Closed Deadly Pursuits (Kelski)

Among the whores, thieves, and murderers... is a serial killer.

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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Deadly Pursuits (Kelski)

Postby Kynier on February 23rd, 2019, 6:24 pm

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Life was truly harsh, no matter where one lived. There were moments when it seemed to conspire in order to prove someone’s thought process wrong. Times like you thought you were safe, going to be happy, or had nothing more to learn like Kelski said. It would be in those moments that Life would change your view drastically. Someone would be taken away, leave on their own, or someone new would cross your path. Life had lessons to teach and gave no qualms about a person’s stubbornness or doubts. Because it would teach them, whether they liked it or not.

As the Sea Eagle spoke about learning, there was a drive to her words. A drive that he had heard countless times before from her. While she did not say it directly, Kynier suspected that in part Kelski had been talking about herself. Now she was pursuing something else as a means of growth. It seemed to Kynier that a Kelvic’s shorter life span only made them burn brighter with their lives. That is when they were not oppressed. It may have been part of that glow that he saw so briefly in her eyes when she glanced at him. It was another instance of so many countless occasions where he wondered what thoughts she was harboring in her mind.

The clarification about Masters and Mentors was something he appreciated. At her remark about apprentices and slaves, Kynier barked a single laugh to join her own. Kelski having a slave? There were better odds of slavery being completely abolished than there were of the Sea Eagle taking a slave. But the other half of her statement did not seem so outrageous. As a Master Jeweler it was only a matter of time before someone approached her for an apprenticeship. “One thing that Sunberth loves is spreading reputation and gossip. Given time, you may have more apprentices than you know how to handle.” His tone was an encouraging one. He had seen how much she had grown and didn’t suspect that she was going to be done anytime soon.

Going against the current to make something work. Kynier could see how that would be possible. So long as the members of that guild were able to see the value of the knowledge held within as opposed to the value of the assets and income. The theory sounded easy, but like many things, would probably also attract the wrong sort of people. Being the example that Kelski spoke of would be challenging to even establish. It was easy for him to get focused on such an aspect as the co-ownership. It was something he had exploited a few times as a spy on Doler’s request. And it was easier to exploit when the institution was younger.

Determination filled her voice as she described the people that would be accepted into the guild. Of the three types she spoke of, Kynier felt that he only fit into one of the categories while a second had appeal. He did not view himself as a caretaker by any standard. It was hard for him to develop that sort of attachment with a person, but once it was formed it was painfully difficult to break. “I am no craftsman, yet that has a very pleasant appeal to it.” He glanced at Kelski. “To me, this city would be the perfect place to revive such a concept. You would be able to find no shortage of people that would desire to be apart of something like that. Many of the younger thieves feel they have nothing to build upon and have to resort to stealing. Your Guild could help show them otherwise.”

Kelski’s words of conviction had him silent for a moment as he reflected on them. It stirred up a few old pains that he sought to keep buried deep within himself. Hazel eyes took her in thoughtfully before lowering to the ground they were traversing. “Kelski,” he said a bit softly, eyes still on the ground, “your want is understandable. It is something that many people, Humans included, feel.” Kyneir set his eyes forward, trying to disguise the old pain that was driving his words. “The yearning to help someone, to enrich their life without thought of reciprocation, can be damaging. When your Guild is established, remember, different people require different ways of being taught. Some,” he turned to look at her, “require only a soft hand for guidance. Gentle encouragement for them to make progression.” Kynier broke eye contact. “Others require a heavier hand for a sterner push. And it’s difficult to know which one a person needs.”

“Some people… only need someone to share a smile with, or a hand to hold, in order for their lives to feel richer.”

Kynier was not surprised by Kelski’s reaction about his relationship with Akajia. But it was different for him than it was for her. Kynier had felt guided by the Nigh Goddess, but never had he felt saved by her. Perhaps in his previous lives it had been different. It was easy to see how mortals could simply be tools to the Divine. Often, he felt that way, but it was never against his will. “The gods are intelligent and wise. I’m sure they only use us as tools from time to time but find ways to make mortal and divine interest coincide.”

Memory and writing. Those were the same things that he had learned about Qalaya as well. They seemed like small things to have influence over, but they had such powerful impacts on the world. For a moment, it sounded as though Dreamwalking was the power that Qalaya bestowed, until Kelski clarified that it was Nysel’s domain. He listened quietly as she described Semele. It was pleasant to see how talking about the mineral goddess affected her, though Semele was a divine that he felt no calling towards. The last one, Xhyvas was intriguing because of the air of mystery Kelski had when describing him. Transcendence and Possibilities? Sounds like a god that Numerius would be a Priest for.

