Murky

A long, arduous journey brought Fim far from his last rest stop, this time to the Sunbeam Ruins. After such an exhausting travel, he longed to settle down and give himself some time to relax; fortunately for Fim, a nearby clan residing in a temple in the Hewn City was not just willing to house travelers, but had dedicated much of the space in their lair to all manner of vagabonds and nomads!

They called their home The Purified Temple, and the name was apt -- much of the ruins of the Hewn City had been swallowed up by an encroaching fog, but the temple itself and a swath of land around it were all untouched by the murk. Hollyfin, the clan's current leader-in-training, explained that long ago their mother and a travelling healer with powers of purification had combined their efforts to destroy some of the fog, but after a month of solid work this was all they had managed to salvage. The story was a fascinating one, and Fim listened to the Fae with great intent.

During Fim's stay, he ended up meeting a fellow Guardian named Murky. She was a strange dragon, cool and quiet, calculating and knowing; it seemed like she could observe a dragon for a single day and tell everything about them, every little facet of their personality, their desires and their interests. She took a special interest in Fim, and brought him into her room of the lair one day to show him her greatest treasure, her Charge. A large cauldron of enchanted water sat in the center of the room, and all sorts of strange herbs and ingredients lined the shelves on the walls.

Murky explained that, when she added various combinations of herbs to the water, she could summon predictions of the future that appeared as flashing images on the water's rippling surface. It had taken years of practice and discipline for the oracle to learn how to summon the predictions she wanted, and even now, all these years later, the results still weren't completely reliable.

Over the course of a few weeks, the two Guardians grew much closer. Neither of them were much for talking; Fim offered Murky his quiet company, the warmth of his presence, and Murky offered Fim her kindness and concern. The prophet offered him all sorts of predictions, from what places would be safe for him to go during his travels, to paths and rest stops that he should avoid. She even offered him her prediction on where he would be likely to find his own Charge:


"Glinting, glimmering in the Kelp Beds. Mighty treasure fit for a dragon, not the beast that claims it now. Seek where the weapon pierces scale and flesh, fell the Beast and thieve the Trident."


Fim nodded in understanding. His next destination would be the Sea of a Thousand Currents then, some distance from where he was now. And even then, he would first have to find someone capable of training him in battle; it would be quite a while before he was powerful enough to face such a fearsome opponent somewhere as treacherous as the Kelp Beds.

Before he set out continue his journey, however, Fim couldn't ignore the feelings he had developed for Murky. His love was reciprocated by the oracle, and the two of them chose to raise a clutch of eggs together. After quite some time of Fim and Murky vigilantly guarding their nest, two daughters and a son each broke through their eggshells, taking in the sight of their parents for the first time.

Fim knew Murky could not leave her home and her Charge, and Murky knew Fim would not be content to retire from his travels and settle down in another clan just yet. They said their goodbyes, parting on good terms. Fim would carry his love for Murky and his young children wherever the winds of travel took him next.

The Nocturne's adventures had been feeling more and more hollow lately, since she and Honey had gone their separate ways and she was once again wandering Sornieth alone. After everything that had happened over her adventure, all of the violence and guilt that clouded her memories, Amphitrite hated being alone to her thoughts. The weight that she had felt lifting before had come back in full-force, as a twisting tension of guilt in her chest and stomach. Hoping to seek some new companionship to lift her spirits, Amphitrite made a stop at the next flight closest to her, the Light flight, and found a clan in the Hewn City willing to accommodate her.

Amphitrite was delighted to see that she had another stroke of luck in finding this clan; they weren't just willing to house travellers, they had dedicated much of the space in their temple-situated lair to all manner of vagabonds and nomads! Surely she would be able to find another travelling partner during her stay here. First though, she would give herself some time to rest, enjoy the safe feeling of a family unit that a clan could bring.

During her stay, Amphitrite's fellow travellers directed her towards a permanent resident of the clan, named Murky. Murky was a wise oracle Guardian hailing from the Water Flight, who used her Charge, a large cauldron of enchanted water, to make cryptic predictions; given she could interpret these predictions correctly, she was potentially a great help to the travellers passing through. From advising them on the best flying days based on weather, to telling them to avoid certain clans to avoid violent rogue dragons, she was a valuable asset.

Amphitrite stepped apprehensively into what the travellers had said was Murky's room of the lair. It was dark and quiet, haunting but at the same time serene. The Guardian welcomed her warmly, grabbing a bundle of herbs and other miscellaneous ingredients from a shelf. "Hello, Amphitrite. I've been expecting you," she spoke softly. Amphitrite flinched at the sudden use of her name, cocking her head in confusion, and Murky made a little huff of amusement. "My clanmates have told me I'm very observant," she explained, "sometimes to a point of intruding on others. I simply overheard the other travellers using your name, and picked up on it."

