A set of eyes had pinned him
Became his version of a kingdom
She's everything the devil can't be
When she's singing to me "Glory"
Became his version of a kingdom
She's everything the devil can't be
When she's singing to me "Glory"
This was not a trek that Israfel made often. Honestly she hardly saw the point. It wasn’t as though she was the praying sort, despite the godly blood that flowed through her very veins...
The gods were as absent to her here on Novus as her own home of Helovia was, sand long-fallen through the empty top of an hourglass never to be reached or held again. They were there in theory, yet they weren’t omnipresent beings that chose to intervene when they very well had the power to do just that. They chose not to, leaving the mortals to fend for themselves… And yet the mortals prayed to them for guidance, for salvation, for understanding.
She recalled, vividly, the moment that Theodosia had thwacked Vespera atop the head with her wing. Even now, standing on the threshold of the temple atop Veneror, the memory alone brought a crooked smile to the Sun Daughter’s face. Sacrilege? Maybe, but as the Sun Daughter took a step into the temple itself, breathing in the musty, still air, no harm came to her for such a blasphemous thought.
To put it plainly, Israfel thought very little of the Novus pantheon. Her experiences had been seclusive to Vespera alone however, and the Sun Daughter had a feeling that maybe that was just the impression individuals got when dealing with the Dusk Court’s chosen deity. For someone who had lived within Terrastella for as long as she had, Israfel felt little to no fealty to her… Yet their interactions had been anything but savory.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the temple, Israfel glanced about the interior itself. Banners hung with depictions of the Novus pantheon, the cut of the place immaculate and remarkably taken care of despite there not being another soul in sight. Further in upon the designed dais for each depicted statuette, Israfel could easily tell them apart as she stepped closer, the gentle staccato of golden hooves a rhythmic tattoo upon the stone floor.
Unlit candles remained strewn across the temple, long-cooled pools of wax collecting at their base. As she passed, Israfel lit every single one with a pass of a wing feather, casting the temple interior with a warm, welcoming glow. She did her rounds, moving with a respectful ease, gradually replacing the cold, empty chill of the temple with warm, bright life.
Her rounds done and the interior efficiently set aglow with flickering shadows upon the walls, Israfel paused, standing in the center of the holiest place in all of Novus. Her eyes, keen pools of glittering rubies in the flickering firelight, focused on the four statues upon their exalted pedestals. She had come here for only one, and it was not the one that she once would have ventured all this way for.
Caligo..
Caligo’s statuette glistened like a dark beacon, summoning her forward, calling her. The Night demi-goddess’ stone cut eyes glittered in an unnervingly lifelike way, and honestly Israfel felt something within her pale breast shift.
Her ears tipped back, rose-kissed lips curling in a deep frown, before a world-weary sigh escaped her mouth. It was only after a quick cursory glance around to confirm that she was alone did Israfel speak, her soft voice carrying easy enough through the echoing chambers of this holy place.
“... I hated you for a long time,” she began, chewing on her words before allowing them to spill, that familiar bitter fury broiling in her veins as she admitted such a blasphemous secret before the demi-goddess she had come to see, “You and your Court. I hated those you put in command. I doubted your ability to pick worthy leaders. Many of them fell short to any expectation I had.”
Israfel did not know the newly crowned Night King, but it had been the people who had crowned him, not Caligo. It was not her place to judge their decision. The others, however… Israfel scoffed, an angry, bitter sound.
They had never been worthy.
“Honestly I never knew why I did. Your people sang of ‘inclusion’, yet I never felt welcome within your streets. I always felt dampened by your darkness, like my fire could not burn as bright.” A warped, troubled, sardonic grin poisoned the Sun Daughter’s features, twisting her pretty face in the shifting firelight. “... I found out why, though. It wasn’t you that I hated. It was them. They weren’t worthy of you.”
The admission burned, yet it needed to be said. Israfel was a ball of spite, rage, and heartache. Nothing really made much sense anymore and none of the others in the Pantheon could soothe such an ire. They couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to be half-blood, like Caligo was, like Israfel was.
“Maybe I just wanted to be noticed by you. You could understand. You know what it’s like to be overshadowed, to be ignored, to have to burn brighter than all of the rest in order to get what you want. Sometimes you have to take it.” The words were spat with such ferocity that Israfel shook, her body trembling, the rage coming off of her in waves… Yet it soothed a moment later as the ivory and gold maiden sucked in a long, deep, measured breath. Her eyes glanced upwards, baleful and pleading, meeting the stone cut stare of Caligo’s brazen, silent statuette.
“... But then Lu told me something. She said ‘fires burn brightest at night’, and something about hearing that made me realize that I needed to come to you. To talk to you. I don’t know if I’m here to ask for your forgiveness, or your rage, or your understanding. Fuck, maybe all of it. I don’t even know if you can hear me. I could be talking to a fucking slab of rock and have no damn idea.” Israfel paused, furrowed her brows, and went on. “... At least it’s a pretty slab of rock.”
She fell quiet and silence echoed loudly around her ears. She glanced down, to the side, away from the statuette and it’s knowing stone cut eyes, staring anywhere but there. With bated breath did Israfel wait, yet when nothing happened as the moments trickled by, another exasperated exhale left her and she went on.
“I plan to leave Terrastella. I’m going to stay in Denocte for awhile. I want to see why people love you so damn much. I want to learn from you. I’ve been in Novus a long time but I feel like I’ve learned so very little. Maybe a little change of pace will help that.” Another sardonic smirk twisted Israfel’s lips but this one was not in vehemence, but in good humor. “I want to see if maybe I can be noticed by you.”
After all, maybe Luvena was right; maybe if she burned bright enough, Caligo would notice.
A Worship thread for Caligo, the first of many. <3
