As she walked through the domain of the lost, viewing her memories of the last few years, finding herself, she had the nagging feeling that something was missing.
She stood by as a young norn man she recognized mourned the loss of his mother. The woman.. No that wasn’t right… Eir Stegalkin, had meant so much to her. Eir had been her first mentor, and friend, outside of the remote shiverpeak village her clan called home. She was like Eir now, dead to the world and it’s problems. ‘Well,’ she thought idly, ‘at least i won't upset Braham anymore.’ yes. That was the man’s name Braham! Why was she so sure that he wouldn't miss her? If these memories were to be believed then they were friends as well…
MORE UNDER THE CUT
She followed past this unsettling event to the next glowing patch of memory thoughtful.
Glint.. Who was glint? Why did the mention of glint’s offspring cause such fear to swell within her?.. No that wasn’t right it wasn’t fear. It was worry.. She was worried for.. Aurene?
She continued forward once more.
This man-plant, stuck and horribly disfigured by.. Mordremoth? Why did she want to cry, to weep, and scream, and curse the world at the top of her lungs? She had killed mordremoth, the second dragon killing under her belt. She watched helplessly as this man to whom she felt so attached was run through by his own sword, by her own hand.
No. She didn’t want these memories. They were too painful, and yet, the nagging feeling in the back of her brain persisted. Something big was missing. Why was she doing this? None of it made sense!
It was her name. This was her past. She would face it, and find herself whether she wanted to or not,she pressed forward.
A new guild? She was leading a new guild..? Ahhh that was why she was mad at Braham. He had accused her of forsaking his mother’s memory. Braham, Eir, the ice dragon, the nagging feeling grew stronger. Why did it keep coming back to the norn? To her home and family..? Every time she saw them and thought of her mission, she was sent back to.. Home? A vision of her village?
As she walked up the plank towards the next hazy memory her vision was suddenly filled with white. A dark blot in the white, was it a snow storm, grew larger until a young girl, skin as dark as ebony appeared before her, tufts of blue hair sticking out every which way beneath the poorly made woolen hat she had made for her dark cousin that wintersday.
A hand shook her out of her vision, it was the woman who was helping to guide her through her trials. “Quickly, you mustn't lose the trail of memories!” she motioned up to the haze that was starting to fade from view.
Aurene! There she was! Oh how adorable was she! Feelings of maternal pride swelled up within her, only to be replaced with a billowing tide of worry. What was wrong with aurene!
She pressed forward. She had to save aurene! Perhaps that was her purpose?
As she reached the top of the spire she remembered what had happened, how she had died. BALTHAZAR! That scum of an ex god had Aurene! She couldn't.. Wouldn’t allow it!
Knowing now who she was she ran back to The Judge. She was no stranger to the gods and their minions. She would return to her plane, the goddess kormir was counting on her. Aurene, all her friends were counting on her! This was her purpose! She was sure of it! If not this then what could she possibly be fighting for?
The judge presented her with her options. She chose to go back believing in her heart that this.. This was what she was meant to do. The battle with The Eater of Souls was terrible, but exhilarating. She felt every inch of her soul fill with power. This was what it was to be a norn! The strength to protect the spirits flowed through her entire being!
As she delivered the finishing blow to the beast she was once again surrounded by white.unlike the unannounced memory of before, this white was not pure. This was no winter blizzard to be waited out in a cave with a childhood friend. This was her village, where she had grown up. Carnage lay strewn about her. Bodies of family and friends encased and impaled by spires of ice. Houses destroyed by the minions of The Ice Dragon Jormag, as blood decorated the pure white snow in random patches, sluggishly dripping down icicles.
She was caught, the bottom half of her body immobile, as jormag’s newest lieutenant sauntered up to her, a loving smile on it’s familiar face. “Cheer up Frelliah.” the monster, for what else could it be but a monster, caught the hand that lashed out at it. Chuckling softly her cousin raised Frelliah’s hand to her lips. “I won’t let them kill you. You are too important to me. To us..” Raven kissed the hand of her captive, and turned. Walking away.
She knew that this was a memory. How could she have forgotten this? How could she have lost sight of that back. Black and gleaming, skin that seemed to ripple in the reflective light of the icicles around them. The frosty glow in that bright blue hair. Celestic Raven.. The name that haunted her sleep, soiled the memory of her clan and their values. The markings of Jormag on her, placed there by the sons of svanir when she was younger.
One way or another she would save her. Save raven from the madness that had engulfed her. She couldn't die, not yet. She would save the last remaining member of her clan, or her name wasn’t Frelliah Nachtsdottir, Last of the norn Clan of Night, Follower of Owl.
Myrr Mystrian squeezed her eyes shut as they fought to escape the self-destructing ruins of the Inquest City, Rata Primus. It was too familiar. The containment pods and the bodies they held, some dead, some living, some neither one nor the other, overwhelmed her senses.
So she relied on her magic. Reaching into an outer pocket of her knapsack she pulled out an old worn length of cloth, and wrapped it around her head covering her eyes. She reached deep within herself, not realizing that she had stopped moving, and flung her magic outward searching for a strong spirit within the mists to summon to her aid. Yeah. Bad idea. Tears streamed down her face as the spirits around her pushed themselves into, and through, her using her as a conduit of transportation to the mists. She didn't even feel Braham scooping her up into his arms as they ran. So many souls, fleeing this technological prison, so many dead.
She couldn't blame them even as they ravaged the magical pathways within her own body and spirit. She wanted to leave also. A charr spirit passing through caught her thoughts, and her arm. “Then leave.” the spirit said, tugging on her magical soul. “Don’t stay here. There is nothing but pain waiting in the living world.” The other souls passing through murmured in agreement. They began tugging, poking and prodding, pulling her through herself with them.
…………………………………..
As Braham ran he could feel the magical energy rolling off of Myrr like electricity. The mist scrim over her eyes began to tear as her eyes lit up. He looked into them and was lost for a moment in a hazy white glow. Then she went limp, the magical energy was gone, her eyes blankly stared through him.
He looked up just in time to see a golem’s arm lash out, clotheslining him. As he stumbled he felt her body slip from his grasp. She fell over the edge of the walkway disappearing into the smoking depths of the city’s hollow center.
“No!” there was a crunch of metal being torn, and footsteps drew up alongside him. He looked over his shoulder to see Frelliah, The Commander, staring into the gaping hole. She reached down and pulled him up. “We can’t stay here…” she started dragging him away from the edge.
“But she..”
“No!” Frelliah, snapped her head back looking at him with an expression of pure anguish, “I’m not losing anyone else in this hell hole of a city!” She turned her back to him and the flaming hole behind him, and dragged him away. Leaving her foster daughter alone in the burning wreckage.
………………………………………..
It wasn’t the first time she had died like this. Many times in the lab as a child, and the Harathi slave cages after that, she had slipped from her body at the bidding of other spirits. Was it the experiments she had been forced to endure since childhood? Or maybe it was constantly being on the edge of death that had forged her connection to the mists? She didn't know.
Opening her eyes she found herself once again separated from her body. ‘Mother wont lose me.’ She thought to herself. ‘Mother was the one who found me, she’ll know that im just separated again, and she’ll make sure im safe.’ Myrr sat up examining her surroundings, she had landed on an island with several other spirits.
An asura progeny helped her to her feet, and gave her a knowing smile. “Here for good Myrr? Or just a visit?” she squinted at the insubstantial body. “You know that we miss you. You’re the last one left.” their features hardened into a more defined shape. She wished it hadn’t. The progeny was heavily injured. A large chunk of their cranium was missing with wires sticking out from the empty space. One of their legs appeared to be mechanical, but the wiring was faulty causing it to spark and periodically catch the progeny’s clothes on fire. Looking around her she saw the others. All mutilated, all so familiar, but why. “You found the lab Myrr. You set us free.”
