Completed Dhani Pillars: When the World Falls

[Ayszel]

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Winter 30th 5014 AV

Ayszel stood amongst the soot, the black dust forming a thick layer throughout her lungs. What felt like a crush of people moved about her coughing as voraciously as she. Everyone was gathering with their partners, trying to tally the Reimancers available for clean up and identify who had been caught in the crush. Senescaaspia was not visible but Ayszel was sure she was somewhere within the collapse, concocting a rescue plan.

The scratches and cuts the rocks had tossed at Ayszel when she had fled the tumbling rocks were hardly noticeable in light of the intense shock running hot and cold through the length of her legs. Her hands shook as she stared at the debris piled more than ten feet high, blocking out the tunnel. Only thin gaps between the debris had already been removed creating the pathway that made those caught accessible to the rescuers.

"Ayszel!" She didn't hear the voice calling to her from afar at first and only turned when the hands of Tsuskee, her Reimancer partner, caught her shoulders and spun her to face him. "Ayszel!" His voice was low and commanding as he shook her. Hesitatingly he reached out to wipe the tears she hadn't noticed were trickling down her cheeks.

She watched his fingertip, the grey soot cleared by the teary moisture. I'm crying? Why am I crying? She wondered listlessly. Looking slowly back up at his face she her tears reflected in those that ran the length of his cheeks. We had been working...working on...what?

"Are you okay?.."

"I-I-I don't know..."

"Ayszel...Calm down..."

"I am calm..." She murmured, her typically argumentative voice dulled.

"Ayszel...Listless is not calm...You've seen this before in collapses. Think. Wake up."

He murmured quietly, bringing the shaking girl to his chest as his hands ran soothingly through her hair. While she would normally have shoved away the less than welcome presence she allowed her head to rest against his chest. His heart rushed beneath the concave of her ear, a fast thready tap tap.

In the presence of the devastation Ayszel was surprised to see the typically racist and aloof Dhani collecting the tearful bodies of strangers in their arms. Collapses were unusual but not unheard of in the underground city but few occurred in such a common tunnel, catching them all in surprise. While some, like Tsuskee, had witnessed many and remained largely astute and collected others like Ayszel were witnessing their first. However, even Tsuskee couldn't defy the natural physiological reactions that accompanied soot soaked air and panic.

Slowly, she calmed her breathing. People need...people need me. Someone must need me. I have to calm down. Caaaalm down. She recited internally. Closing her eyes she sucked a deep break in and felt her lungs expand. Her chest had swollen as large as was capable. She held the air, static within her, before finally letting it rush out her nose in a sweep of warm air that rushed against his chest. Timing her breaths to the sweep of his hand in her hair she finally relaxed enough to pull away from his chest.

"Good Ayszel...good..." He murmured slowly slithering away from the crush of people and debris, his hand around her wrist. "Are you hurt?" He asked, backing away only slightly as he looked her up and down. Ayszel nodded emphatically moving further from his looming worried form.

"I am fine. You look fine. It's going to be alright. Some people might need help, We have to go." She whispered, trying to convince both him and herself.

"No. Stay here." He commanded, shaking his head, "You can't help."

Her actions were without thought, slipping from her throat through instinct and pride. "No. You'll need me. YOU can't do it." She hadn't meant to insult him, hadn't meant to take a chisel to the gap in his armour. He was a talented architect but a talentless Reimancer. They both knew it and since earlier in the season, when they had made amends, neither had dared mention it.

She brushed passed his shoulder, slithering as calmly as if she were on her way to the steam-baths or Rixals cavern.

[Ayszel]

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Her chest was pressed against the broken splintered wall the next moment, making her slump as the breath was knocked from her. Hand shaped prints burned on her back as powerfully as the hands of the wall burned in her stomach. Though she couldn't see him the stormy voice emanating from his thin lips was as powerful as his hands. Like the black foam that had poured out from the collapse his voice surrounded her head, slipping between her lips and leaving her speechless. For once.

It took a few chimes for her to catch her breath. Slowly she straightened, her lungs finally filling with sooty air. Coughing, she organized her disarrayed coils about her and turned to face the hot eyes.

"Follow me if you must." He instructed firmly as he turned his back to her, saying nothing more about the insult. She was used to the rippling muscles beneath the Siku painted skin of the Constrictors but had never paid it much attention as a child. However, as he slithered his back muscles shifted beneath the sooty pelt. Her eyes were forced toward his back and she painstakingly followed each etching line toward his lower back as she followed him into the debris and screaming. I am watching to distract myself from the screams... She reasoned.

Half-trapped or disoriented Dhani floated about them until they finally found an apex of Geomancers who hadn't been caught in the collapse. Orders were just being barked out when they arrived by.

