CW/TW: aftermath of crying, aftermath of caning, lady whump, temporary reunion. @winedark-whump reblogged and commented on this piece about three weeks ago, reminding I never did follow up on it. So here is a thing.
Ryssa.
They bring her to my rooms at night, after I’ve eaten and sent my dishes back, so there’s no mistaking what I’m supposed to use her for.
She keeps her gaze on the floor as she crawls to me on hands and knees, preparing to greet me as an honored guest.
“No.” I reach out and stop her, cupping her face and tilting it upward.
She keeps her gaze downcast, not looking at me. Her eyes are swollen, red-rimmed from crying recently. Fresh cane weals, not there this morning, litter her skin.
I let her go, falling into a chair. She barely glanced at me when I brought in the Tributes. But she looked, and she was punished for it.
I keep hurting her.
“Master? How may I serve?”
“Don’t-don’t call me that, please.” It will drive me mad to be called the same as the woman who owns her. “You can use my name, Ryssa.”
Previous part here: Musical Inspiration: Here
It had been awhile since Ilyea had returned to this but found that the story needed to be told. At least of the steps that went into it, and the sacrifices made. The enchanted pen warbled within the vaults as Ilyea narrated quickly trying to hit as many notes as possible for the records to the council and herself.
Dear Aurora and the council, I guess it’s time to put more information towards what happened during Devil’s Toybox stuff or at least what I called it. It was because by what I gathered of a sick individual named Coldlight who in his death tried to live through all his family willing or unwilling as he re-appeared over and over again. He was trying to revive them and more through the key which was safely secured. He could corrupt other artifacts and was doing so to increase his load. So his form as a Lich will never go away. His links to the artifacts, his family was fueling him and keeping him in this world. “I do not mean to put this person on too much of a pedestal but without them, without the efforts of their crew.
Everything that happened would of been so much worst and it was only them we had to thank. I’d like to think of them of not only a true Scion but very much a cornerstone of the Clandestine. Maybe I’ll say that to them next promotion ceremony and make them really embarrassed. That may be funny. But it’s true..While this log file may detail how the mystery of the Devil’s Toybox was solved, how Falah was created and the introduction of a new beta guardian named Ignatius….this is really about the growth and triumph of Ryssa Ravensdawn and her crew. There were three artifacts that had them going about all the ends of the eastern plague lands as well as the ghost lands and one corrupted guardian. They dealt with homicidal owl guardians that tore them limb from limb and almost set fire to their boat (or did), mysterious music boxes that could make someone turn and run depending on the most prominent feeling there in, a mirror that could bring out demonic features and melt certain aspects and stared at directly as well as a flute that summoned acidic bubbles.
Ryssa and her crew gave up their features, their morals but thankfully none of their lives to bring back what Myra had asked for that was taken. The Ravensdawn member felt something in her that she was hiding from us for quite a while and was able to break the necromantic hold of the items sequentially. First without much thinking about with the flute and then the mirror, the painting and lastly music box. Learning about her own role in her family as well as what Cold light had planned for his own. They mirrored each other in a sad way but like what the younger member had down, she broke free.
At the same time, Ryssa had found another druid to help contain Coldlight’s vessel to keep him from breaking free. Delnerys was her name and came when no one else would to the Scions aid. With the induction of another artifact at the right time, the phylactery became Falah as the merged essences and artifacts created something new together. A tree that showed its corruption green and wicked through its bark. Serenely containing the fel that was desperately trying to break free.
In cleansing the connection through all three of the artifacts as well as the last one through Polly, Ryssa managed to cure the artifact making it useless. Myra’s voice rang after the ones completion stating:
Completion of second task….activation of Beta Guardian, Ignatius. Scions must show willingness to sacrifice and chose caution upon artifacts which are deemed dangerous. Not all require storage and may require termination. Wisdom and caution must go into those directions.
Not much is known about the new guardian named Ignatius or Iggy as we call him, nor the tree that Falah operates under. But none of this could of happened without Ryssa and her crew.
Overall: Mission Successful
Notes: Due to the injuries that Ryssa’s crew maintained, a basket of treats and baked goods are delivered every week for their voyage. A large payment of one percent of the dress budget was given as well as every artifact that was touched by Coldlight and eventually cleansed by Ryssa. A flute that summons friendly spirits, a mirror that shows your best feature and a music box that plays songs from your best memories. The picture itself didn’t change much but shows a happy scene from a grateful spirit that was saved from eternal damnation.
Additional notes: Vamine has shown some note to the new guardian as well as Falah, helping clean up their corruption after the incident.
