Searching

These are areas outside of the realms of the Alliance. Venture out into Vescrutia's open world and explore. Go anywhere and show us a side of Vescrutia that might not have been discovered yet.
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Ves
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Searching

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Gaia could tell you the history of the earth just by how a certain stone fit underneath the sole of her bare feet. If it was cool to the touch, smooth, and blunt. If the coloring was off and lacked a certain sheen it had to be a descendant of Avizure; broken, scattered, eroded, flame broiled and tossed to the winds to find itself among other rocks of Vescrtuia’s original landmasses. Along her life, her many travels, and her near perfect depiction of every wrinkle upon The Mother’s Face Gaia knew Vescrutia like her own skin. And she knew most of all that she would forever be a student to it’s many secrets and wonders, for the true ancestors of this planet were not Vescrutia’s super-powered children, and they were still, always, children- but the ever enduring products of nature that weathered storms, and were made adaptable to be transformed by the events her children waged upon the surface. They told many stories. Gaia knew it, the Michio knew it, and by listening, they could access great power.

When she was born she wasn’t much of a listener. She was bursting with so much life and potential; a font of energy tasked with rooting out corruption. Most of the rubble across the planet was remade over just from standing in her wake but perhaps that was why all of the events were coming to a head. Gaia was a terrible listener. She let the hubris of her age deafen her to the cries of her people and The Devour harbored a resentment so sinister they’d pluck the child from her womb if it meant vengeance. Among Vescrutia’s ancient rubble she stood, in a desolate land wading through dust storms, howling winds and scything sand storms searching for the proper stones that led to the ancient city, destroyed, The Michio center of power, The Khralaessara. Her steps through the storm were heavy, leaving imprints in the sand and dirt. The child in her belly was growing strong off her finite power, drinking in his full, exercising his power in the expanse of her womb. Her hand found her belly, she could feel the boy’s small hand reach back to touch hers. Underneath her full cloak, masking her presence from the outside world she smiled, moments like this made relinquishing her immortality worth it. It was a shame it was such a short time in proportion to her long, lengthly life. She didn’t look back on it often, most of her life was spent putting others through storms like these, other anima had more direct involvement but Gaia ensured the longevity of her own life by letting creation do what it did best- sow chaos. It was the beauty of nature to resolve to order, and spin out of control. Dynasties rose and fell like the suns and the moons, the universe played no favorites. Gaia always looked toward the future, and the next Astral Year was almost upon them. Michio Valador, the life within her stomach would be here after she was long gone, and he, Kham, Ken and even T’ajsa would watch over this planet long after she was gone. At least she could do that much, give birth to one good thing in this world.

So she walked for days through this mess bare foot white knuckled, searching for the remains of Vescrutia’s ancient past that had been erased at her own had and hidden by The Devout. They were entirely too careful to ensure that after Kham laid waste to the Khralaessara that no one would come behind him and plunder the city’s ruins for relics, but with enough influence The Divine Anima coerced the stones into telling her where their lost relatives lie, in new skin nonetheless. A sharp pain shot through her back, a flaming needle through her spine that brought Gaia to her knees. Her hand found her stomach once more, Valador was at play again, stretching his power longing to be free from his divine cocoon.

“Hush little one…”

She rubbed her stomach, and Valador’s hand found her own. Gaia whispered over the howling winds, not caring that her child couldn’t hear her.

“Hush.”

To think all mothers went through this. Some multiple times over. Some even died. Gaia was having a terrible time carrying Valador. He was full of energy like his father, and always wanted to play at all times of the day. These were times when mortality was absolutely not worth it. Mortal pain was nothing to be scoffed at when it was knocking on your womb at every waking hour of the day. Again Valador howled, forcing Gaia further to the ground on both hands. The pain was in her gut and ran up the length of her spine to her neck like someone had whipped her with barbed wire. In the past few months, Gaia became well acquainted with exhaustion, shortness of breath, and an most inconveniently, an upset stomach. She wretched all over the desert floor, for it to be swept into the winds.

“Oh, little one…”

She was so queazy, and light headed, her vision was a blur her hands pawed at the ground for stability before she began to, slowly, gently, push herself up, not before Valador threatened to thrash bout again. Gaia could feel his intent, and he hers. Was he trying to show her something?

“What. What is it? Are you hungry?”

She moved her hand around some more on the ground before trying to push herself back up, but again the baby fidgeted. This particular stone that Gaia rest her hand upon, was no ordinary rock. It was DarkSteel. Jet black. Incredibly smooth to the touch. Confused with obsidian. But there was no mistaking it. This was a Michio tool of warfare… she was incredibly close than any archaeologist had ever been.

“You’re a genius Valador”

The boy was so perceptive already, sensing his mothers emotions, her intent, her happiness. He laughed along with her, undoubtedly making Gaia ache all the more.

“OOh oooh! Okay dear. Settle down now. I must focus.”

