#Selene Illume

[emotigonecreative]

Same girl same.

[deathlessathanasia]

Lady of the night, Two-horned lover of nocturnal revels, Shine, Selene! Shine, and as you beam through latticed shutters Illume golden Kallistion. There’s no wrong in a goddess watching The doings of lovers. To you, she and I are happy, I know, Selene. For your soul was inflamed by Endymion too.

- Greek Anthology, Philodemus 5.123

[violettesiren]

‘I see Trivia’s [Hekate-Selene-Artemis] swift gliding car, not as

when, radiant, with full face, she drives the livelong night, but as when,

ghastly, with mournful aspect, harried by Thessalian threats, she skirts

with nearer rein the edge of heaven.

So do thou wanly shed form thy torch a gloomy light through air;

terrify the peoples with new dread, and let precious Corinthian bronzes

resound, Dictynna [Artemis-Selene], to thy aid.

To thee on the altar’s bloody turf we perform thy solemn rites;

To thee a torch caught up from the midst of a funeral pyre has illumed the

night; to thee, tossing my head and with bended neck,

I have uttered my magic words; for thee a fillet,

lying in funeral fashion, binds my flowing locks;

to thee is brandished the gloomy branch from the Stygian stream;

to thee with bared breast will I as a Maenad smite my arms

with the sacrificial knife.

Let my blood flow upon the altars; accustom thyself, my hand,

to draw the sword and endure the sight of beloved blood.

[She slashes her arm and lets the blood flow upon the altar.]

Self-smitten have I poured forth the sacred stream.

from Medea by Seneca the Younger (Translated by Frank Justus Miller)

[talmidimblogging]

What A Little Moonlight Can Do

Philodemus 5.123 (Greek Anthology) Lady of the night, Two-horned lover of nocturnal revels, Shine, Selene! Shine, and as you beam through latticed shutters Illume golden Kallistion. There’s no wrong in a goddess watching The doings of lovers. To you, she and I are happy, I know, Selene. For your soul was inflamed by Endymion too. […]What A Little Moonlight Can Do

[emotigonecreative]

This text post is so Vanth coded.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 49

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 45

[emotigonecreative]

Doodles! Soup and Boba, Victor's new scars and Lillian's heart eyes, Lumivarax honor battle scar ideas, and Lumivarax + Kiaxa giving out tickets to the gun show (much to Selene's delight)

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 36

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 31-

In which the party enter the ancient temple and fight their way past it's various safeguards to the heart of the structure. There they find a trove of ancient Sessaran knowledge, and a dark portal looming. They question the guardians they defeated and learn the Filodaxi opened the portal, and that the creature held by the leylines, Destroyer, Change-bringer, is a dangerous entity and a threat to the safety of the world.

After a long rest they brave the portal, entering into the ancient Sessaran city of Denodrosa— a temple built in the Shadow plane. Victor hears his father's voice and, sensing he is somewhere in the city, takes Kiaxa and Lillian to track him down. The rest of the party finds a large map of Kalor, different from the land they know now, and realize it is depicting Kalor in the time of the Sessarans. Through careful study they learn the locations of power points on the leyline, and notice that some of them seem to be dark- and once they locate a dark spot over the volcanic temple realize this means that whatever was there has been broken.

Victor meanwhile finds his father Aventius shackled deep in the heart of the temple. Before they can free him a voice speaks into the minds of the party as a face takes shape in the sky. The Change-bringer offers each of them a choice to work with them, that they will make their greatest desires true if they would free them from their prison.

When the party refuses a NightWalker appears in its stead, and as soon as Aventius is freed from his shackles the party realizes it was his power keeping the portal open. They make a mad dash for the closing portal and manage to slip through in the knick of time.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 28-

