OOC: Tags
@CounterfeitFish ----------
She could smell the sunset and the sweet winds of an on coming storm. The shadows beneath the trees grew deep, blanketing the thicket as she moved about collecting round stones. She should head back to the manor, before it got too dark. But she needed 3 more perfectly round stones, or the curse of the willow would remain unbroken, and she only had until the sunset or the curse would last forever!
It was growing harder to see, with daylight fading into purples, even the shadows blended all things. One more. She had found one more. But she still needed the two. She chewed on her lip and lowered herself down closer into the tall grasses, parting weeds and vines in hopes to find the last two, less she succumb to the most wicked of all curses!
Oh if only the mighty willow tree had not tricked her! Had she not learned he could speak, oh she would have been saved! She peered out towards the last rays of orange sunlit glinting through the tree branches over head and ducked down beneath a low laying limb and rummaged through more tall grass.
Another stone! But oh... this one had a crack! The tree had told her they must be perfect and round-
Suddenly her blood was zinging as she caught a sound. Her heart caught into her throat as she held her breath and turned to lean out over a tree in hopes to catch the sound again.
And it was confirmed! Her face lit up as she ran, bare foot, through the trees and out from the outter forests, running with heavy breaths towards her manor home.
That sound! That wonderful sound of horses drawing a carriage. It meant her Uncle was home!
Through the yard and past the gardens, the young woman went, hefting up her skirts as she neared the long stone steps that lead to the southern door. She wanted to be there to greet her Uncle when he first arrived, to wrap him up in a hug and know he had been missed.
She had passed through the kitchen, the old maid Glessa 'tsking' as the girl went as she called to her from over her shoulder as Narophyne made her way and pushed past the door.
"Girl! You've got tree bark in your hair! And... where are your shoes! Child!" She threw her wash cloth down in a huff. "Narophyn Telgve! Head right upstairs to get a bath!"
Narophyne laughed as she continued through the house and called back to Glessa, "Uncle's home! He's here! He's here!"
Glessa chewed on a breath. Her words anything but nice as she picked up a knife and went back to finishing up her work. By now, Narophyne had made it half way across the large house, smiling through heavy breaths as she continued to run until she was at the front window and cast the heavy curtains aside. Her pale eyes brightened at the sight. It WAS her Uncle! Uncle Viktus was home!
"Uncle!" Her arms couldn't wrap around him fast enough as the old man entered into the home. He was going bald, his hair already white and his face creasing with age. He could easily be mistaken as her grandfather, as he was ten years older than his sister (her mother).
Narophyne sighed happily when he hugged her back. He smelled of peat moss and tobacco. He must have smoked his pipe in the carriage.
"Uncle Viktus, I'm so glad you're back!"
The man laughed and pulled himself away, dropping down to be closer to he height and ruffled her hair in affection.
"Miss me, did you, Narophyne?"
Naro shook her head. "You know I have! I always do." She was bouncing, not unlike a child, as she doted on his every moves and words, helping him remove his coat while the maids stepped back and let her fuss. She was always this way, and they would always exchange glances about it.
As they were talking, Naro couldn't help herself but lament about his absence.
"It's been nearly a month this time."
"Has it?"
"Yes."
She always knew the precise time. Once she became a teenager, she found herself counting the days, making a calendar from stone...
Which is what prompted her little adventure in the woods, one she had nearly forgotten until the pair were making their way up the grand staircase and from her pockets, the round stones fell.
Gasping, Naro dropped to her feet to scoop them up. It was only then her Uncle realized...
"Naro, are you not wearing any shoes?" He cut a glance at the maids. Glessa only held her chin up, not dignifying that with a response. She was over twenty years old! She should have been married off! Not kept inside like a child.
But Naro never minded, and pretended like she didn't hear the maids speak of it. But part of her too, had wondered.....
But that's all she ever did. Wonder. And as they moved up the stairs, she found her mind going back to the stories in the woods about the Willow tree. She squeezed the rocks in her hand.
She didn't finish before sunset. She peered out the window. There was an hour, probably less, of daylight. She wouldn't complete her quest. She couldn't rid the curse.
