Etude [Open]

[Chaeli Snowsong]

10 Fall, 511

A song whispered into the brackish air at the cavern’s entrance. It was wordless and yet it navigated over the course of many syllables, each short note woven to the last in a pointed legato. But the narrow corridor smoothed the melody, made it coherent. Only entering into the Blue Grotto would lend the ear a taste of the intended aesthetic. A sweet soprano voice bounced against the walls and reflected from the water, mingling bright new notes with the old and fading ones. It was a musical experiment; it was polyphony.

To steal a peek into the cavern was to behold a girl at the edge of the pool, surrounded by circles of mist and an aura of dense cold. It would not be difficult to avoid her attention. She was leaning over the water and scrutinizing her reflection, completely engrossed in her own voice and the face beneath her own. The hair that drooped around it seemed dry, untouched by the grip of water even as it swayed low beyond the surface. Her hands were bent over her face, as if the thought of glimpsing its entirety was beyond her comprehension.

Eventually she began to include words. Her lips moved swiftly behind that curtain of hair, her eyes locked on the sight of them. “Spider...” she sang in Common, because the word was not insult enough in her native tongue. Then, “Come to me, hunt me, kill me,” through an otherwise pleasant tune, as well as “Love me, find me, save me.” The words were not meant to seduce or even be heard by any other soul; they were only the first that came to mind. She repeated them as inspiration allowed, and as the former predominated over the latter, her little aria turned from bittersweet capriccio to something more languid, more wretched, and more rehearsed.

“This is what a Spider does;
this is what my sadness is; this is my pain;
this is love taken, love lost, and love left unspoken.”

She repeated one phrase, and then the other, and sometimes she combined them. Sometimes she only used the words as the melody saw fit, stringing them together into sentences that were incomprehensible in any language. The words mattered as much as her life did.

Suddenly, she stopped. She might have become bored of her song or disheartened by staring at her own sad expression. More likely, she saw an image in the water, or a ripple sprouted from stirred debris, for she looked up with a start, eyes darting frantically. The last of the echoes dissipated quickly, and then so did she. Like a candle flame beneath the strength of a single breath, she flitted out of sight. The smoke around her followed suit, scattering in an invisible breeze. There was no movement left save for the occasional ripple beneath a dripping stalactite, but that invisible cold remained, like baited breath.

[Ssafirarhysati]

The enormous serpent uncoiled from within the depths of the clear pool. Her movements hardly disturbed the water's surface but it did ruin the camouflaging effect her milky white scales had against the pale sand that layered the pool's bottom. The need for air beckoned for her to break the surface, though she did so warily, having detected a presence up above a few moments ago. She was certain that the splotch of color she had spotted at the pool's edge earlier was no mere optical illusion. Someone was nearby. A new guest to this wretched city? Rhysati hissed to herself. Slowly, the large serpentine body undulated upwards, creating small, underwater eddies that kicked up the sand that had concealed her, clouding the water around just enough to hide her ascent. Her snout broke the surface and a thin, forked tongue immediately shot out to taste the air. Nothing. Rhysati drifted closer to the pool's edge, her body undergoing a grotesque change as she did so, shifting from her powerful serpent form to that of a fragile-looking human woman. Air bubbles escaped her lips as she moaned out in ecstasy during the transformation, before she pulled herself out of the water. Her pale, naked form would seem like that of a specter's within the gloom of the cavern - a specter that betrayed itself to be flesh and blood, as Rhysati wrapped her arms around herself as the bite of the unnatural cold kissed her skin. Cursed highland climate! she thought as she looked about to see if anyone had spied on her transformation. The rocks surrounding the pool would have concealed the brief process but it paid to be sure that there were no witnesses. She did not want any of the Symenestra in the city above to know of her true nature. Better to play the clueless Kelvic everyone thought her out to be. "Hello?" she called out, injecting a bit of apprehension in her voice even though she hardly felt that. It was easy enough to pull off, what with the cold making her teeth chatter and her limbs quake. Where had she left her cloak? OOCIf this is current dated, I would prefer 10th of Fall.

