Lady Aine sat at the small desk in her room at the inn they stopped in once their ship reached San Deggo. She sat with the quill pinched between her fingers as she wrote.

"Dear Mom, Dad, family and Selase." Aine smiled thinking of each of them as she wrote. "By my estimate we arrived in San Deggo five days before we would have arrived by horse. So we've been here in town waiting. If I'm right, something should happen very soon. The wise Lady has been very quiet since we got here so I just have to rely on my faith. Dai and Tessa have been having a good time. He found a tavern that was looking for a Bard, so he agreed to a day by day contract with them. He's certainly earned a good deal of coin. He likes teasing me that he gets to keep all his money." Aine smiled and then looked out the window as she frowned.

She put the quill down and capped the inkwell before she stood up. She felt it as clear as day, a pull to the East.

"Is this it?" Aine asked as she looked at Abigail.

Abigail hooted twice and clicked her beak.

"Okay, I get it, I have to decide if it is or not on my own." Aine smiled and nodded.

Aine pulled her cape over and set it into her shoulder pads and strapped her sword on. Abigail flapped her wings and flew over the few feet between them to land on Aine's shoulder. Aine grabbed her shield before she stepped out of the room. Locking the door she turned and walked down the four flights of stairs. She walked out of the inn and into the sun warmed and salt filled air from the ocean.

Aine began walking East down the street. Her eyes seemed to pierce into each person she saw, whether they were walking the streets or working. For nearly an hour she walked and Abigail began complaining.

"You are the one that said I had to decide if it was or not. And you chose to come with me, so now you can just deal with it. I'd think you'd be happy out in the fresh air rather than the stale inn." Aine smiled at the bird.

Abigail shook her feathers and seemed to sigh. Much to Aine's amusement.

Aine felt like she was close to whatever it was and she began looking harder about the street.

"You're a fraud!" Aine heard yelling from a side street. She quickly moved down the street noting it was clearly a poor section of town.

A young man stumbled backwards out of a pauper home.

"I told you before I began there wasn't much of a chance." The young man called back fearfully as he stumbled and fell.

A heavy glass bottle of cheap wine flew out the door quickly after him.

Mere moments before it would have struck, a shield was thrust in the way and it shattered harmlessly against the shield. As the meager remaining liquid ran down the shield it was lowered and Lady Aine stood there with a look of anger on her face.

"In the name of the wise Lady, I demand a cease to your actions." Lady Aine said in her commanding voice.

In other parts of the city she might have met some resistance, but this district was firmly within the temple of Athena's influence. And as a Paladin of the wise Lady, her word was law.

"My Lady!" A man inside of the shack beseeched her. "He claims to be a white Witch, but he failed to heal my daughter!"

Lady Aine looked down at the young man, perhaps her age, maybe a bit younger. She extended her hand.

At first he shirked back away from her movement but then saw she was trying to help. His hand raised slowly towards hers.

"Thank you my Lady." He said as he stood up with her assistance. "I am Everin and I told him, I was still new to the craft and wasn't sure if I could help or not. But she is beyond my ability to heal."

Lady Aine nodded as she was detecting the truth of his words and she turned towards the rundown hovel.

"Then let us see to your daughter's illness." Lady Aine told the man.

A woman inside moved out with a well worn towel.

"Please my Lady. Let me clean your shield." She asked as she held out her hand.

Lady Aine extended the shield and the woman took it as Aine walked into the miserable home. She saw the meager furnishings and then the sick bed in what could be considered the front room. She saw the little girl lying there, the wheezing of her breath and the sweating on her head told Aine a lot. The wet rag on her forehead spoke of a fever.

The woman outside wiped the shield down quickly and then stared at the emblem on it. Her fingers pushed out from the towel as they touched the scorpion surrounding a stone keep. Her eyes widened as she looked towards the house.

"Your daughter has a disease." Lady Aine told him. "If you knew anything about white Witches you'd know they can't cure most diseases. You should have taken her to the temple. The Clerics could have aided you far better." Aine chastised the Father. "She has suffered all this time because of your ignorance. And then you complicate it by treating that young man badly."

