The|MULTIVERSE

EPISODE 10: Faith Devoured

Universe Chiamak

Chi Nebula: Faevale Realm

Faevale realm; a world embodied in magic and steel governed under the Order of Unity, a peace treaty signed during the Faevalen crisis; The Faust Ruination. The treaty ultimately doused the global scourge of war, liberating Faevale from its imminent discord. The pact commenced in Crystallis; The City of Gems, humble home to the Crystallian Diamond Crown Shiathari Elonna.

Scattered throughout Faevale, shrines dedicated to the diamond crown's Crystallian religion dominated the realm as the highest practiced religion, chronicled at the early years of Faevalian history. The first shrine, The Diamond Shrine of Sosha Desert, was one of the first to erect in Faevale, birthplace of Crystallian ideology.

Upholding the brilliant mausoleum of towering gemstones were the Vicars of Crystallia, priests and priestess of all races. Inherently known as the religion of the Crystallian race, elves born of the gem. The Crystallian elves shaped the majority race of Faevale—humanity itself a close second and the third runner up of the Faevalen populace were the not so rock-dwelling dwarves.

But not to digress any further on world statistics...

During the fifth month of every Faevalen year, Sosha Desert's Crystallian Shrine celebrated The Five Days of Nativity, a five-day event in honor of the creation of all Faevalen kind. The vast desert dominated the entire Sultaan region, east of Crystallis across the oceanic expanse of the Unresting Tides. According to the Crystallians, Sultaan stood as the native homeland of Faevale's all-race, thus honored as the revered land. As a holy day, the realm endures a week-long respite, a famed series of holidays riddled with colorful celebrations.

This, right here, was a week of ease for Priestess Adiva Phlhyst, and today was that terminal event. She remained in Diamond Shrine a week ahead before the event, and diligently prepared for its final inauguration that now manifested outside her chambers. Her well-practiced routine proceeded without flaw, for once she fluently slipped out of her bath, she retrieved her towel and dried her crystalline curves. She ended her pale blue hair in a thick wrap next, and in moments, she slipped into her priestly high robes of snowy cobalt, one fine piece at a time, then fixed her waist in her robes' calm-toned sashes, the silken fabrics as white as her easy oval eyes.

One last look in her mirror, she elegantly applied her devout Crystallian motifs. First came her ceremonial paints, a heavenly mask of silver, white, and sacred blues festooned in diamonds charged with light. Shrewdly enough, she doubled over her looks, for one flaw proved fatal in her grand appearance. And lastly, she fashioned her delicate ears with a gleaming set of diamond hoops, they hung briskly from her pointy ear nodes and chimed a tranquil tune.

After self-approving her clerical adornments one last time, Adiva daintily ambled out of her chambers...almost.

She hurried back into her quarters and snatched her pendant, a blue gem shard cased in veiny silver, then returned to a soft pad down marble halls wreathed in blissful silvers, fervent flora, and pearly primmed tufts of divine feathers. Connecting the pendant around her neck, she passed her fellow conversing clerics in silence, busy in their festive preparations as time loomed upon them all. No time to chit-chat, she reached the fourth terrace overlooking Sosha Shrine's crowded round court, and graced her eyes upon Faevale's premium mass, a congregation of high nobility.

Among the chic chatter pack below, mingled the diamond consort herself, Crown Shiathari, the Crystallian high queen of Crystallis. Bejeweled in the most extravagant of vivid whites and blue, the elven regent magnificence graced the shrine court like a beacon of refined elegance nestled in gentle exuberance, a soft energy that never failed in the high queen's will among the present throng. Her genial demeanor stood heavily armored, too. Shiathari was personally guarded by the impenetrable Crystallian Shield, spear guards of alabaster steel that sentineled her every move like an overprotective father afraid of her chastity being broken in like a freight-train siege weapon.