nexus_crossings | who is the lamb and who is the knife?

Nexus regulars may have seen Deet here and there over the late Fall and the Winter. She's small and a little shy, but very distinctive, especially to human eyes. A girl with green-tinted skin, hair the color of undyed linen, wings like a dragonfly's, and less than two and a half feet tall. Most people assume she's a faery, and she doesn't mind that.

She's never seen without the sprouting wooden staff she carries, and the floor-length black feather cloak on her shoulders, both gifts from the Fallen Angels. They make her feel secure, particularly the cloak. Right now, she's crouched beside a pond, peering at a group of tadpoles milling in the water. Some have legs budding, and she's fascinated to watch this metamorphosis, slow but fast enough to be visible.

Around her, some of the cattails are tinted dark violet, a wash of purple energy that seems to surge and then recede again as the reeds quiver in the wind.

"When someone starts to change," she says, "they never know what they'll really look like when they've finished, do they?"

Sitting back on her heels, she tilts her head to watch the Darkening flux and retreat across the cattails. "And when someone has power, it's hard to decide what to do with it. If you thought there was even a small chance you could save your world from something terrible, what would you sacrifice for it? Would you become another person to do it?"

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Of all the humans that could approach Deet, Adia is probably one of the most friendly-looking. She smiles at her, noting the dirt on her and wondering if she's been gardening. She gives a little wave of greeting, but says nothing until the woman speaks, listening and thinking about the words.

"I'm not afraid of dying," she says with a nod of agreement. "That's not the problem. I don't want to die yet, but if that was the only cost, I'd pay it. I'm afraid using the power I have, in the amount I would need to to win, to save my world, might make me...very dangerous."

"Can you feel it? The Darkening? I won't hurt you, I promise. It's just something I have to carry right now."

Adia has, in fact, been gardening, and normally would dust herself off before visiting the Nexus, but she was struck with an idea instead, and has come to the pond with her field microscope kit tucked into her messenger bag. But that can wait. She sits back on heels, not wanting to tower over the other woman.

"I can feel it," she confirms, her tone quiet and nearly apologetic. She has no idea if that's because of her moon rune, or if the Darkening would be obvious to anyone. Regardless, she doesn't back away or look afraid. "Is that the power you're referring to?"

It doesn't feel natural, or at least not natural to the small woman wearing a cloak of feathers. Her answer is a lot easier to relate to. "Twice now, I've had an object of immeasurable power put into my hands. I could have used either one as a weapon, but I chose not to. If that had been the only way I could have used it, I would have given it away." She frowns sympathetically. "I'm guessing that's not an option for you."

Edited 2020-05-19 19:15 (UTC)

"I thought you might. You looked a little...um, cautious? But that's not a bad thing. People should be cautious. I'm getting better at controlling it every day, but with a power this big, sometimes I think control is an illusion."

She nods at the question. "It's a little hard to explain. My world is wounded. There's a Crystal, the Crystal of Truth, that's like the heart of our planet. It's been cracked and twisted, and now the energy that comes from it is...well, this." She gestures to her own eyes, where eerie purple light glitters for just a moment and then is gone again.

"The Darkening. It kills plants, drives animals mad. The last of the Great Trees, Vliste Staba, was able to purify it for a while, but eventually even it was overpowered. The last thing the Tree did was to give me its power. I can absorb the Darkening, and I can purify and heal creatures who've been tainted by it, but every time I try, I guess I take on more of it, myself."

"So...I can't give it away, and I can't heal it. I could use it, but if I do, there might not be much left of me afterward. I just can't know for sure."

"I'm sorry, you probably weren't expecting all that. You just...have a very nice face. You look easy to talk to."

"Something happened to me a couple of years ago. It makes it easier for me to detect the supernatural," Adia explains, looking a bit sheepish despite Deet's reassurance. "I think you're controlling it very well right now. I'm not sure I could sit with you otherwise."

