#writing: cinnuit

[mystery-salad]

A Plea of Mourning

High above the Grove, the omphalos chamber glows bright against the night sky. While most had gone to bed, the few wardens tasked with guarding from the nightmare as others slumber can hear a fight as fiery as the sun itself.

“My child-“

“No! No, by the dream you will stop and listen to me for once! I did not come here for platitudes and consolation for my grief! There is nothing you can say that will make this right!”

Trahearne stands tall before the shining avatar of the tree that made him, the being he called mother who’d sent him on his journey. He looked back and saw years spent on an unachievable Hunt that in the end couldn’t be done alone anyways. A fools errand at best. And he saw…

“We all trust you upon emerging from the dream, you tell us good luck, you send us off to our destinies. But you don’t even seem to understand what it is you’re condemning us to! I spent years in Orr mother! I spent a lifetime away from my siblings, away from home, and by the time I returned I was but a stranger to them! And it’s all a means to an unreachable end, a goal I’ve yet to truly complete as the lands slowly heal!”

“And yet you’ve done so well with it Trahearne,” the Pale Tree reaches a hand gently out, an offering more than anything of kindness and acceptance. One that is shunned as the firstborn steps back to remain out of reach, her light reflecting off the tears running down his face.

“I said listen! Listen to your child you sent off to a life of solitude, because when you finally deigned a newborn’s Hunt to be worthy of accompanying me, it was a man sent to-!” His voice breaks on a choked sob as a hand clutches his chest. A warden standing guard steps forward intending to help before the Pale Tree gestures silently for them to step back.

“...give him space. I will hear him on Cinnuit.”

The name brings Trahearne back up to full height as his stare bores into his mother. “You even remember his name. You sent him to die and you have...the gall to stand there speaking of him. You gave me a friend and told him it was his duty to follow what the dream told him, and he. Did. Do you even actually understand what you caused? We look up to you not unlike the humans look to their gods. And you told him to find me so he could die in my place.”

“I was merely repeating the dr-“

“Yes, you were repeating the dream’s blasted prophecies! Again! Like you do to every Valiant that passes through your chamber! How many don’t even survive to fulfill theirs and yet you saw fit to send one out with the goal of death! You can’t keep doing this Mother! The Dream can’t keep getting away with this!”

The avatar of the great tree they stand within nods solemnly, eyes fixed gently on her grieving first child. “...what would you have me do, my son?”

He’s taken aback, having come to grieve and yell but not possibly expecting any actual headway with her. Silently, the tears stream down his face more gently now as he thinks over his response carefully. “Do not create Valiants. Even if the Dream sees fit to send them to you, let them live their lives with a distant possibility they can choose to ignore. Let them live like we never got to. Perhaps in time they will learn to make their own decisions not based upon the only being they can’t say no to.”

She nods again, extending her hand for a second time, though this time it does not come with words of comfort but a promise instead. “I will endeavor to change this. I do not control what the Dream shows my children, but I can try to...soften the blow. This I promise, and I wish it could be more.”

“...it’s...enough I suppose. More than I expected.” Trahearne fixes her with a serious state as he walks within reach to take her hand. “Don’t send another child to die afraid and desperate…don’t let them believe that’s all they are.”

[mystery-salad]

CUTE SHIP ASKS YOU SAY? 🎸 For Cinnuit/ Trahearne, 💌 For Kai/Caithe, and 🎨 For Tvelle and Canach AND ONE FREE SPACE for whoever you'd like to gush about >:3 (@uselessidiotsquad)

@uselessidiotsquad CUTE SHIP ASKS!!!!!! \o/

🎸 | the song that describes them the best

End Up With You by Carrie Underwood

💌 | a love note from one to the other

((i need u to know this would have messy handwriting at best, Kai learned how to write very late in life and she's still getting the hang of it, along with expressing her emotions))

Caithe,

I miss I'm going t *insert carefully transcribed address here with a couple crossed out mistakes* I'm going to be there, tomorrow. Please come

I love you See you soon, - Kai

🎨 | their favourite activity to do together

While Canach says his favorite activity is the game nights the two have along with Canach's other partner @ascalonianpicnic's Rhosill, his favorite activity actually is watching Tvelle and Rhosill cause absolute chaos with pranks while pretending he doesn't notice and he "can't reel them in, sorry"

🏹 | how they would fight together in a battle

For Matthias and @ascalonianpicnic's Aildyn on this free spot ❤️

The two balance each other out amazingly, Matthias fights close range with two swords while Aildyn fights long range with a longbow! While he handles the immediate threats they pick off enemies who haven't reached him yet. The two can clear a field very efficiently even without the team at their backs.

They have a unique level of understanding of each others' capabilities as well, considering that before they became Commanders their primary fighting styles were actually reversed! This gives them both an expert gaze on how to cover each others' blind spots and weaknesses, along with being able to adjust to each others' weapons if one of them gets hurt.

[mystery-salad]

@brandedsalad good news, this is a fully idealized world @ascalonianpicnic and I have! However, there’s a few key things I should note!

Cinnuit is not the Commander. Should’ve made that clear somehow whoops, but one tragic drabble doesn’t give much room for it! Though the commander in this plot is also a sylvari destined to fill the position until death (ascalonianpicnic’s Mar, who is not dating Trahearne). Cinnuit is my exploration of a sylvari born with the sole purpose of dying in a firstborn’s place to ensure said firstborn will live to see their own Hunt fully realized.

When Riannoc had died before completing his Hunt, the dream put forth a select few saplings born with one purpose: ensure the firstborn they saw in the dream survives, no matter what. If this causes death, then their own Hunt is complete.

This writing was less about the big goals of forced destiny and how that can tear a person to nothing, and more a study in how cruel the dream can be in actually attainable or deadly Hunts with no other remarkable features. A deadly Hunt for someone who, outside of a small team, would be seen as insignificant and unremarkable.

Cinnuit was born to die, and he did. His Hunt was completed, something that should be celebrated was instead a tragedy. His life span and accomplishments did not matter in the grand scheme of things. But this gave him years of life first, working alongside Trahearne in Orr and eventually the commander as well. And that life brought out so much in him, and reveals that he doesn’t need to leave a huge mark on the world for it to be a tragedy when he’s gone. Only two people would truly miss him at all, but for those two people, it was a devastating blow. The dream created someone wonderful, and deemed him insignificant enough to throw away as soon as needed for the significant people to survive.

I will 100% be exploring Cinnuit and Trahearne more on my end along with the journey taken to bring him back. But I’ll leave the “commander dies” intricacies to my lovely co-creator of this world who holds the star of the show~ I’ve already got my tragic commanders in Laighe and Taomesin.