"How did they get choppers in here..? And so many." This isn't just some private rich folk come to investigate ruins. "What's a military, or para, operation even doing in here?" And not just any operation... one that apparently demands 3 full troop transport chinook, and 2 backup combat helicopters. They look really cool, but... what the hell is even here that demands this much firepower?

"Not at all... Hard to tell if they're some well armed group who have no idea what they're dealing with, or if they're supernally aware. Mages wouldn't really need this sort of gunfire, after all."

She pokes the inside of her cheek with her tongue before raising her rod to turn supernal vision up and scan the helicopters to see if anything magic from them can be seen.

_{Supernal vision. Prime 3, Gnosis 3, High speech 2, Rod 1, name 3. Reach on Instant, reach on +1 see other-than-supernal.}
QeBz7ykW12d10
_10s
3d10

<sub>7 successes. Gain a willpower and regain a point of mana. Assuming they're magic at all, Potency allows 4 questions:
1- To which supernal world most closely aligned?
2- How adept or powerful are they at those association?
3- Second most powerful?
4- Third?

If not magic, well, magic still went off very well!</sub>12d10·3d10

This is a lot more potentially antagonistic magic than she was prepared to encounter here. What are they doing here, and why are they bringing sleepers in like this?

"They're mages and proximi. Those two in the front - an Obrimos and a Thyrsus. The bound ones are sleepers."

Forced awakenings to bolster their ranks? Ritualistic sacrifices? Slave labour? Though another idea draws a chill up her spine.

"... ... ...could they .. be seers?" she floats as an idea. A deliberate summoning of the abyss, by casting magic in front of a bunch of sleepers, as the dagger in the heart of an already shaky place of supernal significance?

"To put it in context? They are serving those who ended the universe and anyone and anything in it just to make sure that no one else could get the power they got. Anything that has any connection to the old one is their target," she adds to Ashlyn's comment. "Anything that so much as hints at having the promise to be power is a threat to be erased."

Her eyes flick out to her sister. While releasing her eyes tickles a part of her, there's another that reminds her she doesn't exactly feel ready to wear a halter-top either. But... soon, if she can keep clinging to this feeling of liberation. Then, her eyes will see, like Arielle's does.

"Can you see inside enough from here to get us in without popping us in the door?" she looks to Ethan.

Then she looks to Arielle. "We need to keep the sleepers from calling on the abyss. They'll soon be overdue for a good, long nap, if you catch my drift."

"Erasing the seers will be priority one, though." She glares out at where they are.

"We don't come built in with big muscles like you, Arielle is an exception, but it only takes a second for the Obrimos to turn air into fire or the Thyrsus to leach the lifeforce out of you. But they can be surprised, like anyone. The Obrimos will be the more direct combatant of the two, flinging lightning and changing gravity, or controlling truth and lies of the supernal. The Thyrsus may call on spirits or effects from beyond the gauntlet, or attack what makes you 'alive', putting you to sleep, making you weaker, or just snuffing you."

She readies to move through as Ethan does his thing, though once through, her 'look at me I'm a pro at making attack plans' demeanour kind of crumbles as they step inside. It's absolutely stunning, and she can already feel a couple tears in her eyes. She reaches out as if to feel the high speech drizzling through her hand, smiling as she turns about to look at ... well, everything! "Wow..."

Apparently, that she's split up into two people is either not noticed to this ... phoenix's eyes, or is not something all that important to know about. {We will be sure to apologize to her for taking so long.} Sariel, huh... they've finally reached a new watcher. One who knows them well enough, too.

This place can't fall. They need to talk to Sariel.

{I think your attackers have grown weary of your resistance. They mean to call on a tidal wave by practising magic in front of many sleeping eyes.}

"Do fish swim?"

She opens her hands out, taking in the feeling of the aether around them. She can feel the presence of Prime so starkly that it nearly feels like she's there once again. Power flows so easily it's nearly surprising. She pulls in its colors into herself as she speaks out in high speech, draining the area around her towards black and white for a few moments before stepping forwards and patting Jake's chest.

Supernal Veil: Gnosis 3, Prime 3, High speech 2, Verge 2, Shadow Name 3, Potency -4. Reach instant, reach primary from duration to potency, reach advanced potency, reach advanced duration. No paradox dice thanks to verge, so long as he stays within the verge and avoids sleeper eyes.
Potency 5+2.)

5OOCzwV59d10
1d10

_{5 succ. Taking a mana.}

"You are invisible to supernal eyes. It's not completely fool proof, but it should keep you in the dark. Ari, next up will be keeping those sleepers asleep."9d6·1d10

Ethan is nice and soft yet well shaped and trim, but a dalu's pectorals are something else entirely. It was like patting down a couple flat stones! If she didn't have a job to do she might have made the casting a bit longer than normal. Hahem. Right.

"Yeah, dad, don't worry." She smiles at him, then turns forwards. This is more lethal, the stakes are vastly higher. But this time, unlike in the hospital, where she was taken by surprised and unsure how to act...

This time, she came armed.

She has a gift from the very edge of Prime itself to throw into their faces. They will not take this place away from her.

"It won't be necessary." She puts a hand on Honey's arm with a light smile, then steps forwards to where Arielle and Jake is/was. "Because no Seer of the Throne is walking away from this."

She takes a deep breath, and the sapphire eyes along her form begin to open and narrow in different patterns while her one wing of fire unfurls out. It begins to burn even brighter as she reaches inside and calls upon the Power Auctoritas over Prime she was given.

"Ready."

