NationStates Jolt Archive

It seems that the world evaporates before my very eyes. One by one drops of crimson fall from her fingertips and land in a deep puddle of abyss, while her breath softly flows out of her sultry red lips.

Infinite fury and infinite desolation.

Infinite pleasure.

I am.

Hell.

In the dead of the night, a shrill cry broke free and then to be engulfed by the silence.

Another taken, wasted energy, wasted time. Another life gone just as soon as it had arrived into this place called Home.

A home she called hell.

I have got to get away. Away.

So damn selfish, but it hurts too much.


A golden bronze hand reached out, as to touch the orange blazing sun, a hope escaped her mind and she fell to the floor.

She felt like a raindrop, scattered everywhere and never to flow as one again.

The dust floated up and caked her eyes and she stopped blinking.

Into the abyss.

Before her sight a human heart floated in the darkness, the heart burst with flames and the blood flowed out like lava.

What does it mean?

Her eyes watered and hurt as she felt each little sand grain scratch the lens of her eye.

Her fingers rubbed feverously to get the dirt out. She grabbed her water canteen that lay next to her on the desert floor and poured the cool liquid over her forehead to cleanse her eyes.

After several attempts she was able to see once again, although the vision of the burning heart still vivid before her eyes.

She attached the canteen onto the loop of her belt. She looked all around her. North. South. East. And west. All she could see for miles was the red baked clay and dust that rise up to meet the horizon and the sky that glared down at her. She could spot several cactuses in the far distance. She would at least be able to access fresh water from them.

She rolled her head and rubbed at her neck. It seemed like years she had been traveling the Desert of The Dead, nice name, right. Although, she was only started her journey a week ago today.

A journey to find her younger brother’s killer.

But no one would ever imagine the horrors she witnessed, nor could they read any of her expressions. She looked like a bounty hunter, although she was nothing of the sort.

She dressed a bit different then most people, but this suited her fine. She wore leather a few shades darker than her sun exposed skin, the leather was fit to her body. She wore leather pants with leather boots to match. The boots went up to her mid-thigh and kept many secrets in them. She wore a leather vest that bared her flat stomach. Her arms were exposed, but her muscle glistened under the sun. She wore her black hair down, cascading down her shoulders. Around her left shoulder and resting on her right hip was a leather sack that contained her necessities.

Her brother much younger than her, but resembled her with masculine features and toddler characteristics. Her brother Akin was only four.

Four years.

The back of her hand wiped across her forehead and the perspiration dripped off her hand. She wiped it on her skirt and began to tread onward.

OOC: I am not sure where I want to go with this. I am open to whatever. This will close eventually depending on if someone want to join in or not. Thank you.

She opened her eyes, infinite black. Frosted eyelashes leisurely blinked. It took a split second for her eyes to adjust to the thick darkness around her. At the tips of her toes rested a cat, color matching the middle of the night, purring as her master stirred.

Those dreams are so vivid.

She stretched as would a cat do. Her spine flexed and her muscles twitched with anticipation.

Her smile showed sweetness, while her eyes flashed chaos.

“Well, Noir. I see you brought me your prize.” Her eyes flashed as she say the rat, stiff at her cat’s paws. The rat’s white fur blinding against the black of the night.

She caressed the cat’s head and a pink tongue stuck out. The cat purred loudly.

The cat always gets its prize.

“Noir I always get my prize.” The words rolled over her tongue out of her sultry crimson lips.

Moments later she was out of her bed and standing in the middle of the room. Her pale ivory skin stood out. Her body almost perfectly sculptured piece of art. Her curves voluptuous and yet starving for more.

She bent down, with her back straight and her right leg bent so that her knee grazed the marble floor. She grabbed her black robe and slipped it over her shoulders and tied the belt around her waist.

She did not feel it necessary to wear clothing, but most of society would disagree with her, along with the elements outside.

The weather had never affected her, fire nor could ice taint her.

The robe transparent black cascaded behind her as she walked the long dark lonely corridor.

I love the eerie silent of the night.

Her bare feet softly padded along the path. She moved swiftly and soon she found her way outside her manor. Her home is secluded in the dense forests of her homeland, Theodra and perched upon a hill to scan the land near and far. She walked, a well beaten path, deeper in the forest. Twigs broke underneath her feet and she heard rustling behind her. She was not too worried, there were many creatures in the night and none seemed to bother her.

The many different species that inhabited her territory had grown accustomed to her many visits to a hidden pond, several miles from her home.

