RP:Secret Siblings
Summary: After meeting a strange figure in the dream world so similar and simutaneously so polar opposite of themselves, Kanna and Lhyrin cross paths again in the realm of dreams, where they agree to become each other's sibling. The lingering feeling of being without something lingers even as they cross back into the Mortal Realm, still unaware of the other's true existence.
Over the course of the week after the initial dream with her, Lhyrin dreamed of her who was dubbed ‘Moon Goddess’. Of course, it wasn’t really her. They weren’t even sure she was real. Why would she be? But throughout their sleep, they saw or heard glimpses of her here and there. It haunted them during their waking hours as well. The tinkling of bells sounded like her laugh. A blur of white in the forest, but it ended up being merely an albino stag. They slept out on the balcony of the guest house behind Chateau Drakenheart, taking in the moon’s glow nightly in order to feel closer to that mystery being from their dream. They could not shake this feeling within them. A feeling they couldn’t describe. A feeling they’d never had before. On the seventh night after the encounter, they stared up at Vaalane dejectedly and searched the stars for a glimpse of the butterflies or the serpent, but saw nothing. Despite trying their best to use the tactics taught to them in their youth to block out emotion, nothing worked and it only filled Lhyrin with despair. Despair was not foreign to the vampire, but this still felt different and they could not place why. They yearned to give the moon goddess a reassuring pat on the head, to tell her not to give up hope. They scoffed at the thought--who were they to speak of hope? Lhyrin wrestled with their thoughts until they passed out, bathed in Valaane’s light.
On the other side, in the Dream Realm, Lhyrin was trapped. They found themselves in a room no bigger than a closet--a remnant of their past unfortunately--and discovered the lack of a door. Lhyrin banged on the walls, sobbing, just a child now, screaming to be released. They could hear their father on the other side, arguing with their mother, claiming that if they were to be a dark ranger, they needed to learn to not be afraid of the dark. Nails became bloodied as they clawed at the wall before them, their eyes bloodshot from the crying. As if nothing else could make this worse, water began to spill in from the ceiling, filling the closet and threatening to drown the elven child before they could be released from their prison. They coughed and sputtered as Selene’s ocean filled their lungs, and eventually… they just gave up. They floated there within the darkness, begging for death.
Seven lonely days and nights had been roaming Chartsend, investigating a series of events that Guilds would not act upon without it being commissioned, and that the guardsmen of the city would not consider without proof of a law being violated. Kanna would be finally taking a break in the morning, getting her mind off of anything that was not her exile or damaged heirloom. Because of this, is with great frustration that she opens her eyes to see the musical instrument, still destroyed at her feet, but in a terrifyingly familiar place. Kanna was home. A crash in the adjacent room causes her to flinch, and in this altered space, all she can feel is the urge to hide. Why didn't her parents love each other the way the villager kids' parents did? Was it really hard being the princess? She will be in so much trouble if her mother finds out she broke the dragon-zither when she wasn't supposed to be near it. Kanna looks around, catching a reflection of her small self, with chestnut hair tied into two plaits that wrap into buns on either side of her head, and a simple violet tunic draping her tiny form. Footsteps approach, and Kanna throws open a door to reveal a darkness that is tangible, swirling and pulsating with myriads of muted colors to beckon her in. The child grabs the paper lantern from the floor and forces herself into the space. Her heart is pounding in her chest. She's terrified of the dark, but more afraid of how angry her parents will be when they find out, and so she shuts the closet door behind her, trapping her alone in the void and silencing the argument outside.
Kanna wades through the darkness that now rises to her feet and sloshes like mud as she moves deeper in. The lantern offers little comfort, as there are no walls to bounce their shadows off of, only lighting her way in the labyrinth. Whether it's seconds or hours later, it starts to dawn on her that she has no idea where the door to escape is. "Mommy?" Kanna calls out quietly. She knows it could be a mistake to call for her while she is upset with her father, but the silence that answers back is only more upsetting. "I'm a princess, and princesses-ses have to brave." She stutters, finding a touch of solace in hearing her own voice pierce the silence. As she continues to make her way through, Kanna cries out as something brushes her leg, nearly dropping the lantern in the process. She looks down as it illuminates the shape of another child floating in the water, facing up. Kanna gently sets down the lantern on the watery floor, letting it bobble to and fro as she starts the ardous task of pulling Lhyrin from the floor and onto the shallower part of the shadowed seas. "Please… please don't let me hide alone here… I don't like being alone…" Kanna begs, yanking on each of Lhyrin's limbs until she's sure they will not slip back into the deeper waters.
