WG - The Mystery of the Poisoned Healer Options

[mALX]

*

Maxical:

Maxical sat silent, her hands cradlled against her chest as if holding something precious there. Her eyes were torn between guilt and joy, relief...and pain, for crossing lines she hoped never to even know of again.




*


Eyja:

Eyja put the coffee on the fire to warm and set to work scrubbing the kitchen, every trace of today's works from it so there would be no evidence or bad memory attached to it.

"Maxical, you'd better undo those traps now, get the stuff back where it goes. Maxical, did you hear me?"

Eyja shook Maxical to wake her up. "Go dismantle those traps. Put the urns back."



*

[Grits]

As Abiene listened to Kelkemmenar she felt her rage fade to disgust, and then despair. How many centuries had this woman lived without love, without joy? Abiene knew the Divinity that lived within her, and she had touched that same spark in others. But there was no way to reach Kelkemmenar with what her heart simply knew.

Sethyas spoke. “This person is beyond redemption, indeed believes that she has no need of it....we are the ones who are lost to her...I cannot let her go, and she cannot be imprisoned. There is only one alternative in her case...” His voice trailed off.

And there was the light. No matter how twisted, every soul had the hope of a new beginning. The Dreamsleeve washed away all wrongs. Abiene fought death as if it was her enemy, as if it was the end. But it was only a transition, a passage to another life. Perhaps even a cure for a withered heart that had gone on far too long.

Kelhemmenar’s reply was as defiant as it was scornful. “My death here will grant you no victory…”

No victory, for I cannot fight such hate. Your death will be a gift. Abiene drew a breath.

In a blink the Altmer’s face was vacant. What happened? Is she… gone?

Seth’s fingers dug painfully into her shoulder. “Leave. Now,” he commanded.

Abiene obeyed. Maxical’s eyes slid away from hers, tragic with triumph and guilt.

She turned back at the door. Seth’s face was a mask again. As he had told her, he would bear the burden she could not and do what was necessary regardless of personal cost. How do you come back from this? she wondered. How will I even start?

They returned to the room after Sethyas had gone. Eyja put the coffee on and went to work. Abiene changed back into her clothing and followed suit. Her mind was numb. She wanted to keep it that way.

Some time later Sethyas returned. He stood with a cup of coffee for a moment as if in prayer. “It is done,” he said.

Abiene placed his ring and scroll on the table so that he saw. She walked over to speak.

‘Thanks’ seemed inadequate and ‘I’m sorry’ was worse. She stood with her mouth open, empty of even words.

“I’m going to get some air,” she said.

[Black Hand]

Sethyas nodded at Abiene's declaration, as quickly as he could he slipped the ring into the palm of his hand, utilizing skills honed to perfection in the Guild and took her hand in his for a moment before she turned to leave.

"It isn't supposed to get easier...just so you know. Just more tolerable. But, so long as it hurts, so long as the splinter is wedged into your soul...that means you're still a good person. Hers must have had hundreds; perhaps thousands of splinters, and she felt nothing. That is the face of Love's true opposite: Indifference."

His eyes met hers once more and the shadow had lifted.

"Keep this trinket. Perhaps it can continue to shepherd you in my absence, perhaps you can sell it for much needed gold for the poor. I will not suffer from its being passed to you, but couldn't stand the thought that you or one under your care would suffer if you did not accept it."

"I'll be leaving in short enough measure. Certainly I'll be sleeping, or at least trying too tonight and then fulfill my purpose here." He nodded to the urn in his room.

"I am glad to have met you, good Abiene. Even more so that your intended fate was averted. The rest...is in silence." He smiled sadly.

You don't owe me a thing. Just continue being who you are, and your selfless good works. Perhaps I will have had a hand in some small way in that light remaining on in the world.

He finished his cup, and set it down wishing the others good night.

[mALX]

*

Maxical:


Maxical lay Seth's red robe armor across her bed and changed into Eyja's now torn and dirty maid outfit. She dismantled the exploding traps upstairs first, then moved slowly downstairs; still in the fog of disbelief that it was finally over.

