The table was still covered in dust, the chairs overturned and splintered. Though it had been a while since the council had been overturned, and there had been a council reinstated since, this table had not been used. It's marble was dull, and even as Morrigan's slender fingers lit a match and set the chandelier candles to flame, the shine was without memory. Like her own, the young beauty was replaced by age. Though there was the same allure that danced beneath the dust, there was vitality it lacked, ignorance that it would have been happier clinging to. "Shall I live the same memorandum again, Lilith?" She spoke to the empty chair as if someone sat there. She was no longer alone in an empty room lit by candles, but home again, alive. In that chair two violet eyes beneath a mass of pink hair stared at her, the only one that understood, the only one that cared. The other sisters were too young, the other members of her all-too-noble family were too pigheaded. Lilith just listened, and once again, Morrigan was young, without any care except of how she would be with the man she loved. Her fingers reached up to grasp a necklace that still hung around her neck--a necklace that even in death had followed and haunted her. "Am I such a fool, my sister, that I should care this much? Why should I have stayed? Why not abandon, why not run? I could have then... I must have been crazy to have allowed him the satisfaction of my pain. Again, I die a traitor, though this time without escape from the ridicule!" Her voice had raised, and the words echoed off the empty walls and high ceiling to resound in her ears and remind her of reality--that she was, indeed, in an empty room. The image she had created of her younger sister's smiling face faded, along with the words of wisdom she would have given Morrigan so long ago.
There was no place to run to. Morrigan was in a seat of high power and again had fumbled. Where Genil hated her for failing to push back the invaders, Nureese and Anarab despised her for treachery. She had found that sneaking was the only way to walk anymore, hooded and cloaked to hide her identity. The only place she felt welcome was the Ikki! Ikki!... she had even considered staying there, but some urgent call of duty wouldn't allow it. She had spent the first three weeks after Crystal's arrival there, getting her wounds properly tended to so infection did not set in. The lack of one wing on her head gave her a false sense of balance, but it was a well-healed over stump. The tattered skin of her wings was barely suitable for flying, though she could in dire need. Her pretty green hair had been marred by a streak of stark white from the stress. She was a different person, a different creature.
She crossed her arms on the dusty surface, laying her head upon them. She stared around at the chairs that still stood, imagined each face that belonged there. Twelve of them. She closed her eyes and then pushed herself upright, kicking her booted feet up onto the table and imagined the scene...
Crystal would be at the head, with Lumen beside her... The other elders were all sitting around, listening as the head of the table continued to speak her peace, standing to emphasize her righteous point. The speach would continue, her voice booming through the room as she tried to pound into her fellow elders the importance of her cause.... and then it would stop. Morrigan would smile as the silence ensued, knowing those blue eyes were staring right at her--glaring. Right. At. Her.
A yawn would pass her lips and she'd stretch in a catlike manner. Her emerald hair would dance around her shoulders and into her face as her eyes fluttered open to meet the sapphire ones staring down at her, fully aware that they'd be there. On that cue, like all other days, every other meeting, the redhead would snap, dignifiably, "Morrigan Aensland! Get.. your... feet... off... the... table!"Edited by: Crystal Dinaia at: 6/15/07 12:25 pm
GOD
dainty goddess
No, no! GOD
mmm, so cute =]
they're soft, and pale
ignore that comment
*is dirty minded*
Everyone knows that!
Isn't cute.
EVIL SPAMMER of DOOOM
Got Globally Banned
Posts: 541
(6/4/07 11:01 pm)
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
The night was silent around her, trickling over her exposed arms and legs and chilling her heart more than she cared to realize. The inky midnight blue sky held a promise lined with perfect diamonds, a bit of hope twinkling in each of the brightly shining stars. However, she could have cared less about the night, about the beauty, and about the future. Genil was devastated, she could see now as she walked the quiet streets with only the sounds of her own shortened breath to plague her. My beautiful city… The woman’s sapphire eyes misted over for a moment until she shook the tears away. Too many of the deceiving droplets had fallen from her eyes in the past years. She’d once thought crying made you realize how alive one was, but now…she understood that they did nothing but make her see how dead inside she was. Crystal had lost faith in the human race. After staying in that hellhole where she had assumed she’d meet her death, she had found nothing but faithlessness and a heart void of hope. There was nothing left anymore, nothing. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need anything anymore. Nothing could save her from herself.
