Why? Why was she wanting to find the Goddess of Life and Love? This question ran through the angel’s mind as she walked along the path in the forest. She had decided that morning that she wanted to meet the Goddess now, she had in the past as well but hadn’t gotten to it. She had been distracted when her siblings had started to pop up in the world, wars, fighting bandits, tragedies that affected the world. No to mention the latest evil deed that had happened to Sirona personally. Top on that the loss of the Goddess of Death and Desire, and Sirona’s world view was shaken to her core, even her faith in the Deities had been rattled. Perhaps that’s why she was looking for Angela? To speak with a Goddess directly and see if maybe she could help Sirona find her faith in them again. She was an angel after all, her faith is what guided her.

Sirona had noticed the heartstring appear on her finger when she had fully committed to the idea of finding Angela. It was leading her down the path she was currently on, but Sirona hadn’t gone too far before she felt the world shift around her. When Sirona opened her brilliant blue eyes again she saw the swirling auroras around her. ”Beautiful.” Sirona whispered to herself, perhaps because of her heritage she somehow felt comfortable here, even if she didn’t know exactly where she was. A light breeze brushed past her and Sirona lowered the hood from her around and shook her raven hair, her facial tattoos of black ink visible as always.

Taking a deep breath of the air around her Sirona felt more calm at the moment than she had in the past week. Sirona noted that the strong was still attached to her finger and continued on so she followed it taking in one last breath before she opened her eyes again to hear her armoured booted foot clink against glass. Opening her bright eyes again the angel saw that she was now on… a beach? The sun was setting but it was clearly a beach she was on. Sirona walked closer to the ‘water’, or at least that’s what she thought it was until she saw that it was in fact the night’s sky slowly rising into the sky while the blue sky and clouds lowered to become the ‘water’. ”Amazing, simply amazing.” Sirona whispered to herself again as she watched the display.

A flash caught her eyes and Sirona looked up in time to see multiple phoenixes flying in and landing to become the flames of torches that line a path away from the beach. A new noise caught her attention and Sirona thought she could hear a violin playing somewhere, it was a nice melody, whoever or whatever was playing it. A cricket singing made Sirona look down to find the source to see the little critter crawl out of the foam that was at the edge of the ‘water’, it had come from the foam!

Crouching down Sirona eyed the tiny insect for a moment before seeing that more were coming from the foam. More night critters started to make their way from the foam and down the beach of pristine glass and into the forest or into the night sky. This display of pure life was a little distracting for the angel so she was intent on staying here for a bit and watching the life instead of continuing to follow the heartstring that was leading into the forest.

“Something… It’s missing something.” There was a hard-pressed muse that left the red-haired goddess’s lips. “Something… Petaled? Leaved?… Dark or light?” She moved her hands around sculpting the magic of life. “Orange, pink, purple, dare I say red?” There was another muse that left her lips. “Shaped like a daisy, lily, or aster… but definitely not a rose. It simply won’t do. Palm, rattan, mahogany… Yew?” She tilted her head. “I can’t make up my mind.”

After having had her needed break down of emotions… She felt rather inspired. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I just need to do something…” Something with this rage she felt. Whenever she felt rage she began to put it towards something useful. Her clergys’ eyes lit up and she kicked them out of her new workroom. “It’s a secret. Shoo now.” That had been a few days ago and she had rarely been seen outside the room. This time people weren’t overly worried. This was how the goddess was when she was working.

Something… Someone… Her green eyes were curious now as she had moved her way around the workroom. It was more like a sunny meadow than anything really. It had a desk with designs, a chair to work, different tables with hundreds of books all spread out and open to show different plant life. Anything a person in her position of creation would need to be inspired.

Someone.

There was a someone who she had never met in her realm. Maybe… a stranger would help.


“Right.” Angela was wearing an apron that had splotches of colors all over it and medicinal powders. Her hair was in a braid and pinned up into a bun. She looked rather normal if it wasn’t for the powerful aura around her. “Time for me to pluck.” She appeared by the angel and masked herself for a few seconds. It was easy not being seen when she didn’t want to see. “Beautiful isn’t it?” Finally, she showed herself. “Life begins from the tides of the soul-stream. Be it bug or man.” She watched a stag came forth from the water and ran into the woods.

