A New Moon (Diana fan fic)
Due to Mt. Targon getting in line for a lore update, I felt like writing a fanfic based around Diana's origin (actually I just felt like writing the fanfic after I wrote my Sion one). Please tell me what you think of it afterwards. Note: Indentions might suck because I typed with up in google docs and had to personally fix them when posting it. So if they are not aligned, sorry about that.
A New Moon
Giddiness came with every step as Diana climbed the steps of Mt Targon. For so long she had hopped that the moon held some significance to the sun. But her discovery of the temple: the armor she wore and the lunar blade she carried, erased any doubt in her mind that she could have been wrong. Far from significant; based on the temple size, the moon must have been of equal worship to the sun. Diana was bursting with excitement to tell the elders her good news!
However, her eagerness blinded her to an important question: If the moon was of equal homage, why was its temple left in ruins?
“Diana, bow.” Said Elder Deacon as he gently but hastily patted her back, “Show your respect to the sun’s chosen.”
Diana had only stared at rakkorian girl for a few seconds before bowing. After hearing that the sun had chosen one from the base of the mountain, she expected...something more imposing from the masters of war. Instead she came face to face with a girl of equal age, covered in dirt and carrying a few bruises across her arms and legs from fighting. She didn’t see an avatar of the sun, just a normal girl.
And judging by her stiffness around the rest of the clergy, she wasn’t used to the attention.
“We have waited centuries for your return, oh chosen of the sun.” Elder Deacon could scarcely conceal the excitement in his voice, “We shall do our best to help you realize your potential. If you wish anything of us, please speak without restraint.”
The girl’s eyes darted back and forth as Deacon spoke, though Diana couldn’t say she emphasized with her. She was more focused on how her tormentors had another leg over her own theories. It seemed she would spend more time in her hiding space from now on.
“Could you all...stop bowing?” the girl said, breaking the silence.
Elder Deacon chuckled, “So humble, oh cho-”
“Leona.”
Deacon looked puzzled as he stood up. Everyone else slowly followed.
“There is no reason to be nervous child.” He assured.
“I can’t help but disagree.” Leona bowed, “I thank you all for saving me from execution, but this is all too much to take in. At least at the moment. I need time to adjust to...to what I am. So at the very least, please call me by my name.”
Diana blinked for a moment, swearing that Leona was shining before her. She dismissed the thought upon seeing a lack of luminescence from her. If Leona truly did shine, then Diana wouldn’t be the only one to notice.
Deacon’s mouth hung open for a few seconds, his face frozen in the same dumbfounded expression Diana gave him during his lectures.
“Yes...of course Leona. Please forgive me, I let all of the excitement take hold of my reasoning.”
“It’s all right, it has been quite a day.”
Light laughter passed through the clergy, “Indeed it has.” said Deacon, “Welcome to the Solari, Leona.”
Diana didn’t expect to find Deacon waiting at the temple entrance. Nor did she expect the armored Solari clerics standing beside him. Her giddiness faded as she approached them.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her nerves already showing.
“Diana...I had such hopes for you.” Deacon spoke with disappointment, like a parent catching a child sneaking sweets, “But your wild ideas-”
“I’m right though!” Diana said as she showcased the armor she wore, “The moon, it has some significance.” She held up the blade, “Maybe ev-”
“Silence!” he boomed, before sitting back down onto the temple steps, resting his brow on his palms, “It’s clear that I’ve been too lenient. Letting you run wild with these fantasies…”
The armed Solari warriors stepped forward with their weapons drawn, “Take her.” he commanded, “My leniency is at its ends.”
Slowly she stepped backwards, “It’s not a fantasy...the moon...stay back.” She brought the blade forward but her fear prevented a steady grip, “L-Leona will-”
“The chosen of the Sun will not see heretics.”
Two surged forward, one thrusting his spear for a debilitating blow. Diana panicked, barreling out of the way and into the other warrior, who slammed the blunt end of his weapon into her side. The armor she wore prevented her ribs from shattering, but the force was enough to send her careening over to the ground.
The last thing she saw was the rising of the sun before she slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
“So...I’m Leona.” the red headed girl said awkwardly as she sat across from Diana, who was furiously eating her leftovers. She had missed supper for reasons she didn’t say, so Leona offered what was left of hers. She couldn’t finish it anyway and she knew Pantheon would be upset if she wasted food.
And he would know. Despite there being a mountain between them, Pantheon would know.