Self pity was something Crystal had never liked to see in a person, yet, she had the most enormous case of it she’d ever seen. Somehow, she felt like she deserved to dwell on the pain and fear that still lingered inside her. Not only had her city fallen, but she’d fallen too. A war had been waged on the city of Genil and one had been fought inside herself as well. Both battles had been lost and the landscape was ravaged on both accounts. The smell of blood still lingered in the air, mixing delicately with the stench of fear. And she’d disappeared! How could she? She’d been so caught up with fighting her personal struggles that she’d not been there to protect Genil. She hadn’t been there for her city. Revenge had been the one and only thing on Crystal’s mind when she left Genil, not the selfless will to help, but the bloodthirst for something that she thought would bring her city back. If she had destroyed the demon she had stalked, she felt as if she might have done her share of protecting. She had not. Her own physically helpless state against Fedafyr had brought her to her knees in submission, eyes downcast, her head hung like a whipped puppy. All at Genil’s expense. Crystal blamed herself entirely.
After escaping Fedafyr’s lair, the Elder had been too ashamed to return to the white city. She felt as if she had held a hand in something that had stained her for life. Feeling as if she wasn’t worthy, she wandered aimlessly through the darker cities and saw far worse that what had happened to herself. The creatures in those cities were once again powerful in their homelands and the entire world for that matter. Fear had gripped her by the throat, its icy shards almost puncturing the soft skin, each and every night she wandered. Something still, called her home. Genil wanted her to return. For what reason, she never could find. Why would she ever return to what she had abandoned in stupidity, in ignorance and in fear? Love. The only thing she could find within herself at this moment in time was love. Crystal loved Genil and its citizens so dearly that she couldn’t bear to stay away from them when it was undoubted they needed their leaders. It had been foolish of her to think otherwise. Without her guidance, along with the rest of the Council, there would be no hope for Genil. Remembering slowly, she thought about their members who had already disappeared before the dark forces had struck them. Would they be there now? She couldn’t remember and she feared the worse. Were they dead? A shiver ran through her body.
Crystal’s gaze overlooked the entire city from this one hill and she could only see several lights on in the entire city. Sadness filled her heart and left it thudding dully in her chest. There had been times the city had been so bright that its lights seemed to be radiating up into the sky and reflecting off the clouds in a bright circle all around it. Now, darkness was the only thing that radiated from the white city. Her eyes were dark as she watched and continued to walk forward. It’s time to go home, Crystal. It’s time to go home… That’s the only thing she could not have found after she ran from Genil like a frightened child. She would never have found what she considered ‘home’ again. Immediately, the feeling of being alone overtook her and she made her way through the broken city wall doors. Where once slabs of marble had remained open for all to enter with the guards’ approval, there were shattered piles of white stone on each side where they had been blasted down. Her mind went into action as she watched them while walking by. The would need to be rebuilt by the end of the week--… but who would do it? The idea struck her almost by surprise and brought her heeled feet to a halt. There was no one left.
The night wind was getting colder these days as autumn approached and leaves from the still living trees scratches along the dark streets. Crystal didn’t feel it though, despite her lack of warm clothing. Before leaving Anarab she’d purchased something she’d fallen in love with at a small dress store. The dress was a lovely creation of shimmering silk in a natural red tint, not too orange oriented but just the right mix for her cream complexion. It covered to mid thigh completely, then the hem trailed off in a diagonal line across her knees. Her outfit covered her properly, still leaving much to the imagination but still making that same imagination work overtime. Her heel fetish hadn’t gone unquenched through her travels either. Crystal had grown tired of wearing the boots she had tread in countless nights and purchased a pair of heels that laced up with red ribbons up to her knees. The bangles on her wrists were made of soft gold, only fractions of an inch wide and encrusted with rubies. If she was going to struggle to find her place in the world, she might as well look up to her standards while doing it. She wasn’t an unattractive woman and she knew that, and the vulgar glances of several men in Anarab had confirmed her beliefs. She’d ignored them, she wasn’t looking for sex. Crystal… was looking for peace.
The burned and broken streets were a blur as she made her way to the only place she’d ever found complete serenity in. The Palace lay before her, the large castle looming high over the buildings and she looked up at it with almost a worshipping gaze. There, she would find her home, or what was left of it. Crystal dreaded the state that she would find her office in and she winced with remembering how hard she had worked to create the particular atmosphere that she adored. Without realizing how quickly she had approached the Palace, she was in front of it and she took it in slowly. The benches were crushed where they had once been perfectly carved from marble slabs but in the center of the plaza, the tree with the pink blossoms still bloomed majestically. It impressed her that with all that had happened, the tree hadn’t been burned on first sight. Then again, it had always radiated a warm, magical feeling that stayed with Crystal when she was around it. Perhaps this tree was the center of Genil and what kept the city from becoming totally desecrated. It didn’t matter… It was probably only a tree.
