#hay festival 2023
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@hayfestival: Backstage with Helena ✌️
📸: @billie_charity
#HayFestival2023
#helena bonham carter#dailywomen#userthing#glamoroussource#ladiesofcinema#femaledaily#photoshoots#hay festival 2023#2023#photoshoots: 2023#billie charity 2023
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Eurovision Fact #309:
In tandem with this year's Eurovision Song Contest, the Wales Hay Festival will be hosting a special event called the Eurovision Book Contest. In this special event, fans can submit their favorite piece of fiction in any language from any of the 37 nations participating this year. Books must have been published between 1956 to the present, marking the run of the contest. After the books are submitted, a pannel will vote which book will be dubbed the overall winner.
[Source]
'Hay Festival launches Eurovision Book Contest, championing unity in literature,' Eurovision.tv.
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Source: MCM on Twitter [x]
#excuse me while I cancel my trip to the Hay Festival#ofmd#our flag means death#con o'neill#nathan foad#kristian nairn#mcm comic con#mcm london 2023
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Basant Panchami 2024: फरवरी में कब है वसंत पंचमी?जानिए पूजा विधि और शुभ मुहूर्तBasant Panchami 2024: पंचांग के अनुसार वसंत पंचमी का त्योहार हर साल माघ माह के शुक्ल पक्ष की पंचमी तिथि को मनाया जाता है। यह त्यौहार मुख्य रूप से ज्ञान, विद्या, संगीत और कला की देवी माँ सरस्वती को समर्पित है।
#Basant panchami 2024#basant panchami 2024 shubh muhurat#basant panchami 2024 puja vidhi#saraswati puja 2024#basant panchami 2024 date#basant panchami 2024 mantra#magh month 2024#2023 basant panchami 2023 upay#2024 basant panchami kab hai#basant panchami 2024 importance#Dharm News in Hindi#Festivals News in Hindi#Festivals Hindi News
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Hai Qing for Bazaar Movie Night at the 2023 China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival
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Onam Festival 2023: Ek Birasat Ka Utsav
Onam Festival 2023 me judkar khushi manayein, jo Kerala ki dhaniki sanskriti ka utsav hai. Is lekh me hum Onam Festival 2023 ke itihas, riti rivaj, aur rangin utsavon par vichar karenge.
Prastavana
Onam Festival 2023 ab sirf kuch hi kadam door hai, aur Kerala ke logon ke dilon me utsah ka aabhas ho raha hai. Yeh varshik fasal ka tyohar ek mahatvapurna sanskritik aur paramparik ahmiyat rakhta…
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#Onam Festival#Onam Festival 2023#Onam Festival 2023 kab hoga?#Onam Festival Details in Hindi#Onam Festival ka mahatva kya hai?#Onam Festival ka paramparik bhojan kya hai?#Pulikali kya hai?#Vallamkali kya hai?
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#parsi new year kya hota hai#parsi new year in hindi#parsi new year 2023#parsi new year holiday#parsis festivals#new year festivals of india#navroz 2023
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Holi 2023 | holi in 2023 | Bollywood films | festival Movies | films | holi date 2023 | holi kab hai 2023 | 2023 holi
Holi 2023: Twist came in the story from the festival of Holi in these Bollywood films, enjoy with family
You must have seen Holi, the festival of colours, many times in different stories on the big screen of Hindi cinema. But one thing that is common in these films is that after the celebration of this festival, the story takes a turn.
Image Source: TWITTER Holi 2023
As soon as the festival of…
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#2023 holi#Bollywood films#festival Movies#films#Holi 2023#holi date 2023#holi in 2023#holi kab hai 2023
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#holi#holi celebration#holi party#holi party ideas#holi 2023#holi hai#festive#festivevibes#festival#festiveseason
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Holi Festival 2023 Date, time, History, Color, Quotes
Holi Festival 2023 : होली जो सनातन धर्म के लोगों का सबसे बड़ा पर्व है होली को लेकर काफी असमंजस की स्थिति बनी हुई है, कुछ लोगों का मानना है कि होली 7 मार्च को, कुछ लोगों का मानना है कि होली 8 मार्च को मनाई जाएगी आज के इस आर्टिकल के अंदर हम यही जानेंगे कि होली का शुभ मुहूर्त कब का है होली का पर्व फाल्गुन महीने में आता है 7 मार्च को दिन मनाया जाएगा और अगले दिन 8 मार्च को धूलंडी मनाई जाएगी |
होली…
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#holi 2023 date#holi colours#Holi Festival 2023#Holi Hindi Filmy Songs#holi kab ki hai#Holi shayari in hindi
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Makar Sankranti: भगवान सूर्य के मकर राशि में प्रवेश के दिन मनाया जाता है मकर संक्रांति का पर्व। इस वर्ष 14 जनवरी को मनाई जाएगी मकर संक्रांति/Makar Sankranti14 जनवरी 2023 को सूर्य मकर राशि में/Sun Transit in Capricorn रात्रि 08:45 बजे प्रवेश करेगा, इसलिए मकर संक्रांति का पुण्यकाल 15 जनवरी को प्रातः 7:19 से सांयकाल 05:39 तक रहेगा
