Pieces of Tiana Koul

"I am nothing." Redford held his head in his hands, eyeing over documents and photos, much of which seemed to be a jumbled mess. He sat in a plain concrete room, eight by eight feet with soft light pouring in from metallic magic orbs hovering just beneath the ceiling. It was a sterile like environment, somehow devoid of life; this place seemed entirely artificial. Before him the Poseidon orb wandered around the room, as if having a mind of its own, but no senses to grasp where it was going. Occasionally pinging off the wall and slowly drifting across the room, arcing up or down but avoiding Redford. Outside the metallic door the doppelganger, Monika stood at attention. Calm and detached, meditating in her own mind she awaited her next directive. The hall she stood in was devoid as well, flat white concrete, orbs lazily drifting across the ceiling and lifeless metallic doors lining the corridor.

"How is it after so long, this still haunts me?" He clenched his eyes shut and saw what home used to be. He saw Tiana for what she once was, he saw his friends in the village, he saw a valley covered in the beautiful shade of red as the sun rested upon the distant mountains in the twilight hour. He wiped the image away and pictured her, oh my daughter.... In his deal during death, he'd never imagined that he'd see his daughter again. When he was placed back into this world, years had passed; as part of his deal, he was to leave the past where it was, abandoned. Not to think of it ever again...

Many years ago, in the veil of deaths realm...

It was like waking from a deep slumber, muscles tightened and mind reeling. The world was a haze of darkened colors, as if dyed with a darker essence not of this world. But, what world is this? Last he could remember was terrible pain, a sword thrust in this chest and heart and the screams of a young woman seemed so distant now. Yet his mind did not seem preoccupied by the what happened, but the where was he aspect. In the distance he saw a great leviathan seem to flow through the air, as if swimming upon the blackened fog surrounding him. There was more movement, disembodied limbs seem to creep in the corner of the eye but were not present when glanced upon. Carrion creatures moved slowly above, but un-moving, somehow trapped in place. A deep thrumming below caught his attention and he saw it. Something terrible dwell deep beneath, it's form abstract but it's presence was very real.

Am I in Hell?

"Not quite." A rigid voice broke upon his ears in a great pain, "This is a realm belonging to Mephistopheles. Patron of the Underworld and the Realm of Death, you look upon but a minor tendril which sifts through countless worlds beyond your greatest imagination."

"Whom is this!?" It dawned upon him that his voice wasn't quite his own, he breathed and moved his lips, but no sound escaped. It just seemed to seep into this deranged domain.

"I am but a puppet upon many strings, a puppet who holds many as well. Ah, but my will is not my own and I shall tell you of a great and terrible pain." The voice scratched on his inner ears, it's deep voice seemed like the clatter of bones upon massive war drums. "Though we are not quite omnipotent. Sometimes souls such as yourself happen to fall right into this realm upon death. In all cases, they were simply not ready to accept death, yet here you are surrounded by it in an infinite state." The voice let out a booming laugh which sent pain rippling through his body. "Ah, but first we ask, what is the name of this one?"

"I am Giovan Koul." He didn't will the response, but it seemed pulled from his mind; as if something cold forced it's way inside and plucked the answer from his mind.

"No longer is this the title your mortal carriage shall hold. Forget this name, it is a life no longer suited for the likes of you."

Giovan fought as hard as he could against the pain of the voice, "What... who are you?"

"Ah, so he can speak of his own will. Bravo, I love the taste of a strong being. Ah, but you have asked a question of us and we are being rude. I am of no name, though my title however could be seen in your eyes as an official of sorts. Tasked by those greater than myself to sow seeds into worlds beyond our control. Though I have told you what we do, what we are however..." A sonic boom washed over Giovan and the world became a sickly tinge of white with bits of the black fog still seeping through what looked like cracks in mid air. Before him a figure appeared, quite tall and amplified by a strange tall hat covered in zippered pockets, buttoned folds and hinged locks. It's body was thin, as if lacking organs or skin, but draped in a great cloak made of tanned flesh, sewn together and dyed a deathly shade of black. Its face... its face was like looking into a pile of maggoty corpses, deformed beyond reason and rotted into what seemed like an endless hole.

He wanted to vomit, but felt no urge to do so otherwise. He expected a great stench but nothing reached his nose. Only an endless trail of fear was laid out upon his deadened body as he gazed upon the ghastly creature.

"This is how you shall see us. As others have seen me from this realm, though we have found it much to rare to have visitors from your world, if any at all I suppose." If it could smile a sick pair of lips, Giovan was sure it would. Instead the infinite hole of rot continued to squirm and pulse with sickening creatures. "We, or in this case I, have a particular proposition for you. You may live again, but you shall live a very different life than your own. You will posses the thoughts, memories, dreams and even the inconsequential ticks of a dying man in a small wonderful war. Ah, so much new death, bringing so many more to visit our little world." The being revealed a pair of bony hands covered in a thin excuse for skin, covered in festering wounds, "Ah, but back to my point. This man, his name is Captain Adan Redford. You will continue his little life until death and we shall meet again when that time comes. You need not do much more, just continue the life we give whereas the original... well, this man accepted death and is already on his way elsewhere. As for you... well, I'm afraid I cannot divulge any other... information. Yes or no?"

It was strange, this world. Giovan never thought he'd be in such a place upon death, he'd imagine a heaven and bounties for leading a decent life. Instead he found himself in a place he'd only seen in his darkest dreams. He'd felt cheated somehow. His mind raced back to his own life, all that he'd done. He'd killed a few men early in his life, he'd managed to kill one of the soldiers which had invaded his home. Was it just the killing? Did he not do something right? Giovan strained to recollect what he'd done until the creatures deafening voice filled his mind and body again with its horrid sound.

"Ah, you misplace your beliefs. As many mortals do. You look to your short lived years in hopes to find your mortal sins or wrongs because you could never imagine finding such a place exists upon your imminent demise. A pity, truly. Do not fret, you simply had not accepted death; in turn we answered to offer a chance to those who could not accept death, but only upon our own... terms." The faceless hole contorted while the voice spoke, its fingertips pressed sharply together in what was either anticipation or already knowing the answer.

"Yes... I, I want to live!" His answer seemed to be more of a plead, unable to bare this terrible place any longer.

"So be it. Off you go." Before his eyes, a lifetime flashed and he felt his mind be pierced by many years, as many daggers to a back. The visions began to slow and nearly come to a stop. Before him two women and a man dressed in white seemed to be doing something to him. Behind a white cloth fluttered as wind pushed against its wooden suspension. He could hear loud rapid explosions in the distance, unlike anything he'd ever heard. There was much commotion and the memories became clear to him in the midst of it all. He felt the memory of another man enter his own, it was like a great expanse of land to look upon beside his own memory. He saw another childhood, parents and friends; he saw months and years flash by and all the emotion and life which flooded with them. Tears welled up and down his now living cheeks of another body but he could not move at the time, as if numbed or held down. He saw sadness reflect in one of the women in whites faces as she padded his face with a damp clothe.

I'm alive? I'm alive! I'm... He felt his mind trail off as the scene became blackened. He then heard a soothing sound, a melody with a scratching sound played somewhere. He felt warm and well, as if the sun were upon him and life had returned to his weary mind. Vision eased back as the darkness conceded and he stared at a wooden ceiling, checkered with brown and red stains. He sat up and felt a sharp pain in his left leg; a hard white shell covered it, made of some material. His memories seemed jumbled, but he somehow knew what this all was. Half of his mind seemed lost but the new half knew everything, yet he didn't feel the least bit confused. It was all familiar.

"Am I alive?" He blurted out. I can talk again!

"Yeah, you're alive now shut the fuck up!" A grumpy man wrapped in covers to his right barked. His legs were missing, part of him knew there had been a battle, he last remembered being shot in the leg and bleeding. Had he broken a bone and lost blood? He wasn't sure, but he knew he was sitting in a makeshift hospital in some foreign place. Wherever it was... he knew he'd escaped death.
 
It's like the sound of small chimes shaking in the wind, the rain which pours down in these magic lands. It was believed by the humans this neck of the woods was cursed, the leaves would call out to evil spirits and take them away. Though the leaves would certainly talk, it was nothing of any evil sort. In this place, creatures I would call vestiges of a lost god roam in these holy grounds. So tales tell that many eons ago, far beyond the birth of man a god fell from the heavens into this area. Though it was of choice to become one with the world it gazed upon. Pure and full of life, it was believed this unnamed being brought the first of the holiest of magics to this world and forever enchanting these ancient trees. They grew tall, wide and strong. Not even the greatest weapons created by mankind, the ferocity of Orc or even the strength of the Dwarf could topple these fine and ancient trees.

Garvin sat high upon a branch, meditating and searching. He'd been transported by that white clad woman, he heard her name, Monika. Whomever she was, she possessed strange abilities with the absence of magical energy. He'd not encountered such a being before; it was one of the few beings he met which he truly feared, for he could not decipher quite what she was. She appeared human, but possessed features of the demon vampire as he and Tiana, yet he sensed no such thing about her. What was most disturbing was her resemblance to Tiana, she looked exactly like her. Then there was the man, he knew one thing for certain when he laid eyes upon him. He'd seen and experienced death. Garvin knew it for certain, the very essence of that man bled a strange darkness. Though once again, no magical energies seemed to emanate from him either. Yet, it seemed Tiana recognized him before they Qardo and he were whisked away.

But for now, he focused. He searched the realm for Tiana yet found nothing other than whispers, they spoke of a dark place which he could not define. It had been over two months now and no trace and he'd begun to question if she'd either been killed or hidden away. As of late though, the whispers grew from the trees and he knew he was close. He felt his mind begin to drift across the forest and it settled on a place void of fauna and flora. The soil tainted and cracked, like great lashes had been taken against the earth. He felt it then, something familiar. It had to be her. Garvin readied himself and took a leap from the high branch and soared through the canopy, occasionally jumping from limps and gliding through thick brush, making a bee line toward where his vision had taken him.

He arrived to find the place had changed from his vision and there, upon a risen stone lay a shriveled nude woman in the fetal position. Diving down he hit the ground and kneel over her, "Tiana... is that you?" He pulled his cloak off and wrapped the sickly Tiana tightly and placed her over his shoulder, gripping her swords in his free hand. She was far from dead, but there was something else taking hold over her, something from inside. "Hold on, just hold on." He whispered as he began striding through the forest with haste. He hadn't noticed the stones behind him had receded back into the ground, for a moment revealing a tomb of bones and rot.
 
