Flashback The Cup of Unlife: Stage 1

[Ialari Pythone]

The cry for help was coming from some distance away. The fact that Ialari could hear it to begin with went unnoticed. Ialari silently cursed the interruption. She felt as though she had been close to finding an answer to her questioning but now with the interrupting cries, she had to bite her tongue to keep from allowing her impatience to surface. The cries continued and Ialari rubbed her temples. Father, I'm sorry...I, I will be back." She couldn't focus with those cries in the back of her mind. It was probably some dumb kid having lost their Brynkil somewhere; it might have flown back home and the ignorant kid didn't realize it. Either way she couldn't concentrate.

Climbing down from her perch in Izurdin's hands, Ialari actually listened this time for the cries for help. They sounded like they were coming from quite a distance way. She began looking through the park as she followed the sounds. The noise led her out of the park and block or two away. As she passed by a few others, they didn't seem to notice the cries. When asked, they looked at her oddly as if she were just hearing things that weren't there. Cursing yet again to herself, she continued following the cries. Her search led her through part of the Housing District toward the edge of a large chasm spanned by a magnificent arching bridge. Standing at the edge, she heard the cries coming from below. Seriously? Someone's down there? Fallen? She thought to herself as she called out to the source of the cries. There was a pause before someone answered. It sounded like a girl. She called out that she had fallen and couldn't find a way back up.

Ialari looked around to see if there was anyone who could help. She felt too busy for such a trivial thing. When she couldn't find anyone, she put her hand to her face and wiped downward in frustration before calling out that she would be right down and to just hold on. She had no way of knowing just how far down the girl had fallen. She had no rope or any real way to help herself down much less get back up. She could have gone looking for more help but it would have taken too much time and she wasn't ready to spend that much. Frustrated with growing anger, Ialari decided it was quicker to just climb down herself. Looking over the edge into darkness, her vision could barely make out the wall of the cliff and a small figure huddled on an outcropping below. Turning around, Ialari took a back step over the edge while trying to find footing. Her foot found a crevice in the rock and she shifted her weight to begin climbing down.

Hand by hand, foot by foot, she tested the wall of the cliff for foot and hand holds. At one point she reached for what she thought was a solid grip only to have the rock break away and send her sliding a few feet down before finding a handhold at the last moment. Though her dense flesh resisted cut and scrape, she was becoming more and more annoyed by the whole event. Her annoyance was slightly relieved however when she noticed a few feet to the side, climbing up the rough stone wall that she held onto, was a thick patch of mossy vines that extended but a few short feet from the outcropping below. They stopped too far for a young girl to reach but were enough that Ialari could use them to get the rest of the way down with greater ease.

Holding on to the stone grip with one hand, she took a chance and swung over to the vines. Taking hold of the thick, plant material, she pulled herself to the the vines and lowered herself the rest of the way until dropping a short distance to the outcropping When she landed, she looked at the source of the cries for help. It was a young girl probably half Ialari's age. She looked dirty, scraped and bruised from the fall but not too bad off. "How in Izurdin's name did you fall down here?" Ialari asked. The girl muttered something about seeing something over the chasm and wanting to get a better look before losing her balance and falling. The girl then began to cry, tears pouring from her face. She sniffled and said she just wanted to go home and be with her mother. Ialari nodded and said, "Alright, let's get out of here." She held out her hand to the girl who quickly took it with both of hers. Turning to the vines, Ialari stepped over to climb back up. It was then that she felt something that brought no small amount of concern. The stone outcropping that they stood upon had shifted. Ialari's extra weight upon it had loosened the stones and created enough stress that the outcropping was moving. Fear exploded in Ialari's mind as the outcropping gave way.

Pulling the girl close to her, Ialari leaped into the air and reached for the vine just as the outcropping gave way and fell into the deep chasm below. Her fingers wrapped themselves around a vine as her footing vanished. The little girl screamed and wrapped herself around Ialari's body. The vines Ialari held onto were beginning to loosen with the increased weight.

[Ialari Pythone]

The day was not going according to Ialari's wishes to say the least. Her footing gone, the vine she held onto about to pull free from the chasm wall, encumbered by an injured girl maddened with fear, there was little hope left that Ialari could get both of them out alive. Speaking aloud to the girl, Ialari told her, "Ok, look, this vine can't hold us both. We're going to fall unless...unless I throw you." With those words, the little girl hugged Ialari tighter and yelled out for her not to do it. There's no choice. I've got to throw you up to a different vine before we both fall to our death. You have to catch it and climb quickly." The little girl struggled a bit more and let loose another string of denouncing cries before Ialari pulled her away with a black, metallic arm and prepared to give her boost up. Realizing that she little choice in the matter, the girl stopped fighting as Ialari lowered her arm a bit and then flung the girl up. The little one reached out madly for another fine and luckily found one. Her weight being much less than Ialari's, the vine held firm.