मकर संक्रांति शुभ पूजा मुहूर्त: 15 जनवरी 2023, प्रातः 09:53 से दोपहर 12:31 तक
पतंग महोत्सव के नाम से भी मनाया जाता है ये पर्व।
क्योंकि इस दिन पतंग उड़ाने की भी है परंपरा।
इस शुभ दिन पर पवित्र नदियों में स्नान करने से मिलता है अनंत कोटि पुण्य।
इस दिन गौ माता को हरा चारा खिलाने से प्राप्त होती है आर्थिक समृद्धि।
इस शुभ दिन सूर्य उपासना करना होता है बेहद कल्याणकारी।
इस दिन गुड़ व तिल से बने पदार्थ खाने से प्राप्त होती है सूर्य व शनिदेव की कृपा।
इस दिन खिचड़ी का दान करने से दूर होता है दुःख-दारिद्रय।
इस दिन काले तिल व काली वस्तुओं का दान करने से दूर होता है शनि दोष।
इस दिन तांबे के लोटे में रोली व गुड़ डालकर सूर्यदेव को अर्घ्य देने से मिलती है सफलता।
इस शुभ दिन पर घी का दान करने से नौकरी व व्यापार में मिलती है सफलता।
इस पवित्र दिन पर कंबल का दान करने से दूर होती है राहु-केतु की पीड़ा।
यदि आप अन्य किसी व्रत व त्योहार का शुभ पुजा मुहुर्त जानना चाहते है तो, आज का पंचांग/Today's Panchang देखे या अपनी राशि वार्षिक राशिफल 2023/Yearly Horoscope 2023 पढने के लिए यहा क्लिक करें।
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@adamtattonreid: Some highlights from behind the lens during the first half of @hayfestival
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September 2023 witch guide
September 2023 witch guide
Full moon: September 29th
New moon: September 14th
Sabbats: Mabon September 23rd
September Harvest Moon
Also known as: Autumn moon, falling leaves moon, song moon, leaves turning moon, moon of brown leaves, yellow leaf moon, wine moon & Full corn moon
Element: Earth
Zodiac: Virgon& Libra
Animal spirits: Trooping Faeries
Deities: Brigid, Ceres, Ch'ang-o, Demeter, Freya, Isis & Vesta
Animals: Jackal & snake
Birds: Ibis & sparrow
Trees: Bay, hawthorn, hazel & larch
Herbs/plants: Copal, fennel, rye, skullcap, valerian, wheat & witch hazel
Flowers: Lily & Narcissus
Scents: Bergamot, gardenia, mastic & storax
Stones: Bloodstone, chrysolite, citrine, olivine, peridot & sapphire
Colors: Browns, dark blue, greens & yellows ( Earth tones)
Energy: Balance of light & dark, dietary matters, employment, health, intellectual pursuits, prosperity, psychism, rest, spirituality, success & work environments. Also cleaning & straightening mentally, physically & spiritually.
Technically, the Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the September equinox around September 21st. The Harvest Moon is the only Full Moon name determined by the equinox rather than a month. Most years, it’s in September, but around every three years, it falls in October.
In September, the Full Moon is the Corn Moon from the Native American tribes harvesting their corn. It can also be the Harvest Moon, which corresponds with the Anglo-Saxon name, while Celtic and Old English names are Wine Moon, Song Moon, and Barley Moon.
Mabon
Also known as: Autumn Equinox, Cornucopia, Witch's Thanksgiving & Alban Elved
Season: Fall
Symbols: Acorns, apples, autumn leaves, berries, corn, cornucopia (horn of plenty), dried seeds, gourds, grains, grapes, ivy, pine cones, pomegranates, vines, wheat, white roses & wine
Colors: Blue brown, drk red, deep gold, gold, indigo, lead green, maroon, orange, red, russet, violet & yellow
Oils/incense: Apple, apple blossom, benzoin, black pepper, hay/straw, myrrh, passion flower, patchouli, pine, red poppy & sage
Animals: Dog, goose, hawk, swan, swallow & wolf
Stones: Agate, amethyst, carnelian, lapis lazuli, sapphire, yellow Agate & yellow topaz
Foods: Apples, blackberries, blackberry wine, bread, carrots, cider, corn, cornbread, grapes, heather wine, nuts, onions, pomegranates, potatoes, squash, vegetables, wheat & winw
Herbs/plants: Acorn, benzoin, cedar, corn, cypress, ferns, grains, hazel, hops, ivy, myrrh, oak, pine, sage, sassafras, Salomon's seal, thistle, tobacco & wheat
Flowers: Aster, heather, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, mum,passion flower& rose
Goddesses: Danu, Epona, Modron, Morrigan, Muses, Pomona, Persephone, Sophia & Sura
Gods: Esus, Green Man, Hermes, Mabon, Mannanan, Toth & Thor
Issues, Intentions & Powers: Accomplishment, agriculture, balance, goals, gratitude & grounding
Spellworks: Balance, harmony, protection, prosperity, security & self confidence
Related festivals:
• Sukkot- is a Torah-commanded holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Hebrew: שלוש רגלים, shalosh regalim) on which those Israelites who could were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to its harvest roots, the holiday also holds spiritual importance with regard to its abandonment of materialism to focus on nationhood, spirituality, and hospitality, this principle underlying the construction of a temporary, almost nomadic, structure of a sukkah.
