What Secrets Does the Keep Keep? [Nya/Tarot]

[Nya Winters]

Nya thanked the breezes, sending her gratitude into their solemn yet excited voices as only as Stormwarden could. They were incredibly helpful. She spoke with them while Abashai investigated the gatehouse - with her lingering near the doorway. She hoped, suddenly, if she didn't make it through this task Zulrav had assigned her, that he'd at least let her spirit join with the breezes, becoming one herself for she loved their spirit and the way they moved through life - always restless - always busy - always willing to talk to a lonely child. Nya stepped into the gatehouse, just at the threshold. "Shai... a moment." Nya said softly, interrupting him, and then relating to him what the breezes had said. "Isn't Galan'nas the name of the Suvai Matilda gave you?" She asked cautiously, knowing there could be no coincidences when Konti were involved. "We are blind here, not knowing what this thing is. The breezes think there are survivors down the well, hiding in a secret chamber. I think we should get them out, talk to them, see if we can get them free of the Keep so we at least know what we are up against. What do you think?" She asked, thinking this was a wise way to go. More information would help them. It wouldn't necessarily help them on their powercube quest, but there was a wrong here... a deep and abiding wrong. She stepped back out of the gatehouse. The forest cat in human guise bowed her head and sent her message into the very winds - putting energy into it. "My Lord... I fear this is Galan'nas... is this your Will that we intervene? I can try and free those we came here looking for - if they still live. But I belong to you... sworn to you from birth. I am your Warden first and foremost - you know that. I just want to be sure of your Will." She asked, wanting to be sure... not because she was a coward, but rather because she didn't want to be distracted or sidetracked by a happening that was less important than the task Zulrav had already sent them on.

[Nya Winters]

Nya thanked the breezes, sending her gratitude into their solemn yet excited voices as only as Stormwarden could. They were incredibly helpful. She spoke with them while Abashai investigated the gatehouse - with her lingering near the doorway. She hoped, suddenly, if she didn't make it through this task Zulrav had assigned her, that he'd at least let her spirit join with the breezes, becoming one herself for she loved their spirit and the way they moved through life - always restless - always busy - always willing to talk to a lonely child. Nya stepped into the gatehouse, just at the threshold. "Shai... a moment." Nya said softly, interrupting him, and then relating to him what the breezes had said. "Isn't Galan'nas the name of the Suvai Matilda gave you?" She asked cautiously, knowing there could be no coincidences when Konti were involved. "We are blind here, not knowing what this thing is. The breezes think there are survivors down the well, hiding in a secret chamber. I think we should get them out, talk to them, see if we can get them free of the Keep so we at least know what we are up against. What do you think?" She asked, thinking this was a wise way to go. More information would help them. It wouldn't necessarily help them on their powercube quest, but there was a wrong here... a deep and abiding wrong. She stepped back out of the gatehouse. The forest cat in human guise bowed her head and sent her message into the very winds - putting energy into it. "My Lord... I fear this is Galan'nas... is this your Will that we intervene? I can try and free those we came here looking for - if they still live. But I belong to you... sworn to you from birth. I am your Warden first and foremost - you know that. I just want to be sure of your Will." She asked, wanting to be sure... not because she was a coward, but rather because she didn't want to be distracted or sidetracked by a happening that was less important than the task Zulrav had already sent them on.

