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[Sub].:⋮Meetings P.3⋮:.[/Sub]
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[color=9e0039][u][b]“Once more shall we?”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would mutter under her breath as she approached the Beacon embassy in the Overcity. She was early for her meeting, just under an hour early in fact, because she had the feeling that actually getting to the meeting location was going to take a lot longer than she would have liked.

It was like being back in Penrose when she first joined Beacon. Distrust and thinly veiled hostility from everyone. Not that Penny found that all that annoying if she was honest, she got it. No, what was annoying was that this all felt like a waste of time. Or at least had the capacity to be such. Wonderland was coming, Dina was stressing, the Sanctuary still had yet to move, and there were a half dozen things Penny should be doing to deal with all of that.

But no, she was here dealing with bureaucracy and politics. At least no one here would be able to tell from her face just how annoyed she was and with luck any empaths would continue to avoid her due to her weird emotional output.

Once again Penny had to perform the dance of security procedures, though it was easier now that Ishtar taught her the steps. Still, the suspicion she faced did not lessen. Once she arrived in Lucia, she had to wait for some time before Louhi came to escort her.
"I'm glad you arrived early, Penny. We can go over some of the etiquette you need to remember when addressing the Ecclesiarch." She opened the electric notepad she had with her, and it transformed into a floating drone that projected various images and slides. "Before we start, do you have any questions?"

[color=9e0039][u][b]“A few”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would say as she fell in step with Louhi. Inversely closing down some of the screens she had brought up on her HUD while she was waiting. She was glad that she hadn't been as bogged down in suspicion as she feared she might be and wondered if her escort was in any way responsible for that.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Biggest question I’ve got is; what am I looking at if the Ecclesiarch decides that I am not welcome within Beacon?”[/b][/u][/color] It was perhaps the most important question that Penny had as well. Because if there was going to be fallout, she wanted to know what she needed to be prepared for now.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Other questions that are important deal with what the logistical requirements for declaring independence actually are. Minimum size requirements, and percentage votes needed, that sort of thing. But those can wait.”[/b][/u][/color]

"I will send someone to sort the details with you on that matter," Louhi responded curtly. "However, as for your main question…You could be looking at excommunication in the best case scenario, and execution or sealing in the worst case." Her expression stayed neutral. "However, if you behave yourself and explain the facts succinctly and without bias, as you have done with me, I believe she will reach a just verdict. Now then, regarding how to address her…"
Louhi spent a short moment explaining about how to approach the Ecclesiarch, how to invoke gratitude upon meeting her, and little things like that. "...And that is all. Now, are you ready, Penny?" The two once again stood on the golden-bricked road's end that led to the construct resembling a sun.

Penny listened attentively as Louhi answered her question and went on to give a few formal pointers on how to conduct herself in the presence of the Ecclesiarch. As far as the priestess could tell Penny took it all in stride. Which was mostly true, so long as the fact that Penny was pulling up combat systems and prepping escape routes internally could be considered taking it in stride.

In truth it was just about what Penny had expected. Honestly none of those outcomes were good ones, each for their own reason, but all but Excommunication would have Penny fighting her way out of here. And even that option might lead to that depending on what exactly is entailed in Excommunication.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Ready as I can be I suppose”[/b][/u][/color] Would be her answer. Before adding on [color=9e0039][u][b]“One last question. How much of the Penrose situation have they read up on?”[/b][/u][/color]

“Her Holiness been informed,” Louhi answered, and performed a magic spell that once again lifted the two of them up towards the slowly rotating shape. However, instead of entering one of the towers like last time, they now headed towards the spherical center, as towers parted ways to open a route to the core. As they got closer, Penny saw the light intensify, until all she saw was white.

“Your Holiness, may the light of Beacon shine in your heart,” she could hear Louhi speak in the blinding light.

“As it may in yours,” she heard a distant voice respond. Then, as the intense light dimmed down to visible level, Penny saw that she was in an impossibly large, circular space resembling a cathedral. There were candles and lanterns floating in the air, Beckoners that flitted here and there, and even tiny white particles. In the middle of the sphere was a floating platform surrounded by a complex rotating set of spheres linked together by rings, resembling a planetarium in some ways. It was in the very middle of it that Penny saw [url=https://imgur.com/Gl5bu5j] the Ecclesiarch[/url]; she was sitting on a throne made of gold and white marble, her eyes half-lidded with a vacant stare as if she was daydreaming.

