Golsha hesitated in her stride as Teanna caught up and took her arm, feeling a warmth and pleasure from the tiefling's choice to abandon the temptress for her. Letting Teanna fall into step beside her, she continued deeper into the ruin.<br/><br/>"My magic is not taught. Only given. In time you may earn it," she said, and then sighed melancholically. The lengthy discussion of her magic had conjured forth memories of the first time the spirit of Golsha had blessed her, years ago when she had still been but a young orc without even the concept of a name, much less one of her own.<br/><br/>It had been raining for days. Desperate and starving, she had taken a chance attacking a strong, healthy boar. Buried in the mud, his deadly hooves pounding the mire surrounding her, she had driven her sharpened stone into his belly, eviscerating him. His life spilled out of him, drenching her body beneath him, his blood mingling with hers from the numerous wounds his tusks, hooves, and even the terrain had torn in her naked flesh, and the euphoria of victory had filled her. She would eat well for days.<br/><br/>That was when Golsha appeared to her for the first time. As she tried to wriggle out from beneath the dead beast, its carcass had begun to glow with a green light as the spirit of the forest inhabited the now lifeless shell. In terror, she had tried to drive her makeshift dagger into its face, but those tusks merely flicked it away into the mud, where it sank. With the orc pinned beneath it, the spirit of Golsha had told her how it had watched her for years, guiding and grooming her in subtle ways until now, when it was ready to make her its.<br/><br/>In the embrace of the mud, covered in the boar's blood and guts, the spirit of Golsha in the body of the dead boar had taken the nameless orc, filling her again and again with its presence and power. The next morning she had pulled herself out from beneath the boar's body, the wounds it had inflicted upon her closed and healed by the power she had been given, and ate until her stomach was ready to burst.<br/><br/>The halcyon memories filled Golsha like the boar's flesh all those years ago, giving her a feeling of warmth in the cold, clammy tomb, only added to by Teanna clinging to her arm.<br/><br/>"I will make you strong," she said, the aniticipation of that future blessing adding to the dampness of the floor.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>