Chapter Text
You walk into my forge to seek a tool,
But metal is the lightest of my craft
For what’s a weapon with no grip to hold it?
You aren’t the first, nor will you be the last,
For once there was a storm who would be king
Who gusted, rained, and thundered through the night
And once there was a citadel named Vash
Who sheltered, sacrificed, and kindled light.
And Tynan’s swords were terror, fear is brittle,
And Vash’s steel selfless, now it breathes.
Don’t ask me when the quench is, that part’s easy;
Ask yourself what hand your blade unsheathes.
Ah — I hear impatience. Ever so.
Don’t fret, just give it half a sef… you’ll know.
Notes:
I posted this in the comments under page 1.17.20 under the pseudonym TheSonnetteerAppears, but I don't think many people actually saw it.
Chapter 2: And then he flew off as a dragon, the end!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
And that’s when Tynan said: know what, I’ve had it!
I’d rather be a dragon, flying free!
The fear was neat, but always a performance;
And no one even clapped, they’d all just flee.”
“I know, dude, right?” Tess cried, “Dragons are awesome!”
Kendal asked, “You mean you’ll just go?” “Mine
Was a fearful racket, now it’s stressful.”
“Glad you got your Spark, man, late’s just fine!”
And so he set them down upon some mountain
And crowed, “Now for some fun, these wings are stylin’!
Stewed a hundred years, but now I’m soaring!
I’m off around the world in one sindahlan!”
And Caliban: “Come back, we weren’t done yet!”
And Tahraim: “Oh, are we not having fun yet!”
Notes:
Inspired by the part of 1.17.23 that's just Tynan genuinely having fun being a dragon.
Chapter Text
Dear Sir or It: I represent the Void.
My client owns the Mark displayed in singement
Upon the chest of this Aseran nerd.
I hence DEMAND you CEASE & DESIST infringement.
Your use of dragon forms and dragon shapes
In connection with: terror, doom, and fear
Is likely to confuse the mortal apes
As to the source of power to revere.
As such, you trade upon hard-won badwill.
Although the Zuurith PTO’s on fire,
What remedies remain will fast instill
Due respect for a senior dragon’s ire.
A full and prompt response we soon await.
Actually — never mind, too late.
Notes:
Inspired, of course, by the events of page 1.17.28.
I somehow find it impossible to post this sonnet without including the clarification that this is a JOKE and nobody is actually stating any cease-and-desists here, no matter what the poem says. I do not own Aurora, at all, etc. etc.
Chapter Text
Stay down. I felt the fire raging through me
I smelled the smoke, I fled from home in fear
Stay down. I was alone, no city knew me
Harried like a bandit, buried here.
Stay down. I never wanted to hurt any-
I smelled the blood, and purple filled my vision
Stay down. Don’t fight the guards, there are too many
My pride is under careful supervision.
Stay down. The fight is over, please believe it
They’ll have to scream directly for their kill
Stay down. My anger's dangerous, I sheathe it
No one else can; if I don’t, who will.
Take what’s light and scream it out in rage,
Take what’s heavy, turn and burn the page.
Notes:
A sonnet for Dainix and his backstory (as of the Tynan fight).
Inspired by a thematic similarity I noticed between pages 1.12.31 and 1.17.26; Dainix's advice on both pages is the same: "Stay down". He's been the undefeated champion of Zuurith's arena for sindahlans without maiming or killing anyone; he's got to be an expert at convincing people to 'stay down' and noticing when someone's roughed up enough to reasonably do so. And the first person Dainix convinced to stay down was himself: stay down, swallow your pride, don't let the fire out.
I note about this one that it follows and expands on Tahraim's assertion on page 1.16.8 that the purple fire of guilt burned out Dainix's eye, even though the events of page 1.19.8 later contradict this (meaning Tahraim was *gasp* wrong...?!)
Chapter 5: Missive From the Elemental Magus (Please Ignore)
Chapter Text
Esteemed colleagues, to whom it may concern:
(Asera help me, what doom have I done)
Please find attached, regarding my sojourn
(Into the darkness, ruin well begun)
Please note the Lightning Sector was traversed,
(Nothing that I think or know can save me)
The center mapped, indeed I was the first
(Indeed the direst trap of all was made for me)
The Dissipation yields yet more inquiry
(My mind is not my own, I must resist)
My still-ongoing research occupies me
(Don’t look for me, forget that I exist)
Respectfully, (In Formalistic Vagueness,)
Erin (“Fool”) Ruunaser - Elemental Magus
Chapter 6: Falst Steals a Bag
Chapter Text
I stole a bag from strangers in the wood.
(They fight chimeras; I'm sure they'll be fine.)
It's bigger on the inside, it has books,
It's everything I need, and now it's mine.
Life can alter fate on the unfurl,
I see it every day, I know it can!
Life can make a monster from a squirrel,
So why not make a beast into a man?
Because just seeming normal still is lonely
Because that's how you end up in a jar
Because it's not enough, and friendship only
Can make a place for us, just as we are.
Are we friends now? Maybe premature.
Will I go with them? I guess so... sure.
Chapter Text
Long ago did Umatz write in silence:
"Identify the tools and strike them down!"
Well one of them walked right into my archive,
Argued with my books, and then skipped town.
He strode right in, was rude and condescending
(Should've seen it, how he ran his mouth)
That little jerk, he said it was a project,
A paper for the skeptics far down south.
O Lady, I cry out to seek your guidance!
My archive lies in ruins, I'm alone.
Your grieving acolyte stands in abidance
Ready for whatever must be done.
Ruin's remnant, sole witness to blight,
Like Huracan -- my only hope is Light.
Notes:
Inspired by page 1.18.26.
