Summary:Varanim forges a bond with Endu and the dead of Hezed.
XP:I4, L4, S4, V4, Z4
Tags:< A Fiery Orchid | Sol Invictus Logs | Two Facets to the Sovereign >
KaralLinwei Spring collapses, his energy seemingly better used to self-heal in unconsciousness than to stand around being useful while bleeding out.
zahara looks down at Endu. "That's twice in one lifetime."
Lucent burns away the pain of his body. "urrgh."
Varanim stands back to her full current height of nearly 25 feet, looking over at Endu's form in wordless inquiry or speculation. The red mark on her forehead is still disturbingly visible, glowing a bloody but filtered red like a sunset through smoke.
KaralLinwei The single red eye stares out at the creatures that laid it low, its surface still clouded by white film, the once-great intelligence that lay within it visible now only just as the tiniest spark. It lets out a half-spoken, half-telepathic burst of wordless, guttural rage.
zahara "Now now. We're only here because you've gone all..." she waves her hand explanatorily.
Varanim ::Zahara,:: Varanim says, her voice sounding strange and strained and a little echoey.
zahara ::Yes? That... spell you did, that's a neat trick, by the way. Very impressive and creepy.::
Varanim ::What was your previous dealing with this thing? It may be possible for me to... extract the undead part.::
zahara ::It was guarding Denandsor, we defeated it and it agreed to stay somewhere 'beneath' and not harm any Sunlanders.::
zahara ::If you can 'extract the dead part' I believe it would be beneficial.::
Varanim The warstrider stands still for a long moment. ::It might work,:: she says finally. ::If it does, can you bargain with it again in return for the new service? Or our continued mercy, whichever sounds better.::
zahara ::Well, at worst, he'll die right? Might as well get something out of it.::
Lucent looks up at the unholy Warstrider expectantly
Varanim ::Good. If it works, I'll tell you what I need him to do.::
zahara ::Oh really? That sounds interesting...:: She smiles.
Varanim nods and begins to move, using the tremendous strength of the warstrider to lift chunks of rubble with ease. There are vast streams of Endu's blood on the floor, and she dams and diverts two of these, making a place where the ichor begins to build up in a pool. Then she looks around for another moment, finally pointing to a relatively undamaged but nonetheless filthy and flesh-spattered...
Varanim ...section of the floor. ::Lucent. Can you burn that clear?::
Lucent ::Sure.:: He motions towards it, his 'self' sliding over the flith and flesh and making it ripple... and then, closing his fist, a spark of sunlight ignites into a beautific conflagration, white-gold flame burning bright and making everything... clear as if it had just been polished, free of filth and gore. Cleansed.
Varanim ::Zahara, in my bag there is a case with five jade foci. If you could place them at the appropriate cardinal points of the room, that would help.:: Discarded when Varanim plummeted into her warstrider fall the tools are there: a thin red knife, blue looking-glass, black bell, white candlestick, and green cup.
zahara finds Varanim's bag, nods to her, and then begins to move about the room, placing each focus at its appropriate station.
Varanim In a rather unusual display of trust, Varanim doesn't check Zahara's handiwork at all. Instead she moves over the stone Lucent has cleared, sometimes kneeling to delicately trace inkless designs on its surface, sometimes standing and using the height of the warstrider to trace other designs on the empty air, until an invisible network of signs shivers and gasps above the new altar.
Varanim She seats herself in the very center of it and says, ::Lucent, move that rock,:: pointing to the chunk of rubble that dams up the now-sizeable pool of Endu's blood.
Lucent Another movement of his wrist and it RISES, thundering, from the ground, floating around them. Lucent begins to reshape it absent-mindedly into a miniature Crystal.
Varanim Gallons and gallons of the reeking blood rush toward the altar, where Varanim sits in her armor of soulsteel and Void--on which, a very close eye would see, peculiar patterns of cracks have been forming since she started the work of the ritual. She speaks aloud in a harsh voice, uttering one syllable that meshes with the signs on air and steel, the name of the deadness fused to Endu.
Varanim With a splintering noise, her armor falls apart, leaving for a moment a few wisps of the Void--and she lifts her left arm and pulls, demanding that this named thing in Endu come to her summoning, that it be drawn out to the Void as iron is drawn to a magnet.
Endu There is a moment of perfect, absolute silence, as for a second even the ambient sounds of the underground city are swallowed up by the sudden, oppressive presence of the Void.
Endu And then, just as suddenly, noise rushes back in to fill the room -- and fill it does, as Endu screams in a thousand human voices, all at once, at the unbelievable pain and shock of having the protoplasmic infection that has ravaged its system torn out in a single vicious maneuver.
Endu Then, finally, Varanim is standing there, a shifting cloudy mass of dead Essence hanging in the air before her, and Endu shuddering and speechless from the ongoing pain of the process, but now very much again alive.
Lucent had been holding Spring close to him as he watched, instruments alien in design made out of the Coronal continue to repair him... as he finishes, in tandem with Varanim, he lifts spring against the tree. It was part of him, aftr all.
Varanim As blood eddies around her feet, and the Mask of Summers glows ruddy from the mark of death on her forehead, Varanim doesn't take her gaze from the writhing Essence of Endu's blight. ::Will Endu live?::
zahara winces at the screams, shaking the ringing from her ears.
Lucent sends his awareness around to Endu, touching him like he would a patient laid down before him.
Lucent ::Yes. Yes, he will.::
Imrama makes idle conversation with the now restored Spring. "So: what was it like to be swallowed by a half-dead Behemoth, my friend?"
Varanim ::Lucent, make sure all of them can hear what I say next.::
zahara looks at Endu with something like pity in her eyes. She unwraps the Bonds, and walks over to him, letting one end slip around his twitching limbs. "Peace, my friend," she says soothingly.
Lucent ::They will.:: He nods, coughing as if to prepare his voice.
Varanim finally speaks aloud, her voice rough and weary, to address both Endu and the blasted ghosts. "Hezed will be a safe city for the dead. There are enough here to stand against Spectres, and Endu's might is enough to balk even the Deathlords. There will be no troubling of the city above, and they in turn will not reclaim these depths for the living."
Varanim "If this isn't enough for you, if this peace is broken, we'll be forced to return, and then there will be such a harrowing as will be talked about for ten generations. Am I clear?"
Lucent repeats each word after her, her voice becoming one with his' on a stark echo.
zahara looks up at Varanim, then nods slowly. ::A good accord.::
Endu The ghosts shake and shiver under the assault of the powerful voice, but the signs of assent do not take long to show. Freed of the necrotic madness, there are few (if any) here who would wish to tangle with the might of the Solars unleashed.
Endu Endu, still held fast by the sapling and still shuddering with the lingering echoes of incredible pain, nonetheless moves his one great eye slowly up and down: he hears, and understands.
Spring "Unpleasant."
Spring pats the tree wearily.
Varanim turns her face up to Imrama and Zahara, in mute confirmation that they've witnessed the agreement.
Spring ::Good work, Varanim. I humble myself before a master.::
Imrama bows his head, and shimmers with oath-light.
Varanim ::...thank you.::
Lucent ::Indeed. That was incredible!::
Spring places a hand on Endu's writhing body, and sends Essence through his disgusting mass, removing the pain of his experiences.
Endu Endu's shivers begin to subside, and after a moment the incredible tension in its writhing coils subsides, and the great beast slackens into the release of painlessness.
< A Fiery Orchid | Sol Invictus Logs | Two Facets to the Sovereign >