Searching for the Despised (Syveris)

by **Skerry** on December 13th, 2013, 2:37 pm

The War Hawk made no sound, just stared at her with a bewildered expression. Whether he had been struck dumb by her reaction to the room and her speech or he just chose not to speak was unclear. Either way, he remained silent, not challenging her decision to go and explore the branching tunnel. There was a fearful look in his eye however as if he wasn't confident about getting out of this place. It was only there for a few moments before his eyes went blank, his true feelings hidden once more.

The nightmarish tunnel that the glassworker was thinking of exploring looked as if someone had gone a bit overboard in the tunnel carving. Every tunnel seemed to branch off somewhere creating a multitude of possible choices. The girl would just have to wind her way through the various tunnels and hope that she got somewhere. Somehow they were all more or less the same shape which meant that it was easy to get confused about which tunnels you'd been down. Perhaps if there was some way to mark the walls or leave a trail, it'd be easier for someone to find their way back.

There weren't any drawing implements lying around handy so if Syveris wanted to leave something to indicate the way back then she'd have to get inventive. There had been nothing in the statue room that seemed useful though she could go and look again if she chose. The only thing that she'd get from that search would be a feeling of frustration and perhaps a bit of cloth. She could head back down the tunnel with the stinking mushrooms and use the fungi or maybe the mud as some sort of reeking trail.

There was always the possibility of just taking a chance and heading down the tunnel with no guarantee of finding her way back.

by **Syveris** on December 13th, 2013, 3:17 pm

Not a single reply. She expected that much, but anger rose inside her, probably a result of her frustration. She growled curses to herself, passing by the man and stomping her way back to the branch. Why wouldn't anyone talk to her? Yes, Zulrav had accused her, but they never even stopped to think that no one had seen her do anything suspicious (because she hadn't) the whole season?

"You coward." she spat to the Inarta. "I wish I was really a traitor, so I could take you straight to the Despised." no, she didn't wish that, but she was angry. With a sigh, Syveris shook her head, stopping in front of the heavily-branched path. Now, how to mark the way? It wasn't like she was going to be able to get help from her stupid follower.

Syveris bit her lip, thinking. She could mark the way with pieces of cloth, but they would be easy to miss. Well, she had another idea.

The Avora took her bryda off, and ripped a good piece out of both legs. She truly liked the cloth, and now, she was destroying it. Well, it was either that or get lost. Or she could go back. But that would be just her last resort. Syveris put the bryda back on, and, with one piece of cloth in each hand, went back to the stinking fungi formation. It made her sick again, but there really wasn't anything in her stomach for her to vomit again. With disgust written all over her face, Syveris knelt in the water, and took as much fungi as she could in one of the pieces and wrapped it up. After doing the same with the other, the Avora raised again, feeling faint because of the smell.

And now, the smell would keep her company. It gave her a small satisfaction that the man would also have to feel the smell all the way down. Without so much as looking at him again, Syveris went back to the branched path, holding the clothes full of fungi in her hands. She went straight this time, keeping always to the rightmost branch and shoving her finger in the disgusting fungi to draw with it a small arrow, showing which way she had come from. It was great that no worth people lived down there, because Syveris was basically creating a path of disgusting smell.

Each time she grabbed some fungi, she had to tell herself over and over again that this was going to be worth it, that she would find something, anything. And, maybe, when they had gone back to the Inner Warrens, Syveris could even try to smear some fungi on the Inarta that was following her. She hoped his reaction would be funny, because she truly felt like she deserved something like that for having to grab stinking fungi to prove she was innocent, when she was being accused with no proof at all.

"Can I please find something?" Syveris whispered, asking the Deep Warrens. She was getting mad, probably, asking the mountain to help her. She took another branch, marking it with another arrow of fungi, and kept looking.

by **Skerry** on December 15th, 2013, 1:16 pm

The War Hawk had lapsed into what seemed to be a permanent silence, the only reaction from him the occasional change of facial expressions. Syveris would not get much from him.

Her way of marking the walls was effective, leaving a dark smudge while it was wet. When it dried it would become harder to see but it could definitely be smelt. Unfortunately, the smell was carried with the glassworker so no matter where she was she could smell it as she was carrying it around with her. It would leave her stinking later, the stench clinging to her hair and skin and making her nose stuff up in protest of the offensive stench. It would mean that people would be even more likely to avoid her.

