>>5872745>>5872694>>5872469>>5872245>>5872237>>5872224“Master Van Houtzmann?”
You return to reality once more. Clanirae is watching you expectantly. You can see the curiosity on her features. It’s at least a confirmation she can’t ACTUALLY hear what you’re thinking, which is comforting. You have enough complicated entanglements with women in your life.
“It’s nothing,” you say, a bit brusquely. “I… WE will defend this place. We did it once, we can do it again—however many times we have to.”
A moment of silence passes, the priestess obviously waiting for something more. She might not know what you’re thinking, but she surely senses the discomfort and turmoil. Izzy… You miss her. Thinking of her makes your very being ache to see her again, or Costella, or both of them. But that’s exactly the reason you can’t bring her in on this. You NEED to regain your independence, your autonomy.
“Then I suppose we had better get some rest,” the priestess eventually says, with a stretch and yawn.
“Yes,” you agree dourly, “we should.”
The pull of Izirina Henzler… That’s as good a reason as any NOT to call upon her. It’s a product of her trickery, her selfish pursuit of goals beyond your own and without consulting you. What would she do if you brought her here? Help you, certainly. There’s no doubting that. But THEN what? And anyway, diving right into another dimension, a dimension created by the sort of powerful fey entity who could CREATE such a thing? Without intelligence on the enemy? Frankly, it sounds like suicide. Better to stick to your strong suits, here, where it’s somewhat safe.
These and other thoughts—regrets, aspirations, lamentations, justifications-circle in your mind as your drift off to sleep. You dream troubled dreams—dreams of Izzy, of Costella; you dream of embracing them both, and of their warmth, and of that warmth fading away as you clutch and grasp for it out in the deepening cold which is their absence. You dream dreams of moonlight, and of fluttering moth-wings, and the silhouettes of owls. Dreams of circling predators in the dark, and of lightning strikes, and of tumbling stone.
