[Flashback, Nya] Prisoner's Dilemma

[Tarot]

Timestamp: shortly after Nya leaves her parents' home

The world was a terribly big place. Some said this simple realization marked the end of the most innocent part of one's childhood. Especially when you realized that not only was this world completely outside your control, but it cared nothing if you were happy or sad, if you lived or died. For Nya Winters, at the very least, the world had recently become a lot bigger. She was out on her own, finding herself and her true nature somewhere in the middle of this wild world.

A lot of it seemed to consist of forests, truth be told. Human settlements were few and far between, and animals far outnumbered the sentient races, having claimed back what had once been taken from them. While there were numerous signs of civilization from times past, most of them were just a reminder of what had once been. A ruined wall here, remnants of a road there, a skeletal tower over there. Sometimes, if one but stopped to dig a little hole, old coins battered out of shape would see the light of day again. The faces on the coins spoke of proud people long since fallen into oblivion just like the hands that had touched the money.

Some time later, Nya would find herself a nice territory in the Cobalt Mountains, but this tale is about a warm day earlier that summer. She instantly knew, upon waking up that morning, that something was different. The air tickled her skin and the breeze caressed her nostrils more personally than on most days, and with more purpose. Many of the tiny breezes, Nya knew, only carried meaningless noise, but this one was teasing her, as if to attract her attention.

It did not immediately speak, though. It lingered there, strong enough to be picked up, but not strong enough to be understood, for the greater part of the day. If questioned, it would give no answer, but it would just keep teasing the Kelvic as she hunted and explored and just busied herself with her life. As if waiting for something to happen, or just finding amusement in her reaction.

Syna got all the way up in the sky and began to descend once more. When the solar disc was halfway between zenith and twilight, the voice of the breeze was finally heard. Whimsical, yet driven by endless willpower. It knew that simple messages were most likely to attract Nya's attention, and it kept it quite simple. "Take a detour. A few miles to the East. Now. You will arrive shortly before sunset. See for yourself. Learn. Then decide what is the right thing to do. I am leaving this in your hands, Nya."

Suddenly, the mysterious breeze vanished, and Nya found herself breathing the same old air as always, not a breath of wind blowing through the motionless foliage. The message had been given, but whether Nya chose to act upon it or move on with her newfound freedom was entirely up to her.

[Nya Winters]

The world was a big place. She'd explored the region around the tower, both in Sylira and across the boarder in Taldera. And no matter where she traveled in the wilds, she was at home. She loved the big trees, the wild chilly mountain streams, and even the more sedate slowly winding rivers of the lowlands. Each day had brought her new challenges and dilemmas, but nothing so far had actually stopped her. She was lonely, and missed her parents, but they had made it clear in no uncertain terms that it was time for her to go. A calling to bond was a strong thing, one Nya needed with all her being, and the only available human around had been her mother. And her mother, when she hadn't been studying, writing, working, or gathering food, spent the rest of that time with her father. Nya had hung around awkwardly, a stranger in her own house, fascinated by Zilvia and yet her mother had remained afraid. First because a young kelvics shifts were unpredictable and half the time her mother was holding a baby or toddler, and then in an instant she was holding a dangerous predator that thought nothing of pouncing on a foot or wiggling fingers. Nya had left scars, though she hadn't meant too. And her mothers left pinkie finger was missing the tip of the bone, another accident that should have never happened. After that, Zilvia had kept her distance. Which in many ways had done a great deal of harm to a youngster that had coveted attention and physical contact because both her feline and human natures had needed it.

And yet, they had tolerated her as long as they could. Keeping their distance, they had provided for the girl and given her a top rate education in reading and understanding things. Numbers came hard to the kelvic, and after forcing a rudimentary understanding of mathematics into Nya's head, they had given up ever teaching her further than basic counting and coins. The positive side was that they never lacked for fresh meat. The first time she'd brought back a human corpse, her mother had wept openly, but her father had comforted her and then praised her on her kill. He never told her that it was wrong, but he had confessed that her mother had a love of deer and rabbits that had guaranteed Nya always brought back one or the other and never anything else 'exotic'.

