[Flashback, Nya] Prisoner's Dilemma

[Tarot]

The inside of a stormcloud was a dark thing, only lit up by formidable discharge of lightning. For each spear of thunder aimed at the distant ground, there were hundreds raging internally and making the cloud come alive with their energy. It was cold, but Nya felt no discomfort even though she was unclothed. The cloud was hardly a static thing; in fact, it was not even entirely clear where it began. There was no hard wall to go through, just the feeling of a dark fog swallowing you into alluring depths of unknown power. There was life in these clouds; they grew fat with water from the land, and then they gave back to the land as Zulrav commanded. No life would be possible away from the sea without his blessing.

Nya was spun around again and again, and now there were no such notions as North and South. Even up and down were questionable things, as the situation encouraged Nya to disbelieve in directions altogether.

"I have gone by many names over the ages, Nya," lightning crackled around her mimicking a voice. Electricity caressed her every now and then, making her feel the heat but not the hurt. "There was a time when a new breed of creatures came to this place from a distant world among the stars. I very much disliked these people at first, for they were the newest and yet acted as though they had been here the longest. And so, while other gods gave them gifts and blessings, I gave these creatures - humans, as they went by - storm, hail and lightning. I visited hurricanes and tornadoes upon their cities, doused their fires and crushed their roofs. At that time, they called me the Harsh One, the Slap of the World, He Who Hisses in the Night, and a myriad other colorful names that sound quite amusing in retrospect. Sometimes I miss the naive fantasies of those ancient people. They still had the ability to marvel at things, like pups and children do; then came ages when they thought they had learned everything there was to learn, and off they went to kill one another to convince themselves that they had learned well."

"Even I can't remember the exact moment when I started to like them. You could say they grew on me after a while. Some of them started praying to me, and even I was surprised to hear not all of them were praying for their lives and safety. I would have taken no heed of such invocations borne of blind fear - I never do. No, they were asking for freedom and enlightenment. They wanted to fly, and were ready to abandon their comfort to do so. Thus were the Stormwardens born. I have chosen you for the same purpose, Nya: because you want to soar higher."

"You have been told many things. You have been told your race is one of short-lived servants who work in the shadows for the benefit of another. Ever since you were born, you were grounded... chained to a series of expectations just because of who you were. I give you the opportunity to be something else, perhaps something more. That is the true gift of the Stormwardens. If you know the wind, if you know when to follow and when to lead, then you can fly. Fly for me, fly with me... fly to fix one or two of the evils that plague this ball of air, water and rock and fire."

"What do you think, Nya? Stormwardens are the voices I like to hear, so I give them the voices that will reach me wherever. I enjoy listening to their opinions, even though I do not always talk back. Aruin's prison was not the dark room in which you found him; it was an isolation of his own making. Ashamed, he chose to shut himself out. His regret nearly drove him insane. Don't make the same mistake, Nya. Don't walk away from the wind, even when it feels cruel, for I assure you, I am still the Slap of the World when I want to be." And with this, the lightning subsided for a while, giving Nya a chance to voice her opinions.

[Nya Winters]

Nya embraced the darkness within the storm cloud. It was like a mother's womb, truthfully, and something that wasn't frightening to Nya at all. In fact, it was a whole lot like coming home... to a place she hadn't known she'd missed. The energy sang through her blood, caused her brindled hair to whirl about crackling with the static discharge in the cloud itself. She could feel the temperature, but somehow it felt 'just right' regardless of the fact it was ice cold. It was as if her skin was part of the winds, part of the moisture, part of the thunder and lightening rather than an alien soft fleshed thing floating aloft buoyed up by the currents and tossed delightfully around within its welcoming arms.

When the voice spoke to her, she listened intently, drawing in the words and making them part of her existence. It was a soothing voice, one she was well familiar with, though she hadn't realized until this very moment how familiar she was. It had whispered to her on the winds from her crib, and followed her in the wake of the young cats prowlings. It had steered her headlong rushes away from dangerous cliff sides and had warned her once that the sharp metallic tang was dangerous even as something else soft and curious about the smell of meat triggered the trap. Nya knew him, trusted him, and listened with all that she was.

It was true. She was told the kelvics were short lived, destined to serve, and to never be more than a caterer to someone else's desires. And even as she felt the pull to bond to someone, Nya really wanted more out of the world than just being a servant. No, that wasn't truly it at all. She wanted to get it right the first time she voiced her fear, so she held back gathering her thoughts... expressing her desires. Zulrav had given her full permission to.

"I do not think there is anything wrong with serving. The world is full of people who serve others, higher ideals, and indeed even serve themselves to better themselves. I want to serve. I know I was designed to do so - but I also understand the lie that has been spun to control the minds of kelvics and keep them in slavery. I will never be a slave. The difference is in what or who one puts their life's effort into serving. A cruel cowardly person, an evil ideal, a greedy consumption of resource or commodity... are all wrong. But there is a greater purpose... a higher calling. But there's so much more I want... so much more. I feel half asleep sometimes. I prowl and prowl looking for something, searching for something... but I think sometimes I just look for bigger thoughts, a broader world than the narrow one I live in now. I do not know if that makes sense, but its what I feel... what I want. "

She felt like her mother there for a moment, stretching her mind, focusing on her thoughts, determining what it was she wanted to say exactly the quickest most careful clear way possible. "I want to ... make the world safer, better if I can. I want it to be a place where a full human and a full kelvic can walk side by side and be of equal weight and want similar things. I want a bondmate, for I see what my parents have and know that it is not the slavery some say it is. It can be a deep true bond, good for both if both give and take. But I want one as a partner, not as a master. I also, most importantly, want to run free from one end of Mizahar to the other, seeing all the far off places and going every where the wind blows." Nya said, laughing slightly, for she still felt joy in the storm cloud being aloft with the winds.

"As for walking away... your breezes have been my only companions growing up. I... well you probably know, but I grew up in Lormar Tower, and there was no one close to my age there. Lone children will go to great lengths to find companionship, and your breezes were.... comforting. I talked to them a great deal - I still do - and they listen. Each one has its own personality, its own emotion, its own temperament. I've always felt bad for all the other people in the world that don't know how full of life the world around them really is. Breezes hold secrets and will whisper of sunshine or rain, of things to come and places they've been. I wouldn't give that up for all the coin in the world. I want more of it. I want more of you in my life. And if that comes with lessons like learning when to fight and when not to. I have weaknesses. I can't control my cat always, and her need to hunt or protect. She reacts to things sometimes - things I know she shouldn't. I want to be more completely whole, not one nor the other. It is hard though, very hard. But we work through it... and each time we get a bit better. So... I do not think I can turn away, you've always been apart of my life. There is no one else. And I would choose no one else to place my faith in. My heart is like the wind. It always has been. WIthout you, there would be emptiness... But, thats what being a Stormwarden is all about isn't it? We aren't made, we are born, with wind for blood and passion enough to match. I just need time to grow into myself. We all do when we're young."

And as she said it, she meant it. It didn't matter if she never bonded with another mortal creature. She'd always have the winds as long as she listened for them and let herself be part of them. He'd said as much, and it was a great comfort too her.

[Tarot]

Zulrav accepted Nya's words, the storm never subsiding but growing quiet and letting her words resonate through the clouds. "And I accept you as a whole, Nya Winters. You will find out that the woman and the cat are not opposite halves of you. You are one, though it is easy for you to forget right now. The cat is my precious envoy in the world as much as the girl is. When the cat and the girl converge into the real you, you will be formidable, and your enemies will learn to fear you."

"Today be the day of gifts," Zulrav said, "for soon there will be days of sacrifice. Let the next gift be one of knowledge. The mission I am giving you is the one that was once Aruin's. A long time ago, he was to locate a certain artifact, the Powercube of Areesa Tallshade. You might not be familiar with the name, but she was a brilliant wizard not long before the Valterrian. I even marked her once, because she was free-spirited and wanted to fly, like you. Unlike you, however, she could not tell right from wrong. Life was a game to her, and she treated it as such. Power and carelessness are dangerous bedfellows. She crafted items of great power, and sold them to the highest bidder, be it her own country or the enemy, god or mortal. It was a fun life, one filled with wealth and maddening knowledge and a new lover every fortnight."

