Lords of Creation (Story Thread 3)

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

(55 motes previously +3 motes, Total: 58 motes,maxed out)

Koneko pulls out her sword and moves in front of Aox, parrying and blocking his slashes without attacking back,"Good job! Keep going at it like this and you'll get better at doing Swordsmanship."

[Zaleramancer]

"You right! Need stick." She tosses the stone aside and proceeds to crouch, looking for a stick.

The earth vibrates slightly as the rock hits dirt, as if something heavy had landed on it.

[Zaleramancer]

The air in the room began to hum slightly, and breezes drifted around in circular patterns. Gant began to swiftly place her flask in her bag, closing and holding on tightly.

"Shall we take the chairs with us?" Dez inquired as the breezes began to grow stronger.

[Zaleramancer]

The trees and underbrush opened up to show a dirt path, along which several large creatures walked slowly down, grumbling and making the deep noises from before.

They were huge, six-legged and fleshy creatures. Pale flesh was covered with thick cloth and lovingly detailed patterns of ink and paint. People like Zaya walked among them, rode on them or carefully guided them. Unlike her, they were covered in brilliant painted or dyed designs. Speech and sound, laughter and music sprang from each of them, intermingling with that of the others to create songs and stories of great richness and complexity.

One figure in particular caught the eye, slim and feminine decorated in red and purple. She danced on the back of one of the six-legged beasts, conjuring lights and color and sound, trying to be the center of attention.

Guess who 

Zaya's voice was strangely subdued, melancholic with a hint of self-deprecation.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"........WAIT! Who....who are you?" the voice stammers.

[Zaleramancer]

"I am Prisca." She says as she picks a large forked stick from the ground.

[Philote]

Gilgamesh confidently steps into the growing breeze with the rest of the group.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"The chairs stay. I'm not even sure they work outside this room." The Watchman says. In 2 seconds he had pinpointed the exact point in the room he had to stand for his cloak to billow out behind him. Dramatically.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Babysitter isn't sure what to make of the scene before her. It was all so strange, and wonderful.

"I guess young Zaya."

[Zaleramancer]

With a nod, Dez and the other gods stood. The two twin gods melted into the air as the winds whirled and twisted, growing and speeding. Soon, the entire hall was engulfed in a twisting whirlwind.

"Air travel always makes me nauseous." Gant grumbled as the whirlwind compressed it's way through a nearby window, pulling the Watchman and Gilgamesh with it.

Faintly, the city itself became visible, mostly due to the small or light objects that were lifted up by the force of the wind. A bolt of cloth and a small book whipped past. Despite being in the center of a raging vortex, it was fairly comfortable and calm. Gant had arranged herself and was sitting on thin air, looking rather green.

The city below was soon left behind, as the whirlwind picked up speed, heading across the desert.

[Zaleramancer]

Indeed.  I was young, proud. A prodigious magician and shaman.

The scene before them shifted, plants shrinking and growing, the path twisting into a new shape, the huge beasts vanishing.

Before them were endless memories of young Zaya. She danced before huge slavering insects, effortlessly remaining just inches from their mandibles. A vast plain of purple grass opened up, in which a  wild herd of huge beasts of burden followed Zaya as she glowed with colored lights. A new scene and beautiful, enchanting music flowed from Zaya, mesmerizing several huge and colorful birds.

So young. So bright. So confident... So proud.  

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Babysitter watched, getting a guided tour of Zaya's old life. Finally, she realized.

"You were born a mortal?" she asked.

[Zaleramancer]

Yes. One-Hundred and Fourteen Worlds ago, I was born. A mortal magician.. I think my people would have been called Those-Born-From-Stone in this tongue. Translations are difficult. I was admired by my tribe, they showered me with lovely names and titles.. My favorite was Born-From-Light-And-Song.

The scene shifted again, to show the young Zaya again. This time, she sat upon a large boulder in the midst of a verdant purple jungle.. Waiting..

I was very talented in the arts of magic. Such talent attracted attention among the divine. Particularly with a certain god of the Sky-Peoples..

From above descended a brilliant figure, Something between a bird and a human, covered with iridescent plumage. It bent and twisted around the young woman, leaving a trail of light in it's path. It paused before her, hovering above the vegetation.

