Omega [Caelum]

Death seems to be everywhere.

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A village cut off from the rest of Mizahar by the Valterrian, slowly reestablishing contact with the outside world.

Omega [Caelum]

Postby Seodai on December 12th, 2011, 7:49 pm

Seodai opened his mouth to respond. He might have said that Cian seemed like so much more than the good looking healer who patched people up in Denval. He might have spoken of his crazy dreams, or any of the host of other things that made Cian sometimes seem too complicated to be simply a man. But, for all that those things were true and existed in the realm of his thought, Seodai liked Cian. Very much. And, this man was a stranger. With a certain sense of protectiveness, Seodai clamped his lips closed again and obeyed when he was told to lay back. The pain of the medical attention was a nice distraction, quickly clearing his head. He pressed his teeth together and inhaled deeply through his nose.

He was far too good at this, having done it way too often.

"Poor choice of words," he muttered at last. "I think Cian is good."

By then, though, Caelum had spoken again. Given Seodai more to consider.

"Whatever compelled you has a terrible sense of humor," Seodai said, lolling his head to the side so that he could not see the crimson of his own blood. It made him feel weak and nauseous. "Unless you're the sunsinger, of course."

More riddles, prophecies that didn't make sense, and dramatics from the gods. Seodai wasn't resentful; how could he be, with Syna's voice still in his ear, telling him to stay? Syna, whom he had worshiped obliquely for most of his life. He was thankful that they had come, to be sure. But why could gods not speak with words that made sense to the common man? It was frustrating, as the days dragged on and nothing seemed to change except to worsen.
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Caelum on December 27th, 2011, 4:19 pm

The healer’s hands stilled. One hovered over Seodai’s arm while the hot water of the poultice broke down the life altering herbs packed within to drip and spread their juices across the rent in the farmer’s flesh. Caelum’s other hand continued to hold Seodai’s wrist, keeping his arm elevated.

He breathed, felt sun dust and song notes swirl in his lungs, stagnating history.

It was with ethaefal eyes that he narrowed his regard on the farmer’s face, wondering a while at providence and the clanging of divine chains freshly cinched about his soul.

“I should think the gods’ humor still strange as I am Kasb’el Sunsinger, Seodai,” he answered at length. “That is the name I bore in my last life, the one whose face claims me at sunset. Stay some hours and you can see for yourself the joke and maybe we’ll laugh together.”

One side of his mouth coiled up, spurred by a bitter humor. His free hand found the bottle of carbolic and having noted the steady slowing of blood blossoming through the poultice he began to dribble the stringent liquid over it.
Last edited by Caelum on December 29th, 2011, 5:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Seodai on December 29th, 2011, 5:01 am

Big blue eyes, far more accustomed to staring at dirt or animals, swiveled around from where they'd fixed themselves on a knot in the wood of the ceiling. His wide eyes surveyed the too perfect face with some scrutiny, brows knotting in consternation.

"You're what?!"

The liquid Caelum applied next set his arm aflame. Typically, Seodai would have flinched and bore it wordlessly. He was accustomed to this kind of pain. Today, though, he was already off his guard and so he unintentionally jerked away, dropping his arm to the table as he pushed himself up with his healthy one.

"It's your name? What does that even mean? It seemed more like a.. uh, profession. Something with Syna. Are there more of you? Are there sunsingers? But you're here. So it must be you. That means... that means you have to fix this."

Though Seodai's expression was still mostly a perplexed one, it was impossible to deny the flame of hope that suddenly sprang up in his eyes.
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Caelum on January 8th, 2012, 6:02 pm

That hope, Caelum knew, was going to kill him.

It was the brightest, most empowering emotion capable of illuminating the faces of man and he had witnessed it now in the countenance of Denval. Each time it had been directed at him.

What fall was Syna setting him up for?

His heart hurt, struggled to find an equal faith in himself as these Denvali were suggesting Syna had in him.

"Careful," his voice was curt, sharp with surprised concern when the farmer dropped his arm and swung abruptly up into a sitting position. "Shit, Seodai," he mumbled and was on his feet, reaching for his wrist once more to pull up his arm.

"Hold still," he gritted, annoyed. The annoyance was mostly for himself, but years of caustic bitterness had left him less easily comprehended by his companions.

Clever fingers caught the poultice, cinching it tight to let the herbal mixture and the carbolic do its work. He watched as a stray snake of Seodai's blood twined down the back of the young man's hand.

"Please," his words softened, lending themselves back to the celestial clog of eloquence they had been inhabited by before. "Yes, that's my name the life I lived before being ascended by Syna. I was Drykas, Seodai, and Sunsinger was my pavillion. We sang our prayers to the sky. There are.. I have a grandson. Many generations removes. He's in Cyphrus now. We are the only two remaining. And..."

He trailed off, the time to allow the medicine to do its work ticking off like fingers in the back of his head. Golden eyes found the farmer's and the muscles in his back loosened a little, sagging him.