[Chaeli Snowsong]

If Chaeli had been any more visible, the wandering dhani eyes might have caught sight of a hanging mouth and wide eyes. Though she had existed for decades, hers was still the mind of the young woman who had lived in a world of fur coats and big families; the stranger’s brash nudity, even as she suspected another soul to be present, surprised her. Aware that she was hidden, she could not help but stare. But then the apparently uneasy gaze crossed too closely to where Chaeli sat; she could have sworn that pair of storm-grey pupils had hesitated, as if they had seen her. Frightened by the look and embarrassed at what she had witnessed, she shrieked.

As soon as she realized what she had done, she fled from the source of the noise. It bounced against the walls and surrounded the two from all sides, but she felt as if it followed her as she swept over the water. With her, the concentration of cold escaped the living woman’s vicinity, leaving her to the Grotto’s typical lukewarm humidity.

It was there that she finally appeared, perched on a wide stalagmite that clung to a slippery wall on the opposite shore. She could not have made that noise and remained hidden, she reasoned with herself, but she could at least find a safe distance before she had to show her face. That of a young human woman stared at Rhysati from across the pool, her long hair escaping into the indefinite outline of her translucent body. A peculiar mist clung to her, pulling at her edges, rising and falling and whirling like smoke. “I’m sorry, I—” She began, the high pitch of her voice accented by lyrical Vani. She paused when she noticed something about the woman that she had not, before. Her skin looked like cream and her hair looked like sunlight. How could she have missed it?

“You... you are not a Spider,” the ghost realized. Then she thought of something else. She gasped and turned her slight shoulders to face the woman, suddenly straight and keen. “Did you escape?”

[Ssafirarhysati]

Rhysati narrowed her eyes as she carefully inspected every corner of the small grotto. There was someone around here, she just could not find where the person had hidden, not with the damnable dimness all around her. Even her senses as a snake had been foiled earlier. She was about to call out again when an ungodly high-pitched wail engulfed her. The Dhani clutched at her temples in pain as the sound lanced through her brain, the echoes reverberating from the wall surrounding her hammering her eardrums. Several curses escaped her lips as tried to determine the origin of the sound, and the return of the comforting humidity did nothing to improve her mood. "Where...?" And then Rhysati saw her, floating on the stone face of the wall across the pool. Floating...? she thought in surprise. Rhysati had heard of such specters before, of course - a spiritist back in Zinrah enjoyed toying with them, twisting their hopes and dreams, and manipulating them into do his bidding. This one looked young, a mere child if the image she projected reflected her appearance before death. Briefly, the Dhani wondered if the ghost's mental maturity matched they way she represented herself. Young ones, whatever race they were, living or dead, were malleable and gullible to the point of stupidity. It was a trait Rhysati enjoyed exploting. "Don't be sorry," she crooned as she schooled her face into a smile, trying her best not to let any of her cruelty bleed into the expression. The ghost girl appeared frightened of her, a fact Rhysati found rather amusing since she couldn't do anything to harm her even if she wanted to. She started to approach, wading back into the pool until she was waist-deep in its warm waters before she stopped, realizing that she could not touch the spirit even if she could reach her. The water's surface reflected light back to her, illuminating her features which seemed to spark the ghost's interest. The question it directed at her puzzled her, however. "A Spider? Escape?" Rhysati echoed. What the petch was this spirit talking about? "They provide me with food and sex, two things I enjoy very much. Why should I escape? And I'm not held here against my will, or so my fanged lover had intimated to me. I don't know what you speak of." She spoke truly, and it was the first time in a long time that a truth left her lips willingly. Rhysati did enjoyed the place for its perks. In fact, were it not for the blasted cold during the nights, she would have thought the place paradise. She was treated like royalty by the Symenestran plaything she had taken up residence with, though she did admit to herself that it must be some sort of effect from the lovemaking she gave him every single night. "What's someone dead like you doing around here anyway? You look human, and I've not seen much of them around here. Not outside the streets, at least. Or webs, whatever you call them." She waved the confusing conversation away wiht a careless gesture before smiling up at the ghost. "I am called Delilah. Why don't you come down from there and tell me of yourself? You have nothing to fear from me." And now the lies started once again.

