One to Another {Kala Leukos}

[Rune]

The flavor of the treats changed from moment to moment, but none of them were unpleasant. If they were concentrated on, the flavors conjured ideas that were not associated with culinary sensations. One bite might taste like arousal or ambition or adoration, however that worked. It seemed a combination of the nature of both confections and the place that held them. While they had a springy substance in the hand, once they passed the lips they melted almost instantly, suffusing Kala with an energy that had nothing to do with her stomach or even her body. There was a reservoir inside the fledgling goddess that eating the pure worship made obvious in the same way that the location of one's stomach becomes obvious only when it is empty.

The bone-deep fatigue began to slacken its hold and clarity to return.

Eshar was watching closely, golden eyes brighter for their attention.

"The aetheric tongue? More like 'the long hiss'." The words were spoken and heard, distinctly, in a language that did, indeed sound like a combination of hisses and rumbles, but while Kala's ears did not know the sounds, her mind interpreted them as easily as it did Common. The host switched back to Common to continue,

"All languages can be understood here. At least, so long as I wish them to. It can help some with learning a language, but hinder others. Nuance is easier to learn with perfect translation, but your mind doesn't learn to listen for it as much as it would in the world. But even I can not teach you a language in a night. So, for now, let's try something easier."

Scooting to the edge of their chair, Eshar held out one hand, palm up.

"You have Elementalism, so I'll assume you know how to make an Elemental Lodestone? Making a tangible version of worship is remarkably similar."

Concentrating on the surface of their hand, Eshar poured the energy of the worship they received from their reservoir into a little pool of power that slowly coalesced into a similar candy to those on the table.

"It can look like whatever you want. I just like candy." They grinned and popped the newly created treat into their mouth where they made it dissolve more slowly so Kala could watch, through her Semblance, as it returned to the reservoir.

"You could also re-absorb it through any part of you, it just makes sense to 'eat' it, so it takes no thought. Worship comes in different forms, but mainly two: Sustained faith, and sudden need. The first typically has to come from a sentient being," They wavered their hand back and forth to imply that 'sentient' was a messy term, "who chooses to worship a deity specifically. They don't have to know that it is you that they worship, but some concept of a god that resonates with your domains. Reverence to your general concept is good, reverence to you specifically is better, but can also be dangerous. More on that later."

They paused to take a sip of whatever was in their own teacup,

"The second kind can come from such followers, and will, in moments of desperation or adoration, but you'll get a lot more from randos. Or," They eyed Kala again, "I do. Your domain might affect that. Lots of people get desperate in their Desires, I don't know how many do for Unity but..."

They shrugged, pondering,

"Asking for help might be considered a version of pleading for Unity. I am excited to find out. Anyway, all of that will go into your 'worship stomach'." They made finger quotes in the air, "Which, at the moment, isn't that big. You don't have that many worshipers yet, and your domain is still fuzzy, if you will, in the group consciousness, hardly there at all, so you probably aren't having much spillover. If you are it is probably just filling your body, giving you energy, reducing the amount you need to sleep or eat to stay healthy. But as you go, you will probably run into times when your reservoir is filling up and you don't need it to currently make any miracles happen. In those cases, you could just do some miracles anyway, but that inevitably leads to more followers, which leads to more worship. It's easier to just push it into little treats or gems or whatever you feel like and hold it for when you need a big bang, or like, I dunno, a big Unity?"

They gestured to Kala with a 'you know what I mean' expression on their face.

[Kala Leukos]

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"There seems to be only so much I can learn from books, and dragons do not like to share, at least in my limited experience." She knew there were star dragons out there among the stars, but she didn't yet know how to go out and meet them. She wasn't certain they could survive on rock orbiting a star. The air she breathed was alien to them.

Alas.

When she let her sembling mingle with her divine nature, she found herself picking up two or three of the offerings at once and tasting them. They seemed to burst all the more fiercely; she realized she had found concepts that complemented each other, and the Unity they found in her mouth made them all the more palatable, all the more powerful, at least for her.

Kala nodded, affirming her understanding of basic geomancy. She watched, Saw.

Cupping a hand before her, she reached out of this place they were. That was incorrect. Her understanding of geometry was—not off—but not applicable here, much in the way that she understood how the engines at the hearts of stars worked but didn't have the context to articulate the cascading reaction to anyone else in words they might understand. She reached, and the people of Starfall were as close to her as her neck-vein. In a sense, they were a part of her body, their souls a part of her blood. No, that wasn't right. Not exactly.

Not wrong either, not exactly.

She found she could also sense Kaus and her other bonds as if they were there beside her. Eshar's realm wasn't a place exactly, or, rather, it overlapped place as she understood it, again in a way she couldn't articulate in any language she had studied.

