You were born under a dark star. You can feel it watching you, coldly and distantly. Sometimes it beckons you in the dead of night. It was tough, being the black sheep in such a blindingly white flock. Your family was deeply religious, superstitious, and very very vocal about that fact. Your mother being of "bad blood" and having "tempted" your righteous father, they knew you were cursed from conception. Being born under a glowing green star only cemented their beliefs and they made sure you knew it too. They were the real curse. You got less than your siblings and had to go through uncomfortable, sometimes painful treatments to try and "fix" you. You felt the ever-watchful eye of your star on you constantly and for a long time you believed your family. They were your kin, they wouldn't steer you wrong. Right? Then around age 17, after a particularly exhausting "session" you did something you had never done before. You talked to the star. You asked it why it had chosen you. Why you were being punished for something you couldn't help. Why couldn't your aunts and uncles love you the way they loved your cousins. The star had been watching, it was always watching you. It could do nothing but watch as you were so grossly mistreated by the people who should protect you. For the first time in its own long life the star felt the roiling, murderous rage that was like background noise, on the behest of another. For the first time the star felt righteous. And so it answered you, it's young chosen one, and it never lied to you. You were chosen by circumstance. Your mother, your father, not even your star chose you but unlike those two, your star would never leave you. ___________________________ Androis Of The Second Sacred Star met Jezebel Wellfellow on a pilgrimage to the nearby town for supplies. He often went on supply runs for just the reason of meeting women such as Jez. Vagrants, woman with no family or home just passing through. He was charming, of course he was, being born under the second star of his cults sacred calendar. He seduced her, like he did the others before, and if he plied her with too much alcohol and promised her too much commitment, well, she had no one to help her in the morning when she woke to a cold bed and a belly full of regret. It was his modus operandi, making The Order of a Thousand Stars believe him chaste and getting his end off without sullying the virtue of one of his potential wives. Jezebel was religious too, though more on the end of fortune tellers than the devoted cult Androis was a member of. She was told to come to Woodhaven because her destiny awaited her there. She was to find "The Heron watched by the stars" and being a romantic she assumed she was to find her husband in this sleepy little logging town. What she found was Androis. He came upon her outside the general store after loading up his cart with candles and glass and other essentials. There were new recruits that needed a dwelling of their own and windows were beyond the skill of the compounds craftsmen. She was wandering down the main street, taking in the smell of damp pine and the way the mist hung in the air making the world muffled. She was whimsical despite her demonic nature and he was demonic despite the best teachings of his Order. She didn't stand a chance once he learned her weakness. She at once asked him if he was Heron and he said of course. It was too easy to promise her the stars looked over him, given that he did believe it. She thought he was her destined. He believed she was easy. He left her shortly after she fell asleep back to the order. When she woke up her stomach was heavy with bile after far too much to drink and cold dread at the cold bed sheets. She asked around town but of course there was no Heron here. Unlike what Androis assumed she didn't leave, heartbroken and ashamed. She only felt determined to meet her Heron. She spent her days by the river, watching for the white of a wing, now thinking perhaps Heron wasn't her husband so much as a messenger of a God. She stayed in town for a month, then two, and she noticed her middle growing rounder and rounder. She despaired at not having a home or support system for her child. She despaired for another seven months until by chance she was wandering the streets when she saw him again, Androis, the father of her child. She watched him flirt with some pretty young thing, watched him take her to the inn and pay for a room and leave several hours later. She followed his cart to the compound and banged at the gate with her bare fists, demanding he take care of what he wrought. She was allowed inside, given her state: shivering, her hair a mess of tangles, a pregnant belly, and bleeding, splintered knuckles. While Androis was busy dropping off the supplies of his latest run Jez regaled the order with detail of his exploits. She was just telling them of what she had seen today when Androis walked in, grinning without a care in the world. He saw her. He saw her rounded middle. And he turned tail and fled. The order was very strict about fidelity and child rearing, two things he had no interest in. He left out of a gap in the high wooden wall surrounding the compound and never looked back. Jezebel wasn't heartbroken, but the Order was in an uproar. Their golden child, born under the second sacred star, was a heathen and a deserter. The Order promised Jez that she could stay with them to have the child. They gave her Androis' old dwelling and left her to sleep. After she had left they conferred amongst themselves, if bearing this child was the last thing their second sacred did, then perhaps this child would be the chosen babe. Sure his mother was a seductress sent to infiltrate their ranks by bearing their holy child but they