In which the party wakes in Petrova, Vanth a little worse for wear for all the secrets weighing on her. The decide to head back to Rhew and the Lunari, hoping that the Mother Superior will be safe with the tribe until they learn how she was taken from Soldara. Once on the ship and out at sea a strange earthquake rocks Kalor, sending Soup's magic surging and wave after wave of arcane energy rocks through them. Once stable they tell the party the believe something is messing with the leylines- that there is something dormant beneath them that someone, presumably the filodaxi, is trying to wake. Lillian has a somber discussion with Vanth, who apologizes for not realizing she had been replaced and comforts her about Victor's distance- assuring her it was not her but his own shame that was driving them apart. On Rhew the party splits up, with Soup and Victor heading to the Soldaran camp while Selene guides Lillian, Lumivarax, and Vanth to the Lunari. Soup and Victor encounter a Soldaran paladin named Richard and quickly realize he is hunting the Lunari. They try to lure him from his path but he realizes their deception and a skirmish ensues in which Victor and Soup are able to quickly incapacitate him. They take him back to the camp where Victor is able to speak with his mother. Meanwhile the others reach the Lunari and they are able to heal the Mother Superior in body. Lumivarax asks the matriarch, Selene's grandmother, about his sword and possibly fixing it and his connection to his ancestors and she directs him to the Volcano on the edge of Istiria and herbs that grow there that may restore that connection. With the mother superior healed the group leave the Lunari and bring her to the Soldaran camp. They meet up with Victor and Soup and decide to head to the volcano. Back on the ship Soup realizes Victor is exhausted and confronts him, and with a little touch love knocks him out to rest and tells Lillian of his struggle. Once he is rested him and Lillian speak, and they share their first real kiss.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 23-

In which Soup befriends the Lunari, a tribe of Rhew natives and refugees that worship the moon as an aspect of Sol, while Victor uses his family name to make friends with the Soldaran officials overseeing territory in the land. Vanth and Kiaxa miss a skirmish while Soup convinces the party to trust the Lunari.

The party meets Selene, a lunari cleric and granddaughter to the Lunari matriarch. She is able to lead them to the standing stones they believe are at the heart of their nightmares, where they are confronted by the Lady of Sword and Shadows- a fey lord who has been punishing them for the death of her subordinate Kiarra, the fey who had been trying to kill the king of Augustine! They try to explain the situation but the fey will not be appeased without bloodshed, though she agrees to answer three of their questions if the succeed in defeating her.

The party battles fiercely, and in the heat of battle Selene casts moonbeam on the fey- however Lillian's close proximity to the creature put's her in the spells crosshair and her form begins to warp under it's effects. She dodges the beam but not before her teammates notice, suspicions aroused.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 63-

In which Vanth finally tells her story with the aid of a long lost friend, Lillian gains her first follower on her path to godliness, Victor refuses to let hard feelings brew, and Vanth learns that sometimes coming clean is messier than she realized.

When Victor tries to read Vanth's mind he encounters a sliver of Kashithe's soul, left when he died with their minds linked. He triggers a surge of memory into the minds of the party, a last gift to his friend, to show these strangers she has come to care for the bloody road she has come from.

--------

You feel something wash through you, like stepping into a storm, and suddenly your mind is pulled forward and you feel like you're falling as—

you blink.

You're surrounded on three sides by dark, cracking wood, the scent of earth on the air and the moon glistening in the sky in front of you. Your hands- small and gray and clawed- grip the edge of the wood where it meets the sky and as you pull yourself from the hollow tree a hand wraps around your arm, painfully tight. You struggle to free yourself as strange men in dark clothing rip you from your hiding spot, strength leeching from your body, a sudden wave of tiredness washing over you as the world slips into darkness.

You blink.

You're in a cramped alley, stone under your claws, brick walls pressing in on you from either side. A black furred tabaxi boy looks up at you, crouched in front of a large black dog, a grin overtaking his face. The dog's tongue lolls from its mouth as it pants, mouth stretched into a doggy smile at the boy running his fingers through the beast's wiry fur. You feel a pressure against your legs and look down. A small cat, remarkably similar in coloration to the boy, weaves its way between your feet purring loudly.

You blink.

Your vision blurs and through the haze of tears you see that same fur stained red, the pile of viscera barely recognizable as the cat it had been only moments before. Your arms are red up to your elbow and your gut churns, nausea burning your throat as your distended stomach attempts to digest its first meal in… how long has it been? Days? Weeks? You hunch forward, your shaking hands clasping at your mouth as you realize what you've just done, your stomach lurches and—

You blink.

A little girl with a tear stained face stares at the bread as you hold it out to her, remembering all too well what it was like to be in her place. You see a smile begin to creep across her face when suddenly a boot crashes into your arm. You drop the bread, the force of the kick sending you to the floor. The boot crushes the bread beneath its heel, a gloved hand reaching down to grab your wrist and haul you up, forcing your gaze to meet the plain white mask of a handler. Their voice is gleeful as they admonish you, one hand reaching for the whip at their side. You turn to the other girl with a plea in your eyes, but she's already running the other direction and—

You blink.

