The Castle

[The_high_king]

Creeps great escape

I made my way down the hall, and up the stairs as fast I could go. Already, I sensed the demonic presence of her, gaining speed. I needed some kind of short cut, and fast! I reached the feet of another set of stairs that were even longer this time... but this was it, here was my short cut. The stairs went up, and had many flights, with a large gap between the stairs. Without further hesitation, I launched my rope bolt upwards, letting it lodge into the wooden cieling. Another trigger on the crossbow then allowed the rope to reel in, pulling me upwards toward freedom.

I knew I wasn't there yet, cause I was still running, and that... thing was still chasing me. I could hear her growls, as she chased me like some kind of animal. However, my exit was very close, and the barricade the guards made was fairly weak. Yes... a barricade, the guards were making a human wall against the large wooden door which was my freedom. The demoness slowed down, "give up human! Your trapped", she said. However, I refused to stop, and kept dashing towards the door. The guards had their spears aiming towards me, their swords ready at a moments notice, and a few archers to take me down. I simply smiled at their attempt.

I rolled out onto the street, as the door busted open from the sheer force and weight of a few soldiers crashing down on it, screaming from the heat. Heh, I always liked to keep a few fire bolts ready. Yep, it's a little unexpected thing I liked to do, cause just because I had a crossbow, didn't mean I didn't toss my bolts like throwing knives now and then. It was a deadly, and unexpected surprise. I looked back at the carnage I inflicted, the whole house was burning now, it's cheap wooden exterior that defended it's secrets from prying eyes, was now working against them, letting them burn. I could still see that woman, unscathed by flame, simply glare at me, smiling a wicked and seductive smile. I could hear the marching of the city guards, so I simply smiled back, then dissappeared.

MISSION COMPLETE

 

[Third Magus]

The assassin was good. K entered the no-time of Saorsian swordsmanship, moving with dreamlike grace, like a swimmer through water. Instinct, not thought, guided his blows. His eyes were cold and calm.

By contrast, his opponent fought in a wild frenzy, hurling a whirlwind of blows, feints and lunges. No fighter could keep up the sheer intensity of her attack for long; even now, her breath was coming in pants, and sweat was glistening on her forehead. K continued to parry her attacks, trying to force her back further towards the burning cabin.

When the sweeping kick came, K was ready for it, and leapt over the assasin's lashing foot. This gave her the chance to throw herself forward, shouting a battle-cry, and cut his off-hand. Blood, slippery yet sticky, trickled down his arm, but K ignored the pain he distantly felt, as though it were another's.

He was aware of Afton moving forward behind him, and felt her draw the short-sword from his back. He shook his head no, unwilling to take his eyes from the assassin. Afton couldn't risk herself against one this dangerous.

"K," she said, "Step back. I want to kill her."

K almost risked breaking eye-contact to look at her. He almost lost the calm of no-time. Surely this coldly menacing voice wasn't Afton's, the happy little girl he had known a lifetime ago, nor that of Afton, the lost, confused and scared young stranger he'd found in another world?

Warily he stepped back a pace, so that he and Afton stood alongside each other, and glanced sidelong at her. Her pose, staring down their assailant coolly with the sword seeming to belong in her hands, was pure Saorsian. Slowly, K nodded.

They advanced on the assassin together. K was used to fighting as a pair, from his years fighting alongside his brother, and he noted that Afton fell naturally into step beside him, each of them protecting their partner's off-hand side. Selia circled on the outskirts of the fight, trying to get a clear shot at their enemy.

The assassin knew she was exhausted and outnumbered now, but instead of trying to flee, she gambled everything on a last-ditch attempt to kill Afton, charging berserkly forward. K, feeling sudden fear for her, stepped forward and intercepted the charge. The shock of impact as their blades met was almost jarring enough to disarm him.