She had captured many of the species that lived there. Creatures ranging from the adorable puffel, an endangered flightless bird crossed with a rabbit to the horrifying rickta, a creature located in Ziana vortex that appears like a small green mouse, but can expand to the size of an Earth’s elephant.

She looked behind her shoulder and saw a pair of eyes flash in the distance.

She continued on her way and approached the pond.

She knelt next to the pond’s end; the water trying creep closer to her.

The pond looked like clear wax flowing over the grains of sand. Although, there were small ripples on the surface of the pond, she could see her reflection. Her eyes an infinite abyss stared at the pale complexion. A breeze began to play and tease her dark charcoal hair and strands flowed before her eyes. Her hand moved out of habit to place behind her ears.

“I see you come again for the second time tonight.”

She glanced up to see a magnificent lion lapping at the water. Crystalline water dripped from his mouth.
“Jaffar, always a pleasure to see you.”

“I know, but you are here again.”

She glared malevolently, “So if I am here again that has nothing to do with you. This is my land you live on and hunt on. You would be a malnourished cat if I didn’t bring her here.”

The lion only nodded to her and bent his head down, with his pink tongue lapping up more water. He finished after several gulps of water and slowly padded off, he knew her mood was rotten and not to press her.

It is my second time here tonight, but I had that dream again. This pond gives me serenity.

She closed her eyes and rested her fingertips in the cool liquid.

Moira Amara Ebediyet was born ions ago. Her father a Turkish King and mother a Greek oracle. There love was forbidden and her mother hid her pregnancy from the others. Once she was born she lived with her father. They told the public that it was one of the king’s many concubines’ children and the mother died in childbirth. This was common for many women during this time had difficult pregnancies and either the child was lost or the mother.

No one questioned her name, which was both Turkish and Greek. Moira’s Greek meaning is goddess of fate, Amara’s Greek meaning is eternally beautiful, and Ebediyet’s Turkish meaning is eternity. Her mother named her, following a vision she had after the labor. She now looks so much like her mother, Melantha (a dark flower) and her father would always call her that when she was a young. Her father was heart broken that he could not be with his love, but cared for Moira just as he would if Melantha was with him next to his side. Moira, from a young age knew her father’s true feelings of loss and deception. His father craved for Melantha, but through Moira. Later, she would turn her back away from him and exile herself. It was a lonely life, but she had chosen it.

Now she tried to push it out of her mind and forget about it. But lately these strange dreams haunt her.

Her thick black lashed lowered and spread a shadow down her cheeks. She rested her fingertips into the pond and ripples circled around them and outward to the other edges of the pond.

Her eyes flashed ferociously.

I need to rid these horrible dreams. They just cloud my mind and my plans are hindered.

“Jaffar?”

The lion appeared once again and thumped on a grassy patch next to the pond.

“Have you heard of the Desert of the Dead?”

He yawned and then licked at his front razor teeth.

“Yes.”

“Well, tell me how to get there.”

He raised his right large paw and licked between his toes.

“It has been so long.”

“Stop with the antics Jaffar,” her voice chilly, “how do I get there? I will not ask again.”

A soft purr cut through the long thick silence. “It is a long journey. You will need a guide.”

“I travel alone.”

“Not this time. I go with you.”

She nodded. “I will be back when the moon is in the center of the sky.”

He rolled over in the grassy knoll and closed his eyes.

She made her way to the Ebediyet Manor. She did not pack anything. She needed nothing. Although, she did grab some items out of her wardrobe, and slipped on a one piece outfit. The outfit fit her body as a second skin. It dipped down in the front and subtly shows her round breasts and her tone abdomen. Adorning her navel is a small rare silver crystal that contains a dark cloud of matter. Both sleeves wrap around her middle finger and her pant legs go down to her ankles, although, her knee thigh leather boot hide her ankles and feet. As she excited the room she grabbed her precious katana that her mother had received from her father. She swung the strap around her shoulder.

She felt her mother’s rage whenever she touched the sword. Her mother’s anger flowed through Amara and her eyes flashed.

Moments later she found Jaffar still napping. She stood there for several minutes.

She slide her sword out of the sheath without a sound and placed it at the lion’s thick mass of his mane. She placed it back into the protective black wood sheath.

“You are lucky I did not kill you.”

“I knew you were here. I know that you would find no pleasure without a fight.”

Jaffar looked at the moon and let out a fierce growl. Several near by birds took flight into the sky letting out shrill cries.

“Are you done? Let’s go.”

“I am your guide; I can choose to not help you.”

