July 03, 2015

The Waning World Pt. 2

Views: 1261 Terathiel
This one's a bit shorter. Oh, and for anyone wondering, I'll be putting a few lines from a poem, song, speech etc at the beginning of most of these chapters, to give you a vague idea of what to expect. INTERTEXTUALITY

Scene Two

I am too pure for you or anyone.
Your body
Hurts me as the world hurts God.
-Sylvia Plath, 'Fever 103'


"I do not want to."

"You must."

"Magic kills."

"Yet it also brings life."

Tentatively, Rylai stretched out her hand. It was shaking. As she watched it, that long-forgotten caress of cold tickled her palm, and the air crystallised into tiny icicles that danced.

Then she remembered, the blood and the horror, His cruelty and His laughter.

The ice disappeared.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed, covering her face with her hands to try and tear away the vision.

Auroth frowned. It had been two years, and Rylai's scars were still raw. Inwardly, she cursed the Psychomancer who had caused this, murdered the Crystal Maiden's companions in cold blood before letting her go as a warning. The child had thrown away her magic in horror, realising the consequences of its misuse. On Rylai's sixteenth name-day, the ancient wyvern had revealed herself to the traumatised girl, who was living secluded in a tiny anchor of Icewrack, and tried to dispel the darkness come over her soul.

Nothing had worked. This was just the latest in a long line of failures. Without its guardian, the frigid north had experienced great troubles, and there was only so much a dragon could do to help the affairs of mortals.

She tried another approach. "You are needed. Have you not heard of the south? Nightsilver Wood was set ablaze, and rumours abound of troubles elsewhere. The world needs its heroes."

"He will be there," came the shuddering reply, the pronoun echoed with fear and a perverted, dark form of worship. The eyes of the wyvern narrowed. It was the first time the tormentor had been mentioned, and clearly the evil he had wrought had twisted Rylai's mind completely. Auroth decided that she would have angry words for the Psychomancer, who had established himself atop a frigid mountain in the east, in a chateau called Mount Kilsorrow.

"He will be," the wyvern conceded. "But you can stand up to him now."

"I can't, or He will hurt more people!" she gasped, sobs wracking her body. Again, that tone of reverence.

"He is human, just like you."

"I am nothing like Him."

"Then fight him as a monster. Do not give up your gifts for one horrible day!"

"But what if I… hurt people too?" Rylai begged.

"Did he do it by accident?" Auroth pressed. The Crystal Maiden shook her head. "Then he did it deliberately, and you will not. Why are you so afraid, then?"

The wyvern reached down with her foreclaw, large enough to enclose around the other's head, and gently laid it over the girl's small hand.

"Look at me, child." Rylai did so, her eyes streaked with tears. "You cannot live this way. We will conquer this curse of yours."

Auroth cast a lengthy spell, chanting a full minute in draconic, and the tides of magic swept them away-

His vision was cloudy, as if something were impeding the sight. He sensed his indefatigable purpose however, and moved towards it. For some reason, he felt multiplicities in his head, something he had not felt for ages-

Auroth came to her senses, distancing herself and Rylai from the thoughts of the other. The Crystal Maiden's inner face frowned.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"In his head," Auroth answered.

She felt Rylai panicking, tearing away at the binding spellwork to try and break free. Yet the power of the winter wyvern was greater, and they remained where they were.

"Why have you done this?" she screamed, horror etched on her voice.

"Attune yourself," Auroth ordered with none of the gentleness she had previously shown. When Rylai seemed reluctant, she forced the girl to do so, the will of an Eldwurm greater than most any mage.

In thoughtform as they were, they saw feelings flashing through the mind, and even the wyvern found it difficult to track a single emotion, so maddened and twisted was the psyche of him. Yet his emotions, when they could be understood, were surprisingly human, and these she made certain Rylai saw.

Satisfied, Auroth cut the spell, and they
returned to their bodies.

"You see?" the dragon mage stated. "He is not so monstrous as you believe."

Her foreclaw glittered with sorcerous energies. "Now, try again. You WILL find your potential…"