Crystal’s calves were aching as she climbed the hundred stairs up to the front doors of the Palace. It reminded her just how fragile and human she was and almost calmed her at the same time. Maybe she didn’t have to be so solid all of the time, maybe she didn’t have to bear that responsibility alone. The doors to the Palace had been broken through as well, the locks hanging off them in shreds. Crystal stepped through the holes in the door as gracefully as she could, her heels crunching in the rubble the explosions had left. Automatically, she turned to the right and found herself climbing up a staircase instinctively. Lumen’s office was destroyed, she realized as she glanced in a gaping open wound of a door and saw his elegant furnishings almost shredded like the locks had been. She let out a low sound of anger but continued on to her office. Hope kept her from crying but the understanding that she could not possibly have been that lucky kept her grounded at the same time. The door was still closed and she turned the knob slightly, pushing her weight against the door. Knock.. Knock.. I’m home.
The sight of it nearly crippled her. The gauzy white curtains that had once covered the floor length stone surrounded windows were ripped horribly, becoming mere strips of fabric on the curtain rods. Her cherry wood desk was literally chopped in half, the papers pulled out of it and littering the floor. Blood drenched the plush, creamy carpet and that sight bothered her the most. No one could have lived after losing that much blood. An appointment book laid off to the side of it, splattered with the dried vital fluid. Crystal recognized it instantly and her heart contracted with pain. Faria. Her mind whimpered and tears nearly rose to her eyes once again. Her lovely little assistant had probably not made it through the attack and her small frame would have been more than fair game to anything that had entered the office. Screams that weren’t her own filled her head as she thought on it too deeply and she turned, blindly and skittered down the hallway, her heels making a hell of a racket. She couldn’t handle it, not now, not ever. She didn’t have the strength. She didn’t have the heart. Her heart beat against her ribcage and felt like it might explode but she ran harder, trying to escape from the pain that filled her soul.
Now, she had returned to the Palace. Before, she hadn't had the strength to stay. Her legs carried her through the lobby of the Palace and she was almost amazed at her need to come back here. The last time all she had gained was a snippity argument with Morrigan, something she used to defend her own broken pride. But now she knew what she must do and what they must do together. And, she knew where she would find Morrigan. Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was only a prediction that wouldn't end up being true. However, deep inside herself Crystal knew that Morrigan cared about the Council and she cared about her. Please let her be here... With a deep breath, Crystal walked toward the main meeting room calmly, her heels’ clicking echoing off the walls of the large domed lobby. She silenced her shoes by taking them off and left them in the middle of the lobby, then walked down another hallway, up a staircase to the meeting room that connected to the balcony above the town square. A smile, the first one in the longest time lit her face. With closed eyes, Crystal’s largest troublemaker still had her feet up on the meeting table. The Elder walked in the doorway silently and stood behind Morrigan’s chair. In a soft, cracking voice, she spoke aloud, “Morrigan Aensland… Get your feet off the damned table! If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times--…”
"The white city fell without her. Peace revolved around her, but when the mother left her children, they destroyed one another... She'll never forget that she left--she'll wear the chains of the martyr as she pulls the world's weight behind her, still thinking she's not doing enough." Morrigan Aensland
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
The images in her mind were ground to dust, the false place she had placed herself in shattered like glass around her to a familiar voice.. one she had heard so little of, even since the elder had returned home. Matter of fact, they hadn't spoken since Crystal's heels had lead her back to this place the first time and she had found no stomach to look around. Because the eldest Crystal Dinaia had thought the only way to save the people was through some semblance of restoring order to chaos, Morrigan had left--not because she had not agreed, but because she was anything but orderly. She had spent much of that time healing, trying to recover from the loss of dignity she had suffered. Even now, the old world hung around them like some mist they might step out of. When Morrigan slipped her boots off the table to click on the hard floor and stood to look at her last friend among thousands lost, it was still enough to wrench her heart.
Morrigan had suffered physically. Her wings practically useless, the purple suede that stretched between the bony fingers lashed and battered by countless battles. Her hair was no longer fully emerald but bore a white streak that had lost its color to shock. The once full halo upon her head of wings akin to the tattered ones on her back was only half remaining, a stump to replace the left side. These, though, were nothing compared to what Crystal suffered. Though Morrigan had taken some form of blame for the fall, Crystal saw to it that she lay all the blame on her doorstep. The other elder's once-lively sapphire blues had faded to a dull, misted cloud that knew no bounds to sorrow, even when she smiled. What she had left for, Morrigan never knew, nor did she care. The succubus was quite certain it had been of importance and value, though Crystal seemed to think it did not. In many ways, Morrigan still held age over the human girl, but what was she to do other than to say she understood? She could not change the way Crystal would feel, and no amount of praise or ridicule would change the red-headed woman's opinion of herself. The great optimism of Crystal Dinaia had flown away, carried on the demonic wings of war and bitter tragedy. Places where Morrigan had walked before, places where Crystal would never be seen, should never have been seen. Had you been here, Crystal.... could you have changed anything? You would have been dragged off, just like the rest of them. Like all of them, you would have stuck to Genil's code--you would not have killed the intruders, and therefore, would have been taken where all the rest were... if you knew... if you understood how I had survived, you would not smile at me so.
