Sanimar silently offers a prayer in dwarven and fidgets as she was at a loss for words, as she did not know Lara well. So, she remained silent glad that the contamination was purged. I should speak to the Flamekeeper about checking us for contamination after the Lara is laid to rest. 

Twinkleblossum remains silent as this is the only way she can think of to respect this solemn occasion.

Aster pauses before standing up.

"If I may, I'd like to offer a couple words to the deceased." he says before walking up to the pulpit himself.

"It'd be disingenuous to say I knew any of these things for certain about Lara. I only knew her for a short time, after all. That being said, I can't help but affirm that what has been already said is true. She was one of the best companions an adventurer could ask for, both in and out of the battlefield."

Aster took a brief pause before continuing. "Y'know, it's funny. Though I haven't known her long, there's no shortage of stories I can share. I can say for certain her sword arm was excellent. However...that's a story for another day. No, today, I can only recall a day not too long ago. Lara and I were helping a child that was rather ill. Ghastly complexion and all. I recall she took the initiative to approach and check on the child at all. I had only been asked to assist in perform the blessing as...well, I suppose someone like me would know a thing or two." Aster adds, gesturing to his attire.

He chuckles to himself before continuing. "I bring this up because I believe this demonstrates something mentioned earlier. Lara was said to have been 'a hero to her cause and people'. I can think of no better example than my story earlier to support such a claim. To me, Lara was someone that represented the best of us. One who'd play the hero for anyone, no matter how small the issue. After all, to Lara, it was never an act."

Aster would pause, clasping his hands while performing a short and silent prayer before stepping down and back into a pew.

Athalie quiets after a few minutes, tears running down her face as she wipes at them, looking up at Sanimar and Sarumir. "You... you are her companions?" she whispers. "Thank you... I know... I know you did whatever you could."

As Vervidia returns to the piano and Flamekeeper Hanna begins her ritual, Athalie staggers to her feet to move back out of the way, drawing the familiar holy gestures over herself as Hanna intones them over Lara's body. Though tears still run down her face, her outburst of grief seems to have given way to quiet resignation. Still, she hesitates as Hanna gives the pulpit, and is relieved when one of Lara's companions steps up instead.

She weeps anew at Aster's words. "That was my sister," she whispers, to no one in particular. "I was the first one she pulled from the fire, but there were so many others." And as Aster steps down, Athalie walks up to take his place.

Standing up at the pulpit herself, Athalie grips its carved wooden sides as she looks out over the decorations, the nave empty but for Lara's companions, the acolytes, and the Flamekeeper. "My name is Athalie. I'm Lara's sister. I can't thank you all enough," she starts out hesitantly, her voice still full with tears, "for the devotion you've all shown to my sister, when I wasn't here." Though tears stain her face, a kind of peaceful calm has come across her. "Lara is with the Flame now. I know she is. She lived her life only for the Flame. To bring its warmth and light to everyone she met. Lara was my hero all my life. We were born in Drakkenheim. We were here when the meteor hit. I was four years old. Lara pushed me down into the root cellar to protect me from the blast. And she got us both out of the city. I don't really remember Drakkenheim, or even our parents who perished in the blast. We grew up in Geldstadt, where Flamekeeper Macrina took us in. But Lara remembered. Lara was an orphan, and she had a heart for every other orphan, everyone who suffered or was alone. I wasn't as much of an orphan as she was, because I had her." Tears fill her eyes again. "Now I'm an orphan too. She stood up to take our parents' place, taking all her comfort in the Flame, in the example of Saint Tarna. Now it's my turn to stand up, and take her place, and let the Flame be my comfort. I know that she... I know... she's with the Flame now, and if I serve the Flame, that's the closest I can be to her now." Athalie bows her head.

"I wasn't the strong one. I was all over Geldstadt singing songs, playing, performing, getting all kinds of attention. We have an incredible opera house there. There's so much life, and creativity. I was all over town making a name for myself and hoping a handsome man of the nobility would give me a marriage proposal. While Lara was the one studying at the cathedral, praying and meditating. We lived kind of different lives, but it was to each other that we came to share all of our hopes and dreams. I knew how much she wanted to give her life to the Sacred Flame, to join the Silver Order and give her life to some great holy work. I admired that so much. I never felt like I lived up to anything like that. She... she wanted me to come with her, to Drakkenheim. But I could see that she understood how wrapped up I was in my life in Geldstadt. I had an admirer or two. I couldn't imagine leaving all that and going with her. But after she left... I realized how frivolous and empty my life was. Without her in it. So I followed her. And... and here I am. Oh, Flame have mercy on me, I was too late." Athalie puts her hands over her face, the emotion overcoming her for a moment. But she gathers her composure again. "I think Lara called me to come after her. I want to serve in her place. Serve the Flame. I realized that was all I wanted, when I left Geldstadt to come after her. To walk in her footsteps at her side. Now I will walk in her footsteps alone... but I know I'm not alone if I'm with the Sacred Flame. She's with me too."

