The Fallow, the Dogma and the Effete
(Two shimmering's, or months, after the division of Dorrad Chaos)
Heber dreams in a foreign language. The language of confluence is constructed in a way that no one sentence could claim a falsehood. A sentence would be constructed as such, (A period of time) + (A being) + (An event). These sentences are put together using a small vocabulary and doing so is free, it takes no magic. All a sentence will do is connect you to a moment (allowing you to recognize it) this is the reason Niamance occurs, one will naturally think in the language of confluence and know the events of history intimately, they will know the future. Heber dreams in the language of confluence, tossing and turning, laid out in the tiny opening of a forest.
The Wedding dress nearly totaled from last night, the image of Heber an entire wreck.
The poor girl dreams of 'Bat Atte Fino-Kastrofia' the death of her father Lord Gale, how quickly he was gone, how painful it was for him to endure. Heber springs up at the climax of the pain, slipping hastily along the minutes, screaming in anguish for a moment (No more than a second for her yet considering the way her throat furiously aches, the scream most likely lasted minutes.) Niamance can and will kill, if no help is found Heber would slip into madness and witness the rest of her life in the blink of an eye. Further along the path of slippage the Niamance will quicken its pace falling further and further along the path of time like a rock tossed off a cliff.
A savior, a woman clad in plated armor and a red cape, appears in Heber's vision, holding her hands and saying the word "one" over and over again. It was a grounding exercise, she was waiting for Heber to respond so they could begin counting up from one. Heber begins with 'one' and up from there they count, occasionally restarting when the numbers get larger than three syllables. The exercise must have taken no less than five hours and yet Heber's savior stayed. There was another with the savoir lady, a man dressed like a vagrant. Together the savior and the vagrant rescued Heber from her hopeless sorry state.
---
One hour had passed since the girl calmed down, Starlove still did not know her name or anything about her. She wore a mask shaped like the face of a critter, a dress in horrible condition and all she carried was a small bag. For now the masked girl sat in eerie silence while Starlove held hands with her, massaging them to ground the girl. Kren had given some resistance to the idea of helping a stranger and maybe he was right but to die from Niamance is a horrible death, enough to make Starlove stop and help.
"She should be okay for now." Starlove lets the girls hands free.
"Perfect! Lets get going." Kren responds, picking up his pack.
"No. She'll need to be checked often. We'll stay until we can get her to a better place, she probably lives somewhere near by anyways, there's no way she made it far on her own." Starlove says, standing and getting out a big stretch.
Kren sighs and looks around, grabbing two big sticks off a fallen tree. "Fine, we can take this time to get you well practiced, your work at the checkpoint was horrible compared to what it used to be." He tosses her a stick and together they begin sparring in the forest opening.
A match would only last a few swings, the winner always being Kren, his divination acting as a cheat. The challenge had more to do with Starlove's form and fitness.
"It's your footwork, you're plenty strong but without the right foot placement all that strength goes wasted." Kren instructs.
Starlove looks down and adjusts her feet "I knew that. It's hard to keep something in mind when it's out of sight."
After fifteen irids or so Kren drops his sticks "It'll be easier to focus on your footing if its all you have. You ever train in grappling?"
"Nope, I've never had an opponent approach me barehanded asking if I wanted to wrestle them to the ground." Starlove jabs.
"Ha well its never a bad idea to be prepared, lets try some. Lets say out of the forest clearing or back to the ground is a loss." Kren offers a grappling pose with his arms out like one big claw.
Starlove meets him in the pose and together they start pushing and pulling, Kren again with every win. In their final match Kren grabs the back of Starlove's neck and shoves his weight on it, no give as Starlove pivots to brace against the maneuver grabbing Kren's legs in the act and flipping him over on his face. Starlove flips, turning Kren onto his back as she stands up, victorious.
"You fell on your back to do that stupid move." Kren says, jesting.
"A dilemma with training, I want to beat you but I don't want to kill you, leaving you the opportunity to argue who won though you clearly lost. Its okay old Pilgrim, loss is only human." Starlove, pleased with herself, presents a cheeky smile.
