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Post by Emiko on Sept 7, 2019 20:34:21 GMT -6
Day and night…Good and evil…Light and dark… Two sides of the same coin, one unable to exist without the other. Since the dawn of time, the world has struggled to maintain the structured and necessary order for human life we call balance. It’s a delicate state that’s only been achieved through an eternal conflict fought in the shadows… A fruitless war waged across the ages whose battle outcomes have dire consequences upon the real world. Only those who take part in the campaign for supremacy are aware of this reality. And one young soul was destined to discover the truth that had been hidden in the shadows for centuries…
Soraya was a rather simple girl who never really stood out much in her life. She was the youngest daughter of two in a home of third generation immigrants whose lineage could be traced back to the mighty Persian Empire. In fact, the family name Roshan was said to have been a family of high priests that served the great Kings of Persia. In the modern times, the family name was little more than just that, a name. However, it was still a source of pride in the household and one that she and her sister were expected to live up to.
Soraya’s sister always seemed to meet and exceed the family’s expectations for upholding the family name, but…Soraya never could. She was just a simple girl known for her soft heart and timid demeanor. Growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Soraya was often overlooked as inferior by others around her including her own parents. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t loved and had no sort of bond with her family. In fact, Soraya was closer to her sister than anyone else in the world. She just never could receive the same amount of attention and approval that her sister did no matter what she tried. Her sister was to put it simply, perfect in every way and she was not… Still, she found a way to live with that reality despite it being a thorn in her heart all her life...
Soraya’s life would take a dramatic turn from the norm one night when she was only fifteen years of age. On that night she was awoken slightly after midnight to some strange sounds coming from her sister’s room down the hall. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for Soraya’s sister to be active studying, practicing, or working out late, but…these sounds on this night were unusual accompanied by a voice she had never heard in the home before. Curious, Soraya got out of bed and went to investigate what was going on only to be greeted by the most horrific sight imaginable…
Peering through the crack of the door in secrecy, Soraya watched in shock as some…strange being stood over her kneeling sister. The strange entity, which could only be described as something out of a nightmare was chanting in some form of language Soraya had never heard before and performing what looked like some sort of dark ceremony. What scared Soraya the most though was the fact that this ceremony was being done on her sister who seemed to be accepting of it…almost like it was something she wanted based on the strange smile on her face…
Soraya watched as her sister was indoctrinated into something she couldn’t understand, too scared to step in and interfere with what was happening. As a result, the ceremony concluded without interruption succeeding in what it was designed to do… Upon its completion, the dark entity moved aside from Soraya’s sister revealing the results of their handiwork… Soraya’s sister no longer looked like the same girl she was, but instead had changed entirely... The color of her hair along with the color of her eyes had shifted and changed, but even more unsettling was the now faint, glowing dark aura surrounding her silent body. Whatever the being had just done had resulted in the complete physical change of her sister into something dark and mysterious...
The sight of her sister’s physical change was so horrific that it caused Soraya to bash out of her frozen state brought on by fear. She went screaming through the house in a panic to alert her parents for help. However, she wouldn’t make it across the hall before she was hit hard in the back by some strange, blunt force from behind. The force of…whatever hit her sent her flying into the adjacent wall and caused her to slam her head into the hardened wood. The blow was so substantial that she couldn’t maintain consciousness. As her world faded, the last image she saw was an old family picture hanging from the wall she had collided with. A simple picture of when the family truly seemed happy… That image was seared into her mind before she finally blacked out and rolled down a flight of stairs to the lower part of the home…
It would be hours later before she would regain consciousness. Upon doing so, Soraya found herself looking up to the starry sky above with the smell of smoke fresh in the air. The sound of sirens were blaring all around her, and glancing to the over to the right side, Soraya saw that she was lying on the ground with first responders frantically working to put out a blazing, intense fire that was burning down someone’s home... Though It took Soraya several moments to gather her thoughts, she managed to become conscious enough to suddenly realize that the home she was staring at was actually her own. And when the realization hit her, a panic swept through her body…
Soraya attempted to sit up, but was immediately stopped by a paramedic that held her down insisting she not make her injuries worse. The struggle to get up revealed to her what she couldn’t feel at the time due to the rush of adrenaline… She had a massive concussion and when the pain of it set in, Soraya fell back to the ground nearly unconscious again. She heeded the paramedic’s advice not to move after that, but started to black out once more. Before she fell unconscious a second time, she asked the paramedic a simple, but gut wrenching question…“Where…is my family…?” Hearing her question, the paramedic frowned and could only offer her two words before she faded again… “…I’m sorry…”
Following that event, Soraya fell into a small coma where she was unconscious for two whole days. When she regained consciousness, she was thankfully ok for the most part aside from a moderate concussion, but her memories of what had happened were so foggy… All the young girl could recall from that night was the strange being, her sister’s physical change, and that family picture she saw before losing consciousness. Other than these faint memories, Soraya had very little to no recollection of anything that had happened the day of, or after that fateful night…
When she was well enough to handle the shock of the truth, the doctors finally revealed what had occurred on that night… Apparently after Soraya lost consciousness, a fire had been set in Soraya’s sister’s room. The father went to investigate while the mother pulled Soraya out into the front yard. A dying scream from her husband sent her mother scurrying inside where she too met with a terrible fate… After the fires had been put out, the house was reduced to ashes, but Soraya’s parents were still found. Their charred remains were excavated from the site and officially labeled as death by burning. That said, there were many first responders who were skeptical about that ruling and believed something else contributed to their deaths, but no one could prove it… As for Soraya’s sister…her body was never found seeming to have mysteriously disappeared without a trace…
The news of her family’s death hit Soraya incredibly hard… It didn’t help matters much when the police came to question her only to brush off her strange, fragmented story about that dark being she saw as some sort of bad dream… Soraya was certain of what she saw, but when no one believed her, she started to question everything herself… The loss of her family along with the questions about her memories sent Soraya into a dark depression where she didn’t eat, or even speak for several days. She was in attendance at her family’s funeral where she finally let out her emotions, but did so in the most intense way possible… The hysterical tears never stopped flowing and continued long after the ceremonies were concluded and her family had been laid to rest…
Following these events…Soraya was sent to live with her maternal aunt where she would spend the next three years struggling to overcome her grief… It proved to be an incredibly challenging task for someone like her, but she never gave up. It was never easy, and it certainly didn’t happen overnight, but little by little things began to gradually get easier for her. By the time three years had passed, Soraya was not able to only let go of the past, but even make an independent life for herself mostly free of family or circumstantial expectations she had only known in her youth. She still had setbacks and weaknesses she had to deal with, inner demons to fight, but was at least able to live again
When Soraya turned 18 years old and graduated from high school, she set out on her own to Cambridge, Massachusetts to pursue her college degree. For two long years, she studied as hard as she could to pass all of her classes. She wasn’t the smartest girl in the world, but what she lacked in talent and intellect, she more than made up in hard work. That was something her professors noticed in her throughout her entire college career. She was a girl who lacked some of the basic or fundamental talents in life, yet made up for it by striving hard to achieve the same things others could get so easily. This work ethic of hers proved to pay off big as she often finished in the top of her classes each semester and was now only weeks away from her associate’s degree. It is in this pursuit of hers that we find Soraya in the present day.
Sitting at a desk covered in books at the public library, the now 20 year old Soraya was intently studying a detailed text book to make absolutely sure she hadn’t missed anything for a big test she had coming up next week. Usually, most students her age were out partying and living it up on a Friday night, but not her! She was determined to get an A on that history test of hers, and it just so happens to be over classical Persian history. A subject she THOUGHT she was an expert on thanks to her family linage. However…that was not quite the case…
While it was true that she grew up listening to her parents go on and on about their family line, Soraya was starting to find that some of the things she was told were…slightly exaggerated. There was no record in the text books about those silly stories her dad use to tell about the high priests serving as the King’s secret guardians. And there CERTAINLY weren’t any stories like the ones her mom use to tell her about women who were actually magical beings capable of wielding powerful elemental magic. The legends went that these women married priests of the king and together protected the monarch in any way possible... A fascinating story, sure! However to Soraya, it was all just fluff and fairytales for the entertainment of children. This text book… Now THAT was law and said everything contrary to those stories she heard growing up. And…it was also what was on the test next week so she had to learn it all from this source if she was going to get that A!
