[center][h2][b][color=#d31c0a]Deo’Irah[/color][/b][/h2][/center]

After she managed to suppress the brief moment of awe and return to her usual cool aloofness, Irah watched with amusement as Lhirin changed tacts upon realising the true nature of the threat and switched to his more… metallic powers. Good–impressing upon the others precisely how dangerous he was the least he could do, given he’d been alive for longer than generations of most of their families. Though her view was blocked given her position toward the back of the armoury, and the strapping young men frantically changing their weapons, she could make out enough and hear the distinct [i]thuds[/i] to know that he’d dealt with the divine inhabiting the Lady’s woodwork. Well, at least there was a carpenter’s shop. She then watched him stride forwards confidently, magic charged and ready to be unleashed, until he appeared to stop for a moment and then… moved upwards. Irah was certain she caught a glimpse of water–she was intimately familiar, after all–and she began to gain an understanding of what precisely might be happening here.  

She waited a pregnant second, and then another, and then another before she finally deigned to crane her head forwards and take a look at what had befallen her companion, but as she could still sense the warbling energy around him she knew he’d been able to keep a hold of the focus required for his spells and that he’d be fine. He had many more iron needles than that. Jordan, however, elected to spring into action (conveniently offering her a better view of her currently indisposed companion) and put the hunk of iron he’d recently acquired to good use. Lhirin dropped to the floor–well, it was a rather forceful drop from Irah’s perspective–only to immediately be engulfed by a carpet that was lying in wait. She brought her free hand to her mouth, ostensibly in a gasp of modesty, but in truth she was struggling very hard to stifle a laugh. [b][color=#d31c0a][i]”I wonder what the more powerful divine is… Perhaps a Thalk: this smacks of their sense of fun, doesn’t it? These Frentit are being directed, then–and what better to lull people into a Thalk’s craven deceptions than something that muddles the senses and a contingent of useful actors?”[/i][/color][/b] she thought to Kinder, but took a moment to breathe in and steady her focus. Kinder hesitated for a moment, considering the question. [I]"It could be,"[/I] she admitted. [I]"What I felt before could very well have been a thalk filling its vicinity with divine energy. But not just that... if a thalk is giving off an aura as strong as I felt, it is not here in spirit only. It would have to be fully summoned."[/I] 

Irah paused for a moment as she considered. She had hoped to play the innocent priestess a little longer, but it had already worn tenuously thin with her admission to Sir Yanin: though she could just as easily pass that off as being Lhirin… Well, with him having been picked up by a droplet of water and thrown into a living carpet, he’d rather lost the mien of competence he’d thus far already struggled to maintain with his social blunders. Perhaps they’d not buy it.

She looked around the room for a moment, and noticed that the stranger from afar was yet to engage much, whereas everyone else (except Madara, who she could vaguely hear asking questions outside). Sir Yanin had been quite explicit about using Iron earlier, but she hadn’t exactly joined them as a cohesive unit at the time. Her attire and physique had already registered to Irah as those of a skilled combatant, so perhaps it was merely familiarity she was lacking. Perhaps the dutiful priestess could stay for now, then.

[b][color=#d31c0a]“They have only magical bodies–use your magic or iron. I will keep you safe.”[/color][/b] Irah offered, turning towards Nabissistra with a kindly expression on her face, though sometimes unnervingly intense remained about her ruby eyes. Reflected in the crimson of Nabi’s own, should she return the gaze, the intensity of her focus would burn even more brightly. At the sound of Freagon’s movement, however, Irah’s head snapped towards him, eager to see the sword in use. His arm was very skilled indeed, and the grace with which the sartal slashed through the air was something to behold. The way the light danced across its surface, gleaming and glittering as it rendered the wraith that had chosen to embrace Lhirin utterly powerless. She looked up at Jaelnec with a look on her face she suspected he probably knew well: he was an arse, that much was certain, but one did have to give him that he was also quite certainly skilled. 

[b][color=#d31c0a]“These are Frentits–weak things. They’re being guided by something greater, but they’re having fun: I think the summoner is likely just as much a victim as we are, now. We should find her as quickly as we can–perhaps we can talk some sense into whatever she’s summoned, if she’s no longer in control.”[/color][/b]

Looking at the water above her, and reconsidering the drain she felt from the strange aura that seemed to permeate the house, Irah willed a further 40kg of it out to join the rest of it. She was certain that the Lady Bor would not appreciate almost a bathtub of water being dumped onto her lawn, but they [i]were[/i] also saving the day for her (and had every intention of going to save the healer too, though perhaps she didn’t know that yet). As that thought crossed her mind she found Madara returning up the path, followed by an announcement that the summoner had taken something–possibly piaan.

Well. Piaan, of course. Frentits weren’t hard to summon, Irah knew that much–they were famed for being the most plentiful and basic element in a Summoner’s arsenal. They required little energy to conjure and had a will as flimsy as a falling leaf–but to summon potentially up to eleven of them, and [i]then[/i] whatever it was that was guiding them… Had the Melenian performed a full summoning? Would she be so foolish? 

[b][color=#d31c0a][i]”Hm. I cannot think of a single greater divine that would create an effect that muddles the senses like this, can you? If a full summoning has been performed… Reina preserve us…”[/i][/color][/b]

[I]"Maybe a deova... but no, this did not feel like an Angel of Fidelity."[/I] Kinder radiated worry and regret. [I]"Be very careful, Deo'irah. I am ready if you need me."[/I]

The only other clues Irah could think to direct herself to was the issue of these angels’ alignment: it could perhaps give them an insight into the summoner, or the situation. They’d need to see more of the rooms: Lhirin could visualise what happened, and she could usually guess why. Still, if he walked into another ambush, she sensed that Sir Yanin would fulfil that role just as well.

[b][color=#d31c0a]“... I fear that a full summoning may have taken place. I suspect perhaps a Thalk if such a summoning has occurred, though that is a guess–if it is, we must hurry: it will grow in power the longer it remains.”[/color][/b] she added, addressing everyone in the room with a clear sense of urgency.