• Mid-Autumn festival- also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture. Similar holidays are celebrated by other cultures in East & Southeast Asia. It is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture; its popularity is on par with that of Chinese New Year. The history of the Mid-Autumn Festival dates back over 3,000 years. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar lunisolar calendar with a full moon at night, corresponding to mid-September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. On this day, the Chinese believe that the Moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of Autumn.
• Thanksgiving- This is a secular holiday which is similar to the cell of Mabon; A day to give thanks for the food & blessings of the previous year. The American Thanksgiving is the last Thursday of November while the Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated in October
• Festival of Dionysus- There were several festivals that honored Dionysus, the God of wine. It was a time of fun, games, feasting & drinking wine.
Activities:
•Scatter offerings in a harvested fields, Offer libations to trees
• Decorate your home and/or altar space for fall
• Bake bread
• Perform a ritual to restore balance and harmony to your life
• Cleanse your home of negative energies
• Pick apples
• Have a dinner or feast with your family and/or friends
• Set intentions for the upcoming year
• Purge what is no longer serving you
•Take a walk in the woods
• Enjoy a pumpkin spice latte
• Donate to your local food bank
• Gather dried herbs, plants, seeds & pods
• Learn something new
• Make wine
• Brew an apple cinnamon simmer pot
• Create an outdoor Mabon altar
•Adorn burial sites with leaves, acorns, & pinecones to honor those who have passed over & visit their graves
Many cultures see the second harvest (after the first harvest Lammas) and equinox as a time for giving thanks. This time of year is when farmers know how well their summer crops did, and how well fed their animals have become. This determines whether you and your family would have enough food for the winter. That is why people used to give thanks around this time, thanks for their crops, and animals, and food.
The name Mabon comes from the Welsh God, who was the son of the Earth Mother Goddess. However, there is evidence that the name was adopted in the 1970s, and the holiday was not originally a Celtic celebration.
Some believe Night and day are of equal legth and the God's energy & strength are nearly gone . The Goddess begins to mourn the loss she knows is coming, but knows he will return when he reborn at Yule.
Sources:
Farmersalmanac .com
Wikipedia
Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines
A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs
Mabon: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for the Autumn Equinox Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials
#witchcraft#wheel of the year#sabbat#mabon#Corn moon#Harvest moon#witchblr#wiccablr#paganblr#pagan#Wicca#grimoire#spellbook#book of shadows#witches of tumblr#tumblr witch#moon magic#witch tips#witch guide#traditional witchcraft#witch community#witch society#witchy things#witches#witch friends#greenwitchcrafts#All witches#correspondence#witchyvibes#witchcore
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Buck Moon - July 3, 2023
Put on your flower crowns and your dancing shoes, it's time for the Buck Moon!
Buck Moon
The Buck Moon is the name given to the full moon in the month of July and is called this because at this time of year, the antlers on male deer are at the height of growth and impressiveness. This month also marks the first supermoon of the year!
Other European names for the July moon include Hay Moon and Wort Moon. North American Indigenous names for this moon include Salmon Moon (Tlingit), Berry Moon (Anishinaabe), Month of the Ripe Corn Moon (Cherokee), and Raspberry Moon (Algonquin, Ojibwe).
The West Abenaki also call this the Thunder Moon in reference to the often-stormy summer weather. (This one is my personal favorite and the name appears in lunar calendars just as often as the Buck Moon.)
What Does It Mean For Witches?
The July full moon continues June's template of planning for the future, this time with a focus on your passions and ambitions. Reflect on what you've accomplished so far this year and plan your next step.
Dream big and plan big, but don't give in to reckless urgency. Summer (and capitalist grind culture) gives us the urge to Go Go Go. Despite all this, it's important to take time to rest and recharge, lest we find ourselves burning out and losing our motivation.
What Witchy Things Can We Do?
Celebrate your victories and revel in the abundance of the summer season. If you're inclined to do so, take a page from the deer and do a bit of prancing around a bonfire or your favorite flower arbor with some festive flowery headgear.
Go exploring! Find a local park or garden and take a stroll among the greenery, or use TV and the internet to explore and learn about faraway places. This is another opportune time to go and check out pick-your-own farms and farmers markets as well. Sharpen your foraging and plant identification skills while you're out and about!
If you're tending a garden, harvest some herbs and investigate what you can make with them. Whether it's seasoning for meals, homemade botanical products, or just helpful spell ingredients, many herbs and flowers have a plethora of uses. As an exercise, select three plants growing in your garden, research their magical correspondences and botanical properties, and try to think of as many ways as possible to use each one for witchcraft and for practical purposes.