As Lhyrin floated within the shadowy waters, they began to have a dream within a dream. The elf, much older now, floated in the shimmering pool outside Chateau Drakenheart on an early summer’s night. Despite its ramshackled appearance, the pool itself a former moat around the once great Queen’s island mansion, it was still rather peaceful. Blooms from dogwoods within the nearby forest floated like fae along the warm breeze, bringing their sweet scent with them before falling gently and coming to rest in the pool around the elf. They laid on their back, floating, just like the flowers and watched the heavens as the stars twinkled and the moons gave off their supernatural light. It was one of the few times Lhyrin had truly known peace. All was well until a small hand reached up from within the pool, grabbed Lhyrin, and dragged them down into the depths.
They awoke, finally, from one dream, returning to the other and began sputtering up water as Kanna begged them to stay with her. The elf-child coughed until their lungs had cleared, though the burning remained, in their lungs and even their eyes, as they squinted to look at the other child. “W-who are you? How did you get in here? Only Father can make the door show up again… Did he put you in here too?” Was she a new servant girl? They’d never seen her before. Lhyrin rubbed at their eyes for a moment and sighed. “I don’t like the dark. Not in here. At least if it’s outside, there’s still stars.”
Kanna pats Lhyrin’s back as they cough up the darkness, just like she had seen the guards do when Grandmother got a boo-boo in the big bath. To their first question, she replies, “I’m Kanna,” in a pleasantly surprised tone. They did not recognize their princess? She will ask Lhyrin for their name, but will not press the issue if the strange long-eared child does not tell her. When they ask why she’s here, her head lowers. Carefully, she pulls the paper lantern towards them so that it illuminates a bit of the ground beneath them. Father… did they mean her father or theirs? Her daddy could do wonderful things with magic, maybe he made doors appear and disappear too. “I’m hiding. I broke my mommy’s favorite thing by accident, but I know they will still be mad at me…” As the black ocean laps against their bare feet, Kanna digs a small hand curiously into the ground, which has transformed into a silty substance, like black sand. Holding a scoopful up, she exclaims, “Lookie! This looks like stars when you hold it up to the light! It's so pretty!”
Lhyrin blinked a few times after they quit their sputtering, and quietly thanked Kanna. “Kanna…?” It took a few moments, but they eventually revealed their name as well, the elf rather shy and uncertain as to whether they should be talking to her in the first place. Was Father going to punish them more for speaking to her? They seemed sad when Kanna mentioned she ran away and it prompted them to stand, something stirring deep inside them. “I’ll protect you from them, then.” They puffed out their chest somewhat, but couldn’t keep it held in for long, immediately releasing all the air they’d breathed in. They outwardly grimaced at it, but ultimately their attention was drawn elsewhere, as Kanna lifted the sand-like substance. “Woooow!” Lhyrin picked up a handful for themselves and held it to the light. They believed her, obviously, but they had to do it too.
The human child looks down at the stars in her hands curiously, then looks around at the darkness. “I’m glad I have a friend to protect me.” Shyly, she adds, “I didn’t have friends for a very long time.” Kanna sidles up to Lhyrin to look at the stars in their hands. In the light of the lantern, a few pieces light up more than the others, making a constellation that almost looks like a serpent. As a child that did not know of serpents, she giggles. “Hehe, your stars look like a big worm! Lookie, mine makes a bunny, those are the earses, and that’s the nose.” The stars in her hands are just a mess of dots and look nothing like a rabbit. An idea strikes her then, and she looks up at her new friend. “What if we put the star sand in the sky so we can find the door?”
