"- I had not come by the impression that they were able to recover, I'd love to see an example if you've gotten that far with anybody!"

"Mostly I just try to work with helping cultists recover, since nobody will let me keep a demon long enough to see if I'll get anywhere; they all get nervous about the fact that it's probably a trick and I can't guarantee I'll be able to stop them it they change their mind. But they're people, just like you and me and Soot, that can have experiences and change and grow, just ones that have suffered terribly. Is it really so hard to believe that some of them could come to be better and not worse?"

"It seems plausible but I'd never seen one before yesterday so I didn't have many preconceptions either way. Your bird is a person? Hello, Soot, I'm Kybele the Curator."

The crow caws something that sounds affirmative at her.

"He is! Grandmother sent him here to help me, though he has a hard time using words with most people. You can talk to a lot of animals if you know what you're doing, but most of them can't carry on much of a conversation and aren't nearly as smart as Soot is."

"There are people who are very good with birds back home but I think not in quite this way." Will Soot let her pet him.

Soot will tolerate this as long as she is gentle about it.

She is. "What a lovely bird. Would you be willing to help with the wardstone? Even if there's hope for the demons it seems like a lower rate of them appearing would make it easier on everybody."

She visibly considers it.

"If my being there means that less people get hurt, not more, then I probably should. It's important to help people when they get injured, but it's better to keep them from being injured in the first place."

She finishes healing up the last of the people waiting on her help, and is thanked profusely.

"If you're heading around to everywhere in the city that's in trouble to ask the people there for help, I think I should go with you to where the people in trouble are rather than wait for them to come to me. Do you mind if I come with now, at least for a bit?"

"I don't see why not. I'm looking for a fellow who should have a red plume on his head."

It transpires that such an individual is not especially difficult to find; they're working with several paladins (or at least people dressed like it) on excavating a collapsed house that has some people trapped inside. A few of them will greet her when they see her, but not stop their work; they don't appear especially nervous about demons deciding they make easy targets.

Ky will help with the excavation if they'd like another pair of hands!

They'd appreciate it! Once enough rock is moved for the family to get out and Ember has healed them, one of them will ask Kybele if she's new in Kenabres.

"I am - in fact, I don't even remember how I got here! But there's been too much to do to dive into that mystery. Right now I'm recruiting. I have a recommendation of a Thall! Is that you?" she asks the plumed fellow.

He looks a bit nervous at the question, though he does his best to hide it, and is perhaps a bit upset he doesn't have a good excuse to demand to know who's asking.

"Yes, that's me."

"Thall, if you'd be willing to lend me your strength tomorrow at first light I mean to have a crack at fixing the wardstone. I'm Kybele the Curator, and the Storyteller said I'd be able to."

"I don't know who this storyteller is, but of course I'm willing to help with the wardstone. Anything for our fair city!"

"Marvelous. We assemble outside the temple of Desna at dawn."

That seems to relax him quite a bit, actually. 

“I’ll be sure to be there as soon as I finish my prayers to Iomedae.”

"Then we'll see you then!"

A trio of Schir seem to think that two young ladies, one of them unarmed, are well within their ability to ambush. By the time they notice otherwise, it's entirely too late; Ember puts two of them to sleep mid stride, and even all three together wouldn't be a match at all for Kybele.There seem to be more signs of demons as they travel north, but the area between the festival square and defender's heart is pretty clear, so nobody tries for a repeat.

"I'm going to go underground, collect my brother, update the neathers," Ky says to Ember. "Do you want to join me there?"

"I've never heard of the neathers, which means if they needed help I wouldn't have known to come give it to them. Yes, I think I would like that."

"I think they'll like you too."

Back to where she left the ladder and down into the depths.

There are still some neathers waiting at the bottom, although not that many; quite a few of them seem to have dispersed, heading back to their villages or out hunting or finding somewhere private. Horgus Gwerm is, of course, not currently there, but Iskander shouldn't be too difficult to find.

"Iskander! Things are quiet enough up top that I want you with me. This is Ember. Ember, my twin, Iskander."