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"Nature means living things, you fool! I can not exert control over ice because it is not alive, it is not a plant, it is not something that can be abused by all of you people, and so it is not under my control... But I suppose that it WILL be soon..." Azalea would say with an evil smile, thinking of all the different uses that she would have for an ice mage under her control. It was just a short matter of actually getting the woman, which she already figured was a certainty with the way that things were going now.

"See, I don't really care what the others call me anyway, so even if you emerge victorious it won't be that much of an issue for me. I'm still the most beautiful out of all of them anyway. I'll simply call myself the most beautiful and extravagant person to ever challenge you, and that I am clearly the most awe inspiring person to ever lose in the history of everything, obviously." He'd explain, revealing his rather relaxed view of failure when it was himself failing, compared to his harsh views on others that failed. "Clever idea there. Make me worry if you've beaten any of my other allies. But the ones that I actually care about have all been checked up on, they're fine. As for the 'Dark Queen' look, that went out of style years ago, around the same time that the 'Knight in shining armor' look became just as outdated. Really now, why can't heroes understand that the fashion sense is much more about cloaks and cloth, not some type of heavy, gaudy looking armor... At least you and your companion have gotten that aspect down, so good for both of you." He'd comment offhandedly, caring far more about fashion than he did about the actual content of the stories. If people couldn't bring themselves to look good, then it didn't matter that they were doing amazing things, they just need to look good doing it.

"Shut up! Like I give a damn about how you think my sense of 'fashion' looks. I am in tune with nature, that is all that I care about." "You're wasting your time on that one, Deva... I've already told her time and time again that she needs to try and update her style. My daughter would LOVE to make her a new dress of flowers and such to help her look better, but she's just so stubborn about the whole thing. Unfortunate really, but sometimes there are people that you just can't help." The man would sigh, shaking his head a bit at the stubborn refusal to try and update one's style. It seemed that the man himself was more than happy to converse with Deva, being rather friendly despite the fact that he knew this might reach a confrontation soon. But really, fashion came far before fighting or anything else really. Besides, if he wasn't meant to be fighting right now, he had to find some way to pass the time while the two fought each other.

"Oh honey, NO ONE but myself and my daughter have ever met my standards." Hearing what sounded like a bit of self doubt, however, got him going in that he was more than happy to help someone understand how to be more beautiful. "But if you want my advice... First off, your hair is too long, though that can be pulled off with the right outfit. And you're absolutely right that the top hat just doesn't gel with the rest of the outfit, really the jewelry doesn't work either... If you're gonna go for the 'pure white' look then you need to accentuate purity as much as possible, and jewelry is too much of a symbol of greed to work. Plus the colors are all wrong. And we would probably want at least a cup size increase... don't worry about that, there's some magic for that. I guess we could make the top hat work if you want me to incorporate that, but then I'd need my daughter to get you a custom outfit much like my regular attire. You'd need to look much more formal for the top hat to work at all, otherwise it's just too much of a clash." He'd explain, sounding genuine in his desire to give her better fashion tips than what she was doing now.

Isa and the Dryad would begin picking up speed in throwing spells and attacks at each other, both growing much more focused on the battle at hand, meaning the dryad wouldn't be replying to Deva as much as she had been before. For her part, Isa was still losing focus as the battle went on and the pollen really got to her, her eyes growing cloudy before she'd shake it off and return to trying to hit her opponent. "Oh I have no intentions of stopping your wind wall, especially when it would mess up my hair. But the least I can do is bring this fight back to where it should be if we weren't a part of this. Honor is just another part of beauty, my dear, so I can be quite honorable." He'd explain once the battle was properly fair once again, having a few reasons why he'd want things to be that way, one of which just being that he was enjoying the conversation he was having with Deva.

"Cheerleading is perfectly allowed, dear friend. Watch... Ahem... 'Yey Azalea... You have this won... Show her how good you totally are... Hooraaaayyy...'!" He'd cheer in a rather bored sounding voice, not really needing to cheerlead when he had complete faith in the Dryad, and her ability to enthrall organic life forms.

"I'll tell you EXACTLY why you can choose not to be grouchy right now... I've got quite an offer for you, Ms. Angel. Rather than continue this pointless fight, how about we instead join forces to stop 'Mistress' together? You see, I represent a little faction within Her agents that are planning on overthrowing her and stopping her in her tracks. My leader wanted me to bring you this offer after seeing you for myself. We plan on overthrowing Mistress and taking her power for our own, and if you would be willing to join us, with a Tome at your side, well, I believe that not only could we defeat her, we could also surpass her powers completely. Azalea and I would enjoy having you, I assure you of that." He'd state, showing that not all were as devoted as Priselia, which was strange in some ways considering the powers that she had already seen. "Plus with you on our side I could take a far more hands on method when it comes to fixing up you fashion choices and creating some really nice outfits for you. Oh, and as for my magic... Well... I do have to keep SOME secrets from you for now, wouldn't you say?" Yes he had let her in on a lot of things, but he didn't exactly plan on handing her every bit of information on a silver platter unless he thought that Deva could actually be trusted knowing these things. "Now of course, you could tell Mistress about all of this, and from there that would mean we'd be in a lot of trouble. But that would also mean that we'd be 'adjusted' and still end up having to fight you anyway, and this time I doubt I'd be willing to offer you anything like I am right now."

Though when Deva whispered to him, he'd shake his head a bit, as she was completely off, though Azalea would suddenly hear something interesting and look at them with some confusion. "Wait... What was that?!" She'd sound a bit upset about it, before getting a blast of ice to her left arm, encasing it in ice before she angrily smashed it against the ground to free it, feeling a lot colder now. "Damn you! You both... d-d-d-distracted me!" Then she'd turn to focus on Isa again, spraying even more pollen in her face, getting more annoyed by the fact that the pollen wasn't working as fast as she had thought it would. "So... any thoughts on joining us now? I warn you that the offer might be off the table if we both manage to defeat you, as you'll be joining anyway. So how about you join the winning team now while you still have the chance, and while you're still you. I'll be needing to get back to my assigned story soon before Mistress leaves her Tome, otherwise I'll be in a bit of trouble. And I really want this to be quick so that I can even report in to the Boss about how things went here with you... I'm quite busy."

 

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"Oh is that so, good to know." Deva responded to the dryads provocations. She then looked over to the.. err.. beautiful boaster. "Ah, thats good to know too, I don't like messing with peoples ambitions overly." She chuckled. "Hey now, not only do I have a white dress, I even have this big, swirly cloak. Also, no boots, thats a subtle callback to our roots as well as a sign of rebellion against classical footwear. Finally, I got this over the top hat to make the whole mixture stand out a bit more." She nodded, actually genuinly defending her look rather than following some master plan for a moment. She was not as devoted to fashion, but she had been wearing this outfit for years, no, decades now. She liked it. "Also, I could look at you sternly too, I mean really, mysterious cloak? At least I'd hope for an ironic mask! So.. I figure the ones you care about are the ones with interesting looks and styles?" She smirked.

She then chuckled at the dryad and the mans advice not to bother with her. "Just saying, theres beautiful wild-flower and rustled fern, if you catch my drift." She nodded. Deva herself was of course aware of the dangers of conflict breaking out soon, but as far as she was concerned, that didn't mean you could amuse yourselfs. Really, if she could win fights with playful discussions, she'd prefer those.

"Actually, my outfit is ment to express myself, as good outfits should, thus, what if I use the imperfect outfit to display the imperfections that I percieve in myself, after all, we can't all strife for perfection." She extended her arms, chuckling. "Only one could reach perfection and truly, once you reach perfection you realize it is a curse, right? Everyone else is marred by comparison." she snipped her fingers left and right. "Worse, nobody can understand. See, thats why I gave up aiming for perfection and am content with my simple standards. You are quite the keen observer though, few realize that my necklace can't really be changed. Thats the downside of holy symbols, so clunky." She shook her head.

".. Quite happy with my cupsize though, I've been surrounded by big breastes beauties enough, it's not what you have but how you show it." She shook her head. "Oh and, the whole formal look is not mine. Not a formal person. I do have a few alternate hats, all extravagant of course."

Deva looked over to the cheerleading. "Needs work. And these little fuzzy things you hold in your hands and bounce around with." She tipped her chin.

"Oh damn." Deva sighed.. "You know, you had me up to the 'Take her power for our own' part." Deva shrugsighed. "Of course, if I refuse, that means I'll be trouble, because if she manages to grab me with anyone else, that knowledge you just shared will be hers. Adjusting hmn.. Interesting.

Alright, well, two things, really. For one..." She said, narrowing her eyes. "You're already in a lot of trouble. But one interesting thing I learned is.. whatever I do here, your mistress wont learn of it." Deva sighed slightly. "For two.. the thing about perfection, wasn't that strange what I said earlier, you know? As if I knew what I was talking about." Deva stood up from her sitting position.

"I mean. For starters, even if I were to side with you, theres the issue that the tome would empower me, so in the end, you need someone to control or seduce me, and kinky as this might be, well, frankly, gotta pass. Because of Mulj and Limone." She looked over to the dazed Isa. "You alright Isa?.. Geesh, I was really hoping you'd figure out that you could focus your ice-magic to the top of the cave, igniting the pollen-filled air with concentrated sunlight, whilest protecting yourself from the resulting heatwave with your own ice magic. Oh well. You did your best."

Deva sighed for a moment, watching Isa, but then she smiled. "Looks pretty out of it. Good. Thats what I was waiting for." Deva nodded. "Isa here believes me a hero. Well, I personally believe she'll get more from who she thinks I am, than who I actually am."

Deva gave a tired smile, reaching out for her hat... "Tell me, Azalea Cloverleaf, what do you think is the most beautiful thing in this world?" She inhaled deep breaths of the pollen-free air around her.

 

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"Well you're on the right track with the cloak and with the the dress rather than clunky and boring looking armor. Though I'm not sure about the idea of no footwear... As traditional footwear is traditional for a reason... It helps to keep your socks and feet from getting dirty, which would marr beauty way more than simple footwear. And while standing out can be good... You can stand out while still having the whole outfit fit together properly. I'm sorry, but that top hat just does NOT fit in with the outfit no matter what you do. You'd either have to ditch it, or redo the entire outfit to make it fit." Seems that no matter what, he wasn't going to give up on the idea that the top hat just didn't work with her outfit. There were a lot of things that he could accept, but apparently that top hat just wasn't going to work for him. "Though I do have to agree with you there, I hate this 'mysterious cloak' thing, but there are some very VERY rare times where practicality just has to come before fashion... This is one of those times. I can't let you know exactly who I am for all sorts of reasons, so I haven't to wear THIS for now... and I can do what I can to make this look better, but my goodness there's only so much that even one as perfect as I can manage..." He'd explain, not wanting to allow his beauty to be contained by a drab looking cloak, but that was how things were right now. He was under orders to keep his appearance hidden from those in this story, both so Mistress didn't get suspicious and to ensure that people there couldn't trace anything back to him if they encountered him. "The ones that I care about are those with... similar goals... to myself, nothing more and nothing less. Priselia being defeated is nothing, but losing Azalea would be much more annoying."

The dryad would just make an angry sort of growl when Deva continued talking about her appearance and the types of clothes that she wore. "Oh I know, trust me, I know... I tell her that I could help her be like the most beautiful rose. A captivating and wondrous beauty with hidden thorns to punish those that try to pluck her... But, alas, it seems my advice will simply fall on deaf ears." While Deva considered it playful, this man took this entire matter quite seriously! How could one ever think that fashion was not a matter of utmost importance? That was a question that would elude him forever, it seemed, as too many people just ignored his fashion advice.

He'd chuckle for a little bit when Deva started talking about perfection, shaking his head a bit. "Perfection is not a curse once you learn to simply accept how much better you are than the imperfect peons beneath you. My beauty is perfection personified, anything less for me is unacceptable. They may not understand my beauty, but at that point you merely have to MAKE them understand why they are meant to follow that which is perfect. Why do you think that I wish to gain more power? The better I can MAKE people follow my beauty, that's what I need power for. But I suppose you don't truly understand, for only I have ever truly achieved perfection. The only other person that's even come close is my wonderful daughter. So there's no need to try to teach me how perfection works, I'm quite familiar with it all." Well, he was certainly full of himself, to the point that honestly he'd outdone the few pride demons that he had the pleasure of meeting. "Never was one for holy symbols honestly... They always, ALWAYS manage to clash with my outfit in some way... It's infuriating, apparently no one told any gods that they needed to be able to adapt to the trends of fashion... Still, we can get rid of that as well when we fix up your outfit, don't worry about it."

