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bryony dynion ●
female ●
she/her━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
76heart ●
star tarot ●
2,002 words━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
two tails, top image is the left side, bottom is the right. drawn on the artist search thread because i'm stuck using just oekaki
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━xxx"What happened here?" Her words were near breathless, filling with a disbelieving ache to her heart.
xxxThey fell on nothing but an empty world, and the ghosts of what once were. The only sound after her words faded, was the sound of her staff falling to the floor with a clatter, and it's dying echo, as the dust swallowed it up. The movement had been slow, a moment that felt as if it had been stretched out for an eternity, before it finally fell, and it's mark had been made.
xxxShe hardly even noticed it drop.
xxxShe was too stricken by the site she had seen to care.
xxxWhere her home once stood, was nothing but ashes, and dust. The vibrant life it had possessed before was gone, gone, and never to come back. Life could rise from the ashes, and grow anew after a flame, but this land was dead. This earth was scorched, and it would never grow again. It had been struck down by magic, and magic could be most unforgiving. That was something she had had to learn the hard way, when she was still young, and foolishly innocent, unwilling to see a single darkness in the world.
xxxLaughter echoed across the street, bouncing off the walls of her home and the ones surrounding it, raising high until it touched the trees, and faded away. Her father had picked her up and spun her around, before setting her down on the sandy ground, where she toppled over with dizziness. Soon, her father would have to leave for Ai Saiden, and leave Qima, and she would go with him. He wanted her to follow in his footsteps, to be the next great commander to the just and good King's armies, but that wasn't what she wanted, it wasn't who she was. Harming someone was not something Bryony ever wanted to do; she wanted to go south and study magic instead, within the hidden temple only those possessing magic could find. Her mother had always told her of the place, of the crystals above towers, and the magic that seemed through them, to the point where it could be felt in the air. She came from a line of sorcerers who had studied there, and learned the ways of the world's many magics, and while her mother had been unable to go, because she had fell in love with the King's commander, she had still been a great healer, one who's name reached all corners of the land, until her death, when she fell sick with an illness that no magic could heal.
xxxWhen death sunk it's claws in, there was not a way to remove them from it's kill. Death's touch was like decay, a decay that could not be reversed by time's hand. With time the death could return and become something new, but what it had been before was gone, and that was another death to it's name. At first she had refused to believe it, but now she knew that it was true. Her mother had always been right in that, as had the masters at the temple.
xxxShe wanted to be like her mother, a mage, someone who could heal, and light the world up with her magic. Her magic wasn't as strong as it was in others, but she didn't care, she was determined to learn how to harness it, and become who she was meant to be, and who she was mean to be, was not a fighter, not the warrior her father wished her to be. She hated to disappoint him, to follow down the path that had lost him his other half, but she had to follow who she was, and the path she just knew destiny wanted her to go down. The temple called to her, and her heart called back, she had to go, she just had to.
xxxWhat had happened here, since she had been gone? If she had stayed, would her home still be here, would there be more than ashes too mixed with dust to tell them apart, and fragments of memories of people nowhere to be seen?
xxxBryony stepped forward, her paws kicking up a layer of ash, and leaving a blackened footprint behind with each step, mindless, as if she were in a trance.
xxxMemories, thoughts, they clung to this place, echoing in her each, reaching out to her with phantom hands, but she could only see her own, only hear the echoes of the ones that came to her at night.
xxxShe stopped where her father reached out a paw to help her up, see-through like a specter, yet fully there, as if he were real, and not just a memory that would one day be forgotten.
xxxTaking his paw, he helped her into a stand, and they shared a smile, settling back on all fours once again. There was a moment of silence, where nothing but comfort passed between them, until her father let out a sigh, and turned to her again. "You know, my Bryony, we will be leaving soon."
xxx"I know father, I'm excited to return. The city's colors are quite bright and beautiful, I like them a lot."
xxx"Will you be joining me this time, in training?" He asked, softly, hopefully. She shook her head gently.
xxx"Father, you know that isn't for me. I wish to study magic."
xxx"But you will be a great warrior my child, and a just leader for them all." He frowned.
xxx"But that's not me, that's not who I want to be. I don't want to hurt anyone." His eyes clouded over with sorrow, with a mixture of feels she could not discern, and she lifted a paw to-
xxxIt was as if she could walk through them, and reach out to touch where the memories were, but when she tried, and reached a paw out to see, to touch her father's face one last time and ease the sorrow on his brow, the spectral figures vanished, turning to ghosts once more. She could only watch silently, helplessly, as the face of her father swirled, like a ripple in a pond, or a paw waving through twirling smoke, before it faded away, into nothing, and the memory was too far out of her reach.
