Into Your Care

Early afternoon, Temple of Daeus.

A message has come down from the Sunblades upstairs for Sunguard Andelena, and the tow-headed youth sticks his head in almost apologetically. "Andelena, you have a message from Silver Guard Seldan, he asks for a moment of your time at your convenience." He eyes her curiously for a moment before poking his head back out.

Well, that gets Andelena's attention, all right. Her man had gone down for a nap and she'd started anew on a sixth pass at comprehending the lengthy wedding rites--and judging by the look on her face, Seldan's message is a welcome break.

"I'll go take that message," she says. "Where's the Silver Guard now? Upstairs?"

Seldan's name draws Zeke's attention from where he's sitting with his tea. His eyes were distant things, his mind half in meditation while Dolan rests. Between the two of them, he has confidence in Dolan's safety, but he is surprised that Seldan is sending a message for Andelena. "Sssa." He murmurs quietly. "May thisss one accompany you? Thisss one would ssspeak to kin."

"Yes, he's upstairs." The door is held open for Andelena and whoever else chooses to take the message.

"Of course you can come with me, Zeke," Andelena replies to Zeke. "As you said, he's your kin. I'm not exactly about to deny you a chance to say hello."

She walks out the door. "Please keep an eye on him," she tells the young man at the door. "We won't be long, I hope."

Zeke rises slowly to his feet, and makes his way to the door after setting down his tea. He gives the paladins outside the room a firm look. "We will sssend a healer to sssit with Dolan. He iss not to be dissturbed other-wissse. We will return ass sshortly asss we may." He then slips out of the room after Andelena, following in her wake like a big blue shadow up the hallway and to where Seldan awaits her.

The request is acknowledged with a quick nod from the Sunblades outside, and the door closes quietly behind them.

When they arrive upstairs, Seldan is waiting in the temple proper. As is so often the case of late, he openly wears full war kit and panoply of weapons, his armor unconcealed, but he does not seem agitated or concerned, merely purposeful. The only unusual thing about him is the black swordsman's glove on his left hand. When he spots the pair, he straightens fully, and bows politely to Andelena -

His smile broadens to a boyish smile on seeing Zeke behind Andelena. "Peace upon your nest, kin," he adds. "I shall not keep you overlong."

Andelena smiles to see Seldan again, especially as he smiles in that boyish manner upon seeing Zeke again. There is a look that canvasses his armor and weapons, but it returns quickly to his face, taking stock of the man's purpose for being here. "Brightest of days, Seldan," she says. "We'll try and not take up your time, either. You look like you're ready for something."

"Peassssce on your nessst kin." Zeke says, his own greeting warm, and his tail shifting behind him with clear pleasure - if one can read sith-makar expressions at all. Even his green eyes are full of the pleasure of seeing his kin once again. Then his eyes flicker toward Seldan's gloved hand and he tilts his head at the other man. "Or returning from sssome-thing?"

Here he holds his claws out to Seldan, clearly asking for the paladin to offer up his own limb in return.

Called. Out. On a usually stoic and stalwart man like Seldan, sheepishness is an unusual sight, but the demeanor he wears now can only be exactly that. He lowers his eyes, with a touch of guilt, and removes the left glove, clearly knowing exactly what Zeke wants. He offers the now-bared left hand up in return, and both can clearly see that the hand has been recently healed, new flesh and flesh knit together visible. Such marks are tell-tale, and will fade quickly enough. This looks to have been a slash across the palm, possibly fairly deep, but there is no indication of any concern. The mark will fade in a few hours.

"Returning. I bear news, an item to be returned, and an item to be passed on."

Andelena smirks just a little when she sees exactly how well Zeke knows his kin. The smirk fades when she sees the marks on Seldan's hand--as marks tell stories, and the one on the palm is a story she's heard and experienced recently.

"An item to be returned--and passed on. Yeah, you've got my undivided attention," Andelena says, lifting a brow.

Zeke hums at the cut, but nods to himself that it is at least healed, and will fade soon enough. "You are lucky to have the Sssky-sssinger'ss blesssing Sseldan. That wasss a bad cut." Here there is more amusement than chiding, and he motions for the man to explain the details. "Ssshare wordss with usss kin, it ssseemsss you have a sstory to tell."

"Done in haste, and more deeply than I intended," Seldan murmurs quietly, dropping his voice and taking from his back a small item about a hand long, and offers it cautiously to Zeke. "Kol was not present, and thus did Mal and I dare the camp in the early hours," he explains quietly. "A hidden war camp cannot be so readily ignored, and it was in my mind to learn more of its nature. The news I bear is ill, and yet was the trip fruitful." He waits for Zeke to take the wrapped object before he says more. "Mal--right, your husband," Andelena answers her own question before she even has the opportunity to ask it--and then the meaning of Seldan's statement dawns on her. Steel-grey eyes widen with awe as she does manage to get one question out: "You went alone with your husband to the camp?" /And you're still standing in one piece and relatively unsullied?/ is the unspoken question that tags onto her last.