Unfortunately for Soraya, she chose to come to the library at a rather late time at night; an hour before closing in fact. And as the clock struck ten she was greeted by the librarian who was making her final rounds to inform those still in the library it was closing time. When the librarian turned the corner and saw Soraya sitting at one of the desks studying hard, she just smiled and laughed at the young girl.
“Oh dear me, it looks like someone is studying hard this evening! This makes…what? The fourth time you’ve been in here this week overlooking those text books?”
Hearing the librarian, Soraya just smiled and looked up from her textbook joyfully. This library was a usual haunt for Soraya and she often spent most of her time here almost as much for pleasure as she did for her studies. As a result, she was on very friendly terms with the head librarian and it showed in their conversation.
“It’s actually my third time this week. I would have been in Tuesday, but I had to do some cleaning around my apartment that day. Otherwise I would have totally been here. I’m sorry I let you down!”
Obviously a joke, the librarian let out a hearty laugh before taking a few books from the desk near Soraya and starting to put them back on the shelves. As she did, the librarian shifted the conversation back to a more moderate one. “That’s good and all, but you are taking time for yourself right? After all, it’s a Friday night and you are here studying instead of being out having fun. I admire your dedication, but don’t you have anything you want to do other than study, dear?”
As the librarian offered these words to Soraya, she sat in silence for a couple of moments trying to think about what she wanted to do with only the wish to be successful coming to the forefront of her mind… She didn’t want to necessarily say that so openly though and instead decided to joke about her presence in the library again to cover up her thoughts. “…Nah, not really! I mean, it’s either being here studying or at home cleaning up my apartment. I’ll take the studying anytime over that.”
The librarian let out yet another giggle before putting away the last book in her hand. After this, she made her way over to Soraya’s table and started to take some of the books the young girl had discarded, gradually putting them away as well. In doing so, she decided it was time to end the conversation due to the nature of the hour. “Well that’s just fine Soraya, but you know what time it is. The library closes at 10 PM and while I will make exceptions for you on week days, I can’t do so tonight. I’m going to close up here and go home so I can spend some time with my husband. Maybe you should go out and have some fun tonight! You can’t stay here after hours, so what do you have to lose by trying something new and fun?”
Hearing that suggestion, Soraya’s smile faded a little. She had turned into a rather reclusive individual since her family’s death and her timid nature made trying new things a terrifying and daunting task. She was more than content to either spend her time here, or in seclusion at home. At least in these places, no one could hurt her she reasoned… If closing time meant she couldn’t be here at the library, she would just go home and spend a quiet evening there like she had almost every night of her life. Still, she didn’t want to verbalize the truth of her inner feelings. With a fake smile returning, she closed the text book she had been studying, stood from her chair and proceeded to put her jacket on like she was actually going to take the librarian’s advice.
“…You know what, I might do something tonight! I haven’t really decided yet what I want to do, but I’ll look into it! I know that you stay open for me most other nights, and I do want you to know I appreciate that. I won’t stay any longer tonight, but know that I’ll come back Monday evening to study a bit more!”
Without saying another word, Soraya zipped up her jacket about halfway and quickly proceeded past the librarian ensuring she didn’t get the chance to rebut her statement for the obvious lie that it was… By just Soraya’s body language alone though, the librarian could tell what she was thinking and feeling inside… The poor girl always seemed to have a bad habit of running away from things she was fearful of, and this was especially true if the task before her was overwhelming… While the librarian wanted to help Soraya out, she knew it was not her place to tell Soraya how to live her life. And so she allowed the girl to walk out without giving her so much as a second glance. As Soraya stepped out of the doors of the public library, she could feel the chill of the night on her face. It may have just turned into spring in the city, but there was still a cool breeze reminiscent of winter in the air. She zipped up her pale blue jacket all the way to her neck before looking up to the starry sky above. With this part of the city being the most quiet, it was quite easy to see the constellations unlike in other parts of the city where there was so much hustle and bustle. Seeing the stars overhead was just…such a peaceful thing and Soraya always tried to take the time to enjoy the feelings the night sky seemed to bring. She never felt more at peace than when she was alone looking up to the heavens. As much as she enjoyed it however, she realized she couldn’t just stand there staring at the sky all night. She had to get home and out of this cool air if she didn’t want to catch a cold.
As she proceeded down the sidewalk towards home, it was easy to tell that Soraya wasn’t from the city she currently called home. Everything about her from her hair style, to her clothing seemed to match the simple, reserved girl she was easily perceived to be. Soraya had inherited her mother’s dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. In fact, with her wavy hair extending to about her mid-back, she was practically the spitting image of her mother. Only short-cut, somewhat messy bangs contrasted from her mother’s often side swept bangs... She was a very pretty girl, but her choice to keep her long hair tied back in a ponytail was just…so modest
Her simple attire didn’t do much to change her image. Consisting of blue jean capris, a white t-shirt, and a pair of white tennis shoes with low cut socks also separated her from the otherwise flashy style the rest of her family and…quite frankly the world seemed to flaunt. Soraya never was one to stand out in anyway and did well to keep herself hidden as best as she could. Where she was now however, fitting in as she was trying to do ironically actually made her stand out all the more… Hardly anyone dressed as modestly and conservatively as she did in this city and because of that, she was well known for being the misfit in town. Their words and opinions hurt Soraya a bit, naturally. However, she just took it all in stride and did her best to work past it knowing she…didn’t have a choice...
Soraya chose to take the usual route home through the quiet part of town which…was a bit longer. However, the extra time out was relaxing and she got a little exercise in the process. The trip she often took was normally a safe one with very little to anything happening. Usually either a stray cat screeching or other mammals running about broke the silence. The way home tonight felt a little too…quiet. In fact, as she proceeded forward, Soraya suddenly had the strangest feeling that she wasn’t alone…almost like someone was watching her… She brushed it off naturally as just her imagination, but the feelings would persist. Little did she realize…her feelings were spot on… Someone was indeed watching her and this night…would prove to be as life altering as the very night she lost her family…
(Contest entry reserved for Yum!)
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Post by yooom on Sept 8, 2019 13:58:43 GMT -6
Dusk.
The sun had only just set on the city, and, from the balcony of one of the large, stately houses of Cambridge, a young woman, perhaps in her early 20s, gazed down at the street below. She was rather beautiful, tall, with long, dark hair that extended down her back, and wide, deep brown eyes, that squinted slightly as she stared determinedly at the sidewalk. The girl’s outfit, however, was exceptionally peculiar, a long, deep purple dress, almost a ball gown, that rustled faintly in the brisk, fall breeze, and a dark ribbon tied in a bow at her throat.
Nur Roshan took a deep breath, and concentrated on a specific spot on the pavement, between two street lights, where the orbs of sickening yellow light did not quite reach. She could hear the words of her mentor echoing in her head, deep, and soothing. Focus on the dark...and then...focus on being it.
She turned swiftly, her hips jerking sharply to one side, and felt the wind pick up, icy cold, and felt her body shunted forward by some cold, powerful force, and then…the wind died down. Nur blinked in the ugly incandescence of the street lights, now standing squarely on the space she had been concentrating on. She turned, gazing up at the balcony she had teleported down from, the rest of the building concealed behind a well-trimmed hedge, and let out an ecstatic little giggle. She had only just been able to master this piece of magic a few weeks ago, but each time she did it, she couldn’t help but feel incredibly pleased with herself. Taking off with a bit of a skip to her step, Nur made her way down the street, listening keenly for the sound of movement.