[Abashai]

Shai turned from the workings of the portcullis, unable to move it and unwilling to further explore the curious substance coating its chains. He did not relish the fact that their main avenue of escape had been cut off. It was even more disturbing that the entrance was sealed by some unnatural force, for he doubted someone had lowered the portcullis and fled without notice by the bonded couple. He knew Nya was communing with her breezes. He could feel the light brush of them as they whirled around her. His bondmate had called to him and he returned to the doorway. Shai gave her a shake of the head, indicating the gate could not be unblocked. Nya shared her airy cohorts' report. Galan'nas. The name sounded identical. Abashai reached in his coat again to feel the Konti suvai tucked securely inside. He felt the hair raise on his neck and arms with a disconcerting tingle. He did not have to voice his own wariness over the zephyr's ominous words, his mate could feel it through the bond. "We should investigate the well. We came here to find these people. We need their help, and if they are in danger, they will need ours." His eyes, piercing crystalline blue-green and resolutely sober, met Nya's mossy green gaze. "Unless it is our Gods' wills, I do not desire to engage whatever this thing is. But we must proceed very carefully, for we may have no choice. The voices in the well could very well be a trap to draw us out." As Nya made her supplication to Zulrav, Shai muttered his own plea to Yahal. When she was ready, he glanced again into her eyes, his hand reaching for her upper arm, gripping the lean-muscled limb gently but firmly, a physical reassurance of his commitments. Then the two descended from the battlements.

[Tarot]

Matilda's suvai felt warm and tingly to the touch now, as if awakened from a long slumber. It looked sharp, dangerous and alert in its own way. However, as of right now there was nothing around to shove it into - not yet, anyways. As for the prayers, they went strangely unanswered, yet both of them could somehow feel by the pricking feeling on their gnosis marks that they were being watched, and listened to. For some reason, though, the gods had chosen not to respond; both of them had, as if conspiring together on an agreed upon plan. On the other hand, the breezes could and would talk. By the time they did, Nya and Abashai had already stepped out of the guardhouse and back into the courtyard. The eerie feeling had not diminished one bit; if anything, like the suvai, the dangerous mood seemed more focused and intense. "Stormwarden…" said the third breeze in an excited tone, "… we have a problem!" The windows were leaking darkness - it was really the best way to describe it. The blackness beyond seemed to be bleeding down the walls, blackening them with the same shiny coat seen on the chains of the portcullis. A pool of black began to spread from under the stables' door and soon from the other doors, as well. Like an oil patch driven by some ancient force, it was trying to slowly but methodically corner Nya and Abashai from several directions. "It's hunting now," said the second breeze. The oily darkness seeped from the tiny gaps between the bricks, occasionally lifting thin clouds of mortar when it made its way through too forcefully. "Before men learned to put words into letters, Galan'nas felled them in the hundreds. Thousands, maybe." And now, two post-Valterrian mortals were about to discover what horrors their distant ancestors had once fought in the earliest days of Mizahar - when there was no such thing as a nightmare, because reality could not be surpassed in dreams.

[Nya Winters]

Nya wasn't about to loose her head. She heard what the winds said, and understood that this was when men didn't write or have a written language. She didn't know if people were stupider then or if they just simply didn't have the advantages of access to the knowledge their ancestors knew... but regardless she wasn't going to let the winds panic her. Instead, she unfastened her cloak, swirled it over Abashai's shoulders to keep him warm, and then reached into her bag into a small pocket that caintained a single medium sized storm gem.

Stormwardens could fill them harnessing the power of a storm that could then be used elsewhere. But they could also release the power and channel the storms into whatever they wanted them to be... if the winds would cooperate. Nya really had no other tools. She couldn't cast fire like Terminus or Leo. She couldn't fight like Abashai. And she had no secret weapons. She only had this one thing. So she grasped the gem in her hand, and did the only thing she could think of to do. She released the full power of the storm right there in the courtyard. Then... with all the authority in her voice that she could muster... and despite the fact that it was spring... she ordered it to become a blizzard. She visualized cold freezing air, coating everything, hardening it, and hoped beyond hope that the storms energy would slow the thing, give it pause... make it easier for Abashai to use the weapon he had.

If it were summer, there'd be no chance. But late spring blizzards weren't unheard of... and it was eariy spring besides.

