[ ESCALATE / O. DUAL JOINING ish ]

[EMMAERA]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Grief pressed into Emmaera's spirit, its glow dimmed and more sluggish than it was not two weeks ago; such was the toll for loss, its presence never absent from the injured. The days following the massacre he had...attempted to foolishly deny the reality of his situation, but he could not lie to himself through the tremors plaguing all that he was. He had left his people to save them, and returned to their bodies not yet a day cold, his assistance too late in coming. Their murderers would never understand what they had inflicted, not truly. Death was only part of the picture. His people had been the remaining pulses of the weakening heart at the center of their culture, many parts of it lost to time, and Emmaera was no elder, no Keeper. He could not preserve all that they were, all that they could have been when he was just one person, with no connection to the outside world.

At first, he had tried to spread what he could of his people's lives, their history, but few were willing to listen, and even fewer to remember. He would fail them twice, in life and in death. No prayer could lift the stain. Why would they? Their gods could not serve their children when there were none- none save the person who left his people to die without him. There did not seem to be anything for him, and so Emmaera wandered, aimless, his head bowed and a great heaviness in mismatched eyes.

He did not know why the sight of the dragon rekindled the hearth, but as he saw the creature, he felt compelled to follow. And so he did, until he found him before a small mass of people. Emmaera could see, as he drew closer, that the injuries were worse than he thought, and he was within hearing range to learn that he intended to deny help. "I should hope you wouldn't." The alabaster deer slowed his cant to a walk, spiraling antlers twisting the sunlight as he bowed his head toward the dragon and the folk near him. "I just caught up with you. I had noticed you were injured some time earlier- do you really want to refuse their aid?" He paused, realizing this wasn't the best entrance, and he'd likely be suspicious of him as he was the other strangers, but his wounds needed tending. "Sorry, my name is Emmaera. Please, allow them to treat you. Suffering will bring you nothing, falon."