Chosen [Part 24]
Nov. 24th, 2011 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Original
Summary: Ras has just been chosen by the Gods to protect humans from geists, beings that prey on people's souls. Sent by Them to aid her is Aldran, a psyven; through the bond forged on their first meeting, Aldran can pass his magic to Ras for her to use against the geists. Only those bonded with psyvens can fight the geists, as a psyven's magic is the one magic that is truly effective against them.
But stories are told to children to placate fears and soothe nightmares. Ras has to learn that Aldran and living as a khertan are not what she expected and that the danger is very real.
While she adjusts to her new life, she and Aldran begin to discover all is not as it seems; however, realising and accepting the truth is not easy and ultimately, in the end, is it worth it?
Rating: PG-13
Notes: You can find my commentary on this part here.
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship
Word count: 1,794
Total word count: 56,080
Status: Work in progress
She stared up at the outline Heast while Ceilha told the mages what had happened, and then blinked at the healer who had just cast a healing spell on all of them. If they hadn't been in a fight, or used any magic, wasn't that just wasting their energy?
"I see," the mage mused, frowning at the list of names in front of her (it was the one that Ras was used to, and she had still yet to know his name). "Ceilha, Dracer, would you two be able to leave straight away? Issalan needs your help."
"Of course."
Ras and Aldran stepped off the teleportation circle before Ceilha and Dracer were sent to Issalan straight away.
The mage turned to them once Ceilha and Dracer were gone. "You'll be called as soon as there's been an attack."
Both Ras and Aldran nodded in acknowledgement before leaving.
* * *
"What are you thinking about?" Aldran asked as they walked through Winolock.
Ras took a deep breath, frowning. "What if… What if we could predict where that geist would show up next? Do you think that would be possible?" Then they could kill it without it feeding on anyone else.
"That could be, yes," Aldran said slowly. "Back to the library?" he asked, his tone light.
"Of course. We're probably starting to catch up with some of the mages on how much time we're spending there."
* * *
Finding a map of Heast wasn't that hard to do, though it did take a bit of searching to find an unoccupied table that could take its size easily.
After they spread it out, grabbing a couple of books off nearby shelves to weigh down the corners, they first sought out where Ollan was on the map. It was to the west, that Ras knew, but there were far too many names jostling for space that it was hard to know exactly where it was.
"Here's Yinnells," Aldran said softly, tapping on the map. Ras craned her neck to see it and nodded when she did.
"So that means Ollan is somewhere around here," she mused, scanning the map. They found it at the same time, their hands going towards it at the same time.
Ras grinned at that, snorting a little. She heard Aldran's short huff of laughter soon after. "If it left Ollan then…" Ras glanced around at the names clustered around the town. Her heart sank. "Even if we knew what direction it had gone in, that wouldn't make a difference – it could have changed once it left the town.
"What do you think?" Ras asked Aldran, in case he could see something she didn't.
"No…" Aldran said as he braced one hand on the table, leaning forward. "We can't predict where it had gone…"
Godsdammit…
* * *
Norantaru, Ras realised just before they were sent there, was one of the villages that was close to Ollan, and from Aldran's worried little frown after they had introduced themselves, he had realised that also.
After visiting the victim's family, Ras and Aldran started to search for where the geist could have gone.
Ras' snorted when she realised something as they checked first whether there were any geists hiding within the area where the victim had been fed on. "Ceilha and Dracer told us that we could sometimes find where a geist's den was by looking at where the person had been attacked but…"
"That's never happened," Aldran finished for her, his tail flicking.
"The Gods appear to like sending us to hunt the more intelligent geists…" She paused in her thinking when she realised what she'd said. Were some of the geists more intelligent than the others? They had encountered a few that didn't seem capable of speech, but then there was the other geist as well that was far too skilled at manipulation.
Aldran hummed, before he said, "There's no-one else here."
Ras nodded, double-checking their entrance. She could see a number of people in sight, but they were making a studious effort to not look at either her or Aldran. Which wasn't really a comfort, since it meant no eye contact and that was the best way to tell a geist from anything else but so long as they stayed away, that was the best Ras could hope for.
Ras and Aldran found a few droplets of glowing blue blood on the ground, but nothing more than that. Did that mean it had been hurt before it could mind control the victim, or was it a different geist? They couldn't know for sure, not without seeing it first.
For the moment, they would have to start looking around and hope they found the geist before it fed on someone else.
