The Queen's Prophecy || ON HOLD ||

N i n e | Mirage of Ruins

---------☼︎♔︎☼︎---------

▪︎ AESLYN MOORE ▪︎
---------☼︎♔︎☼︎---------

THE OCCUPATION OF A TRACKER often included finding oneself at the position of a spy.

Sitting cross-legged on a marble floor of a temple in the guise of a sun priestess descendant with slender hands clasped together, thick lashes strewn shut in falsely devoted prayer, Aeslyn felt every part a cunning spymaster. Only instead of invigorating black capes and leather suit, her clothes were a flimsy excuse of a bronze silk gown barely held together by silver hoops at the shoulders. Furthermore, rather than finding herself in solitude, she was squished among a dozen other sun descendants.

The smell of sage was so beguilingly strong in the air, Aeslyn was sure another few minutes and she'd be retching the contents of her very empty stomach. Solarium knew, she needed food but here she was; rushed out of bed at an ungodly hour in the morning over to this forsaken temple in Vamplyre, the ancient vampire kingdom, to gather information.

If only Aeslyn's job ended at finding who Mellisa wanted her to track. However, her occupation included tracking any potential enemy who might strike the queen and inform about the location of the said enemy to Mellisa so that she could take care of them.

The exact thing Aeslyn was doing right now : Tracking potential enemy.

"My sisters, calm your minds and feel the intensity of your soul by connecting to the sun with this prayer. It is in our blood, in our lineage, this power of warmth and rage granted to us by the sun god, Zeus, himself." The sickening sweet voice of Vanya, the high priestess—who claimed herself a sun priestess in-hiding willing to train despaired sun descendants about their powers—instructed from above the raised dais.

Aeslyn cracked open an eye to spot Vanya clad in an elaborate ivory gown, stiffling a yawn. The thorned crown atop the priestess' head depicting rays of sun, looked brown under the sunlight emitting from the open ceiling above the woman as she raised her arms as if in prayer.

Vanya was such a con artist seeking attention, it made Aeslyn want to knock the fake priestess down to shut her up.

The real sun priestesses were a far cry. It almost had Aeslyn laughing thinking about the actual sun priestesses training their descendants with meditation.

The powers of the sun were rooted from heat. And there is no fire, no warmth powerful than the heat of anger and envy. The real priestesses excelled in evoking those particular emotions from their descendants during training with twisted methods.

Aeslyn would know, she considered bitterly.

"I came through the way of the ancient sun temple ruins this morning and there was this elderly lender frolicking around. . .he said the ancient sun priestesses are alive, living in that temple. He also said. . .priestess Moravia went to an unknown land recently after a mystic called to the sun priestesses to tell them something. But Moravia was killed and never returned from her supposed quest with the information. No one knows what happened to her." A whispered tale made its way to Aeslyn's sharp ears, unawares to the girl speaking that Aeslyn could hear.

Vampire sharpened senses were truly a blessing. Fortunately, these priestesses didn't quite have enhanced senses and that kept the information from reaching other ears than Aeslyn's.

This was the reason she was here. Among the many fake ones who considered themselves to be descendants, there were a pick-few real sun descendants here who'd been scattered from their families centuries ago. They approached the con artist High Priestess for lessons related to their powers without realizing they were being fooled.