There was only one thing Marunava yearned to do with the limited lifespan her illness left her: she sought to be of service to her countrymen, who had shown her endless love and compassion despite how weak her body had always been.
Tikoruu, the patron deity of the vast Lurosdinet tundra, was incredibly fond of animals known as the vurita. A majestic species of feathered felines, his fondness for their strength and intelligence was well-known, and they were thus treated by the people as sacred creatures under his protection.
One day, the Rukyor tribe had managed to retrieve a vurita from the bottom of a deep crevice in the mountains. Marunava volunteered to embark on the journey to bring the sacred animal back to their god, a task that although would most definitely end in death. However, it provided a sense of honour and service to the dutiful young woman, and that was all her heart desired.
After several days of travelling the frigid landscape, she eventually collapsed, ridden with frostbite within the eternal blizzard guarding the entrance to Tikoruu's domain, Fort Kurnei.
She was found by Tikoruu in his draconic form, who had sensed the lifeforce of the vurita cub and flew out to investigate. Unable to separate the cub that clung onto Marunava's body, he would then grasp her and the animal in his talons and fly back to Fort Kurnei, where Marunava would make her recovery.
It had been a long time since Tikoruu had last felt love, but he gradually became enamoured with Marunava during her stay there. Eventually, the two would have a child together - but throughout her pregnancy, Marunava's illness worsened, resulting in worsening episodes of weakness and pain. Shortly after she gave birth to Dmitri, she died, with Tikoruu's ice-cold grip numbing her final throes of agony.
With firsthand experience of how stifling loneliness could be, Tikoruu did not want his child to live a life of isolation with him in Fort Kurnei. He spirited Dmitri back to the Rukyor tribe, where he was well received and taken in by a surrogate family.
However, during the fourth year of Dmitri's life, an army from the veseroluun would raid the tundra in search of five powerful artifacts.
The artifacts, mirrors known as the Vaibankoya, had been distributed amongst the five dominant tribes by Tikoruu himself. The Vaibankoya absorbed and amplified the suns' rays, making them a potent source of heat and magical reserves within the harsh wintry climate. Three of the Vaibankoya were stolen during the attack. Two, including the Rukyor's, would be shattered and weakened in the battles, rendered practically unusable.
Throughout the turbulent years of conflict, many, including Dmitri, would be forced into hiding.
During those times of fear and uncertainty, Dmitri began his training in the art of restorative and enhancement magic, something the Rukyor have honed since time immemorial. Being the weakest of the five tribes, they had experienced the most casualties in the invasion, of which included Dmitri's younger brother, Maxim.
Though they were not related by blood, the loss shook still him to his core.
Several years later, during the ceremony where Dmitri became recognised as an adult member of the tribe's ranks, Dmitri made a vow to himself and all who bore witness that he would exact revenge on the ones who had done this.
But the leaders of the Rukyor tribe did not feel the same. After a decade of attempting to recover from the invasion's aftermath and the subsequent, violent infighting among the five tribes, the older members of the Rukyor were exhausted. They had seen their fill of bloodshed, and being such, they would not condone any more senseless violence.
The leaders of the Rukyor, especially Dmitri's adoptive mother, Sanya, attempted to dissuade him. It became evident, though, that they would never see eye to eye. Everyone wanted a future where the past could be laid to rest. Whereas the Rukyor leaders sought to employ somber acceptance and move on, Dmitri could not come to terms with that.
It felt wrong. It felt like nobody cared about the lives lost as much as he did. He had spent so much time learning how to heal others, but there were some things that couldn't be healed so easily.
There had to be a more clear path forward.
Eventually, Sanya realised there was nothing more she could do. Despite their disagreements, he was as dear to her as Maxim was. As a mother and a leader, she resolved to give him a means to walk along this path he had chosen.
Dmitri was still Tikoruu's son, even though his life had little divine involvement thus far. That was simply the kind of god Tikoruu was: a rational, understanding god, but one who seldom chose to intervene in any way.
Throughout the centuries, the only thing Tikoruu saw fit to do was bestow gifts. The Vaibankoya were his, the harsh blizzards guarding the edge of the tundra were his, and he sought to provide his people with the means to survive and endure. But he did not side with anyone during conflict.
Throughout the wars, the killing and the anguish, he had remained characteristically silent. And everyone but Dmitri saw no reason to question it.
It was evident to all that Dmitri felt a deep sense of duty to protect the people, the very people whom his father had neglected to. Dmitri wanted answers, and the Rukyor's seemingly indifferent stance on things made them be at odds.
Recognising that, Sanya advised him to make the same journey his blood mother had, many moons ago.
Tikoruu was the only one who could give him the answers he needed. And if Dmitri wished to speak with Tikoruu himself, he would have to travel to Fort Kurnei.
