Metamorphosis on Maraskan

A few weeks later Rumdarion had to travel to the South back to his hometown Brabak where his kontor was stationed and he took Seraphina with him. When they passed Maraskan, the island notorious for its poisonous flora and fauna and even more notorious for its dangerous inhabitants the ship stranded on a sandbank and they were forced to leave the ship with all the passengers so that it could be repaired.

After walking along the beach for a while the scouts spotted a camp and the group approached it in hope of shelter. It was a camp of Haffajas, followers of Helme Haffax, the most trusted general of Borbarad. Suddenly Seraphina felt homesick and it was nice to talk to someone who shared the believes she had grown up with. However, after a while, the group from the ship and the Haffajas got into an argument and the Haffajas ordered them to leave their camp. Since it was cold and raining Seraphina preferred to stay at the fireside and the Haffajas let her, because they saw the advantage of her healing skills. Seraphina didn't care as long as she could keep warm and dry. Suddenly someone slit a throat of one of the Haffajas, but Seraphina healed him with the help of Blakaratz. Then a fight broke lose and more Haffajas were killed while the rest fled into the jungle. Everything was over very quickly so that Seraphina didn't really have time to leave her warm place at the fire (she was reluctant to do so anyway). It seemed like no one had noticed that she hadn't stayed with the group, but again Seraphina didn't care as long as she was warm and dry. After a while a new group approached the camp. They were natives of the island and claimed to be rebels against the rule Haffax tried to establish on that island. Since Seraphina's group didn't really have a leader there was some confusion at first, but finally all seemed well – not least because of Rumdarion's supply of good rum.

The next day the rebel leaders requested that everyone should introduce themselves telling them where they came from and where they wanted to go. Seraphina told them that she

was from Yol-Ghulmark (they kept calling it Ysilia for some reason) and that her previous master had been a priest of Blakaratz. The rebels also had two priests among them, who believed in Rur and Gror and they took Seraphina aside, because they thought that she was confused. So they told her about Rur and Gror, who were brothers and one had gifted the other the planet in throwing it towards him. Seraphina thought that it was very impolite to throw a gift, but the priests said that was how it was supposed to be. Also somehow everything had to have two parts and odd numbers were bad and the number one was the worst, so it was bad to be unique, which Seraphina didn't understand either – wasn't every being unique in it's own way? Finally the priests were called away and left Seraphina even more confused than at the beginning.

She tried to talk to a couple of people about her and their believes, but everyone either didn't want to talk to her as soon as she mentioned Blakaratz or they just told her not to talk about that. Finally she talked to one of the rebels who seemed to understand her a bit and she told her that there was a possibility to meet with the Haffajas, which could be especially lucrative for Rumdarion since they were looking for new trading routes. Seraphina told Rumdarion about that and he was not aversed to the idea, but told her it had to happen in absolute secrecy. However, when it was time to meet Rumdarion was nowhere to be found and while Seraphina was pondering if she should go alone, some tumult broke loose at the beach.

Some water-zombies were coming out of the sea and everyone able to hold a weapon was fighting them. Luckily they could be defeated, but now the poisonous surroundings started to cause problems. 

Fortunately Seraphina was spared any poisonous insect bites, but quite a few people were bitten and suffered strange symptoms. When Rumdarion's good friend Ägar was bitten by a spider Seraphina thought of healing him with Blakaratz's help, but before she could do so someone had already found an antidote.

Late in the afternoon a delegation of Haffajas came to the camp lead by a beautiful woman. She offered everyone safe conduct and lucrative trades who would come over to her side and Seraphina was very inclined to do so, especially because this woman seemed so nice and pretty, but Rumdarion held her back. Finally the woman suggested three duels and the winner would get the camp. Of course the Rur/Gror priests then insisted that there should be four (since three is an odd number) and the woman said that would be fine with her. When the woman left she wanted to gift the person she had mostly been talking to a pretty flower with a butterfly, but everyone was scared of it, so Seraphina gladly accepted the gift. After showing it off a bit something bit her in her arm (a dart from a blowgun) and she passed out. When she woke up the flower and the butterfly were gone, which made her very sad.

So she went into the community tent, where a nice magician gave her a drink saying cheers to Travia, which was one of the twelve gods everyone seemed to believe in. Since Seraphina wasn't sure, which of the twelve gods Travia was, she asked the nice magician which turned into another talk about her believes. Everyone seemed a bit weirded out when Seraphina mentioned Blakaratz and they told her never to say his name three times in a row. She did anyway to joke a bit with them – and of course nothing happened (she knew you had to really pray to the demon god to make him appear). The magician excused himself and came back with two priests who had traveled with the group. They talked to Seraphina trying to tell her that her believes were wrong and finally took her to the tent of the Rahja priests who had put up a little temple inside. One priest was a servant of Tsa, the rainbow god who is responsible for new life and the other one was a priest of Aves, the god of adventures and travels. Also the magician joined them, who strongly believed in Travia, the goddess of home and hearth and also a woman who read the star constellations came along. They had a long talk with Seraphina, while the woman looked at the star

constellation at Seraphina's birth. Finally Seraphina realized that the path she had gone so far might have been wrong and that there was another world besides darkness and pain – a world of light and life and goodness. She felt very touched how much these people seemed to care for her – that had never happened in her life. However, they didn't force her to renounce her believes, they just wanted to show her another way and Seraphina got the feeling that this other way might be better to live her life after.

Finally they all left the tent just in time for the duels. In the end the Haffajas were beaten, but when they were about to leave the camp, one was shot in the back. The beautiful woman was very angry about that and swore revenge. She would summon up an army and return in a couple of days time.

However, for tonight there was no more danger (besides these damn poisonous animals, but even these seemed to have quieted down), so everyone was crowding around the fires happily drinking, talking and singing and Seraphina had a pretty good evening that lasted into the early morning hours...