Re: The Relentless Slaughter [Round 3: Tormentorland]
10-21-2012, 07:36 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Wojjan.
There was a whirlpool that passed through her, draining the ocean. In one timeless move, Dorin was thrust from one land to the next, gods like lights exploding in every direction when she hit the ground. She coughed up the brine, and with it the ghosts she held secret. Her eyes squinted, ocean sublimating, but for a long while the light could only blind her. An infinite glow to the blackness of Soggoth. And it's hard for a girl to talk about infinity in any meaningful way. She borrowed the words from the seabed that took her voice.
Uphylia. She let the name roll off her tongue, and she was the lady of the lake. The salt seeped through her lungs, and the honey, so sweet and so black, coated her heart. And when she stretched and sprawled against the floor of a world she surpassed, she tasted what being a god is like. And a god of gods. And she wondered with her tiny mind how far the echelons of echelons of rulers towered over her. She puzzled the place of her guide, her god, her captor and her savior. And she looked around her, for the first time in a long while with her eyes open, and saw the flitting shapes of gods beneath and around her. They were all so useless against the demon. And she expected it in turn to be useless against the Tormentor. And what would match the Tormentor, then?
Uphylia. Mother Caridea had mumbled it as well, in an inexplicably lucid catarrh. It meant something to her, but nothing altogether, like an old king. Lines and lineage drew her arms in manacles, and she suspected she'd forgotten the name of another god, Uphylia, like the mute sacrifice. She reflected on her death such far as she was in dying it, and she looked at her guide through the afterlife.
"Uphylia..." For the first time aloud. Gasping syllables, no breath in the water, no souls on the ferry.
"What said you?" Her ghost replied.
"Is she a god? Do you know the name, Shik?" Dorin allowed her eyelids to wheigh down.
"Uphylia is the gate. A powerful sign." The crystal spun for a while, considering its words. Godly chitter filled the cold iron floor they were on. Soft gold, or such an intent. "She will lead the crusade and she will bring torches to the altar. She is the hands of a god and the mind of the mortals. She is the tether between now and then, but also Heaven and Hell." Shik'skara glowered in colors she didn't have words for. "If someone called you this, Dorin, it is important you should tell me. Mari'molau naushikaa sariterau uphyliaan. It's ode to disaster. It's a name you don't know."
Interesting times.
"It's... Nothing. I heard it nowhere."
"If you heard it nowhere... It is where you should be most wary."
Dorin perked up. She staggered across the empty hull, hollow siren's eyes peering straight at the trespasser she'd heard enter. A clerk, of no importance. "Is he alive?"
"If he's of the Tormentor, unlikely more alive than it. Do you taste blood?"
She kissed him. Lured him close with her gaze and her divine presence, then pressed onto his lips. And then, she decided that he tasted very boring.
"Blood, but no blood. It'll be red fluid. Will it suffice?"
"For what divination?"
The man, enthralled, heard nothing. He heard the shores in her shell.
"The mramr'shik snashi."
"Doesn't need blood. Ashes will do."
She looked at the man, and the man looked back, and she delivered a kiss of death. His life was sapped, and while she'd never performed the rite it tasted very familiar. The man melted into fire, and into dust, and the dust then twirled onto the floor. Dorin knelt down, and sculpted tiny dolls out of muddy, ashen clay. With a touch on their foreheads, yellow lines alit the creases in their bodies, and they were under Dorin's command.
"What do you need mramrs for, Dorin?"
"Caridea called me Uphylia. It's time I take this name upon me. Feel free to follow, Shik'skara. Let's lead the crusade, and bring down the Tormentor."
She had changed form, and she had changed roles. She would need to know as much as she could about the Uphylia she will be. She would track down Ke, and ask her for stories.
-
"Pantarei, you really should see this! She's gonna come kill us! Cute, isn't it?"
"Nash'ri nashja. Pschrini ra Counselor to'vrishnehe. 'Are you god' mawa rashtitai?"
There was a whirlpool that passed through her, draining the ocean. In one timeless move, Dorin was thrust from one land to the next, gods like lights exploding in every direction when she hit the ground. She coughed up the brine, and with it the ghosts she held secret. Her eyes squinted, ocean sublimating, but for a long while the light could only blind her. An infinite glow to the blackness of Soggoth. And it's hard for a girl to talk about infinity in any meaningful way. She borrowed the words from the seabed that took her voice.
Uphylia. She let the name roll off her tongue, and she was the lady of the lake. The salt seeped through her lungs, and the honey, so sweet and so black, coated her heart. And when she stretched and sprawled against the floor of a world she surpassed, she tasted what being a god is like. And a god of gods. And she wondered with her tiny mind how far the echelons of echelons of rulers towered over her. She puzzled the place of her guide, her god, her captor and her savior. And she looked around her, for the first time in a long while with her eyes open, and saw the flitting shapes of gods beneath and around her. They were all so useless against the demon. And she expected it in turn to be useless against the Tormentor. And what would match the Tormentor, then?
Uphylia. Mother Caridea had mumbled it as well, in an inexplicably lucid catarrh. It meant something to her, but nothing altogether, like an old king. Lines and lineage drew her arms in manacles, and she suspected she'd forgotten the name of another god, Uphylia, like the mute sacrifice. She reflected on her death such far as she was in dying it, and she looked at her guide through the afterlife.
"Uphylia..." For the first time aloud. Gasping syllables, no breath in the water, no souls on the ferry.
"What said you?" Her ghost replied.
"Is she a god? Do you know the name, Shik?" Dorin allowed her eyelids to wheigh down.
"Uphylia is the gate. A powerful sign." The crystal spun for a while, considering its words. Godly chitter filled the cold iron floor they were on. Soft gold, or such an intent. "She will lead the crusade and she will bring torches to the altar. She is the hands of a god and the mind of the mortals. She is the tether between now and then, but also Heaven and Hell." Shik'skara glowered in colors she didn't have words for. "If someone called you this, Dorin, it is important you should tell me. Mari'molau naushikaa sariterau uphyliaan. It's ode to disaster. It's a name you don't know."
Interesting times.
"It's... Nothing. I heard it nowhere."
"If you heard it nowhere... It is where you should be most wary."
Dorin perked up. She staggered across the empty hull, hollow siren's eyes peering straight at the trespasser she'd heard enter. A clerk, of no importance. "Is he alive?"
"If he's of the Tormentor, unlikely more alive than it. Do you taste blood?"
She kissed him. Lured him close with her gaze and her divine presence, then pressed onto his lips. And then, she decided that he tasted very boring.
"Blood, but no blood. It'll be red fluid. Will it suffice?"
"For what divination?"
The man, enthralled, heard nothing. He heard the shores in her shell.
"The mramr'shik snashi."
"Doesn't need blood. Ashes will do."
She looked at the man, and the man looked back, and she delivered a kiss of death. His life was sapped, and while she'd never performed the rite it tasted very familiar. The man melted into fire, and into dust, and the dust then twirled onto the floor. Dorin knelt down, and sculpted tiny dolls out of muddy, ashen clay. With a touch on their foreheads, yellow lines alit the creases in their bodies, and they were under Dorin's command.
"What do you need mramrs for, Dorin?"
"Caridea called me Uphylia. It's time I take this name upon me. Feel free to follow, Shik'skara. Let's lead the crusade, and bring down the Tormentor."
She had changed form, and she had changed roles. She would need to know as much as she could about the Uphylia she will be. She would track down Ke, and ask her for stories.
-
"Pantarei, you really should see this! She's gonna come kill us! Cute, isn't it?"
"Nash'ri nashja. Pschrini ra Counselor to'vrishnehe. 'Are you god' mawa rashtitai?"
quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur.