( Flashback ; Graffius ) Ten Thousand Leagues Beneath Us

[Liel]

13th Day of Spring, 511 A.V. The Medical Library Seasons had passed, and Liel had changed. She still possessed the beauty of her people, yet something was amiss – her violet eyes were frosty and hard, silver in some lights. Her mother worried for her daily, and her sisters, she rarely spoke to. She became engrossed with self-study, disinterested in temple activity. Why? That was the one question that plagued her mind. Why was she born a Konti, why was she in Mura, why had she never been allowed to venture out? Why did the other Konti she know rarely venture out? She immersed herself in the library, drowned in words, dreamed of lands unseen. She was distracted, reserved. It’s age, the other women said, phrases of comfort to her mother. Liel wasn’t so sure. She sat behind an ivory tower of books, snow white hair piled atop her hair in a sweep of lace and shell-encrusted curls. Her rosebud lips were ablush, being bitten cherry-red by a very, very bad habit. Webbed fingertips swept the pages like old friends, and it all stopped when he walked in. He wasn’t Aon. He was much taller and infinitely colder, a bluster of ice winds from a dangerous place.

[Graffius]

Spring, 511

It wasn’t common that Graffius walked the streets. He wasn’t like them, the people which milled around his imposing form. Their smiling faces, their unity, he had lost that long ago. Somehow, he would wander this world yet he could never shake the feeling that he was alone. He wasn’t made for here. To blend, precautions had been taken. A white hood adorned his head, shielding his long locks of alabaster hair from site and rarely would he speak. Common was a language that he found himself fumbling with from time to time. Never though did he come to figure out why. His mind would formulate the right words and then, much like a gear slipping from its teeth, he would speak words of a distant land. It always surprised him though how these mishaps somehow felt more right, more natural and never once did he have trouble understanding them himself. Others though, did not. As a ghost, he walked amidst the crowd of people, his slender frame hunched over and his gaze fixated towards the ground below him. Occasionally he would let his eyeshot titter upwards to glance; he could see the Medical Library now. It wasn’t far off. Primarily his research had been isolated to the Arcane and Lore had proved invaluable to. Lore was a pathway to greater things that books failed to offer. Medical notes and research however, was not his expertise, but different situations called for different sorts of knowledge. He was a sponge and where it was offered, regardless of its particular relevance to his goals, he would be follow. One thing was certain though; Konti had failed to offer him exactly what he wanted. He’d be moving on soon enough. With quiet footsteps barely audible against the stone floor, Graffius glided through the room, the white robe which cascaded down his frame swaying from side to side as he neared the seemingly endless sea of books. They seemed infinite and for a moment he found himself at a loss for where to begin. So he did as he always did and picked a book at random. This was only a prelude to his departure from Mura anyways. It made no difference. With his spindly fingers, he reached up and withdrew his hood away from his face and allowed his steely eyes to grace the book in a small flash of goldenrod. He’d then seat himself and support his chin with his fingertips as he began to devour the text.

[Liel]

Like a bee to pollen, she stood, drawn, and sat across from him. It was done wordlessly, gracefully, quietly – one such trait she had learned from her people. Her luminous gaze regarded him with restrained curiosity. And then she did what she never thought she would – with a gentle fingertip, she lowered his book. Perhaps she had aged since last encountering one of his kind. She stared, locked eyes, felt him out but there were walls all around him. No matter. “Ethaefal,” she breathed, voice barely lifting off the sweet sea-air, “You have come far. What do you search for?”

[Graffius]

Spring, 511

Before he could turn the page, he felt the prompt of a fingertip, a delicate force which replaced the book with a curious face. It was a Konti. His flaming orbs dragged themselves upwards, enlarged and harboring an aura of disdain. She said Ethaefal. That word, that name, he had not heard in a long time. His mind wandered, boding on the world and absentmindedly he let it trail from his own lips. “Ethaefal...” For a lingering moment there was silence, their gazes locked. “What I seek in a library is solitude.” He closed his book and brushed it aside. “Apparently, even here, where one would expect to find….” A moment, a pause, his mind lagged behind and frantically searched for Common tongue. A murmur would leave his thin lips and then he’d finish. “Where one would expect to find solitude. They cannot because of curious children.” His voice was saturated with an arrogant and altogether condescending tone as he spoke to the girl. But, he indulged in the conversation regardless of his own distasteful response. “And what is it you seek?”

[Liel]

Her eyes flared. “Escape.” He was nothing like Aon and she wondered – had she met an angel, then a demon? What Ethaefal was he, this strange creature before her? “I am not a child,” she hissed. “I may be small, but – ” Then the words on his descended book caught her line of vision. She had read it, the previous year. “I wonder if your kind are susceptible to plumrose anemones. Are you interested in ending a few lives, Ethaefal?” Yes, her eyes had flared - simply because now, after all this time, she actually felt something apart from discontent.

