She appears above a bit of frozen wasteland. She falls, conscious but without making a peep, to the ground, and breaks a few more bones.
She lies there.
She appears above a bit of frozen wasteland. She falls, conscious but without making a peep, to the ground, and breaks a few more bones.
She lies there.
"Yes." The man's voice is toneless. He's not looking at Promise, but in a way that hints he's very aware of just how close she's standing to him. And terrified. "I - are you going to kill us?"
"It would have been a tremendous waste of time to heal you first if I were going to kill you, so please don't make me. What did the Star-Eyed tell you was going on?"
"That - the gods were under attack - by some new force that had suddenly appeared, and was working with an ancient enemy..." His hands twist together in front of him. "Did She lose? I thought, only that would..."
"She surrendered, apparently, and wound up better off than Sunlord did for it, but I'm not sure how to arrange to talk terms with Her in more detail. Do you know?"
He looks sort of dazed. "You want to - talk terms, directly with Her...?" He looks around, uncertainly. "Treestorm is a Healing-Adept, she might be able to help."
She fixes her eyes somewhere past Promise's left shoulder. "I - can pray to Her? Maybe She will send a leshy'a to speak to us."
"Please make it clear that I will take it very much amiss if the leshy'a makes any hostile moves."
Anxious nod. "Y-yes. I will try praying to Her now." The woman looks around and then sits, cross-legged, and closes her eyes.
Promise waits. Her wings are maybe trembling, maybe just wavering in the wind; she rolls them up against her back.
And then, between one moment and the next, a figure steps out of the shadow behind the tent. Except that there was definitely no one there a moment ago.
The figure appears to be that of a woman, small with a slight build, clad from head to toe in black and with her face hidden behind a veil. Only her dark blue eyes are visible.
She looks at Promise. Seems to be waiting for something.
To Leareth's mage-sight, it's extremely obvious that this isn't a living human. :One of the leshya'e Kal'enedral, I think: he tells Promise in private Mindspeech. :Her spirit warriors:
The spirit-woman inclines her head slightly. Something about her movements is very slightly off, as though she's too close to weightless, she doesn't quite move like a human.
"You have something you wish to say to the Goddess," she states. Her voice sounds odd, sort of muffled and faraway, as though rising from deep in a well.
"Her ally, Vkandis Sunlord, believed Himself under attack, and was calling in a favour. She did not recognize the danger or know its nature." The woman's head tilts slightly to one side. "It is you, yes? You are a very long way from your home."
"He is no longer communicating with Her. She does not think He is destroyed, but His future is -" the blue eyes narrow as the spirit warrior searches for words, "- his future is strange and limited. Hers also, but less."
"I can permit him to speak to her. I wish to know if her surrender will persist regardless of what he says."
There's a long pause.
"She is not going to fight in His aid," the leshya'e says eventually, "even if He asks it. There are no futures where that ends well for Her aims. She...does wish to know what you intend, here, in this world. The future is clouded and She is concerned for Velgarth and for Her people."
"I do not mean Velgarth or its people harm. I'm going to address the Sunlord now - you may communicate with the Star-Eyed."
The spirit nods and takes a step back. Her outline goes slightly hazy, with just a hint of translucency.
Slight nod, and then the black-clad figure is silent for minutes longer, her silhouette wavering in and out a little.