The weight we choose to carry

The shrine beneath the waves would always be his favorite, but the quiet altar high up on the Barrows held a peace that Hadama appreciated as well. The first stars glowed through the shifting colors of the sky overhead now that the sun had finally sunk beneath the horizon, and the east was dark with clouds racing towards morning as he knelt before the slab of pale stone and its many flowers. There was work to be done in Torchline, but for some tasks Hadama needed to range farther afield these days. Pushing back the Void, for instance, was a task that called him to regions beyond his home. A challenge that was not, in truth, a hardship now that Flowerbirth was spreading warmth and rain across the world once more. King's End was still crisp, however, and the nights still held a noticeable chill even this late in the season.

He bowed his head in meditation for a time, contemplating his world, his goddess, and her stars above. His place in it, and the plans that he had undertaken. What he had accomplished, and what remained to be done.

Previously his offerings had been things of beauty. Ornaments to adorn his deity, tokens of clever artifice to bring her pleasure, gifts to show his loyalty and admiration. His offering tonight could also be considered a thing of beauty, sharp and cold. And it might bring her pleasure, too. For she was a goddess of beauty and knowledge, but also of war.

The shining stiletto dagger was steel beneath the silver that plated it from wickedly pointed tip to rounded pommel stone of polished hematite. A slender blade, it looked quite dainty in his large hands as he laid it on the altar in its sheath of matching silver. It could have slipped easily into a bodice or an upswept hair style, an elegantly understated ornament of polished precious metal.

But still it was a weapon. And as Hadama raised his eyes to the heavens, his request to his goddess was an echo of the blade.

"Safrin. I have left unfinished business within Starfall. Will you grant my gravity magic greater weight for when I return there?"

---

Hadama is praying to stack another Singularity onto his Gravity Spike magic.

Magic: Gravity Spike: the user borrows a sliver of the moon's power to summon up to three gravity lances that appear above a target within 60ft. Control is excellent.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

Magic: Singularity | Adds additional spike at mastered level on a successful hit when Hadama uses his Gravity Spike.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +13 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.

Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Upgraded
Lucky Ring | A ring that when worn grants +5 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.

the devil is not as black as he is painted

The wind that raced along the top of the barrow died.

It didn’t still naturally, as if by chance or evening calm—it paused, holding its breath like the world beneath the stars suddenly remembered whose ground it moved across. The flowers on the altar didn’t tremble. The grass did not shift. The chill that hung in the air fell quiet and clean as moonlight on steel.

And then, with no flare nor flash, Safrin was there.

She emerged not from the sky above but from the altar itself, a ripple of light and shadow unfurling in a spiral until she stood fully formed beside the offering he had placed. Clad in a gown of deepest violet that shimmered like oil on water, her hair flowed behind her in coils of celestial dark, threaded through with silver starlight. The night bent subtly around her form, not darker, but deeper.

She looked down at the stiletto, her eyes half-lidded, lashes thick with shadow. "How well you understand me," she murmured, voice soft as grave-moss and starsong. A single finger traced the sheath’s spine, not to test its edge, but to admire the grace of its construction. Such beauty. Such purpose. And none of it wasted."

Only then did she lift her gaze, and Hadama would feel it like a tide rising beneath his skin—a flood of starlight and pride that needed no words to be understood. She reached out, her fingers grazing his shoulder and then splaying over his chest, where her light had once passed before. "With every increase in power the tasks become more difficult but...it's not impossible. Here is what you must do."

---

Hadama has been given a (hard) quest. He must

1. Complete 2 training threads focusing on using his gravity spikes
2. Host a PQ+ where the use of his gravity spikes/singularity is a central part of the PQ+
3. Use natural gravitational forces in a way that makes something easier/better/good
4. Use natural gravitational forces in a way that makes something harder/worse/bad.

Coding base by Sky!

The night grew still, locked in crystal, and Hadama drew in a single deep breath that tasted of moonlight. He savored the moment of potential and power before his goddess appeared, but as soon as she did the rest of the world grew dull and faded into background. She was real and sharp and bright. The only thing that mattered. The only person who existed to him in that timeless moment.

And she was cold. As cold as the steel and silver he had wrought for her. As cold as the deepest waters that Hadama had ever dared, pushing himself to his physical limits.

He embraced that chill, his spine lifting beneath her touch as she pressed her hand over the heart he had given over to her, and his gaze did not waver or flinch as he felt her power flowing within him once more. "Thank you." Only then did he lower his head, a bow of loyalty and gratitude for the answer to his prayer and the chance to prove himself to her anew.

It would not be easy, the quest she set. But it would be done.

~Fin