[God Quest] Wear your skin like iron

It had been a very long day for the Tidebreaker. An equally long one for Sah Levi, who had assisted him in their teleporting hops across Caido in order to fulfill the tasks that Safrin had set for him, training him in the use of a new power. Hadama had brought the other man home to Halo and then made his way to the shrine on the Sea of Glass beneath the colorful streamers of the aurora.

It might have been Flowerbirth, but it was still Halo and snow covered the ice. Hadama had borrowed a heavy coat for his trip to the Tundra, even if he had traveled by moonlight rather than foot. As he knelt in the snow in front of the altar, refusing to acknowledge the cold that seeped into his legs, he set a strange lantern upon the stone and lit it with a long punt. The lantern was flat-bottomed sphere made of small hexagonal panels of black iron, but when the fire glowed to life within and the door was shut the stars picked out with painstaking care from the sides and top of the celestial globe shone and flickered in miniature echo of the sky above.

"Safrin. It is done." He was a man of slow thought and careful decisions, but the events of the last week had begun to race and tumble like a river rushing headlong through rapids towards a waterfall, and Hadama had been forced to move with them, far swifter than he was comfortable doing.

But the time for comfort was passed. The time for action was now. And he bent his head deeply beneath the rising moon as he sought the protection of his lady for the dangerous endeavors that the next few days would bring.

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Safrin Quest for Temporal Echo magic:
When does a ripple become a tidal wave?
1. Encounter and consider some sort of optical illusion You think I'm gonna fall for an illusion mirage crab
2. Encounter and consider some sort of aural illusion I could do this dance all night following gore crow echoes through tunnels
3. Try and create a practical illusion (does not have to be successful) Training season's over making a flower 'appear' from a handkerchief
4. Complete a training thread focused on obscuring his opponent's view of him [Training] Catch me or I go Houdini using the smoke on the Crust to hide from Sah

sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you

The snow around the Sea of Glass sparkled in reverence before Safrin ever appeared, casting a soft sheen over the world like the hush of a breath just before a prayer is answered. She came without fanfare—no blaze of starlight, no eruption of celestial might—but rather as the moonlight itself, condensing and folding into the familiar shape of her body, draped in sweeping layers of indigo and silver that kissed the snow without ever melting it.

Her gaze went first to the lantern.

A soundless breath left her as she took in the star-forged design, her fingertips gliding over the ironwork with a kind of tender pride. The flickering constellations danced across her face as she turned it slowly in her hands, letting it warm her palms with its flame. "You always give me the most thoughtful gifts," she murmured, her voice soft and low, like a lullaby spun from moonlight and shadow. "Even when you are rushing."

Her eyes lifted to him then, catching the bow of his head, the way the weight of urgency pulled at the edges of his usually measured composure. Safrin’s features sobered, her expression turning from fondness to something more intent. "And yet you have done it," she said quietly, but there was no mistaking the force behind the words. "You rose like I asked. Swift and steady."

The goddess stepped forward, the snow parting for her feet like petals yielding to the sun, and reached out to brush her fingers just beneath Hadama’s chin. Not lifting, but anchoring. "You understand now, don’t you? The pace of the void. The speed with which it devours. There is no time for the old tides." Her thumb swept once along the strong edge of his jaw.

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Hadama has completed his quest and received

Temporal Echo | Hadama manifests an illusionary echo of himself that moves slightly out of phase with the original, making him difficult to target. The image has hit points equal to his END, cannot do physical damage to others. Can only be used once per thread.

but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me

He watched her come with eyes that were bright with hope and dark with a bone-deep exhaustion in equal measure. His shoulders remained unbowed by the burdens he had chosen to take up, however, and his weary heart, even wounded, continued to beat with resolute determination to see through the dark days to come.

His Queen. His home. Blood and roses and lilies white as bone. A violet shadow on Torchline's horizon and the hunt for black-souled stones.

But for these few moments with his goddess he was able to take solace from her smile. The whisper of her approval slipped through his ribs to cradle his heart, chasing the shadows from it and easing his fears with her pride in him, and Hadama finally breathed out, exhaling the tension that he held hidden inside as he bowed his head in acknowledgment of her compliments.

And then raised it at her touch, light as snow and warm as feathers on his skin. "I do." Solemn confirmation that the Void's power was a tsunami that could not be outrun. That the days of careful consideration, of building defenses and cautiously training his strength were at an end.

He did not know how long he could maintain the pace, but with Safrin's light to bolster his spirit he would hold to it as long as he could. "Thank you."

~Fin