Leaving though, had been important. Ulvik had been firm that it must happen before her first estrus, and had subsequently spent a great deal of time with Nya, even though she made him nervous by her very nature. She learned to traverse the woods, what was dangerous to eat and what greens to add to her diet. The rules about greens as well as meat stuck wtih her and often she grazed on edibles as they moved - which eased her father's nervousness and relaxed him as well. And when wandering, she'd come to love the breezes in the woods - befriending them and using them as playmates because no one else was available.

That breeze that joined her on her walk south was no surprise. She welcomed the company, and felt at ease with both it present and the trees filling her vision. It seemed trees grew well, even after the whole of the world had been destroyed, and she was grateful for it. The ruins they passed didn't interest her like they would her mother. Nya cared little for the past, and even if pressed for the future. She was a creature of the moment, interested in eating when she was hungry, sleeping when she was tired, and playing when she felt playful. Nya wished the breeze would speak to her, whisper secrets, or invent some new game to entertain them as she traveled, but it remained silent. It was moody, waiting, and she was mildly curious as to why. So persistently, she kept asking it.... nudging it... calling too it... trying to order it to tell her what it wanted. There was no success, and Nya kept moving. She wanted an answer for its purpose, but polite to the core, Nya didn't press it for answers, she simply kept moving, knowing that Syliras was her ultimate goal and that it lay somewhere vaguely 'south'.

When the breeze did speak, it was with a firm voice... a voice that was strong and more like a storm than a simplistic breeze. Precise directions were not the normal emotional state of a simple wind. It's words were such a surprise in fact, that Nya as topped moving altogether and circled herself in place to keep the breeze in sight. To a causal observer, she'd look crazy, circling a single spot, with a hundred questions lining her face.

And then the words penetrated her surprised mind, and her sense of adventure and horrible curiosity overtook her. A few miles? Nya took off in her human form, easily jogging with her backpack and the breeze itself in tow (if it would follow along). She turned due east. Nya kept her senses open, her eyes scanning the woods, and tried to drink in any scents she could in order to get a clear understanding of what she was coming upon - if she could.

[Tarot]

The breeze, it seemed, was still there, though just barely. It tickled Nya's shapeshifted cheeks in passing, every once in a while, just letting her know it had been following her along, but not whispering to her. It gently led the Kelvic into a thicker region of the woods, one where sunbeams had a little harder time cracking through the treetops. This was a secluded place she might otherwise have missed, holding little in the way of preys and food, or even water streams. Tall grass and wild flowers dominated this place in the heart of the woods, a corner of apparent serenity.

Yet, despite the lack of obvious threats, Nya could not feel at ease here. Perhaps it was the very lack of animal scents that triggered a little alarm bell in her mind, though if she really focused on it, she would perceive the smell of people that intensified by the moment. It was slightly strange, smelling what she'd expect of a human household in the thick of the woods, especially in place of other, more appropriate scents. But, deep down, this alone could not explain her growing restlessness, not all of it.

It felt like some kind of pull, something drawing her onwards like the promise of a hearty meal, yet it did not seem forced on her. It was familiar, even though she had never really felt it before. A vague sense of longing, something that lacked harmony, something that felt unbalanced and maybe even negative, but not directed at Nya... and yet she was feeling like the emotion was her own. It tinged the leaves and the blades of grass with its peculiar hue, rippling around her and inviting her to come closer - maybe unwittingly on both ends.

As it was, both the smell and the strange sensation radiated from a private glade in the middle of the woods. As she approached, she could see that the trees grew fewer and younger the closer she got. It looked like the forest had grown all around this place, embracing it over the centuries, but had not claimed this singular patch of land just yet.

An old, partly ruined building stood in the middle of the glade. It had been fairly large, two stories, two smaller wings branching off the main structure. A decent portion had long collapsed and had been claimed by moss and weeds, though it showed signs of recent restructuring that, while not nearly complete, had at least stabilized it to prevent further collapses. Whatever color it had been before, time had washed it out and into an unappealing brownish grey.

A man stood by the entrance - Nya could see him clearly from her secluded position behind a luxurious bush. He wore a hooded robe and smelled of dirt and human food. The sun was setting down, the sky turning a suggestive purple, as people made their way into the glade, some by themselves, some in small groups. Most came from what Nya identified as a barely visible dirt path winding off towards part unknown. And they were all young... humans by their looks.

