GODDD another update that didn't take forever. And you don't even get to find out who killed Lia... how boring. Don't worry, I will finally stop milking the suspense in the next chapter. Next chapter will be the official "WHO KILLED LIA" chapter, so look forward to that.
[Soundtrack: Daud Encounter - Dishonored]
"Rise and shine, boss!"
What?
Shadow's body is shocked with icy water and he rises from his slumber with a jump. To the right, Evren is holding a large bucket and grinning impishly. "You know you're never gonna become King of Hecatea if you sleep all through the morning!"
Shadow looks down at his body, his hands, his legs… Then he glances back at his companion. "Evren… what happened last night after I…"
"Luna, thank you for coming to help us. I'm so glad you're here!"
"Shadow, you need to -"
"No, it can't be… Not her… This has to be a fucking joke…"
His head starts to hurt and his eyes burn as he remembers her face, heartshaped and rosy, her big, brown eyes widening as she spots him, and her broken scream as he falls towards her -for some reason, it tears at his very soul.
"Boss? You alright?" Evren asks, putting the bucket down and scrutinizing Shadow with confusion all over her face.
"Evren, what the fuck happened last night?" Shadow snaps, inklings of the darkness he was so familiar with coating his tone with acid and bile.
She seemed to be at a loss for words and then managed to sputter. "I got no clue. I was with Rayan at the festival last night. You was off drinking with Thunder… You probably had too much to drink…" After that, she scowls. "And what're you acting like a cunt for? If you don't want to do your job then someone more qualified can do it for you."
"What festival?" he pushes, staring intensely at her and ignoring her harsh words.
Evren sighs, her expression softening, and crosses her arms. "Foolish young king… how fucked up did you get last night?"
He decides to get straight to the point and gets out of bed, his imposing height dwarfing Evren, who is by no means a small woman. "Evren, last night we both went to the Grand Temple of Atlas and witness the rebirth of the Goddess Luna."
The snort that comes from Evren catches Shadow off guard, and soon, she's hunched over, clutching her gut and laughing. "The Goddess Luna? Are you listening to yourself?"
Every guffaw out of her mouth grated on Shadow's nerves. How could she not remember any part of that night? "And I fell through the skylight. I remember falling into it and Luna, she -" He sighs and shuts his eyes, trying to recall her face again.
"The skylight?" Evren questions between breaths. "Mate, you didn't die, you just had too much to drink. Maybe it was a dream," she suggests, and then with a sly glance at his groin, she adds, "If you dreamt about the Goddess, that explains your little friend there!" She then lets out a series of laughs that sound more like coughs.
Face reddening in both embarrassment and anger, Shadow grabs a cloak and begins to cover his bare body. "... shut up, Evren."
[Soundtrack: Tatakai no Mae no Shizukesa - Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Sound Duel 4]
Her nightmare shakes her to her core. The last thing she remembers before losing consciousness is a man falling through the skylight, his head cracking on the stone floor of the presbytery, and her screams echoing in the hall before everything goes black.
Muffled voices and darkness are the only real things to her right now. Her eyes are open but she's covered in something thick and hot, making her sweat and also obscuring her vision. With a groan, she begins to push against the thick leather covering her, but her arms weakly struggle under its weight. Thankfully, her fidgeting doesn't go unnoticed and someone raises it off of her.
As soon as she's able to, she sucks in a deep breath, taken by surprise at how shallow her breath feels. She shudders as she tries to compensate for the air she's missing out on but her lungs only seem to take in half of what they normally would. Eventually realizing this, she starts to breathe more slowly, trying to get accustomed to the lack of air.
"Are you alright, young lady?"
Her ears perk up at the words. They're so familiar that she can't help but predict his next words: Gods, what a miracle.
"Gods, what a miracle."
She can remember what happens next. They proceed to inform her that she was a bare corpse when they found her at their doorstep, barely any flesh on her bones, and that she healed back to life overnight. The old couple that found her had decided to cover her body in blankets and send her to get cremated the very next morning, and now they likely want to send her to a priest. At least, that's what happened before.
"What is your name, child?" the old man, brown-skinned and covered in freckles, asks her, leaning over her resting place.
