4. Silvershield Estate

Koveras broad shoulders rise and fall with each breath. "Rieltar Anchev ends with me. I will swear everything that I am to end his tyranny and his machinations."

His fists clench, the veins in his arms bulge. "Which of the gods will accept my oath?"

Aiwë grits her teeth. "Ilmater may, if you aim to lessen suffering. Tyr may, if you strive for justice. Torm may, if you desire both justice for the wrongdoer and mercy for those led astray."

She stands in front of Koveras, staring down his anger, plenty of heat in her own eyes. "What will you do when Rieltar is dead? Which god will you serve? Which cause will you champion? If all you want is power to end Rieltar, I might suggest a god of murder, instead."

Stella shivers, reminded of how she felt after her visions of death, like the stars became baleful eyes. Watching her. Hating her.

"It was corrupting a circle of four stars—the Dukes—then bleeding death into the cosmos..." she says quietly, almost whispering.
"'The Lord of Murder shall perish,'" Stella recites, almost by instinct, "'but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sewn from their passage. So sayeth the wise Alaundo...'"

She closes her eyes, bracing for the dizziness that had accompanied the recitation at yesterday's council with the Dukes. "My visions are related to that prophecy...I'm almost certain of it. Rieltar is likely one of them...but only one of a score...and I still don't quite understand how it relates my visions."

Eyes still closed, Stella flinches at Kovera's outburst. She opens her eyes and glances at Aldous with concern.

Koveras snarls through his tusks, face twisted in rage. "I've dreamt of murder every night since he killed my mother. Every time I close my eyes I see her face." He sucks in a hoarse breath. "Killing Rieltar is the only justice I'll accept for him. I want my hand around his throat. My sword spilling his guts on the floor. I want him to know it was me as he takes his last breath and the life leaves his eyes."

He turns to the rest of the room. The few servants quail under his gaze. "I just want to be the weapon that ends him. Is that so bad? Why can he murder hundreds, and cause the deaths of thousands more, and I am called 'evil' for wanting to stain my hands just once?"

He turns again to Aiwe, and she sees in his eyes not a ferocious, bloodthirsty warrior, but a beast that knows it is caged. "Is it so bad, for me to become what he made me?" The question comes out softer. Broken. "What he... made..."

Koveras pounds his chest with one arm and sinks to his knees. "How do I not become him?"

Aldous slowly walks toward Koveras and kneels next to him, arms around the big half-orc. "It's okay. You aren't him. He doesn't have any friends like you do. We won't let you be like him."

He looks up at the rest with reddened eyes. "He isn't Rieltar. He isn't a murderer. He's just... broken."

Stella watches Aldous embrace his friend, eye-stars teal. Surely that was what being there for someone looked like. She wanted to be like that.
She nods in agreement.

"What is better? to be born a master of your craft or to learn through great effort?" Dieter asks quietly "to struggle against your inner nature is to live, to find happiness is to find victory over your enemy"

"what is stopping us from being this progeny ? Ever since we arrived we have sown death and destruction to our enemies. The dark elf said that we are tools of our enemy. I for one am not convinced that Rieltar is the ‘main villain’ of this story"

Dieter asks Stella.

"Viconia said divine blood runs through his veins; I think it's more literal than metaphorical," she says. She swallows. Divine blood ran through her veins too, albeit that of Ilmatar. She continues, but more subdued. "But it's possible. It's...it's exactly why I wanted to suppress my powers...so I could still help without being a danger. Then why I wanted to go home..."

She averts her eyes. "What are you suggesting we do now?"

"I’m not sure, is there some kind of ritual we can do or solarium we can visit to get a clear path ahead from your visions? If my gut is correct we are walking to a trap if we keep going as planned." Dieter says

There it is. The break she has been waiting for. And how can she respond, when her first reaction is anger that he might take her kill from her? Aiwë closes her eyes, takes a breath, and finds the words she knows the cleric would say. What Keggruk might say.

She kneels in front of Koveras. "He's not broken," she tells Aldous. Aiwë looks Koveras in the eye and takes his hand.

"You're not broken. You're wounded. You're caged. But there is more to you than what Rieltar tried to carve. And wounds can heal, and cages can break. I have seen it."

She stands, gently pulling Koveras with her. "Koveras and I need to cool our blood. Can you three continue without us, and let us know what you decide for our next step? I think you're on the right track." Then she leads Koveras out.

