Emergence of Enlightenment [Morpheus, Sutekh]

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

The temple was a beautiful place, and few people could ignore its influence. A pale figure sat carefully nestled in the boughs of a tree, unseen yet watching. He was always, always watching, he realized, and now finally all that diligence should pay off so very soon. They were at a cusp between that life that was nothing, and the one that would soon mean everything.

It was supposed to, it really was.

"Heaven," the caped figure murmured as if to himself, glancing up at the sky. His knees were pulled up to his chest, his pose rather sulky overall. There seemed to be a ripple that pulled through the air, the wind shivering under an impossible to ignore influence that set the leaves of the trees dancing on their delicate branches.

His gestures were almost bored, long fingers twisting in the air as he swung his hand up and to the side. It soothed him, the way that the heavens bent to his casual whims. Around and around, coaxing so carefully, a gentle spring rain was brewing.

A slight smile tugged at Sutekh's lips, and he gestured higher, whispering to the sky as a few droplets began to patter on the ground, "Sunder."

[Morpheus]

He was always praying, always caught somewhere between thoughts of grace, heaven, and eternity and his earthly duties as King and father to all. For a moment it disgusted her. It made her stomach clench and her fist tighten. It was inappropriate such anger towards her King. It was not his fault she had been on edge as of recent. There was a man to blame for that, and—she did not want to think about him. What a waste of mental resources that would be.

No, Morpheus had not the time in the world to think of that groundskeeper, nor to dream of him. She had not woken that more flushed, covered in sweat, her body aching, and her mind racing. There had been no images of his hands covering her bird-bony wrists above her head, his mouth against her ear, speaking, touching her, telling her all the things she wished to hear—and no, there had been no fantasies of the night. Just sleep, as usual. He did not haunt her mind. His words meant nothing to her.

She didn’t think on who she was, because she was Morpheus. But that was something to think on later. The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly felt electrified, standing up with something that she could not name or place. So often recently she had been at a loss for the name, the placement of things, of herself. Cold—not cold entirely like snow, but not warm, and wet, Morpheus swiped at her face, smearing the droplet of rain over her cheek.

Rain had not been in the forecast that she had known of. However, the King seemed too busy in prayer to mind the rain that was beginning to just fall down to the ground. On the other hand, Morpheus felt something in her bones. Stepping forward, each step precise as if the ground might swallow her whole if she walked too hard or fast, the woman craned her head, searching for what had caused this strange feeling under her skin.

The Queen help her if that strange groundskeeper was there. She would wring his neck, or simply snap it. However, this did not feel like his energy (she hated to feel like she had any knowledge of the emotions he rose that she repressed). This felt different. Lifting her gaze up, she wondered upon what she saw between the branches and leaves of a tree. Was that cloth?

She wished for a gun, some weapon to shoot down whomever (whatever) it was in that tree, to calm her nerves that were frayed simply by being. She stopped, teal eyes narrowing, before she spoke low, not wanting the King to hear. “Who are you?”

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

Sutekh cocked his head slightly as he realized someone had approached, and he stretched, catlike, on the branch he sat upon. He brushed back his bangs in a delicate gesture, leaning forward slightly as he crossed his legs before him and let them dangle over the empty air. The pitter patter of rain drops was still so slight, but he really hadn't put all that much energy in something such as that simple catharsis.

"Ah, who am I?" he repeated, and his sudden grin was akin to that of a certain fairytale feline. There was a careful rhythm to his speech, however impromptu it might have been, that seemed rather theatrical as he supposed aloud, "The heavenly incarnation of our current circumstances, I might think to say... but then again, perhaps not."

He laughed softly, careful to keep his balance as he swung his hand towards the sky again. The wind picked up, only briefly, swirling upwards as he carefully exercised his control. To do this was like stretching his legs after a particularly long time in which he had been kept still. It made the world around him seem more alive, and brushed aside all of his maudlin thoughts of his situation.

"Who are you, oh Starry Knight?" he asked instead, eyes narrowing slightly. The Royal Family was afoot, and he was debating whether it was worth it to stay now. Now was not the time to so completely reveal himself even if it was so interesting to finally hold a conversation as his true self.

[Morpheus]

Why was it these days that everyone seemed to know who she was? Morpheus’ lips felt stiff across her teeth, a frown permanently formed from too many questions of who she was, who the other person was, this, that and the other thing. “A heavenly incarnation?” The words felt so strange on her lips, a laugh completely empty followed, as she tried to stand her ground. Was there any ground for her to stand beneath anymore?