“Okay, introduce yourself properly,” Louhi whispered in Penny’s ear.

Louhi’s answer this time was much less helpful than Penny was hoping for. But that was put aside as Penny took in the view. She resolutely ignored her rising anxiety as well as she was brought closer and closer to the center of Beacon’s base of power. Her escape routes weren’t closed to her, but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel like the walls were closing in a little bit.

Upon regaining the ability to see Penny cast a long look about the area noting its splendor. Returning her gaze to the Ecclesiarch, the girl who would decide her fate, Penny took two steps forward before giving a half bow. [color=9e0039][u][b]“My name is Penny Asimov.”[/b][/u][/color] She would introduce herself, head still bowed. [color=9e0039][u][b]“It is an honor to make your acquaintance, your Holiness”[/b][/u][/color] She would stay bowed for a moment longer before righting, and falling into a parade rest her arms clasped behind her back.

The Ecclesiarch blinked slowly, and then bowed her head in return to the proper gesture, showing to Penny that she correctly introduced herself.
"Penny…" She then spoke, in a slow and dreaming voice.

"Tell me…What is magic?"

Penny blinked at the seemingly unrelated question. It hadn’t really been something that she had ever thought about if she was honest. It was a fact of life of this new world that she was a part of, true, but she never had worried about the deeper implications of it. Her own physical makeup not really leading to those kinds of philosophical musings. 

[color=9e0039][u][b]“I’m not sure that there is a single proper answer to that question”[/b][/u][/color] She would answer after a moment. [color=9e0039][u][b]“It’s the source of too much to be constrained to a single definition I think. But for me? Magic is life, the pulse of our world, the turbulent whirlpool that churns out possibility.”[/b][/u][/color] She brought forward one of her hands and a tiny bolt of lightning sprang into existence, dancing between her fingers. [color=9e0039][u][b]“It’s an intrinsic force in our lives, and a force that connects all of us to each other in the most basic of ways. It deserves respect and at times caution. For it is ultimately unknowable, too vast, too great, too simple for us to ever truly understand it.”[/b][/u][/color] She would close her fist, the lightning vanishing as she returned to clasping her arms behind her back.

 Penny’s answer, for all that it seemed rehearsed, was something that she had more or less formulated on the spot. That wasn’t to say she was dishonest with it, just that it was rough hewn. One aspect of her thoughts on magic she kept to herself however, not knowing how to give voice to it in a manner that fit her circumstances. Because she also felt that Magic was a lot like duct tape. It had two sides, held the universe together, and was given a vastly bloated sense of importance. It was a tool, not fundamental.

The Ecclesiarch bowed slowly to acknowledge Penny's answer. "An interesting answer." Her dreaming eyes were drawn to somewhere past Penny. "You are not the only one who has been asked that question. It is a question posed to each Mahou; each flower yet to bloom or wilt.
But even with our long lives, we may never reach the answer." She sighed. "I was once close to discovering it. I saw it in a dream…Something beyond this world and the worlds adjacent…But even so, all I could recall is but a hazy memory. However, there is one interpretation that I believe in."

She lazily swiped a hand, and Penny saw as massive projected screens appeared around the spherical space, showing various Mahous, both pure and corrupted, malicious and benevolent, victorious and collapsed.
"Magic is a reflection of us, a mirror to the depths of our very being, given manifest. We extend ourselves, our souls, through magic, and influence the story through it."
She once again turned her eyes to Penny.
"Now, tell me Penny…Why does magic corrupt?"

[color=9e0039][u][b]“I don’t think it does.”[/b][/u][/color] Would come the swift reply, as this had been something Penny had thought about. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I think the changes that result from excessive magical infusions are a result of our flaws and our weaknesses. Magic digs into us till it finds our most basic level and empowers everything there. At our core, nothing and nobody is perfect, and sometimes that means a flaw shines brighter than a virtue when given a boost.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Magic can seduce, and it can mislead. Just as it can cleanse and free. But on its own, it simply reacts to what's around it.”[/b][/u][/color] She would give a short shrug. It placed a lot of the outcome on the person affected by magic Penny knew. But she didn’t think that Magic itself was to blame. That brushed too much aside if it was true.