Her whisper to the tunnels did not produce much of a result. Either someone didn't care for her plea or else she wasn't observant enough to see the signs that she needed to investigate. After what seemed like bells of moving around in circles, her arrows confirming that fact, Syveris entered a section of tunnel that was oddly damp. The air was clammy and the ground beneath her was softer like mud. The soft earth would cling to her shoe and make it stick, forcing her to bend down to try to free it. Only then would she see the other set of prints that had made an impression in the mud. There were two light prints where she hadn't walked but she had more or less obliterated the one she was standing on and the ones behind her. The ground further ahead seemed more solid and so hadn't been marked.

The shoe prints wouldn't give her a lot of information. They could have been made by boots and they were made by feet bigger than her own. She wouldn't be able to tell anything else, not experienced in tracking. The direction of the prints would make her want to proceed but she would discover that the way ahead was just as confusing as the way behind except she had no advantage there. The walls were damp, slimy even and if she tried to mark it with her fungi, Syveris would learn that the mark would be lost the instant she put it down. If she tried to continue she'd almost certainly get lost but she seemed so close...

by **Syveris** on December 15th, 2013, 1:51 pm

The smell was getting supportable, but it only meant she didn't want to throw up because of it anymore. The fungi was still stinking, and it was still strong and annoying. And the smell was certainly staying on her. The first place she was going to go when she got out was the Tisuma Baths, to take it off her. Syveris doubted she would want her clothes anymore, though. They would be stinking a lot, too.

It was getting tiring, and she had to each time focus her mind on going forward, telling herself she would find something, even if she hadn't until now. The Avora was noticing the arrows in the wall, and sometimes she wanted to scream in frustration for walking around in circles. And yet, she had to go on.

Syveris felt her feet get caught in the ground, and she looked down, seeing the soft ground. Was it mud? The Avora sent a look back at the other Inarta, thinking about asking him, but then she just shrugged. It wasn't like he was going to answer, anyway, so she just tried to free her feet. Sighing, she bent down, using her hands to do so, and frowned when she saw a footprint. It was too big to be her own, and the man was behind her, so it wouldn't be him either. Syveris couldn't help but smile, glad that she had indeed found something.

However, the ground turned to solid, which meant she couldn't follow said footprints. Well, at least she was on the right path. How long had it passed since she had entered the Deep Warrens? She couldn't tell.

The air was damp, not less annoying and distressing. With a sigh, the Avora took another bit of fungi and smeared it on the wall, frowning when she saw it was impossible to be seen, no matter how much she looked. Syveris suddenly felt an overwhelming disappointment. She was so close, and there was no way she could go down there with no way to mark the path without getting lost. Did she really want to be proven innocent so much that she was willing to risk her life?

With tears in her eyes, the Avora turned back, ready to give up. But then, she stopped. Syveris wasn't doing it only for herself, was she? There were others that were accused by Zulrav, one of them only a Yasi. If she didn't do anything, they would suffer too. She had to do it, for herself and for them too.

It was frightening, though, the thought she might never find the way back. Well, it wasn't like there were this many people that would miss her. Maybe three or four. And if she never went back, wouldn't they think she was really working for the Despised and ran away because of it?

The thought was more painful than comforting, so she shoved it away, focusing once again only in discovering anything, and then heading back. Syveris took a deep breath, before she ripped the pieces of cloth in smaller ones, trying to put them near the wall, under a sharper stone or anything like that. The Avora didn't even want to stay long enough to know if they would be an effective way to mark the path. It was the only idea she had, and if it failed, she knew she was going to give up. And Syveris couldn't just give up.

by **Skerry** on December 16th, 2013, 12:44 pm

The trail that Syveris left of the dark cloth would be very hard to see in the dim lighting of the passage. The girl would find herself going in circles and not noticing until she dropped a piece of cloth beside one that was already there, one that hadn't been visible to her. Realising just how confusing the passages were and having no way to mark them, the glassworker might reconsider her options. She might try to find her way back or try to find a way to go forward.

Going forward would be a massive gamble. There were no more signs in the tunnels after the footprints that she came across, nothing to tell her if she was heading in the right direction. The War Hawk behind would make whimpering sounds, perhaps believing the situation to be as hopeless as it seemed. Heading forwards through a winding path would lead to a passage that grew steadily warmer and warmer, making the walker sweat, but the passage would be easier to follow than the twisty ones from before.