The eldest and the youngest of Genil's Council of the Elders stood staring at one another. Morrigan's head reached just an inch or two higher than Crystal's, even when Crystal wore pumps. They had stood this way and squabbled often before the great tragedy that had left its marks on both the women. Morrigan remembered, even, standing this way and looking at her sister. The silence stretched between them as Morrigan's green eyes locked with Crys' blue, and some silent knowledge passed between them in an array of pain and understanding. Something, though, made her feel as though she might have been home. When Crystal had disappeared, Morrigan had looked--even cried. Nobody would ever know except the walls, and they wouldn't tell. It was as if she had done it again, failed in her duty to save someone close to her. When Crystal had come back, she had felt a renewed feeling of that--the failure and shame. Perhaps that failure came from her inability to save the city, or, instead, to save the lives inside... or, more likely, Morrigan had felt ashamed, not for the loss of material or of life, but of what she had done to try and preserve it. With Crystal looking at her like she was some sort of prodigy, some hero for surviving, for trying to stay though all else had fled or died--it hurt. Physically, it had made her ill. Somewhere along the line, though she had fought it with all her might, Crystal had become some great piece in her life, greater than any other. Her opinion had become paramount, and to have the other woman think so highly of a false image of her had Morrigan reeling.
Fingers pressed into flesh. It was the cage without the resurrection; it was death without rebirth. She inhaled, bathed in, tasted blood. There was no escape but to fight, no safety in running. Genil burned around her; people cried out. Her nails sliced through the creatures that came in swarms, her cuts not quick enough to stop the overwhelming numbers. In the heat, with sweat dripping from her brow, Morrigan fought. Though the elders could not kill, she kicked the dead around her with scorn and hatred and little more than spit for them to take them to the next life. Morrigan was home again, and she smiled with each new body that fell around the walls to her castle. She avenged and fought back the traitor that had won her trust and misused it. Her parched lips curled in rage when she cut down the men and women around her--yet still, they came through. It was like they never ended.
Her body ran out of energy, her moves got dull and slow. Her defenses broke. A hand reached out, slicing past her cheek and grabbing her sensitive wing atop her head. Blood spilled across her face as the bone broke, compound fracturing through the skin and causing her to scream. When Morrigan's hands reached out, they plummeted past the soft flesh of his eyes and hooked into his skull. When she used all her power to wrench him around, his hand stripped the skin of that wing, the still barely-attached nerves crying out in horror. He died almost instantly, and Morrigan shrank back. That was her last stand--the council members that had not escaped the palace yet were unable to stop the coming onslaught.
A visible shudder caressed her spine as she pulled out of the reverie, hating the eyes that seemed to bore even into her secret thoughts.
"If you'd have told me a thousand times... I still wouldn't listen."
GOD
dainty goddess
No, no! GOD
mmm, so cute =]
they're soft, and pale
ignore that comment
*is dirty minded*
Everyone knows that!
Isn't cute.
EVIL SPAMMER of DOOOM
Got Globally Banned
Posts: 542
(6/4/07 11:05 pm)
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
“Some things never change, Morrigan…” A soft, mournful laugh left Crystal’s throat and a pale hand pushed her thick hair away from her face in a familiar, comforting motion. Her feet were bare on the cold marble floor and she walked slowly to a chair, feeling and studying each step and the almost exotic feeling of being in a place that felt so close to home. With an elegant motion she went to take a seat in her old chair without realizing the back was broken off of it and she went head over heels in a flurry of red hair and bare feet. She muttered from the floor angrily, “Then again, some things do change. Could you have ever imagined me doing that in front of the entire Council?” Crystal’s cheeks were a flushed red when she stood nimbly and checked her clothing for tears and stains.
“We are the last left Morri…The last left of the only people I can remember loving with all of my heart. Where are they all? No.. If you know the answer to that, please don’t answer me. I’d rather not find them if they are no longer living. I couldn’t bare to know that those of the Council are gone along with so many people from Genil.” She was pacing slowly in front of the closed doorway to the balcony until she noticed that the heavy velvet curtains were closed over all of the windows. Just as she had before so many meetings, almost obsessively, she opened the curtains all the way around the circular tower the meeting room had been made out of. Dim light came in through them and the scent of rain chased it, promising a storm more sooner than later.
