What Secrets Does the Keep Keep? [Nya/Tarot]

[Nya Winters]

She hung in a timeless moment. Her spirit was full of rage and battle, but there seemed nothing left to fight. Lightening crackled all about her - yet somehow she was no longer part of it or able to touch it. Her lifeless body held her soul trapped like the cage she had made of it for Galan'nas. She'd vaguely felt Dira collect the wayward Relic, but there was no curtain call for herself. Nya had never belonged to Dira or any of her kin - nor would Lhex ever sort her soul. Zulrav held her close and she was his - in life and in death - though now he was strangely quiet. She should have been more upset, angry even, that Abashai had so willingly killed her. But flesh forms were so fragile and hadn't this happened quite a few times already? Her memory was sharp and clear on all of her fleshbound journeys. But here, in this timeless place, she knew who she was in the way that water knew how to flow across the land.

Oh yes. She knew exactly who she was.

She was not sad. She was not happy. She simply waited, knowing that sooner or later, someone would come to collect or or that she'd otherwise be released. Once released, she'd fly free in the way only spirits could, and seek her master out if he had not already found her. Zulrav would be disappointed. Nya had promised to do better this time. But she wasn't sure the Relic was part of the plan. In the times before she'd gotten further, she was certain, but this time she'd gotten deeper and found out more meaning more quickly than all the other times before. This time there'd been the promise of victory. After all, she took the lessons from all the rest of the failed attempts with her, growing more powerful with each reincarnation. Would he be generous enough to allow her another? She'd miss the loss of the Kelvic body, for the Talderian Forest Cat had proven to be resourceful and strong. It had also had an inherent courage and stubbornness that no true human could ever match. Nya also suspected it was the reason for her fierceness, though in other forms she'd had plenty of spunk as well.

Stormwardens didn't seem fitting as Kelvics, and when Zulrav had told her of what he had planned, she'd questioned him for the first time in the whole of their knowing each other. Weren't Kelvics stupid? Didn't they want to serve someone they bonded too? Weren't they actually designed for a whole different task? She'd been enraged, and the anger had grown as her childhood had progressed, though she really hadn't understood why once reincarnated. Now, though, she was free too look over the whole of her other lives and the whole of the life that she had just lost.

Sadness filled her.

And then astonishment. For being dead had its advantages. Those things that seemed vague worries in her mind while she was alive came into sharp focus. And one of those vague worries came into full fledged clarity. And in that moment had she had a heart, it would have stopped in shock. She knew then, without a doubt, who Abashai actually was. Ardrem. Ardrem! A simple little playful breeze could have blown her lifeless corpse and trapped spirit over. Ardrem had stabbed her through the heart! Nya could have laughed with incredulity. But instead, being dead, she simply waited. It was the thing that most dead were the best at.

[Abashai]

