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

[Emersyn]

The Girl From Oldwood

Ipomoea seems harmless enough that Emersyn can invest in him some history, perhaps enough to blight any suspicions attempting to take root between them.  She finds herself in an odd-enough mood tonight anyway, willing to take a chance at making a new friend in this new world and in this new place (of which, she may have never come if not for old texts from the library) - she says none of this, and instead smiles once more and looks out. "Regrettably, I am not."  His declaration did not need an answer, but it is an opening to what he's been hopefully waiting for - a distraction.


"I'm so far removed from where I started, it is hard to believe I have come this far.  I am sure all of us who wash up on the shores of Novus, start with prayer.  When we realize we know no gods, either from here or back home, that is when we start to discover clarity.  Veneror, like so many other holy places, is not just for prayer.  Ironically enough, it can be a sanctuary for the godless as well.  Like me."  A cobalt blue eye turns back to study Ipomoea's face quietly, if she likes him or hates him there is no telling, the mystery is all the same.  She offers nothing now, silently judging the moment of silence however brief it may be. "I keep a faith but that faith is in my sword." -and I want her back, Emersyn woefully laments with one look alone, she chances another look at the stars.  Then remembers a detail about the sky she might not have told anyone of if not for this beautiful night.


"You only have one moon and one sun here.  I find that strange.  I'm used to many."  But she is not used to magic, that is an alien concept that she hasn't quite wrapped her head around - one she isn't ready to talk about either, it is almost as awkward as the talk that father's give their sons.  Two moons and three suns revolve around Cantwell and the Oldwood castle where she was from, and it took nearly a year of travel to escape them all - but now she finds herself missing the white nights and color shifting days.

"Let me tell you my story,"  Emersyn decides, commanding him to a listening.




There once was a little girl who lived alone with her father in a castle far away from here.  She was not allowed to know anyone from the outside walls which surrounded the castle.  There were handmaids and servants to tend to her every need, teachers to teach her and other select pupils, but no one to call a friend.  No one to share secrets with.  The little girl knew so much about war, how to avoid it and how to start it, but most importantly, her duty was to learn how to win it no matter what the cost. And so, this girl learned how to do the things that most warriors knew how to do, she learned to do them well, and would one day prove to be one of the greatest warriors her father ever trained.

One day, her father approached his daughter in the gardens of their spansive, yet isolated home, and he asked her “What would you do for my love?” to which, she replied, “Anything, for I have all the things a heart could ask for, but your love is the one thing I still do not have.”  And, perhaps that was the way it was intended to be.  For her father smiled knowingly at his daughter and continued to lead her along the roses where no eyes or ears could spy them.

“So you would do as I ask, then?”

“For your love, yes. Anything.”

Wasting no time, the man turned in front of his daughter and got down low to meet her eyes - for he was a tall man and though his daughter was also tall, he towered over her still.  “You will bring war to the people of Cantwell.  You will bring them to their knees.  Use all the might that you and your men have within yourselves, and take back what is ours.”  But what her father meant to say, was 'Bring me what is mine.'

All her life had been in preparation, you see, and at that moment, the girl understood her destiny - she was the living testament to her father’s fury at the King of Cantwell.  He raised her with every intention of getting back what he felt was rightfully his, and, in a way it had been.  The girl’s father was the disgraced son of two that the late King had-had, he had been given his own land, Oldwood, while his older brother assumed the throne over Cantwell to rule over all, even his own younger brother.  The little girl’s father did not like that, and so he built Oldwood into a fortress and separated himself from the family and began to devise his ultimate plan.

It began with the little girl who was now a refined warrior, tasked with the duty of delivering honor to her father in the shape of war.  That very same night, she and her peers (now her militia to move as she saw fit) marched on Cantwell.  There were many more of them than the King would have ever suspected.   So many that overnight, the major city of Cantwell was silent by first sunrise, the girl and her armies eradicated the royal family quickly for they never saw the threat coming. Three generations gone in one night.  An empty castle revealed itself in the blue light.

On the second night, many more perished in the towns surrounding the cities.  With no king to protect the people, they fell quickly.  Like diseased rings in a fallen tree, the death began in the middle and moved its way steadily outward.  The warrior girl and her men were trained assassins, handpicked from birth, created only to do their commander’s bidding, Oldwell would be the only surviving territory by the time she was through executing his final plan.  She would do anything for her father’s love, for it was the only thing he had denied her.

On the third day, the armies rested in the second sun, red light shielded them from ever knowing how far their carnage had spread.

On the fourth night, the warrior lead her armies to the borders of Cantwell, here is where she had her men corner and trap every last of those who tried to escape her wrath.  When all was thought to be finished, the warrior climbed the highest peak so that she may look down on all her life’s work.

She reached the top by the fifth day, and the third sun showed her all of her doing in the white-yellow brilliance.  It revealed a red country, once green and full of life, now silent - so silent.  War had come and now, war had gone, and the girl wondered to herself then, what love is there to be had when all is lost?  This carnage unsettled her but she said nothing to her troops.  She left them there that very same day and returned home to her awaiting father.

“I have done as you asked.” The girl said easily enough, hardly recognizable with all the blood that covered her body.  “I have brought war to the people as you told me to.”  Here at the top most towers of their home, Oldwood, the father could look out in the white light and see the red hills from where they stood. “Indeed you have, but, my daughter, this is not a war that you have brought to Cantwell, you have brought death.  How am I to rule a dead city?  How am I to be king now when there is no one to lead?”

The girl did not understand what her father was trying to say, so she asked, “Is this not war?  Will you not love me?”

“How could I?  For all that I have taught you - you have dishonored everything, and me.  Leave here and never return.  I am through with you.”




"And so she left, for a new testament to her life.  To understand more," Emersyn said then.  The horizon from this height was beginning to lighten, the only sun that Novus knew was starting to make headway towards their hemisphere and would be dawning its brilliant colors in a little over an hour.  "I came here to learn how to forgive myself."  She dared to look Ipomoea in the eyes, the gentile smile seemed ambiguous, it could have been a lie or a promise.  And for all the light that caught within the corners of her true blue eyes, they still remained drained of all their laughter.  



~~~

@Ipomoea  1. sorry for the massive wait  2. sorry for the massive story 3. Here's your distraction Po <3 4. I'm not sure why they haven't exchanged names yet.