"A hearty land of immortality, of divine and mysterious. Hallowed and empty, the crowns lie waiting."
Messenger and speaker, one who bore a crown as empty as Ratau's though more official. It was not the sort of greeting that Eve desired after stumbling foolishly upon a shrine to he of Chaos and more foolishly, obeying the Crimson Eye and stealing from its hollow the devotion captured within. She returned to her senses when it implored her to destroy it, to strike down and mutilate those who had hunted her kin but she abstained from such a suicidal act. Why should she forfeit her life, her survival by calling to attention the Worm Who Consumed with such infantile behavior?
The Crimson Eye was only silenced when the Worm's own shade appeared once more in the nearby room, declaring her unworthy to bear its strength.
She does not think the crown is in the slightest bit mournful, but it has the decency to at least pretend to be so in the face of a furious bishop. Eve didn't think fighting the masters of the Old Faith was unavoidable, not even from the beginning but she'd been hopeful that she could at least dodge having to go directly against the crown-bearers.
By the gods, I'm only borrowing this crown's power...
So they dropped swiftly to a knee when the dead-crown bearer, a brown and tan feathered owl draped in a gold and silver laced feather cloak looked upon her.
"Eons ago, these lands were rife with Gods and their adherents. What befell this pantheon? Alas. 'Tis the nature of beasts to forget, and of Gods to be forgotten," said the unfamiliar god, standing before the three glowing red circles, strange symbols engraved upon the objects resting on the arrays. She recognized the shape of crowns - the Crimson Eye and she recognizes the Azure Eye but some of the other shapes were unknown to her. As forgotten as the god standing before her seemed to believe them to be. "
The glowing stone shards called out to her, and she reached out slowly. When the owl did not scold or glare, she grasped one of the little stones curiously. The red light rippling from them gave a flash and shot up their arms, dissolving into their skin and losing the glow. She turned it over in her palms curiously, only for a claw to reach out and gently take her wrist. She stiffened briefly, but the taloned palm merely guided her palm to the next stone fragment.
"Mayhap they left. Mayhap they slept. Mayhap they devoured and were devoured in turn. Those few who remained spread roots, spun webs, molded this world to meet them and theirs."
The second stone she lifted flashed between the edges and instinctively, she pressed the two pieces together. The red light flowed back out of her, painless and warm in comparison to the magic she was getting used to manipulating as it sealed up the cracks between the two. She traced her fingers lightly over the scrambled words left on the face of the stone before it seemed to erase itself.
'Twere a land of many Gods once. Hundreds. Now..."
Eve's eyes flickered up briefly, watching the as the owl retreated into the sky while she pressed the last fractured stone into place and watched it begin to seal over. The carved crown image at the top flashed briefly before dying out again, leaving a rock slate humming with latent power.
Through devotion you are granted obedience and with obedience, you must command.
This is the stone then, Eve had already deduced but it was nice to have the confirmation.She turned her gaze skyward, though she admittedly couldn't see much through the darkened canopy of Darkwood. Her internal clock had been scrambled by a strange appetite and an even stranger fading desire to rest but the Red Crown insisted that two days had passed and the sun was beginning to set on a third. That gave her about three more days to return to the cult - and three days to decide what the cult's first 'doctrine' should be.
You have not considered what shall it be you command? Inquired the Crimson Eye.
These people are still not mine, pointed out Eve. And I have never once ruled.
And yet a respectable leader you are shaping out to be.
The ewe shrugged outwardly, not knowing how to respond to that comment. Instead, she extended her palms and started channeling the power of a curse once more, stepping into a new room full of hooded swordmen. She chuckled to herself, flicking her right hand to send out the arrow of pain once more, though this time she twisted her wrist and yanked it back. A swordman tried to attack her from behind and she got to practice the concept of steering a pre-fired curse into one of their faces.
So caught up in chasing the heretics she was that Eve didn't even notice when she crossed the doorway into another area at first.
Of course, she recognized her mistake immediately when the creature in the room released a furious roar of vengeance.
Her eyes flicked up immediately at the sight of the red, fang-mouthed worm and just barely avoided the angry circle of flashing light-bombs spat out by the beast. Eve leapt over the second circle of lights, lashing out with a curse to combat a third array and allowed the crown to become a sword once more.
It's easier only having to focus on one , Eve thought to herself with amusement. Without the minions that had accompanied Amdusias, she was free to focus all of her attention on the red beast before her. When it hopped threateningly, attempting to take a bite out of her there was noting preventing her from simply moving back enough to keep it from making contact.
The beast shrieked when her sword sliced open it's face, the lamb stepping neatly out of the way of its pained flail and finishing with a harsh stab directly in the head.
There was an audible crack as she pierced the skull and the magic of the red crown activated in that instant. She listened to the former follower of chaos scream and gag as his new form was unraveled, twisting and shaping the poor thing back into a more upright form, leaving it as frightened and weakened as Amdusias had been before it.
Like she had before, she merely extended a hoof glowing with red power to the unfortunate soul.
He watched her with nervous eyes, far longer than his counterpart in Amdusias, as if expecting some form of punishment or rebuke. He slowly lifted a hand, placing it in her hoof, jerking back in a violent flinch when they made contact.
Eve merely tilted her head, keeping her expression soft as the worm rebuilt his courage.
It didn't take nearly as long as it did the first time and when he placed his palm in her hoof again, he gripped it tightly.
Eve smiled and nodded, watching the red beast close his eye and take a deep breath, accepting the tentacled grasp taking him away.