The child and those around them reached out dragging at her soul as they screamed. “Finish it Myrr, avenge us, don’t let them get away!” She covered her ears with her hands, it was useless she could still hear them.
The first one, the one who had helped her stand grabbed her hands and forced her to look them in the eyes. “Finish it Myrr. Finish it so we can rest.”
There was silence. Sweet deafening silence she couldn’t feel them, only the heat of the flames around her. She felt the bruises of her battered body, he back ached. The only thing louder than the crackling of the flames around her was the echo of Aryn’s last words. Aryn… that was the progeny’s name. The last words Aryn had spoken both in life and in death. Finish it.
She could see almost nothing through the smoke. Stumbling to her feet she lurched forward running smack into the cold chassis of a defective golem. The implants along her spine fired to life at the connection. The golem responded, as it had been made to, whirring into life. An eerie purple glow shone from Myrr as that golem, and the next, and all the others sitting in this forgotten lab responded to the catalyst implanted in her body by inquest tormentors so many years ago.
Mother was nowhere to be seen. Looking up she saw a hole in the ceiling of the lab just above where she had woken. No matter, she would find mother later. Right now… Myrr had work to do.
Walking around the haze filled room lit by the eerie purple glow of the golems, she found what she was looking for. There, in a dusty cabinet long forgotten, lay the upgrade components she wanted. Right where she remembered. She had always hated that cabinet. It always meant bad things when they opened the cabinet. A sickening grin appeared on her face as she giggled. Now it would mean bad things for her former tormentors.
………………………………………….
Frelliah and Braham stood back to back, they had been cornered by several inquest and their golems. Putting away her bow, Frelliah drew her greatsword. “It’s a good day to die.”
Braham laughed. “Commander if you die I’m never talking to you again.”
“You always were a saucebox,” she chuckled. “Well if you die…” she stopped. “What the.?”
The air around them shifted from a dull orange haze to a purple glow. Suddenly the inquest in the rear began to disappear, yanked suddenly into the growing mist. Golems were rent in two. The inquest on Frelliah's side were gone in the blink of an eye.
The Commander held her greatsword aloft as a small glowing form advanced on her position. She dropped the sword and covered her mouth, tears falling freely down her face, as Myrr stepped out of the smoke. There was something wrong. She didn't like the cracked grin on her daughter's face.
The Inquest Asura closest to Braham began to cackle. “To think. Cute little number 42 all grown up and back home where she belongs.”
“Wha..?” Braham turned to get a look at Frelliah. As he did so something small and purple flew past him. Turning again it took him a moment to register what he saw. Myrr stood before the older asura, an amplified blade that radiated massive amounts of mist energy entered his head below the jaw where her fist had connected, and exited from the top of his head.
“Now, now, father. I know you are happy to see me, but I'm not the only one here.” The golems flew by their small scene and began to systematically decimate the inquest technicians who had been watching it all unfold. “You know how we hate it when you play favorites.”
Her eyes put forth a blinding flash, and small forms walked out of the haze surrounding them. Frelliah recognized them as spirits of the mists. She dropped to her knees, hands still covering her mouth as well over a hundred small forms moved around her and Braham converging on the old asura. Braham clapped his hands over his ears as an unearthly wail escaped the old fogey, his last breath, wasted. Myrr dropped him, pulling her blade from his chin, and turned. She walked up to a shadow half the size of the others, “He’s yours now. Do what you must, but Aryn..” she clasped the thing by its shoulder. “You should rest.”
“Now we can,” a wispy voice answered her. “And you must live.”
The purple glow faded as her mechanical enhancements whirred quietly to a halt. She stumbled forward through the receding form and into Frelliah. “Mom. I don’t like it here. Can we go home?”
Frelliah grasped the young asura she had rescued from the Harathi slave pens all those years ago in a stifling hug. “Yes honey. Let's go home.”
Braham walked behind them, bodies and scrap metal littered the way. They reached an open balcony and were greeted by the sight of 5 golems standing at rest along the edge. A sunrise never looked so liberating.
