Anarzi smiles upon Niyut, "Thank you, young daughter of the El’vítch. Offer to you our fire and our salt should you come to our home."
Relief falls upon her face as she looks at Asulad and Yazgah and bows low. "I am Anarzi, daughter of Siraye of the Seven Stars. Heard your call I did, and felt your presence I did, my El'vitch. My Waivch. My sisters." The elf opened her hands and held them out. The goblinoid witches stepped forward each taking one of Anarzi's hands.
The hobgoblin smiled and nodded, "I am Gnisk, daughter of Nerat. I heard your voices. I felt your dreams. My sisters." She reaches out and takes the hand of Yazgah. A jolt of ether surges between them ,and both revel in the power. Gnisk delivers the ether to Anarzi and tp the goblin who, in turns, curtsies to Asulad.
"I am Māheo of the Lost. Your call found my ears. Your presence found my heart. I am Lost no more.” With a short broken cackle, she extended a hand to Asulad bearing a white rabbit. ”Oh, and I found a man though he is not of the Firebird, me thinks.” She gently cradles the rabbit, showing its eyes to the El’vitch just as Malthazir absconds the long-eared swashbuckler away. ”Hey, another elf!” the goblin exclaims with a shriek of delight. ”Meeting two of them in a single day. How glorious!”
Asulad raises a single eyebrow as she examines the rabbit in the wizard’s arms. Pointing her staff at Garidan, she begins to mutter an incantation. However, before she concludes the spell, a small glowing sphere flutters in her face. Asulad observes the vibrations and flashes of the ioun torch before continuing her spell with a simple word to calm Ruza, ”Peace.” Si’elwaght, the Soul Weaver Staff, bursts alive with bluish hue of radiant ethereal energy. She circles the tip of the staff around Garidan focusing its energies on the rabbit. It’s white hair takes on the color of the staff and Garidan is consumed by a peace not felt since before the world split. His sight begins to fade and for a moment glimpses through a portal, looking at a timeless reflection of the world. He sees his young sister’s face, smiling and laughing with her mother as all goes dark for the swashbuckler. At once, he feels his reach expand and his finesse return to his hands. He feels his feet hit the ground and reaches instinctively to his blade. The foil still rests on his hip. His vision returns with a view of Asulad smiling up at him, her face flushed with a bright light. Then, he senses his sister. Her eyes are, once again, his view of the world. Gari,you’re back!
The El’vitch turns and takes Māheo’s hand, and the five witches are linked. They speak with a single voice in a language known only to them. Primal words of Eh’se they evoke, lifting them into the air surrounded by the ether of the First Lands that bound them together. In turn, each spoke unrecognizable words that burned the minds of all who heard. Yet, the pain was fleeting and soon was gone. Niyut could not recall what she had heard and Malthazir did not retain their sounds. Each knew that they had witnessed a union of the people of this land, the First Lands, still bound to Eh’se. Suddenly, a brilliant energy arose from chests of Anarzi, Gnisk and Māheo. Niyut’s eye grew wide as she saw the living spirit of a mortal still bound to the world coalesce into an essence. The three essences circled each other, intertwining their energies until the bonded. The El’vitch held Si’elwaght aloft and the life essences allowed a portion of themselves to be consumed by it. The five witches howled and shook with enraging energy. The light of the ether cascaded over them and faded.
Asulad opened her eyes and turned to her daughter. ”My new sisters have found Yazgah and I. With your help, our spirits have come back from the binding within the ever-living dream; a binding forged by Leeluran and Prisca meant as a sacrifice to release the Bonemother and form their coven. Now, we have renewed the bonds of the five clans with Eh’se,” she says as she takes the girl’s hand. Looking at Malthazir and Garidan, she continued, ”We must not tarry here. Gathering the essences of my staff has restored the Dreaming for now and it is strengthened by our own coven, but the casting down of Eh’semghédôm has made the Dreaming unstable. It might yet fail. We must return to the Gathering Stone and find a way to bind the hags and repair the stone.”
Māheo once again squealed with anticipation. ”Another trip?!” she asked. With a nod from Asulad, the little goblin pulled a small pile of bones from her pocket and began looking through them in earnest. ”Back to the death stones, yes?” As she said this, a rustle of branches caught the little witch’s attention. ”The young human with the strange animal comes,” Māheo says without looking up.
From the south, Raektov cautiously approaches. ”Did you win?”
