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Celi

Celi considered Cesare's recommendations, and thought they had some merit, but it wasn't her parade. She would do whatever she could to be of help, including staying with Long tooth, if that were necessary. But she would rather be with the group, and see if hwer abilities with animals might prove useful at some point.

Cesare

With noone commenting further, the young Rhoni makes the assumption that silence is acquiesence and starts to assemble the ropes for use, then handing them to Darian so she can test they work and are of the right length.

"If you need immediate help, call up and I'll come down. Otherwise as soon as you let us know you are down and safe, we'll pull up the rope and rig Bekkah to go down next."

He pauses.

"Be careful."

The words are soft, not a lack of faith in her abilities but concern, not wanting her to be hurt.

Celi

Celi watched closely throughout, so that she could carry out the necessary rigging when needed. She made sure to ask all the necessary questions, such as "what are we doing" and "why are we doing this" as they went along. It wouldn't do to be vague, especially if they were under some time constraint.

And of course, as they went along she passed the situation along to Stormrunner, reminding him he would need to keep an eye on the formidable hound.

Cesare

He not only explains and answers all the questions he can but also has a further suggestion for Celi.

"When Bekkah starts to descend, I suggest that the both of us take up the slack on the rope and it she does slip we may be able to slow or stop the fall."

[OOC Wolf, I'm assuming with 3 extra ropes and the original, we can provide one rope for climbing and one for safety? ]

Darian

"Celi next then Bekkah," she said.

She wanted two people below before the healer.

The Hunter briefly met the Rhoni's eyes and gave a very slight nod that she had heard his words. She made sure of her striker and took one of the newly fashioned torches betwixt her teeth. A close inspection showed the age of the well and there were rough spots where mortar had given way. If absolutely necessary, it could possibly be climbed with out the aid of the rope, but the water content made the stone slick with moss and lichen.

Setting herself atop the edge, she wrapped the already hanging rope around the vambrace of one arm then began her descent.

[ooc - dont forget Dean is here too]

[OOC: The climb down was long, and perilous only to the point that the well was finely crafted; the walls smooth and clean with barely a joint between each ring of stone.

No rough spots. No moss, no lichen. Sorry. Dayalans built their wells to last forever. Or pretty close to it. And the water never came anywhere close to the top of the well. Ever.]

The Heartwood
Bordertown
Near Dawn
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

Daxia, Kadri and Romana in the Temple Ruins with Tashka and Linette

"That is not a teaching that can be taught in a single day, let alone the hours between now and dusk."

Tashka sifted her position in her changes.

"Let us just worry for getting through the next cople of days first, ja?"

Kadri, again, offers up her waterskin to both, not yet adding more words.
.

Daxia
with Kadri, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Bordertown Temple West Chapel

Daxia regarded the elder Dayalan shrewdly, obviously thinking hard about something, then nodded slowly.

"Yah. Better to not try to learn too quickly, or something will be missed... a head will be thumped... and Dazi will be called a cobble-block. I remember," she said, rubbing the back of her head, but pulled her hand away with a bit of what she very sincerely hoped was lizard flesh. Wiping her hand on her back, she continued.

"But worry? What does that accomplish? Plan, yes. Prepare, yes. Worry?" She waved a hand dismissively at the notion. "I've decided only to worry when I'm far too tired to even think sensibly. Or when the Paths are..."

She stopped short, and stood very, very still; head tilted to one side as if listening for something, she had a look of puzzlement on her face. Slowly, she tilted her head the other way and stared at -- apparently -- nothing for a moment. Then just as slowly, she turned to look behind her, back down the corridor.

"That has never happened before," she said, sounding confused and surprised. "Not once in five years." The redhead looked back at Tashka.

"Verchovai...

"What happened here... out in the Main Hall?"

Her voice was soft, barely audible. Shaking her head, she said, "No, I can see what happened. What I don't understand is how it could have happened, why it happened."

The dread, the horror, that had been on Daxia's face as she had first walked through the Main Hall... her starlight showing far too much of the butchery that occurred generations ago... returned now as she sought the answers to the most terrible questions.

"Big enough sacrifices can summon anything."

It was a whispered echo of what Romana had said yesterday.

"No. Maybe I don't know what happened here... at least not all of it."

Cesare

He takes up the slack, encouraging Celi to do so also, belaying the rop out so as never to let it grow taut and impede Darian's progress but only to give support just in case. He cannot watch her progress, bracing backwards as he does, but just has to wait for that sudden tug on the rope that he hopes doesn't come.

CELI

Celi caught on quickly, and easily matched Cesare's technique to maintain the necessary free lead that let Darian proceed at her own comfortable rate. As Cesare was doing, she remained braced, ready in case Darian lost her grip. Their goal then was to steady the safety lines, and keep her from a nasty drop ... and an even nastier sudden stop.

Of Cesare, Celi softly asked: "Is Darian concerned about her companion, Longtooth? I ask, only because I understand he is to be left behind, which might be cause for concern in some folk."

She could allay Darian's concerns, or at least thought she could, but the whole "allaying" process might create all new concerns for Cesare, or Darian, or both. So Celi knew to tread very carefully here; if there was no reason for concern on Darian's part, then there was no reason for Celi to explain what she meant by "allay."

The Heartwood
Bordertown
Almost Noon
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

In the Temple Ruins






"Big enough sacrifices can summon anything ..."

It was a soft, older, dark and earnest voice that spoke, her words drifting through the well's bitter blackness. An unfamiliar voice, a woman's voice. Her words were oddly accented, they had an old rustic feel. There were accompanied by an occasional jangle of metal upon metal, an occasional halt and catch of breath.

"That's what they learned from their pet, I suspect. I saw him, I did, ja. I heard him say that. Standing next to the first He-Who-Shall-Not-be-Named, a beast at his feet and two bloody scarves at his side. Was he an honored lieutenant or a prisoner? I don't think we will ever know. Did he really betray us? Or was he so caught up in his own fel studies that he just had to see what happened and had the arrogance and gall to think he could use the hordes from beyond the mountains as his tool? Or was it what he traded with Them to gain another few hours of life. But I heard him say that."

The climb down the well walls was harrowing at best. The walls were smooth, the honey marble stones exquisitely sculpted to a perfect fit. One by one by one the companions made their way down; one rope or two, another a safety against a fall. At least it was daylight and there was a hint of the great hall midway down. That there was a floor could be seen, though the room was painted in everdarkening shades of gray. The far walls were still in shadow and the ceiling a black plane high above.

There was a constant jangling of metal against metal, not fast, not melodic, but very, very slow.

Hauntingly so.

"What was so good, what was so gentle, it came back to haunt us badly you know. It was good. How can anyone say it wasn't. You knew you neighbors, there was food on the table, there were very few that new the riches of the keepfolk, but there was something ... comfortable ... about the simpler life. To be able to pick breakfast from the wildberry bushes, to know that there was a hart in the copses and as long as you only had one every now and then ... there would always be a hart in the copse. But some of saw, some of us knew. that it was like the stillness of a pond. One rock, and the reflection of peace and perfection would be shattered into absolute chaos. Oh yes, we had the bastion of Trundle between us and them. Which is why they chose Darkdown Pass to sweep across. I saw the stone towers of my home burn ... stone ... burn ...

"Tor-an-Dal ... Jeminy's Hill ... Brementown ...

"Tor-an-Dal lost us the Koromovs. Jeminy's Hill our best. Brementown the Jvrillians were betrayed.

