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Consequences
Posted: 05 Apr 2005 04:14 PM |
Across the years and ties that bind us
I cannot be kept from you
Through the wind and fire through which this path traverses
I cannot be kept from you
Secrets gathered and cradled to my heart
Threaded together like flickers of flame by night
Pooled like raindrops in your hand
Traced like a tear down your cheek
I cannot be kept from you
What gifts given me may be laid to waste
What blessings bestowed tossed away
But the dimming light of my eyes still shows
The waning days of my life still speak
Through hell and earth and sin I stride
Darkness falling from my fingers
And light flowing from my palms
I am the dancer of your vision's edge
I am the hope once lost
And the tide not yet turned
I cannot be kept from you
When the clash of swords meets my brow
When the night is mine at last
When death flows from me
In winding rivulets from my veins
Then, then, you will know my heart
I will not be kept from you
((There has been much rearranging and several additions here in this thread. With hope, it is not too jarring or confusing. I blame it all on Mykal and Tori.))
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Consequences: Choices
Posted: 08 Oct 2005 10:30 PM |
Consequences: Choices
If you come breezing through, he said, I'll know that it's you by the taste on my lips
Bet on the desert's kiss I could slip through your net
Over my dead body
The air in the Valley of Lost Souls was always unnaturally still. The canyon walls rose in sharp relief to either side, the late winter sun glaring with slightly more forgiveness than his summer counterpart. The birds of prey that seemed to circle endlessly above had gone silent, their shadows no longer tracing their paths on the sand. He was silent and still, regarding her from the tomb entrance, shadows cast from the structure breaking the lines of his form. It was ridiculous, she thought, fighting hysterical laughter. More akin to a standoff than a discussion. But what did you hope for? A lengthy dialogue on the wickedness of his behavior, a tearful redemption, and tea at the inn after to catch up?
Her gaze flitted to his hands: one braced against the stone of the upper mausoleum, and the other, a withered and ruined thing, tapping an impatient rhythm on this armored thigh, more dead than that light in his eyes. She looked away, and he took a step forward, into the light.
"I could give you so much. The world would be at our feet. An eternity of –"
"Stop it," she hissed. "I have given you my answer."
He did not appear dissuaded. "You are here. You sought me out. This is a step." A measured smile.
"I have sought you out to tell you to stop. Stop this madness."
"My dear, that is not something I can do."
She shifted, anger readily apparent in the curl of her fingers, the set of her shoulders, the sharpness of her breath. "You have set this... this abomination after me, to spy, to threaten..."
"To protect you!" He interjected fiercely.
Eliana continued as though the words had not been spoken. "It outright told me your were its master, and that it only followed your – that you were its master, Gabriel!" She began to tremble somewhere in the onslaught, her breath coming in ragged gasps. "What have you become? What have you done? I look at you... and I see... I see with my own eyes, but I cannot believe it. You are... a monster. I do not know who you are. "
In a swift movement, akin to a cat pouncing its prey, he was in front of her, hands clamped on her shoulders, drawing her up slightly and leaning down until they were almost face to face. He hissed quietly, "You know nothing of what I have become. Nothing of the power and perfection that has been given to me. I would give you a taste of it, show you immortality that would make your years seem diminutive by comparison, a state of perfection and ascension that most mortals can only dream of. When His plan is complete, we would reign in glory together."
Gabriel loosened his grip, and trailed his hands down her arms in a gentle, almost tender gesture, before stepping back from her, his expression impassioned, pleading.
She closed her eyes for a long moment, and then opened them and looked to him in bitter resignation. Her voice was hoarse when she spoke. "You are truly lost, then."
"Lost..." he began in objection, but stopped abruptly as she turned away. "Where are you going?"
She stopped several strides away and stood with her back to him. "To return to my family. To Claudia, and Byron, and Johe. To amass a force, return, and end this," she replied, her voice flat and devoid of emotion.
A flicker of a smile crossed Gabriel's face. "It has been some days since you saw them. Have you not been worried?" he asked casually.
She turned at this, staring at him tensely.
"From the reports given by my, ah, agents, I must say, I anticipated this."
"Anticipated what?" she spat out.
