An Earth-like planet covered in cool, windswept plains, verdant but prone to continent-wide dust storms during the dry seasons. Freshwater oceans cover seven-tenths of the globe here, and most of its cultures are heavily ingrained in nautical lifestyles. The last of the great battles of Tingnarok occurred here, and ended when Ting Dey'ono, standing over the broken bodies of her aunt Mara-kuru, her mother Felina, brother, sister- and uncle-in-law, all clinging to life, destroyed the nameless divine absolute, son of Lilith and Amhersch, and ended a twelve-year celestial war. Though most of the civilization here was destroyed in the conflict, the people have worked hard to rebuild, and there now exists a deep and complex culture of trails, wagons, and enormous palace states. All presiding over a religious culture devoted to Ting herself. These days, small, clandestine pockets of another religious movement exist; a cult following an enigmatic woman known only as 'Saint Elise'."

---

Helantri Deru

---

The western continent Acra, one hundred miles inland from the eastern coastline. A small, stone shrine sits in quiet subtlety beside the palace city Semsil and there, across from the doors of the great shrine to Ting, a crowd stands gathered in-near riot, held away from the deep green-robed young woman only by the presence of five powerful-looking men dressed in heavy, blood-red and dark chocolate cloaks with fat-bladed , steeple-shaped swords and heater shields in their hands. The shields bear a diamond-shaped mark in bright white paint, a beautiful symbol that bears the word 'XoHoX', a perfect ambigram.

Another man, this one also in black but bearing a green sash, stands next to the woman, and whispers in her ear, which is slightly pointed at the lobe. She nods, and whispers back, her absolutely blue eyes whispering over her dusk brown skin.

"Calm yourselves," the man cries to the crowd, raising his arms. "We are not disputing your faith, we simply mean to add to it! All of you know, and your scripts reflect, that the god-beast entered the field of battle wounded, its power constrained to only a fraction of its ability. Only your goddess Ting knows the agent of this weakness exists, and she stands in your presence today! Why would you wish violence upon her?"

The woman gazes out onto the crowd, her features full of compassion for the foolishness of the tribal gathered. She has a blue flower pinned in her dark brown hair, and wears no make-up upon her face. She is certainly attractive, in a very wholesome way, and her gaze is unflinching.

"There can be no others before our goddess!" a woman shouts from the crowd, and others echo her sentiment. The five guards tighten their stances, and no one tries to advance.

"Saint Elise is not trying to subvert your goddess, only be here to guide you in Ting's absence, and claim the just reward she so deserves for her unheralded aid!" The speaker has tremendous poise on the stairs, a mighty bearing and an absolute command over his voice and speech. He, like Elise, is dusky and brown, though he shows signs of aging in his graying hair and lined face.

Elise remains silent.

The first of the torches arcs through the air, landing at her feet. The second sails over her shoulder, its oil pouring into the shrine of Saint Elise. The crowd has reached its boiling point and erupts now, throwing stones and torches at and over Elise's guards.

"Do not harm them," she says, her voice cool and unfazed even when her guards begin to advance on the mob. Even when a stone splits her cheek, even when a blazing torch smashes against her robe and rolls, searing its way to the floor, and her speaker throws himself in front of her and spirits her away, fleeing for her safety, and she doesn't resist, but nor does she run on her own volition. She simply lets herself be swept away, trusting that her path will be guided wherever she is supposed to go.

---

A bit later, two well-covered kitties--Ting in white, Huo in earthy oranges--and one very pretty human appear in an alley, and head towards the main part of the street. "It's a fun town," Ting purrs..."Lots to see and do. And drink! But yes. There are hanging gardens that are very pretty, and a really exciting bazaar, and a lot of the men wear skirts, which is hot." She giggles. "Oh..." and she holds out a money pouch to Anna. "Local currency."

"Ooh... gots!" Anna snatches it. Smiles again at Auntie Ting. She's just about to ask what's going on when two fellows come dashing through town with water buckets, at high speed. The sky to their north is dark with smoke. "I wonder what's going on?"

