As Waters Part
Fourteenth Day of the First Month 294 AC
Ghoyan Drohe, New City
Since the moment of her birth and in the memories-before that were hers and not hers, Mercy had seen many works of magic both terrible and beautiful. She had seen the servants of Winter, hollow and hungering, and she had seen a new god rise to many-colored skies, but until that day above the waters of the Little Rhyone, she had never seen something quite as
beautiful and strange.
There was no halo of heavenly light around the Spectator, revealing the purity of his purpose as he begged the dead to stop, nor did his many-eyed countenance shift in any way. It was as though for a moment the mind itself could feel the truth of them unmediated by sight or smell, touch or taste, a truth beyond form, entrancing and almost painful to behold.
Wonder in knowing and becoming, sang without voice through the ether and other things besides, for which there were no words, but which left soft imprints on one's thoughts like a bright dream lost in waking.
"Stop!" the hesitant spirit called out towards the others in the Rhoynar tongue, the first time it had spoken aloud, though alas it did not seem to sway them, too lost to their vision of rage.
Ichor bleeding from his wounds one eye-stalk twisted from a vicious blow the Spectator vanished between one moment and the next to reappear behind Shara and Argo.
Daggers of light burned Mercy's fingers as she cast them upon the closest of raging spirits. It didn't have to be this way, but so it was and so she would fight.
High above Valaena flickered into full visibility, though looking strange indeed atop a still unseen Dawnfyre her own
bolts of arcane fire raining down upon the spirit she had wounded. It did not fade, and Shara's alchemical shot passed through the specter without harming it at all.
The two water-weavers fell upon the shore, cursing dead Valyria and all its works, obviously still intent to strike down Xor, but Argo was there. The minotaur may not have known much of magic or the history that had driven these lost souls to attack, but he knew his task well, to protect his companions, with spell-steel axe and living shield or with his own flesh should it come to that. He weathered the rain of blows and with a roar of defiance brought his axe down upon the wounded spirit cutting once across the chest and once in a great overhead cut that briefly left the head floating separate from the body before vanishing.
Again Mercy wove her magic into daggers of arcane light, the air alive with silent blades fit to cut the spirit. A healer she may have been, but she knew well the lesson her mother had learned upon her first battleground.
Killing the enemy before he can do more harm is the best healing one can do before the fight is done.
Valaena worked her own magic to try to slay the last foe, but it was Xor who ended the battle, arrow upon
arrow of silver fire flying forth from his great eye as he sang them into being. Still the foe would not die turning its fury upon a bloodied Argo, his wounds covered in a shin sheen of frost that cracked and tore at flesh...
A torrent of water rose from the river drowning the spirit with a look of betrayal on his face.
The last remaining water mage, the one who had chosen not to fight, until the last when he had struck down his companion looked own at his hands... no at the river in horror. "I apologize... we... we don't belong here... I don't understand what's happening... but it's not, you're not the Freehold. I should be gone now, leave the water flowing clear, life for the living is meant."
"I apologize, I wish I had found the right words, the right form," the Spectator said softly as Mercy tended to Argo. He paused clearly uncertain if he should say something more or let the specter fade away.
What does Xor do?
[] Try to talk the spirit into lingering, there is yet joy to be found in this world and his arts might be put to good use
[] Allow the spirit to pass on it is clear this world pains him
OOC: No need to provide reasoning here, this is not Viserys so I want to keep the choices less detailed. Not yet edited.
