The lightning was constant at this point, illuminating the world around them. Him following the winds, the lightning, and thunder were more than being a Stormwarden. These were things he had done before he was marked; it was how he managed to navigate the world as instructed as such by his mother. The signs he was pointing out to her now took on new meaning when Zulrav spoke to him in words the Kelvic could actually understand. He was attempting to show Elann this; trying to show her how one gained favor with a god who could care less about lowly mortals like themselves. Where Yahal could apparently be seen when one took a pilgrimage, Zulrav could not be reached in that way. Luck and personal interest of the god was what caused a mortal to be looked upon by the deity of storms. It was by luck and personal interest that Elann was looked upon by Noah, a similarity of the two.

These were things he couldn’t explain with his words, vocally clumsy as he could be. The imperfection of his explanations were made up with by the display he was attempting to show her with Zulrav in kind. Noah showed her his power, how he could use the breezes in order to send whispers across great distances, even though this one was not that great. They were right by one another yet where no wind blew, Noah’s own conjuration found her ears and filled them with his words of information. He told her Zulrav didn’t always use words to speak, how feelings and signs were used in place. Another similarity between the Stormwarden and his god.

Noah looked to her expectantly but she said nothing in reply, staying silent after the air he created to speak to her died away, rejoining the still air around them. He licked his lips, looking up into the sky as lightning streaked through the dark clouds. The direction the lightning went, though it was just a flash, was followed by another gust of directional wind pushing up against the couple and Aimee too. Noah turned and went the way the wind pulsed, using the consistently striking lightning to take in the layout of the land in order to find a path no one would tumble over.

Chimes passed in quietness, Noah not stopping in his walking, only slowing and waiting for the next gust of wind when it would come to push him along in lead. Eventually they broke through the other side of the sparse thicket into another meadow. Looking up, Noah noted the thickness and darkness of the clouds in this area. Where once a sheet of dark grey was constant, in this space a cloud nearly black and void of all other color stood in the air, menacing, only momentarily lit up when lightning came.

As they stepped into the meadow the winds greeted them with a new vigor, inquisitive breezes that could not be blocked out by the clothing one wore. Layers were useless here as it seemed any gust of wind that came at the couple soaked into their very skin. Noah was unbothered, but he was sure he couldn’t say the same for Elann. He continued to look up as he walked into the tall grassy meadow, clutching Elann’s hand as his heart quavered in his chest.

“He has no mortal form like Yahal,” he finally said, coming to a standstill. “Zulrav’s form is in the wind, the lighting, the thunder, clouds, rain. He is here and there, yet nowhere at the same time. There are times when his presence is strong and powerful and other times when I can barely feel him, like a whisper on the wind.”

Noah had forced them to the middle of the meadow, the tree-line a long distance away. He turned to face his bondmate, grasping for her other hand before holding them both between them. He looked off to the side, up at the dark cloud that grumbled with low thunder. “Elann,” he said, “meet Zulrav.”

At the utterance of the god’s name, the cloud erupted into the loudest clap of thunder she had ever heard. Noah’s own heart skipped a beat as the wave boomed through the meadow, causing the trees thin tops to bend and forcing birds into the sky. Aimee herself flinched, cowering as she retreated slowly to the trees in search of shelter. The thundering continued at the great volume, each break in the once peaceful quiet interrupted by a constant stream of noise, something that resembled talking. The words were only able to be heard in full by the Stormwarden, but his reactions told her that nothing was to be feared.

“He didn’t want to meet you at first,” Noah translated, “but now He is glad that I’ve brought you here to see Him. He says He appreciates you, even though He wasn’t fond of you when we first bonded. He says, although there are times He doesn’t understand you, He loves you because you love me and I love you. He calls you a… guardian, someone who watches over me, His child.”