Quest [Riverfall] The Ship Who Sang To The Mourning Sun

[Gossamer]

❖Timestamp: 51st of Fall, 512 AV ❖Status: Open to Elem Bree, Iris Timandre, Ishara Dossari, I’sona, Serrif Von Chatlyn, and Syrah Steele ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ The night was quiet, which was a rarity in Riverfall since the constant flow of the Bluevein over the cliff tended to give everything in the city a background roar. But it was one of those background sounds that everyone was used too, even those that lived close to the falls. They often claimed they couldn't sleep without the constant roar, and that was probably true. But tonight there was something different in the air, something behind the silence. There was a sound, a terrible sound, like a keening cry of a woman learning her husband had fallen. It underscored everything, though not everyone heard it. Regardless of what they were doing, the ones that did hear it woke or became alert to it immediately. Leth was high in the sky, huge, glowing with his mournful light, missing Syna and her bright sunshine. He seemed to reflect the emotion that a select few felt. Pain. So much pain and loss. It filled the awareness of a quite a few people. There was a sense of death, of the lost will to live and a futility of defeat. Pain infused everything and so too did a feeling of being caught, trapped, and unable to get free. From the pain rose fear which eclipsed the loss and made the people feeling the sensation feel it even stronger. The sensation felt like death. Death was in the air. Everywhere. And whatever was feeling the pain, loss, and defeat wasn't sure why or how and was overwhelmed with a sense of confusion. It needed help, badly, and so it cried out rolling all its current emotion into one siren song and it sang so long and so hard that finally the sun rose, and even Syna's feeble rays looked like they cried out too as she just missed touching Leth as he fell. West. It was coming from the west.

[Elem Bree]

Elem awoke with a shot. In a moment, he was sitting there in his bed, the covers strewn on the floor, his body soaked in sweat. He could hear his labored breathing in the darkness of his subterranean quarters. That, and something else. A cry, a horrible cry that sent shivers over his body as he frantically looked in the darkness. Was he still asleep? He felt a deep pain in his chest, deeper than anything he had ever experienced. Combined with the darkness of the room, his mind quickly began to search for monsters in the corners. He had to get out of there.

Grabbing pants, a shirt and shoes, Elem quickly ran into the hallway, feeling only slightly better by the presence of ambient light. Still, more shadows. With his pants and shoes on, he worked on his shirt as he made his way outside, the walls of the cavernous Within pressing down on him like the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't escape fast enough, the feeling that the shadows were peering at him from every corner, every space beneath furniture. His heart thumped madly in his chest. What was going on?! Elem felt involuntary tears welling up in his eyes as fear rode his back, his pace quickening to a full sprint until he could reach the night air.

Once outside, it only got worse! Leth was high in the sky, though He lacked his usual quiet grace. Elem fell to his knees as the despair set in. It was a living nightmare, the feeling he had experienced in the Infirmary the day of the Storm. When ankle deep bloody water coursed through the streets and he had to pile bodies behind the building. His tears came fully and freely now, along with a terrifying feeling that his own body could soon be piled up. Elem's eyes wildly scoured every corner of the grounds, sure that something was going to come at him. Wiping sweat from his brow, he could feel the cry inside, making him stagger about drunkenly.

Once at the gates, the overwhelming sensations pushed Dinner promptly from his stomach as he spilled it on the ground. Tears streamed freely as Elem's sobs of despair made him shake. He covered his ears but it only made the sensation more real, living inside him. Where could he go? The others could help maybe, but there was no way he was going back under the ground. That left the Akalaks. Any apprehension at grovelling for protection from them meant nothing at the moment. He had to try. It was a long walk there. In the dark..

[Syrah Steele]

Syrah was already up, her raging headache from her forthcoming hangover had pressured her brain till it couldn't be still. She was sitting in her chair, reading her wine book trying to calm her head when something worse than her headache sounded in her ears. It was late at night, yet only the beginning. Out the window Syrah could see the moon only halfway through the night sky. Other than the spheres intense glow that made Syrah's eyes hurt the sky was otherwise black. No stars could be seen tonight but Syrah didn't really notice behind the cry that wafted through the window into her house.

At first she thought is was a wailing mother, one who had just given birth and had lost the child. She would wake up to those every so often. But this was different and that thought only lasted a second or two. This wailing was more. This wailing signaled more loss, more death and the next thought that came into her head was Christine. She was only 6 when her sister had died, but she remembered the days so clearly. Her sister had been three weeks old, but Syrah had already loved her like she had never loved anyone else. She would always imagine herself teaching her younger sibling things that her older brother would teacher her. But then the child started wheezing and then soon she stopped breathing all-together.

The image of her sister coursed through her mind so quickly, it shocked her out of her chair and onto her knees. She didn't even realize that she was crying until she felt a drop of water on her leg. She paid no mind. She should have told her parents about her sisters breathing that night, but she was afraid. She was afraid she would get in trouble for waking the baby, for not being in bed like she was supposed to. Syrah knows now she was wrong, she knows now that she killed her sister, the only girl she had ever loved.