Nur’s missions were quite simple, she’d been doing them since she was sixteen. As her mentor had explained to her, theirs was the duty of keeping this word safe from the forces of Light, a ceaseless, endless fire that burned like the sun, crucial in some small way for life, but, if left unchecked, it would burn everything away. Druj, her mentor, had saved her from the light, from the fire that had orphaned her, that had burned away everything and everyone she had ever loved. Her missions largely consisted of keeping light at bay in various ways, but, tonight...tonight was something special.The job of keeping this city safe was tireless, and Druj had determined the time had come to recruit another to their cause. Druj hadn’t exactly been specific when telling her about her, saying only, “You’ll know her when you see her.”
At the very least, Nur knew that whoever Druj wanted was a she, that counted for something. And so the Maiden wandered the streets of Cambridge, searching, not completely sure who for, but confident that she would find...whoever it was she was looking for.
Night was noisy, as it was in any city. Cars zipped by her, their brash headlights cutting through the cool darkness of twilight. She passed by a noisy nightclub, noxious neons bleeding out onto the street, the blaring beat of music unbearable even on the opposite side of the street. Nur kept out of sight, moving through the shadows in silence. It would not do for someone to spot a girl teleporting through the night. Her powers, her identity, it was all supposed to be secret. What would the world think if they discovered her, if they found out about the war that raged just out of their sight? She did not like to think of it.
It was several hours before she spotted her. A girl, about Nur’s age, she guessed, with long, dark hair, like hers, only with a bit of curl to it, smothered into a tight ponytail. She was walking down the street, her back to Nur. Nur’s eyes passed down, past the girl’s shoes, pale, white sneakers to the ground just behind her. She took a deep breath, and teleported, with a faint sound almost like a breeze, directly behind her.
This dark, damp street corner was hardly an appropriate place to talk about such vital confidential matters. Druj had told her as much, that she’d have to bring her back to the house. This, however, was where things got complicated. She wasn’t exactly used to her own teleportation, though she had gotten quite good at it, but she had never teleported someone else along with her. But her mentor had told her that she could do it, and she trusted him, above all.
“Hello,” she said, quietly, trying to alert the girl of her presence without scaring her, though she wasn’t quite sure she had quite accomplished that. Quickly as she could, she raised an arm, taking hold of one of the girl’s shoulders, gripping her firmly. She closed her eyes, concentrating on her room, barely a mile away from the two of them. Focus on the dark, and then focus on being it, just like he said. She almost had it, she could feel her body almost starting to warp, and then-
There was an explosion, a light sparking so bright that, even with her eyes shut, she felt it blindingly bright, if for only a fraction of a second. The force of whatever it was sent Nur crashing away from the girl, knocking her off her feet, landing on her palms painfully against the rough cement. She winced, feeling the skin give against it, and blinked back tears in her eyes, partly from the rough fall, partly from that second of light, gazing up at the girl, in complete confusion.
“What...what was that?” she asked, not sure if she was even talking to the girl. But, as she asked the question, the answer came to her. There was nothing else it could be. Light Magic. Hastily, if a bit clumsily, she leapt to her feet, taking a few quick steps away from the girl, arms raised defensively. She took another, unsteady, breath, focusing. She could feel magic, Dark and Light, could tell when facing off against one of its minions, and, although it had been perfectly clear for that one, shimmering second now...she didn’t detect the slightest bit of magic from the girl. Her arms lowered slightly, as she frowned at her. “What… are you?” she asked, genuinely confused.
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Post by Emiko on Sept 8, 2019 14:49:24 GMT -6
As Soraya proceeded towards home, that nagging feeling of not being alone only got stronger and stronger. At one point, she felt as if someone was breathing down her very neck. Anytime she would take the initiative to glance back though to see if anyone was behind her, she would see nothing... Only darkness and shadows as far as the eye could see... There was clearly nothing visible behind her, and yet...she just couldn't shake the uneasiness she felt the entire time she was walking towards home...
After a while of dealing with these feelings, that eerie sensation she had been feeling all night finally manifested itself... A mere hello was all it took for Soraya to nearly jump out of her skin in fear. She hastily turned towards the source of the voice only to see a strange woman clad in purple before her. She didn't as much as have time to do anything other than gasp before the girl clasped onto her shoulder and and attempted to move them both out of the public's eye through some sort of weird teleportation...
Soraya's body began to tremble mightily as she saw something strange happening to herself along with the girl before her. She didn't understand what was going on, but what she was seeing was nothing more than shadow, teleportation magic and the sight of it was enough to send fear through her body like never before... Only on that night...years ago had she felt so much fear and that level of fear was returning to her once more... Unlike that night however, something...was stirring inside of Soraya...
The pair of them had just about teleported away when some strange force began to manifest itself from Soraya's body. Her eyes changed from a shade of dark blue to a much lighter, almost powder blue hue. In that moment, a strange pulse of light emitted itself from her body sending not only Nur away, but also causing Soraya to fall back to the ground behind her.
As she landed on the ground with...far fewer scrapes than Nur, all Soraya could do was stare at her attacker with a heavy pant in her breathing. She had no idea that she had just tapped into a source of latent, powerful light that had been sleeping inside of her this whole time. And yet...she didn't seem to even be aware that she had just done it... All poor Soraya could do was look to her attacker in utter fear finding it nearly impossible to say a word, or even move... And then...she saw the girl before her take up a defensive stance as if...Soraya were the threat only to hear her ask what she was... What...did she mean? Wasn't it obvious that...she was human...?
"...W-what are you t-talking about?" Soraya asked, finding it hard to keep her voice from cracking and waving from the fear. "...I...I'm just a student in the city! I was just walking home! I'm just a normal girl, please! Don't hurt me!"
The entire time Soraya was lost in fear, she couldn't see, or even feel what should have been obvious to her. From Nur's perspective, she could see the powder blue color of her eyes signalling magic was present in Soraya's body. Though...she seemed to lack any of the other traits hinting to that was either an agent of light or darkness as Nur predicted... Soraya had clearly tapped into some form of magical power that had been sleeping in her this whole time. However...she herself wasn't aware of what she had done, nor could offer Nur any explanation that she sought as an answer...
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Post by yooom on Sept 8, 2019 16:27:25 GMT -6
Despite her best intentions, Nur had apparently given the girl quite a shock. As she had reached out to touch her she had felt her jump in surprise. The girl had also been knocked down in the explosion, and, while Nur had scrambled to her feet moments after, the girl remained on the ground, frozen in what seemed like fear, gazing up at her dark brown eyes. Nur would have almost felt sorry for her, she was clearly surprised and scared, but Nur’s palms were still stinging from the fall, so she only glared down at her as the girl stuttered out a high pitched reply to her. Nur’s poise relaxed slightly, she did not suspect the girl was about to launch another attack on her, wincing as she rested her palms together, feeling the sting persist. She paced in place, continuing to glare down at her.
“Just a normal girl?” she repeated, in something of a snarl. “Then what was,” she raised her arms, gesturing vaguely around Soraya’s body where the light had exploded out. “that, hm?!” She gazed again at her face, and noticed that her eye color was a bright, electric shade of blue. She scoffed, as she leaned forward, getting a closer look at them. They were light, unnaturally so, with the faintest glow, betraying the magic that Nur was so certain she had detected in that momentary blast. And yet, Nur couldn’t sense the slightest bit of magic off of her. Something about it was masked, concealed, burning just under the surface. Her head slowly cocked to one side, her frown shifting from anger to confusion, as she stared into the girl’s eyes. “How are you doing that?” she murmured.
