Flight. In all her time spent in Revaliir, it was the one thing that that Lucielle had not been able to experience. Sure, there were times where she was teleported from here to there by a friendly deity or made to hop an airship moving between continents, but she had not been able to move through the skies of her own accord. It was what she wanted. More than anything. In her days of silence, she had spent hours watching air creatures zip about the skies like it was a roadway. She has assumed that it was nothing more than a momentary fascination of a new realm, but it had stuck.

Truth be told, she had spent a great deal of time here looking for shreds of her lost memory, and had recently found that the only time the bits and pieces would begin to weave together into something real was when she was experiencing something that was familiar to that old version of her. But they weren’t simply experiences like eating and apple or catching glimpse of a sprite. They were major experiences that elicited proportionate emotions. Like worry. Or selflessness. Or true joy. That had been a big one. A little chuckle had given way to such clear mental images. It had been a break through that had shown her the face of friend (one that she had been rather close to she assumed).

In all reality, that realization is what has brought her to this part of the continent. She had heard from countless travelers that had traversed her lords temple that Kurayo was one of the most dangerous cities in all of this realm; a haven for the polar opposite of beings of light like herself. Her first instinct, as it should have been, was to stay far away. And to only go when she had proper back up. But of course as time went on, and more books on the area fell into her possession, she became more curious to the wiles of the city. It was a major port. It had to have something special beyond an unnatural allure for creatures of the dark. Right?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she reminded herself. She was sure that her light was enough to protect her if she ever had to fight off the creatures of this area. As long as there weren’t too many of them. And she was pretty adamant about avoiding that possibility.

Lucielle pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she stepped into the city. It was dark, as expected, but it was chillier than she had planned for. She was used to port cities being warm. And for all she knew, it was to everyone else, but her light kept sending shivers of warning along her spine. Her very spirit knew that she should not be here.

Ignoring the warnings she pushed deeper into the city. Looking for something, anything that would help her move forward; to move her towards the sky. Maybe there was a vampiric spirit somewhere in the town that had mastered manipulation of air streams. Or a witch that had enchanted a bracelet to allow them to float. There were so many possibilities that she had read about, but they were all so rare. And basic to the eye. How would she know how to find something like that?

She turned another corner faster than she meant to, her nerves beginning to show in her footsteps, and ran directly into the chest of a sailor. It hurt. More than it should have.

”I’m sorry! Are you okay?” she exclaimed as she struggled to regain her balance from the crash.

She looked up at the man with worry in her eyes. She knew that she, by no means, was a brut, but to someone not expecting the collision, she could easily cause some damage.

The man stood solid; unmoving. Slowly, a smile touched his lips. Not a happy smile that could trigger warmth in her chest, but a malicious smile. One that made the glow slowly move to her skin.

”If you are well, then I will be moving on,” she said in her best impersonation of someone who didn’t want to run away screaming at the top of her lungs, and stepped to the side to move past him.

A hand was on her arm before she could even think; throwing her against the brick of the nearest building. It didn’t hurt. But she knew it would later. Both because of the fading rush of shock and the fangs that the stranger now bared at her throat.

Vampire.

She closed her eyes tightly and pulled on her light; remembering one of the many spells that the Northern Light had taught her during her time as his unofficial acolyte. She felt the runes of her magick etch onto the ether as a bright light touched her skin.

Protection. Arcane Empower. It would be enough to keep him away from her, but would it be enough for her to get away? Magick was finite. That was a fact that was all too clear in to her in these moments. She had to think fast before she was tapped out.

Lord Naota, guide me. Oh! Naota!

She reached into her cloak and pulled out the snowflake the god had gifted to the land. It could help. It would drive him away.

The snowflake began to glow impossibly bright; sending the man (using the word loosely) running. It was the gods power. So immense. And familiar. For a moment, she found her mind thinking of him. Was he well? It had been some time since she had moved from the protection of his crystalline temple.

The fact that his magickal gifts were working well, so he had to be well. She reached onto her back and pulled the Sun’s kiss from under her cloak; the dark tourmaline blending in with the night all too well.