"I know," he whispered. "I'm trying."
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Seodai on January 14th, 2012, 7:57 am

If bitter words might have stunned or stalled another patient in the middle of wild, rambling thoughts, they did neither for Seodai. Perhaps a lifetime of playing the patient had left him immune to most scoldings that came along the bedside, and so he was left unoffended. In fact, he even muttered a thoughtless apology as he gave his arm to become more pliant and willing in the healer's hands. After all, he was appreciative, no matter how distracted he had become.

Seodai stared at Caelum without words for a long moment, taking in what had been said. He tried to think. To piece together what this might mean. But he'd never imagined a sunsinger who apparently didn't know how to proceed, or what avenue to take in the saving of his small town. Eventually the young farmer eased himself back down onto the bed so that his arm was properly elevated above his heart again.

"You don't know how, do you?"

His voice was quiet, but not accusatory. Seo's gaze flickered between that knot in the ceiling, and the line of Caelum's jaw.

"Why did you think you were coming, if not to save Denval?"
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Caelum on January 19th, 2012, 4:46 am

"I thought She was calling me home," he replied.

That answer absconded with his breath, leaving knuckle white melting out of burnished skin when his fingers folded down. Those of his other hand remained firm in their engagement about Seodai's wrist, steady as that of any surgeon worth their sutures.

It was as if his soul spilled out of him, murderous and refusing to clot as his patient's mutated blood. He sagged down to the stool, head bowing in a throw of sunlit shadow to spike across the counter and the copper bottoms of physician tools that reflected their sins back at them. Every sharp angle, every unyielding curve told tales of what hardships healing required.

"Nikali chained me here," he offered, feeling the gift of those words weaken in his mouth. "Here," he added and gave an abrupt shake of his head, torso twisting so he could lift a vial swirling with celadon construct from the assortment. The stopper was pried off with his teeth and spat back onto the tray before he measured out a dosage into a cup half filled with water.

"Sit up a bit," he leaned in, cup in hand and Seodai's arm still raised, "And drink this. I'll be stitching you up soon and this will help with the pain and risk of infection. It's one of Cian's concoctions," and he said that in the way of a man who understood faith lay elsewhere more properly than upon his shoulders.

"I'm not going anywhere," he added after a stretch of silence. It was intended to be reassuring, a comfort that claimed if he was going to try to save Denval even if somewhere in that gaped a crushing disappointment.
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Seodai on January 21st, 2012, 4:54 am

Seodai didn't bother with speculation or hesitation. Too long a victim of his lot in life, too long a patient, he simply obeyed without really even thinking about it. His thoughts were tangled around this new reality Caelum presented him, this almost crushing disappointment. He knew he couldn't have been the only one who thought that the sunsinger would bring a more substantial hope. The taste was bitter on his tongue, and it burned his throat all the way down. He coughed against it, but as soon as the brew hit his stomach he was glad he had taken it. Almost immediately he felt a comfortable sort of haze fog his mind. He was still completely aware of who and where he was, and his senses were unaffected, but his limbs felt lighter, almost disconnected. Almost numb.

"Well," he said after a time. "That's good."

What more could he say? The notion of the sunsinger running away was not a hopeful one, even if the sunsinger they'd been sent seemed as clueless as the rest of Denval. Seodai was still pondering this as deft fingers began, at last, to stitch him up. His stubborn blood still oozed as Caelum so efficiently wound his flesh together, but it was nothing compared to the torrent of before. Seodai felt it as a distant burn, and rolled his head the other way so he wouldn't see it at all.

"Maybe you'll find your way here, then. Figure it out. Maybe that is why she made you stay."
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Caelum on February 4th, 2012, 7:14 pm

The curved, steel needle flashed in the light from the window where Syna had begun to emerge behind the gray, mourning clouds. Caelum bowed his head, the focus of his intensity the wound in his patient's arm.

It was, after all, one foot before the other, one patient, one life at a time.

As the medicine did its good work on the farmer, Caelum threaded the needle with catgut and tugged it into a taut knot at the loose ends in the exact same manner Cian Noc had taught him years and years ago.

Yet another dose of hands into carbolic and finally he gently pressed the oozing edges of the wound together, angled the needle and pierced flesh with the beginning of stitches.

"Maybe," he agreed eventually and found his voice again, letting it spin out with attention paid to notes and tone. "Did you know Cian taught me to do this? It was on a bloody pirate ship, of all places, years ago. Long enough you were probably still in classes at the Academy. They had plucked him right off the deck of his transport for the mark of Rak'keli on his face."
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Omega [Caelum]

Postby Tabarnac on May 20th, 2012, 8:37 pm

XP Award!


Seodai
XP Award: Observation +2; Interrogation +3; Storytelling +2; Rhetoric +2
Lore: Caelum, the Sunsinger

Caelum
XP Award: Observation +3; Interrogation +2; Medicine +5; Herbalism +4; Storytelling +1

Additional Notes:
Well done, ladies. Daddy likey.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

Keep writing!
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