Slaves to the Wind [Kamalia]

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden gave a sigh, rolling his eyes slightly at the hush comment as he began wiping his blade clean along Ildton’s shirt. “Hush, hush she says,” Jaeden muttered under his breath looking back towards the fog and the approaching footsteps. “What does she think I am, some petulant child bugging her while she‘s studying the “How to be a sexy Konti“ guideboooooooooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?” Jaeden’s eyes widened a little bit as the rapidly spinning globe of water hovered over the Konti’s head, high currents of air appearing like blurred colors over the crystal blue liquid. Not a single drop dripped from this sphere as a pressure in the air around him could be felt, causing the hairs along the back of his neck to stand up on end. The Konti‘s voice echoed in the song tone, almost reverberating in a wide open area that would offer almost no element for such. “Okay, hushing up now.” Jaeden simply said as he looked back to the fog, resting the blade of his sword along his shoulder. A few ticks later, Somar and Daiss came stepping out of the fog, aggravated looks upon their faces. Those appearances changed to looks of awe and fear, as they looked up to see the massive spell being formed by the Konti. At that moment, injured as they were, both of them realized there was nothing they could do as the Konti echoed the final words of her song. “Yep, you’re pretty much petched,” Jaeden said to them, holding his hand up and giving them a small wave of departure. “Buh-bye now.” The streams of high pressurized water then came, zipping past Jaeden faster than he could follow with his gaze. He could feel the rush of air and the moisture the water left in it’s wake and simply held out his hand and looked to the sky as if checking for rain. The slavers felt something entirely more painful as the small jets of water punched through their clothing and flesh, knocking them back in staggered steps before impacting with the ground behind them, causing small divots and craters as a result. Both of the slavers paused, still standing for a moment as blank looks crossed their features. Slowly they looked down to their chests, seeing several small holes lining the front of their shirts. A pinkish tint then began to appear, discoloring the fabric, spreading out and growing darker. They soon realized that this warm, wet feeling was their own blood pouring out of their body. Both of them fell to the ground, slowly gasping for air as their final moments in life approached. Jaeden just gave a subtle nod before turning back to the Konti. A few steps carried him over next to her before quick reaction saw him supporting her weight as Magic began taxing her body, causing her legs to give out momentarily. “Easy there,” Jaeden said as her arm draped over his shoulder, his own slipping around her back. “You can let it go now. They’re defeated.”

[Kamalia Timandre]

The spellsong evocation flowed through the men like strong wine, and the leaves, the wind, and the river danced in reply to the siren song. How sweet and how beguiling were the whispers of magic and its promises of power, as the song drowned her in a climactic ecstasy. Something capricious, something malevolent, something fearsome seemed to stir within the heart of the konti as her enthralling chant rose to a soprano’s keening note and the water jets finally blasted through the torso of the dumbstruck slavers. It was over. The two men fell to the ground, writhing and vomiting blood as they covered their gaping wound and gasped for air, desperately clinging to the last breaths of their life. The flicker on their eyes slowly vanished as life quickly bled out of them. The battle was over. Yet her magic was not, and it invited her, seduced her to fling more magic into an already won fray. The globe of water still spun aloft in the air. A malevolent tempest stormed within the confines of her heart as magic began to wrestle with her will. Against her strength, against her own will, Kamalia’s fingers fluttered again in the air, sending forth gaseous silver res from their tips all the while gracefully weaving familiar gestures. The girl immediately recognized what spell was being cast. In a matter of moments, the water orb would explode into a swarm of thousand crystal needles and ice shards that would shower down on the dying men like a razor-sharp hailstorm. This has to stop. She must stop! A scene suddenly flashed vividly in her mind, rerunning like an augury of doom: the blood-smeared corpse of her kelvic bondmate staring at her with lifeless blue eyes. His ivaski form appeared mutilated almost beyond recognition, as a myriad of ice spears swaddled his form, piercing deep into his crimson-stained hide. "It’s what you want, it’s all you ever wanted," her own voice—dark, sultry, seductive—whispered in her mind. The scene suddenly winked out and the gravity of her situation slammed her forcefully back into reality. Once again, the girl tussled with her arcane addiction as it ravaged her body with a plethora of pleasuring sensations. Only with strong conviction, her formidable willpower and the thoughts of her guardian snatched her from the clutches of her eldritch lust. With the last ounces of magical strength, she commanded her res to make the water burst into a torrential downpour, showering them tenderly as if it were gentle rainfall. Magically spent, Kamalia’s lithe form draped limply against Jaeden like a discarded garment as he slipped his arm around her back. She struggled for breath and her entire body shook convulsively, her face bereft of colour like a pale banshee. Only one word would come across Jaeden’s mind as he stared into her amethyst eyes: fear. Kamalia’s dull eyes regarded the man with a mixture of horror and helplessness. She seemed fragile, numb and utterly defenceless, so unlike the fierce, powerful being who channelled such fearsome magic just moments ago. The konti’s frightened expression suddenly vanished and the girl staggered as she might faint. With sheer force of will, she stood herself erect and her face took of something of the cold and placid mien Jaeden remembered. The maiden disentangled herself from the male as inconspicuously as possible. “Thank you,” she said softly and weakly in her mother tongue, trying to compose herself, her thin body still shook in convulsive shudders. “You speak in Kontinese. What did you say your name was?”

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden narrowed his eyes as the orb of water above, slowly began taking on a crystal like appearance as shards of ice formed above their heads. It was not to be, however, as the shards just slowly began to take on the form of water once again. The crystals began to drip it’s remaining water, the droplets falling over the form for the moment as small amounts of dirt, blood and sweat were washed away. Jaeden’s eyes lightly reflected Kamalia’s image back at her as the Ranuri along his back suddenly swelled almost surged. Jaeden’s body was filled with intense desire as a mixture of emotions cascaded his mind. It all surrounded Magic as his sense bid him to tell Kamalia to cast more, to spurn her into giving in to those sweet whispers she desperately tried to ignore. At the same time, there was struggle, as conflicting desires urged him to talk her down, tell her to stop, that it ravaged her body from the inside. All of it was so much that it made Jaeden’s head swim, and as the Konti began to straiten herself, slipping away from Jaeden’s grasp and weakly hold herself up, Jaeden himself began to stagger back, dropping his sword as both of his hands raised to lightly hold his head, hoping it would stop the urge that Ranuri compelled him to do, which at this moment, having been so soon after casting a spell, was to tell her to cast another spell, any spell. He pushed the urge down within him, his gaze weakly moving to meet the Konti’s once more as she thanked and asked him his name in Kontinese. “Jaeden Kincade, and you are?” Jaeden said, almost abruptly before resisting Ranuri suddenly forced him to double over, throwing up any contents of food he had eaten before then. Jaeden fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily as Ranuri finally loosened it’s grip, the mark along his back fading to a slow tingle as base desires of food now just seemed to be sensed from the woman. He turned his head, his gaze lingering on the Konti for a moment. “You’ve got some pretty strong…… desires there,” Jaeden said in a soft and somber tone as he slowly pushed himself off the ground. “Please be careful with them.” He began brushing wet leaves off his pants, trying to catch his breath. Before long, he simply focused on the Konti’s other desire that he picked up, which was food. Dripping his hand into the rune sack at his waist, Jaeden pulled out a small leather packaging. Opening it up, it revealed an assortment of dried fruits, meats and nuts. “Eat,” Jaeden offered, holding it out to her, “I can sense your hunger as if it were my own.” The fact that Jaeden had just thrown up, made his last statement all the more true, but he would offer the Konti some food first.

[Dusk]

Warning: This thread has been inactive for more than 30 days. If I do not hear from you, this thread will be closed and XP awarded.

[Kamalia Timandre]

The konti wizard’s gaze was not that of a meek simpering maiden but that of an experienced fighter, and she stared squarely back at him, mustering her remaining strength to remain composed and stand upright. Her slender form and her thin arms still shook convulsively from the strain of spellcasting and near-overgiving. She was about to open her mouth and respond to his question, when Jaeden doubled over and threw up any content of food he had eaten. This earned Jaeden a disgusted groan from the konti sorceress. “How... charming,” she said in Kontinese in a tone of sarcasm. “My name is Kamalia,” the girl said weakly. Within the mage was a roiling and churning chaos, and the embers of her magical addiction still burned faintly in her soul. She pushed the addiction down within her, and only with sheer willpower was she able to douse the remaining flames that would threaten to consume her once again if it were left afire for long. Suddenly, the man was offering her an assortment of dried fruits, meats and nuts. Kamalia realized how hungry she was. The difficult spellcasting had transformed much of her djed and made her ravenous. If Jaeden were konti, Kamalia would have accepted his generosity, but he was not. “Thank you, but no,” she said politely, yet almost coldly, before she walked off towards the mutilated corpses to retrieve her shooting stars. Kamalia used the tip of the middle prong of her suvai to pry the isurian steel blades off the bones of the fallen slavers, wiping them clean with a strip of clean cloth. “You are a very strange man,” the konti observed in Common.

