Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

“He seemed fine, and I was always just outside the door,” Dhatri was almost pleading, clearly upset about how badly Delta had reacted. The patient in question said nothing more, merely staring down the inexperienced healer. He wasn’t much, but his heart was in the right place and he had tried to understand her. The problem was that he was simply too trusting, of everyone.

Delta felt rather than saw the presence of the trio. Well, she felt Pash, and what she had now come to associate as a slow trickle of calm, like droplets of water cooling overheated skin. She didn’t know if Pash meant to do it, or if it was just a subconscious aura that he exuded to those in close proximity. How she felt about Pash’s interference would be decided by the answer to that question.

Next was the wolf, which seemed to materialise beside her, sizing up the apprentice. Delta was rewarded by the fact that Dhatri seemed much more intimidated by the beast than she did. The slave herself flinched away initially, but it was not the first time she had seen such a creature in a primarily two-legged domain. She vaguely remembered meeting a young man with a similar familiar an arc ago, which was the only reason she had not fled instantly.

Regardless, Delta didn’t fight the influence from Pash, allowing it to wash over her as she took a deep breath and stepped back, turning to the new arrivals. She relieved to see two familiar faces, though bristled at the presence of a third, who seemed to be speaking as if she wasn’t there. Why did everyone insist on treating her like an incompetent child? “She can speak for herself.” The biqaj’s grasp of the Common tongue was by no means expert - more out of a complete reluctance to learn it rather than lack of exposure. She refused to lose her identity despite the slavery or the discovery that she was not fully-blooded biqaj. But this unknown woman didn’t know that.

“I don’t think he was going to hurt me,” she went on to say, switching back to her native tongue, for the sake of of ease. The girl was still somewhat bitter at the other biqaj for showing up and telling her how to feel. He was confusing her. Delta was sure he still pitied her, saw her as something broken, damaged, weak... she was something that needed to be put back together. Yet Delta trusted him all the same. “I don’t know what he wanted, but I didn’t want to be there, that’s all. I don’t need you to-”

The slave stopped, realising who had spoken first. Faith had become such an integral part of her life over the seasons that she barely recognised her presence, even if it had been some significant number of trials since they had last seen one another. “Faith? Why are you here?” She frowned as she glanced down at the woman’s swollen belly - she must be due any day now, surely? “You shouldn’t be here, you should be resting.”