Solo Gone

Madeira learns how to let go

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

The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 10th, 2018, 9:58 pm

    timestamp
The Shining Diamond was a lonely little store set well back from the
busy merchant center of Zintia. A small whitewashed stone shop with a
simple sign that denotes a faucet diamond. Madeira had happened upon
the place almost by accident in her many explorations of the city when
she landed. From the outside it did not look like much, but inside was
a wealth of treasure.

A bell tinkled musically as the Spiritist let herself inside. A fire
was burning in a hearth in the corner, its light reflecting off of the
glass cabinets placed strategically around the room. Otherwise the
room was somewhat dark and musty smelling, with dust motes dancing in
the one window that never seemed to be open. An old man, the
proprietor Guancho Li, was lounging in a splendid but worn armchair by
the counter nearest the door, and he stirred as Madeira entered but
didn't bother himself to rise and greet his customer.

It was a wonder the wealthier people of Lhavit ever bothered with the
gloomy little shop. But you had to see what was in those cases to
understand. Gold and silver and jewels of every cut were laid out. The
beautiful creations of the master jewel crafter hardly needed light to
show off the faucets and brilliance, and the metalwork was as fine as
Madeira had ever seen. In her last visit she had recognized the
quality and leapt at the chance to put Rosie, Jomi's bizarre gem
laying red hen, to good use. In the end she had commissioned two
stunning pieces, and now she was back for more.

"Mister Li", she approached the armchair and smiled as she extended a
gloves hand. "I believe I have an appointment."

Guancho looked up at her, his jewel crafter eyes as sharp as a hawks
even in the low light. He took her in, from the beautiful yellow silk
dress she wore, with its loose laces to compensate for the rounded
belly beneath, to gold choker at her throat and the crown of braids
she wore behind her head. Of the offered hand she watched him gauge
the delicate lace gloves patterned after a spiders web and sparkling
like new rain, and judge the two rings she wore on her right hand, one
of carved bone and another a worn and weary confection of chipped
amber and gold.

After making his observations he took the offered hand and shook it
politely before climbing laboriously to his feet. The man was old and
stooped, with wiry white hair and a long tangled beard covering his
chest. For all the finery he makes none could be seen on his body. He
was rumbled and bedraggled in his simple suit and beaten leather
shoes.

"Mmm," he hummed as he matched her face to a memory. "Craven, was it? This way."

He led her behind the cabinets to an tall and polished mahogany door
leading to the Appointment Room. The intimidating iron lock imbedded
in the door clicked loudly as he unlocked it with a key from a heavy
brass ring and pushed it open. He motioned silently for her to sit.

This room was, if anything, even more sparsely furnished than the
front room. it contained only a desk with an armchair on one side and
two plush visitor chairs on the other. The walls were set with locked
drawers that Madeira assumed contained the more expensive wares that
Guancho didn't keep in the front room, but she had never seen them
opened.

"I have a few more commissions for you, sir" Madeira started, knowing
the jewel crafter was not much of a talker. "And I have an idea of
what I want, but I would greatly appreciate your opinion on the
designs and cuts."

From her pocket, fishing them out from between loose jade kina and
stray beads, the Spiritist surfaced with six polished and gleaming
precious stones. Three were diamonds as clear as glass, one was a the
deep liquid blue of a blue emerald, one was a speckled fire opal with
shifting rosy highlights, and one was the clear delicate blue of a
rare blue diamond. All were smooth and shaped like chicken eggs.

Guancho, who had seen this customer and her magic trick before, could
not be taken aback a second time. But his bushy brows did raise as his
dark eyes met to hers.

"Is there any point asking where these came from?"

Madeira laughed as she leaned forward across the desk and spoke in a
dramatic whisper. "Magic, mister Li." She arranged the stones
neatly in a row on the desk before him. "I lived in Riverfall for a
while and made fast friends with a miner there. He ships them to me
aboard one of the few merchant galleys headed this way and I pay a
very good price for them. All I need is someone on this end to cut
them for me." She shrugged her shoulders, and the teardrop diamonds at
her throat threw shifting patches of light across the ceiling as they
caught on her collarbone.

It was an easy lie because there was believability. Riverfall was
known for its mines and if he bothered himself to check Guancho would
find she had arrived to the Lhavit on a ship departed from Riverfall.
Yet any person with half a brain would see the glaring holes in her
story. Riverfall produced many of these stones, but not all of them.
And aside from the fact that her miner friend had shipped not the raw
stones, but ones polished and perfectly uniform, she would have to be
exorbitantly rich to ship stones from so far away, even at a 'very
good price'.

