In Ruins (Aoren)

[Tinnok]

"Aoren." She said the name softly, sounding it out. It of course drove home the fact that he seemed foreign, and his story seemed to match up with hers...though admittedly he had traveled in the span of sleeping much farther than she had. Strangely enough her mind was not particularly concerned with the how of all of it, more as to the why. Why here and why the both of them?

Her eyebrows shifted upwards as she watched Aoren swing his quarterstaff easily around, deciding that their little scuffle could have gone a lot of different ways than it had, the element of stealth her advantage. She was going to open her mouth and ask about the weapon, not familiar with a headless spear, freezing when the rustling began.

If it was a creature they were fine, if it was a jaguar, a ya'tago, a Nandhai, an okapi, none of these things did she worry about. If it was Dhani it would take an explanation, perhaps a show of her mark, but if it was Myrians?

That was when she heard it, the bird whistle. She had spent quite long enough living in the jungle to discern the difference between the communication of Myrians and the real chatter of birds. Not knowing her location gave her the sudden fear that they were far closer to the Zinrah Blockade than she had imagined. If that was the case a quick skirmish could descend into a rapid battle to the death. Tinnok reached over, and grasped Aoren's arm, waiting a moment so that he would register the concern in her face, and hopefully not turn that stance to fight her. She didn't speak, worried about what the sound might do, but tugged his arm gently, and gestured with her eyes, down and around the ruined rocks that they would need to get away.

There was a way out, not necessarily a good one, but one nevertheless in the form of the cracked gaping maw of the ruins below them. In there she could explain to Aoren. In theory if he wanted to he could test his luck against a Myrian fang, perhaps they would not kill him, but if they realized who she was...there was no escape from this situation without a lot of bloodshed.

Letting Aoren make up his own mind, she released her grasp on his arm and dashed a short ways, sheathing her daggers in order to utilize her hands to slide down onto the rocks and as quietly as she could, land upon the ground with a muffled thump, glancing back towards the rustling woods to hear another bird call, was that circle around? Fan out? It had been too long...

With a single glance back to her misplaced acquaintance, Tinnok slipped into the black void, steps quick, but careful, afraid of the potential of simply falling to her doom down wherever this gap led. This was not to be, however, for instead, mishapen, but discernible steps guided her down in a slow curve. Slowly the light from above faded, her eyes seeking to adjust in the new found darkness. When nearly all natural light had receded the half breed found one hand palming the wall for comfort, her voice reaching tentatively back up the steps.

"Aoren?"
c

[Aoren]

The touch of a hand on his arm roused Aoren from his battle-stance. He turned his gaze to Tinnok studying her closely. There was very real, very serious concern on her face. The look registered with him. If a native born to this strange land was worried then Aoren knew for certain that he should be too. He withdrew from his stance following the tug of her arm and the gesture of her eyes. If Tinnok thought it best to hide then who was he to argue? He still didn’t trust her in all certainty but what choice did he have really?

Her reasons for trying to get the upper-hand on him in their first encounter weren’t something he could really argue with. The jungle of Falyndar indeed seemed like a less than hospitable place where it was always best to strike first and ask questions later. Aoren couldn’t deny that if he had been in the same situation he might have acted in the same manner.

He followed her doing his best to move speedily and as quietly as possible. He was mindful of his footsteps not wanting to draw any more attention to the two of them than there might already have been. He stepped over a piece of rubble being sure to lift his staff so that the end did not tap against the stone. Into the darkness he accompanied her though he was a few steps behind. He hesitated just as they reached the mouth of that impenetrable blackness. Casting a glance back at the sunlit ruins ensconced by encroaching greenery he resolved himself that whatever it was that was headed there way, it was better to have the element of surprise on their side. Ducking his head to avoid bumping his skull on the low hanging stonework Aoren stepped into the dark.

