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She doesn't know where she is, except it's certainly not anywhere home. The last thing she remembers is that they were trecking through Forbidden Lands, to a spot where Miquella chose to build his haven, and now, she's somewhere else entirely.
Miquella is here too... and it looks like he is wounded and in a lot of pain. There seems to be a city nearby, maybe someone there can help. She picks him up, and walks towards the city.
The guards will see a large red-haired woman approach, helmet covering her face, one of her arms and both her legs replaced with golden prostheses, carrying a smaller blonde person in white cloth in her hands.
The Malformed Twins in wotr
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The next moment, a swipe of the monstrous scythe leaves him lying on the rocks. Dying, in truth.
"You will kill me, monster," Lariel says calmly. "This I know. But one day, someone will come here and raise up my sword."
With his dying strength, he plunges the sword into the stone, and the vision fades. The last thing Miquella hears, as Lariel's strength leaves him is - "they will come and..."
Punish traitors? Protect the innocent? Vanquish Deskari? There is no telling what the angel had hoped for with his last breath.
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The latter part of the vision resonates less with Miquella's soul - for him, there aren't Enemies, never would he utterly forsake anyone. But he picks up Lariel's sword, raising it high, and proclaims:
"Angel Lariel, you may be gone, but you shall not be forgotten. I promise this as Miquella, the Unalloyed."
It feels like the right thing to do.
It is light in the shape of a sword. It will be a sword if he wants it to, smiting his foes, but it can also be light: a source of revelation.
It shines brightly for him now, dazzling everyone for a moment, but it is more than a light for the eyes. It speaks to your heart, promising aid, hope, allies. It calls you to join the eternal and unfailing cause of Heaven, and it makes you stronger and braver if you choose to respond to the call, because it tells you will never be alone.
The mysterious wound on Miquella's chest closes again, almost as if it opened only in the vision.
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He keeps it a light, and keeps the sword shape, because it feels like an important symbol to people around him.
"I had... some sort of a vision. Lariel, saving a girl, somewhere in similar caves, before being attacked by... Deskari, but smaller somehow."
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Everyone rushes over to him.
"That was it! The light of Heaven! Lariel... That's the name of the angel who fought with our ancestors - it was on the pedestal."
"Chief Sull will have to admit the time has come to rally the tribes, now. Will you come with us and show him the sword's light?"
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"Is rallying the tribes neccesary? Getting a large group to fight in a coordinated way will be hard, and if we can't, it's worse than going with a small group."
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"Taking the tribes through is madness. Lann's madness," Wenduag hisses.
"No-one in the tribes can make it through the maze. I'm the only survivor of the last group who tried. We were young and foolish, and the darkness claimed us one by one until only I was left."
"Taking everyone there is madness. The young and old and infirm, some will die and all will be a burden on the rest. And if we do make it through, what then? What use a crowd of people barely able to fend for themselves on the surface! We would need protection from the demons, not provide it!"
"If the tribes stay here, with enough hunters to guard and feed them, a few strong hunters can be spared to help the surfacers. With your help, maybe we can make it through the maze." Malenia does look very impressive, just by having those incredible ?things? for limbs, but looks can be deceptive.
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"I wish I could take a small party to rescue the kids! It would mean not waiting for all the tribes to gather, and not waiting for Chief Sull to make up his mind to even start that. But the Chief has forbidden us from taking others into the Maze, because it's too dangerous, and the light of Heaven's sword is the best way I could think of to move him."
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"I am the best guide to the Maze. I'll guide a party of fighters through. But I will not be a party to taking the old and infirm there to be massacred!"
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"We can go with you, and rescue the children? Then there wouldn't be a need to risk the rest of your tribe."
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"You only need his permission because you think so," Wenduag mocks. "Does he stand over your shoulder when you hunt alone, telling you to take a risky shot?"
"The village isn't far out of the way to the Maze. You can stay there if Sull tells you to. I will guide the strangers through the maze, if they think they are strong enough."
so-awesome
"And then what? They want to go back to the surface. Are you going to guide them up and stay there?"
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Wenduag really wants to scornfully tell Lann that she's strong enough to make it back through the Maze alone. Unfortunately, she has spent the last three years telling him she isn't.
"Worried I'll get to be a crusader without you?"
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"What would your tribe do, if we call them? Can we show them the light, and then go into the maze before them?"
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"I hope Chief Sull will agree that if the tribe's going, we should scout ahead. And use your help while we have it and there's still have a chance to rescue the kids." Since it looks like they won't wait for the tribes before taking Wenduag up on her offer. Not that they really have a reason to wait, if they think they can make it through the Maze.
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It's a plan, at least!
Lann and Wenduag lead them through more giant-vermin-infested tunnels until they emerge on the shore of a little subterranean lake.
A shaky bridge leads them to an island, dimly lit by torches just bright enough to overpower the omnipresent bioluminescence. And it is full of people, no two quite alike, all with the traits of different animals haphazardly mixed in; going about their daily lives, fishing, mending tools, children playing, and everyone stopping to stare at them as they pass.
Lann leads them up the knoll and to a seated man whose face is halfway blended with a rat's snout. He is probably old and clearly infirm, one eye white and rheumy, the meager hairs on his head hanging on in bare tufts.
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"Chief Sull! We found the angel's sword! And demons have attacked Kenabres, causing the earthquake, which also opened a fissure into the far tunnels. These people fell down and want to go back up through the Maze."
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Chief Sull isn't one to jump to conclusions or to action, he has to be prodded into it.
"Gather the tribes! Anyone who can hold a weapon! We can still save the young ones, and this is our chance to clear out the Maze and reestablish contact with Kenabres! We've been waiting for the right moment, and now they need our help!"
"Ah, Lann... Alwaysh dreaming, and believing your own dreamsh. You trusht shtrangersh becaushe you want to believe, but you're too hashty. I'm the chief, I can't rishk the tribe on faith. Our kind don't have good thingsh happen. Show me the proof."