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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arcturion" data-source="post: 3731152" data-attributes="member: 54632">Prologue: The Bonds That TiePrologue: The Bonds That TieWith each heartbeat, each breath taken of this still unfamiliar air, the once inviting blackness of twilight began to retreat, shrinking further and further away from the inevitably encroaching light of dawn. Here on the surface, the darkness of night was like a frightened beast tamed each morning by the accursed sun.Pathetic.How so unlike the Underealm the surface world was, Vyruna thought idly to herself. In the constant, unchanging shadow of the Underealm, there were no seasons. There was no such thing as weather. There was no sun, no moon, no stars. Sea and sky were things unknown to the dark elves, and mattered as much to them as the death cries of prey to a predator. In the Underealm, there was only darkness, and the unquestioned power of the Svari who ruled from their base of power in Nyctalinth.Many decades had passed since she last stepped foot within her native homeland. Even after all these years living on the surface since her exile from Nyctalinth, Vyruna couldn't help but take note of the stark differences between the world above and the one below. She did not miss the misguided, small-mindedness of her people. To use a human expression, they were but helpless sheep clinging to the hem of Illotha's skirt while the petty goddess led them blind and dumb to the slaughter, all for her own amusement.The Daelkyr had opened her eyes. The power they offered had set her free. Still, there was much work yet to be done. The surface was wholly infested with the lesser races; insipid humans and the accursed Thalasians. Their stink permeated the very air, inescapably offensive to Vyruna's acutely honed senses.It was late autumn, at least according to how the inferior races reckoned time and the passage of seasons here on the surface. It wouldn't be long before this alien landscape became veiled in ice and snow as white as the Svari woman's long hair, and all hint of warmth driven from the world above to match her cold heart.Despite the chill air, the Svari woman wore no clothes. She had long since discarded the need for such mundane trappings. Her entire body wholly infused with blessed corruption, Vyruna's flesh was instead covered with glistening black chitinous plates marked by an intricately complex web of what appeared to be veins across its surface, articulated and pulsing as if the form-fitting carapace possessed a mind and will of its own. The living armor served only to accentuate the curves of her lithe figure, combining both artful grace and terribly alien design into a beautiful yet otherworldly singular being.She was armed with a large sword at her back, its blade opaque and transparent as if it was carved from crystalline ice. Hard and durable as any Svari adamantine weapon, it appeared to be an executioner's greatsword with a wide axe-like tip. Its blade was slightly curved and marked by teeth-like serrations at regular intervals where the crysteel was segmented into thirteen individual pieces held together into a single whole. A two-handed weapon, its sheer size dwarfed the Svari woman but she carried it with an air of confidence and familiarity that belied its seemingly unwieldy design.Vyruna placed a lightly armored hand upon the gnarled trunk of a fir to brace her weight against it. The Underealm did not have trees, strange plant life that could not thrive without the light and warmth of the sun. The prospect of meeting the gaze of that burning, thrice-damned orb in the sky did not sit well with her. She did not fear the approach of the sun, far from it, but with everything else that was alien still to her in the world above, Vyruna regarded its mere presence with nothing but contempt each time she saw it.The Svari woman stood at the edge of a great forest, mostly of fir and pine. Their evergreen leaves rustled in the chill wind, casting their strangely sharp scent into the air. Vyruna's senses missed nothing, and the stench of the surface world's native flora was almost overpowering to her.Where there was a vast sea of green, healthy boughs despite the approach of winter, the immediate area where she stood was oddly brown and marked by twisted, barren limbs.Her emerald green eyes narrowing with growing impatience, Vyruna cast a sidelong glance at her companion and fought back a sneer that threatened to overtake the corner of her lips. The young Svari girl to her right stood silently, watching the distant horizon with impassive pale blue eyes the hue of a cloudless sky.A cold boreal gust picked up suddenly, blowing