[End Act 1] Elarrapal - Timescales

[Aitas]

((West Imeris Branch Settlement, Uwe II))

The wood retreated, leaving an archway where it had been, one that led to a dimly lit room that smelled of fresh wood and pollen. A darker strand of corewood formed half the floor and curved up into benches. 

There were pods clustered on the ceiling, blue and green and silver, the sprouting seeds of a plant ever ready to burst. Imeris had more defenses, here.

Elarrapal: Sit. If the trees would sing to your dreams they’d have found it already. ::They tested most children for such things when they were very young, in the north. Let them sleep upon the corewood in such a room, to see whose dreams were shared.:: And Imeris is not usually quick to anger.

She indicated her shattered arm.

The great trees, in general, were not quick to anything. What should have been the actions of a moment could feel akin to years in their dreams. It was part of what made them so vulnerable.

Stros: ::Looking to Wong:: How is she?

Varati: ::to Stros:: She was bleeding... maybe just a deep cut from the broken glass, but maybe her arm was broken? I only disinfected and bandaged the wound provisionally.

Moore: Here, I brought some extra medical supplies.

Elarrapal stretched out the arm in question as best she could. She couldn’t quite move her fingers properly, but the bandage at least meant she’d not left a full trails of blood. And her head ached, a dull noise amid the rest.  

Wong: Response

Stros: Were those people with this Norsel that you spoke of earlier?

Moore: ::Looking back at Elarrapal:: Also I take it these doors can’t be opened easily from outside?

Varati: ::quiet:: Well, we are obviously in some kind of secret hiding place inside a tree?
Elarrapal: It is not a secret. Imeris just does not allow any save those its prophets bring with them, here. But it is likely they were with Norsel. Let me see what Imeris will tell me.

Wong: Response

 She knelt down on the floor and pressed one hand against the corewood, staining it golden with her blood. The color would fade, in time, or remain as a stain, a reminder. Even she couldn’t truly say for certain what Imeris would do.

But she could feel the tree once she touched that corewood, the long, slow arc of its thoughts. It was far older than the settlements that bore its name. Older than metal, perhaps.

Another prophet, when she was young, had told her it was what the trees had seen that had first drawn the eyes of the Uwezo to the stars. She did not know. Imeris did not think of the past as she did.

Even its worry was slow, far outpaced by the spread of the small flames across various platforms. She recognized some of them by engravings, shops, or Imeris’ vague sense of itself. The tree shed branches as she might shave the tips of her claws. 

Voices drew her back to the room, away from the slow-sap thoughts of Imeris. 
 
Stros: It is time we figured out our next course of action.

Moore: That we do. Elarrapal. Do you have an escape route?

Varati: Now we're literally sitting in the eye of the hurricane. I suppose we can't escape this situation with our "dreams"? ::pause::

Varati: And if so, we need to know quickly, because we certainly won't be safe here for much longer. Should we call on our "heaven"?

Elarrapal gave her a thoroughly confused look. If Norsel had sent them, he was playing a deep game indeed, and if one of the Ministers had…did they truly think so little of her as to send her these strange, furtive sorts? But in either case she could not leave them to burn. They'd not left her. 

She pushed herself back up, a graceless gesture with only one arm.

Elarrapal: Imeris rarely speaks clearly. I have seen new comets, dying stars, and a nest of ertik on the upper branches carry the same weight in its dreams. But the fires still burn outside, though they are fading, and to the east as well. There is no smoke to the south. I will lead us there. 

Wong: Response


Tag

Elarrapal

Prophet & Anti-Warp Activist

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