Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [29]
She couldn't believe she'd been brought here, but she hadn't dared argue with the messenger. Lathander had sent a deva, a creature of pure goodness made corporeal, to summon her. The deva had resembled a young man with milky white skin and silver hair and, of course, wings of shining white feathers. As he had approached her in the streets of Sigil, several persons had scurried off in fear, while others had stood staring in openmouthed awe.
The deva could have taken the last piece of the Hand of Bane back to Lathander, but the celestial creature had insisted that Holly was to bring it in person. Since then, the paladin had spent hours in fruitless speculation of what purpose her coming here might serve. Now that she had arrived and was possibly only moments from learning the answer, the suspense made her nervous. The honor was more than she'd ever imagined she'd be paid in her lifetime, and she was only sixteen. Morning Glory, Lathander's realm, was a land of perpetual dawn, and Holly found its rosy hues breathtakingly lovely. Yet the realm's beauty did not bring her a perfect peace. She was afraid that the thing she hoped for most would not come to pass. The paladin's first vision from Lathander had awakened in her a desire to devote herself more fully to her god. Her arrival in Sigil and subsequent visits to other planes had opened her eyes to how much wider her world could be. Ever since Bors Sunseed had told her there were beings called proxies, mortals who understood their gods' purposes and desires and worked directly to achieve them, Holly knew that was what she wanted to be. Such a decision was not hers to make, however. Lathander alone could decide her worthiness. Yet Holly wasn't even sure if she'd been summoned to meet the Morninglord.
A freckled redheaded woman surrounded by a radiant aura came out of a room in the back of the temple. She wore the red-hued robes of Lathander's clergy. As she approached she smiled at the young paladin.
"Bright dawning, Holly Harrowslough. Welcome to Morning Glory," the priestess greeted her.
'Bright dawning, Dawnbringer," Holly replied. For some reason the paladin felt completely at ease in the priestess's presence. Holly's nervousness subsided. She found herself grinning uncontrollably.
"I am Aurora Brightday," the priestess introduced herself. "I've been asked to speak with you before the Morninglord is ready to see you. He's busy with a task of some importance at the moment. Let's walk, shall we?" the priestess suggested, leading Holly from the temple back outside into the dawn light. "How was your journey here?" she asked as they strolled through an orchard of peach trees.
"Fine," Holly replied. "I'm sorry I got a late start. I was hoping to see a friend before I left Sigil."
"But it only took you a day to arrive. You made good time," Aurora noted.
"I traveled mostly by riverboat," Holly explained.
"Any adventures?" Aurora asked with a gleam in her eyes.
"I rescued a little girl's doll that fell in the water," Holly said, jokingly recalling her minor act of heroism.
Aurora smiled. "Anything else?"
"Before I reached the river port, I spent a while speaking with an asuras who was guarding a bridge over the river," Holly said. She didn't really think Aurora would find the encounter notable, but for Holly it had been most interesting. She'd never met one of the flame-winged, talon-footed asuras before, and the one at the bridge had been the finest figure of a man Holly had ever seen.
"It is said that those who face the examination of the asuras at the bridge are blessed for a short while with his gift to tell truth from lie," Aurora said. "What did you talk about?" she asked.
"About the battle over the Hand of Bane," Holly replied. "Do you know about that? Lathander sent me orders to get the hand and destroy it, but I couldn't fight my friend Joel to take it away from him. His god wanted to trade it for his own stolen power, but the banelich they were dealing with betrayed them. They finally destroyed the banelich