"Hum...don't know! But I'll hurry on ahead and look." Ting smiles. "so I'll be in that direction, call me if you need anything!" She pat-pats both her favorite niece and little brother, steps back out of site, and then is gone, floating invisibly over the area where that smoke's coming from.

Over the shrine to Saint Elise, smoke still rolls from embers only now dying out. Townsfolk are busy putting the last embers out, as some of them leapt to the palace walls. Three people lay still on the ground, two others sit wounded on the street, and a few others are being carted off; only one of them wears the red of Elise's guard. Down the road, several of the people have cornered a young, dusky woman and a man in green, along with the other four guards. As Ting is watching, a heavyset man raises what looks like an iron rod and swings for the first guard, prompting his compatriots to start swinging as well.

Quick redirections, and those hits should inexplicably miss. This gives Ting time to appear in the masses of people where no one saw anyone a moment before anyway, and run and push through until her hand catches the next swung pipe. "Hey! What's going on? This doesn't seem right."

The swinger, a gigantic man in a crowd of gigantic men, tries to jerk the pipe away.

"She is a false idol," he declares, glaring at Ting. "She was trying to spread lies to the people, and built a shrine to herself!"

This is actually not accurate; Elise had nothing to do with the shrine's erection. Her expression clouds, looking at the new arrival, and she looks to her speaker, and whispers to him. He looks at Ting, too, as if to say, "Are you sure?" and Elise nods.

"Then tell people the truth, and ignore the shrine," Ting pleads quietly with the big fellow. "A building's just a building, it can't hurt a belief."

"Not everyone is as resistant to lies as we are," the man insists. He jerks the weapon again. "Who are you to deny us this?"

During this exchange, at Elise's word, the man in green speaks softly to his men, who immediately step back to a defensive position.

"I'm just a person trying to be a voice of reason. I mean, isn't attacking her for loudly speaking another belief pretty against the scriptures you're defending?" Ting's changed a lot in the last few years, though still the same person at her core. She's a lot more pacifistic after all the Tingnarok ickiness.

"Exactly, she is speaking against our scripture," he nods, in fervent agreement.

Elise looks at the alley end they're stuck in. No way out. Her guards are growing uneasy, and she knows it. They're warriors, all of them, and if this doesn't end soon, they're liable to cut into the mob and try to slice a swath through them.

In an anime, Ting would face fault about now. "But don't the scriptures say that you shouldn't hurt other people for their beliefs? How can you break the rules to defend the rules?"

"We're not hurting them for their beliefs," another shouts from the back, "we're hurting them for trying to poison ours. They can believe whatever they want. They're claiming that woman back there was responsible for the god-beast's death!"

Ting tilts her head. "Well, what are they saying about that, exactly?" The longer she can keep them talking, the better...and, honestly, remembering that horrible, horrible fight, her interest is piqued.

"They said Ting didn't defeat the monster by herself!"

Elise is sure about it, now. She whispers again to her speaker. She's starting to sway a little, though; one of those stones struck the side of her head as they were fleeing, and it's all she can do to stay on her feet. She's clinging to her speaker's sleeve even now.

The guards are looking back and forth, now, grips tightening on their steeple-swords.

Ting blinks. Thinks about what that might mean. Probably...someone saying they fought alongside her, which just isn't true. "That...depends what they mean," she finally notes. "Ting was alone when she fought it! But a lot of other people fought it first, so she's not the only one who did. Like her mom and brother, they fought it first, that's right in the book!" Still...she senses the swaying, a near-panic in the back of the mind that means someone's fighting unconsciousness. Pause. Turns her head to look at Elise just a little when an invisible healing spell twists around her.

Ting might be surprised when the spell stops just inches from Elise's skin, freezing in place before whisping away with no effect at all.

"You're one of her disciples, then. Move, or be moved," another shouts at Ting.

Another swings a club at her, and just as quickly, stones begin to fly. Elise's vision begins to blur; she can see two of Ting. The guards' shields come up, and they move forward, having seen enough, to a shout of dismay from the man in green. If Ting doesn't stop them, they'll cut down the first row of mob.

