The Pendulum (Solo)

[Aello]

Spring 27, 512 AV Gentle curves rose in waves, rippling over the rounded crest of the hill. Semi-circular orbs of crisp, goldenrod colored light poured over the soft green grass which swayed silently in the breeze. Ethereal air trickled through the individual fronds; tickling the frayed and browning edges. Split bark peeled away from the center strong, falling into the nether reaches, trampled beneath the misshapen bodies of beetles and cicadas. All seemed to crunch underfoot as the sun's illumination danced across the surface. Aello stood off in the distance, watching the fiery orb ascend the once murky skies, casting it in a vibrant crimson haze. Streaks of light streamed from the celestial orb, silhouetting the aurist against the lower mound of the hill. Her eyes narrowed; her long lashes casting shadows against her muddied irises as she studied the way the sun rose, how swiftly in comparison to when it fell the night before. She took but a single step closer, her feet dragging through the fronds; parting beneath her movements in order to let her pass. With measured strides she advanced towards the endless expulsion of energy. Her eyes struggling to avert themselves despite the speckles of neon green and blue that skipped across her vision. As she traveled down the far side of the hill, and towards the horizon, it seemed almost, as though she would be able to touch the orb if only she kept on moving. Gradually, her right hand rose, her palm held towards her face. Her fingers outstretched towards the glimmering light. If only she could reach... With the sun always within her sight, Aello kept on moving forward. Her hand never dropping; always obscuring the corner. Shadowed fingertips tickled Syna's grace; held her within the gentle curve of a single strip of flesh. Palms became crescents, forming a protective bed upon which the goddess could rest her head. Soft pink petals curled into slender smiles. Aello's blossoming into an even wider grin as the muddied obscurity hidden within the confines of her eyes glimmered with a warm golden light. Streamers of fiery color seemed to reach for her; a vain attempt at pulling her closer. Lips parted; words sank into the back of the neck. Swallowed. Choked down with a small clump of gathering saliva. She was so close now. Only a few more steps. Following the earth onto yet another rise; a softly rounded hill, and she could really hold it. Not simply have the illusion of such things cross the folds of her mind. Seep into her consciousness. Her eyes sparkled, mirroring the radiance of the sun's keeper as she crept even closer. Almost there. Perhaps past the next round, onto an even higher hill. Perhaps then, she would be high enough to finally extend her reach and place her hands against the sun's surface. Cradle it as she burned. Turned to ash, and floated away on the wind. Aello kept on walking, past another rise; a shadowed crevice the light could not touch. Up the gentle curve to the very top, at which point, she came to a halt. The girl practically held her breath as she looked down into the valley cast in the center of a ring of risen earth. At that which lay hundreds of feet below. Running from one end to the ring, to the opposite end; stretching out infinitely inbetween, stood a single, circular platform. At first, it seemed to sparkle, shimmer and glow like the white stone buildings of the Konti Isle. Yet, as the aurist studied the platform, she came to realize that it wasn't sparkling at all. Although, when Syna's light hit it just so, it glowed. At first a milky white, and then a black darker than any starless night. Within moments, the platform appeared a most dismal grey from afar, as though a series of rain clouds had fallen from the sky, and doused the structure in its soft wool-textured skin. The girl sighed as she looked down at the mass, the inky obscurity. "Now just what can you be?" she whispered as her eyes danced over the polished stone. Taking it in one last time, as though it'd be enough for her to fathom a reasonable guess. But there was nothing. Aello simply could not tell what the strange structure was. Sighing to herself, she began to realize that there was only one way to find out for sure. She'd simply have to leave the solitude of the hills, and explore the rest of the world a little further. Gathering her resolve as she took one final breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, she began her descent along the steep incline. As she walked, her toes would ram into the front of her boots. She bit her bottom lip against the pain of inconvenience, as she stumbled along down the uneven terrrain. For several chimes, Aello made her way down below. What she found when she got there surprised her. The circle she had seen from the top of the hill had been raised onto an elaborate dark stone platform. Melting marble twisted into the forms of man upon man crumbling beneath the weight of the structure they were made to bear. Feet met with faces, eyes, displaced limbs and bones. Skin seemed to drip off the mangled ivory of grotesque, defeated forms. Aello was surprised it didn't all come tumbling down, or at the very least, lean to one side or another. Her eyes followed the length of the carvings; the mound of dying and decrepit human bodies cast in stone. Well, there seems to be no way up from here, she thought as she crept around the massive circumference of the structure, looking for a way onto the platform that didn't involve climbing over the twisted stone. After having traveled for what felt like an eternity, the young spiritist found herself facing a spiraling stone slab of stairs, in both black and white, leading up to the platform. She followed the swirling lines with her eyes, all the way up. "Well that's a lot of stairs," she whispered as she swallowed the clump of saliva that had gathered in her throat. Sighing, she made her way over the first of many, and began her ascent. She followed the stairway numbly, blindly, she could vaguely make out a whooshing sound growing louder. It matched the swift sweep of a sword cutting through air, a gull diving for a fish that had just skimmed the surface. It seemed to glide together softly; blend, with the sound of the stairs clicking beneath the weight of Aello's boots. It was as though one was incomplete without the presence of the other. As to why that seemed to be so, the aurist simply could not tell. Shrugging as she tread the final step, the girl