“Yet… As the last we are both blaming ourselves for being alive while so many others have perished.” Crystal raised her chin, her blue eyes serious and stark in the dim light. “Morrigan, please tell me you don’t blame yourself as I blame myself? I know the pain… I know the guilt but I promise you, there was nothing we could have done to stop it. You’ve seen the other cities! You know how those people are as well as I do.” Bowing her head slightly she pressed her fingers to her temples and moved across the floor, her figure almost childish beneath the pantsuit she’d donned today. Slender hips and long legs, coupled with a youthful face had people guessing her age was around twenty. But no one knew the centuries she had endured after she’d reached this place. She wasn’t immortal, and yet she had seen at least seven centuries that she could remember fully. Had there been more? With a glance at her fellow Elder she knew the woman she’d always referred to as “the youngest” or “the baby” in her mind had seen just as many. She’d seen the splendor of Genil that had rotted away into pure filth and she knew Crystal’s pain. It was almost awkward but she felt so very close to Morrigan at the moment. They had both run from Genil, hidden, but at the same time, they were the only ones with enough courage to return.
The Elder’s voice was impassioned as she paced slowly, pouring out thoughts that she had kept quietly to herself for far too long. Where she was usually soft-spoken in public, her voice had always echoed off the walls of this meeting room. Now, it did just the same in self-laments and guilt dripping from every word. “And still… We can’t change what happened anymore than we can change the rising sun or tell the moon not to disappear regularly. I am not at fault for Genil falling and you hear me, Morrigan, neither are you. Neither are you. I can see the hurt in your eyes and I know instantly it mirrors the pain in mine. Physically raped of the will to live and emotionally robbed of the hope that we need to, I know! Believe me, I know!” By now, Crystal had made her way back to Morrigan and stood before her again, speaking calmly but with the fire still in her eyes. She grasped both of her arms softly, the warmth of another soul’s body warming her as well. It had always enraged her to the smallest degree that she had to look up to meet the other Elder’s eyes but all she felt at the moment she felt a rush of familiarity, of home. How many times had she stood just like this and yelled at the very woman who stood before her?
The tears brimmed in her eyes, turning the dusky navy blue back to its full splendor, shimmering, shining sapphire blue. With a sudden action, she launched herself at Morrigan and pressed her own head to the other woman’s shoulder. The overwhelming need for everything to go back to normal mixed with the knowledge that nothing would ever be the same and Crystal pressed her nose against the fabric as tears subsided and vanished from her eyes slowly. “Morri, just promise me that you’ll never feel alone again. Even when the world was crumbling… I was here in spirit and I promise I’ll be here until the end of time. We are all Genil has anymore and I’m willing to take that responsibility.”
She pulled back from the self-induced embrace and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. With an almost embarrassed look she grimaced and pointed at the small tear stain on Morrigan’s shoulder “Sorry about that…” Crystal felt like a child playing dress up in her mother’s clothing as she straightened her rumpled jacket and pulled a switch to light the chandelier that hung from the domed ceiling. She quickly replaced her chair at the head of the table with another unbroken one and sat down softly, judging the consistency of the chair. “So… What is the first order of business for Genil today?” A peal of lightning shot down from the darkened sky and rain began to fall softly through the stone windows, washing the grime off the marble floor in spots. Writing in the dust on the once glossy table, she formed an 'm' with her finger, “Oh yes… Mass clean-up.”
"The white city fell without her. Peace revolved around her, but when the mother left her children, they destroyed one another... She'll never forget that she left--she'll wear the chains of the martyr as she pulls the world's weight behind her, still thinking she's not doing enough." Morrigan Aensland
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
As the crimson haired woman paced the dark room, she shone like some gem Morrigan had lost sight of. There was the reason Morrigan had fought, the reason she had stayed. The very reason she still breathed. She had sought some way to survive because this woman had been somewhere, and Morrigan couldn't bear leaving her. She was the family Morrigan had left behind in the past life; Crystal was the last of a family she had lost. Nuki was the only other council member Morrigan cared for so much, the only one she still wished would return. When Crystal approached her, those words burned. She wasn't speaking to the succubus so much, but to herself--trying to instill some semblance of hope that she could let go of the guilt that hung around her like some ever-present cloud. Will we ever quite forget and say we were not responsible? The emerald eyes stared at Crystal's slumped shoulders. Even after she had fallen to the floor, there was grace there, something Morrigan couldn't deny or laugh at. Crystal had power. A different kind than Morrigan possessed. The power to heal, Crystal, is so much more than the power to destroy...
