General's Orders, Captain's Duty

"She is hardly my goddess, Remi. But she has been very good to me. I would recommend you speak with her yourself, Roana, for anything I say will not do her justice." She had carted him up to the sky and made him a star. Roana had seen many feats of magic as a Captain, but never something so fantastical. She hadn't been quite sure what to make of the deity talk since arriving, but now it was undeniable, and she was going to take up her friend's advice. In the aftermath of the battle with the demon, Roana had gotten medical treatment. Not a lot. The bare minimum - which had caused quite the argument between her and Phoebe who thought some injuries warranted magical intervention. But no. Shrapnel had been dug out. Salves and bandages were applied. The worst ones had been stitched shut. Burns had medicinal cremes applied and wrapped. Roana wanted the scars. She wanted to remember everytime she looked in the mirror why and who she was fighting for. Already she had plans underway, but this visit was one of the first. Roana approached the shrine, walking as straight as she could, head held high. Her patched leather armor, the most formal and presentable thing she really had for seeking audience with a goddess (which made her miss her formal military plate and mail armor which would've been much more fitting), Krosis on her hip. Only when she stood directly in front of it did her steps falter. It wasn't often Roana faced things she didn't know how to address. Praying...to a deity...this was altogether new. So she did the only thing she knew to do when appealing to a higher power. The former captain bent to one knee, head forward towards the ground with one arm resting against her raised knee and the other folded - painfully as injured joints tended to do when moved - behind her back. Those with any knowledge of military hierarchies within monarchies would recognize it as a position of fealty. "Safrin, I come seeking your wisdom and guidance so I might fulfill Ronin's last wish to me. In life he told me to seek you out. I pray you grant me this indulgence of your time." she said formally. roana The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone

"Rise, Roana." Safrin's voice is without its normal silk-like texture. She does not appear in a curtain of midnight, the lights do not dim, stars do not fall. Safrin for once, appears ... subtly. Softly. Her eyes, while not red, gods do not show the same signs of having cried as mortals do, she does look impossibly, beautifully, sad. "Never kneel in this place again. Not to me, or any. Not after what you have done. What you have lost." She says, the faint etchings of a smile on her face. "Come, child." Safrin gestures, urging Roana to her. Taking her shoulders gently, the goddess exhales a starspangled breath that instantly restores the captain. In the moment Safrin seems weaker for it, but still she smiles as she backs away a step, crossing her arms. Safrin the devil is not as black as he is painted

Roana swallowed and looked up first, seeing Safrin standing there. She was more beautiful than she remembered, though she had been terribly distracted before. And oh, so melancholy. The goddess was almost painful to behold in her grief. But she did as the goddess bid, and rose, gritting her teeth against the discomfort the movement caused. Unlike others - men really - Roana always did her best to hide her discomfort in situations like this. Where she had been raised, she should not be where she was, who she was. She was supposed to have been a dainty trophy wife to a high ranking, wealthy man. Instead she chose to fight, but she couldn't just enlist. She had to prove her worth. She had had to be better, faster, stronger, smarter than the average recruit. She had to maintain a perfect cool, pragmatic, strategic, precise to perfection. And for years, she had excelled at it. She had loved it...and then she had loved. She detoured and married and had children and let herself slip. And it was that slip, that moment of weakness and inaccuracy, that had cost them Ronin. It should have been me. "Thank you, but I recognize that we have all lost, and are the poorer for it. I...wish I could promise you that I was as charming as the other Ro." she said quietly, voice a little stiff. It was the only outward tell of the roiling emotions she held back. How many times now had she replayed those few seconds in her head? Krosis, blade gleaming, flying true through the air, slicing into the...metal armor beneath the skin of the demon, the bright light beneath it revealed. Her voice trying to lift above the din, her eyes widening, knowing what was to come...and in the end being too slow. It's my fault. If I had just...If I had just...If I had just... Roana stepped forward when bid, her breath catching as literal stars swirrled around her. She was reinvigorated, restored, life brought back to her limbs with such suddenness that she could not remember the last time she had felt so good, so whole, so strong. She swallowed tears of guilt that immediately threatened her perfect cool. "I am undeserving of your kindness, Safrin." she said quietly. It was not said to be humble, but because she thought it true. roana The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone

"Never think it again." Safrin said, her softly probing magic snatching the words of rebuke and upset from Roana's mind. "It should have been none of you. The detonation of the creature ... I would not have thought her to have had the forethought, all those years ago..." With a sigh, the goddess shook her head appearing weary and yet as solid as marble. "No my dear, you are undeserving of the bounty you have placed on your own head. You are strong Roana and capable of much, but you cannot control the world. Especially not this one." Closing her eyes for a moment, the goddess rallies. Whatever weakness fell over her and having healed the captain seemed alleviated, if only for the moment. "I take it you have come about the Spire?" Safrin the devil is not as black as he is painted

...you cannot control the world. A dry, mirthless chuckle escaped her lips at Safrin's words. A refrain of words she had heard all her life in one form or another. "Thank you...such a compliment means much coming from a woman such as yourself." she said earnestly. Safrin was a goddess - she was the epitome of womanhood; beauty, grace, and strength. Even now she saw it as Safrin rejuvenated herself. She rallied in the face of her mourning, her exhaustion, her struggle (for certainly even deities of such awesome power had struggles of their own). She was all Roana had ever striven to be - to see even a fraction of herself in the goddess gave her hope that she could overcome whatever lay ahead. To be clear, Roana had no desire to be a goddess, she had no desire to claim the power a deity had, just the power she needed to do what she must. She was human, Safrin was divine, and the two would never coincide. Guilt would only hold her back. Ronin would have forgiven her for putting it aside to do her duty. "I know I cannot control this or any world...but I must endeavor to change it for everyone in it." she said quietly with a small sigh, Ronin's words ringing clear in her mind. Get them out of here." He meant everyone. Not just the Outlanders. Not just the Naturals even. The deities, like Safrin too. They all deserved more than to be trapped in a cage of a land that was soon to be overburdened as more Outlanders appeared each day. "Yes, the Spire. Ronin advised me once to come see you, that you were kind and could answer questions...but first I would like to thank you for a more personal matter." she said and smiled a little. "My sister-in-law Phoebe told me you sent her a blessing that helped her survive Long Night. I...should've done a better job watching out for her myself but until recently she didn't really want much of anything to do with me." Old hurts, old slights that she hadn't done herself but Phoebe had held against her all the same. "I cannot thank you enough for doing so when I could not." Her and Phoebe might only just be getting on better terms, but Roana still cared for her. She just needed to work through her Steadman stubbornness. But back to the matter at hand. There was only so much time to act. "I am hoping you can give me your wisdom about how to breach the Spire...what is the best method, what can I expect inside, and what must I find to bring down the barrier?" A battle plan. Context. The more she knew about what she faced the better prepared she would be. The more likely she was in keeping more death at bay. Suddenly though, she realized she was getting antsy, asking a lot at once and without regard for what Safrin could or could not say. If there weren't some limiting factor after all, she probably would have acted herself - and she vaguely recalled her saying something about rules that day on the battlefield. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to rush..." she said. roana The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone

Gently Safrin laughs and shakes her head. "Phoebe is a capable young woman in her own right. But I was happy to grant her my protection." The captain's questions cause a soft frown to crease the deity's face, and long moments of silent contemplation fall between them. "I am afraid I cannot help you, for I do not know. I know that you will find more than the Voice contained within. If the demon, an age-old experiment gone wrong guarded the outside, I can only imagine what sort of trickery and broken minds you will find within. Traps, surely. I would think her own kind might be unharmed, but I do not know. It has never been breached. " For a moment the goddess seems to inwardly struggle with something, and indeed that is precisely what it is she is doing. Her and her two compatriots are meant to keep the barrier up. To not let the Spire be breached .... "Ludo has a theory that the way out is located at the top of the Spire. I however have my doubts...The Spire does not just go up, but down as well." Safrin the devil is not as black as he is painted

