RP:A Legendary Snack, They're Magically Delicious

From HollowWiki

Part of the Venturil's Bane Arc



Travelling East Of The Barrows

Mists rapidly surround you, distorting everything into nothing more than a sea of silhouettes and shadows. Voices whisper from every direction. Calling, shrieking, screaming for mercy that was never granted them. The impenetrable haze lightens some as you glance southward, revealing an opening where you can see that the road continues on along the rapidly descending ground. To your east, the shadow of a broken structure can be seen through the mists. West of here, the mists thicken rapidly, and the cries and other voiceless, formless noises continue, raising soundless barriers.




What's felt is a tug- a subtle exercise of a Sire's pull upon his fledgeling, though more a suggestion than an order.


“Kirien, If you're not too busy, I'd like to speak with you for a little while, et perhaps grant you a small boon.”


It's at this point that the tug becomes a bit more concrete, enough so that if Kirien chooses to follow it, it will guide him towards Venturil.


Kasyr is seated upon a broken mound of stone, boredly staring at the only current point of interest in this area. Which is to say, the corpse of the dragon currently resting upon the ground. Every so often, a strand of sanguine liquid slithers up from the saurian's carcass, though it never seems to draw closer to the Revenant. Instead, it surges down towards the ground, into a growing puddle.


A faceless figure drifts across the landscape, its black-robed form wavering in the obscurity lent by the swirling grey mist, until it appears to be little more than a rogue phantom come to join the others in this ghostly place. However, Kirien is quite solid. Dirt on his boots shakes free over time, shed from the adamantite in flakes as it dries and is dislodged by footfalls that cannot come from a ghost. Reaching Kasyr, he flips back his hood and opens his mouth to speak, before pausing upon the realisation that he has forgotten something important, and closing it again. Obsidian ‘skin’ peels back and reveals Kirien’s paler features beneath - it’s wise to wear a layered disguise in the Underdark, and though Kirien is confident in the enchantments of his cloak...you can never be too sure. “So,” he says in delayed greeting, tilting his head expectantly toward the revenant.


Kasyr glances over towards Kirien for a few moments, just long enough to draw one hand up to his brow and offer a quick salute. That said, the motion in itself is slightly clipped, as the pool of dragons blood briefly surges forward- at least until the Revenant resumes staring at it, the puddle burbling impatiently. "So, I have something I'd like to say, just, a preamble, j'suppose. Because, after this, you're going to be given a choice." Kasyr's gaze briefly wavers towards Kirien, an action which causes that sanguine puddle into a shuddering ripple, "I've tried my best to make us all strong. To ensure that we of the Coterie will not only be able to protect ourselves, but also each other. A goal that is made all the more important by the dire creatures which seem to gravitate towards moi. Aberrations, dragons, demons and deities alike... These are the things I have come into conflict with, something which has in turn influenced those who follow me." The Kensai sighs, his arms falling behind himself so that he could lean further back- even if he continues to stare ahead, "I can't entirely be sure that the path I've chosen es correct; Dami's departure, Markos' disappearance, and Ilydia's..volatile breakdown... I can't help but question how much of those were my fault. Et so, I have to ask tu. Es this the life you want to live? With your loyalties divided as they are, et all the additional dangers it incurs? I promise you, I will stand by you if it is, try to protect you, to provide you the means to survive it- but I can't guarantee your safety, as much as I'd like to say I could. So. I figured I'd give you a choice.. tu know?"


Kirien listens. It is something he is rather good at, actually, when he puts his mind to it and settles down...and these days he can accomplish that with far less difficulty. As Kasyr speaks, the empath keeps to his calm silence and allows the revenant to say all he has to - his fingers drift in the meantime, coming up to toy briefly with his House insignia and then tuck it safely out of sight. It does not need to be displayed openly up here, and it will not stay a blade nor save his life should things go awry with the kenasi. Finally, after a long minute spent watching Kasyr with blind, considering eyes, standing utterly still and statuesque, Kirien blinks. It’s almost as if he snaps out of a daze, as if he was not listening at all, but his solemn expression says otherwise. “...You know,” he begins, “he always called you selfish. Arrogant.” The words are spoken with a distinct sharpness, but the intent is not to anger or upset. “Sometimes, I understood - other times, I disagreed. Right now is one of those times. I think he would understand, too, in some sense.” Shaking his head, Kirien squints at the nearby corpse and the blood oozing from it, watching with unseeing eyes as the viscous liquid crawls back and forth, bubbling noisily. He frowns. Kasyr is his focus again as the empath says honestly, “If I did not believe in you, in this family, I would have left long ago. I do not fear danger, or Ends, or the difficulties of a life toeing the line. I don’t live to run, now - I live to fight, and I don’t care how difficult this life I’ve chosen turns out to be.” It is a roundabout answer, but that’s typical of Kirien. A short pause fills the mist between this and his next remark, which comes accompanied by a frankly rather vicious grin. “I’ll be damned if I let anything get in the way of what I want. Even Death.” Because these days, he is taking matters into his own hands.


