Iris vanished it had meant much of his life had been dedicated to the Academy.


“Really now… I wouldn’t consider your recent acquisition to be boring. What was her name…” Solus’ eyebrows frowned into a false attempt at concentration. “Shaylee Carter, was it? Quite the talent.”


“Shay has no idea what she’s gotten herself into but I couldn’t exactly turn away the opportunity to train one of the first spirit Necromancers in existence. Besides that, she’s way too full of herself. We finished her soul Vessel not a day ago and she still doesn’t know what its for. I don’t do the whole, mentoring a replacement thing well. Too much time worry about what would go sideways in the wrong hands. Then again she’s a hell of a lot less angry at the world than you and I ever were so I’d call that a win.” Shifting his weight forward Lazarus chuckled mostly to himself.


“Hmm…” Solus hummed thoughtfully. “Spirit Necromancy is only a temporary thing. Her training will only be fruitless in the end. This current state of the world is only temporary. It will sort itself out naturally.” Looking off into the distance, he smiled to himself. “But I was most impressed with Andri’s exorcism. That… was an interesting watch…”


The last comment caused Lazarus eyebrows to shoot up. “Well I’ll be damned, you have learned a few new tricks haven’t you? Not a single ward has been tripped or tampered with and you’ve been in this house twice. To top it off you’ve been in Finch’s Loft which should be impossible without my permission. So. What did you pull off Solus? Your knowledge of things you shouldn’t know is significantly more vast than the last time. That and you know the current state of the world is temporary.” Turning the thoughts over in his head Lazarus pursed his lips. “You could have found something in hell, but I doubt that. What did you manage to do?”


Solus shook his head and chuckled. “Glad you are catching on. Let me give you another hint…” Lazarus blinked, and they were surrounded by an ocean frozen over. Icy winds howled in between them as they still sat in their chairs. Lazarus looked up, the atmosphere was thin, and a foggy Cyan, with specks of stars gleaming through. But the most eye catching spectacle, was of the horizon. The enormous mass of Jupiter, loomed over them, the Red Eye Storm clearly visible as to twirled violently along the equator of the gas giant. The realization hit him. They were on Europa. One of Jupiter’s many moons. “This is my favorite view in the Solar System…”


Lifting his head off of the back of the chair Lazarus didn’t react as he took in the view. “God damn.” The comment was intentional as he was fairly sure he’d never used the phrase in his life before that moment. The hysterical chuckle that followed was a sound Lazarus wasn’t aware he could actually make. Setting his forehead on the chair back he let the chuckle die out. “And to think that I almost through the seed of a cold fusion star at you earlier. Well this was on the list but much farther down the list than I’d like to admit.” Not bothering to look at Solus, Lazarus stood up and walked a little ways away from his chair to stare up at the sky. 


“I don’t want to know how you did it but I do want to know how the hell you survived. It's bad enough that I can’t be killed permanently. Most days I’m still not sure that was the correct decision.” Tilting his head he drew up his essence sight and stared at the universe from a totally new perspective. A unique one. Something no one else would be able to see. There was no way he could capture this one on canvas but he was going to try. 


Turning around Lazarus raised his eyebrows prompting. “So let’s hear it. What’s Lucy and Dad like?”


Lazarus blinked again, they were back in his office. The sheer magnificence of Europa gone. Replaced by the now drab room. Solus looked at Lazarus with a smile. The Mage’s face looked of sheer childlike curiosity now, pure wonder. “You will see them for yourself, in due time.” Solus answered. “One thing I can say is that Aaurus doesn’t take too kindly to new neighbours.” He extended his free hand with his palm facing the ceiling, glass began to form from thin air, shaping itself into a whiskey glass. Then, it slowly filled with a gleaming transparent brown fluid. Some form of whiskey.


The whiskey glass gently floated down onto the palm of his hand, his fingers curling to take a hold of it. “You should paint that view, Lazarus.” Solus affirmed. “It’s quite something.”