Part of her wanted to pull away from her Uncle and race back out to the trees to dig up the last few stones. But the part of her that longed for that paternal interaction, kept her cemented at Uncle Viktus's side. At this thought, she squeezed another hug against his arm and snuggled into his side.
But then her Uncle paused and stepped away.
"Now, now, Narophyne, please." His voice was stern. She peered up at him. Was he going to scold her? "I am a tired old man and my journey has been long." Oh! How selfish of her. She bit her lip and gave a stiff nod. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to retire early."
She smiled. Even though it hurt and gave his hand a squeeze before nodding.
"Oh of course. You must be so tired! You traveled far and have been away so long-"
"Good. I'm glad you understand." And he motioned with his hand down the hall. "You should clean up and get to bed. We will be busy very soon."
Naro's eyes brightened as she grabbed onto her Uncle's arm again.
"Busy? Soon? We have plans?" The excitement could not be contained, nor could temper from the brisk reply.
"Please, Naro! We can worry about this later. I am tired." He had pulled away from her and was now standing in front of the open door to his study. A detail of which was not lost upon Naro.
"Are you not going to sleep? Were you going into your stud-"
"Naro, please!" his voice was firm, sharp, and the young woman shrunk away. "Too many questions."
And found herself repeating, "Yes, you do not like too many questions." She bit her lip and cast her gaze to the ground.
Viktus sighed and stared at this niece for a long moment before stating simply, "Please, go bathe and head to bed."
She nodded, careful to not even swallow until her Uncle's back was turned and the door- closed. For a long moment, she simply stood there, eyes down cast and tracing over the light casting out from beneath his door.
The sound of the maids brought her out of her stare, and she quietly retreated, bathed and turned in for the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She tossed and turned fitfully for a good few hours, laying there and staring out into her room. Her mind was an endless race, going over the endless possibilities as to why her Uncle was so tired and what stories she could create about where he had been. She eventually slipped away into slumber, only to be suddenly yanked awake, and a cold hand shoved over her mouth, prohibiting a scream.
It was dark, her eyes, still sleep fogged as she struggled beneath a man's grasp. She heard him grunt and curse, commanding her to be still. She shook her head, struggling before knocking her head into the man and nearly knocking off the heavy cloak covering his head. He cursed again, and forced her down onto the bed with all his might, hissing out into the darkness for some help.
A flash of lighting- Right, the storm. Naro stilled for but a moment, until she saw the second man coming forward in the shadow of thunder. And the three struggled for a bit against a second flash of lighting until one of the men raised a sword...
And everything went dark.
She awoke suddenly, and jerked against the ropes that bound her form. Ropes!? When did she get bound? Did those men tie her up? As her mind rushed to figure out just what had happened, a sharp pain jolted across her temples as she hissed through her teeth. Oh, what an awful headache! And it was then she realized she must have been hit over the head, for the throbbing pain could only be deduced as such (that, and well, she had blacked out!)
She didn't have much time to take stock of the room she was in before she was pulled into the most horrific night of her life.
For years to come, she would never be able to rid herself of what was to come. Her life would never be the same, and the unbridled fear she felt as she was strapped down to a stone board, hooded men standing all around her, chanting and odd, sweet smelling smoke filled the room.
She struggled as she was secured into place, begging for them to release her- to let her go. But none of them responded, simply tightened her down and left her to struggle. And then the men all stepped away, and she, continued to fight her bonds when a single cloaked figure approached.
An uneasy feeling crept over her, her heart hammering within her chest as a old worn book was opened and all the men around her grew silent. Her eyes snapped this way, then that, seeking desperately for some sort of an answer.
"Please..." she shook her wrists, struggled at her waste. "Please!" she was nearly sobbing. "Please, let me go! I haven't done anything wrong! Truly! Please!" Her eyes glittered with tears, as a pot of smoking ash was placed beside her, and a man reached his hand into the pot and placed the warmed ash against her chest, and moved, very slowly down her night shift and suddenly she felt very naked, very exposed, even though she was clothed.
