Turning Point

Things were looking up it seemed. With Ardjinn apparently able to close the rifts, he had first gone to Faeveil to clear the rifts that had congregated in Skytree. From there he traveled to the many smaller rifts scattered around the Hollow to close them as well. This previously dire circumstance appeared to be turning around.

Due to the previous pattern of events, the two gods, Faeveil and Ardjinn, had decided to accompany the Prince and Princess to the Autumn Gathering in Yūrein. While still weary, Rhen and Rhynne were certainly in higher spirits traveling to the next festival, the two royal siblings choosing to be cautiously optimistic this time around. Though it certainly was a different experience to travel with two of their deities.

Faeveil didn’t seem to be much of a talker, even when more relaxed. Ardjinn, however, was particularly chatty, though most of his topics of conversation revolved around himself. He spent a large portion of the journey regaling past feats and battles to the two royals, only to occasionally be interrupted by Faeveil quite bluntly correcting the more egregious embellishments of Ardjinn’s grand tales. It was still entertaining when this happened, as Ardjinn would pause while his many eyes briefly squinted indignantly at Faeveil, who simply remained calmly seated. Though there were still small hints to Faeveil’s own amusement when he irritated Ardjinn with his interjections, such as the slight wag of his tail every time Ardjinn huffed and continued his story.

While listening to Ardjinn ramble on about himself got fairly repetitive after about the fourth or fifth story it did do a good job of passing the time and soon enough their little caravan was climbing the bumpy mountain roads up to Cloudhaven. As they drew closer to the town where the festival was being held they could hear the gentle ringing of windchimes accompanied by a soft underlying hum. To the royal siblings' surprise, even Ardjinn fell silent to listen to the melodies produced by the wind.

Cloudhaven may not be as grand as Skytree or Brimstone, but this humble village rested atop one of the highest mountains in the region. The view of the valleys below and other mountain ranges stretched across the land was breathtaking. The vibrant colors of the trees ranged from bright golds to rich red ambers to deep burnt umbers, contrasting with the neutral grays of the stone mountains that surrounded the forests. A layer of clouds surrounded the mountain just below the village, giving the illusion of it floating freely in the sky.

Upon exiting their carriage, Rhen and Rhynne were greeted by a couple of the event coordinators. Before they could get to discussing anything however, the coordinators paused and stared slack-jawed up at the two gods that had followed the Prince and Princess out of the carriage.

“Is that…?” One coordinator began.

“The Gods Ardjinn and Faeveil, yes.” Ardjinn nodded and crossed his upper set of arms before gesturing with the lower set. “You may bow.”

“Stop that.” Faeveil said flatly, not particularly interested in the same level of veneration Ardjinn was.

Ardjinn now crossed his lower set of arms as well and squinted up at Faeveil.

“Anyway,” Rhynne said in an attempt to get back on topic while Rhen offered the two coordinators an apologetic shrug.

They were led around to various areas of the venue while they spoke to the coordinators. The royal siblings were used to some level of extra attention when they attended events, but this time it was amplified by the presence of two gods trailing behind them. Spectrels stared and murmured to each other, often bowing as they passed. Though word had spread about the rifts, especially in conjunction with these festivals, seeing these gods here put festival goers at ease, and the anticipation of Yūrein potentially coming to join them had many Spectrels excited.

To Rhen and Rhynne’s relief, however, it didn’t take too long for the two gods to split off and wander the festival of their own accord. From there they were able to work with the coordinators to perform their typical festival duties with no issue.

Once their obligations had been fulfilled the royal siblings were free to enjoy the remainder of the festival.

“Everything’s going quite smoothly today.” Rhynne said as they walked.

“Don’t jinx it.” Rhen replied.

“Well even if I did jinx it we have the oh so great and powerful Ardjinn, God of the Desert, here to protect us.” Rhynne joked, gesturing widely with a tone of mock reverence.

Rhen snorted and shook his head. “Okay, yeah, you’re not wrong though.”

“I do still feel better knowing that they’re here.” Rhynne continued. “Even if one of them is rather full of himself.”

“They get their own carriage next time if they travel with us again.”

“Agreed.”

“I’m a little surprised Ardjinn didn’t demand his own carriage in the first place.”

“Huh, yeah I guess that does seem a little odd now that I think about it.”

There was a brief pause in their conversation as they looked over some booths.

“Do you think maybe… even gods get lonely?” Rhen spoke up when they continued on their way.

