#do i. no there is NO WAY fnupl has a tag

[transgenderfivepebbles]

Stars and Sea, Deliver – Rain World Poem + Short Story

O stars and sea, deliver now

This soul from life and death

Sleep eternal, granted peace

Beneath the golden waves

Four Needles Under Plentiful Leaves walked down the chamber aisle, the countless golden trinkets on her body and clothes clinking in unison with every step, sparkling in the warm lamplight of the Citadel. This would be her last moment here – she had chosen to ascend years ago, and after a long, long period of meditation and ritual, she was finally declared ready. 

O stars and sea, accept as yours

The highest of our kin

Let their journey to your world

Be gentle as can be

The choir’s voice, clear and bright, filled the hall, their mesmerizing hymn and the strange distortion in the air turning the scene into a surreal dream. She listened closely to the song; it was a common hymn she’d heard many times before, even sung herself at another’s ascension ceremony. They wished her well on her journey, a blessing like the ornate robes and fine perfumes she, like many others, wore to prepare themselves for their ascension.

She stopped before the heavily distorted door at the hall’s end, and turned around to face the others, fellow monks and spiritual explorers who aspired to follow in her path someday. 

Four Needles Under Plentiful Leaves gave them a final, gracious bow, and turned back to open the door, closing it behind her.

O stars and sea, do hear our song

From struggle break them free

As morning mist in glorious light

May their burdens fade

She was suddenly overwhelmed by the sight – the pool of dark liquid before her, gleaming at the edges in a radiant gold that spread to form shifting patterns on the walls and floor; the deep sounds that came from all sides, only describable as divine.

This was it. 

Four Needles knelt down, a feeling of lightness enveloping her as she moved closer to the pool. Her body seemed to slip away from her as she moved closer, until she met the surface and felt

nothing.

It was certainly not the nothing that was a lack of sensation, far from it, but the distinct nothing of lacking even the ability to sense, the nothing of ceasing to be at all. 

It was… beautiful? Terrifying? She could make nothing of it.

Visions swarmed in her mind, of vast fields of golden stars spinning around her, of darkness engulfing them, of an endless sea teeming with unsettling creatures.

Then, everything stopped.

O revered peer, we bid farewell

Go forth into the dark

Sleep eternal, find your peace

Beneath the golden waves

Four Needles woke up. 

She shouldn’t have woken up. Not this time.

Where was she, even? 

Her body was mangled, reduced to a mass of dark tendrils, the gold that once adorned her now a tatter of gilt and scales.

The Citadel… it was so dark. Not even sunlight touched it now. What could have desecrated it so? 

It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t fair that her ascension would fail.

She was bound here forever, where her memories rested, in the ruins of her world.

…

…

A small white animal, bearing a bright mark above its head, emerged from a crevice and approached her.