It Means No Worries (Part 1)

[Norani]

Frost 47, 122 following https://www.legendofransera.com/viewtopic.php?t=4316


Norani was trudging through the darkness, the grasses nearly as tall as herself swaying around her. The air was cold as it rustled through, sending shivers deep into her bones. The sky overhead contained far more stars and planets and galaxies than she'd ever seen in her life. Ahead of her, Vaka was showing her the way, stalking his way on a path to what Norani hoped to be the doorway to Juno.

Norani paused, and Vaka knew to pause as well. She felt it before it happened, as a flame opened up in the grass between her and her aidolon, singing everything around it. And she stepped out, in a robe made of fire and stars, one eye a glowing amethyst, the dragonstone inset there, the other pitch black in its entirety, her red curls flaring out around her.

"I can't let you go any further, Windwalker."

The winds rippled angrily around them, responding to the growing fear within Norani's stomach. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to not tear up, "Please... Yeva. Don't do this. We were supposed to be doing this together."

Her cackle cut through the world like lightning, "You actually thought someone could love you?" She was clutching at her side as she laughed, "You?" A hand went up dismissively, "I've seen your entire life, Windwalker. Your past, your future, that which will never happen. Your family kept their secrets because they didn't love you. Juno was claimed because she didn't love you. Kaiko and Ruvaf died because they didn't love you. You have never been and will never be loved." A smirk upon the Dark Seer's face, "Especially by me."

Her arms stretched at her sides, and the fire of her robes spread quickly through the grasses, encircling them both. "How could anyone love such a failure? Someone so weak? So scared? So broken." She laughed louder now, and the flames around her laughed with her, "We'll be doing the world a favor to remove you from its memory."

The sky behind her turned pitch black, stars and galaxies being consumed by the darkness. "Join us. Or let the last memory the world has of you is you, once again, failing to accomplish anything meaningful."


Norani gasped awake, water splashing her face. She bolted upright, barely missing Glorbp Glorbp hovering there, a concerned look upon his face. She looked around, her chest rising and falling rapidly with her breath. Fire. Everywhere she looked around her, the plants were ablaze. Her eyes went wide, and she felt her rune screaming silently about the imbalance here. Vomi Vani was rushing about, using her powers to usher the plants away from those that were burning.

Norani leapt up, snapping her aether forward, only to realize these flames already had her aether in them. Her eyes grew wide. She snuffed the flames immediately, recalling her aether, looking around at the smoking and charred remains of everything around the nest she'd made to sleep last night. She was grateful for the hut that was built for her, but something about sleeping under the stars felt closer to Yeva.

She didn't even know she could do magic in her sleep. Tears filled her eyes once more, seeing the damage she'd caused. She rushed over to Vomi Vani, crashing to her knees, Glorpb Glorpb racing after her. Her eyes searched the small elemental for signs of damage. Petals were singed, roots were curled and dried. Norani's hands instinctively turned to water as she reached out for the flowery elemental. She stuck her roots into Norani's hands and she drank the charged aether, and her body began to repair itself. She looked up at Norani and smiled, laughing.

Norani pooled her watery aether into her voice, "Aren't you mad? Scared?"

Vomi Vani continued to drink, before sending petals from her form out into the gentle breeze rolling through. As the petals landed upon the charred plants, the repaired and grew back. They grew back differently, sending out new shoots and leaves, not undoing the damage, but still, healing from it. As everything grew back, Vomi Vani bounced, her big eyes looking at Norani as she chirped.

[Norani]

Vomi Vani stopped drinking, having had her fill of the water aether, and the world around them was calmed once more. Norani rolled back onto her bottom, as Glorbp Glorbp floated over, bumping at her watery arms with his head. As her water mingled with his own, she felt a connection form, bridging the two of them together through the shared element. It was curious, she could feel life within Glorbp Glorbp, but it certainly was not the same as those she felt through her Animus rune. Deciding to explore this connection, she sent some aether through the bridge, tinging it with a question as her intention.

'May I?'

No response came, though Glorbp Glorbp turned and looked up at her with his big, watery eyes, perhaps a little confused. She asked again, but this time, she flowed her Animus aether through first, charging it with her Echolalia as she had done when she first arrived, and then translated it into water, which she then passed into the little elemental. This time an answer came.

'Yes.'

