[PK] The Death of Devilry, reprised.

[Karina 1882]

Spoiler

 

The Death of Devilry, reprised.

—---------------------------------------------

Something ached at the back of her mind. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was the march of inevitability. So long, had she balanced the scales. Spun the plates. Bore weight upon her shoulder, crushingly. Her attention turned back towards the group at her back.

 

The Abyss howled around her, and under the gaze of her King did she stand. Her attention settled into that gem which had come into his claws. Some part of her knew what it was, even if she was loathe to admit it. 

 

Her being, her soul. Every bit of hope, emotion, and memory that came to exist. The life, and times, of Sermi Ulveryn. When the sound of it shattering eventually echoed into her ears, in that dark, a mixture of emotions 

 

Beyond all? Beyond everything?

 

It was a relief. It was some form of comfort. There wasn’t hate, or anger, in her gaze. It was exhausting. It was crushing. The Wheel had broken her, shattered every bone. What fragile remains left of her mind. Some part of her knew it had been coming.

 

She felt her perspective shift. From the vessel of her undeath, to the perspective of floating above. Weightless. Her gaze now, ethereal. Transient. She herself was but a fleeting thing. A single moment in the eternity she had hoped for.

All that came to mind was a single word. A single thought. Clawed fingers came to grasp at it, trying to hold on. “Deia.” It ached out of her throat. In that moment, the war was meaningless. The reasons pointless. The only thing that existed in her thoughts was the fleeting memories of those left behind. The promises Sermi had come to break in her true-death.

 

And then so too was she pulled downward. Into the endless oceans of oil. Into the black sands. The corpse of a world before. Peaceful. She had expected that part to be a lie. Buried in a tomb away from all that could hurt her. Buried in a manner that finally lifted the burden off her shoulders.

For once, the coming silence was greeted with something almost akin to glee. In some way, she had finally come to find the freedom she had come to want. Even if it had come, sooner then the Devil had hoped.

Rest, at last. Even if undeserved. Some small measure of mercy, from the King of the Abyss.
 

Eventually, through one means or another, did the pigeons fly. Oncemore, if only briefly, carrying with them the seal of her own making. 

(The following letters are not public information.) 

 

 

To D, @iv3ry
 

Spoiler

If you are receiving this, I am sorry. Something failed, something went wrong. I write this to you now with the clarity of a living mind. A beating chest. A heart that remembers. 

 

I know the world is a scary place. I had hoped for so long that we could see it together. But you must go on. I do not just mean for your daughter, but for yourself. 

 

So long have you denied yourself happiness, at the expense of others. That you might toil and suffer if only to see them happy for a brief moment. I ask, what about your happiness?

As much as we may wish to think it is all gone. Buried, and burnt. It is not that simple. I have seen it in the corners of your lips, when you smile. The little bit of hot cocoa that comes to stain them gives it away. Even if you want to pretend otherwise.

 

I know this will hurt, and I know you will come to mourn. But I want you to hold yourself high. Take this, as the inevitability of sin. Think of me, when you see the flowers. When you smell a rose.

I miss you already. 

 

To L, or what she is to become. @ibleesian

 

Spoiler

My words to you were harsh. But I only ever wished the best for you, my muse. Were you to know what you had lit into my heart. I think sometimes, to the earlier days. When we were all almost happy.

 

Before you got cursed.

 

Before we were involved with no end of trifling scheme and endless ache. Oh, was it that I could go back to them. If only for the briefest of moments, I would be satisfied.

I have come to accept what you want. What you wish to become. I only hope she remembers you, and I only hope she remembers me.

 

Yours truly,

 

To S. @timberbuff
 

Spoiler

I know it has been some great length since we have last spoken, at least; when I have come to write this. I do not know if the end cometh for me, or if such a thing is even possible. But I cannot think to end all our years with empty nothingness.

 

I wish pity wasn’t such a damnable word. That it was not so often accompanied by the feeling of looking down upon something. I realized the difference between you and I. For I had a life to live, and threw it away. You were denied a life at all. Denied a chance to know what it was like, to find beauty underfoot. 

