Ikselam/TheSeventhSister
The Tale of the Moonlit Encounter</i>
<i>After leaving the farmer's house, Maresuki continued on down the road. When sunset came, he unpacked his blanket, started a small campfire, and began cooking some rice for his dinner. After a bit, when the sun had gone down and the moon had come up, it became clear to him that someone was standing just outside the firelight, watching him.
"Greetings, friend," Maresuki spoke to the darkness. "Would you like some rice? I do not have a great deal left, but it would reflect very poorly upon me if I were not willing to share with a fellow traveller."
A man's voice replied, "You are quite generous. And your senses must be very keen, to have noticed me."
"My eyes and ears are not all that much sharper than any other person's," said the Lookshy swordsman, scooping some rice out of the little pot and into his bowl. "I have simply learned how to use them properly."
The man chuckled, and stepped into the light. He was dressed in sturdy buckskin clothes, and every inch of his skin bore unusual tattoos which gleamed silver in the moonlight. Maresuki scooped some rice into a second bowl and proffered it to him. "I am sorry to say that although I have two bowls, I have only one set of chopsticks," he apologized.
"That is quite all right," replied the woodsman. "My fingers are in good working order." He took the bowl from the Solar and sat down across from him. For a while, neither man spoke.
When he had finished eating his rice, Maresuki leaned back on his elbows and looked up at the night sky. "The moon is nearly full tonight," he observed. "Although I have never been the sort who is moved to poetry by its light, I must admit that it is quite lovely."
"Indeed," replied the woodsman, the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Maresuki sat up. "I find," he said, "that dinner always sits better in one's stomach if it is followed by a story. Perhaps you would like to stay for a while and listen? If not, I shall feel rather foolish speaking to the fire."
The tattooed man inclined his head, still smiling.
"Excellent," said Maresuki. "The tale I have in mind tonight is one you may have heard before. It takes place long ago, when Seven Sisters wandered the night sky. One of them gave up her life in order to seal the doom of the Primordials, and five of them became the Maidens we know today. This particular story has to do with the seventh sister, whose name was Neptune, the Maiden of Dreams."
As he spoke, his words wrapped themselves in the light of the moon and fire, illustrating his tale in a tableau of ghostly gold and silver.
The Tale of the Seventh Sister</i>
<i>One evening, Neptune had a dream. Unlike most of her dreams, it was not a particularly pleasant one. In it, she fought against her sister Mars, and even though she took on the form of a great warrior and used all of her most clever tricks, she was unable to stand against the Maiden of Battles. The Maiden of Dreams' glass trident shattered against her sister's impregnable shield, and Mars' daiklave struck her down.
Then Neptune remembered that she was not dreaming, and that she really was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood while the ten million eyes of Ouranos fell from the sky above her. "I've never had a dream about death," she thought. "I wonder what it will be like?" She closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.
After a while, she started to become impatient. "Stupid death!" she thought. "What's taking so long?"
At about this point, Neptune became aware that someone was standing next to her. She opened her eyes, and saw Gaia leaning over her, a look of concern on her face. "Go away," said Neptune. "I'm busy dying."
Gaia looked surprised. "Why on earth do you want to do that?"
"Look," said Neptune, "it hurts to breathe right now, so I'd rather not go into detail." As the Maiden of Dreams was speaking, Gaia tore up the hem of her skirt and started to bandage her wounds with it. "And stop doing that! How can I be expected to die properly if you go healing me?"
"It seems to me," said Gaia, not stopping what she was doing, "that you haven't thought this through. This is just another one of your fancies. You'll get over it soon enough."
"That's exactly my point," replied Neptune, rather hotly. "I'm always flying off on some wild scheme or another, and it always ends with me looking foolish. Being killed by my own sister because I was stupid enough to believe that my dream of beating her was true is only the latest in my long parade of humiliating failures."
"You haven't been killed quite yet," Gaia noted mildly.
"Don't interrupt me," snapped Neptune. "I think the only thing which even begins to compare to this in terms of sheer foolhardiness is the whole Exaltation fiasco. 'Aha,' Neptune thinks to herself, 'I've always admired the Unconquered Sun; I think I'll impress him by making up a batch of Chosen who are every bit as numerous and powerful as his! That will surely get the other gods to stop treating me like a child!'"
"I always thought your youthful exuberance was endearing," noted Gaia, "if rather exasperating at times."
"I told you to stop interrupting," said Neptune.
"Sorry," said Gaia.
"Where was I?" asked the Maiden of Dreams. "Aha, right, I was going to show all my cousins and sisters what I was capable of. So I go down and Exalt all the strongest mortals I can find -- just as many, I might add, as my ever-so-blinding-in-his-godly-radiance cousin -- and what does it get me? Only a month in bed recovering what's left of my strength, and a little while later being cut down by Mars, swatted like a fly because I gave too much of my power to my Chosen, foolishly failing to recall that Autochthon hadn't yet figured out if the process could be reversed."
"Well, I was impressed," said Gaia. "If nothing else, you deserve some measure of respect for actually following through on a plan of such ridiculous bravado."
"That's very nice," replied Neptune, "but I think you'll find you're the odd one out on that. Most of them just laughed all the harder. Especially the Unconquered Sun. 'Good work, little girl,' the Sun says, 'here's a pat on the head, and I'll make sure my Chosen look out for yours, all right? Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to them.' And to think that the whole scheme was originally meant to make him think more highly of me. Bastard!" She paused for a moment. "Speaking about this has made me so angry that I forgot what I was originally talking about. What topic were we discussing, again?"
