[Sanctuary] Effigy

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on July 1st, 2012, 8:12 pm

2nd Summer, 512 A.V.

Dawn broke clear and bright that morning, the first after their return to Cyphrus. The tents of his soon-to-be pavilion were laid out in their usual, orderly fashion. They carried home on the backs of their horse-brothers and horse-sisters, and so the familiar followed them into even the most unfamiliar of places. But Sanctuary was like a second home now; so much had happened there.

But dawn found Sama'el already at work. The horses needed tending, and although Horse had little chance to get pebbles in his hooves since debarking the ship yesterday, Sama'el was ever vigilant about the health of his family. He wanted to be an Ankal, after all. They had decided to stay on until Issima gave birth; if Oriana's curse came true, Kavala and her healers would be best suited to see to the health of a bear cub. He wasn't sure how to comfort his wife anymore, and it seemed that even now he was finally married, women would be the area of his life in which his struggles were the most potent, where his failures lay.

Deep thoughts distracted him from the dawn, but when he blinked at the light cresting the horizon, he tried to banish those thoughts to welcome Syna, singing her blazing orb up into the sky. Even Horse relaxed somewhat to hear the familiar hymns sung, sotto voce so as not to wake those who needed their sleep.

When he had seen to Horse and made sure the sun rose properly, he washed his hands, grabbed a carrot, and began to eat it as he walked toward the Sanctuary proper. Dohaina would have foaled, and there was Bigarren and the livestock to check up on, and he had so many things to tell Kavala.

He sniffed, longing for his lost sense of smell. The carrot and everything tasted bland, and some of his diagnoses required extra steps because he could not smell danger signals in the horses' urine and feces, and other such things he hadn't thought until one of his senses was taken away. The Sanctuary seemed busy too, and he smiled and nodded good mornings to those he knew and those he didn't, following their directions as to where he might find the matriarch of the place.

"Kavala," he said when he saw her, his voice low with pleasure and, perhaps, relief. He had told people his sad story, but he had been looking forward to telling it to the Konti-Drykas healer. Of anyone, she would understand his soul pain, his debt of guilt, and perhaps even be able to offer him some wisdom.

"Sister," he greeted her, because they were, at least in the spiritual realm, kin.

by **Kavala** on July 1st, 2012, 9:35 pm

Kavala knelt beside the foal, which was one of about twenty or twenty five that were milling about the Sanctuary inside the wall but not really contained within any specific area. Since the Storm and because she'd wanted to observe them, Kavala had kept the broodmare herd close. It meant extra work because they had to haul in feed rather than graze the mares out - though there was some grass inside the walls.

And while nothing extraordinary drew a visitors eye to the mares, the foals at their side were something else indeed. They had a shimmer to them that was absolutely unnatural though it matched the shimmer the mistress of Sanctuary gave off when light hit her scales. The black foal she was gently whispering too was no exception. Overlarge for what a strider foal would be, the little monster she examined was going to be a heavy yet elegant creature that could carry a full sized man to war. And yet, all across its silken fuzzy foal fur, patterns of jewel tones danced. Red streaked into blue then green then violet as it moved, mimicking bird feathers and their iridescence. Other foals were white within the herd, shimmering with pastels. And yet a few more were typical golds and duns, though they too shimmered with gilded gold, olive green, and bronze.

Kavala didnt' seem concerned about the color though.

Kavala frowned at the foal, glanced up at Sama'el, and then smiled. "Help arrives just when I need it." She said softly, her Pavi marking her as Drykas even if her scales did not. "He's herniated at his umbilical. I can't believe its not correcting itself on its own, so now we're going to have to correct it for him. I think the muscles around the navel failed to close at birth, though it could have been something I did. They all came on the same night, Sam... the night of the djed storm." She said, shaking her head. No one liked to believe that they made mistakes, but she easily could have delivering the sheer volume of foals that came that night.

"He'll need one of two things.. surgery or rings. It's rings if I can get the part of the intestine back up into his abdomen without incident or its surgery if its being stubborn. Surgery is a little easier for us because there's so many Rak'keli marks floating around. If I was just a healer without them, I'd ever risk it. The rings are painful though... so I think surgery it is. Care to help me do it today?" Kavala asked politely, not knowing if Sam was squeamish or if he had an interest in learning what to do.