Once Abashai had finished his horrible task, the chaos and madness that had engulfed the keep's courtyard quickly dissipated, leaving the Benshira standing alone. A deathly stillness had fallen, as if the world stood stunned with him. He was unable to weep or wail in mourning, incapable of cursing the gods that had forced this tragedy. A merciful shock had seized him, a numbing fog that protected him from the devastation of the truth, that he had killed his beloved Nya. Abashai simply stood and stared at his mate. His gaze fixed upon her eyes, once so vibrant and feral green that he could not tear himself from them, now dull, lifeless...dead. With only a cursory thought did he wonder why Nya had not collapsed when her life bled from her, why she still stood as if frozen. Shai's eyes drifted down to the bloody suvai protruding for his love's bared chest. His hand slowly wrapped around it, tugging gently until it was dislodged. A fresh rivulet of blood drained out, dark from lack of oxygen. The silence of the keep was shattered by the clatter of the bone weapon as is struck the ground, dropped from numb fingers. Abashai laid his hand on the wound, feeling the ragged punctures he had made in her flesh. He then lifted his gaze back to Nya's pale face. His crimson-stained hand reached to touch her cheek, leaving a smear of blood on the cool, smooth skin. The Benshira leaned in, pressing his lips to hers. They were already growing cold. Again, somewhere in his fogged consciousness, Shai found it peculiar that her lips did not move in response to his. As his mouth parted from Nya's, a single tear ran down his cheek to disappear into his beard. Taking a step back, Abashai paused to look at his hand, the one that had held the suvai. He raised it to his mouth, pressing a blood-covered finger against his tongue. An observer may have found the action disturbing, even disgusting. But it was no secret that Nya liked the taste of his blood, and he wanted to taste hers. It was cold now, possessing the tang of iron. The sudden sound of the woman's voice served to bring some lucidity to Abashai's awareness, and he turned slowly to look at her. His brow furrowed in confusion. He watched and listened in silence. He knew, somehow, who she was, that she was divine. That Dira had come to take Nya. As the goddess spoke, unhurried and cryptic, Abashai's understanding unfolded, if only a little. He saw the immediate scheme that had come to fruition. Zulrav, Yahal and Dira had conspired to defeat Galan'nas, using Nya and himself as tools for its destruction. Abashai and Nya had known the gods intervened in their lives. The two of them had been chosen and marked by their lords. It was not difficult now to see how they were brought together. Divine beings manipulated them at the shrine of Rhysol in the Cobalts, the God of Chaos himself, in a twist of fate, saving the couple from death once. And now, the bondmates had been pawns in a plot that Abashai had could not fully fathom. Dira spoke of other lives, of things he did not recognize, of himself as Ardrem. Abashail's mind reeled, a mortal mind trying to grasp that which was born in the Ukalas. How much of their lives had the gods controlled, manipulated? Abashai began to question his own identity, question Nya's, questioned everything he thought he knew about his own life, its purpose. However, when the Goddess of Death spoke of Nya's fate, Abashai became fully focused. So this was it, it was truly over, he had lost her forever, and now he was going to watch the Queen of the Dead take her from him. But when the beautiful deity offered the mortal a last hope, Shai no longer kept his awe-inspired peace. He would do anything, he would give all of his life for Nya if he had too, he would be this Ardrem if the goddess wished, he just wanted to see Nya live. "Yes, yes, take from me what you will, just make her live again Please give her back to me!" His voice croaked, strained in attempt to speak his heart, yet cautious not to offend the powerful goddess.

[Tarot]

