My thoughts are the cold kind,
I've got storm clouds brewing behind my eyes

"Have you asked the Moon?"

Erthë blinked. What? OH right, he was still talking about her legs! Seems the former Dorobian wasn't quite as ready to leave the subject in its grave as she. That question though, it rattled her in a very deep and profound way. It was quite simple, plainly stated, very clear cut and in audible voice but it still took a while for the true brilliance of the very idea to sink in. And when it did, her eyes slowly widened, until she stopped dead on the spot and just stared up at Tembovu.

"Well... no. I mean, I presumed that... well if one of them wouldn't, then..." She quieted, voice trailing off and it was clearly visible how the complex (sometimes overly so) machinery of her mind began to work.

Indeed, she had presumed. But had she not both seen with her own eyes and learned from experience that each god was its own creature, all with their own separate personalities? The Sun was as noble and hot-tempered, as proud and haughty as his Sister was fickle and sweet, seductive and motherly and utterly ruthless. Was it not foolish to the point of idiocy to dare assume that just because one god, with whom she had never truly interacted, refused a request by proxy, all others would do so as well, regardless of her relation to them or how she phrased such a request? Why in all the starry heavens had she not thought of this before?

"Tembu... you might be a genius" she said. The unseeing, faraway gaze slowly turned to regard the bulky lord with something very close to awe. "I'm sorry I didn't notice earlier..."

And the conversation could well have ended there, because Erthë was ready to take this new train of thought the full circle, and it might take her all the rest of the way back home to work through the ins and outs of her own folly, work through matters of guilt and propriety and process the mounting doubt that the Goddess would favor her with such a blessing, blood-stained sinner as she were. But this time it was Tembovu who had moved on, and it took her a while to realize that the man was asking about something she has said.

"What? Oh, sorry, I was... I know a herb that numbs the pain. That bright red one, with the big petals? You see it everywhere on meadows and river-beds in late summer, it bleeds milky liquid if you break the stem..."

Distracted as she was, Erthë didn't reflect over whether it was wise of her to describe the plant so closely to her friend. It was a fairly well known herb after all, infamous for its narcotic properties and addictive nature... normally she wouldn't have given him half the information, but right now there were other things on her mind.

Would the Lady really listen to such a selfish, deeply personal request? Was it at all interesting to the divine creature whether a lowly mortal was walking well or not..? Oh, but even this the smallest glimmer of hope was like a battering ram against hastily assembled castle gates, and without being able to suppress herself Erthë found herself picturing all the things she would be able to do, if her legs only worked like the should.

No forces on this earth would be able to stop her!

Erthë

And my heart will be blacker than your eyes
when I'm through with you