#:) but that is not the worst part... turns out that all my prev docs were in order

[prommethium]

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[hollowsentinel]

NaNoWriMo Day 14

I think I can safely say I won't make the 50k words this year.

Also, no way am I padding my numbers with out of doc stuff so bleh. Also, I forgot to fill a section with real words instead of notes. Oops.

Sanguine Mourning: 10,781/23,338 ([10,853-72]/[Day*1,667]).

Greet the Phoenix's Successor

(prev)

“It’s my domain,” Pasil asserted before a yawn stole away her fire. Banur trailed behind her, glaring daggers into Gamma’s silhouette. Even without her earlier vigor, she said, “It’s only right for me to be close at hand to reclaim what’s mine once you’re done, And it’ll be nice to give everyone something nice to wake up to.”

Gamma hummed a note of acknowledgement. “Spoken as true as any just god.” He slowed his pace as he reached a flat landing, a break in the path up. As he shed his cloak and knelt down, he called back, “What about you Terr Nurui? What could you possibly want to be here for?”

The earth spirit watched as Gamma bent down, bowing at the temple above them. “I’m here to witness your idiocy, judge this upstart, and see if—” A bout of coughs interrupted her. “See if there’s another way to deal with that,” Nurui rasped. “At the least, I’ll greet this Rhamos. At worst, I’ll slay him when you fall.”

“Sipas?” Gamma prompted as he rose from his bow. “What about you? You could have rested with Lagoht. Why come along?”

The girl scuffed the ground as everyone else turned to look at her. “I don’t have anywhere to go, and I thought you might like the support,” Sipas offered in a soft voice. “And, it sounds like Pyrr Rhamos isn’t a good god.” Her grip tightened around the canteen she borrowed from the guards. “I was taught that unjust gods need to be rebuked at every turn so...”

“Who taught you that?” Banur asked.

“Aurr Osilo.” Chills ran down everyone’s spine as memories of the extinguished spirit washed over them. Nurui and Pasil bowed their heads. Banur muttered a prayer. “She…” Sipas hesitated. “She believed it with all her heart. It only seems right to carry on her lessons.”

“May she live on in the lessons you share and the actions you take,” Gamma intoned. He sighed and beckoned Sipas nearer. “Did she teach you to pay respects? I admit, these are idle ones, but better to have honored an undeserving god than ignore one that does.”

Sipas nodded as she joined Gamma at the head of their procession. The motions stilled her swelling emotions. It made her forget her fatigue and the ache of their ascent. Gamma led the way, teaching her the quirks of this ritual and their mundane interpretation as they marched on, and before she knew it, they arrived at the brazier awaiting them at the summit.

By now, the sun colored the sky and light just barely graced the spire at the top of the temple. Burnt ground and gouges in the ground marked the grounds off of the paved path up to the structure’s main doors. A snapped pillar obstructed the way forward. Blackened foliage obscured a ruined rock garden off to the side. Its contents blasted out of its boundaries.

“What an ugly sight,” Nurui commented as she surveyed the temple. She raised a brow when she found Pasil staring aghast at the garden. “What’s wrong? Was there something special about your garden?” When the younger spirit shook her head, Nurui frowned. “Then what’s wrong? The sand—”

“It’s supposed to be gravel— red gravel,” Pasil whispered. Nurui’s brow pinched together as she squinted at the thick, white mess in the garden. “I think those might be ashes.” Sipas uncorked her canteen with a pop. “I need— I need a moment.”

Banur held Pasil as she shivered in at the desecration, not just of what was rightfully hers, but also the remains of loved ones that her people interred and trusted her to protect. Whatever good Rhamos could do, or claimed to do, would not outweigh what she saw now. Nurui and Sipas gave her the space she needed, warming themselves by the dying fire in the brazier. Gamma paused his approach to the temple.

Pasil’s moment passed, but before she could say so, the temple doors burst outward. Gamma twisted and fell to the ground. Banur and Nurui shielded Pasil and Sipas from the wave of fine fragments. Dust billowed out and framed a spirit as he marched out.

“You’re late, heretic,” he stated. Fire danced around one hand and began to lace its way over the whip he dragged along. “Ah, but you’ve brought me the raiders, the false god, and another heretic.” He chuckled as he walked forward. “I mean, I guess I could forgive you, especially since you’re dead now, but naw, you get to rot like the rest.”

