"The...heart god?" she repeats, in the common tongue. The word is similar to what she would say for heart god, but she isn't certain. The languages are similar, but not the same. "I can't figure out the second word," she says, shaking her head. It is not like anything she knows in her own language.

@Isak's god sounds...nice. Simple. Kind. Easy to like. Vellen...is nothing of the sort. And sometimes she isn't certain why the Sigrun are so intent on worshiping a god that can be so vengeful. "The hjarta guð-" she says it in her own language, because it is easier "-sounds like a good god to follow."

She grew more at ease as he spoke of his own religion. Wouldn't it be nice, to follow a god that was merciful? She feels that Eira would like the idea very much. "Vellen is not a merciful god," she says, offering up information on her own religion as thanks for sharing his ideals. "But we are also baptized. Though it is in the ocean, not rivers and streams."

She shakes her head at his apology. She doesn't mind the rambling. If anything, it has lessened the tension between them, if only a little. "It's good, you found something that gave your life new meaning," she offers.

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"yes," he said, brightening. "yes, exactly. and the second word is... lightworld. yes -- the world of light." "you are quick!" he laughed boyishly, a youthful noise at odds with his deep voice. "i am sure you would've liked it in the monastery where i learned myself[1] these things." he tsks. "i think i understand how vellen can be cruel. i am afraid i have never known the ocean to be kind." he had been born on the shore, his nursery a cave lined with crags. he had slept, hungry and cold, to the noise of the tide going in and out, literal tons of water scraping against rock and sand. the salt in the wind would sting his eyes, make his fur tough and dry. he smiled, his voice now wan and understated. "even its water is undrinkable." the priest nodded, somewhat flustered at her response to his apology. he did not expect it from someone who seemed so guarded, and he glanced at her face, which did not reveal much. "i hope you have found something like that too, in your life." @Revna [1] note that "to teach oneself" in Swedish is lära sig själv (lit. to learn oneself), which is why Isak said what he said.

"Ljósheimur," she says, this time giving the word sound in her own language. Her eyes study him as she wonders why the Sigrun are so...different in their religion. Why could they not find a god such as this heart god that @Isak spoke of instead of Vellen, the angry god of the sea?

More importantly: was Vellen still the right god for her, for her wife?

His laughter and his compliment bring a smile to her face, even as the uncertainty wavers in her eyes. "Perhaps I would have," she says with a nod. "I like to learn, and experience new things." She liked learning about the lives of others. Perhaps that was why she had been so receptive of the Sigrun god when she had married into the family.

He is right, of course, about Vellen. The god had, after all, taken one of her twin daughters to his depths. There's still a wound in her heart there, and the uncertainty of recent times has ripped away the scabs that had started to form there. "The Sigrun worship him regardless," she said with a sigh, half to herself and half to Isak. Could they choose something else, though?

"I thought I had," she admits. "In my husband and the Sigrun. But...I am not so sure these days." Perhaps it was Eira, and perhaps it was the rest of the island. But doubt has crept into her mind and planted seeds there.

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OOC: sorry for the delay on my reply!

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"ja, the world has been strange lately," he agreed, a wry twist to his mouth. "not just the weather... there is something wrong with the world. no sign of improvement, either." perhaps it was a test, another cross to suffer on. it did not seem right to him, to sit back and twiddle one's thumbs, waiting for God to return order. the hjärta did not preach inaction, nor lethargy. passive prayer came easy. how easy they found prayer, those who had never truly communed with Him! supplication was not a matter of merely bending the knee. if vellen's domain was truly the ocean, he understood obliquely the tradition of drowning. to give up something as cherished as your child to the arm's of one's deity -- was that not the spiritual trial borne by abraham and isaac? now i know you fear God. he regretted his previous blasé criticism, his outlandish and superficial imagination. to paint people with the same brush, to call them barbaric -- it should've been clear to him then that it was a grievous, bull-headed error in cognition. but at the same time, he could not overlook the pain of losing a son, a daughter. he could not entirely accept vellen's cruelty, a faith whose loci were not redemption and sacred knowledge, but fear and punishment that did not discriminate between parties. he paused, allowing the silence to become swollen with unsaid words. "i wish you well in these times, revna sigrun," his whiskers twitched, throwing off meager drops of rainwater. "perhaps we will meet again, when it is not so awful." an earnest grin accompanied his words, winking onto his face like a coin thrown into a basin. @Revna no problem! this thread has been so nice, i <3 revna :,) we can fade/exit next round maybe?

"My family says Vellen is angry," she explains, her head shifting so she can look up at the rain pouring from the sky. It seems to be lessening, if a little, and she wonders if she might be able to manage the trek down the hill a little better now. "But my husband never told me why before he ran off on some quest." There is the smallest hint of bitterness in her voice - from being left out of so much, and then from being abandoned by the lion she feels was the foundation of her life.

Thankfully she still has her sunshine in the form of her wife.

She turns her gaze back to the priest, a solemn look in her bright yellow eyes. "Perhaps my family--" she stops for a moment, hesitating. Without him, were they still truly hers? "Perhaps his family," she amended, "is wrong." There might be something more to the weather than simply an angry god. Perhaps something is off balance. "But it would be a shame to think I lost my daughter for nothing," she sighs wistfully, lowering her gaze.

Silence stretches between them, and the rain slows ever more. The thunder is distant now, the storm moving on just as fast as it had come. "Yes, I'd like that," she says in response when he finally speaks again. And she would. She has found his company interesting. "I'd love to hear more of your heart god sometime."

She pushes herself to her feet and steps outside of their makeshift shelter, whiskers twitching as the rain falls on her once more, though much lighter than before. She turns to her companion. "I should be getting home," she offers. "My wife will be wondering where I am." A smile stretches across her face as the idea of Dhaveira pouting because she did not get to come crosses her mind. "Safe travels, @Isak." And with that she turns and makes her way down the trail, taking care not to slip in the rivulets of water as she does.

/Exit Revna

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+1 - Make a BWP-related post
+5 - Complete a thread with a character you've never threaded with before
+5 - Complete a BWP-related thread (with 10+ posts)

OOC: I'm enjoying Isak! I know they're in the cleric BWP thread together, but I would love to have them run into each other again sometime.

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so tragedy did score her life with its talons. vellen had taken what was most important to her, and grief had eaten at the edges of the absence like wood rot at a hollow tree. his heart ached for her, but did he have the right to say so? in her eyes, how much worth did pity from a virtual stranger have? her daughter's body lay leagues beneath the ocean's surface. this was something that could eclipse the rest of your life in its shadow. he hadn't noticed that the worst of the storm had passed until revna got to her feet; he remained under the shelter, paws crossed, reluctant to enter the sparse rain. "farväl, revna." he breathed through a wistful smile. "God goes with you, and with your family." she left pawprints behind in the mud, each of them filling with rainwater, beginning to be washed away almost as soon as they were created. exit Isak ooc: that would be awesome! i just realized EM and VB aren't on good terms (lol), so it could be interesting :)