10 years later…

Souls, 8292

Vivat Rex - Ceras attends the funeral procession for the late King Giovan. The new oracles leave her with a gnawing sense of unease.

New Dawn; Midsummer; Salvation - the kingdom upscales its military strength under the rule of its new king, and the Ley relics have been found. unease continues with the events of Midsummer.

Fragments of Future - The prophetic visions of tortured Oracles are reported in Month of Harvest. In all her years, Ceras cannot recall something like this occurring. It’s intriguing - and disturbing.

Restoration; Pride, Honour, Glory - As the plague is quelled, Ceras participates in crafting care packages for the survivors.

Retribution - From within the Academy’s halls, it feels surreal to hear of events so close by. It is then that she feels the whole continent will eventually become embroiled in this strife one way or another… Everything is going to change. The world, more than ever, will soon become unrecognizable.

The Harvest - Harvest Eve rolls around, and Ceras travels to Amedra to visit her (parents') residence. To her surprise, her parents are actually there for the festivities. Due to the developing world situation, many of their trade routes have been compromised and they’re taking a break to review their options. They assure Ceras they returned sooner than necessary in order to spend time with her - and that everything will be fine. They make an effort to connect with Ceras more in this time, but despite the positive conversation and pleasant time together, they bid her farewell feeling more lost than a ship stranded at sea.

Daggers in the Dark; And Night Did Fall - RIP Akiela, this can’t be good. Sussy business, but Ceras supposes that’s always the case with politics. Somewhere over everyone’s heads is an invisible and tangled web, but there’s nothing that she or any other regular person could do about it - even when her own parents could be among the victims in the resulting backlash against wood elves and Estran churches. For her part, she took mostly after her father, and could reliably pass as a light elf. She didn’t bother to change her hair colour, and she stuck by her longtime classmate Heaven in this time to guard her back.

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Beginnings, 8293

Little Wizard Academia; Firefall - Ceras participates in the festivities as a vendor. She is solely responsible for all of the children running around in chirping baby chick shoes and quacking duck shoes. ; Silvan ruins dragons for Ceras.

Holy War; Clarion Call - Delverne’s annexation of Cantor strikes a bit personal for Ceras. The very place her grandmother tried so hard to get away from will not even let her be free in her final resting place. Everything is changing. It’s time to rise with the tide. The unease can no longer be ignored, and neither can the feeling that was always by its side - fascination. She is at once unsettled and enchanted by the world spiraling out of control. Somehow, she can’t explain it - she feels drawn to the Leywood expedition in a way she’s never felt. If the whole world is to unravel, she wants to be at the seams. While she missed the first expedition, she will not pass up the chance for this. She expects to find many things of greater interest than would ever be found elsewhere. Perhaps there will also be something related to the oracles or the prophecy… Hopefully, she can preserve what remains of Cantor - her memories - in the process.

Razzle Dazzle - Ceras’s parents see Belport’s revival as the perfect opportunity to breathe some life back into their trading business, and leave once more.

Wise Words - Preparing for the expedition, Ceras revisits her most nostalgic childhood home of Nisalvini, to participate in the Summit of Great Minds and find useful research material. After a vitriolic first meeting, Ceras develops a pleasantly adversarial relationship with Evin, who soon recruits her into the Ley Lines Syndicate.

Rampage - A dragon! I saw a dragon! It'll kill us all and then you'll believe me

Ambition; Unravelling - As a member of the second team, Ceras is optimistic about what could be her last time alive, and enjoys her experience with the other expeditioners. She is happy to share her soggy nuts (which Seth and Caleb seem particularly fond of). After a deadly encounter with Delvan expeditioners, things take a turn for the worse. Seth is left with a very personal struggle from having to hurt someone dear to him. Ceras is heavily injured but a teammate saves her from death. She is not as discontent with death escaping her as she thought she would be. Rather, her death wish seems to have been passed on to Seth…

In Soloros, Ceras receives a chilling vision from Tharoneos, and in the moment of their death, finds herself transported to her grandparents’ long abandoned house in a now annexed part of Cantor. Haunted by the vision and the ghosts of her past, Ceras begins to feel things she locked away fester inside. Before they can reach her, she will do as she always does, and autopilot forward. She is on her feet once more and preparing to move. Well aware of her grandfather’s career path, she finds his hidden cache of supplies after some effort, thanks in part to the ruined state of the house. While packing, she notices something that wasn’t there before - a relic fragment from Tharoneos. She had thought the expedition had failed, but as usual, things are more complicated than they appear…

