One wish. All Thaddeus has to do is give up something in return for the goddess’s blessing. In his experience, wishes are like prayers: they don’t really come true. But then, he has never really tried before, either.
A much bleaker life taught him long ago that he shouldn’t ask for much. He should take what he wants instead.
In a less bleak, more recent life, Thaddeus has learned that it isn’t always a stupid thing to rely on others a little bit more. Asking for help will oftentimes reap in a better outcome than simply taking.
And the goddess is asking for, well, asking, along with giving.
Something of equal value to what Thaddeus wants.
“...You know, this is kinda not my thing. I’m talking to...a shrine. A shrine for a goddess that I’m not too sure I believe in yet. Kai says that it’s all part of this world’s history, though, so I’m gonna have faith in him...and you can take that as vicariously having faith in a goddess. I guess.”
He places an old, worn music at the bottom of Rie’s shrine. Inside is a small, carved piano that plays a quiet, flattened tune. It looks like an odd relic compared to anything else that could be found in Glae.
“I don’t even know if this is even the right sort of offering, but I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. I get a weird, nostalgic homesickness whenever I look at it. So that might mean something, who knows.
“...I guess that all I can really ask for is...the strength to not mess this up. I’ve never been in charge of anything. Hell, I ran away before things ever got too difficult for me. The world got a lot bigger for me recently, but in a way, it got a lot smaller when there became too many things for me to care about...If that makes sense. I got a lot of people counting on me now, so...If I’m gonna be Order leader, I wanna be a good one.”
Constructed pillars and buildings were surely becoming a hindrance to the Host’s mood as of lately. Pestering herself to retain her socialization before the long drawing winter months, where she’d most likely have to force herself into a shelter with others, became a process of pain for her. Better now than later to handle on taking large crowds and returning to acquainting with tight and cramped spaces. Despite it being her fifth year in Glaedreon, something she had calculated with the help of Pryrina, keeping three of the thirteen months into heavy human interaction was still an experience that never boded too well with her.
The excuse of conversing and mingling with the souls of those she would rather take far from strides from was simply this: The Riese Festival. At the helm of the celebration was the deity of death herself, Rie, guided by the third moon overhead. With the harvest season being now, it hadn’t surprised Milae on how the season of dying itself, with dead leaves scattered and flowers closing, and the entity of death aligned. At the rate of her nerves easily prickled, enjoying the bombastic noises and gleeful feasting wasn’t something that would’ve stomached well. However, it was still a fragment of Glaedreon’s culture that she simply couldn’t ignore at this rate. Freedom and drink would’ve sufficed her for quite a bit before the inevitable.
And now, the young human was guided by the same third moon that reigned supreme at this interval of the year. Closing in near the early hours that back in her world was considered the “witching hour,” Milae approached the shrine of the Goddess. With only the licks of flames from the high-raised lanterns hanging by chains at the top of either side of the shrine’s entry, her eyes glossed over the vicinity.
Wicker baskets of locally raised vegetables she could already tell without getting a far better look as the words came to her, “Tomatoes, corn, yams, squash..” Hand-woven crafts of effigies for the Goddess from wood placed together, to hand-knitted goods and embroidery were among the others in her sight. However, it was noticeable that grander offerings of wealth from jewelry that probably that was possibly a woman’s only heirloom, with drops of coins and golden and silver chains, were only within reach of a thief’s hands--
Greeted by the lop-sided white bear on the staircase, gazing its gleaming black eyes at her, Milae rubbed her clammy hands together and took a soft breath. She glanced away and observed her surrounding, noticing the lack of presence around, Milae finally smiled. Her hands searched into the right pocket of her goat, feeling past the corn seeds and breadcrumbs.. “Other one,” she reminded herself with a grumble. She searched through her left pocket, past her cell phone and wallet, and to then a folded paper...
Holding forward the paper towards the statue of the deity who dared remain still and eternal in their possible passiveness in the impending war, Milae casted her eyes upward. To her who may not reply, who may not even hear her, she was more than a perfect choice for a conversation partner.
“I’m not that well acquainted with gods, but, I came to know one in a matter of moments that ruined me. I’m not keen on how this works--” She bit her tongue. She did just tell a statue that she wasn’t a particular fan of their kind. “I’m not a person from your world, as much as that’s obvious from my accent. I’m not someone who really believes.”
“And I know they say give the best what you can, but, this..” Her fingers trace against the wrinkled ends of the paper and she looks back to it. She gently unfolds it and holds it up to the stoned enigma. “It’s just a photo of two mortals from a world you never care to know for it isn’t your own.”
Situated in the photograph had been a soft-stricken gaze of an average height man standing in awe of a slightly shorter woman who could reach his the height of his nose. Her head was dipped and his head was lifted. Though distanced, with two steps between the two, they embraced another’s company in their held hands. Strikingly different were their apparel as he was dressed in a tuxedo and she wore a shirofuku. Speckles of perfectly combed black bangs were visible under her white headdress. For his hair, it had been pulled back with yet it was near impossible to tame the brown curls resting on his head. And in that idyllic moment, on the top of the bridge overlooking a small pond with the shrine nearby, a couple embraced the future they were bounded for.
“But, they are,” she turned her cheek and coughed, “were my parents.” Again, her gaze met one who couldn’t embrace the mournful gaze that was in her eyes, the glistening remorse in her oak irises. “They came for near different ‘worlds’ from where I am from and fell in love and kept in love. They overcame the disaster that their daughter made and tried..”
“This is one of the last things my father gave to me when I told him about my dreams of marrying someone. Now that I think back on it, he probably gave it to me out of guilt that he wouldn’t hear wedding bells at his daughter’s wedding. But, it is one of the best things I could have left from being Miyana.”
Milae knelt before the staircase on both knees and flattened the wrinkles with her thumbs gliding over each crease. She turned it over, glossing at the written kanji reading from right to left. The woman opened her lips and recited:
“To the goddess who may not know me,
I wish I could look at someone like he did. Someone who can open my eyes to something new, to a new choice for the future. I do not need to be changed, to be absolved for the burden I bear. That is only for me to carry. Yet, in my dreams, I want to find resolve for my heart. Love, family.. I’m not sure, but, give me that chance.
Thank you,
Miyana.
And only then was the only presence of Milae left behind at the altar’s staircase was the worn photograph from a lifetime ago.
“Orphi is not good at making things.. but I have seen scary Mr. Baba give something he like because Goddess is kind and deserves gifts, so I try to~”
Who knew why a child went without supervision to a Shrine of a Goddess, but here they were, at a Shrine of the Goddess Rie. “I have been practicing a song that could make boo-boos feel.. not so boo-boo, but I want to give Rian too. Cassie is not lonely.. Cassie said this cousin wanted to be here, so please accept him.”
Orpheus placed a rather large bear with white fluff on the stair. Remember to offer a sort of prayer and a thank you to the Goddess, they clasped their hands together and knelt. “Goddess Rie has given me a warm and happy family..~ I want to say a biiiig thank you for that! Orphi has no wish but for them to be happy and smiling brightly.”
