Location: Lakeside outside of town → Eastern gates → Aelios’ Temple
The two traveled together along the lake’s edge, retracing the path Céline had taken from the temple. Nature had deemed her earlier footsteps too unnatural for the snowscape, opting to erase them with powerful gusts of wind. Now she had returned to double, if not triple nature’s workload with her new companion beside her, all the while engaging in pleasant conversation beside. Céline’s interaction with Ivor was not unlike other Lunarian tribals she had encountered during her travels. Though most Aurelians considered people like him gruff and barbaric, really they were just misinterpreting pride and survivalism. They too held an innate curiosity, which showed in spades as the giant blightborn barraged her with a tirade of endless questions, she was only happy to answer. The man asked, listened intently and tried to understand as he made brief comparisons between her profession and his experiences with local druids.
“So you’re saying that if Ivor breaks man’s arm, you can fix it and not even using any of the spellings?”Céline suppressed the urge to look shocked and smiled instead,
“Well, it requires a bit more time and effort than that..I can’t exactly mend bone with the snap of a finger,” she demonstrated as the snap reverberated in the air, the only sound to accompany their conversation and the crunching snow beneath them,
“but it’s amazing what the human body is capable. My mentor always believed that given enough time and with the correct treatments, anyone is capable of recovering from even the most serious trauma or disease.”The giant smiled down at her,
“Your mentor seems like good person, raised a good dock-tor.”Céline’s head lowered as they walked,
“He was…he died a long time ago, long before the blight ever wreaked havoc…” She was grateful that he was not here to witness the ravaged world, to run himself ragged as she had… Still there was a part that longed for him to be here,
“I still wonder, if he were alive today, if he wouldn’t have figured out a cure by now, if maybe..Ivor?” The crunching snow had diluted down to one set of feet, and as Céline turned to understand why, she saw the man staring out into the distance.
“What is it?” She asked, doubling back slightly.
“Boirds…” he responded, eyes narrowed, Céline’s gaze matched his own as she saw a small flock of birds scattering from the treeline.
“Something…wrong…out there.”The two had taken a few moments to stay and observe, after some time though Céline managed to convince Ivor to continue walking with her. Animals scatter when they get spooked, that’s not unusual and while the proximity is alarmingly close to the town, there’s no way the two of them would be able to get close enough quickly to investigate. On top of all that, there was a whole town between them and the birds that could respond faster to the situation. Erring on the side of caution, however, she figured it couldn’t hurt to gather her medical bag at the temple before heading into town and being introduced to the prince.
The two had passed the eastern gate and were on approach to the temple when a sharp pain suddenly spiked in Céline’s head, her legs giving out beneath her. Her mind was flooded with vivid images and sensations; of darkness, anguish, pain, fear and death. This deluge of memories was not her own, but her power made her experience it just as intimately. Céline saw a darkened path, tattered cloth, corpses beneath tree, the fear in the other woman’s eyes as she could only watch Céline crawl helplessly through the miasma laden ground,
“live..” she spoke? No, this wasn’t her, this voice was not her own, this trauma was not her own. In the back of her mind she heard a voice, was it praying? She felt her life wane and ebb, a sensation she did not want to relive; yet another voice brought her back from the brink.
As the light and life faded, she was quickly brought back to the darkness of reality,
“Miss Sealing! Are you alright?!” Céline’s head hurt, Ivor’s booming voice was only adding to her pain and sudden nausea,
“Ivor, yes, I’m alright, please lower your voice…” the woman rubbed at her aching skull,
“What happened? Where are we?”“I do not know, we were walking together, then you were not. You fell down and Ivor tried to wake you up, when I could not do this, Ivor picked you up again and kept walking.”“You picked me up again?” Céline looked down now realizing the weightlessness she felt as she was being carried in the bulging arms of this blightborn. The rest of her body was propped up against his frame, or rather his latest catch.
“I- thank you…Ivor, please put me down, I think I can walk from here.” She asked quickly, coming to the conclusion as to why one cheek felt so wet.
