Homefront

[Corwin]

Seira briefly looks in on Emily to check, even as she answers, "Not putting her training to use, though that is as much her choice as bullying the locals while she lives on a Prime. What worries me is that she's straying from her path. On two occasions, she ignored individuals cursed by fiends to pursue far more mundane and trivial matters. On another, she abandoned her duty of putting an end to demon-worshipping sahuagin and their ritual to their blasphemous prince. And that after I chided her over not acting to root out an active Sharran assassin living in stealth under the same roof as she."

Seira sighs. "I think this Alyssa she's so taken with is leading her astray, while realizing that appeals to Miss Songsteel would go unheard and that she holds sufficient divine clout to coast her way to a comfortable living regardless of her actions. Sadly, it enables and reinforces Emily's innate passiveness. Anything I do at this point will only drive her away." She pushes the rest of her food away, pursing her lips. "Normally, I wouldn't put you in this situation, but I'm already at a point where I am considering official sanctions. This breach of her privacy may hurt Emily, but not as much as losing her holy powers pending a formal Atonement."

[Anastasia]

Right now you can sense Emily is in a divine realm, one that is blocking your vision. Shaundakul's will, in part of his section of the Gates of the Moon. You could press against it and try and overcome it if you wished.

Xera closes her eyes and is silent for several moments. "I understand. Could you tell me more of each situation?"

[Corwin]

Is my daughter in good health? Seira inquires with Shandakul politely, rather than force a pointless confrontation.

At Xera's question, she wavers briefly but then decides to speak of the events in question. First, the circumstances behind her arrival at Alyssa's doorstep, followed into the drawn-out situation with the Sharran assassin that claimed several lives and Seira had to prod rather hardly to get them to resolve, at the cost of damaging their relations due to exceeding if necessary bluntness. Moore's curse, no doubt severe given his standing in Celestia, and how little attention or interest it received. A similar situation on the outskirts of Morwel's court. Both of them exacerbated by how carefree Emily otherwise had been with Miracle, which Seira certainly approves of unlike many other deities, yet even she firmly believes that its most natural and intended purpose is for such moments of great need and ability to help their fellows.

The whole situation with the demon-worshiping cult deserves more detail, and she recreates it for Xera with her powers. Unlike Emily's passive moments, here she showed a clear understanding of what is needed and initiative to act, only to ignore it altogether at a chiding from Alyssa. "I honestly cannot reconcile a desire to avoid retaliation with looting the sahuagin home and taking out the skeleton crew guarding it." She frowns, adding, "Not literally skeletons, in this case. And truly, how willfully blind must you be to ignore the terrible effects on that Prime from such a ritual? I am about to act on the information myself, after giving her a chance to realize her mistake."

[Anastasia]

Emily is in hale health. Do you wish to see her?

Xera's expression is thoughtful throughout. When you're at last done, "Please wait until I've talked to her, Mom? I want to hear her side - too often are the steps of a mistake gilded in the heart's own gold. Too often can cool logic divert the needs of justice with the concerns of the pragmatic. Too often can one's perspective lose sight of other perspectives. I would like to know which accounts for Emily here in her own mind."

[Corwin]

Yes, please. Thank you, Rider of the Winds.

"We are not at the point of censure quite yet," Seira clarifies. "Yet I can read the future, and Emily's behavior is changing for the worse. I have already given her a warning. I have already sent Agathaiel to provide both guidance and support. I tried positive reinforcement. I tried giving Amaryl a chance with her."

She closes her eyes, continuing in a defeated tone of voice. "Emily continues to ignore the hubris of the actions that put her in Alyssa's orbit. Even when I personally sought out Gond and asked for his help, Emily has thus far ignored my message that Gond is waiting for her in order to help her reimburse Waukeen. Meanwhile, I hear whispers from Brightwater that someone impersonates Miss Songsteel to commit a crime, by appearances, and Emily ignores the entire situation except to trade on my reputation to get them preferred treatment. After I told her of the importance of my reputation, and how wrong she was to use it to put it as collateral for the artifact she borrowed from Waukeen. Does she understand, that as the consequences of her actions I must take time from the war effort and my important projects to clean up her messes, time and again?"