Gaia brought the perfectly triangular, ebony slate to her mouth and whispered to its origins asking the fragmented piece of Dark Steel to point her toward it’s brothers and sisters. She had to wake up it’s spirit first, remind it that it was once the Sword of a proud Cenmotori who had saw many conquests. It was extraordinarily rare but the blade had been shattered, dashed among the rocks, buried and rearranged in the relocating of the Khralaessara. But all Gaia had to do was reconnect this fragment to its history and the path illuminated before her. Piece by broken piece, blue wisps revealed themselves long the desert floor. A road map to the ancient city, a way to ensure The Devout never grew in numbers. With haste Gaia took off after it vanishing into the winds, slow, and careful step carrying the next generation of pillars in her womb.
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Ves
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Re: Searching

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Wind whipped at her ankles, sand cut deep Into her exposed flesh. Step by heavy step Gaia followed the illuminated peppered trail of darksteel fragments deep into the desert. She cracked a smile beneath her cloak relishing the pain, giving herself fully to the perseverance, the humanity. There was something charming about being mortal. A perfect cocktail mix of vulnerability and unprecedented strength that made the whole experience lethally addicting. She had only flirted with the state before: exhaustion after a series of days without rest, inability to stay in space for long periods of time without getting chilly, and of course there wa the overall lack of connection with the Mother that frightened her the most. But from this loss came a power stronger than her own, one only humanity had access to that filed these voids: hope, will, luck. Gaia was beatific with possibility at what being human had brought her. And it didn’t stop there, she remembered when she looked into Ulum and noticed a wrinkle. A singular wrinkle beneath her eye! Crows feet is what the mortals call it. She laughed again under her cloak, the irony of it all made her feel so bubbly. Existence on a timer was such a peculiar thing, the human spirit finds new reservoirs of strength when things are not guaranteed. And for so long, being an Anima, so many things were certain. And certainty, as Gaia was discovering, yields an elusive, yet very fragile weakness.

Humans were strong because so many things were uncertain about their lives. That’s what made the Michio too strong. The fact that Gaia could rob them of their lives an instant. That constant fear is what drove them to such startling heights. If she were to try again, she’d flood her creations with pleasure rather than pain. But she laughed at that too, for amidst all the uncertainly she was feeling: how long until her legs gave out, how long until her ankles were cut to the bone, how long until she needed water- one thing was for certain, this was her last chance to make things right. No, it was just her last chance.

Gaia stopped for a moment and looked into the howling desert, and reached into her cloak. She pulled out a canteen of water and took a light sip that glossed over her raw lips and placed it back in one of her clack’s many folds. She winced at the pain her dry lips felt, raw and covered in blisters and laughed a second after. Vulnerability was truly something marvelous.

“Little one?”

Gaia’s hand found her stomach. Only slow rumbles, and breaths responded. She exhaled an elated sigh, he was finally sleeping having drunk his fill of her power. Her hand sought refuge inside her cloak to the DarkSteel fragment that Valador had located. She had never touched it before in her life, she’d only see the innovations it had brought. She thumbed its cool surface and her mind found itself jettisoned back to the past when the material was first forged. Deep in The Mother’s womb did the Devout labor ceaselessly synthesizing a noxious compound of materials to compose a metal so malleable and formidable the was lighter than air, but stronger than their own skin, foldable and stretchable to wear like armor, non magnetic and could survive in the extremities of all sorts of conditions. The Breakers were one thing but The Mancers? The Michio scholars and innovators was something she wished she had never thought of. She twirled the fragment around in her cloak pocket. This piece was surprisingly dull. Michio weren’t allowed to create anything that wasn’t agreed by the council, imagine the face of their enemies when they appeared on the battlefield wearing armor, using swords. Ridiculous.

Gaia shook her head free of those thoughts and turned her head toward the sun, her cloak absorbing most of the harmful rays on her behalf and keeping her surprisingly cool beneath. The cluster of moons in alignment with the suns spectating each other on the opposing sides of the horizon hadn’t shifted since she walked into this place. She held the dark steel fragment toward the skies hoping the suns rays would catch it and it would glimmer but as she anticipated it’s not even reflective. It seemed to eat sunlight. She narrowed her eyes at the position of the clouds in the sky, and looked back toward her shadow. Curious. Had no time passed while she was here?

“You finally noticed.”

A voice called to her from in the sandstorm. Gaia jolted to attention, feeling caution and fear for the first time. Every pore on her skin raised to attention, her brain began pumping something fierce through her veins that made her palms sweaty and tingly. She lost her breath and her heartbeat quickened, Valador stirred but she muscled through the subtle pains. She turned her head to the left and a figure stood across from her among the sands draped in a tightly fitting black suit of body armor with weiry flowing silver hair. Beady read eyes and a cluster of swords strapped to his back by black straps. He was barefoot, and bare gloved, and wore an unforgiving emotionless gaze.

“It took you two months to notice. Two months. Humanity has made you sloppy.”

He spoke with such a soft voice, every bit intentional and soothing but his appearance commanded much more analysis. How could a man this imposing appear so kind? Michio Gideon- The Breaker Second, The Exile.

“This is a labyrinth.”

She muttered. And tossed the piece of DarkSteel to the winds. Gaia corrected her posture, and threw off her cloak revealing her own head of silver, her own eyes of read, her skin a dark brown chafed raw by the sands and a very full belly. She wore her ceremonial garb embedded with the jewels and trinkets of ancient times long since passed. She drew breath and continued.

“And a very complex one at that. Who orchestrates it? Nansa? Samoosa? It must take a lot of power.”

