#de gabriel

[divine-enantiodromia]

Im curious, what the worst assholes you've had to deal with in the inn?

“Not much.” Gabriel paused, and then suddenly her eyes lit up. “Oh! Once there was someone that tried to rob us at knife point, but Vivi was in the bar counter that day and was doing a very good job of making them contemplate their life choices by saying the most unhinged things. And then I came back with mom and the burglar immediately ran away at the sight of her brandishing her teeth.”

“So yeah, fortunately not much.”

[divine-enantiodromia]

If you could kill a god which one

"Okay hold on, kill??" Gabriel frowned, bringing her morning walk to a temporary halt. "You mean those avian sovereigns I rambled on about. right?"

She leaned against one of the giant tulip poplars. "Uhm, I don't think I dislike any of them THAT much and for all I know, my information could be based on complete fabrications! I don't like being too judgmental when I don't actually know the person that well. Except for maybe the Empress? It’s not like I’m in a place where I’m directly affected by their actions either.

I mean, sure the Empress is concerning sometimes but she’s also been leading the continent in it’s longest era of peace so.. do I really want to kill her without any plan for the aftermath? Not really. What the hell am I going to do anyway, run the country in her stead? No thanks! I could possibly get all her powers, sure, but I don't think the consequences are worth it.

I could say that for all of the sovereigns actually! No matter how much I could want their powers and position, none of it overtakes my self preservation instincts.

So realistically, if anything I'd just like to talk to them! Maybe conduct a potentially privacy breaching interview and ask about their relationships with each other? Wait, even if I could do that, they wouldn't want some random human with classified knowledge walking around... Dammit, I can't win huh"

It was then that she had another idea.

"Oh! If you want I could ask the others what they think! Even the patrons too because there's this thing in the inn where we have a prompt, could be in the form of a question or not, and we all share a bit about ourselves. It's not required of course, and the person only shares as much information as they're comfortable with.

My brother came up with this idea to spice up the evening since there's not much people that go to our inn. It ended up going pretty smoothly since the few people that are there end up taking turns sharing their own adventure stories! More often than not though their rambles are a lot more mundane, but I still love listening to them anyway.

So, do you want me to add this as a prompt for tonight? Or... actually maybe I should ask my brother if it might be too.. impious?"

[divine-enantiodromia]

What about the other gods? Are there any other gods??

“Uhm… about that..” Gabriel cautiously glanced around the lounge. She decided to quickly walk out and made her way back to her room. Only after locking the door behind her and sitting down on her bed does she continue the (one-sided) conversation.

“Okay so, there's a lot of other immortals aside from Michaela, mainly the rest of the so called 'sacred sovereigns' or 'avian sovereigns' that are the big important gods of the avian pantheon. From what I've gathered from the patrons, many places also have their own local gods, like how we have Diana, the Forest Guardian, with legends such as how you shouldn't be greedy when you hunt lest the goddess starts hunting you herself.

However, there's something that really bothers me about these other deities and that's.. well you see, there are only a select group of people that can write about them, and those said people seem to do it in the most bare bones way possible.”

Once again, she opens the guide to the 9 and a half avian sovereigns.

“Like for example, here’s the chapter about Metatron:

‘Metatron, the vacuous scribe; god of knowledge and forgotten memories. His rotting corpse remains as the only curator of the legendary Omniscient Library.’

And that’s it! The next paragraph already moves on to Jophiel and so on, with the pages about the Empress making up the most of this book!

The writing ban doesn’t only apply to the sacred sovereigns, but even the local forest goddess and all the other minor gods! Apparently they made it illegal to write about any immortal that isn’t Michaela and every time I try to write their name or with intent to note down anything I’ve learned about them the ink somehow literally disappears?? And so all that’s left of them are art and oral fairytales! Even then, any accurate depictions of how they look like are still hard to find and it’s-” She paused, catching her breath. “It’s annoying.”

“At least they still get mentioned in a lot of other historical books, like mentioning how Ariel is the designer of the Capitol and Raphael was Chamuel’s prince consort and etc, but once again, the entries are still really short. Brushed off like an afterthought!

Hell, there's this one deity whom I haven’t found any others mentions of her outside this book! So you can imagine baby me’s confusion when I was asking patrons about the goddess that shared my name, only to discover that they didn’t even know that she exists!”

Finally, she started to slow down a bit.

“..I’m sorry, I ramble too much don’t I? I just… anyway I’ll at least read out what little this book has. You could always ask if you want to know more about specific gods and I’ll tell you all that I’ve managed to memorize, but it probably won’t be much. They don’t even have any sketches for how they might look. That’s definitely the first thing I’m gonna look for when I’m 25..”