"No wind flows forever. In the end, she was visited by the consequences of her actions. One day, she experienced the horror of her misspent life, and it broke her completely. She spent the remainder of her existence seeking redemption for her mistakes. That was also her last wish when she died, and as you have witnessed today, I am inclined to respect a last wish. She left one of her items, a Powercube, as a compass pointing towards the hiding places of her most dangerous creations, the ones she never sold out. They are items that can literally change this weakened world, Nya... and much more easily for worse than for better. Before the Valterrian, I thought they were safest wherever Areesa had left them, but now there are factions of men trying to get close... very close. We must secure these six items before they can be misused."

"I ordered Aruin, one of my priests, to find the Cube. I left him the choice of how to do so, like I did with you. He chose to infiltrate the enemy and use them to get to the Cube faster. He paid a steep price for it, and in the end he abandoned me to save another. There is a woman called Agethia somewhere in Sylira - ask her for the full story should you happen to meet her."

"Though there are several places where the Cube may be hidden, Aruin never made it past the first. Areesa left many places of power behind, many of them being nothing more than dangerous red herrings to confuse those who would pursue her creations, as well as countless fakes and replicas. Even Areesa herself had forgotten where some of her items were. As for Aruin, he received a grievous magical wound that only made him good for lighting that building with the gnosis that I left him with so he could have his own redemption one day."

"There was another who survived the same ordeal, one who escaped the grip of the Seven Robes. His name is Kiphos, and he is a servant of Ionu. If you do not wish to walk the same treacherous road that Aruin did, you will have to find Kiphos and get him to help you. While he wears many faces, Kiphos cannot conceal the scar from that day - from the same trap that wounded Aruin. You will know him by the scar down his right cheek and the limp in his right leg. I am entrusting this task to you as you go on your travels. Eventually you will meet him, for this world is but a handful of safe places in a sea of desolation. He probably will want no part in this; your task is also to convince him otherwise."

The storm quieted down again. There was one last thing for Nya to do here, but Zulrav wanted her to etch the task deeply in her mind.

[Nya Winters]

She floated with him, at peace with herself and truly open to all that he said. With Zulrav came the promise of wholeness and the faith of challenging her with a task that others had already failed at. Aruin, to her, seemed like such a powerful creature though she'd only met him after he was well and truly broken. But there were truths in Nya's mind now - linked together with wire powered by the living in a horrible way that no one should ever be - reinforced and permanent that made her believe the voice echoing all around her and within her was sincere.

"We are luck, Windfather, that you changed your mind all those years back and started seeing at least some of us in a different way. I know your winds blow all places and to take such an interest in us when there is another choice is gratifying and humbling both. Thank you for your interest and intervention. I have always known your love, not your fear, and for that I owe you gratitude as well." She said sincerely, nodding.

There were so many clues here. She had names, a cave, and now a history and quest. But she had many many more questions.

"Aruin said the cube was in a cave, and that he was close to finding it. Do you know where that cave was? I can find Agethia and Kiphos. If I have their scent it is easier, for I'm not good with questions, though I can indeed learn to be if its required. I will...find the six items if I can. But the cube needs to come first. I understand that." She said, looking thoughtful. Agethia might be the easiest to find for everyone in Syliras practically knew everyone else, and she'd ask the Konti Matlida first and foremost.

And then she thought of her mother's words...

"Nya, you need to go out in the world and bond. Kelvics have a great difficulty growing up until they do so. And there are so many parts of you that are incomplete without a true bondmate. You'll be stronger after bonding, especially if you pick a strong bondmate. Do that first. Do that before you do anything else in your life."

