Awakening. (Lu Gavima)

[Legion]

It was not commonplace for a goddess to be pleased by the disobedient act of a dedicate; yet when Lu turned around in the coalescing configurations of stars to face Her, Zintila’s fond smile dimmed the light in the cavern for shame. Gentle hands rose, light of their own well trapped within Her skin, to slide up the young man’s face as if to catch any of those tears did they fall before they might baptize the floor of the Starlit Cave. Neither of them were quite prepared for that eventuality. “There is more than one right way to serve, Lu,” she murmured and wisps of comet tails speckled the air. “And more than one thing in which I might require your service. Your ways are not wrong and your heart is strong, but your mind could be stronger still. The potential is in you, but the promise cannot be fullfilled by the blind.” Her hands slipped from his face, coming to rest instead upon the breadth of his shoulders. The stars that had surged from the darkness began to fade again, leaving an elflight behind to bring the walls of this place gradually back into focus. She turned him quietly back around, remaining close while the pair of paths became visible to his eyes. The first went straight, lit by distant suns; and it was on an elevation that was certain and stark. Ascendency appeared assured upon that path, and all the stalactites and scars in the stone were relieved in black and white. There appeared to be no questions to litter the way, no struggles of the soul to make difficult the journey. On the other path, however, was debris. Shadows threw themselves in mysterious lengths, thrown by the very stars that peeked out only from the corners and behind bends. Whether the way went ultimately up in temporal awakening or spilled down into the opposite relied upon the outcomes of innumerable trials. “You cannot be lost, love,” Zintila breathed. “Not while My stars keep watch. On these paths, they will. Neither path is wrong and in traveling either will you serve Me. What you know, you know and the choice is yours; and you but have to turn again and leave this place if service is not your desire. I will never speak word.”

[Lu Gavima]

The width and breadth of the heavens came to Lu with Her smile. Her hands were cool, like night breezes off the Peaks. She staved his tears, which burned of shame and confusion, righted at once by Her cooler words. His eyes met Hers and he could see the entire sky in them. Her words spoke through him and resonated inside his strong heart.

"There is more than one right way to serve, Lu.”

"And more than one thing in which I might require your service. Your ways are not wrong and your heart is strong, but your mind could be stronger still. The potential is in you, but the promise cannot be fulfilled by the blind.”

Her hands braced Lu's shoulders and he stood, his own hands by his sides. The brilliant astral of the Cave appeared around him again, the stars returning to darkness.His focus was returning in many ways. Vormav had stressed a blindness and, although the two only shared their illusion of gender, now Zintila mentioned it as well. While he meant no blasphemy, to think of one God while in the house of another, his mind returned to Wysar. His life had been one of discipline. This was certain. In his desire to retain conviction, Lu had imposed harsh rules upon himself, harsher than was needed. Conviction brought him into the Cave. The final ingredient, however, was what was truly missing.

Integrity.

As he was turned, and the paths lay before him, he remained silent, within and without. Her words were simple and clear. Surely She knew he would never leave the cave. Not in the sense She spoke of. Integrity is what was lacking in the young man. Unlike Vormav, he had never been truly tested before. His little jaunt amongst bandits was a stiff warning from Death, nothing more. No, if he were ever to truly know himself or ever claim to know the Gods, he would surrender to the test and see it through, whatever the outcome.

A simple nod of assent and he walked forward into the darker path.

[Legion]

Down eased the path Lu chose and the approval of Zintila followed him; what followed him as well was a thing more personal than neutered confirmation, possessed of far greater substance than the thin slit strips of even a meritorious deity. It was Zintila's pride. Intimate and spangled as the crush of a velvet night or the secure embrace of highest noon where Her stars could hide safe from the Mizahar sky, it walked with him though the Star Lady failed to move from the foyer of the Starlit Cave. She slid elegant hands into frayed pockets and smiled a smile intended for poetry, watching him go. "Don't forget," She called after him, already half an echo. "Watch with all your eyes." Dark gathered. It bunched up the light in greedy fists and leaving but leftover bits to lessen the dim. Debris strewed the acolyte's path and an unborn winter wept along the tunnel walls with tears of ice. The temperature plummeted further with every step until breath exhaled turned to steam and goosebumps rose on uncovered flesh. Soon the Starlit Cave was little more than memory, rupturing further, thinning in thought and somewhere between two tunnel turns and the third a liquid growl resounded from the deep before him. An agonized bleat of a child followed. Within mere yards the tunnel split, diverging again into a pair of anachronistic choices. To the left was long ago light, distant but sure, and it was from there that the growling seemed to come. The tunnel on the right was frozen and fantastic and appeared to house at its end the wailing child.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu watched as his breath began to crystallize,appearing before him as a visible cloud. The temperature in the air seemed to plummet as he progressed deeper into the cave. He was very aware of Zintila's presence, but something was changing. As the tunnels formed and changed around him, an idea was slowly emerging in his mind. Was he still in the cave?

He saw the tunnels branch out before him, another set of choices presented. Zintila was near, but she had always been. A deep breath passed through his lungs, a sublime sense of silence enveloping him. There were many more choices, apart from the unseen threat or the path of salvation. Before he allowed his mind to wander over the possibilities of either tunnel, Lu brought himself to his center. He stood for a long time at this crossroads, his head lowered. He sat on the cool floor of the cave, folding his legs into the meditative position he was accustomed to.

His eyelids fluttered as his focus was complete. The subject of this focus was the space between the two tunnels. Lu was young and mostly naive of the world outside his home. While this presented many problems, it offered one particular benefit.

Discipline.

With no distraction or deviation from his studies, his ability to become completely in tune with his particular task of the time was formidable. If he was no longer in the cave, a third path would reveal itself. A path that walked the line between action and inaction, offense and defense, good and evil. It was impossible to remain fully benevolent and claim any grasp of the concept of balance. He had no ill will, but he also had no desire to rush to the aid of the infant, if there was even such a thing.

Should he find himself still in a cave, he would be meditating. Perhaps it was all meditation. Zintila was real as was the cave as was the importance of this time with Her. He had entered believing he would follow in the footsteps of all before him. Now, he sought something else.

Truth.