Darius peered through the glass and he saw the souls. His re-discovered link with Katara was a source of delight to him - and to the small creature. Messages were sent back and forth, and as yet there was no response regarding the souls.
He wanted to stay and help, and there was a draw to do so, but Darius did something which was important. He took a leap of faith. He walked, albeit slowly, towards where the tiger was leading him and Katara was filling him in on everything which had happened. It was overwhelming - or could be - but Darius kept his focus. The tiger continued to urge him with a growing sense of intensity. Katara couldn't communicate with him, she said, so she couldn't tell what it was that he wanted - other than he obviously wanted Darius to walk.
One foot in front of the other and then he stepped over an invisible line and the bearded blond was no longer in the same place. The world changed and the caves shifted as Darius felt himself surrounded by a flash of ice-blue light. The tiger glowed the same colour and it was the exact same colour as the flash of the bench which Arlo experienced.
And the two mortal men were there. Arlo and Darius stood, side by side. Darius' tiger looked at Arlo - the enormous creature seemed to recognise him and it inclined its head. The place? Arlo had seen it before. It was beautiful in there. A large cavern, cathedral like in its glory, with pillars of ice and statues of the same. There, in front of them, were ice sculptures of people. It was a scene, like they'd been people going about their lives and then suddenly in a trill, turned to ice. A group sitting at a table and eating, some people walking, others sitting and talking, it seemed. Each one of them was frozen in perfect stillness, the detail of each of them exquisite. One woman was sitting on a raised dais, an almost throne-like chair, obviously the leader of the group.
Eighteen of them.
Sixteen of them seemed to be people of the same time, an older style of dress. Two of them though, were of Arlo Creede. One was him as an eighteen-arc lad, sitting and lifting a flagon to his lips. The other? It was as he was now - and it was
exactly as he was now. Of course, when he had
seen them be created, due to his own sacrifice, Arlo had seen that one was of an older him. He'd recognised it but - what he had not remembered when he pulled them on was that the clothes he wore now were
exactly the clothes this statue had. Every detail, down the tiniest one, was exactly him in this moment, carved in perfect rendition in ice.
That statue, the one which mirrored Arlo was standing and he held out a hand, as though expecting something.
Standing next to the Arlo of right-now statue, there was a statue of a woman. It was the woman Arlo had spoken to all those arcs before. She too held out a hand. Both Darius and Arlo recognised her - it was Joelle. The fortune teller.
On his other side, there was a statue of a man. He had moved from when Arlo visited the caves before. Now, he stood flanking the statue of the Sojourner and he, too, held out a hand.
"It is a pleasure to see you again, son of Cassion," the woman's voice was soft, gentle. As Arlo remembered it and they all heard it.
"We two have waited for you. To finish the tale we told you." The eyes of the statue were moving, but the voice came from within it.
"Darius," she said softly.
"Cassion has told us about you and your bravery. Ledas, it is good to see you." The last she addressed to the tiger.
"As it is to set eyes on you," Ledas the tiger said and they all heard it. To Darius, the tiger turned to look then and it was glowing.
"I vouch for this man, Darius by name." The tiger's voice was deep and baritone, reverberating around the room.
"He is brave and true and has impressed me with every action."
There should be at least one more," she said. And then, they all heard - apparently even the tiger and the statue - the voice of Lyova. Arlo's diri. No one had thought to question how it was that Lyova could speak to the other diris. Arlo, after all, was not Fire Forged. That was something unique to them. Yet, Lyova had been there and she had chatted and those in the Glass Temple had heard her as had Arlo. Come to that, Arlo had never questioned how, after Jesine's death, Lyova had stayed with him. But she had.
And now, just like all the Fire Forged Diris,
everyone heard her. In the Glass Temple they heard her. Praetorum and Eckman heard her.
"Praetorum! Eckman! Come! Bring the stone! We're here, we're finally here," and she showed Praetorum and Eckman what was happening. Praetorum and Eckman
appearedI've checked with Prae's player together, having sat on the bench holding hands to ensure that they were not separated. Praetorum had the chainstone in a bag. When he'd tried to use cloth on it, the cloth had burned, but a knife sliding it into a bag had worked just fine.