Valerie remains behind - she can see just fine from where she is. She waits a beat - it's pretty vital that Arielle put the sleepers to, well, sleep before they unleash the full might of magic, lest they play right in the seers' hand and bring in the abyss.

But once her sister's magic has went out, she is next. Her wing seems to burst in vibrant colors which it steals from all around her, leeching and turning everything black and white in a growing bubble. With one hand, she even lifts her shirt up to bare her midriff and allow a few more to see. Her ordinary eyes sweep across her targets, finding the mages. Every other piece of sapphire eyes with their dark slitted pupils focuses on a couple different targets.

"Let the supernal flames of the Aether wipe your abyssal taint clean from this sacred place, by Araqiel's authority!"

She then conjures every bit of authority Lilith granted her and unleashes it all, seeking to ignite all enemies within her sight in the vibrant prismatic flame of Prime itself.

(Celestial fire: +1 reach aggravated, +1 reach instant, +1 reach advanced scale, +1 reach sensory range, +1 remote viewing. Gnosis 3, Prime 5, Shadowname 3, High Speech 2, Verge 2, -4 for 20 subjects, -4 for extra potency, +3 willpower.
7 aggravated damage on up to 20 targets, prioritizing those she can identify as mages fist, then any proximi she can see.)
uGyAC0rr10d10
(4 succ)
Clash of wills, willpowered: 11d10
(5 succ)10d10·11d10

The Sleepers drop unconscious, as Valerie embraces herself in a big way, the power of the Aether thundering through her with the force of a goddess.

Unfortunately, the Aether is also with them.

Their wills pits in a titanic struggle as she sends howling Celestial flame to chastise those who would defile this sacred place. The woman, the Obrimos Seer, raises a rod marked with a personal sign against the fire, screaming with effort. Just when Valerie thinks she might win out, the woman puts in a burst of effort - but it falls just short.

Blue and white flames erupt through their ranks, men and women shrieking as holy fire burns clean through any armor or defense that isn't magical in nature. Maybe half the soldiers are incinerated, while the rest are left with grievous, horrific wounds. The three mages are the least affected, their separate Mage Armor providing relief, but not much, not enough.

It's the first time she's ever killed anyone, and she finds that a Mage's mind is, in part at least, able to cope with that. There's Hubris in it, deciding that you have and will use the power to take another's life, and she's still capable of feeling guilty if she chooses, but that's what it is - a choice, and she can decide how much of that she feels. Being a mage carries with it the capacity to act without restriction, with all the complexities that entails.

Jake plows into one of the three, swelling into a massive, strangely beautiful monstrosity of teeth and claws, a perfect wolf-man hybrid of tremendous Spirit and Life magic. He catches the man by surprise and rips out his guts, dropping him. Henry blasts a head apart like a melon with a high velocity round.

Now - hampered and outnumbered, its the remaining Seers' turn to try and act.

(Initiative)

That Obrimos is a problem, since no spell Valerie can throw at her will be completely safe (though it goes vice versa for her.) But, that just means she has to focus her ability on her while she's still reeling.

Without Lilith's authority, this will be harder, so she has to play within her other specialties to try and throw her off.

(Control gravity + gravitic supremacy. +1 reach instant, +1 reach sensory, +1 reach remote viewing, +1 reach primary factor to duration. Gnosis 3, Forces 3, Verge 2, Shadowname 3, High speech 2. -2 area of effect (cylinder around the obrimos from the ground to the ceiling,) -2 duration, -2 combined spells.)

(Reverse gravity in a column around her, and increase the reversed gravity by 3 times towards the ceiling. Lasts 2 turns.)

Eq9PRyBs7d10

(haha. Faaaill.)

But with a quick gasp of high speech, she comes up short, not managing to pull her magic out in time.7d10

Not while Valerie is there. She lets herself phase into the battlefield since she is about to employ magic not part of the verge, and produces her own rod. With a twirl, she points it towards where the portal is and hisses a high speech condemnation. There are ways to prevent someone from going through a hole in space besides closing it.

(Shaping! Reach instant, reach sensory, reach solid matter, to wrap her hole in space in the temple's stone and prevent her escape. Gnosis 3, Matter 3, Rote (Craft) 3, Shadowname 3, Rod 1, Scale -2.)

Paradox (chance)
GeRJ7o|R1d10
None

Casting:
11d10
Reroll 10: 1d10
Six succ. Reach for advanced scale and just absolutely fill it - and whatever is beyond it - with stone.1d10·11d10·1d10

Leaving the monster of tooth and claws to handle. Jake seems to have it well in claw, the beautiful, deadly looking werewolf unfazed by the mage's transformation or the attacks. But nonetheless, with a point of the rod, she once again calls upon the stone of the temple and grapple it down for the uratha.

Paradox (chance)
0ZWYwD_w1d10
None

Shaping! Reach instant, reach sensory, reach solid matter, to wrap her hole in space in the temple's stone and prevent her escape. Gnosis 3, Matter 3, Rote (Craft) 3, Shadowname 3, Rod 1 (capped 5.)
11d10
Reroll 10s: 2d10
4 succ1d10·11d10·2d10

For a time, she stands there, a little stunned, as not only the battle ends in the time it took for her to do two or three breathes, but ends with an absolute victory. She watches the temple repair itself with beautiful little mechanica - she will have to get the right to study them from Sariel before they leave! - from the wreckage to the bodies to the stone itself until, at the end of it, there is just... nothing but the captured.

She slumps slightly into Ethan, drawing her arms about his shoulders, half in an embrace, half for support. "She was made of stern stuff," Valerie admits. "If I didn't have Lilith's blessing, it wouldn't have gone through."

A slightly shaky breath follows it. "That was very destructive of me."