Berra — Duck Without Vithe
????, Fire Season
Context
In the Temple of Humakt, Fire Season, 1626 [[[s01:session-33|Session 33]]]
Questions to Duck
“Are the Lismeldans under the protection of Duck Point?”
“What should I be wary of if I become Ginna Jar?”
“Are you free to hear my report on the past couple of days?”
1) Yeth. And vithe vertha
2) I dont know
3) Yeth
“I don’t know what that last bit means.”
“What would you be wary of, if you were Ginna Jar?”
“If I take long enough, can I avoid meditating?”
“…You were at the Temple. I was at the White Grape. Xenofos approached me and asked when I had last seen Varanis. I hadn’t since he had. It was over a day, so we checked in her room and the stables. Her horse was there. Her room was a mess. I… I started panicking a bit, to be honest. I didn’t think she was hurt but I was scared she was. My head wasn’t too clear. That’s a weakness, and I’ll find a way to deal with it. Xenofos had asked at the Temple of Ernalda and the Temple of Vinga already. Varanis sometimes goes to see Kalis, I think. But she wasn’t in those, and if she was in the Palace we didn’t look because we… well, Xenofos said if she was there and being held we’d find out at their leisure, and we didn’t… I didn’t… want to tell anyone else she was missing. So she was probably at the Flame of Sartar, but she might have been looking over it from the top of the amphitheatre saddle, too. So I went that way with my horse and showed Xenofos the side stair up to the Flame. I hadn’t known… wait, you know about what Varanis swore and how, right? I mean, um… without assuming…. do you know what Varanis swore and how?”
1) Yeth
“Right. So… I hadn’t known the stair to the palace was there, until I saw the Flame. Maybe it was different because it was a pilgrim’s way. I don’t know. I sort of expected it not to be there when I went there without her. But it was. I couldn’t see Kal… uh, Varanis. At the amphitheatre. So I went to the stair and climbed that, and my horse went back to the inn. I’d decided I didn’t care about the risk of him being stolen, and I just left him there, but it wasn’t far to go back. She was up there. In a trance. She was mostly kneeling, facing East, but sometimes she got up and talked to the Flame, and touched the brazier. She was talking in Storm Speech, I think, but I didn’t understand it. That went on for about a day. I went down once, and left a message saying she was well, but not where, and then went back up again. And at dawn the day after we got there, she collapsed, coming back to this world. And then we gave her water, and she woke.”
“She described her vision. Xenofos wrote it down, in case we didn’t remember and it fled from her. She talked of it being cold and dark. She thought she was in the underworld. She had been there for some time and then there was a god who was a fire, and she – she thinks she was …. no, I’ll not put thinking in the report. Sorry. A god visited, and left a spark in her hands, and left, and she kept the spark warm, and protected it. The god came and went for a long time, and then there were her God and Goddess there.”
Berra gives a slightly awed look at someone who defended Whitewall.
“And then they returned in triumph to the surfa… no, she said they left in triumph. And then there was more time. She was looking after the spark and sometimes people were calling, like her blood calling, but she kept the faith with the spark, and kept it going, knowing it would be returned one day. And then we took her up to the palace because she was not fit to go down the lower stair, and she stayed there for a couple of days. I came down, left the message about where she was, and then went back up again. I asked Xenofos to write a note to you with my apologies. And now I’m here and she was at the White Grape last I saw.”
“Do you have any comments or questions, my Lord?” She waits –patiently– respectfully for an answer.
1) No. This ith much clearer.
Stomach-churning horror
. o O ( Oh. Vice versa. )
. o O ( Bother. )
. o O ( Should I say something? )
. o O ( Like ‘sorry’? )
. o O ( Or would that be really rude? )
. o O ( Does he know I did that? )
. o O ( I … what if this is like that time with the feathers? )
. o O ( What if it isn’t, but mentioning it is? )
“My Lord. I didn’t hear clearly what you said about Lismelder and Duck Point. Was it ‘vice versa’?”
1) Yeth.