Her mother was in there, somehow both the primal deity one knew from before one achieved consciousness and an interesting insect. Their relationship would only get stranger, but there was a strange sort of worship from the woman. It blended with the rest when she stopped focusing on her in particular. There was Need in her divine blood, but there was also Thanksgiving. Perhaps the people of Starfall, so long used to hiding arcane secrets and looking up to the Avialae dynasty that led them, were best suited for worshiping a new goddess.

Kala's skin began to burn like the surface of a star, without heat. She shone faintly like dawnstone, light wisping away from her like steam. It concentrated in her hand, however. It did not look like food, but it was; food in the shape of a minuscule star. This star was slowly turning, and its substance gradually came apart, descending into her hand to disappear into her flesh. Her veins began to glow like golden rivers through her skin as it was absorbed into her body, which was, for now, still her vessel.

She got the sense that when she fully inhabited the mantle of stars, she might have a nigh unlimited source of sheer power. For now, her psyche shuddered away from the enormity of that.

The blue of her wide eyes was tinged with that selfsame gold as she looked at Eshar in wonder. Her pupils were dilated and so very, very dark, blacker than a starless sky or a deep road into the bowels of the planet. The blackness was hungry, gravity barely held in check. Then she blinked and she was just a young woman, only remarkable for the wings upon her back.

"There is Unity in Desire," she noted, half-fey for the feeding. "The desire for connection is a desire for unity..."

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[Rune]

The implication of a need, of a Desire in Kala to know the language of wyrms tugged at Eshar. There was a struggle for a moment, but the other small god was not starving to indulge, so their nature could be suppressed, for the moment. Desire was an interesting thing to be a slave to, even as its supposed master, perhaps particularly as such. Worship, like food, was necessary for survival but could easily become an indulgence, even an addiction if not kept in check. When one's domain was Desire itself, existing became a complicated tangle of indulgence and self control that could slip over the edge at any time. Sometimes Eshar did slip, but they didn't blame themselves for it, everyone needed their vices, even gods, so long as it didn't come to control them, they didn't see any reason to fight all that hard.

Golden eyes enhanced by Semblance watched as Kala found ways to conform the comfits to fit her domain and approved. There was a good deal of useful instinct in this one. So much of learning to be a deity was instinct, even with a willing teacher, there were things unique to each, powers that no one else would ever wield that must be learned by feeling ones way through.

The pair sat in silence as the Lady of Starfall (so apt a title it slipped right into ironic to Eshar's mind) pulled in the power granted by those who worshiped her and brought it together in her palm. Neither noticed the lack of conversation, for the moment, however small, was momentous. The fabric of realty felt the reaching, felt the holding, felt it all and acknowledged it. To Eshar it was as if the light around them sang softly, though that was probably only in their head, or their soul. When the light faded, mostly, from Kala's skin Eshar brought their hands together in almost a clap. The gesture seemed congratulatory, buy to which of them it was meant, or both, there was no telling.

"Brilliant." This single word was several compliments as well as a statement. "Your spiritual reservoir is like a stomach in many ways and it is easiest to think of it that way. For me. As I said, you can use the energy within it to sustain your mortal needs, and like a stomach, it will expand if you over-fill it regularly. I suggest you do. Older gods can do greater miracles because they can hold more power. I hold some in me at all times, for safety and emergencies but also to ensure the space never shrinks. You can over-fill it too much, the solution to which is either make yourself some little worship-cakes," They gestured to the plate of candies, "Or use it for some Domain appropriate miracle."

[Kala Leukos]

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When Eshar didn't respond to her insight upon Desire and Unity, she let it drop for the time being. There was something mercurial about the other moritasi—wait, yes, moritasi felt right; there was a sliver of chaos in Eshar, she thought—and she had faith that she would learn what she needed to learn that day, and perhaps answers or responses to somethings might come later, when the correct context was in place. She didn't know how old Eshar was, a hidden little god, nor did she know how long she would have to exist in this state of apotheosis before time's meaning truly began to shift for her.

"At first I didn't know to eat. Then... well, I haven't been starving myself, but containing more power means more power is necessary to invert my aura, hold my nimbus in check. But I suppose I must learn, must grow. I don't want my power to outrun my wisdom, however. I am actively trying to learn from the mistakes of others. I do not wish to be kidnapped, incarcerated, and such as was Talon. Nor do I want to be struck from people's memory, from my own memory, as was Rickter. Talon, Arcas; Rickter, Lykos; Aværys, Streleon; Varvara, Ugrimal. She wondered if she would have to give herself a divine name, whether that ought to be a part of coming out of the chrysalis at some point.

