Jahira | The Inspired Curiousity
INSPIRATION | CURIOSITY
REPRESENTED BY OWLS AND THE SPARKS AT THE END OF A FLICKERING CANDLE
A scholar leans over an ancient text, attempting to decipher a language long lost to the world. They have their notes and their cyphers and their quick wit. Though they have pooled over every word scrawled in front of them, something is missing. The candle on their desk burns the last of its wick. Frustration gnaws at the back of their mind as the last bit of light begins to fade. Dejected, they push back their chair and stand. But just as they turn away from the desk, papers shuffle. They look back to find that something has flipped through their cyphers, and that their pen is sitting on top, pointed at just the piece they needed to finish their translation. And they delve back into the work, reinvigorated by the divine assistance, and their work is used to decode stories from ages long lost to time.
Stories like that demonstrate the owl’s nature. Bards trill on about sacrifices, and about divine retribution, and about cycles and prayers both answered and unanswered. And to most, these praises are fine demonstrations of devotion; but for Jahira, they ring hollow. It is rare that you find her among her fellow divine. There is little inspiration to be drawn from the petty squabbles between siblings, no matter how large the fallout. No, if you seek the inspiration of Curiosity, you will find it in the crackle of a burning hearth as you read just one more poem. And if not there, then it will be in the turning of the page as you pour over old tomes in search of answers that others abandoned long ago. And if not there, it will be the sparks that fly off of your fingertips when you cast a spell that you’ve only just learned, demonstrating a mastery that you have worked tirelessly to obtain. All the while, the Owl sits at your windowsill, an ever-watchful eye. And she takes no credit for those feats. Rather, the only payment that Jahira asks for for her subtle contributions is the opportunity to watch. To learn. To experience the euphoria of discovery once more.
Her servants are often mistaken for Volqui’s spies, but the truth is that both will pretend to be the other in their constant search for information. But her chosen few – the Divinators – are given gifts from their patron that the spies dream of. A Divinator possesses the eyes to see things in rooms they will never enter; and the ears to hear words whispered a world away; and the occasional glimpse down the branching pathways of fate to predict the future.
There are some who would rather stifle the minds that Jahira favors before they have had the opportunity to grow. To those who seek power, a curious mind is an impossible thing to control. And there are powers that do attempt to stifle the brilliant minds of the Divinators. More often than not, the candles lit by the spark of curiosity are protected by one of Jahira’s many benevolent hands from the winds of oppression that threaten to snuff them out.
I am no scholar, and so my dealings with Jahira are typically in passing. But when I do pass by her influence, I find myself enthralled by it. I adore a curious mind, myself. I will be forever grateful that she safeguards the inquisitiveness of those who must seek truths in silence.
-From the Oracle Notes of Kaelmorn Teverin