He waved his natural hand around, gesturing towards her. "You coming here... this discussion. So of course, measures were taken."
Eliana took an unconscious step back towards him, her face paling. "What did you do?"
He affected a longsuffering, patronizing expression and sighed. "I told you, love, I would do whatever was necessary to persuade you."
"What – did – you – do?" She demanded, a note of enraged hysteria creeping into her voice.
"Removed a barrier." His eyes hardened. "In more ways than one." He turned and began to stride back to the tomb. He paused and looked back just as her knees buckled and her palms hit the sand. "I can see to it that any are turned as fully sentient beings, possessing of... much... of their former selves... suitable companions and servants to my Lord. If you so choose. But time is not kind to unanimated corpses." He smiled once more, and added, as he passed through the doorway, "You know where to find me when you have made your decision."
The words buzzed senselessly in her ears, a static background noise to the roaring horror in her mind.
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Consequences: Sojourn
Posted: 16 Jun 2006 12:22 PM |
Consequences: Sojourn
The fire burned cold, but it never ceased to burn. How long she had sat silently, staring into it, she did not know. Days, perhaps longer. The turning of minutes and hours was lost on her; mindless, endless, empty. Alone.
It was not the first time, nor the first place.
She had left the desert in a haze, the numbness of her emotions giving way only periodically to grief. It was a farce, all of it, this life, this love, this loss, this nothingness. So she wandered, lingering for days on end each place, half-aware of her surroundings, before continuing on. It was when she stood stoically at the mouth of the volcano, stray sparks singeing her robe, waves of heat clouding her eyes, that she truly considered. But without her, none would remain... and there were things yet to be done. And while loss of honor accompanied by a swift release might be preferable to the alternative she faced if he defeated her... she had made a vow. And still there were decisions to be made.
Now, there was another. In the end, it was easy.
She began this, and she would finish it.
It was what he wanted, she was sure of it, but it ceased to matter. The weeks she had spent in solitude, in mourning, her numbness fading, grief melding with a growing anger, had shifted her focus. They were lost. Even if the worst came to pass, even if he took what he sought, she had nothing left to lose. There was a line, somewhere, between vengeance and justice, and she had lost it, if she had ever truly known it at all. But her motivations were too many and too varied, the emotions too raw and encompassing, and reason had never been one of Eliana’s strongest traits.
Standing slowly, she slipped from the cold, empty cottage and began her trek down from the icy wastelands, to meet her fate where it began years before.
"Show me how it ends; it’s all right
Show me how defenseless you really are"
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Consequences: Surrender
Posted: 01 Aug 2006 09:10 PM |
Consequences: Surrender
The sand was rough and hot against her cheek. Instinctively she flinched away from it, straining unsuccessfully to lift her head. Even the slight movement ground the sand further into the lesions in her skin, the sensation bringing with it a fresh wave of nausea. She exhaled slowly, and with concerted effort drew another breath, teeth clenched against the desire to scream.
"It pains me, Eliana," he said softly, and she froze midbreath. "It pains me to see you this way."
The brightness against her closed eyes lessened as a shadow cut across her form, blocking the piercing desert sun. He knelt, brushing his fingers gently across her temple, hovering over the cuts and bruises that marked her face. "How it pains me..." he whispered again, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. She shuddered, jaw tightening, and fought to keep her eyes closed as the warm, familiar power from his hands was slowly absorbed into her body, the most prominent of her wounds audibly knitting together, lesser ones mending completely.
His hands....
The brightness filled her eyes again as he stood, his step back muffled by the sand under his feet. "Come love; too much longer in the sun, and I will be unable to help you."
No. Focus.
Her limbs were weak; even priestly healing could not wash exhaustion from the body, or infuse power into muscles so utterly depleted. And Gabriel was no priest. Her hands shook as she planted them, palms down, in the sand, and shoved her body into a sitting position. Eliana gasped sharply as the forced motion sent a sharp, stabbing pain through her head and side, and then coughed violently at the inhalation of sand.
"Come," Gabriel repeated firmly, gazing down at her impassively.
Slowly, she lifted her head and met his eyes, her expression angrily defiant. She turned her head and spat out bloody sand, glaring back up at him a moment later as she wiped a tattered sleeve across her mouth. With a soft grunt of exertion, she drew her knees up from beneath her and shakily stood, not looking away.
