In The Storm She Didn't Sleep

[Shai]

Timestamp: 90th of Spring 512 The heady scent of doused cinders still whispered fresh in the night. Even here, in the deep wilds the rogue was cautious; they didn’t keep a fire overnight. Shai lay upon her back, next to Antar, it was her place now; next to him. Night’s eyes traced the patterns of filtered midnight-light that punctured their well-made tent. It was getting warmer now, even out here in the complete wilderness. She couldn’t sleep. Lying next to a man for two seasons could teach a woman things about him, things even the best trained… assassin couldn’t be forced to hide. She could feel the subtle shift down to her bones, the shift that signaled the rogue slept. It was a good thing that he slumbered they had had a long day; they had had a season of long days. There were more yet to come too. Tonight no matter how weary, she couldn’t sleep. A deep overwhelming doubt plagued her every breath, the spider manipulated the man beside her. Suddenly sick with herself, Shai slipped from the sheets that intertwined them; the spider and the shadow. Taking Chell from around her neck she placed the Irylid’s sealed form next to Antar’s dreaming one. Fang flashed at her lips ever so briefly, she wondered what the rogue dreamt of. If she was ever to know his night’s journey it wouldn’t be tonight, she couldn’t sleep. It was chimes later that the spider realized she’d left. Her feet had moved of their own will, in the softest steps that hardly drew a sigh from the mossy ground. They had first seen the coastline two days past. Tonight on the horizon to their east a great megalith out lined by Leth’s full splendor rose unbidden. If the night could not be spent of replenishing her exhausted limbs, then let it serve another purpose. Let her see what solitary construct should rise so far from civilization. Let her share in its brilliant isolation. For tonight she would think if she couldn’t sleep. The moon in its spherical effulgence was hidden now by the dense shroud of a pregnant storm. Her eyes still saw, the black figure soaring against the charcoal sky, and so she followed it. The longest journey of her life or the shortest, time never shifted. The clouds roiled as her toes fell upon the first smooth stone, all edges eroded by the ancient forces of nature and divinity. Shai drew her silhouette across the beach, towards her companion until she could hide her light-thrown existence in its shadow. As she hid from all the world in the place so far from men and all their works of hands and hours, Shai found herself. On the night she wouldn’t sleep.

[Shai]

In the somber grace of her unconsenting witness’s dusk the Spider pulled close her limbs and mimicked the umbrage embrace. How long would she deceive? Resting her head back against his cold marbaline shell. A world of half-truths she’d woven as fodder for her own forays into secrecy. The deepest truths would damn her in those unjudging cobalt eyes. One day, before so many of its brothers, the spider might have told her truths without fear. On a day before those eyes mattered. Now the truth might end her as surely as the persistent lie would. Her frame shuttered as the lighting struck. Sandy mortar holding in the natural stony sprawl clung between her toes. The smell of fresh life, of ozone, smothered her face like a murder’s pillow. How many cities before the Shadow realized she was leading a hunt? The boy was alive, as true as the connection Viratas provided, she knew it down to her brittle bones. Would the Shadow follow her to the ends of the world before fatigue took away trust? Her shoulders spasmed, blood leek from pearl lips as the spider held in her gasp that would be hidden as the lightning struck. Sunberth, Zeltiva, Sylaris, Alvadas, Riverfall, and Endrykas. Six cities already and not even a wisp of hair. An ineffable sorrow drove the mother; her child was alive and alone. She knew beyond every truth the world could offer, that when there were no cities left to check she would return here. And every stone the mother would flip until she knew her son was not beneath them. The slender stream made tracks through grime but were bleached from sight as the lightning struck. Her watcher, it had felt so oppressive the first she had seen it. Standing tall and proud against a world full of society it was proof that to be lonely was not to be weak. She could never be lonely but would always be incomplete for the lack of One. But because she loved them both son and man her resolve released. Her lip bled free from bites to stifle, her frame shook from wracking heartache, her streams ran crystal clears over dirty cheeks; Shai cried. And the thunder rolled.

[Shai]

When eyes ran dry and burned. When a throat fell hoarse from laments fallen on ears of stone. When one body shook from exhaustion rather than cries. The storm’s final streaming clouds passed overhead and its last crack sounded upon the night’s land. New suffocating silence blanketed the forlorn woman. Leth’s illumination followed the storm, breaching the far horizon. Shai watched the world, devoid of thoughts and frozen of mind. Behind her, the sea crashed. Turning her back on the moon, nimble fingers traced the cracks in the tower. Seeking every truth ever unknown in the ordered pattern forged by forgotten hands. There fingers found the etchings, and an incomprehensible truth; Klet. The Spider didn’t need to understand, simply that the truth existed was enough. Shai’s eyes turned away from the tower and lay upon the ocean, where the sea crashed. Even before its birth, the sun spread tendrils above the waves, reaching for the infinite treasures known only to divine hands. Cloth shed like so many mortal-forgotten important lives to leave the spider bare before the sun’s heralding tendrils. With abandon sure steps met smooth stones, guiding the woman to the sea. Flying foreward in the surf, and against her the sea crashed. Surfacing in the world’s great mirror, Shai was greeted by the stunning radiance of Syna warming salt soaked cheeks. An unbidden smile for the sun goddess was the only prayer offered. A palm wished to cup the auric orb and know its answers. It was idle folly. Syna was not a name familiar to the pearly lips, she was a creature of the twisted rulers not those who dared shine. Drifting alone again, the towering Klet left on shore, the mother found her realization. The sun and moon would offer her no truths. Liquid dribbled down silvery thighs as sand met her feet once again. Once more, back turned on the benevolent gods. And all around from the elegant thresh of mortal ankles the sea rippled.

[Liar]

EXPERIENCE AWARD Shai Skill Points Meditation 2 Wilderness Survival 1 Observation 1 Swimming 1 Lore The Tower of Klet The Syliran Wildlands Strength in Solitude Notes I don’t think your grammar mistakes were as bad as you think they were, though I couldn’t really find any consistency in the rules you tried to break. Still, your descriptions are beautiful and your stream-of-consciousness approach left me sympathetic toward Shai. Well done.