The cloaked man would start clapping a bit as Deva explained why she was fine with her current cup size. "Fair enough. You know what, we can keep your current cup size I suppose. We just need to properly highlight it to make it look good. Beauty can be achieved in many ways, after all."

And just as suddenly he'd seem to grow extremely angry with what Deva said next about his cheerleading. "I don't want to HEAR about anything 'Fuzzy' right now! DON'T talk to me about any Fuzzy anything! I have JUST managed to get my hair BACK IN ORDER! I WISH Mistress had agreed to let me incinerate the damn things, or throw them into a random story somewhere or something... But noooooo, they're 'cute' and 'quaint' and 'useful' and all sorts of other BULLSHIT! AARGH! I-... Calm down... we're calm... rage isn't pretty... well... I make rage pretty... but no need for rage right now."

"Well what else will we do with all the power once we defeat her? It has to go somewhere, and if a fraction of it could make all of us so much stronger... imagine if we took ALL of it... Forget sealing stories away and tearing them apart and all that... We could rule every story in existence! Ah but you're a 'hero'... I forget that your kind doesn't think sensibly... Such a shame really, the Boss really hoped that you would understand the opportunity being presented to you. Ah well, this will just end up being far more difficult than it was meant to be. Too bad... I suppose this is just how things go sometimes... I warn you of one thing though, Mistress might learn a slightly edited version of what happened here." He'd explain. "Hmph! I... I told you... she wouldn't take the offer!" From the sounds of it, the dryad was actually starting to struggle against Isa, and while it looked like she'd get the win thanks to the pollen, she was being taken to her limit with all the plants that she was trying to use to distract Isa, AND defend her from the blasts of ice that she was being nearly hammered with time and time again. She had at least expected her to fall to the pollen much faster than this, but instead it turned into a slower process.

"Oh are you serious?! A couple of dumb little slimes that 'don't fall in wuv' is enough to make you give up this kind of opportunity?! What is wrong with you? You didn't even meet them until today! So what if we broke up their little bit of 'lovey-dovey' CRAP! Sure, Mulj was meant to get kidnapped, and Limona would go on some huge adventure to rescue her true love and blah blah blah. Azalea understood the quickest way to break this story was to make Limona no longer care about Mulj, and to do that we just wanted Mulj to break her heart a little bit, but who cares? They're a couple of slimes in some random story in the middle of nowhere. Get over it." The man said callously, showing his extremely cruel side once Deva said something that he found completely nonsensical.

Isa, meanwhile, would barely manage to look over to Deva, hearing what she planned to do through the fog of pollen that was really starting to cloud over her mind. "Couldn't... hole in ceiling... too big..." Her power could only create ice constructs of a certain size, and the hole in the ceiling was just too big for her to do something like that. Also... she definitely hadn't thought about that, but it helped that there was an actual reason that she wouldn't have been able to do the clever thing that she hadn't even thought of.

"The most beautiful thing in the world is a building that is slowly being retaken by nature, overgrown and decrepit as the world claims what belongs to it..." "She actually means me, but I'll let that answer slide, because I assume that 'besides the white cloaked gorgeous one' was an unspoken part of the question..." Azalea wouldn't respond to that, and refocus on Deva as it seemed as though she was planning something now, and also because she could see she had already beaten the ice mage.

 

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"Truth be told, I need a big hat to cover up my eyes." Deva shrugged. "They make some folks nervous." And, make it harder to lie if exposed, Deva noted."Plus, I like the hat." Deva chuckled at the mans preposition that she wouldn't recognize him. Unless he was a very good actor, she sincerely doubted she'd oversee his personality.

"Wait, the way you are talking.. I know who you are.. you are .. Dolph Ziggler!"
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"Heh, the way you are talking, I guess I can't question your.. conviction." She chuckled. "I find perfection to be a curse, not because of others, but perfection means the absolute. You cannot improve anymore, there is no one for you to strife and overcome, once you reached perfection, there is only maintaining the status quo or facing a decline." She shrugged.

"If your beauty is perfect, shouldn't it already inspire everyone to follow you?" She asked, innocently, relieved to hear that, apparently, her opponent lacked the ability to defeat those just looking at him.

"Actually, I'd rather not get rid of the source of my powers." Deva chuckled at her necklace. Again, a lie. The necklace allowed her to acess about a third of her abilities, most of her divine spells being bound to it, admittedly. Deva smiled subtly when she heard about the fuzzies.. and hair. So this was the one focusing magic on their hair. She had suspected it, admittedly.

"Whys everyone under the impression that I'm a hero. Welp, I guess, I do share a lot of a heroes ambition.. like the idea of letting people that don't even respect love or understand, rule over stories.. frankly, the cloaked one seems like a better option." Deva chuckled. "The thing you are misunderstanding about is a level of magnitude, I guess. Sorry, its hard to exlpain." She shrugged. "The cloaked one is not smarter or stronger than you. I am not smarter or stronger than you, because such relations would be like comparing.. blondes and brunettes... not to say I dislike blondes.. err.." she cleared her throat at Isa. "I guess.. I'll have to show you." She shrugged, giving up. she'd just have to demonstrate things. She understood the cloaked one as a real threat, not just because she had incredible power.. but because she had stopped speaking to Deva, stopped giving away any potential information after the angel hadn't just disappeared as predicted.

"No, not just for a couple of little slimegirls." Deva shook her head. "Just one. One innocent soul is enough for me... plus apparently, I'm correct, if the story hinges on their love, perhaps their adventure, perhaps the result of their love.. but now, I awakened it stronger than before, and the story is beginning to mend itself." Deva smiled, then hesitated when she realized something... ".. I really hope they don't name any little goos they make Deva, I swear, I like my unique name-branding.." She grumbled.

"I care. Always." She objected when told to get over it. "Also, silly Isa, theres no such thing as too big, thats just limits your mind imposes upon itself." Deva sighed, corssing her arms.

"Alright, I guess.. its time to show you why its wrong I'm a hero. Manipulating my friends, poor Isa, and, more bothersome.... hold on." She looked over to the cloaked one. "If your outfit is supposed to be perfect, then why is a strain of your hair peeking out from below?" She asked. "Not bluffing. Here, catch." She pulled out the hand-mirror, tossing it to the cloaked one. At the same time, she closed one eye, focusing the other on The dryad, inhaling, and rushing forward. "Haste, quicken spell." She mumbled, before pushing through the windwall, moving with.. unnatural speed, her eye focusing on the dryad all the more, suddenly moving up, a hand brushing the exhausted dryads cheek, before she whispered. "I'd like to apologize for everyone that hurt nature, but I have to stop you now. Phoba." She intonated, with cheeks all puffed up from lots of air she had inhaled before, slightly ruining the moment. There was a sudden, short sense of Vertigo for the Dryad, which quickly passed.. as if nothing had happened, though, if the Dryad tried to command her plants.. there was nothing. If she tried to summon another plant to lash out at Deva.. the plant would go through her, as if Deva was nothing but a simple illusion. The pollen she had summoned before seemed to stay active though, making this harder for the angel.

"Greater image." Deva chanted, creating a house all around Azalea, old and decrepit, that, sped up, became slowly overgrown, roots bursting through the floor. Whilest Deva stepped out of the illusiory houses walls. The dryad however, could not if she tried to pursue. Indeed, looking outside of the house showed a world of civilization crumbling, roots digging into pavement outside, the actual cave growing translucent and see-through as Deva swiftly walked back to her wind-wall, catching her breath once back in there and focusing on the one she had distracted now. Though, considering how well Isa had held on so far, she perhaps could still hear Deva, who wanted her out for this, say,

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"I believe, that, at the time that our tale comes to an end, we all should see.. and feel, something we truly love." Deva mused. "To that end, hold onto that mirror. My dear anonymous cloaked opponent. Have you ever had a dream, so real you didn't know if you were asleep until you woke up? Have you ever wondered if the dream goes on without you, people within it living happy dream-lifes?

Azalea is part of that dream now, and we are waking up. I tried to talk to you. I asked her to stop.
True power.. thats turning your dreams into reality. True beauty, is not a perfect state of constant being. True beauty, is in the moment. Like giving someone what they most desired, before their end. Giving even beings that you cannot allow to exist any more .. a smile. True beauty is not in the mirror, its in the heart, more precisely, in the value we place on the lifes and the freedom of others. Exspecially if they are different from us." Deva tried to explain, before she finally removed her hat, staring at the cloaked one before her, reaching out to collect her jewelry in the hat, her blue eyes almost seeming to penetrate beneath the cloak. "You prefer me like this, right?"

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No.. it wasn't the smile. it wasn't the tone, or those calm blue eyes, the way she took a step forward just now.. it was.. everything in combination. It was oddly beautiful(for someone that was not him, of course), yet terrifying. There was no malice, or even dislike in her eyes. There was also no doubt or hesitation. No fear.

"I will promise you a similiar ending, if you keep walking down your current path. She is locked away in a dream, as a dream, seeing culture crumble before her. For you, why, I think you'd only be truly happy if the whole world was more like you. I could provide." Deva extended her arms, one poking out through the windwall, her sleeve rustling slightly. "Long ago, I created two sets of epic spells, the dream magic and another set. Magic more powerful than most can fathom.. and whilest I lost most of my power, these spells stayed with me, you can't exactly forget them. Interesting fact, the triad of dreams was never designed with offensive intent, it was always ment to defend me. Thus I forbid myself from using the dream magic on people.. but an avatar of natures wrath isn't exactly your ordinary citizen. By the way, the Fuzzy fluffy creature you .. encountered.. that was created through my magic too.

The other set of epic spells, was ment to be offensive, so it's an expression of my darker urges and desires, used to give shape to magic to overpower my foes.. because, sometimes, you need that.. Among that, amusingly, you'll find vanity." Deva looked over at the mirror she had tossed to the prideful man. "Thanks for holding onto the mirror Limone gave me." She extended a hand, pointing at the mirror, inhaling, heavily, lowering her hand a little again, hesitating again for a moment, though, if her opponent was as perceptive of facial expression as he was of fashion-details, he'd realize it seemed almost like pity and compassion made her hesitate

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"So, I'm asking you, can't you simply stop? You don't have to force beauty upon the world, if you have true beauty, others will naturally want to follow your example, you don't need power to rule, infact, power is just distracting you from beauty. You could be an inspiration for everyone. Isn't that more important than power? Isn't that more important than shaping everything in your image?

Even if you want people to share your sense of beauty.. We had a nice talk, I'm sure you have to realize.., everyone matters. What is your beauty, without an audience, or with an audience that is just made to appreciate what you are? That's not genuine admiration. Thats just you being afraid of criticism. Shouldn't your beauty be above such things?" She nodded, trying to appeal to her opponent one last time, though at the same time, one hand having subtly slipped into her poket, picking up the marble she had aquired. She had tried to reach people like this so often, she wouldn't relent in her attack.. though she had to give the man a chance to respond, he had been more reasonable, even if there was rarely a way back once they started to disregard the value of other people.

Where Deva came from, epic magic could be set to trigger under specific circumstances. Simply said, when Deva shattered a mirror, there was more than a streak of bad luck to worry about.

 

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"Well if you're eyes make people nervous then we can get you some nice contact lenses so that they work with the whole outfit that we can make. I can see it now, it'll look GORGEOUS!" The man spoke, his mind running wild on the idea of getting her a much better outfit and look, having the image in his head already, like a painter looking at a blank canvas for them to create art. And in his mind, fashion was the purest form of art that one could ever work on, so he was the greatest artist in the entire world!

"You look at perfection all wrong. Once you're perfect and know it for a fact, it's no longer about looking inward at yourself, it's about showing how much better you are than everyone else. And from there you work on trying to bring others as close as you possibly can to your own perfection." The cloaked man would explain further, figuring that it was now his job to properly work to make everyone else better than they were. Personally he felt that was the true benevolent thing to do, make people better and far more fashionable whether they wanted to or not. If they didn't want to become prettier like he intended, then he'd just find a way to make them more fashionable... while at the same time making them appreciate his beauty and perfection. "Perfection is not a curse, it is your opportunity to show off AND at the same time change other people in some way."

"There are stubborn people all the time, my dear. So many will refuse to acknowledge perfection because it makes them completely jealous. No matter how wonderful you are, some people just refuse to understand."

