A True Witch is Not Born....But Made (Limey)

[Tinnok]

"Do the jungles truly support someone so weak as you, Sorceress?"

That made those wide eyes blink, if even for a moment. Tinnok was mad, but she realized it was more enraged at herself than the female before her. Had she expected this revelation to find a sister of her kind, that suffered the same as her and knew of all the trials she had had to undergo? This snake knew nothing of her, she had hid within the forest her entire life, while Tinnok had struggled under the weight of attempting to be a Myrian when all her people wanted to do was slit her throat and leave her for dead.

So now she had made the comment, she had no choice but to follow through. Fingers pulled at the earth from which she suddenly found she could pick herself up from, an extremely freeing sensation.

Bare feet found solid purchase and pulled herself up to her full height, one that most Myrian's couldn't match. She stared at the snake like female, calculating, attempting to figure out what would most tug at the strings of a being so warped, whether from isolation, djed use, or other completely unrelated reasons. "You are strong, clearly able to kill me if you wished it, and I suppose it is that which I sought. A power to make those eyes that hate, turn to fear when I approached."

Her eyes looked straight into Asheeras, as if gauging, translating and deciding something deep within them. "Yet you are weak too..." She commented thoughtfully. "Your power is just an illusion covering up your weaknesses, madness, just like the old woman with the power of bones I once met."

She backed up. "If that is the power that you hold...perhaps I will find my power elsewhere." She turned and took a step away. She knew that alone would not be enough. She would merely be the faintest of blip's in the mad woman's mind if she disappeared into the foliage right now. Part of Tinnok was reminded of the cave, the Dhani priestess's eyes upon her the whole time as she dragged Eagle into the cavern, testing her resolve.

She turned, as if an after thought. "So riddle me this, Snake Sorceress, do you enjoy being a snake? Feeling the power of a Dhani course through your being? Feel closer to your Dhani side?"

It was a gamble to be sure, that hint of a mocking tone, those golden eyes seeking for any reaction, but there was a reason that this woman hadn't killed her, why she entered Taloba and not Zinrah...and it wasn't because she favored her Dhani side. So if that was the case, revealing such a secret as the ability to turn into a snake...that was an interesting gift indeed, and one that surely came with as much bitterness as usefulness.

[Limey]

A hand sweeping through the air should not have made the fearsome whoosh that Asheera's did, but that's what Tinnok heard anyway. A moment later, she found out why. The impact slammed into her like nothing she'd ever imagine. Mainly because it didn't go into her... it came from... inside her. "Painful, isn't it?" Asheera said conversationally, getting up with languid ease as the other half-breed went down to one knee, teeth clenched as her veins, her flesh seemed to roil under her. "Much of your body is made of liquid, did you know that? Well, it is. Liquid... and water..." She knelt down in front of the half-breed, small and polite smile on her lips. "Guess what I'm manipulating right now?" There was tension behind her eyes, though, the strain of the torture she was inflicting at least effecting her as well as Tinnok. "I can rip every dram of it from you if I wanted. Ever seen a husk left out in the sun for weeks, for months? You'll look pretty much like that..." A sigh, heavy and long-suffering as she contemplated just that... then with another complicated wave of her hand, the pressure inside Tinnok vanished, and she fell flat onto her face. "Do... not... ever..." the words were slower now, ripping with venom as much as any viper or adder, thick with a warning that would not be spoken twice "... think you know me, half-breed. Think you know your pain and thus know mine? Foolish. Foolish and prideful. Some would call you brave for venturing here, marching after Asheera The Scorned. But bravery with no hope of victory... that is foolishness. Stupidity. Wastefulness." The reimancer sighed again and circled the panting half-breed, studying the fallen figure like others would an interesting but ultimately flawed gem. "And yet... and yeeeeet..." again that singsong quality, her mind wandering and having to be dragged back with real effort "... I see the echoes of my past in your present, snake shit. Long I endured whispers and glances. Long I saw naught but scorn hurled at me, and in that hate and despair, I longed for vengeance. That is where you mistake, hmm?" She reached down and a hand that was too cold to be alive gripped her chin and forced her up. Now she saw the similarities in them, and so did Asheera. Those bright, slit-marred eyes. That burning but buried anger inside them, that indignation the gods could be so cruel. And a determination that only the ostracized can nurture, a drive to make all others pay for it... "Such anger... such hate..." whispered words that slithered into Tinnok's weakened body "... such... potential... and you waste it." She let go and Tinnok's head crunched onto the grass. Feet departed, and she felt another layer of bitterness form over her heart. Scorned and abandoned even by one as isolated as she was, one who had the blood of two races that despised them only slightly less than each other. She felt a despair grip her, an anger that threatened to pull hated tears from her ducts- "If were are to... continue, snake shit..." the words came with insults, but they came with a twisted hope, too "... that outlook... will need to change..."

