With the intent worked out, Ialari worked to further ingrain the idea in her mind. She would pace for an hour at a time going over what she wanted the dagger to be able to do. She continued to speak it all aloud to her Dominion. Every so often she would pause to touch and examine a particularly interesting looking stone or even taste some of the water that had pooled on the floor after dripping down from above. The water did not taste quite like seawater like Ialari thought it would. Instead it was more metallic tasting however she couldn't identify what metal was giving it such a strong taste. It wasn't salty even though the smell in the cave was not unlike that of a coastal sea-cave in the mortal realm.
The entire time Ialari was solidifying her intent in her mind, she carried the dagger. She slide her fingers over the surface of the tooth-blade and trace the contours of the shell. Occasionally she would pretend she was fighting some terribly monster born of the Ukalas by swinging the dagger around, parrying invisible strikes and stabbing at imaginary appendages. If there had been someone there to watch her it would have looked a lot like a young child play fighting with their imagination.
After several hours of this same routine, Ialari finally stopped. She was satisfied that she had committed her intent so deeply to the root of memory that it should easily pass on through the imparting process. She also realized that there was one more thing she wanted to do as far as preparing the dagger itself before moving forward. Retrieving her make-shift file, she set to filing down the edges of the tooth into more of an actual blade. Of course the sharpened edges of the tooth would not be much at first, imparting she hoped would do the rest. After filing the tooth until it held at least some amount of sharpness on its edge, she paused for a quick bite to eat and drink before continuing. The imparting process from start to finish could take days and she would need her strength.
Removing a few strips of dried meat from her pack and sipping on some cold tea made earlier, she rested and relaxed. Stretching each arm and leg in turn, Ialari loosened her muscles the best she could. The last time she imparted, her body felt as though it had climbed a mountain while carrying a horse on her back. When she finally decided she was limber enough, fed enough and mentally ready, Ialari found a comfortable part of the cave where she laid out her rather worn bedroll. She took a seated position with the dagger held firmly in her hands and resting in her lap.
Starting the imparting process was much like settling into a bit of a meditative state. Ialari cleared her mind of all but one thing, the dagger. This was made easier thanks to the hours spent thinking of nothing else. Closed her eyes and pictured the dagger in her mind. When she had a full mental grasp of its image, she shifted some of her focus to the time she had spent with the two gods who had marked her, Izurdin and Dira. As Ialari's attention narrowed only on the dagger and her faith, the sights, sounds and smells of the realm around her faded. As she lost herself in her own thoughts, the elaborate markings etched into her shoulder traveling down to her elbow began to glow softly. Ever so gradually the glow grew as a prism of chromatic light began to swirl around her arm and then onto and around the dagger.
Ialari saw none of what was happening to her arm or the dagger as the entirety of her attention was focused only on the dagger and the gods. She remembered the first time she saw a physical manifestation of Izurdin. She was walking through Nyka with Shalla on the way to the Aperture in search of Amir Berliotz. They passed through a crowd when everything seemed to drift into slow motion. Reality itself seemed to stop all around her as the light seemed strangely brighter and the air warmer. In fact the air felt charged with power causing her skin to tingle. Then, for a brief moment, the sky turned purple and the sun shined red; pulsing like a heart. She turned her head at that very moment and saw the most beautiful isur male she had ever seen before or after. He was perfect in every way from the chiseled, statuesque body to the angled, powerful face the man was the pinnacle of isurian physiology. An aura of power enveloped him such that everything around him seemed to deform and shimmer like a mirage in the desert.
"The time has come for you to right an ancient wrong, my child. Do not fail me." He said to her a moment before reality returned to normal and he was gone.
To be approached by the Divine Father and directly spoken to was a gift of a lifetime. To be charged with a specific task from the Divine Father was more than life-changing. All of Ialari's life up to that point she had nothing but love for Izurdin. She thought about him the moment she woke until the moment she fell asleep. Even during her studies and time spent at the Silver Tower as an Initiate, she had Izurdin in her mind. Perhaps that is why she failed to advance as quickly as her father would have liked. Growing up, she would make almost daily trips to one of the stone gardens near her home where a massive statue of Izurdin stood. The statue held out its hands as if to hold something so Ialari would climb up and sit in the statue's hands. She would talk to the statue as if it were really Izurdin. She would tell him her thoughts, feelings, fears, wants and anything else that came to mind. Of course the statue never responded but it made Ialari feel better about whatever her troubles may have been that day. When Izurdin finally appeared to her, tasked her and ultimately handed her the Dominion Scrolls and second mark of his own faith in her, Ialari knew that all she had gone through before then was worth it and more.
Ialari then remembered the first time she gazed upon Death. She was laying in bed after having been spiritually raped by Amir Berliotz. Her ghostly friend Shalla had helped her escape the Aperture and find a place to recover. Ialari had just spoken to the man who had tended to her physical wounds. The man had left her to her own thoughts for a few moments. It was during that time that the air in the room grew as cold as a winter night. The door opened and stepped in a woman clothed in black flanked by two jackal-masked beings. Perhaps it was an ingrained, instinctual recognition but Ialari knew as soon as her eyes touched the woman that what she was looking at was Death. The feeling she felt at that moment was one not of defeat or denial. No, Ialari did not fear death. She feared not being able to continue the quest she had set out for in the beginning. It was a quest that had since taken many turns and side-paths but at the time was second in importance only to her love for Izurdin.
