Buq 17th, 4288: 114 Days in the Mortal Realm
We found a village last night. It only took about 30 minutes too. Raæin had tracked the footsteps from the villagers that ran away. I also noticed smoke rising up into the darkening sky. With that and Raæin’s skill in tracking, we quickly came to the village entrance. We were greeted by a very tall woman. And by greeted I mean she became defensive by lifting her shield and weapon to the ready..
“Stop! Identify yourself!” She demanded. The harshness of her voice was startling. I looked at my companions and firstly noted Gideon had since disappeared. With the confusion of how we were addressed and Gideon’s disappearance, we each stood in silence a few seconds too long. The woman jerked the spear she was holding back to bang a gong. Immediately a man with a loaded arrow zipped to her side.
“Just give me the signal Roslyn!” he said, his voice eager for a fight. I did what I had to do; I pulled the Araja card on them.
“I’m Araja!” I said quickly then pointed to the others, “This is Cortanna, Isaac and Raæin.” A still fell upon the two at the gate.
“Araja Eloirakn?” asked the woman I assumed to be Roslyn. I nodded. “Prove it.” I urged Raæin to fly up into the air since there weren’t many Araja’s with celestial chargers. Raæin leaped into the air, did a circle above everyone’s head, and landed with the kind of grace I admired. They found that believable enough for they lowered their weapons ever so slightly. They then murmured among themselves for a moment.
“Araja,” Isaac said just loud enough for Cortanna and myself to hear, “I would encourage you put aside any opinions you have about you know what. Cortanna and I will be your ‘bodyguards’. Best to avoid any complications and make it seem you are still a leader of sorts. Cortanna, suck it up because this should be for the best.” As he finished Roslyn looked at us once more.
“And why are these two with you Araja?”
“They are my guards,” I said with a touch of lameness in my voice... I don’t know why I didn’t sound more confident. I was a leader. I remembered how to command people to my bidding and it would seem Roslyn and the man were ever familiar with who I was, so why was pretending to be exactly who I was once uncomfortable?
“Do they have to come with?” she asked, looking to Isaac and Cortanna.
“Yes,” I answered with less conviction than I had meant in my voice. Roslyn took no notice and told the man, Gareth, to go find accommodations for us. Gareth went off, seeming glummed by the idea. Roslyn had us follow her. As she lead us through the town, she explained the primitive state of their village. Any semblance of civilization, especially when ropes and cloth came into the picture, would begin to animate. I looked at the animal hide that adorned her body. She didn’t have a piece of cloth. Part of me had to wonder how it was my party and I weren’t attacked by our own clothing if cloth was as dangerous as the ropes.
We soon were shown our place to sleep; a mud hut with mud floors and an unlit fire pit. I tried to sound gracious for them taking us in last minute. It was better than being out in the middle of no where scared of some unknown objects trying to attack us. I curled up next to Raæin and promptly fell asleep that night.
In the morning, before we went out to our breakfast cycle, I knew we had to have a chat. What had happened yesterday in the underdark was devastating. I expressed my feelings to Isaac, Cortanna, and Raæin, stating it was a tragedy that we lost two comrades yesterday. How because of that, we seriously needed to figure out how to work together and not let contention get between us else we as a whole were going to fail in the objective we had to solve. I apologized for how out of it I had been for the past 6 weeks. I knew I hadn’t been stable and quite frankly, I still feel unstable.
Isaac agreed that we needed to work together more, Cortanna nodding her agreement. I then pulled my journal out of it’s dimension and offered them to read that night stating if they could avoid mentioning anything that would trigger those memories would be most helpful on my part.
As they read in silence, Raæin spoke to me in common, which still has me in a fog of what to do...
“Mistress, about what we had talked about last night. Our life has been shaped by prophecy, I do feel it is time we made our own way. With that, I want to go off and heal. I want to go away from the fighting to heal myself and to heal others in need of help.” My heart began to break hearing him say he wanted to go away “But,” he added, “I will stay if you want me to. Or you could come with me and we can go heal together,” he offered.
I don’t know how I kept it together. I couldn’t say anything for a long time. I felt betrayed at the notion he wanted to go separate ways as a possibility. There was no was I could force him to stay either. He had already done so much for me and knowing how hurt he was from all the deaths we’ve caused, presently and in the past millennia and a half, I couldn’t risk him resenting me if I forced him to stay.
Yet, what if I went with him? Could we truly find peace and healing for ourselves when Heironious and Erythnul were destroying the Heavens and Hells? Eventually whatever they were up to would impact us. Then again, how would I be able to stop them without the dagger? Once more I was powerless. I was vulnerable. How that dagger provided such security.
