The chamber which greeted them was bereft of windows, light seeping neither from openings, nor cracks. A dim glow was preserved within the glassy walls, beyond which the blur of the city could no longer be detected. Silence was defeaning, yet also deceptive, for peculiar, hollow buzzing echoed from beyond. Large steps snaked towards the top, circling around the axis of the tower. The Twisted Reflection led and Celysiel followed, their hands always entwined. For the duration of their ascent, the haze veiled subtle changes in the ambiance, details unworthy of attention. Voices perhaps, hushed and indiscernible. Sounds vague and as natural as birdsong come morn, when dreams in the minds of those who awaken are still fresh and reality is a reluctant falsehood. The elf turned her head over shoulder once, but her guide tugged gently, prompting her onwards. "Are you afraid?" the scarred woman asked, her voice surprisingly soft. Celysiel shook her head, but the other one did not believe her. "Do not be afraid now." she was prompted. "This is the end." Gurgling, as if that of a lone stream, reached the young elf; it took but a few moments for her to feel the pools flowing beneath her bare feet, rushing down the golden steps. The vague scent of salt rose from the water below. The sea, rang a voice in her head. Another kind of abyss, its picture blurred in her mind. And all that she was meant to feel for it remained dim, as if the grand architect of this scheme had erased such details from the script. The ascent could have been hours long, eons, or perhaps mere minutes. Celysiel's steps alone echoed though the sodden stairs, for her guide's were ethereal, graceful. And if the girl ever tried to look down below in order to estimate the long distance from the ground, she was convinced against it with as much as a gesture. A large, ivory door was waiting at the very end, alabaster markins akin to the rising branches of a tree covering over its entirety. She stopped once they stood in front of it, thin fingers reaching out for the image. "I have... Seen those branches before." The Twisted Reflection looked at her, something burning in her pale eyes. "Where have you?" Shrill once upon a time, her melodious voice echoed gently, like a lullaby dulling the senses. Indeed, where had she seen them before? Waiting for an answer she knew would never come, the tarnished woman adorned her black lips with a smirk of mockery and mimicked Celysiel's gesture. Her fingers though, unlike those of the apprentice, were linked to the surface of the door with ease, pushing forward. Ill, silver light radiated through the intricate designs, poured into the split of the gate. A click heralded the parting of the leaves, allowing the woman to pass. What expected them on the other side, they could not see. Not until they stepped through the threshold and the door closed behind their backs. The darkness which greeted them was not absolute. It was disturbed by faded amber light, less bright than that of the rising sun, more intense than the colour of a citrine. It sprang from circular braziers devoid of flame, leaking the illumination in the form of thick mist, thinning the further it wandered from its source. Though the walls of the chamber were barely visible through the shadows, the one directly at the other side of the now absent door was adorned by the glow of vile, coral runes. Were the strong sense of wrongness they radiated enough, they were the source of liquid pouring through the room, flooding its floor. What had once been mistaken for sea water though had now lost its salty scent, replaced by a strong hint of metal. Black. Blood. Celysiel tried to take a step back, yet found herself unable. Now lingering behind her, without ever letting go of her hand, the Twisted Reflection chuckled viciously. For in the centre of the room stood the lone figure of a man. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had his back turned to the two women. And though his characteristics were covered by a hood, there was something all too alarming about the shackled embracing his form, now broken, as if with force. All too specific about the onyx gauntlets on his arms, sharp talons soaked and dripping. Instinct pushed Celysiel's lips to part, her ears burdened by sudden, overwhelming ringing. A name, that was all she wished to call out, a name she knew almost as well as her own. A name that did not escape her lips when she tried to give voice to it. For it was a name she had forgotten. She felt a squeeze at her hand. The Twisted Reflection. Shattered and death-white, she was untouched by the orange hues of the chamber, radiating the amethyst steams from the cracks across her skin, a velvet embrace. "Do you wish to remember?" she asked softly. "Is it worth the suffering? Do you wish to be reminded of betrayal? Of the truth which you long ago locked away?" Far from deaf to her words, Celysiel ignored her. The name she tried to utter again, but as if it lingered at the very tip of the tongue, it refused to go any further. Agitated, she flinched. It only amused her guide. "You try in vain." the Twisted Reflection spoke. "It is over." "No." Celysiel replied, shaking her head. "This is not how it ends. The roses-... There are no vines here. This is not how it ends." "It ended long ago, little sparrow. Forget. Remember." Like a sharp blade, a wave of panic struck the girl. A hint of awareness. The hollowing of the faraway abyss became more evident, the scent of the blood stronger. An awful chill embraced her, digging into her very flesh, gripping her very soul. "Madness-... The Old One's madness-... It took-" "Madness!" echoed the broken woman, breaking into malefic cackle. "There is no madness! It is but the lie to which the ignorant run, those deaf to the trillions of truths, innumerable like the stars of the night sky. For they look upon them with hope, those glistening lights into the black, fabricating the symbolism of hope which fits them best. The stars are but the eyes gazing down upon this despairing world and rejoicing, absorbing its misery. 