[Tinnok]

She coughed, and kept coughing, pain evident through her body. It was unlike anything any Myrian had been able to do to her before...the manipulation of liquid inside one's own body? She was just as much in wonder as she was in fear as her body was held in a state of limbo before collapsing upon the ground.

And then the cough, hacking and strange, a tiny dribble of blood parting from between her lips...turned into a laugh. It was low, and something Tinnok didn't do often, but the humor was evident in her tone, with just the barest edge of mania...yet controlled.

She shifted slowly to her feet, and grinned at Asheera. That had hurt, but it had been worth it. That emotion, that anger. She had thought that perhaps this Sorceress was too separated from her...too different, but the same festering pains that resided within the Wolf resided within her, and Tinnok was glad to see that.

"I will not pretend to know you, if you do the same, Sorceress."

She would not insult this potential teacher, even if she chose to call Tinnok by that...epithet. Too long had others slung such words for it to be anything more than regular...even if it seemed immensely hypocritical for a fellow half breed to be wielding it with such venom.

You have shown your bite...now perhaps an edge of humility...She can kill you after all. Tinnok let out another cough, this one more discreetly into her elbow, then glanced up at the strange woman.

"You speak of wasted potential, and I cannot help but agree, but there are few teachers that would be as accommodating as you have been." She smirked again, but the sarcasm in her tone held an edge of truth. No Myrian of any merit would teach her very much, no less magic. They would do to the Wolf the same as Asheera and then worse...one of the many reasons she now resided out secluded in the woods...much like her older counterpart.

"Did you clan teach you of Reimancy?" She wondered on this. She knew that one versed in such elemental magicks had to induct a new pupil, which begged the question of precisely who had given the potent reimancer her magic in the first place.

[Limey]

The first sentence was received with but a roll of her eyes. Yes, make demands while you can barely stand. That'll work brilliantly. The second? A snort. Nothing more. Asheera had never considered herself... anything. A custodian of the jungle, perhaps, but not a student, mentor or instructor. But if the snake shit wanted to see it that way, so be it. Only when it really irritated her - which, let's face it, most things did - would she correct her woefully naive perception. The third sente- "My clan?" Something changed in her tone between one word and the next. Her world, perhaps. Her voice. What she was and who she was and sudden;y Tinnok was hearing two voices, arguments between them, sides of the strange half-breed warring and bickering like children until she tap-tap-tapped the side of her head- "No clan. We have no clan... NEVER!" She whirled and flung out a hand, and Tinnok would swear after she could see the air ripple with the latent, glowing res conjured by this unhinged witch. The ground beneath her boiled and groaned and two chain-like ropes slashed upwards, wrapped around her wrists, pulling her down with a grunt- -and then Asheera was there, face... turgid. Emotional. A world away and a mind removed from what ahd been staring at her before. Pain. Betrayal. Loss. But purpose. Something that went beyond insanity to a breed of awareness that went beyond a cogent mind. That looked at reality through a different lens that was both so much clearer and forever obscured. "Do you wish this?!" She hissed again, res-glowing hand gripping under Tinnok's skin. "Do you wish to be as that whch raves before you?! ANSWER ME! Speak and give your truth, make your choice and never doubt it again!" The jungle seemed to rustle and shuffle nervously around them. Tinnok's gnosis writhed on her flesh, Ciayha agitated by the crackling turbulence of djed thrown off by this half-breed. But it would not interfere... could not. Some things are best left alone... and if they are not, consequences are to be expected.

[Tinnok]

Perhaps, many years from now, a few months, several days, and she would learn how others had been inducted into Reimancy. A harrowing process no matter who was the giver and how one received the double edged gift...yet still here and now, she would imagine few others could boast the strangeness of their induction as hers was about to commence.