That's it. A powerful psychic shield strikes up between the mob and guards, preventing any blows from getting through. The club, meanwhile, strikes her full in the head, slamming her back against her own shield a little...and sending her hood fluttering down from her now-bloodied temple.

"...That really hurt," she notes quietly as she gets her breath back, straightening up. "And I know you're trying to defend a faith, but you've got to remember to follow it while you're being faithful."

The club swinger freezes. Blinks, drops the weapon.

In a moment, he and almost all the others fall to their knees, even one of Elise's guards, though he holds onto his weapon.

Not a whisper sounds in the alley. Were it not for her speaker, Elise would not be standing right now; she knows it's important to stay up. She can't fall. She can't let herself fall, not in front of anyone.

Ting sighs quietly. This part's always weird. Still...she takes a quiet step, kneels to pick up the club that had struck her. Looks down at the swinger for just a second...but then steps back. And breaks the hefty thing over her leg. Tosses the pieces aside.

Then she reaches up, and knits the wounds on her face in a few seconds. Just lets the silence preside as she does. Calm people down. Finally...

"Look. Other people are going to come in with their beliefs. And different takes on your beliefs. It'll happen, I promise! Some of them will have good, true ideas. Some of them will have greedy ones, or just dumb ones. But you can't just go around hurting people for them, even if they offend you. If your beliefs are good and true, and I promise they are, then you just have to tell them louder and better and it will win out in the end. If you can only violence people into believing what you believe, there's probably something wrong with your beliefs. If someone attacks you with words, then defend yourself with words. If they attack you physically, then defend you physically. But don't mix 'em. Okay?"

Ting sighs again. "Look. About this 'fought the god-beast' myself stuff. Yeah, I was alone when I fought it. And it was horrible. And I almost died a higher number of times than I can probably count to and lost more blood than I thought my body held, 'cause I'm not that big. But I won eventually. But before that, like Yoru wrote down in those books, my brother fought it, and the goddess Ai. And Radivishe Moorn did, and my mom did. And they're all really strong, and they did damage to it that helped me when it was my turn. We all beat it, I just finished it."

She gestures back to Elise. "I don't know who this lady is. I've never seen her before. Maybe she didn't do anything in Tingnarok, but maybe she did. There were a lot of people who did things quietly trying to help that we never saw, and always people coming and going and coming and staying and coming and dying. And it was hard to keep track. But I'll look into it for you and find out for sure, okay? There are ways to confirm the past, there are, and I know 'em. Just...less of the hitting, all right? It's not okay to start it."

Pause. Even the crickets are being too reverent to chirp, damnit. Pause. "...someone give me a nod or something, seriously."

There's nothing for a long, long moment. Finally, a soft, zephyr-thin voice speaks from the sleeve of the man in green. 

"Thank you," Elise only barely breathes, her voice the soft puddling of a mountain brook over stones.

Ting glances back to her. Face softens a bit. Poor chick. No matter what they're saying, she doesn't like people to be hurting. She looks back out to the mob. "Two things. First, stuff's on fire and not enough people are trying to put them out. Your street is wrecked, things are broken, things are turned over from this mob thingie. You're hurting other faithful people that way, not everyone can afford that kinda damage. Go clean it up. And second, I need to know where the nearest doctor is for this lady. I'll ask her what's going on and confirm stuff either way and find out stuff for you, but not until she stops bleeding."

"She doesn't need a doctor, she's a saint," someone hisses. But by now, the mob is starting to part; the less venomous have gotten bored, the hateless have felt sympathy.

"I'll show you to the doctor," the speaker calls over the guards, "just clear these infidels away, please!"

Ting's ears press back a bit. "If you won't listen to me, and you say you're defending me, then what are you really doing...?" She shakes her head. Looks back to the speaker. "Where is the doctor? If you could picture the place, that would be nice."

