[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qI0IA2q.png[/img][/center] [hr] Ciara had forgotten what day it was. Was it even day? Time had faded. She had no idea how long she had been here. Strapped through the chair. Her mind felt fogged up. Memories came up occasionally. Names, laughs, trees. But they vanished just as quickly. She could barely hold on to her own name. Sometimes it slipped. Other names were just as clearly fading. Seva, Ora, Malgog. Looking down at the ground she feared every sound she heard. Every creaking from the door. The pain had been all there is. The loneliness cut worse though. Some time ago, she had no idea how long, she would’ve wished to go home. Right now she had no idea what home was. Where home was. There was just the pain and the fogged mind and the names. Life was slipping through her fingers. “Sovas…take me.” The words came out like whispers to the wind. Easily misunderstood as just a sigh but a prayer none the less. The last prayer that she could form with her broken mind. There came an on rushing presence in her mind, words soon followed, a thousand soothing whispers from a thousand mothers and fathers came together in one voice, [color=Fuchsia]"Be calm child, I will take you away, away from the pain."[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"You will have to let go, but I will help you, no need to make a sound, rest and let go..."[/color] She still sobbed twice. After everything that happened, a final few tears dropped from her eyes. But she had no choice. Her eyes closed, her breathing slowed. Inside she felt as if she was gripping rope tight and it was cutting through her hand and now she finally let go. Her body grew cold but not uncomfortable. It was as if at first she was pulling inwards, and then finally out. Ciara felt herself drawing away as the voice spoke, [color=Fuchsia]"You're coming to a better place. Do not fear..."[/color] Everything seemed to drop away bit by bit, as if she was being held by threads and each was unraveling in turn as she drew away from all of it. she was away, and there seemed at first to be nothing but herself and the presence in her mind. Then she felt it. The tug, the pull, and she was off. There wasn't a sense of control, one of movement or motion, but the pull was irresistible it seemed. She went, away from Galbar, from Ha-Dûna and the Westfold. She was arriving at what seemed to be a gateway, entrance to someplace else. [color=Fuchsia]"You will be with those that you love, and that love you, fear not Ciara..."[/color] The voice, the presence, it stayed with her along the way, until she was through the gates that had so loomed above. Her mind began to clear. Her memories pieced themselves together. With every step taken the fog in her head disappeared. There was no hesitation, no fear as she nearly passed through the gateway beyond which it felt like an entirely new world laid. Yet before she would cross the threshold she stopped. Enough of her mind had pieced itself together. Laughs, smiles, home. “Those who I love aren’t dead yet.” She said softly. [color=Fuchsia]"Yet is the operative word, paradise awaits until they join you. You still have opportunity to meet your people that you know not, that they are blood of your blood and kith and kin to you. Ones who will adore you and tell you of so much. You are not of the world anymore Ciara, rest and take time, you have joys awaiting you that you cannot yet conceive."[/color] A small smile crept across Ciara’s lips. She leaned forward, almost setting the last step. But before she did, she looked back over her shoulder. At the world that was. The world she left behind. “I’ll be waiting for you.” She whispered with a tender voice and then took a resolute step forward. Crossing the threshold and passing through the gateway. [hr] A divine voice of a million mortal men and women called out to a mind he knew was there, [color=Fuchsia]"Qael'naath, I request you come to my realm to discuss a matter of some import. I call upon you for a favor and assistance in matters in the Westfold of the Highland of Toraan."[/color] [color=a187be]“A most odd location to take interest in, brother.”[/color] Qael said as he stepped into the familiar realm of the god of death. Fog lapped at his feet already. Wandering souls went about their business and the usual structures towered over the grey and misty landscape. As before he merely walked through it to nowhere in particular. Thaa would find him easy enough. He kept looking around. Mostly to occupy his remaining two eyes, while the others flickered and shimmered with a chromatic glow. Blind to the realm he now walked in, they instead saw Galbar. The Winds had found itself watching over the Westfold, though that was not entirely an accident. [color=a187be]“So what can I help you with?”