Green eyes fall to the wrapped object and Zeke takes it quickly, tucking it away into his vestments as though it might be a deadly viper that would try and escape. His eyes glance around quickly and then as no one appears that should not, he relaxes. "Ssssaa." He hisses, surprised by the fact that Malik and Seldan had gone to the camp alone. He does not finish that thought either, leaving his worry unspoken. What is done is done.

"Mal is a skilled illusionist and spy," Seldan explains with a ghost of an affectionate smile that vanishes abruptly into sober, steady seriousness. "He professed himself bored." The words are entirely deadpan, but when the wrapped item is taken from him, he then turns to his pack again, this time pulling from it a scroll. This, he proffers to Andelena.

Unrolling the scroll reveals a rough map of the camp, drawn with a detail in pencil that suggests that Seldan is no slouch as an artist. The location of Kol's cave is marked on it, along with the other three, a general layout of the camp, and at the opposite edge from the caves, a massive, dark thing large enough to sprawl across one entire edge of the camp, with a wolf's head and tail. "We went in silence and stealth, communicating via telepathy," he continues. "I estimate their numbers at perhaps eight thousands strong. Their leaders - one is human, one was not present, and the third I could get no read upon. The wolf," he taps the massive dark thing. "Seek not evil in that camp, for enough is present to overwhelm you. It is worse than Eclavdran," he tells Zeke soberly.

GAME: Seldan rolls craft/calligraphy: (19)+9: 28

Andelena studies the scroll offered to her, her expression suggesting that she's incredibly impressed by Seldan's map and the intelligence that he's gathered. Finally, she looks up at him and manages, "Seldan, this is... This is /incredible/. I've been wanting to try and organize another stealth mission on the camp to get the other totems, but I didn't know who to ask."

She grins at him. "You're full of surprises. Can I keep this? Or have a copy made of it?"

Zeke looks over the map, clearly impressed, but it's not just the drawing that has him impressed. It's Seldan's words. He finds himself half holding his breath through the details and then exhaling loudly at the news of an evil worse than Eclavdran sitting there in that camp. "What _isss_ it?" He asks, looking at the image of a wolf scribed on the camp. "No natural wolf sssurely. A demon? A devil?"

"I - cannot say." Seldan's eyes lower. "It may be a divine servitor. Such was its power. I asked the Dreamer to show me, and was near ill from it alone," he murmurs regretfully, and not without conflict.

He looks up, then, at Andelena, and nods. "It is yours to keep. I have one more thing." He goes again into the small pack at his feet, and withdraws another item wrapped in silk, this one larger than the first, and this he proffers to Andelena. It is of the correct size and shape to be a totem, and unwrapping it reveals a statue of a lovely young woman. "This must I ask of you," he says seriously. "Find another to attune this. It is safe now, but - it was a near thing. Mal should not command the totems, and indeed it is well, does he not find himself near them at all. He has suffered much, and for him to manifest from his nightmares would be a disaster beyond all ability to tell of it."

His eyes lower. "I must turn my attention to other tasks, and I must ensure that Mal has no involvement with the totems." He shudders. "I have done all for you on this matter that I may. I must leave the rest to you."

Andelena looks positively overwhelmed as she realizes precisely what the object handed to her is--not to mention the weight of the words that Seldan imparts to her, as well. She nods soberly as she places it away in her bag. "I'll find someone," she says.

Her steel-grey eyes look at Seldan for a moment longer, and she... struggles, genuinely, to find the words to say, her gaze of awe shifting to a more emotional one. She nods, finally, and says, "Thank you. Seldan, thank you. Truly."

Zeke moves forward a little. Offering his claw to the other man. Only Seldan here would understand the significance of such a small action. "You have done enough kin. More than. Take care of your mate, and of your-ssself." He seems about to say more, but he glances at Andelena and relents. Chooses to leave it at just that much. He nods to them both. "Thisss one sshould return. Thisss one will return to our ssshelter sssoon kin. Thisss one will bring you a meal."

For just a bare moment, Seldan looks - tired. Weary. He closes his eyes and lowers them, and takes the claw with his own hand, squeezing gently, then releasing. "As you will, kin. We should share words, but I shall not keep you." When he turns to Andelena, though, it is that steady gaze, with no hint of the weariness he had so briefly shown. "You are welcome, but let me be clear. I can do no more. I can listen, and advise, but the action must be yours. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Seldan," Andelena replies, nodding emphatically. "You've done more than I dreamed of anyone doing by themselves--you and your husband. I am grateful--grateful as I can be. And I can't, and won't, ask you to do more."

She smiles tenderly, before she starts to turn away. "Thank you, Seldan. Really and truly."

-End