He can, and does, without really thinking. It's a hut outside the town walls; this place still subscribes to shamanism, as it turns out. Elise's eyelids flutter.

No one breathes.

Ting nods a little. "I'll...catch up in just a minute." This as a delicate spell circle in a bright lavender traces on the ground around Elise's party, and they should all appear right before the doctor's.

Ting, on the other hand, approaches the guy who had hit her. Poor little bitsch...she can hear him hyperventilating, and he'd seemed too rooted to the spot to move with the rest.

He can't look up. He doesn't even know where he, how he got there; much like most of the other people. He can hear her footsteps, can see her feet in front of his face. Doesn't move. Doesn't breathe.

Ting sighs ...and then begins to sing a soft, calming song. It stays quiet both near and far, carrying unnaturally, as dumeni voices tend to do. Sets her claws entirely harmlessly atop the hair at his temples. Finally, quietly..."Hey. Imeni. Look up."

He does, his voice stained with tears. There are scars all over his face, cross slashes in at least six places; the mark of a thief in these parts. He can't speak, though.

They don't, of course, phase Ting. She may be the most genuinely appearance-ignoring creature in the universe. "It isn't any worse that you hit me, than if I hadn't been me and it really was just a random girl. Okay? I'm not special that way, I don't get special rules. You shouldn't do stuff like that. But I get it. I do! You're upset 'cause you met someone who's kind of like a goddess in your life and it should be a huge monumental thing and she saw you at pretty close to your worst instead of at your best. Right?" Ting tilts her head. Her expression's gentle.

He only nods. Others around, the ones who haven't fled, are just listening.

Ting purrs softly...just because she knows it's almost universally considered a pleasant sound, coming from her. "It's okay. Not okay, but...you did a bad thing. I don't think you're a bad person because of it, you just had a bad moment. Or a lot of them. But you all know Makyon, right?" She looks up over the group, and back down the the fellow whose hair she's mussing idly. "I first met Makyon when he was working for Shigoriath. He fought against me and my brother, and almost killed Ai! But then he helped us. He saved me, and later he was my best friend, and he saved me again in Tingnarok big time. His original badness isn't in the scriptures because he doesn't deserve to be remembered that way, he's a good man who changed what he'd been doing for...millenia, because he decided it was wrong and he didn't like it. He decided to change, and then he did! Look..."

At this she kneels in front of the fellow. Head tilts the other way, examining his face critically. Then her hands move to his cheeks, thumbs gently wiping. And after a few moments, all of the scars have been wiped away, leaving skin behind that's a fresh as a sheltered teenager's. "Things change. People can!" She smiles. "Just cause you've hurt people doesn't mean you haveta keep doing it. And just because you've been doing something for a long time doesn't mean you can't up and decide to change it if you want to." She pats his head, and stands up.

Imeni doesn't answer. He can't, he can't find the words, couldn't. Ever.

The others are crowding around him, already. Murmuring, whispering.

At the witch doctor's hut, Elise lies still upon a mat of woven grass. The shaman is busy stitching the gaping aperture on her head shut, without anesthesia, and Elise never moves, never winces. Only stares at the ceiling with those sad, unfocused eyes. Her speaker stands outside, forbidden to enter this place of healing in the presence of wounded woman; here, female blood is considered unclean. The shamans, of course, can touch them. They have 'wards' which essentially consist of strings of berries, roots and bones.

Ting, meanwhile, just pulls her white hood--clean again, the blood burning away as she brings it up--back over her head and ears, and turns to walk away. Go check on Elise.

No one gets in her way this time, no one stops her. Elise's guards move to gather their fallen brother; they are four of one hundred, now.

The hut isn't far from there, actually; most of the shaman shrines are near Ting's shrines. A roar goes up behind her, of course; the usual religious figure scuttle.

Elise's speaker stands before the door, hand on the handle of his enormous dagger. He looks at Ting, grip tightening, purely out of instinct.

He doesn't bow.

"Ting," he observes, "isn't it?"

She nods. "Uh-huh. Yes. Hello."

His grip relaxes.

