[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/98b04b23-51ee-400f-9854-888c64fd7ad2.png[/img] & [h2]Voligan[/h2] & [color=gainsboro][h2]The Lost Shell[/h2][/color][/center] Voligan sifted his massive hands through the devastation, spreading his senses throughout the rock and dust, searching for whatever it was that had caused such a physical explosion and a magical tearing. He knew frustratingly little. It was divine in origin. There had been an attack, or an accident. Both, maybe. It had changed the entire universe on a fundamental level, ripping something away and tearing it into pieces. Throw in the fact that Iqelis’s touch was all over the sea not too far away, and Voligan had more than enough incentive to figure out what had happened. Not that he was having any success in that. Chucking another large piece of mountain away, Voligan continued his slow steps towards the center of the devastation. Perhaps he would find answers there. At the very least he would be able to say that he tried to find the truth of whatever had happened here. After a few minutes he stopped and placed his hands in the dust again, digging through the earth as he extended his senses. Every piece of gravel, every grain of sand, every boulder, and every speck of dust he examined thoroughly and then moved on from. Each one was useless. They all told the same story. Something of terrible divine power had destroyed them. Whatever had happened had either included so many gods that it was impossible to differentiate, or one very careful god had covered their tracks. He had almost disregarded another piece of gravel when he noticed something odd about it. It only had the touch of two gods on it, rather than many. More importantly, it was moving. Well, attempting to move. It seemed to struggle with purpose, despite failing to move past the pit of dirt it had fallen in. Voligan moved quickly towards the struggling gravel, scooping the earth around it and bringing the entire pile up to his eye level. With a gesture, all of the dirt and rock disappeared and left only a very small simulacrum of Homura’s standing in his palm. It was different though. Something was off. Another god's influence, perhaps. Voligan’s head tilted in slight confusion. “You are very far from home, little one. Where are you going with such determination, in this cursed graveyard of land?” [i]“...-”[/i] The little shell jerked forwards as if wracked with nausea, jelly-legged and quivering. Its head rolled, trying to direct its eyes up towards the sound of the great voice, but it could make no steady movement. It seemed barely to move under its own power at all- some queer impetus threw it around from inside, almost bulging from the skin, as if animated by the flailings of the newly blind. [i]“I- heard- her-”[/i] the simulacrum’s lip shook, its body thrown stiff and then slumped forward. Its eyes bulged. [i]“-crying...”[/i] The shell’s movements changed in character. Something pushed from inside its thorax, splitting the skin of its upper back, twitching as it emerged, black as jet. The tiny shell sagged as its stuffing drained out of it, the grisly erection sucking away the fire that had filled its skin, starting from the fingers, and the face; when it was finished, only the outer layer remained, an oily, dead splat of empty skin heaped around its base in a sagging inhuman mess of lips and limbs. The chrysalis stood silent. Now as tall as a man, it stretched up to the sky as if embedded in Voligan’s steady hand, and throbbed slowly, irregularly, filled with unseen fire. It was an obsidian monolith- it was a figure clothed in dense black silk, veiled by its hat- it was a suit of heavy armour, crawling with scrapes- it was a seething pillar of flies- it was a tower of macabre motifs cast in an iron sarcophagus- it was a drop of ferrofluid, stretching and straining on the natural magnetism of Voligan’s body. And there it stood, soaked in the gaze of the gods, unable to answer. Voligan stared at the chrysalis for a few moments more, waiting to see if there would be any more changes. There were none. Its shape only melted and reformed in simple cycles, breathing. At least he had discovered something in his trip here, though what he was not sure of yet. He looked over in the direction that the shell had been heading, musing aloud to himself. “Hmm. Crying is more than I have to go off of, little Shell. Let's go see whose crying you heard, and perhaps you will come out by the time we arrive.” He began walking in the direction the shell had been attempting to go to, talking aloud to the chrysalis. “The flies and general dark choices of your shell tell me that Iqelis had something to do with your creations, though if it was intentional or accidental, I am not sure. The iron and fire could be Astus’ touch, though I doubt he has left his workshop since he had a place to put one. One could argue that the iron and ferrofluid were my influence, but I would hope that I’d remember creating you. Especially in this devastation. “But nonetheless, there are two gods who took part in your creation, willingly or not. We will have to find the other one later, as it is important to know where one is from. You do not need to meet Iqelis, though I suspect he will shove his way into your matters. He is self important like that. If you’re lucky, you will only ever hear of the Monarch and not meet him. Our creator, and ruler, is quick to temper and strikes me as harsh. Not someone you want to be interacting with regularly.