Follow the Rainbow Over the Stream

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best She nods gently, her child-like face somber. After all, she has created perfection and yet her children have been banished and demonized and hated for simply having the courage to realize their own potentials. She had to elevate herself to the powers of a god to protect the lives she nurtured and fostered, and yet here she was, still fighting, still warning, still protecting. "Perfection is temporal my bright one, and I would have your excellence endure through the ages. But they would resist our progress out of jealousy." Raising a hand, she placed it against the tree, sparks humming through it and then bleeding out through the ground like veins of electric blue. "There is so much more I would give to you bright one, so much more for you to learn. But I cannot. Not while I remain bound."

Temporal perfection... Isla blinked, gaze drawn to the magnificent light of the tree as the Voice touched her hand to it. She smiled despite herself - the world that her patron imagined must have been wonderful indeed, and whether or not she knew she was doing it, Isla had already decided that she would help as much as she could. So when the Voice spoke of being bound, of being trapped, her interest was keen.

"Within the barrier...?" She wondered out loud, though rather than any divine whim, Isla was simply making an educated guess. The barrier trapped them all. "We are trying to get out. To get everyone out. If we are successful, then would you be free...?"

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best The Voice nodded gently, thoughtfully silent for a moment. "Yes. Though no doubt the old gods would try to thrust us back into this prison." A sweet and kind smile spread across her face at that. "But we would be ready. We have been still for these centuries, but not silent. There will be those who try to stop the Spire from being reached, who will try and keep the barrier up...we must not let them. Time grows thin for us bright one. Our spark must not be allowed to die."

The Voice had given and done so much for Isla

and it had broken her mind into dust

that she felt no compulsion even to question what she was being told. As a doctor and a lover of knowledge and science, that seemed strange, but at the same time... Isla knew it was true. She felt it, like she felt the dozens of connections to her Ascended kin, and to the shrines yet hidden in the Hollowed Grounds.

"Then we will not let them," she said simply, reverently, and nodded to the deity before her. "Whatever it takes, we will be free."

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best The Voice nodded with equal amounts confidence and pride. "We will." She agreed. "But we will not be hasty. Unlike the others, time is on our side. We will bide, and then we will emerge, victorious in our patience and perfection. Let not the others think of my silence as forgetful or distant. I am always here." She added with a youthful and beatific smile. With an electric crackle that seemed to hum in the frosty air, the Voice was pulled back into the shrine, her body dissolving into sparks of blue and ultraviolet.

I am always here.

Isla found herself more comforted by those words than she had any right to be. She was utterly entranced by the deity before her, and even as she began to fade back into the shrine, Isla was smiling. The sparks danced over her, the Ascended standing in the peace and silence of the forest for just a moment or so, before glancing up and giving a small curtsey to the shrine.

Her footsteps were slow, dreamlike almost, as she meandered out and back towards the tree where she had first met her friend, her hands resting in her pockets and her entire demeanour somehow... calm. Sure of herself. "Jigano?" she called, glancing around for him.

"Here!" the bard spoke up, peering around in the darkness to try and find his friend. Her voice had come from a little ways behind him, so he stepped away from the tree he'd been leaning against to make himself more visible, trusting her night vision more than his own. "Is everything alright? I didn't want to intrude on a private moment..." He trailed off ruefully, not sure what to say since he hadn't known it was a shrine when he'd found it - or before he'd led Isla to its nave.

"I had no idea there was a god in that tree," he said aloud, lips twitching in amusement at the statement. "Much less the one from the underground! I'm glad you'll have more options now, though, for visiting her. I, ah... don't suppose you can convey my apologies to her, the next time you visit? I didn't mean to insult her." And being on a god's bad side was never a good idea!

The movement in the growing dark caught Isla's attention immediately, and Jigano was right to trust her vision. She smiled brightly as she caught sight of him, picking up her pace to join him at the base of the tree. "Everything is alright," she confirmed, nodding reassuringly. "It wasn't a private moment, not really, but I appreciate that you probably couldn't hear some of it."

Laughing softly at his amusement, Isla shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think either of us were to know until it happened!" she said. "Though I'm glad we came. You're right, there are more options, now. This one isn't nearly as difficult to get to as the Underground." And if what the Voice said was true, there would be even more options once they had located more shrines.

Arching an eyebrow at the prospect of Jigano causing offence, Isla shook her head. "I don't think you insulted her," she murmured. "But I will pass on your apology just in case. Shall we head back now?"