"I tell you what," said Gaia, summoning up the Elemental Dragon of Air and lifting Neptune onto its back, "why don't you come with me, and rest until you feel better. Then I'm sure you'll remember, and we can finish our discussion. All right?"
"Sounds good to me," said Neptune, and passed out. The Dragon flew back to Gaia's house, carrying the Maiden of Dreams with it.
Over the next few months, Gaia and the Five Elemental Dragons tended to Neptune, and in time she recovered. She no longer had her trident, which had been shattered beyond repair, or her magical paper mask, which had fallen off and been lost when Mars struck her down (and which was later found by a girl named Shalryna, an entire story in and of itself), but her head was once again filled with dreams and plans.
During the course of her convalescence, she had also become quite good friends with Gaia and her Dragons, to whom she had never paid much attention before, seeing as they lived on the earth and she lived in the heavens. The Earth Mother was always very patient with her, and enjoyed listening to her tell about the dreams she had, rather than simply humoring her like the Celestial Gods always had. She also made excellent tea. When the time came for the Maiden of Dreams to rejoin her sisters in Heaven, the thought of leaving Gaia caused her to feel an unaccountable sadness.
"You really have been quite kind," she told Gaia. "I thank you for your hospitality."
Gaia smiled and sipped her tea. "It was my pleasure," she said. "I hope that you will come back and visit."
"I hope so, too," said Neptune, and turned to go. Just as she was about to step over the threshold of the door, she paused. "I remember," she said, without turning to face Gaia. "I remember what we were talking about before I came here."
"Ah," said Gaia, green eyes sparkling.
Neptune bowed her head. "I will repay you one day."
Gaia waved her hand dismissively. "There is no need."
"No," said the Maiden of Dreams. "You offered me succor when my own sisters did not, when even I wished myself to die. That is a debt that cannot go unpaid. I am not known for my great reliability, but this is one oath I will hold to."
"I see," replied Gaia. "Then I will see you again."
"Yes," Neptune said, and stepped out the door.
Neptune ascended back into the heavens, where she was reunited with her five remaining sisters. She made peace with the Maiden of Battles, and fought beside her against the Titans, but soon found herself just as discontent as she had always been. The Celestial Gods still looked down upon her, and she was forced to admit that they had good reason. Without the mask that had been given to her by her father the Sky King, she was even less than she had been when Mars defeated her, and the other gods clearly only allowed her to reside in Heaven because they pitied her, and because her Exalted were useful in battle.
Eventually the war ended, and the Primordials who had not been slain, Gaia and Autochthon excepted, surrendered to the gods and were banished to the hell-prison Malfeas. However, even as they were enclosed within the Demon City's brass bones, She Who Lives In Her Name, one of the mightiest of the Primordials, lashed out against her traitor sister, Gaia. The Yozis had sworn not to harm the gods, but no such oaths prevented them from attacking their siblings.
Although Gaia had kept the name of her secret soul, her fetich, hidden from all, She Who Lives In Her Name held within Her Name the name of all things. Even so, the first two Names which She broke were not the correct ones, and it was only in the last second before She was sealed up in Malfeas that She destroyed the third Name, which was also the name of Gaia's true soul. The fires of Her first two Names had burnt up tremendous portions of the world, but the third burnt the heart of the world herself to ashes.
As Creation began to slide into the Underworld, the Celestial Gods rushed off to find Autochthon, hoping that he would be able to devise some way of saving Gaia. The other gods scattered all about, each one of them trying to preserve the portion of the earth they ruled over.
"This is not going to work," said Neptune. As her sisters and cousins went looking for the Great Maker's workshop, she ran to Gaia's house. She burst in the door and found the Earth Mother lying on the floor, her flesh shrivelling up and her hair turning gray and brittle. She pushed aside the Five Dragons and leaned over Gaia.
"Go away," said Gaia. "I'm dying."
"That wasn't true when I said it," replied Neptune, "and it's not true now. I swore an oath to you."
Gaia looked at her with a dimming eye. "You cannot help me, child. My secret name has been burnt up."
"Take mine," said the Maiden of Dreams.
"No," said Gaia.
"Tough," said Neptune, and kissed Gaia on the mouth. As their lips met, she breathed the last of her power into Gaia, filling the empty void left by her fetich' death with her own Essence.
Neptune died.
As she died, she dreamed that Gaia became well again. In her dream, her name was not enough to fully cure Gaia; part of the Earth Mother remained in the Underworld, awkwardly connected here and there to the living portion. But she had stopped all of Creation from dying, and Gaia still lived, albeit in a somewhat diminished form.
In her dream, she did not truly die. Her soul poured out of her and into the hole in Gaia like water into a pitcher, reshaping herself to fit her new container. Although, in the dream, she was not able to completely fill the empty space, the Five Elemental Dragons lent their strength to her, puffing her up with power until she threatened to burst, the excess overflowing into her Chosen and filling them up until they were nearly the equals of the Solar Exalted, in power as well as number.
When the Five Dragons were sure that Gaia would be all right, they went off to the five corners of Creation to sleep and recuperate from their exertion. In the dream, the Celestial Gods came bursting into Gaia's house with Autochthon in tow, and were greatly amazed to find her quite well, and having tea with her new fetich soul.
Then Luna remembered that she was not dreaming.
The Tale of the Journey's End</i>
<i>Several days after his encounter with the unusual woodsman, Maresuki came to the top of a hill and caught sight of Great Forks, the golden domes of its temples shining in the noonday sun. He made a brief detour to stash his daiklave in a hollow tree some distance off the road, and then continued on toward the city.
What new beginnings would the end of Maresuki's journey bring?
- On to the Tale of the Travelling Swordsman.
- Back toIkselam/FanFiction.