“I can choose to make you into a fur coat.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why bother. You wouldn’t even wear me.”

She laughed and just as soon as the foreign sound escaped her lips, her face returned to her normal look of mystery.

“I will never understand you Moira Amara.”

“Nor should you and don’t call me that.”

They did not speak for some time. They just slowly made their way through the dense forest. Hours later the dark retrieved and dawn approaching and they were getting closer and closer to the desert and away from the safety of the trees. In the desert there is not protection, yet she did not worry.

The Marw Dyns Coffr floated silently through space. The ship didn’t look to be in too good shape, the scars of battle were very much evident. In Draconis Nightcrawlis its crew were known as pirates. They were a small bunch led by one Captain Darkholme, a tall dark-haired and bearded man dressed in an old Draconian military uniform. It too was not in good shape and showed the scars of battle.

“Ah new space,” he said and inhaled deeply. “Mmm taste that air, or lack of.”

“Yes Captain,” the navigator sighed.

Known only as Wisdom, the navigator was a short thin man with mousy brown hair and a shirt might have been white once upon a time.

“Ah you wouldn’t know it,” the captain grinned. “Only a true man of space can sense these miniscule differences.”

Empty space, there was nothing out there save for the stars. Behind them however was a planet, a desert planet. Captain Darkholme had been aiming to bring them to it.

“They will be looking for us,” another of his crew stated.

A longhaired female was at the engineering controls. Her hair was dark green in colour and her eyes were yellow. Such colours were not odd for a Draconian.

“That’s what this planet is for, to hide out in,” the captain explained.

The crew stared out at the space in front of them.

“What planet?” they asked in unison.

Captain Darkholme chuckled. “The planet behind us.”

The crew groaned, the captain was being odd again.

Before long they had descended upon the desert planet, the landing was pretty rough as it always was. Captain Darkholme was quick to venture out. Taking out his computer he checked for signs of life, it failed to find even their own.

“Interesting.”

“We… are hiding here?” the engineer asked.

There was nothing, just desert for as far as the eye could see.

“Of course they would not think to look for us here, not in a desert like this,” Captain Darkholme replied. “There is no one out here but us and so they will pass us by if they were to check this planet.”

The captain let out a chuckle.

“But of course they are not going to come to this planet Eleanor.”

The engineer, Eleanor just groaned. There was of course other things that may just happen like starvation, who knew how long the captain would decided to stay here.

“Oh don’t worry yourself Eleanor, we have plenty of supplies.”

The sun beat down on her, but the intense heat from the sun’s rays did not seem to impinge on her, nor did her complexion darken. She looked up at the bright burning star and saw faint images of vultures circling in the distance.

A smile flickered over her face, but dimmed quickly.

They are no humans out here. Who would want to travel through this place, although it was the quickest route to get the Marsh Meadows?

She felt a sensation in her ears, something similar to ringing and tingling.

A ship approaches, from where and to where and why here?

Maybe they are lost? Do I have time to play?

She looked several meters ahead of her and called out to Jaffar.

“I know my dear, a ship approaches.”

She merely nodded. How does he seem to sense them also?

Jaffar was definitely not the typical lion.

She had found him scavenging near her tranquil pond. He was not alarmed by her in fact he was waiting for her to come find him, for reasons unknown to her.

Somehow he knew her and he felt familiar to her, but she could not place how.

He had an aura sounding him that all creatures near and far respected him. She supposed because he could communicate with all, but there is always more than what appears to the eye. Even she could not figure him out either.

She closed her eyes and let her black clothes absorb the sun’s light and she focused her energy and released it into the atmosphere so that the ship’s crew, if there are any, would seem the light flash and maybe go towards her.

She was ready for anything.

“Watch what you are doing!” Eleanor yelled at the captain.

Captain Darkholme stopped almost immediately and gave her an almost blank stare.

“Captain if you carry on like that we’ll have no life support and in which case we would boil within the ship in minutes.”

The captain raised an eyebrow and looked out at the desert.

“Fair point,” he replied.

A bright flash upon the horizon. That stirred the captains interest.

“Grab a hover bike and head out there Wisdom,” the captain ordered. “The rest of you stay here with the ship.”

Eleanor shook her head, the captain was probably heading out to try and get himself killed once again, nothing new there. Wisdom on the other hand got the two hover bikes from the ship. He climbed aboard one and once the captain was aboard the other, they raced away from the ship in the direction of the bright flash.

“Do you see anything yet?”

“No captain.”

