Gabbi hovers back a bit from the onrushing daemon, but turns her ire upon it.
"You serve a false master and will pay the price," she declares before firing arrow after arrow into its form.
*1.5=45 damage
Amnayel avoids being disintegrated, only a portion of her body getting scorched from the attack. She feels her link with Gabriel tugging on her and inhales a breath as the glaive strikes her. Redirecting the damage to herself, she helps keep the archer on her feet for a little awhile longer.
Amnayel lays hand on herself to heal her damage and tries once again to strike the Tyrant!
Gildais chatters his teeth as he sees yet more mythic power. He tries his best to dispel the protections on his former master, well aware that he's just a simple Winterwight, not Tar-Baphon, the master of necromancy and undeath.
Allie casts another spell as her sister annihilates the demon, speeding her party.
Erga of Sweirhall finishes pushing chunks of rubble aside to free Yesel of Sothis. The undead hunter coughs and gets to his feet. "Aim for his weak points!" he calls raggedly, granting you insight on your attacks against the Whispering Tyrant.
Meanwhile, Gabbi calmly unleashes a hail of arrows on the obcisidaemon. Each shot finds its mark, and with the final strike, the hulking fiend topples backwards, the ground shaking with the force of its impact!
In the air above the ziggurat, Gildais is able to strip away a few of the Whispering Tyrant's protective spells. Coupled with Yesel's advice, Amnayel is finally able to land a few solid hits, her holy blade scouring the lich's impure flesh.
"Enough of you, pest!" the Tyrant snarls. He flies back again before conjuring a forcecage around Amnayel, attempting to trap and isolate the paladin!
Allie thumps herself on the chest with her staff and grits her teeth as negative energy closes all her wounds in a single painful burst.
With a few protections down, Gildais tries to impale the Tyrant on a polar ice ray!
Gabbi speaks in a calm but resolute voice. "This has been a long time coming, Tar Baphon. But you can escape no longer. I am here as the hand of fate to deliver divine retribution upon you."
Failing to move out of the way in time, Amnayel is trapped inside of the forcecage. Surrounded on all sides, she screams in frustration and starts to beat the ever-living crap out of the cube with her sword.
While the polar ray has no effect on the Whispering Tyrant, Gabbi's fires a trio of arrows directly into his chest, managing to hit with the last attack in her barrage as well. The lich's ancient bones crack with the force of the impact, and, for the first time in centuries, Tar-Baphon has been seriously wounded.
"This has gone on long enough," the Whispering Tyrant intones. "It may delay my assault on Absalom, but I will eliminate you once and for all! Prepare to burn in Radiant Fire!"
The lich snaps his skeletal fingers, and the entire world seems to vibrate with incredible amounts of positive energy. You can feel your obols twisting painfully in your chests. The Tyrant's triumphant cackle is cut short as he immediately realizes that something is wrong. "No! How is this possible? What did you do?!?"
His sneer of rage is soon overcome by a look of both surprise and pain. The shard of the Shield of Arnisant in the lich’s hand glows with impossible brightness, engulfing his entire hand. The Whispering Tyrant claws at the ground as though to snuff out the burning brightness and keep himself anchored in place, but the glow envelops the lich and reduces his body to tatters. His scream of fury is lost in the booming explosion that rolls across the Cairnlands, an inexorable blast of searing light that engulfs you as well...
Allie doubles over as the brightness hits - her undead nature warring with the sheer power of the Radiant Fire. One trembling hand grasps the scroll inside her coat and pulls it out as she gives a pained glance at her sister.
"I love you Gabbi." She manages, before collapsing to her knees with the scroll unrolling in front of her. She chokes out the few words between heaves and then catches her sister's eye one more time.
{I'm sorry.}
Behind her a thin tear opens in the fabric of the universe and pure darkness spills out, engulfing Allie in its embrace even as the light crashes over them all.
When the battle is won, Amnayel drops her blade and shield to the ground, falling to her knees. Pulling her helmet off, she looks back to see her companions made it as well and nods.
Spreading her wings wide, she lifts her chin to the heavens and opens her arms. She inhales a long breath and holds it for a few seconds before releasing it. "The task is complete, I am ready."