"I wish this world hadn't been meant for us, but as fate, destiny or some obscure sense of desire to continue. I could only hope this wasn't meant to be. There are days I wish we had died in that tower, you know what I speak of. I can only hope you hear my words Tiana, for this day I must leave. Jay has disappeared, Tias has been buried while you were missing and news of a great tide sweeping across the ocean heads our way. What was it you'd seen across the ocean? What was it that scarred your body and mind and followed you back home? I care not to know now, for the answer will be upon us soon. I can only pray for our safety, but I know that is a pitiful request to make in the face of fate. When you wake, I know you will find me." Qardo wiped his wet red eyes and left Tiana to the comforts of the castle clinic. She did not stir from her slumber as Qardo departed as he'd hoped; waiting for her to come rushing down the castle step and fling herself down the docks to stop him. This was not so. Such fantasies only existed in the mind, but the reality was to grim to look upon. He was to depart via airship, a great vessel which hovered over the water, turbines and great magics let this ship deny the very forces of the world and fly against the wind and defy gravity. It was the first and so far only ship commissioned officially by the Albion kingdom, though there were other commissioned through more private owners.

The sun had yet to rise this day, still a fine tapestry of night had yet to be disturbed by the warmth of the passing day. The air chilled against the warm wind of the sea, pushing in and creating a certain scent which brought a particularly memory to Qardo. The day he'd met two friends who'd somehow intertwine themselves into his life. He did not blame them for what had happened, he knew being part of the Order of Fire he'd be a target sooner or later by Midgar, but it was Tiana's appearance and Garvin's curiosity which saw him through that dreadful time. Though the three nearly died in that place, he wondered if he'd ever have lived if not for them.

He rubbed his bald head with flat palms, as if attempting to alleviate a headache which had not yet come. Yet, the smell of the warm ocean tide overcame.

I love you both, he idly thought, succumbing to some hidden feeling he'd kept secret for to long. It wasn't quite sadness, but a longing to simply be held. Yet again, the one he'd placed his heart with could not be with him as it had been for quite some time. He'd accepted this, knowing she'd always hold him closest in her mind. Tiana, what did I do to deserve such a strange person as you? Such great weight in your heart, yet we speak as an old couple.

"I'll be with you soon love."

With surprise he jumped up from the railing he'd been leaning against, looking for Tiana with great excitement. Am I losing it?

"Not in the least Q. I will join you shortly. But I need some much deserved sleep."

She became quiet again, her voice speaking from within his ears he knew she kept a close eye. He smiled easy as the dark waters below began to reflect the soft rising of an old sun. This reminded him of some other distant memory he couldn't focus on, it was like following a bee through binoculars from a far distance. Always in motion, yet somehow you know what you look for in the haze and blur of memory; he sat on the catwalk and made himself comfortable and fell into a dream. "Everything will be alright..."
 
She awakes at the dead of the night, the veil of sleep yet to succumb to the turning of the world. Oh what rain clouds spout upon the horizon? Do they yet weep for the souls lost this terrible night in some far off place, far from the comforts of home? She hears them sometimes, wailing in the distance, cries of the vanquished calling out, searching for a realm beyond their own in their own twilight before death guides them on the road beyond this mortal plane. She weeps with them yet again, as before and as she will again. It is in times like this the mind becomes a grim wasteland, devoured slowly by demons foul blood. What curse must strike a mortal heart with such a heavy burden to hear such morbid sounds, reverberating through the very core of the world?

Yet, in the wake of it all there are glimmers of life; those who have accepted this as a gift rather than an end. There are those who still do not whimper upon the arrival of their doom, for they know it as the womb they must crawl back into until the next day of their journey continues; whether it be days or eons it shall come. Yet in this day, she could find no solace in this seemingly hopeful light. As many days preceding, the years only become subjectively darker. Her thoughts however managed to escape, as she sent her love against the wind and tide to comfort he she care for more than anything, one she'd not done enough for in her own eyes to prove this. Had it become apart of her life, to further continue self destruction to accomplish something great in this world? Or do other care not for this suffering, for their own trials lay before them?

She wished to fly away and join him and that she did. With a weak body and little rest she dove from the castle top, draped in clean blue robes, intangible against the soft black of the sky among the lashes of stars among the sky. Now flying, through the cold air of the latter year she felt the wind wish to bite her skin and shake her muscles, but she would persevere. Something beyond her control was unraveling in the world beyond her knowledge, but now only the need to hold another and be held filled her heart. The night would not stop her, 'nor would the distance.

Soaring until Tiana's muscles ached beyond relief, the sight of the airship put her at ease. It soar just a few hundred feet above the ocean, the sun had climbed far over the horizon and illuminated the copper and steel upon its shell, a welcome sight above the world. He was there, like a little light among lights among the lower catwalks, overlooking the deep blue below. She landed on the opposite walk to catch her breath, Tiana knew she shouldn't have flown out here in her condition, but her heart told her to fly. He knew she had arrived and yet, her nerves remained rattled somehow.

*Excerpt from "Return to Beginning" IC (original modified)


It was the fifty-fifth year the airship Alvion, named after the late king, Lord Alvion XI; its fine brass colored hull had been weathered, but remained durable and strong, an imposing figure upon the bright blue sky yet one which calmed the hearts of those who remembered the king and his regime those many years ago. Below the land turned to sea, passing away from the Alvion homelands over the Great Sea, its destination the heart of Kurast; the great jungle continent where black powder and the weapon called the cannon had been first put to use during a great civil war. Though unrest had bulged its ugly little head yet again, transports did not halt their routes across the ocean.

As for the ship, there was no outside deck, save for a platform of catwalks beneath the ships hull where one could peer over the sides and watch the world pass hundreds of feet beneath. Inside, many passengers readied for the up and coming night as the eastern skies began to grow dark; small dinner parties and other festivities took place, but would soon die down. By midnight the ship ran nearly silent, its internal engines muffled to but a whisper and its propellers swiftly cut through the air with grace. Then a hatch on its lower level opened and grown fine woman emerged onto the catwalk; two great wings trailed behind, scrunched up so they too may fit through the hatch, while fine long graying hair drooped over the nubs on her back where they protruded.

She remained silent as she rested her tired head against the cool bars of the catwalk, the open air comforted her and soothed the flesh beneath her cramped and crumpled feathers. She didn't like remaining indoors, much less tucked away within an airship. Tight corridors and prying eyes, as few people ever witnessed a vampire she-demon in the flesh, even less who had seen one that wasn't trying to kill you. She didn't like the attention and wished to shy away from it in the wee late hours of the night. She thought about diving from the airship and sailing beneath for a few moments but stayed her feet and wings, no need for more undue attention. At that moment the hatch turned and opened, a tall husky man with a great physique squeezed his way out. Tiana knew it was Qardo, there were few who had such great muscle and size as he did.

"Sleep doesn't come easy." He spoke, resting his broad back against the railing opposite Tiana, "Or at least, not for you." He paused, waiting for a reply and continued on, "We don't have to go back. You were there for over fifty years and you came back a different woman than any of us knew. I questioned whether or not you'd..."

"Q, you know that I have wrestled with that demon blood for many years beforehand and even now." Tiana hissed, though she intended no hatred, she cared not for the subject of her own ailments which haunted here every waking moment, "I have been entrusted with greater sources to keep my own mind at peace, gifts from both mortal and God alike; put your mind at ease my friend." She calmed her voice, knowing she'd fired back at him in an unreasonable fashion.

"I... I understand Tiana. It's just that, we worry don't you know? Garvin, Bea, Tiaz, Rakku and I. Even Njanju would check in on occasion to see if you'd ever come back. . . But then, out of nowhere you show up at the crack of dawn on the same day it all came full circle?" Qardo dared not name the events of those fifty-six years ago, for they both already knew so much but wished it were all a dream.

"It's fate, as it would be and always would be. Despite even the intervention of Gods, deus ex machina and even the influence of Hell like demons, the world changed; even more so, we knew it would happen again! What did you do? You all waited for over fifty years until I returned to finally do something! But when... when I saw you and Rakku." She clenched her eyes shut, holding back tears of agony and joy as her hands gripped the rail tight enough to leave indention's, "You two had barely aged a day. I would understand the others but you two. I thought you'd both be dead, leaving only the others or your children or even your children's children to greet me upon the day I'd arrive." She loosed her grip on the rail and turned to Qardo, she wore not one expression, but many; clouded together to leave her unreadable to Qardo, "But here you still are. It seems the magics of this world have never failed to..." She stopped mid sentence and fell onto his chest, her hands embraced his shoulders, "Please. I beg you; don't die before I do."

It was a blur, the sky cracked open and world tore itself apart as the memory sped on. As if another hundred years shuttered past her minds eye up until that moment, when she was sure death was upon her...
 
"Garvin! Where are they!?" Njanju burst through Garvin's cabin located but a hop and a skip from the city, nestled next to a lazy creek. "I know you can feel her, where have they gone!?" His eyes were buggy with incredible concern and anger flowing out of them. The wrinkles of his face contoured to his very emotion, tight and strained over his maddened face.

"She left last night, but she won't let me see much else. I think she went after Qardo, though I'm not sure how she knew he was leaving." His reply was annoyed, as he was in the middle of his daily routines, in his hands were pliers, a thick needle and rounded chain links forming into what looked like the beginning of the neck of a mail shirt.

"No! It's not just them! Jay and Rakku have disapeared!"

Rakku. Strange Rakku. Odd Rakku.

Rakku wasn't human, 'nor Elf, 'nor Dwarf. It wasn't really anything. It looked human, it looked like a female; like a farmers wife, toned to working in fields yet clad in the same leather armor she'd always sported. Nobody knew much about Rakku except that she owed a great debt to Tiana and Qardo, so deep that she stated exactly, "I will serve you both until you die." She has implied on numerous occasions she's been around far longer than even the Elf kind, but she'd never revealed her origins. Qardo believes Rakku is a God who'd grown bored with the celestial life and decided to lead a life as close to mortals as possible. His reasoning is he has seen s/he decapitated, dismembered, disemboweled, incinerated and even crushed. Yet would always shows up a little later as if it'd just imagined it away. The only one who has a real idea who Rakku is would be Tiana, after devouring a small portion of s/he's blood; Tiana said she never truly understood what she experienced but there was always suspicion she knew more. But nobody ever pressed her for the information out of a sense of trust.

In most cases it kept a single appearance, a tall overly pale female with not a speck of hair on her seemingly perfectly rounded skull. On few occasions it would appear as a haggard old woman or a large buck. Rakku the Odd is what they called it. Though it hadn't become apparent until after the Midgar incident before Tiana left Albion that she didn't seem to age in the least.

A Long Time Ago...

"Small critters cause such great things." The ever mad Rakku chased a small rodent up a tree, "Or was it climb great things?" S/he scoffed and strode toward Tiana, as if marching formally, "Sooooo, you're gonna leave us, huh? Where 'ya goin'? What'cha gonna do 'eh? Hey is that your ship? I don't like water." Rakku continued rambling on as the two made their way down to the docks.

