Day 59

Morning

I was woken up before dawn by the smells and sounds of cooking. Bleary eyed I looked to where Lanua had slept and she was not there. But it was dark - why was she cooking so early?

It turned out she wasn't. Someone else was! I thought I must still be dreaming and, exhausted after so much time spent trekking across the top of the world, I closed my eyes and drifted back into sleep. It was only later when I woke again, still to find two people other than myself at the camp, that I bolted upright to see whom this new person was who had arrived in the night.

"Hello Esunai," the female newcomer greeted me with a smile. "Here, have something to eat. You look thin. All that running around has stripped you of your muscle. "
"Thank you," I replied cautiously. Lanua was sat devouring her own dish of the food already. "Sorry, but who are you?" I queried.
The woman paused a moment and looked at me with a knowing grin on her face. "My name is Lait, and I have come to offer you my guidance. "


Lait, you should recall, is a Goddess. There are legends of the deities appearing to mortals rarely, but to be in the presence of a Goddess; for her to have appeared to me... I cannot describe it. There was no doubt in my mind that this really was Lait; she looked exactly how she is described in Teeluw - the image of the statues carved of her.

After allowing me a moment for what she had said to sink in, she continued, "Of course you are aware that the Ice Elementals move on the place you call Old Traders' Village, and you have seen the shadows in Adramalech - the ones that shouldn't be there. Do you know what causes them? I see by your face that you do not, as Lanua did not before I told her.
"There is an evil in the North that has upset the balance of the world. I plead you to believe me - for both of you to believe me - that it is not your destiny to return to Old Traders' Village and combat the Ice Elementals. Sacrifices must be made by all the people of this world if the evil is ever to be abated.
"Instead, you must take arms against the one responsible. If you do not, the world will spiral into chaos. Even if you could save Old Traders' Village from the danger it is soon to face, a new danger would come for it soon after. It is not in your power to save it. It's future has already been written, and cannot be changed.
"I have come to you, so far from the forest that you once called home, to give you a new quest. You must destroy he who is responsible for the evil being unleashed on these lands. He is shrouded in the shadows he creates, and even Froadaelo, God of Truth, cannot see through the veil. But you have seen him. He released you from the temple, Esunai. I do not know why he showed you this kindness, but I urge you do not let it cloud your judgement. He must be stopped. It is not my place to tell you how to defeat him, that surely is your decision, although I would suggest you find assistance.
"Now, I must depart from your company. Esunai, Lanua; please, I beg of you, complete this quest. Save your world!"


With that, a swirl of snow grew from the ground around her, and the Goddess Lait disappeared.

I took a step towards Lanua and sat beside her. Of everything we had just been told, one thing stuck out more than anything else - that Old Traders' Village could not be saved. Even though she gave no outward indication that she had had any reaction to the news, her eyes told the true story. She was devastated. Everyone she had ever known would be lost. We sat next to each other and silently ate the food Lait had prepared for us until it was all gone.


Evening

We have spent the rest of the day at our camp between the ruins that make up Pon. It was about seven hours after Lait departed before Lanua spoke. Even then it was brief. She told me that she would head south. The man whom I met in the forest, the one who had saved her from her illness, was heading that way, and she has decided that he is the assistance Lait spoke of for us to find. I don't know if I agree, but he was fighting the other man - the one we thought was the silhouette that saved me. If he is an enemy of this evil that my Deities are so insistent we destroy, I will willingly search him out.