The Temple: Of All Things Mystical (Victor Lark)

[Runas]

Runas caught the way he looked at the moon, as if it brought back something he had forgotten until that point. She wondered at it. What did the moon make him think of? What did it say to him as he met it's pale face with his dark-eyed stare? She wondered if the moon shared a secret with him, and she wished she knew how to ask Makath for the knowledge of that secret.

His name was enough to earn him another fleeting smile, and she mimicked his movement to rest her chin on her hand and look at him. She was sure the real priest breathed a sigh of relief when they moved apart as such. Really, this was too fun.

"The pleasure is all mine, Victor Lark," the Ethaefal practically purred, amusement lacing her voice. She smiled at him again and glanced to where Leth hung in the sky before deigning it important to reply to the information he gave her. She recognized the name Seven, had met some pale little half-spider one evening and spoken to him about Ethaefal. She was glad to know that she knew the person to threaten to keep Victor's silence. She wasn't pleased with his identity though, and she huffed a soft sigh. "I've met someone named Seven. He's a pale young man, with red eyes and white-blonde hair? Symenestra?" Laughter echoed in her voice, even if she wasn't laughing. She'd relieved the use of djed now, having enough to use just a smidgen more of magic. What she'd need it for,s she wasn't sure. Reimancy or Hypnotism were the only choices at this point.

His next flood of questions caused her to tilt her head and focus on him. He was as curious as his friend, but much less reclusive. They were contrasts to eachother, Seven and Victor. Except for their curiosity, that insatiable hunger for knowledge that dominated all thoughts of etiquette. Well... Curiousity kiLled the cat, didn't it? Runas just didn't know which of these two would be the cat.

"One question at a time, Victor!" Runas' quiet voice was soft as she reached and covered his mouth again, hoping to stem the flow of words that had barraged her. "Be patient. We have all the time in the world to talk about this, and you seem so rushed. Do you not know of patience?"

A funny question in her opinion, as she could be just as persistent as he when presented with new knowledge. She was being a hypocrite. It was fun doing this.

"Duality, as in just two. I only have two forms. This one and the one you saw earlier... My siblings share this as well, but while we may look the same at times, our mortal forms are as diverse as this land. I'm an Eypharian, yet there could be Symenestra, Jamoura, Human, Inarta... Anything at all." She smirked slowly and removed her hand from his mouth to skim her fingers along his forehead to his left temple. "Leth's realm is somewhere else, Victor... When I came to Mizahar, I fell from the sky into the Suvan... We all come down into the water from the sky, whether by day or night... And I can't tell you the way to get to either realm. Leth pulled me from the cycle of death and rebirth so that I may exist at his side, yet I do not know how or why he chose me. Maybe if I killed you he would chose you too."

She leaned back again, removing her hand from his face. She smiled faintly, her silver eyes dark with the brooding memories of her life in the divine realms. Slowly, her eyes returned to their usual reserved appearance and she actually sighed.

"Did you wish to go home now, Victor? I invite you to stay with me and walk with me for a while tonight, but if you wish to return to Seven, do not allow me to hold you back. Just don't tell him about my Eypharian form. I will not think so highly of you if you do." Another fleeting smile was offered. Something occurred to her that she could offer him. "If you accompany me to the beach, I'll show you Reimancy if you haven't seen it."

[Victor Lark]

OOCPlease excuse the double post

[Victor Lark]

He wanted to bite the hand that bade his silence. Patience was a woman’s virtue, he had heard once—at least, it was a trait which he was not fond of fathoming. But despite her chastisement, Runas did not make him wait long for answers. Narrow eyes turned to curious black lines as the information soaked into his ears. He could not understand half of what she said, but that hardly daunted another onslaught of questions that were slowly blooming behind closed lips. His jaw hung in anticipation of their asking, but he paused when he heard the familiar noise of her thoughtful exhale.

The moment was long enough to invite a change of subject. Victor frowned. “What? I don’t—the night is young. It is not time to go home.” He said, pushing the longing image in the moon from his mind. He did not usually imagine things. He should have known that there was something strange about what he had seen chimes earlier, but he had been too contented by it to think it unusual. Anyway, they were not done talking. Victor resented the blatant manipulation in the question, but he liked her too much to mention it. Instead, he continued, “And I still don’t understand why you must be so secretive about these forms of yours. You said you have met Seven; so doesn’t he know, too?”

She had offered something else, too. He paused to remember it, then leaned his back against the pew so that he no longer faced her. Still, his forgotten arm stretched behind her shoulder, occasionally brushing against the skin there to remind her of how much he had utterly wooed her. “The beach is so far away!” He said, flippant but kind, “But if you have errands there, I will accompany you. What use does a woman like you have for reimancy, anyhow? I suppose it is the same sort of djed that changes you at dusk, and I would rather see you shift like a Kelvic.” He laughed, then looked at her again. Though he apparently objected to the journey, he stood then holding out his hand as if she needed help to rise.

