Chapter 13-366: The Silver Queen (1/2)

“That is a matter for the Land, not for me. Nature Spirits can be fussy about granting Pacts to the Powered, because the Powered often regard the Pacts as little more than convenient sources of power, and they play the obligations off against other things, particularly Divine Patrons. That said, the haror are often the favored of the Spirits of Air if their souls are free of demonic influence.

“Just be aware that Windbound are wanderers, and the Landbound, like all Warlocks, roam their lands. Your time here will come to an end if you take a Warlock Pact. Warlocks return to their homes, but they do not live in them.”

His blue eyes were brighter as he looked over the sea and the beached, rusting hulls stuck out there, an energy and enthusiasm lighting up in them that had not been there earlier. “I believe that leaving the children to surpass what I have done is the correct choice, then.”

“I have a question.” I turned my eyes to Matron Osellyi at her words. “You have said that those of my people who throw off the yoke of demonkind are the Favored of the Silver Queen. I confess that I have heard nothing of this being, aside from what you have told me.”

“Oh!” I inclined my head for them to sit down again, and they quickly did so. “While none of the gods are mortal, or even ex-mortal as far as I know, Sylune is believed to be the progenitor of the haror. You are, in effect, her people, her children. It is not that you are throwing off demonium, so much you are returning to She who made you.”

The matron blinked in shock. “Is... is this true?” she had to ask.

“I don’t know. However, Her favor for the haror is indeed true. Furthermore, the haror have magical gifts that other elves never develop, at least in our experience.”

“You call her the Goddess of the Moon and Stars, and Silver Magic.” I nodded calmly. “I... have never seen a moon or stars. These are things of the other... Outer World?” she asked me.

I flicked my head. “Duh! Apologies. A true night sky looks something like this.”

I wove the illusion easily, taking over the entire area around us.

“On the surface world, you are living on the outside of the sphere, instead of inside one.” I held up a chopped-off globe for her to picture. “Thus, the world drops away, and reveals what is open and beyond, instead of what is easily reachable. Suddenly, you realize that the world is very small place.”

I gestured, and the lands rising in the distance began to fall away, sliding away, until all that was left was the blue sky, the white clouds, and the sullen orb of the molten sun far overhead.

I could tell she was massively disoriented, standing up to stare with wide eyes at the horizon, and the blue that was full of... nothing.

It was like living in tunnels and suddenly no longer having a roof over your head. It had to be borderline terrifying.

“You know what Natural Renewal is, as a spellcaster.” She nodded quickly, still staring at the illusion in stunned rapture. “Natural Renewal is the moment when the sun rises, every twenty-four hours, as the world spins into Him.”

“The world... spins?” she gasped.

“Yes. Let me take you through a day. We will start at noon, highsun, with a sun high overhead. As the world turns, and the sun remains in place, the shadow of the world creeps over and past.” She turned to watch a demonstration of a light and a ball, with a glowing dot on it indicating where we were. I turned the ball, and the position of the sun in the sky seemed to change, which she followed with wonder.

As it reached the horizon, the sky changed colors, darkening, and different shades flowing into existence beyond the blue. Astounded, she watched the sun fall behind the horizon in a play of colors.

“There. That moment. You saw when the sun touched the horizon?” She nodded. “That is the Dusk Renewal, standing opposite the Natural Renewal. It is also the time of Aethra’s Salute, when you stand and prepare to face the night. For now, there is darkness... until the dawn.”

She turned, and beheld the night full of stars, and the moon rising in the east.

I showed the view of the moon behind the planet, us turning into it, the pale whiteness actually the sunlight reflecting off it and making it easy to see... and where the sun was not shining, it was dark.

But of course, she was riveted by the stars.

Even Professor Shellington gasped. “Lady Traveler, these... are not the stars I remember,” he spoke up slowly.

“That is correct,” I stated. “But they are the stars that are there now. This show is taken from an opening in the Haze that let us look out on them.”

“The stars that are there now...” He sucked in a breath, going over the implications. “They, we... the Shroud, it moved the entire planet?” he asked softly.

“Correct. If you were to return to the surface on the Solstice when I open the Haze, Professor, you would also see something wrong with the sun.” I let him ponder that as I returned to the Matron. “As you use the world around you to navigate, the people outside learned to plot their positions using the sun, the moon, and the stars. They painted lines between the stars and gave them names, watching them rise and fall over the ages, guiding them away and back during the night.

“It is this shining light in the darkness, the stars that show wonder and paint the night, showing the way to new places and guiding the wandering home, that Sylune exemplifies. If one but learns, one can stand tall in the darkness, and face the night and all that seek to hide in the dark.

“Thus is Silver Magic, the light in the darkness.” I swirled up a display of Shards she caught out of the corner of her eye, stunned when she saw their number before I let them go. “We discover. We enlighten. We stand against the dark. We show the light in the darkness. We guide people to a better way.

“That is the path of Silver Magic, and Sylune is our Patron on that road.”