Quote Originally Posted by TheDarkDM View Post
The Center of Creation

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The Herald of Day smiled slightly at Fayruz's affirmation of her courage, its eyes brightening at the sight of her determination. At her questions, it turned its gaze to the east, far beyond the lip of its secluded valley.

"Ever can I feel my cousins, Fayruz, and I believe the Herald of Twilight to be among your kin even now. Be warned, though, that I do not know how much help he will be. Baz'Auran's rejection drove him mad aeons ago, and he serves his own warped sense of the Balance. As to a way back to the White City...there are roads, certainly, to bypass the bloody sanction upon Baz'Auran's domain, but none that I would set you on willingly. There is another way, though, a key that fits to every lock, even those of the First Ones. I fear it lies in the hands of the servants of the First Dark, but if it could be recovered it would surely open your way."

The Herald reached out to touch Fayruz's shoulder, turning towards its shining eyes.

"But carry one more warning before you go. The attack upon Baz'Auran came before the appointed hour, before he could secure his defenses upon the hidden places of the Disk. Many things were locked away here, among them those servants of the the First Dark powerful or cunning enough to avoid the purge in the last battle of the Diamond Plain. You have encountered one already, the laughing pestilence that haunts your people, and I fear there are more, moving in the shadows to pave the way for their master's arrival."
"The key will open the way," Fayruz repeated to herself. "It seems to be appropriate to me, as that is the purpose of a key, is it not?"

The warning was given, the warning was heeded. Fayruz nodded, almost bowing to the Herald of Day. The hollow was so peaceful that she could hardly imagine the darkness hidden on the disk, she who had swallowed a dragon. "We shall have to be strong, then. And united against those things that would consume us. We'll carry the light of Dawn with us."

She cupped her hands, and she caught the light, the glimmering impossible light of the hollow, drawing it into her fingers and her palms, and the more that it gave the greater that it became, until the air was light and the taste was light and the dawn was here-

And she held a crystal vial in her hand, shimmering dawnlight caught inside it, water that was light that was water. "And when the Dawn comes, the shadows of night melt away."

And then there was only farewell.

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1 MA - Create Artifact, the Light of Dawn.

The light that still remains in the fallen Disk from the Dawn, the reflection of the Herald who still remains, the light that still drives back the darkness, in crystal and glass caught. To illuminate, to protect, to be hope in hopelessness and anathema to the dark.