Once again, the Ecclesiarch acknowledged Penny's words with a slow nod. "Another interesting answer, and one that the Beacon order has struggled with since time immemorial. Much research has been made on the nature of this transformation, which resulted in the creation of the purification ritual, one of Beacon's oldest traditions." The Ecclesiarch paused for a moment, and upon seeing understanding in Penny's eyes, she continued. "The rite, at its fundamental level, is meant to correct the erratic changes brought about by the chaotic power of magic, and bring order to it. Only form has been proven to be stable enough to hold magic without succumbing to chaos: the human form. But then, something unexpected happened: you. A corrupted Mahou who kept their form on purification. Once I have learned of you, I then began to dream…And upon me came a vision of your life."

Penny saw as the throne the Ecclesiarch was sitting on began to float, and the screens changed to depict various moments in Penny's magical history, from fusing with the Earth Bastion for the first time, meeting with the Howell twins, eating Sirkkeli's remains, and so on.

"A lone Beckoner went against Beacon's dogma, and accepted you as a member of Beacon, seemingly in hopes of saving the city in whose events you found yourself soon embroiled in. But that was not the cause, as we initially believed. No…Your fate was split in half the moment you linked yourself to the vessel of the girl named Amber. As her identity shattered into countless shards, deep inside, you discovered what it meant to have an identity, a true self…And you wanted it."

She paused, and began to float closer to Penny.
"You may not have consciously decided on it at first, but soon you found an obstacle in Jason. The human self who parted ways from you was the true self…But you locked his soul away, desperate to find your own identity. You were willing to lie and cheat, even to yourself. So it was that when the purification rite was performed, you took Jason's humanity and cloaked yourself in it, masking your true self and deceiving yourself to the very core."
She now floated around Penny, her eyes constantly on her. "And once you rejected Jason, you completed your mission, and formed your own self with artificial humanity and Beacon's stolen blessing."

Penny would silently observe the moments of her history depicted across the screens. Pivotal parts of her own past. It was interesting to note, for her at least, that they only had times of her in Penrose, from after she had more consistent contact with Beacon. It made sense then why they came to their conclusion.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“I actually hated Jason a lot earlier than that.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would say calmly, at last returning her gaze to the Ecclesiarch. [color=9e0039][u][b]“He… He was a frightened prick who did everything he could to keep me buried as deep as he could manage. I chafed under his yolk as much as I did the shackles of my first Patron.”[/b][/u][/color] She would explain a wry smile on her face.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“You are right that the Bastion was a tipping point. But not because I wanted an identity for the first time. Stealing the ship gave me a refuge within our shared soul for the first time. Somewhere I could bide my strength and time.”[/b][/u][/color] As she spoke her chassi would fold open revealing a bright shining sphere. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I’ll admit that I’m not sure how I survived the ritual, the Coin if we are to be completely honest here, maybe I did burrow deep into his fractured humanity and used it to shield myself.”[/b][/u][/color] She would gently reach in and pull out the sphere. Before rolling it across her fingers.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Maybe I learned enough from his memories while he kept me locked away to build enough of my own humanity that the nature of your ritual didn’t affect me. Maybe it wouldn’t have affected me either way, after all my ‘birth’ was an accident, far as I can tell.”[/b][/u][/color] A careless shrug, one at odds with the sharp calculating gleam in Penny’s eyes.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“In the end. I wasn’t the one who wanted Jason gone, that was him. We split in a manner that wasn’t sustainable. Our soul was hemorrhaging due to it. He had the chance to return, I wouldn’t have stopped him nor did I tempt him otherwise. It was his choice to give me what he could of his own soul so that I wouldn’t die.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“I am not human. I know that, I accept that, and I love that about myself. But humanity isn’t reserved solely for humans.”[/b][/u][/color] She would hold up her own ShineSpark as she spoke. [color=9e0039][u][b]“And fuck you if you think otherwise.”[/b][/u][/color] In the silence that followed that there would be four soft clicks and one louder clack. This was the point she wouldn’t give on, and she was now prepared to fight for it if needed.