As for Ialari, she didn't have time nor did she have the footing to propel herself to a different vine as the one she held finally gave way. In that moment, time seemed to stop. It was the first time this would occur for Ialari yet not the last. As the vine snapped and she felt herself falling backward into the chasm, Ialari was tempted to give herself over to the fear of the moment; to let her frustration, anger, hatred and feelings of unfairness erupt from her lungs as she plummeted to her death. Yet, in that moment of suspended time, she chose instead to pray. "Father, though it did not end the way I thought it would and I haven't accomplished all that I wished, I hope that in this final act I have shown that I could have been more. That I've proven that I could have been of service to you and to our people. Watch over this girl and help her as you have I."

Time returned to its normal flow as Ialari fell into the darkness to what she knew was certain death.

[Ialari Pythone]

Ialari awoke with a start. Falling out of bed she tried to stand only to fall again. Sliding herself against the side of the bed she frantically looked at herself and then at her surroundings. She was in her small chamber in the Silver Tower. Sitting in a chair nearby was one of her instructors, Sentinel Malnarus Occulus Pitrius. Malnarus was leaning forward a bit in the chair, his hands clasped in his lap, a calm, studious gaze upon his face. Ialari looked up at him from the floor, her face doing nothing to hide her confusion.

"Hello, Ialari Pythone. Welcome back." Malnarus said in a quiet, emotionless tone. Malnarus was one of Ialari's instructors responsible for teaching students the basic concepts behind Auristics. His family was known for their observations and resulting natural talent with the methods of magical seeing. "What...?" Ialari started to ask but was as of yet unable to formulate her thoughts into words. Malnarus casually responded, "You've been asleep for many days; a victim of one of your own poisons stealthily placed in your drink during the night of celebration after you passed your second test. Irony? Perhaps. It did serve its purpose however in putting you in the state of mind that allowed us to better manipulate your mind for your final test. Yes, Ialari, nearly all that you experienced over the past several days was a construct of your mind, manipulated of course by those of us here." Ialari slowly pulled herself back up to sit on the bed, her mind reeling at the idea that what she had known for many days was nothing more than an illusion.

"Your final test has concluded. Would you like to know the results?" Malnarus asked still in a flat, almost uncaring tone.

Ialari, like many times before, was unable to get any reading from Malnarus in regards to what he may be thinking. He was as stone cold as the floor beneath them. With a heavy sigh of resignation, she nodded.

"To begin, you failed, quite miserably, in the test of patience. You allowed yourself to give in to hesitation, uncertainty and doubt. You looked everywhere for signs of the test to the exclusion of all else thus allowing yourself to be blinded to it when it was finally upon you. Your failure in this would normally be grounds for failing the test entirely culminating in your, "dismissal". Ialari couldn't help but look down and shrink into herself a bit at these words. "However, even when you're own lack of patience placed in you a position where you had no chance of success, you did not lay blame to others for your own misdeeds. You did not remove yourself from responsibility for what had happened. You sacrificed yourself to save another knowing that it was you that put you and her in such a situation. While that would normally be seen as a success, your lack of patience is a nullifying element." Ialari kept her head low and her eyes in her lap as she listened to her instructor criticize her actions.

"The final test often has nothing to do with magic. It is meant to test you as a person. We wish to see what you would do in the absence of magic. Will you rely on your strength to overcome an obstacle? Will you still seek magic as an answer? Will you give up in the absence of both? These are just some of the questions we seek answers to when deciding whether or not to name a new Sentinel. You however, did none of these. You chose self-sacrifice in order to save a child. You could have just as easily let her go or struggled to find another solution only to have it end with both of your deaths. Instead, you chose to save her. This is admittedly unusual of a Sentinel where the pursuit of magic and self-preservation is all too often the primary focus. It is that which has given us pause in examining your results." Ialari finally looked up, her confusion replaced by curiousity.

"However, it was something else entirely that drove me to bring you out of your sleep; a sleep that by rights should have lasted forever. Only a handful of times in recent memory has something like this happened. At that last moment, when the vine gave way and you began to fall, we lost vision. We could not see or hear what happened next. We felt a powerful presence in your mind that clouded our sight. We do know that you said something in that moment that was significant in some way. It was significant enough that we cannot ignore it. While I will not ask you what you said, it was important to the point that we allowed you to wake. It was important enough that we have decided to grant you the position of Sentinel. The only stipulation is that you always remember whatever it was that you said. Some time in the future, those words that you spoke will guide you. They will open your eyes to the reality that is around you and they will save you when are in most need of saving. Congratulations, Ialari Pythone Pitrius, Sentinel of the Silver Tower." Ialari's eyes widened. She was still coming to terms with all that she had experienced and all that Malnarus had said.

