1 Gnosis Mark from
Eyris -
Lykata (HD Approved)______________________________________________
It was difficult. Sedele was commanded to perfect her technique, to learn a new strategy to add on to her already learnt moves, yet she knew not how. Her long blade was dull, yet presentable as it glistened in the sun’s luminescent rays. Beads of sweat kept forming on her forehead, dripping down the side of her face as she continued to strike at the tree in front of her.
“More ferocity!” her father shouted from behind her. Sedele felt his eyes bore into her mind from behind and she couldn’t help but stick the visual of a lion watching its dying prey inside her soul. His version of encouragement felt like a stab in the side as she raised the sword she held above her head, slicing it horizontally across her body and into the bark of her target. Thwack! She did so again, involuntary anger bubbling up inside of her. Thwack!
“Harder! Release your raging energy through the blade and into the tree!” he screamed once more, testing the neutrons inside of her to see whether they would obey or not. She swept the sword across the tree and then pulled it back again for her final thrust. She wound up her power and felt it almost manifesting in a glowing orb of emotion near the weapon’s handle. She squinted her eyes slightly and locked her jaw tight as she grunted softly, forcing the sorry-to-be-an-offensive-katana into the centre of the wooden plant. Clunk!
“You’re pathetic!” Sedele’s father moaned as she saw him roll his eyes and stomp up to her from out of the corner of her eyes. He took the weapon aggressively from her hold and pushed her away, having her lose her balance and fall into the overgrown grasslands below.
“I’ll show you,” he growled, “You need not be weak when facing your enemy. The world is your enemy and you must not trust anyone. Everything is evil, and the only way to right the wrong is by ending it once and for all. The essence of life is hatred and we as a Symenestra kill those who disobey that lifestyle,” he explained as he showed her the proper form of which to attack. He separated his feet to where one foot was in front of the other, but separated by a shoulder’s width.
“You position the blade like so, your enemy having the lower ground,” he continued, concentrating on his target more than his technique as his hands turned white from the firm grip he had on the weapon’s wooden handle. But Sedele wasn’t paying much attention either way to her father’s complex demonstration; she was distracted by her own incessant thoughts instead.
She noticed her father’s ashen skin, as pale as the moon’s reflection in a steady pool of water. She was interested in the way it seemed to attract the sun’s rays, having it seem to blind all who stared at its beauty. She was captivated by his scarlet red eyes and how they held power, truth, control and pain within the bloody colour. She saw his long black hair and the way it was always tied up into a ponytail behind his back, framing his sharply defined face perfectly. She instinctively wondered as to what her mother must have looked like before she past away so long ago. She couldn’t seem to stop herself as she interrogated her father.
“What was she like?” The sound of clanking metal hit the air like cold water being thrown onto a cat after she spoke her inquiry. Only after a while did Sedele realise that her father had hit the katana onto a large boulder to the right of his obstacle. He instantly knew who Sedele happened to be talking about.
“That is irrelevant,” he replied to her calmly, but his eyes spoke of ice and fire. Sedele was unfazed, however. She wanted with all her heard to know about her mother. Her father had said that she had died during child birth but nothing more, for his hatred of remembering. Sedele wasn’t sure whether he didn’t want to remember because it was too painful or whether he didn’t like to think about the past because it was not a necessity and didn’t care too much to recognise it and speak of her.
“But I must know,” Sedele persisted. Her mouth continued to form words, her heart pressuring her to continue, yet her mind cried for her to stop, for she knew what would happen if she disobeyed her predatory father. “Were her eyes bright like mine? Was she beautiful, smart and strong?”
“Enough,” her father growled, his extended canine teeth visible, sharpened to show that he was lethal and would attack if threatened to do so. But Sedele wanted more and didn’t feel intimidated. She was hungry for the knowledge of her ancestry, and race, and the only one who remembered her mother and was old enough to have such information was her father.
“Father,” Sedele pressed, deep in her own thoughts, “What was my mother’s name?” A slight breeze was followed by the feeling of a wet substance that lingered on Sedele’s cheek. She lifted her hand to brush off the liquid, gasping as she realized that the colour was red. Her father had cut her!
“Father-” Sedele whispered, but she was soon interrupted by her father’s booming voice, the words slicing the air as they were spoken. “You will not disobey me again!”
She did not cower; instead Sedele straightened her back, threw back her shoulders and locked her jaw as her teeth groiund together. She had never really talked back to her father before, or at least not without feeling heavy feelings of regret or an unnecessary punishment in return. However, now she felt proud and strong as well as defiant emotions concocting throughout her blood. “It’s my right to know. She’s
my mother, you know,” she sneered, her top lip curling back to reveal to large eye teeth of her own.