If he was curious, step back and let him look at the bulging sack of tissue that was just below the foals navel where the muscle wall failed to grow together and was now leaking out part of the foal's intestines.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on July 1st, 2012, 9:59 pm

Sama'el did not have Kavala's level of skill with horses. He could ride them better than anyone he had met, and he was a fair hand at caring for them and training them, but Kavala was a genius, and his superior. That she required his aid made his heart warm, chasing away the chills that plagued him long after Winter melted away. At least for a moment. He smiled and knelt down beside her, gentle hands exploring the distended innards. What he felt made him grimace.

"Something like this happened to me on the way up to Avanthal, and I was lucky it didn't require surgery. Ronan was too lazy to help me hoist up an odilosapux to skin it properly, and I was stupid enough to attempt it myself. Between Denen and a young prodigy they fixed it, though sometimes it still twinges. Hmm."

There was a bear paw bruise on his shoulder, clearly visible for his sleeveless summer attire, but they could speak on that later. He was truly amazed by the number of foals, trying not to ignore the task at hand in order to find Dohaina and her foal, trying not to imagine purchasing some of her new breed to start another bloodline in Endrykas to help her further refine it without undue inbreeding.

"The storm tried to kill us, but not from overwork. If this is the least of your problems, I'd say you and your healers did amazing work." He grinned. "You know I will assist you, though my surgical skills don't amount to much more than dental work right now." But he was picking up a lot, and soon he would feel comfortable with more, especially if he was training somewhat with Kavala. And he had already assisted with birthings and minor surgeries while working for Serena Windmount back in Syliras for a time. She wasn't Drykas, but she had known her horses.

"Did the storm do anything else to them?" he wondered aloud. Their coats were obvious things that set them apart, as well as their size if they had truly been born only a few months previous. But he knew Kavala would have looked deeper.

by **Kavala** on October 14th, 2012, 4:21 am

Kavala studied Sama'el, noting the bruise on his shoulder and that something weighed heavily on his mind. He had the aura of someone troubled, though Kavala was not gifted enough to know what if anything it was. She wasn't even a really good judge of people, and as she stroked the foals flank she wondered if she shouldn't put off the surgery and take time for Sama'el instead.

"Are you okay now?" She asked, glancing down at his navel as if she expected it to be bulging. "If you'd like me to look at it, I can. I'm not nearly as good with people as horses though." She said softly, worried about him suddenly knowing how much he risked to get to Avanthal and back.

Kavala was Drykas and they didn't believe in halters, but she did halter the youngster, snap a lead rope on him and whisper quietly to the mare that was waiting anxiously off to the side. The mare gave pause and allowed the healer and Sama'el to lead the foal away, towards the clinic. She guided the youngster reluctantly through the double stone doors and into a room that was simplistic in its lack of decorations. It had a large funny looking padded slab that stood like a table turned on its side, with one edge resting on the floor and one edge resting pointing towards the ceiling. Kavala lead the foal up to this table, and began fastening belts and buckles onto it, wrapping around its middle in two sections and gently around its legs. She then walked to a cupboard, pulled down a bottle and soaked a cloth in the bottles contents.

Returning to the foal, she held the cloth over its muzzle until its began to slump and then she easily tilted the table into a more normal position. The foal went from standing on its feet to laying on its side on the table with minimal fuss. "The gadgetry shop in town built it for me." She said nodding to the table. "It's too large for full grown horses, but I generally drop them out in the courtyard for surgery anyhow." She added. Kavala then moved around carefully, pulling forth a tray of supplies and something that looked like a deep dark orange liquid which she carefully cleaned the navel area with.

"I don't know exactly what the Djed Storm did, Sam. We might not know for years. But we'll find out. Sooner or later, I suppose." She said, pulling out a scalpel and going directly to work on the foals naval, slicing through its skin and then abdominal tissue right where the bulge was, careful not to hit the intestines. "I wish I could fix this with gnosis, but it will just put it back to how the foal was before. We need to trick the muscles into growing together." She added, exposing the problem, gently carving the skin away, and getting a good look at what was going on. She tucked the intestine back into the horse's body cavity, then carefully sliced the tissue up around the open area, exposing the ends of muscles. She then pulled roughly on either side, closing the area together with a clamp, and then threaded a needed to begin sewing. The whole while her hands glowed, most likely to keep the wound clean.

As she was rapidly making the stitches that would seal up the abdominal cavity, using thick suture, she glanced up at Sama'el for a moment and raised her eyebrows.

