• Closed • [Global Follow Up] Triumphant return

[Ent]

1st of Zi'da, Arc 717

They were back, in the meadow where it had all began, where they had been given their quest by the immortal Edasha. This time it was dawn as the sun was just beginning to peak its way over the mountains that seemed to surround them like a bowl. The flowers were still in full bloom, as if unaffected by the winter that was approaching in Idalos. There was a slight breeze but otherwise the place was warm, filled with the scent of flowers which would be so familiar from the time before.

Much like the last time Edasha would appear to them, walking her way across the field while not damaging a single flower. The smile on her face enticing as always and the innocence in her eyes an act only she knew. She smiled at them all and curtsied. "My my, you have all been so busy, I am most impressed by you all." She cocked her head slightly and then stepped first over to Hart, her eyes meeting his as she reached up and removed a circlet of flowers from her head.

"You were unfortunate in your quest, your heart is sweet and pure and I can see that truly now." She placed her hand on his cheek. "Thank you for doing your best and you will be seeing me again after today." Her eyes told of some secret, some reason he did not know yet.

Next she moved onto the blue skinned Ilinis, her smile more shy and coy as she giggled at him. "So handsome and so fearless, of course I am not so sure the little wooden girl deserved to die but everything comes with a price." She took his hand and held it in her two, running her thumbs over his knuckles. "Blue is such a beautiful colour." She released his hand and went onto the final champion, Nauta, a man who seemed capable of getting the job done no matter what.

"Congratulations." She said, standing further from him than she did the others, as if he was intimidating. "You certainly know how to get things done, I can admire that, although, it is a common trait among your race to be so set on success." Her hair blew in the wind as she looked at him and then smiled as if it was all okay again, as if she had never been bothered by his presence or who he reminded her of. "Well done." The last words were in his native tongue.

[Hart]

"Speaking in Rakahi"
"Speaking in Common"

They were back in the field of flowers and Hart would have rather been anywhere else. Anywhere else but here, with the aukari, with Ilinis. His triumphant teammates. With Edasha.

He would rather be in Rynmere.

It still felt odd being in this place, being in the immortal's presence. Hart still felt as if he had known Edasha from somewhere, that he had seen her someplace before. As she approached them his mind flicked idly from city to city, memory to memory, trying to reason out why he'd thought he'd known her, why he'd trusted her.

He didn't know; there was nothing, no reason, no excuse. No explanation at all.

The purple flower she had given them last time, which he had been wearing tucked behind his ear ever since, was gone. He no longer wore it. Hart's face was calm.

She said she was impressed with them, impressed, and Hart's demeanor gave just a little-- there was a tightening of the mouth. She stepped towards him first and he hated that it felt right to him, that he should be the first to be acknowledged. When she met his eyes would she see the emotion there? The regret that he had ever met her, met any of them? He looked quickly away, gaze fixed somewhere over her shoulder, not looking at anyone here.

She spoke to him, placed a hand on his cheek, and for a moment he could not help it, she was just so familiar-- and because of it he almost forgave her. Perhaps she hadn't known it would be like this.

Then, just as angry as he felt helpless, he pushed those feelings away. She said you will be seeing me again after today and he felt compelled to look back to her, meeting her eyes briefly as if to search for an answer to some question, but there was no answer there.

He had vowed to be her champion before knowing what it was she would require of him, in part because he had never fathomed that it might have been like this. She had wanted him to kill for her. To kill innocent people so that she could get what, some sort of power? He didn't even know what it was the halo did, what it was they had been made to kill for. For what or for whom might she use it? To bring goodness to the world? Or pain and hate?

"I don't wish to see you again. Don't seek me out," he told her, his voice steady. If the dream allowed it, if he was not being held against his will, he would disappear from this place of beauty-- back to the waking world, without warning and without a farewell.

[Ilinis]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/5F6mhTC.jpg[/img]

Ilinis blinked. No. Not here. He was in that damned field of flowers. There before him was Edasha, as encorcelling as ever. When she neared him and giggled, he winced. Her words mocked him. It was her fault that the little one had died -- not his. If she hadn't put them in a game of death without any preparation or information, perhaps he could have taken another action. She had known. She had watched. When she had called upon him to be her champion, he had thought conflict would be inevitable; he hadn't thought she would stoop so low as to have them attack innocents.

The image of the wooden girl burning in the bush wavered into his vision. The screaming. So much screaming. Betrayed. Calling for help. The crackling. More screaming. No. It was over. It needed to get out of his head. He closed his eyes and tried to breath, but the vision came back stronger. Her asking if they could be friends. The lie. The thump of her body on his hand.

