Awakening. (Lu Gavima)

[Legion]

she hit the atmosphere we've waited so long for someone to take us back home all the days go drifting away and some of them sink like a stone waiting for mothers to come there has to be a change I'm sure - counting crows - Timestamp: 90 Winter 511 AV Stars scattered across the sky like diamonds from the fingers of an Ahnatep noblewoman. They were strewn careless and unattended, absently observed by the hanged and hollow skull of the moon hiding behind a cloud of dizzy destruction and storm. The desert was a distant dream amid the skyglass towers of Lhavit as well as within the labyrinth of the Misty Peaks, largely uncharted, rife with long green shadows and calias light tip toeing with bloody paws through okomo paths and dead man curves. It required a valorous soul to navigate the terrain bubbling between the protected Lhavit and the mystery-shrouded Starlit Cave in which all Shinya acolytes underwent their Awakening. Young Lu Gavima had found himself called before the Shinya Elite in the wolf's hour, when death and birth were at their closest. Winter wailed across the curve of the heavens when he was delivered a small ration of food, allowed the acolyte uniform on his back and his stalwart staff. With these alone was he bid to journey to the Starlit Cave and there seek what awakening might care to claim him. Grass did not bend against Lu's leg bindings and rocks seemed stubborn, unwilling to move from their rest if his toes or staff butt jolted upon them. By the time Lu fell upon the Starlit Cave, twilight had descended upon the western shore of what had once been the Suvan Empire, lending the air a queer quality of light. It was if the world was distilled, the grace of age riding hard upon it where all excess is flogged off by Tanroa's bells. Deep within the cave, water dripped a musical counterpoint to failing birdsong. Syna gasped Her last upon the horizon, leaving it bloody and dimming; but rather than black claiming the Starlit cave, an eldrich glow burgeoned in the deep, beckoning. Waiting, maybe, for Lu to come.

[Lu Gavima]

When Lu had been summoned to the Shinyama Pavilion by the Elite, he was apprehensive. A knot drew itself in his gut. The time had come. The last time he had been in the hallowed upper chamber was his transition to Acolyte from Initiate. Before that it was seven years prior when his father had brought him before them to become an Initiate. Shantsu was among the others, stoic yet full of pride. This occasion was honored, yet it was also very serious. There were only two outcomes from the Awakening. One either received Zintila's blessing and joined the order proper or they failed and became permanent Initiates, the remainder of their life one of servitude.

He had heard the three questions whispered among other Acolytes, passed down from ear to mouth over the ages. Now the words were being spoken to him. Staff in hand, his head bowed, he took a deep breath.

Acolyte Gavima, are you prepared to endure the trial of Awakening?

Lu nodded, his voice clear, masking the tension he felt.

"Yes, Sir."

Have you chosen a weapon to carry to your fate?

"Yes, Sir. I shall carry my staff."

Will your honor bind you to Zintila's will?

"Yes, Sir. I am in Zintila's service."

A small ration of food was offered to him and the men and women in the room, each a Master in their own right, stood opposite each other, forming a gauntlet for the young Acolyte to pass through on his way to destiny.

---------------

The winds whipped at the young man as he passed through the paths of the Peaks. All Acolytes knew of the Starlit Cave. No map or directions were needed. Since no one knew when they would be called to seek it, everyone made sure to know its location. Woe be the boy who never paid mind. Getting lost in the Peaks was death. Lu's breath trailed behind him as he made his way, the light an eerie division of night and day. All was silent. Not a bird, not an Okomo. Only the sound of breath, footfalls and the wood of his staff against stones and earth.

His mind remained clear and calm, the stars above him a thousand eyes watching his progress from above. Time seemed to linger, as if all of Mizahar was pensively holding its breath in anticipation of this event, which would be nothing but life changing for the young man. As the light died and darkness slowly spread around him, a hazy cerulean glow brought his full attention. It reminded him of the haze of his arms when they were free of flesh.

