~NPC Candelario Sandoval~
A fire burned at the centre of the Incin shrine. One might imagine a cheerful, warming blaze confined within a simple hearth, but this was fire of a different kind. Reaching some twenty feet into the air, the column of flames rose from a bare stone floor, seemingly fed by nothing. Colours laced through the flames; predominantly red and orange, but fading across every shade from carmine through vermillion until even tiny licks of white and blue were intermittently visible. Up close, the fire was searingly hot; mere feet away it shed nothing more than a pleasant warmth, and nothing of the blaze suggested it was anything but perfectly controlled.
Leather-shod footsteps approached slowly, and a figure stopped in front of the column of flame just before the heat became uncomfortable. Soft words in Council gaelic seemed to cause a reaction in the fire and the outermost flames flickered, at first almost imperceptibly and then more rapidly as the column began to shrink. The figure resisted the temptation to step backwards, but even knowing there was no danger, especially to himself, it took a certain amount of willpower. But he stood patiently as the flames diminished and then, as he had known would happen the column gradually took on a vaguely human shape. Torso, arms and legs of pure flame that gradually coalesced into a figure clad in plain robes of deep red, white hair and beard neatly trimmed yet too long for fashion; blue eyes sharp and knowing as they had been a century earlier yet sunk into a face deeply lined with age. Candelario Sandoval raised his hands and watched with a faint smile as the last vestiges of his element returned to within and his fingers returned. He flexed them gently and returned the greeting of the figure standing before him.
"It is time, then?" he asked, turning to be assisted into the sleeveless, ceremonial robe that he would wear over his everyday robes. His voice still betrayed a trace of his native Spanish, though it was less noticeable in Gaelic than when he spoke in English or French. He had been speaking the language so long it almost felt like a part of him. The other regalia he would have shunned; but for a ring set with an emerald-cut ruby, rumoured to have been handed from one Harbinger Incin to the next for a dozen centuries, on his left index finger; and a smaller, marquise-cut carnelian on the third finger of the same hand. But this was a solemn occasion, the challenging and subsequent welcoming of a new Harbinger, and today everything must follow tradition.
Lario knew what to expect; his own challenges had been just a few years earlier after all, but this was the first time he would welcome a new Harbinger. He had mixed feelings. Admiration and respect for Gavin Evans, now returned to the Earth, but also happiness for Demeter. She was the perfect embodiment of Madin, and he had no doubt she would lead them well. But first came the testing, as it had always done. "Let us not keep them waiting" he said to Bogale, the acolyte.
Within the courtyard there was already quite a gathering, and he exchanged greetings with many of those he recognised. But at the back of his mind was what was to come. This would feel like...attacking a friend. And yet, tradition demanded, so he must obey.
When Demeter arrived, her acolytes applauded, and Lario smiled warmly. He didn't miss the slight stiffness with which she held herself as she approached the centre of the courtyard, nor the way she relaxed once she noticed the floral path in her wake. At first she seemed to have abandoned her usual informal style; but then she relaxed, and it was the Demeter he had known for decades. "Which element will issue the first challenge?"
Nobody moved. Lario glanced around the courtyard; everyone seemed to be waiting. Were the other Harbingers as reluctant as he? The seconds stretched out, and he took a step forward.
"As a wise man once said, 'So shall the weakest be first'." he paused, and the trace of a smile crept across his lined features "Or if he didn't, he should have done." his voice took on the more formal tones the occasion demanded, the proscribed words. "Demeter Grey, you stand before us wishing to prove yourself as Harbinger Madin. So shall you be challenged, and should you prove worthy, you will be accepted." Then he cast INCIN MULTERNIS*, silently, without warning. Dozens of small fires surrounded the woman, springing up in concentric circles and growing in intensity until each burst fully ten feet high, their heat suddenly fierce and doubtless frightening to those who didn't understand the nuances of their control. Knowing that Demeter's second element was Hor, it would be interesting to see how she dealt with fires that, while easily extinguished with water, would immediately be replaced with other, higher blazes. He just hoped she would beat this challenge before the courtyard became an inferno.
[*OOC: It's not listed in the guide, but basically multiple versions of the eternal fire]
