Lethe

The sky is dark and cold, cloudless, moonless, and devoid of light. Below runs a pale river, smooth and glassy, and on its shore waits a dark figure with eyes as silent as the sky above, just as cold. But empty they are not. A cold intelligence lurks within, calculating and apathetic. But there is no choice other than to approach, for the river she guards is the final goal of many dragons. It is said that its waters offer release from the pain and suffering of the past, that those who bathe within will walk away with their mind a clean slate. But rumor is faulty, and at the approach, the dark figure moves forward and the world fades.

Lethe is the second of Inlé's children to inherit the Keeper aspect of the Incarnation, though her execution of her aspect varies greatly from that of her brother. She does stand guard over the minds of the dead, but their memories. In some ways, it is a more pure guardianship than that of a spirit, which might forget it's life and fade. Those who encounter her leave with no lingering trace of who they once were; with their memory taken, the one who was is dead.

Memory has a power of its own, and Lethe spends much of her time lost to the lives of others, simply viewing and judging them. Most are consumed, purged of their power and obliterated, becoming only a source of power for the Shade. Some she keeps for herself. Though she could not say what exactly she finds compelling about those few, something stalls her from feeding on them. Perhaps it is some half-remembered sentiment from a life she would never live.

To most eyes, she does not exist. Only those filled with the desperation to escape themselves will ever fall under her gaze. She wonders, in the rare instances when she is not lost dreaming, what her life might have been without these powers, without this connection to the Shade. But it is never something she ponders long. She is pragmatic, above all else, and there is no point considering something that will never be.

Written by Kaiyre