The geometry of the dead was skewed. It couldn't have been any other way, or ghosts would not even exist. Certain things stood out in perfect and almost painful clarity, others folded onto themselves like lines that should have been parallel but weren't. It was like that for Nya too. She saw and received truths that would have made her skin crawl if she'd been exposed to them in life. They were cruel, but fair in the greater scheme of things. She could see farther than even her keen feline eye. With a partial exposure to the naked core of her soul, unfettered by the circumstances of 'Nya Winters' - simply a transitory being like any other - she had access to a very rough reading of what others in educated circles called a 'chavi'. In her last life, she had been a priestess of Zulrav. Her name had been Lugzia Averes, born in Kalea. Zulrav asked her to retrieve the missing artifacts of Areesa Tallshade. She had been the one to discover the existence of the Powercube thanks to her discovery of old documents from before the Valterrian. Much of the information Zulrav had given Nya regarding her quest had been dug up by Lugzia throughout her life. But then, Lugzia had made a dire mistake. She went to Nyka following a promising trail. And there, she met Ardrem and fell in love with him. Ardrem was a great deal like Abashai - the strong, silent type with a past of suffering. He was also a priest of Dira, committed to slaying those who were 'overdue'. He sensed them and brought them to his queen so they could continue on their cosmic path. They traveled together for a while, and when all was said and done Lugzia was pregnant with his child. Not long thereafter, Ardrem looked at her and knew she was overdue. Her soul-colors told him as much; he did not know why, and never would, but Lugzia's time had come. Faced with a choice between his queen Dira and his love Lugzia, Ardrem felt no hesitation and stabbed her in the heart, killing her and their unborn child. Something was triggered inside him, though, and the last thing Lugzia saw was Ardrem turning the blade on himself and collapsing by her side. The emotional shock on her part was so strong that she was unable to let go of her persona. Instead, she wandered the world as an angry spirit for several decades, whereas Ardrem was reborn as Abashai almost immediately. Zulrav eventually decided to assign another priest to the mission that had been hers, at least for a time. And so he approached a man named Aruin and sent him out on a quest Nya was very familiar with. Only after many years did Lugzia's spirit meet a kind witch-woman who soothed her soul and finally laid her to rest. That had been the beginning of Nya Winters. There was more too… more lives before Lugzia, but they were blurry, or perhaps too difficult to comprehend. She knew they were important, terribly so, but trying to understand them was like trying to empty a sea with a bucket. There was more Zulrav, though the start of their relationship remained unclear. The certain thing was that Nya Winters was the pinnacle of devotion to her god, and if she completed her quest there would be no more reincarnations, no more tests. She would be one of his chosen, free to walk the Ukalak at Zulrav's side. Dira gave Abashai a thorough inspection, as if checking a borrowed item to see how it had been handled. "Not what I will, but what I can," she said, dead serious now, "actions have consequences, even for me. Death is a neutral force and must stay as such. I am a cog in a device that trascends your comprehension; I cannot afford to act on a whim, though I may often give that impression. You knew that once, but you still blamed me, and the grudge you bore on me led your soul to Yahal. I must respect that for the sake of the system; it does not mean I have to like it. Hopefully this little re-enactment of the past will stand as a reminder of how much you risk by letting your earthly affections get in the way of your divine ones. You will always come second in her heart, anyways. No matter how many lives you spend with her." The goddess took several purposeful strides towards the Benshira and rested a slender hand against his chest. "Let me make you feel my touch, Ardrem, just like old times," she smiled mysteriously, showing her dark side once more. Death was a conundrum mortals could not hope to solve. Dira's hand sank into his torso, her fingers cold beyond imagination as they wrapped around his beating heart and pulled away. The feeling was excruciating, a portion of his life being ripped from his body. Dira pulled a fistful of… something out of Abashai's chest, leaving him exhausted. It shone dimly in her cold hand. The goddess turned around and walked up to Nya's lifeless form. The suvai lay at her feet. Dira pushed the shining life essence through the hole it had carved in her body and let her hand linger over the wound. Nya's world of nothingless was rocked by an explosion she could not identify. It boomed a second time, and then a third, each burst louder and clearer than the last. It took her several moments for her to realize it was her own heartbeat coming back. Warmth returned to her; warmth that felt like Abashai. It was his life she had borrowed. It was him inside her. The dychotomy of their situation - duty to a god and duty to a man - far from being solved, it had gotten even more complicated now. Perhaps the gods liked complicated. Her eyes opened to the sight of Dira and Abashai, and a faint scar where the suvai punctures had been. "Neither of you should ever try to acquire a Familiar if you value your lives. She is kind of your Familiar now, so do not try. She will adapt well, as her race was built around the same template. Take good care of each other, for your lives are one, and the death of one will reap the other, as well. I suppose there are more side effects to this condition, but I will let you discover them on your own. As for you… Abashai… you will find me in Black Rock should you reconsider your allegiances. See you soon, mortals, though hopefully not too soon." And with that, Dira warped herself out of that place, denying them any further answer. But they were alive - and more than that, they were one. And like a wizard and his Familiar, their thoughts flooded each other's minds in a way that dwarfed their previous bond. Feelings, yes, but also clear words could be delivered on the channel. The ordeal had gifted them with some form of telepathy, though would it even be a welcome gift at this point?

