Sending Night

by **Maro** on January 13th, 2017, 3:47 pm

Laughing at her own ineptitude in navigating the streets of Alvadas, he answered her question. “Yeah. I’m ajackal.” As for the question about Autumn being his bondmate, he didn’t know how to respond. In his heart of hearts, down in the purest part of his soul, Maro knew there nothing he wanted more. The worst part thought was that he didn’t even know if it was possible. All evidence pointed to the contrary which only made it all the more maddening. Despite how much he willed that connection to form, it didn’t come to pass. Still, he held to hope.

Hope. That was something he knew intimately, and as with all who hope, he knew disappointment in equal measure. Maro laughed it off as something inconsequential. “No. Autumn isn’t my bondmate, but she’s more to me than I imagine any bondmate could be.”

Autumn spoke up to explain what Maro meant. “Maro came to Black Rock as just a pup, an orphan. I raised him, first as a baby, but him being a Kelvic, that was short-lived. Then, I raised him as boy, but my time as a teacher and a mentor were also short. He reached adulthood at little more than a year of age, and once again, I was forced to change my role. Without a doubt, this latest role has been my favorite yet. Friend.”

Maro smiled. “Autumn taught me pretty much everything I know.”

Autumn returned the smile. “And you taught me things I thought I had already learned.”

When Phira described he play of light across the ocean, Maro could see it as if he had been there, because he had and remembered it exactly how she said it. He was about to get lost in his memories of home when her next question came. “You sound like you really love it there. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you leave?”

Maro had almost forgotten the answer to that as once the idea had been suggested his curiosity had run wild and he hadn’t remembered its spark.

Autumn saved him though. “I’m afraid that’s my fault. Life is short. That is a fact that you both know well. You know it better than most. As Kelvics, your lives aren’t long, though you don’t have to spend as much time growing up. I wanted Maro to experience the world. I wanted him to be able to say he hadn’t missed anything. His curiosity got the best of him when I suggested seeing new places, and he jumped in feet first without thinking what it’d be like to leave home. I’m hoping our journeys take us back home, but if they don’t, at least wherever we end up, we’ll end up there together.”

Soon, Phira’s lead brought them to Avanthal. Maro’s eyes danced about in excitement at the mention of an ice castle. Never mind that it had been the site of a slaughter. Maro had never seen snow before and was immediately enthralled with the way it crunched beneath his feet. The way it shifted beneath him was quite different from sand, and it was much colder. That, or the illusory qualities of Alvadas made him think it was cold. He still couldn’t wrap his head around what was real and what was merely in his mind. Maybe the city didn’t even exist.

Phira’s warning interrupted his elated tramping through the snow. “Don’t think people haven’t noticed us. I don’t think even helping the ghost of a Vantha will be looked upon as anything but traitorous. I haven’t seen those hunters yet, so they could be anyone. And from what I’ve heard about them, they will have no problem catching us. All of us.”

“They cannot stop us.” Maro was adamant about that. “Helping a ghost to pass on is traitorous to no one. If they try to stop us from that task, they are no longer acting on the Seasons’ behalf. This goes beyond the Seasons’ revenge, beyond Ionu’s reach. The dead are Dira’s realm, and if anyone stands in our way, in the way of a soul returning to the cycle, they will answer directly to Her. Even Ionu who would be hesitant to cross Her. If they stop us, Dira will know.”

He left it at that. Let them try. The Goddess of Death was one whose wrath he would not want to face. Let these hunters make the mistake of killing one of them. A corpse would give Dira direct and immediate access to the scene.

So engrossed in his indignation at the possibility of someone interfering, Maro nearly missed the flicker of a materializing ghost a chime’s walk ahead, but the constant flickering of the figure was hard to miss. Pointing out the ghost to Autumn and Phira, Maro made his way slowly toward the ghost. The figure, though distorted, was obviously enough a young woman with eyes too bright of a green to belong to a normal human. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Maro wondered if she was just too new to being a ghost to materialize the color right.

As the trio neared her, they could hear her muttering again and again to herself. “I wasn’t even marked. I wasn’t even marked.”