She didn't fully understand Djed, though she knew of its working. She had seen lesser mages than Asheera struggle to light flames to start a fire, seen water appear from nowhere in cupped hands to fill a kettle, and seen chimes move on a windless day through the will of the individual standing next to them.

She was unsure where her path led through the winding trails of magic, where they might go with this bizarre female, and even with her own clan.

She did know, however, that in least some part, her fellow half breed was right. Tinnok was a creature striving to be Myrian and slowly, day by day failing at it with her new found freedom, and gifts from her patron mother. She had to somehow learn to be something other than what she pretended she was...and that...certainly that, this woman could give her.

Her body shook, already weary from the battering Asheera had given her, but those golden eyes held firm, filled with the same emotions that broiled through the maddened ones that sank into her soul. "Do it."

[Limey]

Asheera seemed to sag, for the briefest of moments, but whether or not it was out of pity, surprise, satisfaction or something else... Tinnok would never know. Her eyes did not waver, though. Nor did her voice. "Then it is done-" Her hands snapped forwards and grasped around Tinnok's wrists, tearing them free from their earth bonds as her will disintegrated them. Stronger than her wiry frame appeared, she jerked the female upright, arms up, almost spread-eagle but on her feet- -and with a grunt and a flare of djed that erupted across her skin like she was one massive candle, blinding Tinnok for a moment, light blue smoke flickering and dancing across her- -before pouring towards her, onto her, into her, like they had mind and will of their own. Her palms burned... and she realized holes were being gouged in them. Without weapons, or tools, or claws... holes... holes in her flesh... Asheera's teeth clenched so hard she might break them. Her hands shook but her grip did not and she did not take her yes off Tinnok's. Ah, she had spirit, that one. Agony twisted her face and soon the shine of scales was overwhelmed by the skin reddening with pain, with exertion as she willed herself to endure this, to stay conscious... "You wish... for this power... then... take it-" The gas poured into her, through the wounds, through her mouth, her tear ducts, her ears... every orifice and opening that the gas could painfully worm itself into... and if Tinnok did scream, the gas smothered it, and only the keening animals that took up a chorus of misery around them both gave voice to her pain.

[Tinnok]

Something was born in the Wolf upon that day, in that moment. She had no idea what must be endured, but she had undergone much pain in her life, and believed herself ready. As if Asheera's play hadn't been enough for her.

Of course like in many things, the half breed was dead wrong.

It was an invasion, she knew that much. Asheera's life force, mad yet powerful, surged in through every orifice above and below. The gaseous form of her unique Djed signature flooded into her mouth, ears nose, through the very pores in her skin, and even rent her flesh in order to sink into her blood. The initial pain of entry, was just the taste of what was to come, however.

She felt as if she was choking, drowning, not on smoke...but something else entirely, quite like the Kandukta Basin was in its entirety attempting to enter her lungs and stomach, even crawl beneath her finger nails. Her sense of perspective, or depth disappeared immediately, yet she could not fall, for it seemed whatever had filled her every pore, was also holding her afloat.

Her head throbbed, tiny daggers of pain shooting against the thick of her skull. She felt like a violent illness had seized her soul and refused to let go, and it would take her some time to realize that this was how one opened up the passageways...and imprinted the mark of reimancy upon a new pupil.

Her body convulsed with pain, threatening to shut down on her, to give up whatever madness Asheera was putting her through, but she couldn't bend, couldn't break either. Then all she would be was a discarded corpse, and to think of the expression of...uncaring that would lie on that woman's face if she died here, in her own damned jungle? These quite cognizant thoughts were soon just replaced for...I cannot die...I cannot die. How swiftly pain made a child of its wearer.

[Limey]