 

For a brief moment. I saw something radiant in your visage. I saw something that proved you could be more than the chains around you suggest. I do not know if you will hold fast to it, or get swept in the duty of our fight.

But for your sake. For the sake of my memory. I hope you escape. I hope you find freedom. I hope there is a chance, that if even for a small moment; you can experience happiness. Many will come to say you are not deserving of this.

To them, I say - go to hell. 

 

To A, @kiiztria

 

Spoiler

Were it that I would be able to rid the world of your cruelty. To think of all you have come to damn. All you have come to hurt. You alone prove that justice is a concept foreign to our world. I hope, in the end, you suffer even a mote of what you have caused others. 

 

That any happiness in your life comes to crumble, and settles as dust drying your tongue. That all you have come to build is rent into nothingness. That the pile of corpses and chaos you stand upon comes to finally swallow your damnable form up.

 

There are not words enough to describe my hate for you. 

 

To Z, @sarahbarah

 

Spoiler

I am afraid I cannot trust those who I would normally have deliver this message to you. Keep it close to your chest, and away from all. Even Deia. The truth is… A difficult thing sometimes. A fickle thing. We often can forget it, swept away by the tides of the ocean. The movement of the waters. From gentle ripple, to a terrible storm.

 

By your nature, you are cursed. This is what you have inherited from your father. Damnation that is wrought upon your soul. I am afraid I could offer a better outlook, a better chance. They are chains, wrapped around our wrists. 

 

Seek to escape them. The Hells are a terrible place. If you are to perish, all that we come to know and love will be burned away bitterly. What remains of you will be a shell. That cannot happen. 

 

Treat your mother right, and listen to her. I am sorry, I was not there to watch you grow up. I hope one day, you can forgive me for this. That you might learn of all that was sacrificed to keep you safe. 

 

To Villorik, @xarkly

 

Spoiler

I miss our old talks. I wish that things didn’t end as they did, truly. Despite all you may have come to loathe me, there was a point where we could have done great things. Were things different, perhaps we could have changed the world.

 

I saw you look at Deia the same way you did to Amaya. I wish that it was not the recipe for another broken heart. Perhaps it is strange, but I hope you are able to find satisfaction before death. Happiness, before death.

 

You have been fighting too long. Do you even remember what it is like to live? 

 

 

To what N became, @secretgecko

 

Spoiler

I am sorry to be leaving you again so soon. To see what you have become, I am so proud. I know not if it is right for me to feel this way, but to think that you carry on her legacy? I could not be happier. 

 

All that is mine, is, as ever yours. Deia may need some help when it comes to cleaning through my many things. I hope you will visit, and that you might tend to her solace. Every moment is but a chance for another beginning. 

 

Live well. Fight well. The world is yours now. Make it what you wish, and let none stand in your way. 

 

To K, @rushodan  

 

Spoiler

My son, my darling son. I write to you now in the throes of false-life. In true memory, and emotion. Not the shell that you came to know me as the last few times we spoke. I had wronged you so often, and so much. 

 

I think still of the blade I brought to your back, in the hope that you might escape. From what I had damned myself too. Damned others too. I know not now where you reside. What became of you.

 

If you found a way to escape, like your sister.

 

I seek not forgiveness of my faults. My failures. I only hope in some small part, you will remember me. What you passed onto me once will now be returned to you. It only feels right. 

 

To O, @procrastinatepro

 

Spoiler

To you I leave my property, and my things. I trust that you will sort them out appropriately to support the cause. I have left some notes along in a box with some trinkets I trust you will get to the right parties.

 

To see you have grown as a person is a strange thing. You had scared me, at times, in truth. The way you went about things. The eagerness to see the world burn. I hope, at some point, you will come to see it as I have.

 

Beautiful. Shimmering. Splendid. From the rays of the sun, to the cold of river-water. Dip your feet in it. Feel the sand and rock underfoot. Take a breath, and know you are alive. 