Sincerely,
Ilyea Cole (Co-Leader of the Clandestine)
@eternityinseconds @scions-of-antiquity @iamauroracole @roewyn @lledwynlomeriel
He was looking at Ilyea’s letter. After working through the stack of correspondence, this had been the last and most important to reach. None of the others had mattered as much as this one. Missives, requests for services, letters from past clients, letters that he cared little for had all had been dealt with. Truth be told, he had put this one for last as he both wanted to read it and dreaded it. Ilyea was one of the few that could make him feel bad for not reaching out to her.
The words upon it touched him. The mage was his confidante and he had not seen her in ages. How would he explain his absence? Did he need to? Never. Yet as he read and re-read the letter, he could not help but feel guilt. Why?
Pulling a clean scroll from the stack, he took hold of his quill and began to write a letter in response despite the very fact that he could contact her via mind. Emotion could be heard through voice and he was far too proud to allow that to happen. I have missed you, my dear friend.
“Dearest Ilyea, I hope this finds you well.“ He murmured out loud as he wrote in the fancy script that had taken him years to master. A ruckus just outside the door made him pause. As if on cue, the door opened and Ryssa entered the study, slamming the door behind her. A muffled voice was yelling apologies to Theron, jiggling the door that Ryssa had pressed her back against.
“Send them away.” Ryssa said rather tartly, her breathing heavy and looking rather harassed.
“It is fine. I will deal with this.” He said rather loudly to the guards that had likely tried to stop Ryssa. “A raven would have sufficed to avoid all of this, you know?” He eased back on the chair, eyeing his sister cooly. She was standing right at the desk, looking down at Ilyea’s letter upside down.
“I do not understand why I have to send word to you that I am coming. We are family, Kael. We share a mind connection and yet you are closed off and ignore me. What do you expect?” Her fingers took a hold of the letter, glancing over it only to have her lips thin even more.
“It is considered polite to announce your presence. Even if you are family. In case you have not noticed, I have my own family that I attend to.” He murmured, reaching for Ilyea’s letter only to have it be pulled away as Ryssa perused it. “What do you want, Ryssa?” He said rather tiredly.
She eyed her brother, finally giving back the letter. Her gaze flickered over his form. He still looked feverish, beaten, run-down. His hair was still that silvery-white and she could tell he was using illusion magic to conceal certain things. She could feel the thrum of Void energy coming off him and it made her wary.
Reaching into her satchel, she pulled a few items namely Dalaran cinnamon candies and a necklace with a ring dangling at the end. It was the necklace that caught Theron’s attention, frowning even more so. “That’s Ilyea’s.” He grumbled.
“It was. She gave it to me to give to you after I told her that you looked like you had been through Helheim and back.” She laid the necklace on the desk over the letter he had been writing. “I know something happened in that house, Kael. I know you have changed. I know I have two men imprisoned on my ship. One, I would proudly skin alive. I saw him in my vision and I know he is guilty of holding you hostage. The second, however, breaks my heart to have in there. Will you tell me why I am keeping both imprisoned?” Her voice raised even as Kael merely stared back at her nonchalantly.
“Oberyn and Bryntal are to be punished for crimes committed against my person. You saw Oberyn and thus you put out a bounty on his head. I have delivered him to you. Bryntal is not innocent despite his protestations.”
“Tell me why we did not give them to Silvermoon? Or your people here?”
“Because they are Ravensdawns.” He steepled his fingers in front of his mouth, touching his lips to the tips of his fingers. “Silvermoon will jail them just as you have them and there would be more official channels for us to jump through to have them punished. Ravenmist is not property of the Ravensdawns. The Wolves are not mine to command. You are a Ravensdawn and thereby, they are in your hands and mine by proxy. We will mete out our punishment as we deem fit.”
“And I am to keep them on my ship until further notice?”
“Correct. They are to remain in your custody until they no longer serve a purpose.” Kael’s dark eyes closed for a moment, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. “My only stipulation is that they do not die so please, feed and water them every now and then will you?”
“Tch.” Ryssa snorted. “Rhaen is temporarily captain of the fleet and manning The Ravensdawn while I focus on my work with the Scions.” She bit down on her lower lip, eyeing her brother who now looked at her expectantly. Ryssa knew that look but she was not giving him the satisfaction of getting more information out of her than she was willing to give. “Why are you visiting my dreams, Kael?”
There was nothing but silence from her brother, his gaze leveled on her even as he crossed his arms over his chest. He was closing off and she knew it. Truth be told, he knew nothing of it but he knew that she would tell him eventually. “My mind wanders.” A half-truth. He had to sleep and purposefully focus on someone to infiltrate their dreams with a trinket of ownership. He had not been sleeping lately.