Once he stood at the mouth of the cave, he looked into it. He could not tell where the light was originating from. Before he entered, he turned to the Peaks and the towering glow of Lhavit. He made a circle with his hands, the horizon and the City of Stars inside it. This would be the last time he would see this world as an Acolyte. When he emerged, he would either be a Protector or an Initiate. His world would never be the same. Turning back toward the cave's entrance, his foot passed the threshold, his staff's cadence slightly reverberating beyond. His Trial had begun.

[Legion]

Between two heartbeats Lu's foot crossed the threshold and between the next the world went black. Every shining spire, every lofty peak stabbing like accusing fingers or in the minds of the wishful revering monuments, vanished from sight. All of Lhavit was gone with greater haste than the skud of a storm cloud across Leth's moon and it plunged the hopeful acolyte into a sightless void. Before him somewhere water yet dripped, distant and dissonant, and ruffling against the back of his neck, the sleeves of his tunic was a wind that smelled of familiar currents. The Misty Peaks still existed, but the hands of a trickster deity or perhaps just a goddess far more grave than otherwise imagined had slipped over his eyes. Find me. The voice brushed his ear, but there was nothing but blind night about him. It was soft like the crush of grass beneath wandering steps and yet heavy as the code of honor to which all Shinya must adhere. It swirled, too, that voice. It belonged to a woman, young and wise, and sunk right through the floor of Lu's soul to leave planetary patterns shimmering like leftover stardust against the walls of his mind. All the world knows I am here. Look.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu had no idea what would happen when he crossed the threshold. There were rumors among the Initiates and Acolytes as to what occurred in the cave, but that was all there was. Rumors. No Shinya ever leaked the experience. It was a sacred task which resonated in the heart of each who passed through it, be it a Shinya's fond memory or a failed Initiate's stark reminder. While he had no experience or idea as to what to expect, he had faith to carry him thorugh the trial. Faith in Zintila and faith in himself.

This faith is what embraced him as surely as the darkness. He heard the voice, believing it in his mind as it sounded like the sounds he often heard in his meditations. It came from within, not without. He was no longer sure that he was even in the cave. He heard the water dripping and he felt hard, broken earth beneath his sandals. He felt the wind against his back. Still, many of his meditations seemed as real as anything else was. Operating from this viewpoint seemed best to him.

Find me.

His breathing slowed and his mind grew silent. He did not wish to miss any sign or track that could be misinterpreted as idle thought. The consequences here were as weighty as the reward. Lacking the ability now to see with his eyes, he closed them, entering the meditative mode as best as he could while standing. His hand gripped the wood of his staff, knowing that at least was real, relatively.

All the world knows I am here. Look

The one thing that did seem common knowledge was the length of the trial. No one ever recalled an awakening occurring in a day's passing. This event that was occurring was only the beginning. He briefly extended the staff before him, letting its end tap the ground. He decided against it, as that was not a test of faith. He simply stepped forward, slowly and purposefully, his ears listening for the voice as his ears followed the sound of water. His staff did remain before him to keep him from walking into a wall, however.

"Lady Zintila? I seek you. The world knows your stars illuminate Leth's abode."

[Legion]

There came the staccato of a skittering rock, the sound rebounding off the unseen walls of this place while the black continued to press upon the acolyte. Between breaths, an unknown object slammed against his staff with the force of a muscle bound okomo’s head long drive. It knocked Lu’s weapon from his hands and sent it through the dark with a clattering like the clapping of derisive hands. "And when the stars go out?" A new voice came out of the black. It failed to spring from within, burst instead from the more arid soil of the corporeal world. It belonged to a woman, at once sultry and harsh. Due to the reverberating echoes of the cave, it proved difficult to ascertain from what direction it came. Difficult, but not impossible. The air shifted, dust stirred and a flat of a curved blade slammed against the back of Lu's shoulders, stumbling him further into the cave. It would leave a bruise the shape of the jester's moon. "By what do you illuminate your world, Lu Gavima? Find Her, you were bid. But how will you in the dark?"

