Last Starborn

Disoriented, Ash tried to push herself away from him, her voice quivering with fear as she spoke, "I'm so tired all the time and I hate it. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I want Luri, I want to be able to lay safely against him again and talk about nothing."

Despite her quivering exhaustion compounded by dizziness that could only be getting worse, she slipped from his grip. He'd jumped to his feet to go after her, to call for a healer once more, when someone materialized in front of Ash.

There was no mistaking Sidus for an intruder. Ro stared at him as the massive man swept her up as if she was a child, his expression gentle as he spoke, "No healers will be needed, Yarrow. This is a poison I can soothe easily enough. Guard the door while I settle this child somewhat so she'll act like her usual sensible self."

She heard Sidus fussing slightly, grumbling his displeasure at all of the status effects she was suddenly under. Her psychological state was worse than he'd thought, considering just summoning her horns was enough for the game to decide to throw the exhaustion debuff onto her. She was also suffering a fear debuff, she'd not been ready to be around so many people and no matter how many times she told herself she was in no danger, her mind wasn't quite listening yet.

He accessed her status screens to find Lunarilia in her friends screen and send a message requesting her presence when she was able, giving the Redwood Stars temple of Sidus as the location. He didn't bother to state it wasn't a message written by Ash as he didn't want to fully interrupt Luna's life. Ash was safe with him, Luna's help would be needed to settle her fears but he could easily watch over her for a while and had truly missed being able to do so.

Once the poison was cleansed, Ash remained silent. Part of her was enjoying his presence. Part of her was ashamed for acting like a spoiled foal.

Reading the complex emotions that crackled through her magic with ease, Sidus ran a soothing hand along her newly grown horns. The false world was interacting with her magic strangely. The new horns should not have been so long yet as to be visible.

"You are not behaving as a spoiled child," he said quietly, "I was a fool to think you'd recovered without incident from the great hunt. It was my lack of warning that left you unprepared for this world."

A tremble ran through her at the mention of the hunt. She'd embarked upon the journey to cleanse the nexus sites on the day the gods were sealed from the world, feeling strange and disconnected with no idea why. Upon getting to the first location, she'd reached for Sidus and found nothing. The new laws of the world had been written and oracles could only contact their gods from temples. For the first few weeks, the gods had been left blind to what happened in the world as they tried to figure out the new rules imposed upon them.

Those weeks had been a nightmare for Ash that she'd never mentioned to the god she followed. Without his protection, she cleansed the magic alone and her own began to break under the strain. Once she finished she turned and used a spell that should have taken her straight home. Luna would stop by to check on her later, when she'd had a few hours to rest as even with Sidus assisting the cleansing left Ash tired.

Ash hadn't made it home.

She knew where she was and she'd fallen short by quite a long ways. She was also exhausted, her whole body shaking with it as her legs tried to collapse under her. After finding a suitably sheltered location, she spent an hour resting then tried again to get home.

The second jump was worst than the first.

She found a group of human magic users, hunters out for magical prey, and she was a valuable target. They called her a calamity unicorn for the black horns that grew upon her brow. One of them shot at her, an arrow that would have been lethal if she hadn't defended with magic before turning to dart into the woods as adrenaline overrode exhaustion. She heard them close behind, heard plans laid to capture her alive.

She didn't know how long she ran, how many times she used magic to try to get to her well-guarded glade only to fall woefully short each time. They were tracking her through the jumps, following with ease. It was pure luck that she landed at a temple of Sidus after nearly half a day spent running for her life. She'd charged into the temple, hooves pounding on hard stone they weren't made to run on, and found herself quickly surrounded by guardians that forced her chasers away.

She was too scared, too tired, she shied from them too and rushed for the pond. Sidus would be there, she'd been sure of it at the time. Instead she'd collapsed, entirely spent, upon the little island in the sea of stars and slept until Luna received a message that she was there rather than home.

Since then she'd always had a group of guardians with her for the journey home. Luna often had a lot of work to do right after the cleansing and couldn't join. It also broke Luna's heart to see Ash so very tired so she tended to avoid visiting until her friend had the chance to rest some. With her breaking magic, the visits became less and less frequent as Luna tried to give her enough time to recover somewhat.

She was fast asleep by the time Luna rushed across the stones to the pond, not even pausing to offer Sidus the proper greeting before checking on Ash. Once she found her friend, the younger sister she'd all but grown up beside, was alright she greeted him.

Sidus once more expressed his sorrow at not knowing how the great hunt had affected Ash and Luna realized that, despite her urging, Ash had never confided that terrifying event to him. She settled beside the god and told the story as Ash had told it to her, watching the god's sorrow and rage at what had happened in his absence.

Sidus looked down at the young unicorn in elven guise that slept peacefully in his lap as a child would. She'd been born with magic far closer to his own than most of her kind ever usually was. He'd never been able to figure out the cause, but she was the closest thing he had to a child and he'd guarded her zealously because of it. Countless charms had been woven around her, things meant to keep her safe.

Knowing what had happened in the time he couldn't see, he wondered if the charms had managed to redirect her to the temple. Her glade would not have been safe enough with intruders so close. She never had enough guardians at hand within it because it was supposed to be impossible to enter without permission. She would have died or been captured if she'd gone home and he was very grateful she'd landed at the temple instead.