(( Glad to see you back xblurp<img alt=":-D" src="./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif" title="Very Happy"/>))<br/><blockquote><div><cite>Elyk337 wrote:</cite>"Ooooh, deep thought, you get that from a fortune cookie?" Jack replied, not really caring about what Zaida had to say.</div></blockquote><br/>Zaida ignored the comment, having no idea what he was referring to.<br/>"A god has to be worth worshipping. Personally, I never found that Odev could live up to all our expectations. We ask him to heal, and people die; we ask him to bring peace and all we get is suffering. He tells us to love our enemy and we have trouble loving ourselves. He takes all the pleasure out of life, and when we die, will we find paradise?" Zaida took in a sudden deep grasp of breath, throwing back her long raven hair. She composed herself and looked at Jack. "I have been the servant of Odev for most of my life, I have suffered for him, been ridiculed for him and given up everything for him. What did he ever do for me? When I came here, I found something else, or should I say . . . something else found me."<br/>Zaida paused to study Jack's reaction before continuing.<br/>"I can tell that you are a man of the world, a man who needs proof and see things with their own eyes. Allow me to indulge myself and show you what the world is really like." She then placed a blue stone carefully onto the white linen cloth of the altar table. She placed both hands on the stone and muttered under her breath. The rock split into two equal parts and a small chink of green light flitted into the air only to disappear seconds later. She declaimed:<br/><br/>"Stone that has listened to man but not replied,<br/>Hear my call for the child who died.<br/>Come to me now in brightness flame,<br/>Child of Azinoth, I call your name."<br/><br/>Zaida bowed her head and stared at her hands. A sudden drought scurried into the chamber, blowing the dust across the stone floor around their feet. The dirt swirled round to form a tight whirlwind in front of the altar. Fragments of silver, green, and purple light began to sparkle from within this ever-growing tornado. Before their eyes a young girl began to appear, first her bare white feet, then the hem of a white robe and then the rest of her body and head as if she was being pieced together cell by cell.