Viridos, Chapter 2

[Meister Thricehaven]

Gong Yu walked up the steps from the bowls of the Silver Shadow. The unhindered breeze blew his simple, sweat-stained clothes; his necklace beat against his chest. He breathed in the fine, fresh and salty air of the sea. "Ahhh..." came the satisfied call, "I have been in that dank kitchen for far too long."

Yu looked at his surroundings and found himself a disoriented. He saw the damage and wear and tear from a hard three days journey and battles. Gong hung his head in dismay as he realized what he had missed; That damned timberhorn, he keeps me far to occupied in wanting me to teach him Illusion Magic and Xingyiquan. He turned back and yelled down the stairs, "Timberhorn, you sniveling rat, you have kept me busy with training you since the beginning of this voyage! Just because you can't fight, does not mean that I couldn't have been some help up here."

Gong Yu did not, or maybe could not, hear the reply from Timberhorn, if there was any from the young cook. But that was all well and good. The fact that a younger generation was willing to learn not one but two ancient techniques from an old man like Yu, was enough to put a grin on his face. He slammed down his Qing Long Da Dao, the spear head sinking a bit into the ship's deck, and he laughed hardily. "Now to figure out what the hell is going on here." The only thing that really worried him was how much trouble he was going to get into for not being on deck to help out; Oh man, I am going to get it this time.

 

[Requiem]

Requiem The Pirate and Ozzimus Lorado, darkred

A while after he'd laid down, the ship was in motion. They'd finished their job. Ironblood was off the ship. Requiem considered sleeping, but he couldn't bring himself to.What had been done to the healer still weighed heavily on his mind. She had been under his protection, and still she had been abused. That told him one very important thing. His name wasn't nearly as respected as it should have been. Of course, a reputation was the most important thing a good pirate really had.

He didn't have a choice in the matter. Requiem got up and wandered about the ship searching for the Captain, or he would have if the Deck hadn't been the first place he started at. The captain seemed to be half mad and half embarrassed at the same time. "Oi! Ozzimus, get your ass over here!" Requiem shouted across the deck, his voice tinged with pride and irritation.

Ozzimus scoffed, turning to see the rival Captain calling him. "What do you want Requiem?" He replied as he approached. He was still flushed from chasing the rat around the ship, well, as flushed as a half-nocturne could be.

"You have insulted me, Captain. I sent the girl with my protection. Now imagine my surprise when I get down there and find her in the state she's in." Requiem retorted. His voice was polite, but steadily growing in venom. "So here's the deal. You don't respect my name, so I'm going to make you. I challenge you to a Captain's Duel. No magick, no advents."

Ozzimus crossed his arms with irritation. He looked to the left into the water, thinking. Looked to the right, past the head of an avian securing the riggings and tightening the noose.

"If I gave a damn about your reputation Malachi I sure as hell don't now." He spoke with a mute expression upon his visage. His arms fell to his sides and he drew his sword slowly. The blue-ish tint of it's blade flashing off the scant lamplight.

"No Magic. No Advents." He repeated, stepping back with his right foot, his sword hanging at the ready from his hand in front of him.

Requiem shook his head "You know... Malachi's the Con Man, you're dealing with Requiem the Pirate." He remarked, reaching into his jacket and pulling out his deck of cards. "CLEAR THE DECK!" He shouted above the noise around them. The crew, seeing what was about to happen, tied off lines, and scattered. They knew better than to get in the way of a Captain's duel.

"Alright, Ozz, let's have some fun." He said coldly, scattering the deck of metallic cards across the ship's deck. He quickly pulled the length of razor wire from around his waist and shifted forward quickly, kicking a card at Ozzimus. It wasn't a good attack, but it was distracting. It'd give him an opening for the secondary attack. The razor wire was weighted at one end with a spiked ball that he rocketed at the target. It would come in a second after the card, aimed at Ozzimus' shoulder. He wanted to weaken the opposing Captain first. He wanted to humiliate him. It'd leave a hole, in his shoulder, but no lasting damage.

