Caio nods and Ghoul obeys, flying off back towards the priors. “Consequences bring clarity.” he responds with his typical callous pragmatism. “We should reign the nightmare in now, before it can hunt. Give me the spurs.”

Shiva whips her head towards Caio, glaring at him for his impersonal manner about their situation, as well as having taken her arm. But the anger melts into exhaustion, and she hands over the spurs. "Yes, I'd be responsible if she took a bite out of innocent people. And I wouldn't want her to see me like this anyway." Shakily, she begins making her way back to camp. "Click them together to summon her here, then click them again to dismiss her back to that shadow plane."  

The inquisitor takes the spurs into his hands, walks a few paces away from the others, then clicks them together with decisive confidence.

A familiar cloud of smoke erupts from the spurs as they connect, before falling to the ground to reveal Énbarr. The nightmare whinnies smugly at Shiva and tosses its mane, before glaring down at Caio. The fiend stamps at the ground and breathes hot air in its new master's face.

Caio is unimpressed by the fiend's bravado. He responds with an impatient sigh then immediately clicks the spurs again, sending her back to the Shadowfell. "We're done here." He turns to leave, discarding the spurs back into Shiva's hand as he goes.

Quote from ZeeOfIstus >>

With a nod to Alaris, Shiva moves onward with her party through the forest. The stares and whispers of the pilgrims and holy men do not escape her, as Énbarr's appearance looks to have inspired a deeper mistrust. "Whatever. Once we drop them off I'll never have to deal with them. They can go **** themselves."

The following afternoon, as the caravan halts for a short rest, Shiva decides that now is as good a time as any. She alerts Caio of her intentions before finding a small clearing not far from the group. Walking out to its center, she takes a deep breath and clinks the spurs together.

As the foursome returns to the waiting travelers, Alaris accepts the fearful and restless grumbling from the priors without complaint and urges everyone onward.

Once they make camp for the night, Alaris makes their way towards the carriage where the priors are stretching after the long, bumpy ride.

"Brother Ludomir, I am sorry for my earlier frustration. I have been thinking about what you said, and we believe the best course of action for us is to explain to you all what's been happening with Shiva, and seek your wisdom for how best to move forward." The paladin begins to explain the strange harassment Shiva has been experiencing -- pausing to let her fill in any gaps and omitting any mention of the communication from their second selves -- and gestures at her lifeless arm.

With some trepidation, Shiva goes into detail about her experiences with her inner demon and her understandings. Following Alaris's lead, she omits any mention of Shivala Ki-Tanra and finishes with the earlier events of the day. Dismissive of the priors, she huffs before looking to Brother Ludomir. "Do you know anything of tieflings like me? Or of someone who may? Or even just a way to fix my arm?"

Brother Ludomir lets out a good-natured chuckle when he hears Shiva's first question.

"My dear, I'm afraid that I cannot say that I've ever met anybody quite like you," he tells with tiefling with gentle smile. "Thank you for trusting me with this, Alaris, both of you."

The aging monk looks out past the pair and west towards where the great silver orb of the moon is rising steadily over the looming conifers of Ostroga forest. Since around midday the travellers have finally put the shadows of the dense woodland behind them, in favour of the grassy hills that trim the foot of the Hirn mountains.

"Even amongst the Lady's faithful, only a chosen few are blessed with the ability to manifest Her light," Ludomir intones solemnly. "It is both an honour and a burden. Fewer still can bring her power to bear as dramatically as Bogatyr Forien here," he adds with an affectionate grin. "This is one of many reasons that they are trusted with your charge. Fortunately, my brothers and I are not without our own talents." The monk throws a glance towards where Priors Branok and Beinidict watch over Vida's relic. "Nevertheless, to invoke Her light out here on the open road risks drawing the attention of threats that you find yourself ill-prepared to repel," Ludomir explains, nodding meaningfully to Shiva's inanimate arm. The tiefling's fingertips have slowly begun to darken from a brilliant azure to something closer to indigo. "Tomorrow we will arrive in Mingol Bar. Let us rest, recover our strength and, safe within the walls of the Dwarves, we will see what the Lady tells us of your plight. If your heart is true, perhaps she will grant you your salvation."

Shiva chuckles at Brother Ludomir's initial answer, but her expression darkens as she grasps what the holy man is suggesting. "I don't think we have that kind of time, sir." Looking down to the discoloration of her hand, she steels herself in anticipation of struggle and pain. "Thank you for your advice, Brother Ludomir. You all have a good evening."

Walking back to the Septum's side of camp, Shiva rests in the posture that she had taken when trying to commune with the demon earlier in the day. Desperation weighs down her breathing into quick inhales and labored exhales as she tried to focus on the force of chaos within her. Dropping down into herself, she again finds the presence. Thinking back to what Ki-Tanra had told her, memories of meeting Alaris with Ling and Nikolai suddenly come flooding back. Who the paladin had been to her upon walking into that cell couldn't have been further from who they are now, and she takes a deep breath as she decides on something beyond reckless. Approaching the roiling maelstrom of the demon's inner expression, she strides directly into it. She does not yell, instead speaking barely above a whisper. "This body is mine. You are a part of me." Reaching out with her right arm, she takes hold of the darkness before her with unwavering confidence. "We will act to protect our life and the lives of those we love. Move with me, not against me, and maybe we'll survive."