Rhynne appeared to be taking some time to gather her thoughts, staring at the ground. “I think so.” She nodded and looked up at her brother when she responded. “I think they both were lonely.”

While wandering the two came across Faeveil again, spotting him surrounded by a group of children. It appeared that the God of the Forest was currently allowing them to take turns riding on his shoulders. His ears flattened back a little when he made eye contact with the pair, seemingly a bit embarrassed now, though his tail continued wagging slightly, even while being climbed on. Rhen and Rhynne smiled a little and gave him an awkward wave before continuing.

Not too long after they found Ardjinn causing a bit of a scene as a man groveled at his feet. The royal siblings were about to step in till they heard what the man was saying.

“Please teach me-” The man begged.

“I’m not interested in giving combat lessons.” Ardjinn seemed more exasperated than anything, cutting him off with a dismissive wave of his hand, not even looking at him.

The man shook his head. “No, I want you to teach me your glasswork techniques.”

“Hm?” Ardjinn was caught off guard by this request and stared down at the man.

“I’m an artist, a glassmith, and… I feel like I’ve stagnated, I just make the same things over and over now. I.. I want to try something different, something new.” The man kept his gaze down at the ground as he spoke. “I couldn’t let an opportunity to get advice from Ardjinn himself slip by.”

Ardjinn was silent for a long moment. “Show me your work.” He finally said.

“What?” The man looked up in disbelief. Despite his insistence even he seemed to assume his efforts would be in vain.

“You work. Show me.” Ardjinn repeated and the man quickly got to his feet.

“My workshop is right over here.” He led Ardjinn down the street.

Rhynne and Rhen looked at each other, both about as surprised as the glassmith, before continuing the rest of their tour of the festival, going unnoticed by Ardjinn.

With the festival coming to an end, they all eventually returned to the carriage that brought them here. Faeveil, expression as stoic as ever, now wore a crown of flowers and colorful leaves around his antlers.

“Trying a new look?” Ardjinn teased, holding something in one of his hands.

Faeveil simply looked from Ardjinn’s face to his hand. “What do you have there?”

“Nothing.” Ardjinn answered a little too quickly. “Just a souvenir, that a problem?”

“Great recovery.” Rhynne said sarcastically, forgetting for a moment that she was sassing a god.

Rhen glanced a little worriedly between Rhynne and Ardjinn but the desert god seemed more concerned with hiding whatever his souvenir was than with retaliation.

As the sun hung low in the sky a strong gust of wind swept through the village, picking up leaves in a whirling cyclone while the many windchimes rang loudly in unison. Spectrels looked up at the dancing leaves swirling above them, circling around a figure in the sky silhouetted by the sun. Then almost as suddenly as it started, the wind calmed and the leaves gently rained back down as the figure gracefully descended with them. Their golden feathers shining in the light, the long fabric of their clothes flowing smoothly as though affected by a constant breeze. Upon landing, they opened their eyes and smiled, even with both taloned feet on solid ground they seemed weightless.

“Lord Yūrein.” Rhen and Rhynne said in unison, both bowing as the surrounding Spectrels followed suit. It somehow felt wrong now for a god to appear when there wasn’t a present threat to deal with.

“Ardjinn, Faeveil, it’s good to see you. It’s been quite a while since we last spoke. I’ve missed you both.” Yūrein spoke as she approached.

“Of course you missed me.” Ardjinn replied with his usual air of self important smugness.

“I’m glad you missed me too.” Yūrein smiled softly up at Ardjinn who crossed his arms and glanced away with a huff.

While Faeveil was more adept at hiding his amusement the two royal siblings struggled to stifle their laughter at sight of one of the more fearsome gods behaving like a haughty child.

“It’s also a pleasure to finally meet the Prince and Princess.” Yūrein turned her attention to the siblings. “I hope these two haven’t been causing you trouble.” She nodded in the direction of Ardjinn and Faeveil.

“We’ve been cleaning up the trouble lately, thank you very much.” Ardjinn said indignantly.

“Your efforts are appreciated by everyone.” Yūrein gently patted Ardjinn’s arm. “Don’t worry.”

“Do you think whatever’s been causing the rifts has stopped now?” Rhen asked. Though almost as soon as the words left his lips someone nearby screamed, quickly followed by other panicked Spectrels running and shouting.

“Great, you jinxed it!” Rhynne turned to her brother, getting an irritated look from him in response.