While the two were silently speaking, Vomi Vani plopped herself down in Norani's lap, and sent down roots into the soil between her thighs, content to just be planted there near the elementalist. Norani pushed her aether further into Glorbp Glorbp now that he had given his consent. As she did, he also pushed aether into her, sending it up to her eyes, her ears, her nose and mouth and skin. She used this as a sign, a signal of his intentions. She closed her eyes for a moment, and opened herself up to water. Slowly her skin turned transparent, revealing her muscles and veins, and those slowly faded as well. Soon, all of her physical body was gone, and was now replaced by water in the shape of herself. She no longer had bones or muscles or veins for she no longer needed them. And even though her skin was now the surface of a gentle moving river, her runes and tattoos remained in place upon it, unwavering.

She opened her eyes, looking at the world around her in awe. Before, where she had seen trees and plants and soil and sky, she saw shades of water. She could see the water that was part of everything. She gasped in wonder and awe. She saw where water flowed within the shape of a nearby tree, moving up from the roots and in from the air. A complex system of transport that gave life to such a mighty plant. She could see how the water in the air that made one's skin feel sticky lazed and bumbled. It moved not of its own accord, but at the whims of the winds and temperatures around it. She could see temperatures in the water now. Cooler water was darker in the shape of the ground and lighter hued as it floated through the air.

She looked down at Vomi Vani, seeing a complex swirl of water flowing in from her rooted feet, racing through the elemental, far faster than it did in the tree or any other plants here. Norani looked to the sky, seeing the deep and dense darkness of a cloud there, pregnant with a rainfall, heavy and cold. She knew that water was necessary for life, everyone knew that. But seeing it like this. Being able to feel the water in other living beings, to hear every ebb and flow, to know that the world was truly built from the elements, was inspiring. She cast her gaze to the damaged and healing branches she had burned, and she could see water flowing through them anew, and she was relieved.

They had been harmed by her, but not irreparably so.

Looking upwards once more, she saw the black orb that was the eclipse, and it was simply dark and empty and void of any water, of anything at all it seemed. She knew it had something to do with Yeva's disappearance. It must have. It could not possibly be a coincidence. Her brows furrowed as she looked at it. She could feel her rune telling her that the Eclipse was bringing terrible imbalance in the elements, not just to the land she was in now, but everywhere. Was it more than simply Ghoron and the elements and the seasons being locked away in an everlasting battle? Could the world heal?

She looked down at Vomi Vani once more, who chirped and smiled up at her. Yes, anything could heal, if you worked at it. Norani exhaled, an unnecessary action that sent fog down upon Vomi's petals forming dew upon them, but one that relieved her of some tension. Anything could heal. She nodded at this, standing up now, as Glorbp Glorbp slid fully inside her watery form. Norani looked around her, seeing that many more of the little elementals had gathered and were watching the elementalist quietly. All of them had water within them, in varying amounts. The little fiery one had water at the edges, forming swirls of vapor, and the storm one swirled mightily with more water than Norani had expected to see.

Maybe that's why the language of water that she had tried to use could be understood by all of them. And she used it once again now to speak to all of them.

"My name is Norani Windwalker. I will free Ghoron, the elements, and the missing seasons. Please, help me to understand the elements, to understand each of you, better." The fiery lotus tattoo over her heart flared into actual flame, as did her eyes now, "I will bring back balance, to the world, to myself." The winds around her, answering as her Arche, began to swirl around her form shaping and twisting the water, "And I will bring Yeva home." The ground around her responded as well, the soil reaching up, mixing into the base of her watery form.

"Will you help me?"

An answer was given, in unison by all of the little elementals.

'Yes.'

[Paragon]

P A R A G O N

The stormy elemental zipped forward, buzzing curiously as jolts of electricity flittered about its form. It moved in a slightly erratic way, never quite going in a straight line but always managing to land where it wanted to in the end. It hovered nearby before settling in her hair. The winds gathered and became electrified for a moment as the storm elemental aligned with Norani’s aetheric manifestations. It buzzed contentedly before the rest of the elementals shuffled closer together, peering and examining Norani in her ascended elemental state.

R E W A R D S

Name: Norani
XP: 10 XP, can be used for magic.
Requested Lore: +6 Lores

Note(s): Norani is developing a very interesting relationship with the elements. It's nice to see her grow and express herself through its utilization.