[Abashai]

Abashai could not hear the whispers of the chattering breezes, but the stillness and some vague eerie sensation caused his skin to prickle nevertheless. Nor did he have to hear the Stormwarden's minion's voice their warning when he saw the blackness secrete from every opening in the fortress. His first instinct was to identify a path of escape, which proved futile. Any exit already oozed with the ancient terror. The Benshira pulled the Konti's suvai from its place inside his coat, the strange weapon still unnaturally warm. He knew that it was useless as a traditional weapon against the black slime, but it was all he could think of at the moment. Shai did not panic, not yet, his martial instincts racing to identify a means to execute one of two courses, Fight or Flight. The desert warrior puzzled only a moment as Nya tossed her dark cloak over his shoulders, the magic garment shifting of its own will around him. The stone she retrieved he knew as a storm gem, Nya having explained to him once that it somehow contained a storm's power. A power his Stormwarden mate now commanded be unleashed.

[Tarot]

Unbeknownst to Nya and Abashai, pieces were falling into place. She called upon the storms. He showed the suvai. Their actions triggered a plan laid out in the Ukalas well before they'd stepped inside the Keep. There was always a reason with the gods, whether mortals could see one or not. They were cosmic forces on the landscape of the world. Some mortals accepted the blessing and the curse that came with letting themselves be the pawns to such formidable actors. The rest could do little but hope to not get caught in the crossfire. Galan'nas rose like a wave, one of those tidal waves that could sweep a village away; many settlements had been lost to the crashing waters in the Valterrians, except this was a wave of oily darkness, vibrant with intelligence and killing intent. It sought their death, to feed itself, and because there could never be peace between their kind and its own. It was a clash of paradigms, an older one that refused to let go and a rising one that struggled to prevail. Galan'nas was a fine specimen of its age, dangerous even by Relic standards; the ancient men had not been stupid or resourceless. The creature poured from every gap and condensed into a single black entity, a shroud of darkness several meters tall, capable of casting a cold shadow upon the courtyard. It emitted no sound, yet it was communicating in its own way. Establishing its superiority, and showing them how hopeless the gap was that separated their species. It was gloating, displaying its morbid beauty and collecting the terror that was its due. A Newcomer and a Djedling could not compare to it. As the Relic loomed over them, ready to strike, a thought probably crossed the minds of Nya and Abashai. Why had they been sent into a situation they had no hope of winning, and with hardly any information at all? Could this be anything but a test of faith? If so, what justified the secrecy and the cryptic messages from their gods? They were about to find out. Dark clouds gathered over the Keep, summoned by Nya's Stormgem. Truth told, the scope of the approaching storm was far greater than the medium-sized gem would have warranted. Zulrav's power was at play here as the thick cloud came to the Kelvic's aid, pregnant with ice and lightning. The Stormwarden's mind was traversed by a flash of awareness of her deity's commands. "It is time, Nya. It is coming to feed. No matter what happens, keep it in. Do not let it out. Surround yourself with lightning and thunder and become its cage." As if on cue, Galan'nas lashed out at Nya, its mass whipping at her unprotected body. The slimy darkness coiled around her in a hundred hungry tentacles. The Relic forced itself inside the woman's body, partly through the mouth but also just being absorbed by the skin. It was invading her, and it felt horrible. Nya was losing control over her body - shifting into her forest cat self would be impossible by now. In a matter of seconds, the entirety of Galan'nas was compressed inside her body, lingering shortly before it would start devouring her from the inside - leaving only a shell of mummified skin outside. The two of them were one. Visions from the Relic flooded Nya's mind… ancient men, speaking in the ancient tongue, hunting and falling to Galan'nas. There had been others like it in antiquity; now, even the creature did not know if it was the only one left. Abashai could only watch Nya being seized and invaded by the inky blackness. She was writhing and convulsing, her skin darker because of the dark creature inside; even the whites of her eyes had turned black. Yet he found himself unable to move: a hand on his shoulder, just like back at the camp, kept him firmly in place. Abashai could feel all the weight placed on that hand, pure and yet forcing him to bear helpless witness. Zulrav may be a demanding god, but Yahal was by and large one of the most difficult to serve. The tests of faith he required were absolute, and defied human comprehension. They often seemed whimsical, sometimes even cruel and unwarranted. This would be no exception. "Today, you take a life in my name, Abashai," said Yahal, invisible yet very real behind him as the weight suddenly lifted from his shoulder, "go and stab her through the heart."

