2017-09-03: A Crossing of Faiths
- Log: A Crossing of Faiths
- Cast: Riesenlied, Amelia Rose
- Where: Wayside Village
- Date: 3rd September 2017
- Summary: Amelia speaks to Riesenlied after her recovery, exchanging tales of their faiths...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has asked Amelia to meet her at a particularly nice caravan-side portion of the village, covered under an awning where they're able to sit and speak without being harrassed by the particularly stinging rays of Filgaia's sun. In her time here, the Tainted have been... particularly welcoming, actually -- they seem particularly happy to help with whatever Amelia needs, though they're mostly busy setting things up in the village; construction work is happening around the clock, and the needs of the various villagers are many.
But that's that, and this is now -- Riesenlied's seated at a table with some fresh fruits and juices as she beckons the elf closer. "Ah, Miss Amelia, over here..."
There's even a water platter for Silver! How thoughtful.
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Amelia's own work has been distinctly productive! Mostly by way of wanderers that have stumbled and been dragged into the small town. It didn't take long for the particularly forceful priestess to begin enacting her will. For once not by religous conversion but instead by bodily healing. All that she might be uncompromising in her faith, Amelia is similarly uncompromising in her willingness to use Althena's gifts as well as her natural skill as a surgeon. Between her debt that might well be self inflicted, and the oddly welcoming arm of the Tainted?
Amelia arrives in her priestly robes, with a sweat drop about the ear. Still healing from her own wounds, the elf is still quite stubborn. Noeline wasn't wrong about the woman, it seems.
Silver leads his master to the seat, and with a brief touch of dainty fingers, she sits down. An arf, and with a slight glide across the table, Amelia flicks the fruit from bowl to mouth. Chomp. Chomp chomp chomp. A bit is offered to the dog in question, and then Silver is all snout-in-bowl!
Reach, sip. The cup of juice is sucked down with the air of someone who has been working a bit too hard. She should be collecting intel. Amelia finds herself smiling.
"I appreciate the invitation, Miss Riesenlied." Not 'The Deciever'. That would just be rude. Cane in her hand, the elf somehow still seems wary.
Siiip. "I wouldn't object if you were to tell me more about yourself." Offers the elf. Her head tilts, expression vague, if curious.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Mm... that's right, that would be a good start, would it not? I am a Metal Demon, as you know... but also one of the Tainted," Riesenlied speaks gently as she sips from a cup of tea at the table. She smiles warmly at Silver, perhaps finding animals to be comforting in general.
"I was born... or created, if you would... more than four hundred years ago. There was a scarcity crisis at our home back then, one that led to the... ah, materials that create our people being of exceptionally poor quality."
A pause.
"I was one of the many who were born at that period... and the results are as you can sense in this village -- an underclass of Demons that are looked upon poorly, whether for our lack of strength or capability... and, of course, many have joined us since then, as more and more people become injured in battle."
She glances to one side, sipping her tea again. "What I am trying to do is to create a peaceful community, separate from the warlike nature of my brethren. Many of us here are incapable of the duress of combat... and would like nothing more than the opportunity to live without oppression."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Amelia nods and makes several grunts mostly in response to Ries. Most of her attention though is on a pad in front of her, comprised of paper. Sightless eyes wobble in turn with her head, but she openly writes in the view of the Metal Demon. Her mouth is a line, and she makes no attempt at subterfuge. One hand briefly rubs the holy symbol at her chest as if to ward off the Demon before her.
Perhaps. Amelia seems oddly distracted for such a zealot. "In other words, you're the results of an impure birth, with similar people like you that are considered 'inferior'." Teeth grit. She sucks down more juice. Fingers snap to what passes for waitresses in the little town. Cue a pot of tea, and she pours it herself.
Somehow, the mere word 'inferior' seems to annoy the elf, even on her own lips. A sucked breath, and finally, she breathes out.
"...Althena strike me dead on the spot, but I don't think you're speaking poison."
Amelia lets that hang in the air for a few awkward minutes. Legs cross, and she leans back. Siiip.