[Nya Winters]

People often said life was cyclic. Unfinished business needed to be finished before someone could move forward and move onward in their lives. What Nya had learned in her death, she carried forward in her life. There was so much of what she'd been wondering about that was far more clear to her now even as her heart restarted. She hadn't expected that - the second chance in this life - since none had ever been given before. But she knew the man before her and now within her was closely bound to her both in the past and stretching out into the future. They'd been lovers before. And he'd slain her then, still carrying a child - his child - as he'd slain her moments ago. Any life inside her gifted to her by his touch would be gone once more. Part of her mourned that loss more than the loss of her own life.

But as her heart shuddered into its timeless function again, the sense of him being within and without of her was overwhelming. Nya had felt Shai before, sensed his moods clearly, and sometimes knew his thoughts. But as the pain of death receded - for it truly hurt to die - and her soul was once again locked into her newly healed body, she became aware of Abashai in a way that she never could have before.

They breathed together.

Her first shuddering breaths were his own, and his grief eclipsed her pain as she felt her blood still hot and dripping off fingers that were too large to be her hands. And as life infused her once more, Shai felt the wonder and surprise of the kelvic at her second chance as if it were his own. Lips too small to be his inhaled sharply and he felt her taking a quick mental evaluation of her own body and finding it whole. Automatically she turned her face slightly away from his, screening her features from his full view and in an instant he knew why. Her own mental view of herself was far different than the reality. He saw the bestial features she saw in his own mind as if they were his own vision and knew as an outsider that something was wrong - a small sort of taint lay on her newly replaced soul. She didn't see herself as human, but rather more beast with overly sharp teeth and eyes that could never pass for human. The truth was she looked human fully, but it was the way the taint lay on her that changed how she perceived of it.

That didn't matter though.

She was too lost in feeling out the new bond and looking around her world with Shai's senses. To someone who wondered what it would be like to be the opposite sex Shai's senses there. And she was slow to fully come into herself, to be made aware, and when she finally did catch up and gain the full use of her thinking again (once the pounding had settled into a steady heartbeat), all Nya could do was lift her face, stare straight at Abashai, and whisper softly.

"You killed us.... again."

Anger infused her, for a moment, an anger that stretched lifetimes and crossed deadly barriers. Both instances she'd held his life within her. Both times he'd chosen to take it at the orders of a god. She was confused, and slow to absorb what had just happened. Shai could feel Nya's thoughts clearly. She'd trapped the monster, held it within herself with bonds of lightening and stormwinds. But she was slow to remember how it hurt her, how the creature was taking her life from the inside out, making her a shell of what she actually was. And so she growled, started to take a step forward and went to her knees. Death wasn't easy. Nor had the battle they'd both just fought been easy. Nya looked up at him, part of her senses within him looking down at her, and realized the words she spoke hadn't been out loud.

But she'd heard them, through his mind, nonetheless. And as she gave herself a moment on her knees to absorb everything before she staggered to her feet again... her reaction set in. Nya liked to think she was strong, fearless, all powerful. But the truth was, she simply wasn't. Perhaps it was easier with so much of Shai infused within herself now, but she didn't turn to violence like she would have as a reaction to pain and fear. Instead, as she staggered to her feet, she simply began to shake, teeth chattering, as she glanced around wondering if Dira had truly gone or if she would be back. Nya truthfully didn't understand the reaction, the humanness of it, or what it meant. She had always been a forest cat wearing the guise of a woman. Forest cats ate when they were hungry, slept when they were tired, scratch when they had an itch, had sex when they were in heat. The affection she showed Shai had been because he needed it and was not unwelcome... but it had been an artificial sort of thing. Everything human she'd done was because her race was meant to mimic humanity. Things were different though. All in an instant everything had changed. Now, feelings poured through her - almost overwhelmingly. She'd never understood human emotion or the reaction to fear. She understood blacks and whites and the way of things in the wild. Before, Nya hadn't been capable. Now, she was locked in the full force of shock as she reached up and grabbed her own arms, almost hugging herself, as she looked around and met Shai's eyes, the pupils widening in her lack of understanding the total understanding she now felt.

