Closed Falling apart at the seams, it seems... (Tinnok)

[Evalin]

57th of Spring, 514 AV

Her body was falling apart. Evailn knew this. She could feel with each passing tick her hold on this form decreasing. She sat now in a corner in the Scarlet Cavern. Aka was gone once more, much to the nuits relief. She could not let the girl see her like this. Evalin slowly reached up a hand, grimacing as she looked at the rotting flesh of her fingers and saw the muscle and tissue beneath the skin. Her body did not want to move. It refused her commands, rebelled against her actions no matter how little they might be.

"Tsenrika..." She whispered, "Find... Gresshal and bring him here..." Be damned even her vocal cords were begging to deteriorate. She tried to clear her throat, but when she spat it was a mixture of dried up mucus and clotted blood.

Even before the order was given Tsenrika had taken the replicate form, kneeling beside his master, brushing her hair from her face as a mother might do her sick child, "As my Master commands." he stood and quickly left, but she could feel him. Ever since the day before their bond had grown to astounding heights. She found that she could sense the Irylid no matter where he was, and they could hold communication despite the distance. Whats more, if she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could see the world through his eyes and his senses.

For now the nuit sat back against the wall, remaining as still as possible. The limbs at the joints felt weak and loose, like they would come free at any moment and so she did not wish to jostle them too much.

The price for immortality, she thought, Is great indeed.

Chimes past, or where those bells, before Evailn sensed the return of her Familiar. With him she could sense the mark of her underling Gresshal, and with it the bubbling hatred there in. It brought a small smile to Evalin's lips to see him slither through the entrance, the expression on his face not a pleasant one.

"I told you to leave me be Witch. I want nothing to do with you, or your plansss." He crossed his arms over his chest, coiling his tail beneath him as he finally got a look at Evalin, something of a smile showing, "What the petch is wrong with you? You look more like a corpsse than ussual."

"Amusing..." Evalin whispered, chuckling despite herself, "Such is the price I pay for our... adventures. Now it seems I am in need of a new body, and you will help me obtain it."

The Dhani raised his hands as Tsenrika walked around his large body, kneeling beside Evalin once more, "No... I want nothing to do with you, and I certainly don't want to help you find a new body. Petching undead witch. Just hurry up and die and leave me the ssshyke alone."

"How cute, it still thinks it can defy me." She laughed, more of a hacking cough now as she snapped her fingers, "Pick me up my pet, and carry me gently lest more of my body fall off."

Gresshal froze in place for a chime, his face a twisted grimace as he tried to resist, but the more he resisted the more pain arched through his body. Finally he seemed to relent and bent down, carefully lifting Evalin up and holding her like one might a child. The expression on his face sent shivers of delight running down evalin's spine.

"Do you hate me?" She whispered, reaching up a hand to gently caress his scaled neck. The Dhani, however, refused to answer, letting his silence speak for him as he slithered out of the cavern.

Evalin leaned back slightly to look at Tsenrika, "Take on your male aspect for now oh heart of my heart. It would be best if the Dhani did not see two of me running about." She smiled and leaned against Gresshal's chest. She knew he would do it. Ever since the other day, he was as loyal as he had ever been. Even more so perhaps. Thus she was not surprised when the wave of magic shifted through her as she felt Tsenrika tampering with his own djed, shifting it to change himself. Taking away his feminine features and adding mroe height, broadening the shoulders, yet still he kept some features similar in the face. They might have been brother and sister, were it not for his eyes which he had vainly left icy blue, even the whites, so that they reflected the world around him. Evailn liked this form. It felt strong to her, comforting, and he wore the black hair well, shaggy as it was that hung do his shoulders. There was nothing to do for the clothing, however. He could only wear what she wore, unless she dressed him in something else. So for now they would simply match in their taste of robes and cloaks.

"Where the petch are we going." It wasn't a question. It was a statement bitten off in frustration, and it made Evalin laugh.

"To the jungle. We shall find our prey there."

OOCI am assuming Gresshal was able to get them past the guards and into the jungle itself. I leave it to you to decide where they meet up

[Tinnok]

Tinnok had decided that this must be the height of her idiocy. She had no way to contact her brother Rarik without risking her own hide, and his in the process, but she had managed to find out he was stationed at the Zinrah Blockade...the last place where she wanted to go. When she had embarked upon her pilgrimage to Greave of Behemoths, she had felt her paranoia lessen day by day, and now it was back in full force. Every snapping twig and bird call sent her on edge. She had made her way as widely around the blockade as possible, but this was still some of the most dangerous territory to venture in where Falyndar was concerned. One wrong step and she'd either have a hungry Dhani hunting party to contend with or thousands of Myrians who thought she was a Dhani on her head.