[Lu Gavima]

Silence.

Darkness.

Lu had no idea what to expect. Anything could occur inside this cave, if he was even in a cave now. Only death itself would turn him around, as he would be carried out before walking out without the order to do so. The alternative, a life as an indentured Initiate, a life of shame, well..it was not an alternative at all. That being the case, he would have to use every weapon in his arsenal to face the challenges and obstacles set before him. His resolve grew with each moment.

A sound of skittering rock echoed out before him. His eyes closed and he brought his center to his breathing, just as if he was about to enter meditation. That was when a force struck his staff, relieving him of its grip and his feet from the floor of the cave.

'And when the stars go out?'

He landed well, thanks to training with Vormav, but before he could rise completely, the stark sensation of flat steel smacked his back, sending him reeling forward. He reached out blindly and caught himself, skinning his palms slightly. It was a woman's voice, but this mattered little to Lu at the moment. He was sure this was a test of faith, not of martial skill, so he eased into a sitting position, bringing his rebelling reflexes to a stilled calm. His back throbbed with the force of the blow he had received, but his departure from the world without helped to silence the assaulted nerves.

'By what do you illuminate your world, Lu Gavima? Find Her, you were bid. But how will you in the dark?'

His breathing had brought him back to his center. He breathed slowly and deeply before answering the mysterious feminine antagonist.

"I, as a star in Her embrace, will become a light. My own star shall shine in Her heavens and I will be among her, above this world of toil and trouble. How does a newly born Okomo find its mother when its eyes have not yet found the strength to open? It knows. I know."

A smile graced the young man's features in the darkness. He would not succumb to fear and indecision. He would merely shine bright, a rising star of Zintila.

[Legion]

The voice rippled, dark and iridescent as starling feathers. It was something like laughter, but too dim and velvet to be dubbed so airy a sound. “You will shine as a star?" The words still glimmered with the echoes of her previous enchantment. "Beautiful promises. All the easier to betray for lack of clarity." Darkness shifted around him, carrying with it a weight and texture, like the pelt of some beast. It was treacherous as water and opaque as plumes from a pyre. It was a force of nature. He had forgotten the dread of darkness, spoiled by light and skyglass. Such comforts of illumination and security had been lavished on him since childhood. His tests of agony and pain were self imposed, an exercise instead of an experience. What lingered in the light's absence was terrifying as eternal solitude. "And what if...?" There might have been more to the murmured question, but it took on the hues of the cave. The voice slipped and submerged, picking a path across the seemingly infinite cavern. Who was he to judge limit and scope with his eyes so clouded? "What if...?" Near as a lover's voice, but what would he ever know of that? His road was to be unfettered. The Shinya were in service to one lady and one city, neither of which would ever enfold him with the luxurious abandon of a lover. And no city and no goddess reserved the entirety of herself for one man, though either would ask the Lu be willing to give all he possessed. The sweetness of the intimate sound and the promise of its eternal absence gave a sudden pang of pain. "What if, Lu..." Her words were descending from on high, piercing and silvery as midnight light. "...the stars wish for you to be the one so far away, that it is never seen by human eyes? Never a Shinya, but the silent hands that lift it. Does that idea please you?" His staff came skidding out of the darkness, thumping against the knees he had bent before his goddess.

[Lu Gavima]

Illumination was no stranger to Lu, but at the moment, it was a distant ally, far from the shores of his perception.He listened to Her words. They had to be Her words. His mind tried to run a tangent about darkness surrounding light and stars, but it quickly became a moot point. His mind often tried to drag him away from his meditations. That was the point of it after all, to quiet the mind and exist. So that is where Lu kept bringing his mind back to, as darkness wrapped around him close and tight.

Complete and utter darkness, so dark that stars could not pierce it with their light. The voice lilted against his ear like a warm spring breeze, its tone and volume echoing across the darkness.

