"World Guardian?" Armadyl repeated, cocking his head at the woman. "Can you hear me, Luna?"
Luna could not find the words. The avian god's words barely managed to find their way to her mind, worming through the dense fog of her shock.
"Ah," she muttered noncomittatly, lips barely twitching as her eyes flickered to Armadyl's. Locking eyes with hers, Armadyl's expression turned to one of concern when he noticed her distant gaze, her trembling hands. Armadyl had not known the chosen of Guthix for long, but he understood that this was not normal for her.
"Something happened," he concluded. "After the Stone's destruction."
"Ah," Luna squeaked, struggling to bob her head to indiciate 'yes'.
"What happened?" Armadyl asked. 'What did you see?" Curiosity burned within him to know what had shaken her so badly, but his empathy won out, and he spoke as gently as he could.
"J-" Luna begin, swallowing and pulling her arms closer to her chest, as if hugging herself. "Jas...Z-Zaros and I...we met Jas..."
Armadyl was not prepared to hear that answer. He blinked, once, twice, before daring to open his mouth again.
"You...met Jas?" he repeated in a hushed tone. "That Jas?"
Luna nodded again without saying anything.
The nighttime desert was silent, a faint breeze blowing flecks of sand from dune to dune beneath the whirlpool of stars in the sky. The other participants of the game had already taken their leave; only Icthlarin and Death had bothered to stick around to wait for Luna to reappear after the Stone's destruction.
Finishing up a conversation, Icthlarin and Death approached the two.
"Not even fragments of the Stone remain," Death said in his usual, wispy voice. "The Dragonkin were exceptionally efficient."
"The World Guardian says that she and Zaros just met with Jas," Armadyl responded quietly.
"That," Icthlarin grimaced. "...is not what I expected to hear."
"Small," Luna mumbled. "So small..."
"What was that?" Icthlarin asked, his senses still in a mess after briefly losing his divinity.
"We're nothing," Luna said, her voice gaining volume. "We're nothing. Any of us. Jas...she told Zaros that much. And then she banished him. Forced him out of her sight with nothing more than a blink."
None of the three listening to her could think of anything to say. Armadyl, Death, and Icthlarin only frowned and stared, processing her words.
"I felt like an ant," Luna continued, her lips beginning to curl up in a crazed smile. "Like an ant looking up at a mountain. Hah, I guess I still do..."
Finally becoming aware of the other's stares, Luna's smiled withered. Eyes looking away, she stuck her hand into her pocket, fishing around for a teleportation tablet.
"I need to...go somewhere else," she explained halfheartedly. "Bye..."
"Wait," Icthlarin said hurridly, stepping forward with such purpose that it caused Luna to briefly snap out of her stupor.
"Luna, we can not pretend to truly understand what you have just encountered," the canine-headed god explained. "But please, do not isolate yourself for too long. Do not suffer in silence."
"If what you claim is true," Death said calmly, "and knowing you, I will assume that it is...then consider the fate of Amascut. The briefest contact with the stunted Mah corrupted the once pure daughter of Tumeken into the malignant evil that she is today. And for you to have met an Elder God that is far stronger, and to have even held a conversation with her..."
Death's grip on his scythe tightened, fingers clenching almost imperceptibly.
"What I believe the Reaper means to say," Armadyl interrupted, "is that for you to still be standing and capable of coherent speech after encountering such a thing is a testament to your unimaginable willpower. Do not hesitate to talk about this when you are ready, Luna. We will help however we can."
Taking the time to look each of them in the eyes, Luna offered a weary nod before crushing the tablet in her hands, feeling the magic compress her down to a minuscule level before whisking her away.
Luna appeared in the entrance garden of her home a moment later, blinking and unmoving. She stood there for some unknown stretch of time, mind still too numb to process the gnawing hunger in her stomach or the still-fresh wounds she had received from her battle with Sliske.
Time. What good was time? Jas hadn't specified a time limit. When was she expecting to meet her again, to hear whatever answer she managed to scrape together?
"Oh, yes," Luna sighed aloud. "Just solve the meaning of life for me, why don't you, Luna. Oh, and there's a time limit, but you don't get to know what it is. Maybe it'll be a hundred years from now, you don't know."
To an elder god, a century might be the equivalent of a second, or a few moments. How long did she have? Luna certainly wasn't expecting to be alive a thousand years from now. Would Jas rip her soul out of the afterlife to finally hear her answer?
...no, that was too horrifying to even consider. She had seen what had happened to Hazelmere in Purgatory. If nothing else, she couldn't allow herself to die without finding some kind of answer. Being tortured with that question for an eternity until Jas finally called upon her...now that would be a true hell. And if she failed to satisfy Jas, Luna doubted that the various afterlives would escape the Elder God's Great Revision.
Each of these thoughts threatened to drive her mad if she focused on them for too long. She began to push the thoughts away, fighting them off whenever they threatened to slip into her mind again, yet whenever she cut one down, two more replaced it. Grimacing at the headache, Luna slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead.