As the light comes, she closes her eyes and smiles.
The brightness is almost unbearable, but Gabbi feels nothing but relief; her task is complete. Her bow no longer needed, she drops it to the ground and moves closer to her sister in an attempt to comfort her.
"I love you as well. We're here together at the end. Together forever."
She attempts to wrap her arms around her as the the darkness clutches.
Gildais says nothing, as he's overcome with radiant fire.
The Radiant Fire engulfs you, and you feel your bodies crumbling away. There is light and warmth the likes of which you have never felt before. Then, there is nothing but oblivion.
***
For a full minute, the Radiant Fire outshines the sun as the blast washes over a miles-wide swath of the Cairnlands and the Immenwood. The blast stops many miles from Absalom’s walls but leaves a devastated wasteland behind. Those who dare explore it return with tales of haunted ruins, the walking dead, and mutated animals—or they return not at all. Rumors of a single, withered hand clutching the ground in the center of the devastation are dismissed as ridiculous gossip, but the region soon gains the nickname of “the Tyrant’s Grasp.”
Absalom rejoices at having fended off another siege, though those who knew you ensure that the names of the heroes who stopped the Whispering Tryant will not be forgotten. Captain of the First Guard Rothos commissions a statue in your honor to stand in the city’s Foreign Quarter, and he establishes an annual festival to celebrate the many heroes who came to Absalom’s aid when a terrible evil threatened the whole Inner Sea region.
But the Whispering Tyrant is not destroyed. His armies have been annihilated and his plans have been thwarted for now, but there is no doubt he will reform where his phylactery is hidden and soon begin plotting further strikes against the world. Lastwall has fallen. Gallowspire is no more. It is likely the world may never be truly safe from the Tyrant's grasp...
***
One year and one day later...
Amnayel and Gabbi slowly open their eyes. The blinding afterimages slowly begin to fade away. The air is thick with the redolent smell of plants and fresh dirt. The boughs of an enormous tree come into focus, followed shortly by the smiling, wrinkled face of the botanist Miraina Olviris.
"Welcome back..."
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Gabbi looked around frantically, but the one person she most wanted to see wasn't there.
"Did ... did any others come back?" she asks. When it's explained that she and Amnayel are the only survivors a light seems to die in the dhampir's eyes. She nods in thanks at the work Miraina has done.
In the recovery weeks that follow, the normally taciturn woman is even more withdrawn, rerely offering more than a single word and even that only in response to direct questions. Most of her waking time is spent under the trees at night looking up into the sky and wondering. Where to go from here? What to do? What to be? All reasonable questions, but she never in a million years thought that she would be doing and deciding alone.
Strangely enough, it's when she's alone under the tress that she does most of her talking.
~~~~~
In all her indecisiveness, the one thing that Gabbi was sure of was that she wanted to visit the place she last saw her. Perhaps she'd receive some closure with that act. Unfortunately, when she finally reached Absalom and saw the extent of the 'Tyrant's Grasp' as it was now called, her courage failed. Without her sister and the rest of her companions, she lacked the bravery to venture into the wasteland. Unable to take that step she found herself mired in indecisiveness.
So it was in the middle of aimless thoughts that she sat at the outside table of a nameless tavern in the middile of the Foreign Quarter. On her third mead, she looked across the square at the trio of statues posed in a challenging stance. The center figure, a winged and armored woman with her sword upraised dominated the display. The other two women, like bookends, stood to her sides, each with a staff looking up at the central figure. She couldn't help but note that the two supporting figures were mirror images of each other.
"Didn't even have the imagination to create distinct figures," she said with a shake of her head.
"What's that?" a raspy voice questioned.
Gabbi turned to see an old codger seated on a bench nearby, the remains of his lunch occupying the table in front of him.
"I was commenting that the artist couldn't even bother to come up with distinct figures for the other two," she clarified, gesturing with her almost empty mug towards the statues.
The man shrugged. "Maybe so, but he got Amnayel the Avenger right, though, 'n't he? 'sides, the other two, Alexandra and Gabrella or whatever, they was twins anyways. So what difference does it make?"