While the rapier and longsword were locked, K suddenly lunged with his off hand at her shoulder and grabbed, ignoring the pain to his injured hand, a handful of buckskin and pulled her towards him. He then raised his knee and used the momentum of her forward movement to kick her in the stomach. She doubled over, letting go of the rapier, and K took the opportunity to raise the point of his own blade to her throat.

He was going to follow through with the movement and end the assassin's life; there was neither mercy nor cruelty in the Saorsian fighting style, only dispassionate, controlled violence. What stopped him were the girl's dark eyes. Full of hate and frustration at the moment, but still... K had seen many Castle killers, and they came in many forms, but their eyes had never been able to lie to him. There was something dead in the eyes of those who'd truly sworn to the Castle, and his opponent's eyes were anything but dead.

He remained expressionless as Afton and Selia joined him and they encircled the assassin. He spoke.

"Before this began, you said something about the deaths of the innocent. What did you mean?"

 

[vierge]

She found his name being a single irritating to her view that Soarsians were haughty beasts, so she had expected it to be something arrogant and seemingly worthy of his stature, a title fit for a knight but slandered by the nature of the Soarsian people, as she knew them at least. As Afton stepped up to play, Sparrow swung the sword loosely in her grasp, skilled and then raised her other hand, setting her gaze forward ready to do battle with the two even if it she was outnumbered, even if she be weary. There was a purpose in this death, and she would fight it until the bitter end, until someone was dead.

When her quick dark eyes found three challenged instead of two, she knew the destined fate before her, and flipping back with a handspring, she raged forward with sword pointed straight at the girl...but the man and his willpower stopped the rapier from slashing anywhere near Afton's stomach, the guaranteed target. Gritting her teeth as they gridlocked for long seconds, she smelled her blood and his, his sweat and her vengeance, his own strength battling against her finally broke them apart and with a gutted cry, the shock of the blow to her stomach pummeled her to the ground. Like slow motion, moments later the rapier fell from dirty fingertips to the hearthen pit, and fire and brimstone pierced her eyes turning them to glossy shards of light brown. She looked up at her conqueror, and at first, she saw a killer, a ready hand to bear her grave, but then a flicker of curiosity, some would have mistakened for mercy, shown through. She did not struggle, for she was not a coward, and she was ready for her own death if it was to be delivered from defeat of the ones who killed that which she loved. Sorrow flooded her gaze momentarily but she clenched her jaw and relinquished her mind, no longer thinkign of assassination but trying to picture her haven, trying to picture the love for her creatures as the blade hovered just at the glistening flesh of her neck.

"Before this began, you said something about the deaths of the innocent. What did you mean?"

She wanted to spit on him for his questions. The last words out of her mouth would not be about the failed vengeance of those she had sworn to protect, of what The Castle had told her. She was not a snitch, and she was not about to start. She locked her gaze on his and gulped as she felt the blade touch her skin, urging her to answer. The same message reflected his firm, indifferent stare. She did have a job to fulfill, perhaps...

"When the first moon rose of Spring, I found a unicorn slain across the Wood of West Hillbrook. I, Sparrow, am the sworn protector of such creatures. Three more died since that moon rose even though I kept watch over every part of that forrest. They vanished only to return mutilated."

Her eyes steadied on his as she remembered this tale, and although she had not shed a tear since she was but a young lass, tears sprung to gloss over her chestnut hues as she spoke. Her words and tone turning spiteful and angry, clenched and forced, "And the murderers were Soarsian, your own people, I come to avenge their death with the death of your own, and I would not let me free, for I will have that head and my bounty."

The Castle had sworn their name to not slip from her lips. As she had become fierce, the blade had started to prick her skin, but she had not faltered. Like she had promised, she came here to kill or be killed. In the end, if she returned without the head of that girl, The Castle would have her own. There was no point in pushing off any sort of death here.

"So why don't you just take it now?" She yelled at him, urging him to finish it since he had already pierced her neck slowly, little by little.

