That framing of First Age history is one Miriel and her father have known and dismissed for all their lives.

"Alongside the Elves, you mean.  And yes.  Have you tried praying?"

Not that she's actually done it herself, since... oh, the day before she agreed to marry him, when she'd decided it was fitting to give the Valar or Eru one last chance to give her a better plan.

Nor that she's going to admit to any of that.

"I might, if they gave me some of that magic, and left me alone otherwise.  I might even put up with some nagging ambassadors like they sent to our grandfathers.  What about you?  Are you insisting to stick with your father's ban on sorcery?"

Well, that's nothing more than she'd expect of Pharazon, an all-but-proven sorcerer.

"He banned sorcery because that's from Morgoth.  If the Valar are giving out magic here - they'd see you're the wrong person to give it to!  Go use your sorcery, if you brought any of it with you!"

She scoops up the quill and paper and walks to the other side of the inn, head held high.

The two men talk to the innkeeper for a few minutes. Judging from their gestures, at least some of the conversation is about the two of them.

Then the innkeeper says something loudly, everyone else working in the inn starts walking towards the door, and he politely gestures for Pharazon and Miriel to come with them. He says something about Wanda, moves his finger indicate the spiral-symbol, and then throws his arms wide open, turning around to indicate the whole room. Will they please come?

Wanda's saying or doing something about Ulmo?  Yes, absolutely!

Oh all right; he's not going to get anywhere staying away.

Many of the townspeople are gathering in the building with the gods' symbols, where they stand tightly packed around Wanda, being careful to fit inside a rough circle painted on the floor which covers most of the room. Most of them look relaxed, happy but not particularly excited or nervous.

Once everyone is standing inside the circle, including Pharazon and Miriel, Wanda lifts the spiral-symbol high where everyone can see it, and -

- some of their minor aches suddenly disappear, little ways in which your body tells you it's a tiny bit broken down that you learn to ignore, the slightly inflamed tendons and torn hangnails and minor rashes that you don't notice until you suddenly feel their absence -

- one of the children in the crowd has scraped knees, fresh scabs of dried blood, and they watch them fall off and healthy skin grow in -

- the feeling from this morning, that there's some new mental action they can take, grows a little more insistent in their heads.

- and six seconds later it's all over and the people smile and thank Wanda and start dispersing, resuming their conversations.

Pharazon feels better than he has in ages.  His scratches from his recent battle are gone now - the worst one more than he'd expected it to ever heal!

Miriel doesn't have any war wounds, but she does have old aches...

... or she did have them.

She feels the light of the Valar rushing over her like a friend, like something she's hoped for all her life even when she didn't expect it anymore at all... and it's suddenly here!

"If this's what the Valar do here -" she says aloud.

(- then for the first time in all too long, she can truly say she's happy to serve them.)

"Very useful," Pharazon agrees.

Oh thank the gods, they're not undead! ...that doesn't mean they're not from Geb, even if she mostly thinks that because she has no better theory.

They looked very surprised. But they already knew she was a cleric, it was obvious she was going to channel, what could have surprised them? It's not possible for people not to know about spells or channeling, so - nope, Wanda has no idea what's going on with these two. Hopefully Pharasma will give her a useful spell in the morning so she can talk to them properly.

Pharazon slips off with everyone else.  He doesn't like the Valar dangling healing in front of him like they've been dangling immortality just in sight of the Numenorians... and maybe that's not what they're actually doing, but it sort of feels like that when he can't talk with anyone except Miriel, who seems to have slipped right back into the piety he thought of her.

Miriel stays in the building afterwards for a little while, not surprised to see Pharazon slipping off.  She tries to pray, to the Valar in general - but the words don't come.

She's happy to serve them?  She's sorry for doubting?  She can think that, but the only words that come are a whispered "I'm sorry."

After a little while, she goes outside, down to the seashore.  And there, she kneels and instantly finds the words easier to say.  (It makes sense; after all, at home, praying wasn't something associated with a building.)

"Thank you," she says to the Valar in general.  "For healing; for showing me that you do act in the world.  Help my people at home - and show me what you want me to do, here now, and wherever I am after this."

It might be the first time since her childhood that she's prayed from gratitude, rather than out of duty or anger.

The sun pendant on her necklace grows a little warm to the touch. Or is it just her imagination? The feeling of something she can/should do grows stronger again, pulling at her attention, and at the same time it is joined by a new feeling of love, acceptance, warmth, healing understood as the desire to help people, acting in the world.

And then it passes and she's alone on the beach again, but the memory stays with her.

She's not alone anymore.

She's not alone!

Help people?  That's what she's been trying to do all along - she doesn't know how to do it, she never did; but she knows how to try her best - and now the Valar may have even given her a clue how...

(Is it Arien?  Or Ulmo?  Or someone else?  Not that it really matters.)

"Thank You!" she breathes.

And then she goes back to town, beaming.  She wants to try what might be a new magical power somewhere someone can see, because she's not going to be able to tell anyone about it today...

There are people in town! She can find Wanda, or anyone else she wants really. Pharazon is probably somewhere around too.

Part of her feels she should just show it (whatever it is) to the very first people she sees, but she wants to show it to Wanda.  After a minute looking for her, she starts to feel like a little girl going for approval from her mother, but she keeps looking because she wants to anyway.

Wanda isn't at the church anymore, but if she asks anyone else they will direct her to her house. She's spinning wool, watching people go about their day through her open door.

Miriel stands in front of her awkwardly, not sure how to begin.

After a moment, she holds out the sun on her necklace.

It's a very pretty (and clearly very expensive) necklace. Wanda isn't sure what Miriel wants from her, what with the language barrier, but she recalls that when they first spoke Sarenrae was the only goddess Miriel asked a follow-up question about, confirming that the sun was also Her holy symbol.

"Are you a follower of Sarenrae?" she wonders, mostly to herself. If any god made inroads into Geb, or had their clergy reach out to people fleeing Geb, Sarenrae would surely be the second best suited.

"I don't understand what you want, though," she says apologetically. 'Understand' is one of the few Adunaic words she memorized, so she repeats that.

... Wanda doesn't understand.  Well, Miriel will have to demonstrate whatever this thing is.  Hopefully she'll recognize it then.

Miriel steps back just a little, still holding up the sun.  For a moment she feels like when she was standing with her father at the Three Prayers to Eru, performing royal duty after royal duty that didn't ever help anyone...

... but then she remembers the presence of the Valar that she'd felt at the beach a moment ago.  Someone else is with her now, and gave her this to be an actual help.

And with that, she does the thing she can now do.