In the hall Aiwë releases Koveras' hand and gestures with her head for him to walk with her. After a minute or two of silence, she speaks.

"You'd probably prefer to have this conversation with someone else, but I'm the only Blood here, so..." Aiwë looks up at him. "Back at the mine you told me there was a life you wanted. Will you describe it to me?"

"Y—you want to use my visions more?" Stella asks, shying back. She closes her minds for a moment and exhales. "...Yes. Last night I didn't study my star charts, but I felt a shift if my powers. I think I could perform a Divination if I spend some time preparing myself. I'll need a specific question, though, about a specific goal, event, or course of action within the next...probably 7 days."

Quote:

"Back at the mine you told me there was a life you wanted. Will you describe it to me?"

Koveras, obviously struggling to come to terms with his outburst of emotion, holds up a finger. "Aiwe. I can't do this with you right now. I'm already ashamed of what you've seen from me today." He takes a deep breath and covers his face with a hand. "Literally screaming bloody murder during breakfast. This isn't who I want you to see me as."

Aldous sadly watches Aiwe lead Koveras out of the dining hall. "My friend..." he whispers to no one. "It's as though he wasn't raised by a father, but by a demon from the Abyss. And I forget, because he hides it so well. Most of the time."

He turns to the servants in the corner, who are still looking shocked and frightened. "Please, don't speak of what you just heard to anyone. He doesn't need any rumors circulating about him."

With that, he turns his attention to Dieter and Stella. "Dieter, I think you're being a little paranoid. How can Rieltar set a trap for us when even we don't know what we're doing yet?"

Aiwë laughs ruefully. "All of the times I've seen you lose composure have been my fault. You don't show anger unless I show it first, or force it out of you. My Chieftess would be ashamed of my own display, how can I judge you for the one I prompted from you?" She sighs.

"I understand that you don't want to talk to me, but if you don't... what else is there for me to see? If you don't, I can't help answer your question."

"How do I not become him?"

Dieter laughs "if you think I’m being a little paranoid you’re either very smart or very stupid. I’m being very paranoid and yet not at all. Paranoia is when you believe people are conspiring against you but they aren’t. Sadly people are conspiring against us"

Dieter looks at Aldous and smiles "if you know your enemy better than they know themselves you can fight a thousand battles without fear of loss" Dieter explains.

"You don’t win a game of Dragon chess by moving your pieces but my making your opponent move his pieces according to your will. We have been underutilizating Stella. The universe is talking to her and we need to listen."

Koveras shakes his head, looking truly puzzled. "Your fault? Aiwe, you're a fantastic bard, but my outbursts are mine. My responsibility."

He sighs. "It's not that I don't want to talk to you. Heavens above, I do. But... I tried to tell you once. I went about it stupidly. But I told you that I'm a beast. A monster. You didn't listen."

"You're not a beast," Aiwë replies impassively. She doesn't accept his hand. "You know that, and if you don't, having me to dance with and sing in your ear won't change that." She shakes her head as she takes more steps backwards toward the camp.

"I don't judge you or your struggles—you've certainly earned them—but I'm not your magic wand to fix them. You're looking at it wrong. You're looking at me wrong." She looks down at her hands, still covered in grave dirt, and an exasperated laugh escapes her throat. The fading light seems to play tricks with Koveras (and Dieter's) vision, and Aiwë becomes hard to focus on.

"You don't see me at all." And indeed he does not as Aiwë vanishes before his eyes, invisible.

Their steps takes them past the reading room, and he ducks inside. He doesn't sit, but leans against a bookcase. "I don't blame you. I'm a fool - often. I just... need you to understand that when we last spoke about this, I didn't feel seen either."

Aiwë follows him in. "I'm sorry." She sits in one of the chairs and crosses her legs in the seat. She looks up at him. "Will you let me try again?"

The universe... what?" Aldous looks at Stella as though for an explanation. "You don't think it's some sort of god or curse or something?" He taps his chin. "You're right that we haven't leaned into her visions. But she's scared of them. For good reason, it sounds like. I don't want to put her through that."

He coughs into his fist suddenly. "Though... It's not my place to say such things."

"I could give you a pep talk Stella but I think we are past that. Do you have a better idea?" Dieter says.