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signed on for a sequel - Warringkingdoms - 02-06-2020
[font=trebuchet ms]/tw: "death" by throat slash in paragraph 10, alcohol mention in 2nd paragraph after HR line
She awoke within a cave.
A jolt ran through her entire body as she scrambled to her feet, her eyes frantically sweeping her surroundings for a way out. The walls gleamed with a rippling light, but none of them led to open air. Her breathing quick and shallow, she staggered back, whipping around wildly- it had to be there. There had to be an exit.
“Not to worry, this is only a dream.”
She spiraled to face the speaker, her claws extending in preparation to fight. The voice belonged to a dragon, platinum scales reflecting the dim cyan lights. Lowering their head, they twitched their whiskers. “This cave has a way out in the waking world,” they remarked, “but if you die here, it doesn’t matter so much.”
“...I’m gonna go out on a limb,” Rin said, lifting an arrow and pointing it in the direction of the dragon. “I’ll guess… Saturn?”
They smirked. “Ouranos, actually,” they answered, “or the Skyborne. Good guess, though.”
The Skyborne, appearing to her in a cave? “Couldn’t be much further from the sky,” she quipped, lashing her tail. If she joked about it, she could distance herself from the fact that she was in just as much danger as they were. “Unless this is your idea of interrogation?”
With a low chuckle, the Skyborne stepped to the side, revealing an ornately-carved stone behind them- disturbingly reminiscent of an altar. “I wanted to show you something,” they said, waving their claws in a circle in front of them- mist gathering around its forelimbs, forming into the shape of a four-legged creature. The creature’s finer details faded into view, until Rin realized she was looking at Lemy, his eyes closed and his body relaxed despite his odd position.
“Let him go,” she warned, taking a step closer and preparing to fire the arrow. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Fool,” the Skyborne cackled, “this is a dream. Killing his reflection here won’t affect him in the waking world.” Before Rin could say anything, they swiped three claws across Lemy’s throat, scoring gashes that spilled crimson fog.
Rin surged forwards and flung the arrow at their eyes, but they calmly lifted a forelimb and halted the arrow mid-flight. “Watch,” they murmured, holding Lemy’s figure over the altar-like rock. The blood spilled onto the altar- and immediately light shot out of the stone where the blood touched it, flooding the room. Rin squeezed her eyes shut to avoid being blinded.
As the light faded, she reopened her eyes, and Lemy was gone. The Skyborne flicked their tail towards the still-glowing rock. “It’s a simple sacrifice,” they said, twitching their brows. “Forsake your loyalty to Elysium, and prove your loyalty to your old home... Spill an Elysite’s blood, and the altar can bring your friends back.”
Did they seriously think…? “Why would I do something like that on your word alone?” Rin asked, narrowing her eyes. They were out of their mind if they thought she was going to break her oath on the promises of a god, particularly one who had everything to gain from her downfall.
The Skyborne twitched their whiskers. “If you really want your friends back,” they replied, lashing their tail, “if you really want them to be happy, you’ll take that chance.”
Betraying her own word for the sake of what could easily be a lie wasn’t a chance any sane person would expect her to take, but Rin was more interested in why the Skyborne was bothering with this. “What’s in it for you?” she demanded with furrowed brows.
“Simple.” They leaned in, smoke wisping from their breath. “I don’t want the rest of my family killed.” Lifting a clawed forelimb and inspecting it, they went on, “By the time I figured out how to reach you, the Captain was going to get himself killed no matter what I did. But no one else should have to die unnecessarily.”
Before she could shoot back that an Elysite’s sacrifice would itself be unnecessary, the Skyborne growled, “Too bad you’re too selfish to do it.”
Selfish? In what way- shaking her head, she snapped, “Yeah, it’s super selfish not to blindly follow the orders of a god who’s been trying to kill my friends and I since day one, isn’t it?”
With a harsh, crowing laugh, the Skyborne extended their claws towards her. “It’s selfish that you aren’t really willing to make sacrifices for them.” Their eyes flashed. “It doesn’t mean anything to you to spill our blood. Our lives never held any value to you.” With a shrug, they leaned back. “If it really meant that much to you, you’d give anything for them.”
"I can’t break my word.” Rin maintained a stoic expression. “I couldn’t sacrifice an innocent life, even if I believed that it could actually bring them back.”
“Well, then that’s that, isn’t it?” The Skyborne grinned, their teeth gleaming under the strange light. “Despite claiming that your loyalty is unconditional, there are some things you just aren’t willing to do- like sacrificing someone. Or, say... setting Nemhain free.”
Rin jolted. Had they just said… “What do you mean, ‘set her free?’” she growled. “If she’s really a manifestation of me, then-”
“There’s a way to separate a persona from its owner, allowing them to live as their own person.” They chuckled. “Multiple ways, in fact, but I can only think of one that wouldn’t horribly injure everyone involved.” Swishing their tail, they continued, “I can’t tell you what it is, of course, for multiple reasons- but it does exist.”
And she was supposed to believe this, why? Rin opened her mouth, but the Skyborne interrupted, “Could you imagine, though? Nemhain being free, not being stuck within the confines of Elysium… not being bound to her selfish excuse for an owner.” Rin flinched again, and they fixed their gaze on her. “I can see why you wouldn’t want that, now that I think about it.”
“But I do,” Rin shot back after a moment, her ears flattening back. “If there’s a way for her to be free, then she deserves to be free.”