"Thank you," he softly says. "They would've killed her, this time."

"I saw that, yeah. Not so fun. Is she okay? And why couldn't I heal her?"

"She's hurt badly," he's quite sad to say, walking close to Ting where he towers over her; he's almost Makyon's size, though leaner. "It's... actually quite the miracle she is still awake after that. As for your healing; she is an absolute, Ting. No sorcery has ever touched her; this is why she was able to cast her curse on the god-beast before it awoke completely."

"Oh, so that part's true then?" She scritches her hair. "What's an absolute. Nevermind, I'll ask later. What's your name?"

"Speaker. And an absolute is a being that exists in one absolute form. She's mortal, but will never age, never be affected by sorcery, never grow. Never bear a child." He smiles a little.

"Oh." Ting rocks on her heels. Ponders this. "She wasn't born or a kid, then?"

"She was. The fate of an absolute is set at full maturity; the fact that she's not even five feet tall is actually happenstance." Speaker watches Ting rock. "I don't know how it happens, though, or why. It simply... does, sometimes."

"Hm. Weird! So there's nothing I can do in there, yes right? Hi, Huo!"

The much bigger Ono--he's got two inches on Dewei, and inherited something close to their father's musclature, which is developed more than Orrin's to make up for the crippled arm--is nonetheless his sister's bitch, and choke-coughs once at the arm looped around his neck as he'd been walking up. "Hello, Ting. Who's your friend?"

"This is Speaker! Funny name, but that's okay, I'm sure there's a story for it." She giggles. "And I dunno interesting stuff. Oh!" She looks back to speaker. "This is my little brother, Huo! He was born riiiight after Tingnarok. He's cute." She shoves him forward, but he's used to that enough that the one-step stumble compensates properly.

He rubs his neck, but it doesn't really hurt much. Ting is pretty gentle in her abuse most of the time. "Pleasure." He shakes with the left, of course, and extends this hand.

Speaker looks at the hand, curiously. "Huo," he says in greeting. Looks at the hand again.

About then, the hut flap casts open, and the town shaman steps into the light. He is fairly common-looking for a shaman, dress in pants and no shirt, with leaf and bone fetishes around his neck and wrists. He's lighter-skinned than most of the other residents; shamans typically are.

"She lives," he says in a surprisingly high voice.

Huo just lowers it with the shaman's interruption. Isn't embarassed or any such, just does. Differing cultures fun.

Ting giggles. "Well, it's a step in the right direction. How else is she?"

The shaman shrugs. "She lives. If she feels pain, she does not tell me. She should feel pain, much, much pain. She should be conclaved for three days, but refuses."

Speaker looks at them. "Conclaving is building a temporary hut for sick people and forbidding them from leaving."

"Well, bed rest is a good thing. Iunknow. Oh, well, I don't know her, so I couldn't say!" She looks at Huo. "Hey, where's Anna?"

"They sell a lot of jewelry in the bazaar."

"We'll pick her up in four days." Ting giggles.

"You should speak to her," Speaker says, sensing a wrapping up underway. "She has been waiting for you, fasting, for eight days."

"I didn't know I was coming eight days ago," Ting ponders. "She's a seer?"

"I'm not sure. She tells me little, and that is more than anyone else hears from her," Speaker continues. There's a little frustration in his eyes, but beyond that, a well of respect, perhaps even restrained love, for Elise.

"Ah! So that's why you're named Speaker." Ting titters. "I get it! Okay, yeah. Right, should probably do that. Huo, hold down the grass for me while I'm gone."

"I won't fail you, sister." Yeah, she's been around most of his life. He's used to her.

Ting beams. "Good boy!" And turns to the Shaman. "So I can go in your house now yes?"

The shaman looks at her. Considers her. "Yes." He doesn't say why; he doesn't know it's Ting, but he knows it's something special.

Inside, Elise is sitting up on the mass of leaves, her robe gone now. She wears an absolute white shirt underneath, long, and belted at the waist, and nothing more. Not even boots; her feet are bare and hardened from walking, her legs cut and scarred from attackers and animals, her wrists cross-slashed in two places each. Her eyes remain quiet.