She shivered, goosebumps prickling up her form. She swallowed away the hard lump in her throat when the man's hand stopped just above her navel and retracted from her gown. She peered down. Her entire chest had been smeared with the cooling ash. She peered up at the man, and a magical blade flashed into existence.
"Please, no!" she flinched, fighting much more furiously against her bonds. "I haven't done anything! Please don't do this! Please don't hurt me!"
And then he cut, and cut again- tossing the same warm ash into the air and slicing through it-
And with each cut she flinched. By the third one, she
felt it, the blade, as if it were hot, like molten lava, cutting across her chest and oh it BURNED. She wailed out in such intense pain and writhed against her restrictions, begging them again and again to stop. But it continued, more ash spilling over her form, tossed into the air and more cuts slashed through it- and those cuts... those cuts were going into
her. Even though the blade did not once touch her direct flesh- they were cutting her!
She continued to cry out again and again, but the ritual was going, and things were happening faster.. or was it slower? She could not tell, as she watched the glittering magic blade cut the ash in the air again and again, slicing her but now, she saw-...
Cutting..
it.If it was possible, whatever the men were doing to the ash and air with that peculiar knife...
They were cutting open the very air, the very existence before her! A strange wind current rolled from the gash, melting and roiling with the fog of the ash.
And then another sharp cut came through it and...
She felt the blow and it rolled with the winds of the air and...
Her entire body was filled with such intense jolt of pain she felt as if her entire skin was on
fire, her blood
broiling but cold- OH! Oh, so cold and her eyes, she could not see! The world had gone to white, her insides near bursting as if being filled with a thousand snakes.
"Cut! Keep cutting!"
A voice. A familiar voice. Was that....
"Uncle.. Uncle Viktus!" Her voice came out ragged, barely her own as she dizzingly was regaining her sight. She saw a hooded man move closer, but her vision faded back, another cut had her yowling as more stinging winds were driven into her body.
She couldn't take it. She was going to die. They were trying to kill her!
"Please!" her words were sucked clean out of her, the cuts being demanded now by the voice and the strikes lashed out again and again.
"Cut the Gleem.
Rip it open! Pour the pure chaos into her soul!"
It was at the pique of her pain that she roared back into her vision, her entire body jerking and nearly tearing from her confines. And she saw his face, no longer hoping,
dreaming the voice was his...
"Uncle!" she pleaded, tears nearly drowning her renewed sight. And they caught eyes for a moment, before his expression turned to a scowl and he drew out his own knife and slammed it- hard, deep into her chest.
Narophyne's mouth fell open, voice lost to the pain. She got past the point she could even do that anymore, the strangeness of these attacks had stolen it from her. But she could feel him, barely see him, but FEEL that he was there. Her Uncle Viktus twisted, muttering words unknown to her before pulling the blade
through her body- up from her chest to throat, where she bubbled and caught on the broiling sensation that came with it before he tore the knife down to her navel and held up something, a strange symbol.
And then the world went black.
Cold. Everything was cold. And quiet....
Too quiet.
She stirred, pain jolting and coursing through her very being as every ounce of her body tingled into zinging sensations of life. She could barely move, struggled to see the faint moonlight high above. It was so far away, and she...
Naro peered around her, trembling as her hands groped at the close walls all around her. Was she inside a well? Some sort of ditch?
She moved to her knees to push herself up from the ground when an immense pain tore through her chest. Gasping, Naro gripped at her chest, hoping it would stop- only to find herself gripping
nothing... Then a flap... and she realized, with horror...
Her chest was completely cut open. And she wasn't in a well nor a ditch-
But in a pit of ash and bone.
Before she could even register what was going on, a howling swirl of sound, light and smoke burst out from her chest, rocketing up from the depths and blasting out through the hole above.
Through the nearby forests did they see.. the light bursting in a howl. And those sensitive to it could even feel...
"Chaos..." Uncle Viktus breathed deeply, the sensation causing him to shiver. "That my brothers, is the raw power of chaos." He closed his fist and brought it towards his chest, shaking, as if capturing the very feeling itself.
The men moved. They didn't have much time. If the host was still alive after such a display of raw power, they needed to move to be sure she stayed that way...
Lest they lose yet another vessel again.