As they neared her location they could see her shape.

“Hello there,” Captain Darkholme called out.

She sensed them before she heard or saw them. She knew that they were not necessarily a threat to her, but she was aware of everything around her.

She turned to the approaching hover crafts. She had seen this sort of vehicle before. Pirates.

Not that that had bothered her.
Most pirates were fickle and impulsive; she would be able to handle these two men approaching without blinking a black eye. She could draw any creature into her abyss with the ease of soft inhalation of air.

Her lips parted and dropped indistinctly and muscles relaxed as her plump lips softened with a smile and her dark mysterious eyes brightened with pretense warmth.

With another slow exhale of breath, her body relaxed, but aware, revealed the fragility of what most men think of woman.

This would be too easy.

Although in her mind pushed back far deep into her subconscious was a doubt.

She was taught never to expect the best, but anticipate the worst and you will achieve the best.

She would be ready.

She nodded at the two men and dropped her eyelids and looked up to meet their eyes.

The two hover bikes stopped, but continued to hover as Captain Darkholme leapt down.

"No hello back?" he asked. "Well hello there. My name is Captain Darkholme, this here is Wisdom, what may i ask shall we call you?"

He awaited an answer, briefly glancing at Wisdom before returning to her.

"Besides, what would a fair maiden like yourself be out here in a desert?"

She did not speak. Not just yet. For when she spoke she did not waste time on important words.

Her smile brightened. Her eyes softened to a hue of blackish-gray. Her eyes searched their faces, their body and did not rush through the procedure. Slow and deliberate.

Her lips parted more revealing her pearly teeth must like a feline's. Her canine teeth could puncture her juicy bottom lip.

She spoke clearly and was so close to a sultry purr.
"My dear gentlemen, it is not I who should be answering questions, but sir you should be answering mine."

Her right hand now placed on her katana sheath.

"Now what tell me are you doing on my mother's land?"

Her eyes flashed chaos and slowly calmed down to a swirl of gray being engulfed by darkness.

Captain Darkholme and Wisdom looked over at each other.

"Your mothers land?"

Captain Darkholme was taken aback, looking around there wasn't anything but desert. It looked very much dead to him, what kind of person would claim it as their mothers land.

"Hiding actually, we... er... kind of pissed off the Kukai Foundation."

Wisdom coughed.

"Well we did steal an engine, but they're rich they can afford to... er... lend us one."

She cocked her head, as if she didn't understand him.

She did.

Silly pirate, giving forth too much information.

At that moment she decided there was no harm in either of them.

She smiled softly, "Yes, this is my mother's land and my mother's mother's and so on. My ancestry built this world from their sweat and blood."

She paused, "Do not be worried for there is shelter away from the sun's deadly rays in all directions."

She had not heard of Kukai Foundation, maybe it would be time for her to learn more.

"Good sir, tell me of this Foundation?"

Captain Darkholme smirked.

"We do have our ship for shelter," he said. "So you're not far from home then?"

Wisdom just watched, he kept silent as the captain did the talking and had shook his head at his boasting. He gently rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ah the Kukai Foundation," the captain continued, from a pocket he took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on as the sun was now bugging him. "Short answer they're a private company who carry out contracts for fitting military ships. They're very close to the Draconian royal family in fact."

Her eyes narrowed, "Good sir, I will tell you this just once. It is best to be forthcoming with any knowledge when you are the intruder. Do not test me, for there are things I can do that would make you curl up into the fetal position wishing to be back in your wretched mother's womb. I expect when I ask you a question you shall give me all answers. "

Wait. Do not push him to far away he can be of use to us.

"I am sorry. It must be the heat. I mean that because you are foreign here it is best to be on my best side. I hope you understand that."

The Roanians have a compulsive, obsessive order to organise, to study, and then to file. Normally, that's the end of it. Information is entered into a vast network of databanks and then left to sit there, waiting for some pressing need. At this point, more time is spent on indexing then on exploring. And yet. And yet, occasionally that pressing need does come to light.

Rachmiel Srefim's life, so far, was full of conflict. For a start, he had died nearly 700 years ago, at the hands of the former government and church, who had torn his life from him for a few spells to help his neighbours. A high price to pay, he thought, looking back in retrospect. And then... he was alive again. He supposed a human would have some deep memory of the afterlife, maybe become a different person for it all. Not him, though. Why would he? He died, there was blackness, and now he was back.

