[center][h2][b]Illumination and Reprisal[/b][/h2][/center]
[center]Feat. [@Crispy Octopus], [@Aristo][/center] 

Asceal sat at the reins of the golden Chariot, her gleeful visage a testament to her excitement.  After having seen Aelius craft the wonder that was Heliopolis she was beyond eager to shape her own sphere, even if it did leave her as exhausted as he had been.  She spared a glance at her friend’s sleeping form beside her and shook her head happily, she hadn't even known they [i]could[/i] sleep!  Was it K'nell's influence that made it possible?

It was something to consider, but any further rumination on the causes or consequences of a god’s sleep was cut short when Asceal felt a sudden rush of warmth.  The very moment she crossed the boundary she knew it, that she'd finally arrived.  Entering her Sphere felt like coming home after spending far too long away, and even empty as it was she couldn't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.  As if guided by instinct she steered the chariot to the center of her domain before bringing it to a halt.

Without even a moment's hesitation she jumped from the Chariot and felt herself float in the void.  With a thought she began to move away from Aelius, distancing herself from his sleeping form until she was certain she had enough space to work with.  When she at last came to a halt she closed her eyes, her very form dimming as she focused.

She didn’t know what it was like for Aelius, but to her creation felt like gathering an invisible light and compacting it, solidifying it.  It was an exercise as mentally taxing as it was physically exhausting, and by the time she opened her eyes to a small world of crystal she could feel the beginnings of fatigue assailing her senses. That didn’t stop her, though.

The vast glassy sphere before her was beautiful, but it wasn’t complete, not even close.  She felt it tugging at her and let herself fall to its surface, only resisting its pull at the last second so as to land on its surface with some grace rather rather than barrelling into it.  She reached down to feel the surface of her new home and found it smooth, perfectly so.  Had it not been on the other side of Galbar from Heliopolis it would have been a colossal lens in space.

Of course, that was the point.  She focused her power into the crystalline world and it warped according to her will, vast hidden lenses forming beneath its surface and distorting the pitiful light that passed through them.  Aelius’s solution had been effective but wasteful, terribly so in her opinion.  Her sphere wouldn’t waste a single mote of light.  Her furnaces every emanation would be harnessed, strengthened, and bent so that far more than a mere half of Galbar could be illuminated.

The idea alone excited her, but she couldn’t deny the toll the effort was taking.  Creating a simple planetoid was one thing, but to shape it so perfectly was a task that could quickly exhaust even a god.  She took a moment to lay down, her form dimming.  Taking a break after just beginning?  It was pitiful, and she would need to get better at this.  She meant no offense to Aelius, of course, but he’d managed to finish his creation before he showed any sign of weariness hadn’t he?

After what she felt was a great deal too much time she stood and picked up where she’d left off.  The structures below the surface of her creation were complete, but how unappealing her new home looked, bare as it was.  It needed personality, structure.  With images of Heliopolis lingering in her mind Asceal raised great spires of crystal, each one a different colour, all across her creation.  Unsatisfied, she focused again and continued until she saw the spires shift from simple pillars to palaces and towers.  Where before there was a crystal ball, smooth and unremarkable, there now stood edifices of a grandeur to match those Aelis had erected, and with far more colour than simple boring gold and white.

Well, there was no accounting for taste.  With a contented sigh she made her way to a nearby palace, grander than all the others she had shaped.  The building was dominated by arches of blue crystal that joined its many towers to each other, and within was a chamber of black crystal on which an opening formed to permit Asceal entry as she approached it.

One would have expected darkness from the outside of the chamber, but the inside was awash in brilliant blue light.  Much of the light of the universe had been funneled here by the lenses deep within her new construct, and inside this chamber even the dim specks that emanated from the barrier were brilliant beacons that shone up from a transparent floor.  It was here she would build her second furnace, and it was from here the Architect’s creation would [i]truly[/i] know warmth and light.

As she began to assemble the framework of a Furnace, a duplicate of that which she had wrought in Heliopolis, her sphere began to glow.  It was hardly a stealthy activity, but what had she to fear?  Melantha, doubtless the only god who despised light and the good it brought to the Architect’s creation, had sequestered herself at the very edge of space and would never arrive in time to meddle with what Asceal was doing here.  This was to be the fulfillment of Asceal’s purpose, and she would not be thwarted.

Fittingly, it was with that very thought that she was interrupted. Aelius was on his feet and his voice cried out through the crystalline walls of the palace, urgency in his tone. “Asceal! Heliopolis isn’t safe. I must go back! The dark one, Melantha - I see her!” He couldn’t watch her through his physical eyes, of course, but via the glassy film that covered Heliopolis, for all intents and purposes an alarm system, his mind was aware of the goings-on in his sphere.

Aelius paused suddenly to take in the beauty of Asceal’s work. He felt guilty, remembering falling asleep through the ride. But the terrible sight of the dark goddess in his mind’s eye brought him back to the matter at hand. “She means to destroy Heliopolis’s Furnace, I just know it,” he added bitterly. “I can’t let that happen.”


Asceal scowled and spun to look at her friend, “[i]We[/i] can’t let that happen,” with some effort she strode over to Aelius, the task of creation having taken its toll, “I had feared she would do something like this, but so soon?  Let us confront her Aelius, before that wretched shadow manages to undo all we’ve accomplished.”

Aelius nodded and climbed back into the chariot. Once Asceal was aboard, the craft rose from the ground and Aelius sent it into motion. It sped off into the sky, and the pair rode in grim silence. They knew what what at stake.

[hider=Summary & Might Costs]
Asceal makes her sphere.
Aelius takes a nap.
They rush off to stop Mel.

[b]Might Costs:[/b]

[i]Asceal: 
-8 FP (Creation of Asceal's Sphere and Furnace Framework*)
{8 FP & 5 MP Remaining}

*[4 FP will be required to ignite it.][/i]
[/hider]