"You can sit around and tell me that you're not a hero and all that... but you stop the villains, you keep them from doing whatever they want, and care far too much about certain moral certainties and helping those in need and all that foolishness..." Though he was actually surprised that she considered a cloaked woman that cared for love to be better than a group that wanted to actively GIVE her more power. "And you care so much about these pathetic slimes and their 'love', I don't understand why it should matter in the slightest. You and 'Mistress' care far too much about that pathetic bull. There's no reason to value something that you can't even see, we could offer you so much more, give you dozens of stories to rule over, and yet you decide that you value 'love' of a couple of damn slimes that don't matter in the greater scheme of things. It's such a shame, as you could do so much to advance our plans, and yet you just choose this..." As someone that cared far more about his own power, and the power that he could gain to properly change the world, he didn't like that someone else would willingly throw that chance away just for the sake of love.

"Wait what?!" He'd shout in surprise as Deva told him that there was something out of place in his appearance, taking the mirror and immediately checking over his appearance, no longer paying attention to the conversation at hand as he tried to find and fix whatever he perceived to be wrong.

Unfortunately for Azalea, she was far too exhausted to be able to do much in response to Deva, especially now that she had a way to not end up breathing in any more of her pollen. "Apologize all you want you fool... You are like all the rest, acting as though you care about the damage that you do to nature, and then the moment that it becomes convenient to you, you just destroy it all over again! You may not be human... but you are just as bad as every single one of them." She'd manage to get out, trying to smack the hand brushing her cheek away in anger as she continued to think nothing but hateful thoughts when it came to humans.

Then she looked around at the strange illusory world that she found herself in, she tried to get at Deva before she suddenly disappeared, and now she was either inside some type of illusion, or she was in some sort of other story, both were distinct possibilities considering the things that she had already seen. And then she saw the world around her, civilization crumbling beneath the might of nature as it reclaimed all that belonged to it. She'd look around at what was pure beauty to her, smiling as she saw culture being destroyed, as she saw vengeance for the abuse inflicted, it was what she considered the perfect world. It spoke to her, all the way to her very core, it was as though her very purpose was being fulfilled right before her, a paradise of which she would've given so much just to be able to see. And now she saw all of it, taking in this world with her eyes, her mind wanting to believe it to be completely real, and thus easily believing that nothing strange had happened, and that somehow she was brought into a world that was completely real. "This... This is absolutely wonderful..." She'd mutter to herself, looking around and smiling some more as she took in nature's beauty, and its malice and vengeance all in one shot.

For a brief moment, it would seem as though the cloaked man had missed most of her speech, instead looking over his own appearance, just worrying about all of that, before he'd stop for a moment to speak. "I live my dream every single day, because I am my dream, being as perfect as I am, that is my true dream. Everything else is irrelevant to me, and as such, I merely do that which is best for me. Whether that means putting millions under my boot so that they can be a more pleasing sight to me, or anything else that might entail, I will do that without a trace of regret. True beauty only exists in one person, ME. I am True Beauty, that is a fact of life. You can lecture me about beauty all that you wish, but you are wrong. Simply put, I am beauty, I am the standard set for complete and utter perfection. And as such, I am better than you and everyone else in these stories, which means that all I do is justified. Simply by the fact that I am perfect, everything that I do is perfect, and so anyone that dares to defy me is merely standing in the way of perfection. You may sit there and act as though I am the evil one, but you are the one that tries to put an end to my beauty." Then he'd suddenly stand up straight, turn to face Deva and hold the mirror a bit tighter.

"A spell on the mirror is clever, might I add, though it won't work. Now I believe that we are done here, and no, I WILL NOT stop at any point, for this is exactly what I desire out of life. So thank you for all of this, but I believe that I have a few reports to give to both my boss and my 'Mistress'. Thank you for the mirror though, I believe I'll keep this one..." And suddenly the mirror would disappear from his hands, warping to a pocket dimension that he kept his beauty products in, like his own type of bag of holding. However, he needed to commandeer a huge dimension for all of his products, but the good thing was that the dimension would also nullify any magic spells placed on it, leaving his products completely immune to any attempts at using magic on them. "I concede defeat to you, Deva, for you have defeated Azalea, so this story of yours is a victory. I congratulate you, but now I must be going, we both have work to do, after all." He'd shift his cloak around a bit, allowing an opening in the back to fly open and reveal a large, pure white pair of angel wings. THIS was an angel? "Enjoy your victory while you can. You WILL fail at some point, and we will capitalize. Farewell." And with that, he'd start flying towards the hole in the ceiling of the cave, attempting to escape from the two of them, deciding that it'd be better not to force a head on confrontation when he wasn't accompanied by his minions.

 

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Deva remained silent to the man explaining his philosophy. If you couldn't say something nice.. or manipulative, better don't say anything at all. It was certainly interesting in knowing the motivations of her opponent, but this was not someone she could simply talk sense into.

"If there are people refusing to acknowledge you, you are not perfect yet." She finally insisted. "Who says I ever wanted to rule. I'm rubbish at ruling." She could say that one with full confidence. She tried being in charge, it annoyed her at best.

"You are wrong, by the way, Azalea. Remember when I earlier mentioned I like walking bare-feeted? I like to feel the ground below me.. and I don't like trampling on the flowers below me." The angel shrugged, letting this be her parting words.

"You poor, beautiful, misguided creature." She shrugged at the cloaked man as well. "Beauty is not measured by how we look, but by how others look at us." She sighed for a moment.. it seemed this one too, was beyond redemption.

She watched him abscond with the mirror, chuckling. "I will not fail. I would advice you do nothing and simply stop. If you manipulate your proclaimed mistress with a false report, if you try to appear before me again, if you try to tell your boss what I can do, no matter what you do, you will find it will only be to your disadvantage. Because that is power. When opposing me, your best course of action is to not make that mistake and .. just stop. Both you and your boss. Stay away from me and I will let you go." Deva watched the retreating angel, waiting a few more moments, before pulling out the tome. She was not too shocked about the man being an angel.. he had used holy magic, and she had known cruel angels... "Can you be a dear and circulate the air a bit whilest you fix this story up tomey?" Deva sighed for a moment, looking at the illusory dryad in her dream-world. With no one else watching Azalea, Deva could simply let this illusion fade away.

"Just between you and me tomey, this is what I am too good at." Deva sighed, looking down for a moment. "When I see an opponent, from the moment they first speak, I first look at them, I begin to comprehend, I begin to evaluate ways to defeat them. I'm, frankly, not a powerful person, not a leader, I even have a fairly submissive streak.

Oh, to be clear, I've been defeated so many times. Every defeat is a lesson that can make you stronger, after all..
But I've never, ever, been stopped. Is this what perfection feels like? I don't like it. Once, long ago, many years ago I could still be afraid of defeat, worry about my future. But in the end, even if I discard my godly powers, even if I cut what is remaining in half or more, I just end up struggling more before I win, and worse, endangering other people. But perfection.. perfection means nothing rmains, you have reached the absolute you can be. Am I a hero, or am I just challenging the cloaked one because, for a change, there is a set of powers I don't even understand? Yet, as soon as I face such a danger, I make dozens and dozens of plans to deal with them. I guess, I am quite relieved to see she is not beyond redemption, the cloaked one that is. Still, I don't like what she's doing.

Perhaps she might understand.

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" Deva sighed. "Everyone around me seems to want power. Even the cloaked one. I just want enough power to be safe, sure, but the truth about true power.. It's a heavier burden than being without power. Like moths, burning themselfs, to the flame. The burden is not to save them, never. But to save them, and know they will make mistakes, and will need saving all over.. Still, I will never stop. Do you understand, even a little bit?" She shook her head, looking.. hopeful at the tome, pleading, almost.
"I don't want to win, or defeat anyone. I just want to keep everyone safe from the misery I've felt and the hard part is not even doing it over, and over and over again. The hard part is, that knowing, every time, how futile it all is. Yet you have to keep going, because thats the right thing to do." She reaffixed the jewelry, her eyes looking old.. older than anything but gods , the most persistant of undead and ancient dragons. "And still, theres nothing I'd rather spent my time doing. Do you understand what I'm saying Tomey, when my enemies speak of futility and failure, I always almost have to laugh. The centuries haven't stopped me, futility itself hasn't held me back, how do you plan to change my mind?" She chuckled, sighing again for a moment. She didn't like boasting. She didn't like showing her weakness, to anyone. Calmly, she put her hat back on as well.

"And do you know why I still do it? Because of Mulj and Limone. Because of Isa. Because I like seeing good people happy. Because when I see them love, I can remember." She shrugged, with only the dazed Isa about and the current conflict provoking her to question the concepts her foes had presented, she allowed her expression to show just how tired she felt deep inside, focusing on Isa for a few moments, closing her eyes, her expression shifting to that silly smile she wore most of the time.

"Oi oi! Wakey upey!" She poked Isa in the tummy. "You spore'd out on me. Dun worry, those plants are one visit by Mulj or Limone short of being prettied up. I took care of the dryad, the cloaked one, an angel, retreated. Took my mirror with him, meanaboo, but then again, perhaps the next story has another mirror for me. You felt like we should return after the third? Eh, I say, we give another one a try, then go peek perhaps." She nodded, focusing on her tomey, but generously allowing it: "Take your time, Isa needs to recover a bit too. Infact.." Deva focused for a few moments, creating a mental projection to travel through stories with.. this one looked like a giant hammock, with Deva lying back in it, once entering it, and giving goo-world a generous wave.

"Let's have a good rest, between stories, should be safe, right, tomey? I want to recover a bit, and, many of my powers I can't use again within 24 hours, should at least chop some of that recovery time off. Plus, the spell I tried to research wont work if there are.. traitorous ones among them.." She mused, looking at Isa.

"Oh, right.. before I forget. Don't worry about you succumbing. What matters is that you lasted a bit longer this time. Every defeat teaches out a lesson of strength and.. stuff like that." She nodded. "I'll take centerstage again this time.. I was hoping that, maybe.. you had a way to deal with the dryad without me needing to. Oh well. Perhaps we should also train your spell-shaping a bit, theres no such thing as impossible. Impossible is short for 'I haven't come up with another sollution for this yet'." Deva shrugged, then smiled, encouragingly. "Anyway, unless theres objections I recommend we both rest and recover a bit, whilest tomey takes the time to find another story. Oh.. perhaps you can listen in on some chit chat in the planning room again as well, record it for us? I suspect the angel will do his report with less witnesses though. Theres something about lying before witnesses that makes people cautious." She mused.

 

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The Tome would begin to cause a very controlled gust of wind to flow through the cave, sending the pollen out and bringing some new air in to help clean it all up. As it did so, it began to obtain the energy from fixing up the story, removing any remaining damage and gaining some more energy from doing that. So within a few moments, the pollen would have dispersed into the air as well as drained out of the cave through the entrance and out through the top of the cave. It would take a little more time to properly fix this one, however, as there were a few more factors in play, and it wanted to 'repair' it in a way that would allow the few changes that had already taken place to be worked into factors of the story. Whereas before, Mulj and Limona would not declare their love until Limona saved the pink slime, now the two would be happily in love before the villain of the story kidnapped Mulj, and Limona goes to save her true love. That way, the events would stay largely the same, just with a slight alteration to the actual motivations of two of the major characters.

The Tome would listen to Deva for a bit before it responded to her in some form, on that same page that it had chosen earlier for conversations between itself and Deva. "That's... part of the reason that I chose you. Of everyone that could handle something like this, you were the best choice I could have ever found. You are the only one that I thought might put me on a shelf or a table after this is all over, the only one that would NOT use me after this is all over. You are good enough to try again and again and again no matter how disappointing things might get once you have to do it all again. Something like that wears away at people, but that is why you are not a hero, but not a villain either. You are one that does good, you are not just a part of a story, not just a character, you are Deva. I am not even entirely sure how to describe you, but you are more than the villains and heroes. Heroes and villains are concepts... and you sit outside of them. But rather than doing evil and trying to use that to your own advantage you choose to do good. You have so much conflict within you... and yet... rather than becoming bitter after all you've seen... you just keep going and pressing on. You are incredible... and my only regret was that I had to put such a large responsibility on you rather than someone such as Isa, or The Serpent, or anyone else." It would write, giving Deva more information about what had happened, and showing that it actually had a choice about who it would allow to wield it, and after seeing her story, it believed that Deva was the absolute best choice for something like this.