Vyruna's long, stark white hair across her face. Irritated at yet another intrinsically surface world phenomenon, the Svari woman quickly ran her fingers through wild tresses, tucking them behind a delicately pointed ear.If the young dark aelf girl noticed the chill, she said not a word to affirm its existence since the current did not so much as touch her. Her long, straight hair, as stark white as the elder Svari's, was as still and motionless as death even in the face of a stiff breeze. The simple white, diaphanous gown the girl wore clung to her delicate frame like gossamer, equally undisturbed and unmoving despite the strong gust. It was as if the very air rejected the girl and slid aside to avoid her, deathly afraid to even touch someone whose very presence seemed so unnatural.And unnatural was exactly what Vyruna thought of the little brat. Though the young Svari girl appeared not much older than any prepubescent child, she knew better. Like Vyruna, Ayaleska too knew the blessedly corrupting touch of the Daelkyr. Where they granted the older Svari great physical abilities, they did something entirely different to the girl. Vyruna did not care to speculate what that might be."This is a waste of time," the elder Svari woman finally spat in their native tongue, she being the first to break the long silence save for the moaning wind. "What are we still doing here?”Wordless still, Ayaleska continued to stare off into the distant horizon, her icy blue gaze steady and impassive. Vyruna's flustered questions went unanswered, lost to the gale.The older Svari growled and cursed under her breath. The brat was beyond intolerable. Why had Zarael sent them to this spot in the middle of nowhere, a worthless land ruled over by equally useless humans and their bloated dragon allies. The ignorant creatures of this insignificant speck of a nation were so certain in their own fleeting sense of power, blissfully unaware, seeing nothing, knowing nothing."There," Ayaleska's small voice echoed without emotion, ringing clearly yet empty over the howling wind.Vyruna turned toward the direction of the girl's gaze, and saw two figures loping over the far hill at a fast run, their forms lost to darkness and shadow. Though she couldn't see them clearly yet even with her greatly enhanced vision, Vyruna knew what approached them. Daelkyr netherhounds. Admittedly, the foul creatures had their uses, but their constant slavering and disgustingly monstrous forms repulsed the older Svari.Racing across the rocky plains were beasts that resembled great wolves or panthers, but any semblance to those animals ended there. Sleek fur and graceful muscle were replaced by black chitinous plates and bony sinew. Their frames seemed oddly elongated and horrifically misshapen, as if half finished by whatever mad necromancer had created them. Long draconic snouts ended in rows upon rows of cruelly jagged teeth the size of dagger blades set into bifurcated lower mandible jaws, allowing for a much more powerful bite and larger maw in which to entrap their prey. Gangly limbs ended in sickle-shaped talons, while two whip-like tentacles studded with horned barbs and spikes sprouted from hunched shoulders. Their tails were equally flexible and tipped with a scorpion-like stinger trailing behind the creatures as they ran at breakneck speed. Completely sightless, they had no eyes and needed none as their other senses were sharpened to a keen razor's edge; a gift of the Daelkyr corruption.The netherhounds panted and yipped excitedly from the previous night's hunt as they slowed their pace and came to a halt before the two Svari. Their long, black tongues lolling between slavering jaws, the beasts encircled Ayaleska, each vying for space at the child's side like attention-starved pups seeking their master's approval. One of the unsettling creatures reached out with its lashing tongue, gingerly touching and wrapping itself around the girl's slender, outstretched right hand.Unflinching, Ayaleska's reaction was neither one of disgust nor fear as vile drool covered her arm and dripped from her fingers. Vyruna noted that no expression at all passed over her stoic, emotionless face. Closing her eyes, the ebony-skinned child seemed lost in thought, as if silently communing with the netherhound."What are you doing?" Vyruna asked in a tone tinged with boredom and annoyance. "Enough of this. You have your pets back, we should leave now." The elder Svari's patience was wearing thin. They didn't have time to waste playing children's games. "Our part in this ridiculous farce is over," Vyruna continued tersely. "Favian and Makaro have already withdrawn, and the traitor's body delivered."This whole mission was a fool's errand, Vyruna