Your hands— no not your hands, you realize, her hands, Vanth's hands— still small, grip the edge of a wooden door. The dead eyes of a corpse stare into where you— she— hides, pressed into a wall with the back side of the door her shield. Blood seeps into the cobblestones, fresh, and she looks up to see a young boy, crossbow slung over his shoulder, vicious triumph in his gaze. You can feel the urge to cry bubble up inside her as he gestures to her fate if she ever turns her back on the Court, but her words are sealed into her throat by magic, so instead her eyes drift to the blood—

You blink.

You're in a room full of children, standing in formation— a figure in a mask striding between them. Three rows up you notice a young orc boy shudder and the figure moves, black and white mask glinting as they strike the boy, hard, with a sheathed blade. He doesn't cry out, doesn't move, but you flinch in sympathy and that's all it takes. You tense as the split mask seems to focus on you and—

You blink.

A man in a Crow mask towers over you with an air of disappointment. You can feel his gaze dig into you and you resist the urge to ball your hands into fists, the pale elvin girl beside you listing off your failures with a note of condescension. You would do better next time, you tell yourself, arm throbbing from the deserter’s knife. You should have known better than to fall for their pleas, to hesitate when they laid their weapons at your feet—

You blink.

You see a fire, two figures silhouetted before it in an embrace that makes your chest twist in fear. You know the court would never allow it— that they're playing a dangerous game as the elven girl runs her knuckles across the shifter's face, wiping away blood. You turn your head to see the tabaxi boy under your wing, his lips curved into a soft smile, and as you watch the last of the magical vines surrounding you dissolve you realize how close you came to losing them—

You blink—

You watch as the wolf shifts back into a boy on the cusp of adulthood, wiping blood from his face and spitting it from his mouth, and in the scant light of the moon you can see how it coats his teeth. A body lay between you, mauled but well dead and you don't flinch, not anymore, as you meet the dead gaze of the deserter. They were only a few years older than yourself, and you don't understand why they did it— why do they still run knowing that this is the fate that awaits them? Your gaze drifts to the tabaxi boy, pressing his fingers to the symbol on his throat to confirm the kill with their handler, then to the elven girl, magic coalescing in her palms to scour away every trace of the struggle—

You blink.

You're in a field, crescent moon high above and the tabaxi boy stands in front of you, staring down at the knife in his hands. You can see the past that haunts his gaze and it hurts. You don't want to lose him, you don't want to lose any of them and you know that if any of the handlers realized you felt this way you would be punished or worse— so you twist those feelings into anger instead; lashing out. You have to make him see that he has to be stronger than this because you need him more than his ghosts—

You blink.

Your world crashes around you as the figure in the crow mask finishes his speech, his words ringing out in the candlelit cavern. “...To prove your place in our ranks, he must die." The tabaxi boy, almost a man, slowly raises to his feet across from you. You can see his gaze grow distant, can feel him go quiet in your mental link. You can't you can't you can't but a quick glance to the door, at the figures standing before it confirms that there is no choice, that you can fight or you can die and you refuse to die—

You blink.

His blood coats your hands and you want to scream, but they're still watching they're always watching so you shove it down as he murmurs apologies into your head with his dying breath. You didn't want this, but what could you have done— and your chest heaves as he passes, his last words echoing in your mind— ‘Use that fire to burn it all down behind you, Vanth.’ — You wish you were the person that he believed you could be, but he's dead and you’re alive because you didn't stay your hand—

You blink.

You stare at the child in front of you, feathers black as the ones hidden beneath your illusion, as she sorts arrowheads in the back of the stall. You take in the family you thought dead for the first time in over a decade, your father at the counter, your younger brother- a featherless chick the last time you saw him- working diligently at his elbow. You stiffen as his voice whispers in your ear, the crow mask brushing your face as he promises to make her suffer if you falter, and your throat closes at the thought of those bright eyes dimming into apathy because of you so you push it all down—

You blink.

You meet them for the first time and you give them your fabricated story and hope it's enough, eyes and ears open as you search for information in the guilds. You've never worked so deeply undercover and you know this is a test, but you would do anything to please the court and keep their knife on your throat and away from hers—

You blink.

The elven guise melts away and you pause at the strange creature in its wake, Lydia telling you her— their— story, and it resonates with you as the starlight shimmers off their strange gelatinous form,  their tale of capture and longing for home prodding an old wound in you and you silently vow to keep this secret, assuring yourself it's not important for the court to know anyways (lie) and—

You blink.

