But at that moment they begin to hear, faintly, voices up ahead. They speak in urgent, worried voices tinged with fear, though the words are not easy to make out from this distance.

Ivetrielle tilts her head, but hesitates to just rush ahead to see what's going on. She... looks to the others for guidance about what to do about the worried voices and their owners.

Astarion lifts a finger to his lips then gestures for them to walk closer to the trees, and make themselves obscured. And then he does that thing rogues do where they're harder to see even when you're looking directly at them, and quietly leads the way to the sources of the voices, a short way off the main road just before the bridge.

Two humans are worrying over a dwarf who looks like he's been mauled by a bear. The tracks suggest he wasn't attacked right there and was instead dragged by the other two, and they seem to be trying to render first aid and not really... knowing how.

"You're alright, Ed, you're alright—"

    "I can't stop the bleeding, Bry."

"Press the wound! No, not like that..."

    "Like what then?!"

"I—I don't know..."

.... Yeah okay, that's enough stealth, someone's dying. Astarion can stay stealthy if he wants to, she can purposefully stop being sneaky away from him and the rest of their group, so as not to blow their cover.

"Hey," she says, making herself apparent. "I'm a druid, I can do some healing, may I see?"

...oh for fuck's sake.

    "Stay back! Not a step closer!" says the second human... and a strange red symbol flashes on her face for half a moment before vanishing as if it'd never been.

"She might be able to help, Bry!" To Ivetrielle: "He's hurt, badly. An owlbear got him deep. If there's anything you can do..."

"I mean you no harm." She sets her staff aside in a show of nonviolence. It's not necessary for any of her spellcasting or anything, just self defense if something tries to tackle her while she's in her normal form, but, well, it's the principle of the matter. "I've got a healing potion in my pack and know a few spells to help, but he's lost a lot of blood already, can I...?"

"Okay hi yes excuse me I do need to interject," says Astarion emerging from very much not the same place he had been just now, "are you out of your mind you're dropping your weapon like that do you know what an obvious trap this could be didn't you see the creepy—"

"True Soul..." rasps the dying man, locking gazes with Astarion.

"I beg your—"

It's that time again! The time everyone's been waiting for, where Ivetrielle ignores Astarion completely in favor of something else. Clearly his teammate 'values life' or some other nonsense, because she is now focused on trying to save this man.

His wounds... are, in fact, deep. And have been made worse by the fact that the other two seem to have dragged him quite a ways, with all the jostling and scraping that implies. He is still staring intently at Astarion in a way that one could reasonably call "trancelike", but the other two are now looking a lot more uncertain.

Ohhhhhh this is bad. Magic and a potion and decent field dressing are likely not even going to be enough. Maybe if she'd gotten there sooner, but now...

Well. Nonetheless, she will try. Not today, Kelemvor, not if she has anything to say about it.

Unfortunately, she doesn't. The man stops looking at Astarion and pushes Ivetrielle away with nearly the last of his strength before looking at the other two. "He is a True Soul. Mind him. He will—" The man coughs, and oh that is making it obvious that there are even more cuts than were apparent given the new and exciting places blood is starting to gush out from. "He—he—"

    "Edowin," says first human. "Ed! Please!"

She is in fact pushed away, and stays pushed, looking stricken. Then she shakes her head, unhappily. "He's... past my abilities to heal. I'm sorry."

Bry lets out a strangled sob but pulls herself together a lot more quickly than the other human as the dwarf falls still. "He's with the Absolute now," she says, swallowing dryly and trying to hold back her tears. Then she looks up at Ivetrielle and farther up at Astarion. "...my apologies. I—we didn't know. That you were also a True Soul. Edowin—our brother—he was one, too. Chosen. Like you."

UM.

"Of course, well, no harm done." Except to the guy who is, uh, dead.

The other human looks up, too, and he's not really succeeding at holding back his tears. "...I'm sorry, True Soul. I'm Andrick, she is Bryanna. We—"

    "Do you have orders for us?" says Bryanna, standing up and straightening her spine.

Orders?? The fuck?? And a True Soul?? What even is that??? Ivetrielle has no idea what these people are talking about or what is going on.

"I, ah, need to confer with my allies for a moment. We did not expect to find another True Soul here, and are not prepared to deal with two new apprentices. If you'll excuse us."

"Yes, True Soul," says Bryanna.

He gives Ivetrielle a pleading look then starts walking back to where the other two are.

Uh, yeah, okay, she’ll follow after retrieving her staff. She’s still confused, but she’s pretty sure that Astarion is as well, and that they’re all about to go be confused at each other about this True Soul nonsense.