She tried to find peace...or a smidgen of it at least in a hunt. Her longbow was partially drawn as she followed fresh tracks along a deer trail. The tracks she followed were bigger and rounder, Tinnok was hoping for an Okapi, with a little time and care she could get a fine pelt out of it...whenever she found someone who she could trade pelts with that wouldn't kill her out of hand.

She lost the tracks over a small stream, unsure if the creature went up through the water to discourage predators, turned around or crossed. There were no tracks on the other side, which led the huntress to scoping in ever widening circles around the stream bed, hoping for some sign of life.

Technically...what she found wasn't living...well one of them wasn't.

She heard the crackling of brush, and after a few ticks of a continuous trodding pace realized it was certainly sentient, and headed straight for her. The half breed froze, crouched down low then backed up cautious and quiet step by step, keeping track of where every footfall would be placed. This could be the end for her right here if she wasn't careful, and with that in mind every step was thought out. When her foot brushed against a root she hopped nimbly backward behind it and ducked down, only two golden orbs peering over it to see what was happening.

The reality was stranger than anything she could have anticipated. A Dhani carried a human...no...humanoid in its grasp, slithering warily through the underbrush, a look of disgust written on his features. Ths thing he carried looked so small when held against such a large brawny chest, but it looked...well it looked rotting, almost like a dead body, but there...it spoke and gestured, directing the beast, and when she caught a glimpse of those red eyes...

"Kath-ahrine." Tinnok's voice said, heavy with accent, she stood, both palms stretched out before her in a sign of peace as the Dhani's head whipped dangerously towards her.

"You not look good." Some part of her mind already regretted this action. Better to let her keep going, with whatever illness the strange creature had and be done with it, but the curiosity mixed with a healthy serving of revulsion Tinnok felt around the strange woman would not be held at bay.

[Evalin]

"You are going to get usss losst, and me petching killed." Gresshal hissed, shifting Evalin in his grasp, "It'sss ssuicide to go hunting for Myriansss like thisss, with only the three of usss."

Evalin waved her had absently, "Worry you not my pet. Tsenrika is here, and he shall keep you safe. Now, concentrate you on being more silent. A deaf simpleton would hear you a mile away."

The Dhani shook his head, about to make a retort when the bushes shifted on their own, and without thinking he jerked back a half pace. Though his eyes quickly flashed and he hissed agressively as he saw Tinnok's head and raised hands, "Myrian ssskum!" His coils bunched beneath him and he made to luge at Tinnok, one hand extending, but his movements suddenly halted all together as Evalin raised her hand and whispered the simple command, "Stop my dear Gresshal. This one is different."

The Dhani paused in mid lunge, hand outstretched going for Tinnok's neck, and he remained frozen for a tick as he struggled to complete his action, his face showing his growing hatred and distaste even as he trembled, but no matter how hard he tried he could not move his hand any closer.

"Come now, leave her be." Evalin smiled, shifting herself against Gresshal's chest, slowly petting the scales of his neck as her eyes searched Tinnok up and down, "Tinnok was it?" Evalin's voice was soft, the words sounding forced as she struggled to get the rotting vocal cords to work. Her lungs were beginning to fail in their jobs as well, not taking in as much air as they used to. Worse still was the skin that was begining to peal all over her body. Skin pulled back or stretched and tore to reveal the yellow of fat or red of muscle beneath as globs of clotted blood speckled her neck and fingers. Her knuckles had almost completely given away to bone, though a few stray strands of muscle remained to allow her to still move her fingers. Her body was almost completely limp now as she let herself be completely supported by the Dhani who had finally settled back on his coils once more, eyeing Tinnok suspiciously.

The nuit chuckled, a dry sound as she looked down at herself and waved a hand, "Perhaps I am a bit worse for ware... But tis nothing a new body will not fix." She paused, her eyes looking Tinnok up and down a moment as she thought, "A new body... Perhaps luck is with me this day."

