Wisdom of the Stars

Twinkling motes of starlight glitter along the branches of the cherries, the walnuts, and the
maples, mirrored in the glassy surface of the meditation pond.

Avaris's antennae flick upright, twisting as the lambent markings of his wings turn
to study the glinting light. He pauses, as if debating, then hesitantly raises his upper right hand
in greeting. "Ah. Hello?"

You think to yourself: "I will look very foolish indeed if this is just the light at play. Not that
that will be anything new, I suppose."
The branches - no, the starlight - shivers in answer, shaking themselves free, globe by globe, to
draw together before you, hovering over the surface of the pond. You feel studied beneath their
glittering iridescence, subjected to a quiet but innocent curiosity.

Her voice chiming with brightness, Vaevaya, the Refulgent asks you, "What is Wisdom?"

Footbridge above a reflective pond.
The rippling sound of flowing celestial waters echoes distantly from a healing shrine of Lantra
nearby. This location is flooded with shallow, crystal clear water. A wide stone footbridge arches
over this large pond, providing a path from the central square to the structure behind the
southwestern wall, of which nothing is visible save for a few fleeting glimpses of scarlet fabric
caught in the wind. The pleasant banks of the pond are smooth with the exception of the far
southwestern corner, which is home to several medium-sized trees of varying species, including
cherry, maple, and walnut. These trees lord over the pond, providing a peaceful spot to relax and
meditate. The surface of the pond, being the only isolated one of its kind in the gardens, is as
motionless and flat as glass. Those resting on the far bank are provided a serene vista of the
willow tree, central square, and fountain, all which are reflected in the deep azure hues of the
water's surface. Vaevaya, the Refulgent is here, wreathed in divine fire.
You see exits leading northeast, east, southwest, and northwest.

Tracking the gradual coalescing of sidereal luminescence with polite interest,
Avaris's attention is apparent solely by the focus of the stylised, eye-like markings that adorn his
wings. The featureless, visored plating of his face remains pointed out over the waters, though his
chin dips down to study Vaevaya, before he bends at the waist in a courteous bow, the motion stately
in its deliberate grace. His smooth rise hitches briefly at the question, before he straightens,
lifting a hand to pluck at the thick, lustrous white tufts of his mane in a distracted fashion. "Ah.
Good evening to you, Lady. That is a very broad question that you ask of me - And I fear I am not
the best suited to answer it." A moment of hesitation, and then the layered, resonating chorus of
his voice sounds out once more, steadier, "I can attempt it, if you wish, however."

Vaevaya's iridescent starlight is radiant in the dimness of dusk, her clustering coalescence
shedding its pale illumination upon you. Her humanoid frame, such as it is, expands, matching the
kephera somewhat in height. She doesn't bow, but she does bob - perhaps a curtsey? Perhaps simply
the excited manner in which she delights in her manifestation. "You do not know it?" she asks, her
voice a curious peal of bells that twinkle with her glow. "But you told me to learn with Wisdom!"

Expanded as she is to imitate your presence, you can almost see the individual parts that make up
this star cluster - you can almost make out the individual stars composing her, and the swirling
patterns of stardust that ring her ankle, such as it is.

Tinged faintly silver in the stellar effulgence that Vaevaya's form emits, Avaris
watches with a restrained sort of fascination as Vaevaya grows in stature, the constellation of his
lambent eyes widening in surprise. Antennae undulating in thought, the red curves slow to a gradual
halt as the kephera considers the question, his demeanour one of commingled contemplation and
uncertainty. "I know it as one may know a new friend - I recognise it when I see it, but I am not so
intimate as to know its inner workings." He pauses, a touch awkwardly, asking, "Does that make any
sense?"

You think to yourself: Though the ever present doubt remains as he struggles with a question that is
so simple, and yet so complex, all is lightened by the simple wonder of such a marvelous being. "She
is so effervescent and joyous. Like a child, in truth, but...Very different, also."

