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Well, we didn't exactly get along for the first century of our lives. I, very much physical and she very much magical. We argued often. I felt she wasn't taking advantage of the martial abilities enough and she felt we were getting in the way of the magic. So, we fought. Nasty, horrible, and often putting both of us in need of healing. By our mid-second century, we were strong enough to cause significant damage. Abrianna would separate us, or try to, as we pushed and pushed. As the Calamity began to affect where we lived, near the now-created Ghor Dranas, we sought to reconcile. The world was shattering, and we needed to stand strong. Lolth was growing distant in those days. Kryn—who we call now Leylas—was losing her magic, and those who we tried to protect were afraid. A truce, we decided. I began to teach her in martial ability, so she could protect herself.
And then, some fifty years after that, as we were on the precipice of entering the third century of our lives, she found a light. This strange, gray-quartz dodecahedron. I did not trust it. And I said so, as she approached.
"It's so… lonely," she whispered.
She cast Identify, her eyes widening. I remember Abrianna and I sharing a look, and I pulled her back.
"Don't. We don't know what the Gods are creating," I warned her.
Leylas shook her head at me, "This is older," she said, "Older than them. Older than life perhaps."
And she grabbed it.
A brilliant, warm light encompassed us. I saw stars, so many stars. Time itself seemed to wash past me, streaming behind and leaving a long trail, long echoes of who I was. Ahead, I could see echoes of who I could be, splitting and running through space. I could hardly breathe. Something within me now felt… different.
It is a difficult thing to describe, Consecution. We named it that. Leylas said the Luxon—that dodecahedron—told her what that meant. That we would now spend ourselves trying to figure out who we were and what our purpose was. She said it was the same struggle that dodecahedron was in. It did not know itself but desperately wanted to learn.
But, back to that moment. When I came back to myself, I was on my back. Abrianna was struggling herself, groaning nearby. But Leylas was motionless. Blood streaked from her eyes like tears, running down her face. Her ears and nose too, crying like her eyes. Abrianna used Mage Hand, shoving the thing into her bag of holding, out of sight for the moment.
"She still breathes, but weakly. We must hurry! We will talk about what that thing is later," Abrianna ordered.
I nodded and picked Leylas up. She felt so frail at that moment. Weightless. I had thrown her around before, but this was different. Something had certainly changed within me over the years of our truce, and I felt a genuine fear she was going to die. I tucked it away, and together, we charged back through the tunnel, towards our home.
She was unconscious much longer than a trance. Ten times longer. All the healing we could spare did not wake her. Her right hand, Imrih, was furious at myself and Abrianna. They demanded to know exactly what had happened, but we decided to wait until she awoke. Abrianna stood in the middle, between the mages and warriors of our group. Her words were listened to and begrudgingly accepted.
Leylas awoke with a start. I had fallen into my own trance beside her, waiting.
"Leylas!" I remember shouting. I remember I shook her shoulders, scolding her and demanding to know why she did what she did. She looked at me with eyes so much deeper than I remember.
"Quana, did you feel it? Did you see it too?" she asked.
"Irrelevant. Why? I told you not to! You've been out for days!" I scolded.
"I… it called to me," Leylas replied, looking down. She furrowed her brows and blinked hard. "Where is it now?" she asked.
I told her. Abrianna pulled it out, showing her. She explained to us what she saw in her vision, of the Luxon coming to this world and breathing life into it. She saw us living away from the gods, on the surface once more. She saw a future in a world where tomorrow was not guaranteed. Lolth had just been wiped from this earth. We heard the battle raging above us, and just when we needed a source of hope, this Luxon appeared.
Over the next hundred years, Leylas learned more. She learned how to consecute on purpose, Imrih the first. Though they have long succumbed to typhros, they proved that the soul would return to us.
In the middle of our third century, during the Battle of the Barbed Fields, Leylas fell. We had hesitantly begun building a small town on the surface. It was immediately wiped from Exandria when the attack began. I held her then, pulling her limp frame from the field and underground. I whispered to her the words I had been feeling for the past half-century, knowing she could not hear me.
She returned to us, shortly before the divergence. Abrianna decided to see if a guided meditation would ease the process of "anamnesis." It worked, and she was back as she was before falling, just in a younger form.
We climbed above, looking around at the now-razed Barbed Fields. The light was blinding as we looked around. Broken craigs, rocks at all angles. Blood tinged the dark soil. Bodies of those fallen were being picked at by scavengers. A woman, full in figure and wrapped in leaves and vines and all sorts of things that did not exist looked at our small group curiously. She felt warm, but not as warm as the Luxon. With a small smile, she continued walking past. Not long after, we saw the woman bury a seed—what we now call the Arbor Exemplar. And then she looked back at us, smiled, and was gone.
Leylas looked south, toward the ruins of Ghor Dranas.
"There," she said, "There we will make our rebirth. In this world of uncertainty, let us exist in struggle. Let us wonder together—Who are we? What is our purpose? And," she lifted the Luxon, "Let us share our experiences with our friend."
Looking back at the group, I could see trepidation and worry. I put my hand on her shoulder.
"For once," I said, "I agree. This world is shattered, and now we can work to bring it together again."
Leylas smiled, and we stepped outward into this new world together.