<div class="floatright">(http://puu.sh/o69Lc.jpg)</div><br/>Nuria's eyes, usually so alive and radiant with the ember of her own eyes or the glow of her flame-power, were wide, empty and entirely white as she knelt upon the ground with that wide smile full of bliss.<br/><br/><em>The accord … yes, of course. The accord. She remembered the accord, silent though it was. How everything she had, all the power she had, came from the artifacts that the creature had left. How it resided in the fountain, the source of her strength, that had once been his.<br/><br/>Her head hurt again as she thought of this. <del>Something was not right,</del> everything made perfect sense. Her power came from the fountain and she, the Goddess of Fire, had to protect it.<br/><br/>And there was Sydney. Her enemy, Sydney, who was trying to unmake her. Nuria saw her for just a moment, hands twisted in an arcane gesture, before she disappeared from sight.<br/><br/>Of course. Her invisibility. But what was invisibility against flame, against a great conflagration that burnt all in its path?<br/><br/>Nuria drew deep from the well of power inside her, drank deep from the pure, divine flame that had ever been the source of her strength.</em><br/><br/>The fire-wielder rose, her eyes still vacant, her movements oddly different from their usual confident swagger -- she always commanded attention, but now she moved in a manner that could only be described as imperious as she stepped towards the confrontation between the controlled Phelypsis and Sydney, who had just disappeared.<br/><br/>A whip of flame crackled to life in her hand, extended with a sharp crack in the air. Nuria had never demonstrated such an ability before. She began to whirl it around high, to gather strength for a true low sweep that might catch the sorceress despite her invisibility.<br/><br/><em>…. as the fire burnt high in her soul, filled it to the brim with its true divine might, something changed. A foul stench penetrated the air. Something sizzled and hissed, like fat in a campfire. <br/><br/>The source of her power -- had ever been inside her. The divine flame that had come to life inside her, had changed her from inside out. What was she doing, trying to defend some external power source?<br/><br/>The flame hissed and licked, spilled out of her, danced around her and began to form shapes -- eerie faces, mischievous faces, the spirits that had hitched a ride with her earlier, in the forest, attracted to the strongest, highest-ranking of their kind that resided in Nuria for protection against the rain.<br/><br/>Even as new memories, new realizations and reinforcements flowed into her, they burnt away and scattered again like so much ash. Fire was in her soul, in her mind, and it was rising.<br/><br/>They bade her farewell, the spirits, in this mental landscape, flowed out of and back into the possessed woman, streams of fire that grew with each passing and then, when they seemed at their most intense -- there was a flash and a great tearing sound. There was a howl, unnatural and gurgling. </em><br/><br/>The color returned to Nuria's eyes. The whip in her hand evaporated, leaving only a faint trail of heat in the air. Disoriented, the freed flamewielder looked around, tried to make sense of what had happened -- she saw Phelypsis right next to her, with an entranced look on her.<br/><br/>She saw Lorelei in peril, the two Illithids -- brother and sister? -- and still no sign of Sydney.<br/><br/>She had to do<em>something</em>. But what?<br/><br/><hr/><strong>As noted in the OOC thread, Nuria rolled a 12 on her attempt to free herself. If I recall correctly that means something particularly good happens, so I'd like to propose that the Illithid gets a load of fire-spirit feedback right into his skull. Maybe enough to make him release Lorelei?</strong><br/>