Seth entered the back door just as she was about to go out to dismantle the ground floor traps. Maxical could feel the regret emanating from Seth, an echo of her own. They had both done something they hated for the better good of an innocent.

Still, the guilt of her own actions ate at her, and she couldn't look him in the eye as she passed out the door to begin dismantling and returning the urns and hand irons. She had the feeling he knew something had taken place; noticed the burns on the Altmer's hand and mouth, or the vacant eyes.

Maxical didn't know if he'd understand or censure her, and didn't want to risk losing his friendship by explaining.

With her head down, she whispered his name and then hurried past him and out the door.




*

[Black Hand]

With his nearly final farewells in place he left the suite to let Eyja have her own time to herself. He still had some bottles left over that would make some fine companions this evening.

As he began to return to his room, Maxical in her maid disguise started to slowly saunter by, her eyes looking down at the ground refusing to look up. He started to put his key into the door but stopped right as she was behind him.

"Whatever happened, happened. I don't know what it is, and if you're not proud of it that is fine. I'm in no position to judge anyone, and I thought my lifes tale was a strange one. Until the day I met a white Khajiit who took one look at me and told me Mephala's nursery rhyme." He said, neither of them turning around.

She took him into a disproportionately strong hug, and began to cry.

"I missed him so much." She whispered.

Seth was taken aback for a moment, but returned her embrace.

"Don't you mean 'miss'?" he asked.

"Shhhhh." She said. "Just let me smell him on you for a moment longer."

Sethyas acquiesced, and they continued.

She let go and rubbed the tears from one eye with a finger and gave him a sad smile.

"Please don't ever hate me. Please say we're friends." She pleaded.

He returned her sad smile. "I will. And I might even be telling the truth." he jested, and she gave a small laugh.

This post has been edited by Black Hand: Aug 21 2013, 02:58 AM

[Grits]

Abiene walked out around the side of the inn toward the fish pond. Even after just a few days cooped up indoors she felt she hadn’t seen the sky in ages. The sinking sun painted the clouds with glorious color. Somewhere nearby the remains of Kelkemmenar must lie, her eyes blind to this and every sunset that would come. Abiene counted her life in decades, but she couldn’t imagine that in any number of centuries she would lose her sense of wonder. How sad that there were those who wished to bring about the end of all things. And how terrifying.

Thanks to Eyja, Maxical, and Sethyas this one had failed and Abiene, however insignificant to their cause, still lived. She couldn’t help but count the cost of what Seth did. It showed in his shadowed eyes, in his often formal manner, and in the way his features so readily froze into an inscrutable mask.

Abiene ran her thumb across the gems on Seth’s ring, remembering his words. She knew that she would never let it go for any amount of gold. True it might turn a blade or reflect a hostile spell meant for her, but each day it would also remind her of the light in his eyes and the smile that told her the world still hadn’t ended. She had gazed into darkness but he walked through and returned, time after time.

“I am glad to have met you, good Abiene,” he had said. “Even more so that your intended fate was averted. The rest...is in silence.”

Then she had seen how they were opposite sides of the same circle, facing apart but joined in understanding. Gratitude had filled her heart, and she had reached up impulsively and kissed his cheek in the manner of a cherished friend.

Crickets began their twilight song, bringing the ghost of a smile. It felt good to be alive. I’d like to go for a swim, drink a bottle of wine, and make love under the stars until morning, she thought. Perhaps I’ll get the wine.

But there was someone whose pain she had overlooked in her own confusion. Maxical’s heart was in her beautiful eyes, and tonight she wouldn’t look at them. Something was still very wrong. It was time to track down Maxical.

.

This post has been edited by Grits: Aug 21 2013, 03:37 AM

[mALX]

*

Maxical:

Maxical felt the shame of what she'd done wash over her. Gils' soul was safe from use by Malan against her; from use by Mannimarco as a thrall...but the cost to her was one she would never forget, maybe never be able to face herself in the looking glass again.

Would Gils have approved? She didn't know. But somehow she was going to find a way to get his soul where it belonged, in the Dreamsleeve. Somehow.

