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first piece of art- a portrait of this lovely gal <3 *shakes fist @difficult (but lovely) design*Persephoneusername; Knickknacks
name; Persephone
gender; Female
That was what they had called her.
Now she was just Persephone. No title, no stilted formality, no family name to uphold.
Her name had never sounded so beautiful.
“Hm. Cool name, Persephone,” the stranger said with a friendly grin. “What brings you to our little corner of the world?”
After her years at the Court, Persephone had learned to recognize the look a viscet got when they were trying to look polite while actually plotting how to discredit you. Not that her family wasn’t discredited already; she’d seen it more often directed at other courtiers. But there was none of that here- no schemes going on behind those eyes. Just honest hospitality. She shifted the heavy pack slung over her shoulder and smiled tentatively in response.
“I’m... looking for a change of scenery, if you will,” she said, not sure how much she wanted to give away right off the bat. “Is there any place I could stay, if only for the night?”
“Of course!” The other viscet responded, grinning again. “Follow me- our inn isn’t that far off. I’m sure they have a room that’ll suit you just fine.”
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Persephone hailed from a secluded city known only as the Court. Folktales held that the vast wealth within the Court had come from a simple mining camp, which had yielded a deposit of gold so vast that viscets had come from all over in search of wealth. Some had returned to their homes, content with the gift the kind miners had given them- for there was far too much wealth to split only among the team that discovered it- while others stayed, raising a gleaming city over the caverns where the gold had been found. The head miner had become the first Emperor- a benevolent figure dedicated to sharing his good fortune with others.
That had been many generations before Persephone’s birth. The mission of goodwill professed by the first Emperor had long since died out, stifled by the lure of the gold. The Court now cared little for the affairs of the outside world. Recent emperors had turned Court politics into almost a game, in which the courtiers squabbled and tried to one-up each other like
children. Precious few families still clung to the old ways, sharing their wealth with those on the outside rather than hoarding it. Persephone’s family among them.
Her father had always taught her that their excess was meant to be shared. That they would continue as the founders would have wanted, no matter what the courtiers said and no matter how poor their house became. She had grown up believing that with all her heart, ready to one day take up their house’s mantle and use their wealth for good.
But then her father had died, far too soon and far too suddenly, leaving her to face the pressure she thought she was prepared for... alone.
Oh, Persephone had
loathed the condescending talks she got then, from ‘well-meaning’ courtiers- opponents of her father’s mission- who urged her not to ‘waste’ what little of her father’s fortune she still had. She had hated the glares and whispers directed at her, as though she was committing some horrible wrong by sticking to her convictions. It was almost enough to make her yield to them, just to get it all to stop.
One night- about a week ago, now- she had been in her home, despairing after a particularly tough day. She was doing the right thing- why was it so
hard? Why did they hate her for doing what she felt- what she
knew- was right?
She had though and thought, pondering her mission, the remaining wealth she had, the courtiers’ words of ‘counsel-’ and finally, finally she had a revelation.
That night, she had left the court, as much gold as she could carry concealed within a simple, nondescript pack; the rest she left to a like-minded family still within the Court. She traveled as far as she could get, out of the mountains and across vast plains, seeing parts of the world she had been told were unimportant and irrelevant to courtiers- how could they say that when there were viscets working the land with their own paws? That made it worth far more than any gilded city, in her eyes. Wherever she stayed, she left gold behind- goblets, jewelry, even an ostentatious jeweled crown- as a silent message of thanks to her hosts. The gold was so
heavy- she was glad to be rid of it.
Maybe she would settle down someday, somewhere, once her legs had tired and her gold was spent. But for now she was content to carry out her mission as even her father had not.
Some of the courtiers were likely to call her a coward- running away from the Court, off to “who-knows-where” on a “fool’s errand.” But Persephone knew that if her father could see her, he would be proud. Perhaps she hadn’t done things the way he had intended, or the way she had imagined, but if this was what it took to carry out her mission... then so be it.
(864 words)