thought to herself. Why had they even bothered to waste time and effort to steal back the corpse of yet another traitor?"We are all of us betrayers," was Ayaleska's unexpected reply, her blunt words devoid of any passion. The girl had not opened her eyes as she spoke, and continued to allow the Daelkyr netherhound to lick at her exposed hand. "Is it not so that our house was driven from the Svari homeland because we were branded traitors to our people? We are none of us special in that regard."Taken aback, Vyruna glared at the impertinent child. She could not refute her words, and the fact they rang true and stung with the bitter memory of being exiled from Nyctalinth infuriated the older Svari.Ayaleska ignored her and delved deeper into the netherhound's collective memories. It mattered not that the exact netherhound that confronted her mother was destroyed on board the Ark. The creatures shared a hive mind and were inextricably linked to one another as a result. What one hound experienced, they all did.She could detect her mother's scent still lingering with the creature.She was close, so very close. Soon, she would finally be able to return from whence she came.Opening her pale blue eyes once more, Ayaleska was greeted by the netherhound's slavering visage. A gurgling sound issued forth from deep within the beast's throat, a sign of uncertainty when faced with not knowing its master's will. As hive mind creatures, they required constant mental prodding and reassurance from the master to see that they carried out their commands.The thought of such a flawed design displeased her.Wordlessly, Ayaleska reached out with her left hand to stroke the snout of the second Daelkyr netherhound at her side, the creature's breath forming clouds of mist in the chill twilight air. The child's eyes suddenly took on a bright ice-blue intensity as her bone-white hair and gossamer-like gown began to flutter, disturbed by an unseen wind.The creatures' shrieking howls shattered the once pervading silence, echoing across the forest canopy and sending flocks of migrating birds and mystling dragonets into the air.Convulsing in uncontrollable seizures with their tentacles and tails whipping about wildly, the netherhounds thrashed and screeched in agony, though anyone watching the terrible scene unfolding before them would not have been able to discern any outward cause of their horrific pain. In the midst of the cacophony stood Ayaleska, eerily calm, with her glowing eldritch eyes the only indication that the girl was even aware of the madness she had wrought.Vyruna whirled toward the beasts, the hilt of her sword already in hand. Its crysteel blade flashed in the retreating gloom, inviting death if the Svari so chose. Despite the size of the weapon, Vyruna easily held it aloft with a single hand, which had grown in size and shape itself.The elder Svari’a hand was now of monstrous proportions, ending in three cruel talons while her chitin-plated forearm thickened to that of an ogre's, complete with obscenely muscled sinew. Where her lower arm joined the elbow, two long wicked horns jutted out backward, lending the impression of a draconic aegis. This was the Daelkyr's gift to Vyruna, as she was capable of manipulating her own flesh at will to suit her needs. Few creatures were as skilled at skinchanging as she was."What in the hells do you think you're doing?!" she snarled, struggling to be heard over the din of the hounds' anguished cries. The Svari woman tightened the grip on her sword hilt, her entire body taut and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. One of the creatures’ tentacles lashed out at her blindly, forcing her to duck into a practiced roll as the spikes stripped pieces of bark from the tree behind her. Vyruna came back up to her feet quickly, the executioner’s sword whistling through the air when she brought it to bear before her.Rasping a death rattle, the two creatures gave a final shudder and crashed heavily to the ground, the one which had been licking Ayaleska's hand collapsing upon its haunches while the other fell prone on its side. Languidly, their tongues sprawled out of their gaping maws, soaking the earth with vile spittle.A heavy stillness permeated the air, the beasts' cries abruptly silenced in death. Her eyes gradually dimming to their normal icy hue, Ayaleska's impassive gaze took in the slain netherhounds at her bare, delicate feet, their foul carcasses as inert and lifeless as stone."What have you done?" Vyruna demanded. Her voice was barely able to hold back the curses that threatened to rise up in her throat. "Do you think this a game? Zarael won't be pleased when he hears of this."Petulant little brat. Children should know their place among their betters. Vyruna expected as much from the hells-damned spawn of a wretched traitor. The mere thought of that contemptible bitch's name nearly brought bile to her mouth. 