Chapter Text
A Mysterious Encounter Stranger
The great halls of raya lucaria academy, only the soft scuffling of dust and the sharp crack of corky books, breaking under the pressure of time, spoke.
bright moonlight was cast through the great windows, their illumination pale and melancholy upon the now-haughty building. the center of this ageless academy, where knowledge had built its nest, float rennala
the Queen of the Full Moon, lost in fragments of her sanity, and her eyes light up with the far-away glow of her celestial power.
For so long, the halls were silent and the scholars left the academy to ruin. Today was no different. A figure wholly enveloped in a tattered dark cloak walked down the library. Each step seemed to be taken as though it was carrying the weight of the world with them, his worn-out and weathered cloak going right down his legs and obscuring his form, shielding his face with a cracked mask
Dust danced at his feet, and he moved. He didn't ask permission, nor did he introduce himself. He simply just. started.
He shifted through the fallen shelves, replacing books where they belonged, dusting off years of neglect, straightening scrolls, realigning ancient texts. The work was performed in silence; the only sound in the room the quiet flutter of pages, the occasional clink of glass vials. Rennala floating into the with her accursed ruin cradle within her arms, watching with a flicker of curiosity within her hollow eyes. She was used to silence, used to abandonment. But this-this was something else.
This stranger hadn't solicited her power, hadn't begged blessings, and neither riddles nor threat had he come with. He was simply… here.
twere refreshing 'i a way
Hours passed, the work of his hands sorting her academy, piecing together that which had long since rotted. Why? rennala's mind, fractured as 'twere , latched onto that question. Why? would this cloaked figure, this outsider care for the remnants of her great-place legacy? finally, the figure knelt ere her. Silent as the sand, he sat down cross-legged 'i front of her floating form towards the cold stone floor, drew out a weathered scroll, unrolled it with care, laid it 'twixt 'em, and began writing—carefully, meticulously—lines and symbols of arcane formula, magic, her magic
The moonlight dimly reflected from the ink as he scrawled. Sometimes his quill hesitated, poised over the paper, frustration seeping into his taut shoulders. He stared hard at the formula. There was something wrong. He leaned back 'i his chair, cranked his pate toward her, though his cracked mask hid any view of his brow. His voice cut through the silence, low and rough with a dry edge of sarcasm
"If you were a person, I would've put a pole in your ass by now," he grumbled under his breath as he stared with malice at the stubborn symbols that refused to make sense. Rennala blinked slow, her ethereal presence unperturbed. But somewhere deep in the recesses of her fractured mind, a thought sparked. This man...this mysterious figure....was trying to understand.