[This rp icly takes place on June 11th 2023]

To date Liryn had been the only one that Iðavöllr had invited to her Wonder, although it was maybe more accurate to say that the tabby bobtailed talking cat more often than not had a tendency to invite himself along.

Not that Iðavöllr particularly minded because the mauvian made for good (if somewhat bossy) company, and she appreciated his help with trying to explain things–

And appreciated the way that he had been honest with her even more.

But…

But Iðavöllr knew that she couldn’t just keep leaning on the small mauvian, knew that she would have to spend some time trying to figure things out by herself - which was why she had taken that first step in February of last year of going to her Wonder on her own.

It had turned into somewhat regular visits, fit around her work schedule as Saffron, first to work on the frosted flowers or (as she had come to know them as) the maristela flowers in the outside gardens and now (more recently) to work on trying trying to salvage the books from the archive library.

But her visits had still been either with Liryn or on her own.

Tonight however was different, tonight for the first time she had found herself sending a message to her cousin asking whether he would mind coming out with her on a visit to her Wonder.

Well okay maybe not literally tonight - she had in actuality messaged her cousin a couple of days back - but it still marked the first time that she had voluntarily talked to her cousin re. The powered life that the two of them were part of.

It was something that the two of them had danced around, the awkward elephant in the room that had been left unspoken, but Iðavöllr found that she enjoyed her visits to her Wonder and liked working on the maristela flowers–

And whilst she was never going to be a gardener and (truthfully) was not going to turn into some gardening nut, Iðavöllr thought that the outer gardens were starting to look a bit better and well maybe a little part of her wanted to show them to her cousin.

Maybe. Probably, although she wasn’t planning to admit to it out loud.

And well if she was being honest she was a little tired of the awkward pauses when one or the other of them slipped up and mentioned something linked to their powered alter-egos and this trip was kind of an olive branch on her part.

One that her cousin had accepted.

Habit had had her offer the park where she and Liryn tended to meet as a meet up place, and she hadn’t been waiting long before she felt a strong warm aura bloom to life as she reached for the second part of the olive branch - a small bag of freshly baked sugar encrusted molasses spice cookies.

Iðavöllr just hoped that the source of the aura turned out to be Athene, else she was probably going to feel a little silly.

To say that the message had taken Athene by surprise was perhaps something of an understatement–

Because powered life was something that he and his cousin tended to avoid.

Okay not literally. He did things as Athene and he was aware that his cousin was doing things as Iðavöllr as Liryn had been keeping him updated.

Well at least for the most part.

Because whilst Athene had done his best to give his cousin space after she had found out about his powered status and as part of that had tried to avoid talking about powered things, he couldn’t quite bring himself to completely leave her alone.

He didn’t want his cousin to go through the same things that he had back in the early days of being a senshi. Didn’t want her to end up having to stumble around things the way that he’d had to go through when he’d first started out–

And whilst Athene didn’t want anyone to have to go through that, it was especially true for his cousin.

It had been hard to avoid talking about powered things altogether though given that they were both powered and aware of it–

But he had tried to do his best and had put up with the awkward silences when he had inevitably slipped up.

Because in truth he hadn’t blamed his cousin for being upset when the truth had eventually come out, because when it came down to it he had been lying to her and had been doing so for years - and it was something that he would have done again because the last thing that Athene had ever wanted was for his cousin to be caught up in powered life.

Then again powered life was the last thing that he’d wanted for any of those close to him - not when he knew just how dangerous it could be.

But he knew that he couldn’t tell people not to power up, knew that they had to make their own choices and find their own path through things just as he had.

It didn’t stop him from worrying.

He’d done his best to keep it quiet though to varying successes.

The invite from Iðavöllr had been unexpected, Athene not expecting the invite from his cousin to her Wonder, but he had recognised the olive branch for what it was and he was genuinely curious about Polaris.

Athene had had to turn down the chance to go when Polaris had invited him to her wedding, because he hadn’t felt able to go at the time, because it had been back when Ida was missing and he had felt that it was more important to try and search for his missing friend, team mate and flatmate.

