The Ascension

The altar of the ocean

There was no need to doubt the legends and the gods, but Aster was a logical sort of girl, and generally settled on a sort of apathy towards them. Her father was not tremendously religious either, sans for a home altar to the sky god Ikina. They celebrated all the holy days at school, but at home these days consisted of little more than an extra desert.

Baased, and the whole country of Renen, worshipped only Silanah, the god of the sea. His altars were designed after the caves he was said to call home in the ocean's trenches, so they were dark and wet. Baased, as the richest city in Renen, housed the largest temple to him, consisting of many rooms, including a fishpond.

Electricity and technology were banned at holy sights, and the only light in the altar came from candles and moonstone.

Aster had never actually prayed before, besides repeating the same group prayers at school once a week. When she kneeled at a statue of Silanah whose details were missing in the dark, she was utterly speechless.

When Aster was younger, it was hard to keep her quiet, but at some point over the past seven years, someone had told her to shut up. And she had. So words were not her strength. Her only strength, actually, came from her mind, and even that had faltered as she kept silent. She was always curious, but without words, no one knew to answer her.

Someone with a candle walked past her, and for a moment Silanah's statue was illuminated, revealing a shape like a fish and a six-legged goat mashed into one, with the cold and empty eyes of a man.

Aster got up immediately, more or less jumping to her feet. The image of the gods was not allowed outside the doors of an altar, and the shock of seeing his apparent true form had startled Aster. But a second later she calmly reminded herself that, obviously as a god, Silanah was not going to look like a human. She kneeled again at the statue's feet and closed her eyes, breathing in the damp air around her.

She tried to word a prayer in her mind, wishing Wren safety and to return home minimally injured or else, somehow, a hero of the country, but the words would not form.

Aster knew logic, and logically Wren was going to die. No one lived. Few got away intact. Exaltation was an honor and an inevitable outcome, and it really wasn't her business to protest it.

A man sat next to her while she was failing to pray, a stout and stiff sort of man who didn't seem lost in prayer himself. He looked over at Aster, once, and she immediately got up and left the altar. As much as she'd like to stay, the moment someone payed a little extra attention to her she knew she had to leave. It wasn't unheard of for people to kidnap children and exalt them to the city, reaping the rewards before the police determined the kid hadn't been theirs.

She walked home quickly. Baased was not an unsafe city, and indeed a rich one, but there were few children and many things to keep it that way.

While it is all good to focus on Aster for the rest of the day- when she returns home to speak curtly to her concerned father, for example, or later after dinner when she finally allows herself to cry- Aster left an important sort of person behind when she left the altar of Silanah: Silan. Ah.

The 'Ah' was not actually part of his name, but an old sort of suffix that had latched on at some point in the last few centuries. It probably came from the 'a' sound at the end of Ikina- and while he was honored to have his superior's suffix on his name, he would have preferred it if people got his name correct.

Laila like being called Lailanah though. Figures.

Silan had roughly left Aster behind years ago, back before she really had a name, but gods have many powers and one of them is pretty close to omnipotence. He was fairly aware of everything that occurred in his domain. Not fully aware, of course, but nearly. So it wasn't impossible for him to check in on the girl every so often.

Of course, he wasn't watching over her purely out of his own interest. If he had that much freedom over his powers, he would have been spying on Laila (as an enemy, that is. To learn her secrets). Ikina was his source of energy, and it was their will that he had to check in on Aster. They liked Aster for reasons Silan could understand less than the poor girl's name.

Aster was such a bizarre name.

Ikina was actually and honestly omnipotent as far as Silan knew. They appeared without the slightest tremble of energy behind him, and without words seemed to know what had transpired that day.

"If I stop one child from being sacrificed, I'll have to stop them all."

"No." They said. They were wearing a feminine form today- daringly- buxom? Was that the term? Er. It was a very feminine form, but as always, their eyes were the same soft and pure gold. They never really seemed to wear their body more as possess it, and features of the face and hair were left untouched, giving the impression they might as well have been painted on for all Ikina cared for them.

"If I stop one child sacrifice, other parents will think I don't want them anymore. And I do want them. I want them so much."

"Your hatred of children is not a flattering trait."

"The only person I have to flatter is you. And if you dislike anything about me, you can always remake me."

"I want Aster to be happy. She was crying."

"Didn't see that part." Silan said. An instant passed and the two of them were standing in Aster's room while she curled up near the television and cried. "Oh."

They shifted back to the altar. The scene before had been nothing more than a temporary illusion of a past event. After all, nothing can travel through time.

"You won't spare the child." Ikina said. "I will."

Silan knew not to say a word until Ikina had explained themself. They rarely enjoyed interruptions, but only those gods such as Laila and Silan could tell when they were thinking and when they were finished.

"It's about time for me to play this game. Find a chosen one. This planet's been going on for a little too long." They sighed at this idea like they were repeating it, not speaking it. "I'll miss them though, when they're all dead."