Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Picture:
you're traveling the New Road between White Sky and the Empire. You come to the lands of the border Ling, and are guided to a refuge to rest and recuperate.

Rough hewn sculptures suggest familiar shapes in the mists and steam, reassuring with their strength and feeling like home. Colored glass spun around lights gently spin in the rising air, memories of comfort dance nostalgic in the twilight garden. Even that hungry winter which yearns so dearly seems content to dance about the edges of this place, for now not trespassing into your bones or your heart. It seems like a dream stolen into the physical plane. A secret place of warmth hidden in the icy grip of the south. An oft-dreamed place of contentment, achieved by the magics of the north. Something to better set the expectations of those heading south. The land is cold and brutal, but those peoples that live there guard a powerful and stubborn warmth. Something to temper the expectations of those heading north. The people may have much in common with spirits, but their dreams are not so different from the humans they once were.

Satisfied with your rest and ready to leave, your curiosity draws you closer to a set of three sisters you thought you saw during your soak.

The shrine here is as familiar-but-not as the rest. The sisters are both those spirits you pray to, and yet also not. A dancing light of inspiration shapes the world around it. A set of teeth are bared in fierce joy at the trials of the present. A wide black pupil takes in the secrets of the world and watches ever for their enemy. The similarities between the three moons of the north and three winters of the south are emphasized. Yet their differences are made more obvious in their absence. Obvious at least to the open minded, observant, and grounded in the present.

For those coming north, it's obvious. The Moons are the tools of Winter, but in that land where Winter is weaker the Moons have wielded themselves. The light is not held by Sudica's firm hand, so it simply shapes the world around it to whichever whim it feels. The bared teeth enjoy the thrill of action for the sake of action, wielded by many more hands than just Fryja's. The wide pupil greedily devours both light and secrets for the sake of it's own hoard, rather than for the hoard-of-secrets the Crone wields. Coming from the south, these tools are allowed in the hands of too many. It makes sense that conflict would be common without the will of Winter to unify their purposes.

For those going south, it's obvious. The brutal Winter dominates the land, and grinds these three moons to sharpness. The light of Dream shapes practical spaces for the people to survive, fictions are for the light of the sun not the chill of the night. The Grin takes on a manic cast as simple acts of living can feel like stealing survival from the brink of the unlivable. The wide pupil of Hidden takes on a dangerous tone as it grasps for any and every secret it can see to better fight it's enemies off. The land is so terrorized by something worse than Winter that there's little room in the nights for anything but modest dreams or desperate actions.

Whichever direction you're headed, whoever you are, you've felt a little bit of home as well as felt the border where your homeland transitions into the homeland of another great and powerful nation. Not a barrier, but a demarcation line placed to better ease those traveling from one set of ideas to another. A boundary set for the health of both parties.

Was this all an elaborate dream that's not canon? Yes. But sometimes I like my dreams, hehe <3