1st of Winter, 515 AV
1st Bell
Cold. She could feel it coming. Not like the dry, whistling fall that whipped about downed, colored leaves in strong gusts of breath. It was foreboding, quiet in its threatening loom over Riverfall. Soon enough Morwen would race through the region and stir up a storm to blanket the city in fresh puffs of white snow. How many years had it been since she departed from home? Five? Six? She was beginning to lose count, but one thing was for certain: this jungle-born loathed the winter. Hated how it seized the joints in her body, hands especially, and made beating upon anything with bare fists an unpleasant experience. Soon, her own mind cooed to her in its soothing, voiceless assurance. Soon you'll be back across the Suvan to wander through Falyndar where you belong. Back to the heat and the humidity you've known so well. Soon never came soon enough. Hadn't she been making the same promises to herself for seasons?
Kaie all but tip-toed down the steps of Godiva' Refuge and into the serene night life of Riverfall. Colored masses of men crept here and there in the dark, wandering aimlessly from taverns or wherever such men liked to go. The paths of the city were speckled with torches like bread crumbs for those without the gifted night eyes of the Akalak. The Bluevein lulled its somber song, but it was the thunderous roar of the falls it fed that drowned out most competing sounds. It was almost unsettling. Sunberth had the paranoid Myrian turning her head this way and that, checking every dark corner a readied knife might lurk before stepping into the open. Yet here was the safest she'd felt again since her long stay in Syliras. Counter intuitive as it might've been, she still wasn't sold on whether she enjoyed that notion.
The Myrian fiddled with her night armor, a recent purchase she'd made while enacting just revenge before escaping Sunberth once again. Her gladius hung snugly from her weapon belt against her hip, and the pair of kukri was still toted in a harness strapped to her back. Only one backpack strap hung from her shoulder as she trekked through the quiet city and outside the realm of its safety. Once outside the walls she swore her eyes caught a glimpse of some sort of tiger-striped bear lumbering about, but she merely hunkered low and went on her way into the mouth of the Sea of Grass. Foolhardy, but not quite so foolish, Kaie had no interest in testing her luck in the wilderness. History had not been kind, after all. Instead she followed the Bluevein until she could hook a right to follow the Kabrin Road north toward the gem mines. Then she wandered a few paces to the east, out of view from any curious passerby fearless enough to travel so late.
Grass hissed to make way for the falling backpack that hit the earth with a finalizing thud. The Myrian fell to her knees beside it, chin up, eyes closed. Her ears drank in the serenity of freedom and its many dangers. The world was quiet and alive all at once. Just how she liked it. "After all these years, you wouldn't think your daughter had forgotten your birthday, would you Mother?" The Myrian language rolled off her tongue almost fervidly. Hearing her own words had her pausing and gently shaking her head. How long had it been since she'd heard her mother tongue? Better yet, how long had it been since she spoke it to anyone but herself? "Not quite the same as being home to participate in the celebrations, I know. But...as always...I try."
The buckles of the backpack were undone. She gave a sigh before throwing back the large flap to reveal the contents inside, almost forgetting until it emerged with a shriek what exactly she'd stowed alive inside. "Shyke!" Bronze hands hardly had time to claps about the torso of the flappy-winged rooster before it broke free into the grassland beyond. Kaie fell onto her side, yanking the stupid bird to her chest to secure her control despite its vicious pecking. "Guess we should make this quick then?" Her right hand wrestled its way around the throat of the bird, pinning it to the ground. She knelt over it, left hand fishing for the hilt of her sword.
"Blessed Myri, Kaie of the Cutthroat Shadows wishes to bring honor to you on the day of your birth as you have to our people. I regret only that I have no life more valuable than...poultry." Kaie looked down at the squirming chicken. Amber eyes widened and shot up to scan her surroundings. Screeching defenseless animals outside Riverfall's walls? Bound to draw all the wrong attention. She licked her lips and withdrew the gladius from its prison. "But this sacrifice is my gift to you. I pray you might accept my gift of gratitude and find pleasure in my loyalty. Perhaps next winter I might say these kinds of words to your face. Until then..." The gladius came down like a single droplet in a rain of steel, the edge decapitating the creature in one sharp hack. The world grew silent. The rooster's blood warmed her fingers still pressed to its body. The gladius was wiped clean along its ruffled feathers and returned to its sheath.
The cooling corpse of the lowly offering spilled its life fluid from its top like water from a spout. It wove through feathers and grass alike, dying the long and browning plant tendrils with a poor soil for a drain beneath the mess. Bronze fingers submerged themselves into the spillage without the slightest twitch of fret upon the Myrian's features. Then they were lifted from their bloodbath toward the canvas of her face. Reddened fingertips painted a slow, careful series of contours upon her face. Her index and middle fingers of her left hand trailed a two lines down the center of her lips and past the tip of her chin. The index, middle, and ringer fingers of her right hand followed a diagonal cut from the far reaches of her forehead down to the edge of her jaw by her right ear. All the while her lips murmured far beneath her breath praise for her Goddess Queen.
She rose from her submissive position. Eyes roved the towers of grass before her. She spun, eyeing the dead road at her back. Bloodied fingers wandered to her lips, entering her mouth to be licked clean of sin one at a time. Not long off Kaie could hearing the snort of the strange tiger-striped bear. No doubt it had caught the scent of blood. Time to go. The jungle-born scooped up her backpack and turned on her heels to make haste for the main gate. Sure enough, long down along the walls of Riverfall, the bear began to lumber in the direction of the slain rooster. A gift to both Myri and grassland alike.
