Too Close
[Chapter 1; Excerpt 6]
Times in Emberash were different for a while. Noxis had been there far over a few days, more like months, but Aksis hadn’t done shit to activate the mark on her wrist so she was sure she was clear to stay. She hadn’t touched a single person, in fact she’d hardly spoken to anyone at all in all the months she’d spent there. Youngins would pop out of training to see the strange shadow lady, some told stories that she were a witch, other said she was possessed. A few compared her to Vosik, but in hushed whispers because the Machine was terrifying. She didn’t mind any of the stories they concocted, in fact, she ignored them. She lived alone in a cave-like home under the black obsidian walls as best she could. Silently planning when she’d leave the clan and find her way north, her plan was the Arcane Isles, there’d been talk of a sect of pillagers that way that knew something about the whereabouts of the man that enslaved her sister. She woke one morning and things felt.. charged? It felt awkward and odd and she wanted to know what that feeling was all about. She trekked across the clan asking quietly if others could feel the sparks in the air. It was otherwordly, and she felt uncomfortable to say the very least. She moved quietly, feet not making a sound, and at times she could swear she was floating. She paid it no attention, she curved a corner and moved up the stairs to the gates of the clan mansion. She felt a chill run down her spine as she knew who was behind those doors. She slipped through the gate without a second thought, never opening it nor closing it; and did the same to the doors. Passed straight through them, moving like a leaf on the winds up the steps and to a large oak door with intricate carvings all down it’s form. She pushed the door open a crack and squinted at a small form that lay by itself in the floor, surrounded by pillows and blankets, it was silent. It suddenly stretched out and yawned, grasping sleepily for a little pearl that rolled against a pillow and bounced back to the baby. She was intrigued as to why there was a baby here, of all places, and why it gave off such a terrible energy. She snuck through the crack in the door and padded closer. She was nearly on top of the boy when she saw it; strange powerful runes marked his little head, and when she was close, he opened his little eyes and gazed up at her with what looked like sparkling nebulas in his eyes. He held up both hands, and let the pearl drop back to his side where he held it gently with his tail. “Wahh?” He mused gently, making grabby hands for the skydancer as she stepped back a step and glanced at the sigil on her wrist. Something flooded through her, something warm and powerful. She could end his little life right here, and take that power for her own. That was definitely an option; and one she was silently trying to decide on the moment the baby had crawled close enough to grab at her tail. She pulled it away right before he touched her and stepped back even farther. She instantly unsheathed a blade hidden in her sleeve, and walked a wide circle around the babe, trying to figure out how to take him out without alerting the whole city with wailing baby cries. She was sure this counted as ‘touching someone’ but that power that flickered and danced was so close, and she WANTED it. She lunged ahead to slit his throat but he moved and the blade stabbed him right in the shoulder, causing a terrible uproar of blood curdling screams from the boy, who was now scrambling in a now pooling puddle of blood. She made one last attempt to end him but he was slippery and thrashing and the blade merely managed to make a large gash down the membrane of his right wing.
Enraged her plan had failed, she fled. Turning to shadow and vanishing down the steps, out the gate, and moving for her house when she heard a sound that literally sounded like a million voices screaming. She turned on a heel and was met with a terrible cold wind, there was a godly arcane form shattered with shade coming straight for her, and behind it flew Aksis, duel swords in his claws. She swallowed hard and booked it, ignoring her things in her home, and fleeing the clan as quickly as she could manage, but the form behind her never stopped; even when Aksis did. She fled for lightning, she knew the territory pretty well, and after a while she felt power again; she decided to hide there, within the power that she was so bloody angry that she would never hold; and there she felt free from Vosik’s iron grip. She felt a terrible burning in her wrist near constantly, like they were trying to track her with no avail. She smiled at that, sneaky till the very end. Here; within others she knew likely wouldn’t like her around long if they knew what she’d done; she met Static. Static had been very withdrawn, he was odd and didn’t talk much, instead when he opened his mouth radio static came, quietly out. He was powerful too; but his curse was odd. He didn’t call it ‘shade’ he called it himself; Static was everything to him, and he couldn’t remember a name prior to knowing about his static. Despite this, he was very trusting, and very much loved to settle down and curl around the tired Noxis, she felt this was odd but allowed it; she’d been so starved of touch for so long she welcomed the help. After what felt like forever, in this odd place she started to call home; she found she’d grown to like having Static around. Even though they never spoke a word physically, he meant the absolute world to her, and she liked the idea of keeping him around. Somewhere outside of the powerhouse she lived in now; Aksis tended to his son; and Vosik, tired as ever, watched the perimeter for any sign of the woman that tried to kill his little boy. They’d be on the lookout forever, he was sure. And the moment she stepped foot on their territory... He would be lying if he said he’d kill her. No, there wouldn’t be enough suffering in death.