“Don’t you dare, Rhamos!” Pasil screamed as the spirit raised his whip. The brazier, once dying, flared to life as she rounded Banur and ran to intercept him. A gesture twisted the flames and dragged them with her. “You—” The whip cracked and dust and specks of stone peppered Pasil. “No!”

“Did you think you could stop me?” Rhamos cackled. A burst of fire pushed the smoke around him past Pasil. “The stupid fleshbag didn’t even leave any remains.” More laughter spilled out when the little girl gaped at the crater between them. “That’s a shame. I wanted to eat him the way I ate your faithful.”

A gunshot ripped through Rhamos’ hand, dropping his whip to the ground as he screamed. Gamma hacked up a glob of phlegm and dust as the cloud finally dispersed. Pasil stared at his bloody, splinter-filled side as he set his revolver down and marched up to the man who would have happily killed him. He tried to say something, but between the curse and the dust he breathed, all that came out were coughs and broken syllables.

“You! I’ll end you!” Rhamos screamed as he cradled his mangled hand. Gout of fire burst into existence around him. One shot toward Gamma, but flickered out before it could burn him. “No one fights me and—”

A boot to the face shut Rhamos up. Blood spilled from his lips as he let out a choked cry of anguish. “Not fighting,” Gamma coughed. “Divine punishment.” At that, he kicked Rhamos again, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. Gamma stomped on Rhamos’ already ruined hand and ground it under his heel. “Dousing.”

Fire shot up at Gamma. It did nothing to save Rhamos as Gamma stamped out the heat and stomped on him with reckless abandon. “Mercy!” Rhamos cried as he desperately tried to shield himself from Gamma’s attack. “I’ll repent! I’ll tell you of the other Blooded! Just please stop!”

Gamma’s attack took a pause as he considered Rhamos. A blast of heat flung him away. “Come here, you little ember!” Rhamos shouted as he clawed his way toward Pasil. Sipas cut him off, flying at him feet-first. His nose broke on impact, but he caught hold of the girl before she could skitter away, “You know what? You’ll do.”

“Not today!” Sipas snapped. She hurled her borrowed canteen at Rhamos’ face. It bounced off and splattered a meager amount of water on him, buying her a moment as he summoned blue flames. She kicked at him as best she could. “You won’t have me!”

Ashes fell on them. They choked Rhamos’ fire and obscured him from Sipas’ eyes. Gamma’s heel crashed down where Rhamos’ head had been. There was no mistaking the sound of cracking bone or the blossoming pool of blood. Sipas skittered away and watched as Gamma stamped through the pile of bloodied ashes until the color, and Rhamos, faded away.

For a few breaths, no one spoke. Ashes settled as Gamma caught his breath. The world rumbled as it reclaimed the energy that Rhamos once held. Banur struggled to pick out the splinters that peppered him. Then Nurui broke the quiet.

“You should have doused him while he was begging,” she said. Gamma rolled his eyes. “Blooded are beyond forgiveness. Only death can absolve them.” He waved her off and began to pick at his splinters. “It’s practically Raei Daevi’s highest command! Why hesitate?”

“Because I wanted to know how far the corruption has spread,” Gamma sighed. Before Nurui could snap at him, he turned to Pasil. “Are you alright, Hatchling?” She took a moment to respond, struggling to come to terms with what she witnessed and the ashes piles before her. At her nod, Gamma spared a glance at Sipas. “Runner?”

Sipas withdrew her leg from the ashes and brushed at the ankle Rhamos had burned. No mark marred her skin or showed where blue flames had held her. “I think I’m fine,” she shivered. She tried to stand, but she lacked the strength to do more than sit up. “I’ll be fine,” she corrected. “Just, let me have a minute.”

“Take your time. We’re not in a rush,” Gamma stated.

Restore the Fire

[Shit do I really want to get into all the ceremony that’s supposed to happen and all the talk that? I mean it’ll be nice to describe the city coming to life again and have a bit of Sipas enjoying the city the way it was meant to be seen. Also, it gives me a chance to talk about Nurui and Gamma’s curse and Pasil’s aid so I guess that I should do it.]

Goodbye Again Old Friend

“Leaving so soon?” Gamma looked up to find Pasil in the doorway. She leaned into it for support, not caring that her ceremonial garb might catch on something. Fatigue and sorrow made their homes under her eyes. She knew exactly what he was doing without need to see the pack hidden on the far side of the room or hear rumor of his preparations. Of course she remembered this part of Gamma.

