Timestamp: 57th Day of Summer, 514 A.V.
Location: Elysium Hall
It all started out as a day much like any other for the glorious Councillor Radiant of Magic and Foreign Affairs, Cityblessed Alses, the lady magesmith of Lhavit and much else besides. The lemon-yellow light of a mountain dawn snuck through the curtains, poured down through the dome over her bed and then made brave sallies through the heavy drapes to wake her, in tandem with the internal and infallible alarm clock that every Synaborn Ethaefal carried.
This particular day – like many lately – needed every scrap of light to rouse her. The pressures of her high office meant that Alses was turning more and more to the embrace of Sweet Oblivion, her favourite and potent sleeping philtre, in order to achieve the full eight bells (or slightly more) of deep and dreamless sleep. There were just so many details to juggle as Councillor Radiant, so many conflicting agendas and ideals that all had to be massaged and compromised with in order to make progress...if she didn't have recourse to that drug every so often she'd never get a good night's sleep, forever worrying about the fluid state of the city's labyrinthine politics.
Several times over her tenure as Councillor, she'd looked longingly at her legal powers, the on-paper ability to bulldoze through opposition as though it wasn't there, driving straight for the goal without having to fret and haver about what was in the way, about riders and sub-clauses and committees and all the rest of it.
Only once, however, had Alses felt the matter in hand important enough to actually use her power, and now she was feeling the aftereffects of it, of the shockwave reverberations that had echoed around the city almost from the instant she'd finished setting her signature to the short document.
Alses was having trouble understanding it; had people perhaps looked at all the powers the Councillor Radiant had on paper and somehow, in their own heads, decided that either the words didn't really mean what they said or that she wouldn't use what powers she had? It was all most confusing, liable to give her a splitting headache in short order whenever her rebellious brain pondered it, and so she tried to avoid wondering about the whole sorry state of affairs.
When she sat up, she was still mostly cocooned in darkness, just a few bright beams lancing through around the edges of the canopy. The air was dim and warm, faintly scented with kariino from her own sleeping breaths, but she was starved of energy and hungry for the sun's nourishing light.
It was the work of a moment to bound energetically out of bed, practically vaulting down the shallow steps that led up to its dais, crossing the rug-strewn marble floor in three great bounds – hissing each time at the chill that struck up from the stones; she'd have to have it replaced with skyglass at some point – and opening the doors out onto her own little balcony, letting in all the sounds and smells of summer.
The instant Alses stepped into the full beam of Syna's bright and benevolent regard, she relaxed, basking in the photon rain as it poured down from on high, illuminating every shimmer and sparkle, every highlight of her fire-opal skin. She laughed in delight, turning and turning in the light, filled with solar euphoria and drinking in the magic that came with it, feeding greedily, stuffing herself with an excess of djed.
Alses still remembered, even riding on the back of a tidal wave of joy and rejuvenation, her goddess, the deity from whom all this endless beneficence came from.
Her morning prayers were always delivered with the feast of the dawn, an exultant paean of praise and devotion fresh-charged with new love and the affirmation of life that Syna's rejuvenating light always brought.
'Honour and glory to You, Syna,' sang the silver thread of her thoughts as she drank in the luminous nourishment, feeling its energy flow through her, revitalising her celestial body, chasing away any lingering poisons of fatigue and rendering her hale and hearty and immortally perfect, the very epitome of a Lhavitian Ethaefal.
'My thanks and delight for Your power, Your warmth, Your light to see the world,' she continued, letting her thoughts spill out as they came, every fibre of her being focused on devotion as that first, ecstatic burst of dawn light swept over Lhavit, turning everything into bright primary colours and shadow.
It couldn't last, though – nothing so perfect could – and soon the first exultant explosion of light lancing between the mountain colossi that ringed Lhavit was replaced by a more...mundane radiance. Regretfully – like every day – Alses finished her morning devotions: 'On this day, as all days, I thank You for Your strength and offer up my love, from now until the stars go cold at the end of time.'
Sadly and reluctantly, her brain began to turn its capacities, fresh-energized and renewed by the light, towards the business of the day.
There was a small respite in the form of the baths, hot volcanic water that cradled and cocooned her in its liquid embrace, a friend in whatever form she happened to be in, supporting her body and warming her through to the core. In the darkened bathing chambers of Elysium Hall – Alses rarely brightened the glowglobes there, preferring instead a sort of meditative twilight amid the billows of steam gently curling off the bathing pools – she could drift and contemplate the universe inside of her head, her mind freewheeling idly, freed from mortal concerns for just a little while.
Whatever else she thought of House Dawn, their reimantic skill and utility couldn't be denied, and for the hot water and plumbing that they gave her home, Alses was forever grateful.
Watery perfection couldn't last, either – Tanroa's river was forever flowing forwards, and there was much to do at the Tower.
Towelled perfectly dry, moisture chased from every last curve and point of her crown-of-horns and attired in the cream and gold silks of the Councillor Radiant, Alses strode confidently through the doors of her library, intent on the papers she needed, and went flying as Brandon's improvised alarm and trap tangled around her ankles, the inexolerable laws of physics defeating even the preternatural grace of the Ethaefal.