Gideon’s square shoulders were thrown off axis at the reveal of those perfectly small square shoulders, the proportionate sensual frame, the silver hair and red eyes, the ideal bodice of youth and prime melded into one. From head to toe he saw perfection. Wiry hair, full lips, rounded hips. He wanted to let his jaw hit the floor and let sand fly into his mouth but instead of letting his awe slacken his jaw, anger forced his lips to wrinkle in rage. His eyes tensed to slits. Everything about her was wrong. Her body, the way she stood, the way she looked was wrong. No proper Michio would have a body this perfect. Rigorous conditioning, the strengthening of their Kah turned all proper Michio into walking hulks. This… this was an abomination. All Master Advocates were an abomination, privilege incarnate. Entitlement. And Gaia looked like all of them. Rite, The Ghost Wind, Zaraya, all of them.

“The legends are true. You look just like them.”

Gideon growled. Like so many others of The Devout had never seen Gaia, his creator and slave master. But all the stories were true. She looked exactly like Rite, Like The Ghost Wind, like Zaraya perfectly beautiful features hand crafted by The Mother that hid so much malicious murder and malevolence. He was at a loss for words. The subjects of his murders, and his executioners alike were all staring him right in the face.

Gaia clenched her fists, time to play the part again. She smirked, cementing herself into character and replied-

“They are my children.”

“Your slaves.”

“I’ve never known a Breaker to talk so much.”

“I-“

Gideon caught his words in his mouth and swallowed them past the lump in his throat. He snorted through hundreds of thousands of years of frustration through his nose. He was sent here for a job, but having seen her in person, wearing the faces of butchers. Gideon body wanted revenge, his mind wanted answers. And he was biting his lips because after all this time, he knew not what to ask of God.

“YOU WILL NOT SILENCE ME!”

He spat into the infinite desert. The howling winds gave way for his words, they glanced off of Gaia.

“Or what? After this long of plotting and scheming, you wanted to have a conversation? After this long of being Vyrin’s puppet. I’m not surprised they sent you. You shoulder all their burdens. The Scapegoat For Their Sins.”

“I was not sent. I volunteered.”

“To test out your new body then. Shareesha’s craftsmanship is superb as ever. I wanted them to kill you you know.”

Gaia forced a smirk, but the sweat on her brow, the quivering in her ankles betrayed her cool authoritative disposition. She was feeling weaker by the minute, and this labyrinth was meant to do just that, gauge how weak she had gotten, disguised as a search for the Khralaessara. If it wasn’t here, where was it? Still, if Gideon cringed any further he would wrinkle into a prune. He was trying desperately to keep it together. If they could make enough noise here, surely help would arrive, even in this dimensional purgatory of space and time.

“The Council Upheld the law of erosion in my favor.”

“Of course they did. You all fixed the vote. Samoosa-“

“Was always Devout. A perfect candidate for the cenmotori subjected to the life of the tremors? You squashed our individuality piece by-“

“Yes. And I’d do it again.”

Gideon lurched forward like a cobra ready to strike. And Gaia’s heart nearly burst from her chest but she didn’t quiver. His hesitation. The rebellion stirring in his body to madness only meant one thing she was needed alive. As well as baby Valador. Good.

Gideon took a very deep breath, shut his eyes and opened them. .

“It’s time to go Gaia. Your influence upon this world is at an end.”

“And if I say no?”

“You of all people know not to trifle with me.“

Gideon took a step forward not even raising a hand to his swords. Caution from Gideon only meant weakness.

“Have you found all the hedrons.”

He paused. They had a second objective after all. Locate the rest of their number. Using Kham to gather the hedrons while The Devout were still in stasis was a smart move on her part, she had leverage.

“I thought not.”

She continued, and Gaia took a deep breath gathering as much power as she could. She stomached the wincing pain she felt In her gut, the crying and whimpering of her child when she took naten from him and waved her hand over the sands around her, the ground trembled and ruptured. Gideon took a few steps back and was disarmed by the surfacing of irregular shaped rocks with crystals jutting out of them. They were tall and wide enough to place a person in and no two looked exactly the same. The coffins of Gideon’s family lie right before his eyes. And slowly his hand moved toward one of the many blades on his back.

“Give them to us.”

He growled, and he took a step forward. Gaia knew she had him in an animalistic dance, a caged beast weighing caution with conflict. Time to prod the beast.

“The rest of the Cenmotori lie in these? The Devout Mancers as well? And The Breaker Third correct?

Gideon took another step forward, hand gripped tightly around his sword on his back. Gaia held the upper hand for dear life showing nothing but sadistic murder upon her face. If The Breaker Third really lie in one of these Hedrons, the one who invented stasis, she could do a crippling blow to The Devout.

“GIVE THEM TO US!”

Gideon Roared, but Gaia twisted her knife of a tongue in the womb.

“I cant open them. No one can. But I can tell what’s inside. And they certainly aren’t indestructible.”

Slowly Gideon drew his blade. Gaia’s breath left her body, she needed to be faster than fast.

“You wouldn’t.”

She would.

“I can destroy all of you in an instant.”

Dust and crystal blinded Gideon, he was thrown on his back by a shocking concussive force which scattered his swords to the winds. His eyes were shaky and his vision even worse. There was a ringing in his ear. Slowly he worked his way to his feet, and again he was thrown back even farther.

“St-“

Another blast he was taken back.

“STOP!”

