Svarik and the company I :)

[Mirach]

Svarik did not spare money making sure to take the best fruit as a gift, and also kept an eye open for potential presents for friends as they were already on the market. When they finished shopping and got to the cliff, he looked over it a bit doubtfully. "How deep is it here?" he asked, feeling suddenly out of his element.

[VisAnastasis]

" Let's say if you jumped straight forward, well...You'd probably reach the bottom without ending up glued on the rocky bottom. Of course, falling on water from this height would be like falling on concrete, so that's out of question, anyway. " he said innocently, glancing at him playfully, as if finding his hesitancy likable. " Do not worry, little birb. Once we reach the soil beneath it, you'll be more on your terms - for ocean floor beneath water is but an extended hand of your earth, as the shores are so special because essence of the ocean mixed with essence of the land. Quite certain it will be interesting for someone as you. "

[Mirach]

Svarik watched down for a few moments, and then nodded slowly, and took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go. I'm looking forward to meeting your friends. Not that much to having a ton of water above my head, but if it comes together... Let's fly down, Xia."

[VisAnastasis]

" It's actually more than a ton, but I get the point. " man grinned, and just walked over the edge nonchalantly, indeed, showing of coming naturally to someone so confident in his abilities. As he made a step down, a spring of sea water rose from the surface in a powerful beam, and met his feet, freezing and creating a staircase out of ice, along which man calmly walked down until he reached the surface. There, he leapt down, and as icy staircase crumbled and melted behind his back, he remained standing on water, just a thin layer of it touching his feet.
He waited until Xia  took on form of a flying fox and landed first, smiling as he saw she can walk on water too. Then, he awaited for Erdel  to take couple leaps along rocky cliff, and swim to them, as, unlike Xia, young demon couldn't walk on ocean level, and didn't want to make them wet, which would happen had he taken a huge leap down.

[Mirach]

Svarik with Xia joined the Sage, stopping close to him so that the bubble of air could encompass them.

[VisAnastasis]

Sage waited till all were close to him, and he made a water bubble around the air space around them - and then he just lowered them in the water level, until they reached the bottom here, and their feet could touch its sand once water retreated. They were now in a bubble, with plenty of air inside of it, and water flowing all around them, light  glistening and shining beautifully as it was passing through layers of it, and many fishes swimming all around them.
" If you and I were alone, we would have enough air for couple hours. But this is why you always should bring a demon on this kind of trip. " he grinned a little innocently. " Two of us humans will breathe out carbon for them, and two of them will breathe out oxygen for us... We will be able to take our time, as much as we like, without worry of staying out of air to breathe. "

[Mirach]

"That's handy," Svarik said a bit absent-mindedly, as he was watching the peculiar colorful fishes swimming around them.

[VisAnastasis]

" Yes, demons can be very handy as life guards, as they can literally breathe out oxygen for you. It's very convenient for humans, and, well, for Spirits than can drown too, of course. " Sage just nodded, for the sake of reply. Then he was quiet, giving his guests space to marvel at the wondrous sight, before, when they were ready to follow, he stepped to the deeper soil to show them direction in which they had to go, the handy air bubble remaining of same distance and form around them.

[Mirach]

Svarik followed, watching the underwater scenery with wonder.

[VisAnastasis]

The Sage must had know the most wondrous parts like a palm of his hand, because on his promise to behave and entertain Conrad's friends, he delivered - it was indeed a splendid and fascinating display of the sea, to see it in this manner, so colorful and bright, with its shells, corals, sharks, and wonderful other fishes swimming all around.
At last, though, after a nice pleasant walk, they started to rapidly descend into deep waters. Soon they could feel the sea growing darker, from thin layer of miasma gathering up from the Sea Deity that was close by, in pain. King could feel many souls, Spirit and Demon alike, fleeing and hiding before them, as they reached their destination, a secluded part of the sandy ocean floor where the Deity was lying.

