That glow...he didn't like that, much less the ghost's talk of "the Mark of Passing."  It looked like he would have to act-and then the brazen woman clanged her weapons together and bellowed her challenge.  He goggled at her and then his grin widened; she had balls, all right!  Balls of solid Jade!  And she was an excellent distraction as the ghost emerged.  None of the guards came with him, which was less than good, but he didn't think he could wait before acting.  If these people were going to be saved, he needed to get in there now.<br/><br/>So Talion sighed and vaulted up into the window and down the other side to land in the temple.  He darted to the nearest piece of cover that could hide him from view.  Was there any way he could try to even the odds?  Even if he could take these guards, they might start killing people...wait a minute.  Drowned Queen, right?  ...Oh, this was a dumb plan.  But if it worked...<br/><br/>Talion slipped a hand to the simple metal chain that hung around his neck and the gleaming stone that was held in bent wire.  The stone was transparent and was the color of a ripe peach, also bearing roughly the same shape as that fruit.  It came from a room he had found in the mysterious Rain Veiled Agora in the highlands of Hacre, a remnant of the First Age that he had claimed for his own.  It had a strange power.  All he had to do was concentrate...<br/><br/>A peach colored mist swirled around him and he felt an odd lightness of his body.  The mist was there and gone in less than a moment but when it passed, the person beneath was different.  The young man was now a young woman.  Her hair was the same corn silk blond.  Her eyes the same delightful blue of Venus.  Her face was delicate and fine, her lips plush, as the youth's had been.  Her figure was pleasing, her bust neither small nor ample but something in between; high, perky, and pert.  Her waist was narrow and her hips sweetly rounded, her ass a happy bubble of flesh.  Her clothes were the same as his, and the same dagger was at her belt.  She was he, changed into what he would be as a woman by the hearthstone's power.  The beautiful boy was now a beautiful girl.<br/><br/>Tolina, as she'd taken to thinking of herself the few times she'd switched like this, then took a deep breath.  She wasn't sure this would work.  But these guards looked very jumpy and nervous.  That would help her.  She licked her lips and cupped her hands to her mouth, she spoke, projecting forward, making her voice deeper than normal and trying to sound what she thought a spectral queen might sound like, "Gooo, you fools.  Go and aid my servant!"  She then raced away through the ruined place, trying to find another hiding point before speaking again, "Go at the will of the Drowned Queen!  I command and my wroth is not to be tested!"<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">OOC</div><div class="spoiler_body">Making a Presence/Charisma attack here to try and get the spearmen to run outside.  Also trying to stay hidden, though I realize that speaking probably cancels Veiled Step as she is calling attention to herself.</div></div>