He cried, and another, and another, and another. Gideon roared to his feet and raced toward Gaia. He dug his feet in the desert as the blasts tried to peel him away from the sands toe by toe. But he persisted, only to be thrown to the ground. He clawed then, to the Anima. Righteous in her murder. He could almost hear laughing in between the salvo. By the time he made it to her feet. He was lying on his back among the scattered corpses of brown and black appendages, heads, and limbs. Gaia had destroyed his family. She looked upon him self righteously from on high, clinging to every last shred of humanity she had to not show weakness nor exhaustion and muttered a small prayer. She was about to fight for her life….

“ILLL TEAR YOU APAARRRRRRRTTT!”

The smoky dark mass of blackness leapt from gideon's scars and covered him in despair. He leapt with his hand extended for Gaias throat. Gideon had become acquainted with Despair once again, the Nova cosmic was his.
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Ves
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Re: Searching

Post by Ves »

Gaia sidestepped Gideon’s wrathful reach letting his open hand fly past her face, a gust of force followed afterward blowing the remains of dead Michio parts and Hedrons yet to be destroyed among the empty desert. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute, propagating things through her body that made her feel tingly, sweaty and extremely apprehensive all over. Humanity was such an amazing thing, time seemed to slow, desperation was at the forefront of her mind but never showed upon her face. All she wore was that haughty smirk, now becoming a scowl. Gideon however looked every bit like an enraged lion. His mane of full silver hair flailing about wildly, his teeth were bared in a deadly snarl, wisps of black smoke leaked from the space in between his mouth, blinded by fury and despair, Gaia stood a chance. Unlike Vyrin, Gideon’s greatest strength was his composure.

Now, to shatter this labyrinth. Gaia drew her foot back and booted Gideon in the chin, he didn’t move an inch nor howl in pain but his mouth shut in response and his eyes were thrown wide open. The concussive boom thundered across the very fabric of space causing the area around them to ripple and swell.

Not enough. This labyrinth was strong indeed. A condensed pocket of space and time that could withstand a collision of that caliber? Maybe she was just getting weaker.

Again.

Gaia brought her heel overhead, and brought it scything down upon the back of Gideon’s neck. He rolled out of the way to the right and Gaia’s mighty heel stoped inches away from the ground. With deadly grace she corrected her self before dealing a permanent blow to The Mother, and extended her foot, bottom first, toward Gideon, rotating her hips in it’s spinning motion that momentum was on her side and her face was facing the opposite direction. Gideon swatted Gaia’s riposte out of the way with his right wrist sending Gaia’s leg sweeping upward. She rode the momentum of the deflection into a backflip well out of Gideon’s range landing a distance a way from him. He pivoted and charged right toward her, as expected. He was drunk off the despair, feeling the fury, deep in Reckless Abandon.

For a brief moment Gaia murmured a word of thanks for inventing this fighting style, to counter reckless abandon, and any constant oppressive agents of force. It was simply called Seismic Shift, anticipatory and nonlethal, it allowed her body to listen to the thundering cacophony of less subtle techniques, anticipate and adjust well in advance. While the word Seismic implied the opponent had to be emitting some vibrations, they certainly didn’t have to be touching the ground, as Gideon so gracefully stated, throwing himself at Gaia, nearly flying across the distance between the two of them in moments. She steeped into his charge with her left arm extended and brought it under Gideon’s neck nearly snapping it off his shoulders.

Another rolling cadence of swells and booms. Cracks formed not just along the face of space, the ground, and even the sky. But Gaia could feel nearly every bone in her arm shatter. Seismic Shift certainly let you roll with the punches, if your body could withstand the impact. Again Gideon seemed unharmed, merely dazed by the interrupting blow and bit Gaia on her forearm. She howled in pain and brought her right fist toward Gideon’s face, only for it to be blocked by his own arm. Like a serpent, Gideon dragged his teeth down the length of Gaia’s arm exposing the meath, flesh, bone underneath and splattered valuable blue blood among the sands. He wormed his way into a grapple and took Gaia to the ground. Gideon lay perpendicular across Gaia’s body leaving baby Valador just below his torso. His left arm worked its way underneath her left, he was the vertical cross, her left bicep was horizontal. His right arm was clasped on her wrist, and with his left arm as the base. He could snap her arm clean off by driving it against his forearm.

The sands stirred their wisping winding woes, the only cadence to their struggle among both parties grunts and cries. Plums of black smoke bled from Gideon’s body, the rage deepening with very bit of friction he felt against Gaia’s struggle. Their collective tussling caused even more ripples across space and time as these Goliaths of forces wrestled for dominance. Gaia’s arm was weak enough as it is, bleeding profusely, lacerated by Gideon’s teeth, now he wanted the damn thing removed completely.

Her legs were free to do as they pleased and she kneed Gideon in the head and body repeatedly. To no avail. The fury was too deep, Seismic Shift was helpless against a grapple. And with a carnal grunt, Gideon snapped Gais arm clean off of her body. She wailed, in tandem with the following shockwave that caused the air around them to pulse and swell like a bulbous infection. Eventually the whole area seemed to Pop, and shatter like crystal and Gideon rose. He towered above Gaia among the regalia of fragmented space and time crowning him like stars. Upon these fragments held the illusion The Devout created her to perceive, the howling desert, the moonlight equilibrium, but it’s destruction now revealed their true location. The sky was dark peppered with stars, Gideon was even darker fuming black smoke. The celestial bodes were caught in the moonlight equilibrium still.

