Zeiyra Va'Rella

Huntress. Tactician. Noble. Wild One. A personal, IC blog for the forest treading huntress of WRA.

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[chainmailandlace-blog]

From the Darkness Born...

Sleep was impossible, it did not matter how hard Zeiyra tried. Her mind was alert, twisting over every thought that passed through. The darkness had taken over hours ago, and the room around her was... Silent, save for the sleeping breaths of the man beside her. It was strange how quickly her room at Erudition had become... Their room? Zeiyra had learned... So much about Ailos over the past few weeks, and now, he was planning on taking her to meet his sister... At his home. It was then, as she laid there beside him in the middle of the night.. That she realized he knew so little about her and where she came from. He'd basically given her a book about his grandfather and his family... All he knew was that she had a missing sister. Zei couldn't remember the last time that she had verbally announced her nobility, or her own story. So few knew of her past before the woods of Northrend... And for the first time... She was considering baring it all to someone... To him.

Slowly, Zei slipped out from around Ailos and out of the bed, moving in a slow, stalking manner to keep from disturbing him. He hadn't been sleeping well so seeing him actually sleeping peacefully, she didn't want to steal that from him with her own tossing and turning. Careful footsteps carried her through the room, collecting pieces of her clothing and her armor, periodically looking back to the bed to make sure that the sounds of the chain mail chiming didn't stir the male. It didn't take her long to dress herself, covering her limbs in the lace and chain mail she was so familiar with. A second skin to her. In a matter of minutes, Zei was once again dressed, her heavy boots clutched to her, she walked to the door and stopped. Her eyes fell on the intricately carved bow and quiver that were leaned into the corner by the door. Her brows knit as she looked back to the bed once more before she grabbed the bow and the quiver with her free hand and she slipped quietly out the door of their room, making her way to the grounds of Erudition.

Bare feet stepped into the dew covered grass outside and a soft, long sigh escaped her. Eyes closing, she took a deep breath and tilted her head back, smiling as the cool breeze of the night swirled around her. She dropped the bow, quiver, and her boots into the grass as she took a deep breath, looking skyward to the stars that danced above her. Her eyes swam through the night sky, darting from star to star, when something across the field of Erudition caught her eye. There, walking towards the hills and trees, was a glint of light. Zei narrowed her eyes through the darkness, then quickly grabbed her boots, shoving her feet into them before grabbed her bow and quiver. She began to jog, carefully, across the field, slipping her weapons over her shoulders.

Silly hunters and their damnable curiosities, always letting it get the better of them. That glint lured her from the safety of Erudition, and from the reaches of Ailos and the others. Deeper and deeper into the woods of Silverpine, causing the tall woman to slip between trees and tramp through brush to search for the source of the glint of the light. She didn't even realize that the light had lured her so far through Silverpine, that she was close to the western woods of Tirisfal, the hills raising around her as the trees became denser and denser before they were gone and she emerged into a clearing. An empty clearing. Slowly, Zei pulled her bow from her shoulder, holding it in her left hand as her right reached back for a single arrow, notching it carefully in its place before slowly advancing through the clearing towards the center.

“Curious little sparrow... Searching for his Light that I took? Do you want to see it? Do you want to save him as he saved you from me?”

The words were dreadfully quiet in her mind, the walls that Ailos had built still strong around her, keeping the voice of him at bay. “Silence yourself... Unless you want to alert him to your presence again and have him come to stop you again.” Zei grumbled back, outloud, unafraid to be seen talking to herself in the middle of the empty clearing. Now, realizing that it had been the will of him to bring her out here, Zei turned back towards where she'd come from and began to walk back towards the trees. “He will not reach us here, on the soil where darkness plays. You tread where demons of your mind play and where dreamers dance, but I promise you, his precious little Light, you will be safe here. Come, I know you are curious. Come look and touch the soils of my gift. It won't cost you much.”

Zei stopped in her tracks, just a few feet from the center of the clearing. She looked down at her feet, and the earth beneath them. Slowly, she slid the toes of her right boot over the dirt and grass, taking a deep breath. She could feel the walls tremble in her mind, her right arm slowly beginning to glow beneath her armor. “Nothing will stop him. He will beat you... And I will help him. Your tricks will not work on me... He will never let you win.” She mumbled the words, and that soft, distant laughter in her mind started to make itself known, the cracks in the walls starting to chip apart.

“Mortals. Always doing the most foolish things for people they... Love. Never could I have imagined two to find one another, and swear themselves to one another. But are you brave enough, little sparrow, to meet the desires that you seek? Why not pull the tricks out of my sleeve? Whatever you find can be yours, I will not stop it. If you hold my hand... I will set you free.”

Zei scoffed, shaking her head. She didn't realize that ever moment that she stood in that clearing, talking to his voice in her mind, that he was breaking a little more of those seals away from his cell in her mind. “I desire nothing. I have everything that I could ever want. You know nothing.” She snapped back, walking once more, faster this time, towards the trees on the edge of the clearing.

“Nothing? You do not wish to share his battle with him? You do not wish to fight off the evils with him? How can you do that... Without me? Stay, little sparrow. Stay here where good and bad do not exist. Here, I can grant you your every wish and desire. I can grant you my gift. Feast upon the fruit of the trees and the meat of the animals, huntress of darkness. Come, bathe in the eternal dreams. I offer you the chains of freedom, and you may keep them for eternity. You can save him. You can fall with him. Embrace my gift, child.”

That glow began to grow brighter, the pull of the void becoming stronger and stronger as it began to seep from the cracks in her seals, wrapping itself around her mind. Slowly, beneath the armor of her right arm, more runes began to etch themselves into her arm, filling in a part of her forearm that was still untouched. And it was as her feet stepped only a few feet from the border of the clearing that she stopped, her head coming up and her breath catching in her throat. “That is enough from you..” She hissed out, her brows knitting. “I do not need you to save him. I do not need you at all...”

