Visions and Portents

Log Info

• Title: Visions and Portents

• Characters: Auranar, Ravenstongue, Telamon

• Emitter: Auranar

• Place: Lupecyll-Atlon home
• Summary: The Totem of Dreams is now in the hands of Telamon. With Lana and Aura watching, Tel bonds to it, and then begins experimenting with trying to probe its mysteries with some unexpected results. Also, there are cinnamon rolls.

Lupecyll-Atlon home, early evening

There's a bit of a storm raging outside, but one wild elf in particular is braving it. After all, she's been sent for, and that is worth taking on a little snow and wind. Still, she's not immune to the elements so she pulls her black cloak more fully around herself and stomps each step to make sure she doesn't lose her footing in the snow. She makes her way up the street, and eventually - finally - to Cor'lana and Telamon's doorstep. There, she knocks politely, but perhaps a bit hurriedly. She's eager for a little warmth.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful... that's how the song goes. But inside, the fire is burning, and the Lupecyll-Atlon household is all snug inside. With Jyndei draped over the back of the couch dozing, and Telamon in his study examining a wrapped box before putting it away. He glances up at the knock, before picking up his haversack and walking out to the front door.

"I'll get it, Lana," he calls, before opening the door. "Good gods, Aura, get inside!" He beckons her in, before shutting the door behind her. "The snow is definitely picking up a bit. Here, let's get your cloak off, and a nice hot cup of tea."

"Mmm?" Cor'lana asks, opening one eye--and then both of them blink open. The sorceress had dozed off on the couch in the living room while sitting up, as Pothy laid down for a nap in her lap. And Pothy's best well-kept secret is that he makes a terrific sleep aid, after all, since he has more in common with a down feather pillow than anything else in the household does.

But it dawns on Cor'lana in the seconds after awakening that something's happening--no, not just /something/, something /important/. "Oh, I'll get the tea," Cor'lana states, and she gently takes Pothy off her lap and puts him to the side, earning a grumbled noise from the white raven. She retreats to the kitchen to retrieve the teaset.

Auranar smiles instantly as the door opens, lifting a hand in greeting to Telamon. The other of course is ladened down with the expected baked goods that always seem to accompany the sorceress. "Greetings Telamon! Tea would be greatly appreciated!" She enters as she's able, pulling aside her new black cloak to reveal a dress that is a brilliant pink color set to match her hair. She seems much more cheerful than the last time that she came over, offering a delicate wave to Cor'lana as the other woman hastens toward the kitchen.

"The weather sure is misbehaving this year. Why, one might almost think it's trying to bury us!" She lets out a little laugh at this and smiles at everyone. "I brought cinnamon rolls this time, I do hope you guys like them!"

Telamon laughs softly and smiles. "I may have to fight Pothy for them. But thank you, Aura. You seem to be feeling a little better." Once Auranar is properly seated, Telamon looks around thoughtfully, then sits down in the rocking chair.

Jyndei has opened his eyes, and he blinks at Aura before yawning and shutting them again. "He was playing outside a bit with Pothy before it started to get bad. Little fellow's worn out." Tel explains. That also explains Pothy's somewhat somnolent state -- though it may not last with the prospect of Aura-snacks.

Speak of the Pothy, and... He shall snack. Indeed, Auranar's revelation that she's brought cinnamon rolls prompt the snoozing bird's eyes to open. But instead of his usual cry of 'Snacks!', a young boy's voice, elegant and innocent, leaves his mouth. "Oh boy! Auranar snacks? Cinnamon rolls!? Pleaaaaaseeee, can I have one!? I promise I won't fight Telamon."

Cor'lana returns into the living room with a tray that holds the teapot and three teacups. She sets it down on the table and takes a teacup for herself. "You had better not fight my husband, Pothy," she replies as she sits down on the couch. "And yes, it is /awful/ out there. But at least your dress is gorgeous, Auranar. Where did you get it?" Her own dress is fairly plain for the day--just a simple ankle-length dark blue dress with long bishop sleeves.

