Pieces of Tiana Koul

A bit from a short lived battle on the Kurast coastline. An airship known as "The Warship Nadal" acted as a commanding center for a massive army which seamlessly marched across Kurast from the seat of power in the East. The self proclaimed Emperor Erant, a powerful sorcerer who claimed to be of ancient times rose to power through the corrupted political system which had already consumed Kurast long before the civil war which only served to expose the dying body of Kurast's nations. The Nadal sported weapons and magic never seen before which proved unstoppable.

Pierce us, lay into us, clash your armor as it were bone to bone. Grinding as the wheel devours the wheat once threshed from the field of golden hairs. Here we are the harvest, weeping with our wounds and praying with our cackles of death. The war consumed as a fierce inferno, racing against the wind on the trail of an accelerant called peace. Ripe to be plucked clean by those with a hand big enough to stampede the landscape under the weight of armies; oh does the world not moan in agony under their weight? A battle rages at the foot of a makeshift fortress, a wall of abandoned tenements all banded together by the corpses of vehicles, spare planks stolen from unused industrial parks and everything else which was solid enough to form a wall. It wasn't enough.

The Warship Nadal approached, it struck its force down hard with a great and awesome judgement. Much of the armies which drift as a sea beneath it need not fire a single shot, as the great Nadal need but fire a single shot and it's enemies would cower. Only the front-line saw a hail of artillery and small arms fire, it was as stones were to a tank. The line marched on, unabated by the meager defenses of a people who had yet to recover from the great civil war which had consumed their world not more than a year before. Yet it approached in the sky, a valiant blue lined with mysterious glyph's of the deepest violet and harshest white. A great weapon of ancient and magical energies mounted upon its bilge, a twisting design which looked to be that of a canon. The defenses wall stood for a moment. It wasn't enough.

In a roar the weapon discharged after a faint and eerie silence covered the land, no matter how loud the battle raged. A glow of hot white emanated from the canons entirety and with a flash a great beam traversed the sky. Like great horn bellowing its sound filled the land for miles, its echo a severe reminder and lesson to all else. The defenses were torn from existence, a gaping hole tore the landscape for miles beyond. As it went on its path widened, forty yards, sixty yards, one hundred yards in width. The defenders became silent, placing their arms at their feet and hands upon their mourning faces. It wasn't even but a few seconds and thousands obliterated in a white hot flash which could only be described as a flash from Hell.
 
I thought I. I know I. What was I?

The woman awoke, unaware and dazed. The world around her chirped and chimed, an alarm blessed by nature and a spotted sky of silver over an ocean of blackened space, stretching too far. Even the Gods dared not venture out into that void, so massive, so... yet she had. Her name was Tiana, as for now however her mind collected itself as shards reanimated of a broken world or that of a fragile vase. Worlds upon worlds swept by through an infinite tear which stretched on for units beyond comprehension. She did not understand it, even though she drift through it as a milky noise layered upon the sounds of something beyond that of a God, beyond that of the creator, beyond that of the indescribable. She did not weep 'nor did she fear.

With a pop, a ping upon existence, a blemish that should not have been. She was reeled back with a great force, slamming down with a subtle tap. Existence did nod toward the presence as it transformed into something more familiar. Romanticized ideals could be strung about as a tapestry of beauty and even then their woven tale would not begin to encroach on the lip of all that which had been in the wake of this tale. With a first breath, a sign of many did she breath new life. So far gone, so much time. Heart pulsing as the moonlight above, radiant yet melancholy.

She was not meant for death, for she was not allowed such a luxury.
 
Terminus Pulchra.

Another place another time.


I wish we could have finished our time together. My friends and family, what did I seek in our destruction? An end to finally sum up all the trivial events of our lives? I chose for an entire world. I chose. Here I find myself somewhere new, another world in another time. I gaze into the stars and wonder how far away you are Qardo, only to be met with the blank gaze of space, bounding into infinity. Now I am here and unsure, full of longing and regret and my glass is filled to the brim with that bitter taste.

I wander now. Plucked from among the stars by Gods I cannot understand, as they hide behind obscurity and their endless workings of enigmatic tools.