“ Voligan continued like this, telling the chrysalis of the gods, goddesses, and the various goings on that he knew about until he noticed it’s shifting form begin to change again. Before it had time to settle into any one shape, however, a dim blur swept by at the edge of his vision. A loosely measured fraction of a moment later, a large rough-hewn stone stood suspended on empty air by his arm, held aloft by a palpable sense of intimidation more than by any concrete force. On top of it squatted the all too familiar crystalline figure of Iqelis, surrounded by a throng of agitated flies. The god's eye was fixed on the shifting cocoon so intently that he appeared oblivious to the titanic Earthheart's presence altogether. [color=778899]"The Flow brings us together once more,"[/color] he greeted, his gaze unmoving even as one arm gestured widely around, [color=778899]"A strange lodestone you have there. Did you pry it out from under one of these rocks?"[/color] Voligan’s fingers closed around the chrysalis, blocking it entirely from view. He shifted so that his body was mostly between Iqelis and the chrysalis. “I found it wandering this devastation. Searching for someone’s crying. You wouldn’t have anything to do with this destruction, would you? Perhaps you found another god that ‘went against the Flow’. Though I must admit, blowing up an entire peninsula doesn’t strike me as something you would do.” He glanced over his shoulder back towards the Tlacan sea and its floating mountains. “Quietly poisoning an entire sea and then floating mountains over it seems more within your preferences. Anything is possible, I suppose. Especially if your victim wasn’t already beaten down and caught off guard.” The light in Iqelis' eye flared up with the wrathful glow of a dying star at the mention of his exploits over the great water. [color=778899]"For [i]that[/i],"[/color] he snapped with uncharacteristic vitriol as he pointed almost accusingly in the Tlacan's direction, [color=778899]"You have to thank the noxious meddling of our dear sister of the moon. She would sooner tear up the entire Galbar than let me work without her verminous webs sapping my every effort."[/color] He quieted down somewhat, the light in his eye fading to a less scorching intensity, before continuing. [color=778899]"And it is her, I suspect, that wrought this ruin around us, surely to crush some other wretch that had displeased her. I have been seeking their name, as well as something that walks and should not."[/color] He did not budge, but a few flies sat down on Voligan's closed hand. From between those azoic fingers, inaudible to any mortal ear, came the finest, faintest little voice: [colour=gainsboro][i]“Her name was Ashevelen.”[/i][/colour] Voligan let out a deep sigh, foregoing his reply to Iqelis as he uncurled his fingers and raised the chrysalis back to eye height. “I see you’ve found your voice, little Shell. You say her name was Ashevelen. Do you mean Ashevelen, the goddess of Luck? And do you know where Ashevelen’s resting place is?” The chrysalis continued to morph in silence. For a few seconds, the stone-god appeared to have spoken to nothing. But the voice within only hesitated so long. [colour=gainsboro][i]“I think so. She was... the little lady, who rests between the mountains now. I just...”[/i][/colour] Another soft pause. [colour=gainsboro][i]“...can’t see.”[/i][/colour] [color=778899]”It speaks.”[/color] Whatever Iqelis’ interest in the victim of the world-quaking rampage had been, it had evaporated in a moment under the unexpected rejoinder. His words were harsh and cutting, not charged with the same spite of when he had spoken of Yudaiel, but laced with a wholly new shade of menace. [color=778899]”And it knows the annals of the dead better than us. Just as I feared, it has become much more than it ought to be.”[/color] Voligan ignored Iqelis’s ramblings, bringing the chrysalis closer to his body as he began walking once more. “Well little Shell, we will continue heading in the direction that you were attempting to head before I found you. That might lead us to these mountains that Ashevelen is laying in. If not, I’m sure you’ll be able to guide us when you come out and can properly see.” He turned to look at Iqelis. “You are welcome to come along. I imagine you are as curious as I am as to where the final resting place of our sister lay.” The words, as was Voligan’s habit, were spoken calmly. No malice, no excitement, just an unwavering rumble that remained unperturbed in the face of Iqelis’s venom. The other god drifted along in silence on his rock. No more than two of the Earthheart’s great footfalls had dented the dust before the hidden voice chimed in, once again, from its silk-iron-charcoal cocoon. [colour=gainsboro][i]“You won’t find her this way. I… was dizzy…”[/i][/colour] The speaker was soft, distinctly human, muffled but perhaps female, and underlaid by a faint crackling buzz that came neither from the cocoon nor from Iqelis. [colour=gainsboro][i]“I’m sorry… Voligan. I-”[/i][/colour] Another violent twitch shook the structure from within as it morphed from whirring scarabs back to iron-oil, and the voice seemed to break. [colour=gainsboro][i]“I’m stuck.”