 

[The_high_king]

Creeps gets the facts

I stared down at the blazing little hut of secrets below me. The city guards had done a good job of dousing out the flames with buckets of dirt and water. I was perched on top of a nearby house, letting the night sky and stillness hide me. Looking to my left were the prisoners I had freed, the guards were giving them warm blankets, food, and some questions. I felt secure knowing that none of them saw my face, cause the most accurate description of me they could give to the guards was, "he was THIS tall!". Heh, not to mention good looking. With that, I walked away from the scene. *SNIFF*, I turned around.

"How did you know I was here?", said the monk, standing only a few feet away from me. "I got your scent. You smell like... church", I said back. The monk gave a smile, and a quiet laugh, "well then, did you get the maps?". I handed the maps over to him, and in return, received my gold. I gave it a little shake to check the authencity, "do you not trust a monk, young thief?". I smiled back, "I trust no one".
"Ah yes, quite right. By the way, we apologize not telling you about the arch-succubi..."
"The what now?"
"The arch-succubi... the demoness"
"I see. So this is why your order is involved in this war."
"Yes, that is correct. Our order could care less about politics and such, but the fact that demons are involved disturbs us a great deal."
"When did you first know about it?"
"Before the siege happened, our celestial messenger forewarned us. We sent a spy behind enemy lines, posing as a soldier. He saw the several winged beasts and barely escaped with his life. As soon as he came back to us, he fell into a coma from physical and mental strain".
"... I see".
With that, the old monk went off, "we will contact you again if neccessary Creeps. God bless you my child", then he jumped off the roof, and dissapeared into the night.... hmm, fast old fart. I too, went my seperate way.

Somewhere, perched on a tower, a demoness was laughing at me.

 

[AmandaAce]

"I'll take it," Afton snarled. There was nothing left of the old Afton in her now. As she looked at the assassin, helpless on the ground in front of her, K's sword pushing into her throat, she was filled with a searing red rage. This girl had tried to kill her, to kill her friends, and from the look on her face, she would try again, until she was dead.
Afton intended to see that through. Drawing back, she kicked the girl, hard, in the ribs. "You fucking cunt," she hissed. "You piece of shit!" The girl grunted, but did not take her eyes off Afton's face.
She glanced at K. He was still holding the assassin at bay, but kept glancing at Afton in disbelief.
Kicking the girl again, Afton raised her sword. She looked at K, looked at Selia.
Then, looking directly into the eyes of the assassin, she spoke. "Tell me who sent you," she said. Her voice was soft, deadly, and completely out of character. In the light of the fire, sh looked much like her father.
The girl said nothing, only lay there stoically, K's blade still pressed to her throat.
"Tell me who sent you," Afton repeated. The girl still refused to reply. Afton shrugged, and with a scream, she brought the sword down, removing three fingers from the girl's right hand.
"You have ten seconds," Afton said, "To tell me the truth, or next time, it's your breast.Who sent you? "

 

[Third Magus]

"Stop!"

K seized Afton's wrist and squeezed, trying to force her to drop the short-sword. He stared her down, dark eyes furious on her own cold, golden eyes.

"In its way", K said softly, "Torture does as much damage to the torturer as the victim. Drop the sword, Afton. It doesn't matter what you have to do. It can't begin like this".

His own sword hadn't wavered from the assassin's throat, but now it was no longer cutting forward. He stared at her injured hand, feeling sick and cold inside.

"The Saorsians didn't kill your unicorns. We were their friends once"

He pushed his wrist forward, showing a braided bracelet of pure white horse hair wrapped around his wrist. The unicorns only allowed allies of their race to wear such tokens. K touched her forehead, trying to project as he had to Afton earlier, allowing her to see the truth of his words.

"You have been lied to"

 

[vierge]

ooc: I'm sorry not going to play with that. Torture her, do whatever, but loss of limb...c'mon, that's a little outlandish. Now if you humuliated her by stripping her down, the cut her and left the blade stinging in the wounds until she forthed the information, that might be just a little bit more tortureful.