(Safety Note: Always clean and prepare home-harvested herbs properly before using them for kitchen, bath, or medical preparations. Always consult a doctor before trying an herbal treatment and take all allergies, medications, and pre-existing conditions into account. Please also note that while herbal treatments can be helpful, it can have negative interactions and side effects just like any other medication, and it is not meant to be a replacement for modern medical care.)
Apart from the usual full-moon festivities, I've always found this is an excellent time for weather-witching. Summer weather is notoriously fickle, but it is also highly malleable - one recalls that old American Southern epithet of, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes."
If you're hoping to bring some rain to water your garden or break the back of a heat wave, this may be the time to do it. My personal favorite folk magic ritual for rain-calling involves going outside with a broom and a bucket of water, using the broom to scatter drops of water over your yard, and shouting up to the clouds, "SEE? IT'S NOT HARD!"
Make sure you take local weather patterns into account and try to draw on existing fronts and nearby precipitation to get the desired result. And keep in mind that with weather magic, less is more and one casting is enough. Asking for too much or asking too often can produce undesirable results. And if you manage to make it rain, be sure to collect some for moon water!
If you're interested in weather-witching, I highly recommend checking out this masterpost by @stormbornwitch for a number of excellent articles and suggestions.
Happy Buck Moon, witches! 🌕🦌
Further Reading:
Buck Moon: Full Moon in July 2023, The Old Farmer's Almanac
Buck Moon 2023: The Awesome Spiritual Meaning of July's Full Moon, Amanda Brethauer, The Peculiar Brunette
The Hearth Witch's Garden Herbal, Anna Franklin, Llewellyn Publications, 2023.
Everyday Moon Magic: Spells & Rituals for Abundant Living, Dorothy Morrison
(If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊)
#witch community#full moon#moon magic#lunar magic#witchblr#witchcraft#buck moon#thunder moon#weather magic#pagan#lunar calendar
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Holi 2024 Date: साल 2024 में कब है होली? यहां जानिए सही तारीख और पूजा विधिHoli 2024 Date and subh mhurat: हिंदू धर्म में होली का त्योहार बहुत ही हर्षोल्लास के साथ मनाया जाता है। हर साल फाल्गुन मास के शुक्ल पक्ष की पूर्णिमा की शाम से ही होली का त्योहार शुरू हो जाता है।
#Kab hai holi 2024#holi 2024 date#when is holi 2024#holi 2024 date in india#holi 2024 kab hai#holika dahan time 2024#holika dahan 2024#holika dahan 2023 date#holika dahan 2023 muhurat#Dharm News in Hindi#Festivals News in Hindi#Festivals Hindi News
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Owlcatober 2023 Day 1: Protection (and Memory!)
My first entry for Owlcatober! (@owlcatober). I'd promised myself a min 500 words and ended up with 4,585!
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Commander (Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous), Seelah (Pathfinder RPG)
Additional Tags: Owlcatober (Pathfinder), Heart-to-Heart, Armor, just girls having a heart to heart chat over polishing some heavy plate armor, Amnesia, Memory Loss
Series: Part 1 of Siren's Owlcatober 2023
Summary:
Not yet Knight Commander, Minovae Arangeir retreats to the quiet of Defender's Heart's stables to polish heavy armor "scavenged" from the battlefield. The weight of her missing memories sits heavily on her, having woken up only days ago in Kenabres with only a name and country of origin. Her steadfast new friend, Seelah, has her own thoughts on the matter.
The armor came apart easily under Minovae’s hands, seemingly remembering by muscle what she couldn’t by memory. The plackart and cuirass separated with some bolts, and next came the faulds; which she didn’t like, for some reason. Another word floated to her distantly from the hazy soup that was her thoughts: tassets. Something in her told her that she preferred tassets. The fact that she knew what they were—the sheets of armor that extended down the thigh from the waist—much less that she had a preference for them, made her sigh heavily as she worked. She hardly knew anything else about herself since waking at that festival however many days ago. Armor, though? Important enough to her to remember, apparently. No, not just remember but have preferences for! Was it because of her tail? That made sense, given the thought of reattaching the faulds to the plackart in her hands made the top of it ache and itch with phantoms. She must’ve had bad experiences before, confirmed as images flashed in her mind then: the sight of her ganzi scales, cracked and oozing from armor chafe, and said armor, so ill fitting, being replaced with a new suit of something… dark… Far darker than what was in her lap now…
She growled in frustration as the image abruptly slipped away from her, feathers bristling from the back of her neck all the way down her spine. Even the tip of her tail snapped, the sound of the plume at the end like a soft whip crack. She nearly threw the armor piece away, wanting to hurl it into the corner of the stable where the hay would catch it, but that strange, cold restraint from before washed over her again. It was the same as when the flash of rage had taken her in the Shield Maze at the revelation of what’d happened to the mongrels, towards Hosilla and Wenduag, who even thinking of now brought confusing feelings of guilt and mistake. But like before, with that burning heat of rage, icy discipline welling from somewhere else within her snuffed it out. The feeling, like gauntlets cooly alighting on her shoulder and wrist and curling underneath her chin, not to crush or harm but to guide and hold her head high, shut out the bristling chaos of emotion.
