❀ heart of the void ❀

Pavo thought little of her decision to ascend, knowing that the strength sensed among the group could be relied on. It made sense that they would want to alert their allies of their new location, lest Aquila simply send the three back down to wherever on the Protectorate happened to be directly below the Observatory at that time - and despite her earlier misgivings, she was satisfied with their resolve enough to trust that they could handle themselves in the port town for the moment. As she soared up through the evening sky, feeling the clear air brush against her through bracing winds, she could not help but relish the feeling of flying; her lengthy stays down on the Protectorate did not allow her many chances to spread her wings in this way. The skies were clear beyond the clouds as she rose, and she aimed for where the Observatory stood steadfast, high above.

..That was, until she sensed an unsettling presence from somewhere below her.

Pausing her upwards momentum by spreading her wings outwards mid-flight, the Celestrian held her position with practised beats, scanning the surface below. It initially seemed as though the source of the sensation had concealed itself, but she caught sight of it again as she focused on one of the isle’s more secluded landmarks. To the southwest of Alltrades Abbey lay a forest enclosing a small clearing, and in this clearing stood a curious blue tree. Its leaves and branches both glowed softly with luminescent energy, and the way it spread its boughs made it resemble a ghostly version of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. While the true extent of its connection to Her was unclear to the extant Celestrians, Pavo nevertheless felt it prudent to investigate further, as the sensation carried a concerning amount of power and malice to have been felt at such a distance.

The dark presence she had detected, which became inadvertently obscured from her sight above by moving beneath the tree’s canopy, was once again made evident as Pavo landed in the clearing. Someone was standing before the trunk, left hand tentatively lifted as if to reach out and touch it. However, at the sound of the Celestrian’s descent, her(?) head jerked to one side moments before her(?) whole body swung around - and, on seeing her, grew tense.

"Another mortal..? No, you are different.

You are-?

No, you're..”

Pavo had planned to be the first to speak, but the mysterious figure’s disjointed words gave her pause. She was also unsettled by her(?) expression - what initially began as cold and distant poise had quickly crumbled into a weary suspicion, though that sense of weariness was likely exacerbated by the dark shadows under her(?) dull dark pink eyes. She(?) had short, messy dark blonde hair, and large ears resembling those of a lynx, which were angled to the sides atop her(?) head. However, what stood out most to Pavo above all other features were the pair of blackened wings extending out from her(?) back, their feathers drenched in what seemed like a thick, cloying sludge.

Only one manner of entity in this world had wings like those, even if they were also nothing like the ones she now faced.

“..State your purpose, winged one.” Pavo began, keeping her stance steadfast in the face of this unknown.

In response, her(?) eyes narrowed, though the way she(?) stood before the Celestrian still looked tired. The thin slits of her(?) pupils glared at her suspiciously.

“That’s not a concern of yours.” she(?) responded, in a voice slightly higher than Pavo was expecting. “Who are you? What, are you?”

“I am Pavo. I alone among my Celestrian comrades dare to cast open the sealed door of fate.” Her answer was the same as she had given the party a short time prior, but here it rang out with a greater authority, as she spoke with the same imposing tone that a Guardian would use to address their enemies. “Your fate, on the other hand, is one I cannot determine at this moment. Yet ‘tis clear that you bear a malevolent darkness, and such a force cannot be allowed to corrupt a sacred site like this one. If, therefore, you hold such intentions..”

The threat hung in the air between the two despite not being spoken, as the bow on Pavo’s back seemed to gleam sharply in the last light of the sunset.

“A Celestrian..” Her(?) own words faded in turn as she contemplated the angel’s answer, speaking more to herself than her(?) adversary.

“I did not come here for any of the reasons my superiors would force on me, if that is your sole worry. Though if your fears extend to more of these lands, you have every right to lament for the state of your Protectorate.”

It was Pavo’s turn to bristle, reacting indignantly where the winged figure stayed aloof and detached. “You speak of the otherworldly darkness that has so ravaged our lands in recent days.. the same whose reach has blighted so many worlds prior. The selfsame force you carry in your own right; that malice which drips from every part of you.

You mean to say you are an agent of the Empire?”

She(?) lifted her(?) chin to look down on Pavo at those words, curling her(?) hand up into a fist at the same time. “Don’t try to lump us together. That is what they would claim - but I am more than that.

I know this, and yet.. I cannot find why..”

The admittance seemed to tumble from her(?) unwillingly, given how she(?) then tensed back into frustration which she(?) hastily deflected towards her(?) opponent.

