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So he concentrated. Focused. It wasn’t quick or easy, but he kept at it. Until he finally began to feel normal again. Like an actual, thinking person again.

He found it most helpful to look to his elders for an example of how to conduct himself.

Certainly, the return of the Lord Zeff Elroy was most welcome. The man’s absence had been sorely felt, even if it had not been for very long, in the grand scheme of things.

Raul recalled the rampant speculation that spread through their ranks as a result of the man’s disappearance. Such worry and confusion. Yet another wrinkle in things, after everyone had only just reunited. There’d even been talk of it being some kind of ill omen. Perhaps a warning from Lhutwë himself. A warning of imminent punishment, some said.

If the Water God’s chosen one had been taken away, then perhaps it was to spare him alone from Lhutwë’s impending wrath.

Raul had never bought into that line of thinking, thankfully. But it hadn’t exactly been a comfort, either.

And then, of course, the waves began to hit.

One might be forgiven for mistaking that madness as indeed the wrath of the Water God.

Lakefire. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, a part of him still felt like maybe it had been.

If Lord Zeff had not reappeared in the middle of all that mayhem, then Raul might be genuinely thinking that way now. And he would not have been alone in doing so, either.

Once the waves had settled and the man caught wind of the ideas going around about divine punishment, Lord Zeff had been incensed. He had not hesitated in striking them down loudly and frequently.

“That is nothing but foolishness spread in the grip of fear!” the man had said on multiple different occasions, each in front of a crowd of dozens. “If it were true, then I would not be here now! I would not have been able to return to you! Listen to me! It is times like these when, above all else, we must hold ourselves together! Keep each other upright! The rain fears not the torch!”

Raul appreciated those words immensely. And he knew he was not alone in that sentiment, either.

Yet he also couldn’t help wondering if those words might, in some way, be having an opposite effect to what the Lord Elroy had been aiming for.

After all, the Water Dragon of Sair could certainly roar, now couldn’t he?