Auranosa Intrepid / Temple of Auriga

[Jackie Cat]

The effect was dreamlike – or rather, it was like when one is at the edge of sleep, the swash of unreality covering the waking world for a moment, then withdrawing in a backwash, over and over...

Eventually, however, the tide comes all the way in.

The spectral echoes of stones laid long-ago flickered into shape around them, paving a tall stairway towards the stars. Motes of Radiance danced across the steps, each collision causing their forms to appear more solid, more real.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion was not predisposed towards being afraid of heights. Quite the opposite, really. He’d been quite accustomed to terrifying his sister by flaunting the do not sit signs on the outer railings of Aether.

Thinking of walking along these notes of light was still making him feel a little lightheaded. Would’ve been a lot easier if he was just a bird. (Maybe that’s what he would’ve been if not for Sage’s presence. Used to wish he could fly, after all.)

“Hey Betel,” he joked, “Should’ve put more birds— Oh… Nevermind.”

It was funny how quickly he’d gotten used to having someone wired into his head twenty-four seven. The version of him back home would probably abhor the idea, but now he felt somber for their absence.

Well, it wasn’t like they were missing a particularly clever joke right now. He looked up into the stars as he started his own climb. It was better than looking down, and let him picture the seemingly endless stairs carved into the side of Mount Lanakila beneath his feet. Except for the part where he couldn’t see the rest of the mountain in front of him, which made him want to look down so that he could see the ground beneath his feet, an urge he resisted acting upon.

“Seems to work just fine,” he called back without tearing his eyes from the stars. “Just maybe don’t look down.”

 

[Phoenixsong]

For a moment, if she closed her eyes, she almost could see it. Then she opened her eyes and she could. The little flecks of radiance that danced in the corners of her vision stretched up, twirling themselves into the shapes of stairs and columns high up above the point. A whole temple, old as the gardens (or maybe even older), just... twinkling into existence where there were only stars before.

Huge points for style, she'd give Auriga that.

"Well, c'mon! Not gonna miss a chance to show up those other delvers, are you? Bet they'll be jealous they never thought of this." Leaf gave Leona a wink before trotting up the starlit stairs after the chimeras.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona's muzzle scrunched up in offended confusion, then broke into a chuckle.

"Fine, fuck it. Let's do this."

The wolf bounded up the stairs to catch up, and kept pace with the others. As they ascended, the tower opened up, space and time expanding inside its ethereal walls. Perhaps, when it had existed as a physical construct, its interior had been dungeon-like even in the distant past. A tower of stone rising from the planet to meet a tower of stardust descending from the aether...

The shimmering construct was not without its more straightforward defenses – spectral guardians in gold bracelets and cloth bindings, rooms that demanded riddles answered before questors could proceed, the faint certainty that their hearts were being measured by the faintly glowing flagstones they passed over – but the party passed these tests without having to turn back. (They may have gotten the sense that if the tower really wanted them out, it could simply vanish beneath their feet...) As they ascended, they passed by corridors and hallways that extended out into the night sky, pathways to elsewhere. An impulse in their minds sent them further upward nonetheless.

The top of the tower was a platform of sandy-white stone, rimmed by ghostly torches of blue-green flame. If one looked up, there was the shimmering impression of a reflection of the entire edifice, just above them. An illusion, possibly. Or maybe a glimpse into the Astral Plains?

More or less. A reflection of something half-real. Your minds making sense of something outside the physical world. A dream within a dream. You stand at a crossroads of leylines, gazing into unreality; you are asleep by your campfire. You are ten thousand miles from earth; you stand atop a pillar of stone. You are five thousand years in the past; you breathe the air of tomorrow's dawn. All this is true.

Welcome, Wayfarers.

You have come a long way.​

 

[Ambyssin]

"In more ways than one," Nova mused. "Greetings, Auriga. Nice to finally meet you." He figured it was easier to be polite than bombard her with a bunch of questions that would all essentially be some variation of "Hey, so what the fuck?".

 

[Jackie Cat]

You have already met me; I have already met you.

In every meeting with a soul of Forlas, we have spoken to each other.

We have fought; we have rejoiced; we have parted.

I know you.

And, through parts in millions, you know me.​

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Damn. That was one way to start a conversation. Gladion sputtered for a moment, recalibrating, processing the idea of someone who could see all he was from the perspectives of everyone whose lives he had touched here. Friends and enemies. Someone with the right to judge him. What would such a person, such an entity even think of him? The idea sent a chill down his spine.

“Oh…”

But, on the other hand, if Auriga was in some way a part of all the experiences he’d had on Forlas, all the people he’d met there, then…

“Uhh, thanks?”

He glanced at Leona, and then back out into space. (Really, it didn’t probably didn’t matter where he was looking when he spoke to Auriga, but it felt weird to look at another person while addressing them.)

“Does that mean you already know why we’re here?”

 

[Jackie Cat]

Know...? In one sense, yes. In another, not at all.

There is... an unending sea of thought and feeling. I cannot sift through it like you can search your memories, and simply know something.

And yet. I do know.

You are here for answers. I will try to give them to you.
​

There was no dramatic explosion of light, such as they'd seen from the Living Sun. When the world spirit manifested, it was quiet, understated. An exhalation of air from newly-extent lungs, and there she was – standing just outside their field of view, her scales sparkling like moonlight on water. A Flygon, her lenses tinted an opaque gold, her proportions uncannily long and serpentine – as if she'd created the body from a hazy memory of the species. When she spoke, it sounded as if a distant chorus of thousands were speaking with one voice:

"Hello," said Auriga, spreading her wings. "I can pretend to be a person, in this place, for a short while. I think it might be helpful."

 

[Ambyssin]

"Much more helpful than the the fancy divine musings about life, the universe, and everything," Nova said. When he recalled how blunt Powehi tended to be, she really was the perfect opposite for him. "For starters, your counterpart has repeatedly referred to us as a strain on the fabric of this world. And now a bunch more of us have shown up... and there's an ominous-looking star in the sky. I'm not a math guy, but it seems like this all adds up to big trouble."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion looked over to Leona. Despite having his own questions about Matthias and Starr, as well as what Forlas needed of the Wayfarers, he was clearly of the opinion that she should get to ask for help first.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Auriga's expression looked only somewhat like she was smiling. Her mouth didn't quite express happiness. There was something else there, something hard to place.

"You tell so many jokes," she said, softly. "Humour is the preferred salve of pain for many 'mon."

She glanced east, towards the red star Nova had mentioned. It glowed hot and angry on the far horizon.

"My greatest champion," she whispered. "My original sin. His victory is a natural law as real as gravity."

Lorrel. She was talking about Victini Lorrel.

"I do not know if any offworlder can ever become so powerful. Perhaps you Wayfarers can, unshackled as you are from my intent and cloaked in Shadow."

Leona exchanged a look with Gladion, and nodded. Taking a breath and stepping forward, she addressed Auriga.

"...Hey there. Look, uh. I hope all that shit works out, but I'm not interested in getting any more powerful when I could be getting home. I've got business back on my Earth. I know you didn't summon me to begin with, but I could use a lift. If you can do that...?"

The World-Spirit laughed – gently, quietly, internally. They heard it anyway, and with it they heard a million soft whispers, too. Countless thoughts. The dragon avatar in front of them was silent; something else was doing the thinking.

"It would be easier for your little star. Betelgeuse. Such a strange being, so lucid... Or you could send yourself back at any time, if you only hurled yourself from a height. You always could. You aren't here because you want to escape this world. Are you?"

Leona pulled back, scoffing.

"If I could, I sure didn't know it. Hell, I don't know it now. I could probably survive a fall from here by now, I'm made of tough stuff."

"You could find a way, if you truly wanted."

"Well, then excuse me for wasting a trip!" barked Leona, baring her teeth.

The dragon only tilted her head. Infinitely patient. And completely certain. Leona, deep down, didn't really come here to be sent home. Then why had she, really? She didn't seem to know herself...

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf remembered standing on the HQ watchtower that one evening. Watching the sunset view from way, way up there. The split second of desperation in Leona's eyes as she'd looked down.

