- Local time
- Today 5:57 AM
- Messages
- 109
- Age
- 31
- Pronouns
- She/Her/UnstoppableEvil
The first turned and raised her hand to slash it downward - shutting the portal through which they had arrived - but not before the second leapt out of it - a blur of red uniform, thick dark curls and silvery skin slamming herself into the first.
The figure in red, pulsing with power just seconds before, felt her magic slip away almost instantaneously. A small pause - the briefest of considerations. Then, the bloody blue-grey fist of the second collided with the pallid cheek of the first. It devolved from there.
They were screaming - grunting - yowling like feral cats as they rolled across the stones. On and on they went, trading blows - every fresh cut carefully healing over the last - bruises purpling and yellowing and fading within moments. They used whatever their hands could reach to pummel one another until finally they lay there - gasping for air - alone in a world of jagged rock and creeping mycelium.
Black waves washed splashes of red and silver from the stones.
They remained upon the stones for what felt like hours, until the first finally drew herself feet. Small and thickly built, her clothes were ragged as she stumbled up on aching legs to eye her surroundings. A single hand rose in the air - and smokey ink-like tendrils coiled themselves around her hand as she turned on her foe - before suddenly - it dissipated.
She blinked.
Seeing the first stand, the second echoed her movement. Her uniform, which had gleamed beneath the setting red sun, now seemed dim - the golden lettering - MBI - sewn into the breast pocket was barely distinguishable. Though her freshest cuts had knit and folded upon themselves, her face was overcome with faint scars - networks of silver shone slightly in the moonlight.
The second spoke - her voice cracked and hoarse from its earlier misuse.
"Where have you dragged me, then?"
The first shot the second a murderous glare. "I didn't drag you anywhere…" She growled, and with another wiggling of her fingers pulled thin tendrils of Shadow from the air, only for them to vanish once more. She cursed and kicked a foot into the ground before rounding on the other woman - pin-straight black hair flying around her head in a wave with the violence of the movement. "What did you do?"
"I haven't done shit -" Replied the second, and she spat onto the ground. Silvery blood came with it, and her eyes narrowed upon the sight. This time it was she who raised a single hand into the air - pulling at the sky - but there was nothing to pull.
They were alone upon the beach.
At that moment, they suddenly understood.
Behind the beach, there was nothing - and to the east and west of the beach was nothing - a world of inky nothingness awaited them on all sides.
The first slowly turned, taking in her new reality - before she began to laugh. It was a bitter, mirthless sound. It pushed her to her knees as she looked up at the other through pale eyes.
Ten years - ten years of careful planning, of killing, of clawing and scraping and trying to change the world for her people, and this was where it ended. A place that she hadn't thought real. A place that had haunted her dreams since she was a child.
Heavy boots crunched over gravel as the other woman approached her, pulling her up by the hood of her ragged tunic. The second searched the face of the first - and with a sound of disgust dropped her again. For what she saw there was pain - and the power that had rushed through her veins just hours before had told her there should be no pain; no joy or love or hate or agony - there was only power.
She crouched in front of the smaller woman.
"You…" she whispered, her voice cold, "destroyed everything…"
The first looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, "No…no I didn't destroy it." She shook her head as if she could shake the idea off.
The second stared. So young. Early twenties, maybe? Again she felt a wave of disgust and stepped away from the first - wishing she could kill the other but knowing now that neither could die upon the craggy shore.
"You don't even realize what you did, do you?" The second said bitterly, and crossed to a large stone, clambering atop it to draw her knees to her chest as she stared out over the water. "I saw it - I saw it devour them. Felt it - it tried to consume me."
Chaos had protected her. She'd be dead otherwise.
The first didn't answer. She had settled into the stony ground and folded her arms around herself to gaze out over that same obsidian sea.
All of that work. Thought the first. For nothing.
They sat there in silence - waiting for hunger - waiting for thirst - waiting for death.
It did not come.
The sun climbed once more over the horizon - bathing them in dim red light. Tendrils of mycelium crept back from its violent gaze - the only life in that entropic landscape.
Hours turned into days.
Days turned into weeks.
And still they did not speak.
Did not move.
It was not until the 30th day that the great red sun sank below the horizon that the first addressed the second once more.
"Why'd you kill her?" Sin asked - a heaviness to her voice.
"She was going to kill me." Replied Evaraine - feeling empty. Then, those amber eyes - like hot coals - crawled across the stones to meet Sin's silvery gaze. "I didn't want to kill anyone."
"She didn't either."
Another hour of silence passed. Evaraine - usually so hungry for solutions - found it hard to find a reason to care anymore. Was that the Chaos that had ripped through her body? It seemed a lifetime ago, now. In its absence, had it taken her will to live?
The only magic free of consequence.
Well it didn't feel free of consequence.
Damn Savros!
It had been he who had encouraged her.
It had been he who pushed her to pursue Sin.
It had been he who had told her not to follow her through the portal - had grasped her shoulder and told her to stay - and it had been he she had ignored. In that moment he had seemed an ant - something small and meaningless.
She shuddered as she remembered the woman Sin had asked about - with her sharp grin, energy crackling at her fingertips - the complete lack of empathy in her electric blue eyes.
"It was Chaos." She muttered as the sun rose once more.
Sin tilted her head to the side as she regarded her. "What?"
"The reason she attacked me - I didn't realize - it was Chaos." A scarred hand came up to rub her brow. "I just wanted to stop you from killing. That's why you were there, right? It was my job - and your kind were already being hunted. I couldn't let you give them any more excuses to hate the Shadow-Touched."
Sin stood quietly and crossed to the other woman. Carefully and slowly she climbed up to sit next to her. She spoke with grim finality. "They didn't need any more excuses to hate people like me."
