then we found an edge

DEIMOS And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame With another important rallying point completed, the Sword and Evergreen could march onward towards their Citadel shrine. It might’ve been the only point of peace threading through their shoulders lately – what with impending volleys about Starfall and the general gist of fighting monsters and striving to locate any flowers. Something for the good of Caido; to ensure those affected by the twisting and turning of infestations in their blood could be altered, healed, and mended from the tumultuous bridges and brambles. Not unlike the blight, or the second plague, they’d at least found a way to counter measure this. So with the slightest of smiles, they arrived with cages and jars, collected filaments of creatures and plants, Erebos strapped to Deimos’s chest, and sentiments of significance on the horizon. He trusted Evie with the correct offerings while he laid down the multitudes of still alive artifacts, crouching, bowing his head to Rae and all accompaniments. “Rae, thank you for this opportunity. We have completed our tasks.” --- This is an RQ turn-in thread for the quests acquired here: Below the Surface Tasks. There is no time limit. There are currently 9 active Halovians. This means 5 unique characters have to participate. Characters can participate more than once. Deimos and Evie must participate in at least 2 threads each. A thread of at least 3 Halovians magically purifying the current hot springs:  - Deimos, Evie, Noah - [RQ] you reach for the light and it reaches back A PQ ensuring and shoring up the structural soundness of the current hot springs and surrounding area. Must have 8 rounds.  - Deimos, Sah, Luka - [PQ] [RQ] you have returned A thread with at least 1 Halovian, capturing a void Flora or Fauna from every major region (SB, TL, H, HG, GW, KE), kept alive and brought at the time of turn-in. OR one vein of Void Crystal from within Starfall Island. Stormbreak: Deimos [RQ] [SE] But wait—there’s myrrh Torchline: Deimos - [RQ] how we ricochet Halo: Evie, Deimos - {RQ} Oh, I Feel It Coming Hollowed Grounds: Deimos, Amhran - [RQ] into the boughs Greatwood: Soleil, Deimos - {RQ} Snowstars King's End: Luka, Sah - [RQ] Bouquet master of nothing place; of recoil and grace

when hope and peace begin to fray
Know that daybreak is not far away

After everything that has happened this season, Evie is more reserved than usual as she and Deimos journey to the shrine. It's not an unpleasant way to be - and Deimos' slight smile ensures it can't turn that way - but she finds it difficult to set aside her worries and frustrations to focus on the good. The Evergreen is not usually a pessimist (anymore) but the spread of the void and her deeply undesired involvement with Dahlia's appearance at the meeting has left her off-kilter and on-edge.

Nevertheless, Evie remains an Abandoned, and upon arrival nerves and excitement burn hot enough to temporarily turn those distractions to embers. Rae's is the champion of the domain Evie has devoted her life to; no amount of worrying is worth taking up time and space in this moment.

Of her offerings she brings a leaf that had grown from one of her plants that is utterly without color (and therefore will not live long without chlorophyll) but is a beautiful ivory befitting Halo, and had been lovingly propagated and replanted. Beside it she places an artfully preserved and presented specimen of a young mouse she'd bought. Its fur and curled, sleeping form embalmed in a sad but beautiful expression of the circle of life. "Thank you for entrusting us with this," she adds on after Deimos, appreciative that the god had deemed their request worthy despite disagreeing with their estimation that the void poses a threat worthy of elimination.

Evergreen

dance beneath the stars as you drink in the night
let the thunder overtake you as lightning fills the sky.

'We have entrusted you with nothing.' Rae murmurs, their voices melding together as they appear, hands clasped behind their backs, twin eyes regarding the wardens. "What you choose to do with this water is not our concern. That you have it gives your people a chance at survival, but if you do not make the most of it, we'll shall not mourn you."

Reaching out their hands, their fingers beckoning toward the various jars and cages, all creatures within suddenly pulse with a bright light that streaks out of their containers, growing too bright to behold for a moment before they disappear entirely. 

"It is done." Rae announces, their eyes shifting between Sword and Evergreen, before turning toward one another and disappearing.

---

Halo has completed its RQ!

The open air hotsprings within the Fangs now contains the following property:

Hotspring | Nestled within the Fangs, an open air hotsprings fills the area with heady steam. Frey-made, it covers an area of about 40 square metres and will never freeze over, providing a welcome reprieve from the cold. These springs possess Mastered-Level healing waters and can also cure void-infections from people, plants, and animals. If bottled, this water can be used to heal while in Halo. Once removed from Halo's borders, it becomes regular water. A void-infected character/plant/animal must be fully submerged in the water to be cured.

feel the force of nature penetrate your skin,
spin with the world as the magic sinks in.

DEIMOS And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame Rae was a different deity altogether from what he was used to, but even with the experimental, subjective, and theoretical influences contorting over them, he bowed his head and listened. “Thank you,” he uttered, taking it all inward, because they’d find a way to salvage something out of the infested and infected, and had Rae not been a part of it, then it wouldn’t have been possible at all. So the jars and cages blinked, brightened and gone, before the twin deities vanished as well; and they would be left to tell the rest of Caido that some matters had been instilled. He offered Evie another slight smile, before they could hasten back the way they came, accomplished. [FIN] master of nothing place; of recoil and grace