He was glad of the fact that he did not fear tight spaces. The walls that rose up around him were stifling. Tall and imposing they stood as silent sentinels that might have watched over this place for uncounted millennia. The darkness was their cloak, the shadow that served to conceal ever present eyes that studied time as it passed. Aoren silently wondered at who might have built the ruins and what memories lingered in the stones that had been weathered by time. As the light faded all that Aoren had to guide him was the soft sound of barely discernable footsteps ahead of him. He nearly tripped down the flight of stairs that came up on them but managed to catch himself by bracing a hand on the wall. Behind him he heard the trill of another bird whistle. Only it was closer. No doubt that whatever it was that had caused the rustling in the greenery was in the courtyard behind them.

Further into the dark they went. Aoren briefly wondered if there would be an end to it. Then came Tinnok’s uncertain voice. Aoren took a few more steps. His eyes finally finished adjusting to the dark and he could make out her form.

“I am here.” He moved closer to the wall glancing up from whence they came. “Any idea what might be up there?”

[Tinnok]

She could make out his form by the faint light that haloed around it. Once he confirmed it was him, Tinnok relaxed slightly, and took a few more steps further back into the dark, one hand on the wall for balance. She paused a moment, unsure of how much to explain to the very new stranger, who despite their shared circumstances, there was still no reason to trust, then shook her head a bit and began.

"It is, at the very least, a single Myrian fang. In the Taloban Army you communicate through bird whistles and other distinctive animal calls in order to maintain your cover no matter who may be listening, I, however, have the pleasure of having more birds for company than Myrians as of late, and I'd like to think I know the difference." She paused another moment, listening for a few ticks, then continued. "Most likely they are simply patrolling, and won't come down here if they don't need to. This ruin has nothing they could want."

She glanced behind her down into wherever the steps led, seemingly unsure of herself on that last statement. "We can wait it out here, make sure they've passed and re-emerge, or...I suppose continue down and see what is below." She bit her lip in indecision, grateful that in the darkness, the strange man probably couldn't see such a detail.

"I believe Caiyha has led me to you, I am not sure why, but I am sorry for nearly slitting your throat..." She winced at herself, unsure if that phasing was precisely the best way she could have put it, then she turned and began walking down the steps. At the very least they would need to remain in these tunnels for a bell or so to make sure it was safe, that gave a bit of time for exploring. Running her hands along both walls for balance and to feel a bit better, Tinnok tiptoed down the cracked and damaged stone steps, halting suddenly when her hand came across an obtrusion in the form of an old torch sconce with a dusty, but usable torch in its bracket. She didn't take too long to ponder the sheer convenience of this, instead rummaging through her pack for her flint and steel, and taking a chime or so to light a spark on the head of the torch that ignited the device and gave the two travelers a bit more light to see what they were descending into.

The illumination revealed a strange series of faded drawings and some sort of language she couldn't identify scrawled upon the walls, the steps took them in a slow downward curve into the depths of the earth, and the half breed took it cautiously, step by step.

Word Count468c

[Aoren]

Aoren listened to Tinnok’s explanation on the nature of the Taloban army. The wording took him a moment to understand. When he thought on it though using such beastly terms for a military force in the middle of the jungle made sense. Compared to the rigid order of the Knighthood in Syliras the whole concept seemed…feral.

“That we know of.” Aoren commented on her note of what the Myrian “fang” would and would not want. He nodded his head in the direction of the darkness that lay before them. Distantly he heard the twittering of another bird call. He could only assume it was this group of Myrian warriors drawing nearer.

“If it’s all the same to you? I think we should head deeper into the dark. It is either that or we risk getting drawn into bloodshed. In tight spacing.” He glanced around at the walls that surrounded them. If the Myrians had anything like bows and arrows they would not fair so well in any sort of confrontation. He considered allowing Tinnok to lead but she was silent. It was likely the woman was wrestling with her own thoughts. It occurred to Aoren then that if this woman was a native of these jungles, why would the Myrians not welcome her as one of their own? Was she not one of their people anymore? Then came her admission. Aoren wasn’t entirely familiar with this Caiyha.