Sometimes she doubted as such, but she had a duty, and as long as that honor gave her just a grain of sand to stand upon, she would hold her position, and play her role to the best of her ability. “Why is it that so many people seem to know who I am these days, and elude my question of their identity?” A single brow raised, and Morpheus forced her stiff lips into a smile, the skin cracking, revealing the bright red of the parts of herself underneath, still raw and fresh not ready for reality.

“I will ask again, who are you?” A single hand raised from behind her back, slid across her stomach, creeping up to the chocker around her neck. How she wished he slept, so she could crawl into his body, decipher his subconscious mind. However, she had not forgotten of her King, eyes straying from the “heavenly incarnation” backwards, over her shoulder to peer back where she imagined her sovereign still prayed to the Gods or perhaps the former Senshi who fought and saved this land time and again.

Eyes roamed back, and Morpheus cocked her head, hand still pressed at her throat. “What do you want?”

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

"You really must forgive me, my manners are slipping," Sutekh replied a little too happily, and his smile was suddenly as sharp as a dagger's edge. There was a strange feel to the air, as if the air pressure around them was plummeting. His magic worked its course, and now the spring was feeding into itself independent of his will. He observed her, considering the strength of her conviction.

There was no reason to not be honest with her, he supposed. The Shitennou were about to become very busy in this world, he knew, and it was only strategic to not develop poor ties with those that might yet become troublesome. The time was coming, that far off perfect storm was going to come one day, and his brothers in arms and himself were ready for it.

This woman would not be useful, but neither should she become a hindrance because of his mischievous little games.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he finally said, an odd lilt to his speech as if he had rehearsed to himself many times this first contact. He offered her what could only be an abbreviated bow from where he sat, watching her with piercing blue eyes through the fall of his hair as he kept his head ever so slightly inclined. "I am the Shitennou Sutekh, a faithful servant of our fallen King Endymion. Does this satisfy you, oh Lady Knight?"

[Morpheus]

Her first thought was not King Helios must meet this man, this servant of Endymion, former King, God of Earth—no, she wished it had been. The pressure seemed to change around her, and she suddenly felt very cold. Not the sort of cold that effected the flesh, but something deeper, as if this all was something that had happened before. Or rather, no it hadn’t happened before, but he knew something—he knew something she didn’t and it froze her bones, the marrow, her life.

It was a threat, his knowledge, she realized. It froze something deep within her. An old knowledge of her own perhaps? No, she shook her head, tightened her fingers pressure against her throat. She had no knowledge. He could have no knowledge, but he did her mind sang. He knew something she did not know. How much easier this could be if he slept and she just could slip in, but that was not right, not just. The King prevailed for justice. She was his scepter, his sword, his shield and guard, and she was what he was.

It would be unjust to simply slide into his mind, root around as he slept and she wandered his dreams memorizing all they told her. She had to put that idea out of her mind. She had to get him to share what he had with her without such tactics, her only true tactic (her only true power). “If you serve the former King, why do I not know you?” She closed her eyes.

“Why is it these days everyone seems to be popping up with all sorts of special histories and knowledge that is beyond me. You say you served Endymion, yet you do not raise your sword for the now and future King, Helios. So, prove to me heavenly incarnation the selfhood you so claim.” Morpheus moved the hand from her neck to wave it vaguely in the air. “Or do you lie? Why should I trust you?”

The question rang in the back of her head sounded so similar and yet so different: why should anyone trust you, Morpheus?.

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

"Just how many guardians do you think the Priest King needs?" the blond general asked dismissively, and it was a brief slip in his perfect façade that actually let some genuine surprise show through. The priest was not who he followed, he'd just told her as much. It should have been self evident that he followed some higher purpose, but he tried not to have too high of expectations of those around him. He wouldn't tell her that he waited for the awakening of his true lord, he who should lead them to a new future, but that wasn't something he thought anyone outside of the Shitennou deserved to know.

However, though it really wasn't in his nature to be accommodating, she'd said something terribly interesting. There were many people making themselves known to the Royal Family's guardians, and he knew well that it wasn't any of the Shitennou. They wouldn't be so rash to do so and say nothing afterwards. He had made the right decision to let this conversation continue.

"Oh, you will see soon enough," Sutekh added, one of his shoulders coming up slightly in a half-hearted shrug. The first seeds were planted, and that would be plenty. "But mind this, when that time comes, you'll want to guard yourself closely."

[Morpheus]

“Is that a threat?” she was vaguely and awfully interested all at once. A half-crescent of a smile cracked on her lips, peeling away more dried skin, revealing too her teeth against the bright redness. “And should I say the same for you? Perhaps I am the one to be threatened by.”