Yet she had to lie, because refusing to answer would only fester
curiosity and telling the truth would be the fastest way to get Jomi's
favorite magical hen stolen.

To bolster the lie, Madeira's hand wandered to her cheek. She dragged
forth her own dijed to sit along her fingers even as the glove woke
with the movement. A simple suggestion of trust me rolled from
her glove as she traced it delicately over the apple of her cheek. She
pushed it out and willed it to fill his doubts with faith.

WC: 1056
Image
x
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 10th, 2018, 10:18 pm

    timestamp
The jeweler eyed her suspiciously but said no more about it, though if
that was due to the magic or his own disinterest she couldn't know.
Her brought the blue diamond to his eye and checked it for clarity.

"And what can I make for you with these?"

Separating the stones into four groups she explained: "I would like a
long pendant from the fire opal, with a gold chain I think. The blue
emerald I'd like cut to pieces and set in a silver comb, similarly I'd
like the three clear diamonds to be cut into a rope necklace. The blue
diamond I'd like fauceted and set into a silver choker, and I have
some specifics about the design."

"Mmmm", the old man hummed again, and she could almost see the gears
working in his mind as he looked over the stones. "Of course, I can do
all these things. But I must wonder why you don't request any rings of
me. This opal would shine strikingly on the hand."

Madeira was taken aback by the suggestion. "Why do you say that?"

"Well," the man sat back, looking over Madeira impassively. "You've
already requested two necklaces from me, both of precious stones, and
now you request more. Yet on your hands you wear the same bone and
amber and opal you wore last time. And you must admit the stones
hardly precious."

It was true. She got her rings years ago when she was still living in
a one room cottage off her family's good graces, when she did not have
the money or magic chicken to supplement her taste for finer things.
But that wasn't the reason she kept them, and had yet to take them
off.

"Oh, this isn't for fashion like your exquisite necklaces. I'm a
witch, and these are important to my magic craft."

"Mmmm," he raised a sardonic brow. "Is that why they have hinges?"

She should have known nothing about her rings would get past a master
jeweler. She laughed uncomfortably. "That's a good eye you've got.
Yes, they're poison rings but that's just an unfortunate coincidence.
I find them useful to keep soulmist." She flicked open her large jet
ring with its silver filigree to expose the coiling ethereal substance
inside. "I'm a spiritist. Each of these rings summons a different
ghost. Except the bone one, that I was a gift from a friend. Oh, and
the amber ring... that one is empty."

She flipped the ring closed and both hands retreated to her lap. The
gold on her hand felt suddenly uncomfortably warm and tight. She
twisted it fretfully around her finger but didn't remove it. Its edges
were worn and familiar under her hands, its every facet known and
mapped. She knew its every edges just as she knew the other three. But
why, if it was as empty as it had been for seasons, did it always feel
so much heavier than the rest?

"Well," Guancho nodded almost to himself as he pulled a thick sheet of
paper and a charcoal stick from inside the desk. "If you find you need
another poison ring for your... ghosts, I can make it for you."

Madeira glanced up and smiled her most charming smile, realizing her
magic suggestion had worked after all. "Thank you, I'll remember
that." But I'll never need it, her mind continued with the
truth her lips couldn't utter. Jomi and Emma are all she had left, and
since Hurik left she had not found anyone as capable and loyal as
those she had. The only thing she could do was keep the red headed
warriors ring empty and hope he would come home.

Pushing the stones aside and laying the paper flat across the desk,
Guancho's dark hawkish eyes looked up from beneath his bushy white
brows.

"Explain the specifics you mentioned about the collar."

WC: 649
Image
x
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 10th, 2018, 10:19 pm

Thirty chimes later the pair were back in the front room, Guancho
holding the carefully folded plans for the commissioned jewelry and a
deep frown between his eyes. Though they were the only people in that
stuffy little shop Madeira was standing close and speaking in that low
conspiratorial way she sometimes adopted when she was trying to get
people to change their minds. Her teeth glinted a cheery white as she
spoke with a little smile, and the sent of lemons on her skin drifted
to him even in the still air.