Location: Elysium Hall
It all started out as a day much like any other for the glorious Councillor Radiant of Magic and Foreign Affairs, Cityblessed Alses, the lady magesmith of Lhavit and much else besides. The lemon-yellow light of a mountain dawn snuck through the curtains, poured down through the dome over her bed and then made brave sallies through the heavy drapes to wake her, in tandem with the internal and infallible alarm clock that every Synaborn Ethaefal carried.
This particular day – like many lately – needed every scrap of light to rouse her. The pressures of her high office meant that Alses was turning more and more to the embrace of Sweet Oblivion, her favourite and potent sleeping philtre, in order to achieve the full eight bells (or slightly more) of deep and dreamless sleep. There were just so many details to juggle as Councillor Radiant, so many conflicting agendas and ideals that all had to be massaged and compromised with in order to make progress...if she didn't have recourse to that drug every so often she'd never get a good night's sleep, forever worrying about the fluid state of the city's labyrinthine politics.
Several times over her tenure as Councillor, she'd looked longingly at her legal powers, the on-paper ability to bulldoze through opposition as though it wasn't there, driving straight for the goal without having to fret and haver about what was in the way, about riders and sub-clauses and committees and all the rest of it.
Only once, however, had Alses felt the matter in hand important enough to actually use her power, and now she was feeling the aftereffects of it, of the shockwave reverberations that had echoed around the city almost from the instant she'd finished setting her signature to the short document.
Alses was having trouble understanding it; had people perhaps looked at all the powers the Councillor Radiant had on paper and somehow, in their own heads, decided that either the words didn't really mean what they said or that she wouldn't use what powers she had? It was all most confusing, liable to give her a splitting headache in short order whenever her rebellious brain pondered it, and so she tried to avoid wondering about the whole sorry state of affairs.
When she sat up, she was still mostly cocooned in darkness, just a few bright beams lancing through around the edges of the canopy. The air was dim and warm, faintly scented with kariino from her own sleeping breaths, but she was starved of energy and hungry for the sun's nourishing light.
It was the work of a moment to bound energetically out of bed, practically vaulting down the shallow steps that led up to its dais, crossing the rug-strewn marble floor in three great bounds – hissing each time at the chill that struck up from the stones; she'd have to have it replaced with skyglass at some point – and opening the doors out onto her own little balcony, letting in all the sounds and smells of summer.
The instant Alses stepped into the full beam of Syna's bright and benevolent regard, she relaxed, basking in the photon rain as it poured down from on high, illuminating every shimmer and sparkle, every highlight of her fire-opal skin. She laughed in delight, turning and turning in the light, filled with solar euphoria and drinking in the magic that came with it, feeding greedily, stuffing herself with an excess of djed.
Alses still remembered, even riding on the back of a tidal wave of joy and rejuvenation, her goddess, the deity from whom all this endless beneficence came from.
Her morning prayers were always delivered with the feast of the dawn, an exultant paean of praise and devotion fresh-charged with new love and the affirmation of life that Syna's rejuvenating light always brought.
'Honour and glory to You, Syna,' sang the silver thread of her thoughts as she drank in the luminous nourishment, feeling its energy flow through her, revitalising her celestial body, chasing away any lingering poisons of fatigue and rendering her hale and hearty and immortally perfect, the very epitome of a Lhavitian Ethaefal.
'My thanks and delight for Your power, Your warmth, Your light to see the world,' she continued, letting her thoughts spill out as they came, every fibre of her being focused on devotion as that first, ecstatic burst of dawn light swept over Lhavit, turning everything into bright primary colours and shadow.
It couldn't last, though – nothing so perfect could – and soon the first exultant explosion of light lancing between the mountain colossi that ringed Lhavit was replaced by a more...mundane radiance. Regretfully – like every day – Alses finished her morning devotions: 'On this day, as all days, I thank You for Your strength and offer up my love, from now until the stars go cold at the end of time.'
Sadly and reluctantly, her brain began to turn its capacities, fresh-energized and renewed by the light, towards the business of the day.
There was a small respite in the form of the baths, hot volcanic water that cradled and cocooned her in its liquid embrace, a friend in whatever form she happened to be in, supporting her body and warming her through to the core. In the darkened bathing chambers of Elysium Hall – Alses rarely brightened the glowglobes there, preferring instead a sort of meditative twilight amid the billows of steam gently curling off the bathing pools – she could drift and contemplate the universe inside of her head, her mind freewheeling idly, freed from mortal concerns for just a little while.
Whatever else she thought of House Dawn, their reimantic skill and utility couldn't be denied, and for the hot water and plumbing that they gave her home, Alses was forever grateful.
Watery perfection couldn't last, either – Tanroa's river was forever flowing forwards, and there was much to do at the Tower.
Towelled perfectly dry, moisture chased from every last curve and point of her crown-of-horns and attired in the cream and gold silks of the Councillor Radiant, Alses strode confidently through the doors of her library, intent on the papers she needed, and went flying as Brandon's improvised alarm and trap tangled around her ankles, the inexolerable laws of physics defeating even the preternatural grace of the Ethaefal.
