Intermission: The Shinjin - An Ode To The Hateful 8
Suta stared dreamily into the dancing fire, watching the rising blue smoke ascend into the twilight embrace above. Currently, he was seated against a short log squared around a small clearing, cradled between his grasp, a wooden mug filled with a warm and surprisingly sweet liquid. It reminded him of coconut, with a subtle spicy flavor to it.
The pain from his wound had subsided quite a bit, thanks to Anak's remedy. But it was the spiral of questions swirling around Suta's thoughts that proved to be the heaviest burden right now.
'Vampire... he's a vampire, eh? Sigh... what a day.' He breathed out, trying and failing to find tranquility in the swirling chaos.
He was only just getting used to the idea of talking animals dressed in human clothes, only to again arrive at another fork in the road of discovery. Thankfully, Anak didn't seem that bad, considering what Suta understood about the nature of vampires. Well, outwardly he looked absolutely terrifying, but his actions had become rather more gentle all of a sudden.
'Now that I think about it, wasn't it around the time those fairies mentioned I fell from the stars? And not to mention, I'm obviously not the first human he's met by the sounds of things. Which should mean... others have somehow come and gone from this place?'
Unconsciously, he balled his two hands into fists, feeling that familiar swell of determination take root and rousing dark thoughts within his mind.
'Home... I have to get us home.'
Suta held out his palm and conjured his badge again. According to the cooldown timer, he still had a while to go until he could use that mysterious skill again. Glitch.
A faint rustling from the nearby foliage broke him away from his thoughts. It was the slenderly tall vampire re-emerging, this time with long grey furs draped over his torso. Anak sat adjacently across from him, slightly craning his neck a little closer towards the fire between them.
Suta watched him with silent intrigue. Anak's greyish pale skin and blood-soaked eyes shone a majestic glow behind the firelight. Suta felt a strange and somewhat inner rejection towards Anak's clear, terrifying beauty. The defined cheekbones, chiseled jawline, not to mention the hair and that sculpted body of his.
Suta creased a slight frown making the comparison between his own looks.
'There's no mistaking it; he looks like he belongs in one of those young adult novels. Tsk! Pretty boys.' For some reason he remembered that brat called Estran.
Anak remained indifferent. No words were spoken for a short while until the tension was near enough driving Suta mad. On more than one occasion, his lips parted, closed, then opened once again, as if he were struggling to find the right words to say. The silence stretched on, broken only by the crackling of the fire and the distant sounds of the enchanted forest. Suta's mind raced with questions, his curiosity warring with his sense of caution.
'Should I ask him about the others who came before me? About how he knows of my world? Or should I focus on the task at hand, on the plan to take Candy Castle?'
He took a sip from his mug, the sweet, spicy liquid warming his throat and settling his nerves. Whatever path he chose, Suta knew he had to tread carefully. Anak may have shown him a modicum of kindness, but he was still a vampire, a creature of the night with motives and desires that were likely far beyond Suta's understanding.
'One step at a time,' he reminded his fast-pacing heart, his gaze flickering between the dancing flames and Anak's ethereal features.
'Gain his trust, learn what you can, and find a way to save yourself and Demoria.'
With a steadying breath, Suta set his mug aside, his eyes meeting Anak's glowing red eyes across the fire.
"How... y-you... sigh... how did you know... I came from another world?" He finally asked Suta's voice cracked solemnly through the twilight air. Anak waited a few moments to respond, a glaze of reminiscence sparkling within his scarlet-coated irises.
"I, too, had initially arrived here... from a distant world," he announced in a cool manner.
Suta's eyes flashed wide into two saucers. Before his gaze lowered and his thoughts began to whirl.
'That... that makes a lot of sense now.' He held so many questions but understood the time for open ears was now.
Anak delicately pinched a thin branch and raised it, seeming interested in the last tiny fig just about tethered to the tip of the thin stem.
"To know my origins, one must understand his own tale. After all, both he and I are forever entwined by the golden threads of fate." He explained
He held the tip of the branch over the crackling fire. Patiently, the last fig started to burn.
"And as for him, his own tale is one which started all of this. I speak of none other than the curse befallen the lineage of the golden dawn. The tragic tale of Queen Lunara and her 8 offspring....The Shinjin..."
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Suta leaned forward, now he was completely locked in, his eyes wide with an openness, he was always a sucker for a well painted lore. And his curiosity had piqued.
"The Shinjin? Who are they, and what does their tale have to do with you and me?" He asked slightly out of breath
Anak smiled, a cold, mirthless thing that sent a shiver down Suta's spine again. "Patience, human."
The vampire turned his gaze back to the burning fig, watching as the flames consumed the tiny premature fruit, reducing it to ash in seconds.
"Queen Lunara was a ruler of great power, she was the epitome of beauty, beloved by her people and blessed with eight children, each more radiant than the last.
But their happiness was not to last, for a great evil descended upon their kingdom, an evil born of jealousy and...love
***
Long ago, there was a realm once barren of grace,
A realm wrought with chaos and murder, ruled by a host of nefarious outer deities.
One day, across the darkness, a bright firmament breathed, and the first golden dawn was born.
Over time, mortals would inhabit these plains, not only existing but also going on to rule and subjugate the masses.
One sovereign would change the entire plain once housing outer guardians forever.
And her name...
The mortal Queen, later exalted to the pinnacle of a Goddess.
Lunara, the bringer of Dawn.
In time, her realm would be considered the centerpiece of Godhood, a realm now ruled by an eternal Queen whose beauty and majesty was seen as the pinnacle of perfection,
And with each war won, her name became a song that both graced and set fear in the hearts of many.
In a world where countless beings struggled, fought, and died over each one's claim to supremacy,
Only she remained.
In a time, when a kingdom less people demanded to be led.
Queen Lunara decided to form a method of peace.
She fashioned a single way,
A new way,
A way of perfect order,
A way of Golden beauty, of discipline, and reverence,
A way which aimed to reflect all the good traits of Godhood.
Through this, she split her powers into 8 rivers, each river purposely running beside the domain of each race. As such, Queen Lunara took 3 consorts for marriage, the consorts would hold some form of dominion or power amongst the races.
It was with these consorts that she birthed numerous children, who now filled the land with a ninth new creation...A ninth river.
The Shinjin.
Suta listened intently, his eyes refused to blink, peering intently into the fire as Anak wove the tale of Queen Lunara and her golden realm. It was a story of power, of ambition, and of a desire for peace that had shaped the very fabric of this world.
"And so, the Demi-Gods walked among the mortals, their divine blood granting them powers beyond imagining. They were the bridge between the celestial and the mundane, the living embodiment of Queen Lunara's vision for a united realm." Anak continued.
Then he paused, his scarlet eyes flickering with an emotion Suta couldn't quite place. Was it nostalgia? Regret? Or something else entirely?
"But even the brightest of dawns must eventually give way to dusk, and so it was with Queen Lunara's golden age. For there were those who envied her power, and who sought to claim it for themselves, no matter the cost."
The vampire's voice grew cold, a hint of ancient anger bleeding into his words. Suta knew that feeling, he had felt it whenever he remembered his family were taken.
"And so, the curse was born, a malevolent force that tore through the golden realm like a plague, corrupting all it touched. The Demi-Gods, once the shining beacons of Lunara's legacy, would become stains upon the land she had fashioned as an imprint of her perfect way.
Amongst her children, there was one who would be the catalyst for this accursed fall. A divine son who saw something that none of his siblings sought. Power. Prince Nocturne , the founder of the Necromances, the defiler, the false King... and the Patriarch of shadows."