[/i][/colour] [color=778899]”Some things should not be uncovered,”[/color] the One God thrummed without looking. “Hmm. We can’t have you being stuck if you are our guide to Ashevelen’s resting place.” Voligan mused. “We’ll have to rectify that.” He gently tapped on the chrysalis until a crack appeared along the top of it, careful not to bring too much force down onto the chrysalis. A strong white light shone through, flickering like a candle made of snow. “Come along, little Shell. The world awaits your arrival, and we need you to give our sister proper rest.” The sarcophagus shuddered. Two sets of almost human fingers emerged from the top of the crack, curled outwards to grip the crystal surface, and tore the peak of the chrysalis wide. The hair it revealed was filthy, soaked in fly ichor and tar. The crack widened, exposing the light that shone from a twisting mass of clay simulacrum-flesh that boiled like bitumen. One eye- one white, blazing eye of crystal fire inherited wholesale from the Lord of the Flies. It could not survive. Drowned in mortality, the eye flickered, dividing again and again into twin globules of white that crawled outwards across the face before fusing or sinking or shattering into smaller spheroids as the white fire flared once more, filling the wet ash of the Shell with dozens of rejected imitations created and resorbed in moments. The grey skin churned tirelessly, drawn like water to settle into its natural human shape, only to be boiled away by those eyes. Again and again the one-eye of the One God refused to be subsumed into the two-eyes of Man. But this little spark was not the Eye, and this one little god was not the One God. The face raised itself up to the imperial Sun, uncovering the black lips below, its hair falling wetly away to reveal the profile of a face so like its mother. There, under the dry light of Heaven, the boiling slowed, and the face hardened. The white crystal burned itself off, dulled by the brighter light, and tarnished to grey-brown, then, slowly, to black. The eye continued to bifurcate as it cooled, once, unevenly, then again, the larger sphere yielding three more- and there it settled, divided into four, unable to reform, locked in place. The grey fingers holding open the chrysalis wavered, and the obsidian skin forced itself shut, again, sealing tightly. From within, pounding- then a scream. [colour=gainsboro]“[i]Hurrghh- aah-[/i] AAAAAHH!”[/colour] The chrysalis tore open, revealing empty air. A pale white body staggered somewhere on Voligan’s raised forearm, dripping odious fluids, cradling her head. It sealed itself, and she was nowhere to be found in the puddle- until there she was, crouching on the Earthheart’s titanic shoulder, rocking back and forth with her face in her arms. The broken sarcophagus melted, only to surge, leaping upon its escaped contents in an inky streak, knocking her back and staggering almost off Voligan’s shoulder as it wrapped itself around her, swathing her in black, unable to let go. And there, at last, she lay, clothed now in a veil of carcass-flies, and now in a long coat and boots of finest black, holding in limp fingers a wide-brimmed hat as her uncovered hair dripped onto the living stone. Voligan’s voice rumbled, pleased that she had been able to free herself. “Well,The flies, glowing eye, and human form answers the question of who helped make you. Welcome to Galbar, our canvas. What is your name, little Shell?” While he waited for the newly created demi-god to gather herself, he turned his attention towards Iqelis, turning so that the shoulder with the little Shell was away from the god of Doom. “I’m going to assume that Homura came by and gave you some of her humans. Does she know what you and her have created? Or is it a surprise to the both of you, the path that the Flow has taken?” [color=778899]”She knew no more than I did when she left this place,”[/color] Iqelis, who had been following the newborn with a grimly intent gaze until she disappeared behind Voligan’s mountainous bulk, craned his head forward in an absent nod, a faint bitter sheen in his voice. [color=778899]”And had I foreseen that this might happen, I would have cut its germ in the bud while it was in my hands.”[/color] He raised his eye to look into the stony visage that towered over him, its glow curious, prying. [color=778899]”Tell me, brother, what would you do if in a thoughtless moment you sank all the lands you had raised back into the sea, and then plunged its bed so far into the deeps that no scrap of earth might ever see the light of day again?”