She saw Seth approaching and kept her eyes to the ground, hoping he'd think she hadn't seen him there. He knew. He knew something, she had seen it in his eyes when Mannimarco removed his paralysis.

Inside herself pain and shame twisted a knot in her stomach. She hadn't known Seth long, but his friendship was important to her. It had nothing to do with his smelling like Gils, but something in his eyes that told her he never forgot someone he considered friend.

He had put his life on the line for them in that same short time they'd known him. One didn't need to know more than that. And she knew his heart burned from the acts he committed the same way hers did. The same way Eyja's did. There are some things you just know about another.

Seth spoke to her, his gravely voice so soft and deep in the dim corridor. It was like a balm that soothed. He was good at that, reaching the rawest places in one and making them feel everything would be all right. Making them feel he understood the motive even if not agreeing with the action itself.

Without even knowing it was coming she found herself crying for the year or more of doing things she could barely live with to bring Gils' soul back where it would be safe; and Seth held her tightly while she cried.

The smell of him filled her nostrils, so familiar in them even after all this time Gils had been gone. The feel of his arms so strong, such a comfort after what she had just done.

He knew. Somehow he knew.

"I just don't want you to hate me, Seth. I don't want to lose your friendship for it. Will you promise me that?"

She wiped her eyes on the knuckle of one hand and looked up into his face, reading the kindness in his eyes, the understanding there.

"I will. And I might even be telling the truth." The smile in his eyes and quirk of his lips let her know he jested.

Maxical squeezed him tightly. "Good then. I don't want to ever lose your friendship. I did what I had to do for the last time, it's over now. And maybe I can live with what I've done if I know you'd forgive me for it."


*





This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 21 2013, 06:33 AM

[mALX]

*

Maxical:

Assassins tended to disappear like vaporous ghosts once a mission was over, with never the chance for goodbyes or well wishes. It was the same for Maxical since her service for Akatosh began. This life wasn't conductive to fragile beginnings. Time knowing or passed was irrelevant.

This lifestyle consolidated and condensed till friendships were fractal wavelengths of thought; quality of moments together rather than the amount of time spent in someone's company or the frequency of contact. The seconds passed too fleetingly from sight and sound to cherished memories of one you may never see again. Should your paths cross again decades down the road, it would feel as if only a moment passed since the last meeting. True friends. Seth was one of these.

Maxical squeezed him tightly and kissed his cheek.

"It has been a pleasure meeting you; and I will always remember you as friend, Serjo Sethyas Velas. Wherever I am, my door will always be open to you. Hail to you then. Hail, and long life to you if we don't meet again."

She stepped back and pounded her fist to her chest in respect before moving past him to their room door.




*

Maxical opened the door to the suite, stepping into the kitchen that had been a gory mess not hours ago. She glanced around at the now spotless kitchen one would be tempted to eat off the floor from if they didn't know what had just occurred here. Eyja had scrubbed off the Altmer disguise; bathed and changed into her own clothing already.

Eyja could clean a crime scene almost magically. Maybe she did use magic of some sort, but Maxical had watched a few times and only seen her scrubbing like a whirlwind.

The smell of home cooking was coming from the hearth, Maxical hooked the lid of the pot with a fireplace poker and peeked in.

"Shepherd's Pie, huh?"

Eyja nodded, pouring her a coffee. "We made it through, and this one wasn't even ours."

She watched Maxical carefully before asking,

"What did you do, Maxical? I know it was you, I saw you put that huge tome on the floor. Suddenly the tome was disintegrating and that Altmer had burns all around her mouth and hand. Her eyes were vacant, dead as a zombie. Did you steal her soul?"

Maxical shifted uncomfortably. "You know better than to ask that, Eyja. I couldn't bring myself to do anything like that."

Eyja nodded. "I know, but then why did you look so guilty? You still do. Who did it for you, and what did you gain from it?"

"If I told you who, you'd never believe me."

"Then what did you gain?"

"Gils, Eyja. I have his soul now. I have to get him to the Dreamsleeve...somehow."