Those people... Morrigan closed her eyes and remembered, even after Genil had fallen, seeking shelter in Nureese--not in the cold marble stone. The purity, the order was not her element... she had spent, with her body wrapped in black cloth and her eyes the only thing visible, night after night inside the cage, where she screamed and kicked the bars as the blood fell around her. Seren had even understood--he had deposited each body in a dumpster in the back alley. Morrigan's victims did not wake the next day--the ones that did not deserve to die as well as those she knew had participated, knew had come.. but the one I wanted... the person who scarred me in the only way I could not heal--the one who removed my left head wing, he never showed... I would have recognized him if by nothing but his smell... Seren had not participated in the raids--he never could have found the reason to do so. he merely had cleaned each glass behind the bar and watched Morrigan heal in the only way she knew how--to destroy what had taken her life away from her. The power to heal is so much more... than what power I have... It was not the deaths I blamed myself for--I could not have stopped the war... but what was my own fault. Only you, Crystal, are so compassionate as to take on the faults of others... I have no stomach for it. Green eyes disappeared behind a veil of eyelashes and Morrigan turned her head away in shame as Crystal spoke. There was no absolvement of her sins. She was one of those people. There was no denying it; no matter how many times she looked at herself in a mirror and argued, 'I was only trying to save the people I loved. I did what was right!', the reflection still stared back--the side of her mirror that still held the right side, the side that still seemed as if nothing had happened--and said, 'You know better than that.'
Crystal's fingers bit her shoulders to pull her out of the reverie. "And still… We can’t change what happened anymore than we can change the rising sun or tell the moon not to disappear regularly. I am not at fault for Genil falling and you hear me, Morrigan, neither are you. Neither are you. I can see the hurt in your eyes and I know instantly it mirrors the pain in mine. Physically raped of the will to live and emotionally robbed of the hope that we need to, I know! Believe me, I know!” Neither are you. No, Crystal, my pain is much less than yours. She wanted to say it with all her might, to bite back the fear and to tell the woman that stood before her the truth. I killed them. Even after the war had ended, the blood had stopped; after you came back and everything was going to get better.... I still killed them. I allowed myself the release.. the ones that I recognized will not even have another life.. I even denied them rebirth.. I denied them another chance! but if she had said it, what would she do then? There would not be any more family to accept her.. There would be no more home, no more trust. Morrigan Aensland was too weak for that--too frail to be alone. Even though Crystal's head was on her shoulder, the elder's body resting against her support, Morrigan knew. The walls knew, and the ghosts that shook their heads at her--the other twelve, they knew, as well. Morrigan was a child... she was truly the weakest of them all.
"I couldn't see it..." She stood behind Crystal as she traced an M into the marble stone, sweeping the dust away with some angelic power. Restoration. Mass clean-up began with the barrier break... with the silence discontinued. "When you left, the first time. I didn't even see the storm coming. All I could think of was where you had went--if you still lived. While the other council members bickered over how to stop the oncoming battle, I didn't leave my room. Nuki brought the news to me the day it began. The first battle was starting... She crawled into my bed and hid beneath my covers... all she said was, 'Make the nightmares go away'. I didn't even understand it then..."
"I don't blame myself, Crystal, for anything that I did not take part in..." Her hand came up to cup the missing wing, only glad the other woman had not found the curiousity to ask why it was as it was, "Nothing inside me is bogged down with a pity I don't deserve... I'm not a good person. I didn't stay for the city--for the people. I stayed up here because it was where I hid away." Her voice was almost angry, but died off into a soft whisper, "because it was the only place where I might find my family will come home. You, Crystal, are the only one who suffers for something that was not your making. Why? What is it that drives some stake of guilt into you--what did you accomplish or fail to out there in the woods where you searched so avidly for some demon?" It was Morrigan's turn to grasp the other's attention by turning her, holding her by the shoulders at attention. "What did... you leave...?"
It had been with jealousy that Morrigan had paced her rooms and refused to come down those nights when the council was meeting over the most fateful encounter of any of their lives. Morrigan Aensland had stalked the room and cursed at some unknown creature that had stolen Crystal away from her... Something out there had enough allure that the red-head had left her box, that little box that she held all her romance inside and kept the world away from. Something had been so magnificent that Crystal had been in love with it... she had to have been. That was the only explaination... and Morrigan still didn't know why she had been jealous of that being--was still jealous of it. She didn't know if it was merely some need to be the center, the pivotal point in the lives of all the people she cared about, or something else... something more personal. She had been too frightened to ever dig further and find out...
GOD
dainty goddess
No, no! GOD
mmm, so cute =]
they're soft, and pale
ignore that comment
*is dirty minded*
Everyone knows that!
Isn't cute.