“I think you can tell me the way to that realm, but you won’t.” He began again as they walked, refusing to let her avoid the topic. “But if I need a god to help me, I will probably never go there, even if you killed me. I find the gods don’t favor me much. But you have Leth, who chose you to be at his side. Apparently you are no longer. What did you do to offend him? Or rather, what did you do to appease him, that you got to live in the sky? Why—” No. It was the wrong word. The other questions, while as happily abrasive as usual, paled in comparison to the next. A deeper desire, not matter how slight, wallowed in his voice as he finished, “How... does he change you?”

[Runas]

Laughter bubbled up at the slack-jaw expression of the fascinating man before her. She wasn't naïve enough to believe she'd made him speechless, although she would have loved for that to be true. The questions she had seen forming behind his eyes in the machine of his mind literally hung on the tip of his tongue for all to see before the change in subject which left him floundering for words.

She reached over to run her fingers along his collarbone. At this rate, she'd have aged every visible piece of skin before Syna's rise in the East. She didn't find it important to tell him though. Like his Seven, he was an impossibly great source of amusement. He wasn't prone to take offense to so many words, though, and that made him far more valuable than that half-blood. And then, Victor brought up Seven as well. This could grow to be even better. "Seven has seen me in both forms, but he doesn't yet know they are linked together. I insist on this secrecy because of the attention my race garners. I have siblings who treat this like they were born royalty because they came from Leth, or Syna. I don't want to be grouped as one of them, so I would prefer to remain unknown wherever it is that I choose to wander." Her silvery eyes darkened with her insistence that he understand her desire to remain hidden. Suddenly, they cleared and she chuckled. "I do not wish Seven to know because I want to make sure you can keep my secret, Victor."

She remained facing him, holding in a shiver at the stroking fingers of his errant arm. She didn't pull out of his reach because she didn't want to. She'd allowed very few people to touch her, and she didn't want to ruin this touch either. "I only request the beach because magic is not a beloved practice in Syliras. It's inhabitants do not view practitioners kindly, and my appearance already draws enough attention to me. As for reimancy... I was taught it quite a while ago now. I've found it calming." A faint smile trickled on to her lips at the memory of who taught her, and why. "I would rather change like a Kelvic as well. Their transformation is not forced on them."

When he rose and offered his hand, she accepted it without any sign of not requiring it. Her intimate mannerism came out again, and she laced her fingers through his, holding his hand in a loose yet persistent grip as they started to walk. "I don't know how to get into it, Victor... Leth pulled me off Mizahar when the body I inhabited died and brought me to his realm in what Seven has called 'the Ukalas'. I don't know why he chose me, or to what purpose he planned to use me for. I didn't offend Leth, though, to come here. I wandered too close to the tear through his realm and fell through it. The hole drags our souls through when we don't take care. It's a cruel way to be separated from our parent." Her eyes lowered as his questions continued to flow while they walked. [/b]"In my past life, I worshiped Leth along with two goddesses. Maybe Leth chose me for that when I died, but I don't know... I lived another life after that before being chosen, so I don't think so."[/b]

His last question caused her to furrow her brow and think deeply. Was he asking how her transformation took place? How Leth managed to change her when he was so far? Or how deep does the transformation go? She'd answer one, not all three.

"His influence affects me and changes me... This form is the form I possessed in the Ukalas and whenever Leth rises above Syna, I become this form. My last female life was as an Eypharian, so I become bound to that when Syna rises over Leth. I don't know if djed is involved. It's not a conscious choice to transform. It just happens."

[Victor Lark]

Secret. He had said a form of the word himself, but when it came from the lips of another it became infinitely more valuable. His eyes flared as the idea of it contented and abated his persistence on the subject. He did not know if he could keep such a secret, but there was no hurt in trying. “Alright,” he conceded with a sigh of mock exasperation, “Fair enough.”

The young night was full of shadows beneath the white glow of the wide moon and the dancing yellow of wall-bound flames. Victor kept silent for a short time, his thoughts roaring in his mind. She spoke of past lives and said words he did not recognize, but she said them as if he should have understood—so he pretended he did. They would have to traverse beneath the city ceiling before they could reach the air on the other side; only when the cold stone closed around them was he distracted enough to speak again.

“Djed is always involved,” he said, smiling something teasing through the outward derision. “At least that’s what I’ve heard. But that hole you fell from: if you know it’s in the sky, what’s stopping you from finding a way back up? If you could change into one thing or the other, you could figure out how to change into a bird and search the heavens!” This time, he seemed to realize how absurd he sounded. The end of the statement faded almost longingly as he glanced up at the nearby ceiling, having forgotten that there was no sky to see. His pace became quick for his determination to breathe fresh air, his grip on her tight so that she could not escape him before he was through. When they found the threshold to the dome of stars, a heavy inhale moved through his nostrils. He looked up again. “If must have been terrible, to fall from so far, without being able to stop or move or fly. What I wouldn’t give to fly!”

