Interlude: Sky Mother

A/N: A bit of a short one, but I was struggling with who else to add to the interlude. Any character POVs you guys want to see?

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The ocean parted for her as she walked through the depths. Sarah didn’t like getting her wings wet, and if she let the water touch her, the sensation would never go away, no matter if this wasn’t the real world.

Something moved in the darkness, its many limbs shifting as it turned to face the Angel who had chosen to visit the Ocean Mother in her home.

“Hwahwei,” Grand Mother Sarah greeted.

A single eye, ten times the size of Sarah, opened, its pupil focusing on the Angel who’d chosen to visit. “Sarah, back so soon?”

Sarah ruffled her feathers, but didn’t move away from the large eye. “The darkness takes your sense of time, I came to you months ago.”

“Ah for that, yes. Your request requires some thought.”

“My request requires thought?” Sarah raised an eyebrow, “Hwahwei, you fight the monsters of the deep every day. You know the danger they bring.” 

Hwahwei moved, and the ocean moved with her, “You have lost yourself to your fear, Sar-”

“DON’T YOU DARE.” The words echoed through the water, bouncing off the caverns of the deep until eventually the world returned to silence. Sarah lowered her eyes, her hands balling into fists. “You weren’t there, Hwahwei. You did not see them shooting your children from the sky. You did not see their blade in the heart of your lover. Do not treat my fears lightly.”

Hwahwei watched the Angel, unspeaking. Finally, she let out a tenseness, her limbs lowering to the ground. “You see Risha through the lens of events eight hundred years past.”

“History repeats itself.”

“Only if the same mistakes are made.”

“So, you will refuse me then? You too, will stand against me in this pivotal moment?” Sarah let out a sigh, “For your greatest enemy, no less.”

“She is a Grand Mother, Sarah. There is power in that title, power that you underestimate. I would have stopped you with the last one, had I the power.” 

“I don’t want to hear it, Hwahwei.” Sarah closed her eyes, then reopened them, “Your task is too important for us to become enemies, but know this, we are no longer friends or allies.” 

Hwahwei stilled, not a single movement escaping her as she looked at the angel, “I am sad to hear that. I see that you have chosen a path, I can only hope it does not lead your people to ruin.”

“I can say the same to you, Hwahwei.”

Sarah stepped away from the Ocean Mother, warping the spirit world to reappear next to the large tree which was her home. 

She touched the tree, the moss glowing with her touch. 

A shaky breath escaped her, then a sob. She fell to her knees and rested her head against the tree. She tried to stop the tears, but they still came, overwhelming her. 

A loneliness filled her, so vast and empty. 

She did not hunt this goblin out of personal vengeance, no, she only sought to prevent the tragedies that had befallen her far too many times. 

She was only a child when the Sparks fell, but she remembered that time too. She remembered the terror, the death, the bloody maws of the monsters who brought the ruin of civilizations. 

The fear clutched her heart, and faces filled her vision.

Her parents, heads low as a bloodied orc stood over them. Their heads as they rolled.

Her lover, the man who’d brought peace to her heart and her people. His face was bloodied and pale, twisted with the pain of the poisoned blade in his heart. 

Her child, the twisted power of a Spark pulling him from the sky.

All gone. All because she didn’t act, because she failed. 

She wouldn’t, couldn’t, make the same mistake again. 

Sarah raised a hand and pulled herself up, leaning against the tree. 

“Do you need me, Sarah?” The voice of the tree spoke to her.

“Not yet.” She answered, “I would not have you risk yourself and your people.”

Sarah stood up fully, and spread her wings wide. “The humans, their land guards another pass, long forgotten. I’ll just have to make Shyanne move.”