"I have been to the Pantheon. Naori Herself bade me come, though I was able to veil my mortal identity. I suppose it is more widely known now, at least by the elder gods. But I have spoken to Avatar at some length. They say I now have the power to create a holy place for myself on this plane. Not yet to claim a corner of Nod. I had considered Starfall. It is my mortal home. But I will take myself out of the succession when my divinity becomes known. I do not want them forsaking my brother and his line because there is a divine option. I don't seek temporal power. Perhaps it ought to be elsewhere. I just don't know. And once I am... known... I will need to figure out how to empower my brother as my herald, my Silver Wings as my paladins..."

Though she was restored, she leaned back into the comfort of the chair with a sigh.

It was just a lot.

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[Rune]

It wasn't that Eshar hadn't heard the comment. But time was short, Kala was exhausted, and if drawn into the idea of connection, of Unity in Desire, they would likely have ended up teaching and learning an entirely different type of lessons. The sort that one enjoyed in bed, or on floors, or any number of other positions becau...

The godling shook their head to clear out the pleasant and insidious images that were attempting to fill it. There would be time for that, with this woman or another, or a man, or any combination or lack of genders imaginable. It was difficult, at times, to concentrate when one was the Deity of Desire. One's own desires counted as desires, and indulging them could become a never-ending loop of delightful self worshiping if one wasn't careful. Of course, sometimes one didn't want to be careful, quite the opposite, but now was one of the times for caution. When one invites a star into their parlor, one must take care not to let the whole place burn down.

Kala was speaking sense, wisdom as she had named it, so Eshar just listened for a little while, and if golden eyes rolled at the mention of the pidge prince and the lost hound, it was not intended to slow the conversation. Kala was an Avialae herself, full fledged, as it were, and that was something new. It was something old as well, but for this age, it was new and that wasn't nothing. Whispers of how that had come about had come down various pipelines but Eshar's curiosity could wait.

When the even smaller god sighed and leaned into her chair Eshar sat forward again.

"It doesn't need to be now, the choosing of your place, and it doesn't need to be made known. It could still be Starfall, if that is where you feel drawn. Forcing divine things against your nature is possible but not pleasant, nor especially effective. When you feel ready for more, you can always come ask me. Think of me like a very sexy elder sibling."

They stopped to consider this, "Or cousin."

More consideration, "Distant, sexy cousin who you met as an adult so it isn't weird if there is kissing."

The sharp grin that followed this was amusement and flirting and acknowledgement of Kala's earlier similarly toned statement. It was a joke, and could be brushed aside without insult, but it was also an offer of a new kind.

"You can come to me whenever you have questions, my answers might not fit you perfectly, but they can at least point you in the right direction. I am very good at seeing what people want and giving it to them, when I am willing. I think that, right now, what you want is to go home and ignore being a goddess to be a woman who wants a nap. I'll open a portal for you, but, first, is there anything you...want?"

[Kala Leukos]

.

Eshar was by no means unattractive—in fact, they seemed designed to be attractive—but Kala's attraction seemed to move at a glacial pace compared to others. Her lips curled into a small, speculative smile, though time would have to tell whether anything ever came of that particular offer.

She looked thoughtful at the final question, though whether it was earthly desires of celestial ones she felt, well, Eshar ought to know. Perhaps they needed her to speak them into the air in order to manifest them.

"I want a great many things," she affirmed. "A nap is one of them."

Though her strength was refreshed, she knew that if she laid down, her eyes would drop and consciousness would drift so her dreaming mind could process so much of what had happened, what had been said.

"I want to learn to speak and read Draconic. I want to make headway in freeing the Kathar. I want..." She paused, looking into Eshar's golden eyes. "I think the only quickly achievable desire is a nap, but if you would like to call upon me in Kalzasi or Starfall, you are welcome to. I do travel in service to the Shokaze as well as for my own purposes, but I suppose you have your mortal life as well and can send mail."

She paused again.

"I would like to come back, to learn more of the covens. I used to be more circumspect, but now I don't suppose even the High Sentinel will come down too hard on me if I come to Zaichaer without the First Minister's invitation. Bruno Storlock is a better healer than I am... A goddess ought to be able to heal." It might be Ioniri's domain, but that didn't preclude Kala from using her skills for good, and she could share lore with Marda Ahtivin. The elder belonged to Ioniri, and yet she hadn't broken the bond with Kala.

"Unity between Zaichaer and Kalzasi won't be easy, but I think that if Karnor is not united, it will be absorbed, piece by piece, through diplomacy or war or trade, by larger nations."

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