Faith United

[Breaker]

The ground reverberated with the sound of the marching Faith United. We drummed up a cloud of dust that pursued us along the meandering country road, dancing in the rays of midday sunlight that cast wavering shadows beneath the stunted trees that grew so close to the ocean. I could smell the salt on the breeze, and it called to me, as tempting as any siren song.

As we rounded the latest bend in the road I made a curt gesture towards the large man carrying a long pole cradled in a holster on his belt. He nodded and reached up, unfurling the item I had brought from the seamstress. The modified banner of the Faith United.

It still showed the sigils of every Thayne in the pantheon, and a number of other deities. The beast-man of Hromagh, the winged woman of Y’edda, the scales of Jomil and the pitcher of Am'aleh all rippled with the breeze. But the four-armed figure of Khal'jaren had been moved to one side, replaced by another familiar figure. The shape of a shadowy man looked down at me from above the Y-shaped scars on his cheeks. My likeness gazed out from both sides of the banner. The seamstress had done my eyes justice... they seemed to watch in all directions at once.

A rousing cheer went up from the four hundred warriors at my back.

“Continue on until you're able to loop back to the encampment. I will meet you there,” I told the bannerman, and then peeled off from the group, allowing him to take my place at the front. My likeness rippled and waved above his head, always watching, always vigilant.

I meandered slowly through sparse stunted trees as the sounds of the marching militia faded behind me. The smell of the ocean grew stronger, and soon I could hear the roll and crash of waves and the occasional cry from circling seabirds.

The Thaynebinder would remain in mine and Kinley's possession until I could find a way of confirming its authenticity. If it was a true artifact of the gods, I would learn much about what had transpired. If it was not... the possibility did not bear thinking about. I could always throw myself in the sea, weighted down by my enchanted boots. I would sooner take my own life than put my mortal lover at risk again.

The thought of being submerged in salt water was too tempting to toss away. My boots crunched over the sand and then splashed into the ocean. I waded in until it lapped at my knees, my waist, my shoulders. Shrouded in water, I continued onward until my head vanished beneath the surface. My boots weighed me down, keeping me on the bottom. With the sun filtering through the waves above like a natural kaleidoscope, I stopped and waited.

I breathed in.

Water fell away from me before it could enter my lungs. Held back by an unseen force, a bowl of dryness appeared around me. I breathed out. A figure rose from the damp sand before me, a woman of breathtaking beauty made entirely of still water. Her hair cascaded and shimmered around sleek shoulders, and her deep blue eyes gazed into my soul.

“May I hear your voice?” I asked.

She smiled, shimmered, and opened her mouth. It was the sound of birds in the morning. It was the sound of angels singing. It was the sound I’d waited so long to hear.

“I am the ocean, I am the sea. Wherever you may flow, always return to me.”