“That was what your sister said... And then she embraced us. Just as he embraced us. Everyone you love in your life has accepted our gifts. Why will they not allow you to do the same? Do they think you are too weak to handle my gift? Do they think you will fall to your knees and bow before me? Prove them wrong, child... Let them know what kind of huntress you really are!”

The seals caved, crumbling to dust in her mind. She gasped as she felt her right arm spark to life, shadows and void coiling around it in a dark display. There was no burn or ache this time, only a pulse of power, thumping to the beat of her own heart's pace. Zei's eyes widened as she watched the magics swirl and dance around her forearm and hand, the long tendrils of violet snaking down around her arrow that she still held notched in the bow she held tightly on to. “All Light fades to darkness. Without Light, there is no darkness. With no darkness... There is only void. The fire has been extinguished and from it, a phoenix of darkness born from the ash of the Light. Anger will unfold, it is resting in your bones. A bitterness of sorrow. His dark sun will light a silhouette, from which you will burn if you do not fight back. You will lose him. Accept!”

The howls around the clearing echoed in her ears, silencing the voice and snapping her attention forward. She spun on her toes, pulling the arrow back on its string. Fel-fire eyes flashed, a violet smoke creeping into her orbs unknowingly as her eyes darted around the perimeter. “Left.” Her body pivoted and her arrow flew before she could see what she aimed for, piercing through the right eye of a wolf, who let out a yelp before falling to the ground. “Behind you!”Again, she spun, pulling another arrow and notching it as she moved, releasing it once again before her eyes had chance to settle on the wolf that was merely feet away from her. The arrow whizzed through the air and pierced through the wolf's throat, dropping it instantly.

But those violet shadows around her arm were now encasing her bow and every arrow drawn into it, giving a haunting look to her as she shot what looked to be bolts of shadow through the air. And her eyes now glowed a deep, shadowy purple. It was then that she felt it, her ears beginning to perk. Her hearing became overly sensitive, the sounds of paws running through brush pulling her attention to a shadow between two trees across the field. And her eyes, they saw the alpha wolf as if her eyes were those of the predator, granting her the ability to see the animal perfectly in the dark, as if it were day time.

That last arrow flew from her bow, whizzing through the air towards the larger wolf. As it neared though, the shadows around the arrow broke off into pieces, creating four more arrows in the air, created solely of the magic from her arm. Two arrows veered to the right, two more to the left, and as that solitary, tangible arrow slammed into the muscle of the wolf's front leg, the other four flew at it from the sides, ripping through fur and flesh in the sides of the wolf's throat and sides. The wolf ran only a few feet further before it, too, fell to the ground, leaving Zeiyra standing there, staring.

Slowly, the violet in her eyes peeled away, allowing the green to emerge once again. Her vision slowly returned to normal, causing her to peer through the darkness of the night once more.

“And so the hunted becomes the hunter once more. Accept, child. Become the true Huntress of Darkness... The Sparrow and the Raven, born from ashes of the void...”

Zei took a deep breath, holding it until her lungs burned. Her eyes were still locked on the dark silhouette of the wolf she'd just killed, her ears twitching as she fought to hear the world around her. Slowly, her bow finally lowered, and her eyes fell to the earth beneath her feet. She didn't know that now, her forearm, held those Shath'yar runes in more places that it had when she had walked into that field. Now, her entire forearm was covered, from wrist to elbow, with his words. The corruption was... Threatening and tempting, at all the same time. With a heavy sigh, Zei tilted her head back and she looked skyward, her eyes focusing on the stars above her once again. A single, solitary thought finally crept to her mind. “Ailos...”

With a turn and a jolt, she rushed forward, out of the clearing, and back through the forests to Erudition. It wasn't until she was back at the door to their room and was slipping quietly back inside that she heard that final, barely audible word in her mind.

“Accept.”

((Mentions: @ailos-lightsworn​))

[chainmailandlace-blog]

[chainmailandlace-blog]

A Shadow, Reborn.

Zeiyra couldn't remember when it was that she initially fell asleep, all that she could remember was the orange tint of light shining through her window as the sun set outside. It wasn't surprising that she fell asleep so early, seeing as how the night before she had stayed awake with Ailos, watching over him, keeping him safe through his tormenting dreams of shadows and haunting past. They had spent most of the day there, in her room in Erudition. There was no need to move, no need to leave. She knew that at some point, Ailos would be called on to continue talking about Discordia Syndicate, and staying close just seemed to make sense. She had fought to stay awake, telling him constantly that if he was called, she'd go with to support him, to be there for him. But he urged her to sleep... To finally rest after having realized just how little the woman had slept the night before.

Initially, sleep had been gentle and calm, his presence bringing a sense of safety and serenity to her mind. It was as if the whispers were afraid that he would hear them, and that he would retaliate against them to protect his lover. Little did Zeiyra know... They were merely preparing. Because after only a few hours of sleep, her mind began to slowly turn, like water disturbed by the drops of a gentle rain storm.

Farmer Brown's crept to her mind, that haunting, beckoning field calling to her, willing her to slip closer and bury herself in the earth... Telling her to come feast on the earth of her God and revel in his power. “Accept my gift, child...” The words were a constant whisper in her mind as the dreams calmly lead Zeiyra back to a field where so much had changed for her... For them. She watched, unable to save Ailos, as he struggled with his own mind in the middle of the barrier that covered that field, the barrier that she had been extracted from by his own hand. Repeatedly, Zei heard the whisper of gifts, and watched as Ailos struggled, feeling that pang in her chest as she was forced to watch the moment she could have lost the man she'd come to love. It made her breathing quicken in her sleep, occasionally twist and rolls of her body made. She was unaware of the room around her, or her lover at her side, worry etched on his features.