[/color] “I would raise new lands, or recover the old ones. It wouldn’t be difficult, since that is why the Monarch created me. I have control over all the lands on Galbar, just as you have control over all the ends of Galbar.” Voligan replied, casual certainty filling his rumble. “I do not know why you wish to destroy her. She is the only thing guiding us towards Ashevelen’s resting place. Unless you’d rather wander aimlessly through these shattered plains for who knows how long.” [color=778899]”Ashevelen is a thing of the past,”[/color] Iqelis waved a hand dismissively, startling a few flies, [color=778899]”Now that I know who has gone out the mouth of the river, I have no more need to dredge out her memory. She, however…”[/color] He jabbed a finger towards the stone-god’s far shoulder. [color=778899]”Do you remember when, over the body of that living mistake, I named myself the attendant of the inevitable?”[/color] He pensively looked ahead again. [color=778899]”I serve the law of the one truth, which says that nothing can be endless. None can overcome it, but even to attempt that, to try and bestow eternity on a shard of existence, is sacrilege. That hatchling has all the markings of what passes for an immortal, and it was I who made her so. I have transgressed in the gravest way against my own highest purpose, and the only expiation is her doom.”[/color] [colour=gainsboro]“I’m sorry.”[/colour] The new voice, still backed by that alien drone, was still as soft as it had been a minute ago. The newborn godlet had sat up with her face buried in her knees and her arms wrapped around them, darkened by her hat, facing outwards and away from her divine seniors. “You have nothing to apologize for, little Shell.” Voligan reassured, not taking his eyes off of Iqelis. “If you have no desire to find Ashevelen, you may leave then. I intend to find our sister and mark her burial place. It is a dark thing, to lose three gods so soon after their creation.” Walls of metal rose from his shoulder and surrounded the godlet, protecting her, and muffling the words he spoke to Iqelis. “Before you go, I have a question. You say you are the servant of the one truth. That you ensure nothing is endless. Does that mean, brother, that you intend to actively ensure the ends of the Monarch, yourself, and the rest of us? If yes, then that is a dangerous game to play, especially with our ruler. You will have made enemies of everyone, and only given Yudaiel allies in the quarrel you two have. I would request that you leave now, lest I have to fight a second god before the sun has even set.” He turned to fully face Iqelis, still calm and relaxed. “If no, then I see no reason to bring doom upon the little Shell. We will all face our doom in the end, and there is no need to force what will happen naturally.” [color=778899]"That is the one truth, brother,"[/color] the One-Eye spoke tonelessly, his voice the sussurrant sliding of a mirror over ice. His gaze had dimmed, barely brighter than the mere refraction of the sunlight above. [color=778899]"Things must run their course before they meet their end, that is not for me to change. Aletheseus was an anomaly, opposition to the highest law in the flesh. There is no other divine fate that I must sweep along by my own hand,"[/color] he stopped, staring into the jagged horizon for a moment, as flies hummed around him, [color=778899]"Besides one that was thrust into the Flow by that same hand, in defiance of its duty. She is sinless, and yet…"[/color] There was a long spell of silence and buzzing, before Iqelis turned to meet the larger god's eyes again. [color=778899]"Let me see her, Voligan."[/color] His words could barely be distinguished from the wind tearing itself as it blew over stone spikes and broken gulches, a low, hollow, almost lifeless hiss. [colour=gainsboro]“There’s no need for that,”[/colour] said the woman who stood there, unbound by such simple walls as iron, facing the One Eye with four as black as pearls. Her stance was tall. Her coat whipped in the alpine wind, spun over grey skin the shade of boiling water, over bones as white as marble. The air inside her fizzed with alien power, and black fire was her heart. [colour=gainsboro]“Here I am- [i]Father.[/i]”[/colour] Iqelis slowly rose from his crouch, crystalline joints grinding and crackling as he drew himself up to his full height. Against the sun, he was a gaunt, uneven shadow, looming over the godling like the echo of a troubling dream despite the distance between them. Then his hands, which had been resting by his sides, snapped up, manifold and faster than the eye could follow. He was before her, a hand's length away, before the fragment of stone his foot had dislodged in leaping away had the time to fall the minuscule span below it. His arms were a canopy of skeletal branches around them, outside of which everything, from the flies to the wind to the distant extremity of Voligan's limb, floated in an invisible sea, sluggishly forcing its way with agonizing effort. [color=778899]"Swear it,"[/color] came the urgent, almost imploring whisper of fine quartz breaking far away in the night, [color=778899]"Swear that when the day comes, you will not flee from the end, that you will not refuse what [i]you will know[/i] was meant to be. Swear it,"[/color] the quartz shattered into a thousand tinkling shards, [color=778899]"my child."[/color] [colour=gainsboro]“I’m not afraid,”[/colour] said her lips the shade of bitumen. Even her hat lay in mid-air, unable to fall before she had spoken her vow. [colour=gainsboro]“I knew what was coming from the moment I heard your voice. I swear it, father. It is no burden.”[/colour] The one eye lost its dimness and blazed from within, blindingly white, and it was gone. After the passing of its glare, the silent ocean was abruptly no more, and the wind howled and the flies buzzed and the pebbles fell. The day itself seemed brighter, as if a shadow had been washed away that no one had noticed while it had been there, but all perceived keenly in its aftermath. Iqelis was crouching on his rock again, eye fixed on what was, beyond anyone's doubt now, his daughter. [color=778899]"The stain I take on my hands may never be washed,"[/color] he crackled somberly, [color=778899]"Make it worth, somehow. I will ask no more."[/color] The demigoddess picked up her fallen hat. [colour=gainsboro]“I will deliver no less,”[/colour] she said. She shivered, slightly, as if the light of Heaven were cooler than the haze which had passed. [colour=gainsboro]“I can already hear bones clattering from every corner of the world. They weren’t like me. They didn’t remember that they would die.”[/colour] “Then it is settled.” Voligan spoke into the silence, leisurely dropping the massive boulders he had raised into the sky and his skin around the demigoddess descending from its sharpened form. “I am going to find the resting place of Ashevelen. Little Shell, I request your help in finding it. Iqelis, you are welcome to come along. If not, I hope our next encounter is less tense.” The ground far below trembled faintly as a would-be bludgeon returned to its place in the peaceful earth. The demigoddess rested a hand on a retracting outcrop, staring back up at the titanic face shadowing her, smiling a small smile. [colour=gainsboro]“I’m sorry, uncle. I didn’t mean to worry you.”[/colour] She planted a boot firmly against his skin, catching something in the arch of it: the cocking-stirrup of a large arbalest, which she cranked with a short grunt. She raised it to her shoulders and loosed a bolt, scratching a thin line of black far across the sky. [colour=gainsboro]“That way.”[/colour] Voligan followed the black streak, ambling along at a gentle pace. “You have nothing to apologize for, little Shell. It is not your fault you were created.” A moment passed in silence before he spoke again. “What do you call yourself, child of Doom? I can’t imagine little Shell is your name.” [colour=gainsboro]“I call myself [b]Ea Nebel[/b],”[/colour] said the woman, her gaze fixed far on the horizon. [colour=gainsboro]“A god for the grave. I don’t have a name yet.”[/colour] “Is Ea Nebel not your name?” [colour=gainsboro]“No matter who I am, I would still be Ea Nebel,”[/colour] said Ea Nebel. [colour=gainsboro]“The rest… I think that might take some more time.”[/colour] [color=778899]”And time you shall have,”[/color] Iqelis mused, drifting along on his rock. “Fair enough, Little Shell.” They soon came to where the black contrail ended, gently resting in the center of a massive crater that was taller than Voligan himself. The walls of the crater were covered in glittering blood red diamonds that each radiated a small piece of divine power. Voligan knelt and gathered a handful of the gems into his hand, bringing them closer for all to see. “Hmm. It would seem that Ashevelen didn’t go without leaving her last mark upon the world. Luck is gone, but her presence is not.” [colour=gainsboro]“It was a cruel fate,”[/colour] said Ea Nebel, staring at the misshapen core of rock at its centre. It might not have been easy to spot, but from this close, even she could recognise the remains of the twin hammers that had crushed her in a stolen memory. [colour=gainsboro]“It’s over now. Nothing left but an echo.”[/colour] [color=778899]”It was what it had to be,”[/color] came the crackle from above. Some flies set down on the gemstones, rubbing their forelegs and marvelling at the absence of carrion in a place of death. [color=778899]”Fate is never cruel, though those who enact it may be.”[/color] Ea Nebel tightened her mouth, slightly, remembering the child’s yell that had sounded from underneath those rocks mere days ago. Cruel, indeed. Voligan looked over towards her, ignoring Iqelis’s dramatic ramblings. She was now somewhere about his feet, though she had neither climbed nor fallen. “I am going to make a mountain range to both mark her grave and help this battered land heal. Do you have any ideas or requests about marking Ashevelen’s resting place?” A voice fizzed up at him. [colour=gainsboro]“I think we should cast the dice, and let them land as they will,”[/colour] said Ea Nebel, rolling a tiny red diamond back and forth between her fingertips. [colour=gainsboro]“It’s sad to see a bright heart stilled. But the little lady wouldn’t have wanted us to cry too long. Let fortune have its last play.”[/colour] She looked up to Voligan from his shoulder. [colour=gainsboro]“There will be people here, one day. They should have a chance to get lost, or be found.”[/colour] “Hmm. Very well.” Voligan created a small plateau that mimicked the crater with a pile of blood diamonds on them. “Roll your dice, and we shall see how they create fortune’s refuge.” She nodded, taking up a chunk of chalk that lay in the stone altar and, with a few strokes, dividing a flat part of it into larger and smaller sections, marking each one with a little sign. Taking the diamonds into her hat, she shook them briefly, inclined her eyes to the Sun, and let them fall among the symbols. [colour=gainsboro]“In the north region… Six caves. Eleven arches. Nine lakes… but only one valley. Two waterfalls. Thirteen peaks, one double. A scarp. A tor.”[/colour] She counted all the fallen diamonds, then scooped them up again. [colour=gainsboro]“In the western region...”[/colour] The plateau rose and crumbled as she counted its landforms, one by one, modelling her words. It was crowded, chaotic, and, by the time she was finished, densely packed with more shapes than she could easily count. Every hidden corner of the land would have its own hideaways, wonders, and perils, carved in rock and snow and river-gravel. A wild garden it was, rich in sights for the bold fools who would one day dare to map it. Voligan raised his hands and as he shaped the area around and in the crater as the rolled dice dictated, the blood diamonds sinking into the earth and across the destroyed land. Voligan continued to spread his fingers and send more mountains growing across the horizon, creating a mountain range similar to that of the Bones of Fortitude. “The blood diamonds would only bring greed and conflict here. She would not have wanted that.” Ea Nebel nodded, watching the horizon far as Galbar creaked and rumbled and shaped itself all around her. [colour=gainsboro]“It is done.”[/colour] A chorus of flies sang its assent. Voligan nodded, pleased with what they had done. It wouldn’t make the crime go away, but it would help the world heal from it. “Hmm. It is. And I believe we have answered our questions and settled disputes. I must go back to what I was doing before her death. Iqelis, I hope that our next meeting involves less death than the other two. Good luck in your endeavours.” He turned his attention to Ea Nebel. “I imagine you have things you wish to do as well, little Shell. Do you want me to drop you off anywhere before we go our separate ways? Or would you prefer to stay here for a little while?” [colour=gainsboro]“I need to find my feet.”[/colour] Ea Nebel raised a hand to the light, watching red sunlight sparkle away from the tiny diamond set into a grey-iron ring on her finger. [colour=gainsboro]“I need time to pace every corner of Galbar, so I will know it. I can find my way.”[/colour] A distant crash joined the rumbling of the final ground-shifts as Iqelis' rock went plummeting down, no longer compelled by incorporeal threats. The god landed on the Earthheart's mighty shoulder, close by the younger divine, this time with no distortions of time's flow to hasten him along. [color=778899]"Sometimes, you will be the one who must deliver something to its end."[/color] One of his hands took hold of another's finger and wrenched, snapping it off with a dry crack. Severed and struck with a deeper rigor than was even usual for its glossy skin, it looked like a short, recurve obsidian blade more than anything else. Iqelis tapped its base, and a length of porous grey stone slid out of it, as though it had impossibly always been inside it. [color=778899]"I am sure you will know when to use this."[/color] He tossed the curved dagger to Ea Nebel, holding an intact hand outsplayed behind it to slow its flight to a leisurely crawl. The godling raised a soft, pale hand, allowing the hilt of the glass knife to settle between her fingers as lightly as a feather. Ea Nebel wrapped her fingers around it, squeezing her fist as she turned it around; they oozed with tar as the darkened blade reflected across the featureless surface of her three right eyes. When she loosened her hold, a rubber coat had bonded to the scoria. She saw the light of Iqelis’s eye glint in its surface. [colour=gainsboro]“Without flinching,”[/colour] she murmured, and meant it. She looked up again, the white fire now glinting on her own tarnished eyes, where before they had been dull. [colour=gainsboro]“I… I will honour you, father.”