Night of Fire

Juniper cones hiss and snap on hot coals, their embers spitting like dying meteorites into the gloom. Steam pours from four braziers - each manned by an acolyte robed only in sweat - and rolls like a thunderhead over the warm stone. In the centre of the room, a large, shallow pit of sand radiates the heat of the mound of flushing coals. Through the dense screen that is the right wall, the rhythmic chanting of shield brethren fills the sanctum.

The initiates are breathing as one. They rise, palms flat against floor, pushing themselves to standing, arching further, stretching taut limbs. All are equally disrobed, all glistening with oil and sweat and anticipation in the scant light. A horn sounds. The chanting quickens in urgency,  and together the initiates turn their backs to the sand. A crack of thunder - so close it pounds into the chest like a fist - precedes the crack of the door, which splinters inward, buckles, then explodes before Balros, High Priest of Cuiraécen. Resplendent in full armor, he lifts a open hand to them and turns, leading the twenty naked men and women out into the blinding light of the noon day sun.

Balros’ spear catches the rays of the sun and Aerona almost stumbles. She kneels in quick benediction, rising barely in step with her fellow initiates as they emerge from the fragrant, dark womb of the sanctum and unto the terrace at the centre of the citadel. Below them the holdings of the Hidden Temple of Cuiraécen spiral outwards to towered walls. Balros raises his hands, spear aloft, as he descends. His foot touches the first stair and the two rows of drummers lining the great stairway begin their tempo. The initiates descend in lockstep. Great unlit pyres made of huge logs tied into pyramids have been erected along the walls and at the intersections of the training yards. The yards, normally kept exceptionally tidy, have been spread with soft white sand an inch deep. Musicians join the drummers: upending long cylinders fashioned from wood bark in deliberate succession: mimicking the coming of rain. The rain sticks’ cascade is punctuated only by the crack of expertly timed whips.

Above them, on balconies, terraces, or from the wide walkways atop the walls, acolytes, priests, and visitors watch with rapt attention.

The initiates stand in rows at the bottom of the stairs, waiting to be chosen. Balros stands before them, his expression grimly meditative, as he chooses.

The first match is a handy victory for Aeric. The tall Anuirean is built like an ox, and to his opponent's misfortune, as tricky as Eloéle herself.

The second bout ends in a draw - Roeva and Tannen have each other locked in grips, but both refuse to admit defeat. Afterwards, Roeva argues her snapped arm should count for nothing since Tannen is lame, but the Priests refuse to hear it.

Aerona is chosen for the fourth match. She, along with her fellow combatants, allows herself to be blessed and smudged with incense before taking he place atop the sand. Her back is to the Elder Priests. She prefers it this way.

Daene moves quickly; like a spider he scuttles low and fast. Both his arms grip Gael by the knees - she is unluckily nearest to him, her back slightly turned, so he comes as a surprise. Even as she struggles, he is shifting his weight to fall back unto his right shoulder. Gael, thrown from her feet, lands with a wet crunch. She holds her ruined hand up - but Daene is already pushing away from her, launching himself at Halmied.

Aerona breathes out, crouches low, and rushes to meet Paeghan’s charge. Paeghan has less reach and struggles in the grapple, but Aerona knows the smaller woman will outlast her. Paeghan slips her hands up, past Aerona’s guard, and grips her shoulders. Planting her feet, the smaller woman forces Aerona tumbling back into the sand. Aerona curls her torso, bending her knees to her chest, placing her feet on Paeghan’s stomach and thigh as she gripped her above the elbows, locking their arms. Momentum carried Paeghan most of the way - Aerona aided the hard landing by snapping her legs, propelling Paeghan hard into the stone wall, where she crumpled.

She gets ony a breath before Halmied has a hold on her from behind - his arms linked around her neck and under her arm, hands clasped in front of her chest, and now she is once again hurtled into the ground. She shares the sand she spits out with Halmied by throwing it into his face. He has the reach advantage this time, but Aerona is already on her feet and closing the gap. She’s too close too soon and he doesn’t land the right jab before he’s on his back, but this time she follows, raining blows. Halmied hits the sand a split second before her knees impact his chest. He’s dazed now, and can only hold off her attacks from her straddling position by keeping his hands and arms covering his face.

They’re both dehydrated, near exhaustion, but Aerona is determined. She rises to her feet, kicks Halmied to his stomach, and chokes him until he lies unconscious in the sand.

Ghesele wins the fourth match, and joins the other three in the baths. The others are tended to by the acolytes - their wounds tended or healed within the infirmary. It is impolite to ask after any of the initiates who do not reappear. To die during initiation is a dishonor, to leave the Temple something worse. Most will stay, to try again.