Gideon took an awfully deep breath, and began to pant, and pant, and pant, sweat forming across his brow. Despair was so exhausting to cling to. He could not believe he lost. Composure like that. In horror his eyes returned to normal, and he saw Gaia the way she was, severed broken. But his hand found his chest knowing the Magus was unharmed. He looked around him, Hedrons were scattered this way and that among them? The pieces of beautiful brown bodies. He would let the sorrow befall him for a moment if he didn’t have a job to do. Instead he drew in another breath and took a few steps toward the downed God.

Praise the ancestors he had that much sense to not harm the child. His hearing came back next, the wind was still, the desert even calmer. They were no longer inside the Labyrinth and the cries of a certain anima were ringing on indistinct. She was writhing on the ground, no doubt the was her first time becoming acquainted with pain. Composure, Gideon’s best friend returned to his side. And he extended his hand toward her.

“Come. You’ve done enough damage here. It’s time to go.”

Gideon reached down and grabbed Gaia’s free hand. She gripped it with a surprising amount of strength, her belly glowed with spectral green Naten bubbling like a cauldron.

“To Pieces.”

She muttered. And The next moment the breaker was broken in pieces and joined the remains of his ancestors.
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Ves
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Re: Searching

Post by Ves »

“If Etuum’s memories are true.”

“There is no if-“

“Okay, considering Ettum’s memories are true.”

“Nansa, there is no consideration! What more proof do you need! YOU put the crystal together!”

“VYRIN!”

Nansa shouted, the chamber rumbled, and he and all the rest of the Devout, huddled beneath the earth like the moles they were became regrettably silent. The Ahlm Tongue spoke like the grinding of stone, when Michio argued it sounded like earthquakes. Vyrin snorted, crossed his arms and angled his head downward so you could see the fire of his eyes. The Devout lining the outer ring of the circle: Samoosa, Gideon, in the prime of his youth proud victor of the Mo’Kailee freshly Coronated Breaker Second, and several Cenmotori had their eyes bounce back and forth between the two of them not knowing where It was comfortable to place their gaze. The passing down memories through crystal, proved to be more authentic than sharing them verbally when perspective clouded the minor details but as a woman of science, Nansa knew nothing was certain. She puffed air from her bottom lip removing the wiery thread of hair that fell between her eyes and smoothed the rest of it out with her hands. In the time it took to gather herself, she realized these arguments with she and Vyrin were happening far too frequently. The legitimacy of Etuum’s memories, whether or not he was actually slain, and for what reason eluded all of them. He could only give them so much without making direct contact.

Gideon’s eyes were fixed elsewhere, the freshly anointed Breaker disengaged unless there was killing to be done. Nansa envied Gideon, and all the breakers to come- the kill or be killed attitude was a luxury in this intricate world she was born to decipher.

Other eyes were fixed upon Vyrin who’s crimson eyes hadn’t left Nansa. He looked so used to intimidating people into submission, that he forgot Nansa just didn’t care. Vyrin didn’t scare her, the opposite really, he intrigued her. He was among the first 10,000. What had he seen that made him become Devout? She drew breath and spoke.

“Whatever the reaso-“

Vyrin took a breath to interrupt. Samoosa interjected.

“Vyrin, we’ll be here all day.”

“I’m sorry, does anyone not see a problem with calling Etuum a liar? Speculating the cause of his death like he didn’t give the answers right to us?”

Sarcasm flowed freely from Vyrin’s lips as he shrugged his shoulders and settled into his uncomfortable seat. Some of the Cenmotori clicked their tongues and shifted uncomfortably in their stances. Insensitive tonality was frowned upon in the Ahlm Tongue, a langue cultivated to be direct as possible. Sarcasm was culturally a cowardly way of speech, cattle used it to demean their fellows. Nansa smiled a halfhearted, half offended smirk and leaned closer to Vyrin closing the few feet that separated the two of them to inches.

“Say what you mean brother.”

She growled. If Vyrin was calling her an idiot for wanting to challenge the authenticity of something as fragile as memories then she’d happily make him address his words using a more direct method. The moment didn’t linger here very long. Even in their arguments, The Devout checked one another regularly as to not waste time. These secret meets were under a sever time crunch, the would have to resurface soon before their clones were found out to be artificial robots.

“You two wage war with you egos and intellects, yet here we sit hot as all fuck, moving nowhere. If you’re going to fight, do it already. Or if you’re going to fuck, do it already.”

Scoffed Gideon, his Cenmotori laughed. Vyrin growled, Nansa’s smirk grew a bit displaced, you could tell she was entertaining the notion of taming Vyrin in the bedroom. Still, Vyrin hated the way Gideon ran his army. In the day of the Breaker First, it was said no one breathed without Vyrins permission.

“For once I agree with The Breaker Second. Vyrin, let Nansa keep the circle. To speak out of turn violates our values.”

Laughed Samoosa who resolved to seriousness thereafter, forever the sympathizer if it meant reducing conflict among his family.

They leered in one another’s face a while longer, as soon as Vyrin drew breath, robbing this little hovel of even more oxygen Nansa cut him off.

