Amor, Mors, Shadiss

[Arkelos 1027]

 

Zarovia rested upon the bed of her room, The Shadiss caverns alive with the sounds of hissing as she rose from the bed, looking about sadly as she sighed weakly. “Aelys.. I hope you’re alright, you leave for so long.. Its starting to feel as if we’ve grown distant..” she says quietly, eying a snake that slithers across the bed and to her.

“Ever since we began.. Dear Goddess no..” she gasps, petting the snake gently as it slithered closer. The serpentine body rubbing against her as she pieced the puzzle together, from all the bites Aelys and herself had suffered, all the concoctions that they drank.. It was a matter of time before one of them went insane and killed the other.

Zarovia stood and called to her family, the words echoing the halls “Take the snakes and leave this place! I shall follow behind shortly!” she sighed, looking at her blade as she then looked to her ring. The reminder of her oaths to her partner, the chain that kept their hearts in harmony.

The Shadiss, obeying, slowly put away the serpents, collecting them in thick wicker baskets and taking them away from the caverns. Slowly but surely, the caverns grew cold and lonely, Zarovia’s weeping could be heard as she rubbed her hands together, looking at the roof as she sighed.

“I shall fix this, I will save her from herself, no matter what. I will not rest..” she said in a shaken voice, hands trembling in pain as she stands, long red hair draping across her body as she takes her quill and parchment, writing a few notes.

“Dear Aelys

Come back home, it is time we speak about the future of our family. You and I also need to relax, so please, come back home. I miss you

-ZarZar”

Aelys is in the woods, slashing at the trees with her daggers, ripping away chunks of bark and wood and taking out her newly surfaced anger on the foliage. The sound of metal against wood echoes through the forest. After tiring herself out, she sits down to rest among the mauled trees. After a short while, the bird with the letter settles on her shoulder. She takes the note around its leg and unrolls it, looking it over. With a sigh, she gathers up her things and heads home to the Shadiss Chambers.

Zarovia wiped her forehead clean of dirt as she prepared the hallways, birds coming back and forth and sending birds to each of her friends as she sighed. Preparation in case the worse had to happen done and set in stone as she sat upon the bed, looking over her old Dark Brotherhood Robes, eyes welling up as she trembles.

“So many memories, if we don’t survive this, then at least I’ll know what I did in this life meant something for those who mattered.” she says, the sounds of sobbing filling the empty hallways as they echoed throughout. Zarovia’s eyes dulling as her accent, her tone of voice and posture changed.

“An’ yet yer still unaware uf moiself... ye dumbass~” she giggled through the painful tears, a clash of emotions and personalities causing a chain reaction of mental instability as the confusing mix rang through the halls like an alarm, signalling anyone who dared near it to come closer under its siren’s call. Waiting for Aelys to come home as she sat there with her tears and laughter.

Aelys enters the empty chambers, hears the crying mixed with laughter and follows it, almost like a machine following a process, having had her persona changed over the years. She was no longer the caring healer she once was... she was something different than a few decades before. Her mind fragile like glass as her emotional attachment became unhinged, losing all interest in the void of her heart.

Aelys had lost plenty to the cruel sands of time, The loss of homes, shattered memories lay across the sharp sands of life in Aegis, where her first home in Laurelin was lost to the corruption and destruction wrought on by the Undead. Only to live fifty eight years in Asulon to watch as more memories shatter like glass falling from the heavens.

One most scarring memory would be of the time where she was attacked by orcs, a greenhorn adventurer looking for stories to share and sights to behold. Being tied up by the orcs as she struggled. The savage Orcs taking her right eye, leaving her blind for a few decades. The past still present on Aelys’ face, the thin scar along her right eye remaining there as a reminder of her strength, but also a reminder of darker times.

Love and loss, through friendship and relationships. Aelys’ heart had been kicked, stomped on, thrown away after mashed into a pulp. Memories of her first love, Ralif, the young Wood Elf who had stolen Aelys’ heart, only to have it thrown down to the ground and beaten when Ralif had found a new interest in the Baroness of House Talos. The strongest of emotional losses would have to be when Aelys lost Gwonam after spending an unfaithful night with her present lover Zarovia, Gwonam, instead of taking his own life, was forced to lose his memories, his friends not letting him take his life. Aelys shortly followed after with the same process, Zarovia having to live a lie that brought both of them down slowly into a descent into madness.

