Vasana looked over the land with pleasure, catching a glimpse of her daughter Qera with the young god Xiron. Qera thought her infatuation hadn’t been noticed, but Vasana had been watching the whole thing develop from those first glances when they met, even to their first kiss.
Vasana flew closer on Iteus, her golden dragon.
Hiding behind a tree, she spied the lovers on a magicked bed under a grand oak that she remembered Qera planting when she was a small child. Watching, Vasana wished for another night with Helith, remembering his all-too-short visit which had produced Qera in the first place.
The lovers rolled over, Qera taking a commanding role in their lovemaking. Vasana had taught her well, she knew.
She felt the other presence before Vasana saw the jealous blue goddess. Her midnight-blue hair streamed wildly behind her as she landed on her deep blue dragon which pecked at Vasana’s golden one. “Xiron is meant to be mine!” The blue goddess cried fiercely, shaking the air around her.
The lovers seemed not to notice and continued in their ecstasy.
“It would seem that you are wrong!” Vasana replied. “My daughter has claimed him to father her children. You are too late – he has already created life with her!”
The blue goddess threw a blast at Vasana, throwing her off her feet with a crash.
Vasana threw a larger one back, sending the blue goddess flying against a tree which cracked from the impact. Iteus blew flame at the blue goddess and her dragon, catching the grand oak on fire.
The fight became an outright brawl.
Yet the lovers carried on through the cacophony.
“Make them stop!” the blue goddess finally demanded.
“I cannot and I will not!” Vasana replied. “You have no power here!”
“We’ll see about that!”
The blue goddess looked at Qera, in the point of perfect ecstasy and threw a blast at her, freezing her in time.
Xiron, finding his lover frozen stood, a perfect image of male perfection. He looked threateningly at the blue goddess. “How dare you interfere! I did not choose you because of how you treat others! Qera is the woman I chose to love. I will never love you!”
“I know why you are on Terrenden,” Vasana said to the goddess. “I can share your story with everyone to remember for eternity.”
“No!” she cried. “That is unfair!” She went to throw another blast, but Xiron stepped in and grabbed her arm.
“You will throw no more blasts, utter no more spells,” Xiron pronounced.
“Your name is erased from all of Terrenden,” Vasana pronounced. “The day your name is uttered by a mortal, your influence will be lost.” A rumble was heard.
“And what of Qera?” Xiron asked.
“She will be released when I am,” the blue goddess replied with chilling calm, then she turned and left, to where, no one was quite sure as she seemed to disappear within the leya itself. Even today, sometimes she is heard mumbling to herself in the wind, questioning who she is.
Around Qera, Xiron wrapped a light robe to keep her warm and ready for him, for the day she is released from her bondage.
Since that day, every year, on the anniversary of his lover’s petrification, Xiron returns carrying a single candle to burn until he returns again. He kisses her and remembers their shared passion. The old candle, he takes to one of the Cloisters of the Sisters of Vasana – which forms into a human-sized statue of Qera complete with a new candle. It is said that spreading the cult of Vasana will help bring Qera’s redemption. Qera’s Curse is remembered by all Sisters of Vasana on the day after Xiron renews their candles – it is every loyal Sister’s true wish to live to see Qera released to return to her beloved Xiron and finish carrying their child.
The tree which cracked did not die, but became the first fire chestnut whose fruit fall every autumn to burn anything flammable in the swamps. Xiron’s seed filled the swamps and made it both stagnant and fertile like nowhere else on Terrenden, renewed every year with his freshly-shed tears in the winter rains.
Their bed formed the fertile soil of the fire swamps. Even the bedsheets decayed to create several ground cover plants including creeping fire which is an important ingredient in every stella’s apothecary kit.
Whenever it thunders on Terrenden, children are told that it’s Vasana fighting with the blue-skinned goddess and the lightning is from the dragons blasting each other with fire.
To this day, no one knows the true name of the blue goddess, her name was erased even from this story. No one knows just what she did to cause herself to be stranded on Terrenden. But all understand that Vasana had little choice, for the only way to punish a goddess is to remove her powers and wipe her memory so that she has only little snippets to begin to fill the void – keeping her far too busy to cause any further trouble for a very long time.
Previous Apostrophe freewrites:
Week 1: Greta, Savai, and the Possessed Doll
Week 2: Mad World Reminisce (NSFW)
Week 3: Love: Take Two
Week 4: Letter From Beyond the Veil
New Weeks!
Week 2: One Stormy Lighthouse - an intro to A'mara, Terrenden.
Week 3: Sentence of Tharn & Ríosín - (The Prophesy of Freyja's Fire)
Week 4: Before It's Too Late - a tale of reconciliation.
Image is from Pixabay and supplied by Apostrophe.
Apostrophe is a writing pod on Whaleshares. This is a writing/photo prompt or contest from the pod.
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Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
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blogging on: Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu, Hyperspace
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