She waits.

Ting beams, head tilting. "Thank you!" And she trots on past him, into the house. "Hi! Feeling any better?" Her voice isn't that loud, but certainly isn't subdued. She tries hard to not be subdued around injured people. It's not helpful.

Elise looks at her, eyes still quiet. In fact, she doesn't say anything, just... looks, and waits.

Ting tilts her head the other way. Waits. "I thought Speaker said you wantedta talk to me?"

Elise nods, a slow, laborious nod. It should be ultra-clear to Ting that her faculties aren't as strong as they could be right now.

Elise starts to speak. Stops. Looks at the floor.

Looks up. Speaks just above a whisper, voice airy, weak.

"The beast lives."

Ting...actually pales at this. "...Say what? Nuh-uh. No, it doesn't, I killed it myself." And doesn't want to believe it.

"It lives," Elise insists. "It and I. Absolutes."

"...Uh? Are you linked to it in some way?" Ting sits. She needs to. That thing scares the piss out of her.

"Yes." Elise moves to sit before her, on her knees. "As I live, it may die. I linked our lives. But if I die, it lives." She looks into Ting's eyes, her gaze immediately piercing and soft, looking as if she can stare directly into Ting's heart. "I die."

Ting scritches her hair nervously. Tries, scritches her hood, which prompts her to shake her head and pull it down. "Well...hm. You probably shouldn't be on a volatile human world, then, really? Humans in groups are kinda dangerous."

Elise doesn't answer that. She plucks the flower from her hair, holds it out to Ting.

"The spell I cast upon the beast has killed me," she explains. "I am unmade. The people here need guidance, if the monster returns, they will be ready."

Ting's brow creases a bit with concern. Serious talk. She takes the flower ginger. "But...there must be something we can do. I mean, if you were involved in all this, you know I'm not a goddess, I'm just one of the littler, less important people of my family who got in a last hit on a monster-thingie that everyone had weakened. But the point is my family is big and awesome!"

"To these people, you are a goddess. To me, I don't know." Elise smiles a little. "You are more than you know, and less than you know." Her face is paler, now. "

Ting tilts her head. Considers. Finally... "You," she notes, "are ambiguous as fuck!" She giggles. "But that's okay. I'm used to that, believe me. You're hungry. What do absolutes eat?"

Elise stands, her knees shaking, just a little.

"Bread," she nods, "and water."

Ting wrinkles her nose a little...but actually understands simple stuff like this better than she used to. She'd spent years in a very reclusive, rather ascetic life immediately following Tingnarok, only gradually transitioning back towards her normal self. Then she smiles. "'Kay!" And in a few moments, she wanders over to Elise with bread in hand, and a flask of scarily crisp, clean water. "It's sweet bread! Not too sweet, it's from a place called Hawaii and just sweet enough that it's not really sweet but...meh. Good! Here you go!"

Elise shakes her head. "I can't. Thank you." Even as she says it, her stomach feels like it's throbbing. She looks at the food, longingly; she promised herself a ten-day fast, and wants nothing more than to break it right now.

"Aww..." Ting's ears sag a bit, and she tilts her head the other way. "You're hurt. That's not a good time for fasting, is it? Your body kinda needs the help."

"I can never break my own word," she's quick to say. "How will others follow it if I cannot keep it?"

"Aww...you sound like my mom. How will they follow it if you die and that beastie comes to eat 'em 'cause your body didn't have the strength to replenish itself after a slight?" At the moment, she's actually significantly more concerned about the lady hurting in front of her, not the god-beastie bit...she's just thinking in her prattling way. "But it's mean to keep this here I guess if you're not going to eat it!" And the bread goes away. Still, she purses her lips, thinking. Finally...