"Rakku, you're..."

"Fun!" Rakku shouted before Tiana could continue.

"...insane." She smiled toward Rakku, "Nobody ever really could figure you out and yet, here you are driving me mad as usual. It's good to have you along, I think I've given enough goodbyes to everyone else, yet you keep on following me everywhere I go."

"And I'm gonna serve you and Qardo as long as you live! Why do you not want me to follow you where you're going? Qardo is good too! But you are the first one, the first one I knew!" Her expression was a muddled mixture of excitement and concern, "Rakku says Rakku will follow!"

"Then stay here, keep an eye on Qardo. I'll be back one day, if anything happens to him, I'm quite sure one such as yourself could find me."

S/he pouted like a small child for a moment but then turned with a content face, "Qardo it will be Tiana!" With that she sped off like a kid full of energy.

After twenty years I still don't understand you very well. Maybe one day...

Present:

...and even now she didn't change one bit. Though she didn't seek me out like expected.

Tiana had seen Rakku out and about in Albion though it seemed like Rakku actively avoided her. Maybe she was angry at her or some other reason she couldn't perceive. Little did Tiana or Qardo know is shortly after their departure, Jay and Rakku vanished altogether to a place familiar to others. Sterile concrete and balls of light glancing against the roof, Jay waited patiently at attention outside a heavy metallic door. Behind this door Rakku was beginning to awake, finding only a dark cold room s/he couldn't escape. Footsteps resounded through the empty halls as a man dressed in a plain grey suit approached. Jay looked upon him with discontent yet a buried sense of respect.

"This would be the first time we truly meet, Jay Solo was it?" The man extended his hand toward Jay, "My name is Giovan Koul, I believe we have a mutual acquaintance."
 
Deception is a strange task for any individual to carry out, with the exception of those who do not see deception, but a means to an end.

Jay Solo, the unofficially adopted child. Never would any of those around him know of his deception. It was but a year beforehand he was approached by an unusual vision. A man who claimed he'd seen death twice and was plucked from the realm and placed into a dying body back into the mortal realm of this world; this vision told him of things which were to come and Jay's fear grew. He'd heard stories about a woman who'd brushed both destiny and death with a strong will and intentions of good. But there was a secret deep within this person, unknown and darkened as the years passed. He was shown an end which would be inevitable and he was part of this end. The strings of fate were beginning to end upon this plane as death, famine and plague began to run rampant in this world.

Tales came from across the ocean of catastrophe and ruin. Tales from the past told of the same myriad pages of time. Tales of the future snatched what hope lingered in Jay's heart and left but a hunk of charcoal, an ember to burn through until not but a hole remained. He was told the arrival of a woman, a return to a land she'd long since left; who better it be than the old lover of the man he'd called his father. In his heart he felt deception, but his mind knew only the means to be taken now. Rakku the Odd would be the first step for him to make his journey unfold. He'd always felt he wasn't part of the group, he never felt he was part of his country; this was an opportunity he couldn't pass by.

"My name is Giovan Koul."

He knew immediately this man was the father of the one they called Tiana. Yet his eyes did not reflect the same sadness in life her's did, no; if not for his skin they would be listless orbs of madness. Yes he had a glow of purpose about him, as if he were a great key to some exchange he couldn't quite perceive. Whatever the case, he'd carried out his first true task and it was time to face the destiny he wished to pursue. What came next however was beyond his imagination, there she was, the doppelganger, Monika. She trailed behind Giovan like a pale shadow, silent and cold. She did not have the same look about her, as if she was sterilized down to the very core.

"It is fine that we meet. This place was difficult to locate, so it is well hidden." His pause filled the air with the stench of silence, waiting to be broken by something great, instead broken by the muffled cries of Rakku toward his back.

"It seems our guest as awoken. Monika, would you restrain them?" Giovan stepped to the side and without so much a wince the door behind Jay slid open and Rakku came clambering out. Face bruised and beaten and limbs bound s/he fell to the floor with a whimper. "Not quite as special as I imagined. No matter, you're power will be of use." Monika knelt forward and pulled the beaten Rakku up by it's leather straps and dragged it down the hallway.

"What will you do with her?" Jay desperately tried to hide the quiver in his voice, feel a small sense of regret surface for but a moment before he snuffed it.

"We will begin studying her. Do not worry, she can't quite die. Not in the typical sense at least. You see, Rakku is like an angel of sorts. Skilled as a great world, but when she decided to live in our realm she was stricken dumb. Well, to the normal eye at least." Giovan expressed a great sense of both amusement and wonder, "Imagine if you could view the world in what is called the fourth dimension. Have you heard of this?"

"I've an idea. It is like the Aether realm from which magic is drawn."

"Close. Magic is drawn from another dimension, but that is paralleled to ours. The fourth on the other hand is that of time. You see the past, present and future as we would see each-other, the sky or the ocean. We see only the most immediate moment which reaches our eyes. She on the other hand has kept this a secret, but for good reason. She has seen the end and the beginning."

Jay's puzzled look gave pause to Giovan for a moment, as if what he was saying was impossible.

"Gods see this way friend. Though she is not quite a God, or at least I don't believe she is or ever was, she does still contain this power. Monika and you shall be the ones who will wield this power; with that said, I do deeply apologize for this." In a flash Giovan had drawn a strange looking pistol and fired twice into Jay's chest. Falling back Jay only felt only a searing pain deep in his lungs and the knock of cold concrete against his skull. It was like flashing lights in his eyes, images of strange men dressed in blue garments peering down at him. He slipped in and out of consciousness, sometimes the cool of metal and warmth of fresh blood tackled his senses, at other times he could only feel the distress of his body.

He heard screaming from somewhere and felt as if he'd awoken. It was dark now, only a bit of light crept in from unknown sources. The room was bare, save for a metallic sink and toilet crammed together opposite his cot. The door to this room open and the screams echoed through the halls. He stood, his feet felt like bags of potato's and limbs that of liquid. It was hard to walk, much less see in the dimly lit confines as he slowly drug himself across the walls through the open door. Smears of crimson laced the halls walls, orbs broken on the ground like shattered glass and bloody footprints traced in circles. The screams continued, muffled by wall and door, yet they were horrifying. He felt his insides shift in anticipation and fear as he shuffled forward through the broken orbs and mangled halls, arbitrarily searching for the screams against every ounce of willpower screaming for him to stop. He came to a door and the screams became silent, as if greeting him; the door slid open with invitation and he could not resist.

Reaching forward the air grew cold, like an arctic breeze forcing its way through a small opening. Slowly now. Slowly. The room came into view, bits of flesh, bone and blood seemed strewn across every inch of the once sterile room. She was there, the one he called Monika. Her hands clasped over her face and nude body covered in another's blood. She began to turn toward him and he couldn't quite make it out. It was like his vision had a hole in it suddenly and a sudden sense of vertigo washed over him as he began to faint, and then...

He awoke with a start. He found himself in the same room, well lit with the clinking of little orbs grumbling around on the ceiling. The door firmly closed and everything in place, save for the woman Monika sitting across from his bed. She seemed startled, glaring at him as if he'd offended her somehow.

"Wha-" Jay began to speak but his mouth felt like a sponge, "-wha' 'appened...?"

She stood silently and picked up a canteen hanging off the edge of his bed and handed it to him. The water stung, as if he'd been dehydrated, but he gulped it down in spite of the pain; smacking his lips he proceeded in an attempt to speak again.

"What happened? Why did he shoot..." Jay looked down to see he'd been stripped down, yet not a mark was on his chest. He opened his mouth to gasp and looked back and forth between himself and Monika in shock, "That bastard shot me! But I... I should be scarred if not dead!"

"In a sense, some would consider you dead at this point. But not quite. I'm here to monitor you until the change is completed." Monika closed her eyes and stretched her neck around a bit, "It's going to be quite painful, you should know."

"What!? What's going to be painful?" A sense of dread began washing over him, he was in unknown territory at this point and hadn't the slightest clue what and why this was happening.

"You will be a bit more like the Koul woman and the odd one Rakku. Not quite however, maybe a bit more like me." A strange smile spread across her pale lips, "I remember when they did it to me. You have to be unprepared they claim, it helps with the bonding process. I'm surprised you aren't in pain yet, but I suppose the drugs haven't entirely worn off." A pause interrupted her words, "I will tell you this however. If you ever do what you did again, I will inflict my own variety of pain on you."

"What are you ta..."

It suddenly hit him, there was something protruding from his upper back he'd not noticed before. He reached back and there was a pair of thick nubs forming from his shoulder blades. It was like a sickness washing over him, as if a fever were taking hold at a remarkable rate. Monika approached and forced him to roll onto his side, he felt her slide her hands across his back up to the fresh nubs.

"They're probably tender right now. The pain will cripple you for a short time, but you will heal all the same."

What's happening... is this what was intended of me? Is this a torture? Is this a...

He came to a disturbing realization. Like Koul... Like Tiana? Like Rakku? Like her... the pain grew as the hours pressed on, he felt the appendage grow and skin crack under pressure. He couldn't quite scream, but only whimper continuously on end. Thin slits of blackened skeletal like limbs had pushed out of his back nearly six feet, hanging limply off the bed he lay upon. One could visibly watch as new flesh grew over the strange bone, taking on a white hue as a webbing slowly seemed to weave itself beneath the new appendage, taking the form of wings strikingly similar to the other one, Monika.
 
Slaps the skin, does it not?

Tiana woke with a start, the airship still cruised over a choppy sea as the coast came into view. She covered her mouth and barred her eyes. The entire coast was burning. Black smoke rose high and remnants of peoples had scattered along the beaches. It had all fallen apart, she remember this place being melancholy and broken after the war, but she'd no idea it would come to this. Further inland other smoke trails lingered heavily into the blue sky, twisting black spires marking where life once was. Speechless, her heart jumped into her throat knowing all that she'd done here was for naught. Whatever war that had concluded itself here, seemed to only continue.

Far across the lands, nestled in a valley a massive airship lifted from a large makeshift dock. It was unmarked but fully armed, within it's hull a myriad of mage's, warriors and workers intertwined, ready to follow this ship. In the ships center, in its highest chamber a great room much like a throne sat; a tall lanky man sat upon this throne bathed in green robes and golden hair with eyes black of the swollen depths of the ocean.

"Lord Erant." A fully cloaked mage approached him, "The rituals are in order and the ship is moving to its new location."

This Lord waved the man away and took to staring out the viewfinders hanging around his throne. He could view every angle around the ship from this single location, like a big brother to watch over. "My armies will do what they must. They have seen power on the battlefield which did not belong to the enemy." His thoughts may as well have been screams of sheer anger as he tightly gripped his throne, "We know this power now. In great detail now."

