<strong>Eshalu - looking to share a disturbing discovery with Aeryn at the Magna Sophia Chapterhouse</strong><br/><br/>A violent, hideous sensation still impressed in her mind from her botched communion with the spirits of Dra Sirdu, Eshalu dressed for battle. Ordinarily, she'd have been pleased to find her boots, leather jerkin and breeches oiled and cleaned, but now was not the time to linger over the hospitality of Aeryn's lodge. Something profoundly disturbing was afoot and Eshalu knew that, if she could not find the answer out herself, Aeryn certainly would.<br/><br/>She took her spear and slung it over her back, gathered her blades and made a dash through the unfamiliar corridors of the Chapterhouse. Without having been there before, much less explored every room, she built her understanding of the building from memory - a clear succession of visual images and the distinct scents which she perceived coming and going while she moved. Sometimes there was no need to look. The corridors and chambers fitted together, the way she'd seen it in her mind.<br/><br/>Finally, she saw sunlight and smelled the sharp, saline tang of sea air. She stepped out in front of the Chapterhouse to find Aeryn in the company of a tall woman and a red-haired human she recognised from the sea-voyage and who, at least to Eshalu's eye, looked to be clad in clothing certain human clans reserved for those of high status. That did not surprise her. Aeryn had links everywhere, though the tall woman was of a race Eshalu had never seen before.<em>A sylph, perhaps?  No, too tall.</em>It didn't matter. That wasn't the time for speculation.<br/><br/>Eshalu hastened to meet Aeryn from behind, pressing a hand on the naturalist's shoulder to draw her attention.<br/><br/>"Forgive me for interrupting you and your guests, but there are ill omens on this island. The land itself resents us. It wants us gone - no, worse, it wants us dead to feed its soil. I could barely hear the Great Mother from under the howling storm of its hatred. Do you or your lodge-sisters know anything of this?" Eshalu spoke trying to mask a lingering fear of her certainties crumbling. She could face battle with any enemy with the steely calm of a ranger, but being so far separated from the Great Mother and the Moon Huntress and all the other spirits that gave her strength was not only inauspicious, it was<em>unnatural</em>.<br/><br/>It was then that she noted that there was a residue of tension in the air. The tall woman and the red-haired chieftain still seemed alert, muscles tense and eyes on guard, as if they were still on the lookout for a hovering threat. Perhaps they, too, had detected the island's malevolence.