Pondering The Cactus

You think to yourself: O-K!

Shadows dance across the rocky walls, perpetually avoiding the available light.

enter veil
With a whisper of energies and a glimpse of changing paradigms, the veil parts, allowing you passage beyond.
The Fulcrux of Mysrai.
The walls of this rounded chamber are dimly illuminated by burning coals within a copper bowl at the centre, but remain no more distinct than any of the shadowy carvings upon their surface. At times, the walls seem as though they are mere veils between open air and the fire-illumined ring: at others, they are whirling sand or solid stone. Despite this, figures in various races shift and change, gone in seconds or less, with the only constant remaining the pinpricks of alien constellations within. The ceiling is a canopy of silk, or veils, or shifting realities, with loose poppy blossoms floating amidst it, or upon it, in tears of white and red and indigo. Oilslick patterns ripple across the silken folds of this veil as it flutters between two paradigms. Veils of reality bounded by skeins of ivory and blood-hued blossoms twist and shiver above a poppy-inlaid vessel filled with burning coals.
You see a single exit leading through a fluttering veil.

You close your eyes and inhale deeply, absorbing the scent of your surroundings.

You let loose a long breath from your lungs, exhaling slowly.

Spreading open their arms, you exclaim, "Helloooo, Most! Beloveds!"

Looking around the wide open Fulcrux and speaking aloud, you say, "It is me! Gurashi!"

Finally dropping their arms and speaking more softly as they approach the Master Shrine, you say, "I wanted to say, because, I had to have some big thinkies about the topic before I gave a real answer," They huff, sinking to their knees, "that, I am sorry did not speak up when asked questions about the cactuses. Cactis?"

You kneel before the master shrine of Mysrai, swearing your allegiance to it.

As they rise back up and dust themselves off, you say, "Anyway, I should have been a little braver and shared my thoughts even if they did not match everybody else's."

You ponder the master shrine of Mysrai thoughtfully, looking it up and down.

You lazily draw your wings to and fro through the air, fanning them slowly.

In an airy, melodic voice, you say, "I do not think I would cut the cactus."

You have emoted: Gurashi looks over their shoulder towards a fluttering veil. "At least, I do not think I would want to. If absolutely did not have to."

Lacing their fingers together and pacing this way and that, you say, "They are already so guarded because of the hard lives they live. And the precious water inside of them - why else would be so spiky? Because all anyone EVER tries to do to them in the middle of nowhere is chop 'em up and drink their insides." They pause in their pacing. "Beloved Aschwar talks to the plants in their atrium - so, plants must be not so different than peoples, right?"

You purse your lips pensively, gazing off into the distance as you carefully gather your thoughts.

Midnight shadows coalesce around a new day, and Mother Night embraces the land in utter darkness.
It is now the 14th of Dioni, 569 years after the Coming of Estarra.
There are 28 days until the New Moon

You have emoted: "Like everything else, just wants to live happy and healthy. What makes it any more valuable than me." Gurashi trails off for a time, their wings opening and closing unevenly behind them, as if trying to figure out how to comfortably set. Every twitch sends another disheveled orange feather loose and tumbling to the ground.

Eyes widening, you say to the master shrine of Mysrai, "Perhaps we could learn lessons from it, like, how to draw waters from impossible places."

Lacing their fingers together again and looking up, you say, "I do not know. Maybe it is just something that cactusies know - secrets that peoples do not ... how to get water from the soil..." They ramble on for a time, then refocus. "But maybe is something peoples could know too, someday, with patience and understanding and magics."

With a grin, you say, "Oh man, imagine those magics, Shofets."

Looking back towards the veil that brought them here, you say, "I don't think it would be any less suffering than clawing away at the cactus for a drink. Or plucking away spines with patience. Still killing it in the end - having the patience to wait and watch and learn when are already on edge of life and death is pretty painful..."

You huff, puffing your cheeks.

You have emoted: Gurashi closes their eyes, turning back to the master shrine of Mysrai, clasping their hands together in prayer as they bow their head. " Anyway. I wanted to share these thoughts with You because I had them, and I am unsure who to share them with." Their wings flap, loosening more feathers. "Probably the other Beloved too, when have chance, if is not too silly of an answer. I don't know if am missing some important lesson or, not."

Looking up hopefully, you say, "I love You!" They smile and bow their head again. "Stay goodly and well. Sincerely, Gurashi."

You offer up Mount Zoaka's Titanium Brazier of Explosive Transformation to Mysrai, the Scarlet Courtesan.

You turn to the master shrine of Mysrai, suddenly bending at the waist to offer a polite half-bow.

You have emoted: Gurashi turns away, immediately noticing the feathers that have been scattered about the immediate Fulcrux. They gasp, proceeding to scoop up as many as they can as they make their way back to a fluttering veil. "Ohhhh gosh. Oh gosh. Am so sorry Shofets, will get these ... all..."

You give a horrified gasp.

You have emoted: Gurashi suddenly wheels around in the middle of their gathering, almost dropping all the feathers. "Oh! Shofets! Please - can I invite Akuuko to the Festival of Oranges? Or, the Festival for the Saints?" They turn bright pink, hopping from one foot to the other. "The one Miss Lenara has been helping with - so he knows and has the option to come? I know You said not to interfere, but is inviting interfering?"

Dragging their hands down their face, you say, "If it were me, I would be sad to not be invited."

Each word bringing them a step closer to the exit, you say, "Please let me know when You can, thank you so very muchly."

Bowing deeply, you say, "Okay I love You bye."

enter veil
With a whisper of energies and a glimpse of changing paradigms, the veil parts, allowing you passage beyond.
A sacrosanct, smoke-filled cavern.
Muted traceries of paint outline the bas-reliefs graven into the stone of this cavern. Here, a curving woman wrapped in flamelike blossoms rises out of the rock: there, a robed man lifts his lantern. Other figures rise amidst them, in turn becoming warriors, scribes, sages and children arrayed in bewildering, interlocking patterns. Sigils and starfields fade from the skins of each figure, radiating from occlusions of crystals within the walls; shallow, broad bowls of stone rest beneath them, ringing the cavern. Smouldering coals lie within, casting what little light there is within this darkened sanctum. Oilslick patterns ripple across the silken folds of this veil as it flutters between two paradigms.
You see exits leading north, east, west, and through a fluttering veil.

You wipe the back of your hand across your head in relief as you mutter, "Whew."