Sedele’s father stalked closer to her, eyes blazing with irises full of anger and hatred. Once he had come close enough to her, he raised his hand quickly. She didn’t even flinch as she blocked the oncoming blow with the outside of her forearm. Her father’s face reddened at the embarrassment of having not made a connection with her face. He took action, his head clouded by a dark wrath.
He first swung the arm that held the blade, hacking it intensely at Sedele’sshoulders, his perfect demonstrative technique now vanished with his rational sense of mind. Sedele merely jumped back and dodged to the left, barely escaping the dull blade. It might have been dull, but she knew from past experiences that any blade could be deadly.
The man, who Sedele had finally come to consider as not her father, brought back the sword once more, raising it above his head, having created an opening for Sedele to strike. She lunged in and sent a front kick towards his abdomen. Consequently, he dropped the blade and fell back into a heap on the forest floor.
Sedele could have sworn she’d seen smoke releasing from his ears, his pupils dilating into a malevolent cat’s glare as he screamed at Sedele. She hadn’t a clue what she had gotten herself into, only knowing that the direction these events happened to be going could only lead to one devastating finale. She hated to see her father angry, for she wished nothing more than to make his proud, but what had she done to deserve such irrational actions of violence against her? She merely asked a simple question about her mother’s name. Was it really that painful to relive a death that had happened so long ago?
Suddenly, a raging voice erupted from nearby, sending chills down her spine. “You’ll learn your place!” Her father then swept his hand down by his boot and reached in to retrieve something. Pulling out his dirty hand, nails now littered with moss and mud, he held a large dagger between two nimble fingers.
Sedele blinked rapidly and held her breath, starting to creep backwards as realisation hit her like a brick. Her father was going to charge at her! He was trying to kill her! And then he did just what Sedele had predicted he would do. His mouth practically foaming in anger, his eyes bulging out of their sockets in morbid greed, he charged at his daughter who had stepped greatly out of line, aiming to teach her a lesson with his dagger.
Sedele’s heart raced as she watched him run toward her. She was in such a panic she ended up tripping on something heavy behind her, having her lose her grip on reality and fall to the ground. Completely vulnerable, Sedele started to blank out, her mind and body’s nerves growing dull as her being stay still, lying prostrate among dead flowers and fallen logs. Her father was almost among her when she saw a glinting object out of the corner of her eye.
I must have tripped on this, she thought to herself as a tidal of raging thoughts tried to battle for attention. The call of an end neared as her father jumped into the air, screaming profane words at his very own flesh and blood. Sedele reacted quickly, reaching for the object she had seen not more than seconds ago, positioning it so that it pointed upright on her breasts.
The world went black and time seemed to cease. Sedele couldn’t breathe, as the feeling of heavy weights pressed down on her from all angles. The sound of a suction cup being dislodged from a flat surface, the sound of a cat lapping up hydration from a watering hole as well as the sound of a fork grating against enamel protruded her ears, yet she unable to locate the source of all the sounds.
She knew she was dead, the instant conclusion anyone would make after they had been through a recent tragic event. But once she had realised she had the capability of opening her eyes, she found herself staring into the hollow eyes of her father, whom was whispering his last and final word; the name of her mother.
“Sakovamadinne.” The voice was feint, yet the words rolled off his bloody lips with such prominence and pride that it felt like he had shouted it. And then his body laid still, a top of her own. The katana had sent itself through his solarplex into all the vital organs it had served yet failed to protect. Crimson liquid laced with cells of life poured out of the open wound and onto Sedele.
She was in awe, stuck upon with a full blow of shock. No matter how hard she tried to take hold of the truth of her murdering act in killing her only father, she couldn’t seem to grasp reality. It seemed to swim just out of her reach as she stayed lying down with her father’s dead body above her. She knew one thing she desired to have the most and that was the memory of her father. She couldn’t ever forget what he did to her, whether it was wrong or not. She could not forget how he tried so hard to make her become the perfect soldier he wanted. He had taught her how to fight, he had taught her how to be intelligent in the acts of war and most of all, he was there for her all the time, trying to make her strong and endurable.
She opened her mouth and let the blood drip into her mouth, caressing her fangs and toying with her emotions with a cruel sense of humour. She instantly began seeing images of her past: The time her father had invited her to go out and hunt for her very first meal, having the trip end in bloody knees and no dinner; the time when she had cut her hair by herself, having it turn out all ragged and uneven. Her father had merely taken a pair of scissors and had cut off all her lovely locks of charcoal so that she looked like a boy. Many flashbacks continued to weave their way into Sedele’s memory until she couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed her father off of her, making sure to gently lay his head on the soft grass. She debated on whether to accept the need of having a weapon with her or not, and remember abruptly that she still had her family’s lash in her pack near the targeted tree.