I don't know, I need a compromise here because I can't go with that, and I'm sure if I would've done something like that to your character...it would be the same you know?

besides this IS a sexual roleplay........

 

[vierge]

When he touched her, everything snapped into a different place of no pain, no sweat, nothing, just images through an opened channel. Images of his people dying, images of him and other secrets, she could feel her own mind being sorted through, the visions of the dead unicorns, burning her dear woods, the meetings with the Castle as well as secrets of her own, childhood haunts coming forth. She shook her head away, breath choked in her lungs. Their pact breaking caused her heart rate to drop as it had been heightened through his livelihood coming to her own. It had been so strong, she knew what she must have somewhere in her own blood, Soarsian. She had tried to kill her own people because she had been deceived. She was confused, but the hate in her was growing now for a different sort, the lying, villainous sort..The Castle. She knew it was true.

"They will die!"

When his blade lifted, she scrambled up quickly and snatched up her sword, holding it steady with both hands as she looked at the three of them. She did not want to kill them. She did want to hurt them. She was just never trusting, not wanting to.

 

[AmandaAce]

OOC- If you had let me finish, my dears.....



Afton, when K touched her, came back to herself. He stared at her, angrier than she'd even seen him. As he looked at her, too angry to shield his thoughts the final truth of their relation ship came through.
He had killed her father.
He had killed her father for the love of a little girl that he had sent away, he thought, to her death. That was the truth Afton finally saw through K's eyes, and as she saw it, she became complete.
Shaking furiously, she reached out to the assassin, who was now on her feet.
She stretched out her hand, trembling, to the girl. As she did so, the strong psychic power she hadn't been able to control came pouring out of her in a flood. She and the assassin were wrapped, helpless, trapped together in the web of her mind.
Her name was Sparrow.
"Sparrow," Afton said, "I'm sorry." She fell to the ground, grey and unconscious. Her father's plan had worked.
Sparrow's injured hand was fully healed.

 

[Third Magus]

K drew in a breath, staring into Afton's eyes, implacable and golden as her father's. As he gripped her wrist, his anger and despair were too great, and in a surge, the secret he'd tried to conceal from her were released.

Blood will out. It was the last thing Afton's father had told him, staring at the blade, wet with his own blood, in K's hands.

K could recognise the shock in Afton's eyes, but he didn't see fear, or hatred, the two things he'd been most afraid of seeing there. Slowly, Afton extended a hand to their captive, and brushed her fingers against the mutilated hand.

The sheer psychic strength that radiated out from Afton was beyond anything K had ever known. He was not even the target of the effect, and yet he was momentarily mentally blinded.

"Sparrow," Afton said, "I'm sorry." She collapsed on to the ground.

K saw with astonishment she had healed Sparrow's hand. Then he dropped to his knees beside Afton, propping her head up on his arm, taking a pulse. To his relief, she was unharmed. His habitual calm returned.

He looked up.

"I'm sorry about the unicorns, Sparrow, truly. Since the Castle attacked..."

As ever, preferring silence, he didn't finish the sentence. Since the Castle attacked, many evil things have been done. He returned to studying Afton, brushing away the hair from her forehead and staring into her face, struggling with what he had seen her do.

"I am K", he said at length. "The elf is Selia". He looked down. "This is Afton".

He noticed that Sparrow still held to a distance, wary and distrustful. He sheathed his sword and held out a hand to her.

 

[vierge]

Raising her eyes to his as he sheathed his sword, she straightened slowly as if still not trusting but relinquishing her sword to it's own sheath on her hip, she looked to Afton and then to Selia, seeing them different than prey. She even felt some sort of kin to these two, she felt it stronger than she had ever felt before. Batting her eyes, she raised her head and looked around, she needed a drink.