[Nya Winters]

Storms and their fierce energy were what life was about to a child of the Winds. Every Stormwarden knew that and lived for the moment when they stood admist Zulrav's full power and was caught up with it. It was better than breathing. It was better than making love to one's mate. It was better than hugging ones child. And it was even better killing the fattest deer in the woods when one was starved. Releasing the energy in a stormgem was her prerogative, but it was also a very dangerous act if the gem wasn't harnessed for a specific purpose, like powering a forge or keeping something like a structure in heat and light. What they could do was unlimited really, if a Stormwarden could harness and contain like they were born to do. And Nya could, for she'd had the best of teachers, and a second mark inherited from a man who'd gifted it to her for releasing him from his hellish nature.

And Abashai could feel how much Nya loved it through their bond. And it made him realize something very important.

Nya had always had two masters, though she'd spent most of her life looking for one of them. But the truth was she'd been born first and foremost to serve just one. And when He asked of her, she gave gladly for it was her nature. It would have been the greatest of lies if she hadn't admitted she was His before anything and everything for he'd raised her with his breezes and honed her into the fierce thing she was now.

For what he needed was fierce courage, not deep intellectual thought or blind dull faith. She loved him and trusted Him for all he'd provided her with throughout her life. So when he asked her to take it in, she did so fiercely, giving herself over to it completely until she didn't know where she ended and Galan'nas began. It poured into her like breath into lungs. Eyes, nose, mouth - choking her and possessing her body in a way that was so complete, so utter, all she could do to retain her sense of self was to become the lightening she commanded. Arms outstretched, the winds swirled around her and she gathered the power too her. It was too much - much too much for her small frame and she screamed out with no voice and the lightening answered. It swirled around her like a cage, crackling and hissing in reaction to her own unvoiced screams. She drew it it tightly to her, within her, forming her body of lightening, making her form a cage. She knew the lightening and it knew her, so it was eager to gather and bend to her will even as she lost her sense of who she was.

She was all that Galan'nas had consumed. She felt their voices, their memories, their personalities flood through her. And even as it started feeding on her form, her flesh, eating her soul from the inside and working through that to her body, she screamed and the lightening crackled. She had no voice though, for her mind and throat were filled with blackness... so all she could do was tip her head back and open her mouth in a semblance of such. Men, women, children... lives upon lives flooded her awareness. She was all of them and none of them as the thing began to devour her.

But she held the lightning to her... held it within her.... formed a cage of the energy about herself... knowing it would not get loose, not until all that she was had vanished in its ravenous hunger.

[Abashai]