 

That is all I could ever ask of you. 

 

To F. @ratsmasher 

 

Spoiler

You are a being of immense promise. The ways in which you crawl along webs and spin your own far surpassed my own, even in life. I hope you will work with the others, to see the legacy I left made manifest. 

 

When you spoke to me of your future husband, I realized the depths of your ambitions. I only hope you continue to pursue them. Few ever aim that high. Let the sun shine on your wings, and the gust propel you ever-upward. Our climb never ends. 

 

My best regards to both you, and your sister. 

 

To D, @elkeazi

 

Spoiler

You put your faith in me. Your trust. That I would lead us to a better future. Something that wasn’t cold stone, and broken promises. I hope you can forgive me that despite my best attempts, I’ve failed. 

 

Thank you for your loyalty, and your work. I only wish I ended up more deserving of it. 

 

To A. @comica_l

 

Spoiler

Please escape the cycle. I failed you, in more ways than I ever care to admit. I know in some ways, I am responsible for what aches on your palm. What damnation is wrought in your soul.

 

But you have a son. A reason to live, a reason to escape. There has to be a way. Escape me. Escape the others. Escape his sight most of all. You have to, please.

For your own sake. 

 

To C. @Kaden

 

Spoiler

I regret what I took from you. I recall when we were all happy, once. The first days I saw you both around Haense. When you had come to adopt Amari. It felt like so many years ago, almost unbelievable. That we were once so simple.

 

If you are to continue this path, you must harden your heart and resolve. Many will come to challenge you, to hate you. Death spells a fate worse than any I could offer. Hold fast to your ambitions, and live.

 

Burn all who challenge you to cinders.

 

To D, @leyd

 

Spoiler

The damnation you seek to wrought upon the world is one I could never truly abide by. I hope one day you seek higher aspirations, and to be more than just another rung on the ladder under an uncaring God. 

 

Nevertheless, I hold some great measure of respect for what you have accomplished. Forgive this old prince needing time, now, to rest. I know not where I have ended, but if you are receiving this; know I walk amongst you no longer.

Maybe it is peace, maybe it is damnation. Maybe some twisted form of my soul will return from the Hells and come to wreck havoc. 

To N, @halfirate
 

Spoiler

You were right. I was never meant to save the world.

Seek to spread the word of what I had warned you, my work, please. It cannot be allowed to persist, and I am no longer there to stop it. 

 

OOC:

 

Spoiler

So ends the life and times of my first LOTC character. I couldn’t be more pleased with how everything ended up. Many thanks to @zarsies and @AntiSociety for dragging me along on necromantic adventures. 

 

[TimberBuff 2381]

A sleeping cat read the letter addressed to her. 

 

She'd not tell a soul.

 

The other could handle what came next.

[Rushodan 191]

Sermi's death would impact two souls far differently, one long gone . . . with the other just arriving. 

For Kiyoshi, he had long sworn off his mother's wretched existence. She was like the others, kegare. . .irredeemable. Yet, as the hawk dropped the letter within his hands and his eyes scanned over the contents. . .he could not help but feel sorrow in his heart once more. Sorrow, mixed with relief.

It was finally over. The torment finished forever. A pyre would be lit to symbolise the ending of his mother - a last goodbye to the woman that had given him life, and taken much.

Another soul had only just met this creature of undeath. . .their relationship new and fleeting. She would not yet find out, but it was only a matter of time until this knowledge became common. Another opportunity and wealth of knowledge lost.

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

Far, far away at a distant Veil - a man, unaffected by time itself, pondered his last words with the Devil. How she, in a rage of inunderstanding, asked how he could accept a inevitable fate. His reply was simple, and her response was equally simple, though hateful.

 

He wondered what she had been up to, in his absence.

 

---

 

Within the halls of a snowed-in keep, a Zezimar lurked and prowled. It could not find her - and it grieved her absence, unknowing of why.

 

Not because it had cared, such a creature could not - but it was the first blade it had sharpened, rendered true. The armorer, the ever-reliable sword. 

