Chapter Text
Vi shouldered her pack, a sharp exhale slipping through her teeth as she looked up at the stone staircase, carving its way further up the mountain.
The recent rains had cast the stone and moss in a light sheen, and the afternoon sun slipped its light past leftover clouds, whom drift idly by beneath the brighter blue sky. When Vi breathed in, she could taste the fresh scent of water on the tips of her tongue, could feel that brisk, high altitude air filling her lungs. The trek up the mountainside was a long one; it’d usually take Vi the entire morning to scale the paths winding up through the rocks, the sparse bits of nature poking up out of the thin fissures.
It was, however, a journey Vi was long used to making. She’d done it since she was fifteen, and nearing ten years later, Vi had memorized every detail of the mountain. She knew which steps were a bit smoother than others, knew which ones she might stumble and trip upon unless she looked carefully. She had sharpened and cleaned the ancient signposts and markers along the way with her own bare hands, meticulously kept them maintained for no one but herself. She knew where to pause along the trail, to stand at just that right moment and see the sun stretching its warm, open palms down on the little portside town she called a home down below.
So Vi sighed, shrugging her shoulders, and then she continued up the weather beaten steps and she kept her gaze forward, her breathing even.
What awaited her at the end of this arduous trek would be the thing that always awaited her at the end — that stupid shrine.
That stupid, stupid, shrine, dedicated to some stupid, stupid, god.
Vi understood the irony of what she did well enough. After ten years, even with her caustic, brutal opinion of the gods, she still — every weekend, every single weekend — got up early, packed her things, said goodbye to Vander, and made her way up the mountain to do her duties.
Vi knew there multiple reasons why she kept doing this, why she made the climb each weekend to care for the shrine.
Firstly, the trek gave herself time to think and breathe and just be herself, without the chaotic cacophony of the Last Drop or the hissing fissures and creaking metal of Zaun’s old streets. Secondly, Vander had asked her to do this ever since she’d lived up to his expectations and shouldered some real responsibility on her teenage back and she returned each late afternoon to find her old man giving her that proud nod and smile.
The rewards on the mortal plane were more than enough for Vi. She didn’t need and nor did she expect the shrine’s unknown god to ever thank her for her labors. Vander always insisted that she needed to have some respect for them, for any of the gods could appear down there at any moment — and none ever did. None ever showed up to take care of two orphans left on a street after their parents’ bloody murder. None ever showed up to cure Viktor of his eternal aches and pains, his bad leg. None ever showed up to help the starving and struggling down in the alleyways of Zaun.
It was Vander, it was Powder, it was Babette — it was the real people whose feet touched the rough cobblestones, who felt the old brick, who really were there for the city and its inhabitants. Not gods — not false beings who hid up in the skies and stars, ignorant and cold of a mortal’s sufferings.
So, as far as Vi was concerned, she would never love any god, and she’d die before she’d ever kneel and pray before one.
—-
Wiping her brow with her forearm, Vi took a look at her handiwork, setting the broom against the wall.
There wasn’t anyone to really see her efforts, but Vi was proud of her care for the shrine. It was a small thing — a damned thing, because whichever god decided it’d be fun to build a shrine on top of a damn mountain sure didn’t think of the logistics of it — but it was a beautiful, small building with golden columns and pristine marble floors, with lovely ornate doors that swung open to let in the sunlight from outside. When Vander had first brought her up here, Vi’s eyes had gone wide at how the shrine had looked on the outside — like a miniature palace, condensed down to house a single room that itself only had a single altar at its center.
And Vi’s job was to make sure everything was in tip top shape, spotless and clean to a high standard. So every weekend, Vi tidied up the little place, carefully withdrew a fresh bouquet of flowers from her pack, and gently placed it at the altar.
She didn’t pray or anything though. It was just another thing on the todo list, another task to cross off. The flowers, as far as Vi was concerned, didn’t mean anything to whichever god belonged the place.
Once Vi was done checking every corner and crevice for an escaped speck of dust, she nodded to herself and stretched, heading out to sit on the little steps outside the shrine.
