SESSION 26 RECAP

Aerona is visited by what seems to be the ghost of one of the Sword of Haelyn's paladins haunting the former Temple of Haelyn. She attempts to banish his spirit, but is unsuccessful; she also attempts to reason with him, stating that his order's inflexibility and obstinacy in following their directives was their downfall. She leaves still troubled.

Aerona and Cuinn spar together in the training yard, and Cuinn asks Aerona her interpretation of Cuiraecen as a deity. Aerona replies that to her, Cuiraecen stands for valor, the courage to do what is right, the cleansing fire that removes the rot and decay. Cuinn is deeply moved by her words, and sometime later rides out to the forest, to attempt something she has never done before-- pray.

After a long moment of feeling patently ridiculous, Cuinn yells at the sky wondering aloud if there are even any gods to pray to... then is startled by a voice calling her "Reynhild". To her surprise, it is Lwcan. She explains she is driven to seek the gods' guidance, given the weight of the decision before her-- the same decision that wreaked a terrible price on Cullan Fulcairn and nearly ended the House. He replies that the correct side to choose is one's own side, and when she says it seems folly, given the forces arrayed against them, he asks if he is foolish to stand as one man against Rhuobhe's horde on Wilder's Gorge's northern border. Cuinn is, again, moved, and leaves to ponder both Aerona's and Lwcan's words.

Cuinn returns to Fulcairn Keep shortly before an Imperial squad arrives; they are requesting Mara's aid to apprehend and interrogate a demonologist glimpsed in the auguries of the priests of Haelyn. Cuinn agrees to assist, and Cuinn, Mara and Aerona join the eight soldiers, following the demonologist's trail to a hamlet on the border between Portage and Bayside. The suspect is not difficult to locate; he is foreign, heavily tattooed, and accompanied by cloaked and hooded comrades. They refuse to cooperate with questioning, and appear to be casting a spell; Mara attempts to dispel the magic she suspects they are casting, but ends up dispelling the magic that is holding them in human form; they are not demonologists but a pack of demons. The Fulcairns and the Imperial soldiers desperately attack them, but the demons have a strange power-- upon touching their victims, their tattoos transfer onto them, paralyzing them. The imperial soldiers are slain, and the Fulcairns attack the leader only to free him of his mortal shell into his true demon form.

Aerona calls the power of Cuiraecen to summon lightning from the sky, and between the lightning, Cuinn's arrows, and Mara's magic, the Fulcairns manage to fell the demons, at great cost-- all the Imperial soldiers are slain, and the hamlet is burned to the ground.