Day 2.5: Between Death and Rebirth

[Mari]

Amari lay deep within the inner sanctum; her mind awash with the stinging sensation of the air biting at her exposed flesh. Her torso, and most of her upper limbs lay exposed; her skin expertly pulled off by Aurelianus in thin, neat strips. As though her living body were nothing more than a rotting wolf carcass being used for its hide.Her breathing ragged and quickened by tinges of pleasure, causing her body to twitch; and glistening exposed veins to ebb blood that pooled around her trapped, tortured form. Two men stood over her: Lichensith Ulroke, who calmly sat and watched the other man; Aurelianus, work.

Her heart thumped hard and in rapid succession against her chest, her longevity only granted to her through a shot of adrenaline given to her by the demon tiefling Aure; who was now pressing a hot poker to her bleeding wound upon her wrists which were bound by razor wire, and various gashes upon her leg. With each hiss of her flesh, her body twitched and broke out into sobs through a torn jaw. What was once her lips now sat in a bloodied mess upon the floor. Her bleeding maw dripped crimson into tangled hair. The colours mixing, and making it difficult to see just how much blood the woman had lost.

As smoke arose from her thigh and the morose scent of burning flesh tickled the air her heart beat it’s last pump of blood through glistening, exposed flesh; and with a final exhale her eyes darkened.

Amari had died.

At least, her physical body had died.

Upon Mari’s death, there was an unseen eruption of Mana exploding on a plane beyond the physical realm. A blinding flash lit up a darkened room, unseen by those still living. Even with her mortality coming to an end, her physical body no longer breathing; nothing more than a corpse which sat, bleeding between Lichensith and Aurelianus; there was no release from the pain. Amari’s soul - as brilliant as it was, screamed in agony as it was torn from her body. A being ripped itself from the mortal prison, particles of light separating as though sinue from muscle and flesh. She existed as an ethereal spirit, bound to mortal flesh.

Her soul held a similar resemblance to that of her in life. Strikingly red hair flowed over bare shoulders, shifting in unseen currents. Her ethereal body nude, having no need for clothing. Her delicate skin emitted a soft, amber glow, luminescent in nature. Upon it thin, black cracks appeared. Signs of wear and tear from Lichensith Ulrokė’ and Aurelianus’ ‘therapy’. Her eyes bore no sign of emerald. Her whites and iris’ burning gold.

With a scream she tried to tug herself away from her body, hands wrapping around the bloodied chain that emerged from the mid of her back, the same location as the glyph on her mortal prison. It was an angry, red, and dripping with blood. It bound the two. Dead carcass and soul. Right now, it burned with the same orange glow as her current state of being, and there was no way it was coming loose.

Amari collapsed to the floor; knees and hands bracing her fall. Her head falling in defeat. She heard angry shouts and murmurs - no doubt from her captor, and her torturer. She didn’t care. The two seemed so far away now, but the pain and torture she had experienced was still fresh on her mind, and its pain still tickled at her being. Amari emitted a bitter laugh. Even in death, she was trapped.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

But not all traps were perfect...

Elthas awoke in Salvar, summoned by some traumatic event from a resident native.

The castle he saw nearby was unfamiliar to him, he'd not been in Salvar in some time.

The wind and cold snow swirled about his wraith form and he was drawn to a certain portion of the castle. He was locked in the antifirmanent, the realm of the dead. According to The Thayne Codex. His eyes adjusted and he was in a prison of sorts. More like...a torture chamber. Elthas felt tremendous energy pulsating in the chamber he'd been pulled to. This is a dangerous place... What struck him was that he saw a woman in the chamber, and nearby, a horribly tortured and broken body. Elthas immediately understood what had happened. The surge of Manna I felt, the power...it swelled from her death. His first and most immediate instinct was to save the woman before him. But there was power also flowing from the men before him in the chamber's physical state.

They have not seen me yet...or rather, they can't. Elthas shook his and lingered in the darkness for a moment as he stared at the naked and laughing woman. She had a beauty, and on her face, he did not see Amari's. No. He saw the face of Hylda Terrentius. That was his curse, the love of his life. Hylda Terrentius, he saw her on the face of every woman. There and yet not there. Elthas's heart ached. But he focused on the task at hand. Her body was tortured and he feared her soul would be as well. By the mysterious shadowy men in the torture chamber.