One day she knew that she would be able to stand on her own. To face the ravages of the night with her own light. But now, only minutes into her journey, she wanted, more than anything else, to have the Lord of Light at her side.

There was an itch at the back of his skull. More than that, it was a whisper that wouldn’t leave him. He sat up in his bed chambers and rubbed at one of his temples in both irritation and confusion. The former due to being woken, and the latter from the intensity. Since his domain change there had been some followers that had become wary, and others that kept loyalty if nothing else for the sake of loyalty itself. Needless to say, he hadn’t felt the pull of prayer as strongly as he did now.

To call it ‘prayer’ may have been an overestimation, but whoever they were, they were thinking of him quite loudly. He faintly recognized the soft bell of a voice that called out his name, but through the recesses of his mind - with how much memory had recently poured in - was difficult to place. Still, the familiarity was something he could not ignore.

He blinked a bit, hands moving lazily through the air to direct his clothing onto himself as he walked to Torinasu’s holding. Keeping his movements as silent as possible for his sleeping wife, he removed the blade and tied it to its usual spot on his hip before teleporting in a silent flash of rainbow scattered light. He reappeared at the ring of mirrors that guarded the temple, and looked into one of them.

With a simple touch to its smooth surface he was able to bring forth the image of a young woman. The second he saw her he knew her: Lucielle. He hadn’t seen or spoken to her since his realm’s shift, and wondered if she even knew where he was now.

The portal left at the mountaintop that Suisho no Kyuden had rested on was simple enough to use, but he could understand the precaution certain people may have taken in using it. The fact of the matter was, people were having to wait and see what kind of deity he would be now: their trust needed earned all over again. He wasn’t sure if that was the case for her, but he prepared himself for the possibility anyways.

His eyes narrowed on her image, studying what was around it: the black of night, old and weathered stone. He grimaced, able to point out such architecture anywhere, even without the flash of fangs soon following it. She had two of his gifts at her aid, both of which would serve her well in a place such as Kurayo, but best not to leave temptation piqued for too long.

He brushed his fingertips down the image of her and the surface began to ripple, changing instead to a portal to where she was, which he promptly stepped through. To her and the man it would simply appear as if he’d stepped out of nothing. Without a word to her would be pursuer, he rose up one hand and froze him in place where he was, keeping his eyes on her.

“Now I know it has been some time since we’ve been in each other’s company, but I’d like to think you were trained with enough sense not to come to a place like this without help or preparation.” he arched an eyebrow, eyes turning to the paralyzed vampire as if he were a buzzing gnat.

“Believe me,” he said, voice softening as he returned his focus to her, “those items will protect you well, but may draw too much attention. Best to use them only under extreme circumstances. You have holiness in you,” he said, tapping her forehead gently, “try and focus on that…and maybe just one of these at a time.” He smiled, the corner of his lips threatening to upturn to a smirk.

“Walk with me.” he said, resting a hand on her shoulder to start and lead her away from her former attacker. The vampire however, he left alone. The paralysis would wear off. Eventually. “Now,” he said, “Tell me why you’ve come here.”

She had prepared herself. She'd brought all of the necessary items, even the powers of the very gods that ruled this realm. But somehow, she still found herself in need. Of course. Her instincts told her to leave; to go somewhere safe. Perhaps a high tower, with no doors and only one window, where no one would ever see her or harm her again. She had read about that in a fairy tale book once. It seemed the proper place for someone like her - the perpetual damsel in distress.

A large part of herself was angry; livid at her weakness. But the other part reminded her that this was the very reason that she was in this place. When she first arrived in Revaliir, she was weak; empty. Then the Northern light trained her to fight and use her light properly. And with this control, she found that there was more within her. She was sure that the same would stand true for her experiences in this place. Experience. Yes. That's what this was about. But at what cost?

Her panicked mental ramblings were suddenly interupted by a familiar feeling -something akin to a static charge- and a slight movement in her peripheral vison. Was it another vampire? A witch? One of a million different creatures that made their home here that would like nothing more than to swallow her light like a grape.