“I’m as transient as spirits come,” he snorted, laughing to convince himself that everything was alright as he returned to smoothing the bedding. “Besides which, you need to reclaim your domain. It’ll take better and faster the sooner Terr Nurui and I leave.” Gamma covered his mouth in time to mask a fit of coughs. “Also, I’d rather not spread this to you even if you should be able to resist it. I’d rather not risk it. It’s beyond unpleasant.”

“So you’ll be seeing…” Pasil furrowed her brow as a name eluded her. “Jagged Cliff’s Soft Tide?” she guessed their true name, licking the splashing waves with the crackling fire of her own element. She lost focus for a moment as their common name bubbled up. “Malota? Is that their name?”

“Qirr Malota of Nuun Leyato, yes. They can finish what you started,” Gamma confirmed. Pasil raised a brow at the words. Realizing his misstep, he rushed to assure Pasil, “Fire cleanses well, but Nurui and I need to recover and heal. You’re good at regenerating, but healing others—”

“I’m limited in that respect.” Pasil nodded glumly. “I noticed yesterday.”

Gamma hummed. “But never forget that you burned out a Blooded curse,” he encouraged. “Your peers will be jealous. None of them have achieved that, not even Pyrr Girredul.”

“Roaring Hearth?” Pasil snorted and rolled her eyes.

“He fought in the war against the Shadow Kingdoms,” Gamma noted. “His fire razed almost as many of the Consumers as the whole of Raei Daevi’s army , or so I’ve been told.”

“But he’s so calm and restrained!” Pasil argued playfully. “He’s like a kindly grandfather, not some wizened soldier.

“A face he wears to comfort himself,” Gamma chuckled humorlessly. “I can’t imagine he enjoys the memories or sits easy with his character of the time.” He sighed. “War is a terrible thing for mortals, but for spirits…” He shook his head. “I shudder to think what it’ll be like if we war with the Blooded.”

Pasil’s face crinkled. “Aren’t we already warring with them?”

Gamma shook his head. “No, we’re fighting, but we aren’t warring.” He hung his head and decided there was nothing more he could straighten in the room or delay his own departure. “I hope you never learn the difference.” He paused, unsure of how best to say goodbye before settling on his words. “Will you see us off?”

Pasil’s cheer dulled as she mulled over the idea. “I’d love to,” she answered, though her tone implied the opposite. “Will you visit again soon?” she asked as she called and passed Gamma’s bag over. “As much as I love my neighbors, they always forget that I’m not quite who I was before. It’s funny how you’re the only one that treats me like I’m different.”

“I treat you the same as I treated those who came before you,” Gamma noted glumly. He shouldered his bag and answered her question, eager to brush aside his own words, “I’ll come again during winter. I’m not sure when exactly.” A memory bubbled up as he stepped out. “Will you be attending the Girredul’s Dawn Celebration this year?”

Hums and haws bloated the air while Pasil thought. “I think it’ll be a good chance to see what the other spirits think of what happened here,” she noted as she walked with her friend. “Why do you ask? Are you going?”

“My champion has been nagging me,” Gamma chuckled. “They threatened to drag me there if I don’t show up on my own.” He smiled as he thought of them and their antics, though Pasil seemed put off by the irreverence. “They’re of the good sort, and I think they make me a better person.”

“Spirit or mortal?”

“Yes.”

Turning Tides

Sipas stared at her traveling companions. They had encouraged her to forge her own path, but she insisted on joining them. Part of her enjoyed the company of the odd spirits. An ache in her head regretted staying with them.

“Nuun Leyato is just over that range!” Nurui snapped, jabbing a finger at the high peaks. Her opposite hand reeled in a fistful of Gamma’s poncho. “We are taking the direct route!”

“Are you out of your mind?” Gamma shouted. In spite of his wide stance and how he pitted his full weight against Nurui’s strength, he lost ground, sliding in her direction as she dragged him to the range. “Even if those mountains didn’t climb to the heavens, that just asking for Qirr Malota’s guard to spear us!”

“Malota will forgive us trespass in light of our sick—”

Both spirits fell into a fit of coughs. Nurui fell to one knee while Gamma toppled back. Both hacked up phlegm, but no ichor. The worst of the curse had faded to Sipas’ eyes and Nurui’s senses, though Gamma insisted they needed the certainty of another element. The long argument over their route had stolen more time than she expected Nurui’s shortcut would have bought them, at least at her own pace.