She had to figure something out! She could not let this break her. She couldn't fail, the stakes were unimaginably high. Going insane was something that happened to other adventurers! If she failed, there wouldn't be any future adventurers picking through the ruins of her house, finding the scribblings of a long-dead madwoman.
There wouldn't be anything left at all.
"Mistress," a calm, gentlemanly voice asked. "Is something the matter? You've been standing at the entrance portal for nearly ten minutes."
Luna turned her head to look at her servant - a red-skinned demon in a butler's outfit.
"Althandriel," she nodded, sighing again. "How are you today?"
"I am perfectly well, madam, thank you," he said. "You, however, seem rather troubled. Shall I prepare the kettle?"
She had to resist the urge to say no. She couldn't wallow in despair. She had to accept this, she had to keep her wits about her.
"Yes," Luna nodded. "Yes...please."
Althandriel vanished with a nod, heading off to the kitchen to being preparing the tea. Luna shambled over to the second garden on the opposite end of her house, where a massive structure shaped like a tree stump rose up from the well-maintained grass. Luna had designed this literal treehouse as a place for her various pets to live. Colorful god-birds sat perched on the treehouse's branches, peering and cawing at her.
One of her baby dragons - Apoga, a celestial dragonling - was spread out along the grass, wings spread wide as it basked in the sun. It stretched out like a cat as Luna knelt down in front of it, growling affectionately. Luna took Apoga into her arms, cradling her like a baby and rubbing under the dragon's chin.
"Okay, my adorable little time-stopper," Luna sighed. "Mama's home, and she really needs her cuddles today."
With her dragonling in her arms, Luna turned around and sat down on the grass, leaning against the wooden exterior of the treehouse. Some of her others pets, like her TzRekJad, Broav, and her ever-faithful pet rock took notice of her melancholy mood, moving over to join the impromptu animal therapy session.
Closing her eyes, Luna focused on nothing at all, falling into a light meditation as she stilled her rampant thoughts. When she heard the grass and leaves crunch under her butler's footsteps a few minutes later, she opened her eyes, finding her butler examining her.
"I take it whatever happened must have been rather traumatic," Althandriel mused. "Would you like me to cancel your appointment with Miss Ariane tomorrow?"
"No," Luna sighed. "I...I should probably talk to her. She might have some suggestions..."
The butler nodded silently, and correctly assumed that Luna had more to say. He stood there patiently, watching as Luna looked down at the baby dragon now comfortably resting in her lap, beginning to fall asleep.
"I met the creator of the universe today," Luna said plainly. "Jas. She told me to prove the worth of mortal life. Presumably, I'm under a time limit, but she didn't tell me when she expected an answer, and if I fail, the Elder Gods plan to unmake all of existence."
"I see," the butler nodded calmly. "I'll need to prepare a second kettle, then."
"Hey," Luna laughed, the first honest mirth she had expressed in days, waking up the dragon on her lap. "I don't drink that much!"
"Indeed," Althandriel nodded. "But I expect you'll want a sleeping aid for tonight, yes? I visited the Oneiromancer, as you instructed. She assures me that the modified knockout potion will ensure that you have an uninterrupted and dreamless slumber."
"I-" Luna sighed again, head turning to look down over at the baby fire elemental nuzzling against her leg. She scratched behind its ears before turning her attention back to her butler.
"You're right," she said calmly. "I doubt I'd get any sleep tonight, otherwise. Thank you, Althandriel."
"You are quite welcome, madam. Would you prefer that I bring you a cup here in the garden, or would you like to retire to your study early tonight?"
"Bring it here, please," Luna nodded. "I...I just need to hold something alive, right now."
"Of course, Mistress. I shall return in but a moment."
As Althandriel vanished in a puff of smoke, Luna tilted her head up and allowed herself a gentle smile. She wasn't okay, not by a long shot. The shock hadn't fully worn out yet, and she knew she was going to have a lot of sleepless nights in her future.
But in this moment, right now? Surrounded by her beloved pets in the comfort of her own home? The challenge seemed almost feasible.
She wasn't okay, but she could live with this.
A/N: I had been meaning to write this for a while, but never got around to it. Can you believe it's been nearly a year and a half since Sliske's Endgame? Also, according to Jagex statistics, barely 300 (at least for the first month) people used the replay function of that quest, which is discouraging them from making more replay functions in the future.
I assure you, Jagex, it wasn't the replaying that drove people away, it was the torturous maze. That abomination took me three hours, even with a guide...but god, I kind of liked it in a masochistic sort of way. It seems like the maddening, troll-y kind of move that Sliske would do. A huge F you to all of the participants that ultimately didn't accomplish anything, anyway.
Well, anyway, RuneScape quests are the best, and are the main reason I stick around. Here's to seeing a lot more of them. And I have more plans to write RuneScape stuff! My next RS short should be coming quite soon.
PS: The baby celestial dragon's name (Apoga) is a shortening of the word Apogalacticon, an astronomy term that indicates when an orbiting star is at its maximum distance from the center of its local galaxy. Isn't that a fun word to say?