Days 161-162 (139th-140th)

Day 161 (139th):
Once again, the Baalocs did not sound their wake-up call. We woke to the smell of breakfast. Kendar was in a much better mood. Sadal and the others had spent the night again and were downstairs when we arrived. They, apparently, had been up very early as some were talking about the deal they had already made for the dragon egg shells. One was complaining that some of his had been seized by a soldier as "contraband" and how much profit he lost. I searched quickly and found the energy of the shells and the man with them.
"Worry not, friend," I told him, " no one knows about it. Go to the alley behind 'Sons of Glory'. He is there as well as your eggshells."
Everyone looked at me oddly.
"He will fight me if I ask for them back," the merchant whined.
"No, he won't. He is dead."
Silence. Then, like a shot, Sadal, the merchant, and Rono ran out the door. The rest of us continued breakfast and placed it all on the table. Apparently, "Sons of Glory" was not far away as they returned quickly. The merchant was happier and was holding a pouch.
"Poor fellow," Sadal began, "he must have tried to sell them. I guess his customer didn't believe him and knifed him over it. As 'honest citizens', we reported the body after we recovered the shells."
I was amazed at their callousness before I remembered what city I was in and who had been in charge. We sat and ate. They told us how wizards had nearly come to blows over the smallest fragment.
After breakfast, we began looking over the requests. About half were for healing. The rest were roughly divided between remaking homes and destroying rivals merchandise. We ignored the last ones. We pondered how to get the ones needing healing all in one place. The houses were also spread apart. We decided we would just have to do it in groups like before. Hopefully, we would catch the ones requesting help. Rono had the latest map of Baaloc Prime. We plotted areas we had already affected, then where the requests were. Fortunately, many lived near each other and could be taken care of almost all at once. While we were discussing this, another of the merchant, also this group's cleric, interrupted us.
"I have been wondering. When Selvis is re-established, what will be the state religion? Will there be such? Will the princess destroy everything and rebuild from the ground up? There are many questions I would like..."
"Peace," I said in a voice mine but not mine as a strange calm came over me, "your fears are understandable and justified. I see no state impose faith. All will be treated equally whether followed by thousands or ten. Your beliefs will not be squashed or forced into hiding. I see a faith council sitting with the judges and government council encircling the Queen and her King. Rest assured, Selvis will be a center of religious freedom and expression."
When I finished speaking, the calm left along with my strength. I nearly fell into a chair. My sisters rushed to my side while everyone else just stared. 
Before any could ask, Sarah began explaining, "Kayla is Faerie-blooded, so is Vanity. In the flesh, Vanity was a seer. Kayla is becoming one. When her eyes go white like they just did, her visions have a hold on her. Believe every word she said, it will be so."
The men huddled together. My sisters fed me their love and reassurance. The men broke apart and the cleric spoke again.
"What of the demon's vision? The grand wedding Tharinzar's master saw?"
I took at deep breath, "I have not seen anything about that, yet. When I find out.... the wedding is true, but it is not Cornwall nor any Baaloc she weds. The marriage will bind royal blood to royal blood. Snow will fall as they kiss."
I blacked out.

Callie again. We thought it was best to write what happened after this. Kayla stopped speaking, eyes totally white, and stood up. A wind lifted her off the floor and held her in mid-air. She spread her arms and, behind her, a mist formed. In the mist, we saw the images of what she had told us. The three councils in a half-circle around Mara and a man. Baaloc Prime rebuilt with new churches and temples and special places all around. Trinkets of all types sold openly. Then, the wedding. It was magnificent. Mara's dress was spectacular! The man beside her was richly dressed with a dark brown beard and some kind of hat/crown thing. As they kissed, a light snow fell upon the assembly. Rono said Baaloc Prime hasn't seen snow since Maalicus took over. Rain usually comes in floods and terrible storms. As the image faded, we saw Dawn, in the image, circling the pair and showering gold sparks on them. The mist left, the wind stopped, and Kayla slowly returned to the floor and sank to lay on the floor. She was unconscious. Kendar scooped her up and nearly ran her to our room. We girls followed. Kendar did not say a word, but the look he shot us told us to stay with her. Except for coming down for lunch, none of us left her side. Rono and the others left to do their daily business. Kendar paced in and out of the room, back and forth down the hall, nearly wearing out a rut throughout the inn. Rono set up dinner so we could get some and return to the room. I'm not sure Kendar ate. Sarah and I pushed our beds next to Kayla's on both sides. by the time we fell asleep, there had been no change."