And the ice statue of the woman spoke.
"Well met, brave Praetorum and Eckman. We have watched from our prison and we are grateful to you - to you all - for what you do here." She was a statue of ice, perfect and not moving, but talking, next to a statue of Arlo.
It was not a usual day, even for Scalvoris.
"There is truth in stories" she said.
"And I will tell you mine." Speaking softly, she began.
"We gave our future to stop the island from sinking into the sea. The waters were boiling. We were called by who we believed to be Qylios but was, in fact, Audrae. We did not know. Three of us came, one was already here" the one who was here was, apparently, the woman seated on the dais.
"One from each Edge of the world, we used the portal stones, and we brought the stones with us, so that no one would be able to follow. She was here, with the base stone and preparing for us. Four corners, four elements, four generations of each family. That was the sacrifice."
Arlo had, of course, heard the story before.
"We were told that our sacrifice would save the island from the four creatures, that they were what caused the seas and the lava. They were not. Elemental wolves, elemental tigers, elemental birds - all of them existed here and she trapped them with the Induks" She turned blind eyes which saw them to them each individually.
"We were tricked. We made the sacrifice willingly, to save the world. We had to be brave, not to cry out or ask for help. Courage, after all. We agreed"
Ledas stepped forward then, although he remained close to Darius.
"Audrae used a relic which was here. A relic crafted by Ralaith which trapped these people and drank their lives, eternally, out of time." He sounded sad.
"It was never meant for this use, it was intended for the most beneficent of uses."The tiger told then, of a medic of great renown who visited Scalvoris with the hope of healing his beloved from an incurable disease. As time began to run out he had begged the Immortal of Time for more, and had been granted an item. Not to extend life, but to freeze it. To hold his wife in a state of being frozen in time while he worked. The price, though, was that each trial her life was extended by in this frozen state, so his was shortened by one.
Eventually, the medic had accepted that he could not cure the illness. He shattered the item, held her while she died and left. But once he was gone, others came and tried to replicate the medical miracle of freezing people in time, not aware that it was a relic granted by an Immortal which did it. Arcs passed and then the relic of Ralaith was found. By a man who sought power over life and death itself. He wanted to use the relic to achieve Immortality, to ascend among the gods.
"And Audrae promised him all of it for the relic. He gave it to her and she made four daughters of Qylios believe that they could use it to save the world."
The woman spoke then.
"Then, in Cylus 718, Arlo Creede came here with Cassion. Cassion had learned of our tale and he had tried to save us, but we had asked him to help us. It was the curse. None we asked for help, could. So, he brought Arlo here, and told the tale. We did not ask for help." But, of course, Arlo had given it.
"It had been Cassion's intention to free Arlo, when he took the curse from us. Since Arlo had not asked for help, Cassion could. But Arlo surprised the Immortal"
The tiger spoke.
"Arlo was freed from the curse without Cassion's aid and there were two statues of him. Famula, like her sisters, was working against Audrae but could not stand directly. So, she took a tiny part of your soul," he said to Arlo.
"And she put it in the device. It called you here, now, to finish what you started then."
All those years ago Cassion had not known what had happened. How there were two statues of Arlo. But now? Now it seemed that a biqaj selling potions on the docks of Scalvoris had been part of Famula's plan, too.
"We can not ask for help," the woman said.
"But Ishallr is trapped and we freely chose to wait here until you came. Three chainstones. Darius, you have one. Praetorum, you have another. Arlo you have carried yours with you since you set us free."
She fell silent then. Ledas spoke in a deep voice.
"If you are to act, you must do so together." Looking to Darius then, the tiger regarded him.
"I thank you, Darius, for the trust you have already shown me, and I hope you take the final step. Three hands. Three stones."
Next Post: Sunday 20th June
Arlo, Prae, Darius. 