"You are not a hero... you are not a villain... you are something so much more." The Tome would finish, speaking from what could be considered its 'heart' to Deva. But other than that, it wouldn't have all that much to say without a response from her.

When Isa was poked, she'd jump with a start and shake her head a bit, the pollen wearing off quickly now that she got some fresh air and because no one was there to give her commands. "Huh?! Oh geez what? Oh... I fell into it again? Damn..." She'd say, blushing now that she had failed at this all over again, wishing that she could focus through those kinds of things rather than just fall to those types of powers. "An angel? Well you're the first angel that I've ever met... and if you're any indication then I'm not looking forward to running into that guy again." Deva was a frightening example of an angel, and Isa didn't have any proof that others weren't as intelligent and powerful as she was, so the thought of that really worried her. Plus she was vaguely curious as to how an angel could be evil, from what she had heard they were usually paragons of virtue and kindness rather than someone that you'd find doing something that evil. "Hey, like I said, you're in charge of this whole thing. If you think it's best to keep going for a little while longer then that's completely fine by me. Besides, it'd be great to come back and be able to tell them that we've gone through and repaired four whole stories." She'd say, smiling a bit halfheartedly, still a little bummed that she had been so easily controlled yet again.

Her Tome would go into a sort of 'power saving' mode, not searching as urgently for the next story so that it could give Deva time to rest for a little bit, and so that it would be able to conserve more of its power before heading into the next story. "Yeah, I'm starting to feel pretty low on energy too, so a bit of time would be great so I can get my own energy back as well. That fight really took it out of me... I forgot just how much more powerful Her followers become... Normally plant based stuff is really easy to handle, but that was a lot tougher."

"Thanks... I'm sorry though... You trusted me to handle this one and I blew it." She would take the idea of learning from this experience to heart, making note to first of all think more creatively when faced with opponents, and to practice much better control of her ice constructs. "Yeah, practicing my ice magic might be much more helpful. As I am now, that hole in the ceiling really exceeds the limits of my powers, and last time I tried something a little smaller than even that I nearly passed out." She had done a little bit of training in the Lands in Between, learning the limits of her current skills, and figuring out what she could do with a bit of focus.

The Tome, for it's part, would write something new in its page to talk with Deva when asked if it could spy in on the meeting room. "________ is still within her Tome, I was unable to locate her energy. And as such I couldn't do anything involving her base... However, after encountering one of them, I can do something else for you... One moment..." There'd be another energy shift before Deva would hear a familiar male voice, as well as a female voice that she had heard from the larger meeting. "I had thought that she would understand the amount of power that she could gain from joining us... Unfortunate." "Plus we lost Azalea to her... With how few there are of us, I didn't want to lose someone that was slightly useful." "It's not as costly as you might think... She may have been useful, but at least now the angel knows of our existence... Hiding in the shadows to 'Mistress' is beneficial to us... But her, I want her to know that we exist. Return to your story and act as though nothing had happened. I will do the same. Oh, and try to relay orders that our number one goal is to flee if she's about to defeat us... From there we can just let her slowly take out our opposition one by one until we can take 'Mistress' all on our own." And then the voices would cut out, the Tome unable to keep that kind of thing going for all too long, especially when it didn't have the energy of another Tome to lock on to.

 

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Deva allowed her tome ample time it needed to fix, she was content not getting as much 'juice' from a story proper run.

"Oh you chose me now? Next you'll tell me the other tome is your mommy, or long lost step-brother. There can't be too many of you with this kind of power." She chuckled slightly. "Glad you are happy being put on a shelf though. Heh. Nice tomey. And I keep telling people.. I'm Deva. Nothing more, nothing less. People have tried to slap dozens of titles on me, some flattering, some not. Highpriestess, The Wings of Hope, Arch-bishop, Chaotic menace. Hero of the Eladrin. Chicken wings. She who fluffs furiously. The Twilight Angel. One of these I just made up, can you guess it?" She chuckled. "And I'd rather deal with this myself than have Serp or Isa do it. They might fail. As for not doing evil, its easy, really, I don't need power, or any advantages. I need.... strawberry lemonade." Deva nodded, decisively. "Try to find a story where they have strawberries."

"Oh dun worry, I can deal with the other angel. Angels are just like people, coming in all shapes and sizes. I'm actually what you'd call a strong-blooded Aasimar, not a real angel." Deva clarified.

"Interesting." Deva mused, looking at Isa. "So the dryad seemed powerful to you." She tilted her head. "She was rather one or two trick only, just needed to come up with a way to deal with her pollen. Here is the thing Isa, Imagine the dryad as a mountain. Climbing on top of it to get past her, or tunneling through is quite the challenge. But thats why you usually go around a mountain. Or find a pass. No mountain is unclimbable. Consider how you'd fight an opponent that is immune to ice. Blasting them with ice will never work, but if you stay calm, you realize, that your ice could still create prisons or sharp edges, and because of their immunity, they might grow careless." Deva explained.

"For example." Deva presented one of her feathers. "If you look at it up close, you'll see that it doesn't cover the entire surface, by no means, instead, it has little interhooking segments with a lot of space in between. Exactly.. like a snowflake." She smiled. "You don't have to create solid ice-walls, infact, solid objects are often easier to break through. Only reason to create a completely solid barrier is if you want to black out gasses or the like. To block most attacks, it would be enough if you create an interlocking, tiny mesh. Sure, it takes more focus, but less ice. If the amount of ice you can use is limited, you can't make a wall and an attack, but using this method, perhaps you could?" Deva suggested.

Deva looked at her tome, and leaned back in the hammock, chuckling, closing her eyes now. "Enough. Don't waste your energy, I was curious if there'd be any puns on the opposing side, but this is.. eh... I already anticipated this as the most likely course of action." She mused. "I wonder if the cloaked one recognizes this pattern. But if not, I already made a couple of plans to deal with the ursurpers." Deva mused. "Good chance to teach a little more, Isa!" Deva waved her over.:

"Imagine, I knew that a certain group of nasty folks were preparing to defeat the cloaked one, attempting to use me as a pawn to take out some of her folks, to prepare to strike at her at a moment of weakness. I have ample opportunity to warn her and frankly, these ursupers sound even worse. Why do I simply go along with things?" She asked, before preparing to have herself a nice nap, crossing her arms behind her, trusting in tomey to wake her up after some recovery.. and finding a story.

 

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"Indeed I did choose you. You were the only one that I felt could be trusted with this kind of magic... Many, when allowed to go outside the bounds of their own story, decide that they should use that power for personal gain and against those within their story, but you are one that doesn't want power the way others do... which unfortunately makes you the best person to HAVE power." The Tome would further explain, using the same logic that people often had when it came to leaders. When you didn't want to lead, when you didn't want to be incredibly powerful, it often meant that you'd make better choices once you were thrust into that scenario. "There used to be many more of us, thousands of us all over the place. But war is a terrible thing, and it becomes even worse when thousands wage war with weapons that could level an entire universe if they so wished. Myself and ________'s Tome are hold overs from that war, and I do not know if her Tome is in any way related to me." It would write, giving Deva some insight into what it had faced in the past, as well as another thing that it had in common with Deva, a distaste for war. "As for the made up title... 'She who Fluffs Furiously' sounds like the most likely. Otherwise I'm not sure. I suppose I could try looking into your story to check, but that'd just be cheating, and unfair considering that you deserve your privacy if you want it." The Tome from there would return to fixing the story properly, making sure that the changed flowers could still be worked in to everything, and making sure that Limona and Mulj's early found love would still work well with the structure and adventure that Limona was going to have to go on to save the one that she cared about.

"Got it... angels much like people but with super big looking wings and a strange propensity for wearing loads and loads of white clothing." Isa would note with a joking smile, glad that she wasn't going to have to fight one as clever as Deva. That would've been something that would worry her more than anything she'd run into so far, as seeing what Deva could do was sometimes incredible.

Then the ice mage would listen carefully to Deva's advice, you didn't need to scale the mountain, you just had to go around it. So you needed to come up with clever solutions to deal with things that normally seemed completely impossible to you. Instead of just trying to figure it out the regular way, you could save time and effort by being more clever about it, even if it meant it would take a little bit more work or precision. "I think I get what you're saying there. I'll try to do the whole 'interlocking pattern' thing once I get some energy back, but it SHOULD be possible. That'd save a good amount of ice, but would also require a lot more concentration. Like I said, precision is a little more difficult. That's actually really clever... if that works it'd save me a whole lot of energy in lots of scenarios. Plus I could adjust how wide the gaps are in the interlocking pattern depending on the situation, saving even more if I don't need it to be all that solid... Hmmm..." Well it seemed that she was thinking of how to make that work, her own creativity going off now that she had a few ideas to work with and ways that it could save her more and more magical energy.

"If I had to guess... It's one of two things. Since you already said that the Cloaked Woman is 'better' than the little side group going on, then it could just be that you don't think that they'll succeed in their attempt. There's no major need to stop them if you think that the Cloaked Woman would be able to easily deal with them anyway. And actually you're strategy would be the same as them. Allow the two of them to end up coming into conflict with one another, thereby reducing the villains numbers without you even having to put any effort in at all. Either the Cloaked Woman stops them, or they stop the Cloaked Woman, either way you end up having to deal with less enemies. It's either that, or you plan on letting it continue on because it means that YOU actually have the most information in this entire scenario. The traitorous group knows some, but not much, and the Cloaked Woman actually knows the least in this entire scenario, leaving us with the most information out of all of us?" She'd suggest, before getting herself into a comfortable position as well, taking some time to rest and get her magic back while the Tome searched for the next story, also trying to find one with strawberries at the request of Deva, which meant things would take a little more time. But they both needed a rest anyway, so there wasn't much need to be fast about finding it.

 

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"Power can't give you a peaceful life." Deva answered the tome, closing her eyes for a moment. "So a war leading to your near extiction and yet you pick up arms against the last of your kind, becaue you have to. I guess you do understand. Well, lets see if I'll have to use you at all, beyond fixing things, that is. I usually like to hold back in such matters, but I'll make an exeption for you.. and the other in-between stuck folks. This is the first dire challenge I face in quite a while, wouldn't do to have you simply present a sollution. Just make sure you got my back if I do miss-calculate, make the damaged stories amazing again and I'll be happy.

Also, ugh, an army of bookworms. Only mages would come up with that as a weapon." She chuckled, then added: "Heh, yep, you got it, I tried to impress that fluffy title upon others, but made up titles don't count as much, I guess. Was worth a try..

Do you know why I created the dream-triplet of spells? It was because I wanted the power to go beyond conventional healing. That lead me to modify reality itself and that, in the end, prepared me for my role as deity. A role I didn't accept in the end. My point is.. I could say sorry what happened to you and your.. err.. race? But I can't help you.. Infact, I guess, you don't want there to be help, eh?" She looked at the tome. A war that could tear realities apart. Strange she had never heard about it, but in a way, not suprising. She had been more narrow minded in her youth. Still, such power couldn't be allowed to return.

Deva then focused on the awakening Isa, chuckling. "I.. don't -think- the white is a general thing, but lots of angels like it, yeah, it's like.. fashionable. You tell me how many devils and demons like to wear black, eh." She chuckled. "And demonic cultists. Seriously, you show me the demonic cult that wears beige or rose colored robes. I swear, I'll tell you my secret origin or something."

"I experimented with green and purple but white's just.. the thing to wear." She had a bit of a fashionable streak herself.

"Concentration is easy to train, plus, you established the limits of your ice, not the limits of your concentration. I know some excellent focus-exercises, a fair amount of which even allows you to keep your clothes on." She grinned slightly.

"Yep, the beauty of a mesh of magic is you can easily modulate it to make webs or nets along the way as well. To be clear, there are people that can use raw power too, but I've only ever met one mage that could tap into limitless reserves, so deeper control is usually the way to go." She nodded, letting Isa ponder about her suggestion with a relaxed smile.

"There are three principles of magical teachings. The principle of power, the principle of control, and the one that unifies both, the principle of simplicity. Most people forget about it, I'd not blame Serp for not telling you.. or whoever else taught you about your abilities. It basically says that the more pure your magic is, the easier it is to use. In your case, the purest form of ice-magic is a single snowflake. Ever looked at them up close.. eh. A lesson that can only be experienced, not taught, perhaps you'll come to understand what I mean some day." Deva stretched, puffing up her wings as makedo blankets, listening to Isas guessing.

