When the Elder Gods left for the Void, the creches that housed the
half-formed were sealed away, a last attempt to keep them safe from the
hunger of the Soulless Gods. Many were simply forgotten in the ensuing
aeons; their Divine guardians consumed by the Soulless, or Their minds
turned to more pressing matters.

For some of Them, however, the creches remained of great importance -
though foremost to the hamadhi, there were yet many of the Elder Gods
for whom certain creches held not inconsiderable significance. One of
these was Maylea, Bloom of Serenity, who had been present in one such
creche at the time that Dynara left the First World.

The creche became for Her as fixed in Her heart as Those that She lost
in the wake of Dynara's departure. Until She was forced to leave, and as
soon as She returned to the Basin, Maylea visited the creche at every
opportunity - though She spoke little of it, for it nonetheless bought
Her great pain to do so.

Chief amongst the half-formed who resided within that creche were
Joasia, the Insight of Spring, and Hiureth, Seeker of Tales. Joasia had
been a favourite of Kaenalye, Maylea's lost sister-mate, and thus shared
a deep bond with the Elder Goddess. When She visited, Maylea would tell
Hiureth of the Basin of Life and all who resided there, and Hiureth
would retell the tales to his siblings.

But there came a time when Maylea could not visit; wounded in combat
against the Dreadform as She defended Zvoltz, the Architect, the Bloom
of Serenity spent many years recovering from the fight and what came
thereafter. In all this time, She did not visit the creche even once,
too weakened to make the trip across the planes.

The half-formed are named so for a reason, and Joasia and Hiureth were
especially young. So incomplete were they that sometimes they seemed to
be naught but the very core of themselves. For Joasia this took the form
of insight and wisdom, but for Hiureth the consequences were far worse.
He was a teller of tales, but he could never tell a tale more than once;
and eventually, in Maylea's absence, he ran out of stories.

Madness took him even before he left the creche. It drove him
single-mindedly to break free in a desperate attempt to find more
stories - to the extreme distress of Joasia and their siblings. Fearing
for her brother, the half-formed reached out with all her might to the
Serene Goddess, begging for Her aid. At once Maylea came, to find Joasia
deeply distressed. Suspecting the worst, for much time had passed, She
left at once to track down Hiureth, beseeching Joasia to promise that
she would stay in the creche.

It was a promise immediately broken. The Bloom of Serenity had placed
all of Her focus on tracking Hiureth, and did not notice as Joasia
slipped out of the creche behind Her. Unknowingly, She led Joasia right
to her brother, whose mind had been warped beyond recognition through
the damning combination of time in the Void and distance from his
creche.

What Hiureth remained was a teller of tales - and so when he attacked
the pair, it was not with claw or slash but with a prison of their own
memories. He latched especially onto Joasia, who had never truly
recovered from the abandonment of the Elder Gods, revealing in the
process that Maylea had been followed.

Feeling Joasia's distress over the bond between them, Maylea looked
desperately for a way to save her. With relief, She realised that they
had strayed close enough to the First World to open a rift, and expended
much of Her power to do so. But Joasia had lost much of her mind, and
was too afraid to make her escape.

Seeing no other option, the Bloom of Serenity cast Joasia through the
rift and took her place in Hiureth's clutches, feeling the weight of Her
most painful memories pull her under as She managed to seal the rift.
Disoriented, Joasia fell to the ground in a flurry of limbs, landing
within the Toronada Tidal Flats.

The extremely distraught half-formed was immediately set upon by a large
crowd of adventurers, who jostled Joasia for information. A few more
compassionate voices called for her to be given space, but several did
not listen, instead testing the half-formed's reactions to various
stimuli. She proved especially upset by roses and being touched,
flinching and hissing from those who bought them near her.

Eventually, the crowd proved too much for Joasia; and feeling the spark
of recognition for one group in the crowd, she huddled closer to them
for sanctuary. Quickly realising her distress, Barrin led the
half-formed to somewhere he thought she would be safe and calm - the
Realm of his patron, Maylea. Little did he know that this would only
serve to distress her further, for it reminded her too keenly of what
lay within the Void.

