Kalyani held him close and smiled. "I won't let anyone in, just rest." It wasn't even a peaceful rest that the man went through but she held him there and cared for him. It reminded her of her times with Zanar when he was rather reckless. The time spent with the swordsman had been a lot more enjoyable then with Sirian. Maybe it was because the man had a human heart to him. They would have fun even doing the wash, pushing each other other the water and laughing the day away.

Her smile went away as she remembered the fire and how he was just suddenly gone. She had lost her last gypsy wagon that way… and who ever had attacked put an arrow through her beloved white horse. That wasn't what hit her hard. In the struggle to get out of the burning wagon she couldn't find Zanar. She got outside and she had screamed for him. She found herself alone again, just like always, and her heart was heavy. She was distraught for a long time after that and found comfort in someone like Sirian needing her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep remorseful breath. Where was Sirian? Where was Zanar? She lightly gripped Sebastian closer to her. His word woke her up out of the depths of her thoughts. "We can go see Angela immediately but there's no guarantee that the goddess will let us straight to her temple. If she is busy, we will have to undergo the trials."

She put him down in the bed and covered him up. "Just try to rest more. I have to get us to an archway but before that find someone to watch my Sehr and wagon." She stroked back his hair and smiled. "We'll get you help." Leaving his side she went down and got out onto the seat pulling the reigns on Sehr.

"To friends Sehr," the words were spoken in Arriese. It took a bit of time to reach an outpost of Rosenites but she talked with them and before long she was up in the cottage getting him out of bed and dressed. "Take it easy. Angela's temple is a long walk." She supported his weight and took him out of the wagon to the rose covered arch in front of them. It seemed to go no where but she knew otherwise.

"Alright…" She had never gone through the trials before and knew Angela would make him do it, and in turn she had to as well. Taking the step through the empty archway they were transported into the deep abyss. The only light was the jade steps below them and the clusters of fireflies about in the darkness.

Her eyes turned up to the statue of Angela. "See the Mother? That is Angela. Her arms always welcoming." That was when the children's laughter became to happen. "This is the first trial. The visions of the future come here… Your children and Mine as well." It was hard to think about as the vision of a little boy ran down the stairs towards her. He had a toy sword and the darkest hair. Kalyani closed her eyes, the kid looked like Zanar even. "There's no way. He's not alive."

The half-sleep that enveloped Sebastian was not wrought with nightmares; at least, not the sort that had come when the poison almost accomplished its intended purpose. He did not return to the Betwixt, that river between life and death, nor the strange, twisted countryside that lay somewhere Beyond. Not a land of dying sun and dead leaves did he return to, but one of slain innocence. His past that his spirit remembered, but his flesh did not.

At a point, it all become so jumbled. So…convoluted, that he was not sure what he was seeing any more.

There were grain fields. Paint brushes, making sensuous shapes upon a canvas by his hand. He had never taken up visual art, though. Not that he remembered.
He also did not remember how he learned to fight. He only knew that he could - and quite well, at that.

Fire. There had always been fire. No matter which life he was looking at.

Kalyani was always there to comfort him and keep the toxin at bay whenever he had felt himself slipping too deeply. The gentle rocking of the wagon, and the rhythmic sound of Sehr's hoofs on the road outside had begun to lull him into a blessedly dreamless slumber. The time had passed like a blur, for no sooner had he shut his eyes, they had reached their destination.

Walking was…difficult, but he could manage. He leaned on Kalyani for support, only at first. Sebastian's head pounded in time with his heartbeat, and his whole body felt ablaze. Every muscle proved difficult to control, but with enough willpower, he found he could stagger down the darkened path without aid. He felt small fingers lace into his. He was about to protest, for Kalyani had done enough for him. He could make this trek to the temple without burdening her. Only, he realized, it was too small to be her hand.

Silvery eyes looked up into his when he looked down. The eyes of a young girl, with dark hair, wearing a white sun dress. Her eyes reminded him much of the vampire's that haunted his nightmares at times. They looked more like the eyes of a Rosenite, but not what he had read about or seen before. The unnatural shade they were normally did not take up the entire iris. She did not speak, but only squeezed his hand comfortingly, guiding him along.

Sebastian's gaze looked to the statue before them in wonder, through the multitude of lightning bugs overhead.
"You have been here before?" he asked Kalyani. "How did you ever find it in yourself to leave?"