[/colour] “Hmm. One should never walk the earth without companionship, even if she does have weapons for protection.” Voligan leaned down and touched a finger to the earth, pulling a large porcine figure crafted from hematite to the surface. A small moment of concentration and he filled it with life, igniting the eye holes with a soft green glow. It’s shoulders matched Ea Nebel’s own and it looked over at her expectantly. “They will be your companion as you pace through the world and lay to rest those who require it.” Her eyebrows rose. Ea Nebel tilted her head, took a hesitant step towards the sculpture, watched the green fire within follow her, its sleek ferrous body unmoving. She lifted her hand, then lay it on the figure’s back. For a second it was cool- then she recoiled, the glossy mineral body burning a dull incandescent red, the boar’s back licked by a mane of green fire as it forged itself into life. The hematite settled swiftly into a hard skin of iron and rust, and grey metal dust spiked into fierce bristles along its back as if clumped on a magnet; Rippled crucible steel were the tusks that sprouted from its maw, and glossy were its hematite eyes. It dipped its head as it examined her, breathing and pawing the earth, embers of green fire flying from its footprints. The godling grabbed its tusk, and the boar allowed her to pull its mouth slightly apart before shaking her off, a single heave of its neck throwing her almost to the ground- and she laughed. [colour=gainsboro]“I love it!”[/colour] The beast grunted dismissively as she took a nearby spike of Voligan’s skin between her hands and kissed the stone. [colour=gainsboro]“I will call it the Iron Boar. Thank you, uncle.”[/colour] “Hmm. There is no need to thank me. It will help you find your way and aid you in your purpose.” Voligan rumbled, pleased with himself. “But now I must take my leave. Unless you wish to come to Aletheseus’s gravesite as well, you will have to hop off my shoulder.” [color=778899]"I have seen enough of that one,"[/color] Iqelis gave a macabre chuckle to the notes of snapping bones, [color=778899]"Farewell, brother."[/color] He took a stride forward and lay a cold, hard hand on Ea Nebel's shoulder with a low [color=778899]"Keep afloat, daughter,"[/color] before vaulting off the titanic god and vanishing beyond the crater's embellished edge in a gleaming blur. Ea Nebel watched the empty space where the One God had been. Her hand was raised slightly, but he was already gone. She clenched it briefly, but still waved, a little, to the empty space. [colour=gainsboro]“Goodbye...”[/colour] The hog grunted again. It was time for her to depart. [colour=gainsboro]“Farewell, uncle,”[/colour] said Ea Nebel. [colour=gainsboro]“I will always remember you, as long as there is earth beneath my feet.”[/colour] “Hmm. I would hope we’d meet again so that you don’t need to only remember me. If you ever want my assistance, simply call out. I’m always listening.” She smiled. [colour=gainsboro]“I will.”[/colour] Ea Nebel hauled herself onto the back of the hog, who accepted her without a shrug, and cast out her arm to the many mountains of Serendipity’s End. [colour=gainsboro]“Fly!”[/colour] The stones did not yield to her command, but she flexed her grip around her father’s fingernail, and they quickly fell in line. The hog’s feet clattered against stone after stone, the great weight of it tilting the platforms one by one as the goddess descended, holding firmly to her hat. They struck the ground in a cloud of dust, and then there was no sight of her. [hr] In a little gulch, under a tree above a pool filled with the brightest of blue water, behind a garden maze of stones that stood and leaned and tumbled about in a thousand sheltered sanctuaries that the sun would not reach at its highest and hottest, there stood a little buff stone. It had fallen from a sprouting mountain and been washed clean by a waterfall, and at the end of its journey it lay here, sleeping in a sunbeam, warm as a laugh. That stone beckoned the lost, the lucky, the castaways of fate, calling them to hide among the many hollows of its home, and find their way out again. They would all find their way out, in time- maybe not home, for the spell on the stone made few promises, but always somewhere with a hint of good fortunes, or at least exciting ones. [colour=gainsboro][i]Luck is gone,[/i][/colour] read the woman in the veil, her eyes resting on the sacred symbols written in the rock. [colour=gainsboro][i]But her blessings remain.[/i][/colour] She looked around one last time at her uncle’s work, the seen and unseen magic of a grave for a goddess they had never known. For a moment she thought she saw something sparkle at the bottom of the pool. Then she sighed, lifted her gaze, and was gone. [hr] [hider=Summary] -Voligan is ineffectively searching through the devastated ruins where Yudaiel whacked Ashevelen, looking for the source of all this destruction when he comes across the very small simulacrum that Iqelis lost. He asked it what it was doing, and it said ‘I heard her crying’ then turned into a chrysalis. -It seemed to be heading in a specific direction, and he had nothing better to go off of, so he started heading in the same direction with it in tow. He idly chatted to it while walking along, filling it in on some divine goings-on. The cocoon itself is mute. -Iqelis shows up and asks him where he found it. Immediately protective, since he knows how stabby Iqelis can be, Voligan gives a brief answer before distracting Iqelis by bringing up Yudaiel. It works like a charm and before Voligan can continue, the Chrysalis speaks and names Ashevelen as the one slain here. -Iqelis immediately gets unnerved [s]because he’ll have to pay child support[/s] because