Day 162 (140th):
I awoke feeling a little dizzy. It was dark. Callie and Sarah were beside me, their beds pushed against mine. As I laid there, trying to let the dizzy feeling pass and remember how I got to our room, my stomach growled. I couldn't remember any meal but breakfast. Crawling to the foot of the bed, I slowly crept out of the room and down to the kitchen. A pot on the stove was still warm and smelled wonderful. I just grabbed a spoon and ate at the stove right out of the pot. I heard footsteps thunder down the stairs. Kendar burst into the kitchen.
"Thank the gods! I looked in on you and your bed was empty. After your display yesterday morning, I was afraid you might vanish altogether."
"Display? Kendar, I cannot help the visions. If what I said upset anyone, I will apologize."
"It is not what you said," Kendar laughed, "It is what you showed to them that overwhelmed us all."
I looked at him, completely confused. He laughed again and told me what happened. I had to fish the spoon out of the pot. More footsteps rumbled down the stairs. My sisters nearly bowled over Kendar as they ran into the kitchen. Excited squeals, sobs, and talking engulfed me as the six of them raced over and hugged me. We all went back into the common room. Rono scurried in with a club. Seeing it was just us, he put it away. The nine of us sat at the big table and recounted my display. They found it hard to believe that I remembered nothing after I had spoken. Vanity and Sloth floated down to us. Using the mirror, they explained the mist was an old Faerie form of vision questing. The wind, however, was unique and neither had heard of or seen it before. We all returned to our rooms. I can't speak for the rest, but I dozed lightly until dawn. I watched the sun rise over Baaloc Prime. My earlier visions were intense, but this was something different. My only hope was this would not happen at a dangerous time.
A few hours later, Rono opened the door to allow his friends to enter. Talk stopped when they saw me. A flurry of emotions ran across their faces. The cleric was ashen. He found it difficult to look me in the eye. We all sat down and Kendar rolled out the map and began planning targets. Talk slowly returned as this tangible subject become the focus. They also informed us the wedding procession was four days away. We seven decided an "attack" on the palace would be appropriate. We chose the right hand spire to remake, an area just brushing the palace to heal and purify, and Maalicus' death on the north wall. Gretta would focus inside the palace for any fakes and phonies to demolish. Others that the men trusted would be brought to boost us even more.
We added some of the dust from the dragon eggshell to a powder we made to enhance our magic. Dawn poked at our powder, chirped, and shook, adding a shower of gold sparks. They landed mostly in our bowl and we swept up the rest. Bo circled our bowl of powder as we were mixing. On a cut in the table, he hooked a scale and pulled out of his skin. Lisa picked it up. In a few minutes, it was dry and crumbled easily into our bowl. Larz nudged us and lifted his paw. One claw had broken and was barely hanging on. We snipped it free and mixed in his contribution. We wondered how these additions would affect our actions tonight. Sloth commented that, he felt, it would greatly increase our energy and to look forward to something amazing. Over the course of the day, our merchants brought in their friends to get our approval. They were good judges of character. Many of them left laughing at how wrong the "accurate and validated" portraits were from how we actually looked. A Baaloc soldier proved this to all. He barged in pass Kendar and a few others and headed straight to the notice. He looked it over very closely for the slightest indication of any tampering. Satisfied, he turned and looked right at us. For a full ten count, he stared at us. Rono went over and asked him if all was well. The soldier took a moment to realize what Rono had said. When it hit him, he shook and, embarrassed, replied that it was and bit us all a good day. We waited a twenty count after he left before breaking out laughing. This encouraged some of the new comers to suggest other people who could help. Realizing we had too many already to fit on Rono's roof, another innkeeper offered his place which was much larger and closer to the palace. Before the curfew, we made our ways by different routes and in small groups to this other inn. It was far larger than Rono's, nearly twice its size. We went straight to the roof and plotted our assembly. We decided the newer people would be on the outside. Kendar, Rono, and the ones from before would be inside of them. Those of us not directing would be inside of those and the one directing in the center. We had enough powder to make a ring between each group and one around the center. We all had a grand dinner as we waited for sunset.
 Once it was fully dark, we made our way to the roof. We positioned everyone and laid down the circles. Larz joined Kendar and Bo and Dawn joined us. We were fortunate that a full moon was rising as we began. Gretta went first this time. She found the palace easily and the fake stuff just as easy. While we could not hear them break, we could feel a lot of them through Gretta. Once she was done, Sarah took her place in the center. We had aimed for an area about eight to ten blocks. With all the energy, Sarah ended up healing a circular area nearly thirty blocks radius from where we stood. The palace was swept through in a half-circle around the front entrance nearly one hundred feed inward. Callie took her turn and focused on the right hand spire. It reformed quickly, almost as if it were molten. She reshaped it down to its base. Feeling the energy, she proceeded to reform the other one. When she had finished, both spires from base to tip were clean, smooth, and perfectly straight and symmetrical. Just as a kicker, she recolored the door bright pink. Alice, Anna, and I went next. Focusing on the north wall, we produced the mural of Maalicus' true death. We did not position ourselves in the mural so anyone could recognize us. The same with Kendar. We made Tharinzar and the giant demon look as if they were fading instead of vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Everything else was completely accurate. We turned it over to Lisa. She purified several fountains, a park area, and many private gardens. She, even, purified the attempt at a moat that encircled the palace. When she was done, requests to obliterate Cornwall's statue were spoken. All seven of us focused along with our companions. The statue was reduced to dust. We also destroyed Maalicus' fallen statue. Kendar, Rono, and Sadal volunteered to clean up. We thanked them and headed down to the room the innkeeper had assigned to us. We did not bother to undress and fell asleep nearly as soon as we laid down.