After Ninurtos was undone, the priests of Ninlee of the airy heights came forth, called the wife and sister of Heinil, the Storm-Lord. Her face was fair and her voice soft, yet her dominion was no less mighty, for she was said to be the breath that sustains and the current that bears travelers safely across peril. Her priests of Peakshadow boasted, saying: “Without Ninlee no man draws breath, and without her guiding wind no pilgrim finds the way. If your God is greater, let Him prove it upon the air itself.”
So Ninlee called upon her husband’s tempests, that the skies might rage and reveal the weakness of mortals. Winds screamed through the mountain passes, tearing roofs from houses and hurling travelers from the heights. Her followers said: “See how frail are men when breath is withdrawn and the air is turned against them.”
But Gamasiel prayed with his Seven Followers, and in that hour a wonder was wrought. The winds ceased not altogether, but were bent and turned aside, as if some unseen hand caught them and made them gentle. In Peakshadow the chimes in Ninlee’s shrines rang not with the violence of storm but with a steady, melodious harmony. Pilgrims found the paths calm, and the banners of the city streamed straight and true.
Then the people said: “This is no work of Ninlee, whose favor is uncertain, but of a God who rules even the rulers of the air. For He can make the storm serve His peace.” And many who once raised their prayers to the Lady of Winds turned instead to the Forgotten God.
Thus Ninlee was defeated in the third contest, her cloak of protection shown to be no more than a veil before the might of the One who governs all breath.
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