Life As Usual?, Chronicles of Mereton: 1

[Charisma]

I don't have the words - or rather the feelings - to give her, Tholomy pondered in his head, and it was a revelation. Anithis wanted the feelings. But he couldn't, not tonight. Not when appearances needed to be kept. Maybe tomorrow he could seclude himself and work through it all...

"I am still myself, priestess," Tholomy stated calmly. "For your safety, certain parts of myself have been...restrained."

[Lady D]

"Ah. That makes limited sense to me. I will take it on face value and thank you for it. Although if I were you. I would tie the angel to a tent. She had a mutinous look on her face." the priestess observed watching Anithis walk across the camp. Past her into the tent.

Anithis grabbed her sword and glared at the semi naked Tholomy. With a dark look sent his way she left again.
"So I take it that it's her sword? What else is around the wrong way? Are you an angel and she a god?" the Priestess asked shaking her head.

[Charisma]

Tholomy cocked his head to the side, contemplating what to tell the priestess. Intellectually, the facade they currently enjoyed should be encouraged, and doubt eliminated. So what lie would seem feasible? It was so much easier when he could just flash a charming smile and get away with it...

"That sword is hers," he agreed, reaching a hand into a fold of his half-undone robes to pull out his own blade. "This one is mine. It cannot be parted from me by mortal hands."

He put the claymore-sized broadsword back into his robes, continuing to wash his torso.

"She has been in many battles as an angel," he added after moment. "The notches in her blade are well-earned."

[Lady D]

"Those scars tell a story of their own from what the women tell me. The men have new cause to not look at her" the priestess shook her head again. The sword that he had produced from seemingly no where alarmed her slightly but then again she was dealing with a god after all.

"The feast will begin soon" she said and pulled the tent flap closed behind her as she left to go and find the angel to talk to.

Anithis was not impressed at being cornered by the priestess.
"Your god seems distressed" the woman told her
"He does that" Anithis said testily
"I don't pretend to understand the ways of angels and gods but I think it's better if you don't run or fly from your troubles" the woman pointed out bluntly.
"Well so much for the very very polite and quiet people of the desert." Anithis put her hands on her hips.
"The more I talk with you and the god the more I think you are an angel of war and he didn't so much as fall for you but rather tried to woo you. The wrath of the higher gods can be mighty" the priestess said making a religious gesture for protection against evil.

"You are awful observant" Anithis informed the woman who shrugged at her. She woman was acting very strange now and not at all like before. Where there was respect and scrapping of forelocks. The woman locked eyes with her.
"You have seen too many battles and yet I wonder why you don't fight for him. I know you fight with him" the woman touched the corner of her eye "I have seen things these past days that tell me pieces of your story. Him I see nothing of. Yet the man over in that tent is not the man you arrived with. Perhaps it is the immortals that need to learn patience and to wait for things to come to them. All things move and change like the dunes in the wind. He will come back some how. I am sure" the woman then left her standing there in the empty tent.

Anithis blinked a few times and then sat on the floor of the tent. How was it that priests could have that effect on her? They saw things around her and then tended to stick their noses into her life. Always with the advice giving too. What was it? Some secret priestess code where they all had to give advice to her and stick their noses into her life. It made her feel foolish.

Anithis walked outside and fixed a mask of neutrality and calmness on her face. She kept it there as she walked over to the feast and took a seat. If Tholomy could turn emotionless on her then like hell she was going to be the one looking over emotional. damn him.

[Charisma]

Tholomy finished cleaning his torso and eyed the tarnished metal that served as his mirror. Having never finished his journey to Death the traditional way, his physical body behaved the same way any mortal's did, and had tanned nicely while enjoying the tribe's hospitality. Of course, this just made his many scars stand out all the more - white against the dark skin, save for the angry pink tissue that marked his most recent wound. Still, he remembered the old traditions - and assumed that since these people spoke a variation of the old tongue, their traditions would have likewise been preserved. It was a logical conclusion.

