RP:Darkness Falls
Outside The Kelay Tavern
Tenebrae was sitting on the rough ground outside, her back leant to the tavern wall. Slender arms were wrapped about her slight frame, one clearly covered in a soiled bandage, an occasional shiver wracking her body.
Imar 's brows draw together in a frown, and he turns his gaze toward shadowy depths of the tavern wall. His keen eyes pick out the slight form Tenebrae, and listening to her shivers, he moves closer. Noticing the bandage, he nods his with understanding "That wound giving you trouble Tenebrae?"
Andre appears from the north. Andre gave 2 blood wine to Tenebrae.
Tenebrae 's own eyes were dulled from their usual jewelling green to a murkier, olivine hue as they were turned slowly toward the drow, another shudder trembling that all-too-pale body. "Aye... 'Twas the Lich...." Her voice was vague-sounding, soft. "I need ... I need to go home..."
Andre returns his sword to its hilt, and takes a seat on top of the drunken fool" Hello."
Tenebrae 's unwounded left hand reached to take the bottles, a look of gratitude given the giant. "Thankyou, Andre." A tremor had her drop one, and it smashed noisily and with a spray of sanguine liquor to the ground, coating her legs and dress in wine and shards of glass. Tene didn't seem to notice, placing the other in her pack.
Imar lowers himself to his haunches, and studies the vampiresses too-pale-skin and dull, green eyes. He gestures to his shoulder, and inclines his head "I didn't fight the lich, but one of his undead servants left a piece of tainted metal in my shoulder. Keer only just found me in time, elst I would be dead." He looks around for a moment "Your home, that would be the headquarters?"
Tenebrae 's head came to a gentle rest against the tavern wall as she leant back, eyes closing and teeth pressed hard to her lower lip to suppress a murmur of pain. "Home ..." That word, so faint, seemed to hold a note of longing in it. "Need to ..." She looked to Imar, slightly confused. "I ... " The necromancer fell silent.
Andre looks down at Tenebrae, and gets a concern look on his face. He bends over to pick her up. " Where shall we take her?"
Imar was no healer, but could see quite clearly that the vampiresses was in trouble, and need of help he was ill equipped to handle. " Home!" he mutters softly "Where is home Tene? Tis a strange place your Headquarters , mayhaps, you will derive something from the magic dwells there" With that, the tall drow rises, and begins to walk toward the east.
Andre said to Imar, "you want me to carry her where?"
Imar nods "To the east"
Andre slowly picks her up, and holds her in his hands, and starts walking slowly east, being careful not to drop her.
Tenebrae seemed so small as the giant carried her, slender frame curling against his massive chest. "M.. mother will be so.. angry." A well of crimson tears ran to stain chalk-white cheeks.
In The Dark Fortress
Andre slowly lowers her to the ground, and places her on the polished wood couch, and then takes a seat on the floor in the middle of the room.
Imar steps into the large building, his sensitive mind instantly picking up the strange magic aura of the building. He turns to Tenebrae. "Tene, you're home, but this place is big, is there anywhere in particular?"
Tenebrae was glancing about in an apparent daze, pupils shrunk to pinpricks, dulled irises adding to her unfocussed look. "Mother ... " The vampiress blinked, swallowed, looked to the massive man and the smaller dark elf beside him. "Where are we ...? This place is so...." Her good left arm came around to clasp the upper portion of her injured right. "Where's Leo?"
Imar digs into his satchel, and brings out jar. He removes the lid, and a sweet aroma fills the large room, and Imar places the jar down next to the injured vampiress "You're in the Cabal HQ Tene, and I don't know where Leo is. Your arm is infected, and you're sick. You wanted to come home, and this is the best we could do." Imar withdraws a dagger, and points the dirty bandage "I am no healer Tene, but that bandage has to go, and " He points the jar "This salve is something Keer gave me for my wound. It is good for fighting the taint"
Andre looks at Tene. Infected, he thought, and then leaves to go get something.
Tenebrae stared at the drow a few moments, the pungent, sweet scent of the ointment seeming to revive her senses a little. So it was with a light of recognition that she glanced about her now, at the diresome hall they occupied. "Leo ... " Something seemed to twig, then, in her feverish mind, ravaged gaze cast back to Imar. "The pool... The pool might help me."
Andre drags in what to shorter people is a tree, but to him a branch, and sets it down where he was sitting, and then attempts to pull leaves off. Andre pulls some off, and then realizes he forgot something, " Imar, do you have a bowl, and some water with ya?"
Imar gazes at Tenebrae, his blade held low and unthreatening "The pool?" Turning to Andre "Any idea what pool?"
Andre looks down a little questioned, and he moves to a pool close by, and gets a bucket of water.