'There is no madness, merely a different perception. You know this well, little sparrow. And yet you lied." You lied. Celysiel stared at the man's back, but he remained unmoving, as if he could not register the voices behind him. An outstretched hand tried to reach for him in the great distance, but it faltered. It was not the haze to blame this time. Only guilt. "A flawed perception!" she yelled. "A stain, a false reality!" "And still you lie." noted the Twisted Reflection. She slithered behind her prey, arms closing around the elf's shoulders. "Try to veil it you may, yet this is the City of truths. In your mind, reality has long ceased being anything but a matter of perception. The City is a testament to this. As am I." "You are but a broken mirror." "No, my child." whispered her the ethereal entity. "You are." Ripples were sent at the edge of the water, circles that tickled Celysiel's ankles. Something was moving at the centre of the room. Slowly, the hooded figure flexed his drenched fingers, something red blood falling to meet the black one. And she felt it. A burning pain penetrated her chest, prompting her hand to reach for it. Crimson soaked the white of her night gown. The apprentice's knees trembled, as if she were about to fall. She looked towards the re-educator, but the set stage did not budge. What occurred behind his back mattered not, for his stare was fixated upon the runes leaking eldtrict light, the heralds of darkest twilight. In vain did she try to call his name again, a cry, a plea. Only a breathless gasp graced her lips. Despair grew. "He will never answer to you again." The Twisted Reflection loomed over her, treading in the blood and yet somehow untouched by it. "Never look at you again. Nameless. Faceless. This will be the moment of your greatest failure. For all the promises you should have never made." It was a vain struggle. Liquid tendrils emerged from the ink pool, seizing her limbs to pull her downwards. The metallic odour, touched by something fleshy, assaulted her senses, it could be clearly felt at the back of her tongue, nauseating. The black consumed the red that she bled, hissing, feasting at her life essence eagerly. Beautiful, terrible, shattered, the ghostly guide knelt by the apprentice's side, bathing in pallid light. Not silver and tender like Azeroth's moons, casting hope upon dark lands, but the dreadful white of death. The wisps of amethyst rising from the cracks thickened, a cloak of shadow bestowed upon the fallen girl. "Is it truly failure if it could be no other way?" Now her otherwise mocking voice was motherly, an ambiguous, gentle warmth. Fingers traced over Celysiel's skins, were her own cracks were forming under the bubbling blood. "Strength is the greatest of lies, as is the freedom for which it fights. He was never yours. You were never his. Life is predetermined, a game that runs its course. You are all bodies, conduits for a higher power." Celysiel fought the touch, defiance burning like a flame on her skin against the words, the tendrils of blackblood, securing her away from the rays cast upon the Old One's reign. Like a wounded animal she screamed and thrashed, desperate for the afflicted Surveyor's attention. An appeal to clarity, logic, a single glance. Nothing came out of it. Like his name from memory, he was long lost. "Little sparrow, poor sparrow, fallen from the nest." whispered the Twisted Reflection at her side. "Spreading your wings to fly, but you never will. It is not for you. 'You have been abandoned." A sharp chill embraced the sweetness of her tone. "I am all that you have. Have I not always been?" The Tower trembled, a quake built from the foundation and reaching upwards. Onyx waves rose in the chamber, splashing against the runes carved on the walls, thirsting of the liquid of life. Celysiel's body shook, yet she did not fall. Not as long as the Twisted Embrace kept her in a protective, possessive embrace. "Why reduce to a whisper potential which could be realised?" The ground cracked, splinters spreading like the invasive roots of a weeds. Motes of grey descending from the ceiling, a cloud of dust disturbing the serene, whispering mist. The structure was collapsing. Once a lullaby, easing the senses, the howling winds from beyond started raging, like a song distorted by an external force. Nor could her guide distract her any longer. Cold like ice, her skin pressed against the aching apprentice's. Until it was poured into Celysiel's body. The pain became unbearable. The tendrils did not withdraw. She fought against them, tugging in order to reach for wounds, cracks on flesh as if it were made of glass, oozing blood and shadow alike. A storm of voices broke out in her mind with malicious laughter at the forefront. Mourning, triumphant, pleading, tempting. Did it even matter? A burst of power sent shards of the Tower flying, presenting no golden city beyond, but only the hungering abyss. Shapes twisted within, like the wet waves of a painting brush slowly moving on a canvas, a maw swallowing reality. Each piece of the building was vanishing before its might. Walls, blood, light, they withered into shreds sent into the void. It was not mercy which had spared the platform the figure of the apprentice and the hooded elf were positioned alike, but a matter of time. Yet stoic, a mere husk of his former self, the priest did not turn to look at her. In front of him, the end of time was calling. Night eternal. Futility. Celysiel looked up at him, as if still holding out for the chance of salvation. It never came. Her nails dug and clawed, as if that could drive the Twisted Reflection out, the false perception seeking to turn herself into reality. "It is over." uttered the voice within, promising to her the serenity which coated it. An escape. Celysiel's eyes remained on the man. Her anchor. The whisper of a forsaken name did not manage to reach her lips this time either. And yet that baleful glow of orange, the miasma of the Old One and sign of His victory was the last thing she saw as Eraevin Blackwood's head finally turned. The only witness, oblivious and uncaring, as the darkness claimed her.
CelysielPosts: 138Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2017 12:01 amLocation: Athens, Greece
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