loose ends

warring kingdoms

[elsunrey]

[elsunrey]

[elsunrey]

Ten years after the awakening...

"Brother,"

"I—"

     "I know."

"I am sorry."

     "You are determined, there is no stopping you."

"I can't see a different ending. I must—. Stop feeling their pain. I can't—. not see these images! "

     "You feel their pain. I understand. Father will not."

     "...Alaune?"

"The races can live with magic and be at peace. I will show them a way. I won't happen again. Not again when we did not intervene. Then, father will understand—"

     "Alaune."

"They are ready."

     "Stay safe."

"I will."

Alaune

It lighted from its marrow, from the lake’s deep waters. Its light overshadowed the pinnacling day star. So bright, so dense, to the top it went. The rising waters, brought to incandescence, moulded a delicate water frame above the water level. And in a flash of light – light forged to flesh, and from the delicate frame – she rose.

“You are the goddess of the hunt;” she reminded herself through her father’s words, “you feel the hunter’s thrill of the chase but also their prey’s ache.” She crouched down to touch the water, it glared, and drew out her quiver and bow, carved from the Primordial Tree, with a crescent moon blade around its grip, stricken by moonlight.

“You are the goddess of the moon;” she stood upright and filled her naked body with honour and pride and walked to the lake’s edge; water that ran down over her body sprang into little moonstones dewing her body – and what may divert the eye – in radiance, “you are the high tide and the low but never one.” The sound of father’s voice uttering her duties reran at inside her head.

She stepped land. Off the hulking beech trees, crows flurried into the northern summer skies of Valduron. “You have no place here!” the basin cawed.

“I will not be stopped,” she retorted to the perceived sound. She whistled; out of the thicket, a dark bear on all fours walked to her. They locked into each other’s eye, neither them having to look up nor down at one another. It stopped and bowed, and let forelegs and head lay down onto the moss-grown ground. She mounted it and rode away at great speed to far north, to The Dragon’s Summit. 

[elsunrey]

Loose Ends: Chapter 1

Aleriah Highrel

“Where am I…?” Aleriah whispered with a slight effort, and with the same one leaned back against a cold wooden wall, begazing the approaching luring dark as she travelled forth in some sort of wagon drawn by horses, whose jolts hastened to waken her from the dream state long surrounding her. Head throbbing, she winced to eye the horizon.

Of the continuum ringing in the ears, warm voices faded-in, which opposed to the freezing dusk winds that through the breaches, fell on her back. “Good morning, sunshine!” said her father in a piercing-sarcastic tune which dissipated the effect.

“Where you taking me?” she glared at him, enraged. “Don’t you remember, sweet pie? You’re to be wed tomorrow.” Aleriah was confused. She knew she was promised to marry some arrogant king – she thought of nothing else. Yet, the meeting was three weeks away from happening. Time enough to run off. “We decided to take some precautions…” her father explained with just the hint of a smile.

“You know dear,” her mother called to her attention, leaned over and placed both hands on both her shoulders. “Our realm depends on this–, on you!” she explained with an enthusiasm singular of her, from which Aleriah turned her face away in disgust.

“Can you loosen them up?” she pleaded, whilst staring at her bluish hands tied with ropes. “I see no wrong with that; even if you try to and flee, you’d just end up getting yourself killed.” her father joked.

Her mother freed her and led her up front the wagon. Passing through the merchandise covered with the amber silk cloth which shaped the gold bars in its beneath, through the fine drapes that separated the front from the merchandise; Aleriah got a glance of what she thought to be the king’s realm.

At high and afar, she could see its inside beyond the vast tall walls. Mountains, encircled by emerald hills on which water spring cascaded down below from the upper peaks, forging the waterway which nourished the realm and ended flowing at bay, miles away, near the barrier islands that surrounded the citadel. Inside it, the palace, an outstanding work of colour and stone with embedded quartz, set ablaze by the setting sun, and raying the land with its last breaths. Scattered, far and wide, blocks of rock torn from the crust and set afloat above the pillars of light, anchored to the chasm beneath. All within the impenetrable colossus, flanked by Ash’zras’ barren sands.

