Gemma appeared to freeze, and as Ulilohi and Tiva both waited, she stood as if listening and the two other females waited. Tiva held the satchel gingerly and Ulilohi, too, felt uncomfortable at what they were about to do. It wasn't right, but it was necessary. She kept repeating it in her mind, as if it would somehow change the fact that it was bordering on blasphemy.
A stranger emerged, one Ulilohi had not seen before, and she eyed the female suspiciously for a moment, until she remembered that Claudius had told her about a new joiner, to the Fire Keeper path. This would probably be the one, then. She seemed tentative at first, but engaged in the situation and the fire's fate, which only strengthened the councilwoman's suspicion of her rank. Also, she offered useful advice, seemingly from experience. Gemma snapped out of it in time to receive a contraption that had to be human-made; the austral female had never seen anything like it, at least, which usually meant that it was salvaged from some remains somewhere. The stranger was right, though, as was Gemma; it would be much more usable than an old torch, as Ulilohi had suggested. "Clever." she agreed, trying to keep her voice calm, as if that would somehow calm herself, and those around her. Again, her attention turned to Gemma, and she looked at the young Fire Keeper expectantly. Time to get this over with.
The stranger appeared as eager to save the fire as they were, though went about it in another way. Or, perhaps she supplemented their efforts, rather. She produced anouther peculiar item, and though Ulilohi recognized this as an obvious shovel, she usually did not wield metal ones. The councilwoman's attention was divided; she wanted to pay close attention to Gemma and aid her and Tiva, but she quickly found herself focusing on the stranger. "What are you doing?" she said to her, half alarmed and half curious. The female had no experience from storms such as these, nor any knowledge on how she could shelter a fire. She only knew that the fire must be saved, and the only way to ensure it was to take its embers and keep them until this was all over. Digging near the Great Fire made her uncertain -- was it blasphemous? Was it disrespectful? She wasn't sure, part of her felt it was wrong, part of her saw no problem -- it was just dirt, after all.
Some time passed until she could recognised the function of the stranger's actions. "It will inevitably die in the storm. I think your efforts may be wasted." Still, she was uncertain. Glancing at Tiva, who also seemed divided, she saw conflict on everyone's faces.
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