"You going to tell me whats wrong? Is it Ronan? Or something else?" She asked, not really needing any help with the foal, just simply enjoying his company as she stitched. It was easy to see the raw edges were going to mesh together much better than the sealed edges of the barely closed muscles.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on October 14th, 2012, 6:31 pm

Following her gaze, he lifted the hem of his shirt and pulled down on his pants a bit so she could see his lower abdomen. He didn't know if the goddess' gift gave her a second sight for injury and disease, but it didn't seem outside the realm of possibility. Then again, the Lady to whom he sang each morning and evening also governed sight. Sama'el had never carried much in the way of fat on him, and the lean, muscular surface looked healthy enough. It had been a strange mixture of manual manipulation and healing that had put things right, but Kavala would likely have to speak to Denen and Oluse to hear it described clinically. But he let his clothes go back to normal.

"Horse first. They're more important." It was how he had been raised: see to your horse, and then see to yourself.

He offered a pat to the nervous dam. While he was not as skilled as Kavala medically speaking, he did have the knack for calming a horse down. But he followed her and the foal, nodding at her explanation of the examination table. Not knowing whether he would need to touch the patient in any way in helping her, he crouched over a bucket in the corner that looked to be unused, and held his hands over it. They glowed with a pale blue fire, and then he began to chafe them, pure water trickling off them. Red energy shot through the blue, and suddenly steam was rising too as he washed his hands in as hot water as he could stand.

When the light faded, he shook his hands over the bucket and walked back to assist as necessary. He understood clean, if not sterile.

"I dropped Origin stones up through Taldera," he told her while watching her work, after she admitted to the mystery of the storms' effects on the horses. "The Web needed almost as much work on the way back as it had on the way up, but there should be a thin channel for the Masters to follow if they need information from the North." That was, if they could find their way to the Sanctuary on the wreck that the Web had become.

Her work was interesting, and he wondered if he would ever be able to do the same. He would need Denen assisting him, he figured, his own gift from Rak'keli helping minimize whatever damage had to be done to fix the larger problems. When it was done, he was surprised by how quickly she managed it, and then she was asking the questions he had put off while the foal's life was in her hands.

Dark, almond-shaped eyes turned into her impossibly blue gaze.

"Ronan's fine," he assured her. He paused, gathering his thoughts. Of course, he had been turning the event over and over in his mind since it had happened, but telling the tale was important, a way to, perhaps, expiate his sin against the goddess.

"I think perhaps the goddess was paying attention because it was Winter and Her children were sleeping, or because of the prayers I had been saying since the wedding, prayers for children. I thought... how wonderful it would be to return to Riverfall with Ragnor's family, and the promise of a family of my own already growing inside Issima.

"But we were careful, watching the weather as best we could without the Web. I would use Syna's gift to give us some warning. The weather is different up there. Well, we managed to find a cave to use as shelter as a blizzard was nipping at our heels. I went in first to make sure it was safe. It was a habit... I actually found a nest of poisonous spiders in another cave... But this one... I don't know how I managed it, but I found a bear taking its winter rest. I knew we couldn't remain there without waking it up, but I couldn't let my family freeze and leave Ragnor's family uncertain in Avanthal. So I killed it. I couldn't say it was my skill more than my luck. I thought we would have meat and fur and a place to stay until the weather cleared. But the bear-goddess was watching. She..." He touched his face, remembering the pain of her violence. Despite Denen's best efforts with Rak'keli's grace and herbs and the like, there were still faint scars.

"She punished me," he said, and turned his shoulder so she could see the bear-paw bruise of Her curse. "She took my sense of smell, and laid a curse on my child, said Issima might not survive his birth. A few days later, Issima told me she was pregnant. I'm worried... The goddess claimed the babe, too. A son. She said She would return a year after his birth to claim him, and if I do not raise him properly, there will be no others."

His eyes were haunted by this. No Drykas wanted to be the last of his line, and that was why he had worked so hard all this time, weathering the ups and downs to rebuild his pavilion. He was still trying to wrap his mind around this subversion of the circle of life; he had killed an animal for food and clothing and shelter, and was cursed for it. Of course, he understood the goddess' rage, but had never heard of another hunter cursed for such an act.

Finally he sighed.

"I will tell people of my shame, keep Issima alive if I can, and try to do as the goddess commands."

by **Kavala** on October 14th, 2012, 6:52 pm

Kavala glanced at Sama'el's abdomen and nodded. "We'll see to it when the little guy is off the table." She agreed, moving forward with her plans and getting the foal prepped for the surgery.

