Greetings All
It has been a mellow week with my mother coming to stay with us for a few days, but sadly, she is leaving tomorrow. More time to write at least.
Be sure to follow up on @zakludick's update to follow our villains. It was a great update!
Noxus hadn’t returned to the Kai islands in the last year. She had seen the death of two of her fellow Kai disciples as her fault and couldn’t face those back on the island. She had sent Gorox with a letter to her temple teacher and that was that.
Never in a million years had she thought that Mary would ever send her back to the islands. She didn’t want to go back, she never wanted to go back. But that was before the scream had torn through her soul.
She was sure that the failed trial and her letter were enough to sever the connections she had had with Hiral Kai. However, that scream had turned her insides to jelly, and her face must have lost all colour as Millmor questioned her as they made their way to the room set aside for the meeting to occur this afternoon.
Thrown off from the conversation she had been having with the ghoul king, she had begged his forgiveness and quickly returned to her room. It was a modest, small room, one of her own choosing, though Mary wanted to gift her something far larger. She needed to find the artifact that she had buried away so long ago.
After digging deeply into a wooden chest at the end of her bed, she finally lifted a cloth-covered object. Sighing to herself, she unfolded the cloth to reveal a large, round white pearl. Or at least it was meant to be a white pearl. It was now speckled with black. That could only mean one thing.
“A disciple of Hiral Kai has been destroyed.”
She was surprised that the artifact worked at all. Her letter had informed her teacher that she couldn’t see herself completing the trials again and she was cutting ties. The fact that the artifact worked at all, proved that the Hiral wasn’t done with her.
“But I failed.” She muttered under her breath and covered the pearl once more.
This wasn’t an accidental communication. Someone on the Kai islands wanted her to return, whether she liked it or not. Sighing, she placed the pearl back in the trunk and closed it. Resigned to a fate that was yet to be determined, Noxus made her way to the dining room. She was one of the last to arrive.
Following close on her heels were Gorma and Adrian. The two had developed a fast friendship, often ending in strange gifts being given to the other. It almost seemed like a game between the two of them.
Gorma must have said something funny because Adrian was chuckling, but he stopped when he noticed Noxus. At first, there was a strange blush on the prince’s cheeks, but then his gaze was drawn to her hands and the blush was almost immediately removed from his cheeks.
“What did you touch?” he half-whispered.
Noxus rubbed her hands together, almost fearing that a taint had remained of what she had seen. She didn’t know how to answer the prince, as the artifacts given to the disciples of Kai were precious and not to be shared by any.
She simply shook her head and said, “It is not something I can talk about, young prince. Please do not ask me again.”
Adrian, long used to the niceties of court, knew that this was the politest way that Noxus could tell him to mind his own business. He tried to shake the feeling that she had just come into contact with the same dark energy that had nearly destroyed his soul. Still leaving him cold no matter how high the sun got in summer.
Before her could consider what, his next move should be, the woman from last night barrelled her way past him into the room. She had no grace of the rest of the courtgoers, but she was light on her feet and deftly spun to mutter an apology before she continued to move into the room.
“She is far more dangerous than your mother gave her credit.” Said Gorma.
“It would seem so. Will you behave with Millmor today?”
Gorma grimaced or snarled, it was difficult for Adrian to tell sometimes.
“As long as the knight is between me and it, we should be fine.”
“Then let’s make that happen. Remember your promise to not take his head off until we can tell that he was the one that took your mother from you.”
“Whether he did or didn’t, that doesn’t matter. He is a ghoul King and cannot be trusted, even if you think this curse that binds him to the prince will placate him.”
“Yes, yes.” Said Adrian with a forced smile as he led Gorma to a seat that was as far away from the seated Millmor as possible.
“Now that we are all here, let’s get started.” Said Mary, once everyone was seated.
She turned to Letulah and said, “We have had many major events happen in a short duration, and seems too well orchestrated for my liking. I need to pick your brain.”
Letulah sat back and started counting the events she was now aware of, “Johnathan dying, Adrian losing his soul, the awakening of Mortis, the soul returning, the giant avatars, Clarprati restored but ruled by your infected brother, not one by two gods are within our midst, the true greenskins are back, and…”
“Two gods?” queried the queen, genuinely shocked that Letulah knew about Bellum.
“Oh yes, you wouldn’t know.”
Letulah reached for her right eye and popped it out of the socket, much to everyone’s shock, amazement, and revulsion.
“Magical artifact. Was hunting a vampire and lost the real one. Took forever to save enough for this beauty. It reads the auras of those around me. The walking corpse there has two energies within him. Since possessing the dead is near impossible by demons, I could only assume it was a god.”
Mortis had to fight back against Bellum showing his attitude to those at the table. Letulah then rubbed the eye on her clean shirt before popping it back in. She blinked a few times, and the eye seemed to move as if it were the real thing.
Letulah then looked to the giant of a man, and the slightly smaller man that sat next to him. They were similar creatures but not completely the same. The smaller of the two seemed to have a shred of humanity that was fighting back against the beast within him. Letulah had often seen that in the creatures from Clarprati. Eventually the beast won. However, this man had sheltered what little humanity remained within him.
“A changeling of some sort and I am not sure what you are. Not quite undead but also not quite alive.” She said to Millmor.
“Ghoul King.”
“Ah! There aren’t many of you left.”
“And with good reason, I would hope.”
Back to you Zak!
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Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
Vetitum Nemus
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