Others are here, I feel them. Something connects us, yet I only wish to avoid. Not for fear of what may transpire, but because I grow weary.
Can I not escape this fate laid out for me?​
 
Next time...

"I've lost Garvin." The situation seemed familiar, more than Tiana would have preferred. Garvin trapped her in an earthly cage bound by an old Elvish magic she couldn't break. Somewhere too far out West, past Midgar and the mountains, past the expanse of rivers and the great gap which lay as a scar across the plains. Ancient remains dotted the skyline past the treetops. Cities once stood there, somehow Tiana and Garvin knew they were the first to see these cities for quite some time. As for the pair, Tiana sat in a hanging cage of branch and vine while Garvin rest on a nearby branch. He had no words for her, as he was disgusted with Tiana's actions, more so her inability to cope with the blood which had flowed through her veins for nearly five years.

"Garvin please, just let me out and I know I'll be fine. Trust me just..." She trailed off knowing her words were falling short of his ears. Maybe it was best that he trapped her out here away from what seemed to be any civilization. Only creatures of nature roamed these parts and the skeleton of some lost civilization which still stood as a solemn reminder of its existence where only the eyes of nature would bare witness until time crumbled the remnants. She let her mind drift, forgetting what had just transpired for a brief moment, wondering what kind of peoples lived here so long ago. Even bits remained beneath them of cracked roads nearly hidden by thousands of years. Scraps of steel frame clung together nearby, torn down by trees and wildlife and yet it persisted. She thought of the Terra war and if that too was responsible for what must have been an expansive city to crumble with time and cease to be.

I can't kill her. Because I don't want to and because I know I can't.

Garvin contemplated with intensity, unable to see his way through the coming days, much less the months and years beyond that. But something had to be done, anything. He thought about leaving Tiana and heading to his home to seek help, she'd be fine in her cage for a few days, it'd take more than a bit of hunger to kill her; yet Garvin knew he couldn't leave her alone either. Shit this is bad...

He thought about taking her further to the West, to the Terminal Mountains which lay in the face of a desert which lined much of the Western expanse. He had heard word cities united under a single banner out that way, but it was incredibly rare to see one of the Westerners. He hadn't seen one for over eighty years. Tall and dark and adept in the use of magic. Maybe he could find an answer out there, but that would be a months journey even for the two of them. If Tiana were to lose herself again, his only option would be to put enough arrows in her she couldn't move save for another cage.

"We'll go West." He finally spoke up. "We'll speak to the Orcish and the Westerners." He paused, turning his eyes to meet Tiana's with a fierce gaze, "Next time Tiana, I will make it where you will wish I could kill you."
 
I'm not sure when it was, but as I awoke I was treated to an overhanging mist which engulfed the barren woods around and above. It smelled of a marsh, standing water seeping through the wet and flimsy ground. Last I remember was Garvin coming toward the cage he'd made for me and then this. Damnit Garvin, what lengths did you go to this time? Where did you leave me? A chill ran through my skin as my hands did not find my steel sisters at my sides. Shit. He knows I can't last without them, he was doing this on purpose. I scanned the area to no avail, my vision may be sharp but this mist which hung had a strange veil about it. But I knew Garvin was watching me, those Elf eyes piercing through and watching my every move. It'd be no surprise if he were right next to me, I wouldn't have sensed him.

Wanting to yell out I didn't want to make myself the local attraction either, creatures roamed the far reaches of the world and I'd only seen a small manner of beasts. I wasn't sure if my situation had turned to shit or if Garvin knew I'd be able to handle myself. Whatever the case, I may as well make something of the situation despite my wings still broken and beaten. Proceeding forth in whichever direction, the bare arms of foreign trees brushed against my skin. Thin long strands weeping every which way through the mist, an unsettling sight. As I continued forward a familiar scent crossed me and the sound of running water beckoned in the distance. Quickening my pace I was sure of it, the scent of the ocean lingered somewhere near.