The malign will of the demon strikes out, but she remains steady and undeterred. She feels the power and tension in her chest, the demon baleful and looming. Then a lapse, an opportunity to take control as the force falters, and Shiva seizes it and forces the fiendish energy down into her gut. She then redirects it into her arm, which breaks out into the sensation of pins and needles as sparks leap between her fingers and fizzle off into the night. Feeling then fully returns to her arm, and she flexes her hand to join the sparks into a strong current of blue electricity. The vibrant azure tone of her skin returns while the limb itself expands as it had done before, and she smiles with self-assurance. But something is still wrong, the limb continuing to expand up and outward, and a scorching pain causes her to cry out. 

Focusing on the pain, she bares down on the energy transforming her arm and it ceases. She exhales in relief, then moves the still-gigantic arm with a chuckle. "Hey guys, I think I need some help."

"Why is she so stubborn..." Alaris growls to themselves and kicks a divot in the ground before bowing to the brothers and following Shiva with the rest of the decreasingly accurately named Septem. Before they make it back to their side of the camp, Alaris begins.

"We are guarding a divine relic and being hunted by fiendish forces. We've heard them in the night. Our powers -" Alaris gestures towards the priors' carriage, "are not exactly stealthy... you've seen how my gifts tend to light up the room! We must be patient... Astrid, you're a priestess of --" Alaris cuts off as Shiva drops into her meditative stance. "Oh, so we're doing this..."

Quote from ZeeOfIstus >>

Focusing on the pain, she bares down on the energy transforming her arm and it ceases. She exhales in relief, then moves the still-gigantic arm with a chuckle. "Hey guys, I think I need some help."

Alaris gazes at the massive moon and thinks back over their Volkfelder training. "Any power I use to try and help will be a beacon in the darkness to anything and everything hunting us."

"Ok. Well it looks like my arm isn't dying anymore, and the demon and I have reached a kind of agreement, so I don't see any harm in trying to fix it tomorrow." She stands and stretched, sending the massive right arm up into the night air. "Maybe there will be someone in Five Towers who could help me understand and control the demon. It may even be whoever it is that Jonathan wants us to find." With a big yawn, Shiva walks over to her belongings and uses her arm as a pillow to lie down for the night. Within minutes she can be heard gently snoring. 

The first night under clear skies rather than a dense canopy is the most peaceful in almost a week. Ostroga forest leaves one with the feeling that it is closing in around them and the fresh air beneath the watchful eye of Astrid's ancestral mountains is a weight off of everybody's chest. Besides a few crows calling in the dark, the night passes peacefully and everybody awakens the next day feeling ready to face the challenges ahead.

As the travelers rise to meet the morning, Shiva expeditiously-if not clumsily-gathers her belongings and sits down to focus on her incongruently-large right arm. Drawing on the demon, she directs the flow of power downward into a controlled circuit before beginning to pull from what had been stuck in her arm. Slowly, the limb reverts to its normal size. But the time and concentration needed take their toll, and Shiva is left breathless and sweating by the time the process is complete.

Moving her fingers, immense relief floods her body with endorphins. "Losing a limb would've made surviving this kind of work a lot damn harder."  "Yeah, that was a very close call. But I can feel the change that you've brought about with the demon, and you should be proud of what you've done. It was no small feat." "Thanks. Though I got the idea from Ari. The harder I fought, the harder it would push back. Speaking of which..."

Reaching into her pocket, she retrieves the spurs and clinks them together.

Énbarr appears in the usual flurry of smoke and shadow. As usual, she looks down her nose at Shiva with disdain, but seems otherwise resigned to the situation.

Shiva stands tall before the nightmare, her expression tranquil. "I hope that you've considered my offer." She extends her hands out in front of her fiery mount, keeping them relaxed to signal that there is no ill-intent. "Now, make your choice. Live the rest of your days in captivity." She raises her right hand up to Enbarr's eye-level. "-Or live free, albeit conditional freedom." She raises her left hand. "But do well to remember, to walk with me is to hunt only those I allow you to. If you hurt or kill others without my permission or attempt to escape me, I will become a creature more horrible than you have ever witnessed and my endless rows of sharp teeth will tear you apart."

For a brief moment, the red glow in Énbarr's eyes swells angrily in response to the ultimatum, but then Shiva's lips part in something between a grin and a snarl. The tiefling's mouth slowly opens, her jaw stretching unnaturally to reveal row upon row of pointed shark-like teeth. A transformation to make her words reality.

Reluctantly, the nightmare lowers her head in submission.

Closing her hyper-extended jaws, Shiva smiles politely. "I'm glad that we have an accord." She feels a touch of both pride and disquiet at how easily she was able to drastically alter her body as she runs a hand through the flames of the nightmare's mane. With equal ease, she drops the transformation and feels the many teeth recede into her and dissolve. "I would've needed to concentrate to do that not too long ago. But the change came with barely a thought just now."  "Perhaps you don't need as much help as you think."

Now that Énbarr had made the choice that she'd hoped for, Shiva walks around to the horse's side and undoes the buckles and knots that kept the tack fixed to her, tossing it all into the grass. With a bit of time, she replaces what she had removed with the saddle of the horse she had previously been riding, fitting the dark tack to the mundane horse. Hauling herself up onto her fiendish mount, she looks to the others and gives a thumbs up. "We ready to head out soon?"

Caio watches the scene with arrow notched and skepticism plain on his face. “Yes. But if the guards at Mingol Bar give you issue for your choice of steed I hope you won’t take it personally when we claim not to know you.” 

"Shit. Right. Um...Énbarr, can you bind yourself to me so that I can call you forth when needed? You are free to roam the other planes however you like when you are not by my side."

Énbarr stares at Shiva blankly for a few moments before snorting loudly and lifting her head to sniff the air. The nightmare then begins to canter off away from the carriage and towards a nearby hill.