Measuring The Cost

The hesitation only lasted for a split second as Voah heeded Gonyaul’s advice and measured the cost

What would be the cost of her actions

Potentially the lives of a handful of Ozainae infidels, some giant scorpion babies, and the Blood witch? If fortune swung the other way, the cost would be her own life or that of Alcuin, or both. The faithful man was poised, ready to die for his faith and his people. If not today, at some point he may very well do so. It wasn’t something that Voah could likely change. So according to her, that was included in the cost of whatever came next. That was the Arbiter's thinking.

What was the reward for acting against the dark robes?

She would gain the favor of a pious man who was getting some revenge? How many Helian lives would be spared? Certainly more than a few. Could it delay the war? Who knew? But war was going to happen one way or another... It would come to Gra'akast or Ostiarium eventually.

She looked down at the scarring coyote bite and her bandaged wounds. The boon was gone. Even if she acted on the side of the Pillars and her people, she was certain it wouldn't be given back. What reward did Voah Sahnsuur have to look forward to? Some satisfaction that maybe she did the right thing?

There was no certainty... no guarantee that what she could do was even worth a damn. The best she could hope to win from anything in the end was a few more days with Gonyaul and a swift death from Vastad.

And what if she stayed her hands and walked away?

She would lose favor with one of the only people left that believed in her. Again Vastad's words came to her.

~Casualties of war...~

Voah certainly considered herself one, inadvertendly if not directly. Long after the great wars had passed, her life had still been defined and altered by the consequences, the ripples of fate from both sides. If war was what the Helians wanted, let them have it, along with their casualties. But that was the old spiteful Voah thinking.

Truth be told, the new Voah didn't want to see her people cut down. Of course she didn’t. Nor did she want to see the Arcadians be killed because her people had chosen to invade their land...

Although she had not earned the favor of the people of Gra’akast, she still had a desire to protect them and while the people of Ostiarium had shown her fear and distrust over time, she still felt that she still had some allegiance to them as Helians, her people.

The final decision came down to the history. Armed men with horses and armor couldn’t destroy the population of a city in a single moment. But Magik could easily best the brute force of sword and steel.

She had to play the equalizer and even out the playing field.