[HQ Ignorance] Scene 21: Escape to Syran!

[Sam Elliot]

Although not too happy at being called "kinfolk" with an assortment of
darkmen, humans and even a stoneman, Icthya could see the fish's point of
view. At least they all had legs.

Before returning to the mundane world, she had thanked the fish profusely,
looking a bit ridiculous as she bent down to the water and blew bubbles.
Slapping away Baros' roaming hand, she had insisted her companions did
likewise, achieving only marginal success.

Back in the here and now, and quite exhausted, the prospect of entering a
human city, however graceful its spires, made Icthya feel quite queasy.
Hauling herself up on to the bank and helping her copmpanions, she proposed
to Aalmon that she stay outside the city walls. Perhaps Baros could
accompany her, and Karala too, should she wish. "It might be wise," she
addressed the Hsunchen woman, "for us to check that you are free of any
taint."

Noticing that Azhur was looking quite shaken, she approached the human, who
was hunkered down on a rock. He had helped her once before and perhaps it
was time to repay the favour. "I think I have an inkling of what ails you,
human." Her violet eyes were quite tender and as he looked up briefly, he
found a slight comfort in them.

"I know you are a religious man and I see that the rock upon which you have
built your life is beginning to crumble. But you should know that this is
the price for travelling and seeing the wonders of the world. I have
travelled to the distant east and I warn you that when we travel east, as
one day we must, you will be as far from your God as it is possible to be.
You will see there many many wonders but perhaps what will surprise you most
is that even your fellow humans do not think like you at all. If that rock
upon which you stand is weak now, there it will crack assunder, as sure as
the world is flat*

"You may even find that you and I, hailing from the far western reaches of
the world as we do, have more in common than you do with those people. I
know this for I have sat with a holy man of the east and it was as if I sat
and spoke with a dragon, so alien was his thinking to me.

Although she was talking to the top of Azhur's head, Icthya could tell from
his shoulders that she had his attention. She could see that the man was
probably at the lowest point he had ever been and felt a twinge of pity.
Pausing in her speech, she looked him up and down, finally noticing his
hands. "Azhur," she softly called him out of his reverie, getting him to
look up at her, "Look what you hold in your hands." He glanced down,
noticing that each of his hands was tightly clenched about the standard.

"Put your faith in the Fellowship," she suggested, "however different we all
may be from one another, for the next few months there will be but one
constant in our lives. You have in your hands a piece of your home, you
carry with you an ancestral treasure. I have seen the others looking at the
strange writings which seem always to be changing. I myself have found
myself eased looking at the banner; it is almost as if it is singing to me.

"Come," she says, lifting his head with a gentle hand on his chin, bringing
him to his feet, "put your soul into the standard and I will do likewise. I
will make an oath to you, I will invest a part of my being into your
standard until the day I return to Erontree. You have stood in my defence at
least once before, and I will ask you to bear that part of me until our
quest is fulfilled."



OOC: Hope you don't mind me narrating your character a touch, Loran?

Ooh, I do love pulling those cliches out every now and then :)

Lev - Loran asked for the numerical side of the "death". If Azhur is, in
rules terms, injured, then this can be an attempt by Icthya to heal him. If
so, I can get the abilities out or not, as you wish, Lev. She would likely
spend a hero point on this if necessary.

I think we never actually kicked that hero band idea off, so this here is
Icthya explicitly proposing such a thing.

Also, Lev, I love reading those epic write-ups you do - good on ya!

* "As sure as the world is flat" I'm quite proud of that :)