Solo For The Love Of A Brother

[Kelski]

Timestamp:91st of Winter, 518 A.V.

She'd made a vow to Anja when he'd first taken shelter in her home, distraught and overwrought. His employer had made him vow to not harm the one thing that offended his Goddess and his very being. Kelski had made no such vows. And though she disliked the place she now scouted, it mattered little. For the Kelvic would fly to Syna and back if she could to ease any sort of suffering her brother in heart felt.

Anja was family. He'd lost everything to these monsters and while she could not change that fact, she could in truth ease a bit of his pain even if it was only a drop of water in his own personal sea of misery. She respected his vows to Jedediah and would not encourage him to break them. Which was why she was here, her full seven foot wingspan outstretched, beating fiercely until she found a thermal and glided onward. She circled the Dust Bed as she had day and night for most of the Winter off and on. She had been studying the movements of the Nuit, learning her habits, watching her day to day long enough she even had transferred bodies. Kelski didn't know where the new corpse had come from, but she liked it even less than the last.

It looked like a miserable existence. The woman was not out in the sun long, even the weak winter one. She was careful how she moved, careful how she acted, and vulnerable. Even Kelski could sense her vulnerabilities from her wing beats in the sky. The Kelvic loved flying, loved using the air against itself to maintain her perch in the sky. It wasn't magic. It wasn't even some supernatural gift to the gods. It was just a simple birds ability to defy gravity and soar.

Banking left, she angled her wings and caught another updraft. Her keen eyes sighted in on the Nuit, lurking in the dust beds. Kelski didn't know what she was doing. In fact, she didn't really care. All she knew was that she had to decide to do it and do it soon. The Kelvic wasn't a killer, not really, though she'd killed. Killing was for self-defense when one was attacked and the choice to fight or flee was taken from oneself. But this... this was something else.

This was flat out murder.

She'd been here day after day watching. Sometimes she saw the Nuit but more often than not she didn't. It gave her a chance to spread her wings, and to truly think. Kelski didn't mind taking a life. That was especially true if she ate the meat of what she killed or what she killed deserved it. But this... this was premeditated execution. And while she trusted Anja's word, she needed more to go on than just that the Nuit's existence was an affront to Dira.

So she'd made inquiries. She'd bought drinks for talkers and popular faces in local taverns. Kelski had offered bribes of trinkets from her shop for information... and everything she'd found out was bad. The woman was responsible for hundreds to thousands to dozens of executions at The Gallows depending on whom you talked too. No one liked her. She was creepy and secretive and worse yet putting people to death thrilled her.

The more Kelski watched the woman, the more she saw the signs of sickness. It wasn't just the rotting body... it wasn't just that she was a race that was an affront to Dira... there was a mental issues behind the woman's actions. She was cruel to creatures she was around. Kelski saw the woman kick a dog in anger to move it out of the way. She saw her do other things as well, things that set Kelski's teeth on edge.

Making one last slow circle, the Kelvic knew as she beat her wings to gain more elevation that one day soon... today maybe... she'd go home for her weapons and kill the Nuit. Even as she thought of the action, Kelski banked wide, completed a circle of the Dust Beds, and headed back towards Baroque Bay.

Today. It would be today.

[Kelski]

The big party was tomorrow. It would be the end of the year, the season, and the beginning of something new. Kelski found herself perched on a thick branch of a gnarled half dead tree near where the corpse of The Gallows lay. It was just a seething black smear of soot on the ground that neither the constant rain nor foot traffic across it had managed to erase. It was one of the hundreds of such stains on Sunberth. The Night of the Masks when Kelski had set the ship ablaze had seen to the demise of this particular location. It had stood for a years – how many Kelski didn’t know – and had seen such death. People were executed in Sunberth daily. Sometimes they were put to death deliberately for the newness of their shoes or the way they had looked oddly at someone else. More often than naught blood mixed with the rain, combining feces from humans with feces from animals into a smell that never quite went away. Kelski hated it, in truth… she hated everything about this city. She hated being here, knowing that it was corrupting her as badly as it was corrupting everything else.

The Kelvic had once likened the city to a giant monster’s rotting corpse. It was slowly decaying in the passing of seasons, the humans infesting it more like insects eating the remains alive than actual people. She hadn’t come to the city willingly. She hadn’t wanted to be here. But she was sold as flesh by a svefra who needed repairs to his boat and her person had been the only real thing he did not value enough to want to keep.

The sun was setting, and as that happened, the shadows grew longer and surrounded her… a Favored of Akajia. “Why are you here?” One asked. It was a shadow she did not know. Kelski fluffed her feathers, turned and looked at the creature who had no form, and blinked. Makath, it seemed, worked for animals as well as it did people.

“I’m contemplating killing Morsare. My friend… truthfully more a brother to me than anything… is a follower of Dira and her presence brings him great distress. He was forced to promise not to remove her from life. But I made no such promises and I know her death will bring him much ease.” The Sea Eagle said, ruffling her feathers and settling her wings against her side once more.

The shadow chuckled. “Not just him, for certain. She is a dark thing. She lives for the terror in people’s eyes as she puts them to death. She lives for the last jerks of their bodies on the gallows and laughs when they piss and shit themselves as their souls are wrenched free of their bodies. Then she picks the best of the bodies and takes them as her own. Sunberth would be well free of her, Nightstalker.” It said in Akajia’s tongue, his displeasure at the woman’s existence almost equal to Anja’s.

[Kelski]

“Everyone says that.” Kelski replied. “I’ve talked to so many. I’ve been careful to investigate. I’ve asked people who had folks they cared about die at her gallows and they’ve all said the same thing. She has a presence, a way to kill life about her. I see why Anja is so offended by her presence. Tomorrow… Shadow… tomorrow is the last day of the year. I feel like tonight I need to hunt.” Kelski said softly, looking thoughtfully outwards with her silver eagle’s eyes.

“She tortured people… with the wait at The Gallows.” The shadow continued almost as if Kelski hadn’t spoken. “The Nuit enjoyed it. The creature liked dragging out the death.” It said, suggestively. Kelski hissed, her eagle form fluffing up its feathers and shifting its wings.

“I’ll hunt her then. As a bird. And kill her as a bird. If I do it with my strong human body… it would be too good and too quick for her. I will be her death from the sky.” Kelski said softly, the Makath rolling off her bird tongue like djed exhaled as Res. She would have smiled if her cree was flexible. But it was not. Instead, she thanked the Shadow, gathered herself, and launched into the air.

Dark wings lined with silver beat at the dreary smoky air. She was not the only Sea Eagle in the city, for some reason her kind eked out a living just like the gulls and starlings, but it wasn’t a pretty existence. There were others of her kind, but she was the only one that tended to circle the city on a regular basis, watching, waiting, vigilant against what might happen. She knew the Nuit’s habits, so winging to the Dust Beds only took a few minutes. Near dusk, the nuit tended to be out and about. She often received a delivery from the Blood Pits. Corpses were often piled in a wagon that was dripping with filth. Kelski couldn’t begin to identify all the liquids that often filled the bed of the wagon nor could she tell what exactly the stench was since all the death in the wagon was mostly fresh. But they bodies were dropped off and the Nuit picked through them. Some where burned, some buried in mass graves, and sometimes they were sold off.

This was the most disturbing of all.

Kelski could identify at least three different people that served food in the city that regularly purchased bodies from the Nuit in the Dust Bed after they were dropped off from the Blood Pit. It had put her off stews and soups and mystery roasts in restaurants and taverns for good within the city. If she didn’t hunt and kill it herself, or purchase it as fresh identifiable meat in the market, she wasn’t going to eat it.

The Sea Eagle found a nearby crypt, perched on it, and watched quietly for a bit. The bodies were sorted, investigated, and ultimately categorized in some sort of way that Kelski didn’t understand. The Nuit’s helpers wandered off, taking the bodies assorted places, leaving her very much alone. The Kelvic acted then, surging up off the crypt and scattering the dead leaves of winter as she went.

[Kelski]

Kelski had been mulling it over in her mind. How? How did she kill this thing? She could use steel in the form of blades or cross bolts or arrows. But none of that made much sense to Kelski. The woman had tortured victims for years. Kelski climbed to the sky, her wings working extra hard as she’d leaped off something that relatively speaking wasn’t very high off the ground.

The sound her wings made was loud even in her own ears, and it took real effort to climb high enough to catch a thermal up over the dust beds to assist her climb. The Sea Eagle was a big bird with a long wingspan… and it took her a while to reach an altitude she could soar.

By that time the Nuit was walking out among the tombs, counting open spaces in a relatively new section of the cemetery. The previous day she was marking tombs to be removed, to make more room in an older section of the cemetery were no one remembered anyone buried there any longer. It was… horrible in Kelski’s mind. How the death of so many caused such a sprawl of memory to their lives and how wasteful the humans were in Sunberth.

As the Sea Eagle circled once, then gracefully folded her wings to dive, she reached forward with her talons and came in for the kill. Only she didn’t want to kill… not really. Instead, as the woman leaned forward to carefully drive a small stake marked with a red strip of cloth into the ground with a small mallet, Kelski made a pass and went to rake her face with her talons.

It didn’t happen. The Sea Eagle screamed in frustration even as the Nuit dove sideways, tripped and went down. Kelski back winged, circled, and made another pass. She cut the air like a knife cutting soft butter. Kelski hadn’t had a life full of flight, but in the seasons, she’d been in Sunberth she’d flew every day, more than making up for a life captured as a slave not allowed to fly. Talons outstretched, she made another pass and raked at the woman’s face opening up her skin skull deep and pulling finally big globs of scalp and hair away as she climbed back into the sky.

The Nuit screamed. It was an unholy sound, even as Kelski flung the bloody hairy mass away from herself, releasing her hold on the flesh in her talons and retreated into the sky. She wasn’t quite sure she liked the sound, but the woman was on her hands and knees scrambling away, using one hand to balance herself and crawl forward. The other hand was held to her face, trying to hold the ragged pieces of flesh together.

Kelski’s predator side reveled in it.

But she was careful. The Sea Eagle took another pass, circled, and looked for danger. They were all alone, her sharp vision guaranteed it unless someone was hiding deep in shadows or concealed with magic or stealth beyond her control. Changing angles, Kelski folded her wings again, dove, and went in for another pass. The woman had nothing protecting her back as she crawled forward, still crying piteously. Kelski angled her attack, opened her talons, and ripped her back open from neck to ass in bloody strips that caused the sea eagle to slow enough she lost flight.

Bouncing like a circus performer over the Nuit’s ass, the Kelvic tumbled into the dirt. Even in her eagle form, she ducked her head, rolled with the gain of her feathering, and got up. She began flapping frantically to get out of the dust and get back airborne. It was a struggle. She was not meant for take offs and landings that were so vertical, but she got the job done. It helped that Kelski was fit.

[Kelski]

Eventually she pulled skyward though, raising a great cloud of dust. Kelski was glad it was dry, otherwise she’d be muddy and that would seriously impede her ability to fly if her feathers got wet, matted and dirty. Thankful for small favors, the Kelvic circled again, noting the odd pale blood pooling around the screaming Nuit, and caught a thermal to gain altitude.

She banked, climbed higher, and banked again. The Nuit was circling, screaming, and finally collapsed into a ball, trying to protect her head. Kelski flexed her talons, the icor on her talons smelling off and the fleshy pieces still clinging between her toes off and almost rotten. Was it as Anja said and the bodies literally rotted off these creatures?

The woman had crawled further, looking for cover, but Kelski had attacked her far enough out in the open that she couldn’t shelter in between crypts or duck behind headstones.

Disgusted, the eagle tucked her wings, dove, and didn’t pull up until she was almost over the huddled creature. At the last minute she changed her angle, came in from the side, and racked her talons across the woman’s exposed side while her head was tucked into her arms. Kelski screamed while she did it, injecting all her rage and anger at what this creature had done and what she’d taken pleasure in for so long. Even as the woman opened her arms to try and knock Kelski out of the sky, Kelski dodged, snapped her wicked beak and took the woman’s thumb clean off.

The Kelvic was killing the Nuit round by round, slowly, drawing it out, making her suffer. It was a heinous torture. And it was making Kelski sick to her stomach. It wasn’t what Kelski wanted, but at the same time she wanted to look Anja in the eye and tell him how long it had taken the woman to die… and how painful it was. Dropping the thumb and spitting out the ichor in her mouth, the sea eagle hissed her displeasure and climbed back into the sky. How many rounds could she do? Kelski was tiring fast.

The Sea Eagle beat her wings, hit a thermal, and let the hot air loft her higher. She rested there – in the middle of the sky - balancing on her wings, catching her breath. Torturing, aerial acrobatics, and even killing was hard stuff. And she panted as she caught her breath. The beauty of the sky made her forget about Sunberth and the ugliness beneath her. Even here, in Zulrav’s realm, things were purer cleaner, and she could actually breath. Flying rejuvenated her in a way that was hard to describe. It was almost soul cleansing.

Kelski drifted for a while, circling lazily. She kept one eye on the ground, her sharp vision not loosing site of the fragile Nuit. And she wondered, in that quiet time, how long the city had suffered The Gallows Mistress and had not fought back. Kelski didn’t know why. She was as weak as an overgrown mouse, and fearful with no resources. An Sea Eagle could kill it… and kill it cleanly with little risk to herself.

[Kelski]

As Kelski circled once more, she decided it was time to end it. Kelski didn’t tuck her wings and dive like her other attacks had consisted of. In full hunting mode, Kelski instead glided to the east then west and lazily circled lower and lower until she scanned the area finding no one around. Careful in her Sea Eagle form, she had to be smart about her killing. Once she determined it was safe, she angled back inward, circling over to where she’d last left the Nuit on her final pass. The Nuit hadn’t moved, not really, and had instead seemingly crawled out into the middle of the area, where she’d been marking off new plots to make graves from, and leaked out what almost looked pile pale thick pus.

Gliding back down, she back winged gently, landed on the ground next to the woman but out of her reach, and shifted. Naked, Kelski rose and walked a few steps forward and lashed out with a foot, kicking the woman in the head as hard as she could. The woman made no sound. Instead, her head jerked hard and Kelski heard bone snap. It was hard to tell if she was dead. The creature didn’t breath. No more ichor leaked out of her. And there was just nothing… nothing to signify life. But then, as Anja had said, she hadn’t really been alive at all.

Kelski spotted a knife on the woman’s belt and slipped forward, sliding it out of the sheath on the belt. It was a simple knife of indeterminable origins and purpose. She leaned over the woman, grasp a handful of her hair, and pulled her neck back. Then she sliced it wide open, down to the bone, and then hacked harder. The woman gave no fight and Kelski assumed she was dead. Continuing to use the knife as a saw, Kelski completely removed the head from the body and parted the two from each other. More ichor leaked out, sluggishly this time. When was an already dead thing dead? Kelski had no idea.

She stared at the body in confusion and stashed the head nearby in a shadowy corner of a crypt. Then she returned to pick up the corpse – lighter and smelling rotten – and began to haul it towards the sea. She was glad the Dust Beds themselves were just rock infested hilly area overlooking the eastern sea. It made it easy for her to haul the body forward, pitch it over the nearest hill, and return for the head. She dragged the head out into the open, shifted into her Sea Eagle form, and grasped the head in her talons by talonfulls of hair. Beating her wings hard, and far more tired than she had been, Kelski climbed skyward under the cover of darkness and headed towards home.

The head was a burden, but lighter than her backpack which she’d practiced carrying. The backpack was no heavier than fifteen pounds, while the head felt lighter by a third. She circled in case any observing eyes were watching and took a long drawn out way home to the Midnight Gem. Then she stashed the head on the roof, out of the way of gulls, but where she could retrieve it to show Anja when she was ready to tell him.

Then, she slipped off the roof, shifted, and went to take a bath and get ready for the party tomorrow. It had been a long day, she was tired, and there was a lot to process in her mind. She was glad the Nuit was dead, but killing her had done something dark to her soul. And she felt heavy with the burden of it in a way she really couldn’t understand. Kelski blamed Sunberth. She blamed the city for a lot of things… for her pains, her slowly darkening attitude, and her inability to really be happy. Killing should have made the predator in her happy. But there was no challenge to it. It was such an empty kill she felt hollow inside.

Thread Count: 3605

[Kelski]

G R A D E S

Kelski

Hunting +4, Investigation +3, Unarmed Combat +5, Tactics +2, Endurance +5, Strategy +2

Lore: Strategy: Plotting A Murder, Tactics: Executing A Strategy, Unarmed Combat: Killing A Human As A Sea Eagle

PM me with questions or concerns.