Healing Through Faith?|Neo'anar, New Anarlina

[Darastrix]

Zira walked up the steps to the temple, keeping a careful eye on his charges. Well, one of them, anyway. Autumn was perfectly at home in the temple, and many of the priests knew her by sight if not by name. Already, she was running ahead of her father, eager to see her "aunt" and the other priests in Soahc's wing.

It was his cousin that Zira was most concerned with. Crentha still seldom spoke, and the few times he'd tried to feel her out with his empathy left him disturbed. The guilt was understandable. The apathy, the not-caring, that was...wrong. And that was all he'd felt. He didn't know whether it was a matter of his own timing or if that really was all that she'd been feeling since Alethia had been killed, but it was enough that he was planning to suggest a Mind doctor to Talon.

"Crentha," he said gently, "if you start to feel uncomfortable in the Soahcian wing, just let me know, and I'll take you to one of the others. Or back to Widor, if you'd rather."

At least keeping an eye on her would help him ignore his own discomfort in the wing.

[Kender Bard]

Crentha looked at him and nodded. Her fingertips moved the beaten copper Soahcian-sign she'd received as a gift back in Talen'sul from one of the Generous. Her eyes darted around with a touch of nervousness--this wasn't her home temple and she didn't know anyone here. She didn't even know where the altar was so she could pray.

Taking a deep breath she walked in and tried to hunt out the altar. She kept her eyes down, trying not to catch any gazes. It would draw attention but so would looking at a Soahcian in the eye. It really was hard to win with them.

[Darastrix]

Zira let out a quiet sigh as he watched Crentha. It felt almost disrespectful to pray to his lord in Soahc's area of the temple, so he offered a quiet prayer to the Lord of Madness instead, that somehow she could be helped. It was strange to be asking Soahc to help someone's mind, but if what she was feeling was a form of madness, Zira didn't think it would be one even Soahc could delight in.

Autumn had already found her aunt, and was pulling her over in Crentha's direction. "Crentha!" she called. "This is Aunt Bun-Bun!"

Bun-Bun smiled down at her. "Some people call me Bunny, too," she said, and offered Crentha a bit of chocolate.

[Kender Bard]

Crentha glanced at the chocolate but shook her head slightly in refusal of it. "Hello," she greeted quietly. She didn't give her name since Autumn had already done that for her. She turned the little copper emblem even faster between her fingers, rubbing her thumb over the smooth metal. "Do you have an altar?"

[Darastrix]

"Mm-hmm." Bun-Bun passed the chocolate to Autumn instead and started toward their altar. "Are you Soahcian like Autumn's other daddy?"

While her aunt spoke, Autumn broke the chocolate in half and popped one piece into her mouth. She looked around the wing and ran over to a priest at random to tug at their robes and offer the other half of chocolate.

[Kender Bard]

Crentha shook her head. She licked her lips and spoke lightly, "Etafian. We were raised that way." A note of hardness crept into her voice as she added, "But I would give my soul to any Force who answers my prayer, even Soahc."

[Darastrix]

"Well, our lord's not above accepting bribes," Bun-Bun said, smiling. It was strange to see so young a girl sound so hard and determined, but strange was good. "He encourages them, in fact, especially when he's feeling Greedy. I'm Generous myself, so I like to just give without taking, and Soahc has those moods as well."

She stopped in front of the altar and tilted her head at Crentha. "What do you want from him? Or her. Or it. One never knows, of course." If it was something simple, she might be able to act on Soahc's behalf to help the child.

[Kender Bard]

Crentha's eyes lit up with hope and she actually smiled. Perhaps Soahc was simply in Anarlina and not home at Talen'sul.

She folded her hands and bowed to the altar. In a humble, supplicant voice, she replied, "I will give Soahc anything he wants if he can bring my Mommy back... and forgive me," she added, though she felt that if her mother were returned the forgiveness was implied.

[Darastrix]

Oh. Oh dear.

While Crentha bowed to the altar, Bun-Bun turned to give a helpless look over her shoulder, silently begging one of her fellow priests for help. There was always the chance that Soahc would grant the prayer on a whim, but if one went by how many people had actually been returned from the dead, it wasn't a very good one.

"Oh child," she murmured, turning back to Crentha. "What do you think you need to be forgiven for?"

[Kender Bard]

Crentha gave Bun-Bun a level look before stepping closer so she could whisper, "I killed her." She stiffened slightly with the admission. "None of the Forces have answered me. So I'm not forgiven for it. But I'll do anything to be forgiven and have Mommy back. If Soahc does so, then I'll worship him forever or anything else."

[Darastrix]

She couldn't have actually killed her mother, the priestess thought. She's just a child. Hadn't Zack said something about someone's children staying with him because of a problem in Talen'sul? There must have been an accident of some sort.

"Crentha, just because she's gone doesn't mean you've done anything the Forces won't forgive," Bun-Bun said. "Or even that you've done anything that they need to forgive."

[Kender Bard]

Crentha frowned deeply. "Yes. The Forces have been to my uncle, my aunt, and my cousins. But they won't listen to me." Her hands curled into fists as she squeezed her eyes tight against the tears that threatened to well up again. I'm done crying. I'm done. It doesn't do anything. She took a deep breath and then relaxed again by the inches. "But I won't give up." She moved closer to the altar and puts her hands down on it, touching the smooth stone softly. "What does Soahc like?"

[Darastrix]

This rabbit hole is too deep for me, she thought. Counsel had never been one of the things she was good at offering. She had no clue what to tell Crentha. Well, she could at least answer the question.

"He likes change, unpredictability, everything in our natures that people call sin or that can be taken too far: generosity, curiosity, greed, pride, all of the paths his priests walk. It makes him just as happy to see someone give everything they have away as it does to see someone hoard everything instead."

[Kender Bard]

"So Soahc likes it if you misbehave?" Crentha hazarded. She'd had almost no lessons on the faith of Soahc beyond the barest bit her parents told her and the bits and snippets she picked up from her time in the temple.

[Darastrix]

Bun-Bun blinked at Crentha. Uh-oh. Soahc would get a kick out of this, but it'd also make it hard to make Autumn's adoptive father more comfortable with Soahc's people, and Zack did want him to be.

"Um...kind of? But we have to keep in mind, too, that outside our temple area are people who aren't his and who don't understand why we do what we do. We don't act proper outside the temple," she said, "but we try to make sure that we're not giving our lord a bad name. We have to live with other Forces' people, too, and it's more fun when we're not all mad at each other."