She sat down, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face, and closed her eyes. The breeze of the mountain ruffled her hair, the loose threads of her jacket, and Vi listened to it — it was soft, sweet. Exhaling and opening her eyes, Vi glanced down at the little blooms of blossoms nestled against the feet of the shrine.
Idly tugging at one and holding the stem in her hand, Vi twirled it. The blue was a nice color, like the sky at night. It made her think of starlight, of moonlight. Maybe if she ever came up to the shrine in the evening, she’d get to see what this place looked like at night. She didn’t doubt for a second that it’d look lovely with a backdrop of stars.
The flowers made Vi wonder, though. Despite her animosity for the shrine’s god, she still had a bit of curiosity for the damn fool. Vi knew the shrine like the back of her hand, like the ink and lines of her own tattoos — there was not a single name written across the polished stone, not a single hint as to what god this shrine belonged to. Even after all these years, Vi still had absolutely no idea who or what this shrine was meant to represent.
It wasn’t like the crooked little fisherman’s shack on the ports, dedicated to the god of the sea. It wasn’t like the fiery flame at the center of Zaun’s forges, dedicated to the god of invention. It wasn’t like the marble obelisk in the merchant’s ward, dedicated to the god of commerce.
Since Vi had no name nor no face for her shrine’s god, and this god clearly had no intentions on thanking her for her hard work, Vi called them whatever she wanted.
“You know, Blue,” Vi said aloud. “You still haven’t gotten any other visitors, huh? I’m gonna guess not, because I’m pretty sure I’m still the only person coming up here and actually taking care of this place.”
No response. The wind tickled at the strand of hair hanging above her brow.
“I still don’t get you, you know,” Vi said, angling the flower in her hand this way and that. “You don’t have any followers, you don’t have anyone caring about you.” Under her breath, she added, “Probably because you don’t give a damn.”
No response. Not like Vi ever got any, and she never expected to. It just made her feel marginally better to think that if there was a god up there, she knew that they knew she didn’t think very highly of them. It was a petty, childish thing, but it gave Vi satisfaction anyway — what little spite she had for this god, she wanted them to know it.
“Well, you should know, nothing’s changed much down there,” Vi continued. “Pow and Vik’re still working on new braces for Vik and the other miners. Vander’s still at the old bar — oh, wait, no there is something new.”
Vi tilted her head slightly towards the blossom in her hand. “I learned how to make a new drink, and the old man thinks it’s pretty good. Don’t have a name for it yet though, but it sure does fuck pretty hard.”
No answer, as expected. Vi didn’t really know why she talked to herself up here on this isolated peak at this lonely shrine; maybe it was like as Viktor had told her once, that putting her thoughts into words could help her just…think about things.
“Well, until next week, Blue. See ya.”
Vi set the blossom down before she stood up, stretching. She’d spent enough time taking a break up here — it was time to return to the real world down below, where she’d have to shoulder her real responsibilities. Responsibilities that didn’t include talking to a god who probably didn’t even exist.
—-
“Watching your little secret again, Caitlyn?”
Heart pounding, Caitlyn whipped around to see Mel casually leaning against one of the columns of the gazebo, an amused twinkle in her eye. Once again, her dear friend was resplendent in gold and white — the attire of the god of commerce, reflective of her role in economy and wealth.
“I — oh, there’s no use in denying it,” Caitlyn sighed. “Yes, I am.”
Mel took a seat down next to her on the rim of the large fountain at the center of the gazebo, glancing down at the reflection of the mortal plane in the waters below. The ripples of the afternoon breeze shuffled across the water’s surface, momentarily reflecting back the two gods, sitting in eden.
For the past few months, Caitlyn had snuck away from her parents’ little machinations and made her way to the gardens, a blooming and beautiful and colorful place amongst the heavens. It wasn’t that anything up here was ugly, so to speak — it was the realm of the gods, after all — but Caitlyn liked coming here often not just for her little ‘secret’ but because it was where she and Grayson had spent so much time together.