xxxHer heart let out a cry, and her throat could only echo it, as it tear ran down her cheek.
xxxWhere was her father now, was he even still alive? She had come back to see him again, now that her path was set, but she had been greeted by ashes and memories in the place where Qima once was. Children no longer ran through the streets, the earth no longer painted with imprints of the kits' hurried paws. Music no longer swam through the small town, weaving through the narrow streets to reach all ears, and vendors no longer decorated the marketplace with colors from all around. All that was left, all that proved this had once been a town, was a charged fountain at the center, that instead of water, gurgled black sludge, sludge that was likely the earth's mourning tears corrupted and turned black.
xxxIf she wanted to find her father, she would have to go to Ai Saiden, but what would she find there? Answers? Or more ashes and death? There was only one way to see what she would find, and that was to go. She was strong enough to use magic to quickly travel there, just this once, so hopefully, she would not be too late, for whatever fate it was that was waiting there to greet her.
xxxSolemnly, she returned to her staff, and reached to pick it up, when she paused, paw out stretched and hovering just above the smooth, curving wood, and watched a memory appear again.
xxx"Bryony, if I do not make it, I wish for you to have this staff. It has been passed down for generations, and holds the magic, and wisdom of many ages." Her mother spoke, weakly laying in bed, the light drained from her eyes, but sight still there.
xxxHow had she denied her mother was dying before, that soon she would reach her death?
xxx"But you will make it mother, you will survive, you have to. I don't want to let you go." Her mother smiled weakly at that, and pulled her closer to the bed, down to her side, so they could lay close.
xxx"You won't let me go, I will always be with you. I will always be watching you, wherever you go. Take the staff, and as long as you have it, a piece of me will always be with you."
xxx"But a pie-"
xxx"Shh my darling, take it, it is yours. Give me that promise, that hope." Her paw raised to smooth out the fur above her eyes, like one would push back locks of hair, if she had any.
xxx"Okay mother, I will. I'll keep it until I can give it to you again."
xxxThe older kalon coughed, but gave another smile, slightly weaker than the last. "I will hold you to that, little one."
xxxIt was gone. Her mother's aspiration was no longer there, and neither was the one of her, of memories long since passed. At least her mother had not been buried her, beneath charr and ash. She had been buried beneath a hill with flowing rivers, and flowers and reeds that grew tall. She would not be subjected to the darkness of this earth, of the darkness it had been tainted with.
xxxShe waited a moment more, silently hoping the faces would return again, but none did, and when her paws touched the staff, in a flash of light, she was gone, and standing at the gates of the great city.
xxxThe gates didn't look so imposing the last time she had been here, and Ai Saiden hadn't been covered in a cloud of fear.
xxxIt had only been a few years she had been gone, what could have transpired in that time to turn the world to dark?
xxxGhosts rose from the path before her eyes, in the shape of a caravan so familiar, with that one wheel just a little too wobbly and loose. Her past stood on top of all the things they had brought, climbing as high as she could to see outside, while her father walked beside the caravan, so the guards would see him, and let him inside. She could hear the echoes of laughter escaping from grins, and feel the phantom sunlight warming her back, as she breathed in the hearty air of the arid land, and listened to the wind howling in the canyon below.
xxxLike the others, the memories taken form dissipated into nothing again, and she watched as they went through the gate, and never came back.
xxxShe followed their path quietly, looking slowly over the place she thought she knew. There had always been guards outside the gates to greet them, wearing friendly smiles to all, especially when they saw her father, but none were there now, and the bars of iron were too thick to see inside.
xxxWhen she reached the gates, she watched as they opened from within, and some force beckoned her inside, nearly pushing her off her feet.
xxxHer heart was met with horror when she took in what she saw.
xxxThis city was not ash, but it too had changed, and it was not the one she had remembered. Ai Saiden was not shrouded in darkness, but now it was, and it did not before have so many guards prowling it's streets, and citizens cowering in fear. What had happened?
xxxWas the king gone? Had he been killed? Had illness taken him?
xxxWhere was her father? She knew he would have not let this happ-
xxxOh no.
xxxHe had.
xxxHe was there, in an armor that was not the good King's, with eyes not the color of his own.