Lily's words stung him, he wasn't stupid, was he? For a second he faltered and another second and another, until he felt sapped. Leaving the battle stance, he slipped his blade into it's sheath and walked off, defeated, back to the fire where he sat and stared blankly at the flame, adjusting his scarf occasionally.

Eranah saw and felt the pain the young man was feeling. It was a dull thing, not as stinging as sorrow but it was pain all the same. Moving to sit next to him she spoke to him. "While we may have disagreed I did not think your actions were dumb. I myself am grappling with my own feelings about what he has done and what may be for the best. What you did was brave and righteous. You stood up for your beliefs, it is a very admirable thing. Even if others disagree. In fact, while most paladins would not agree with your actions, they would most certainly respect them." Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. As it was now she used every ounce of charisma she had to make sure her true words would reach him and the full impact of them would be felt. Hopefully a showing of respect and caring would aid him in at least some small way.

"thank you," Vis mumbled, adjusting his scarf as he did, "buth I do noth think the otherth will thake make acthions too kindly." He pulled his bag towards him and stuck his hand in, rummaging around for something until he found it. The furry ears of the teddy bear greeted his finger tips and he stoked them gently, his hand still in the bag as he did. He looked to his shoulder to find the Deva's hand still there, turning his scarfed face to her he asked, "I never got your name?"

"Eranah, and I wouldn't put too much stock in the opinions of people you have only just met. There will be many opportunities to revise any first impression you gave. Though many will respect the fact you did not simply sacrifice your morals because it went against the will of others. Once tensions have calmed those who may have harsh words now will likely soften them upon reflection. Many are angry now, their words tainted by their feelings. None of it aimed at you." She replied, sitting close enough that the conversation could be relatively private while at the same time being respectful of any space he may want. Her hand not leaving his shoulder. "So do not take their words to heart, as they were spoken in anger. We are often our worst selves in that state."

"you are righth," he mumbled, "I should noth thake it theriously," he knew he shouldn't have taken it seriously but he did, he'd already taken it to heart. "Buth I do." he mumbled. Pulling his rapier out Vis poked at the fire, shifting a side dead fuel and embers so the rest of the fire could get air, soon it was roaring again as opposed to merely crackling. The Deva's hand on his shoulder was comforting, he felt a little less tense at her side. Reaching for his scarf he adjusted it, making sure it wouldn't fall off, what had been a necessity had become a habit.

"That's only natural, and there is no shame in taking harsh words to heart even as you know you shouldn't. I've seen many strong men and women do the same. The trick is to remember that you shouldn't. If you do it will pass in time." She continued to council, feeling him begin to relax somewhat as the continued. It was always nice to be of use this way she felt.

Markul had sat silently through the events, it was terrible what Larris had done, and Markul did not agree with his actions. He would have rather died defending those he was in charge of off and honestly considered Larris a coward for not doing so. Yet he had been taught to think before he acted, and the situation seemed to diffuse. He stood to speak, "I can't say I condone Larris;s actions, in fact to me it seems cruel and cowardly, and I think Larris should have been the first to die that day. Not because of his actions but because it was his charge to protect those people with his life." he sighed, "But I don't know what was going through his head that day because I'm not him. I won't pretend I can ignore he did what he did, but I won't kill him." he ended glaring at Larris.

Reaching for his book that he had left on the floor, he picked it up and opened it on a random page. He began reading, mumbling the difficult words but enjoying Eranah's company, occasionally pointing out pictures or difficult words. Vis tried to not concentrate on the the issue of Larris, blocking out talk of him no matter how much it made him disappointed in himself.

Eranah decided the best thing to do was to aid him in his reading. Helping him to pronounce the pointed out words or give their meaning. She was incredibly educated herself, so the reading was not the most challenging of pieces for her. Some pictures might bring a brief flash of recognition from a past life. A similar landscape or scenario. "Are you self-taught?" She asked simply and without judgment as he continued.