“Qirr Malota will forgive you, Terr Nurui, but their blessed might not,” Sipas pointed out when their coughs receded. “They might make an honest mistake and think you’re there to fight and not ask for help.” She sighed. “But Allr Gamma, insisting that you need certainty from another god and dawdling on a scenic path is just…” She paused, searching for a soft word to use. “Inconsiderate of Terr Nurui’s time.”

Gamma grumbled as he found his footing. “There’s a slightly quicker way to Nuun Leyato,” he admitted, cocking his head back in the direction they came from. “If we head back to the last fork and take the other road, we’ll hit a village on the river.”

“So?” Nurui challenged.

“We can get a canoe and ride the water to a village further down and near an actual pass, cross that pass, get to a one of Nuun Leyato’s trade partners, get passage on a cargo ship, and sail into port,” Gamma huffed as he led the way. “It’s more trouble than it’s worth, but less trouble than scaling the mountain here.”

“Wait, we’re walking away from Nuun Leyato now?”

“Yeah, it’s faster by a few hours and won’t end with us as fugitives in a friendly city,” Gamma hissed. “Don’t tell me it’s not faster. You’ve never traveled this far from Dolmar.”

“But you’re walking away,” Nurui argued as she stepped into Gamma’s way. “It makes no sense.”

“We will be carried by flowing water and later by sails filled with wind,” Gamma snapped. “We travel further by map, but we cross it much faster than marching as we are.”

“Or—” Nurui took him by his shirt and lifted him up. “We do this my way.” And she flung him at the mountains.

Sipas gaped as Gamma flew off into the distance, turning into a speck in the distance, then a seemingly small cloud of dust. “You’re not going to—” Nurui’s arm around her waist squeezed out the rest of her breath. To Sipas’ relief, Nurui didn’t throw her like she did Gamma. Instead, she ran and leapt up outcroppings of stone she called forth.

In almost no time at all, they caught up to Gamma. Or rather, they found where Nurui had thrown him. A crater marked his impact and left a detailed impression of his holstered revolver, assuring both that it was him that had been there. But there was no sign or scrap of the gunman left behind.

“Odd,” Nurui remarked as she released Sipas and let her lean into the incline. She traced the crater’s edge and murmured a few words, less incantation and more a mnemonic. Her eyes glazed over as she turned to baser senses and divined where Gamma had disappeared to. “What.”

“What?” Sipas prompted as she took in as much of the cool, thin air as she could. It still stunned her how quickly Nurui had carried her up the mountain. She could barely make out the road they were on only minutes before. “Did you find Allr Gamma?”

“Yes and no,” Nurui sighed as she squinted at the mountainside. “He’s inside the mountain.” She rapped her knuckles against sheer rock. “Right behind this. I’m just trying to figure out how he managed it.”

“By divine might?” Sipas guessed. “Maybe there’s a gap somewhere.”

Nurui shook her head. “That can’t be it, that Blooded curse bound us, and even if it hadn’t, he’s much further away from his domain than I am from mine,” she rejected the thought. “He’s even eschewed his bonds to his people. It should be impossible for him to turn into a dust and find a way—” She flung herself at Sipas and clung to her protectively as dirt and stone burst out.

“How dare you set foot in my domain?” a voice screeched. It echoed out from the hollow. Clearer, it commanded, “Get out of here, you filthy little—” The voice cut off, and Sipas felt its owner’s attention turn to her and Nurui. “Oh, excuse me,” he apologized in a softer tone. “Just let me take out this piece of trash.”

Sipas leaned to peek past Nurui and found Gamma dangling in the grip of a spindly spirit. Her near ashen hair trailed behind her and seemed to pull her back into the warm cave she formed.

“Actually, we were travelling with Allr Gamma,” she squeaked out. Nurui tried to cover her mouth, but a gesture from the unnamed spirit seemed to keep Nurui from gagging Sipas. “I’d like it if you released him and let us be on our way, Aurragei.”

The spirit’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?” She turned to Gamma. “Well, oathbreaker, are you going to explain or have you so conveniently misplaced your voice as well as your memories?”

Wind howled in Sipas’ ears as divine words passed from Gamma to his captor. “Adamant Mountain Adjudicator threw me,” he said as his mortal voice gurgled and struggled for breath. “She was cursed by Blooded; I helped her— shared in the suffering. We’re to see Jagged Cliff’s Soft Tide for certain cleansing.”

“And you thought that is reason to trespass into my domain?” Hot air jetted out from the mountain. “It is your problem. Keep it out of my scent!”

