Deep, malevolent laughter booms through the dragon's cave.  Delunaur shrugs free of Klale's grip on her shoulders, though it seems with considerably more effort than she first thought to use.  Her eyes burst into intense orbs of red flame that leak out and poor down her cheeks like running lava.  The laughter continues as the flames spread all over her body.

The heat is so intense, those who stand near save for Klale are in danger of being burned severely.

Oddly, the carving and the vapor do not appear to be affected by the fire.

Klale takes hold again and repeats his pleas.

Toben continues to hold the chalice up to Delunaur as the waves of heat wash over him. With each successive increase in heat, his physical fortitude begins to waver. His skin becomes more and more red, the hair on his knuckles begin to singe, and the smell of burnt hair starts to form around him.

His only recourse is magic. He holds his breath, and with his free hand, begins to summon forth bits of earth to aid him. Small layers of clay begin to form around his free hand, almost like a glove, but made out of a ceramic-like material. As the last piece folds into place, he raises his hand in the air and the glove slides off and continues levitating towards the chalice. The disembodied ceramic hand wraps its fingers around the base of the chalice just as Toben release his own and staggers backward, gasping for breath.

Toben puts a little more distance between himself and Delunaur to escape the heat while the earthen mage hand keeps the chalice close enough to remain effective. The ceramic plates of the hand begin to glow red as the heat climbs higher and higher.

"Remember Delunuar, this is your choice. Not his."

Toben casts Mage Hand (Earth) modified by Silent Spell.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:49, Wed 20 Mar 2019.

Klale's muscles bulge as he restrains the Maia.  The flames engulf him, but he is not consumed.  What sweat forms on his brow is from his own exertion, not from the heat.

The Malevolent laughter rings again but seems to recede a bit.  When Delunaur speaks again, it is only her voice.  "I cannot do this.  He is too strong."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:00, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

A voice from the entrance to the cavern speaks softly in reply.  "Nonsense.  You struggle because you dont believe you have the choice the others have spoken of.  The evidence to the contrary is all around you."

Delunaur looks up at the strangely dressed figure.  It is the odd man from the bar, Forn.  Behind him is a rather large red dragon cradling a large baby boy.  Delunaur shakes her head.  "Melkor is too strong."

Forn laughs with laughter from the belly, full of mirth and joy.  "Melkor!  HA!  Melkor was cast out.  He has no power in Arda.  You've been deceived by your brethren.

Empavausan-hugi, Dúath'gûr, let your sister be.  I see through your tricks, Emp.  Your binding power is broken, Dischord of Earth.  These men have shown her the way of light.  The Hobbit carving is unburned as was foretold.  The blood of one turned from pure evil mixed with the tears of champions has broken your spell.

Be gone from her.  Delunaur has chosen Eru Iluvatar."

When Forn says the last name, a blast of radiant energy emanates from Delunaur.  The flames draw into her, red and angry, but swiftly absorbed.  They burst forth again in golden fire.

The fire transforms Delunaur.  Her hair turns from ashen white to golden.  Her skin from charcoal grey to a glowing light tan.  The red flame of her eyes intensifies to crystal blue.  Even her clothes become something new.  Instead of the harsh dark leathers she wears a shimmering white dress, an array of fire drop gems adorning her collar, sleeves, and waist.

The red dragon chuckles at the display.  "Show off."

From the dark ceiling above, a malevolent voice echoes in whispers.  "This isn't over, Bombadil.  The Son of Iluvatar has interfered.  There will be a balancing of the scales."  A rumbling of the ground follows then - not one, but two presences depart.

Gwaelind rushes to embrace Delunaur as Klale steps back.  The blacksmith's fierce grip long abandoned since the transformation.  Gwaelind kisses her lips, her cheeks, her head, the holds her at arm length to look into her eyes.

Delunaur smiles happily back at him.

Gwaelind turns to the one called Forn.  "Tom!  So good to see you!  You  broke their hold!"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:04, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

As the Lady Flamewind is coming into her own self, Klale—breathing deep through his mouth—lets go and slumps to one knee. He fumbles for his waterskin.

Tom chuckles merrily.  "I didn't do a thing, my boy, except put the correct name to the bullies messing with your gal.  Truth be told, Melkor ain't too happy with them boys.  He's changing his tune a little these days but Duathgur and Empy are still trying to be thugs.

As my daddy always says, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against itself falls'.

The true heroes are these men and even their elfin friend here to an extent.  They brought together all the stuff that sage was told to write down.  He got a little creative with they why's and the wheretofores, but at least he got enough of it to do what needed to be done."

Tom/Forn looks at Delunaur who is beaming.  "Ultimately the real power lay with Delunaur all along.  Eru designed the world to be a soul forge.  Every soul He made has the capacity for free will.  Even the Ainur.  That's why Melkor could rebel as he did in the first place that started all this conflict.  Those Ainur who left with Melkor chose to.  But they should realize, as long as there is life, there is choice.  It's hard once the choice for evil has been made, to choose good again.  Delunaur has been choosing good for a long time now.  Saving little Daven over there and giving him to Naurel was one of those choices.