It didn't seem to be of any gender, and it had a shape of a dragon, but a transparent form and skin instead of solid scales, with many glistening parts within it that resembled stars. Lot of vivid blue, violent and emerald colors were adorning its form, producing light - it seemed creature generally evolved, or at least lived big part of its life somewhere very deep, and that could be reflected upon its form producing plenty of light.
It was lying on the sea bed, and it was motionless, not paying heed to them; it seemed to be asleep, or as asleep as it was possible for it right now - for, despite whatever medicine given, it was trembling lightly, seeming to be in fever and in lot of pain.

http://i.imgur.com/M8Vs8CE.jpg

[Mirach]

"Poor beautiful creature..." Svarik whispered compassionately. "How did it get hurt?"

[VisAnastasis]

" During Long Night. " The Sage but replied quietly. " Magic of the land and sea both in that time were too unpredictable mix, tainted with all gathered up in previous year. But there was an old evil awakened, as you know, and this year was worse than anything I remember, or could ever dream of. Left non attended, it would create storms so severe and terrible, that it would wipe out half of the cities and most of lives along the seashore. " he shook his head sadly. " Creature you see before yourself didn't want to let it happen. It used all its powers to keep weather still, so things would be alright for us, people and critters living close to shore. But what it did came with a great cost. If you look closely within, you'll see its soul is inflamed and misses important chunks at many places. To protect us, our Deity tore away parts of its own soul, improvising as Night went on, and is now suffering the consequences. "

[Mirach]

Svarik sighed sadly. "That sounds familiar... Quite a few of Beings made such sacrifices. I don't wantto disturb it with introductions... can you just say that I'm your friend desiring to ease his pain?"

[VisAnastasis]

" Sacrificing something of yourself always makes your spells stronger, if for that brief moment. Soul, as most intimate part of yourself, is most powerful thing one can sacrifice. It's last resort, but I am not surprised at all that it's what Beings reach out to do when their need is greatest. " man agreed with Svarik's point quietly. " Wait for me here. I am going to leave our bubble, so I can talk with her and reassure her of your good intentions. " he said, and he did just that - he took down his cloak and decorated garments and gave them to Erdel for safekeeping, and then he left the air bubble.

He swam to the weak creature, to its ear, and after caressing it tenderly with respect and devotion, he seemed to be whispering something to it for a while, reassuring it about the visitors as it opened its big blue eye and just watched the gentle man quietly, with deep weariness, but also with some fondness a powerful deity such as itself would reserve for one among his most beloved humans.

[Mirach]

Svarik bowed to the creature when it looked in his direction, and took out his flute so that it could see it in his hands.

[VisAnastasis]

Its gaze was piercing and sharp like glass, and there seemed to be an infinite galaxy of stars in its eyes. After king bowed to it, it observed him for a moment, and Svarik felt as if a sharp blade was hanging over his neck as it judged his character, that immense creature than could squash him with but one nail of its claw. There was a sense of immense danger and thrill, and urge to flee, all mixed up in one.
However, the feeling disappeared soon, as sort of a snicker left creature's mouth, the echo of which was making their air bubble resonate and tremble. King could then hear its whirling whistle inside his mind, a mental greeting and acknowledgement of sorts, one one master of craft would give to another, similar to his nod before.

Even that seemed to be too much effort in its given state, and its head sank back to the ground slowly, and it closed its eyes, trembling, but not resisting or trying to bring him harm, as it seemed to have in its terms already made a judgement on Svarik's character based on, what probably was, a glance at his soul, and it judged him not a threat to it.

[Mirach]

Svarik sat down on the bottom of the sea in the air bubble, and just watcged the creature for a moment, listening to its soul and seeing its hurts. Then he started to weave a song for it, similar to the one he played for Ben who was hiding in the river, adjusting it for the underwater environment.

