Berra — Quest Of Eril 03
1627, Sea Season, Harmony Week
Context
Sea Season, Harmony Week, directly after the previous log. [[[s02:session-32|Session 32]]]
Mild spoilers.
Events
Berra has been careful not to put Suuraki and Valseena on watch together, but to let them ride at least some of the time so they can talk, resting them for the day-watching so they can always be together. Now, as Suuraki’s llama strides across the landscape, the little bison-riding warrior trots up alongside. Once she has the bison going at about the right speed, she stands on its saddle so that she can talk. Her balance is good, even on the moving platform. “Hello,” she says, a trade-talk greeting that they can both manage.
Suuraki nods. “Hail.”1A pass on Insight (Human), asked for by Berra.
“How are you? All well?” She rides the line a lot, checking on the group, but this time she has something more on her mind.
“I am well enough. I wonder what our travels will bring.”
“Horses, flat grass, Lunar Bastards,” she replies. “Hills and trees. And the Glow Line, probably.”
“And there is the new God.”
“Yeah. That’s a problem too. But not one for me. I just kill things.”
“is it a problem? Your companion is its chosen, it would seem.”
“That’s a big damned problem, yes,” Berra replies. “It’s bad, not good.”
“Surely an honour to be chosen by a God. It is not a god of Chaos.”
Berra thinks through her answer. “Not if it’s the wrong god for you. If someone took you from Waha’s path, would you complain?”
Suuraki ponders for a while. “I do not think I would wander lightly. But we go where our fate and our will takes us. And Waha has not made any displeasure plain to me.”
“Yeah. But you’re not the one that a goddess is trying to choose, and you’re not Orlanthi.” Berra shrugs, making the gesture big so that it shows up to someone on a High Llama. “I have a favour to ask.”
“Ask, then.”
“I would like your support in a Heroquest. If you would like to know more, I must ask you not to tell of the contents of… of what we talk of. It is a secret that can help fight the Lunars.”
“This is no favour at all, but merely a fitting task. Should I keep this knowledge from my prayers to Waha also?”
“What I tell of, yes please. The Lunars must not know. The danger to you is small, if you care, but I think you are a warrior and do not care.”
“I am only a hunter, not a warrior, but this is Prax and danger is always with us. I will not tell your secrets. When do we begin?”
“I talk to you now. In Fire Season, probably, we perform it. My Lord Eril is a living Hero. He is worthy of worship, and can grant the powers of his god.” She seems oddly calm about the fact that a part of a god walks and she talks to him.
“I see. What must I do?”
“When he was young, he did a Hero thing. He made a story that can be remade. To bring his community together, he needs a Wyter to live in the sword I brought him. For that, I need to dance in his steps. He needs to escape being hunted. And you’re a hunter, which is sort of better than a warrior, and sort of not.”
“I see. So I must hunt him, and well, so that the tale is strong, but not succeed?”
Berra nods. “Either before he… well, yes. Probably to make him run in the early part and get me onto the path, but maybe to hunt me through wilderness that will appear later.”
“I can attempt this thing. I cannot guarantee that I will not catch him, I have never Quested before, but our shamans tell us it is easy to get carried along.”
“It’s like Initiation or sacred dances, when you see the other side, but also not,” Berra says. “We’ll practice the things before, if we can do it safely. Better I fail and die, than that his secret is out.”
“I see. Well I will lend my aid.”
Berra bows her head. “Thank you. It will make him stronger, and make Boldhome and Sartar stronger.” She drops back down to her saddle after giving him a lazy salute, still perfectly balanced. Even on a plodding animal, her stocky limbs are graceful.
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Berra asks Suuraki to help her in a heroquest
- 1A pass on Insight (Human), asked for by Berra.