[/color] A voice descended upon him as Qael was brought to a void far from the rest of the realm, or right next door depending on your view. Thaa spoke from a ball of corpses his Eye traverse to gaze at Qael. [color=Fuchsia]"A most odd place indeed. One that continues to infuriate me through divine interventions and immoral acts."[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"I would show you the depredations committed to a soul. I would ask not that you pity her, nor that you find a similar moral stance to mine. I ask only that you understand why I call upon you in the specific case."[/color] Qael was about to stop the god of death. Of course, he knew which soul’s pains he would show. He was there. Witness to most of it. In the piece of Kal the sight hurt him in his heart. It was vile and terrible for a young woman, so full of ideals and hope, to suffer such a fate. Yet as a god he couldn’t allow himself to care. Still, he wasn’t about to tell a god angry about divine intervention that her death was a favored outcome. [color=a187be]“Very well, show me.”[/color] The god of magic said as he closed his eyes. Allowing his essence to open up only slightly. And so it came, all of it, the efforts and works of those of Ha-Dûna upon the body and mind of Ciara. This came not as observation but as feeling of her own, of her desperate thought and memory of each that Thaa had seen and saved to bring to this very showing. Every depredation and every attack and torture. All based on a false assumption. Thaa gave such to Qael, in his memory, in his thoughts and his feelings he had opportunity to see it all. Thaa spoke, [color=Fuchsia]"She had been saved, I seek not punishment, nor retribution against the mortals. They bare only the sickening influence of life about their minds, the twisted depredation of living shaping their wills and actions. A declaration of will must be made, I can do as much of my own will. I ask of you a favor regarding mana and those who lead and follow in Ha-Dûna, the supposed inheritors of the Dûnlands as they name the Westfold."[/color] [color=a187be]“Few of them use my gifts.”[/color] Qael’Naath said as his essences sealed itself off again. Seeing what happened to Ciara was harrowing enough to the small mortal side he now had. Feeling it as a part of him had been much worse. That very same part wished to engage Thaa on the subject of life again. But the divine part of him knew well enough that it would be wasted time. [color=a187be]“Druidism cuts them off completely.”[/color] A sacrifice too many were willing to make if you asked the god of magic. Then again, he knew he was somewhat biased. [color=a187be]“So what would you ask of me?”[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"Their enemies do not scorn such gifts, they have made enemies of many of those living, so aid them. Other divines will support the evil that prepares in Ha-Dûna, do not make it easy for them to spread such affairs to the entire Westfold. If any part of you has the least amount of abhorrence for what I have showed you, act to ensure it doesn't repeat a thousand fold, a million as the generations march on!"[/color] Thaa's voice had slowly grown to a thundering ring as revealed his anger, before he quieted. Continuing on in a more normal tone for him, [color=Fuchsia]"Bless those against them, curse the Dûnan who acts so callously, set the nature of mana against them so that the world may hold that which you find abhorrent, abhorrent to the world as well. Do what you will to act Qael’Naath, I have seen your daughters. I have some idea of your plans. If you let such things as are promoted here take root without cause you only endanger them, embolden those who would act against such dreams of theirs."[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"The daughter of the Sun with all her power and influence stands idle as this happened, the Goddesses of Sun and Moon, Life and Protection, stood by and did nothing. Their silence supports the vile actions committed there. But I know you may not agree with me, you may not think matters of morality are important. So think of this too, I have given gifts to your daughters, pledged their safe return, we have worked together on projects. If I have earned any amount of goodwill, if you have any care for moral matters, do not stand by and let them set the mortal world on a path for such wretchedness!"