Post by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) on Jan 10, 2023 21:45:33 GMT
Set Directly After The Winter Festival-Party like it's 1499
Rp'd/Written with the ever so lovely seraphina
The music and laughter of the crowds begin to dwindle somewhat as the first few fairgoers begin their snowy treks homeward. Parents with bundles of sleepy sugar-filled tots snuggled soundly in their arms, groups of friends recounting excitedly to one another about the winter wonders and legendary heroes they have experienced or encountered that day.
Some fairgoers though wish to make the most of the idyllic reprieve the evening has gifted to them, splitting off into small groups with friends or partners and perching themselves on blanketed logs and stumps set around the small merry campfires that have sprung up across the fairground as evening has fallen. Eager to share in the warmth of the flames and company of friends and festival folk alike in the final magical hours of a wonderful winter's evening.
"Hot Chocolate?" Beets offers to the tall amber tinted form of Seraphina in the sat opposite her in the warm light of the crackling campfire as she twists open the lid of small round emerald green canteen from a pouch and proceeds to fill a metal cup with luxuriously steaming melted chocolate. The stream changes miraculously from a rich velvety brown to fluffy snow white as the drink seemingly magically tops itself off with a thick swirl of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles with a scattering of little marshmallows as it reaches the rim of the cup.
Seraphina had watched this impressive little magical moment with amusement.
“Yes, please, that enchantment is quite delightful, how did you come to have it?” She asked and stood to sit closer to Beets.
Her air and manner of walking was careful, deliberate and she sat down like a cat upon the carved log seat with ease even in her half plate.
“Oh well…” Beets starts as she begins to fill a second cup, her wide emerald eyes trailing Seraphina’s movements. “I um got it as a thank you gift, for rescuing Leona, she owns that fancy drinking place in Daring Heights, from a…party.” Her voice trailing off with her gaze to the side, unaware of the mountain of whipped cream and marshmallows forming atop the cup in her hand.
“Oh! Let me just….” Seraphina said with a chuckle and reached for the cup in Beet’s hand. It was quite the mountain of cream and she wondered just how she’d drink it.
“Leona, yes that was her name, I’d forgotten it I was so caught up in the festivities.” She said cheerfully.
“Yes, though I don’t really know her very well, I’ve only met her the once and I was a little…” She turns to face Seraphina and notices the now colossal sweet mountain that dwarfs her. “…distracted.”
She gives an embarrassed grin, her long ears drooped low as she carefully passes over the cup to Seraphina. “So, how’ve you been? Haven’t see you since our little pirate voyage at Port Ffirst.”
Seraphina took the cup and carefully scooped the whipped cream and marshmallows with her finger.
“Well the temple has occupied most of my time. Selune’s light has been most needed as of late with everything that has happened. I’ve not been able to do much else.”
She said with a shrug.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I go where Selune asks and she has asked me to stay a little while.”
Seraphina smiled if a little sadly.
Beets watches Seraphina curiously. She had never really been one to delve into the realms of gods and followers that had began to emerge around her as she had first ventured from the Fayewilds into the 'Material Plane' as folk coined the realm her new home of The Dawnlands resided.
One new world full of weird and wonderful kinda complicated beings had been more than enough for her.
But Seraphina's words clearly spelt out that her own chosen 'obscure-associations' were perhaps not sitting all too well with her.
Beets kinda knew the feeling.
"Are you..unhappy she asks you to do things for her?"
“No, not unhappy but…” Seraphina paused, sipping the hot chocolate. “I’ve always found it difficult to make friends and I suppose I’m a little lonely. But I have the Lady Selune with me.”
Seraphina looked up at the moon and then back down at the fire.
“You must have been on some adventures since I saw you last, tell me of your favourite.” She said changing the subject.
If she thought too hard about everything she might cry and that wouldn’t do.
Beets listened to Seraphina as she took a pull of her own hot chocolate, the sweet mixture suddenly tasting bitter at her words.