Nya hung in the air, her awareness open to the world and easily readable. "I will do my best to find these things and complete this task for you. I promise. And I was taught never to break a promise. But... I have been told from a very young age that it is best if my kind find a partner. I wish to know if you think this is best and if you feel it is so, if I can have a little time to do that first, perhaps just through the winter. If these people failed, it might be because they were acting alone. If I can find a strong bondmate, one that strengthens my weaknesses as I strengthen theirs, it might increase my odds of success." She said hesitantly. How does one tell a God one would do anything to help him, but that she wasn't quite 'ready' to yet? "I think too... bonding will help me grow up. Because I am very very young, and it makes me do stupid things sometimes - like fighting mages I have no chance against." The truth, the whole truth if the God was truly able to read Nya like she suspected he could, was that she wanted to represent him and do his work at his request, but she wanted to be worthy to do so - wise enough, strong enough, old enough. And while she knew that it would be a growing process the whole way, she needed to be ready and give herself half a chance to succeed. It was a sobering thought - Aruin had been powerful - and yet he still failed.

"There is so much I need to do to get ready and so much I need to learn. I do not feel like I can just barrel into this task and have any chance to succeed without preparing first and without good help. It sounds like with the people you say are getting close, there is not a lot of time. I am a horrible liar, so infiltrating someone's group and pretending to be something I am not will not work for me like it might for others. There needs to be a different approach. Can you...." She paused then, relaxed still, even in her frantic thinking and whirling mind.

"Can you tell me who the enemy is? Can you also tell me, besides the cube, what else I will need to know or have to have a chance to succeed? I will train for you. I will find the tools if I do not have them. But I need a little time... that much is certain. Can you give me that?" She said, fully aware that if he said no, she'd get started immediately.

[Tarot]

Zulrav seemed to laugh then, as only a storm can laugh, bursting with energy in short, powerful waves. "Questions! Good questions! Good, good, Nya. Some answers I can impart now, others you will find by yourself, and still others elude even me, as they rest well under the surface of Mizahar where my winds are not welcome."

"Find Kiphos. The cube was not in that cave, which is perhaps fortunate, as our enemies would probably own it if that were the case. Kiphos will tell you where else it may be, and your chances without him are slim. He is a historian, you see, a historian of magic. His story is rather colorful, which suits Ionu just fine. When he disappeared without a trace, the Seven Robes lost their only clue to the cube; they shifted their attention to other pursuits, but that man without his eyebrows never forgot about it." The great storm quieted down for an instant, then picked up once again.

"Do not think of this as one day's work. It may take you months... even years. It might even turn into a life quest. And you are definitely not ready for it, which is why I am not going to let you smell the scents of those two. The woman will find them, not the cat. When she can do so, that will be the sign you are mature enough to try."

"As for the enemy... they call themselves the Seven Robes, stealing the name of a far greater group from before the Valterrian. They call themselves Seven, but it is really only the man you saw; everyone else is just a tool in his hands. They worship magic as something that opens every door. In exchange for that easy success - money, power, sex - they sell themselves out to him. He has them believe that everyone can master magic, that they are destined to greatness, but he lies, he always lies. He lies, even to himself. Look."

The lightning struck with violence, blinding Nya albeit without any painful sensation. When her sight returned, she was having a vision of events long past, memories of passing breezes from before the Kelvic and probably even her parents had been born. She saw a village, small but safely walled in. Nothing struck her as unusual; it was a normal place in which people tried to thrive despite the harsh conditions of the land.

In this village there was a boy whose face looked like a vulture's head. He was ugly, and Nya saw other boys in the village throw rocks at him when he passed. His father often tried to beat that face into normalcy, but it had never worked out too well. Vulture boy grew up, and eventually married the only girl who did not outright reject him.

Nya had a vision of vulture man rising from his sleeping place on the floor, making breakfast and bringing it to bed for his wife and her lover.

Nya had a vision of a famina hitting the village in full force. It was serious, and she could easily count the ribs on the cows.

Nya had a vision of the townsfolk blaming it all on vulture man. The priest tried to convince them otherwise at first, but it was a choice between banishing vulture man and getting the entire village in a dangerous frenzy.