“What about this little…mortal intrigues you so?” Mel asked, and the two of them watched that red-haired figure stand up from the steps of the shrine, shouldering her bag and beginning her descent.
“She’s just…interesting,” Caitlyn said, tugging lightly at the ends of her midnight blue dress. “She talks about her life, the world down there — and she complains, a lot, about cleaning the shrine, but she does it anyway. She’s…so strange, Mel.”
“So she’s a problem you want to solve,” Mel said, chuckling. “That explains it.”
Caitlyn didn’t add that Grayson was the one who’d told her to keep watch on the little place, on her original shrine, before she’d left. Watch them, learn from them. They’ll show you they’re more than just what the Council thinks they are — mortals are more, Caitlyn.
And from what Caitlyn had observed from Vi, that was true. Her initial impressions of that little red-haired mortal had been a little…judgmental, given Vi’s roughshod attire, the tattoos, the swagger and confidence with which she held herself. She’d figured Vi would have done nothing for the shrine, probably left it desecrated or even abandoned—but no.
Caitlyn had seen Vi care for Grayson’s shrine with the intensity and focus of someone undenying, unerring. Vi did her work thoroughly and impressively, and there wasn’t once the past few months that Vi had not left the shrine almost as brand new.
And Caitlyn had learned so much from Vi, of her life, of inventors Powder and Viktor, of bartender Vander, of troublemaker Mylo and chef Claggor. The little tidbits of Zaun — of the mortal plane — intrigued Caitlyn more than she wanted to admit.
Perhaps because it was different from the monotony of the heavens. Vi unknowingly offered Caitlyn morsels and scraps of another life, another universe down below that Caitlyn had never known.
“You know there’s an easy answer to all your…confusions, about the mortal,” Mel continued. “Just go and ask her.”
Caitlyn snapped her head up. “You’re joking. Vi despises us.”
That much was true of her observations. Vi turned up her nose at the very idea of the god’s shrine — which irked Caitlyn a little, considering Grayson was one of the best gods Caitlyn knew — so the mere thought of even…meeting Vi was foreign.
“But I know you wonder why she does. Hate the gods, I mean.”
Caitlyn pursed her lips. “Do you know why?”
“Yes, I do.”
Caitlyn waited, but Mel simply sat there, face completely straight.
“So…?” Caitlyn said, eyebrow raised.
“Her story isn’t one I’m open to telling, and nor do I think I’m the one it should be coming from,” Mel said, a serious look in her gaze. She made a vague gesture with her hand, her expression turning pensive as she looked away, out towards the bright gardens. “I will tell you however, that humans — they’re all a mixed bag. Think of us gods, for example. If we were all the best at what we do, would you call perfection a paradise?”
Making a face, Caitlyn said, “Perfection would only deprive us of the excitement of difference and evolution.”
“A textbook answer, but one I’ll take nonetheless,” Mel said.
Caitlyn frowned, though. “I don’t think I quite understand how this relates to Vi, however.”
“There are mortals that worship us, and some that don’t. Some have invalid reasons, some have valid reasons for doing so,” Mel said simply. “Regardless, think of my suggestion. What could it hurt, Caitlyn? You’ve been watching Vi for months. Surely you’re dying to get to know your little secret a little better.”
Fidgeting with a bit of loose fabric from her dress, Caitlyn furrowed her brow, thinking.
“My dear Caitlyn,” Mel said, leaning in, and Caitlyn glanced up to see Mel’s expression as kind. “You’re a new god. You should take the time to learn about the people we’re watching over — it’s part of the job. We all had to start somewhere, even Jayce and I.”
“I…I’ll think about it,” Caitlyn said, hesitant. She needed to plan this well — she couldn’t afford to start off on a bad foot with Vi, after all.
—-
A few weeks later, Vi returned to the shrine like usual, but paused outside the steps, brow scrunching up a little as she knelt down at the blossoms before her.
Something was…different, off, about them. They weren’t harmed, or looked any worse for wear, but the color of the flowers were…Still blue, but a different shade, maybe?