Ozzimus didn't bother dodging the card, streaking a line of red across his face as it slashed his flesh there. He flinched but an iota as he brought his sword up, his stance firm to parry the attack.

"Garrotte wire and metal cards? What a strange way to fight, MALACHI." He said, the slightest touch of malice in his voice. The trickle of blood down his cheek invigorated him. His cloak fanning out about him while he changed his footing, aiming to catch the wire around his blade and use the force of Malachi's attack to pull him closer.

The wire caught around the blade and Ozzimus gave it a sharp pull, pulling Requiem forward. Requiem responded in kind by following the flow. A little acrobatics went a long way in a fight for someone like him. Requiem moved to the side as he suddenly burst forward, kicking off the railing leaping over Ozzimus and aiming a kick at his back that would send him careening into the scattered cards.

With his wide stance, Ozzimus received the blow like a boulder, sliding on the wood of the deck only half a pace. The blow putting a sore spot on his spine as he turned around, out of habit swinging his blade in a wide arch and nicking the bottom of Requiem's shoe, but barely. He felt the blade slick through a dram of leather before it crossed his body, stuck at the ready for a strong thrust, or a weak parry.

Blade through leather, he was surprised. Ozzimus was a bit faster than he'd anticipated. He couldn't just rely on out-speeding his opponent. He still had the advantage of his unusual weapon style though. Suddenly his opponent's blade came at his head. Requiem shifted, taking a cut across the side of his neck. He retaliated by twisting the wire around the blade and gave it a hard tug.

Ozzimus had a strong hold of his blade, but mid-swing and unprepared there wasn't much he could do to keep hold of if. The blade let loose and sailed across the deck, pinning against the Main mast too high up to reach easily.

Ozzimus followed through with the added momentum of the blade jerking out, barrelling towards requiem with all his weight.

The full brunt of the force of the larger demi-nocturne hitting him knocked him back hard. The air forcibly removed from his lungs left Requiem stunned temporarily, but he couldn't stop. He shook himself back, grabbing a small handful of cards throwing them in a flash of bright reflective steel. He used the distraction to chase the lodged blade. It wasn't a weapon he felt comfortable using, but he'd be a lot safer if it was over the ship's side.

The cards sliced across Ozzimus' plane of vision and he forced himself to fall back harshly on his back as they flew over his head. He growled as he stood up and launched to the side-rail, running across it's length towards Requiem.

Requiem quickly covered the length between him and the embedded blade. He wasn't as big as Ozzimus, and he lacked the brute force, but he was still faster than him. He used a bit of nocturne agility to run up the mast to the point of the blade and gave it a sharp pull, yanking it out of the wood, and then launching it over the edge like a boomerang that wouldn't be returning. "There, that should even the playing board." He said smiling at the oncoming enemy.

Again Ozzimus barrelled towards Requiem, drawing out a heavy-brass side-gauche and angling the blade in his hand backwards. He sliced at a rope on the edge and hauled upwards at Requiem, the main masts pulley falling downwards as he flew through he air at his opponent.

As his support dropped out from underneath him, Requiem dropped with it. It wasn't a far drop, and as he fell, he caught Ozzimus sailing through the air towards him. Thinking quickly, he reached out and caught one of the hanging ropes of the rigging that were along the main mast, burning his hands in the process of his slowed descent.

 

[Asmodeus]

​

"The Seventh Wing is clear."

"Follow the Riven Guard. Elder Nardunil will receive you. We'll meet again."

The embrace was brief. One Avian lifted into the winged exodus. Another remained on the tilting rocks. She braced as the seventh wing exploded and geomantic forces sent a town section spinning off into the clouds. It barreled north and flung rocks and dwellings to the borders of Edelon.

"Mirandar! Go! Now!" She stalked through the rotating landscape, crossing breaches torn through buildings. She was waving at another group, where gryphons and pegasi tugged at their reigns. "Get the elders clear!" The gesture was returned, and with a great surge the beasts took flight and carried the frailer Avians from the carnage. Her own father went with them, with the briefest wave before he clung on for dear life.

The ground erupted. A clocktower smashed through the surface and rocketed skyward. She was knocked on her back, with gashes cut from chin to earlobe.