A luminous dot dawned on the ridged horizon and citizens of Ash’zras followed its bright ever since. It grew stronger the closer it got, and as the sundown came to an end, the light blew out. Everyone’s head turned to the entries of the realm, awaiting the vehicle to come out from the tunnelled gates, hectic, for the gods had listened.

The horses stopped. “Open the gates!” Aleriah knew there was no turning back and if she thought there was, now was it. She pulled away the drapes, set foot on the ground and stood face to face with the gates. The hair on her arms bristled face its magnitude, its size more imposing than moments ago. She froze. Conflicted with her instinct. It told her to stay and to run. Until that very moment, her guts never mistaken her and so, she had always followed it. Ash’zras’ gates opened. The walls, so thick no beam of light could pass through. Intimidated, she went to the carriage. Since a little girl, Aleriah sought comfort in the darkness, it intrigued her. Perhaps for being the complete opposite of what nature had imposed. Even so, she never yielded into the temptation of the dark arts, despite her sister’s efforts in breaking her to give in. But why was dark bad if it felt good to her, she thought. Staring the pitch black as she climbed back in, a shifting penumbra wound her way. “M’lady! Watch ou–“ The shadow went straight forward against her. It all became white. The shadowy figure shoved her and threw her to the ground. Laid on the sand, a cold, ticklish sensation on her cheeks stopped her from blacking out.

“Princess Aleriah, my apologies,” said Lord Commander of the royal guard. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m not a princess.” She wiped off the wet on the cheek. “I’m–”

“Keeper of Light, yes,” he interrupted. “But you are to our people,” he added. “The elequill won’t be a bother for you again,” the Lord Commander assured her, certain as his unsheathed sword.  

Aleriah stood up by herself despite the guards offered help. “Put away that sword immediately.”

“You don’t understand… the elequill’s in poor health,” retorted.

“I’m keeping the horse," Aleriah said.

“I must advise you not to. This elequill belongs to–”

“Step away,” she said, drawing near.

“As you say, my lady,” he abided. Head down kneeled, readied to help her mount. Aleriah mounted the horse and headed to the gates, followed by her parents’ carriage and the king’s guards. Leaving his intertwined-stretched hands, untouched.

She entered the darkened tunnel and torches lightened up with fire as they went onward. "Do you care for… Rayven?” The horse neighed. “Rayven is.” The more she deepened inside the tunnel the louder the murmurs became. She soothed Rayven, petting the dark plumage of his.

At its end, the beam of light she craved for. Arriving to the realm’s inside, the light of the sundown blinded her for an instant, of which she adapted right away.

“The princess to our king!” some madman shouted. The people of Ash’zras pushed each other so as to touch Aleriah or anything she possessed. They talked to her and yelled around in an odd language, as they followed the transient vehicle heading the citadel.

The royal guard formed a human chain, restraining the crowd which flooded the gateway. Hindering Aleriah undisturbed and untouched by the turmoil.

Ash’zras and their people misery discomforted her. Life faded inside the realm. Peasants starved whilst rats feasted on the dead’s flesh that lay pilled on the alleys. Crops and smallfolk wilted from plagues. Streets stank death in every corner and a nauseous scent of sewage clung into our lungs and clothes.

“Princess Aleriah!” The sound of a young woman overlaid the crowd. “I have something to tell you, it cannot wait.” The girl broke the human chain and trespass it the second she spoke.

The guards bent the girl’s knees into submission. “Let her be!” Aleriah urged. “Please… Speak.” The girl shoved the guard who stormed against her and walked near.  “What is your name and what do you have that is of such worth you'd risk your life for?” The dirt behind the girl, covering her dress and wide cheekbones, somehow made whatever she had to say to her, true.

“Mareen, m’lady. I apologize for interrupting your travels, but I have some urgent matter of your interest that you must know.” Mareen and Aleriah agreed with just a glimpse to come closer. “Inside these walls, for long as you live you are never to be safe,” she whispered at her ear. “Trust no one and you shall live princess Ale–” A royal guard shoved her back, interrupting what she had left to say.

“I must hear from you again,” Aleriah hoped.

“I’ll find you m’lady!” she shouted Aleriah, whose troop moved faster than before.