"I'm going to the ravine...what happens after that...who knows, perhaps I will come back and we can talk more of The Castle. I owe it to you to protect Afton as I have tried to kill her without the right pretense..."

She bowed her head just so and walked to Selene who had been grazing nearby, head turned she looked to K and swallowed, there was something that she had never felt before, a feeling that all of a sudden she was not alone, she had found someone of her own, when she thought she had no kind...

 

[The_high_king]

Creeps

I went back to my little hideout. It was in an old bell tower that was never used... except by me. It used to be part of an old cathedral, but was then purchased by a currupt Duke of... something, then remodeled into a large estate. The Duke kept the bell tower there for looks, and signature of power. To show that he had the power to buy whole cathedrals. The current owner of the estate was a rich merchant... a good merchant. A merchant who has never stolen, cheated, or lied. I only felt it was fair not to steal from him, since I was already living on his residence.

The bell tower, before I was living in it, was a filthy place. It was full of rats, bugs, webs, rotting wood, and other dirty things. I have cleaned it out since then. The wood was replaced by yours truly, threw in carpets, some small furniture, and there you have it, my cozy little abode. It literally felt like a regular house the moment you stepped in... well, a small, circular house with many floors, but still like a house. As for security, well the tower is sealed off from the rest of the estate, and the traps that I would set were unforgiving. Another big plus about this place was that I had access to clean water... which was basically re-filtered over, and over again rain water, but still clean water.

The moment I reached the ledge of the tower, there lay a letter... a letter from the Order.

 

[AmandaAce]

Afton, unconscious, was in hell. Her eyelids flickered as she tried to fight the flood of memory that was coming to her through K's hands.
Her father. K. The portal. The murder.
Her eyes, rolled back to the whites, came open.
She laughed, hoarsely, another person's laugh.
"What do you think you've done, kael?" she said gutturally. Kael , in High Saorsian, was the word for thunder. It had been her father's nickname for K. Afton, reached up, unseeing, and grabbed the collar of K's shirt, pulling him close to her. "Deepened your sorrow? Tightened your bonds? Your sword is smoke. What's done is done. Blood will out."
She collapsed into K's lap, her eyes focusing.
She couldn't move. She had been cold, once, but no longer. She felt nothing.
"K," she said quietly. "I know everything." And she told them.
"My father sent me away to protect me from the Castle, or so he told you. He knew that my time in the other world would result in a sort of psychic power-up, that my Saorsian brain would soak up the unused psychic energy like a sponge. That was simply a convenient side effect. What he really wanted--"
She sat up completely, turning to face K, beckoning Selia and Sparrow closer.
"He knew that you would go back for me. He knew that you would hate yourself for what you'd done to me, that your conscience wouldn't let you forget. He wanted you to kill him. He needed you to. It's the saoirse. Two warriors, bonded by blood and brand. The greatest power in the world. Why settle for one when he could have two? His would-be successor and his daughter."
She looked at K intently, not wanted to say what they both knew. The saoirse, the most powerful and sacred rite of their people, was only complete when one of the warriors killed the other.
There was no way out of this.

 

[The_high_king]

Creeps has mail

I hung up my cloak on the rack then put my boots aside, and then proceeded to reset my front entrance trap. Lighting a candle, and grabbing some bread off my table, I decided to take a gander at my letter. The fact that the Order knew where I lived meant they had a lot of power in this city... more power than I'm comfortable with. The letter was definitly authentic, because of the seal and blue wax. I lit a candle, took a bite of bread, then read the letter.

To Creeps; our friend in the shadows

Our scouts have gotten sight of a interesting band of adventurers who approach this city. One perticular adventurer, according to what our high priestess says, is not from our time. However, this party brings no ill intention to our city. That is all you need to know, but as for your mission, you are required to aid these newcomers in any way possible. Your pay will be 10 thousand gold, and information about your whereabouts burned to ashes. That is all.

