<rant>
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| Flow. Possibly the only game I'm even half decent at. |
</rant>
More relevant stuff:
For the last week, I've been searching for a project for the summer and for NaNoWriMo. I think I have decided on a NaNo project, and think I should just focus on school and little writing exercises over the summer.For the next few months I'll be posting random scenes, and a few more of those River Windrose description pieces, and if I'm diligent enough, I might even get back to writing Sun Dagger. Or maybe I'll start InkAcademy, another little episode-based story idea I had that features a collection of my original characters in the Academy setting.
Finally, I want to reiterate that while I try to post on Fridays, I usually don't end up doing so until the weekend; thus, I'm changing the "official" post time to Mondays. A post--be that a writing segment or drawing or just a rant post on my inability to effectively deal with my life-- should be up before Monday mornings. ^^
I ought to stop playing games and start writing more....or studying....hmmmmm.....
Today:
Today's post is something very old. I was looking for another file (which I still haven't found) when I stumbled upon it. It's clearly got some kind of story linked to it, but I haven't been able to write more, and I don't know the characters very well at all. That might change. Or it might not. I haven't touched them since I wrote this almost 2 years ago.
Regardless of the age of the piece, please enjoy! Comments are, as always, much appreciated.
WC: 2794
THE LAST LIFE
Out of the mist came a black cat with ethereally blue eyes.
“Cadence,” Tarisha whispered. At first Gavin thought it was a spell. Then she lowered her hand.
“The cat,” Gavin asked, tugging Tarisha’s robe. “You know it?”
“Cadence,” Tarisha replied. “Cadence Winds, seraph of Fate.” Then Gavin saw his aunt, the Heart of Evil that never so much as thanked someone, kneel to a cat.
>><<
“The cat,” Aunt Tarisha explained, “Is a form of the seraph known as Cadence Winds.”
Gavin waited quietly. He knew his aunt well enough to know that she would explain.
Tarisha stared off into the misty night. She didn’t seem like she was about to explain any mysteries.
Gavin thought back to what he had read from her books. “A seraph. One of those that came before the Great Birds, before the Age of the Great Trees, right?”
Tarisha nodded absent-mindedly.
“What ability does this one grant?”
“Lives,” the Heart of Evil said. “She’s the seraph of Fate.” She paused. “She can give lives.”
“She can give lives?” Gavin asked, staring back into the mist where he knew the cat was waiting.
“She gave me nine,” Tarisha affirmed.
“At what cost though? Getting that kind of magic must have cost you something.”
“At the cost of one. I would give one of my lives to her when the time came.”
Gavin glanced back into the mist again. “You think that time has come. Since she’s back.” He looked back at his aunt in time to see her nod.
“How many more do you have?”
“One.”
“Did you know this would happen?”
“That I had a life still owed to the seraph when I last died? Well, I knew that I had eight lives to use as I would and I knew that the cat hadn’t shown up for the last seven. I knew I was giving my eighth.”
“You gave your last free life to save my mother.” Gavin was stumped. “Even though you opposed each other for most of your lives.”
“Tabitha?” Tarisha seemed amused. “We did fight on opposite sides, yes. And I did hate her for a lot of it.” She smiled bitterly. “But if Tabitha had needed it, I would have readily given her all eight.”
She smiled down at Gavin and drew him close. He huddled close in her cloak.
“You see, even if we fight for different causes, Tabitha’s still my family.” She looked at him severely, “You must remember that, Gavin. Family is the most important thing you have in this life. You must always protect them to the best of your ability.”
He nodded. “I’ll try.”
“You must,” she corrected. “You will.” She rested her chin on his head and stroked his hair a little. If he concentrated, he could feel the rhythm of a heart—her heart—beating. Aside from his there was just a single heart. He wondered if at one point there had been nine hearts beating in his aunt at the same time.
“Is that why you agreed to watch me?” he asked.
“Hm?” She pulled away.
“Because we’re family. But I’m my mother’s son. Mom would have killed you if she could.”
“Tabitha never would have killed me,” Tarisha laughed. “My sister had many chances to kill me and she never did. I don’t believe she wanted me or our parents dead. She just wanted to see the evil we had started come to an end.”
“But you hate my dad too. He destroyed your castle.”
“And killed my dragon,” she added bitterly. She shook her head. “Your father is different. But you are my nephew. You are related to me by blood.”
“And that’s what matters? Blood?”
“No. But just because I don’t approve of my sister’s choice of mate doesn’t mean I won’t recognize my nephew as kin.” She petted his hair again. “I didn’t promise my sister I would watch over her husband. I promised I would watch her son. When Cadence gave me the nine lives, I said I would use them to protect my family.”
“But you won’t be able to watch me any more. Not if you have to die again.” He paused. “For real this time.” He changed his mind again. “Not that the other times weren’t real.”
“For the last time,” his aunt suggested. Gavin nodded agreement. She didn’t reply.
“Maybe,” he thought, thinking through the scenario. “Maybe it’s not time yet. Maybe she’s just popping in to say hi.”
Tarisha actually chuckled at that. “She never did that before. Even a few years back, when I thought I’d lost count.” She sobered and shook her head. “No. Did you see the condition of the cat? Something’s amiss with the seraphs. My death will be serving a higher purpose, possibly one that mortals will never know about.”
“And you’re fine with that?”
“I wouldn’t want to break a promise with a creature older than the planet itself,” she retorted. Gavin thought that over.
“Family is the most important thing, but keeping your promises is too,” he said. “These seraphs. You study them, don’t you? You deal with them and borrow their powers for your own magic. That’s the dark magic you practice.”
The Heart of Evil didn’t deny it.
“And you protect those you love with it. You protect your family with it,” he amended. Tarisha accepted that.
“Who’s going to know all this after you’ve given the seraph her life though?”
Tarisha seemed stumped by that question. “Well, no one really. I have notes, but few people know how to read the cipher I designed.”
“Just mom now. And me, a little.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s it.”
“I want to learn though,” Gavin said. “Mom always said knowledge should never be wasted. I don’t want to see that magic wind up in the wrong hands either.”
Tarisha pondered this for a long moment. “Then you shall have to learn,” she decided. “I’m afraid I won’t have much time to teach you, Gavin. We may only have a few hours before Cadence comes to collect me. You will have to learn most of it by working your way through my spellbooks. But I can help you as much as I can.”
>><<
The crystal point of Etherion was pointed directly for her heart. Tabitha took what she thought would be her final breath as the crystal exploded and an impossibly many streams of piercing bright light arched out of the crystal point and joined in a single needle-thin beam that would pierce her heart and silence her life. No magic could save her now. She hoped she had done enough. That the Army could finish the war and Darus could take care of their son. She hoped she had lived a life that would benefit others.
Then suddenly the spell that had fixed her to the death point was broken. Another body took her place, pushing her out of the spot and shoving her out of Etherion’s reach. Tabitha shut her eyes before dirt and grit flew into it, landed and turned to see her savior. She feared it was Darus.
It was Tarisha.
The beam of light struck through the Heart of Evil clearly, a dagger of light that exploded at her flesh and sucked the soul out before imploding within the body. Not even ashes should have been left in the aftermath of that blast. But aside from frizzed up hair and a horrible cough, the Heart of Evil seemed very much intact. Tabitha sat stunned. She lifted a hand but Tarisha held up hers, signifying she was ok. She continued coughing and choking.
“Tarisha?”
Her sister hacked on.
“Etherion hit you.” Tarisha nodded, managing to gasp a breath between choking and wheezing. “You’re supposed to be dead.” Tarisha managed to stop long enough to roll her eyes. She coughed once more before speaking. Her voice was hoarse and crackly, but still hers.
“Don’t worry, it hit me and I died.”
“But you don’t look dead,” Tabitha pointed out stupidly. “Are you dead now?”
“I’m alive,” she assured. “I died. But now I’m alive.” She rolled her eyes at her sister again. “Complicated magic.” She waved her hand. Her voice was already returning to normal. She pointed up at the tower where Urnek had escaped to. “Etherion only activates once in a lifetime and blocks out all magic in an area for a while after its kill. This is your chance. Urnek’s at the top of the tower. He can’t teleport or use any magic because of the radius of Etherion’s aftereffect. He’s at his weakest right now. And you, my dear sister, are a perfectly lethal person even without magic.” She reached over and drew out what she had been clutching: a sword. More precisely, Tabitha’s first gunblade, a beautiful weapon with smooth sliding parts and a creamy silver blade.
“I enchanted it with blood magic before coming here,” Tarisha explained, handing over the weapon. “But I’m not sure if Etherion’s aftereffect will counteract the enchantment or if it just removed it when it struck. You’ll see when magic is back on in the vicinity, I suppose. But I suggest you defeat Urnek before then.”
Tabitha nodded, accepting the weapon. She slid it into the holster that usually carried her now-broken gunblade. “Tarisha about—“
“This?” Tarisha gestured around them. “This can’t happen again.”
Of course. Whatever complicated spell Tarisha had used to save herself wouldn’t work again; and there was no way her sister would risk her skin for hers again. She had gotten lucky—extraordinarily, unbelievably, impossibly lucky—this time. It wouldn’t happen again.
“Right.”
“Go now. You don’t have long.”
Tabitha hesitated. “How long do I have?”
“Until the witching magics balance and reset.”
“Midnight,” she translated. “3 hours,” she calculated aloud. “To travel up there, fight and win.”
“Piece of cake,” Tarisha mumbled sarcastically. “I would help you, but I’m of little use without magic and I’m not exactly a the state to fight.”
Tabitha nodded. She understood.
“Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She took off.
Tarisha watched her sister until her figure disappeared in the distance. “Seraphspeed,” she blessed.”Stay safe. Protect yourself, last of my family. Because I no longer can.”
>><<
There was nothing anymore. So this was what it was to really die, Tarisha thought. She accepted the coldness and the finality. Good bye.
When she opened her eyes she was lying on a bed of plain white cloth, dressed in a ragged dress. Her hair was brown and braided to her shoulders. She looked at her hands. She closed and opened her fist, summoning a weak ball of fire into her hand. So she still had magic, though it was severely diminished. She looked up.
At first the overgrown greenhouse was unfamiliar. It was filled with plants, some with magical properties or spells weaved in their roots. Even with her reduced magic ability she was could feel traces of magic from around her. Then she noticed the figure seated on the cloth chair next to her.
She blinked and then spoke. Her voice was lower than she remembered it, younger. “Therian Collisar, seraph of Death, if I’m not mistaken?”
She tried to get to her feet to bow properly. The aspect of Death himself stopped her, holding up a hand as she would. “Please. Don’t strain yourself. I’d much rather you stay on that bed until we’re finished here anyways.”
Tarisha didn’t understand but nodded anyways. “Aren’t I supposed to be dead? I gave my last life to Cadence, as agreed.”
“Yes, yes, and I was hovering nearby to see it. Another selfless sacrifice, I must say.”
“Then I am dead.”
“Not quite,” Death told her. He fingered his scythe. “As it turns out, you’ve a life left. One Cadence herself didn’t even know about quite yet.”
Her mind ran back through her deaths. Two for her parents. Three for her half-sister’s family. One given to her step-father. One lost keeping the blood-curse from affecting the rest of the family. One to bring back her grandfather. One for Tabitha. One for Cadence Winds. That accounted for all nine lives.
“Someone returned a life,” Therian explained. He handed her a thick package, about the size of her volume of notes, wrapped in brown paper and tied in plain string. A letter was tucked on top.
My dear niece Tarisha,
Thank you, for your concern and for offering one of your lives for my sake. I understand you have more, meant to guard your family with and I am honored that you consider me a member of that company. But I must reject this life. Keep it for yourself instead.
I am glad that there is someone in this family that is selfless enough to spend their lives to protect and cure those of their blood. But I also worry that by the end of your quota you will not have had a life of your own to live. Thus, I return this life to you at the end of all the others, so that when you would have died in sacrifice you might gain another chance to be revived yourself.
Thank you.
Holly Verbena
Tarisha stared at the neat, curly script. She read it again. “He..gave it back? How did that work?”
Therian nodded at the paper. “Well, that’s just it. When I came to collect him and found that he had the offer of another life to live, he made a deal with me. I would get the life I came for. And I would keep the life that you had offered him, until after all your other lives were spent.”
“So why am I like this?”
“There were no real rules as to how such a revival would happen. Of course, I would come to pick up the departed soul at your ninth death. But then I would return this one to you.” He waved around the scene. “Do you recognize this place?”
She looked around again and realized it was familiar. This was the very greenhouse-garden that her would-be stepfather had owned and run. She was sitting on the very stretcher she had found him in, and Therian was seated in the same chair she had sat in when she had come to offer Holly Verbena another chance at life.
For a moment she didn’t understand what the scenery had to do with anything. Then she met the cold, blank gaze of the aspect of Death. “The life you return is the one I was on when I gave Holly my sixth.” She sent her memory back to that time. “Nineteen. I’m 19 again.”
“Smart cookie,” Therian commented, impressed. “Very good girl.”
“So I’m supposed to just…start my life again from here?”
“Except you only have one now. You’re as mortal as anyone else.”
Tarisha remembered her diminished magic. “With my stats and knowledge from then. But I have my memories and notes.”
“And you’ll recall your semantic memories when you pick up those notes.”
“Did he leave anything else? Something for me to work off of from this point?”
“Just your life and whatever that package is,” the seraph replied all too innocently. “Though I believe that is a matter between you and the package.” Too suspicious. She tore into it.
Therian laughed. “I believe that’s all our little deal required of me. So if you don’t mind, I’ll be off to reap more souls.”
“Wait,” she requested. “Why did you agree to it? You’re the seraph of Death. Why would you agree to give someone life?”
“Oh Cadence can be troublesome, very true,” Therian laughed. “Her sister is a greater force to be reckoned with though.”
“Cadence has a sister?”
“And a brother,” Therian chuckled. “They are three, all seraphs of the Wheel of Fortune. Silence Winds is Destiny. She’s the one I have a hard time with. Whatever the Diviner sees in her mirror is what will happen, one twisted way or another. She is the definite. Absolute nothing. Silence.
“Cadence is Fate, as you know. The lows and highs, the intermediate stages of life that you have a direct control over and decide how to face. She is the rhythm of the mortal lifespan, the heartbeat, the constant tempo.
“And finally their mercurial brother Tone, whose melody is every shifting. Tone Winds is Luck. He gets along nicely with everyone sometimes and no one other times. Sometimes he slips souls from a hairsbreadth of my blade and other times he dumps a whole pot of them on my doorstep.” Therian Collisar grinned. “Just helping you with your research,” he added. “Good luck on your adventure. I will see you in a lifetime.”
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