[Worship] I pray to the sky. Please, I'm begging you God.

[Emersyn]

A Prayer In Disdain

Emersyn did not know the intricacies of the New World faith.  It consisted of four Gods, five?  She couldn't remember, the history was so old it was convoluted and difficult to understand.   Now, with everything shaking the very foundations of it all -- what was real?  Was any of it real?  Or was it her, imagining things again?  No, no, she made sure to check with others - not directly.  No - no one could know Emersyn to be a skeptic, her image had to be propagated just right.   And so, paying for few drinks to loosen someone else's lips seemed to be the best way to know for sure without raising alarms.  

Emersyn learned then about the Island, the mysterious statue, and the day that stood still for so long that even she saw it herself, many days later after encountering her drunk informant in the bar.  It rattled some cages, and although her emotional response was lacking, utterly, it rocked whatever world she once felt so sure in.  The grullo was straight faced despite that, blue eyes neither reading nor reciting any changes in the way she was looking at Novus.  

So why, then, was she going to Temple in the middle of the day when she could be seeking out Somnus?  Her father would be ashamed of her now, if he knew that Emersyn chose to find answers to something he considered fanatical and pointless rather than making use of her time.  Nicolai would rather see the girl doing something more useful, finding a position within the military would be his first point in the advice he would give her.  Find her place within the ranks, establish firm ties with upper command, then start scaling the ranks until she could do what she did best.  He had raised her to be a tactician at best, being a leader would come naturally.  

Emersyn could hear him at the back of her mind, the summer heat screaming over the top of it all, his criticisms and displeasures.  Knowing he was not a part of her current situation was the only thing that kept the gray's ascension, she was determined to see the Temple for herself.  Emersyn wanted to know where the people of Novus went to make peace with their Gods.  If magic could suspend a scene of life and turn it into the page of a story book, then certainly Oriens, the patron deity of Delumine existed as well?

What did they look like?  What did they sound like?  Was her god a feral god?  Was he unlike his people entirely?  Emersyn occupied herself with several questions, answered herself with many more, all for the sake of drowning out Nico's utter disdain.  His disappointment felt very real to her, two years past his death, and she could not shake the realness of his presence in her life.  Was Oriens like Nicolas?  Was he hard on his people?  Was he expectant of each and every one of them to be perfect versions of themselves?  Everyone in Delumine that she had observed had a sort of way about their life that she sadly could not answer these questions for herself.  So she climbed.

The heat was oppressive and more direct as she gained altitude.  Once, when she first arrived in the city that was now her home, she saw (for the first time ever) a horse with wings.  How much easier it would be to simply fly to her destination than to climb the wearisome path to the top.  It wasn't much further, and she was determined to make her efforts count for something.  A rucksack that did not belong to her carried a candle, fresh flowers, and a jar of precious honey that she wished to offer.  

Emersyn arrived to the temple at dusk, she had started her journey before dawn (she was a very early riser) and had made it to the peak when the sun was highest in the sky.  The young soldier felt a quiet victory for herself for not having turned around and abandoning the journey once met with the blazing heat of the day.  She was relieved to see a setting sun, a thin veil of night letting the brightest of stars shine through the last of the day - altogether a breathtaking twilight that she shared with no one but herself. 

That alone, was magnificent.

The temple looked as though it had seen better days.  It did not look quite the way she imagined it to.  A garden of Gods, clearly disturbed by something not of this world.  Or if that something had been, it was no more.  Emersyn took the details in quietly and maintained modesty as she cooled off in the shadows of the evening.  The wind dried the salt in her hair, the peppery waves had gone stiff from all the sweat and hung in flat sheets against her gray skin.  It bothered her to be this unclean but she was alone, and would deal with it as any soldier out on his own would do.  

Emersyn chose no altar to bare her gifts and instead left what she brought spread out before her on the smooth marble beneath her feet.  She arranged it neatly and pushed the candle out at last.  There was no fire to light it, but that was beside the point that she even came for.  The woman settled in against her carrying bag and rested her tired body.  Although Emersyn was both hungry and thirsty, she chose to remain vigilant all night while fasting as her first devotion to a God she was not certain existed.  As she rested she realized that she had no questions or requests for Oriens, and therefore, no prayer.  

She did pray then, to anybody, that her God was not an angry one, and that her silence would not be seen as derogatory to the whole act of worship.  If anything, Veneror peak offered a spectacular night sky, one unlike any other that she had ever seen.  Even back in the city.

"Do you know what happens to falling stars?  I don't.  I do wonder about that from time to time."


~~~