Closed Don't Play With Fire. (Elva)

[Etori Whitevine]

55th of Fall, 513 Etori was angry that night. She couldn’t quite understand why but she just felt so infuriated that she had to leave the silence of her Arvinta. She trudged through the snow on the dark streets of Avanthal. Anger caressed her mind and caused her eyes to blur. The more she thought about her anger the angrier she became and the more she lost sight of where she was going or what she was doing. “Why? Why am I so weak! I should have made progress by now…” she thought with rage. The thoughts revealed that she was indeed anger at herself. Or was she? Anger is such a blind and uncontrollable emotion. No one truly knows what makes them angry. The truth behind anger can’t be singled out and ridiculed. Etori had been walking with blurred vision for some time now. Finally she came to her senses as her anger began to lighten ever so slightly. She halted and for the first time since leaving her hold she took in her surroundings. She saw a path before her that looked as if it stretched on forever. There were walls on either side of her and torches on those walls that lit the path. She was...in The Smoldering Embrace. The vantha chuckled to herself all of a sudden. She couldn’t remember bringing herself here at all, it was so odd. A sudden cool breeze brushed against her neck and sent a shiver down her spine. Etori sighed. She slumped against the wall and put her head in her hands. “What the hell am I doing here?” she mumbled angrily to herself. She was beginning to feel the cold of the night chill her skin. The sound of laughter and voices murmuring to each other caught her ear. Etori lifted her head and listened closely just to make sure she wasn’t hearing things. She defiantly heard the distant voices of people nearby. She realised she must be close to the center where the bonfire was burning bright. It had been so long since she was last here… The vantha lifted herself from the ground and ran down the path with whatever energy she had left. Upon reaching the center Etori caught sight of a few vantha gathered around the bonfire. But it wasn’t them she was interested in. Quickly Etori ran over to the large sphere shaped bonfire and huddled close to it for warm. She rubbed her hands together as she stared down at one of the single fire pots. She watched the warm flames flicker before her and wondered what it would feel like to be fire. Fire appears to be furious and uncontrollable. Just as Etori had felt only moments ago. Can a destructible emotion such as angry relate to fire, fire which is relentless and destroys all in its path? Etori’s anger had vanished but what about the fire’s anger, could it ever be controlled? Etori became lost in her thoughts as she watched the fire, a great sympathy developed in her heart for it. All fire could do was be angry and destroy while she had the choice or opportunity to feel other emotions. Yet, when it is tame, the fire could control its anger. Whilst Etori would have a rather difficult time trying to control her own. “Would you…teach me to control my anger, to control my pain?” She said aloud to the fire. Not caring about the vantha around her. No, they didn’t exist in her eyes, at least not in this moment. All she saw was the bright burning flames of the fire. All else was lost in the darkness of the cold night.

[Elva Skyglow]

Elva was exhausted. Dark smudges bruised the skin under her half-mast eyes. She walked slowly; her shuffling barely caused the snow beneath her boots to crunch. Her latest commission was a difficult one and had beaten back her best efforts at each turn for the last four days. She had not slept more than six bells in total over those few days and her attention span and patience had long since frayed to a single, desperate strand. She was already behind on her work, with much left to be done by their deadlines if she expected proper payment. Her mind wandered in the helpless confusion of the over exhausted, unable to maintain enough focus on more than one idea long enough for Elva to remember why she was making her way to the center of The Smoldering Embrace when she would rather feel the warmth of her blankets and bed.

It was only after she managed to pick her way through the scattered couples and nearly trip over a child that she felt the weight of her bag on her back and recalled her purpose for being there. Her commission was for a carver in her Hold, a friendly man who had been friends with her father in his youth. He had such glimmering blue eyes when he requested a sketch of a burning flame for his latest project, offering a modest and reasonable payment for the simplicity of the work. But Elva was regretting her decision as she nearly collapsed onto the ground and pulled her materials from her pack. She cast a lazy glance around the identical pots that made up the bonfire before selecting one closest to her and she could see the most clearly. She could have lit a hearth in the Arvinta but Elva was certain she would only fall asleep and lose even more time for both this project and the other commissions waiting for her on her bedroom desk.