"A good answer, you employed the ninth theorem of a general, watch the fires burning across the river, teaching one to let enemies fight among one another and think I might consider the fourth theorem, Relax as the enemy exhausts themselfs. Which needs me to always be one step ahead.
True, the least likely outcome I consider is these two factions weakening another, the most likely, the Mistress overcoming her ursupers, I think her servants get it backwards, you know, she isn't extraordinary because she has a tome, she has a tome because she is extraordinary. Take away the tome, she might still be as.. resourceful as me. It could all be a double deception. Or perhaps I overthink it, and she is indeed reliant on the Tome. Then again, if she was reliant on the tomes power, would she so willingly share it with others?

Either way, you are almost correct. The Strategy I seek to employ is the Xanatos gambit." The angel tipped her chin. "Silly names aside, do you want to know the key to victory?" Deva smiled. "Not losing.

The Xanatos gambit is employed if you dare think yourself smart enough to anticipate ~every~ move your opponents might make and maneuvering circumstances in such a way that every outcome ultimately benefits you." She explained.

"Consider the three possible main outcomes of a clash of the two factions. Possibility one: Both weaken another severly. I step in to take advantage of the weakened ones, I win. The Tome-user overpowers the usurpers. She is now weakened by the attack on her, my chance to strike. I win. The ursurpers overcome the tome-user. They now have a power they have little understanding of, compared to me or the tomes prior wielder. I win.
But theres one more thing. Not only do we know more about our enemies, they know less about us than when things started. That is because people like to put other people into these little corners, make them wear signs. 'you are the hero' 'you are the villain' It makes it easier for us to understand people, anticipate what they will do.. it gives us control and everyone likes a bit of control over what they are doing. So! All we have to do is.. fulfill expectations. Act like the classical heroes that liberate the opressed and punish evildoers. Fight fairly and honorable .. and they'll never expect us to cheat later on. Because they're watching us. Because they expect they can anticipate us. Follow these expectations, only to crush them.. and you'll end up creating chaos. And theres only ever been one person that could utilize utter chaos on the battlefield to her full advantage. Aand I think I chatted about enough.. you'll figure out the rest yourself!" Deva cheered, lazing about.

Deva could doze exeptionally well. True sleep.. that took time. Also, more pillows, but it was exhausting just.. imagining things into being, even using the tome as transport vessel. Deva would finally fall into an uneasy rest, letting her own magic recover. Whilest normal spells recovered within a proper nights rest, the dream-magic she had imprinted upon herself for emergencies was too powerful to fully recover in such an amount of time, but she was unafraid to advance through a story without such spells. Inwardly, she analyzed what she knew and understood of the situation.
The tomes were independent. Meaning, the one the mistress had chosen had chosen her for a reason as well. She did seem to have an extremist vision, clearly caring for her servants, even if they failed. That, to Deva hinted that she didn't need to be destroyed.. but, she still had to be stopped. For the 52 stories. There was also an arrogant disregard that kept Deva on guard.
The ursurping faction was a different matter. They were a testament to the cloaked one allowing indepence in her servants, a good thing, yet also a clear lack of judgement for how wicked her servants could be, a bad thing to counterbalance it. The two members Deva had seen, and motivations she had heard made things easy for her at least. These people were monsters, and as monsters, they'd be dealt with. They seemed to have a misconception about good people. If they sought to opress and hurt others, Deva would use any means necessary to eliminate the threat they posed. Disliking to hurt or worse, kill others, didn't mean you were bad at it. To the contrary. Deva had destroyed more undead, demons and abberations than many more well known heroes in shining armor. 'If I had your brother, the Lord Knight as enemy, I'd draw my blade and grit my teeth' The Black-shield had said to her once. 'But you as enemy? I'd just run.' Deva smiled slightly, as her eyes closed in a deeper slumber, thinking of a blonde man with pronounced, angelic features and eyes as blue as hers, if lacking the glaring penetration hers had. An argument of two good hearted angel-bloods, one half angel, the other.. Deva, about the nature of goodness and how to best represent it:

"You can do so much, you have no need for lies and deception. Surely, you can be good without such, sister?" "I can, but, surely, you can be good without polishing your armor for half an hour each morning, yet you do it anyway."
"Firstly, I polish my armor for an hour total, including my sword admittedly. Secondly, true and I gues the point you attempt to allude to is that just like my armor, your lies are a means of protection? Certainly, the truth makes for a stronger shield of your cause."
"Yep and just like it'd be silly to run up to shake hands with a couple o' liches without your armor, I ain't going to chat people up without my.. armor. As for your truth and whatevers, well you like a glittering full plate, I like a soft dress, we each do what we are good at." "You speak true, still, I would welcome you trying my way. A ... glittering armor has advantages." "Like what?" "Where I to shake a liches hand, their twisted husk would crumble under divine judgement at my mere touch. Plus, no one bumps into you." "Eh, I see the bumping thing, but the problem with crumbling liches is, you still gotta find their phylacterice. I'd rather shake their hand, talk about necromancy, explore their secret lair, steal that special gem-necklace they are super-protective about, put it up a gold-wyrms butthole." "Sister! We are within the temple, certainly this is not the only approach to dealing with the wicked undead, as impressive as your ... creativity may be." "Yeah, good point, Gold Dragons can be a bit.. touchy about this. Hmnn, I wonder if you could build..." Devas thoughts grew more fuzzy as she fell asleep fully, after a good rest, or if awakened suddenly she'd stretch, and look at her tome, cheerfully inquiering: "Are we there yet?"

 

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"Whether they are the VERY last of my kind or not, ________'s Tome is doing terrible things, so I need to do something to stop it, whatever I possibly can. I wish to do good... and so I will help you in anything that you need if it's to stop Her. And I promise you that I have your back, I promise that I'll do everything in my power to help, especially if things go wrong with all of this. The only thing I ask in return is to be left on a bookshelf when this is all over, maybe read once and a while, but not used again. Unless there is something endangering all stories all over again, I just wish to have a peaceful place to relax." That was all it really wanted, once this was done it just wanted some peace. It had seen war and destruction, seen its entire race wiped out from senseless fighting, and was now completely prepared to fight one of the few that were left. After all of that it just wanted to be able to sit down and rest for a while. In many ways, it sympathized with some of the desires that Deva had, it just wanted some peace, nothing more than a place where it had no need to fear that conflict would be waiting just around the corner, a place where it didn't need to struggle against something in an attempt to protect the innocence. But right now that wasn't important, right now it had to help Deva, and it was more than prepared to do that as it searched for the next story they'd be going into.

"If you'd like me to refer to you as 'She who Fluffs Furiously', then I will. Actually, I still haven't been completely sure what to call you. I am not sure if you prefer 'Miss' or 'Deva' or 'Ma'am'... It would help a little if I knew how you'd prefer me to address you." It was more than happy to oblige with whatever title its wielder preferred.

There'd be a few moments where the Tome wouldn't write anything, when Deva said that there was no way for her to help it and its problems, as though it was thinking over how to respond to that. "Years ago I might have asked for help, but now I know it isn't something so easily done. What has happened has happened, there is nothing more that we can do about it. Instead I will do what I can to keep peace and protect others, help to build a better future instead of living in the past. And then at some point I hope that I can stop and rest, and maybe even be happy. But even if none of that is possible, I will still help as much as I can."

"I mean, I suppose I'm not exactly one to talk at the end of the day, eh? Ice mage wearing white and a very light blue, sounds just as common as angels wearing white and cultists wearing dark and brooding colors. Maybe we should get disguises that completely change that look. You wear some type of dark black, I wear some fiery orange, and that way people will see us and be like 'It's a fallen angel and a fire mage' and completely get our powers wrong... Speaking of disguises... I think I can get this off now..." She'd clear up her dress of the adorable slime picture, despite her enjoyment of the cute look, she preferred her normal outfit if she had the choice.

"See... I'd have never thought of using my magic like that... I'll take concentration lessons though, as long as my clothes stay on the whole time... Just cause you keep grabbing my boobs doesn't mean you just get to see them..." She'd say with a laugh, wanting to be better at using her magic even without the impending threat of whatever the heck was coming in these stories. Though that certainly helped inspire her to go further and learn more, to get even better to try and be an actual help against the Cloaked Woman rather than a hindrance. "Limitless reserves sounds like it'd be incredible to see though... I could just keep firing off ice bolts and creating ice walls and stuff without even having to measure myself... Then again, it might also make me lazier and more reliant on that kind of thing, so who knows?" The ice mage would shrug, figuring that unlimited power was never all that it was cracked up to be. People generally always wanted more, but once they finally had it, they didn't even know what to do with it. Deva's words made sense to her, when you got strong enough things actually might end up just being a bit boring, you always knew you'd win so what was the point of winning in the first place.

"Well, I'm not sure what a lot of those things mean, but I figured that logically, the way things were going, you'd win no matter what possibility came up. Smart plan if you ask me... though part of me worries about what might happen if she takes all that power back from her traitorous agents. She'd get loads stronger, and they'd be even less of a problem for her to deal with. But she'd still need to deal with them, which would in the end cost her some time and energy." Though she would agree that they had chatted enough, and would need to take some time to rest herself. Still, all of this had been quite a learning experience for her, and allowed her to hone her skills and her mind even further. She had the ambition to get better, the drive to do things right, and the desire to help others that further drove her to become better at everything, to better protect them.

Once Deva woke up, the Tome would begin writing once again, having found a word that was suitable, and definitely needed some repairing. "I have indeed found us another story that we may travel to." And it'd help her get into this next story, once again needing to be inside to be able to write any sort of information about the world. Deva and Isa would find themselves in a plant filled area, with green grass and strawberry vines with juicy looking strawberries. In the distance she'd see a busy looking town with regular people walking around and talking to others, an average busy day. The Tome would write another one of its summaries of the world they had gotten into, giving as much insight as it could just from being there.

"Before I begin, I recommend picking those strawberries, as this place is about to freeze over in 10 minutes. This land sits between two goddesses, a goddess of flames living in one mountain, and a goddess of frost living in a different mountain. The two of them work together, in order to keep a balance for the people living in the middle nation, giving them wonderful weather for most of the year, under the agreement that for one month in the year there will be strong cold, and for one month in the year there will be strong heat. Strangely enough... neither of those times are right now. However, I sense an extremely strong wave of ice coming in from the west, where the Frost Goddess resides. Apparently the Goddesses are more meant to be a background piece of the world, this sudden wave of frost is... different. The story is actually meant to be about a political plot involving several houses in the capital, as multiple houses have old alliances and reasons to despise one another. Otherwise, the people here are much like the ones in your story. They are used to the idea of magic, though they aren't used to angels at all, considering that their deities only use the powers of heat and cold, instead of angels." And just as the Tome said, after about 10 minutes, the air would grow severely cold, snow would begin to fall, and the people in the town would look extremely confused before rushing inside to their fireplaces, not having expected that kind of cold in between the two extreme months.

 

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"Deal. I think I even know just the shelf, but thats a long road down. Either way, our wishes are in accord." Deva would have chuckled at tomey. "Just Deva. No Ma'am or miss or anything of respect. Though if you can come up with a fluffy title every once in a while, that's quite fine too!" She nodded.

"Geesh though, you sound like me. No wonder I rarely speak seriously." She shook her head, letting tomey do its thing after her commentary.

"Exactly!" Deva pointed at Isa about her color scheme. "Just missing the little spikey snow-flake crown for completion!.. oh and, good point on the disguises, wont work on her servants, but in the right world, we may just do that, yes." She nodded, chuckling at the cleaning, giving an innocent grin about the booby comment. "Concentration lessons is basically you do your thing whilest I try to distract you, nude gropings is an effective way to learn it,.. considering our enemy. But its fine if you want to start with something more.. sombre."

"Limitless reserves hold a curse of their own. Imagine you struggled to turn off the ice. It can be deadly, for others, or even yourself." Deva shrugged, thinking back to a meeting long ago. "Plus, having the ice influence you so throughoutly might change your attitude somewhat, making you calm, cool, even cold hearted to some."

"If she takes the power back from her agents that means less problems to deal with. Plus, well, you'd think such a power transfer is something very specific. You'd need something like.. a tome of your own to try and siphon it off.. eh?" She winked.

And then, they were in a new world, and Deva grinned, immediatly picking a few strawberries and munching on them. "I like this one, lets spent some more time here." She suggested, before checking out the tomes entry, nodding to Isa.

"Way ahead of you. Godesses?" Deva read on, energy coalescing around her, as she hid her angelic apperance, to be something more mundane and human looking, like a simple human mage perhaps. "World for you, Isa. Tomey, can you get a picture of the holy symbol or outfits Ice-deities priests use for Isa?" Deva mused.

