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→Chapter 16: Astraea, at the Dawn of Time
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====Chapter 16: Astraea, at the Dawn of Time==== | ====Chapter 16: Astraea, at the Dawn of Time==== | ||
[[Aphra Behn|Eff]] | [[Aphra Behn|Eff]] frolics in the woods near her house. Playing her flute, she hears a loud splash in a nearby pool of water. Rushing to the edge she finds a figure struggling, a nymph in skintight armor. Eff begins to nurse the nymph back to health, attempting to communicate with her, receiving no response. Eff, dejected, returns home to find her father hosting visitors who she does her best to avoid. In the night she returns to the nymph with supplies, staying with her until morning. In the morning the nymph speaks. | ||
The nymph explains to Eff that she followed Eff here - her paths | The nymph explains to Eff that she followed Eff here - her paths were cut off and she had to find a new one - Eff's life, to her quiet place, to here. As Eff hears this story, as she hears her name from the nymph, she decides on a new one. Aphra. She's to be called Aphra. The nymph tells Aphra that she's hunting something - the worst creature to ever live, and she needs Aphra's life to be her path. Aphra agrees to help, pledging her life to the nymph, to be her servant, if she'll just stay with Aphra for one night longer. | ||
But first Aphra | But first Aphra returns home, finding one of her father's [[Knot (Newtons Sleep)|guests]] has covered for her the night before. He insists now that she owes him a favor. He hands her a letter to pass to another one of her father's friends discretely, and says that if she does it properly there might be more work coming her way in time, nobody would ever think her the type to engage in subterfuge. Aphra steals away again that night to meet the nymph once more. That night she dreams. | ||
''She dreams of [[House Ixion|a house]] in the mountains, a house with caverns below it filled with machines and ships and strange rites. Her cousin who told her he had a name when he didn't exist - [[Celestis|Lord]] [[Yellow Dog of the Thirty-One Cuts]]. And her own name echoing through the house. "[[Larissa]], Larissa, Larissa."'' | ''She dreams of [[House Ixion|a house]] in the mountains, a house with caverns below it filled with machines and ships and strange rites. Her cousin who told her he had a name when he didn't exist - [[Celestis|Lord]] [[Yellow Dog of the Thirty-One Cuts]]. And her own name echoing through the house. "[[Larissa]], Larissa, Larissa."'' | ||