"Alessandra," Gabbi corrects. "Her name was Alessandra Filosovici, She was the pretty one." No tears fall. She's already cried enough tears to fill more mugs than the tavern owns. But all those tears wouldn't bring back the rest of her soul and now nothing remained but empty ashes.
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Months later, as the Radiant Festival is in full swing Gabbi finally musters the courage to go back to the Tyrant's Grasp. As much as anything else it is an attempt to get peace and quiet, away from the overwhelming hustle and bustle of the festival - which is totally at odds with her dour mood. Standing as near as she can to the epicenter of the blast, which remains hand free she notes idly, she feels... something. Like a familiar hand on her shoulder.
The dhampir looks around wistfully.
"Sometimes it almost feels like you're still here - still next to me," she says. "I don't know what to do now. I don't know how to go on without you." Her voice grows quieter. "Is this the end of my road?"
"I hope not." A familiar voice replies. "I'd hate to think I clawed my way back here for nothing."
Spinning around Gabbi is confronted by a strange sight - a silhouette, outlined in white fire and filled with impenetrable darkness. The contrast is strong enough to eliminate any features, but the inquisitor knows instinctively that it is her sister is standing before her.
Choking back the emotion that threatens to overwhelm her and still not convinced that this isn't some sort of delusion brought on by grief, Gabbi takes a half step towards the figure. "What did you do? How are you here? Are you really here?"
"Of course I am." The figure replies, opening its arms. Her embrace is warm and solid and by the time Gabbi looks up again her sister's face is smiling at here. It's subtly different now - there's a certain ethereal quality to her skin and her features, which were always beautiful have taken on a strange level of perfection, but it is still Allie. "I am so, so sorry Gabbi. So sorry. I never thought... I... I never knew that I'd be leaving you alone so long."
The fact that her sister is here, holdable, touchable, present, seems to unleash a well of emotion within Gabbi and for many minutes she's lost in sobs as she holds Allie to her as if never intending to let her go. "W-where did you go? What h-happened?" she finally manages as the initial wave of feelings begins to slowly recede. She wipes at her eyes and nose, the occasional hiccup still shaking her.
"They got your statue wrong," she adds in a small voice.
"Wait? What?" Allie asks. "I got a statue and they did it wrong? I have to see this!"
The world dissolves around them both and in the blink of an eye the square in Absalom reappears.
"Wow!" Allie says, examining the statue. "They really didn't get it right did they? We should fix that!" She makes a wiping gesture and then the statue changes. Suddenly the three women are standing back-to-back, sword, longbow and staff raised in defiance of their foes. The statues are also incredibly lifelike, as though the heroes themselves simply froze in place.
"Much better." Allie says with a grin, "Shall we walk?"
As they walk it becomes ever more clear that Allie has been changed. In the light of the streets she practically glows with supressed radiance and the few times they pass into shadow she disappears from sight completely, only the warm pressure of her hand remains to reassure Gabbi that her sister is still present. At their slow speed it takes a few minutes before the twins soon find themselves standing across the square from the Starstone Cathedral.
"You have questions." Allie says gently. "This is probably the best place to ask them."
"I already asked them and you haven't answered yet," Gabbi replies, some of her snark slowly beginning to return. "Where have you been and what happened to you?"
Allie grins at her sister and points to the cathedral's huge expanse. "What's in the middle of that thing?" She asks. "And what happens when you touch it?"
Gabbi's eyes narrow and she turns to the cathedral. "What does the starstone have to do with anything? You weren't here; you were with me facing Tar Baphon." She turns back. "I still don't understand."
Allie grins, a wild smile of delight and suddenly she and Gabbi are standing in darkness. Below them sits a vast green and blue sphere, speckled with mountains and covered with racing clouds and all around them twinkle infinite lights in the velvet darkness. "I became a god Gabbi." Allie says, matter-of-factly. "Well, goddess if you want to be picky."
"How? When?" Gabbi demands, focusing on her questions more than the swirling wonder below her. Fear and doubt begin to cloud her face. "Does ... does this mean you're going to leave me again?" More tears threaten to fall.
"Never!" Allie replies, absolute conviction in her tone. Up here, thousands of miles above Golarion her form has shifted and is once again a black silhouette outlined in white fire. She grasps her sisters hand and Absalom reappears around them once more. Allie is standing at about eight feet tall, glowing like the sun and no-one pays her any attention at all.
