So Far From Home (Laszlo)

[Kendall Saarinen]

17th of Autumn, 511 AV This place was strange. It was dark and spacious, like a cavern. This could not be Kendall's dream. She had never seen a place like this before. A part of her wanted to call out just to see if there was anyone else there but she was scared. In a pool of water, Kendall saw her reflection. She looked just as she had in Zeltiva, but her brunette hair seemed to be bleached to a blonde, much like that of her waking form. Her eyes still clung to their mismatched color. The sight was odd. It was almost as if she was looking at a mixture of her two forms. The girl walked slowly. What else was there to do? Maybe there was a way out. There had to be people around here. She couldn't be alone. "Ivak, protect me." Could Ivak even hear the girl down here? There was not fire as far as she could tell, nor was there any magma, although it could have been under the ground or in the walls. Kendall was not favored enough by Ivak to be able to tell yet.

[Laszlo]

The city was dead. That didn't feel right. Much of Kalinor was empty and forgotten, a city built too large for itself. There were countless teardrop structures that went on throughout the cave, never housing a soul, but that should have been far from here. This was the heart of Kalinor, this should have been the center of life and activity, but there wasn't a soul to be found. There was the Hunter's Gather over there, usually open at all bells and catering to the tired and the thirsty. Far to the left was the entrance to the Blue Grotto, but there was no one coming and going. Even the Meadows Public House was abandoned, where usually there were members of all races looking for work there. Vethis stood on a ledge at the Place of Purging infirmary, his keen violet eyes surveying the lifeless buildings that clung to the ceiling of the cave. His dark silver locks were pulled back in a double knotted braid that left the bottom half of his hair flowing freely. The long, brown coat in which he pocketed his hands hugged his waistline snugly, defining his slender figure. Something felt wrong about all of this, but his clouded mind couldn't put it together. Something bright caught the corner of his eye, more radiant than the dim opalgloams that provided more than enough light for him to see, and Vethis turned his head. A breath left him. She was standing with her back to him, her long, flowing white hair still against her shoulders. He didn't even pause to question his reality; it was her. Without thinking, Vethis briskly rushed toward her reaching out for her arm. "My love, where have you been? I have…" As he spun her around, the Symenestra sank. His expression fell like it had been made of wax, and he slowly go of her arm. The light in Vethis' amethyst eyes seemed to fade. That hair wasn't white, it was blonde. How could he make this mistake? More importantly, she wasn't even Symenestra. How could the city be so barren, with only him and a human alone? The answer came as he stepped away from her. "No… you aren't her. And this isn't Kalinor." Vethis turned away, placing his gaze back on the familiar shapes of his once beloved city. "The city isn't dead. I am."

[Kendall Saarinen]

Through the silent air, a voice broke through the quiet. It called Kendall "my love". The voice did not sound like Hadrian's but who else would be calling for her? "Hadrian? Where are… we…?" She turned around to see a man, thin and pale. She stopped her question in it's tracks as she looked at him. He seemed similar to Seven and Venidus. She was scared as she looked at him. She was in this foreign place facing what she believed to be a Symenestra. Seven had told her about the harvest and how the male Symenestra would often abduct females of other races. This couldn't have happened to her. Hadrian would have protected her, not to mention the fact that in her current body, no one would have wanted her for the Harvest. She was a girl at the moment though. Perhaps there was reason to worry. Kendall's mismatched eyes looked up at the man full of fear. "Please don't hurt me." She had known kind Symenestra but it did not mean all of them were. "Please… I don't know how I got here but I'll leave." As the man spoke, he did not make any sense. He was dead? He was right in front of her. He couldn't be dead! She looked at him, completely confused. "Her? Who did you think I was?" There did not see around around. "Wait… Kalinor?" How in the name of the Gods did she get to Kalinor? She didn't even know what it looked like or where it was. She wanted Hadrian, although logically, she was not sure how much that would have helped. As far as she knew, the Symenestra would abduct anyone, even those who were with someone else. "Who are you?" She felt her heart racing. The brunette hoped her reimancy would still work in this form. It would be her only way to defend herself if the man before her decided he was going to attack.

[Laszlo]

"Kalinor," Vethis let out softly in affirmation of the girl's inquiry. His words in Common had a smooth, rolling accent, twisting some of his syllables in exotic fashion. The Symenestra's tall, willowy frame stood at the precipice of the Place of Purging, unafraid of the sheer ledge not an inch from his sandaled feet. In graceful elegance, he knotted his long arms behind his back, leaving his sinister black nails to graze either elbow. "Kalinor," he sighed again, the shadow of a smile flickering on his thin, gray lips. "My home, my heart. Where I lived and died. Really, what more could I ask for?"

There was a tone of bitterness in his voice, leaving the impression that his rhetoric was soured with sarcasm.

"My name is Vethis, girl," he said finally, turning back to the blonde human. His glittering amethysts regarded her coldly and without a glimmer of empathy, as if he were looking at an animal. "And I have no intention of harming you. I've hurt enough women in my time. Raka. Thesidae." Vethis shuddered as he uttered the second name, his eyelids dipping close as he struggled to stomach the syllables. "…Nassanye. Her, most of all, though she still lives. I can't say she fared better than my surrogates."

Who the woman was and how she got to this empty city seemed like a pointless question. Vethis' soul was trapped within itself, poised behind golden eyes, watching the world as it continued to move on without him. Such was the way of things. To ask questions would lead one in an eternal circle, caught in his own confusion and blinded by self-absorbedness. To watch, to listen, and to move as the wind took him was the only way to keep onward without tripping.

"You can leave, or stay, it makes no difference. There is no one here but me. This is a place of my own imagining. My own Kalinor." Vethis' head tipped to once side, his eyes traveling over the woman's body with considerable attention. It was instinct to size up a healthy woman of appropriate age, even if he had no intention of copulating with her. He turned his eyes back up to her own mismatched pools of green and yellow, nodding with silent approval. She would have made a perfect surrogate if he were looking for one. "Are you lost as well? A drifting spirit perhaps? Are you dead?"

Vethis looked back out to the city again. "You called me Hadrian. Someone you reach out to for comfort, I assume. Companionship, perhaps. I am genuinely sorry I can't offer that. You are not my Nassanye, either."

A glance sidled back to the blonde from the corner of his eye. "Do you have a name, azo?"