"Valkyrie!" A pair of guardsmen hauled her up. "This way!"

The trio fled into a plaza then dropped together as the windows shattered. Torn by opposing gravitational forces, stainglass shards flew in all directions. She kept her wings up and suffered the slicing barrage. It lasted a moment before the ground tilted the other way.

"We completed the divination, Valkyrie," gasped one of her saviours. "No trace of the Alate. It's beyond the Geomantle."

She crawled past them and gripped the edge of a massive chasm torn in the plaza. She peered over, into burning clouds and smoke plumes. The outer branches of the Riven Tree lay below and were coiling like worms, sprouting new buds, interlocking and flowering. The Architects had communed their magic. It was a small mercy.

She rolled on her back and gasped for air, looking to her companions. "Get clear. Join the Fourth Wing at Hosia. Go!"

"Blessed Legacy, Valkyrie." With custom's parting, the two dropped through the hole and left her behind. She spun to her feet as a boulder came smashing through the plaza. Spreading her wings, the Avian officer took flight through the ruptured ceiling, and spiralled out into a world of chaos. Debris and church spires spun around her, colliding in mutual destruction. She ducked and twisted through the firestorms, motioning left and right to the flocks of departing Avians. Up ahead, the Palace of the First Choir shuddered with magic, its outline blurred by the discharge of shield enchantments. It was holding, a solid centre as the bedrock at the city's edge fired off in all directions.

She landed mid-air on a spinning statue and rode it through the gauntlet, crashing with it through the window of the gate house. The landing was a whirl of feather and rock dust. Her armour held. She ended on her back, exhausted and injured. Only adrenaline kept her conscious. She would catch her breath, then use the guard hall to cross the palace grounds.

A crude poster dropped from the wall of the guardhouse and landed over her face. A topless sketch of some Avian floozy.

She tossed it away and hauled herself to her feet once more.

 

[Cerulean]

"Well not everyone here can talk to fish, you little hooded bastard."

He scoffed at the little one and moves to help the crew remove the ships from one another. It was mostly him moving things, as he didn't necessarily have the seafaring knowledge, but the extra muscle was certainly welcome. The blacksmith was working hard before Kon ended up getting the catch of his entire life. It sent Khanaan barreling into the side of the deck, head-first. When it became apparent that there were more holes he had to fix, due to his horns impaling the wood, a frustrated whine escaped his lips.

"Oh, BULLSHIT!"

-----------------------------------------------

It was only after a good yank and a decent rest, after an incredible headache, that Khanaan was able to gather what he could and get the hell off of the ship. He gave quick goodbyes to Sev and Kon, before making a swift exit. Hopefully, he would be able to see them soon. The sea was great to experience but now it was time to get back to the forge that calls his name.

However, first thing was first. The dock was certainly a lot more crowded that usual for this time of day.

"Aviary..."

The sight was not something that he was prepared to see. Khanaan looked down from the dark clouds to see Sprig shrinking into his cloak. He stepped forward and put his hand on the little one's shoulder. The blacksmith just looked at the fallen city, in dread and horror. It was terrible, and was just another thing his beloved Viridos would have to get past and fix. Clearly, the being who blessed this country knew that we would need it.

"I am sorry, Little one."

 

[ChojiYume]

Buhn lead the struggle against time as she tried her hardest to save all that was in the canopy. Even novices were working on this project, because they needed as many people on the job as possible. Nerves were tight with everyone as the thundering sounds of the crashing Aviary beat against their ears. But Buhn and Maiin watched as the lattice work slowly came together. It was a fine lattice, almost like making a cloth, but well worth the effort. the smaller the holes the stronger the dome will be. Buhn helped as much as she could. Asking the Riven tree to save its self from it's impending doom, she was almost surprised by the response of the tree.