"Your prices are fair and your work is marvelous", the Spiritist was
saying, her eyes sparkling mischievously to see the jeweler's closed,
stony face. "But surely you wouldn't say no to a little business deal?
Shave a few mizas, I mean, Kina, off the price and you'll have
yourself a loyal customer. I will get new stones in periodically
throughout the year, and I'll need someone to cut them. That's
guaranteed work without even having to buy the stones yourself."

"You're right, my prices are fair."

"Yes, but not the best. I would break by heart to take these stones to
someone who hasn't achieved your level of mastery, but gods know I'm
not made of money. I might have no choice."

"You're not my only customer, Miss."

"Nor your richest, but I could be here half a dozen times a year with
such big commissions such as this. I could be worth a lot of money to
you in the long run."

Guancho was not much taller than she was. He could hardly look down
his nose at her, and as such their eye contact was uncomfortably
straight. But such was the benefit to Madeira and her hypnotism. She
used the connection of their unbroken eye contact to ferry a simple
emotional response, no more than a whisper of a feeling. Willing the
dijed forward she fed warmth to his perception of her. Painting
over his distain for negotiation for a sort of warm regard for the
Craven woman.

She didn't let the magic linger long. She cut the connection as soon
as she saw the creases of irritation along his forehead soften.

"No matter, your wonderful creations are worth it. Two hundred kina, was it?" She lifted her purse from inside her cloak and
counted out the coins, setting them in piles of ten on the counter.
When she was done she squirreled the now much lighter purse away and
winked. "See them delivered to my house when you're done and we'll
call it even. I'll see you again, Master Li, with some beautiful
stones to play with. Have a good day, sir."

She bowed and left, leaving Guancho off kilter with his own stiff
jointed bow and a word of goodbye. Madeira typically didn't have much
of a problem persuading people anymore, so coming head to head with a
pensive stone wall like Master Li was a welcome challenge. She left
him with a gentle regard for her and the high of a small victory, and
hopefully that would make him a bit softer towards her the next time
they met.

Once outside, in the narrow alley the Shining Diamond called home,
Madeira removed a glove and shook back her sleeve. Scratching off a
scab from a cut she had only make that morning across her wrist, she
scribbled a thirteen point star across her skin. Pressing the
moonstone ring to the center of the rune, she searched along the
connection of the soulmist inside to find her youngest servant and
invoke her by name.

"Emma!"

The little girl popped into existence with a shiver of disturbed air
and a rolling cold that accompanied ghosts everywhere they went.
Blinking in the midday light, the young ghost with the gruesomely
scabbed face and doe brown eyes looked up at her mistress and smiled.

"Hi Maddy! That took a long time. Sorry I wandered off."

"That's okay kitten, I knew you would get bored." The ghost had been
her guide from the chime they left Alvadas. Once the architecture
started making sense the native Avalad found herself incapable of
navigating it. Thankfully the child had lived and died in Riverfall,
where she learned the navigation and assumption skills Madeira
specifically lacked, and had endless patience for her mistresses many
peculiarities.

"Where are we going now?"

"Home, I think." she held out the empty ring for Emma to refill.
"Unless you want to shop in the bazaar?"

The girl nodded eagerly. "Can we find some buskers?"

"Sure, sweetheart. Lets find some buskers."

WC: 670

Ledger :
Silver comb, faceted: -40g
Silver necklace, faceted: -60gm
Silver necklace, faceted: -60gm
Gold necklace: -40gm
Image
x
Last edited by Madeira Dusk on November 11th, 2018, 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 10th, 2018, 10:20 pm

The market place of Zintila was the busiest of all the peaks. It shone
day and night, with nary a thinning of traffic throughout. Opulent and
decadent, the peak held the most shops, taverns, restaurants and
entertainment than all the other peaks. Even in the daylight the city
glowed, Syna glinting off of the Dusk Towers and the many sprawling
sky glass spires of the Ethereal Opera House. Fountains and benches
offered small islands of tranquility amid the current of shoppers and
revelers, but even the wary were likely to get swept up and carried
off with the tide of bodies.

Thankfully Madeira could handle herself with ease through even the
worst of the congestion. Pulling her fur cloak tight around her
shoulders she stayed close behind and partially through Emma, braving
the electric cold of her soulmist as the ghost drifted through the
crowed while speaking in a shy squeak of a voice.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry!"

