Daily Writing Challenge (May 2025) 5/26, Day 2 Placate / Graceful
(Warning for manipulation, mild gaslighting via shadow magic I suppose?)
Morning found Serenas entering the Sojourn’s walking gardens as she usually did to meet her young guide, Seon. A thread of nervousness made her heart flutter in approach, but she had long learned how to mask her nerves with composed grace and elegant stature around a table of judging nobility. She strode to the humble mistweaver with the same trained presentation, smiled as the fuzzy face turned to greet her.
“Are we ready to take this show on the road?!” Seon asked with his typical charged energy. He’d been tasked with accompanying her around Pandaria, and they had made quite the adventurous pair. But the writer desired a different outcome today, and she gently turned his words in on him.
“Ah, but Seon, I think you have forgotten. I’ll be going to the Market on my own today,” Serenas blinked innocently into her own charade, feigning surprise.
“…huh?” The pandaren seemed minutely confused. Then skeptical. “Really?” He chuckled. “So when did the plan change, Miss Serra?”
The gentle smile curved her lips, placating his confusion, the skepticism. “Oh, I know we’ve gotten ourselves into a little habit,” she replied with a cant of the head in respectful apology, and continued to let her words flow with soft intention. A melliflous shift of tone, every word fed as suggestion to touch the mind with the shaded delicacy of a swallow’s wing. “But mother mentioned it just yesterday, do you remember? She said you needn’t take me to the Market this time. I do know my way after all.”
The mistweaver’s eyes clouded over with the mental nudge, smiling dazedly under the swaying thrall. “Oh, yeah…” It made all the sense, after all. Serenas certainly knew her way to the markets.
A soft blink of dark lashes, and she gently released Seon from the enthrallment, and further placated any rise of doubt with an offering. “But tomorrow maybe you would like to take me to the ruins you spoke of before? In the mountain here? We can talk to mother about it tonight and see what she thinks?” She gasped softly, sweeping him into the idea. “Let me surprise you with something from the Market in the meantime!”
“Heh!” Seon was fully on board, and waved the little writer in farewell as she started her exit from the walking gardens. “Sounds awesome!”
As Serenas made her way to the Tavern of the Mists by herself, she bit into her lip to contain the flutter of excited laughter. She had used the Shadow. She had actually done it. The Dawnsingers had always forbade the use of the Shadow, and she had lived in fear of their horror stories all of her life. But Nia was right: the Shadow was only the other side of the Light, and her draenic friend had all the faith in her that no Priest of the Living Flame had ever shown. It had been easy as carrying a melody to tell it true, to shade Seon’s mind and implant the false memory. A harmless veil, really. In the evening, he’d think nothing of it when she would guide him into conversation with her mother. Thoughts moved on. At least when they were not penned to paper.
Serenas could not wait to meet Nia as planned, and tell her everything.
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