A man stepped out from behind Gresshal, his hands clasped behind his back. he wore the same robes as Evalin, and his features were reminiscent of her own, though more masculine. His black hair fell in wild locks down to his shoulders, and his eyes were pure blue, even the areas that should have been white. The whole area where his eye should be was perfectly smooth, tinted blue and reflected the world around him, "She would make an excellent Vessel for my Master. Do you wish me to retrieve her for you?"

Evalin shrugged and waved a hand, eyes closing, "No... I owe her a dept and it is now payed." She blinked her eyes open once more, looking to Tinnok, "Why are you here so close to the nest? Surely you know better. Not all the Dhani are as foolish as Aka to allow one such as you to escape alive."

[Tinnok]

It was lucky Tinnok didn't know much common, the words 'vessel' and 'retrieve' rang hollow in her ears. She was taken aback by the third entity that appeared from behind the Dhani. His features were fair, and reminiscent of Katherine's own...well before the skin seemed about ready to fall off of her face that was. There was a lot to try to absorb. The Dhani clearly wanted to kill her, but it seemed as if the rotting woman's will seemed to prevent the beast from harming her. Simply another fact to stow away about the entity that made her skin crawl everytime she stared too long.

"I..here.." She sighed. "For fools reason." To find my brother, the only one that ever cared for me that was linked to me by blood, and tell him goodbye, to tell him the truth about what kind of monster I am.... She smiled then, to think among the rotting woman, the hulking Dhani, and the strange blue eyed man that she was a monster as well...well perhaps she and this strange dead creature were not so different as it seemed. Of course the pang in her Phylonura mark reminded her that that was at least in some sense...that was most definitely the case.

"You sick?" She said. Evalin's soft words seemed calm, almost nonchalant about the whole affair, yet clearly her attitude and her condition were two opposite sides of a miza. And if she was sick, why come out here where Myrians lurked at every turn?

She didn't know enough about medicine to even begin to help the creature, and leered back at the bulky Dhani's who was a bit too close for comfort, yellow eyes piercing his with a stare. She may not be able to stop him from attacking with a word, but if he did fight her, he would get more than he bargained for.

[Evalin]

"A foolish reason is no reason at all child." Evalin said simply, raising her eyebrow, "There is no point in throwing your life away on a fools errand. How pointless you mortals are. Your lives are so finite yet still you risk it on petty whims."

"Perhaps it is this that makes a mortal, mortal." Tsenrika offered, looking toward Evalin, "They cannot stop themselves from doing foolish things, and thus they die. Over the years death has just become entangled with them because of the stupidity of their ancestors."

"Perhaps indeed." Evalin nodded to Tsenrika, "In which case we should pity them and do them a mercy of a quick death before they end their lives themselves."

Gresshal grunted, his annoyance showing through, but he did not speak. Evalin smiled up at the Dhani and patted his chest, "Yes, yes I know my dear pet."

Then Evailn looked at Tinnok and could not help but laugh at her statement, though the sound that escaped her throat was more like hacking coughs. She shook her head, amusement blossoming in her heart and turning her lips up in a near mocking grip as she whispered, "I am far past the point of sickness child. I am dead you see." She pulled at a bit of skin on her face, peeling it back to reveal yellowish green tissue beneath and a bit of red and white over her jaw. She chuckled again and tossed the skin aside, "This body cannot handle the soul it holds trapped within it, and so now I see a new one to replace it. Perhaps you can be of assistance..."

All 3 pairs of eyes turned to look at Tinnok at once, and Evalin shifted herself slightly in Gresshal's arms, tilting her head back to look down her nose at Tinnok, "Do you know of someone who would be a suitable vessel?"

[Tinnok]

She...insulted her. Tinnok's eyebrows rose, but she did not comment on this. It wasn't as if the rotting creature was wrong. She most likely would die for nothing...

The half breed's head quorked to the side, much like a bird as she tried to translate Katherin'e words. 'you mortals'. Tinnok wasn't sure about the word 'mortal' but it was clear the female was refferring to a whole group fo people, as if she was apart, which...was a detail that was becoming abundantly clear. When the male spoke, Tinnok became aware that their speaking patterns were...nearly identical. Yes the tenor of his voice was different, and almost detached, but the wording, the rhetoric, based on the parts she couldn't quite grasp, were so similar.

Tinnok leaned forward curiously as Evalin pulled back her skin to reveal the rotting tissue and muscles appearing beneath sloughing skin. Her eyes widened, but there was no revulsion in her gaze, her mind slowly beginning to piece details together as Evalin spoke. So she was dead. But she could use the bodies of others. That is why she looked like a Myrian, but did not know the tongue, did not register any sign of recognition when Tinnok had first spoken to her. And now her body was dying...and she needed a new one. This time the word 'vessel' registered its meaning.