Tears were started to form as she walked to the tree to redeem her items. How could she have just killed her father? Why didn’t she just let him lacerate her with his dagger? Why couldn’t she have taken the pain and accepted the punishment he had for her? All of the events that had progressed until now made Sedele feel queasy. She couldn’t take it. She suddenly knew what she had to do, and without looking back she ran away, leaving her bloody father, dead, with a large sword sticking out of his chest to stay among all the wildlife she had so come to destroy.
She ran, and ran, and continued to run until she couldn’t anymore. Her tears blinded her line of sight, causing her to almost run right into a woman.
“Oh!” she heard the lady gasp as the knock sent Sedele’s mind spiralling even more than it was previously. “Are you alright, dear?” The woman continued, hurrying over to Sedele, who lay sitting on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chest, sobbing silently to herself.
Sedele simply shook her head. She wasn’t alright and she thought she’d never be again.
The woman extended her hand in a friendly invitation to help her up, but Sedele didn’t accept the gesture. She was angry and confused and needed some time alone with her jumbled thoughts, having no need for comfort from anyone, no doubting from a complete and total stranger.
But the woman wouldn’t resist as she continued, “Come with me then. You look like you’ve had a bad day. My camp is near by.”
Before she knew it, Sedele found her legs unfolding so that her boots touched the ground. She propelled herself up without the need of support from her arms, and started to follow the strange woman deeper and deeper into the woods.
She didn’t know why she would have allowed herself to open up as wide as she did after all the horrendous events that had happened recently, she found herself not caring. She had just mutilated her father, yet she had still managed to keep herself alive and sober whether she hadn’t stabilized her emotions yet or not. She also had managed to get her hands on her father’s prized dagger.
She had scooped up the blade to take place of the katana she so desired to take. It was her father’s dagger, an Isurian body with the handle painted azurite blue, tints of green marbleized together. It wasn’t a very expensive weapon, a short blade unworthy of creating too much damage to an enemy unless stabbed in the right area, but Sedele honoured it either way, realising that it was the only thing to remember her father by, minus the Symenestran lash she still carried in the bottom of her pack.
“What is a girl like you doing in the middle of the woods, blood scorched through her clothes?” Sedele had completely forgotten all about her father’s dripping fluids and the way she had drank his blood for remembrance. “You are a worshipper of Viratas, hmm?”
“No,” Sedele blurted, her tone involuntarily harsh, her tongue feeling swollen, her face suddenly numb. She hadn’t been a true Symenestra, for her father had always taught her differently. He had a strange hatred against his own race, having Sedele create many theories as to why he did. She considered that since his wife had been killed by a Symenestra, he assumed all Symenestran were cannibalistic creatures who killed their own people. That or Sedele assumed her father was just wanting to be different.
“You are an outcast,” the woman stated, freezing Sedele’s blood where it flowed. For the first time did she notice the woman’s tone; it was an icy cold when stern, but a soft velvet when soothing. Her beauty was another thing that was obvious as well as easily misconstrued. The lady had flowing white hair that looked like snow falling silently to the forest floor; the white wasn’t the of an elder’s but more of a faded light blond that shimmered in the sun’s rays. her eyes were a unique hazel brown that twinkled and shone like beacons to the sailors of the Suvan Sea. her lips were thin, but soft, perfectly proportioned to her soft cheek bones and button nose. This woman couldn’t possibly be much older than Sedele.
“Yes. I am,” Sedele heard herself saying as she watched the woman’s warm eyes tell her truth and secrets, sympathy latent within her words.
“Your father taught you to kill all, to destroy everything without any mercy, that everyone is an enemy.”
How did this complete stranger know so much about her? From what she could remember, she hadn’t seen or even spoken to the look of this woman before, yet she knew so much about her.
“That’s not true at all,” Sedele spat, feeling that this lady knew too much of Sedele to allow her further. She took a seat as far from the stranger as she could, eyeing her suspiciously. The forest floor near the fire wasn’t as wet as it had been back with her father, but the warmth of the flames did nothing to soothe her faltering heart.
“Now,” the female cooed, her eyes softening even more so, her lips erupting into a small grin too beautiful to seem real, “It feels better to tell the truth.”
The statement couldn't have been more true. Sedele felt a strong feeling of passion and comfort flow through her as though she had stepped into a field of flowers and relief. The woman’s eyes looked like they held a past knowledge no mortal human could comprehend.
Sedele finally gave in to the woman’s warm embracing eyes and solitary heart. “It’s true. He’s told me many things about how the world is full of evil and that everyone holds that evil within them.” Before Sedele knew it, she was blurting out her emotional problems about her life.
