“Uhm-mm, hello?” A tinny voice called out from behind. Moren turned to see several more souls had appeared on the shore while she’d been busy.
A small group of ur-human spirits huddled in her vicinity while a few predators circled from farther away – they could detect her nature as Death, and were cautious of her. At a glance, she could tell how they had died: the child who spoke to her had drowned, the mother with her arm around her had dived in, while the father, uncles, and a cousin had their raft torn apart when they’d followed to retrieve their corpses. A pair of wolves had been caught in a landslide, a snake battered by a fallen branch, a bear trapped by quicksand. Farther away were spectral, green-tinged patches of grass, outgrowths of shrubbery, and copses of trees: trampled by escaping herds, choked by remnants of fire, felled by ur-human hands, uprooted in avalanches.
More would be coming. So many more. A veritable exodus of the lost would descend upon them – a shiver in her spine ascertained her of this.
She needed to act, and fast.
With a crafting of divine will, Moren spawned new entities into existence. They were small balls of immaterial flame, each its own colour, ranging from pale blue to gold to fiery red, and others. They felt inviting and warm to the dead, who would be compelled to follow, whereas the living would experience an unbearable cold if they encountered one on Ashuru.
“Go now.” At those words, the myriad flames dispersed. The ur-humans, noticing that each predator group followed one flame, eventually went after another leading in a different direction.
As for the goddess, she meant to witness the disaster she had felt the echo of.
When she emerged into Ashuru, volcanoes belched fire and smoke while rivers of lava eroded the surface as the newly unleashed energies threatened to rip apart the world from within. Wherever she looked, wherever she traveled, there were ever new, grander sights. The plane thrummed far below, brimming with energies capable of destroying it. It had been granted a heart – but would its body survive the implant? Veins of magma were threaded throughout, pumping that immense power into each corner and crevice. The earth rumbled in protest as its innards were consumed, tectonic plates forming as it was ripped apart by forces it could not oppose. Great fissures swallowed thousands of surface-bound species, and earthquakes claimed them by the hundreds. The skies were choked by smog, and the heavens wept black, poisonous rain. Birds fell from the skies, no safer than the critters upon the ground.
No one was safe.
It was magnificent. As terrifying as it was beautiful. Who knew ruin could be so glorious? Even as she mourned the countless deaths caused by the extinction-level event, Moren couldn’t help but admire how
lively Ashuru now was. It groaned, it wept, it screamed – it thrashed in defiance, striving to keep whatever semblance of life it had. Through it, she experienced a facet of existence, the desperate attempt to cling to survival which was intimately known to mortals, yet nearly unfathomable to the gods.
So, this was what it was like to fear your end.
Moren tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and wept. For as much as she marveled at it, as much as she felt enlightened by it, all those pitiful mortals had been the one to pay the price. Gods played games, but it was hardly they who reaped the consequences, was it?
She felt a sensation akin a note playing within her mind, she focused on it. It was one of her Ethereal Flames alerting her, so she reached out to it. In her mind's eye, she caught glimpses of her Afterlife – the initial area was filling with spirits even as the ghost lights rushed to and fro to get them all sorted out.
The goddess sighed. Time to return then, and continue imbuing her realm with more anchors.
Even in that period of endless work, she popped back into Ashuru here and there. While the eruptions had calmed, the smoke had only thickened. Great clouds snaked above, filled with gray and black particles, while an ashen blanket had covered the surface below. It was quiet – sounds stolen away, a preternatural silence had enveloped Ashuru. Those fragments of life which still remained were secreted away, as if afraid their breaths would be snuffed out if they were heard.
Moren met countless dead and dying in that time.
One day, she was drifting across her realm, securing yet another anchor. A glance at the area after she was done – and a small form curled into a ball lied where there had been nothing before. Moren approached, calling out softly,
“Welcome, little one.” She hovered a palm above its spectral shape; darker spots covered a lighter gray body. Its rounded ears twitched, its whiskers trembled. Then, it jumped up and away, appearing surprised it had been able to do so. Its pale, transparent green eyes looked this way and that, then it ran off. It dashed atop ghostly grass that had a definitive tinge of colour, past trees that were more plentiful now – all signs of the vast quantity of vegetation destroyed upon Ashuru, whose essence had leaked into her domain. A small smile played about her mouth as the phantasm of a cat disappeared into an immaterial forest, chasing after an ephemeral butterfly.
Perhaps…perhaps there was yet more she could do for her charges.
Actions:Ethereal Flames/Will-o’-the-wisps: Immaterial balls of fire which does not burn. To the dead, it feels warm and inviting, whereas the living experience a deathly chill if they encounter one in Ashuru. Largely, the ghost lights are scattered across Moren’s Afterlife, acting as non-sentient managers of her realm. They are drawn to death, so will at times cross into Ashuru, gathering in areas where many have died – though a singular but ‘impactful’ death might also lure one in. They can ping Moren if something unexpected happens, and she can also choose to focus on one and get a brief distant view of the situation from their perspective.
Soul anchors: Adds more spawning points for the deceased were placed around the Afterlife.
Krasnaya,
Emma,
Scrawl Banditta,
xVampire3go,
Xaltwind,
BurnDaWitch,
Kaithe Dame,
Yanadere,
Morgana,
Spyce
