Once the beacon fell quiet their attention shifted outward. Jareth's connections formed a mesh of survivors, scavenger chiefs and information dealers residing within the contaminated fractures of the world. The report he returned with three days afterward was disquieting.
"Valentina Rhodes isn't in hiding " Jareth announced, spreading out a map, on the strategy table. "Shes holding a gathering. Right here. The Glitterdelve."
Morgan gave a whistle. "A vintage luxury bunker from before the fall. That figures. She always had a knack, for style. Is it strongly secured?"
"Not how you might expect " Jareth remarked, tapping the map. "The tangible defenses are demonic measures. The real issue is the entry. The sole secure route is, via the Sirens Belt—a network of canyons filled with irregularities and... Well the name is quite literal. Lorelei Wilde has claimed it as her domain."
"Lorelei " Tania uttered, the word with disdain. "A siren who aligned with the Abyss in exchange, for a guaranteed following."
"Her song isn't merely captivating " Morgan remarked. "It alters how you see things. You might step over a cliff believing it's a garden trail or stab your closest ally thinking he's a monster. Dispatching a team is death. Deploying an army results, in pandemonium."
"Then no team will be dispatched " Cassiathon stated. Everyone looked at him. "We send a shipment instead."
He clarified. It was a strategy conceived from his dreadful viewpoint. They wouldn't resist the sirens call. Instead they would harness it as a transmission signal.
"I am an entity of conclusions " he stated, his tone detached. "My fathers nature is definitive. Complete stillness. Imagine if we could capture a… a fragment of that stillness? Not, as a weapon. As a cure. A solitary focused signal of 'halt' enclosed in an energy shell. We allow the sirens melody to transport it. It moves by her force straight to the center of her realm. Then it releases."
The room fell quiet. It was a sophisticated concept. Transforming the foe's formidable asset into the means of their own dispatch.
"It might succeed " the Angel of Death remarked, following a silence. "However the encapsulation demands a container that's both durable and responsive. Along, with a method of delivery."
"I will serve as the vessel " Celeste declared, her tone soft yet resolute. Everyone turned to her. "My water-blessing allows me to mold forms capture energies within a structure of cleansed fluid. I can form a sphere, even just a single droplet that contains the… the 'silence.'. I am able to have it vibrate at particular harmonic tones. Like a tuning fork, for a sirens melody."
"And I " came a fresh tuneful voice, from the doorway "can verify that the package is properly addressed."
A woman rested against the frame. She possessed a birdlike beauty with eyes the shade of a cold winter sky and hair cropped near, to her scalp. She donned functional scout leathers with a long thin rifle strapped across her back. Sierra Slate.
"Jareth's message got to me," she said, nodding to the goblin. "I've been mapping the Glitterdelve's perimeter for weeks. I know the acoustic lay of the Siren's Belt. I can get your little bomb to the optimal launch point." Her eyes assessed Cassiathon. "Heard you broke an army's will. Let's see if you can break a diva's concentration."