Lhyrin looked over at Kanna as she got closer and blushed profusely, though it couldn’t be seen in the darkness. As the moment passed, they lowered their head in shame. “Father won’t let me have any friends or see any of my brothers and sisters...” Soon their attention was drawn away from their unfortunate life and shifted back towards something more positive as Kanna pointed out the ‘worm’. “That’s not a worm, silly! It’s a snake!” They promptly made hissing noises and moved their hands a little to make the snake slither about. “I like your bunny,” they said to the princess, bashfully. “If you think it’ll work…” Her idea was good, but the elf was still full of doubt, all of their father’s scolding and rules running through their head. There’s a moment of hesitation and they tossed the star sand up into the sky as Kanna suggested, hoping that it would actually stick.
As the star-shaped sands are tossed upwards, they disappear into the darkness above. “Oh no…” Kanna laments just a hair too soon, as a burst of starlight overtakes the skies. What had once been an endless dark expanse or the inside of a claustrophobic space transforms, each burst of starlight taking its fated place in the sky like the falling embers of fireworks. The waves of the abyss that lap at the childrens’ feet illuminate as well, making the waters look like a reflection of the night sky. “Lookie!” Kanna points to the shallow water, where a dimly glowing pearl sits in the star-shaped sands. “It’s an ony-yon pearl. Mommy says they swam down from the green moon to help Vakmatharas and Selene do their really important jobs.” She wades into the water and carefully picks it up, holding it up to the skies. It looks almost like a small moon. “I wish I had a brother or a sister, and you’re not allowed to see yours….” Suddenly, the little Kanna makes the o-face she gets right before she announces an amazing idea. “What if we were secret siblings?! Your daddy wouldn’t know about it to keep you away from me!”
Lhyrin watched as the sky exploded with pinpricks of light, but their attention was soon stolen by Kanna trying to show them something. “An… onion pearl?” They were extremely confused by the fact that the gods had onions on their moons, but the elf didn’t want to seem stupid to their new friend, so they didn’t ask for elaboration. “You… want to be my sibling?” They thought about it for a moment, but then nodded their head at the girl, trying to hide their ever-reddening face within their straight black locks, unable to actually say that they wanted to be her sibling too. If Lhyrin said it out loud, would Father hear them? Despite the inability to say it, they held out their hand for her to take. “How do we get out of here?”
Kanna takes Lhyrin’s hand without question, a bright smile lighting up her expression. “Hmm…” She tilts her head to one side, then to the other side. “We have stars, now we just need a moon!” Kanna throws the pearl up into the dreamscape’s sky, where the stars created by the sands eagerly embrace their kin. The pearl shifts and grows until it has morphed into the bright green moon of Vaalane that casts a calming pale green glow over the dark sea. While the children are on an isle with sand as black as the night, there is a pathway over the sea that now glows with the moonlight and starlight above. “The way back home was always waiting for us, it just needed the moonlight to show it.” She beams as she and Lhyrin take their first tentative steps onto the cool stone. “I think if I have you with me, the bad things I did won’t be as bad even if I get in trouble for it.” The further they move away from the isle of darkness, the more Kanna begins to age. “Even though the moons know our secrets, they still light our way without fail.”
Lhyrin offered a smile to Kanna as she proclaimed her want to have them around, the emotion it created feeling like a strange fluttering in their chest. And yet, when she mentioned doing ‘bad things’, there was dark foreboding that overwhelmed them, like they too had either done wrong or would come to do so eventually. But moreso still, they felt the same as she did and the want to protect her took hold of them again, the elf keeping an eye out for anything that might come to harm her in such a place. They said nothing as they started across the stones, the dark waters ebbing and flowing around them. Not long after that, the elf slipped a bit, first a foot going into the murky depths, and then a hand to steady themself and pull themself out of it. Except, when the elf pulled their hand back out, it was sticky with that ever-familiar copper-y tasting substance that they’d become well acquainted with as they got older. As if by magic, both hands were covered in it now as they watched it drip drop down onto the stepping stones below, as if the blood red tides were stemming from their hands alone. They quickly put them behind their back, as if they could hide it from the girl, and said, “You keep going on ahead. I’ll catch up, okay?” They cast a sad side-glance at the “water” and saw the faces of their victims floating about within it, like thin paper masks.
