Yui-chan Posted October 27, 2001 Report Posted October 27, 2001 [From the Tavern of the Morning Rose, 05-06-2001] In the morning, when the mages of the Legion start to rise and shuffle about in the process of waking up, a shadow breaks free from the wall of the Stage area, the darkness separating from the rose-tinted light of the rising sun. The shadow-figure makes her way to the stage itself, the ebon fabric making it look as if she floats rather than walks, and sets a tied bundle of rough, slightly-yellowed papers on the wooden surface. With a smile and a satisfied nod, she makes her way back to the dying darkness and uses it to ShadowWalk back to the Fortress of Darkness. On the bundle of papers is a note that is labeled in a flowing script. To Lord Dakeyras, of the Legion of the White Rose. An amusing and creative adversary who has inspired me.
Yui-chan Posted October 27, 2001 Author Report Posted October 27, 2001 When the packet is found, the mage delivers it to Dakeyras with a curious expression. Equally curious, he opens the simple, string ties and sets out the pages. On them are a strange set of writings, almost as if they were a transcript of a conversation, complete with the times at which each piece was said. Puzzled, he settled down into his window seat, his errands forgotten, and began to read... [16:56] * Yui decides to stand up and do a bit of improvisational storytelling... [16:57] The dreams began three nights ago. Burning... it was all burning... [16:59] The flames rained down from above, poured from the damned mouths of a flight of red dragons that soared over my troops. My treants howled out their pain in the voice of nature destroyed. [17:02] The dryads were too slow, falling under the burning blades of a legion of enchanted knights. The nymphs, fighting in the formations my Armsmaster had so carefully taught them, were blown like leaves on the wind by a few well-placed oil flasks. I watched, helplessly, from the parapets of the castle, the sounds of their death ringing in my ears, my dreams of peace shattering in my heart. [17:04] A servant came to my side, frightened and shaking, yet stalwartly fulfilling his duties to his Huntress. He took my arm, placing the ebon cloak about my shoulders as he tried to pull me from my despondent observation, from my defeat. [17:05] "Y-Yui-chan... please, you must go! The dragons will be upon the castle any moment! If you run, now, you, at least, may survive this!" I stood still, resisting halfheartedly until that last sentence. And then I woke up from my own little nightmare... [17:07] ... to my cozy little bedchamber and my favorite soft nightrobe. I sat up with a scream caught in my throat and tears in my eyes. [17:08] "Gods," I whispered. "It was only a dream... " I took a deep breath and let my tense muscles relax, my head dropping a bit to stare at the soft white linen of my bedcovers... and that's when I realized... [17:10] ... fire reflected off the bright colour, lighting the darkness too dimly to be my long-extinguished chamber fireplace! I looked up with a gasp, my eyes flying to the starry night and its full, bright moon through the great windows of my chamber. What I saw sent ice down my spine... A red dragon soared off in the distance, lighting my kingdom with his fire. [17:13] Rushing over, I threw open the window, coughing as the deadly smoke hazing the land rolled into my chambers like the mist of death. My heart shattered to see my dream being played out in every tragic detail before my eyes. The fires of Eradication lit my peaceful world, consuming. Destroying. [17:14] "Dakeyras..." I whispered, anger breaking through the horror and grief. I truly believe that, had the mage been standing there in my chambers in that moment, I could have struck him dead with the force of my wrath. [17:14] I wish, sometimes, that he had been. [17:16] Anyone who would attack a peaceful kingdom just for the pleasure of destroying it deserves my wrath. And fear not... felt it, he has, and so shall it continue between the two of us until I have seen him dead. [17:20] But anger does nothing if you do not back it up with action, and I did not long let myself revel in the feeling. Grabbing my cloak from the bedstand, I rushed out of the chamber and down the great hallway, dodging the panicked soldiers and servants rushing hither and thither. [17:24] In the melee, I was barely noticed as I sprinted from the castle to the stables in naught but my nightrobe with bare feet and no weapon. When I arrived, the stablemaster took a look at my attire, opened his mouth to say something, then saw my face. Not another word crossed his mind as he quickly saddled my fastest stallion. [17:25] I was on his back and out of the castle yards before the second wave of red dragons had even crossed the border, my robe and cloak whipping around me as the beast ran towards the hillside grove and the Lore Node. [17:28] The countryside was hell, fires spreading quickly across the fields and through the small villages dotting this side of the border. The smoke was thick in the still night air, rising around me in its best effort to keep me from my goal. My mount squealed in protest as a dragon bore down on us, leaping nimbley into a copse of trees as the ground behind us exploded in fire and heat. [17:30] The gods must have been merciful to us, is all that I can say to explain why we did not share that disastrous fate, yet somehow myself and the horse kept right on going, crashing out of the otherside of the trees as the dragon veered back off into the sky. [17:32] And there it was, rising up among the flames, untouched despite the destruction around it because of the pure, holy Life living within. The Lore Node. The best-kept secret in all of Terra. [17:35] ... and between us and it a small party of Chimera... My heart dropped into my stomach even as I spurred the horse into an even faster run. [17:39] I looked around frantically, searching for a way to get myself and the horse through the deadly creatures, the weight of the moment heavy upon my shoulders. If we failed, if we did not reach the Lore Node, there would be 500,000 innocent peasants left defenseless against the fires of death. 