1st Bell
Cold. She could feel it coming. Not like the dry, whistling fall that whipped about downed, colored leaves in strong gusts of breath. It was foreboding, quiet in its threatening loom over Riverfall. Soon enough Morwen would race through the region and stir up a storm to blanket the city in fresh puffs of white snow. How many years had it been since she departed from home? Five? Six? She was beginning to lose count, but one thing was for certain: this jungle-born loathed the winter. Hated how it seized the joints in her body, hands especially, and made beating upon anything with bare fists an unpleasant experience. Soon, her own mind cooed to her in its soothing, voiceless assurance. Soon you'll be back across the Suvan to wander through Falyndar where you belong. Back to the heat and the humidity you've known so well. Soon never came soon enough. Hadn't she been making the same promises to herself for seasons?
Kaie all but tip-toed down the steps of Godiva' Refuge and into the serene night life of Riverfall. Colored masses of men crept here and there in the dark, wandering aimlessly from taverns or wherever such men liked to go. The paths of the city were speckled with torches like bread crumbs for those without the gifted night eyes of the Akalak. The Bluevein lulled its somber song, but it was the thunderous roar of the falls it fed that drowned out most competing sounds. It was almost unsettling. Sunberth had the paranoid Myrian turning her head this way and that, checking every dark corner a readied knife might lurk before stepping into the open. Yet here was the safest she'd felt again since her long stay in Syliras. Counter intuitive as it might've been, she still wasn't sold on whether she enjoyed that notion.
The Myrian fiddled with her night armor, a recent purchase she'd made while enacting just revenge before escaping Sunberth once again. Her gladius hung snugly from her weapon belt against her hip, and the pair of kukri was still toted in a harness strapped to her back. Only one backpack strap hung from her shoulder as she trekked through the quiet city and outside the realm of its safety. Once outside the walls she swore her eyes caught a glimpse of some sort of tiger-striped bear lumbering about, but she merely hunkered low and went on her way into the mouth of the Sea of Grass. Foolhardy, but not quite so foolish, Kaie had no interest in testing her luck in the wilderness. History had not been kind, after all. Instead she followed the Bluevein until she could hook a right to follow the Kabrin Road north toward the gem mines. Then she wandered a few paces to the east, out of view from any curious passerby fearless enough to travel so late.
Grass hissed to make way for the falling backpack that hit the earth with a finalizing thud. The Myrian fell to her knees beside it, chin up, eyes closed. Her ears drank in the serenity of freedom and its many dangers. The world was quiet and alive all at once. Just how she liked it. "After all these years, you wouldn't think your daughter had forgotten your birthday, would you Mother?" The Myrian language rolled off her tongue almost fervidly. Hearing her own words had her pausing and gently shaking her head. How long had it been since she'd heard her mother tongue? Better yet, how long had it been since she spoke it to anyone but herself? "Not quite the same as being home to participate in the celebrations, I know. But...as always...I try."
The buckles of the backpack were undone. She gave a sigh before throwing back the large flap to reveal the contents inside, almost forgetting until it emerged with a shriek what exactly she'd stowed alive inside. "Shyke!" Bronze hands hardly had time to claps about the torso of the flappy-winged rooster before it broke free into the grassland beyond. Kaie fell onto her side, yanking the stupid bird to her chest to secure her control despite its vicious pecking. "Guess we should make this quick then?" Her right hand wrestled its way around the throat of the bird, pinning it to the ground. She knelt over it, left hand fishing for the hilt of her sword.
"Blessed Myri, Kaie of the Cutthroat Shadows wishes to bring honor to you on the day of your birth as you have to our people. I regret only that I have no life more valuable than...poultry." Kaie looked down at the squirming chicken. Amber eyes widened and shot up to scan her surroundings. Screeching defenseless animals outside Riverfall's walls? Bound to draw all the wrong attention. She licked her lips and withdrew the gladius from its prison. "But this sacrifice is my gift to you. I pray you might accept my gift of gratitude and find pleasure in my loyalty. Perhaps next winter I might say these kinds of words to your face. Until then..." The gladius came down like a single droplet in a rain of steel, the edge decapitating the creature in one sharp hack. The world grew silent. The rooster's blood warmed her fingers still pressed to its body. The gladius was wiped clean along its ruffled feathers and returned to its sheath.
The cooling corpse of the lowly offering spilled its life fluid from its top like water from a spout. It wove through feathers and grass alike, dying the long and browning plant tendrils with a poor soil for a drain beneath the mess. Bronze fingers submerged themselves into the spillage without the slightest twitch of fret upon the Myrian's features. Then they were lifted from their bloodbath toward the canvas of her face. Reddened fingertips painted a slow, careful series of contours upon her face. Her index and middle fingers of her left hand trailed a two lines down the center of her lips and past the tip of her chin. The index, middle, and ringer fingers of her right hand followed a diagonal cut from the far reaches of her forehead down to the edge of her jaw by her right ear. All the while her lips murmured far beneath her breath praise for her Goddess Queen.
She rose from her submissive position. Eyes roved the towers of grass before her. She spun, eyeing the dead road at her back. Bloodied fingers wandered to her lips, entering her mouth to be licked clean of sin one at a time. Not long off Kaie could hearing the snort of the strange tiger-striped bear. No doubt it had caught the scent of blood. Time to go. The jungle-born scooped up her backpack and turned on her heels to make haste for the main gate. Sure enough, long down along the walls of Riverfall, the bear began to lumber in the direction of the slain rooster. A gift to both Myri and grassland alike.
