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In Tribute (12) : In the days leading up to the Star Festival, small stone shrines began to appear randomly throughout Destiny City–on rooftops, in alleyways, hidden down long forest paths. They’re small, altar-like platforms with a little bowl in the center and a single glowing stone inside. There’s something peaceful, refreshing, about the shrine, even if no one seems to know who is setting them. However, if the stone is removed, the glow vanishes–along with your sense of peace. This was not your offering to take. Immediately, you feel something breathing on the back of your neck but there’s nothing to be seen. Returning the stone returns the area to an uneasy stillness, but if you attempt to leave without returning the stone, a mounting pressure and anxiety will grow within you. You never make it far from the shrine before some unseen force overtakes you. It feels like a great force collides into your back, and unconsciousness is quick to follow. When you awaken, the shrine is gone. All that remains is pain and fear. If you are tempted to leave an offering of your own, however small, you will find yourself feeling as though you have received the protection of something greater than you can understand. This strange blanket of security will last for the remainder of the day. A shrine never stays in the same place for long but no one ever sees who is setting them up or taking them down.
This was not the first small, stone shrine he'd seen set up since the festival began, but Rakovanite usually did not stop to ponder over them. Destiny City was a cultural hub. Any number of people could have decided this place or that place or many places were beautiful and worthy scenes to worship any number of deities. And for the most part, Rakovanite did not consider pondering the divine to be an effective use of his time. There was no reason to think anything about it.
But the evening was slow-going, murky and grey, with nothing of interest happening and no one around despite the ongoing festivities.
Maybe it was just the calming ambiance of the air, but after circling and circling the area, as if waiting and watching for something to jump at him (nothing did), Rakovanite found himself gravitating to the shrine.
It was set up in a bit of a odd location, a piece of the city that he didn't have appropriate descriptors for. The area wasn't laid with grass or greenery, but a large outdoor square of pretty, marble-y looking stone. Large wrought iron art pieces were erected along the way, interspersed with stony statues in twisting arrays. In the middle of it all a square fountain, atop a set of half a dozen steps on all sides, with this small shrine situated just at the corner of the top step. Not in anyone's way, but very visible. The area would usually be quite busy. It was a nice place to sit and observe. It was strange that no one was here.
He settled a few steps down from the shrine, kneeling down on one knee and balancing on a stair.
None in his immediate family were particularly religious. Even his mother, who had not grown up in America, had deviated far enough from what she'd been raised with as to make her parents- Nataniel's grandparents- uncomfortable. And if they were uncomfortable with her, they were certainly uncomfortable with him. Not unkind, but certainly he was on a path that they didn't approve of.
He didn't know what deity this shrine was for- perhaps just for anyone who wished to have some dialogue with the divine. Rakovanite's head canted, peering at the small, glowing stone within the altar. If he had believed very strongly in the same gods as his grandparents, most of that belief had fizzled out since adorning himself with Chaos power- there were probably some in the Negaverse's ranks who could weave a web explaining how the Galaxy Cauldron could exist alongside omnipotent beings who Judged all of your life choices, but...
It was difficult for Rakovanite to think of anything of more significant power than Metallia. Or the Code. Or the Hollow. They were surely as close to gods as actually existed. And if those were his gods, and his starseed would return to the Cauldron upon his death, regardless of what he did, then...
He shook his head, setting one glittering charm from his great collection of them on the edge of the step in offering to the shrine.
Shanyume
