bestowed upon us, devastating power

[princessences]

[ Allura had always felt that someday she would return to this place, the home of her legacy, of her soul--Oriande. But she didn't imagine it be like this. She had hoped it would be some time later in the future, after the war and peace had been restored, when they needed to look once again to the wisdom of the past to help shape the future. Something for the benefit of the universe.

This, in many ways, feels a simple selfish pursuit. But it is truly the last she could possibly do. Their battle had been...necessary to some extent, but a mistake in other ways. Lotor had absorbed more quintessence than any living thing ever ought to. How he was still alive is a testament to his own strength, and perhaps some of Allura's own attentiveness. She's determined to save him and she hates putting the other at risk for it.

But she can risk herself and this one trip.

At least once more.

The pink clouds and calmingly beautiful skies of Oriande were just as awe-inspiring as the first time. Though the first time she had also been riding on a high, in no small part thanks to Lotor. Now? She appreciates the beauty with a heavy heart. She's here on business.

The power is already within you, they had said. Then why was it that she couldn't purge this darkness on her own?

Allura lands her scooter near the platform this time, disembarking with a heavy heart, but firm resolve. ]

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[shroudedsecrets]

[ Oriande. The very word had once tugged at the furthest strands of memory, no matter how much of it had remained inaccessible until then.

Even now, Honerva knew, as she lingered inside of the temple, robes swishing as she paced round the location that had restored to her so much, there was still just as much that she still lacked. Some of those internal bridges had been restored, the knowledge of being Altean and beyond what she had even once known before the darkness took her; how she could now grasp far more than she ever could fathom, so much there at her fingertips, the thrill of energy, both old and new.

And yet all she could truly grasp from it was the resounding emptiness of ages past, of time lost, time spent forgotten and drowned in darkness. The want of her family, that love that had been taken away. What more, then, could this sacred place give?

There had been that brief moment, when she had hoped, that her son would join her, to mend the rift that had begun for them since his miraculous birth, for all they had gone through, but even that had slipped away. And where was he now? She had searched for his presence, fervently so, known that Voltron was more like to turn on him now than ever before, and that perhaps somehow they already had. And yet she was exhausted by this; importantly, however, she could not remain in the Empire, not as it was. Not with the Druids haunting her every step. No.

Where else, but to return to Oriande? A safehaven for those who wait, to generate new ideas, possibilities-

While she remains with these thoughts, caught up as she was, she does not yet sense that shift in energy that would herald an arrival, of the other who had gained such access freely.

However, Allura is not alone at the platform. A large black cat is present, one that looks upon her with a wary stare and a twitching tail. ]