Fated (Chapter Forty-Four)
Thursday, October 15th, 2015 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcracklove...This is 2.7k words of happiness and sorrow, that's what I'm saying. Enjoy. ^^
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Forty-Four
Skettisren tunnels under Traz’madar, Minecraftia. October 25, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Claire jerked awake as she heard someone clap loudly.
“Up up up! You all need to eat and then we need to prepare for the summoning!” Mitven shouted into the room before moving onto the next. Zekara groaned and covered her head with a pillow. Claire, meanwhile, jumped to her feet. She cheerfully greeted Onai and Axid (who were sharing a room with the sisters) and turned to glare at her sister, who was the complete opposite of a morning person.
“Zekara! Up with ya! Come on, come on!” Claire shook her sister’s shoulder, getting smacked in the arm for her efforts. Eventually the albino backed up to get a running start, leaping onto her sister and bouncing the bed up and down.
Zekara groaned and sat up, shoving her sister onto the floor. “You’re a pest sometimes.”
Claire got to her feet. “You love me.”
“Yeah, well.” Zekara grabbed her helmet from the floor and jammed it on her head, getting to her feet. She and Axid exchanged amused looks at Claire’s antics as Zekara pulled her armor on, strapping her axe to her back.
Claire rolled her eyes at her sister and the mute girl she was looking at. “What I don’t understand is why you guys aren’t excited. I mean, we get to meet one of our ancestors! Isn’t that great?”
Axid shrugged. [I am excited. I just don’t know what to expect. I guess I’m a little anxious too.]
At Claire’s blank stare, Axid motioned for Onai to translate. He added, “I’m not sure what to expect either. Whose ancestor do you suppose it’ll be?”
“Who cares?!” Tranpar demanded, charging into the room. “These skettisren are so cool! They have technology that we could never dream of! Metal limbs, prototype weapons that shoot lead with the power of explosives and fire, advanced messenger systems, the biggest library in the world- even bigger than the one in Skullbit, from what I hear- better explosives, the works!” He turned to Claire. “You wanted to help out with the moon project, right? These skettisren could totally make it happen, given time!”
Claire grinned and bounced a little. “Really?!”
Zekara shot her sister an odd look. “Moon project?”
Claire nodded. “Once this whole thing with the Hostiles is over with, Tranpar, Tim, Xullos, and I are going to the moon. Wait. Weren’t there five of us…?”
Tranpar nodded. “Yeah, Velloh! He said he’d-” Tranpar suddenly cut off as he remembered what had happened to the friendly pigman and he shivered. “Um. No. There’s…only four of us.”
Even the most oblivious was shaken by the loss of one.
Samuel showed up at that exact moment, almost running into a wall and breathing heavily. He pointed at Tranpar. “Quit doing that!”
Tranpar looked at him innocently. “Doing what?”
“Running off when I’m not looking! It’s not safe to go wandering around the tunnels on your own, you know that!”
“Aw, c’mon, Samuel! I was just telling the team about the advanced technology!”
“Just make sure I’m nearby next time, okay? Don’t run off alone.”
Tranpar sighed. “You’re like an overprotective older brother.”
“I’m not overprotective and I might as well be your older brother!” Samuel informed him.
Claire giggled at the scolding, thinking to how Zekara tended to scold her. “Don’t take it seriously, Tranpar, he just cares about ya.”
Tranpar crossed his arms. “He doesn’t let me do anything fun.”
“He doesn’t let you do anything stupid.” Mitven corrected as she walked by, earning laughs from everyone watching.
Claire decided that maybe this quest wasn’t so bad after all.
~~~
Trymdas sighed as he sat up in bed, glancing over at his brother. The two were alone in their room, as no one had wanted to deal with them.
That was fine. Trymdas looked away from Valkan as he got ready for the day, looking down at the blanket he hadn’t pulled off yet. Eventually he dragged himself out of bed and left the room, going to sit in the corner while food was handed out by a few skettisren who must have been sent by Ahzzen. Trymdas ate slowly, not feeling very hungry after the death yesterday. He was grateful that his brother seemed to be withdrawn as well, staying away from even him.