But after the third or fourth loop of that singular moment in her mind, something dark shifted and began to take over. They began to test the waters, that gentle rain quickly becoming a steady storm. “Accept my gift, or I will force it upon you.” The memory from Farmer Brown's quickly began to alter itself, and the battle that Ailos won quickly became the one he lost. She'd now watch the man succumb into madness.. She'd see herself run to him and try to pull him back to her, only to have him push her away. It was then, as the fallen paladin would begin to walk away, that Zei would watch herself begin to aim and fire arrow after arrow into the man's back, until he fell. Over and over again, she'd watch the twisted, altered memory, her body trembling and becoming wet with sweat. “No... No...” The single word was uttered from her mouth repeatedly... Begging at times but at others... Commanding.

But what would the sword be without her shield? As she fought her mind, Ailos was there, protecting her. She was pulled from her nightmares and urged awake by that familiar feeling of fingers through her hair, that familiar body close to her own. Zei forced her mind awake, silencing the whispers and ending the nightmares. But Ailos refused to allow her to stay awake, despite how much she argued that she wasn't tired. Exhaustion was etched in to her features and with half lidded eyes, even she could not deny that she needed sleep. So after some time of fighting sleep and merely laying there, wrapped around her void touched lover, his urging and those gentle touches caused eyes to close once again and allowed her to slip back to sleep.

The sleep came to her calmly, the storm that had been disturbing the waters of her mind long past, chased away by the touch and urges of the man beside her, the man that she didn't know she needed just as much as he needed her. Had he stayed at her side, calmness may have remained in her mind. But Ailos had things that he had to finish, things that couldn't wait any longer. They had waited long enough. He didn't know that tonight of all nights... Would be the first night where he learned just how perfectly their destinies were entwined or how she truly needed him.

The dreams didn't wait long until after Ailos left to begin to creep into her head once again. Now, they brought the giggling, dimpled face of her sister, a small girl playing, crouched in a field. “You ready, Zei? Watch what I learned!” The giggles echoed in her mind, laced with the whispers. “So young... So impressionable. I laid eyes on my children and knew... You two were the ones I needed. The Raven and the Sparrow. Her mind... Already broken... Yours a warded fortress.” “Orianna... Get out of the dirt. You will get your dress dirty and mother will be angry at us again. Come on. The guests will be here shortly and -” Zei stopped in her words as she watched the firework explode up into the air, the dazzling lights erupting with a spray of glitter that rained down over them. Ori was dancing in circles, giggling wildly while Zei stared upwards, to the sky. “See, Zei!? See! They told me how to make them! They told me how pretty they'd be and that you'd love them! Don't you love them, Zeiyra?!” But Zei's features shifted and a hand lashed out, backhanding her sister across the face, turning her cheek red. Ori grabbed her cheek and stared wide eyed up at Zei, tears filling her eyes. “There is no -they-, Orianna! There are no friends in your head telling you how to make things or how to make me happy! Do you hear me?! No one! Stop living in your fantasies and grow up!” Zei then turned, marching off across the field, walking back to their family estate, hearing nothing but the crunch of earth beneath her feet and the sobs of her little sister, left behind to cry.

“But she did have friends, child. You knew that her mind was riddled with words not of her own. Whispers and talk from the dead. She never realized what it was that she heard, the Shadowlands calling to her. Her touch with death at birth breaking her soul and mind, giving her my gift from birth. Oh how easy she was to cull when the time came... A shame you abandoned her to die when she needed you most...”

Zei was beginning to toss and turn in her sleep, soft mumbles of her sister's name coming from her lips into the empty room. Those runes upon her arms beginning to glow and shine as the words of the Old Ones sparked to life. But in her deep slumber, she didn't feel the power sparking to life in her arm. She didn't see how the faint shadowy glow was beginning to engulf her appendage.. She was lost to her dreams and the whispers within them.

Dreams continued to swirl through her mind for the next hour and a half. Images of her sister flashing through her mind as whispers narrated the life that was long lost to the past. That fateful night when her parents had been murdered before their eyes played back like poison in her mind, ending and replaying before she could see anything further than what she could remember. Blood. So much blood. Blood that slowly crept and became tendrils of shadows that reached out for her, beckoning her to them. Her father, looking at her, beginning her to come with them as that corrupted blood spewed from mouth and throat. Nothing was as it should have been. Nothing was right any more.

“When you were younger... When you felt the pain of losing those you loved... You promised yourself to never love. You promised you would never feel that pain again. Oh, child, how good you've been on that promise... Until your void touched heart found another... Tell me, child... Will you accept my gift and join him in his power? Or will I force it upon you and take your mind?”

Memories of the battlefield slammed into her dreams. Blood was covering everything in sight, that same tendril like shadowy substance taking its place and clawing at the ground and sky, reaching out for anything that it could take hold on. Her, laying there, in the field of the dead, staring blankly up at the sky as blood crawled from her right elbow, where arm was once attached. Images warped and changed, moving from battlefield to that hut where the old crone had taken her when she'd found her laying in the field, still alive. It was all so real, the way that her arm burned as the saronite crafted bone was attached to her arm, reforging the structure of the arm she was missing. The way that muscle and skin grew around her arm from necrotic magics infused into the saronite of her new arm.

Zeiyra's right arm was burning now, phantom pains from when she was wounded taking over her arm, causing her to toss and turn, grabbing at her arm in her sleep and clawing at it gently. “A-Ailos...” She called for him, unknowingly, in her sleep... Though he was not there to help her. There was no one there to stop the throb of void around her arm, the corrupted shadows of the Old Ones taking over her appendage, covering it, and slowly creeping up over her elbow. The corruption... Spreading.

“Accept my gift and the pain will end. Do what your sister was too afraid to do and ACCEPT! UULL lwhuk H'IWN!”

Zeiyra shot up with a scream of pain and terror as her left hand clawed at her fight forearm. The blood in her right arm burned and bubbled against that fake bone. Her arm shook and trembled. Every mark her nails made against that arm, more shadows covered it. That haunting, violet glow from the runes that were etched beneath her flesh pulsed like her heartbeat, throbbing and beating with a mind of its own, illuminating her face and the bed she sat, sweat soaked, in. As she cried out, tears streaming down her face, it was as if something beneath her flesh carved up from inside of her. Slowly, more runes began to appear, more Shath'yar appearing beneath her flesh. Where once only her forearm held a single phrase, two more began to appear.

