Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nephis" data-source="post: 9206146" data-attributes="member: 20459">From their various vantage points on the decrepit stairs, the three weary warriors watch as their final combatant dissolves into sparks of glowing moondust which float away in the faint breeze. For a moment, no one says a word or even dares to breathe. Then, as one, they turn toward Her altar and make their way up the final stairs to finally reach the pinnacle of Maba's Temple. There ARUNNY, slightly less battered battered than her two companions, gets out their bedrolls and settles them to sleep. She has already decided to keep watch until morning, now only a few hours away. If necessary she will be able to catch some sleep once the others have awoken, refreshed. For now, both of her fellow survivors are in need of deep, soulful, nourishing sleep. And she, Omthala's Searing Voice and Maba's Piercing Eye, needs to allow the threads of time, of destinies, of histories, of possibilities,  of place, of the Triune of Light to reveal themselves to her so that she can learn something of her place within their weave. As she stares into the middle ground for countless minutes ... possibly hours ... Arunny begins to notice a pattern discernible on certain stones on the Temple's floor. Examining these stones more closely, the priestess presses down on the pattern on one - an intricate carving of a Moon surrounded by a ring of dancing rabbits - and the stone springs up, able to be removed. Inside the cavity are a few small, humble offerings: a stone, a rusty dagger, a casbak with a small tear in its sole. When Arunny holds them in her hands, she hears waves resonating through her being in soft blues and greens, carrying the scent of freshly brewed tea. These objects carry in themselves great significance in Maba's story: these are reliquaries buried here as remembrances of those lost in sacrifice. As she searches through her satchel for her own such object, she can hear the others awaken from their rest. Showing her father the remnant of quilt she has retrieved, she asks if he has anything to add. He does. He removes a signet ring from his pinky. "It was her father's, Dhriish'ta's father, I mean. We always meant it for him." Uzmehr reaches for the scrap of the quilt once made for him and - twisting it through and around the ring in intricate fashion - creates a flower, handing it back to his daughter, who in turn places it gently into the cavity with the other objects and closes them all inside. Bowing her head for a moment, she listens to the gentle symphony of all of the reliquaries buried here, protected and protective. Arunny makes no protest when her father urges her to sleep a while, with a much refreshed Qamra now able to take watch.Hours later, the Seer's eyes open, glowing softly. The portents in her sleeping still swimming through her drowsy thoughts into meaning. A vulture feasting with relish on a bloody, mammalian heart ... a valley with unusually heavy purple clouds that sting the eyes of anyone looking at them ... a seemingly solid ancient tree slowly rotting inside..."I know where we must go, and we must go quickly!" she whispers urgently. She looks down at the the gift her father handed her the night before, just as he kissed her goodnight. Closing her fingers around it, she holds her fist to her heart and nods resolutely.</blockquote>

Verification