It groaned, and shook, taking her by surprise, she had never gotten such a response before, surely it was one of the elders, but they were all looking at her. "Do you see what can happen when you change how you ask things Buhn? Do you see what we have been trying to teach you all of this time?" The sound of how proud Dilche was rang true within her. She realized it really had been her doing. She jumped when a large root shot up from below. Not one of the bigger roots but still large enough. Her eyes widened. "I'm not doing that. The tree, it want's to live. Riven tree want's to survive. It want's to protect us." She looked in awe of the Veteran Architects around her, she knew the tree was not moving on its own, they were helping it. She could feel the strain on her mental and physical bodies.

The Architects looked at her. The tree's branches were moving faster, specks of light falling into their work area's. She looked back at them. "Buhn has learned today of the power she truely has. That even as a half kin she can have an effect. The tree is answering our call, let us strengthen our plea's and strengthen the Riven Tree." Nardunil's words made her feel empowered as a roar of what sounded like triumph rumbled across the Veteran Architects. The group broke off and rushed back to work. She smiled a bit to herself as she worked her way towards the hive.

Everyone there was in an organized panic, trying to save what they can when she got there, she shook her head and stopped most of them as she walked by, she was exuding confidence. She knew they could do this. She asked the tree again to protect its self, and this time, she felt the others ask the same, the vibrations from the tree's movement were gigantic, but she stood firm. She heard a crack come from where the debris was falling and she wondered what it was. But she had no time to worry about it. She sweat as she put energy into the trees wood, helping it to grow how she wanted it to. She prayed that this would work as the last tendrils of the branches wrapped together over the hive.

She poured all her love into the last little adjustments as her knee's gave out under her. She was exhausted. She almost felt like she was going to pass out. But she had to keep awake, she could not just stand there. More crashing and cracking came. Before each crack, the tree would shudder and moan. This puzzled Buhn, why would it do that? She ran back out of the hive to see if she could find Nardunil. She did find him deep in contemplation, and concentration. "Am I hearing things Nardunil? Or does it sound like the tree is swatting away the debris on it's own accord?" Buhn wasn't sure if she liked the idea, it would mean the Riven tree was soaking up a lot of energy from somewhere. "I believe the tree does defend its self Buhn. Breathing in the life force of those around it without killing them. Calling upon other's power to protect all within its branches."

She only prayed that the dome would hold off the large pieces well enough that the tree didn't have to uproot its self. She looked up to the dome, and collapsed.

 

[DotCom]

The Aviary -- The Architect's Workshop, navy

The screams had faded to whimpers and smoke, and for that, he was glad.

He worked by the light of his own invention, a small candle sealed within a glass cylinder whose orange flame consumed heat instead of oxygen. It ensured nothing so dire as what had occurred in his first workshop would ever happen again. Half his scribbled notes were still scorched from that particular incident.

The flickering light illuminated a score of those half charred papers now, as well as a graying head spackled with droplets of sweat, and a cloying cloud of dust mites falling from the ceiling as his veritable bunker laughed at the chaos outside.

The sky was falling.

Or, more appropriately, they were all of them falling out of it.

Eli had to chuckle.

On some level, he suppose he could understand their alarm. A people so used to things falling into outstretched hands and pampered laps were not so inclined to handle well the occurrence of things falling away. And they had never been a people prone to rational to begin with.

But he had told them this would happen.

Sadly, they were also not inclined to listen to him overmuch. Even his own family -- or what remained of it -- deemed him mad.

"Perhaps," he tutted aloud, pausing to cough as thickening curtains of dust battled their way through the thick whiskers about his mouth. "But only the mad know genius from insanity." There was a long, cloying pause. Something erupted outside. No screams followed. He gave a small, happy sign of content.

"Or something like that."

It was true the Viridosi Avians had once lauded his as the greatest mind their kind had ever known.

"Including," the balding inventor chirped, "those stuff-shirted stiff types up north."

Pegulis had long since down away with the Aviary, casting out the freer thinkers who had moved to freer climes. And it was Eli who had brought them here, above the green-skinned plant-worshipers below, where they had always been. His greatest invention had been nearly a year's work, and yet it's protection had been wanting, and when he tried to tell them, they'd dismissed him first as paranoid, then mad.

And now their precious city fell from the sky.

Eli tittered to himself again, combing gnarled fingers through tangled hanks of gray.


