Just as Kaie was finishing her trap, Ria asked her a question Kaie assumed everyone knew. She wasn't offended by the woman's lack of knowledge, but she was a bit confused considering Nyka was far closer to Ravok than Taloba. How was it she had heard the stories in a place so far away, and Ria was spared of them all? Kaie did have to note a big portion of the tale did take place in Taloba, though, which might've had something to do with it. And then she was commenting about sorcery.
How it was "a pain trying to keep track of them all." That little bit caught the Myrian's attention. Previous to her travels, Kaie had known only Malediction to exist. Now men were starting fire with nothing but their own flesh, and that wasn't all she had to worry about? It certainly put the woman on the defensive. That's when Vanari interjected with her own experiences, ending with a few questions of her own. At least the two inquiries overlapped at one point.
"Very funny. What was he like? I don't know. He wasn't really a big guy. Lithe figure, brown, short, shaggy hair. Brown eyes. Watched him reach down and just pluck fish from a brook. At first I wrote it off as some kind of cunning. Now if you would give me a chime..." She trailed off while seeming to have been looking through her audience, speaking from memory more than anything else. After a moment of thought, however, Kaie returned to the present. There was another question for her to answer. One she could rant about for eons if given the chance. She'd do her best to condense her story as well as her emotions.
Kaie inhaled as she returned to her feet, propping the squirrel pole up as she did. She exhaled just as deeply, walking outside the invisible perimeter of their camp. After several paces she found a tree with enough signs of activity around it to place her trap. After leaning the pole up the trunk into a higher branch, Kaie headed back to the fire. She ran a hand down her face to compose herself before she finally began. "Alright. I guess it's most fitting to start at the beginning," She stated rather obviously as she knelt beside the fire and peered into the flames.
"Before Blessed Myri, there was another that ruled warfare. A god named Ruros. Soon a young woman, Myri the Merciless, began receiving more notoriety with every battle won, and gaining a whole race of followers with it. We began to call her Goddess Queen of the jungle. Ruros was jealous, and when Myri denied her his hand in marriage, they battled. Myri won and rose to become the Goddess of War and Victory," She explained seemingly only to the flames in a calm, serene voice of a warrior whose mind was imprinted with such stories. So many times had she strolled along the streets of Taloba, listening to her mother recount every triumph of their Queen. But that was the prologue necessary to answer their question. Now came the present information they sought.
Kaie's eyes flicked up, now smoldering in darkness ruled by a deep hatred only a Myrian could truly understand. Her words dripped with poison more potent than Siku's. "But Ruros has a son. A demigod named Uphis who rules as a Celestial in Nyka. They call him Alvina of Sharp Blades. He is biding his time until he can avenge his father. Terrible things befall any in connection to Myri he discovers," The Myrian all but growled, sounding more like she was on the war path to the city herself than simply stating facts. "I've been told his monks guard the walls of Nyka...That is why I cannot go near the city," Kaie finished bitterly, prodding the flames with a stray stick. It promptly caught of fire, but she didn't let it go until the last moment. She just watched it burn and break until it came dangerously close to burning her fingers. It took several moves of hostile brooding before the bitterness swept from her features, disappearing behind a heavily fortified wall erected by both learned civility and pride.
How it was "a pain trying to keep track of them all." That little bit caught the Myrian's attention. Previous to her travels, Kaie had known only Malediction to exist. Now men were starting fire with nothing but their own flesh, and that wasn't all she had to worry about? It certainly put the woman on the defensive. That's when Vanari interjected with her own experiences, ending with a few questions of her own. At least the two inquiries overlapped at one point.
"Very funny. What was he like? I don't know. He wasn't really a big guy. Lithe figure, brown, short, shaggy hair. Brown eyes. Watched him reach down and just pluck fish from a brook. At first I wrote it off as some kind of cunning. Now if you would give me a chime..." She trailed off while seeming to have been looking through her audience, speaking from memory more than anything else. After a moment of thought, however, Kaie returned to the present. There was another question for her to answer. One she could rant about for eons if given the chance. She'd do her best to condense her story as well as her emotions.
Kaie inhaled as she returned to her feet, propping the squirrel pole up as she did. She exhaled just as deeply, walking outside the invisible perimeter of their camp. After several paces she found a tree with enough signs of activity around it to place her trap. After leaning the pole up the trunk into a higher branch, Kaie headed back to the fire. She ran a hand down her face to compose herself before she finally began. "Alright. I guess it's most fitting to start at the beginning," She stated rather obviously as she knelt beside the fire and peered into the flames.
"Before Blessed Myri, there was another that ruled warfare. A god named Ruros. Soon a young woman, Myri the Merciless, began receiving more notoriety with every battle won, and gaining a whole race of followers with it. We began to call her Goddess Queen of the jungle. Ruros was jealous, and when Myri denied her his hand in marriage, they battled. Myri won and rose to become the Goddess of War and Victory," She explained seemingly only to the flames in a calm, serene voice of a warrior whose mind was imprinted with such stories. So many times had she strolled along the streets of Taloba, listening to her mother recount every triumph of their Queen. But that was the prologue necessary to answer their question. Now came the present information they sought.
Kaie's eyes flicked up, now smoldering in darkness ruled by a deep hatred only a Myrian could truly understand. Her words dripped with poison more potent than Siku's. "But Ruros has a son. A demigod named Uphis who rules as a Celestial in Nyka. They call him Alvina of Sharp Blades. He is biding his time until he can avenge his father. Terrible things befall any in connection to Myri he discovers," The Myrian all but growled, sounding more like she was on the war path to the city herself than simply stating facts. "I've been told his monks guard the walls of Nyka...That is why I cannot go near the city," Kaie finished bitterly, prodding the flames with a stray stick. It promptly caught of fire, but she didn't let it go until the last moment. She just watched it burn and break until it came dangerously close to burning her fingers. It took several moves of hostile brooding before the bitterness swept from her features, disappearing behind a heavily fortified wall erected by both learned civility and pride.