Athalie lifts her head to look out over the nave. "If you'll accept me... I trained as a paladin too. What Lara's quest was, I will take it up. If you, her benefactors and companions, will have me, I want to be at your service too. And I'll still play for the Reeve's party since I promised him I would." Her earnest gaze meets Flamekeeper Hanna's, and Vervidia's, and then each of Lara's companions in turn, Sanimar, Sarumir, Aster, and Twinkleblossum. Then she makes a holy sign of the Flame across herself, grasps the holy symbol hanging around her neck for a moment, and steps down from the pulpit. She kneels again at Lara's side, bowing her head, and then she stands, taking up her leather cap and putting it on, and reverently lifting her sword from where she had lain it on Lara's body. Turning to face the altar with the blazing braziar, she drops to one knee, and holds her sword up. "My sword in service to the Sacred Flame, to all who suffer, to bring the Divine Light to the darkness that befouled this city where the Keenflows were born. We have returned to help set it free."

She bows deeply, touching her forehead to the ground, and then stands, sheathes her sword, and turns and walks back to the pews to join the others, her head held up high in hope despite her grief.

"Of course, you can join our party, and I am glad you have taken up Lara's quest." says Sanimar with a momentary smile. Once the funeral is done she seriously considers just leaving as she is truly tired and wounded but she thought it best to speak with her now "Flamekeeper can you check us for contamination?" 

Sarűmir stays silent. However, he nods his head and looks Athalie right in the eyes when Sanimar says she can join.

Vervidia shuffles in her seat and watches as Flamekeeper Hanna steps down. She turns over to Sarűmir when he ushers he to the side. "At night? Well... it is when the haze dies down. I guess that was a viable strategy. But, yeah, that's when most monsters come out."

"There is a mill up around north that most people stop at first. Maybe that would be a better spot- or taking the Drann." She then realizes the first part of the question and stiffens. She sucks in her teeth and then draws a breathe. 

"Yes," she rubs her left arm, "I did know Lara was going in there. I couldn't believe it. Ophelia Re- Reed..." Her gaze drops down. It then turns towards a door at the end of two arches. "I am so sorry... to you guys. This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Don't go back there," she meets your eyes with genuine sorrow and shakes her head, "It's not worth it." She gestures towards the whole thing. She doesn't give you much time to respond before she goes back to her seat.

 Hanna tilts her head and mouths 'what happened?'. Vervidia shakes her head 'nothing.' Hanna huffs but nods and looks up at the pulpit. 

"You are a truly wonderful speaker," Hanna clasps her hands and bows towards Aster when he gets off the pulpit. Nearly both Vervidia and Hanna starts to cry. All of the other acolytes stay silent in polite recompense, though there are some sniffles in the background.  

Vervidia gasps when Athalie says she wants to go back. It's not loud but seeing as she sat by the first row, you definitely heard it. Hanna looks nearly pale. 

The lower acolyte tries to give play it off with a weak thumbs up. 

Once the funeral is over and the body is given a procession down the pews into the courtyard where Flamekeeper Hanna leads the flock, holding up that continual flame staff up high. Vervidia follows in the back. You end up around the backyard of the chapel, past the small elevated garden to a rock wall etched with names. There Hanna stops.

"Here will lie Lara Keenflow, whose soul burned too bright-" 

Hanna lifts the staff just above the body.

"Like the star she was, she will light the night."

And with that she lightly puts it down, the edge just touching Lara. In an instant, the body turns to ashes. With sweat beading own her forehead, and though the flame never gives off any heat of its own, Hanna has to steady herself. In the course of a few minutes and silence from the mourners, the ashes gather and soon enough form rock.

"She will take her place among the others that the Flame has took from us too soon. Yet we know that the Torch has its reasons, for the world is mysterious that way." She carves in with that same staff Lara's name and the date that is today: March 5th, 1126. She places this stone on top of the others. She then kneels and prays and has to stop herself from an uncordial sob.

Flamekeeper Hanna, once she gets up, puts her hand on Athalie's shoulder and asks, "Are you sure you want to do this? Would you like for me to go over the details?" She gets surprised by Sanimar's tap. "Oh! Yes, of course. I will go check on it right away. And you do look dreadfully tired, would you like to stay in one of Silver Order rooms?" She has already started moving, ushering you over to the chapel once again (Vervidia follows). Hanna inhales. Her fingers can not stop shaking.

"I- I think I can only do one right now."

((Everyone has gotten PMs on their current contamination status!))

As Sanimar and Sarumir welcome her, Athalie smiles through her sadness. "Thank you... I know I cannot match Lara's faith, or her generosity, or her prowess on the field." Her voice drops to a whisper. "But by the mercy of the Flame, I will aspire to it."

Athalie carries the torch in the procession. Sometimes, she holds her head high, looking up past the flame in her hand as the haze in the sky blots out the sunlight, and sometimes bowing her head as if in sudden grief. She kneels, holding the torch, while Flamekeeper Hanna conducts the ritual, and finds her eyes blurring over with tears again as Lara's body disintegrates into ash. Yet another piece of her sister, taken away... but taken away to be with the Flame, to be the light in the darkness. To Athalie, there is no light in the darkness now, at least not that she can see. But sometimes we must learn to open our eyes again when they have closed in weariness and sorrow.

She stands up as Hanna finishes, and looks up tearfully to meet her gaze. "I'm sure. It's what I came here to do... help Lara. Please, tell me everything I need to know." She looks around at Lara's companions, realizing she's not too sure what's wrong with them, but there is no mistaking their exhausted and wounded state. "Lara's companions... they've been battling all night. I'll stay here, and play for the Reeve's party, while they rest. Flamekeeper Hanna.... thank you... thank you for putting my sister to rest in the Flame... I could not have done it alone." Her voice cracks a little.

Sanimar sees her strands of hair in her hand and there are clear worry lines on her face. She follows Hanna to the offered room "Yes that would be lovely. I see more strands of my hair is falling out. Please check me when you can" 

"I think we may of been contaminated, I have blisters and my nails are a little loose." Twinkleblossum flies over and lands near where Sanimar and Hanna are, "Let Sanimar go first, I'll wait my turn."

Sarűmir sniffs himself, then shakes his body like a wolf drying off their fur. "I do not feel anything, so I shall wait for the rest of you with Athalie here."

"You're welcome. It's no trouble at all. You are a sister of our faith." Flamekeeper Hanna looks to Athalie with such soft eyes, "Okay." Though her own breath is shaky, she puts her hand on your shoulder. "But do not be too harsh on yourself." 

"The world is already tough as it," Vervidia follows up with. They seem to recognize that you're going through. Taking up the charge and seeing everyone else so downtrodden and glum, battered and bruised, while you aren't. Yet, you just lost someone special, didn't you? Survivor's guilt, you recall, something that many of those who survived Drakkenheim but loved ones didn't had a hard time getting through. In fact, you'e never really sure if anyone was able to recover... or could.

"My dear!" she looks aghast to see you hair falling out, "yes, of course." But then when Twinkleblossum also mentions her contamination, it seems her heart sinks. The blisters come into focus in her eyes now under a new light. "I don't know which one is worse." She inhales, "Okay. Let us go first." She nods over at Sanimar and starts walking then stops, "I am truly sorry. I- I can only cast these three a day. I didn't expect there to be so many. We don't get this much at on- most people-"

"Sis is the best healer I know. That's why she's the highest," Vervidia nudges her younger sister then whispers, "You got this."

"Yes, maybe after a short rest, I can do another," Hanna smiles though just as soon it falters, "I am terribly sorry. In the meantime, you may take up residence here for a short minute. The party will be in a few but maybe that will rest your nerves easy." She nervously laughs.

@Sanimar

Flamekeeper Hanna ushers Sanimar to follow her to a small room east of the entryway. There there is a large clay fountain flowing with holy water and a small pillowed bench for you to sit on. She places the now flame-free staff down and dips her hands in it. "I'll say the blessing and then purge you, okay? Is that okay? This... this may sting a bit," she grimaces, squeezing your hand. Even the holy water on her hands seems to sting yours just a little. "Two cases in one day.... you poor things." She shakes her head.