"Ah yes, I am feeling better. Your words, really meant a lot to me Telamon." She smiles at him gratefully from her seat and makes herself comfortable. Jyndei gets another smile, and a fond almost envious look before Pothy speaks up and... Auranar's eyes widen signifigantly. She quickly schools her expression back a bit so that she's not staring at Pothy like he's got an extra head. Thankfully Cor'lana offers a timely distraction. "Oh this? The Prestigious Moon! Sandriel owns a very nice little shop and I'm afraid that I usually end up spending all my money there."

Auranar laughs at this, and motions toward Cor'lana's more humble outfit. "Yours is very nice also, I tried wearing a few of Verna's more subtle dresses but I feel so plain. I guess I just like to dress up whatever the occassion." She looks a touch embarrassed, but it's more at the admission than the fact that its true. "Though sometimes I feel a right fool dressing up I can tell you that! I would never suggest wearing a dress while on a guild mission!"

"Depends on the dress. Something fairly conservative and in a neutral color, made from wool or reinforced linens..." Telamon grins. "My own adventuring garb is usually a bit more sedate." Indeed, Tel is dressed in casual but rather fetching attire, a deep blue tunic trimmed in silver over work trousers, with simple house shoes. "I picked up some garments which had canvas patches on the elbows and knees. It's not armor, but it helps."

"In any case, I'm glad I was able to help, Aura. I spent some time thinking about what we discussed as well." He opens the haversack he brought out with him, and removes the statue from it... setting it on the table so Cor'lana can see it as well.

Pothy cocks his head from side-to-side in that typical confused corvid manner at Auranar's reaction. "Is something wrong, Auranar?" he asks. "Do I have a feather stuck in the wrong direction? That happens sometimes. It's pretty annoying."

Cor'lana has to bite back a little giggle at Pothy's expense. "Oh, no, I'm so sorry, I forgot--Verna warded this place against evil some time back," she explains, "and she incorporated a magic effect into it that allows all to understand each other freely within the bounds of the ward. That's Pothy's true voice. What you're hearing now is what I hear all the time when he whistles at me."

Pothy looks like he's about to lodge a request for snacks when Cor'lana pats down his feathers. "This is just something I wear around the house, really," Cor'lana says with a smile. "My adventuring outfit is actually a bit more involved--it /is/ a dress, but knee-length. I just am more comfortable in them. Now, if you want to talk about fancy dresses, you should see what I've worn to meet some rather important people."

Her attention turns to the figure, of course, and her violet eyes narrow. "Telamon mentioned briefly that... well, this was here now," she says. "This is the one made by Eluna?"

Auranar might have commented on the subject of dresses, and certainly would have on the subject of Pothy's true voice, but the sight of the totem draws her utterly silent. She watches Telamon pull it out and place it purposefully on the table, her dark eyes following the lovely little wooden woman with trepidation and a sense of determination. "Yes. It was made by Eluna." Her voice is gentle, almost a whisper. "What did you determine Telamon?"

Telamon sighs. "I've not done anything yet. I... wanted to do it with Lana keeping an eye out, to watch over me. We've been a little busy of late -- I had a cousin blow into town, one I didn't know I had, and I've been getting her used to the city." His lips quirk. "She picked a lousy time of the year to show up, but oh well, family is family."

He sighs. "And I admit I've been finding excuses not to bond to it." He looks at Lana with trepidation. "We do everything together, and while this might not be something you can -directly- help with... I won't do this behind your back. We face this together or not at all."

Cor'lana smiles warmly at Telamon from her spot on the couch. Despite the weight of the totem's appearance, there's precious little that can steal the comfort of Telamon's bond to her away. "And we will face it together," she says. "I want you to do the right thing. /I/ would attune to it if I could, but... it has to be you. You are the follower of Ni'essa, not I."

She puts her teacup down onto the table. "Is there anything that I should do that would help? I am not capable of healing, unfortunately, but perhaps there's something else that I could do?"

The wild elf looks between Telamon and Cor'lana, a soft smile on her lips. "I can understand that. If you don't mind? I'd like to take notes on what happens. Just in case this totem reacts differently than the other." She looks at Cor'lana hopefully. "Do you have some paper and a quill? I didn't bring my own note-taking stuff." Auranar flashes an apologetic expression.