Maro let himself appear as harmless as possible, not a difficult task by any means. “Hello, friend.”

The ghost’s eyes snapped up, changing from the brilliant green to a muted purple, seemingly surprised by the sudden intrusion on her thoughts.

“Your Vantha,” Maro breathed in awe at shifting colors.

Her eyes shifted again, this time to a bright pink as she glared at the trio. Every statement came with increasing anger. “But I wasn’t even marked. I wasn’t even born in Avanthal. I’ve never met the Lady Morwen, and yet, I had to pay for her sins. I wasn’t even marked!”

Sensing her building rage, Maro pulled the bell from his pocket and let it ring once. Just as before, the note lingered in air, pure and unadulterated by the rage and the anguish that felt so tangible around them. Autumn, who had been ready to leap in and engage the ghost spirit to spirit, relaxed. The ghost herself slumped some, her eyes changing to blue almost as bright as Autumn’s.

There was a sob in the Vantha ghost’s voice. “I wasn’t even marked.”

Maro reached out a clenched hand gently, uncurling it to reveal a vial of Soulmist when the ghost considered his gesture curiously. “Rest easy, friend. We’re not here to cause any more suffering.”

Autumn chimed in. “Take the Mist and eat it. You’ll feel restored. Take your time. You’ll have plenty of it now.”

by **Phira** on January 16th, 2017, 5:55 am

28 Winter 516

She looked at him with slight surprise, ”A jackal kelvic living on Black Rock. You are very lucky. Surely Dira favored you immensely.” She said. Everyone knew Dira loved jackals and had two of her very own. Even the Omens wore jackal masks to hide their faces from the rest of the world. Because of her fondness of them they have become an bad luck omen of sorts, but to Dira they were beloved pets.

His words about his ghost friend Autumn were heartwarming, even though he said it as if it meant nothing. She nodded and sighed longingly, ”That’s lovely. Maybe it’s a better form of bonding, one that can’t even be stopped by death.” she said. She didn’t have a bondmate of her own, and she supposed she sorely wanted one. She didn’t really know what a love like the one Autumn and Maro had, or the love that her mother and father shared. But thinking about having a bondmate kind of excited her.

She listened to Autumn speak about Maro and cocked her head to the side. It was a curious relationship between the two of them. First a mother and son relationship that bloomed into a curious friendship that meant more to the kelvic male than a bond did. She smiled at the two that seemed like they had been friends longer than they had let on to, ”You two seem like you have known each other forever.” She smiled at the two and let Autumn began on why they left Black Rock.

She chuckled at their explination, ”Have you been any where else? I have been to Zeltiva and Sunberth. Zeltiva was a nice place, full of intellectuals going to the academy and Svefra docking there before setting off on the sea again. Sunberth was…well it’s not the richest city, in fact it is probably the poorest, but as long as you aren’t a magic user you can do just about anything.” she explained. She had been a lot of places in her short life, and she was grateful she had been able to do those things. But she didn’t just get it handed to her, she had to work hard for her to be able to travel.

She understood his words, but she didn’t trust anyone she didn’t know around here. It wasn’t the fact that helping the ghosts of the Vantha would get them in trouble, because like he said the dead were Dira’s realm. However, it was the act of helping them that would lead others to think they were sympathizers.

So she let him take the lead and followed him closely right next to Autumn. It wasn’t long before Maro alerted them to a ghost, and she felt a lump form in her throat. As they got closer a spectrum of a girl flickered, muttering I wasn’t even marked. she said again and again like a mantra. She didn’t immediately recognize her, which was just fine with her. That could mean that she wasn't in the castle the day her and her friend Madeira were chased in there. Still she felt sorry for the girl and hoped she will take their help to guide her to a place where she will feel a lot happier.

Maro took the lead and began conversing with her, beginning with an easy introduction, but the ghost wasn’t happy. Her eyes flickered form one color to the next, openly displaying that her emotions were quickly changing. When her eyes landed on a bright pink she began yelling, becoming angrier and angrier. Flashbacks to the big, raging ghost from the Underground came to the forefront of her mind. The hair on her arms and back of her neck began standing up, and she was ready to run just like back then, but Maro took out that small, ornate bell. One ring was all it took to make both of the ghost girls calm down and relaxed.