---
Time had passed quickly since Kren and Stell first found the masked girl. Almost two gleams or weeks were spent camping in this one spot. Kren was feeling it again, a gut feeling he had been having these last few gleams. Nothing so obvious, he wasn't sick (unsure if anyone COULD get sick in Dorrad Den) so he wondered and worried. It could be a lot of things, the future in general was such a burden and Kren's foresight did not help with that. There was one good thing in the near future, Kren's excitement beginning to boil over in anticipating, a meeting with April kept popping up in his foresight; but the gut wrenching feeling that something was wrong.
"Kren? you doing okay?" Starlove asks, sat across from a bonfire. The masked girl sits next to Starlove, getting her hands massaged, still without words.
"I don't know, just got a feeling right now, something sickening I guess." Kren says, stuffing a stick in the fire, shoving coals around.
"Sickening? like you feel... sick?" Starlove asks.
"No, not really. Well I guess, it's kinda like a sickness. Honestly I haven't felt this way since I was on the moon." Kren lets slip.
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"You've been to the moon!?" Starlove asks.
"Well, no not really. I was on the surface of the moon once but only for April to show me her home." Kren lies.
"No there's more to that story. She was showing you the throne wasn't she? You can see it from her house." The throne, where Stell was raised, is a stunning view. A city full of lights and beautiful white stone architecture. "Matrix visits the throne often and she's an Ortaro like you, you've seen the throne haven't you! Did she show you my room?"
"I haven't been to the throne." Kren says, quiet. "She offered to show it to me. I saw it there from her house, the throne so beautiful and awesome; but I couldn't go, didn't feel right."
"What? What about seeing the throne didn't feel right?" Starlove leans in curious.
"I wasn't right, I hardly belong." Kren says, shy.
"Ha! Yeah I getcha, I felt the same way. Those Enchantresses are so perfect yet here I am all blemished. I seem to always have a few scabs and, I mean look at me." Starlove stands up and presents herself, still wearing her plate.
Kren can't believe it "You're one of them Stell, a genuine Enchantress."
"You're an Enchantress? One of Moon's daughters?" Heber asks.
Everyone goes silent for a moment.
"Did she just talk?" Kren asks, surprised.
"It wasn't me." Starlove jokes.
"You two saved my life, your names please, I need them." Heber says looking like a lost dog.
"Starlove, or I guess just Stell."
"She's the one that saved you." Kren says pointing to Starlove.
"The old man is Kren." Stell returns.
"Thank you Stell, Thank you Kren." Heber says with closed eyes and her head down.
"Its been two gleams since we found you, if you tell us where you came from we could help get you home." Starlove says.
"Two gleams? Thats almost two weeks right?" Heber asks.
Another silent pause.
"You're from Kyūkeisho, aren't you?" Kren says.
"The place from Matrix's stories? Thought it was just made up." Starlove says, doubtful.
"It's very real. Sorry I made you wait for two whole weeks, Niamance had a tight grip over me. Do you have any food?" Heber asks, followed by a fulfilling meal of salad and tea.
---
After the meal the three sit at a shrine in the forest opening, Heber showing the other two how to use the shrine. Starlove picked out flowers for the shrine and Kren carved an Ortaro rune meaning 'awe'. Heber plucked a whisker from her mask and together the three of them offered these gifts to the Dorrad Den half of the Royal Shrine. Its where they had found Heber, laying here in the grass; and it's where the Royal Shrine in Kyūkeisho leads.
"I disagree Stell, I have heard many wonderful things about you. I would rather bet the Enchantresses look to you for motivation." Heber says muffled through her mask (A facade she keeps up while around those... 'unfamiliar' with Kyūkeisho).
"What? oh, about what I said earlier? I don't know, im flattered but really, they're just different from me in ways I can't fully grasp." Starlove says.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Kren asks, staring at the shrine.
"If we were in Kyūkeisho the gods would play a song for us." Heber responds.
Kren sighs before breaking his prayer pose that Heber taught "Stell, could I get a moment alone with Heber?" He asks.
"Are you okay?" Stell asks, squeezing Heber's hand.
"We can take a break from grounding if that's what you mean." Heber offers.
Stell gets up and walks back to the pit of embers that was a fire, giving the other two space.