[Chaeli Snowsong]

Reflexively, Chaeli flinched when the woman started towards her. But then she remembered what she had realized just seconds earlier; the hand that had withdrawn to her chest dropped to her side and faded into the cold, indeterminate whorls of mist that surrounded her. She leaned forward, but did not yet remove herself from the wall. The lines of her eyes darted between the woman’s face and her bust, unsure how to treat the approaching nudity. Words entered her ears and it took her some moments to understand them.

Nothing to fear, the woman had said, the woman who looked like life, the complexes of pink and yellow and light that were as tangible as they were beautiful. Chaeli trusted her not because she knew, in the back of her mind, that nothing in the physical realm could bring her any pain, but because she saw a smile in Delilah’s voice and honesty in her brazen body. She trusted her because she wanted to, because it was easy. She lowered her face to the woman’s height as her body lingered out behind her, hovering carefully forward. Despite her effort not to touch it, the water beneath her cooled drastically.

“My name is Chaeli Snowsong. I came willingly, too...” She mentioned, and the gray mist around her flailed for an instant before it shook into a dark, melancholic blue. Her face had bent into something sad and remorseful. She stopped before Delilah at the polite distance for a pair of Vantha humans, rising so that her icy influence would not stray to her unprotected flesh. There was a strength in her next assertion, despite the woe on her face, like she had said it countless times before: “You cannot trust a Spider, whatever they say.”

Her eyes darted away from where they had been locked on the woman’s pale blue, as if she could hide the shine of tears there even as she whimpered. Those translucent pupils fell from Delilah’s breast to her navel, and her sob turned to an outright moan. Forgetting her manners and the nature of her touch, she reached out to the living creature’s womb with a dark and almost-solid hand. Her accent strung the words together as if it were another verse in her sad song. “He only had to take me once.”

[Ssafirarhysati]

Rhysati plastered the smile on her face despite the deathly cold that bit through her skin from the spirit's approach. It made her feel lethargic, the cold, and rather drowsy, but she fought the sensation as she listened to the ghost speak. "Chaeli...Chaeli..." the Dhani repeated as if giving import to the spirit's appellation. She had learned that humans found it flattering when one remembered their names. The spirit's family name she skipped vocalizing however, knowing that with her sibilant speech, the esses might give away her true nature. The ghost appeared to have overcome its initial fear now, its words gaining strength as it spoke of the Symenestra. It intrigued Rhysati, how Chaeli seemed to have some hidden hatred for the fey creatures that lived in the suspended city above them. Was she somehow tricked by one of them, only to be killed? Those she had met did not appear to be the manipulative type. She should know, she played that game well enough to recognize another player if she saw one. "What do you mean, Chaeli?" Rhysati asked, her skepticism bleeding into her tone. Still, she pretended to be sympathetic, to make the spirit open up to her some more. "Maybe you just hanged around with the wrong kind of crowd..." The Dhani could not continue, as she noticed that Chaeli had been eying her body during their short exchange. Rhysati's frame was toned after all, not overly muscular but cut enough to reflect the power and strength of her true form. Was the ghost missing the feel of having a physical body? This was the thought that echoed in Rhysati's mind as she scrambled backwards to the shallow part of the pool just as Chaeli reached for her midsection. She had heard tales of spirits possessing the bodies of the living, but she did not expect the pitiful ghost before her would try for such a thing. "Hey! What are you about?" she screeched, genuine panic in her voice. Chaeli's incorporeal hand seemed to solidify for a moment and its touch was icy cold, like the kiss of a blade on Rhysati's skin. "Whatever they did to you, I wasn't part of... Hey! Hey! Keep away!" So perhaps it was not the best of ideas to approach a ghost. Rhysati did not know what she was thinking at the time when she decided to talk to Chaeli, though she thought having a ghost ally to assist her in her mischief would be good at the time. But now, she suddenly felt helpless at the threat of being touched by Chaeli, for despite the incredible strength within her body, she knew she could do nothing against something she could not hit. "Let's go back to talking...Talking is good! Tell me what happened to you!"