500,000 lives consumed by destruction. [17:44] I'm not sure whether I should credit the gods, blind luck, pure despiration, or a very wise Armsmaster for what happened next.... I had found nothing, no alternate path, no concealing tree, nothing but 20 hungry Chimera with their eyes fixed on myself and my galloping steed. Their razor-sharp teeth gleamed in the firelight and moonlight, looking as though they dripped blood. Perhaps they did. [17:45] Thankfully, I shall never know, for in that moment when I closed my eyes, expecting the leader to leap upon me and start rending flesh, there was a sudden, piercing cry through the sky. When I opened my eyes in surprise, it was to see the Chimera flying through the air at my face... [17:48] I screeched and shrank back, abandoning myself for dead and cursing my own failure, but all I ever felt was the wind of its passing. The fire-beast's screams joined that of all of its squadron as the life-fires of a pair of phoenix enveloped them. [17:50] Amazed, I looked upwards and smiled warmly at the magnificent birds. My own favorites, I knew each of my phoenix by sight and by name. Xia and F'iri tipped their wings to me in greeting before soaring back into the thick of the battle after a red dragon. [17:52] My way to the Lore Node now clear save for the smouldering piles of ash that had once been Chimera, I spurred the steel-nerved stallion forward, crossing the last bit of burning ground into the safety of the grove. [17:54] Crossing the threshold was like stepping from hell into the very heart of tranquility. The interior of the grove was silent and still, filled with a soft light that could not be seen from outside of it and warmed by the very Life of Terra no matter the temperature of the night. [19:02] I could feel the power of the Node in the air around me, almost like the 'scent' of a flower or the heavy air of a humid day. It sang to me, relaxing me despite the images of carnage still fresh in my mind from the battlefield. [19:05] It sang a song to my weary soul as I slid from the stallion's back, clutching my singed and ragged nightrobe around me. Almost unconsciously, I found myself walking deeper into the trees, drawn like a moth to the focus point of the Life Magic around me. [19:10] And then I was there, cradled in the heart of peace, wrapped in the warmth and security of tranquility. It's very seductive, the Lore Node, and every mage who enters it must fight a battle to retain his purpose, his will. With that kind of pure rapture enveloping you, all you truly want to do is lay down and languish, leave the pressures and tragedies of life and kingdom behind and bask in peace. [19:13] *laughs a bit* Perhaps I should say that -I- was thus tempted. Long months of a leadership I didn't want, the pain of losing my brother, the loneliness, the pressure... I wanted to just lay down and let it all slip away from me. I wanted it so badly that I was kneeling before I realized I had moved. ... so tempting. [19:14] ... so tempting... And then a smiling face broke into my rapture, a single thought that brought me back to my feet. Soft, blue eyes with a hint of grey; a warm, loving smile; that handsome face, every detail of which I had long ago memorized. As he has so many times in the past, Aegon saved me from myself. After all, I could not stay here, where he was not, no matter how tempting it might be. [19:22] *smirks a bit* And, yes, I know you're going to read that and think 'ugh... romantic drivel', but you cannot understand until you have loved someone yourself. He is my other half, as surely as if we were two beings cut from one. I would be nothing without that mysterious something that makes us in love, and nothing is stronger. Not even the lure of Life itself. [19:23] Anyway. I digress.... [19:26] The rapture shattered, and I was again aware of myself and my people and my mission in this place. The battle raged on outside of this magical place, and I knew it again. The time had come to harness the power of the Node and bend it to serve my will. 'Tis never an easy task to cast magic, and such powerful magic as that of Terra's soul itself requires even more. [19:29] Rather than channeling such power, you must give yourself to it... 'Tis hard to explain, but perhaps you can think of it as thus: You cannot direct the flow of a major node from outside of the magic. You must, instead, give yourself over to it, altering the flow and shape of the power from within. In all truth, it is both a frightening and an indescribably invigorating experience at once. I fear that the power of words falls far short of describing it. [19:32] I can only say that you have not -lived- truly until you have lived a moment's time as a -part- of magic. In a heartbeat, you know all of the secrets of the vast Planes of existance. In another, you know nothing, and are as pure and innocent as a newborn babe. You become everything and nothing, a part of the whole and an outsider, alone within ... infinite numbers. [19:38] As a part of the magic, I gathered together the loose fragments of my 'self', drawing them into my heart from the depths of emptiness and singing them a song of what I wished for 'us' to do. No more burning. No more death. Force the eradication away, and protect the sanctity of life. [19:40] I vaguely remember lifting my face to the night sky and feeling the fat drops of rain on my cheeks as the power roiled within me. I vaguely recall muttering words that I know no meaning for and raising my hands in entreaty to nature. [19:46] And then the power consumed me, ripping through me and up into the sky, spreading over the land through every plant and tree, every squirrel and bird and worm. I died a thousand deaths in that instant, lived the pain of every singed leaf, every trampled flower, every burning tree. I'm sure I screamed, but there was no one to hear it over the screams of the chimera, dragons, salamanders and other creatures of fire in my lands. [19:52] As the wave of magic washed over them, it ripped them apart, like dust blown in the wind, absorbing their lives and using the energy to repair the land... or so I was later told. I knew nothing from the moment that the pain began until I was found the next morning, unconscious on the grass. [19:58] Still hurting, as if every nerve in my body had been... singed, I rested in Aegon's arms on that ride back to the castle, grateful for his strength and his warmth and his love that had sent him rushing to my lands as soon as he heard of the attack. Lulled by the rocking of the horse beneath us and exhausted beyond words by what the magic had given to me and taken from me, I watched the repaired lands pass by and slowly drifted off to a deep sleep... one no longer plagued by nighmares of fire… [19:59] * Yui grins and takes her seat, again, finally finished with her rambling monologue.
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