It was in jest, nothing more, and she remembered herself in that moment. There was not time for jest, for nothing more—her duty was to the King. How was it these men were so good at making her slip up? It wasn’t lust (at least not this time, she still cursed the groundskeeper when she woke drenched in sweat, her sleep broken with some half-born dream that ran her blood too hot). He represented something, she considered the possibility. He was something that she couldn’t understand, like herself, but there was the potential there to break him, to crack him open and devour each secret. When had she become so blood-thirsty? When had her lack of self morphed into the perverse deciphering of others?

She was not a woman ruled by emotion or her own bloody needs, desires. She was Morpheus, serene knight to the King. She could not forget herself.

The King.

“In threatening me, do you threaten the King? If so sir, I challenge you here and now. I do not make a habit of letting threats against my master go so unheeded.” Why else would he threaten her, if not to get to Helios. She was worthless in the great scheme of things. “There is nothing for me to guard in myself, I am a shield, a sword for the King’s will and protection.” Her hands had once more returned behind her back, fingernails clawing at flesh. She would fight, if she had to. How she preferred not to though… She was not inept—not completely, yet she was not built for fighting. She tired so fast, bruised too easily, and she worried that her King might step in to protect her, when she was supposed to guard him. He was far too chivalrous. If it came to a physical blow to blow, she prayed to the former Senshi she would keep her own against this strange, frustrating man.

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

Dear, she was something of a easily startled thing, wasn't she?

Sutekh sighed but never dropped his ever present smile, the gesture seemingly one that took his entire form to accomplish. The young general was nothing if not an expressive individual, and what he showed this time was a decided lack of being even remotely impressed by all her huffing. He could understand the desire to protect something important to oneself, but she was just going off half-cocked.

"Instead of blustering, consider it a bit of professional advice, not a threat. I have no intention to see any child of Earth come to harm," he finally told her with a studied nonchalance to his tone that contrasted expression, holding one hand outwards as if to inspect his nails. Of course, the gloves he wore really took away from the effect. He pretended not to notice as it did have a two-fold purpose, and his little spring shower was changing again. He wondered if she'd take note of the fact that she'd breached a few rules of manners--he'd tried to give her an opportunity to properly introduce herself before-- when he decided to call her by name, "Now withdraw your challenge, Lady Morpheus."

His little game with the weather had dropped the ambient temperature, and with that came another common bit of weather in March, even if it was clearly centered very closely around himself and his perch.

Fog.

[Morpheus]

What the—how was it that she was at the beginning again, at the point where she felt so entirely lost because someone else knew who she was? Was this some cosmic joke? Lady Morpheus, he had called her. A name was not wholly who the individual was, but in a world where one was recognized by face and name, the fact he knew that, those things meant he had power over her. Knowing she was a knight was one thing, a “Starry Knight” another, but knowing her name, it made her skin crawl.

That and the fact the temperature seemed to drop even further; though, Morpheus was certain she was sweating from her worry and anxiety combining. She wanted to run, to turn away and just—She had to be sensible about things. Honestly, where was her head? Dedication, duty, he understood those things as well as she did—if he were truly a knight to the dead king, then he would not harm her King. Endymion and Helios had been close; the latter after all was the former’s son in law.

“I apologize for my hasty challenge, and I wish to withdraw it. I am, if nothing else, a bit hotheaded.” That last part was wholly untrue, Morpheus thought, but it came out so nicely with the rest of her words, she spoke it. She was not hotheaded; she was serene and together, like her King. She was a reflection of him, a poor reflection, but one none the less.

“How do you know my name?” She had not meant to ask it, but the question slide out while she was thinking over her nature and relationship to her sovereign ruler.

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

"It is quite alright," the blond replied with an incredible amount of magnanimity. He was good at that sort of thing, and it seemed like the young man never quite stuck with any one specific mood. She acted, he reacted, it was an ever-shifting game, and one that seemed to have her slightly off of her balance. Good, that was most certainly for the best in their particular circumstance. His eyes were sharp as he considered the best way to continue this, to answer her question and still remain in some position of superiority. "I know many things. I am, after all, what I am and you are not exactly the lowest profile of people, Star-lit Knight."

The huge fanbase of the Royal Family helped, not to mention the fact that his little sister was a good friend of the Princess. This knight was so truly sheltered, but such was the way of those who kept isolated to their beautiful crystal palace. It told him a lot about her, however, that she didn't take the rebuke for what it was. She was a simple woman, and thought in a simple way. It was useful to know, certainly.

She was going to be useful to know, as well.

[Morpheus]

She was known? She always forgot that little fact about herself. Sometimes she felt like Helios’ shadow, always there, but never the focus of anything really; however, it seemed like she wasn’t wholly a non-entity, which she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about. While it was frustrating to not know thy self, it was more frustrating for there to be people in the world who thought they knew who you were. Even if it was only a title.