He noticed Carl hand Niel a bag, though, one that Trymdas recognized as Velloh’s. Niel’s face grew more solemn and he withdrew from the group, sitting against the wall with the bag beside him. He looked at it for awhile before sighing and opening it.
Trymdas wasn’t sure why he did it, but he got to his feet and walked slowly over to Niel. Part of him was curious about what was in the bag, and he supposed he felt like he could risk interacting with the other boy due to how distracted his brother was. He sat next to Niel, on the side without the bag.
Niel looked at him curiously. “What…?”
“I’m just curious.” Trymdas’ voice was quiet. “What are you doing?”
Niel sighed. “I guess I’m in charge of going through Velloh’s things.” He pulled the rotting potion out of the bag and looked it over before moving to set it on the ground. Trymdas stopped him, gently tapping the glass.
“Can I have that?”
Niel looked it over again before shrugging. “Sure, I guess. Why?”
Trymdas shrugged as he took it, tucking it carefully into a pocket. “I don’t know. I just feel like I’ll need it.”
Niel nodded as if this made perfect sense, returning to going through Velloh’s things. He paused when he found the candle, though, slowly withdrawing it. It didn’t seem to be remarkable in any way, with dark gray wax and a regular black wick.
“I…saw Velloh talking to this the night before he died.” Niel confessed. “I overheard him. I don’t know what was going on with it and I never got a chance to ask, but it burns with a violet flame. Ever heard of anything like that?”
Trymdas shook his head slowly, thinking of the unnatural light blue flames that-
He slammed his mind shut on the memory. No. This wasn’t like that.
“Maybe it’s a pigman thing.” He suggested. “Xullos is part pigman, isn’t he? He might know.”
Niel nodded. “Yeah, he might. Thanks, Trymdas.” He smiled at him, grinning wider when a slight smile tugged at Trymdas’ face as well. “You know, maybe you’re not so…so…” Niel waved his hands vaguely. “I don’t know.” He finished awkwardly. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Trymdas leaned back against the wall, wondering how long it would be until his brother noticed and pulled him away to scold him for trying to make friends. His instincts told him to move away from Niel but he couldn’t find the will to, not caring at that moment whether or not his brother gave a shit about what he did.
Eventually Valkan’s shout of his name reached Trymdas and he sighed, getting to his feet. “See you around.” He mumbled, walking away from Niel and towards the chaotic shitstorm that was his older brother. In that moment he felt an odd feeling, an odd want to punch his brother in his stupid, smug face, but shook it off.
Beginnings of rebellion.
It was a weird feeling and made him feel uncomfortable.
-~-
Blame really, really, really did not want to be alive today.
It was the two-century anniversary of Iirkolav’s death and he was feeling very depressed as he sat alone in his room with the jukebox playing at maximum volume. He sat on his bed with his back to the wall, head tilted back against it and his eyes shut. In his hand he held the orb that showed Shred (and usually Mira due to the dragon’s close proximity to his descendant at all times) and he occasionally glanced at it, as much as he just wanted to throw it away and curl up for a month.
Stupid Skullblade sense of loyalty and duty. It bound him to look at the orb, to keep track of what was happening. It was important for him to know and to keep up with events, but…
It didn’t do shit to ease the pain that still burned inside, two hundred years later.
~~~
“Sit down, guy, you’re making me nervous.” Guude complained, looking over at Doc. He was sitting beside Bdoubleo, peering into his orb as his own was still not active.
“I’m nervous.” Doc complained, not ceasing his pacing.
Vechs sighed and hugged Aureylian closer. Despite Doc’s theory about him being the one to be summoned, they had no real way to tell who would be called to face the Hostiles once more, leaving them all tense and stressed.