This girl before her felt just like she had once, maybe still did even if just a little. Seraphia might be taller and prettier and buggin’heck she practically radiated an angelic air! With her golden amber skin and halo shaped horns in contrast to her own much darker skinned insectual features. But maybe even her features created their own aura of isolation from folk. Drawing out feelings of..inferiority? Or as in her case, though she was ashamed to admit it as she recalled when first set eyes on Seraphina, seemingly talking so at ease with Marto in Port Ffirst.
Jealousy.
“Oh.” She started, jolted out of her thoughts by Seraphia's question. "Um well lets see. There was the time I fought…
Oo, I remember when I first met…
I’ve learnt my…”
But each positive attempt at a recollection recent her recent adventures all just trailed off before they began, as if the chocolate coating her tongue had turned to ash, the marshmallows forming a lump in her throat.
The thrill of adventure that she had felt in the earlier months of the year, of exploring new lands or facing of against huge might beasts, had instead been replaced by feelings of fear, pain..and doubt.
She felt her own eyes pulled upwards towards the moon as they were so many nights. She had never really considered the idea it could actually be somebody. The thought made all the flittin'stranger knowing that she had then supposedly walked upon their face mere months before, or that were was a large red pit fiend in a frilly apron baking cookies in one of it's dimples. No. Just it's constant comforting, unwavering, unjudging gaze had always been enough for her.
“What did you think it would be? What did you seek?” Seraphina asked, intrigued by her statement.
Her hot chocolate she held in her hands warmed her as she rested it upon her legs.
Beets absently sets down her cup, her eyes still fixed up at the moon as gently she lifts herself from her seat, the gentle hum of her wings adding to the fireside atmosphere as she hovers up above the fire.
“I, I guess I wanted..a chance. A chance to experience things I never had the opportunity to experience before, to see things and try things and meet people and for them to meet me and …To accept me…”
Her words stalling along with the enthusiastic hum of her wings which had grown as she had spoken.
“I guess I wanted something different..than what I was…Than who I..am.”
She turns to look at the aasimar, flecks of orange light from fire rippling through her sad green eyes.
“S-sorry. I don’t know where that came from.” Beets says, her gaze suddenly drifting away embarrassedly, as she hovers back gently to her perch.
“Sometimes life isn’t what you thought it would be but I think it is up to us to decide what to do with it. We can make good with what we have.” Seraphina said kindly. “You need not apologise, the heart often tells what the minds tries to hide. Though if it is a comfort I think you are a good person Beets.” Seraphina looked at her then with her white eyes, the only indication she was looking by the turn of her face. The glow of the holy light within almost sparkling.
"T-that means a lot. Y-you're very kind, Seraphina." Slowly, Beets reaches a gloved hand out and gently lays it atop Seraphina's for a couple moments, before then slowly pulling it away again shyly, giving a small cough, her pointy ears turning crimson. "Jeezh, listen to me flittin'on," she says, flashing a nervous grin towards Seraphina. "I-I've barely even said your name a handful of times and here I am spilling me guts..Uhm..So-so where are you from exactly? You look..Well..If you don't mind me saying, I've not seen many people that look quite like you around."
Seraphina smiled, “I suppose not,” she said and looked down at her hot chocolate. “Well I’m from a small village near the sea of fallen stars, I was born to human parents but they were older than usual when they had me. I was ten when they brought me to the temple, Selune took me in, looked after me as my parents couldn’t afford to.” She lifted her head and looked over at Beets. “They passed a year later. It was for the best, they gave me all that they could and I’m grateful for their love.”
“I’m sorry Seraphina. I lost my Pa last year. Gramps too I guess.” Beets stares into the fire, “I, never knew my Mama. I only learnt her name this year, and well,” She presses her hands together against her chest. “I also learnt that she’s been a lot closer to me than I would have ever have thought to believe.”
“Oh, how so?” Seraphina asked gently. “Having loved ones with us even after their passing, to feel their warmth and love is a blessing.” A faint smile tugged at her mouth, she felt great sympathy for her friend, for her loss. It was never easy to lose someone you know.
The low light of the fire reflecting in Beets' eyes slowly dies, before being replaced instead by a queer shimmer spreading across their now inky black surfaces.
Her lip quivers at her next words, her voice quietly breaking with an odd underlying hum as she turns to face Seraphina , "I'm afraid..It's more of a curse in my case." A single tear of slick black incur slowly trickling down her cheek from one of her now rippling dark eyes.