The undead warrior reeled backward under the strike of Torm's holy power, and turned to flee under the weight of the power, sprinting across the shore of the lake away from the group. Lily broke into a sprint after him. "Leave him to me!" She shouted over her shoulder as she ran, then focused on the sprint. As they left the campsite behind them Larris turned. "You won't escape me, Fallen! Face justice for your crimes!" Something seemed to snap behind his eyes, and the blade was swept from its sheath as Vis moved aside. Paladin and Fallen closed on each other, and with a two-handed overhand strike from Lily battle was joined. The dead warrior shifted aside, Lily's blade glancing off the shoulder of his armor, and he returned with a thrust from his own blade, aimed to pierce the underside of Lily's pauldron. She twisted as the strike came, closing her arm and trapping the blade between arm and side. He snarled in rage, and before she could take advantage of his position planted a boot into her chest and shoved, his unnatural strength dropping her onto her back. Before she could roll upright he was on her, a barrage of downward strikes, each narrowly knocked aside by her blade, until she slipped her leg behind his and tugged, sending him sprawling to the ground. She didn't waste the opportunity, rolling on top of him and slamming the hilt of her sword into his helm, the heavy wheel of metal denting the faceplate, constricting his vision. Larris let out a primal howl of rage, slamming his fist into her chest before twisting and flinging her off, his strength sending her skidding across the soft earth, leaving a furrow in the soil. He grabbed his helm and yanked it off, showing his decayed face. His eyes scanned the landscape for a moment, then found Lily, rising to one knee, sword grasped in both hands. He didn't speak, just rushed at her. She shifted her grip, grabbing her sword by the blade about half-way up with one hand, her other remaining on the hilt, and thrust forward as he approached, driving it into a gap on his greaves and pushing upwards, through the leg and into his gut. The Death Knight let out a grunt of pain or anger, as his own strike came down, smashing into her helm and slamming her to the ground, her sword still embedded in his flesh. There was a long, deep gouge in her helm, and it seemed to have been knocked to the side, blinding her. The Fallen dropped atop her and raised his blade for a finishing blow, only for her left hand to snap up across his face, healing magic surging into his undead flesh. The flesh sizzled and popped, smoke rising from the wound, and he reeled backwards, letting out a primal howl of anguish, holding his smoking face and blind eyes. She rose, casting off her own helmet, and grasped her sword, tearing it out of him and raising it to her shoulder. "May Ilmater have mercy on you." Her blade shone with a pale light and she swung, fire bursting around the blade as it cleaved through his neck, radiant, white light shining in the blade's wake as she Smited the fallen warrior, the holy light and steel together severing his neck. His head fell to the ground, and his flesh rapidly decayed to dust scattered by the breeze off the shore, leaving only bones. Lily knelt beside the body, clasping her hands together in prayer. A few minutes later she returned to the camp, her helm once again slung over her shoulder. A deep, ugly bruise was forming across her forehead going behind her hairline, a trickle of blood running down her neck. "It's done."

"I'm thelf theaching at the moment," he mumbled, ignoring his lisp as he tried to wrap his tongue around a difficult word, "I'm thorry if my athempt at reading ith boring you." He was aware that he was horribly slow when it cane to literacy but he was trying and that counted for something, *righ?* When Lily came back, Vis pretended as if she hadn't and when she said the job was done, his fingers gripped the pages of the book, creasing the paper.

" It's better this way, now justice has been served for those he killed and we can see if there's still hope for the people of Falconrest, we'll see to the rituals of cleansing before we depart this morning." Korick said it Lily, " I know serving justice can be a grim thing, even more so here in the wilds, but it's no less necessary. You're father'd be proud." With that Korick began searching his pack and drew forth a piece of parchment bearing a map he had drawn of the High Moors south of their position. "Settle in and let me explain the situation. To the south, it's a one days hike to Falconrest, less if we make it a hard march. It's a quite town, the like you see around here. When I visited them they seemed perfectly friendly, had no problem letting me stay in their town, they even let the kids play with Beth here, a people thoroughly without fear in the meekest way possible. A puzzle, one solved by what I saw just outside the outskirts. Fiends, protecting the town, since I sent the letters I've also seen them stop a bullette that was heading straight for the town. Despite this in my conversations the people seemed totally unaware of the fiends defending them, when I asked them about how they manage to stay so peaceful most of them believe that they the town was merely blessed. Also as far as I could tell the fiends never tried to stop me when I went in and out of town, so I believe that we will be alright if we investigate. That's the basics of the situation, what else do you need to know?"

Lily approached the seated Elf. "I'm sorry for that. You acted with good intent, and I wish that your instinct had been the right one, truly I do. You have courage." She turned away. She doubted he wanted to see her much right now, and she couldn't really blame him. Lily focused her attention upon Korick. "I can't think of any questions. We should get moving as quickly as possible, if we get moving now we can probably make the town by nightfall. I'd prefer not to travel on the High Moor by night, no sense in taking needless risks."