Perhaps going with Raæin to heal those in need would heal me from all the tragedy and darkness that has been my life... I had to be with Raæin. Isaac and Cortanna were just companions, well I guess friends would be more honest considering all that we’ve been through. Raæin, however, was family from my time and knows me through and through. Part of me ached feeling that abandoning the quest was the wrong choice, but the other part desired to forget; to pretend I was never destined for anything; to live without fearing; to feel wanted once more; to be loved and at peace like I was when Meryth was still innocent...
“I would like that,” I said hoarsely, “I want to go with you.” I caught sight of Cortanna and Isaac looking at me. I didn’t want to abandon them either, but what purpose did I have with them anyways? I had been unstable, as they could understand after reading what happened on Baer 18th, and I really hadn’t added to their well being in the time I’ve been with them... but I did worry for them. Would they be able to accomplish the task against the Gods? Would they be able to find others to help in their cause? Was there another way to thwart the Gods without the Sangrail? I lowered my eyes, not wanting to look at Isaac or Cortanna.
“We don’t blame you Araja,” Isaac said reaching up and placing his hand on my shoulder. I nodded to confirm I heard him.
Nothing more was said. We then adjourned the meeting and went out to eat breakfast with the first shift of townsfolk.
Isaac began to investigate about Rehm and the underdark that was created. We are told of a wizard named Melinda. With that we also were informed about an attack that happened last night. Apparently some Giants had come upon the settlement and threatened to return tonight. Of course we volunteered to investigate to see if we could negotiate peace with them. Peace I knew that wouldn’t be considered by the Giants.
We first went back to the hut to wait for Melinda. When she got there, she looked beyond irritable. Isaac got down to talking with her about Rehm and what we experienced there. He mentioned the animated chairs were unaffected by the antimagic field, to which Miranda became inconsolable. He master had gone into the depths of the well to create an anti magic field that he thought would prevent the animated objects. He hadn’t returned since.
I wanted to say something to comfort her, but what was there to say? ‘Sorry your master died in the acidic water after creating an anti magic field?’ It seemed like I’d only make it worse. Raæin laid down next to her and began whispering to her. Slowly Miranda stopped crying and before we knew it, she was asleep. Raæin was so much better at comforting people than I was. I envied his skill. Perhaps l needed to learn more from him...
While Miranda slept, Raæin keeping watch over her, we then went to a hut of someone who could speak Giant. Her name is Kedra and she’s a tiefling. She had a similar look to Isaac, but was a bit taller than him. She was eager to go with us and have an adventure. I liked her enthusiasm, though it was a bit nerving because she was also treating it as an experiment, an opportunity to make a study of the Giants.
A half hour later we reached the Giants and Kedra’s enthusiasm fled. I tried to console her to remind her of her excitement. I ended up pulling the ‘I’m Araja the Great! Have no fear’ card to which she calmed down and her enthusiasm doubled. I told her to tell the Giants ‘Hello.’ She ended up having a nice conversation with them, well beyond the word Hello. Long story short, there was miscommunication between the Giants and the villagers. The Giants were attacking banshees when the villagers attacked them. Though we offered to heal them, they were adamant about attacking again that night. So we ended up killing them all. Rather, Isaac dusted them all except the one Kedra managed to ‘kill’ by shooting it in the eye (to which the Giant tripped and face planted the arrow through his brain). That was when another level of enthusiasm Kedra had showed. She was too excited by her kill... I was already annoyed Isaac dusted the one I had knocked out, hoping our attack was enough to discourage him from wanting to attack the village, so I promptly marched back to the village angry with how Kedra and Isaac was treating the situation.
I hung out in the mud hut with Raæin and the sleeping witch. Isaac and Cortanna returned with Kedra an hour later. Kedra was begging to join the party when they entered the hut.
“Kedra, we just don’t know if we’ll need you!” Cortanna snapped. The tiefling then bit her lip and retreated back to her home. Eventually Isaac went after her while Cortanna fetched firewood for the night.
At dinner it appeared Isaac had conceded to let Kedra come. She was having great fun telling everyone about how she was going to travel with the Araja and her guards on their adventures. People seemed more relieved she was leaving than happy for her fortune. Now what will she do when she finds out I’m leaving?
While we ate, Miranda , who had woken in a far better mood than when we first met her, told us that she wanted to go to Rehm and find her master’s body from the underdark. She mentioned that the Gnomes had a contraption they called a submarine. It could go under water.
After eating, we went to chat with the Gnomes. They were willing to help and so the plan is to set out after breakfast in the morning. I would have decided not to go, to have concluded that today was my last day with Isaac and Cortanna, but if they were able to get to the bottom of the lake, I could get that dagger back!
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