“The strangeness I feel in this world extends far beyond what I have felt at any time before now. I will not let you deny me this search - and if that means I must strike you down where you stand, then this night will be the last you ever witness!”

“Hmph.. For what reason would a being such as yourself seek answers here?” Pavo replied. She knew that one such as her brother would have drawn his weapon and dived into combat by now, riled up by the anger in her adversary’s hostile claims.. but her mind was still working over what she(?) had actually stated.

“Even should the empire once born of our mortals’ avarice hold any resemblance to the one you now serve, you shall find no guidance beneath a spectral shade such as this. Not for one who emanates such stygian strength, steeped in a force so strong that ‘tis if your very destiny is tainted by it.”

“Again you speak of-!”

She(?) spat back a retort at Pavo’s statement, but it seemed to get stuck on her(?) tongue halfway through.

“Again you speak of fate, of destiny.. A door that should be sealed, now cast open..

You’re..”

Her(?) brow furrowed deeply as she(?) now strained to stare, eyes darting over every part of Pavo’s face; she lurched forwards as if she(?) could not move her legs to get a closer look. Her(?) hands were tensed into claws, one of which clutched at the loose roguess' robes over her(?) chest.

A fierce tension held her(?) rigid for a long moment, until more words finally forced their way out.

“That word, “Celestrian”..

An angel of fate..

..Is- th-that you, Raviel..?"

A startled silence fell over the clearing, punctuated only by the quietest of sudden gasps. The pair were both staring at each other in shock, one’s eyes narrow yet pleading while the other’s were wide from hearing such an unexpected referral. Something had flickered in her(?) gaze as she(?) spoke those words, a momentary glimpse that almost matched the malachite eyes of the silver-haired Celestrian.

“How.. How could you know that name?” cried Pavo, striding forth to close the distance between the pair. Her guard had been thoroughly unbalanced, and she strove to repair it while her mind whirled with thoughts.

“I-It.. I don’t know.” the girl(?) admitted, as if against her(?) will. Her(?) voice wavered with uncertainty as she watched the angel approach her, but she(?) steeled herself in the face of her sudden rush.

“To be here, and see you before me like this, it‑ stirs something confused, inside myself. Something too deep, too long-buried ‑ I cannot allow it to surface, but these feelings are just- infuriating..

Why do I know that name..?”

Pavo glared, still off-balance from how she had been referred to. “For one like you to know the true name of a Celestrian, so rarely spoken even within the halls of the Observatory..

Yet you claim you were not told it?”

“No, it’s‑ it’s yours, isn’t it?” she(?) retorted. “A name that you hide, for it shows your true self, kept together like that with your title. I have never been directly informed of it. But to know why I know it, I can’t- there’s no reason that I can find. And I despise that.”

“If you indeed speak the truth.. Hm. Perhaps, then, a wager of knowledge must be made.” Pavo mused.

“..In what regard, exactly?” Her(?) guard was raised back up again defensively by now.

Pavo sighed, and left a long pause, debating the merits of her next move against the risks. If this entity was lying, and remained loyal to the dark empire that her(?) words seemed to distance her(?) from, then to give any more information away would be sacrilege. However, if her suspicions of her(?) identity were, in fact, somehow correct..

There was no way to learn but to test them.

“It is rare indeed for Celestrians to be born as twinned stars.” she began, stepping closer to her foe again as she spoke. “In so permitting this, the forces responsible have seemed to deem it fit to impose a penance for the privilege.

The dread fate affixed to myself and my brother dictates we must lose our two closest. It is the only one I have no power to change, for it is the price we pay for my defiance.

In all of the times I have tried, I have never rescued the first, our master. Yet the second can vary, and in other worlds and times, the path laid out by “her loss” has very different beginnings.

Thus must I echo your question in kind.”

She held out one hand to the unnamed figure.

“For you to know of me as Raviel..

O lost love whose grace I have not known, who once becomes the「angel of the human world」‑

could that be you, Valfrey?”

The woman’s words were laced with a strange sense of hope, as if she were appealing to some unknown higher power - but any such tentative feelings ebbed away as she watched her adversary’s reaction. More specifically, it was the lack of a reaction that discouraged her; the figure simply stood before her sullenly, and even after speaking it aloud in the same way, the echoed name held none of the same weight on her(?) tongue as Raviel had - or, indeed, as it did from Pavo’s.

