((*sigh* I’ll try again, but that post seriously took me a good couple of hours. This is going to just be a really cruddy re-creation, but whatever…it was an important post cause it gave this story a kick in the ass going.
Parenthesis=ooc btw))
The snow fell dizzily in the gray night sky, turning and tumbling in the whistling wind. Glenn, Kirby, Belial and the others sat by the inn’s hearth (having stopped there for a few hours rest). In silence, they ate their meager suppers- which seemed like a feast after nearly three weeks of nothing but bread and dried meat. This quiet seemed infectious, for the crackling of the fire was enough conversation.
Titania gently poured a basin of warm water onto her feet, vainly trying to scrub the dirt off of her callused toes. She toned out the sounds of the women who chattered around her, and merely focused on her task- mechanical in her absence of thought.
“It’s funny that you should come on the Ides of Winter.” said one woman, pulling Titania out of her silence.
“The...Ides of…” the mage tried to repeat but trailed off, a sharp memory flickering in her mind.
“The Ides of Winter.” Another woman interrupted “It is the day of the year when the moon is at its highest point in the sky. We process to the temple of the goddess and bring candles to represent the stars in the sky.”
“It’s quite beautiful at night…” added a smaller girl “I’ve only just returned from there. With all of the lanterns, it’s hard to tell when heaven ends and when Palis begins.”
Titania closed her eyes, imagining the sight-
where heaven ends and Palis begins she thought to herself, running the phrase in her head. There was something there. Some sort of clue.
“Perhaps I will offer a candle to the goddess.” She finally said, refilling her basin with water “Tell me- who is it that watches over this town.”
“Ah,” an older woman sighed “That is the goddess Ishtara- lady of the moon.”
Ishtara- Ishtar! Then this…
“Tell me- at the temple…is there a priestess?” she asked, trying to hold back her excitement.
“Not since many hundreds of years ago. They say that to hold the position now is to be cursed. Besides, one must possess The Eye of the Moon in order to be a priestess of Ishtar.”
“No one has been found who possesses the power?” Titania muttered
“No,” answered one woman “There is only ever one who is gifted with The Eye at a time.”
“You know this for sure?”
“According to town legend, my lady,” Answered a much younger girl “Ishtara had several children, around the same time as the god Domaesdaeg. The King of Heaven –Aeternitas- forced Domaesdaeg to give up his only son to Palis and so pay for a debt incurred to the mortals. Angered and unable to cope, Domaesdaeg tricked Ishtara –Aeternitas’ wife- into letting one of their own children fall from heaven. This child –this daughter- possessed an eye like the immortals, but was doomed to die. Unable to let her child leave her, Ishtara made her a priestess of the same temple in this town. Whenever she dies, she is found born again and brought to the temple…”
“…where she should spend the rest of her life…” Titania mumbled.
“It is true. She must touch mortal soil for as short a time as possible. After she is taken to the temple she should never be brought out into the world again.”
“Why is that?” Titania asked, sounding a little bit angry beneath her simple question
“It is believed that because Ishtara’s daughter was a child of both worlds, she could bridge the gap between Heaven and Palis. By keeping her off of mortal soil, they were bringing her closer to her mother, and therefore bringing
themselves closer. They believed that if she could find a pure enough incarnation, she could bring the people to the Celestial Palace.”
The women continued explaining, but Titania could not hear them. She felt the blood rush through her body, and her heart beat quicker. Suddenly, it hit her- what her dreams had been trying to tell her the whole time.
“Where is the temple!?” she finally exclaimed, cutting off any conversation that might have been going on.
There was silence for a moment but then finally one woman spoke up “…it is in the eastern mountain…but you should not go there at this time of night. The snow is heavy and the wind is strong.”
“I do not fear such things,” she muttered in reply, getting up with such haste that she nearly forgot her shoes.
She rushed through the inn, slamming the door behind her with such fury that it clapped like thunder.
“Glenn! Belial! Osirus!” she cried, bursting into their room “Come quickly! We only have until midnight tonight to find Kani!”
She ran back out without waiting for them, running heedless into the cold of the mountain without so much as a cloak. Cold and snow rushing past her reddened cheeks, she hurried up the steep slopes and darkened trees, persevering even though the storm blew hard against her. There was something –some determination- that had possessed her, and made her nearly mad with focus.
Finally, though, she slowed to a stop, looking up at the tall trees, and around at the thinning forests. The others, having taken a few moments to get ready, finally caught up with her and stared with questioning (and slightly annoyed) glances.
“Ishtara!” she cried out, staring up at heaven and letting her arms open toward the sky “Ishtara aeterna! Ishtara aeterna! Damia glia! Luminous caeliestié! Harrenus lia shildé ete gasien lia vos!”
Glenn stood still, listening to her voice echo in the snowy night. He knew this language, though he had never heard it spoken- somewhere it was flowing in his blood…in his soul…and the sound of it brought to life an unreachable memory.
Eternal Ishtar, brilliant lady, light of heaven! Hear your children and guide us to you. It was an old prayer- one that had not been uttered for many years passed, and indeed would not exist after that night.
Suddenly, the world was silent and even the whistling of the wind seemed to stop.
“I am your child!” Titania cried in their common tongue “One of two who have fallen from heaven! Show me the way to your temple, that I may find the other and bring him to his deserved fate!”
The ground seemed to tremor slightly, and in the sky there was a bright flash of lightning. The snow swirled off the ground, forming –in fury- a long stormy tunnel up the mountain. Without a word to the others, Titania ran on, following the heavenly guide with as much speed as her cold feet could muster.
Finally, it came into sight –a tall silhouette against a sky of gray snow. Here, the storm seemed calmer, and indeed it was as the girl promised –like the melting of heaven and Palis. This was Ishtara’s temple- this was the place where two worlds would meet.
Titania stopped, taking in the sight with breathless wonder. This place was beautiful- beautiful and horrifying, with a history of confinement and loneliness among its elegant stones. She swallowed hard, and –gathering courage- she ran down a small slope, and then up the steps toward the temple.
“The world was warmer then…” she laughed to herself as she came inside, her cold feet echoing on the stony ground as she circled herself, looking up at the carved ceiling.
The place was held up by marble pillars as thick as the trunks of ancient trees, and the ground was made up of blue and gold tiles forming a picture of heaven. Along both sides of the temple were two gutters that sloped downward toward the entrance, sending any negative energy away from the altar at the front. Ivy grew, and in places, the ceiling had cracked open- above the canopy was a large, round hole, bordered with pure gold and lapis lazuli. Titania ran forward, up the steps to the altar, but then suddenly she stopped.
There it was- that horrible water. That impassible pool that had made her miserable for so many lifetimes (if indeed the legend was true). She stared at it, unable to move- how had she gone over it before?
…Gadriel…
She turned back, facing Glenn and the others who stood at the other end of the temple “Does this look familiar to you, Noah? Have you been here before? This is where you rid yourself of me- remember? Where you dismissed me as the dirt beneath your feet! Ha, perhaps you don’t remember, because it looked much different…but that is because I have not opened the way yet! You say you will have nothing to do with me, yet now you cannot advance without me! Well hear this –oh knight who holds himself higher than all of us imperfect mortals- your future depends on the one you have ridiculed!”
She turned back once more, and closed her eyes, walking into the pool until her feet rested on a golden mosaic ring- the only one on the floor. She faced upward once more, looking at the hole in the ceiling which the moon filled perfectly- only on this day of the year.
“Ishtara!” she cried once more, as lightning struck and the storm grew stronger “Ovenié lia caeliestié! Ovenié tov lia shildé! Ishtara Aeterna!”
The ground shook with a heavy tremor, and the storm rose to a climax, the lightning growing strong in the snow sky.
“Ishtara Aeterna!”
There was a loud clap of thunder and suddenly everything became light. This was only for a time, however, for in a moment the world fell into shadow.
*
“…where am I?”
“The border between worlds.”
“…where are my friends?”
“They’ve already arrived in the other realm…you will see them soon. Come… come with me…I will lead you to the place you’ve been looking for.”
“Who are you?”
“…Caritas.”
((Well that’s not the whole thing, but my sister’s kicking me off. Don’t touch my charrie I’ll continue with her in a bit. However continue with your characters…you’re now in Kani’s realm ^^))