Dead Silence [Modded]

[Rey'na]

2nd Cylus, 717

It was stupid, and Rey knew it. All Fridgar had done was go out for the day, and it wasn't like they were a couple, so why did she care this much? Now that she was out, she was relieved she'd bought a coat just that day. It made the cold a little more bearable, and mixed with Lisirra's blessing she felt actually a little comfortable. Not that she was focusing on it much, she was still annoyed at Fridgar.
She walked through the woodland path beside her house, with no clear idea of where she was heading. So long as she stuck to the path, she'd be fine. Everything around her was dark, such was the way of Cylus. At least the moonlight could make her path simple enough to see. As she walked, she realized she was the only person she'd seen on this path for all of Cylus thus far. Most of late Zi'da, too. Perhaps she was more durable to the cold than she knew, or perhaps she was just the only person who saw the point in being out this season.

Rey found a spot to stop in the woods, remembering. Remembering the feeling of meeting Fridgar, how they'd come out here and hunted - she even got to cook for him. It made her sick to her stomach, and her head started to ache. She despised this feeling, the feeling of need and hopelessness - dependency. It made her want to run, go back to the streets and do things her own way. She didn't need anyone except her mother, why should this Lotharro be any different?
After some time of standing, she started to feel comfortable where she was. It wasn't too cold, and it was far enough away from home that she could forget Fridgar. She knew at some point she'd have to talk to him about this - but that time wasn't now. She still didn't fully know why she was annoyed at him. For spending the day out? It wasn't that, it was just that she missed him. Maybe it wasn't him that she was even annoyed at, but herself.

"Lisirra, you never warned me about love" she muttered quietly. She let out a sigh, the cold biting at her viciously. Her eyes kept looking out to the woods where Fridgar had hunted her a rabbit. "I really wish you had."

► Show Spoiler

ooc: deducted 15.4gn from ledger for Wool Coat

[Plague]

Shadows fell across her path like long, thin scarves. Stretching across the forest trail to each side, they were the cautionary bars against the sky crashing down. Above her the cold stars glittered in distant indifference, every bit as cold as the wind that blew her hair and crept into the secret creases of her clothes to steal warmth. For a time, she knew she was alone. Perhaps deliberately, Lisirra was quiet, her poisonous instruction withheld from her follower. The egg within her pulsed a steady sub-routine of vicious thoughts, buffeting against much stronger emotions of love and vulnerability.

No one had followed her from where she and Fridgar dwelt and the trees around her muttered their own creaking, scathing tongue. In a small way, the wind was their voice now, giving rattling rasp to their shaking limbs and the ends of sharp branches. They swayed in silent laughter, or perhaps remorse, a rooted audience to Rey's struggles.

One shape did not sway, however, long and narrow but thick enough to stand out in the hush-hush shadows of the trees. Her eyes were drawn to it, first in only a subconscious nod to its aberrant existence and then, much more sharply, aware that this shadow was not like the rest. Light glinted off the belt that held pants tight to a waist and the clasp on the cloak around its neck. It was narrow, impossibly narrow for a person, but there it stood. Skeletal in the moonlight the clothes wrapped around the figure seemed dirty and tattered. Even as her brain started to sound an alarm, the figure began to stride. It moved in a short, jerky fluidity that defied what Rey understood of muscles. Her mind screamed the dissonance in how it placed its feet, the quiet rattle of its gait.

Wind, ever capricious, tore at the edge of the hood kept around the figure's head. For a moment, in the faint light patchwork, hollow eyes fixed vacantly on the woman not more than ten feet from the monster from a shriveled face morphed by the elements. Even morphed, Rey could clearly recognize the lipless grin of its rotting throat and the same shape of the man she had murdered near the graveyard. The time since his death had not been kind to that face, where tiny wriggling worms glowed impossibly white against his dusky, mottled skin. There was no expression, no muscles that moved or contorted his mouth into anything resembling speech. Instead his arms came up from his side. They were skeletal, gaunt things, crooked with grave dirt and stripped of flesh.

Another two steps, within five feet and she could feel its carrion odor like a slap across her cheek.

The forest no longer whispered sympathetically, but rattled like an angry cicada, shedding its skin desperately, hatefully. Snaps of twigs behind her and around suggested, perhaps impossibly, that the phantom was everywhere.

That revenge was stalking within five feet of her, arms out, ready to take the girl into a lifeless embrace.

The lipless smile gaped from its throat, and the darkness within was infinite.

[Rey'na]

Rey watched as what felt like an unnatural darkness flourished around her, making her all the more uncomfortable. Silence was normally a mixed feeling for her, somewhat a blessing while still feeling isolated and uncomfortable. Now, there was no blessing. She hated this, begging quietly in her head for some form of noise or interaction. She didn't remember feeling this uncomfortable on this walk, and she was very familiar with it.
Rey listened to the wind, getting more and more uncomfortable. "Lisirra?" she asked quietly, voice gentle so she didn't break the silence too much. As uncomfortable as it was, shouting would scare her more. It would make the silence more prominent when her voice inevitably died down. However, her thoughts of shouting quickly faded, a figure prominent in her vision. She'd noticed it beforehand, but only truly noticed it on a second glance.

