Logs:Dark Souls
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| RL Date: 28 June, 2015 |
| Who: Ka'ge, Zymadiath |
| Type: Vignette |
| What: Following Impression, two shadows collide in the night. |
| When: Day 11, Month 2, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
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| There's something about pain that is comforting. It is basic, primal, true. There's no fakeness in it, no lies. It just is. And pain isn't foreign. The numbers of scars that he hides so habitually under his layers would say as much. But this darkness is. Ka'ge always took comfort in the shadows. Being just beyond the reach of things. Just beyond sight. Just beyond notice where others simply couldn't pry for his secrets. But these are not just shadows. This is a darkness that consumes him, surrounding his mind and soul until it's as if there's nothing left solid enough to grab onto. No ledge, no safety net. Even in his dreams this first night, there's nothing except dark figments indiscernible and never quite reachable, but always unmistakably present. Watching, waiting. Vigilant. Sleep in and of itself is difficult, only made possible by the fellis-laced tea in those first uncomfortable hours, vulnerable as he feels in public places. Surrounded, exposed, defenseless. The salve's local effects wane as the hours pass, and the burning of his wounds would become more noticeable. It would rouse him from fitful sleep. And with it, the darkness rises anew not to disperse the pain, but to highlight it. Tendrils of shadow surround and reach for the fresh edges of the talon-marks within his mind's eye, murmuring sensations of dark bitterness and desires of revenge and retribution like a thousand ghostly whispers. Ka'ge brings a hand to his chest, fingers running across the tatters of what was a white candidate's robe now painted in blood turned old and browned, and the inescapable staining of the redwort meant to remain beneath the bandage dressing. The awareness of the shadows, that second consciousness that's undeniably a part of him, is calming and yet disturbing within the same breadth. And while he never fought the darkness, it's at this first awakening that he reaches out to grasp it. Where many new pairs struggle to form thoughts without vocalized words, it seems to come readily to those who stride in secrecy, You should have let me fail. The being within that ever-reaching night had just been waiting, waiting for Ka'ge to bring that to the surface of his thoughts. It had already been there. He'd seen, he knew. His secrets- their secrets- are as an open book. The murky black shapes rise steadily, boldly, and need not create words to ask why. I revel in what I've done. The truth doesn't pain him, regret doesn't find him. He has pride in this; his tools, his skills. « And? » The coarse, gravelly low voice is certain and patient. And the perception of good and bad of it. Dragonriders, at least in the stories... they're sung as heroes. « It is not so black and white. » Then who is right? « Me. » The confidence in that is striking. Without hesitation, without any sense of doubt, the authority developing that single projected tone does not match the size of the darkling dragonet curled at his side. The little bronze's head lays on his stomach, his eyes still lidded as if feigning sleep. The fact that he could care less about his own life before made him too unpredictable by those who made the commands. Zymadiath would be something they could hold over his head. Just as they had with at least one of the other returned children who had Impressed. Both a symbol of strength and weakness, both his token to power and what would strip him of it. They will use you against me. « You are tied by your own noose. » The writhing shadows continue unperturbed, steady in their nightmarish dance. I don't make the rules. « You will. » You just hatched not hours ago. Incredulity punctuates Ka'ge's thoughts, his jaw set and shoulders tensed betraying only a fraction of the possibility that he's mimicking continued sleep as much as his dragon. A night-touched bronze wing comes to lay across his legs. A reminder, a physical grounding that the twisting phantasms of his mind don't provide. The teen can't help but flinch, though his hand slides the short distance needed to touch the hatchling. The contact is interrupted by the bandage on the bronze's marred hide. Dried ichor still stains the edges, darker now as it's begun to seep through. Zymadiath doesn't speak of his discomfort, though his bond would betray him in it, the dragonet opening all but his third lids to study his rider, « I don't understand why that matters. » You don't know anything. « I know you. I know you have ambition. It's just wrongly placed. » My plans are not misguided. « They are not your plans. » They are my only obligation. Did he not have the footing to live up to Zymadiath's own ambitions and expectations? Certainly not with every one of his movements being directed, controlled by strings. And in his craft where his currency was his word and the cost his life, how did it make him so weak in the eyes of this infant? « You would destroy what could make you more powerful. » "I chose this path." Words become spoken, uttered in the makings of a harsh growl. Ka'ge's frustration stems from adherence of fealty to his master more than anything. The man he idolizes, the man who raised him, the man who kept him alive. The man who taught him his duty was to his mission and nothing else. He'd already betrayed him once. Would he- could he do it again? The clash between his mind and the shadows that now both make and define him is a struggle for dominance, of which neither is willing to bow. Unpleasant dark figures writhe, squirm, fade and then darken in their slow, deliberate paces. « You chose wrong. » Definitive but not final. Decisions can be changed. Whatever the possibilities that may come for the little bronze, he would undoubtedly pursue them whether his Ka'ge would back him or not. They could walk together in the darkness or they could be divided. But in this choice, there is no grey. Zymadiath has no question of his worth, of what he will be. Of what his chosen could be. All he needs is time. |
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Comments
Eadgyd (00:47, 29 June 2015 (MDT)) said...
I'm so excited to see how Zym redirects Kael and what that means for both of their futures!
Squishy (01:52, 29 June 2015 (MDT)) said...
Loved this. So much.
Alida (02:38, 29 June 2015 (MDT)) said...
Ooooh...I like this relationship already. :D
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