Can I just say it's a shocking but pleasant surprise that Lady Niluca's archive actually *did* survive and Theia isn't also going on her adventure carrying the tiny backpack of destiny the whole way.
Chapter Text
Sing, O wind, the name of the First Champion,
Timeless mountain-blooded Huracan,
Her words transcribed by silent generations.
She writes to you this century by my hand:
“The last I saw, my temple incandescing,
Slithering with dark, for storm an eye;
The cave-folk aren’t fearsome, they’re like children,
And rightly do they fear the open sky.
I once revered the Dark beside the Light;
Did he mess up? Did we somehow offend?
We have to be on guard against his danger,
For his motives we can never comprehend.
I’ll soon be gone, may what I teach outlive me:
Defend, be wary, harken to My Lady.”
Notes:
Prompt was "The Teachings of the First Champion", which is the book Erin reads in the Archive in Chapter 14.
Chapter Text
My sweetheart fell asleep upon my lap
One campfire eve as I perused a book.
My sacred tome was fixed with jaundiced eye
As something else within his form awoke.
He murmured dark: "You know, she's even worse,
Your mortal sorrows what she made them be.
Your lives her weapons, carrying that curse
She placed upon you only to spite me.
At least I only strive for my own interest.
By this 'free will' show me one life improved."
"My own," I then replied. "That can I speak for,
For each day he'll choose me instead of you."
The dragon scoffed, but left my love to rest;
The battle's never won, but ever blessed.
Notes:
The prompt was the ship of Erin/Theia. I ended up writing a debate about free will between Theia and the Void Dragon.
Chapter 10: The Void Dragon Observes Yanna's Balance
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
All I wanted was to eat that star.
If you'd have seen it, you'd have bitten too,
And now I'm locked up! How'd it go this far?
It really isn't fair, I'm telling you!
They call it Yanna, feast on yellow food
And cakes and fruits and pastries golden-brown
With suns on them -- the mortals know it too:
That star's delicious, how I want it now!
Clearing his throat very pointedly,
That Magus fidgets, tugs his collar closed;
It's just not fair, that star is mocking me
With all its burning rays and golden glows!
It's petty, but I've had all I can take --
Erin needs to eat a lot more cake.
Notes:
I think it's nifty that there is an Auroran holiday that includes symbolically eating the sun, when the planet's formation was the result of Voidy being imprisoned for trying to eat the sun.
Chapter 11: The Emergence
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
In nighttime we abide, the caves our cage,
For caught between two sicknesses are we:
Above, the fearsome winds too harshly rage,
Below, our corpses feed the hungry deep.
I found a threshold, eye-hurtingly bright;
Outside I smelled fresh air and tasted rain,
My skin was warm, I basked in Yanna’s light,
And knew I couldn’t bear the dark again.
I met a person-mountain with machines;
They chased me back to shadows, raging fear.
The sun is calling, and the darkness keens --
We have to stay above; we’ll get by here.
Our children will know magic - all we find:
Our souls flayed open to the glimm’ring wind.
Notes:
Prompt for this one was the Emergence.
This one went some interesting places. We know that the "cave folk" -- the humans and elves when they lived underground -- were "very frightened of the open sky" when they first started living aboveground. So why would they even do so? Because underground must've reached the tipping point of being *even worse*. I think it's entirely possible, even likely, that the Void Dragon found ways of increasing the hazard level of the Singing Caves and pushing the humans and elves back toward the surface so they would be closer to starting to do magic using the element winds, as he had originally schemed. Imagine the impossible choice in that moment of history, for those individuals: to stay below exposed to cave corruption and living in constant fear of situations like what happened to Falst and his family, or to venture above and face both the element winds of the open sky and high-tech, probably well-armed Ancients that feared them and had already settled cities there. And I find it more interesting still that modern Auroran mortals hold the sun in special regard, devoting a sindahlan festival to it and only tentatively personifying it as any sort of god (sometimes called Yanna); their coming to the surface, scary as it was otherwise, would also have been their first experience of the sun.
Chapter 12: Once, No More
Chapter Text
Once there was a meteor from space
Once there was a crater for a wall
Once were people sheltered by that place,
And their city knew and loved them all.
Once there was a storm that rained and blew
Once there was an ingot and a stone
Once a hero-god stood glowing blue
Upon the verge, and met the storm alone.
Once there was a sword, a day to save
Once there was a sorceress in green
Once a city turned into a grave,
Its people unreleased, crying unseen.
Once the sword awoke, left at the door;
Then the man awoke, proclaimed, “No More.”
Chapter 13: Falst Gets Outfitted
Chapter Text
He said that it was tactically sound;
That excuse is wearing mighty thin.
I listened, and I came down to the ground;
I’m kinda dumb about that, when it’s him.
This cozy doofus just can’t learn to quit
Attempting to put armor on a cat!
Nah, armguards are too stiff; this helmet’s shit!
… The buckler thingy’s fine, I could use that.
A belt for ammo! I’ll take that thank you!
(Lacrimas? Oh Erin shouldn’t have!)
A pouch for snacks as well? And of course, you
Also stocked it with some smelly salve.
I’ll just vanish up that tree now, see ya--
Fine okay, thanks… this was a good idea.
Chapter 14: To Fight the Sea
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Ever since I felt the push and pull,
The ocean's motion deep in soul and bone
Inspired my mind and set my heart to sailing
And so the sky and sea became my home.
If you live by water, build a levee;
If you sail, then build a sturdy hull.
If you love something, invent resilience,
So I installed a floodgate on my soul
And thus do I create to match creation,
Enduring by invention every bend,
To build a ship to sail the whole wide ocean,
A battle fought against a lifelong friend.
The sea is so creative, never tiring;
Endless challenge, endlessly inspiring.
Notes:
Welcome Tarren <3