The ship cruised on toward the West, back toward the sea which separated Kurast from Albion; it moved with unusual speed, gliding through the sky as if the wind 'nor the elements had any effect upon it. This was the Warship Nadal; this would be a sign of the end of Kurast and so much more. Forces were being pulled toward each other in uncanny ways now. Beyond the viewfinders of the Nadal a secret bunker lay quiet in the North-East, hidden among the stone foundations deep within marshes and to the West another airship harbored two people who'd seen war on great scales, but only one had seen true destruction. It was on this day, even the God Freya looked down in awe and fear; for the Gods saw what any God fears more than death.

Though the eons are sure to bring it, something like a virus had already settled here on this poor torn world. Have you ever seen a planet die?
 
I remember when I first flew.

I'd been rescued by a Dwarf that day, after what happened below the cold earth. I'd been changed in a way I couldn't describe to this day. I'd been through much in my short life at the time, even less as my memory held little of my past. It was with this much of it began seeping back, images of a detached woman who cared nothing for the worlds suffering, only her own; in turn she caused suffering toward those who'd wronged her. It was still very much a part of her, but it's influence had faded through the trauma of memory loss. It was many chains reattaching to a new being from what felt like a past life, one that would be better forgotten.

The Dwarf, she never learned his name 'nor did she ever see him again; but he'd tended to her with all his knowledge and skills. Whether it be the lonely life of a hermit or just good nature, he made little fuss upon his discovery of my change. For I'd always heard tales of the vampires of old which would ransack cities, draining the life from and turning anything which would satiate their blood lust. I only knew this because he knew. He was the first to teach me of vampires in a deeper sense, understanding what drives them. I'd spent nearly a month in his care until my presence was discovered by others in his mining colony. I fled only to end up hiding on the back of a merchant cart, wheeling along back into what was the small town of Albion; a small bustling kingdom nestled upon the edge of the great Western forests and the vast blue of The Span. I planned to stow myself away on a merchant vessel and escape to Kurast, in hopes to find seclusion. Instead I found myself in being carried on a cot into a half built castle.

"You have been infected with a particularly harmful curse called Porphyric Hemophilia."

That was the first time I'd bet Njanju Caster. A half Elf, a local black smith and one of the finest people I'd ever met. The years weren't kind to him though, he'd become demented but could still forge as if he were in the prime of his life. Njanju was also the only local who'd had experience with vampires before. I remember seeing what I'd call a mad man peering down at me, long thin hair receding quite far back, high thin cheekbones, wide eyes and a particularly frail look to him.

"Now we will be rolling you over and strapping you down. Do not resist, it will just hurt more."

I didn't want to know. 'Nor did I want to find out like I did. They flipped me on the cot and quickly strapped me down with bunches of leather belts. The other man I recognized, but I couldn't quite figure it out at the time. That man was and is Qardo Solo. I didn't like either one of them much at the time, all circumstances considered. But Qardo, well he was there because of something I still find hard to believe, but know to be true. He was a mage of sorts, but he specialized in two magics. The first being focused on the elemental use of fire and drawing it from the world around him; the second was a focus on a single spell, that was the ability to kill a vampire and keep it from reanimating. I don't remember if anybody else was there, save for what may have been castle guards. All I know for sure is I'd not experienced such pain for quite some time in my life.

"I've cut her clothes, should we have stripped her?"

"Shouldn't piss this one off."

"It's rapid... maybe an elder?"

"Could be, but no vampires have been seen around here for hundreds of years."

"An elder doesn't require blood and the energy of others to live. Could be in hiding."

They continued to ask questions of each other until they were drowned out by both a piercing sound in my ears and my screams. It was like a stabbing, something pushing deep within my back. Two wings were sprouting from my upper back, tearing through the flesh and skin. It seemed to last forever, each moment brought me one step closer to falling in and out of consciousness. The pain dulled finally and a part of me felt cold, but I couldn't quite sense what it was. Turning my head I peered past my shoulder to see a fleshy tendril covered in blood and puss hanging off my backside. I'm not sure what happened after that, everything seemed to darken and I had the most pleasant dream dotted with with the morbid past I'd accumulated.

I was riding against an arctic wind, my lips stung and eyes dried against the terrible cold. It was white for miles, in the distance I could see a thick snow blocking out the sun, it's mass slowly headed my way. But I knew my destination was near, though I couldn't place it. The beast I rode, a Gallus, was one of the domesticated beasts of the North land. Able to swim in the coldest of waters and sleep peacefully in the greatest of blizzards. Though I'd begun to push it's limits, as I'd been riding for three days now into the empty lands. I remembered this now, but not clearly. There, in the distance I could see the glimmer of fire piercing the veil. It happened fast, the dream turned into something darker. I felt a great desire wash over me, the taste of vengeance took full force in my mind as I drew my blade.

I awoke then, unbound and clothed in an over sized amber red blouse with my leather pants still in place. But there was something new, I jumped off the cot in surprise as a pair of large white wings swung and flapped about behind me. I could feel them, moving, muscles tightening, feathers shaking against the movements. The Elf from earlier entered with an excited look on his face and pointed directly at me, yelling, "Lay down! Lay down now!"

In a panic I ran the opposite way and made my way up a few flights of stairs to find myself on the castle roof. Behind me the Njanju, Qardo and a few other men followed but keeping their distance.

"Please!" Njanju exclaimed, "You must rest!"

"You have been healing." Another spoke up, I only ever knew him as Mr. Spool. I learned he was a doctor of sorts, practicing the new medicines of the East. "You must rest and allow the body to heal. You experienced much trauma and I cannot guarantee your recovery if you jump out of bed! We should have kept her tied down!"

"I don't know who any of you fucking are! What happened!?" I screamed uncontrollably. I wasn't sure what to do, I thought they were going to either kill me or send me to the mage guilds to be experimented on. I didn't want to find out and I saw my only out. I took off running to my left, toward the front of the castle and took a leap. As I leaped, it was as if I felt myself stretch, spread eagle in mid air. I didn't fall, at least not immediately, but instead felt myself glide. I felt free for that moment, like I could get to anywhere, then came the plummet. I landed in the bay where they fished me out and decided to put me in the dungeon instead. Though the conditions didn't change much, it seemed they were willing to let me live, even the Elf man Njanju offered he may know something which would help ease her body into this new state, located past the Western forests and across the plains into the Midgar territory. A massive metropolis which kept itself from much of the world.

I was willing to go along with everything, unknowing to me that day I would never see the world the same again. As it was then that not only my journey, but the journeys of many truly started that day and have all built up to these moments now. As I find myself across the ocean once again, I think of all these things and how it is I've gotten to this particular spot. All the people, all the places. It was strange somehow, as I'd now walked this world for nearly one hundred years now. In spite of the harsh life I've lived, I'm happy for it. Not happy in the sense of contentment, but happy because it brought me something I never would've imagined when I was a small child in the rose valley. It helped me better appreciate those young days, where my world was but a valley of red, blue skies and an imagination untainted by the ragged fingers of time.
 
What I could never grasp, was how we persisted through it all.
The years had not been kind to us in the least, then again, maybe it's self pity.
I used to be an Elf, a true Elf.
There we were, for the first time I found myself on the brink of death after wandering the domain of my peoples for over a thousand years. I left one day, never knowing it'd be over a century before I'd return. Though a century may not be an immense span of time to an Elf, I somehow felt it'd been an eternity since I'd been home. Home. They once called by Eladrian Garvin the Wanderer back in the forests, I would hear the whispers of other elves as they would watch me leap branch to branch, exploring the forest from the view of the trees. Whether it had been years of practice or a natural talent, I cannot say for sure; I do know however that I was "cut" of a finer cloth, or so I was made to believe. I am the twenty-sixth son in line to the succession of my fathers throne, the Elven king Valandil Elensar. Despite my status, I never viewed my role as much of an importance. Once fully grown, I preferred to take on a life away from the so-called royalties of the Elven kingdom, I found peace elsewhere in isolation.

There were some whom I worked with out in the deep forests, long before the sprawl of man drove many of the larger beasts into either extinction or few in number. I enjoyed a hunt, I enjoyed the freedom of it and the reward. During this time, I rarely ever got to know my family, but I knew I had the respect of many of them. I would hear conversations carry through the wind, talk of the Hunter Prince Garvin who would bring the heads of beasts as mantles to the kingdom. Yet I would shy away from these celebrations, I would prefer my solitude whenever available. Maybe an infatuation at the time, but I learned of a vast civilization beyond our realm and for hundreds of years I would imagine yet never act upon these wondrous thoughts. To think, the "Hunter Prince" was to afraid to leave the borders of his realm.

Even though I knew my family for many centuries, pushing into the realm of millennium, I can't ever say I truly knew my family. What was there to say? I suppose I would say they were honorable, they flourished in our realm and peace was maintained for thousands of years beforehand. Yet it's strange. I can't really recall anything specific. It's time like this I realize how little I wanted to do with the life I was granted; so little I can barely recall but a few of my siblings. Yet here I am, at the edge of the South sea, staring off into the distance to be met with distant tree-tops. It all lie but a few miles across this small sea, the great border that has kept the Dwarf at bay for quite some time, the rift between man and the other kinds and the tombs of some our finest.

I glide now, to my home and cast lazy eyes upon the ever growing forest before me. A certain sense of sadness. Is it regret? Or fear? Ha, fear to return home. But what have I become? The blood of a vampire, the blood Tiana flows within me to this day. For a moment I thought of her, but at this point we have grown very distant; I cannot sense her now and somehow I feel that I may see her but one final time. Strange, I've given it little thought after all this time. When she dies, I too will perish. I know that woman has overcome death to many damned times, for I've felt my chest become heavy on some nights or a sudden rush blindside me on some afternoon. No, right now I must focus on this.

Home.

Garvin, it's time to go home.
But is it still my home?​


It'd been the longest time since I... since we... oh, it had been to long since I'd been embraced in such a way. I awake now, quietly, he still sleeps as he always did. Though I never could tell if he were awake or not back then; now, he knows I'm awake and visa versa. I decided I didn't want to say anything as I quickly dressed and slid out of compartment and through the narrow halls of the airship which had remained afloat in its harbor over the night. The sun had begun to fill the horizon with a certain warmth as I stretched my cramped wings with a much needed exercise. I leapt from the catwalk and found myself gliding in a warm morning breeze as a certain sense of contentment washed over me. I didn't have a care in the world for but a few moments.

