Undaunted Spirit
Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
Seeing Rina flinch at the priestess' words you have to struggle against the urge to answer sharply, inviting a fight. Only the realization that she may well believe that Rina is still under the dominion of the Others tempers your anger. Still, though your voice is soft, you turn the misconception against her like a knife: "It is odd that you speak of salvation and truth, yet seem very quick to judge on appearances. I would have assumed that if your god used his power to bring you here that he would have told you more about events in the west and north. About how I already fight the war your faith so looks forward to and how victories were already achieved, like tearing power from the very heart of the enemy, lost forever from their grasp."
Melisandre's eyes narrow for a moment, in anger or perhaps in thought, the hot desert sun flashing off sparks of gold in their depths: "Girl, come here!" she commands, and though there is no magic to it you can almost feel the physical weight of it.
You open your mouth to chastise her, but Rina is quicker: "My name isn't 'girl'." Her voice is hard but there isn't any trace of ice to it, only mortal anger. Then she sighs: "If you want to fight
Them, maybe you shouldn't scorn scorn aid offered freely. Few enough know the peril and believe it. If we take to fighting among ourselves then surely the Forlorn King will laugh in his icy fastness." With these words Rina walks in measured steps towards the red priestess and slowly extends her hand. "I may be cold but I'm not dead, and I will
never be their puppet again."
The priestess of R'hllor stands still as a statue, then slowly, almost as though against her will, takes Rina's hand. "You live. Why would you wish to live like...?" Then to your surprise she cuts herself off and inclines her head. "My apologies for being brusque. What is your name that I might properly use it?"
"Rina Cox," the frost-touched mage answers. "As to the question you asked before I choose to live like this that I may have the power to fight in the battle to come. What would I do otherwise, brandish a kettle at them, or perhaps a rolling pin?" That gets a laugh, not only from you but also Lya and Teana, and even Ser Richard smiles faintly. But Rina is not done: "I am no great warrior to meet them sword in hand, no brilliant student of the arcane to pick apart the threads of power. So then it is with these stolen weapons I must fight and pray that one day I will make them
rue the day they chose to snare me."
"Fire beneath ice," the priestess muses. "I would not wish to walk your path, nor for the challenges you will face upon it, but I wish you well as I do all true foes of the Great Enemy. May the Lord of Light grant you strength when the days are darkest."
Throughout it all you had been at once amazed at Rina's reply and so pleased to hear it that you might almost have cheered her on aloud, but when the red-robed priestess turns back to you to speak it is perhaps in a softer tone that you deliver your challenge, for having had the wisdom to see Rina for what she is: "Tell me, Melisandre, before we speak on, who am I to you? What is it that you know and see of me?"
"You are a Dragon, seeker of old lore and student of arcane power, an exiled prince of an old line forging an empire from the broken shards of the Freehold," she replies, as though expecting the question: "Of your deeds I know much but your thoughts are veiled from me in more ways than one. You free slaves with one hand and set loose old things that seek the worship of man though they deserve it not with the other."
At least she did not say 'demons', you hold back a sigh. "Why do you say they do not deserve it? If you agree that Rina's purpose is a noble one then is not the power which granted her the chance to walk it worthy?"
"Worthy of praise perhaps but not of worship, for that is for the Lord of Light to keep, who kindled the light and life of all our souls," she replies.
"Are you certain about that?" Lya asks unexpectedly. "Were I to lay out before you all the lore of the soul that I have gathered, would you upon learning it all still say it was the doing of one god who made us all, the whole world, and all the Spheres that turn beyond this one?"
"Were I to doubt it it would be either a failing of my ability to conceive the mind of R'hllor or my faith." A smile touches her lips that on another you would have called self-depreciating. "I freely admit that I like any man or woman might some day suffer from the second, and I most certainly share the first flaw for I am but mortal."
"So where does that leave us?" Malarys interjects. "Fighting over which god to worship until the streets run red with blood? Burning temples where we should use fire instead to give succor against the coming Night? Perhaps you would call the Freehold foolish for its end, but it did endure four-thousand years and more by setting no god above another."
Where Lya's argument had held little weight you can see that this one is more likely to take root. Still, the priestess rallies: "And when the Night is done and the danger past are we to expect R'hllor to bear again the sound of a thousand thousand misguided prayers going to lesser powers, or even to the Enemy under another mask, another name?"
What do you reply?
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OOC: The dice just loved Rina this update, first I rolled to see if she would be intimidated into doing as Melisandre commanded, nat 20 so not only did she resist she did so without leaning on her magic and showing inherent iciness, then I did a Sense Motive to see if she would understand Melisandre, 18 before bonuses. Seeing all these I gave her something I was not expecting to have her do: a diplomacy roll, nat 20 again. The rest of the rolls were not as amazing but they were good enough that the conversation is moving in a positive manner for you.
