rukio

I sense a darkness in you, a wickedness boiling just below the surface. You’re good at putting on an act, but these blind eyes see through your lies. - A Seer of Vaseek to Aobh in her youth Her hands still trembled, silver-grey hues looking down to them. Blood, crimson, fresh, sticky and coppery in scent coated them, flowing freely down the stairs from the Ranger keep. A near scream- she caught herself. A smell? Hesitation, a shake of the head. Her eyes opened once more. It was still night. The Inferi war. She was barely fifteen. A Farradorian scouting party. Fragments of what had been Alaric falling from the treeline. A hellhound on their heels, two Inferi just behind it. She had turned, hoping to hold them off so the rest of the group could escape. As any good leader should, putting their safety before her own. Droplets of crimson, agony as her armor was crushed into her midsection. The putrid coppery scent of blood was the last thing she would smell as her head cracked against the tree from the blow. Never again would she recover her sense of smell. Part of her soul absorbed by the Inferi, a small child thrown into her to add a final insult as it left. This was what a good leader did. Suffered. Endured for those under their care, especially for those who they loved. Despite broken ribs she carried the child home to Farrador. A natural born leader, a prodigy in her own right, yet still just a child desperate for love and approval all the same. Comfort and Warmth. That curse of the internal ember that other Paladins seemed to love so much. Now nothing more than a bleak reminder of the duty she bore to Xan. Service, not worship. Paladins kill, Clerics heal. She mused idly as she cooked breakfast for Nehtamo. “Just a simple medic.” She’d say aloud, a reminder to herself. "Oi, miss Aobh. I 'eard ye 'n Kaelan got married?" Dharas. Strange enough for a human, but well liked by the both of them. "Did we? Ti, we did. I can still barely believe it myself. A small smile, an adoring gaze to Kaelan. "That I get to spend eternity with the person I love most in the world." "Well, stuck with me for all eternity at this point dear." Kaelan responded, gently squeezing her hand. "Ne, not stuck. I can think of no one else I'd rather spend it with." Voice soft, quiet. A wave of nausea struck her. The world melted away, back into that sapphire haze of mist. She doubled over in pain. Agonized coughs produced bile which burned her throat, made her already dry eyes feel as though they were on fire. How could I have ever felt torn between him and Duty? Xan holds my soul but the Creator knows what I would be without Kaelan. "I was a decade older than you are at present before I woke up with the tremors in the night, the screams and pleas for help..I found solace however, in Aobh. You can accept it, but all things in moderation dear, control the combative aspect. We live long dear. The trauma, the haunts of the events upon a battlefield...the horror, the blood, loss of limb, death, screaming. It all weighs a toll." His fingers clicked thrice. In an instant she was at his side, pulling him close, as though it could keep the horrors at bay. She always had, even if temporarily. "I know I say it a lot, ti? But I really do love you Kaelan... I can't imagine life without you, truly. Sometimes I think that my heart would simply...stop beating, if you were to die." His head on her shoulder, her arm wrapped around him. She knew all too well the horrors he had described, had suffered from night terrors since she was a youth of sixteen, since her first fight against the Inferi. The sheer agony she had endured since then, until their chance meeting within Haense's walls. From then she had found solace, the terrors lessened, she found comfort in him. Fate, something we can never escape. Bound together and doomed from the first, two halves became one whole, united at last. The Lord of Sunlight demands not your worship to walk in his light; But a willingness. Tell me, what is the difference between Duty and Selflessness? An empty battlefield, she had traversed it with a deep sense of longing, a regretful loneliness that gave way to emptiness. For what felt to be hours she wandered, until at long last figures loomed at the edge. Finally, some spark to her soul, a sense of belonging, of comfort and warmth. Yet, too, were there enemies, weapons held aloft to cut down those she had suddenly felt comradery with. Without a second thought she had lifted blade and shield, rushing to their defense. Too late. They were struck down. She fell through the ground, to a new field, left to wander empty and forlorn. Over and over she found comfort and warmth from their existence, only to watch them be cut down. At last, hours and multiple fields later, triumph. The enemy had been cut down. Or had they? The shadowy figures rose once more, alongside those Paladins she had failed to save. “Another joins the fray.” They had uttered as they all brought weapons down atop her at once. The Void. She floated there for what felt an eternity, struggling and fighting against fate. Eventually, however, she had given in. Sapphire mist enshrouded her torso, from which her mentor’s hand retracted. A connected Paladin at long last. An unending desire to find her brethren, to fight alongside them. She had found purpose, but she was still a youth in her late teens. Destiny is a terrible weight to thrust onto one so young. The Chancery. Swirls of mist, sapphire, silver-grey, and gold filled the room with Xannic energy. A fountain, the middle of the Chancery, ever flowing by some unexplainable sorcery. Aobh retrieved a training sword, pulled from the rack, blade sharp. Knelt in front of the altar, she briefly mused over the last sacrifice, the Shade Mother that had been used to bless this hidden, sacred place. The thought did not linger long and soon she pulled the blade to her throat, jaw locked, dull eyes staring up at the mural of Xan. “If I truly am the evil I once swore to hate perhaps this sacrifice will be accepted with joy.” She’d rasp out, beginning to bring the blade across her throat, just above the bowl they used for blood sacrifice. Yet it did not dig deep. Three, perhaps four droplets of blood fell, then no more. The blade fell with a clatter and her head lowered. His words burned her very core, her arms wrapped around her midsection as she rocked there, back and forth, unable to finish herself off. The threat of ending up in Xan’s realm, never to see him again, stayed her hand. No, she decided, Not until I’m disconnected, not until our malii’mal is grown. But no longer will I care for the descendants. Guardianship is a comforting lie. Order is the only way; kill or watch those you love be killed. At last, she collapsed into one of the beds they had set up in the chancery for overnight visits. Finally, sleep claimed her. It plagued her with dreams of the family she had wanted, reassured her with the destiny she had tried to escape. A future she could run from no longer. Would she return to the fray? "Adelith Swint is dead." Morning found her holding a dagger to her throat once more. "You are right in all regards. She lies dormant in a waste of turmoil and strife, but she will be rebirthed." Perhaps time couldn’t mend all wounds, after all. "What has transpired leaves you wounded and scarred. You have shed who you were, but remain at the same crossroads... Your purpose lies far beyond this. One day you will rise and stand to contest that which held you down. When that time comes, I will be by your side." What if the Paladin in the North had never knelt? "Addie."