EVIL SPAMMER of DOOOM
Got Globally Banned
Posts: 543
(6/4/07 11:09 pm)
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
The tracing on the table continued as Crystal listened, almost entranced with the words that she drew on the table. M.. A.. S… … Her finger paused as Morrigan asked the one question others had not dared to voice, even though their curiosity ate at them, questioning, prying with dead dry fingers until they were unable to look at her any longer. "What did... you leave...?" What had she left? A sad, sick creature full of longing to remember what he had discovered. A man starving to break free of a curse that she cared for, and yet had never seen his face. The ghosts of dead girls, the blood dried on the silk lingerie—
“Hell. I left hell behind.” Her eyes gleaming with an intensity that she could feel raging through her entire body, Crystal looked up to meet Morrigan’s eyes. “I left behind fear, insanity, being caged like an animal, a treasured yet hated pet. I left behind… Death. My own death, I escaped it once again. He would have killed me… I wish he would have, then there would be no more worrying, no more waiting, no more watching. Then again, I thought that the first time. I accomplished nothing. If anything, I made both my life and his life a living hell for that moment in time. Luckily for him, he won’t remember…He’ll never remember. Me… I remember everything. You’re wrong though, it was my making… I made it my own, do you understand that? The obsession, the need to understand. I wasn’t born with that weight on my shoulders but it is forever mine now.” Without another word, she walked to a glass-less window and let the rain blow into her hair and onto her skin. Her face was cool with the fresh rain before she continued, brushing the long wet strands out of her eyes. The drips danced on her skin, trickling down her smooth arms and making her shiver so deeply that she had to cross her arms. Even the sky’s tears felt like his claws.
Crystal’s senses had returned and she could feel the calm drifting over her in soft waves. Clearing her throat gently, the Elder tried to chase the shaking from her voice before she continued. “Your questions should all be easy to answer, if I’m understand what you are asking me. You said, ‘who’… I can answer that. I think…” She glanced down at the water running across the dirt-streaked floor and shrugged. There was nothing left in this room that could be ruined by water and the only thing it could do would be clean away some of the dust. The bottoms of her feet were wet so she moved away from the window just in time for lightning to come crashing down outside of the castle. The electricity in Genil failed and left only the candles that Morrigan had lit burning. Crystal’s eyes became entranced with the almost life-like fire coming off of the candle wick until she tore her eyes from it and walked into the darkness that it left visible, her arms still crossed.
“Who was it? A man, Morri. I almost found a man buried deep inside the chest of a monster. I can’t describe how it happened, I just know that it was supernatural. I never believed in any of that before I came here and now I have no choice but to believe. I saw him only in my dreams after meeting this… creature I will tell you about soon and I realized that they were connected in a way. I didn’t know how. Yet… I loved him. His name is the only thing I can remember and it lies fresh on my lips, waiting to be whispered lovingly into his ear. But still I know he could be nothing but my own deranged fantasy. At least, I always thought I knew that… until…” She trailed off and closed her eyes and let a shiver go down her back, then she spoke his name wistfully, softly, “Paris. That is all I know of him… Paris is his name. I heard it embroidered in another woman’s screams.”
“What was it? A demon. Those eyes were terrifying, yet they’d break for a split second and I could see what made it all worth it. The one I was searching for, the one I wished to see. I became so deeply dependent on seeing those eyes again that I couldn’t stop myself from following him. This… Fox demon had taken at least two of my women from Genil that I could count for certain. I remembered them so clearly yet, they had nothing to do with my pursuit. I was there for my own personal reasons, so full of selfishness that I nearly got myself killed in the process. I guess I would have deserved it. I… I was too afraid to let myself go completely, to be truthful. And I understood fully that he would kill me had he not pushed me out of the door at that instant that he was overcome. He told me never to come back and I wish I could vow that I wouldn’t. But one day the dreams will become strong again and I’ll have to find him. This time I will be more prepared. Morrigan… I have to, it’s something I can’t hold back from.” The Elder moved out of the darkness, the soft light of the candles picking up on the lighter highlights in her hair and glinting from them. The shadows danced along her face as she slid back into her chair again, tucking her legs up into it with her. The wind howled through the circular room, yet somehow didn’t disturb the lit candles.