“Ksht qam on'ma es aj iiqaath tek yoh'ghl za aj phuathi vwah. Shn thoq shg'cul lwhuk zzof fa'l eh'jl ygg'far ilfah, brraglac halahs tek halahas an'qov.” (“Wrap thy self in my embrace and succumb to my infinite love. Let your breath drift from you like candle smoke, dreaming deeper and deeper still.”)

Zei's eyes widened in fear as the last of the two runes appeared under her flesh, across the top of her right arm. The shadows were now forming around her fingertips, warming her flesh as she rose her arm in front of her. Her body shook, tears staining her cheeks, as he breathing came out in sharp, rigid gasp. Slowly, she read the final runes out loud... “Iilth vwah, ilith'agth fhssh za....” She mumbled, fear ridden eyes falling to the door. “Where one falls, you shall take its place..”

“Accept...”

@ailos-lightsworn

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[the-enigmatic-lion]

The Paladin Falls

“En'othk uulg'shuul. Mh'za uulwi skshgn kar.”

The voice rang in his head a thousand times that night, probably even more. It was sinister, unnerving, unrelenting. It wanted him to do what it bid his child, to submit. He was going insane slowly, surely, the voices gradually taking over throughout the time spent at Farmer Brown’s place. The stench, the feeling on the air as the shadows crept over the land and washed over his form, clawing at his mind.

“Submit, falling child. Submit to all you have fought so fruitlessly against. Submit to your one true master. The Light shall never hear your prayers again.”

He remembered all he had done wrong in his life, all the things that led him to this very moment. Especially when he confronted Lledwyn and Demytrya of his crimes long past. Even the one he had never even shared to his lovers, the truth that he had killed his own father. Of course, in his mind it was for a more than just reason, but patricide was not something so easily forgiven. And he feared for retaliation on that, as well as other transgressions.

He remembered the sound of the knife tearing through skin and bone as he drove his blade down his father’s neck and through his heart. He remembered the betrayed look in his eyes, the final words just moments before. “Ailos…no..!” He recalled the sight of the blood curdling up through his father’s mouth and the feeling of relief as he threw the body from the ramparts of his keep. Victory was almost always sweet, but in that moment, he abhorred it.

“You were the instrument of all their demises. You could have saved them all with the power I offered you, boy. Will you take my gift now?”

He shut the thoughts away until he finally found himself in the arms of Zeirya that night, his arms around her tightly as they laid in her bed. She ended up falling asleep before he did, or at least he thought so. His hand ran through those crimson locks slowly, his eyes staring at the wall remembering the night in extreme detail, over and over again.

Plucking the seed of corruption from the ground, siphoning its power, controlling it of his own accord. Shutting the whispers of N’zoth from his mind and taking what was right in front of him, giving into his desires for control. His desire to see the Scions free o Brown’s scrutiny. And when he had used the shadows to expel Zeirya from the barrier they were contained in? He sated his desire to keep the one of the people he could not live without, safe.

“You, will, submit!” He had commanded the seed with a mind of its own, and it had listened. Doing as its new master commanded and receding its corruption back into itself fully, quickly giving it to Lledwyn for it to be sealed. It had all started so wrong, and ended up being so easy to control. That primal power of commanding the shadows with his very mind and fingertips, it was intoxicating.

When he was sure that Zeirya wouldn’t have been bothered, he untangled himself from her and rose to his feet. Stepping out of her room and out into the fields of Erudition. He stood at one of the hay bales in the field and looked at it with a scrutinous gaze trying to reason what he could manage to do. He rose his hand to it, focusing his very will to it and slowly the void crept along his arm. Swirling around the appendage and manifesting as a cloud of shadows at his fingertips.

He looked at his hand and took a slow breath, looking back to the hay bale. “Pierce.” He muttered softly, the shadows quickly reacting. They swirled and formed short needle like structures and shot out, extending as they did so. They pierced through the soft hay and tore at its center. “Banish.” He commanded the shadows again, they left his hand completely and wrapped around the bale in a sphere. After a second, they dissipated and faded away, leaving no trace of the hay bale or their existence.

Ailos looked to his hand in quiet fear of what he had become, but also in a hunger to become so much more. He could control this, he could be stronger with this than he had ever been with the Light. His lips curled into a grin as he came to this realization, whispering to himself. “And so the sworn to Light, shall fall.” He sighed the words out as if reaching euphoria, lifting his gaze to the sky and calming himself.

He stared at the stars for a long time, finally bringing himself back down to Azeroth and turning to walk back into Zei’s room. Sliding back into the bed with her, resuming their old position, and letting himself fall to sleep.

———————————————————————————————————–

In his sleep he found no rest or solace, the voices still plagued him. Even worse now that he had given into their corruption, no matter his level of control over it in such a short time. He was a paladin, a priest even, who had fallen from the Light. Whether it was divine retribution or the Void testing its new champion, he could not tell. But his night was cursed with a deep slumber, the memory of his first wife dying again to his own hand.

Her cold blue and dead eyes staring up at him, watching her head fall from her shoulders over and over again. The clouds of snow poofing up, her ichor like blood coating thick on his blades, staining his armor and his mind for an eternity. This had to be a punishment for everything he had done, there was no other explanation for it. All he could do was watch it happen repeatedly.

While in the real world he mumbled her name, screamed it at times. He could not be consoled by his lover, her touch keeping his mind intact, but not much further. He twitched violently, stirred and rolled in their bed, tears leaving his eyes. His chest heaving as he relived the battle, crying inaudibly in his slumber. Until finally as the sun’s first rays shined through the window and warmed his face, he shot up. Eyes alight in their fel fire, his body muggy with sweat. Panting, struggling to find breath.

