It's been one hell of a week...how was yours?|Neo'

[Darastrix]

[[OOC: This thread takes place after Morrigan's encounter with Frakir and Zira's acceptance of Thuoth's ring. Winter of 1017]]

Forces, what a season it was turning out to be. Demons, Force-blessed rings, cursed (or possessed) swords, more demons, and all on top of his regular business, which had been rather hectic to begin with. What he wanted--what he needed--now was some small bit of leisure. He smiled to himself as he entered the temple, turning down the corridor into Taed's wing. He imagined that few people would come here for leisure, though to be fair, it was a person in Taed's temple he was coming to see, not the wing itself.

He felt a bit guilty for not having made time to see Morrigan sooner, but things had been truly hellish. He winced at the thought. It was an apt enough description, but he really wished it wasn't. He'd have much rather spent an evening discussing books with Morrigan than deal with the result of the bloody duel he'd let himself be talked into.

He hoped the book he'd brought would make up for it, a little.

Zira scanned the wing, and when he didn't catch sight of his friend right away, he approached another priest. "Excuse me," he said. "Would you be so kind as to direct me to Morrigan?"

[Kender Bard]

The priest hesitated, his demeanor suddenly tense and nervous. "Yes..." he said slowly. "She's in her room. Are you sure you want to see her?"

After her attack on the Reaper, the hostility shown to the Mind Healer, and having a guard bring her back home, other priests had reacted to her a little warily, even though she seemed to be settling down again. Few to none ever dreamed such a quiet and Taed-devoted woman had the capacity for such violence and it had shaken them a little.

[Darastrix]

Zira frowned at the reply, unable to imagine what could have prompted that sort of response. "Why, is she ill?" That didn't really fit, either, though. If Morrigan were sick, the priest would have just said so, wouldn't he?

[Kender Bard]

"I'm not sure," the priest admitted, frowning. "I don't... Think so? Er, if you like, you can go in and see her. Perhaps it'll bring her out of her room..." But from how he trailed off in that uncertain tone, it seemed the priest was unsure if that would be a good thing or not.

[Darastrix]

Well, if he hadn't felt guilty for his absence before, he certainly did now. Something had happened, and he hadn't been by to see her at all. "I think I will, thank you," he told the priest. "Excuse me." He slipped by him and headed back to the priest quarters.

When he reached Morrigan's room, he paused for a moment before knocking lightly at the door. "Morrigan?" he called. "May I come in?"

[Kender Bard]

There was a very long pause and then the door opened a crack. The inside of the room was very dark, curtains drawn over the windows, and Morrigan was cast in deep shadow. However the light that hit her through the open door revealed a sickly visage. Though she'd slept long and deep once free of Frakir, able to finally do so uninterrupted, she'd slept poorly since, tormented now by lingering nightmares exacerbated by the fading taint. Dark bags were under her eyes and her gaze was just a little dull. But it brightened a little at seeing Zira, and her expression was shocked, even though she'd heard him call out her name when he knocked.

"Zira," she whispered, her voice a bit hoarse from disuse. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Zira, I wasn't... Expecting you." Self conscious, she ran a hand back and down over her tangled hair. "Oh my. Er, come i-" but she glanced back into her room. It was a bit messy and a little stuffy, the air a trifle stale. "Um, on second thought..." She slipped out of the room completely, closing the door behind her with a soft click. Her robes were heavily rumpled to match her overall unkempt appearance. She'd taken to sleeping in them, finding comfort in the familiar softness of the material. And around her neck hung an emblem of Taed, something she rarely wore for every day use.

[Darastrix]

Regardless of what the priest had said before, Zira thought Morrigan certainly looked as though she'd been sick. "I'm sorry I haven't been by before now," he told her. "The past week...." He trailed off and shook his head. "Are you all right? One of the priests said you'd been keeping to your room."

He wasn't really sure what to make of what else the priest had said, or of his manner while saying it, so he kept that to himself.

