She did not really want to be here, but Lady Glory felt that it was an obligation to show up. After all, the festival was not only a chance for people to celebrate, but also look back and mourn and celebrate the lives of those past on in all of the conflicts of the last year. Sirona hadn’t been a Goddess that long, at least compared to some of the elders in the Conclave, but she wasn’t foolish enough to blow off this party. If she didn’t show she knew the rest of the Conclave would look down at her for that, not that Sirona really cared, but the less they looked in her direction in general the better.

So, knowing that she would be there, Sirona had taken the time to make sure her armour was polished to a brilliant shine with no spots left. While other would wear fancy clothing like dresses Sirona was not one of those people, she was walking around in her usual full armour. At the moment Sirona was walking casually around the Castle District with a glass of water in her hands, she wouldn’t even try and drink some wine.

The angel Goddess watched as people threw snowballs at each other in play, while the horse drawn carriage carried people around on tours of the streets. The sounds of the Sularian music still filled the air even here, and while Sirona wasn’t a music person, she couldn’t deny the talents the players had with their instruments.

Movement at Sirona’s feet made the Goddess look down and finally show a smile as her companion Lume, a little owl griffon, dove into the snow. The snow was just over the house cat sized winged beast as he opened said wings and flailed about playfully in the snow. ”Having fun, Lume?” Sirona smiled as she crouched down and rubbed the owl griffon’s belly making Lume give a happy hoot/chirp in reply as he rolled in the snow.

Not too far away, another member of the Conclave was busy with her own familiar. Niall couldn't sit still as Shiloh fastened a string of bells around his slinky-like body over the repurposed woolen stocking he was wearing as a sweater. It was pine green and festive red, very visible colors against the enchanted snow. To protect his paws there were tiny mittens pulled onto every foot in the same vibrant red. "Snow! Snow!" The ferret cried barely containing his excitement. "Yes, yes. Now before I turn you loose, remember the safety procedures we went over." Picking up the little animal in her hands she rubbed that top of his furry head. "Be careful, don't get stepped on, and have fun." Niall bounded into the powder sending white everywhere before getting his bearings, then ran off towards the snowball fights. "WOOHOO! I'M FREE!!" Small tracks in the snow were left behind as the sound of tinny bells grew further away. 

Shiloh put her hands into her pockets while she watched him go. In a rare moment of relief, she smiled. That moment unfortunately didn't last long. A familiar face among the snowball war lines made her eyes grow wide and her stomach churn itself into knots. Dear lord…why did it have to be him? She bolted, running in Sirona's direction by coincidence. Ducking behind various spots of cover, Shiloh was very awkwardly trying to avoid detection while still being rather visible. There was a reason behind all of her actions, despite how odd or out of place they were. She didn't have a special disguise today,  which was why sneaking around had been the deity's choice. She figured everyone would be too busy enjoying themselves to recognize her anyway. But that man was different. He had only seen one of her masks yet he could probably sense her if he knew she was here. Suppression of her presence was mandatory if she wanted to keep herself incognito,  for if he ever caught wind of who she was–there would be no end to his pursuit. 

In short, her objective was to avoid Mithras as long as possible. The fact he'd never seen her true face was the only thing protecting her fragile veneer of anonymity. He wasn't exactly a bad person…just very…very persistent. Persistently friendly to the point that she would jump into the city's aqueduct in hopes of escaping him. Which was becoming a more attractive option by the second. Ending up within conversation distance of the armored angel, Shiloh glanced left and right before telling Sirona: "If a six-foot two blond man with red eyes asks if you've seen a person who looks like me–don't say anything." Taking out a cloak, she began smearing it with white paint while nervously checking if the man she described was nearby. 

