Legend of Ransera

Glade 10, 123 following Three Days Left

The Journey Thus Far Norani was racing toward the base of the World Tree in her wind form, trying to keep the panic in her heart from overtaking her. If Astrid had been sick when she was here last, was that connected to the tree as well? Were they both ill from the same thing? Was it due to Ghoron missing or was it the touch of this being of primordial darkness? Norani did not know, but she was determined to find out. She had to stay calm, to not act purely on her naive instinct. To take the time to listen, to watch, to learn before acting. That was a lesson she was learning time and time again from the elements and she needed it to stick.

But could the tree wait three days for her to summon the army? Had she wasted time returning to Drathera only to not wield this influence she had gained? Would she ever make the correct decision and know it to be right? Would she ever hold her confidence without it being shattered by what came next?

As she approached the huts, she saw darkness and shadow and corruption aplenty, spreading throughout the tree, the land. Her throat grew tight, but she saw a familiar light, a familiar shadow there in the hut and it gave her pause. She stepped out of wind form, approaching on foot. As she approached, she could feel it in her heart, a vow forming, one born from saving Aetu in the desert, born from seeing this desecration, born from the Mist Storms that ravaged her home and the rest of the world.

She would dedicate her life to defending and cleansing the natural world of the corruptions that threatened them. Now that she knew it was something that was possible, something she could achieve, she knew she could, would, should do it. And so, she entered the hut with an air of defiance on behalf of nature, a living tempest, not one sent to destroy, but one sent to cleanse and save.

"Hello, Astrid," said a voice cracking with thunder, carried on the winds, her eyes for once not filled with tears, but filled with the flames of her determination to protect that which she loved.

Norani cast her gaze to the ceiling of the hut, seeing the Light and Shadow elementals there, dancing, feeding the shield she'd stepped through that was protecting this hut from the corruption. It was a beautiful display of a previous misunderstanding she had once had, that many had, that shadow is bad and light is good, when neither were either. But this sight was enough to partially allay some of Norani's fear, maybe things weren't lost just yet.

There was still hope.

She saw Mirella there with her tiger and the elementals, and she saw Vomi Vani there in distress. And so, as a shepherd of elements, Norani acted on their behalf, for their betterment, and she summoned forth a small glob of water flavored with her aether, and sent it floating over to the Wood Elemental. It was a favorite treat of the spirit, and it was one of the ways the two had enjoyed communicating. The spirit briefly stopped bawling, and reached out with a root, and began to drink from the orb, at least able to focus on that instead of what was upsetting her.

Your Highness?

When the stranger by Astrid turned to face her, she knew he was no mere man. She had seen him once before, in the conflagration over the sands of Atraxia. A god that appeared to her for reasons she did not understand, but laying her eyes upon him in this form, she knew, deep within her soul, that he was truly a god, and she heard the name within her, a name that was only mentioned in the stories of old, in the stories of heroes and fallen friends, in the stories of sacrifice and loss, in the stories of good versus evil.

She looked up at him in the eyes, "Hello again, Arcas. It is nice to meet you properly." She did not bow her head, she did not use titles like Highness or Lord, she did not fret for not knowing etiquette for greeting a god, for the Ecithians had long since evolved past such mortal concepts. As she looked upon him, she felt the panic in her heart begin to calm, just as she felt the calm as Imogen's Dawnfire roared through her body. "Thank you for helping me in Atraxia. We were able to save the spirit, Aetu, because of it."

But she didn't know what else to say to the god who was a stranger to her, and her concerns at the moment were pressing. Her gaze passed to Astrid, and she stepped forward towards the woman. "How is your illness, are you holding up well?" She gave pause to allow her to answer, before she continued, hope growing within her as she spoke, "The Commonwealth has answered my call for help. If we can give them three days to mobilize and outfit, I can summon the full might and force of Ecith." However there was a doubt dwelling in there, sidled up in the shadow of that mote of hope, "Do... do we have three days?"

If not, Norani prepared herself to go at it alone with Imogen and Destyn. A far higher chance of failure, but if there was no time, if there was no other choice, then she would find a solution the hard way. She had to. She cast her gaze back to Arcas, and with true Ecithian bluntness, "Are you here to help us in this?" It was neither an accusation or a question of pressure, but rather simply a question of curiosity, the core of the Orkhan woman.

Norani took in everything before her. Vomi Vani was exhausted, strained and pained. Astrid was biting through her illness. And Arcas told her that time was not on their side. And so, Norani made the decision there on the spot. She would not call the armies of Ecith, this would have to be handled alone. She sighed through her tusks, there was some relief in that decision being made, now Ecith would have its armies to defend itself, to help its people, and if she failed, she wouldn't doom her entire people.

At least not right away. At the very least, her speaking to the Senate would mean maybe someone else could come after her, to pick up where she left of if they failed. The trip to Drathera was not a waste. She knew this to be true, knew it to matter. She looked down at the Horn of the Warchief, removing the strap from her body, and walking over, crouching down next to Vomi Vani, gently running her fingers through the elemental's petals.