No, what interested him more was that now that he was alive again, magic was de rigeur in the shattered remnants of the Divine Imperium. A fact that was helped by the fact that several hundred other mages had come back to life with him, all part of what the Lady-Empress liked to call, "the Magical Evolution."

His head hurt to think about it. Unlike many of his fellows, who had entered the government and the new church, teaching and leading the people as Alessa deemed fit, Rachmiel had plans. There were many mages stronger than him, and many of the old nobility who would relish the chance to put what they considered an upstart and, yes, monster, in his place. So, the best thing to do, he had decided, was to take the other option open to him, withdraw from the Divine Imperium, and build a little tower of his own in which to research.

The archivists had proven most helpful in furnishing him with a location. He had no hope that if the Lady-Empress was even the slightest bit interested in procuring him for something he would be able to escape, but at least here on the world he had already privately renamed for himself he would be free from any other disturbances. "Computer, triangulate on the site filed into your system and inform me as to places that meet the specifications provided for in my request earlier."

His ship, the Sapphire Light took a moment to reply. Such a location has been found. Would you like me to begin conversion and construction process?

Rachmiel paused, tapping his hand gently on the side of his face. "Arrange to teleport me down, first. I would like to scout the area and form my own judgement before I construct the tower and send for my retinue. I've already died once because I trusted someone else, I doubt whatever brought me back will be particularly likely to happen again." He frowned a little, and looked up at his spellbooks, most of them containing information found in the others, and all of them a stunning testament to the depths Roanian magical study had fallen to. "I can only hope my own spells will..."

He became aware that he was speaking to no one in particular. And was, in fact, near the location he had chosen for teleportation. Evidently, the Sapphire Light hadn't been particularly appreciative of his tone. "Fine." The Roanian threw his hands up in the air. "Fine." He picked up his staff, and spun it around a little, enjoying the weight of it. Many of his contemporaries (if he could truly call them such) derided his use of it, but in his opinion, anything he couldn't handle with a two-meter long blunt instrument probably wouldn't be at much risk from his limited combat magic, either.

Rachmiel stretched, and his wings grew out on his back. "The air's a bit dry." He said into his personal journal, beating his wings in order to test their support. "Unassisted flight might be possible, but I'm not choosing to risk it." He sighed, and stuck his staff in the ground. "Well, time to gather up the old energies and see what this planet has to offer me." He kneeled around the staff and began to focus, trying to tap into whatever energy sources might be available to him. Many wizards, even of his own kind, would have second thoughts about this, when there were so many 'better' ways to call up magical energy.

But if he really cared about what they, or anyone, had to say, would he really be doing this? And so he put that thought out of his mind and began to deliberately tear at the lifeforce of the planet, the smile on his deceptively innocent face increasing as a black pool of wasteland began to grow around the base of his staff, and then to slowly spread out from it. 'After all, this is only a *human* world.'

Captain Darkholme raised an eyebrow before rubbing his chin.

"Yes that would be understandable," he said. "I have seen heat make men go mad and yes I do understand that this is your mothers land and we are guests within it, abliet uninvited."

His attention returned to his ship.

"Perhaps we should head for my ship?"

She felt the earth, within, being pulled. She felt the energy she was granted taken away and dissipate.

As the Captain talked she concentrated on the earth’s energy and wrapped herself around, as to protect the energy.

It is not that she necessarily needs it, but it is hers and well she doesn’t share.

She turned and looked behind her and where she could see Jafar, not to be seen by the others.

She licked her lips.

Looked towards the direction he was pointing at his ship.

“I deny your proposal and continue on my way.”

She turned towards the sun, west-ward, towards where the energy was taken.

Moments later she was next to Jafar.

She rested her creamy hand on his head and stroked his mane.

A smile curled on her lips, “Someone owes me an explanation.”

Captain Darkholme raised an eyebrow as he turned to face her once again.

"An explanation?" he questioned her.

He looked over at Wisdom who just shrugged at him. No use there, he turned his attention to the cloudless sky.

"We do need to get out of the sun."

There was a time when she wasn't who she is now.
Things change.
She did change.

Who was she before?

How does Jafar have anything to do with it?

Fuck, stop thinking.

Who is taking that energy....

Her strides lengthened and her speed increased.

She clenched her right hand and an eruption of blinding light came out of her fist and shot into the ground.

Her target...the being who was taking her energy.

"You head back to the ship," Captain Darkholme ordered.

"But..." Wisdom was about to protest but was cut off by the captain.

Captain Darkholme jumped on the hoverbike and followed her.

"It would be unlike me to just let you wander off by yourself."