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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1324634" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #253] Mysterious Answers[/PLAIN]His intense, glowing eyes studied the Companions as they sheepishly came forward into a group. They looked at one another but for what seemed a long time, no one spoke. Not even Vade.At last Feln stepped forward and dropped respectfully to one knee. "By your leave," he said to the glowing figure who watched them all so closely and turned to his friends. "Windstryder, I defer to your better judgement," he announced. "I have given you an oath to help you in your quest and I will trust your judgement in this area." Looking at Ledare he added. "I feel that you and Windstryder should make the final decision."The half-orc then reached down and scooped Vade into his arms like a child. "Come, Vade," he said. "Let us step aside and let them council.""Hey!" the rogue protested. "We are all in this together! I am a half-LING, not a half-WIT. Put me down... please?!" Feln did so and looked apologetically at the halfling."I am sorry," he began. "I didn't think-""As Papa said, 'I know you have brains Boy, the question is are yous smart enough to use 'em?'," Vade said with a hurt look on his face. "I can help make good questions. You said you trusted me.""I am sorry," Feln repeated as Vade darted back to the others. The half-orc sat down, cross-legged in the grass and waited for the others to come up with a strategy."I sense a lack of accord," the man said in his voice like musical thunder. His eyes studied them as if he were reading their very thoughts. "Decide quickly 'ere I must leave you. I may not linger long on this world lest I violate Umba's Injunction.""I can think of lots of things I'd like to know," Vade chirped and three sets of hands reached out to clap over his mouth. He dodged them al and looked reproachfully at his companions. "Hey! Watch it!""Even as a newcomer, there are a thousand questions I would like to know answers to," Morier said before Vade could say anything more. "But our group has many agendas and we fight many battles on many fronts, even if we do work toward the same end. If we select to be enlightened by three pieces of knowledge, we can use those as the foundation of our new focus."He stopped and looked at the faces of those gathered around him. "I have said my piece and will accept the decision of the group whatever it shall be, but my voice has been heard.""You speak wisely, Morier," Ledare told him. "And if Windstryder has no objections, I agree with your course.""Like Feln, I will defer to you, Lord Janissary," the elf explained. "You know more of the whole scheme whereas my mission is of a more limited scope.""Then you have reached an accord?" the glowing figure asked although there was something of a statement in the question. Ledare nodded in reply and took a single step forward. She looked up at the man, who while he looked like an elf, seemed to stand as tall as an ogre. She had to squint her eyes against the brilliance of his countenance."We have not been together as a party long, and we each have our own private struggles and burdens," she told him. "I think we stand to gain more as a group from your divine guidance. We ask that three things be told to us, in hopes that they will unify and direct our efforts toward ridding this world of the evils which plague it.""As you wish," the man said and he smiled down at her. "I speak now of the past. Twice has Oerune seen the death of a god. Most recently the Red God of Hule, Cretia the All-Seeing, slew Riane, the goddess of equality, freedom, and immortality. There was great lamentation amongst the gods and her corpse gave birth to Umba, the Devourer. It was he who decreed that the affairs of man and the affairs of god should remain forever separated and that Injunction has kept it so to this day.""One who was once amongst you bore, all unknowingly, a bit of Riane's divine spark," the figure mused. "But Riane's death, while terrible, was merciful when compared to Dridana's murder at the hand of Aphyx. After her forces were defeated and her son locked away, the goddess of decay and disease ripped the living heart from the goddess of things that grow in the earth. Aphyx bound Dridana's essence to a red gemstone and secreted it away so that her spark could not be reborn into a new godform. For the Queen of Rot knew that the Fruitful One would always oppose her and thus has Brogine's twin languished since the Age of Pestilence."He bowed his head and paused for a moment. A great melancholy had settled into him at the telling of his tale, and it made hearts ache to see sadness on a face possessed of such otherworldly beauty."I speak now of the present," he said at last. "The veil between worlds has been pierced. There is one amongst you who comes from another existence and there are those who seek her return. Ilea was snatched from Purgatorium a mere 11 days into her Walk of a Hundred Days and returned to the mortal coil before she could complete her ascension. It is all but unheard of for the god of endings to be denied, and her abduction was wrought by evil magics men were not meant to know. But where Calaam is cheated once, might he not be cheated again? Events in Battle City unfold that may have a profound effect on your lives if not your quest. For it is unwise that mortals should owe a second debt to Myrkhul and it is difficult to shed the baggage of a life once-lived.""I speak now of the future. But it is a future as will likely be, not as it must," the man said. "Events transpire to the south that will lead to bloodshed across The Realms. One who the Janissary did not trust is suddenly not trusted by those who were once his staunchest supporters though the fault of it is not his own. Follow his trail and you will uncover a dark and twisted secret kept from the eyes of good and evil alike for millennia. I foresee ancient evils thought long buried brought to the surface and forces for good thought lost found once more. One who you counted as enemy will become as your friend. And one who was your friend will become the worst kind of enemy. I see dead friends avenged and living friends lost. I see one amongst you making a choice between following their heart or following their duty. And I see a scorned love trudge ever onward toward an unpleasant end."And saying thus he sagged as if whatever ability he had used to divine the future had taken the strength from his body. He stooped there for what seemed a long time, but when he stood his face was filled with the same vigorous light it had held before."And now I must take my leave," he boomed. "Ilea must complete her Walk across the Seasons of the Soul. She has much to contemplate before she reaches Aoemzyre and completes her ascension to the celestial host. She has much bitterness about her death at the hands of one she called friend and she must rid her spirit of it lest Myrkhul judge her poorly."Ilea looked up at him with a hesitant sort of expression - as if she were only now remembering what had come before for her. A glimmer of recognition crossed her serene face and she turned to look at Ledare even as the column of light descended once more from the heavens. Her green eyes locked onto the Janissary's and for an instant before the light became so bright that Ledare had to look away, she was sure that she saw another face overlaying the girl's - a face that bore the scars from an attack by a broad banded hawk."Soriah?" Ledare almost whispered as she squinted back in the direction of the girl, but both she and her protector were gone. Spots danced in front of Ledare's eyes and tears were wet on her cheeks."Well, did that make any sense to anybody?" Vade grumbled. He shook his head in an I-told-you-so fashion. "You guys should have let me as the questions."------------------------------- I couldn't resist being vague. And I also couldn't resist stealing a little from PirateCat with the celestial's prophecies.</blockquote>

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