The daughter of the El'vitch makes the traditional greetings of gesture to Gnisk and Māheo as they introduced themselves.
She watches the formation of their coven with a wondering eye. By binding Yazgah, Asulad, and the three less fortunate witches, the Soul Bleed seems to have created a path way for mortal witches to dip into the immortal well of hags covens.
This is mystical subject in which Niyut has had an interest ever since she boiled three storm hags in her cauldron.
Great interest.
I want to examine Si’elwaght now more than ever.
But now is not that time. After the five witches establish their coven, Niyut walks over to Garidan, cupping his face gently as she examines his eyes.
Normally, one transmutation breaks another. Unwind one curse and you might unwind several.
However, Garidan's blindness had been caused by the interplay of a curse and the destruction of the Eh’semghédôm. Did her mother's counter charm free him from both?
She nods. "How may I help, mother? I swore a vow to re-raise Eh’semghédôm since it is in part my fault that it shattered. When Truk buried his axe in the uncrowned queen of nightmare's chest, it looked like she lost control of her power. Could we spin some of her power out of the Dreaming to keep her weak? What remains of Eh’semghédôm are a day's journey to the south."
Garidan has not made it a secret that he wanted some of the Soul-Bleed's essence. Trying to secure some can solve several problems.
Niyut smiles as Raektov approaches. "In part, but have been told that three times makes the charm."
Now that their diminished party is re-united, Niyut introduces each of them in turn to her mother.
Mhmm, meeting and elf is a delight for you, how curious. Malz says as he finds a safe place for bunny-Garidan.
Malz tenses for a brief moment when Asulad points her staff and starts chanting, but he quickly identifies the magic and relaxes. "Your magic is appreciated, I would need to do a great deal of research to undo..." He takes the bunny off his shoulder as he magic starts to take hold, placing it on the ground. "...such a spell. Garidan, welcome back."
Malz frowns as the words are burned from his mind. A language so secret it manipulates the minds of those that hear it. I would love to know such mysteries. Powerful applications for sure... He muses to himself.
At the display of life-essence-altering magic, Malthazir is suddenly grateful at the level of secrecy involved. His eyes flash to Niyut for the briefest of moments, wondering how the insatiable oracle would handle the existence of such magic.
"Asulad, it is an honor to meet you." Malz inclines his head respectively. "I have traveled far with your daughter and overcome many obstacles with her, and we have learned much about the nature and binding of magic with each other. It is interesting to see the source and potential of her powers." He says, a mix of caution and curiosity in his eye.
"Lead on." Malz says with a sweeping gesture. "We would finish our work here and leave things tidy." With Raektov approaching he turns to the young conjurer. "You did well to keep your distance and stay alive. It is wise to know when you are in above your head, and use whatever tricks you can manage to keep yourself safe. We...won, but we have allies to recover."
Asulad smiles at Malthazir. "My daughter's power does not come from me but a connection to a strange shadowy mystery that one day she may understand better than I. But thank you for seeing her back to me." With a polite nod, she turns her attention to Niyut. "Yes, daughter. Your help, and that of your friends," she says gesturing to the others. It will be needed to repair Eh’semghédôm... and do not fret, daughter. The stone was cast down long before you were born."
Asulad takes a seat and offers rest to everyone. While Gnisk builds a fire, she tells the tale of Leeluran's binding to the Dreaming upon the stones of the Ruination. The hag had come from over the mountains and threatened the memories of all the ancestors of the First Lands. The five tribes had united and had taken a witch from each tribe to represent her people. These witches were bound to each other, to the First Lands and to the Dreaming. For generations, each witch held a title and duty to the others. As one witch died, another was called to replace her in the covenant they had taken. The Firebird clan's witch had long held the title El'vitch, the Dreaming one. Each El'vitch had taken Si’elwaght, the Soul Weaver Staff as her bond. This staff kept the Dreaming safe from Li'luraant. It also kept the First Lands shrouded from the outside world.
The other witches each had their own role to play. The elves' protected the Eh’saertghdôm, a stone monument within the Elder Forest, much like the Ruination which the orcs had long protected. Māheo, the goblin witch was bound to the land and the Gnisk, the hobgoblin, was linked to the primordial beasts. Together they encompassed all that was the First Lands. Fauna and flora. Life and death. And the Dreams of their ancestors which surrounded all of it.
