Confused Stories, Making Preparations

Balisted took to the air, flying over the busy beings working below them. They stopped from time to time and watched as two different stories thrust themselves into the air, the projections crossing over and becoming muddled or confused in each other's tale. A lion in an arena, surrounded by men in bronze helmets and holding spears. The lion lunged into the air, instead of landing on a gladiator it collided mid air with a hippo walking up a platform alongside its mate and in step with dozens of hundreds of other animals boarding a large boat. They laughed at the amusing sight as the lion shook its head and jumped back down into its own history and the hippo entered the mighty ship. The house's avatar thought to themselves. "I had no idea they could mix and cross into one another. This collection of words is more alive than I ever thought possible." They continued on their way to the back of the unimaginably large room.

"We, I, us never thought that a creature like you would ever come into being again!" The strange sisters said as they looked up from their work, surprised to see Balisted flying toward them. "I knew one like you at the beginning of civilization." Bridged said as she changed from herself to Isis, and finally Hecate. "Have we come full circle sisters or did we go back?" Isis asked of her other two sisters, one spinning another weaving and another, casting the weave into the air and cutting as a thread bent back out of the waft and wain of energies. "You've seen another like me? Where, when?" The avatar asked as they landed and folded their wings behind them. The glow dimmed as their wings lay down behind them. "We did know one like you, we never thought we would see one again." The sisters replied. "You keep saying one like me or creature." Am I not alive like any other being?" Balisted asked them, "How did you not see me coming?" "You are a manifestation of the core and soul of the house are you not?" Hecate said, her small maidenform was spinning as fast as her tiny hands could, her hands soon became Bridges hands weaving the line her younger self fed her. "We do not see what happens to the long lived seven, we can not see past them for anyone or anything involved in their lives." Isis finished speaking and the three who are one went silent. To Balisted what they said made sense but they didn't understand why there hadn't been others like themself. Where did the other one go, also why aren't there others like me?" They were truly interested now, Balisted hadn't thought that there might be others like them. Nor had they thought that there had ever been anything like them. "The other one, like you, lived for a very long time; they only died about three and half thousand years ago." The beautiful but indeterminate face looked at the three as they worked. There was no expression on the soft and smooth features. They spoke up with more questions. "How were they born? How did they end?" Two simple questions. So the sisters spoke up and shared all they knew.

"Did you know that the first home humans had was a cave?" Hecate asked the blue avatar. Of course they had, though they weren't sure how they knew it but they didn't know how they knew. The conversation went on for a long time, shifts of workers came in and out of the library and the four talked without noticing. As Balisted was told about the other beings' life they listened, absorbing everything that was said. The first home for humans, a cave became a House very much like Balisted had been. It changed and grew while the human population grew and changed around them. Soon stone walls became reed and wood, a fire pit became a fireplace. One day the humans that the House cared for were in danger and the only thing they knew was that the House would provide and protect them. They all huddled inside the LongHouse and whispered prayers. They prayed to unknown Gods and Goddesses, they said silent words that had no real direction. All the same the prayers were heard by the House and by Gods that still had no names or forms. That night a form appeared in the center of the House and everything changed, as their wings rose into the air the walls and roof stopped trembling in the storm. The oculus that let out smoke was blank. The storm outside couldn't be seen or heard and that being brought up food and drink for its human companion. They lived like that until the last of the family finally died. That being was left empty and abandoned for centuries. In the absence of humans to care for the House reverted to a cave and gave shelter and help to any creature that wandered in. The being took pleasure in all the animals and Fey folk that came and went from its walls. On occasion they would put on a show for a Fairy or Elf or Dwarf that was caught in the storm under its mountain. The life they lived was lonely but it was a blessing all the same. After a few centuries the being made a choice to leave the cave and travel. They wanted to see how homes had changed in the years since their humans had died. They crossed the world and then the realms seeing how other beings lived and what comforts they enjoyed in day to day life. As technology grew the being changed and blended in more often. "Then one day, they became an aspect of the Goddess of the Hearth and home. They are part of Hestia now." The strange sisters told the being that was once the House of early human kind. No one knew how long they talked or what they talked about entirely. Balisted filled us in on some of the conversation later, still they kept many secrets to themselves for a while.

