Unfolding (Mowkie and Avaritia)

[The Lady Avaritia]

Character

Name: Nena Winters
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Station in life: Princess

The forest stretched tall and ominous around her, trees stretched out their branches to grab her dress and hinder her progress, gnarly roots seemed to do their best to fell her to the ground. Nena paused only a moment to tear her cloak free from a branch, the soft, dark beige fabric already torn in several places, her heart beating painfully in her chest, her breath ragged, but if she stopped running she would remember.

Pulling her cloak tighter around her to avoid getting snagged on more branches Nena pressed on, although she was not used to such physical activities and more than once did she stumble over nothing, in her defense however her long dress was a hinderance. Had she walked through this forest a normal night she would likely have been more than a little afraid of being alone in the dark and in such a remote location but tonight that didn't face her.

Nena finally had to slow down, chest heaving as she gasped for air she leaned against a tree, the rough bark pressing into her back. Her head spun and she had to force herself to take deep breaths to avoid falling to the ground. Not occupied with her panicked run anymore her thoughts strayed back to the reason she was even here.

The day had gone along like it normally did and after her usual duties were over Nena had taken one of her strolls outside, of course as a princess she was not allowed to just leave the castle alone so instead she had to take her walks in one of the many castle gardens. Only when she had realized the late hour had Nena hurriedly made her way back inside where the night made a turn for the worse.

The sight greeting her was her family seemingly dead, the shock had almost been too much but as she knelt in desperation by her younger sister's side she felt some sparks of hope. Her still warm skin, the peaceful expression she wore as if in sleep seeded the belief in Nena that her family was not lost. Her many tries to rouse her sister from her supposed sleep was futile however and a rustle of fabric against the floor snapped Nena's attention to the far side of the room.

The figure was dressed in a dark cloak so Nena didn't fully see the person's face but she felt it was a woman and despite not having any real proof of it her brain pushed the word witch into her thoughts. Scrambling to her feet, Nena could only stare at the dark figure who came closer with every step. "There you are princess," her calm attitude could not hide the hate and malice that mixed in her voice.

"I was wondering where the last one of you self righteous, ignorant people were hiding, but how kind of you to place yourself in my way." Nena who had always seen herself as a capable woman in danger could only listen to the frosty voice rooted the the floor unable to move or speak. Her thoughts reeling as to why this woman was doing this, what did she have against her family? It may seem arrogant of her to not make the connection instantly to the witch hunts and this angry woman but that was how she had been raised.

"Now my sweet princess," in the witch's mouth those normally caring words only sounded eerily hollow. "It is time for you to complete my curse although it is a bit sad for you to miss the wonderful chaos your country surely will fall into." Her words ended in a laugh that didn't reach her eyes, with tinges of madness nestled within.

That was when Nena finally snapped out of her paralysis, eyes wide with fear she turned on one heel and ran for all she was worth. Following her out of the room was words in a language Nena had never heard, they snaked into her brain and clawed at her consciousness, for a moment it felt like a sticky darkness pulled her backwards and down into an abyss. As she struggled to get further away from the witch the darkness slowly let go of her mind allowing Nena to quicken her pace once more.

Now she was far from the castle, in an old forest that she had only heard stories about, above her in between branches she saw the dark night sky grow paler. She had been running for most of the night and only adrenaline could have made that possible but now not even that was enough to keep her going for much longer.

She had been caught in despair all this time, after all how did you conquer a witch especially while not being able to use magic yourself. But then old memories came back to her, bedtime stories from her childhood, they had been full of magic and wonder, and some had even taken place in this very country. Could there be some truth to them? What if witches and sorcerers still lived in this land, some who had survived the burnings and now lived hidden. It was a farfetched thought but Nena needed any kind of hope she could find to not fall victim to the despair that threatened to overtake her if she let her guard down.

It was then that the day turned upside down once more, a melodic song weaved through the trees, a soft melody that somehow resonated deeper than it should have been able to. Turning her head back and forth, scanning the trees Nena's eyes fell upon a bird, a pretty little thing with sky blue feathers and a fluffy white chest. It's tail feathers a little bit longer than normal but what she focused on was its dark eyes, they somehow seemed different from a normal bird, like the animal hid some deeper knowledge.