The Skyborne’s grin faded, their expression becoming neutral. “Perhaps, but you know full well what’ll happen then,” they said, narrowing their eyes.
Rin remained silent.
“She’ll leave you behind and forget about you. Just like the others all did.”
“They didn’t leave me behind!” Rin snarled, her fur bristling. They dared imply that the others would- would just forget? This arrogant, lying- who did they think they were?
The Skyborne waved a forelimb, and the rippling lights morphed into glass, an entire world behind the waterfall. Turning her head towards it, she gazed through the window, though she kept a second arrow pointed at the Skyborne the whole time.
She could see… the mental hospital. Not burnt to the ground, either- it was intact, figures emerging from the doors to meet the day. Creatures she had never expected to see again, let alone getting along… the plucking of strings rising into the air to reach her ears, laughing and chattering, people she knew basking under the glow of the night sky. Stars studded their frames, like each of them held a sky of their own.
“Monolith City,” the Skyborne whispered, their words echoing over the strains of ukulele and guitar in accord. “All of them genuinely enjoying themselves. For all they care, you might as well not exist. They don’t miss you.”
“And why should I believe you?” Rin hissed, turning to him and lifting a paw. “It’s as you said- this is a dream. You could easily have conjured up an illusion out of whole cloth.” Even if she really had seen their afterlife, one moment of contentment out of context didn’t mean they’d forgotten her.
The fact that she’d already been trying to make her peace with being forgotten was shoved to the back of her mind. If the Skyborne was trying to capitalize on it, she had to fight back.
“They could come back any time they like.” The Skyborne smiled in a false expression of sweetness, as if speaking to a child. “Even as a spirit, they could have visited you, if you mattered to them. But most of them never have, have they?” They lifted a claw to her chin, meeting her eyes directly. “Recall how Suiteheart was the only one who ever visited you. The others didn’t bother to give you so much as a goodbye- and even Suiteheart only cared enough to do so once.” Leaning in closer, they sneered.
“She realized you aren’t worth it, Zharin.”
Lashing out with one paw, Rin smacked their claws away from her face. “Shut up,” she hissed, her voice uneven. They… they dared invoke that name?
“Nemhain will realize the same if you give her a chance, and you know it.” The Skyborne’s voice grew angrier. “And so you won’t let her go. You’d rather keep a slave than be alone again, because you’re nothing but a spoiled, selfish-”
“I said SHUT UP!” she roared, jets of flame bursting out from underneath her bandages. Nausea and dread burned within the pit of her stomach, tearing away at her insides. They were wrong. She wasn’t- she couldn’t be…
After a few moments, the Skyborne chuckled. “Well, think about it then. Or don’t. It’s up to you, really- no one but you and I will know unless you tell.” Lowering their head to meet her eyes, they said calmly, “Come back here if you ever decide to do the right thing for once.”
Rin lunged at them, but they waved a forelimb, the world exploding into light-
[font=trebuchet ms]-and she awoke in her bed, wind and rain beating relentlessly against the window.
Curling in on herself, she felt her claws grip the bedding. The temptation to locate the nearest consumable form of alcohol crawled to the front of her mind- much as she despised it, maybe if she drank enough, she’d black out and forget all of this happened. The Skyborne’s whispers would fade from her memory, and she wouldn’t… have to deal with their threats anymore.
Realization hit her like a brick, and she messaged Nemhain, I’m fine, just a bad dream. Go back to sleep. She didn’t need Nemhain investigating this. The Skyborne was right that she wouldn’t even consider sacrificing an Elysite- she couldn’t break her oath over the words of a god- but Nemhain…
...if she thought about it too hard, would they both realize?
No, Nemhain didn’t need to know about this just yet. Not until Rin knew if the Skyborne was telling the truth. She couldn’t get Nem’s hopes up for something that might not actually exist. For all she knew, it might not even be what Nem wanted.
...but she got the feeling it was.
Her stomach twisted into knots. She had to do it. She had to do the right thing, regardless of what she actually wanted- what she wanted didn’t matter.
Rolling off the bed, she stumbled out of her room and over to the bathroom, then climbed onto the sink. Staring into the mirror, meeting her own sunken-in gaze, she set her jaw. If she opened her mouth, she might actually retch.
The cold of the sink’s surface seeped into her paws, freezing her there. Selfish. Spoiled, selfish brat. They know you’re not worth it. Shouldn’t you be happy about that? Shouldn’t you be happy that they figured out the truth, that you can’t hurt them anymore? She could barely hear the squealing, her claws scratching against the stone, over the roaring in her ears. Elysium will realize too. If they’re lucky, history might spare them, and kill you in their place. As if- as if your soul is worth the same as theirs? You could die a thousand times and it wouldn’t add up to even ONE of them.
She could see tears collecting at the corners of her eyes.
Stop crying.
Rubbing the moisture away with her scarf, she swallowed back the bile in her throat and descended from the sink. She couldn’t do this right now. She had to go back to sleep, and forget it for now. She couldn’t think about it now. She wasn’t strong enough.
Returning to her bed, she curled up and squeezed her eyes shut. Not now. You can worry about it in the morning.
/word count: 2070
/tl;dr: one of the gods, the Skyborne, visits Rin in her dreams to manipulate her- after waking up, Rin has a crisis about it
/don't feel the need to reply to this unless you have muse you'd like to burn, I'm just using this to foreshadow some stuff