But then she saw it. The light. Naota was here.

Emotion flooded her at the sight of him; a combination of relief and happiness at seeing an old friend. Her vision blurred, but no tears fell. Not yet anyway. The amount of light that kind of emotion would bleed into the atmosphere around here was too risky given her current location. Not that it really mattered considering she had just blasted the light of lights into the darkness of the town, but she figured it was better safe than sorry.

"I-I tried to prepare like you taught me, but I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew," her eyes moved to the frozen vampire. "No pun intended."

She looked back at the Lord of Light as he spoke. Feeling the all to familiar shame of failing someone that she cared about. She had felt it often during their time training together. Mostly because it was one of three emotions that she had a solid grip of at the time.

Her platinum hair fell over her face as he spoke. He was right. She had her own light, and it actually had some meat to it. There was no reason that she couldn't use it to protect herself. It seemed as though the god was making an effort to be light hearted about his scolding, at least that's how anyone else would have taken it. Lucielle could not help but to feel as though she was being lectured. Probably because he was echoing the very things that she had told herself a thousand times in the last two hours.

She moved with him out of reflex; a hazard of being an unofficial acolyte for as long as she had been. She had followed him around his temple for quite some time; taking in bits of wisdom and tricks of light magick.

He rested his hand on her shoulder as he spoke, -an action that he had done a thousand times when she was learning to harness holy magick- but something felt off. Different. He felt different. She just couldn't put her finger on the reason why.

"I came here to learn. To experience things, I guess. A few months ago, a bit of my memory came back. And it was tied to a major emotion, or maybe even just the adrenaline attached to the emotion." She paused for a moment, searching her thoughts for the best way to phrase what her thought process was without sounding insane. "So I figured, that if I came to a place like this that had to much danger, that I might have the chance to experience something real. Something visceral." Just not death, she added silently.

She looked up at the god Naota with a slight smile; an action that still felt a little odd on her face. "I just wanted to get something of myself back. Does that make sense?" she asked.

It was an odd feeling to be physically whole, but empty inside. She could only hope that he would understand her meaning.

He smiled, unable to hold it back at the unintentional pun, but it faded back down as he listened to her reasoning. What she said struck him, and while he felt a stab in his heart from their similar yet vastly different situations, he was sure to keep any evidence of it from his features. He too knew what it felt like; to have experiences from your past curl up to the present. Only, where hers appeared to be coming in pieces, his had struck straight into his skull like a lightning bolt. If nothing else he would be able to relate to her situation in some way, and sometimes that was enough. For certain individuals.

Even so, coming to a place like this to learn was a deadly errand, especially when unaccompanied by someone accustomed to the ways of this…place. He slowly arched an eyebrow at her, moving his touch from her shoulder but not dismissively. Visceral. That was a word to describe Kurayo. He had a few choice others that he wouldn’t speak so openly in front of her.

“It makes sense, yes.” he nodded, eyes out in thought, “But coming here wouldn’t have been the way I personally would have suggested. Visceral. Yes…” his voice trailed, unable to detach from that word: visceral.

He brought his attention back to her, the light in his eyes brightening slightly only now the hue shifted lazily like drifting stars, “Things have,” he paused for only a heartbeat, “changed.” That was a word you could use. Was it the most encompassing for his particular situation? No. Was it vague enough to keep safe? Most certainly.

“Despite that, I don’t know why you didn’t come to me about an issue like this. If you wanted to go somewhere dangerous to get the blood pumping and the mind working, well I can think of about ten appropriate places off the top of my head.” he laughed and looked forward, but there was an edge to it; he hated Kurayo so. Even now he could barely stand to be surrounded by its arches and moist alleyways; slick with what he hoped was water or grease but highly doubted it.

“These memories,” he inquired, turning his gaze back to her, “Tell me about them.” As they walked aimlessly through the streets the residents gave them a healthy radius. His marks may have been dimmed and hidden mostly by clothing, but it was still clear as the blocked out daylight what he was.