Her gaze shifted, from the gleaming blue eyes to the rest of Soraya’s face. She had to admit, the two of them did look quite similar. They both had the same long, brown hair, her nose curved slightly in the same way Nur’s did, her quivering lips resembled Nur’s, it was almost like looking into a mirror, save those bright blue eyes. Nur’s throat suddenly felt alarmingly dry, as she felt her eyes start to tear again. She took an alarmed step backwards, away from the girl, not sure why she had suddenly felt a spurt of sadness. No, sadness was inadequate, she felt mournful, a deep depression that welled up from somewhere inside her. She swallowed, wiping her eyes with her wrist. “Stop it,” she said, dismayed that her own voice broke, diminishing the intimidation in her words. “What...what is this? What are you doing now?” she asked, convinced that this was some new magic from this peculiar Maiden.
From behind Soraya, the two girls heard another voice, much, much deeper than either of the girls, one that both girls immediately recognized. It was laughing, a long, slow chuckle, one that undoubtedly sent a chill down Soraya’s spine. Nur gazed up from Soraya, and immediately spotted the red, gleaming eyes of her mentor, slowly drawing nearer to the two of them, his body concealed, for another moment, in the darkness of the night. She bowed her head slightly, as he drew nearer. A sound echoed out across the street, like something incredibly heavy being dragged across the pavement.
Druj’s head peered forward, slowly looming into the girls’ vision, a sight that was completely out of place in the Massachusetts city. He was a gigantic snake, with a head large enough to, Nur suspected, easily swallow either of them, though he of course had no intention of eating his pupils. His scales were a deep shade of dark green, with slightly lighter green scales along his wide underbelly. His eyes were scarlet, as were a set of long feathers that curled skywards like a crown from the top of his head. His teeth gleamed, silvery in the dim streetlight, and, after he blinked at Nur, his eyes focused squarely on Soraya.
“Well, Nur, what curiosity have you stumbled across now, my beloved apprentice?” As Nur hastily began stammering out her reply, the vast head continued to stare at Soraya. The eyes widened slightly, in what seemed like recognition, as the teeth gleamed in what seemed like an extremely sinister grin. “Well well...isn’t this a surprise.”
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Post by Emiko on Sept 8, 2019 16:55:57 GMT -6
Soraya was beyond petrified at this point... So much so that even the slightest movement Nur made in mere observation was enough to send her into a cowering cringe. Over and over the poor girl would cringe with every word, ever action Nur took. If...Soraya was a being capable of utilizing magic as Nur expected, there were no obvious signs save for her glowing blue eyes...
In the midst of Nur's examination, Soraya just about had a heart attack when Nur gestured to her, questioning what she had just done. In truth, Soraya had been so scared and focused on the potential possibility of dying where she was that she didn't even know what she did. As with her previous response, all she could offer were words that left more questions rather than answers either of them needed...
"I...I don't know! I don't know what you are talking about!" Soraya yelled in a frantic, fearful tone. "...What do you want? Who are you and why are you after me? I...I haven't done anything!"
It was only mere moments after this that Soraya became as deathly silent as the night around them when Nur's demeanor suddenly changed. Nur...had seemed to have just came to a realization about the girl she was looking at. However, Soraya was totally in the dark as to who SHE was looking at. Nur didn't look like anyone she had seen before and the revelation of the truth couldn't be further from her mind. Fear...was the only thing she knew and that very fear only grew when Nur lashed out questioning what magic she was employing on her...
Soraya was just about to once more deny doing anything when she suddenly heard the sound of a dark laugh from behind her... As if she wasn't scared enough, the sound of this laughter sent a chill down her spine in a way that only happened once before... Turning ever so slowly towards the source of the laugh, her heart sank as she saw before her eyes a creature...that could only be described as something out of a nightmare... It was more than just that though... It was that same creature she had seen that night... The same night she lost her family in that terrible fire... That night...that changed her life forever... It Druj that she saw that night and despite not recognizing Nur...Soraya recognized Druj...
"N-no...I-it...it can't be..." Soraya said before falling into a shiver of petrified fear... "Y-you aren't...Y-you c-can't be... Oh God, no..."
Soraya was understandably startled by what she was seeing... This creature before her was the very thing she swore she saw on the dark night. And yet, after having questioned it her entire life, here it was in the flesh... If it wasn't for the fact that Soraya was dealing with so much fear, she would have thought she was hallucinating, or even downright going insane... And yet here everything was...exactly as she thought it to be all that time ago...
The fear was doing nothing to help Soraya get out of the situation she was currently in... In fact, she was so paralyzed with it that even breathing was proving difficult. And yet...while she could physically do nothing, whatever...power was inside of her seemed to resonate out of her. Without any sort of warning, a golden barrier of light began to manifest itself around Soraya's body in the form of a large sphere around her huddled form... It seemed that the powers inside of her sensed incredible danger and instinctively formed a barrier around her for protection. It was this act though that made Soraya realize she was indeed doing something as Nur forcefully pointed out.
"W-what is...What's going on...?" Soraya questioned, now starting to shift her shock from the demon before her, to the abilities she was starting to display. None of this...made any sense at all...
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Post by yooom on Sept 8, 2019 17:52:02 GMT -6
The girl seemed to grow more and more terrified of Nur, even as she did nothing to try to harm her. Nur had been growing more and more convinced that she did not pose a threat, that she was just some strange random girl who only possessed the faintest traits of magic. That changed as Druj drew nearer to her. The girl stared at her mentor, and her terror seemed to multiply at the very sight of him. That was understandable, to those not used to him, the appearance of a gigantic green snake was rather unnerving. What Nur did not understand was the way she looked at him, with a kind of recognition that didn’t make any sense. She looked up at her mentor, her expression questioning.
“Do… Do you know her?” The serpent was silent for a moment, drawing closer and closer to Soraya, and, as he did, the golden light materialized again, a sphere around the terrified girl, only a few feet, but bathing both the vast serpent and Nur herself in a dim light. Druj leaned forwards, gazing at the orb, and, behind it, at Soraya, staring into her pale blue eyes.
“Not exactly,” Druj murmured, and, from behind his head, more of his extraordinary body moved into Soraya’s view. Foot after foot, yard after yard of dense, muscular coils, all that same shade of dark green. They moved slowly, surrounding Soraya in her little circle of light. “But I recognize this sort of magic. Residual, probably inherited, I’d guess.” The coils rose up, pressing themselves against the orb, a single ring, about two feet thick. “Her magic is impressive, for someone who is uninitiated, but, with the right amount of force,” The coils clenched, tightening around the orb. The light held, but only for a few seconds, before shattering, guttering, and, as the light vanished around Soraya, the coils swept in, that same single circle closing in around her body, gripping her round her middle, binding her arms to her waist, firmly grasping Soraya. “Easily broken through.” The teeth grinned smugly for a moment, before the head turned to face Nur. “To be honest, my dear, I would have thought you would have been able to break through something that basic.”
Nur stuttered for a moment, before taking a deep breath, and speaking. She could feel her heart beating twice as fast as it had before Druj had arrived, nervous of disappointing her mentor, a fear that was fast being realized. “I’m sorry, I...I was surprised,” she said, looking down at her feet, embarrassed. She could hear the sound of his scales moving against the pavement, as his head came into her vision. He gazed up at her, his expression reassuring, and his head slowly moved up against her, nuzzling against her chest, almost like a gigantic dog. “No need to apologize, my dear, it’s perfectly fine.” He paused, gazing at Nur’s bleeding hands. “You’re hurt. Was it this one?” Nur bit her lip, and, feeling a little guilty, nodded. The coil around Soraya’s body tightened perceptibly, as Druj turned back to face her. “Once I’m done with her, I’ll make you feel better, I promise!” Druj called to Nur, as his face grew closer and closer to Soraya. “This won’t take too long.”
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Post by Emiko on Sept 8, 2019 18:15:21 GMT -6
Everything that was happening was just so much for poor Soraya to take in. She was still trying to process how she ended up in this golden ball of light when Druj revealed more of himself and began to wind a single coil around her little protective light cocoon. It wasn't long though before Soraya became aware that the dark entity had latched itself hard around her little barrier. With the faintest of squeezes of his coils, the light around her body shattered into a thousand pieces, fading into oblivion almost as quickly as it had appeared...