He took a step closer, as if compelled, and stared down at her intently. He smiled then, and though a decade and a thousand sacrifices and sins had passed, it was still beautiful. "To see you brings me joy, no matter the circumstance." He continued to regard her carefully, and the smile faded, lines forming around his lips, his eyes hardening. "But I would be a fool to think you were here to honor my request. I did not expect you to come of your own free will. Not... after our last conversation. It has been some time."
Eliana jerked her head slightly, indicating the impassive Hieracosphinxes guarding the pathway behind her, and then let her eyes travel along the walls, taking in the abominations surrounding her: stiff animated skeletons, their bleached bones creaking faintly against the crude metal weapons strapped to them; undead warriors, their decaying faces expressionless, gripping sickles and swords with hands missing chunks of flesh; crouching zombie spell weavers, eyes alight with an unearthly hunger, hands grasping and clenching ceaselessly at the air, as if attempting to consume the very life of the world to feed their power.
"And I... didn't... expect such a warm welcome... either," she ground out. "I thought... we had agreed...."
"No," he interjected, leaning forward. "We agreed to nothing. I told you I would have you, love, I told you that I would have you back, by whatever means necessary." He smiled once more, but there was no warmth in it this time. "But as I said. I would not force you, Eliana, not when I could have the joy of convincing you."
As though by silent command, the ranks of undead fell in line around them, and Gabriel motioned towards the tomb entrance silently, never looking away from her. Eliana raised her chin and walked before him into the depths of Desthdes' realm.
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Consequences: Descent
Posted: 01 Aug 2006 09:10 PM |
Consequences: Descent
Things had not gone remotely as planned.
After enough days spent in pure darkness, one begins to see it is a palpable thing. Eliana moved a hand in front of her face and the darkness seemed to spread and waft between her fingers like a black fog, or murky water, shimmering on her skin.
Something stirred across the room from her, a slight movement across the blackness; she drew her hand back to her chest, clenched, as though she had been stung. The shadow crossed the room swiftly. It lingered to her left, and then settled to her right, regarding her in a heavy silence. Its presence was not unfamiliar. For months, it had stalked in her tracks, watching, listening, and yes, even protecting at times. Now, it crouched beside her, and began whispering to her in raspy, hissing tones.
"The master is mosst displeassed. His patience will soon disperssse." She stared ahead, actively refraining from any reaction to its words. It flitted around to her left, sliding in close beside her. "We would not see these thingss done to the misstresss. She should give him what he wantss if she wishess to be safe."
She gave a shallow, impatient sigh and shifted her gaze to her left. "As you have no doubt heard me say. I have nothing to give him, no information I will part with, no powers I will lend to his aid." She turned her head and dropped it back to lean against the stone wall. "And I will certainly not become his... partner in this... this..."
"Calling," it suggested. "Mission. Duty."
"No," she whispered.
It hovered beside her. "Why did misstresss come? Why, if not to surrender?"
She closed her eyes. "I had hoped to engage him," she answered, unsure why she was conversing with this creature at all. "I had hoped to exact my vengeance... or fall myself in the attempt. Either would have been acceptable. But I underestimated his foresight."
"Yesss. Cunning, so cunning iss he."
She made no reply, and the heaviness of blackness and silence covered them again.
~~
"And your master?" she asked derisively. "What does he say of you breaking from your duties to toy with me?"
He leaned back a fraction, one leg crossed over the other at the calf, the toe of his boot resting on the floor. He was the picture of unconcerned narcissism. "I have told him you are integral to my success, that once you acquiesced to my requests, the results would prove... invaluable."
She stared at him incredulously. "You lied."
A smirk. "Hardly. You would be... such an asset, my dear. More, I think, than you know. But my patience grows thin, and my methods of persuasion... well. I have been very tolerant of your stubbornness, love. But it may be time for a new course of action to convince you."
~~
Later, when she thought back, she would remember the chains most vividly. Twisted tightly around her wrists, allowing only minimal bloodflow, taunt, unforgiving. "You are mine," he had said softly as he wound them. "As you swore. As you will always remember."