Breathe, it told her, and so she did.
She reclined backward with a deep inhale, looking up at the stable roof where she noted the holes in the thatching that would make this place into a puddle should the sky open. Stars twinkled through the holes, and something in her squeezed at the sight, like she… she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a clear night sky, a thought that carried with it some horror she had no recollection of.
And breathe again. She followed the order, exhaling deeply and shunting those star-born feelings too, away to someplace else.
Calm descended upon her once more. She relaxed back into the position she’d been in previously, where her violet eyes—unnervingly bright—stared back up at her from the now much cleaner cuirass in her lap. The weariness in them was apparent.
There was no point chasing these flashes of memory, she reminded herself. The harder she tried, the more elusive they became, like trying to grab a bar of soap from the depths of the tub. They came to her only subconsciously as nagging reminders, or the opposite of when you walk through a doorway and forget what you’d just been about to do. The most she could do was continue what she’d been doing before that’d caused them to appear in the first place—even as much as she was terrified of knowing the truth of herself. Waking up with no memory in the middle of demonic invasion, knowing how to fight, knowing instinctively of demons and cults and how they worked, with this wound on her chest that ached like nothing else and being… what she was, given tieflings seem to fill the cults’ ranks in droves and she was something similar enough…
And knowing that that gripping, snarling, devouring rage that came over her in the Shield Maze had to have come from somewhere deep down within her; from the parts she couldn’t remember. Even if that discipline that’d corrected and steeled her resolve had come from the same place, the fact the former existed at all filled her with a disquiet she couldn’t bear to think overly long on.
She was afraid of herself. There was no denying it.
But there was no denying this armor had to be cleaned, either. Fear over the self she didn’t know resurfacing through muscle memory be damned.
And so her hands moved over the pieces of armor once more, their names and purposes coming to her idly, as she scrubbed them cleaned with the rag. From the same places that knowledge came did the knowledge that demonic viscera had to be cleaned out fast, something about the acidity in the blood causing rust, even with proper solvent and oiling routines. She somehow knew what those were too, having grabbed containers of both from the meager equipment ‘armory’ in the inn’s pantry, which were now both sitting off to the side next to her here in the Defender’s Heart stables. She could have done this in her room, but the bustle and din inside the inn had quickly grown suffocating at the thought—especially with the risk of their newest ‘recruit’ seeking her attention while in the midst of it.
Count Arendae seemed to have figured out quickly that nearly everything about him repulsed her, to her chagrin. Which, combined with the fact he seemed particularly infatuated with her ganzi-ness, meant that he couldn’t seem to leave her well enough alone for more than an hour at a time. All so many insinuating euphemisms disguised as questions about her scales and feathers and fangs! She could hardly remember more than her name, and yet the answers had come as easily to her mind as easily as she’d told him to shut the Hells up and make himself useful about the place. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, though. His healing abilities paired with his shocking willingness to lend them made him just tolerable enough to keep around.
He very much was like the second-hand armor she was currently working so hard to get into serviceable condition, in a way. The cultist that’d been wearing it had barely been dead on the ground for an entire second before she’d clocked that he hadn’t just been wearing half-plate, but enchanted half-plate. Something in her had called out for it, had been calling for it since she’d woken only with scalemail at that damned festival, the lightness having made her feel as naked as a babe. This half-plate wasn’t perfect—she craved something even heavier, her limbs without a doubt accustomed to more than even this—but, much like with Daeran, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Like wearing a dead man’s armor. That she’d slain herself.
At least the chalk and blood scrawling of Baphomet’s unholy symbol had come off with barely any elbow grease needed. She would just… try not to think too hard about where the armor she would be wearing came from.
Suddenly, the sound of approaching boots, heavy, snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see a familiar smile, as radiant as the sword on its owner’s hip, approaching from across the Defender’s Heart enclave. Even over the din of survivors and guards and crusaders shoring up the inn’s defenses, distributing other recovered arms and armor to those that could bear it, and the mixed chorus of bitter laughter and desperate sobs, Seelah’s footfalls could be heard as clear as the support drumbeat in a tavern song.
“There you are, Minnow! I was wondering where you’d gotten off to”, she beamed at her as Minovae gave a short wave and dip of her chin in greeting.
The paladin, coming to the side of the stable’s half-doors still closed, rested her forearms on the sill. She seemed about to say something more, a question on her lips, only for her smile to falter to bewilderment upon seeing the pieces of dismantled armor surrounding Minovae on the stable floor. “Woah! Careful, you know that stuff isn’t easy to put back together. Plate armor is in short supply around here.”
“In such short supply that I had to take this off of a dead cultist, yeah”, Minovae cracked a grin in response. “You don’t think they’ll miss it, will you?”
“Uhh, given how you smashed his head like a melon on a summery holiday, I think the only thing he’ll be missing in the Boneyard is a helmet.”
Something dark had passed across the paladin’s gaze beneath now furrowed brows, and the normal humorous note in her tone sounded uncharacteristically strained. Something in Minovae sank at the sight and at some realization. It’d just come naturally to her, that way of fighting, and she hadn’t batted an eye at the aftermath.