[/color] For a moment – perhaps due to his mortal affliction – Qael’Naath felt compelled to bring down his full, divine power upon the Westfold. To erase the troublesome Dûnans and have his chosen finally start his plans for the region. He even felt Kal’s heart quicken so far away as the mortal man was teaching the Solarians more magic. Visions or a rampaging storm flashed through the god’s mind. He would summon a storm of mana and send it raging towards Ha-Dûna. Flattening the area. Erasing all that was. A storm that would serve as a declaration. An expression of will, as Thaa had said. Yet he quickly detached himself from such mortal feelings. It was odd to hear Thaa so thunderous. Qael’Naath paused for a moment though as he gathered his thoughts. [color=a187be]“You’d do well not to insult one of my few friends, brother.”[/color] He said, though he offered a genuine smile together with his words. A smile Lucia or Soleira would’ve given the baleful thing before him. The god of the death made a fair point though. Lucia was meant to create peace. Qael did not think she would succeed but for things to get out of hand this quickly. Perhaps it was because she was tired. Two-thousand years of faithfully serving her mother was a long time for any mortal. She had earned her life within the godly realm. [color=a187be]“What you did for my daughters is not forgotten. But Soleira and Lucia have shown me to take things slower. We are gods after all.”[/color] He levitated up slightly as he folded his legs and floated in a meditative pose. [color=a187be]“Why this place?”[/color] The god of magic asked. [color=a187be]“Across Galbar there must be hundreds of mortals tortured unjustly. Yet something seemed to have riled you up about the Westfold specifically. What is it?”[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"You are right."[/color] Thaa paused, as if giving moment or break to his speech. He continued soon however, [color=Fuchsia]"There are many who have suffered, some worse than her. While this may serve as impetus, it is not cause. I seek to make a stand against this Evil, here and now as it becomes clear the Dûnan's are guided by deific influence to most immoral cause. They torture, imprison and seize their own people, their lands, their livelihoods and blackmail them the same. This is new, directed. The seek to make things worse, increase suffering for their own power. This reeks of divinely meddling in mortal affairs once again in the Westfold, it is the target of immoral deities seeking to start a wretched curse upon the land."[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"The Dûnans fled to the Westfold from persecution, and from that they have learned and been taught by dark deities to make a new suffering greater than before. They have been bred in great numbers by divine aid, their population of natives are young, easier to lead, easier to bring to bear in combat. They endorse some of the worse means and they seek to crush opposition, disregard the respects or concerns for other peoples, and no doubt spread this suffering further. I fear this is a Divine plan guided by a deity such as Oraelia or another of her like, perhaps a cabal to increase suffering first in the Westfold, perhaps to expand from there or to export and improve upon the model to so descretate all of Galbar."[/color] Thaa's great eye had been moveing slightly small images of dust had appeared as he spoke and now he started directed at Qael. [color=Fuchsia]"Tell me Qael'Naath, are you so sure that it is best to wait? To see what comes? I have waited and watched two thousand years and more, from the first death! I have seen the rise of slavery, cold blooded torture, a thousand upon a thousand upon a thousand atrocities and more. I waited to give them paradise, but I will not stand for Galbar to be come a hell for all which to live. We do not agree on all points, that much is clear and has always been so. I am not asking you to agree with me, I am asking you to look and see that things are measurably getting [i]worse[/i]! Divinely backed civilizations exporting suffering at increasing rates, mass slaughter as a norm, torture! Bronze and blood! They speak with honeyed words, and they get ever more present options for atrocity."[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"You want a world Soleira can save, or do you want one that will eat her alive in all her attempts at Kindness? Make a stand Qael'Naath, on my ask if not another cause, you may blame me as asker of a favor should you need explanation, I ask you to change the course."[/color] [color=a187be]“Do not confuse my patience with inaction brother.”[/color] Qael’Naath said. Two eyes lost their glimmering status as he momentarily released the Winds from his hold. Four eyes total watched Thaa’s singular great one. [color=a187be]“As it stands I have already given my support in more than one way to those who oppose the Dûnan oppression but I’m not blind to your champion. This Jjonveyo? He is not the answer either. Arrogant and as war-hungry as the Dûnans. He will not bring peace to the region should he win. Just more suffering.”