Glancing back at her for an instant, he wondered if he had been too frank. So he changed the subject. “Did it hurt?” He stopped mid-word when he realized the ambiguity of the question, then added, “When you change, I mean. What does it feel like?”

[Runas]

A smile caught her again at his reluctant agreement, and a quiet laugh passed her lips as she followed him along, allowing him to lead her where his heart desired, the beach being just a suggestion of hers to get them out of that church where she could start a real game going. This was like a game already, albeit a childish one, an adventure of sorts. Adventures could be fun.

"I'd kiss you to pay you back, Victor, but that would have to be a secret too." She spoke in a deliberately soft whisper, her voice teasing and laughing. She wanted to see his reaction, wanted to watch the shock and surprise and see if his skin could flush as wonderfully as Seven's could. Of course, she'd never offered a kiss to Seven, so if Victor coloured at her words he'd be a lovelier shade of pink than a pale boy.

"Well, there's the problem. We aren't even sure if the realm is in a visible place in the sky, or else so many of us would have fought our way back. We know we fall, both through a hole and down, but we aren't sure where from... Maybe I fell from the moon, hmm?" She didn't encourage his thought that the question absurd. She'd never considered the possibility of being able to fly up to the Ukalas before, but now that he had lodged the thought in her head it would fester there until she developed the ability to morph into a bird and fly up. Perhaps she'd get to the moon?

"Are you in a hurry, Victor?" Laughter erupted past her lips as he dragged her along in his desire to view the sky, her silver eyes glowing with the emotion and the utter amusement he gave her. She'd make sure to keep this human in sight.

His next words, passed from lips illuminated by Zintila's decorations and the torches placed on stone walls, brought Runas' laughter to an end, and coaxed the blank look back into her eyes, flashed through with coolness.

It wasn't that terrible, Victor... We are unconscious until we hit the water when we fall. And then, we must swim to survive. A smile ghosted across her lips, her expression subdued as she answered his next question. "It... It's like tingling, in a way. You can tell when you are ready to change just before it happens because the feeling is so strong. For me it's like that anyway. I've never asked another Ethaefal what it was like for them." She fell silent and gripped his fingers tighter in hers. For all the world, they could have been a couple wandering the night, but for her it was just the desire to be able to hold something without it slipping away being satisfied.

[Victor Lark]

Alas, Victor was not usually the sort of man to be embarrassed by the advances of a beautiful woman; the priest responded to her teasing offer with a thin smile, the kind of refusal that might or might not have suggested he would eventually change his mind. He was fully convinced that she had become infatuated with him, and if that meant that she would talk more about herself and educate him on the wonders of her race, he would encourage her. His lips had not touched any others but Seven’s since Spring had begun; he would be pressed to admit that he was reluctant to break that record.

He could smell the sea, but her mention of his haste urged him not to reveal his enthusiasm by changing his pace. Nonetheless, the emptying streets saw the pair walking briskly between widening, sky-capped streets, Victor the determined leader. His shoes drummed loudly against the smooth cobblestone, and thumped across the hollow floors of wooden docks, and shuffled crackling whispers through grey sand. He mostly listened as they walked, soaking up her words about her people. When his eyes finally perceived the black horizon stretching out over the water, illumined by only the inescapable lanterns of the distant city, Victor had different sorts of questions to ask.

“A fall from the moon would have surely killed you!” He mentioned, slipping his hand from hers to take a few more paces, taunting. “Did you know about the hole in Leth’s home, or was it hidden?”

Looking back at her from where his eyes had strayed towards the sea, he added, “Would you consider yourself a clumsy woman, Runas? Your fall was an accident, of course, but wasn’t it really your fault? You should have known!” He laughed, something between a tease and a failed imitation of pity.

He thought to sit, but then he remembered their reason for coming here. Reimancy. Victor had rarely thought about djed until recently, but even then he had not considered the task of element-wielding. Still, his endless curiosity was hardly discriminatory. The prospect of learning about this magic rose to the front of his attention as he thought more about it, and he found himself eager. He kept his eyes on her, namely her hands, to see which element it was that she was so keen to show him. “But how is it your reimancy calms you?” Victor asked, trying to turn her mind to the same subject, “I’ve always heard of it causing strain and distress!”

[Runas]

His reaction was no fun. No fun at all. A mere smile, not even a full one, was his response to her talk of a kiss. She'd have to make sure and change that. If she was going to hurt Seven with his friend, whom she was beginning to think was also his lover or something, she'd have to do something brash. Maybe, if she'd had conserved more of her djed, she could have persuaded him to be hers without need of touching him.