"Forgive me," Syrah whispered to the wailing. She thought of it as her own personal ghost that had come to pay her back for the murder of Christine. Did her sister know how sorry she was? Did her sister know that she would trade her own life to get her back? She had to tell her. She had to make things right. She needed to find her ghost.

She began to walk out her house, forgetting her shoes or her coat. She walked through the cold, dark streets in just a skirt and a shirt. She had to find the wailing. She knew it was her sister, their could be no other explanation. It did not seem like anyone else could hear it. She did not see herds of people walking through the night. It was a quiet night, but it seemed like everyone was screaming.

She walked west, towards the water, she knew it was coming from the water. Christine always loved the river. It would take her a while to reach her destination, when she was there she would call out to her sister. She had to say she was sorry.

[Ishara Dossari]

The keening wail turned Ishara out of her bedroll so fast she nearly tumbled into what remained of her fire. Raj was caught somewhere between barking and whining, and the young Benshiran could do nothing but clutch her blankets over her heart and breathe. The fresh adrenaline coursing through her system did not dissipate, however. Instead, it was fanned into an engulfing terror, one laced in pain and despair. Fresh tears stung behind her eyes, and her ragged breaths tettered on the verge of sobs for several long minutes.

What is this?

It was grief re-awakened. The echo of the cry still stung in her ears, and it seemed to Ishara that she'd heard it before...She swallowed thickly, trying to get a grip on her fractious state, while the memory of Abyar's death surged to mind in painful clarity. Gone...

Ishara shook herself, dropping the blanket and wincing as the bitter wind cut sharply through her light sleeping robes. The cold seemed to restore some of her senses, and she busied herself in clamboring into another layer of clothing. Tears cooled against her cheeks, and Ishara raked the back of one arm across her eyes to banish them. Something isn't right...! I feel...I feel-- "Trapped," she whispered...Am I dreaming? As though seeking conformation, she looked to Raj. The silkena was pacing, panting, his wide eyes darting across the ocean before rolling back to her. Small trembles coursed through his lean frame. Ishara knelt at his side.

"If only it was a dream," she murmured, placing a trembling hand atop Raj's skull. The silkena seemed little comforted by the gesture, breaking from her side to trot out towards the waves. Ishara stood and stared after him, her arms wrapped about her as though warding off some hidden pain. The sky was just beginning to lighten, a backdrop of silvering light against the darkened world. Raj went still, his slender features pointing west, out over the water... "What is it, friend of my heart?" The words were hushed, as though by raising her voice she would bring whatever lurked out there over the waves closer. The city slept on...or so Ishara thought. The unnatural quiet was about as unsettling as the cryptic flood of emotions that saturated the air like an oily miasma.

Ishara closed her eyes and began to pray silently...

[I'sona]

The dreams were of underwater coves and mounds of sea glass just out of her reach as she swam. And the close she swam the farther it got, it was an endless chase that she enjoyed. Or had enjoyed, but now there was shrill cry, painful and insistent jerking her away. Her arms and legs kicking frantically, torn between trying to flee from the sound and going towards it. And when the Charoda woke the cry that split the night didn’t stop. It continued for moments longer, echoing in her ears. I’sona was out of bed slowly, nervously. Unsure but needing to go…somewhere. It physically hurt her to stay. She had to go to it. She had to follow it. Find it. Make it stop. No one, nothing should ever make that sound. Her clothes were thrown on as afterthought, her feet skidding back and forth across her hall, her mind pulled toward the sound but her body still trying to comprehend what was happening. The halls of her home were silent, she could not even hear the breathing of those that would be asleep and it seemed as if all had fallen away save for the feeling, the lingering, the need and the pain. It urged her to follow, to run towards where Leth had already fallen. Urged her to flee towards the sound that came from everywhere. The city that usually bustled seemed strangely still, people were nowhere but things were, it was as a painter had left his work unfinished. Strangely enough she knew where she was but it did not comfort her, she longed to be in her dreams once more but she could not ignore the way she had to stop the pain. It gnawed at her the closer she got, the wail ringing crystal clear in her head over and over, piercing louder with each step and each ray Syna shed on the water.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

OOCWoah ok here is my post now, wrote it just forgot to put it here.

He smelt the dirt…felt the dried blood on his body. The way it cracked as he tried to move his body from the cold iron rack on the ground. His eyes slowly opened and there the bars were as imposing as ever. He wasn’t going anywhere…and he knew it. The winters grasp held him tight in it’s grip, he didn’t know this was only another nightmare. Acute confusion filled his mind; his registered the sound of a whip several times and could hear the screaming…

He covered his ears, but it continued piercing through his hands like they weren’t even there in the first place. Almost as if it was being screamed right into his mind. It shattered any train of thought he had, and anything he was doing instantly stopped. It consumed him completely and he was lost in it for minutes at a time. Wounds fresh bleeding wounds opened on his body, agonizing blisters filled with fluid. All these wounds registered to his mind as he had them once in his past before. Dark crimson blood spilled across his body and he began to shake violently. Looking up as his body began to heave in pain he saw a twisted figure, half of the skin melted off of his face. The tendons and muscles were burned by energy but the man still hit a deep pain with Serrif.