“Iilth qi mah'shar…” Echoed through his mind as he finally realized where he was, the whispers fading away. Their presence no longer felt.

(Mentions: @lledwynlomeriel @roewyn @chainmailandlace)

[chainmailandlace-blog]

“Iilth ma paf'qi'ag sk'halahs. GAZ SKSHGN!”

Those words were haunting, echoing in her ears, her own voice having curved to the tones of the forgotten language of the Old Ones in fear for a single soul... A soul that she vowed to protect. A hunter's vow, which would never be broken... Except with death. That farm.. She had never imagined the battlefield that her and Ailos were walking in to. She had been chasing someone when all of the sudden those dark whispers turned to laughter... Laughter than tore through her very being and made her heart ache. She feared, for the first time in ages. She had feared what was on the other side of that laugh... She was afraid of what she would find at the field by Farmer Brown... But never had she expected to find something that called to her so affectionately. Even as she'd stood there, trying to pull Ailos' mind back to her... The call for her own mind had been clawing at her, begging her to fall. “It is too late for him, my vessel. Look at him.. The way that he calls to me. His Light is gone from his soul, opening the Void for me to take hold. Join me. Join the man you love.”

Zeiyra had tried desperately to hold herself together for him... Tried to continue to be that pillar of strength she'd been for him over the past weeks as she tried to mend his broken heart with careful hands. But the runes in her arms pulsed so violently on her right forearm, that she could feel it threatening to break through and envelope her. Those words that were etched into her very being throbbed, whispering in her mind over and over that entire night.

“Sk'yahf qi'magg luk sshoq anagg'qen.”

They were words that she knew too well. Words that haunted her... Burned her. Those words were her very fiber of being. They were words that she had thought were her fate. She forever believed that her soul would wander roads that twisted in endless spirals. That was, until she'd met him. Something had fascinated her about him at first. There was something about his Light, something in the shadows at his feet. And it was in that first moment that he touched her hand back when they'd ventured to Northrend that she made that vow. He became her mortal flaw. And that night at Farmer Brown's, she learned his fatal sins.

As Ailos had stood there, telling his story, Zei had stood back, listening to every word silently. She didn't know that he'd never spoken about the events or Discordia Syndicate before. She didn't know that technically, she would be the first lover to hear the sins of his past. Her thoughts swam while she'd stood there, the whispers beckoning and clawing at her very being the entire time.

“He will take my gift, and you will be forgotten. He is so much more controlled and ready than you are. You deny my whispers and refuse my offers. But now, knowing what you do of the Light-Forsaken man before you... Do you still refuse my gift? Or will you stand beside him as you have so lovingly vowed to do? A hunter's vow can only be broken by death. My offers live for eternity.”

It was at that moment that Zei had heard Ailos speak of accepting repercussions for his actions and Zei hadn't thought a single moment longer past that last word before she'd moved. She walked forward, without a word, and taken her place beside Ailos in the Council Chambers. It was her place. It was where she'd chosen to be, despite everything she heard and everything she learned. She loved the broken man...

Zeiyra didn't care about where he'd came from or what he'd done. She saw what it was he was trying to do. She knew that he was trying to do what was right after years of wrong. And now, after everything, she refused to leave his side. “You jump, I jump.” The words were spoken more than once, from the both of them. It was their thing for one another, bravely taking their places at each others sides through everything that was thrown at them. That was why when Ailos had used his shadows to remove her from the barrier and the danger back at Farmer Brown's fields... She had felt betrayed. She'd hurt from it, her pride cracked slightly from the brave, foolish action from Ailos. She'd have done the same for him, had she had the chance. And Gods was she angry at him at first... But it was there, when she saw Ailos with Ophie, the little girl from Erudition, that she forgot every problem and every struggle they had before them. There was something about seeing him with the girl that made her smile.

Zeiyra had learned a single trick over the years of her void-touched corruption though. And it was later that night, when Lledwyn had questioned her, that she used that ability. “That is enough for you! I will not listen to your tricks..” Zei had hissed the words in her mind as her eyes fell on Lledwyn, clearing her thoughts and silencing the whispers, at least she thought she had...

They had gone back to her room at Erudition for the night. There was no longer a reason for them to wander off and hide their budding romance any longer... Though they didn't realize it yet, their lives and fates were entwined now. They needed each other, more that night than before. Zeiyra had not been accustomed to the assaults of the void in her mind, and it had weakened her.. Exhausted her. So after stripping down from her armors and washing the dirt and mud from herself, she found her place beside Ailos in her bed and fell asleep, rather quickly, despite everything that had happened. But even in her sleep, she stayed close to him, wrapped around him, trying to comfort him with the touch that she knew he needed. She fell asleep to the feeling of fingers in her hair, and the strange, haunting chill of his body beside her own. That comfortable warmth... Was gone.

She never noticed that he left. When Ailos pulled away from her, she merely shifted, readjusted herself, and remained asleep. But her mind noticed, and her body noticed... And the whispers from the Void noticed. As Ailos left to test his new found shadows, Zeiyra's mind began to spark to life and claw at her fervently. They wanted her. They wanted to see her crumble. They wanted her to submit. Perhaps it was the awakening of something in Ailos that stirred the whispers inside of her. Perhaps something else, looming in the horizon, was the culprit.... But either way, that night, the nightmares came on shadowed wings, relentless and chilling.

The entire time that Ailos was gone, Zeiyra tossed and turned. That scene played on repeat in her mind, constantly looping endlessly in a vicious, horrifying reel. Zei and her little sister.. Sitting there in their summer home. Orianna was barely a teen.. Herself, just enlisting in the Horde Armies. Zeiyra was set to leave at any time to begin training in Northrend with extended 'family', people her father knew from his time in the icy north helping the Argent Dawn. They were so young still, living a life where they wanted for very little. But in an instant, it was torn away from them. Zeiyra watched it again, as if reliving it. The glint of something moved through the room where they sat with their parents, and not seconds later, their mother and father's throats were torn open, blood spilling out from their throats as blood gurgled from their lips. The single, choking word from their father was the only sound that echoed in her mind in her dreams, aside from the screams from her sister. “R-Ruuun..” But that vision, that nightmare, always stopped there, rewinding and replaying the same scene, never allowing her to see what else there was. A memory locked away so deep, even the void couldn't find them.

