MTG Salvation

Lucien smiled. "Very good, friend. Now please, there's still more to do, so we mustn't tarry."

"Very well then. Lead the way."
Mar tucks the small marble into his satchel, and prepares to follow Lucien to wherever the next destination is.

A short walk later, you find yourself before tarnished brass doors. Lucien opens them effortlessly to reveal a great chapel, with vaulted ceilings. It is dark, but with light filtering through large stained glass windows.

As Mar looks around the chapel, marveling at the beauty of the architecture, he cannot help but notice something off, a subtle hint that something strange is going on. It isn't the stained glass, through which light slowly filters through, nor the tarnish on the brass - for the corrosion adds character to the building. Having difficulty figuring out what it is, Mar decides to try and look at the building with the same senses that allow one to channel mana. He sees the same fusion of black and white that underlies the whole of the Orzhov, but here... where before, the two met in helical fusion, here, they meet and yet they don't, maintaining separate lines that interweave but never quite fuse together. Mar follows the tangles of mana interestedly, noticing how as they get further and further in the chapel, the web gets larger and finer, with more of each tendril almost but not quite merging. As he follows these around, Mar suddenly realizes what was bothering him earlier: though this shows all the signs of being a chapel, there is no altar to a recognized god, no iconography other than that of the Orzhov, and no indication that this location was ever aligned with a particular deity. Where saints and religious heroes would stand in other temples here stood either what Mar assumed were elders of the Orzhov or just empty pedestals, where icons of gods were the Orzhov sunburst or faded patches of wall, where trappings of religion still trappings of religion, if that religion were the Orzhov. This place, Mar understood, this shrine to no god, represented what the Orzhov were. Here, it was obvious that where there was community, there was a need to direct the community, to ensure that they stayed a community. Here, it was obvious who those who did the directing were. Needs of the many directed by the select few who had the wisdom and power to hold everything together, Mar understood that standing in this chapel. He added himself into the network of mana filaments surrounding the room, and again, found himself holding a small stone, a stone that felt like the room.

Once more, the warring energies of light and dark feed into the stone, and filter into Mar.

OOC: 4* Godless Shrine

Mar slips the new stone into his satchel with the other, then looks to Lucien, waiting for him to reveal if there is a new destination or if Mar is now free to go.

"One more." Lucien said, as he swept away, back down the hall from which he came.

And Mar follows, down the hall in the Church of Deals.

Once again, Lucien leads you back to the courtyard. You see several elegantly sculpted fieldstones surrounding the building. Lucien walked near one. "Last, but most certainly not least."

Mar followed Lucien to the courtyard, then looked around, taking note of the fieldstones surrounding the church. Taking his cue from the last two places he'd been taken to, Mar immediately opened his mind to the building, and it almost immediately caught on the patterns that flowed around and within the sculptures. Mar's mental probe was trapped within the sculptures, which, Mar noted, somehow managed to merge the energies that the other buildings had demonstrated into a single blurred whole, where the distinctions of both the white and black were worn away.
And, as Mar connected himself to this new locus of mana, he felt a disquieting undercurrent. Not a physical sign, as in the chapel with not gods, but a mental one, a small hint of something surprisingly predatory, as if the building itself offered a one-sided deal. As soon as he fully opened himself to the building, binding himself such that he could call upon the powers no matter where he happened to find himself, even if that be on another plane, Mar realized what it was. The building offered recognition of who was in charge, if one could spare the energy, and could serve as a reminder that in all hierarchies, there are those who must give and those who must receive.
Mar also realized fully, upon realizing this, that though he may be a member, he would have quite a ways to go before he could fully act as he desired.
When Mar went back to looking at the physical world, he noticed without much surprise that a third stone had formed in his hand, a small replica of one of the sculptures that ringed the building.
Slipping it into his satchel, Mar turned to Lucien. "No, that certainly isn't the least at all. I take it that is all for now?"

Lucien nodded. "You are free to do as you choose."

OOC: Anything else you wish to do?

"Very well. It's been a pleasure so far; hopefully future transactions will be just as fruitful. Have a pleasant evening." So saying, Mar takes his leave, knowing that if the Syndicate desires his presence for anything they will be able to find him.

OOC: I don't think you need to use it now, no. It is worth 3 commons in your standard. Take 4 XP and 57 gold. Don't forget to mark it in your character profile!