"Prisca and the ancient hag were leaching the souls of our ancestors from the dreaming," Yazgah explained. "As they drew the life essences from the Dreaming, they grew in power, and the Dreaming was fading. The First Lands were ripping apart. All that held us together was wasting. When the five sisters were taken and bound to the Ruination, Leeluran was using our own connections to the ancestors to destroy the Dreaming for all time. The First Lands would have been ruined and cast into the void... and Yrgna, the Bonemother, would have been freed." The orc witch smiles as she looks upon the three younger witches.
"When our sisters died upon Eh’semghédôm, the heirs of their power... their connection to the Dreaming was bound to a new soul of their clans," she continued. "They took the calling and felt pull of Asulad and myself. Lucky, we all were, that you found us first. They would have fallen to the hag and her minions." She conjured a green smoke from the fire. A vision of Eh’semghédôm before the stones had tumbled long ago. "The Ruination must be remade. We will need your help. Only then, can we bind Leeluran once more."
Niyut sits enraptured by the story. When it is done, Niyut asks, "Is that the first time she was known to the five clans? I have heard a story that she was of the Night Blood, a mortal witch, who discovered a pool of Witch Blood. That she drank it and ascended to be one of the great queens of the craft, but that she clashed with the kindly mothers: the Patrons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. That they somehow took some power she had attained and drove her out of the First Lands. But, if she was unknown to us before her first binding, then how did such a one arise in the lowlands?"
Restored to proper form, Garidan briefly laments the return of his blindness, but considers the change in vision an equitable trade for no longer being trapped as a small, fuzzy morsel. A bit hesitant in the company of these new people, Garidan mostly stays silent and listens with interest to the lore being shared with the party, childhood memories of Alezra's own tales of such things coming to mind. But something in their words catches his attention, causing a frown to mar his expression, and he eventually raises the matter to the others.
"Pardon my interruption here, but there's something I'm not quite getting about Li'luurant's plans. What, precisely, would she possibly stand to gain by further destroying what the Shaping didn't already thoroughly take a hammer to?" The young man waves at the starlit greenery around them for emphasis as he continues. "I mean, this is pretty much the best we've seen since this mess happened, and who knows how long it will last. And there are surely others that would survive whatever she does, take exception to her actions, and be fully capable of expressing their displeasure in a way that she can't just shrug off. So how does she come out ahead in all of this?"
"I think I can answer that. The great spirits, may their names be lost to memory, measure their relative stature against each other not only by age but by the mortals souls that sustain them. All immortals can grow in strength by incorporating more vital and spiritual energy into themselves. For tens of thousands of seasons the souls of this land have been gathered in the Dreaming to deny sustenance to the hungers of the great spirits. Better the hungers of the living ancestors who will drink your life than those of the great spirits which will consume all that you are. Her ritual intended to take and consume all the souls within the Dreaming. She wanted, I believe, the power to contend not with the living ancestors but with greater spirits. If she is a bear of the great spirit of war, what displeasure of theirs or even the other old mothers should she fear. She would have outstripped them. She would have outstripped the Primogenitors."
Malthazir politely raises a curious eyebrow in response to the explanation of Niyut's powers. Still no concrete understanding of where they come from then. Back to square one.
Malz quietly absorbs the story of the Dreaming in great detail. As they are finding themselves shouldering the burden of stitching the world back together, such details would surely end up being vital to their efforts.
"It is good to have such a clear enemy and clear goal. Niyut, you should lead out efforts here, as this is your home turf."
Malz inhales deeply. "I deeply understand her goals, actually. You have all long known me as a summoner, but the more advanced practice, the next step of my research, is binding. Something we binders learn is about the dangers via temptations from higher beings. Many conjurers thought if they gave freedom to incredibly powerful evil beings, they would be rewarded, but that is rarely the case. This Bonemother is such a creature to be wary of. One that is likely nigh-unstoppable if released."
Malz can feel the invisible imp on his shoulder digging into his shoulder with excitement, already sensing where he was going with this. Malz winces and with an annoyed gesture a disembodied yip of pain comes from above his shoulder. "I think it time I start to practice these binding rituals. I have researched them long enough, and the art I have learned is becoming quickly relevant. It is dangerous and costly work, but highly rewarding if done properly."
The oracle's response answers much of what Garidan asked, but almost immediately raises another question in his mind, which he asks as soon as Malthazir has finished speaking. "Okay, I can follow that. But where then does the Bonemother's release fit into this? Is she a beneficiary of Li'luurant's plans, an unwitting victim of them, or something else entirely? Because she doesn't sound the sort to stand idly by and let this hag surpass her power. If she is released, somehow, could we find ourselves caught up in a power struggle between them?"