"It was like watching doublebluff tiles fall. It was like trying to hold back the wind. They came with their fell troops, their footmen, their horse, their off world hordes. How could we stand against them; we had no towns, no militias, even the Keep halls echoed emptily when one walked the Dayalan crafted corridors; because everyone was scattered across the lands like dandelion puffs on a spring breeze. So it fell to our little troops, our small temples, to at least try and slow the east down as they swept over the farmlands. And of course, of course we knew that, right in their path, was the well that stood at the border between Her rising and Her falling, and of course we would gather all of us up, from the Black Mountains, from Dawnview Vale, from Talesan's Village, to keep that holy place from their talons, even if it were to cost all of us.

"It turned out that They not only knew that ...

"But they were counting on it."

Slowly, by flickering torchlight, down the hall, towards the softly speaking voice, the others walked. The orange light danced, it flickered, and it couldn't have been worse. The cruel chains, with their brutal hooks, with their vicious collars and spiked chains became blood coloured hauntings slipping in and out of view - casting against the carven walls a shadow play in shadow-play motion - oddly jerky, oddly out of sync, as if some unseen body were still hanging from those cursed bindings, still convulsing as slashed throats filled with blood and into a slow death these forgotten ghosts fell.

"The fight for the Temple At The Border was long, it was hard, it was telling. And we knew, after the first night, that there was no way to win. Even if we killed ten for every one of us in a handful of days there would be none of us left. Lots were chosen, hard choices made, and a small group headed west. Knowing that everyday we bought here was another day the folks from the farms could be brought together, knowing that if we couldn't stop them ... nature could, nature could in the form a the huge ravine that splits the world in two.

"The Silk Creek.

"It was no shame; it was necessary. And some of our best went their. The Allaine Houseguard, the Glacier cavalry, because they would need good folk, skilled folk, to gather and prepare the fight for the Lonely Bridge.

"Which left us to hold.

"We should have figured out that something was not right, when they swept over the temple terraces like a dark wave. it was all of them; all of them ... an unstoppable tide. A Starider, her partner, would just vanish under beast and demon and darksteel. I have no idea how, but I ended up protecting the Archdruid's daughter, her court, and I had the choice of dying or keeping them safe. I chose life. I was ashamed; when I made that choice, it was as if I had abandoned my sisters. I was afraid Evening's Star would shake his great black head and walk away, leaving the coward who had abandoned her temple.

"Somehow I think he already knew."

Then, finally, at the end of the corridor they could see the small pool of daylight, cast by the chapel's long narrow window. Even so it the cool storm season illumination was tempered by the light of Daxia's little star. The three, Daxia, Kadri and Romana, had their backs to the corridor, listening to the unseen storyteller.

"Something was wrong; because we could hear the screaming and sharp sudden silence of our stallions. But our people; our wards and our people, they weren't being slaughtered. the overwhelming torrent of the east, not caing how many died? they didn't care how many they lost as long as they caught us alive. You should know the story; I can't believe how it could not echo down the generations.

"Someone had told them ...

"Big enough sacrifices can summon anything ...

"As their fell ceremonies began, we could feel it. The power, the strength, it was heavy in the air, like how the summer fields feel before a lightning strike. The oven priestess, she realized it first. A heartbeat later, so did the Gardener. And we knew what ... no ... who they were trying to summon. You could not help but hear the words of their incantations; like sounds on a clear winter night - perhaps it was the magics in the breeze, but we could hear, and sharp eyes could see. And we knew we could not stop it, no more could we the tide coming in.

"The Coveners knew it was time to run. They begged me to lead them away, away to safety, or at least a few more hours of life. Shattered and broken, like a beast that's been whipped, like a tree that's been rotted from within and was nothing but hollow.

"But something had caught my eye.

"Two killing stakes, ornate and carven, rose from the top of our terraced pyramid. Fashioned of darksteel, snickered with butchers chains and hooks. If they were seeking two deaths ... why ..."

Romana ducked her head and hugged herself tight. Almost desperate.

"Then I heard him speak those words.

""Big enough sacrifices can summon anything ...

"What if ...

"What if they were not going to kill their enemies gods ...

"What if they were going to sacrifice them?"