The memories of all that had happened to her going through her head, fueling her now machine-like nature, she moves forward through the hall, eventually coming to a corner and turning it, seeing Zarovia standing there. She comes to a stop, waiting for Zarovia to speak.

“A-Aelys y-ye came!” she said, head snapping to her left as she said in a clearer accent “Of course she came you absent minded *****!” Zarovia’s mind slowly decaying her soul as she snapped her head back to Aelys’ gaze, eye twitching as the accented Zarovia, formerly known as Cynari spoke “H-How are ya? Ya wanna s-snuggle?” she frowns slightly, eyes twitching violently as she growled, answering herself with a “Snuggle with me, not her, I’m the stronger, shes the weaker!”

One can’t say where Zarovia began her descent into madness, perhaps the days following her escape from slavers when her family found her in the temple, taking the beaten and bloodied Princess of Holm back home. Only to shatter her mind by forcing her into a room of nothingness as punishment for straying from the island. Emotions ran wild, why would she be punished for being captured? Why would her parents do this? Were they as cruel as her mother Syrila?

Zarovia created a personality of which had no memories, shaping her second form into one of innocence and mild stupidity. The personality named by Aelys as “Zarovia” was one meant to be weak and feeble to take the emotionally damaged Cynari away from painful memories. Yet it grew as Aelys spent time with her, eventually overpowering its creator. Cynari had become one with Zarovia.

But now that both were aware of each other, they were fighting inside and outside of each other for control. It was clear as day that Zarovia was under massive amounts of stress and pain, looking at Aelys with welled eyes, “I missed you.”

Aelys nods, noting Zarovia’s unusual behavior. She says in her usual emotionless monotone “I missed you as well. Are you feeling alright?”

Zarovia’s teeth chattered as she shook her head. “C-Cmere, I need a hug..” she opened her arms wide, looking at Aelys as she smiled widely. Continuing to babble nonsense to herself as she waited for Aelys to respond.

Aelys nods and steps forward, moving mechanically as she almost always does. She opens her arms and wraps them around Zarovia. Zarovia looking at Aelys as she wrapped her arms around Aelys tightly, smiling, “Remember the oath we made t-to each other? To take care of each other in sickness and in health?”

Aelys nods. “I remember. I can’t forget it with the ring on my finger.” Zarovia giggles, going to push her lips against Aelys’ lips as she whispers gently. “Then I guess its time to stick true to those oaths.. Aye?” she says, dull eyes looking at Aelys as Zarovia awaited a response. Seemingly impatient as she nuzzled against Aelys gently, kissing her again.

After a moment, Aelys responds “What do you mean?” Zarovia then takes her dagger out slowly from her sleeve behind Aelys, “Till death do us part, yet I shall release you from your pain..” Zarovia smiles, holding her tightly as the dagger is prepped against her back. “Take yours out, lets end each other’s misery and sorrow.. let us unite in the heavens hereafter.”

Aelys hesitates a moment. “A chance to be free... of this misery...” She squeezes Zarovia tightly, showing more emotion than she has since the destruction of Asulon. She moves her hand to her cloak, pulling out her favorite dagger, one of Elven make. She brings it around to Zarovia’s back, pressing it near her left side, the dagger long enough to pierce to the heart.

Zarovia’s steel dagger was gripped tightly, pushing deeper into the kiss as she slammed the blade into Aelys’ back, looking at her as she mouths “I love you, I will be with you soon..”, then, with her last bit of strength, Aelys plunges her own dagger into Zarovia’s back, freeing her from her own internal misery.

Zarovia dropped Aelys as the blade stuck out of her side, using the remaining strength to walk to the wall where a lever lay, quickly flipping it as the supports holding the shadiss chamber crumble, rooms shaking in a violent fury as Zarovia inched over to Aelys’ dying body, holding her tightly as she whispered

“Together, we shall shape our story in death... I love you, Aelys Silverstar..” Zarovia said, closing her eyes. Aelys whispers back “I... love you too... Cynari Shadiss...”. And as death came, the falling of rocks followed, crushing both Aelys and Cynari under its weight, the chambers of Shadiss had become their tomb.

[Roxforbraynz 251]

(( And so ends the story of my first character.

*Closes the book and puts down his quill.*

 

[[And yes, I did agree to killing off Aelys.]] ))

[Shadeleaf 1022]

((Well, there is Sarien's life meaning gone, now to find another assassin cult... *tear))

[Thatpyrodude 2008]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.