When Zeiyra finally startled awake, she wasn't able to tell if it was from her own nightmares or from the thrashing of the man beside her.  The huntress was there for him immediately, her arms reaching for him, pressing a single hand to his cheek and her nose nuzzling into the cheek closest to her. Her thumb brushed the silent tears from his face as he cried in his sleep and her heavy breaths brushed warm against his jaw. “Ailos...” She whispered his name. She would not try to wake him, she knew better than to wake a man from his nightmares. She merely laid there, holding him, drying his tears, and whispering to him through his dreams, hoping that if anything could reach him, that something would pull him back to her. “It is just another battle... Another fight. Please, Ailos... Remember what we are fighting for. We will fight these battles together. We will fight the shadows and make them our own..” With every twist and turn of his body, she adjusted with him, keeping herself close, sleep now far from taking her. She was at his side, as she had vowed. She didn't even know how long she'd laid there, trying to calm him, and trying to keep his cheeks dry from his own tears. She heard every murmur, every scream. She heard the name of his first wife, and she fought to take control of his dreams with her touch and her whispers. But even with it failed, and his nightmares continued, she did not waiver.

Zei had seen dawn creep into the room through the window as she laid there, watching over her lover with a caring touch and an understanding gaze. They were more alike than she ever imagined. In her time watching him, she felt the changes set in place. The way that the warmth that usually lingered around him had disappeared. The way that his body now was ailed so violently. It was by dawn that Zei knew, the man beside her had lost his Light. So when morning finally rose and Ailos shot up suddenly, Zei merely blinked, looking at his back from her place in the bed. She heard the panting... Heard his struggle... And it was in that moment that Zei allowed her walls to fall. Slowly, she sat up behind him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as her forehead found his right temple. “Even at night, when it is darkest and the shadows threaten to take us...” She mumbled to him, her arms trembling around him as that glow dim illuminated over her forearm. “I will be your sword and shield. I will be your camouflage... Just as I know you will be mine...” She raised her head slightly, a hand on his left cheek urging him to turn his face towards her if he'd allow it, so that her eyes could meet his. “Do not be afraid, Ailos. Do not stop fighting with me. I will be your Light from now forever more....”

@ailos-lightsworn @thebuildingcacophony @lledwynlomeriel @roewyn

[chainmailandlace-blog]

@ailos-lightsworn

[chainmailandlace-blog]

Hearts Wrapped in Lace

“Do you remember when we first met? So young... So impressionable. Your mind was beautiful when I found it. Sharp. Filled with knowledge and ways of the world most have forgotten. I couldn't believe what I was seeing... A huntress... A wild one... Far away from the safety of her woods and her people. You were strong, beating down the walls of war... You fought, and I see your mind analyzing every movement around you. You knew what was coming before it hit. You could see the swings of blades before the sweeps even began. I couldn't let such potential leave without me... We had to be one. We had to be...”

Images filled her head as she slept, as they always did. Rarely was there a night when she didn't see something... Hear something. Even during this last night, when she'd been more comfortable then she could ever remember being before, she'd dreamed. The clash of sword and steel. The agonizing screams of war... Filling her mind with death and blood. Faces were distorted though that night, swirling monstrosities of horror fueled demons. Faces from her past became her nightmares, dancing around in her mind like wildfire through a dry field. Her body though was still, save for the occasional twitch of the fingers of her right hand against flesh and cloth.

“Fear. So much talk of fear. What are you afraid of, Little Sparrow? Perhaps... I can find something to make your heart race...”

Warmth. She could feel that comfortable warmth around her. It caused her right hand to curl and grip at cloth, holding it tightly as her face nuzzled into the warmth she knew was there. But her nose hit coldness, and her eyes opened to see the profile of the face. She didn't have to look at it fully to see that twisted distortion mutating a face she knew better than any other. Breathing quickened as that shaking right hand rose and slowly slipped up to the face. Slowly, fingers reached for the face, her fingers colliding with the chaos of his face.

Zei's eyes sprang open as the phantom pains shot through her right arm. Her fingers were curled tightly around cloth and her face close to that familiar... Comfortable warmth. It was just a dream... She sighed, smiling slightly as she rose her right arm. But something stopped her and caused her brows to knit slightly. The runes that were hidden in her flesh were glowing, causing a deep green glow to appear from the runes on the flesh of her forearm.

“So soon, Little Sparrow? You fear that he-” There it was... The flash across her eyes as she narrowed them. But that flash extended down into the runes, causing them to glow and pulsate for a moment. But the words in her mind were silenced. She looked to the warmth that she was wrapped around... Feeling the warmth wrapped around her... And she let out a soft sigh. Looking up, the swirls of darkness and chaos were gone, and Zei smiled. Slowly, she pulled herself away from the safety of the warmth, and in that quiet manner of hers, she slipped from the tent, stepping out into the morning light. She used her left arm to shield her eyes, huffing slightly as she did. She glanced around a moment, peering out towards the vast fields around their hidden sanctuary. Food. Bodies needed food. But she looked down at herself. Cloth wrapped around her limbs, hugging her frame and her body. She glanced back near the tent where two piles of discarded armor laid carefully. Too much work... Just to hunt. Sighing, she walked down the hill, bare feet carefully sliding along the smooth stone of the rock that formed the hill. At the bottom, she let out that low whistle, calling her large wolf to her.