In a way, it had always been what she wanted. To be human. And she wondered, as Shai followed her thoughts acutely, if he was now less human, less than what he was for what he indeed had to give her.

[Abashai]

Abashai's world had imploded upon him, his mortal mind striving to comprehend the universal significance of the events that unfolded in the still courtyard. The Benshira did not have the benefit, if it could be called that, of the revelations Nya received upon her death. All he knew was that one god had convinced him to kill his wife and unborn child, while another stood before him claiming he was a reincarnation of her servant. The man's head swam with the implications, the shock of his heinous deed wearing off to reveal truths he was not sure he could grasp. The charismatic aura of the goddess was palpable, a power that commanded respect. Nevertheless, the words Dira spoke to him meant little, until her hand touched his chest. Sometimes, one gets a subtle whiff of a smell that reminds them of their distant past or childhood. You can't recall what the source of the aroma was, or tie it to a memory. it's not familiar, you only know that you knew that scent. That was the sensation Abashai felt as the Queen of the Dead laid her icy hand against his chest. He simply knew that somewhere, he had known that touch. Though he had no recollections, he knew all the goddess spoke was true. His body stiffened and Abashai stifled a cry as Dira's hand penetrated his chest and plucked something from him. The pain was excruciating, causing his vision to darken and his muscles to weaken. Shai had to lean over, hands on his knees as he gasped, a cold sweat beading up on his brow. The mortal man lifted his head enough to see the goddess force his life into Nya. Then he felt the thud in his chest, heard the pounding in his ears. Shai believed it to be some side effect of Dira's procedure, his heart fluttered as if it had lost it rhythm and was trying to correct itself. He could not know it was his heart setting a rhythm for his mate's. Standing erect again, the admonishment of Ardrem's former Queen echoed hollowly in his head. Abashai's senses were scrambled, and his own sight and hearing revolved around an axis centered between Nya and himself. His heart exploded to see life spark again in Nya's eyes, her chest heave as it gathered air once again. But he saw too himself, staring at her, bloodied and haggard. He saw his wife, both the beautiful woman, and the beast she believed she was. So much was revealed in that moment. What had this goddess done? He turned to see the Death Queen vanish, leaving him staggering. Then came the flood of smells. human sweat, iron-rich blood, animal musk, leather, human female, all so distinct. His hunger was acute, his need to secure his surroundings oddly powerful. He marveled at these sensations until he heard Nya's words ..'You killed us.... again.' Or he thought he heard them. Her voice was intimately close, closer than the woman he saw across from him, and it pierced his heart. One would have thought Abashai would have run to her, embraced her, ecstatic to see her alive ridden with the guilt of his deed. But he could not move as he attempted to sort through the barrage of information he received from Nya. Where their bond had been an opening in a wall between their beings, what Dira had done removed the wall, and the essence of the couple now flowed freely between them. He felt her anger, the angst of not only her own death and that of their child at his hands, but the frustration that it wasn't the first time. Shai watched as she stumbled to her knees, knowing her confusion and shock. He felt her, the soul of a wild cat experiencing his humanness, her body struggling to cope with its reanimation. He loved her still. But he knew now, even in the chaos in his mind, they were no longer just Nya and Abashai. Nya had a realized it even before they came to the Keep, but the Benshira did not fully understand until now. Their life and their love was secondary. What Abashai had thought was the whole of his life was now supplanted by the realized divine purpose. For lifetimes they had been appointed by gods and goddesses to fulfill one service. There could be no other way for the two of them. Seeing her shivering, he who had been Ardrem went to his Lugzia. Wrapping his arms around her, feeling her body against his even as he knew the feeling of his own embrace. Then he felt the stillness in her womb. "Never again. It ends this time." Even as he spoke the hushed words, he heard his own voice in her ears.

