[center][h2][b]Ophelia[/b][/h2][/center]

Ophelia smiled as Gerlinde took the gem and scurried off to apply it to her weapon, like watching a child get a new toy and immediately rush off to play with it. Of course, the circumstances were quite different here, with them, but... it warmed Ophelia's heart nevertheless. She listened to the Doll's translation for the Shopkeeper, nodding along and occasionally creasing her brows or pursing her lips in thought.

"Fortunately, Gerlinde taught us a rune that can ward against such influences--things like... Ashen Blood, but I think this 'Frenzy' might be covered too..." Ophelia opined, before kneeling down to beckon the little ones and asking them about the Deep Sea rune. At this time the whispers of her sword had reverberated through her mind enough for her to understand. 

"Mother Moon whispers, and it seems that it was Torquil himself that beckoned this thing here... though I suspect that is the False Paleblood. Strange things seem to happen whenever it's Farren or Torquil who enter--it seemed to mostly be relegated to changes in the weather, but... if the Old Blood is the fundamentally a source of change, as you say, this purloined power might spill over into here. I wonder if the Gods experience their own sorts of Frenzy, what the mutable power of change and their own immense wisdom might do if turned against them? I also wondered if it had something to do with the Lord of Providence, but the whispers think not. Every answer we get seems to spawn two more questions, and we have to suffer through unreliable information from sources with differing agendas to our own to even answer those questions!" Ophelia added, and something about her words and tone and stance was very tense. Though calm, this development worried her--and was starting to push her towards something she'd been hoping to avoid.

"I... think I have to commune with Ego. Embrace this gold for myself, and learn of it. The terrestrial concerns are growing but there are good people out there who can manage those. I fear it falls to us to deal with the burden of Gold, for who else is equipped? I must know what he wants--what his vision of the correct change to come out of the Old Blood is, what his idea of worthiness is. Heh, it sounds ridiculous even as I try to justify it, but I fear that without knowing who our enemy is and what they really want we will keep fumbling in the dark like blind fools. Ignorant to our own ignorance..." She mused aloud, clearly very much wrapped up in her head about trying to keep all of the new information they'd learned present and relevant. There was an edge of anxiety to her tone towards the end, though perhaps it was more akin to fevered delirium.