Thirty minutes. That was the longest that she was gone. Their hiding places wasn't too terribly far from civilizations, places where warm food could easily be obtained. Why hunt the living creatures when you can use knowledge of the land to get your breakfast made at the closest encampment or city? So with the two new bags in tote, Zei left her wolf, Fenris, at the bottom of the hill, and slowly made her way back up the hill and into the tent. The woman set down the food, just out of the way, before she slid herself back down to where her morning had started, encasing herself back into the warmth of cloth and lace. Her face, again, nuzzled against the warmth, her lips curling into a smile as she looked upon the face she knew so well. “Are you hungry? I went and got food... Unless of course, you need help taking your tent down...” She teased, that devious smile curling her lips.

[chainmailandlace-blog]

Wild Horses

Fingers traced the bandage that was wrapped around the palm of her right hand. Zeiyra's brows knit slightly as she studied her hand, her fingers curling and straightening a few times, repeatedly. Finally, with a sigh, she began to unwind the bandage from around her hand, setting it on the table that she was sitting at in her room. After her hand was freed from the bandage, she inspected the palm of her right hand carefully, tracing a finger over where she'd stabbed herself the night before. Her lips twitched a bit, then stopped before she frowned, her brows knitting slightly. Her right hand dropped to the table at that moment, her eyes moving up her arm to just below her right elbow. Left hand moved up her arm so that her fingers could trace the scar that circled her upper forearm, the skin still pink and healing in places. With a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, she tore her hand away from her arm and reached forward, snatching up something off of the desk in front of her.

Zei had grown accustomed to where everything was in Erudition over the past week that she'd been there, surprisingly enough. The woman had a memory like a camera and could have probably made her way around blindfolded if she wanted to at this point. Walking through the ground now, mid day, she was still a bit shocked that not more people around. She still had only met a few people, though she'd heard that there were many more than what she'd met. Right now though, none of that mattered, the woman was on a mission of her own, one that took her to the doors of the medical building. Zei took a look around the grounds as she stood at the door, glancing around for a moment before pushing herself inside and shutting the door behind her. Zei leaned back against that door for a few long moments, allowing her eyes to adjust to the room around her. “The smell is so welcoming, isn't it? Can't you just smell the blood and hear the screams of agony just standing in here, Little Sparrow? Don't you remember what it was like, laying there in your own blood, screaming for your arm? Poor Little Sparrow and her clipped wings.. Never to fly again...” Zei growled and pushed off the door, stomping through the medic hall with her chainmail boots clunking. “Shut up..” She mumbled to the voice that had turned to a laugh that now echoed in her mind. She didn't even realize it, but in moments, she'd walked through another door within the medic hall and was now standing in what looked like an office of some sorts. Slowly, she looked around, the corners of her lips curling upwards. “How cute...” It was as far as the words managed to get in her mind before a flash across her eyes silenced them. “I said... Shut up.” She mumbled, walking forward and around the desk in the room. Carefully, she sat down in the chair at the desk and looked over the contents. Hands were quick to collect a piece of parchment and a pen off of the desk, bringing it in front of her so that she could write something on the parchment. In minutes, Zei was up and out of the room once again, leaving behind her present on the desk. Sitting on the desk was a carved horse from wood, much like the wood that he'd have seen her holding before he left. And there, next to it, was the parchment, with two single words scrawled over the page. “Thank You”

@ailos-lightsworn

[chainmailandlace-blog]

The Raven and the Tree

The raven would sit, perched, where ever it could find him. The small, beautiful creature cawing repeatedly to get the medic's attention, unwavering in its attempts to fulfill whatever task it had been sent out to do.. And by whoever had sent it. Upon close inspection of the small bird, however, one would easily see that there, beside it on the perch it had chosen, was a small, rolled up letter, tied with a long piece of cord.

Anyone who was not supposed to be reaching for the letter would get shrieked at by the crow and their fingers pecked. But the moment Ailos would reach for the letter, the raven would calm itself and ruffle its feathers, nestling down to relax until dismissed. The letter was slightly heavier then it should have been for just being a letter, and upon opening it, he would be greeted by the sight of two things. Firstly was the elegant but wild handwriting, it's curves and peaks almost a dead give away at who could possibly write like this.

Ailos

Your nose had best not be buried in a book when my raven finds you. If it is, you had best believe that Cushla will tell me. I would hate to have to confiscate more of your precious literary wonders or even worse, repeal my comments on putting one to bed.

Regardless though, put the books down. Get away from your boring work and studies and do something. Pack some food and go to Northrend. Clear your mind. As wonderful as it is to occupy your mind with pages from a book, clearing it and finding the end of your -own- chapter will bring you much more peace. You might even find more reasons to laugh, since your books seem to not do that for you. Though, I do suggest, if you go -anywhere-... You avoid any logs. I hear that thinking with or on a log may lead to harsh decisions one may regret at a later date.

Go outside. Take a walk. Breathe. Listen to the wind and nature. Live, Ailos. But most importantly, if you will do nothing else for me, then please... Just smile. A single, short lived, honest smile is better than any mask. Rumor has it that smiling might -actually- make you feel better, too. So find something in this chaotic, tangled world that can bring the slightest of smiles to your face.. And hold on to it.

Zeiyra

There was nothing else written after that, save at the very bottom. But just above the final words written, was a drawing, with something attached inside of it. Would you not believe, there was a log, a legitimate trunk from a tree, drawn across the bottom of the page. And sitting inside of the drawing was a leather bracelet, handcrafted and secured upon the page. The most interesting part of the bracelet though, was the golden tree that sprawled in the center of the bracelet.

P.S. - Just as a Lightsworn repays their debts... A Va'Rella never goes back on their words. Your bracelet, as spoken of.

