Re: A World of Dust and Souls

[Flagmauth]

Sienna followed him to the edge and peered over it - boy, that was a hell of a drop. "Thanks - um, not to change the subject, but where are we?"

[Helsing]

"Why?" It asks, "It's not your joy, you didn't earn it, it was simply given to you."

It points, to the figure that talked and acted like Tyson despite not being him.

"If I told you that that one, despite all his planning, lost his home and almost everyone he loved?"

The finger moved, to Nisha, "Or that one, who now stands as the only one of her kind."

Finally the finger shifts, to Sterling.

"Or you, could you say that this brings you joy, when you didn't even notice that the one you call Sienna isn't here?"

[A Blind Guy]

Sterling's gaze hardened. "Where is sienna? "

[Helsing]

Sienna

He looked around and shrugged, "I don't know the word for it, I do know that Ozpin would give up the school just to see it though. If I had to give it a word... I'd say that it's your paradise."

He waves a hand around, gesturing to the houses.

"This is where you fell most at peace, this is home, at least a manifestation of it."


Sterling

The look alike tilts her head.

"Where would you like her to be? Happy somewhere far away? Here, living out your victory."

[A Blind Guy]

"I guess where she's happiest."

[Helsing]

"She's there," the look alike said.

With a snap of her fingers the scene around them shatters. In a blink, they were standing on nothing, overlooking the city of Myrkviðr.

That was a floating island.

Around other floating islands.

Ignoring that the look alike pointed down, where Sienna was sitting at the edge of the island with a man that Sterling didn't recognize.

"She is where she is happiest, where she is Ordered, where you are nowhere to be found."

A snap, and the two of them are back at their party.

"Does this still bring you joy?"

[Flagmauth]

"So...I'm in heaven, then? I died?" Sienna processed that for a second before coming to a realization and clasping her hands over her face. "Oh gods damn it, that stupid fruit! I knew it was gonna make my head explode or something!" Furious, she kicked at the edge of the island, sending several small clumps of dirt plummeting into the abyss below. "I'm such an IDIOT!"

[A Blind Guy]

"If she is at her happiest, then this is how it shal be."

[Helsing]

Sienna

Her dad blinked and gently pat her on the back.

"Easy there Sie, you're not dead, you're just having an... out of body experience."

Sterling

The look alike tilts her head.

"Does the same apply to all of those you call family? Even the one you call Opal? She is nowhere to be seen, she is happiest around you, and yet, she's gone."

She floats upwards until she was eye level with Sterling.

"If this is how it should be. Then her being gone, Tyson loosing his family, Nisha living through the genocide of her race, all of that would be worth it if this chance comes to you?"

[Flagmauth]

"Oh...I...knew that." Sienna finished, somewhat lamely. She coughed, lowering her hands back to her sides. Better change the subject. "Yeah, so...what did that fruit thing do, then? That one creep seemed to think it was going to give him some kind of power boost or something until it burned his hand, so what's the big deal with it?"

[A Blind Guy]

"... if they're going to be happier for it... then yes. just because horrible things can happen to people does not mean they are doomed to live an unhappy life because of it. "

[Helsing]

Sienna

"The fruit? Oh that's just a conduit of Mandanus, goddess of Order."


Sterling

The look alike's eyes bore into Sterling's "If they are happy, you are as well?"

[A Blind Guy]

"As a leader I must make sacrifices for my allies, even at my own risk."

[Flagmauth]

Sienna wished she paid more attention in church, that would probably explain a lot about why that was significant. "Mm-hmm, and that means...what?"

[Helsing]

Sienna

"You're currently in the plane of existence where the Gods live. In this case, the realm of Order."

Sterling

The look alike almost seemed to smirk.

"Very well then, if that is what you wish. If you are willing to take the risks, if you are willing to take the burden."

She snapped her fingers, and Sterling felt a familiar weight in his hands in the form of his rapier. And in front of him, Opal was chained to a wall, beaten and broken. She tried to look up, but the chains weighed her down.

"Then finalize the path. Make the sacrifice."

[A Blind Guy]

Sterling looks down at the raper, and to Opal. faster than anything he's ever done in his life, Sterling plunges the rapier deep into his own chest.

[Flagmauth]

"Oh."

A pause.

"Sure."

Another pause.

"I feel like that's supposed to be a good thing but I'm missing the why."

[Helsing]

Sienna

"You're the one that ate the fruit," her father joked if only somberly.

He looked out to the seemingly endless expanse, sighing almost to himself.

"Beyond that I don't know."

"Would you like to?"

The two Drake's turned their heads to the voice, and in the middle of the town, was a goddess.



Or at least, you would assume so. She defiantly looked the part. Felt the part to. It was like looking at a supernova of aura. A flinch was all it took to have raw energy cascade down her form.

"Sienna Drake, I am Mandanus."

Sterling

It was weird to say, but a few good things happened back to back. First off, he didn't feel the blade.

His arms moved to complete the action, but the second that the tip touched his aura the world blinks once again. The sword was out of his hands, and he was no longer in the lobby. Instead he found himself standing in a pitch black room. There was no light anywhere, save for the single torch in front of him with a burning golden flame in the center of it.

From the dark, a woman. No, not a woman, a goddess.



"It is an honor to finally meet you, Satanael"

[Flagmauth]

Sienna had to fight off the impulse to squint as if staring into a bright light. "Uhh...nice to meet you?" she said after a few seconds of wondering exactly how you should best talk to a goddess you didn't know was going to show up. "And yeah, I would kinda like to know why I'm here. Please." Sienna added the last word rather quickly, as an insurance policy.

[Helsing]

"Why, to honor you of course. It was after all, was your soul that allowed us to meet."

[A Blind Guy]

Sataniel, that was a name Sterling had never heard before.

"Staniel? why did youc all me that?"

[Flagmauth]

"I'm...flattered?" And also confused. Very much confused, for sure. At this point Sienna thought of something. "Wait a sec...if I'm here, what happened to my friends?"

[Helsing]

Sterling

The Goddess tilts her head.

"Oh? Is that not the name that the people use to speak of you?"

A blink, then a kind smile.

"My mistake, I seemed to have gotten lost in what could be. Speaking in the now, it is an honor to meet you, Sterling, High Prince of Mistral."

Sienna

"If you are referring to the one known as Sterling, he is currently speaking to my sister. As for the rest of your companions, I cannot say, unless you wish to see?"

[Flagmauth]

Sienna nodded. "Please." Not that she didn't trust Nisha or Tyson's ability to hold their own in a fight - especially with Team RWBY backing them up (except maybe Blake, she had been pretty useless so far) - but Sienna wanted to check and make sure that nothing was happening while all this was going on.

[Helsing]

The goddess waved her hand, and deep within the void of the abyss, a hole opened up. In it, she saw something as equally as triply as what she was seeing now.

She saw herself, in the third person, sitting on a throne made of vines and tree branches. Her skin glowed green and pulsed with aura, not unlike the Goddess'. Inside the church was hectic, a blue blur crashed against a crimson commit, neither of them stopping or retreating while Tyson looked on in equal parts awe and terror.

"That one does not understand. He need not worry, it is not his duty to understand."

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