Prelude 01 - The Heptagram - Ashera
With her mother gone, Ashe had confined herself to her room, hoping her mother wouldn't care to drop in before she left the Isle. She felt sure that Cyan would be gone by day's end. Ashera, with little else to occupy her mind, brooded on the anxieties the day had introduced her to. She'd always known she was different, but it seemed that her origins were dark and troubled - more dark and troubled than even her tormentors realized. She wasn't merely demon spawn - she had been made for some dark purpose, if what Leaf had learned was to be believed. She didn't want any such purpose, though... so what did that mean? Was her simple existence a threat to the order of things? For all her learning, this was beyond Ashera's wisdom. It was enough that she actually felt a bit of fear in her normally strong heart. The taunts and snickers of her peers, whispered in hushed tones about her demonic origins, the fear she seemed to strike in others, the cold shell of exclusion that nearly everyone directed her way... None of that ever bothered her in any way she'd admit. She'd become inured to that pain. Besides - she wasn't alone...
But this dark realization was different. It was different, because for all her pain at the jeers directed at her... maybe it was true. Maybe she was some kind of monster - or at the least, was someone's attempt to make one. Or Summon one. What could she do about it...? She didn't know anywhere near enough to understand what kind of situation she was in - only enough to know that she knew too little, and enough to fear what she didn't know... really fear, a fear that she never felt, save for about her awful mother...
Initially pacing with her thoughts, Ashera restlessly resolved herself to calm, and took several deep breaths, to try and center herself. She needed to clear her mind and think. She needed to focus, if she was going to accomplish anything. She stepped to her fireplace, and knelt down onto her hands and knees, glancing into the fire, before she leaned in and pressed her hand to the dull embers inside. A flare of warmth erupted from her hand, and in moments, a strong fire burned hot in front of her. Ashe didn't pull back from the blast of heat or the intense glow, and instead, she slid closer, nearly crawling into the fire itself before she stopped. Ashera brought her hand to her chest, over her quickened heart, and drew a deep breath in, tasting hints of smoke from the flame, and then let out her breath softly, her whole body relaxing a little as she worked to meditate.
Even, calm breaths, Ashe told herself as she stared into the fire, enough that she felt the heat shimmer make her eyes water slightly. She was always so busy, now, ever since she'd started coming to the Heptagram. There were always papers to write, work to do, and, even when she was free, a roommate not to freak out... Closing her eyes, Ashe lowered her chin and focused inward rather than outward, and her hands gently dipped into the fire before her, as her anima shimmered briefly around her in an echo of the fire's heat haze. She scooped a glowing handful of flame from the pit, and drew it close, feeling the heat of it against her breast as she held the fire against her. Her anima shielded her body and her clothing from harm, save a mild singe and a hint of soot, but the warmth of it ran through Ashera's entire body, and she visibly relaxed more in her meditative posture.
She wasn't alone - she was never alone. She had felt it even as a little girl, even before she exalted, a warm flame in her heart, a strangely kind glow that distinctly didn't feel like herself. For ages, she'd been confused by it. Once, she'd thought it meant she was exalted, but that delusion didn't last long... In her girlhood, it had been a feeling she attributed to an imaginary friend... And when her mother had at last been forced to confess her origins to her in the face of a distraught daughter plagued by rumors, Ashera had worried about what this fire inside her was... It wasn't until she exalted, until she'd seen her Iconic Anima, that she'd begun to understand the nature of the fire in her soul.
Things had happened so fast after her exaltation. She'd spent so much time alone with herself, with her essence. So much time trying to sense more about the presence inside her... And in doing so, she'd become one with its flame, to a point. She wasn't even sure when it had happened, but her familiarity with fire had awakened her to the powers of Sorcery without even a true understanding of them - it had taken her mother to realize it, watching her demonstrating her abilities, Cyan had seemed... interested, in that cold, clinical, monsterous way of hers. There'd been a lot of writing, a lot of questions, and a lot of... examinations after that...
A sickening twist in her stomach prompted a hesitation, and a chill ran down Ashera's spine at the thought of her mothers' cruel examinations. Taking her blood, examining her body, subjecting her to tests... Forcing her to burn her essence just to be studied in the process... Now, it was almost routine, but as a girl, she'd been sickened, scared, humiliated by it...
Breathe... Ashe told herself. She exhaled, and a tea slipped down her cheek, before evaporating from the heat. Somehow, this fire inside her had connected her to the flow of essence in the world, more deeply than Dragonblooded, more naturally than Sorcerers... She was the fire...
After a long and anxious search, though, Ashera found what she was looking for, inside herself. Wounded and flickering, she could feel the presence inside her, and a smile crossed her meditative face. Recognition. And concern. She drew the fire closer against her body with a soft breath. "...It's alright..." she whispered. "... You're okay..." She didn't know if this particular elemental could restore itself with flame against her body, but she was willing to try and let it - it had ever been her only real friend, even though no words had ever passed between them. Maybe, at least, the heat would soothe it, as it was soothing her?
Or, that was her intention, for it was then that the door opened, and Sorrowful Leaf walked in to a truly strange sight - Ashera sitting cross-legged, having nearly crawled into her fire pit. And Ashera, clutching flame against her breast as if it were a heavy and very warm blanket. Ashera's eyes fluttered open, and very quickly, her cheeks burned at the awkwardness of the moment. She gently shed the flame back into the fireplace, and brushed her hands over her clothing, cleaning soot from the fabric. The scent of flame was strong in the air of the room, a clean and calming scent...
"L-Leaf?" Ashera stuttered a bit in surprise, her eyes widening as she shifted onto her feet and quickly stood, her lip tense as she focused on the instructor with a nervous expression. Her eyes gave a little flutter of awkwardness, and she remained blushing at the situation she'd been found in, with no real explanation to give... She felt her stomach twisting again, expecting to feel judgement for the state she'd been found in.
Then again, it could've been worse...
"I... wasn't... expecting company." she uttered as the only excuse she could really conjure, and she lowered her head gently. It took her a few moments to really digest Leaf's invitation, though. She stepped over to her, and spoke softly. "I... I'm okay..." It was a lie - she'd been mulling over all of her anxieties in the wake of new ones added to the list, and she was anything but okay. But Leaf was right, she needed to know more. And right now, that was more important than being okay. Ashera answered her again, with a little nod this time. "I'll.. I'll go with you. What is it, though? What did you find?" she asked, her tone concerned, heart starting to quicken a little as she found herself anticipating something even worse...
It would be just her luck, after all...
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:56, Sun 10 Sept 2017.