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Daxia

She laughed heartily. "You have obviously never met a Dayalan Priestess, Mikal! The majority of them are also Starlords... the most elite of the Dayalan warriors." Daxia turned to Darian.

"Demure mean shy, quiet, polite... Dazi not so good at that," she said with a grin. "Bekkah much better. Even Kadri pretend better than Dazi!"

Darian

The Hunter grew even more puzzled. "Quiet make sense when stalking prey...but why want shy? It make lame priest? Or be like camouflage?"

Then something came to her. "Or be because ye not male?"

Kadri:

"Pretend?"
She raises an eyebrow.

"When am I ever anything but exactly what I say I am?"

She waggles an eyebrow.

Daxia

She shrugged. "Nah, all Dayalan warriors, priestesses female. Don't know why priestess should be shy." Daxia looked at Mikal. "It Mikal idea... he should say why, yah?" she said with a smile.

Then she looked at Kadri. "Oh, so sorry, most delicate Kadri, please forgive Dazi," she said. Although she tried to restrain it, after two heartbeats she burst out laughing.

Mikal

He shrugs. "Every Priestess I've ever met has been that way. Of course they've all been Atteran. Never met a Dayallan, Priestess or not, until a few days ago."

Daxia

"Atteran Priestesses are very much different than Dayalan Priestesses. Hoi! Bekkah and I are very different from one another! No one would know we were sisters unless we share that information." She grinned broadly. "We don't look alike, we don't act alike, we even follow different Goddesses... but she is my sister.

"There are only a handful of Dayalans outside the Vale; that you have met two of us already is quite an amazing thing, I would think." She looked at Mikal, attempting to maintain a serious expression. "Every Priestess at the Temple could very likely beat us both black and blue. Not individually. Both of us at the same time."

Daxia paused, and then grinned slyly. "Give me another fullhand of years, and I think perhaps you might find me at the Temple with the title of Priestess. Although..." She tilted her head, staring off into the distance. "...it might be more interesting to establish a Dayalan Temple outside the Vale."

Darian

She listened to Dazi speak of her order with a wistful expression.

Into the lapse of silence she said, "Darian miss Master. Taught all could in time had, but... "

Longtooth looked up with a soft whine and put his nose into her hand. He had run with her Master many years before he had agreed to run at her side. She looked down to the ruff and rang her fingers through his fur.

"Longtooth miss him too."

"Darian had much more to learn. Now must teach self."

Kaderi:

She pauses.

"Really, I have no master."

Daxia

"I understand Darian, Longtooth. Even though Kassia had taught me all she could, I still miss her," Daxia said. "Even though I would miss you both, I hope you find the new territory and Pack you search for."

She gave Kadri a long, measured look. "No. No, you don't."

Darian

She gave Dazi a grateful smile and nod. "Thank ye, friend Dazi."

Cesare

He listens as the conversation turns, more easy in this company than he was but perhaps much of that is down to Darian. He has not ignored Daxia's question but waited for an opportunity to answer it. That might be now.

"The Rhoni believe only that it is best to float like a leaf on water, and when the winds push the leaf in a direction, why try to expend your energy to stay in one place or to draw attention to yourself. Best to sail where the wind blows, the Heartwood will provide, there is opportunity for all in many places."

He looks around those assembled.

"As I see it, we are all leaves but in coming from so many directions, how did one wind bring us all to the same place at the same time? There are forces at work that we cannot see, cannot touch. Currents. Fates. Just names."

Mikal

He grunts. "So, for the sake of argument, when the wind and current are taking your leaf towards the giant waterfall, is it not more prudent to paddle towards the shore?"

He takes a swig of ale.

"I am a believer in Fate, but I also believe that we are in control of how we react to what Fate hands us. Our actions are not pre-determined for us, and sometimes...., not often, but sometimes, one can change their Fate."

Cesare

He grins.

"Paddling for the shore is a good idea. Trying to paddle away from the waterfall and against the current is a waste of energy. I too do not believe the Fates are absolute but I do not think it a coincidence that we all met entering the town for the first time. Too mant connections, two many coincidences and in all my travels I have never seen a collection of people such as this one."

KAdri:

She looks at Cesare in an appraising manner.

"I like you, I think."

She says with a chuckle.