“Such is the cycle of life and death.” She pointed up to a bird being dropped into the water. It’s body becoming seafoam and washing away. “For centuries, gods of life would manipulate the world to make it their vision. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but if the world looked one way… If the world looked the same all around… What kind of beauty would that be? Do you know how many species of orchids are in the Laeto Rainforest now? Twenty-three thousand. Just in that bit of rainforest. Same for other rainforests. Do you know why?”

Her green eyes wavered on the angel. “Because when things become too similar… When they become the same. A disease can wipe them out all the same. Seen it up in a village near the Highlands once. Inbred as all could be. They didn’t trust outsiders and that was a mistake. They were far too similar so when the disease got one… It ended up getting them all. Such is life. Not to mention… How they looked, mind you, you can’t always tell but these ones had bad things. Boils, clubbed feet, you name it. Not the prettiest humans I’ve ever seen.”

Angela knew she was carrying on but she put her hands on her hips. “Diversity is the breath of life. That’s what you’ll find here in my realm. Nothing is really the same here if you look close enough. I promise you that.” The heartstring Sirona had was connected to her and Angela played with it a bit.

“You came seeking me out… but I would first ask you to help me with something. The world is sort of on a tilt isn’t it? You can feel it in the air. How charged does that air feel? The dread that hangs in the very breath you’re taking right now. Because the bad things have only just begun and yet life is finding a way. That’s why I am working on something. Will you take a look at it?”

When the voice spoke up close to her Sirona started and snapped around to face where it had come from as Angela showed herself. Sirona hadn’t realized that, since IT happened not too long ago, she was on edge more than normal and easily startled as well. Another motion caught the angel’s attention as a stag came dashing out of the foam, before looking back to Angela again in silence as she spoke. Only to follow the Goddess’ pointed finger at the bird dropping into the water only to turn into foam and wash away. Sirona’s eyes widened at the sight trying to work things out in her mind.

When Angela asked her question all Sirona did was shake her head as she listened to every word that was being said. Sirona didn’t know until Angela came out and said it that this was her realm and Sirona sucked in a quick breath, not having expected the Goddess to come out here and greet her like this. It wasn’t until Angela started to play with it that Sirona noticed that the heartstring she had been following was actually attached to Angela.

At her request Sirona nodded and finally managed to speak. ”Yes, of course, I’d be happy to.” Sirona said and followed wherever Angela led her to. She wanted to speak to Angela about things but first she’d listen to Angela and see what it was that she was working on, whatever that might be. ”Is it something that I can help with?” Sirona asked glancing to Angela as she continued to look around the place and taking in its beauty.

There was always that moment where telling someone you were a god was interesting. Sirona’s reaction was expected for better or worse. Angela’s gentle eyes looked over the angel as she finally managed to speak and nodded. “Oh, if it wasn’t something you could help with… I wouldn’t have asked.” There was a playful tone to the goddess’s voice as she spoke.

The gate led into the meadow-like room. There was a rather odd crystal next to a bunch of tools and table of different flowers, bark, and leaves. Upon closer look, there was a small body inside of it. The body of what looked to be a small five-year-old child with no hair, eyelashes, or eyebrows. It looked more like a blank canvas.

“I’m struggling massively. All artists reach a point where they hit a blank and every few hundred years I just fail to find what to do with myself.” She put her hands on her hip and looked at the crystal. “I’ve decided with the changing of time that I need a new avatar. Foxglove is lovely but she has her own family now and I didn’t really make her to be combat-ready… Always the rescuee and never the rescuer.” Angela flashed Sirona a smile before walking over to her temple.

“Now, do you like the look of birch, mahogany, or oak better?” She had the three different barks float up. “Or maybe you like a combination of them… Or maybe you have another suggestion? I’m looking to do roots not found just yet… Where they will curve up and around looking like a rope that’s coiled. If that makes sense. I do, of course, know I want willow-like branches but I’m lost on the leaves… and then there are the flowers.” She tilted her head and gave Sirona a sideways glance. “The flowers are the most important part of all this. I believe that the color of ones’ foliage is what gives the beauty.”

