[Syliras Quest] The Cornerstone To A Good Foundation (Dev)

[Gossamer]

Timestamp: TBD from Dev Location: Syliras Purpose: Establishing The Roz Sometimes people just had a bad day. It couldn't be helped. One minute Devandre was drinking in the Rearing Stallion, quietly keeping to himself and expecting a decent meal. The next moment he was waking up, extremely uncomfortable, hanging upside down. The room was dark and he was blindfolded. Only one leg was bound, but there was nothing to do with the other one, that was slightly folded at the knee and awkwardly balanced on his rump. Lovely. Normally a situation like this would not be all that uncomfortable for a snake. Right side up and upside down was just fine. It really didn't matter for they were good climbers and acrobats all on their own. But, in the human form or even halfway between it made things hard. It made it even harder if the snake was a bloody half-breed that had no ability to switch forms other than in the human one he was stuck too. It was all his parents fault too. All the blood rushed to his head, making it hard to think through the pounding in his ears. And to top it all off, there was a laughter in the air, a soft sweet feminine laughter. "You awake yet?" It asked, curiosity mixed with impatience. "You should be. I didn't slip enough in your drink to really keep you under for longer than it took me to drag your sorry ass here." The female voice came again. It was a combination of willynilly-ness and boredom. It sounded vaguely familiar too. Memories washed through him, people he'd passed on the street, the crowd in the bar, the pleasant looking barmaid that had served him ale. Ahhh. That's why. The Barmaid. Female. 5'7". 129 lbs. Dark hair, dark wide eyes, playful smile, air of someone having a secret. The Dhani's head was starting to clear up now. And he matched the face to the voice easily enough. "Good. You are awake." The voice came again, along with a sharp prod with what appeared to be a blunted object. "I have a few questions for you. Keep your answers short and to the point." The barmaid said. Misa, Missana, Misala... something... her name eluded him though she'd introduced herself. "Why are you in Syliras... there's been more and more Dhani showing up. Why?" She said, her voice changing slightly now. It seemed serious, as if it was demanding answers and she wouldn't take no for an answer. There was also a pull at that voice... an urge that made him want to ANSWER that question. Whether he did so or not was yet to be seen.

[Devandre]

Winter 86 509AV Timestamped A soft rhythmic thump like drums, at first Devandre thought he had been brought to some festival. As he slowly began regaining better cognitive abilities, the sound had grown to a pounding pulse. He knew now that all was not well, hanging possibly, upside down or given something to give him an extreme head rush. The pounding in his ears soon are accompanied by another different sound. It sounds like a birdcall at first but soon fades in with his vision. A very pleasant feminine voice brushes his heated ears it even had a sense of familiarity to him; in any other circumstance this would be welcomed. He could make out words now, but only smatter of words and sounds. As if he had been smacked on the back of the head with realization, he remembers who the voice belongs to. “Bar…barmaid?” He stuttered out, feeling a new sensation on his body as an object blunt pokes him. “Whaa…what is that?” He really didn’t want the answer right then but it was the first thing to come to mind to ask. Devandre heard Mis…the women tell him what she wanted from him. This calmed him down some feeling that he now knows what the women wants and it isn’t to kill him…at least for the time being. “Why are you in Syliras….Showing up. Why?” It took the man a small amount of time to think up the proper replies to the questions. But began to answer the women. “I…I was born in thiss region and have been in Sylirass all of my life.” The man begins testing his motor skills by moving each finger, finding he apparently has one finger, all five fingers moving as one into clenched and unclenched fists. “Tss, I wass wondering the same thing as you, I have not the slightest inquiry onto why Dhani have been increasing in numbers in Sylirass.” It is odd that he feels compelled to answer a stranger questions, it usually takes a lot more then just tell me this, tell me that usually. But he felt he was in no position to question.

[Gossamer]

"Yes, yes... but what have you DONE with yourself while your here? Have you had any aspirations at all? I mean, with your bloodline, you have so much potential. But... instead... your wasting it here, lurking on the fringes of society. Does that make you happy?" The pointy thing probed at him again, tracing a line from his hanging foot to his ear, slowly.... he realized suddenly it was a blade, though it didn't part his flesh. She was dragging it flat side first.

"You've been relatively unnoticed until now. Recently though, you've been socializing, mingling, drinking in bars... you have no training, no profession, no goals in life. Why not?" The voice demanded. She wanted answers. But he could tell that she was awkward too, as if she wasn't used to doing this, or as if he was her first attempt at extortion or torture. There was a slight tremble in her voice as well, one that didn't match the anger in her tone. Was it all a big bluff or was she just painfully inexperienced? The barmaid as he remembered her was the type that would generate a lot of tips because of her innocent face. One might wonder how she'd been strong enough to hoist him up there all on her own.

"If you could do anything you wanted too what would it be? Seriously... answer me honestly." The woman said, this time the tip of the blade dipped into his right buttock, not breaking the skin but definitely threatening too.

After he'd paused and answered, she would hesitate, then speak again. "I want you to do two things for me. Will you? Because if you won't, I will spare the city a favor and cut you down now... and not in the fun way." She replied, almost laughing. But again, there was an uncertainty in the laughter. "I want you to tell me, or find out if you don't know... since you claim you don't... why all the Dhani are moving into the city. Secondly, I have another job for you... if your information proves to be correct enough." She said, then waited for his response.

[Devandre]

"Yes, yes... but what have you DONE with…Does that make you happy?"

The man wasn’t sure onto how to approach this new set of questions. Being very protective of his past having not told a soul since he departed from his friends. He is brought back into reality when he feels the poke again and then sliding down. His eyes follow the object's movements though blind folded. His sense of touch back, the feeling of cold metal is the sensation he could not figure out before. Now knowing that a blade is being handled by the women makes him grow wiser to not lie.