“A curse?” Seraphina asked, her interest piqued. “Beets, do you need my help?” She asked, her mind casting over her spells, her arsenal of magic.
Beets stared black eyed back sadly, “I don’t know if you could, so much of what I’ve learnt recently is still so confusing to me. One thing especially being…” She takes a deep steadying humming breath. “I am just one part of the result in an attempt to break the curse my mama took on. I am my mama, and my..mama is me.”
“I shall listen if you’d like to talk about it Beets, and if I can help, if you’d like my help then I am offering it.” Seraphina said, her own bright white eyes and stark contrast to the deep pools Beets now bore. She seemed to be part of a collective, either souls trapped within or linked somehow perhaps. Seraphina had seen a great many things in her time and if she was at all alarmed or frightened by this transformation she did not show it.
Beets stared back into Seraphina's white eyes, almost like two twin miniature moons glowing before her. Mirroring her stoic night-time guardian. Except that, these moons had a voice, they were eager to listen. They..Serphina, wanted to help her. It was then she felt familiar a pang in her gut. One, that at her lowest moments she had let herself almost be completely racked and ruled by, time and time again. Fear. It wasn't that she didn't trust Serphina. But more..was it right to burden her with her troubles?
She had done the same with some of her friends. Put them in some very real danger! Why should she do the same to Seraphina, never-mind how willing she was.
“Beets?” Seraphina asked gently, her gaze watching Beets as she was frozen in the trance like state.
'You’re letting your fear control you...' Beets suddenly heard ring out in her head. Marto's words.
"You’re letting your fear control you into giving up on yourself before you’ve even tried." He was right..All her friends were right..She, she couldn't do this without them. She'd learnt that now. And Seraphina. She wanted to help, had offered her help. And in return, maybe Beets could help her...
"Only, if you do one thing." She said slowly, pulling off a glove and holding out a hand towards Seraphina. "Let me help you."
Seraphina watched Beets, she reached out. “Beets? If you can hear me, take my hand.” Seraphina said as she set her hot chocolates down and reached for Beets hand, though she didn’t touch her just yet.
"I can hear you." Beets replied, her voice still filled with that strange underlying hum, as she moved her hand out closer towards Seraphina's own. "Will you let me help you? Will you let me..be your friend?"
“Help me?” Seraphina raised an eyebrow. “To whom am I speaking?”
"M-me..It-it's Beets..."
Seraphina took her hand in hers, “What do you need from me Beets, what is this?” She asked, her fingers in her right hand already weaving the magic needed for remove curse.
As their fingers interlock Beets' eyes shimmer back the reflection of Serphina's own eyes, like dozens of tiny little stars across their panes, before with a blink. They are gone, and back is her brilliant emerald green eyes. Wide, alert, and as they trail over to Serphina's hand as her fingers trace runic symbols in the air. Afraid.
"Are you scared of me?" Her voice, humless, soft but shaking.
“No not at all,” Seraphina said and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as she held it. “Tell me Beets, what ails you?”
So Beets told her.
She told her about her mother Malsira Sunwater, and how she had become cursed by a being named Almek’Irahj. Of how her ill fated actions to rid herself of this curse had resulted in the splitting of herself into three beings. Herself. A being known as Bogar..and...something..else. She spoke of her village and woodland life and of that cursed-day it was robbed from her along with her Papa by a swarm of murderous beetles. Of how she had parted ways with her Gramps, and had unknowingly travelled to the Dawnlands and how this dark presence, Bogar but not, had awoken inside of her. Plaguing her these past months and then...Now aiding her. Starting to help her fill in the gaps. And finally. Of how a messenger of the being known as Almek’Irahj, the grand Hierophant, visited her, using it's own voice to beckon her home, to join her people. "You will remember the swarm, he said," Beets finished. The fire had dwindled as she spoke. Spoken with no gusto, no flair, just the facts, clean and clear like the snow around them, around their little night vigil.
“What did you do to make the curse divide you? How did this come to be? Forgive me, I do not understand.” Seraphina said gently, still holding onto Beets' hand.
