White Chocolate 22, Blue Raspberry 13
Title: Sigillum Fatalis
Story Continuity: The Lethean Glamour
Author: darkfaerieclaw
Prompts: White Chocolate #22: lethargy, Blue Raspberry #13: impostor
Topping/Extra: Whipped Cream (Holly is nine), Malt (sylvrilyn's dare: "moth-eaten blankets")
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1067
Summary: Holly meets the goddess of fate, Largessa.
Note: Title means "deadly/fated seal" in Latin, the most fun language ever.
Holly came into awareness not gradually, but immediately, and it felt strangely like being dropped into a very complicated book halfway through a very important scene. For all this, she didn't feel very awake; her eyes were caked with sleep, her limbs were charged with tight discomfort, and she wanted to go back to sleep, but she knew if she tried, it would take longer than she was willing to try for. After checking to see if she'd fallen out of the tree she'd been sleeping in - she had not - she glanced down at the very frustrated woman below her, who appeared to be a very wealthy tourist, perhaps a noble.
"Fucking cursed! Me!" the woman yelled. "I'll smite him, god or not!"
Or perhaps, Holly amended privately, she was simply a very good impostor.
"Miss? Can I help you?" Holly said, just barely loud enough to be heard, but the woman jumped as if shocked, then looked up at her. She at first frowned deeply, her eyebrows knit together and full lips pursed peevishly, but then the look on her face softened and hardened at the same time in interest, a look that reminded Holly of the sort of meanly contemplative gaze Ayella regarded her insects of the week with when she calculated how long it would take to fatally burn them.
"I'm not sure where this is," the woman admitted.
"Oh, everybody gets lost in this area," Holly said brightly, and the woman immediately - a little too immediately - said, "No, I don't believe I'm lost. I think I'm in exactly the correct place. Your hair, that's an odd color."
"Yes," Holly said, unconsciously straightening on her branch. "Sofia says so, too, and Sofia doesn't care much for compliments. It means I'm a mystic. Blue is the most powerful color, and not even mama has blue hair."
"There is usually a single so-called bluenette in every six generations, yet the last one died just ten years ago," the woman said. "Fascinating. Maybe where I am can wait. Can you perform a simple spell of correction? I've been cursed into...directional retardation, I'm afraid. You'll have to come to me," the woman said, and smiled in sudden great amusement at the idea, "because I'm not sure I will find you."
Privately, however, the woman was surer of nothing else at the moment.
Holly, sure only that she was needed, threw off her makeshift, moth-eaten blanket - which was really a Library patron's forgotten coat, but functioned these days mostly as Holly's blanket, because the as long as it was big and moth-eaten, it was a proper blanket - and climbed down. She didn't mind getting a few bruises, but the three sisters agreed that if Holly ever came home with bruises again, she'd have to be Punished, capital P and all that implied, so she took her time climbing down the tree, and apologized for being slow.
"It's fine," the beautiful figure of a woman said mistily. "I've always been very patient."
Finally, Holly stood in front of the woman, who towered over her physically, and, Holly thought, seemed to give off the impression of towering over the trees, too, and even the flat plain of earth, which birds technically towered over yet no one saw fit to ever remark upon or notice, seemed notably small. The woman simply towered. Holly wondered if it was one of those disabilities adults didn't like to acknowledge, like how Cygnelius seemed to have been born intolerably difficult and snooty and Sofia, by everyone's account, just seemed incapable on a very basic level of cracking a smile. The phrase larger than life sprang to mind immediately, how she'd only ever thought of applying the word to the grandest, most bizarre and powerful emotions and ideas. Yet she'd never used it to describe anything physically tangible, and she wondered at this now, why she felt so strongly about this woman's uniqueness. "What's your name?"
"Largessa," the woman said, and Holly thought that her mystery was solved. The woman was named after a goddess found in many completely different religions, and for god's sake, her name even had "large" in it. Holly smiled, inexplicably relieved. "I'm Holly," she said, and the woman smiled back, beautiful, assured, and mysterious, and before Holly knew what was happening she had cast the spell, and was heading back towards her coat-blanket.
"I want to thank you," Largessa said, and added, "Come here, and hold out your hand. I'm going to give you a present in thanks."
And Holly, being a sucker for presents, came to Largessa's side and held out her hands without question. Largessa took both of them, said something that Holly recognized as being at least partly comprised of the High Tongue of the gods, and felt something inside of her snap into its proper alignment with the universe. It felt a lot like a birthday, and coming home after a long day of being hounded and pounded by the angry twins, and -
And something she'd never felt before and didn't quite understand, which she was oddly tempted to call destiny.
"You're the Largessa, aren't you?" Holly asked, wide-eyed. Then thought, Oh, shit, and maybe even Sofia would agree with her choice of words, because she'd been Branded by Destiny Herself. She wondered why it was the gods seemed to think that the greatest reward in the universe were more of their chains and not, say, flowers or pet puppies, or a few extra minutes with pet puppies past, or even freedom from said gods' chains.
"Got it in one," Largessa said, and smiled like nothing would ever be wrong in Holly's or her life again. "Thank you, again. We'll have a nice little reunion one day, I think."
And then she was gone. Teleportation, Holly realized, and she felt dizzy, because wherever she had gone off to, it had taken more magical energy than Holly would ever have, and the goddess's signature was cold and clung tightly to everything it was in contact with. Holly felt like a long, hot bath.
The thing about meeting destiny was that when you met Her, it took your breath away. Permanently. Holly knew it was only a matter of time now, and felt a few tears leak out of her eyes involuntarily, acutely aware she was cold and scared and so alone in the woods.