“Brother, we’ve dedicated our lives to extracting his remains from Vescrutia, recreating what we could from his genetic material. We know first hand the gaps in history and the hundreds of years it takes to repair them. Let us just be reasonable. Think for a brief moment. Our enslavement is so intricately designed. Have you not considered for one second that the anima may place fraudulent memories in etude to embolden rebellion, to kill those who would seek reason to rebel?”

“This is not about trust Vyrin, it’s about reason. Use reason.”

Samoosa strengthened Nansa’s claim. Vyrin could be seen weighing the implications of her words as if it was weight on his shoulders that caused them to shift his seated position. He rolled his eyes and sighed, it’s almost as if the entire chamber took a sigh of relief now that the breaker first was elated. His eyes grew soft for a moment, and he let his eyes fall off Nansa onto something else, undoubtedly he was contemplating that day he saw the memories of Etuum’s death.

“I’m sorry Nansa, Samoosa, everyone. I saw the memory crystal. Knowing it could have been a trap. I saw it. We all did. The pain the despair, the power. It was so real. He cries for vengeance. And I want to give it to him.”

“We all do honorable Breaker First.”

Cried a Cenmotori of Gideon’s tribe Gideons appeared still very checked out from the ordeal, nansa cut him with her eyes. In times like this it was hard to tell if he was really devout. She had never met such a cavalier Michio. Drunk on his own power.

“I lost my temper. Please proceed Nansa.”

Vyrin conceded and relaxed his hunched shoulders, he unforrowed his brow and cracked his back.

“Nansa?”

Samoosa called to her, sensing her distraction. She snapped to attention.

“S- Sorry. We’ve finished analyzing the strange liquid we found inside Etuum’s bones.”

Nansa reached into her cloak and produced a tiny vial of a silver liquid, It had a deep consistency unable to be seen through and when she tilted the vial on its end the liquid clung to its position and slowly dripped down the vial like mucus. It was a vial no larger than her pinky, and she handed it to Vyrin.

“We call it darksteel.”

She resigned to say. It looked like a peanut in Vyrin’s massive hands. But he glared at it with his crimson eyes. And passed the vial around the circle.

“We can’t alter it using our powers?”

He said startled. Another member of the Cenmotori opened it and smelled it.

“It’s odorless.”

It got passed down again. One of the members opened it, and it splat out onto their palms. With terrifying might she shut her hands and the chamber rattled. She opened her palm again and the liquid remained just in a sphere form instead of a pool.

“It cannot be destroyed?”

She slid it back in the vial and passed it to Gideon who looked very much engaged by the substance.

“What happens if it’s ingested in the body.”

“You suggest we consume our ancestors remains?”

Vyrin sounded grossly offended. Gideons own Cenmotori however looked intrigued by their breakers suggestion, they would be foolish to speak out against him.

“I’m saying, what if this liquid is the next step to our evolution. Maybe that’s why she vanquished him. If our powers come from her, and we cannot alter this substance, then the Anima has no control over us. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“Honorable Breaker Second…”

Samoosa began, eyeing the substance ever so closely as it was passed around by his peers.

“Surely this is more speculation, in our already bottomless bucket of speculations.”

Ever the voice of reason. But he was right, ingesting a foreign substance to gain some sort of answer was not the way. Gideon continued though, as Nansa figured she would. She eyed Vyrin who was weighing the talk of both parties.

”How do we know it’s harmful If we don’t try. Did you try putting it in one of the Dolls?”

Gideon’s scientific deductions were surprisingly thorough. Nansa was handed the vial next.

“The dolls are already theoretical enough. You suggest we alter them further?”

“I suggest we figure out a means to control the material before we go about consuming it.”

For once Vyrin exercised caution, speaking like the commander he was. He wouldn’t venture out into unknown territory without information.

“If there are no dissenting opinions, I’d like to make another suggestion. Nansa?”

She was the circle keeper, moving through scheduled topics of conversation was her responsibility. She eyed every member of The Devout present. None seemed to have any pressing concerns.

“Proceed Vyrin.”

He drew breath and proceeded.

“We make another chamber, dedicated to furthering our research. We already have one dedicated to constructing the rest of Etuum’s remains. We make another dedicated to harnessing the power of this-“

‘Dark Steel’

“Yes.”

“And we begin immediately. I cannot surface. I’m allegedly ‘dead’ but send me Mancers Nansa, so we may get to work.”

“And what do you suggest we do to the Mancers who excavated Etuum? Crafted his memory column? They report to The Omen.”

Chimed in Samoosa from afar. He was always cognizant on how The Devout wanted him to safe face and conceal their operations.

“Seal them, or Rewrite their memories. Simple.”

The silence was so thick you could hear worms tunnel through the dirt thousands of miles away. Never had the order suggest harm befall one of their members. Not to say helping hands were devout completely, but still everyone in the room, Nansa included considered their own mortality considering how easily Vryin suggested they scramble the memories of their own kin. No one new how to contest this strange motion properly until The Breaker Second spoke. Unfortunately, that made things that much more tense. Nansa was holding her breath.

“Vyrin.”

“Yes Honorable Breaker Second.”

“You suggest-“

“The more we take into the order, the more casualties we create. The Mancers who excavated Etuum, who know we created his memories have seen too much.”

