The lithe Mender, with her heart full of gold and her lungs full of ash, battled her inward conflict with tried and true armor: determination, resolution. No matter how potent her struggles, her come to terms with what had occurred, what she’d done, she still had to prevail and persevere. The Sun God had nurtured her with a quest, had promised her power if she could handle the circumstances, the pain, the agony, and now she truly understood what he’d meant all along: to seize dominion, sometimes they had to sacrifice a little bit of themselves, see what they’d never wished to witness. She hadn’t meant to be selfish and self-serving, but she’d risked Roland’s life anyway (and lord, he’d obliged, like he always did, and it caused her all the more to think she could have lost him to embers and combustion), and it was an ugly, hateful, abhorrent scar on her psyche, on her mind, on her movements as they stiffened at the Vein shrines. There had been many facets and decrees to her request, and she’d been too blinded by ambition to be aware of them until it was too late: the beast had roared, had chained them down into the denizens of danger and disaster, and she’d done the only thing she could think of; thrown herself down into the spiral of immolation and sacrifice. But, had she have had more prowess, more dominion, something to scare away the monstrous Pegasus, instead of boldness, instead of defiance, instead of pride, perhaps neither she nor her Thief would haven threatened. All of it spiraled and convoluted into bits of broken soul, slivers, and cracks in her wholesome veneer, a barbaric interlude kindled and instigated in even the strongest of hearts, even in the most passionate and beneficent of birds. The damage roped and scattered across her body weren’t the only stigmas torturing her essence, her entity, her peaceful existence and dire need of repose, but she’d been the one to destroy it first. The nymph had yearned to protect her friends, her companions, her brethren, she’d asked to sing fire and allow flames to cascade over enemies and menaces, and found the dangerous, wanton parts of her existence crashing to meet it. Savage and sinister, they tumbled into segments of violence and villainy, tangled brilliantly with the wish, with the dream, of sanctum and sanctuary. Yet, she still appeared, she still kneeled, at the blazing deity’s monument, wore his element of blemished flame and inferno along her back, and sank her limbs into the blistering charcoal. Perhaps she was even more unworthy than when she’d first appealed and petitioned to the celestial being, and the thought made her cringe, made her wince, made her close her eyes and expose every haunted facet of her mind. A gentle, sweet, cajoling aria floated through her chest and out through her mouth, a mellifluous song never quite joining her heart, for she was too ashamed of all the ineptitude she’d caused and all the savagery brewing in her spirit. “Righteous Sun God, I have completed my quest.”

[Quest turn in: requested magic to sing/summon fire.

Once Upon a Time We Burned Bright - Set on fire by Gaucho; healed self in same thread. Thank you! ^___^

@[Random Event] ]