“Anyway, here:

Chamuel the austere leader; son of the harpy eagle, father of the empress; god of order and leadership. His word became law and all that sweared upon the tip of his sword could not lie. His murder was unjust and avenged by his only daughter.

Raphael the magnolious oracle; spouse of the golden eagle; god of frost and divine foresight. He is also a skilled doctor and used to be worshipped as such until the amelioration of the vulture.

Ariel, the forgetful engineer; mentor of the empress; goddess of magic and craftsmanship. Even in the midst of her eternal slumber, the beat of her heart continues to keep the islands of Heaven afloat.

Raziel, the reliable malefactor; mirror to the swan; deity of knavery and familial bonds. His existence is often debated upon for her true location is never known.

Azrael, the wretched physician; adopted brother of the empress; god of life and slaughter. He always takes as much as he gives away.

(I’ve already read Metatron’s)

Jophiel, the phlegmatic mother; mirror to the cassowary; deity of zealously and flourishing merchants. They will always have a place for you in her ever growing consortium.

Gabriel, the soft-spoken messenger; goddess of swiftness and every language. The fastest of the avian and second only to the empress herself.

Lucifer, the traitor; god of art and undying love. While his contributions to creativity are many, it is best to avoid worshipping the name of a daemon that has been rightfully banished from Heaven.” "Well, there you have it."

[divine-enantiodromia]

Memory: Hooded Stranger

-------

From an outsider's point of view, the inn had not changed much over the years. Even the gilded inscription of 'amour de soi' had been carved over the front door for as long as Gabriel could remember. Indoors was a completely different story though for, back in the days of Gabriel the toddler, it actually looked like a normal wooden house in the woods.

It was in here where a young boy could be found running around and chasing a little girl, but the girl had always managed to outrun him. Now it just so happened that one of those races involved running from one marked tree to another similarly marked tree. How these two children didn't get lost in the forest, perhaps only the guardian deer of Eden knows. What their mother did know about that race is that it ended with Gabriel returning home with a hooded injured man.

Aside from the initial shock from seeing your 12-year old girl carry a fully grown man on her back like he was a sack of very light feathers, Madame Ava was surprisingly hospitable to the mysterious stranger. In fact, it seemed that only her son (who returned home a minute later) was distrusting of this new face in their house.

"Okay, I have but one word." The teen said. "Why??"

"Vivianus!" Ava scolded him while she was watering some of the indoor plants. "At least pretend to be cordial."

"Mom, come on! He's..." Vi's gaze shifted to the other side of the room where his sister was putting her newly learned skill of first aid to good use. Unfortunately, despite all her best efforts, the couch the stranger sat on was drenched in lavender blue colored blood. "You can't let him stay."

"Who ever said he would?" The mother calmly replied. "If there's one thing that you and that man can agree upon is that neither of you want him to remain for any longer than he has to."

"But what if he says something-"

"Oh please, he's reckless not stupid, and rest assured that if he does do anything stupid, the birds will have his head."

Vivianus sighed. "..I'll just keep watch outside I suppose."

And that he did, closing the door with a loud unpleasant bang. Gabriel had never seen her brother so visibly upset before, and it will be years before she even witnesses anything like that again.

As for the hooded man, he wasn't answering any of Gabriel's questions, refused to look her in the eye, and was quick to glance away from her brother when Vivianus first entered the room.

'At least the bleeding has stopped?" She thought. It was hard to be sure considering the numerous blood stains, but it was definitely better than having several open wounds all over your arm. This man is lucky that he's clearly one of the immortals.

In hindsight, since she had to forcibly drag him here in the first place maybe she shouldn't be expecting much from her little interrogations. Still, she can't help it! This silent man whose face she still hasn't seen is the most intriguing stranger she's ever had the pleasure of helping. Gabriel couldn't even see a nose or a chin poking out of the mysterious void where his face should've been. She almost thought that the man had no head at all, but if so then how could he wear that hood?

After a few minutes of ineffective questioning, she decided to get up and get the man a glass of water.

The stranger was gone when Gabriel came back and her mother was already getting ready to go outside for a new couch. The last thing she heard before leaving with Madame Ava was her brother saying "Fine! I guess I'll be the one to stay behind and burn the old couch."

[divine-enantiodromia]

what the inn called and where can i find it

“I mean, all the rumors are pretty accurate.” Gabriel said while she was inside the inn's bank vault, depositing the daily earnings. “Just walk into Eden while thinking about that tavern you've heard so much about and you'll be fine!"

