Written By Sen'azala
Nov. 24, 2024, 11:50 p.m.(6/7/1023 AR)
I've fought countless monsters since all my monsters were destroyed, both alone and with friends, or strangers. There are so many evil things to hunt. Shards. Demons. Often people. People don't need powerful monsters to make them powerful monsters, and there's a lot of ugly opportunity for human monsters in this new world. Even so, it took me a while to realize what I'd lost, what felt wrong and unnerving.
I'm not afraid in the same way I used to be. My fear is gone, replaced with a lesser fear, muted and often distant. A lot of people would consider that a good thing, would think it's a gift or a blessing, or a sign of bravery, but I don't like it at all. I worry it will make me reckless, or stupid. It hasn't, so far, but I worry. I fear my lack of fear, something which looks extremely stupid when I write it out, but is still true.
It's hard to look at frightening things the same way once you've looked into the non-existent eyes of the Kindly Voices. Once you've seen the end of the world twice. Seen the stars flee, gods devoured. Millions dead or missing or eaten. Once you've broken the world, and desperately tried to hold the pieces together long enough for something new to come of it. Friends and enemies are gone, remembered in stone, in journals, in letters etched into walls or skulls placed in Death's shrine. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I see what I saw in Wolf's, the countless mirror shards of every possibility of every hopeless and horrible ending for everyone and everything, but when I open my eyes again, I see only the possibility where we survived.
Was it like this for the people who survived the first Reckoning? Did they find themselves in a world where nothing could measure up to what used to scare them?
I burned the two raven feathers for the last time. I don't need feathers to remember grief anymore. My parents are at peace, and their murderer is dead. The third feather, I'll keep, because the third is for hope. One hope. Until I know for sure...but even if I know for sure. Even if. Maybe I'll wear one forever, no matter how many I need to burn. That feels right to me.
The world is open. There are so many figurative and literal fires to put out on Arvum I could spend several more lifetimes only doing that, but I might see Nefer'khat again, or set foot in Cardia. I might find the ruin of the Undying Empire, and see who can still be helped. I might...but I won't stay.
Not forever.
When House Venandi came to Arvum a thousand years ago, chasing revenge, I doubt they knew that they would never return home. That they would remain here until 'here' was home. That, in the end, they would be a people of Arvum, and not Nefer'khat, and that their oath would outlast the wishes of the man they swore it to.
I'm home. And no matter how far I go, or for how long, I intend to come back here. Back to this continent. This once-and-future forest. This timeless castle next to an ancient city I used to hate. I'll always come back to Yesterday, where all my monsters are memories and there's nothing more to fear.
Though the skies may darken and the will of men may fail, I will never stop hunting the darkness.
Written By Sen'azala
Nov. 24, 2024, 9:41 p.m.(6/7/1023 AR)
She never told me what she wanted done with her ashes, but I planned to take her back to the Everwinter. Back home, if I could. I'd intended to ride as far as was reasonable to ask a horse to go, then take the rest on foot. Copper's kids had other ideas, however.
I've seen so much of the ruin and destruction left behind by Azazel's forces, but it's another thing entirely to see it from the air, to see the bones of dead cities and entire forests and fields crushed, burned, or worse. There are not enough people left alive to mourn all the people who are not. But we saw other places. Even with all of the Eater's horrors, there are large swathes of the wild that are entirely untouched. Parts of Arvum unscarred. Slim comfort. But it's there.
It took some time to find Mashti's home; they'd traveled further north than I thought they would. In hindsight I'm not sure it would have been possible to find the Wolfkin from the ground. The sky was full of color when we landed - coincidence, but it was perfect all the same - and we found a good wind to carry Mashti's ashes away. I didn't approach the camp. I've said my goodbyes, and I'm sure, now, that I won't go looking for them again.
Still, I'm sure I saw Shara at the edge of the fires, looking up the hill as I howled. As Grandmother howled. As a chorus of wolves sang my second mother to the Wheel. I'm sure she was still looking when I turned, when we flew away. I won't ever know what she was thinking.
Or, maybe I already do. Maybe she was thinking the same things that I was, maybe she was thinking about a time we could have gone one way, but I chose to go the other. Maybe she was thinking about how she'd been right, and so had I.
