[Quest] a blazing, dead secret--

[Random Events]

bright, dead and falling to the earth 

For months the stars trapped on earth kept their eyes trained towards the stars trapped in the black web of night. For thirty nights they gathered at the highest peak in the mountains, their sides sides slick with sweat from the pilgrimage. For twenty-nine days they curled up to sleep in the alpine zone with rocks holding up their heads while they dreamed of darkness. 

It was on the last night of summer that their waiting was rewarded. 

On the last night, as darkness fell, when they all looked up gaunt ribbed and hungry, the stars in the sky looked back at them from the blackness and started to fall like rain. That night the moon wept and the black was alive with her silver sorrows. All the trapped stars knew that she was crying for them, crying because her children that were chewed out of her belly could never return.

They sang to her, their mother, they sang and they danced. Each movement they made said, we miss you and the words singing out of their mouth were we understand.

We understand. We understand. We understand.

Hour by hour the stars and the meteors fell faster and thicker until the sky above the tallest peak was more silver than black. Sometimes the sky almost looked like the moon rising over the sea, brightness for miles and miles. It was a brightness that promised to burn the eyes even as it blessed them. 

One star, chewed out from the darkness, looked down at the mountain as it was falling to the earth. It looked and it forgot to fall straight towards the sea. With a trail of silver it fell blazing and bright towards the mountain. 

The mountain trembled when the star dashed itself on the rock and moss. The entire word trembled with that bit of dead star even as it glowed as bright as the sun with white-fire for a single moment. The silence sighed--

And that star sat dead and cold on the mountain waiting for the trapped stars to turn their eyes back towards the earth and discover it's fresh gave.

The fallen star might be dead but it still had secrets to share. 

---

@Azrael is with all the shed-stars that have gone on a pilgrimage to the peaks of the Arma Mountains. They've been waiting for a month to see the meteor shower that the shed-stars priests have known about for years. When the night finally comes the weather is brisk with the bite of the coming autumn. The stars have been failing for hours and each hour is brighter with falling stars than the last. 

But then one stars falls to the mountain. 

Will Azrael will brave enough to explore the fallen star's grave? Might there be magic the dying star has to share before all the light of it finally dies?

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I had so much fun playing with this lore <3

Enjoy! -nestle

[Azrael]

azrael

He was tired from the travel, tired – and yet alive.  In the mountains, they climbed toward the heavens, drawn forth by the promise of Caligo’s bleeding sky.  It had been foretold, of course.  This was her gift to Denocte, her unveiling after the long battles they’d fought for freedom.  There was a festival to celebrate summer, yes… but the true festival was not one of baubles and worldly things, but a testament to the goddess and her striking display in the cosmos.

There is a poetic sort of peace to the night, as he lays upon his back, mane splayed around him like an inky halo.  It is a vulnerable position, but with the People around him, Azrael has nothing to fear.  Like many, he watched for the signs.  He watched as the moon rose slowly into the summer sky, shivering as Day had turned to Dusk.  Dusk to Night.  The sky had turned from shades of gold, to pink, to black.  And Azrael feels a sense of anticipation as he waited for the meteors to come, with bated breath.

As he waited, the magician mused at all which had come to pass.  This was the right decision, to come to Denocte, to live among men.  Not everyone agreed, of course… but Azrael had always considered himself something of a progressive Star.  Others lived and died by the thick tomes of the past, weeping as they had left their homelands, stealing away what trinkets they could, to carry on the traditions of the People.  While he could appreciate such things, Azrael could not let the past hold him from what would come to pass now.  He had to hope that this new life could be an adventure instead of a curse.  He had to hold that courage, and he hadn’t been disappointed.

While he reminisced at all which had come to pass, the sky began to explode in a brilliant display.  The stars blinked slowly at first, even as some rushed in shooting comets across the great black expanse of sky.  It was a cloudless sort of night, the kind where each bit of stardust was visible to the naked eye, a welcome distraction from the uncertainty.  He counted the constellations, naming them like a song in his mind, smiling as he remembers the stories of his youth… of great heroes granted burials in the sky, marked by the patterns which watched over the People.  It was a beautiful way to be remembered, he supposed.  Much moreso than the idea of being buried in the earth, deep beneath layers of sand and rock.

As his mind wandered, so too did the stars, even as one began to take an erratic pattern.  Curious, Azrael mused… for stars were not supposed to fall from the heavens to the earth.  There is a sound, almost inaudible if you weren’t listening for it, of the sky fire meeting the ground.  This drew him from his watching, and Azrael quickly made his way upright once more, leaving his caravan in search of the fallen star, concern and curiosity battling in his chest.

It doesn’t take long to find the star trail, with little bits of burning cosmos staining a path in the summer grasses.  He follows the dying star’s path, the scorched land still warm even as the night air rushed to steal away the heat, even as his widened in the molten light it emitted.  Sadness crept over him, as he whispered a quiet prayer to for the death of the vibrant light, stepping closer like a moth to the flame, unable to resist the pull of the glow even as it enveloped him in Caligo’s burning fire.  Where it should have burned, instead it kissed his curves, clinging to his frame as if Azrael himself was the star’s only salvation.  Stardust settled over him, cooling and adhering to the iridescence of his back, even as the star’s core blinked it’s final breath before fading out, leaving only the glow of Azrael himself in the darkness.

“Speaking.”

credits

@Random Events