Chapter 380

'Silver hair, pale skin... Does she have moon elf blood?' A name instinctively came to Anser's mind.

Sehanine Moonbow!

But that didn't seem right. Sehanine was a goddess, and her divine realm lay in Arvandor, in the Outer Plane of Arborea. Why would she appear in such a remote temple?

Moreover, although Sehanine was only an intermediate deity, her status was extraordinary, and she was deeply revered by the Seldarine.

"Seldarine" was the formal name for the elven pantheon, which included Corellon and the primal elves who had received the gift of his divinity.

Corellon Larethian was the creator of the elves, the embodiment of chaos and beauty. He loved magic, art, nature, and freedom. He was quick to anger, but just as quick to forget and forgive.

He never expected anything from his followers and wanted them to enjoy life, try new things, and pursue what they truly desired.

According to myth, Sehanine was formed from the first blood that flowed from Corellon's body.

She often accompanied Corellon in the form of a male elf, and a single glance from her could subtly alter Corellon's mood and behavior. Their relationship was exceedingly complicated.

Legend held that Sehanine's tears mingled with Corellon's blood, and together they created the first elves.

Given her status, she shouldn't be here.

Based on Anser's speculation, this temple wasn't on an Outer Plane, because there was no teleportation circle or spell that could freely travel in and out of the Outer Planes.

'Then maybe she's a priestess or something,' he thought.

He didn't touch the crystal sphere or any of the magical crystals surrounding it. Instead, he focused and observed.

But even after the die spun for ages, he couldn't discern a thing.

'Useless. And you ate two strands of my divinity for nothing.'

He grumbled inwardly and carefully made a circuit around the room.

Aside from the crystal sphere, there didn't seem to be any treasure here.

And the door had disappeared. There was no exit at all.

'Why did it have to put me in here?'

He returned to the crystal sphere. The moment his gaze fell on the female elf again, he nearly jumped.

At some point, her eyes had opened. She was staring unblinkingly at Anser, her eyes gleaming as though moonlight flowed within them.

Anser instinctively tightened his grip on the Arcanefire Longbow, his expression tense. "Sorry. I ended up here by accident. I had no idea what this place was beforehand."

When you were away from home and ran into a situation you didn't understand, being polite was never a bad idea.

A hint of amusement appeared in the female elf's eyes. Then a telepathic voice sounded directly in Anser's mind.

{No need to apologize. You're the one I was looking for, Mr. Anser Holrewen.}

Anser's heart jolted. So she had set her sights on him long ago.

He took a deep breath and tentatively asked, "And you are?"

{Sehanine Moonbow.}

Her body and lips remained motionless, but the moonstone pendant hanging from the silver circlet across her brow grew steadily brighter.

"This..." Anser's scalp tingled as thoughts raced wildly through his mind.

Something was clearly wrong with Sehanine's condition. She was very likely gravely injured, which meant things weren't peaceful on the Outer Planes.

Had a divine war broken out? Had the Twilight of the Gods arrived?!

{I was ambushed by Malarak while entering the Material Plane and suffered severe injuries, so I had no choice but to come here to recuperate for the time being... Don't worry. He can't find this place.}

Sehanine's voice was gentle and soothing, like a clear spring.

Even when mentioning her enemy, she showed none of the bitter hatred one might expect.

Anser's spirits surged.

She had actually descended in her true form?!

As everyone knew, deities rarely left their divine realms. If something needed doing, they would entrust it to their followers, send down a portion of their divinity, or at most create an avatar.

Within their own divine realms, deities were virtually invincible. No mortal could harm a deity's true body there, and even hostile deities rarely invaded another deity's divine realm.

Once a deity left their divine realm, however, their combat power would rapidly decline.

If they were killed, they would die!

During the Time of Troubles, the gods descended to the mortal world in avatar form, resulting in the deaths of numerous deities.

Deities did not truly die, but if their faith continued to dwindle, they would sink into oblivion for countless ages before eventually fading away entirely.

After a moment of silence, Anser tentatively asked, "Has something happened on the Outer Planes? The Overgod... probably doesn't like deities descending to the mortal world, does he?"

{You really are very knowledgeable.} Praise showed in Sehanine's eyes.

Anser pursed his lips, finding himself increasingly well-disposed toward Sehanine.

In the same situation, a Chosen of Lolth would have said, "You know quite a lot," speaking from on high in a way that made it obvious they didn't consider others to be on the same level as themselves.

By comparison, Sehanine was like the girl next door.

Even if it was merely an act, the sincerity behind it was on an entirely different level.

{I had no choice but to come. After something happened to the Weave, the connection between the Outer Planes and the mortal world gradually began to break down...} Sehanine explained, her voice calm and unhurried.

After something happened to the goddess of magic, many deities tried to contact her, but all of them failed.

At first, the gods weren't particularly anxious. The Weave was too important for the Overgod to simply ignore.

But as time passed, the situation grew increasingly severe. Not only were the gods unable to establish contact with their followers, even the faith flowing into their divine realms dwindled more and more.

That was extremely abnormal, because the Weave wasn't supposed to affect the transmission of faith!

At most, it merely made the process somewhat more efficient. Before the Weave ever existed, the gods had still been gods.

The severing of faith was far more terrifying than the collapse of the Weave. No deity could tolerate such a thing, yet the Overgod seemed to have vanished into thin air and never appeared from beginning to end.

So the gods could no longer sit still.

"Chosen" were the gods' first choice for saving themselves!

The deities bestowed divinity upon their Chosen and used them as nodes to forcibly construct stable channels for transmitting faith, stabilizing their own divine status.

Powerful deities had many Chosen, while weaker ones had fewer. Some didn't even have a single one.

But this method had a drawback. If a Chosen was killed by an enemy, their divinity might be devoured.

Some deities even deliberately instructed their own Chosen to hunt the Chosen of other gods with similar portfolios, or those belonging to hostile factions.

A divine war had not yet broken out, but tensions were just as high.

Some deities were comparatively fortunate. Their divine realms weren't located on the Outer Planes, so their faith hadn't been affected. Instead, they had actually benefited from the situation.

Examples included Mask, god of thieves, and Shar, goddess of night, who both dwelled in the Shadowfell, as well as the four elemental gods of the Inner Planes.

As some grew stronger while others weakened, the balance was naturally shattered.

If the Overgod didn't intervene, it was only a matter of time before a divine war broke out.

Recently, Malyk, known as the "Dark Mage" among the Dark Seldarine, had descended to Faerûn in his true form and personally begun targeting the Chosen of the Seldarine.

Sehanine had no choice but to follow him, only to fall into Malyk's trap.

The Dark Seldarine were the elven pantheon led by Lolth. They had originally all been primal elves of the Seldarine before Lolth lured them away through various means and formed a new pantheon.

Eilistraee was one of the Dark Seldarine.

The Malyk Sehanine had mentioned was also one of the Dark Seldarine. He represented rebellion and chaos, and used wild magic to entice many male drow into escaping Lolth's control. As a result, his relationship with Lolth was far from good.

But clearly, the two gods had hooked up again.

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