She put her hand to her face. “I know I want red like the Ataiyan maples have for the leaves… but I am in distress if I want the shape of the leaves on willow branches. We could always do holly shaped leaves!… What do you think?” She had a red-colored holly leaf appear and held it out to Sirona. “What type of bark do you think it would go nice with?”

The playful tone in Angela’s voice at least got a small smile out of Sirona, which was something indeed at the moment with the way Sirona was feeling. Walking into the pretty room with Angela Sirona’s eyes were taken to the crystal and, for a moment, Sirona assumed the Goddess was working on a statue of some kind, what with all the tools and such around. But then the angel saw what was inside of it and she widened her eyes, was that a child?! What was the Goddess doing with a child in a crystal like that?!

Sirona listened to what was being said to her by Angela, and glanced in her direction now and then, but most of Sirona’s attention was focused on the strange scene with the crystal. New avatar? ”You created your avatar and are now creating a new one? You area creating Life, in such a way?” Sirona questioned, she didn’t mean for it to sound like a criticism or a judgement she was just genuinely curious if this was how Angela did… whatever it was that Angela did normally. Honestly Sirona didn’t know much about Angela before coming here.

However Sirona did collect enough of herself to actually answer Angela’s questions. ”I’m afraid I don’t know anything about the trees and flowers from these lands. But from what you are showing me I do like the look of the oak and the maple leaves.” She thought a moment on the bark. ”In Onnen we have a tree called knob thorn, not the prettiest name, but a hardy tree. Its bark has thorns on it but they are more rounded than pointy, hence the name. But the bark is also very fire resistant, if that is something you are interested in?” Sirona offered. ”As for flowers, um, oh! We have a Mopane tree in Onnen the leaves are shaped like butterflies, very pretty, bright green but they turn into many different shades of colours in autumn so you can maybe get the red you are looking for there?” Sirona again offered, hoping she understood what the Goddess was looking for rightly.

Angela nodded to Sirona and looked towards the child she was creating. “Sirona… Life changes and sometimes people change too much to understand the way I work.” It made her frown a bit. “The one I created last time I created as a teenager and she, in turn, has a family now. This can be dangerous and I can’t pull her away from that to fulfill some destiny that I made for her. I hate that at a drop of a hat I can make her entire existence what I want it to be. That’s the problem with being a god. Having the ability to force people into a role.”

The goddess’s hands moved to the child and she put them on top of the case that housed the new soul. “So, instead of forcing Foxglove into the role I am setting her free Sirona. It is the greatest gift I can do but I have never found it in my heart to force a living being to do my work for me. Everyone is born with a purpose but that purpose can change. That’s what I believe… so I will give this child life as my avatar until the day she finds a new purpose. Then I will begin the cycle again… Isn’t that also life? A giant cycle?”

The redhead listened to Sirona’s suggestions and she nodded a bit as she listened. “Fire-resistant would be good.” She summoned some of this bark that Sirona had talked about and placed it next to the mahogany she was so fond of. “Let’s play with it shall we?” The flowers were alright but Angela still went with the red holly shaped leaves on the willow branches. The bark began to grow it was the bark that Sirona had picked out but with that nice mahogany color. It was all beginning to take shape.

Soon when the tree reached adulthood giant peony like flowers grew by the red holly leaves throughout. They were pink in the center and faded into an orange like the sunset. “I shall name this tree… Correa.” The being she had created was inside of the truck completely.

“Will you come out… Correa?” She decided that this tree would grow native in parts of Revaliir but she would decide that later. She got out a blanket and squatted by the base. Soon a little girl with long hair in the colors of the sunset came out. She had dark skin too. She stumbled out and into Angela’s arms. “Do you know who you are?” It was a silly question for life never made too many mistakes.

“I’m Correa… Mother.” Her eyes looked up at Angela and Angela smiled a bit. “Who is she?”

“She is Sirona… She will be a friend I am sure.”

“I am tired.”