 

"A pity", It thought "Such a thing can not be easily replaced."

 

And that was all the thought it gave to the matter. Bloodied conquest lay ahead of it.

[sam33497 7356]

"A disappointing end. . ." A blasphemer eventually mused.

 

"If you can't change yourself, all you can do is change the world or die. A shame your fate was the latter."

[ThatFunkyBunch 2818]

A Kozun remains blissfully unaware that the former Prince had been wiped from the face of cosmic creation . 

[_xMika 284]

A lone weaver read the letter all whilst marching across a snow blizzard. Even though the cold pierced his skin, and sent shivers down his spine he stood still uncaring. . the only emotion he felt, was an unyielding rage. One, that would only be quenched by the life force of a king "You have not failed me" he finally spoke, that once nice and charming high imperial tone, being replaced with a gurgling and rageful spite. "You have opened my eyes, to the truth. . . Because of you, I understand that the beliefs, that our gravelord once clung to are nothing but lies" Even though rage had overwhelmed him he still found peace in the letter. . he clung to it tightly, for it was the only thing left he truly cared about. "I will kill him, no . . death is to simple for such a soul he deserve worst, peace is not an option" 

[xo31 3979]

A Voidstalker heard of the news first-hand. The Draugur had been killed.

 

But a light hum left him, for he had no reason to care about her now, after everything.

 

Later that night, the horror which he'd so willingly bound himself to, using Laelia's soul as forfeit as Sarryn held blade to his neck.

 

It spoke to him, about the memories it could freely access. It told him he could've changed the way things were, and he could still be enjoying group dinners in the snowy confines of a Haeseni home, large feasts cooked by a red-headed dwarf.

 

There is no time for that now, though. His own path of darkness stretched as far as the metaphysical eye could see.

[Frostdrop1 1843]

Marus Weiss, fated to a death of undeath by the mere suggestion of the deviless, was unknowing of her end. In times of rest, he fretted. Each night, and each day. His head spun nightmares of screams and tales of blood, and voices so vivid in his ear he could swear he really heard them.

In all his fight to aid those afflicted by the curse, it was, too, the minor toying of that same kin that wedged his mind in inescapable fear. Albeit, never did his gentle heart place blame. Rather, it bled for their plight and their suffering still. It bled for the shadow that shrouded the vulnerable in a world so terribly cruel to what is innocent and kind. And he wondered, too, could someone such as her ever have been saved?

And still, it was that same kin that cost him dearly in physicality and mind.

It was that same kin that beckoned him into danger.

And so still, he fretted.

Was she really safe?

[satin 7600]

Lines were drawn, letters written and sent. Phillipe leant back in his chair, tapping his lips with the nib of his quill as a thoughtful moment of a silence passed.

[Frawlic 1602]

A worn woman furled pitch black phalanges around the unsigned parchment, them trembling as the handwriting and words were enough to know who had delivered. Something told her this was it, no matter the thoughts and visions which taunted her mind.

Along with such came distant memories of a young girl asking which tea the horned lady would prefer. Serving it to act like her fathers;
The short talks over cocoa which brought a familiar warmth into her hands, one that scared her.
The sawing of ice from palm after being informed it was the only way in the moment.
A promise, not a threat, that was deemed to ruin her life.
And the fire that made her realize this was not what she wanted to be.

The letter was carefully folded and tucked away up her sleeve as she shuddered where she sat. Hushed, she spoke to herself, or perhaps who she wished could hear her.

"Eam trying."

[KillerMaid 636]

Malna/Annika stood there, slowly hearing the news. Her name would stop being heard in whispers, a feeling in her gut was still there... She wanted to see her suffer, for everything that happened and more. She wanted to see them all suffer, perhaps that was a motive she kept to herself. In the end, she paid no more than a minute of attention to this, returning to her work.

 

"It's a shame, I couldn't add her to my collection."

 

just back, in the woman's room was a small box and bag, a collection of teeth from monsters to descendants.