"It doesn't bore me at all. I have helped many with just such a thing. Reading is a very useful skill, and self-teaching to this level is very good. I've known many older than you who couldn't read a word of any language, even those who could speak three or more but couldn't read any. In fact, some of the smartest and wisest people I've met were illiterate." She replied wit a smile, using her hands to lightly open his own, attempting to gently get him to relax. "I can certainly pull some memories of stories I've read and transcribe them for you should you complete that reading." She said, deciding it might help him relax if she began to draw. Eranah pulled out her drawing tools and paper and began to draw the place of her 'brith' from memory. It had been a small temple in the heart of a truly ailing town, a place where many of Ilmater's faithful congregated to receive his blessing and aid. The priests had helped many but plenty of people always arrived to make sure their work was never truly done. The angelic and holy motifs showing through as the work almost seemed to contain a bit of the holy energy and feel of the place. With multiple Deva and angels around as every person who was obviously suffering held a look of peace in their eyes.

Markul nodded, "It would be prudent to leave as soon as we can, like the paladin I like to avoid unnecessary complications." he nodded approvingly at the shift of form done by Lamont, "Well, that is a useful ability to have. And now we don't have to send a hunting party for food." he took out a small note book and a piece of charcoal, scribbling down some notes.

There was howling in the distance, muffled words and then silence. The worst had come to pass. The party had been reduced in size by one, the undead given rest. Things were calming down around the camp fire, the Cleric was tending to the emotional needs of Vis, as was her duty. but the atmosphere was still tense. The Paladin returned and seemed eager to leave this behind her. Her injuries were superficial, and the pain in her face and her pride as a Paladin made Batche feel like she shouldn't push her luck, if Lily wanted medicine, she would ask. Mister Korick invited questions, few had them. It was hard to tell if it was because we knew so little about what was about to happen or because we didn't want the answers to the questions we did have, not after what just happened. The silence was keeping Batche safe, for now, but wouldn't help her much in the future and honestly didn't have much to ask either. She look down at her fingers and delicately cleaned them, _what would she usually do in a situation like this?_ Usually she'd be chipper and upbeat, chat and gossip about essentially trivial things, about the people and events du jour. And she'd play the harp for the clients, if she hadn't much to say to them. Would a song soothe the Paladin's residual rage? "_Be still, my soul: Ilmater is by thy side,_ _bear patiently the pangs of grief or pain,_ _leave to thy God to order and provide_ _in every change the faithful will remain._ _Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend_ _through thorny ways leads to a righteous end._"

Korick sat in silence as he listened to Batche's song, he could even see Beth's ears twitch and she shifted to hear it better. " Don't believe I've every heard a golem sing before," Korick mused calmly, before returning his attention to the matter at hand, " Uhm, yes, well I thought most of you would like to rest a night after your travels, but if you're eager to get going then we will leave as soon as my friend Alden brings comes with the supplies. Mostly camping supplies, Falconrest lacks an inn so we'll be making our own encampment, but also a few trade goods so that we can use the pretense of trade to keep people from getting overly suspicious about our visit."

"Korick, our party contains me, a celestial being, a bear, and a golem. I don't think pretending we're at the isolated settlement to trade will do us much good. And if there is some kind of Fiend-serving presence here...well, if I don't draw their notice Eranah will." She went to Arafaer and began unloading various supplies from the saddlebags - mostly food and water - and placing them into her own pack. She tugged off one gauntlet and began stroking Arafaer's mane, the horse beginning to idly nibble on the hem of her cloak. "Quit it, you ridiculous animal." She half turned. "I'm not saying we kick in the doors, swords in hand, demanding answers. But I wouldn't expect the story about being there to trade to get much if any traction."

"Our armed nature won't tip them off, the people of Falconrest are aware of the violence of the greater area of the moors, I've seen many merchant caravan's that travel here that look more like military formations. As for being with a Golem and a Deva, I'm not saying we'll avoid all suspicion or attention but if the cult members amongst the townfolk think we are on to them as soon as we get there they'll go to ground and we'll have no leads. If they think we're merely a few odd traders then they'll try to keep a pretense of everything being normal, in the hope that we'll go our merry way and tell everyone Falconrest is nothing but a sleepy hamlet." Korick replied, " I'm not saying it's a brilliant ruse, but we need the supplies to make camp anyways and if bringing a few extra casks of salted pork and ale will help our cause then it's a worthy inconvenience. That said the people of Falconrest did strike me as a bit naive during my last visit."