寒露

[singlemilletgrain]

One might expect Shu to be participating in the Harvest Festival festivities. After all. That's... her expectation, in some sense. Not simply her job, but the reason for her existence. However, there were times when one needed to take on multiple roles, as unpleasant as some of them may be. And her other role, for a thousand years...

is the keeper of lost souls.

The Collapsals (that was a Sami term - the Yanese had a different term for the demons, but Esthere language mapped more closely onto non-Yanese words, she had found) and their incursions had been held at bay by Shu's powers for so long, she had almost forgotten what it was like not to have a heavy fraction of her power leached constantly from her into the land. Vice-versa... after a year in this place, it was good to have a reminder of the perils that still awaited at home.

Shu spends much of the following weeks in the research facility, cleaning up bodies, putting down monstrosities, praying, burning incense. On the gates outside the laboratory, she has spent many hours tying ribbons to the bars. One ribbon for each soul devoured by the disgraceful experiments conducted within. Though their flesh had been corrupted, their beings, she trusted, would return to the earth once flesh had been purged.

Not that she knew of 'being' outside flesh. But the people of all lands believed so fervently in such a thing, surely it must exist. And if it did not...

Then she, if no one else, would remember, such that they lived on.

Comments

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl didn't grow up with much reverence for the dead. Lolth's teachings tended to view death as a failure state for survival. But their first encounter with non-drow had been myconids, who used dead bodies as a resource, as mushrooms did. And it fit into a druid point of view: souls might go to the gods, but bodies should return to the earth via scavengers.

So they are happy to help clean up bodies, and accept the view that whatever had happened to the souls, they were out of the situation. They have a bunch of seedlings with them, because... well, if the earth can reclaim this place, all the better, from Ilphyl's point of view. Mostly plants that are just intended to be beautiful, rather than food or herbs.

"I'm going to have to learn if any of the chemicals used here are bad for plants," they said.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Erm."

Shu bites her lower lip.

"I would be bold enough to say... that all of the chemicals used here are bad for plants." She shakes her head with a gentle crinkle of the forehead. "But I would simply not, perhaps, eat any vegetables that may grow here. The plants and vegetal matter will purify and leach some of these contaminants out of the earth, in due time."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "It's why I was thinking flowers, not food plants. I don't want to plant them just to have them die, but this place needs new life." It was hard to explain, just a feeling that while remembering what happened was important, so was letting nature take parts of the place back. And that even if the dead didn't linger here, having conventionally pretty nature might be better than just trusting to chance.

Ilphyl had been in places that were blighted on a spiritual or magical level, and that felt worse than the physical signs of natural disaster or the result of a battle. Even some of the hardier plants might be worth trying in the worst spots.

[singlemilletgrain]

"That would be a lovely thought." Shu smiles gently at this suggestion. "This place is indeed in need of... beauty. It has languished in darkness for too long. Though the deeds shall not be forgotten, at least, a resting place for so many ought to embody peace for those who remain here."

She is a goddess of agriculture, less so of nature in general. Even if she could compel the flowers to bloom, this seemed like it was a task better done by hand.

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl doesn't mind using their magic to start seedlings, but right now, they are content to work with their hands. "I'd bring some mushrooms as well, but fewer people seem to find them beautiful."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Hm. As those people are not here, perhaps you may do as you please. I believe fungi are also necessary for the health of an ecosystem..."

In reasonable amounts.

"I wonder if there is any possibility of salvaging this facility for our own use. I do not believe the experiments could yield anything of value, but the raw materials, perhaps..."