Lady Aine sat down on the side of the bed and smiled at the five year old.

The little girl's eyes opened slowly and she saw Aine smiling at her.

"You look like an angel. Have you come to take me to Athena?" The little girl wheezed out between gasps of breath.

"No little one." Aine grinned. "Fear not, your time on this Earth hasn't come to an end yet." Aine said as she pulled her owl emblem out from under her breastplate and held it in her left hand. She reached out with her right hand and gently cupped the child's cheek. "In the name of the wise Lady." Lady Aine intoned.

Bright light burst forth from Aine and poured down into the child.

"I feel better." The little girl said as the light faded.

Lady Aine smiled and stood up as the Father moved over and enveloped his daughter in his arms.

"We don't have much, my Lady." The man said. "But whatever you want, it is yours."

"I have no need of repayment, for it is the wise Lady's power that heals." Lady Aine told him.

"Is it really you, Lady Aine?" The woman asked from the doorway.

"Do I know you?" Lady Aine said as she looked back at the woman and then her eyes went wide seeing her clearly now. "Beth?" Lady Aine said unbelievingly. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh my Lady. I can't believe it is you." Beth said as she dropped the shield and moved in and hugged Lady Aine tightly. "It's been almost five years since you saved me and my little girl from the fire." Beth cried into the crook of Aine's neck as her body shuddered.

"Can it truly be you?" The man said in shock looking at Lady Aine and Beth hugging. He dropped to his knees still holding his little girl. "Thank you Lady Aine."

"Arise and stand on your own two feet." Lady Aine told him. "I deserve no genuflection."

"You deserve everything." The man told her as he lowered his head in reverence.

Lady Aine broke the hug and grabbed the man by his shoulders and jerked him up and off the floor.

"I told you to stand on your own feet. Now how did you come to be here?" Lady Aine asked again.

"This is Lady Aine." The man told his daughter. "We gave you her name as your middle name in her honor. It was she who saved your Mother and you from the fire when you were but a baby."

"My Lady." Beth said sadly. "We had received word my Mother was dying a year after you saved us. And we came down here to see what we could do. But it was in part a trick. The man who owns this land summoned us so that he could press my Mother's debt onto us. We've been trapped here ever since. His cruel interest keeps us from making enough to pay it off. And it grows more and more with each year. My poor Stephen nearly lost his leg working in the villain's stone quarry a month ago. We barely eat, just what some of the other families are able to spare."

"Where are the wise Lady's Clerics?" Lady Aine demanded.

"They've tried but the villain refuses to relent." Beth told her.

"That is all and well, but why are they not seeing to your needs of health, food and clothes?" Lady Aine demanded.

"It is as it has been for over two months." Beth shook her head not knowing the answer.

Lady Aine looked at the man's leg, structurally it looked to be in one piece, but the scars and obvious signs of muscle and tissue removed were about it. Taking the medallion in her hand again she reached out and touched his forehead.

"In the name of the wise Lady." Lady Aine intoned. The same bright white light flashed out and revitalized the man's body. Beth and Everin both stood transfixed as they watched the flesh of his leg begin healing. When it finished, his leg looked like it had never been harmed.

Without another word, Lady Aine stormed out of the house and looked about the street. Many women had come out at the noises made and stared.

"If you can hear my voice and your family hungers, bring forth your biggest bowls, now." Lady Aine said in her commanding voice.

Beth turned without question and moved into the area they ate and got out the largest bowl she had.

Ten minutes later over one hundred women and somewhere north of twenty men stood in front of the hovel. Lady Aine held out her owl medallion as her right hand rose up.

"In the name of the wise Lady." Lady Aine intoned. Each bowl and platter in the group suddenly filled with the pink fluff that Lord Walter had made for his company many times. "Feed your families from this ambrosia of the wise Lady. Tomorrow before each meal, and each day after, if the Clerics of Athena are not here and you have a need for more food then go to the temple with your largest bowls for them to be filled as they are now." Lady Aine told them.