Strangely, water ripples in the otherwise still pond below Vaevaya - as though she bore a weight or
substance she clearly does not have with the motes of starlight that scarcely graze its surface.
"Hmm," she muses aloud, her other stars twirling, gyrating in cosmic contemplation. "So then, like a
new friend, we should ask it questions of itself, yes? What does Wisdom like best, do you think?"

The broad sweeps of Avaris's antennae curve down in a mild arc as he considers the
question, a number of the smaller eyes within his wings peering curiously at the unusual phenomenon
beneath Vaevaya. "Hm. A fine idea, but consider Wisdom to be a friend that cannot speak, or write.
We cannot ask them questions directly, but we may observe them - Politely, of course - and ask those
that know Wisdom better, to learn of it. Patience, experience, and an open mind are key." Breathing
out a low, vibrating sigh, he confesses, "I do not know if this is a very good way to teach it. I
apologise. You would be better served by asking someone of higher rank in the Great Lady's Order -
Or She Herself, of course."

You think to yourself: "The ripples are peculiar. Does she exert some sort of...Pressure, perhaps?
Is that how she stays aloft?"

The sound of laughter coming from Vaevaya is light, like flecks of snow caught in the wind and
sunlight, glittering as it descends to fall upon you. "I will!" she sparkles, "but this is an
excellent game, is it not? Let us imagine Wisdom together - plenty of people talk to the stars, even
when they do not speak back, after all." She flickers, then eddies about you, tugging at your
antennae and wings like the faintest of breezes before coming to coalesce over the smooth banks of
the pond next to you instead. "I wonder if Wisdom likes questions," she poses.

You think to yourself: "Ah, but I am so very bad at games. Still. I should try, at least."

The sound of Vaevaya's merriment sparks a small, rippling wave of motes of light in
Avaris's azure eyes as the massive kephera lowers his hands to clasp them beneath the cloak of his
wings. He grows very still at the gentle sensation of Vaevaya's proximity upon him, as if afraid to
somehow harm her with even the slightest of motion. As the sidereal being manifests once more beside
him, he visibly grows less tense as the lines of his chitinous frame smooth subtly. The point of his
chin dips down in a firm nod as he answers, "I believe that Wisdom likes questions very much - But
only if they are asked for good reason." Passing the platinum gauntlet of his upper hand, the one
opposite Vaevaya, aside in a smooth gesture, he says, "Wisdom does not, I think, approve of
questions only for questions' sake."

Voice resonating with choral harmonics, you ask Vaevaya, "What do you think?"

Vaevaya pulsates with rippling light as she glimmers with diamond-like light, both entertained and
thoughtful somehow at once. "Wisdom does like good questions and good reasons!" she says, beaming
rather literally upon you, casting her twinkling glow upon your wings, banishing many of the shadows
your hard angles might otherwise cast. "But how would Wisdom know what reasons are good until after
it knows the answer to its questions?" She hums, the chiming of her voice fading into a quietly
astrological hum.

Thrum fading into her buoyant, twinkling words anew, Vaevaya, the Refulgent says to you, "Maybe
Wisdom likes being tested against."

The air about Avaris shivers as he hums a thoughtful note, the peculiar sound
reverberating melodically for a time like the echo of a hymn sung in a vast hall. "I think that
Wisdom would know what reasons are likely to be good, from experience, and from thinking carefully
about the consequences of acts, and questions." The half-circle of the gilded halo that crests over
the pauldron of his shoulder gleams in Vaevaya's light as he shifts his arm up to turn his hand back
and forth. "But that requires some Wisdom with which to judge from. It is a strange thing, Wisdom."

Voice resonating with choral harmonics, you ask Vaevaya, "What would you say is a wise act, Lady?"

