Deliana

Within the great academy city of Ireth, no magic was considered off limits. Ethics and philosophy? Those were for lesser academics. What mattered was uncovering the secrets to magic and the universe, without being constrained by something as trivial as right or wrong. One of the greatest who ever studied at the Academy, Deliana dedicated her entire life to command the heavens themselves – a life that would engulf her. From an early age, Deliana was fascinated by the beauty of lightning. During Aravia’s potent summer storms, she consumed their energy from her bedroom window as if they sustained her life. To her, lightning was a divine power – an indiscriminate, wild expression of the sky. Her royal heritage meant nothing in comparison to her, and she thirsted to bend the power of lightning to her will. Despite her ambition, her family’s tutors and the library granted her no answers. They were only interested in matters of the earth — not the will of the heavens. Leaving her family and heritage behind was a small sacrifice for Deliana to pursue her dream. Arriving in Ireth, she dedicated herself into unlocking the secrets of lightning. Studying meteorology, she learned how to track a storm’s path, and developed specialized equipment to attract a thunderbolt. Most importantly of all, she spent many seasons enchanting her constitution to survive a lightning strike. While other mages within her college could conjure electricity from their hands, this energy was a pale imitation of the real thing. Deliana knew a storm would come eventually, and she had to be prepared. Finally, a storm rolled in – Ireth buckled under sheets of rain, while thunder shook the sky. The moment upon her, Deliana tracked the storm to a giant salt pan outside the city. She had to be the only target for this strike, so that the heavenly bolt’s power would ripple through her, and only her. She could taste the storm as she stood in the salt pan, her lightning rod held aloft in anticipation. She waited. And waited. The rain stopped. The clouds slowly parted. Deliana pleaded with the skies, imploring the heavens to strike her. She cursed their name and sank to the floor, clinging to her lightning rod as she wept. She took one last look at the sky, and then – crack. The pain hit Deliana beyond all meaning. For a single moment in time, every fiber of her being crackled with divine life. Her eyes shone the brightest blue as energy danced across her fingertips, but the power did not dissipate. She had become a conduit for the storm, the heaven’s power in mortal form. Its electrical impulses melded with hers, its thoughts becoming hers. She spoke with a voice like thunder: ‘All will know their place in my presence.’ Taking up her lightning rod, Deliana turned away from Ireth and strode into the desert. She would show everyone the true majesty that she now commanded — the power ordained to her by the very heavens itself. Those who would not submit she would blast into submission.