"But uh, disclaimer! I am aware of some people that go looking for the inn but never find it and I uh, yeah I don't have an answer to that. I asked Vivi about it but he just shrugged, saying "Guess they didn't look hard enough." "

"You'll know you're in the right place if you see a big ominous building colored in deep greys and charred embers. There's also a little gold engraving above the main entrance that says 'amour de soi’. I can't remember whether it was mom or Vivi that carved that..."

"Speaking of that entrance, please only use that entrance specifically as using anything else results into finding extremely malnourished patrons that got lost in various places of the inn."

[divine-enantiodromia]

Who is Michaela and can I meet them

This particular question happened to reach the young woman while she was laying down on a couch in her room.

‘You mean the Empress??’ Gabriel wondered.

It seemed that she had mostly calmed down after the initial shock from the random voices in her head, and had now decided that they were of no immediate threat as their questions so far were fairly silly and harmless. After all, if one of them was asking who the queen of this continent was, at this point they could be beings from another world. She also truly felt like the voices were coming from the sky and this telepathic communication thing was very similar to something she could do with Vivianus, albeit a lot more one-sided.

A lot of other people would still be extremely cautious and even afraid of something like this, especially with how it is in this world, but she never liked being hyper-vigilant and fortunately hasn’t had to be.

“Well, aside from the General and other higher ups, no one else has actually seen her nor heard her so uhh… I don’t think your chances of meeting her are very high.”

Gabriel got up to pick out a book from her infinity box, revealing a guide to the 9 and a half avian sovereigns. She skips towards the chapter about Michaela and starts summarising its contents.

“She has the powerful ability to predict everything that happens around her, and ever since the Great Divide and the Crow’s betrayal, she became the most dominant force of nature of the whole continent. Her wisdom and constant victory against the daemons has guaranteed her nation’s everlasting peace for as long as she sits on the throne.”

“Some of her most common names include: The Battle-Hardened Empress, Rosé-Eyed Princess, Queen of the Owls, and the Eternal Pearl.”

“Anddd… yeah that’s it really. Everything else is repetitive filler that’s just emphasizing on how smart, strong and pretty she is. Says she’s omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent too but I remember an old solider that came into the inn once that told me that no god is truly omnipresent.”

Speaking of that solider, she contemplated asking their patrons about the goddess, but figured that the result would be no different from when she was a child: either unconditional love and admiration, or extreme fear and trepidation.

"I could still ask the others for stories if you're really curious but... well, it's really hard to determine which ones aren't exaugurated." She paused. "And sometimes I don't think I want to know."

There may be another reason, Gabriel realized a bit later, (while she was outside harvesting exotic fruits from the inn's lil farm) as to why the voices do not know who the Empress is. They may just be that young, perhaps even younger than when Gab saw her first barred owl. However, if those voices weren't some cosmic entities from another world, that would mean that there are children that are possibly capable of telepathy and other such powers that not only allow them to communicate with Gabriel, but also hide themselves from her. She'd laugh at this thought if it weren't for the fact that there are actually children that get chosen by one of the animalia as soon as they're born.

How far does their telepathy even go? How much of her thoughts can they read? How would she know if they're watching her and listening to what she says? Do they stop and take breaks? or are they as constant as the eyes of the sky?

There is one thing Gabriel is sure of, and that is that the tone of these voices are nowhere near as threatening as when she was walking under the gaze of the barred owls. The voices were curious, but not intrusive, and felt oddly comforting.

It seemed futile to try and stop the voices anyway, since she doesn't know how and where they came from. So, until the voices start becoming a problem, she once again decides not to worry.

[divine-enantiodromia]

Are you guys team Barbie or team Oppenheimer?

Well, if they hypothetically knew what you were talking about-

Gab would like all the complicated stuff in Oppenheimer, and Vi would too but he also wants to be safely retired in his inn in the woods

[divine-enantiodromia]

So your brother is single but are YOU single? *cutely nervous flirting* *Debby Ryan ear tuck*

“Hey Vivi… has anyone asked you if you were single recently?” Gab asked.

“Yes actually. You, just now-”

“Oh whatever, never mind.” As Gabriel walked way, despite her brother’s current playfulness, he was slightly concerned.

Still, he had yet to sense anything around them that was a threat, so this was either freaking out over nothing or there was something eldritch and cosmic about whoever his sister was talking to. At least she seemed less bothered/disturbed about it and more confused really, so for now, he decided to keep those conclusions to himself.