Sojourn of the Drykas (Open)

[Lariat]

Such was there spirit that sanctuary felt like a cage from which there was no escape 1st of Spring, 512 AV (Early evening) Pressing his cupped hand to the cool surface of the cavern wall, Lthevel watched as cool water pooled into his hand. It drew clear lines in the dirt staining his hand, turning murky in the center of his palm till it was no more as he drew it to his lips and gulped it down. The days lost underneath the lightless sky where growing he knew, but he had little sense of just how many had passed. It was just to trivial to count the days when lives where at stake, but even with the loss of something so minor he couldn't help but feel a pang of loss resound within him. Perhaps it was because it reminded him of the sun and how long it had failed to grace his skin, and the dissatisfaction that filled many at the fact they had hardly any idea what exactly was happening and no answers for their kin. It was frustrating. Footsteps echoed behind him. Turning around, he smiled recognizing the face of his wife, Ansia even in the gloom. Her face hallowed by the faint glow of a torch stuck in the wall behind her. "Ansia, what news did your sister bring you" He asked, drawing her into his arms as he did. The foundation of her flesh did much to quell the fear that trickled inside of him. "Still no sign of the calamity the messengers spoke of. Perhaps it will not come to pass?" Her voice didn't reflect such a belief, but he smiled anyways. At the moment, they both needed such hope, even if it was a false one. By the seriousness he had witnessed on the rider's faces and the following message from the Seer of the White Isle herself he knew the dreaded prophesy would come to being sooner than later. Avalis had a hand in their kind after all. "Perhaps. In the meantime let us turn or attentions to.." A scream shrilled through the relative quietness of the cave, shattering the peace as it echoed throughout the corridors of the cavern. More shrills soon followed but oddly from other portions of the cave, and Lthevel shivered as a welling sense of dread overcame him. Before he could shake it off or even think what to do properly, the frail form of a young girl tottered out from a tunnel on his right, her face streaked with tears. Ansia hurried over to the little girl, scooping the child up into her arms, cooing to the bundle even as screams continued to echo from the walls. What in the patching realm was going on? * * * * * Spread thinly through the tunnels and caves as they where, still a clan's influence could be seen in the manner the drykas clustered together with one another. In the center of it all sharing space with Diamond clan, and Topaz clan members, the head family of the Sapphire clan worked in the gloomy darkness, frantically roaming the web to look for some clue that the disaster had struck, or if not that then evidence that it was on the verge of washing over the land. To their frustration, and that of many other drykas in other clans, nothing could be gathered from the web besides that which was rather ordinary. Even moreover it made more than a few of them feel helpless to their situation. Forin Icestone, head Ankal of the Sapphire Clan was not among them in their frustration, for with his many years came a knowledge that brought security. They where doing the right thing by going underground, and soon the others would realize this, and quell their waggling tongues. Still it seemed to calm the other drykas somewhat when they checked the web, and so now in a circle of five of his most trusted friends, he meditated, focusing his mind for the task at hand. Sinking into the trance required was almost a second nature for him, and soon his entire awareness left his body and he traveled the glowing highway that was the web, heading with all speed to the borders of the Cyphrus to check for any hint at the calamity that was to come. Others where there with him, but they paid him no mind as they all went about their own duties checking along the magic lines for any sort of sign that could make things more clear. Everything was as it always had been though, with little difference in respect to everything that had occurred with the messengers. It was perfectly normal, and that was the frustrating thing, though for Forin, he was just pleased to travel the web, and marvel for a time in it's complexity and beauty. A surge of information distracted him from his musings as he felt the web buckle and a white hot heat wash over him. Then there was nothing. * * * * * Standing watch over her husband, and the other web mages, Mereda washed Forin's perspiring forehead with a damp cloth. The man tried to hard sometimes, and tended to lose himself with efforts in helping others, even if it was to put the men and women at ease. While never having felt the tantalizing effects of the web herself, she found herself feeling a harmless envy for the man she loved, in part because he told her many a story about it, and none had failed to entertain her yet. Perhaps with such time spent in the caves she could offer to help her husband with it, though the thought quickly froze in her mind when as one everyone of the web mages fell back stiffly, and the color leeched from their skin. Her scream was the first to break the fragile quiet, but certainly not the last.