@ailos-lightsworn

[chainmailandlace-blog]

The Sparrow and the Mask

Zeiyra walked into the room that she had been staying in at Erudition for the past few days. The moment that she entered, she was greeted by the paws rushing to her side. “Nymeria... Good girl...” She said as she pet the large dire wolf's head. The gray, almost white fur ruffled in the fingers of her right hand, her left hand carefully clutching both book and caramel candy to her chest. “I'm sorry I'm so late, girl. I'll make it up to you, I swear.” She whispered down to her partner, the wolf giving out a whine in response before nudging Zei's hand with her head and padding over to the bed of cloths that Zei had made on the floor by the bed.

Zei let out a long sigh as she walked over to the bed, dropping the book down onto the soft top of the bed, holding now only the piece of candy. She smiled as she looked down at it, turning it in her long fingers. A soft laugh even escaped her and her head shook a bit as her mind wandered to conversations of the night. Carefully, Zei set the piece of candy down on the nightstand beside the bed. Then, picking up a bag from the ground by the end table, she flopped to a sit on the side of the bed and opened the bag. Immediately, Zei pulled out numerous cords and pieces of leather, as well as a few pieces of metal.

It was already early in the morning hours when she had returned to the room, and after she'd began to twist, knot, and braid cord and leather, the sun was beginning to peek through the windows of the room as it broke over the horizon. But in no time, Zei had one of the two bracelets made, and carefully, she raised it up in front of her face, inspecting it. The browns and blacks caused the silver to stand out and shimmer... A sparkling effect to the barren tree that was attached to the bracelet. A soft snicker left her as she eyed her handiwork. “Damned logs...” She whispered, reaching over and setting the bracelet down on the end table beside the candy, dropping the bag of crafting supplies near the bed on the floor. She could make the other later.

Zei sighed as she fell back on the bed, but groaned softly as her head hit something with an edge. Reaching up, Zei rubbed the side of her head and looked over to the culprit. The book laid there, abandoned, just beside her head. Picking up the book, Zei raised it in front of her face and eyed it, her fingers tracing over the foreign cover as they had while she'd been sitting outside the tavern. She had only seen the book open for a brief moment. The only thing she had seen mentioned was trolls. But this cover... This did not look like the cover to any book about trolls that she had ever seen or heard of.

Rolling to her stomach, Zei laid the book on the bed and eyed it carefully, as if looking for answers on the blank cover. “What world could you hold in your pages that could ensnare a man of such knowledge so easily?” She asked softly as her finger ran down the side of the cover. Finally, at the bottom corner, she used her finger to flip the book open to the first page. A single line of text was there, begging to be read.

“The Life and Tactics of... Dunathrana'iael Lightsworn...”

Zeiyra stared at the first page with wide eyes, blinking as she looked down in shock at what she had before her. This was not some mere book about trolls that she had taken from Ailos. This was something closer to him... More important, possibly.

“Why... Would he let me take this so willingly?”

Again, a finger flipped a page of the book, allowing her eyes to meet with the scrawling words that filled the pages after the first. She was a curious creature by nature, and she had warned him of that. Yet he had still allowed her to walk away with this... A biography of someone that would hold more knowledge for her than any other book she could have taken that evening.

That curiousness stole her away from there. Her deep green eyes began to dance over the pages of the biography, reading page after page as the sun rose outside the walls of her room. Time vanished as she became lost in the vast knowledge that she took in and soaked up, putting things to memory and beginning to learn things she'd never expected...

But even sleep needed to take its prey eventually. And as she read, Zei could feel sleep beginning to win its war over her body. She wouldn't get far, not tonight... But she had at least a day to kill before she saw him again. So after a dozen pages, Zei's head dropped to the bed, the book open beside her face, and she allowed sleep to win her over. Tomorrow was another day, after all.

@ailos-lightsworn

[chainmailandlace-blog]

On Whispered Winds They Came...

Wind. It carried the whispers of the forest and the smell of the earth. It was one of her most favorite things. The wind could be so calming, but in an instant bring storms. Powerful, yet gentle. A force to be reckoned with.

The trees rocked gently in the breeze on the hillsides around the place she'd brought herself to. Erudition, is what they called it. Home to people who called themselves... Scions. She didn't quite no what to think of the place yet, having only been there for a few days now. She knew at some point she'd need to come down out of her tree and present herself properly to the Lady of the Scions... Demytrya. The man she had met only a few nights prior had told her to come for a meeting the following day... But she had found no one and grown restless.

It had been a short trip back to Undercity, and for a fleeting moment, Zeiyra had questioned calling the man, Mister Lightsworn, and taking him up on his offer of having someone escort her to the city to collect her belongings. There had been something about his face that she couldn't quite place. The smile was off. It was as if it were... Faked. She had seen many fake smiles in her days, being of nobility and serving for the Horde... But this one was different. His was... Broken so drastically it almost looked real. A perfect replica of a smile on a painted mask in a play.

But Zeiyra was not one to ask for help. Nor was she one to pull a man who seemed busy away from his works to humor her curiosities. So she had taken herself, equipped only with a single skinning knife at the front of her belt. It had been an easy trek back, and she'd returned quickly. But she had noticed something in her travels to and from Erudition... She saw no one on the grounds of the base. That was what put her here, perched at the top of this tree on the hillside. She was watching... Waiting... Studying. There had to be more to this place then a few children and servants. But what was more was the fact that she had to be here... Somewhere. It was growing late now, and Zei knew she'd spent hours in the tree, simply watching. She knew that she needed to venture into the grounds finally and find someone... She also knew she needed to find where Cushla had gotten herself off to and feed the poor wolf. So finally, as the woods began to darken, Zei climbed herself from her tower and scaled down the hills to the farmlands of Erudition below.

Burning orange hair whipped around Zei rather suddenly, splashing across her face and causing her to turn towards where the tavern was. A hand reached up, stopping the hair from covering her gaze, and she froze. Movement. There were... People? These were too tall to be children, and the dimming light glistened off of metals and armor. No... These were Scions. One of them could be her. There was only one way to find out... And with that, Zei moved towards where the others had just began to make their way. She followed the wind.

@ailos-lightsworn @scions-of-antiquity @roewyn