The god of the Evening, Endings and Dark Secrets. Bringer-of-Night. We spoke many times. I was hungry to prove myself, magic was so easy for me. He offered forward the darkest secrets of magic, which the elders of my tribe denied me.

Suddenly, the figure of Zaya danced again, but this time shadow and darkness flowed from her. All around her the vegetation and plants wilted and withered, but she noticed not.

I was so blind to why the elders forbade it... The power it gave me was so tempting. But.. It was not enough for me. I wanted more. So when Bringer-of-Night offered me apotheosis.. To become an immortal.. I accepted without thought, not considering the power it gave him over me.

Still, she danced in darkness, but now behind her was the brilliant figure of Bringer-of-Night. Tendrils of darkness connected with Zaya, her motion was like that of a puppet unaware of it's strings.

 I became the dark goddess of magic. I went to my fellows, my tribe, expecting them to continue their praise..

Images of fleeing figures, of people hiding themselves or holding up arms in fear appeared. The songs that surrounded them here ones of terror and hatred and mistrust.

They called me a monster. A sorceress. I was heart-broken. Bringer-of-Night transformed my sorrow to hatred, using me as a tool to strike at his foes. Even as a minor goddess, my sorcerous power was terrible to behold, and the cults that worshiped me from fear only increased my strength.. and Bringer-of-Night's.

A terrible sorceress-queen clothed in black sat on a bone-white throne. Terrified supplicants plead for their lives before her.

The power pleased me. I was given so much respect out of the terror I invoked. Bringer-of-Night was my most trusted friend. My only true companion. Eventually, I came to love him...

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"He didn't think the same, did he?"

[Zaleramancer]

I was always just a tool to him. My affection for him only gave him more hold on me, so he fostered it. An excellent actor, that Bringer-of-Night.

The scene changed to show the Dark-Queen and the Bringer-of-Night before a large cave.

I will tell you a secret, about the worlds we live in. Do you know that the worlds have souls?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Really? That's amazing. So, it's like a huge mortal we all live on?"

[Zaleramancer]

In a way. A world is born, and it lives and dies. The world is infused with life, the soul drifts within it, ever sleeping and dreaming of the life that dances on it's surface.

A journey into the cave began, the dark rock illuminated by Bringer-of-Night's radiance and Zaya's magic.

It's possible to find the heart of the soul, the very core of the world within it.. If one knows how to look.

Miles below the surface, so far that the very rock below was blistering with heat, stood the two gods. They faced a glowing orb that shone with delightful energy.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"What's about to happen won't be good, will it?" she ask, quietly.

[Zaleramancer]

A sense of sorrow, regret and utter shame flooded the scene as the young Zaya approached the shimmering light. It's radiance washed her stony features as she reached for it.

Dark power flashed from her as she grasp the luminescent soul, it writhed as if in pain.

The music around Zaya was loud and exultant, power washed around her like an aura.

Earth shakes, fire flashes, the light fades, the world dies.

Once again, the pair is faced with the endless red desert and weeping Zaya.

I killed the soul of my world that day in my lust for power. It is my greatest crime. I'll.. I'll never be able to forget what it was like. The Souls of Worlds are so kind and innocent.. It..It.. called out in greeting to me, calling me Sister. It cried out when.. I..

The scene fractured as wild emotions ripped across the dreamscape like a raging wind. Images of other lives Zaya had lived flashed across them. An ugly crone juggled heavy wagons, a young and princely man pursued fleeing peasants, a woman in white danced with swords beside a man in red, a grossly fat woman sat laughing at some scene, a kind-looking young woman sat surrounded by happy children, two twins boys danced in circles that called the wind and silver-haired beauty strode laughing across a blood-stained battlefield.

Sorrow, regret, pain, shame, misery, loss surged forward, the feeling of such terrible age with millennium passing, of knowledge that none were meant to know..

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

This was to much. She shuttered and stumbled under the weight of all these memories. She had to do something, or those shapes she saw were going to show up again, and take Zaya away. She gripped Zaya by the shoulders.

"Hey. Hey! Enough of this, all right. Yes, you've done bad things. Terrible things. But it wasn't you alone, and it never was. You were taken in when you were young and stupid, by someone older and smarter. It happens all the time. What happened after? What happened to him, can you show me that?"