Subject: Re: Leaving the town behind; riding through the night

Pensive keeps the figurine in his pocket until they make camp, and then runs his fingers over it, strains to see it in the dimness. Beneath the canopy of the forest, without daylight, with no stars or moon, even his elf-sight is of little use for such a task. He would have to examine it more carefully in the morning.

He has seen holy objects before-- the ruadil of the low elves, and the behilim of the gnomes. Something is different about this one. He'd held the behilim of Little Grelling-- he'd had to, in order to be baptised into the gnomish community-- but felt nothing like this.

It was like holding a piece of the Mossground. The peace of the Mossground. Pensive lifts the figurine to his nose and breathes deeply. It wasn't the Mossground. . . but it was, somehow. Something of Stone formed it, something of Blood filled it.

Champion. The word whispers to him from the figurine, passing through his fingers, to the tattoo on his neck, warming it. His arms and legs tingle against the cords of silk he's tied there. This holy object was not an affront to the Path. It was a complement to it. Such a thing. . . Pensive kisses the figurine, tastes Stone, tastes Blood. He lifts the cord over his neck, lets it dangle down his chest. It is right. Though no monk of the Path of Blood and Stone had ever worn a holy object before, it is right that he do this now. Had not the Kaishin come? The Path would be washed clean by Blood, the Stone renewed. And perhaps this. . . he had no name for it. This holy thing was a herald of that renewal. A symbol of hope on this dark island. I will wear you, until I am you, he whispers to the figurine. It is an echo of the monk's earliest prayer-- to walk the Path until his flesh is Stone.

Wearing it, the evil of the Shadow does not beat at his mind so much. Here was the tether that bound him to Elvira, to all the people on the island. In this holy symbol, he was their champion. And they were his own people, elves or not.

Pensive rises in the darkness, and finds Garyth. "There is something you should know, Garyth, that I have not told you." He keeps his voice low. "I am asha eradu-- I'm sorry, there's no word for it in Common. I can feel emotions from other people. Strong emotions, only-- I cannot keep from being cheated at the market any more than the next man. But I know that on this island, there are men in east who still run in terror from the Shadow we saw on the battlefield; and in the west, I know that men are cowering from the Shadow they expect to see." Pensive pauses. "I know the guilt you felt when Kenneth was murdered. I know that you still feel it like wound-- like a wound that won't close."

"I know what Kor Garesh is feeling. I've felt him. . . reach for people three times now. All ordinary people, all townsfolk. When he touched them, they became part of his hunger. They became choatic and hurtful. Spiteful. I don't know. . . I don't know if he could reach anyone in our company."

OOC: Ty, the holy symbol is a great touch.

Subject: Re: Leaving the town behind; riding through the night

Pensive will take first watch.