“That’s certainly the plan.” As if to mock Solus, Lazarus plucked his tea mug again and with a roll of his wrist rearranged the water in the air and replicated the components of the tea by patterning the dregs. The heat was the easy part. “I’d imagine he was less than thrilled, and I will most certainly be painting that.” The grin on his face was huge. “So, now the real question: What rules do you play by now? Given omnipotence and omniscience there have to be at least a few or life isn’t interesting.”


“Why do you think I took on a human appearance? It would be boring if I showed up all godlike and shouted Biblical quotes.” Solus said chuckling. “I can’t just click my fingers and magically fix everything wrong with the Three Worlds. Aaurus granted you all free will for a reason. Me messing with mortal affairs would ruin the whole point of it. Why grant it, when you will just take it way anyway?” He took a sip of his beverage during his pause. “All Gods in legends, and even Aaurus himself, the real deal, have intervened on occasions. But those interventions were huge in scale. Granduous. I prefer a more… indirect and gradual approach.”


Tilting his head Lazarus gave him a knowing nod. “Absolutely, By the way. I’m glad someone appreciates my name now. That particular heretical text has always been quite enjoyably actually. I’m sure it pisses Lucy off though.” Taking another taste of his tea he narrowed his eyes another wicked grin spreading over his face. “Okay. How do you solve [b]The Problem[/b]. Or can you? Can you surmount the Paradox? Can you make a rock large enough that you can’t lift it?.....” Lazarus paused. “...Or are you even Omnipotent in the traditional sense of the word?” Pursing his lips Lazarus contemplated. With that the resurrection mage looked around his work space. This meeting was something else entirely than he’d expected. “So. The fact that you’ve shown up in my house and been paying attention to me. There is no way [i]that[/i] is a coincidence. Not only that but it’s hardly indirect; what do you need from me? I’m not guaranteeing that I trust you quite yet. Given that for all I know you could be Aaurus posing, but that seems highly unlikely. So spill. You might not be able to act, but that absolutely doesn’t preclude me.” He paused. Menacingly. “Unless it involves hurting Hazumi. That I will [i]Not[/i] be participating in. Although I would hope you wouldn’t come to me about something like that.”
“Hazumi has known about me for the past 20 years. And she kept that information from you. If I wanted to hurt her, I would have done so 20 years ago.” Solus replied ever so casually. “I can exist everywhere at once if I choose to. I can turn the clock in any direction, or even stop it entirely on a whim.” Solus put the cigar to his lips and snapped his fingers. The very gravity below Lazarus’ feet gave way, making him gently float towards the ceiling. “I can even change the rules of physics.” Solus took the cigar out of his mouth again and continued. “Speaking of which. I can’t make a rock that I can’t lift, if I can adjust the effects of it’s own weight, no matter how big I make it.”


Lazarus folded his arms mid air. “So you aren’t omnipotent. Not only that, you might be able to exist everywhere at once but it would seem you can’t exist anywhen at once. Although it's nice to know you can roll the clock back. However, given the fact that you haven’t always existed I’m guessing you can’t predate your apotheosis. Otherwise Aaurus would have known of your existence as a god prior to your apotheosis. It's interesting to know you are omnipresent too; that must be handy.” Another long pause caused him to consider the comments. “Now that I think about it, I guess that's not really a necessary condition...I’d assume you can’t act in the past.” Further pausing he folded his legs a few feet above the ground and grabbed his ankles to keep his legs neatly folded. “This clearly requires further rumination given that there appear to be limits on your abilities but the scope of them in general pushes this further into the realm of philosophical than I probably care to consider at the moment.” 


The fact that Solus had just told him that Hazumi had been keeping something from him for so long made him rather morose. They’d had it out when his memories came back but he’d thought that was the end of it. Regardless, it was no doubt Solus fault; not that he blamed the god for it. “Right.” Flipping himself over so he was firmly planted with his feet on the ceiling Lazarus grinned down at Solus. “So what do you need the long arm of the Heir Apparent of the East Realms of Hell for?”