[Kender Bard]

"The past week for me too," she replied quietly and managed a weak smile. "I'm... Recovering..." She sighed. "I'm not really fit to go out right now. At least, nowhere reputable. I'll understand if you'd rather pass on the visit while I'm in such a state. Though..." She couldn't squelch the little pain and protest at the thought of him leaving. Not when all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and unburden herself. Frakir's absence didn't just mean a revelation of what she'd been harboring... But she genuinely missed the soothing whispers and loving companionship the demon had offered her. She was feeling lonelier than ever now, an admission that sickened her, given the truth of the matter.

"I would like terribly if you were to stay though," she admitted, her voice cracking a little again. "But if so, I'd like it to be somewhere private and out of the temple." So she wouldn't have to see the cautious looks and curious stares. "The... The orchards if you wouldn't mind the walk."

[Darastrix]

"Not at all. I'm happy to walk with you," Zira assured her. Recovering? She must have been ill after all. "And the fresh air might do you some good."

[Kender Bard]

"Yes, it may, and you're not the first to say so," Morrigan agreed with a faint smile. Since there was nothing she wished to take with her, she set about walking out of the temple and through the town, keeping very quiet until they'd finally turned down the path that led to the orchards and the press of so many people was left behind them. "Do you want to talk about your week?" she asked Zira lightly. "I hope nothing terrible happened to you."

[Darastrix]

"I'm not sure what the word for it would be, honestly," Zira said. "The very abridged version--which I'm sure you'll hear in part at some point anyway--is that Morilanta has freed the demons again, I had the misfortune to win a...tainted sword in a duel, and I and Sunray are two of those who Thuoth has chosen to help fix things."

He showed Morrigan the ring he wore. "I think all of the Forces have people traveling around delivering rings on their behalf; it wouldn't make much sense for Thuoth alone to be acting in such a way."

[Kender Bard]

Morrigan's eyes were a bit wide at the news Zira delivered, and she lightly reached out to touch the ring he showed her, quickly pulling her fingertips back as though afraid she would be burnt. "I am aware of the demonic presence," she said softly. "You... Oh Zira..."

All of a sudden it was too much. Too much. She turned and hugged him tightly, a gasping cry leaping from her. "You are not still in the grip of the demonic gift offered you, are you?" she asked him, desperately. "Isn't it terrible? Does it ravage your thoughts and heart nightly as my lingering pain does me?" And to think he had come in contact with those things. Her grip tightened. And Thuoth, and the ring, and- "Oh Taed's mercy, please tell me you don't need to go and-and seek these things out! I don't know if I could bear the thought."

[Darastrix]

The sudden embrace startled Zira a little, but he recovered quickly and put his arms around Morrigan, cupping his wings forward a bit as he tried to calm her. "I'm fine," he stressed gently. "And I haven't been called to do anything ye--"

He cut himself off as part of what Morrigan said registered. "Your lingering-- You've come in contact with a demon?" But she was a temple priestess! How?

[Kender Bard]

"Yes," Morrigan admitted quietly, resting her head against him lightly. "I was.... Seduced. I suppose that's the only word for it. A demon whispered sweet promises to me and though at first I was repulsed by it--not yet even knowing what it was, precisely, for it didn't look like any creature I'd ever seen before--I soon began to regard it fondly. Frakir, it called itself. It wrapped itself around my hand like a glove, invisible to the naked eye, but promising me protection, companionship, understanding, advice. When I was sad or distressed, it calmed me and soothed me. Told me lovely things, made me happy. But it changed me and made me paranoid and suspicious until I had begun to... Well. No matter. It's gone now. I finally had the truth revealed to me..."

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and admitted to him what she could say to no other. She trusted only him to perhaps understand a little, or at least not casually dismiss her or condemn her. "I... Still miss it. Taed help me, but it was so kind to me. Even if it were all a lie, they were lies I could warm myself with."

[Darastrix]

"Kindness and comfort are things that we all want and need," Zira murmured. "If it was able to give you that, it's no wonder that you miss it. There have been times in the past when I could have easily been so seduced."

During the time after Zack had left Talen'sul, he would have been ripe for the picking. Or during some periods after they'd reunited. And at the festival when he'd met Schuldig...well. That had been a clear seduction of a different sort, but it was the same sort of mindset, extremely temporary though it had been.

"I never thought that you might feel that sort of lack in your life. Have you been unhappy at the temple?"