(starting things off here, despite it's status as a 'fiction,' there will be parts that need ST intervention, specifically for things like interaction with significant NPC's and possible reactions from the crowds.)

After everything they'd been through the past couple of days, the walk back to the village was both welcome respite and anticlimax. After some conference, and much to the impatient rolling of eyes from Peleps, the Solars decided not to whisk into town in a magic whirlwind, but rather to go on their own feet. Despite her desire to see Sao Si as soon as possible, Mei-Ying noted that their actions would have consequences. They could blaze into the little hamlet, towering essence infernos and shining with all the terrible glory of the Unconquered Sun...or they could choose a humbler path. Either could be 'good' or 'bad' or both. Either would say something about the Solars they meant to become.

They walked into town. The mortal populace seemed both shaken and stirred by the events they'd witnessed. They clustered in knots, whispering. It was hard to tell if they were hopeful or fearful, or to what extent those things were mixed.

Feeling self-conscious, as if she were still surrounded by the wheels-within-wheels of her anima banner, Mei-Ying kept her face down as she hurried towards Elsbeth's house...but curiosity made sure she surreptitiously looked around even so.

Callum walked beside Mei with Eilein on his other side. As usual his face was buried under layers of winding cloths. Unlike Mei he made no pretense and looked around openly wondering if they would be allowed to pass unhindered, or if the villagers would attempt to lynch them for being anathma. Quietly he spoke, "I do not like this situation, even mortals, in sufficient numbers, can be a danger to us. We should say our goodbyes quickly and be on our way before they get it into their mind to destroy us."

"We'll be quick," Mei-Ying agrees, "In fact, if the people here are hostile or afraid, we should probably leave without saying goodbye after all. I don't want anyone taking out their hate or fear on her."

As the Exalts walked quietly through the small village ever farmer they passed raised his head up and took notice, scowling at them in suspicion. Women scooped their children up from the streets and hurriedly entered their homes, pulling shudders closed moments later.

The few circles of people that braved the streets did indeed whisper silently to one another, perhaps plotting the Exalts capture, or whispering tenants of the Immaculate Faith to one another for strength in the presence of the Anathema.

The Sun's Chosen stepped carefully until they approached the small withered cottage of the young woman who had befriended them and treated them with kindness and fairness.

Elsbeth Silvare, a basket of clothes resting on her hip walked from the bend of the small home as her friends approached. A smile quickly shone with all the radiance of the sun the Exalts worshiped so dearly and the clothes were left to fall to the grass below. "Callum! Rysha! Mei!" she screamed ecstatically and ran forward throwing her arms around the Woodsman, Callum and whomever was in reach.

"I knew you'd be back! I knew it!" Moments were spent exchanging hugs, and Elsbeth was far from willing to let any of them go before she was ready to, except for one.

Brushing a stray strand of blond hair back behind her ear (exposing some of the day's sweat stained dirt on her delicate cheek) she greeted the last of the Exalts. "Umm, hi Akryruh."

For a moment, her innocence out shined her beauty until Eilein howled a complaint declaring that she fought bravely too and demanded attention.

Rysha bore up under the stares with the casual bravado of one used to a lifetime of such attention, her hands lightly at her sides, and she only mustered a moment's scornful glance at Callum's jittery discomfort in such close quarters. She did fix one particularly bold young man who moved as though to shout at Mei-Ying with a single glance; one look at the predator's calm in those violet eyes was enough to send him ducking back behind one of the huts, pale and shaking, and the Sun's Chosen continued on their way unmolested.

Rysha's face lit with gentle warmth at Elsbeth's welcome, and though she stood enough to the side to miss the tight embrace the girl bestowed on the others at first, it was entirely sufficent to bring a smile to her lips. When they did at last embrace, Rysha pressed a gentle kiss to their would-be prophet's cheek and squeeze her shoulders once they stepped apart. "We couldn't have gone on without at least setting eyes on you again, sister." The endearment was surprisingly warm in her voice, full of a quiet confidence that seemed to brush aside the discomfort she'd shown with the village so often in the past. She watched the girl blush at Akryruh, shaking her head in silent amusement, and when Eilein raised a howl she laid her hand against the side of the wolf's neck in silent reproof.

Let the girl have her moment. We are blessed with few enough of them worth having.

Callum returns Elsbeth's hug but his eyes are ever vigilent for a poorly thought out attack by the villagers. It would not serve the Unconquered Sun to die by the hands of those he was chosen to protect. Beside him Eilein sat on her haunches, her tail wagged and he tongue lolled out in a happy wolfy grin. Despite himself Callum smiled beneath his bandages.