"Sudden frost, disturbing the balance of the world, but I don't think the deities themselfs are being manipulated directly. Deities are notoriously hard to trick. Notoriously dangerous to trick. Furthermore, they have a vested interest in their worlds. You think you lost a lot losing your story? A deity is part of the essence of a story. Remember the Dryad, an avatar of natures vengeance? Sounds like a pretty big deal, yet, if you could hold your breath proper, you would propably have dealt with her, and that was -after- the empowerement the cloaked one gave her. If this had been in -her- story, we'd propably have fought the land and forest itself.

So I don't believe deities themselfs are being tricked here. Their followers.. thats another thing.. Tomey, assumption: One or two of the noble houses has closer ties to the frost-godess, the other to the fire godess?" Deva mused, looking ahead towards the city.

"To find the source of the frost, don't look at the frost itself. Look at who has something to gain from it." Deva nodded, rushing her strawberry harvest, until the coldsnap came, though despite being bare-footed and not wearing much, below the more covering illusory dress, Deva didn't seem to feel this basic cold overly, perhaps a side-effect of her angelic blood, as she prepared to head towards the city, taking in the architecture and listening to her companions. "So we are going to investigate this sudden cold, as proper representatives." She then hesitated, chuckling, nodding to herself.

"You know what, thinking about it, theres a fair chance they would not tell an ice priest alone everything, plus perhaps this world has a dual representative to keep with the coexisting balance thing.. " She mused, her form shimmering as she adjusted her spell, chanting. "Let me guess, holy symbol is a flame. Fire mages have a one track mind. Most definitly a ruby.. red sash.. oh, I know, I'll be a guy for a change. Lets use Rashas face again." Deva flexed slightly, her hair darkening, her appearance becoming slightly more muscular, until with a sleek grin she proclaimed:

Spoiler

"There we go... hold on, voice.. Hello. Hello.

She flexed her jaw. "Hello, I'm Rasha C. Undon, keeper of the flame of life.. my fire magic you ask? Certainly you know I can't really use it whilest the cold ladies embrace grips these lands." Deva shifted to Isa, giving her a conspiratorial wink. "Hello~ Lady! Call me Rasha. Or Rash.. wait... dang it, don't call me that, I wanted it to sound smooth, no wonder he didn't want any nicknames. Huh. Anyway! Ready to.. go exploring?"

 

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The Tome would take a moment or so before one of its pages would glow for a bit, before revealing an intricate design, looking like a snowflake made of steel rather than ice. It was the religious symbol of the Frost Goddess, intricate and beautiful, and made of steel to show strength rather than the fragility one would normally find in a regular snowflake. "Priestesses of the Frost Goddess use this symbol to distinguish themselves. However, clothing varies from priestess to priestess. Isa's clothing will be no problem, so long as she has this symbol over the heart of her clothing." It would explain, keeping those words underneath the picture, and right by it, there would be the symbol of the Flame Priests and Priestesses. It was a bursting of flame, but made of a brilliant gold, a counterpart to the iron snowflake. While the two of the symbols were seeming to contrast one another, the two groups got along quite well, normally helping each other out when the time came, since both Goddesses were seen as important parts of nature, and thus deserving of worship, they just chose different ones to worship. It would describe all of this as well, giving some more specific information and help for the two of them in case they had any need for any specific kinds of disguises.

"I suppose that makes sense. Though we did have someone in the Land Between that Serp said used to be a deity in her own story. I guess it makes sense though, they'd probably tough to trick into destroying their own stories." Isa was thankful that she didn't run into that woman in her own story then, as she was enough trouble to deal with even without the power of her story. And in fact, she couldn't even manage to beat the dryad when she was just surrounded by a few of her altered plants.

"I do believe that a few noble houses have some closer ties to one Goddess over the other. But specific names are much more difficult to find without gaining a bit of information first. I will say that most houses tend to choose one of the two Goddesses to follow more closely." The Tome would continue to explain, able to give more information now that it had more energy from another story getting fixed.

Though Isa would look on in awe as Deva changed herself to look like a man... While she was surprised at the things that Deva had done before, this was a whole other league to her. Sure it was illusion magic again, but this was something incredible to Isa, she had never seen anyone change genders, even if it wasn't a true gender change. She'd stand there, sort of just staring at 'him' for a good few moments before she could figure out what she wanted to say. "That's amazing! I didn't know that you could do something like that! Oh! Geez... Right... gotta act like you being a guy is super normal in case anyone is looking. But... wow... Alright Rasha... Let's get investigating this strange phenomenon! Good idea on why you don't use fire magic though... Makes sense!" She'd smile and get herself together so that she could pretend that Deva had always been a guy named Rasha, taking a moment to properly compose herself and get a convincing facade going.

As they walked, Deva would notice that most buildings were stone or something similar, though nearly no one were in the simple dirt streets now that a sudden cold front had swept in. There were signs that directed towards the town hall, a rather large looking building with tall wooden doors, and one that pointed towards the Frost Goddess Church and in the opposite direction the Flame Goddess Church. Both buildings were designed rather similarly, simple buildings with one floor, with a few priests and priestesses walking around and looking at the snow falling with some concern. Other than that, there was an empty market square with a bunch of shops closing down so that they could get to warmth. One shop seemed to remain open though, a shop that sold firewood. Normally they made almost no money during this time of year, except from the Flame Church. Now, the business owner was excited, as the sudden cold front meant that no one went out to gather fire wood in preparation for cold, and would therefore need to go and buy some emergency firewood from him. Though the man running the store wasn't completely heartless, so he'd put a discount on all the wood he was selling in case some people were unable to afford his normal prices. Either way, it'd be up to Deva where they'd investigate from here. Or if they wished they could leave the town and see if somewhere else would be a better plan to investigate.

 

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"Gold eh? Flamboyant priests." Deva waved a hand over her chest, recreating the symbol. "Thanks Tomey. Don't push yourself, thats enough to get us started more safely than before."

"Oh, tough doesn't mean impossible. It's just not who I'd be going for if I was a servant out for an easy story-destabilization. Even if I'm wrong, if we actually -have- to deal with a godess, the way to them is through their worshippers as well." She chuckled when Isa looked at her with amazed suprise..

"I'm rather good with illusionary magic. Doesn't hurt doesn't harm, doesn't kill. The hard thing is the voice, but its relatively easy if you use someone you've seen before. Also, got to remember to adjust your stance ever so subtly." She nodded.

"If its an issue I can be less guy-ey the next time about." She posed a bit, flirtatiously. "Now then. Remember to avoid priests of your own faith, they'll figure things out in a few minutes. For now, lets see if any of the priests seem to have an idea, or any suspicions. split up and see where we can get with things. Lets meet here again in humnn half an hour tops, oh and, try a false name, to make sure you aren't recognized by whatever agent came to these lands." Deva nodded, before turning, moving towards the frost temple. Along the way, her demeanour subtle shifted as she got into the role of Rasha, before she reached the first priest/priestess (preferable the latter), tipping one finger to her forehead, before twirling her hand downwards, into an elaborate bow.

"Hoi-oi-oi! Now thats an odd prank you'd be pulling on us!" 'He' waved a hand, a broad smile plastered over his lips. "I just arrived in town, but I'm rather sure I didn't travel for that many months and lost track, even with my beautiful companion and all that. So errr.. " He chuckled, picking up some snow, testing its quality, as if weighting it. "Did I miss something? Whats going on, anyone an idea? I'm just saying, I don't want to go back to our temple and be 'that guy from the outside' that gets asked what'd be going on, answer 'no clue' and get shouted at, aye?" He scratched the back of his neck, then, if none had any.. helpful answers for him, he added:

"Certainly, something serious must have changed while we were traveling the wildernis." With a winning smile.

 

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"I'll not push things too hard, Deva, however, I can manage quite a bit with the energy that we've already managed to gain. Reality warping is much more difficult than just getting a bit of information..." The Tome would tell her, not really needing too much unless it was doing the more flashy stuff.

"Dang... an Ice and a Fire Goddess may not be the best thing for me to face at least... One would be better with ice than me, the other would have no trouble melting anything that I threw at them." Isa would say, though she'd already be thinking of ways that she might be able to handle it just in case. Hopefully Deva was right, but there was nothing particularly wrong with having a few creative ideas ready in case there was a need for them.

"It's truly amazing though... to see that you can just make yourself look like a man if you wanted... or maybe... were you a guy the whole time? Was that another Deva trick thing? Maybe not..." She'd say, sounding really curious at this point as to what Deva could and couldn't do.

With all of that, she'd nod a few times, creating her own fake name and identity so that the other priests and priestesses didn't end up getting too suspicious of her. "See you in about half an hour, hopefully with more information about whatever is going on... Good luck with all the ice people, err... don't call them 'snowflake', if they're anything like me then they'll hate that. Or maybe they like that here... I guess there's no way to know with different stories..." She'd say, realizing that any type of advice that was true in her own world wouldn't actually help her in any way. For all she really knew, that was the official term of all the ice priestesses in this world, and NOT calling them that was actually more insulting. Ah well, she was sure that Deva would be good enough to figure things out in the end, so she just smiled and went off down her path to the fire church to figure out as much as she possibly could. The very first person that Deva would run into when heading to the ice church would be a priestess that was currently standing outside and looking around at all the effects the sudden wave of cold was having on the world around her. Normally she found something like this to be a beautiful sight, but normally this weather was completely expected and would be gone after a month of living through it.

"Uhhh... I can assure you that this isn't us in any way. Unless I just don't know about it, but normally I have a very good idea of what's going on around here... You're definitely right that you haven't been travelling for months... this still shouldn't be happening for another 7 months. Perhaps something angered the Goddess? But even that seems unlikely as she would never intentionally violate the ancient pacts. At least I would hope that neither of our Goddesses would think it a good idea to violate that pact... But at the same time, I can't think of any human that could do something like this. Even the combined magic of everyone in this church would only be enough to cause cold and snow for this town." The priestess would think aloud, pondering how something like this could even be possible considering everything that she knew about the world. "Ah, but I forget my manners in these extraordinary circumstances. I am Viola Snowcrest, priestess of Mountain Glenn." The woman would give a low bow in respect to a fellow priest, even if he was a priest of the other Goddess. "Well, I don't think any of us know anything about all of this. Unless your own order has any idea of why this is, then I suppose that both of us will be in the dark. Perhaps you yourself have any sort of idea of what is happening?" She'd ask, seeing if the man that had introduced himself had any sort of theory other than it being the fault of the ice priestesses.

"Well of course something has had to happened for things to be this way. The Goddesses should be keeping things in a perfect balance until their month... We didn't even get any sort of warning from couriers or anything similar. Which means that this had to have come in rather fast to avoid any sort of notice..." The woman stood there, picking up a handful of snow as well and examining it closely before looking back up at the sky and the snow with a very worried expression. No one could even be sure of how long something like this would last, for all she knew it could go on for a few minutes, a month, a year, or even forever. Without any rules or limits, even general estimates would be completely unreliable, a troubling thing for people that were so used to moderately predictable weather patterns.

 

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Spoiler

"You just assume a deity of ice is better at it than you. Shouldn't do that without trying her. One way or the other, you could learn a lot." Deva left out the true, intimidating power of deities here. If they worked anything like in her story it was not that the deity could control ice better than Isa, she WAS Ice incarnate.

"Hehehe. You've reached the point of understanding. Usually, when people understand my methods, they start to suspect feints and lies where there are none, to the point where I can lie by telling them the truth.. but no. I've always been a girl." Deva winked.

"Illusions are easy. You can control ice, specialized in it, I'm more of a jack of all trades, mistress of none. I can control a variety of restoration, illusion and transformation spells and have dabled in most others. I actually can't use most elemental summonings, couldn't create Ice like you do." She explained and nodded at the snowflake-advice. She briefly mused why Isa was so shocked to see her as man... she had taken the transformation into a copy of the elf rather easily, and switching in races but not genders was just as hard as looking humanish, but male.

Looking male was easy. Acting, was more of a challenge. A bit more confident a sway in her step, a bit more leering towards the females, not that she minded a comely form either way, but now showing it helped her disguise.

"Nice owl by the way, whats their name?" She added, still being.. herself.
"Well, the way you say thinks, perhaps theres a middleway, someone thats not quite your godess, but not quite a mortal either." Deva pondered. "One thing I can tell you, none of us were responsible for it.." She knew that Isa would have a bit harder a time, being the one to be answered questions if she didn't watch it, but at the same time, her abilities could easily mask any doubts.