No, they still looked like starlight, but it was as if the flowers leaned closer to the lightest blue at dawn, rather than the blue at deepest midnight. Vi knelt there for a solid minute, thinking hard, reviewing all of the work she’d done from last week to see if she’d done anything different that might’ve caused the change.
No, no. She’d done everything she’d done before. This was simply something…different.
Shouldering her pack and chewing on her cheek, Vi went inside the shrine and began her duties, ruminating over the slight change. To anyone else, they might not have noticed — the flowers were still blue, after all. But to Vi, to someone who’d had a hand in every crevice, every corner, every facet of this place, only she knew its intricacies, its details, its very essence.
To see something change?
Vi ignored the line of suspicion, casting itself down the vertebrae of her spine, an annoyance that flickered and tapped at her back as she hunched over the altar, wiping it down with a slightly too vigorous hand. In her irritated mood, Vi dusted off the rest of the place, did her due diligence of putting new flowers on the altar before she went cleaned up anything else. Then she took her customary spot again on the front steps, plopping herself down to look up and see the afternoon sun dolloping doles of light onto the portside town down below.
Vi breathed in, and closed her eyes. She did as Vander had taught her, steadying her breath, focused on the wind, the air, the world around her. She listened to the wind, its waves, its currents, the rhythm of it as it drifted through her hair, like the waters of the ocean sifting through seaweed. She felt the warmth of the sun on her cheeks, its gentle touch on her skin, the kindness of it lying across her shoulders, onto her bare palms like an old, childhood blanket.
“Blue,” Vi said finally, sighing. “If this is you fucking with me, you better cut it out.”
With her eyes still closed, Vi heard nothing — expected it.
She opened her eyes, and reached down, plucked a blossom between her fingers and felt its stem press against the pads of her forefinger and thumb — a fragile thing, and yet Vi held it gently.
“You jazzing it up or something? Celebrating?”
Nothing.
“Ten years I’ve been doin’ this, and you’ve never given me a single sign, ever,” Vi said. “Why now?”
Nothing.
Vi sighed. She ran a hand through her hair, giving a defeated shrug. “Whatever your business is, Blue, it’s not my problem, and I don’t care. Just…don’t mess with the flowers too much, okay? I really like them. They’re nice to look at. I might say I even like them more than the view.”
Vi glanced up at the heavens, at the bright blue sky. “I wish you’d made an easier way to get up here, Blue. I can tell you there’d be a lot of people who’d love to have a view like this everyday. And even a couple of more people who’d love to see, you know, this,” she waved the blossom in her hand.
In all her years, Vi had never taken a blossom down from the shrine. She may not like the gods but taking something from the shrine that so clearly belonged up here felt like crossing a bad kind of line. Even if Blue never answered her, Vi knew well enough from other wayward travelers’ stories that taking things from the shrines of gods was sometimes a strict no-no, unless one wanted to be lightning blasted on the spot.
“Well, updates for me is once again — nothing much. I did a little more of the numbers crunching at the bar. I think Vander’s probably gonna retire in a few years when he thinks I have a handle on stuff. Which, I do,” Vi added. “But he’s my old man. The big guy’s never gonna stop worrying about having everything together for me and Pow. Which, he does.”
Straightening up, Vi snapped her fingers. “Wait, no! I forgot, a new guy traveled into town earlier this week. He’s been helping Vik and Powder with stuff — uh, Jayce? Or something. Some stupid name, anyway,” Vi said, rolling her eyes. “Apparently word of Vik’s getting around to other cities and I think Jayce is gonna help Vik get the ball rolling on bigger projects.” Grinning a little, Vi slapped her knee. “I always knew the guy was bigger than this small town. Vik’s gonna go places, Blue, I fucking bet you. And I know he’ll take Pow with him — the two are inseparable. Been blowing stuff up together since Pow could barely walk.”
Pride swelled Vi’s chest for a moment, but her smile faded, slightly. In the absence of her peers, her folks, the people who looked up to her — Vi let herself deflate a little, hunching her shoulders as she closed her eyes again, leant her head forward to press the tip of the blossom to her brow.
