"It is a long story, so park your ears.
"I was a Cager, as you already know; I grew up in Sigil. I was not from a... very nice family. My father was absent. My sister and I were raised by my mother, but it was clear that she cared little for us, especially for me.
"My mother had horns — I inherited mine from her — but my sister did not. The fiendish bloodline seems not to have affected her as strongly, at least not in the physical sense. It affected her more so in other ways; she was exceptionally cruel. I should note that I was by no means a good girl; we were all cruel to each other. But she teased me incessantly, always pointing out how many men she had been with and how many gifts she had been given by Mother, who favored her. She was also... more voluptuous than I and was more canny. She did better in school. She seemed superior to me in every way."
Now, Sofi paused, took a deep breath, and then continued. "To come to it, eventually, I could not take it anymore. One day, after she had publicly humiliated me at the schoolhouse, I fumed in anger, but I kept it all inside,... for the day. That night, I entered my sister's room and strangled her to death in her sleep."
She looked at the ground as she shared this. When no one made any comment, she went on.
"Then, I fled. I stole a portal key from a merchant and passed from Sigil to the Outlands, where I found myself near the gate town of Tradegate.
Solisar nodded. He knew that Tradegate was the gate-town to Bytopia, the home of the gnomish pantheon. It was a good Outer Plane, known for its two facing layers. It leaned more toward lawfulness than chaos, residing, cosmologically, between Celestia and Elysium.
"It was here that I met my first cervidal, and I pretended to be one, to fit in better. (A number of guardinals lived in or visited Tradegate.) I had a twigging for him, and I soon tried to seduce him, but while he seemed to genuinely twig me and to find me attractive — though he obviously knew that I was not a cervidal —" She pointed at her bare feet. "...he refused to act on his feelings. He tried to let me down gently, but it was clear that I was not enough of a 'good girl' for a cutter like him, celestial blood and all. He also discovered that I was really a tiefling, and I at last admitted to him my great crime. To my surprise, he was compassionate and spoke to me about redemption.
"The idea intrigued me, and I left Tradegate and wandered counterclockwise to Excelsior, thinking of no better place to find someone who might lead me on the path to forgiveness.
"Along the way, I passed a hospital of sorts. It was only a small hostel, but a gentle old monk lived there, named Sarl, who cared for sick orphans and widows at no cost. I offered to help him, thinking that I might earn redemption for my crime through good deeds. He accepted my offer and let me call kip there.
"I aided him for about a month, before a gang of babaus one day attacked the hospital. I was quickly nicked and left for dead by one of them, but while I lay on the ground, expecting to die, I looked up and saw something incredible to me. The old monk, with nothing but his walking staff, subdued or killed all three of the babaus alone, even cracking open one of their hideous, horned skulls. Not a single patient was harmed."
"I saw several of these when in the Fugue plane," said Solisar, "lanky, black tanar'ri demons with a single horn curling backward from the back of their skull, correct?"
Sofi nodded.
He remembered that they had attacked some imps and led away other creatures made of crawling beetles, but this was her story, so he let her continue.
"They were awful, yes, but Sarl stopped all of them.
"He nursed me back to health. From my sick bed, I asked him how he could have possibly fought the way he did. His answer I shall never forget. 'There is great strength in weakness. Great good comes to those who are willing to give everything away.'
"I asked him to teach me when I was recovered again. This he did. I found it frustrating that his teachings were at first on things like posture and meditation, but I soon scanned the hidden benefits of the knowledge that he was passing on. Eventually, he told me that I could learn no more until I had a true change of heart. He suggested that I seek enlightenment in isolation.
"I was angry at his refusal to train me further and in his insinuation that I was not 'good enough', so I left and sought training elsewhere, finding it eventually from some githzerai of Xaos, whose entire race was dedicated to the practice of the martial arts.
"They trained me well, and there were no strings attached to my training, unlike with Sarl. However, I felt a great emptiness inside, and I could not forget Sarl's final advice to me. Nor could I forget the guilt that still hung over me for the great crime of murder.
"To be fair, isolation already appealed to me, and it was not like I had any real friends among the strange githzerai, so I made my plans and did not bang around there much longer. I had read about a world, this world of Coliar, in Realmspace, in the Prime, a world so large that one could have an entire floating island to herself. I figured that it might be the best place in the multiverse to find isolation, so I passed into Limbo and spent what little jink I had to be dropped off here by some plane-crossing travelers.
"So, I came here, five or six years ago, dumped on an empty island, and have wandered around from island to island ever since, almost always alone.
"But Sarl was right. When I was truly alone, I cried over my awful crime. I sobbed over what I had done to my sister. I longed to become someone like Sarl, someone who could help the ones that no one wanted. I called out to the powers for forgiveness. I asked to become a new woman, to be freed from my ancestral heritage of hate and rage.
"And one day, I was visited by an angelic being, who looked something like a winged elf but radiant, with a brass breastplate and a silver trumpet hanging from her back."
"A trumpet archon," said Hakam, sounding impressed. Solisar and Szordrin each nodded, but Sofi shrugged.
"Whatever she was, she told me that she was a messenger from Pistis Sophia, that my prayers had been heard by the high-ups of Celestia, and that they had seen my attempts to atone for my sin. If I would promise to devote myself wholly to her teachings, I would find what I truly wanted.
"This I have done. For the last several years, while meditating each morning, I often hear her voice, gently teaching me the path of righteousness. I have grown in my skills here alone, waiting for the time when she has a task for me to perform in her service."
"Perhaps that time is now." She looked at them and shrugged again, then blushed, anticipating perhaps some sort of scolding. "That is all," she said. "That is my past."