“Valfrey.. No, that means nothing to me.” She(?) shook her head slowly. “I don’t doubt that the name denotes power, but it lacks whatever resonance yours held in that painful moment.

Why would you divulge such closely-held details to me of all things? You are not that naïve.”

Pavo’s disappointment was visible in the downcast way her wings were now angled, but she retained her determination to proceed. “Forgive the indiscretion, then, if that tainted soul of yours can do so. I simply took a chance in vain, despite already knowing it could not have been.

For you to claim this world as familiar, yet speak as one would who visits it for the first time, there was merely a thought that you could have..

Wait.

Unless it is this world that you hail from..”

The prospect had appeared in Pavo’s mind with some trepidation, but she was the last person to leave a potential path uncharted, so she took full advantage of her adversary's lack of hostility in the moment, despite that likely stemming from the cloud of confusion that dazed her.

“Are you truly a being of darkness?” she asked her(?).

“What?”

“The way that power clings to your form.. I cannot claim true knowledge of the ways in which such forces manifest, but the hold it has on you inspires not fear, but sorrow.” the angel continued. “It blights you, bringing ruin just as those whom you came to this world with have ruined others in pursuit of their dark goals. Yet within its restraints, I must wonder what manner of force it keeps buried, within yourself..”

Her(?) reaction to this seemed somehow offended, much like Pavo had feared it might. Her(?) hand clenched into a fist as she(?) looked away, but it seemed as though her(?) instinct to bite back was caught just before it could strike.

“Hmph. I have always belonged to the darkness, since the moment I first came into being.” she(?) then claimed. “Just as the light holds both kindness and zealotry, so too is the dark multifaceted - not that a being like you would understand..

This darkness, though-“ - she(?) pointed up towards her(?) face as she(?) spoke, and flared her(?) wings - “-is forced upon me, yes. How one like you could discern that, I am uncertain, but somehow you already had..”

Pavo gave a short, solemn nod; it had been more of a suspicion than a confident conclusion, but to hear it partially reinforced in the process worked out in her favour. Still, with that confirmation in hand, she could continue to explore the fraying thread of the fate before her, finally working to untangle it.

..At least, she would have been able to had she not been barred from one key piece and missing the other.

“In no way do you speak kindly of the powers that brought you to this world.” she began, the absent detail forcing her to try another approach. “And from what you have shared thus far.. I cannot make a promise, but there is a chance that what you seek may in fact be found here after all, in the domain of the Celestrians. Despite the dark burden that enshrouds you, there may yet be hope to free you from its weighty shackles. To bring forth the answers you long for; to uncover a long-lost truth..”

The figure almost flinched, taking in the angel’s steady statements with an expression of great uncertainty.

“How.. how could you think that? How could you- want that?” was how she(?) replied, faltering.

“Because I sense ‑ or at least, suspect ‑ that the knowledge you seek is the same missing detail we Celestrians have sorely lacked for so long.” she answered plainly. “And even if I am wrong, as I have already demonstrated myself capable of being..

I am Pavo, Celestrian and Fatebreaker. I have ever sought to defy the paths which others would lay out before me ‑ to carve out my purpose of my own accord. To live as I wish to, unbound by the burdens imposed by those above me, and thus achieve by demand my own harmony.

In you, I see the same spark begin to flicker. Can I rightly be blamed for wishing to see it blaze?”

There was a long moment of silence.

“..You are taking this too far.” the girl(?) who had given no name began. “You claim to set yourself apart from your kind, yet still exist in concordance with them.. Even so, your actions here betray your loyalty. Despite this, you still persevered..”

She(?) paused as a gust of wind blew through the clearing, carrying with it the cold of the night.

“..I can’t stay here any longer. I need to think..”

Pavo smiled slightly at that. “And I shall not stop you. I, too, have matters to attend to - and much to consider in the wake of our encounter.

I should warn you that you are not likely to receive such lenience should you cross paths with one of our Guardians, as the prominence they place upon their duty to drive out darkness is often far greater.

In spite of what you may or may not find, however..

The fact remains that you are more than what they would claim you to be. I can see it writ plain.

And so, for as foolish a phrase as one might claim this to be towards an adversary..

Farewell.”

With her parting words spoken, the silver-haired Celestrian spread her wings and pushed off from the grassy ground of the clearing, restarting her ascent with renewed vigour.

As she did so, a single white feather tumbled from the sky left in her wake..

..which she(?) intercepted before it could hit the ground, holding it out between finger and thumb.