A time later to talk. Kynier grew pensive at the statement. As much as it pleased him to have a conversation with her again, was it worth the pain of hiding how she affected him? The task of finding the killer served as a distraction. Without it, he didn’t believe he had the emotional tolerance to stand so close to her. Yes, he wanted to talk more later. To talk more even now, about anything, just to hear her voice. But he was certain he lacked the fortitude to do so and maintain the distance he had set. Maybe…

As he landed on his back, he quickly rolled his head around to gain his bearings. The creature was coming towards him until it ducked and shifted to avoid Kelski’s crossbow. The bolt missed but managed to give the creature pause enough for Kynier to cast his feet over his head, roll over his shoulders, and get his feet underneath him. The bolt that Kelski had embedded in its chest scrapped against the ground until the creature rose up onto its hind legs. Standing upright, it almost looked human. Its gold eyes looked down as it ripped the bolt out with a grimace. “That was impolite,” it said.

Blood could be seen trickling from the wound, but it did not appear to be very deep. After it dropped the bolt on the ground, the creature flipped its hair to reveal the strange tattoo on the side of its neck. Kynier’s eyes naturally shifted to look at it but then immediately turned away as the sensation of panic tried to rise up again. “Don’t look at the mark on her neck,” he said to Kelski. The monster grinned and chuckled, her attention on the younger Nightstalker.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” it said in a soothing voice. The tattoo on the neck glowed faintly as dark golden eyes met his. “Except for everything,” she said with a malicious chuckle. Dread took hold of him slowly. The cold trickle of it coated his whole body in sweat. Kynier couldn’t take his gaze away from the woman, he dared not. Everything began to feel so wrong. Why was he trying so hard to change Sunberth? A place that would tear his world apart and take his life in a painful spectacle just because he dared to understand and use magic. The paranoia smothered him from all sides as though the alleyway behind Tall Johnny’s were distorting to envelope him.

Kynier’s Auristic focus still had a hold on Kelski’s aura, but it was starting to be drowned out by overwhelming fear. The creature held out a hand, the cat-like slits widened to make her eyes a solid shade again. “Come to me dear. There’s no need to be so afraid.” The words echoed within him. Her words somehow made everything feel less worrisome. Kynier’s weapons slowly lowered as his breathing grew labored. He didn’t understand why he felt this way, but it was so strong that he didn’t really want to question it. Kynier took a step towards the creature and felt as though he were approaching a safer place. Wishing to feel the relief, he took another step closer. “That’s it dear,” the creature said with a grin as it held out its hand to accept him.



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Deadly Pursuits (Kelski)

Postby Kelski on February 24th, 2019, 1:38 am

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There was no time for deep conversation. There was no time to contemplate the conversation between them or even just what the creature in front of them was. They both moved fast, determined, and ultimately intervened in the creature’s hunt. Weapons flashed, the first round happened fast, and Kynier was both up and down, and Kelski’s crossbow discharged twice. And the creature spoke. The creature spoke! Kelski’s alarm ratcheted up a few notches…. moving her from the mental space of hunter with prey to foe against foe.

When the inevitable break from the first clash happened, Kelski stood at Kynier’s back, guarding it, waiting for him to attack and he did not. What in the multiple worlds was he waiting for? The Kelvic hissed in displeasure. The feminine creatures’ eyes were focused on Kynier as if Kelski provided no threat. That was fine with the Kelvic. Let her look at the man in front of her. Let her focus on Kynier and forget about her. But Kelski herself wouldn’t forget about the creature.

Kynier hissed a warning about the creature’s mark, and Kelski’s gaze flashed to the thing he meant. She couldn’t see it, obscured by its hair and the woman’s oddly leaned forward attitude as she beckoned Kynier and reached a hand for him. Kelski was absolutely baffled. She started to pull Pitch but traded the poisonous blade for another more mundane one. A second wicked eight-inch dagger joined the first as the Nightstalker dual wielded, her attack imminent.

The wind flipped Kynier’s cloak about him, offering her glimpses of bare forearms above his vambraces. Everything in her screamed out against her action – there was a strong strong urge in her to protect this stranger – but she fought against instinct and did it. With the surgical precision of an expert in daggers, she snaked her hand out when the wind once more revealed his bare flesh and opened up his arm in the most incredibly painful non-lethal non-damaging place she could find… the bare skin of his underarm. The cut was shallow and meant to distract Kynier against whatever hold the creature had on him. But there was an odd rebellion in her, a horror at hurting this man… as if this stranger meant everything to her and hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do. But Kelski didn’t hesitate, fought through what she assumed was a weird Kelvic instinct or a factor driven by the fact they both had Akajia marks, and did it anyhow. Her attack on Kynier was fast, lasting less than a tenth of a chime, and she was on the creature. She didn’t step between her and Kynier. She didn’t waste the motion. Kelski was close enough to be lethal with the focus she had and the particular weapons she wielded.