She looked at the fire and cast Prestidigitation upon it, igniting it once more from the embers, giving them some much needed warmth.
Beets shakes her head, a fresh clear tear trailing down from her other eye, mirroring the black smudge of the previous one that has now set on her cheek. "I don't know. It wasn't me...I-I don't know." is all she can say in response.
She shivers from the cold as the warmth of the rekindled fire begins to fight the numbness that has set in on her limbs. It is the first time she has truly felt it again in months. It was a bad choice to take off her Ring of Warming today to properly submerse herself in the winter season.
Seraphina felt awfully sorry for Beets, this was a heavy weight to carry.
“Do you have somewhere safe to stay? You are very welcome at the temple.” She offered, feeling very much like she shouldn’t be left alone.
At the word temple dark recollections swirl across Beets mind.
Visions of bodies dead and desecrated, blood pooling from their heart-ransacked bodies. A dim yet burning echo in the back of her brain forming suddenly as if a memory, it's words full of bloodlust and rage. 'NO! SHE IS MINE!'
"No!" She cries, pulling hand back from Seraphina, gripping it tightly by the wrist with the other before after a few moments her breathing slows.
"I mean, I-I'm fine. Sorry. Ahem, the Rooftop Beetles, my friends, they've fixed up a-a hammock for me..In the attic of their base."
“That’s alright, you need not apologise.” Seraphina offered.
Beets had an awful lot going on and she wasn’t sure how to help, even if she could help.
Perhaps she could scour the temple archives for information or ask someone who might know.
“My offer still stands, I shall try and help you Beets if you wish it.”
"T-thank you..." Beets looks up at her and after a swallow gives a small weak smile.
"And I meant what I said. I would like to be your friend if you'd let me. I know what it's like, to be alone."
“I’d like that Beets, thank you.” Seraphina said and smiled. She glanced over at the fire, it’s warmth cosy and reassuring, the golden light danced and glistened over her skin. Her mind wandered over what she’d heard, what she’d seen. Maybe her own mission would have to wait, there were so many in need here though she couldn’t deny the cold chill that crept up her back; a chill she knew wasn’t just the winter air.
Rp'd/Written with the ever so lovely seraphina
The music and laughter of the crowds begin to dwindle somewhat as the first few fairgoers begin their snowy treks homeward. Parents with bundles of sleepy sugar-filled tots snuggled soundly in their arms, groups of friends recounting excitedly to one another about the winter wonders and legendary heroes they have experienced or encountered that day.
Some fairgoers though wish to make the most of the idyllic reprieve the evening has gifted to them, splitting off into small groups with friends or partners and perching themselves on blanketed logs and stumps set around the small merry campfires that have sprung up across the fairground as evening has fallen. Eager to share in the warmth of the flames and company of friends and festival folk alike in the final magical hours of a wonderful winter's evening.
"Hot Chocolate?" Beets offers to the tall amber tinted form of Seraphina in the sat opposite her in the warm light of the crackling campfire as she twists open the lid of small round emerald green canteen from a pouch and proceeds to fill a metal cup with luxuriously steaming melted chocolate. The stream changes miraculously from a rich velvety brown to fluffy snow white as the drink seemingly magically tops itself off with a thick swirl of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles with a scattering of little marshmallows as it reaches the rim of the cup.
Seraphina had watched this impressive little magical moment with amusement.
“Yes, please, that enchantment is quite delightful, how did you come to have it?” She asked and stood to sit closer to Beets.
Her air and manner of walking was careful, deliberate and she sat down like a cat upon the carved log seat with ease even in her half plate.
“Oh well…” Beets starts as she begins to fill a second cup, her wide emerald eyes trailing Seraphina’s movements. “I um got it as a thank you gift, for rescuing Leona, she owns that fancy drinking place in Daring Heights, from a…party.” Her voice trailing off with her gaze to the side, unaware of the mountain of whipped cream and marshmallows forming atop the cup in her hand.
“Oh! Let me just….” Seraphina said with a chuckle and reached for the cup in Beet’s hand. It was quite the mountain of cream and she wondered just how she’d drink it.