Eyja exhaled in a gust; it was hard to tell by her expression whether it was in relief or shock. Maxical dug in her pack and pulled out a weathered parchment and unfolded it. She handed it to Eyja.

"I'm going to need you to get me this list of ingredients. Two of these ingredients are rare, and one will be hard to get after what we've just been through."




*******************************




(Jacinth - Rising Sun)

Orc's blood
Amber


(Snow - Grass)

Unicorn's horn
Hist Sap


(Night - Mid-day Sky)

Daedra's heart
Ectoplasm


The jacinth wakes the rising sun, and snow blankets the grass. But night o'ertakes the mid-day sky, and the gate is opened last.



*********************************


Eyja pulled out her own notepad and copied the ingredients down.

"I'll get them as soon as I can."

"Hurry. I want Gils' soul safe before Malan realizes I have it."

Eyja nodded. "I will. I'd like to catch Seth before he leaves, say goodbye. You know how fleeting a chance I'll have to do that."

Maxical nodded, finishing off her coffee. "I've already said my goodbyes to him just in case he left in the night. I'm going to bathe and go to bed. It feels like I haven't slept in days." She hugged Eyja tightly before making her way to the bath.




*





This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 22 2013, 05:57 AM

[Black Hand]

Eyes opened once again into the morning that came thanks to the acts of those he had come to trust, in such short time.

He liked mornings, strangely enough. They were separated just enough from the past evenings events to feel new, and the promise of another unwritten day lay before him. The one blessing he had since the beginning of this dark path, was the ability to have a decent night's sleep.

He still didn't find what he did easy. However, if he felt that his actions were necessary or even justifiable, rest came easy.

This last bit with Kelkemmenar was not celebrated by anyone, but it was still seen as needed. He had done this before, time after time, and perhaps he held the necessary words where the others had only numbed expressions and the presence of mind to fall back onto chores to cover the mess they had made.

Eyja was good at that, certainly far more on top of it than he would normally be. Then again, his usual targets were outlaws and criminals to begin with. Even in the Morag Tong, he was more of a Bounty Hunter than an Assassin.

His eyes and hand fell to the funerary urn of ashes that still lay at his bedside.

It was time.

He gathered his black finery, and shined his boots slightly. Not so much that he would look overly kempt but enough that Setsuna would not have rolled her eyes at him.

The shirt was looser at the arms than normal but hardly 'flowing' and the vest that Serene had tailored fit like his gloves. Perfectly form fitting. His belt held a dagger that was more fashion then function, and he was able to sneak a more devastating version into his boots.

He looked in the mirror and ran his fingers through his longish hair a few times, that was usually the extent of his hair routine aside from normal washings. But, for the event, he would comb it back with some pomade. When he was done, even he had to admit he looked a little better than the normal style. Setsuna and Serene both agreed on it.

He grabbed the Urn of Setsuna Velas' ashes, and took his first step out the door. He looked to the suite next to him, and a thought occurred to him that he hadn't even suspected he would have done a few days ago.

He told Serene this was something he had needed to do alone. As his Sister and she hadn't even met, and he was very adamant about not sharing his pain. Mostly from concern for her. She'd been in his head a few times, but he tried to keep himself walled off and tightly controlled.

But this fellow manhunter, she had shared in his pain. Too closely. He was ready to let go, if she were. He knocked lightly at the door, as the time of his coming and going as he pleased had passed with the Altmer Necromancer.

Eyja answered and seemed to take a second to recognize him. He was certainly less physically imposing without the armor that exaggerated his somewhat lean frame.

"Good morning." He smiled politely.

"Good morning, did you want some coffee?" She offered, the smell wafting over to them, tempting him to accept.

Seated across from one another, he glanced at the urn and started his story.

"When we were still here in Cyrodiil, we mostly wandered from the age of sixteen to our late twenties. Once the age of majority is reached and you're not adopted, they kick you out."

"Among those wanderings was the pond south of Chorrol a bit. It was where we camped and stayed for a few weeks. She met and became enamored with a local Cyrod boy. She and I were twenty at the time if I recall correctly. He was nineteen. While nothing came of it too much beyond a summer romance, once the harvest time had come and gone, so was the need to be in the area."