As she scented the Sea, she hurried to keep pace with her human companion, urgent now to see the body of water she would always love visiting. Compared to his shoes, her own pattered quietly, her weight self-consciously directed into being as quiet as possible. Victor made enough noise with his relatively loud stomping that she would probably not have to join in order to wake the city. Of close, she could have been exaggerating.

As he released her hand when they faced the water, she continued to walk, closing her eyes and inhaling the salt-tangy spray of the Sea as lit by both Leth and Zintila. Throughout her life, few things had remained unchanged. The Sea was one of them. Everyone could die away, and the Sea would always be there to lap at the shores. She ignored what he said for a moment, her attention diverted to the watery land before her.

Finally, she deigned it right to answer his question, although without looking at him. "It's more of a tear than a whole, and it draws us to it. An irresistible pull for some of us, like me."

His teasing question and his laugh brought a thin smile to her lips, and she faced him, silver eyes glowing. "When we are drawn to it, and come close enough, it sucks us in. We can fight. We can kick and scream. But no matter what, once you are in it, you can't get out, and you are thrown into a Sea like this one to start a new life."

She turned away again to regard the Sea, thoughts turned inwards. She had coaxed Victor here for two reasons, as far as she could tell. To have fun... And to hurt him, which in turn should hurt Seven, her true target. He was so curious about Reimancy... She could give him a taste of it first hand and see how it turned out.

With that thought, she looked at Victor again and smiled, much more ominously than she had ever before, but with enough amusement to make it not overly sinister. With one hand she gestured to the Sea. "I focus on water. Water calms me. Ever since I came here, I have found it soothing. The frustration is nothing. As long as I know my limits, I can be calm and enjoy what I'm doing." She chuckled and turned her whole body to him. "Have you seen Reimancy before?"

[Victor Lark]

Distracted by the racial minutiae swimming around in his head and the game of fluctuating intimacy which he thought they shared, Victor was blind to the shade of malice in her eyes. His perpetual smile remained, dancing between evasion and allure as he tried to determine which of the two reflected on her countenance.

The cool breeze was a welcome relief to the hot rooms of Syliran Summers, but his exposed hands had not yet adapted; he rubbed his palms against each other as he responded, “I have. Once, in a stage show, though that might not have been djed. I’ve been on the wrong end of an Ebonstryfe mage’s ego once or twice, anyhow. They seem to prefer fire.” He laughed at the old dark men in that far away city, complacent and contemptuous.

He turned to match her like a mirror, eyes still moving between her face and her hands. He knew so little of her magic that he did not know what to ask, but there were other trifles that tickled the tip of his tongue; as this was a private performance, he figured he could talk to her while she demonstrated whatever it was that she itched to show him. A brief glance at the moon, as if it were actually the realm from which she fell, turned the conversation back to the ethaefal.

Victor stepped toward her again, pulling his hands into his pockets. The square of his body leaned toward her, but his neck craned his eyes towards that celestial circle. His thumb toyed with the hilt of the dagger that hung on his belt. He asked, “What was so irresistible about the—tear? What could have possibly made it seem better than your life with Leth?” A beat. “Do you find it difficult to resist temptation?”

[Runas]

As the cool breeze caught them, Runas reached up to sweep locks of Victor's dark hair from his face. They were close enough she could do this, yet still a decent distant apart from eachother. This game of intimacy was something she could not grow tired of. Victor Lark was not something disposable, as much as she'd like to make him. He was a work of art, constructed somewhere else but plopped into a city roiling and teeming with humans. The city wasn't Sunberth, at the least, nor Ravok. There was no unnecessary violence here. Victor belonged not in a pure world, like Syliras, nor in a nightmare world like Sunberth. He belonged in between, in a world as mysterious as him, and as lovely as he, with the darkness and the light in harmony.

Oh, how she could hurt him.

"I've not played with the Ebonstryfe before." The Ethaefal chuckled and gave him her unassuming smile. She believed that she held him enthralled, and so she would try something dark. Something painful. "Victor... I'm sorry. I don't want to have you hurt, my dear, but I need you to cut your hands. I want to try something I was shown once, long ago. If you don't want to, you don't have to, but I promise you that if you do, it will truly be magical." She placed a promise in her words, part seduction and part persuasion. She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to break him, and break Seven. And, the Gods help her, she would.

"It wasn't... Irresistible like a drug. It was the pull... As soon as it had you, you could not escape. Like... Water down a drain." His final question tweaked a smirk to her lips. Did she find it difficult to resist temptation? Well, she was here with Victor, wasn't she? She had him where she wanted, and either way this went, she would make sure he had been marked by her. Even if she had to knock him unconscious and cut his hands herself, she would do it.

"Yes. I do." Her smile gleamed darkly, like the silver of her eyes.