To cure a phoenix (Ithea, Calleigh, Surraruthru)

[Anastasia]

"Things happened and here I am," Simmer spreads her arms wide, "How's Kascha doing?"

Priest looks up from checking her. She lies in bed, wearing only plain undergarments to preserve her modesty. Her body is riddled with crack-like cuts, slowly oozing golden blood. "She's slowly fading away. You have a few days but not any longer before she perishes. Our working theory is that the goldenfire is wounding her spirit. Are you familiar with how powerful spirits cannot abide on the Prime Material, lest it become wounded? It seems much the same. No mortal or immortal is meant to endure goldenfire like this. She's breaking down under something far more than she is."

[Anastasia]

Hanna scowls, "Now I'm not as worried as Priest suggests we should be. Lathander wouldn't sentence an innocent ghaele to death like this. He's all about newborn life and he's treated Aurora well, and also has good relations with Seira. Which means there's a point to this, something that will come of it that's worthwhile."

"I hope so," Simmer says, "The gist of what was said was that they trust us to solve it. They're willing to try elemental infusion if we are, and if we want to try another option, we're welcome to. They are not going to be happy if she reappears in the Cauldron after dying again, though. Really unhappy."

[Yuthirin]

"We can't just, y'know, take it out?" Calleigh asks.

[Merc]

"Well, the Ysgard option should still be open since I don't believe she'd go to the Cauldron then, due to how the resurrection effect works, right?" Ithea asks. "Elemental infusion seems risky, and I don't know enough about goldenfire to just try taking it out."

[Anastasia]

"We've tried," Hanna and Priest say at the exact same instant. They both pause and glance at each other, before Priest chuckles a little bit, "Pardon. Efforts to do so have failed short of direct divine intervention, and Hanna's request for intercession was not granted."

"Lady Gwynharwyf doesn't always answer miracles like that. Sometimes it's for her own reasons and other times it's because we're supposed to be able to stand on our own. We're to be strong, not always come running to her when we have a problem." Hanna looks over to Kascha, patting the ghaele's hand. "This does smack of some sort of test or that there's a good end to it."

"Like setting her on fire!" Simmer happily interjects, "I'll be glad to help with that, by the way."

[Yuthirin]

"Ysgard should work! It works for mortals and immortals and everything in between!" Calleigh adds helpfully. "Oh yes fire!"

[Merc]

"Well...I forget who said it, but it came up that immolating her in a bonfire just before dawn would help, and it fits with her name and Lathander's theme. That just seemed..." Ithea winces here, but with a sigh continues. "Well, since other options aren't working, that's probably what will cause her the least suffering, so we might as well go with that. When is dawn next in Ysgard?"

[Anastasia]

"A few hours," Hanna says, "We've been keeping track."

[Yuthirin]

"I'm in for the fire thing. Then she can play with us and I can ask the fire dryad QUESTIONS! I have so many!"

[Merc]

"Well, you can ask her while we wait for dawn, I suppose. Unless she thinks it'll distract her too much since she's probably a good source for starting a bonfire. We should wait here until it's closer to dawn, less chance of drawing the attention of someone in Ysgard wanting a fight and us missing the timing or something."

[Anastasia]

"Yes. Now'a bout time to prepare if that's the court you've chosen," Hanna says, "She should survive another day and night if you want more time to investigate other options, though."

[Iron Dragoon]

"I think this is going to be the best chance. We need time to prepare the pyre for her, too."

[Yuthirin]

"We could get darkwood for the pyre! Very symbolic!"

[Anastasia]

"You're the commanding officer here," Hanna looks to Ithea. "She hasn't woken up in the last several hours and she may not anytime soon. Your choice on if to do it, and if to ask her or not."

[Merc]

"She already said she trusts us, as has Cauldron. This makes the most sense, symbolically and matches the words Lathander gave them. Would have preferred to do it another way, but at least we have a fair idea that this will work. If she wakes up, we can confirm, but otherwise, we should just prepare and try to keep her as painless as possible until then," Ithea responds.