"Fate. . no. There are. . .situations, circumstances, people weaving their individual paths through the here and now to the there and then sometimes actors and sometimes acted upon. But fate? Fate is a fancy name for decisions we make, and other people make. Still, at the end, people making decisions and doing things."

Daxia

Daxia smiled. "I recall a conversation from long ago that I had with Gilly. I believe she had said something outrageous about how plans not working out the way you expect them to could be fun. I was completely baffled by that. But she said that only in the delicate balance between chaos and absolute order are people able to make decisions, to do things that matter.

"If all is chaos, then nothing we do will make a difference. If there is absolute order, everything is pre-determined, and again nothing we do will make a difference.

"I remember sitting at the edge of the practice yard as a youngling, and she was lying on the ground watching the clouds." Daxia laughed. "It took me a good while to get to the answer that Dayala -- or any of the God or Goddesses, I would imagine -- want us, want people to feel as though we matter. And the only way that is possible is if we have a say in our own lives, and are able to decide what we do." She shook her head, a look of remembered bemusement on her face. "When I realized Dayala, the Goddess of Order, the Creator of Time itself, allowed just enough chaos to exist in the world so that humankind could make decisions, I was well and truly stunned." She waved at the innkeeper, signaling him to bring her an ale.

"When I feel as though I am being swept along by events, like a leaf in the wind as you say, Cesare, I know that I am not in control of my life, that I have not been making decisions as I believe the Gods intended us to do -- or at least as Dayala intended her children to do."

She shrugged and smiled at the others in the group. "Gilly also said I would find that people who were a bit unpredictable, no matter who or what they believe in, would be the most interesting to know." She grinned broadly. "She was right about that, too."

Cesare

"So the most interesting question for those of us that believe in the Fates.. or an order to life.. is why we have ended up together at this time? What is in store for us?"

Daxia

"There is no way to tell what is in store, Cesare," Daxia said as her ale was delivered. She took a sip before continuing. "Each decision we make creates its own possibilities. Do we stop in Bordertown, or do we not stop in Bordertown? Do we travel the Highland Path north of Skaefla Plateau, or follow the Satin River south of the Plateau? To we visit Talesan's Village or Sherman's Keep? We will find something anywhere we go... whether it is a morass of intrigue as we found in Cragside, or a quiet evening conversing as we've found here tonight.

"Why have we ended up together, at this time?" She grinned. "I was told to go out and learn about the Heartwood, and the people of the Heartwood... that is the purpose of Duksheviya, the Initiate's Journey. Perhaps we are all together at this time because it was Dazi's time to journey, yes? And who better to teach about the different people of the Heartwood than this diverse group?" She took another sip of ale, looking at Cesare over the rim of the mug, a merry twinkle in her eyes.

"I don't worry about the 'why' of it," she said after lowering the mug. "I accept that it is... and enjoy the company for however long it lasts."

Cesare

"I do wonder the why of it.. and it is not that it is unwelcome.. i have found much to interest me in all of you.. some more than others."

There is a warm intimate smile for Darian and an accompanying squeeze around her waist.

"But the reason I wonder is so that I watch for the signs. If I am here for a reason, I don't want to walk past the Fates signpost and miss out on all the fun."

Kadri:

"If fate and I disagree, then, quite frankly, fate will have to go stuff it."

She smiles.

"You spend too much time watching for signs, you miss out on the opportunities. What happens only rarely resembles what you think will. The reason I am here. . is because I chose to be here, when a choice was there to be made - and I chose to continue."

She gives a bit of an inscrutable smile.

Daxia

Daxia chuckled. "I have to agree with Kadri. If signs are so minute or hidden that you need to be so careful in watching for them, you might miss something even better." She glanced between Cesare and Darian with a smile that showed her happiness for their good fortune in meeting. "I would think signs, or even messages from the Gods, ought to be large and obvious. We poor humans are not terribly observant most of the time." She took another sip of her ale, and then laughed. "I am fairly good when it comes to observing people, but I think Dayala would have to drop a unicorn in front of me to be able to see any 'signs' that are related to our coming together!"

Darian

She returned Cesare's warmth, comfortable against him.

"Aye, Darian be told 'find new territory', not which way go or where look, only find. So look. But also not forget teaching. See other things, people too. Watch, learn. New knowings make better."