The pain in her wrists was a focus, a thin tie to reality that she held to with as much willpower as she could muster. So they dance, and dance, and spin, here, and there, and there, and oh yes. Here.
Would you like some thread, dearie?
The fatigue amplified her vulnerability, more than he appeared to have suspected. He knelt beside her, a hand cupped around her cheek, and sang softly, her father's words echoing around them.
A steady, rhythmic drip, drip from the blades gripped in small, shaking hands. Aala, aey amecc lairela oem sa.
No tears. Their fate, every second of it, was your choice. The fate they deserved? You answer me that.
His footsteps resounded hollowly off the stone walls and he walked its length, watching in patient concentration.
Intertwined bodies; a thin, narrow scar across a wrist; a feather landing in an outstretched palm; an unthinkable, searing pain through his chest; a cape billowing in the wind, fluttering to rest on the surface of the water; a single tear; intricate carvings covering the bodies, staining the grass with their imprint; screams echoing through corridors
Keep your eyes on her.
He rocked her and she clung to him tightly. It will be over soon, my dear, and you will understand. There are paths we all must take, trials we all must bear. This is just one step along your way, my child. "Eliana." But it is not my way, not my choice, not, not.... "Please." Shhh, my love, shhh. It comes.
~~
Blow by blow, her mind cut in sheets
Now unravelling
~~
She had lost track of the passage of time. The cycles of days meant nothing to the festering darkness of the tombs, and the cycles of nature had no place in such a laboratory of death and undeath. The shadow whispered to her when she was alone and in possession of her senses, of the history and horror etched upon the walls, of the legions of undead that moved throughout the tunnel system, of the plots and magics and strife brewing in the chambers of Desthdes. His displeasure with Gabriel's attentions to her grew swiftly, and his belief in her importance was hastily evaporating.
"If there iss to be a chance," the shadow whispered, "It will be soon."
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Consequences: Fallout
Posted: 01 Aug 2006 09:11 PM |
Consequences: Fallout
Looking at the three, the bitterness, the vengefulness, and the reality seeping into her, "Madness," she had said. "Madness takes many forms, and does not know itself, does not know truth."
Staring at her reflection, at the darkened eyes she no longer recognizes, at the flicker of movement behind her, truth escapes her again.
She closes her eyes.
((Darkness covered her, protected her, reached out from the shadows and wrapped itself around her to shroud her from that which would harm, that which would destroy, that which would kill.
But not this time.
Every thought, every breath, every slam against the walls around her, every lash against this invasion, was filtered through and punctuated with his smile, his voice, his, his, his.))
She opens her eyes with a gasp and stares at the hands in front of her, hands that have not stopped trembling since she awoke from hell to find herself in Buckshire, Claudia hovering over her, thoughts and memories slipping from her mind like water. At times only the slightest of tremors is visible in her fingertips, but now, they shake like an old woman's, and even when she raises them to cover her face, they do not hide the shadowy form at the edge of her vision.
Watching. Waiting.
Always.
"This is not over, love."
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Time
Posted: 01 Aug 2006 09:11 PM |
There was a difference, Eliana told herself repeatedly, between vengeance and justice. There was a difference between necessity and preference. There was a difference between faith and belief.
Her feet carried her, without a thought, up and down the length of her library... her sanctuary from the madness of the outside world, from the reality of the present situation.
But not from herself.
She paused, taking a moment from her tireless pacing, and ran a hand along the edge of her desk, across scribbled notes, maps, diagrams. With a sharp intake of breath, she pulled her hand away and clenched it into a fist, against the slight but ever-present tremor in her fingers. She did not need to dwell. Not now.
She had bided her time. She had resisted her urges. She had been far more patient than she would have liked, and truly, this was perhaps the greatest indicator, because Eliana was not a patient woman. But now, with talks of subterfuge and pacts and favors and espionage and possession and prices... she had begun to wonder more than ever at the repercussions and fallout of her mistakes. She was not so foolish as to think she could single handedly end it, no, not as she had once believed. But she had stood by, waiting, for too long while the evil spread, while the seed of her foolishness grew to fruition. Waiting for others to act.
Eliana was not a patient woman. And it was time.
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Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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