"They can't see me." She says, answering the question that Gabbi had barely formed in her mind. "They don't see me because they don't know me, don't believe in me. That's why gods have churches and priests - deific power depends on followers. That's how I came back Gabbi, because of you." She lets out a long sigh. "Do you remember the conversation I had with Ulrich before everything? The one about immortality.” She gives a wry grin. ”You know I've always been an overachiever and, well I had an idea, a stupid, mad idea. Just as the Radiant Fire hit I opened a portal to the Negative Energy Plane. I hurled limitless energy at the power of four gods and then stood right in the middle." She gives another wry smile. "Like I said, stupid. But it worked Gabbi - I have more power than..." She searches for a word for a few moments and then just gives up. "But it burned me away. I wasn't a person any more – just a vessel, full of primordial power. You saved me Gabbi - I could feel you, hear you calling out for me and I just had to come back, even when I didn’t know what I was, didn’t remember you – I still knew I had to come. And then the closer I got you the more I became me. I remembered who I was, I took hold of the power inside me and bent it to my will. I became a goddess, a power beyond the mortal realms, because I had one believer. Just one person who would never, ever give up on me." Allie is back in her 'human' form now, crying droplets of pure light which leave black trails down her cheeks.
"I'd be nothing without you Gabbi. Nothing." She drops to one knee and takes her sisters hand. "I love you Gabriella Filosovici. You are my heart, my soul and the reason for my being. So I want to ask you, will you be mine? Now and forever? Will you be my Herald?"
”I will be whatever I need to be to be next to you, always," Gabbi replies, bringing the hand - and consequently her sister - up to kiss it. "Be it herald, companion, or jester." She gives a small shake of her head as she considers that idea. "Scratch the last one - I don't know any jokes." Progressing from the hand, she draws her twin in as if to kiss her but holds back at the last moment. "Whatever you want me to be, just ask."
"Mine. That's all I ask." Allie replies, pulling her sister the last few inches and into her arms.
It is, by far, the best kiss Gabbi has ever had. Her entire body tingles as though she is being suffused with life and power. It is also an impossibly long kiss, time stretching into infinity as the twins hold each other closer than they ever have before. By the time they break away Allie has lost her human form once more but as Gabbi stares into the darkness that is her sister she can see her. A smile in the dark, the flickering wink which Allie always gives when she's pleased with something.
A light clap interrupts their moment and the twins look around to see a pair of minkian looking men applauding them. Allie gives a wave and both men blush and give formal bows before walking away, hand in hand.
"I think you just found me two new followers." Allie says, satisfaction oozing from her tone. "I told Pharasma you'd chose me. Had to play the 'free will' card and everything when I asked if I could have you – it’s the done thing apparently." She grins widely. "But we’re together now and I need your help. I don't have a realm yet and there are some wonderfully promising places if we can just clear them out - but I thought we might do one thing first." She holds up one hand and through a ring of light and shadow Gabbi can see a graceful figure, crouched over a young woman. As though he realises someone is watching the figure looks up, his bloody fangs clearly visible.
"Now I can't interfere directly with mortals." Allie says. "It's in the rules, but my Herald can and I can watch. So I thought we'd go and visit Dad... if you want to?"
It only takes Gabbi a moment to comprehend what her sister is showing her. She nods once. "Just let me find a bow first and we'll go say 'Hello'." She considers something. "What are you a goddess of, exactly?"
"You know, I’m not entirely sure.” Allie replies. ”I’ve only been a goddess for… well, not long. I’m still figuring out what I am, but I do have at least one area of my own.” She points to the men, almost hidden on the far side of the square. ”Mei Rhen would be executed by his father if they found out about him and Shang Zhou, but they still love each other. That man over there,” She swings around to point to an ulfen man, dressed in furs and wearing a corslet of chain mail, ”He loves an ice witch, a relationship which forbidden by both their nations. I’m the goddess of love Gabbi. All the loves which people reject, which they tell you to hide away and never acknowledge. I’m the goddess of forbidden love." She says, her eyes still roaming the square. ”You see that girl?” She adds, gesturing to a young woman walking in the middle of a square of guards. ”She’s from one of the crime families here in Absalom. Her lover is from another family – they can’t be together without triggering a war. I’m her goddess, the one she turns to for help to see him again, even if she doesn’t know my name yet.” She looks at her sister with love overflowing in her eyes. ”As I said Gabbi, you made me what I am.”