He wasn’t going to turn down a second chance.

He had remembered to snag his winter coat, vaguely remembering that Polaris had mentioned that (unlike Athene) the North Star with which she shared her senshi name was a cold one and had the coat bundled (somewhat awkwardly) in the generic-looking reusable carrier bag that was dangling from his left hand as he made his way over to the park.

It hadn’t taken that long, the park in question not that far away and Athene had made his way towards the warm aura of a Page that he had picked up on.

He had found Iðavöllr standing by a park bench with a small bag in her hands and had raised his hand in a small wave before moving closer.

Iðavöllr had been somewhat surprised when her cousin had turned up with a winter coat in tow, as a part of her had wondered if Liryn had mentioned the cold to her cousin.

The answer had been.. Unexpected and Iðavöllr hadn’t been able to hide the surprise on her face when Athene had admitted to knowing Princess Polaris.

She’d wanted to ask questions and had opened her mouth to do so, but then Athene had pointed out that it was probably best that they head to her Wonder because his aura wasn’t exactly unnoticeable.

It was a suggestion that she had agreed with, because whilst Iðavöllr wouldn’t say that she was that great with auras, it was hard to miss the way that her cousin’s aura blazed.

In fact she had only come across one Order aura that was stronger - and that had been back with those god awful blight things.

She had waited until her cousin had donned the winter coat however - because whilst she had an outfit that was suitable for the cold, Athene’s outfit most certainly was not - and she had taken the opportunity to thrust the cookies in his direction so as to stop awkwardly holding on to them–

Well that and because she knew that her cousin had always liked her sugar encrusted molasses spice cookies.

They had ended up in the outer gardens and Iðavöllr had found herself keen to show her cousin the fruits of her gardening labours–

Or more accurately, her attempts at gardening.

Whilst Athene had suspected that Iðavöllr would be very different to Athene, the reality had been hard to fully imagine–

And whilst he had been expecting it to be cold, he hadn’t expected the snow covered surroundings or the glimpse of what appeared to be trees in the far distance.

It made him think of a winter wonderland, especially with the gardens of frosted flowers growing in beds in the snow, and whilst there was a wildness to the flowers, it looked like there had been attempts to manage it - likely the fruits of his cousin’s efforts.

"I like it" he told her quietly, even as he reached out absently to touch one of the flowers “They look almost like little frozen stars.”

Little frozen stars, with eight points set atop a startling green.of frozen foliage.

There was something almost.. Peaceful about the gardens, that seemed to invite one to linger despite their overgrown state, and Athene thought he could understand why Iðavöllr (for all her protestations that she was no gardener) had taken to working on them.

Not that Iðavöllr was given him much of a chance to linger as she urged him towards the entrance to the nearby building.

Athene followed along easily enough, but his quiet voice was amused as he pointed out "I’m not sixteen anymore."

Iðavöllr huffed "I know and I know that you brought along a winter coat and all" her lips quirking up in a slight smirk "But I would bet money that Athene is a lot warmer than Iðavöllr based on the differences between our respective outfits and it’s warmer inside the Hall."

And whilst the building lacked heating, it was at least covered.

She paused and frowned slightly for a moment, "Well apart from the archive library, although that can’t be helped as there’s a hole in the ceiling."

She nudged at Athene "But we’re not going there today" because even though Athene had a coat, it didn’t particular hide the fact that his outfit was more suited for warmer weather and Iðavöllr really didn’t want her cousin to end up returning to Destiny City with a cold.

Instead she led the way down the passageway towards the room where she was storing the books that she’d managed to salvage from the library, books neatly stacked up in piles against one wall as she stepped past what had likely once been a partition between rooms towards a fireplace.

"There’s an inner courtyard with another garden" Iðavöllr admitted as she busied herself with lighting the fire "And Liryn managed to find another smaller library." She hadn’t stumbled on that one herself yet, although Iðavöllr figured that she could probably ask Liryn to show her the way at some point.

"The archive library is really big - kind of like something that you’d expect to belong in a big house." Her lips quirked up in a sad smile "And it has a stained glass ceiling that must have been really something at one point."

With the fire lit she tugged over a couple of nice looking cushions that she (or rather Saffron) had bought on impulse and sat down on one of them "But that’s as far as I’ve been and much as I’ve done." Her smile turned wry "It’s not much, I…"

Athene shook his head as he sat on the other cushion "I think that it’s quite a lot actually" he said quietly "Especially since I know that you’re fitting it around work."

And if he was being truthful, Iðavöllr appeared to have spent more time on her Wonder than he’d spent on the homeworld from which he took his name.

"But you know that Liryn would be happy to give you a hand, given that he’d also be getting a Wonder visit out of it" his lips quirked up in a small smile, because the small mauvian’s love of travelling to homeworlds and wonders wasn’t particularly a secret.

The smile faded, Athene hesitating for a moment before adding quietly "And I’d.. I’d also be happy to give you a hand if you want me to."

Iðavöllr considered it for a moment as she withdrew a thermos and two mugs and poured tea into one of them "I’d like that" she admitted "But in return you have to show me your.." She paused about to say Wonder, but did senshi even have Wonders?

"You’ll have to show me yours too" she finally settled on.

She held the mug out in Athene’s direction, waiting for him to take it before pouring tea into the other mug, a companionable silence falling over the two of them as she sipped tea from the mug.

Athene had ended up telling Iðavöllr the difference between homeworlds and wonders to the best of his knowledge, after his cousin had broken the silence that had drifted between them to ask.

Then he’d told her about the strange engraved medallion that he had found on his homeworld last year which he had taken to wearing but still had no idea what it did (if anything)–

And then had somehow ended up finding himself telling her about awakening at summer camp and about meeting H ebe.

At some point Iðavöllr had poured another cup of tea for the two of them and had talked about her encounter with a giant spider back around halloween 2017 and how she’d somehow ended up as Iðavöllr.

She may have also lamented about the fact that she’d somehow ended up with a Christmas ornament of all things–

Well okay had she definitely lamented the ornament.

They ran out of tea. But with neither of them in any particular hurry to head back to Destiny City, Iðavöllr had suggested that they take a walk.

She had doused the fire before they left the room and then had deliberately made a left turn rather than a right because she’d been serious when she’d told her cousin that they wouldn’t be going to the archive library - well at least not on this particular visit.

A small side passage that she’d not had the chance to walk down had caught her attention however and Iðavöllr found herself glad that whilst her Wonder seemed to be lacking heating that the lights at least worked - even if she’d yet to come across what was powering them.

Athene looked thoughtful when Iðavöllr mentioned the lights, "It’s likely magic" he said quietly, because magic was as good a reason as any. "But my senshi phone has a flashlight app which we can use if it comes to it" he added quietly. "Liryn put it on there for me."

A thought occurred to him "Actually have you considered asking Liryn about maybe taking a look with you" because despite his everlasting and still weird interest in clocks Liryn could be pretty handy.

Or was that ‘paw-sy’?

He shook his head slightly at the admittedly lame pun "It’s worth asking him if you haven’t" he continued.

He couldn’t help but continue to glance around the surroundings as they walked, eyes taking in the hallway that despite the damage and neglect still hinted at a past elegance that the damage wasn’t quite able to completely hide.

Actually the Hall (well at least what he’d seen of it so far) seemed to hint at a past elegance that contrasted somewhat with the slightly forbidding exterior - although the outer gardens slightly softened it somewhat.

Athene couldn’t help but wonder whether it was something typical of Polarian architecture, or something more unique to this place.

He kept the thought to himself, however, the thought more of a musing than anything else - and he wasn’t sure if it was one that his cousin would actually know the answer to anyway.

Iðavöllr hadn’t been aiming for any destination in particular, but the small hallway had seemed to lead to what appeared to be another set of storage rooms - or at least what appeared to be storage rooms at any rate–

And whilst it had seemed like somewhere to make note of for the next time she worked on sorting through the archive library books, Iðavöllr didn’t particularly want to spend what time she had left looking at storage.

