dogemperor (dogemperor) wrote in areyougame, @ 2010-02-20 13:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | *breath of fire iv, author: dogemperor |
...And They Watch Over Us All (Breath of Fire IV, The Abbess)
Title: ...And They Watch Over Us All
Author: dogemperor
Rating: 13+ at worst, PG-ish
Warnings: None save a brief, canonical mention of war. The fic is pretty much as innocent as kittens.
Word Count: 745
Prompt: Breath of Fire IV, the Abbess: mysticism - a hundred years of solitude
Summary: She seems to be relatively alone, but she'd argue quite differently.
A/N: I have in part based my view of the Abbess on that of traditional medicine women, particularly mansin (Korean shaman women; the shamanic traditions do tend to be sometimes wedded with Buddhism, similarly to how Voudon is a continuation of Yoruban faith systems in semi-Catholic drag). I hope I got her down right, anyways. :3
Chek, as it were, rarely had visitors.
This was a thing of design--it was a sanctuary, a holy place, and sometimes it would be sealed away due to the incessant wars.
In a way, this ended up being to their advantage--they could concentrate on holy matters.
The Abbess was probably the only one who was still old enough to remember the last time--even she had gained advantage of how the aura of the Endless kept the mortals near their temple also unchanging in a sense. Even as she looked in her early sixties, she was rather older.
In her long time where she had been Abbess--over a hundred years, when the prior one had noted her time was at hand, and she took the walk to the desert outside--she had learned much.
Among the most important lessons--appearances can be deceiving.
* * *
She remembered distantly when she was a small child, had started having dreams of the Endless, and was taken to the town by her parents upon the urging of her village elders. "She has the sight; she needs to be trained."
She remembered at first she was quite annoyed, and then lonely...why did she have to leave everything she had known?
When she was older, when she had had several more years of growth (though even then it was not yet apparent on her face; she would age far slower) she discovered why, when the Grass Dragon gently took her in her arms, and told her not to be afraid.
That this place was alone in the world so that she could be safe, so others like her could be safe, and so that the Endless could be as they had been--not serving one group or another of mortals, but impartial, amarantine embodiments of nature.
* * *
She grew to know each of the Endless in their time, even some of their histories that they never told to others.
She, alone of anyone, knew how the Nameless One had long ago been of a different people of the rock, called here; his short stature still showed in his avatar at the Yorae Temple.
She knew of how P'ung Ryong once swam in a different ocean and now swam in the ocean of the sky, his flock following him.
She had long talks with the Forest Dragon, who taught her many things of the growing plants and roots in the woods to be used for medicine. He had taken on a particular aspect of ginseng, and he'd helped her cure villagers who had grown ill.
In truth--what had seemed a lonely fate wasn't lonely at all.
Not when you learned to listen to the voices the spirits used, anyways.
And, as she remembered, one day not so many months ago she saw the lot of the Endless--who had become her dearest companions, a family in a sense--in a great amount of excitement.
* * *
The one whose fate is not set, the Yorae Ryong, is amongst us! the Endless announced in elation.
"I have never heard of this one." the Abbess respectfully--if confusedly--stated. She had heard of dragons awakening in the world, but such a thing had not been heard of for a long, long time.
He is the salvation or the damnation of this world, little one, P'ung Ryong answered.
Thy path be already caught up with his. Make ready. He wilt seek thee out for counsel.
"But...but we haven't summoned anyone!" cried the Abbess. This was highly irregular.
Thou shalt discover why...and thou shalt see why thine help wilt be most needed, said the Sand Dragon.
* * *
The solitude of Chek would soon be shattered--she knew then why the Endless had spoken to her. It was not just an advisory but a warning.
Several times, there had been people from the Fou Empire peering around, investigating reports of a dragon--she'd instructed the villagers not to speak to them. There were secrets they were not ready to know, that no warmongering nation should know.
Chek had, in part, gone into solitude to protect these secrets.
At the same time, her best medium--Rhem, whom she full well expected to be the Abbess when her time came--Rhem started to dream of a boy with blue hair and a beautiful woman in chains.
It was no shock when the five strangers arrived--it was surprising where they had come from, but the arrival itself was expected.
She knew, then, Chek's solitude had come to an end, whether for good or ill.