"And I agree. 'Your kind' should not seek war. Nor should anyone. We're all children of Althena, or so I believe. You may be a Demon, but Althena has not told us that you are not without the possibility of redemption in Her Light!" Amelia suddenly stands. The lead in her hand is held tightly.
"Riesenlied 'The Deciever', I will punish you personally. And any other Metal Demon that threatens innocent people. If you should repent to Althena, however, even if it should cost me my life, then I'll bow before Her and beg forgiveness for your sins, and the sins of this town." Amelia's voice is stoney, the voice of a true believer.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There are no waitresses, but Riesenlied seems to be able to detect that Amelia wants some -- and she's pouring some tea in another cup for the priestess as she draws a gentle breath. "I do wonder. I would like it if we could all get along..." she muses, though she somehow knows that Leo probably wouldn't let something like that slide. But... at the same time, she didn't think he'd call out a strike on a settlement like Wayside either.
"... I... believed in a Goddess of our own kin," is Riesenlied's answer to that. "We call her 'Mother', simply. A thousand years ago, it is said, Mother saved us from the brink of destruction from our homeworld, Hyades. She carried us through the sea of stars in search of a new home... and it is Filgaia where she has chosen to bring us salvation."
There is a faint sigh, as she says, "... I have always believed in Mother, as a selfless, kind, gentle saviour. ... I feel much of my purview has been based on that inspiration, that image..."
A pause. "But in recent times... I may have received evidence that she is not as gentle or forgiving as I'd like to be." She smiles very weakly towards Amelia to say, "This 'Mother' of mine... is opposed to the Guardians, who protect the planet of Filgaia. I have been privy to the words of one recently, in the Temple to the east of here..."
Another sip of tea. "And they in turn are connected to Althena, who they bear a longstanding wound with. What it is... I do not know, but... I wish to hear from you -- what Althena believes in, what she espouses..."
She lowers her head. Her tone has carried with it hurt -- it's the kind of hurt Amelia may understand, as someone of faith facing something of a crisis. "... I wish to help heal the wounds of a thousand years past by understanding the truth."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Siiip. The poured tea is met with a nod from the stoic Priestess. Smile.
"I wouldn't say that anything is beyond the Godess' imagining. However, I also think that when one draws clear battle lines, that positions become difficult no matter how altruistic."
And then she listens. Suddenly, Amelia is quiet. Something about how Ries speaks calls to her. She knows a fellow believer when they talk...and, yet, this 'Demon' speaks of another faith entirely. And a shattered one, at that. Her head falls lower, and just briefly, perhaps Riesenlied catches the look of horror on the priestess' face.
Her throat clears, and Amelia 'looks' to Ries. "I'm sorry that you believed in something lesser than the Goddess Althena." Starts Amelia. Her voice is pure, and full of faith. Almost desperately so.
Cough. "Whatever these 'Guardians' might have been, whatever this 'Mother' might have said, I would not say that you should listen to their words. Rather, just as you say, let me tell you Althena's words." Her hand comes to her face, and she yanks off the cloth about her eyes. There's a savage, violent slash through both of them, and she lets the cloth fall away. Amelia raises her head a touch.
She doesn't shy away from showing the mess that is her eyes, torn flesh from a knife. "The Goddess Althena has given all of us life on Lunar. She has asked that we, her Chosen, protect, heal, and ensure that her Children are not harmed. Even on Filgaia, I believe that She created every Child here. And so it's my duty as a Priestess and as a member of the Guard to protect them from evil. Anyone who should attack a town without reason!" Her voice rises, just at the end. The people of Adlehyde still lurk in her thoughts, healer though she might be.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"There... was a reason," Riesenlied finally shares after a moment of contemplation, a moment of hurt. "Not a reason I agreed with, mind you... but, our Mother has been sealed away for a long time now. Sealed by the Guardians who oppose her. Every one of us, at that time... we fervently believed that she could be rescuscitated if an artifact known as the Teardrop was exposed to her seal."
There's a very faint sigh, as she shakes her head. "... but it was not meant to be. And Mother was rather violently angry and distraught at her situation... as anyone might well be."
A pause. "I did not wish to see Adlehyde burn... but there is only so much that I can do to oppose the wishes of my elders. And now I am here... trying to eke out our own existence, outside of the seemingly inexorable path of war."
