How To Pray To Cuiraecen

"Ouch! For the love of the gods, Elena, is that a poultice or just a rag soaked in acid?"

Cuinn's handmaiden clucked and fussed like a plump hen. "Oh, Lady Cuinn, you need to tell Lady Aerona not to hit you so hard when the two of you spar. She's wielding a wooden sword and she hits you hard enough to leave you these nasty cuts!"

"Aye, she does hit hard." Cuinn was fast enough that Aerona rarely landed a strike, but when she did, the woman's blows felt like a four-ox wagon laden with anvils running down a steep hill into her. "But I like it."

And in truth, she did. Cuinn preferred to avoid direct combat, preferred to strike from the shadows and melt back into them, yet the honest, sweaty, savage flurry of sparring with the priestess had proved... exhilarating. In the moment, covered in sweat and smarting from a few dozen bruises and cuts, frantically attempting to read Aerona's footwork to determine where the next falling anvil of a blow was coming from, Cuinn found that a strange... clarity descended on her.

Who knows, perhaps I've finally discovered how to pray to Cuiraecen.

And the clarity gripped her still, even as she stood stripped to the waist while Elena fussed over her. It was like a lens through which the thousand worries and troubles and monstrous decisions plaguing her sprang into focus. The Empire. The Archduke. The geas. And below it all, percolating deep in her soul where her preternatural sense for danger dwelled, where the blood of divinity they'd shared with each other lived... she was worried for Cathal. She was angry enough at him to do her best to attempt to choke the life out of him with her bare hands... but she was worried for him. He was in danger, danger far greater than he'd acknowledged.

She winced as Elena daubed poultice onto her smarting shoulder.

Aerona's words echoed in her head. "The sword of Cuiraecen deals death. The shield of Cuiraecen offers succor and mercy. Both are parts of Him. Both honour his father Haelyn."

And then she knew what they had to do.