Turning back Qardo was there, fully readied to go resume to his destination. I could make out a faint smile on his face, but it was a smile I knew well, one but a few may have seen. He left and began making his way to the docks, I on the other hand continued observing the quiet town below. I don't think I've been there before, this must be further North, seems almost untouched from the war. Though I could sense it, the stillness. The men were all gone, many funeral banners lined the empty town square. I could only wonder to myself if I may have killed one of them. It was hard telling who they were sent to fight. Could I have encountered one of them at Theras Hill? The Tillassee Bunkers? The Siege of Ankort? Maybe I fought along side one of them but death found it's way none-the-less.

I'll depart from these thoughts for now. There are other matters at hand, Q is to quiet about his motives. He knows something, I knows somebody. In spite of all things, I dare not ask but follow with unquestioning loyalty. He has done the same many times before, following into certain danger if not possible death. But this... it comes back to me again. Why? Damnit Tiana! Shit!

I can't keep questioning myself. Where have I gotten from all that? I ran like an ignorant child for years thinking I'd find my answers, but I only found the same death that kept haunting me. Maybe it's right. I haven't heard it for a few days now. Is it self pity? The utterly hopeless need for some justification for what I have gone through? That's what I did before, I hunted my way to those men only to nearly follow death to the other side. Again, I want to prove my worth, I want to know I don't have to rely on those around me. Again, I find myself in that crypt and changed forever. I couldn't accept it then either. Is that it? Have I been seeking death for so long it evades me like a game?

No!

I... I have to follow through. What happened then continues to this day and this time I can't give myself a choice. That man... a culmination of men, but I could see them. Whether it be Redford or my father or some other being, I could sense them there but I couldn't see it before. Somehow I feel I avoided it and my punishment is this very trial, to ultimately overcome what has shadowed me for so long or to simply fail. For a moment I thought of Garvin, but I could not feel his mind but I thought I saw something; an awesome flash of blue light behind great trunks belonging to ancient trees.

"What was that?"
 
"This is strange, what's happening here?" Njanju had noticed a sudden calm in the streets beyond his windows. Crowds came to a halt, he could see hands pointed toward the sky, all pointing to the West. His old bones had begun to catch up with him, even the Elf blood within him had begun to feel his withering light. He'd seen many great things over the course of his life, eight-thousand, four-hundred and twenty-two years of life leads to some extraordinary things. He'd seen the days before Human and Orc, he'd seen the Dwarven Empire at it's peak, he'd seen millions of faces pass before him through what would be an eternity to any mortal soul. Though he'd left the realm of the Elf ages ago, knowing one day the mortal world would catch up with him. It was not this day, but instead he'd look to the sky and see something his old eyes had never witnessed.

High in the sky something burned, racing from the depths of the heavens. Despite his age, he knew his Elvish eyes did not lie. "Is that an airship?" His words hardly escaped his lips when a boom began washing over the city. The crowds scattered and began taking shelter. Njanju looked for an explosion or smoke, but nothing; such an explosive sound would have to come from a great explosion. It grew and grew as the object approached, sailing through the sky and over the city. He'd never seen anything fly so high up before and move with such speed. With a sudden jolt, the object had begun slowing rapidly, the boom ceased and it seemed to glide. He saw it clearly now, it was a ship. It had to be.

"Impossible!" He ran back into his hovel and readied himself. Could it be? Have the heavens sent something... greater? It was like no ship he'd seen before. Black and white, long and pointed like the nose of a bird, even wings upon the craft! Thoughts sprawled through his mind of Gods and Deighties of the heavenly cosmos, and they were here! Both a fear of the unknown and a sense of honor washed over him. He had to race to where the ship may land, he had to follow it. Whether it be coincidence or some twist in fate, his door creaked open and to his surprise she was there.

"You are to follow me, Elder Elf." It was her, the doppelganger, the double, Monika.

"You are... you're her!" Njanju rustled to draw his blade but instinct halted his hand. Despite Tias' condition in the mortal realm, he was still a very powerful mage; yet this woman bested him in moments. He withdrew his hand and stared maliciously at her for a few moments. "Why are you here, girl?"

"There are visitors, you will be one of few who will greet them. Do not fret, your friends Jay and Rakku will be there. With luck, the vampire Elf Garvin may join us as well. Now finish preparing yourself Elder Elf. I wait at the South docks gate, you will meet me there." She didn't miss a beat as she disappeared from the door, leaving Njanju's heart racing in anger. He wanted to kill that woman for what she did, yet he knew she spoke the truth. He had no choice but to trust her for this moment, given the sudden circumstances. "Visitors." He scoffed.
 
This is a part of the story I was never particularly proud of. Why? It haunts me to this day for some reason. What we created in this world was an awesome wave of beauty and madness. Though I deeply regretted what happened here, this was the turning point in a story which would quickly spiral into something with but a few possible outcomes. It hurt me to do so, but in that mad life created, death still haunted the halls of our creative memories.


He shuddered in the mid-morning sun as his eyes welled with a culmination of fury and a melancholy madness. Giovan waited for them, sensing their presence, sensing her presence. It was time, for his role had been completed and for his actions, he would face his final trial. A breeze washed through the sparse forest, autumn had come and a soft death crept over the limbs of trees, leaving a glorious blanket of gold and apricot had taken to the forest floor, tucking the cool earth into a slumber as winter began to rear its fatigued head. Yet he could only think of what home once was. His chest shook with shaken breath, cheeks hot and skin crawling; he could only think of that daughter he'd lost in death and abandoned in a foreign life. He'd taken her at the chance of fate and clenched her mind with magics beyond his own understanding. He could only think on his sins as the image of that red valley, laced in rose and vine, remained somehow spotless in his sewer dredged mind.

They grew closer, yet to be in sight. It was uncontrollable now. The corners of his eyes burned, his heart raced and his skin flushed. In his right hand he gripped a pistol and in his left a simple sword. They were here now, they drew around the creek bend, passing over the gentle rolling waters.

"Tiana!" Giovan cried out, "I come now, to face my sins!"

She and Qardo halted, peering through the trees to see the waiting Giovan. Tiana raced forward, leaping down the forest path, Redemption and Reconciliation drawn from their sheaths ready to strike her enemy. A momentary hesitation, what seemed to be a slow in time. He raised his pistol to take aim, but he did not fire. He loosened the grip of his sword, yet did not falter. The blades cut deep as Tiana let out a cry of anguish, drowning out the sound of crunching bone and slicing skin. They stood face to face for a moment and she did not see the fallen man she'd seen before. The Redford had gone, the deadened look of him had vanished and only her fathers eyes remained now. For so long she'd wished to see them, for so long did she silently cry for her father. The blades ran deep, blood lazily dripped down the immaculate blades, staining Tiana's hands.

He leaned forward, his arms limp and head pressing against Tiana's petite shoulder. It had all gone, the bitter taste and smell which haunted his senses. For the first time in a lifetime he could smell the forest, the solemn decay of leaf, wet rock against cool air, the gentle aroma of the autumn breeze. He'd forgotten what peace had been. With hushed words, he spoke a final time as he'd wished so long ago when he lay on the dirt before a small cottage.

"For so long, I'd bargained with death. I forgot you."

His eyes became still.

She shuddered in the mid-morning sun. Her father lifeless as before, drooped over her shoulder. A fractal of before.
 
I am torn this day. For I follow the enemy of my ally into the unknown. Yet there is something else in the air, something terrible on the wind.

Njanju found himself being guided along by the doppelganger Monika. The autumn sky began to thicken as the wind picked up, ominous as to the events which have begun to shroud the lives involved. The forest had begun to settle, it's canopy sparse. A deep thrumming settled in Njanju's chest, a sense of dread began washing over his wrinkled brow and sunken face. He couldn't shake it, as if something of great proportion were awaiting him, far reaching beyond his sight. He watched Monika with keen eyes however, it was strange. Who was she? She resembled Tiana in almost every way, but this woman was... somehow further damaged than Tiana. He'd seen what had been faced with those once bright eyes which had the life slowly siphoned out of them as the years turned to decades and slowly turned to a century. It was the first time in thousands of years did the time seem so relevant. He thought of home for a moment which brought his mind to a love he once knew. His thoughts began to wander.

"Elder Elf." Monika spoke up, her tone unchanging. Calm. Precise. "We approach our destination." The two made their way around a pass and Njanju felt his heart skip a beat. Jay was there, but he'd been changed. He bore the wings, the same as the vampire. But it was his eyes. Those once blue eyes were full of something Njanju couldn't bare to gaze upon. Beside him Rakku sat, hunched over, appearing to be in pain. She twitched her head tot he side.

"Njanju!" Her attempt at a shout sounded more like gagging. Rakku clutched it's throat in pain and moved back to staring at the ground before her.

Rakku. No! Njanju wanted to draw his sword in anger, he wanted to scream at Jay, he wanted to pierce the doppelganger's heart. He stayed himself, feeling his eyes well up and his breast quiver over an angered chest. Looking forward, past the two he saw a scar in the woods, toppled trees and broken ground. Beyond that a light haze of smoke drifted violently with the slowly increasing wind.

"Come now Elder Elf. Come Jay, bring the demi-God along as well."

Why is this happening? Why does Jay... JAY! Jay of all people! We looked after you boy! Qardo saw you as a son! A SONG DAMN YOU! Njanju kept his thoughts and continued following in anger. But he had to know, he had to see what fell from the heavens, he had to find out the why to so many questions.

"Njanju, you look frustrated." Jay spoke without even so much as turning his head, "You should ease yourself. There is much more at work here than our mortal lives could begin to comprehend. That even goes for the Elvish folk."

Monika gave Jay a heinous glance but gave no lip as the party ventured forward. They moved along the split trees and tumbled ground, approaching a large black and white ship. It seemed to resembled an airship, but so small with no obvious propulsion. How did this thing even survive such a long fall from the heavens above? It seemed like there was no activity, only the smoking remains of scorched wood and hot burnt soil gave motion to the scene.

"Hello!?" Monika cried out, "Is there anyone or anything alive here?"

Silence.

"Hello!? Hellooooo!?"

With a burst a hatch came shooting from the ships side followed by an expanding cushy surface, as if it were inflating.. A being in an over sized suit of sorts emerged with what looked like the rifles from the East, over the ocean. The being aimed the weapon and in strangely familiar words and a gruff voice, "Who are you? What country is this?"

It was a surprise to Njanju's ears. He expected to hear tongues or something beyond his comprehension, but instead he heard the Man speech.

"You are in Albion in the realm of Terra." Monika immediately shot back, "We have been told of your arrival before, now here we arrive."

The being slowly made its way down the inflated surface, it's weapon still drawn upon the group. A second emerged, then a third followed by a forth. They bore marks upon their white suits of red, blue and black; letters inscribed UK-EA on each. Were these Gods? Demi-Gods? Some cosmic beings? Njanju couldn't believe his eyes, he'd never seen such material before. Yet Monika and Jay seemed strangely calm. Had they seen this before or had their knowledge beforehand lessened the shock?

