#kyt things

[lady-dusk-balmung]

It is done..

“May you never understand the suffering that I have endured. Be whole. Be free.” @teknicat

[lady-dusk-balmung]

Page One

(violence)

She had turned it off. The emotions of mortals. The tie that bound the sliver of her soul. The last of the Reaper’s blood to live immortal in another. A beloved, a daughter, a sister, a rapture of her love for her Raven and the world she sought to protect, all within Aspen. Yet every action has a consequence.  This consequence was not unknown to everyone. There was one among them, prepared for this moment.

Within the icy grip of Coerthas she had fled to fulfil another promise. The return of a lost one. She felt her hunter coming long before he arrived. His rage wafting through the aether like a gong being struck. Yet he did not come alone. The Nevermorn and her comrades had come at his beckon. To meet the monster of his past who had caused rivers of blood in her wake. Yet she was not there. In her place was the unbroken wildling of madness, the dark druidess of The Wood, Kahtema.

“You aren't’ enough... “ the whisper through aether to stab at the heart of The Professor who dared to quell her rage. Yet she had not noticed. He too, was no longer the man she had known.

Aulsoix Claimane stares at Dusk for a long moment.   His breathing heavy, slowly returning back to normal.  The implications of what was just said, confirmation of what he had begun to think slowly sinking in.   A smirk slowly forming on his lips.  The silence is broken by the chains bound around his wrist rattling down to the floor and rearing up like snakes, the runes along their length flaring with a blue light.   "Page one..." He says as fire begins to burn at his fingertips. She felt the ward strike her foot. A hiss and growl erupting from her as she landed. "Wards?" she feigned a pout. "All this time we have played and still you fear and still you stay? Foolish owl... " She growled again as the aether spikes found their marks, only to fell the stabbing burn of his light aether piercing her shoulder. She looked at the sword and then to him and started to sing. ♪"In the wood of dark and dawn... "♪ Her runes flared as she disappeared only to be across the cavern with aetherial wings from two large scars in her back. Blood dripping down her arm to the ground. ♪There came a man to the well... "♪ She jetted for him to rip that sword of his hand if she could, a trail of blood behind her.

He laughs, "Fools do not learn...." do not adapt.."  He says as she vanishes from his sight, only to have the blade wrenched from his grasp.  "I have ever been a mortal surrounded by those who are not..."  He would let the sword free before his wrist is at an impossible angle, driving his elbow down into her stomach as he turned, a fist aimed at her head.  Each blow fueled with a concussive shockwave of aether behind them, "It is that quality that has kept me alive all these years... amongst-would be gods and demons..."  Aether was flooding into the man as he spoke, the icy crystals beginning to diminish as they are eroded away.   Each crimson eye burning with an inner fire, he would fully turn to face her, a hand aiming to grip her by the throat.

She ripped the sword from his hand and then wiped it over her blood. The aetherial attunement going dark and fading as if it died as he spoke. She cast the useless blade aside. She had not actually anticipated him ever punching her in the head. He would never have done so before. Her vision burled as the shock of his fist to her skull was surrounded by aether, blinding her from whatever else was happening. She attempted to return the blow but couldn't see him and to feel him was to feel rage. Fina,lly she thought she found a window to retaliated, bloodied face, broken orbital bone, and nose. Instant bruises covered her face, and now her freedom was gone. His hand wrapped about her throat. She growled as best she could baring her teeth as those talons drove into the leathers.  He had indeed come prepared. Who knew? "Join ... me... " She tried to sing the last line. "In hell." And then tried to kick him in the groin. He knew the rules.

He's face scrunches up at the cheap shot, the pain from it beginning to swell and fight against the addrenaline and power coursing through his veins.   Strength surges through his limbs as he roars, lifting her upwards into the air, "I had to become something more!  Something different!  I am here, and all the others lie dead or broken behind us!"  He says, turning to hurl her across the room towards where the chains lay upon the floor, aether flowing through them, eagerly awaiting her. He had won his prize. He had out lived the rest. He had scattered the challengers to the wind. He was alpha and she -would- submit. A mortal man, who did not simply bare his teeth at gods, he made them bow.

[lady-dusk-balmung]

The Prison of Lady Dusk

MUSIC I should have known you would ask about the prison. You mundanes are always curious. I can’t fault you though. My own curiosity makes for some of the most exciting games. Still. I suppose I owe you part of the story. Though I forewarn you, what you’re about to hear may cause you great fear or otherwise set you a path that will change you forever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

First, you must know that everything you think you know is wrong. Everything you think you believe in is a lie. What rules you think governs all creation are nothing but fairytales told by your elders to keep you from venturing too far away from their leash.  Second, everything I am about to tell you is true. It will sound far beyond what will fit in your mind, or your heart, but somewhere inside you, you’ll feel it. I have long told you all that I was born of the void but not of it. Yes, I know. My cryptic words and riddles always seem to irritate you all, but you see, I didn’t lie. You just wouldn’t understand. I spoke and speak in such ways to filter out the blind and foolish. Those who would rather be lambs to the slaughter than dare to find the truth of the world they exist in. So then back to your question.. There exist many worlds beyond your own. Some upon another star, and some simply out of phase and time. It is a tapestry that is hard to explain, but in order to answer your question, you’ll just have to believe me. Just as you’ll have to believe me that there are beings gods older than your gods and not all of them care for your existence. In fact, to some, you are nothing more than power to be harnessed and used to create something else. This reason is why I was imprisoned. 

