Michellin

Wanderers

Kire listened as he explained how the Ziadi have come to worship this goddess. "Makes sense, I suppose, given the desert." It still boggled her mind how Ruli could have seen an actual goddess. "Hopefully this goddess's religion doesn't require human sacrifice if Amrians differently pick up on it," Kire said, even as she knew their luck wouldn't give them a better alternative, anyway. Which brought her to another tricky question: what should she do with a new religion cropping up in Amria, if that indeed came to pass?

Lost in thought, she was startled out of it when Ruli called her name. She paused, looking at him as he explained which of the Moon God's descendants had turned traitor and switched allegiances. "...shit." Kire pursed her lips as they continued down stairs. No wonder he never worshipped the goddess. "The poison..." she murmured, frowning. "Let's hope that's the only thing of theirs that had made it to Amria then." She glanced at him. "Do you think you being--having their blood has anything to do with your seeing the goddess in the vision?" she asked as they made their way towards the elders' homes.

Wanderers

Kire rolled her eyes at Ruli’s quip, while Gavin snickered in response. When Ruli gave his instructions, Gavin nodded as he walked alongside the two of them. “Hired? You mean, we get paid for this? How much?” he asked.
“We’ll draw up a contract later,” Kire said, grinning at the look on Gavin’s face.
“Alright. Supply list, tell Envy, bribe the old man with a lady,” the lad said, nodding again before he went off to tell the Kartaian,

Kire nodded when Ruli explained where they were going. “Has Ziad always worshipped the goddess? Do they know about that story you told me, the one about the Moon God and his children?” She paused, remembering how they had met, how he had reacted to her damaging the temple. “Did you ever worship at the temple?”

Wanderers

Kire snorted when Ysaryn pointed out that she was insulted by Ed throwing their match. This really was a case of how different their two worlds were. Both were operating on their own sense of rightness from the situation. Ed would have to get over his idea of what was ‘proper’, in this case. She nodded at Ysaryn’s demand that she keep this conversation from Ed. She assumed as much. She would have to trust that her older cousin would know what he’s doing.

When Ruli joined them later and then asked the question, Kire paused, trying to hold the image in her mind as best she could. “I saw it. Gold and green. But it was so fleeting…there was a sandstorm, and there was no trace of it when I saw the temple. I saw no goddess at the temple itself but…somehow, I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.” She frowned. “Although, dragons were also associated with the sun. I don’t know if that means anything here.” She started eating along with Daryll, who kept quiet, looking like he was still mulling his vision over.

After they’d eaten, Ruli brought them back to the Tower to drop Daryll off before heading to Úvano. Kire was glad to be away from the heat, though the sudden shifts of temperature made her shiver. Gavin was the first to greet them, though he looked rather worn when he did. “Alright, who do I blame for the rough sparring match I got today?” he said, before his eyes went to Ysaryn, and his shoulders sagged. “Ah. Yeah. Don’t answer that, I think I know. You lot back for business or whatever the hells it is you two have been doing,” he asked, looking at Kire and Ruli.

"You've gotten quite a lip on you lately, haven't you?" Kire commented, though more amused than annoyed. "Business, though, to answer your question."

Wanderers

Kire almost laughed when Ysaryn told her not to marry Hans. "Oh, we have no problems there. If I'm marrying anybody, he would not be the one on my list of possibilities at all," she said, smirking for a moment. "I don't know what they mean either, but I'm inclined to agree. None of them are comforting at all." She pursed her lips. "Can't I get a nice, cheerful prophecy, for once?"

As she sank back into contemplative silence, she glanced at Ysaryn, wondering if she should pry about her and Ed. "I hope you don't mind my asking but...Ed told me what happened. Will your father put up more resistance, or openly challenge him?"

Not long later, Daryll returned, followed by someone bringing along plates of beef stew. "Myka's gone ahead. I think she just wants to avoid doing the archival work," he said, amused as he started on his own meal.

Wanderers

Kire's hand closed into a fist as Ysaryn spoke. Even before she gave more details, the moment Ysaryn mentioned Ulrich's sons, Kire knew. "Hans," she murmured, lip curling. Though they couldn't be sure what their visions mean at this point, somehow Kire didn't doubt this revelation. "I knew there was a good reason I kept him out of the council."

She was quiet for a few moments. This would potentially complicate matters with Jan's marriage. It would mean more contracts, more negotiations. Would I need to postpone my abdication? Already, Kire felt weary from the thought. Gods, she hoped not.

"He will not be emperor," Kire said after a while. "I will make sure of it."

Wanderers

Kire knew neither of them would have backed down. She nodded, watching Ruli walk away, though she remained seated, looking at the worn stone idol. A goddess, he said. Kire frowned. Why do gods find amusement in toying with us? But she was pulled from her thoughts by Yaaryn. She looked up, curious, growing more so as she saw the elf see if Ruli was out of earshot.

An emperor? Kire sat up straighter. "Hurt him how?" Kire frowned at her. "Who is this Chief you saw? What else did your vision show you?"

Wanderers

It was plain enough on Ruli’s face that he didn’t want to go back. Kire didn’t blame him. She frowned when Ruli and Ysaryn pointed out the differences between their worlds, though as Ruli himself also said, if the poison and their language made it to Amria, there would be other things that might have slipped through.