The twins lips meet once again without conscious thought and it is another long time before they part again. ”But regardless of anything else I am a goddess,” Allie adds. "And I can absolutely provide my Herald with her weapon." She draws a gorgeous longbow from her back, where it hadn't been a moment before. The bow is pure white, with intricate shadow patterns chased down its length. The patterns shift in the light as Gabbi examines the weapon. "It'll provide arrows for you. I thought about ensuring that it would never miss, but where would the challenge be in that?" The twin-turned-goddess adds with a smile. "Now hold tight."
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At a gesture from her sister, the view of their sire expands into a opening that one could walk through. Taking the bow in her hand, Gabbi steps through the portal, feeling her clothing shift slightly in the process.
She spends a moment to take in her surroundings. It's a rented room, but clearly an expensive one. Soft cotten linens, art on the walls, well-crafted furniture, thick rugs underfoot. Although those self-same linens are now stained with blood. The blood of a young woman. Her body partially hidden underneath the bedclothes. The only other occupant of the room rose from the still form and turned as if sensing her presence.
He was handsome, distinguished even. That is, if you ignored the fangs and small trails of blood down his chin, evidence of a sloppy feeding. "Who are you? How did you get in here?" he asked. His eyes - the eyes of a predator - looked her up and down as if appraising her as either a threat or prey. Seeminging catagorizing her as the latter in spite of the weapon in her hand, he smiled and stepped closer.
"I'm sure you must have questions about what you see here, but I assure you, she is relatively unharmed and this was entirely consensual," he said in a voice dripping with honey ... and compulsion. Gabbi felt the magic wash over her and fall away without effect.
She smiled at him, showing her own fangs. His eyes narrowed slightly and she could almost see him shifting her into the 'possible threat' category.
"We have been waiting for this day for a long time. The day when we finally get to meet you and give you the greeting that you deserve," she said.
"We? Who else is here?" he asked, his eyes flicking around the room, but his slight confusion told her that he didn't see anyone else.
"Remember, I can only watch. I can't interfere directly," Allie said softly, her presence a warm flame at Gabbi's side. "He can't see me or hear me."
"My sister and I. My goddess and I," Gabbi said without clarifying. "Sixty one years, ten months, twelve days, to be precise."
She approached the bed and reached out a hand to touch the woman's neck, perposefully exposing her back to the creature in the room with her. She felt the faint pulse of the woman's life-beat. Still alive. With almost no thought, Gabbi drew upon her connection with her twin and felt the healing energy flow into the woman. The wound in her neck closed and she breathed deeper.
"Don't you remember?" she said, turning back towards the vampire. "It was that long ago in the little village of Rosler's Coffer. A young woman? The town's sole priestess of Pharasma? Anything coming to mind yet?" Her grip tightened on the bow in her hand and she could feel the power coursing through it.
"Rosler's Coffer?" the man questioned with distaste. His brow furrowed slightly. "Wait, was that that little fly-speck of a town in southern Lastwall?" His eyes looked away for a moment as if attempting to recall details. "Ah, yes. A beautiful sylph of a girl, barely out of her teens. Hair of midnight, eyes of green." He gave a slow nod. "Yes, it's coming back to me now." The man took another look at Gabriella now, seeing her mother in her visage.
"So, she had issue," he said with a grin. "And that issue turned into a quite attractive daughter."
"Allie's the pretty one," Gabbi replied instinctively.
"Who?" the man questioned, his confusion clear.
"My sister. Our mother had two daughters - twins, in fact. My name is Gabriella Filosovici. My sister is Alessandra."
"I don't really care, my dear," he said with a smooth smile. "I would simply ask what you wish with me? You've got your own lives, clearly, so get on with them."
"I think the dawn would be an appropriate reward, don't you, Dear?" Allie suggested.