As exhilaration took the place of fear and uncertainty, Ialari was stopped short by Malnarus once more. "One last thing, I want to you think about the young girl whom you saved. Try and remember her face." Ialari raised an eyebrow before thinking back to the apparent dream. She focused on the memory of the young girl's frightened face. Ialari felt chills fill her body as the realization dawn on her.

"Yes. The girl you saved was yourself. Remember that. When the time comes and those finals words spoken as you fell into the chasm return to you, you will have a choice. Your decision then will determine whether or not you are able to save yourself and that decision will be influenced by those very words." Malnarus presented Ialari with a ring. An onyx stone was set in silver etched with glyphs served as a symbol of her apprenticeship as a Sentinel of the Silver Tower.

Ialari accepted the ring and placed it on the ring finger of her off-hand.

[Ialari Pythone]

Ialari awoke sitting in her bed in Sahova. Almost everything was at it were before save for the fading traces of chromatic light that had filled the room. Looking down at her lap, she still held the cup in her hand. Slowly, she lifted her hand, her thumb still pierced by the needle. Indeed not all things were like before. Turning the cup, she examined it closely. While the copper remained dull, its curves imperfect, it was the silver mesh that stood out. It looked impossibly polished and glimmered even in the dying coals of the fire; a fire that last Ialari saw it, was burning well. Looking inside the cup, Ialari noted the imperfections; a few left over, shallow finger prints and an uneven interior surface. In appearance, other than for the glimmering sheen of the silver mesh, the cup held little difference to its original form.

It wasn't it's physical appearance however that drew Ialari's initial interest. It was the feeling that she got when she looked at and even thought about the cup. She could literally feel it as it were somehow a part of her. It is this that told her that the imparting was complete. It looks alright, but did you do it right? She thought to herself.

With her other hand, Ialari took hold of the cup. She then slowly pulled her thumb from the needle. As she did, she lightly bit her lip at the discomfort. Her thumb now free of the needle, she put the digit in her mouth in an effort to ease the pain. There was still a bit of blood left on the needle. As she watched, that blood seemed to be sucked into the needle and in turn, the cup. It had worked; the cup had accepted her sacrifice. Even so however, it was incomplete. While it was now able to take a sacrifice, it had not the ability to give anything in return.

"Now for the next st..." Ialari started to say to herself before a wave of fatigue swept over her. Her muscles tightened and soreness embraced them. Her eyes instantly felt too heavy to keep open and she slowly fell back on the bed as if to allow sleep to take her. The cup fell from her hand and rolled onto the floor. In but a few short seconds, Ialari was asleep.

From the darkness of the room, the coals of the fire now cold, a ghostly figure emerged. It drifted across the room and stopped at the side of Ialari's bed. Reaching down, it lifted the cup into the air and sat it on the stand next to the bed. Turning to the sleeping form of Ialari, the shade pulled a blanket up over the isur and smiled. "Well done my friend. Sleep well and begin again tomorrow." Shalla said with an ethereal smile before disappearing back into the darkness of the room.

[Mirage]

Character Name

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Blacksmithing	3
Climbing	1
Meditation	1
Observation	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Lore: Nuit Characteristics
•	Lore: Macerating Human Remains
•	Lore: Izentor Use
•	lore: Final Test of a Sentiel

It's Not What You Think...

I absolutely adore your writing! Haha I loved this thread, and I am sooo looking forward to the next! So when will that be exactly? Will Ialari finish the cup? Will there be more flashbacks!?? Oh the suspense!

Ok the story was awesome, truly epic, but as you can see I could not give you many points for it. You did not use either of the weapons, or poisoning or even torture enough to warrant a point in it, but I did award you an extra point in blackmithing for the mistakes in crafting the cup. Good job there . You received one point in climbing because, honestly, there was nothing else I could give you for it since the entire time she used climbing it was in a flashback kind of setting. I settled on giving you one point instead of none though because of the great detail .

Ialari now officially has 1 Cup that holds her sacrifice within it. Use it well and I wish you luck as you finish your crafting! If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask

P.S. I work with Cadavers quite a lot at the moment, and I can tell you from experience that it is almost impossible to get every scrap of facia and muscle off of bone. That means that skull beside her desk is going to smell AWFUL unless she can clean it the rest of the way (inside and out. Don't forget there is still tissue inside the skull!). The best method used in olden days and in current times is to place the bone on an ant hill where the ants can pick it clean. Works every time haha. Though be careful because ants really like to get at the connective tissues in the joints . Even if it is complete clean it is still gonna smell something horrible until you kill all the bacteria, so soaking it in cadaver fluid would help too