"Call it old world courtesy, then," he responded with a chuckle. "My old world, at least. Communing with a god can - could - be an intensely personal thing, there. And it's generally not a good idea to be on a god's bad side," he added wryly, giving voice to his thought from earlier. "Especially when they're as, ah, active as the ones here are." Which gave him an idea for Ludo which he tucked away for consideration later...

"I'm glad it's safer for you," he murmured, sincere and a little relieved himself. His trip into the underground with Remi had been thankfully uneventful - at least until they got out again - but there was a great deal of unknown down there, and far too many shadows that could hide danger. The woods had their own dangers, of course, but perhaps since he knew them better he felt more prepared to face them, and more confident that Isla could handle them, too. "Perhaps we'll get lucky and find you a shrine near the Atheneum, too!"

At the mention of heading back the bard nodded, but hesitated, clearing his throat. "Actually... before we do, there was something I, ah, wanted to give you. It's a luckpiece. A charm, if you will. A token I had made from the coins of my world for... well..." He shrugged, smile quirking wryly. "Just because, really. For my closest friends." He slipped his hand into a pocket sewn into his capacious sleeve and held out a small object - a small luxere in copper, with horns of gold, incredibly detailed and almost lifelike. "It seemed appropriate," he said shyly. "I considered a volcanette, but couldn't figure out how to get the fiery blossom right, but the night we saw our first luxere together is one I'll never forget."

Old world courtesy? Isla liked that term, she decided, and she smiled to Jigano gently and nodded in understanding. "I have never been in a world where any of the gods have been particularly active. So this is all quite new to me!" She hoped she hadn't offended the Voice; then again, her commune with the deity was so deep that she thought she would probably know if that was the case.

"That would be lucky!" she agreed, grinning and shrugging. "But then I would only ever divide my time between the Temple and the Atheneum, and I feel that might not be healthy." Still, it certainly would be something. She was about to set off when Jigano paused, Isla glancing back at him just in time to see him produce the tiny luxere from his pocket.

Lips parting in a mingling of surprise and pleasure, Isla accepted the little token between her hands and turned it this way and that. "It's beautiful, Jigano..." She glanced back up at him. "Oh, but I don't have anything for you in return..."

"They didn't tend to manifest quite so often on my world, either," Jigano agreed with a wry grin. "They were there just more... distant. Their clerics and oracles channeled small fragments of their power, and they let us mere mortals chart our own paths, more or less." He hadn't realized just how comforting that could be until he'd met Ludo face-to-mask. Sometimes you just wanted to feel like your every move wasn't being scrutinized by a higher power or four that may or may not mean you well...

He gave a wry nod of acknowledgment to how limited her world might become, but reassured her with a roguish wink. "Oh, I'm sure I could still coax you along on adventures now and then," he teased. "Not all of the research a loreseeker may be asked to do will be found in a book, after all! And we can still look for more medicinal herbs and plants once spring comes around."

But while it was still winter he had a gift for her. He felt pride curl warm and sweet in his chest at how happy the charm made her, and he gave a little shake of his head with a bright smile. "On the contrary," he murmured. "You're training me in how to save the lives of my friends - and others - in times of need. Yours is the far more practical gift, even if you get my occasional services in the infirmary as recompense." He tilted his head, smile shifting to a charming grin as he offered Isla his arm for the walk back. "But the gift of your smile just now is more than enough in return for it."

"Clerics and oracles?" Isla repeated, sounding rather enthralled by the prospect. "I wonder if such things exist here, too." What a cleric for the Voice would look like was anyone's guess, in her opinion, as well as their capabilities. But there had been quite enough talk of deities for one night, and Isla was more than happy to let the conversation turn to other things.

Carefully as she was able - despite the charm being made out of metal and undoubtedly sturdier than she gave it credit - Isla tucked the luckpiece into one of the pockets of her coat, smiling sweetly up at Jigano and willingly slipping her arm through his for the walk. "Is that a suggestion or a promise? Either way, I look forward to foraging with you come spring."

They began to stroll back towards the settlement, Isla glancing up at her friend as he explained and smirking. "You are quite the charmer, aren't you?" she told him, though she bowed her head in acknowledgement of her 'gift' in exchange. "Very well. Let's get back - I've a mind to go to the Atheneum to see if there is anything about that tree."