You get the powerful sense that the stars of Vaevaya pout before you. "What an unfair thing," her
lights sulk, "to need to learn with Wisdom without having earned any Wisdom with which to learn.
That said..." Trailing off, one star lifts overhead, like a hand stretching out to brush the lowest
branch of the nearest tree - though she of course lacks hands, and anything she touches seems to
pass right through her. "A Wise act..."

Laughing suddenly, her voice ringing with the sheer joy of it, Vaevaya, the Refulgent says, "Why, I
think a Wise act may be asking questions just like this!"

A soft harmony of warm chords underscores the sound of Avaris's choral laughter at
Vaevaya's sulking, the glitters of light within his eyes redoubling in a flood of mirthful
luminosity. "That is why we have teachers, I suppose. They must give us the seed of Wisdom, so that
we may tend to it and make it grow, over time." Watching the attempted contact with the tree with no
small degree of curiosity, seems about to say something, only to switch tracks. "Ah. It could very
well be." Lifting a clawed finger, he taps it upon the flared, alabaster ridge of his jaw,
thoughtful. "Let us try this. Say that you want something very badly, but someone else has it. Would
it be Wise to just try and take it from them?"

((A tell from Illyria.))

Avaris's benign, if somewhat awkward demeanour shifts subtly, a number of his
wings' eyes lifting up and away, thinning faintly.

"That would be mean!" Vaevaya protests immediately, her pale light flaring, "and I *swore* to New
Celest and the Great Lady that I wouldn't be mean!"

Immediately, Avaris's full attention is drawn back to Vaevaya, to whom he holds up
four placating hands, the long plates of chitin shining in the light. "Ah, no, no - I am not saying
that you would do so, Lady. It is just a thought exercise, that it all."

You think to yourself: "I am so very bad at this. Where is Falaine when you need her?"

Vaevaya calms immediately, but rather than address the thought experiment, her inner stars swirl,
their pinprick motes churning into specks of pale stardust. "Are you okay?" she asks earnestly,
concern threaded through her thin and light words. "Do you need to go talk to someone who is being
mean? Your eyes - your other eyes - were doing..."

You think to yourself: Faint surprise - Is he so easily read? "Ah, she is a good soul."

The cluster of Vaevaya mimics the kephera's eyes upon his wings, their motes dimming and narrowing
before flaring to life again.

Waving his right pair of hands aside as if brushing the matter away, Avaris pauses
as he watches Vaevaya's imitation of his eyes, staring in mute consternation for a time. Eventually,
he lowers his hands to his side, asking with a faintly uncomfortable laugh, "Ah. Is...That what
happens? I was not aware." Antennae squirming uncomfortably, the great, helm-like wedge of his head
turns to regard an outstretched wing in a decidedly accusing manner. "I am sorry for alarming you,
gentle Lady. All is well, do not be concerned."

Vaevaya sways - or rather, many of her stars do, though some few remain stationary enough to give
her the impression of standing in one place. She hesitates for a long, long moment, flickering with
consideration, before she rounds back on your earlier question. "It would be Wisest to ask the
person for the thing that you would like, don't you think? How will someone know what you want if
you don't ask for it - and how will you know if they can share if you don't speak your own mind?"

Across the heavens, the stars and moon challenge night's dark reign, revealing familiar
constellations that tell the tales of myth and legend.

Lifting his attention from frowning reproachfully at his wings, the layered blades
that form the crest upon Avaris's brow glint as they catch the radiance of Vaevaya's form, the sharp
edges shining like trailing stars. "Asking them politely would be an excellent start, yes. That way,
you can ascertain if they are kind enough to simply give it to you, if they want something in
exchange, or if it is so dear to them that they will not be parted from it. All of those are
fragments of Wisdom, I think."

You think to yourself: "Fragments? Seeds? Bah. Pick a metaphor and stick with it, you dolt."

"What would you do if you wanted something," Vaevaya asks you brightly, sparkling in the relative
cool relief of nighttime's air, "and the person ~didn't~ want to share it with you?"

