The Gauntlet

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    A Shattered Crystal

    Murrbella
    Murrbella


    Posts : 10
    Join date : 2012-10-07

    A Shattered Crystal Empty A Shattered Crystal

    Post  Murrbella Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:45 pm

    She floated peacefully in a dark sky full of stars. She looked around with mild curiosity and wondered who she was. The stars floated closer to her, and they were not stars at all, but shards of crystal; some the clear blue of calm tropical waters, some the deep blue of an angry sea in a storm. And they were all broken. She could see where their edges fit with one another, but they were detached and afloat.

    One came into her reach and she touched it and looked into it. She saw a woman working diligently in a lab. “Oh, there I am”, she thought, with slight disinterest. She pushed it on its way and reached for the next shard. It was her again, wandering Telara and joining the order Sedition. People and inconsequential situations came and went. A Man stood by her in the crystal; he asked her if it was true of his commander. Yes she tells him, let me show you, he hides it from all. She pulled the demigod from the commander, and the confused Man struck her down. She lay unconscious as the commander attacked the Man; as the commander, under the possessor’s influence, decimated a town; and as the Man crawled away and lost his mind.

    “Hmm…I remember this”, she thought. She pulled another crystal shard to her and darned it to the one in her hand. In it she was tracking the Man, full of guilt, and watching over him, and watching him. As Rivvka put together more pieces, she remembered that The Man was a Red Man; that the demigod of death raised him from the earth, and tore pieces of souls from the soulstream to make him, a perfect assassin. The Man was required to travel the additional threads of time and kill the Others of himself, and these stayed in his mind and took him over after he struck her. The Poet, the Hermit, the Templar, and the Killer. There was one other, but he hid, and Rivvka did not sense him. Thus the Killer had taken over; but through much effort of Rivvka and Sedition, the Man was returned to himself.

    She smiled to herself as her love for him was evoked with the next crystal. She fell in love with him, and he with her. She watched with more familiarity as he escorted her to an empty wedding chamber in another time sliver. There they vowed to stand by each other and love each other always. He gave her his Name; she was the only one he had ever given it to willingly, as it held immeasurable power over him. With tenderness and devotion, they consummated their union. He became her Order and Wisdom, and she his Ni Monn, his heart.

    The crystalized memories were coming faster now. She saw the Templar come to the front as the Man held her passionately against a wall, and she burned them both to push him back. The Man sought out his gods and ended the Others altogether, but was imbalanced by the sudden silence in his mind. She stayed by him and gave him comfort. Countless battles passed her vision; deceit and betrayal led to many of her deaths, but no deaths for him, for he was still mortal. The Man had numerous enemies and fought many battles. He owed allegiance to some and had pacts with others, and his gods kept him alive. But every time the gods pulled him from the jaws of demise, he was weakened as payment.

    Tears burned her eyes as she knew what was in the next crystal. She didn’t need to see it to be reminded, but she looked nonetheless. Her breath stopped in her chest as the Droughtlands came into view; she saw herself and the Man sitting far atop Lantern Hook, overlooking the ruins of Redoubt, her home from 500 years before. He told her he was weakened, and could not go on, and that she must help him. She cried, and they made love with urgency and tears. He asked her to be brave for him, and handed her his dagger. She slid it across his throat, and there was more blood than she thought possible. He died in her arms; she was set adrift.

    Adrift as she was now, floating. What had happened after that? She was in despair now, and could not remember. She found the crystal that fit with the piece, grabbed it with haste, and fell into the memory. In it, she saw herself walking away, leaving his body high up where she had slain him, his blood covering her. Her anguish was paralyzing. She was accosted by the Man’s father, and he tried to enter her mind. Her mind threw him back with such force he fell and left in a rage. She turned in the fog and was confronted by another, a villain who tried to force himself on her. She pushed him away, and then again; as a last resort, he defiled her mind in her weakened mental state, and then disappeared. Her order and her anchor were gone, and desolation crushed her. She walked into an inn and sat on the floor in a dark corner, a vial of faebane in her hand. As she looked at the vial, the Man sat silently beside her. He crushed the vial of potent poison. Certain she had gone mad, she fainted. He held her in his lap all night, and did not leave her. Ever again.
    Murrbella
    Murrbella


    Posts : 10
    Join date : 2012-10-07

    A Shattered Crystal Empty Re: A Shattered Crystal

    Post  Murrbella Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:46 pm

    More fragments were attaching and unfolding before her. A warrior channeled rage and chaos into her without warning, her first taste of it, exhilarating and terrifying. Black fire leapt into her eyes, meandered over her skin, and buried itself deep in her psyche. She told him to never touch her again, but she didn’t mean it. Another fragment showed her sitting with the Man in front of a waterfall, where she taught him of earthen energies and he pulled from the leyline beneath them. She held his arm and the energy suddenly diverted and crashed into her; she was trying to tell him she couldn’t stop, and black fire grew savagely around her. In panic he tried to disconnect her grip, but could not. He unsheathed his blade and cut his arm at the elbow. She struggled to control her energies as his life bled from him.