“Why…” Her eyes were soft now as she thought and spoke, her fingernails digging into the soft skin of her arms without her noticing. “I can never answer the why because I’ve not yet answered that for myself. “I spend my nights searching my dreams for a face I’ve never seen, a voice I’ve only heard scream. I crave the touch of a monster. I crave it because it is the only piece of him I know to be real. Even under the claws and the demonic beauty, I can feel the softness of him. I’m in love with an idea, a fantasy, and I can’t make it end. It will never end. Not until I can see him. To touch him, hold him… Make the pain dissipate if only for an hour, a minute, a second. That… grating, tearing, ripping pain of loss. I wish to tell him how I understand and what makes us different yet so similar. To let him know the shame of having what they too wanted only to feel it slip through my fingers like a grain of sand. I’ll have Genil back again. The riches, the power, and yet… I’ll have nothing at all. Not until I’ve looked into his eyes and see that he is finally free. I can’t justify the why and I can’t make it disappear because it comes back each and every night. Paris… Merin… and Fedafyr. I need them, Morri… I need him. But I don’t know how… I’ll never know how or why”
"The white city fell without her. Peace revolved around her, but when the mother left her children, they destroyed one another... She'll never forget that she left--she'll wear the chains of the martyr as she pulls the world's weight behind her, still thinking she's not doing enough." Morrigan Aensland
Re: Ghosts of Memories - The Return to Genil
Morrigan listened with deaf ears. She knew what it would be, the tale. She had played it like a recording in the back of her mind--or she thought so. Instead it was much more urgent, much more frightening--Crystal would make the mistake that Morrigan had made, and Morrigan would lose her. What can I say to change your mind? She would have begged, but she could do no more than stand, stunned. The voice of Crystal Dinaia came across to her in an echoing manner, as if she had crossed over into some ethereal plain, and the rain seemed to fall only for Morrigan. The lightning streaked across the dark sky, but the light didn't seem to touch her, and but for the other elder's voice, all was silent, even the thunder. The candlelight didn't reach her anymore, only shadows. Morrigan knew how to handle jealousy, she knew how to handle unrequited love, she knew how to handle pain and physical and verbal abuse alike, but loss... Loss was something Morrigan would never get used to, and that was what had just happened. Some rope of hope that she had held onto with the last person she knew at the end had broken. It was too late to do anything. Morrigan's eyelashes fluttered downward, touching her cheeks as she listened to a booming voice that proclaimed the end of her sanity, the loss of what humanity she still possessed. She willed herself to shut it out, to drive the voice away by ignoring it, but even as Crystal spoke, Morrigan already knew the end of the speech. You'll go back to him... She wanted to scream, but she didn't find the energy, so focused was it on keeping her focused, keeping her strong. Morrigan Aensland didn't cry... especially not where others could see.
The words kept coming, the darkness thickened. It was her own personal hell, But how can I argue when my own death was of the same making... Her fingers raised to touch the jewel that dangled from a chain around her neck--that piece that had been with her, even in the afterlife, after its former owner had stabbed her in the gullet with a jagged blade. "I can never answer the why because I’ve not yet answered that for myself..." The chain split with a quick tug of her fingers, Morrigan's hazy green eyes opening for a moment just to look at the jewel before she dropped it to the floor, the glass shattering and spilling the blood it kept inside. It was a small sound, almost inaudible, but it seemed like the thunder roaring in Morrigan's ears as she drew in a sharp breath to stop the internal pain from manifesting in her eyes. She began to walk forward, some semblance of grace still in each step, some grasp of her dignity as she closed the distance between her and the red-headed elder... But when she reached out, when she touched the smaller woman, when those words, those final words, hit her, she wasn't so composed anymore. "I need them, Morri… I need him. But I don’t know how… I’ll never know how or why..."
She wanted to shake her, but instead her fingers just bit into the flesh they grasped at her shoulders. Morrigan Aensland would have raised her voice if she had the breath past the hiccup, "Are you stupid, Crystal? People need you. That's selfish, don't you get it? Allowing yourself to die for some cause, some man; that's not right when there are other people you have to think about..." Morrigan was talking through water, the importance of her words lost in the sanity of the moment. There was no choice in the matter--not for she, not for Crystal. But I asked, didn't I? You told me the truth and there's nothing I can do about it. "You can't just up and say that! There's no chance for Genil without you here, not for a moment, not even if it gets back on its feet and every other council member were to return to this hall and everything were to go back to normal!" What I really mean is, I can't live without you around... without hearing your voice, without listening for your footsteps as you cross the halls.... "Do you understand? Do you even think about it?" It was a foolish question. Crystal had thought about it, all right. She had even taken the blame for her actions as being the blame for the fall, for everyone's losses. Morrigan's eyes fogged over. Her resilliance broke.
She let go of Crystal's arms and turned away. She put distance between them as if one of them might disappear if she stayed too close, and she did it with haste. Where no one could see... She stared up at the cold marble walls and felt that familiar gaze. "Shut up." She spoke to the marble that laughed at her, called her a liar for trying to believe she was something she was not. Her hands raked her hair away from her face, covered her traitorous eyes as the tears fell. The laughter got louder, so she ran from the room. Up the stairs, her heels clicking, past the door that still hung ajar, showing Lumen's broken room, down the hall until she turned left into the candlelight that shone across her room from her desk, the oval mirror cracked vertically down the center. The walls were still splashed in blood, though she could only guess whom it belonged to. She stumbled forward to the splintered chair and leaned over it, only to stare straight into the glass with green eyes... She lifted her fingers and covered the right half of the split, and for once, it wasn't her past that stared back at her, but only her present. This was what she was, and no amount of screaming would change that the past would not return... Morrigan Aensland hiccupped and choked on her sob before turning away from the mirror and walking to the broken bed... She slipped into the crevice and pulled the cover over her head...
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