[selenia's quest.]

[dramatispersonae]

[wherever you are now, it's grey and half-lit; not quite day yet, but not too dark either.]

Comments

[glorious]

[...And I would like to come back to Sapphire in one piece. But I am also questing for a healing item so if anything is up there...]

[Better plan, back away from the tree and throw the copper pole as high up it as I possibly can.]

[dramatispersonae]

[YOU DISLODGE A LARGE COPPER EGG! good going.

it thumps down in the ash under the tree.]

[glorious]

[VICTORY!]

[Lets investigate that large copper egg!]

[dramatispersonae]

[it is a reasonably large egg, about three inches long. it's heavy.]

[glorious]

[But I could feasibly pick it up.]

[...Now I have to figure out what to do with it...]

[...It doesn't move at all, does it?]

[dramatispersonae]

[you can pick it up!

it doesn't move...]

[glorious]

[...I shall hold it close and I guess. Take it back to the stone house.]

[And sing to it softly, in case there's a baby bird in there.]

[dramatispersonae]

[. . .

what do you do with it in the stone house . . .]

[glorious]

[...Well the picture that pointed me to the egg was in the basement but now I'm not so certain that was what I was meant to do.]

[I suppose while I'm here, I can set the egg on the couch and play out a domestic adorable scene as an older brother returning home to greet his little sister egg and tell her how much she's grown and how she's been missed and how he certainly wasn't out killing people or destroying worlds or being a terrible excuse for a human being--]

[Once I'm done playing out all my current emotional problems in a very therapeutic session, I suppose I should take the egg to the pedestal instead and see if the songbirds want her.

I mean it.]

[dramatispersonae]

[the songbirds are all disinterested in the egg except the one that is asleep]

[glorious]

[...I shall place it by the one that is asleep then. It seems to be snoozing in a slightly interested way.]

[dramatispersonae]

[it...

...continues to snore in its tiny bird way]

[glorious]

[...As cute as that is, it is not warming up my egg at all.]

[Maybe I should bring my egg to the pedestal. Maybe it'll have an idea what to do.]

[dramatispersonae]

[the pedestal remains steadfastly pedestalesque.]

[glorious]

[The pedestal's input is useless.]

..."Bring forth light"? [In case this is yet another place where I have to say stuff out loud in order for things to happen.]

[dramatispersonae]

[nope...]

[glorious]

[............]

[Pick-axe + egg then?]

[dramatispersonae]

[you break the egg. a narrow spit of fire roars up it as you do, singeing your hands one last time and melting all the fragments of shell.

only a copper key is left.]

[glorious]

[I am the most horrific older brother that has ever been.]

[Also my hands are on fire and that STILL HURTS.]

[Once I've dealt with my emotional and physical pain, lets rush that copper key down to the basement and to the chest.]

[dramatispersonae]

[you unlock the chest!

inside is a copper star.]

[glorious]

[And I know precisely what to do with it.]

[Rushing this copper star to the pedestal and putting it where it belongs.]

[dramatispersonae]

[there is a delicate chime, like silver against a wineglass. the star glows; the pedestal and pillars sink back to a level with the ground.

and then the star catches fire, and the seven birds flutter sedately into it, one by one, making it bigger and bigger -- it's higher than a man when they're done, blazing hot. hopefully you backed away as it did that.]

[glorious]

[...Most definitely backing away, yes.]

[dramatispersonae]

[it rises into the air, above the trees, into the sky. a strange shift in perception: you can tell it's growing bigger, somehow, even as it shrinks into the distance. everything's brightening.

congratulations, Selenia; you've made the sun rise.]

[dramatispersonae]

[. . . there's a familiar 'mrrrrrt' near your feet.]