"Please, take care of this for me. I'll need it when I come back."

And with that, Norani followed after Arcas, finding herself wondering about the thinking of gods. He was the only god she'd met so far, though she'd seen each of the Triumvirate in the Senate. The gods seemed eager to provide help and guidance, but no longer seemed to go as far as to handle problems themselves. The Triumvirate used to, until the Commonwealth was built and they were relegated to advisors. It must be hard to be a god, she thought, being able to see so much pain, so much struggle and suffering, and having to choose to only watch from the outside, only provide help in small ways.

It sounded like a tiring burden.

As Arcas spoke, Norani's eyes went wide. The Wildking? His name was one of ancient reverence in her village. When the elders spoke of nature and love, the Wildking was in the same breath. That he would know her name... She didn't even know what to make of that. She watched as Arcas carved a path of Dawnfire, searing away at the corruption. The way to the Eternal Grove. A knot formed in her throat but she swallowed it back. An imbued feather was handed to her.

In a bear whisper, "For when all seems lost..."

She pulled her waist length ponytail around to her front, and wove the feather into the knots safely. She already knew what purpose it would serve if it came to it. 'To get everyone else out.' If it was too much for them, she hoped it would be able to send them home, even if she couldn't join them.

And then she felt her rune warm, glowing. Her resolution grew as all of her tattoos flared brightly, and the pupils of her eyes emanated pure white light. The power settled and Norani could feel just what it meant. Another deep breath, eyes closed. Her racing thoughts and heart slowed. She focused on the task at hand and nothing more. Get in the grove, find Ghoron and the Spirits, get them out. A rescue mission. But the corruption... would that continue if whatever entity was trapped in the Grove remained there? Would rescuing be enough? She shook off the doubts. She'd have to see the situation.

Her eyes slid open, the loamy brown of Ounokt Nora staring up at Arcas, "Thank you."

With a whistle only elementalists could hear, she called to Ooshi. "Go fetch Destyn and Imogen please. Bring them here. We cannot delay." With a nodding bob, the Wind Elemental raced off to find them. She called upon Glorbp Glorbp and Aetu, and the two elementals appeared. With a blink, Zzzik thundered next to her. "Muster as much strength as you can. We go to the Grove shortly."

Norani didn't have long to wait, though it must have felt like quite a while. When every second counts, minutes seem to stretch into hours; adrenaline and a pounding heart make for terrible company in the times between resolve and terror.

Nevertheless, it wasn't really that long before she heard footsteps from beyond the clearing and Imogen trudged into view.

The Sunsinger looked distinctly unhappy. Her hair, normally pulled into a tight ponytail, had suffered mightily at the hands of the lightning during the ride in, and frizzy strands had escaped their bindings in the little zephyr of Ooshi's passing, whipping around her face and batting at her squinting lavender eyes. She'd given up leaning on her sunlit staff, which now hopped dutifully behind her, and was using both hands instead to guard her face from the agitated breeze.

"Norani!" she called across to the young elementalist, "Call the wind off, would you? I'm here, already!"

Charge delivered, Ooshi's winds died down suddenly, leaving all of the witch's freed strands of hair to settle at once over her eyes. Imogen blew the strands away from her nose with a sigh, and then set about recapturing them and securing them at the back of her head once more. These important tasks complete, she spent a moment to glance about the forest, noting with interest the enormous root of the tree, and starting as she noticed Arcas watching the tree.

Gears began to turn in Imogen's mind, and the color drained out of her face, surprise and annoyance giving way to a look of dreadful resignation. There was exactly one probable explanation for Norani's impatient summons and the presence of the Dawnking right here.

"I found Destyn- what's the hurry? I thought the plan was to wait three days..." it took only one look at Norani's face to realize what she was thinking. "Oh no, no, that's not a very good idea. That's a pretty bad idea. Unless Arcas is going to just..." Imogen made a vague motion with her hands which was probably meant to represent some kind of monster being struck by lightning.

The sound of Imogen’s footsteps was soon drown out by the thunderous din of Destyn’s blurry-fast wingbeats as he descended slowly from above to hover just over her shoulder. The winds of wings mingled with those of the harbinging spirit. His legs were slightly bent and crossed at the ankle, only parting when he alighted upon terra firma and his wings halted, to fold flat against his back like a taut, translucent cape slightly obscuring his bare back, which was bisected by a slightly protruding bit of his oaken spine.

The smile he wore was not so bright as usual when he espied a friendly face. The fell decay that poisoned the lands was keenly felt by the Fae’ethalan, whose typically sunkissed skin was looking pale, his visage more gaunt than when he and Imogen had met upon the beach behind them.

Before he laid eyes on Norani it was hard to miss:

“Blessèd Arcas!” He exclaimed, shocked if pleasantly so by another unexpected acquaintance. This one his saviour and his favourite member of the pantheon, to whom Destyn cast the only prayers he uttered when his heart inclined itself toward piety— as mercurial an occurrence as most of his whims, but passionate when it was upon him.

