#renain

Jezrien moved towards a tent, and the others followed him. As Dalinar walked, he could vaguely hear voices from the inside, perhaps from the other three Heralds. Damnation. This couldn’t be the place where the Oathpact had been formed, could it? This certainly wasn’t how Dalinar would have imagined such a divine event, held hastily in a ragged tent between leaders squabbling like children. He’d always pictured it happening somewhere extravagant, or at least more fit for its significance. But then again, he supposed, most people would be surprised at how many important decisions were made in stuffy old warcamps instead of palace chambers. 

Battar, the silver-haired Herald, held open the side of the tent and was motioning for the group to enter. Dalinar stepped in beside Navani, who was still holding onto Gavinor. The boy looked interested for the first time since entering the visions, and was remarkably unfazed, considering their situation. As Dalinar turned to study the room, he noticed only two of the remaining Heralds. Where was the third one? Pailiah was instantly recognizable by her Veden features, wearing a silky green cloth and holding something glowing in her hand. Another woman, whose features had been obscured before they had lit the lamps, stood in the corner and was fidgeting with the ties on her loose blue dress. This might be Vedeledev, the woman Navani had appeared as in the last vision. Dalinar’s gaze lingered on Vedeledev; there was something familiar about her mannerisms he couldn’t quite place. But where was Taln? He examined the tent, but Talenelat’Elin, the one abandoned to Braize, was nowhere to be found. He must show up sometime soon, they surely wouldn’t start without him. Perhaps he wasn’t as close with the other Heralds as Dalinar had assumed, their dynamics were slightly off from what the ardents had—

“What in Damnation is that?” 

Dalinar whipped around, hand reaching instinctively for his swordbelt. He looked towards the entrance, expecting to find enemy soldiers initiating some kind of ambush. Instead, the group of Heralds, led by Jezrien, were gaping at something Pailiah had in her hand. Pailiah’s expression turned from nervous to horrified as she seemed to realize she was the source of the outburst.

“Look, Gram!” Gavinor said happily. “It’s Renarin and his friend!”

What? Dalinar thought, Renarin? He stepped cautiously towards the clump of people, trying to get a look at what Gavinor was talking about. Jezrien shifted backwards slightly, allowing Dalinar to see the globe Pailiah was carrying, which had somehow risen slightly off her hand. It reminded him of the ones Renarin had occasionally summoned; a glowing ball of light levitating in the air. This time, however, it was projecting a small Lightweaving onto its surrounding area. The Lightweaving depicted a singer malen and a young man who was undoubtedly Renarin, while they were…er…embracing. 

Shockspren popped up around Dalinar like little yellow triangles, breaking and reforming. He looked over to Navani, who was staring wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open. Gav tugged on her arm and pointed towards the image, repeating his comment. Several Heralds turned towards him.

“Spren?” Battar asked slowly, “What…what was…that?” She spoke in a strange, hesitant tone, as if she was having trouble forming words. Many of the other Heralds acted similarly; freezing up and seeming almost dazed. 

Navani cleared her throat, not taking her eyes off of the sphere. 

“Dalinar. I…I think the vision is having trouble adapting to this…situation,” she said in an oddly high pitch. Dalinar nodded, still gaping. 

“Yes, that…seems to be the case.” It was clear that whatever was happening with the globe was not part of the original event, and its presence—along with Gav’s interruption—was causing the vision to go haywire. Dalinar needed to be working towards getting the vision back on track so that he could access an Honorblade, but storm it. What in the Almighty’s ten names was going on? Why would Renarin—his son Renarin, of all people—be in the spiritual realm? Well…perhaps not in the spiritual realm; it didn’t seem like he was actually there, but some sort of image of him clearly was. And…Damnation. Dalinar didn’t want to even think about the content of the image. It wasn’t that he was angry, merely…incredibly surprised. Renarin had never been a very romantic person, especially not towards enemy species. And Dalinar had never even considered that Renarin might be—

“Pralla!” Nale snapped suddenly, “I shouldn’t be surprised you’re a traitor to your word. I have no idea what that is supposed to be, but I certainly would like to know what you’re doing using your powers!”

Pailiah took a step back from her original position, looking mortified.

“Be calm,” Jezrien said, stepping between Nale and Pailiah, “Nale, be calm. We need to see the truth in times like these, and even you agree that Pralla does that better than any.”

“We swore,” Nale hissed, angerspren pooling at his feet, “We specifically swore not to use them.” 

“Nale,” Jezrien said firmly. “Let her speak. Pralla is clearly trying to show us something, and I’m sure she has a reasonable justification for this.” He looked expectantly toward Pailiah.

Pailiah paled and stepped back further. Dalinar studied her more closely, frowning. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing unnaturally fast, as if terrified of the others. What was she so worried about? Nale and Jezrien waited for a response, but Pailiah just cleared her throat and glanced towards Vedeledev. Were her behaviors some kind of after effect of the interruptions? It was possible, but she was the only one acting strangely; the rest of the Heralds had already readjusted. Pailiah…but surely she couldn’t have actually conjured that image of Renarin…right? The other Heralds seemed to think so, but obviously that was just the vision’s way of adapting. She was the same order of Radiant as his son, so perhaps she had a variation of his strange future-seeing powers, but Renarin had never created anything even remotely like that. Even so, Radiance was different in ancient times, which might have…

it tingles my brain in the right ways

OMG REAL PATTERN PATTERN PATTERN MY SON

Hii! Thank you for the ask @linariouswrites

Both of my WIPs are set in our world, so the legends are still there, but the towns where the characters lives and where the action is set are fictional and they do have their own myths! 

Delmain is a little town in Switzerland. It was build during the Middle Ages. As a Catholic country at the time, there was a church outside of the city (because really, the town wasn’t as big as it is today) that they shared with travelers. But the church wasn’t build with the proper rocks, and the ceiling collapsed after 35years of use, killing all the people inside. The legend says that when the last bit of dust fell to the ground, it started to rain. People used to believe it was symbolizing God’s tears at the accident. This story is really important for Delmain’s people. The legend even says that sometimes God comes at the ruins of the church. In respect, after burying their loved ones, people decided to let the church be and not rebuilding it.

From the day of the incident to now, they always kept the emplacement of the church a secret, afraid the rocks would be taken to build another building or that some ill-intentioned people would degrade it. Everyone in Delmain knows the emplacement of the ruins and how to get there, but they would never share it with anyone that is not Delmain born and raised. 

For Renain, there was a story that life-water could be found near-by, but it was lost through the generations.