“I know, I bowed.” Said Diana before taking another bite into her breadloaf. Leona’s cheeks reddened at that memory, “Right...I’m sorry for that.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t seem comfortable. And it wasn’t what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
Leona shrugged. She sat silently for a minute before she asked for Diana’s name. Diana gulped a large portion before answering, “Diana.”
“Oh...so do you always come here late, Diana?”
“Yes”
“Why?”
“Privacy.” Diana was stern in her answers, not that she noticed. It had been a long time since she had a conversation that wasn’t an argument or one sided mockery.
“What a coincidence.” Leona said with a smile. Diana looked at Leona with a raised brow, “The chosen of the Sun eats late for privacy?”
Leona nodded.
“Why? Everyone likes you.”
“And I can’t get a moment to myself because of it.” she sighed, “Lesson this, prayers that. I can’t even have privacy in the latrine! I almost stole a meal earlier today to avoid being swarmed at midday. First time I’ve ever attempted stealing things.”
“I thought stealing food was common at the base?” Diana asked as though she was debating a fact.
Leona’s stare almost made her choke, “It is...It never sat well with me. A lot of things didn’t…” she sighed, “I felt an outcast to my own people. I guess I was one.”
Diana blinked for a moment. Again she could have sworn that Leona was glowing...or that she needed more sleep.
“I...I can relate.” she said quietly.
“How so?”
“I eat alone so I don’t get teased.”
Leona’s expression turned fierce, “Who teases you? Why?”
“Everyone...here and there anyways.”
“Why? How could the Solari let this happen?
Diana pointed towards a window, “That’s why.”
“The moon?”
“It’s stupid really. I just feel...safer in the moonlight. Often I feel there moon has significance to the Solari and...sorry it’s stupid.”
“Why would that be stupid?”
“I…” for the first time, Diana was at a loss for words. Leona’s expression loosed with a giggle. Diana’s pale cheeks blushed.
“The moon hangs in the sky as well, it could hold some significance.” Leona assured with a smile.
“Right...so how has your first week been?” Diana said, hoping to change the topic. Normally she loved to talk about the moon, but here...her throat tightened at the thought.
“The most difficult experience of my life.”
“Difficult? Doesn’t the Rakkor tribe fight everyday?”
Leona nodded.
“How could the Solari possibly be more difficult?”
“I don’t know how to read.”
“Leave us.” order Deacon, waving the two torturers out of the dungeon. Diana was locked in a pillory before him, sweating and panting heavily with dried tear trails across her cheeks. It was a pathetic sight to Deacon, someone so defiant and strong willed being reduced to a sobering wreck.
“Leona…” her voice cracked from dehydration. Deacon was already preparing a cup for her.
“I had so much hope for you, Diana. Despite your stubbornness with…” he sighed as he poured the water down her throat, massaging it with his free hand so that she’d swallow.
“You were so studious and determined, the perfect qualities for my replacement. Yet instead of becoming an elder, you die a heretic.”
“It’s…” Diana gasped in between her words, “They were real…”
“I know.”
Diana looked up to Deacon, only to see her face of betrayal reflect off his eyes, “You…” her eyes swelled in tears once more, “All this time...you knew?”
“Its secret is one of many burdens that come with my position, one that I intended to take to my grave when I decided for you to succeed me.”
“I...I was right.” she slowly sobbed, both from the joy of being right and the pain that she had always been. Deacon payed no heed as he continued, walking over to the fireplace as he explained, “But I was a fool. If the presence of the sun’s chosen could not sway you, then nothing could.” Carefully he grabbed the red hot branding iron with the Solari symbol, “I should have finished what my ancestors started: The Lunari must never rise again.”
Diana struggled in her bonds, “Deacon...st-stop please!” Her cries did little to delay him as her seized her face for stability.
“Leona!” She screamed over and over as the branding iron closed in.
“This is the will of the sun, child.”
“So, what are you afraid of?” Leona asked.
Diana turned over towards the bed where Leona was laying on, “What?”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Teaching you to read. I fall asleep and see myself bashing my head against the wall while you sound out words. Then I wake up and remember that it wasn’t a dream.”
Leona laughed quietly, taking care to not wake everyone else around them. Diana’s bland face cracked with a small smile.
“But really, what are you afraid of?” Leona whispered again.
“Why are you asking?”
“Friends do this from time to time. Want to know mine?”
“No.” Diana turned over and closed her eyes, “Go to sle-”
“Being unable to protect my friends.” the sudden shift in tone caused Diana to open her eyes.
