<Storyteller> Outside the wind howls, as Ahuru turns towards you he motions for you to
sit
* Brianna sits down
* Hans sits.
* Huntress sits down slowly, watching the others in the room as she does so.
<Ahuru> "I sense there are questions..."
<Ahuru> "Yes...."
* Brianna looks at the others
<Brianna> "We spoke to someone...who told us who you are," Brianna begins
<Ahuru> "That will come in time..."
* Huntress , being new to this group remains quite, not fully aware of what the
situation is. She knows of the Wraith called Ahuru, but knows little more than that
about him. However ever-watchfull she hopes to find out more about this ancient one.
* Angelo looks uncomfortable.
<Brianna> "Why were we chosen to do this?"
* Ahuru nods and sits upon a throne seemingly made of sand
<Ahuru> "You were chosen long before your births. There is no reason why, you just
are. As I have always been the prophet, so it is with you."
<Angelo> "How can you be so sure? I don't buy into that predestination crap. What if
one of us hadn't died, or something?"
* Huntress leans back in her chair, her face expressionless beneath the moliated mask
on her face.
<Remy> "What must we do for the time being? Will Markova come to us, or must we seek
him out?"
<Ahuru> "You would have died eventually, this is not of my choosing. Fate calls to
those whos' threads are finely woven."
<Ahuru> "The will come in time, Remy..."
<Brianna> "When is he supposed to wake up? How much time do we have to prepare?"
* Angelo looks dubious, anyway.
<Ahuru> "Very soon, when we are done speaking, you must begin to prepare for a long
journey, a journey that one of you will not return from."
<Brianna> "Will you be coming with us?"
<Hans> "Do you know who will not return?"
<Ahuru> "No, my presence will awaken him, just as yours will disturb his sleep."
<Brianna> "Where are you sending us?"
* Ahuru is quiet and then nods. "Yes..."
<Hans> "Who is it?"
<Will> "But we must arrive before he awakens so we may be ready to fight him?"
* Brianna is afraid to hear the answer to that
<Ahuru> "I will tell you what must be done, but not now, and no I will not tell you
who is to die."
<Brianna> "Where are we going on a journey to?"
* Hans nods in silence, perhaps it is better not to know what is to come.
<Ahuru> "La'hrago.."
<Ahuru> "I sense a question that has not been asked..."
* Ahuru stands
* Huntress leans forward and asks in a thick accented voice "Not ta be rude or
nothin' but what is my place in all'dis?"
<Ahuru> "You are the HUNTER OF DARKNESS, and so it is you that shall guide them when
the time is right."
<Ahuru> "The question is, why have you not told us sooner..."
<Remy> "I think I already know..."
* Angelo grins.
* Huntress nods and leans back in her chair, satisfied that her question was
answered... kinda
<Angelo> "A good question."
<Remy> "What are the rest of our roles?"
<Ahuru> "If I told you a long time ago, would you have the strength to do what must
be done? No."
<Angelo> "Heh. Do we now?"
<Ahuru> "Would you have had the will to face what you must face? No."
* Brianna nods imperceptively as she hears the wisdom in his words
<Ahuru> "Understanding comes with time, and experience.."
<Will> "But we would have tried."
<Brianna> "In the prophecies - how am I identified? What is my name?"
* Ahuru turns to will, "Yes you would have tried...and failed."
* Will nods
<Ahuru> "You are all who are, who you were born to be, my APPRENTICE."
<Angelo> "Hmm. What about the rest of us."
* Brianna nods
<Angelo> "?"
* Ahuru walks over to Hans
<Hans> "We are all your apprentices?"
<Ahuru> "The PENITANT MAN," and then to Will, "The KNIGHT," and then to Angelo, "HE
WHO SHALL WALK IN DARKNESS"
* Ahuru and finally to Remy
<Ahuru> "And the FATED GAMBLER."
* Ahuru sits back down
* Ahuru awaits more questions
* Angelo buttons his suit jacket and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
* Remy nods. "Alright then. I don't see any reason to prolong this...when do we
leave?"
<Ahuru> "Soon."
<Ahuru> "There is much you need to know."
<Brianna> "We are here to listen."
<Remy> "Things you're gonna tell us, or things we gotta find out on our own?"
* Ahuru lowers his head and begins to speak
<Ahuru> "After my aprenticship, I joined the royal court of the pharoah and stay
there with him I did, until he died."
<Ahuru> "It was during this time, that I learned a great many things. Things that
have been forgotten now, things that some still remember."
<Ahuru> "I was as you say in these times, Awakened. And it was then I learned of the
ways of fate, and was able to control my visions."