"I am Captain Watson of the EU Horsehead, this is my crew. I have to know what country are we in?" Urgency rang out in his voice as the crew with him examined their immediate surroundings.

"You have been told. Albion, the Realm of Terra." Monika replied hastily.

"Sir." The second leaned in, "Look at them. Maybe we found some druggies out in the mountains?"

"Sir, I'm picking up elements unrecorded in the soil and air here. Safe to breath though." The third spoke up, both feminine voices.

"Sir. We're not on Earth." The forth, another male, spoke up. "Look at the fucking moon. Look at the damn sun."

The four huddled together and spoke quietly with each other before apparently agreeing to remove their helms. Njanju's jaw seemed to lose feeling and fall open, the same almost seemed to happen with Jay while Rakku continued keeping it's head pointed toward the ground. Was it asleep?

"So wait, if we're not on Earth..." The third questioned.

"But the coordinates are spot on. We hit light speed sir and came out off course in the planets upper atmosphere. I'm amazed we weren't ripped to shreds!" The second exclaimed, rubbing her temples.

Just what is happening here? Njnaju wasn't sure, but these couldn't be Gods. They hadn't the slightest aura to them, not even the faintest trace of magic. Earth? Earth... the name is familiar. He thought of Terra, the ancient God who bathed this world in her awesome presence and created the storm which choked the world unto near death. Only the Elf remained to claim the ash ridden world. But that was beyond recorded time. Even the stories passed by the Eldest of his kind did not go further back then twenty-thousand years. Yet Njanju felt he'd once heard that word, Earth, very long ago.

-Meanwhile

The Elves had faded from the forest. Garvin wove through the trees with increasing panic. Life used to cover this land, upon every tree and in every crevice of the land. But now, only shadows remained, haunting him from the tree tops to the underlying roots. He saw no one, only traces of life which seemed to have been abandoned. He felt a shiver drift up his spine, a tension spread in his wings, a fear creep into his mind. Where is everybody? Why has my land become so silent?

The forest grew into the networks of the Elvish empire, spanning for hundreds of miles through tunnels below and through the canopy above and everything in between. He felt his body grow weak for but a moment as the sight gripped him deep within. He dropped from the sky and caught himself feet first on the city wall only to drop to his knees. His cries were that of wales, echoing through the dying forest. His fists bled as he gnawed them into the stone below, eyes red as his tears flow. Before him, a city lay dead, now nothing more than a wretched tomb which stank of times decay.

A monument.
A monument.
A monument.

For the first time Garvin understood Tiana's madness so long ago. The uncontrollable rage one feels come deep inside. Like a voice carving, lashing, burrowing it's way into the back of your mind. Fool. He had heard it once when peering into her mind many years before, even then believing it not to be true. He cried out across a span of land and ocean, through the realms of time and back again. Though it was not endless, Garvin found himself immobilized as he collapsed where he knelt.

Tiana winced and paused. With a panicked breath and convulsing chest she quietly spoke, "Qardo. Please. Please." Qardo turned and wrapped an arm around her back, looking into her frightened eyes.

"Tiana. You look like scared to death, wha--..."

"It's the Elves. They're all dead."
 
"What is it that you've wrought? Years of such allegiance. Pity Garvin. Pity." Like a scratching, yet not sating the itch did a voice emerge, lurking too deep inside. Like an invader, raiding and pillaging it's way like some unstoppable marauder with no way to quench it's unstable thirst. Garvin shifted and turned, compressed and unwound. This intruder, what was it? Is this what he'd seen so long ago when he peeked within Tiana's mind? Was this what she never wished for him to experience? What was it the product of? "Boy. You've let yourself stretch to far; that of an overgrown hedge, decaying from it's root." It laughed, wicked in it's growing form. Indescribable, like a babble of sheer glinting steel amassed in such an awesome form one wept at it's sight. As he did, as he would.

He saw them. "A monument. A monument to the cancerous source of this worlds plague." Like pursed lips smiling ever so cruelly Garvin found himself buried in flesh and bone and the muck of decay deep within the coursing womb of his brethren's corpses. Vomit came to mind but only some terrible stillness washed over his mortal frame and tortured his senses with terrible sights, lacerations upon his naked body and the haunting cries of the murmuring flesh surrounding him. Cornering him. "Weak. You live so long you forget yourself, Elf."

"Garvin!"

He struggled and churned, his eyes focused. Illusions, the facade before him revealed itself as nothing but a tapestry, yet he could not break it. In a fearful repose the scene screamed back into him.

"Garvin!"

No! I don't want this! I don't want any of this!

Garvin caught a glimpse of the most glorious feather pass before him. It seemed to break and incinerate all in its small path. Like a darting arrow, penetrating the very reality it soared through revealing the truth behind the deceptive senses. Reaching forward, he clenched his broken hands, hoping to grab hold of the feather, the fleeting hope which scattered before him. A warmth washed over his face as he felt his body become heavy.

"You're here... are you really... here?"

"I am but a piece among a myriad of tools, swaying this expiring world. Soon I too shall fall into sleep."

"Tiana. Is that, you?"

He could not see the being as his eyes opened, gazing into the ever summer sun above the Elvish treetops. He had not moved in his maddening slumber. Peering over, the world around him did not change. So many lay dead in great mounds. Garvin shut his eyes and made a prayer, all that his weary soul could seem to muster. He saw it all. Darker hands from another shore, great lengths across the world. They had come here in great force and in one fell swoop, they slaughtered them all. His chest shuttered at the sight of the youngest limbs protruded from the horrid sight, among the elders who's power meant nothing to those who would strike them down. With a sudden bout he sat up, wide eyed. They were going there, they would encounter them.

He wasn't sure if Tiana could hear him call out, but he could leave nothing to doubt. He swallowed the deep lump in his throat and soared off with haste. There was something coming which would reach further than Garvin cared to imagine.
 
She never knew what to call it. A voice which began creeping within the confines of her mind, releasing itself either at it's own will or some hidden will of her own. Often did Tiana call the voice simply "IT" though as time passed, she began to realize just what IT was. The Elder Vampire, one of the few Darker Ones left to wander beneath the cold broken soil of Terra. It had survived on within her, it had survived on within Garvin as well. It didn't become apparent for quite some time until Garvin's own mind, his own defenses were shattered and his will overcome for a brief period. He called out with a shriek of the mind, spilling out in any direction in hopes for any to hear his cries of anguish. Little known to Tiana or Garvin, only two others heard this call clearly. The doppelganger Monika and the orphan Jay.

Yet those two did not seem to possess the tainted blood passed into Tiana and into Garvin. It was an anomaly at the time, IT. Despite Tiana's wishes, IT had become something like a devils advocate for her, unrelenting in it's desire to either drive her mad or simply to mock her until the end of her days. Whatever the purpose, IT had become a part of her in many ways. Though it was soon, this abomination too was still apart of this world and sensed looming destruction in the far passages of time. Despite the nature IT appeared to follow, IT had no desire to die as any other creature.



Garvin could not race fast enough, something kept eating away at his train of thought. Flashbacks of Tiana, her flinches, ticks, those times of absolute silence within her eyes. IT often spoke to her, more than Garvin had realized up to this moment. But now he understood what it was, as IT had become a faint whisper somewhere within. Yet, keeping his mind aware and body limber did he soar on, his will set upon reaching Albion. He would not have the power to fly across the ocean, but he hoped to gain his rest upon any ship which may be leaving the Albion docks. Images of his people still fresh in his mind did not ease the suffocating desire for IT to grow louder, yet in all his depressive spite did Garvin manage to turn his minds eye away from IT.

-Meanwhile-

Rakku was beginning to act strange, if not more odd than normal. Twitching violently, ushering her way away. Eyes wide and skin crawling her glances dropped between her captors, Njanju and the small crew which had emerged from the craft. They had shed their over-sized white suits, replaced with identical colors and emblems and a cloth like suit which contorted to the body. These people were unlike anything the group had seen before. All short hair, stranger was the captain and the two females. Njanju had never seen skin colored to the night 'nor skin taking the color of sandstone. Save for the ancient sickly green Orc's of the far West, but they had become nothing but myth and legend.

The strange crew seemed to study their environment. The tools they held clicked and beeped, whirred and moaned. Some of the tools appeared to be extremely small replicas of some of the machinery Njanju had seen on his travels to Midgar many years ago before The Fall. He'd seen great machines, most of which had been based on the old Dwarven sites deep within the mines and networks far beneath the soil.

"Sir, we can only locate two." The second female reported.

"Two? But that can't be right." They huddled together, viewing something on what appeared to be a translucent map stretched out before them.

"Here's the coast, but it seems worn. We've got one scanning and I'm surprised it even runs. But this is it, we are in the right place, but..." The second male exchanged horrified glances with the rest of the crew.

"You people, do you have a date? A time? Such as years or calender?" Watson's words were puzzled muddled with distant grief.

"Yes, we follow the calender of old, followed by the Elven peoples and those before them. Gregorian was it?"

Silence. The crew shocked in awe. "What is your year? You're age?"

Monika even seemed confused by the question. "You are Gods, correct? What need of time do you have?"

"Gods?" Watson turned and whispered with his colleagues, "We're not Gods miss. We're the crew of the EU Horsehead, deployed from Berlin to..."

Njanju dropped to his knees, as did Jay; bowing their heads in a sudden prayer.

"Berlin! Berlin!" He cried out, "Gods sent from the ancient cities of Kurast!"

Even Monika seemed to flinch at the captains words. Berlin. "One of the Shining Cities of Elven lore. Destroyed when the God Terra set fire to the world. Do you speak lies or do you truly reign from Ancient Berlin?"

"Well, none of us are from there, but that is where we set our course from." Watson replied, eager for information. "We were scheduled to land here at what should be Red Hill, South Carolina. Allisia," Watson turned to the second female, "I'm beginning to suspect the FTL worked and you and Dr. Brein were correct." A sense of dread crept over his face, "We've jumped time."
 
As it will, a force of nature of course; inevitable and daunting as it should be, the winter came. I was much younger then, I did not know many of those whom have come to be at my side this day, those who's fears we learned and shared, those who would follow with the utmost loyalty and those who would not forsake such a relationship. I wandered the great forests up to the mountain range for many months after I'd been infected with the demon blood and despite the hospitality of those I encountered in Albion, I did not wish to remain there at the time. There were spans when I would seem to lose time, gaps in my memory. I fought the demon blood with every panting breath, I could feel it's burn deep beneath my breast and it's poison sapping away in my heart.

But it was a thirst I could not quench which began to drive me mad. No matter how much I would drink of water and feast on flora and fauna alike, a pit remained inside that would not be sated. I knew. I could not deny it, but I instead hid it from myself, obscuring the truth which presented itself in clarity only to be obstructed by obscurity and denial. My nights were sleepless and my days felt long and draining. My body felt as if it were beginning to wither, for I could not supply it with what it newly required. Life, the energy of the body flowing through and through, pumping and squeezing, straining throughout the flesh. The animals did little for me other than remind me of that insatiable pit I defied to feed. Yet, I could not restrain myself forever.

I prowled upon an embankment along a traveled road to the Northwest, past the forests and the mountains. I had grown closer to what I once called home, though I did not remember entirely at the time. Yet a sense of familiarity washed over me, a sense of ease may have been fleeting but I felt a bit of peace slip in for but a moment before I sprung after hours of waiting until the early morning. I must admit, it was satisfying to finally indulge and reap the reward of finally feeling that bit of fatigue thrusting down upon my shoulders wash away. Yet afterward, I could only feel ashamed of myself. I wiped the blood from my face, smearing it across my arms as the sunlight began to crest over the horizon. I wept as if I hadn't taken a life before, my own ignorance to my past was some kind of divine comedy stricken upon me so that existence in and of itself would torture me. Though I would not be so cynical 'nor selfish to think so as I am now.

I continued wandering, drawn further to the North and I encountered it, a bit of my mind shifted into place and the floodgates were released. It wasn't everything, but it was enough for me to remember who I was before then, who I became and who I would would soon become. Such a pivotal moment, so much clashing in that moment. I had found the red valley, dusk was on it's approach at the time and the great rolling vines and it's buds came to a close, signalling the defiant nature of night in which the sky takes a certain glow as the sun fell beneath the distant mountains. It was at that time I did encounter what I thought to be a rogue demon. I had heard legends and myths, but never did I expect to see something truly not of this world. It was in this moment did my steel sisters appear to me. Ancient languages etched into the flats, blades which seemed to cut the air and a weight which only I would ever bare.

I took them as a gift in order to fight the demon which appeared before me. It only spoke what I would think to be lies, but as the recent months have told me, the grim truth of then and now has come to rear it's ugly head in the most timely fashion. Only in riddles did it speak, none of which I seem to remember save for one, "He denies death and whores the daughter to a torrent." It didn't become clear for nearly one hundred years. I couldn't speak a word to him, as I made my peace with him when I was but a young woman, I had hardly even known the weight of age and experience, yet I'd endured his death only to find him so many years later only to use me to what seemed his own end. My only business with him was to lay him to rest a second time. I have done things in my life which have been truly difficult if not nearly impossible save for my curses which seemed more blessings; but to kill him, to see my father die a second time, that pain was unlike anything I'd experienced before.

I would find after fighting the demon, my being had become much more tedious than I would've imagined. The demon pierced my chest with a great sword, leaving me impaled after it's decapitation. The blade was ridged with spines, making it impossible to pull out save for pushing it all the way through. In all that agony, I struck the hilt from the sword and thrust the blade through ensuring my death. I know I died, there was no denying it. I visited a heavenly place, the views I saw seemed things that any mortal mind would not even be able to conceive. Yet she appeared, an old Goddess who called herself Freya, claiming to have seen mankind have risen and fallen seven times over the history of her existence. She said this was the first cycle however to have had other sentient beings traverse the world other than man. She told me the blades called "Redemption" and "Reconciliation" would sate the evil which stirred in my flesh and would act as an extension of Freya, as the swords were made from her own being. I was then sent back, to find that some passing soul was kind enough to place me in a shallow grave with a wreath of roses and vines placed upon it.

Those two swords still guard my to this day, though their duty is that of a swinging door, guarding both me from the insatiable and myself from the world. Little would I know, these guards would leave me soon. They would not abandon me outright, but it seemed something far greater than myself had begun moving. The voice had become strangely silent and the world seemed to be falling apart. War consumed half a continent for decades, internal conflict began consuming the distant neighbors of Albion and a genocide of sorts silently swept over the Elvish lands. I could only shiver as to what the future was holding, not knowing that out of all those I had my own conflicts with knew very much about my life, more than I could ever truly know. A cold wind bit at me there in the autumn of Kurast, it spoke a wispy warning of the shadows of great things to come.
 
There was something beautiful on this day in Roland's eyes. The dimming sun of a coming winter crept across the sky one final time for him. The war was breaking at the seams, ready to consume the continent of Kurast and it's many now desolate countries. Much of which had become nothing but ruin and cities filled with ghosts. This day Roland found himself hunted for his affiliation with a woman he'd encountered a decade ago, Tiana Koul. How could he forget? He'd seen beasts the size of mountains fighting in the far off wilderness of the mountains North of the Continental Sea. Yet this day, he rested his tired bones against the base of a great tree in a place he couldn't quite recognize. He'd been travelling West toward the coast, in hopes of escaping the coming war which had begun washing from the Eastern deserts and the tundra and ice of the North.

Thirteen lay dead, one lay bleeding to death. Roland clutched his chest as the pain shot through him a final time. With soft eyes he looked toward the setting sun and wondered where she was. He'd fallen in love with that strange woman that day, yet he'd never admit to it, for he knew her heart rest far from these lands and it's dying shores. He thought of his travels with her, though it was for but a year he'd learned of her past and the monstrosities she'd encountered. He'd walked this world for three decades and had seen war and love, he'd seen total destruction and the most miraculous creations. He knew in his heart, he would now see what death had to offer him as his mortal coils were cut from this plane.

"My name is Roland, hear my prayer," Lips chapped and body shivering he strained to speak in hopes the Gods would hear his cries, "I just want... I just want to feel loved before..." He trailed off and slumped to his side. Clothes drenched in blood, his pistols empty and his enemies strewn before him. A faint whisper seemed to caress his final light as a familiar being lay the kiss of the wind unto his cheek. While many miles to the South the engines of war growled with a furious anger and the warship Nadal hovered over her armies. This was not conquest, only unmitigated genocide as nothing but ash lay in the wake of this behemoth of the sky.
 
She did not ask where, nor a why. But she knew she would be by his side, a friend, a compass.

Garvin still raced across the night sky half a world away, the sun on his own horizon, beating down until the dark of the night. Njanju and the strange people who seemed to be human, claiming to be of not only the cities of myth in the oldest of Elven lore, but of a different time altogether. And the two who remained motivated by some distant impression, Monika and Jay seemed to be aware of the events just a bit more, as if being guided by some equipped knowledge. Then there was Rakku, odd Rakku. It seemed traumatized somehow now, it's form no longer holding it's one shape but straining to release itself from its confined form altogether.



Then they were there, Qardo was quick now, reaching his destination. Barely even ruins of another time, taken back into the fold of nature and turned by time into towering trees to sprawl the wilderness. It was there Tiana thought she could hear it, the voice speaking to her. Yet it was not of malice intent or its sadist nature. No, it was of a begging child, straining under its covers to escape the encroaching shadows. She felt pity for it somehow, as it was very much apart of her own being.

"Why do you beg voice?" It had been an eternity since she'd spoken to the voice in such a way, not since the time Tiana herself had begun to go mad. At that time it was a friend, so very long ago...

-Midgar, the second time I'd been to that city of whirring and puffing and buzzing and clanking. I hated that place, I still would hate it if I'd the time to do so. Though it was that time I'd been cursed with the vampires blood for a few years. I'd begun hearing it, the voice speak to me. I could not shake it, it's words seemed like prizes I should cling on to. Ideas of betrayal, unseen hostility, lies and whispers around corners. I began to believe them, I'd began to avoid those I'd come to know. Dreams of Midgar and what happened there, the machines and the beasts, Garvin and the tower. They led me there I believed. Forced me into a corner, made me remember who I once was. Even to this day it plays some tricks in the back of my mind, but they have become an insignificant speck which I brush off.

I'd lived in the woods for nearly a year at that point. Though I clung to my steel sisters, my mind had begun to falter. Then one day, on a sudden whim and a desire which I'd fantasized about over and over again; I set out to Midgar and sate what was then my most wanted desire. I needed it, I had to have it no matter what. A weeks travel and I'd smuggled myself into the city, through the sewers and the ghettos I found my way into the central tower, standing above all else in the city as the twisted monarchs monument to the sinful machine gods which I'd convinced myself were running the city. I spoke often with the voice, acts of joyful madness in the artful ways of killing others. Though we had yet to go and fulfill that dream, until that horrid day. There I was, drenched in dirtied water, emerging into the gargantuan lobby of Central tower.

I drew my blades and focused my magics and let loose as a wolf into the sheep.

Nothing but blind rage, lashing out pointlessly after what I justified to be a lifetime of torture. Nothing but loss and the world had to pay; what better than to lash out at the populace of a place I felt wronged me so? To this day, I do not know what Freya's thoughts would be, as I have not spoken with her nor any of her familiars over the past hundred years. Though my steel sisters Redemption and Reconciliation still guide at my sides, they have slowly lost some of their power, tainted by both time and my sin. I have killed countless men and women, most in battle but too many none-the-less as innocents. I set fire to the entire lobby of Central before Garvin arrived by putting seven arrows through my chest. Nowhere near enough to kill me, but enough to lull me back into that deathlike slumber I'd seen before. That was the last time I'd spoken to the voice as a friend, as a mad ally in my insane scheme.

Here we were now, Qardo finding his way into ancient shifted walkways beneath the ground and me asking the voice "Why do you beg?" It answered only in its whimpering cry. What was I approaching? What was I to see here? Qardo rose his hands and a number of soft blue orbs floated up, bobbing up and down off the jagged ceiling, plopping along above him. The halls filled with a soft light as we continued onward and the voice had gone silent. As we went on I began to have the strangest premonition, as if I were very far away.
 
I heard things there, distant words travelling through time, rock and metal. I thought I heard singing in a manner I'd never conceived, whispers of accents unknown to my ears. Around me the world changed as we traveled deeper, strange objects lay about on tables eroded by the stale elements of this place touched only by time. I caught the glimpse of what appeared to be an old calender, printed onto a sleek material. What I saw seemed impossible, years and dates which made no sense. In Albion the year is recorded as 4102, seventh age, according to the Elves however the year was 4198, end of the seventh age. Their calender, based on an old relic called the Gregorian Calender, was started those many years ago when the Elves discovered the derelict ruins of the old cities. Little has ever been known of the ancient cities, as it has only been two hundred years since the Kurast Cleansing. Great beasts once roamed these lands, massive in size but their numbers dwindling. It was the same invention which now tears Kurast at it's seam. Firearms they call them, blueprints and old relics generated spurs of research into this tool which in turn spurred the march of Man while the Elf and its counterparts slowly drifted back to their homelands as Man flourished across the land.

But this was not right, the calender here reads 2048. "But this can't be right," Tiana halted, clutching Qardo by his wrist, "What is this place Qardo? I can feel that there is something down here, something ancient. It... there is power here, below us."