"What if....?"

He knew he would not enjoy such an intimacy with one so high again, her voice coating his soul with its glittery skyglass. He suspected he could understand the line of the queries however, as its passing brought a profound sense of emptiness.

What if, Lu...the stars wish for you to be the one so far away, that it is never seen by human eyes? Never a Shinya, but the silent hands that lift it. Does that idea please you?"

He felt confused, unsure of his answer. He wasn't clear on the question. He wasn't sure if he was speaking out loud or in his mind. He was somewhere he had never been before, in any sense of the phrase.

"Who am I to question my duty? It is all I have known. Fish swim, birds fly. Shinya serve You and Your City. What pleases me and should please all Shinya is service to You. If You are pleased by my service being elsewhere, then elsewhere I shall be."

The staff rolled to his knees and he gripped it firmly, rising from the rocky floor. He planted one end into the rocks, further solidifying his posture.

"Lead me Lady."

[Legion]

“Oh, no,” She murmured. Constellations shed dust in the black, a distant fog of light down the crooked back paths of the cave. Fondness softened the edge that was growing more clear within Her words, knowing hands flattening against his back fever bright. She shoved him forward. It was a gentle shove, certainly not enough to cause him to trip or stagger, but it was firm nonetheless and directed him but deeper into the black. “Lead me, love,” Her voice laughed, more real as it grew less vivid, the sense of Her physical manifestation dulling as if somewhere within the Starlit Cave there was a coming dawn to swallow up all stars from sight. “You will find there are many paths through this cave. All of them may belong to you, but there are only two I would chose to walk with you. You will find them very different, I think, from each other. First, Lu, lead us to the crossroads.” With the force of a million fists thrusting through glass, stars exploded within the tremendous maw the cave had become. They situated themselves in familiar patterns, but failed somehow to illuminate any ceiling, any wall or floor. They would walk through darkness, only distant, cold watching light for surety. “Your paths are west or east, up or down. It is either winter or spring and you have as much time to find them as lies in wait between your shadow and your soul.” Humor glinted. His goddess was being of no help at all and well She knew it too. Then again, maybe what She attempted here for Lu Gavima was something else altogether. “Oh, and don’t turn around.”

[Lu Gavima]

While being completely enraptured by the event and knowing all too well that this was indeed the very Alvina he would swear his life to protect, Lu felt like something was off. While not being a member of the Seiza, he had assumed that she would be akin to Her ideals. Tolerance, patience, the kinds of things that Lu practiced. He had practiced them as soon as he was taught what they were.

He felt a pressure on his back. Was that Her hands? He was actually being touched by Zin--ooof! A firm shove pushed him deeper into the darkness. He couldn't help but grin, feeling as if he was being led along by a big sister, not a Divine creature. His face immediately changed to a countenance of confusion when he was directed to do the leading. His staff kept time with his steps, though he wasn't sure if he was really going anywhere. Deeper into darkness, to a crossroads. That part made sense, but----

Sklam!

In a moment, perhaps only the shadow of a blink, everything in every direction was stars. It was if he was now trading across the same stars he often looked at when night fell and Leth took his throne. He stood in this open vastness, with no clear direction. Those given by Zintila caused him to feel the same awkward sense he had earlier. He had no belief that Her words were riddles, carefully wrapped around a greater and hidden meaning. She was just leaving him to his own devices. She wanted to know what he wanted. Lu found himself hesitating.

His mouth opened and closed several times, making him look as if he might be gulping down breath. He had arrived at a point where he was no longer sure of anything. The rigid discipline that carried him here was of no use now. His suspicion grew. " You want to know what I want. I am to say I serve You. I do and have for more than half of my life." His head turned to the side, as if he were addressing Her behind him. "All I have ever known was training to this moment." Tears inexplicably began to well up in the boy's eyes and stream over his cheeks. His insides felt soggy.

"Why do I feel so lost?"

He turned around to face Her, ignoring Her warning to do otherwise.