Those that felt the sharp, unnatural cold of her shroud automatically
shied away. And those that saw the ghost approaching were quick to
step aside and give them a wide berth. Emma's little apologetic smile
was cracking the sores around her mouth and eyes, and little pearly
drips of pus were working their way between the crusted scabs.

The two were following the many veins of music that ran through the
diffused chatter of busy people on a busy day. High flutes and harps
floating serenely over top while guitars and drums cut through
beneath, and little Emma was having a hard time deciding which to
follow. Eventually the two found their winding past Surya plaza and
towards the end of the peak overlooking the Misty Mountains. Here,
rising up from the stone in great curving arcs of ancient ivy covered
stone, was the Ethereal Opera House. A wide courtyard opened up
between the street and the wide ornate doors, where stood a towering
statue of Syna and Leth embracing in the sky. And beneath them a
troupe of musicians were playing beautiful music to promote the
performances that could be seen for exorbitant priced tickets. A
crowed of people stood in the courtyard and sat on the benches
watching the performance with misty eyes, while children ran between
them handing out pamphlets for the Opera and other nearby businesses.

Emma was instantly in love. The ghost hovered behind Madeira with
childish delight as the Spiritsit staked her space off to the side of
the sizable crowed but as near to the statues as she could get.

String music and the beat of a single drum made their simple
orchestra. It was not the type of music you dance to but the kind you
close your eyes and listen to with your heart. So Madeira did just
that. The music was deep and lonely and sad, and her mind played
through a memory that fit like a play constructing itself to fit its
soundtrack.

Perhaps it was the jeweler who had questioned her rings that put the
thought in her head, for she found herself thinking of Hurik. In the
memory she was standing over him, and there was blood on her hands and
snow in her hair as she asked him for his help. And on his knees
before her the redheaded ghost was lost and afraid, his mind rolling
through memories he thought he had forgotten. Like that, bloody and
scared, both of them made a pact. He gave her his loyalty, and in
return she would help him find what happened to his wife.

He sang a song after he offered her his soulmist for the amber ring
the first time, she remembered. But try as hard as she might, she
couldn't remember the words. Little creases folded between her brows
and the amber ring was twisted endlessly around her finger as she
tried to recall that short little battle weary song. Suddenly it was
the most important thing in the world that she remember this little
piece of the friend she had lost.

"Pamphlet, Ma'am!"

Madeira was startled out of her memory by a harsh young voice that
cleaved through the pleasant music. A child about Emma's age, wearing
a rumpled, frayed robe and cloak with a wide brimmed hat pulled low
over his face was holding a folded paper out for her.

"Pamplet!" he shook the paper aggressively at her with both hands.

Wanting no more than the child to go away Madeira silently took the
paper from him, assuming if she held the thing in front of her she
could ward off the other children weaving through the crowed. The kid
was holding the pamphlet strangely close to the end she would have to
take, so she could only pull it by the edge. But no sooner did her
fingers pinch the edge than the kid suddenly drop it and snatch at her
fingers. The silk glove underneath made it easy, and his lightning
quickness gave her no time to react. Suddenly the amber and gold ring
was off her hand and folded into his grubby palm, and the bone ring
was fumbled and dropped to the cobblestone.

WC: 863

Ledger :
-Gold poison ring
Image
x
Last edited by Madeira Dusk on November 11th, 2018, 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 11th, 2018, 12:40 am

The kid dashed away through the thicket of people with his stolen prize. And for one moment Madeira felt real panic. The kind that closes like an ice fist around the heart. Her breath froze in her lungs and she couldn't shout for help, and her swollen body was too ungainly to chase the youth. Her mind was nothing but a roaring white blizzard. That was Hurik's ring. How would she find him without it?

The panic ran its course quickly, and the Avalad, the leader of her little kingdom of ghosts and madmen and broken things, shook her senses awake. The kid was halfway through the crowed and the skinny, pregnant woman had no chance of catching him. She turned to the ghost cowering behind her back.

"Follow him!"

"But-" the girl was wide eyed and nervous as she chewed her finger tips. She knew as well as Madeira did that the Spiritist couldn't handle herself alone on the streets, and neither could the ghost hope to stop a person of flesh and blood.

"GO!" Madeira insisted with a voice gone hard and steely with desperation. "Watch where he goes and what he does with that ring. I'll summon you back."

Emma's voice dropped away under the force of Madeira's. The weak willed girl had never disobeyed her mistress and she wasn't about to start now. The crisp Fall air felt a little bit warmer as the ghost blinked away, easily keeping pace with the child as she phased through obstacles a flesh and blood human would have to avoid.

Then Madeira was alone. The people around her were staring and judging. She could feel their eyes crawling over her. But the incident was over too fast for the crowed at large to notice. The little band continued with their song uninterrupted. Listening to them play now, with her heart thundering and a deep, queer bone sadness rising from her soul, she wondered how she ever thought it was beautiful. The feelings they were manipulating from the crowed with their twisting melodies and the slow beat of the drum were superficial at best. A thin, weak little puddle of a song pretending to be an ocean. Madeira picked up the bone ring from the cobble and wiped the dirt away with her sleeve as she turned her back and left the courtyard.

It was hard knowing she couldn't do anything to help herself. She sent Emma to find where the boy was headed and that was as much as she could do. But without her guide she would be stuck wandering the peak for bells before she could find her way home. Following the thickest crowds of people, she found her way to the Zintia business district. She considered waiting in one of the many taverns, identifying them by the cheer and music that spilled from their open doorways. But the sadness was rising from her bones and laying heavy on her shoulders like the storm clouds that gathered along the peaks, and just the thought of putting on a pretty social face made her weary.

So she wandered and wandered, passing raucous bars with their enthusiastically singing patrons to more subdued establishments with stained glass windows and the hum of thoughtful conversations; past shops and gardens and restaurants with enticingly spicy smells rising in curls of steam from their cracked kitchen windows. What she would have enjoyed with Emma twenty chimes ago was suddenly just ashes in her mouth. No matter what the ring kept flickering like a ghost in her mind, and her neck was becoming stiff with the aching grief it was forcing her to carry. Her hand felt strangely heavy at her side, until it felt like she was off balance, listing to the heavy empty space she was carrying.

But why? Why was this panic not letting go? The ring was empty. It meant nothing. Less than nothing, now that she could afford more beautiful things. Guancho Li even wondered why she carried such gaudy, mismatched rings.

It's his home, her heart insisted stubbornly.

He's never coming back, her mind insisted reasonably.

WC: 701
Image
x
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 11th, 2018, 12:45 am

She looked up, blinking away the moisture in her eye she told herself was from the wind. Madeira's feet had taken her to a space behind the busiest district. She was fairly sure the Shining Diamond was nearby. But to her left was not the shining diamond at all, but a tall two story building sandwiched between two smaller shops. Red lanterns cast a rosy glow on the cobbles, and on a woman lounging against the wall beneath them. The woman had the dusk like skin and narrow brown eyes of a desert people, with a luscious tumble of dark hair falling over one shoulder. She was wrapped in a red cloak, but a long bare leg had been pushed through the slit as if by accident, and beneath it was clear she wasn't wearing much else. The red light was catching on her high cheeks and long throat, and suddenly she wasn't a stranger at all, but a familiar Dhani woman in a tiger skin. A creature with rough carvers hands that became so incredibly soft when they touched her, who's smile was always genuine and a little quirky.

The woman saw Madeira staring, and smiled her own wicked little smile, flicking the cloak further open so the beautiful dark leg was exposed all the way to the hip. And just like that the spell broke, and it was not Ssanya she saw at all, but a pretty whore in scraps of silk. Turning her head away and staring hard at the ground, Madeira walked past her with blood rising in her cheeks. She could hear the prostitute giggle all the way down the alley.

Gods, why now? Why was all these things she had lost catching up to her now? Sick, confused and with a heartbroken, she looked up and spotted Leth just peaking over the lip of the mountains. The god of change and reflection was a fitting witness to her grief. The next rest was not scheduled for another three bells, so Madeira was forced to push her way deeper into Zintia's twisting streets until she found one suitable deserted. Only once she was truly alone did she take her key ring from her pocket, and found a small silver key with a pearl skull. Holding the artifact before her in empty space, she focused not on this strange grief and remembrance but on the change she went through when she first found the key.

First there was nothing, but out of the empty space before her something silvery simmered out of thin air. It was a doorway, one she was learning to recognize as a thing that guarded her peace. She stepped inside.

Her graveyard stretched before her. An ancient thing, open to the starry sky and the face of Leth. Familiar grave markers dot the grass, but the one before her was the one she considered hers. Made of the bone of some massive, ancient beast, it was marked in words she couldn't read. The grass at its base was as soft and gentle as a feather bed.

"Hello", she smiled sadly as she sat, her back resting against the headstone and her fur cloak wrapped like a blanket around her heavy body. The grave did not design to answer, but the cool evening air that rustled through the rolling hills and the few draping trees caressed her cheek like a gentle kiss.

"It's funny", she began. And whether she was speaking to the headstone or the stars or Leth she couldn't say. "I have so much now. I have a home and a lover and two loyal servants and even a baby on the way. I'm wealthy, a master of my trade, and live in a city that lives for beauty and comfort and education. So why am I looking back?"

Speaking aloud felt cleansing, like she was putting the thoughts to words and expelling them from her body. The stars and bones and grass and sleeping things beneath the earth did not stand in judgment but listened all the same. She curled against the headstone like a child.

"I don't know why I kept the ring. Hurik is not coming back. I knew that from the start. And even if he did", she laughed madly, palms open to the sky, "what would he care what vessel I carried his soulmist in? I know this. I know this. But I can't let it go. It's like... It's like it's the last piece of him." Suddenly she was crying, fat salty tears running in rivers down her cheeks. But she didn't move to wipe them away. "And Ssanya. I can go days and weeks without thinking about her, and suddenly I see her in a stranger or a carving or a dance, and it's like I'm losing her all over again. Wherever they are, wether they are alive or dead or happy or lost, I will never see them again, and there is nothing I can do for them. Then why is it so hard to let them go?"

The graveyard smelt of petrichor and the rich loamy smell of black earth. The headstone was oddly warm against her back, even as the chill wind tugged at the edges of her cloak. Her child turned fitfully in her belly.

"I have so much, but I've lost a lot too. My city, my family, my friends... Gods, on that ship, heading to Lhavit, I thought for sure I was alone. Even with Jomi and Allister there. I blocked them out and wallowed in all this loss. Allister broke me out of it in the end, and left up with this mixed blessing", she frowned as she smoothed her dress over the swell of her abdomen. "But I guess that scar ran deeper than I thought. There is nothing worse. Truly, there is nothing worse, than being alone. I can't lose anyone else. I won't. But... I've already lost Hurik and Ssanya and the rest. I have. Theres nothing I can do about it. I should focus on those I can reach. Gods know Allister and Jomi and Emma don't get enough of my time."

Madeira struggled to stand against the forward pull of her belly, but stand she did. She closed her eyes and let the tears dry on her cheeks.

"I was just scared, thats all. I was scared of something that had already happened. I need to let them go. I'm not alone. Not with these people I love with me." The grass and the trees waved goodbye as she stepped through the door. And on the streets of Lhavit once again, Madeira swore she brought the scent of wind and black earth with her.

Pulling back her sleeve, Madeira summoned Emma with a star and a whispered word.

"Maddy!" Emma was speaking before she could even orientate herself, her words finding Madeira's ears before her eyes could even find her face. "I was waiting, I found-"

"No, baby, it's okay."

"But the ring, it's in a pawn shop-"

Madeira smiled as she laid a hand on top of Emma's bouncy curls. Beneath a master Spiritist's touch she felt almost real. "Really, kitten, it's okay. Thank you for finding it, but I think it's best we just go home. I'm sorry I worried you back there."

The girl blinked up at her with big confused eyes. "Are you sure?"

Leth was looking down on them. His light flashing silver in Madeira's eyes as she focused on the ghost in front of her, and not the ones that lurked in her past. "I'm sure."

WC: 1306
Image
x
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Gone

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 13th, 2018, 8:08 pm

Image
Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!


Madeira Craven

Skills
  • Subterfuge: 1xp
  • Acting: 1xp
  • Hypnotism: 2xp
  • Planning: 1xp
  • Rhetoric: 2xp
  • Negotiation: 1xp
  • Politics: 1xp
  • Meditation: 2xp
  • Leadership: 2xp

Lores
  • Location: The Shining Diamond
  • People: Guancho Li
  • Guancho Li: master jewelcrafter
  • Subterfuge: weaving a believable lie
  • Politics: making connections
  • Negotiation: losing the battle to win the war
  • Location: Ethereal Opera House

Awards & Retribution
+Silver comb, faceted: -40gm
+Silver necklace, faceted: -60gm
+Silver necklace, faceted: -60gm
+Gold necklace: -40gm


Notes
Notes here.
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests