Out of Character:
The mountains rose sharply into the early morning sky, their true mass indiscernible in the darkness just before the dawn. As Aelva glided through the air toward the appointed area, Visla scanned the ground below for a pathway, a flicker of light, an unnatural sound, anything to suggest their destination. The monastery they sought was supposed to be cut right into the mountainside, a formidable enclave for which the defensive capabilities far outclassed its strategic value. Isolated in the rugged crags of northern Salvar, built over a mountain spring, it was simply not worth besieging. As Visla was swiftly discovering, one could hardly know it was there amongst the rubble of long forgotten landslides, the snow still clinging to mountain peaks and the dense evergreen forests.
"Stop looking for it and start looking for somewhere to land. If we don't make a choice, the sun is going to choose for us in a few minutes," Aelva warned.
Visla complied, shifting her focus toward the foothills, looking for clearings, but still glancing up at the cliff faces from time to time, knowing that if they had to make camp and climb, the news would easily reach the monastery before they did. Just as daylight started to glow from beneath the mountains to the east, the smoke of a campsite caught her. She pointed Aelva toward it and the pair dove toward the clearing. Just as they approached the ground, Aelva spread her wings to their full breadth and fluttered them to a halt.
They found a small campfire and a shocked inhabitant huddled behind a fine white horse. The man hiding behind the beast was difficult to see, but the animal itself was barded with fine armor as if he had run straight off from beneath a mighty general. Unlike his erstwhile rider, the mount seemed unshaken by Visla and Aelva's sudden arrival.
"W-w-who goes there?" the man stammered, having just awoken moments before the pair came swooping in from the sky. Visla counted another gold piece she was missing out on.
"We'll ask the questions. Where are you headed?" Aelva said, pulling back her hood to glare at the man, but not yet calling upon her persuasive powers.
"I'm… I'm just a messenger. Please," he said as he watched the fierce young woman walking closer to him. The horse he used as a shield stood perfectly still, looking at the two women nonchalantly.
"I don't think the Church would trust just a messenger," Visla said.
"They… they needed to get through… through the League's lands. They couldn't just… s-s-end a cleric," he said, clinging to one of the horses legs.
"Plausible. What about the horse? Seems awfully nice for a cowardly messenger," Aelva inquired, kneeling down next to him and revealing one of her claws.
"It's the monastery's… master… saint… whatever. It's his horse. It knows the way. They almost just put the message on the horse, but I convinced them to let me take it and they gave me a bag of gold and they told me to go immediately and that there would be even more for me when I arrived and so I did and then I had to stop because I couldn't keep my eyes open and so—"
"Good enough," Aelva cut short his ramblings. "Leave the message. Leave the money. Leave the horse. You can go," she said, turning to pet the animal, surprised at it did not startle at her touch as many creatures are wont to do in the presence of a demon.
"Thank you, bless you," he said, and scampered off into the wood.
"We're actually inspiring fear now? Two women with a dagger between them?" Visla said, surprised with the ease of their interrogation.
"Never underestimate the affect of appearing out of the sky on black wings just before dawn. And I have a bow," Aelva revealed the weapon concealed beneath her human illusion.
"Fair enough," Visla said, taking the message from a container strapped to the horse's flank. It was sealed with wax, but she cracked it open and unfurled the parchment. "As I expected, we can't deliver this. It orders the monastery to kill the oldest child and send the head back… along with the head of the messenger."
"Well now I’m glad you opened it," Aelva said, pulling herself up into the horse's saddle and helping Visla up behind her. "What do we do now?"
"Ride. Hopefully we figure something out before we arrive," Visla said and spurred the horse on. It responded swiftly and began to cantor back toward a narrow mountain path, mostly overgrown, shielded by trees, and almost invisible even as one traveled over it.
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