[Flashback] Brothers in Arms (Indyrio)

[Navisya Curare]

Summer 19th, 510AV Most Symenestra lived happily oblivious to the cycles of Syna's day and Leth's night. There wasn't much use for it, nearly a mile underground, and perfectly comfortable in near complete darkness. The hunters, like Navisya, were always a little more aware of the day's passing hours, and used the veil of night to stalk their game. The night sky became more of a tool than a fact of life, and the approaching dawn meant that it was time to head home into the welcoming blackness of Semele's bosom. It was these occasional trips away from home that made Navisya remember that the sunborn didn't merely use the cycle; they were slaves to it. And to her great dismay, she was too, as long as she walked the surface with them. To not have complete control over her own sleep cycles felt like a personal slight—it was the sun, and not her schedule, that dictated when Navisya would retire for the day. Syna's radiance was harsh to her keen, sensitive eyesight, so the Symenestra had made herself nocturnal. During the day, she confined herself to her room at the Kulkukan Inn with the curtains drawn. By rearranging a bit of furniture, relocating her mattress beneath the bedframe (which was propped up between a chair and a desk), Navisya had constructed a proper niche to sleep in that further helped block out the light. An uneasy alliance was struck with the Kulk's staff that kept them out of her room during daytime hours, preventing them from disassembling her small comforts away from Kalinor. The tavern proper had been a fine place too, at least better than she had expected. Despite the Symenestra's bitter reputation in some parts of Mizahar, Navisya had felt little of it since her recent arrival into Riverfall. It was difficult to tell whether the Akalaks and their guests were ignorant to the dark rumors of her kind, or if they simply wanted any female to feel comfortable. It was certainly welcomed, whatever the reason. Tonight, Navisya found herself perched on a sloping cliff within an area she'd learned was termed the Cliffside Grotto. Cool summer breezes tousled the tips of trees and fragrant early summer blossoms, breathed from the salty ocean. The indigo twilight was the Symenestra's only company, and good company at that, while she began to enjoy her meager "breakfast". A wooden bowl sat next to her, containing a sort of rosy colored paste, and in one clawed hand she held an apple to her mouth. She looked as if frozen in mid bite, but on closer inspection, she was actually drinking from it like a beverage. It was hard to get a decent meal outside of Kalinor.

[Indyrio]

Lover’s final embrace had transformed the variegated cliffs into a mural of divine harmony, its colors muted by the gossamer curtain of twilight as the day lady bid farewell to her nocturnal suitor. It was a rapture ‘Dyrio knew little of, both as a matter of worship and personal endeavor. But looking out from his perch beneath the high eaves of a slate gray cliff overlooking the bay, he felt something tangible buried deep within him touched by the smallest sliver of its majesty. A part the roads of travel had kept bridled since before he’d left Avanthal. The tethered threads of his white tunic trembled against an unscarred palette of dark flesh, lungs inhaling sweet floral aromas that blended strangely with the sea. One could lose themselves in a place like this, perhaps never making it back if the fates willed. But this was not to be his home, much as the moment begged otherwise. He was destined for greater things than to waste away in a velvet lap of luxury, a purpose in life given to him at the behest of a mother’s love and guarded by an uncle‘s vigilance. Auburn strands suddenly caught in an errant breeze that disrupted his clear vision of the ship ridden bay beneath, stealing with it all the emotional burdens he bore in the solitude of his mind. Driven back to dry eyed reality, Indyrio flexed tired fingers of their stiffness from a day that had seen a Syliran Knight’s workload and turned to head back to the Kulkukan. The men he traveled with seemed to take enjoyment out of watching the boy suffer, repayment perhaps for all the trouble he posed for them. They didn’t approve of him leaving their sight while he remained a ward, but that was hardly enough to stifle the obstinacy of a youth whose curiosity always got the better of him. Veins of dark ivy draped low from an high overhang at a particularly treacherous part of the path he’d taken to reach his perch, white knuckles evidence of his love for life while his feet navigated the slender ridge by touch alone. Listening to the sound of crushing gravel beneath the tired soles of his feet, he dared himself not to peer down to whatever end lie in wait beneath. Stretching his hand out to the final cluster of tangled strands that would see him safely to the other side, Indyrio overestimated his reach and came up short. Having already committed his weight to the next step, he was without purchase, and soon realized the horrendous folly that was quickly unraveling. Drifting further and further away from the safety of the sheer stone facing, a breath lodged in the halfblood’s throat that suppressed the scream burning his lungs from the inside out. What came in lieu of its absence was a grunt that matched his incredulity of the circumstance. Extending hopeless arms out in a last ditch effort, all Indyrio saw was an infinitely pock marked sky of flaming white tears being shed for him. His final thoughts cursed Leth and the sky's pity. In truth what felt like a chime’s ring was no more than the flutter of one’s lashes, the wind knocked sharply out of his chest when he landed within the soft and fertile soil of a bed of freshly risen tulips. Horror turned into its more subtle cousin bewilderment when Indyrio realized he was still conscious and cognizant of everything. Tilting his chin up from prone state, he warily eyed the edge of the cliff he’d fallen from, not more than fifteen feet above him and hardly the threat it seemed before. Relinquishing a dry and sarcastic laugh to the heavens, he noticed something stir within his periphery and instantly dragged his attention to it. Ten feet away sat a woman of fairest skin and palest hair, an apple lodged within her palm that she seemed rather undecided about biting into.