Sanria listened to Gilean and the other priest, Bertrand, talking while Nioma and Lyvinnia played. The two girls seemed delighted with one another, but on seeing them, the moment they touched, with a blue glow that spread like starlight, Sanria snatched Nioma into the air. It sent Lyvinnia into tears while Nioma thrashed about in Sanria's arms. She'd never seen anything like it, but she couldn't risk a toddler vanishing to a place she didn't know, and it certainly seemed that they were on the verge of taking off.
She allowed Nioma back to the ground, Sanria's eyes cautiously watching, and listened as Bertrand told them how abusive Maya truly was. Why she felt that this was any of her obligation, she didn't know. But before she had considered any other way, she had Bertrand promise to ask Maya if she could have the little girl. "I've asked for the girl," Bertrand said. "Maya always summons her, I've even left with the child once. The child is a puppet to that order, I wouldn't hold out on being granted the child."
"Sanria's home does have special protections on it I helped to place there," Gilean replied. "The child would be safe, if she is in danger ...so long as she didn't leave the house."
"Then take her, before the lass is dead."
"She'll kill her?" Sanria asked with alarm.
In that moment, she felt a great many things. One, in particular, was anger. Thasmudyan should be doing this, this was his mistake. He should be here, fighting for his daughter, not trying to make a life with her and Nioma. He should be solving this...
Lyvinnia vanished in a swirl of gray smoke, summoned, Bertrand reminded them, by Maya. Not long after, Maya walked into the temple, setting Sanria's stomach to ice. "Your bastards growing too it seems," Maya said. "Your idiot husband still playing happy father?"
"As a matter of fact, Colin and I are no longer together."
"So you've allowed the mooch back into your heart then, your home... or are you on to someone entirely new now?" Sanria did not miss a beat. There would be no way she would let Maya know about Ror. "No. No one new."
"So you have then, he is with you." Maya stared at Sanria, her eyes cunning, searching.
"Not entirely. No. After all, he is prone to vanishing which isn't conducive to any sort of relationship. I am, for all intents and purposes, a free agent at the moment."
"He's always done that to you though hasn't he dear.... yet here you sit with the oil of his loins."
The distaste Sanria felt for the woman before her was sickening and intense. She could not, however, let any of her inner feelings show through. It was a damning exercise, as when she requested Lyvinnia, Maya brought the girl forth from nowhere, grinding her boot into the girl. "What is it worth to you, to save this piece of rothe dropping Sanria?" "What do you wish?" Sanria asked, keeping herself from stepping forward. "Come to me with an offer, if its soon, We will negotiate... or you can send your man to fight for his pathetic mess. I doubt it though."
Both Maya and Lyvinnia vanished and Sanria let out her pent up breath. She was furious. She watched a parent abuse their child before her eyes and did nothing, but she knew if she had made a move, the girl would have suffered even more. Only when Bertrand had explained who Maya was, how she was stuck in the world, how they would need the help of a wizard if a bargain was going to be getting Maya back home, did it strike Sanria. A name she hadn't thought about in ages came back to her. "Gilean... what about Velentham..."