"I need your help with something, Heber. A simple favor I promise but it has to do with your condition and I don't mean to be insensitive." Kren says, shy and gentle.
"It's alright to talk about my Niamance, what is it you need?" Heber asks.
"It's a well kept secret of mine so please don't tell anyone... I have the ability of foresight." Kren says wincing. "Well I will have it for the next few irid, in truth I don't know what's going to happen after that."
"Really? This hasn't ever happened to you before?" Heber asks.
"Well... Literally? no. I've been gifted this ability since I... well since I can remember." Kren says, hiding the fact that he was one of those that dream. "Has it ever happened to you?" Kren asks, hoping he's not alone. Never once has Kren known another with his ability and, from what Starlove told him about the language of confluence, it seemed Heber might know some of what he's going through.
"The language of confluence is more for things that history deems important, things scribes write down. I can't say I've ever had a problem discerning those events." Heber says before holding out her hand "Try a grounding exercise?" She says with a smile.
Kren hesitantly lets Heber grab his hands, shy of the vulnerability, and together they begin counting up from one. For a time they try this, Heber curious if it actually might help Kren, with every variation of hand massage she knows. After counting to seventy a few times they stop, Heber maintaining a held hand.
"It's more of a momentary exercise, ideally you would follow this up with as much meditation as you can handle to clear your mind of stress." Heber teaches.
"Thank you. I think I'm feeling a lot better about things now." Kren says giving a big dumb smile.
---
Kren had never felt this way, a self made levity from stress. The only thing to come close was April's garden tea, yet even that felt forced. Here he was, no reason to judge or anticipate. No use for his ability of foresight... for now. Eventually the lack of foresight would be a problem but for now it was okay, besides he was about to meet with April. The excitement of seeing April had pushed Kren to a moment of bliss where he lie in wait and in a moment Kren is pulled into the clasp of time, a place he had never been before. A dark and loud place where great beings roamed plains of black texture-less silt. Upon a plateau, in the center of the chaos, Kren stands face to face with April. Gently the moon goddess walks to Kren.
"April! I have a request, I made up my mind, I want to see the throne on the moon. I think I'm finally ready to go there." Kren says the words in the same moment that he realizes they're true.
"Make me wait beyond my patience and you will have no deal." The voice of the Deathal Void says, it had been standing off behind April.
"You won't kill him, say it." April responds, looking into Kren's eyes.
"The thing is mine and I will do as I please. Say the words." Deathal bites back.
Kren would bark but he was returning to the familiar feeling of pure stress, an anxiety so severe it made breathing painful "What's happening?" The poor boy asks.
April brings Kren into an embrace and says in his ear "Go with Deathal, do what he asks of you."
"Now do it." Deathal says.
April gives Kren one big squeeze in the embrace before stepping back, Kren extending his arm to her. "I challenge your faith and take this gift from you."
"WHAT!? NO!" Deathal says stomping up to April "You do not say these things to it!"
April reaches out and takes her gift from Kren "I love you pup."
Just as the gift is taken, Kren succumbs to an attack from within. Unable to breath, trying hard to remember how, and head pounding with the chaotic noise of all his thoughts. April is removed from the clasp by Deathal who then walks to Kren, pushing the boy to his knees.
"You heard your master, dog. You're mine, do as I say good tool. Go and seek out Historical Evidence, destroy it before another might use it." Deathal commands.
Still unable to breath, Kren cannot respond to this request. Deathal waits for the words as Kren slowly recovers "As a test of faith I will do it." Kren the mundane pilgrim says and in a blink he returns to the moment at the shrine holding a hand with Heber. Quickly Kren recoils and stands, the next moment unseen, as if in complete darkness.
"Are you okay?" Heber asks, shocked.
Kren says nothing, feeling strange to have a conversation he didn't already know was going to happen. How terrifying it was to be so blind, the labored breathing never ceasing, Kren grabs his pack and walks off towards the land of the sun and Original Den.
"Kren?" Starlove calls, waiting for a moment before chasing after him.
"We wasted enough time." Kren says, terse.
"Did you meet with April? This comes from her?" Starlove asks.
"Yeah, we go now, no more wasting our time." Kren says.
