-Sekhet-
Why was I even still bothering with these mortals? I guess I just want the luxury of being able to talk to someone. I’ve lived quite fine in peace until Lady Kuril dropped an already crashing airship on my head. If I didn’t know I could heal from it, I would swear it’s the head injury keeping me here.
When the airship hit me, I had felt the revenge of the many workers who did all the, quite literally, back breaking work in turmoil so many years ago when it came to building in the desert. The structures they built have lasted a long time and were considered quite the mortal achievement in architecture. It made me wonder if my anti-flight zone curse is still on that temple, I can do things that last as long too you know.
Talking was a luxury I could afford, as was keeping up with the times and all the advancements going on in the world. I was at least up to date with the world, because every once in a while I go visit nearby civilizations in disguise and most won’t even recognize me when I do.
I guessed that I was sticking around here for the freshly cooked magical food, I no longer had any reason to hound the two Abyssinians and I was even beginning to respect them quite a bit. My interest right now was watching the young broken pony heal spiritually. As the priest… well, as the rogue priest Jade had alluded to me, I had not paid enough attention to the healing aspect of myself in a long time. The only exception was healing myself from injuries and not others which was actually a part of my healing prowess.
I’ve been a huntress for hundreds of years, one that many a creature has come to fear earning the ire of or even a smidgen of my grand attention. Not once had I stopped to save lives in equal numbers as those I took, I’ve been quite greedy and lazy. I’m not bothered about my decadent life style up until now as I’m quite sure that Anubis made use of those deaths, but I wished for something new to do after so long.
I was a goddess who was powerful, wise and magical… also a tad lonely as finding any ‘good’ immortal companionship is quite hard.
All mortal lives are really quite short, but they made for excellent companions like no other and most immortal beings tended to forget that. They also forget that without mortals, we wouldn’t have much reason to be around and I had definitely lost my reason to be around a long time ago. Free time was never going to be an issue for me.
I know Celestia hasn’t forgotten the importance of mortals, especially not an unusual one like Jade. Being a young goddess helped the sun princess, but she certainly has problems controlling all of her rambunctious mortals. At least she is doing a better job to keep them thriving than I or even Bastet could with our own.
This is why I want to help the broken unicorn, it was something different to do after all that hunting day in and out. It was a dream, a really long vacation if you will, that I finally woke up from and finally decided to do something else.
I can’t just give the mortal her horn back, but I can continue to aid in the recovery of her spirit with some careful guidance. Said spirit is no longer completely in a dark place thanks to the rogue sun priest’s mother, but it needed to be brought further into the light of day.
I might even help Fizzle become a warrior if she wishes to learn how to fend for herself better. She will never be able to cast magic in a controlled manner, but bigger more complicated wide ranging spells should still be possible for her if Priest Jade and Lady Kuril can’t help her.
That got me thinking about sun priests.
Ah yes, sun priests, always the guiding lights even when they don’t realize it. They don’t even need to know where they are going or even to act in any given specific way, they will always find a home somewhere and people will always come to them for guidance or help. It is inevitable, even if they aren’t acting like the traditional idea of what a priest is.
If I had to guess, Celestia would have expected robes, staves and a sense of tradition with Jade. She would be sorely disappointed as Jade wasn’t fit for such an arbitrary mold.
It was another reason for me to stick around, it’ll be amusing to see what kind of trouble Jade could get into. It has been a long time since a priestess like her has been around, Jade was quite a rarity to run into these days and many would want her help even if they don’t know what they are in for by asking for it.
I’m quite certain Jade doesn’t know either, no one has told her yet as far as I know and all she would have to do is to know to ask me. I wasn’t about to tell her if she didn’t want to know after all. Don’t mind the toothy smile on my face, it’s nothing of importance.
I can make sure that Jade isn’t taken advantage of by anyone… but what would be the fun in that? Who would even know how to take advantage anyway? Mortals learned more from their mistakes than they do from doing everything right the first time. It’s like how I can forgive many slights, but I’ll never forget them… ever.
Speaking of the solar priest… I feel her coming. She shines brightly to those who know what to look for and she’s coming this way quite fast, my curiosity is now piqued.
I think Jade might be in need of a little divine intervention, who am I as a goddess to not respond to such a need? This is the beginning of a new chapter in my long, long life. It might even be quite the read.
“Your daughter is coming back and she’ll be here in approximately a minute.” I think Kurilian misunderstood my meaning and got up to look in the directions Jade would have probably walked in from, that is if she had been walking.
“I don’t see my little tom cat.” Of course you wouldn’t Lady Kuril, I can sense that she’s actually coming at us a lot higher than an Abyssinian is supposed to be. Flying at such a speeds cannot be healthy for such a fragile mortal.
Even the recently named Fizzle was confused as she didn’t see Jade coming either, but I knew and didn’t need to see. I could feel her just fine.
“I did not say she would be walking here, watch the north… and you will soon see something of great interest.” I spread my wings while chuckling with mirth and lifted myself up into the air straight into Jade’s path. “In fact I’ll just show you when she comes in, it’ll be quite the sight I think.”
Getting high enough I closed my eyes, I spread out my front legs straight out from my sides and brought my rear ones together underneath me to start hovering in the air without the need to flap my mighty wings. I didn’t need to see the glow forming before me or what it was doing, it is my ancient power at work. It has been quite a while since I flexed my magical muscles.
If one were to look at me, then one would see a faint ankh shaped glow coming from my body. The soul, the life that drives the body, this is what an ankh represented and anyone who would defile a soul would earn my ultimate rage and I would not hold an ounce of my power at bay.