"We will. We've just come to deliver to you the just rewards of your labors."
The man chuckled. "My 'labors', as you put it, are their own reward. I have no need of further recompense."
"Oh, but we disagree," Gabbi said and moved to stand in front of the large curtained window. She pulled the curtains open wide and looked out at the eastern horizon that was only now showing a slight pink as the sun slowly rose hidden behind the mountains. "Come, look," she said.
The man approached and slid an arm around Gabbi's waist. She resisted the urge to flinch away. "It's not a sight I appreciate, my dear. It's been a long, long time since I've taken pleasure in the rising of the sun."
"Yes, and that we think is something you deserve. You should stay here and watch it one last time."
"I think not. How about we retire somewhere more private and discuss you ... and your sister."
Gabbi turned to him, focusing her will upon his. "No. You will stand here and watch until the sun hangs brightly in the sky. It's the least gift we can give you."
"Now you're being silly. I'm not going to ..." the man began before a frown crossed his face. His intent had been to step away from the window, but he found himself unable to do so. Feeling the magical compulsion seep through him, he instead attempted to shift his form to mist, but still he was unable to muster the will to deny Gabbi's request.
"What have you done to me?" he demanded. "Release me!"
Gabbi turned out of his hold and slipped her bow over her shoulder. She put a hand to the woman's cheek and was happy to feel warmth there. "I will do no such thing. You've worked very hard for your reward and nothing and no one will stand in the way of you receiving it. Such is the judgement of the Radiant Twins."
"There's no need for your cries of joy to disturb this young girl, though. I think we'll move her to a different room," she said as she slipped her arms under the woman's slender form and lifted her from the bed.
"You can't leave me like this!" A note of desperation was creeping into his words. "There are things you should know. Secrets only I can tell you. You must release me!"
"There is nothing we need from you," Gabbi replied. She walked to the door which Allie opened and then closed behind her to allow their sire to be alone to greet the dawn again for the first time in centuries.
~~~~~
Having depositing the recovering victim in a different room, Gabbi turned to her sister with the expectation of Allie opening up another portal. Instead, Allie was looking her up and down with a not-so-subtle grin upon her face. "What are you looking at? What's ...?" It was then that she finally noticed the air on her skin that had gone unnoticed before. Where she had been wearing loose trousers and a roughspun tunic, she was now garbed in something more revealing. Silk, or something very much like it wrapped across her chest in an 'X' pattern, just covering her breasts. In place of the trousers was a dark pleated skirt that stopped mid-thigh. Instead of her comfortable short boots, her feet and calves were covered by laced, high-heeled boots that rose to just over her knees.
"What in the hells is this?!" she exclaimed, gesturing in confusion at her outfit.
Allie gestured for her to keep the volume down so as not to wake the sleeping girl. "It's all part of the image, my love," she said, unable to keep the smile from her face. "My herald can't go around looking like they stepped out of a commoner's second-hand tailor shop. Besides, with the magics in them, they'll protect you at least as well as the armor you had before."
She looked her twin up and down again, biting her lip. "And this look is totally you."
Gabbi laughed. "Only for you would I wear something like this. Only for you."
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"Amnayel." The voice comes out of nowhere as the paladin relaxes after her devotions. "I hope I'm not interrupting."
Amnayel doesn't often hear voices in her head, so when she's interrupted by a familiar sound that she can't place a first, she looks around for the source. Finding none, she calls out "It is I. Who goes there?"
"Sorry. I still forget about that." A figure appears in front of the naked paladin, a dark silhouette outlined in vivid white fire. As Amnayel instinctively shields her eyes the light dims and Alessandra appears, looking almost exactly as Amnayel last saw her. "Hey Amny." The dhampir says, smiling. "You're as beautiful as ever."
Amnayel is not alarmed by her current state of dress of course, slowly rising to her feet as the light diminishes. ”Alessandra? What-" she stammers, looking at her wide-eyed. Her amazement fades and turns into a frown, moving her hands to her hips and looking around. She declares sternly "Who dares to play such cruel jokes on me? Reveal yourself at once and apologize or you will regret it!"