“...Am I really that brutal in combat?”, she asked, voice having gone quiet.
Seelah blinked, and Minovae watched as she made a concerted, determined effort to reignite her dazzling smile. Even knowing the effort, it did make her feel better to see in a way. Seelah just kind of had that effect, like when the sun finally reappeared after a streak of cloudy days.
“In particular? No, I think that just comes with the territory of bludgeoning weapons, sis’,” she reassured her. “They tend to make a mess, which is why you probably fight with a shield, too. Helps catch the—”, a grimace broke between the words, “—splatter.”
Was it? Minovae considered it. The call to a shield had been as strong as the call to heavier armor, something in her accustomed to it like wearing normal clothing. Fighting without either throughout the caves beneath Kenabres and the Gray Garrison had felt like fighting in her skivvies. It wasn’t because of the blunt-weapon splatter, no, even though the grip of the warhammer she’d taken from a rack in the Shield Maze had been as familiar as breathing. All she’d known was that she was called to the front line of their little fighting group, that her rightful spot was in the vanguard, because the thought of anyone else getting hurt when it could—and should—be her filled her with shame and horror. You can’t keep everyone else protected if you can’t keep yourself protected…
“...You really still don’t remember who you are, do you?”
The question made her realize a few seconds of silence had passed, and that she’d been frowning, expression frozen into a pensive look. She looked back up at Seelah, noting that soft, concerned look in her warm brown eyes.
“No… Just the flashes here and there. Like—”, she gestured at the pieces of armor around her, “—I know the names of all these pieces, and how they come apart and go back together again. I know they have to be cleaned and polished and oiled, and I know demon blood rusts and rots even the most babied steel. I know how to wear it and fight in it, just as I know how to sunder it off the enemy… And I know how to angle a shield to drive it into the gaps of armor, and that if you bring a hammer down onto the edge, you’ve got a makeshift guillotine…”
A flash of disgust and horror shot through Seelah’s expression at that last part Minovae said almost unconsciously. She hadn’t even known that she’d known that. It’d just come out with all the rest, like more of the same. Not wanting to linger on that particular imagery for long, she continued.
“But as for why I know all of this…? Seelah, I don’t even know where to start”, she sighed with a shrug of her shoulders and an agitated rattle at the tip of her tail.
“Hey, that’s okay, you know!”, Seelah reassured, tone back to its cheeky self. “You fight demons like you’re born for it and you’ve got a heart of gold. You might not know who you were but I know who you are: someone I trust.”
Minovae balked at that. “How can you say you trust me? How can anyone trust me in this situation! I could be just another cultist that’s just forg—”
“HAAAAAAAAH!”
She jumped at the sudden howl of Seelah’s laughter, cutting her off.
The sheer oomph of it had thrown the paladin’s head back. Seelah practically howled in amusement to the night sky above, and Minovae could only stare in wide-eyed surprise. It carried on for some few seconds, before Seelah fell back over the stable half-door, shaking her eye and wiping a tear from her eyes.
“Minnow, seriously? I know you’ve got a dark sense of humor but you are not a cultist.”
Indignance licked like a little burning flame in her gut at how self-assured Seelah sounded, and how her concerns were apparently so outrageous as to howl in laughter. Her lips pressed together tightly before she snapped. “How can you be so sure? Waking up with no memory in the middle of all this and having just the right knowledge to survive what should be impossible odds is a bit convenient!”
Seelah just stared at her, smirk having gone smugly confident enough as to further rile that knot of annoyance the laughter had stirred within her.
“Because, Minnow, by the grace of Iomedae—”, Minovae swallowed down her atheistic distaste at the smugness in the declaration, “—I can sense evil. And you? You look like a decorated tree during Crystalhue with how brightly you shine with Goodness.”
That gave her pause. She felt a heat creep into her cheeks, could feel them reddening beneath the seafoam colored scales lining them. Figuring out how she could ever respond to that left the two warrior women in silence for some few seconds as she mentally puttered through her thoughts. Seelah only looked more knowingly self-assured in her smile with each passing one.
“I… I…”, Minovae eventually sputtered, before breathing deep and turning her attention back downwards to the half-cleaned armor she’d come out here to tend to. “...I’m just someone trying to do what I can out here, okay? I don’t know if that makes me a shining paragon of ‘Goodness’ in your goddess’ eyes or whatever. I’m just… doing my part, you know? Because I can fight and that means I can protect, even if I don’t know how or why or where those skills came from.”
Seelah’s own response was an amused snort, exhaled through her nose. Minovae didn’t bother to look up, suddenly feeling like she’d been thrown into a matron’s washbucket and churned all about with the washing pole. The feelings of fear over her unknown past and the unquestionable proof that was a paladin’s metaphysical senses—calling it confusing didn’t even begin to cut it. Instead, she reached for the solvent over her shoulder on the bale of hay she’d parked herself against and began to dab it on a particularly nasty clump of grime caught in the curves of where the plackart hugged the wearer’s sides. When was the last time this was cleaned? She’d gotten it off a cultist, she reminded herself, so probably never.