At first her mouth curled downwards, a mixture of disgust and outright refusal. What was that she said about foolish whims? Then she smiled. "You need body, many bodies." She gestured widely around the woods.

"What need is Myrian Fang. Fang come in-." She held up her fingers first the number eight, then ten. "-If find one, scouting, must kill all but body you need. If kill quick, silent, you not wake blockade." It was strange. The part of her that regretted killing the race that raised her was dimming day by day. She still felt a twinge at the thought of helping this creature steal another body...but what did she owe the Myrians? Nothing. Nothing at all, and another thought had come into her mind: That if she didn't help Katherine, her body would be a perfect substitute if needs became dire.

[Evalin]

Evalin tapped her chin, considering Tinnok's response, "Interesting..."

Gresshal hissed in distaste, glaring at Tinnok as he looked down at Evalin, "Ssshe meansss to lead usss into a Myrian ssscouting party. The monkey isss trying to kill usss ussing her own brothersss and sissstersss."

"If that were so, then she could have simply walked us to them. It makes little sense to warn one you intend to kill how you intend to get them killed." Tsenrika did not even look at Gresshal as he refuted his opinion, and just as the Dhani was about to retort Evalin raised a hand.

"Curious... I might say I believe you, however..." She shifted and leaned a bit closer to Tinnok, "Could you really betray the Myrians in such a way? After all, half of the blood in your veins runs the same color as them. Do they really mean so little to you?" She chuckled and sat back, "While I care not your true reasons, you must know that what awaits them is death, yet you so easily sacrifice them. Why is that?" There was a bit of approval in Evalin's tone, and in fact she was quite pleased with Tinnok's answer. She was curious now however. What would make someone like Tinnok turn on the Myrians who clearly shared some past with her? What could have turned this girl so fully against half of herself?

[Tinnok]

Tinnok glowered at the distrustful Dhani as he hissed out his insults. And I wouldn't trust you farther than I could throw you, but I suppose that's why Katherine has you on such a short leash, aye? Her face straightened. Both Evalin and her...partner believed her. This was good because what flimsy relationship both witches had with each other was only built upon a shared caring for Aka, neither knowing how deep it ran for the other party. TInnok couldn't quite be sure, but it seemed Evalin was...impressed? Pleased? Some affirmative emotion at the desire to send her own brethren to their deaths.

"I owe Myrians only 1 thing." She said, her eyes lighting up with a fire. "That 1 thing, I have paid back....." she struggled to find the word, hundreds? Thousands? She had no word for common so she just sufficed with "..many times over. Myri? Siku? They nothing to me, only Caiyha, only true mother." She shrugged then, lips twitching upwards "Mizahar not miss 10 Myrian." Her reasoning was deeper than this, but she had not the knowledge of common nor the rhetoric to explain it to the rotting woman. She would either believe her or not.

"Skurak will have shift if want to sneak on Myrians." She advised. There were scouts everywhere, and they were just looking for an excuse to leap on any Dhani they could see. Moving around in that hulking form was simply asking for the blockade to wrap around them in the hundreds, and despite her own fool's errand, Tinnok wished to see it to tomorrow.

Crouching down in the dirt, Tinnok grabbed a stick and began drawing patterns in the ground. It took only a few ticks. She drew a round circle, around it a curving line, and then a smaller circle off to the side.

"Zinrah." the large dot

"Blockade." The curving line surrounding the city

"Us." The smaller dot

"We go like this." She drew a line from them around the back of the blockade, making a wide semi circle. "We go slow, quiet, try to find scouts, only 1 party or they call more and we all die." She emphasized this, staring at the Dhani. He didn't have to trust her, but he should trust in the fact that she wanted to live just as much as he. Then she looked up at Evalin, realizing her statement wasn't precisely accurate.

"What happen if body...rots all away?" If the woman was already dead...what happened to her afterwards?

[Evalin]

Evalin touched a finger to her lip as she considered Tinnok, "You are a strange one halfbreed. I hear a contradiction in you somewhere, but I taste the true hatred in your words. Odd indeed..."

"A seeming contradiction may be only seeming after all." Tsenrika offered.