While waiting on a reply to that, the young man considers what Malthazir spoke of, this binding. Something about the matter sounds entirely unwholesome, not to mention the danger that the elf himself has mentioned, and Garidan searches his memory for anything he might have learned about the subject, either through his own studies or from his parents' varied topics of discussion.
Malz gestures to Asulad. "She says that if the plans of Prisca and Li'luurant went uninterrupted, it would destroy the Dreaming and release this Bonemother, Yrgna. We thought Li'luurant was the greatest threat in this scheme, but it sounds like the destruction of this entire place is only the first step in their plan. Here we have an opportunity to nip this problem in the bud, crushing them before they release a greater power."
Many things would be unleashed were the Dreaming to completely unravel. It is possible to kill immortals. It can be far harder to ensure that they stay dead. Those old mothers we slew in the mountains were weak, nowhere near the power of the crowned queens of their kind. Left to their own devices they could eventually recreate a new body, though do not worry. They will not be left to their own devices. The oldest stories tell us that it is possible for immortals to truly die. They don't often provide exact destruction, and when they do there is little consistency between methods. My belief, and it is but a guess, is that when an immortal kills another immortal there are ways in which they still the power of that slain immortal. Mortals have to find ways to dissipate that power. That is why I believe our ancestors first did these bindings. Overtime is dissipates the power of the immortal into the First Lands. Li'luurant should have been weaker when we faced her than when our ancestors did. If she were to escape again, she would be weaker still until she would have been as easy to kill as one of those old mothers of storm. I can only guess at why Li'luurant wanted to ally with Yrgna specifically. All the other old mothers either drank the Witch Blood or are the daughters of those who did. They share what remains of Zamaz's power. The stories never suggest that Ygrna found and drank of Witch Blood. Nor do they say that she was the daughter of one of the crowned queens of thorn, storm, or any other primacy of witch's power. They tell us that she was a witch who found power 'so great that it could not be put aside. That when people tried to kill her she burned back into life.' If my theories are correct, and I do not know that they are. Ygrna's power will never dissipate over time. She will never be less than what she is. Maybe Li'luurant wanted this secret too. Maybe she thought Ygrna would share it with her."
Malthazir's talk of binding spirits made her feel uncomfortable, but she owed him her aid. For each ritual to which he lent his power, she would help him bind a spirit. Within reason, of course.
The swashbuckler mulls over this additional information with a slow nod. "I see. Well, I must say that Yrgna sharing any such secret she may possess in trade for her freedom is an awfully risky assumption on Li'luurant's part. If that is indeed her goal, and if Yrgna even has such knowledge to impart, obviously." Still, the frown still creases Garidan's brow, and he asks yet another question. "Would Yrgna be willing to impart such knowledge if she knew of the hag's plans, however? To grant another whatever it is that makes her...," and here, he breaks off for a moment to search for the suitable term, as "immortal" apparently isn't quite right anymore. "Permanent, if the recipient will also possess a degree of power that makes her effectively nothing by comparison?'
"I mean, obviously the goal is to stop Li'luurant before any of this becomes a concern, but we came frightfully close to failing in this last fight. It might well turn out that, for all of our best efforts, the hag's plans see some success, perhaps to the extent that Yrgna is freed of her confinement at the least. And facing the pair of them at the same time seems a fool's proposition. So it might be to our benefit to consider what reaction would happen if we were to loudly point out what Li'luurant has in mind and how it would impact Yrgna's newly-gained freedom."
Malz passes on the mental impressing of an approving nod to Garidan. "You are thinking along the right lines, and you may even be right. Although I would wager it more likely that the power balance is tipped in the other direction and that Li'luurant will find herself just another victim of Yrgna upon releasing her."
Malz pauses for an appreciable amount of time.
"Is there any way to understand the ritual she is attempting? If we can understand the details on a fundamental level, not only would we be able to predict what her goals are, we may even be able to disrupt the ritual in a much more nuanced way."
Garidan can't quite stifle the chuckle as Malthazir's words inspire a particular thought, and he shares the thought with a slight smile. "'Nuanced' meaning 'don't cause the ritual to explode catastrophically', right?"
"Or even to reverse it's effects and bind the Bonemother more securely than before." He suggests quietly, mind racing through the possibilities.