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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 5462712" data-attributes="member: 4936">Meanwhile...elsewhere...Maia was a candle in the vast empty. A tiny shout of light against the infinite silence and dark. But even here, she was not alone. The Song hummed its faint threnodies, though she was no longer among the choirs. They echoed to the world she found herself on, and its strains reverberated even in the corners of her mind that her awareness retreated to as her body's senses failed her.And in the Song was a voice. A voice she knew, because it had once been her own.what has happened?Feeling abashed, she answered it, a big bat bit me badly in the belfry. She hesitated, then asked, am i dead so soon?not yet, but your body has been damaged. human flesh is frail. you need to be more carefulMaia hung her head. i am sorry. i didn't know bats were so dangerous. everyone seemed confident, so...i understand. i knew there would be risks. even so, do try to reduce those risks when you can without detracting from the experiences.i will.do you still have any of the heavy metals that were sent with you?Maia's light brightened, happy to at last provide what she assumed would be a good answer. i do! i haven't traded it all yet. in fact...The other presence, inexpressibly huge despite the quiet of its voice, calmly cut her off. i will need to burn some of it. it was created with my light, and can be turned back if need be. it is the only way i can help right now. remember the gifts you have been given though. i gave you the Fire so that you could act on your own.The pinspeck of light that was Maia bobbed in acquiescence. i will remember.good. now...AWAKEN...White light flooded the darkness, and the Song became a symphony of pain as Maia's mind exploded back upwards through the deep layers, into the shallows of consciousness where nerve endings could again be felt.In the Belfry...As the last bat fell to the wrath of the adventurers their eyes fell as one to the only casualty of the battle. The strange girl who had tried gallantly to shoot her crossbow, but in the end was laid low by a single bite. She seemed out of place on the field of battle. No armor. No spells. Barely able to hold a weapon. And with an innocence that was all too fragile. Like she herself.Although her bleeding had been staunched, her wounds were still terrible...far beyond what anyone in the group could heal themselves. She needed a priest, a temple...she needed it yesterday.As if as a final insult, the flap of her belt pouch chose that moment to unfurl, and gold coins spilled out onto the wooden planks of the stairs. They were strange coins...the startling yellow of pure gold, formed into perfect circular shapes with no embossing or minting. Just blank discs of gold, each one precisely the same shape and thickness as the others.Before the astonished eyes of the onlookers, a handful of those coins rise into the air over Maia's unconscious body and seem to catch fire with an unearthly white blaze. In seconds the coins are consumed, leaving only a sheet of white flame hovering over Maia and spreading out over her. She becomes a thing of flame and light, human-shaped but otherwise elemental in nature.Abruptly Maia sits up and the cocoon of white fire puffs away into nonexistence. Her eyes are wide and her breathing fast, as if awakening from a frightening dream. The bat bite on her shoulder is looking much better...at least from what can be told, since her clothing has been repaired.It takes Maia a moment to realize where she is and what's been going on. Then she squeaks in alarm and scrambles to her feet."The bat! It's...it's..." She looks up, then around, and spies the large dead furry bodies below on the tower floor and draped over the stairs. "You got them."Abruptly she bows at the waist and cries, "I'm sorry!"</blockquote>

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