Soon Kavindra, the Serene Goddess's long serving priestess, came to see
what the commotion was about - and felt the same tug of recognition that
Barrin had upon meeting Joasia. Though she knew little of the
half-formed, what she did know was that they should never be out of
their creches for too long. Becoming immediately concerned, she asked
Barrin whether he could take Joasia to one of the healing mounds on the
ethereal plane.

With the help of Maligorn Shevat, who knew the way to one such mound,
Joasia was commended to Daeiv Ma'Mornhai, to the purest of the two
healing mounds there. The group sought the help of Paeridimon
Willowshimmer, who managed to stabilise Joasia from her distraught
condition, but warned that he could not keep her safe forever. The
mounds had been made by the hamadhi, and only the hamadhi truly knew how
to operate them. Though he remembered a long time past when Lady Lantra
had used the mounds to stabilise one of the half-formed who had been
from their creche for a short while, he was but a fae.

And so the group slowly grew in number, with people from every
organisation of the basin joining as they endeavoured to get information
from the calmer half-formed. But Joasia was still too ashamed of the
promises she had broken, and it took some time for them to get any
information from her. Things began to progress when Viynain Erid'in of
the Lord-and-Lady Mysrai revealed himself, having been observing the
proceedings in his dreamform. He explained that They had recognised
something in Joasia - her bond to Maylea - which led Marcella n'Lochli
of Magnagora to suggest they seek out other divine to see if They had
any knowledge.

This led Ryboi D'Varden, High Priest of the Moon, to turn to the Silver
Goddess for assistance. He sought the help of Elthadean Lunseer, who
travelled to the healing mound to meet Joasia - and landed upon the clue
they finally needed. Though Lisaera herself had not visited Joasia, Her
sister Elfenehoala had - for She had been a dearly close friend of
Maylea, and knew of the importance of Joasia's creche to Her. Through
his link to Lisaera and Her link to Elfenehoala, Elthadean recognised
Joasia at once.

As soon as he had explained the link, Joasia crumpled with shame - and
though she could not tell what had happened to her in words, she shared
with them a vision of her final moments in the Void: as Maylea had
thrown her through the rift, taking her place in Hiureth's clutches.

Alarmed, Elthadean and the gathered adventurers immediately turned to
any divine they could find. Several followers of the Aesthete
immediately alerted Her to the plight, and She came accompanied by
Darvellan, the Navigator to assist. Though many feared what would happen
without one of the Second Circle to take on the half-formed, the God and
Goddess bravely took to the skies to open the way to the Void.

With Isune's strength lending Him aid, Darvellan skilfully opened the
rift, revealing the battle between Hiureth and Maylea still in progress.
Spotting new prey, the half-formed dragged Maylea through to the First
World, speaking in stolen words from Her own memories. Immediately,
Darvellan and Isune launched their assault, becoming caught in Their own
painful pasts as Maylea managed to break free.

As Her children in the Serenwilde began to cheer their relief at their
Goddess returning, Isune and Maylea fell into formation behind
Darvellan, bolstering his strength and throwing off yet more of
Hiureth's painful assaults. In the end, it was the Serene Goddess
Herself who dealt the final strike, as Hiureth reached out to the world
around him to steal the last story he would ever tell. Conjuring Her
bow, Pathfinder, Maylea delivered a fatal arrow made of prismatic light.

And though Hiureth had been lost to the madness of the Void and of his
distance from the creche far before Maylea had even reached him, She
collapsed in fatigue and sadness. Commended to the Serenwilde Forest by
the Aesthete, She was finally reunited with Her beloved commune to rest
and recover. Joasia was returned to her creche, though it was unclear if
she would ever recover from the ordeal, and the Navigator left to
investigate the strange mist that had drifted to the north in the wake
of the battle.

Meanwhile, the Bloom of Serenity honoured her lost friend in the best
way She knew; by telling Her precious forest the story of Joasia and
Hiureth.


Penned by My hand on the 4th of Klangiary, in the year 410 CE.