"You've been relatively unnoticed until now…Why not?"

He begins to answer the question but stops not wanting to interrupt the captor. His recent social fun if you want to call it that had been slip ups not intentional in the slightest. As she continued to speak his ears pick up on a lack of confidence in her speech. Unsure if the girl was bluffing or just inexperienced, either way it would not end well if he confronted her.


"If you could do anything you wanted too what would it be? Seriously... answer me honestly."

He listened more at the questions, thinking to himself the entire time, a complex internal monologue bounced around in his head. Bits of his past and his wants decide to show themselves again. The want of carnage, acceptance, and the mastery of herbal poisons all haunt him as he listened to the women.

"I want you to do two things for me. Will you? Because if you won't, I will spare the city a favor and cut you down now... and not in the fun way."

“No cuts to my body are fun in anyway. You have my undivided attention gentle face.”

"I want you to tell me, or find out if you don't know... since you claim you don't... why all the Dhani are moving into the city. Secondly, I have another job for you... if your information proves to be correct enough."

“Hauss, I have already told you I do not have information onto why Dhani have been appearing in Sylira….” He stopped and thought about what he was saying. Moments after he began remembering a previous conversation with a Dhani from the festival.

“On a second thought it may have something to do with the Dhani race. You sssee I have run into a Dhani. He made a comment about looking for othersss in hiss own clutch. Apparently at a certain age young Dhani venture away from their clutch to explore. It maybe one caussse of the increassse, I promise you thisss iss not a lie I am not the one holding a blade.” Devandre then realized he could have the blade in hand only if the opportunity arose.

[Gossamer]

Missana, for in fact that was her name, wasn't at all satisfied with the questions he didn't answer. The knife moved in her hand and the flesh on his back parted with a sting that was more painful than hurtful. It was then that Dev perhaps realized that he wore all this clothing except his shirt. Devandre could hear her step back, pick something else, and dip something... her fingers maybe into it? Then he felt a silken caress of a paintbrush run up the bloody line on his back, a paintbrush now coated with good old fashioned whiskey.

His pain redoubled.

"The body is a work of art... a blank canvas waiting to be embellished. A soul is the same thing. You answered the last question, but not any of the first. What have you been doing with yourself? And why are you drawing attention to yourself now?" She asked, her whisper throaty as the knife bit into his flesh again. She was carving a pattern shallowly into his skin, one that made hot liquid drop down his back - liquid that was his own blood. She didn't seem inclined to stop, for her brush followed coating his fresh flesh etchings with alcohol that made them burn. "Sometimes, when you are in no other choice, you MUST do as your required. There's no slacking, no debating, no hesitation... do you understand?" She asked...

"Now, answer ALL my questions... the ones in the past, and the ones I shall ask again. If you do not, these designs will get deeper, more permanent. You wouldn't want me to get carried away and hit a vital organ .... but accidents do happen." The knife dug deeper for a moment, twisted, and made its first real wound in the muscle tissues of his back. He could feel the blood run down his back, concentrate down onto his neck and slip into his hair. The sound of droplets striking stone made him realize he was suspended above the ground but not by very far. His arms, unrestrained, could reach down and try to touch the ground, but he wouldn't be able to reach. Nor would they be able to get the bonds on his feet free, for they were iron manacles. But at least he could move... though after a few moments he suspected it was more so he could writhe in pain than out of any courtesy done to himself.

It hurt. The pain hurt to a distraction.

The woman laughed, lightly, and leaned closer. "Tell me... what I need to know... and do not make up some nonsense about Dhani dispersal. Of course they disperse out. Otherwise their parents would probably eat them. You know that being half one yourself. And if you honestly don't know... tell me how your going to find out for me."

[Devandre]

Devandre let out a short yell before growling a groan as his face contorted, teeth sunk into his lip to try and suppress the pain he was going through as the cold steel caused hot searing pain to shoot through his body. Muscles flex as he tried to get his body as far away from the blade as possible. His efforts proved to be fruitless as the sadistic women continued to carve her wicked designs into his body. He was both thankful and not as she used what he assumed was alcohol in the wounds. There was nothing worse then an infection in his eyes well except being helplessly restrained and used as a sick painter's canvas.

“You…you’re a witch.” He spat out, before his eyes closed tight, as he felt his blood washing down his back and the pain of the blade now sunk deeper into his flesh and into muscle. It was then he tried to think past the pain and back to her original questions. “If it will keep you from carving more wounds into me, I haven’t been as dormant as you think Missana!”

He called her by name, finally sobered up by the pain, “The indication that you are not aware of my activities is a compliment to myself.”[i] He gritted his teeth more as the pain receptors in his muscles fired to his brain.

[i]“I have been studying herbology, specifically poison. I can’t create poison on my own due to my bloodline. Venoms do not pass to a half blood like me,” His voice strained much like his muscles that seemed to have seized momentarily from shock.

“True I have no training in anything specific but what the skills I do know have been getting me along quite well. Just like I have no specific skill, I have no specific goals unless one is handed to me, which leads me to this reply. YES! I will do anything for you, just say the word and I will do nothing but my best to comply. Just stop with the blade please!”

He didn’t expect his pleads to be heard by Massina but he felt it was worth a try. The simple instruments of torture a marvelous thing indeed.

“I have no leads to answer the questions you seek about the Dhani. I wouldn’t know where to look to gain more information about them other then in books, mam.” He was being very genuine with her, as he finally realized that there was nothing more he could do, other then writhe and endure until the end. The problem was, where was the end going to end? For once in a long while Devandre felt fear along with the waves of pain.