“Seven.” The words were a garbled mess but he knew what he said. The burned arm reached out and grabbed Serrif by the throat.

He rolled to the other side of the cage and the man still stood there watching him through the bars. Darkness crept in as the pain continued…what was going on? The screaming still continued…echoing as the dream abruptly ended.

Quickly he found his feet under him and his hand on a dagger. Like a frightened animal that had just been woken his eyes were wild and his heartbeat erratic. His room felt like a cage, and he felt…trapped. He had to get away, so he slipped on his loose tunic top and walked quickly to the beach. He ignored everything on his way there, he had to get out of this cage and to freedom…and he eventually did throwing the heavy doors wide letting the sunlight burst in on him. That felt right…but there was still so much wrong.

He still felt sick in his stomach. Unsure of why a dream and that scream had caused him this much discomfort. But the only other ‘dream’ he ever had like this was induced by vision water back in Mura. This nightmare was likely caused by something else entirely. He had been sleeping well up until now. The cool breeze chilled the sweat that clung to his body. The only reason he was not floored by the overwhelming feelings and emotions was because he pledged to himself that he would be better than that. Even if the emotions seemed to be crushing him right now. As he looked to the West he felt that there was something out there.

That was odd…it didn’t make any sense to him at all. Why…why those dreams? And that scream…that scream woke him more than anything else. He could still hear it pounding in the back of his head. Something seemed to be out there…but what? After a few minutes of just simply staring he knew that he had other things to tend to rather than just random feelings. One of those things was getting more supplies from the city proper.

So without much more thought on the subject he readied himself to saddle up Hasmere and ride into the city. He believed Elem would likely meet him there since the two had become even more inseparable over the last few weeks. But that was up to him, in all he didn’t control Elem’s life. But he was nowhere to be found when Serrif went looking for him. Which was slightly odd; maybe he went to the city and would meet him there? The saddle was settled squarely on Hasmere and Serrif decided he would ride the beach line up to the city. Maybe that would make it a little easier for him; he didn’t want to feel trapped right now. And the beach definitely soothed him.

The easy trot of Hasmere under him lulled him some and allowed him to think about what all was going on. It was like he was lost from the adrenaline that was still coursing through his body. On edge, waiting for almost anything to happen to him. Something would…something had to. Hasmere plodded up the beach toward Ishara’s camp. He would pass her but he wasn’t sure if she would be there at all. It was still morning after all. And he was going to do errands in town and he also wanted to check up on Iris if he could find the time to.

[Iris Timandre]

51st of Fall, 512 A. V.
Night time was indeed very quiet. It was the time Iris got to think to herself. To be by herself. Iris so happened to be inside of Laviku's tower. Dressed in only her sleeveless white dress. The Konti made sure to visit the tower every so often and give her thanks to Laviku for everything she's gained in her long life. Iris had thought that the night was going to run smoothe, but as usual, nothing in this world ever went according to plan.

A strange sound made Iris place both her palms over her ears. It didn't help much at all. The Timandre had never heard anything like it before. It sounded like someone was being attacked. Iris made her way out of the tower.

Soon after she began to feel depressed for no known reason. The Konti never had a real reason to be down in the dumps. But she wanted to just cry. Iris' pale palms found their way to her face and she covered it sobbing heavily into her hands. She could feel the drops start to run down her palms. Iris didn't show much emotion, when she wanted to cry she tried her best to make sure no one could see it. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop crying this time.

Without uttering a single word she felt her bare feet tap the floor multiple times. Iris was walking, she didn't know where to. At that moment she felt like she had to go in the direction she was headed.

[Elem Bree]

The night held secrets, and on this night, those secrets quickly became unseen terrors,much like the Zith from on high. The thought only fueled Elem's paranoia and fear, his eyes darting up at the cloudless sky as he briskly walked down the road toward the city proper. The bale of the cry wrenched in his guts like some kind of creature, rooting for purchase to find a way out of Elem's innards. Queasy and wild eyed, his walk became a jog and then a full out sprint, his legs pushing him toward the safety of the walls.

Strangely enough, as he got closer and closer to the city, the moon seemed larger and more ominous. Leth was a god of change, not fear. His full face over the night only enhanced its energy. Once he arrived, he had to wait for the ferry, his face wet with salt of eye and pore. Elem tried to calm himself, letting the irrational terror be dissolved in the darkness behind his eyes. It seemed to help slightly, but the pull was so strong at the city itself, the opposite reaction that he had initially hoped for. Keeping his eyes to the ground, he was glad he was a regular sight to the sentries posted, as no questions were asked of him. He kept his eyes on the road before him, his feet pulling him in time with the source of the pain. It was coming from the west.

Standing on the bridge above the falls, Elem looked out into the night, the Suvan illuminated by Leth's great presence. He longed for relief and release, his eyes scanning the tiers below, the harbor and out into the lonely waters of the Suvan..