Myka shook her head. “If I had seen anything else, I have forgotten it. Which doesn’t surprise me; already it’s starting to feel too vague. I was holding a sword while trudging through the sand, but that’s the only other detail.”

“Could be just that you already manifest magic. If this place is a—a hotspot of some sort for magic, stands to reason that those who already use it or have ties with it would be susceptible.”
“I don’t,” Myka said, frowning. “The few others from the town who have seen the desert seem ordinary.”
“For now,” Kire murmured, fingers steepled as she frowned in thought at the question of manifests. “There should be several. We lost some of our books and documents during the siege, but there should be copies of most of them. Others would be kept in the capital of each province; every major house should have records of those who consider them liege-lords. We can check our own archives and those of this territories’ major families.” If only this research was as entertaining as the one she and Ruli had done in bed, but Kire knew there was no such luck with that. “Gods, this heat is going to melt me.”

“We should probably take a quick rest, then divide and conquer. I assume you will handle the investigation into the goddess?” Daryll asked, meaning Kire, Ruli, and Ysaryn. “I can get started on the manifests. What will you be doing?” he asked Myka, who wrinkled her nose at the idea of poring over records of royal bloodlines.
“Think I’ll stay here in camp and interrogate the townsfolk some more. And send word back to the Wenches to keep an eye out for more of these ‘hotspots’. What do you think?”
Kire nodded. “Sounds good.”
Daryll nodded, before excusing himself to find someone who could either provide them or point them to a meal. Myka, too, left to hunt down her messenger. Kire turned to the other two. “Still keen on giving a hand?” she asked.

Wanderers

Kire inhaled sharply as she looked at Ruli. Back to Ziad. She hadn’t gone back there since they had killed the Kartaian scouts sent to capture her. “Are you sure?” she asked him. She almost said he didn’t have to, that she could investigate the temple by herself, though she could also guess what he would say to that. “We can talk to the Ziadi and Envy first. Investigate the temple in the morning.”

“Well, dragons kinda make sense when these two are concerned, right?” Myka said, pointing her thumb at Kire and Daryll. “Dragons are the closest thing to gods, and the Emperor is the god’s avatar on earth before the crown and the church parted ways at some point.”
Daryll opened his mouth, then nodded. “Didn’t expect the pirate to say that, if I’m being honest,” he said.
Myka snorted at that. “I was a mercenary hired by lords, and then I became a pirate, remember? You pick up a lot of stuff along the way in my many job descriptions.”

“Valid point.” Daryll took the statuette, observing it. “How did this come here? Through Off-worlders, most likely?” He wondered aloud. “We share a language, and now there’s traces of this goddess here. Could be that our two worlds have been interacting with one another for ages.” He paused, thinking it over. “Wonder if any of the people who had the visions have Off-worlder blood in them? Might be a way to look at their lineages. Or descended from notable Amrian families with ties to old magic, like ours or the Gemini. I could look into that while you look into this goddess business back in Ziad.”

Wanderers

Daryll looked immediately disappointed when Ruli said it wasn't the same woman. Myka, meanwhile, shrugged. "It feels like a dream. I can remember seeing it, but the feeling feels vague now," she replied. Kire watched Ruli, frowning when he said his visions were slipping away, wondering what else he had seen that was now fading from his mind.
Until he stopped and looked at the stone figure.

A goddess.
The Amrians looked his way. Kire pursed her lips. "Fuck." Gods-be-damned twice over.
Myka looked at Kire, anxious, before glancing at Ruli. "Is-is she, err...a benevolent goddess?"
Kire frowned. "Which goddess?" she asked Ruli. "You told me about one goddess in your world. Solaralai, was it? If that's her, then, Myka, the answer to your question is 'no'."

She leaned back on her chair, arms crossed. "Hopefully it's somebody else. Gods, really?" She asked, looking up and frowning. "That's what They're sending me against?"

"Well, we don't know yet if that's what you're supposed to do," Daryll put in. "We at least should learn more about this goddess, and these visions. Why we saw what we saw--or, maybe why it's us who saw it. From the reports, most of the people here saw the desert but none of the other things."

"So. Find out more about this goddess, and find out who that woman was in Daryll's vision?" Myka asked. Kire nodded.

Wanderers

Kire toyed with the statuette as she listened to Ruli and Ysaryn. While the majority of them saw sand, possibly the same desert that surrounded Ziad, none of their visions were identical. She furrowed her brow at Ysaryn when she described what she saw. A jungle, with Shadow elves and Amrians? None of this was making sense. She didn’t speak just yet, letting them process this, hoping some other prominent detail would emerge that would tie all their visions together.

When Ruli asked him to describe the woman, Daryll leaned his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. “She was small of stature. Brown hair, brown eyes. She was wearing a dress—blue and green, with white and red roses on it. She looked—afraid.” He glanced at Ruli. “Did you see the woman, too?”

Something about the description made Kire’s brain itch. Where had she seen something like the dress before? Besides the heat getting to her, the vagueness of it all didn’t improve her temper. All the other things she had done at the behest of the Seer—save a world from a dragon, hunt down a murderous, deranged blood mage—these at least gave her a target, a concrete goal to accomplish. How was she supposed to do something when she didn’t even know what, exactly, the problem was? “I guess we’ll really need those wards around the Palace, huh,” she commented with a huff, looking at Ruli.