When her blade tasted Kynier’s blood she turned, pivoting on her heel, and at the close deadly range, she flung the dagger she had in her hand away from the pair of Nightstalkers, across the simple couple of steps, and deep into the creature’s right eye. The eight-inch blade on the nightstalkers’ dagger bit deeply, driven by the force of the Kelvic’s upset at cutting the man and the disturbing factor of all she’d witnessed in the creature. The strange mouth, the mandibles, the voice… the mark that seemed to enthrall Kynier. The Kelvic wanted the thing dead. And she was vicious about it.

When the dagger drove into the creature’s eye, the thing lifted its hands and started to scream. But there was no time…. steel was already deep in its brain, killing it. It went down hard, the force of the dagger knocking its head back and bringing its feet out from under it. It fell on its back, hard, and the Kelvic was already on top of it… the remaining dagger in her hand still edged with a tinge of Kynier’s blood, slicing open its throat. In that moment, her eyes were a luminous mercurial silver and she was far more Kelvic Eagle than she was anything human. She sawed at the woman’s neck messily, straight through the mark, relieving it from the creature’s body. Her daggers were sharp, and might as well be deboning knives, for she took almost no time penetrating the atlas from the axis and then using a black leather booted foot to kick the head away after pulling her dagger free of the brain.

Then she stepped back, still hissing angerly, and turned to look at Kynier absolutely stunned at her own reaction and incredible protectiveness of him. And even though she didn't expect him to answer, she still asked... “Who are you?” She hissed, visibly upset, glancing around… willing to kill again for him. Wanting too… her heart racing and her head pounding with the force of her protective rage.

The Kelvic took a few steps back, bloody daggers still in her hands, though her stance was loose, arms not at the ready, confusion starting to cross her fierce face. Her face wasn’t remotely human, more resembling the haughty arrogance of an eagle with its steady piercing gaze. Her eyes locked on his for only a breath, before they darted around again, predatory, checking where they were and making sure the body was going to stay down… whatever it was. She took a few more steps back, visibly fighting to compose herself.

Kelski reached into her belt pouch, pulled forth a cloth, and began methodically cleaning the daggers…. If for nothing else but to buy herself some time to compose herself and find a sort of center. She tapped her own well, pulled djed from her core, and let it infuse her. She had no plans for it, but the presence of the power would cause her aura to flare and it would calm her faster. Instinctively she knew the fight was over, though she wasn’t really sure what they’d been fighting. There would be time for that later… time to think her reaction through… and analyze her own actions.

In the meantime, when the daggers were cleaned and returned to their sheaths, she’d walk over to the body… the headless corpse… and begin searching it, stripping the creature down methodically. She wanted to see what was under it’s clothing… what it really looked like.


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They laugh at me because I am different.
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Deadly Pursuits (Kelski)

Postby Kynier on March 2nd, 2019, 5:38 pm

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Something behind him was hissing which drove a cold shiver up his spine. Nothing felt safe around him. As a spy, he knew people were always listening, watching, and wanting to compromise your aspirations for the sake of maintaining their lifestyle. Shallow breaths in rapid succession passed through him as he took another step towards the creature. The very air felt like it was trying to smother him and the only refuge was in the embrace of the woman holding out her hand to him. Kynier reached out with a hand preemptively as he stepped forward.

A sharp pain rang through his extended arm, breaking him from his narrowed perspective. The sudden stimulant made him cry out as he turned his body to the side, away from Kelski and the creature, to cradle his arm. While his hand felt the warmth of his own blood, there was a shrieking and a heavy thump. When Kynier turned to see what was happening, the Sea Eagle was set upon the monster that had a dagger stuck squarely in its eye-socket. Steel flashed once before parting flesh and bathing in blood. The scream of the creature changed to a gurgle as hands helplessly reached up at the Kelvic.

Arms went limp before the head was kicked away. Kynier sighed and tried to twist his arm this way and that to look at the cut on his arm. Blood covered his other hand was trickling down his arm, running over the golden armband and towards his vambraces. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath as he rolled a shoulder to get access to his pack. He reached in and took a length of white cloth he kept solely for occasions like this. Folding it over twice until it was not much larger than the size of his hand, Kynier swept up the blood running along his skin and over the golden Akajia band that the jeweler had given him.

The cut seemed shallow but stung like a Khur-va. Each movement of the arm instigated a fresh pain and holding it still dulled it to a very uncomfortable throbbing. Pressing the bandage against the cut to stop the bloodflow, Kynier turned his gaze back on the other Nightstalker. She was hissing in her inhuman way. Her eyes were a mix of anger, confusion, and even bloodthirst. Her aura flaring with a complex set of emotions he could not instinctually decipher. The hissed question sounded more like a demand. His own expression was pensive as he turned his head to look at the dead creature.