They would exchange a few words with the bored watchman, who would then open the door for them. Nya could make out a corridor behind the door, with two rows of identical hooded robes hanging from the walls. Those who entered invariably collected a robe, put it on, hide their heads under the hood, and walk down the corridor and out of sight.

Once again, Nya instinctively felt the strange energy that was pressing for her to enter. "If you enter. Be careful. You may die." It was a tiny breeze, even unable to express a whole sentence in a single gust of air, but the warning did not sound any less serious for it.

[Nya Winters]

She followed where she was lead. Being a creature designed to serve, Nya was not too particular at this point in her life whether it was a bondmate she did not have yet or her God. When Zulrav presented an opportunity, the girl knew better than to ignore it. One thing stood out in the Kelvics personality. She was curious. Following directions just ended up peeking her curiosity. Once she got closer and surveyed the clearing, reading the land as best Ulvik had taught her, she noticed differences. It looked younger, as if it had died once and was only now trying to catch up to the rest of the forest. The structure was old, partially fallen into ruin. And human scent ran rampant. She could hear people rustling through the woods, moving forward, and her curiosity was peeked.

Nya should have been afraid. But people rarely scared her unless they were hunters or well-armed men. These people seemed to be... of all sorts. They were young, human, and decidedly there for a purpose of sorts. Nya wondered what that purpose was. So from where she had paused behind a thick concealing group of flora, she rose, dusted off her woodsclothes, and joined the people entering the glade. Finding a group, she joined in with them, holding back slightly, so that she could hear what they said to the watchman.

The kelvic wasn't afraid of what the breeze said. Nor was she afraid of loosing her life. Death was everywhere and very much a part of the young Kelvics life. But her curiosity was far overwhelming her fear, so she moved with a bold stride behind the others, and if she was allowed, she planned on entering and slipping a robe on. She'd hide her face in the hood, especially her eyes. And if the watchman gave her any problems or worried her, she'd focus her Djed into a single penetrating thought to try to infuse into his conscious unknowingly. "She's fine... let her in." Nya moved forward, hopeful, curious to see why she'd been drawn here and what Zulrav wanted her to witness.

[Tarot]

Nya's presence did not attract too much attention from the other souls on this strange pilgrimage to the ruined building. They did not seem to know each other, at least not all of them, so the Kelvic did not immediately raise suspicion by her very presence. Those who were talking amongst themselves did so in hushed, conspiratorial tones. Nya's senses let her catch on snippets that would otherwise have escaped a human's ears. "... think we're getting a promotion this time?" "The Master was so right... I made two hundred Miza in ten days with that trick." "I feel a little bad not telling my family about this, but..." "I heard my first whisper last month. It's kinda cool actually..."

The watchman gave everyone a cursory glance, nodded and let them pass. He was a bit older than the participants in this mystery event, looking to be in his late twenties. His hair was a dark blond and his eyes hardly remained on anyone for more than a few seconds. His tunic was embroidered with a sixteen-pointed star on the right breast.

When Nya stepped in front of him, the guardian frowned a little. "Stop it right there, babe. I can't remember your face," He leaned in, questioningly, and Nya had no choice but to release her Hypnotic power on him. For a long moment, the sentinel lingered dangerously close to her, his breath tickling her face. Then he pulled back and grunted his approval. "You must be one of Irlyn's. Guess you showed him your 'talents' like the rest, didn't you?" He grinned a dirty grin and opened the door for Nya. "Go now, you're late."

Nya snatched a robe from the wall and put it on. It still smelled a bit of the last human who had worn it. She pulled the hood to cover her face, and moved into the corridor. The air was wet with humidity, yet it felt electrical to the Kelvic for some reason. The pull of this place on her soul was growing even stronger, and she could make out subtler shades of feeling as she neared the source. There was pain. There was shame. There was a longing, and a deep regret. There was self-pity, and resignation. Nya saw some closed doors every now and then, but she always had someone's eyes on her and would not have been able to open them undetected.

The corridor ended into an open hall that was roughly square. It had been a luxurious antechamber in its time, but showed its age now. The marble tiling was worn, and the statues in the four corners were missing the occasional limb. A red rope divided the room into two halves, and Nya's robed companions were elbowing their way to the front row, pressing themselves against the rope with all their might.