With a melancholy expression Qardo turned his gaze toward the ground, "I've been here once before Tiana, many Elves don't know this place, only a handful of men know of it either. There is a truth the Elves and the first Men have hidden from man for the past five hundred years as we have prospered. Hmmph, I suppose after this, you wouldn't think of them as Elves anyways." His eyes moved back and fixed on hers, "Tiana, I need you to be with me on this, no matter what you see down here."

We continued on through the ruins, the hum of what seemed to be engines groaned below and grew as they approached. There it is now, a great wheel shaped seal. Qardo approached and pressed what appeared to be numbered buttons on a pad of sorts. There was a sudden clanging and a number of lights and machines sprung to life as the wheel began turning to its side. Only but a few feet to travel, I felt air rush out of the chamber as it opened. The place inside seemed untouched by time, pristine and slick. White metallic walls, black grating beneath the feet and radiant bluish lights sifting across the ceilings, up and down the corridors. I continued following, attempting to hold in my amazement of this place. It seemed so, calm yet sterile.

We stopped at the end of a long passage and Qardo spoke up, "This is it. What is contained in this room, you may find shocking Tiana. I know I did at one point." He stepped forward and a green light flickered through the air around Qardo and the door slid up. He stepped in and I followed. I felt the breath escape my lungs as I gasped, not being able to take another step I could only watch in horror.

"What... what Qardo... what the hell is this!?"

"Roughly seven thousand years ago, the world burned." He began, walking the aisles of this new room. Chambers lined the walls, cylinder like capsules stacked in rows down as far as I could see, each one had what appeared to be a person in a tube filled with a yellow gelatinous material around them. Some dead, others though showed signs of stirring, breathing and twitching. "Terra was the name of a war between men thousands of years ago. Weapons of such immense power were used, it burned a majority of the world, leaving only patches unscathed. During this war, great structures were created far beneath the ground and people were stored there if the war were to consume the planet." Qardo stopped and placed his hand on one of the cases, "Our descendants were awoken by the remnants of humanity which survived on the surface. Apparently their name Elf was derived from an ancient piece of literature. As for us? Our ancestors were conceived as such Tiana. Look and see."

I approached and gasped, though it appeared dead, a baby float in the yellow gel, a number of wires and tubes attached to its body. "This can't be, mankind has been around far longer than five hundred years, we have history, we have..."

"The Elder Elves constructed our history in Kurast and saw to it that we would not rediscover the tools left behind in this place. Their efforts were in vein, as war consumes the lands yet again, further to the East. There are other ruins like this, the new capitol of Kurast changed it's name but a couple of months ago as well, though the word travels slow. They call it New Leipzig, but a few hundred miles South of the ancient ruins of Berlin." His gaze met hers yet again, his eyes full of anger, "The Elves know it is coming and man seeks war as it did those thousands of years ago. The ideology of fallen empires doesn't seem to erode in time as much of this world has."

That's when it hit me, like a shriek in my ears, a high pitched noise rung through my skull. With a sudden jolt it stopped and I heard singing again, "What is that damnit!? Qardo do you hear this?" He looked puzzled and shook his head, "What is this... the day destroys the night, the night divides the day? What am I hearing?" There was a loud groan from below and mechanized sounds buzzed around. I felt something of awesome power grow below me, "Qardo, we have to go down, I can... I can hear something down there..."
 
To be honest, this is about the time after a few years of roleplaying in this world we really started to wing it. We were jam packing the story with some twists and turns that we honestly had no structure to at the time. But of course, we never really gave any major explanation as to many occurrences across the world. What I've put up so far is but a small portion of the entire roleplay condensed; a lack therefore of detail along with it. My memory only serves me so well, but I have amazed myself as to what has come back to my while rewriting what I've done here. The last so many posts have been continuous with each other, following a particular timeline. Those posts are essentially the last act of the roleplay as the entirety of it slowly came to a close and the grand scheme of things began to truly unfold in what we created.

Soon however, much of it was written during a rather difficult time in my life going in and out of a psych hospital due to lapses of sanity and heavy medication. Though it's possible my views at the time helped form the world into what it was becoming, I do feel to this day that my mental state began to directly reflect the breaking down of this world. This here is the final part of the last act of our roleplay and choices were made which caused us to begin to question the repercussions of our choices in life as they were reflected in our own creation.
============================================

Njanju was not aware of what had occurred across the world. His sense of things had diminished over his thousands of years, though his memories of back then had not. Back when the world was still recovering from when it had burned. He saw the machines only once, sacrificing themselves across the vast ocean. He had thought of them as tools from the Gods without ever being fully aware of what they truly were. Though he did know about the secrets beneath the surface of Kurast, secrets of such great magnitude that they should never be known to the race of Man. Yet those same secrets seeped through as time passed and the advancement of man proceeded as it had many eons before. He'd seen the tanks, he'd seen the technology left over from a dead world.

He began to recognize the tools these people used, truly they were of another time long before his. It is only estimated how long ago the world burnt, it was believed by the highest of the Elder Elves that it had been nearly ten-thousand years before they adopted the old calenders. Njanju had lived for many years when the calender had been adopted. At the time it was a heavy topic among but a handful of the Elves as to what should be done about the ancient beings which lay in rest below the surface of Kurast, a land once called Europe. He knew wars had been fought across the lands over the course of thousands of years until the burning end. Though it wouldn't be until this day, that the terrible truth would reveal itself to him and many others as the pair, Qardo and Tiana, traveled deeper into the mouth of what certainly could be called hell.

Far away across the sea and lands the pair found themselves face to face with something of awesome power. They moved deeper into the shifted world, mummified bodies lined the great halls below, thousands had died here only to become dust. But it was a chamber further below where something stirred, something which had not awoken since the last war, Terra. It's words were babble, a language they could not understand. It spoke as if it understood and gave images to suffice for the loss in translation. Tiana had seen a share of war, but what they gazed upon was a monument to every sin of the world. Images flashed by on great walls of cataclysmic explosions, armies of great proportion, death beyond despair and unimaginable weapons. The pictures stopped on a final great view of the world from above, its surface burning and seas boiling.

The voice spoke for the first time since Tiana arrived at this place.

"That was the end of life as I once knew it girl. Only since have I known the confines of loneliness. I watched the world burn and all I could do was laugh."

A striking revelation struck Tiana, "You were there so long ago. How is it that you have clung to this world for so long?"

"My only desire is to end it all. Lest I witness the end again, I cannot bare, girl. I am not evil girl, all I know is death."

The great monument before them began humming and its center slid away, revealing a chamber within. A mechanical voice continued in its strange language, as if it were inviting them inside. IT whimpered as Tiana stepped forward, "I cannot bare this! I don't wish to see again!"

"What!? What will you see again here!?" Tiana shouted back, "You haunt me all these years and only now do you wish to reveal your nature. What is it here that you fear!?"

"You."

The machine whined as Tiana stepped forward again to be met with an awesome wave of green light and she felt the world shift around her.

Analyze. Analyze. Biological threat detected! Contamination detected! Post nuclear microbiological substances detected!

The mechanical voice spoke in a tongue they understood, but its words arbitrary. Tiana felt the world shift again and the chamber disappeared from her view, as if she rushed across the skies and the stars and looping back again.

Analyze. Biological threat removed, sustained, contained.

The world around her reappeared, forests sprung back into view and Tiana found herself spread eagle face down on a dirt road. She rolled to her side coughing and her eyes fell upon a group coming toward. To her surprise Njanju stared wild eyed at her while the rest of the group followed suit, save for the her, the doppelganger. Monika drew her blade and stepped forward, "You were shown to appear, but you have arrived sooner than perceived." She pointed her blade toward the shocked Tiana's throat, "You have seen the underground, have you not?"
 
A recent creative challenge spurred my memory of a particular event in Tiana's travels.
https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/threads/interview-with-a-character-4.31221/page-2#post-1891413
Specifically the first bit about a choice of drink. I enjoyed that little bit and am glad the memory came back to me.

Hind Cost Tavern. I wandered around that place for some time during a brief period of peace in my life, but a few months. I'd traveled North and found a secluded tavern on a weary trail which ran up the coast in the shadows of the Morning Mountains. A family of farmers, the Du'uan's, held claim to the land, fermenting wheat and corn and selling strong drink to those trekking the road to the mountain villages. It sold well, as they held currencies of various holds across the land. Few who came through didn't leave without a full flask, as who could resist a drink to warm the blood in the frosty mountains. It was a fine place and I was warmly accepted among the family there. I had board and food for my work there, hunting in the wild for pelts, skins and meats. I would sell my services as a protector to those who could not defend themselves. I asked little, only enough to repay the hospitality of the Du'uan's.

It was a brisk autumn evening when an old man came hiking through. His skin like leather, spotted with age and lined with wrinkles. He would have bouts of coughing which drew blood, they were deep gnawing rips to his chest which pained even I. He had caught wind of my services from other travelers of the road he claimed, though he had little to offer save for a drink which was most delightful. It warmed the tongue and the belly, caressing and soothing on its way down. Strong as the sea gale blows yet I found a sense of ease within it, as if it knew where to soothe the aching spirit. I accepted his payment and we began travelling toward his final destination.

On our journey, he spoke of his days past. His name, Johann Cole, an man who reigned from a small insignificant village to the far South, nestled somewhere deep within the marshes. He spoke of a working life. His hands hurt by the time he was old enough to bed a woman, his back hurt before he had children to raise, his body ached before his children could walk. He was a man who knew only how to work the land until the body could do no more. Yet he seemed happy with his life.

"Though my body was broken before I could truly call myself a man, my spirit has undeniably been fortified with my faith and my devotion." He said once. I had a certain sense of love for those words. He had much to say, whether it was because he carried on to his grave which awaited him or he looked fondly upon me as a traveling companion I cannot truly say. Maybe a bit of both from this kind old man. Though on the last leg of our journey, he spoke of the drink he carried with him. One he said he discovered from a distant spirit which spoke from an old ruin who then died, vanished from this world with it's last words spoken to an old man. He told me of the secrets spoken from the ruin, from the earth; a strange fruit which grew on the West face of the mountains in the morning sun and the bark of a certain kind of tree near his homeland. He saw it as a final gift from the spirit, a final utterance before vanishing forever.

We spoke little once we arrived, I let him go on ahead as he made his way down the small peninsula. I left him be as he sat on the rocky coast, staring out into the sea whispering his prayers to whatever kind God which would lend its ear. I had found his destination and peace seemed to surround his mortal coil. As I flew away I looked back a final time to see he had vanished as well, but another spirit of this world returning to whence it came. His final gift to me was the knowledge of The Lord Mountain.
 
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