The Vantha ghost began sobbing and she began feeling that lump in her throat form again. She looked down and hid her face in case she remembered her from before. She was ashamed that she couldn’t help more than what she had. All she could give them were words about not being afraid of death, and not running away from Dira when she came for them. She stood back and watched the two interact with the Vantha girl who seemed to accept the soulmist that Maro handed out to her.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and took in a deep breath of cold air. She wasn't going to run away from this, because if she did she ran the possibility of never finding closure about it. She Summoned her courage and went over to the duo, ready to accept any stabbing words that the girl might have for her if she did in fact remember her. There was always the chance the girl wasn’t in the castle and was just an unfortunate soul that met the fate at the hands of those season hunters. She stood a little ways behind though and was ready to jump in if they needed her. But she let Maro and Autumn take the reigns, for she wasn’t quite that sure about how to celebrate or how to guide a ghost back to Black Rock.

by **Maro** on January 21st, 2017, 1:39 am

When Phira asked him where his travels had taken him, Maro was only somewhat sad to admit that he had only just begun to explore the world. “When we started, I just boarded a ship with no destination in mind. After a short while of talking to the sailors, Alvadas seemed the most interesting place to see. The illusions sounded too captivating to miss.” He chuckled. “Now, I realize they’re just a nuisance.”

After the ghost took the vial and consumed the Soulmist, Maro sat down, setting all his supplies next to him in easy reach of his right hand. Opening up another two vials, Maro offered one to the new ghost and one to Autumn. Both took them, and the newcomer seemed to calm and the color in her eyes brighten a little more at having tasted the Mist. Maro knew that the quality of the Mist he made wasn’t great, but this ghost had likely never experienced Soulmist to know. Maro made room for Phira, if she wished to sit, and locked eyes with the ghost.

As with most first meetings, Maro figured the best thing to do was to introduce himself. “I’m Maro. These two ladies are Phira and Autumn.” He gestured to each as he said their names.

The ghost considered them each with uncertain eyes, a flicker of purple betraying her fear, but something about the trio seemed trustworthy. Her eyes returned to their calm blue. “Frelna. Frelna Snowsong.”

“I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Frelna.” Maro knew his best chance at helping this ghost was to know what had caused her to stay. “I hope it’s not too much to ask, but I’d like to hear your story, how you came to be here.”

Frelna nodded, opened her mouth to speak, thought better about where she was about to begin at, stopped, and considered a new place to start. She opened her mouth again, and this time, the words flowed naturally, as she told a story, her story. “As I said, I’ve never seen the Lady Morwen. I wasn’t born in Avanthal. My parents were both Snowsongs who decided to travel the whole of Mizahar, and so I grew up without the influence of the Queen of the North. Sure, my parents told me stories, but it all seemed so distant, so much a part of a land that wasn’t mine.

“I was born here, in Alvadas, and here is where I lived the entirety of my life. I was normal. No God or Goddess turned their gaze on me. I wasn’t deemed special by any of them, and I liked life that way. I enjoyed being normal. I enjoyed being unnoticed.”

Maro imagined it was a difficult thing for someone like Frelna to go unnoticed. Her eyes would certainly draw anyone’s attention with their rapidly shifting color, and if that wasn’t enough, much like Autumn and Phira, she had a beauty that was not easily missed.

Frelna went on. “I lived my life that way until last season a visitor came to Alvadas. He was a young man, a handsome one, and my friends and I immediately claimed him as one of us. Though he was strong and handsome, he was still naïve about so much of the world.” A smile came over Frelna’s face, the first one Maro had seen her smile. It was a pretty one, broad and full of laughter, not just in the lips but in her eyes as well, and for a moment, her eyes flashed a deep red. “He never could get anything right. Everything he did fell apart and unraveled in the worst of ways it seemed, but my friends and I were always there to set things right. There was one time, in fact, when he-”

The laughter died in her eyes, and Frelna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

She took a moment to collect herself as her eyes returned to their bright green. “As I seemed to do with everyone, I escaped his attention. One of my friends was the one to capture his romantic interests, but I enjoyed life like that. He was still my friend, and that was all that mattered.”