He stepped forward to fall to one knee before the deity, lowering his head. This felt like further proof of his fatalistic perception of this entire excursion. Surely Norani had no way of knowing Destyn had a connection to Arcas any more than was the case with Imogen, and yet both were here. Destyn found himself relieved at so potent a force lending talents to their cause. He still had no idea what use he might be in the exploits to come, but Arcas promised to be pivotal in whatever transpired next.

“…and Norani.” He acknowledged, finally. “I answer your call.”

She watched and waited as Imogen and Destyn arrived. Now that the decision was made, Norani felt a calm continuing to grow within her. She nodded at Imogen's sage advice. It was a bad idea, but it was one they would have to go with. She looked over at Destyn, "Thank you."

She took a breath, looking down the lit path toward the Eternal Grove. "We do not have three days to wait for Ecith to rally the armies. The corruption is spreading, quickly. I was here not so long ago and now..." She shook her head. It ultimately had been a mistake to return to Drathera, but still, it felt like she had done something right with it. "Arcas must stay here, holding back the corruption as best he can. We must go it alone."

She closed her eyes, focusing her thoughts, letting her heart find the words for her. "We must go, now. If we fail... Agst'rasera will fall, and the new spirits and elements will not be born into the mortal realm. Winter will not last forever, eventually it will fall to chaos as the spirits of the world fall into disarray. No land will be untouched, no person spared from the high cost of failure."

It was heavy, it was world ending. But they had to do it and they were the only ones that could. "The Wildking has given his blessing on our quest, Agst'rasera has blessed me here as well."

She didn't know if there was any more that could be said to inspire, to lead.

"We need to find Ghoron and the missing seasonal spirits." She looked over at Destyn, "Please, focus on seeking them out. Spirits respond well to you. We need to get them out, alive." She closed her eyes for a moment, whispering to the shadows. "Vaka." A raptor of pure darkness stepped out of her shadow, growing to his full height. Her aidolon, the one chosen to help her to find Juno. "Go with Destyn. Help and protect him."

Looking at Imogen, "I will need you to be like the Reavers of old that you told me about, bring everything. We've fought corruption before, perhaps we can do it better this time." Maybe it wouldn't require her to filter the Dawnfire like last time. In her heart, she still held the hope that this would be just a rescue mission. But after seeing the damage to the World Tree... if they got Ghoron and the others out, the corruption was still there.

She was no warrior, she was no killer. Did she have a choice in this? Was there possibly another way, somehow? She'd have to see it with her own eyes, this great, primordial being of darkness.

"When we find the creature causing all of this, I will take its attention. I can keep it busy while you study it Imogen. Look to find the best way to rid the world of this corruption. Your eyes are more wise than my own, I trust you to see the right path."

A soft sigh through her tusks which were starting to grow, as her fingernails grew into claws, as dragonscales began to appear on her arms, her chest and brow and thighs. She turned to face her elemental companions. And let the words come out from within her runes, seeking out the spirits of the elements with which she was Arched, her voice echoing with her power.

"May we carry the strength of the world's oceans," as Glorbp Glorbp melded into her form.

"May we be the storm that brings balance," as Ooshi followed into her.

"May we consume the darkness to create renewal," as Aetu joined them.

"And may we strike fast and true," as Zzzik raced into her. Her body glowed with the combined powers of the elementals, shining through her scales, her tattoos, her eyes.

"Shall we?"

And so, she started down the path, to seek out the Eternal Grove.

She watched as Arcas and Destyn had an intimate moment together, before he needed to go.

It was time for them to do so as well.

With a nod, Norani floated forward down the path, taking the point on their travel. There was no moving as fast as lightning, she didn't want to become separated from her companions. They were stronger together. As they went down the path at a brisk pace, Norani saw the corruption touching everything, soaked in, filling the air with a smell she wish she had never experienced. With that thought, her winds kept the stench away from her nostrils, and those of her companions.

She watched as the ooze came to life, leaping toward them, only to be reduced to ash against Arcas' boundaries. But it seemed that even the powers of the gods had limits, as the Dawnfire was dwindling under the deluge of slime bodies casting themselves upon it. A wave of darkness crashed over into the path, eyes were formed. And when Norani looked into them, she saw... life. Or something akin to it.

And then the voices began, so many of them, some understood, many not. Why were there so many voices? But before she could ponder more, the creature absorbed its eyes once more and leapt at them. But the first thing Norani noticed was just how... slow it was. She was a companion of lightning, she knew true speed. And so, as it approached, she tossed it back across the lit pathway with small burst of winds. She watched it splash down in the rest of the ooze, disappearing and mingling.

A whisper was sent on the winds back to her companions as she kept them moving. "Save your strengths for when we reach the grove."

As she brisked forward, she cast a shout out around them, not stopping to await an answer, and not truly expecting one. But she needed to know. And so, she spoke in Acherani, the ancients language, having heard that this was an ancient evil. "Why are you doing this? Why do you seek to spread rot and destruction? What is it you wish to achieve?"

Things like this don't just... happen. There always was a reason, there had to be. This was something alive, it had purpose and desires and needs. She needed to know. And so, she listened as she pressed the group further along the path.