Mei-Ying laughs as the girl hugs her. When the hug is over, Hu flaps down to her shoulder. She leans down to let Elspeth pat his snowy, speckled head. He hoots quietly and fluffs his feathers in a satisfied sort of way.

When she speaks though, Mei-Ying is serious and a little somber. "We couldn't go without saying goodbye to our friend."

The young woman, although enchanted by the features of her Exalted crush, heard the words 'good bye' and it immediately snapped her from her reverie.

"G-good bye?" she asked Mei as she glanced around to the assembled Chosen worry spread across her delicate features. "W-why? Where are you going? Are there more of those things around here?"

Callum looks at Elsbeth solemnly, "No, we have cleansed the taint from the forest. But now we are needed elsewhere, other people and towns like this cry out for help. And although they no longer pay homage to the Sun we the champions of His might still stand against the darkness." Eilein looks up at Callum as if to say something and barks, Laying it on a little think aren't you? Callum merely scowls beneath his wrap, there is little joy in parting ways from freinds, and precious little in being driven forth to fight yet again against the relentless evils of the world.

Mei-Ying gives Callum a funny look, midway between laughter and a frown. She then leans over a bit to smooth Elspeth's hair back affectionately.

"And, closer to our hearts, staying here would put you and this whole town in terrible danger. The thing that lurked in the woods was...an aberration. I can't think there has ever been anything like it, or will be again in this Age. But defeating it revealed us to the world. When the hunters arrive, they wouldn't stop with just us. Those who sheltered us would also suffer."

She swallows sadly. "When they come, you and everyone else must claim that you tried to stop us. Tell them everything you know of us, and pretend to hate and fear us...at least I hope it's pretending." Mei-Ying smiles at that, but still sadly. "For you it will be...for others, perhaps not. Cooperate with them though. Nothing you say will hurt us, unless it leads to innocents and friends suffering. That would hurt us very much."

"Can you do that?"

Tears swelled in her eyes as the assembled Exalts, the only who had ever treated her with any measure of kindness or friendship, who didn't treat her like a freak of nature, told her they were leaving her to her mundane life of tending crops and being ridiculed by her neighbors.

"It's not fair." She sniffled, wiping away tears. "My lies will bring you suffering, eventually, and you are my friends."

Firmly she gripped the rather plain dress Peleps Ahroun had supplied Mei with. "Take me! I can help you. I want to help you. Please, take me with you." She collapsed her head against Mei's chest and cried.

For a young girl who'd always been the outcast the reality of saying good bye to the only people who had ever shown her any kindness was too much to bear.

Callum's eyes go wide, Come with us? Oh boy, this can't end well. As gently as he can Callum lays a hand on Elsbeth's shoulder, "We put ourselves in the way of grave danger regularly, we would be greatly remiss to put you into that same harm's way."

Mei-Ying embraces Elsbeth and hugs her tightly. Her own eyes moisten in reaction.

"I wish we could...I do...but you have a home here. Who would we be to take you from a place where you're safe, and drag you into what awaits us? The legions of the Empire, gods and spirits, even unclean demons and the chosen of death are arrayed against us."

She takes hold of Elsbeth's shoulders and pulls her away enough to look the young girl in the eye.

"If the danger is so great for us, how much greater would it be for you?"

"It is not a danger to be taken lightly." Rysha speaks softly but with a quiet, emphatic urgency as she slips up to touch the girl's shoulder. "Not just to your health and your safety, but to the gentleness we so appreciate in you. We would not have you come to a time or a place where you might have to kill on our behalf, lest you or one of us be killed."

Callum does his best to conver his suprise, he'd been expecting that Mei and maybe even Rysha would have been less resolved against Esbeth joining them. Sighing mentally he tries to say something reassuring, "We will not forget you though, and if we ever return to this area we could visit with you again."

No. It wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? Innocently young Elsbeth looked to her only friends as they all seemed to rally against her in her plight to join them and escape the despair of this lonely, desolate hamlet.

She sighed, defeated after a moment's thought of just how wise their words were. It would be dangerous for her, she was not cut out for the life they lived. "Y-your right." She finally said, wincing slightly as the assembled Exalts couldn't help but feel sudden a shift in the flow of essence.

It had to be powerful, for all at once felt the pull as they looked on, suddenly unnerved by the odd tug against their shards.

"I would only slow you down." She smiled as best she could, trying to fight back whatever it was that was growing in power within her. "I-I love you all, thank you so much for what you've done for us. It'll never be forgotten." She sudden;y seemed in a hurry to disengage from the conversation.

A sudden wind stirred through Heckran's Ferry. The trees rustled their leaves and the dust on the well walked paths stirred up into little dust devils.

Something supernatural was in the air...

The guilt gnawing at Mei-Ying's heart got longer and sharper teeth. It was the right decision, she knew it...but then why did it feel so wrong?