Story Continuity: The Lethean Glamour
Author: darkfaerieclaw
Prompts: White Chocolate #22: lethargy, Blue Raspberry #13: impostor
Topping/Extra: Whipped Cream (Holly is nine), Malt (sylvrilyn's dare: "moth-eaten blankets")
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1067
Summary: Holly meets the goddess of fate, Largessa.
Note: Title means "deadly/fated seal" in Latin, the most fun language ever.
Holly came into awareness not gradually, but immediately, and it felt strangely like being dropped into a very complicated book halfway through a very important scene. For all this, she didn't feel very awake; her eyes were caked with sleep, her limbs were charged with tight discomfort, and she wanted to go back to sleep, but she knew if she tried, it would take longer than she was willing to try for. After checking to see if she'd fallen out of the tree she'd been sleeping in - she had not - she glanced down at the very frustrated woman below her, who appeared to be a very wealthy tourist, perhaps a noble.
"Fucking cursed! Me!" the woman yelled. "I'll smite him, god or not!"
Or perhaps, Holly amended privately, she was simply a very good impostor.
"Miss? Can I help you?" Holly said, just barely loud enough to be heard, but the woman jumped as if shocked, then looked up at her. She at first frowned deeply, her eyebrows knit together and full lips pursed peevishly, but then the look on her face softened and hardened at the same time in interest, a look that reminded Holly of the sort of meanly contemplative gaze Ayella regarded her insects of the week with when she calculated how long it would take to fatally burn them.
"I'm not sure where this is," the woman admitted.
"Oh, everybody gets lost in this area," Holly said brightly, and the woman immediately - a little too immediately - said, "No, I don't believe I'm lost. I think I'm in exactly the correct place. Your hair, that's an odd color."
"Yes," Holly said, unconsciously straightening on her branch. "Sofia says so, too, and Sofia doesn't care much for compliments. It means I'm a mystic. Blue is the most powerful color, and not even mama has blue hair."
"There is usually a single so-called bluenette in every six generations, yet the last one died just ten years ago," the woman said. "Fascinating. Maybe where I am can wait. Can you perform a simple spell of correction? I've been cursed into...directional retardation, I'm afraid. You'll have to come to me," the woman said, and smiled in sudden great amusement at the idea, "because I'm not sure I will find you."
Privately, however, the woman was surer of nothing else at the moment.
Holly, sure only that she was needed, threw off her makeshift, moth-eaten blanket - which was really a Library patron's forgotten coat, but functioned these days mostly as Holly's blanket, because the as long as it was big and moth-eaten, it was a proper blanket - and climbed down. She didn't mind getting a few bruises, but the three sisters agreed that if Holly ever came home with bruises again, she'd have to be Punished, capital P and all that implied, so she took her time climbing down the tree, and apologized for being slow.
"It's fine," the beautiful figure of a woman said mistily. "I've always been very patient."
Finally, Holly stood in front of the woman, who towered over her physically, and, Holly thought, seemed to give off the impression of towering over the trees, too, and even the flat plain of earth, which birds technically towered over yet no one saw fit to ever remark upon or notice, seemed notably small. The woman simply towered. Holly wondered if it was one of those disabilities adults didn't like to acknowledge, like how Cygnelius seemed to have been born intolerably difficult and snooty and Sofia, by everyone's account, just seemed incapable on a very basic level of cracking a smile. The phrase larger than life sprang to mind immediately, how she'd only ever thought of applying the word to the grandest, most bizarre and powerful emotions and ideas. Yet she'd never used it to describe anything physically tangible, and she wondered at this now, why she felt so strongly about this woman's uniqueness. "What's your name?"
"Largessa," the woman said, and Holly thought that her mystery was solved. The woman was named after a goddess found in many completely different religions, and for god's sake, her name even had "large" in it. Holly smiled, inexplicably relieved. "I'm Holly," she said, and the woman smiled back, beautiful, assured, and mysterious, and before Holly knew what was happening she had cast the spell, and was heading back towards her coat-blanket.
"I want to thank you," Largessa said, and added, "Come here, and hold out your hand. I'm going to give you a present in thanks."
And Holly, being a sucker for presents, came to Largessa's side and held out her hands without question. Largessa took both of them, said something that Holly recognized as being at least partly comprised of the High Tongue of the gods, and felt something inside of her snap into its proper alignment with the universe. It felt a lot like a birthday, and coming home after a long day of being hounded and pounded by the angry twins, and -
And something she'd never felt before and didn't quite understand, which she was oddly tempted to call destiny.
"You're the Largessa, aren't you?" Holly asked, wide-eyed. Then thought, Oh, shit, and maybe even Sofia would agree with her choice of words, because she'd been Branded by Destiny Herself. She wondered why it was the gods seemed to think that the greatest reward in the universe were more of their chains and not, say, flowers or pet puppies, or a few extra minutes with pet puppies past, or even freedom from said gods' chains.
"Got it in one," Largessa said, and smiled like nothing would ever be wrong in Holly's or her life again. "Thank you, again. We'll have a nice little reunion one day, I think."
And then she was gone. Teleportation, Holly realized, and she felt dizzy, because wherever she had gone off to, it had taken more magical energy than Holly would ever have, and the goddess's signature was cold and clung tightly to everything it was in contact with. Holly felt like a long, hot bath.
The thing about meeting destiny was that when you met Her, it took your breath away. Permanently. Holly knew it was only a matter of time now, and felt a few tears leak out of her eyes involuntarily, acutely aware she was cold and scared and so alone in the woods.