"Oh! I know." The flask of water changes into a sports drink bottle, which just has a picture of a lightning bolt and a puppy on the bottle. She grins. "Now I put all kindsa vitamins and stuff in it! So it won't help your hungry belly like at all? You'll still be hungry with the fasty thing. But at least you won't have a vitamin deficiency when you really really don't need it! So drink it, or I'll kick your butt." She beams a cute, eyes-closed smile, ears perked, proud of herself.

Elise feels like weepoing when the bread disappears.  But she takes the bottle, anyway, drinks... and promptly gasps, drops to her knees and loses that swallow on the ground. Her stomach feels like it's trying to tear out of her belly, and the drink is mixed with blood.

Ting's eyes snap wide open at this, hands quickly set to Elise's skin, glowing a moment before she realizes that won't work, and just tries to steady her. "What is it? What happened? I didn't do anything bad to it, I swear! Are you okay?"

Elise draws in another breath, a wheezing breath. "The beast breathes," she murmurs. "Every breath it draws unmakes me." She sits back on her knees. "It breathes, and I die."

Ting shivers, stunned into silence. Looks aside, nose wrinkles. Finally...looks to Elise. Her eyes aren't as silly now. They're resolute. "Where is it?"

"I don't know, not for sure," Elise admits. 

The flap jerks back, and Speaker all but dives inside, despite a shouting shaman.

"Elise, are you all right?" he calls, almost leaping upon her, but stopping in midstep to keep respectful distance. She nods, weakly. He looks at Ting. "What happened?"

"Something's hurting her, from far away. I'm going to try to stop it. But till then..." she looks at Elise. "You need to be somewhere safer so humans don't do that instead. I can take you somewhere you and all your folks can relax a few days?"

Elise shakes her head. "My responsibility to these people is greater than yours. We can't rely on you for our problems. I must reach the next Capitol."

"Oh." Ting scritches her hair again. This time she just has an itch. "What are you gonna do there?"

Elise doesn't respond, only gathers herself to rise. Drinks again, to no ill effect. After a moment, when it's clear she's not going to answer, Speaker does for her.

"Fifteen capitols of fifteen peoples we've visited. In every one, she builds a shrine with her own hands, refuses to let me or her followers help. The others inevitably tear it down, but the word she writes in her own blood beneath the stones, XoHoX, remains. And she moves on." He looks at Elise, who seems to be intently studying her own hands. "She won't tell me why, but I can guess it has something to do with this beast."

"Oh. Well, that's kind of cool, it's a pretty shrine." Ting scritches her hair again. "Grah! I always get fleas in this town. And then Makyon starts making cat jokes, and I hit him. So, what's with the shrine building and the XoHoX bit?" She yawns. "Gotsta know stuff to help."

Elise sits. Even speaker sighs at that.

"She won't tell you," he tells Ting now, "so don't waste breath. I'll tell you what I think, if you're interested."

Ting rolls her eyes. She isn't so much on the "enigmatic and silent" thing. "If you don't want me to help, just tellmeta leave," she murmurs. But still, she looks back to Speaker. "What's that?"

Elise closes her eyes. It's not like that. It's nothing like that. She can't tell Ting; if the monster awakens, it will seek out Ting above all others. It remembers the deathblow, it remembers the source of power; she knows that if she even comes near it, the beast will turn its horrible sights on Ting, and then...

"Don't judge her so swiftly," Speaker is quick to say. "I know you are grand, but I doubt you can comprehend her depth of understanding. She was linked to the monster from birth; they two offspring of the same seed."

"Ohhh...so it's like...your brother?" Ting tilts her head, and looks something like concerned at this as she looks over to Elise. "Aren't you attached to him?" She loves her brothers.

"He is death," Elise softly whispers. "I cannot love murder." Her eyes open, and they are stormy, conflicted eyes, full of hunger and pain.

"They aren't brother and sister. They are cut from the same creature. They share that life bond, Ting." Speaker folds his enormous arms. He can hear, outside, the voices of Elise's guards, her elites, the powerful men she has tried so many times to warn away.

Ting considers this. Nods a bit. "Okay. So...what was it you thought, Speaker, adn...what do I need to know and do in all of this." She sits back on her feet in an almost cat-like way, sans the fact that her arms are up on her knees.