[Rig 17580]

Alistair stood before his Drakeshrine, the painting depicted two fighting dragons, one white and the other mottled black. The golden scars littering his arms and veins caused him scourging pain. Despite the death of the Aengul Xan years earlier, the blows from the Aengul had left him in pain for years. Upon listening to the news, the Elder Rephaim spoke thus to Nalara.

"Souls that have not been scavenged are like to return to the Soul Stream, once the Ascended Sage Selina told me about this fact."

He paused then and considered the books that one of his Ordained Heralds, Laelia, had turned into him not long ago on the nature of the Spirit Ixris.

"Alas," he said to her. "I fear that her soul has been ferried off to the Hells, where it might pay homage to the Daemon of Ruin. Perhaps someday things will change."

@Geckonawa@ibleesian

[ivery 590]

If pressed, Deia would not properly be able to describe how she met Sermi. In the quietest of days, she can picture a dream-like haze of smiles and mischief, of the boldest court bard Haense had seen and the most shameless of her works. The three of them, gathered around Queen Amaya as children flock to their mother for a story.

 

And then Laelia was taken. And then they went to Hallowcliffe. And then Sermi pledged herself to her maddening quest, to break apart the chains that bound them and all who wielded them, and then she was discovered and broken and set into her arms to be healed and then and then and then-

 

She does not like remembering that part.

 

("It has always been you," O'zen said, her voice empty but with weight.)

 

Sermi had fallen to the hells, grown infernal horns and been stained the color of poisonous malflame. With slitted eyes filled with agony, she'd looked to Deia, and Deia had cupped her face and whispered, "It's okay."

 

Because it was. Because nothing could take her away, not in Laelia's madness, or the court's cruelty, or the endless hunt that pursued them. As the bars of a gilded cage curled around her shoulders, Sermi was there, bracing open the door.

 

(Maybe she was blocking it. Maybe she was part of it, the gleam of her horns matching the metal.)

 

When she died, there was a hollow place in her chest, broken apart. She could not be gone, she could not be, her one anchor in this ever twisting world, her protector. Surrounded by disdain, she felt the weight of Sermi's rotting head in her hands and wept. Perhaps that's what made her reach out, to call for aid, for a god. It does not matter. O'zen was born, and her embrace was cold but it was there.

 

("You're missing ribs," Deia mumbled, sheepish, as O'zen stared down at the pieces she'd given her. Ribs, a liver, a heart. Some her own, lost to battle and refurbished, some made from flesh and gem alike. "I cannot stand it.")

 

After such a long, long war, there is now such quiet. She has her daughter, and she has O'zen, and the window she looks out of. She does little but look out the window now, and wait. She is safe here, where O'zen will protect her. A flock of birds passed by, hours earlier, and she plans to tell her about them.

 

("..I am going to do something risky," O'zen says, toneless but tense. "My Lord will make war against the infernal, but he need not take on all of them. I will negotiate your safety, or.." She would not say it, but Deia thinks nothing of her doubt. She thinks of Sermi's silver tongue and is calm.)

 

A messenger bird taps at the glass.

[Schneebo 1593]

In the dark recesses of a home unknown sat that farfolk and his cat-like snake reading the letter that was slipped beneath his door. The only thing that seemed to illuminate the room was that nearby fire and the burning end of that cigarette… and yet that ever chain smoking man had stopped to ponder his feelings.
 

“Unsurprised, but disappointed,” he stated toward that striith that had coiled around his neck, “Her potential is gone and it leaves an emptiness that needs filled. Ambition unseen in centuries.”
 

There was a quietness that filled the room as he finally took another drag from that cigarette. Perhaps it was his poor attempt at mourning what was lost… it was not her, but everything she represented. She was a part of his own Eternal War and despite everything that is what he truly cared about from her.
 

“In the end, she still blamed me for her decisions, but everything after being blessed was of her own design,” He exclaimed as he tossed the missive within the flames of his hearth - perhaps if the letter no longer existed, neither did her fate.
 

“And yet still, her place will always be beneath my boot. See you in Hell.”