Leona continued, “I experienced it right before...before I came here. I saw friends die left and right, and I couldn’t help but think it was my fault. I wanted to protect them...I thought I was protecting them. But the rite of Kor...I feared I had sabotaged their chances.”
Diana’s throat tightened as she listened to Leona’s story. She wanted to say something, tell her that it wasn’t her fault. But the words wouldn’t form from her lips. Again, she was speechless.
“I’m...I’m afraid that I’m wrong.” she stared at the ceiling above them, “That the moon is just the moon. If I’m wrong, then I have nothing. I’ll be truly alone.” Diana turned to see Leona at the edge of her bed staring straight at her.
“You won’t be alone. I’ll be by your side, protecting you from whatever comes.”
Moonlight shined through a nearby window, illuminating Diana’s blushed cheeks. Leona smiled, “And that’s a promise.”
Diana awoke to find her hands bond behind her and herself forced into a kneeling position. Her body still ached, but her forehead was the most sensitive. Every small breeze felt like a sharp needle across her brow.
“Diana.”
She looked forward to see elder Deacon and the Solari clergy out before her. All across the crowd were familiar faces, but none showed any remorse or sorrow. Some even seem satisfied, as though she was a burden to them.
She couldn’t deny that she was.
Leona was the only one missing, the only one that Diana wanted to see. She thought she had a friend, but she was a fool. She was always alone.
“You have brought heresy to the Solari with your claims of the moon. As a child we were merciful, hoping you would grow out of these foolish beliefs. But you have gone too far in mocking the sun.”
Deacon pointed to the crescent shaped blade that hung from the temple walls, “For bringing a false idol to this holy place and adoring yourself in insolent garbs, you have been sentenced to death.”
Diana was silent as she gathered everything Deacon said, leaving the temple eerily quiet when he finished.
“A heretic?” Diana muttered, her words echoed across the temple halls, “All...All I wanted was to prove the sun wasn’t alone in the sky. That the moon held some significance. Yet when I bring proof, you so hastily brand me a heretic?” Her voice slowly rose in volume, “You, who would denounce the possibility of even a subordinate to the sun, dare call me a heretic?” She took a deep breath between sobs, looking directly into Deacon’s eyes, “I’m no heretic, unlike you my eyes are not singed from staring at the sun! You are the true heretics!”
Her heavy breaths resonated throughout the room, slowly dying down until all was quiet once more.
“May the sun be merciful.” Deacon said, signaling the executioner.
Fear did not take hold of Diana. Even with death coming down on her, she could not help but feel satisfied in finally saying what she felt deep down. She closed her eyes and waited.
I am ready.
Instead of meeting cold steel, her skin felt as though it were aflame. Every nerve burned in agony, her screams drilled into the souls of the Solari who watched in horror as the moonlight tore the ceiling asunder and bathed over Diana.
Then it stopped. Diana was no longer kneeling, now standing tall with her bonds broken and her expression empty. A crescent moon formed under the Solari brand across her forehead. Scar-like black lines sat vertically across her luminescent eyes.
Deacon stepped backwards, his voice stolen by fear. The worst had happened: The moon had chosen.
Acolytes and priests screamed as they ran for safety while the warriors surged forward with their weapons raised. Diana weaved through them as if dancing, her body enveloped in a lunar glow. No one could keep her from the weapon.
No one could save them.
Death throes rattled throughout the monastery. The moon’s chosen showed no mercy, each swing as deadly and precise as the finest strand of light. Her expression held no emotion, she could do them no justice. Each swing carried her rage, her sadness, and her resentment that she carried every sunrise and sunset of her life.
She would never cry again. The moon made sure of it.
“D-Diana...stop this.” Deacon tripped over the corpse of a young acolyte, falling backwards. He kept begging as he crawled away, “Please stop, Diana.”
She strode unabated towards the pathetic elder, weapon raised high as her gaze followed him like a hawk.
“No, Diana...no, no, I’m be-”
His screams were the last to echo that night.
Leona couldn’t find the words to soothe the dying acolyte in her arms. While Pantheon and the other rakkorian warriors searched for survivors, Leona tended to those that couldn’t be saved. They knew she could not save them, as much as she wished she could. Her presence was enough to grant them peace, a final sunrise with the sun’s chosen.
“Diana…” tears streamed down her face as she embraced one of the younger acolytes as she passed away. Again she could only watch as those she cared about suffered. Her duty was to protect others, not keep up relations with the Rakkor tribe.
“Never again.” She said as she closed the child’s eyes. This would be the last time she would let her friends die.
So, thoughts? Comments? What did you all think?
