The Whispering Wind (Dra-Seven)

[Archon]

"Are you alright?" the Ghost asked with some concern as Seven tripped and stumbled, but he quickly grew silent at the revelation over just what Seven had stumbled over. The Ghost "fell" to his knees near the bone, and his only response to Seven's half asked question was a wide eyed stare. His face was a complex mask of emotions which changed little as Seven unearthed the pale remains that had been hidden in the shallow grave. Only when Seven had unearthed the complete body did the Ghost move again. He leaned forward slowly, and a trembling hand reached out for the silver pendant. He tried to pick it up, but all his Soul Mist could do was shift it slightly. A heavy, ragged sigh escaped from the Ghost, and was followed by words that sounded half choked on tears, "Oh Lelina... I've finally found you..." For almost a chime and a half the Ghost simply stared at all that remained of his dearly departed, and then he slowly turned his gaze to Seven, "Thank you friend," the smile on the Ghost's face was calm and peaceful, "Thank you for helping me find her. I wish I could do something to help pay you back for all you've done this evening," he hesitated for a moment, and then offered, "Perhaps I could instruct you some in Shielding, before I pass on? It would not be much, but should be enough to get you started on the path. Also," he gestured to the tarnished silver pendant the clung to Lelina's bones, "I believe Lelina's family would like it if you returned her pendant to them. I think she said it was a family heirloom."

[Seven Xu]

Seven watched in complete silence as the Ghost loomed over his fallen lover, his Lelina, groping uselessly at her pendant with a forlorn look in his eyes. His own fingers passed close enough to the Ghost to feel the chill of him, the same cold he had felt when the apparition dove inside of him to protect his life. Seven retrieved the pendant and allowed it to fall noiselessly into his front pocket. Then the same hand slipped beneath his knee and retrieved the hilt of the knife that safely sat there. With white digits wrapped firmly around the well-used hilt of the stolen blade, Seven lifted an arm before plunging the knife into the soft mud. With a heave, his entire body rocked forward and back again as he yanked the blade towards him before repeating the motion, again and again. After several chimes, he had managed to break up tiny roots and soften the earth beneath his knees enough to begin scooping out heaps of dirt into a pile.

“I’d like that,” Seven remarked through a thin layer of sweat that had accumulated on his pale skin working in the heat of the early summer night. A dirty hand lifted to wipe hair and sweat from his brow before he rocked back on his knees to admire his handiwork. It seemed appropriate to give a speech; or at the very least a few words of respect for the fallen woman. Unfortunately, he was hard-pressed to think of anything particularly wise. A long sigh expelled most of the air from his lungs before he inhaled again with a thin smile, “Two things in life are inevitable to all mortals – love, and death. I pray that Dira guides you both to your eternal love beyond the realm of the living.” The smile grew and gave way to a short nod of self-approval before dirty hands gingerly gathered Lelina’s remains to be buried in a proper grave.

Mud and root covered the shallow grave: Lelina’s proper and final resting spot. Peering around, Seven had a thought of marking the small indent in the earth. Unfortunately, the forest floor was hardly a place to go looking for proper head stones. A large round stone that sat a few feet away would have to do, as he crawled to it and rolled it to the center of the grave. Seven’s pale skin was tarnished now, forearms littered with scrapes and dirt and in an attempt to rid himself of it, it merely spread to the thighs of his trousers and cuffs of his rolled up shirt sleeves. A question burned in Seven’s mind since the Ghost’s offer of teaching him rudimentary technique but he did not want to seem dismissive – or worse, rude. Seven simply stood again and regarded the fresh grave with a solemn smile. “She’s resting now.”

[Archon]

The Ghost was silent as Seven worked, his gaze shifting between the pale skinned young man and the remains of his loved one, and as Seven spoke his words of memorial the man smiled and nodded. There even seemed to be the faint glimmer of tears upon his translucent cheeks, but like the blood before they never left his body to fall to the ground. As Seven burried Lelina's remains the Ghost stood once again, and once the stone was in place he finally spoke, "Thank you friend. I wish I could do more to repay you for your kindness, but hopefully whatever I can teach you before I pass on will be enough," while the Ghost's tone was friendly there was now a strain to it, like he was carrying a heavy load as he spoke. Turning his attention away from the grave and fully towards Seven the Ghost took a deep breath, a slightly odd motion as he had no need or ability to breath, and then gave a small nod, "Do you know much of Magic and Djed? Did you feel what I did when I created the shield with your body?" there was a slight sense of rushing to his tone now, an impression of wanting to get as much said and done before something caught up to him, "It isn't needed to know much, but it does help with getting started."