* * *
The sun was beginning to set after a few hours since Ras and Aldran had first arrived in Norantaru, but they hadn't felt the geist's presence once. They had even checked where the attack had happened again, in case it was hiding there while they looked elsewhere.
Ras was just about to suggest that they go rest when her skin prickled, almost gently, like someone had brushed a feather over her skin. She and Aldran froze, waiting to see what would happen next. Ras' eyes darted at every available shadow, at every person she could see, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
The prickling faded and Ras cursed. It was moving away! She walked forward, hoping that that was the right direction and was releived to find out that it was, the prickling coming back again. She shot a look towards Aldran, who nodded, and together, they started to make their way towards the sensation.
It continued to move, no matter what pace Ras and Aldran had, always staying a fleeting presence, sometimes there, other times briefly flitting away. It was severely frustrating, and Ras growled when it stayed out of their grasp and sight.
It was teasing them, mocking them, Ras realised some time later, when her breath was short, sweat trailing down her skin. She and Aldran were trying to regain their breath and it was still there, just hovering on the edge of their awareness. Every time they quickened their pace, it did so as well; every time they slowed their pace, it did so as well. It didn't try to make an escape while Ras and Aldran rested; it didn't try to run towards them and attack either.
It was infuriating but there wasn't anything else they could do but continue to chase it. If they stopped chasing it for too light, they could lose it if it became bored and then fed on someone else!
Night had fully fallen by then, and while the moonlight was clear, Ras could see the thick clouds starting to form, already blotting out some of the stars.
There was still the torchlight to see by, but it wouldn't be so useful if the geist decided to keep to the shadows, and the little that Ras had seen of it, she guessed it was very likely that it would do just that.
Hissing, Ras glared in the direction of where the geist was hovering.
That was when it started to rain. It was a light drizzle to begin with, but it steadily became harder very quickly.
Shaking her head, brushing her plastered hair behind her ears, Ras squinted in the direction of the geist.
"Ras…" Aldran said quietly, as he started moving again. "Can you still feel it?"
Ras stared at him in confusion. Of course she…couldn't. It was beginning to get harder to tell the difference between what was the prickling of her skin and what was the rain, the two sensations mixing in with each other.
Dammit. It could use that indistinction to slip away fully – or to slip in close to them while they couldn't tell the difference. Had it been waiting for this moment?
Gritting her teeth, Ras started to make her way towards the place that they had last sensed the geist.
The closer they got, the heavier it rained, until it became far too hard to see clearly. Ras' clothes weren't good enough protection from the cold, and she began to hope that the geist would attack them soon, just so they could keep warm through fighting, and then afterwards, she and Aldran could go to the inn and rest.
Ras got her wish not long after, the prickling of her skin suddenly washing over her, completely separate from the pounding of the rain.
She whirled around, trying to pick out anything that didn't belong, seeing Aldran doing the same from the corner of her eyes.
Ras became aware of hearing someone running towards them, and she tried to find where they were.
"Help!" It was a woman, her short hair plastered to her head, the rest of her similarly soaked to the bone. "There's a - geist after me!" she screamed, her eyes wide in terror, continually looking over her shoulder as she ran towards them.
Ras could feel the geist coming towards them, and the link between her and Aldran opened. She gathered the magic in her palm, waiting for the geist's appearance, keeping an eye on the woman, to make sure she stayed out the way and that she got away safely.
Except she was running straight towards them. Ras prayed to the Gods that the woman wasn't going to hide behind them, but it looked like she was going to do exactly that.
But where was the geist? Ras could feel its presence keenly, but it still wasn't in sight. In fact, the only person she could see was…
The woman ran past Ras and barrelled into Aldran. The link between them stuttered from the impact and Ras tried to move her chilled muscles faster, because – no, it couldn’t be.
It was. Ras could see the woman – geist reach around Aldran and unsheathe his dagger. He started to struggle against its hold but he was held fast and Ras wasn't fast enough – she could only watch as the geist plunged Aldran's dagger into his side.
The link between them died as Aldran screamed and he collapsed to his knees, the geist shoving him over so he sprawled over the dagger.
Without a thought, Ras grabbed her own dagger and raced towards the geist, hoping to at least distract it from wounding Aldran any more. She was able to duck its arm lashing out and slammed her dagger into its gut. It snarled and Ras wasn't able to dodge its fist – there was enough force behind it to make Ras slide along the cobblestones and she hissed as her skin was scoured.