With supplies and a disguise, she spares a last moment at her family’s grave and is on her way without looking back. Thankfully, the confusion set on by the forest’s overnight expansion is advantageous for crossing the Cantor border. To avoid being searched by border control, Ceras sneaks through both sections of Cantor into Miras, where she stashes the fragment away. Since someone took the trouble to list her among the missing expeditioners, she makes her way back to allied Cantor to leave an official record of crossing the border. With Gwen and Roz in her company, the process goes well thanks to the assistance of Naevys, who was just days ago her enemy. Ceras tells no one of the fragment.

Shatter; Dominion - Ceras returns to the Academy of the Arcane with the relic fragment, hoping to research it there. Those plans are quickly laid to waste as the academy falls under attack. Ceras joins the defense effort, and had she nothing at stake, she would have stayed until the end and joined the newborn Anarcanist movement - but with the fragment in her possession, she decides to flee East with other academics. She returns to her house in Amedra rather than take the free boarding, knowing it will be empty for her. Ceras has now lost contact with many familiar faces - including Heaven.  Once again, she has failed to preserve the last marks of her life anywhere.

Cut & Cauterise - Ceras participates in the Royals Rescue fiasco, though she is injured early on and cannot proceed further. She’s left to wait near the cave entrances. She manages to escape attacking pirates with Rayne, though they go their separate ways at the end.

Linhythe Advent Auction - Ceras takes advantage of the new alliance between the East Kingdom and the Empire to attend the Linhythe auction with Caleb, who, perhaps from a lapse in judgement, invited her to go with him! While there she chats with a beautiful bara man and meets yet another emotionally constipated one-eyed half elf. She starts a fight with him and gets them both kicked out while Caleb isn’t looking (or perhaps pretending not to be associated).

Having lost contact with Caleb, she ends up stuck in Linhythe. To her luck(?) she runs into a familiar face - that shin-tastic half elf storyteller. Naturally, she follows him around to pester him, and he finds her a place to stay. She becomes acquainted with Xander’s house and Jin’s fists in the process. For the remainder of her stay, she has misadventures with Aleksi and commits arson. She feels refreshed in a way she didn’t know she needed. Having blossomed an attachment to Aleksi, she tries to leave those feelings behind in the form of a gift.

After her return to Amedra, Ceras weighs her options. She continues to talk to a child acquaintance of hers, and, out of exasperation and apathy, ends up confessing some of her woes. The child turns out to be Princess Marise, and she takes Ceras to meet Vinicio and Celestina. Ceras reveals the fragment to be in possession and makes a proposal, promising to share the results of her research. Her personal opinions on Vinicio as a ruler notwithstanding, she believes this to be the most pragmatic choice. She does not want to fail again. She makes plans to move to Nisalvini.

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Coins, 8294

Tale of Two Courts - Ceras travels to the empire to see the pet show and other festivities for a few days. Clotaire has the misfortune of making Ceras’s acquaintance. A reunion with Aleksi allows her to discover the girl of her dreams (Chewchew!) and she steals cat food. 

She returns to Amedra to celebrate Marise’s birthday with her before finally setting off on her journey, making a quick stop in Cantor before settling into Nisalvini for the indefinite future.

Her first order of business is to recruit people for her research: Evin of course, and then Seth, who seems very preoccupied with something else. Seeing they have shared interests and goals, she agrees to assist Seth with his efforts in exchange for assistance with the Ley Fragment.

World’s Wrath - Nisalvini sinks. The last fully surviving place of importance to her - the last place she wanted to protect - and it’s simply gone. She and her team saw the signs while studying the local flora, but they didn’t truly understand - not until it was already too late. She managed to secure the fragment and some research material. She remembers Evin’s back. She remembers searching aimlessly for Seth… She could not make enough ice floats. There were so many screams. Then there were none.

She is facing heaven on a boat. She doesn’t really hear what Heaven says, or what she says in reply. Heaven’s gaze is unbearable. She looks out at a horizon as empty as her heart.

Ceras touches base with her contacts in the Cantish Abbey, and takes up a disguise for her extended stay in Cantor by the alias Liria Alphard. Thanks to Aleksi, her ears still appear human. She finds Evin and Seth alive, and continues to assist Seth while lending her hand to Elentiya and the Arcanists.