Nya had a vision of vulture man being thrown out of the village's gates with no rations or drink.

Nya had a vision of vulture man crying in the wilderness as the wolves howled in the distance. She saw him chance upon a metallic door in the rock, which opened as he touched it.

Nya had a vision of vulture man stepping inside and finding a shelter of old. There was water and strange orbs of dried food prepared in the event of a magical disaster. They could literally last for centuries.

Nya had a vision of vulture man staring at an old bookcase stuffed with ancient texts. He opened one and started to read. She could see his surprise at realizing that he could actually understand what it was talking about. She saw him practice what he learned, though the vision here was foggy as barely any air could pass through the door. She could tell he shut himself in there for several years, living any young wizard's wet dream.

Nya had a vision of vulture man leaving the shelter one day, now a changed man. She saw him head back to his village with a small, cruel smile that had not been there before. The famina was gone now, but surely he would not be welcome there. She saw him talk the villagers into opening the gates for no apparent reason.

Nya had a vision of vulture man gathering all the children in the village around him and telling them stories. It all seemed surreal, the adults unable to even come close, paralyzed by some kind of strange terror. He showed the children some of his tricks, making them go 'ohhh' and 'ahhh'. They asked him to teach them, but he shook his head and said their parents would not want him to. Then he made his way out of the gates and sat there, waiting.

Nya had a vision of screams and violence. At dawn, the children all followed him out of the gates, their hands still red with the blood they had shed. "Teach me! Teach me!" Thus had the Seven Robes been reborn.

"This is your enemy, Nya. They never even gave him a proper name." Zulrav stopped the visions, and Nya found herself in the stormcloud again.

"There is one last thing you will need in your quest... the ability to create a Stormgem. They are like crystallized storms, ripe with energy that can be used in almost any way. You will need them, sometimes even as a currency to trade for favors. Outstretch your arms and call upon the lightning and the winds. Order them to gather in one point, and make them stand still. Command them as is your right, Nya!"

[Nya Winters]

She understood so much more now. Nya knew what she had to do. She knew who she had to find. She knew what came next in her world. It was a nice feeling... an important feeling... having a greater purpose. And she had time. Zulrav made that very clear. Everything he told her she committed to memory. And later, when she was alone, she'd carefully write it down in case anything ever happened to make her forget. And as his history was revealed to her, Nya's heart bled, not only for the man himself, but for the people who's lives he'd so callously treated and tossed away repeatedly.

People were not expendable. Not really. Not ever. Nya's instincts to protect ran deeply, wholeheartedly, and it was so bred into her kind that she couldn't stomach the thought of innocents hurt.

So Nya would remember. Even locked in the visions, she knew she would remember. She would do her part. And if she could, she'd find her enemy, Zulrav's enemy, and destroy him when she was strong enough. And though he had no proper name, he was firmly etched in her mind as The Vulture.

The visions withdrew, and Nya found herself hanging back in the midst of the Stormclouds. Lightening crashed around her and to her it seemed like the finest symphony of harmonics. She tilted her head back and joined her voice to the music, her howl not completely out of place among the clashing sounds tossed about by the wind. Zulrav's voice came to her again, and she knew suddenly what she could do.

The gnosis mark on her shoulder came alive as she flung her arms out. She laughed into the wind, for the storms' mood wasn't angry or fraught with any discernible dark emotion. Nya realized as she flung her arms open that her whole body was protected from the storm via the marks on her back. And being flesh bound by fluid bound by power, Nya's form was a perfect channel. Lightening arched and struck her, caressing her skin and pouring the energy of the storm into Nya's form. She trembled with the power, bleeding off the energy of the storm and channeling it into herself. It was like touching life itself, being struck and tossed and tumbled about the storm, playing with the winds even as she pulled them into herself. Nya could feel the intensity of the storm decrease as she channeled it through her, gathering it, reforming it, and using it for something else. Luckily it was not a fierce storm, nor one that had rage within it. Nya could easily sense her limits, and the amount of energy she could gather and bleed off the storm. And she knew too that she couldn't hold it, not really, not for very long... so instinctively she knelt, finding ground beneath her feet again, and brought her hands together, one over the top of another as if she clutched something within them. Then she poured the power through her, focusing it, and felt something form within her hands. It was a rush of pure adrenaline that left her staggering as the energy of the storm flooded out of her and passed into her hands. She closed her eyes at the sheer force of the release, which was something akin to the feeling one got when one screamed in frustration and released all their emotions. Even closed, her lids barely contained the luminous green color her orbs had become as she awoke to her true Stormwarden's power.

It wasn't until the thing forming within the confines of her hands materialized that she was able to open her eyes once more. They were overly bright but the glow was gone, channeled into what now lay gleaming in her palm. Her hair stood on end, dancing with static even as she rose from where she knelt and lifted one hand off of the other to reveal the gleaming gemstone in her palm.

It swirled with color, like a trapped storm, clouds racing in its depths. She could sense the energy there, trapped, ready to be used and went down on one knee once more, humbled by the magnitude of the gift she now understood Zulrav had given to his Stormwardens. He willingly let them channel the energy in his storms into something usable for people. Nya knew the stone could fuel things... light, heat, even golems or if large enough whole cities. And while the stone in her hand was crudely formed, rough and without any of the sophistication that a well-practiced Stormwarden could produce, it was something she cherished anyhow.

"Thank you...." She said softly, still shaking, though not feeling exhausted after the process. Nya felt strangely recharged, refreshed, and as if she could fight a Talderian Elk and not worry about the outcome. It was a false sense of bravo, but one due to touching the very essence of her god intimately. She held the gemstone up, studying it, knowing instinctively she could do better next time. But as she held the gemstone, she realized that while a Stormwarden could only create them, almost anyone could use them. All it took was a little know-how, some creative thought, and perhaps some of the d-wire she'd seen in The Vulture's temple. It was a tremendous gift indeed.

[Tarot]

As the Stormgem formed in her hands, Nya felt that the winds sustaining her were slowly descending, taking her out of the stormcloud. Her time with Zulrav was coming to a close. "There will be times when thanking me may be the last thing on your mind, Nya," the west wind admonished her, "but those times shall pass, too, and you will be the stronger for it. Back to your life, now. I have high expectations for you, my dear child. I know you will not fail me."

Nya was flung away from the storm, and accompanied to the ground as the land got bigger and bigger again. The world was wrapped in the last vestiges of dusk. The breezes dropped her gently upon an unknown carpet of grass, but it would not take her long to find her bearings. She was several miles away from the ruined building. Her clothes and equipment landed a few steps away, ready for use. Nya herself was stark naked, wet and trembling a little, but otherwise fine... and her gnosis mark had gotten far larger and layered than it had been. This day would mark the start of her new life.

***

The blood had long stopped pooling around Aruin's body. A younger wizard barged into the classroom with a rather angry expression. "You killed them all! You have any idea how long it took me to recruit that batch? Especially the girls. You screwed up big time, old man." Irlyn cared nothing for the boys, honestly, but the girls had their ways of repaying him for his lessons.

Vulture man did not seem to listen, preoccupied with searching the dilapidated classroom, looking for something. He gave a satisfied hum upon finding it. There, embedded in one of the boards that the cat had torn apart to gain her freedom, was the claw of a Talderian forest cat - and perhaps Nya would later notice that she had broken a nail in her escape. Vulture man picked it up as if it was his most precious possession in the world. "I would rather command one lion than a hundred sheep, Irlyn," vulture man said with deliberate slowness. "In the end, we will remember today as a victory."

XP Awards: 3 XP Hypnotism 3 XP Interrogation 2 XP Escape Artist 1 XP Intelligence Gnosis 2nd mark of Zulrav Lore Lore of Zulrav's history Lore of Areesa Tallshade (partial) Lore of the Seven Robes (modern) Lore of the Vulture Man Lore of the Powercube Lore of D-Wire Other Great thread. Thanks for the RPing!