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden slowly put away his rations once again as he stepped over towards his sword, slipping it back into it’s sheath. “Well, that’s part of my charm.” Jaeden said as he nudged the slaver he killed over onto his back with his foot. “I must say you’ve got good timing. My initial confrontation with these guys wasn’t my finest moment. Of course, none of them seem to be my finest moment. Thanks for the help too.”

Jaeden’s hands rested along his waist then for a moment as he looked up to the sky. “Anyways, there’s still some to pick off where they’re camped, and a couple of their captures tied up to be freed.” Jaeden then said, looking over to Kamalia. “I’ve got to be getting to them. My camp is about four miles southeast of here, I’ve a tent and the remnants of a fire still going. Feel free to use it to gain some rest if you wish, especially with the storm that’s coming.”

Jaeden then slipped his bow from his shoulder and pulled an arrow from his quiver, notching it into the bow string. “I tell you one thing,” Jaeden said as he began walking backwards in the direction he had been fleeing from the slavers, “you’re a vision. If I weren’t busy with trying to free slaves, and the fact that you’re so strongly craving to use magic again that it might be directed at me, I’d be totally hitting on you in a big way right now.”

[Kamalia Timandre]

A slight sarcastic smirk touched the konti girl’s lips. True enough, the konti sorceress had half the mind to freeze up this human male’s tongue and refrigerate his private parts with craftily-tailored cantrips of ice—and this temptation was not brought about by her arcane addiction. Kamalia sheathed her silver whalebone suvai into its elaborate ivory scabbard before running long slender fingers through the length of her silver-white locks. “Again with the flattery? Lady Lis, do human males not tire of these pointless exercises?” she said in Common. The konti frowned and titled her head as she stared at Jaeden Kincade curiously. “You told me that you can sense my hunger and craving for spellcasting. How is this possible? By any chance, did you live in the Konti Isle for such a long time that you began to cultivate divinatory gifts of... well, sensing someone’s cravings? My sisters used to say that long exposure to Vision Water can actually do that to non-Konti,” Kamalia softly said. Somehow, Kamalia realized that the Konti language did not sound quite right whenever it rolled off a male’s tongue. The words and the accents were too soft, too delicate and feminine that it sounded strange whenever a male spoke it. “I require no respite at the moment. It might take hours of rest before my djed completely rejuvenates anyway,” the konti said impersonally, “and I will tone down my magic usage for the next battle. Just what is your business with these slavers? They seem to hate you with a passion. How many captives do they have, and just how many slavers are there?” Kamalia hated slavers too, and she hated them with a passion. Perhaps that was why she was helping this man, or perhaps it was another excuse to cast her spells again. Whatever her reasons for helping him did not seem important at the moment.

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden kept a slow walk towards the direction of the Slaver’s camp, looking over his shoulder slightly as Kamalia walked behind him, intent on following. He then gave a slow shrug to her comment on the flattery as he stopped where the fight had started, searching the area for a moment. “Fine, if you don’t like the flattery, I’ll give it a rest.” Jaeden said before looking to Kamalia, raising a brow as if to see if she really did want him to for a moment. His gaze then dropped back down to the ground, searching once again as his foot swept over the area in a few places. “Not like it’s gonna get me anywhere in the end, right? Ah! There it is.”

Jaeden then bent over, grasping the knife he had thrown at one of the slavers earlier. He then dragged the flat of the blade along the leg of his pants, wiping it clean before slipping it back into it’s sheath. A quick turn began forward movement once again, as his head kept turning back and forth, gazing over the area in front of them. “Yes, I can sense your hunger,” Jaeden said idly as he kept his vigil forward mostly. “Though, I prefer to call it desire.”

Jaeden then gave a slow shake of his head, pausing for a moment when he heard a slight rustling of the foliage to the west, the string of his bow being pulled back slightly as he looked towards the sound. Eventually, a jackrabbit came bolting out of the thick brush moving away from both Kamalia and Jaeden as fast as it’s feet would carry it. Jaeden then began moving forward once again. “I was laid up with an injury on the isle for a time, but not long enough to pick up anything like that. Just some of your language and knowledge of your culture for the most part.” Jaeden replied before stopping and looking back to Kamalia, causing her to pause for a moment and take a step back if she had been following closely. “If you must know though, and what little ebbs of your desire that I’m still sensing tells me you curious, I was marked by Nikali near the beginning of spring.”

