THE SILENCE AFTER STARFALL

[Morigung-oog 5697]

 

 

{Click here for some Music}

 

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“I told you, everything I touch is fated to crumble to ash and dust. Everyone I care for is destined to turn and betray. This is my penance for my wretched existence.”

-Valindra Liavyre to Laerdya

 

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Within the confines of her safehouse, far from the opulence of Tahn’miar’s ivory towers, a lone mali dwelled. Valindra Liavyre, the former Sohaer, stood between stacks of ancient tomes, portals to a happier time, a thin shimmer of arcane light curling around her fingertips like mourning veils. The city of silver souls lay miles behind her. Haelun’or stood tall and proud, but to her, it had become a place of rot masked in purity. A bastion of lies, those who had once hunted her relentlessly, Valindra never wished to lead, only to live out her days there in peace.

They had begged her. She had begged her.

Avern’dionne Fi’talareh, elMaheral, voice of purity and dearest of friends, had pleaded, pleaded, and called for Valindra to return from her reclusion. It began with simpler tasks, Okarir’tir, to bring martial stability to Haelun’or once more, to be her friend, to shelter her granddaughter.. And finally, to assume the mantle of Sohaer; To stabilize Haelun’or. To eliminate the threat of Celia’nor, their splintered and disgraced cousins, whose arrogance threatened the balance of veil and void time and time again.

And as a friend,

As little more than a weapon in the hands of others,

Valindra had obeyed..

She remembered the battles she had led, the campaign to bring the very Starlit City she helped found to its knees and into the pit of its grave. She recalled its people, splintered, and broken, retreating to those they once hated more still than the Silver State. She listened to the death rattles of what was once to be the greatest Elven nation descendantkind had known since the birth of Malinor. So too was she reminded of the rejoicing of the Blessed Citizenry and the elation of the Maheral, for she had accomplished that which all of her predecessors had failed to do. She had brought the stars crashing into the ground.

 

Within two years, friends and family alike turned. In public, Valindra was named a zealot, a threat to peace, a relic of bloodshed and slaughter. A carefully orchestrated plot, a farce masked in democracy, saw her removed, cast out like cheap, spent parchment.

 

Crippling betrayal, she thought, her fingers curling around the silver pendant gifted by the Maheral herself with cheeks blooming like the realm's finest roses. And for what? Obedience? Loyalty?

She began to chant; quiet, reverent, mournful and bitter. The winds fell still and silent. The cosmos shifted. Magic tore at the fabric of the air, a seam forming in the world like a wound. The inscriptions etched into the floor of her residence flickered to life with an ominous glow…

A final, fleeting thought: not of revenge, not even of regret. But of what always came to be. Everything she touched was doomed to crumble.

“They will call me traitor, a failure,” she whispered to none but the veil itself and the two presences that lingered within her very soul, “I never wished to lead.”

It was strange, when Ivarielle, Princess of Celia’nor had taken her leave of Almaris using the exact same rite, Valindra could never fathom as to why she would give up on the realm.. Now, when all seemed lost, when her vision had passed into the graveyard of what could have been, when she too was to follow in her ancient friend’s footsteps, it all became as clear as day.

Behind her, figures emerged; observers, perhaps, or pursuers. Caurosians behind her? She did not turn to see.

She stepped forward, into the fold, into the between-space that knows neither time nor place, that does not ask why one flees, only that they do.

And in that moment, as the world closed behind her with the sigh of forgotten stars, Valindra ceased to be of Aevos.

Some say she walks a realm of dream and memory now, where magic bends to the will and betrayal is carved into every stone. Others believe she will return, shunted back into the mortal skein only when she learns to forgive, but not forget...

But Haelun’or remembers only a name, spoken often in the immediate wake of catastrophe, often with loathing and more often still with fear.

 

Valindra.

The ghost of silver shade.

The Silver Pariah

 

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Spoiler

So this is it. I’m taking my leave of LOTC for the time being. I’ve noticed a trend when spending time on this server that it drains my mental health far more than any other community does. That isn’t to say I’m not thankful for my time here and the friends I’ve made but I need to take some time for myself and really reflect on whether the damage to my psyche is something I’m willing to exchange for roleplay.

I’ll probably be back following a slightly longer than planned hiatus but so long for now. I may be gone for a matter or days, weeks or months. I’m happy to stay in contact with all of my LOTC friends.

Take care,

-Mori

P.S. Yes there are letters for some characters, but they’ll be sent privately as I want Valindra’s disappearance to be a mystery to most people.

 

Not a pk btw, ill be back

 

[Pearlescent 585]

Stay safe mori <3 ily /p girly

[Muckelpu 291]

Stay safe and take care, I hope you can recover during the hiatus.

[_Sheylo_ 1177]

Enjoy the haitus and may good tidings come. Good writing too!

[TaraJess 2848]

love you mori! every interaction we've had in rp has been so much fun!

[Samler 1564]

As I said in our DMs, take care of your health!

[Toddbringer 159]

Miss you twin, be safe and I pray for your health and safety!

[Werew0lf 24180]

Hope you come back soon.

[Smmer 2441]

love u mori <3

[Cheese 8883]

wish you the best diva!!

[growingivy 3382]

love u 

[Xein000 264]

You will be missed, but I hope to see you come back one day.

 

Take care.