Movement in the corner of her vision told her that Seelah wasn’t done with her yet, though. The paladin straightened up, pulling herself off the sill, and rounded the half of the door already opened. A great clanking of armor sounded as she crossed the hay-strewn floor and subsequently unceremoniously plopped herself into a cross-legged sit directly across from Minovae, sending pieces of hay flying from the gust of air.
Minovae said nothing. She kept her attention downward to the armor, the piece already cleaned but not wanting to risk her reaching for another to work on as concession or acknowledgement of the paladin’s presence. Frustration and annoyance and confusion rolling in her chest like a tangle of cats. Why did she take so poorly to being comforted? Or complimented? Or reassured?
Because that’s your job, something in her said. You’re the protector. You’re the guardian. Seelah is your junior. You are the one that needs to look after her. It’s your job as her commander offic—But, no. She wasn’t. She was no one’s ‘commanding officer’... Why that word?
A rustling, clanking sound made her blink back into focus. She looked up from the work in her lap and hands to find Seelah in the middle of doffing her own armor, a flat, determined expression on her face.
“What?”, Seelah paused, flashing a daring, challenging grin. “You’ve already got all the stuff out for it. I might as well join you. Like you said, demon blood chews through armor like nothing else.”
Minovae merely stared at her, feeling suddenly very exhausted. Ultimately, she shrugged, and scooted the bucket of water and cleaner rags to within Seelah’s reach, knowing full well this was an excuse to continue this conversation further. “Alright, then.”
To her credit, at least, Seelah managed to pass some several minutes in silence; save for asking Minovae to pass the picks or solvent every now and again. It was almost calming, in a way, sharing the space with someone else working on their own armor.
Nostalgic, she realized. It was familiar and comforting. It felt, bizarrely, like home.
And then Seelah broke the silence.
“You know, when I made that comment about that cultist missing his helmet”, she said so quietly that Minovae second-guessed whether she’d spoked at all. “I wasn’t actually thinking about him. Or you.”
Minovae paused in where she’d been oiling up the now re-assembled breastplate in her hands. Slowly, she looked up into Seelah’s face, finding that the paladin was staring off into space, her expression now more pensive. A knot of worry clenched in her stomach. The last thing she’d wanted was to pass off her worries and foul feelings onto someone else—in fact, that’s why she’d attempted to end the conversation. Now it turned out that Seelah hadn’t been alluding to how Minovae handled herself in combat? With how easily she took the lives of their enemies, with nary a blink nor worry about the gore? She felt a rise of sheepishness at how self-absorbed she was to have assumed it’d been about her, but banished it handily; you are the one that looks after everyone else. Fix this.
She swallowed, and invited the connection.
“Okay… so, what were you thinking about, then? The way your tone had fallen, it sounded like it’d really troubled you.”
Seelah breathed deep—inhale, exhale, so much like how she had calmed herself earlier—and leveled her with a trusting gaze. “...Can I tell you a story? About who I was before I became Seelah the paladin?”
Where was this conversation going? Minovae held her stare for a few moments, realizing that Seelah was about to share something with her deeply personal. She was as touched about it as she was uncomfortable, but that internal command insisted yet again, fix this.
And so she nodded, and Seelah shared her story.
She listened in rapt attention, hardly touching the armor at all, as Seelah told her all about the mithral helmet she’d stolen from a paladin named Acemi when she was but a young thief. She listened as Seelah detailed the guilt that’d overtaken her, having stolen from the very people that’d come to Solku to protect people like her—yes, even the thieves and the criminals, because that’s what paladins do. She listened, and tempered her reaction as she knew where the story was going even before Seelah described how Acemi, who had been among the bravest of those paladins, perished holding the gates against the endless horde of gnolls a Solku’s gates; about she’d crumpled from taking a flail to the skull.
A blow that that stolen helmet might have saved her from.
“From that day onward I… I knew I had to make up for it. I promised myself to justice and goodness right then, and now here I am”, she sighed, shoulders relaxing along with her breath. “Seelah the paladin may not be the Acemi the world lost because of her stupid, selfish choices, but I’m just… I’m doing my part!”
She said the last part, parroting those words back at her, with a renewed zeal and bright smile.
Minovae couldn’t help but respond in kind, feeling herself smile wider than hardly anytime else since she’d awoken in Kenabres.
“You know, you really are the model paladin…”, she chuckled softly. “Climbing onto a funeral pyre in guilt and living for the woman that let you keep that helmet even knowing you took it.”
Seelah gave her a wry chuckle back, grin going lopsided. “You bet I am. Just as you’ve decided you need to protect all these people even when the only thing you remember is your own name and that you’re from Cheliax. Most would be more concerned with their own problems, you know.”
“...It’d be wrong of me not to”, Minovae shrugged. “Like I said, I’m just doing my part. The thought of abandoning any of these people—”
“—Even that Horgus Gwerm guy?”, Seelah interrupted, eyes shining mirthfully.