"I was a Cager, as you already know; I grew up in Sigil. I was not from a... very nice family. My father was absent. My sister and I were raised by my mother, but it was clear that she cared little for us, especially for me.
"My mother had horns — I inherited mine from her — but my sister did not. The fiendish bloodline seems not to have affected her as strongly, at least not in the physical sense. It affected her more so in other ways; she was exceptionally cruel. I should note that I was by no means a good girl; we were all cruel to each other. But she teased me incessantly, always pointing out how many men she had been with and how many gifts she had been given by Mother, who favored her. She was also... more voluptuous than I and was more canny. She did better in school. She seemed superior to me in every way."
Now, Sofi paused, took a deep breath, and then continued. "To come to it, eventually, I could not take it anymore. One day, after she had publicly humiliated me at the schoolhouse, I fumed in anger, but I kept it all inside,... for the day. That night, I entered my sister's room and strangled her to death in her sleep."
She looked at the ground as she shared this. When no one made any comment, she went on.
"Then, I fled. I stole a portal key from a merchant and passed from Sigil to the Outlands, where I found myself near the gate town of Tradegate.
Solisar nodded. He knew that Tradegate was the gate-town to Bytopia, the home of the gnomish pantheon. It was a good Outer Plane, known for its two facing layers. It leaned more toward lawfulness than chaos, residing, cosmologically, between Celestia and Elysium.
"It was here that I met my first cervidal, and I pretended to be one, to fit in better. (A number of guardinals lived in or visited Tradegate.) I had a twigging for him, and I soon tried to seduce him, but while he seemed to genuinely twig me and to find me attractive — though he obviously knew that I was not a cervidal —" She pointed at her bare feet. "...he refused to act on his feelings. He tried to let me down gently, but it was clear that I was not enough of a 'good girl' for a cutter like him, celestial blood and all. He also discovered that I was really a tiefling, and I at last admitted to him my great crime. To my surprise, he was compassionate and spoke to me about redemption.
"The idea intrigued me, and I left Tradegate and wandered counterclockwise to Excelsior, thinking of no better place to find someone who might lead me on the path to forgiveness.
"Along the way, I passed a hospital of sorts. It was only a small hostel, but a gentle old monk lived there, named Sarl, who cared for sick orphans and widows at no cost. I offered to help him, thinking that I might earn redemption for my crime through good deeds. He accepted my offer and let me call kip there.
"I aided him for about a month, before a gang of babaus one day attacked the hospital. I was quickly nicked and left for dead by one of them, but while I lay on the ground, expecting to die, I looked up and saw something incredible to me. The old monk, with nothing but his walking staff, subdued or killed all three of the babaus alone, even cracking open one of their hideous, horned skulls. Not a single patient was harmed."
"I saw several of these when in the Fugue plane," said Solisar, "lanky, black tanar'ri demons with a single horn curling backward from the back of their skull, correct?"
Sofi nodded.
He remembered that they had attacked some imps and led away other creatures made of crawling beetles, but this was her story, so he let her continue.
"They were awful, yes, but Sarl stopped all of them.
"He nursed me back to health. From my sick bed, I asked him how he could have possibly fought the way he did. His answer I shall never forget. 'There is great strength in weakness. Great good comes to those who are willing to give everything away.'
"I asked him to teach me when I was recovered again. This he did. I found it frustrating that his teachings were at first on things like posture and meditation, but I soon scanned the hidden benefits of the knowledge that he was passing on. Eventually, he told me that I could learn no more until I had a true change of heart. He suggested that I seek enlightenment in isolation.
"I was angry at his refusal to train me further and in his insinuation that I was not 'good enough', so I left and sought training elsewhere, finding it eventually from some githzerai of Xaos, whose entire race was dedicated to the practice of the martial arts.
"They trained me well, and there were no strings attached to my training, unlike with Sarl. However, I felt a great emptiness inside, and I could not forget Sarl's final advice to me. Nor could I forget the guilt that still hung over me for the great crime of murder.
"To be fair, isolation already appealed to me, and it was not like I had any real friends among the strange githzerai, so I made my plans and did not bang around there much longer. I had read about a world, this world of Coliar, in Realmspace, in the Prime, a world so large that one could have an entire floating island to herself. I figured that it might be the best place in the multiverse to find isolation, so I passed into Limbo and spent what little jink I had to be dropped off here by some plane-crossing travelers.
"So, I came here, five or six years ago, dumped on an empty island, and have wandered around from island to island ever since, almost always alone.
"But Sarl was right. When I was truly alone, I cried over my awful crime. I sobbed over what I had done to my sister. I longed to become someone like Sarl, someone who could help the ones that no one wanted. I called out to the powers for forgiveness. I asked to become a new woman, to be freed from my ancestral heritage of hate and rage.
"And one day, I was visited by an angelic being, who looked something like a winged elf but radiant, with a brass breastplate and a silver trumpet hanging from her back."
"A trumpet archon," said Hakam, sounding impressed. Solisar and Szordrin each nodded, but Sofi shrugged.
"Whatever she was, she told me that she was a messenger from Pistis Sophia, that my prayers had been heard by the high-ups of Celestia, and that they had seen my attempts to atone for my sin. If I would promise to devote myself wholly to her teachings, I would find what I truly wanted.
"This I have done. For the last several years, while meditating each morning, I often hear her voice, gently teaching me the path of righteousness. I have grown in my skills here alone, waiting for the time when she has a task for me to perform in her service."
"Perhaps that time is now." She looked at them and shrugged again, then blushed, anticipating perhaps some sort of scolding. "That is all," she said. "That is my past."
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Posted on August 08, 2020 04:08
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