As everyone left after thanking Lady Aine she turned to look at Beth still there.

"Please, will you sit with us?" Beth asked Lady Aine.

"I think I need to go speak with this landlord of yours and then I need to pay a visit to the temple. Where can I find him?" Lady Aine asked.

Beth nodded before she gave her the directions.

Lady Aine turned and saw Everin still standing there. She looked at him speculatively for a moment and then pulled out a bag from her belt. Reaching within her hand came back out with about twelve gold sovereigns. She pressed them into his hand.

"Use this to tend to your own needs, I thank you for trying to help those living in these conditions." Lady Aine told him.

Everin blushed but accepted the coins.

"Thank you my Lady, for this, but mostly for interceding on my behalf." Everin bowed his head to her.

Lady Aine left him standing there as she began following the directions she had been given.


It took nearly an hour to walk the streets for Lady Aine to find the fancy home and offices of the landlord.

"Master, Lady Aine to see you." A slight man said as he opened the door to the office of the landlord.

"I'm a very busy man." He said gruffly as Lady Aine stepped within the room.

Even as Aine's nose rankled at the smell, Abigail shuttered her feathers and clacked her beak several times.

"I've come on behalf of the people you torment with your power." Lady Aine told him, cutting straight to the chase.

"The peasants crying of the sorrow of their own choices. Begone with you and your self-righteousness before I have you removed." The man scoffed.

"Tell me your name." Lady Aine said between clenched teeth.

Instead of answering, the man reached over and rang a bell. A side door opened and two men stepped into the room in full armor.

"Escort the wench out, if she gives you any problems, deal with it. However you please." The man told them.

Lady Aine growled as the men took a step forward and her right hand rose up into the air.

"I said, tell me your name. In the name of the wise Lady I command you." Lady Aine said as she closed her fist in a tight ball.

White light erupted from her and encompassed the entire room. The two men froze in that light even as the landlord's eyes went wide. His arms were pinned to his side as he was thrust up out of his chair.

The two men tried backing away from that light but found they couldn't. All three of them began grimacing from it.

"I will have your name, demon." Lady Aine told him as she maintained her vigil.

"Antioch." The entity within the man screamed in pain.

"What is your purpose here?" Lady Aine demanded.

"The same as any brethren…to sow hate, discontent and sorrow." Antioch cried.

"How long have you and your lackey's possessed these men and what other plans do you have in the works?" Lady Aine commanded from the demon.

Antioch tried to resist but the power Lady Aine had inflicted upon him was growing more painful and slowly he explained his plans.

"Where is the money you have unfairly stolen from the people living in squalor?" Lady Aine asked.

Antioch looked at the over-large mural on the wall.

"Are you interfering in the temple of Athena as well?" Lady Aine demanded.

"No, I have no dealings with any temples." Antioch pleaded.

"In the name of Athena, begone from this realm and never return!" Lady Aine intoned as she opened her fist. The bright light flashed a final time before it faded and all three men fell to the floor as the entities were driven from them.

"What happened?" The man said as he recovered.

"You were possessed by a demon and I have expelled him." Lady Aine told him as she stepped over to the picture.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she pulled the picture down, revealing the large wall safe.

"The demon that was within you cheated good, honest people of their hard earned money, forcing them to live in squalor like some kind of animal. I'm going to give them the money back." Lady Aine told him.

"But…" The man sputtered.

"Open the safe or I'll open it so you have to replace it." Lady commanded.

The man slowly moved over and opened it.

Lady Aine saw several chests within and she closed her eyes as she focused the connection with the divine. Her eyes opened and she grabbed one of the chests and pulled it out.

She saw the undisguised lust of money in his eyes, he might not have been a willing participant of Antioch, but he wasn't unhappy at how he got the money.

"Surely you wouldn't want to go before the wise Lady knowing you cheated her people would you?" Lady Aine asked in a cold voice that sent chills down his back.

He shook his head quickly as that seemed to wake him up.

Lady Aine walked out of his office and began walking down the street to find the temple.


Greetings! I hope this finds you well!

To the Adventure! -Tim