Apart

Ifis'uuyat sk-ma.

It was in the stirring of the leaves, the melody that came from the open window. Carried by the soft breeze that swayed the silken drapes to their gentle dance under the radiance of the pale moonlight. Tender was the way the rays reached for the figures on the shared bed, though little could it do to soothe the suffering of the young elf twisting and turning in the embrace of the white sheets. They were tangled around her form like tendrils of darkness, coming to claim what the Void was due.

Alone yet again. Imrpisoned, defiled.

Keeping her bound. Down, below the waters. Oh, how little was the oxygen remaining within her lungs, but how easy it was to breathe. How much did it sting to have her chest torn, as the treacherous fingers of another were suffocating her, stealing the life from within. For only one could exist, only one could remain; only one...

There was nothing but darkness. A frozen prison of precious metal and a low hum; it was all too familiar and alien at the same time, for one could not simply compare it to the powers stirring within a fel sphere, or an arcane stone. The humming coming from within was altered, but how many could understand this blessed sound? For most, the first contact would do no more than arouse a sensation of power, plant the seed deep within and let the host crave. Very few would be able to comprehend the whispering within, tell apart the eldritch voice that rang ever so alluring in the mind, requesting to be released...

Wide eyes opened under the moonlight as the girl's figure balanced to the very edge of the small bed, having effectlively crawled there with the restraints of the sheets still tangled around her form. Those burning gems of felfire, still bearing the intense light that was the doommmaiden's gift, looked at the ever so familiar chamber in which she would awaken the majority of her life until then. Beneath her, the bed had slightly been undone, the alabaster night gown lifted above her knees. Across the room, heavy was the scrutiny of the blinded, large mirror which she so feared. The terror that lingered within it even though it should have no more, the horror locked in its prison of silver. There was one instinct pressing at the apprentice's head and it could be summed up perfectly in one word. Away...

... It shrieked. The primordial shoggoth which slumbered within was not alone. Chained by another essence, obeying to words of power as ancient as creation itself, it longed to be away. It longed to claim. Restless, trying to fulfil the part that was promised, abide the rules which were set. If it could not escape its bonds, it would call to the other piece of it, force it to return, for their suffering had to be shared...

Past the bedroom door the young elf stepped, closing it behind her eagerly in order to conceal the torment with which she had been living for so long. How long, the shadow priest had asked, how long it had been since the darkness of the night had suffocated him, how long he had been tortured. Could he know? The Light's grace need not extend its reach to the apprentice to offer pain. Each day from the Surveyor's captivity had been noted, counted, a mark on the prison wall for one that was free, but incomplete, without guidance. Lesser that torment may have been, but torment nonetheless. And now he dared, he dared claim to the Warden that it had all been but a regretful mistake? A mistake? To toy with her soul? To take it all back? There was no greater desire than to loathe him, but she could not. To hate his captor and jailor, to hate her jailor, to lay the entire world to ruin for that one piece that had been taken away.

Ak'magg yuvaan.

Daylight. It would be upon her soon, would it not? With the break of dawn, her cloak would beckon. The girl would run far, away, to find the prey that would end the pain. The first wandering Wretched. The Nerubian nests. Was there a true need to wait for Initiate Blazefury in order to show her the nests? But the Overseer had said... No, he had it. He had it and she had to hate him for it. To muster the rage and convert it to animosity, however, was impossible, as much as her heart desired it. All that she could have was the fury. And to that the apprentice would cling, she decided, as the very first spasms brought her body to the floor, her back against the wall. The limbo would not take her. Fleeting was sanity at that minute. Little could the young creature understand at the moment that this flame of emotion set within her only worsened the effect, for both parts, the one with her and the forsaken alike, sought to through it keep their promise to each other.

Almost there! How brightly it burned through anguish. The fire was burning like a torch into the darkness, knowing where the other ought to direct itself, where to reach. Had it not been for the silver, had it not been for the miles tearing them apart. Eminent as one, degraded apart. The vessel sought to find is piece, obey the call that the essence trapped into the cold stone was singing. A song that could not perish. So close, so far away, bound together still.

Yellow skin replaced the snow-white, lips faded. Was this what it was like to be blind, to be deaf? How awful it was to lose clarity and be taken away, to lose reality to find that one shard that had gone away. Was this how it felt to be blind, to be deaf? Nothing but a buzz echoed in Celysiel's ears as the metallic cage embraced her whole. She wanted to scream. Could she scream? Would her form obey? No, it was a secret. It had to remain so.

... Slipping away. The malefic whisper drowned the essence to a slumber of nightmare for once more, relinquishing their hold, their claim over the whole for now. Leaving but the memory of a promise behind. A silent voice. One dearly missed, one the other part yearned for.

Breath found her for once more. Inhaling greedily, the apprentice wrapped her arms around her legs and locked them tightly against her torso, wondering how many souls would need to be consumed, how many to be damned to oblivion for the torment to meet but a temporary end. She had made a decision long ago by that dark shore and those were the consequences. Were there regrets? None. Only one desire. The last words of the incantation rang into her mind, as if they had always been there.

Vil ak'skshgn vokzul-ak'yel uvuul.

Fear. There was plenty of it.

Purpose. The tides were rising.

One piece had to be found. Reclaimed. And so it would be.

Alone.

Never alone.

Lost to oblivion for once more.

Never alone.