WHO Vax & The Raven Queen WHERE A clearing in the forest near Greyskull WHEN Either very late on November 12 or very early on November 13, depending on how you look at it WHAT Vax has a long overdue conversation with a spectral version of his patron. STATUS Complete ART CREDITHere WARNINGS Discussion of death and religion surrounding it
For several months, Vax had made an effort to spend at least a short amount of time each day in a small clearing that he had found near Greyskull Keep. It was within walking distance, but was even easier to reach through flight; oftentimes, he reserved his wings for that exact trip, soaring in circles above the trees before coming to a soft drop in the long grass and leaves of the forest floor.
Tonight was one of those nights. It was late, far too late for anyone to still be awake, but Vax had felt restless and hadn't thought very hard about taking the hop out of his bedroom window to take to the sky.
The night was familiar. The weather had been turning, making the wind against his cheeks and the air he drew into his lungs cold. The stars twinkled above him, like a handful of glitter from Velora's art projects spread out around him. The moon was a crescent, but still felt as though it was watching him as he flexed his large, black wings to make one more large circle before he made his descent.
For several months, Vax had made an effort to come here. For several months, Vax had sat in quiet contemplation and, when he was feeling particularly desperate, prayer. For several months, he had been alone, no question or plea enough to break through worlds or Divine Gates.
Tonight, however, was different. Though she did not appear to be solid and was almost certainly akin to one of the ghosts that so many others had mentioned seeing themselves, it did not change that the Raven Queen was standing before him. Her dark hair was long, almost melding into the black robes that draped about her. She could have almost blended into the dark shadows of the forest around them were it not for the bright white of the porcelain face that looked upon him.
"Vax'ildan," she spoke, her voice warm and comforting in a way that Vax hadn't expected. "My champion. I had wondered when you might come."
Vax stood in silence for what might have been only seconds but could have just as easily been hours. Finally, he asked, "You are truly here?"
"For now." Her mouth didn't move -- or perhaps it did, Vax considered, just behind the porcelain that he was looking upon. "I feel that my time roaming this world will be short."
Unsure if that should be comforting or not, Vax took a step forward and bowed his head to the goddess before him. It was delayed veneration, but veneration all the same. "I have been praying to you," he said after a long moment, letting his gaze lift once more. He left the question that he wanted to ask unsaid, but still lingering between them -- have you heard me?
Though there was no sad expression on the otherwise expressionless face he looked upon, Vax could have sworn he sensed it in her words. "This world is far from your own, Vax'ildan. But I am with you in the ways that I can be." He watched as a pale hand indicated the wings and armor that he wore. "And that will only continue, as you witness the events of your other life."
A sinking, heavy feeling seemed to press down on Vax's chest and shoulders, a sensation he was far too intimate with; the weight of the world, of the destiny that he felt he was tied to, all resting upon him. He had this new life in Vallo, one with his sisters and friends and Gilmore, but that didn't mean his life in Exandria wasn't still his and it would impact him here just as much as it would there. "This was destined to happen, wasn't it? Every step I took led to this armor and Vex'ahlia's death and my bargaining for her life with you."
"All walk a path. Some paths walked are preordained, while others have more control over their destiny. You guide your path, fate-touched. Perhaps you were always meant to arrive here, but you took the steps." Vax watched as the Raven Queen moved forward, stopping just shy of where he stood. "There is much that you do not know, much that you have not yet lived, and I know that you have many questions."
She grew quiet, as though inviting Vax to speak. His mind turned over, considering all of the too many questions that he had dwelled upon in this very clearing. He had never truly had held hope that she would come and he knew that even this meeting was not the same as what he had imagined; this was luck in the shape of Vallo's unique brand of magic, not a deity heeding the call of their champion.
Vax swallowed hard, his mouth and throat oddly dry. "What am I to do when you are not here? Am I -- how can I serve you when you are a world away?"
Somehow, a smile seemed to curve the mouth of her porcelain face. It was unnerving, yet somehow also comforting. This entire conversation felt very much the same, as though Vax was on the edge of a precipice that required a leap of faith to move on from. That was, he supposed, the crux of religion.
"You are right in thinking that such a direction would be less straightforward away from your home, where your adventures with your companions aid in leading you toward the ever present danger you are accustomed to. But there will always be death and you will always be there to protect the sanctity of it, to watch and keep it from being corrupted. Undeath, wayward necromancy -- these go against the tenets that I uphold." She paused, the smile slipping back to expressionless as the black voids that were her eyes considered Vax. "I know that you fear me, Vax'ildan. Most fear the inevitability that is death, which leads them toward those ends that will pervert it. But without death, life lacks meaning and cannot progress.
"I feel," she continued, reaching out an incorporeal hand toward him, "that you understand this, in your own way. You are a reckless soul, diving into danger so often under the motivation of protecting others and yet pulling away on instinct before you meet death yourself. You have instinct as you manipulate fate around you, which is why I chose you to be my champion. It is a title that you have been training yourself for your whole life. It is befitting of you."
As the goddess's words stopped and quiet settled around him, she seemed to allow Vax to stew on all she had just said. They were words that weren't unfamiliar; how often had he heard similar from Gilmore or his sister, that his decisions were based on helping others no matter what it meant for himself? Depending on who was saying it and the situation at the time, it seemed like both a positive and negative trait. His ability to find himself in and out of Jengas was both a joke and an ongoing source of frustration to those around him and he knew it, but it was also linked to any sense of purpose that he had.
In truth, she had said little that he didn't already know, at least in some regards. The information that Gilmore had gathered from him combined with what Vax already knew that he had picked up simply from living twenty-seven years in Tal'Dorei very much reflected what the goddess had relayed. She was not, as Vax had referred to her none so affectionately, a raven bitch, but the Raven Queen, the Matron of Death, and not the goddess of the dead but of death itself. She was feared as death came for all, but she was revered as she protected that moment and made sure that those traveling from life to death were cared for. Though a mortal that ascended, she was not among the feared betrayer gods, but was among those who looked over mortals.
And while Vax had believed it and found comfort when he had read through the books before, there was something to be said about hearing it straight from the source and believing her. To know that he wasn't simply interpreting text the way he hoped.
"I will serve you," Vax said, his voice quiet as he once more bent his head to her in respect. "I know that I walked into this bargain with another purpose and I will not turn my back on it to preserve that, but I do so willingly."
"Vax'ildan. My beautiful champion." He looked up then and found the Raven Queen standing right before him, one hand raising to rest on his shoulder. There was no actual touch, no warmth or cold or pressure at all. He thought that if she had wanted, her hand might have moved straight through him. "I know your heart and how it steers you and drives you forward. That is how I know that you will succeed, in Exandria and here and in any other world you are drawn to. Your life will not follow an easy, straight road, but your appreciation of each moment is what makes you special." Her hand moved and would have been cupping his cheek, if she had been able to at all. "Savor those moments, my champion. You are deserving."
And with that, before Vax could even consider a response, he watched as the Raven Queen faded away, leaving him alone in the clearing once more.