Jaeden then slowly turned and began walking once again. “Anyways, sorry if you were looking for a little bit of a connection to the homeland. I’m just some poor shyke who got his leg broken in three places on a ship and was fortunate to drift there.” Jaeden then said as he tilted his head back for a moment, sniffing the air as only the faintest hints of a camp fire could be sensed in the breeze that brushed along their faces.

“Please do.” Jaeden then suggested as he began walking once again. “Your nose was bleeding a bit back there when you produced that large globe of water. I wouldn’t want you dropping in the middle of this next fight if your insistent on going.”

Jaeden looked over his shoulder to Kamalia once again. “I’m not sure where I would take you if you didn’t wake up anytime soon.” Jaeden said in a tone that suggested he was hiding something in that regard, but as to what it was, Kamalia could only speculate. However, she would feel an ebb of doubt as to whether the conclusion of her speculation would be correct. “As to my business with the Slavers, I just aim to hinder their own. They generally do hate me for that. There were only two captives they’re holding right now, maybe about four more slavers.”

Jaeden gave a slow shrug as they soon began approaching a hill along the forest. “I was just working on freeing them when I first came across their camp. I was originally not even planning on fighting them.” Jaeden explained shaking his head as he began climbing the hill. “I should have just waited for night fall though.”

Jaeden slowly crouched low as they neared the top of the hill. Peeking over it revealed a slop going back down, steep and long. The trees in the area itself thinned out compared to the rest of the forest, creating a clearing just near the bottom of the slope. There, in the clearing, sat a small encampment as several tents surrounding a large fire at it’s center. Nearby, two humans sat along the ground, one elderly male and a young girl, both of them chained by their wrists and ankles in shackles. Standing at the center of camp, near the fire itself, a young human male stood, looking around the area as he held a crossbow in his hands. Another male stood near a small pack of horses, slowly laying saddles over one he stood directly beside at that time. Two were seen, the other two were not as Jaeden narrowed his eyes. “Huh, they’re in the tent.” Jaeden then said, pointing down towards one tent which seemed to be, rocking.

[Dusk]

Warning: Been a while again! This thread has been inactive for more than 30 days. If I do not hear from you, this thread will be closed and XP awarded.

[Kamalia Timandre]

Her pace unsteady, the konti reimancer staggered slowly and silently after the human male while they walked towards the direction of the slavers’ camp. In truth, the konti was unsure why she was doing this. She had half the mind to believe that she had finally gone crazy—trusting this clown of a human and going on a suicidal rescue mission to battle four well-armed slavers and free two captives. Maybe it was her conscience, or maybe, it was her mind subconsciously tempting her to weave more djed into powerful spells of obliteration.

Kamalia had told Jaeden that she will moderate her magic usage for the next clash, but that was a blatant lie. The konti was level-headed enough to accept the fact that they were outnumbered. It would be foolish and highly impractical to fight four dangerous slavers without careful planning, cunning and powerful magic. Somehow, Kamalia had the notion that this male buffoon was not exactly above doing that. Lady Lis, she sincerely hoped that Jaeden did not concoct plans that involve pulling down pants to provide distraction.

When Jaeden explained to her how he had learned Kontinese, Kamalia stared up at him, violet eyes wide and brimmed with curiosity. As if by reflex, Kamalia opened her Sight and tapped into the Chavic Records in an attempt to divine a fragment of Jaeden’s past. The seer was flung into a world of spiraling colors and wistful dreams as a maternal warmth, the Goddess Avalis herself, enfolded her weary soul. Etched on the fabrics of Jaeden Kincade’s past, Kamalia watched in awe as she saw glimpses of the serene Opal Temple, the gleaming Silver Lake, and Mura, the radiant crown of the Konti Isle, where stone, sea and sky met, where music and magic freely roamed and stirred about. It was all achingly familiar, too painful, too heartrending to watch and so with all her arcane might, she shut her Sight close. Just seconds before the Vision ended, Kamalia glimpsed of a familiar face, pale and beautiful. “Satu,” she half-whispered as she stared blankly at Jaeden’s face. She wondered where the heartseer was. Satu had not returned since she left Syliras with her friends, but this was not the time to ponder on this.

She did not pay much attention to what Jaeden told her about the slavers. Her eyes were distant and her mind swam in the ocean of darkened memories. The konti sorceress crested the hilltop, and her twilit violet eyes drank in the scene before them. Crouching behind a slab of rock, she studied the small encampment. She noted the slaver on vigil equipped with a crossbow, the man saddling the horses and the figures in chains near the fire. The “rocking” tent elicited a raised, slender eyebrow from the young konti. “Well," she whispered, "have you a plan?” Kamalia asked Jaeden, giving him a sidelong glance.