“My father raised me to be unique and rebellious to our natural racial culture. He told me that the people were just trying to harm all unnecessary things. He even had proof, stating that my mother was assassinated by a Symenestra, leaving her child, me, in the hands of her husband. He was broken apart and learnt to deal with the his depressing sadness and stress through teaching my how to fight. All my life he’s been cruel; filled to the brim with sorrow and grief, taking his anger out on me. But not long ago did I start to question his tactics and his thoughts on life, which lead me into be rebellious not only against my culture but against him as well.”
Sedele shut her eyes for a few seconds, breathing deeply as if trying to remember a specific past time she could use as an example of her defiance toward her guardian. She opened her eyes abruptly as she knew which one to choose.
“I started to meet new people on the inside of Kalinor as well as farther out in new cities even though it was forbidden and against his rules. They were nice people as I watched them from a distance. They hugged each other and helped others, yet there were a few individuals who were cruel. I watched those in particular and their actions reminded me of my… father.”
The relevance of the two beings startled Sedele. She shivered as she remembered the way the mean people acted, stealing and hurting and threatening, and the way they spoke, using much vulgar and disturbing words. It chilled Sedele to the bone that she could have even considered her father to be like them, but it was too true to deny.
“My father gave me punishments when he found out what I was doing. They were very intense and painful that I stopped exploring. I don’t understand. I don’t know if he was afraid or not. Even now I am secretive when I try to seek out as much information that I can about my heritage and ancestry.” Sedele drew in a large gulp of humid air before she continued on with her explanation.
“I would sneak into Kalinor and visit the Cribellum to try and learn as much as I could behind my father’s back. Things most definitely weren’t what my father had told me they were.”
The pale lady just sat idly by, silently as she nodded her head every so often in understanding, acknowledging Sedele’s story through salty tears and running mucus. For once it felt like someone cared to listen to her and the interest this woman radiated off gave Sedele a sense of satisfaction.
“Lately I have been learning so much from my trips into the underground city. I know how all the Symenestra want is to have families, but they can’t without the mother dying… in childbirth,” Sedele ended in a mere whisper, choking on tears as she realised that her father’s explanations were all lies; the answers never being true.
“You are correct,” the lady spoke, her golden brown eyes dancing with the visual of fireworks exploding inside. The light played tricks on Sedele’s mind as she saw the pools of amber and gold ripple in delight.
“Your father never told you the truth, because he was trying to protect himself more than he was of you. He has done many bad things in his lifetime and didn’t want you to rat him out. He wanted you to believe in his way of life and grow up to be someone like himself. You killed your father through the natural way a Symenestran baby lives, honey. I see you have done your research and now you finally understand. I am delighted to hear this from you.”
Sedele didn’t understand. How did this woman know so much about her? She had known before, but now the things she spoke were so accurate it spooked her and chilled her bones, having little sparks of electricity trample up and down her veins.
“Who are you?” Sedele asked, having very few ideas as to whom this strange lady could possibly be. She didn’t seem familiar to her in any way, yet the way her eyes glowed and the way her smile blossomed made Sedele question herself. This woman knew so much about her and spoke everything she was thinking was false. This woman knew more knowledge than Sedele ever fully knew about herself and her people.
The lady merely chuckled, a heart-lifting chuckle that had Sedele’s mind whirl. “I think you already know that, my dear girl.”
And it was true. Everything the woman had spoken and everything that Sedele had thought were both true and real. This lady was someone who she had heard about. The lady who knew so much that it would drive the regular mortal insane. This lady knew things that no one could ever understand or even try to comprehend. Sedele was honoured to be in the present of a goddess.
“But I killed my father,” Sedele croaked, as she felt the tears starting to well up in her eyes again. They threatened to burst through the water dam that angered Sedele. Why couldn’t it stay strong and protect the city on the outside from its raging flood?
Eyris clucked her tongue, a sad but sympathetic and understanding smile spreading upon her lips. She gently placed a hand on Sedele’s shoulder, softly whisper ring to her that everything will be alright. “The knowledge of life is yours to make right, my child.”
A sudden burning sensation had Sedele distracted. She looked down upon her shoulder to find a glowing mark in the shape of two circles meeting each other by a pair of sharp lines. She hadn’t a clue what the mark meant, but knew she would in the near future.
“What’s this?” she asked as she raised her head to Eyris, only to find that she had disappeared. Her tent, her camp fire and everything that had been to make her known had vanished. A hint of panic and confusion settled in the pit of her stomach before she chalked up the actions as a magical miracle. She had just met the wonderful queen of wisdom and had received her mark.
Those last words spoken out of Eyris’s mouth still lingered in the air as Sedele spoke them aloud to herself. “The knowledge of life is yours to make right.”
And she would do just that.
Redemption.