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picture_prompt_funTitle: Rest in Peace
Soft rays of sunlight played through the trees onto the wall of the chapel, creating rippling patterns that almost reminded Chisato of flames. She shook this last mental image out of her head. It reminded her uncomfortably of many things she'd rather forget - that last battle with Decus and Vesper, for one, the screeching and the pillars of fire everywhere, the shadows in the sky hunting her down wherever she tried to hide from the spreading inferno. She still didn't like sudden loud noises, or unexplained shadows in the sky, or fires lit too close to her, even when they were under control.
She remembered reading the old records in the University's restricted archives, how they'd lost a lot of chapels of Tria during the dark ages, the height of the reign of terror imposed by the Ten Wise Men. Decus was sent to burn anything the Ten disapproved of, which was anything that threatened their established order. While everyday worship was permitted (Decus was rumoured to be a Tria devotee himself), an increasing number of individual sects were found to be spreading sedition because of this or that specific tenet. Added to the spread of symbological technology to the extremes that meant they were approaching the status of deities themselves, together with general pessimism about the future and cynicism that a benevolent deity could exist in the same Universe as the Ten Wise Men, religion had virtually disappeared from Nedean culture. She hadn't even remembered what they'd lost before... before she wasn't on Nede any more and it was too late.
Then she remembered what she'd been told about the eventual fate of her own world, as well the intended fate of this planet before they'd managed to at least reverse that tragedy. Tria, it could have been the entire Universe! She shuddered at the thought.
Shouldering her camera again - she vaguely remembered that it was disrespectful in most local planetary cultures to take photographs inside Churches - she pushed open the heavy wooden door and walked inside. Worshipful silence shrouded the nave, dark apart from several rows of candles. There wasn't a service in progress so only a few elderly-looking priests in black robes striped with the three divine colours shuffled around, tending the candles and generally keeping everything tidy, sometimes stopping to chant a prayer. There was a main devotional area filled with candles on every step, leading up to a statue of Tria in the aspect of Creator-Goddess, with a donation box below it. Offering up a rather generous amount of Fol for someone who was essentially an out-of-work refugee these days, Chisato lit a candle and placed it next to the others, then knelt in prayer.
For the souls of the departed in Nede, she mentally recited to herself, and everyone who fell in the war in Expel. May they rest in peace.
Fandom: Star Ocean: The Second Story
Author: tehexile
tehexileRating: PG-13/Gen
Characters: Chisato
Words: 480
Tags: postgame, spoilers, mention of mass death, persecution, suppression of religion
Summary: Chisato encounters a chapel of Tria for the first time in a while and says a quick prayer for departed souls.
Picture: 157
Soft rays of sunlight played through the trees onto the wall of the chapel, creating rippling patterns that almost reminded Chisato of flames. She shook this last mental image out of her head. It reminded her uncomfortably of many things she'd rather forget - that last battle with Decus and Vesper, for one, the screeching and the pillars of fire everywhere, the shadows in the sky hunting her down wherever she tried to hide from the spreading inferno. She still didn't like sudden loud noises, or unexplained shadows in the sky, or fires lit too close to her, even when they were under control.
She remembered reading the old records in the University's restricted archives, how they'd lost a lot of chapels of Tria during the dark ages, the height of the reign of terror imposed by the Ten Wise Men. Decus was sent to burn anything the Ten disapproved of, which was anything that threatened their established order. While everyday worship was permitted (Decus was rumoured to be a Tria devotee himself), an increasing number of individual sects were found to be spreading sedition because of this or that specific tenet. Added to the spread of symbological technology to the extremes that meant they were approaching the status of deities themselves, together with general pessimism about the future and cynicism that a benevolent deity could exist in the same Universe as the Ten Wise Men, religion had virtually disappeared from Nedean culture. She hadn't even remembered what they'd lost before... before she wasn't on Nede any more and it was too late.
Then she remembered what she'd been told about the eventual fate of her own world, as well the intended fate of this planet before they'd managed to at least reverse that tragedy. Tria, it could have been the entire Universe! She shuddered at the thought.
Shouldering her camera again - she vaguely remembered that it was disrespectful in most local planetary cultures to take photographs inside Churches - she pushed open the heavy wooden door and walked inside. Worshipful silence shrouded the nave, dark apart from several rows of candles. There wasn't a service in progress so only a few elderly-looking priests in black robes striped with the three divine colours shuffled around, tending the candles and generally keeping everything tidy, sometimes stopping to chant a prayer. There was a main devotional area filled with candles on every step, leading up to a statue of Tria in the aspect of Creator-Goddess, with a donation box below it. Offering up a rather generous amount of Fol for someone who was essentially an out-of-work refugee these days, Chisato lit a candle and placed it next to the others, then knelt in prayer.
For the souls of the departed in Nede, she mentally recited to herself, and everyone who fell in the war in Expel. May they rest in peace.
