Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ai laughs. "Then we have the perfect messenger. He may wander his way up, but he's far more capable of handling a message than a bird. Puss... come here boy. Where are you?"

A small mew from the area of the stove calls attention to the small sleepy cat. Ai gently picks him up and carries him to Andra. "Bez spirit rode him for a time so he's used to following instructions when given them and I know he knows the way to Maya's kitchen... maybe even to Shar's clinic."

Andra nods with a twisted grin. "Oh he knows the way alright. The Dawn mistress keeps a jar of trears for him on her desk. He shows up at least once a day."

Ai chuckles. "Then since it would take you less time to make him a harness then either of us, given your nimble fingers... make him a message bag and let's send a note up asking for information."

Suddenly Ai stiffens. "Oh s**t..." she moans her voice deepening rapidly. She begins to glow and change shape, quickly filling the tiny kitchen. "Kero, I'm being summoned. Drop the shield now... I can't refuse. I must go! Please drop the shield or this village is a goner."

This is the first time Andra has ever seen the angel in it's true form and his eyes are bulging wide. He backs to the doorway to give it room and wraps his arms about his chest. "What... what is going on?"

"No time to explain... Kero, drop it now. I can't fight this much longer." growls Ai fretfully, shaking his huge eagle head with frustration.

Ai disappears in a flash of light, that leaves the two left behind stunned for a bit, then Andra whispers. "Who has that much control over him?"

"Wouldn't you like to know..." snorts Kero with a dry laugh.

"He was heading for the temple. I could feel it. Why would he go there?" says the young priest with a shudder.

Ai hovers in the temple's vaulted chamber, caught in Lathander's morning light. Suddenly, he bursts into flame and opening his mouth utters a soundless cry of pure light that strikes at the large offertory bowl on the altar. It is then that Hopian sees the tendrils of darkness that have crept from the book lying there and made it's way through the congregation. Several of the brothers have already succombed to it's effects. Mica, garbed in ritualistic garments, is standing before the altar, leaning on his staff of office, struggling to hold the evil at bay. It appears they had sought to purify the book in Lathanders morning service.

The tendrils stop their search through the fallen brothers and begin to reach up towards the angel, who grows brighter and brighter, until Hopian can no longer look at him without going blind. And still the tendrils come, until just before they make contact Ai erupts into song as well. Music pours form him in waves of heavenly sound, and the table is turned. Gradually he drives the darkness away until at long last there is naught but a pile of ash in the bowl. Freed from the compulsion to guard and protect, Ai staggers mid-air, then slowly crumbles, falling and shrinking so quickly, most do not see this. They merely think he's ported away.

Barely larger than a newborn cub, shivering with cold, so drained of energy that Kero is truly worried, she is placed upon the pillow of her bed and carefully covered to keep her warm.

Andra offers to go and see if Shar can come down, but Kero shakes his head.

"Go, if you muist, I'm sure they need you up there. If things were as bad as Hopian said, she has her hands full. I'll stay here with Ai. She'll be fine. She's just drained, that's all."

But despite his brave words, he is truly at his wits end. And when Andra leaves to return home, He can think of nothing more than to climb up onto the pillow with her and curl about the tiny cat.

Suddenly he realizes he's not alone. Standing at the window is a familiar form, fair of hair with a jovial glint to his eyes. But today the eyes are anything but merry. Instead they are dull with worry.

"I have never had an avatar, preferring to deal directly with my people. For when the one entity, who was to have worked with me, was banished so long ago... when the Prince of Light turned to darkness, I swore off the use of Ao's minions. Today, to my dismay, I find myself in a debt to one, who has proved more giving than I have found myself to be.... How... how is he?"

Lathander walks over to the bed and sits down on it's edge. It is such a human action that it is hard to equate this young entity with the Lord of the Morning Light. He reaches out and places a gentle hand on Ai and smiles ruefully.

"Nay, here in is your teacher, and I warrant he's taught ye far more than you might think. I would thank him for his service. This temple may not seem much, but it holds a precious few, those who will be needed come the future storm. But I fear my thanks rendered while he is in this form will mean very little."