The bird looked at her curiously, tilting it's head and hopping a bit closer on its branch, in a weird way Nena got the impression of being examined, which was utterly ridiculous as it was just an animal. But then it flew forward, it landed on her shoulder and pecked at her neck before it flew off as fast as it had come.

Nena looked at it quizzically as it landed in a bush just a few feet away and chirped at her, before moving another four feet and repeating it's urgent call. However strange it may sound Nena could only guess that the bird wanted her to follow, but that was crazy, right? Birds didn't behave like that, it was not possible. Then again her family had just been cursed by a witch so who was she to say what was possible or not. Tired in both mind and body Nena didn't have the energy to debate the craziness of her actions and simply followed the bird as it kept leading her deeper into the forest.

After what seemed like hours for Nena the bird stopped suddenly, it chirped happily before taking off into the treetops and vanishing among the leafy crowns. "Hey, don't just take off, I don't know where I am," she called after the blue creature, only to snap her mouth shut when she realized she talked to a bird. Looking around in resignation wondering where in the world the strange bird had led her she caught sight of something out of place nearby. It was stairs leading up a steep hill, the stone was old and worn but it was definitely man made, Nena's heart leapt with equal amounts of joy and fear. It could just be an old remnant of past inhabitants but there was a possibility someone still lived here, and deep down a part of her hoped it was someone skilled with magic that had avoided the witch hunt even if it was a very slim chance. With a nervous heart pulsing in her ears Nena gathered her pale dress in one hand and started the long way up the stone stairs.

 

[Mowkie]

Tower of Lost Souls

Despite the morning light breaking through the thick branches of the winter-dormant trees, everything about the strange hill shouted a desire to remain lost and trapped within darkness and shadow. The worn steps, stone breaking into nothing more than pebbles in the thick, hardened soil, were covered with dust and debris, showing signs that no one had cared for them in possibly decades. And yet, something lingered within the stone, carved deep into it by the hands of one with magical properties. Runes and knotwork lined the outside, written in an ancient tongue that couldn't possibly be translated by anyone of this age - that was, anyone who was not a magic user. Upon the entrance of the woman in beige, these stone steps began to glow a strange golden color, and the feeling of fear and trepidation washed over her unwillingly. This was magic, and such that was still very much alive.

Though the blue bird had seemingly disappeared, there was a flash of colorful tail feathers leading up the stairs that wrapped around the hill as the trees seemed to reach towards the top. Though the stairs seemed unhappy that this woman was entering the land, the willingness of that little blue bird was more than enough to pull the woman forward. Upon her arrival at the top, she would see a single tower withering away just as terribly as the stone stairs she had just climbed. At first, the tower was dark and disturbed, but just like the stairs, each stone began to glow with a strange, golden light. Into the dark monument, the same runes were seemingly carved with a meticulous hand, each individual piece possessing a different shape or letter. Unlike the stairs, however, these did not wash the young princess with any sort of uncertainty. In fact, mere seconds after glowing with the ominous golden color, the runes grew into a shade of light, gentle blue, and the beautiful, saddened voice of a woman began to sing in the air around the tower. She sounded lonely and sad, as though she missed someone. Her voice cleared the darkness that shrouded the area as one final flash of those blue tail feathers stole the gaze of the young woman standing before what could only be home to a magic user before finally disappearing. The light of the sun shimmered across the dark stone, revealing no windows and only a single door, held deep within the bottom center of the tower, the dark wood heavy and worn.

But for the sad, beautiful voice that continued to sing across the hilltop, all remained silent. The door would creak upon the young woman's decision to enter, and only the light of the morning sun would shine into the room, casting a tall shadow across the dusty floor. But once more, the ominous feeling of trepidation crept across her spine. It would feel unnatural and unwilling, trying desperately to shove her away before she came any closer.