On this desk, deeply scored with marks of fire, poison, and worse, sat an ornate box, a gift to a daughter who had long since broken his heart. She had never been one to fly with the flock, even here.

That was how he knew she would be the first to return.

The others had left him to his work after hours of begging, trying to remove him with the city's elders -- as if he belonged with that bunch of decrepit fools. And so, since at last the city had fled, it seemed only fitting she return.

He opened the box, placed a new gift within, and set it at the precise center of the desk, trusting neither box nor desk to move. It was the other reason he had buried his workshop so deep. The closer you were to the center of the mass, the less you suffered when your mistakes came back to haunt you.

Eli giggled for a third time.

"Or something like that."

His task done, he stood, grimacing as he felt his vertebrae groan and pop all the way down his spine. Mottled gray wings brushed the floor, trailing dust and feathers in their wake.

Eli stared down at his feet, frowning as if deep in thought and shook his head, teetering to yet another locked door -- the man was fond of his privacy, and rightly so -- to pull something from its mildewy depths.

A broom.

He turned and began to sweep, humming gently to himself as his world tipped to and fro.

His workshop was a mess, and it would not do to have anyone see it this way when they came back.

Hot tea, he knew, was a beverage best enjoyed smugly.

 

[Bahiyya]

Sevoret Umilas

The port of Hosia was just in their sights. The Sea Wraith was beaten and battered, yet it still made it back to the Viridos Sevoret knew and loved, bless the ship's rudder. However, a turbulence was being ensued due to the fact that something was very well beneath the wrecked Viridosi navy ship that so desperately needed renovation. At this point Sevoret was quite unsure that she could take much more. And this also went for the severely injured members of the ship.

Quite unexpectedly, Sevoret yelped out. The ship had been jerked violently, causing the bow that she draped on her shoulder, her arm between the wood and string, to fall from her. The canister of arrows she had also dropped, rolling to the deck railing. Sevoret soon followed, being rolled in the same direction. Her back made contact with the railing first, and she released a stressed groan. The daggers that rested in the holsters wrapped on her thighs could have considerably pierced her skin, had the blades not been covered by the sheaths.

Sevoret saw that nearly all had taken the same fall, the injured included. She knew that some were on their last breaths and the rock of the ship just may have sent them over the edge of death.

After the ship got steady once again, it docked. However, it took her a minute to regain some strength to get to her feet. And, when she did, she attempted in catching her breath and she gathered her belongings once again. Khanaan had bid she and the hobbler goodbye before scurrying off the ship.

She solemnly followed, however she did not get far before the sight that met her eyes brought her to a stop. Hosia was in shambles. Pathways were destroyed, cries of terror were everywhere. Viridos was crying in sorrow due to such destruction.

And Sevoret stood there, beginning to shed a few tears.

 

[Tegan]

The sheer magnitude of it had fused all of the sand into glass. The shards shattered and cut her feet as she combed the beach. Hundreds of black silhouettes were burned into the glass-sands, posed in states of flight or resignation. A shadow play of gods playing God just a little too rough. On the blackened horizon, titans raged. The tide swelled with each tsunami triggered by their massive corpses sinking into the crimson sea.

The blood waters gushed across the beach, almost masking the ear-shattering wails. By some miracle or horror an infant had survived. She regarded it with passing interest. One of the kin, judging by his cloven feet and green skin. He lay swaddled atop one of the burned out shadows, a feminine form, hunched over to shield what she held in her arms.

The babe shrieked as the waters rose around it and She moved on from it.

Then returned.

Καιρός





Ilium

(Walking backwards through the perfect darkness. There is no other sound in this place. She is the only source of light.)

My eldest...

Kairos

(Follows her through the darkness, disrobed and erect. It does not matter how fast or slow his pace, he can never match her teasing distance.)



Ilium

You search the sky. There is only death above.

Kairos

(Follows Ilium as she walks backwards. Slowly, he begins to sink into the darkness below him.)

Ilium

Look underground

(Stops.)

Commune with the Architects of the North.

Kairos

(Sinks into the dark like quicksand. He still reaches for her as he disappears into the black.)










End of Chapter 2​