“Rest Child… You have all the time in the world to live.” She bundled her up and held her in her arms like a baby. “Come Sirona… Let’s leave my workshop. Have a nice spot of tea and discuss why you are here.” Soon they were in the temple and Angela was putting Correa into a room all of her own. “Watch her Melina.” Melina was a slender woman with long brown hair.

“Of course,” she bowed and the goddess took Sirona out to a courtyard with a set of chairs. She rang a bell and another woman came out with some tea. “This is from Nisshoki. I do hope you like it. Now… Let’s discuss why you are here.”

Sirona watched as Angela worked while listening to what the Goddess had to say. ”A cycle, yes, the cycle of life, and death, and rebirth. A purpose though, that’s,” She sighed, did she have a purpose anymore? Her skin crawled as a bad thought crossed her mind before she shook that off and looked back to the life that Angela was creating. Sirona suggested some items for Angela to use and to the angel’s surprise Angela did call up some of the bark Sirona had named.

Correa, Sirona liked that name as she heard Angela name the new life within the tree. Standing to one side Sirona’s eyes widened a bit as the child walked out of the tree and Angela bundled her up. Sirona smiled to the child when she asked who the angel was. ”Hello, Correa.” Sirona replied as Angela gathered Correa up and cradled her in her arms like a baby. Sirona followed and stayed in the doorway of the room as Angela had another woman she called Melina take care of Correa.

Following from there Sirona was led to a courtyard and took a seat, shifting a bit to get her wings comfortable and her armour settled with a few clinks and clanks. Showing her level of comfort in the situation at the moment, Sirona removed her gauntlets and set them on the ground beside her chain. Her armour was half alive in its own right, a faint life energy came from it, just sentient enough to help preserve Sirona’s life by shifting itself subtly in a fight.

With her gauntlets off that showed that Sirona’s tattoo work was a lost more extensive than it might have first appeared. Starting at her wrists and continuing past her still covered shoulders the black ink flowed in perfectly symmetrical lines on each of her arms. Angelic tattoos like on her face, what they meant wasn’t possible to figure out just by looking at them, the smooth lines around her pale and nearly flawless skin showed a high level of skill on whoever did the work.

Sirona sipped the hot tea and smiled. ”Very nice.” She said, attempting to hold on the next part of the conversation for a little longer. But she knew she would have to speak eventually, but, what could Sirona say? She had no idea, so she just started to speak and went from there. ”I woke up in this worlds years ago now, in Onnen, with no memory of my past, who I was or where I came from. Just my armour, shield and my sword and the means on how to use them. I stayed and studied with the monks at the temple until I heard about the insect invasion after they had been nearly defeated already.”

”I was curious about these new lands that had been discovered, wondering if perhaps it was here I came from. But then I heard about the Deities like yourself that lived in these lands and that gave me hope. I am an angel, a servant of the Gods, so it stood to reason that I was a servant of at least one of you if not all in some way. So I came to Canelux to seek all of you out, meeting Dalanesca first by sheer chance.” She explained sighing a bit. ”I’ve met a few others since, but then things got busy and I never got a chance to finish my little pilgrimage, like to see you, until now. But, with the death of Dalanesca, and, um… my own personal issue, I have found that my faith in the Divine has been shaken.” Sirona looked aside for a moment, but then again since she had started talking she hadn’t once looked at Angela directly. ”I want to serve you all as best I can, but, none of you think alike and yet I can’t seem to pick just one to serve.”

Sipping her tea again, Sirona’s hands shook a bit as she set the cup down and wipe at her eye. ”A few days ago I woke up in a brothel next to another woman. I… I had never before been with someone, had no want to be either. She seduced me, used her magic to charm me and get behind my guard, and plied with me alcohol something I would have drank either. I remember the whole night, everything that was done between us.” She shuddered and looked like she might be sick. ”I, I don’t know anymore of what I can do in this world. To have such a thing happen, just… and to wake up next to another woman just…” Tears rolled down her cheeks and she placed her face in her hands. Yet, the way she had ended her sentence, it hinted at the homophobia that ran in Sirona’s mind, and now it was even further engrained in her mind because of this.