1.7 : The Message

Across the City, across the world, there was a shiver that originated at the spot where Shaen stood. Every being felt it, progressively moving further from the source until every single creature that still roamed the mangled Earth had felt it. It was a very limited number of those creatures that knew that the shiver contained a message, and even more limited was the number still willing to respond to the message. There were many who felt that the time had come to forsake the one that had forsaken them so many times over the years.

Silver crest feathers, all of them. Vanity might have a few of them casting the fashionable colors of youth over their feathers, but it did not disguise their age. True, to any human, they all looked like children with their small forms and ageless skin. But their kin knew better; a Misshapen's feathers were the true tell of age. Eventually, no matter how well kept or well fed one managed to keep one's self, the Misshapen's feathers would silver. Many of these remembered what it was like to serve under Her when she was at the peak of her powers. Those times of true glory still lived in those, which only served to fill them with terrible scorn that so often after that peak had she abandoned them.

Without the madness that drove her, without the complexity of her mind to grow off of, Misshapen were only the dregs of society. Their abilities dwindled, with the exception of her Chosen. And with the Chosen tiring of all things, it seemed, they had lost faith. Some silver crest feathers would answer the call, but most would not. This time, they would not face the disappointment, but remain in their own cities, their own tribes, far away from the City.

But then, there were the youth. And they were excited.

They had never felt the Call before. The last Call had been an entire generation before them...after all, the last time she had been about, she had been active for quite some time and thus, her servants were always aware of her awareness, as it was. So as the shiver rippled through the youth, they could not fathom anything but glory in responding to the Call. And as they dropped their current plans and began to make arrangements if they weren't already in the City, they dreamed of Honor. Those that felt the weariness of the medium for the Message knew there was something even greater than the plight of their parents in this Call.

Those still living with their parents found little resistance. Despite their own irritation with the woman, they knew the Call could not be explained away. The first time they had been Called, their elders had attempted to persuade them that it really wasn't the best of ideas and it hadn't worked then either. Sighing, the generation that had settled into a life of shadows, disillusioned by promises broken, sat by as their children, full of an ideal they no longer sympathized with, left.

As the youth traveled, they obeyed the other order embedded in the call. Bring one. Just one more, that was all that was asked. One to be purified, to be bettered, to be one of them. It did not matter the age, just that the one was willing. There would be time later to gather the unwilling, but her powers would need to be far greater for that. So for now, the youth seduced, persuaded and smiled their way into the hearts of the youth of the human generation who had never been subject to the Call before either. The youth of the Misshapen were finding the City quickly and understood why.

Their Goddess has returned to their people, and they were ready and willing to serve Shaen, Mistress of the Misshapen.