[VisAnastasis]

The creature was rather still - it must had learned long ago to not let the pain overwhelm its thoughts, even when it was grave. It didn't lose whole layer of its soul as Death, as both her powers and task was grand, but not as grand as holding whole world together.  However, it had many chunks of soul on many layers missing, and they seemed to have been torn off rather messily, as creature had been picking out  parts of soul that were most useful for spell and using them selectively - not a single whole layer was missing, but many bits from many layers were, so its soul appeared rather sadly shredded, with lot of random gaping holes. Lot of them seemed inflamed rather badly from miasma, and the medicine fighting against that seemed to help slowly, but leave it feverish and very weak.

It was obedient and seemed amiable, though, and through awful pain, it seemed to have understanding still, that Svarik meant well, and never raised finger at him. Death was good at hiding his pain, able to keep straight face even when his soul was touched. The critter was a little less successful, as it seemed more expressive and open by nature, and silent moans would often escape its composure, making their air bubble weaver under its immense breath. The Sage seemed not phased by any such danger as possible being squashed, and he remained by its side in the water, holding it tightly and gently caressing its cheek to soothe it as king played.

[Mirach]

Like with Cernunnos, Svarik was trying to do best he could in the time he had, but remained gentle all the time, careful to only soothe the hurts and not bring any more pain.

[VisAnastasis]

Creature was moaning quietly, but it never protested - in her eyes, no person whom Sage trusted could be evil, it seemed, and even at worst hardest parts, it seemed to believe Svarik knew his trade and that it was for its own good. Tears were waling up in its eyes from the pain, though, and with it, as music lasted, slowly, from their hiding places, various sea creatures emerged, not able to hide while it suffered.

King couldn't see them well, only occasionally catch a glimpse of a glowing scale or a fin - Beings here must had evolved some kind of evasive camouflage, in their attempts to hide from creatures of land that hunted them since war started. It was like a dim smoke over the mind, that made for the mind to register what the eyes should had been able to see.

But they were there. More than anything, king could feel their presences, gathered around Sea Deity - many Demon and Spirits alike, embraced it, soothing it with no word in its pain, but with love and devotion that can only grow as strong with some primordial bond, or perhaps, with lot of years of relaying on Deity for protection and care until its life was vital part of their. Most of it were lower creatures, by no means too special by powers or anything else other than being a little bit immortal or having an occasional trick or two. That is why their individual blessings could do little, and their care for their protector seemed to come not from strong powers, like Svariks, but more from each of them giving a little bit of magic and their life force to it, in tries to help it, to soothe it. They were invisible to eyes, but king could feel they remained close to Sage and Sea Deity, feeding it with their collective energy to help it cope with the powerful intruding song.

[Mirach]

Svarik believed that once he is well himself, Bell would be willing to follow him here and help the Deity with his own unique powers to replace and mend the torn pieces of soul. So he did all he could to clean the wounds so that they wouldn't get any worse, and then to soothe them and ease the pain.

[VisAnastasis]

The creature was trembling and breathing deeply through the pain. The waves around them were clashing, indicating creature's suffering and emotions were causing a bit of a mayhem on the surface.
But with relief from the pain washing over it, it at last seemed to relax. It was not relief from medicine or blessing, it was an actual balm to the soul, and it seemed to be doing it good. Storm boiling on the surface slowly calmed, and deity's limbs relaxed, and it seemed to slowly started falling  into a slumber, as if hesitantly and slowly it was finally able to start catching up with the rest in needed to start healing.

[Mirach]

Svarik played the soothing melodies for a few hours, hoping that the effect, although decreased with time, will last until Bell can come here.

[VisAnastasis]

As it fell asleep at last, creatures of the Sea seemed to rejoice. The ocean was trembling with their murmured of excitement, and the water seeming to be glistening from their joy.
At that time, more and more they started to pay attention to the player, seeming to get more curious of him as their worry lessened. Xia also seemed to be in some kind of owerhelmed state, and unlike Erdel who was standing over meadow king protectively, she was just staring and observing strange sight before her, seeming smitten by it.

[Mirach]

Svarik played for as long as the creature perceived the song, but when it feel into deep sleep, he gradually stopped. Only then he noticed the many Beings around. He took the basket with fruits and offered it to them, pushing it towards them out of the air bubble.