[Tarot]

The new bond would likely take a while getting used to. They could send basically anything they wanted through their link. Words, feelings, or even images and memories. With practice, they'd learn restraint and how not to flood each other with every little thing. Those first few moments, however, were like putting two mirrors in front of each others and getting lost in their infinite reflections. The link, they would also notice, got weaker as they grew further apart. If they were separated, their previous Kelvic bond would be their only connection, though the range of their new affinity would certainly grow by leaps and bounds as they stretched the channel open. The gods did not descend upon the pair, as if giving them some privacy, some time for the new revelations to sink in. While some gods felt like giving heavy-handed lectures that left nothing up for discussion, their patrons much preferred to show their followers the truth and letting them put it in their own words. The breezes still danced around Nya, cheering the Stormwarden's return to life, and a feeling of righteousness fell upon Abashai, as if Yahal was giving his approval to what the Benshira had done. The Keep had lost the ominous sense of oppression it had held while the Relic haunted its old walls. It was not long before a noise could be heard coming from the stables, like some kind of hatch being opened. A few seconds later, the door to the stables opened with a creaking sound and three people emerged from the inside of the building. An old man was leading the trio. He wore blue robes with golden glyphs that screamed 'I am a wizard' and he seemed to be wearing them just so others would know he was a wizard. His beard was long and white, and he had what one would call an 'important' nose, if one was being polite. Behind the old man was a middle-aged male with brown hair and uneven stubble on his face. His clothing was plain in contrast to the old man and he was carrying a book under his left arm; the right arm was supporting the elderly woman at his side. The woman was probably not as old as the first man, but she bore her years with far less energy, and the strain was visible on her face as she walked. She was short and thin, and her pale knuckles wrapped around a walking staff. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" The old man clapped his hands in triumph. "You did that monster in, didn't you? I can't see its aura all over the Keep, so it's got to be dead. How did you guys do it? Seriously, dude, that monster was a hard-ass tough SOB. Could've slaughtered a platoon, easy as pie. You guys are something else. Oh, my manners. Name's Konrad Megenfels, First Keeper here. And Only Keeper too. Those slow-ass punks got themselves ripped out faster than a countrygirl's virtue in Sunberth. Meh. Hey, lady, any reason you're standing right there all naked and stuff?" "Konrad, please," the younger man interrupted him with an embarrassed edge to his voice, "they don't look too well. We should just be thankful they are here." He turned to the duo and introduced himself. "I am Kiphos Shaik, and we owe you our lives. Our supplies down there were running very low and the monster wasn't going to leave anytime soon. Are you feeling all right, Agethia?" The old woman nodded sharply. "I haven't felt all right in thirty years, sonny, but this is as close as it gets. Thank you, strangers. You have our gratitude." "You sure do!" the old Konrad exclaimed enthusiastically, prancing around the courtyard as he did. "Shove that up your slimy oily ass, you primordial freak! Hey," he stopped all of a sudden, pointing a bony finger at Matilda's suvai still on the ground. "Is that a black suvai or something? Man, do they paint them in colors now? How petching cool is that? I'll give you ten, no, fifteen Mizas for that suvai. Throw in a special save-my-life bonus, you see." Rambling aside, Matilda's suvai had indeed taken on a shiny black tint, as if it had absorbed the very essence of Galan'nas, the life it had been built to sever.

[Nya Winters]

Nya wasn't prepared to be touched. Her first reaction was to growl, her secondary was to push him away... but his lingering warmth did sooth some of her trembling, though she did not know how. It was a reaction to the death, rebirth, and the first stages of shock setting in and it forced her to clasp onto his shoulders and lean into him or else she would have fallen again. Weakness was intolerable among her kind. So too was the carelessness of her death - being caught by a creature that was in human and unknown. Nya knew it was meant to be, and that it had to have happened the way it did, but she didn't forgive herself of it just yet.

Nor did she forgive Shai.