"I don't need to tell you that homeless Dunmer are viewed with suspicion at the very least, so staying in any one area too long was never a good idea. However, it was where she had her first love. She made us return there year after year, despite never meeting him again. It was her favorite place in all of the counties." His eyes fidgeted over the images in his mind.

"And they met on a morning just like this one. It is there I intend to spread her ashes. It is what I returned here to do. Cremation is a Dunmer tradition, but I insisted that she be returned to her native land; our native land. Being her only family it became my duty and my right to fulfill these wishes. One that I have put off for far, far too long."

He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. "While I wished to do this alone...I feel as though I have met her once more in you. It would not feel right if you did not accompany me in this. The choice is yours, and you know that I certainly understand." He smiled sadly, looking into his reflection in the coffee.

The one boon of having a twin was that he could see her face whenever he wished.

[mALX]

*

Eyja:


Eyja had waited for Seth to come, somehow knowing he would before his journey took him a different direction. She'd been expecting him to just appear in the kitchen as he had been doing till now; had kept warming and re-warming the coffee and Shepherd's Pie over and over again.

The knock on the door came as a surprise...as did his appearance. Seth was in his black finery. The shock of that and his hair styled back from his face with scented pomade stunned her into staring with her hand on the door rather than welcoming him in.

There was no doubt he was releasing his sister today, giving her a final resting place that must have meant something to her in her lifetime. This was the task he had spoken of that first day they met in the tavern.

Eyja sank down into the chair across from him at the table; listening to him talk of Setsuna, of their happy years together and the place he had chosen for her ashes. Eyja nodded automatically at Seth's invitation.

"I can be ready in minutes. I can borrow Maxical's mourning clothes, it won't take me long to dress."

Eyja rose, about to go upstairs and change when a thought struck her so strongly that she stopped mid step, turning back and sinking back down into her chair again.

"I want to ask you...I want to tell you something first. I was almost a decade younger than Cytherea, a child still. I didn't have the years of knowing her you had with Setsuna; didn't know her favorite places, or whether she even found love before she was killed."

Eyja pressed her head against the back of the chair, and took a deep breath. "She was Dark Brotherhood." She shot Seth an apologetic look, knowing how he hated the Dark Brotherhood.

"She ended there after a robbery that went bad. Seth, she was just trying to keep food on the table for me; a roof over our heads after our parents were killed. She kept it from me, not wanting me hurt by the things she did for us...I wouldn't have cared had I known, she was everything to me."

Eyja went to her pack and dug for a minute, then paused; unsure if Seth wanted to hear this now. Almost apologetically she pulled out her sister's urn.

"This is Cytherea now. She was still a virgin when she died; in fact that is what drew the interest of the man who killed her...man. He was no man. It was a vampire named Vicente. She ran from him, but he and his fellow brothers and sisters in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary followed her to our home...where they killed her in front of me. I was but a child, couldn't have stopped them anyway...but they held me there, made me watch to punish her. That started my war on the Dark Brotherhood."

Eyja cradled the urn in her arms, her eyes drawn into Seth's so deeply she could read Setsuna's story there and his own; how closely they matched each other's lives.

"My sister deserves the rest too, but I have no where to bring her. Would you...do you think Setsuna would mind sharing her special spot with Cytherea?"



*


Eyja in Maxical's mourning clothes:


http://static1.nexusmods.com/101/mods/imag...-1214848721.jpg



Cytherea's Urn:


http://static2.nexusmods.com/101/mods/imag...-1241805498.JPG




*






This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 22 2013, 08:27 AM

[Black Hand]

Sethyas smiled sadly once more.

"She was Dark Brotherhood." Eyja revealed, like confessing a dark secret to one's own judge.

He saw the pain in her eyes. It pulled him in, far past her expression. Through obscure shadows of pain, past deadened husks of former traits she'd long since abandoned, straight past a heart that did not feel for a long, long time. It seemed as though he could see her very spirit, that somehow had learned to live again.

It shimmered, as a light within the darkness that cloaked so much of herself. It resonated like a tuning fork to his own, and he was left absolutely stunned.