“I’m really proud of ‘em, I am,” Vi said quietly. “I want them to have more opportunity, but…that’s outside of Zaun. They’re gonna have to travel, and…I’m gonna miss ‘em, so much.”
There was silence, once again.
“Maybe I’m just worrying for nothing,” Vi said, giving a weak chuckle. “That Jayce guy has only been here a week but he’s already helped Pow and Vik figure out a smaller version of a battery. Maybe they’ll all stick around here for a while. I dunno.”
Viktor was right. Getting her thoughts out like this helped her rationalize her own feelings. She could be happy and sad at the same time — she was allowed that, god or no god.
“Time for me to go, Blue. See you next week.” Vi set the blossom down, stood up, and made her way back down the mountain.
She didn’t notice the little wisp of wind that pushed the blossom down a step, then another, and another, as if it were trying to follow her.
—-
“She seems nice,” Jayce said, squinting as he held up a contraption to the light of the lamp, gently turning it this way and that. “We didn’t talk much though when she came by. You know how it is, Pow and Vik and I are all, you know.” He turned around from where he stood at his desk, flashing Caitlyn a smile as he held his little invention.
“Inventing, I know,” Caitlyn said with a little smile, sitting on her stool by the entrance of Jayce’s lab. She liked visiting Jayce and his humble workshop — it wasn’t like the rest of the heavens, with its precise and calculated order and algebra. Jayce’s workshop was a somehow organized mess, asymmetrical and filled with boxes of junk and other things. It felt… human, flawed and personable in a way that Caitlyn liked. It was Jayce’s place, unique and distinctly that of the god of invention.
“I see that their names are Pow and Vik, now?” Caitlyn added.
Jayce gave her a sheepish grin. “They’re really friendly, what can I say? And the past few weeks with them have been great. They’re brilliant scientists, even better inventors. They have the spark, Cait. I can feel it. I just need to poke ‘em a little to get ‘em in the right direction.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself at least,” Caitlyn said. “If Vi’s friends with them, then I’ll assume Vi is of just as good of stature and standing, then.”
“Oh, right, Vi,” Jayce said. He looked a little embarrassed as he set his invention down on the table, giving Caitlyn an apologetic look. “Sorry I couldn’t learn more about her. I know I was supposed to help you figure Vi out a little more, but I’ve just had my eye on Viktor and even Powder for a while.”
“I know, you don’t have to explain,” Caitlyn said, chuckling. “I know how focused you can be on your work. Thanks for doing what you can though, I appreciate it.”
“You know you can still go down there yourself,” Jayce said, turning back to the table and bending over a little, putting his invention down to pick up a wrench. “I know it’s scary, the first time, since it can be a little loud and messy, but you get used to it.”
Pursing her lips and clasping her hands in her lap, one thumb tapping against the other, Caitlyn said carefully, “I’m still thinking on that, actually. I want my first time down there to be special. I don’t want to mess things up or ruin my experience of their world somehow.”
“You mean you don’t wanna mess things up with this…Vi,” Jayce said, glancing around at her with a knowing look, a small smile. “C’mon, Cait, she’s just one mortal. Not like she can hurt you.”
“I know,” Caitlyn huffed. “I just — I don’t want to disrespect her. She clearly puts in a lot of effort into the shrine and I’m not about to simply…not give her her due.”
“You’ll be fine, I promise. Just be yourself.”
“Be…myself,” Caitlyn repeated. She tapped her thumb against her other hand again. “I don’t know what that is, Jayce. I don’t…I don’t even know what kind of god I am.”
“Maybe you’ll figure it out when you’re down there,” Jayce said, and he tightened a bolt with his wrench. “You know my dad didn’t know he was the god of pocket wrenches until he went down there and met the human who’d made the first one.”
Sighing and unable to fault Jayce of his logic, Caitlyn said, “I just want to plan this well. I promise I’ll let you and Mel know when I feel ready.”
“And I’ll be here to help you with whatever you need,” Jayce said, turning around briefly to give her a grin and thumbs up, and Caitlyn smiled back at him.
