Talanashta Khonvilos

[Wynather 26]

Spoiler

 

 

 

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“I gazed toward the stars, and in the silence…

I found what I had long been searching for.
Had he always been so close?”

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It had been a couple years since Talanashta had last been seen in Tel'Andria or Norland: excited for her new adventures in alchemy, and all that she could do in helping others, and making her deceased Papa proud.

 

Her things lay organised in barrels beneath Vjadengrad's tavern, untouched, and collecting dust. Research and notebooks remained incomplete, potions not yet mixed... where she had gone was unknown.

 

Perhaps to find herbs and plants? Maybe in search of more knowledge in foreign libraries... But as the blizzard grew worse and tightened around Vjadengrad... it became evident that perhaps she had tempted the gods one too many times in her travels through the blizzards. Maybe, she had joined one of the many victims to daggers of ice and blowing snow.

 

While her disappearance is a mystery to all but the dead, to her? It obviously isn't.

 

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Tala lays in a field of snow; pierced through her torso by a particularly large spike of ice. She hadn't been concentrating, clearly, as she collected her herbs and trekked back to her bag of goodies, her humming drowned out by the howling wind.

 

Halfway to the things that could have saved her if she was given half a chance, she was struck by fists of hail and shards of ice. Her executor had been forming in one of the trees above her, slicing downwards with uncanny precision as she fell; winded on her back.

 

So there she lay: herbs in one hand, and torso pinned to the ground... with no way of getting it out. Maybe she was meant to die in that damn forest all those years ago, she thought, as she was being drenched in the falling snow and her own blood through thick layers of fur…

 

She'd tried to chip away at the solid ice with her sword, each movement causing more blood to seep out into the snow. She then tried to reach for her bag - whispers away from her fingertips... close enough to taunt her. She'd long since given up, her face red from the cold and frustrated tears.

 

She stares up at walls of white snow, and for a brief moment, she thinks she can see the stars. How long had it been since she'd seen stars? She reaches out, maybe she could move some of the snow away-

 

Ah… 

 

Textbook delirium…

 

She let it take over - that funny feeling that made her feel so happy… like nothing currently mattered…

 

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Delirium…
Surely it was nothing but a curse.
 

Perhaps it was that which allowed Okar’sil to linger beside her, cast in a rather lax seat amidst the ever-dwindling cold, clad in his usual, ill-suited attire for the cold.

His arms slowly settled across his chest, as he seemingly propped against nothing.

“Tsk, Tsk… What was step one, my little Naer?”
A sing-songy voice, reminiscent of the once living man queried.
 

“Not die?”

She chuckles, wincing from the movement and laying a hand on a part of her torso that currently wasn't an icicle.

“Never travel alone.” was the countered statement, as the apparition seemed to shift, a hand coming to rest amidst his daughter's face, as if he was truly there to comfort her…

 

“Papa-” another wince, then- “-I’ve always been alone,”

She managed, nose stinging and eyes watering - from the cold… duh… as his hand made to rest on her face.

 

“Alone, you say. Yet I was always right here.”
“Alone, yet your Sister was always standing with open arms.”
“You were never Alone, merely blind to those who welcomed you, my little Naer.”
Although he spoke semi-harshly, not a lick of condescending laced his tone, it was as warm as ever… as soft as he’d always spoken to her… the same way he’d spoken to her the day he left…

 

Another chuckle, then a laugh, before the pain became dull enough to speak again-

“You’re funny,” she huffs a chuckle, staring unseeing a moment. “I was dead to those I knew when I went into that forest,”

She says, a bitter truth she had tried to ignore.

 

“Can I come and stay with you again? I won’t take up much space… promise,”
 

Delirium had… well and truly set in now... as she imagined being his apprentice daughter once more; forging weapons and making armor in Okar's old blacksmithing forge.

 

“You always knew better.” were the soft words spoken, as the man's face hovered above hers, before her head was cradled amidst his lap partially.
“You need not ask, for I will always welcome you, as I always had… I am proud of you, My Naer.” A soft praise, as her vision began to blur - imagery flickering into white flakes of snow, washing away what little sight was left into nothingness.

“Won’t you come dance with me once more?”

 

Tala smiled, sitting up and turning to face him. She looks to her body laying in the snow, lips blue from beneath the fabric mask, and eyes still staring up at the stars. She looks back to her Papa and hugs him tightly.

 

 

She appeared as she once was when she had first met him: her hair plaited behind and smooshed down by her old, black beanie, her green trench coat restored to what it once was… and boots she’d fished out of a lake.

“That sounds like a good idea,”

She said, her smile wobbly and eyes teary as she was finally reunited with her Papa. Though, she still thought he was a toad stool for leaving her in the first place.

Okar’sil's arms had gingerly embraced the girl in return, drawing her into his hold so protectively as he always had - and as Father and Daughter once more united, did she feel that gentle tug - the guiding hand as the two began to dance once more with her feet on top of his.

Like the day amidst the lake, where he had whisked her across the waters surface with that magic of his.

Yet this time, as her gaze began to wisp away into nothingness and obscurity, could she see the ground slowly trickling into faint nothingness below her…

Delirium…
Was it always so peaceful?

 

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[ReverseNebula 373]

Reserved (Back to the kitchen...)

[Rulf Bypharrk 74]

It was just another day, at least... supposedly it was. It has been sometime since Ruhr last heard from Talanashta, so it was then decided she would go to Norland. But she wasn't there... not at the usual place, not at the Tavern nor in any residency. Ruhr asked the locals about Talanashta's whereabouts, but she coculd only find a cold trail. It was then when she decided to go up north to go gather Herbs as her Stash was dwindling more and more... that... was when she found her. At least... the remains of her.

 

"Chyort..."

 

Was all she could utter.

 

Ruhr didn't want to admit it, but she will miss those hugs given by Talanashta from time to time, even if they were abrupt. She picked her up and rode back to Jun Lei with Talanashta's Steed, the ever so faithful companion of her's that stuck with her for... who knows how long. Grief was present within her and though she did not show it and not a single tear dripped for her eyes. The sense of grief and loss was still there as her former Alchemist Teacher, as though Fate itself did this as some sort off sick joke to her. But alas... one of many casualties within Aevos and more to come it seems, just this one... was more closer to her than some of the others as she delivers her to Jun Lei to one of its Residents and walked off to the write the necessary letters informing people of her passing.

 

After finishing her letters and sending them off, Ruhr would take one last look at Jun Lei and return home to Solaeum. As she arrives, she would look at to the open waters, before entering her home... Her final thoughts on Talanashta.

"Dravi, mea former Pupil, vy ams one of mea best students ea've had so far. If moy ever meet again, ea hope it will be as friends again."