Tenebrae heard the giant talk about water, assuming he meant the darkened body of water within the Headquarters.” Stop! You mustn’t touch the water!" her eyes are frantic, searching the massive man for signs of taint from that obsidian well. "There is always a price..." Her voice was hoarse, strained.
Andre brings in a bucket of water, and tries grabbing a bowl. He looks at Imar, " Could you help me? I need this all minced together, and these leaves is what will do the healing. But it needs to be liquidated."
Imar moves close to the giant, and nods "Very well"
Danielle appears from the north.
Tenebrae shook her head, a shaking hand pointing a forefinger to the pool. "I'll not let another pay the price. You know not what you're dealing with there...." She looked to the men in turn, pleadingly. "Don't touch the waters. But take me to them?"
Andre turns his head, to see someone else entering the room, and realizes its a vampire.
Andre said to you, "Its not those water of which I am using. I went to a lake, and got a bucket full of water.""
Imar instantly stops walking to the giant, and turning he quickly gathers the vampire up his strong arms "This place is dark Tene, and sick or not, I trust your wisdom. With that, the drow moves steadily toward the pool, the limp form of the vampiress in his arms.
Danielle strolls into the HQ, porcelain features concealed by the orange-trimmed hood adorning her head -- as per usual. Only in the way she moves would it be discernable as to who she is, until she spies the trio congregating here. Here of all places. Ever-scrutinising gaze falls 'pon Imar, and hidden brow lifts, sparked by confusion. Attention soon spies Tene, though, instructing the pair to escort her to the well -- again, the illusionist falters. "Tene," she says, stepping further into sight, "What're you doing?"
Andre said to Danielle, "She is from what I have heard, infected with something."
Tenebrae seemed to calm a little at the giant's words, nodding. "Good..." And as Imar lifted her, a sharp cry of pain emitted from chalky lips, she caught sight of another entering. That pallid, jaundiced face was turned toward the vampiress, a look of recognition dawning. "Dani... Gods, I'm so afraid."
Danielle skulks aside Tene and Imar, movements hindered by visible reluctance to approach the pool. "You've not looked well these last few days, but I've said naught -- I assumed you were dealing with it." Gaze deviates toward the ebon depths, fear contorting sheet-white façade. "I don't know exactly -what- that thing does," she becomes enraptured, momentarily, within the serene waters, before continuing, "But I've never liked it...what are you going to do?"
Imar steps lightly to the pool, a frown creasing his forehead at the cry of pain, yet his mind was on navigating his way to the pool. He doesn't notice the new arrival, and instead, lowers the vampiress to the side of the pool. His lips go dry, and his amber gaze is drawn to black water. And urge to touch the rippling surface, and drink the promised sweetness fills the drows mind and body.
Tenebrae stared down to that midnight pool, sluggish ripples now and then breaking the perfect sheen of the obsidian-mirror surface, with no apparent cause. "These waters.." It was as if she spoke to herself, so low was her whisper. "Are dangerous. They feed one's desires, even grant them, but .." She glanced sharply to Imar as he noted his hungry gaze, a look of warning, Tene not having the strength to stop him physically. "They feed on them too. What is given, is paid for in kind with what is taken." She shook her head a little, eyes glazing. "I don't know what's going to happen..." The vampiress leant toward the oil-black liquid, her injured forearm poised above it.
Andre grabs Imar in his hands, and picks him up so he can't jump in, or touch it. Danielle , too, makes her way to the waters' edge, what would usually be languid movements are hindered, to an increasing degree, by apprehension. "So...while it will heal you, it will take something -from- you?" She asks, chancing a glance toward Tene's inflicted appendage.
Imar closes his eyes for a moment, his thirst a living thing, demanding satisfaction, and yet, with seductive promising sweet relief from the pain of his throbbing shoulder. Imar grits his teeth, recognising the power for what it is, and fighting it with every ounce of strength. His injured arm rises, and moves steadily toward the ink stained water, and his fingers tremble with effort to stop. His gaze fixes on Tenebrae once more, and pressure eases a little, as attempts to redirect his mind.
Tenebrae was enraptured, it seemed, as she gazed to those black depths, eyes widening. "Mother ...?" A violent tremble took hold of her then, the necromancer's mind returning to the present. "Don't look too close. It shows you what you want to see. And if you're very unlucky, it will grant you that wish." She thought of Leo, the healed hand, the terrible accidents and misfortunes to follow. "Dani, it takes what you most desire, in exchange for what you need." The wounded arm, devoid of bandage, the frightful torn flesh half-healed but still showing a glint of bone, hovered still. "But if I don't do this, I'll not be able to want anything, again..." And as her gaze returned to the mirror-like pool, she let out a soft sound of dismay. "Don't show me that..." Was she talking to the waters? The question would remain unanswered, as her arm was plunged in, then, shattering whatever vision might have been shown her.