There was a slow pause in the story. For a moment, silence, as if time had stood still.

"Sometimes the impossible becomes easy, when you have no other choice.

"Evening's Star was at my side. As if he had seen this too. I mounted, drew out my sword and looked around.

"I was alone.

"They had broke and ran.

"I heard a small voice, hesitant, shaky, and she told one that she was afraid. Afraid of what, I asked ..."

A second voice then interrupted, hesitant, shaky, but earnest.

"I ... I ...was afraid ... tha-tha-tha-that she would be all-all-all alone."

The first voice spoke again.

"You didn't have to."

"I kn-kn-kn-kn-know."

The story softly continued.

"In the end, in the end their ceremony was a shambles. It unraveled, spectacularly. They lost five of their Chosen that fist night ... by dawn five more ...

" ... and by dusk ...

" ... I was on my knees, trying to stay between them and ...

" ... for the first time in my life, I understood why we are chosen to protect them, why it is not a duty, but an honor.

" ... come that sunset we were bound in these chains.

" ... and the lizards came.

" ... come the next sunset ...

" ... and we knew just how badly we had hurt them ..."

Two women chained on the wall, on either side of the small narrow window, unable to see the sky, unable to see the sunset. The younger one was dressed in greens. Both had stains of blood draining from their manacles, from the cruel collars they wore. The elder wore black and silver.

" ... by their bitter curse delivered each night since."





They had arrived.

Everyone.

ooc: edited for clarity.

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Bordertown Temple West Chapel

"I have never been prouder of a Sister than this day, Tashka," she whispered as the tears rolled down her face. "But the Koromovs are not lost. Erika Koromov-Deynnekko is Justice in Trundle; Verchovai Dandelion Koromov is our Sister; Camelia Koromov is one of my group." Daxia's eyes shifted to Linette. "I am honored and will do everything in my power to free you, Mistress Linette," she said simply.

She turned at the sound of footsteps slowing, wiping the tears from her face with her sleeve, waiting. Silently watching, expressionless, as each person entered the chapel, gauging their reactions to the sight of the women in chains, the partially eaten bodies on the floor, the dead Hunting Beasts, the blood and gore that covered her tunic... her hands, smeared across her face, in her hair.

The Dayalan said nothing for a handful of heartbeats, and then another handful... and yet another handful. Then she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Camelia decided to stay at the Inn," she said softly. "I hope that is a vote of confidence in our abilities to prevail in this endeavor."

She paused a moment, lips pressed tightly together.

"You have hear Priestess Verchovai Tashka's tale of what happened here more than 350 years ago. What the Verchovai did not say, what Mistress Linette of Corliss did not say, is what happens each night when the lizards come."

Daxia pointed to the partially eaten bodies on the floor... one clothed in greens, one in black and silver.

"Their fate has been to die each night," Daxia said, her voice hard and harsh, yet terribly quiet. "Each night for over 350 years, they have died a horrible death, only to awaken the following morning with the certain knowledge that the same would happen again come nightfall."

Daxia looked around again, at those assembled, jaws tight, eyes flashing with determination.

"We...

"WILL...

"Break that cycle.

"We WILL end this curse.

She paused one last time, before turning to Tashka and Linette.

"Verchovai Tashka, Mistress Linette... I present my band of misfits; and for Mistress Linette's benefit, I will introduce those whose names were given while she dozed," Daxia said, smiling slightly. "I am Daxia Yurisdotter, Initiate of Dayala from the Dawnview Temple. These are," she indicated each in turn, "my Second, Mikal, New Jvrillian from Brockman's Holdfast; my sister, Priestess Bekkah Yurisdotter, Healer of Attera from Dawnview Vale; Kadri djinn Lisica al’Izgon formerly of Amber; Rhomanishkah'al'lhahrhonsha'al' khylyrishkatsarinish... Romana... formerly of Kh'Lhy'ra; Hunter Darian from High Tarn lands stolen by the Montague; Dean Marguard, Squire of Rames from Talesan's Village; Cesare kha'Jasmine kha'Sayako kha'Twilight kha'Horosha Danika of the Rhoni; and Celi from somewhere back beyond civilization."