Robed in the red raiments of the Priesthood of Cuiraecen for the first time, Aerona sits in awe in the place of honor with her fellow priests upon the dias at the centre of the citadel. The feast is forgotten, wine and mead goblets held in hands but not tasted as all marvel at the Night of Fire. The towering pyres do nothing to dull the brilliance of the waves of blazing metorites - streaking like dying embers into the dark.

SESSION 30 RECAP - TRIGGER WARNING

Mara regains her senses, aware she is in the Shadow Realm. She wanders and eventually finds a structure which turns out to be the empty manor house of long-lost House Valmyrri. She hears whimpers, goes to investigate, and finds a young halfling hiding under the bed, terrified; it urges her to hide. A horrific monster appears, its head swathed in bandages and its broken hands carrying a lantern and disturbing bells; it hauls off the halfling, while Mara, terrified, does nothing.  A tapping at the window reveals a crow, who shapeshifts into the long-dead Fulcairn ancestor, Catriona Fulcairn. She explains she entered the Shadow Realm long ago to attempt to magically seal a rift which threatened to leak the Shadow Realm into the mortal plane; without the lost land magic in the bloodline of the youngest Valmyrri from so long ago, she was required to physically enter the Shadow Realm to do so. Catriona urges Mara to ward it from the other side. Unable to help her further, Catriona summons a crow to try and lead Mara out of the Shadow Realm, and Mara takes her leave. Mara makes her way to what appears to be an inn; its inhabitants turn on her, reflect her own magic onto her, consuming her with fire, and she loses consciouness.

She awakes on a cart being hauled to the gates of Fulcairn Keep. Cuinn and Aerona greet her, and the trio leave to try and follow Adair and Asha, who still have not returned from their scouting mission. They are intercepted by the Archduke's envoy, Lord Winterholm, who casually tosses Asha's head and Adair's hand at Cuinn's feet. He proclaims that Boeruine is winning the war, but he will allow them to rejoin the fold, and spare Adair's life, if they surrender Mara to them. He also says that the Dragon has reclaimed the mebhaigl from Mara, and Mara discovers she cannot reach the land magic. Cuinn angrily turns on Mara, accusing her of urging them toward the losing side because of her lust for power... and agrees to Winterholm's terms. Mara then realizes she is in the Shadow Realm, knowing the real Cuinn would never abandon her. She unleashes a fireball on the entire group, killing Aerona, but Cuinn's bloodline powers shield her from the fire and she manages to retaliate with two well-placed arrows. Mara falls; Winterholm goes to bloodthieve her, but Cuinn snarls that the right to do so is hers. She kills Winterholm, beheads him and his men in vengeance for Asha, and drives her blade into Mara's heart. The last thing Mara hears is the cawing of a crow. 

Cuinn grimly returns to Fulcairn Keep empty-handed, frustrated at the Ghosts' inability to locate the invasion force. Laurentius returns without Mara; she angrily accuses him of failing at protecting her, then relents. With no news from Mara or the Ghosts, without the full strength of the hired mercenary forces, and with more refugees heading eastward from Portage, she decides to take a small party to try and retrace the steps of Adair and Asha, as she is unwilling to launch an offensive without any idea of the size, strength and location of the invasion forces. Cuinn, Aerona, Laurentius, and a few men-at-arms leave for Portage. They locate only supply trains, but still cannot find the bulk of the invasion force, and Aerona's attempt to befriend and question a group of soldiers fails. Cuinn, at her wit's end, decides they cannot afford any further inaction and they will have to attack the supply trains. She commands Aerona to return to Fulcairn Keep, take command of the Wilder archer unit and whatever mercenaries have arrived, and strike westward to disrupt the supply chains, while she tries to find Adair and Asha deep in enemy territory. They part ways. Cuinn follows the trail of an apparent hunt westward, finding bodies of enemy scouts, traps, and scenes of vicious fights in the woods; despite the danger and fearing the worst, she is filled with pride at the skill and bravery of her Ghosts. The trail splits off and she is forced to follow one north, believing it to be Adair's. Finally, nearly at the coast, she finds him, his right arm mangled beyond use by the jaws of hunting dogs, nearing the end of his strength and without his weapons, but alive. She embraces him, relieved, and tends to his wounds. He has dire news-- the reason they could not find the invasion force is because they were magically concealed, and he and Asha blundered into them, barely managing to flee with their lives. Horrified, Cuinn and Adair make for Fulcairn Keep.