Athene had been pretty easy about retracing steps however, and it hadn’t taken them particularly long to find a new corridor which had led to a door with the Polaris symbol of the compass rose etched into what looked to be some sort of pale wood.

And whilst Iðavöllr had had a moment when she’d thought that the door might be locked, it had ended up swinging inwards with a soft snick after a slight push.

She stepped inwards across the threshold and then found herself freezing as she took in the room proper, a startled "Oh" escaping her lips–

Because the room beyond the doorway was perhaps in the best condition so far.

The space was a medium but elegant rectangle, a tiled mosaic of various stones making up the floor with the Polaris symbol somehow incorporated in its centre and in the four corners.

There were what appeared to be purple cushions as well, cleverly set so as to seem almost part of the floor design.

But what had really caught her attention was the stained glass ceiling, similar in style to that of the one in the archive window but somehow intact, a soft glow bringing the colours gently to life although Iðavöllr wasn’t able to see the source of the light.

She stepped further into the room, dimly aware of Athene following, as for some reason her last conversation with Ragna suddenly popped to mind–

Namely her ancestor’s vague mention of a meditation chamber.

Was this it?

It was certainly a lot simpler in its way than the archive library and the cushions did bring to mind somewhere to sit and think.

She had no way of knowing though - not without asking Ragna, and it didn’t look like her ghostly ancestor was going to make an appearance.

At least not tonight.

She turned to her cousin "I’m not sure why this room is in a much better condition compared to some of the others, but would you mind if we stop here for a bit?" She found herself asking, because a part of her was loath to leave just yet.

She hesitated for a moment and then added "I think that this may have been a meditation chamber or something of the sort once."

Athene had been quietly taking in the room, because in all honesty it was a beautiful room, but he turned to look up at Iðavöllr at his cousin’s question "Sure" he said quietly because lingering in the room wasn’t something that was exactly a hardship.

"Did you want to try and meditate or something?" He added, not really sure but willing to go with it–

Besides he remembered that his cousin had mentioned something about deciding to try and take up yoga in one their catch up Skype calls whilst he (or rather Arian) had been away - and yoga and meditation kind of went hand in hand.

There was also the fact that she’d mentioned that this room might be a meditation chamber, or more precisely that she thought that it might be one.

"I…" For a moment Iðavöllr hesitated, but then she nodded "Actually yes, if you wouldn’t mind?" because whilst she hadn’t initially been planning on doing so, now that it had been mentioned the thought didn’t appear like it was going to leave her alone.

And whilst she’d made it a question, her cousin had simply reiterated that he didn’t mind before walking over to sit cross-legged on a nearby cushion.

Iðavöllr chose a cushion for herself too, and made herself comfortable before closing her eyes.

It wasn’t really ‘meditation’ as such, as she didn’t really know how - and she doubted that the taster yoga classes that she had tried but not kept up really counted–

But then again she doubted that Athene was going to meditate as such either as her cousin hadn’t mentioned any sudden interest.

She closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift for a while as she tried to relax before trying to concentrate on her breathing.

In.. Out.

In.. Out.

Her thoughts drifted again. Iðavöllr let them, before trying to concentrate on her breathing once again.

It was hard to tell how long she spent sat like that, hard to tell the passage of time without watch or timer, but there was something peaceful about the room and Iðavöllr had to admit that her head did feel clearer when she finally stopped counting around sixty-five or so.

She didn’t ask Athene how he’d spent the time, but on leaving the chamber it had seemed like a good point on which to return to Destiny City and as the surroundings of her Wonder faded to be eventually replaced with those of the park in Destiny City Iðavöllr found herself thinking that she might visit the chamber again in future.

And whilst there had been a point back in the chamber when a certain dark-haired eternal had glowed softly for a moment, it had been at a point where two sets of eyes had been closed and thus no one to notice.

-- 3580 words total --
Iðavöllr -- 2136 words
Athene -- 1401 words