It was around this time that the voice of a seemingly young man boomed across the room, breaking the sad song that still rang in the air, as if frightening the lost soul into silence. "Why did you not heed my warnings, Princess?" He spat the final word out, as if the very thought of it brought him extreme disgust, his deep, almost melodic bass dripping with his contempt. "Are you daft? Or simply stupid? No one enters the Tower of Lost Souls!" From the circling stairwell before her, a cat yowled in the shadows, it's dark form showing itself with a single white spot on its paw before darting up the stairs to disappear onto the second floor.

As it did, another shadow came to rest upon the floor before the young princess, and the glowing eyes of a man came to settle upon her. The right eye was a beautiful golden color, tinged across the edges with the red of madness, as though doing everything to fight it away. The left eye, by contrast, was a shimmering blue of the open oceans, shadowed only by the obvious sorrow that simply could not be concealed. Across his ivory skin rested a dark cloak that reached the floor, the hood drawn enough to only reveal those strangely glowing eyes. "If you wish to burn me or my home, you are sadly mistaken to come alone." With this statement came the creaking of the tower, as if the building, itself, was ready to fight and die to save its inhabitants.

Perhaps the little blue bird was wrong to lead the princess here?​

Char Sheet

Name: Sefyros
Age: Appears no older than 21
Gender: Male
Station in Life: Powerful Sorcerer

((Hey, sorry for bouncing your character along...I had to go ahead and get all of that out so I could introduce him...you don't see this guy really wanting to go outside.))

 

[The Lady Avaritia]

((No, no! That's fine! It's often required in role playing to keep everything going, so it's all okay.))

This place had a strange hold on her, the bright blue bird entranced her and her steps were not her own. Her feet led her forward without instruction and as magic washed over, so did a fear unlike any she had ever known. Great waves of sorrow and despair wound around her heart, the magic itself was alive and beautiful clear. Whoever or whatever had cast that was in a pain she had no control of and her instincts demanded that she stop it, stop the pain she could feel in the powers that saturated this place. The stone stairs beneath her feet glowed a brilliant gold, a colour that was eerily juxtaposed against the malignant anger and sorrow that permeated the air around her.

The walls were carved in meticulously neat runes, each a semblance of power and beauty that seemingly had no connection with the caster of such dark spells. A monument stretched up above her and as she climbed the stairs, she saw the same runes along the sides that lit up with a soft, blue colour that invited her forward. As she pressed on, the eerie sound of a woman stretched from all around her. It rang across the hills and into the tower. Poignant and ethereal, full of sadness beyond comprehension and a loneliness that gave a story to the ruins around her. She sung of family gone and lovers passed, of ever empty days that stretched on and on forever. The wooden door before her was the only one to be seen but a sense of trepidation filled her very bones as she approached it, the very stones around her seem to hum with an immense power and she did not know who had such a power. It felt dark but she had felt evil magic before, felt it coil in her heart and threaten to crush it from the mere presence of a being so evil she had no words for it nor would she ever be able to explain such a thing.

The blue bird was gone, it's electric blue feathers no more shining in the darkness around her, even as the sunlight struggled to permeate the blackness of the inner tower, before a great booming voice shattered the haunting beauty of the woman with nothing left. A stranger, a man. A magic user, a sorcerer. His magic was heavy in the room and she could feel his disgust, his anger in the tone of his baritone voice that wound like acrid smoke in tower. She could only stand in fear, rooted to the spot by the eyes that pinned her there. She had only to listen now, stuck in her stance but she had to do this, had to help them. The image of her sister's face, growing colder and colder in the castle as she ran for help. The image of her father and her mother, dying little by litte as she stood in fear, doing nothing to help them in their plight. It gave her the tiniest measure of courage to combat her fear and as a very wise person once said, courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.*

Nena held her hands up, courage and desperation and fear mixing in a hard lump in her throat. "Please! I did not come here to burn you or your home! You must listen, please! They will die if you don't. Please, I know you don't care and you shouldn't. After everything my people have done to yours, you have a right to kill me and let that witch take over everything I love. My people were wrong but in whatever capacity you employ, do not make the same injustices we made." She paused, her pale green eyes still wide in desperation and red from her sorrows coming here. The tower was creaking all around her but still she kept her ground but she could feel her head spinning and her body trembling. Dark magic was swirling inside her, just along the edges of her mind and it was bordering on painful as it threatened to overthrow her mind.
​

 

[Mowkie]

Within the shadows, everything had begun to move. The walls, themselves, seemed to slither with unease, the flashes of brilliant scales in hues of green, gold, and red revealing themselves only when the shattered, hopeful rays of the sun stretched towards them and caught a glimpse. The stones of the monument sent dust flying, and the ground trembled slightly in anger. Whoever this man was, one thing was clear: he was extremely powerful.