Written By Viviana
July 8, 2024, 6:21 p.m.(8/9/1022 AR)
-- it's almost *too* peaceful.
Written By Avita
June 30, 2024, 8:17 p.m.(7/21/1022 AR)
Do you believe that the sun can be split in two?
Would it be more feasable for there to be two suns?
I wonder, would they chase one another, or would they come together to shine all the brighter as one?
I would posit that there should be a rivalry between two such celestial bodies -- but, the sun can have no rival.
The sun will not be ignored.
The sun will not surrender.
The Sun ... does not compete.
Certainly, she has a reflection -- that pale moon, pining away for the vibrance it can only wanly mirror, borrowing of the sun's radiance until she breaks the horizon once more.
Slowly, that reflection turns away, unable to cope with its jealousy, and the light fades; its back is turned, and its face grows dark, until it is forgotten ... until it grows cold -- too cold -- and must turn back to beg the Sun's forgiveness.
Of course, the Sun is generous.
The Sun forgives.
In Her mercy there is light.
There is hope.
Written By Avita
June 30, 2024, 8:06 p.m.(7/21/1022 AR)
I have recently had a conversation with dear Francis, and he asked a curious question of me.
Bold, of course, but you know what they say about Fortune and her favours, mm?
He asked me if the shadows existed because of the light, or if the light shone because of the backdrop of shadows.
It begs the question: Which came first?
Questions, actually, for they are in the multitudes by now as I sit and I ponder the meaning behind either, and how literal we have decided to be on this little thought-journey we find ourselves on.
Can one exist without the other?
Are they two separate things, or merely two sides of one and the same?
Is it a battle betwixt them, or is it a dance?
Is it as the tide, in ebb and flow that is at once gentle and terrible in equal measure?
Or is it the storm itself?
Does the lightning burn away the darkness on its heavenssent riot to the ground that waits below before the gloom and mire of those bitter, darkened clouds? Or, does it exist beyond, made bolder for the brooding roil that lurks like a shadow darkening the doorway?
Ah, this world...
... There is such magic in even the most mundane...
Written By Avita
June 30, 2024, 7:32 p.m.(7/21/1022 AR)
Have you ever seen the world as a tapestry?
Imagined every thread that interweaves to create the image we know as the truth before our eyes, and mapped every stitch that joins one concept to another in that intricate web we have woven with every breath we take, every step we make, every word we say, and -- perhaps more pointedly -- all the ones we choose not to commit to the cosmic memory of this greatest of mysteries?
Imagined each colour, and named each something new?
Dreamt in hues we cannot see, unknown and impossible, ancient, faded yet new and vibrant?
I find myself often wondering of what others see ... and how pale it must be in comparison to the grand vision before me.
Written By Ravana
June 30, 2024, 6:55 a.m.(7/20/1022 AR)
Relationship Note on Ember
Seriously, I may hyperventilate to death while choking back laughter.
Written By Ravana
June 30, 2024, 6:43 a.m.(7/20/1022 AR)
Relationship Note on Viviana
To be counted among Viviana's friends is to be touched by fortune's own hand. Her loyalty is fierce, her generosity boundless, and her cunning unparalleled. Yet, woe betide those who find themselves on the wrong side of her mercurial mischief - they're fucked. Poetically, of course.
Her name is both a blessing and a curse, and to know her is to dance on the edge of a knife, thrilling and perilous in equal measure. Just how I like it, obviously.
Written By Ravana
June 30, 2024, 6:33 a.m.(7/20/1022 AR)
I discovered secrets that defy belief in this library, not from books, but from the mouths of companions peculiar. Ghosts, it seems, can sire offspring, did you know? Neither did I. And now, dear reader, we both do. And as for dresses, I'll have you know that their deceptive elegance belies their utter uselessness in secondary endeavors. For example, I've learned the hard way that they make for appalling book carriers.
Written By Avita
June 23, 2024, 10:56 p.m.(7/7/1022 AR)
One last thing ... until the next final word.
If our world were to plunge into deepest darkness, consumed by the stubborn eclipse ... what then should happen when the sun, set so long ago, should finally rise again?
Would it be as the basking warmth of the newly broken dawn we had longed for?
... Or would the whole world be blind once more?