It was accomplished quickly. This wasn't something Kavala had never done, in fact it was common in almost all breeds. The only thing Kavala did not like was that it didn't close naturally, and such things could be passed to offspring. She always gave the benefit of the doubt when a foal corrected its own flaw at birth, but this one hadn't and required surgery. Breeding such animals would not be a good idea. So Kavala finished the stitching quickly, making firm knots in the flesh then used her gnosis to close the skin over the wound and seal it as if it had never been touched with a knife. A thin line, evidence of the surgery, was all that remained.

Then the healer moved to the back of the foal and changing out her scalpel, and gelded the male while she had it under the anesthesia. If she'd been simply a healer unmarked by Rak'keli she would not have risked two procedures at once until the foal had recovered. But gelding was different than herniated umbilical. It was simple. Both of his testicles were descended, so all she did was gently slit the sacks open, slide out the testies, and cut the passages from them to his penis so that his seed would never be carried. Setting the dual orbs of tissue aside, she inserted her fingers into the empty sacks, cleansed them, and then sealed them up with her gnosis, severing the nerves and blood flow so the foal wouldn't even know what happened to it when it awoke. There would be no discomfort, no pain, and it would grow up to be a fine mount rather than a herd stallion.

Once she was done, she cleaned up around the foal, and then quietly waited. It would stir soon, but for now it lay on the table silent, breathing steadily, not understanding that the healer had both saved its life and altered its life forever in that short twenty chimes.

Kavala did not look at Sama'el at first, half using her work as an excuse and half wanting to think about what he said. When he was finally finished and her hands had no more work, she turned to him, leaned back against the table and laid a hand on the foal to monitor its return to awareness.

"I would not, Sama'el. I would not bow to them so easily or assume they want what they have not asked for. You said she asked only for you to care for the cub properly. Oriana is powerful yes, and you've done something to anger her. But it is an issue between her and yourself, not among everyone. Humans are prideful. But I would keep silent on the why of you having a bear cub with you or that Oriana has earned your displeasure. Do not give others weapons to use against you. And do not paint a target on your son when many eyes would glance over a bear cub and see nothing but a pet. When you give him importance, you run the risk of making him a target. Your failures are your own. I've learned through lots of experience that sharing them with others isn't always the right thing to do. Keep them between you and your gods." She added, looking thoughtful.

"That being said, is she going to take him when she returns? For good?" Her concern, even fear, showed that she understood. A son was a son, no matter what form he wore, and the thread of anyone taking Tasival from her would be enough to set off some serious fears among the Konti. Kavlala glanced at the foal, stroked its neck, and then looked back at Sama'el. A small hoof twitched but nothing more. The healer continued to wait.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on October 14th, 2012, 7:17 pm

Despite the pain in recounting the story, he watched carefully everything she did. Gelding would be more common than fixing a herniated umbilical, he hoped, but then his herd was small yet and he hoped that any colts who were not bonded to his pavilion or necessary for breeding could be traded for other horses among his people. But he did understand her reasoning without having to bed told; a breeder played god in a sense, attempting to breed out certain inherited weaknesses. No breeder wanted surgery to be necessary with every birth.

He thought about her words, wondering if the proper care and raising of his son would be sufficient expiation for his trespass. That settled well within him; he had never liked those people who were so loud about their relationships with the gods, and Kavala had more common sense than he did. Oriana seemed like the sort of goddess who would rely on common sense when not enraged, so it certainly bore thinking on. That Kavala assumed the boy would be born a bear made him shiver. The thought had occurred to him, of course. The way Oriana called him her cub might be more than just poetry, and a human woman's womb was not built to birth a bear cub, which would explain the danger to Issima.

It would remain a possibility, and so he would be prepared for it if that was the outcome.

"I don't... know. It didn't seem wise to question Her, though I have prayed to Her diligently ever since. A great bear travels with Her. Perhaps he was another such as my son... Perhaps if I am a proper father, She will relent. That is my hope." And here he meditated a moment upon Priskil, keeper of hope. "But I want to be a father. I will have to make my peace with Her somehow. Somehow..."

He put his hand on the foal, too, wondering if its sire had any such tugs toward paternity. They were different, though, were horses. Some stallion would likely be the Ankal of the foal's world, while his dam cared for him until he was ready for training.

Then he glanced back at Kavala, seeing the fear she revealed. She understood, and of course he knew she would. If he explained this to nobody else, he would to Kavala, who understood how he related to the gods. And more, she clearly understood the fear of a parent, even if his own child remained unborn. He and Issima were like Oriana's Nakivak now, bound to birth and raise a child that She would claim. They had no recourse but hope and good parenting.