Abashai froze as the massive blackness congealed before them in a dire, threatening wall. The skies darkened at Nya's summons, promising a fierce storm,and suddenly the Benshira felt very small and insignificant. The heavy clouds burst open with an icy sleet as blinding bursts of lightening drawing closer. Then the towering menace struck. Shai expected to be overwhelmed by the monster, engulfed in its mass and suffocated or dissolved by whatever hideous method it used to kill its victims. But what the ancient terror did was infinitely worse. Abashai stared dumbstruck as the inky behemoth rushed into his mate in a sickening flood. A horrified cry bellowed from Shai's lungs. "No!" He wanted to run to her, though he had no idea what he could do. But a divine hand would not give him leave. He recognized his patron's touch, for there was no questioning its paralyzing strength. Shai cried aloud again, mournful, enraged, wordless. the man's frantic roar tore at the flesh of his throat as it rose above the rush of the wind and the rumble of thunder. He did not try to free himself, knowing it was useless. Abashai watched helpless as Nya shuddered to contain the nightmare, grotesque as it strained within her human frame, lightening surrounding her in fearsome strikes. His wail turned to gut wrenching growls and muttered denials of what he witnesses. Even as the wind whipped around them, almost deafening the man, Abashai heard his Lord's words as clear as a still desert day. "Today, you take a life in my name, Abashai" The same words the deity had spoken to him that same morning. "...go and stab her through the heart." As the meaning of those words sunk in, Abashai stopped breathing. A battering ram to his chest would have hurt less. It didn't register, it had to be a mistake. How could the Holy One, who had lead him for two years over thousands of miles to stand literally in front of Nya, had blessed their bonding and their marriage, ask such a heinous, unthinkable thing? How could he kill the one person that meant more to him than anything else in the world? The Benshiran's mind reeled at the command, looking horrified at the Konti weapon in his hand. He knew what Yahal wanted. Faith, obedience and trust. Abashai would have gladly shoved the suvai in his own chest and died a thousand times instead of this. He would have killed anyone else at the god's whim, but not this. Shai claimed to be a follower, he was chosen, bore the Mark. An epiphony struck him amid his torment. Abashai realized Yahal was no longer his first love. Nya had come first. Yahal was a faithful and caring God, but he was a jealous God. To one who served the Holy One, no one could come before him. This was the ultimate test of faith. Abashai was sure his heart had burst open in his chest, in fact it felt as if every organ in his body had exploded. The man watched as the amorphous beast began to devour his bondmate. It was going to kill her. He could not watch that happen. He had to trust, he had no option. Once again, he placed everything in his Lord's hands. With a simple utterance, "Yes Lord," Shai summoned his Lord's gnosis strength and its ability to bolster his will. Tears ran down his cheeks, mingling with the freezing rain as he readied to seal Nya's fate. With a defiant, wretched battle cry, Abashai charged at his beloved wife, ignoring the bolts of lightning surrounding her, gripping the heated, archaic bone weapon in his hand, leveled at her heart. His only shred of consolation was that he hoped his strike would be more merciful than being consumed alive by the abomination.

[Tarot]

Matilda was going about her business with her usual calm grace, reviewing the logs and doing the accounting for the Traveler's Row. It was quiet, repetitive work, boring for some but a crystalline exercise of wisdom and restraint for the Konti woman. It consisted of copying rows of names and numbers, filing expenditures, and checking if there was enough business to keep going at the usual prices. Matilda's handwriting was gentle but precise, neat but never ornamental. She glanced at the book next to her and resumed her copying after a well-deserved tea break. 'Rosamund Heggler', she wrote in the next box, noting the dates of arrival and departure, the room, and the extras the customer had required. The total price filled the second place to the right, with an optional annotation for the benefit of Matilda's memory. Rosamund had been… 'noisy' and the Konti was sure to record that fact for posterity. After Rosamund Heggler came Thorst Elkam, then Udelar Whinkins and his wife Lavinia. Matilda's pen picked up speed, the aged Konti briefly looking over the logs and copying the rows over without any conscious thought. Lost in the mechanical operation, she finally put down her quill and blinked twice at the latest row she'd filled out. 'Nya Winters'. Expense: 'Dead'. Notes: 'My fault'. Matilda's hand began to shake and the empty teacup shattered on the floor by her side. Tears began to flow down her cheeks.