[Chaeli Snowsong]

The woman panicked, and Chaeli gasped. Soulmist swirled around the ghost like a blizzard, swallowing her entirely and then collapsing into a few wisps of smoke that rose and dissipated and left the poor girl to invisibility. She was gone before the last of Delilah’s commands had ceased to reverberate against the grotto’s smooth walls, but despite her own panic, she appeared just as quickly after the silence settled. A puff of ectoplasm heralded her new location at the water’s edge, this time on the same side at the woman, though many careful feet away. She was sitting, legs hidden beneath indecipherable skirts and the vague form of hands clutching her cowering shoulders.

“I am sorry, sorry, sorry...” She mumbled, repeating the word over and over until it could not be told whether it was a whisper or an echo. “Please do not be afraid of me. I would never...” Her head rose hesitantly as she dared to meet the eyes of the living again. If she were alive, her dark Vantha eyes would have surged with the tumult of blue sadness; instead, that hint at her aura consumed her whole form with color. The sadness became a part of her identity, if only for as long as it took to distract her from it. Such was the power of emotion, without a true mind to confine it.

“I had a child,” she explained. Her hands dropped to her stomach, and her gaze followed downward. Her fingers tightened around her abdomen, clutching gobs of imagined fabric (or maybe unfeeling flesh) in two pained fists. She did no want to look at the beautiful woman anymore. She did not want to think of her as one of many corpses that lay strewn between filth and monsters at the black feet of Kalinor. “You will, too, if you say with him. And they will keep you with the others, and you will die like the others, and the world will lose another beauty so that it may spawn another devil.” The corner of her eye caught sight of her reflection in the water. Loosening her grip on herself, she leaned towards her own face.

As she neared the bright pool, the version of herself that had been long since abandoned to the waste pits manifested in her memory as well as on her inconstant image. Her cheeks clung like fragile lace to the broken strength of her skull; her hair became thin and ragged; her eyes sunk into black holes and her lips curled inward as they parted to say, “You cannot trust a Spider, whatever they say...”

[Ssafirarhysati]

The ghost was a jumpy little thing, fleeing from Rhysati just from her verbal warnings. The speed by when it moved, and its ability to shift to and from the visible spectrum, unnerved the Dhani. But she was in no danger the specter as far as she could tell. It still carried with it the weakness of its human mind. Rhysati would have caused so much more mischief if she ever found herself in such a state. "You didn't scare me, Chaeli," Rhysati soothed. "I just don't enjoy being cold, that's all." The ghost mentioned having a...a what? Rhysati did not understand the term it uttered. It sounded to be in the tongue of the Symenestra but she did not know the language well enough to even recognize it. She had a feeling it was important however, that the rest of what Chaeli had said was tied to it. How would these Symenestra even kill her when they appear so meek and and tame, especially the males, towards her? Rhysati needed to understand if there was a threat to her life here. She would at least know to strike first if there was. "What was that you said, Chaeli?" she asked, daring to wade closer to the spirit again now that it seemed to have calmed down. "What did you have with these...these Spiders?" The sudden shift of the ghost's features, from her young self to something that resembled a dessicated corpse, started Rhysati and sent her stumbling backwards once more, arms flailing as if trying to ward off an attack. "What the sssh-...?!" She lost her footing on the slippery stones and, as she plunged into the warm waters of the grotto, instinct kicked in. For more than half a minute Rhysati would stay submerged, and when she finally broke the surface, it was a creature different from the blonde haired woman who fell in the water that emerged. Alabaster scales glistened as the water cascaded down the length of Rhysati's muscular frame, large scaled fists held up in the ready, prepared to repel any incoming attack. Reptilian eyes set above a serpentine head scanned the immediate area for the ghost's exact location, even as a long forked tongue flicked out from between her lips to taste the air. Rhysati's own true form was now revealed as well.