"So was Setsuna." He almost whispered, and his eyes started to trace patterns in the woodwork again. What passed through his mind, he did not speak. Yet, seemed to hold some silent conversation within himself.

"Yes. I find this fitting." He nodded.

"Two people that lost their way into the same twisted and thorny path." He spoke. "Among all the other marks that were left there to testify the beginning of those who found what they thought was a way back: Let our ghosts have a kindred spirit." He swallowed hard.

"Take your time in getting ready. They are worth it." He said blinking rapidly.

[mALX]

*

Eyja:

Eyja set Cytherea's urn on the table and took Seth's hand, silently holding it for a minute. She breathed in deeply, feeling the relief that Cytherea would finally be laid to rest.

"Thank you, Seth." She barely whispered the words, but knew he heard.



Maxical didn’t even stir when Eyja tiptoed by the bed, not even when the door to the schrank creaked on opening. Eyja hesitated after slipping the dress from the hanging hook. The black head wrap and ribbons dangled loosely off a lower hook.

Maybe it didn’t matter, not after these decades Cytherea waited for her ashes to find their final rest. She fingered the soft black satin of the neck ribbon. But maybe it did matter.

For those decades she’d carried that urn as a weapon, a whip that drove her to kill everyone responsible for Cytherea’s death...Eyja wanted to make sure everything was done right for her sister now. The way it should have been done decades ago, when the only black she wore were assassins robes and a heart so filled with revenge that she couldn’t see the path it was leading her down.

Her hand closed over the ribbons and mourning cap. Yes...it was time to do it right. She wanted that for Cytherea.




*


Eyja twisted her hair into a loose knot on top of her head and wound the mourning wrap around it, tying the dangling pieces with the smaller ribbons so they fell like curls of black colored hair on her cheeks and the back of her neck; tucking the loose strands of her hair under so not a wisp of blonde showed.

She rubbed the softness of the wide black neck ribbon against her cheek before carefully draping it under the dangling ribbons of the mourning cap and weaving the ends into a loose bow. The dress and long dark gloves she pulled on last.


The face looking back at her from the glass was pale in contrast to the blackness of the mourning outfit. Ashen, and like a frightened child.

Had she done this decades ago, maybe Shor would have heard her song of sorrow and come, carried Cytherea’s soul back to Sovngarde with him. After all, the legends of him said his ghost could be sung back into the realm of humans on special occasions, and he was the god of children. She was a child then, and Cytherea not much more than one.

Now, after all she’d done in those decades; murder, prostitution...only the gods knew how many men she’d slept with. Shor may not even hear her song at all now.




*



Eyja fidgeted with the bow on the neck ribbon. In all these decades, she had looked to those ashes for Cytherea; to the urn, talked to it as if she lived within.

What she’d learned of souls since becoming guardian of Maxical...for the first time she’d begun wondering whether Cytherea’s was even in the Aetherius at all. And if not, where then?

Seth hadn’t talked about Setsuna’s soul. Maybe he knew where it was. Maybe Dunmer didn’t believe in them.

She was no longer a child, there was no reason to sing it now...but she wanted to badly if Seth would let her. She wanted everything done the right way, the way it should have been. And maybe it would draw Cytherea’s soul to that spot. If Seth would let her, she would sing it for Setsuna too. Call them both home, to their resting place.



Eyja stepped quietly into the kitchen, her eyes catching Seth’s reaction to seeing her in full mourning attire; as stunned as hers had been to see him in his. They found each other's arms for a moment in the mutual understanding of what each must be feeling right now; what they were facing ahead. Eyja barely whispered the words to ask, unsure if he'd allow a Nord tradition upheld at what amounted to his sister's funeral ceremony.

"When we get to this pond, if you'll let me I'm supposed to sing for my sister's soul; that is if you won't mind. It is the tradition of Nords to sing to the ones we cry for, call the souls you mourn in to make our peace with them. They say the voice reaches Aetherius, and reverberates all Nirn searching for the soul you sing for. It hears and comes. If you'll let me, I'll sing for Setsuna's too."