Kalyani helped him move the best she could. There was a part of her that had seen too much death and wanted to help him above all else. She looked down to the child who was now escorting Sebastian and winced a bit when he asked her. "In the words of Angela, this is what could be not what is. To have these dreams come true we must leave and let it happen. Though my first time here Angela's daughter was actually here and was being a little ass." Kalyani chuckled.

"Iva is five and tends to play here. She doesn't see children because her fate string is too young but she is the youngest of all the goddess's children so she doesn't have many playmates her age. I think she wants to play with the children here but doesn't yet understand everything about this place."

Kalyani moved up the stairs and finally they reached the archway to the next trial. She turned to the little boy. "Who are you?" The look he had. The smell he had. She knew that smell and look. "Your father I mean." She knelt down and pushed his hair back. He just gave her smile and giggled towards her as he embraced her. She was scared but eventually hugged him back.

"You'll find out someday."

It was impossible. She let the child go and gave him a smile. "Then I will see you one day." She stroked his cheek and let him go into the abyss. It broke her heart. "I've never seen him before. Always a blonde girl… Fate strings change a lot but…" She took a moment to breath before taking him into the other area away from the children. "I know his scent. His father is Zanar… and he died a long time ago, at least to me." Or did he?

They were in the caverns now. Giant crystals sprawled from one end of the walls to the other. "Let me help you. This will be faster if we can get through this without hurting you too much." She helped him through the crystals until they reached the end of the cave. The saltflats were after that and she couldn't tell what was up or down. The water was like a mirror and the only reason she could tell she wasn't standing on the sky w s the ripples at her feet. "This place makes me dizzy."

They moved quickly and finally she found the sprawling wheat fields. Members of the clergy were out cutting it down and gathering it. "We're halfway now." She took a deep breath before turning to him and checking his wound. "The next part is being rebirthed or at least the senses of it." 

She helped him up the mossy stairs after they got through the endless fields. "She out does herself with this place… Angela always has. I am older than she is, I remember her birth being celebrated and I asked Bryony, my adopted mother, why she was so special. Bryony told me that each child was special but Angela's birth was predicted to be extra special. She graduated the top of her class from the healing academy at sixteen and ascended when she was eighteen. The oracles have always been right like that."

The next arch came and there was dead silence. She held onto him tightly now. The air was hot and sticky like the tropical forest. As they walked the dead silence began to leave and slowly the bird began to chirp and the area around them became lighter. Finally the voices of their mothers filled the air as they sang their sickly sweet lullaby. "I always wanted to hear her voice… When I first heard it I cried. My mother died during childbirth, she was an elf, and my father was a Rosenite. It was still on the edge of taboo at the time but it was more accepted. My father died in war not long after that and Bryony took me in."

She didn't want Sebastian to get lost in the magic of this whole place. "Alright… We're here after this arch." She took him through and they were standing on the long bridge. The warm mahogany woodwork always made her smile. It was the dead of night now and the bridge was lit up the same cluster of fireflies. The rushing water of gorge below filled the air. In the distance the great tree stood. Its branches reached high into the dark clouds of the midnight sky.

Getting closer the temple itself could be seen as it was one with the tree. The windows held a warm inviting light. "This whole place is artwork, isn't it?" She turned and gave him a smile as  two clergy members opened the tall doors for them.

"Lady Angela is waiting for you in the throne room," the younger one said to Sebastian. 

"It's good to know she's so informed about what's going on."

"Perks of seeing everything in this place, I suppose," the girl answered Kalyani as they got led deep into the tree temple. Going to a set of large stained glass doors the clergy opened them and let the two inside. The red haired goddess sat in her thrown of twisted wood and flowers reading a book to a young red head. 

"Iva, it's time for bed. Remember, I told you when Kalyani got here with her friend you needed to go for the night," the goddess's words were calm as she kissed the top of the child's head.

"Can't I stay and watch?" Iva's curious little voice sprang up as Angela slid her onto the ground.

"Absolutely not," Angela tapped her on the nose before motioning the clergy to help put Iva to bed. The child groaned and left unwillingly. "I am sorry that you had to endure my trials. I'm sure that Kalyani has told you that I am Angela."

Sebastian stared after the little girl as she followed Kalyani's figurative child into the surrounding void. She turned to him, and waved shyly before vanishing completely. He waved back, slowly, in a stupor that extended beyond the poison coursing through his veins.