Father Magnus of Three-Trees

So... gold AND blackmail. I chuckled to myself... I like the way these monks worked. I ate the rest of my food, then burned the letter. It would seem my next mission involved baby-sitting some tourists... hmm, easy peasy.

The next thing I did was bathe then sleep. I began to dream about the arch-succubi... in the dream I didn't know wether to run and make it a nightmare, or stay and make it a... 'pleasent'... dream.

 

[Chalintra]

Selia:

Oh yes indeed, humans are strange. Their emotions sometimes take the lead, leaving no reasonable choice to them as they are not really used to accept their emotions as a natural part of their being. On the other hand they act with cold reason as often, blind for the deeper meaning of their soul. It is the mixture that makes them unique. She herself has lived in perfect balance ever since she had left the save haven of her childhood tent. She had never seen something this exciting. It´s the flame of life that makes them burn with such intensity, flickering and unsteady, one of the true forms of chaos, but they shed such enormous ammounts of light and heat. May be this is the reason why they live for only so few jears. The fight she had seen was such a fire, burning even more fierce than the cabin behind them. The battle of their blades had been merely a little amber compared to the searing hot fire of their minds battling with each others and with themselves.

Selia smiles as she always does. She smiles a knowing smile, friendly and helpful without any sign of mockery or amusement. She´s lowered her bow, long before the fight had ended as she has felt those deep wounds hurting the soul of the combattants. Now they are healing. They have found their focus now that the veils of time and lie have vanished. Her tune had been helpful, but blood had washed away the last barriers. Selia has learned. Those humans are not meant for perfect harmony. Fighting makes their spirit blossom to full life and maturity. She has learned that there is much more to discover, as the way of the humans will teach her the way of her own future.

"I have seen and I have listened and so I have learned. Please allow me to stay with you, as the essence of learning is the knowledge that learning never ends. I haven´t been very helpful up to now, but I will pay my debts, so please accept my bow, my life and my friendship as payment for as long as the bill isn´t balanced!"

Selia´s words are still more sung than spoken, but they show that the way of learning she´s been talking about is terribly effective. Now she knows the human tongue as she´d discovered the meanings of your spoken and unspoken words.

 

[Third Magus]

"No... no.."

K had been utterly still ever since he'd heard Afton speaking with her father's rasping, cynical voice. Realisation dawned upon him and Afton simultaneously. He'd thought that by killing her father he could set them all free from his plans. But his old mentor had been ahead of him all along. Despair slowly rose up in his throat.

Not trusting himself to say it out loud, he pulled Afton close, ignoring the dull, aching shock of contact and memories, and whispered into her ear.

"When the time comes, it has to be me. I'll tell you where to strike"

It was enough. Afton was innocent; he the one most responsible for her condition. There was even a kind of harsh justice to it, to the way things would work themselves out. No doubt her father would have been very amused by it all.

He drew himself and Afton up, one strong arm supporting her shoulders. He looked at their companions, not feeling ready to tell them yet.

There was Selia. The elf had seemed childlike, almost playful, but he was beginning to realise that there was great calm and clarity beneath the happy-go-lucky exterior. In a rare acknowledgement of respect and gratitude, K bowed wordlessly to her as she finished speaking.

His eyes strayed to Sparrow, the dark, troubled girl. She seemed still to be having trouble dealing with the events that had taken place, staring, with a mixture of wariness, curiosity and regret, at them. Letting go of Afton, K stepped forward.

"You must have Saorsian blood", he told her quietly, "It's the only reason you would have reacted to my touch as you did"

 

[vierge]

Chilled to the bone in her newfound memory.

Weary, she blinked haphazardly, slow to the question that she must respond to sooner or later. She hung there in labido between the questions looming inside of her mind. Her fingers wrapped in her head all of a sudden and she pulled them through then looked up at K, a hard penetrating stare that she could not help, it was the nature of her firm brow and cold eyes.