She wanted her own life, to be in control of it and everything around her because it was her nature. But the lines where blurred, faded, muted, and she didn't know anymore who exactly she was or where she stood. Human? Kelvic? She clung to her bondmate because she trusted him, but that trust had cost her a life yet again. And the truth of it was, it wasn't her life she was upset about. She'd wanted to be a mother. She'd wanted to have Shai's children. But in the courtyard of the Memorial Keep one thing became clear in her mind - something that should have been clear all along - and that was that they'd never be free of this. They wouldn't ever have a normal life without the burden of travel, of the quest, of the duties to their gods. Shai gave up as much as she had, especially when he rode north out of the desert driven by something he couldn't understand. And even though the acute clarity she'd experienced while dead was fading... she knew she'd chosen this lifestyle.

She accepted that. But it didn't make it any less confusing or disturbing. But the breezes helped. It was them, finally, that brought her more back to herself and stilled the trembling in her limbs and jaw.

Nor did the people that came pouring out of the stable. Three of them. She growled against Shai, pulled from his arms, and faced them prepared for more fighting. As weak as a kitten, she didn't want them to see how tired she was so she crouched down on one knee, a threatening pose as a forest cat but not so much of one as a human. Nya shifted then, dissolving her form into a million little sparks of sunlight and reforming her shape into that of a Talderian Forest Cat. She didn't have to talk to them this way. And if they needed killing, she was far more suited to it.

So she waited, for them to quit speaking and for Shai to answer their questions.

[Abashai]

As Abashai held onto Nya, supporting her as he body adjusted again to the flow of blood through muscle, he struggled to separate himself from his mate among the myriad of stimuli that bombarded his mind and senses. The phenomenon had increased in volume as he went to her, now a spinning whirl of images, scents, sounds, thoughts and sensations. The Benshira managed to pluck out Nya's strongest impressions, confused and angry. They were the thoughts of a Kelvic, of a proud beast that hated weakness and demanded control. There was frustration at the way things had turned out. There was anger directed at him, a grudge that was sparked less by the surprise of his willingness to take her life and their child's, but spite that he did it again. A cold ache pierced his chest, not a residual pain from Dira's invasion of his body, but a stark emptiness as he realized fully the deadness in Nya's womb. Feeling her own pain and anger over the loss only compounded his own grief. Even as he strove to find clarity in the overwhelming confusion, Abashai found a thread of stability he had almost forgotten. It was pure and unclouded, an umbilical to his faith, infused with the righteousness of his god. He clung to it, drew strength from it. He had too, he was nearly losing his mind with the revelation of who he really was, and what he was really doing, and the flood of Nya within him. It had always been about purpose. Wandering aimlessly in the desert he sought purpose. He left Eyktol following Yahal's path to find purpose. He thought it was Nya, thought his purpose was to be with her and to love her and to raise a family with her. But Nya was not the purpose, she was to share her purpose with him, as they had in unknown pasts. Only now was the Benshira beginning to fully understand what that truly meant. Now, Shai would have to rely on his faith to take up the mantle that had been laid on Ardrem and Lugzia. As he held Nya, her own identity confused, Abashai saw her differently. He still loved her passionately, but he knew his purpose was beyond just her, having joined this quest long before he was born into this desert man's body. And unknowingly, he had loved Nya before she was born, it was that love in some former life that plunged him into this destiny to begin with. Then Shai heard the sounds and voices behind him. Nya shoved him away with a snarl. As she slumped to a crouch, Abashai reached over his shoulder to grip the hilt of the longsword at his back and slip it from the scabbard. The enchanted blade frosted immediately, wisps of vapor curling from its edge as he pointed it towards the threesome approaching. Only a moment was necessary for Shai's defenses to soften. Hardly threatening, the humans were bantering and ranting, the cacophony in his his skull to loud to heed much of what they said. The Benshira saw Nya's bright shift from the corner of his eye. As the newcomers went on, two words the middle-aged man spoke rang out loudly in his ears. Kiphos Shaik. Nya heard it twice in a way, once as a human, and once as a forest cat. Abashia lowerd the icy blade in his hand. "Kiphos Shaik," Abashai finally uttered, ignoring the rambling wizard and disregarding the now-blackened suvai the man went on about. He had no desire to look upon that thing ever again. Shai grasped for clarity, seeing the name on the old book, hearing Nya speak it. It was in fact what dragged them to this horrid place. "We came here to find you, Shaik." The Benshira's tone was starkly somber and hard against the rejoicing brightness of the survivor's' praises. "We have some questions to ask you."