[Graffius]

Spring, 511

“Ending a few lives?” His lips upturned into a grin. “Ending lives is an easy task and unfortunately I do not need plants to do it. I am only finding a way to occupy myself until it is time for my leave. I am sure however that plumrose has it's purpose. You would know, wouldn't you Konti?" He had to admit, Botany was interesting in its own right, but there were other ways of accomplishing tasks, each more effective and quicker than what Botany provided. Perhaps in the future he would delve more into the field. “However, the only thing I wish to end Konti is my stay in Mura. You are a fascinating people…Perhaps to say the least; however your home offers little for me.” He’d sigh and then cross his legs, reclining back in his chair and rest his hand upon the side of his face. “And escape? An escape from here? Child I think you are better off frolicking in the gardens. The world is a very big and dangerous place for such a young girl. Those snow white features, you wouldn’t want them harmed.”

[Liel]

“Liel,” she stated simply. She kept quiet as he spoke, watched him, his movements. “You of course,” she continued, heart beating – how far could she push him before he stood and left? “Must have much experience in this big and dangerous world. Surely, you must have some advice for me?” She leaned forward slightly, face all youth and innocence, and her foot tapped softly, subconsciously. They made quite a sight, buried in the sea of books. He, towering and she, tiny - both with colourless strands of soft hair spilling over white-clad shoulders. His arrogant way of speech repulsed her, yet rendered her curiosity so deep that she wondered, how would she feel if she let him get away without knowing anything of him?

[Graffius]

Spring, 511

“Experience?” Sneering, he brushed a few obscuring locks of hair from his eyes, his boney fingers idly twirling the ivory strands. He had less experience in this world than one might think. Most things were alien and composed of fleeting images that pulsed in a translucent form. Sometimes he would remember and familiarity would nudge his shoulder. It would propose questions of “Do you remember” And “Do you feel that you have been here before?” He had knowledge yes, but experience with this world, he wasn’t so sure. “For advice Konti, I would tell you that ignorance is bliss. With understanding comes a weight.” Irises flashed the familiar crimson, a spark of power perhaps, a divine touch buried beneath his glassy orbs. “With understanding comes a weight that may crush you.” His brows furrowed, his eyes narrowing in towards her, looking through her. “But you’re different aren’t you? You are different from the people around us. You crave for something more yes? But before you jump into the unknown….” There was a pause, a hesitation as his mind produced Common words. “Wanderlust is dangerous. Beware.”

[Liel]

She listened wordlessly. He ran long fingers through his hair, the sun began to wane, the waves still crashed on the shore, and something about him kept chilling her – but he was so familiar, and in a way that she was unsure of. He finished speaking, and she lowered her eyes, sun striking lash-shadows against pink cheeks. She did not look at him as she replied. “I hear stories of the human children,” she said, “creating toys, kites, concoctions that fly high into the air. And still I wonder, how far? How far does one fly until they are inevitably crushed by the heavens or – how far does one fly only to realize that they must once again descend?” The gentle timbre of her voice, the autumn blaze of his pupils. “And perhaps all life is cursed with weight, Ethaefal. Ignorance is bliss but only for a short while – and understanding will crush you, but we are all inevitably crushed, are we not?” She raised her eyes finally, a slow, sad sort of smile and she tenderly ran her fingers over the book’s pages, absentminded. “If I am in danger,” she said slowly, daring to keep her gaze level with his own, “Let it be so.”

Spring, 511

“Yes… We are all, inevitably crushed it seems.” He swallowed, a gulp of memories he’d sooner forget. “One thing child that I learned long ago was…Was to never place your happiness into the palms of others. Heaven is not what it seems. All of it is as if being in a suspended dream. I don’t think the Hells would be any different either. They are the homes of selfish pigs, manors constructed in the celebration of a fool. The God’s dear, are nothing more than an individual who has more power than they deserve, than they know what to do with.” “If you ask the common person why they pray to their Gods, they will tell you of faith and devotion and tell you of its rewards. So reward merits devotion. They serve to make their miserable lives less miserable and to ensure a cozy nook in the afterlife where they can sit and grow fat as they cherish the one who has allowed them refuge. All of them are slaves, they are a slave to their God and they are a slave to death.” His eyes were distant, glazed over with images of a distant land, watching an orchestra, a performance that was not of this world. “You darling do not deserve this power, I, do not deserve such power. They…” A singular protesting finger raised, pointing upwards towards the ceiling. “Do not deserve this power. Do you understand?” He moved his chair aside and stood upright, towering over both the table and the Konti, dragging his fingertips over the velvet material of his overcoat. “Their Mansions Konti, well be set on fire and burnt to the ground. A heap of rubble fitting for them. Their thrones burnt to ashes and their followers overtaken with truth.” His eyes adverted towards the ground and he bit his lip in thought. If only the words he spoke had means to come true. If only there was a way.