Ivor stopped, then helped lower Céline down to the ground, standing by ready to catch her uneasy form.
“What has happened to you Miss sea- Celleen.”Céline momentarily propped herself against a tree to get her bearings,
“I’m not really sure myself,” she wiped away the dampness on her face and rubbed at her eyes, finding there were tears there too; had she been crying? As she recalled the memories that flooded her mind, the intensity of it all. There had only been a handful of times she had this experience, so there wasn’t much to compare it with, but this by far had elicited the strongest physical reaction from her.
“For a brief moment I was someone else.”“But how can Miss Celling be anyone else but Miss Celling?” Ivor asked with a rather perplexed look on his face.
Céline shook her head,
“I wish I could explain it better, it’s just something I’ve been able to do since I turned into…this” She felt light-headed, the blightborn was already hungry before arriving to town and while the brief emotions Tingara experienced around her kept the woman from starving, it didn’t improve her condition either. At least this time, she could take solace that she didn’t empty the contents of her stomach in front of her new acquaintance.
“Come on, the temple isn’t much farther now, it’ll be better if I rest there than out here.” Breathing heavily, Céline pushed herself off the tree and started trudging forward; she almost lost her footing, but was able to quickly regain her balance. Taking one more deep breath she pressed onward, Ivor watching all the while to make sure she had herself before following behind.
It wasn’t much longer before they arrived at Aelios’ temple, and as they approached the main doors, Ivor stopped leaving Céline to approach on her own. Once she realized he had stopped, Céline turned towards him perplexed,
“aren’t you coming inside?”Ivor looked concerned at the doors,
“I have..never been inside a temple.”“Really now?” Céline asked, surprised,
“I’d have thought that you had lived here longer than I, that you’d have at least visited once,” though perhaps that was a bit insensitive, Ivor is a Lunarian, so perhaps he worshiped Selune and felt he didn’t belong here.
Ivor shook his head,
“Temple only finished not long ago, Ivor had no reason to come before.”“This feels like a better reason than any, my friend, though…perhaps you want to leave your fish outside, they might not find it appropriate inside.” She looked sheepishly at him.
Ivor looked down at the draped cloak of fish around him,
“Eh, perhaps you are right, though temples take offerings, perhaps they will take one fish,” Ivor smiled,
“gods need to feast too, yes? People will have plenty of fish, they won’t miss one little baby fish.” Ivor went to work burying his bountiful catch in the snow, keeping at least one in his hands that had a glowing purple and blue hue,
“Gods also like pretty things too, yes? This is why your priests are always in the gold?”“Haha, no no, they’re not my priests,” Céline chuckled,
“but Aelios does seem to like embodying the golden hues of the sun,” she stared at the odd colored fish in his hands,
“it might not be sunlike, but I think she’ll accept your offering all the same.”Once the giant was beside her, the two opened the front doors together and stepped inside, quickly closing them once inside. They were greeted by the brazier of Aelios’ eternal flame, the promise of her hope and the reality of her warmth and embrace. In front of the flame were two darkened silhouettes of people, perhaps it was Tingara or some other worshippers. Not wanting to be disrespectful and disturb their potential worship, she looked to Ivor and urged him to remain quiet once they began to move forward. As they approached closer to the brazier and altar, Céline realized that neither of the individuals was Tingara, though one certainly seemed dressed in a priestess’ attire, the other looked dressed for combat. Once close enough Céline realized they weren’t praying, and thus felt compelled to speak,
“Hello, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m just here to collect my things and my friend has an offering he’d like to present to the goddess.”Once close enough that their faces came into view, Céline asked,
“Is priestess Tingara here, she can vouch for my-” the blightborn woman stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening and her blood running colder than before. She recognized these people, or at the very least the woman in the armor. While the other woman in priestess garbs bore the same face, Céline couldn’t forget the horrified face that had burned itself into her mind just mere moments before,
“I- I saw you…” was all she could mutter.
Interacting with: Ranni & Dyna @Queen Arya 
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