“I was thrown. I had no control. I did what I could to keep my oath!” A gale of air sapped Sipas of her warmth. “Release me, and I will go. This is a trespass I cannot be faulted with with your terms!” Dust swirled past Sipas and forced her to curl against Nurui for protection. “Judge as you will, but know where I—”

The wind fell still as Gamma’s trailing scream echoed out of the caves. When Sipas felt safe enough to peek out again, she found the air spirit shivering as she stared inside the mountain. The spirit turned to look in her direction.

“Come on then, Mountain. Let’s get your mortal someplace a little more pleasant than this freezing place,” she beckoned speaking divine words from her vessel. It brought a twinge of pain to Sipas’ ears to parse it. “And try to keep up while we’re inside. My domain doesn’t like to let go of those who end up lost inside.”

Nurui squinted at the spirits as she led the way. A short incantation summoned an orb of light to reveal that the caves were filled with her hair. “Don’t mind my bond, I’ve been trying to untangle it from this place for years,” she said as though it were a mundane thing like dust blowing into a house or tracking mud into the entryway. As though to put her guests at ease, she made a show of wiping her feet on a patch of her hair. “If I didn’t know my font, I’d swear that there was an earth spirit here tying knots in it.”

“What is your font?” Nurui inquired as she followed in, keeping hold of Sipas as they went.

“All-consuming hunger,” the spirit laughed gently, sending shivers down Nurui’s spine. She glanced back then nodded to herself. “Don’t worry, I’m no child of the Shadow Kingdoms or those fledgeling spirits that feed on mortal despair.”

“Who are you then?”

The spirit giggled. “You can call me a distant ancestor, Mountain,” she replied as divinity faded from her words and she began to speak proper words. “Though it’s nothing so simple. Better still to call me a distant friend of your sweet, cherished Daevi.”

“But what should we call you, Aurragei?” Sipas eked out as she clung to Nurui.

Their guide paused. “You shouldn’t call me at all,” she answered almost too soft to be heard. She shook her head and beckoned them forward. “Come. It’s a long way through these caves, and I don’t doubt I’ll need to demolish a few places to get you to Malota before my domain thinks of you as food.”

Nurui pursed her lips. “You would risk taking on my curse for this?”

A shrug. “It breaks the monotony,” the thin spirit stated. “Also, I’m not afraid of the… Blooded.” She snorted. “Is that what you call them now? I remember them being called what they were in my time: tyrants and abusers.”

“They aren’t so powerful now,” Nurui laughed.

“Aren’t they?” their guide challenged as she considered a drop-off. “You have a name for them, fear the effects of their magic, and walk with…” She shook her head as she formed a soft bridge using a slack length of her hair. “You’re cleansing yourself with a combined element ceremony.”

“What?”

“You’re using ritual magic,” the spirit waved lazy circles through the air as she led them across the chasm. Glowing symbols and designs trailed behind for a moment before fading away. “You’re missing all the decoration and it’s not bound the same way, but the core concept and the feeling of it is the same.”

“I thought divines don’t use ritual magic,” Sipas piped in.

Laughter stopped them for a moment. “We use it all the time,” their guide refuted. “The ceremonies the pastels use to enhance their champions— the feeding that shades do— it’s all ritual magic!” She snorted. “Even the bindings of our domains is ritual magic.”

“But on each other?” Sipas clarified.

“My mutual oath with Kiirkxin— our deal is a ritual.” The spirit snorted. “Most ritual magic has fallen out of popularity if Malota can be trusted, but it’s not something all but the youngest pastels shy from.” In a gentler tone, she stated, “I understand that its power and breadth can be daunting, but it is a tool that should be remembered as it is, especially for your problem...” She frowned and turned back. “What do I call you in mortal tongue?”

From there, the conversation turned to lighter topics. Nurui and Sipas entertained their guide with stories from the world, and she regaled them with epics long forgotten. In time, they found their way to a starry night and a cave lit with torches. Gamma knelt among empty baskets.

“How long have you been without offerings, hermit?” he asked without bothering with niceties.

Sipas frowned at him. “Did you—”

A soft touch from the spirit in question silenced her. “It’s none of your business,” she stated. “Just like it isn’t mine to judge you for acting mortal.” Gamma bristled for a moment, but both he and she deflated. “You owe me a pie for this.”

“I’ll be sure to bring one when I see you next time,” Gamma promised as he stood up. He beckoned Nurui and Sipas out. “Shall we get going and leave my one-time friend to her solitude?”