Manifestation: the Coming Dark/Interlude 1

Lorithia looked at the swirling waters with a deep sigh. She was consumed then by a memory. In a moment of weakness and loneliness, she took mortal form and went among the people. The experience was an unpleasant one. In mortal form, she became acutely aware of the suffering of the people, yet for her it had one redeeming quality: she had met and fallen in love with The'Galin. A beautiful and gentle man, he was tormented by his weakness and his inability to save the people. His village was nearly completely destroyed in a war with a neighboring tribe; after their death, he had founded an orphanage where he helped the lost and homeless children whose families had been destroyed by war and disease. In this capacity, he excelled and was extremely well-regarded by the people, and it was in this capacity that Lorithia discovered him. The house in which Lorithia was staying caught fire and all of the residents were left without a home. The'Galin took them in without reservation and tended to their needs. Seeing The'Galin up close for weeks on end only served to inflame Lorithia's love for him and finally, in a moment of weakness, she had revealed herself to him, half-expecting him to rail against her for the injustice of creation. Yet he did not blame her, rather he seemed touched that the Creator cared enough to tend to her creation. The fault, he insisted, lay not with creation but with the created.

"You seem distracted, my lady," the Water Lord said, looking at the divining pool.

"I am remembering," she sighed, looking at the Water Lord with deep sadness.

"There can be no doubt of The'Galin's plans anymore. He seeks to assume a mortal form, yet we have no way of knowing where and in what form. He seeks to destroy creation from within?" he said; though his tone was questioning, it had at its center a statement of fact.

"And it is all my fault," Lorithia sighed with dismay. "Had I never revealed myself to him, had I never taken him... He may have finished his life helping people rather then living to destroy them all..."

"We certainly cannot know that, milady. The deep wounds that The'Galin suffered may have surfaced at any time. He may have ended his life a miserable misanthrope."

"Yet," the Fire Lord said, coming into the room and looking sad, "we cannot deceive ourselves. Certainly not at this time. He would never have had the power to take his inadequacy on all of creation, on all of us."

"I wanted to save him," Lorithia sighed with sadness. "I loved him."

"Your love may save him yet," the Water Lord said with sadness.

"There does remain hope, my lady," the Fire Lord added quietly.

"Yes, but can it save him before he destroys creation...?"