☤ - a memory of death/loss
While Kalista has been involved in a very large number of deaths since the Ruination, the one that will always stand out in her mind is the day her aunt, the Queen, was poisoned.
It was well past midnight when the warning bell began tolling, alerting the entire castle to the intruder. Any guards not already on duty dashed from the barracks and into the halls, armed only with simple blades and no armor. The sounds of men calling out to each other filled the stone halls, covering the distinctive noise of bare feet slapping against stone. Their duty was clear, even if they were far too late to stop what was about to happen.
Both doors of the master suite were flung open at the same time, the main doorway revealing a man in dark robes, face obscured by shadow, and blade at the ready. From a side door, to what would normally contain a servant’s chambers, the kingdom’s grand general ran in, wearing naught but a leather vest and clutching a long sword. From the bed, the sleeping forms of a large man and slight woman stirred, and the form of King Dreyan Inkalia sat at attention, quickly looking over the chamber. He had only a second to try and capture the scene before both parties leapt for the bed.
The general, niece to the ruling couple, Kalista Inkalia, soared through the air, blade extended to block that of the assassin. At such an awkward angle, it was nearly a miracle that she pulled the feat off, but through her efforts, the king was spared when the man’s blade plunged through the empty space beside him, biting into the bed. She threw the figure free of the couple, quickly diving to the floor after him. She wasted no time in working to dispatch him.
The room rang out with the sound of clashing steel, over and over and over again. Though she tried to act honorably in everything, an assassin deserved no such allowance. Each of her moves was calculated, every move against him played out in her mind, and to her, it felt like it was happening hours in advance. His fighting style was familiar to her. She had faced someone from his kingdom before, likely a number of them. And just like the rest of the would-be regiciders, he started to falter under her assault.
In total, the fight lasted only a minute, A few light blows to his side, and one to the throat brought him to an end, crumpling into a heap upon the floor. She picked up his sword, only to find that a dark fluid coating its surface. Looking back to the bed, specifically, the spot where the blade had pierced. With the break in the action, she could easily spot the dark stain, now mixed with a drop of crimson. As Dreyan pulled the covers aside, the queen lifted her arm to reveal the tiniest cut upon her arm, ringed with whatever had been upon the blade.
Kalista would never imagine, as guards finally began flooding into the room, that this would be the last time she saw her dear Aunt awake. By the time she had returned from her own room, clothed and prepared to sweep the castle, the woman had fallen into a coma. Despite the best efforts of the royal medics and mages, she remained asleep. The within a week, Kalista had set sail, desperately searching for a cure. She would never see her relative again, alive or dead. Over the course of her quest and the first few years of her undeath, she obsessed over the memory, constantly wondering if there was anything else she could have done. Just a bit quicker, just a bit stronger. Something, anything, that could have prevented the event that began the end of her home and her life.