finally made her way onto the edge of the platform. Her eyes darted from left to right, grazing over the even plain of multi colored marble. Ripe with darker veins, muddied edges, and impurity. Chocolate colored irises surrounding black coals for pupils took in the immense sight- white marble tainted by an outer ring of variegated black stone. Lines, stretching from the outer ring of the platform, in. In measured strides the dark stone slithered, their diamond encrusted backs sliding along the plain like an endless nest of snakes. Tilting her head to the side as she stood, the girl simply stared. She couldn't say that she was surprised by its size, for looking down upon it had shown her that it would be something grand. What surprised her, more or less, was the simplicity of the surface, how it appeared to have been built without purpose. Running her fingers through her hair in confusion, she could only begin to study the black lines. Question why she had come all this way and was still standing there. She was just turning to leave when she came to realize that the strange whooshing sound kept on growing louder and louder by the second. Startled by it, Aello peered over her shoulder to see if she could unravel the mystery. What she saw was a shadow drawing across the white stone. Her eyes grew wide as it neared her. She could feel her body tensing, her muscles jumping angrily beneath the surface of her flesh as she stood silent and still. Waiting, watching, as the shadow danced across the stone with ease. And then, before she knew it, the shadow was upon her. Breath was ripped from her chest as her body curled into it. Her eyes scrunched tight in an attempt to ward off the pain. Her hands brushed up agaisnt cold stone worn smooth, and then began to clutch for dear life. Filed claws sought the crevices of imperfection as a mane of dark brown hair was swept off her shoulders. The humming sound in her ears, reverberating off the surface of cavernous walls was defeaning. And yet, as much as she wanted to let go, to be away from it all, she knew she couldn't be. She had to hang on for dear life to the bottom of a long strip of dark stone, which seemed to pour out of the fluffy white clouds in the sky. Or from somewhere past them. It rocked from side to side, before coming back down towards the platform. Following the length of corresponding black lines, scrawled on the opposite end of each other. From her perch on the stained teardrop of stone, Aello could see this clearly. The way the unknown device hovered ever so slightly above the surface, so that it would never touch down. Could never scrape stone against stone. She could feel how perfectly it rocked and flowed, like the undulations of the sea. Feel how high up into the air it went, before plummeting back down. The incessant movement sickened her, spurring a series of long-tailed butterflies to flutter angrily about her stomach. Feeling as though she would throw up, Aello came to realize that this device was made with some sort of purpose in mind. Just what that was exactly remained unbeknowest to her. With eyes opened wide, Aello studied the next series of swings. How the device would shift, or rock, ever so slightly. Just enough to jump from one black line to the next. With that pattern in mind, Aello continued her scrutiny. She was beginning to see the black lines as the most important things on the platform. Markers of some kind, but for just what, she couldn't yet be sure. Confused by it all, Aello turned away from the marks, and the sun whose light was shining into her eyes. She narrowed her field of vision, glaring at the celestial orb who dared to hinder her level of concentration. It was far higher in the sky now than when she had been traveling over the rolling hills. Nearing noon. Brushing away the unimportance of the information in comparison to other aspects within her field of vision, Aello returned her gaze to the dark marks upon the platform. She followed them with her eyes, the varying lengths, the way her feet would cast long shadows about them as she neared, and was then pulled away. The fluidity of it all engrossed her. Amazed and confused her. She simply could not pull away for quite some time. By the minute she managed, the sun had settled in the high western skies, nestled between a bed of clouds. Blanketed by the wispier white. She could think only that it was getting late, that she had been hanging on for quite some time. That her whole body ached, and had grown stiff. Her hands numb from clutching the stone. Her legs red from the cross. Aggravated by the pain, she closed her eyes a moment to gather herself before returning to the lines. Distant cousins to those she had watched before. Again the girl's eyes narrowed as gears began to turn. Gritty cog's teeth nipping at each other's heels as they worked towards formulating a greater picture. It took a few moments but it finally came to her- she was swinging on a pendulum. The lines marked time. Ticks, chimes, bells. Fleeting moments upon narrowed lines of varying size. The device was reaching a low, her foot almost hit the ground. If only it slowed, she could be free. She could jump. But it never did, never got any closer to the ground. Merely maintained its endlessly rhythmic pattern. She couldn't jump, she didn't have the will to. But it did not matter. A thunderous crack rang across the valley, and soon, a tremor was busy reverberating between the tips of her fingers, and down the length of her spine. The girl looked up, her body shaking, struggling to maintain its grip. She could feel her eyes growing wide, even though her eyelids felt heavy. The pendulum was breaking. Shards of stone shimmered as they slid down to earth; others free falling until they hit the platform and shattered like droplets of rain. Splinters of stone danced across the surface as clods of dust circled the air. Aello could feel herself slipping, a single tear finally dripping. Splattering; a frail form buried below. Jagged and frayed edges cut through pale flesh. Blood seeped from the openings in her skin. It pooled around her, matting her hair. Dying it darker as she coughed up blood, awakening from Nysel's cruel creation; his world, in a fit. It was time.

[Paragon]

Adventurer's Loot Aello's Loot : Aello Lore: Dreams: The Ascent, Pursued by Shadows, Pendulum: Momentum, Pendulum: Timekeeper Items or Consequences: Nil Beautiful writing as ever - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.