This was just me naturally using my magic, the center of my being, in a more visible and showy fashion. I was showing off even if I didn’t have to, I absolutely wanted to! Jade knows of me and my distant sister in legend, well it’s about time I returned from said ancient legends, for I am Sekhet!
A dot of light slowly created a circle in the air as I hummed softly and concentrated. I opened my eyes and there was a two dimensional circle of magic that filled in immediately before me in the air, I now waited for her to come.
A bright blazing light approached me and then hit the circle dead center, it appears that I have not lost my touch at all and have safely caught the poor feline. It might have been my sister’s job to protect the Abyssinians and others of cat kind, but she isn’t exactly here is she?
The middle of the circle stretched and then the circle collapsed around the bright light into a bubble, the end result left a figure floating in the middle of it. It was Jade and she had the most beauteous looking wings made of sunlight.
I was somewhat impressed that she still got back in one piece even when she wasn’t conscious and looking at her body, I could tell that she was going to be quite sore for a while. She needed to rest and I would not rouse her from her slumber.
I came down with the bubble between my paws, both Kuril and Fizzle looked at the sleeping form inside of it.
“She is fine, but she needs time to rest. She’s obviously had a busy morning and she might be up for dinner this evening or breakfast on the morrow.” I popped the bubble and gently sat Jade on the ground while removing her pack, her hair was like glopaz in the sun. It reminded me of Somnambula dealing with an exceedingly irritating snake, so many memories of watching mortals from a distance.
It was feeling quite nostalgic, I would like to help build something from all these feelings.
-Fizzlepop ‘Tempest’ Berrytwist-
I was too busy staring at the wings sprouting from Jade’s back to notice anything else, how did she get wings? Was this part of something about getting my horn back? I… after my talk with Ms. La Perm I just… it just didn’t feel as important to me anymore.
Jade looked to be in pretty bad condition and she had been that ball of light shooting across the sky. I was actually afraid for someone else… I mean I haven’t even told Jade that I want to be friends yet or my real name for that matter.
I know I hadn’t been very talkative and these last two days have been… strange. Strange like the warm campfire that never went out or was never unbearable to be near, in fact it was very comforting to know it was still there.
A loud cracking noise was heard and the wings dissipated into thin air, they had been going for the last few minutes I had been staring at them in awe. I, Kuril and Sekhet were all staring at Jade now.
“That was some powerful magic, especially if she flew here all the way from Canterlot on them.” If Sekhet said something was powerful and was a goddess as both Jade and Kuril believe she is, then I knew it was a fact.
Those wings weren’t permanent, I felt a little upset about that as I had wanted to touch them. I wasn’t about to disturb Jade’s rest to talk about it, she looked like she needed it.
I watched as Kuril tucked her daughter in with a blanket, and put a pillow beneath her head with a warm smile. I wished some days that someone could do that for… maybe she would if I bothered to ask.
“Well Jade’s fine, what do we do now? Oh wait… you don’t have a complete education do you Fizzle?” Kuril turned to me and I blinked owlishly at her. An education? I was plenty smart enough as is.
“I would think not, if she has been wandering for as long as I think she has.” What would Sekhet know about me? I’m plenty smart enough, all unicorns are great at retaining knowledge. “She is at least world smart, learning by the experience of her travels. What she would be missing is a more classical education now that you mention it. I can teach math quite well and I’ve personally lived through and watched history unfold, do you know how to read or write?”
“Of course I do!” I wasn’t an imbecile, give me some credit here. I just stopped going to school when I set out to find a way to fix my broken horn. I was quite educated, thank you! “If you’re so worried about how smart I am, then what of Jade?”
“Jade’s somewhat horrible at complicated math, but she’s knows a lot of mythology, monsters, history and quite a bit about magic as you all very well know. I should show you how she plays a game of Ogre’s and Oubliettes sometime, our gaming pack survived the crash and we can even play the game some until I have to cook dinner.” What Kuril said surprised me a little, Jade was bad at math? I would not have pegged her for it given that she can do powerful magic that gave her those strange looking wings temporarily. “I might have neglected her education a bit by coming here to Equestria, but she really doesn’t need that much of an education.”
I was quite good at math personally. Unicorns needed math to perform some of the most complex spells in existence, yet Jade was doing spells without needing to know said complex math. It actually had me hoping that I could learn to do magic in spite of my… disability. It’s just that no one had tried to do magic differently than what was taught in schools, it wasn’t necessary for them to do so. For me, it was a necessity.
“Jade’s education is fine, especially since she can identify who I am. That's all the education she needs.” The sphinx just puffed herself up with pride, Sekhet was kind of weird to me and a bit terrifying. She was clearly powerful and dangerous, an Ursa Medium wouldn’t go down so easily to someone who wasn’t. “What is this Ogre’s and Oubliettes game though? If it is entertainment, then I could give it a try.”
“It’s a fantasy roleplaying game, one that actually has some real life applications.” Started off Kuril. I hadn’t had fun in a long time and I was interested in where this was going. “It’s like designing a different you. A character you create that plays a role by going on imaginary adventures with a specific set of rules in place regarding what that character can and can’t do, said rules make luck and chance decide the outcome of what happens to the character you or others design within reason.”
“Describe your character to me so I can get a better grasp of the concept…” Said an equally interested Sekhet, I then turned to Kuril as I too was curious enough.
“I’ll do you one, better.” The way Kuril was rubbing her hands together had me worried. “I’ll help you and Fizzle create your own characters and we’ll party up!”