In secret, Mnemoli whispered the blue words of promise and the red words of love for the time-god but his eyes were turned always to Nirn and he would have no other bride. The words went afloat on the breeze of possibility and a stray thought – to make Nirn even more beautiful, so that time-god’s eyes would ever be filled with joy – distilled the promise of love and froze it into the heavens. And that is the origin of the great nebula, the Veil of Nirn.
But the light of Magnus knows no secrets. He saw into Mnemoli’s heart and became angry at the wasteful ignorance of Time. Being long bored with the labor of creation, he decided to leave the lesser gods behind and marry; and his children would rule a universe of light! Mnemoli had not the power to repel his lust; but seeing how their offspring would scorch the frail life out of Nirn, so dear to her loved one, she seduced Magnus to chase after her far into the void. For long, she kept one step ahead of his fiery breath, but finally she let him overtake her, only to escape again. Each time this happened, they left their progeny behind. And that is the origin of the distant stars, the Children of Sun.
Now Mnemoli can only be seen through the mists of her own mysteries as the Blue Spark, the harbinger of Untime; for not even the mighty Magnus dares approach the time-god during his madness. It is only then that Mnemoli may rest and lament over the torment of her lost love. And that is the origin of the raining stars, the Tears of Mnemoli.
Notes
Submitted to Temple Zero.
Shepard squinted in the dim light of the nightclub. It smelled like a distillery and there were nearly naked asari pole-dancing and lap-dancing everywhere. Small round tables riddled with bottles and glasses and rubbish surrounded the bar and the stage. There were all sorts of customers: turian, human, salarian, volus. The music was unpalatable, probably drell or something even more exotic, but there was a rhythm to it and the dancers hardly needed anything else. Out of the corner of her eye, Shepard caught a man sniffing something from the back of his hand. It certainly didn’t look like C-Sec maintained a presence here.
Continue reading Extraction
Wrex could smell the shithole called Chora’s Den from the other end of the gallery. He leaned over the railing, his gauntlets screeching in contact with the smooth, matte metal, and glanced at the light sky-car traffic below. None of the cars would be bringing him company: that much was clear from the message he’d just received from his so-called support. Fucking amateurs. Held at the docks for trying to smuggle weapons through customs. What did they do – hide them in their pants? Fucking idiots.
Continue reading Good Timing
My first commission. Well, not the paid kind, but close enough. An artist and a good friend asked me to write a scene to serve as the narrative foundation for a painting. The topic was: Garrus and his thoughts just after sparing Sidonis’ life.
The story is titled Forgiven.
Image: infiltrator-N7 @ deviantArt
The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand, thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.
T. Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Garrus has no idea how long he’s been standing there, lost in thought. Lost, period. He can no longer see the sky-car up on the gallery. So Shepard’s gone. He did tell her that he needed time. How much time? He glances around but the fake daylight is no more of a clue than the cold shimmering of the holo-ads lining the promenade.
So many people down here, so much traffic… what the hell was he thinking? The clamor of the busy street rises and falls in his ears together with the waves of despair and self-loathing, alternating in a nauseating rhythm. Prepared to take revenge – his hand stayed by mercy that wasn’t his own. Or was it? The uncertainty is crippling, paralyzing. Does she really know him that well? Does she really know him better than he knows himself?
Continue reading Forgiven
I’m Watching You is another Saren/Nihlus story from the period of training, which is to say, the period before The Candidate, and as such, it deals with the theme of friendship slowly turning into something more, despite Saren’s efforts to keep it strictly professional. Posted on FFN and rated M for mild explicit content. Namely…
When Saren had set up the hidden cameras, he knew there would be things he didn’t want to see. Like Nihlus drinking on duty, or hiding drugs on the ship, or taking out dirty clothes from the washer and wearing them. But he wasn’t expecting… this.
Image: Anjian @ DeviantArt