[Tarot]

The three survivors froze instantly, and not because of the ice on Abashai's blade. Somehow they were not expecting their saviors to draw a sword on them even though they looked totally harmless. Nor did they expect the naked woman by the man's side to suddenly turn into some huge feline creature. All in all, old Konrad was the one most unfazed by the development. "That," he whined, pointing at the magical sword, "belongs in a museum! Preferably mine." As for Shaik, his muscles tightened upon hearing that Abashai was familiar with his name and needed to thoroughly question him. It was obvious that the man's mind was spinning and after a couple of seconds he seemed to be struck with a realization. "Look," he said, holding his hands out, "if this is about your people's book, then I'm sorry, okay? I know that was underhanded but the tribe just wouldn't share with a foreigner, so I had to get a little creative. My ancestor wrote that book for the whole of mankind, not just for a clan of Benshira who didn't even care about cosmology in the first place. It was my duty to get it back!" It looked like Kiphos Shaik had been caught in a misunderstanding over the very episode mentioned in the preface to the book Abashai and Nya had perused at Matilda's. He looked quite nervous at that, as his departure from Eyktol had not been amicable in the least, and it was entirely possible that the Benshira had sent one of their own to hunt him down. "Please forgive Kiphos," the old woman interjected, "like his famous ancestor, his heart is in the right place but he tends to get in trouble on a regular basis. You will answer this man's questions, right, Kiphos?" "Ah, sure," he nodded, still looking at the icy vapors rising from Abashai's blade. Meanwhile, the breezes were doing their best to comfort the Stormwarden and put her at ease. They caressed her fur gently and seemed to sing in her ears, rejoicing for her renewed life. After a few seconds, their chorus seemed to blend together in a single, powerful voice that everyone but Nya would mistake for just a gust of wind. "You were strong today, Nya," said Zulrav, who had apparently not wished to manifest alongside Dira, "but you must steel yourself for the far harder trials that will follow. I can only promise you one thing, my child: some day, all of this will make full sense. All the pain and suffering will not have been in vain. You must endure the storm before you can be the storm yourself."

[Nya Winters]

A lot had happened. It was almost too much for her to take in. The events of the day seemed to move from one instant to another to another in a whirlwind of activity. She should have been able to adapt, to twist and bend with the road they were taking, but it wasn't always so easy.

And when they'd found Kiphos at last, Nya simply widened her eyes and gave him a good sniff. She didn't know what to ask him, what they needed from him, and only really fringely remembered that he might have a connection to where the powercube was located. It failed her, tremendously, to even remotely go from death, to living, to this new state of bonding with Abashai. Tail flicking, her mind whirled, and Shai would see that the giant cat needed time. Even if it was time they could not afford, she needed a good long rest, and food, and time to regroup before they went on... even if that advancement meant questioning in the man they'd come so far to see. Nya turned, looked at Shai a moment, and then turned her eyes back on Kiphos and his company.

"I don't know what to ask him, Shai.... I don't know what we need." The cat thought to her bondmate, testing the boundaries of the new link. She often took action, showed leadership, and made decisions. But in this instant, Nya was exhausted and she'd definitely let Shai take the lead. Besides, Kiphos was an oddity. His mannerisms too seemed all confusing, as if he grew up in another culture or someplace far away from what she was familiar with.

NoteSorry for the incredibly brief post. I have no idea what to write for this... I think I'm struggling with Nya's voice atm.