A sudden slip and I found myself sliding down a modest hill of tangled root and mud, I felt my right blouses arm rip away and then the snap coupled with a roaring pain. Coming to a rapid halt my right arm had found itself tangled in a gnarl of roots, my elbow twisted back on itself. Letting out I bellow of cries I called for Garvin, pleading for him to help me as tears rolled down my muddied cheeks. He did not answer but the prodding of soft mud under many feet did and I panicked. Flapping my wings and struggling to free myself I caught the glimpse of a grizzly four legged creature, like an over sized black hound covered in filth. It slipped back into the mist leaving only the soft pecking of its feet. I gripped the root with my free hand as hard as I could and forced my way out, freeing my arm I made an attempt to at least propel myself into the trees. I wasn't fast enough.

Two of the beast leapt from the mist at me. One gripped its powerful jaw around my broken arm and the other slamming me back into the mud. For a moment I saw myself in the terrible hound, pressed down on my victim with only the desire to sate myself and gorge on them. Why I ended up here, why Garvin left me here. In that moment I, I didn't know what I could do. The pain of my arm screamed at me and my chest heavy with the weight of this beast. I didn't know what else to do. My left arm still free I reached for the beasts neck dug my fingers into its flesh, pulling its ravenous eyes to mine. I shrieked at it with every ounce of will I could muster, I gripped its airways with all my might and I knew it feared me in that last moment.

The other beast let loose and ran, the sound of tapping paws on wet soil vanished and silence loomed back in as I pushed the beasts corpse off me. Fine Garvin. Is this your plan? So much for the Westerners let's just kill Tiana huh? Fuck you. I'll give you a monster you can kill because you must.
 
Garvin. I could see him through clattering steel, clouds of blood and pools of bodies, yet there he stood out, his blood screaming through the battle for aid. I paused. Time. It goes, so slow. My body hurtled forward, my blades clearing a path, bullets flailing around me in plain view as a rogue spell scorched my leg. The sky was breaking above us, or was it my vision failing for a moment. Flashes of strange neon passed through the heavens, a support frigate was erupting, its magics spilling out unmitigated and furious. I heard the hull of the Nadal groan against the blast but remained vigilant as its cannons continued raining down on encampments. Everything had gone from shit to worse in a fortnight.

But Garvin. I couldn't run any faster. Nothing would stop me but I just couldn't move any faster. On his knees a glaring wound in his chest, his executioner standing at his side looking dead at me. They could see me coming, they bested Garvin and whether it was bait or mockery I will never know. I closed in through the thick of it all and only could watch as they dropped their blade. My blood shrieked and hairs rose on end. A hot rush moved from my chest to my temples, my eyes heated I met him. Holding the executioner up by my blades he vomited what he could as his intestines seeped down his groin and my blades. "Die." I demanded this of him as I tore upward, splitting his body into ribbons. I didn't see where Garvin's head went, nor did I want to. Enough was enough.

I looked up toward the Nadal and burst into the air, immediately feeling a surge of bullets attempt to overtake me. I felt edges rip, cloth tatter and the sound of feathers plopping off one after another. It wasn't enough as I soared higher. The sky continued it's haze of strange color, the Nadal untouched and only three of its small fleet had sunk back down to the Terra. It was the first time I wanted it. I called out to it and it wasn't far. There was no exchange of feelings, no need. It knew as well as I as we met the vessel and felt the Demon scream, its howls resounding from my own being. A section caved in and was torn away as if a vacuum consumed it. I charged into the ship where this God King supposedly resided.

They were prepared for a boarding but it still came as a surprise as I filled a corridor with fire. Tias was a good teacher. I thought of him as I wield my own magics for what I thought to be a final time. I cradled the short screams before the uncompromising pain overwhelmed the crew. Alarms blared all the way, so did the heinous sound of crisping flesh and tortured screams of those unfortunate not to die. Roland. No time for pity, they'll be dead shortly. No need to waste my time. I worked toward the airships heart, their forces spread thin now. I'd set fire to half the second and third decks, the ship was bound to go down. Another wall, blasted out and sucked through and I found myself in a rather lavish chamber.

Tiana, don't...

There she was. Monica, held in place like a puppet in the air. Conflict wanted me to sway, a sister of another mother but the blood of the same damned father. I cringed as my eyes narrowed on him. The so called God King Erant. He was certainly arrogant, not even a single body guard. He began to speak, as if a greeting but I jolted toward him, a burst of the wings and glint of steel I stopped inches from his wretched old face.

"Now now girl." His tired looking eyes and frail skin complimented the tattered voice which hung behind them, "You should suffer for your actions. The Roland is dead, has been for some time." He eyed me, I hadn't known of Roland's death up until that point. I could only glare. "Ah, but that was in another place very far away. Pity. Your friend Garvin I believe should be dead now as well, yes?" I pressed forward, somehow restrained from getting any closer, my blades pounded only air before him. "The Qardo as well should be dead now. But like you he is a difficult prey. But you girl. An accident of nature, the shadow of a world left over from thousands of years. Call it demons, call it what you like. But you should never have existed, much less have been so tedious." His expression was meaningless, his face hardly shifted a wrinkle. Only the same bleak expression and monotone hoarse voice droning on.

"I only tell you this because I have to ask you one thing Tiana. Now you say, 'What's that?'" His stare seemed to intensify.

I continued swinging at him, my blades stopping short of him with each attempted blow. I wanted to scream at him, snarl. I couldn't rationally think about what he was saying. I didn't really want to. Didn't even consider how he specifically knew me. It didn't matter, I'd never find out anyway. "FUCK YOU!" Smart choice of words.

"So be it." I felt my body be struck and I was propelled across the chamber, slamming into the lower ceiling above its entrance and thudding to the floor. "Then your sister is next." I barely even glanced up and saw a terrible explosion of blood, flesh and ash. My eyes widened and my chest became light. I was in disbelief. They were all dead. I couldn't focus on anything, I just wanted... I don't know. To explode, to lash out in any way I could. I looked at him thrust myself back across the chamber with tremendous speed and a terrible scream. No air, no sudden stop. I sunk my steel into him and then some. His body tore to shreds, only a massive stain remained strewn across the chambers throne before a pile of white ash of what recently was Monica Koul.

I fell back screaming and laughing. Sweat pricked my eyes and I felt my muscles seize uncontrollably. Anything. Anything at all. Anything. Anything. Anything at all.

I just wanted a way out.
 
A thought upon a new world.

To look fondly back across all that happened in my life, the lives of others, the life of a heavenly body. We saw so much, yet of all that we witnessed we never saw too much. Even if it were a simple thought to myself, displaced in time and space, I love you all. My heart is gripped with some fear I do not know. Yet my chest rests easy, my eyes narrow and mind continues on. I missed you all once, but that was long ago. Having accepted the reality I find myself in, I know what I must do now. There is only one way out and that is through. I will make my way, not the disembodied hands of old Gods and spirits. It has taken more than a hundred years of life to understand this, it may have been more. I know not where Pulchra is, it's remains cast into the void. But that was my first home and now it travels the cosmos, spreading far as I do now. But another fragment of a world that once was, made new to walk another world so far away.

I know what I must do.
My children, my pride and my joy.
You will be my blade buried in my heart and the rope around my neck.
And I shall thank you for it.
 
The Nadal. Here it comes again, scorching the sky with that profane magic and terrible machines which should have stayed from the memory of man. In that heat of mourning, Garvin's eyes gazed passed the swinging of steel, blistering spells and flying machines. Even in his violent death, I took notice of his eyes. No longer did he care for the wars of our races or the binds of this world. I felt his peace, surrounded by what I was sure to be my imminent death. I didn't want to join him, 'nor did I want to die. My daughter was lost in this feverish battle as well, unsure if she still lived. My lover most likely already making his way to board the Nadal. My closest friend dead beside me. But his peace, Garvin's peace, quickly left me.

His killer dead at my hands, then the next and the next and the next. I felt old sores in my soul give way. Feelings I'd wished to hide. An anger placed at the feet of the world which I demanded be known. I put my anger on display with each kill, with each one I embraced them. I whispered the words of my long tale into their ears. The battle raged. I spread my thoughts to dying minds. Poisoning them for their last moments, to wallow in a meaningless life as they too died in that strange peace on that field.

I should've taken comfort then knowing I'd have all that and more shortly.

All that I would hold dear, leaving this world. I would still whisper words of poisoning grief to their killers sullied soul.


--'The truth, the revelation of the orphan twins'
 
Something beautiful.

