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Luminescent cerulean eyes stare into themselves in the mirror. After all these centuries it still feels surreal in moments like these. “Same face-” the goddess says to no one in particular. A breathy sigh escapes from her. Staring into her own eyes in the mirror, she blinks. The blue orbs flash to a normal vibrant green seen in many mortal species. The goddess’s pointed ears droop slowly. With one more blink the eyes return to their cerulean state. It has been centuries since the tall half-elf woman walked as a mortal girl in the streets of her home city. It had been centuries since the other two members of the pantheon and her battled against the outer dragon gods, no, against all of the dragon gods.
Since the destruction of the original world, since the utter collapse of that reality, since she had to kill her own god, since she had to kill her progenitor, well that last one was a bit of a dick so that one was fair. The group had managed to save the amaranthine god's home city, but it was far from enough. She abruptly turns from the mirror. Walking the length of the room she basically just falls into the leather chair at her desk, her fiery red wavy hair draping over everything.
Picking up the crumbling, near rotting letter on her desk again she read “Hey Cruentus…” only one person ever called her by her middle name like that. One of her closest friends back when she was mortal. Her name time and again she forgot. Centuries have come and left since their death, the goddess doesn't even remember where her friend is buried. And the name on the letter has started crumbling away, “Merethyl…”. The goddess laments, remembering the days after she returned home after being saved from the alpine forest to which she was captive, and how when she returned home to her peoples mechanized metropolis of a mountain, a charming waitress at a nice little Cafe had helped her learn to talk properly again. She sighs again, returning the musty letter to it's time discolored envelope and returns it to the drawer she uses to remember important things.
Looking across her museum- no, practically the mortuary of what had once been her life among mortality. The amaranthine goddess gazes on her silverwood violin, and she thinks of that snowy forest which had taken her formative years, took her parents, and took more than she could realize. “some lab rat I turned out to be huh, doctor?” thinking to whatever inhumane experiments were done to her, then at the hands of some immoral scientist she had no recollection of. She thinks of the good in the forest as well, of one of her hundreds of performances to no one but the flora, fauna, and monsters, was the night she met those two. Her gaze rests upon a suit of armor whose torso bore the visage of a great ursine monster which her pantheon had long helped slay in their first days together, long before the word pantheon was an idea with any semblance of propinquity to the trio.
The queen of dragons rises again, restless in the waking world, her sense of perception letting the sound of gears whirring in the mechanization that was every part of this great mountain city, the goings on in the chasm of a city wrapped in steam and brass below, the footsteps approaching the door, the airships coming and going through several massive metal doors in the side of the mountain. “Airships- huh-” the solitary woman approached her own, the wooden boat docked just outside, the smell of rot, the smell of decay, she was used to the stench, it was everywhere here after all, her world has long since started decaying. “The Love-Lies-Bleeding, already in this state again- I guess it is pretty humid in the mountain- I swear I just got it refurbished. Or was that decades ago now…” She sighs, out of annoyance, depression, or the irony of it being named after a type of Amaranth and it rotting away like every flower does. Even the plastic flowers she has in vases have discolored from age. Except her, the only amaranth in the world that will never wilt.
Finally there is a knock on the door. “Ah, the footsteps arrived… enter.” Through the door steps a well tailored looking man, ‘oh great, a politician’ she thinks before taking one look at his name badge before grimacing. The man flinches slightly in fear “y-your majesty?”
After forcibly being subjected to his face, his aura and his voice the goddess relaxes “it's, nothing. Just a bit homesick.”
“Weren't you born and raised here, your divinity?”
“I was but that's not it.”
“They say you can travel to anywhere in an instant, so why-”
“And they say that blood is thicker than water. I sure hope your family's blood isn't so tenacious. Leave. The memory of your… I don't even care to guess how many greats it is at this point has put me in a worse mood.”
The man hurriedly left the room in a panic and Amaranth once again sighed. The descendant of one of the people who usurped her power and took her city from her all those years ago.
“Ugh politicians really are the worst, aren't they, old friends?” she chuckled to herself. With a slightly lighter meander she found herself before two display cases next to each other, the left containing a mechanical head. “3sa01 you stringless puppet.” Remembering the short time they had spent together, a man turned machine, helped save her once when she was about to suffer a fate worse than death. “You should hate them quite a bit, they took you apart after all…”
Her cerulean orbs dart to the other, much larger case containing a highly detailed brass mechanical spider, the plaque in front of it reading: ‘Project Spider: dedicated to its founders and original designers, Director Viridis Faerel and Director Aren Faerel who wanted to make the world a safer place for their loving daughter. This project was modified and made possible by their daughter, following in their footsteps, Amaranth Faerel and by their close friend director Dante of clan Datura.’
Every time the amaranthine goddess reads those words she feels like throwing up. The faint hair on her arms all stand on end.
“It's been a while, hasn't it, Dante. Just reading your name brings back so many memories. When I first got back to the city, after those years trapped in the forest. You gave me my own airship to live in, my own home. You funded every new idea and invention I had. You gave me everything I needed to succeed readjusting to life. Which is why I find your clan name Datura, so very very fitting. A truly captivating flower, and so very very deadly. I killed you too quickly, too instantly. I should have ripped those stupid cat ears off of your head and killed you so much more slowly. I trusted you and you betrayed me, you betrayed the whole city. Trying to usurp power from the other directors by force. Trying to kill my best friends in the whole world. Trying to force me… The gods scared me less, and hurt me less than what you tried to do. Luckily however, amaranth still has its own level of toxicity and you became naught but a pile of ash. Even that's gone now. Hahaha!”
The queen of dragon's mood abruptly changed. She walked to a mounted display case containing a curved sword and various different elemental crystal based bows, two of which have bladed limbs and a complicated looking clockwork mechanism. The first looks simpler and is made of brass and steel, the other however sheens with the metallic coppery-red of oricalcum. Regret of their lack of usefulness creeps into her mind. “Oh how much fun we used to have. Monsters and man alike don't like steam blowing up in their face~”
Meandering towards a smaller case with a silver and a gold bracelet. “Ah, I should visit Lapis more often-”
The bracelets were a gift from the new pantheon god of magic Lapis and his wife Halley, another dragon. This gift was probably the best thing in the universe, not that much had remained, that she could have received. They were enchanted and allowed her wife Valeria, the Lunar Goddess of Ice and her to conceive their beautiful daughter Avelyne. Succubus magics are truly something else. They have to thank them again for the repopulation help. But to the amaranthine goddess, there was a constant feeling of dread. A feeling that everything is wrong. There shouldn't have to be a repopulation effort, she should have fought harder, she should have used her unique power and sealed the gods before they destroyed near everything.
“I want to see them-” the queen of dragons walks slowly towards the door to her balcony that's outside of the mountain. She ponders the fact she could have had a massive temple built for her. But that's not what the goddess wants for her people. Only living in a rather large house big enough for her and her family. The queen of the mountain leaps from the balcony overlooking the desert and the surrounding beastman caravans that completely encircle Steam Mountain. Though she doesn't fall, merely just flying through the air to a dark circle in the distance. The center a large discordant spire goes several meters high. Approaching the white-red-black stone looking pillar. Touching down in front of the crystalline pillar, the dragon goddess laments. Running her hand along the archaic inscription, countless arcs of red-black lighting arc across her hand and to her body. “It's- been a while, your divinity” Amaranth slumps against the pillar. “Good to see my ice hasn't melted after all these years…” Pausing as if waiting for a way out of such awkward silence, to which she ultimately must break herself. “Your people are doing well. What's left of them at least, you sure did extinguish quite a few at the behest of the outer dragon gods… I'm sad to say your cult has all but died out. I wonder if your name has even been spoken allowed in some decades. The dragon gods’ cults were standing firm with their beliefs with their holy magics proof of their belief, well, until Lapis revoked their access to it. That sure shut them up. Ehehe… I'm sorry your divinity. Even if I were the one to seal your powers and kill you, I worry I'm not doing well as either your successor as the God of the forge, of invention. Your hammer has been at my hip since that day but even attached to me it has grown dusty. nor do I feel like a proper leader of a pantheon like my ancestor. I feel like…”
The goddess watches as a single grain of sand blows into the darker circle just to get hit with the black and red lightning and join with the large time formed fulgurite around her. “I'm failing everyone. Myself, our people here at Steam Mountain, Valeria, her snow folk, Lapis and the can of worms that is his family… some god I am. Talking to the dead that can't even hear. I know there is nothing after this world but- rest up old man.” The half-elf bothers to stand like a normal person instead of just floating. This thought amuses her even after all these years. Deciding what to do next in this very lonely bout of self loathing, the goddess stares at the red and black arcs of lighting around her. The dragon god muses that they resemble jagged strings in a way. “Red strings huh-” Practically answering her own question so easily.
Amaranth could simply go back to the mansion and use the gateway directly to her destination, but nonetheless decides to take the scenic route. Making sure to distance herself from the fulgurant ice, the leader of the pantheon makes good of the aforementioned title as queen of dragons in appearance as well. In an instant barely perceptible to none present in the mountain, from where the girl once stood, a massive amaranthine feathered dragon spread it's wings. Glowing blue slitted eyes stared at her mountain. She hopes that descendant of the politician sees out here what his ancestor once did, their own patron God at the grave of their last. The feathered dragon of amaranth hums to herself which sounds more like a deafening growl as she is now. “I should try to be nicer.”
The queen of dragon's wings suddenly spread apart from her back and swept outward. The feathers on the end carve through the sand leaving the land as if it were a sand garden. Though those lines merely get dissipated as she begins her ascent. Moving to above even the tallest of mountains in our beautiful world. Moving at practically a snail's pace relative to her ability as she could travel to anywhere on the planet in a moment's notice. Just taking in the scenery a thought crosses her mind. “Lapis…”
Only to get a response immediately.
“You called Ami?”
A young looking tanned boy drifts into her gaze. His shorter blond hair seemingly challenges gravity as no matter his orientation stays still.
“You're the creation god. Rebuilt the world itself. Can you conjure me some happiness?”
“Your wish is my command.”
The blue tattoos across the magic gods body glow. Amaranth knows this is just for dramatic effect. Feeling the muscles on her face contract against her will to a forced smile. The queen of dragons is slightly thankful she cannot see what a smile looks like on a dragon's visage. “I knew with that vest and baggy pants you already appeared as djinn but as insufferable as them too.”
“Come on Ami, you know you love my pranks. You always act all high and mighty these days. When we met we were just scared kids. You gotta be less serious all the time”
Lapis releases their spell.
“I suppose… you have a point…”
The omnipresent source of magic chuckles to himself “You know, I shouldn't be the one trying to make you happy.”
Amaranth hums to herself.
“You're right thanks Lapis. and while you're here-”
“I'm always here Ami, omnipresent remember?”
“Yeah… So- how's the last of my kind Lapis?”
“Halley? She's doing well. Our daughter is causing her a lot of stress though-”
“Well when you reincarnate the soul of a goddess into a child they tend to be chaotic.”
“Hey Lapis, I'm going to go see my own family now. Give my regards to Halley, and tell Khana that her aunt-maranth will be visiting soon.”
Lapis disappears with a comedic pop.
Amaranth would rather not ruminate on what was said. She increases her speed so it only takes 20 minutes to cross the planet arriving at the polar snow field. Slowing down her speeds so as to not disrupt or scare the inhabitants up ahead. The first thing notable from this distance despite Amaranth's enhanced senses, is the large glacial spires and spikes protruding from the ground, contrasted starkly by the vibrant or pale blues and whites of the clay tiled roofs that slope down before flaring up at the corners. Higetsu no Shuto, the City of the Frozen Moon, capital of the region and home to her wife's people. Touching down about a quarter mile outside the main gate of the capital, the feathered dragon fluttered her wings one last time against the snow. Amaranth returned to her half elf form as fast as she left it.
Barely Half a second to breathe before all the snow in the area got parted by a purple blur in a straight line between the opaque carved ice torii gate and the goddess.
“AMI!”
Nearly getting tackled to the ground, a smaller woman is clinging around her neck.
“Valeria Moonveil you are a god, act like it.”
The smaller pale snow woman pouts and turns her head, the kimono fluttering after her. The ice goddess’s raven black hair accumulates snow from the air. She opened one of her steel gray eyes, sneaking a peak at the Queen of Dragons while muttering “I am a god so I can act however I want.”
The taller goddess sighs while looking down at her lover. Valeria returns her gaze. “Amaranth- you don't have to act serious all the time. You have a duty to your people, the pantheon, and the world, but you also have your duty to us and yourself. You're just stressing yourself out over nothing. You're a god, we're gods, but that doesn't mean we have to put ourselves to a higher standard, just do what makes you happy, you know?”
“Since when am I the one getting lectured by you ice queen?”
Valeria resumes eye contact with a deadpan stare at the nickname. Amaranth returns it.
“I'm not wrong though…”
Before the small ice woman could retort they heard a faint panting in the distance, well, the pantheon leader already realized who was expelling that rhythmic noise. Woman in her early twenties in similar garb to Valeria is attempting to run towards the goddesses. The pair waits in a short silence until the 3rd woman catches up and stops, panting while trying to catch her breath. Gesturing with an index finger to wait a moment the two complied. Shortly after the 3rd woman stands back up straight, her black hair similarly catching snow and glowing blue eyes trained on Valeria. “Mom! I'm still mortal! Stop rushing halfway across a city in an instant. And you-”
The goddess’s progeny turns to her other mother. “Why did you show up in dragon form? We have a portal, literally between your houses. You could have been here instantly.”
“Love you, Avelyne.”
“Mom- ugh, you are impossible.”
Amaranth is embraced by her daughter.
“I just really needed some time to think.”
Valeria Looking up, makes eye contact with her wife. “Well, did you figure out what you needed?”
The corners of the queen of dragons upturn slightly. “Yes, I think… I'm going to use this hammer as intended. Tomorrow as dawn breaks I think I'll head back to old workshop see what my current contemporaries are working on. My, the newer generation will be in for a shock."
“Generations dear.”
Amaranth hums in confirmation. “And for tonight, let's eat as a family.”
Val contented. “We were about to head to aunt Selena's memorial shrine to to do just that.”
The amaranthine goddess feels contented herself for the first time in a rather long stretch of time. “Then I'll be joining.”
The trio smile before heading off, under the opaque ice torii gate back into the city.