Eladrin promises (Afina)

[Anastasia]

It turns out that Kascha's in Surraruthru's room. She's humming to herself, tidying things up. When you enter, her face breaks out into a smile. "Hi Afina! Please don't make a mess, I'm tidying up his lair for him."

[Ebiris]

"You're a very kind person, Kascha," Afina says, not really seeing why people can't just tidy up after themselves, but Kascha's kindness is both boundless and well established. "I won't touch anything, don't worry," she reassures, flying over and hovering so as not to disturb the place.

Really, why would Kascha even assume she'd make a mess? Does she give off that sort of impression? But as much as she'd like to get into that there are more pressing issues. "Anyway, I've found myself in a bit of a dilemma. You see there's some sort of devil plot where they're using Lief to indirectly attack the fey of Aurora. It barely bothered me, I think because I'm not so much a fey any more, but Crystal's taken very badly ill. According to various divinations and research, Queen Ilsenine has to go to Yggdrasil to fix the problem. Of course no one knows how to get there, but Moore and Hanna seem to think it has something to do with Arborea's hidden layers. The ones I promised not to talk about."

[Anastasia]

"Oh." Kascha murmurs, "That is a problem, isn't it?"

[Ebiris]

"I made a promise and I won't break it," she says, although Hanna made her stretch it a bit by even acknowledging their existence. "So it's up to you, Kascha. You know Arborea like no one else here. If there's a connection there, I need you to tell us. If there's not, just tell me so and I'll let everyone know we have to look elsewhere."

[Anastasia]

"..."

Silence. Kascha's quiet for a time, "It's the right thing to do," she finally says, "Yes. You can find your way to Yggdrasil through the Hidden Layers." The way she says it suggests capitals, "Don't be surprised, why do you think it's so hard to find? How better to hide it than in a place so fiercely protected? One must overcome time itself to go there if not welcome."

[Ebiris]

"I am surprised," Afina confesses despite being told not to be. But even so, facts fit together in her mind. "It's on Adalir, isn't it?" she asks. "Grandfather Time said there were things on that layer it would be best if I didn't investigate further..."

Unfortunately she can't really delude herself any further. Not when her already impressive mental faculties have been so sharpened by her elemental apotheosis. It all just fits together neatly. The Hidden Layers are where Eladrin are reborn. Yggdrasil is where fey are reborn.

Eladrin and fey look alike. One only has to place a pixie by a coure or a nymph by a ghaele to see it plainly. More than that, they're similar in temperament as well... mostly anyway. Unseelie swing a bit wildly away from that type, but Seelie can fit almost seamlessly into the Court of Stars.

Her wings no longer having the strength to bear her aloft, Afina lands gently on her feet. "We're... we're eladrin, aren't we?" she asks, feeling very small by the realisation that all her vaunted pride and history as a fey are like nothing so much as a glamer pulled over one's eyes. And now it's been cast aside and an unexpected reality takes its place.

[Anastasia]

"No. Not anymore," Kascha says, very gently. "Things happened. Terrible things but things that had to be. The natural world had to be protected and outsiders couldn't do it. Fate decreed that his duty fell on the eladrin." She kneels down next to Afina, "After all, if you were eladrin, the Unseelie could not be. The Queen of Air and Darkness couldn't have broken away and formed her own court to oppose the Seelie."

[Ebiris]

"Well!" she blurts out, more just to verbalise something. How do you react to your entire existence being up-ended? Go back through that endless chain of fey that cycled through their reincarnations before Afina was born and eventually you'd find it would end, on an eladrin no less! And now it's ended, back as an outsider once more.

"I won't feel guilty about becoming an outsider, then," she declares as that symmetry settles into her. "I've just gone back to being what I was originally. But why hide what we are, why obscure the connection?"

[Anastasia]

"Reasons. The greatest of figures know - the deities who predate the split, the greatest immortal sages suspect or have learned enough to confirm it. Beyond those, none know, none can prove it. Those that seek find things that seem to quash the idea to them or lead them away from it. One reason is that it is a defense like that." She rests her hand on Afina's side, warmly smiling. "Even if an enemy discovers the Hidden Layers, they will discard them because they have come to believe that is not the correct path."

Then, meeting your eyes with her own, "Another is because the fey need to stand on their own. The eladrin directly controlling the natural world would threaten the balance of Creation. The other powers would not tolerate it and a war unlike any other would erupt. Without that, the fey have grown and stood on their own. They have split and become far more, able to represent all the seasons, even the coldest and most hateful winter."

[Ebiris]

Afina listens to all this and digests it as best she can, but still it's a lot to take in all at once. "I'm not finished on this. There's so much more I have to know, to understand. But for now, Crystal could be dying and Lief's being used terribly. Are you willing to release me from my promise?"

[Anastasia]

"Yes, tell them of the Hidden Layers," Kascha says, "But not what I've told you here, except where you suspect Yggdrasil is. Let them figure it out and draw their own assumptions."

Then Kascha smiles warmly, "All things said, you're something of a distant cousin to me now." She sweeps you into a hug, "We'll talk when this is settled. Arborea is so much, Afina. There is so much I know that I cannot say or dare not. When Arborea returned me, it showed the trust the Court has for Seira. I know things, such secrets that I must keep from others, Afina."

[Ebiris]

It is very fortunate that she's learning this now after having formed deep friendships with eladrin. Had she learned of it when she was embittered and fresh off Gehenna she likely would have done something regrettable. "That's enough shocking secrets for today anyway," she says, hugging Kascha back. "Thank you for being a good cousin, I'll talk to you again later," she parts from her and heads back towards the infirmary.

[Anastasia]

Okay, we're going to pause here since Aurora's about to formulate its plans towards this latest thread. Which means this thread will be locked, along with the Jaela and Moore in progress. Calleigh's thread and Surraruthru's thread will be left open for the time being.

See nagging as posting will be happening there.