Written By Avita
June 23, 2024, 10:53 p.m.(7/7/1022 AR)
I have found myself gazing up at the stars atimes, wondering of their purpose.
The sun is necessary for life to be maintained...
The moon, like the tides, brings purpose and light to the darkness...
But, the stars... ?
Perhaps they are there so that we might navigate this world ... when the sun sets, and turns away from her mirror.
Written By Avita
June 23, 2024, 10:49 p.m.(7/7/1022 AR)
Have you ever looked to the horizon expecting to see the dawn's breaking ... and seen only blackness?
The whole world insists that the sun has risen and dances its way across the sky, and only you seem capable of seeing past the lie.
Would this make you mad, or ... simply awake?
Written By Viviana
June 23, 2024, 7:01 a.m.(7/6/1022 AR)
speaking with the Crimson Countess is not for the weak of heart.
Written By Avita
June 16, 2024, 3:10 p.m.(6/20/1022 AR)
You know, I do believe Francis is growing on me.
Like a fungus.
... or a tumour.
Either way, his fronding has improved dramatically since we began, and he has kept the heat from dewing my impeccable skin with a stirring sort of dedication that I had not anticipated -- though, I did expect it.
Hence my disappointment.
His storytelling, however...
That ... still needs work.
Written By Avita
June 16, 2024, 3:06 p.m.(6/20/1022 AR)
You know, I really don't see what all the fuss is about.
All I want to do is /speak/ to him.
Someone must pay for the indignities I've suffered on my diplomatic forray, and I doubt some Senator has what it would take to appease me by this juncture.
Ugh, the way they look at me, as though I were mad.
I'm not mad, darlings.
I'm livid.
Written By Avita
June 16, 2024, 3:02 p.m.(6/20/1022 AR)
They made me walk.
/Walk/.
Fifteen miles, I'm certain of it, and all of it on ascending stairs!
Were I a lesser woman, I doubt I would have made it.
Yet, I rose from that staircase like a phoenix -- to NO APPLAUSE.
Disgraceful.
Written By Viviana
May 28, 2024, 1:14 p.m.(5/10/1022 AR)
Now, the seas feel this way.
Solaris -- my newly minted vessel, hopefully, the new lead of a potential fleet that will follow. Being at sea is a blend of tranquility and thrill that's bound to the rhythms of nature. It's a feeling of losing one's self, a momentary escape from the ground-bound ties.
I imagine that flying feels the same.
Written By Sen'azala
May 25, 2024, 7:40 p.m.(5/5/1022 AR)
Sooner than I thought. Alongside several flavors of bristly, stubborn grass, wildflowers have peppered the entire broken field all around. I don't know the names for all of them, but there are a fair number of those copper flowers people were planting up and down the Great Road years back. My best guess is their seeds blew over from what used to be the Lodge of Petrichor.
I admit, I used to find them a little annoying, the same way I used to find the copper twists and scarves a little annoying. I couldn't tell you *why*, exactly. Maybe an instinctual need to be a contrary little shit. They're accidental memories now, growing on their own where they please over the bones of the dead forest and the bones of the dead monsters that thought they could devour the stories of the Castle of Yesterday. I like it. If I were a poet or a philosopher - or drunk - I'd make up some deeper symbolism for copper flowers torn from their origins and scattered to the wind to grow as they like in a new world and make some other contrary little shit rightfully irritable.
I have never in my life been interested in planting anything, but Mashti and I dug up a few different kinds of wildflowers and brought them inside the walls. I draw the line at making an actual garden. Fuck no. I'm just going to let the wild set down some roots in here too. I want to see what it does. The messier the better. The more variety, the better.
Written By Avita
May 19, 2024, 7:04 p.m.(4/21/1022 AR)
I'm not certain if my current adventure is /exciting/ so much as it is ... different than what came before?
Oh, it's still early, I know, and I'm giving it every chance it deserves to become something that does more than gently arch my brow, I promise.
I suppose I was simply expecting something more _dramatic_, darling, something spectacular, something ...
... worthy of my appearance.
Worthy of my interest.
Of my oh so valuable time, and even costlier attentions.
Written By Viviana
May 12, 2024, 8:17 p.m.(4/7/1022 AR)
Perhaps even more than this --
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