As Doc walked, Vechs thought idly about how glad Blame likely was that Doc’s metal foot didn’t clank when it hit the ground due to something on the bottom of it acting as a muffler that Doc had added after Iirkolav’s death to spare the painful memories. On this day, most of not all of their minds were on Iirkolav, at least to some degree.
“I wonder how Blame’s holding up.” Chad mumbled, more to himself than anyone.
“How do you think he’s holding up?” Zisteau demanded. “He’s never okay around this time of year.” The pigman was sitting on Vechs’ other side, looking through his orb at Nia as she sat by the side of the still-unconscious Adrian due to the loss of his own descendant.
He’s a little grouchy, Vechs reflected, but who wouldn’t be?
Chad mumbled something along the lines of an apology, but was overridden by Aureylian shaking Vechs to get his attention.
“Look! Adrian!”
~~~
Adrian groaned as he blinked his eyes open, the world spinning and shaking around him. He had no recollection of what had happened, but he did know that he was underground. He swayed as he sat up, feeling horribly dizzy.
“Woah, hey!” Nia reached out and steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. “Take it easy. You’ve been out for awhile- it’s evening by now, or so Mitven tells us.”
“What…what happened? Who’s…” Adrian shook his head, trying to clear it.
“You…don’t remember? You went monstrous, and-”
Nia’s words sent a shock through Adrian’s system and the memories came rushing back, evidenced by his sharp gasp. He swayed again, tears welling in his eyes as he remembered what had happened to Velloh.
What he had done to Velloh.
“Oh, gods…oh, gods!” He pulled himself away from Nia, looking at her fearfully. “Get…get away from me!”
“Adrian, I-”
“Get away!” He screamed. “I don’t want to hurt you! I don’t want to do that to you!”
“Adrian, you won’t hurt me! Velloh went in without being properly prepared, I’m not-”
“I’M A MURDERER! WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE NEAR ME?!”
“Because I care about you!” While Adrian’s voice was a high-pitched scream of anguish and fury, Nia’s was quiet but fierce. “Because you’re not that monster! That’s not you! You can learn to control it, okay? You can learn!”
“No I can’t!” Adrian sobbed. “I can’t learn, that thing, that thing takes control of me and I can’t, I can’t…”
“Adrian, please-”
“I won’t hurt you!” Adrian jerked away from his cousin’s touch again, tears pouring down his face. “I’m a murderer! I killed an innocent boy! I don’t want to do the same to you, or anyone!”
“You won’t!”
“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!” Adrian tried to get up, to get away, but he was shaking too badly. “I’m a monster, I’m a killer, I could-”
Nia growled, standing up from her sitting position fast enough to startle her cousin. “Pull yourself together! You’re not that monster, do you hear me? You’re Adrian, and you’re my cousin. You’ve got a problem and we’re going to fix it! Okay?”
Adrian whimpered. “I’m a killer…”
“It happens! Okay? It happens. No one with a worthwhile opinion blames you, okay? We’ll learn to control this, somehow. We’re summoning one of our ancestors, right? Maybe they knew Vechs, and he was rumored to have some kind of monstrous form, didn’t he? Maybe they can help you.”
He sniffed. “Do you think so?”
“Yes. Okay?” Nia pushed her goggles up her face to look at him better, not breaking eye contact. “It’ll be okay. You won’t kill anyone ever again, okay?”
“Okay…”
Nia moved forward to hug him, knowing that he was still unconvinced. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
A promise that could perhaps not be kept.
~~~
A couple of hours later, Mitven led the entire team down a series of progressively smaller tunnels deep underground until the air seemed to hum quietly with magical energy. When she spoke, she spoke quietly.
“We’re approaching the cavern where Xalon has been setting up the summoning spell. Don’t speak loudly and don’t interrupt, alright? It’ll take a certain amount of energy from all of us, in order to properly summon an ancestor from one of us present.” She stopped and turned around to look at them. “Does everyone understand?”