Long ago I was a tender of life. I remember it fondly. A child walking about the wood, playing, singing, dancing, and running with the wolves. We were taught to see the life flow through the world and all things in it. A great river with many rivers running through, twisting, flowing in a harmony that could be seen and heard. It was my duty to care for the living, even so much so as to take that which died and give back to life around it, or bring it back to life. 

Yes, what you’re thinking is true. I can see and hear aether, even if its lost in the flow. So then, how does a tender of life become imprisoned? Well , it wasn’t the good people of the world who saw me as a threat and put in one, no. You see, I wasn’t as much imprisoned as I was plucked away and hidden. Those beings I spoke about before? Well, they exist and to my knowledge seven of them serve another. They exist outside of your world. On a plane and star out of phase but still connected to all things. They siphon the aether into pools to be used later. For what I do not know , but what I can tell you, is that a tender of life makes a very good siphon, especially if you take her soul and  put it elsewhere. These beings require a tether to the world and the souls within. To keep a world out of phase takes a great deal of power. Like it or not, but you and your kind are nothing more than power cells, and knowledge tomes to them. So, they took my soul and placed me out of phase. My prison cell was the very wood that I played in but forever cast in the night and without another soul. All that died would pass through me, and to the pool that tethered to the seven. I was no longer a tender of life but simply a bridge between two worlds. I am sure I am not the only one. Locked away and out of phase, they can work without being noticed or their tethers severed. Unfortunately for them, I wasn’t as alone as they thought I was. 

That, however, is another story.

[lady-dusk-balmung]

The Professor’s Song

The sound of a violin being played slowly would guide the woman easily to him, and where he lay casually upon the decking beside the bed.   "I wish to try something...." he says quietly over the mournful tones.   "It occurred to me today that I have not heard you sing... not truly."

Dusk entered the room and heard the violin. She stopped dead in her tracks for a moment. The hairs on her arms stood up as if static charge not her own had brushed over her. She looked through the leaves and flowers slowly making her way through the boughs of the tree toward him. His statement made he take another deep breath. "The sensation of singing has only ever been part of my hunting.. " She blinked and looked to him. "Are you wishing to be enthralled?" She mused with a slight giggle and bow of her head.

Aulsoix laughs, "You say this as though I am not already."  He lets a final note sing away into silence, before he rolls to his feet, coming face to face with the woman.  He moves the instrument and bow into a single hand, "I have been thinking much on this past sun..."

She swallowed thickly as that final note sung and he stood before her. Her head tilted as her gaze followed the curve of his hair and the way it followed his cheekbone. Crimson eyes staring at her from a shadowed scowl that only seemed to be there when the glasses were gone. She took a step toward him as her head tilted the other way. "I will sing if you wish it... "She offered with a timid hush. She wasn't sure what it would do.

He smiles a soft, genuine smile.   "Then I shall play at your lead..." he says, lifting the instrument to his chin, his eyes unblinking as he stared at her with a confident smirk.   This time it was not a mask.  He carefully places the bow upon the strings and nods.

He would play along with her for a time.  He had been classically trained, and knew well how to play with the music... but he was not prepared for what she spoke.   A shiver would shoot up his spine as her voice washed over him, enveloping his mind completely.  By the time she had finished, he just stood there, arms at his sides, his instrument held in a loose grip.   Face unreadable, save for a single tear tracing a line down his dark, ashen skin.   "I..."   a rare instance where words would fail him.  He kneels down slowly before her, the instrument clattering as he let it fall to the boards below.   "I do not know you anymore," he whispers, hands reaching out for her. Taking hers in gentle, gloved fingertips.  "I have never felt the uncertainty I have felt in these few suns..."   His fingers lace between hers, and he finds himself staring down at her hands, before he brings her left up to his lips.  "You are a puzzle, and with each piece we find it grows every more confusing.”He looks back to her, eyes soft.   "And ever more beautiful...  I would very much like to get to know the woman you are.  And the woman you will become."

She reached out to catch the tear. It lifted from her finger to join the water that lingered in the air around them. Her lips parted in a soft gasp as the instrument rattled against the ground. She knew what that stupid thing meant to him. Almost as much as the wand he hid in his cabinet.  Her head canted to the side and then her gaze feel when he said he didn't know her anymore. She nodded in silent understanding. She was only starting to remember herself. Her heart sank thinking that it was farewell, a parting of paths. In fairness she understood that too. The took her hand and surprise rose to her eyes as her gaze lifted to meet his. "I.. " she started to talk and then licked her lips once more. "I am confused myself. " She smiled in that unsure timid nature. "How?"

Aulsoix shakes his head, as he reaches out to touch her cheek before his fingers sought out those damnable braids holding in her ears.   "I do not know...  and I cannot say for certain where it will lead." He undoes the braids one at a time:  there is no way this was comfortable. "The deeper I go, the less I know for certain.  But one thing remains constant...  I am in love with you."  He takes her hands once more and starts to rise as he lets his own voice rise in song.