“That is Elekk shit.” She snapped. “What is with the raven horror? And this? What in shadow’s blazes is this?” She pulled at her leather jerkin, opening the front to reveal the mark that glowed violet against her skin low on her abdomen. Kael’s eyes only glittered with amusement, a smile beginning to work at the corners of his mouth. “You marked me and Ilyea. Do you want to explain what is going on?”
“In due time.” Kael answered and Ryssa’s mouth opened to make a reclamation but stopped short. The silence between the two was deafening as they stared at each other, Ryssa’s fingers twitching at the smug look that framed Kael’s face. It drew on until Kael broke it by moving to pick up the necklace and ring. Idly, he gathered it in his gloved palms before he stood. He still looked feverish and the corners of his eyes were tight with pain.
Ryssa shook her head sighed, running her hands through her mane of red hair streaked with silvery-whites. “I talked to your prisoners, Kael. They had a lot to say but I do not know what you are doing about it. If the tales of the Seven are true, there is nothing good to be had from serving the Dark.” The moment she had seen the horror in her dream, she had recognized it. The Dark manifested in many forms but a raven was one of them. She had hoped Kael was going to be forthcoming.
“No. There is not.” He shifted the necklace from one palm to the other. “But this is where we are. I was not about to give them the satisfaction of killing me, Ryssa.” His black-violet eyes looked down upon his sister, so much darker than before. They were a peer into the endless abyss of the Void. “It gave me the opportunity to see my children be brought into the world.”
She was frowning at him, unable to back down despite the height he had on her. It was clear who had won the genetic lottery. “You are an idiot, Kael. Nothing is worth servitude to these strange gods. Did you offer them your twin’s lives?” It was a rhetorical question but Kaelderyn began to laugh. His feverish cheeks pulled back in utmost amusement but he neither negated nor confirmed her suspicions.
“My darling Ry. Let me tell you what happened when they forcibly removed what I had stolen. My heart stopped for a brief time. In that moment, I died but I was able to see the web work that our lives have been and will be. I saw the infinite connections. She was in the middle of it all.” There was a light within his dark eyes, making them so much more animated than Ryssa had ever seen them. “You see, Mother Dearest had it wrong. They all did. Our blood and family does not mean just the Ravensdawns. It means so much more.”
Ryssa reached up to her brother, taking his face into her gloved hands. Even through the leather that covered her hands, she could feel the cold of his skin. The touch broke the illusion he had on himself, giving way to the violet tinted skin. She studied this for a brief moment, letting a scowl cross over her features. “You are delusional. Amarhys did atrocious things to keep our family line going. Have you forgotten the rituals? The mind control? The possessions? You are beginning to talk like Amarhys did and that frightens me, Kael.”
His lips thinned, pulling her hands away from his face. “Except I know far more than she ever knew. Mother Dearest went about it the wrong way. The Dark knows the path and it will give us the clues along the way. It will lead us to what and who we need. Aid me with this, dear sister.”
“The Dark makes you look like this? Half-dead every time I see you?” She shook her head, clicking her tongue against her teeth. He was her twin brother but this talk was nothing she wanted to do with. She had spent the better part of her life fearing the Dark not to mention being imprisoned in the Manor due to some forsaken prophecy. She thought she had killed every Ravensdawn, washed her hands free of her family’s crazed blood only to see it resurface.
“It grows in power and it has become more difficult to feed. I have become Its vessel, Its anchor to the realm of the living. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. In conjunction with..the one Amarhys made.” He grew quiet. “When all is done. We will be able to open the doorways. Azha’lis awaits.” Ryssa could not help the pained look that crossed her features. She had heard all of this before. It had come out of her Mother in much the same zeal that it spilled from her brother. Every part of her screamed at her to pull the dagger from the small of her back and sink the blade into his flesh.
If only she had the heart to do that.
“How do we know it is not trying to trick us into some diabolical scheme? I have traveled the worlds and met many an entity bent on using the living for their wiles.” She asked, trying to mask the misery that she held in her heart.
“We do not know but that is why we make our contingency plans. Our kingdom awaits, Ryssa.” The witch smiled back at him but she was not sure that it reached her eyes. The unease was coiling harshly in her gut.
“Visit Ilyea before anything else happens, will you?”
“I will contact her after I see Kendryk and Rosalie.” He leaned forward and kissed Ryssa’s forehead, easily putting together the illusion magic to hide his void touched skin.
“Of course. I have a few jobs to do. Do not shut me out anymore, alright?”
“I will not, my raven queen.” He held the door open for Ryssa, escorting his scowling sister through Ravenmist.
Mentions/Tags: @ryssa-ravensdawn / @septem-tenebris (Bryn and Oberyn)/ @thebuildingcacophony / @wolf-queen (for Ravenmist and her Wolves) / @telidraedarkbane / @favrielle-emberdusk (if Darry pops in on Oberyn)