Imar feels his weight being hefted, and moved away from the pool. A breath enters his lungs, and energy flows into his muscles once more. He looks around and laughs softly "That damn pool uses some of my own tricks, but damn, I have never felt anything quite that strong"
Andre turns his head to where Tenebrae once laid, and he carries Imar over, and he picks up the tree branch
Danielle 's eyes widen in protest as the appending is plunged beneath those ominously ebon waters, and she moves to speak. Her delayed reaction prohibits her actions from having the slightest impact, however, and she can do naught but watch -- praying, were she one to do such -- that the well will show Tenebrae a little mercy.
Imar turns to Andre and shrugs "The pool is empathic, understands what you want and need. But, though it is strong, its range is short. I was there too long, elst is wouldn't have trapped me, and I and the vampiress are both injured. I thank you for pulling me away"
Imar turns back to Tenebrae, a frown creasing his forehead as he shakes his head "This is not good I think"
Andre steps outside quickly, and throws the tree out into the middle of no where, and steps back in, to realize where Danielle was. He walks slowly over, and awaits for something to happen, and then it hit him. He looks at his reflection, and sees something here could not touch before.
Imar said, "She is the leader, and is connected to building in some way. I do not understand it, but she is a part of it in more than just name."
Tenebrae 's right hand gripped to the stone edging, knuckles whitened, struggling to keep her balance as the depths sought to draw her in. The atrophied skin and muscle of her right arm, stripped by the bite and poisoned by the arcane venom of the Lich, flashed briefly into view, the limb whole and clean. Tene was half-turned, arm raised to show Danielle, perhaps, when something dark surged upward from the pool. Indeed, it might have appeared the very waters themselves had formed tenebrous limbs, to grasp the vampiress. A shriek, a brief and helpless struggle -- and hand, reached with fingers splayed toward the illusionist, and eyes widened in terror... These things presaged a dire rumble reminiscent of unholy laughter, and Tenebrae was pulled from view entirely, not a ripple left to mark her passing.
Andre points to the door, and looks at Imar, " Want me to carry you somewhere?"
Imar stares the writhing waters, confusion overtaking his mind for but a moment. Stepping forward the drow reaches out, but stops himself feet from deadly waters "What the....?"
Danielle stands silently aside the pool, motionless -- more fool her. As the ensuing events transpire, the illusionist seems to lose all comprehension of rational thought. Those splayed fingers, pleading for her help, are the last straw; charcoal head tilts backwards, monotone lyrics shot toward Imar. "Tell Leoxander what happened here." Those five words all that are offered, before, with a resolute leap, the illusionist, too, casts herself headlong for certain misfortune, soon disappearing beneath the stagnant ebony waters.
In The Obsidian Pool
The next cry from Tenebrae's lips never came; torn from the world above to the deep and midnight blackness she lost all breath, the sound choking in her throat as she felt herself drawn down... Her only thought was of her apparent imminent death, not by drowning as might a mortal without oxygen but some horror, a horror she'd once known, and one far worse...
But strangely, the waters felt not like liquid, the darkness a familiar caress, soft against her skin and all-pervading now, carrying her down like some sainted being from the heavens to set her gently to her feet .... where? And that nighted surround, drawn in, was not thick as water would be, yet thicker than air. Still it allowed for some sense of normalcy, if in that regard alone. Sightless, for there was lacking even the modicum of light vampiric eyes needed to see, she stood; neither was there a single sound, the utter silence worse than even the abyssal dark. Only the rapid beat of her heart and the hiss of breath drawn against the thickness of that atmosphere were testimony to there existing anything at all, even herself, in this place.
But ... what place was it? Forcing herself through the fear of navigating the utter black, she took a tentative step forward, and another, oddly having none of that 'sixth sense' that guides us blind and tells us to be wary of meeting some abrupt object. Rather, she felt the urge to walk on, freely and without hesitation; and, as she did, Tene gained a sense of freedom, of peace, as such she'd never known....
Sheer desperation encompassed Danielle as she was sucked into the abyss, her cries soon silenced by a sharp intake of oily-black liquid. It swam menacingly about her throat, finally finding its near-deadly passage into her lungs; like a score of worms, it buried itself into her respiratory system. Luckily, at least for the illusionist, she choked at that very moment; in a flood of splutters, curiously silent, the ebony waters expelled themselves from within her.
Her thoughts dwelt on Tenebrae, and her alone -- she had to find the other vampiress, lest she lose herself to this wicked wishing well. Mayhap it was merely the subtle caress of the oily liquid against her porcelain skin, or simply that she had never experienced a sense of silence this extreme, but Tene was soon lifted from her thoughts, a total sense of serenity left in her wake.