There was a single door on the far end of the hall, and everyone kept looking that way expectantly. She could see it clearly because the room was strangely well illuminated by magical lights situated at regular intervals on the walls above their heads. Metal wiring connected all the bright blue lights and disappeared into gaps in the walls.

Nya just knew that whatever she was looking for, she would find it beyond the door on the other end of the room. Though, getting there would be no easy task.

Said door opened slowly, and all the whispered chatter in the hall came to a sudden halt. A man stepped into the room, and the door closed once more behind him. Nya immediately felt this man was dangerous, very dangerous. The young humans who seemed so anxious to see him, Nya got the distinct impression that they were pretty weak, weaker than herself, and only driven by the illusion of power rather than power itself. The older man who commanded everyone's instant silence, though, he was the real thing.

He was in his mid-forties perhaps, with a thin, long moustache that curled around his stiff upper lip. He, too, was robed, though he wore no hood and his clothes seemed much more elaborate than the rest, with gold threading and silken inserts. His gaze had something eagle-like, with a prominent beak-like nose and eyes deeply inset in his skull. He extended his right arm, gloved fist clenched.

The young ones extended their own right arms in turn. "Hail! Hail! Hail!" They shouted in unison from behind the red rope, fanaticism in their voices.

"Who is your master?" The man asked. Perhaps Nya would realize this was a ritual formula rather than an actual question.

"Djed is my master!" They recited back, fists still in the air.

"Who do you fear?" The man asked.

"I fear no-one!"

"Whose world is this?"

"My world!"

The man nodded, and the introductory formulas seemed to have come to an end. It was then, perhaps at the right time, that a tiny breeze sneaked in from the corridor and caressed Nya's cheek. "Before the world ended. There were many men like that. No matter how fearsome the storm. They always return. For people always want answers. Even knowing they are wrong."

[Nya Winters]

The room held a sense of utter confusion for Nya. What in the world were the people talking about? Why did they seem so mindless? The girl let her feelings overwhelm her, moving by instinct alone through the crowd and making her way more closely to the front until she too was pressed up against the rope by the people behind her. She could see a doorway, and knew it was the doorway she wanted to get through, but the way the room was set up, sneaking forward seemed impossible. She could have circled around back, but Nya was neither a plotter or a broad scale thinker - she lived for the moment... and the moments goal was to move forward.

The man scared her. He had some sort of power over these people. He was teaching them something that made no sense... or sounded like zealots, which was something her mother had once told her about. The room stank of Djed too, which was another bad sign. The man was a wizard perhaps, or the people here were. Since she needed to get past the dangerous man and through the door where the man had come from - a door that had closed on its own or because someone else was behind it - she needed to go forward - but how? Distraction was the best method for a forest cat, but her usual favorites - talking a breeze into tipping over a candle to light a fire - wasn't available. The lights were all magical, which was also a bit frightening.

But the people kept straining against the ropes. Hard. Nya reached down inside her robe and found her knife in its sheath. She pulled it free... and although it wasn't the greatest knife, it should do the trick slicing through the red rope. Once the crowd surged forward, as she hoped it would do with the fall of the rope, Nya would make her move and head straight for the back room.

Her plan was simple. She'd try to slip through the doorway. If anyone was on the other side, she'd wear her innocent girl face - the one with wide-eyed fright. Then she'd claim the crowd was going wild and she was afraid and looking for escape. All the while, she'd scan the room. Nya wished there way to go unseen, unviewed... but this was the best she could do... and so as the rope fell, she fled forward with the rest of the crowd, bypassing the leader and going directly around him towards the door.

[Tarot]

It was a nice, firm swing. The rope didn't stand a chance. Just as Nya had predicted, the assembled crowd of Mizaharian youths stumbled forward, surprised at the rope giving way so easily. Even the vulture-like man was taken aback for an instant, but by then Nya was already running, barely touching the ground between her steps. Around her, everyone was being pushed around by his peers. No-one wanted to take responsability for this disaster, but the more they tried to drag themselves away, the more they trampled their neighbors. It was quickly turning into a brawl.

She flew past him, and for the briefest instant she got the impression he was grinning. "Go, little dove, go," he murmured in his gravelly voice, then he stepped forward and seemed to lose interest in the fact Nya was opening the door behind him. The Kelvic had to be quick... it all lasted but a few instants. The metal door closed behind her in a heartbeat, and all sounds coming from the other side were now muffled and distant. She could hear the wizard's voice amidst the cacophony of many voices. "It is in chaos that men reveal their true colors," she could hear his laughter as strange - different - noises from the other side reached her ears.

But, of course, Nya's objective lay in front of her, not behind. The door must have opened and closed through magical means, because no-one awaited her in this place. There was another corridor, much like the first, much like the rest. This, too, was flanked by magical lights on either side, glowing a blue not too bright but bright enough to illuminate her path.

The feeling kept growing stronger, and by now it had become obvious that it carried the scent of the breezes, that it felt like a part of Zulrav himself. Each step resonated with a wave of pain and darkness, but the original frequency was still unmistakeable. It was not calling out to Nya - and maybe not even to Zulrav anymore. It would not be long before Nya discovered just who this aura belonged to.

The corridor opened into a larger hall. Back then, this had been a large storage room, situated in the back of whatever this building used to be. It had since been... modified, though. Nya could see magical devices scattered across various tables in the room, and most of them were connected to the same wiring she had seen before, coming out of the walls. Even her inexperienced eye could tell that there were many types of magic being performed here - there was a metallic arm with realistic joints and a handsthat clenched into a fist at regular intervals, as jolts of energy from the wire activated such a behavior. The wires reached almost everywhere, touching glyphs drawn on the floor and making them glow. They connected with other strange machinery, whereas others went into holes in the walls that led them elsewhere in the building.

But it all started here. From the raised platform, a dozen or so feet in the air, on the far end of the room. A man had been shackled to a pole, his arms stretched out and tied by thick ropes. He was wearing tattered robes and his head was bowed, long grey hair encrusted with filth. Nya did not doubt for an instant that the man was marked by Zulrav... much more so than she was. And then there was the wiring... because all the metallic wires were rooted in his old, frail body. His flesh was pierced in multiple points by cruel probes, bolts of electricity leaving his body through the connectors.

"Have you come for me at last, Dira? Thank you..." he murmured, without lifting his head. He probably lacked the energy to do that.

His energy and Gnosis were all being spent powering the magical devices in the entire building, after all.

[Nya Winters]

Nya eyed the man she assumed was a wizard as she brush passed. It scared her, made her think she was going into a trap somehow, the way his words fell to her ears as she made it through the doorway. The closing of the door seemed to calm her though, shutting out the chaos and giving her enough quiet to think... more importantly time to focus and follow her feelings. The lights in the hallway were strange to her, bothering her in ways she didn't understand, until she found the door and all the machinery. And all of it... all the strange and horrible stuff, was tied to a man that she knew was somehow kin to her.

She passed through the room, turned, and took a moment to see if there was a way to block it shut from the inside. If there was, she would do so. If not, she'd not waste more than a few seconds on the attempt.

Then Nya approached the man, nothing conservative in her movements. There was a noted lack of time and she had to hurry. That he spoke was a good sign...that he didn't lift his head when he did so was a bad sign. Nya weighed her words then spoke abruptly, her logic not that of a humans, but rather that of a forest cats.

"No. Zulrav has sent me to free you from this place. There are two ways to be free. One is to live and come with me to safety if it is your will to continue life... but you look weak and used up and not able to easily make the journey. I will see that you can. But... if you don't wish it... The second way is by death.. .a quick and merciful death that will also free you from this place. I do not know what lies beyond life, but that is a chance you would be taking. I think I can get us from here... I know at least I can destroy most of this room.... and I would preserve your life if that is what you want. But we must decide quickly... There is no time. So would you live on or die quickly?". Nya's plan was simple. After she had her answer, she'd destroy the room... and to do so she'd need her wilder form. In fact, she could probably rescue him the same way, if she were gentle enough... but she'd have to tear the wires out or sever them somehow. But she wasn't going to do so until he'd made his decision.

Nya was already taking her clothing off under the robe. Her boots dropped to the floor, along with the rest of her things as she hurriedly got into a position where she could shift and tear the room to pieces. But she'd have his answer first.... for saving him might mean keeping her human shape a little longer.

[Tarot]

Nya quickly noted that the door could be bolted from the inside, and quickly did so before turning her attention to the prisoner. The old man finally found it in himself to lift his head, surprised at both the reply and the voice that delivered it. His wrinkled face betrayed the great suffering he was going through. As Nya approached, she noticed that there was some additional tubing, made from animal entrails most likely, that went straight into his throat. They were not even feeding him from the mouth.

"Zulrav..." he murmured, not believing at first, but then feeling it. Feeling the connection, the gentle breeze that flowed between them, back and forth. "... so you sent someone for me, Zulrav. Even after I stopped praying, after I cursed the powers you gave to me. But... it's too late... too late..."

The old man shook his filthy head in resignation, following his own train of thought. He probably could not perceive Nya's state of frantic hurry - he was completely unaccustomed to interacting with another. "I know..." he said, "I've been waiting for this... I know... I must tell you something. That is why I have survived... so I could tell someone."

"But... I cannot remember anymore..." He had clung to that one singular thought for so long that in the end he had consumed it. He would have cried, had he had enough fluids left to conjure up tears. He just knew it was terribly important, but everything else was blank emptiness. He blinked twice, but could not squeeze anything out of his mind. He was the epitome of uselessness now - how low he had fallen from the soaring heights that had belonged to him at one time.

"I..." he muttered, "I want to die a free man, if that is possible..." It was a foolish desire, in his condition beyond any form of recovery, but even a few seconds of freedom would be worth it - would be worth every treasure in the world.

[Nya Winters]

There were wishes in life. Some were small hopeful things, like that people would accept you for who you were and not be so afraid, and then there were the type of wishes that were huge. Nya knew about huge wishes. She knew what it was like to want something that would probably never happen - or at least something the odds were stacked against. In her particular case, she wanted a family that wasn't afraid of her, one that was full of love and trust with the careful tight intimacy that she saw between her parents that never extended to her. And in a way, the whole of her life, the one person that had trusted her, that had given her something that was so entirely precious that she rarely spoke of it, was in fact Zulrav. He'd gifted her with the breezes that kept her constant company from the brief week she was in a crib to the months she passed through painful adolescence and struggled with the isolation her family lived in. They were with her now, one having guided her here and asked, she felt, something so entirely small for the huge wish that had been granted her; a friend.

Sure, they weren't the same friends day to day, nor sometimes even moment to moment, but they were the one thing that kept her life normal in a world that had been crazy for hundreds of years. So she understood the man, and his wish... and while someone else might have thought it a simple thing, to Nya it seemed huge.

And she'd do what she could to grant it.

"My name is Nya, do you remember yours? Names have power, power that belongs only to you... if you can remember who you are, it will help you remember the other thing you needed too." She said, staring up at the man suspended by the wires. She had to hurry, for there was the ever present sense of danger, but she wanted to free him with dignity and treat him as gently as she could for the very last moments of his life. Plus.. there was something he wanted to tell her, something important.
Nya lightly leapt up to the platform and circled around it, looking at the wires, ropes, and shackles. The pole didn't seem much of an issue. Her powerful jaws could probably start tearing through it like it was a sapling. But the shackles would prove a problem, but one she could deal with later. First was the wires... maybe with them off and not draining him, he could think better.

Nya jumped down again, and then circled the room. The wires and lights and pulsating electricity scared her. She wasn't sure how to get the man loose. She also needed an exit point from the room. Any sort of large window would do... she was hoping she wouldn't have to take him back out the bolted door. Though the machinery looked weaker than her wilder form, Nya was cautious because of the djed. She assumed, maybe incorrectly, that cutting the wires near the man would be better than actually destroying the machinery around the room first. She'd destroy the later before she left, but not before the man was free. She at first decided not to pull the wires free, but once she'd had a good look, it looked like a far better idea than simply grabbing them and hacking them in half with a knife. So first things first (after trying to see if there was indeed a quick exit), Nya jumped back to the platform and apologized softly to the man.

"This might hurt you.. it probably will, and I am sorry, but we need to get you free from the wires." Gently... ever so gently, she reached out, grasped them one at a time, and began to pull them free from his skin. She'd leave the ropes on until all the wires were out, and then she'd cut through them with her knife. If she got that far, she'd shift, take her forest cat form, and try to claw through and chew through the pole.