When the light around Soraya shattered, a sharp pain hit her heart with a staggering intensity. She let out a scream of pain and agony as she somehow felt inside of her the breaking of the barrier. It was almost as if a part of...her very life essence had been in that barrier. And when Druj shattered it, he broke a part of her along with it. It was such a simple act for him to squeeze her out of protection, and it left a staggering blow on poor Soraya...
With her barrier shattered and the pain setting in, her body couldn't seem to maintain the magic she had flowing through her body... Druj was able to hold her limp body in his coils as she gazed towards him with the faintest of consciousness. The pain she felt was so intense that she couldn't move immediately after. Worse yet, her bright powder blue eyes signaling the magic in her body faded away back to the natural dark blue hues she had exhibited earlier... Not only was Soraya temporarily unable to move, but now had lost that power that had been flowing through her... Things honestly couldn't get much worse for her...
In her state of helplessness, Soraya could only watch as Druj moved closer and closer to her face. If she were able to recover from the pain she had just experienced, she would have been struggling to free herself, or at least show the faintest hint of fear. However, she was just...too tired to fight now and it hurt her to even move... It was taking everything in her just to stay conscious at that moment meaning she was as helpless as a lamb and at Druj's mercy...
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Post by yooom on Sept 8, 2019 19:00:56 GMT -6
Nur flinched at Soraya’s anguished scream, as Druj, with absurd ease, smashed through Soraya’s magical barrier. For whatever she had done to her, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness at the girl’s cry of pain. It hurt her, granted not nearly as much as she suspected Soraya was feeling but, again, she felt that rush of melancholy, and let out a choked sob, slumping to her knees, blinking back tears again. What was happening to her? Why did this girl’s voice make her feel so incredibly sad? She took a deep, steadying breath, closing her eyes. It was just the surprise of being knocked down, that was all. She was fine.
Druj’s face drew closer to Soraya’s and, as the bright blue faded from her eyes, he let out a pitying laugh. “Oh, that’s a pity, I thought you had a little bit more magic in you than just that,” he said, his tone somewhere between mocking and genuinely encouraging, as if he was curious to see if she was in fact capable of any more magical abilities, but it seemed that Soraya was quite drained. The serpent sighed, another coil lazily winding around her body, pressing in around her forearms and chest. Holding her firmly, the pair of coils pressed in around her jacket, and slowly lifted the girl up, off her feet, her legs swaying limply, helplessly, in the serpent’s hold. The very tip of his tail gently slid upwards, pressing lightly to her cheek, cold as a moonless winter night. At the end of the scales, there was a strange silvery sphere that glowed faintly, like the moon, about as large as Soraya’s fist, if she was capable of clenching her hand into one. It moved, as cold as his scales, along the girl’s chin, gently pushing her head straight, level with his own.
“You show potential, little one.” He murmured, his voice only barely above a whisper. She would be able to feel it, rumbling in his coils, making them vibrate faintly. “You’re lucky I found you, or it would have remained just potential.” His head drew closer, the red eyes only a couple of feet from hers, and then...and then they weren’t red at all, but silver, gleaming like the crescent moon, glowing with power, magic, the likes of which Nur’s was only a pale imitation of. The light drew the weak Soraya’s attention, and filled her with another kind of energy, not at all like the energy she had felt when the shield had manifested itself around her. This was the Magic of the Maidens of the Night, from its very source, pouring into the helpless girl. The two coils around Soraya’s upper body pressed closer to her, though they felt quite different from when he had crushed through her barrier. Now that the fight had quite literally been crushed out of Soraya, there was no need for them to be so harsh. Now they were soft, soothing, his tail, icy cold, winding once around the exposed skin of her neck, holding her gently, as he kept her gaze trained on her eyes.
“There we go,” Druj said, his voice calm, his tone measured, each word trying to ease the terrified girl’s conscious. Fear, Nur supposed, could keep someone resistant to her abilities, but she doubted that, in her exhausted state, Soraya would be able to fight Druj himself for much time.
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Post by Emiko on Sept 8, 2019 19:23:23 GMT -6
Soraya was totally limp and could do nothing to save herself from this situation. She couldn't as much as move a muscle without feeling like her body was going to shatter into a thousand pieces. For that matter...even speaking was impossible right now due to how fragile her current state was... She may have been a girl with incredible magical potential, but...magic was never meant to be harnessed in the way that it manifested in her. As a result, she was paying a very hefty price of dealing with a shattered body. A state that was undoubtedly temporary, but still present at the worst possible time...
There was no resistance from Soraya as Druj lifted her weak body off of the ground, nor was there any fight in her when the creature wrapped yet another tight coil around her body. The presence of the coils felt like thousands of little needles sticking into her fragile state. However...she couldn't express any emotion of pain or anything... Only silence came from her still recovering form thanks to what she had just done to herself unintentionally. Then came Druj's tail that stroked along her neck and chin... It was the coldest sensation Soraya had ever felt in her life and filled her heart with terror. As with everything else however...she was unable to express anything...
It didn't take long, or even much effort for Druj to get a coil around her neck to position her head before his own. When Soraya saw the creature's crimson eyes, she was certain she was looking into the eyes of death... A lone tear rolled down her face as the only sign of her incredible fear and sadness. She didn't want to die, but...how could she stop it? How could she stand up to this creature when...she didn't even understand what it was...? The only question running through her mind in that one moment was why... Why was this creature here? Why did it show up again now after all this time? Why was it threatening to take her life now...? This was all Soraya could think about as the creature glared into her eyes for what she figured were her final moments of life. But then...something strange happened...
Just as Soraya half expected the creature to snuff out her life, she saw the demon's eyes suddenly shift to a silvery color. As they did, Soraya began to feel something strange happening to her. In a way, it was almost like a flood of dark water was entering into her body and stirring around her being. What she didn't realize was that her body was being filled with corrupting darkness that slowly began to corrupt her heart and soul... In her current state, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. And yet...as darkness filled into her being, it...felt nice...
Up to this point, Soraya had been dealing with so much pain and fear that it was literally destroying her... Even before meeting Druj and Nur, she was struggling with the pain of a lonely and broken heart that she couldn't rid herself of no matter how hard she tried. She had learned to not dwell on the past and move on from it, but that scar of loneliness and sadness was always there. In this moment however as darkness filled her soul, it was pushing everything else out. In fact as time went on she was starting to feel nothing at all. No pain, no sorrows, no loneliness...nothing... Soraya couldn't describe WHAT she was feeling in this moment, but...it was such a tempting and inviting feeling contrary to anything else she had ever felt before that all she could do was stare back into the creature's hypnotic eyes and take it all in quietly...
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Post by yooom on Sept 8, 2019 20:07:50 GMT -6
Soraya stared up into Druj’s eyes, and it was hard for Nur to tell what was going through the girl’s head. She was completely silent, her body completely still; she wasn’t saying or doing much of anything at all. And yet, she supposed that was to be expected, she always went rather quiet herself when exposed to the full extent of Druj’s power, and she had been with him for half a decade now.
Druj, on the other hand, could see exactly how well Soraya was taking to his hypnosis. He smiled, leaning a little closer to her, his eyes continued to bore into hers, filling her up with his power, his magic, pushing all worries, all her fears, to the edges of her mind, replacing that space within her being with nothing but a black, inky sort of bliss. “That’s it,” he cooed, a coil gently rising up to her cheek, to carefully brush that single tear from her face. “Just...just relax...relax...and stare, little one.” The coils around her pulled her up a little higher off the ground, as they gently started to sway, rocking the girl, so small and helpless in his hold. Her limp legs swayed like a pendulum, as he rocked her, as he slowly began to sing, a wordless tune older than words themselves, an ancient incantation that would serve to bind her to him, to empower her beyond what she was, by herself, capable of. A servant, an apprentice, a warrior. He had so much to offer her, so much wisdom, so much strength, so much power. More than that, he could scatter her worries, those pesky thought about classes, the ever present trauma of losing her family so young, with his help, Soraya could set all that aside. And, above all, he could make her feel so nice.
The song continued, slow, and soothing, a lullaby for the soul, easing her conscious, and his smile widened as he noted Soraya’s pupils, once so bright, starting to darken, looking less and less like a Maiden of the Light, and more like Nur’s. It was working perfectly, she was giving in, faster and faster, mutely accepting him, taking in his magic, taking in some small part of his own vast, ancient soul.
Nur slowly rose to her feet. After the pained scream she’d last heard from Soraya, she had to admit that she was glad that she was quiet, passively accepting Druj’s power. She leaned against a streetlight, and glared up at the garish light. She concentrated on it for a second, and, a moment later, the light dimmed, before going out entirely. She smiled to herself, before turning back to where Druj held Soraya, some five feet off the ground now, gently rocking the girl with his coils, keeping his bright eyes locked on hers. It wouldn’t take much longer now, even Nur could sense it. Soon she would be just like her, no longer letting out great white bursts of energy, but careful, maneuvering in the shadows, stemming in the light when it grew too excessive. The thought of having some kind of companionship was stirring, to say the least. Druj had been kind, and she loved him like a father, but being able to spend time with a girl her age, someone would could be an equal to Nur, more than a comrade, a friend. It was more than a want, it was a need. She needed someone to talk to, someone to be with. These last five years she had felt more power than ever before, but she had also felt so unbearably lonely. Now, she was only a few heartbeats away from setting that loneliness aside. She could roam the city with this girl, chatting, laughing, fighting evil, as friends. Friends. As the word came into her head, it was all she wanted.
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Post by Emiko on Sept 8, 2019 23:46:50 GMT -6
The power pouring into Soraya was so intoxicating that she seemed to lose all sense of time or even reality for that matter. As his tail came to her face to wipe away the single tear that had fallen earlier from her fears, there was a new sensation of it on her skin. No longer was it cold and calloused as if it were death... With the darkness gradually corrupting her soul, the tail instead began to actually feel soothing if not even a little bit warm. The coils that held Soraya's body also began to feel warm and inviting. It was almost as if she were in the embrace of someone she could give everything, including her own soul to without fear of betrayal or pain... Little did she realize...that was exactly what she was doing.
When the entity spoke to Soraya enticing her to just relax and stare, it was impossible for the poor girl to ignore at this point. The entity's dark voice, once a sound that brought petrifying fear to poor Soraya's heart was now turning into a source of comfort and order. The more corrupted her soul became, the more Druj's voice established itself in her being as a source of great necessity. The power he was dumping into her was beginning to shackle her soul to him in a way where the mere sound of his voice would be the instrument in which her body would obediently follow as if she were a marionette to his whim... She wanted those words...needed his words more for life than even breathing now...
Without ever once taking her eyes off of Druj's hypnotically silver iris, Soraya just let her weak body flow in the air to the coils relaxing sways. Their motions were so slow and gentle that it helped to relax her over stressed body even more. When the entity proceeded to sing her a little lullaby though, this blissful experience was taken to an entirely different level. He sang to her a melody with lyrics in a language older than time itself. While Soraya could hardly understand what the words meant, they made her feel good... The words were as comforting to her heart and soul as the coils were to his body and yet...she had no idea just how dangerous the words were...
The words Druj was speaking was an ancient incantation designed to further corrupt her soul and set her on the path to becoming just like Nur...a Maiden of the Night. Not even halfway through his spell-binding incantation, Soraya could feel the darkness within her beginning to swirl about and seep into her being. Every part of her was absorbing the corrupting bliss from her body, to her soul. As her being took in the darkness and proceeded to make itself apart of her soul, her physical appearance began to change to reflect the reality of what was happening inside...
With the ceremony continuing on, Soraya's dark brown hair began to gently flow in the air as if it were weightless without the pull of gravity. The color of her hair began to gently fade from the natural brown to a much darker color, well on it's way to turning completely black. Soraya's eyes, never once leaving Druj's began to change as well fading from the pretty dark blue to a darker, corrupted violet color. And once more, it became evident that Soraya was tapping into her magical powers again. This time however, she was tapping into her powers the right way; the way it had been designed to do from the very beginning...
Humans were never meant to use magical powers the way that Soraya had earlier for defense. While it was true that some humans contained latent abilities within themselves, accessing those powers as a human often resulted in...serious consequences as poor Soraya learned the hard way... The only way for someone to harness their sleeping powers safely was for someone else to open up the pathways in the heart and soul for the magic to flow freely. This allowed a human to essentially transform into a magical being capable of wielding the powerful elemental magic sleeping within them without the risk of recoil. The thing is though...magic is neither good, nor evil and the one opening the pathways of the soul and heart has to manipulate the current properly by reshaping their being to suit either a positive or negative energy energy flow. In Soraya's case, Druj was awakening her sleeping powers by channeling her heart and soul for the magic to flow in the direction of darkness rather than light...
A part of Soraya knew what was going on... Even if she was so spellbound by Druj's power, something deep in her heart and soul just knew she was being changed into something dark and evil. While it should have been an alarming thought, she didn't seem to care... Yes, she was transforming into something that would change her life forever, but...it was nice. There was no pain, or fear to speak of in this change. And waiting for her on the other end of the transformation was a girl who seemed to need a friend as much as Soraya did. Not to mention that there was also someone who would look after and care for her the way she hadn't felt since her family died... That part of her that knew what was happening also seemed to just know that...accepting the darkness would solve all of her problems. And the longer things went on, the more she craved what was waiting for her on the other side...
Soraya was nearly at the end of her metamorphosis when finally she displayed emotion for the first time since she fell to the recoil of her magic. That sign of emotion wasn't a look of fear or dread, nor was it a look of desperation or struggle... No...the display of emotion that Soraya offered to Druj was that of a simple smile. It was a smile that spelled peace and contentment; a smile to let him know that she was anxious to join him and Nur on the other side and be free of the tortures of her old life. Soraya wanted it so desperately she could taste it and was so close to being able to serve her new Master as a Maiden of the Night. All she needed was one last push, and she would be his forever, utilizing her magic for the sake of darkness. It was all so close...and it was all Soraya wanted now...
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Post by yooom on Sept 9, 2019 14:03:37 GMT -6
Bit by bit, with each passing second, Soraya began to change, every part of her. Her appearance began to shift, her pupils darkening, from blue, past purple, into a rather exquisite shade of violet. Her hair was similarly starting to shift, the browns darkening, rising up to a nonexistent breeze. More than that, her magic was shifting too. Nur could sense it, though she wasn’t entirely sure how. She could feel Soraya’s magic rising up again, after having been so completely broken by Druj’s might, not the searing power of light magic, but the smooth subtlety of dark magic. Most encouragingly of all, Nur noticed that Soraya’s whole attitude had shifted. She was no longer simply being help, weak and limp, helpless to resist Druj, she had started to smile, her gaze growing more and more active.
Druj’s eye gleamed, as he returned Soraya’s growing smile. “You’re doing so well,” he murmured, breaking his incantation for just a moment, to give her a few encouraging words in her own tongue, before shifting back into the ancient, rhythmic, melody. The cool coils of his body continued to gently squeeze and sway Soraya’s body, continued to stroke up against the soft skin of her neck and face, keeping that close eye contact with his own glowing silver orbs, the two of them concentrating completely on each other. So much so that is was not Druj, but Nur, who first sensed the arrival of another magical presence.
Nur opened her mouth to warn her master of the arrival, but, before she could, there was a flash of light. It was magic, much more powerful than anything Soraya had been capable of, burning as bright as day, as bright as the sun itself. It immediately blinded Nur, whose arm instinctively shot upwards, trying to block the glow out, but, before she could, there was an explosion of sound, a blast like cannon fire that ripped through the air, knocking Nur off her feet for the second time in only a few minutes, setting the metal streetlights vibrating in the concrete like tuning forks.
Druj’s eyes stopped their silvery glow, and the red eyes turned, glaring at the new arrival. A figure had appeared, a few feet away from him, floating a few feet off the ground, about level with Soraya. It was a woman, or at least, it looked like one, with long, golden hair, and dark eyes with shining, white pupils. Where Druj’s body slipped into shadow, the woman’s body shone in the night, glowing almost painfully bright. A pair of long, black and white wings extending out from her back, and her long, thin arms were crossed, as she gazed, with some disapproval, at the massive serpent. “Druj,” she said, her tone terse.
Nur lifted her head off the ground, feeling her cheek stinging from where it had hit the street. Her ears were ringing painfully, partially from the thunderous sound, partially from impact, and she had to blink several times before she was actually able to see anything. There was Druj, his tail still wrapped securely around Soraya, but, beside him, was someone else, someone who radiated Light Magic like no one Nur had ever seen before. There was only one person who this could possibly be. Druj’s rival, his counter, the only thing in the universe that could be considered his equal. The great serpent glowered at her, the red eyes narrowing.
“Do you mind, Asha? I’m sort of in the middle of something here.” The coils around Soraya’s neck and chest tightened, evidently the serpent was upset, though Druj’s eyes were still on the woman, Asha, apparently. Asha smirked grimly, her body gently floating down onto the asphalt of the road.
“Oh, not at all,” she said, sarcastically, turning to gaze into Nur’s eyes. Nur could feel her heart beating in her throat, feeling nothing short of terror at the mere sight of her, at the very thought that she had even noticed her. “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I spent some time with your associate too, hm?” she said, taking a step towards Nur. Nur staggered backwards, letting out a whimper of fear, almost falling over in her haste. Druj was silent for another moment, his coils still, his eyes darting from Asha, to Nur, to Soraya, and back to Asha, who began to speak again. “You know, I’m sure she’d love to get to know me. Or, for that matter, h-” With a single, swift move, Druj’s whole body whipped backwards, dropping Soraya onto the ground, turning to quickly wrap around Nur’s body. Nur let out a sharp gasp as the icy cold coils pressed around her body, squeezing for a second, before both girl and snake disappeared, without so much as a sound, into the darkness of the night.
The glowing girl let out a soft sigh, before stepping over to where Soraya lay on the pavement, and extended a hand out to her. “You all right?” she asked.
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Post by Emiko on Sept 10, 2019 3:57:10 GMT -6
Everything was proceeding so perfectly and peacefully. Soraya was mere moments away from completing her transformation into a Maiden of Darkness and that final push she needed was well on its way... Figuratively speaking, Soraya could practically see the hand of darkness before her offering to take her into a state of evil bliss. She was was within reach being only a fingertips length away from taking that hand, and every word Druj spoke in that incantation pushed her ever closer to the point of no return. She was finally on the cliff about to go over the edge when suddenly the ceremony was brought to a screeching halt by a thunderous crash on the pavement signaling the arrival of a new magical being...
The arrival of Asha was so intense that it sent Nur flying and brought a great deal of concern to Druj. However, it did absolutely nothing to phase Soraya at all. She was so transfixed and mesmerized by Druj's spell that she couldn't even notice her dramatic entrance. What she DID notice however was Druj's eyes as they sudden went dark...hypnotically speaking and returned to their normal crimson glow. The end of his hypnotic eyes along with the sudden silence of the incantation effectively brought the ceremony to a halt mere moments before its completion. When this all happened, a small gasp escaped Soraya's mouth as her once eagerly smiling lips faded into a frown of discouragement. She wasn't able to comprehend what was going on, but the sudden stop of the ceremony brought a great deal of despair to her heart... Enough so that even though she could still hardly move, it didn't stop her from softly whimpering. "...N-no...P-please...d-don't...s-stop..."
Soraya's pleas for Druj to continue would end up falling on deaf ears... For even if the dark entity could have heard her nearly inaudible pleas, he was far more distracted by his equal in the being of light. The entire time Druj and Asha communicated with one another, all poor Soraya could do was rest in the demon's embrace. Her eyes never once left Druj's face as they practically pleaded for him to return to hypnotizing her and finish the ceremony. Instead...all she could see was the side of Druj's face NOT looking at her and hear him profess that he was in the middle of something. The squeezing of the coils around her body and neck following those words brought quite a bit of discomfort to Soraya's body, but she didn't dare take her eyes off Druj's... She had this dark feeling in her heart that everything she was so close to getting was one wrong move away from being taken away from her... She desperately needed and wanted what the darkness could bring, but it was slowly teetering on the edge...
Soraya rested silently in Druj's tight embrace for what seemed like an eternity before he finally looked at her once more. While the glance was merely a consideration of what he should do after receiving the threat to his apprentice from Asha, Soraya took it in a totally different light. To her, it was as if a sign that he was going to return to corrupting her and conclude the business at hand. As was the case, everything was indeed about to meet their inevitable conclusion. However...things were about to happen in a way that Soraya didn't, nor want to see coming...
Without warning, Soraya was released from the coils of her captor leaving her limp body to fall down onto the street below. As she made contact with the pavement, she received a couple of bruises where her bare skin was exposed. However, this was nothing compared to the pain she suddenly felt as she watched Druj swiftly make his way to Nur and coil around her before slithering off as fast as he could. Seeing him leave her so quickly struck Soraya like an arrow in the heart and tears began to stream down her face as he left with Nur.
"...N-no...M-master... P-please...don't leave... Please...d-don't...abandon me, too..."
Her calls for Druj were nearly as silent as her pleas earlier... And when the demon didn't come back for her, but instead took off into the darkness with Nur, it shattered Soraya's heart... Soraya felt that familiar sense of being inferior to someone else inside of her and all of a sudden...those painful feelings she had felt prior to being hypnotized began to return. Only this time...everything felt magnified thanks to the darkness within her soul making the situation even more bleak...
Druj hadn't been gone more than two seconds when tears began to stream down Soraya's cheek almost as if they were waterfalls. Her heart sank so far that she couldn't breath and the overwhelming sense of being abandoned was eating her up inside. She weakly reached out a shivering hand as if to beg him not to do to her what her family had done in leaving her, but it was too late... Druj was gone and she was alone...again...
It was about this time that Soraya finally took notice of Asha when she made herself known before the hurting girl. Soraya attention instantly went to the glowing woman's hand as it was stretched out towards her. Her words, like her hand also seem welcoming as they asked if she were all right... Fearful of getting hurt though, Soraya very gently drew her hand back and looked up into Asha's eyes with her own still streaming with tears... The response she gave to Asha wasn't that of how she was feeling...but of the frustrations and pains in her heart...
"...W-why...? W-why did...did he abandon me...? W-what's...what's wrong with me...?"
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Post by yooom on Sept 10, 2019 13:50:36 GMT -6
Soraya’s words were the last thing Nur heard as, with a rush of wind, she and Druj vanished into the darkness.
Don’t abandon me.
It broke Nur’s heart, knowing that they were leaving her alone, with that creature, that eternally dangerous entity. What would Asha do to Soraya?
With a thud, they landed, back inside the house that, a few hours ago, Nur had left, looking for the girl. As Druj’s coils relaxed around her body Nur leapt up, making her way over towards the balcony, behind a pair of glass doors led out to where she could get back on to the street, and start making her way back to Soraya. A thick, heavy coil wrapped around her waist, and, with a firm tug, dragged her back towards Druj, who stared at her, his expression somewhere between concerned and upset.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he murmured, in a tone Nur normally knew to respect. This time, however, she shouted back at him, her hands on his coils, trying to fruitlessly push him off of her.
“Back to her! We...we can’t just leave her, and she needs us!” She snapped, not making the slightest progress in freeing himself from his hold. Druj let out a long hiss, somewhere between annoyance at the girl’s insolence and pity for her desperation. A much slimmer coil wrapped around her wrists, pulling them upwards, and Nur realized that both of her palms were bleeding. She became suddenly aware of the lattice of scratches on her cheek, some of them bleeding too.
“You’re in no condition to do that, Nur.” Nur let out a very shaky sigh, and stopped trying to fight him. The coil at her waist moved, gently setting her onto the floor, squeezing her comfortingly, as another extent of him moved around her neck, gently pulling her gaze up, to stare into his glowing, silver eyes. Nur felt her body respond almost immediately to the soothing sensations, slumping in his hold, her pupils immediately darkening. “You’re damaged, Nur...let me fix you,” he said, his voice echoing with his own magical energy. Nur felt her body lean more and more heavily against his body, against those wonderfully cool scales, but even as her mind settled, she continued to speak, her speech growing slurred.
“I...I need her.” Her eyes widened, trying in some small way to show the urgency that was quite prevalent in her voice. The snake smiling, hissing smoothly.
“I know you do, dear. But don’t worry. We will get her back.”
Asha gazed down at Soraya, her expression concerned, and it wasn’t exactly hard to tell why. Soraya flinched, inching away from her extended arm, and, with a quiet sigh, Asha lowered it, before hopping down to sit on the street curb about a foot away from Soraya, her feet, in little white shoes that nearly matched Soraya’s own tennis shoes, gently bouncing on the asphalt as she sat patiently by the sobbing girl, looking into her eyes. As magical a being as Druj was, she could sense the darkness churning inside of her, magical energy that had been brought just short to catalyzing a dark transformation. That Soraya had just called out for her ‘Master’ was rather troubling, that she was quite literally begging for the serpent’s return was even more of an issue. And yet, Asha was certain that she had arrived just in the nick of time. However much dark magic Druj had poured into this girl’s very being, it had not been enough, Asha did not like to think by how much. Asha wanted to tell her how lucky Soraya was, how close she had come to falling to evil, but she could tell that this was not the time. Now was the time to console a rejected girl, even if what she had been rejected from was a fate worse than death.
Asha closed her eyes, concentrating on her own body, as the bright glow dimmed, ever so slightly, so that she was no longer quite blinding, though she still glowed golden in the night. Slowly, trying not to frighten the already somewhat skittish girl, she reached out her arm again to gently rest a hand on Soraya’s shoulder. The glowing skin was warm, and, Asha hoped, reassuring. Soraya’s body felt cold, no doubt from being held so tightly and so powerfully in the grip of Asha’s ancient nemesis, shaking slightly with her sobs. Asha wanted to reach out and hug poor Soraya, but suspected that she was still frightened of her, so kept their contact to just the one hand.
“Oh, Soraya,” Asha said, her tone gentle, though nowhere near as deep as Druj’s was. “There’s nothing wrong with you, nothing at all.” She gave her a warm smile. “There’s good in you, light. It’s why he came for you, he…” her voice trailed off, gazing skywards. It was still quite dark, an hour or so to midnight. “But this isn’t quite the time or place to explain all that, my dear.”
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Post by Emiko on Sept 11, 2019 3:39:38 GMT -6
When Asha reached out to gently touch Soraya's shoulder, the emotionally shattered girl flinched hard by closing her eyes and tensing up every muscle in her body as if she were about to get seriously hurt. When she felt the soft, warm touch of Asha's hand though, Soraya allowed her eyes to open and looked back into Asha's eyes curiously. She was still frightened in some ways of the golden being that shown in the night, but not nearly as much as she was hurting from being 'abandoned' by her 'Master'...
Soraya had only been exposed to Druj's hypnosis for a short time, but it was enough to corrupt some 99% of her heart and soul. With so much darkness within her, everything was twisted up inside and left her so confused... Druj may have been nothing more than a threatening force she had thought was going to kill her before the hypnosis, but afterwards...he was everything. Because of that, Soraya found it hard to accept Asha's words when she tried to encourage her that there was nothing wrong with her... If nothing was wrong with Soraya, then...why did her 'Master' leave her behind? Was...she not worth anything to him...?
The tormenting thoughts of not being enough were eating Soraya up inside almost as much as being abandoned... Honestly speaking, any negative emotion she started feeling would hit her with such an intensity that sorrow and despair was all she could feel inside of herself... It was just...so dark in her being that Asha's attempts to console her did little to penetrate through... Soraya would have to come to the realization of the reality of things on her own. And sadly...that would hit her very soon...
Unable to accept things for how they were, Soraya tear-stained face moved from Asha's eyes back to the shadows where Druj had vanished in. It was that way her Master went, and...it was surely that way she could find him. She...had to find him as it meant life or death in her heart. And so she would attempt to do so on her own not realizing what a task it was going to be...
Having just gone through the traumatic experience of having the magical pathways in her heart and soul opened following an intense recoil from using her magic the wrong way earlier, Soraya's body was still very fragile and weak. When she attempted to stand on her feet, she only made it up on her hands before she had to fall yelping in agony... Tears continued to stream down her face even more...as if it were even possible with how painful the situation was, but...she couldn't stop... She needed him, had to have him above everything else... And so she would try again, showcasing that extreme determination she was known for...
On the second try, Soraya managed to push herself up onto her knees screaming in unbearable pain the entire time. It was killing her to do this, but she felt she had to... She kept her eyes firmly on the shadows where Druj had vanished and let out even more screams of heart wrenching pain as she managed to stand on one leg. Refusing to stop there though, she pushed on harder and further until she was finally standing on her own two feet. However, getting there was such a horribly painful process with screams of terror and tears rolling down her face at every turn... And yet, her determination saw her through.
After making it so far, Soraya's legs were shaking in weakness and the pain she felt was so unbearable that she could hardly stand it, but...it was for him. Unfortunately...Soraya wouldn't be able to make it a single step before she collapsed onto the sidewalk back exactly where she began... The fall once again left bruises on her body where her skin was exposed, and the fall proved to be the final thing that shattered her spirit entirely...
Face down on the pavement, Soraya couldn't take it anymore... With frustration, anger and sadness boiling up inside of her, she slammed her fist down hard on the pavement causing the skin at the bottom of her hand to give way and bleed from the impact. In addition to that though, a strange pulse of dark light shot out from her hand and flowed through the ground as if it were a sound wave. It was little more than an involuntary use of her magic brought out by her emotions, but when Soraya had to curl up into a ball because of the intense recoil of her magic hitting her heart, it became apparent that something was very wrong...
A fully transformed Maiden of Darkness, or even Light for that matter should be able to use their magic without feeling any sort of recoil. Soraya though was still feeling that recoil which meant her transformation wasn't fully complete... By not completing there ceremony, Druj had left Soraya in a state of limbo that would prove to be quite serious... It was basically equivalent to performing open heart surgery and leaving several of the veins wide open... If Asha had even half of the knowledge that Druj had, she would be able to realize what was going on by just the symptoms alone... And...she'd also know the potentially fatal consequences of this state Soraya was in...
It took Soraya several moments to be able to withstand the pain she was feeling enough to move out of her pain induced curl. It was in that moment that she realized exactly what had happened to her and the miserable state she was in... Soraya was heartbroken and lonely, shattered in pain both in body and soul, and physically injured with cuts and bruises all for the sake of someone that abandoned her... The realization of this was enough to bring that 1% of her that hadn't been corrupted to the surface. In that split second, she realized how horrible Druj truly was...
Hating this pain and the feelings inside of herself, Soraya forced herself to look back to the being that had tried to comfort her moments ago. Upon meeting eyes with her again, Soraya could only offer a look that spelled how sorry she was. The faintest glimmer of the light Asha insisted was inside of her shined in her eyes and very lightly Soraya reached her bloodied hand towards Asha for help. Still quivering and sobbing from her misery, she finally requested the thing she needed most hoping and praying it wasn't too late for what she was about to ask...
"...P-please...please help...help me..?"
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