As Kanna walks away, the illusion of their dream self being an avatar fades away the further she moves. She goes from being just six years old making a pact with the shadow child in the closet, to ten years old, dressed in rags and holding a bloody bandage to the brand on her ribs, to sixteen years old, dressed in clothes she has long outgrown but cannot afford to replace. A few more steps, and Kanna is a woman again, but her hair remains its original mocha shade. She turns around, and sees the faint outline of the child staring down at the water. “Lhyrin?” Her voice has grown just slightly deeper, but it is still the same sweet soubrette. She watches as the waters that are illuminated a pale-green white from Valaane’s light take on a deep red hue, as though Ahr’Nuk was eclipsing the larger moon. As the faces rise up to greet Lhyrin, she watches their forms cascade against the waters until the victims are close enough for Kanna to see the ones that she has killed. Suddenly, the happiness she felt before at having a new sibling is gone, replaced with concern and a desire to protect. “Lhyrin, come to me… It’s not safe…” She pleads, her voice soft as though if she were to raise it, the faces would open their eyes.
Lhyrin stared down at their hands as the blood dripped from them. They tried to wipe their hands off on their tunic but the blood didn’t stop and it just soaked into their shirt. The further Kanna got away from them, they too would age through the years. In their teenage years (which were obviously much longer than a human’s), they were angry. A rage-filled creature that murder their immediate family and felt no remorse about it. Their adult years, they looked more tame. Set in their ways. Seemingly able to control the rage, to the point that they had no emotions at all. All the while, bloodied hands popped up out of the waters and grabbed at Lhyrin’s legs, clawing and pulling them towards the water. They didn’t even try to pull away. “You can’t help me.” They looked up finally at Kanna, the two parted by the stepping stones, the stars slowly blinking out of existence one right after the other. “Like I told a little bird recently: you cannot help they who don't want it.” Lhyrin was covered in blood now, from head to toe. Their hair was sticky with it, as if a bucket of blood was just dumped on them, the elf relishing in it as it enveloped them body and soul. “The question is… are you okay with it? With me being like this? Do you really wish to be siblings with the Avatar of Vakmatharas, Moon Goddess? Can you truly live with yourself, if you allow yourself to care for the monster that society created?” An illusion of Vakmatharas himself loomed over Lhyrin, wrapping his arms around the elf, holding him in a protective embrace.
Kanna can feel streaks of heat flowing down her cheeks as she watches the ghosts of the pasts cling to Lhyrin. It was as if she was looking in a mirror, with the hands that reach out for the undead elf’s legs touching them just seconds before they do the same to Kanna. “But I am not the Moon Goddess…” Kanna finally answers them, her voice almost breaking from the admittance. “I don’t know what I am, but you are not the only one with sins to bear.” The sea of blood shifts, the waters becoming riddled with thousands of eyes that stare up at Kanna with a ferocity Lhyrin might recognize. Disdain towards the one who has killed them. The disjointed eyes are joined by mouths that wail and beg for their lives, that curse Kanna as a harlot, a siren, a madwoman. The woman Lhyrin believes to be the Goddess of Vaalane struggles against the weight of her sins, breaking free of the corpses’ grip to run back the way she came towards them. The stepping-stone bridge begins to crumble as more stars disappear above, but Kanna still makes her way to the blood-drenched elf. Stopping short of them, her arms outstretched as if Kanna is conflicted on whether to hold them tight, her brows knit together in fear and sadness. “We’re already secret siblings, aren’t we?” A wave comes from the side and rams into Kanna, though she remains steady on the slippery stone. When it finishes passing, her own clothes have been turned red, and her hair has turned bone white from what bits of it can be seen from beneath the blood. Streaks of tears on Kanna’s wash away the bloody seawater, revealing the fresh skin of someone who despite her sins, is still mortal. The wails of the dead only increase around them as the last stones they step on begin to crumble, threatening to drown them both in the bloody sea. “If you’re a monster, then that makes me one too. I don’t want to fix you, I just want to be near you.” The stones crumble, and Kanna gasps as the sea begins to pull her under.