"Okay."

She breathes deeply.

"May the light of the river of the flow of the earth coming shining down upon this rock," she motions to break the stone transfixed at the top of the fountain with the staff but instead the staff lights up and sparks a fire. She makes a kite-like symbol upon your head (the torch is what this symbol is called) and takes her staff and dips it into the water, which doesn't douse it. "Let it rain down upon her, may the Flame cleanse. Wash away the sickness, make it all end. With our fiery devotion, remove all impurities of thine!" 

The flame washes down upon you and engulfs you. Oh it burns, in the way that a fever does to heal your body, yes, it hurts, but after a while, it subsidies and then it ends. You come to realize that it was in only mere seconds but it felt like hours. Hanna smiles to see you are now all better.

You gain one level of exhaustion. You can barely walk across the room without wanting to sit down for a while.

@Athalie, Twinkleblossum, Sarűmir, and Aster

Vervidia talks with Athalie mainly as soon as Hanna is out of earshot but lets the others listen in as well. "Look, you really shouldn't-" she hesitates, "I shouldn't be telling you this, but this mission just got a bit more worse for the wear. There are reports of mephits out there in the ruins."

"And apparently they cry if you're wearing purple," she snickers, then sighs. "If you're really so keen..." she meditates on these words for a bit and gives a forced chuckle, "the scepter should be in the crypts- from what I've deduced there anyways. There are two crypts: one north, one south."

She starts drawing you a map on some parchment by the desk in this room she led you in. She scribbles in one long oval there three small circles to the right. She connects all three to the fist symbol by a long rectangle. "The last one down is the catacombs."

"Be careful, please," she hugs Athalie and looks away, "there will be bodies, not just of the ones of the living."

Even though it took only a moment there are beads of sweat on Sanimar's forehead and her skin takes on a more reddish tone as if she has been standing in the sun too long. She is completely spent, and she hobbles forward channeling her dwarven stubbornness to reach a chair before she slumps down exhausted. 

She takes a moment to compose herself and looks to her companion. "Sarumir you seem unaffected can you help me reach the offered Silver Order room?" 

He turns to Sanimar, then crosses his arms. "What, do you want me to carry you, too?", he says as a small grin crosses his face, which suddenly assumes a somber expression as he remembers the last person he had to carry: Lara.

"I don't need to be carried. Just someone to lean on" says Sanimar. She would usually chuckle at Sarumir's remark, but she is too tired for that. 

Twinkleblossum lands and takes the nearest seat, probably on a pew, and awaits her turn. "Don't worry about me. I'll just rest here if that's ok until you're ready for me." She doesn't even look in the direction of Hanna or anyone else finding it an effort to even move her head unnecessarily.

"I've heard stories about the contamination, even witnessed it's effect on others a few times, once when it went bad and again when it could be reversed." Twinklebloosum's eyes suddenly shoot open and she looks at her nearest companion while casting Mage Hand reflexively.

Several of the playful pixies contort themselves like circus acrobats into the vague shape of a hand and Twinkleblossum has them reach for the shoulder of her nearest companion to get their undivided attention, "If the taint of contamination is ever so bad to claim me like... like it did with... with tentacles... and anything worse... Please! Burn any remains! Don't let it spread and if it can be helped... helped at all, in any way, don't let me become one of those horrors. The very thought of it... repulses me! Please! It's my wish not to be... perverted in that way if it can be helped. Please!" and then her head will slump in resignation as she waits for Hanna to finish her short rest after helping Sanimar.

@Weathervision

Sarűmir nods, then helps to pull her out of the chair. He props her up against his hip, his stomach being about top-of-the-head level with Sanimar, due to her being a dwarf. He puts his arm over her shoulder.

(Let me know if I should edit this. I don't know Sanimar's exact height, I just know she's a dwarf.)

That description is fine as she is short. 

Athalie nods to Flamekeeper Hanna. "What we do is... is to be a Light in the darkness. There's a lot of darkness here... so there needs to be more lights. I'm just... taking up mine." She's still holding the torch from the procession, as she looks back towards the wall of stones that marks the burial place of so many, and now of her beloved sister. Her throat tightens. "We've lost a great light... but more will come to replace her."

