|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 4:34 am
Keesh was awake early. Her parents had come home late from her mother's Christmas Eve concert, so the main phase of gift-opening would occur later in the morning. However, the basic rule was that, if her mother had a Christmas Eve concert, Keesh could unpack her stocking while she waited.
And, since her father had told her that her grandmother's gift was small enough that he was putting it in her stocking...well. This was a golden opportunity she couldn't waste.
After all, the Green Chapel's signet ring could be in her stocking, and Sylvain had been very distressed about the loss of the ring, amidst the other treasures traditionally passed down from one keeper of the Chapel to the next.
Padding softly to the living room, she slipped inside, and unhooked her stocking. She had time to unpack it, but, if she wanted to sneak in a visit to the Chapel, this might be her only chance before the end of the day.
Keesh sat down on the couch and carefully began pulling free candy canes, lip gloss, hand cream, small pieces of festive jewelry, and other small things stuffed into the top, watching for the packet from her grandmother.
There. It had slid down to the heel, and was wrapped in wrapping paper featuring a pattern of holly leaves.
It was the size of a jewelry box. The kind that held earrings. Or rings.
Slowly, she undid the sparkly golden ribbon, and very carefully removed the paper, to not make too much noise. After all, her parents did need the sleep after last night. Finally, with trembling fingers, Keesh opened the little white box.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 4:48 am
Inside was a simple golden ring, flattened into a circle on top, but with no identifying marks. Keesh's heart sank a little. It looked like a signet ring, but there was no insignia. A little note was folded into the lid of the box, from Keesh's grandmother, informing her that this strange little ring had been an heirloom of the Lyon family for as long as anybody could recall. Keesh froze when she read the next bit, her heart thudding in her ears.
Her grandfather had claimed that the ring used to be an heirloom of their white ancestors, sent to the Black side of the family during the French Revolution to keep it out of revolutionary hands and keep it within the family. No one knew why, just that there had been a family commandment to keep it safe, and keep it within the family at all times.
Keesh looked at the ring appraisingly. The shape of the ring fit. The story fit. There was no obvious design to it, but...well...her weapon had looked like an ordinary sprig of holly when she first picked it up. Sure, it still looked like a random sprig of holly, but that didn't mean it wasn't the treasured weapon of the Chapel.
Could the ring be under a kind of glamor meant to shield itself from the eyes of the world when it was not being worn by its proper owner in the right form? And its proper owner would be....
The Keeper of the Green Chapel.
Taking a deep breath, she summoned her little branch of holly, letting the weeds of the Green Chapel surround her, before taking a fresh look at the little golden ring.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 4:59 am
The ring had changed. A tracery of glittering emerald enamel formed the shape of four tree trunks at right angles to each other, their roots tangled in the center, and their branches interwoven with each other into a ring around the trees, set low in the crevices of the pattern. On the sides, an imprint of a spray of holly leaves terminated in a small bunch of berries before the band narrowed. The beautiful, purely golden ring weighed heavily in her hand, outwardly a very simple ring, but exquisite in its execution.
The ring was glamored, and the Lyon family had done everything in its power to ensure the ring would stay safe within the family that had, according to Sylvain, long been the Keepers of the Chapel. They hadn't lost it, just lost any understanding of what it was, or why it was so bloody important that they had to ship it to New Orleans during the French Revolution to keep it safe. No need for grave robbing or a wild quest to find it, which, in hindsight, would have been fruitless, if she wasn't Powered up during the search.
Exhaling softly in deep relief, she knew what she had to do next. She didn't have a lot of time to do it, but it was time to go.
"I pledge my life and loyalty to Earth, and to the Green Chapel.
I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 7:53 pm
Green Chapel was glad she was already in her page gear. There was less snow, on the ground, but that didn't mean there weren't a few remaining patches of frost or snow. Besides, it was cold enough for the snow to stick. Better to be in her page outfit than in her PJ's and bare feet.
Looking up and around, she saw the glassy ceiling stretched over much of the hall now, keeping out the vast majority of the snow. Threadbare tapestries depicting hunts and winter scenes now hung between the trunks of the trees that formed the hall, heavy enough that the wind only mildly pushed them. Garlands partially decked the hall, holly intertwined with ivy and evergreen. Underneath the ceiling, and above the table, the Christmas crown looked considerably neater than it had three weeks ago. There were even scattered sprigs of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling.
The hall had so far to go before it would be properly habitable, but there was something a bit nice about the Chapel having expended some kind of actual effort to get into the holiday spirit, and make itself look even this nice.
The page smiled, and patted the trunks of one of the trees. "This looks really nice. You did a good job," she said softly. A breeze soughed for a moment in the upper branches, as though the Chapel was preening itself. "Merry Christmas, Green Chapel."