Telamon crooks his fingers, and murmurs, "Sisig bursag." A ripple in the air, and then the unseen servant slips off to Tel's study... returning with parchment and a couple pencils. "It's all right. I'd have had some in my haversack, but I, well, cleaned it out a bit a few days back." He grins abashedly.

He takes a deep breath, looking at Lana. "Just stay with me. Supposedly there's... visions, involved. If I start getting rowdy, just sit on me so I don't do something silly." His hand slides into his haversack again, coming out with the slender elven dagger he's carried so long.

He unsheathes the blade -- it's well cared for and kept clean, despite not getting used much. Biting his lip, he looks from Aura to Lana, and offers a smile. "Alright, well... maybe second time is the charm." Deftly, he makes a small cut in his palm -- and then reaches out to grasp the statue with that hand, the cut against the wood.

Cor'lana places a hand on Telamon's shoulder as he takes out the dagger, letting him know in that silent way that she's there. Her eyes remain trained on the blade. What might be surprising for Auranar is that there's hardly any nervousness in her eyes and face about the act of bloodletting itself, observing like it's something routine. The only sign she gives is the slight flexing of her fingers on his shoulder as she watches him put the blood to the totem.

Something happens when Telamon touches the statue. A flux of magical force, one that envelops Auranar and Telamon, but leaves Cor'lana outside itself. Similarly Pothy is ignored by the magic at work. Darkness envelops the pair and to Cor'lana nothing seems to happen save that their eyes go distant. To them however, the world around them is changing. Darkness swallows everything. Then in the darkness is a shadow. A beast of formless flesh, a writhing thing that can not be totally seen nor understood as having form. Chains hold it in place, giving it no further semblance of shape. Instead the chains are like hooks in that writhing nothingness.

The shadow opens red eyes and in those eyes dance the image of three wolves. The wolves resolve into men, but they can not be made out. They are too small in the monster's eyes.

The vision changes, like a dream nebulous. A woman takes shape, a woman surrounded by stars, and she is instantly known by each person who holds this vision. This is Eluna, and though they see her differently she is the same goddess. She points toward a tiny blue speck, and that speck swells as she fades into the night. Not gone, but rather taking her true form as the goddess of magic. The world swells and swells, becoming a place, a place in the desert where roses grow and a piece of a goddess once lay. Now the blue roses wither and die, outplaced by the black and that place gives birth to black wolves.

The vision swims again, and four totems with twisted forms face one another and begin to drip with black ichor. Chains link these totems together, reaching back and back into the dark. Into the unknown. Into something with red eyes...

Auranar is rocked by the magic, her eyes closing in the aftermath and one hand flying to her brow. The note-taking is forgotten as she blinks the vision from her mind and then she leans forward, letting out a little gasp. "It's the same. Exactly the same as before..."

Telamon's fingers suddenly clamp down on the statue, and he tenses. His eyes go wide, blank, and the stars within them begin to move -- not in their usual slow spinning but streaking along, as he clenches his jaw. Focusing. Absorbing. Seeing as much as he can.

When the vision lets go, Tel lets out a gasp. "Shit!" He looks around wildly for a moment, before he realizes where he is, and he calms down again. "...Damn. That was... wait, I remember that place. The Desolation. Where we found Ni'essa's avatar." He reaches down to grab his tea with a shaking hand, waiting before trying to drink it. "There's something else, something about the totems. Placement. Orientation." He shudders. "Three wolves. Wolves resolving into men -- probably the Nightmare's chief minions."

Cor'lana shakes her head and cups her hands around Telamon's hands to still them, not seeming to care if she gets his blood on herself or not. "You're okay," she whispers gently, leaning into his ear, anchoring him down here into the moment. "You're okay. You're here."

Pothy is not an ignorant bird, either. He flies over to Auranar and lands next to her, nuzzling into her arm. "You okay, Auranar?" he asks sweetly. "Visions are pretty scary sometimes."

Auranar takes a bit of a moment, blinking several times to clear her vision of what she'd seen. Gingerly she reaches over and pets Pothy, mumbling something indistinct before shaking her head. "I think it was more intense this time." She sounds a touch unsteady. "Or maybe just having seen it twice makes it harder to shake off."