“Omnipotence will come in time… A few hundred years or so. This whole “god” thing is still new to me.” Solus sighed, snapping his finger and forcing Lazarus back to earth again.


Flipping himself neatly Lazarus landed firmly on the ground before folding his arms. “You’re avoiding the question. I get the distinct impression you didn’t come here for me to study you so you must have something in mind. Not that I’d mind if you just came to talk. I would imagine it would get kinda boring just interacting with Lucy and Aaurus but that’s just me.” Patiently shifting his arms Lazarus still maintained the grin of someone who had almost forgotten what it was to be excited by new knowledge.


Solus’ face went solum for a moment as he pondered on what to say. “I have a mansion… at the peak of Mt. Jigger. It’s built on top of old Vault, built in the 1960s. It’s a Pandora’s Box of natural anomalies and things alien to this world, and I can no longer be its guardian, as it’s… a mortal affair, as Aaurus put it.”


Snorting Lazarus shrugged. “So what? I have my own things to curate. You should know what I have locked in my basement. What do you want me to do about your collection?” Already calculating Lazarus considered what he might actually have to do to move a collection like that. To top it off he was fairly certain there were [i]beings[/i] in Solus collection which was something altogether different from what he had. That being said… Lazarus shook his head. “Yeah I get the problem but what did you want me to do about it?”


“I’m not asking you to take it over, Thomas. I’m asking you to find someone capable. What that place conceals… is unimaginable.” Solus stated firmly, taking another puff of his cigar. “I doubt the combined powers of Myself and Aaurus can even stop it…”


The response caused a deep frown from Lazarus. “Who the hell else is qualified to do such a thing? Ian is [i]barely[/i] capable of higher order magic, Shay is not nearly far enough along, Hazumi is missing and otherwise engaged, I’m not aware of any other human mages that even approach the level required to take over a position as a warden like that. Did you have someone in mind?”


“Actually, Shaylee will be more than capable, given time. Which, luckily, we have plenty of…”


The annoyed look that flashed across Lazarus face was quickly stifled. “Oooh. You expect me to live forever.” Lazarus chuckled before sitting back down. “I guess you’re right. That being said. Shay’s magic is going to take much longer than mine. How long can it go without a Warden? Shay has barely scratched the surface of Evocation, Necromancy and Alchemy. What with the inevitable end of her spirit magic.”


“Until it’s power source fails, which is unlikely. I’m more concerned about what’s at the very bottom of it.” He froze for a moment, his eyes becoming glassy and distant. He was witnessing something in his mind. “We have 28 years… merely a small moment…”


Shaking his head Lazarus contemplated. “She’s not going to be ready fast enough. I had a hundred years and I’m an unquantifiable genius and I have Savant Syndrome. We’ll have to find a way to speed up her uptake.”


“Her experiences will prepare her.” Solus replied matter-of-factly, standing up out of his seat. “I have witnessed a multitude of futures, and hers is the best one. So… send her into the fray. You learn quicker when your life is on the line.”


Raising an eyebrow and glaring at Solus, Lazarus finally chuckled “Yes I’m sure that wasn’t a joke about me now.” Standing Lazarus offered his hand. “Let me know if there is anything else that needs doing. Just don’t expect me to start praying to you or anything”


“I’m not one for worship anyway.” Solus took Lazarus’ hand and shook it.


Nodding Lazarus turned around “Here let me give you an opportunity to make a dramatic exit.”


“I think I’ll walk out, thanks.” Lazarus could hear the man’s footsteps behind him as he walked towards the door, which creaked open and closed. The thuds of Solus’ feet gradually getting duller as he went deeper into the house, eventually with their sound vanishing entirely.


Lazarus single loud coughing laugh followed the man turned god out of his house. 


Things were becoming interesting in Loom again.