[Anastasia]

You can see Emily is helping out by carrying a barrel of supplies into what looks to be a storage room. She puts it down and exhales, wiping her brow clear. 'Mom, we're going to build something special here, something you're proud of me for. I promise.' she prays a moment. 'Just watch.'

With her meal done, Xera sips water as you speak. When you're done, "Going out on your own changes you. When I walked Solania I grew much and gained great insights, Mom. I think she's stumbling on that - and if that's all it is, I can nudge her back onto her path."

Full disclosure: This was originally going to be an interrupt early on in this thread, but you went and focused on Emily first, so you get it like this. See also her current node goal.

[Corwin]

My other daughter is interested in visiting Emily with her companion, Zariel. Would they be welcome? Seira inquires with Shaundakul.

"So it does," Seira agrees, walking around the table to sit next to Xera. "And it's a difficult situation. I love you both, and I'm proud of you as a parent," she says as she puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "But as I told Emily, in a deity's relationship with her followers I cannot play favorites. If Emily ignores a person in need or a fiendish plot and focuses on studying or other things, all important and needed, yet not quite to the same degree... do you see what it will do to my faith, were I to excuse my own daughter from following my dogma?"

She decides to disclose a bit more as she adds, "It matters to Emily as well. She has a romanticized image of adventuring, yet I have told her that present events are making the planes a very dangerous place for her. She had a chance, I told her, of keeping her head down on that Prime or stepping out into the planes. At the time, I believed she had understood me, yet I began wondering when I saw her on a carefree shopping trip to Brightwater. Now, however, she is at the Gates of the Moon, in Shaundakul's realm. If she had decided to pick up the figurative glove and get involved in things, she needs to do it properly or my censure might be the worst of her worries."

[Anastasia]

I have heard of it on my wanderings. Is Zariel reliable to come in peace and maintain that peace?

"I'll talk to her," Xera promises, smiling up at her. "I'll put her on the path she needs to walk - and how we'll endure if her path isn't the path we walk." Quieter, "Mom, what do we do if....that's true and she wants to walk a different path than us?"

[Corwin]

I risked myself to bring her back, and entrusted Xera's safety to her. Please give Zariel a chance.

"If what's true?" Seira asks. "I don't actually think Emily is selfish or worse, you know. I can feel your emotions when you pray to me, and I know she doesn't intend these things in a petty or evil way. That's the problem, if anything! Were she truly misguided, I could set her straight. Yet she passively avoids choices, or folds whenever Alyssa says anything without trying to explain the importance-- it's about values, and getting the importance of them across. And in the worst case, she can always trade on her contacts to get things done by others if she wishes to avoid a confrontation with the group she fell in with. But she doesn't."

To try and answer Xera, she says, "I'm asking you to stage an intervention, because you love her just as much, and because it preserves the official fiction that I'm not taking action myself. Yet if you fail, this will inevitably become public. Perhaps Mystra's wisdom and Waukeen's cunning will show me a path to fix things. Perhaps not. The important thing is that Emily will always be welcome home, and that we maintain our personal lives separate from our duties. What do we do? Keep trying, and be her family no matter what."

[Anastasia]

"I understand." Xera says, "Don't worry about it anymore, Mom. I'll get it straightened out."

Then they may come.

[Corwin]

"I'm counting on you. Ah, and Shaundakul gave permission to you and Zariel to visit!"

[Anastasia]

"We'll take care of this," Xera says, rising at that. "Unless there's something else?"

[Corwin]

"Nothing more important than family," Seira tells her with a smile. "Stop by afterwards, and if you need to take Emily to a Prime ask Amaryl or I for help. I'm afraid it'd be beyond my power to do it for Zariel, but she is always welcome to visit with us if you do that."

[Anastasia]

Thus Xera leaves and moments later...

'Seira,' Amaryl sends. 'Could you come here?'

[Corwin]

Xera, surely!

I'm there, Seira responds, and then she is at Amaryl's side.