In a very real sense, Sebastian had been running all his life…Traveling the world, worrying about other people's problems. There were times, however, when he had been forced to confront a past and a nature he did not fully understand - like now, for instance. Something about this place gave him the feeling that more than just his wound and the poison could be healed. He could not chalk it up entirely to his intuition, for he was in a place of divinity. He could feel the influence of the Goddess that dwelt here, even this far from the actual temple.

This raised the question in his mind - what was ascension, really? As Kalyani spoke briefly of Angela's history - her family's history, he pondered over this question. Was it a state of consciousness, or were outside forces at work? As far he could tell, it boiled down to possession of a will so powerful, that one's dreams and essence became reality. Truly a thing to be feared and admired, yes; but he knew that even deities had their limits. The World Tree that he had gleaned knowledge of from dreams and reading was the only sentient physical being that had the closest thing to omnipotence that he could think of. Its consciousness was the planet's consciousness.


Secular reasoning did little to quell Sebastian's sense of awe as they traversed the Goddess' trials.
His eyes lingered on the expanse of colors before them in the cavern before he was stirred to movement. For now, he felt he could make the entire trip. He'd asked Kalyani if it was safe to drink of the fountain here, as it was a trial, after all. He drank freely, and had felt somewhat refreshed until they had reached the salt flats. He shared her sentiment about the place, stumbling several times from her support, face-first to the ground. Nonetheless, he persevered.

The wheat fields, more than any wonder he could have witnessed, gave Sebastian the most pause. Since his mind was hazy, he had to grip Kalyani's hand to be sure he had not fallen in the previous trial and had not gotten back up. Tears almost came to his eyes, regardless. Several of the workers tending the fields gave him an odd sidelong glance here or there, but mostly kept to their duties. He was not staring at them. Only at the rolling fields of grain. "Reminds me of home, a long time ago," he commented, somewhat breathlessly. The physical exertion was beginning to take its toll. It got worse after the next arch.

The air was thick and humid. Kalyani's voice kept him moving. This was turning out to be more of an emotional journey than he had imagined. "I'm sorry," he told her, after hearing of her parents. It was becoming more difficult to speak. His throat felt tight. "I know what that's like…I'm glad there was someone there for you. Did…a good job bringing you up, I'd say."
He dropped to his knees. Forcing the words out, and hearing the falls and the singing had caused him to wretch violently. He had nothing in his stomach to expel, so he only dry heaved.

The remainder of the trek seemed like a blur. He remembered nodding to a clergy member when he was addressed, but he did not remember what they had said. He remembered seeing fireflies a second time. Had he collapsed at the very start of the trials? Were they now back at the beginning? Maybe he had dreamt it all up.

Angela, in all her glory, stood before him, the very picture of sublime. No…two Angelas. Three Angelas. The tenement hall spun, his vision fading. He heard her voice, introducing herself, but could not form any words. He knelt before her. He tried to raise his arm, but it would not budge.

"Se…Seb…" he managed to choke out, before sinking onto the floor, darkness taking him.

Angela was no fool not to think of everything beforehand when Sebastian entered her realm. Moving calmly as the man spoke she was ready to catch him in her arms. Kalyani reached only to realize Angela had been planning for this to happen. “He’s alright Kalyani but you should probably hide with us. Bryony is visiting and she said something about a hag and killing you first.” There was a nervous gulp from the halfling as the goddess pulled Sebastian into her arms like a child. “This way,” she sang it as they moved into her bedroom.


It was after all the safest place for Kalyani to be until they were able to deal with the wrath of the oracle. Angela’s room wasn’t much of a room at all. There was a dampness to it as a waterfall roared in the back. The water gave off steam as if it were a hot spring. In the middle of the room was a large four post bed decorated in the finest silks and pillows. With a heave she tossed him on the bed and it made Kalyani yell at her.


“Oh hush, what else could go wrong with him? It won’t kill him and in the position he is in, he can’t feel it either.” There was a grave look on her face as she went over to the opposite end of the room. It was lined with potions, wines, her floating golden cornucopia, and all other sorts of trinkets. She grabbed a few bottled and batch of herbs before blending it. “His mind is certainly taking a toll from the fight. I can tell just by looking at him but not only that he’s physically exhausted. This should help him sleep easily and make his mind strong.”


Making a rather bitter drink she came over to him and lifted him up just like how Kalyani had. “Okay, you won’t like this.” She let him drink the whole thing and even helped him swallow. After she got done with that she undid his bandaged wound. “You used our blood to cure the toxin?” Kalyani nodded and Angela sighed. “Would prefer if you didn’t do that since it makes a mess but you did good with what you had.”


