GADS-!!

[turn left and all of a sudden...you're here? where's here? this is not her office, this is...

someone's residence? whose? what???]

...

[she inhales sharply, holds it, and exhales slowly to vent out the shock. right...magic nonsense against her will. what is it this time? while her ears burn to listen for sounds of life nearby, she clears her throat and raises her voice, speaking in a pleasant lilt:]

Was it someone's wish I appear here? If so, I'd appreciate the host to make themselves known.

[it's... it's right there. high overhead, plain as the view it had been through the eye of a telescope. but then, when she was Ambassador, it was still necessary to use that lens to see it well - now it's...

this isn't good.

keep it together, Ardenbury.]

Pardon-- [with her chin lifted and her demeanor curt-yet-professional, she turns toward someone on the street with an outworlder look about them.] Yes, excuse me. I have questions. Do you have time? If not, guide me to the Ambassador, if you please?

[Lady Ardenbury is not particularly dressed for an expedition, but she's hardly let that stop her before (and it's hardly the time to be shopping, is it??). once she's gotten the skinny from perusing the network, speaking to people, doing her damndest in all manner of dealing with people, Cecelia finds herself at the foot of Ash Mountain like many others.

could there be anyone looking more vexed and grim about this whole thing? possibly. most likely - she is one to seal away her emotions behind a flint-set expression, but her brow is knit as she reviews the Dragonscale spell yet again. no more laments about her missing catalog of spells - it's business time.

...and it's frustrating. being so stripped of her full potential makes this bitter work, and it conveys more plainly through the familiar at her feet - a fawn-sized unicorn flinching and flickering with each attempt to master the spell.

she likely needs a break, but far be it from her to decide.]

---

[the climb is not kind, and while Cecelia's in no state to make demands of the mountain, she does rather wish the ground itself would be reliable.]

Ah-!

[the loose, shifty stones give way under her foot and pitch her sideways, threatening to throw her down the side of the mountain completely if she's not caught.]

---

Here.

[at the encampment outside the tunnel system, Cecelia approaches someone looking rather worse for wear, holding out a waterskin.]

There's plenty. Drink up.

---

[Cecelia's lineage boasts the might of red dragons, yet her bloodline means next to nothing in the face of Avalon's furnace: all that power and immunity to the heat and poisons of the earth was stripped from her, and so she can only struggle, just as the others do.

it's hard. she's not built for endurance tests like this, short and delicate as she is. maybe she shouldn't be here, maybe she should've stayed back and made a bid to support the king and his council directly. but her pride, her fear of rejection from her worthy posts...it dragged her this far, didn't it? it'll have to drag her the rest of the way.

she wavers, hugging her arms to herself as her pace slows, likely interrupting the pace of those behind her. glimpsing at the singed, frayed edges of her skirts gives her pause and...almost cause to laugh, but she can't waste the breath.]

---

[Cecelia barely bats an eyelash at the unpleasant suggestion. hand? in lava? this was child's play before Avalon, and she's decided it shall be likewise today. as an elemental mage here it's only fair! she gives her familiar a sharp look before lifting her chin defiantly and stepping forward, steeling herself in the face of obscene heat.]

Let this be my last test, then. Should I have any merit here in this land at all, it may as well be for this.

[because if she's to be a failure of an ambassador, she may as well succeed as a fool who melts her hands off...

...but she doesn't. she finds, after holding a breath with a note of fear, that there's nothing to fear of this heat. it's...almost like home. she exhales and proceeds to grab the golden key, withdrawing it from the falls and turning back to the party with a triumphant glint in her eye that she can't hide even in wanting to.

still, we have to keep it professional here:] Shall I gather the others, or are you quite capable of doing likewise?