Lightning cracked around Nya's possessed form, bending and flashing grimly like a dog leashed but certainly not tamed. She was utterly beautiful right now, naked and motionless and encased in a cocoon of thunder and force, her hair loaded with electricity and standing like a fierce crown of snakes. Abashai could see now that she was but an extension of Zulrav's will. The god was inside her with every breath she took, and in many ways she was much further down the road to divine servitude than he was. The suvai looked razor-sharp now, almost twitching in the Benshira's hand. It wanted the essence of Galan'nas, for it was its purpose. Centuries prior, escaping the harshness of the Valterrian, the Relic had paid a visit to the early residents of Mura. When the Konti became capable of fighting back, the creature left again as stealthily as it had come. The suvai carrying its own name was passed down through the generations, for the Konti seers were ever watchful, and never forgot. Powerful magecraft infused into the whale horn, the suvai was driven to go wherever the Relic hid. Abashai doubted. Nya didn't. The Relic itself seemed surprised at how she was able to stay calm while it devoured her. Never before had it met someone as focused and strong. And of course, when the suvai dagger made itself known, Galan'nas understood… for it was a highly intelligent being. Suddenly the plan laid out for its demise was crystal clear, and the creature stopped trying to assimilate Nya. It tried to get out instead, to pour out of the Kelvic that had served as the perfect bait for the trap. But it couldn't. The lightning and the storm formed an impenetrable barrier, and no matter how hard it tried to force itself out its efforts were in vain. Galan'nas was getting desperate, and even more brutal to its current host. Its last hope lay in killing her off while her partner looked indecisive - then the gnosis would subside and it would be free to finish him off, too. The Relic redoubled its efforts to eat away at Nya's Djed, causing her to drift in an ocean of torment and pain. It felt like her soul was being torn apart, each piece disconnected from the rest. Thankfully, it did not last long - and she wouldn't have lasted much longer, truth told. Abashai overcame his doubts and, maybe just out of mercy, he called upon Yahal's Ennervism and threw himself at the lightning barrier surrounding Nya. Had this been a normal weapon, he might have incurred lethal damage, but a suvai was bone and not metal. Everything was falling into place. He was forced to see Nya with the handle of a suvai dagger sticking out of her chest, darkened blood staining his hand and trickling down the corners of her mouth. The barrier went down with a final flash, and the storm died off in a matter of seconds. A feeling of stillness fell upon the courtyard. Nya's eyes were again her own, but they were growing distant, rigid, lifeless. He had pierced her heart. He had killed her together with the Relic. Yet the woman stood, as if the electricity that had coursed through her body were still keeping her limbs straight and planted on the ground. She was a statue now - the statue to her own sacrifice. Nya's awareness was minimal. She was vaguely conscious that she had killed the thing, that Abashai was out there - she sensed him without seeing him. She was vaguely aware that she had died. Her heart wasn't beating. She was merely… lingering there, a soul ready to move on yet strangely locked in place. Something was off, not right, not natural. "You did well, Ardrem," said a female voice addressing Abashai. To Nya it sounded familiar, like a dejà vu. A woman stood by the Benshira's side, wearing a long dark dress. Her hair wasn't yellow and her looks weren't free and her skin wasn't as white as leprosy, but she still was… "Right, you call yourself Abashai in this life. I still miss the old times though. You were much more devoted then… and to me." She smiled, dark but honest. The woman stepped close to Nya and looked her over briefly. "A brave soul, though unlucky. How many times has Zulrav given you this quest of his? I lost count around six. Looks like this turned out just like the rest. But of course, you are special so it has to be you in the end." She extended a hand and opened Nya's jaws, reaching into her mouth to extract a small dark orb that she held on the palm of her hand. "And this is our long overdue Galan'nas. It is quite embarrassing that my own marked couldn't find you in the past five thousand years. To think I'd have to strike a divine deal over something so ugly. You will be spending a few centuries inside a bunch of coins as a punishment, I am afraid." Dira turned her head to face Abashai. "It wasn't her time to go but I should take her too… 'reap' her if you like big drama words. However, I kind of struck a deal with your current patrons. You should know I have a strict no-resurrection policy - her own life is gone and is not coming back. But say, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to give her half of yours to support her body and fix the wound. Only because your gods asked and it's you, Ardrem. The sooner you die, the sooner I get a chance to win you back." She smiled. That was some flawless logic, if not necessarily reassuring.