As Sirona played with Lume, she felt a presence coming closer, but that wasn’t much of a surprise around here at the moment. What was a surprise, however, was who that person was; Shiloh. Shiloh looked in a panic, which was another surprise, kind of, for Sirona. The angel blinked as Shiloh spoke and started to cover her cloak in white paint. Glancing in the direction that Shiloh had looked Sirona opened her wings to help block anyone from seeing Shiloh standing there. ”I won’t say anything.” Sirona replied as Lume hooted again before getting to his feet and sniffing at Shiloh’s leg. ”What’s going on, Shiloh? Are you ok?” Sirona asked with a bit of worry in her voice. What being could set off the Goddess like this to the point she was trying to hide herself from them?

"Who me? I'm fine–fine!" The brunette woman said with a joyless chuckle that was clearly the opposite of what her words were saying. "He's not exactly a 'bad' person. You know those people who just…are really persistent for some reason to the point that you'd rather jump into a river in hopes that they wouldn't know you were here? If he sees me–he'll never leave me alone–ever." Shiloh was a person who preferred her 'work' and life separate, which meant having her privacy at all costs. And if something happened to threaten said privacy, the result would be this frantic, paranoid behavior that Sirona was now witnessing for the first time. "He doesn't know my name–yet. But if he were to see my face, it'd all be over. Come hell or high water, nothing in this green earth can stop that man when he puts his mind to something. And I don't want to deal with it." If it wasn't obvious enough already, the deity of luck and storms was an antisocial paranoiac mess. There was no mention of this person she was trying to avoid being remotely dangerous, just that Shiloh was not going to put up with any social interaction with said individual whatsoever. 

"As I'm sure that you are adverse to lying, just keeping silent in case he happens to ask you anything is more than enough to help me. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take cover under the snowbanks until I'm out of sight and out of mind. Oh, hello there little owlcat. And goodbye." Throwing the fully painted cloak over herself like a tarp, Shiloh had managed to replicate the exact shade of white as the snow now falling in the city. Blending in like a chameleon, the sound of shuffling feet moved further away from Sirona until it disappeared into the festivities. Soon enough, the man she had described came into view, engaging a group of children in an intense snowball fight. He was dressed very lightly for the weather, in a light crimson dyed robe and sandals. From his attire, it seemed he was from Onnen despite his fair skin and blond hair. There was an unusual air about him, as if the entirety of his being radiated power. It was a similar aura that warlords and fierce warriors had. And yet, this grown man was enjoying himself playing along with whatever games the children were making. If Sirona wanted to know more details about what was between him and Shiloh, she'd have to ask the goddess whenever she showed her face again.

Sirona’s brow went up as Shiloh spoke, saying she was fine, she damn well didn’t look like she was fine. ”Wait, if he doesn’t know your name and doesn’t know what you look like, how would he even know who you are?” Sirona asked, confused, but then again that’s how being around Shiloh usually made Sirona anyway. ”Can’t you just tell him to leave you alone? And, if he doesn’t leave you alone, you can then do something a little more drastic to get rid of him?” Sirona offered as a solution, but that didn’t seem to work either. ”Ok, I won’t say anything to him if he asks me anything.” Sirona relented.

She watched as Shiloh left, now covered in the painted cloak to blend in with the snow, if it wasn’t for the fact Sirona was looking for her and could sense Shiloh as well, she’d never see the hidden Goddess. Sirona eventually saw the man that Shiloh had described playing a snowball fight with some children. Sirona studied him for a few moments and as she did Lume raced off towards the playing children and started to play along, using his wings to flick snow at them playfully.

The sound of the owl griffon having made caught Sirona’s attention back to him again and she smiled, just before one of the kids threw a snowball at her and caught the angel in the side of the head. Cold snow ran down her face, neck and into her armour as she blinked, she hadn’t expected to get hit, but perhaps she had gone too close. Proving that Sirona was always and wasn’t totally uptight the angel laughed before reaching down and gathering up snow in her hand, making it into a ball and lobbing it in the direction of the one who hit her. So it was that Sirona had now joined the snowball fight, with Lume still dancing around the little battlefield using his wings to flick snow at people, like splashing water in a lake.