The group nodded. Mitven nodded in return and opened the heavy metal door before her, stepping into a huge chamber with faintly glowing crystals along the wall that the door was in. The far side of the cavern, past an altar of some sort, was very dark.
A male skettisren with shorter fur than Mitven scurried around the wooden altar, carrying a spell tome and muttering quiet enchantments as well as scattering some kind of bizarre green dust over the whole thing. He wore a dark robe and his ears twitched nervously as he spoke, clearly paranoid that he was doing it wrong.
Mitven motioned for the descendants to create a semicircle around the altar, all facing it and all on the brighter side of the room. She had Nia stand in the center, directly in front of the altar, before taking her place midway down the right side.
Xalon eventually fell silent and looked up at the gathered descendants, gulping nervously. “Is everyone ready?” Like most skettisren, he tended to hiss on his ‘s’ sounds, although Mitven seemed to mostly lack this trait.
“Yes.” Mitven told him. “Unless someone isn’t?”
A few descendants exchanged worried looks- Nia noticed that Niel and Trymdas were among them- but none spoke out.
“Let us begin, then.” Xalon stood in front of Nia and faced the altar, clearing his throat once before beginning to chant in a language that no one there could understand, but both Nia and Adrian recognized as the language of magic.
The most powerful language in the world.
It didn’t take long for the wooden altar to begin to glow, and with a final growl, green flames erupted from its surface. Xalon clicked his claws and barked a command, teleporting himself out of the room just as Mitven had told them he would.
Instead of smoke, blue things arose from the flames. Nia wasn’t quite sure how to describe them, but shimmers seemed to fit, as they distorted everything behind them like the air tends to do on very hot days. A shimmer slowly moved to hover in front of every descendant before sparking and vanishing, as the flames began to die as the altar burned and ceased providing fuel.
Mitven frowned, opening her mouth to say that that wasn’t supposed to happen, when a quiet tick-tick-ticking sound filled the air. The descendants looked around wildly for the source but were blinded by a flash of bronze light from deeper in the cavern. As the light faded, so did the flames, leaving the cave completely dark except for the glow of the crystals behind them, but even those seemed to have faded somewhat.
Nia shook her head, feeling slightly odd, as if the universe had been prodded by a celestial being of some sort.
She wasn’t left to dwell on it long, however, as everyone in the room became aware of the presence that had joined them.
However, instead of seeing one of their ancestors standing before them, an odd noise could be heard. It was almost like footsteps, except they were the oddest footsteps that Nia had ever heard.
Step.
Clank.
Step.
Clank.
Step.
Clank.
Step.
Clank.
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 02:56 am (UTC)/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ -JUMMY
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 03:05 am (UTC)is that your name now
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 03:13 am (UTC)GOOO Trymdas! .3.
Also poor Adrian. ;3;
-Random Anon
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 03:31 am (UTC)BEST CHAPTER SINCE BEFORE IIRKOLAV DIED!!! (@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 05:53 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 05:52 am (UTC)I really can't express how I'm feeling at this chapter. I'd say it's Doc and his metal foot, but you made a POINT of the fact he had a sound dampener on it...
Also, poor Adrian. (Maybe if it's Iirkolav he can teach Adrian how to control it...:P)
MUCH COOKIES!! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 10:17 pm (UTC)Yes. I did indeed make a point of saying that his foot doesn't clank. :3
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Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2015 05:42 am (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 12:38 pm (UTC)I am not a part of said club, however glad they are happy
-Scootaloo
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 01:05 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker.
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2015 05:42 am (UTC)I can't wait to see Blame's reaction. He's either going to faint or he'll think he's going crazy with grief.
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2015 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, October 18th, 2015 01:23 pm (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Friday, October 16th, 2015 10:18 pm (UTC):3
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Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2015 05:40 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Sunday, October 18th, 2015 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2015 04:37 pm (UTC)-awkward anon
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Date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 02:40 pm (UTC)