who is the lamb and who is the knife?

[vliste_staba]

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?"

Comments

[pirateangelbaby]

Talk about a question that strikes close to home.

The strange ebb and flow of foreign magic is enough to get his attention, watching the little creature on the bank of the pond, and her question sends its own chill through the pit of his belly. He knows all too well what she means, even if he doesn’t know the circumstances. If he was to meet himself from only ten years past, would he even recognize himself anymore?

He fidgets his hands against one another, debating pretending like he hadn’t heard and just continuing on. But if there’s something he can say, some advice that he can give, that might help someone else face their own Ragnarok or Fimbulwinter, then how could he turn his back? “I have. Not really on purpose, but yes.”

[vliste_staba]

He's visibly nervous--or hurting?--this man who is several times her size, and Deet's heart goes out to him immediately. She stands up and shakes out her wings, walking slowly over to meet him. "I'm afraid to ask if you regret it. You look...like it's a hard thing for you to talk about."

She's quiet for a second, then adds: "If I knew for certain what I would change into, I wouldn't be so worried."

[pirateangelbaby]

He manages a smile for her, partly on reflex. "Oh, it... it is. I have a lot of things I wish I'd done differently." One thing in particular, mostly. But dwelling on it doesn't do anyone any good, so he tries his best to refocus on her instead, and not getting stuck in the exhausting spiral of 'what if'. "I don't regret all of it."

Maybe through his errors, he can help her in turn. Change of the self can be terrifying, and she sounds as though she could use a listening ear, if nothing else. "What are your options?"

[vliste_staba]

Their height difference is such that she has to reach up to take his hand, but not but so high. It seems to be a gesture of support rather than an attempt to lead him anywhere. "I think most people have that, although sometimes...sometimes the results you wish you could change are bigger than others."

"I'm not even sure what all my options are," she says sheepishly. "I mean, if I stayed here, I'd probably be safe for the rest of my life, I know that much. And if I return to my world, I'll have to do something, whether it's fight alone, or join up with my friends there."

"I...have a power that's a little hard to explain. There was a sacred tree, Vliste Staba, that gave me its power as it was dying. I feel like...I have to use that for good, but it's so big. I'm not sure what will happen to me, if I do."

[pirateangelbaby]

He's a little surprised by the handholding, though certainly not offended. He gives her hand a little squeeze and smiles sadly down at her. "Yeah, they are, aren't they."

He listens closely, seriously, and while Thor has never been particularly skilled in sorcery nor versed in its studies, gaining power from a sacred tree sounds perfectly plausible to him. "I know how it feels to fear the destiny that lies before you," he admits, but this is not about him, it's about her and her concerns. "I'd find it stranger if that didn't frighten you at least a little. What do you think Vliste Staba intended you to do with its power? Did it give it to you without asking?"

[vliste_staba]

She's learned that her smallness and general air of gentleness allows her to get closer to people in the Nexus--in a kindly way--than others might be able to. She's not above taking advantage of being cute.

She pats him on the arm, then lets go in favor of smoothing her hands over the feathery cloak she wears. "I'm not sure it's destiny. Just something that happened because I was in a certain place at a certain time, right or wrong."

"When I first spoke to Vliste Staba, it asked me to warn the other gelfling about a blight that was creeping over our world. The Darkening. A kind of corruption that withered plants and drove animals insane with pain. I left home and traveled to Har'ar, our capital city. I mean, I had a lot of help along the way, I made friends...well, nevermind. Once I got there, things got more complicated."

She falls silent a moment, trying to decide whether she should talk about dreamfasting, mother Aughra, the Emperor, and all the other convoluted bits and pieces of the puzzle she's a part of, but after a moment she decides to skip the details and answer the real question.

"We were looking for part of a weapon that we thought could help unite my people against the Darkening and its master," she says. "And in the search we returned to the cave where Vliste Stabe grows from. But when we got there, the blight had driven some of the animals mad and they were tearing the Tree apart."

"It said it was dying, and I told it I would defeat the Darkening if It could tell me how. And It said blessing or curse I know not, but my power is yours."

Talking to sacred trees is very risky, Thor, do take note.

"I can purify the Darkening some, and heal creatures that are affected by it, but it seems that the more I do that, the more of the Darkening I hold, myself. The Tree...it might or might not have known that could happen."

[pirateangelbaby]

That sounds deeply concerning indeed. Thor won’t pretend he understands all the nuances of it; even Yggdrasil still holds its mysteries and Asgard has studied the Worlds Tree for generations, and that’s a sacred tree he feels he knows as well as he can. One he’s never heard of before? All he can know is what she’s told him, which feels as though it’s only scratching the surface for brevity. But he still listens, taking in as much as he can, fidgeting with his hands absently.

“So the more you use its power, the more you may be becoming corrupted.” No wonder she asked her question as she did. It’s a more literal transformation than what he went through, but still relatable in its own way. “And you cannot use this power to purify the Darkening within yourself, I assume.”