Lord Naota seemed to be stuck on the word visceral. Had she not used it correctly? It was true that her knowledge of this realm had progressed by leaps and bounds since she had left the crystalline halls of the Northern Light, but there were a great deal of things that she only had a minimal understanding of. And sometimes that showed up in her verbiage. If that was the case, the god seemed to have deemed it not worth correcting.

Lucielle closed her eyes for a second; pushing back her urge to question. This would be one of those queries that she would answer herself with the help from a musty printed friend.

He spoke again, with the most minute air of hesitation- a sound that did not suit someone who usually seemed so certain of everything. Things had changed. His words, not hers. For a moment, she felt the urge to congratulate her instincts, but quickly found it to be inappropriate; however impressive her growth in that area may be.

”I suppose it’s true that I kind of picked the worst place imaginable for my risk taking, but I think that was the point,” she said quickly before her sense caught up to her mouth. “Though, I feel now that I probably should have picked a less terrible place as a dry run.”

He laughed. And she let herself smile that all too new smile in response. It still felt weird on her face.

”I suppose there’s not much to tell, unfortunately. As time has gone on, I felt more full, to use that word freely. Which apparently, is noticeable in my speech patterns. But, the memory I have now- the one from a few months ago- is nothing more than a face. Close to mine, only darker. Smiling. Everything was bright. That’s all. But…” she trailed for a moment, searching her memory for the best way to describe the importance of such a memory, ”But it’s something. And when you’ve had nothing for so long, even something small can see so huge in your eyes.”

She was silent for a moment before her gaze fell back on him. He had always been a support when she needed one. He had always come to the rescue. And as much as she wanted to get her memory back by her own merits, there was nothing wrong with asking for help. Right?

”I want it all back. I want to know who I was, even if I was someone horrible. I want to know who the face in my memory belongs to. I j-just,” she stammered, ”want to be a full person. I want to feel like I belong somewhere.”

She was certain that her plea was a childish one. How many times had she said I want in the course of her confession? Too many by her measure. But it was said. It was out there. And as much as she hated to admit it, it was true.

His eyes moved out to nothing as he listened to her, trying to picture the things she was describing. Their situations were of course very different, but they came from the same root: not knowing your full past. While all of his memories had rushed back in an avalanche, hers was barely a light snowfall. To be honest, he wasn’t sure which would be more frustrating, or frightening.

Lucielle had been an unspoken pupil and acolyte for quite some time now, and he couldn’t help but want to help her more than the usual individual. For this though, something so delicate, to open a door that couldn’t be closed once breached? He wasn’t sure of the best course of action. There were ideas, hypotheses that’d he’d gone over since the birth of his new temple and his shift in power, but of all the people to use for a guinea pig, Lucielle was at the bottom of the metaphorical list.

“Memory,” he said, glancing back over at her, “Is a fickle thing.” His mouth screwed up in thought, his eyes looking into the distance again.

“But I know this much, pushing yourself towards a goal by means of adrenaline – while having it’s instant gratification- isn’t the right approach,” he faltered, knowing that he had more than walked that path: he’d sprinted it. There was another concern though, one that he’d been avoiding but at this point needed to bring up if he had any hope of helping her with the methods he was coming to terms with.

“A lot has changed since you and I last had a full conversation,” that was about as vast of an understatement as possible, “When you have time, make a visit to the temple. It’s no longer where it once was, but there’s a portal there that leads to it. Likewise, the portals around Revaliir lead there now, even if they do look different.”

He looked over at her, “I think I might be able to help you with this problem you’re facing, regarding your past. For now though,” he said, both eyebrows raising with the hints of a smirk, “No more going to dangerous places for the sake of their danger. You have more than enough here,” he gently touched at her sternum, “But you also have the common sense to know better, here,” he touched her forehead.

“And honestly, you have more than enough power on your own to handle anyone here without my aid. We just need to keep sharpening that blade and making sure you’re comfortable enough to wield it on your own.”