Avaris's manner grows more sober at this, the dense sanguine of his antennae
bending down in a pensive frown. "That depends, Lady. Is my want greater than their desire to keep
it from me? How important is that which I want, to myself, and to them? I would weigh the two, and
act according to the disparity in the balance."

Vaevaya relaxes the hold she maintains on her vaguely humanoid form, drifting instead about you with
a pensiveness near enough to match the kephera's own, casting her light upon your wings and armoured
chitin and fluff like sky lanterns caught adrift in the sky. Yet she is here, close by, young stars
that consider her next words. "I think," she finally says from several of her pale orbs, the sounds
a chiming of airy notes, "that you are a very good teacher of Wisdom." She flickers once with
satisfaction, then gathers loosely before you, less star-shaped and more like a clump, illuminating
you as though to weigh your reaction.

Once again, despite the apparent impossibility of actually harming Vaevaya, Avaris
bearing grows carefully controlled, as still as a sheathed sword with a steadying hand placed upon
it. The only motion from the kephera's form as the ephemeral being flows gently about him is that
caused by the wake of Vaevaya's passage, and the glowing eyes that track each individual star
unerringly. At Vaevaya's pronouncement, however, his head shifts, tilting at an angle as if he has
heard something that he does not quite grasp - A word in a foreign language, perhaps, or a new
sound. Faintly puzzled, yet retaining his courteous manner, he asks, "Why would you think that,
gentle Lady? I am not Wise at all."

You think to yourself: Perplexity, crackling and fuzzing about his thoughts for a moment before he
marshals them once more. "Ah. That is it. She is very young in her manner - She simply does not know
what a good teacher of Wisdom is, that is all. She will think otherwise when she has spoken to the
others."

"I think, if Wisdom likes good questions, that Wisdom likes it best when you know you have a lot of
room to grow," Vaevaya proclaims with another distinctly triumphant glitter of her marshalled
starlight, "and also likes it best when you strive to grow despite the heights you have yet to
climb."

Vaevaya's twinkling fluctuates like innocent giggling, though there is not so much laughter in her
words now as she adds, "Thank you for teaching me about Wisdom, Avaris!"

((Another Illy tell.))

A ripple of oddly frigid red passes briefly through the eyes that adorn Avaris's
wings, like light refracted from frozen blood, or stained glass seen on a cold winter's day. It
dissipates as soon as it arrives, however, as he inclines his head to Vaevaya in a grateful manner.
"I think that you are right in this, good Lady." The azure orbs of the smooth, gem-like eyes studded
into his visored face glint with warm pinpricks of effulgent luminescence as he replies, pleased by
Vaevaya's manner, "You are very welcome, Lady Vaevaya. It is not much, but perhaps this will be a
seed of Wisdom for you to nurture."

Considering for a moment, Avaris asks, "Is there anything I can do for you, Lady?
Are you comfortable and happy here? Anything that you might require, I can see to, if I am able."

"Oh, I am overjoyed to be allowed to walk with everyone here in Celest!" Vaevaya beams upon you,
twinkling with iridescent light that flickers and flares. She expands further, on the cusp of
releasing her hold on her form entirely - but before she does, she exclaims, "Please tell the Great
Lady I am behaving myself and learning Wisdom like you said!"

Vaevaya's coalescence scatters, leaving nought but a pale dusting of starlight to glimmer and fade.

Bowing low to the departed entity, Avaris maintains the posture for a time before
rising, returning his regard to the pool once more. "I will, good Lady."

You think to yourself: A complex admixture of feeling and thought; The simple joy and uncomplicated
pleasure of the Lady Vaevaya's company and enthusiasm, interwoven with the questions posed and
poorly answered. Had he done well? He did not think so. Still.

You think to yourself: Perhaps it would be sufficient to set her on the right course, and to provide
others more adept at teaching a better chance to instruct. "Look at Avaris, they will say, and
simply do not do that he does - There is Wisdom, child of the stars. Hah."