“Caiyha? Is that a god?” His voice upturned in the note of a query. It was accompanied by the slight quirking of his head before he took a step ahead of Tinnok feeling along the surface of the wall. At her awkward apology he simply nodded.

“The divines lead us to many places, Tinnok.” He held up his right hand displaying the lily of Avalis to her. “I think I know that better than most.”

He offered no explanation on the lily itself. Either Tinnok would know it or she didn’t. Aoren had a firm belief that few people walked the roads of their lives without purpose. It was just a matter of finding that purpose. He had aided a number of souls who wandered in finding theirs. Part of him was driven to help others. Over the years he had learned to temper brazen selflessness with caution and wisdom but he was no less genuine in his desire to help. The distinct sound of flint being scraped against steel caught his attention. Shortly after the corridor was illuminated with the orange light of a torch. As the darkness was burned away by the light of the torch it revealed a dilapidated mural scrawled across the walls of the ancient ruin.

A strange and unknown people rose up like ominous sentinels upon the walls. Their shape could only be described as humanoid but with longer limbs and vaguely human faces.

“Who made these?” He turned his gaze away from the murals to study Tinnok. She seemed just as perplexed by them as he did but he didn’t see the harm in asking. Even as he turned to walk further down the steps. He noticed a pattern in the great drawings upon the walls. They seemed to be ushering them further into the depths of the ruin. As they did the figures seemed to be becoming more…ghostly. That was the best way he could describe what he saw. They were going from standing in tall, strong warrior stances to becoming surrounded by mists with eyes whited out. Some of the images bore skeletal resemblance while others depicted rituals that Aoren assumed were centered around death.

The more he stared at all of them, the more uneasy he became.

[Tinnok]

Tinnok's mouth opened slightly in surprise at the man's unfamiliarity with Caiyha. Was her influence so small in other regions that the common person did not bless the gifts she gave the earth every day as those in Falyndar did? Even with the immense hatred of the Dhani in Zinrah compared to the Myrians of Taloba, one of the things they shared was a great respect of their Nature Goddess, to see someone who seemed only to identify the name as a deity...

And then Tinnok's thoughts came full circle when Aoren showed her a mark upon his hand, reminding her of an orchid, but a bit more graceful, with longer petals. She shook her head at the mark, clearly having about as much understanding of it as he did of Caiyha. Her own Gnosis mark was quite vibrant, shifting, and now that she looked down at her right arm she noticed the phosphorescence of the subterranean biome down her forearm glowed slightly in the dark, making her smile.

"Caiyha is my true Mother, the Mother of all animals and plants, Goddess of Nature. Mother of Navre, Oriana, Siku, and Eywaat. She has blessed me with her gifts and love, and so I do whatever I can to bring balance to the wild places of Jungle Wilds in her name." At the mention of gifts, Tinnok twisted her arm and shoulder so that Aoren could see the intricate tapestry of biomes that coursed down all the way to the back of her hand, and reaching up over her shoulder to her neck. If he watched for long enough subtle shifts in the grass around her Strangler figs and swirling eddies in the river that its branches transformed into could be seen. Shifts in the cavern beneath were harder to spot, yet the faint glow showed there was something more to that area as well. She reached out and grasped Aoren's hand, twisting it here and there, expecting the mark to move as her Phylonura did. When after a few ticks it did not she glanced up at him.

"Is this mark from your Goddess? I do not recognize the flower."