"Elsbeth...we only say this because we love you. Even with our power, we couldn't promise we'd be able to keep you safe. I know things are hard here sometimes, but it is a small hardship compared to..."

She trails off...words of justification dying in her throat as the air and earth seem to crackle with gathering power. Now alert, the sorceress looks away, looks around, seeks any sign of what's coming.

On her shoulder, Hu hoots cautiously, feeling her change in mood. Mei shakes her head and chucks him gently around his beak as she thinks.

A side effect of the monster's death perhaps. The release of essence long trapped...

Callum is about to speak when the strange electric tingle of power washed over him. Eilein, also sensing the change, whined beside him as Callum looked around trying to find the source of the feeling. Turning to Mei and Rysha he says, "You feel that as well don't you. What is going on here? Is this our doing, or something else?"

Suddenly worried Elsbeth looked to Callum.

"N-no, it's me," fear and sorrow mingled together in her eyes and they already began to moisten from her anxiety of knowing what was about to happen. "It's happening... I can never control it... the when or the where. I h-have to go..."

She hastily turned in an attempt to excuse herself from the conversation when a sudden arch of power shot through the air, invisible but far from intangible. The pulse sent a shockwave across the area knocking each of the Sun's Chosen and several innocents to the dusty road. The sky darkened as Elsbeth convulsed from the tremor of essence that tore through her. The dragon lines surged forth swirling into a dust devil beneath her and into the air she rose about a foot or so.

Her eyes snapped open and she hovered facing the Chosen. They were black as pitch and speckled with what seemed to be millions of azure blue stars. The innocent girl seemed to be nothing but a puppet on the strings of fate as she coasted there looking down upon them.

Her speech echoed with the sound of several voices speaking in unison, overlapping her own delicate and kind voice.



Just as quickly as it came the darkness of the skies cleared and the flow of essence returned to it's normal state. With nothing to keep the young girl aloft she was thrown back to the hard earth, exhausted and barely conscious.

In their several months of being close to the young girl they had never witnessed her power of prophesy and never had they imagined it was so powerful. Her failed attempt at leaving the scene told all present that what was said was meant for them to hear and Mei knew for certain that no mortal was meant to wield power like young Elsbeth possessed.

Reflex. Rysha's life since she was scarely a girl had been reflex, burned into bone and sinew, and it was that reflex that flung her forward off the dusty road to catch the slender, falling girl; it was not much of a catch, for she more slid than ran, but it kept the girl from the packed earth and left Rysha craddling her in momentary confusion.

What to do after catching her, after all, she hadn't the least idea.

Caught flatfooted Callum could only watch as Rysha saved the girl from her fall. That was odd, perhaps we were meant to return here afterall. If only the Sun worked in less cryptic ways. Recovering Callum walked to Espeth and Rysha fumbling in his herb bag until he found what he was looking for. He check Espeth over and then put a single dry leaf beneath her tounge. "The taste along will wake her even if the medicinal properties have no effect."

Mei Ying takes a couple of steps running...but when she sees Rysha and Callum have Elsbeth under control, she slows to a walk and approaches as if in a daze.

"I never suspected her gift was so strong. Maybe it interacted with us, somehow...she became a conduit for something far greater that she normally touches."

She leans over to look at Elsbeth closely, putting a hand on Callum's shoulder.

"We...we might have to reconsider leaving her here," Mei-Ying says softly.

Callum sighed and looked over his shoulder at Mei, "I'm not sure that would be safer. We don't know what assails us, we may yet be hard pressed to defend ourselves and get you to where you need be." He looks at her and Mei can see that his eyes hold concern, "But if you think its best ... so be it."

"I don't -know- what's best," Mei emphasizes. "It's definitely up for discussion. But I think she might really benefit from meeting Sao-Si."

And, she allows herself, he would be most interested in meeting her.

"Frankly, after this display, she might not be safe here when the Hunt arrives. We've made quite a scene here, and who knows what people will tell the soldiers? Even a suspicion of Anathema could condemn her."

Mei-Ying looks at Rysha, wanting to hear what she has to say.

Rysha slowly runs her fingertips through the unconscious girl's hair, half-ignoring the others until the sudden silence brings her head up with a slight start. "We can't leave her here. Not with... that. Not with the Hunt behind us. They'll make a curiosity of her at best." She didn't have to say what it could mean at worst, and she didn't bother to hide the cold hatred for the Dragon-blooded in her eyes. "We'll just have to protect her."

Callum sighs and then nods, "Fine, we'll take her with us. Protect her as best we can." He is silent for a moment and then smiles, a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "Can't wait to see the look on Peleps' face when he hears we've added another to this little caravan of ours."