Nythra of Seven Rivers found Nadezdha and dragged her off through the crowd by the elbow. The ex-Thayvian squeaked and then laughed.

Sheilaktar glanced after them and then sighed and rolled her eyes. When Sheilaktar had joined the Wychlaran, Nythra of Seven Rivers was one of the only people who was openly welcoming to her. Sheilaktar had told 'Nadezdha' as much when the fosterling asked about Nythra's interest in her.

"She does not intend thee harm," the necromancer had explained. "New people fascinate her, and I think she likes social outcasts more than she likes anyone normal. But she'll always be dangerous because of her affiliations. Just be careful."

The ex-Thayvian had seemed a little melancholy about that explanation. She'd said: "In Thay, we were very good at smiling-while-never-actually-trusting people," to which Sheilaktar hadn't been sure what to say to comfort her.

"Where are we going?" Nadezdha called as she got her bearings.

"You'll see!" Nythra squealed. "You'll see, you'll see!" and by the tone of her voice, Nadezdha reasoned it was going to be exciting.

They crested a hill and Nadezdha skid to a halt, her jaw dropping. There, standing between the stones at the central ritual area, was a gigantic white bear covered in multi-colored whirls of glowing light.

"Is that-?" she wondered.

"Okku!" Nythra crowed. "He's Okku! Remember the story I found you listening to? Yes! He's the very same! The Great Bear!"

"It's- he's enormous!" Nadezdha squawked.

"Yes! Come on! Come on, let's go see him, and you can get his blessing!"

"What!?"

But then Nythra had hauled her off again.


This is a terrible idea!

And that was how Nadezdha was standing at the edge of the stone circles with Nythra's hands fastened tightly around her arm. They were looking up at an enormous, flaming bear who was speaking with the Hathran.

"I don't want to meet him," she breathed in a squeak.

"He won't hurt you," Nythra laughed. "He's fierce in battle but as lovable as a kitten! You'll see!"

"I'm Mulani," Nadezdha could barely breathe.

"Don't worry," Nythra chuckled. "He'll see into your spirit and know you for the gentle creature you are."

Nadezdha drooped. I am going to die. I am going to be eaten by some pagan, spiritually-enlightened, animal god.

Okku had turned towards them, and all Nadezdha could do was gape. The creature towered over them, and light radiated off him in radiant tendrils. He seemed to stand half in their world and half in some other; His eyes pools into an abyss. Nythra was speaking to him, but the Bear's rolling voice crested over them in a low roar and Nadezdha was deaf to everything else: "You have brought before me a child of Thay!"

Nadezdha shook violently as images and half memories of ghosts and dragons and dark things swimmings the length of Mulsantir built up in her mind's eye. Nythra said something. The bear snarled, stepping forward and bellowing: "Bathed and swaddled in the disrespect and ignorance of a century; how dare such things presume to walk the soils where gods once roamed!?"

Nadezdha crumbled to her knees on the ground, and covering her head. {I am sorry!} she babbled in near hysteria, her eyes fixed on the ground as a leviathan swam behind her eyes, and the fierce anger of the Bear God rolled around her. {I am sorry! I am sorry for my people and I am sorry for my blood! Please- please s-stop-!} Her vision was swimming.

A long silence stretched above her. Long enough that Nadezdha once more became aware of time, and that some unknown duration of it had passed. The anger she had felt flooding all around her seemed to have receded. She heard a great intake of breath, and so powerfully did Okku sniff her that he seemed to create a small wind.

A thoughtful rumble poured over her senses."The touch of the Unseen clasps thin about your shoulders as a hopeful and unacknowledged mantle, and clings to the sensitivity of your fingertips," the great entity growled. "Your nescience offends us all; but you will learn. And you will live or die by your own hands."

Trembling violently, Nadezdha did not look up. The bear was quiet a moment, and then he breathed a soft rush of fiery air over the crown of her head. A tingling sensation came with it, and int he corner of her mind she registered that the Bear God had, in fact, given her his blessing.

"Go."

Nadezdha scrambled back from him obediently. She staggered to her feet a few steps away, and saw that the bear had already turned from her. Without another word, she fled off into the festival.

She did not know where she was going. She just needed to get away, even though she wasn't certain why. She scrambled past shop stalls random street patrons, and then skid behind a tent where a wall blocked her passage. There was no one around. She cried out helplessly and leaned into the cold stone, shaken.

Then hand Hands grabbed hold of her shoulders and she gave a startled exclamation out as she was spun about to face someone. Nythra. She was face-to-face with a Robin mask, which meant Nythra.

"Nadezdha, I'm sorry!" the Hathran exclaimed. "I'm didn't- I didn't think that-" she hesitated, not sure how to phrase her apology. "I've never seen him react that way towards any..."

"I pissed myself," the ex-Thayvian blurted.

They both looked down and saw it was true; Nadezdha had completely soiled her good clothes.

"Oh dear... c... Come, you can tie my cloak about your waist. Let's... let's get you back to the hut and you can change..."