“Leona, yes that was her name, I’d forgotten it I was so caught up in the festivities.” She said cheerfully.
“Yes, though I don’t really know her very well, I’ve only met her the once and I was a little…” She turns to face Seraphina and notices the now colossal sweet mountain that dwarfs her. “…distracted.”
She gives an embarrassed grin, her long ears drooped low as she carefully passes over the cup to Seraphina. “So, how’ve you been? Haven’t see you since our little pirate voyage at Port Ffirst.”
Seraphina took the cup and carefully scooped the whipped cream and marshmallows with her finger.
“Well the temple has occupied most of my time. Selune’s light has been most needed as of late with everything that has happened. I’ve not been able to do much else.”
She said with a shrug.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I go where Selune asks and she has asked me to stay a little while.”
Seraphina smiled if a little sadly.
Beets watches Seraphina curiously. She had never really been one to delve into the realms of gods and followers that had began to emerge around her as she had first ventured from the Fayewilds into the 'Material Plane' as folk coined the realm her new home of The Dawnlands resided.
One new world full of weird and wonderful kinda complicated beings had been more than enough for her.
But Seraphina's words clearly spelt out that her own chosen 'obscure-associations' were perhaps not sitting all too well with her.
Beets kinda knew the feeling.
"Are you..unhappy she asks you to do things for her?"
“No, not unhappy but…” Seraphina paused, sipping the hot chocolate. “I’ve always found it difficult to make friends and I suppose I’m a little lonely. But I have the Lady Selune with me.”
Seraphina looked up at the moon and then back down at the fire.
“You must have been on some adventures since I saw you last, tell me of your favourite.” She said changing the subject.
If she thought too hard about everything she might cry and that wouldn’t do.
Beets listened to Seraphina as she took a pull of her own hot chocolate, the sweet mixture suddenly tasting bitter at her words.
This girl before her felt just like she had once, maybe still did even if just a little. Seraphia might be taller and prettier and buggin’heck she practically radiated an angelic air! With her golden amber skin and halo shaped horns in contrast to her own much darker skinned insectual features. But maybe even her features created their own aura of isolation from folk. Drawing out feelings of..inferiority? Or as in her case, though she was ashamed to admit it as she recalled when first set eyes on Seraphina, seemingly talking so at ease with Marto in Port Ffirst.
Jealousy.
“Oh.” She started, jolted out of her thoughts by Seraphia's question. "Um well lets see. There was the time I fought…
Oo, I remember when I first met…
I’ve learnt my…”
But each positive attempt at a recollection recent her recent adventures all just trailed off before they began, as if the chocolate coating her tongue had turned to ash, the marshmallows forming a lump in her throat.
The thrill of adventure that she had felt in the earlier months of the year, of exploring new lands or facing of against huge might beasts, had instead been replaced by feelings of fear, pain..and doubt.
She felt her own eyes pulled upwards towards the moon as they were so many nights. She had never really considered the idea it could actually be somebody. The thought made all the flittin'stranger knowing that she had then supposedly walked upon their face mere months before, or that were was a large red pit fiend in a frilly apron baking cookies in one of it's dimples. No. Just it's constant comforting, unwavering, unjudging gaze had always been enough for her.
“What did you think it would be? What did you seek?” Seraphina asked, intrigued by her statement.
Her hot chocolate she held in her hands warmed her as she rested it upon her legs.
Beets absently sets down her cup, her eyes still fixed up at the moon as gently she lifts herself from her seat, the gentle hum of her wings adding to the fireside atmosphere as she hovers up above the fire.
“I, I guess I wanted..a chance. A chance to experience things I never had the opportunity to experience before, to see things and try things and meet people and for them to meet me and …To accept me…”
Her words stalling along with the enthusiastic hum of her wings which had grown as she had spoken.
“I guess I wanted something different..than what I was…Than who I..am.”
She turns to look at the aasimar, flecks of orange light from fire rippling through her sad green eyes.
“S-sorry. I don’t know where that came from.” Beets says, her gaze suddenly drifting away embarrassedly, as she hovers back gently to her perch.
