[b]Plain of Eternal Welcomes, Aett[/b]
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In contrast to the Ullanor Wastelands, the hills of the Plain of Eternal Welcomes were not red with sand, but bluish white with snow. Perhaps the transition from hot to cold alarmed the upstarts with its suddenness, but none of the ancients even shuddered at the unnaturality of it. 

The proper resting place of the Golden One as it contained most of what was solid of its corpse, the world of Aett was shrouded in its essence; and as the party's souls partook of the invisible life-stuff imperceptibly, they felt their bodies reacting immediately and filling with sudden vigor. A familiar hotness began from their hearts and spread to their toes and fingertips, and this welcome feeling distracted Vaul enough from his silent anger at Neveras' hostility for him to be mildly cheerful. The winds here were strange in that, though they were cold, they did not bite, and one could look at Aun without damaging his sight. Eternal Welcomes, indeed; though Kyras frowned while Thirianna smiled.

[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2369832]Itone[/url], the half-breed, however, felt nothing.

The grove of trees that consisted of the picturesque preview on the portal was revealed to be but the end of a massive forest that flourished behind it, its species alien and exotic to Ceyr, with flowers that glowed with a nimbus of eerie purple about them, and strange, ghostly deer whose existences were not purely material and were nigh-undetectable to even [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2369832]Hiraga[/url]'s inborn senses. The treeline marked the artificial beginning of a large clearing that ended at the feet of the Fortress of Redemption's oppressively high walls of cold, blackened steel, which circled the complex protectively. It had but one vaulted gatehouse, its twin doors as high as a hundred men, directly in front of the party, but quite far away. Thirianna was already gliding through the snow, which parted from her feet to reveal the soil, that she could walk sure-footed.

The corpse of the Creator lay but a kilometer ahead. Even while hidden by the walls of the Fortress, the ancients could glance illusory images of it if they stared at the direction where the divine cadaver slowly continued to erode into misty essence. But this was no recent thing, and was common knowledge to all those who had visited Aett at least once: Vaul, Dorn and the very reluctant Kyras made sure not to stare at the grey aquila that gilded the keystone of the gatehouse's arch, lest they relived memories they would have rathered not, as they followed the winged spirit in her wake.

"I cannot feel the Maker's heartbeat," Kyras commented. "Can you, [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2369948]Agimar[/url]? This feels like a trap."

"A trap?" Thirianna echoed, shooting the avian deity an amused look over her shoulder. "You dearest visitors of mine outnumber the native ancients of this place by quite a few heads. Attacking you would be folly."

"The War in Heaven is long past, Kyras," Vaul pointed out. "And there's enough hostility here," he took a gander at [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2372554]Neveras[/url], whom he was beginning to dismiss as an unpleasant nuisance. "I would rather you be quiet. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2369608]There[/url] [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2371758]are[/url] [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/76127-godhood-a-tale-of-deities/char#post-2370195]infants[/url] around."