Going back would be tricky as well. It would be hard to find her way back to the passage with the footprints, following her poor trail of cloth. If she managed to find the tunnel from whence she'd come then finding her way back would be easy, she'd only need to retrace her steps, following her arrows back to the more negotiable tunnels.

If she didn't make some sort of progress soon then her tail was likely to start screaming about never getting out as he was reaching the end of his tether. He kept muttering under his breath, a string of words too quiet for the glassworker to hear though the sound would remind her of the whispering from the room with the twisted statue. It might make her question her resolve, make her wonder if the tunnels were somehow conspiring against her.

by **Syveris** on December 17th, 2013, 12:57 am

With each step, her resolution seemed to waver, and she had to think about everything that could possible give her strength for her to keep going. It didn't help that many times she was making circles, and each time she saw a piece of cloth when she bent down to place another one, her heart clenched and she felt like screaming.

Syveris stopped sometimes, wondering if it wouldn't be better just to go back. But no matter what, it would be just as hard to find the way back now than it would be later on. The Avora was completely lost, she had come to accept it by now. She could try to follow the trail of cloth back to the muddy floor, but then, she could do the same later on.

So she kept going forward, her mind racing, her heart clenching and each step was a private war between going on and going back. The whimpering sound for the man behind her wasn't helping, and when the other screamed, she turned, face red with anger and annoyance.

"You shut up now, you clipped chick!" the words came in form of screaming, and Syveris noticed she had just insulted the man without even knowing if he was of a higher caste than hers. He probably was, but the feelings inside her were too overwhelming for the Avora to care right now. "You said nothing back there, so you say nothing now, or something that will actually help! You don't know what's like! I have perhaps three people that believe in me, and if Zulrav comes back and finds nothing on this Dek licker, he is going to blame someone. And who you think will take all the petching blame? Me and the others accused by him, who probably don't have anything to do with this either! And then, if we are lucky, we might be send away from Wind Reach, alone! Wind Reach is my home just as much as its yours, and I deserve to be here just as much as you do! But you know what it's likely to happen, right? It's very, very likely that we will be sentenced to death, and I'll have to watch my friends watch me die, and maybe believe that I was indeed a traitor! So, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die doing something, not just sitting around and waiting."

All the while, Syveris barely breathed, the words coming out of her mouth. She barely knew herself she was feeling that stressed and that hopeless, but everything she had said was true. The Avora couldn't just wait and hope that this marked by Zulrav would be able to find the Despised. There was no guarantee. How could she go back like this?

Stomping, so she would muffle at least the whimper, Syveris kept going, marking her way even though she knew maybe it would be useless. After a while, she noticed she was sweating a little, and the air around her seemed warmer. Running a hand on her face, the Avora noticed she had been crying. Was she really that desperate? Syveris laughed, humorless. Yes, she was. Of course she was.

The Warrens seemed now easier to navigate, although that didn't say much about anything. She was getting slightly hungry too. Syveris sighed, looking at the man behind her, feeling just as helpless as he had. She would go on for a few chimes, or a bell (not that she could really keep track of time down there), and, if the tunnels began to get complicated again, or too much time passed, she would give up. Syveris was starting to feel like there was nothing to find, and that the rumors were just that, rumors. Well, she would try a little more, and then, she would focus her attention in going back. That would take a lot of time, too...

With another sigh, Syveris walked forward once more. Maybe she could visit the statue room on her way back, to see if she missed something, anything. If she ever found the way back.

by **Skerry** on December 20th, 2013, 12:47 pm

When Syveris finished screaming, her voice still echoed in the tunnels but then it stopped and silence reigned in the Deep Warrens once more. The man following her had backed away from her, a big Endal War Hawk terrified by a little Avora glassworker. His face was frozen in a look of horror and shock, his eyes seeming to bulge from their sockets, his mouth hanging slightly open as he stared back at her. Needless to say, the man was now a little bit frightened of her, that was clear from his expression but perhaps she'd find that she would pay for her insolence later.