Dira spoke to Ialari of doubt, doubt in Ialari's worthiness of Dominion. Ialari remembered being angry at being doubted. She wasn't angry that a goddess would doubt her worthiness. She took the doubt as doubting her own faith. Ialari's search for Dominion had become a task given to her by her Divine Father. She saw Dira's doubt in her worthiness as being doubt in the strength of her faith for it was Ialari's faith that pushed her throughout her search. Ialari remembered trying to turn it around on Dira and made a deal with Death that if she succeeded in delivering Berliotz to his rightful destiny, Death would in turn admit that Ialari was the right choice for Dominion and thus, in Ialari's mind, admit that the isur's faith was strong enough.
Ialari remembered then the moment she released her venomous hatred of humanity and embraced the full strength of her faith. The results were thunderous with the bloated, decayed body of Amir Berliotz being blasted through the wall of a building and flung many yards to the ground below. Ialari's strength of faith had, until that moment, been incomplete as her hatred held her back. By embracing her faith fully she realized that she was capable of anything.
As Ialari sat in her Dominion and recalled her experiences with the gods, the chromatic energy that had engulfed her arm and the dagger now filled the confines of her dominated space. It blanketed the coral encrusted stone and seeped into every crack, cranny and crevice that the Dominion would allow. In her lap, her hands holding it firmly, the surface of the dagger began to pulse with deeper chromatic energy. Its general shape remained the same yet the rest of it underwent some startling changes. Time continued on around Ialari as the power of her marks was released and the imparting began. For her only a handful of moments went by as she recalled memories of the gods while in reality a couple of days passed. When Ialari finally found herself able to open her eyes, the chromatic light had vanished. She was still sitting in the sea-cave and everything seemed as it was before she closed her eyes. Looking down in her lab, she couldn't help but be taken aback at the sight.
The rather crude-looking, cobbled-together dagger that she had crafted was gone. In its place sat something that only somewhat resembled it. A bleached-white tooth blade baring a dangerously sharp edge extended from a brilliantly red conch shell veined with silver. The surface of the shell also held the etched texture of a fishing net. The shell wrapped around Ialari's hand to a perfect fit creating a full guard as strong as steel. Extending down from the other end of the shell was the dagger's hilt. It was as soft as silk and black as the darkest night. The silver pommel was shaped like a miniature scythe. In all the dagger was about a foot and a half long from pommel to blade tip and aside from a few minor blemishes that were likely apparent only to the eyes of its creator, the dagger had accepted the imparting fully and now reflected the echo of Ialari's soul that now inhabited it. Ialari had no more time to marvel at her creation as the cost of imparting slammed down on her with the entirety of its force. Her muscles cramped almost instantly as fatigue and intense pain rippled through her body. It was such that she couldn't even move and was unable to even form a cry of pain. As fast as the wave hit her, it also knocked her unconscious.
For three days she slept finally waking to a pain that, while dulled a bit from her sleep, remained a sure sign of what it cost to split a sliver of soul away and embed it into an inanimate object. Ialari rolled over and struggled to her hands and knees. She was almost too stiff to do even that much and paused for almost an hour in order to gain control over her body. Slowly she stretched her limbs one by one and loosened the very tight muscles. She moved from her hands and knees to a kneeling position before taking hold once more of the dagger. When her fingers wrapped around the hilt, Ialari was filled with a refreshing burst of energy. It lasted only a brief moment but it was enough to energize her muscles and allow her to stand. Empowered from the strength of her faith held now within the dagger, Ialari found herself able to not only stand but to take a few cautious steps around her Dominion. Hoping to discover how long she was actually out, she gathered a few items along with the dagger and made her way for the doorway leading out of the Dominion. The doorway was propped open but a small bit to keep it from closing so when Ialari reached it she needed but to give it a small push and it swung the rest of the way open. Stepping out for a breath of different air and hopefully some sunlight, Ialari wore a smile on her face despite the pain filling her body.
As Ialari left, she closed the door behind her. In her Dominion, the scenery shifted, shimmered and began to change. As if responding to Ialari's memories and her imparting upon the dagger, the scene in and around the Dominion transformed for the briefest of moments revealing a scene from the past. A great cavern surrounded the Dominion and in it a city. The Dominion was in the center of a park where a large statue of an isur stood with his hands held out as if holding something that was not there. A shimmering form of a young girl stood at the base of the statue and waved before turning and walking out of the Dominion. As the girl turned and left, the statue's mouth looked as though it were smiling though it hadn't been a moment earlier. The scene shifted again and the cavern, statue and city all vanished. The Dominion settled in on a large stone outcropping that extended from the face of a mountain. Impossibly high above the ground, the Dominion looked out over a sea of brilliantly colored clouds.