'If you were my daughter . . .'Vyruna did not have time to finish her unspoken threat as the bodies of the netherhounds began to shudder violently once more, caught in a spastic fit of thrashing brought on by a dramatic physical transformation. Their black chitinous hides faded into near-translucence, replaced by smooth, fine scales the color of virgin snow. Where hulking muscle and wicked spines once dominated, their monstrous forms gave way to sleek, serpentine grace.Like phoenixes reborn anew from the ashes, the two creatures took to the air, defying gravity with an ease that birds would envy. At first glance, they resembled large snakes with decidedly draconic features in their fanged snouts and the single three-taloned claw that hung beneath their long, whip-like bodies. Ice blue eyes matching the Svari child's stared out from the serpents' hooded brows, slitted like a cat's and brimming with an otherworldly sentience where none existed before.Without a word, Ayaleska raised her outstretched arm to one of the unearthly beautiful creatures just as the drool left on her ebony skin dissipated into mist to be carried away by the breeze. Screeching, the two serpents flew circles excitedly around their mistress, enraptured in their gravity-defying dance. One landed its claw gingerly on the girl's narrow shoulder while the other wrapped its sinuous body around her arm and settled its claw on her offered hand.As one, the twin creatures turned and angrily hissed their disapproval of Vyruna, as if the elder Svari's mere presence itself was poisonous.Faster than Vyruna could even hope to react, the serpent at the child's hand snaked forward with blinding speed, stopping with its bared fangs leveled only inches from the Svari woman's face.Caught off guard, Vyruna blinked at the creature, and it took her a moment before realizing that she had been holding her breath. It was quick. Faster than liquid mercury. Faster than thought.Turning to face the elder Svari, Ayaleska's piercing gaze seemed to cut straight through to the soul. 'Know this,' the child's hollow voice echoed unbidden within Vyruna's mind, a silent whisper as deadly as any assassin's blade. 'You are not my mother.'Withdrawing through the air with a hiss, the seemingly weightless serpent coiled itself back up toward the girl's outstretched arm. Without another word, Ayaleska calmly turned on a delicate heel and walked deeper into the forest, accompanied by her new pets. Despite her bare feet, the child made no sound and left not a single trace of her passing as she made her way into the retreating shadows.Speechless, Vyruna could only stare after Ayaleska, the Svari woman's eyes flashing a livid green with barely contained fury. The monstrous arm at her side shook with the tension of clutching the hilt of her executioner's sword so tightly, hardened muscle and sinew flexed and strained with the effort.Letting out a vile oath, Vyruna swung her sword in a wide, downward diagonal arc, burying its crysteel blade deeply in the trunk of the same fir tree where she had moments ago been leaning against. A dull, satisfying thunk greeted the Svari's ears as the transparent metal bit greedily into wood, as if it was a living thing that longed to sate its hunger.Forcing herself to take several deep breaths, Vyruna tried to calm the rage within her before pulling the sword out from its wooden prison. With the enhanced strength of her monstrous arm, it was a simple task as she tore the blade free with a quick, vicious motion, sending broken splinters and shards of tinder into the air. A large, gaping wound was left in the trunk to serve as a reminder of the Svari's momentary lapse of self-control.Behind her, the sun finally crested the mountainous peaks far to the east, further dispelling the last vestiges of twilight.Her time would come, the dark aelf vowed. When Zarael tired of the brat's petulant outbursts, he would discard her after she had served her purpose, whatever the hells that may be. Until then, Vyruna would bide her time.Snapping her wrist, the Svari woman quickly replaced the executioner's sword against her back. The black chitin and corrupted skin reacted instantly, reshaping itself to form over the crysteel blade and firmly holding the weapon in place.With a final curse uttered against the light of the rising sun behind her, Vyruna too walked and vanished into the deepening woods.She promised herself that in the end, some would live to see many more sunrises than others.</blockquote>

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