Who was he? A complicated answer to a question that seemed so simple. Often, he dared to undergo the difficult challenges that life presented. Exposing himself to danger for the smallest rewards, or even necessities. Not this time though. This time he was a coward and avoided the difficult answer. “Nobody,” he said softly at first. “I’m nobody, Kelski.” The second time was with more conviction as he locked eyes with her. It was a less true answer than the real truth. But he knew, that answering with the real truth would only cause pain for both of them.

Kynier noted the strange flare of her aura, one that was not tied to any emotion. The radiant silver laced with shadow energies pulsed from within as she accessed her power. Kynier pulled his gaze, and his arcane focus, away from her aura with a slow blink. Cutting the flow of his own Djed for his Auristics as his eyes settled on the newest corpse. Kyneir walked over to the detached head. A solid dark gold eye stared up at him as the mouth hung open slightly. There was a single slit down the middle of its lower-lip that stretched down to the chin. With a foot he nudged one side of the lower jaw which opened the strange mandible.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” he said aloud. Kynier turned his head to watch Kelski remove the clothing from the body itself. The sorcerer took a step closer and arched an eyebrow at the first glimpse of what he saw. It was a lean body, slender, with corded muscle in the shoulders, arms, and legs. Gray marks that looked like scars ran in vertical lines that split and merged down the length of the entire body, similar to what he had seen on the face. Descending to a knee, Kynier felt the skin and ran his fingertips down a few of the lines. They were slightly indented like engravings in metal. The skin was coarse and rough. Experimentally, he pressed in on the flesh only to discover that it had no give.

His attention turned to the place that Kelski had shot the creature. Skin wasn’t torn but cracked like broken pottery showing strange muscles beneath the fractured surface. Kynier pinched an exposed piece of the wound. It was dry like rock and just as firm. With no shortage of effort, the small piece eventually snapped off with an audible cling. He tossed it aside and carefully removed the hand holding the bandage to his arm. The cloth stuck to the skin enough for him to comfortably draw one of his daggers. Holding it in an axe-pick grip, he raised it over his head and tried to plunge it into the abdomen. The blade only bit in enough to bury the tip.

Kynier removed his hand and the dagger remained vertical with its limited purchase. His eyebrows rose once in surprise. “That’s a fairly thick hide for a humanoid creature,” he said off-hand. He took the dagger back and sheathed it before setting his hand on his bandage again. “She looked human enough to go unnoticed in a crowd. But,” he looked over his shoulder at the head again, “where did she come from?” Something about the whole thing bothered him. It wasn’t setting off any of his Nightstalker or arcane senses. It just felt off.

Kynier stood back up and looked down at the body one last time before addressing Kelski. “Now its dead. The killings around Baroque Bay should stop. Dead bodies can go several days without discovery, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more victims were found. Unless they continue being found after the next tenday, it should be… safer.” Kynier walked over to pick up the short sword that he had dropped when he had been cut. He slid it back into his sheath then looked over his shoulder.

“I’m going to tell Marvis that his friend was avenged.” Kynier took a few steps down the alley before stopping. He turned again and gave her an encouraging smile. “Thank you. You did well today. I’m impressed.” After a moment of looking at her, he forced himself to turn and leave, making his way to the Drunken Fish.




Kynier
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Deadly Pursuits (Kelski)

Postby Kelski on May 8th, 2019, 1:37 am

G R A D E S
Kelski

Auristics +1, Investigation +5, Strategy +5, Tactics +4, Logic +4, Medicine +2, Teaching +3, Leadership +5, Rhetoric +3, Crossbow +1, Dagger +3

Old Wayd: Mannerisms & Appearance, Medicine: Examining A Corpse, Sunberth: Displacement Of Homes Common, Logic: Trying To Figure Out A Killer’s Motivation, Investigation: Getting To The Source Of A Murder Spree, Strategy: Planning Moves, Tactics: Executing Steps In A Strategy, Teaching: Explaining Akajia, Xhyvas, and Semele, Medicine: Treating Wounds On The Fly, Medicine: Using Pain To Release A Victim From A Thrall

Note: I skipped a bunch of irrelevant lores due to Kynier’s retirement.




PM me with questions or concerns.
Image
They laugh at me because I am different.
I laugh at them because they are all the same.


Painted Sky Jewelry (The Wildlands) | Crossroads Jewelry (The Outpost)
User avatar
Kelski
Freedom is earned. Fight for it.
 
Posts: 1598
Words: 2015452
Joined roleplay: July 3rd, 2014, 11:08 pm
Location: The Wildlands of Sylira & The Empyreal Demesne
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Character (1) Featured Thread (2)
Mizahar Grader (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) Donor (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Sunberth Seasonal Challenge (1) Power Fork (1)

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