Elva took a long breath and took several moments to whip her thoughts into line. A faint swirl of gold began to show in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on the fire placed her charcoal to her page. It would be a challenge to capture the heat of the flame. Normally Elva welcomed the opportunity to stretch her work with lighting and value, but her current state only soured her mood further. She moved closer to the flames than the couples around her to see her subject more clearly. She had only managed to block in the darkest part of the flame, the outer lines, when she felt her hand move more slowly and her head droop. The golden glow was fading as Elva’s eyes drifted shut and her hand drew scattered, wide marks, not at all resembling the fire.

Elva felt a presence pass in front of her and her head jerked up violently as she was roused from her state of near unconsciousness. A dark figure had taken up residence directly in Elva’s line of vision, blocking her view of her chosen fire pot and igniting an irrational flare of possessiveness and annoyance. ‘Who is this now? What right do they have to block my view? Have they no manners?’ A feminine voice spoke but was not addressing Elva. With the razor-sharp wit and wisdom of the half-awake Elva decided to respond to the girl anyway in an accusatory and acidic tone.

“You’re in my way. I was drawing that part. The fire there,” Elva gestured using her charcoal, waving it at the pot. “Not only are you blocking the fire but my light. Please, if you’d be so kind as to move?” She twisted her sketchbook so the girl would see her work if she looked, not noticing the mess she had made mindlessly. Elva shook it a bit, only slightly petulantly, to punctuate her meaning.

[Etori Whitevine]

‘A Blinding Light Watch It Burn Bright A Timid Flame With No One To blame.’ The words formed themselves in Etori’s mind as she gazed into the flames before her. She wasn’t usually the poetic type but sometimes she did catch herself off guard creating little poems in her head. At least when she was lost in her thoughts she could be calm and still. While the world continued around her and she didn’t have to be a part of it. After all. The world was going to continue with or without her. As it did with all whom came into and passed within this world.. A feminie voice suddenly cut her off from her train of thought. For a moment Etori just stood and listened to the accusatory tone of a young woman that she was sure was addressing her, yet she didn’t take notice of what she was saying. All she caught in the sentence was that she was directly telling her to move out of the way. Etori continued to stand where she stood, she kept her eyes on the fire pot in front of her as she felt her anger beginning to return. She didn’t want to move. She just wanted to stand by the warmth of the fire and lose herself in her own thoughts. Why couldn’t she just be left alone like usual? But then, it wasn’t everyday someone directly spoke to her. In fact it was rare for anyone to willingly speak to her at all. Etori wasn’t sure whether she should be intrigued by this person or just utterly annoyed by their demand. What exactly did they want? Only one way to find out. Etori took a deep breath before she swirled around to face the girl who had spoken to her. The girl sat on the ground before her, she stared up at Etori with an expression across her face that made her look like a zombie of sorts. Dark bags lay under her eyes and the light from the fire only casted more shadows against her face in the darkness of the night. Etori noticed she was shaking a sketch book in her hands like she was trying to make an important point. Taking a closer look she saw the page was smeared with thick lines of black charcoal. What was she trying to tell her? That her drawing was awful? Anyone with common sense could see that… Or maybe she wanted her to get out of the way so she could throw the terrible drawing into the fire. That made the most sense, so Etori decided to go along with it. “Oh, I understand. You want me to move out of the way so you can burn that piece of scribble you call art.” She said forcing a smile upon her facial features, “Then by all means, allow me to remove my presence.” Etori mocked as she step aside slightly and looked at the girl expectantly. Like she was expecting her to get up and actually burn the piece of paper. Other days, Etori could tolerate people’s rude behaviour, even apologise to them when it wasn’t really her fault. But today was different. She was already in a bad mood and anyone who got her attention was going to get a piece of her mind. “Well, what are you waiting for?” She said, trying to intimidate the other vantha. Etori crossed her arms against her chest and kept a steady gaze on the girl.

[Ablation]

Etori :

Notes

I don't have anything to give you for this thread, but I love to see Etori get aggressive!

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