“Or I’ll, you know,” Jayce said, waving his wrench. “Invent whatever it is you need.”
“Oh, shut up.”
—-
Vi returned to the shrine once again, noted the flowers were once again still that different — but nice — color of blue, before she took a step into the shrine and froze.
Week after week, the fresh flowers Vi usually put on the altar would be withered by her next return but today…
Slowly, carefully, as if she were stepping on a minefield, Vi took deliberate steps to the altar and stared, hard, at the perfect, fresh bouquet of blossoms nestled atop it.
They were flawless, definitely picked within the last day. The colors were vibrant — a mix of different flowers that were of varying shades of blue, neatly tied with a white ribbon. Vi knew for certain that these were not her flowers, not the ones from last week because the ones from last week had been a bouquet of white wildflowers Vi had picked up from the foot of the mountain.
Someone else had been here. Someone else had put these flowers here, and removed her own from the week before.
A bead of sweat ran down Vi’s neck, and, heart pounding, she whipped around—
Nothing. No one was there. The shrine was empty, save for her.
Yet, why did she now have the very, very, strong feeling that someone was… watching her?
Who else came to the shrine? Vander had told her few people in Zaun even knew the shrine existed, and she was its only assigned caretaker. So who…?
Palms sweating, Vi went about her usual duties, focusing on the tiptop shape and cleanliness of the shrine was she turned over in her mind, over and over, just who in the hell made this same stupid trip all the way up this tall mountain for this immaculate shrine.
“Hey, Blue?” Vi called out, wiping her brow with her forearm and glancing around the shrine as she put her broom against the wall. She didn’t believe in ghosts, not like Powder did, but Vi had learned to trust her gut after all these years and she knew, knew, when something was off. “You fucking with me?”
No response.
“Look, I don’t get what fuckin’ game you’re playing at here, but I’m not here for it. Stop fucking with me, asshole,” Vi said, putting a little heat into her words. So be it if a god got offended by calling them an ‘asshole.’ How dare that god — or whoever — disturb Vi’s…schedule? Routine?
Why was she even messed up about this in the first place? Who cared if someone else refreshed the altar’s flowers? That was technically a good thing, wasn’t it?
Sighing, Vi leant against the doorway, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Look, just, whoever the other guy is comin’ up here. I do things a certain way and…I just don’t want someone messing with that. I work hard to make this place what it is, I can’t just have someone going and…doing whatever they want.”
No response.
“Why am I even talking to you, Blue,” Vi sighed. “I should just do this the right way.”
Vi pulled out a pen and paper from her bag, wrote down a quick message to her supposed other…counterpart, and left it on the altar next to her bouquet of flowers. She left the mystery person’s flowers there — she wasn’t about to pull what they did to herself, after all.
Hey — whoever left these flowers,
I’m Vi, and I take care of the shrine. Just give me a heads up if you plan to do something like this again, I do things a certain way up here and it ruins my jam a little bit if something’s off. The shrine’s a really important place and I can’t just let anybody do what they want up here.
Then Vi sat down on the steps outside the shrine again, told Blue about her life down below, how she’d had to break up a bar fight and gotten a killer bruise on her ribcage. She talked about Powder and Viktor and their new friend, Jayce, how the three were fast becoming Zaun’s residential problem solvers — any problem anyone came to them with, there’d be something or other to fix it within a week from the three inventors. She took out a flask from her backpack, took a light swig, and then poured out a little on the first step to give Blue a try.
“Dunno if gods drink up there, but if you ever show up, Blue, I’ll make you a drink I guess. For proving me wrong about…you guys existing, or whatever.”
The breeze rustled the ends of her jacket.
“See you next week, Blue.”
—-
Caitlyn leaned back against the headrest of her bed, holding Vi’s letter in her hand, lips pursed as she raised her other hand to her chin, thinking.
