Prayers before the Gargoyle

[freezn]

The wind was tangy, permeated with salt from the nearby sea, blown in with the bitter winter chill. Mixed in with the salty air was a choking amount of ash. Destruction fell like snowflakes from the sky. Streaks of black coated the slag remains of a once mighty fortress. Every now and again a stray breeze would draw forth the last remnants of heat from the smoldering rubble. When those faint traces of warmth brushed against her skin, a faint smile drew itself upon the lips of a woman who stood before the desolation.

Her painted lips twisted upwards at the edges, basking in the comfort of this false heat. She bent down and gathered up a handful of ash. Whispered words spoken softly overtop, “To She Who Shapes for the nurturing ruin that will bring about growth. To Lathander for the guidance to start anew. To The Bard for the stories burnt into my soul. To the Maiden for the lessons learned.”

A final prayer was offered, lost to the howl of the wind. Her cupped hand flattened as she blew back. Ash was cast to the wind, spread in offering, whirling about, drifting away. Some portion yielded to the wind’s cry, cast back upon her crimson red lips, staining them grey, white and black. Still more was inhaled, the gritty burnt offering becoming one with the young woman.

When not but the stain of ash remained in her gloved palm the woman stood upright. Her skin was now painted in destruction. Black ashen streaks upon her cheeks mirrored those burnt into the fortress’s stones. Chestnut brown hair was tasseled and disheveled, a chaotic mess in front of her face, just as wild as the fields about her had become.

Her emerald glowing eyes crackled with wild energies. They sparked and in the silence that echoed the howl of the wind the woman was renewed once more. A masterpiece of nobility borne with regal confidence. Porcelain smooth skin, devoid of blemish or marking. Expertly applied paints and polishes. Not a hair out of place.

Space crackled and popped around her, the sulfuric air growing potent around the sorceress. In a plume of dark smoke she vanished. Leaving the Ashen Isle and its ruins to continue smoldering in the bitter sea wind.