    In anger and contempt for herself she looked away, turning her attention to the cluster of crystals coming upon her. The Man was livid in a town square, feverish in his ire. His real name echoed through the square in his booming voice, and she watched as strength left him in a fine red mist. She scolded him and told him the name was for her only. He fell into sorrow, and she vowed to free him from all that bound him. She strengthened him with her energy, she ripped away the hold his name had on him, and filled the void left there with part of her essence. She was weaker, but he was her Shield. They fought side by side then. She saw they tried to kill Alsbeth but failed, narrowly escaping. They struggled against a Devourer; she called to it and he cut the connection to trap it, loyalty and love in his eyes as his axe cut through the crook of her neck. They fought many battles against a Storm Legion General as he tried to take a friend from them. Rivvka held her Shield close as they ensnared the General and dove into the demon realm, leaving the malicious one there to suffer until the final battle.

    As she helped her friends overcome their fears and enemies, and as she struggled to keep her mind in order, the Man, her Shield, stood by her. Until the angry blue shard in front of her showed the Man attacking her and crushing the life from her. Her despair over her broken Shield had almost ended her. It was not him though, as the Others were back in his ascended souls. A cruel joke it seemed, to have their beings still attached to their souls to torment him. He fought to control them, but there was another there, unknown from before. In this other’s time thread he was the Avatar of Regulos, and they had won, and all living things in their world were dead because of him. He tricked Rivvka and attacked her, and she defeated him with her black fire. But in doing so she had almost killed her Shield. She descended again into the demon realm with resolve and purpose, aided by a small band of friends. Rivvka watched as a demon eradicated the Others and housed itself in the Man.

    Rivvka was caressing the shards now as they were mending themselves into what could soon be a brilliant crystal. Deep in thought she remembered the strong and ordered Man, and the many times he helped her fuse the pieces of her chaotic mind back together. She looked around in the darkness with curiosity, almost understanding; but the splinters were too many. Off in the distance her eye caught a glowing gold crystal piece, and she floated to it, as it was out of place among the blue. She wondered why it was there.

    She looked deep into the golden light, and saw her death in her mortal life. Wicked cultists dripping with bloodlust were torturing her, and they were incensed. She remembered this and did not want to see it, but the golden light held her there. Days had gone by, and she had not given them the information they sought. They became increasingly brutal and fierce, and dragged her broken body to the water for more. She knew she was breaking, and she hated them for this more than anything. No one had come to help, no friends or family, no Council or army or King. They told her everyone was dead, and her city destroyed. She did not believe them. Yet no one came for her. In her desperation and delirium, she cried out to the gods that were not hers; she pleaded for the Vigil to help her.

    The harsh waters of the falls over her disappeared and she felt the embrace of peace. Her soul had been plucked from her body, and she stood in a brightly lit castle with 5 celestial beings in front of her; larger than humanly possible, so radiant that she had to cover her eyes. There was no wall in the throne room behind them; she saw out into the eternity, into the intersection of the planes.

    Two of them stepped forward, a frightening Warrior God, and a beautiful Goddess. The Goddess spoke, her voice a choir of splendor. “Our favor is upon you. I am Mariel-Taun, The Heart of all, and next to me stands Thedeor, Warrior-god. I beseech you to go forth and do my work. Heal the hearts and minds of those who fight for what is good; stand against the rulers of the darkness, and show others how to withstand the hosts of wickedness in the evil days. You are the Light in the Dark.”

    Rivvka looked upon the Goddess in confusion. The Warrior God spoke then, and his voice resounded off the walls and roared in her ears like thunder. “A warrior without a heart is but a rabid dog, and brings no hope of victory. Help my warriors above all else; and help the one especially. DO NOT FORGET.” His last words were painful, and she covered her ears and fell to her knees. The very next memory she had was of wandering Telara, and joining the order Sedition.

    Rivvka looked at the crystal shard, her face awash in golden light. She held it so tightly in both hands the broken edges bit deep into her flesh. She had forgotten. A deep sorrow settled over her heart. She would not forget again.

    She was unconscious, and the warrior sat by her bedside. A tear ran down her cheek. In a pleading whisper, she called out his name.

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