Daxia bowed her head to Tashka and Linette before turning back to her group.

"If any of you feel you cannot help in the effort to kill an unknown -- but not insignificant -- number of Eastern Hunting Beasts, if any of you feel you do not have the skills to fight against a host of Avatars of He of the Red Scarf, I will not think poorly of you for returning to the Inn and staying with Camelia.

"It takes three nights to break a curse.

"We have two more to go."

Kadri:

"It takes three nights to break a curse.", she repeats, to herself.

She pauses, thinking a bit and moving her lips as if rehearsing before speaking, her voice hushed and allowing her full lilting accent to slip into the words.


"Even now dark forces gather,
Even now we face the fray --
As our gods helped our fathers,
Help them my friends today.
Cycle needs now be broken,
Ill fortune brought now to heel --
Gods we now have spoken --
Lend our souls your steel."

She looks up again, and. . . smiles grimly.

"You know my answer, Dazi."

CELI

Celi listened to the introductions and the brief snippets of the tale to which she had been privy. She put it together with the scraps of history she had heard among the people with whom she had worked since leaving Gram's land ...and the even smaller number of scraps she had been taught before that.

And she knew, something had rolled over inside her. SHe was going to stay and fight. She was going to have to do something about Stormrunner. He couldn't just jump down the well, and even if he could she didn't want him to face a pack of really big lizards by himself. She could read the traces as well as anyone; she could tell their size from their bite marks and claw scratching and their odd footprints.

Big. And mean. And, apparently, very hungry. Sadly, that would not deter Stormrunner if he thought she was down here.

Stormrunner's technique didn't lend itself to fighting as a member of a team. He sort of jumped on his prey, digging in with his claws, and bearing them to the ground by sheer weight and shock. He got his teeth on their throat and tore out a chunk, usually with an artery or two, then battered them senseless and eventually dead with his pieplate-sized, knife-clawed paws.

Then -- usually -- he ate ... unless he was having to fight something else for the food. Celi didn't think he cared all that much for lizard, so that part would be okay. Anything he killed he would have to leave for other lizards anyway, since they ate their own as fast as they ate anything else. Or *anyone* else.

"I am Celi, from Near Dirkwood on the High Tarn. I have no parents; I was raised by my Gram, Jolana." She was ..."

Should she tell them what Jolana was? Not yet. They likely wouldn't trust Celi to stay if she did.

" ... umm, was serving as my parents ... umm, would have. Now I ... umm, I am ... going to stay. And help break the curse."

And maybe just take a little edge off the Coven's bad reputation. Afterwards. If we make it. Maybe my animal skills will finally help. Too bad it's against the big lizards. Knowing how to deal with them is not exactly a useful common skill.

Stormrunner. I am going to be down here a while, and it could be ... umm, dangerous. If you don't hear from me by the rise of the new moon, or if the hound leaves earlier, you are free to leave your watch. Go back to your favorite hunting ground, and I will come find you there.

Darian

She had marveled at the make of the well, not having known it's like. There had not been many wells near Yahgerspring, the spring itself making them unneccessary. The craftmanship was superb, which also meant the climb down was difficult and treacherous, even for one such as she. Upon reaching the landing below she had called up for Mikal then Celli to join her while lighting the first of the torches, then Dazi's armor to be lowered, and after the rest of their group. Once all were down, other torches were lit and passed about, and the set of armor split between Celi and Bekkah.

The armored ones were in front and back with those not dressed for combat betweeh them as they moved along the gruesome hallway. Darian held a torch aloft but kept one hand on the hilt of her long war dagger. The place made her skin prickle in warning, and her eyes constantly shifted.