She pauses an dlooks on with a rather frightened look for a moment, but it dies down to something approaching respect as she whispers, "Y-your eyes..." A pause. "I have spoken with those of Althena's blessing as well -- Seraphs, they were called. Althena certainly has a large boundary upon which she protects... but it is not all of Lunar, is it?"
She looks lamentful as she says, "There are those outside of the boundary of Althena's blessing that are not protected... cast off to fend for themselves..."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Somehow, the Priestess shivers. Despite the heat, she looks for a minute disturbed. Amelia listens. Perhaps far too closely.
The story of Ries' mother is jotted down by rote, but her hand quivers. Amelia listens, and as Riesenlied ends her tale, that hand stops. She draws in the writing pad to herself, and she takes a moment to suck down the last of her tea. Perhaps Riesenlied notes how the elf trembles.
"So what you're trying to tell me is..." Starts Amelia. Teeth grit. Sigh. She exhales what she's heard and experienced, and takes in the words of her enemy.
"You believed in a wrong Goddess, and you and your kind wronged that city because of that belief. That is what you've just told me, unless I'm mistaken, Miss Riesenlied." Another pause, and she lets it hang. Should she be uninterrupted? She continues sharply.
"You've...spoken to the Seraphs!?" Her low, deadpan voice draws up high for a moment, but then Amelia sucks in a breath. The Priestess might seem a bit rattled for a moment.
"I won't dare to say the Goddess' grasp. That's beyond me. But I will say that her Chosen will protect any world their Children walk upon, no matter the cost." Pause. A smile.
"My eyes are the cost of my Father denying the Goddess. He drank utterly against her will." A shrug. The woman is far too easy about that particular proclimation.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied doesn't mind interruption -- after all, their discussion has come to something of an exchange between their faiths, rather than uninterrupted sermons on each side. It seemed more right, in a situation like this. "... I won't deny that we wronged Adlehyde," she expresses firmly. "As much as I wished to prevent bloodshed, or to prevent the attack in the first place... I was unable to dissuade my peers from stilling their hand."
She sighs very faintly, her eyes narrowing. So it was her father that did her eyes in... it was a harrowing tale, yet all too common a sight in the Photosphere. Of one Demon harranguing another -- too often for trivial reasons like 'you looked wrong' or 'I wanted to prove my might'.
"I appreciate your sermon, of course... I--" Riesenlied pauses, and then smiles awkwardly. "Somehow, even after all this, it does fill my heart with ease to hear of the good things that religion does to people, and the communities it's built up." It feels like there's a pain for the harm that it also does, the conflicts and difficulties that separates people... but she does not voice that.
"But-- yes, actually, I've spoken to several now... I was unable to perceive them at first, but in my desire to understand the those that were suffering from Malevolence... something stirred in me," Riesenlied admits. "And I was slowly able to perceive them -- first by voice, then by sight..."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Sightless eyes widen, just for a moment. Then her surprise relaxes, and she lets the tremble retreat inwards. The Metal Demon wanted to deny the attack on Adlehyde. She says it aloud. And for one so accustomed to listening to confessions, Amelia finds it ringing true. She falls far too silent for quite some time. The pad is drawn to a pocket of her robes, and then, she's taking in all of the 'Demon' before her with a scowl. Her chin tucks in, and finally, she laughs just a moment.
"Are you telling me that the words of the Goddess would do anything other than ensure that those who hear it would live properly!?" Her voice rises, hard, and the Priestess 'stares' at the Metal Demon. She stands, walks around, and finally is looming towards the woman!
Silver, however, just wuffs lowly. That manages to make her confrontation perhaps seem drained a bit. Hands find her pockets.
"..Anyway, forgive me if I seem a bit skeptical. Why would.." Some Heretic. It all but bleeds out of her voice.
"I can feel the Malevolence around the Destroyer. If you could..." Another grit of teeth. Amelia turns aside. "Regardless, if you keep to this path, perhaps you can be saved. Riesenlied? If you really aren't worthy of your name, then I look forward to meeting you again." She stands, grabbing Silver's lead. And then Amelia leans on her cane as she walks out.