Roana smile a little and nodded. "Perhaps some day Phoebe will recognize that in herself." she said in agreement. The former captain waited quietly while Safrin took her time in contemplation, naturally falling into a military at-ease stance. Whatever it was about her line of questioning, it caused the goddess some struggle, based on the frown. Rules... there was a lot at play here and she was placing the goddess in a difficult spot. Rules Roana could not understand, made by the other gods, further complicated by the presence of the Voice, further complicated by Safrin's willingness to or not to break said rules and to add one more layer Roana's own ignorance. Yes, this was going to be complicated. Roana took in what Safrin had offered and chewed on it for a moment. "So the Spire goes up and down...but the barrier was not created by you or Ludo or..." Roana paused, trying to think What had Phoebe said the other one's name was? Fram? Freddy? Fresia? Frrrrrr...Gods, she hoped she would be forgiven for this faux pas, she had been inundated with so much information in such a short time it was hard to keep it all straight. But her mind did finally find the tidbit she was missing. "Or Frey. None of you three made it. Surely the Voice didn't either." She was thinking out loud, watching Safrin for any sign of her veering off course. There might be things she couldn't say but if she made a facial expression that wasn't really saying anything was it? Roana had heard there were other gods not in the bubble...they must have made the barrier and kept the knowledge from Safrin and the others... Roana was formulating a few theories of her own. The Spire went both directions..."The barrier can't be dug beneath I presume" she said, more as a statement than a question. She hadn't tried but that was a pretty obvious loophole for a god to miss. "The key to bringing it down could realistically then be at both ends of it so two teams would be best...But to get to them there will be traps...what sorts of things is the Voice capable of? The demon...it was made in a manner I have never seen before." She said, looking up at Safrin, her confusion evident. Were the likely to encounter more odd devices that looked natural at first blush but were actually suits of armor? roana The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone

With a nod, and then a raised brow, Safrin confirmed. "Correct..." She said with a slight tilt of her head. "That is common knowledge, my dear." The goddess elaborated with a small smile. "The barrier was put in place to keep the Voice and her creations ... ahh, under observation, shall we say." That was the truth after all...just not..all of it. Shaking her head a clear no at the idea that the barrier could be dug beneath, Safrin chuckled slightly. That there being a basement would lead the captain to think the barrier could be dug beneath...was perhaps worrying. "If it were so simple, I doubt that our people would have remained within for so long." She replied with a breezy shrug. Safrin twitched her lips. She walked a thin line, and while there was much she wished to tell the Captain too much of it would instead drown her before she could even begin. "The Voice is capable of...incredible things, as I'm sure you have seen so far." The mention of the demon merely made Safrin shrug and sigh. "Truthfully it was unimpressive even when it was in its prime. Confused and broken as it was..." The goddess sighed almost sadly. "It was a pity to look upon. You have put it out of its misery if nothing else. " With a somber inhale, the goddess stood taller for a moment. Without Ronin her confidence in the group of Outlanders who had attacked the Spire was shaken. Given the questions that this Captain was asking made her confidence waver even more so. "Now that you are healed, perhaps it is worth trying to seek the answers among your peers." Safrin said with a kind smile. "When it comes to the Spire I cannot help you." Safrin the devil is not as black as he is painted

Roana didn't so much as think that lower levels of the Spire meant the barrier could be dug beneath - more that it could not be dug beneath seemed to indicate that its source being either in whole or in part underground made sense. Two halves to the Spire, two halves to the barrier. One above ground, one below ground. Having them separated would make it more difficult to destroy as well, because certainly destroying one half would not bring it down so long as the other survived. What Roana was struggling with was why the source of a barrier meant to keep the Voice confined was in a place where the Voice seemed to have the upperhand with her traps? And if Safrin thought the Spire Demon had been a pitiful, confused thing...what sort of monstrosities did the Voice have at her disposal? Then again...did it matter? If that was where the source was, then that's where she would have to go to complete Ronin's task. But the Captain knew when she was being dismissed. Somehow she had erred and it stung to know it...but she couldn't expect to be well received by Safrin just because Ronin had been. They were very different people - that they had gotten along with each other had been a surprise enough to many. Her brow furrowed a little in discouragement with herself. She was getting too anxious, too ahead of herself, too hasty. It had been a mistake to come so soon after the battle before she had her thoughts gathered. Her gaze dropped to the ground. "Thank you, Safrin, for healing me and speaking with me. Your wisdom is invaluable. I will do as you say and seek out answers amongst the others. I...apologize. I will do better." she said in promise. roana The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone