Open [The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Kavala decides to take a night off and look for some new company.

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role playing forums. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Kavala on January 14th, 2015, 2:32 am

Image
It was odd talking to someone who knew almost nothing about her people or the people of Riverfall. Kavala tried really hard to see things through Shane’s eyes, reading his expression and watching the way emotions played across his face. She could see how it looked. There was disbelief and even anger, surprise, and a large amount of disapproval. The Konti considered Riverfall home now though, and she didn’t want someone walking around the place thinking the Akalak were horrible. They were desperate, not cruel or horrible. In Kavala’s mind, that was wholly something different.

And as much as she wanted to stop herself, to explain, and to make him see… she just kept talking. He was making it incredibly easy for her to open up to him. Shane had unusual listening skills and such a quiet way about him that it lulled her into a sense of wellbeing, relaxing her guard and helping to open her up far more than the alcohol could have.

Shane had much the same opinions as she did on the actions of men against women. Only, Kavala felt like women let them in some cases but not being strong enough, watchful enough, trained enough to protect themselves and their families. Sure, males should protect as well, but in the end, Kavala had learned a hard life lesson that one could only depend on oneself in the end. That’s why she trained, and trained so hard, because she never wanted to let herself down.

The Konti healer nodded to Shane’s words about knowledge being a shield. He was absolutely right. If you knew things, you could protect against darkness and danger. If you knew things, you could become darkness and danger. The Konti half smiled at the thought. And definitely, after hearing Shane’s words which ignited some of her own passions as well, she wanted to walk his chavi and find more out about him.

But Shane distracted her when he moved her hand, seemingly shuffling away before he did something surprising and rose to resettle next to her She watched his face as he readjusted and then repositioned her hand on his leg. Kavala glanced down at it, then back up at him, her lips parting slightly in surprise. But she said nothing because he began to speak, and in a way he’d taught her how to listen closer and slightly better than she had before. The Konti twisted her body slightly, giving him her full attention as he told the story about his time at the brothel. It was a telling story, one that gave her a great insight into his personality.

She felt his grip keenly, then laughed lightly when he refused to tell her the code by telling her the first rule of the code. Her eyes lit with mischief, making her actually finally look as young as she was. Kavala had lived a great deal in her early years. And by human standards, she was still in her early twenties as even though her Konti years numbered in the thirties. Laughter didn’t come easy to her, but Shane was definitely pushing her there, even inadvertently.

“Aren’t you breaking your own ‘never tell anyone the code’ by telling me the first rule of the code is not to tell anyone the code?” Kavala asked, delighted in the almost fallacy. Her blue eyes danced darker azure and then she studied Shane as he asked her his question, which was definitely about the kiss she figured he’d have forgotten.

“Yes. I suspect that would be a good idea. I hate being in debt, after all, and owing you a kiss is a form of debt isn’t it?” Kavala said softly, suddenly running the hand that was gripping Shane’s leg up and down its length. She shifted then, sliding across his lap so she faced him and settled her rump on his thighs. She wasn’t touching him other than being settled upon his lap, but the Konti was cautious, going slow, wanting the intimacy with him – a complete stranger – without scaring him or pushing him too far.

“Is this okay?” She asked quietly as she reached out and touched his shoulders with her hands, running her firm grip down the lengths of his arms until she took his hands. Then she brought his hands up, slipping them under her loose over sized shirt, laying them on her back so he could hold her there, stroking the pattern of scales and scarring covering her back.

“I just want to be close. No pressure Shane. But when I kiss you, I want it to be wholeheartedly, not just a peck. When I kiss you, I want you to be touching me, holding me, because that’s what I went to town for.” She said, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against his, then tipping her head up to run her lips across his brow. Her hands had long since released his, giving him the chance to put them elsewhere or leave them where she’d gently suggested he hold her. She leaned forward, her hands on his shoulders again, and ran them up his neck, cupping his jaw and studying his face. Her eyes met his, curious, as her thumbs traced the line of his jaw. She looked into his eyes and then glanced down at his lips. Her own curved into a smile as if she were thinking to herself how much fun it was going to be.

“A kiss is so much more than a kiss. It’s a moment of shared breath. It’s a taste of the other. It’s a blending of energies and it could be a blending of res or djed. It’s two aura’s coming together. It’s not just… a kiss, Shane. Something so big shouldn’t be represented by three letters and one syllable.” The Konti mused as she leaned in again, letting her breath mingle with his and her warmth touch his own. She closed her eyes as if to more carefully savor the moment, and then leaned forward and kissed Shane gently, running her lips across his lower one, asking him to let her in, let her kiss him. If he relaxed and invited her, she’d press in deeper and taste him. Kavala wouldn’t hurry, wouldn’t press, and wouldn’t move it past what it was supposed to be… a kiss. To her, they were exploring each other and nothing more.

Kavala pulled away gently when the kiss was over and offered Shane a smile. She didn’t outright ask him, but her look and her posture seemed to ask him if he was okay and looked for a sign in his eyes that he’d enjoyed it. Perched like she was, the healer was relaxed, still partially drunk, and enjoying herself enormously.

“Have you ever broken your code since you adopted it? I mean before now? I’d like to hear how if you have...” If he wouldn’t tell her what the code was, perhaps he’d be willing to dance around some of its contents. Kavala was curious, and as she asked the question, her fingers toyed with his shirt, slowly trailing her fingers around its collar. She wished it had buttons because if it had, she’d have loosened them, letting her hands wander down the flesh of his chest.

“I’d like to take you somewhere with me… somewhere we can’t go physically, but only in our dreams. I was wondering if you’d sleep with me, here on the couch, just a short nap…. maybe skin to skin because I want to show you another world and it’s easier to shed your body and travel in spirit if you let a dreamwalker guide you. Come with me?” She said suddenly, a soft playful smile on her face.


Image
The Sanctuary The Sanctuary Forum Riverfall The Cytali
Reverie Isle Wolf Creek Training Course
Please Note:
  • This pc is maxed out in Animal Husbandry, Medicine, Observation, Rhetoric, and Socialization.
  • Kavala a Master Teacher. Students she is teaching in thread can earn more than the maxium 5 XP per thread.
  • This pc has a Konti Gift of Animal Empathy. She has a superpower from a Riverfall city event that allows animals of all sorts and Kelvics (in kelvic form) to speak clear understandable Common around her.
  • Kavala is a Konti but was raised in the Drykas culture so her accent is entirely Pavi though she can speak Common, Pavi, and Tukant well. She's only conversational in Kontinese.
User avatar
Kavala
I am more than the sum of my parts.
 
Posts: 3025
Words: 3295757
Joined roleplay: October 25th, 2009, 1:46 am
Location: Riverfall
Race: Konti
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 17
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Trailblazer (2) Overlored (1)
Master Merchant (1) Donor (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (2) 2014 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Shane Wallsly on February 2nd, 2015, 9:40 am

Image
Shane frowned somewhat as she pointed out the flaw in his reasoning. She was right. He broke the rule by telling her the rule and yet he had already broken that rule by even mentioning the existence of it. “True enough.” He replied with a half shrug and divulged no more. She was merely teasing after all.

She agreed then to the kiss and her hand glided up and down his leg. The action was small yet significant. His loins stirred, his stomach fluttered and the blood began to pump over so fast through his veins. Before he knew it she was sitting on him. This didn't help his physical ailments in the least. She asked his assent and he could only nod. He felt her touch again. This time on his shoulders and down his arms lightly activating the light arm hairs to rise as she moved across them. Then she had his hands and was putting them under her shirt; to her back, to hold her, to gently stroke her. Her back was almost alien in touch. There were scales, small ridges and other unidentifiables. He could not help but trace them as it calmed his nerves somewhat.

Shane didn't know how to reply to her words. He had spent the last couple of moments worrying about his need. He'd spent many years worrying about his need. He hadn't considered her need as he hadn't considered the needs of others. There was no words his usually verbose mouth could utter so instead he brought his hand to her sides and lightly squeezed. She put her forehead to his; he moved his hands along the side of her ribs. Her lips across his brow; he stopped shortly before her breast and moved his hands across to her upper back. Her hands cupped his jaw; he slid his hands down her back.

Shane didn't know what a kiss was. Sure he knew the specifics of it and had heard the word plenty of times but he had never known a real kiss before. He had never felt that staggering intimacy between two people. The truth of her words were made immediately apparent to him the closer her lips came to his mouth. There actually came a moment where it felt as if she had stolen the breath right out of him only to give it back a moment later. As their lips connected Shane closed his eyes and surrendered himself to her. His hands tensed somewhat at her lower back holding her firmly in place. Time seemed to slow and yet he could feel his heart beating faster. It was a strange feeling but ultimately a pleasurable one. Shane had always thought the meshing of lips and mouth and teeth and tongues would simply feel weird and perhaps it did feel weird on some level but his body seemed programmed to overwrite that feeling.

It felt like Shane was just getting into it when it was suddenly over. As there mouths untangled Shane leaned forward a touch and stole some precious extra seconds and opened his eyes. He took in a ragged breath when his mouth was once again his own. His chest heaved a few times and his eyes were almost lidded. His hands relaxed on her back but stayed there. As his senses were regained he realised that his loins had become uncomfortably stiff. He was sure Kavala could feel the change and his cheeks went a darker hue at the thought.

After all that she went right on and asked her question however. Shane smiled. The game had become comfortable. It gave a little bit of control back into the situation. He was so relieved for it he answered her question when he would have refused not so any minutes ago. “Several times. Some rules are more important than others. Some rules actually give you leave to break them for specific reasons. Life is uncontrollable so strict rues I doubt could ever work. Biggest breach I can think of is when I opened up my shop in Syliras. I was declaring to the general public that I practised magic. Even though it's the most harmless of magics I knew that my life wouldn't quite be the same afterwards. I don't know if it was irony or not but I didn't stay in the city long enough to feel those repercussions despite knowing that they would one day come.“ Shane managed to explain this without actually giving the rule but she could probably guess at least a bit of it. The rule he had broken was #4.5: Do Not Give Away Your Power. As knowledge is power for him he knew it was power for others too so he had to keep a tight lid on what he knew. That included simply what things he knew as well as that gave others insight into himself. Opening an Auristics shop in Syliras had opened himself up to those who hated magic to strike against him and for others to begin to question if one magic was all he really knew. It had been a risky decision but, as fate would have it, he didn't stay around for his inevitable fall.

Before he could ask his next question she posited an idea to him. Shane was, at first, excited. He had wanted to walk the chavi almost as soon as she had first explained it's existence to him. However he was filled with caution. What would they see? Who's chavi would they look at? How dangerous was the dreamworld? All other doubts aside there was something else that bothered him about it. “Skin to skin?” He asked nervously. Did that mean she wanted them naked? His embarrassment about his aroused state grew reddening his cheeks and he broke his gaze from her. It was such a small thing to let get in the way of this experience. He had broken rules, laid himself bare and become closer with this woman than he had been with any other and he was going to let his body, his embarrassment hold him back. Never. He looked back up at her again his eyes searching out hers. “Of course. I would love to take this journey with you... Skin and all.
Group Threads: 1/3


ImageImageImage


Clerk at Mystic Eye Fortune Telling
User avatar
Shane Wallsly
Success Is The Only Option
 
Posts: 426
Words: 284445
Joined roleplay: September 30th, 2013, 9:10 am
Location: Ravok
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Medals: 2
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (1)

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Kavala on February 8th, 2015, 1:53 am

Image
There was a comfort in Shane’s philosophy. It was honest without being pretentious, like so many men could be. She enjoyed when he shared his thoughts with her, even just a little. The tidbits of common sense and world view intrigued her. It was as if he’d built this huge façade and then carefully left the cracks untouched and uncovered so bits and pieces of his real personality could shine through. Cooled lava with molten underneath, she figured, thinking of the one time she’d actually seen an active volcano dumping its fiery river into the sea.

They didn’t talk much, not really, as they exchanged the kiss and settled together. Kavala was surprised he accepted her invitation without condition and smiled slightly when he did so. She traced her hands down his tunic and then rose off his lap to stand in front of him. She reached out, taking his hands, and drawing him to his feet. There she knelt, carefully, and like a body servant removed first one of his boots and then the other. She set them aside with the socks he wore beneath carefully laid over the tops. As she worked, she spoke, trying to put him at ease.

“Never be embarrassed at your body showing your emotions. People that study other people well can read one’s expression so well that they can pick up lies just from what someone says or the way they look when they say it. Women for example, tend to flush more than men under scrutiny or criticism. Our eyes dilate or change subtle color. We narrow them or widen them, and our breath is never unaffected. I tried to study body language once, but I found the traits hard to pick up. My instructor on Mura hinted strongly that I should stick to the emotions of animals and try and work with them exclusively instead.” Kavala smiled, rising in front of him. She seemed to be reacting to his obvious embarrassment, the flush of his cheeks, and his change in breathing. The Konti paused in her attentions as she rose, and cupped his cheek and stroked his hair.

“Remember, tonight is just for fun. There’s no pressure, Shane… no commitments… and no place for embarrassment. Relax. I think you will find you will enjoy yourself despite yourself.”
The Konti said, and reached down to gently pull his tunic over his head, baring his chest to her. She ran her hands over it, touching, feeling, almost as if she were reading him. Then she bent forward and planted a kiss on the hollow of his throat, where his neck met his span of shoulders. Then she reached forward, captured his hands, and planted them firmly on her waist as if inviting him to explore as well while she bent to work the belt at his hips and free him from his pants. She was gentle, yet firm, touching him in a non-judgmental way and pretending despite the fact they were strangers, that they were old friends.

The sleeping cat on the counter woke, stretched, seemed to realize what was going on, and jumped down to march firmly out of The Commons. Her tail twitched in amusement as she went.

Kavala’s fingers hooked in Shane’s pants to tug the waistband down and anything else he might have on beneath, slipping the garments past his waist and down to his knees. The his evidence of his arousal sprang free, but the Konti ignored it. For now, it wasn’t as important as the man’s comfort was who stood before her. Kavala glanced up at him then as she knelt. As patient as a farrier working with delicate equine legs, Kavala lifted first one of his legs, sliding his pants free, then the other. She stroked Shane’s body from hip to knee, soothing him as she did so, her eyes on him so she didn’t stare at what he was uncomfortable baring for the world.

Then she gently pushed at him when he was bare before her, urging him back down on the couch. “Stretch out Shane. Get comfortable.” She said as she pulled her own oversized nightshirt off of her body and tossed it into the growing pile of Shane’s things. The Konti didn’t seem to mind the nudity or if he watched her or not because she was busy fetching a blanket off a nearby chair. When she returned, she stretched out on the length of the couch – a large piece of furniture for sure – and pulled the blanket over them both. The Konti settled her form against his, partially wrapping around him and tucking her head beneath his chin where she could rest against one of his pectoral muscles. Her arms went around him and her legs tangled with his, uncaring that intimate parts pressed against intimate parts.

“Can you sleep?” The Konti said softly, a hand around his chest gently stroking his back between the couch and the long length of him. She drew in his scent, and enjoyed the feeling of maleness against her. “Relax….. I will sleep just as soon as you do. Nysel makes it easy for the Dreamwalkers.” Kavala said, her lips playing along his skin gently, soothingly.

However long it would take… five chimes or five bells… Kavala would hold Shane, touch him, sooth him as best she could until he drifted off to sleep. Then, and only then did she follow as promised, slipping sideways into the Chavena and taking Shane’s essence with her. It would be much like a dream, one minute his mind fading to blissful blankness, and the next moment, he was someplace…. Otherworldly.

Kavala was there, easily recognized, as she chose to take her Konti form and not be the glowing light she usually was. Her appearance would be translucent though, see through in the field of darkness all around them. But he could still see her because her skin and her scales reflected the millions of glowing strands surrounding them. The light show went on forever, something like lightening in the night sky, only alive with color and repeating swirls that fell away in the distance. He’d see one of those lights, a long illuminated cord, attached to him and one attached to Kavala and at that moment they were tangled together because the pair of them were together. Kavala reached out, took his ethereal hand, and smiled.

“Welcome to the Chavena. Look around. We can either walk your Chavi and look at your memories or we can pick one at random and look to see who it was… and is now.”
She said softly, gently, more spirit here than real form. But for Shane, he could feel the power all around them. It swirled, ebbed and flowed, like unseen tides. Kavala seemed to draw strength from it, and suddenly he could see that she held numerous gnosis marks because they lit up. There were more than she admitted too, and they glowed in the darkness some recognizable and some not.

“Well… go on. Your own? Or a strangers. You pick. And I’ll show you how we walk the Chavi as a Dreamwalker."
She said, joy at being in the Chavena evident on her face.

Image
The Sanctuary The Sanctuary Forum Riverfall The Cytali
Reverie Isle Wolf Creek Training Course
Please Note:
  • This pc is maxed out in Animal Husbandry, Medicine, Observation, Rhetoric, and Socialization.
  • Kavala a Master Teacher. Students she is teaching in thread can earn more than the maxium 5 XP per thread.
  • This pc has a Konti Gift of Animal Empathy. She has a superpower from a Riverfall city event that allows animals of all sorts and Kelvics (in kelvic form) to speak clear understandable Common around her.
  • Kavala is a Konti but was raised in the Drykas culture so her accent is entirely Pavi though she can speak Common, Pavi, and Tukant well. She's only conversational in Kontinese.
User avatar
Kavala
I am more than the sum of my parts.
 
Posts: 3025
Words: 3295757
Joined roleplay: October 25th, 2009, 1:46 am
Location: Riverfall
Race: Konti
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 17
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Trailblazer (2) Overlored (1)
Master Merchant (1) Donor (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (2) 2014 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Shane Wallsly on February 9th, 2015, 11:27 pm

Image
His acceptance was meant with a silent invitation to stand. He rose with her and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow in her direction. Before he could ask what now she had knelt down and began to take his boots off. He helped her with occasional shifts of his body weight but, for the most part, he let her do her thing. Shane was quite past the point of objecting to this woman. If she wished to undress him like some servant of a nobleman she could. He only wished she would let him do the same for her.

Shane was familiar with the idea of body language. He had used his own body language to deceive and entrap. He had read the unwritten stories etched in the auras of countless people. The most fundamental part of every aura was the physical; the corporeal form was more important than many people thought. The body spoke of every day it had lived just as much as it spoke of the things it wanted in the present. He had always found the body to speak the loudest. The mind was easy to conceal but a thought of the body erupted in so many noticeable responses. He had to shake his mind free. He was slipping back into it and he needed to experience this night.

Before she slipped his tunic over his neck he put his hand on her shoulder stopping her for a moment. “I know...” He looked softly into her crystalline eyes. “I'm fine.” He reassured her with a soft smile. He squeezed her shoulder and let her resume. She took off his tunic and explored his body setting his sparse chest hairs on end. His body shivered, “Oh...” his breath caught as her lips found the hollow. She'd found something of a sensitive area and the sensation shocked him. He'd had no idea such a minor action could produce such an effect. Then she put his hand on her waist and he felt a major reaction. “Oh, I don't think that'll get me into the sleeping mood.” He said taking his hands off her waist rather quickly.

Just then motion in the room distracted him and he saw the cat get up and leave the room. He still wasn't entirely sure if it was a cat or a cat kelvic. Either way he had to wonder what it had been thinking waking up to a sight like this. It was the most intimate scene he'd ever been in with a woman and yet it probably wasn't ending where that cat, if it did have the mind of a person, was thinking it would end. The thought managed to distract him right up until Kavala was pulling his underwear down.

It actually wasn't so bad now that it was down. It was like a weight had been lifted from him. The weight of clothing, perhaps the weight of preconceived notions of appropriateness too. He was suddenly reminded of the smooth talking Shane back at the bar. They'd danced, chatted, drank together like it was all natural to him. Why was his body betraying him like this now. Why was he so much on edge? What was so scary about being naked? It felt quite freeing actually. The temperature of the room was just right for it too. When she pushed him he decided to allow the momentum to guide him downward and onto the couch. He landed softer than he expected. The couches really were remarkably soft. He smiled. Public nakedness wasn't so bad as the thought of public nakedness.

When she told him to get comfortable he did just that. He slid this way and that trying to find the best position. He missed her stripping and only realised she had when she had descended atop him in all her nakedness. For a moment they were merely a tangle of disorganised limbs but it didn't take long for Kavala to find comfort. They lay in an intimate embrace. He could feel so much of her it was almost as if they were joined. Surprisingly Shane felt like he wanted more. Some deep need had surfaced suddenly and demanded more closeness. He reached out and put his arms around her drawing her just a touch closer and, where their bodies already met, pressing her more firmly against him. A part of him hadn't forgotten that he had come to that bar for a reason. He'd been lonely too. The city had felt so empty without someone to share it with but the problem was even older than that. It dated far back to that day he had lost his last living family member. The day his life had become empty.

When she asked him if he could sleep he replied with “Mmmm, I think so...” in a half dreamy voice. With his inner self quietly content and the pleasant heat of their bodies trapped by the blanket over them Shane was finding himself getting drowsy already. His arousal had already left him despite the fact they were in an even more intimate position than they had been in when it was with them. The closeness between them had given Shane an inner tranquillity that radiated out from his core into every fiber of his being.

One moment Shane was lying in bed entwined with a beautiful woman and in the next she was gone. The couch was gone. The room was gone. All replaced with a beautiful yet alien world. The backdrop was darkness but all around them were miraculous strands of light. He wanted to use The Sight to see what they really were. The temptation was almost too great but he knew he shouldn't. He knew using magic probably wouldn't even work and if it did what he saw could be too powerful to unsee. It was well known not to gaze directly into the divine when it came to Auristics. That was just asking for sensory overload.

Kavala was with him too but she was different. He could almost see right through her and her body glowed golden where the Gods had touched her. “Kavala, you're beautiful. You're... you're radiant.” Shane exclaimed. So many marks; it wasn't until that exact moment that Shane really felt Kavala's connection to the Gods. It was so strong. She was so strong. It almost didn't make sense. He had once believed the Gods to be a prop for the weak but this woman here was by no means weak. She definitely wasn't anyone's puppet.

There was enough here to ponder endlessly and he hadn't experienced anything yet. He knew his time here was limited so when Kavala spoke he commited himself to listen hard. “My own?” He asked confused. He hadn't noticed his own silver cord. He had noticed Kavala's and it soon occurred to him that there must be one connected to him. Within moments he found the thing. Excitement shot through him. The key to his past; the key to all of his pasts. To find out who he'd been, what he could be, it was such a rush to him. He looked up to Kavala barely able to contain his enthusiasm. “Can we do mine? Please?” Shane was excited enough to almost sound desperate. His mind had not yet gotten to the realisation that looking at his own past might give Kavala startling insight into his soul. Depending on what that life ad been there was a possibility of her vilifying him for it. His mind, however, was clouded by the sudden onslaught of possibility...
Group Threads: 1/3


ImageImageImage


Clerk at Mystic Eye Fortune Telling
User avatar
Shane Wallsly
Success Is The Only Option
 
Posts: 426
Words: 284445
Joined roleplay: September 30th, 2013, 9:10 am
Location: Ravok
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Medals: 2
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (1)

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Kavala on July 5th, 2015, 12:00 am

Image
The Konti drifted in the Chavena, her ethereal hand in Shane’s, as the two translucent forms hovered over the light show all around them. There was a slow deliberate motion to their motions, as if they were floating under water or the air was just a little thicker in the realm of the Gods than it was in the realm of the living. Kavala’s hair floated around her and her inner light radiated outwards, concentrated around her gnosis marks, one of which illuminated the hand she held Shane’s with.

She smiled when he called her radiant and nodded back towards him. “You should see yourself here. We are always more of what we are here, somehow, than we are in the living world.” She said, shifting and nodding as he picked the path he wanted to explore. She seemingly gripped his hand tighter for a moment, and then plunged into the living cord of light attached to Shane and yet more around him than within him. She moved along it swiftly, not dipping too deeply, so that fleeting images of lives past swept by them. He felt the age of the chavi, how the more she moved down it the younger it grew, the newer…. until she pause and somehow plunged deep into the stream of recorded time. Shane felt their connection to the lifeline. He felt it like an electric shock through him. It was his, his life, his heart, what made up his core… and suddenly they were both inside his memories, living his life from behind his own eyes.

Only they weren’t his eyes. Not his of the now, but his of the past. Kavala plugged them in directly in the middle of a battle. They came aware to the world in a sea of blood and magic and incredible destruction. Two armies clashed, one Alahean and one Suvan. Shane, who was not Shane, stood dressed in the robes of a Alahean Mageking, leading a pitched battle that was not falling in his favor. Arms upraised, shaking with fatigue, he was loosening spells on the enemy that were felling big swaths of them. Only, once a group fell, more replaced them, and then more and even more. The forces they faced were endless, and while the bodies piled up the Alahean side weakened.

Already his underlings surrounding him were falling. Overgiving was the primary cause since a woman named Shelca was protecting them against munitions. One of the best shielders they had, she was adapting the shields she held around the group as fast as the enemy was changing ammunition. But they were surprised. Strategists had predicted the main Suvan Army as being leagues from where they were. They were on a special ops mission and traveling fast, light, and with only an escort of a hundred mages that had long since been cut in half and then cut in half again. One hundred didn’t stand against ten thousand with more in the reserves. That was even true if they were some of Alahean’s most gifted and powerful.

They’d been so close… so close to recovering Tallshade’s work. Her niece was among them, now sprawled out in a tangle of her own insides turned outside. Magic had erupted from her, devouring her from within when she’d pushed beyond too far and too fast. It was a shame the young died so easily these days…. never reaching their full potential.

Kavala let Shane fully immerse, not about to let him loose himself to the man he once was, but not about to interrupt either before he truly understood. The mission filled their mind. Find one of Tallshade’s Artifacts. It had power, had absorbed power, that they needed to win the war. The Book of Roth. They were close. It was so close as to be able to be touched, if only the army of The Suvan Empire wasn’t standing directly unknowingly over it.

Carbanal Morath. It was a strong name, a good name, one that came from a long family line. The Morath’s were gifted beyond most in magic and were raised playing with it as babes in their cradles. They had enough royal blood to have money to pad their pockets. And if that wasn’t enough, their gifts at djed manipulation were usually unrivaled. But the gifts were of the raw kind. Pure raw talent, and not true intellect drove his family before his birth.

Then one of the royal line had married his father bringing pure intellect into the equation, resulting in his birth. Power and brilliance combined. The wizard shook with fatigue, having lasted longer standing than any of his kind could usually hope too. He was known as The Black Lightening, partly for the power he called down and partly for an invention he’d crafted that allowed his kind to travel through time. The Lightening Road was mostly myth, though it had worked its way into popular night tales meant to frighten children. “Behave… or Carbanal Morath will call his his steed of electricity and the lighting road will ignite and dip down to earth. And he will ride… backwards, and make it so you were never born, child.” Desperate mothers would say...

That’s why the Suvan Empire wanted him. If they could get him they could get the key to the road, its creation, and ultimately its use. And it was why they were throwing troops at him repeatedly, harassing him into fatigue and not into death. If they wanted him dead with the numbers they had on hand, he’d have fallen long before.

No, they wanted to capture The Black Lightning alive, bottle him, and study him like they did everything else that scared them that they didn’t understand. Carbanal refused to let that happen. The Morath line was as stubborn as it was deadly. He’d fall before they did… long before they did… by his own hand if necessary.

Kavala, merged just as deeply as Shane, watched and observed in silence. It was as if she were waiting to judge Shane’s reaction.


Image
The Sanctuary The Sanctuary Forum Riverfall The Cytali
Reverie Isle Wolf Creek Training Course
Please Note:
  • This pc is maxed out in Animal Husbandry, Medicine, Observation, Rhetoric, and Socialization.
  • Kavala a Master Teacher. Students she is teaching in thread can earn more than the maxium 5 XP per thread.
  • This pc has a Konti Gift of Animal Empathy. She has a superpower from a Riverfall city event that allows animals of all sorts and Kelvics (in kelvic form) to speak clear understandable Common around her.
  • Kavala is a Konti but was raised in the Drykas culture so her accent is entirely Pavi though she can speak Common, Pavi, and Tukant well. She's only conversational in Kontinese.
User avatar
Kavala
I am more than the sum of my parts.
 
Posts: 3025
Words: 3295757
Joined roleplay: October 25th, 2009, 1:46 am
Location: Riverfall
Race: Konti
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 17
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Trailblazer (2) Overlored (1)
Master Merchant (1) Donor (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (2) 2014 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[The Blue Bull] Sometimes We Need Saved From Ourselves

Postby Shane Wallsly on July 7th, 2015, 12:59 pm

Image
As she spoke Shane looked down at himself and he could see that he too was glowing but in a much more muted way than Kavala. Except for a single point in his chest. It almost seemed to be the centre of his heart and when he looked down into it he could see something. Like a tiny, faraway image of someone. He couldn't make it who it was or if it was even just the one person or multiple people but when he looked at it he felt content and loved and loving all at once and it eased his soul and calmed his mind.

He watched her as she moved along the stream. He was at once excited, nervous and unsure of what was to come. When she plunged into him he felt a sensation pierce his heart and ripple into every peice of him and suddenly he was being yanked back by that chord through what seemed like a hundred lifetimes; he caught glimpses out of a hundred eyes of a hundred colours or so it seemed; and just as suddenly as he was pulled back he had stopped somewhere else and his eyes looked out over an unfamiliar place. They were his eyes but at the same time he knew they were not Shane's eyes. These eyes fit him perfectly but he did not belong to him. They felt borrowed. In fact his whole body felt borrowed. He was Shane but he was also Carbanal Morath; an Alehean Mageking. Shane did not marvel at this feeling for long or spend too much time delving into the details of the situation for he was suddenly swept up, or rather captivated, by the situation at hand.

His arms, Carbanal's arms, moved in frantic gestures of long forgotten spells that even to Shane were incomprehensibly complex. He slung spells so quick Shane was almost unable to tell if the man was casting multiple at once or simply casting with such quickness that it seemed that way. Whatever the truth was the scent of death was all around. His power, Carbanal's power, smote the Suvan droves en masse but Carbanal derived no pleasure from this. He was not even satisfied with his work or consumed with patriotic hatred. He was chillingly calm despite the fatigue that was beginning to settle into his bones. All that was in his thoughts was the mission. It was emblazoned in his mind and it was more important than anything. It's importance surpassed even the reason for it's assignment. Winning this war, returning home to his family, saving his people; these were not important. The Black Lightening held a singular focus of mind that had always allowed him to prevail against great odds at any cost.

This time, however, Carbanal was having some difficulty discerning his next move. His great mind churned over the facts of the situation like a great engine and he was already, as he perceived, approximately eleven steps ahead of the Suvan army. However, they only needed three to end this battle in their favour. The rest were contingency further decreasing their chances of completing their mission never mind escaping. Without Shelca their chances would have simply been null.

As he loosed a great pillar of lightning to fell another group of Suvan mages Carbanal swivelled his head allowing himself to take in the battlefield once more. They were on a great plain surrounded practically on all sides by the Suvan forces. Their spells had lowered the earth all around them creating something of a small hilltop on which their forces stood. Shelca's bubble was the only thing between them and utter annihilation though his own forces seemed desperate to commit the ultimate sacrifice too 'Alehean' to accept the notion that dying in glorious battle was not always the prudent strategical move. He sighed as he spotted the remains of Tallshade's niece only identifiable by the gore-smeared necklace bearing the Tallshade crest. She had made it her life's work to find the powerful relics her Aunt had left behind. Now she was dead and, worse than that, a failure. A fate he could soon share. A chilling thought...

They needed to get out of here or limit the Suvan advances. Could Shelca move and maintain the shield or was a gambit necessary here... He scanned the enemy forces for a faltering of their ranks. He spotted the enemy line was particularly thin in the north-easterly position. Carbanal made a decision then. He slung another spell at a drove of Suvan soldiers that had gotten perhaps too close in his moment of throught and pointed out the ten of his men he deemed closest to uselessness. He pointed out the thickest position of the Suvan army (this to the direct opposite of the thinnest) and gave an order in military code. It was an order nothing short of martyrdom to run toward the enemy and draw out all of your power at once to overgive in such a way that would distract and momentarily cripple the advancing soldiers. He gave orders to the rest of the group in the same code designed for the quick issuing of orders on the battlefield without giving your plans to the enemy. Shelca's bubble would shorten to a maintainable size for transit. Once the brave martyrs had detonated they would advance quickly and suddenly toward the thinnest ranks of the enemy bringing with them all the power of superior Alehean magic in an effort to break the line. Just beyond their forces was a wood. If any of them survived they could regroup there and try to lose the Suvan forces in the undergrowth. Thinking much further beyond that point, Carbanal conceded, was a waste of intellect and a good deal of folly.

Carbanal rose his hand as the ten readied themselves. He held up three fingers. Three; Shane was so caught up in watching he had completely forgotten Kavala was with him. Two; the ten whispered farewells to their mothers and wives, their fathers and sons. One; a flash of thought tore through Carbanal's single mindedness and burned brightly in Shane's mind, the sweet face of a daughter left at home waiting for her father to return. Zero; the ten charged and Shane was beginning to forget that he was a passenger in this ride...
Group Threads: 1/3


ImageImageImage


Clerk at Mystic Eye Fortune Telling
User avatar
Shane Wallsly
Success Is The Only Option
 
Posts: 426
Words: 284445
Joined roleplay: September 30th, 2013, 9:10 am
Location: Ravok
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Medals: 2
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (1)

Previous

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests