Penitence

Voah was looking very thin, tanned, and muscular and now she was fasting. It was almost like she had been for a while anyway because her diet since exploring the mines had been paltry and lean, consisting of mushrooms, bread, rations, and lean rabbit meat. It was just enough to keep her going.

She traveled so far she reached the east coast, further south than she had meant to ride. She would have to sleep in the area and continue on the next day.

She climbed the dunes, walking on foot next to Litany. There she stopped and meditated as the horse wandered the beach, for a while, then performed her kata for Cambena.

Next Voah lit the last bit of sage and incense she had holding it above her head as she sang a humble hymn and strode into the ocean.

It wasn’t called the Sea of Storms for nothing. Voah held her ground in the surf and the tide battling the endlessly rolling waves and fighting the rip currents.

She allowed herself to be battered and kept coming back for more, intentionally, never going far enough to pass the large cresting waves that broke upon the shallows. This was Voah’s own form of penitence and a firm reminder of how life was so unforgiving and you must keep fighting on.

It went on like this until the night came. Ereuhin was half pregnant but shining brightly down on the beach. As the large clouds rolled in, the night air became charged with energy and the sky above flashed with heat lightning. The horizon became an endless black abyss and she stayed until her body couldn’t fight anymore.

She was finally washed up on the beach, exhausted from the day, her whole body would be sore tomorrow. Voah unsteadily tread across the sand, scaring off small crabs underfoot that scuttled away sideways at inhuman speeds into the night.

She found that Litany was resting in the reeds. Before leaving the shore, Voah turned and prostrated herself in the sand, bowing her praise and once again asking forgiveness to the Lady of Sea and Storm. Her wounds had fully healed again without a trace.

It was cold on the dunes, so Voah gathered a large pile of driftwood and dug a hole to make a fire on the decline away from the wind.

She stripped naked and laid her waterlogged clothes out to dry. I mixture of elements left her oddly aroused, the electricity in the atmosphere, her time in the water, using her body, working hard toward something, and repeating her memories with Gonyaul over and over… but there was no avoiding sand so she decided against satisfying her increasing urges.

Instead she prayed to Hoi and just sat for a while, staring at the flashing sky and drying off before dressing in her other dry garments. She used sand to cover her feet and a shawl to cover some of her face for protection from animals and the elements and she curled herself up on the dune for a few hours of rest.

Tomorrow she thought she might finally come upon the Purger’s war camp.