Tears of a Goddess Author: Cyhirae

Notes: Anyone else wonder just where the Jumi came from? There wasn't a race anything like them on Fa`Diel in any of it's past incarnations. This is just a little idea I came up with to explain it...

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-Tears of a Goddess-
She cradled Her child in Her arms, Her soft sighs moving the wispy viels about as She watched those Her daughter had given birth to rise and grow. She watched them become arrogant- first they praised Her Name, and built temples in Her honor....but Her daughter was forgotten- nothing more than rock and dirt beneath their feet that they might live upon. She tried to set Her foolish grandchildren right- even abandoning Her throne on high for a time to try to guide them by being one of them.

She took a mortal husband, continuing Her immortality through Her own form..for She had only one child and nothing could replace Her lovely, forgotten Fa`Diel...She would not even try to replace her with some paltry child of flesh.

And yet they would still not learn. She revealed Herself to Her followers and took the form of a great Tree to remind them of the strength in their world, but still it was only Her name they cried, Her power they praised. She continued Her cycle of death and birth against the advice of Her siblings who remained apart from Her lovely daughter and arrogant grandchildren...until her arrogant, wistful grandchildren did dare strike against those still hiding far beyond the glittering jewels She had placed over Her daughter to amuse her.

She lived only by Her daughter's will, hidden in the great Tree many had come to hail as "The Mana Tree" for the abundant power about it. Always Her. Why did they never acknowledge Her daughter? And neither did Her daughter complain. All she asked of her Mother after the horrid Fortress' first fall was a way to guard her children from their own arrogance. The Goddess agreed and returned to cradle Her poor wounded daughter in Her arms once more- leaving two brothers and a sister of Fa`Diel behind. Two children of mere flesh who would continue the line She had started...and a sword that would unite the powers of Her lovely daughter against Her grandchildren should they dare to commit such a sin once more.

From on high She watched as the Fortress raised once more- the children of Her daughter rising to the challenge behind the sword and Her own distant grandchild of the flesh..old trials repeating and repeating, but never did they call on Her daughter. They rent her lands apart, drank of the brilliant blue blood of her waters and then dropped their waste and refuse into it- ah, Her poor child. Her poor forgotten child....Why did no one remember that Her precious Fa`Diel was their mother? Why did they forget her?

The Goddess bowed Her head over her daughter's battered form, tears slipping from Her eyes like a rain of glittering light. Far below, Fa`Diel recieved her Mother's tears gently....understanding her Mother's inability to accept the arrogant thoughtlessness of the children. She took them into her heart and treasured them for the gems they were, filling their sorrow with her joy as well, and a love for life such as no mere being of flesh could ever understand.

These gems were then shown to her Mother- a glittering swath filling her caverns and canyons...But even as they delighted her Mother, so to did her arrogant, prideful children see and covet these gems. They were stolen from her care, cut and carved to suit their shallow pendants and decorations...befouling the gift of a daughter to her Mother. The Goddess raged at this and would have struck down at those who would so despoil her daughter for the sake of such an endevour, but Fa`Diel bid Her wait...it was the nature of a child to reach for that which glittered and shone.

And so She watched longer- until She could take no more. She descended to Her daughter's wounded flesh once again- standing among one of the few remaining canyons of glittering tears. There, She breathed life into these tears- creating more siblings for Her daughter. Ones who would understand Fa`Diel's pain, her love...children born from the grief of the Goddess and the joy of the Daughter. These new children She sent into the world to seek to correct the flaws of the other children, to show them how to care for more than themselves.

She watched them grow.

She watched them change.

She watched them die at the hands of the other children until their own tears of life and love ceased to flow from all but a chosen few.

And She wept the tears they could not.

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They say when a Jumi cries, the sky cries with them. But what great storm can produce so many tears as to bathe all of Fa`Diel's burned and dying flesh at once...?