"There are much crueler jokes I could play if I wanted." Allie replies. "But allow me one question, please. How do you know Arshea? What did she do to convince you of her existence and her power? How did she earn the devotion of a beauty like you?"
"You live?" Amnayel asks, bewildered. "How? You did not return when Gabriella and I did? Three months I waited. Yet. You are here now? How? It matters not!" Forgetting her question, the paladin rushes towards the woman to throw her arms around her in a tremendous hug.
"It wasn't my choice." Allie replies from within the hug. "I... couldn't come back any earlier. I'm not who I was before Amny. I'm more - much more." She reaches up and presses her lips to the paladin's. The kiss imparts more than just feelings, a vast flood of memory and sensation rushes through Amnayel's mind, straining the corners of her psyche for a moment before it retreats as quickly as it came.
When Amnayel returns to her body she's flat on the floor with Allie crouched over her. "Now you understand." The goddess says, no question in her voice.
Amnayel blinks twice, slowly rising to her feet. She stares at Alessandra for a moment before nodding in ascent, "I. I do." She shakes her head slowly back and forth and says, "I do not know what to say. I am thrilled to have you here, alive, but yet, you are not. I... I am in awe of you." she finally admits, searching for the right words.
"You don't have to say anything." Allie replies crossing her legs and floating about two feet off the floor as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "But I came here to ask you something. If you could see your sister again, would you want to?”
Amnayel gasps, her eyes opening violently. Her right hand goes to her mouth to cover it and stop whatever words she would speak from ever becoming vocalized. The paladin does not know how to respond to this and simply stares at Alessandra, but truth be told, she's staring past her as her mind tries to process what she was just told. As her heart pounds in her chest, she looks upwards to the heavens and says softly "If this is a test, I am failing." before letting her gaze fall to her lap.
"It is not a test Amnayel – but a gift." Alessandra replies with a smile. "It is forbidden, but I am forbidden love so who can gainsay me? Now show me your sword."
When the paladin complies the goddess hold the blade gently in one hand. "Laiayel has never left you Amny. She's always been with you, lending you her strength when you needed it. I can't bring her back, she has received her final rest and true reward, but I can help you both to do this much." From the sword rises a shimmering golden form, seemingly made of tiny weaves of light. Laiayel grasps her sister in an intangible embrace which has no physical form but fills Amny with warmth and comfort none the less.
"This is my gift." Allie says, "Love is not to be denied, no matter what the world says of it. Take your time together, I will return tomorrow."
Tears explode from Amnayel's eyes as she begins trembling. "Laiayel!" she cries out, letting the warmth of her sister fill her body. She collapses to the ground, clutching the blade against her chest, letting it rest against her skin. Something between cries of joy and moans of ectasy come from her body as her mind tries to process everything that is going on. She lies there for an unknown time and she finally opens her eyes, Alessandra is gone.
Alessandra reappears the next evening as promised. It appears that being a deity has improved her sense of timekeeping. "I'm glad you two have been so happy together." She says with a smile. "She'll always be able to come and see you now.”
Amnayel's smile is heavenly. She stands and walks to Alessandara to embrace her. Resting her head on her shoulder, she inhales a deep breath while keeping her arms wrapped around her. "I can't thank you enough, there are no words."
"You don't have to. This is what I do now." Alessandra replies, pressing a kiss into Amnayel's hair. "I'm just glad that I've been able to do it for you - more than anyone else I know you deserve it. Live well Amanyel and if you ever need me, well..." The dhampir grins as light blossoms around her. "A prayer will always find me."
Amnayel breathes a sigh of relief and gratitude at Allie's words. "Thank you, Alessandra. Your gift means more to me than anything. If you had told me today that I could only keep her by swearing to you and giving up Arshea, well..." She lowers her head and doesn't actually say the second half of the statement, either due to the fact that she would have been willing to give up Arshea for her sister or some other unspoken matter.
After raising her head she smiles and says "Thank you. Likewise. Should you ever need of me, I will come." She moves forward and places both hands on Allie's cheeks, connecting their lips for one final kiss goodbye. "Give my love to Gabriella."
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And thus, a tumultuous chapter in Golarion's history comes to a conclusion. The story of the heroes who thwarted the Tyrant is over, but there are many more stories still to be told...