Her life had become wrapped up in banal and fate deprecating repetitions. If it wasn’t for that exact moment that had brought them here, her dull life would have seemed enough, but that had not been their path. It was their joint experience that left her life on one path and her mind constantly wandered down animalistic trails. These trails trickled into perceived true religious fervor and found their confines in esoteric corners that made for dull conversations that only really picked a pace when held alone. It was a deep secret and cherished place in which she longed for when they had battled for something worthy. If anyone had asked, that is why she was here.

But, it was more than that too. She had truly seen the touch of the Gods in those moments. She glimpsed what power the smallest sliver of fiend flesh could create with the proper influence (She couldn’t voice it as influence. She couldn’t dictate what it stemmed from as it was never explicitly clear. This was an unanswered question that had persistently licked at her thoughts to occasional degrees of unhealthy obsession). Her life had been dedicated to studying tomes full of stories that her people preached. Irrational stories that were held together with the thin strands of faith, made strong with a yearning for something else. That was her life, but her mind…her mind forfeited to the truth of sighted belief and delved deeper into the reanalyzing of the tomes of Noteyalis and invocations long since broken by something yet sleeping in her ignorance.

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[i]The first of us drove a melody deep into the terrain and blessed the mud with such a joy that water delivered upon the newly birthed shoreline. But that song instilled an unquenchable need for life. A goodness and purity that gnawed at the dying sand until the tree was born.[/i]
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She had been staring off at where she instinctively knew the seven stars of the exiled destinies would be reaching out in the darkening sky. Lashes, thick and dark in contrast to the glimmering blue they trembled across, gave way to a focusing gaze that finally removed itself from the sheltered constellations and thoughts. She didn’t know how long she had been indulging their past in favor of their tragically jinxed present. She turned her attention briefly to each of them. Perhaps she did not know of their current lives, as she glimpsed at each of them this came as a stunning realization. There was something else there though, connections that surpassed the trivialities of daily life; connections like those creatures that had taken permanent dwelling in her nightmares. Those whispering ghouls that sometimes wink from the shadow of her mind.

“Perhaps a challenge of bow, sword, brawn at this festival? Fun for the citizens who want to jump in on the Guardian bandwagon? A [i]festive[/i] release of anger, revenge?” Even with her face uncovered in the presence of proven companions her expression was hard to read. Her lips were curled into a deceptively playful expression, unaccustomed to visibility that masked the more serious planning already tussling about her mind and glittering in her traveling stare. Her smirk calmed into what could only be called a serious smile while she nodded her head and continued, “Plus, A few important citizens would be flattered to be held as honorable judges of the competitions.”

Was this trivial? Maybe just a little. A faith affirming battle of the gods? Perhaps not entirely. But a good poke at death never hurt those chosen to fill the chairs of the dead. There was no better way to poke at death than to surround yourself with the creators of your fortune and murderers of your predecessors accompanied with the intoxication of festival. It sounded delightful and she had needed a reason to touch up the tattoos that claimed a surprising portion of her torso.