Private Tales Seeking Answers in Vel Numera

[Zinnia]

Zinnia felt the squeeze of Ispir's hand and gave him an uncertain squeeze back. She doubted that Kristen needed safekeeping. Kristen had grown so much in so little time. She'd long outstripped Zinnia as a mage and by now was likely more skilled with mace and sword than Zinnia was with her hammer. Kristen was smarter, more charismatic, and she had the entirety of House Pirian at her back.

And yet...

None of that mattered. No matter what heights Kristen ascended to, no matter how far Zinnia fell, the gold-eyed girl's heart nor loyalty would be shaken.

Zinnia nodded and pulled down the cloth mask so that her friend might see her face, now permanently, partially shifted.

"I've always got you, Kristen. No matter how much might change."

Her hold on Ispir's hand became more confident, and she looked to him briefly with a smile before pulling the mask back up.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen at first tensed when Ispir hugged her, and this curious reaction came as quite unforeseen, and brought to light once more just how much she had changed within the last four years of her life. She spoke to Ispir more as a Dreadlord than as Kristen Pirian, the Darling Daughter, the Lady of Vel Numera, Noble of House Pirian. Proctor Magomo would never have hugged her, nor expressed condolence. That was not his manner of kindness, and, quite frankly, it would not have been appropriate to him and his task to sharpen her into a warrior, a Dreadlord, to express kindness in Ispir's way. And so Kristen had not at all expected an embrace or sympathetic words. Merely had she done what she was supposed to do, what she had been trained to do, and killed those cultists who attacked the chapel in Alliria and murdered the score of innocent faithful souls.

But her tension faded, and she allowed herself to return the embrace in earnest.

"The wicked cower and wither when good souls unite," she said to Ispir and Zinnia both.

And then to Ispir: "Now...has this been a problem for you? For their dark ends, cults may try to capture the innocent by opportunity alone. Do you fear, Ispir, that you are being pursued? Do you suspect that your ordeal in Alliria was not solely a mishap of chance?"

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir's smile became easier, lighter, at Kristen Pirian 's words and he would let out an almost relieved breathe through his nose, only to blink at Kristen's follow-up question. Zinnia would feel his hand tense involuntarily around hers, only for him to then notice it, and grimace a bit by way of apology if it had caused her discomfort. Only to slacken his grip after mastering himself and, meeting Kristen's eyes, he would think long and hard on her question. Brow furrowing, button nose scrunching, before his features relaxed and he slowly nodded.

"I don't know if... if I would call it PURSUED exactly. But there have been a-..."

He swallowed. Thinking of the entity that Irman and Sigrun had been transporting, the creature that had attacked Voe, the trials of the temple he and Vyx'Aria had faced, the unexpected undead attack near Alliria, the rumors of foul rituals taking place by the same cult that tried to kidnap him, Kristen's mentions of the Dark Ones.... all of it. Was it related? He wasn't sure but he would inform her.

"... a lot of dark.... evil.... things that I've encountered. I don't know if it' related but it doesn't seem like it could be a coincidence."

He would let out a shaky sigh.

"And I don't... umm.... I don't know what to do. To be honest...."

It was a genuinely honest, vulnerable, tired statement as Ispir lowered his gaze to the ground and shrugged.​

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia couldn't speak to any of what Ispir had encountered, but Dreadlord affairs were hardly unfamiliar with dark beings. That said, there was much she didn't understand, much uncertainty and fear in the future. And for that, she had to admit:

"I'm...a bit directionless as well."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Of Zinnia, and her mention of being directionless, Kristen—perhaps for the fifth or sixth time already in this brief concourse—found herself surprised. Before Zinnia left Vel Numera, blessed Aionus, it would be imperative for the two of them to say all that was left unspoken in their time apart, not the least reason being that said lack of direction.

But for the present, Zinnia's friend Ispir wished for guidance, and so Kristen would turn her full attention back onto him. She cupped her chin with her flesh and blood hand, giving outward testimony to the many considerations crossing through her mind.

Then at last she spoke: "It is clear that confusion torments you, Ispir. From all that has been said—and I would surmise as well from all that remains unsaid—it seems that clarity ever eludes you, and misfortune chases you, and the foremost woe preventing remedy is the absence of your memories, such that at least some sense could be made of it all. My fear, Ispir, is that in your search for answers, you may well mistake coincidence for providence. Are these dark and evil things, and all else that you have encountered or endured, related? It is not for me to say. Have you merely wandered now here, now there, and your fortune is such that in every corner you pass by lurks a nefarious agent? Or are your hardships ordained, given to you mayhap by Astra or another of the Celestial Pantheon, such that you may be fitted for greater things yet? Again, it is not for me to say.

"But I may advise you, and advise you I will on what I believe the best course of action for you in your search: journey to Mount Dincia, to the very place where this all started. But travel this time to its summit. Enter Astra's Temple, and there speak to the High Priests and Priestesses. I myself made that pilgrimage once, and much was made clear for me. I truly believe that the symbol on your back, Astra's symbol, will be proven true, or proven a fraud, if you go to her highest and most holy Temple. And from there, perhaps further illumination shall come."