could deal with her once he was born. This wasn't the first indiscretion their order had contended with. They made plans to perform a cesarean when the time was right. Somewhere high above them, in the inky heavens, slumbered a sickly green star, pulsing gently as if breathing. Almost like it was alive. As the celestial order made their plans and a mother lay down to sleep and her child grew the star stirred. _________________________________ Heron’s story started the day his mother's ended. The order planned her birth under their first sacred star but a different star, a dark star, acted instead. Jez went into silent, early labor under the dark star Miasmos and her son, her destiny, her Heron, was born. He had the mark of his star on the back of his neck and his mother knew he was what she came to Woodhaven to create. The order was furious with Jez, they took her babe from her exhausted arms and dragged her bodily behind the woodshed to unceremoniously shoot her in the head. Her body fell, cooling in the frozen mud and on the other side of the compound her son began to cry. They castrated him to keep him from breeding more like him and sent to live in the nursery where he was fairly neglected until he became old enough to question things. So Heron was raised by the order, by whoever drew the short stick that week. For all their flaws of morality they did not believe in abandoning a child who had not yet had time to sin. And they all did expect him to sin. he had the unnatural devil features of his mother and the mark of the dark star upon him (no matter how many times they tried to burn it away). Every family kept with them a switch which he noticed follow him from house to house to punish every small wrongdoing they caught. He noticed no other child ever got the switch turned on them even when they were caught doing worse than he. He noticed a lot. He was taught just the same with the other children of the compound, if a bit above his level seeing as he was younger than any of the others by far. Once he was old enough they kept him in his deserter father's house, when they normally would burn it down. They did not want his child in any of their houses lest his curse spread to them. They told him he should be ashamed of his parents and his birth but they never treated him any different than the other children so he had no basis for what shame should feel like. If he had been any more mischievous, any more cruel or needy or less devout he would have had a very different childhood and turned out much different. As it was Heron was a perfectly well behaved child, learning quickly that good behavior, being patient and soft spoken, would gain him more than anything else. He wasn't completely cut off from his fellow kids though, if the others planned a prank he helped out. If someone made an issue with him he would brawl. If they wanted to explore the woods he made sure they had rope and snacks and other such practicalities. His reputation was such that the Order knew if he was part of the mischief he not only didn't start it but did everything he could to make it safer and smarter for their ken. More than anything he was taught to fear the dark star. From the moment he could talk and ask why he felt like he was always being watched he had "sessions" with the Order "astronomers". They taught him advance lessons about the evils that lurk in the night sky and why they should be feared. They taught him their names, for there is power in a name, and they taught him their deeds. Their chosen who were driven to do unspeakable acts upon mankind. Heron was attentive in these lessons, soaking up all he could. He was so studious and devout the Order forgot to fear what he might do with the dark star watching over him. Then the sleepwalking started. He was halfway across the compound before someone was able to wake him. No one knew what he was going for, the weaponry shed or the leaders cabin or the children or just to escape but they were frightened. The sessions with the astronomers became something different entirely. No longer did they teach him their ancient wisdom. They put him through such intense trials to drive out the evil in him. They pushed him to the edge, to death's door, and brought him back. As if they could trick the watching one. As the sleepwalking didn't stop they became more adventurous with their methods. Heron became little more than a test subject in the sessions. Outside them nothing had changed, he wasn't treated any different but he began to see what he was missing. Other kids had parents, grandparents, a whole family sometimes living with them. He wasn't trusted. He was abused. He wasn't anyone's priority. The seed of doubt was planted.
He escaped the compound handily during a firefight as some intrepid adventurers ransacked the place, killing cultists left and right in search of some artifact. He was able to take the underground tunnels where he was so often taken for “lessons” out to beyond the gate and into the Border Forest ___________________________________ A connection, once opened, could not be closed off. Miasmos had an open connection to his 'chosen'. Not only did Heron feel his eyes on him day and night but heard his whispers calling for death and blood and retribution. Heron was good at tuning him out. Despite the content of the tirade he felt comforted by them. This was someone who cared. Someone who wouldn't leave. Someone to prioritize him. Miasmos, when not tempting him with graphic scenes of violence, was a trove of information. He may have a constant eye on Heron but that was not all he could see. Whether he was being fully honest or telling him what he needed to know, that was another thing entirely.
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