medya and i already planned to visit home after her harmonization to show off our work and stock up on porcelain clay
also not being around any other folks from home for 8 months can make a pony worry for their own sanity
conveniently 3 ponies just arrived in shaarat to bring every citizen of equestria back home by formal request of regent iliana ... who wishes to hear anything we might know about the band of orcs who searched for glitterreed and found the everglow
that's not supposed to happen
the regent has invited them to stay a while and get to know the place ... not that they have much option since passing through the hedge can only happen every few weeks when thelanis cycles near enough
they're house tharashk so i've contacted krayg and he knows one of them in specific – apparently "d'tharashk davan" and his crew love to sing the hymns of the church of inspiration
that's not inherently a problem but it sure is unsettling
so there are these ponies
"featherstep" is a diplomat sent to deliver the regent's request and be official
they have a nice clear voice and lovely wings and a pleasant personality but they're a skittish mess even less equipped for this place than i was
their prairie pony cousin "barley step" is the captain of the royal guard sent to keep the others safe
he's very fit and kind of cute and he shows discipline and poise even when he's in over his head
which he is
then there's "gemini star" – "gem" for short – who i already knew as the very nice middle-aged pegasus who made the barding and saddlebags medya and i wear
barley and feathers were surprised when regent iliana said she's travelled enough to join them as their guide to the outside world
they were even more surprised to find out that she also possesses many other useful skills including combat and psionic magic
everyone learned this when she attacked zer'atesh on sight
of course all we saw in the moment was gem staring at zer' hard enough to stagger him which is an impressive trick
she thought she was protecting us from a winterwolf by using a spell to try and sever the connection between quori and kalashtar which is an even more impressive trick
once i explained that he's a trusted ally and told her not to bring violence into my home she apologized
... i called the h&h home
is it home if it's in a country i'm barred from visiting?
i know that the truest home is in the heart – home is wherever medya and i are together – but our room in the h&h feels like the safest place i've known out here
for now it's safe only as long as our presence is secret so we gave the ponies and transom the mind-shielding rings bell and i made while travelling
they'll stay at a nearby inn while we do what we risked coming back here for
equestria isn't in immediate danger so we're not returning without medya's new arms
featherstep isn't happy spending yet more time in a city where people openly carry weapons and 2 equestrian citizens are considered terrorists for an act we couldn't possibly have done
we explained that we really did destroy the dar san temple because winterwolves built it to control the city
also that they already control the government of breland
also that we've fought off a couple of them and destroyed one
if medya hadn't sung it they wouldn't have believed us!
they arrived in shaarat with no idea what it would take to find me and medya and ploughshare
their first lead came in the form of wanted posters listing our names under sketches that looked nothing like us
gem says featherstep went right up to the nearest guard demanding to know why!
that could have become a bad scene very quickly but "rebar" saw this and stepped in to help them contact ploughshare
grace note: rebar was the one sparring with spark when we arrived!
they were so happy to have already completed their task
they looked so disappointed when i said there's probably one more pony to collect and we'll have to travel to the west end of khorvaire to find out for sure
barley and feathers were shocked to hear that the "bandit attack" that took signal flare and prim rose from us was actually khorvaire's war
gem only said that she hadn't heard the name hellebore in some time
but she knows it ... even though my family doesn't
it seems the regent asked everyone who came out here during the war to promise not to bring word of pony involvement back home
gemini star wasn't involved so she doesn't have much new information but she promises to share what we need to know about hellebore once we're on the road
she doesn't want to burden us with such a topic while we're working on harmonization
for the love of stars! i am already burdened!
but she insists
i know she'll tell me but i hate suspense
tomorrow we begin my second partial harmonization
it's a long process of introducing one to oneself ... building up attunement with each part ... thinking about what was and loving what will be
bell is doing all the casting while i take notes and advise and stay relaxed
from here everything goes into my research notes until we're done ... which should be just before winter moon which they call "highnight" here
i'll have plenty to celebrate!