Vala: "Good Evening, Rae. I find myself unable to sleep, I pray you forgive the intrusion.
I know we have just met. That no matter how it feels for me, forever out of chronology due to the Sight, it has been barely a tenday by any honest measure. Even so, it is difficult to not turn to the beaming sun in the darkness.
I fear I have already asked too much of you in bringing you to this place, and yet I must ask one more thing. A darkness looms in my path, though I cannot make the shape of it. Since waking, my dreams have been… vivid. Insistent. I suppose I find myself uncertain where prophecy ends and nightmare begins. I abhor such uncertainty. It leaves me wishing to make provisions.”
She hesitates, just briefly.
“If I should fall in these woods, and rise again something else, stripped of all mercy and bound to another's purpose, will you end me? I cannot stand the thought of becoming a danger to those I would rather die protecting and the chance of surviving only to become some obedient thing… it is intolerable."
Raemund: Meeting her gaze as she speaks, Rae listens to Vala. When she pauses, he smiles, chuckling.
"I'm sorry, my Lady," composing himself.
"I do not mean any mockery. It's just difficult imagining you 'obedient.' That truly would be unnatural and intolerable. I will do all I can to protect you, Lady Vala, no matter what you may become."
He looks away from her into the night's darkness.
"If protecting you means ending you, I would do so. But know, that should it come to that, it would mean I failed in upholding my oath to protect you."
Turning from the darkness Rae once again faces Vala.
"Sildar worries about you; he asked that I help keep you and the others safe. And who am I to deny a Griffon Rider of Waterdeep?"
He touches the iron emblem in the shape of a crown on his tabard.
"But before Sildar made his offer, I had already made up my mind to aid you in fulfilling your fate."
Vala: She's chuckles immediately, "I have been told most my life I am... a touch wild for my station, no matter how deftly I drape it with manners and finery."
She smiles and follow's Rae's gaze into the darkness as she listens to him speak, furrowing her brows when he speaks of oaths.
Her eyes snap back fully at the mention of Sildar, catching on his emblem. “He worries,” she says, fond and unguarded. “Constantly. I do not think he knows how to put it down, even for a moment.” A small smile tugs at her lips. “Or perhaps he does, and simply chooses to carry it. It is one of the things I admire about him.”
She glances back up at Rae, a touch sheepish and sincere. "And you. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have your light with us, Son of Suns. Though I find myself too curious to not ask, why do you wish to aid me? A request from a Knight I can understand, but..."
She trails off, tilting her head and looking confused
Raemund: He nods and quickly replies.
"Yes, I can understand why you're confused. I was but a child when the Ruining befell Neverwinter. I grew up beside and became friends with the children of refugees whose families had moved to Waterdeep. Their tales of the Jewel of the North filled me with sorrow for what was lost. . . ."
He trails off for a moment, gazing into the dark.
"Among those tales were mentions of a great Seer. When I set out from Waterdeep I journeyed north to Neverwinter. When Tomlin recruited me, I though it must be a sign; I always thought I'd help Neverwinter, and what better way than helping you, the one who interprets such signs?"
Looking back to Vala, he continues, "And I too seek a sign. As you know, I do not believe that Lathander is dead. I know that he cannot be, for his light guides me. I take my gifts as a sign, but do not know what they mean . . . but you might."
Vala: Her eyes go a little misty when he speaks of the children, she looks off into the distance.
“That is… more than I expected. And much kinder.”
She smiles at him sadly “I think this new world may be too cold for my gifts, or perhaps I just need to learn them anew, if I am so changed they must be too. I… I am sorry I did not prevent what happened in your friend's home, Rae. For all the pain that trails after everyone for it.”
At the mention of Lathander, her expression shifts to interest.
“I do not believe he is dead either,” she says quietly. “Or if death is even the correct word for what gods do when they… withdraw.” She tilts her head slightly. “Dawn still comes. Seeds still break the earth. You still stand there guarding with a light in your hands.” She shrugs slightly. Sighs.
“I cannot promise you answers,” she says honestly. “Not in the way you might hope. What I See is not a ledger of truths to be consulted at will, nor a map with clean lines and clear destinations.” She looks a little rueful. “If it were, my life would have been far simpler.
And if your gifts point you somewhere, if there is direction to the light you carry, I will gladly walk the sunlit path with you.”
She presses a mug of tea into your hands, bids you goodnight, and tries to go back to sleep