It was her wyrd, and she knew it. Her jealously-guarded ability to manipulate and control those elements most prevalent in her domain: water and earth. Conjured into gas as she had done before, but... Gifted. In the worst and most painful way imaginable, but done out of a twisted desire to give another her power. So long since she had been so magnanimous. But it was only scarce chimes before the spasms started to ripple through her, become jerks and tears at her self-control. Flares of transmutation that bled into the wounds she had made, causing yet more agony to the supplicant. But she wasn't done. She could feel it; feel inside this half-breed, and knew... There. There! Enough! With a cry she broke contact, ripping her hands free and the res poured back into her as if she were some deep hole and it was the liquid. Tinnok spasmed, held up by the gods knew what, blue steam oozing out of her, flowing, flying, wounds closing with blood on her hands- Both of them dropping to their knees, but only one was steady in her breathing. Overgiving, the barbarians called it. To her it was just... going to the edge of her power. Testing her own sanity and abilities, daring the demons and the darkness she knew lurked beyond it to stop her. Asheera looked up, panting, and saw that they had not won this day. "Give me... your hand..." A trembling, blood-slick claw was held before her, and she cupped it almost delicately. Tinnok's world was a miasma of pain and confusion, but that voice permeated through it like a knife through her flesh. "See your hand... see a flame in your palm... tiny... like a match... a spark... the beginning, like... like a seed... and we both know what majesty and power can come from a single seed..." She looked up and saw trees taller and wider and broader than any other in the world, some of them ancient by the time the first Myrian had first stood upright. Yes... from such tiny things... "See the flame, girl," Asheera said, willing her new student to focus her glazed gaze on her palm, tiny, almost imperceptible blue ripples echoing over her skin, "See it in your mind... and form it in the world..."

[Tinnok]

She thought her body might die. That whatever power had surged through her with such vigor would surely steal the force from her very soul once it had exited, and that she would be left a hollow husk.

That was not to be, however.

The half breed fell like a loose sack of bones to the ground, feeling as if someone had dissected her entire body and then attempted to put it back again. Somehow...Asheera looked barely winded. Truly that must be the power she held within her grasp to be such Sorceress.

And then the female was asking her questions. The words seemed slurred within Tinnok's ears as they came out, and she blinked once, then once again. She understood, though wondered...did the snake know that that is what was contained within her? Fire?

She struggled to sit, falling upon her rump, but in a more comfortable position. She felt it, this strange thrumming inside her being that she had not known was there. It pulsated like her Gnosis sometimes did...spoke of magic.

Within her grasp she pictured a single flame. Like that at the top of a candle. She imagined the slightest flickering, weak but colorful blossoming from her grasp. Yet nothing happened. Not only did nothing happen, but she felt a strange resistance, like her body was up against a wall.

She thought back to her drowning in Asheera's djed, the feeling...not of heat or fire, but cool water drowning out her sense, choking and darkening her with its power.

She was not sure how reimancy worked, its forms or ways, but she would learn.

Even as she thought of the water a strange grey blue pool of res seemed to float up from the palm of her hand. Eyes wide Tinnok looked at it. It was her own signature...dusky and almost shimmering, unique from Asheera's. She willed it to rise above her palm, and imagined as she did so, a rain drop combining with others of its ilk to form a sphere.

Black slits narrowed even further in awe and surprise as the res did as she willed, its thick gelatinous surface become translucent, small rivulets spinning in her hand as a ball of water floated an inch and a half from her skin.

The half breed giggled, and the water broke apart in her hand asher momentary focus was lost, sloshing over her skin. She couldn't even try to be disappointed either.

Her eyes met the sorceress's, big and wide. She attempted to collect herself, knowing the female wouldn't be impressed. After all it was merely a parlor trick...and even that seemed to drain what little energy Tinnok had left. It was a start though...the start of something wonderful.

"Thank you." She said slowly, quietly. Thre seemed nothing else to say.

[Limey]

She hoped. It had been so long that she was barely aware that was what she was feeling, and then the realization came as a shock. Her eyes were fixed on the glowing hand and she hoped for this fellow half-breed. Hope and fellowship. Two resurrections in one afternoon. Then Asheera saw it. Gentle at first, but such things always were. Sputtering and blind, like life itself coming into the world, fearful of the deep shadows and glaring light. But she saw it, becoming a spar- Blob. A wet blob. And to Tinnok's surprise, a low chuckle greeted her ears, and Asheera shook her head. "Ask for a flame, and she gives me water. Just like a half-breed..." But there was such... pride, in her words? No, that was too much. Something grudging and reluctant, but softer than the scorn and contempt and outright boredom she had displayed before. The half-breed took a deep breath and got back to her feet, looking the exhausted, sweat-dripping female up and down. She nodded in satisfaction at the revolving little ball above her hand. "Thus it begins." The half-breed thanked her and got the apathetic grunt she'd been expected. Asheera turned her back on her, and just when Tinnok felt that hollowness take form again- "Return in a season, snake shit," she said just before the jungle swallowed her, "Practice your new ability. Think on what this power can do, and what it should not. You know where to find me..."