PM to join [Temple of Time] Time is My Ally

[Usme]

Location: Temple of Time
Time: 19th hour of the 9th Day of Fall 513 After Valterrian

A darter in the night, Usme's body flew through the starlit air, her skin kissed by moonlight. The blurred glow of her wings in the skylight was faint to the refraction of fire and excitement in the diamond peaks below. She ventured overhead, twisted through the towers of the west shore to the southern most peak in search of privacy. For as much as one's own home provided concealment, there was still a sense of business all around, especially in the evening hours. She had thought little to find any cover, for she only needed a moment to relieve herself somewhere quiet where no one but herself and her conscious might go. The Temple of Time, she figured, was remote enough. Removed from the center peak as it was, the lively night hours might also draw away unwanted attention. Perhaps, even then, the Goddess of Time might hear Usme more clearly.

Usme landed outside the corridor to the Temple, hovering gently in the open where she could set herself down without a bother. The space was relatively quiet compared to the center peak that now danced with light from over yonder. Usme felt warm inside, but reminded herself of the lousy task she felt compelled to honor. She spread her fins for a bit of balance and began to tumble forward on and up towards the temple gardens, resting on an arm occasionally for balance. One might think this boring, she thought, moving so slowly where there was nothing and no one to talk to. Life, it seemed, was just as boring and lonely even with all the talking. Moments like this was comfortable though, to be lost in nature, even if it was just a fake garden.

Usme drew closer to the garden center to greet the Goddess and ask her for hospitality for her visit before she dared enter. She disliked those who gave themselves right to go as they please, especially in the home. The floral scent of the fall was a mix of late bloomers and wilting death. Beautiful, she figured, the very balance of existence's cycle all in one, life and death, all under the eternal gaze of time. Then their eyes met, and Usme bowed her head to the statue of the Goddess, Tanroa.

She spoke, perhaps purely for her own sake. There was no telling where the Gods might tread, be it night or day.

"Tanroa, Goddess of Time; Her Maker, Preserver, and Ender. I seek solace in your home this eve, a brief reprieve from the busyness of this city, busy like bees all droning on with one mind of fun. But I cannot find fun, you see, for a burden lay on my heart like the weight of a mountain threatening to crush it, and I have not the heart of the Isur. Therefore it is why I seek your eternal home, existent outside of this chaos, that I might make a mound of my mountain and humor the thought of revery once more. Oh, but what a brief reprieve it will be indeed, for the heart grows heavy all its own under the burdens of every day sorrows, yet I must, for my own sake.

"I bare no gifts for you this evening, merely my most humble of words. Perhaps this shall do, a gift of myself, for I am so vain when it comes to me. As are we all though, and hence we are selfish and lonely. I draw now these strands of hair, long and dark, strong and shining. For they have been kissed by both sun and moon, air and water. The graces of four Gods be upon them, and I have been thankful for their kindness. I share this kindness with you now, and pray you accept this most pathetic of gifts. You have been my ally, for all I know, and deserve no less than my full self on this evening than others; no perhaps, most this evening of all, the anniversary of my safe travels to the final destination of my voyage, this diamond among diamonds called Lhavit.

"Alas, I speak too much, and must apologize. Please accept this gift, and blessings be upon me as I enter your most sacred and unusual of homes that I might pray and give thanks."

Usme paused, head bowed, the prelude of her prayer having been said and felt, but now to be remembered, for each year of life in these westernmost towers was a blessing.