* Angelo quirks an eyebrow.
<Ahuru> "I sense another question...ask it."
* Angelo stays quiet.
* Ahuru awaits the question...
<Remy> "What exactly does awakened mean?"
* Angelo grins.
<Ahuru> "I was a magi, able to use the forces of nature and magick."
* Brianna nods in agreement
<Will> "Hmmmm. I met some of those who practice sorcery, but I never heard them
decribe it such."
<Brianna> "Ahuru, what is your name?"
<Ahuru> "Different times, different circumstances."
* Huntress listens close to what these wraiths have to say
<Ahuru> "I was born Atepa, son of Nephti."
* Angelo continues to pointedly keep his mouth shut.
* Hans listens to Ahuru intently.
<Brianna> "How did you die?"
<Ahuru> "I died with my pharaoh."
<Brianna> "Why do you now live here, instead of back in Egypt?"
<Ahuru> "It was the place you would all gather, I have spent a long time...waiting."
<Brianna> "Did you have to manipulate the strings of Fate to get us here?"
<Remy> "Do you remember anything that pharoah taught you that might be useful to us?"
<Ahuru> "Yes, no. I was the one who brought you here."
<Will> "I don't believe that was necessary, was it?"
<Storyteller> And suddenly you flash back to an earlier time, a ferryman, taking your
caul and saying, "I can take you to New York...no farther..."
* Brianna blinks
<Brianna> "What about those who have died.. have we unbalanced our chances with
Markova because they are gone?"
<Ahuru> "The pharaoh taught me many things, he taught the world many things, even now
his name is known..."
<Brianna> "Or was their purpose to change the rest of us, and once that was done they
could pass on?"
<Ahuru> "No, they died as they were meant to."
<Remy> "Who was he?"
* Remy pauses on the vision. "And Who was the ferryman who brought us here?"
* Ahuru smiles, "I told him he would not live to see his own tomb, and so I was
correct. He was called under a different name back then, you now know him
as...Cheops."
<Angelo> "The Great Pyramid guy."
* Ahuru looks to Hans, "I was."
<Remy> "I think I've heard the name before..."
* Remy smiles
<Ahuru> "You are interested in knowing how my life was when I still breathed..."
* Huntress says to the old one "Yes'sir please tell'us more."
<Ahuru> "After my father brought me to the palace, I spent my youth learning my
future trade..and it was there I met my future wife."
<Ahuru> "She was...as you say a lady in waiting."
<Ahuru> "We married at thirteen, and by our late teens, she was with child."
<Ahuru> "My daughter, Phetaph was born and I raised her alone."
<Remy> "Your wife...died?"
<Ahuru> "In labor, yes."
<Remy> "I'm sorry."
<Ahuru> "It has been a long time, I have reconciled my past."
<Ahuru> "After I passed into the Shadowlands, I began my studies as a Ferryman...the
rest is known to you."
<Huntress> "So you was the one?"
<Ahuru> "Yes, I was the ferryman who journeyed to La'hrago, I was the one who brought
all the souls unwittingly to Markova."
<Brianna> "That must be so terrible for you."
<Ahuru> "It is my guilt, and my guilt alone."
<Brianna> "But you didn't know! You should feel no guilt for something that was not
your fault."
* Ahuru smiles gently, "MY fault or no, they suffered, and it was I who brought them
there."
* Brianna has a sad expression on her face as she thinks of the guilt that must weigh
on Ahuru's shoulders
* Will wonders how Ahuru withstood the torments of his shadow when it had such things
to use against him
* Ahuru stands, "It is time for you to know what must be done."
<Remy> "But you can attone, right? I mean; that's what all this has been leading up
to"
<Remy> "There's always redemption."
<Ahuru> "This is more than atonement. This is what must be, follow," he says
motioning you to come with him
* Brianna stands and follows Ahuru
* Remy follows
* Will follows Ahuru
* Huntress stands, her chains rattle at her sides
* Angelo follows in the back.
* Ahuru walks you through the museum and stops finally he turns and begins to speak
* Huntress stops and listens
<Storyteller> Ahuru begins to speak, your mind races, your heads spins as he continues
to talk. When he is finished you feel nearly exhausted.
<Ahuru> "I have told you what must be done."
<Ahuru> "I have hidden it deep within your mind, so that even your Shadow's cannot
find it."
* Brianna blinks
<Ahuru> "You will know what you must do, and I have left a message for the one who
shall die."
* Remy looks confused.
* Brianna looks uncomfortable at the mention of someone dying
* Huntress just shrugs and remains silent
<Remy> "Then...we're set?"
