#soulstone

Burakh and Vira are two shards of the same Azem. For whatever reason, their lives led them to each other, as unlikely as that might seem.

The lucky coin has the cardinal directions North, South, East and West inscribed on it; offset to sit at the diagonals in relation to the center, unlike regular lucky coins. It is held to the blue tiger's eye tightly with strings of red and green.

The red string and gold bead, one half of the strings of fate, represents Burakh's goldsmith father Haru.

The green string and ketupat amulet, the other half of the strings of fate, represents Burakh's blacksmith father Kyousuke.

The tiger's eye stone represents Vira and their captain Solveig; the courage and stripes of tigers. In my tongue, we have a saying that tigers leave their stripes when they die, and men leave their deeds. Both Vira and Solveig never knew a 'home', and in Solveig's case, lost everything to protect the hope of a better future.

Both ends of the strings are burning, and it looks like the 'compass' is falling or flying through the air. I wanted the burning ends to represent a personal disconnect I feel between my cultural heritage and the tenuous hold I have on that aspect of identity. The whole compass exists in the midst of chaos; yet, no matter how fragile, the sense of inner balance with all its elements 'holding' it together, is what allows the wielder to chart a sure course.

Equilibrium. Lots of lion dance stunts are super dangerous, but when you trust each other (lion head, lion tail, drum, gong, cymbals) you can jump across any gap, and have a firm grip despite real danger.