Minovae couldn’t help but snort in response, eyebrows waggling as she rolled her eyes. “Yes, even that selfish sense of ego with legs, and the sentient cockroach that is Count Arendae. Abandoning any of them to the demons feels like… it feels like… betrayal…”
The word came to her unwittingly, supplied by the void of memory deep within her. A betrayal of all you believe in.
Seelah sat up straighter at that. She crossed her arms, and beamed at Minovae challengingly.
“Well, there you have it then. Does it matter who you were and what awful things you might have done if this is who you are now?”
It does. It most definitely does, she wanted to say. Some crimes cannot be repaid with service, no matter how good. Seelah’s expression, though, so reassuringly confident and beaming as it was, stilled the words on her tongue, just as the true meaning of the question in light of the story she’d entrusted her with did.
“...I suppose you’re right”, she said instead, turning her attention back towards polishing the breastplate to a gleaming shine. “Minovae the maybe-once-cultist and Seelah the once-helmet-thief, what a heroic pair we make.”
Seelah chuckled again. “Even saying that, I don’t think you were a cultist. If anything, I think you were much similar to me than you realize, atheism be damned.”
That soured her mood all over again. It wasn’t a joke either, she could tell that for certain. Seelah hadn’t said it in the joking voice. She’d been entirely serious about it.
Minovae snorted derisively. “I was not a paladin, I can assure you of that.”
“No?”, Seelah challenged, at the same time exchanging one clean pauldron for the one still in need of treatment. “You know how to fight demons. You’re braver than most every other Crusader I’ve ever met. You have a sense of justice and goodness like any of my brothers and sisters. And, you call out orders and tactics so clearly in combat that even Camellia falls into line without question.”
Minovae listened with increasing annoyance as Seelah listed off each example as if it were concrete proof. The breastplate beneath her oil rag squeaked from the growing force with which she polished it.
“None of those things are unique to paladins, you know”, she asserted.
“They aren’t, and normally I would agree with you”, Seelah nodded. “If it was just one of those things. But all of them?”, she clicked her tongue and chuckled. “Who knows, maybe ol’ Seelah will rub off on you.”
Minovae didn’t deign the unintended insult with a response, save for reminding her that she was most likely the older of the two. If there was one thing she knew for sure about herself, she most definitely had not been a paladin. The thought of serving the gods filled her with disgust, and it took another invitation of that cool restraint to keep the outrage of Seelah insisting on such a thing from gaining too much of a foothold.
But it did do one thing, at least. Thinking more on it, it wasn’t just the gods that the thought of serving sent her reeling. It was any divine power—demon lords included.
Meaning, she absolutely had not been a cultist.
The relief carried into her previously uplifted mood from before. She felt herself grinning again, and as she nodded in approval at her handiwork of the cleaned and polished armor reassembled in her hands, a mischievously dark thought crossed into her mind.
“Hmm, you don’t think it’s infectious, do you?”, she purposefully held the armor aloft, turning it around as she examined herself in the shine to catch Seelah’s attention. She felt the paladin’s questioning gaze alight on her, and continued before she could speak. “I won’t be struggling to spell the name of my ‘Lord and Savior, Baphomet’ like the cutlists we ran into when we picked up Nenio the second I put this on, right?”
Her gaze flitted past the armor to Seelah’s, who now looked at her with scrunched-brow concern over an uncomfortable half-smile. Minovae had learned pretty quickly in the paladin’s company that while she had a sense of humor, it wasn’t nearly as dark nor morbid as her own. She appreciated lighthearted jokes and optimism. Her own strayed way closer to gallows humor.
“Are… are you joking that you’ll become a cultist just because you salvaged some armor they had probably stolen themselves?”
Minovae pursed her lips, and pointedly returned her focus to the armor in question. “You never know, Seelah. What if the previous owner was the original cultist? And the guy we killed earlier had just been some bookmaker or something looking for some protection? Then, bam!—”, she rapped her knuckles across the polished breastplate for effect, “—suddenly cultist.”
She saw Seelah’s jaw drop out of focus. “What!? No! That’s absurd, Minnow! People don’t just start serving demon lords because of something like that!”
“Is it? Well where else do all these cultists come from, then?”, she challenged, leading Seelah along to the line of thought she hoped would make her choke on that insistence that she’d been a paladin, or would be, enough so that she’d never think it ever again. “You don’t think they just talk to would-be prospects? ‘Hey! I saw you’re a right backstabbing son of a bitch. You’ll make for a great champion of Baphomet! Want to enlist?’ ‘Sure thing! I’m so glad you asked! I will adopt an entirely new way of life now, just like that!’”
Seelah’s mouth opened, about to retort, only for realization to halt the words before they could come out. She grumbled, pressing her lips together with an annoyed expression before breathing a deep sigh.
“I get it, sheesh. You don’t have to compare me to a cultist recruitment scheme just to get to drop the paladin talk, though.You could have just asked.”
Minovae merely leaned forward and clapped Seelah on the shoulder with a wry smirk. “This leaves a much more lasting impression.”
#oc: minovae arangeir#seelah#pwotr pals#owlcatober#owlcatober 2023#pathfinder wotr#wrath of the righteous#silversirenwrites
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