Kasyr nods slightly at the response, before he sits up a bit straighter, and begins to rummage through his coat. One by one a series of colourful chunks of rock are removed from within the trenchcoat's depths- revealing the particular treasures the Kensai has been safeguarding for some time. A trio of meteorites, one Amethyst, one ruby, and one emerald - all of them belonging to the collection of treasures referred to as the Pieces of Six. "Artifacts, of a sort. I'd been collecting them, bit by bit. Apparament, something miraculous was supposed to happen if you could find all six." The revenant pauses here, giving a sidelong glance to the puddle of blood, which has all but creeped to the very edge of his boot. A somewhat fixed glower does serve to cause it to back up, but only just. " That said, it occurred to moi that you were a different case- since you could eat them, non? So they provide a rather unique opportunity for someone like tu~ I'm not really sure how useful this will be in the coming days. But it's a start, j'pense."


Kirien is eyeing that blood again but his attentions are quickly captured by the meteorite shards. Ever the exuberant geologist, he’s quick to acquire each of them from Kasyr, gathering the curious trio in the cup of his open palms and leaning closer to inspect them. He does not -need- to do this in order to see better, but it’s a product of habit and Kirien tends not to smother these gestures and mannerisms, especially when he knows other people like to see them in order to work out what he’s actually up to. “...Ah. These are not from Hollow.” There’s an owlish blink, and then he lifts his gaze to search the sky above - a blank white canvas in his perceptions and something that is replicated today, as the mist runs thick enough to obscure all but vague hints of the brightest rays of sun. “They’re from beyond. I’ve never...I’ve never seen anything like this before. I can eat them?” Focus quickly drops back to Kasyr and Kirien frowns, nor in suspicion, but in what might be uncertainty. “What would happen, if I did eat them? Do you know anything about them that might give me an idea? I don’t know how much it will tell me on its own.” Perhaps space rock speaks a slightly different language.


Kasyr straightens up into a stand, before he carefully steps back over the rock, garnering a bit more distance between himself and the bloody accumulation, "I can't be sure, vraiment. They hold power in them- but it's incomplete. Apparament, the stones need each other. Still, even an incomplete power can be useful." The kensai can't help but add in a playful tone, "Maybe you can try and find the others on your offtime."


Kirien considers that for all of two seconds. Then he barks out an amused laugh, although the mists swallow most of it. “Offtime? I don’t get any offtime right now - I’m too busy looking after Stavrets while their Patron is away. The idiots get into more fights with each other than they do with anyone else and if they keep going that way, they’ll all kill each other and there’ll be none of our House left at all. Maybe it’s a plot of theirs...but still.” He waves a dismissive hand, the fingers of the other now curling over the meteorite shards, which he holds close to his chest. A short silence follows this in which he appears to have a nonverbal conversation with them, after which he blinks back up at Kasyr. “I asked what they’d do. I think they told me, ‘uncertain’, which I can only assume is because they don’t believe they were made for eating.” One of them, the amethyst one, is selected from the trio, lifted and held level to his mouth...and Kirien promptly takes a bite out of it after a moment’s hesitation. The rest follows suit, crunched up and swallowed while the empath pulls a mildly uncomfortable face. “...Not that I’m one to listen,” he coughs, adding, “Tastes weird.”


Kasyr promptly leans forward, while his hands fold up behind his back, "Pft. I'm pretty sure disregarding the safe route es somewhat a norm for the Coterie, Kiri." There's a genuine sense of amusement on the Revenant’s face, though it's quick enough to fade, "Anyways, I..don't really have much else to say, vraiment. That was my gift, of sorts. The only thing left for me to do, es to get back to work. ..You'll be fine in the interim, non?"


Kirien, having apparently decided against sampling the other two gems, tucks them into a pocket for safekeeping. “I suppose,” answers the empath with a knowing grin. His cloak falls back into place, concealing his body entirely until he lifts his arms again, this time to draw his hood over his head once more, its enchantments immediately obscuring his features from view. He leaves the obsidian ‘mask’ for the time being, however - he needs time to breathe, and each time he wears it encourages his affliction to spread yet further. “Absolutely. You will be too, hm?” A salute and the sensation of a cheeky smile delivered empathically, before Kirien turns to hop onto that dead dragon, crossing its neck as if it’s a bridge and hopping off at the other end. “...By the way, I’d say you gave me another gift,” he adds in parting, turning even as he treads backwards into the mist. “You gave me a choice.” Then he is swallowed, and gone.