Therefore, as a high-ranked warrior without fear, he rearranged his robes to fall properly around his waist for the sake of modesty, spiked his hair up and back with the remnants of water, and left the tent for the cool air of the desert night, and the feast in his - their - honour. Once there he saw that Anithis had already made her appearance, and knelt gracefully next to her in the space left for him.

The desert people didn't carry more than was necessary, and tables and chairs enough for a tribe-wide feast was certainly not a necessity.

[Lady D]

Anithis gave Tholomy a cold look when he was seated, he was topless. She couldn't help but admire the tan he had picked up. The pink scar tissue made her gaze fall to her knees though. A reminder of her deeds and once more she felt that sensation of tearing her own soul from her body. She ignored the talking and instead ate the food slowly and quietly.

The priestess was watching them like a hawk and she found this annoying. She met the womans eyes once which made the woman shiver and draw a symbol of protection in the sand at her side.

Two cups of some strange red liquid was offered to them and Anithis took it wondering what foul brew this was. She looked at Tholomy who hadn't picked his up yet.
"If I have to suffer this brew I demand that you do as well" she muttered to him in the language of the southern marsh people.

[Charisma]

Tholomy frowned in concentration as he looked at the brew. No one else appeared to be drinking it - but there were a thousand explanations for that, starting with sacred and ending with visitors. Very carefully, he extended his magic into the cup and tried to sense for anything conclusive.

Nothing he could really tell. Except it felt a little similar to a brew he had found after Anithis left the first time, with something of hallucinogens for spiritual awareness...

If they drank this, in their current state, they would be screwed. To put it mildly.

He turned to Anithis, mouth already open to tell her his findings in the same language she had spoken with (his only chance to get out of this was to prevent her from drinking it in the first place; if she did, he would have to follow, despite his misgivings).

"Anithis, it's a hall-"


Too late.

[Lady D]

The effects of the brew were almost immediate. Anithis found her head feeling heavy and loose on her shoulders. She stood and walked towards the edge of the camp. The moon rose up and smiled at her with a face like a skull. Jackals crossed the edge of the camp to be chased away by the men. They cackled with wicked laughter turning from jackals to men to run away in the dark. Naked savage men with the hearts of beasts.

The horses danced made with desert fever or fear, Anithis went to sooth them. She was lost in a maze of hooves, tossing heads and flanks. One the horses turned to her and roared like a lion. She kept walking and saw a centaur flash by before vanishing again.

The sky was on fire but no one seemed to care all that much. And then there was Tholomy he was glowing like the sun. Too bright to look at and also too dark to stand near. He was soaked in blood, no it was gold, no black shadows. Anithis reached out a hand to him but he seemed to move backwards without moving. Away from her. Anithis fell to her knees and howled to the sky.

The stars raced down to strike the ground and bounce back up into the sky again. The horses were dancing together in an intricate pattern. The guards men were singing with the jackals who smiled at her. Tholomy was everywhere suddenly. His face was on the falling stars, reflected in the sweat of the horses, on the spear of the guard and on the body of a jackal. In the distance Anithis watched as Tholomy with his wings wide ran pulling someone else along and leaping into the sky. The person he was with struggled with their wings. Then they flared wide and powerful soaring up. The stars streaked past and she saw his companion was her. No it was a death angel of her.

Anithis wondering if she was looking at the past, present on future. She was dazed and confused. Everything seemed to be tangled and confused but the same time crystal clear. She watched Namtar charge at unseen enemies and turned away. She turned away and tripped falling down but she had been on her knees? The moon was burning her and the stars wouldn't stop bouncing.

"Tholomy, who are you?" she asked the sky in her native tongue. "WHO ARE YOU!" She roared and then in a smaller voice "Who am I?"

[Charisma]

((Sick of adjusting settings...for ease of reference... BuMp))