Connections

Celestia began to position herself to move forward, but the beginning of Katya's speech brought a halt to her intentions.

"Unlike my loud-mouthed friend, I am very well aware of the range of my authority. Go if you wish, tell everyone who we are, and while you are at it, tell them why we were coming as well. Believe it or not, we were not going to your backward country to smite all of the wicked people that live there. Instead, we were sent to find a Verden noblewoman by the name of Sabina Hoyt Hibiscus who stole a very dangerous text from our library and fled to Dalen with it. If this text, which is a tome written on necromantic spells by none other than the infamous Galathus Kelmoran, falls into the wrong hands, both of our kingdoms could find ourselves in dire straights. If I am wrong about you, and your heart is as golden as your eyes like my companion seems to believe, then maybe you can do something about the coming plague, because I can't do anything about it any longer without the proper diplomatic agreement, the kind of agreement that will take way too long to make, by which time the situation may get out of hand."

It seems that Celestia ran into the right duo, at the right time. There were multiple paths that could be taken with Katya's request, and she laid them all out mentally during the silence that rested between them. She could, A) Tell Dalen authorities, though that would serve no positive to her own agenda, as she has been warned not to return to the heart of Dalen due to her criminal acts; B) Find the book herself, use it, get multiple Saints to perish in doing so, which would fulfill at least a year’s worth of debt; C) do nothing, and hope that Katya and Simon never find the book at all, leaving Hell to reign on earth; or D) help.

Celestia looked down at her feet and then eyed her bag. If she gave them the small bottle of her blood and one of them drank the contents, they would be entirely guarded by the dark magic they might come across while traveling. The rest of the bag’s contents would be entirely useless to them. She could point them in the direction of her family’s home, after all, her mother could use a tracking spell to find a general location of the book. Celestia decided against the idea of giving them anything of her own- if Simon knew she was practicing then it would cause a doubt in Celestia, that for some reason she wanted so badly to avoid. Gripping the strap of her bag, she sighed and looked up to Katya.

“I cannot be of any use to you. I won’t tell Dalen authorities that you are here, it isn’t my business anyway,” biting her lip, she scanned the tent in hopes Simon was no longer awake before continuing, “My mother could be of help to you, though. That is, only if you are willing to tolerate the use of magic.”