Victor's eyes blaze as sharp as his favored blade, his questions cutting as the spell tries to prod the truth from you but he can't know so you twist it, truths that tell nothing slipping from your mouth instead. It hurts to know that you've wounded him, but you hope that with all the magic in this world his grandfather can still be saved as you spin a tale about compulsion, about an entity guiding your hand and it's not a lie, not really, because in the end it was you or him and—

You blink.

You can feel your father's presence through the door and you curl up tighter under the sheet, pretending you don't notice, but seeing them again and in danger has worn you thin. You shouldn't even be here— if the court knew they would carry out their promise and you think of Neva and the little girl with your old name. You feel the grief hollow out your chest at the thought, the certainty that you will never be free, that they have another replacement lined up for the moment you fail—

You blink.

This is the end, you think— the crow masked figure closing the distance between you in the space of a heartbeat. You thought you were doing well, following orders without question even as it made your heart ache to steal the child from her bed. It was you or her, your family or her, and you wish you could take it back knowing it ends like this, your mentor burying his blade in your gut— but you open your eyes when the pain never comes, the crow masked figure instead lying dead before you. You look up to see a figure silhouetted by the moon, moonlight catching on their golden eagle mask and you kneel as the owlin introduces himself as your grandfather—

You blink.

You turn away from the dark ocean, waves churning with your thoughts, and frown at Lillian, the young woman muted in a way that was becoming sadly familiar, her own pain sapping at the radiance she used to exude. You hate to see her looking so torn so in a graceless and unpracticed move you pull her to your chest, wrapping your arms around her and it feels so foreign when she brings her arms up under your wings, accepting the comfort. You want to relax but the hug feels more like a trap to your broken psyche, alarm raising in the back of your mind as you remember the last time you cared and how it felt to have that ripped away—

You blink.

You see Selene and Kiaxa waving as you leave them to their new grove and you can't help the clench of fear. They were safe in Rue— far away from Istiria and her monsters. So much so that you had almost begun to hope, to entertain the traitorous thought that maybe you could bring your family to them, begin to break free from the court's hold. But now… the spider's faction is in Drajar, it would be so easy for the court to find them here—

You blink.

Lumivarax is shining on the makeshift stage and you can't help but feel a swell of pride as he finally steps into his role as a leader, chanting his moniker along with the crowd. You feel a moment of hope that perhaps this will be enough, that you can convince the court of his worthiness and they will never again ask you to draw your bow on your friend and—

You blink.

Your heart breaks as Soup's words sink in, past the feelings of betrayal at their rash actions. Your father is in league with the court— with your grandfather— which means all of your suffering has been by design and—

You blink.

Victor is lying on the floor with a masked figure standing over him and your arrows are flying before you can think. As the figure taunts you you slash out with everything you have and hope it's enough, hope that it's not too late that if you could just slay this one you could keep the ruse going, keep the court away and your friends safe for another day and God you're so fucked—

You blink.

‘You need to tell them’ but you can't and they don't understand. How could they look upon the destruction the court just wrought and believe they could win? Your thoughts are a mess, the desire to arm them with knowledge warring with the certainty that they would all die if the court knew, and now they're asking questions you can't answer and nobody is standing at the door this time so you run and—

You blink.

Robert holds out his hand with a plea and in his golden eyes, you see another’s and your heart wrenches as you realize you're in far too deep now—

You blink.

Eden holds you tight and you struggle because you won't be forced into this again, you just want to live and you don't want them to die for it but as long as the court knows you are here and you've refused your mission your presence is a danger and—

You blink.

Lilian's eyes burn with hate towards you and you feel that fragile container that holds everything you've ever pushed down begin to crack as her golden light plunges your world into darkness and—

You blink, returning to yourself suddenly. You feel a bit cold as you take a moment to gather your thoughts about everything you just witnessed.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 62-

In which Victor renegotiates his pact with the Lady of Sword and Shadows (much to Lillian's disapproval), Soup and Vanth learn what the court have been up to- and Soup presses Vanth to inform the party, the magically inclined preform rituals to gain information, a shadowy figure shows up to take out Victor in Vanth's stead, and Vanth's lies start to unravel after the Court finally makes their move- with Lillian's homeland suffering the consequences.

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 60

[emotigonecreative]

Kalor session 59