Loving Gwaelind, though, that's the most powerful one, the first choice she made in favor of the light.  Nothing more powerful than that."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:06, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

Toben scrambles over to Klale to help the giant of a man right himself and fetch his water. "Well done, friend", he whispers in a low voice.

"Great job to everyone, in fact. The fewer agents of Melkor to contend with, the better."

~~~

As the remainder of the scene unfolds Toben's eyes dart back and forth between all the familiar and new people in the room.

"So many questions...", he thinks to himself. He looks as though he might positively burst with the wealth of new information standing in front of him.

Tom, who was previously presumed to have been Forn, seems to be overflowing with information so Toben focuses his attention on him first. "What about Basarshakath? You mentioned Duathgur and Empy, but we had quite a run in with him when trying to secure Nessa. I seriously doubt we were able to take him out of the equation."

Ryland ceases his playing, breathing an audible sigh of relief before flexing his fingers a few times.

Tom shrugs.  "Oh, I'm sure he's around.  Probably flexing in front of the nearest mirror he can find."

Klale, with any needed help, drinks deeply. He's able to stand up and say Thanks.

Toben pats Klale on the shoulder and gives him a nod of acceptance. He walks over to the large red dragon holding the baby, he looks up into its large draconian eyes. "Naurel? Song of Fire, I presume? You have done a great service protecting this baby. Mairen will be overjoyed. The more good will we can spread about the stars, the better."

Delunaur's new found radiance is only rivaled by how quickly she is now recovering from the strain Melkor's influence. Toben's eyes shift between the two Maiar for a moment, then asks "So, there can be more than one Song of Fire? Or has she become something different?"

Draugion breathes a sigh of relief, and approaches Ryland. "Now that Delunaur has been freed, where do we go from here?"

The red dragon-maia chuckles in a deep, booming voice.  "I can answer both questions.  No, there is only one Song of Fire.  Delunaur's discordant refrain has been brought back into harmony with the whole Song of Creation, but her...duty assigned by the rebel, Melkor is over.  She will do whatever she chooses, which I suspect has something to do with Gwaelind.  It will take her some time to recover her full strength, perhaps even long enough for all this to be over."

Naurel lowers the baby down to Delunar, a not insignificant showing trust.  Delunaur holds the child gently as it coos up at her sleepily.

"As for next, we need to go to the great desert in the south.  My sister, Lanthir, needs help before the Vile'ek take her."

"What about the escalating tension amongst the dragons here? We can't just stir up a hornet's nest and leave them to clean it up. Aashera is expecting a meeting in the very near future."

"I think that the elder dragons are more defeated than you realize.  They want to meet with you.  Aashera finally has them under her control enough to get that out of them.  That means you've dealt them a serious blow.  If she can convince the elder dragons to break with Melkor, to become independent again, then there won't be any conflict within the Heath any more.  Pauric made mistake offering a descendant of Elessar Telcontar up to the dragons.  She is too smart, too powerful in spirit and had already begun to turn them when you four showed up.  Since then, you've made her job far easier."

The great dragon laughs in that booming laughter.  "Aashera Elend has advised against going against you from the start.  Every time they didn't listen, they lost.  A war of attrition is not one they can win.  So now, when she cautions patience, they are more prone to hear her.  I doubt your meeting will last too long.  I pray that it won't.  Lanthir cannot hold out against the Vile'ek Nil'for'aks for long, even in her frozen state."

Toben's jaw drops at the revelation Naurel so casually mentions. "Did you just say that Aashera is descendant of the king of Gondor?"

The Dragon-Maia nods absently, paying more attention to Delunaur playing with the baby.

"That, " Toben takes a moment to digest the information and compose himself, "actually explains a lot."

He looks over at Deluaur and smiles as he watches what looks like a natural maternal instinct when she plays with Daven. "Has anyone sent word to Mairen regarding her son?"

Ryland leans over to Draugion, speaking quietly so as to not interrupt the others. "I haven't the foggiest, but anywhere other than this heath is fine by me". As Naurel mentions the desert and her sister, Ryland looks back over at Draugion. He shrugs,and then sighs through a smile. "I suppose there are worse places, as we've seen"

Once Toben asks about Mairen, Ryland replies "She was with your shadowy friend, Ourn, right? From the looks of that fellow, I'd say he wont be reachable unless he chooses to. Though, being from Therion, if you're going to send a runner.. well, flyer I suppose, I'd say that's a good place start. At least, that's where I would send one in any case". Ryland looks to Naurel. "Will you be accompanying us to the meeting with the elder dragons? I think we'd all breath a little easier with you there".

"Wouldn't miss it.  I have another Dragon Master, newly trained, to deliver anyway.  I'll pick him up on the way."  His eyes twinkle with mischievous merriment.