[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/DmHThHw.png[/img][/center]

Ethelred declined the crude earplugs.  [color=6ecff6]"I appreciate it, but a curse prevents me from removing my helmet to insert them.  Like with Elnith, however, it should provide some resistance to other curses."[/color]  Unsure if she heard with her ears plugged up, he tapped his helmet and tugged on it slightly to show that it could not come off.

He wasn't sure what to make of this woman, but he couldn't see any fault in her logic or reasoning.  He was willing to work with her for now.  Besides, unlike that elf, this newcomer didn't disparage him for being cursed.  She made some blunt remarks and jokes, perhaps, but he sensed no contempt in her tone.

As she tried to convince Lugh to take the earplugs, which he declined due to the size of his Tuatha ears, it happened.  Something changed.  Birds started to drop out of the sky.  In the distance, Ethelred could hear a haunting sound.

It was singing.  A strange, unnatural singing in words that Ethelred could not discern, probably in a language he did not know.  They had found the source of the disappearance- but it had also found them.

Ethelred turned towards the source, gripped in its compelling spell.  He felt a powerful urge to press on in that direction.  A part of him wanted to flee, to resist with all his might and do the opposite of what the voice wanted, regardless of the pain and exhaustion it might bring him.  He saw the aftermath of one who had followed the singing, he knew that those who fell under the spell perished.

He could not, however.  They were here to find this voice and silence it forever, and that meant heading in the direction that it was pulling them.  He feared that doing so might make it harder to resist.

He looked about.  Lugh was pained by the singing.  Ethelred's horse was visibly agitated.  Both of those things made for strong motivations to resist this magic.  The druid was behind them, promising to keep them safe.  Could he trust her to watch his back in this...afflicted state?  It's not like he had much choice- he had to put this thing down.

[color=6ecff6]"Onward, we...need to silence...this thing forever!"[/color] he commanded, his voice audibly pained.  As he headed towards the noice, he took his lance and scraped its spikes against his helmet, trying to create an abrasive noise in his ears to drown out the singing.

[@BrokenPromise][@Rune_Alchemist]