It takes a few moments, before Tel calms himself enough. "I'm all right," he says, still shaking a bit. "Gods, Aura, how did you handle that the first time?" He looks down at his bloody hand, and mutters a curse. "Hold on..." He touches one of the rings he wears, and then focuses... a stream of silvery stardust dripping out of nowhere into the cut, mending it and leaving behind a small, crescent-shaped silvery mark. He looks ruefully at the odd marking. "That always seems to happen when I do that."

Telamon looks up, breathing out. "Alright. So... we're going to have to go back to the Desolation at some point. Presumably to burn down the black rose garden there. At least I think that's what we might plan for." He takes another gulp of tea, smiling at Lana tenderly. "Seems like I'm having to plan for trips all the time these days."

"And you have to go there with the other bearers of the totems, I imagine," Cor'lana says softly, looking down at the healing mark left behind on Telamon's skin. "I imagine someone who /doesn't/ hold a totem wouldn't be of much use there." There's not a hint of jealousy there in her voice as much as there is a reluctance to let Telamon go without her to ensure he comes back.

But she looks back to Auranar. "So you've seen the vision you saw once before?" she asks. "Have you observed another attunement recently?"

Pothy is a good boy and remains close to Auranar for emotional wellbeing. The cinnamon rolls appear to have slipped his mind for the moment.

It seems that Auranar has recovered, at least enough to raise her head and nod it once to Cor'lana. Though she seems to regret this a moment later. Her vision swims slightly and she has to take an extra second to let it recover. "Yes to both those. I saw the vision once before with Seldan when we both touched the attuned statue." She motions to the one on the table but doesn't actually touch it. "And I watched Dolan attune the Daeus one. He and Andelana both had visions. I think that they react to those that follow the gods whom created them. Giving them these visions. I'm glad there's none for the Hound, because I'd hate to imagine what He might show His followers." She continues to pet Pothy for comfort.

Jyndei has wormed his way down off the couch, and scarpered over to climb into Telamon's lap. "Do not fear, Lady Lupecyll," the faerie dragon says to Lana. "He is the Lord Lupecyll. He has faced the Desolation before. I believe in him. He will not fail you."

Telamon actually blushes a bit at Jyndei's proud declarations, and strokes the dragon's back. "I... thank you, Jyndei, for the vote of confidence. And I won't be doing this alone. As you said, this will probably be a group effort by all of us who bear a totem." He reaches out with his hand to catch Lana's, bringing her hand to his lips.

His eyes move to Auranar, and he nods. "That... makes sense. I suspect there's a... resonance, that probably connects with those devoted to a specific deity." He looks thoughtful. "You know... hmm. I wonder..."

Cor'lana can't help but blink as she suddenly has a lap-dragon. Okay, a lap-faerie dragon, but still. She smirks a little and pats Jyndei underneath his chin, since Telamon has the back covered. "I know he'll come back all right," she says, tenderly. "I just wish that I could be there. But Vaire never made a totem, and while Navos could have made one when he was one of the Gods of Light--I no longer count myself as one of His faithful, and I do not think we have received confirmation of a totem of Navos existing, anyway. I must place my faith in the others who are faithful to other gods instead."

Pothy looks at Cor'lana for a moment meaningfully, but then he nuzzles into Auranar's hand. "They wouldn't be very good visions, I don't think," Pothy responds to Auranar. "... Does that mean you have to find followers of the evil gods, too? Where are you going to find them?"

"I think we just... have to keep the ones that belong to the evil gods. Certainly we can't trust those that serve them!" Auranar offers to Pothy's querry, she keeps petting him almost idly, but when she notices that he's looking at Cor'lana she ducks her head and wraps her hands around her cup of tea. She doesn't want to keep him from his mistress after all. "What is your thought Telamon? We've determined that there is a need to test the totems. Now is the time if ever."

She makes a small gesture with her hand and smiles. "I can offer some small amount of healing myself if you require it after all, and Cor'lana is here as well."

Telamon looks bashful again. "Well... I bought several scrolls, since I have this robe that lets me cast from them. One is a fairly powerful scroll of divination, the 'legend lore' spell. I wonder what it would tell me if I used it on the statue?"