Aleriah did not say a word since, too worried to speak her thoughts, and kept it that way the whole trip to the citadel, abstaining to look at the surroundings. Until a glare striking from the citadel smote her eyes. A different kind of crow awaited at the citadel’s entryway. Noble men and woman, and even merchants, all the upper-class, dressed for the occasion, celebrated her arrival to their city. The vile contrast took her aback.

The party stopped. And she dismounted. “This way, m’lady.” The guards escorted them inside the keep, to the quartz palace that aspired to the sun, echoing its light from dawn-to-dusk. It looked a second moon to her. “Here are your chambers,” Lord Commander of the royal guard said, breaking her line of thought. Her parents passed her and clogged the door entering at the same time. “There is a…” he trailed off, observant at her mother’s experimenting the mattress’ softness, “feast…” – Aleriah half-closed the door – “in the gardens. King Hawke had it thrown in your honour. He would very much like if you came.”

“Thank you for the notice, Ser…“

“David Collins,” he said.

“Ser Collins, please send the king my regrets. I won’t be attending the feast.” Aleriah dissembled to be drained. “I must recover my strength.”

“As you wish, my lady. Let me save your elequill at the keep’s stable…” he made request as his way of apologize. Aleriah nodded and noticed a quiet servant which barged in with some of the king’s gifts and left. “I think that’s the king’s gesture of welcoming you to our city. I’ll get going now.” he excused himself. “May your gods watch over you, ‘cause ours is blind by this palace flare.” She had no answer but to feel uneasy.

Aleriah turned back, to the sound of Sevas studying the gifts. “Leave!” she yelled.

“Alright, alright. We’re leaving. Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Aleriah walked them out. “Eat under the stars, have a little–”

“Enjoy the feast,” she said before slamming the door shut.

“Goodnight dear!” he teased from behind the door.

Hearing her parents’ burst out, laughing their way to the feast, she locked the door.

[elsunrey]

Loose Ends: PROLOGUE, Part 2

Earth-sky, earth-sky.

A crescent humming took over at the same time the soggy-cold floor beneath made itself felt. Fallen, with her left cheek set firmly on the ground, she began by opening her eyes. By the time she did, the deafening humming dissipated, regaining her senses completely. The dirt, scattered on the left side of her face and buried on her fingernails underneath; the wet in the palm of her hands; the ache on her entire body and the numbness from the waist down she was now made aware of.

Her bow and quiver laid ahead, above the virid grass with a sense of belonging. Beyond, a vast lake with no apparent end. Had landed on a small clearing of dark purple flowers – she froze, these, although she had never seen them before, were rather familiar to her.

Still stunned, she tried to gather herself up but without success. She palpated the grounds, trusting herself forward with the strength that was left in her upper body as she went for the equipment. When with a quirk crawl of a hand, she felt a sharp sting at the right index finger end. At that moment, she knew for certain what it was and what it meant and could only hope for one thing – not the green one.

She laid eyes on her stung and sees it with awe as it went from white to red, till a droplet of blood surfaces. Slithering down as it sank into the wet and puddled ground. As it touches the stagnant water, it ripples, and the little red drop dyes it with blood. Growing forth in size and slowly at pace in an unending grace while travelled with a frailty of a thousand veils, folding with one another a thousand more. Aleriah was gripped by its enthralling locomotion, akin to that of a medusa. Branching its way into the lake at the pulsing rhythm of her heartbeat, which beat faster the closer to deep waters it got.

Overwhelmed by the roaring pounding on her chest, she takes another look at her finger. It shed bleak, black ink. Her skin-deep netting of vessels flowed with the painful decay. From there, her mind cluttered with thoughts of hopelessness and so, gravity begun to weigh, as if been crowned with a crown of led and such came with a matching mantle which unfolded, from shoulders to all the way down. Helpless to bear the weight, she lets herself go.

The glade converged for a final blow of which she offered no resistance. To the lake’s border she laid, with her peripheral vision confined from the ground-up. Head on her stretched arm and body bedded down on the purple-deep blossoms. She laid, still, catatonic. Overlooking the lake, unable to exteriorize the havocking pain within – hush, was all she had left.