"Call me Rasha, Rasha Goldflame. Obviously a priest as well, I'm here to help, I don't know exactly whats going on, but I do have a few suspicions. Namely, someone violating the ancient pact.. that would destabilize the land, if not this very world, for anyone that would seek power in the clash. I can already tell you some of the.. hotter heads over at.." she indicated the other temple. "Aren't pleased with whats going on." Technically nothing she had said was a lie either.

"So, not you, do you think any in your church have any reason to do this, have there been any.. splinter groups for example?" Rasha mused, then sighed, waving the priestess closer.

"Frankly, I don't think you would be responsible, this.. whatever it is, will have all eyes looking at you for answers, I just made sure to come first. So! We both agree that somehow the power of your godess is needed to create this much of a no bikini allowed zone. Question now becomes.. How. Something clearly has tricked or angered your godess to the point she'd violate the ancient pact and while we can't guess who, we can narrow down the what. Mental exercise time!" He grinned, approaching the priestess, putting an arm around her. .. backing off if she seemed.. uncomfortable with this, but happy to keep going in a semi-flirtatious manner if she didn't mind it.

"What would I have to do to make your godess break the pact. I figure simply flipping her off or seducing one of her priestesses away from the faith isn't enough to insult her. What angers her, and who could have the power to do such things? I doubt she's simply missplaced 7 months of time, so she reacts because she sees a dire need. Or.. " Deva hesitated all of a sudden. "Or because she has no other choice." She hesitated, as if 'chewing' on a thought worriedly. "Ok.. I have a concerning thought, walk this through with me step by step to prove me wrong."

At first, Deva had worried this story would be changed to be about a conflict of the two godesses, but there was a more dangerous possibility. Something didn't make sense, now that she thought about it for a moment.

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"Pretend I'm a child that knows nothing about how this world knows.. because if you can explain things to a child, you truly understand them.:
The two godesses are equal, right? Two sides of a coin, one isn't more powerful than the other, thats why the churches coexist as allies, after all, conflict makes no sense?
During the cold period, the priests of fire can or can't use the full extend of their powers?
This would of course be due to the coldsnap, as it has always been this way. Ten months of balance, one month of fire, one month of ice. It's fair, it's normal. If it was the heat period, you'd never ask twice about why your ice didn't.. ice.
So. Leaning out of the window, if this were a sudden heat rather than a sudden cold..." Devas tone grew serious for a moment.. "You'd have no way of figuring out if anything happened to your godess, right?" Deva raised a finger, presenting her hand full of snow. "There is one way to make my hand feel warmer without actually making it warmer." Deva slowly, demonstratively turned her hand downward, letting the slightly molten snow fall to the ground. "'s pretty ingenous if you think about it. Everyone will first look at the ice-godess. Everyone will unite against the common threat. But if you are very clever, you realize, that for moderate temperatures to be all over your world, you need both godesses at equal balance, so to create cold yes, you could have one godess violate ancient pacts, but the path to truth is always the most direct. What if both godesses -try- to observe the ancient pact, but one of them can not? Whats the other one gonna do, no offense to your mistress, but she can't really -do- heat. Cold is her, cold is what she is. Quite likely, she is no less worried than you, but far less able than one of us to do anything about it." Deva suggested.

"Care to walk with me, meet with a friend of mine? She said she needed to train her concentration.. and my magic is ill fit to do it, obviously, perhaps you could help? Plus, I bet you want to get to the bottom of this." 'Rasha' grinned. "I promise, if you stick with us, you'll get there first." He gave the woman and her owl a wink, pat-patting her back and leading her back towards the meeting point with Isa. Not having needed a half hour, but she hadn't expected to. She needed someone to talk to to figure things out, yes. Them responding was more optional.

 

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Viola would give her owl a few pets when Deva asked her what it was named, smiling as the owl rubbed into the petting. "This little guy's name is Silver. He's a proud one, but once he learns that you care for him he's one of the most affectionate little guys that you'll ever meet." She'd say, showing that she really cared for her pet, and giving the bird a smile as it looked at Deva inquisitively. "Perhaps... But I don't know of anyone or anything that could bridge the gap between mortal and Goddess. The Goddesses have sworn to never have children with the ancient pacts... And other than that, no mage I know of has ever been powerful to come close to doing anything that the Goddesses can do. Though I guess we can't rule it out. Hmmm... An interesting idea." She would think for a little more now, wondering if she had ever seen anything that could fit under that description. "Well, I didn't think that it was any of you, none of you really have anything to gain from setting off a wave of cold. Let alone having any way to cause this imbalance." She herself had never found a flame priestess that could do anything involving cold, that was kind of the point, wasn't it?

"A pleasure to meet you, Sir Goldflame. I only wish that this meeting could occur under more peaceful circumstances." She'd say with another bow, always having a lot of respect towards members of either church considering the amount of effort and dedication was required to become a member. Though her eyes would grow wide and she'd immediately look around worriedly before leaning in to whisper to Deva, still looking around carefully. "Don't talk so openly about the 'clash' right now... especially with accusations of them seeking to benefit from this problem! You never know when one of the houses could be listening..." Then she'd look around again, as though she was terrified that she was going to be suddenly attacked at any moment. Then she'd stand up straight, compose herself, and return to looking as though nothing had just happened, trying to appear as though she didn't have anything to say on the clash between the nobility that was still going on rather fiercely at this point. "I would assume that some members of your temple would be rather upset by this strange development. Just as I can understand why suspicion would fall on us for this entire situation. But we will weather the scrutiny, and hopefully be able to help find some sort of solution to this problem." She wasn't looking forward to all the people that would be looking for answers in the coming days, as the moment that surprise and worry faded, anger and fear tended to replace it.

"Hmmm... I don't think anyone in this church could benefit from this. There's no splinter groups that I'm aware of. I suppose that Jezba is happy since she once got super embarrassed by one of the fire priestesses, and has been kind of upset with them ever since. But it's more of a childish tantrum kind of anger rather than 'destroy the very balance of nature' kind of anger. Plus she can't actually cast much ice magic. Plus we've kept our eye on her rather closely after that whole incident. We'd prefer not to cause problems with the other church, so we don't want her getting up to trouble with them." Viola would explain, but not really thinking that the young priestess would really have any reason to go this far considering that the most she'd ever talk about was freezing a fire priestess' hair for a day as revenge...

The priestess would blush a bit as Deva put her arm around her, but otherwise she wouldn't complain or try to get out of that grasp. Apparently she found Deva's male form quite attractive, and didn't mind being this close to 'him'. But otherwise she'd listen intently, both because she wanted to figure out how to handle this problem, and because she was really attracted to Deva and wanted to show interest in the hopes of not upsetting him in any way.

"Hmmmm... If I had to think of something that could really upset the Goddess enough to upset the balance... Probably an attempt on her very life? Not that I'd think that anyone would be foolish enough to try to. But if one were to attack her, especially one that claimed to either represent the other church or the lands in general, then she could be insulted to the point of trying to punish humanity, or the other Goddess for that kind of assault. Otherwise, the two of them are rather good at keeping their calm in the face of simple insults, and generally understand that they can't completely control the action of humans, and as such there will sometimes be things that upset them. An attempt on her life, in her eyes is an attempt at destroying the balance entirely, and an attempt to harm life not just for humans, but for every living creature in the land. It'd be enough for her to punish us with cold, upsetting the balance just a little bit to discourage us from trying something like that again." She'd explain, thinking of what else might cause the Goddess to be insulted enough to do something like this. But overall she couldn't think of any other reason for the Goddess to start such a huge wave of cold. "The unfortunate thing is that if this is going to be anything like the month of cold... travel is going to slow to an absolute halt once the paths start to severely ice over and the snow begins to pile up. It's fortunate that you made it here, for I worry that you won't be heading out anywhere if you're here for a few days."

Viola would look surprised at the idea of explaining the entire situation to a child, but it actually made a lot of sense to approach the problem from a detailed and simple view. "Yes, the Goddesses are equal in power. And there's no point in conflict for either side as not only would it cause some extremely difficult weather patterns, it'd drag on for ages considering that neither of us are more powerful than the other. And during the cold period, the magic of fire would be much more difficult to call on. Not impossible, of course, it'd just be far less powerful than what it could be during that time. The inverse is true as well, ice magic will be far more powerful and easy to use since the powers of the cold and ice are far stronger." After that she'd listen to Deva's explanation and think it through carefully, finding that it did make sense in the end. If one of the Goddesses were gone or unable to use her powers, then the other would still try to create the moderate temperatures, but end up sending the world too far in one direction since they were unable to create the balance that the other power gave them. That was another option that she hadn't even thought of when looking at this. When it comes to cold and frost, the very first person that everyone would find suspicion with would be the Goddess of frost. "That makes a lot of sense really... If one of them were unable to put their power forth, then I suppose the other one would end up creating a strong force of their own power, assuming that the other would balance it out. But that stands to reason then, what could've happened to the Goddess of Flame to cause something like this? We still end up with the problem over what could be causing something like this to even happen. One of them had to have something happen to them for all of this to be traced to either of them..." Viola would offer, wanting to cover any possibilities and put any theory that they come up with under some form of scrutiny.

"Oh, if you wish then yes I could come along with you to see your friend. I've already finished up my duties for the day and the higher ups are going to be far more busy trying to figure out what was going on to find some more chores for me to finish. If you need my help teaching her a little bit, then I can do so without any issue." She'd agree, following along to the agreed meeting place. The two would find themselves waiting there for a little longer before Isa would come down the path, looking just as confused as she had a little bit ago, walking up to the two of them. "The fire priestesses don't seem to know anything about this whole thing. Also a few of them are rather adamant that this whole thing is my fault and the fault of all the other ice priestesses." She'd say, looking over to the other priestess that Deva had brought with her, bowing respectfully to the woman before continuing the conversation. "Though a good few of them thought that would be just as ridiculous, and that the other priestesses are just as confused as we are in this problem. Especially after they saw that I was just as confused as the rest of them. Otherwise, all I know is where the two Goddesses live, and that we probably shouldn't be mentioning any sort of political tension here, especially if our words could interpreted as a sleight towards any of the noble houses."

 

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"Hellooo Silver!" Deva enthused, through her guise. The owl was cute. Also, some animals could peek through illusionary magic, by scent or other means. It helped to be on good standing with them.

"Oh, trust me, I'd like to meet you under.. different circumstances as well, but this is how things are." 'he' chuckled flirtatiously.

"Clash? Oh is that how you call it around here, as I said, been out wandering a while." Deva chuckled, listening on, her arm camly around the priestess as she complained.. she knew of Rashas apperance and womanizing ways, the reason she had chosen his form of course.

"Hmn.. a potential attempt on her life.. welp, if streets ice up, better act quickly." The angel nodded. "Only thing that can hurt a godess of ice would be some concentrated fire I presume? Anyway. I'm certain I can find a way to head out if necessary." She mused.

"Exactly. Inverted theorem of balance. And because of the cold, no one expects the fire godess to be weakened. Her priests just blame the cold for her silence." She nodded. "Worse, the only one that has the power to deal with things, the frost godess, is busy dealing with suspicions and a crack in her faithful, so busy that she can't check on the other godess either, even if she's just as confused as we are." She pondered.

"So something that could have happened.. no idea. Anything that can overpower, even through trickery, a godess is bad news. Perhaps should investigate. Well, lets see if my friend found out anything, eh?" She smiled. "Thanks dear, let the higher ups bother with higher up stuff." This was why Deva hated if anyone considered her a figure of authority.

"I expected that reaction, sorry, kind of sent you to check on how my fire folks would react.

Oh, by the way, this is Silver, attached to the priestess Viola." Deva presented. "She volunteered to help us out on our quest. You can talk about Ice-stuff whilest we go and meet the fire-godess. Why you ask, well, clearly, looking around, the ice-godess is doing quite fine on her own. Plus, if she can, her followers will be busy chatting with her, whilest the fire is busy being grumpy. So we gotta sort things out.

Even if she was provoked into doing this, the only power that could have done that, would have been a power of fire, so, yeah. It's time for a pilgrimmage. But first! Viola! Do you happen to have an old mirror my dear? I actually know a spell or two that don't relate to fire, long story. A mirror might help somewhere down the line. My last one was stolen by a fashion-obsessed narcisist. No lie. I'd try one of the merchants. but.. no money.. eh eh, thats what you get for traveling the wildernis, eating what you hunt and letting the sun shine on your well toned muscles all day, eh?" Deva grinned and, after her request, actually started out in the accidentially false direction towards a potential temple, until corrected as to where the fire-godess would be living.