Summary: Ras has just been chosen by the Gods to protect humans from geists, beings that prey on people's souls. Sent by Them to aid her is Aldran, a psyven; through the bond forged on their first meeting, Aldran can pass his magic to Ras for her to use against the geists. Only those bonded with psyvens can fight the geists, as a psyven's magic is the one magic that is truly effective against them.
But stories are told to children to placate fears and soothe nightmares. Ras has to learn that Aldran and living as a khertan are not what she expected and that the danger is very real.
While she adjusts to her new life, she and Aldran begin to discover all is not as it seems; however, realising and accepting the truth is not easy and ultimately, in the end, is it worth it?
Rating: PG-13
Notes: You can find my commentary on this part here.
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship
Word count: 1,794
Total word count: 56,080
Status: Work in progress
She stared up at the outline Heast while Ceilha told the mages what had happened, and then blinked at the healer who had just cast a healing spell on all of them. If they hadn't been in a fight, or used any magic, wasn't that just wasting their energy?
"I see," the mage mused, frowning at the list of names in front of her (it was the one that Ras was used to, and she had still yet to know his name). "Ceilha, Dracer, would you two be able to leave straight away? Issalan needs your help."
"Of course."
Ras and Aldran stepped off the teleportation circle before Ceilha and Dracer were sent to Issalan straight away.
The mage turned to them once Ceilha and Dracer were gone. "You'll be called as soon as there's been an attack."
Both Ras and Aldran nodded in acknowledgement before leaving.
"What are you thinking about?" Aldran asked as they walked through Winolock.
Ras took a deep breath, frowning. "What if… What if we could predict where that geist would show up next? Do you think that would be possible?" Then they could kill it without it feeding on anyone else.
"That could be, yes," Aldran said slowly. "Back to the library?" he asked, his tone light.
"Of course. We're probably starting to catch up with some of the mages on how much time we're spending there."
Finding a map of Heast wasn't that hard to do, though it did take a bit of searching to find an unoccupied table that could take its size easily.
After they spread it out, grabbing a couple of books off nearby shelves to weigh down the corners, they first sought out where Ollan was on the map. It was to the west, that Ras knew, but there were far too many names jostling for space that it was hard to know exactly where it was.
"Here's Yinnells," Aldran said softly, tapping on the map. Ras craned her neck to see it and nodded when she did.
"So that means Ollan is somewhere around here," she mused, scanning the map. They found it at the same time, their hands going towards it at the same time.
Ras grinned at that, snorting a little. She heard Aldran's short huff of laughter soon after. "If it left Ollan then…" Ras glanced around at the names clustered around the town. Her heart sank. "Even if we knew what direction it had gone in, that wouldn't make a difference – it could have changed once it left the town.
"What do you think?" Ras asked Aldran, in case he could see something she didn't.
"No…" Aldran said as he braced one hand on the table, leaning forward. "We can't predict where it had gone…"
Godsdammit…
Norantaru, Ras realised just before they were sent there, was one of the villages that was close to Ollan, and from Aldran's worried little frown after they had introduced themselves, he had realised that also.
After visiting the victim's family, Ras and Aldran started to search for where the geist could have gone.
Ras' snorted when she realised something as they checked first whether there were any geists hiding within the area where the victim had been fed on. "Ceilha and Dracer told us that we could sometimes find where a geist's den was by looking at where the person had been attacked but…"
"That's never happened," Aldran finished for her, his tail flicking.
"The Gods appear to like sending us to hunt the more intelligent geists…" She paused in her thinking when she realised what she'd said. Were some of the geists more intelligent than the others? They had encountered a few that didn't seem capable of speech, but then there was the other geist as well that was far too skilled at manipulation.
Aldran hummed, before he said, "There's no-one else here."
Ras nodded, double-checking their entrance. She could see a number of people in sight, but they were making a studious effort to not look at either her or Aldran. Which wasn't really a comfort, since it meant no eye contact and that was the best way to tell a geist from anything else but so long as they stayed away, that was the best Ras could hope for.
Ras and Aldran found a few droplets of glowing blue blood on the ground, but nothing more than that. Did that mean it had been hurt before it could mind control the victim, or was it a different geist? They couldn't know for sure, not without seeing it first.
For the moment, they would have to start looking around and hope they found the geist before it fed on someone else.