There, to where her finger had settled down pointing. The trailing blood transmuted to shadows and swam full speed to the lake’s centre, which flared from below. Then emerged, beautiful, glorious – divine. She blinked, – it can’t be. A feminine silhouette moulded from the encircling pearled waters, a body of light whose fire and water, hit by the unrelenting comet, began distorting and bending themselves; flickering at the recurring advance made by the crawling night which sought to chock it in its darkness.

Aleriah gasped for air at every gulp she took. Before her eyes, they climbed, leaving a trail of death behind. Her flesh ceded way to gangrene and flowers withered along its feel. It spread from her finger to hand and thence to the rest. She felt it, oncoming, its cold smell rebounded stronger after each breath. Before long, filaments of shadows spawned under her wheezing, and linked together to bridge the gap between arm and lips, and with just a touch, left her paralyzed. She could feel the scream in her throat, wanting out but it could not.

“YOU–!” the shadow form howled and the basin trembled. “What have you done?” she cried before collapsing onto her knees. The water fell black to the lake and of the rose of silence, a shadow nova bursted out, devoted to blanket all in its blackness, under its impervious fog. A massive wall which closened to gorge her into oblivion and she, squeezed her eyes shut awaiting it. Then she felt it, not the cold-nothingness feel she expected but the warmth of a touch, kindling her from the inside out. She opens them. Facing her – a figure, it did not spoke, but it didn’t have to. “Go,” the basin resonated back and forth with its order. Therewith proceeded with a gentle stroke, halted, for the earth had swallowed it.

The gale stream of shadows raided against her. When a span away to be part of it, they were singed to golden embers. Walled off and blocked to draw nearer, they dismissed their thirst and danced around her as they flew on their way. Unresponsive, she leered at the destruction of it all and from her vitreous look, a lone tear poured down over her face.

[elsunrey]

A Dreamer’s Dream

Dear diary,

The dreams came back stronger, clearer… It’s always the same. Me walking up a dim deep corridor, lighted merely by the stirring fire that a dozen men in hooded robes held in their torches. However, the men, standing equidistantly spread out from one another on each side of the walls, hold more than just a torch, they held a responsibility, an obligation for what’s at its end and I, unable to be seen or felt, walk past every single one of them, and though ever fearful that at any given moment I’d give my position away with the slightest misstep, I’m weak to hold myself from going any further.

At its arced end, there’s a woman and a man surrounded by their followers. They whisper to one another, watching carefully the glowing blue orb that floats in the middle of the room. Could it be mana? – the primordial essence that abounded this world before the great war – it can’t be. I get closer to it as my curiosity had finally bested me.

Walking towards their leaders at the orb’s edge, I’m unease by the possibility of, with the sound of my steps, waking the guards from their lasting stasis of focused meditation, who wouldn’t hesitate to act accordingly… Then, a step away from the orb, it happens, and everyone’s head turn violently as thunder. At that moment, I wake up in panic.

Today—, today was different. Right as I was about to inadvertently denounce myself with my own presence, the faceless woman takes hold of my face with her both hands, foreknowing that one misstep and finally showing herself to me. She looked right through my eyes with her cerulean eyes, I felt bare-naked by it, like she was peering through my barren soul. At last, her eyes got wider – she knows.

I’m writing this after seeing another dreamer being executed on public square. There are no words to express the gruesomeness of it, nevertheless, “may this serve you as a reminder” is all they say… I fear to fall asleep…

There’s rumours about a secret society claiming to have opened the Dream Realm, some say it’s an ambush for those who try entering, planned by the Antimagic Order. I say I have more to lose if I stay here on this godforsaken land.

After curfew, I’m leaving the city. See you on the other side of these damned walls.

[elsunrey]

Loose Ends: PROLOGUE, Part 1

Her garnet-red cloak flew in the dry west winds of Azahar, which blew every now and then, announcing the impending coming of a new climate. Around her, the leaf’s green faded with each breeze, dying and falling like ordinary ones.

She pulled her hood back, letting her long black hair free as wind, which shone blue below the beams of light that hailed through the rustling leaves up in the bright sky and beheld the trees that set her apart from the outside corruption, focusing the gaze on a vitreous leaf that like a feather it felled at her feet. Without prior notice, the forest stood motionless and her hair cascaded as the wind stopped blowing. She knelt and stretched out her hand so to take a hold of it, seeing her reflection within the leaf: her face, lustrous by sweat and golden by the sun, hid her once pale skin; and her amber eyes which lacked their usual rather intense dark green. Through the mirror-like leaf, the forest darkened behind her. Intrigued, she contemplated the leaf’s inner when a memory from the time she was a little girl came to her.

