Why did this happen to Lillian? Why did she have to suffer? Why couldn't we tell her the TRUTH? These were things that went through the priest's and the acolyte's heads. But the Old One had told them. The girl had been half-god long before she "died", her mortal self burning away when the mana took over. The world was changing, they had to be able to move the spring to new safe places when the dark magi came. She was the new fountain. As immortal as magic itself, the Old One told them, she must never be told for her heart still held innocence. Still held kindness. And as long as she was encouraged to remain gentle, it would be easier to work with her when the time came to flee when the sounds of war came to the temple. The guards, the acolytes, the priests that guarded the fount still would do so, but now in a human's form.
@internutter/challenge-03207-h298-solution-evolution -- Fighting Fit
The Old One - Don't say hir name! - had called the entire situation "an embuggerance." As ze was wont to do when prophecies were involved. This one foretold a war, a vessel, and a new place where the font would spring.
They had never had a font who could hear them before, and that was how Lillian learned many things.
It was dangerous for them to learn cruelty, so the acolytes and servants did everything they could to be kind. They had to be ready for a war, so they all kept pouches of amber, just in case. The heroes would be their guardians, so they always had a welcome place in the temple. Danger loomed over the horizon like an oncoming thunderstorm.
Lillian wanted to help. To do more than be a font and fill the endless chains of amber. The acolytes had told them that what they were doing was what was needed. The world needed the magic to flow, and with every nodule of amber, they were getting stronger. More... fontish.
Then came the day that the Old One turned up. They looked like any other Elf, except it was difficult to tell which kind of Elf they were. When ze greeted Lillian, ze said, "The prophecy's about to impact. Grab everything you need. I have your... friends... waiting outside."
That pause around 'friends' told a lot. They were people who got to see a dear friend's corpse walking around, talking, and doing a multitude of other mortal things. Though... less and less of them as time went by.
Lillian wanted to hide the fact that they had been floating a lot more of late.
Acolytes, High Priests, Adventurers and Wraithvine the Eternal set off at the maximum possible speed. Given that many of them could boost that, their collective movement was more than a little impressive.
War came to the old well, now gone dark. It burned the tree that once flourished there. It desecrated everything that stood still and killed everything that didn't... and it failed to seize that which it treasured.
Bad luck to them.
The war also discovered a great many of the traps that Wraithvine, the Adventurers, and the High Priests had laid in their path.
The path of the war was therefore heralded by a surprising amount of explosions.
What slowed the path of the good was the fact that Wraithvine was having a lot of difficulty deciphering the runes that made the original prophecy. Something ze regularly swore at every time they made camp. Every morning, the campground was covered in complicated sigils, runes, and mathematics.
They frequently had to double back owing to a miscalculation. Something that made Wraithvine curse all the more.
Until Lillian looked over hir shoulder at the prophecy and read it out loud. Something no mortal should be able do. Well. Not twice.
"Thank you," said Wraithvine, pretending calm. "That proves it. Lillian is, and always was, a hatching god. We must be even more careful." A deep, steadying breath that was a shaky tarpaulin over the terror underneath. "The good news is we know where we're going."
"Is there bad news?" said one of the Adventurers.
"There's always bad news," said Wraithvine. "Don't call it closer."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Jozef]
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