[attr="class","hkappbody2"]

[attr="class","hkappbody3"]

the metropolis

someone’s shadow

Even if you live in a metropolis of infinite light, what’s the use if you can’t escape your own sister’s shadow? Her mind’s eye saw and enlarged that shadow until it swallowed her whole-- name, shape, identity and life itself. She could hold nothing against her sister, despite the fact that some nights she held everything against her if only to make things simpler for once. But the darkness consumed even that rage, and she felt helpless, like a bird in a cage.[break][break]
Everything she did was compared to that shadow-- she’d met her familiar at fourteen. Well, her sister had done that at thirteen. Everything was measured, and it wasn’t that her parents didn’ love her, no. God forbid she ever think something like that.[break][break]
It was just hard to feel their love, dancing about in the dark in an attempt to dodge false friends and gauge which promises were real and which were simply bribes.[break][break]
It wasn’t a life she wanted to live.

footsteps and footprints

“My name is Polaris.”[break][break]
So she had done it. Despite her mind subconsciously telling her to not be happy at all (ah, her sister had done so much better)-- Asha somehow pushed through and the smile formed at last on her face. It took only two days of talking to her newly-bonded familiar for her to realize that she wasn’t alone. That she never would be. That someone would hear her thoughts and listen to them.[break][break]
And the thought empowered her. [break][break]
Her sister kept trying to teach her transfiguration, but why bother when ice made so much more sense? Why make magic into a science, in all honesty. She couldn’t understand. There were many things she didn’t understand. So she left them a letter, telling them that she’d gone on a journey and hopefully at the end of it all, she’d understand.[break][break]
Despite the tears that fell from her eyes as she stuck the note on the dining table, she could only feel the happiness of leaving burdens behind.[break][break]
There was no looking back.

the wayward journey

the stowaway

She could stuff her long blonde hair behind a hood and tie it in place with some outlandish ribbon. No one recognized her face anyway, so looking like just another someone wasn't going to be too hard for her. She sat quietly on the metro, having since learned to push away the first instict of greeting strangers. Mirrorlight was never a forgiving place, but Asha never learned to be an unforgiving person.[break][break]
Whether it was the uncertainty of being so alone or the excitement of new adventure, Asha managed to keep to herself for the whole of the tram ride. And then she reached the outskirts, were magical trams did not quite work, and she'd have to find a ride to take her there. Where? She wasn't sure. She stepped into the stable, hoping to find an answer to that very question.
[break][break]
It took a whole hour of bartering with the measly goods she had brought and then another thirty minutes of pretending she was starved and about to die (oh, but she was! starved for new experiences...) until finally she landed a simple deal- all her wares and the pretty cape she was wearing, too.
[break][break]
It was a rough and horrendous journey through the forest of Percival on a wagon. But it made even worse by the fact that the person taking her to Sundial seemed to hate her for no justifiable reason. So not only was she semi-starved and displaced everytime there was heavy rainfall, she was also out of luck in terms of human affection and companionship- that was okay. She had her familiar. She'd pull through.
[break][break]
But what made her the sourest was, after about a week of being mistreated, when she reached over to pull her cloak off, the man apologized profusely and said he couldn't possibly take anything from the sister of Shanti Verna. Asha took her cloak and threw it at him, screaming profanities as she turned away. Towards Sundial, towards a better life.[break][break]

the helios knights

Within her first week of wandering and begging for a job, Asha was close to losing her mind. (With her blond hair now dyed white, she even looked the party). It was at that moment when she was offered a missio. It was a test to see if she was truly able to be a witch or not. Without even thinking of the consequences, Asha jumped in. What the details of that mission were, no one really knows.
[break][break]
But it somehow turned a borderline psychotic Asha into a happy and healthy individual again, and made her adore the prospect of the Helios Knights. When she first received her official witch license, the title "Ashanti Verna, fledgling of The Helios Knights, Sundial" made her more happy than anything else. And if she closed her eyes really hard, she could almost believe that her name wasn't one letter away from becoming her sister's.