Peculiar Things (Hadrian)

[Aaren Kendrick]

1st of Fall, 511 AV The building was colossal and yet it sat easily on the surface on the lake. The temple’s supporting arches lifted its belly like a spider resting above the black water, patiently watching the small boats that crept beneath it with many eyes. Aaren had paused by one of its long, marble limbs, and looked calmly into the slow moving liquid below. It was dark on the surface of the lake, and he could barely discern his own reflection at first glance. A poorly distinguished patch of light cast against the more colorful features of the city behind him was all that appeared, if what he saw was indeed the reflection of his lazily drifting soulmist and not merely the light of late day bouncing off of the lake’s glassy surface. Somewhere beneath the surface had sprouted a symbol. A drop of blood from the god of chaos, offering serenity to the peoples of the laketown. It seemed like a strange bit of logic, and yet, Aaren had seen the terrors that real chaos brought, if such an arrangement appeased this radical being. Perhaps it was not so peculiar people had flocked to whatever banner was left standing once the smoking clouds of djed and death had cleared. The ghost knelt closer to the edge of the water, collecting himself into a smaller space, watching the colors flow into his reflection, as though they had risen from the depths of this supposedly holy water. Pulling the essence of himself closer Aaren could see blond and brown seep into his hair as the stray wisps of soulmist settled against his “body”. There was the semblance of blood flowing through his cheeks now, and they looked firm and youthful, though grey bags remained beneath his eyes. Whether it was the rippling in the water or his own lack of focus the reflectioin the the young man seemed to flicker, looking up at the grand building like an old painting, slowly rising up from the deep and the dark. Visage changed, the spirit examined his reflection a moment longer. Ethereal figures given substance tugged gently as the image of soft black cloth he had created, straightening its appearance. Aaren had always found it easier to adjust his appearance by thinking about the physical action that had accompanied such changes. Turning he noticed a small child, no doubt witness to his materialization. The pale blues eyes were large and round as they gaped at him, and the little girl who owned them release the ghost from her gaze even as her mother tugged her gently down the dock. Strange that I will outlast her… he thought, watching the skinny legs trot after a matronly skirt. She was wearing a coat, he wondered if the cold weather fall had so reliably heralded had already begun to settle into the houses of this northern town. OOCSorry for this taking so long and being kinda lame...

[Hadrian]

The young enchanter looked like a ghost as he gazed meditatively out upon the water, his old paranoia apparently forgotten for the moment, else he thought they would never look for him so close to the Temple. If they even knew he existed. If they even cared. They should, though. He had ideas for Ravok before he left, ideas if he dared to implement them. But as much as any ghost, he looked haunted. Or perhaps only a living person could be haunted, the dead being those who haunted. But he was also highly aware of the world around him, especially to the flows of natural energies, the complex patterns of soul, and, to a lesser extent, he was familiar with those souls that walked without corporeal form. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the thing manifest, noted the attention of a child before its mother pulled it away, and it was only then that he turned to get a more focused look, even if his eyes were less useful than his other senses to such things, to watch the spirit as it watched the girl disappear.