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Ashan 92, arc 717
"Yes, my faithful warrior. I am so very sorry to impose such disgrace upon you, but being aware of the current mood in that town, I know this will truly determine the merits of the one I hope to find still worthy." There were elements of both amusement and seriousness in the voice of the Great Serpentine Matron as she looked alternately in two directions across the countryside outside of Etzos. One, at the town itself, and alternately at a particular spot in the woods nearby.There was amusement at the play-acting protests of her eidisi shield-bearer, as he made exaggerated complaints about having to relinquish his armor in place of the robes of a magic-user. Between the smiles this entertainment prompted from her, there were slight sags of concern to her normally proud eyes. She had been lax in pursuing this reward, and she knew it. She now feared that the ugliness that had grown in the City of Stone recently may have put a dark cloud over the bright, noble heart of the subject of her journey here.
The Noble Protector was all too aware that the craven Doran had been accepted, honored even, into the populace. As well, there was a rise of under-restrained magic users finding nurture for their unclean practices. She had told herself initially that the Etzori had due cause for a build-up of militancy. They were the prime first target of Lisirra's malice, once she recovered fully from the death her Prime Form had suffered in Oscillus.
So, Etzos had begun a rapid growth of walled towns on the frontier, in hopes of forestalling Rhakros' inevitable march north in vengeance. But had the Etzori made effort to maintain the fairly good grace it had shown when she and Xiur had asked for support last arc, the city would be able to count on that same support against Lisirra begin granted in return. The very fact of it having been Xiur himself, and that Doran himself had then been accepted with praise grated on her sense of decency.
But something more than a lack of fair play was wrong here. Something did not add up. Mages were simply not so plentiful, nor so potent, as the ranks that were turning up in these newly founded towns. Casters were coming out of the woodwork, and all with surprising boons of wells for their enhanced use. It had been long known that a fracture of considerable potency was secreted in the area near this city. But it simply did not account for the upswell of mages. She worried that some grim truth was bound to be horrifically revealed before too long.
But this was only loosely connected to the test she was going to conduct to see if the ironically-named, bright-hearted 'Nightshade Eld' had been able to keep her soul pure against this tide of corruption. Eidisi mages were being persecuted and frequently murdered within the walls of Etzos. She did not know what connection that may have to any of the other ominous goings-on there; but even now a male, robed eidisi was being marked by a group that probably considered themselves 'militia', but would be better described as a lynch-mob.
It was a small matter for her to raise her dome against the contemptuously prejudiced arrows that flew at the eidisi before he'd done anything mage-worthy. But of course, now, having seen the dome deflect their arrows, they held themselves justified as they charged the blue-skinned fellow, pursuing him up the slopes to the woods where a cave enclosed a tent, that served as the home of the half-blood avriel woman Ethelynda had come to see.
