Manor of Origin (REDUX)

Archie scratches his stubbly chin.
"About a month. Not that it matters, I don’t think it can grab back as far as the 1300’s. I get the feeling I was long dead before this place ever existed."

"So you think the Voice resurrected you? For what purpose?"

"This, very strange, yes? I thought you were Englishman in the Great War, that would have been awkward, eh eh" he laughs without joy. "I mostly took out bombs made by Englishmen, sometimes made bombs myself to blow them up. The War, you know. Very bad time, even if men are not so bad." he lowers his eyes with sadness.

"But, instead of soldier in War, you are legend! Archie, you remember your death?" Gregory scratches his head, stopping to think for the first moment since he found himself in the mansion "We all remember last thing we were doing before getting here? The last date, maybe. I hope we are not dead as well, yes? This is better than the Hell the priests teach you, but still, not great."

"I do remember my death, wasn’t a fun time, but don’t worry about that. Y’all are still alive, I’m a special case."
He shifts his attention back to Chariot.
" It’s not so much that the house resurrected me, it’d need my remains for that, and trust me there wasn’t anything left of me. It’s something far worse if I’m right."
He looks to the group as a whole.
"Tell me, are y’all familiar with the Counter Force?"

"Americans have funny names for everything" thinks Gregory.

Gharn seems to disbelieve Archie's story, until his true name comes up muffled and he finally seems to react to something.

He listens carefully to what the man has to say, until his last question.

Gharn winches as he feels a sharp pain in his head.
He puts his hand on his forehead, thinking:
"It's like I've lived this moment before, but not quite like this."

He misses Danzig's comment and grunts.

"Arg, this bloody headache again..." he rubs his forehead trying to relieve the pain, but to no avail. As it subsides, he looks up at the others and he's left starring at Archie for a while.

"I have. Well, I haven't exactly heard it, but hear me out. As I was traveling to get to America, I had a series of quite interesting and frankly peculiar dreams..."

Archie frowns. "That sounds accurate, concerning, but accurate. Though the guy sounds like a Nameless Hero, rather than a proper Heroic Spirit. The point holds though, the Voice shouldn’t be able to bring me and Lance, and I don’t think it did, at least not by itself. The only thing in charge of Heroic Spirits is Allaya, and it only sends spirits to deal with world ending problems. Which as bad as this sucks, it isn’t that magnitude. So obviously something else brought us here."

"Do you have any idea who or what that something else might be?" asks Louis. "And what did you mean by ‘something far worse’ than resurrection?"

Archie says nothing, but turns his gaze from the party. Only for it to land on the child.
He lets silence say what he thinks on the matter.

Banshee looks at Archie, who may be Robin Hood reincarnated. Her magicae eyes shine in the dark, and she almost backs away from the torch and lantern, preferring more natural lighting.

"Lance... is he really good with a sword? Legendarily good?"

She looks at the child, but then, they know what was done to her to make her ... well, special seems entirely inappropriate, so how about ... noteworthy. She internally agrees with that.

It doesn't take long for Gharn to put two plus two together and figure the identity of Archie. He was familiar with English history and he was quite surprised as it was well, history.

"I see... Well, it's nice to make your acquaintance Archie. I've read about you; you've been popular with Scots lad."

He puts his hand on his shoulder, partly to show that he shares his feelings about the state of the child and partly to make sure he's too in the material plane. Or perhaps Gharn wasn't on the material plane anymore. Gharn was feeling like his headache was creeping back.

Listening to Banshee's question helped Gharn drift his thought away from their current existence status.

Inquisitor’s hand rest firmly on the other man’s shoulder, as solid as any other mortal being, if a bit frail.
Archie smirks. "Is that right? Usually ya don’t get to find out what happens afterwards. Bit hard to believe anyone would look up to a thief."

At Banshee’s question his eyes narrow. "Sharp ain’t ya? Didn’t know the church had access to info like that."
He pauses. "To answer yer question, no that ain’t his claim to fame. He was more of a leader, or a builder, depends on how you look at it. His weapon, if ya can call that oversized stick a weapon, is made of the trunk of a certain tree said to have been planted at the center of his creation, and it grows just as rapidly. Not being vague on purpose, the place is so heavily tied to him that ya can’t say it’s name either."

Now let me propose a question. How is it that a child gets dragged along with seven legendary souls to a place like this, at the same time?

Gregory shakes his head. The life described in the dream as a member of the Counter Force, didn't sound so bad. A chance to do some good in the world together with knowing its mystical secrets. But then, the warning and the diffidence towards this team... he cannot make his mind up.

"The man in the dream, yes, Phoenix. He said that it is not what you are but what you can be. Maybe the child had bright future?"

Getting a bit restless the longer he listens to the group talking Gregory paces the room, peeks through the next door all this talk born from the tiny bird, carefully inspecting if there are hidden doors that the cannibal could use to ambush them.

Banshee chews on Archie's question a moment. Seven is a sacred number in some faiths, she knows that, but her use for religion only went so far as to gain access to necromantic rituals. "It would seem a sacrifice was in the works, the souls or power of seven people being used to ... to infuse the girl with either ... " she scratches her head, thinking it through. The power of death is complex and there are multiple purposes that could be at play. Intention was the key, and they didn't know what the Voice wanted.

"To gift her with their power, or to prepare her body to survive what comes next, a full on possession by something terrifyingly powerful."

Archie scratches his chin. " That’s a disturbing thought. Though we’d be dead if we were sacrifices yeah? Though you might be on to something with the terrible power. I may have been wrong about the world ending threat. What if the house having her is so dangerous that it’d scare the counter force into over action? Though I don’t know why, she’s just a kid, a horrifically abused one but still just a kid."

"This is interesting now, yes interjects Gregory. "You do not remember carving the tiny birds, but they mark something." he takes out a small lockpicking tool and runs it along the wall, trying to catch the small crack. "This, this was a door, yes? Maybe there still is door behind this. Could the cannibal or other monster use these doors for ambush?"

" I can always try some elbow grease." said Gharn and positioned himself in line with the door.

"Alright, here we go." said Gharn and after taking a deep breath, he launched himself on the secret door.

Louis takes a cautious step back as Gharn throws himself at the hidden door. He remains outwardly calm but prepares to draw his pistol in the event that there is anything waiting to ambush them behind the door, as Danzig suggested there might be.