The seven of us spent the day and nights sleeping, resting, and enjoying some downtime. When we finally came down to the kitchen and had conversations about everything we knew and what questions we each had. "So we need to figure out who sent the chest to us and why for this mystery." Was the first thing Larry said as we all pulled chairs up to the fireplace. "We also need to figure out what these pearls are for?" Robbie chimed in. We passed around ideas and questions about the possible implications of who had given us what as well as who did and didn't share information. Finally Steven spoke up. "Do you think any of this is connected to the prison world I found?" It was a good question. Him coming home seemed like such a long time ago, none of us had forgotten the poor beings trapped there. I couldn't help but think that all of this was part of the larger question. I didn't have the dream until Steven returned home, the chest didn't come until he had been home. None of the events took place until our brother was in play. "I think it's all connected, none of this happened until he was home, including me dreams about the mask." I filled my brothers and sister in on what I thought about the events of the last few weeks. The conversation went on the rest of the morning and into early afternoon. We made breakfast while we chatted and light jokes were made. A small group of beings were sitting at the bar drinking. A Bandersnatch was bartending for the odd collection of Fairies, Pixies, Bogsollies, Polly-wogs, and a host of other beings and creatures. They all had drinks, some were drinking Ale, others mead, still more with beverages that bubbled,boiled, foamed and so on. It felt like one end of our kitchen was an old fashioned English pub. "Have a good day everyone." I raised my cup of coffee to them as I walked out of the room. Outside we walked over to where our greenhouse had been. "Right, another question to add to our quest for understanding." Robbie said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. He sounded a bit heartbroken to be honest. The greenhouse served as his office, most days Robbie bounced around the greenhouse doing research or mixing a treatment for a burned lamb or an infected cut on a wood nymph. He had a collection of text that he poured over to double check a treatment and a book he added to daily as his research provided proofs for him to distribute to the healers guilds. So we have our work cut out for us. "Steven, do you think you can find the entry to that tunnel again?" I asked him suddenly. My line of thought about it all being connected in some way made me think that we should split up into groups, to cover more research in less time. I don't know how much longer beings trapped in the prison realm could survive without intervention. So we made plans to split up. "First thing we need to do is set you up with supplies in case you get trapped again." I summoned an old sack with a cinch tie out of my satchel. It's an old expression I've had from our first century as a family. "It's like our satchels!" Steven said with a smile as he took the expression and opened it to look inside. A bag of infinite holding. "This will let you take everything you might need and keep it fresh for however long it's in the bag." I told them about the bag and how to access its special features. There was a specific fluctuation of essence needed to activate it work, I showed them how it worked. Then, we made plans for who was going to do what next. Steven being familiar with the prison realm he was lead and Karen, David and Matt were going with him. Karen would be the knowledge and brains, as well as any research portion of the group, David and Matt were good in a fight. With luck there wouldn't be any fighting but if we are splitting up, keeping fighters and a knowledge source on each team is always a good idea. That left myself, Robbie, and Larry to work on the next part of the chest and mask mystery. As the two groups of siblings went around the house and gathered things we might need for our split trips, everyone grabbed different items. Steven picked food and things to drink and with small bits of essence dropped them into the sack, David and Matt gathered some weapons that they felt would fit the task at hand best. They also grabbed items that only made sense to them, in those items was a whoopie cushion, a brass singing bowl, a pingpong paddle, and a couch pillow that had been in the same chair for over two hundred years. "Why the couch pillow?" I asked, looking down at it I saw with my essence that it wasn't a normal pillow. "What expression is that?" It had been in the same chair for so long that I couldn't recall where it had come from. "Oh this? It's just a pillow but when the essence activates it a vine grows out of it and wraps around anyone sitting on it." Matt explained with a wide grin on his face. Those two are always going for the long haul jokes. I don't know that anyone has sat in that chair in ages so they must have put it there on the chance that someone would sit down with essence flowing through them and activate it. "Jokesters through and through aren't you?" I added a little laugh with my comment. So the day went by with us making plans and packing things away we might all need. When the time came for the first group of us to leave we were saying our goodbyes, Robbie walked up to me and handed me the bag of pearls he was given. "Let's divide them between us." He said as he dumped out a handful and placed them in the satchel at his side, I took the rest of the pouch and put it in mine.