"I-I am not sure of what or who I am. You say that as if it is true, I see things that you feel, I feel it too, if that is meant to say I am Soarsian, then what if I am....I tried to kill my own blood for the greed of an enemy. I should take my own life...."

She trailed off becoming lost in the words she spoke. Where was her mother? The rumors, she knew what everyone thought when they found out where she was from, what her name was, how she came to be. To believe a stranger with only hearsay as evidence was to drive herself into madness.

Staring past K to Afton, she nodded and raised a brow, "From the moment I saw her, I thought she reminded me of someone...."

 

[AmandaAce]

Afton took in Sparrow's wry look and raised her own brow.
"Who?" she asked.
As they stood across from each other, it was evident. Afton saw her dramatic features mirrored in the other girl's face.
She slid her hand around K's wrist, gripping the place where his brand used to be. It was comforting, somehow. Now that they were saoirse, they were stronger together than apart. She didn't know how that would affect K's solitary nature.
She turned to Sparrow, still holding K's wrist lightly. As she did so, she heard a noise. Glancing back, she saw Vindil making his way through the trees, his face questioning. He held a small bundle. Afton motioned to him to be quiet.
"Tell us your story, Sparrow," she said.


OOC - I had to bring him back so he could come with us.

 

[vierge]

Sparrow raises a brow in question of the question...

She shrugged her shoulders at first, standing to look at the sky as if preoccupying her mind with something that she knew how to define, the clouds, the time of the day, the types of trees, the birds hidden inside of them. She was a natural spirit by upbringing, for it had been her home for her whole life, all nineteen years of it. What could she tell these strangers that she did not know but her heart seemed to cling to already. The fear of that feeling grew with apprehension of the vulnerability if she trusted these people, how could she trust people...they were shots through the heart and blows to the skull.

"I have no story, I am a mystery even to myself. In the blackness of the night, I have lain awake to the calls of the wild and heard them speak to me of how I came to be. I am a water child, drifted in through the Billbrook River and that is all I know. I grew up on my own and survived on my own....I have..."

She stammered, tears coming to her eyes as she remembered the brutes in her past, those who thought her to be an elvish child, of those who stole her innocence away in their search for a certain way into Hell.


"I am Sparrow, that is all I know." <i>And I share something with you that I can not place</i> , she wanted to say but she declined to show them the brand on her back as it was marked with scars that she knew not how they got there.

 

[Chalintra]

Selia:

"If eyes are to blind to see then let the soul search for the obscured truth. Simply take each otheres hands and you will feel the eternal bonds that you are too reluctant to see."

How can they spend so much thinking on something so obvious. Sure, human bloodlines are much harder to trace than those of the fey, as there are so many of them, but isn´t it easy to see if there are two of a kin right in front of you? May be, if you are unwilling to expect it and unwilling to accept it. If Aftons father has made a strange coice to save his daughter, why shouldnt his Wife have choosen the same to save hers?.

 

[The_high_king]

A change of weather

KRAK-KOW!!!! I woke up from my dream, somewhat startled. I looked outside the arrow-slit of my bedroom, and noticed it had started to rain. At first I thought it was going to be a drizzle, but then the rain began to quicken, falling harder and faster, becoming heavier by the second. Heavy rain, lightning, howling wind, the whole shebang... now I was never going to get any sleep. So I simply lay in my bed, and noticed how entrancing the sight and sound of rain and lightning could be. Then I laughed, realizing that those "adventurers" were probably soaking wet right now.

 

[Third Magus]

Afton's fingertips tingled on K's wrist. Now they were bonded, the contact didn't bring a jarring psychic shock, or a flood of unwelcome memories, but only a pleasant, somehow reassuring warmth, a calm at the centre of the storm. K knew how it would end, in blood and pain, but for the moment he could enjoy it, remembering a little girl whom he'd once protected and loved, when things were simpler.

Rainclouds gathered overhead.

"If eyes are too blind to see then let the soul search for the obscured truth. Simply take each other's hands and you will feel the eternal bonds that you are too reluctant to see", Selia chirped, as usual in her hypnotic, sing-song voice. K looked at her sharply. Once again, her wit, buried beneath the riddles and lyricism, showed.

He looked between Afton and Sparrow, suddenly noticing resemblances, likenesses of expression, of eyes. Sparrow was darker, harder, colder, but that could be explained by very different upbringings. He exchanged glances with Vindil. Family was always complicated.

"Perhaps you should do as the elf suggests", he said softly, bringing Afton forward towards Sparrow, meeting the foundling girl's gaze steadily. He saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes; glittering like diamonds on the hard, glossy brown eyes, and put them together with the dark empty spaces in her story. K's usual emotionless mask cracked a little, and compassion showed in his dark eyes, and raced along the link held by contact between himself and Afton.

She was Saorsian, whatever else she might be, and that made her kin.

 

[vierge]

Sparrow is wary once more

Selia's voice rang true as Afton stepped forward, bringing her hands up and Sparrow also stepped forward, looking to K's face before raising her own hands and locking gazes with Afton's own.

As their hands simply touched, the zing between them sent them into a whirlwind of each other's minds, wind picked up around them and light shined from everywhere. Their fingers laced with others and locked in as they were transported in their trances..

An enchanting woman, delicate in her robes of fuchsia and indian red sat in a throne somewhere, surrounded by the train of bearskin, candles flickering about as a baby cradled within her hands was rocked, and another child play idly nearby, a girl with dark glossy ringlets holding a cat's cradle.

"Noen, come and see...."

The little girl stepped forward with a smiling face full of childlike beauty, small possibly only 4 years of age as she peered into the baby's face...

"Look upon your sister."

The vision blurred with the smiles of the baby sister smiling and playing with the dangling crest on the end of a gold chain around the slender neck of the beautiful mother being the last images before the winds settled and they were back in the firepit, staring into each other's eyes, rain falling down and wetting their tresses against their faces as they stared deep into each other's vessels.

"Sister..." Sparrow declared.

 

[AmandaAce]

Afton stood there for a long moment, looking at her older sister.
She barely felt the rain on her unprotected neck and shoulders. When she met Vindil and K, she had been overwhelmed by the sense of finally belonging, of meeting people like herself. With Sparrow --- Noen, rather --- it was magnified a thousandfold. This was her sister, her blood.
She'd thought she'd had it hard at the hands of her father. But she had been taken away, given to the care of two wonderful people. Noen hadn't been so lucky.
Tears fell down her cheeks and mingled with the rain. She took a step closer to Noen and hugged her. She felt her flinch back from the powerful mental contact. But still, she hugged her sister.
After she did so, she looked around. They made such a motley crew, the five of them. It was hard to believe that they were destined to be the saviors of the world, standing in this clearing in the rain, bedraggled and cold. But there it was.
"This is it," she said. "This is the way it should be. I've no idea how the rest of you feel about this, but for K and Noen and me, it seems we have no choice. We've been selected, placed, like figures on a chessboard. If we don't stand, we're going to be wiped away." She looked around the circle, at the people who had so quickly become all she had.
"I need your help," she said.

 

[Chalintra]

Selia:

The elven maid had already started to feel strong bonds with those humans. Sure, they are strange whithout limits, sometimes stumbling through their lives without knowing how or why, sometimes catching the deeper meaning of their fates within shortest of times. She can´t do anything else but like them.

"I´ll be with you and do my best to aid with bow and word if need shall be mehlôn."

Something deep behind the shadows of the future told the little fey that her new found friends will have to go through a hard time, a time of bloodshed and killing. But she had seen the flame of their souls and she knows it to be bright and true. Whoever chooses to cross their plans will have to take care or his dark soul will be shown a new way by one of her arrows.