“And then this season came, but it didn’t, and that brought the wrath of the other seasons. Their priests and priestesses arrived, delivering their call for death. I guess a season of friendship isn’t enough when it comes to the possibility of a thousand shiny coins, but as with everything, he didn’t get that right. He forgot to check if I was marked. I wasn’t which was something that was common knowledge among the rest of my friends, but he thought all Vantha bore the mark of winter.

“One day, under the pretense of searching for a gift for my friend, he lured me away. He took me to a secluded area, so once the deed was finished, no one could steal his bounty from him. We were searching for sea shells on the shore. The friend he loved was Konti, and the shells reminded her of home. My mind was on the task at hand when he spoke my name.

“I turned to see what he had found and didn’t see the knife until it was plunging toward me to take my life. But he couldn’t even get that right. His blow missed its mark. The knife glanced off the side of my belly. Agony, fear, anger. I felt them all at once. My eyes were a confusion of color.”

But there was no confusion of color in them now. They were the bright pink they had been when she was angry before, and Maro’s hand strayed toward the bell.

“I ran, and he came after me. The knife caught my leg, and I stumbled, and then he was on top of me. The knife plunged in, but the blade found nothing vital. Pain. That was all I felt then, and all I wanted to do was die. But he couldn’t even get that right.” Frelna’s rage built more and more with every word. “The knife sank in again and again and again, and he just couldn’t make me die. So he stabbed me again and again and again…”

Maro’s hand flashed out and grabbed the bell as quickly as he could, letting it ring out. It did nothing, and a chill swept down Maro’s spine.

Frelna’s voice filled with true anguish, true hate, true anger. “and again and again and again and again and again-”

“AND AGAIN!” Autumn’s shout froze everyone in place and drew their gaze. She was materialized in full color now, and two wounds on her chest were bleeding through the dress. Maro forgot to breathe. He thought Frelna had looked angry. The Vantha looked mild mannered compared to how Autumn looked now.

Autumn spat each word bitterly as she went. “And then he put the blade to me again and again and again and again and again.” With every repetition of the word, a new wound appeared and bled through her dress. Autumn caught her breath to stifle a sob. “But my attacker knew what he was doing and knew how to make me die, and he wouldn’t let me. The man who was my betrothed stabbed me again and again and again until I couldn’t stop screaming. And then, because my screams aroused him, he took me, and when he was finished, he put the knife to me again and again, and we repeated the process until I was unrecognizable.”

At this point, Autumn was. There was no part of her untouched by wounds. Her dress was soaked in red; and her face, mutilated. The mirage didn’t last long though as the effort took too much concentration to keep up. She faded into her regular self, the muted sepia tones accented only by the bright blue of her eyes. “I had to fight to die. I know what it’s like to have your love and loyalty betrayed, but I know what it’s like to rediscover that love. There are still good people in this world. Two of them are to help you. Please. Let them.”

Maro still felt like he couldn’t breathe. Every part of him was trembling. He had heard Autumn’s story once before but never had it been accompanied by such detail. That something so hideous had happened to his dearest friend was too much to take in. He wanted to hide, wanted to curl up somewhere and try to wash any memories of this from his mind. He couldn’t do that, so he just sat where he was and trembled. Had he been able to focus on anything else, he would have seen that Frelna’s eyes had returned to the gentle purple of her fear. She was frightened, partially of Autumn, partially of what she had endured.

by **Phira** on January 21st, 2017, 7:54 pm

28 Winter 516

The whole exchange was frightening and a tad bizarre. She had never seen a ghost let alone two that got so enraged that they began reliving it. Blood ran down the both of them as the word “Again” was yelled in agony first by Frelna, then by Autumn. She looked on at the two, mostly because she couldn’t look away if she tried. She had seen bad things when in Sunberth, people who were stabbed and left out in the street to bleed, people who over dosed on some drug or another left to choke on their own vomit. So the gore bothered her sure, but she had seen enough to be able to handle it. But the thing she couldn’t handle, the thing that tore her heart to shreds was the anguish in their voice.

She couldn’t imagine, even in the slightest, having someone whom she trusted turn their back on her like that. To call themselves one of her friends, then hunt her down in cold blood as if she were nothing but a heavy coin purse. Then adding insult to injury he couldn’t even kill her swiftly. How unbearably painful it must have been to go through any of that.

She was the first one to break out of her trance and swallowed heavily as she looked to Maro who looked to be caught in a state of fear too. Maybe he hadn’t seen anything like this either. She reached over and grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, ”It’s alright. Remember why we are here, to help her find her peace.” she said softly.

She turned her gaze to the frightened, lavender eyed, vantha ghost and Autumn who seemed to be a lot more calm than she was a minute ago. She didn’t know how to proceed on or how to guide this ghost towards where she needed to be, and she hoped that Maro put himself together soon.

by **Maro** on January 26th, 2017, 3:59 am

A hand on his caused him to jump and to gasp, but despite how much it set his heart racing, it was what he needed. He was breathing regularly again. His new Kelvic acquaintance tried to calm him. “It’s alright. Remember why we are here, to help her find her peace.”

He remembered, but now he had an image he couldn’t forget. There was a reason Autumn had never told him what had happened, hadn’t told him the intimate details. She thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it, and she had been right. But Phira was right too. This night wasn’t about him. It was about the dead, and Frelna needed the help.

Taking a few moments for his breathing to calm down, he gathered his thoughts. Somehow, someway, he had to figure out what had caused this poor woman to stay. Was it that she had lost love? That would be a nearly impossible problem to fix. Was it that she had left friends behind? If so, that would be a more manageable issue. Find them, let her talk to them, and then hopefully she would move on. Was it…?

He was still racking his brain for ideas when Frelna spoke to Autumn, her voice timid. “Did they find your body?”

Maro nodded and spoke up for Autumn. Demonstrating courage was the least he could do for her, after everything she had done for him. He knew reliving that night had to be more traumatizing for her than its revelation was to him. For now, he could be her voice. “They did. Dira herself did, and Dira visited vengeance on the one who had done that to her.”

Frelna’s eyes turned quickly from their frightened purple to their sad green. “They never found mine.” She shook her head. “It’s not vengeance that I want. I just want to be found. I want my body laid to rest. But Alvadas is set against me.”

Another sob shook her voice, and Frelna took a few moments to calm herself before she explained, “When my friend finally succeeded in taking my life, he finally remembered the warrant and that it only called for those who were Morwen-marked. That’s when he decided to search, and fear struck him when he realized my death wasn’t some lucrative gain, as he had thought, but murder of an innocent civilian. He scrambled to hide my body, dragging me back into the city and hiding me in a little used alley. I was certain my body would be found by the Listeners or some citizen, but Ionu, as well, deemed me worthy of being punished for being born Vantha. Where my body was hidden, Alvadas grew a bramble of thorns which in turn grew roses whose scent was so overpowering it drowned out the scent of my rotting body. And with the streets of Alvadas changing the way they do, I lost myself, too. Not even I know where my body is anymore. I just want to be found.”

Maro’s heart lifted. This was what she needed to move on. All they had to do was find her body, which was something he, as talentless as he was, could do. It was a simple enough task, though the city and her illusions could aim to make it impossible.

He looked to Phira. “We can help her. All we need to do is track down illusions of roses. What do you say, Phira? Are you up for a hunt?”

by **Phira** on February 5th, 2017, 1:01 am

28 Winter 516

Phira took in a deep breath, letting the cold fill her lungs before letting it out in a long exhale. She looked between the three. She was glad that Autumn’s killer was caught, and by Dira no less. She could only hope that she got that kind of justice if she were ever murdered. But that begged the question, why was she still here? Did she just not want to move on? Was that how it worked? She supposed there didn’t have to be any other reason than simply not wanting to go, but she felt that their story was deeper than that. Far deeper, as nothing was ever that simple, and certainly not being murdered by someone who you trusted.