Louhi gasped at Penny's insolence before the Ecclesiarch, but the latter surprisingly seemed to ignore it. "Hmm…I did see early resignation in Jason, but I did not see that selflessness…Very well then." Her brow furrowed slightly. "Your life has been one of turmoil and conflict, down to your very soul. Yet you embrace this disorder, and see it as the way forward. However, such chaos has no place in the ranks of Beacon, and never will." She sighed. "Therefore, you must make a choice, Penny."

All other screens shut down except for two that stood side by side: the left one depicted Penny as she was, but with a crown of thorns, surrounded by claws, teeth, tentacles and wings. The right depicted her as human.

"You must give up your mechanical nature, or the blessing of Beacon."

The two images side by side depicted the easiest choice she had ever been given. [color=9e0039][u][b]“It was selfishness.”[/b][/u][/color] She would correct, because she had something to say and she would say it before she was done here. Since she knew how this was going to go now. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Jason gave me what he did, not to save my life but to end his. He wanted out, so he acted in self interest. Not altruism.”[/b][/u][/color]

She would give another look at the two images and she couldn’t help but chuckle. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I always wondered how this would end up.”[/b][/u][/color] She would mutter [color=9e0039][u][b]“Guess I know at last.”[/b][/u][/color] With that she would toss her ShineSpark to the Ecclesiarch. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I already said I would give it back if Beacon ever asked.”[/b][/u][/color] And it seemed someone finally did. 

She would half turn to leave, making sure not to give Lohui her back. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I do suppose that we have nothing more to talk about then.”[/b][/u][/color] She would say giving a large grin that showed off her now razor edged teeth. A warning that she would not go gently if they tried to force it.

The Ecclesiarch let the shining orb of Beacon magic float to her, and then gave one last look at Penny. "So you have chosen the path of chaos. I will let you leave this place, so you may return back to your home. Louhi, you may also give her the information as requested."

The Choir member's eyes widened. "But your Holiness-!"

"The queen may defend her realm. So is her story written."

The Ecclesiarch then turned her throne away, signalling that the meeting was over. Louhi then addressed Penny’s words. "That is correct, yes." The two left Luxia, and once outside she handed Penny a white thumb drive with the Beacon's golden logo. She then gave one last look around. "The Ecclesiarch did not excommunicate you, which means the alliance is still possible between your budding kingdom and Beacon. However, you were discharged from the organization, so I can no longer directly assist you with the matter in an official capacity. Still, I'll keep the Cardinal posted in Penrose and assign her to work on your issues. Any questions?"

Penny gave one last look at the Beacon Embassy. What it was she felt she kept to herself as she turned her attention to Louhi. [color=9e0039][u][b]“You realize that once I leave I’ll never be able to be the one to extend that alliance offer.”[/b][/u][/color] She would state as she accepted the thumb drive. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Not until Beacon changes. Your vows list me as an enemy now, one that none should work with else they risk excommunication.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“I’m a Monstergirl, and most of my subjects are either dark magicals or Monster girls themselves.”[/b][/u][/color] She was giving Louhi a sad smile [color=9e0039][u][b]“And while some of them would like to be purified, I don’t think they will want it to come from Beacon after this. Not if it means they'd have to turn on the rest of us.”[/b][/u][/color]

There was a low hum as Penny’s legs lit up as her thrusters slowly turned on. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Sanctuary will remember this day. The day that her Queen was judged wanting for simply being true to herself.”[/b][/u][/color] She turned her attention to the road ahead. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I have no questions that I need answered, but hopefully one day I’ll be able to seek your counsel again. But as I said, that won’t be up to me. Goodbye Louhi, and thank you for your efforts.”[/b][/u][/color]

With that said Penny would skate away. And though she was tempted, she didn’t look back. They wouldn’t be given the chance to see the hurt in her eyes as she left. It was painful, and she expected that this day would come, but Penny would keep moving forward. And she would keep the spark of Hope alive. Because one never knew what tomorrow brought.