“There has to be another way.”

“I’m open to suggestions brother.”

Vyrin failed out his arms, showing just how open and unwilling he was. He continued.

“But the facts remain. Either we seal their tongues to prevent them from discussing their research. Or we make them forget they ever saw us. For good.”

“No.”

Gideon spoke up with a firm rebuke from his corner of the hole. Nansa didn’t realize it but she instantly began holding her breath. Vyrin wasn’t beyond reproach, but the Michio valued experience which is why they always yielded to Samoosa. Gideon was a mere child recently crowned, so terribly green.

“Excuse me?”

Vyrin was very confused about the boy challenging him. But Gideon squared off his shoulders in confidence while he continued.

“The Breaker Protects the Tribe.”

“Yes… and-”

“What you propose, violates the safety of the tribe. Even if our opinions differ we are one tribe. And The Breaker, ME, I protect the tribe. And I will not let you tamper with their sovereignty. as I live and breathe.”

Gidoen’s army of slackers was as firm as he was, he was soft on them true but when they felt their Breaker puff out their chest they all stood in attention echoing his confidence. Vyrin looked like he didn’t miss a beat, rolling with the punches of Gideon’s verbal blows with seasoned poise.

“Boy do you under-“

“Samoosa, Nansa, am I not the Breaker Second.”

“You are, Honorable Breaker Second.”

Samoosa answered instantly, as if he was waiting for his opinion to be leveraged.

“Nansa?”

Vyrin looked up for the first time directly at her with those burning crimson orbs. She couldn’t tell if he was asking for support or waiting for her to undercut him yet again. But Vyrin did not speak for all of them. She spoke what was on her heart…

“I also disagree with the sealing of our kin. Sealing a punishment worse than death, worse than exile.”

The silence sat for what felt like hours as Vyrin let their opinions weigh down upon him. They were all sweating closest to the mothers womb you could hear the drops hit the stalactites. Nansa shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She looked at Vyrin who eyes returned to the floor. He was in intense control of his body language she couldn’t tell if he was going to tear Gideons head off or give him a pat on the back by the smirk on his face. Eventually he stood up, taking up most of the hole’s space, casting a shadow over all of them. He turned toward Gideon who was and looked Gideon square in the face. Like the rest of them, they were covered in sweat like the mountainside of a craggy ravine. Gideon looked at his predecessor, his mentor and father for all intents and purposes with his signature careless grin. Vyrin returned a smile, he seemed to find something in Gideon that made him agree.

“Well What do you recommend Breaker Second.”

He resolved to say as he sat back down. Gideon unleashed his plan from a dam of his own thoughts.

“We tell them the truth. Initiate them. Grow our numbers, and if they defect, compromise our mission we will deal with them. “

Vyrins laughter was the happiest Nansa ever seen him. He laughed so full for such a long time. It was painful for Nansa. But Gideon took the mocking with ceaseless pride. It was remarkably strategic the more Vyrin laughed the more he looked like an asshole, the more Gideon owning up to his role as Breaker, protector seemed reasonable. There was something underneath that disengaged heir, something to Gideon that was very deadly. And stepping on his convictions brought it out. Still Vyrin was so skeptical of the second Breaker, his replacement and you could tell by their stiff shoulders Gideon’s army was quite irritated.

“I’m sorry. Forgive me. So, what? We create more liabilities. And you do what? Disappear them?”

Gideon bit off Vyrins question utterly ignoring Vyrins laughter. Reiterating what he meant.

“I’ll deal with them.”

They would all learn that when Gideon committed himself to a task murderous or otherwise, he completed it with startling efficiency. Perhaps their silence, of all parties was them considering the implications of starting a recruitment campaign turned civil war.

“Recruitment and the dispatchment of resisting parties will have to be done quietly.”

Suggested Samoosa.

“If any cog in the grand Michio Machine is out of place the Omen will know. But I support the expansion of our movement, we must tell others of this knowledge.”

Vyrin inhaled and reared his head with the aim to expose Nansa’s hypocrisy and bias but Nansa was too swift. She cut him off.

“Considering Etuum’s memories are legitimate.”

Vyrin curled his lips and exhaled, Nansa continued.

“Still, dedicating others to exploring the possibility and the research of his genetic material while forwarding our fight for liberation can not hurt us.”

“So we are starting a Civil War? A silent resistance against Divine Law?”

Vyrin seemed to enjoy the idea, but as a tactician he wanted to be sure of the outcomes.

“We’re simply building a case to contest divine law, and removing supporters. A coup if anything else. All in favor?”

Samoosa proposed the question to the masses. Gideon’s Cenmotori deferred to him of course, and he nodded. Nansa, and Vyrin nodded as well as other Devout, Mancers, and past Cenmotori under Vyrin faked their deaths and lived a life underground. They were all in agreement. It would be Gideon who would ensure the safety of their movement.

“Then we are in agreement. Let us remind ourselves that this agreement is what we all stand upon, and that while Gideon has chosen to shoulder this burden we must support him at every step of the way.”

Samoosa continued to say. These words were obvious to them, but still needed to be said. The accomplishment of this movement, to break free from Divine Law was all of their burden.

“Very well, Live for the Dying.”

The closing words were spoken.

“Live for the Dying.”

And they were in agreement. The Silent War had begun.