He felt Edasha trace his knuckle, and he recoiled. She had no right to comment on the allure of his skin. The Eidisi were a noble race, and she was far, far beneath him and his.

With narrowed eyes he watched her. If the flower she had gifted him were still upon him, he would crush it in front of her face. But no. It stood in his home in a memorial he had made to the little wooden girl as a way to try to atone for his sins. He spit. "You have no right to summon me here, you malicious tart. Return me to Ne'haer. Now."

He contemplated drawing a knife and going at here, but he knew that would be ineffective. She was immortal. He was mortal. He didn't have enough power to stop her cruelty. His face wrinkled. No. Nauta had the halo now.

[Nauta F'mos Geey]

Nauta was not surprised to find himself back at her meadow. He expected a meet of some sort with Edasha, eventually, as he had the item she wanted. At least the other two were also present from what he saw. Had they not been around for the only reason he could assume- because they did not have the Halo, the aukari would have to reanalyze his association with the Immortal. It would have been an adequate sign she was just like he believed every Immortal to be, those who would use mortals stupid to believe in them as tools and then discard them after they were spent. The presence of the other two despite what he thought about them also reassured the aukari, from a bond shared after their experience in the maze.

And because of their shared experience, Nauta too shared what they felt of the entire trial they went through. The other two from their emotional outbursts obviously expressed they wanted nothing more to do with Edasha. He would have been the same, very willing to withhold the Immortal's trophy from her regardless the consequences if not for his own scepticism on the entire matter. When it was his turn to be addressed by the beauty who may or may not have the heart of a witch, he went for what should have been a ceremonial presentation of her Halo; like how an aukari would present a trophy, report or anything which would symbolize a success to their mission to a superior in Sirothelle or even, Faldrun himself.

Only instead, Nauta stopped partway. Edasha may or may not realize the gesture was incomplete but all the aukari presented was himself, still in her service for the moment and of no threat with empty hands on the ground as he knelt. It would only be a token resistance and one his allies may not realize but all the same, he replied in his native tongue "I could not have succeeded without the others." As he brought up them up, he hoped they would work as a deterrent for any aggression from the Immortal but the true reason he brought them up was to lead to the one question on his mind ever since the maze.

He knew nothing of the dark deed which troubled Illinis, although he now had a clue from the exchange which went before him. To think he believed Noth had something to do with it... Instead his concern was on Hart, the one he fought alongside against the stubborn jerk. He lifted himself, eyes briefly on Edasha's crown now without before he asked in common for the benefit of the others, "you said it was race, challenge" when she initially met them. Confirmation aside, what Nauta wanted to know was "did you know of fight? To death? Because Hart not fighter. He would've been sacrifice for stubborn magic man and maze" which he felt was the conclusion the group was forced towards. After a pause, he added "I'm not fighter too."

Had it not been for Hart who took the hit and gave him the chance to let loose his poisoned arrow, he would not have been able to do anything against the rupturer who refused to yield despite the chance he was given. Again he asked "did you know?" and if not, at least to make sense of her choice of getting someone like Hart, with many vulnerabilities if the aukari remembered the message with the deathly berries correctly, "did you try to stop death-race made to kill us?" With her answer he would know whether he could hand her the Halo without any doubts as another mortal fool enough to believe in the Immortals or, to side with the other two in their defiance of them- her.

She who would watch those stupid enough to believe in her die in her name, for a cause which did not even seem to be worth it anymore.

[Ent]

The Immortal's heart sank at the words of Hart, she had hopped he would not feel as he did for reasons beyond what anyone there but her could understand. She tried not to show her disappointment as she felt him pulling away, reaching for the waking world and she let him go, offering him some final words before she did so. Only he would hear them. "I am sorry, I did not know but when the time comes you do not hate me I will be there." It would seem so odd that she appeared to care for him more than the others.

Edasha sighed as he dissipated, disintegrating from the world into a cloud of pollen that spread across the field in the breeze. Then the Eidisi too found no comfort in her presence but he was far more rude about it, luckily for him she understood and too let him leave. He disintergrsted much like Hart had as he was released from the meadow. He was left with two words. "She's alive." He had served her and although he had then been so rude he deserved the truth for his service. She did have half the mind to leave him believing completely he had committed the atrocious act.

Finally came Nauta the winner of the challenge, the nature of which she truly had not known. It had been kept secret from her to add a certain sense of fairness in choosing your champions. "I promise to you that I did not know what the challenge would be, it was kept from me." Honesty was in her eyes as she spoke the truth, not always something she did but in this moment it was best to be truthful.

