Grimm Tail [Apotheosis & Wolf]

Apotheosis's violet eyes are wide as she realizes that yes, they are free of Yaga, that they've escaped successfully from the old woman's house--and it takes her a moment to register that the pedestal bearing the ring and the flower circle around it are even there to begin with. Her attention goes to the little dragon and she can't help but... laugh. Her laugh is a light thing, a sound of happiness, relief, and even a bit of joy for the nuzzling.

"If you come with us out of the dungeon, yes, I'll feed you plenty of fish. What is your name?" Apotheosis asks, and then--she remembers herself. Manners. "You may call me Apotheosis."

It's only then that she registers the pedestal's existence and the flowers around it more firmly, having spotted them with the little dragon flew around the circle. But her lips purse when she looks at the ring of flowers.

"Faerie circle?" she wonders quietly to herself. "I ought to summon Hugin and Munin. Just in case..."

It takes her a moment to call on them, but it's a requirement for her to actually do any of her magic otherwise, so it's a necessity. Having two familiars means that it's harder for her to keep track of them, even if it was tactically advantageous compared to having one since she could still spellcast if one of them was indisposed or being sent out for scouting purposes.

Thus, one leucistic raven and one dark-feathered raven appear in a flourish of shimmering magic. They preen themselves as they land on the ground. Silent, for now. Good babies.

Apotheosis takes a breath and looks to Wolf. "Shall we go together?" she asks. Smiling sweetly at him. While it's a ring that she's sworn to wear forever, she doesn't want to place the onus of retrieving the ring entirely on him. This is important to them both.

While Apotheosis talked to the dragon, Wolf examined the odd pattern of the flowers. It didn’t seem natural really, that the plants should grow in such a perfect circle. Yet here they were growing up and over one another inside that prescribed line as though cultivated by some unseen hand to grow in just this way. The thought that someone was growing them to this circle made Wolf look around once again warily, but he didn’t see anyone who might tend them.

Sighing, the man turned toward Apotheosis. “Apotheosis…” He started, only to trail off when she mentions the words ‘fairy circle’. He’d heard of something like that before, but he couldn’t remember what it was that they did or were for. Whatever their purpose, it seemed that it was serious enough to encourage her to summon her familiars which put him immediately on edge. Was there some danger here that he didn’t see?

"Shall we go together?" Wolf nods to her question, offering her his hand and glancing at the little dragon who it seemed was determined to join them. Though her presence was an uncertainty that made him curious as well.

“Lets, and carefully.” He says quietly, stepping over the delicate flowers and into the fairy ring.

Apotheosis takes Wolf's hand, her heart in her eyes as she sees him offering his hand to her. It's enough to banish the uncertainty in her mind, to feel him in her grasp, to know that he is by her side. "Carefully," she echoes, stepping into the fairy ring. But she can't help it. Her eyes are on him the entire time.

They cross the threshold, and Hugin and Munin follow, but beyond the boundary of the flowers, there's someone behind the pedestal, their pale hands cradled around the ring. Their figure and most of the face are obscured by a long, long veil, which, while silver in color, shifts subtly in a rainbow sheen that dances across the threads that make up the veil.

"Welcome," the figure intones in a feminine voice, soft and yet loud enough to be heard like she is whispering into an ear. Her words echo slightly for it. "I am called the Lady of the Ring. Who of your party wishes to lay claim to my treasure?"

Apotheosis parts her lips to speak initially, but then she looks to Wolf. The man had wanted to take her here to begin with. Who is more fair and kind than my Apotheosis? he'd said.

She can't help it. The moment Apotheosis hears that 'I do', her heart melts, because she imagines them being said just like that after being asked if he'll take her as his wife. She allows herself the momentary fantasy of imagining him in a suit, holding her hand as they stand at the altar--

Get yourself together! she chides herself, feeling her face flushing already. But in truth, while she can't hear Wolf's thoughts, she has similar reservations. A woman guarding a ring--she's never heard of a fairy tale like that.

The veiled woman, the Lady of the Ring, nods gently. "You must answer all of my questions truthfully, without an inkling of deceit," she intones, pointing at Wolf specifically with a hand that rises up from the pedestal. "None can assist you in this trial, save for those who are with you now. Should you consent, we will begin with the first test."

Apotheosis smiles sweetly at Wolf, coming a little closer to him. She's so happy that he looks to her for aid. That she can be relied upon to help him. Even if she felt helpless earlier in the cavern by being unable to cure the poison that's coursing through him, she can at least help with this. Riddles are easy. They're the stuff of legends.

Except the Lady of the Ring doesn't ask a riddle.

"A fairy tale is a story told to every young child. A fairy tale often teaches a child lessons that become the core of their person when they grow older. They often shape a child's notions of love. Knowing this: what sort of person do you love?"

Apotheosis's eyes widen upon hearing the words. She wants to say it's her. Wants to tell the Lady of the Ring that he is her promised one and that she is Wolf's--Zalgiman's--sort of person. But the questions aren't for her.

They're for him.

A lump forms in her throat as she looks up at Wolf. She hopes that he describes her from head to toe. And yet there's that sinking feeling in her gut: how would he describe her if he's being truthful? Rich? That's her only quality that she can think of.

No. You're a parasite, comes the rebuking thought. Her only quality.

In truth, from a very young age he’d sought love and found himself rejected at every turn. Love from a father that wanted nothing to do with him. Love from brothers that found safety and amusement in his torment. He’d found only a vast and empty loneliness waiting for him in the world… Until Marsward had offered him that first kindness. A kindness that was a trap. He’d chased kindness into pain and humiliation. Into a pit even darker than the one he’d found himself in as a child with no way out.

He’d loved tyrant-kings and cruel masters his whole life. Chasing the hope of affection. The hope that he could be worthy of someone.

Now, Apotheosis held his loyalty, and the edges of his heart.

So what did he say to the faerie. What kind of person was it that he loved? He decided in the end, on brutal honesty, even if the truth was hard for him to say. “I have chased my whole life the idea of being loved, doing my best to make others happy so that I might be found worthy of their affection. I have loved those who are cruel, those who are vain. I have loved those who hurt me.”

He looks at Apotheosis. “But all of that has faded into the past, and I find myself loving someone who is as good as they are kind. Someone brave, and generous. A knight has come into my dark and offered to me a light. What sort of person do I love? I love someone who I learn a little bit more about every day. Someone who is frightened at times, but is brave for me. Someone who is beautiful, even more so because she thinks that she is not. She doesn’t fit into your fairy tales because she’s human. Complicated, and wonderfully human.”

Wolf grows a little silent in the wake of his speech. “My heart is too strange a thing to fit into a certain ‘type’. What sort of person do I love? It is utterly selfish, but I love the one that loves me. And that is all I have ever striven for.”