The sun was beginning to set after a few hours since Ras and Aldran had first arrived in Norantaru, but they hadn't felt the geist's presence once. They had even checked where the attack had happened again, in case it was hiding there while they looked elsewhere.
Ras was just about to suggest that they go rest when her skin prickled, almost gently, like someone had brushed a feather over her skin. She and Aldran froze, waiting to see what would happen next. Ras' eyes darted at every available shadow, at every person she could see, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
The prickling faded and Ras cursed. It was moving away! She walked forward, hoping that that was the right direction and was releived to find out that it was, the prickling coming back again. She shot a look towards Aldran, who nodded, and together, they started to make their way towards the sensation.
It continued to move, no matter what pace Ras and Aldran had, always staying a fleeting presence, sometimes there, other times briefly flitting away. It was severely frustrating, and Ras growled when it stayed out of their grasp and sight.
It was teasing them, mocking them, Ras realised some time later, when her breath was short, sweat trailing down her skin. She and Aldran were trying to regain their breath and it was still there, just hovering on the edge of their awareness. Every time they quickened their pace, it did so as well; every time they slowed their pace, it did so as well. It didn't try to make an escape while Ras and Aldran rested; it didn't try to run towards them and attack either.
It was infuriating but there wasn't anything else they could do but continue to chase it. If they stopped chasing it for too light, they could lose it if it became bored and then fed on someone else!
Night had fully fallen by then, and while the moonlight was clear, Ras could see the thick clouds starting to form, already blotting out some of the stars.
There was still the torchlight to see by, but it wouldn't be so useful if the geist decided to keep to the shadows, and the little that Ras had seen of it, she guessed it was very likely that it would do just that.
Hissing, Ras glared in the direction of where the geist was hovering.
That was when it started to rain. It was a light drizzle to begin with, but it steadily became harder very quickly.
Shaking her head, brushing her plastered hair behind her ears, Ras squinted in the direction of the geist.
"Ras…" Aldran said quietly, as he started moving again. "Can you still feel it?"
Ras stared at him in confusion. Of course she…couldn't. It was beginning to get harder to tell the difference between what was the prickling of her skin and what was the rain, the two sensations mixing in with each other.
Dammit. It could use that indistinction to slip away fully – or to slip in close to them while they couldn't tell the difference. Had it been waiting for this moment?
Gritting her teeth, Ras started to make her way towards the place that they had last sensed the geist.
The closer they got, the heavier it rained, until it became far too hard to see clearly. Ras' clothes weren't good enough protection from the cold, and she began to hope that the geist would attack them soon, just so they could keep warm through fighting, and then afterwards, she and Aldran could go to the inn and rest.
Ras got her wish not long after, the prickling of her skin suddenly washing over her, completely separate from the pounding of the rain.
She whirled around, trying to pick out anything that didn't belong, seeing Aldran doing the same from the corner of her eyes.
Ras became aware of hearing someone running towards them, and she tried to find where they were.
"Help!" It was a woman, her short hair plastered to her head, the rest of her similarly soaked to the bone. "There's a - geist after me!" she screamed, her eyes wide in terror, continually looking over her shoulder as she ran towards them.
Ras could feel the geist coming towards them, and the link between her and Aldran opened. She gathered the magic in her palm, waiting for the geist's appearance, keeping an eye on the woman, to make sure she stayed out the way and that she got away safely.
Except she was running straight towards them. Ras prayed to the Gods that the woman wasn't going to hide behind them, but it looked like she was going to do exactly that.
But where was the geist? Ras could feel its presence keenly, but it still wasn't in sight. In fact, the only person she could see was…
The woman ran past Ras and barrelled into Aldran. The link between them stuttered from the impact and Ras tried to move her chilled muscles faster, because – no, it couldn’t be.
It was. Ras could see the woman – geist reach around Aldran and unsheathe his dagger. He started to struggle against its hold but he was held fast and Ras wasn't fast enough – she could only watch as the geist plunged Aldran's dagger into his side.
The link between them died as Aldran screamed and he collapsed to his knees, the geist shoving him over so he sprawled over the dagger.
Without a thought, Ras grabbed her own dagger and raced towards the geist, hoping to at least distract it from wounding Aldran any more. She was able to duck its arm lashing out and slammed her dagger into its gut. It snarled and Ras wasn't able to dodge its fist – there was enough force behind it to make Ras slide along the cobblestones and she hissed as her skin was scoured.