Taking a rag soaked in water from her hot spring she washed his shoulder free of Kalyani’s blood before using her magic to heal the wound further. “Alright, it is my advice that he rests here and stays here for a bit… You, however, should probably get out of here before Bryony finds you and strangles you. I don’t want to know what you did or didn’t do but shoo.” She moved her hands in a good-bye motion and laughed.


Kalyani and herself left to let him sleep. Angela sent Kalyani back to the over world before she was slaughtered for being trouble. Angela rested in her throne room and periodically checked in on him.

Sebastian would have preferred a visit to this place under less dire circumstances. Now, though, he could not complain. He slept deeply, and blessedly without dreams. It was the best slumber he'd had in…well…ever, actually. Where normally he would avoid resting for too long, here, he found he never wanted to wake up.

The room slowly came into focus as he opened his eyes. What he noticed immediately was his lack of clothing. He had probably been stripped by the clergy. His clothes were filthy, and his shirt and overcoat had the puncture tear in them that needed mending. He'd hoped his effects would be sitting nearby somewhere, but they weren't. His face contorted as he yawned and stretched. There was a sour pallor to his pallet that made him a little queasy. The large bedside table was covered with bottles of all colors, shapes and sizes, containing what, he knew not. Best leave it all alone.

Sebastian rose from the bed, and strode towards the curious spring on the other side of the room. He reached his hand into it, and drank from his palm, sloshing the water about in his mouth before swallowing. He also splashed his face a few times, running his fingers through his beard and perpetually mess hair. He felt oddly clean, considering how long he'd gone without bathing. Glancing about the empty room, he lifted his arm and smelled himself. Was that…roses? Chuckling a bit, he sauntered back over to the bed, and pulled one of the silken sheets off it. He stopped short when he saw only unbroken flesh where the dagger wound should have been on his shoulder. He touched at it thoughtfully.

Wrapping himself in the sheet, and creating a makeshift kilt for his lower half, Sebastian ducked his head out the door into the hallway cautiously. "Kalyani?" he called out, his voice echoing. "Angela…?"
The floor chilled the bottoms of his bare feet as he wandered out into the temple.

Angela held up her hands towards a rather distraught Rosenite. “I’ll find her! I know you are hiding her in here! I may not be able to see that girl’s future but I can see her ass getting paddled into next week!” Bryony was furious as she thought about her adopted daughter’s reckless move. The goddess was chuckling now as the oracle grabbed her glaive and stormed out of the room.


“Kalyani!” She kicked the first set of doors in to find two clergy members having sex. “Oh get a room.” She was too angry to realize she was the one who burst into their room. The Rosenite had heavily tanned skin and long raven hair. A robe was tied around her but it only had one sleeve on it. It looped under her other arm to her hip where it tied. Her breasts were bandaged so they weren’t slipping out of it. It was cream with gold detail on the ends.



It was her strange blue eyes that first landed on Sebastian. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Put some damn clothes on,” she was about to take the staff end of the glaive and jab it at his toes. “Wait fucking minute! You are the little bastard that helped Kalyani aren’t you?” She let out a groan and mumbled under her breath. “Thank you for helping my idiot daughter. Guess Angela really did let her get out of here then if you are all alone.”

The sudden crash brought Sebastian to a halt. He looked on in horror as an armed, and extremely ired woman strode around the corner and down the hallway in his direction. His Autumn gaze met her watery blue one. Standing awkwardly in silence a moment to gather his bearings, a spark of recognition came to mind when the woman mentioned her daughter. He remembered what Kalyani had told him on their journey up to the temple.

"You are…Bryony, correct?" he asked, the stirrings of a smile playing on his features. "Your daughter's just lucky we were headed in the same direction at the time is all. That hag knows how to brew a toxin with a wee bit of a punch, let me tell you. I'm Sebastian, by the way."
Sebastian closed the gap between them and extended his hand, while holding the sheet in place with his other hand. There was still some modesty to his demeanor, but he mostly did not pay much mind to the state he was in. Not when he knew he was in good company.
"Kalyani left, then? Is Angela still about? I was hoping to thank her. I was nearly a goner. Getting my clothes back would be good as well. If the clergy went about tending to them, that's really too much. I'm quite capable of mending and washing my things. Plus, these sheets feel a touch too fancy to have wrapped about my bare person. Would you mind taking me to her?"


