At some point during their two weeks at the grove before heading to Barra’s pool the three treasure hunters are all having an evening meal together. After some logistics Alexis turns to his companions.
“I’ve been thinking about our battle with the Red Cloaks under the fort, and how much easier it might have been if you’d both accepted the ‘blessings’ of the symbol/archtype you both refer to as ‘Avv’. And the thing that has me confused is the ‘blessings’ you’re willing to accept and the ones you’re not. And I speak as someone who is happy to accept boons and blessings from almost any ‘god’. Obviously Nurgle would be hard for me because the slime, the spores, etc.” Alexis gives a shudder of revulsion. “And I wouldn’t trust a gift/boon from the Arril-Noroth since I expect it would contain a barb of some sort. But back to the subject at hand…”
“You both willingly accepted a ‘blessing’ from Bora Bloodfist, servant of She-Who-Is-Fierce, and from that ‘blessing’ we were taken on a journey together and now better understand the Path of the Peacemakers. Great. But that started because you both accepted magics from a priest of the goddess of the gnolls. That was acceptable, but ‘blessings’ from ‘Avv’ are not.”
“And you both willingly accepted the task to break Dauntless for a boon from She-Who-Is-Fierce. And I was, and still could be, excited to see what sort of boon that would be. But my point is that getting a boon from that goddess whom many consider evil and hostile to humanity, Raiden, etc was acceptable, but blessings from Avv are not.”
“Red, you can I carried the Eyes of Maglubiyet accepting the risks and rewards therein. But somehow a blessing from a matriarch of humanity is not.”
“Gus, you wear bracers of the VahnYir, who pledged themselves to the Arru-Noroth. And you accept the magics I learned from those bracers to further help you in your aim. Magics that also come from the VahnYir. This is all acceptable to you, but blessings of Avv are not.”
“Please help me understand how you are both willing to accept the magics of forces so antithetical to humanity and Raiden, and so hostile to accepting help from the human magics of ‘Avv’, who defended humanity at one of the points when humanity needed it most.”
Alexis looks between Gustav and Ethelred.
“There is something about the deeper blessing of Avve that are.. unsettling. As an example when you create the light of Avve it is light. I can see with it without feeling like I have to let Avve in to me, to my being.
When the blessing you are talking about washes over me and the choice must be made to accept it.. it feels different that many other magics. When Ezrin would hold the cold back from our bones, I didn’t feel a need to accept anything. I know I could have rejected it, attempted to avoid it.
With the blessing of your Goddess there is something I must give of myself, something that must be traded, opened.. revealed? I am not sure how to express it in words. But there is a trade. She is giving me something and I must also give her something.
What bothers me, and why I have not accepted, is I do not know precisely what I am giving away. And that makes me nervous.
If there is a way to reveal this exchange, to understand.. then I might be able to accept in the future.”
“Didn’t you have to make the same choice with the magics of Bora Bloodfist?”
“I do not recall having to make that choice, but maybe?
As far as I can tell magic can be resisted or avoided.
But with your Ave blessing the feeling of letting Ave in comes over me. As if I have to acknowledge her, allow her in. It is a bit unsettling.”
“Perhaps it is unsettling because you’ve been thinking about it too much. And perhaps it’s because Gus’s xeno-… fear-of-the-non-you-know-who, that’s gotten to you. Gus uses he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned magic in powerful ways.” Alexis gives a nonchalant shrug.