[Seven Xu]

Seven’s brows furrowed for a fraction of a second before his face smoothed again at the awkward inward breath the Ghost took. “I have a book on shielding,” the admission came behind a deep breath of his own, bending at the waist to attempt and fail at brushing dirt from his knees and hands. “What I felt … coming from my body, when you possessed me, was distant at best, but I did feel it.”

The haste with which the Ghost spoke made it sound as if he had little time left. Seven could only attribute it to what little he knew of ghosts – many required a reason to wander among the living as a shell of their former selves, at least that is what legend and old dusty books had told him. “It felt like something inside of me simply, flowed out. Like water, trapped beneath my skin.” A hand lifted to brush at his linen sleeve, still dirty and rolled up from work. As his fingers passed through remnants of the shield, it shimmered in that unearthly blue tone again. Another deep breath filled Seven’s lungs with damp night air and that same hand lifted, palm flat and skywards, to his chest.

“So, you did this all at once,” he explained, feeling the need to speak as quickly as possible as well – and when that happened, his Lhavitian accent clung to his words, “It felt so fluid, drawing skin up beneath skin like a shell.” As he spoke, a shimmer of violet tickled his fingertips. It was short lived; fizzling soon after it made an appearance – but it was djed. It was his djed. Unfortunately, shields without tasks were impossible, a step he had obviously forgotten. Seven wasn’t frowning in his failure. In fact, a grin nearly split his face in two.

“Brilliant.”

[Archon]

"Excellent!" the Ghost exclaimed at Seven's display, his smile gaining a hint of excitement over its serenity, "As you're just starting creating a shield will take some time, and all you'll be able to block with it is Djed. As you practice more and get better at it you'll be able to make shields quicker, and they'll be able to block more things." Moving closer to Seven the Ghost peered intently at Seven's hands as he spoke again, "Try to create a shield once more, and this time as you do think of it as blocking magic. You're tasking it with what you want it to block. Try to cover your entire hand in the shield, making it as smooth and even as you can," as he spoke Seven noticed that the man was a little more transparent now, as if he was starting to slowly fade as time wore on.

[Seven Xu]

Seven felt the hurry of the Ghost’s disappearance weighing on his mind, but his palm remained pointed skyward as he flexed his fingertips and made a second attempt. He knew now how to make his djed rise above his skin with the help of the Ghost’s possession; now, if he could make it stay …

“Magic,” he repeated under his breath. What kind of magic – did it matter? His thoughts turned to blocking out all djed that was not his own, no matter how it manifested. The concept was so abstract, but that seemed to be what magic was. It held little for logic; perhaps that was why he had such a hard time with it. Seven quieted his mind again, thinking only of blocking out djed. His lids fluttered and fingers twitched as the violet shimmered and grew over his hand again, much like ice did as it turned lake surfaces solid in winter. The djed moved from his fingertips towards his palm, converging at the wrist. It was painfully slow, as if it took great concentration to guide every inch of djed over his skin, but when his hand was covered, he could see the shield in its entirety: as shimmering violet with flecks of pale mauve where it grew thin over his hand.

When his eyes rose to grin at the Ghost again, he noticed the apparition’s body had grown dim, even in the moonlight where clouds had moved from the sky. “This,” he lifted the shielded hand, wriggling his fingers. “This is mine! I did this!” Seven’s eyes flashed with the exuberance of a child, so proud of his novice work.