*


Eyja in full mourning dress:


http://static1.nexusmods.com/101/mods/imag...-1214848721.jpg



*






This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 23 2013, 08:33 AM

[mALX]

*


Eyja’s song for Setsuna and Cytherea:




http://youtu.be/xWmznE_-db8






*





This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 23 2013, 09:07 AM

[Black Hand]

Sethyas looked upon the Nord's new outfit. The change in attire a confirmation to himself of what he knew, but did not fully realize until that moment in time. They were here to mourn and let go.

"If you'll let me, I'll sing for Setsuna's too."Eyja offered.

"Okay." he released quietly.

_____________________________________________________________________


They walked out among the rays of the sun, neatly contrasted to the vibrant green with their dark mourning clothes.

Sethyas looked up at the sky, squinting in the brightness. Each day fell under the same sky. Some things didn't change, nor needed too.

As above. So below. He thought.

It almost made him laugh. The patterns of 'up there' didn't seem to have anything to do with the chaos that went on down here.

"Two Sisters. Both lost to time, but not from our memories. We carry it as torches. Torches that burn away darkness, torches that also burn as we hold them. It is a pain we bear always. A pain that forces focus. To see where I also went wrong, so that I may not repeat the mistakes of those who've left us behind." He gave a joined eulogy, and let Eyja speak her own Sister's eulogy first, and a tear escaped his eye as she sang her song.

Ethereal, beautiful, haunting.

Truly, a song of spirits.He thought looking upwards, imagining that some invisible entity had taken notice to Eyja's mournful crooning. Perhaps taking some pity upon those who'd passed.


"Setsuna Velas, a dearest Sister. Lived Twenty-nine years. Loved each one, and every day since. Thank you for being my reflection in those times. Times of searching for ourselves and learning the world in which they grew. Among a bed of thorns you were a rose. I am sorry I failed you. Yet even from that failure I draw strength, and will carry you with me until that day we meet once more...Until then, the hardest task in life; I have learned, is to let go. If one of us had learned that earlier, perhaps I would not stand here now. It is far too late for regrets and well past due for our time in letting go. Rest now in your favored spot."

He opened the funerary urn, and gently knelt down. Dumping the ashen contents into the pond, the dark dust spreading out across the face of it. He threw a small blade and a handful of coins into the body of water with it, splashing as they broke the surface. The blade was in fact hers in life, which he'd maintained to a polished shine for over two hundred years.

His hand reached up to his face and and he started shaking ever so slightly.

He stood up slowly, taking his time with each movement, and swallowed hard once he was upright. If he had wept, there were no tears to confirm it.

[mALX]

*


Eyja's Song To The Sisters


http://youtu.be/xWmznE_-db8



*

They picked their way through the forest in the silence of shared memories; indistinguishable echoes and glimpses into pasts separated by centuries of time, yet so similar they were like pages of the same book; blown free from their binding by the winds and carried through time by fate to meet once again.

Occasionally their hands met and clasped, so mutual an understanding of what trailed through the other's mind that words weren't needed.

There was a sacredness created by nature itself in the site Seth selected for Setsuna; a pond carved by time into the side of a low mountain, guarded from civilization by the deep forest surrounding.

Protected. Like Seth keeping Setsuna's urn by his bed; still guarding her sleep hundreds of years after her passing...and like Eyja, unable to leave Cytherea's ashes behind because no where could be as safe as at her side where she could watch over them just as Cytherea had always watched over her.

A small waterfall shed rainwater from the rise above; the pond lay still and deep below, continuously filled by the trickle of it. The end of the pond was a natural overlook created by overflows in the rainier months, falling into another smaller pond below it.

A makeshift bridge at the overlook was the only sign a human had ever ventured here, and without asking Eyja knew Seth had made it. Setsuna must have loved the view there, maybe sat on it and looked out.

Seth nodded briefly in her direction. It was time.




*


Eyja stripped off her long mourning gloves while Seth broke the seals and uncapped the urns; showing the same reverence for both as he sifted a small amount of ash from each into Eyja's hand for the song.