When I was still young, I would roam the countrysides for days at a time. Making camp beneath the what used to seem like such a big sky. Though endless, back then it seemed have much more magnitude to my still blissful eyes. Barth would always tell me, "One day you'll find how expansive this world is. Leave the Heavens to the Gods." I didn't have much faith in the Gods then, not that I've accumulated any since then. At that time though, I didn't believe in any of the Old Gods. Or any Gods for that matter. I suppose it was because I didn't remember my childhood or much anything up to only a couple years ago when I awoke in the care of the Father Barth who has been as good to me. Though lately he has told me numerous times I've recovered as much as I well. No longer in the tattered condition I'd awoken to.

But of course I keep questioning how I'd gotten here in Alvon to begin with. Just some Northern ranger who rescued me from wherever I'd been. Said the horse nearly died when he'd arrived with my slumped over a tired ranger's back. Been riding for days from the Northern tundra, but never gave details as the ranger disappeared the following morning without a trace. Just some kind heroic soul or a man doing his duty as a ranger of the wilds. I've told myself since then, if I ever were to meet that ranger again, I'd swear by my own life to repay my debt to him. And second, to know the truth of where I was.

Clues across my belly of what were deep wounds, a daily reminder of what I can't remember. I'd found awhile ago dwelling on the matter of what happened would only result in sleepless nights and tired days. So recovery was my only option. But at the end of my days there in the North-East counties, I could easily smile at the skies before falling to sleep. How I wish back then I'd never left. The knowledge of age has come at a heavy price, a burden I find hard to bear, but know all life must tread forward as it always has with an insatiable burden.

Yet, with some comfort I still find myself happy to know that with the heavy price of memory the seams of gold still flow freely within it. That nostalgia may have distorted after all this time, but forever and ever will it be apart of me.

-The Latter Years, age 172 -paraphrased and told by Tiaz; Librarian, Magi, Elder, Spirit. Lessons on "Koul the Mad"
 
I've been thinking so much about her story, the story of Tiana Koul. It's been quite awhile since I've been back here. Whether anyone see's these or not, it helps to at least practice writing in silence. However, the following may be confusing as I have written for a very long time and I'm somewhere entirely different in terms of her story. It's become my side project, I think about it every day. I doubt I'll ever be finished, but I enjoy putting the pieces together and then rearranging them by removing a few and reshaping them.
-----

Tenth iteration, the world falls apart again. "I won't let you fall apart." Lips pursed and eyes clenched, she prayed the memories would remain one last time around. How many lives had she experienced by this point? She's lost track after all this time, what had gone from centuries had become millennia for her fraying mind. For everything else she'd ever known, it had been moments, endlessly repeating this loop of fifteen decades recycling itself over and over again until the seam had come loose and the stains began to show. "You'll find me this time." She begged holding Garvin for what must've been the twentieth time, cold and lifeless, the last of his kind. She closed her eyes and decided to wait, knowing the end would come soon as it had before, again and again and again.

Tiana already could see her younger self waking startled as another century and one half poured into her soul to be re-used and re-purposed for this thresher of a world. But this time, she wouldn't be the only one. She found the trick. The single variable among unfathomable odds. For the first time in so long at the end of another dreary life, she was content with the possibility of facing eternity, so long as she didn't have to continue doing so alone. A doubt crept into her mind however, he too would be trapped here with her. But not truly trapped. Another few lives, another millennia maybe and the way out would be found. Until then, this cycle would continue. No matter he actions in this mess of webs, she's found one single inevitable thing in this world and that is it's ultimate end. Nobody any wiser to its destruction, their lives picked up and put together again and again, unaware anything ever changed.

"But I know now." The dark little voice quivered. Even it's hubris shrank before the plan Tiana had set into motion.
 
Roland was a companion I'd known for nearly thirty years. I was fortunate to have met him under some stressful circumstances. I'd been engaged in a battle for my life for two days straight. I'd grown tired, but so had the sky beasts, the ones they called the Dragon of Rabbit Hill. I thought it was a silly name for such a frightening creature. One of the older ones, but it had become lazy and greedy. Only picking at the lonely travelers of the Eastwatch Highroad. Being as naive as I was back then, I took that road thinking I'd be lucky enough to avoid it. So damned stupid. The fact I survived the encounter and managed to stick the beast enough times in it's neck is beyond me. Truth be told, if it weren't for Roland, I'd have laid there in the highroad embankment, soaked in both my and the dragons blood, ready to freeze with the autumn night.