Thus, Dmitri took it upon himself to set out for his father's treacherous domain.
Since the day Maxim was killed, Dmitri had always held onto a small shard of the Vaibankoya to serve as a reminder of the events that transpired. Despite its small size, over the years, Dmitri had allowed it to continuously absorb the sunlight it was designed to receive. It could not hold nearly as much as the intact mirror once did, but it still exceeded that of any other vessel.
For the final leg of his journey through the eternal blizzard, Dmitri drew upon the deep store of heat within the shard, using it to keep his body from freezing over as he trudged through the merciless landscape. Fenvasi or not, most creatures were not intended to trespass into Tikoruu's domain. But Dmitri was determined to honour those who had been lost. The ones who died so that others could live, they couldn't be left behind just like that.
If nobody was going to fight for them, it fell upon him to do so. The shard he gripped in his hands was a testament to his belief in that duty. He had spent his entire life preparing to grasp the answer to his questions.
All he had to do was close his fingers around the crystalline truth.
When he finally broke free of the blizzard and into the calm, serene snowscape of Fort Kurnei, he knew his journey had almost reached completion. Standing at the gates to Fort Kurnei, however, he realised they would not open for him.
Dmitri knew the journey there had used up the majority of the shard's energy reserves. The blizzard would kill him if he turned back now. He had no option but to wait there, in the eye of the storm, trusting that his father would let him in.
Tikoruu, a deity that had been stung by betrayal and failure many times through his endless years, had always refrained from speaking to the undivine. Though he had been watching Dmitri since the beginning of his journey, Tikoruu had no intentions of receiving his son into his halls. There was nothing to be gained from their meeting but sadness and anger. Therefore, it was better to not acknowledge his presence instead. <>The only person who could guide Dmitri was Dmitri himself. Tikoruu had no answers to provide.
But on the fifth night Dmitri spent in the camp he had set up at the gates, the vurita Marunava had saved over twenty years ago, now full grown, wandered out into the courtyard. It sensed a familiar presence. A presence it had always remembered as warm and loving, yet still distinctly different. This presence had been modified, coloured by unusual turmoil.
Upon approaching Dmitri, the vurita gazed deep into his eyes. Dmitri stared back at the creature, struck by its fixation on him, since the vurita were solitary by nature. A tense second passed before the vurita seemed to nod at him, inclining its head slightly. Unbeknownst to him, it had accepted him as an extension of his mother. Without a sound, it laid down next to him, using its body warmth to provide him some support.
Seeing this unfold, Tikoruu felt a pang of fondness. Or maybe, it was some sort of hope. This sort of foreign emotion he knew little of, it bothered him. It continued to churn within his heart the entire night, and when the morning came, he relented, wordlessly opening the entrance to his lonely home.
During Dmitri's audience with his father, they came to better understand each others' actions. Dmitri, although still frustrated, did not come to resent his father's inaction the way he used to.
Though he did not wish for it to come to pass, Tikoruu clearly saw how much Dmitri yearned to go into become stronger, to become someone who could protect the memory of those who had lost their lives and their voices. When Dmitri asked for guidance, Tikoruu begrudgingly offered Dmitri safe passage to Resovinasis. To embrace his capabilities as a fenvasi might eventually lead him towards the answers he sought.
Once he had entered the world of Resovinasis, it was there that he realised the answer wasn't as simple as he believed. The lands beyond the Lurosdinet, in the lumenoluun and further still, they represented variables that he never could've fathomed. There were many questions that remained to be asked, and as always, he would not let them slip past him.
The beneficial magics he was taught by the Rukyor set the foundation for this new beginning. He was taught how to refine and wield it with purpose, nurturing his childhood skills into a distilled art. His voracious appetite for knowledge and his dedication to comprehending the world around him helped him readily master his craft, and fortunately, he had no shortage of fascinating books and novel situations to utilise in this undertaking.
As he continued to grow, he was met with a plea from a strange individual who had forced his way into Resovinasis, begging someone to help his companion.
Dmitri felt sympathy for the young man, Allen Hevsanin, and travelled with him to the desert to offer his assistance. Though his attempts at healing Allen's companion were unsuccessful, he unexpectedly found a lifelong friend in Allen after the fact.
The two promised to meet again someday, when life would allow it.
Parting ways, Dmitri would soon go on to become one of the highest ranking alchemists in Resovinasis, well-known for his eccentric methodologies and bizarre innovations. Though regarded as difficult to work with, his unconventional approaches and successes still have people knocking on the door to his lab.
Of course, amidst all the chatter and clamour of much louder individuals, he never lost sight of what originally drove him towards these goals: one day, he would find a way to honour the names of those who had been lost. Even if he had to create that answer with his own two hands.