Gideon was unsure why the beginning of the Silent War, who’s blood fell heavy upon his hands was his first and arguably last thought as every exposed orifice underneath his armor was cracked and scattered to the winds. It was a trying time where he learned much about the world and himself by making terrible mistakes. He learned that there were burdens far too heavy for even a Michio to carry. And that physical strength, and spiritual strength are to terribly different things, to mistake them would cost you your life and later your sanity, though not in that particular order. Maybe it was the feeling of unrelenting trust he received from his fellows that day, that their freshly crowned Breaker Second would see the safety of their movement. Maybe his mind went back to the time Nansa first discovered Dark Steel and offered her a silent thanks for mass producing the substance that protected him from instant death. He had always neglected to wear the helm accompanied with this armor, luckily this would be the last time he would have to use it.

He looked too similar to a fragmented statue, cracked and eroded after Gaia rebuked pieces of him to a destruction so thorough it was only reserved for those who fancied themselves invincible.

But even that would not be enough. Not anymore.

Gaia lie upon the desert floor panting and breathless hand still extended with eaten crackling in between her fingertips. Sweat clotted sand upon her face matting her flawless-less skin with a film of dirt and turning her silver shimmering hair to a cold grey. Her hand found her belly and she reduced a howl to a wince as a sharp pain ran through her lower back to her leg. So much of her power went into ensuring that Valador was ready for this world, often times he hungered for more. Not yet, she would have to finish the Breaker Second, and afterward? Find the Breaker Third. Gaia supported her weight with her good arm, steadied her legs beneath her and took a deep breath to bring herself to a standing position. But she could hear the all too familiar sound of collecting glass, the piecing together of stone. The cadence of Michio Regeneration. She looked toward Gideon and her eyes widened to the sizes of moons when she observed Gideons’s hands, protected under that jet black leathery armor, twitch. His toes jittered. And she realized he was still very much alive. She had to hurry, and sprinted toward his body, a wind tunnel of Gideon’s army of blades flew her way and surrounded Gaia in a flurry of slashes and calculated cuts. With her singular arm, and the many locks of her hair she parried, deflected and riposted the swords. Though it felt like she was fighting an army of swordsmen, Gideon’s corpse was swill twitching with his neck repairing itself piece by piece.

Humanity in all its resilience and its unspoken power yielded many benefits, but the human body was so flawed and fragile. It and tendons that could be cut, muscle tissue that could be severed, and had a thousand ways it could be broken while still being left alive. It appeared Gideon studied these methods very well. She felt her legs give way from under her due to a slide at the back of her ankle. Her good arm suddenly stopped working when she felt a slice at her elbow joint, before she knew it she was on one knee, leaking blood, helpless and watching Gideon repair himself. Even with the swords circling her like buzzards Gaia flung herself toward the Michio statue and her hand’s and feet here impaled at the palms and soles pinning her to the sands.

With a mouth finally constructed, The Exile spoke.

“You’ve fought well Gaia. You fought like you care about losing your life.”

It grew a nose, later a face and finally that long mane of silver hair. Gideon’s eyes came last, and when they came to he was no longer staring into the desert with Gaia pinned upon the desert floor he was shackled to the ground in a dark space with a congress of silver haired, red eyed, brown skinned visages around him.

He remembered this day well, the day he was judged. Exiled. But shame and regret did not fall from his lips neither did pleas and prayers like that last time. What came out was a chuckle.

“You invade my mind monster? You pit my regrets and past against me as if I haven’t lived with them for an eternity?! MY DESPAIR IS STRONGER!”

The illusion shattered piece by piece a rain of warped reality, and broken glass fell around him and evaporated into Naten. Slowly Gideon’s mind adjusted to the vision of this world once again still chuckling from Gaia’s pitiful attempt at plunging him into sorrow. She lie on the desert floor, trapped and Gideon walked slowly toward her.


“TO PIEC-“

Gaia shrieked, but the end of her spell was suffocated but an armored hand. Even with Gideon suffocating it with the shock absorption powers of the dark steel the space around him boomed and thundered. The Ahlm Tongue, bolstered with Naten was a very dangerous tool. The Breaker Third specialized in this dangerous craft. With his free hand, Gideon chopped Gaia square in the throat facing her depriving her of breath and speech. This wouldn’t disable her completely no. But to deprive her of consciousness would harm the baby.

“Any more and you will kill the child. Save your strength when you have to deliver him.”

With quick work, Gideon bound Gaia’s hand and feet with more dark steel. He removed his blades from Gaia’s person and returned them to their respective sheathes, afterward he sat next to her in a meditative stance Gaia looked frighteningly confused seeing Gideon so calm. He could smell her fear.

“What? You thought I would kidnap you and vanish knowing the Meru’Ahk Thal and his band of interlopers is on their way? No. The ancestors have decreed it, The Great Destroyer must know despair. He will find Vyrin a much more forgiving teacher than I once I cut his loved ones down.”

Gideon drew in a deep breath, and fine intricate lines branched out from around him and Gaia. They interlocked and interwove spelling an ancient script in the Michio language.

“Consecration.”

He whispered. And the lines of the battlefield were drawn. Patiently, The Exile awaited Kham’s arrival knowing he would not exercise the same restraint the Breaker First showed him. Gideon did not know the meaning of the word.
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