She found Sylvain kneeling before the central stump in the Chapel proper, which was decorated similarly to the hall.
"Merry Christmas, Sylvain," the page said softly to her ancestral uncle.
Sylvain stiffened, got to his feet, and turned around, smiling so warmly his lime green eyes seemed to glow with the sentiment.
"Keisha," he said, "a very merry Christmas to thee. Art thou not going to Mass this morning?" he asked curiously.
"Ummm...we're not really religious," Green Chapel explained awkwardly.
Sylvain blinked, and then shrugged. "'Tis of no moment. The Lyon family was ever loose in its religious observations. It surprises me not that thy side of the family has lapsed in their observances."
"Anyway...I've got something to show you, Sylvain."
Sylvain peered at her. "Oh? What hast thou to show me on this Christmas morn?" he asked.
The page pulled out the little jewelry box, and, reverently, flipped the lid open to reveal the Chapel's signet ring.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 8:33 pm
Sylvain froze, before drifting forward, his lime eyes focused on the ring in the box. "Is that...I do believe...it IS!" he murmured. "Thou hast found it! Where was it, Keisha?" he asked almost hungrily.
The page slipped the ring out and onto one of her fingers. "It was in my grandfather's effects. I asked my grandmother for one of his belongings to remember him by for Christmas, and this is what she sent. The main family in France sent it to our side of the family before they got on the wrong side of a revolt that kinda sorta ended the monarchy in France."
Sylvain shuddered. "It seems that Chaos was not the only disaster to fear for my sister's descendants. But thou art alive, and well, and have other family members, too," he said, clearly relieved. "What's more, thou hast the ring, and can communicate using the ring. Dost thou have some idea of how the ring is to be used?" he asked.
The page paused, considering what some weird part of her intuition was telling her. "When Powered up, write a message to someone, it has to be a handwritten message, with correctly spelled recipient name, seal it with the ring, and it will be instantly transmitted," she said slowly. "Anyone can be a recipient, I think."
"However, if a person's name be changed, by whatever artifice, that message will not reach them, including if a knight or senshi sets aside their proper title for a title granted by the forces of Chaos," Sylvain explained firmly. "Thou wilt know such corrupted individuals by the name of gemstones and the use of deadly force. Order seldom deals mortal blows, even to our most mortal enemies."
Green Chapel nodded thoughtfully. "So if someone hasn't received something, assume something has gone sideways with that person, because the magic is picky. Got it."
Sylvain nodded. "Oh! One thing more. All knights who carry a signet have access to the Aspect of their planet. 'Tis a small magic, but useful. Thou wilt have little usage of it for now, but that will change as thou grow'st," he explained. "Touch the ring, and focus on the call of thy Planetary Allegiance. Thou canst summon this in battle, e'en when thou art channeling other forms of magic, once thou hast other forms of magic. Though," he said, waggling a finger in a nagging manner, "I do not advise such recklessness. 'Tis an excellent means of exhausting thyself."
The page considered this for a moment, before closing her eyes and focusing her thoughts on the call, somewhere deep down inside, of the Earth itself, subconsciously squeezing her eyes shut as she did so.
"Keisha. Open thine eyes," Sylvain said softly.
She cracked an eye open, and noted a beam of sunlight seemed to be fixed on her. Sylvain drifted around her quickly, and the page was startled to note that she had a greater awareness of his movements, especially when he was behind her. She whirled around to face him, instinctively reaching out for her holly twig.
Sylvain was grinning. "The Knights of Earth are considered some of the most virtuous of all knights, mayhap even to the point of saintliness. Beams of sunlight will e'er find thee, and thou shalt know the movements of the world around thee. None will be able to sneak up on thee so long as thou channelest the Aspect of Earth. But thou wilt not be able to sneak up on others, either. The only way to engage in a fight with any knight of Earth when they are channeling their aspect is honorably," he explained.
Green Chapel listened with a little awe. She could see why Sylvain had been so hung up on the ring, and why the family had expended so much effort to protect it down the centuries.
"Dost thou like of it?" Sylvain asked, his voice cutting through her thoughts.
"Yes," she said. "I see what all the fuss was about." As she spoke, she ran her fingertips over the tracery of the stylized Wheel of Earth. The page smiled, a warm, fuzzy smile that matched Sylvain's own smile.
But, unfortunately, she had to get home before her parents woke up.
"Sylvain, I have to get going in a minute. But first," she said, offering a little bow, "Merry Christmas to you, and I hope we have many more ahead of us, Sylvain."
"A very merry Christmas to thee, Keisha, and I wish the same," the ghost replied before his niece disappeared back to her home, resuming her normal PJ's, and letting the Planetary Aspect fade away, before anybody noticed that she had a personal sunbeam following her around.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