Elthas detached himself from the shadows and maneuvered slowly towards the woman.

"Forgive me my lady, a disturbance drew me here." Elthas looked around trying to not keep his eyes on the naked woman. He'd always liked women, and she was quite handsome with her red hair. But there, at that moment, her eyes seemed terrified and defeated. It broke Elthas's heart. As he looked at her, he decided to do something about her nude form. He removed a spare robe from his packs. A robe he'd acquired in a different adventure. "Here my lady, a small gift to you." Elthas said as he attempted to hand her the robe. He didn't know if it would fit or not, but he wouldn't let her remain in her current state. Elthas continued to look around.

"Your body lays there, does it not?" Elthas asked. He turned to look at the woman. "This place is the realm of the dead. The Antifirmanent. Someone close to me taught me that. There are rules that bind those like us. Those who did not face Final Judgment." Elthas knew there was very little time. But he had to give her basic tutelage as Seth Terrentius had taught him. His old friend and mentor. Elthas waited for the woman to react to him...

[Mari]

Amari twitched as she saw movement from the corner of her glowing golden eyes, but she did not raise them. Her head still lowered, focused on the bloodied chain that had attached itself to her body. The low murmurs of Aurelianus and Lye still buzzing in the background. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t fully hear them, was it because she was dead? They were so close, but now, did they stand so far beyond her reach? Did it mean they couldn’t hurt her any more?

Her hands gripped the chain tighter and Amari gave it another tug. The other end attached to her body didn’t move, but a jolt of pain shot up her spine. Amari dropped the chain as a whimpered laugh broke through her quivering lips.

“Why?” Her voice cracked as she finally rose her glowing eyes to meet the person who stood over her. Long, flowing silver hair - icy blue eyes. The figure reminded her of the one who had captured her, and subjected her to her torturous ordeal. Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t trust him, despite the kind tone and words that delicately, cautiously fell from his upturned lips.

“Disturbance?” She repeated bitterly, voice cracking. She lowered her head again, she didn’t have the will to fight back. If he was with her captor, her self proclaimed ‘Master’ then he’d do whatever it was he needed to do, more pain? Brutal torture? Would he skin her soul? Set her on fire? None of it mattered anymore. She had come to accept that this was her fate, that she was nothing more than Lichensith’s amusement. “Are you working with him she asked. “Is that what this chain is? Another trick? More magic?” She asked, gingerly lifting it up. “I don’t care anymore.” She pressed her forehead against the ground, and more black cracks erupted across her soft, glowing body. “Do what you want.”

She jostled as she felt the warmth of a robe dropped around her body, without looking back up at him - her shaking hands reached up and pulled it further over her form. It was soft, warm, and bought her forgotten comforts.

She slowly lifted her head as he directed her attention to the now limbless form sitting on the table. Aurelianus and her captor still spoke. So the tiefling had ripped her limbs off even after death?

“Yes.” came Amari’s flat reply.

“So you’re not working for him?” She turned her glowing eyes toward the stranger. “I thought death would have been a release from this hell, so why am I still chained to my body?”

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Elthas shook his head.

"I work for no one." He was sincere in that.

Once she took the robe from his hand Elthas sat down next to her, the ground in the antifirmanent felt different than the physical world. It pulsed with a certain type of energy native to the antifirmanent. Elthas noticed ripples of energy cascading through the air, and swelling from all the individuals in the chamber. Some were more positive forms of energy, others were not. And two figures in particular, the ones with the muddy faces, gave off tremendous power. One in particular felt strangely familiar to Elthas. He, however, could not place the sense of familiarity.

Elthas did see that the two more powerful figures were working on dissecting and horribly torturing the body that the girl was attached to.

"You're trapped aren't you?" At that point, Elthas lowered the hood of his black robe.

He wore a fedora and his hair was long and platinum coloured as a direct result of his age. Elthas looked upon her with intensely glowing eyes. A mark of his supernatural state. Elthas considered the situation at hand. A spectral chain held the girl's spiritual essence tied to her broken body. For an immediate moment, Elthas wanted to break the chains with his spectral daggers. That will draw too much attention to us... He did not want to underestimate the strangers in the torture chamber.

He could not shake the feeling that one of the presences in the chamber felt extremely familiar to him...

The feeling lingered.

But as Elthas sat next to the girl he noticed her striking silver hair. It was at that point that he began to analyze her mentally with closer attention. She was strikingly beautiful. But in Elthas's eyes his heart belonged to only one woman. So he decided to ask her a question...

"Why are they doing this to you? Who are those men?" Elthas had no idea what he'd stumbled upon.

Any moment sooner and Elthas may have been able to rescue her physical body.

But he judged from the state her body was in that she was already dead and or dying.

Hence the spirit in the room with him...but something did not sit well with him.

The closer he saw with the woman, the more he realized something else. She is not just a spirit...she is something else entirely. She has a power hidden within her. I can see it in her eyes...they have a glow. Elthas frowned, his handsome face considering the situation at hand. He knew fate was an unkind mistress and often lives became connected under the most unimaginable circumstances.

Elthas pondered as he sat next to her. "Do you need some company?" He asked of her. "I can stay by your side if you wish it." Elthas said calmly.

He meant every word.

[Mari]

Amari shied away from Elthas as he crouched down next to her, as though she were an injured and abused animal who knew nothing of kindness. In a sense, it was true. From her father and and brother, to the bandits, to Lye - Amari knew little of true, sincere kindness and warmth. It would have been sad, or pathetic, if she weren’t so used to it.


Amari inched away from him, and in turn she slowly pulled her arms through the sleeves of the jacket. It’s colour was a deep green, as though it’s very fibres were picked from a lush forest. Somehow, it bought Amari a feeling of comfort. She nestled her chin into its material. Her body still ached, but the pain was slowly melting away.

“Trapped….” She repeated his word slowly and thoughtfully. Her softly glowing eyes focusing on the floor. “Yes.” She said softly. Curling her body around itself like a tight coil. “But, it’s no different from the bandits - nor my father and brother.” She slowly lifted her head to met his own etheral eyes. “It’s all I’ve known.” She said with a dead tone of finality and acceptance.

Elthas then asked why they were torturing her. “I’m a toy.” Her response was heartbreaking, “I’m not human. I’ve become nothing more than his plaything. The silver haired, green eyed man - who I am only to know as ‘Master’.” She paused. Her eyes darting to the other shadowed man, who appeared to have his hands deep within the flesh of her torso. “Aurelianus. Owner of the House of Sin, and fleshcrafter. Why my ‘Master’ bought me to him. I don’t know.”

She lowered her head, resting it on her folded arm. “I think they were trying to break me, but you can’t break what’s already broken.” A bitter laugh shook her form. “He was obsessed with my eyes - I don’t know why. I don’t know why he just didn’t kill me earlier.”

She buried her face deeper into her self formed cocoon, “Why am I here….” She asked weakly.

The kind man, Elthas, offered to stay by her side, to give her company and an ear to talk to, but Amari didn’t respond. She - a broken and injured woman, confused as to why even in death she was bound by pain no longer had any viable words to offer the man.

She emitted a small sob, crying into the jacket he had gifted her.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

"For what it's worth I'm sorry." Aurelanianus...he'd heard that name somewhere before. The other did not have a name he'd given to the poor girl. But the orders of the House of Sin and other such factions were all but unknown to Elthas. The current guilds of modern Althanas and her politics mattered very little to the wraith. After all, he was dead. What did politics matter to one like he?

Elthas remained seated next to her, she'd moved away...but that was understandable. What had they done to her? Elthas wondered, he had been through horrible things too. Elthas looked at the broken woman and nodded towards her. "Hylda Terrentius." Elthas began. "That is who you remind me of." Elthas started to speak sincerely for the first time in a long time. "Her Father took her from me when I went on a job. Took me a long time to find out where they'd sent her. But by the time I had found her she was already lost. She died in my arms..." Elthas didn't know what else to quite do so he just talked to her. "She is the only woman I have ever loved. When she died, the vengeance I took for her death was absolute."

Something Amari said to him rang true. "Death is not a release. The living have very little knowledge about our state of being." Elthas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "When I was killed. It happened sometime after Hylda's death." Elthas spoke in a soft and gentle voice. "I could not accept final judgment. There was too much work that needed doing." Elthas continued to talk. "But in the end...I guess death is just another curse for some of us. I've simply wandered for a long time without any true purpose."

"I've completed deeds here and there...but more and more there is a disconnect with the world of the living and memories are all you have left." Elthas sat in a lotus position at that point as he looked at the sobbing girl. "A man named Seth Terrentius is the reason you and I have met today." Long ago, Seth was a man Elthas had saved. "Many life-times ago. I saved a Human named Seth." Seth became the key to obtaining control of his current state.

"My people...The Elves of Ruild turned their backs on me for honouring the old alliances." Elthas explained. "It was why I decided to join The Terrentius Estate."

"Seth once explained to me there was an alliance once between Men and Elf folks. All I wanted was to be a Hero. Like in the old stories." Elthas said casually. Then he remembered something. "Do you want me to sing for you? I was a fair bard once upon a time."

[Mari]

Amari sobbed silently to herself for some time. Elthas apologized for her predicament, Amari heard sincerity and regret in his voice - but felt nothing, she sniffed - wiping away tears. “It’s worth nothing.” She muttered. “Just words you say, to make yourself feel better about the situation - but reallly…” She glanced sideward at him. “What could you, or anyone have done? Would you have me birthed into another family? Perhaps born a male so as not to cause my fathers ire?” She paused, then turned back away from Elthas. Amari felt a tad guilty being so cold toward him - but she wasn’t sure if what she was experiencing was even real.

Elthas took her cold words in stride, offering a name. “Hylda?” Amari questioned, taking the bait. If she was going to talk to a figment of her mind, or a wandering spirit, whatever he may be, she may as well make decent conversation. Anything to distract her from the ebb and pain she felt upon her body.

She sat qiuetly, listening to Elthas. Slowly unwrapping her body. The way he spoke of her, she seemed like a former lover. Amari wonderd how long it had been since Hylda died. A year? A hundred? Elthas confirmed Amari’s suspicions, admitting his love for her, even now. It was admirable and Amari couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy. She thought she had loved someone once. Shinsou - but, one of his close associates had told her it was all a fallicy. It was nothing more than him, being a playboy at heart- toying with her emotions. She left before he returned from a mission. Not giving him the chance to beat her down any further. From there, she became lost in the streets of rubbletown, and then - Lye.

Elthas spoke on how death was not a release. “You’ve been this way a long time then?” Amari asked. Elthas nodded. “So, soon - I wil have no connection to my body, and I’ll be a wandering spirit like you?” Amari sighed. It did not seem like a favourable outcome.

She lifted her head from her knees, and shifted so that she sat cross legged, her arms between her legs, shoving the jacket there to keep whatever little dignity she had left.


“Seth….” She repeated the name. “I don’t understand much of what you say, old alliances, elves and men - estates…” She shook her head slowly, “but it sounds like you’ve lead a long, and interesting life.”


Elthas offerd to sing to her, Amari straightened her back. Glowing eyes staring into glowing eyes. “Sing?” The notion seemed to cause a flare in the faint glowing aura that surrounded her body. Amari adored singing, she loved music - but she was always scolded for it.

“Okay.”

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Elthas nodded, once he had her permission.

In another life-time Elthas had dabbled in the bardic arts.

He'd grown terribly skilled in that art, the art of music and could sway people to do his will. It was one of the effects of the song powers of his people. But he'd given up that art, however, he could still sing fairly well. Elthas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It had been some time since he'd actually sang a tune. Not since the girl he'd met in Concordia had he sang a fair tune. And so, from deep within, he sang a soprano song in the dialect and tongue of his people.

His people were the forest elves of Concordia.

A long ago tribe from the historical aspects of Corone's antiquity. Elthas sang of Heroes and terrifying villains, like those that lead to the destruction of Nations like Eiskalt. Raiaera. He formulated his thoughts with ease, and allowed them to take physical form in high baritone pitches, the power of his lungs projecting his voice in such a way that it would have once moved the world.

But there was no hope left for men.

Men like Xem'Zund, the old and powerful Necromancer that destroyed Raiaera were the true power on Althanas now.

Elthas sang of lost hope and despair, powerful emotions they were. He sang of a lost love, a love that echoed across the ages. How long had it been? Minutes, Days, Hours, Centuries? To one like Elthas it did not matter. Time was of little consequence anyway. He saw men grow old and die families and estates lost to the pages of history. Wars come and go. And then that bastard child civil war that tore Corone apart.

Elthas sang of it all.

In the tongue of his people, there was no truly bad song.

It was all crescendo of pitch and emotion that left the heart feeling restless and desiring more and more. Elthas's singing, the song of the old Bards could sway allies to fight harder, or make enemies run in terrible fear. That was the power that Elthas tapped into. The remnants of his bard training, currently locked away, but begging for release again.

Begging to reshape the surface of this broken and lost world called Althanas.

Elthas cried as he sang, the most important subject of the song was a woman named Hylda Terrentius.

The one woman he would always regret losing...

...And perhaps at Amari's hands there would be redemption for one like he.

[Mari]

Amari jumped, not expecting him to start with such a loud and obtrusive bellow. She shot the wraith a glare for scaring her, but it soon dissipated.

She sat quietly, listening to his words. He wasn't being boastful. If anything, he was being far too modest. His singing was nothing short of amazing, as it were - out of this world, of course. The two weren't exactly on the world. She found herself inadvertently swaying, her head drooping. Her eyes growing heavy.

Amari, softly swaying in tune to the music, fell onto Elthas. Her scarlet hair cascading over his darkly clad shoulder, spilling into his billowing cape. Colours of blood and despair blended into one another, shifting in unseen winds. Still, Elthas sang, and still, Amari found herself forced into a stupor.

Her eyes fluttered behind closed lids. Despite not knowing the words images danced through his head. Images of lush green forests, so real that the scent of the wet grass and leaves tickled her nose. She saw nations rise and fall, she saw lives snuffed out by angry red flames, and heroic figures in turn, quench those fires.

Her heart ached as images of a red headed woman danced across her memory, wrapped in the arms of an Elven man, she too combusted into hot fire.

Amari gave a slight groan, her brows furrowing. In response Elthas wrapped an arm gently around her shoulder. Her groaning ceased and Amari felt a calm wash over her. Barely conscious, she made the connection that it was his song that was doing this to her. In her current situation, she didn't care.

The pain and torment of the past few days, no, year began to melt away. It was a much needed reprise and Amari no longer felt bitter or saddened by her predicament.

Sadly, it seemed that for her - good things were never meant to last.

A voice, clear as day echoed from Aurelianus.


"You wanted me to show 'er the true depths of pain. You watch and learn too, cutter. Seems you need a reminder."

The chain that bound her being to the body glowed, first amber then hot white. It started to retract back into her body. Amari's eyes shot open as all the pain from her physical body began to wrack her etheral form. "N-no..." She choked, her arms went limp and her breathing grew heavy. Tears dotted her glowing amber eyes as she was wrenched from her seated position and pulled back toward her body. Toward the land of the living.

"Please Elthas..." She begged, "Don't let them....don't let them bring me back!" Her pleas were a lost cause. The amber glow spread from the mark on her back, extending to the chains and engulfed her form. It grew in brightness rapidly, alighting the entire room, and both planes of existence.

Causing all who were present to shield their eyes.

As the light dimmed down, sobbing was heard. Amari back in her physical body. Her mind dulled by pain, she began to wonder if Elthas was real, or if it were just a distorted state of mind.

She was alive once more. And once more, she was in the hands of Lichensith Ulroke.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Just like that, the chain reacted.

Elthas, instinctively wanted to break the fucking thing and set Amari's spirit free...

It's not my place... Elthas suddenly heard a voice call out to him. It was the voice of Hylda Terrentius. You will have your chance to save her. Just as you saved me and Seth. But you must be patient my love...and never forget us... Elthas looked past Amari for a moment and could see Seth and Hylda's shades in the great beyond reminding him of who he was.

Elthas nodded, and at that point Amari's specter was pulled horrendously back to her body which was still being broken by that man's flesh-crafting.

He had a name. Aurelianus. Elthas became bitterly angry at what he has stumbled upon, been summoned to. He stood up after he finished singing staring at the now empty spiritual version of the spirit room. Once again, the name of Aurelianus repeated himself in the maelstrom of his mind. My time has come to once again affect the world of the living. Elthas thought to himself. As he stood there, time passed...

Elthas then passed through the aether and prepared to manifest into the living world, the firmanent, when Amari in her physical shell was completely alone.

He would have words for the flesh crafter and his ally...

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Congratulations!

Mari receives 440 EXP and 55 GP!

Elthas receives 590 EXP and 55 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!