View character profile for: Voah Sahnsuur
View character profile for: Gonyaul'vaux
JP with Omni and Lorem:
"When I was 9 years old... our convoy was traveling the gorgeous country road between the great shrine cities Zimhein and Cambena... bordering the Forsaken Lands... a few days before the next village, we came upon a designated camping area in a hilly forest known as Siid'Amreth...
I overheard a conversation between some of the adults that Siid'Amreth was the site of a great battle over a century ago, during the Noctua Inquisition... wherupon untold numbers from both sides, the faithful and the maleficium had died...
One of them claimed he was a descendant of one of the Siidiien knights who protected the border... fought and died there... He said the locals considered the area haunted by the souls that never received burial rites... especially the ancient tower that stood in ruin somewhere nearby...
Being the odd and inquisitive little Voah... I couldn't resist the lure of the ruins... I tried to persuade some of the other kids to come with me but they were too scared... so I wandered off up the hill alone until I found it..."
She grew quiet then, her breathing became heavy and her eyes stared out into the plains.
"Evil comes in many deceiving forms... it didn't come in the night with sharp teeth and horns, like some hungry lugar... it came in the form of two beautiful young strangers walking in a sunlit clearing. I watched them from behind a fallen tree. They seemed to be chanting something as they held hands and walked down under the tower of broken stone... I thought it was some secret tryst, or two lovers eloping in Hoi's eternal bond... so I followed them..."
She paused again, needing to pace herself.
"My Maja always had to remind me to give people privacy, I was always talking to and eavesdropping on people older than me... I couldn’t help myself, they were much more interesting...
When I found them... they were in a room... dimly lit by candles and small braziers... the woman was standing naked in front of an altar... while the man knelt in front of her... singing or chanting in another language over a large bronze basin... I didn't smell the blood until later...
I just watched... didn't say a word... but they heard me sneaking...
They were surprised... the woman covered herself and the man stood up... blocking whatever was in the basin...
She sighed.
"Then they told me to come out... I was confused... I thought it might have been a ceremony... and I asked the man if he was priest... they both laughed... which seemed good-natured... until it didn't... and when I tried to leave, someone else grabbed me up and covered my mouth...
'She will be enough for everyone...', said another woman's voice in Mizaran and soon I was laid onto the altar... my mouth gagged with a cloth that burned like some kind of pepper... I was so scared and I couldn't scream... it was hard enough to breath... I was being held down by the young couple while another woman... an older woman with a staff approached... her face painted with a tribal-like pattern... her hair was white gold and her eyes seemed unnaturally large and brilliant blue... but when she began speaking in her foreign tongue, her eyes glowed yellow in the dark like some kind of wild cat... a witch...
Gonyaul was riding bareback alongside Voah and was captured by her unfolding story about her past. He was emotionally involved and was anxiously anticipating what was going to happen next. Normally prone to distraction and daydreaming, Voah had his full attention.
“What happen?” He inquired, urging her to continue.