Morpheus liked to think she was more than a title, but then sometimes she wished that was all she was. It was hard living in her mind at points, she conceded with a sigh, before realizing where she was, and who she was with. “Sometimes I forget myself.” She flicked her eyes over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of her still praying King, wishing for him to finish so she might run away.

“What about you ward of Endymion, why are you so low a profile I have never heard or seen you in my life?”

[/color]

[Zelus]

Zelus watched silently as King Helios prayed. The temple was a serene place, and a person could easily get lost in thought. Not wanting to disturb his prayer, Zelus was sure to remain a respectable distance, and busied herself by watching the surroundings.

The temple was a beautiful place, and she never had minded coming here with the King. In the spring, the cherry blossoms bloomed varying shades of pink, and Zelus enjoyed the scent they produced.

Seemingly out of no where, Zelus felt a few droplets of rain. She glanced up at the sky, wondering how a day like today could produce the drops. She glanced over to where Morpheus was standing, and could see that she was seeming just as puzzled. After a moment she walked away, seemingly with a purpose, and Zelus decided it would be best for her to stand and keep an eye on the King.

A bit of rain was nothing to worry about, and it seemed that King Helios shared her sentiments, as he continued his prayer. She watched closely as two girls came up the steps of the temple. They were young, and moved quickly past without even a second glance. A smile played on Zelus's lips, knowing full well from her interactions with the locals, that most of the younger generations tended to dwell in their own worlds.

Zelus turned her attention back to the King. Moments passed, and he remained where he was, silent and in prayer. It took only a few more moments for her to realize that the temperature seemed to be lowering around them. A frown came to her face. One random bit of weather would be no cause for concern, but two seemingly random bits of weather was something to take notice of.

Not wanting to interrupt King Helios himself, Zelus turned and proceeded to follow the path she had seen Morpheus take earlier. She could not have gotten far, and Zelus felt that this was something that they should start to investigate. As she moved further from where she had original stood, she started to realize that the drop in temperature had also brought a light fog.

She could see Morpheus ahead of her, and she seemed to be looking upward? Following her comrad's gaze, she could see that there was a figure within the tree where Morpheus had stopped. Was it her imagination or did the fog seem thicker around this person?

Red flags went up in Zelus's mind. Why would someone be in a tree at the temple? Why is Morpheus only standing there? What is causing all this fog? Not waiting for the answer to come to her, she walked purposefully to the duo.

She stopped just behind Morpheus, obviously ready to stand and back up her fellow Knight. Placing a hand of support on Morpheus's shoulder she asked,"Is everything alright here?" Zelus made a point of looking at the person sitting in the tree above them. She immediately started memorizing his features, his mannerisms, and his expression. No detail was going to slip past her, although the fog that seemed to be centered around this figure, may or may not conceal important information of this person's outward appearance.

[Arashiyama Kiyoshi]

"Oh my, my goodness," the young gentleman
practically purred as the second of the King's knights, and he tapped his lips with one white-gloved finger as he looked the newcomer over. Lady Zelus of the Star Sworn Knights was actually a rather pretty thing in contrast to her companion. A little more classic a look, and a great deal less strikingly foreign.

She was, however, clearly as serious about interlopers as her comrade. Pity, really.

"To answer your question, Lady Morpheus," he'd continued as if they'd never been interrupted, and there might have been a mischevous cast to his expression that was made more difficult to discern by the current weather. Unfortunately for him, the fog had gone a little further than just obfuscating his appearance as it grew in response to his will, but he was too caught up in his little game to worry about how his immaculately styled hair was surrendering to the abundance of moisture. Soft curls suited him almost as much as his preferred look, he was sure.

That all aside, he supposed he owed them some sort of answer rather than focusing his efforts to pretending he didn't want to fuss over his appearance.

He laughed, as well, and it was just a little effeminate. "Apparently, it was to deny myself the company of such lovely ladies of the court. Shameful, I know."

[Midori Sakura]

Sakura swirved around people headed down the street like a fish in water. Of course, the people she missed by scant inches didn't appreciate the skill displayed, but that wasn't a concern of hers.

'Should be plenty of time to stop by the shrine before the book store.' Sakura mused as she spotted the long set of stairs leading up to the shrine. Once she reached the base, she kicked off the board and caught it before taking a moment to compose herself in a rare show of respect for a place. After a brief moment, she started up the stairs.

'This place is nice, but I really hate stairs.' She though as she reached the top and headed towards the shrine for prayers. Once a week she always came to pray for her family and to pay her respects. She noticed the shrine seemed pretty popular today as no one was usually here when she stopped by. Taking a moment to scan the crowd for anyone who might be a threat (something that had become second nature to her at this point, and it showed), she noted a few people in particular that stood out, catching her eye for a bit, before walking just past them to the shrine.