“Sometimes life isn’t what you thought it would be but I think it is up to us to decide what to do with it. We can make good with what we have.” Seraphina said kindly. “You need not apologise, the heart often tells what the minds tries to hide. Though if it is a comfort I think you are a good person Beets.” Seraphina looked at her then with her white eyes, the only indication she was looking by the turn of her face. The glow of the holy light within almost sparkling.
"T-that means a lot. Y-you're very kind, Seraphina." Slowly, Beets reaches a gloved hand out and gently lays it atop Seraphina's for a couple moments, before then slowly pulling it away again shyly, giving a small cough, her pointy ears turning crimson. "Jeezh, listen to me flittin'on," she says, flashing a nervous grin towards Seraphina. "I-I've barely even said your name a handful of times and here I am spilling me guts..Uhm..So-so where are you from exactly? You look..Well..If you don't mind me saying, I've not seen many people that look quite like you around."
Seraphina smiled, “I suppose not,” she said and looked down at her hot chocolate. “Well I’m from a small village near the sea of fallen stars, I was born to human parents but they were older than usual when they had me. I was ten when they brought me to the temple, Selune took me in, looked after me as my parents couldn’t afford to.” She lifted her head and looked over at Beets. “They passed a year later. It was for the best, they gave me all that they could and I’m grateful for their love.”
“I’m sorry Seraphina. I lost my Pa last year. Gramps too I guess.” Beets stares into the fire, “I, never knew my Mama. I only learnt her name this year, and well,” She presses her hands together against her chest. “I also learnt that she’s been a lot closer to me than I would have ever have thought to believe.”
“Oh, how so?” Seraphina asked gently. “Having loved ones with us even after their passing, to feel their warmth and love is a blessing.” A faint smile tugged at her mouth, she felt great sympathy for her friend, for her loss. It was never easy to lose someone you know.
The low light of the fire reflecting in Beets' eyes slowly dies, before being replaced instead by a queer shimmer spreading across their now inky black surfaces.
Her lip quivers at her next words, her voice quietly breaking with an odd underlying hum as she turns to face Seraphina , "I'm afraid..It's more of a curse in my case." A single tear of slick black incur slowly trickling down her cheek from one of her now rippling dark eyes.
“A curse?” Seraphina asked, her interest piqued. “Beets, do you need my help?” She asked, her mind casting over her spells, her arsenal of magic.
Beets stared black eyed back sadly, “I don’t know if you could, so much of what I’ve learnt recently is still so confusing to me. One thing especially being…” She takes a deep steadying humming breath. “I am just one part of the result in an attempt to break the curse my mama took on. I am my mama, and my..mama is me.”
“I shall listen if you’d like to talk about it Beets, and if I can help, if you’d like my help then I am offering it.” Seraphina said, her own bright white eyes and stark contrast to the deep pools Beets now bore. She seemed to be part of a collective, either souls trapped within or linked somehow perhaps. Seraphina had seen a great many things in her time and if she was at all alarmed or frightened by this transformation she did not show it.
Beets stared back into Seraphina's white eyes, almost like two twin miniature moons glowing before her. Mirroring her stoic night-time guardian. Except that, these moons had a voice, they were eager to listen. They..Serphina, wanted to help her. It was then she felt familiar a pang in her gut. One, that at her lowest moments she had let herself almost be completely racked and ruled by, time and time again. Fear. It wasn't that she didn't trust Serphina. But more..was it right to burden her with her troubles?
She had done the same with some of her friends. Put them in some very real danger! Why should she do the same to Seraphina, never-mind how willing she was.
“Beets?” Seraphina asked gently, her gaze watching Beets as she was frozen in the trance like state.
'You’re letting your fear control you...' Beets suddenly heard ring out in her head. Marto's words.
"You’re letting your fear control you into giving up on yourself before you’ve even tried." He was right..All her friends were right..She, she couldn't do this without them. She'd learnt that now. And Seraphina. She wanted to help, had offered her help. And in return, maybe Beets could help her...
"Only, if you do one thing." She said slowly, pulling off a glove and holding out a hand towards Seraphina. "Let me help you."
Seraphina watched Beets, she reached out. “Beets? If you can hear me, take my hand.” Seraphina said as she set her hot chocolates down and reached for Beets hand, though she didn’t touch her just yet.