"No one needs to jump off of anything." It came out a lot colder than maybe it should've done, given who they were talking to, but she didn't care. Somebody who was supposed to understand (to be) all the life and emotion for the entire world, just casually suggesting that to someone who'd already been scared and miserable, when there had to be other ways to help? Seriously?

She sighed and looked away before she got any more heated. (Not that it mattered; Auriga'd know what she was feeling anyway. Friggin' magic... spirit voice whatevers. But it still felt slightly less disastrous to have the courtesy to pretend she could keep the rudeness to herself.)

So Beetle really could send her back? Made sense, she supposed, since technically they were the one who'd brought her here. Not that it was on the table right this second, of course—hopefully everything'd gone all right over at Paydirt and they'd hear from Jade and, ideally, Beetle themselves soon—but... could they really have just done it whenever? They'd explained to Leona before how Beetle'd been forced to summon her. And other Wayfarers had apparently found their way home by now. Had none of them actually thought about just asking Beetle to help her leave then and there? Not even Leona?

She turned to the lycanroc, confused, but mostly gently curious. "Is... is there something else? Something else you need... here? On Forlas?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Auriga laughed, and it sounded like—

shards of shattered glass ​

​

coins pouring into a collection plate​

​

infants burbling​

​

drunken comrades belly-laughing around the fire​

​

a forest fire's cracks and roars​

—like a great-grandmother, chuckling at a private joke only she understood.

Her long neck craned out towards Leaf.

"Nobody's going to leap to a long fall," she whispered. "Just because words don't sound kind to you, doesn't mean they aren't what someone most needs to hear. Remember what kind of person the wolf is..."

Leona snorted, grinning. "The kind of bitch who's got a dark sense of humour," she filled in.

The dragon smiled. "Yes."

"Heh." Leona thought for a moment longer, considering Leaf's question. "I, uh. I dunno? Like, I'm not lying when I say I'm thinking about getting back to my girls all the time. Them and Rui. But..."

For some reason, Leona couldn't just go back. Something in her would stop her...

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Huh. It’s not as if, with Betel’s promise to return their souls if they died, it hadn’t occurred to Gladion early on that he had a way back if he was desperate enough to leave this place and wake up to Hazel. But not knowing whether that applied to Leona nor how desperate she was to return, he’d seen fit not to mention it. (Either she’d already known and reasonably opted against it, or she hadn’t and he didn’t want to put that idea in her head.)

He’d been surprised to hear Auriga suggest it at first, then more surprised to hear her suggest that Leona hadn’t because she wanted something else from Forlas. Seemingly, Leona was surprised by this too.

“Uhh, alright then,” he said, trying and failing to not sound awkward.

He wondered for a moment what she really wanted. Was there something on Forlas that she needed to do? Or was it more of a personal discovery thing, something she needed to figure out about herself? (Odds seemed remarkably low that she would even remember this, if she followed the same rules as other Wayfarers. But maybe it’d still count for something.)

Part of him wanted to ask her some kind of follow-up question, but he decided that she could probably use some time to collect her thoughts and the kindest thing he could do would be to give her that moment. They could circle back to the subject before they left.

“So, another thing I was wondering: I know you didn’t summon us, but Starr did. Because she needed help with her thing. What is that thing you need done? Is that also Matthias’ thing? It would be nice to know what we still have to do here before we can safely go home and let the fabric of reality heal.”

(At one point, he’d have been excited to finish their work and go home. It didn’t sound like that was the case for him anymore. Now, he spoke like it was his solemn duty to go home.)

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf kept her gaze averted for the moment. No yelling, at least. But morbid joke or not, it sure hadn't seemed all that funny then.

That was what Leona was like, though, wasn't it. As long as she really was doing better. That was what mattered.

"So that weird light's actually him? Lorrel?" She looked instead toward where the red star hung on the horizon, glaring out creepier than ever against the dark sky in the middle of all the pretty, twinkling normal ones. "Professor Sada thought he'd gotten 'stuck' between reality somehow. Is he... unstuck, now?" Could Amida reach him there? Could he get back down? "Does someone have to get him unstuck?" Surely it wouldn't be right to just leave the guy trapped between the couch cushions of the universe after so, so long. (She tried not to listen to the little part of her that wondered if maybe it wasn't safe to let him back out, either.)