A Wild Dita Appears, Pt II
Dominant Reactions:
[X] Investigate - Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on. (7)
[X] Suspicion - No doubt the girl is involved in another dark plot of some kind. Better figure out what her game is, and deal with it accordingly. (2)
"Dita?" You exclaim incredulously. "What are you doing here? Khersis, girl, come in by the fire. You look half frozen."
You discretely put your hand on her shoulder, incidentally confirming that's she's actually solid. A brief probe with your sorcery confirms that she's alive, which is something of a relief. You can feel the fatigue of a long run through bitter cold, some hypothermia from being outdoors without proper clothing, and the weakness of too little food and too little activity for far too long. Underscoring that is another, less familiar malady. You've never seen anything like this before, so you can't be confident of your impression. But it's as if something had attacked her life force directly, again and again over a period of years, but the most recent blow was quite recent. Any normal girl would be dead from that.
But Dita's life force is a blazing bonfire of golden energy far stronger than anything you've felt before. She's holding fatigue and frostbite at bay through sheer determination, forcing her body on with magic far beyond the point where it should have collapsed. She's burned most of her power just getting to this point, but she's still a good ways from running out.
She settles herself gratefully by the fire in your bedroom, and smiles up at you. "I knew I felt magic in you at the trial," she says. "You can see I'm not evil, can't you?"
"Maybe you should tell me what's wrong," you suggest, sizing her up. You felt an unnatural strength in her limbs in that momentary scan, enough to match a man twice her size. But you probably still have an edge there, and she isn't armed as far as you can see. You can probably take her if it comes to that.
Her smile fades a bit.
"It's those stupid priests," she complains. "They're convinced I have some kind of dark taint on my soul, and Lala lets them do whatever they want. The stupid cow can't see they're killing me with all these exorcisms and purifications."
"Why would that hurt you?" You ask cautiously.
"Because they're trying to force me to be human!" She exclaims. "My mother was a Chosen of Inovia for six years before she married, Dominic. The power changed her, and some of it was passed on to me. But just because I can run fast and see magic doesn't mean I'm evil. I know you have sorceries of your own, Dominic. Surely you understand that being different doesn't mean I'm a monster?"
"Of course not," you say sympathetically. But something about that explanation doesn't quite fit.
"I'm a little surprised the priests don't understand that," you go on. "Inovia's works aren't anathema or anything. She just makes people cautious because even though she means well she's kind of… well, her followers tend to be a bit..."
"Nuts?" Dita puts in. "Yeah, I can't argue that. I met a couple of Chosen when I was a kid, and they were always really messed up. There was this one time…"
She trails off, gazing into the fire. Then she shakes herself, and goes on. "Don't make the mistake of thinking the goddess herself is mad, though. She's not. She's alien. The way she sees the world is so different from human perception that communion with her can damage your mind if you aren't careful. But fighting evil is her only reason for touching our world, and she's very good at it."
"Dita? What aren't you telling me?"
She glances at you, her expression guarded now. "Are you sure you want to know? All I'm asking you to do is give me shelter for the winter. Give me a chance to heal, and recover my strength. No one could criticise you for that, and when I disappear in the spring they won't be able to blame you for it. You weren't part of the plot, so they never told you to keep me locked up."
"Plot," you say flatly. "What plot?"
"Do you really think one of Inovia's Chosen would harbor a demon, cousin?" She asks softly.
That does seem unlikely. But an unmasked demon is pretty hard to mistake for anything else, and the Church is smart enough to understand that agents of darkness sometimes try to frame innocent people. Especially considering how much influence your family has. Unless…
Wait.
She nods sadly. "Like I said, you probably don't want to know."
"Tell me," you growl.
She sighs, and turns back to the fire. "Mother never converted to the worship of Khersis. She always said her soul was already claimed, and she wanted to be with her sisters in arms when she died. That would have been bad enough, but she was training acolytes and giving safe haven to the Chosen as well. I know father argued with grandfather about that a lot, especially when it became clear that mother wasn't going to be able to give him a son."
"Then father started training me as his heir, even though the family was starting to notice my little quirks. Well, grandfather wasn't about to let one of the family baronies become 'a den of heathens ruled by a tainted girl-child'. He gave father an ultimatum, and when that didn't work he… watched, and called in favors, and took advantage when there was an opportunity."
You try to resist the urge to stare. Your grandfather wouldn't do something like that… would he?
"You asked," Dita reminds you. "You don't have to believe me. All I'm asking for is hospitality."
"What are you going to do in the spring?"
"Not revenge," she reassures you with a shake of her head. "I've accepted that I'll never be the Baroness of Verzi. I have promises to keep, and a… friend, to rescue. Tavi's brother has her now, and somehow I have to get her free before we turn eighteen."
Tavi. That's an odd name. "The old maiden in durance vile thing, huh? Where is she?"
"India."
Well, fuck. She might as well have said Mordor.
India is a corrupted land ruled by the rakshasa, a race of evil shapeshifting sorcerers so powerful the Church considers them a variety of demon. Not to mention that getting there would be nearly impossible, since the entire Middle East is a wasteland ruled by vampires and populated only by their slaves. Just getting there would be an epic quest, let alone freeing this girl from… wait a minute. How on Earth would Dita know a girl from India? Are there even any humans living in that shadowed land?
Is she talking about a human?
Your response:
[ ] This crazy bitch is consorting with monsters and trying to destroy your family. Lock her up and ship her back to her keepers.
[ ] Riiiiiight. Yep, that's an Inovian, well-meaning but bugfuck nuts. Let her stay the winter, and then leave before she brings trouble to your door.
[ ] Poor girl, her troubles have obviously driven her around the bend. Maybe you can help her if she stays with you awhile.
[ ] This is an opportunity. Help Dita out, use her to get in good with the Chosen, then you can use them as a resource even after she gets herself killed. It'll make relations with your family tricky, but you can finesse that.
[ ] Ok, so your grandfather is an even bigger asshole than you thought and the Church is blind. Your cousin needs help, and there's a lot more you can do for her than just giving her a place to sleep for a couple of months.
[ ] Write In