“Yeah yeah, we’ve been through this whole song and dance before.” Ardjinn was completely unfazed by the rifts appearing and the ensuing chaos that came with. He readied himself to deal with the rifts like he had before but was stopped by Yūrein.

“It’d be a shame if your gift got broken.” Yūrein gestured to whatever Ardjinn had been holding. “You should let one of them hold it for you.” Before he could argue Yūrein had taken off into the sky.

Ardjinn huffed and looked over at the siblings. Faeveil said nothing as he carefully took off the flower crown and handed it to Rhen while looking pointedly at Ardjinn before he ran off to assist Yūrein.

Ardjinn groaned loudly but stretched out his hand to Rhynne. “Hold this.” He placed a small glass bird in her hands before sprinting off to join the other gods.

Yūrein cleared the area, strong gusts of wind blowing any Spectrels not already caught away from the rifts while Faeveil herded them to safety, his companion spectra splitting off into multiple creatures again to retrieve the Spectrels that had been pulled in.

As Ardjinn ran towards a rift he was abruptly blasted back by a torrent of water. It took him a moment to register what had even happened before he got back to his feet, laughing as steam rose off of him. “You think you’re ready for me this time, huh?” He taunted before immediately taking another stream to the face. “Cute.” He sounded less amused now.

Every time he got close to a rift he was pushed back by more blasts of water, and pelted with a few rocks for good measure. Even though the water quickly dissipated off him from the heat it was still hindering him from being able to sear the rifts shut like he had before.

Faeveil and his companion were having more trouble this time retrieving the abducted Spectrels, playing a sort of tug-of-war with the vines from the rift. It was made more difficult considering they didn’t want to harm the Spectrels currently entangled in them.

Yūrein swooped down and grabbed Ardjinn, lifting him into the sky with her, followed by a long trail of dry leaves caught up in the wind.

“What the-?” Ardjinn blinked and looked at Yūrein.

“Get ready.” Was all she said as she looped back around and dove towards the largest rift, gaining momentum.

It didn’t take Ardjinn long to pick up on her plan. As soon as he was released he instantly burst into flame with the help of the dry leaves that surrounded him, propelled forward by the wind. The force of the wind current cut through the next wave of water sent at him, splitting it enough to keep it from putting out the fire of the god hurtling towards the rift. With Yūrein’s help Ardjinn entered the rift once again.

Meanwhile Yūrein did her best to help Faeveil free the captured Spectrels, managing to cut through some of the surprisingly tough vines. Though the longer it took for Ardjinn to reappear the more worried they became. The rifts were still open and there was no sign of the desert god. Was he trapped now too? For all his bragging and boasting, there was still no way that this was how he was defeated. Right?

The vines holding the remaining Spectrels seemed to weaken, allowing Faeveil and Yūrein to finally pull them all from its grasp. Moments later the vines went limp, falling to the ground and shriveling up before igniting from within the rifts and burning to embers shortly after, the rifts closing behind them. A large, fiery explosion burst from the large rift Ardjinn was thrown into, then silence. Nothing from the remaining rift and nothing from the Spectrels waiting with bated breath for him to return from it.

Then, as if it were taking its last breath, the rift seemed to heave, and another wave of water spilled out of it along with Ardjinn. Soaked and sprawled out on the ground, spat out by the last rift before it closed, this was going to be a story he’ll heavily embellish to sound more impressive when retelling it to others.

Yūrein hurried over to him, followed closely by Faeveil. She knelt down next Ardjinn as he coughed up some water, his mask spectra having disappeared along with the flame that usually surrounded his head. It was strange how… normal he looked under that mask.

“I was starting to worry you wouldn’t come back.” Yūrein said.

“Pssh, a little water isn’t going to stop me.” Ardjinn gave her a sharp toothed grin. At least his cocky attitude was still safely intact.

Yūrein laughed a little as she helped him to his feet.

Rhen and Rhynne cautiously approached now that the rifts had disappeared. Faeveil plucked his flower crown out of Rhen’s hands and placed it back on his head, prompting the siblings to laugh in relief as well.

“Here,” Rhynne held out the little glass bird to Ardjinn.

He looked at Rhynne’s face, trying to determine whether she was mocking him or not.

“Oh just take it.” Yūrein patted him. “She’s not making fun of you.”

Ardjinn sighed and took the little glass figure back. “... Thanks.”