The Eternal Haunt

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[ 79] Nymaya: The Eternal Haunt
Wed Jun 27 03:20:05 2012
To: Ashtiel Verminasia All Kyorl / Bladesinger
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The great hall was onyx and gold - granite, marble and gilded with such artistic grace that it was a wonder to gaze at let alone walk through.

Beneath a many tiered chandelier of delicate crystal that gave off soft magical light, there whirled couples garbed in elegant clothing and concealed for a Masquerade. 

She didn't marvel at the beauty of the satin that clung to the women's bodies or the sharp cut of the costumes that outlined their companions. It was their movements that held her attention as they danced to a song that breathed hauntingly through the expansive hall. 

Painfully familiar.  It caught her up, enthralled her senses and carried her along with its whispers. 

The firm grasp of someone, as an arm encircled her slender satin-wrapped waist, brought her hard up against his solid frame and lifting her gaze she found his face concealed.  The mask was black with gold embroidery and covered the top and right side of his face. 

There was possession, a dark and boundless need, in his familiar gaze as he held her and with all the confidence of a man who was comfortable with his own movement, he joined the tide and she was swept away on the cresting of the melody. 

An awakening part of her wanted to fight it, to escape the sound.  She ached to hear it, to feel it moving sluggishly through her body, like a slow poison as it burned through the blood.  She had a feeling, a latent certainty perhaps, that it would kill her eventually but much as she tried to lay low the desire to move with it, she could not detach herself from the dance.  She could not close her senses off from the music though her gaze broke from his to watch the room as it spun. 

And as she watched, she realized the whole room was circling around a low pedestal of soulless black.

Brief glimpses of something sitting its silk-shrouded top were caught with each pass and with each rotation that spun everyone beneath the crystalline light, dazzling the vision with the captivating beauty of the couples and the impressive costumes, she came closer and closer to it. 

She tried to struggle but was held closer and the hand holding hers out in true gentlemanly fashion threaded with her fingers while the arm at her waist brought her in closer, until her abdomen was flush against his. 

The intimacy made her vision spin and though she fought mightily to dismiss it, she could not escape and the certainty that she needed to get away from the pedestal increased...though the desire to see what it held was nigh consuming... 

Her unclear gaze was even then turning toward the center of the room, drawn against the will, but as the way to the pedestal became clear she was spun again in another elegant revolution and his lips drew down to hers, coaxing her to submit to him rather than the draw of the song. 

                                            +*+*+

Her eyes opened slowly to behold the shadows of the Iagothal chamber.  

The touch of silk was cool upon her skin, a considerable contrast to the warmth of the man at her side.  It was a familiar routine by now.  Not quite a simple dream, not quite a disturbing nightmare.  Different whenever it set upon her, though the message was always the same, as evidenced by the pervasive sound of the soft but discordant Haunt whispering through her. 

There was a difference this evening though and slowly, she turned her head to stare through the darkness of the room at the side table.  Rain was bending down along the glass of the window, a stormy light casting shadows upon the floor, and accompanying it was the soft haunted strings of a lullaby rising from the small onyx music box, inlaid with silver filigree, that she had set there. 

She hadn't opened it...but after a heavy and contemplative silence, she reached over and closed the lid that was, nonetheless, opened.  Alone with the weight of memory and consequence, she closed her eyes and tried to fall back into the depths of sleep.