Last time, she remembers she had told him she couldn't remember her name. That's a lie. She doesn't want anyone to know her real name -it's attached to so much pain, and if this is a fresh start, then she wants to take it. Fortunately, the last time around, she was given a name, and it's as good a name as any.
"M-My name is Luna," she tells him. "I'm not sure where I came from, but is this Atlantis?"
"Why yes!" the second man informs her, giving his husband a curious glance. "Are you saying you are not an Atlantean?"
She shakes her head. "No, I don't think so, but I don't remember anything else about myself." Another lie, but every memory she has before this moment is painful, both physically and emotionally.
The first man speaks again. "Perhaps you could go pray to Neptune at the Temple. The priests may be able to seek divine wisdom to help you find your way."
She nods politely and gets to her feet. "Do either of you have a robe I could use to cover my body?"
The men look at each other before the lighter-skinned one rushes off. "I believe I may have something for you."
[Soundtrack: The Western Approach - Dragon Age: Inquisition]
Once she's dressed, she leaves the small cottage and begins her trek to the city. She recalls the way from the first time she walked this path. She begins to think about her purpose in this universe. Surely it isn't to go to the temple, meet the king, watch the young man fall and die, only to wake up at the beginning of the day again.
She also takes this time to look around at the Atlantean scenery around her. It's a beautiful country and she's in awe at the sight of the beautifully paved pathways, even in the backwater countryside. The glimmer of reds and blues in the stone below are awe-inspiring, especially as they cast their colorful hues all over the stone of the small houses, making the bland grey several times more appealing.
She closes the robe tighter around her body and raises the hood over her ears when she feels a sudden breeze. In spite of the robe she had been so graciously given by the old couple, her body is still completely naked underneath the heavy cloak, and it makes her quite self-conscious that she doesn't have anything to bind her breasts or her nether regions.
At the city gates, she is stopped by the city guard who demands to know her reason for entering the city, to which she replies, feeling a pang of guilt at the lie she is telling. "My name is Luna, and I'm here to see King Dartz."
The guard tenses for a moment at the sound of that name, and he briefly scrutinizes her face as though he'd be able to disprove her lie just like that. Then he starts to laugh, quietly and uncertainly at first, and then uproariously. "Oh, that was a good one, lass. I almost believed you. Now tell me what you're really here to do. And your real name, too."
Luna locks her jaw in frustration before saying, "That is the whole truth. Tonight there will be no moon in the sky, and you can keep me here all night to verify if you wish, but you would only be wasting precious time. Your King needs me, for there are dark times ahead. Do you want to be the reason Atlantis sinks into the sea? What would your younger sister think, Gareth?"
In all honesty, she's surprised she was able to bullshit that well; perhaps all the books she'd read about seers foretelling grim prophecies were preparing her for this very moment. The guard's name is actually something she remembers from the last time, as the old couple escorted her into the city. They had seemed quite familiar with him and his family and dealt with him quite often.
Nonetheless, her bullshit works on him, and the 6 ft boy shuffles before her, looking much smaller than her in despite being an entire foot taller than her. "M-My apologies, your W-Worship. Please forgive my foolishness." He can't even make eye contact with her as he steps to the side and lets her through.
Once inside, she decides not to head directly for the city center to meet the King, preferring to take in the new city she's in. Part of her just knows she's going to get lost, but it still hasn't sunk in, and all she wants to do is enjoy the clean air, the sound of the people crowding the narrow streets, and the feeling of freedom.
She begins to wonder if she even needs to go see the King at all, after all, she isn't really Luna, and she can simply lie and make up any other name. Nobody knows her here; she has no responsibilities, no worries, no problems. Nobody expects anything of her, and she can just be free. This is a true freedom that she once thought only death would bring.
She lets out as deep a breath as she can manage with her shortened breath in a content sigh, as she passes by a herald, announcing something she doesn't quite understand. Her feet lead her into a spacious plaza, with the scent of fish and flowers rushing into her nostrils, the juxtaposition of the two scents not lost on her. Something about the plaza makes it easier for her to breathe, however, it's almost as though part of her blocked windpipe has just been unblocked.