The idea of being lost in a city trying to find your body that was so savagely and violently handled was a very morbid thought. She bit her cheek to hold back her words. Of course it was hidden somewhere in the city, but it wasn’t the end of the world. They could find it and send this girl on to a happier existence. ”We can help her. All we need to do is track down illusions of roses. What do you say, Phira? Are you up for a hunt?” the male kelvic asked her.

She gave him and Frelna a smile, [color=mediumpurple]”Now hunting is something I am good at.” she said with confidence. She looked at the girl and thinking. Hunting traditionally in Alvadas was near impossible, but they could use their knowledge of Alvadas as it was now to hunt. She looked over to the trio, ”So you were killed on the beach and then dragged into the city, where roses grew over your body. I would say check close to the beach but that doesn’t mean much in this city. What was close to the beach could be all the way on the other side of Alvadas by now and could change at any second. But you said roses and given that this city is taking on the image of other cities we can rule a few of them out. Like Avanthal or the desert region, but that still leaves the whole world open.” she said thinking out loud, as she always does.

She was no gardener, but she knew that roses only grew during warmer weather, so they would have to look for places with such weather. Which would still be hard. She turned to him with a deep look, ”So how do you suspect we go about this? After all we only have one night, not that we would stop after this night, but the Arriving Night is only one night. At least to my recelection…” she rambled but managed to stop herself before she carried on with a small sheepish smile.

by **Maro** on February 12th, 2017, 12:27 am

“Now hunting is something I am good at.”

That confident, proud statement bolstered Maro’s confidence and gave him a surge of hope that wouldn’t be denied. They had a hunter in their midst which was something Maro couldn’t say about himself. Only recently had he begun to explore the tracking instincts that came with his animal nature; before then, there had been no need. He could lend his untrained nose but could make no promises as to what good it would do.

Her mind went to work aloud, as she voiced how they could begin to search for this missing Vantha’s body, and Maro could watch as her predatory instincts, the ones that made her good at hunting, came into play. The first thing she did was know where her prey, where her quarry, would be and where it would not. Quickly, several of the mock regions in Alvadas were eliminated, those being the far northern Taldera and the arid Eyktol.

With a small twinge of shame, Maro realized that his hunting skills could be formidable had he developed them, maybe not as impressive as hers, but enough so that he could be useful in an endeavor such as this. As it was though, Maro had never had need for them, and his more civilized existence that he had lived with Autumn had left his instincts raw, not honed. With no small amount of envy, he watched Phira’s mind and instincts continue to work.

“So how do you suppose we go about this? After all, we only have one night, not that we would stop after this night, but the Arriving Night is only one night. At least to my recollection…”

She was asking his opinion? Maro was hardly the type for leading, and in this case, he was completely unqualified to lead a hunt. But it was his opinion that had been asked for, and so he had to give it. First, though, he answered the question he already knew the answer to. “Yes. Tonight is the Arriving Night, and it ends at dawn. But you’re right about what you said before, as well. Even if the Arriving Night ends, our hunt doesn’t have to. Still, it would be nice to see this to its end and to do so quickly.”

Looking up and down the street as if searching, he bought himself some time to consider her question. How should they go about this? “We should start searching for some place with warm weather and some proper rainfall. Where that is I can probably say less well than you, Phira, but I’m willing to scour the city for as long as it takes. One thing I think we do know is the scent of roses, so we can use that once we find a place that might have them. Our animal noses will know it better than our human ones.”

He had to admit that he had next to no knowledge about the geography of Mizahar and had spent no time during this weird season in Alvadas trying to learn. If Phira didn’t know her geography, then tonight would be a long one of wondering aimlessly. “I don’t have the slightest clue as to where we would find roses. If you don’t mind, Phira, you can take the lead on this one. I’ll help out where I can, but I imagine under my leadership, we’ll get nowhere.”

He hoped she would, because as he looked about, he began to feel more lost than ever.