<Ahuru> "No, I must show you something, follow."
* Brianna keeps close to Ahuru as he leads them through the museum
* Ahuru walks back to the room and sits, he motions for you to sit as well
* Remy follows
* Angelo takes a seat.
* Brianna sits
<Ahuru> "Before I show you this, I must speak with my apprentice."
* Brianna looks at Ahuru questioningly
* Remy sits down
<Ahuru> "Follow me Brianna..."
* Brianna stands up and follows Ahuru
* Ahuru leads you into another room, one that seems to be made entirely of plasm
* Ahuru stops and looks at you
* Brianna looks at Ahuru
<Ahuru> "There is something that you have kept to yourself."
<Brianna> "I haven't kept anything to myself.."
<Ahuru> "There is something you wish to tell me, and now is the time."
<Ahuru> "Perhaps this would be easier for you if I showed you what I truly look like."
<Brianna> "Um..."
<Brianna> "Yes, I would like that."
* Ahuru begins to shift in front of you, his body changes to that of a man, barely twenty-five.
<Ahuru> "This is who I am, this is Atepa."
* Brianna looks up at Atepa
<Ahuru> "Keeping your emotions within, Brianna. I can sense them as much as I can sense your
thoughts."
<Brianna> "I don't know where to begin, or what to say.."
<Brianna> "I don't know how it happened, or when exactly, but I fell in love with you, Ahu..Atepa..."
* Ahuru smiles gently, "I wish to show you something..."
<Brianna> "And I've been afraid to tell you but I guess you've known it all along.."
* Ahuru walks over to a large, square object covered in what appears to be black velvet.
<Brianna> "Show me what?"
* Brianna follows
<Ahuru> "I painted this a very long time ago."
* Ahuru pulls off the velvet, you're amazed to see you looking at a painting....of you
* Brianna blinks
* Brianna asks in wonder "What is this?"
* Brianna walks closer to get a better look at it
<Ahuru> "I did this hundreds of years ago...."
* Brianna looks at him in amazement
<Brianna> "Why..."
<Ahuru> "I have been waiting for you...."
<Ahuru> "You were the first of my visions..."
<Brianna> "The first?"
<Ahuru> "The first," looks down to you, "We shall be together, Brianna. This I promise. When you return, then will be the time."
<Brianna> "I don't know what to say.."
* Brianna slowly smiles and looks up at Ahuru
<Ahuru> "You are not the one to die, this I secret to you."
* Brianna gets a troubled look on her face when the death is mentioned again. The loss of
Ironjohn is still painful
<Brianna> "I won't ask who will be the one, I know that knowledge of that could affect the whole group negatively. But isn't there anything we can do to stop it?"
<Ahuru> "No, it is what must be."
* Ahuru begins to shift back to the Ahuru you know.
<Ahuru> "Come, your friends await."
* Brianna nods
* Ahuru leads you back to the other room.
<Brianna> "Yes, we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer."
* Angelo twiddles his thumbs.
<Angelo> "I don't like this."
<Angelo> "Is this what we signed up for when we joined the Hierarchy? Really?"
* Remy follows
* Huntress turns and looks at the place, remaining silent as she does so
<Angelo> "Fine, be that way."
<Remy> "Who knows. I mean; who would have guessed that a wandering gambler with a
distaste for authority would end up leading a government unit."
<Angelo> "Well, this is the last place I expected to wind up. I shoulda joined up
with Luciano's boys, but here I am."
<Angelo> "It's almost enough to make you think we really -ARE- being played like
puppets."
<Remy> "Yeah. Well....I've been learnin' to play with this web of fate, and one
thing I've noticed is that things are ambiguious. You can get a good impression
of what's gonna happen, but that's about all."
<Angelo> "Is this what we signed up for when we joined the Hierarchy? Really?
Battle with some horror from a couple millenia back."
<Remy> "Well, here's something that'll *really* fuck your mind. If you decide to
leave; will that have been predetemined, too?"
* Angelo grins.
<Angelo> "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."
* Remy nods. "Basically. Ironically enough, that was the rationalle that made me get
into politics down here."
* Remy smirks
<Angelo> "What's taking them so long, I wonder?
Maybe he's telling her that this is all a big joke; so play along. Maybe he's
telling her who's gonna die."
* Brianna looks a little shaken
<Ahuru> "What I show you know will be...unsettling."
<Ahuru> "I shall show you, the second web. Their failure, what I show you must be
learned. It is perhaps my hardest lesson upon all of you."
<Storyteller> Daniel who has been silent speaks up, "They failed? How?"
<Ahuru> "I shall show you....." <Storyteller> to be continued