"I can hear you." Beets replied, her voice still filled with that strange underlying hum, as she moved her hand out closer towards Seraphina's own. "Will you let me help you? Will you let me..be your friend?"
“Help me?” Seraphina raised an eyebrow. “To whom am I speaking?”
"M-me..It-it's Beets..."
Seraphina took her hand in hers, “What do you need from me Beets, what is this?” She asked, her fingers in her right hand already weaving the magic needed for remove curse.
As their fingers interlock Beets' eyes shimmer back the reflection of Serphina's own eyes, like dozens of tiny little stars across their panes, before with a blink. They are gone, and back is her brilliant emerald green eyes. Wide, alert, and as they trail over to Serphina's hand as her fingers trace runic symbols in the air. Afraid.
"Are you scared of me?" Her voice, humless, soft but shaking.
“No not at all,” Seraphina said and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as she held it. “Tell me Beets, what ails you?”
So Beets told her.
She told her about her mother Malsira Sunwater, and how she had become cursed by a being named Almek’Irahj. Of how her ill fated actions to rid herself of this curse had resulted in the splitting of herself into three beings. Herself. A being known as Bogar..and...something..else. She spoke of her village and woodland life and of that cursed-day it was robbed from her along with her Papa by a swarm of murderous beetles. Of how she had parted ways with her Gramps, and had unknowingly travelled to the Dawnlands and how this dark presence, Bogar but not, had awoken inside of her. Plaguing her these past months and then...Now aiding her. Starting to help her fill in the gaps. And finally. Of how a messenger of the being known as Almek’Irahj, the grand Hierophant, visited her, using it's own voice to beckon her home, to join her people. "You will remember the swarm, he said," Beets finished. The fire had dwindled as she spoke. Spoken with no gusto, no flair, just the facts, clean and clear like the snow around them, around their little night vigil.
“What did you do to make the curse divide you? How did this come to be? Forgive me, I do not understand.” Seraphina said gently, still holding onto Beets' hand.
She looked at the fire and cast Prestidigitation upon it, igniting it once more from the embers, giving them some much needed warmth.
Beets shakes her head, a fresh clear tear trailing down from her other eye, mirroring the black smudge of the previous one that has now set on her cheek. "I don't know. It wasn't me...I-I don't know." is all she can say in response.
She shivers from the cold as the warmth of the rekindled fire begins to fight the numbness that has set in on her limbs. It is the first time she has truly felt it again in months. It was a bad choice to take off her Ring of Warming today to properly submerse herself in the winter season.
Seraphina felt awfully sorry for Beets, this was a heavy weight to carry.
“Do you have somewhere safe to stay? You are very welcome at the temple.” She offered, feeling very much like she shouldn’t be left alone.
At the word temple dark recollections swirl across Beets mind.
Visions of bodies dead and desecrated, blood pooling from their heart-ransacked bodies. A dim yet burning echo in the back of her brain forming suddenly as if a memory, it's words full of bloodlust and rage. 'NO! SHE IS MINE!'
"No!" She cries, pulling hand back from Seraphina, gripping it tightly by the wrist with the other before after a few moments her breathing slows.
"I mean, I-I'm fine. Sorry. Ahem, the Rooftop Beetles, my friends, they've fixed up a-a hammock for me..In the attic of their base."
“That’s alright, you need not apologise.” Seraphina offered.
Beets had an awful lot going on and she wasn’t sure how to help, even if she could help.
Perhaps she could scour the temple archives for information or ask someone who might know.
“My offer still stands, I shall try and help you Beets if you wish it.”
"T-thank you..." Beets looks up at her and after a swallow gives a small weak smile.
"And I meant what I said. I would like to be your friend if you'd let me. I know what it's like, to be alone."
“I’d like that Beets, thank you.” Seraphina said and smiled. She glanced over at the fire, it’s warmth cosy and reassuring, the golden light danced and glistened over her skin. Her mind wandered over what she’d heard, what she’d seen. Maybe her own mission would have to wait, there were so many in need here though she couldn’t deny the cold chill that crept up her back; a chill she knew wasn’t just the winter air.