Bryony was clearly very protective of her daughter. He admired that. He only hoped he could ease her mind a little, so she would not be too hard on her when they did inevitably meet again. Besides, it would take his mind off of the disturbing visions and feelings he had experienced in his brush with death. What he had felt under that terrible, dying sun…on that barren, twisted earth…it felt worse than dying. Sebastian shivered at the thought, and started walking in the direction he had seen her come from.

"While it's true I would have never wound up in this mess if it weren't for Kalyani, I would also be dead if not for her. I was a bit careless in being overly cautious with the hag. I should have been more direct. She was dealt with, though, and that's what matters. It needed to be done, whether she had been after your daughter or not. Many lives were lost to that dagger, I'd wager."

Stopping her rage for the moment she took a deep breath. “I know who you are. The spirits tell me a great number of things about you, but yes I am Bryony.” She settled her glaive down and the teeth and rocks that hung off it made a clatter. The staff itself had many carvings on it. “Hags tend to know a lot more than just toxin, it is a good thing you dealt with her quickly.”


She took his hand and chuckled at the sheet now. “Angela can afford to get new sheets trust me.” That was the first thing she responded to but another sigh left her lips. “Angela told me Kalyani was distressed about something when she left. Probably not over me being here but still, I worry about her. To be honest if they were too much of a mess they probably got you new clothes. The clergy here are very helpful in that manner. No amount of sacrifice is ever too great for them. I just got done talking to Angela so she should still be around.”


She began to walk with him and chuckled. “Kalyani has always been rather reckless. It makes being a mother to her harder than you can ever imagine. I thank you for dealing with the hag, that was very brave. I’ve dealt with many in my centuries of life and none were ever pleasant.” Bryony’s eyes looked him over well and good. “Angela did a good job patching you up. When I went against the sand wurms of the desert I had just about lost a limb, you can’t even tell now. All thanks to Angela that is.”


Finding Angela wasn’t that hard. They made their way to one of her many gardens. There she stood snipping flowers. “Going to his grave today?” Bryony stabbed her glaive into the ground.



“Always, glad to see you’re done being a bitch. You absolutely terrify me when you go off like that.” The women laughed and Angela smiled up to Sebastian. “It is good to see that you are well. I checked up on you several times during your sleep. Kalyani has departed for now but Bryony can probably escort you around if she has the time. As for your clothes, I’ve sent for new ones they should be coming any moment now.” She waved a pair of gardening shears around.

"When we first met, Kalyani mentioned something about finding a lost lover," Sebastian offered. "That was why she went about acquiring the wagon from the hag. I remember though…she seemed more than surprised at what she witnessed in the first trial up to the temple. It brought up the memory of someone forgotten…Zanar, I believe she said, if that means anything to you. Might start there."

Sebastian kept what he had seen in the trial to himself. The mere concept of having seen anything at all boggled his mind. He rarely, if ever let anyone in close enough to become intimate. His relationships had always been few and far between. Guilt would have hung over his conscience, if it weren't for the knowledge that the child he saw was yet to be. Bryony spoke of spirits telling her things about him though, and he wondered just how many things that may be. She had not tried to peer into his thoughts. He would have felt it.

"Centuries…? Hm."
He found himself giving Bryony second and third looks as they walked, both over mention of her age, and the injuries that she had suffered at one time.

Sebastian tilted his head and observed with a grin as he watched Bryony and Angela interact. He was yet an outsider, but he felt welcomed not into a temple of a divine, but in the house of, quite possibly, the largest family in Revaliir. He bowed his head to Angela.
"I cannot thank you enough. I only regret I could not see the trials and sleep in such an extravagant bed for longer, in a healthier state. I should hope you still have my jacket about, at least? I've…a bit of an attachment to it. It was made for me by someone that was very close to me. Hematite buttons and all. Judging by what I've seen in the room I awoke in alone, I need not explain the esoteric meanings of stones to you. I can mend it myself."

He looked to Bryony, then back to Angela. "I would love to have a look around. Though…I do have to be going sooner rather than later. There are several books amongst my things that I cannot delay in getting to come clients of mine."


As he walked with Bryony back through the temple, he could not help but ask, "Whose grave is Angela cutting flowers for?"
Before she could speak, one of the clergy ran up to Sebastian, carrying his backpack, and a fresh set of clothes that were an exact match to what he had been wearing. He did not think he would ever cease to be impressed with this place.
He nodded to Bryony to assure her it was quite alright to follow as he was led into a nearby room. He stepped behind an ornate mahogany dressing wall, and threw the sheet over the side of it.