Ash stepped into her grove, watching as the Star Ash that had helped create her body in Fantastoria began to glow ever so gently. It cast her garden in a beautiful light that put her at ease and she found herself strolling for a while, looking at everything by the light the tree gave off and that of the floating starlit orbs.
Eventually she moved close to the tree, her hand brushing its massive trunk as she mentally projected her thanks to it. The tree's bark took on a slight glow in response, as if it was blushing in response to a particularly kind compliment. Ash changed form and looked around a bit, finding a nice grouping of roots that made for a comfortable place to sleep without trapping her in such a way that she would have trouble standing.
Curling against the tree in the soft glowing light of its leaves and the stars, she watched the starseeing pond for a while before dozing off. Luna's gentle hand brushing her mane roused her and she turned a color-shifting eye on her friend. She was still comfortable and it seemed a little early even for their unbearably early morning routine so she made no effort to get up yet. Luri sat against her, watching the pond in the gentle light that would soon fade to make way for the proper sunrise of dawn.
Ash shifted just a bit, curling her neck to nuzzle against the priestess and lightly dozed. When she woke again it was just past dawn, and Luna was also rousing herself from a nap.
"Asha," Luna's hand ran along her mane, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm good," she wove the magic to speak, suppressing a slight yawn as she shifted form to lean against the priestess instead. Unperturbed by the shift in form, Luna continued petting Ash's hair, "Nothing feels any more off than usual, at the least," she said with another yawn.
"Good," the priestess said with a nod, "I'll be staying with you a fair bit over the next couple of days, told the temple heads to deal with it. I won't let you overtax yourself again," the priestess' arms curled tightly around her as she very softly voiced a plea, "Don't do anything that can take you away from me, Asha, that's not how things are supposed to be."
Ash nodded agreement and that seemed to be the catalyst needed to get the priestess up and moving. A gentle hand pulled her to her feet and they slowly made their way through the morning routine before having breakfast together and heading into town.
Ash explained about the match she had with Ailanthus so that Luri was aware of it. The priestess heaved a bit of a weary sigh, having expected her to get herself into trouble somehow. At least she knew that the Blazewing would take care not to wound Asha.
The temple of Virtus was busy considering it was early morning and everyone was worshiping. An armored hawkwing stepped up to them as they entered the main hall, obviously seeing by Luri's robes that they were definitely out of place in the temple.
"What brings a couple of stargazers into the temple of valor and contracts?" She asked in a voice that had a melodic sort of songbird lilt to it.
"We've been invited by Ailan," Ash said by way of explanation, not feeling the need to go more in depth.
"Ah, yes," she said, straightening slightly as a small sharp smile spread on her face, "He's been crowing about it quite happily since yesterday. Apparently he views you as a more than worthy challenge even if he must lower himself for it," she looked both of the elves before her over a little skeptically, "I do not particularly see why, as you seem to be little more than a common priestess. What he needs is an opponent that can cross blades with him, a worthy challenger, not a glorified mage that he will easily mow down."
Ash returned the sharp smile with a cold one, "Perhaps if you lead us to him instead of talking our ears off, you'll find out why he wants to challenge me," she responded a little sharply, "Or we could, perhaps, spend all day at this ridiculous little fight that will not assist any of us."
She sighed and turned an appraising eye onto the priestess before her, activating her spell that would gauge the worthiness of a challenger. If the stargazer wasn't at least worthy of fighting herself, though she was nowhere near the level of fighter as Ailan, she would simply tell them both to leave. There was no point in wasting the time of one of the strongest paladins the temple had on offer when it could be spent against opponents that actually had something to give him.
She stepped back in shock at what her spell told her, that she had met a challenger she could not dream of beating. That baffled her, considering the strongest stargazers were those that tended to gravitate strongly towards the temple and its myriad duties. There were very few that would accept challenges and yet one stood before her to seek Ailan out.
Completely baffled, she spoke a little rudely, "I believe my spell must be giving you far too much credit as a challenger," she grumbled before motioning towards the door that led to the training grounds, "I'm certain Ailan is in the training grounds," she lied, "Go there and find him, he'll find you there shortly if he isn't already present."
She had no intent of informing Ailan that a stargazer was looking for him, assured that her spell had malfunctioned somehow or appraised the wrong challenger. There was no way one of the peaceable priestesses of that temple would dare to challenge someone as powerful as the Blazewing Ailanthus. Certain that they would quickly grow bored of waiting and take their leave, not to mention that Ailan was likely busy with his morning training in the forest, she went about her own tasks and left them to take themselves to the training ground.