“A healer heals,” the sensei leaned over and whispered over her shoulder, startling her and thus ending her concentration over the spell she had for so long been trying to mimic, imploding into a violent burst which echoed the piercing cry of something that craved for release as it lingered in-between the realms.

“You’ve heard that?” she asked in a heavy breathing, dazed from the encounter and somehow weaken. “Heard what?” he replied confused, “I wasn’t told you’re a duoler.” The sensei looked fairly surprised by the way his left brow furrowed, duoler’s were quite uncommon and it usually didn’t manifest itself at such an early age, for all he knew it could remain asleep for an elf’s whole lifetime but surely never waken before adulthood. Fascinating, he thought.

“How did I…?” she mumbled, watching closely and thoroughly at her hands which had been sparkled with the remnants of the shadow element – tiny sharped crystals of a pure gruesome black, so dark they seemed to entrap the night itself – which begun entrenching onto her skin, like needles sinking into fresh mud. A tearing pain that spiked on her an overwhelming pleasure of voluptuous proportions which only made her wanting for more…

Her pupils widened at each passing second, the sensei knew that wasn’t the girl standing before him moments ago, it was something else, far beyond a mortal’s comprehension. In a matter of seconds, the girl’s eyelids bear resemblance to a thicket of veins as an effluxion of fine vessels of blue and purple hues begun carving beneath the thin ivory skin of hers. Her stare in blank frightened him.

“You shouldn’t be such fond with the dark, child,” he intervened, completely avoiding to look at the metamorphosis by which the girl was going through as he instead watched the young, flaunting their learnings recklessly into combat. Times change, he supposed before getting lost in thought.

The girl gasped deeply as she woke from the state she had been unknowingly fighting so hard against. His eyes found hers – “You’ll get it right next time… You must be Aleriah… Am I right?” she nodded mechanically, still in shock, dumbfounded for having just conjured the shadow element.

“I’m Ian, Keeper of Light,” He hammily introduced himself. “Pleasure to meet you!” He bowed, taking a shy and honest laugh out of her. “Silly…” she murmured with all the innocence an eight-year-old could have. After a short-lived exchange of smiles, they both stood side to side, tuned in at the kids Aleriah had been mimicking at far early on, sharing a long second of silence. “You know… You shouldn’t be playing with the dark,” he said in all his seriousness. Aleriah looked down, scraping the soil with her left feet in a circular motion like she had been reprehended, “I’m sorry.” He then, ruffled her hair as if saying that’s ok. “But remember,” he said as he lowered himself down to stand face to face with her, ultimately placing his hands in her shoulders, “If you think you’re playing with the darkness, you’re mistaken! They are the ones playing with you…” Worried she cleans her dusty hands in her clothes, sparkling them with a sort of a black powder. “Now go child. Go play with the others,” he ordered with a kind smile in his face, letting her go. She goes, after blowing her hair from her eyes. “Be here before dawn, we’re going for a walk!” he shouted.

The wind continued to blow. Blowing her hair forward as if it had been ruffled by her sensei. As soon as she blows her hair back to place, she takes her hand off the leaf and in its reflex, from the dark forest trees, a black fog comes unaware as if about to engulf her and the entire forest. In dread, she immediately looks back but nothing sees. She returns to look at the leaf, this time, sensing no energy inside it – it had blackened. The forest she knew was losing its spirit, leading her to believe that her people might end up suffering from the same fate.

She hears the splintering of a branch of wood. Perhaps a critter had stepped it, she thought. Retrieving almost immediately off the back her bow and an arrow which glowed green with her touch and so it remained. She got up, readying herself for a shot. Vigilant as an owl she stood waiting from its next move. When it made itself hear running south, she ran. Whatever it was, it was yet to be seen still she ran after it through the dense forest, dodging rocks, skipping fallen logs of timber and parrying the tree branches that stood in her path the best she could.

Earth and sky shifted before her as she rolled down the hill.