They reach it at the same time as the full strength of the Forgotten Sons mercenary company's units of light cavalry and infantry. However, an Imperial messenger arrives with even grimmer tidings-- Stormpoint has fallen. Forces from Boeruine, Portage, and Bhaine, working in concert, and magically cloaked, attacked without warning and claimed it, as there was no wizard to defend it or raise the alarm, with Mara still absent. Thaliere commands Cuinn to head to Seamist to join the Imperial forces planning for war, even as a letter from Branna Nentril arrives begging Wilder's Gorge for aid against the forces besieging Bayside.

SESSION 28- 29 RECAP

Mara is plagued by a disturbing dream-- a vision of Cathal and Dolan, haggard, bearded and fur-clad, fallen and barely moving in a snowy wasteland. She tells Cuinn; torn between her anger at Cathal and her worry for him, debates sending men after him, but is counseled against it by Mason Haeming, the new military advisor, given that they cannot spare warriors and that Cathal knew the risks.

A messenger arrives at the Keep from the Empire, with details surrounding Mara's summons to Stormpoint-- she is to become the Magister of Taeghas, with all associated power, equipment, offices, resources, and staff, and is to be granted control of the land magic of Taeghas. Given that she has already wrested control of the land magic from her old master Harald Khorien, this move appears to her to either be an olive branch or perhaps an attempt to save face from him. She is told that Avan means to construct a Magisterium, with a wizard in charge of each of the realms within the Empire.

A messenger also arrives from Boeruine; he bids that within the fortnight, Wilder forces attack Seamist and send agents to harass the Bayside border.

The hour comes to make a decision, and the Fulcairns debate what to do late into the night. But eventually Cuinn decides that Taeghas will only be torn apart by another civil war, that she cannot unify Taeghas by becoming a hated collaborator with a foreign invasion force, with only turncoats as allies, and that Wilder's Gorge cannot stand on its own yet... so for the meantime, they reluctantly decide to support the Empire.

 They decide to send Mara to Stormpoint to assume her post and to bring news of the invasion, while Aerona coordinates the defense force from the Keep, and Cuinn leads the Ghosts to scout out the size and direction of the invasion force. They bid each other a heartfelt farewell.

Mara and Laurentius reach Stormpoint. Mara breaks the geas binding her, Cuinn and Cathal to Boeruine's will, then informs Thaliere of the Boeruinese invasion, stating she had glimpsed it in a divination. Thaliere commands her to stay in Stormpoint and aid with divination magics; Mara quickly states they are not her forte and she would be of more use in the field. Thaliere, disturbed, states she needs to make further preparations. Mara leaves to attempt to secure aid from other heads of houses. None seem to be in attendance at their townhouses, but Laurentius claims to have glimpsed Noelen Bhaine. Mara decides to find Bhaine and expose him by magically compelling him to admit his collaboration with Boeruine to Thaliere. But Bhaine is not in his manor, and his servants state perhaps he is at his villa in the countryside. Mara and Laurentius leave to try and find him at the villa. They discover he is not there either, but they demand hospitality from the villa's staff as befitting Mara's station as magister. Mara is suggested that she remain in her rooms for her "safety" by the guards. Late at night, she and Laurentius begin to search the house for anything proving Bhaine's collaboration with Boeruine. They find his office, and Mara attempts to teleport magically through the open keyhole... but terrible misfortune strikes her, and she teleports herself instead into the Shadow Realm.

Aerona, not bound by a geas, writes letters to all the allied or neutral Houses, warning them of the invasion and suggesting they ready forces for the defense of Taeghas. She introduces herself to the men she is to command, and delivers a magnificent, electrifying speech, swearing to defend the land with her sword arm and the wrath of her war god; the fighters' morale visibly swells. Later, the commander of a mercenary band called the Forgotten Sons arrives, answering Cuinn's summons, and Aerona signs their contract, adding a unit of light cavalry and a unit of infantry to the ranks of the Wilder warriors.

Cuinn and the Ghosts scout along the Elfwash river, leaving individual Ghosts to form a perimeter to watch for invasion from the north. They intercept and slay a Boeruinese scouting party, managing only to determine that they were sent to keep watch, but nothing more. They continue westward and cross the border into Portage. There, they find massive supply trains and armed men heading south to the city of Portage and beyond, but are unable to locate the bulk of the invasion force. Cuinn, fearing that forces from Boeruine may be attacking Wilder's Gorge across the eastern border, splits up the remaining four Ghosts, taking Telfyrdd and riding east back home, and sending Adair and Asha south following the supply lines.