To be clear Ryan if you make a kha I will never let you hear the end of it. Edit: God damn it. Its too late for him.

"You're literally part of the Iron Accord, allied to Norland...or did Haense forget? Have the clergy forgotten all that Oren has done to them?" Lily would muse, sipping her tea.

From the Father's Halls Alyssa would watch the world below. Her father as well as her twin, though dead, had never joined her in this afterlife, both of them trapped in undeath on the mortal realm or in Ebriates. Forlorn had she been, at first, but it had been fifty-two years since the back of her skull had been shattered on that fateful day in accursed Helena. Fifty-two years since a peaceful retrieval of her body and twin had been attempted by her mother's people. Fifty-two years since Oren had failed her, the glassy eyed youth. Ten years of age at death, never had she aged in the afterlife. Peace in our time. She scoffed. Her parents had always said that phrase, most Orenians did. Her death and the subsequent horrors were proof enough to her that it was a lie, a joke without laughter. The stories told by the hearth fire by warriors before her time only further confirmed her belief. Oren didn't want peace, they never had. It was a thinly veiled lie so that they could play the victim in all wars to come. Alyssa shed a singular tear. Not for the lives that would be lost, she knew the All-Father would welcome his chosen into his Hall with open arms. No, that singular show of emotion was a display of the grief she held, that she would not be able to join her kin on the battlefield against the tyrants. "Iron from Ice." Said she, coldly, hand clasped over her heart. "Iron from Ice." Came the resounding war cry of those who had fallen both before and after her time.

"Its just a circle- I mean a cycle. Hundreds of years of the same repetitive thing...war is tiresome." Responds a jaded blonde haired elf from long ago as she sips her tea. "Always war. Always the world against the other half of the world. Why can't you just solve it by a tournament or something for once." Lily would remark further eventually.

All g, isn't a big thing lmao. Works out if any of the rewrites that include Wardens go through in the future, too!

Paladin wardens haven't existed for 8+ or so months(?) but kind of based Chi rewrite? Hopefully more people go way of the moon now . . . Wish Hou'zi hadn't been abused for bandit/villainry/gone inactive thereafter. Would have been nice to see them stick around and be the main focus(er) on Chi. Oh well. +1

Do you hate woman as much as I do though

PROSPECTIVE BACHELOR FORM IGN: Remeron Name: Crumena of Kamees Age: 800 Place of residency: N/a Bank account balance: Xan's Light Hobbies: Xan, finding a fertile wife, finding a fertile wife that's high elven, finding a fertile wife that's a high elven female. One interesting fact about yourself: I am infertile. Why should Tatiana choose you?: I am infertile.

A certain 'thill would blink a few times as she read over the missive. "Looks like he was doing my apprentice's homework..." She'd trail off, gazing off towards another female elf with some suspicion. "Well written though, I suppose."