"You... if you really want to help, protect her from herself. She's not afraid of people, she keeps saying 'if they kill me, I was meant to die' and she won't defend herself." Speaker glances to the door. "But hear her, when she speaks. She may convert you, as well."

"Convert me? To what? ...Ha! Gotcha, you itchy little bitch!" This as she retrieves a flea from her hair between two claws. Still, it's unhurt, and a little glass jar with a hold in the top pops into existance on her hand, and she plops him in there until she can let him go later.

"It's hard to explain. Honestly, I couldn't tell you. But her words infuriate and enamour. She'll tell you things you don't even know about yourself, this I promise you."

Ting rocks a bit, considering this. "Mm. Ahkay." She nods. Her vague instinct is to ask her mother for her opinion...but while she still does this often enough, she's alright with making decisions for herself nowadays. She knows they may be setting her up, or trying to, but maybe not. "I want to know what's going on with that Beastie, yes! But what do do about the shrine? Ting showed up and stopped a mob from touching it, yes. I doubt they'll break it'll. It's kinda probably a site for the mainstream followers now, or will be once it sinks in."

"The symbol is drawn here. We move." Elise stands up. Breezes past Speaker, walking as if no one else is there. 

"The symbols ward off the monster's spawn. Gargoyles, horrible creatures, born right out of the divine absolute's breath. I think that's what they do, I know monster attacks stop wherever she goes." Speaker starts to follow. "Once she moves, she won't stop."

Ting sighs. "She's so much like my mom that way," she grumbles, standing up. "Will she at least ride a horse or something? She shouldn't be walking."

Speaker blinks. "She won't subject a beast of burden to her weight."

"What if the beast of burden is really really happy to be carrying someone, adn thinks it's fun as hell and prefers to be carrying someone? I know a candidate." Ting giggles. Ixen.

"She may, then." Speaker holds open the hut flap. "The next capitol is forty miles northwest of here.  Dangerous people, there; war tribes. Their magic cannot harm her, but their spears can. She will speak once more before we leave, if you wish to be present."

"I don't want to be around visibly, but I'll listen." Ting nods. Trots on outside. "Hi Huo! Miss me? You missed me." She beams.

"Always."

Anna pounces Ting, decked out in lots of new shinery.

"Gack!" Ting giggles...tumbling right over, of course, pinned. "Hi, cutie! You look cute, like a cutie!" She hugs her.

Back!

Anna beams and hugs her auntie.

"Same to you, cutie! So I just saw the cutest saddest girl walk by. Did you see her? She came out of here." Anna sits up on Ting's belly, purr-talking.

"Uh-huh! I'm gonna follow her around a little." Ting grins. "But you, have a date with your mummy, don't you?"

Anna tilts her head. "Whatcha mean? I wanna follow the girl too."

Ting blinks. "I thought you were meeting Mara. Oh well, I must have the wrong day. If you want to come, sweetie, you're welcome to." To an extent. Until it starts to get serious. Beastie cannot catch the scent of Anna's energy...and if they're linked, she's not positive it can't do so through Elise. If she's aware of it, it may return the favor, and there's no telling whether it can do it better.

"She looked at me for a longest time." Anna nods, hopping off Ting. "She looked at me, and it was like she was watching my every thought. It was... hot!  And scary. But in a good way, like Huo. And she looked at me, and then her face went all sad, and she sobbed, just once. And then she walked away, and her face was normal again."

"Hmm..." Ting ponders this. "Well, ahkay. Expect me to send you off if something scary seems to be on its way, right hon?" She beams, and flags down Huo. "Hey, Huo! You should go get Ixen, we're gonna get him to carry the lady to the next town." And, of course, she idly jumps up to put him in a loose headlock as she ponders.

Felina's probable heir, on the other hand, is accustomed enough to this little dance that he doesn't really notice though bent over. He thinks, then nods. "Sure, sister. He should be thrilled, and I think he's just waking up."