"Well, shit." Naethra quietly murmured to herself, staring at the perfectly non-descript spot on the wall. She didn't really know what she expected to happen, but she'd rather been hoping for some more direct sign of intervention. Quickly, while the memories were still fresh, she tried to run things through.
She was visited in her dreams last night. That was a definite contact with an entity. Most likely the Lady of Sin from how overly sexual she was. She saw and felt what the Lady wanted her to.
The question she'd carved onto the wall had been aimed at figuring out what interest the Lady had in her. To be honest, it was also supposed to be a gentle probe into a very troubling question. She'd gotten a hold of the Lady's attention, but only had worrisome suppositions to show for it.
She picked up her focus and looked into the crystal. That was given to her by her patron. It wasn't pearly before she was brought here. That was a point against her hypothesis.
She didn't know who her patron was. She had no name, no contact, no mission, no directives, nothing. Just a promise she made, exhausted and teary-eyed and terrified. She hadn't read much about pacts with the great fae, but she was given to understand that they were generally more hands on. That would be a point for her hypothesis...
Her magic was faerie in origin. That was clear just from the spells she found herself able to wield. That was a point against... unless the Lady is Fae? That seemed unlikely, but she couldn't rule it out. Whatever she was, she was at least as powerful as a deity here. Could a deity in her own realm sever a magical connection? She didn't know enough about the underlying metaphysics to decide for certain. Maybe the wizard would know?
That was another problem... if her hypothesis was correct, how would her teammates respond to learning she was utterly at the whim, mercy, and command of the entity that dragged them all here? As far as Naethra could tell, the only thing the Lady would get out of them was amusement.
Gods damnit, after all that she still didn't answer the question she'd carved into the wall. She was drowning in debt, and someone would call it in someday. The terms were nebulous, but grand. When her pact was with a distant fae lady, that had seemed like an attractive prospect, but now... did she still have a lady to serve? Had her debt been sold? Was her magic coming from this Sin-bitch? Was being indebted to an unnamed Fae Lord really any better than being owned by the Lady of Sin? How much did she have to lose?
That last question stuck with her as she peered into her crystal orb.
"I think," she said aloud as her companions began to wake up, "that I should ask around and see if I can find a shield. And I think we need to talk strategy. The goblins were looking for six adventurers, and then they assumed they were only looking for three after they captured the idiots who fought them. To me, that means they don't have Aerin. Given that its unlikely our... princess, for lack of a better word, is being held there... do we still want to fight them?"