Her grip on her hilt tightened when the words began drifting back towards them. The haunting voice told a fell tale, and it seemed to the Hunter that they were walking into the midst of it. When they finally broached the end and came to where the others stood, she gave the room a long studying gaze. Finally her eyes came to rest on their companions and the two imprisoned women.

She offered only a nod at Dazi's introduction, her mind working through things.

"Celi, Bekkah, give Dazi armor," she said quietly before making a circuit of the room.

She came back to stop near Dazi and looked up at the two. "Where Beasts come?"

CELI

Celi quickly brought forth the package containing Daxia's armor, which had been given to her by Bekkah back when this was all initially planned.

She remained available should Daxia require help getting herself laced up properly. Just because Celi didn't wear armor, that didn't mean that Celi didn't understand the virtues of proper armor, properly mounted.

"Dean has your bow, I believe. The rest of your gear is right here."

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

After returning Kadri's grim smile, and a quiet, "Thank you," she pointed back towards the wide corridor from which they had all come to answer Darian's question. "Smallest lizard try escape there. Nest and Beastmaster lower level, Dazi think. Stables, rooms good place for nesting. Romana think wait for night again, more come... we kill again... Beastmaster call Avatar for aid." She shrugged. "Dazi think good idea, more time for planning, yes?"

Accepting the cloak-wrapped hauberk from Celi, the greaves and vambraces from Bekkah, Daxia nodded her thanks. She set it all temporarily back in a relatively clean corner of the room before addressing her Priestess again.

"Verchovai, no one knew what happened here. Not with certainty. The tales we have been told over the generations only speak of the betrayal of Davidson the Black to the Easterners. We have tales of the Mother and the Horned God being called, and the tales say they perished here."

The younger Dayalan paused, glancing between Tashka and Linette. "You allowed them to escape, but what became of them after that..."

Her eyes flickered in Celi's direction. "Coveners of this Age believe both their Goddess and their God to be dead."

She shook her head. "The Only Bridge was destroyed; there was no way for the Eastern Horde to reach those on the Highside... save to march through what we know now as the Dirkwood Forest, which Romana has named the Heartwood, the World Forest."

She bit her lip, and it was clear she was doing her best to again hold back tears. Swallowing hard, Daxia continued.

"The tale that is told of the Silk Creek Bridge says the Coveners tried to hold back the Eastern Hordes. You know they could not do so alone. I had not even known our Sisters had accompanied them to the Highside. We only know that the Only Bridge was destroyed. That Davidson the Black called demons that others believed he was sending against the Easterners... but then ran amok through the Coveners, killing all the leaders... so many of those who were simple farmers. Some, a few, managed to escape.

"We know, our tales tell us, that the Coven was broken. So very, very few of those who followed the Mother and Horned God lived to continue into this Third Age... very much like those who follow Dayala. Those of the Coven who did survive have hidden themselves, for they are despised and blamed for that which might rightly be blamed on Davidson the Black."

Blue eyes turned to the young Covener in chains, glittering with pain and unshed tears.

"The tales of our people say the Knights of Roth arrived with Her rising on the following day, and the Eastern Horde fled into the Dirkwood, to bypass Silk Creek, to reach the Highside. Our tales say they never came out again, for the Dirkwood is a feared place that devours all who dare to enter. But Romana's tales..."

Daxia shook her head.

"Romana's tales say the Coveners cursed the Heartwood, the World Forest... from which even the Firstborn have been banned... after the Eastern Horde entered the Forest, to keep them from reaching the Highside. Eastern tales say the Coven itself is responsible for turning the World Forest into a fell and angry place." She swallowed hard again. "I don't know the truth of this, I only speak what I have learned."

Pausing, she looked between the two captives again.

"I no longer know what to believe. I was taught that the Second Age was a time of peacefulness, as you have described it, Verchovai. I was taught that I should come to the aid of a Covener if aid was requested of me. But..."