The plan was starting off well, if Caitlyn had to admit it. The grand scheme, the culmination of Caitlyn’s careful deliberations was to appear before Vi as yet another mortal, another guardian of the shrine. She wanted to do as Jayce and Mel did — appear before mortals looking and acting like a mortal. It was the best way to learn from them, as Caitlyn had been told by both her friends. So preparing herself a persona was clearly the correct way to go about it, but…
The first step had just been to show there was another presence at the shrine, but Vi’s reaction hadn’t quite been exactly what Caitlyn was expecting.
She’d thought Vi would’ve been curious about the idea of another caretaker, that maybe she’d have a break every now and then from climbing up to the mountaintop. But no — Vi had been angry. A little upset, even, at the mere implication someone else was…’ruining her jam,’ as she’d said.
It made Caitlyn even more curious about Vi, instead. If Vi had such disgust for the gods, why was she…possessive, about her work at the shrine?
Caitlyn shook her head. No, no. It was possible Vi was just like this in general with anything that came to her work — after all, Caitlyn could understand being upset if someone trampled all over her own efforts. If Caitlyn knew anything about Vi, it was that the woman was fierce and dedicated to a fault — why else would she continue to climb a mountain after all these years?
Taking in a deep breath, Caitlyn raised her pen to the paper.
—-
Hello Vi,
My apologies, I did not mean to intrude upon your work. I saw the wilted flowers and thought it’d be best to replace them, and meant you no harm. I come from a village, on the other side of the mountain. I’d been told there was a shrine here, and I wanted to pay my respects to it.
Thank you for caring for it so well. If you don’t mind, I’d like to leave my own flowers here, each week, and if you’d so like, I can help care for it as well. Let me know your reply, and leave your letter on the altar like before.
-Caitlyn
Vi held the paper in her hands, mouth slightly parted as she looked at the extremely nice handwriting — it felt like she were holding a king’s missive rather than a scrumpled up piece of paper she’d had stashed in her pack a week ago.
A village…on the other side of the mountain. As far as Vi knew, there weren’t any…
The different flowers outside the shrine. Now a bouquet of new flowers on the altar.
A thousand ideas and a thousand suspicions ran through Vi’s brain at that second, and she chose to let them lie there — the options were innumerable, the possibilities endless as to just who exactly Caitlyn was, but one possibility stuck out like a mountain in a valley. Vi had her doubts about this mystery villager, but she didn’t say them aloud. She’d been in enough brawls to know when to trust her gut instinct, and her gut was telling her something was definitely off.
But still…it felt so unlikely. Blue had never done anything for her before, so…why now?
Keeping her face perfectly straight and neutral, Vi said to herself, “Caitlyn, huh? Pretty name.”
Vi wrote back her reply, not knowing why she was trying her best to not make her chicken scratch look like shit compared to Caitlyn’s elegant hand, and then put it on the altar next to her own bouquet of flowers before she got to work at cleaning the shrine once more.
Like always, once she was done, she sat down on the steps of the shrine and picked up a blossom, holding it between her hands.
“Well, Blue, you might just have another visitor after all,” Vi said, tone casual. “You know, you got me there for a second. I thought you were fucking with me.”
No response.
Brushing the pad of her thumb across a petal of the flower in her hand, Vi said, “But you haven’t done shit for me or the shrine for forever so…I think it’s more likely some random person would come to your shrine than it is for you to actually visit.”
Nothing. The sun, high above, glowed gold.
“You don’t even have anything to say? Nothing about getting a potential follower, huh? Not gonna shoot confetti from the sky or anything?”
The clouds above drifted by.
“Hope this Caitlyn doesn’t mess things up for me or you, Blue. Only you know how hard I work to keep this place in tact.” With a sigh, Vi clapped a hand on her knee, and made to stand up, putting down the blossom, as she always did.
But a surprising gust of wind buffeted the blossom in front of Vi, onto the next step, as if it were trying to stop her from taking a step forward.
Vi stared for a solid second.
“Okay, um. See you next week.” Hurriedly putting on her pack, Vi deliberately makes a large step around the fallen blossom and books it down the mountain. If she thought too much on it...No, it's not what she thinks. It isn't.
It isn't.