As a response was given Tinnok continued down the tunnels, noticing as Aoren did the strange progression, like a sad story of their race. They looked almost like humans, but not quite, and her fingers ran over the images as if to help her solve the problem. "Myri brought together warring savages as one whole race of Myrians. In that time you either joined her or you got cut down opposing her. I only know of one race that was driven out and survived, strange pale people that lived in trees and could climb them like spiders. There were other races here, one's no one even knows the names of now...but they were all killed, and now the only a few that are left are a couple hundred Dhani that remain in the underground city of Zinrah. As their grandmother and ally to Myri, Caiyha negotiated a truce to keep her grandchildren the Dhani alive. A truce hated by both sides. Perhaps this is the story of one of the races as they were exterminated by Myri and her armies." It was strange telling a tale that any Myrian child, or Dhani snakeling for that matter, would no by heart.

Her eyebrows furrowed. All this happened so long ago, she was unsure if she felt remorse for what was now so far gone. She had once wished only to see the extermination of those in Zinrah, and now lived there under her own uneasy truce, and Caiyha's protection as well. If the time came would she sit by while those Dhani were slaughtered as well?

"Are there trees like these where you come from?" Her words broke the silence with a random thought that surfaced in her questioning mind.
c

[Aoren]

Aoren found it interesting the manner in which Tinnok referred to Caiyha as her “true mother”. When she explained exactly who the goddess was he found the description fitting. Oriana was a goddess that Aoren was mildly familiar with given that some of the knights revered her as they patrolled the woods and wilderness around Syliras. When the woman put her mark on display Aoren was drawn to it.

He leaned in close studying the patterns and was a bit surprised when he noticed that it was moving. He blinked at it, his growing wider with wonder. He had to stop himself from reaching out to touch the vines hanging over the mouth of the cave to test if they were real. He felt as though they would be. It always amazed him to see the gifts the gods bestowed upon mortals. Not all of them were benevolent, he knew that, but that didn’t make them any less awe inspiring. When Tinnok took a hold of his hand to study the Lily he chuckled. To him she seemed to study it with almost childlike curiosity.

“It is the gift of Avalis, Goddess of Foresight. She has been with me all my life. I’ve never known a moment without her guidance even when I wasn’t as welcoming of it as I am now. By her grace I am able to See the past through another’s eyes.” Aoren contemplated on how best to describe what Seeing was like to someone who hadn’t experienced it themselves.

“Imagine a web. Imagine a strand of that web being attached to you. As a Seer, I walk this web and bear witness to all that has been recorded on it. Seers who have been blessed with greater favor from Avalis can walk the web as new strands are being made. That means they can bear witness to events as they are happening in the present time. The greatest of Seers can carefully walk where the web is thinnest and new strands have yet to take hold. Such Seers are granted glimpses of the future.” He didn’t feel that it was the best way to describe walking the Chavi but it got the point across. There was simply too much that couldn’t be experienced by someone not marked by Avalis to convey with mere words. Every time Aoren tapped into the Chavi it was new and peaceful though sometimes what he Saw wasn’t. When Tinnok went on to explain what he could only assume the was rough history of her people he was…saddened.

“I wonder what was lost when the lives of so many were culled from the world?” He brushed a hand over one of the murals as they went by quirking his head at Tinnok’s question.

“No. The trees where I am from are very different than the ones here in Faln…Farlyn…Falyndar?” Aoren stumbled over the word. It was still new to him. He’d only ever had the pleasure of meeting a Myrian once but that had been a rather brief encounter and he’d been a little fuzzy with alcohol at the time. He couldn’t rightly remember if the woman had ever mentioned the land where she came from but he vaguely recalled her mentioning a city.

“They do not rise as tall, nor are their trunks as wide. The trees here seem to act like sentinels guarding ancient secrets not meant to be uncovered. The trees in Sylira are more…whimsical if you can imagine that?” It was an odd way to describe trees, Aoren had to admit. Given that Tinnok worshipped the Goddess of Nature however he thought she might understand what he was trying to convey or at least he hoped she did. As they continued their way down into the darkness of the ruin a scratching noise reached Aoren’s ears. He paused to listen to it for a moment but thought nothing of it. For all he knew it could have been the scratching of a rodent skittering across the stone floor.