he fears he might have created an immortal (with Homura), which is anathema to his purpose. Voligan, meanwhile, asks for information and helps the demigod out of the chrysalis shell. -Iqelis states that his purpose is to ensure the end of all things, and that he has created an immortal. Voligan uses this to ask whether or not Iqelis intends to actively kill more gods, not-so-subtly hinting that if the answer is yes the other gods will gang up with Yudaiel and kill Iqelis. The answer is fortunately no. -Iqelis demands to see his daughter, as Voligan is shielding her, and she comes out to face him. They have a discussion where she swears she won’t try to escape her fated end and he won’t try to kill her then and there. Voligan drops the massive boulders he had picked up, and backs away from fighting Iqelis. -Iqelis’s daughter points the way towards Ashevelen’s resting place, and on the journey there reveals that her name is, probably, [i]Ea Nebel[/i]. -She and Voligan chat briefly about Ashevelen’s fate and what should be done to mark her place, before deciding to make the Mountain Range [i]Serendipity’s End[/i] and the randomly-generated Monument [i]Fortune’s Refuge[/i]. While doing this, he spreads the last remnant of Ashevelen’s power [i]Blood Diamonds[/i] far away and across the land, to minimize greed and conflict in [i]Fortune’s Refuge.[/i] -Their work here done, Voligan offers to keep ferrying Ea Nebel around, but she wants to wander. As a parting gift, and perhaps a reminder of her job, Iqelis snaps off one of his fingers to make an enchanted obsidian knife for her. She promises to use it. -Voligan, as a parting gift alone, creates an extraordinary pig-like creature that will serve as Ea Nebel’s companion and guardian. She very creatively names it [i]The Iron Boar[/i] (Mk. III copyright license pending). Ea is delighted, the Boar less so. -Voligan tells Ea that if she ever wants help to just call out to him. She then hops on [i]The Iron Boar[/i] and rides off into the mountains. [hider=Glimpses into the Divinus AUs] [color=778899]"The Flow brings us together once more,"[/color] he greeted, his gaze unmoving even as one arm gestured widely around, [color=778899]"A strange lodestone you have there. Did you pry it out from under one of these rocks?"[/color] Voligan’s fingers closed around the chrysalis, squishing it. “Perhaps.” [hr] The other god drifted along in silence on his rock, sipping his latte. No more than two of the Earthheart’s great footfalls had dented the dust before the hidden voice chimed in, once again, from its silk-iron-charcoal cocoon. [colour=gainsboro][i]“Uh, hey, i'm really sorry, but I'm kinda stuck in this-'”[/i][/colour] [color=778899]”Good,”[/color] the One God thrummed without looking up from his phone. [hr] The broken sarcophagus melted, only to surge, leaping upon its escaped contents in an inky streak, knocking her up and off of Voligan’s shoulder. “Shit.” said Voligan. [hr] “I imagine you have things you wish to do as well, little Shell. Do you want me to drop you off anywhere before we go our separate ways? Or would you prefer to stay here for a little while?” [colour=gainsboro]“CAN WE GO TO DISNEYLAND PLEAASE MY DAD DOESN’T TAKE ME ANYWHERE”[/colour] “Well, it is the most magical place in the world.” And off they went. It was awesome. [hr] The godling raised a soft, pale hand, allowing the hilt of the glass knife to settle between her fingers as lightly as a feather. She wrapped her hands around it, squeezing the hilt. “omg my hand went numb ufcckkfuf-” [/hider] [/hider] [hider=Vigor expenditure] -Ashevelen’s death resulted in [i]Blood Diamonds[/i] being created. Small red diamonds that, when used by mortals, grant the user a euphoric sense of joy and happiness and magical powers that don’t rely on the Tree and are based on the personality of the user. (2 vigor from Ashevelen before she died.) -Voligan spends 2 Vigor to make the mountain range [i]Serendipity’s End[/i]. A large mountain range marking the area that Ashevelen died in. -Volgian spends another 2 vigor making the Monument [i]Fortune’s Refuge[/i]. A magical area that draws the unlucky, the despondent, and those who need help and safety. It is a magical maze that ensures that no one ever needs anything in it, and that finding your way in with hostile intentions is impossible without divine aid. Those who wish to can leave, exiting anywhere in the world. It is a place where people can be lost or found, as they wish. At its center is the spot where Ashevelen died, marked by a simple headstone that reads [i]’Luck is gone. But her blessings remain.’[/i] -Voligan spends 1 Vigor (total of two, but halved due to the earth aspect) to make [i]The Iron Boar[/i] an extraordinary creature that serves as Ea Nebel’s companion and guardian. 3 Remaining Vigor at the end of this post. -Iqelis spends 2 Vigor (discounted from 4 by the Doom aspect) to make a dagger that sends those it strikes to their premature end, via burning through their remaining lifespan in a moment. It will also hasten the decay of inanimate objects. -This brings him down to a total of 2 at the end of the post. [/hider]