#dark souls.

[vernades]

@vicarlunares -- ;

"Did'st thou seek to escape the festivities, too? 'Tis a boon to hear thine own thoughts..."

[katanadragonking]

[vernades]

With that in mind, surely a valid form of worship to the Darkmoon would be eliminating the Church of the Deep, no?

[vernades]

@wanegod -- ;

"Your Grace... I'll admit, I didn't recognize this place. It's been quite some time since the end of the war against the dragons, hasn't it?"

[vernades]

@prismaiden -- ;

Rare was it that the nights were anything but gloomy, but for the witch, they came as a solace. Quiet was the air drifting with plumes of ashes, yet hotly did the candles flicker and bow in the cool drafts, and velvet was the darkness where light did not reach. How odd that would have been, long ago, in ancient Izalith. Sypha still remembered when their mother and sisters beheld the Chaos Flame, glad they had left before it consumed them all. The weight of loss still held heavy after so many Ages, but that loss made them aware of the present.

"Lordseeker Anri, tis very cold, is it not? Surely, were thou to imbibe this tea, thou would'st feel most refresh'd. Trust, it shall warm thee." Earthenware mugs were offered by the modest campfire, its flame hardly competition to the flame that burnt nearest the Fire Maiden. It would do them well to have on such a bitter night.

[vernades]

@furiaae -- ;

The Age of Fire in the golden paradise of Anor Londo was a spectacular affair, indeed. Compared to all of Lordran, the First Flame was the brightest it would ever be. The godly capital was abuzz with the celebration to commemorate Lord Guinn's birth, the firstborn of the Lord of Cinder who was as exalted as his Lord Father. As Sypha was one of the children of the Witch of Izalith, they went in their mother's stead. Streets teeming with subjects from across Lordran crowded the alleyways, merchants peddling their overpriced wares to those foolish enough to buy.

Banking down one such alleyway devoid of interlopers, the wizard stopped sharply when they almost collided into someone with the same idea they seemed to have.

"Ah, sorry! I didn't see where I was going..."

[vernades]

@yellowfingcr -- ;

“You get it! You get it! So many don’t,” Heysel exclaims, pleased. The enormous crown bobs as she nods in enthusiastic approval. “It’s a swamp, and sure, everything here wants to kill you, but so does all of the world outside of it, only in different ways! Just because this place is made of a vast, viscous, foul, toxic expanse it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have potential for charm. One just needs to look well and have the right eye for it. Like you!”

Hands on her hips, she stares off into the distance like a captain supervising the course of a ship, one boot on top of a rock for added effect. Before the two of them the landscape unrolls in shades of brown- the stagnating water, the jutting trees with their thick trunks and slim branches, the reeds, the wet mossy shells of crabs, the fur of beasts trudging across the mire. “There is beauty in this; you picked the right word. It’s only unbeautiful if one measures the beauty of a place by how easily it welcomes and yields to humans, which is a tremendously narrow view of the world, in my opinion. And- well. I live here; I’m bound to be biased, and can’t not tell you that yes, it’s worth it. Very much worth it.”

She turns, suddenly. Her hand extends out like a whip in the stranger’s direction, for them to shake.

“I’m Heysel! Yellowfinger Heysel. If I can be so bold, I’d love to ask the name of a person of such excellent tastes as yourself.”

“The way I see it, it’s much more comely than Lost Izalith that was my home once, long, long ago...” Sypha’s voice trailed away, but they didn’t allow that melancholy to linger, let alone the nostalgia. Ages had passed since the demise of their family, of their brothers and sisters fading into ashes as the perverted Fire their mother had attempted to craft at Gwyn’s best lost control and destroyed everything they knew. But, there was no reclaiming it, and all that mattered was either the Age of Fire to be extended, or the Age of Dark to come and let them all rest. 

“Everything else is so... dead, I suppose. It’s all rocks and ruins, and there isn’t much charm to it. It’s rare to find anything green anymore.” A travesty, but it only made sense. the Witches had been loyal once, faithful to the Lord of Sunlight whom they’d fought alongside against the Dragons. Sypha’s memory wasn’t what it used to be despite possessing little of the decay that marked beings like Hollows, only the Divines seemingly untouched. And as the last of their kind, well... “Maybe the poison is just enough of a tradeoff. Something to pay in exchange for being in its midst.”

Smiling at her zeal, the wizard rose and cut a courtly bow, motivated some by amusement that was rare those days.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Doamna Heysel. I’m Sypha Belnades, last of the Witch of Izalith’s kin.”