The Long Road to Change

"...and Love asked me to deliver a letter soon." Her eyebrows furrowed, Adjenna thought a moment and spoke aloud to no one around her, counting on her fingers with each word, "Nothing progressing, restlessness increasing, but near Ghal Pelor. Can you set up a drop near there? Let me know and love you too." Bringing her focus back to the world around her, the dingy faded bricks of the temple spoke earth shatteringly clearly that it was no longer in use, much less clandestine. This had been the most consistent part of the Tairosian travels away from large populations, no forgotten temples to the pantheon's members had much left to any of them, and any living souls she found in them we're not connected or granted any connection like she shared with Nisaba, nor the others she had met in Frial that could call upon power, but not speak with their benefactor. This place was a long forestalled visit, Vale's house lay in silence still, hopes that somehow the quiet leader of the Gods of Tairos had managed to secret something away here, but despite the trace presence of his power here in some antiquities, like the first brick in the Kreastos of Frial she found nearly 2 years ago, the solemnity overwhelmed her.   Crumbling decay of some wooden object drew her attention across the fane, where her erstwhile companion and debt obligator Ester examined a rotting table with a momentary glance as her indifference to the place drew her focus about the room. An angel of Nisaba, drawn into Tairos by Adjenna for a conflict with a being of immense magical power, she wanted to return with Adjenna to the place where the other religiously associated beings were stuck due to Vale's Edict and engaging in internecine conflict to ascend as successor gods to their fallen masters. 'The Gods are dead or are they?' The paradox vibrated through Adjenna's brain once more, holding these two conflicting truths in hand and knowing that there was something more to that, and that they contradicted while proving one another. "Did you ever interact much with him?" she called across the silence to the dark winged angel, taking in her sublime perfection and waiting for her to erode that perception once more with her grace.   "No, we weren't runners or diplomats or anything you could put in terms of mortal life. It was her will that we performed and once we arrived here, there wasn't nearly as much will to enact with the new rules, so we stayed ready." She pauseed a moment, "The only time was our journey here, and he had Tatayne tellSandor to make much of the decisions. I think he knew what was to happen and was preparing to let him have his time in the light."   Blinking, Adjenna marveled at this casual sharing of ancient history, as dark laughter rumbled deep in her, pushing away from her reverence. Mastering herself and mentally sound proofing herself from his intrusion once more, she exhaled a quiet breath and refocused on the goal. Discovering what any remnant of Old God knowledge concerning what to do about the New God lashing out from his prison of ...her? Sandor's Ester equivalent had laid this trap for Rycroft since he knew that unbound from his body, there was no killing him with mortal powers, and even Wynte's mace barely shattered him long enough to fall prey to this trap.   His honeyed words could still be of influence, she caught him trying to speak with Ester dozens of times since that first time he convinced her to raise her dagger against Adjenna, the betrayal like an older sister turning on you. She'd managed to ignore him, age and wisdom gap not withstanding, Rycroft hadn't found any better foothold in tempting her, but when regular people were near, he could still manifest traces of his power and if Adjenna lost her concentration, make them his puppets to sow further chaos about her. Adjenna had dealt with the casual or even focused indifference of people much of her life, but keeping Ester calm enough to not seriously injure innocent people could be a task.   The hunt has had other targets too, godly power and divine beings of any stripe or source could provide additional strength to Ester for the coming conflict, and thanks to the Wish, Adjenna had found enough of that to keep Ester from arguing too strenously to leave Tairos, 'So far,' she knew. There were too many immediate concerns to take that trip lightly now: Would Sandor's prison hold if they left this place? Would Rycroft still be separated there? Could Wynte, still in his majesty on Cetna, be aware his mace was again within his reach? What with happen to the physical coalescence of Malyse's power taken from Rycroft's brother Saville that Adjenna still denied Ester? Would Nisaba's, Sandor's, Malyse's power (albeit within Rycroft) cease to interfere enough in Adjenna's imbued power for Ester to control her link to Nisaba once again? Once there, could a Gate even bring her back to her home and her loved ones once the debt was paid?   But to keep paying her portion of the bargain in the now, Ester had been guided by Adjenna to larger sources of divine power in the hunt and to an extent, a purge of Tairos. Traveler spawn, Krutilixians, Chain Maker's demons had all fallen at their hands, and where she chose to, Ester had taken the power she hungered for. But the empty temples and and dusty libraries only served to aggravate their tense stalemate for action, so Adjenna had brought them here, to a source of Vale's power, weak at a distance but something and up close, a collection of graven words on platinum pages. Valuable scrolls, yes, but new information they were not. This would serve for Adjenna's purpose though.   "Let's take a brief rest here, at least there's nothing to surprise us, besides maybe the foundation finally giving way," Adjenna took out some small tools, vials and baubles and set to work extracting the power from the item as she had finally perfected from Trevor's inspiration those long months ago. Manacite and imbued items could be rendered into their raw energy, preserving it for other use, or even adulterating it, as he demonstrated with his silly flavored and poisoned manacite sales. Two halves of a whole, deific manacite could be similarly shaped and molded to her ends, and her skill in crafting had been put to the test this long year. Rycroft's intrusions and annoyances could jeopardize her work, but similarly to the long trek across the snows while Ospher guided them to the Hag owned apple orchard while Adjenna furiously worked to keep the demonic corruption from consuming him, she had found some relief in a temple of Ssambrae's within his holy texts crucial formulae necessary for the sublimation of magical power to fuel her magical devices that would further reinforce Sandor's seal placed on her forehead within the Abbey. Reinforcing the diadem with Vale's majesty, she could make out Rycroft's complaints growing fainter in spite of her drifting focus, this would serve for a good rest. Setting down the tools and repacking her bags, Adjenna pulls a sheaf of papers instead, and writes with a quill that produces its own ink.   Ester's usual haughty demeanor absent, she calls over at Adjenna "What're you writing?" The small library of books here in Vale's fane don't hold her attention long, but Ester seems to drift about from spine to spine, casually glancing at titles and disrupting little dust.   Silent for a time after the question, Adjenna replies "She deserves a holy book just as much as any of them did." Putting a few more words down in Balmoran into the rustling paper, she continues "I just want there to be a record of what she did for me, for Tairos. And I figure that there should be a repository of all the rites and invocations I've managed to steal for our use from the other ones that already have books." She glances over at Ester, catching her eye and shrugs. "Seems like they owe her from my perspective at least."   Ester gives a faint smile, and slowly begins to approach the spreading working area, "Is this direction from that thing you hear and claim is her? or..." Adjenna gives a quick shake of her head, "No, this is my gift to her until I can find more on Malyse and the rest of family she seems to have bred." Quietly Ester continues, "The titles of these things are important to your kind, are they not?"   Adjenna stops working for a long moment, and silently begins collating the papers, evidently to stow her things back in the Haversack. She straps it closed, and stands up from the floor meeting Ester's eyes before finally speaking "I have received blessing on that topic," she emphasizes and pauses, "Our Lady of Change." She sets her jaw, waiting for a reply from Ester, expecting some quip, but Ester lets it hang in the air before walking past her towards the damaged entrance to the inner sanctum.   "I have some news, not from the school, but the sense. There's something growing in strength," Adjenna calls ahead and keeps up with the Angel easily now with her blessing of speed. "And as you happened to mention, it is Tatayne's power waxing near someplace west of Ghal Pelor." Lots of people, too many to trust that Rycroft wouldn't relish the change to hurt as many as he could to weigh upon her conscience. "It's powerful and possibly as strong on Tairos as I've ever felt from something that wasn't from here, but I can't assess myself, and I've attenuated to your presence after all this time so I can't judge that either."   Exiting into the starry brilliance of the night sky and the fresh cool air blowing from the northern steppe, Adjenna could still sense that overwhelming pressure from elsewhere. "I can out wait you, we both know that. Keep frittering your time away. Do whatever you think makes a difference, but your doom is already in motion," Rycroft's sneer is palpable. 'The temple must have been helping too,' Adjenna considers, 'either that or he was really pushing for that one.' With the veil between here and beyond thick again, her sense of Azuras was no longer as concrete as during that final bout in the deadlands of the Ethereal but like a new lodestone, she could unerringly feel the prodigal dragon god's inexorable approach.   Clasping her hands and praying to Nisaba at a low tone, she kept walking after Ester picking her way through the woods "Do we even have a thousand years, my lady? Or is it to be in my lifetime?" The gentle warmth of response lacking words but vibrant impressions and filling of her drive has always been her reminder from her guide: you are not alone; not here, not in the cage of your former life, not when standing up against the callous and cruel. Adjenna interpreted the reply as easily one understands their own thought, these 10 years on from the first time: Nisaba doesn't know, but what matters is that the next step will continue on the path set out for them both since that day. What matters in that this Ordainment has traced a clear line from the very start until now, and whatever fate will await them ahead will be as faithfully placed as the journey strode.   Murmuring a quiet thanks, Adjenna unclasps her stowed equipment, and re-weighs the heft of the shield and mace to her arms. 'Never have had a reason to doubt, but they just made it impossible to place Faith in anything that wasn't them.' Ahead, Ester has found a clearing in the wintery woods, and is waiting for her, gazing into the light snow coming down from above. Adjenna re-sets the mace in it's bonds at her waist, feeling the stirring of the entity within and exuding a feeling of hush and presence to remind it that there's still much to do before it can dream of making it's own choices again.   Drawing her broom instead and unfurling her power to cross the distance to Ester, she sets her feet in the device's stirrups, "Due south, probably a fortnight if we don't stop." Ester ascends on her wings as they grow in size from the smaller pair she had gone indoors with, "Not terribly much to avoid on the way, but once we're by the lake, there's some hostility I can sense from more of Ephias' ilk, lots of them. We'll probably want to take to the road as pilgrims before then, I haven't been home to Ghal Pelor since Ospher and I left, but unless Charity mistakes my message, we shouldn't have to go in there. She's avoiding her family too."   Grinning, Adjenna rises into the shimmering white sky, 'It's really far too pretty a sight to waste on just flying through the evening.' Then, feeling her attention drawn up at the splendor of The Pale Eye, the reflected light drew her inquisitive mind in a new direction, 'If this doesn't work out, there's definitely one other place of last resort. It would require a lot more than what Bianca is actually ready for though...'