In the instant between his words and those of the princess, however, his glowing eyes seemed to pause and focus on something different. Beside him, the flash of blue tail feathers appeared, and he seemed to listen to something the bird might have said or done. After all, when standing in the presence of a sorcerer, it was wise to believe anything was possible. His gaze seemed to soften, and for a brief moment, everything paused. Even a few notes once more began to sound from the lost, lonely soul that permeated through the air with ease.

But then her voice carried across the floor to him, and the saddened screech of a bird sounded from where the sorcerer had just been standing. But where could he be? A flash of shadow, and suddenly angry eyes glowered before the princess, the tall frame towering over her as he bellowed out his rage. "Injustice?! You call what you have done to my kind injustice?! What do you know of it, Princess?! You are nothing more than a child!" Once more, the walls began to move, and the floor began to tremble. But this time, it was different. The air of this magic was not that of evil. Perhaps it was of anger and hatred, but there was something even more tangible in the feel of it. Sorrow. A deep and looming sorrow filled the air like a thick cloud. One could not breathe without smelling and tasting it.

His eyes were still all that revealed themselves beneath the shadow of his cloak, though the blue seemed to shine brighter than the gold. He radiated cold air, as though touching his skin would freeze any who dared. The growls of creatures emanated from the walls, and once more a little black cat with a single white paw appeared, pulling its head from his cloak and hissing at her.

"Do you not realize how wrong it would be of me to help you?" His voice had darkened, falling from a roar to a simple, uttered growl. "For centuries, people born with the strength to wrestle the ambient forces of magic into submission have been slaughtered because of those who found us nothing more than demons. I have watched as my people were burned, murdered because of what they were born to do. And you expect me to help you out of the retaliation of one who could no longer reign in her anger?" A menacing laugh trickled from the shadows of his hood as the red tinging his right iris began to glow ominously. He knew exactly who had done this to her family, and he made that disturbingly clear. He was without humor, falling into the forces that held his anger and hatred.

But once more, there was a flash of brilliant blue feathers, and the body beneath the cloak seemed to grow rigid before the princess. The blue bird landed on his shoulder and chirped with a beautiful, almost familiar voice. The glowing of his eyes dimmed, and his shoulders slumped slightly, almost defeated. "Say nothing, girl, for it would seem I am obliged to help you."

His voice had grown soft and sorrowful, and as he spoke, the tower stilled almost completely. Turning away from the princess, the cloaked man began striding farther in. "If we are to get your people out of that state, there is a great deal we must do. Grant me time to gather the necessary things I require, then meet me outside by the stairs." All that was granted to the young woman after those words of finality was a happy chirp from the little blue bird before the man disappeared into the darkness of his abode.

((Oy, this be hard without giving any backstory! I MUST CHALLENGE MYSELF! *determined face*

OH! Lemme know of that font color I'm using for his dialogue is too dark. I like to color all dialogue so everyone knows just where the story is going. Speech is key!))​

 

[The Lady Avaritia]

The very walls shook, dust spiralling through the air like the ashes of a people she had never known nor ever would. A people her own family had destroyed, most probably the family of this man before her. Even everyone he had ever known, she was inextricably responsible for their deaths. She had not called the order, nor held the knife or lit the flames. She had not taken a physical part in the genocide of his people. But she was pure human. She was a normal person, a part of a species that had unleashed unspeakable horrors onto his people. There was a power in the air, terrifying and beyond anything she had ever known. It scared her to the bone, cut deep into her. He was towering above her, one eye red like blood, flushed with maddened rage and she could only stumble back, throwing her hands up. She sheltered her head but she could not fend off whatever attack he would throw at her.

"You're right! I'm only a child!" The darkness was shifting and the shadows moved all around her, power roiling in it's simplest form: archaic and uncontrollably malevolent. "I know nothing but I cannot do nothing while my parents waste away." But now a haunting strain of sorrow had entered into the magic in the room, even as it stormed and raged on around her. There was a deepness of emotion under the ocean of anger, like a hidden well of old feelings stored for so long, bubbling up and into the air like a spring of old regret and bitterness.

This time, when he looked at her, the blue shone brightly and the gold had retreated, leaving his face in shadow. His voice was dark and his words rushed over her with the force of a gale, though they were merely growled at her. Even juxtaposed against the roar of his earlier statement, such a low and menacing voice was less than desirable. "I know it is wrong! But what she has done is wrong as well! Hatred only begets hatred, a cycle of death will begin if I cannot save them! We started all of this, every child without a mother or family or home to belong in. It is all our fault. I never knew of this, I could not stop it. I cannot fault you if you deny me but perhaps-"

A brilliant azure flashed filled the room, cutting her off and she gasped at the sight of the bird, a very familiar being in this dark place. The phoenix like bird alighted on the shoulder of the man who towered above her and it seems to cut something in the air like a knife, the hidden tension and sent a frisson of something through his entire being. His entire stature softened now, sorrow permeating his being and as his shoulders fell, it was as if he had been defeated. "Y-You... you will? Why- Hey, don't... leave me here?"

Her word fell on unseen ears and she stood back up, dusting off her back and she waited outside the stairs. Without the fear and gloom, the towers was a magnificent structure. Indeed the entire area was, as she clutched tightly to her hastily packed belongings and gazed over the remains of a long ruined city whose name had fallen into the cracks of time.


(Sorry it's so short and yes, the font is fine! Is mine okay?
Oh, do you need to discuss a backstory we can use? We could do it over PM? )


​

 

[Mowkie]

It was mere moments before the shadowed form came striding from behind the tower, two horses following him of their own free will. Both were bare of saddle and bridle, their intelligent eyes looking out towards the woman who now stood in wonderment at what remained of what might have been a city from very long ago. One, a chestnut mare with a solid white face and shimmering blue eyes, trotted ahead and came to stand beside Nina with a nicker in greeting. The other, a tall, headstrong friesian stallion, stayed behind, keeping his dark, weary gaze locked on her, as suspicious as his master. The ruins, themselves, seemed to darken at the presence of the strange figure approaching, as though his anger and despair have long since influenced the very soul of the place. And yet, there still remained a few struggling fingers of sunlight and the voice of a beautiful woman.

Upon his full approach, the figure finally let down his hood, revealing long, dark hair tied back into a loose, rugged tail, ivory skin, and strange, glowering eyes. He did not smile or frown. In fact, his face seemed almost derived of emotion. Unlike his face, however, his voice still showed the amount of contempt and weary suspicion. "If we are to travel together, it is a must that we learn our names, should something happen. I am Sefyros, Summoner and Friend to all those wild and mystic. The mare who has greeted you is Sukari, and this," he gestured to the stallion beside him, "is Nazir. They have agreed to carry us, but they musn't be bound by human means. No saddles, and no bridles. I will tell them where to go. Think you can handle that, Princess?"

The little blue bird appeared then, dropping from the skies with a happy chirp to playfully grab at Nina's hair before landing atop Nazir's head. The horse, huffing in irritation, shook it to no avail. "Mara, here, would also like to come with us. She seems to have a very special liking of you." With introductions out of the way, Sefyros mounted Nazir, a pack full of necessities, and looked at Nina expectently. "So, to the castle, then?"

[spoili]
Nazir

Sukari

[/spoili]

((My sincerest apologies for being absent so long...one of my ferrets died of cancer, and her bunkmate has been taking it pretty hard. Add that to the husband coming home in six days, and I have my hands pretty full. I should be able to get into the swing of things....and now that I'm not shrouding everything in full mystery, my posts should start to see a little improvement...this is just not my month, it seems. Also, your font is just fine.))​