"We, the makersss and keepersss of home and hearth, have failed. But let usss not sssquabble and throw ssstonesss at our fellow Dhani while there are thosssse in trouble. People are in dissstressssss. We will never fail to anssswer a call for help, even when it isss us who causssessss it. Now, pleassse find your partner, make sure they are ssssafe and unharmed. If you cannot find your partner pleasssse report to Sssvrillis," she said, gesturing to her left, "Thossse with advanced ssskillsss will follow me into the more precariousss areassss of the collapsssse, the resssst of you, begin clearing away the ressssst of the rubble. Anyone that is not an expert reimancer, or those competent under expert oversight are NOT to provide ssssearch and resssscue ssservicessss and are NOT to repair or move any large debrisssss. Let usss just get our people out from under thisss messssss and open up a pathway through as immediately as possssssible. Now off with you!" She commanded as she drew the select group of individuals she would be taking into the collapse with her.

Ayszel turned to her partner, face still grim from being slammed against the wall though the dull furious look in her eyes were beginning to fade. ]"We'll ssstart in the ssssouth easssst quarter of the collapssse." He commanded, and for once she sighed in appreciation for his command and followed him into the dark musty depths of the quaking tunnel.

No one paid much heed to the Kinomoss which was covered in black debris and shielded its light making the shapes of moving Dhani all the more difficult to distinguish. But Ayszel did, as she passed her attention was torn between the Dhani that may be trapped and the Kinomoss that was shivering and shriveling beneath the debris.

I wonder how much of the moss was damaged in the collapse... She wondered the shock that had immobilized her heart was slowly slipping away and her hands and heart had begun to shake. Everything had fallen about her without much warning, a silent snap in the depths of the stone that she had only picked up on with enough time to move away from the worst of the damage. Her res had shook and quivered with it as it had worked to patch up cracks forming from the rush of underwater springs that moved through this particular part of the tunnels.

Tsuskee handed her one of the brooms that were being handed out. As a Novice their duties were severely limited in these circumstances. A collapse meant that all the rocks both in the wall and on the floor were unstable and a novice couldn't be trusted not to do more damage than was done. However, much of the soot clung to the broom and the rest was too large for the broom to sweep. Frowning, Ayszel slipped into the darkness of her internal self searching for the golden pool.

She had learned from her mother as a child about the nature of identity and as such identified herself through her magic. I am a mage, a sorceress, powerful she chanted to herself as she felt the hot sparks of gold flicker out from her fingertips toward the crumbled boulders of limestone. I am powerful... She asserted trying to steady the magic that ebbed and waned in time with her shock.

Slowly she opened her eyes, she struggled to work her magic while exposed to her senses, but she couldn't do this work without seeing the rocks before her. The liquid extension of herself glittered and wavered before her eyes as she moved it against the wall near her left. Slowly she attracted the rocks to the small wall of res, clearing a small piece of the path many were helping form. It would stop the tunnels from being totally inaccessible while it took several days to repair. Tsuskee worked at her side, much happier with the tedious job than she was.

[Ayszel]

.

The bottle that rolled beneath her scaled tail made her scream. Not the tight lipped scream that would normally have come had she slithered over something at home but the loud and unhindered scream of the shell shocked when the unexpected happened.

"What?! What?!" Tsuskee dropped the res and stones that had brought sweat to his flushed cheeks and ushered to her side. She swore he almost laughed when she picked up the green liquor bottle that had elicited the reaction. ]"It's a bottle..."

"A very scary bottle." He replied, adding a haunting echo ghostly echo to the 'o' in bottle. She replied with a smiling scowl as she moved to throw the bottle off to the side where they were moving the majority of the debris. However, the silence formed when they had both stopped moving the rattling rocks was enough to allow the tapping to reach Ayszel and Tsuskees ears.

The tapping made Ayszel freeze, Tsuskee glanced up at her opening his mouth to speak. No doubt another teasing condescending remark before she shushed him. ]"I recognize that tap..." She whispered. H-E-L-P.

]"Did you hear that?"

"....Sure...what is it?" He replied, searching the twilight lit fog for a shape that would reveal the tapper.

"Someone is tapping for help..." She explained before she could check herself. Oops...he's-he's going to...

"We are supposed to go get help if we find someone." and he did...

"Yes, well we haven't found anyone yet have we." she replied, not hesitating to look at the disapproving face of her partner.

"We should get someone now." He echoed himself.

"Everyone else is busy with more pressing matters, and we don't even know where they are so shut up and help me look." She demanded as she slithered among the ruins eying each crevice more critically than before. He didn't bother to ask how I knew? But there were more important things to think of than him and she quickly removed the thought from her concentration.

Another bottle found itself beneath Ayszels tail as she slithered making her tail spin uncoordinated. Beneath a heavy pile, far beyond the edge of debris they were supposed to be removing was the sullen face of a Dhani youngling. She was so covered in black dirt only the white sclera around her slitted eyes betrayed her presence.

Crouching down at her side Ayszel frowned. She straightened to wave Tsuskee over but as she lifted her hand she hesitated. If I bring him over, he’ll demand we call someone over...and if not he’ll demand we free her his way and take all the credit for the success... she thought as she gazed at the wide eyed girl. I can do this myself. I’m much stronger than I was when I was young...those many years ago...when I couldn’t bring myself to clear away the disaster I caused. Now, I’ll prove to him and the nest how valuable I am.

Slowly she lowered herself upon her scales and gazed at the round face of the trapped girl. A heavy brick was lodged on her chest, making it impossible for her to speak and near the edge of the rocks was a pile of smashed and half full bottles of some type of alcohol that she must have been carrying when the roof collapsed. She was throwing them at me... Ayszel realized, grinning at the cleverness.

The two gazed at each other for a moment and then slowly the girl drew a rock from nearby. Its round black and chipped surface was tapped against the vertical black rocks surrounding her. Slowly she tapped it, a peculiar cadence. Ayszel frowned, furrowing her brow. It sounded familiar. That...that sound... Memory flooded back. It was the familiar tapping from her childhood. The rhythm she and her sisters and brothers had created as a way to communicate through the tunnels without their parents finding out. She had taught it to Rixal when they had first sworn eternal friendship to each other when they first gained their Dhani forms.

"How do you know how to do that?” She asked eyes widening. However, the girl was too weak, her eyes drooping shut as she lost consciousness. H-E-L-P she tapped weakly. Questions placed aside for the moment Ayszel slipped into the blackness of her interior. Brushing aside the thick foggy veil of shock that still lingered on the outskirts of her subconscious she slipped into the gold watery pool that was her collection of res.

Ayszel found the pool and dragged up the golden liquid from its home to her shoulders and down her arms. It collected in her elbows and wrists, caught in the joints and slowly pooled at the flat of her hands.

“What are you doing?!” His voice was raucous enough that she almost let the res slip uncontrolled from her fingertips but managed to pull it back in letting it settle awkwardly back into the pool within her. His scowling face was looming over her, his broad body more imposing than ever.

“Have you no control?! Are you that desperate for attention, that petulant and childish that you would risk killing this child to satisfy your own need for success?!” He shouted, his voice rising to such a chilling height.

[Ayszel]

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A scowl framed the corners of her lips,“You jabbering in my ear, telling me how to save her, is only going to hurt her more. Why can’t you just leave me alone! I can’t do this with you here!”

“You shouldn’t be doing this at all Ayszel!” He grabbed her forearm wrenching her up from her coiled position. Her skin grew more scaled as she turned into her serpent form, his hand tightening air as she shifted from under him. Baring her fangs she said in the stochastic voice of her serpent form, “Leave me be! She is unconscious! We have to do something now!”

Kicking dust at her as he turned away cursing and scowling he left. To get help to stop me no doubt she decided as she turned back to the task. Head wavering in a gentle half circle as she slipped within herself again, she searched for the res pool. Parting her scaled mouth she watched the res from inside herself, as if gazing from the depths of a cave at a tiny shaft of light. The res pooled from her lips in a thin liquid stream as it sought the stones that were forming the grave of the young child.

Easing her consciousness forward she circled her res around the stone. Surrounding the stones entirely in the golden pool she eased the majority upward and gently concentrated on pulling the rock toward where the majority of the res accumulated. Sweat immediately piled upon her brow and trickled, stinging, into her eyes.

She knew better than to try and pick up the heavy substance after the last time, the time when she had lost the majority of the use of her left arm. The rock moved with gravity and the pull of res.

Moving her concentration to the next rock, slightly larger than the others. It moved with more difficulty and Ayszel squeezed her eyes tighter and accumulated more of her res in one direction and with her concentration yanked the boulder down to the ground.

However, as shifted one rock her ignorance of structure and architecture, lack of forethought and petulance was brought to consequence. The entire structure began to cave in toward the center, and toward the girls body.

Focusing on the disaster she had caused she almost didn't notice the boulder that she had yanked almost onto herself. The large boulder tumbled, accompanied by a disastrous amount of noise, toward the young Sorceress. Yelping, Ayszel threw her res she had already emitted upon the boulder against the wall and pulled with the intense force that panic inspired.

She could feel the pressure against the rock shoulder and arm that yanked her more quickly than her reflexes could toward the wall. She hit it with a force that made her ribs ache painfully, bruised her hand, and bruised her tail. Her arm felt nothing.

“STOP!” The voice screamed making Ayszel jolt and jolting her res. The large boulder that was under her control fell with a loud thump upon the pile. A large heavy exhale came from the unconscious form beneath it followed by a weak scream as her eyes rolled back in her head.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” The female voice was far more terrifying than Tsuskees could ever have been. Ayszel flinched away as a flurry of colourful res struck out from the bodies of several Reimancers, all working in concert to unpile the rocks from the girls body.

A heavy slap struck Ayszels cheek leaving a red print as blood flushed to the area. “You could have killed the girl! What were you thinking?!” The voice of expert reimancer who had spoken earlier was tight and choked with fury. “You’ve humiliated yourself and your family! Now go! We will finish this work without you.” She scowled, too furious for words.

Ayszel slithered away immediately too afraid to cast even a glance back at the girl who had known the hidden secret of her family and friends. As she brushed past her partner she gazed up at his dark angry face with one equally as furious. “You will pay for snaking on me you RAT.” She warned low as she moved down the tunnel that led to the hotsprings where she could scrub off the debris and dust that was etched into her skin.

[Traverse]

This Grade will be awarded once the NPC utilized here is written up and approved either as a Stationary or City NPC.