She kissed the back of each hand and pressed her thumb into the ash; rubbing it against her forehead and cheek in twin markings on each side, one for each sister and whispering their name as she did each.

"For you, Setsuna. That your soul hears and comes to this place of peace and memories. For you, Cytherea. You gave up your own life and chances for love to raise me. I remember every moment as if it were yesterday; you were always there, always taking care of me. I pray that in Setsuna you find another sister; and that she loves you with even a mote of what's in my heart for you."

Eyja climbed to the tiny upper pond to give Seth privacy in his grief, her balled fists tightly clutching the remains of the ash in them. When she reached the top she stood at the edge on a mound of rock looking down at Seth.

Just before he tipped the remains of Setsuna's urn into the pond she raised both hands toward the sky, slowly opening them so the breeze coming down off the mountain sifted bits of the ash from her palms and swirled it into a filtered haze of particles that could be seen dancing slowly toward Seth in the shafts of sunlight peeking through the trees that surrounded them.

For a minute she just breathed, feeling the ashes tickle her cheeks and arms, then slowly closed her eyes. Her arms stayed raised, bits of the ash still wafting off as she began her song to Setsuna and Cytherea; a hauntingly mesmerizing keen that resonated from the rocks behind her till it filled the glade below her with the sound of it, echoing off the trees.




*


How long she'd been singing, Eyja didn't know. It wasn't a sound, but instinct that opened her eyes to see a thin she-wolf watching her from a lightly made path by the edge of the waterfall. Her head was raised back as if to join in the song with a howl, but she made no sound. When she saw Eyja's eyes on her she slunk away, her head and tail low to the ground.

Not feet away from Eyja on the other side of the pond a smallish deer had its muzzle dipped in the pond, its nostrils blowing tiny ripples in the still water. It didn't even startle at Eyja's glance.

Eyja finished the last notes of the song and slowly made her way down to the middle pond where Seth waited. The she-wolf was moving slowly and silently on a wide arc, eyeing Seth as she crept down toward the water below.

She hadn't offered Eyja any harm, and the sudden fear hit Eyja that Seth may see her as an enemy and dispose of her without waiting to find out. It very well could be that this site was so untouched by civilization that the animals hadn't learned to fear humans, and this was probably their water supply. But she had just called the spirits of their sister's to this place, and two animals had come.

How terrible it would be if their spirits came through nature and Seth attacked. It wasn't like she could explain that to him either, it was a Nord belief. She could hear him now if she tried;

"Your argument is invalid."

Eyja walked wide, moving toward the wolf. She didn't want to frighten it off, just head it off from approaching Seth as it had just approached her at the pond above. The wolf arced back into the trees, then turned back once again to watch; her slanted amber eyes darting from Eyja to Seth.

Eyja carried her urn to the bridge Seth had made for Setsuna and released Cytherea's ashes there. She scattered a handful of Ambrosia leaves over them, then a handful of Mugwort seeds.




*


Seth was waiting by the path to go back toward Chorrol. Eyja stuffed the empty urn in her pack and followed him to where the path dipped down to the overflow pond below. She turned back one last time to look. The she-wolf was sniffing the ground where Seth had been sitting. On the high pond above the deer watched their departure, its huge brown eyes unblinking in the filtered sunlight shining on it.

"Goodbye, Cytherea...Setsuna. You will always be loved and remembered." Eyja whispered, then turned to follow Seth down the trail.




*


The pond; from the waterfall, to Seth's pond, to the overflow pond below:


Waterfall and small upper pond:


http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/ca...mperialcity.jpg



Looking at rock Eyja stood on to sing her song to Setsuna and Cytherea:


http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1192/pond.png



Lightly worn path the she wolf watched from:


http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1...Valley_Pond.jpg




Seth's pond:


http://www.everbecoming.com/temp/oblivion/pond.jpg



Seth's bridge:


http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8735/2011062100002.jpg




*





This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 24 2013, 01:34 PM

[Acadian]

Locking this thread, simply to avoid having it confused with which of the Wobbly Goblet RP threads are active and which are ‘mission complete’.