[II, Jewel Sea] The world keeps moving. Ceras keeps moving. That's all there is to life; that's all one can do. She travels to the Citadel mostly out of the motivation to simply witness it. She takes nothing. There is no point in keeping pieces of the past. It will all disappear again.

[III Mysterious Awakening]; Waking Spirits; Miracle - Nothing makes sense anymore, but if there is anything Ceras is certain of, it’s that nothing’s ever as it seems. She’ll be the last person to believe any of the news of alleged miracles and supposed elf ascendence and so-called oracles. It’s all too theatrical to be anything but an elaborate political scheme. After all, there is never a spectacle without an audience.

Playing Gods - In a race against time, Ceras and the other Arcanists seek out the ancient Telurean totems as a last measure against Delverne’s advancement under a false prophet. There is no hesitation in Ceras to mess with a power she doesn’t understand. The world is already beyond messed with. However, on 19th Harvest, it seems to be all in vain as Cantor sets ablaze across the horizon, flames as vast as the open sea. There is no Cantor anymore. Pulled into darkness by one of the many golems, Ceras felt as if it failed to grab all of her. As if she split into two people, she watched herself disappear in the flames. Perhaps it's better this way. Now, there is nothing to lose. Nothing matters anymore. She is free at last.

Underworld - Now in the remains of the lost Telurean empire, Ceras is found and regrouped with other survivors. Several familiar faces are still alive, and yet, Ceras only regards this with simple acknowledgement. She explores around with the other survivors, but seems to offer no real contributions or commentary. As a former expedition teammate, Evin notices something is different.

War of Ancients - From 19th Fire, Ceras spirals further into a distant haze. She begins sleep walking, and seems to dissociate often; behaviours shared with all of the light and dark elves amidst the survivors. There is a sickening light that beckons her. There is nothing to hold her back. There is a promise that there could be nothing left of her. There is a dream of belonging somewhere, and being nowhere. She thought she was free - but the Call is one that whispers of a true freedom at its destination. Yes…She could never feel again. She could be weightless. Ceras spends her days lost somewhere, never sure what is in front of her or whether she is awake anymore. It is the other Therras questers around her who keep her from wandering off, who watch over her.

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8294 –> Paths, 8295

Beginning of the End - Evin has been communicating with Ceras, in reality and in dream walks, to keep her tethered to reality. She agrees to assist him in experiments against the Call. Despite all temptations, she has resisted the Call - for the only arbiter of her destiny, her agency, is to be herself. Feeling she’s been stuck in fever dreams, Ceras had a lot of time to think between lucidity, and it’s time to wake up. Above the Telurean survivors, the world further inverts itself, and time twists away from Rains 8294 to Arrival, 8295. After touching part of the tree of Soloros, Ceras notices her ley fragment change its form…

Sin and Sacrifice -

[II, Scions of Mareus] With Mareus’s divine aid, the deepest parts of Telurea become available to the Therras questers. Ceras presses on into Soloros, now with the addition of Mareus questers.

[III, Telurea’s End] Ceras’s fragment blooms into a pinecone hedgehog. She names it Sprout. At the end of a long journey with many insights into the past and the very nature of Alva, the party crosses through one of the portals into the outskirts…of Delverne. The general sentiment among everyone is clear: what happens next lies down a path of no return.

[VIII, Heartland] Ceras and the other questers infiltrate Delverne in disguise amidst the Oathbound festivities. The goal is to get to the Heart Sanctum of the Delverne Cathedral and revive Tharoneos… But all involved parties get more than they bargained for. Triss reveals her true nature, which makes a lot more sense than her false image she’d been hiding behind. Delverne is destroyed, and reclaimed as the divine domain of Therras - the scale of which is beyond all expectations of the Therras questers. Countless innocents are killed as a  direct result of their actions. The Miran army had also anticipated this time to strike, and contributed to the total devastation. After contributing to search and rescue efforts, the Therras questers depart in Miran skyships. Ceras exchanges parting words with Sprout. Though she is steeped in blood, she does not regret - for to do so would be hypocritical to her. Her hands were stained with blood a long time ago. Instead, she rekindles her resolution to live on and carry the people she lost with her, thanks to the experience with Sprout, Tharoneos and the Ley Fawns.

[X, The Final Hour] In progress.