"So that's why…?" Evaraine turned to search that round pale face - her colorless features stark in the dim moonlight.
Sin's almond-shaped eyes had shut at the question. "No." She admitted. "It was never about them."
Evaraine felt a surge of anger through her - and it was the first and realest thing she'd felt in weeks. She stood, fingers clenching tightly into a fist that she longed to throw. "Why the hell did you tear a hole into the world, then?!"
Sin didn't answer immediately.
Everaine was not the woman she wanted to talk to about this. Everain had murdered the woman she had wanted to talk to about this. And yet…they were trapped there. Trapped within her dream. She might be the only person to ever hear it. If they were to be here for eternity - it was inevitable, wasn't it? Why not just tell her now?
"I wanted to go there."
"Where?!" Evaraine demanded - pouncing on the words as soon as they had left the other's mouth. As soon as she asked, understanding dawned on her, and she took a step back from the woman, shaking her head. "To the Shadowlands."
"I don't belong there." The younger woman sighed. "And I don't mean that in a metaphysical way, or an emotional way, or whatever-weird-fucking way that people think they mean it when they say they don't belong.." She shrugged her shoulders and stood to meet the older woman's gaze. Her face was set into a cold and serious expression. "I'm not from your world. I was never meant to be there."
"So you destroyed a city."
"Light's Mercy, like it's that simple. No. It was supposed to be a win-win situation." Sin leaped down from the great stone, feet dancing upon the rocks as she did so, and turned to face the other. Now that she had realized where they were - her clothes had changed - white wrappings enveloped her from head to toe. A gentle breeze had picked up, tugging at her long, straight hair. "Darklings and Shadow-Touched get to have their say again - the world is reminded of why they feared us in the first place. No more being shoved into the ugly corners and crevices. No more fighting for the right to eat, to live. And I get to go home."
She picked up a smooth stone and ran a single finger over its top, before flinging it away from the shore - it skipped on and on until it faded into nothing.
"I fixed things.".
Evaraine stared at her, searching for anger. This child was responsible for hundreds of withered, lifeless husks she'd discovered - not a drop of Light or Life within them. Their faces had been contorted in terror - forever frozen in their moment of death.
She ought to feel something now.
Hatred - fury - ought to want to tear the hair from the small thing's head. The more she looked the further anger slipped from her grasp.
Pity.
That was all she felt.
Pity and grief.
"Ok…fine. You fixed things, kid." With a smooth movement she pulled her hair from its binding and rubbed her fingers gently into her scalp. "So…where are we?"
"I don't really know."
Everaine groaned but the other pressed on as if she hadn't heard her.
"Dreamed about this place -" Sin explained. "You ever been so hungry it hurts?"
Everain's expression was cold.
Sin continued. "Before I knew what I was - when I was a kid especially - I was starving. My body was eating itself - everything made me sick - this was the only place I could escape the pain." A bitter smile crossed her face. "I wasn't sure if it was real - somewhere in the Shadowlands, maybe. But…" Her brow furrowed and her next words were for herself alone. "I should be more powerful, not less. I should be able to hear it…"
Evaraine interrupted sharply. "Hear what?"
Sin glanced at her with a raised brow, "That was the other reason I knew I wasn't from there. I could hear the shadow. It was begging me to return to it. I heard it loudest in my dreams. Funny…I don't hear it here at all."
She paused at the expression on Evaraine's face, and she squinted at the other woman with shrewd suspicion. "I told you you're in my dream. I told you my body was eating itself. I just told you a lot of interesting things, agent. Why are you so fixated on the voice?"
Evaraine gave a little shug in response - uncertain if she should tell her. Uncertain what good could come of it. And yet the words came - perhaps from months of desperate confusion - of fear - of uncertainty. Savros was the only one she'd told and he - well. That didn't matter anymore, did it?
The thought contorted her face into an ugly expression before she answered. "I hear one too. But it's not the shadow."
"So…Chaos talks too…" The other woman's voice was oddly flat. She plucked through the stones to find a good one. "I wonder if Light and Life do too…" Ah - there - she skipped the smooth flat thing lightly across the turbulent surface. "What does it say?"
Evaraine sighed and picked up a stone of her own. It didn't skip - instead plopping into the water with a loud splash. Her mind was also spinning - weaving together and splitting apart connections in great spiraling waves. "Same as yours, mostly. Come back to it. Help it. Save it."
Sin scoffed. "Chaos wants to be saved?"
Everaine smirked. "I take it the Shadow is a strong and independent magic that can take care of itself?" The sarcasm tasted sweet. As if a little of her soul had slid back into place.
"Never said anything about needing help." Sin sighed. "I can't get us out of here." She added coldly,, "real dumb move deciding to follow me."
"Don't have to tell me that." Evaraine muttered, rolling her eyes.
And again the two women fell into a contemplative silence, watching as the sun sank once more and bathed them in cool light.
"You know…" Evaraine began, "I bet between the two of us we could figure out something."
Sin shot her a scowl. "Oh, are we friends now?"
"Absolutely not." Evaraine sneered in return. "But…I don't want to be stuck on this beach with you for the rest of eternity."
"Shouldn't have followed me-"
"And…" Everaine stubbornly pressed on, "I want to know why magic itself is talking to us. Don't you?"
Sin turned her eyes to the sky - alive with the unfamiliar spiraling stars of a world she'd never seen. "Yeah. I do."
She stood, and the first clasped the hand of the second, before leaning up to squint up at her. "But the moment we have our answers - I'll kill you."
A grin split Evaraine's face, wrinkling the corners of her eyes. "Not if I kill you first."