A Faraway Victory

[Ebiris]

'Damn irresponsible mothers,' Alicia agrees vehemently. 'I'm tempted you know. I can even rationalise that my unease with the concept makes me even more ideally suited than any other. The reasoning is seductive.'

[Anastasia]

'Seductive, sweet, alluring.' Latha says, 'Is it the allure of the correct choice of the allure of sinful temptation? That is the question we must ask.'

Meanwhile Calley lands smoothly in a perfect roll, leaping up after, vaulting over an entire forge and landing in a crouch. Andrea laughs and claps, flying around him. Then the two come together and whisper, Andrea pointing at your head.

[Ebiris]

"Ahh, I see a courre that's spotted its natural habitat," Alicia says aloud. 'According to Marie they even live outside of that mythal Seira set up around Balmuria. I suppose... we can see how he feels about Sylica after spending a few hours playing with Andrea. We could set something up for his family here, as we did with mine.'

[Anastasia]

A nod to Alicia at that, while meanwhile Andrea giggles and Calley points. With a cry Andrea darts, landing atop Alicia's head and cheering. "Yaaaay, I'm atop Alicia Mountain!" She grabs a bit of your hair and laughs.

[Ebiris]

"Yes you are," she says, smiling as her eyes tilt upwards. "In fact... watch this closely, Calley. I can't quite do as much as was done for you, but if Andrea's going to be your playmate I can give her a boost to keep up." It's no proper familiar contract like the one she just dissolved with Marie earlier, instead a simple flexing of divine power to turn Andrea into her familiar in much the same way, the courre given a massive boost in her capabilities, skills, knowledge, and outright power.

"There you are. You can fill in just until Marie gets back, how's that Andrea?"

Just thinking about that particular divine manifestation of hers and how it compares to what Calley was given, it makes her think that his coming here perhaps does have meaning, and there's something to what Latha suggests.

[Anastasia]

Calley smiles even more at that, "You just made her your familiar," he says, "Aaaawesome!"

Andrea gasps and flies up and off, faster now, moving better. "Everything's so much clearer," she says, then darts back to your head. "Your head is still the best, though!"

[Ebiris]

"It's only temporary, though I did just relieve Marie earlier so she could advance herself properly," Alicia confirms. "But being my familiar offers a great many benefits, as Andrea is discovering." She smiles and reaches up to lightly pat Andrea's much smaller head atop her own. "Prime rights to sitting on my head being but one."

[Anastasia]

As Andrea laughs and cheers from her perch, Calley nods. "I wonder if I could do that?" he murmurs, "You'd have to arrange the sigils perfectly, and find a way to instantly recreate the familiar bond, which is impossible by normal sorcerery, but maybe..." His voice trails off as he thinks to himself.

> roll 1d20+93
<Rei-chan> Kotono rolled : 1d20+93 --> [ 1d20=5 ]{98}

This check is mostly ceremonial.

"It's one of the limits you overcome because you're divine," he finally says, "Things that sorcery can't do, or can only do at the most extreme reaches."

[Ebiris]

"As a deity I'm still the culmination of my mortal life and adventures - Marie was a big part of those, so my divinity has a way to express itself through impromptu familiar bonds," she confirms, not really explaining it like she ordinarily would to someone seeking knowledge since he effectively has all the knowledge implanted in his head anyway, just waiting to be accessed.

[Anastasia]

"Like an ideal being accessed, like good and evil," Calley says, as Andrea watches, openly puzzled. "But that's what you are now, isn't it? An ideal."

[Ebiris]

Sadly even with the boost to her intelligence and access to all of Alicia's knowledge of planar and religious lore, Andrea can't keep up with whatever Sylvie stuffed into her son's head. "That's right. Deities represent various facets of existence, some primal and simple, some subtle and complex. Mystra is the goddess of magic. All magic. I am more a goddess of magical warfare for righteous means. The older deities have it easier standing out," she smiles wryly.

[Anastasia]

"That's a smaller ideal, so you're smaller than Mystra," Calley agrees, "So you want to become a bigger idea."

[Ebiris]

"Not necessarily," she shakes her head. "I happen to like magical battles for righteousness. But wouldn't a world where such battles are unnecessary be better? Or to look at it another way, I could become a bigger ideal by taking from other deities. If I took magic from Mystra, or justice from Tyr I'd certainly have more for myself - but I like Mystra and Tyr, and wouldn't want to grow at their expense. Nor would I want to take say tyranny from Bane, because I have no interest in becoming a tyrant. I'm a small deity, Calley, but what I embody is important to me, and I'm happy to be an exemplar to those who feel the same way, who don't feel they quite fit perfectly with Mystra, or Tyr, or any of the other deities I overlap with."

[Anastasia]

Calley watches you all the while, body perfectly still. As Andrea watches on in complete befuddlement, "But that's wrong," he finally says. "You have to get bigger. It's important, because you're important. Ideals are what everything's about. Small ideas change less and save less than big ideas."

[Ebiris]

"That doesn't make the small ideals unimportant," she replies, shaking her head. "But my small ideal can also become bigger the more who cleave to it. The more people who picture me whenever they think of heroes who use sword and spell to stand against the unjust. And that's what I work hard to exemplify, just as I did in Balmuria before you were born."