[Chaeli Snowsong]

Delilah fell and Chaeli shrieked with surprise. It was a peculiar noise for a dead thing to make, a sudden and passionate cry from a thin and shriveled face; soon, it became many different screams, echoing around her and whipping her nerves like icy winds of fear. The ghost clutched her hollow chest as if it contained a heart to be calmed, and her hands were skeletal worms on a chipping, crumbling ribcage. The woman had disappeared out of sight, but the girl did not dare follow her. She only waited, and when she saw her come up, she regretted it.

A beautiful creature, in need of warning and protecting, had become a great beast, unlike anything she had ever seen. Chaeli froze, unable to attack or flee or even disappear. Her eyes grew back into her skull and the flesh around them softened; all but her staring face turned to ‘mist, which spun slowly into the sick green color of fear.

For many long moments, that was all she did. Watch. What else was there?

Then something moved, maybe a rock in the distance, maybe the twitch of a scale, maybe a thought in her mind. Chaeli’s colorless eyes darted away from the pale blues of which she had grown so fond. It was her, but how much of her could not be told. After all, the ghost before her was only a fraction of what she had been, twisted and expounded into something that would never have inhabited the warm-hearted Holds of the North. Her lips stuttered unintelligibly for a moment, and then she remembered the question.

“A child,” she answered. “I said a... a child. A Spider, as he was. A child, a Spider-child. She grew in me; I nursed her until they... they...”

She was talking to an animal. The Frostfawns sometimes said that they could understand, but Chaeli had always doubted that. She did not know how to treat this thing, but at least the candid color of her soul was fading into its usual grey. She cared more about this woman, or whatever she was, more than she was afraid of her. “You have to go away,” she said, rising up and up until her eyes were level with the snake’s. The rest of her became visible and whole then, healthy shoulders and arms and a bust beneath a dress that obscured her legs and hung all the way to the distant ground. Her hands were fists, as if she was prepared to do something about it; her voice cracked as she insisted, “You have to leave this place.”

[Ssafirarhysati]

No attack came but the barrage of shrill cries echoing around the grotto had Rhysati covering the two small holes that functioned as ears on the sides of her reptilian head. Why spirits such as Chaeli felt the need to create such a god-awful racket, the Dhani couldn't even comprehend. She hissed loudly at the ghost in agitation, baring her rows of long, backward-pointing teeth. They were perfect for latching on to prey, and had Chaeli been flesh and blood, Rhysati would not have hesitated to do that. Lucky for her she wasn't. The intimidating gesture seemed to shut the ghost up, though now she started fading from sight once more, her etheral body seemingly evaporating into thin air. Only a thin green mist remained, a viridian blanket of haze, and in its heart was Chaeli's deathly visage. For several heartbeats, the two of them stood frozen, Rhysati with her fists still raised and prepared to lash out should the spirit make a move on her, and Chaeli mirroring the Dhani's watchful eyes as she took in the strange creature the woman she had been talking to had turned into. It was the ghost who broke the silence first, explaining what the foreign word she had uttered earlier meant. Rhysati was still confused, but the specter did not elaborate, only telling her to flee from the Symenetras' city. It seemed to have overcome its fear of her true form, and the Dhani could detect a hint of concern for her, a complete stranger, in Chaeli's spectral voice. "What have I to fear from thessse Ssspidersss, ssspirit?" she asked, her ever word revealing her sharp fangs - fangs that could easily shred any Symenestra's flesh should tehy try to attack her. "You sssee me in my true, majessstic form now. They ssshould tremble at the sssight of it!" Rhysati flicked her powerful tail as if to emphasize her point, sending tall waves crashing against the rocks as it slapped against the water's surface. "Besssidesss, I would not bear children like you and your hairy humankind would. I have ssseen how it is done and it isss disssgusting! Like defecating little bagsss of flesh!" She eyed Chaeli with a coldness that only a reptilian creature could. It was not one she gave as a predator to her prey, but one of shrewd calculation, as if gauging a potential ally. But there was also mischief in the glint of her gaze. "Do you perhapsss ssseek...vengeance?" she asked, dragging out the last word with a prolonged hiss. "I can help you." And then Rhysati smiled, and it was a terrible sight indeed.