The flames of the fire leaped in their dance, the soft crackling sound speaking to the fire consuming the wood steadily as more and more gathered around the bonfire held outside the city of Sabyrin in the Kingdom of Aal. Voices murmured to one another and hot drinks were passed as the children settled closest to the fire and to the darkly beautiful figure of the bard that sat in a place of honor. A smile curved on the woman's lips, knowing and yet not unkind as those around her settled in to hear the tale that was traditional at this time. Overhead the vast sky stretched, a steadily darkening color as twilight was claimed to the navy velvet of night and stars winked into appearance.<br/><br/>A arm raised, upward and upward, reaching in a single gesture of movement that caught the eye of all those around the bard, that signaled for silence, silence now for the tale was to start. And silence she received. The smile blossomed deeper.<br/><br/>Gentle came the sound at first, a hum, husky, melodic, a voice to draw in the listeners, the voice of a storyteller. Every eye was riveted upon her. "We gather now for celebration for the one who was. For our Immortal Sun, now gone from this land in physical being but never truly, never completely." The youngest of children, the ones who had never heard the story before were the most captivated but this story,<em>this</em>story always drew in any that had the blood of Aal coursing through their veins.<br/><br/>"Once we were a foolish people, our kingdom claimed by the divine Solious for his own territory and yet no King would be named after he left Gwiv for Paradise. Nay, there were many tribes, all so sure they knew the best way to rule, bent on claiming all of Aal for themselves but none lasted more then a decade at most. For five hundred years the land ran red with blood, the desert was a sea of crimson where some of the battlefields had passed and some even dared to try and violate the sacred places of the Anahenraki. We were a foolish people." Now she had all the attention, hundreds of figures pressing closer to hear, to listen to the tale known to all but somehow made richer for being told by a bard, one trained in the Grand Library within the city, a story made more real by the fact that they had gathered for the Festival of the Immortal Sun, their first Emperor, their first King honored still every year when the Season of Flame started.<br/><br/>"Fate was kind to us though, for among the tribes there came a man, little is known of his history save that he offered up a part of himself to safeguard the rest of us, to bring an end to the slaughter. With his coming the bloodshed came to an end and when his leadership repelled the advance of another tribe, indeed turning around to conquer that nation of people he was celebrated. And crowned the Emperor; more tribes fell before his grasp, but he was not a cruel ruler, simply just and stern. Years passed and even the land changed to his desires, it became clear their ruler did not age or take wound, and so he was named our Immortal Sun."<br/><br/>"From blood and sand he built a empire of might, yet also a center of learning, medicine and culture, cultivating peace though never at the price of justice. Once his grand palace was built he decided to collect to him those would could keep him company through the long years of his life, seeking out the most exotic, elusive and mysterious of beauties to fill his seraglio."<br/><br/>"The first was a powerful enchantress....the second a Unaderi....the third a ethereal northern Sheatir....the fourth a fierce Anahenraki....each a precious gem that he gathered to him, the rarest of beauties, more followed, some even human with just a trace of something 'other' in them, though those he never kept for long, not wanting to see them pass from life before his eyes. It was said no beauty could resist him..." She trailed off, smiling, having noticed the gasps of surprise at capturing a Undaeri, at claiming a Anahenraki, such acts were beyond human ability.<br/><br/>"So it was proved when he reached for the stars and one came into his grasp, a pale otherworldly beauty clad in naught but spun stars and her silver gold hair. But the stars are keepers of fate, watchers of time and oracles to the days yet to come. His gilded Star held in her hands his future if she cared to tell him what is written in the stars..."<br/><br/><div align="center"><hr/>~ ✧ ~<br/><hr/></div><br/><em>The world turned and Candrani danced with her sisters and brothers, laughing at the melodies the sky gave them. Bright, shimmering things they were with no true form, none was needed when they played their games in the twilight before their positions were needful to guide the mortals far far below, before the Goddess of Fate would pluck the threads of knowledge, of chance that were strung between their persons. One of a collective whole. <br/><br/>But something was different this evening, a sense of...something just beyond her reach, just beyond her understanding. Perhaps the Goddess was trying something new, she did so often praise her for being better receptive to the threads that sung through her being, for being a true dreamer when she slumbered in the chambers in the Hall of Stars in Paradise. <br/><br/>And so she danced, thinking naught of it until she found herself pulled, tugged, away from the others, until she let out a cry trying to reach for them and they for her and found herself....falling....falling.....falling.....<br/><br/>She knew no more.</em><br/><br/><br/><div align="center"><hr/>~ ✧ ~<br/><hr/></div><br/><div class="floatright"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Ravi;"><em>843 After Creation<br/>The Palace of the Sun<br/>Sabyrin, the Kingdom of Aal</em></span></div><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Her senses came back to her, slow, oddly, muted almost. Had she overspent herself? In confusion she pushed herself upward from whatever surface she lay upon and then stilled, gasping as she realized how very physical everything felt. How very solid. Even her own self. Shaking with fear she raised a limb, feeling the weight of it, feeling the press of gravity were before she was weightless, sheer. It was as a human arm, those she had observed and prophesied for to Neraous.<br/><br/>Nay...how...how could such come to pass?<br/><br/>She felt a welling in her stomach and then jerked to a side to retch onto the floor away from the mass of pillows that had cradled her body. Stars were not to leave the night sky, it had not been her wish to descend and give up her time in the heavens. Had she displeased the Goddess of Fate? But no, the Gatekeeper, the Timeless One, he decided when such was to happen, he heard the stars words first. No thoughts of hers had been asked. But then how. Her eyes fixed on her arm, the other arm, on the body she was now confined to. Skin as pale as moonlight,  and when touched soft, so soft. It was almost pleasant to feel the touch more then before but it was not her true form, not right. The silver haired woman sank back onto the cushions, closing her eyes as she fought the urge to become sick again. What had happened? Where was she?<br/><br/>Best to know, to see. Awkward in this new form she managed to get to her feet, though tripped over her own long hair with a yelp. Tears sparkled into her eyes, another new sensation but she wanted simply to go home, back to the vast sky and the cool caress of the ether. Back to Paradise, to her duties.<br/><br/>Stumbling she left the cushions, only to find herself wandering down a long hallway with arches, on one side it lead to a courtyard with gardens and a fountain, the other arches lead into rooms she thought. It was so quiet, and yet a heavy silence. Shivering with her fear and not from cold she kept walking though, ungainly in her newness to such.