While Deet explains the Darkening, Adia sits and listens intently, her expression reflecting the concern and sympathy that she has for the woman's struggle as well as the state of her world. She's not expecting the compliment at the end, and blushes a bit because of it. "Oh..." She laughs a little and fusses with the strap of her messenger bag. "Well, thanks. I try to be a good listener. Please don't apologize, that sounds like a real struggle. I know I'd want to heal others, if I could, but if there's nowhere for the Darkening to go..."

She thinks back to the beginning of the explanation, and the reference to the Crystal. "Is there any way to fix the Crystal of Truth? How did it crack in the first place?"

"The angels have helped me," she says. "They gave me the staff, and Death gave me the cloak I'm wearing, and both of them help me feel safe, and stable. I don't think I could control it so well otherwise. When I first got here I was afraid I'd kill the grass just walking on it."

Something about Adia reminds Deet of Brea, actually. She seems a little gentler and less impulsive than Brea, but she can picture her in a library. "I thought, at first, I could just take it on and even if it killed me, at least I'd have helped others? But I can't act like that. I have too many people who'd miss me."

She frowns at the question, thinking back to the story skekGra and urGoh told her. "A skeksis hit it and broke off a shard. I don't know if that can be reversed...but if it could, if the shard could be replaced in the Crystal, the way to the Crystal itself would have to be cleared. The skeksis have it now, in their palace, and any gelfling that comes too close...I'm sure they'd take their essence."

Adia is familiar enough with the angels who have taken part-time residence in the Nexus that she doesn't doubt the effectiveness of a gifted staff and cloak. "I'm glad someone was able to," she says with a relieved smile. "Maybe even more can be done. There are a lot of gifted people in the Nexus."

There is something very bookish about Adia, despite the dirt and her disheveled braided hair. Perhaps it's the thoughtful concentration she puts into listening to others. "I'm sure they would," she agrees. "As long as you have control over it, that gives you time to find a proper solution, right? It's worth it to try."

Skeksis... where has Adia heard that word before? "Are they -- what do they look like? I think I might have met one." SkekSa called herself one, didn't she? Oh, but she was a very nice sea captain bird-like alien, this doesn't sound like something she'd do. Then again, Adia can admit to herself that her track record of judging the intentions of others is far from 100%. "Why are they hoarding the Crystal? Don't they care about the Darkening?"

"There are," she agrees. "And people who've seen far worse things than I have. It's just a matter of figuring out what's applicable to my world, and to me."

"That's what I was thinking," she says, "About learning control over it. But I don't know...I suppose talking with other people from my world made me think the sooner I can help, the better."

"Skeksis? They're very tall, with claws and sort of...beaks? But with teeth in them. Healthy ones have feathers. If you've met skekGra or skekSa, they're all right. Neither of them likes the skeksis Emperor. I'm not sure skekSa understands quite how awful he is for the world yet, but she's a friend."

"The ones in the Palace use it to prolong their lives. They're afraid of dying. They've been experimenting on it for years and years, and they don't seem to care that the results have hurt other people as long as they get the benefit."

"I don't think skekSa has ever used the Crystal, actually. I'm not sure skekGra has, either, at least not...willingly. They did awful things to him when he turned on the Emperor."

"That's the tricky part," Adia agrees. "Every world that has magic seems to have its own kind. The angels are a good start, though. You could also try doing some research at the Grand Library. I read some books about shielding there, it was pretty useful."

Worrying her lower lip a little, she shifts her weight from her heels to sit properly on a patch of dry ground. "Because the Darkening is spreading? Or something else?"

That anxious look does not abate until Deet brings up skekSa by name. Then she lets out a sigh of relief. "It was skekSa I met, actually. She was very friendly. I'm sorry to hear that the ones in the palace are so thoughtless and cruel." And it doesn't much sound like they'll even listen to their own people, based on what happened to skekGra. "How did they come into power? skekSa said her people were banished from another planet."

Realizing that she hasn't even introduced herself yet, she smiles and add sheepishly, "My name's Adia, by the way. I'm a human."

who is the lamb and who is the knife?

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