Arumbelle

Rya made a point of not saying anything when Safad hurried into the library, a little disheveled and slightly late. 

"On to some research, then?" She did let a hint of a smirk show around the corners of her mouth. 

Safad smiled. 

The pair met Jo-Dot the Archivist at her station and asked for help in their research. They said they were looking for a goddess. She oriented them to the different sections but told them unfortunately they had little in the way of religion. They started with some of the Field Research sections and came upon Expert Lillidus who was updated an entry on Bedouir Colain. She thanked them for their story that she was able to record with Jo-Dot's help and fill in some about what happened to Coulain. She helped provide them some context:

"Bedouir was researching this interesting anecdote from the histories of the Elvish Vyshantaar Empire. You see there was a time they came to possess quite powerful weapons, so the legend goes. They say while the weapons were quite powerful, it ended up resulting in some altercation with the Gith and the weapons and their wielders were lost to time. They often relate the mythic arms to a event that translates as 'shipwreck' but I think must have been their word for meteor or comet strike. They say it landed somewhere in the greypeaks supposedly and created a caldera in the peaks. It was there they were able to craft these mythic arms. Coulain was on his way to research the area, and had brought with him a key we found in the ancient artifactia that was supposedly related to this meteor. Now that you've updated us on his fate, we may send another student to investigate." 

They carried on to the Arcana section where they paused to peruse the Mythals. Myth Drannor, Myth Dyralis, Evereska, The Elven Court, Myth Nantar,  Rhymanthin, Myth Rhynn, Myth Sveldin-- hold on a second. Myth Sveldin. Interesting. The book was old and even then looked like a copy of a work by "G. Rockenwise," translated as "The Founder Lost His Hands",  and described the founding of a svirfneblin city called Sveldin, and the origin story of the city that eventually became a Mythal with the help of the Evereskan elves. 

Seemed to match up very closely with the play that Rya and Safad remembered acting out with two deranged earth elementals in the ruin of Myth Sveldin. They rushed back to the Archivist to see what else she knew. She said she would look into it. They said it might have to do with the goddess. Jo-Dot asked why they were so pressed about this goddess. 

Rya and Safad looked at each other, nodded, and then told their story. They covered the mind flayers and Myth Sveldin, the Monarch and Old Weir, and then waking up in a cave. They told her how key events in their lives had been punctuated by these vague images of some goddess, who must have limited power. Sometimes there were stars associated with the goddess, it seemed, and those constellations had shown up on their bodies.

Stars you say? Well why didn't you say so -- we have an Astronomy section. 

They booked it to the Astronomy section, where they frantically searched for anything that may be related. As they were about to give up, they spotted an old text, dating back at least 500 years, "Stellar Lights of Faerun." Inside, they discovered a chapter called Star Signs of the Gods describing how eons ago certain constellations came to be known for gods and goddesses and their followers would sometimes look up to those stars as they would to their deity in prayer. They book had a list of the known constellations that were associated with gods and goddesses. 

Oh. My. Goddess. 

We're close. They looked at each other. 

Together, they bent over the book, splayed out on the marble floor of the archives on the second story of the library. 

Heron, Ancestor, check -- Storm? No. They kept looking. It seemed like they had scanned the entire page when finally, toward the bottom they found an entry beginning with Stag.

The Stag. The Heron. The Dagger. The Shepherd. The Maiden. The Cross. The Ancestor. 

This was it. They looked at the entry and mouthed the words:

Arumbelle, goddess of nature and homesteads. 

They looked at each other and both said the name at the same time. 

"Arumbelle"

Their Marks of the Goddess blazed a bright blue, and for a moment time seemed to freeze as a montage of all their travels and associations with the goddess--Arumbelle--came flashing before their eyes. 

Sha'hale falling out of the sky. The road to Old Weir. The Lady of the Glen singing their names. Mother the Goblin knowing them by their constellations. A face in the sparks of their campfire. Waking up in a cave in the Greypeaks. The smoke of Zireal's funeral pyre. A motherly visage in the nights sky over the Moor...

And at the end of it, they saw more clearly than ever, a woman, steadfast, calling out for help through the bars of some gaol or cage in some strange plane of existence. Her face was distraught but it brought them comfort. There was hope in those eyes, and they were looking right at Safad and at Rya. 

They came too in a heap on the floor, but they felt warm and solid. Invigorated. Inspired. 

"Arumbelle"

They had a name now.