They follow.
They’ve always been leaders but today, they follow.
For a moment after stepping through the portal, they are weightless, floating. And then they are solid again, back into this world. Their eyes meet—amber to green—and it’s only a few steps before they can touch, reverent. Much has transpired since they were last together, but in this single, breathless moment, it’s like nothing’s changed.
“Oh,” Anatomy exhales, “there you are.”
“Here I am,” replies Craft, and they touch for the first time in years (decades), black against gold, saved in one world and reunited in another.
They are thanked, by each queen, and then the mist appears again, surrounding them, and when it fades, you are back to where you came from, and there is no sign of the ancient queens, no sign of the deserts.
Some of them, though, are changed. Those who saved the black queen may find themselves marked, a sigil dark and shiny as obsidian. Those who saved the golden queen are marked similarly, except the sigil is gold and bright. Others are changed still further, marked by their experience and the choices they made in this quest.
The queens have returned, and the deserts, somewhere, lives on.
OOC:
Thank you all for your participation! What a difficult quest to judge with some amazing posts.
- @[lilliana] is the overall winner and will receive the trait empathic echoes for her participation in the quest, and wins Craft and Anatomy as the magic entity for Taiga. What that entails completely will be revealed later IC.
- @[Lilt] is the runner up on the “saved Anatomy” tract, and has a choice: either the fairies will restore her hearing, or she can receive the trait memory manipulation.
- @[Agetta] is the runner up on the “saved Craft” tract, and will receive self light healing.
- All participants may choose a black obsidian marking (Anatomy) or gold marking (Craft). This is entirely optional.
- All traits are genetic, assuming proper trait spaces.
- All winners were agreed upon by both judges.
craft & anatomy
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