Worriedly, she looks back at Sanimar as Flamekeeper Hanna takes her off to heal her. And at Twinkleblossum, who also looks battered down. "Whatever you faced in that city, that took Lara's life," she says, "it must have been truly horrific. I... I'm still so sorry that I didn't arrive in time to be there to help." She sets the torch back in its holder. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to stop this corruption. Maybe I can't do very much, but I believe that the Flame did not lead us here for no purpose. There... there is something I was meant to do. I thought it was to help Lara, and maybe it was. Just, she's not here with me anymore. But I will be here for her. And for you. And for everyone who suffers from what has happened to Drakkenheim. Lara and I suffered first when the meteor fell... it took many years for us to be ready to come back and do our part... but here we are. I mean... here I am." Tears fill her eyes.

"I do want to go," she says to Vervidia. "I know it's dangerous, but... I really am so keen... Keenflow, in fact." She smiles widely as Vervidia chuckles. "Tell me what a mephit is, because I've never heard of one." She looks over the map with Vervidia, nodding and trying to commit what she's been told to memory. She returns the acolyte's hug. "I promise I'll be careful."

Turning to Twinkleblossum and Sarumir, and Sanimar as she returns looking exhausted, Athalie hesitates. Her hands hold tightly the piece of parchment with the map of the crypt and catacombs drawn on it. She looks down at it, and then at the beaten down frames of Lara's companions. She wants so badly to go, to charge into the ruins, sword drawn, to reclaim this holy relic in Lara's name. But she knows she can't do it alone, and these poor survivors of the horrors that took Lara's life are in no shape to go right now. So she holds the parchment, and doesn't say anything, watching them with wide eyes. "Can I do anything to help?" she whispers.

"More will come," Vevidia whispers with a small smile at forlorn eyes.

Staring at the sad state of Twinkleblossum, Vervidia sucks in a breath. "It won't come to that I promise." She looks down again, dejected. "We couldn't do any of our burials the way anymore. I'm sorry it wasn't the traditional way. We should have told you earlier. That's just how it's been starting a long time."

"But it means that no one will be turning into a monster after they die." She realizes that may not be as comforting to someone who doesn't want to be dying. "With my sister you're in great hands. Contamination, as long as it can be helped, can be staved. We've had many on the brink of turning..."

"You're not feverish yet, are you?"

Vervidia jumps to her feet at the exhausted Sanimar. "Are you-" she holds her tongue once the dwarf asks for Sarűmir to go help first. Her shoulders seem to sag as she takes in the weighted scene around her. She gives a pained smile over to Athalie then over to the two who are heading towards the room (which she gestures is down the hall and to the right) before looking back at Athalie, Twinkleblossum, and Aster. "She'll be alright. The purging... it takes time like that," she rubs her neck, "She'll be better in about two hours, I believe." Hanna comes lumbering out of the room Sanimar had been in, taking time to lean against a wall before coming out at standing tall. 

"Han-"

She stands under an arch with the staff upright. "It has been... such a day. Whoo," she says. She looks down to the floor then over at Twinkleblossum.

"Okay, I think- I think I can actually do one more next," Hanna wipes some sweat off her forehead. She takes a second to steady. herself, holding onto the staff with all her might, "Okay."

Vervidia frowns. "Are- are you sure? You've been running all around since last week," Vervidia steps up towards her sister, "With this morning and the Reeve's party and all this... you haven't slept. You've been up practically 8 days..."

The bags under her eyes seem to creep up to the flamekeeper. "I-"

"We can't have another like last time," she pats her sister on the back, "Ophelia Reed will be here soon. She can do it for them later." Hanna seems to resign, looking over to you with sad eyes before nodding and heads down a corridor. "Yes, I supposed a long... ger rest will do me some good."

Vervidia turns over to you all. "I'm sorry. I would- but. But none of us others can. But the High Flamekeeper will be here soon!" She fiddles with her fingers. "You... you will be okay. Just-" she frowns with all her teeth visible, "do not lay your head down too long. It- it actually makes it worse. I will.... I will go get you some ointment... for the blisters. Yeah. And some tea!"

"Maybe some music? To keep you up?" she shrugs and her smile gets even more awkward as it heads towards a whine.

She begins climbing some stairs before she stops and climbs down. "Mephits. Right. They are these like ugh mean imp-y things," she makes a pinch with her right hand, "No, they're bigger." She gestures again with her hands nearly holding up a ball.

A loud knock is heard from even all the way down these stairs. "FLAMEKEEPER HANNA!"

"Oh boy..."

She makes a face. "The Reeve."