SOREN
Light didn't belong in this realm. Nothing did. And how he'd managed to get stuck in this wasteland was beyond him. Beyond the gods. It was Fate. They were punishing him, as they always had, as they will continue to do. He didn't belong here… but then again, who did?
NOXIS TERRITORY, SECTOR 7, PER'S TEMPLE…
As the Queen's Personal Guard, Soren had it better than most. He had his own quarters, slept on an uncomfortably soft mattress, and ate more than his fair share. Hells, Soren thought, In many ways, it was harder on Terris… Yet, at least there he had his freedom, at least there he was subject to his own consequences and not on the whims of some god. The injustice was tantalizing, but he'd committed himself to this fate, if that's what you'd call dying and then being reborn with a debt branded to your soul.
Sighing out his frustration, Soren strapped his mail and armor back into place, sheathed his one-and-a-half-hand sword to his waist, and walked out of his quarters. Being the Queen's Personal Guard had other perks as well: Persephone, a recluse by nature, oft sent him away for reasons he'd just started to garner. She required secluded time, wherein he could only speculate at what she might do. He knew of her interests: gardening (the interior chambers of the Queen's temple were overgrown with vines and trees and flowers that he hadn't names for.), painting (the Queen loved to paint and her temple was simply a canvas. She painted what Noxis lacked: sunrises and sunsets, the blue skies and white fluffy clouds, the twinkling nighttime stars and the green, green grass.), and music (Hades, it seemed, gifted her with nightingale's every few months and with their melodious songs, the temple was never silent.).
In the next chamber was Persephone and under normal circumstances, he would not permit himself to knock upon her chamber doors and interrupt her musing. Yet, the Queen had specifically asked him to do just that. With a soft rapt against the gold and marble door, Soren waited for his Queen, mind on his task and nothing else. Persephone, goddess of rebirth, was one of the gentlest persons he'd ever met, despite the fact that she strayed both in mind and in the flesh and though easily defendable, demanded time strictly for herself and her thoughts. He loved serving under his queen, truly, but sometimes he couldn't help but feel cross his her lack of self preservation.
Ah, he thought to himself as he waited patiently. What's self preservation to a god?
PERSEPHONE
The past was, in fact, simply the past. Yet for a goddess, doomed to walk the three realms forevermore, the past, present, and future lived together, forevermore, in her psyche. She lived knowing she would live forever and among her yearning heart was only one favor: let her love be as depth as her lifetimes.
NOXIS TERRITORY, SECTOR 3, HADES SOLAR…
The Noxis lamp casted an oddly beautiful glow across her living quarters. It was a sight, that admittedly, gave her nightmares and bone deep chills when she'd first arrived in Noxis. Yet, now after a century and a half, Per had come to love the faint, viridescent glow. It bounced off the shiny marble of her temple walls and danced upon the golden inlay within the flooring. It played with the murals she'd painted long ago and migrated through the already green halls of her inner temple. She loved the false light, almost as much as she loved the real thing. It helped ease her transition into the darkness that was Noxis.
The darkness that she grew to love…
There was a knock upon her door, it's sound renting through the air like a nightingale taking flight. Though it didn't startle her, it broke Persephone out of her reverie and reminded her of the duties she was obligated to perform. As well as… personal duties she needed to prepare for. Willing the door open, Per took sight of her favorite guard; the last mortal to have been reborn after attempting to enter Noxis by the Underwater Gate in the Terris realm. He was to work in the lava mines before she plucked him from the new recruits, sensing something… otherworldly from the young, handsome man.
"Your Grace," Soren declared with a dip of his head. "Are you ready to depart the temple?"
"I think so, Soren. It's only-- well, I know there's much to be done, but I'm expecting a visitor… Perhaps I'll dismiss you later and have you return here to greet her on my behalf... "
"Your Grace," Soren repeated, this time with a shake of his head. "How good of a guard would I be if I am not by your side at all times?"
In reply, Persephone shook her head ruefully. "You are my guard, Soren, that is true, but under the terms of our agreement your duties also state that protecting the maidens within the temple are of utmost importance. You know better than I do, Soren, the state of Noxis and all that we gain to lose if something were to happen to them or this temple. Now please, enough bickering, I'm sure I'll have plenty of that with Hades. Let us go."
And that they did.
The trip to the palace wasn't a short one and with all the stops they had to make, it made it even longer. Their first stop was that of the lava mines nearest the temple. They weren't as large nor as bustling as some of the others, but it was the biggest producer of obsidian and fire agate. The men seemed happy to see her, and for that she was thankful. They worked long hours and suffered many attacks from the waste-demons. She held her hands out the officers, willing gold clips to flow forth from her hands. "Take these," Per had said, "And distribute them amongst your men. Let them know their Queen appreciates their hard work." On and on it went, mine after mine, factory after factory, until finally they reached the palace gates.
Persephone checked the throne room first, but it's viridescent glow danced upon an empty hall. She checked the kitchens then, wondering if his appetite had sent him there before realizing he'd have a servant fetch him his foods. She finally found him in his solar, hunched over some kind of ledger that from this angle, she couldn't read. Waiting patiently, for she didn't wish to interrupt him, Persephone hovered before the threshold, debating whether or not she should announce herself. As if the guard plucked the thought from her mind, she heard Soren clear his throat and speak in that foreboding tone of his.
"Persephone, Daughter of Luxia and Queen of Noxis, Goddess of Rebirth requests an audience with her King husband."