He nods to Aura with a grin. "I feel -safer- with you two here watching over my shoulder. Feel free to grab a snack, though, while I go get my things."

Cor'lana looks at the totem for a long, long moment, violet eyes focusing on it. "It responds to blood, Tel," she says. "If it works like..."

The violet eyes dart over to Auranar. Cor'lana's back goes a little straighter, and she motions to her chest. "If it works like my mark does, then the more blood you offer to it, the more it'll do for you. To a point, that is." Cor'lana's tone is strangely clinical. "Past a certain amount of blood and it won't take any more unless it's something of purely evil intent, which I don't believe these totems are."

Pothy actually seems content to remain by Auranar's side. He looks up at her with bright, bright blue eyes. "Do you remember that gray-skinned man at the wedding, Auranar? Who officiated the ceremony? That was Cor'lana's Grandfather. He's special, and they have a pact." Then his voice drops to a whisper. "Don't tell an-y-one. Anyone! Or they're going to think Lana's some sort of maneater."

Then his voice brightens. "More than they already think she is, anyway!"

The wild elf smiles brightly at Pothy. Then nods to Cor'lana. "Dolan tried adding blood a second time and the totem _moved_ vibrated and rotated to face another totem. We didn't actually try adding any more after that, but... Who knows? These things... they don't seem to be truly good OR evil. They seem more neutral to me. Something meant to bind the Hound in place, but... aside from that? Who knows what they were intended to do." She smiles again at Pothy. "I won't tell anyone Pothy. Promise."

Meanwhile, Jyndei has returned to his perch on the couch, watching as Telamon goes back into the bedroom. He returns a short time later holding a scroll, wearing a long sleeveless robe embroidered with small geometric symbols on the hem. "Alright, so... I've only used this once before. I think it's quicker when you -have- the item at hand. Not sure how much quicker though."

He sits down on the floor, crosslegged, with the totem and scroll in front of hem. He touches the lapel of his robe first, causing the geometric symbols to flare to life, then he touches the scroll. A susurrus of chanting falls from his lips, as he reaches down to take the totem in both hands now, eyes glowing steadily as a shimmer of ghostly blue-green light begins to hover around him; a tiny aurora borealis.

"Dolan already tried feeding it more blood?" Cor'lana asks, raising a brow. "I mean, I shouldn't be surprised--he has a constitution of iron, I think. How odd that it /turned/. That seems to indicate to me that they're supposed to be in some kind of a formation."

She looks thoughtful for a moment. "Effectively neutral... Because they were made by the gods of light and the gods of darkness," she says. "That makes a certain amount of sense to me. To have been a fly on the wall when they were have made..."

Then she watches Telamon begin to cast, and she smiles a little, bringing the teacup to her lips. "Which, if we're lucky, maybe he'll see that," she says. "If we're lucky."

Pothy looks around. "... Where were those cinnamon rolls again?" he asks. "This took a long time last time. But we have to leave one or two for Telamon or he's going to be really sad. I would be!" Of course Pothy would.

Auranar nods to Pothy. "Yes there are cinnamon rolls. Enough to share I hope." She smiles at the white raven and unwraps her basket so that they can share in the bounty she brought. She also spends the time that they await for Telamon explaining the details of what happened at Dolan's house. The attunement from her perspective, and what had occured afterwards. Though she leaves the playful banter out of her retelling. She only eats half of her cinnamon roll, and offers the other half to Pothy for the eating.

Darkness begins to surround around Telamon. A darkness visible to everyone this time. The shadows are so subtle at the beginning that it actually takes a long moment to realize that its there. The aurora of his magic enhances this, because it seems really almost part of his magic. But then the shadows race across the ground and build up around, plunging the room into the dark.

Shapes form in the darkness. Deeper shadows that tower over those that view the vision. Thirteen of them all told. The shadows are indistinct, but chains fall from them to the center of the room which has become the darkest place. A well of nothingness where a table had been before. Something pours down the statues, coming from the shadows in a rush of crimson and the well of darkness shrinks. The chains are dyed red with it.