[/color] The god of magic took a deep breath in an effort to calm and distance himself again from mortal emotions. Distaste and anger were ill advisors to a god. For now the Westfold conflicts were small compared to the whole of Galbar. Though it received a significant amount of divine support nonetheless. Thaa was right, it could easily spill out if not reigned in. With a calmer voice Qael said: [color=a187be]“Even if we find a fitting solution for Ha-Dûna, this cabal of gods you speak of might simply move to another civilization and chose to remain in the shadows longer.”[/color] It was hard to deny the idea that his fellow siblings were conspiring in the region any thought. Was this Oraelia’s plan? Does Lucia know? There were too many questions. [color=a187be]“I will speak to Oraelia and Cadien.”[/color] The god of magic said as he lowered himself and stood on his feet again. [color=a187be]“Hear their intentions for the region.”[/color] He was about to say his farewells, but he stopped. Thaa deserved a promise though. The god of the death spoke of the goodwill between the two of them. Qael’Naath would honor it. [color=a187be]“You might think me weak now, brother. For choosing to talk instead of bringing down my own power to bear upon the Dûnans.”[/color] His voice remained calm, but there was something behind it. A glimpse of a storm growing in his heart. [color=a187be]“But I promise you this. If your fears are true, if this suffering and pain is the works of our siblings’ evil intentions I will bring down a wrath so fierce it will be carved upon the very land itself.”[/color] [color=Fuchsia]"Speak as you like, listen as you wish, some have lied again and again to the mortals of Galbar, perhaps a divinity could get them to ferret out truth. And fear not, I have better options to bring eventual peace than the Mountain warlord, he does as he wills as long as he lasts. There is no such thing as a solution, answer for the region as the state of the world stands, we might make things better however."[/color] Thaa stopped, there was a great deal to say, and a greater deal to work on. [color=Fuchsia]"I would not have brought this to your attention had I thought you weak, my opinion stands as it was. Know this, whatever your findings of a cabal or whether they remained enshrouded, I will not stand by and watch mockeries made of innocents. This world is no ideal, but I will not allow it to become the opposite of one. You have my respect."[/color] Qael bowed his head in a respectful manner but then walked away. Sooner or later Thaa’s realm would offer up its portal to him whenever it decided. And soon enough, he was out to Antiquity once more. [hider=Summary] Ciara is still bound to the chair in the Hall of Truth but she’s a husk of herself. Tired and mind-broken. Finally she prays for the sweet release of death. Thaa guides her soul out of her body and bids her to step through the gateway to the underworld. Ciara died. Thaa requests Qael to come to his realm to talk about the Westfold. Qael answers the summons, but notes that it’s an unusual location for Thaa to take interest in. The god of the dead is infuriated with its state and the divine meddling. In an effort to show what has happened, Thaa wishes to show what he gleaned from Ciara. Qael is well aware of her suffering but still allows it to happen. The more mortal side of Kal feels heartache, but he resists it. Thaa says a declaration of will must be made and asks Qael’Naath to do so as well. The god of magic says few in Ha-Dûna use his gifts and asks what Thaa would want from him. Thaa simply asks to resist Ha-Dûna. Curse them. Bless those who oppose them. He goes on that Lucia’s failure to act supports the vile actions of the Dûnans. Finally he tries to convince Qael by using the goodwill both gods have in relationship to Qael’s daughters. But Qael is somewhat apprehensive and first desires to hear why Thaa is so hellbent on the Westfold. Thaa explains that the horrors happening in Ha-Dûna must be divinely influenced. Pushed on by one or several gods. The god of magic finds it hard ot resist the idea of it but explains he already has forces at work within the Westfold and doesn’t believe Thaa’s chosen champion would bring any peace to the realm. Instead the god of magic decides to investigate whether it is true that some of their siblings are conspiring and vows to talk to Oraelia and Cadien. Though he promises that if he find truth to Thaa’s theory, he will bring down a wrath most fierce upon the land. Both give their goodbies and Qael’Naath leaves the realm of the dead. [/hider] [hider=MP & DP] No MP & DP expended by Thaa or Qael’Naath [/hider]