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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2165950" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred EleventhIn which: for Lira, one path ends, and another begins.Lira has found herself increasingly preoccupied with Alirria’s prophesies for the party.  Not so much with hers; whatever her path and its ramifications for her seedlings, Lira has come to the conclusion that the only thing she can do is keep her eyes open and hope for the best.  No, the prophecy Lira finds herself concerned with is Benedic’s.A choice will come upon you, between your heart and your love.  Choose your love, and witness the breaking of your heart.  Choose your heart, and your love will be lost to you forever.Watching him while he guided the party through the Ketkath, she’s pretty sure she knows where Benedic's heart is, and she’s not sure if she’s more frightened by the prospect of him choosing it over his love, or by the idea of him going the other way.She finds him, late in the afternoon, sitting apart from the others, staring out at the horizon.“If I had any sense, I’d tell you to choose your heart in a second.”Benedic turns to where Lira is standing.  “What?” Lira gestures to their surroundings. “It’s here. It will always be here for you. I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t even know the difference between the rough rapids and the stagnant pool.”She sits down beside him. “I don’t know why you have to choose. And I’d never ask you to make a choice that would break your heart. I don’t even know that I am that choice. But if that’s the way it is… I only have one thing that I can offer you.”Lira reaches into a pocket and hands Benedic a lock of her hair braided into a ring.“I’m not saying you have to decide anything now,” she begins quickly, before Benedic can speak. “And before you do, you should know that I do have four older brothers, and there’s a good chance they still consider me to be engaged to someone else.  But… I love you.  If you give up your heart, you can have mine.”Benedick stares at Lira, clearly at a loss for words.Then he reaches out, takes her hand… and closes it over the ring.“Nah.  Y’don’t love me,” he says.  “Don’t get me wrong, I know y’think you do,” he adds quickly, before she can protest, “but it’s not love.  Not real love.  You’ll just have to trust me on that, ‘cause I’ve been around a few more times than you.”  He cracks a wry smile.  “Anyway, it’s my Lady’s bailiwick, so which of us oughta know better?” Lira doesn’t smile back, and Benedic looks away.  It isn’t that funny to him either.“Look, what we have… I like it.  I like you.  A lot.  And if things keep going the way they have been… yeah.  I could fall in love with you, no doubt about it.  That’s why I think we need to end things.”Lira shakes her head, not sure she heard what she heard.  “That doesn’t make any sense.”“Look, I’m not in love with you yet,” Benedick says, trying to explain.  “That makes choosing between you and my heart a hell of a lot easier.  On both of us.  You don’t want to stay out here in the Ketkath forever, so if I’m gonna have to choose, I might as well choose now and get it over with, before I do fall in love with you and things gets really hard.”Lira look at him, the hurt on her face warring with anger.  She gets to her feet. “You…  you’re trying to head a prophecy off at the pass?  If you don’t love me, then I’m not your love, and your heart and I can get along just fine.  And if you do love me, then don’t try to pretend that this makes anything easy.”“Hang on,” he says.  “Just ‘cause I’m not in love with you right now, doesn’t mean you’re not my Love.  The gods don’t see the world like we do.  Past and present and future, it’s all the same to them.  I was told I had a choice t’make, between my love and my heart.  I think I know what those two things are, and if I gotta choose between them, I’ve got to make that choice now.  Because if we stay together much longer, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it.”He steps back towards Lira, gingerly putting one hand on the side of her face.“I’m not sayin’ it’s not gonna hurt.  But it’ll only hurt worse later.  And I don’t want to do that to you.” Lira blinks rapidly, inches away from tears.“I don’t understand,” she whispers.  “Why tell us if it doesn’t make a difference?  Why not just let us live our lives?”Benedic shakes his head.  “I don’t know.”Lira takes a deep breath, pulls herself together.  She’d argue with him, but her heart tells her that it wouldn’t matter.  Instead, she offers the braided lock of hair again.  “Keep it,” she says.  “Not as a promise, but… Who knows?  You might need someone to scry me someday.”Benedick looks at the ring for a moment.  Slowly, gently, he takes it from her, closing his fingers to clench it tightly in his fist.There’s a funny expression on his face… as if he’s about to say something.  But whatever it might be, he decides not to.  He just nods instead.  “Yeah…” he says quietly.Lira manages a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I never thought I’d be anyone’s love.  Not for real.”With a last look at Lira’s face, Benedic mumbles awkwardly, “I gotta go… y’know…”He jogs off, and leaves Lira standing there.###Lira stands, alone in a clearing, not far from where the others are camped.  The surrounding trees close off any view of the rest of the Valley or of the mountains beyond.  It is an act of will to stop there, to keep herself from running as far and as fast as she can.  She knows that she’s not supposed to go off by herself.  She knows that although the Valley is much safer than the Ketkath, it is not devoid of danger.  She knows that everything Benedic has told her is only sensible.  She just doesn’t care.  It feels like there’s something trapped inside of her, a giant explosion of tears, or frustration, or something.If only they hadn’t heard that stupid prophecy.  If only Benedic’s hadn’t been the only one to make any damn sense.  If only someone would give her a sign—That’s when her hands catch fire.The flames soon take to her tunic, which burns merrily.  And when the skin underneath begins to blister, it really starts to hurt.  A small part of Lira’s brain registers that her hands aren’t burning, they’re shooting out a cone of flames.  Most of her brain is busy yelling.Lira’s shouts soon draw the rest of her friends who come running.When they get there, Lira has just managed to put herself out.“What happened?”“My…  My hands just burst into flame.”“Um… why?”  Thatch asks.“I don’t know!  It just happened.”Annika looks puzzled.  “Was it a new spell?”“It was fire, actual flame.”Annika is dumbfounded.  “But only divine magic can make fire.”In the back of Lira’s mind the bud of an idea begins to blossom.  It’s impossible she tells herself.  But at the same time a little voice inside her says, except if it isn’t.  Lira swallows.  “Hang on a second,” she tells the others.  “Let me try something.”  Lira closes her eyes, and speaks.  He voice is barely audible, but she reasons that the one she is talking to shouldn’t have trouble hearing.  “Ehkt,” she whispers, “grant me healing of the body, that I might grow strong enough to face the challenges that the next noon will surely bring me.”Slowly, a blue glow grows around her hands.  Dim and flickering at first, it slowly increases in strength.  Lira brings her hands down to her burned stomach.  The glow around her hands fades, and when she removes them, the burned swath across her belly has been healed.“You’re a… She’s a…”  Kiara is having difficulty finding a beginning to her sentence, let alone an ending.Anvil frowns.  “How has this happened?”Lira is just as befuddled as anyone else in the group.  “Don’t ask me.” Anvil considers a moment.  Nods.  “Come with me.”Lira follows as Anvil draws her aside.  “You have received a very important gift,” he informs her, “but there is more to being an agent of your god than the ability to perform his miracles.”Lira, still a bit dazed, just nods.“Are you worthy to receive this gift?”“I don’t know… Anvil, how could this happen?  I’m a sorcerer.  I mean, has this ever happened before?”Anvil pauses, shakes his head.  “I do not know.”  He takes a second to gather his thoughts.  “You need doctrine.  When we return to the Confederacy, you should immediately seek out a Temple of Ehkt, that you might learn the doctrine of your god…  unless we should happen to arrive back in the Confederacy in Dar Aego.  Then, you should wait.”Lira just blinks.  “Right.”</blockquote>

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