“We may be alike in regards to our sins, little one, but there is a difference: I absolutely enjoy every moment of this,” Lhyrin said, conviction in their monotone voice. They watched with stormy eyes as she made her way back to them, their conviction wavering as a sense of longing overtook them. The only ‘longing’ they’d ever known was for the hunt and to be enveloped in Vakmatharas’ skeletal arms for the rest of time. ‘I don’t want to fix you’, she said and something broke inside of Lhyrin. She wanted them to just be themself, murderer and all, and now she was struggling to stay afloat. They too were sinking now, as the rocks crumbled beneath them, their height aiding them for the moment. “No… NO!” They swam the rest of the way to close the gap between them, struggling against the pull of the souls that came for both of them. Just as it seemed like she was lost entirely, lithe arms wrapped around her and pulled her to the surface, pushing her up from their embrace to the image of Vakmatharas, the elf begging him silently to take her. Eventually, the God of Undeath did, whispering to his avatar that he needed more souls in exchange including, eventually, their own. Lhyrin gave it freely as the souls latched onto them and pull the vampire down into the depths, leaving the former ghoul cradled by Vakmatharas--death had not forsaken her. But would she ever know the cost?
Despite their vampiric nature, Lhyrin could feel themself begin to drown, the darkness that had threatened to take them at the beginning of the dream now doing so. And yet, it felt different. They weren’t scared, like their younger self had been. They took one last breath, their lungs filling with that bloodied, soul-filled waters… and woke up with a gasp in the guesthouse of the now abandoned Chateau Drakenheart, where they’d taken up a part-time residence. Red water sputtered up from Lhyrin’s throat and lungs and onto the floor beside the bed, the vampire struggling to breathe, though they truly did not need to, until their airways were finally cleared. Their entire form was damp, even their hair, as if they’d just been swimming and then flopped into bed for a nap without drying off. Tears lined Lhyrin’s eyes and the elf let out a rather feral-like scream, overcome with emotions they hadn’t felt in years, or was never allowed to in the first place. They screamed until the usual feeling of numbness returned, and then they went about tending to themselves, as if nothing happened. It was not a feeling that would last long however, as the bard had clearly made her mark on her secret sibling.
The world shifts and tumbles around Kanna as the seas envelop her and pull her under. The world is pitch black, then a bright red as the light of Valaane distorts the blood seas, then black again as the souls of the aggrieved pull Kanna further down. For a moment, there is a feeling of peace that overtakes the bardess. Perhaps this is for the best, for her to answer for her crimes now rather than continue to live and risk hurting further innocent people. Then a tight grip takes her and she feels fire in her lungs as she breaches the surface to breathe in the salty air again. It is a blur of colors and flashes of panic as she feels something skeletal take her and hold her in place while Lhryin’s head disappears beneath the waters. Kanna watches the damned converge upon them, and soon, their shadow disappears beneath the raging seas as well. Then, Kanna awakens.
It is a jolt that forces her awake, and the quickening realization that the tightening bones pressing against her waist to hold her in place was just the bed’s runner caught underneath her as she tried to roll over in her sleep. The salty air of the blood sea of her dreams is replaced by the slightly rotted seawater smell that permeates the city of Alithrya even through the musk of dried flowers and perfumes. Kanna untangles herself and tries to remember who it was she was trying to save from drowning. A man? A woman? What was their name? The only memory of the sibling in her dreams is the visage of an elf in the distance drenched in blood, asking if she was sure she wanted to be related to a monster society created. “I’m one too…” She mumbles dazedly as the details of the dream escape the more she tries to cling onto them. The heartache of not being able to ease the pain of someone she related so deeply to lingers as Kanna rubs the sleep from her eyes and prepares to face another day of incarceration. Perhaps she would go down to the underground beach and examine the shape of the sand today…