Amphitrite quickly felt the tension leaver her chest. 'Of course,' she thought to herself, 'it's a fairly dense clan. Word of my arrival and my name would travel fast.' She was just so anxious nowadays, remembering her past bloodshed and fearful of other dragons discovering the truth about her. Even now she felt nervous and tightly-wound, and this Guadian's presence only seemed to be abetting her worries.

The Guardian beckoned Amph over to her cauldron, cutting through the Nocturne's swirling, anxious thoughts momentarily. "Shall we begin?" Murky inquired, dipping a large wooden stirrer into the cauldron, dropping in a bundle of herbs, and beginning to hum a soft enchantment.

"Y-yeah, sure..." Amph stuttered, apprehensive, wringing her claws as she approached the cauldron's rim. She looked up at Murky's massive form, offering her attention but subtly avoiding eye contact with the Guardian. "What do you need me to do?"

"This enchantment will give me brief glimpses into your future travels. The magic it relies on is weak, but far less draining on my body this way," the Guardian explained. "If the spell does its job, I will be able to advise you on where to go, places and times to avoid, and how to travel to your next destination. For now though, the ingredients I've added require constant stirring, and I need you to add the next reagents for me."

'Alright. Just reagents. I can do that.' Amph fluttered over to Murky's shelf of ingredients, and began rifling through them. Before her laid all manner of insects and plants -- some of them live in jars, some of them stored dried and tied in bundles, others ground into dust and portioned in neat little satchels. 'Wow that's a lot. Okay, this isn't gonna be as easy as it sounded.'

Frosted Violets Plant Served best when chilled. No one likes a warm violet salad! 17 2

"What kind of reagents are you gonna need?" Amph barked, over the climbing volume of the Guardian's humming. "You should see a pouch of dried, blue petals, alongside some gray leaves belonging to the same plant: those are frosted violets. I need you to dump all of the contents of the pouch into this cauldron."

"Blue petals, gray leaves," Amph repeated to herself, opening a few of the pouches to investigate. The Nocturne realized then, only feeding her mounting anxiety, that two of these pouches contained nearly identical-looking flowers! 'Agh, this won't do! When they're dried, all of their colours just... look the same...'

Whatever. Maybe they were just the same kind of flower? Amph shook her nervous thoughts out of her head, grabbed the satchel that looked the closest to Murky's description and flew it over to the cauldron, dumping the contents in dutifully. The water began to boil...

With a sudden crack of electricity from the cauldron, Amph flew back from it with a yelp. The electric current travelled up Murky's wooden stirrer, coiling around and around it like a serpent, and zapped into her arm. Murky roared suddenly, recoiling back, and the stirrer crumbled to dust in her claw as the water in the cauldron suddenly ceased its bubbling and came to a complete standstill.

The room was all too dark then, all too quiet. Only Murky's breathing, suddenly rapid and shallow as if panicked, could be heard. The mighty Guardian finally lifted her head, barely visible in the low light, and that was when Amph could hardly restrain a scream -- thick fluid, black like tar and dripping like tears, flowed from Murky's eyes and dribbled under her jaws, from the corners of her mouth. It felt like eternities before she spoke again, and the liquid burbled in her throat, coating her words.

"That... was the wrong satchel," the Guardian's voice came out broken, and ragged. Shaking as if she was scared. Amph shuffled back, just a few steps. 'What the Hell has her so rattled?!' "Those flowers were not frosted violets, Amphitrite. Those... were satin violets. The spell didn't show me your future, it -- it showed me your past."

Satin Violets Plant The petals of this flower are super soft! 17 2

'No. No, it can't be...' Amph's head was swirling with the anxious thoughts again, but now her secret was out, and they were full-throttle, overwhelming her. There was so much she had to say, to ask, to apologize for. In her despair, all the Nocturne could choke out was: "What did it show you?"

But Murky didn't respond. She was already barrelling down on the Nocturne, the liquid trailing from her eyes as she ran. "MURDERER!!" She roared, and Amph's body responded before her mind or voice could, and she was fleeing.

It was like she had blacked out. By the time Amph could gain her bearings and the adrenaline was leaving her system, she was already in flight, soaring far above the Light domain with the Hewn City long behind her. 'I was so close to redemption,' was all she could think.

Her whole body quivered with the sobs that threatened to escape her maw, but unyielding, she packed them back down. The strength of her sorrow nearly overcame her, but as she held her ground against it, it began to waver... and then fade away.

Amph closed herself off completely, feeling that lingering despair and guilt from her past life freeze over and pale into complete apathy. It took a strong dragon to be able to keep hope, and continue fighting for redemption when they had commited the atrocities she had, and Amphitrite just didn't have that fight left in her. Not anymore.

The Nocturne left her heart behind her in that clan.

And so she became the Masked Rosette again.