Starless Portent [II]

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[128] Nymaya: Starless Portent
Fri Mar 5 02:49:31 2010
To: RP New_Thalos All ( Crelius Anastormia ) Imm Necrucifer
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What had been no more than an insubstantial sense, more a "knowing" in her gut, became real before her and without preamble, she found a steel grip around her own throat before she felt her back impact the side of a wooden stall.

It might have been a flesh and blood creature or it might have been something else entirely but an instant's warning flashed through her and she held her hostile intentions at bay.

You do not yet understand that which you seek. It whispered, leaving a sense of curiosity and malice in the air between them.

Trying to study it through the deep shadows of her hood produced nothing and having had enough manhandling, she slashed out at it. Surprisingly, it retreated, appearing no more than a hunched figure in the dark.

You may find what you desire, though terror...will be your gift, elf. It breathed, and then; If you survive.

Dagger still to hand, she let herself lean against the solid stone wall while her free hand rubbed at her neck. The creature - whatever it was - faded into the shadows after its last mocking pronouncement and it was then she heard the thumping of mailed feet coming toward her. The sound redirected her focus and she looked up to see two harbor guards approaching quickly.

"Waliullah." The first to her said as she straightened, his eyes flicking to the bloodied blade in her hand and then to the body. "We heard a cry. Is all well?"

Nymaya glanced from the guard to the body lying still and cold now upon the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood. Crouching down, she wiped her blade clean upon the clothing of the would-have-been thief and nodded.

"I can handle myself, harbor guard." She said, and not as unkindly as a part of her wanted to. "But yes, all is well enough."

"Even a Wali should not wander alone through..." The second spoke though he trailed off at cold blue glance.

She didn't need to say more and she didn't intend to as she ended the interaction with a curt inclination of her head, sheathed her daggers and drew the hood of her cloak back over her brow. She left the two guards to the unwholesome business of disposing of the body while she exited the alley, her mind strangely calm in the wake of her encounter.

There was a sense of the familiar in what had happened this night, as if she'd lived through the moment before, and while the warning was not lost on her - it was the message behind the visit that spoke loudest. It was easy to assume she was on the right track even though it was clearly leading her down a road more terrible than any she had yet tread.

She almost found herself welcoming the challenge as it gave greater credence to the belief she held in her incoherent dreams, her blind striving and her need to find...what she was looking for.

She took a small measure of certainty from the belief that if she did, in fact, manage to survive what she was striving toward she would have something new to rival the edge of the dissonance that ran tainted through her soul. And if not - well, there weren't many left who would mourn the remnant and she doubted any of her mortal problems would follow through her demise.