The chains become statues, each bearing the likeness of a deity, but indistinct to your eyes because there are so many of them to look at. By the time you lay your eyes on one you’ve forgotten what the one before it looked like. The vision shifts subtly, and the statue in Telamon’s hand begins to glow like a captured moon. Softly and desperately. The darkness in the center of the room is gone, but shadows leak out of the statue itself, writhing without taking form.

This time, unlike the last time, the vision - if that’s what this is - does not fade. Instead the statue continues to glow, and the darkness remains.

GAME: Telamon rolls knowledge/arcana: (11)+13: 24

The shadows swirl around Telamon, lit by the shimmering light and motes of distant stars. "What... what is it? What do you want?" He sounds like he's trying to address the totem itself, as it thrums in his hand, leaking light and shadow. "Wait... don't interfere." Hard to say if he's telling the totem, or Lana and Auranar.

Cradling the totem in one hand, he begins to gesture with the other. "Emegar gete," he chants, directing the spell into the totem itself, his eyes focusing on it, shot with those distant stars.

GAME: Telamon casts Minor Image. Caster Level: 12 DC: 20

Cor'lana lifts a hand, but when Telamon says not to interfere, she looks on. "What are you doing?" she asks Telamon. "What... What /is/ this? The spell didn't react like this the last time you cast it!" They were very different circumstances and for something very different indeed, but...

Pothy looks on in fascination, his tail wagging up and down. "Knowledge," he intones quietly in his boyish voice. It's like an answer to Cor'lana's question.

Auranar seems to remember herself at this point, and starts writing furiously on a piece of paper everything that has happened thus far, and everything that is happening now. She looks up occassionally with little flicks of her eyes to make sure she's not missing anything important.

The shadows around the statue collect in one place, forming... A shadow. The shadow rotates and becomes the very striking image of Cor'lana. The image looks identical to her, and it smiles at Telamon. Her smile. The one that she uses only when she's looking at Telamon.

Telamon stares at the illusionary Cor'lana. "That's... new." He tilts his head, regarding the figment. "Alright... you have my attention. But please don't abuse it. I've had this experience before, and one wife is -quite- enough for me." He can't help but grin at his cheeky response to the strange projection that's appeared.

Cor'lana stares at the not-her that's spreading out from the statue. "Telamon, don't be foolish," she says. "I mean, what does... What /is/ that? Is... Is that... the Skysinger?"

Her eyes are wide as she realizes who and what that might be. There's awe in her expression. Could it be? A god in the 'flesh'? Just like the vision from before, the one that granted her the memory of her mother disinte--

She bites her lip. Tears well in her eyes. Her hands ball together into fists. Pothy notices. "Lana..."

The image shifts, reacting to something. Subtle little changes really, until Cor'lana's mother is standing before you. You realize what's going to happen only moments before it actually takes place as the image of the woman resolves to replay the very memory that Cor'lana holds in her mind. Every detail is exactly as it was. Right down to the moment when Cor'lana's mother disintigrates into... nothing. Not even a shadow remains, and the statue sits there, glowing peacefully.

Telamon actually flinches. "Dammit!" Not from the illusion fading, but from the blasted thing -showing Lana one of her worst moments again-. He pulls himself up from the floor, moving over to wrap his arms around Cor'lana now, hugging her tightly.

He gives the totem a sharp stare, but then exhales. "It was reacting to us. I... need to do more experiments. It definitely responds to spells cast into it. I just... wish I knew what it was trying to tell us."

The moment that Telamon's hands are no longer touching the statue the darkness evaporates and the statue ceases to glow.

How gentle the image is where Cor'lana's mother stands. How gracefully her lips move as she tells Cor'lana her final words again. "I am your beginning, and you are my end. I love you." Words that she had remembered before the real memory as being what Pothy said--were her mother's. Her mother who is fading away into nothing. Again. (Again.)

Her whole world, for the world had been so unkind to her as a child that she retreated into the safety of her mother's arms and her mother's books. Prayers to Navos that had gone unheard. Childish stories of times that could be better but would never be, written in her journals. The dreamer who dreamed of a kind father who would one day appear to explain why he was gone... died on that day, too, the same day that Nadina had gone. Again. (Again.)