"Yes perhaps so indeed." Evalin waved her had as if to dismiss the subject.

Gresshal hissed in distaste when he was told he would need to shift forms, and Evalin would laugh and once more pat his cheek like a child, "Come now my pet it shall not be so bad. Perhaps your fingers shall regrow if you do?" the glare she received only made the nuit chuckle once more. Evalin looked down at the drawings in the dirt, tapping her fingers on the Dhani's arm as she observed, "I did not realize the Myrians had created such an elaborate blockade around the nest. Perhaps they are more intelligent than they are given credit for."

The constrictor was leaning over the drawing, tongue tasting the air as he examined the drawing. Tsenrika crouched directly across from Tinnok, his smooth blue eyes not giving an indication of where he was looking. Evalin, however, was caught by Tinnok's next question, and she smiled slowly as the words began to form on her lips, "If this body of mine should completely rot... then my soul shall be released and all of Falyndar shall quake. For on that day such destruction shall be wrought across this land." She rested her cheek on her hand as she shrugged, "However, it is not yet time for that thus I seek a new body to replace this one. The fall of Zinrah shall occur soon enough, but not quite yet. Let them rejoice in this gift of time I offer them, for at times my kindness seems too great even to my own thinking." It was a partial lie, but then she could not have Tinnok know that if she were to rot she would cease to exist. It was never good to allow those who may be useful to you know your one weakness. So a fabrication was the only true course of action for the nuit.

Tsenrika pointed at the edge of the blockade, bringing attention back to the matter at hand, "Where is this edge located?" Once Tinnok told him, if she could, Tsenrika would stand and turn his head toward Evalin, "Allow me to go ahead and find a suitable vessel with the ideal conditions for you."

Evalin waved a bored hand and nodded her assent. Bowing low for a moment Tsenrika's form would shimmer, and within a tick where once stood a man there now floated a blue orb, about the size of a blue jay, whose surface reflected the world around him. The Familiar floated up to hover over Evalin's opened palm, and the nuit smiled as she brushed a finger over his smooth surface, "Go quickly, and do not be seen. Find a vessel in a small party that is alone and far from the others. Then we shall come and finish the deed."

"Yes Master." and with that Tsenrika was off, floating over Gresshal's shoulder to disappear into the brush. Now Evalin turned her attention back to Tinnok, "Well then child, will you aid us in the slaughter of your own people or shall you simply stand idly by and only allow it to happen?"

[Tinnok]

Tinnok looked up. At least in part he answer seemed to satisfy, though once again large words floated over her head and consciousness like cirrus clouds through the sky. At Evalin's explanation her eyes narrowed. What does she mean? Does she mean that her dying will result in more death? An explosion, perhaps like the Djed Storm? Another part of her thoughts chimed in on its heels. Wouldn't she like you to think she's powerful enough for that to happen? She is losing power by the chime, doubtful her end would be anything but more rotting flesh and the dimming of those red eyes.

Regardless of how much truth was in her words, Tinnok decided it'd be best not to test the theory. Better to keep this strange creature thinking she was useful. Her attention was caught by the strange man.

"Mile, two most one way." She gestured form the epicenter of the blockade in either direction. "Most are in center, and at ends." Then there were the constant scouts circling the city slowly and cautiously, Tinnok was amazed the Dhani were able to trade with Black Rock or anywhere at all, but they had always managed despite the circumstances.

Tinnok tried to hide her surprise when the man turned into a floating blue orb but her slitted pupils rounded out, so as almost to appear normal, both eyebrows raised. There were two options she decided then: Either it was a morpher, or...it was not human. Of course since she had never heard or seen a creature that was simply a strange array of glass, refracting everything it seemed to take in, she suspected the former. She stood up after the thing had floated away, taking a measured step back from Dhani and rotting corpse in order to sit on a large root, drawing one of her daggers even as Evalin spoke to her.

She took no offense to Katherine's statement before, saying the half breed was foolish, but she did take insult to those words, words that accused her of betraying her people without having the guts to do it to their faces. Her eyes snapping up, a fractal of Syna's light seeping in through the canopy and lighting them up like gold mizas. It took her a long moment before she replied, piecing out the words carefully.

"I will kill. Show Dhani how it is done." She grinned up at the snake, who clearly wasn't here by choice. The woman perhaps knew of the single time she and Aka had killed Myrians, but the number of Myrian corpses at the halfbreed's hands was growing...and she would not shy away from such a task.