Aaric formed a portal connecting directly to his house and stepped through in, the golden egg still grasped in his hands.
"Mum, I got a dragon for you."
Aaric found Edwina in the lounge and presented the beautiful, incandescent golden egg with both hands, a mischievous smile lighting up his face.
Edwina chuckled warmly, taking the egg from Aaric. She gazed at it for a moment as she instantly assimilated all the information about the creature within through her skill.
"Thank you, Dear. I love it." Edwina smiled, radiating maternal warmth as she patted the empty space beside her on the sofa, inviting Aaric to sit.
Aaric didn't just sit; he laid down beside her, placing his head on her lap. He closed his eyes contentedly as she began to absentmindedly play with his hair, her fingers weaving through the dark strands.
"Mum? How do you want the wizarding world to change?" Aaric asked her, his voice soft as he enjoyed the soothing sensation of her hands.
"There are a lot of changes needed, Darling. We need better care for magical creatures, and certainly, some... old, stagnant ideas must be removed from power. There are many more such changes needed. why do you ask?" Edwina answered thoughtfully before posing her own question.
"Well, to be honest with you... I am excited about the next world we will be going to, but I want to leave this world on the best possible path before we do," Aaric told her, keeping his eyes closed.
"You and your Dad have been doing that already. And remember, we can come back whenever we may wish," Edwina said with a proud smile, tilting her head as she looked down at him.
"You have done as much as Dad in your own way, Mum. And the second part is true... maybe I was just thinking too much," Aaric muttered the last part through a heavy yawn, feeling entirely too comfortable with Edwina.
"There is nothing wrong with thinking, Love. And the changes we want to implement will take time, regardless of our power," Edwina assured Aaric, adding the sentiment to confirm they were already walking the right path.
"Hm," Aaric hummed lazily, his breathing deepening as he seemed to drift toward sleep.
Edwina chuckled softly at the sight. She sat there for some time longer, simply caressing Aaric's head and enjoying the peace, before she manifested a portal beneath him.
It swallowed him slowly and deposited him with the utmost tenderness right onto his own bed in his room.
| In the Dreamlands |
Lolth's name rose first among the dark gods, for she insisted on nothing less. She shaped herself as the mother of a fierce and terrible people, a deity who cloaked raw ambition in spider silk and called cruelty the highest form of devotion.
In her obsidian courts, beauty served power, and power served her alone. She was the Spider Queen, the absolute tyrant of the Drow.
Her son followed closely in her poisonous shadow. He presided over control, thievery, and cunning, pleased only by those who learned to rise through guile and treachery rather than brute strength.
Around them clustered the others of their shadowed pantheon, the Dark Seldarine, each trapped like flies in the webs of the Spider Goddess.
One reveled in mindless slaughter and battle; another gathered secrets and shadows as if they were precious stones. A third ruled over the fractures of fate, while another goddess claimed the domain of death and vengeance.
Among all these gods of malice and darkness, a single figure stood impossibly apart.
She was born of the same divine blood yet refused the twisted shape that blood insisted upon. While the others circled power like vultures around a rotting carcass, she lifted her gaze toward gentler things.
Her voice carried warmth where theirs carried a warning. Her steps led not into labyrinthine schemes but into a promise.
A promise that even those raised in the suffocating darkness might find the strength to choose something brighter.
In a pantheon born from shadowed impulses and well-practiced cruelty, she became the single, glaring contradiction. She was the glimmer that refused to be smothered by the abyss.
She was the dancer in the quiet places, the singer whose notes softened the harsh air around her.
She was the goddess who believed with an unbreakable will that even the darkest legacy could be rewritten through beauty, choice, freedom, and redemption under the moon.
This lone light among the dark gods bore a name whispered with both yearning and disbelief, Eilistraee.
Eilistraee had followed her dark pantheon into exile, serving as the single source of silver light amidst the overwhelming darkness and cruelty. She danced and sang songs under the moon, clad in her robes woven from pure moonlight.
It was on one of those serene moonlit nights that her entire pantheon was abruptly torn from their domains and cast into the Void by a Goddess far above their station.
That time, she saw a sea of gods and goddesses, entities of immense power, all present in front of Azathoth's court.
In front of the Blind Idiot God laid his messenger, the Crawling Chaos, usually terrifying, now lying in a bloody and mangled state at the feet of another power.
Beside him stood the Goddess who had summoned all of them there. Her name was Vasuki.
Vasuki had for them only one edict. One absolute law that must not be broken by any god, from the lowest spirit to the highest power, if they wished to continue existing.
And that law was simple. None of them may harm a boy named Aaric. The one Vasuki loved as a if a Son.
The result of doing otherwise lay broken at Azathoth's feet, bloody and whimpering. An Outer God, someone who could unmake any of their pantheons with a glance, lay there in that ruinous state simply for having crossed the one Vasuki loved.
Eilistraee found Vasuki's words to be entirely reasonable and had absolutely no intention of doing otherwise.
However, some gods did. Arrogant, complacent, and blinded by their own localized supremacy.
The rest of her dark pantheon was among them. Her mother, the Spider Queen; her brother, the Prince of Lies; and every other dark god of the Drow except her died in that singular moment.
Even gods of the Hells and Heavens perished that day for the mere thought of harming the boy. The intent alone was their death sentence.
Even with all their cruelty, Eilistraee had wished for their redemption. However, she was powerless to stop their erasure.
In the aftermath, Eilistraee was gifted all their powers, their divinity, and the realms and universes they had created.
In mere moments, the exile became one of the most powerful gods of the Dreamlands. She immediately set to work, guiding her people and the universes they had created toward a better, brighter path.
Some time after that cataclysmic incident, as she stood dancing under the moonlight of her expanded realm, she sensed someone entering her domain.
It was a girl, riding atop a magnificent white phoenix.
Eilistraee felt a profound connection between herself and the mortal girl, a resonance of soul that must have guided the girl through the Dreamlands to her specific realm.
She watched as the girl gazed at the moon with her phoenix beside her, a look of wonder on her face. Eilistraee chose only to observe that day, sensing the purity in the visitor.
To her shock, the next to enter was Aaric, stepping through a portal he had created himself, piercing the veil of her divine realm.
It seemed Aaric was familiar with the girl. He gently created a portal for her, guiding her to exit the divine realm and return to the safety of her own dreams.
After the girl left, Aaric paused. He did not look at Eilistraee directly, but he spoke to the night air where she was watching.
"I hope you do not wish her harm."
"I do not," she had whispered back into the night, her voice carrying over the wind to the boy.
The boy nodded once, satisfied, and stepped through his portal, leaving the Goddess in peace.
What she had said was the absolute truth; she did not wish to harm the girl.
On the contrary, the girl was compatible to be her Chosen. Eilistraee only wished to observe the girl a little longer before their inevitable interaction.
A/n: I tried giving Eilistraee a little introduction here so any readers who do not know her from dnd would not be confused.
And encourage you all to look her us as well. She is a great goddess with rich lore and a great personality.
I have added her image in the character auxiliary.
Give me your thought on the chapter and reviews on the fic.
And.. you got any power stones? Well, hand em over then.