milliways_bar | (no subject)

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(no subject)

After Ian's annual performance of the i'toshaa-ni ritual of cleansing and atonement...

Once again Ian the Cheysuli enters the bar and orders a honey brew in silence. He looks to be in a good mood, though with Ian, it's not always easy to tell.

And if you get close, you might notice the faint smell of woodsmoke and soil about him.

Well, cleansing rituals are more about symbolism than real, physical cleansing...

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This seemed to be the season for Cheysuli again, the fox that lay by the fireplace thought. But he didn't move - he didn't feel like yet another Cheysuli right now.

The fox fight with Hale had been quite enough.

Tasha lay next to Ian's leg, providing him with warmth, comfort and companionship. Though he might like to pretend that all is right with the world she knew better. Ian's face was trained into a mask of deceptive calmness, but the link between cat and man was filled with mixed emotions and very few of them positive.

That was, until she sensed something else in the area. Had it been human it would've interfered with the link, but it wasn't.

No this was more, as she got up and excused herself from Ian, claiming that she smelled food and wished to partake in some, and would return within the hour.

Even a lir can lie, though they don't do it often.

The fox looked at the sleek mountain cat, and sighed.

Asar-Suti didn't want any trouble. Not now, especially.

It would only be trouble if "curiosity" was the precursor to it.

You are one of the gods, she said simply. It is strange to find a god in a bar, but then, this is not an ordinary bar is it?

The fox lifted his head.

No, it isn't, the slightly purple fox agreed. There are many gods in this place, in fact. I am just one.

He looked into Tasha's eyes.

Content with her answer, she sat down and began to wash the underside of her paw, occasionally letting large claws peek through.

What has brought you all the way from Homana to this place? she asked, while using her teeth to pick at a tiny burr that had lodged itself into the webbing. Have the Ihlini grown weary of their god that you have decided to come here?

The fox relaxed.

I come from a point in time when the Prophecy is fulfilled, and we are defeated, he told her. Valgaard was brought down on top of me, my Gate closed. It got boring underneath that.

So the prophecy has been fulfilled; the labours of the Cheysuli have not been in vain. I am pleased, she said, contentment in her voice. She would not tell Ian this though, as this information came from a god himself.

The lir only told the Cheysuli what was in their best interests to know; the rest they would find out as their tahlmorras unfolded.

But the Ihlini I doubt are taking it well? The loss of their god and thus a portion of their powers?

Many Ihlini had deserted my side already, Asar-Suti aditted. The Ihlini survived he fulfilment of the Prophesy; only the cult of the Seker did not.

She stops trying to remove the burr, which is proving to be harder to dislodge than she expected.

They perished when the prophecy was completed? They went out of the world when you did?

Yes, Asar-Suti said. What remained of my closest followers fell with me when the fortress of Valgaard collapsed over my Gate, while the Ihlini who had rejected me, or had never been allied to me in the first place, came out and made peace with the Cheysuli.

My lir would never accept peace with an Ihlini; the damage Lillith has caused him is too great for him to recover, no matter how much I would wish he did.

It serves him none to obsess over the past like this, but I am only lir; there is only so much I can do.

She seems to sigh, then asks, How far into the future are you?

Let me think, the fox-shaped god said. From what time are you exactly? How old are Brennan and Hart?

Brennan and Hart? Corin and Keely and Maeve? she says rhetorically in an effort to help her think. Maeve is eleven and Brennan and Hart have just reached their tenth birthdays, whereas Corin and Keely are several months behind.

And so far, not one of Niall's sons has acquired a lir.

The fox calculated. Plus roughly ten years until Strahan meddled with them, plus twenty years until Aidan, plus twenty years until Kellin, and the birth of Cynric - say fifty years from where you are, we will be defeated.

For some reason Tasha is decidedly silent. It's as if the link itself has died, even though it hasn't.

Fifty years until the Seker is defeated and his minions scattered like so many fallen leaves.

Something about it gives her pause to think; to really think.

Now that things have been put into persective she can understand why the Ihlini might be less than enraptured with the idea of the prophecy. For them, the prophecy of the Firstborn means their qu'mahlin. Their ending. And they will do whatever they can to survive, just as the Cheysuli went to all means to survive their purge.

It's a sobering thought.

Exactly, the fox said, not hearing the contents of her rumination, but quite able to guess it.

Is it necessary? she wondered to herself. Is it truly necessary that the gods desire the union of two magical races? The other peoples of this worl will go on much as they always have, but for the Ihlini and the Cheysuli...

They have been two people ever since the days that came after the Firstborn left the Crystal Isle. Is it truly so paramount to the world's well-being that two people be fused into one again?

Is it?

And the Cheysuli thought the lir held all the answers. What Niall or Ian or any other Cheysuli would think to hear that even lir have their doubts.

You are certain there are yet Ihlini in the world? she asked at last. There are those Ihlini from my time who fear that they will be no more when the Foretold Child is born...

There are still Ihlini in the world, Asar-Suti assured her. Those Ihlini who trace their young tradition to Taliesin, whose name might ring a belll with you, and those Ihlini who come from traditions that never allied with me, like those around Tye, whose name you most likely won't have heard.

And it's more for her assurance than it is for Ian's. Ian will never know, as Ian does not wish to know. All he knows is that the Ihlini are the enemy, and that their destruction will only prove to be the world's salvation.

And it's then that she understands why she has chosen not to tell Ian: Ian, in a bout of rashness, might do great damage to the prophecy in his attempt to speed up the destruction of the House of Darkness. She knows Ian has it in him to want to do it. And the wherewithal to carry these desires out.

Taliesin I know; or rather, know of, thanks to Serri. Serri was there with his lir, and it was he who told me of the harper with the ruined hands. But Tye and others of his kin I know not of. His name is unfamiliar to me.

They were after our time; Aidan met them, Brennan's son, Asar-Suti said. In any case, the Ihlini will survive, as will the Cheysuli, when the Prophesy is fulfilled.

Then everything that will be, will unfold as it should, she said, relief colouring her tone. There is no need for me to concern myself that the prophecy will be perverted by those who fight over it and the fate it will inevitably bring.

She gets up, and, with a parting comment wishing the Seker well, she heads off, looking for a fireplace to stretch out in front of to warm her body with.

A wise and sensible lir, the fox thought, watching her go.

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