[Thread;Open]

[epopt-trainee.livejournal.com]

Characters:  Leonora, Porom, Ursula, Palom, Ceodore, Dancing Girls, OPEN
Progress:  Incomplete.
Summary:  Preparations for trips to the shrines is underway. The girls are determined to get Leonora into something she can't trip over.
Location:  Troia
Date: May 24th.
Warnings: dancers, peeping, hormones... really nothing much to warn about
Other: Feel free to use the rest of the log for any open tagging, party-style fun you want while in Troia. There's a pretty big crowd in the area. Just make a note somewhere in the subject or tag whereabouts in town you are. :D

Returning from that meeting left Leonora feeling anything but revitalized. There was simply far too much at stake, too many risks, too many questions. Yet something had to be done or this world was just as doomed as their own. She felt more confused and lost than she had when she'd arrived and out of habit, she went to the one place she hoped she could depend upon to still her thoughts enough to see what she should do: the Earth Crystal's chamber.

The darkened room just was not the same. Without the light to illuminate it, it was gloomy and nearly impossible to see in. She stared glumly at the empty pedestal, knowing that the crystal she was supposed to protect was halfway around the world from here. Soon it would travel even further for a plan she wasn't sure she had faith in at all. It wasn't only the chamber that felt the absence of the resident crystal. Leonora could see the differences in Troia itself. Even displaced from home, there were things that had changed that should not have been. The waters were not as clear, the forests not as lush. Troia flourished under the blessing of the crystal and with it gone, much of that abundance was gone.

Leonora clasped her hands in prayer, reciting them all from memory, although her heart and mind was not in it. She knew such shallow devotion was wrong but she simply could not stop her thoughts from straying away from the task at hand. Could the crystal even hear her from such a great distance? Was it angry with her, for leaving Troia or for going to the moon or... seeking Palom's guidance just as much as she did from it. No! No thinking about her teacher. Not here. Only she couldn't seem to stop herself from wondering if he'd laugh at her for taking this so seriously. But it was serious, wasn't it?

Comments

[dualcast]

Since learning of their inability to return home, Porom had been - unhappy. The crying was over and done with - for the most part anyway, the quick bursts of sobs when she was alone or with Ursula or her brother didn't count - and what was left was just an unpleasant numbness and uncharacteristic lethargy. She'd spent the last few days doing various amounts of nothing at all.

She'd travelled to Troia for Ursula's sake, to be there when she returned from the meeting, Ursula was losing far more than her, after all, it was the least she could do. And after learning of the shrines and Leonora's determination to accompany the Earth crystal, she finally found a distraction - making sure that Leonora came back in one epopt-shaped piece.

It wasn't difficult to find her. She entered the chamber in silence, echoing Leonora's prayer almost perfectly. She was less familiar with Troian prayers, thanks for and celebration of the bounty of the earth and the beauty of life, than she was with Mysidia's own repetitions of oaths and prophecies in old languages but she had been sent to train epopts before and this one was one she knew well.

When the prayer was finished, before Leonora could continue, she spoke.

"Leonora."

[epopt-trainee.livejournal.com]

At the sound of her name, Leonora turned, looking both guilty and startled. Porom's arrival took her by surprise, but only because she was more lost in her own thoughts than focused on her devotions. Maybe Palom was right and she should give up the idea of being an Epopt. More and more she began to wonder if she really had what it took to cut it.

She managed a small smile and bobbed her head. "Lady Porom! I didn't expect you."

A creeping blush spread on her cheeks, mercifully masked by the depth of darkness in the enclosed chamber. It wouldn't do at all to let the great white mage of Mysidia know she'd been thinking about Porom's brother rather than her prayers.

[dualcast]

"I needed to prepare for the journey to the shrine. Mysidia is- still no place to prepare for anything."

Much as she loved her homeland, it was empty. Aside from her students, there was nobody there. Even the moogles still didn't dare stray too near. If she needed to buy medicine, she had to go to one of the cities.

"Are you done with your prayer? I don't mean to drag you away from it."

[epopt-trainee.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Oh yes, I'm finished." Leonora stole a glance at the pedestal before turning away from it. She couldn't help but feel guilty for daring to think about any man when in this place and yet she did it more often than she cared to confess. "Do you suppose our prayers can reach the Crystal from here?" She'd believed that they could, but after being received with silence for such a long time when speaking with it...

[dualcast]

She nodded, closing her eyes.

"Our prayers reached the moon seventeen years ago. You were praying along with the rest of Mysidia, weren't you? The crystals aren't going further than that, I'm sure they'll hear them."

[epopt-trainee.livejournal.com]

A tiny smile settled on Leonora's face and she nodded. "Yes, I was. That seems so very long ago now..." For a moment she hesitated, glancing to the pedestal again, then to Porom. "I should go back to Lindblum soon. Would you like me to check on the Water Crystal too?"