Her fear was mirrored back at her, and his breath hitched in his chest.

by **Kavala** on October 14th, 2012, 7:37 pm

The silence stretched between them, her eyes locked on his. She was thinking, he could tell, and so was he in her eyes. The chime turned into five and they both seemed to hold their breaths. Another hoof twitched and small nostrils flared then relaxed. Kavala's hand on the foal stroked its neck but she could tell it was not truly yet aware. Once it was up she'd have to give it something for pain, because its abdomen would hurt. But that was a minor discomfort because its intestines were not leaking out anymore.

"Better a Goddess than a glassbeak. Better a Goddess than a wildfire. He could be taken from you a thousand different ways... even by Zith. Better Her than any of those other things. But Sama'el...." Kavala smiled, looking thoughtful. "I can only assume she's cursing you with a Kelvic bear, and look how Morwen and Avanthal are blessed by them. Maybe your child will be a fearsome grassbear. They are luck to find, you know, in pieces such as their claws and teeth. And kelvics are not so bad at all. I would not mind having one for a child, even being likely to outlive them. They are so special. I would, if I were you, consider this a blessing. A cub. You're going to be in for a lot of trouble, that's for sure. They can't stay out of anything and honey... your pavilion will have to take up bee keeping." She laughed, suddenly, as if the konti had decided that joy was better than worry and sorrow.

In her eyes Sama'el could read it plainly enough. She'd had enough pain and worry and fear in her life. There was no room for it now. She'd take the parts she could stomach from the situation and make them the best parts of everything.

"I can't wait to meet him. How is Issimai doing with all this? She should be fine, physically though, with a kelvic. Humans have kelvics often without problems. But I would definitely blame her for the kelvic factor. It will give you something to tease her about since none of your other relatives have shown any of that sort of blood." Kavala said, and then turned just an instant before the foal lifted his head. She swiveled the table so it was tilted down and the foal could put his feet on the ground again. Then once she loosened his straps around his ankles and got him standing, she carefully freed the ones around his torso until he was bearing all his weight. Then she carefully left him in Sama'el's care to take down another bottle of liquid, this one clearly marked with the Drykas sign for pain, and measured out a portion that she then gave to the foal via a pipette to his mouth.

"All fixed up little one. We still need a name for you..." She said, glancing up at Sama'el. He had so much to worry about... so much. He didn't need this on top of everything else.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on October 14th, 2012, 10:14 pm

He smiled through her words, and even laughed quietly, thinking of his would-be pavilion trailed by a swarm of bees. His people would not be pleased by that, but there might be some engineer in Riverfall who might help him devise a portable hive. He knew they made bees drowsy by smoking their hives; perhaps Leto with his studies of poisons or Kavala herself would know of some way to keep them pacified for travel. Certainly if anyone was making honey in Endrykas, it was a rarity, and that could mean a high potential for trade.

He laughed again. The fear was not gone, but Kavala helped make it bearable.

"Issima is distraught, sure of the worst. I can't convince her otherwise. I would be proud to have a Kelvic son," he agreed. "They are a strange miracle. You are right, though. It would be good to tease her for a Kelvic son..."

He stayed close to the gelded colt, offering some physical contact to keep him calm while he reoriented himself. Sama'el thought of names, both for his son and for the little patient.

"Zakil?" he offered. "I can't remember what it means, but I like it all the same."

by **Kavala** on October 18th, 2012, 5:44 pm

Kavala nodded. "That's a fine name." She said, making a mental note to record it in the foal's file in her desk. "Speaking of which... I want to show you others." She said, pausing at little Zakil's head and stroking his shimmering golden foal coat. It had a weird metallic green sheen to it as if it were overlain with bronze. The little guy looked uncertain as she took his lead and carefully lead him back into the recovery yard where his mother was. The two were reuninted and Kavala let them into a small separate grass paddock and waited, watchful, until the mother groomed the foals head and the foal began to nurse. Then and only then did she walk away leading Sama'el onwards.

They crossed multiple pathways, past half finished buildings, and through piles of rubble and makeshift paddocks. Finally they came to a pasture of mostly grey mares with frolicking foals by their sides. The foals were a stark contrast to their mothers and looked older than the djed storm prodigy. They were black, in the ways of greys, and would lighten as they got older. One foal, a larger colt than the rest stood out. "I promised you a bloodbane colt when you got back, and he is by far the best of the bunch, but you can have your pick of them. I will be selling all the males and just using the females as breeding stock. I want their fierce fearlessness infused in the Denusk horses. I'm calling the new breed that, btw, to honor my lost pavilion." She said, knowing Sama'el would understand that she didn't want the Denusk name to die.