[Soundtrack: Bonnie at Morn Instrumental - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt]
Standing beside a fruit merchant's stand, she overhears a woman's voice. "And out in the open, too? The guards ought to do something about those ruffians once and for all!"
Luna glances behind her at the woman, who is a patron of the fruit stand, and then at the scene the woman had just been complaining about. It's impossible to miss, really. In the center of the plaza, there is a large gathering of people of all ages, dressed in rough leathers and with weapons all conspicuously holstered on their hips. She estimates that there are at least a hundred of these warriors, all surrounding a statue of what looks like a man riding a bull with a large spear. She guesses, however, that they're not there to see the statue, but the flesh and blood man standing on the bronze man's shoulders, gripping the bronze spear to keep steady.
There's a natural charisma about this man that radiates from his position at the center of the plaza to where she is at the fringes of the crowd. His face is made up of hard lines and a jaw hand-sculpted by Michelangelo himself. His hooded eyes smirk at the crowd as his voice carries across the plaza, talking about brotherhood, resistance, and freedom. Something about his strong voice and the way he speaks makes her want to believe him.
She can't help but to gravitate towards the crowd, and before she knows it, she's pushing through the crowd, weaving through the gaps like a mouse, and making her way for the very center of the crowd, at the foot of the statue. Her eyes move from the intricately carved letters at the statue's base, over the strong body of the bull, across the bronze man's torso, and onto the rebel leader.
Her heart skips a beat when she sees his face stretch into a smile as he speaks, and that is also when she realizes one important thing. She's seen this man once before. It feels like a warped and messed up dream, but she wouldn't mistake his face, because she had just watched him die.
She doesn't even notice the gust of wind that rushes into her lungs all at once, shocking her body and also sharpening her mind. His face twists in a grimace for a second, and if she hadn't been closely watching the muscles of his face as he spoke, she might have missed it. This is also when his own eyes move down, almost as if they're searching for her. She lowers her hood over her eyes and retreats into the crowd, unprepared for him to notice her staring.
In spite of her efforts, his eyes find her small figure, and she can see his brow furrow and his gaze quickly avert to the rest of the crowd. Something about the way his violet eyes widened as he saw Luna gives her a sense of anxiety, and she takes the time while the rebel leader's attention is elsewhere to disappear into the crowd. In much the same way that she pushed to the center of the gathering, she pushes herself out of it. Lowering her hood even further as she turns and makes her way to one of the plaza exits.
"Are you lost, my dear?"
The scent of vanilla overtakes her nostrils as a voice like silk on glass fills her ears. Luna turns around and finds a woman a few years older than herself with copper colored hair that cascades down her back and shoulders in wide curls. Her eyes were even more notable -round and lined with kohl with bright green irises, set in a freckled face. The bottom half of her face is covered in a silk shawl, but Luna doesn't need to see the rest of her face to know that the woman is a masterpiece; and for a moment, Luna finds it hard to find her voice.
"I'm fine," she stutters. "I simply took a wrong turn on my way to the Temple. Now if you'll -"
The woman chuckles and grabs Luna's wrist before she can run away. "Please, allow me to escort you."
The anxiety in her heart mounting, Luna attempts another excuse, trying to tug her wrist out of the woman's solid grip. "N-No, I'm fine."
The woman must be smiling wryly under that shawl, as she simply replies. "Nonsense! I insist!" The woman pauses for a beat and then says with an airy laugh. "Oh, how could I forget my manners. I haven't introduced myself! My name is Rayan. Please allow me to escort you, as the streets can be dangerous for a beautiful young girl such as yourself, even in broad daylight, you may find yourself snatched away by some dastardly rogue."
Luna bites her lip to stop herself from making a snappy retort. "Thank you, Rayan," she says, "It is kind of you to offer, but I think I won't need your help."
Rayan's smiling eyes relax into a more neutral expression and she loosens her grip on Luna's hand. "My apologies then."
As Luna turns around, she finds herself face to face with another woman; this one is taller with short coiled hair and a face full of scars. "What do I spy here? A spy for the King, are you?" the taller woman says with a raspy voice and a mischievous look in her almond shaped eyes.