As the girl stomped on ahead, the tunnel would get warmer still, the air so hot that it would be hard to move. It would seem as if the heat that came from the batch ovens in the Glass Reverie had spilled into the passage, encompassing everything in its path. It would seem brighter too, almost as if the walls were slightly lighter than they ought to be, as if some strange light was coming through it. If she hurried through this tunnel, made it through the intolerable heat and into a part of the tunnel that gradually cooled, she'd find herself standing in a familiar place. The scent of rotting would fill her nose once more and she'd realise that she'd travelled in a circle. She'd returned to the passage that had led to the rotting fungi in the first place. She wasn't even that far from where she'd originally come in. Bells of travelling in the tunnels had basically gotten her nowhere.

The War Hawk would sob with relief when he saw something he recognised and would fall to his knees to plead with the glassworker. "Please just end this madness and go back. Please just go back, I don't want to go for a long walk, please!"

by **Syveris** on December 20th, 2013, 1:27 pm

The heat was strong, and it seemed to be weighting her down. The Avora hurried her pace, hoping she wasn't going to somewhere where she would be cooked alive. Gratefully, she reached a point where the tunnel cooled down again, but Syveris also felt the smell of fungi again, getting stronger with each step she took. The Avora didn't want to believe in it, she kept saying it was her own smell that had caused it. But when they reached a point she recognized, the girl stood there in shock, unable to move.

Syveris barely heard the other Inarta cry and fall to his knees. She turned her face to him, tired, and very, very hopeless. The Avora had really hoped she would find something, but then, maybe the Despised wasn't even in the Deep Warrens. Rumors were just that, rumors.

With a sob of her own, Syveris pressed her back against the tunnel wall, sliding to the ground and hiding her face, arms around her knees. She couldn't believe it. No, she didn't want to. All this travelling, all this stupid search in the Deep Warrens, and she had found nothing. Tears were falling from her eyes, and as much as she tried to control them, she couldn't. The Avora should have... What? There was really nothing she could do, was there? She would have to wait for Zulrav's Priest to arrive, and pray to every god (except for Zulrav. She would never pray for him again) that he would find something. Because she couldn't do it.

For a few ticks, Syveris wondered if she should go search the room again, but all her initial resolve had been washed away from her. There really was nothing she could do. With another sob, the Avora allowed herself to cry. How tired she was, from everything. She just wanted to go to bed and sleep until everything had been figured out.

When the tears finally stopped, she bit her lip, cursing herself in her mind. Syveris had promised herself to be strong, hadn't she? It was only the eighth day of Winter, and she was already breaking down. There was really nothing to be found down there, but that didn't mean she would give up on everything. When the Priest came, she could still help him. Tell about the room, or whatever. If it was him who came down to investigate, maybe there would be something that could be found.

Nodding to herself, Syveris dried her face and got up. She was tired, she was stressed, and the Deep Warrens weren't helping her. Besides, she knew there were people who trusted her, for now, anyway. With a deep breath, she looked at her ruined bryda, and sighed. Ruined for nothing. She would have to buy another one soon.

"Yes, let's go." she whispered, eyeing the other Inarta with disgust and hate. She was feeling scared too, and not only of the Deep Warrens. She was scared of the Despised, of Zulrav and even of Wind Reach. And yet, Syveris had tried to do something, while the man had been the worse help she could ever think of. "But I can't end a madness I didn't start, can I? I hate you, by the way. Can you ask the Valintar to assign someone else to watch me?" it was a stupid hope, and a meaningless problem in face of everything else, but Syveris couldn't even look at his face anymore without feeling very angry. She wanted to add 'someone who isn't a coward' on her request, but she had already pushed her luck too far. If she still had any.

With a sigh of defeat, the Avora turned to the direction that would lead her out of the tunnel, and began to walk, slowly, not really wanting to get anywhere right then.

by **Skerry** on December 21st, 2013, 11:15 pm

Grades

Syveris

Skill	XP
Intimidation	3
Investigation	3
Navigation	3
Observation	5
Stealth	1
Tracking	2

LORES :

Consequences:-ripped bryda
-reek of fungi: Syveris's clothes, hair and skin now carry the unpleasant odour of the fungi from the Deep Warrens. The smell won't leave her clothing without a couple of washes and an intensive bathing is essential or else two trips to the baths will be necessary.
-blocked nose from reaction to fungi: last until the 10th of Winter

Notes:
A pretty fruitless search I'm afraid, just a few footprints but the XP and lore make up for it. Well done!

Remember if you have any questions or problems with your grade then feel free to PM me.

Closed Searching for the Despised (Syveris)