Rey felt uncomfortable. No, afraid - she felt fear. It was a rare emotion for her, one she seldom felt and showed even less. But now, she was showing it. Her eyes widened when she realized who was in front of her. How was it possible? Her body went tense, muscles betraying her as she froze. She silenty prayed for Lisirra, hoping her mother would come and save her as the mangled man walked towards her.
Rey grabbed her dagger, gripping it tight. She felt her hands start to shake as she looked at the creature in front of her. It was disgusting, whatever it was. But more importantly, she remembered him. From the graveyard. That was impossible. She'd stabbed him to death, she saw him bleed out. It was impossible for him to still be alive - and yet here he was. If you could still call him alive. Rey had no idea what she was looking at, but it wasn't a man. It was a monster. She prayed again, that if she ever became Lisirra's 'monster' that she wouldn't have to look like that.

She took a step back, not sure of where to run. Was she surrounded? She knew a knife worked on the man before, but obviously not that well. What was he? She found herself unable to look away, so she backed away slowly. She could stab at him, or perhaps turn and run to what might be little success. Or she could enter his embrace - not likely, though. Instead, she decided to break the silence.
"Don't take a step closer, or I swear I'll...I'll end you" she said, voice shaking and void of anything resembling confident. She raised her voice, which made her sound somewhat more fierce - excluding the small crack in it. "I said stay back!"

[Plague]

Silence was never so effective a weapon till wielded by the dead.

Rey's words shattered the silence, her voice much louder than she intended it to be. It was nearly impossible to keep the quiver from her tongue and the way her body seized, her muscles locked, telegraphed her terror. Out came the dagger, needle-sharp at the point and wicked honed on each side. Yes, she had slid the weapon through skin before. But till that point her opponents had been things of living flesh, heft, and weight. They cried out, gurgled, roared, laughed. The truth of mortality was in sound, the ceaseless rustling of their body's internal rhythm and movement. Each click of the tongue against wet teeth, every shallow gasp of air a symphony of life.

No such cadence arose from the corpse before her. Long ago that ability had been torn from it, flowed wine-red from his throat before being devoured by the cold grave dirt. That boneyard was a long way from here. Not so far, of course, that it would be implausible for the dead man to find her, but far enough that it must have been walking for a good long while to come upon her. And what if she had not encountered the ghoul? Would it have skulked to the home she and Fridgar shared? Defy the both of them with its unlife and rip the vitality from Fridgar's throat? Her hand tightened around the dagger and fear catalyzed into a burst of furious energy.

The thing was clumsy, tottering from one foot to the next as if drunk. Rey ducked a groping arm of rot and bone, forcing her breath to catch in her throat as she pivoted around the ghoul and planted her dagger into the side of its head. Blade met bone and almost skipped away, but found a perch and dove inside. The blade ruptured the skull and sunk up to the hilt with the weight of her thrust. The thing teetered and fell sideways, clattering to the dirt and roots and Rey exhaled her breath in a quite victorious whoop. Her heart hammered a thrumming song as she stood over the creature, inhaling and exhaling the adrenaline. On closer examination, the creature was assuredly a corpse. At first she had hoped to perhaps have seen a dying man on his last legs, but the stench of rot and the flayed skin beneath his mildew-spattered tunic proved otherwise.

She had reached for the dagger, intent on wrenching it free before perhaps stomping the skull to moldy paste when the bones rattled, turned and grasped at her. Rigid claws sank into her thigh and flexed, driving four points of agony and panic through her body. Rey hurled herself away from the creature as it turned from where it lay, the dagger a strange handle in the side of its head. Slowly it began to rise to its feet.

But Rey did not stay to confront this unkillable foe. She did not wait to see what more it could do to her. Blows had been traded and the wet of fresh blood on her leg was the reinforcement of reality she needed. She ran. To hell with this, she would barricade herself within the home till Fridgar returned. Together they would make sense of this assailant...at least long enough to stomp it shards.

Over the hill and through the trees she darted, her heart thumping madly. Despite its lurching gait, Rey feared she would turn to find the monster upon her...cracking its teeth with each emphatic snap. As the small dwelling rose into view, the young woman threw herself at the door, hurling it open and slamming it behind her. Furniture barricaded the door while she searched the room for another weapon.

Again she reminded herself how weak it had been when it grasped her, how unsteady. This would be enough to hold it, at least till Fridgar. She could hold out till Fridgar.

"Did he frighten you, child?"

Words. Alarmingly near, spoken as if remarking a nuance in the weather. Rey wheeled, turning on the balls of her feet by instinct. In the darkness of the small home, a shadow slithered. It fell away from where it clung to the wall, slanting outward and away into the general gloom of the approaching evening. There was a man there, behind the shadow, or...perhaps a woman? Its face defied gender, dark skin framing a delicate face with exotically slanted eyes. It had a small mouth, but full lips and its hair was a tangle of black curls that fell just above its shoulder. It wore a cloak, thick and voluminous enough to hide whatever tell-tale sign of gender might have once existed. The curve of its cheekbones rose prominently from thin cheeks and a narrow nose finished the ensemble, slighty hooked at the end.

It smiled at her, modest smile, calculated. Rey found another weapon and brought it between them. The figure made no move to approach her, simply smiled and held both hands cross its chest.

The nails were black as charcoal, maybe tar. Something about them glistened.

"Take a breath, child. You've done fine. It will not breach your barricade." There was laughter in those dark eyes, amber, gleeful. Cautiously it lifted one hand, palm out and cupped it. "I carry no weapons, but do not mistake that for vulnerable." Still that curious little smile. "Let us speak a moment, you and I. Afterward, I will take the specter away."

Clawing at the door, faint, but loud enough to be heard over Rey's breathing. The stranger cocked its head to listen. "It got your attention, didn't it? Marvelous thing." It raised the supplicant hand and withdrew it back to the robe. The clawing stopped. "No more thought of it. No more distractions. You and I, for a little conversation." It indicated the furniture she had been moving to barricade.

"Be a host and pull me a seat and table? I've come a long way."

[Rey'na]

Rey watched him, fear in her eyes. She studied his movements, terrified by the way he spoke to her. He spoke as if she had achieved something,
and as if he had been watching the entire thing. Of course, he probably had, Rey knew that. But why? What did he want? She quietly prayed to Lisirra in her head, hoping an answer would bring itself forward - or at least a solution to the stranger in her house.
"A seat?" she brought the courage to say, her voice shaky. She paused for a few trills, before deciding it wasn't worth questioning further. Instead, she grabbed a chair from the barricade and slid it forward to her table, not risking going anywhere near her new guest. She then grabbed herself a chair and placed it opposite his, still maintaining the distance.

Before sitting on her chair, Rey glanced to the door. She couldn't get the thought of that creature out of her head. It was nightmare inducing, it was terrifying - but it worked. Whatever that creature was, if she could get her hands on one, she would be unstoppable. Very few would be brave enough to fight her if she could control creatures like that. The idea of it led to one question.
"What was that creature?" she asked, finally taking her seat opposite the guest. She glanced back to the door, again, hating the fact that she didn't know where the creature was. "I killed him before, that man. I killed him with my own knife, watched him die. How is he back?"
Fear still overwhelming her, she stood up and started to walk towards the kitchen. She winced as her leg started to ache more than it already was.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked quietly, trying to ignore the pain

[Plague]

"Water," it answered, sliding into the chair and crossing its thin pale arms across its chest, "Cold. Pour it in the dark, I do not care for light in my beverage." The shadows followed the creature, sweeping thick under chair and table, crawling up its back and cascading down its front. It was a contradiction, human and yet not. So many mysteries of its curious angles remained obscured in the thick cloak. While Rey'na prepared the beverage, the visitor traced along the scratches in the wood table, pulling free a shard of wood between two glistening claws before flicking it away.

"That creature? No, my dear, something far less living. Thing, perhaps...object, but certainly not creature." Running its long nails through stubborn curls, the stranger adjusted their position and folded both hands on the table. "You may call me Nym, it will suit our interaction." When Rey'na returned with the cup, setting it on the table the stranger took it between both hands and looked into the dark water. "A husk is what they call it, the simplest of thralls a necromancer can call...but magic is so little of what I offer, and not the reason I've come...although," It trailed off, setting the mug down and tapping a nail against a sly smile, "I could offer you that gift. A Morbid thing for you, really, but you mortals crave power, correct?" It craned its head to get a good look at her, eyes laughing in its gaunt face, "I could offer you the gift of this art and nothing more. That would fulfill my obligation easily." Nym nodded, the idea seeming to charm it to genuine glee. "How would you like that, child? The power to command the bodies rotting in the earth? A little command over the unfeeling, unliving? Why, you'd be a marvel...a dark marvel."

It took the cup and sipped the water, closing its amber eyes for a moment to enjoy the beverage. "Always draw water from shadow, child, the light pollutes it." She offered Rey the cup, "Water is fluid, ever changing to fill the space it occupies. Mysteries are much like that as well." Nym brought her hands together again and leaned backward into the dark it had brought along with it.

"I came to you for a reason, Rey, but that reason was not to offer you the gift of necromancy. I can, however, consider my debt complete if I initiate you." Nym held out both hands, palm up, "What shall it be, child? Take the magic or the answers?"