Luna's breath catches in her throat. "I'm not a spy! I'm just trying to make my way through!"
Rayan comes into view and steps beside the taller woman, leaning into her shoulder. "What's this? Has a dastardly rogue come to snatch you away? I'd say I told you so, but you wouldn't hear it."
"Please let me go!" Luna begs. "I don't have any money or any belongings other than the clothes on my body. I can't give you anything!"
The taller woman guffaws and hooks her arm around Rayan's neck. "Well, you could give us your body. You look like you have a good one. We'd make a pretty penny selling you to the highest bidder, wouldn't we Rayan-darling?"
Luna's face twists with horror at the idea of becoming sold into prostitution. "P-Please no! I'm a virgin, I -"
"Even better!" Rayan replies, reaching out to caress Luna's face. "Pretty virgins are a commodity, you know!"
Luna freezes when she hears a stern and commanding voice from behind her. "Cut it out Rayan, Evren. You're terrifying her!" She doesn't even need to turn her stiff neck to know exactly who the voice belongs to -if the thundering heartbeat in her chest is any indication.
At this, Rayan and the second woman, Evren, burst into tearful laughter, sounding like they had been holding it for quite a while. "Oh, sorry, boss!" Evren weeps. "It was just too good! The poor girl thought we was really sellin' her to a brothel. You should come 'round and see the look on her face!"
"Evren!" he scolds, coming around into Luna's field of vision.
"Sorry, boss!" She sobers up,and strokes Rayan's shoulder absentmindedly. "This here girl is a spy. Caught her running away and looking very suspicious. We ought to interrogate her and see who sent her and what she knows."
Luna's shaking eyes gaze upon the man expectantly, hoping to whatever higher deity is out there that he'd just let her move on. "Please, i'm not -I'm not a spy. I don't know anything. I don't know who you are or what's going on!"
The man smiled gently and places a hand on Luna's stiff shoulder. "Calm down; nothing is going to happen to you. Nobody is going to hurt you. However, you are a bit out of place at this rally. Can you tell me your name?"
She can't make her body stop shaking, but realizes that the man's voice has a very soothing quality to it. She nods and lowers her hood further, looking away from his face. "My name is Luna."
The hand on her shoulder stiffens and slides off. "Luna? Why are you here Luna?" His voice is colder now, almost biting, and it strikes dread into her being.
"I'm just passing through. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude! You were very inspiring!" she insists, bowing her head even further.
"Evren, Rayan. Please leave," he says quietly.
"Shadow?" Evren says doubtfully.
"Now!"
The two women don't need to be told twice to run off, leaving Luna alone with the man, Shadow. She doesn't say anything, and for a short while, neither does Shadow. It startles her when she feels his hands over the cloth on her hood. She simply lets him finger the fabric, too petrified to move. She's become very aware of her breathing, feeling the air flow in and out of her lungs freely.
[Soundtrack: Whispers of Oxenfurt - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt]
He sighs deeply as he looks down at her. "Luna. I need you to be honest with me; can you do that for me?"
She nods, feeling a blush creep up from her neck to her cheeks. "Yes, I'll tell you anything you need to know."
"Good. Good… That's all I want." he says calmly. "Did you really listen to my rally because you found me inspiring? Or did you do it because you recognized my face?"
Luna feels like collapsing onto herself. She doesn't even know what to tell him. "What do you mean? I don't know who you are!"
His fingers tug at her hood, bringing her so close she can smell his breath. "Now, now, Luna. I thought we agreed to be honest." He turns his face and clears his throat before questioning her again. "Perhaps I need to be clearer for you to understand exactly what I need from you. Luna, i need to know if you remember what happened last night."
"Last night?" she repeats raspily. Could it be that he remembers the ceremony and his fall to his death? There's really only one way to find out. She tries to avert her gaze, but his hold on her hood makes it difficult. "You were there… at the Temple."
His hands tighten on the fabric of the hood, his fingers brushing against her cheeks. "Then you really are her? The Goddess?"
"I- I don't know?" she whimpers. "Maybe?"
"You brought me back to life," he insists. "Why?"
"I didn't…" she mumbles. "I passed out right after you fell. I'm sorry… I didn't even see what happened after."
"Is that so?" he says quietly, almost as though he were trying to rationalize these events to himself. "So you have no idea why this day is occurring again?"
She shakes her head. "I'm just as confused. They're telling me I'm a Goddess… and what if they're right? I don't know what to do! It's too much responsibility!"
Shadow gulps and lowers Luna's hood, revealing her face to him completely, as well as the mess of dark curls that just barely touched her shoulders. She bows her head, trying to cover her face with her bangs.
"You really are Luna," he tells her stiffly.
"How do you know?"
"Because of your face," he replies. "I can't…" He tries to speak around the lump in his throat. "I thought I'd never see this face again."
"Again?" She finally manages to push herself away from him. "I've never seen you before yesterday. What do you mean? Whose face do I have?"
"The face of the woman I gave the last bits of my humanity to." His words chill her. "And even that couldn't save her." Shadow can feel his heart thudding in his chest as he speaks, watching her recoil in confusion and fear.
"Did you… love this woman?" she asks, and Shadow wants to laugh at how simple her question is.
"No," he replies, coldly "I only regret the part of myself that died with her."
Luna's expression turns from fear to curiosity as she tries to read Shadow's face. "Isn't the myth that my face would look like the most beautiful woman in the world to you?" she asks innocently. "If it's her face that you see when you look at me, then you must really think she's pretty."
Shadow scoffs. "Her? No. I'm actually very confused by the fact that your face would look like hers of all people. She wasn't an ugly girl, but not exactly a classic beauty."
She frowns and crosses her arms. "Are you saying I'm ugly?"
"Do you want me to find you beautiful, your Worship?" he shoots back with a smirk.
She groans in frustration. "So how do you know I'm not this girl?"
"Easy," he tells her. "Because whatever purgatory this is, it's my own, not hers. And you must be the angel of judgement, watching me suffer for my sins." Then he shrugs and lifts Luna's head by her chin, making the girl's stomach perform olympic level backflips beneath her skin. "Besides, you don't act like her in the slightest."
Luna's frown doesn't wane, but softens slightly. "So why are you the only one who remembers that yesterday even happened?"
He shrugs. "It's purgatory. I'm not about to question it. I guess you could say I had this coming. I won't try to rationalize it any further. I quite liked my life here in Atlantis before it ended, so I intend to enjoy my time here. If you don't want to be the Goddess, you could lie about your name and disappear into the crowd. Nobody would judge you." After saying that, Shadow bursts into laughter. "Perhaps that's what landed you here in the first place. A Goddess shunting her responsibilities and causing all of Atlantis to sink into the sea. The deaths of millions of people on your hands… Perhaps you and I are more alike than I thought." He promptly twists on his heel with a sly smirk and begins to walk back to the group of rogues.
This resolves nothing for Luna however, and by the time he's turned around and begun to walk away, she's already calling out to him again. "What am I supposed to do?" she cries out, her voice cracking.
He stops and views her from the corner of his eye. "Not my problem. Start over again with a new identity for all I care. Just stay away from me and the people I care about. You have a face I don't want to look at."
With that statement, she feels as if she'd just been stomped into the dirt, pieces of her stuck between the stones in the pavement. It's her face; she can't very well change it… However, she resolves to pick herself back up, pushing back the sense of loneliness and rejection that eats away at her. While he may not be the most pleasant of people, Shadow has a point: she can reinvent herself and move on.
"Pardon me, my lady?" someone says, interrupting her thoughts. The speaker is a large and handsome young man dressed in ceremonial armor with messy brown hair and blue eyes. There's something about him… Something divine… "I couldn't help but overhear. Did you say your name was Luna?"
So much for reinventing herself.
"I am Hermos, one of the Knights of the Temple. Impersonating a Goddess is blasphemy, so I need you to come with me and prove your claims before a council of holy men."
Well, fuck. She managed to convince them last time. How hard could it be to do it a second time?
I won't confirm or deny whether or not I'm in a Witcher 3 mood today...