These days, Mina has a scowl permanently affixed to her face.
It's not quite that she dislikes the new faction that's cropped up, nor their leaders. They are all people with whom she has worked just fine in the past. The idea of harmony, among the Dragon and the Goddess, is a very sweet one; it even has its appeal. They both gave life, after all, and their complimentary aspects paint a beautiful picture of harmony.
It's simply that they are wrong. If Chibi's dreams and her prayers have taught her anything, it's that Stasis is not a force to be reckoned with: not something benevolent, not something that can be embraced. The energy of destruction will lead to just that: destruction. Their Goddess has told them through Her greatest prophet, after all.
She has tried for months to reason with them – and, of course, there are the priests who were on her side all along. Harmony will come from unity with our Goddess, they say, and we are creatures of Wakfu. We are created in Her image, and it is to Her that we shall look for our future. Yet more and more, the higher priests turn to the Dragon for worship, speak 'balance' when they know not the word's meaning. At least, that's how Mina thinks.
(One time, one of them asked her: "But if the Goddess and the Dragon are one in love, should we not look to further understanding of the Dragon to unify with our Great Goddess? Isn't it distrusting Her Judgment to deny the Dragon's power?" She didn't have an answer for that.)
Mina prays a lot, these days. She likes to think the Goddess answers her – with a leaf falling on her hat from the maple tree above, with a little ray of sun peeking through the cloud, the brush of the wind like a comforting brush of Her hair against her cheek. She likes to think she hears Her whisper, quiet but powerful, against the grass.
Today, she prays as well, for hours upon hours. She does her exercises, lets Wakfu flow from her heart into her hands, tracing patterns of runes and flowers into the sky. She nearly begs for the Goddess' help, for Her divine guidance in trying times. The Goddess may answer, but her child's ears cannot hear it. Still, Mina tries.
She cannot shake the heavy dread within her stomach, not with all the prayers in the world.
It's Phaeris who finds her, sitting alone in the inner sanctum of the temple, shawl drawn tight around her shoulders. It's chilly, after all, and she is a thin and small thing; she can only handle the cold for so long. He takes one of the robes from his shoulders – dragons can handle the cold, but their sisters should not have to - and drapes it over hers.
"I know your conscience weighs on you, my sister, but there are some you cannot save," he says. Mina jumps and wheels around; she had expected solitude, wished for solitude, but a sibling knows when the other is in pain. A sibling has an intuitive sense of where the other is, what the other is thinking. Phaeris feels Mina's pain as a poking pang in his lungs, as though someone's lodged a flail in the cavity of his ribs – and it pokes again as she starts to speak.
"I may not be able to save them, but perhaps She may. It was never my intent to do Her job, merely to send the lost to Her arms." Mina can't help feeling like a child caught swiping a cookie, and the blush on her cheeks can only be partially explained by the cold. She prepares herself for a well-deserved admonishment.
"Perhaps She may, but She does not issue guarantees," Phaeris says. Mina winces; her brother has this annoying trait, best described as Always Being Right. (Phaeris would say the same of Mina.)
"Then it is up to me, is it not?" Phaeris grits his teeth; his sister has this annoying trait, best described as Taking the Whole Krosmoz on Her Shoulders. (Mina would say the same of Phaeris.)
"It is up to them. What can you do if they will not seek Her guidance?" Mina looks unconvinced; Phaeris continues. "You have not eaten. You have barely slept. I know you have faith in them, Mina, and for that you are stronger than I, but you cannot go on like this – and if you do, I will stop you."
"And how do you propose to stop me?" she says. A dragon brother can no more hurt his sister than the right hand can cut off the left. Phaeris thinks for a moment – with what can I threaten her, so that she looks out for herself? – but settles for an imposing look. "
I am your brother, and I have my ways."
There's a tense silence for a few moments after that, with Mina looking down to her hands, folded in her lap. When she looks up, it's the first time she's looked anyone straight in the eye in a week.
"You are right," Mina says, with a sigh. Phaeris extends a clawed hand to her, and she takes it. "Let's go home."