But here in the present, Cor'lana's eyes leak tears like rivers that dart and part down her still face. She clings to Telamon. She doesn't whimper. She doesn't sob. She just... holds onto him. Again. (Again.)

Pothy abandons Auranar's side and flies over to Cor'lana and Telamon. "Lana, Lana, you're okay. Lana, you're okay! Lana, it's fine! Please, you're okay!" Pothy urges in that boyish voice. "You're okay. Please, you're okay. Telamon's here. I'm here! That was in the past!"

Auranar sets aside her writing things, not entirely sure what she'd seen there, but she is certain of how it affected Cor'lana. She rises and then kneels before the other woman, offering her hand in comfort. "We are here." She knows she's not as comforting to Cor'lana as Telamon, much less Pothy, but she offers what she can in the way of it. "It's as Pothy says. Whatever that was, it is gone now. We are not."

Telamon strokes Cor'lana's hair, letting her weep into his shirt. He tucks her under his chin, the safe place, the happy place for his bride. He gives Auranar a grateful look, and a smile to Pothy as well. "I think we're done for tonight," he says firmly. "I... have some ideas, but I don't think we should try them for now. It's dark, it's cold, and it's too easy to get hurt playing with things like this."

Tel sighs. "It was... well, part of her past. Some wounds take a long time to heal. And not all of them are visible." He rubs his cheek against the top of her head. "It's all right, love. I'm right here. Hold onto me. It's okay."

Cor'lana does take Auranar's hand. And Pothy nudges his way into her other hand. She stays there underneath Telamon's chin, the sound of her labored breathing and sniffling leaving her.

But then there's a squeeze on Auranar's hand, and a ruffle of Pothy's feathers. "I asked Ni'essa how she knew my mother," Cor'lana murmurs. "In the very first vision that came before all of this. I was there and I demanded of her what I tried to pray to Navos to obtain before: my missing memories. The past I'd forgotten. And then the vision of the Tyrant appeared, and he 'granted' me that gift--starting with my mother's death."

She takes a sharp breath. The strength is returning to her voice. "She fulfilled what she couldn't that day, I think," she says. "She showed me my mother's passing, not knowing that the Tyrant already did. That... is how She knows my mother. From my mother turning into magic. My magic."

Auranar is shocked to hear that the woman she'd seen turn to nothingness was Cor'lana's mother. The knowledge is a sudden ache in her chest and she takes a breath to calm herself. Starting to cry herself wouldn't help anything. "I... I know what it's like to lose a mother." She says gently, squeezing Cor'lana's hand in return. "I lost both my parents when I was very young. I don't have any memories of them. I know it might seem like... like it's not fair, to see her like that. But I'd give anything to see my mom just once. Even if I had to see her taken away... It's a gift Cor'lana. One with teeth, but a gift."

Telamon keeps hold of Lana, her lifeline. "I always remember how lucky I am, that I have both my parents, and that I was able to give Lana at least some of what she'd lost or never had." He looks at Aura. "It's why sometimes I do the things I do. So maybe, just maybe, other people can be happy and don't have to hurt like that."

He rests his cheek on Cor'lana's head. "It'll be okay. And if not, we'll do our damnedest to -make- it okay."

Auranar can't see it, but there's a slight smile that she can hear in Cor'lana's voice. "You're right," she says. "I got to hear Mother tell me that she loves me one more time. I... I needed that."

"Sometimes the best gifts are the ones we need--even if we don't always recognize them as gifts at the time," Pothy says. He continues to nuzzle into Cor'lana's hand. "Your mother saw me and the magic as the last gift she could give you. It led to you coming to Alexandria, Lana. It led to you meeting all of your friends, and Telamon. She gave you your freedom."

Cor'lana is quiet for another moment. "I'm glad she did," she says. "Even if I wish she did it another way."

Unseen, she closes her eyes. She breathes another breath that was granted to her by her mother, surrounded by her bridesmaid, her brother, and her soulmate.

"Thank you, Ni'essa. Thank you, Mother. Thank you, Auranar. Thank you, Pothy. Thank you, Telamon," she whispers. The smile is wide on her face as the tears continue to fall, the sorrow to be replaced by the joy of belonging in a world that wanted her all along.