[Tinnok]

Tinnok truly tried to fathom Aoren's words. The way he spoke them, easily and knowing sounded rather simple, but trying to imagine these webs that connected people, a gift allowing its bearer to view the past present and future...it was all a bit beyond Tinnok. It drew her mind back to her own past, and what secrets Aoren might be able to glimpse if he so chose, a lifetime lived in the shadows of those around her. She shook the thoughts from her head and realized in an instant that his gift was surely like her own. It was one thing to explain how it worked to someone, but if you did not possess it, you couldn't truly understand what it was, like a unique language of the Gods only you and your fellow marked had unlocked. "It seems like this...Avalis, has watched over you in the same way Caiyha has for me."

She had never once thought badly of her Phylonura mark, indeed dreamt most of her life of the day when she received it, but even without fully grasping what Aoren meant she could see the potential downsides of glimpsing into a person's past. Knowing of her own there was much sadness and heartache that could be dredged up from a person's soul in the looking.

And speaking of sadness...

Aoren's question was met with contemplative silence, Tinnok's fingers continuing to draw across the fading and cracked murals as the descended even deeper into the earth. Surely Falyndar would be different in scope had Myri not seen fit to take power and conquer it all in the name of...what she wasn't quite sure. She was not one to say that it would be better, for all she knew the races she had eradicated might had seen fit to do exactly what she did, or enslave what was now known as the Myrians, most likely whatever thread had led to her existence simply wouldn't be.

Drawn from the never ending 'what ifs' of the question Aoren posed, Tinnok contemplated his description of the trees of his homeland. Ayatah would tell her stories of a land completely without trees, and for that matter very little plant life at all, covered by yellow dirt that shone as bright as Syna directly under her gaze. This story was second hand given to her by her own mother, the assumption that it had been taken from her foreign father. She could not imagine such a land just as she could not imagine a lack of the protective massive trees that allowed her to traverse the canopy without setting a foot on the ground for days on end. Sentinels was a fitting word indeed for the massive jungle trees of Falyndar, and to enter a world without them...Tinnok could only imagine how vulnerable she would feel without the ability to quickly scale one and hide in its sheer height and thick foliage.

She opened her mouth to ask more about the scenery of his land, to perhaps paint a better picture of what was there if there weren't so many large trees, but she stopped, hearing the scratching and tilting her head back to check and confirm that Aoren had heard it too.

The logical part of her mind explained that most likely it was a creature that had taken to inhabiting the caverns in the absence of whatever race had dwelled here, in fact whatever it was could probably help her understand the layout of the semi-intact ruins. Despite this part of her mind assuring her that everything was alright, something told her that things were in fact, not alright at all, and that whatever power or event that had placed her above these ruins with the strange man would not be some simply thing that they would discover.

Her golden eyes were focused so keenly on what her torchlight fell on in front of her, she wasn't looking down to notice the steps coming to an end and slammed her foot down on a level surface when she was expecting another step, wincing in pain and thrusting her torch in front of her. The scratching, which had up to this point been growing in volume, stopped abruptly, and Tinnok glimpsed precisely what was making it in the form of a gaunt figure, with skin a strange pale blue, and strange lanky proportions bent over the ground. Its oblong head shot up to look at the intruders and she was met with two gaping black holes for eyes, unsure if they really were holes or it was just intense shadows cast by her torch.

There was a moment of tense silence, Tinnok free hand reaching for the hilt of her dagger, fingers sliding around the hilt in preparation for the worst, and then the thing lunged off into the shadows. The half breed darted forward, torch sweeping in a wide spread around her trying to cast more light and what she revealed was a fairly large open room, half of it collapsed and filled with rubble, the other half sporting three dark archways that led Goddess knew where, Tinnok having absolutely no idea which one the form had charged down.

Her head and torso snapped around to find Aoren. "You saw that too right? I...I have never seen anything like that..." She peered uselessly into the blackness of the tunnels, the mystery of this day growing only deeper by the tick.
c