What Shiloh had failed to tell Sirona was that there was indeed a way for Mithras to identify her despite having never seen her face. The primal lord possessed a keen sense when it came to power, and he had remembered the divine aura she had tried so hard to suppress. Unaware of Shiloh's position as a deity and ignorant of the existence of the Conclave, when the lion-headed man was taking a brief respite from the snowball skirmish with a group of local children, he felt that same aura again. His crimson eyes widened as a smile slowly crept across his face. Discarding the snowball in his hand, he turned and began walking towards that familiar sensation. But instead of the masked figure he had encountered in the plains at the foot of Mount Qala, it was a winged woman clad in armor from head to toe. A figure perfectly matching the furtive goddess of misfortune's description was now striding towards Lady Glory with decisive steps across the snowy ground. There was a gleaming light in those eyes as Mithras brazenly approached her, just a hair's breadth away from being unable to maintain his composure. For just beneath the surface, he was brimming with excitement. He could feel the rush of his blood pulsing through his veins, and it took all of his will to keep himself from rushing forward with a charge.

To his surprise, instead of the masked one he found a stranger. But there was no disappointment, for he was pleased all the same. "Winged warrior, have you by any chance seen a masked being wandering these grounds? It moves like a shadow, quick as the wind. With a blink, it is gone–yet its presence lingers for a moment. How strange, I was sure that I felt that familiar presence not long ago. Instead I find myself here, before a stranger whose eminence bears the same immense power." Putting a hand to his chin in thought, that brief instance of contemplation ended as his attention moved to the present. This woman was powerful, and ever since he had left Onnen Mithras had been waiting for such an encounter as this. "Winged One, I challenge you to a trial in combat. Have a bout with me on these frost-covered grounds. We shall clash with no holds barred, man to woman. Or if this place is insufficient, then we may engage outside the boundaries of the city without distraction." Pointed fangs flashed as he widened his grin, revealing his combative intent. There was no malice or evil in his eyes, only a pure overwhelming desire for the thrill of battle. 

Upon closer inspection of his features, one could easily mistake him for a fiend or some unholy creature. His slightly pointed ears, elongated canines, red eyes, sharp nails, and audacious demeanor made him appear so. Yet there was no such aura coming from him, only a powerful primal energy that radiated from the entirety of his very being. The very atmosphere around them changed, tension rising the moment Mithras unleashed his martial resolve. With open arms, he was awaiting the goddess' response to his throwing down of the gauntlet. It would appear once he set his mind upon something, it would be difficult to change its course. Not without a proper show of force to convince him otherwise.

It was a sound from Lume that caught Sirona’s attention and she looked in the direction the little owl griffon was looking to see the lion-headed man walking with purpose towards her. Sirona tossed the last snowball she had been holding just as the stranger came up to her, Sirona’s brilliant blue eyes narrowed as she watched him. Sirona kept her face neutral as he spoke asking if she had seen a masked figure, Shiloh, around here. Contrary to what Shiloh thought, Sirona didn’t have a problem with lying if that meant helping someone she considered a friend. ”There are many beings here with masks on, I haven’t watched them all. So, no, I do not know of the being you speak of.” Her face was neutral, but her voice held her annoyance at being spoken to. ”If my powers feels the same to you as someone else’s, then you have probably ran into one my siblings, but none of them wear a mask, so I couldn’t tell you who it is.” Sirona explained in short and was about to move to leave when he spoke again.

At his want for a trial in combat Sirona raised a brow as his fanged grin spread across his face. Sirona thought for a moment; she could beat him down hard, or, hold back her Divine Strength and fight him like she would have when she was mortal. Or she could take the third option. ”No.” The angel said bluntly. ”I do enough fighting outside of parties such as this, I didn’t come here to fight anyone, even in a spar. This is a peaceful place and asking me such a question is an insult to the ones putting this festival on for the people.” Sirona chastised. ”Now, why don’t you go back to the snowball fight, if it’s a fight you want, and leave me alone.” Sirona turned on her heel and started to walk away, where to she didn’t know, just away. Lume meanwhile opened his wings and took off to catch up to Sirona and land on her shoulders, using her wings to help prop himself up and ride along. Sirona smiled and reached up to pet his head as she walked away from the annoying one.