[Archon]

The Ghost nodded and gave Seven a faint pleased smile in response to his child like exuberance, "Yes, you did very good. It won't block much now, but as you learn and grow you'll be able to make shields quicker, stronger, and more complex," he gestured faintly towards Seven's shielded hand, "For now, I want you to see how much of your body you can cover with a shield. Don't push too hard, just slowly and steadily build it out, like if you were painting." As Seven turned his attention back to working with the shield the Ghost slowly faded more and more from sight. Soon he was little more than wisps of soul mist in the rough shape of a man, and his voice was barely a whisper on the wind, "You've a good start friend. Practice and work hard, and you will do well. Thank you again for helping me..." As the last words faded away Seven was left alone in the wilderness. The soft sounds of the forest creatures at night were all about, and Leth was shining down on him from above. Aside from the signs of the night's adventures it was almost like the Ghost had never been there.

[Seven Xu]

Despite the cold wrap of darkness around him, the creaking wail of trees and wind moving through them, Seven seemed focused on impressing the wavering voice of the apparition that had guided him here. “It feels like nothing is there.” Seven seemed to have a penchant for obvious remarks when little academia filled his busy mind. A particularly strong gust of wind called forth a harrowing screech in the lush canopy of green over his head, but Seven was too focused on the shimmering djed flowing across his skin to cower or complain.

Slowly, inch by careful inch the shield crept across his skin. Violet shimmered over his forearm, wrapping weightless comfort around the bare skin before it moved up the dirtied linen and made its way to his shoulder. A gasp filled Seven’s lungs as a sharp, cold sensation ran across the opposite hand that tried to hurry the process along and he immediately curbed his patience. “Aiie,” the hiss came from between clenched teeth but the prickling pain would eventually abate and allow him to continue. As his second arm was consumed by the glittering shield, a thin, dim weak spot along Seven’s wrist was indicative of his earlier impatience. By now the Ghost had retreated, soulmist washing away in the breezy air – but Seven hadn’t noticed. There was no meaningful goodbye, no teary word of thanks; just a blond crouching in deep thought on the forest floor slowly working djed from his body.

Both hands pressed to his chest now. It felt better when he could visualize the shield emerging from his fingertips, moving painstakingly slow from his collarbone toward his navel. Seven would sit for five more chimes, pushing out djed in a wobbling, glimmering shell across his body before blackness crept into the corners of his eyes and his head felt light. “I should probably –” Seven was cut off when his chin rose to see no trace of the Ghost. The grin that had been plastered on his face drew flat and he wobbled to his feet, finishing his sentence as if the bones of Lelina would respond with a farewell. “... Go.”

Emerging from the trees onto the Kabrin Road, Seven managed to stay upright and conscious long enough to complete the journey back towards Stormhold Citadel. His shielded fingers would wander every so often to his chest pocket where the cool silver of Lelina’s pendant pressed against his chest under the pressure of curious white digits.

He couldn’t have been happier to smell the suffocating sulphur of torch lit hallways or fumble in the impossible darkness of his tiny apartment where a comatose stranger already took residence in his bed. Lelina’s locket, along with the knife, was wrapped carefully in the folds of his dirtied linen shirt before the mass was laid on his table. Seven managed to find suitable room on his small bed, propped up on his side with one bare leg dangling over the edge of the mattress as the arm that was not supporting his head in a makeshift pillow ran across his thigh, pushing out small amounts of djed until he succumbed to the approaching blackness of sleep.

End

[Archon]

Illumination of Development Seven Xu +5 Shielding +5 Observation +3 Rhetoric +3 Interrogation +3 Meditation +2 Investigation +2 Brawling +1 Intimidation Lores: Ghosts (Basic), Story (Lelina's Death), Ghosts (Possession), Disarming using shielding, Shielding (Basic) Other: A simple dagger, and a tarnished silver pendant marked with crossing daggers Care to see more? : Shielding experience for learning and practicing the magic, Observation experience for your attention to detail, Rhetoric experience for your conversations with the Ghost, Interrogation experience for your questions, Meditation experience for your work on meditating, Investigation experience for the search for Lelina's remains, Brawling experience for the shielded brawl with the thugs, and Intimidation experience for getting the thugs to back off. Notes: Congo-rats on becoming versed in the ways of shielding! Seven did very well making his way through this adventure, and I loved reading your responses. Please let me know if you'd like to investigate/sell the silver pendant.