The Dayalan looked directly into the eyes of the captive Covener. "But before today, I never met a Covener I would willingly defend, one whom I would give my own life to protect."

"Let me," Celi husked. "Let me fight for my sister."

"I have few skills with weapons, but I have some gift with animals. Even these lizards. I do not say I can control them, but I may be able to slow them, or confuse them, which may allow them to be more easily slain."

She stepped toward the captive Covener, produced her pair of kukri, whirled through a pass of The Dance.

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia jumped back nimbly from the whirling of Celi's knives, still nearly tripping over the carnage on the floor, and began swearing again in Ancient.

A dark look of anger settled over her face as she looked at Bekkah.

"So. I see you, too, failed to get through to this idiot."

She walked with somewhat more care to the entryway, and leaned against the wall beside Mikal.

"We should send her back to the Inn to stay with Camelia," she said to him. "Her reckless behavior will get us all killed."

CELI

"NO! We shouldn't do anything. You should talk to me, to my face. No more talking around me. Bekkah did very well, as did I, though they would scarce credit it, if all they listened to was you. As you can see, I am not a particularly fierce fighter, though I am not ungraceful. I managed the Dance without tripping."

She didn't add 'unlike you', though she was tempted. "And I am hard to hit.

"But this is my sister, not yours. I laud you for your courage and dedication, but I *will* stay.

"I will do whatever your plan requires, but I will not leave."

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

"Of course you will stay, Celi," Daxia said mildly.

"I would not be so bold, however, as to suggest you play any particular role in our plans, for you do not listen, you are incapable of following directions.

"As always, you will do exactly as you wish."

She shrugged her shoulders dismissively.

"And I will say it before you need expend your energy doing so, Verchovai," she said to Tashka. "We are a bunch of misfit fishwives who can't even get along." She held the gaze of her Priestess for long heartbeats until the anger died in her own eyes. "Patience is not my greatest virtue, and in the past fullhand it had been shredded to near nothing. It is another trait, I fear, that I share with Priestess Kassia," she said, eyes shifting to Romana for a heartbeat.

Pushing herself away from the wall, she turned to her Second. "I am sorry, Mikal, that you now know that which you so desperately wished not to know." She looked him in the eyes, held his gaze a moment, then said, "Let us get through these two nights first, and then you can think on what you wish to do, yes?"

Darian

The Hunter turned and looked down the direction Daxia had indicated, her eyes narrowing. She still had her ears open though.

"Nay, Dazi bow here," she said patting the much shorter bow slung across her back. "Quiver too."

Her frown of concentration became a scowl at the child's boasting and then openly admitting to heresy against the Imperial court.

"Need see way beast come. Dazi show Darian. Show now."

It was halfway between a question and an order, something the Hunter had not done before.

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia looked at Darian, slightly puzzled, but nodded slowly. "Darian leave Dazi bow here, ok?" While waiting for the Hunter to unsling her bow, she turned back to Mikal.

"I'll show Darian where the stairway down to the lower level is. I promise you we will not even get close to it, we will be extremely cautious, we will be ever-vigilant, and we will be as silent as the snow that falls in the Vale," she said to him, with the hint of a smile. "I don't expect to find the lizards out wandering, but we will watch carefully. Sound travels well in these halls... so if you hear us, THEN come running."

She took the bow and quiver from Darian, and walked back across the room to set them with her cloak and armor. She turned and, with the barest hesitation, drew her sword. Instead of immediately joining Darian, she rested the blade against her opposite forearm for a moment, then looked at Tashka, almost as if she was going to ask the elder Dayalan a question... but then she shook her head slightly. Lowering the sword, she walked back across the room, around the mutilated body of her Priestess.

"We will be gone for less time that it would take to eat breakfast," she said to Mikal. Then she looked at the Hunter.

"Darian, we go."

She led the way down the wide corridor.

Kadri moves as if to go with her for a moment. . .

then frowns and rubs her shoulder, wincing.