But Roland. Most people would've seen that fight in the sky and ran. I caught first glimpse of him hiding in a tree on the first day. Though I don't think he was really hiding, but watching as if it were sport. I didn't know it then, but he was a cold man. A good heart locked away behind those cool blue eyes. Honestly, I would sometimes mistake him for a wolf in the distance, the way his stare pierced the winter nights, the rugged skin that had seen one to many winters exposed to the elements. He was a man of the mountains and even the dragons didn't seem to bother him.

When I'd awoken from that fight with the "Rabbit Dragon" as we called it, I could barely even speak. Eyes lazily open to the night sky, finding myself wrapped in a crude blanket next to a spitting fire. He didn't talk much, other than giving my instructions to eat or roll over so he could inspect the gashes in my side. But throughout that first night, he eventually began talking either to me or the sky about how he was supposed to meet me in that embankment. He was supposed to find, as he put it, "a careless woman and a great vermin dancing in the sky." Seemed oddly specific, but he kept insisting he'd knew he had to be there since he was a small child when one of the Elven Seer had bumped into him as a fair in the deep South.

But details aside, I'd known Roland for near thirty years. I'm not sure where he went. The Gods won't tell me, 'nor does the wind. He'd just wandered off, never to be seen again. I'd hoped I'd get to thank him one last time and say goodbye, but he wasn't much in the way of goodbyes. He was a man of the mountains, from up high on the mountain of knowledge, he'd spent too long. Through his long life, I think at one point he'd seen something that broke him. Not in a wrong way, but in that peculiar way. You know when you look into any persons eyes as you have a conversation with them? You can sometimes see it there. In some part of their vision, they're always seeing it again over the corner of another shoulder or in the cracks of a wall. Though I suspected in his case, he could see the future in a very vague way. Always waking from one dream after another, only holding onto small pieces, but never knowing what just happened.

I think he saw his future coming to a close. Maybe he saw somewhere he had to be. Whatever the case may be, he was a friend to me and I will never forget that. In my case, I know I'll see him again in the next life. And with that knowledge comes a thought that keeps scratching at me, like an itch on the roof of my mouth that won't be sated.

No point in thinking about it too much.
 
The Thirteenth Iteration. I had hoped it would be the final one. But what I had encountered on my journey, fraught with more heartache than I could possibly bear, another blow was struck deep into what fragmented remains were left of my soul. I had to head back to the Graves of my former self. The same place I would die at the end of my many lives. Always with what seemed to be the same ending result. In spite of all my successes, all my failings and all that I, one woman, one single being in this Hell of a world, nothing seemed to change. But I hadn't noticed. The nuances filling the cracks, the mortar being laid for the next set of bricks for a foundation that was beyond my imagination. The Graves of me. The Graves of Tiana Koul.

I could feel it in the air that night. This time something magnificent had changed. At the time, I wasn't sure what I'd done but I was sure I was the only variable in this world no longer constrained by the twisted threads of fate those damned Gods played with like toys. Our mortal coils ready to snap at their whim. But not mine. Though I hadn't realized what those strings held, that they couldn't nor wouldn't break. Souls of a past self still wandered this God forsaken place. The denizens of the area avoided this place at all costs. They spoke of twelve women who would wander the hills at night, all the same, but their hearts held different shades and shadows of the world. They would sleep neath in unseen places, structures that at one time didn't exist in this world, but would leak through the fabric of reality. To most, they appeared to be ghostly shadows of some other time, but once I saw them in the pale light of the stars, I felt my own soul reel back as the sense of deja-vu overpowered my senses.

I was still here. Another me. Many of me.

I could see the shadows of my own heart in the now creeping darkness, suffocating the starlight and pushing the very gaze of the moon away from these lands. I had fought so many battles. I've killed more men than I could count. I've fought beasts that brought many men to flight. I've fought against men who's hearts were so wicked the very Earth would corrupt to their touch. I've done things that would and should condemn my soul to an eternity of Hell. I've fought as a mother, to protect her child in vain. I've fought as not only an ally, but a true friend to those I'd betrayed in another lifetime. I've fought the demons who sought my father and have even killed my father in one life in cold blood. After what would be a millennia, after what would be so many lifetimes, I had yet to fight myself. I've yet to go against that one variable the Gods had lost control of.

That night I found myself face to face with the others. I saw what I'd become in other lifetimes. Naive. Frightened. Wicked. Ferocious. Blessed. Hateful. Mourning. Secluded. Prideful. Dreadful. Scarred. Death incarnate.

I heard a song from the late 20th Century, as they called it. It's words spoke to me. "You never know how you through someone else's eyes." For the first time in my many lives did I finally see the truth of it all. They stood before me, all accounted for, all the pieces of me spread throughout time and space. Two would forgive me in all that I am. One shied away as a spectator. The rest however drew what had become false representations of Redemption and Reconciliation. The swords we all would inevitably find, their steel would be as our skin and their cut reflections of who we were. It was over quickly, as it should be. Quick and decisive. My wounds would be signaling the mortality in any other being, but I knew they would heal with rest. The other three knelt beside be. Two wept and one remained silent, an expression of relief slowly knitting itself across her almost foreign face.

It had to be different this time.

Garvin? Qardo? What you must think of me.
 
Such somber eyes.

I had found her on the outskirts, just outside the hunting grounds nestled in a bundle of roots, almost lost among the fog. Her belongings, though with no force implied seem to shift in my presence, calling out for attention for their would be guardian. Nude as a newborn, she seemed to posses the skin of one too. It was uncanny, as if I'd done and seen all this before, but I know for certain no memory of this exists. Dream or otherwise. I knew her face and a name seemed to echo out to me, but I couldn't catch onto it, just slipping the tip of my tongue. Well, I couldn't just leave her there. It had been a cool night, I half expected her to be dead but the touch of her skin was as warm as any hardy living being. I quickly removed my poncho and covered herself up, I felt a bit bashful just handling some naked stranger, but I couldn't just walk into town with a naked woman in my arms now, could I?

Now I couldn't decide whether I should bring her to the clinic or the church. She didn't appear to be injured in any way 'nor did she have any kind of fever, at least as far as I could tell. But her belongings would've gotten a suspicious eye if I brought her to the ministers. Could be mistaken for one of Lango Shield Maidens, for all I knew she could have been. But the biggest part were the two massive scars on her back. Wasn't sure what the doctor or minister would say to that. Looked to run just along her shoulder blades, clear from the pit of her arm, moving down, around and up to her neck. Well, suffice to say, I took her home and bless my wife and her good nature, she had me place the woman in the guest room quickly began examining her while scolding me politely. We knew the police would show up eventually and ask questions, a few dozen people saw me take the back route into town to avoid the square.

Well it was lucky she awoke when she did, not but ten minutes later the police arrived and attempted to barge right into our home. Whomever she was, she had thrown on her belongings and ran back into the forest quick as can be. Hadn't ever seen anyone run quite that fast before. Bah, I don't know where I'm going with this. There honestly isn't much to tell. But it's strange though. I just can't get her name out of my head, even though the most she managed to say before hopping out the door was a faint "thank you again." Koul. It just keeps ringing in my ears. I swear I know her. Again? I've never seen her before, but somehow in some way, we know each other. Maybe an old acquaintance? I'm not sure. Which reminds me, uh, ma'am? I don't know you're name.


"You may call me Gestalt." Thin wide lips attached to an almost uncanny pale delicate expression of familiarity and routine. A thin veneer covering something far more melancholic behind a pair of grey eyes that had but a hint of the bluest sky trapped on the very edge. Some called her parents almost comedic in the choosing of her name, those very few aware of her profession. For her however, she saw them as almost prophetic and a source of pride. Maybe they really knew the future in a certain sense. Gestalt did, has and will know the futures, pasts and presents. "And do be sure, you have seen this woman before. Unlike others however, you won't be so sure. It is unlikely that we'll be meeting again. We rarely do."
 
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