On the way, wandering through the snow she'd muse.: "Something to hurt a fire godess? Perhaps something to siphon her powers. How far untill we reach her, I'm bad with directions. Plus, if my theory is correct, we might find someone attempting to prevent us from meeting the godess in the end." Deva mused, her arms crossed behind her in her male form, happily making her way out of the city, hurrying on before the snow and ice could grow too high to slow down her path. There was magic to travel even past this, but.. that would indubitably attract attention.

Devas mind was a storm of possbilities. So far, all agents had struck close to the 'core' of a story, that would be the noble houses, meaning there was a fair chance the sudden winter was a side-effect, or part of a greater scheme to unbalance the core-conflict of the story. Just imagine one of the noble houses wielding the powers of a fire godess.
Such a huge disruption of the world would indubitably be answered, relatively swiftly, whoever tried to manipulate the story must know that as well.. which ment. "Hmnn... " Rasha mused after a long moment of silence, looking up to the sky again.

Deva just hoped it'd stay frosty.

 

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The owl would puff out its chest a bit proudly when greeted, before looking at Deva again, tilting its head before focusing back on its owner scratching behind its head. "Awww... That little chest puff means that he likes you. Strange though, normally he gets really jealous around other men." Viola would just shrug, thinking it a good thing that the owl had no problems with Deva, rather than thinking that it had anything to do with her pet's rather precise eyes.

"Yes, that's what we call it in this city at the very least... Other cities might go with 'The Game' or 'Noblemen's Chess' or other more refined names... But we refuse to call a struggle of political backstabbery and other violence a 'Game' by any means." The priestess would whisper softly, not wanting to be overheard, but still disgusted by the idea of it all. So many wanted more political power, but they should have tried to get it through the people, rather than through stepping over others and plotting and scheming. "We worry that it is only a matter of time before a true civil war breaks out among our nation. Not over the Goddesses, but over houses that just can no longer stand to live in the same place as one another..." Things were incredibly tense right now, which was part of the reason that Viola was actually really thankful that she lived nowhere near the capital, a center point of this entire problem.

"I'm not entirely sure what could actually harm one of the Goddesses. Perhaps a burst of the opposite element, perhaps some type of powerful weapon. For all I know a mundane weapon would work just as well... Generally people trying to harm the Goddesses don't get close enough to succeed." She had heard tales of people charging at the Frost Goddess with swords and spears, only to find themselves put into a cage of thick ice before they could even get close. It wasn't an easy feat even to land a strike on one of the Goddesses, so there wasn't a lot of information on what could actually hurt them. "I've heard many theories on what might actually hurt them, but nothing has ever been really tested. Because very few are eager to try, and the few that are aren't able to get close. Then again, the attempt might anger them quite a bit, but not enough to suddenly violate agreements that they've held themselves to rather strictly for thousands of years. I think there's only one recorded time of an agreement being violated, and that was quickly fixed by the two of them speaking with one another about it rather than jumping to anger and attack." Well, it would at least seem that the Goddesses were level headed compared to how angry and prideful that other gods could be. At least if it really did come down to one of them being extremely angry, they'd be able to use words rather than some sort of attack or spell battle or something.

"That's actually really clever... You effectively distract both Goddesses at once without either being able to fix the problem... The Flame Goddess is too busy with whatever has happened to her in order to maintain balance. Meanwhile, the Frost Goddess can't investigate the issue because she's too busy having to deal with all the suspicion that will fall on her."

With that all done, Viola would be extremely happy to follow along with the new, rather handsome, man that she had met. If it would help fix this problem as well then it was one of her top priorities to do so. After all, since the suspicion would already fall on their temple, it'd be best if she could be doing something to actually fix this problem. While they weren't the cause of the issue, it was best for her to be 'redeeming' herself already just in case, or even prove herself innocent at the end of the day.

Viola would giggle a bit when her pet owl was introduced first, finding it both humorous and charming. The owl once again would puff itself up for a little bit, looking super proud before hopping off of Viola's shoulder and landing on Isa's and tilting its head. The ice mage in turn would pet the little owl a little bit and chuckle just a little bit. "Well, she's definitely good with ice magic. Silver has an eye for that sort of thing. It's part of why he sticks with me and the church so much." Viola would compliment, giving a little whistle so the owl would fly back over to its original perch, seeming quite happy with the travelers that it was around right now. "Flame Goddess then? I suppose it makes sense to me. I do hope that she isn't going to blame our church for all of this though, as even with how reasonable they can be, I'd prefer not to end up taking the blame from one of the Goddesses." Isa had learned enough about the Goddesses to know that they weren't completely unreasonable, but that didn't mean she was excited to meet a grumpy one that wasn't exactly happy with her element right now.

The ice priestess would actually perk up a bit when Deva asked if she had a mirror, reaching into a bag that she had on her side before pulling out a mirror for Deva."Heh... I had clean up duty around some of the church today. One of the higher ups told me to throw this mirror out, but I thought that it looked nice so I planned on keeping it. But you can have it if you want, Eva would've probably tripped and broken it at some point anyway..." She'd chuckle. The mirror was a light blue, and had intricate icy patterns carved around the edges. "I'm impressed that you two would choose to travel through the wilderness on foot rather than with a carriage. Not as many have that kind of dedication."

Once they began walking down the path, Deva would see that the snow wasn't sticking to the ground yet, melting as it landed. That was probably because the land hadn't cooled down to match the sudden weather change, but it wouldn't take long before it started to pile up, it just meant that right now they wouldn't have problems travelling down this path. "You're actually rather lucky that you want to investigate the Flame Goddess. Our city is just a 20 minute walk away from the mountain cave that she lives in. It's why I'm so surprised that we weren't given any warning about this cold front moving in. It meant that things would have to fly in so fast that no other village in the entire nation would be able to get the word out by the time that it swept in." Viola would explain as they began walking, beginning to chat with Isa about ice magic and the different things that they could each do. Both would find themselves rather surprised by certain things that the other could do, Viola surprised by the amount of precision that Isa could have over her magic, and Isa surprised by how well that Viola could conserve energy while using her magic. The two would begin exchanging tips and talking about other ideas they both had, even using a spell here or there to practice things, Isa having ways to further conserve her energy while using spells, allowing her to avoid getting completely depleted for a longer time. Viola would also agree to start practicing advanced shaping of her ice, planning on starting with simple shapes to get the basics down.

As Deva looked around, she'd see that the road was completely empty, as anyone planning on travelling had returned home, fearing a pile up of snow that might keep them away from home for too long. As they walked, a large mountain would loom in the distance, reaching high into the clouds, and the forest-y path would start to become more rocky as they got closer and closer to that mountain. Yet still, no one would actually attack them, in fact they wouldn't encounter anyone on the way to the mountain. Right up until they were approaching the actual foot of the mountain, the path leading upwards to what looked like a cave sitting a decent way up the side of the mountain. If they wanted to go further, they'd have to take the path, as the rest of the cliff was far too steep to climb naturally, the problem with the path was that someone was standing there, sword in hand, just waiting on the path that went up the mountain.

A knight in red armor would be standing there, and she'd immediately observe the group walking up, raising an eyebrow and looking them up and down before calling out to them. "Halt! State your business traversals! I am Sierra Flameblade, knight of the Goddess of Flame! I wish to speak with you before allowing you any closer to this temple! This recent weather has me quite suspicious... especially of you lot!" She'd wave her hand to indicate Isa and Viola, staring at them rather suspiciously before approaching them a bit. "State your names!" Her voice was booming and strong, that of a proud and powerful knight that had quite a bit of combat experience at this point. Viola would look to Deva and nod a bit, not seeming surprised in the slightest to run into this woman. "Generally you'll find these knights around the Goddesses, they are tasked with keeping trouble makers out. They also have magic relating to their Goddess, and are usually highly trained. I'd recommend that we not get into any sort of fight with them. Not that I expected that you would, I just figured you'd best hear that from me before we go any further. Especially considering that I've met many people from the central towns and cities that have never even heard of the Holy Knights that live near the mountains." Which was probably lucky for Deva, as that meant she was given information that she could believably NOT know despite being 'part of a church'. "What say you? I wish to know your names and your reason for being here! Otherwise I recommend that you three head home before the snow begins to pile up! Just because cold grips the land does not mean that I am any less adept at keeping out miscreants!"

 

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"I'm pretty good with animals. Exspecially the fluffy-puffy ones." Deva nodded innocently.
"Some sorta game of who'll get on the throne eh? You should stay away from that, better to look at from the outside. But of course I heard a few of these things before, I didn't travel far out for -that- long." The disguised angel chuckled.

"Well, let me put it this way, if you try to cut a godess of fire with a normal knife, you better make sure its fire-resistant.. and you are too." Deva crossed her arms behind her back, listening and staying silent for the most part beyond that, in order not to give away any unusual knowledge. Neither did she mention that the reason she had come to the idea of taking out both godesses at once coming from the fact that this would have been how she had done it if she wanted to.

"Looky there, the ice-peeking owl has chosen you!" Deva grinned slightly. "Don't worry about the godess blaming you on anything. I'll.." Deva hesitated, snipping a finger theatrically towards Viola, in a mannerism that was.. not quite unlike her own, but had far more showmanship and outgoing, semi-subtle flirting mixed in, just like a confident man would, with two of the fairer sex by his side. "..use my charm on the godess if she is perturbed by our meeting."

"Thanks for the mirror. It might save me from a baaad hair day sometimes." She smiled, peeking into it, before letting it slip into her dresses poket.. a dress that currently looked like a stylish mantle.

"Carriage? Oh that would have been a good idea actually." Deva tipped her cheek. "However.. you try that. 'Hey coacher, to the fire godess please, on the double, I'm getting cold feet!'" She chuckled.

Whilest the ice-mages were talking about ice magic, Deva began softly whistling

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. Well, of course a fire mage would have little understanding or use for the intricacies of ice-magic. Inwardly, she chuckled, enjoying the company of the two young ice-mages, plus owl, her magic knowledge in general, if not about the specific elements far exceeding the two.

Deva covered her eyes with one hand, just an act, her hat, even if hidden by illusions, still gave her eyes shadow as she looked up to the mountain high. "I was hoping for a bunch of fire-pillars or at least statues, not gonna lie." The angel mused, approaching the path. Though this was an interesting sign too. No symbols of vanity.

"That sword looks super impractical." Deva whispered to .. the owl, of all people. Indirectly Viola too perhaps, at the sight of.. the paths guardian.

"Keep trouble makers out? Hoho, she's gonna have a baller with me." Deva mused. Though luckily, it seemed the knight was not as concerned about 'her'. "Interesting though.."

"Alright, alright.. allow me to speak for these lovely ladies, plus one!" Deva took a step forward. "This.. is Silver, the owl. Yes, he's the real deal." She bowed, presenting the owl first, again. "He is currently sitting upon the shoulder of Viola. uh.. Viola.. snow.. heart." Deva was still terrible with longer names.

"This is Isa, a capable young ice apprentice and I'm... terribly smitten by your beauty, do you get off-hours on this thing? Or is this one of the priestly duties were no men are allowed? I hope not!" Deva was cautious. Divine guardians and knights imbued with holy powers were no laughing matter, knowing her luck this one was good enough to see through her lies. Then again, if she couldn't, moreso, if she couldn't pierce through the illusion Deva had put up, that was a hint others could have snuck past her as well. Knights were powerful, but simple minded, Deva found. Well, compared to her most seemed simple minded, but knights tended not to question things that filled them with respect or seemed just part of the ordinary. The fact that this one was suspicious of the ice-mages and not Deva was a hint towards that already. Just because she looked like a fire-priest and the others looked like ice-priests didn't mean they were anything like that.

"Counter-question, are we the only recent visitors? How's the godess doing? I'm awfully concerned with the cold period, you see. You can call me Rasha if you want. I'm here to help. These two are here because I dragged them along to make ice-puns...

Now that I think about it, I really should crank up on those. So, with this weather, one pepper is growing on the field, looks at the other. 'damn, are you as cold as me' Says the other 'Nah, I'm just a little chilli'.. Get it? get it.. bwahahaha! Haah.. huuuh.." She grinned a wide, winning grin.