With a grace more elegant than a soaring eagle, or a lithe cheetah flashing through the dusty plains, Danielle found her feet, beginning to drift onward. To where? The illusionist had no idea, nor did she particularly care. She was overcome by a sense that led her to believe she lived solely for this moment; this instance when she, Danielle Corvestov, was completely and utterly calm. Relaxed. Silently, embracing the serenity, did she drift onward...
As Tenebrae walked onward into the void her steps were unfaltering, her mind free of care or concern for what had transpired or what might come. All she knew was that the darkness beckoned like a mother's comfort and the longer she walked, the further the terrible burdens of her heart and memory faded...
She had no idea how long she'd been walking when the path before her became clearer, the narrow cobbled path from gate to door lit dimly by the glow of candles through windows of the two-story cottage that was her family home. She approached on tiptoe, breath misting the air, a glance up proving her window, open just as she'd left it. The lowest bough of the tree that served as her ladder was grasped and she was about to swing up to begin her stealthy climb when a voice sounded, clear as the toll of a bell through the silence. "Joliette!"
The girl swallowed. She'd hoped to sneak in without alerting her parents to the fact that she'd not gone to bed early as she'd made out; but it seemed she'd been caught out. Again. Rolling her eyes, breath exhaled in an audible sigh, she retreated to the path once more to watch the thin silhouette of her mother descend the stair inside. Blast. Another week of hard labour in the yard and no chance at all of meeting up with...
"Joli, get yourself inside this instant!" This, less bell-like than reminiscent of the muffled crack of a whip from behind the door; the woman who shortly thereafter after flung it open clearly furious, her lips pursed tight and brow furrowed deeply.
"Yes, Mother..." Joliette sighed, drawing her woollen cloak a little tighter around her slender frame, hoping the young man she'd been kissing hadn't left her cheeks to abraded with the sparse stubble on his jaw. The interrogation was brief, her lies convincing and she was sent up to her bed via the commanding point of a forefinger. Once in her nightgown, slipping beneath linen and blankets, she would allow the broad smile that beckoned her lips and hugged her pillow tight. He loved her! And though she was just sixteen she'd agreed to marry him as soon as he'd earned enough to buy them passage to the nearest city. Vailkrin! She could hardly bear the thought, the anticipation; she'd never been much further than her own village. And married! To ...
Odd, she thought, how the name of the one she loved could slip away from her like that ....
And of a sudden Tenebrae possessed the certain knowledge that Fate had never led her to meet that boy, nor come to Vailkrin to be his bride. As the scenery of her first home faded to darkness, the puzzled vampiress fancied she heard the faint baying of hounds and hoped it was merely her imagination that echoed to her the angry shouts of men, and painted the flickering glow of torchlight in the distance...
The rugged arm of the man beside her snaked around her waist to draw her close enough to crush her slight frame to him, near enough for the bitter reek of smoke from below to be replaced with the familiar, sharp tang of her lover's masculine scent: clean sweat and cedar. She felt the tense of his muscles below smooth skin, as he leant to speak soft words, his breath a rush of heat against the curve of her ear. "Happy, love?"
Tene could do little but nod, gaze following the line of his arm as it rose, a forefinger pointing out the vista of the lands beneath. From the battlement where they stood she could see the guttering fires of Kelay as it burned, the watchfires of the garrisons in Gualon, and farther in the distance a blackness-within-blackness, the charred remnants of the city that had blazed through the night but week before: Vailkrin. Turning toward him, hands raised to tease short, dark locks back from his temples, she smiled, canting her head as peridot eyes met arctic blue. "Yes, my soldier. Very happy."
High atop the dark, cyclopean tower he'd had built to serve as their palace, their home, the immortal returned her devoted gaze with feral intensity. In his arms, the vampiress shivered, abruptly, as he spoke in that familiar low rumble: "You do well to tolerate my work, and the absences it creates, Tenebrae. Your patience and devotion is greatly appreciated. I could not have found a better lover, or a better partner."
Her own words came as a soft whisper, against the inexplicable and painful tightness of her throat, the sudden welling of crimson tears. "Did you but come to me a single day of the year, I would live for that day ... Laethalion."
Immersed within her own delusions, Danielle had little comprehension of time's significance, so it wasn't clear, to her at least, if she'd been missing for hours, days, or even years. The time spent wandering aimlessly through serenity seemed to more than make up for it, though, and she began to believe she'd never leave, until she met a figure from a past; one she missed, dearly...
From hereon out, Dani's understanding of reality diminished further, as she became trapped in her own distorted memories -- a lone figure stood on the cliff-top ahead, the grassy moors casting a curiously-fitting backdrop to the entire scene. The way he moved twigged a familiar sensation within her; the way his shoulders moved when he breathed alerted her to the fact an old, old friend was dangerously close: Myles.