Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ellena stepped into the silent temple, normally a cheer place run by an elderly Priestess, it was deserted for her ceremony and the solemnity of the occasion made her tremble. She was sure she was not the first to wonder if it was possible to fail an Offering to the Darkness but she steeled her courage and knelt before the Altar and took a deep breath. Folding her hands as if in prayer and sitting back on her heels; she closed her eyes and began her descent. Past the White. Past the Yellow that was her father's. Deeper to Tiger's Eye. Rose. Summer-sky. Purple Dusk. Opal. The minds she could normally sense dropped silent, no one she knew wore darker then other then her grandmother. She continued her descent past Green to her own birthright, the gloriously dark Sapphire. Settling at her core she felt her Self feel a subtle tug from deeper in the abyss and she let herself drift. Instead she sat there and considered the importance of this ceremony, a representation of the movement from what she had been to what she could become with the new gift of power the Darkness granted her. She was not a Queen, and she knew she bore little in common with Atia the young girl in their village who was already beset with young Warlords and Princes, Lena knew there was a subtle tug that brought those men to Atia, and that was something Lena lacked. She was not a Black Widow but birth but her training in the Hourglass's Craft was unmatched, her grandmother had been a Widow of some rank before her Coven had been forced into hiding but the encroaching... wrongness of Hayll's High Priestess. But she had told Lena one night in a whisper of a chid who had seen something amazing, that she had once met the High Priest of the Hourglass, the only man of the Hourglass and the once Consort to Witch. Lena had sat on her bed hugging the pillow to her chest her eyes alight with the magic of it. Far away places and grand people Lena would never herself meet, but the stories were some of her favorite. What would she be some of the heros and heroine of her favorite tales wore jewels not much darker then her own. But... she laughed at her own silliness, she was not heroine, she simply did not have what it took to be one. But she was a Healer, and if nothing else that was the gift she could give back, she would heal and no matter what it cost her she would guard and protect those who the world needed, those heros and heroines. Please give me the strength I will need for the road ahead... her wish cast into the Darkness.

She felt herself stop descending but she did not recognize the power she now resided at; she heard a voice say, ...And those that remain will Serve... But few will remain.... And echo from whence she knew not but that voice. It reminded her of her mother's the beauty of it, but not just because of the inherent music in the simplest phrase but because the voice you could tell belonged to someone who truly cared she wiped a tear from the corner of her closed eyes and heard the voice speak again though this time it seemed to her rather then what was once said, When the time comes you will Serve. But to Serve you must remain Pure. So beware Sister. And with that it was gone. The voice and any trace of it disappeared like mist in the morning sun. Light glanced off the back of her eyelids and Lena opened her eyes, instantly putting up a hand to shade them, as the first raws of dawn peeked through the window dispelling the last of the night's shadows. All of those shadows except one. One that sat on the Alter before her a stone made of shadows, the Grey. And more then that an uncut jewel, Lena rose to her feet her legs screaming in protest from their long night's vigil as she accepted the Jewel holding it to her chest and bowing to the Alter before heading outside where everyone was waiting for her.