"I can tell you that no one really died though, it was not real and while your actions were true it was not in your plane of existence." She looked at him, knowing he was intelligent enough to make sense of at least some of the idea. "I did not know killing would be involved I promise you."
When Hart woke he found himself once again in bed, much like from before. This time beside him in the room was the circlet of flower's Edasha had worn. The mortalborn would soon realise it would not wilt and it appeared invulnerable, it could not be burned or broken by any means available to him. Still he would have to try to discover those things. There was no note but instead just the ring of flowers, resting one his night stand to do with as he may although if he were to sell it or give it away it would soon shrivel and die.

Ilinis would wake to find something else, a note on the shrine he had built to the wooden girl. It read as follows:

The wooden girls lives on, you did not kill her.
Her name is Niv and she is a Tunawa who lives in Scalvoris.

The information was his to do with as he pleased but it was given to him so he might feel less guilt for his actions within the maze.

[Nauta F'mos Geey]

It would have been easy for Nauta to leave with the other two there and then but he knew better. Despite her presentation of the mission, the race when she first summoned them; the aukari knew there had to be a challenge in it at some point if Edasha could not have just gotten it done on her own. That and the fact the job had already been completed, there would be no benefit to letting his emotions get the better of him that he would leave on his own accord. A reward was in order and it was a pity the other two did not see it that way.

And with no other reason to distrust the woman, the aukari saw no reason to burn bridges. He nodded in agreement and lifted the halo up towards her. "Nëï kaïmi, ísk na'ur Edasha" as he went through with the rest of the gesture before he stood at ready again. Whether she took it for herself or allowed Nauta the honour to set it on her head was not too important though the chance of the latter would at least feel nice as one of appreciation; the more important thing of course was in taking the halo it would mean the aukari's obligation to the Immortal was complete.

Which should bring them to the more important part of the summons, or so he felt; his reward.

Obviously it would be quite rude to bring it up right away and the aukari stood at attention as he waited for the Immortal to assess her prize. Even if a satisfactory assessment of the halo was inadequate to have Edasha in a much more generous mood, Nauta held a little hope that compared to the other two he, would seem a much more worthwhile agent for the patron to invest in. His next act was contrary to the idea however as he again pointed out the contributions of the other to reach the subject of a reward. It was quite simple. "Hart took a shot for me. Without him I might have been taken out" and maybe the annoying bastard mage would have triumphed. "Illinis did unpleasant job. Seems like its getting to him" and better the eidisi than him.

With a brief pause to figure out how to present the idea, the aukari finally settled on a plea that Edasha "emynithiss y'th'äc ïsïthï" as he would be the same if not already bought into the idea of assisting the damsel. This was followed by his true motivation as he requested, "em-íth na në austhet ru tith äz y'th'äs baev në hêmäl êm." It was a common enough practice in Sirothelle though understandably outsiders would be stupefied by it. The aukari may be indoctrinated into their competitive pursuit of Faldrun's cause from as early as parvos but, they still had to acknowledged the contributions of their peers to be compared to for better rewards or... to push the blame...

The latter completely unnecessary due to their success which no longer needed to be brought up- Nauta did not really want to push his luck, he asked one more thing which was on his mind. "Was Noth one of ours?" which at the moment he looked around just in case the crow was in the meadow. At the very least "didn't look like he was part of other group." Hart and Illinis though a little righteous were still decent fellows. The avriel the aukari was acquainted with... not so much and, Nauta could not really fathom his patron actually having him on her side as well.

[Ent]

The immortal did not wish to wear the Halo, that had not been her reason for this. So she accepted it graciously from her Champion and held it softly in the palm of her hands, he out of all of them had been most successful. Maybe it was not something to be surprised about in truth but she had believed the fire in his blood might have proved a problem. "Êrêïäshnïth në."

Edasha looked at Nauta and smiled warmly. "I admire your care for them, it is quite unlike your race to worry about the well being of others." It truly did surprise her and she gave him a reassuring nod. "I promise nothing bad will befall them, I am capable of controlling myself when I see fit." They had all done as she asked, there was no reason for retaliation even if she had felt stung by their words.

"Noth? No I do not know a Noth but from what I gathered someone was causing trouble in the challenge I assume it was him?" She sighed and shook her head, unsure what immortal had seen fit to mess with the event, she could easily picture Faldrun doing such. She loved him like a brother but he did make it hard. Still Edasha was surprised to hear of the intruder.

Finally she reached down and placed her hands around a flower in the meadow, cupping it gently in her fingers she lifted it to the man before her. "This is your reward for serving me so well." She passed it to him and giggled, her smile quite charming. "The petals of this flower are quite poisonous, deadly in fact. However, it will only work against those who's success you envy as well as those who have lied and cheated you." She cocked her head and then leaned forward, kissing the Aukari and sending him spiralling out into his room, awake and the flower still in his hand.